Rediscovering (Walt) Disney

From FILM+TV on 8/31/10 Shortly after the release of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" the TV networks rolled out their own Saturday Matinee Serials. On CBS we had "Bring 'Em Back Alive" starring Bruce Boxleitner and Cindy Morgan (That's right, those two good looking programs from TRON). And yes, I watched it, it was good, and who doesn't like Bruce Boxleitner right? But it wasn't as good or as fun as ABC's "Tales of the Gold Monkey". This show had it all for me: Airplanes, dames and one-eyed dogs. I have not seen this show in years and will probably be horrified by how silly it really is (Have you watched "Airwolf" reruns? Hoo-boy!), but coming on the heals of "Raiders" I was thrilled with the pre-WWII setting, the exotic island local, the shady villains, the femme fatales and that awesome Grumman "Goose", I'm a sucker for vintage planes. Stephen Collins starred as the square-jawed, everyman hero Jake Cutter. ...

Okay, we’re back in the time machine, and this post will look at the New Series section of the ABC press kit from 1996. ABC announced eight new shows debuting that fall, two dramas and six comedies. The dramas were Dangerous Minds and Relativity . The comedies were Life’s Work, Spin City, Townies, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, Clueless and Common Law . Personally I only remember watching Relativity and Spin City . I do remember Townies (Molly Ringwald on TV!) and Sabrina (Who doesn’t remember Sabrina?), but I had completely forgotten the rest of these shows. The new schedule looked like this: Monday – Dangerous Minds and ABC’s NFL Monday Night Football Tuesday – Rosanne, Life’s Work, Home Improvement, Spin City and NYPD Blue Wednesday – Ellen, Townies, Grace Under Fire, The Drew Carey Show and Primetime Live Thursday – High Incident, Murder One and Turning Point Friday – Family Matters, Sabrina, The Teenage Witch, Clueless, Boy Meets World and 20/20 Saturday – Second Noah, Coa...

Okay. Let’s go back and look more closely at the press kit from ABC for the 1996-97 season… When you open the kit you see, left to right inserts for Specials, New Series and Movies & Mini-Series. The specials for that year were: The Barbara Walters Specials The 69th Annual Academy Awards The 48th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards ABC’s World of Discovery 25th Anniversary of Disney World The 11th Annual American Comedy Awards A Gala for the President at Ford’s Theatre Magic with the Stars The 24th Annual American Music Awards About Us: The Dignity of Children 30th Anniversary of Caesar’s Palace World Music Awards Senior Prom I’ll come back to New Series, but for now let’s jump ahead to Movies, they were: ABC Sunday/Monday Movies: Made-For-Television/Premieres First Do No Harm Neil Simon’s “Barefoot in the Park” For the Love of Zachary Mother’s Day On the Plain Road A Harvest of Lies When Somebody Loves You Talk to Me Alibi On the Line Braving Alaska For Hope ABC Sunday/Monday Movies: The...

The only drawback is you can’t jump to the future and you can’t control where in the past you land. But with the right amount of junk in your basement you can easily find yourself tripping across time. Take yesterday morning for example; I was trying to find some photos of a past work place and a binder of notes from a TV production class. To my surprise I unearthed something almost as cool as those photos of me with 50 extra pounds and a porn star mustache. In the mid nineties I had graduated from art school, worked a couple of different graphic design jobs and found myself at the local ABC affiliate. I worked there as a studio camera operator and the night graphic artist. While there I had a chance to collect some goofy, but fun, memorabilia. And now, seeing the light of day for the first time in almost a decade, here is an example of the stuff that finds its way into the trash at a TV station… “The Six Million Dollar Man” camera-ready artwork to be used as a bumper or slide: (A bump...

Now that the WGA strike has the latest TV season in shambles, thank the gods for pre-strike writing & filming… LOST is back! Not only is this the show that everything in our household stops for, but it still frightens us, entrances us and excites us, just as much now as it did in season one. I know, I know, this past season was rough, I’m not that blinded by the tropical sunshine. But c’mon, did you see the season finale? There were enough holy crap moments in that one episode to fill an entire season of some mediocre shows. The writing is still intense, the cinematography is still stunning (check it out in HD), and the acting is winning Emmy’s. If I’m preaching to the choir, I apologize. If not, then it’s time to convert and join us on the island! Co-Creator JJ Abrams is riding a wave right now with the success of his monster movie (see below) “Cloverfield”, the return of “LOST” (with three more seasons to come) and pick-up of his latest series “Fringe” by the FOX network. OK, so ...