Blog Post Suzanne Pleshette Doubled her Double on "One Step Beyond" Alcoa Presents will forever be known for its syndicated title, One Step Beyond . The series dramatized real-life case histories of various occult subjects, with Rod Serling-esque intros by distinguished-looking host, series director John Newland. Alcoa Presents ran just a few seasons, resulting in...
Blog Post Falcon Crest Debuts on DVD Today Falcon Crest joins Dallas , Dynasty , and Knots Landing on DVD today-- the last of the long-running '80s prime time soaps to make the jump to home video. The series ran from 1981-1990, and starred Oscar-winning screen star Jane Wyman as villainess "Angela Channing," in her last major role, for...
Blog Post Mel Brooks & Carl Reiner for Tax Day Today is tax day, luckily there's classic TV to cheer us up. On a February 1965 episode of The Hollywood Palace , Carl Reiner interviews "tax expert" Mel Brooks' "Philip J. Heinker," who discusses his methods for filing, which includes claiming Romania ("I send them cottage cheese and Life magazine...
Blog Post Valerie Harper Wraps Up "Looped" What's the opposite of Rhoda Morgenstern? Answer: Tallulah Bankhead. Valerie Harper is playing Tallulah Bankhead in "Looped" on Broadway, and, as noted by The Hollywood Reporter 's Frank Scheck "effectively bury[s] her own persona," garnering "big laughs with her razor-sharp delivery of the...
Blog Post Leonard Nimoy in the 1950s & early '60s Leonard Nimoy was living hand-to-mouth in the 1950s and early 60s, as a struggling actor in TV and movies, before his stardom on Star Trek and Mission: Impossible . He landed the leading role in the feature film Kid Monk Baroni (1952) (photo, left), but spent most of his early career in TV in small...
Blog Post "Dynasty" Star John Forsythe Has Died-- Archive Interview Online John Forsythe, best known as oil tycoon Blake Carrington on the '80s prime time soap Dynasty , has died at the age of 92. Forsythe's TV career dates back to the 1940s, and baby boomers will remember his first regular series role as the single dad on the series Bachelor Father (1957-62). Forsythe's...
Blog Post April Archive Newsletter The latest Archive of American Television newsletter is out. If you'd like to be on our mailing list, enter your e-mail information in the box on the right column of our homepage .
Blog Post Classic "All in the Family" episode given the "Simpsons" Treatment On the recent Simpsons episode "Stealing First Base" (airdate: 3/21/10) Sarah Silverman guest-starred as a girl who plants a kiss on Bart, leading to a Cinema Paradiso -inspired montage of famous movie & TV kisses. The last kiss seen in the montage is, unusually, and hilariously, from the All...
Blog Post Chet Simmons, the First President of ESPN, Has Died Chet Simmons, who served as ESPN's first President when the network started in 1979, has died at the age of 81. Simmons began in sports programming in the 1950s and was instrumental in the development of ABC's Wide World of Sports in the 1960s. He became the first President of NBC Sports in 1977...
Blog Post Producer-director Ira Skutch ("Match Game," "Philco Television Playhouse") Has Died-- Archive Interview Online Ira Skutch, a producer-director and a television historian, has died at the age of 88. Skutch worked as a stage manager on some of the earliest regularly scheduled shows on NBC, including the landmark variety series Hour Glass (1946-47), the first hour-long entertainment series produced for network...
