The TV Experience Introduction

Welcome to the pilot episode – not really a first episode – of my take on some of the memorable, cool and not so good television shows of the past. 

According to the Encyclopedia Britannia: Philo Taylor Farnsworth II, (born August 19, 1906, Beaver, Utah, U.S.—died March 11, 1971, Salt Lake City, Utah), was an American inventor who developed the first all-electronic television system. His TV namesake is Professor Farnsworth was a part of the television cartoon show Futurama as an homage. There... now you've accidentally learned something.

In the past, I have written a popular blog about Japan, one about things I hate, one on early aviation (which I still write when the urge hits: Pioneers of Aviation), and even an adult one under a pseudonym. All fun, and all full of facts. That won’t change here.

I have watched a lot of TV from the 1960s on, and is probably why I’m not a lawyer. In my case, that’s a good thing. I don’t have anything against lawyers. I swear. Don’t sue me for defamation of profession.

One of the earliest television shows I can honestly say I watched as a two-year-old, was The Thunderbirds. It was a British show done with marionettes in supermarionation by the late great Gerry Anderson, who also gave us: Supercar (1961-62), Fireball XL5 (1962). The Thunderbirds ran for two seasons and 32 episodes (which is actually quite a lot for a British television series) in 1965 through 1966.

How influential was that television program? Well, besides the spies and adventure and science-fiction intrigue, I even named my dog after one of the characters: Tin-Tin, which is Malaysian for sweet. Sounds cool, huh? But in Japan, where I lived for three years, Tin-Tin’s name was pronounced as “Chin-Chin”, which unfortunately is Japanese slang for penis. I’m pretty sure that they changed her name when it was shown in Japan in the early 1990s when I was living there. At least I hope they did.

By the way, I still recall an episode of Saturday Night Live (with host Matthew Broderick, I believe) when the word penis was first allowed to be uttered on TV. Hey, nice penis. It still cracks me up.

Television - here in Toronto, I watched as a human being first set foot on the moon, watched as Canada and the USSR played an exciting if not dirty eight-game hockey (ice) series, and watched wondering just how the US was in a war against the Vietnamese when we were driving down to Buffalo. Would there be bullets flying? What was wrong with my parents? Turns out nothing was wrong with them – I just didn’t realize the war was being fought elsewhere – and yes, it was called a war. You don’t get to change it to the Vietnam Conflict because you didn’t like the war’s outcome. Nowadays, I live in the same Toronto home I did as I grew up. Sad and exciting at the same time.

After coming home from grade school at lunch, I would watch The Flintstones (in rerun), and after school would laugh with The Little Rascals (movie shorts repackaged for TV), as well as the gut-busting antics contained within Gilligan’s Island, Get Smart, Hogan’s Heroes, etc.

In the evenings, I might watch some cool cop shows with my folks: McCloud, Police Woman, Cannon, Columbo, or MASH, Barney Miller, Chico and the Man, Sanford & Son, Mary Tyler Moore, All in the Family, Maude, The Jeffersons, and more.

Older still, station CKVR (Channel 3) in Barrie would show golden oldies, such as I Love Lucy, or The Rifleman, or late nights on early Saturday and Sunday morning with my host Chuck the Security Guard and Ryerson the Camerman on Channel 47, I could catch such wonders as The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits. Saturday’s during the day, I could watch reruns of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, or Have Gun Will Travel or Bonanza. During the week, I could catch everything else a kid could want. And this was before all of the major channels open to me now, where I get 999 channels, not including Netflix et al.

And should you think that all I did was watch TV, I am both a college and university graduate, played soccer and did judo, and learned enough piano and clarinet to teach it. I have also coached soccer (boys,girl's and women's college), baseball (mixed boys and girls) and hockey (boys, and mixed) – if there wasn’t a pandemic, I’d be coaching hockey wright now for two teams in two different leagues.

Along with all of that blogging and television watching, I was a newspaper journalist, an assistant English teacher in Japan, and a writer/editor of B2B articles for various industrial magazines. Of course, none of that makes me qualified to write a blog about old television shows – but what the heck. Maybe I can encourage you to check out an old-time show.

In this blog, I plan on doing a review of a particular program that I have watched – if I haven’t seen at least one episode, I won’t bother you with a review. I’ll give a synopsis of the concept, characters, and the reason why I think it’s noteworthy.

Shows to be examined are live action comedy, variety, drama, talk-shows (The Tonight Show et al), docu-dramas (Roots et al), real-life shows (like The Curse of Oak Island) and of course cartoons (did I mention that my cat is named Fred, and my dog Shaggy, with a previous cat named Daphne? If you know why those names are relevant – awesome! Other past pets include: Apollo (Magnum P.I.), Sam (as in Yosemite), Black Jack (as in Black Jack Shallac (Bugs Bunny), Damien (The Omen) and Buster (as in Buster Brown the comic strip). Until this moment, I didn't realize just how much the entertainment medium had influenced my naming of pets.

I also have some thoughts about compiling a few Top 10 lists that will be sure to entertain and enrage you, and even a blank vs blank thing (without giving it away, think of the two Darrin's). The goal of all this? I don’t know. I like to write and I like to educate. I’m just doing this for fun.

I'm still unsure of the frequency of these television programs here - especially when I'm trying to work and see what's on TV - watching reruns of Kung-Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness, and new shows like The Departure - but I'll do my best as long as I'm having fun.

I hope you will join me for the first episode, my look at I Love Lucy – one of the funniest television shows ever made. Coming soon.

Images used under the blog title are photos I have edited by (from left): Bruna Aaraujo; Levi Stute, and; Joshua Rawson Harris - from www.unsplash.com.