My Favorite Things Week 2022 #1!

Hello again, friends! To close 2022 on a positive note, I am going to share a few notes this week about some of my favorite things of this past year. You know how the song goes: "Taxi and Cheers, but no so much Wings; these are a few of my favorite things!" Something like that.

I apologize for stepping outside the BOTNS timeline, but today's items are Sixities-centric!

Favorite DVD: Jackie Gleason's TV Treasures: 70th Anniversary Collection from MPI: It is rare these days that I find out about something, pre-order it right away (not worrying at all about the reviews, quality, etc.) and tear into it as soon as it arrives, but this was my most anticipated set of the year. The collection of segments from, for the most part, American Scene Magazine and other 1960s Gleason programs is far from perfect, and it does leave you wanting more. I hope we GET more! Music clearances are the presumed reason for so few complete episodes of the Gleason variety programs, but keep working on it, MPI.

Favorite streaming add: I loved seeing Night Court on FreeVee beginning December 2021, but my favorite and most unexpected addition to a streamer was Tubi dropping 4 episodes of the aforementioned American Scene Magazine program (the syndicated half-hour cutdown version). I loved these so much I even asked Tubi if more was on the way. Of course, I didn't get any real info, but they knew that I enjoyed the show. 

American Scene used to air on WOR-NY when I was a kid, but I don't think this material has been in "official" circulation much in the last, say, 30-some years. I'd love to think that more rare Gleason material is on the way in 2023, but with the "throw everything out there" approach of the DVD (Don't get me wrong; I appreciate all of it) and the presence of only 4 episodes on Tubi ("a mere bag of shells, as Ralph Kramden would say), I fear this is it for now. I enjoyed what I got, though!

To bring this into the BOTNS era, I was gifted a collection of the 1970s Honeymooners specials and sat on the Christmas episodes for months. I finally watched them this weekend, including the Christmas Carol, and enjoyed them very much!