Televison Favs

As I plan my escape from the boob tube, I've become obsessed with television memories (blame She - she started it with a comment on the previous post). Here's some of my favorites from childhood and teen years. What are yours?

The Wonderful World of Disney –I love Tinkerbell to this day, even though my daughter has informed me that Tinkerbell is a bitch – after all, she tried to kill Wendy.

The Ed Sullivan Show – Remember the guy who spun plates? And well I remember Topo Gigo. I loved him! “Hey Eddie, kess-a-me goodnight.”

My Favorite Martian – Starring Ray Walston (who decades later showed up briefly on the show, Picket Fences) and Bill Bixby – before the Courtship of Eddie’s Father.

The Patty Duke Show – But they’re cousins, identical cousins. They laugh alike, they walk alike, sometimes they even talk alike – what a crazy pair!

Julia – A ground-breaking show starring Diahan Carrol (much later of Dynasty fame). Carrol is about 70 now, and still quite the dish.

The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show – political parody extraordinaire – but I didn’t know it back then.

The Soupy Sales Show – Soupy aired early in the morning. One of his gags was to look real close in the camera, and in a whisper, instruct children to enter their parents’ bedrooms very quietly, on tip-toe, and take all the money from their fathers’ wallets and send it to Soupy.

Laugh In – The Fickle Finger of Fate and Here Come de Judge – Nixon even made an appearance on the show – can you believe it?

The Smothers Brothers Show – God bless summer replacement shows – Mom always liked them best.

The Prisoner – “Who is number one?” “You are, number nine.” Or was it really, “You are number nine.” The comma makes all the difference.

It Takes a Thief – Pity that Robert Wagner had to grow old.

I Spy – starring a young Bill Cosby (who even back then had some sort of fetish for sweaters - though thankfully not yet of the Cliff Huxtable variety), flush with comic success and trying his hand (quite successfully) at acting. He and Robert Culp made quite the pair.

Star Trek – The FIRST ONE – which in my book, is the ONLY one. “I’m a doctor, Jim, not a knock-off!"

All My Children – I’m talking way back, kids. I watched the very first episode – with the original Phillip, Richard Hatch, who later appeared in The Streets of San Francisco – after Michael Douglas left the show and much later, in the first Battlestar Gallactica series.

Maverick – before Mel and Will ever got their hands on the role.

The Rockford Files – starring James Garner, of Maverick fame, as a PI, living at the beach in a trailer and driving that cool Firebird. Mike Post composed the theme song – which is certainly one of the best TV theme songs EVER.

The Mod Squad – with some of the worst writing, worst acting known to television; yes, with all that competition – Mod Squad can beat any other show in the “worst” category. We watched it all the same- thinking it was so cool. Peggy Lipton often looked morose.

Saturday Night Life – You know, the one that was actually funny!