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Sunday, July 4, 2021

Top Ten #123: Special Independence Day AND Christmas in July edition!

1) Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July: We had a lot of fun this week talking about this underappreciated (?) Rankin-Bass special and enjoying our Christmas season just a little bit early!


2) USA! USA!


3) The Bicentennial: 45 years ago tonight, network TV went all out for the Bicentennial, including a new Bob Hope special and Happy Birthday, America on NBC; Walter Cronkite and various celebrity co-hosts on CBS presenting fireworks and celebrations, and ABC's special on the West and a 1972 movie about immigrants in the 18th-century Midwest, The New Land.  OK, maybe ABC didn't go "all out."

4) Ethel Merman: One of the only stars who could upstage The Mickster, Ethel won our hearts in Christmas in July and didn't even have to resort to disco to do it! A year before, she wowed 'em with her performance on Sesame Street Christmas. Could Ethel be the Queen of Christmas?




5) Ed Bernard: Happy birthday to the veteran character actor. Let's take this opportunity to enjoy this awesome theme song again:


6) Cheers: Look out, my duties and responsibilities--I have resumed my Cheers watching!

7) Little House on the Prairie: The series moved from Peacock's Premium tier to, uh, it's Un-premium tier, meaning it's free with ads. It's not an earth-shaking development, but July is such a weak month for "new" vintage TV on streaming that this counts as big news.


8) Quincy, M.E.: This series should be on Peacock, but fans will have to settle for it being back on COZI. If you can't summon the courage to care about that, then, Mister, we have a big problem, and I'm gonna take it all the way to the top!


9) William Shatner: The announcement last week that William Shatner would host a show on RT America and the subsequent backlash somehow doesn't even make it into the top ten of bizarre Shatner stories.

10) R.I.P.: Stuart Damon of General Hospital, Ray MacDonnell  of All My Children, and John Langley (co-creator of COPS).



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