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Sunday, June 7, 2020

Top Ten #71

1) Julia: Through Philo, I have access to Aspire, which used to show Room 222 and The Flip Wilson Show. I had totally forgotten about this, but the Diahann Carroll sitcom, notable for featuring a lead African-American actress in a role as a nurse (as opposed to a servant), is a charming and well-made series worth revisiting.

2) The Carol Burnett Show: Shout Factory TV! added all 11 (highly edited) seasons of the series, and Pluto TV is now running episodes, but be aware that Prime Video has the series, too, including many hour-long versions.

3) Ron Ely: Check out this Face the Music episode posted this week (thanks very much to the uploader!) and check out how well Ely straddles the line between detachment from what's going on and enjoying what he's doing.  I get the sense it's not his dream job and he thinks it's ridiculous, but he is gonna be suave and have a good time:


4) My World and Welcome to It: The 1970 Emmys on this date made this show the big comedy winner, also giving top acting honors to star William Windom.


5) Marcus Welby: On the drama side, the Emmys picked Welby and star Robert Young.


6) On Our Own: In a welcome surprise this week, Prime Video added the 1977-78 sitcom with Bess Armstrong, Lynne Greene, and Dixie Carter (both hamming and vamping it up). Made in New York, the series was produced by David Susskind's company.  Susskind helped develop Alice--since HBO Max isn't adding old series like that, how's about letting Prime have it?


7) John Chancellor and David Brinkley: The duo premiered as co-anchors on NBC Nightly News this date in 1976.  It wasn't until August, though, that they started fighting crime with their arsenal of high-tech gadgetry each night after the broadcast.

8) Dean Martin: Dino would have been 103 today, so let's have a drink in his honor. What? I made a similar joke in the column a few weeks ago? Well, what can I say. I don't like rehearsal, either.

9) The Powers of Matthew Star: Me-TV just called this one of the most interesting sci-fi shows of the Eighties, and it is biased, having just added it to its schedule, but it makes a good case in this story.

10) Peggy Pope: R.I.P. to the late actress who was best known for her role in the movie 9 to 5 but also made tons of TV appearances and had recurring roles on Alice (do you feel the momentum building?) and Soap.

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