Meta-Mason
I love when old television shows have the characters talk about television.
Mystery actor
I’ve seen him on television at least a hundred times. But on film — that was a surprise.
So early-twenty-first century
“Well, this is the twenty-first century . . . I think I’ll be blogging!”
Hallmark “trees”
The sappy, saccharine Hallmark movie Falling for Vermont has everything: a Famous Author, a cozy bookstore, a gazebo, a “town meeting,” and fake trees.
Mystery actor
Whoever he is, he’s making his screen debut.
Bill Daily (1927–2018)
Astronaut, pilot, neighbor.
Rhymes with Moscow
Today’s Zippy calls for knowledge of a jingle.
History, rewritten
My cable company summarizes a show: “The on-going protests in the U.S. lead to the end of the war and Richard Nixon securing the presidency.”
MU
MUrray Hill-Seven Seven-Five-Hundred. MUrray Hill-Seven Seven-Five-Hundred.
Chuck McCann (1934–2018)
Sandy Becker, Officer Joe Bolton, Sonny Fox, Miss Louise, Chuck McCann, Cap’n Jack McCarthy, and Soupy Sales. O local television!
A conversation from another world
From Father Knows Best. They don’t make colleges like this anymore.
Naked Zippy
I like seeing Bill Griffith adapt the closing words of The Naked City (the film) and every episode of Naked City (the television series).
A Father Knows Best pencil sharpener
James Anderson (Robert Young) installs a necessary household tool.
Domestic comedy
“It’s like Sex and the City , but without the sex and without the city.”
Branching out
From Father Knows Best: “The successful engineer today also needs to know languages, economics, philosophy, the humanities.”
Mystery actor
Who can it be now?
An utterance from another world
From Father Knows Best: “Your dinner jacket just arrived from the cleaners.”
Mystery actor
Do you recognize her?
NeTfLiCks
It’s not just that Netflix has come to resemble TLC . I fear that Netflix has become TLC.
Flowers knows best
Father Knows Best and Betty Sue Flowers’s four-part model for a writer’s work: madman, architect, carpenter, judge.
Netflix as TLC
Earlier this month I had the thought that Netflix resembles a crummy video store. Now it seems to be turning into TLC.
Reality TV and the White House
“Omarosa was fired three times on The Apprentice, and this is the fourth time we let her go.” “We”? The blurred line between reality TV and the White House could not be clearer.
Treason?
I didn’t clap during the State of the Union address. Then again, I didn’t watch. On purpose.
John Mahoney (1940–2018)
Best known for playing Martin Crane in the television series Frasier.
Barack Obama and David Letterman
David Letterman is not an especially good interviewer, not for this kind of interview, not at this length. He seems like a man attempting to play the role of a serious conversationalist. Imagine — just imagine — what Dick Cavett could do with this opportunity.
LA to Vegas (representing)
The New York Times picks LA to Vegas as one of ten shows “we’ll be talking about in January.”
LA to Vegas (all in the fambly)
Our son-in-law is one of the show’s writers.
Rose Marie (1923–2017)
The Child Wonder channeled Helen Kane.
Metaphors, mixed
“We’ll bottom out, and then we’ll start to turn a corner.”
Imaginary movie
The Hallmark Zone.