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Friday, June 9, 2023
Power Rankings: Canadians who should have been on "The Littlest Hobo"
Thursday, June 8, 2023
Show Notes and Video Playlist: Episode 11-3: The Littlest Hobo
Episode 11-3: The Littlest Hobo
This week, we venture north to Canada, where resourceful, wise, and perhaps supernatural German Shepherd The Littlest Hobo wanders Ontario in search of humans in need of help. This time, the action centers around an arcade, where he finds a deaf guy, a mime, and a grumpy old man and helps stop a couple of nogoodniks bent on robbing the place.
#podcast #tv #retrotv #seventies #eighties #littlesthobo #dogs #arcades #videogames #canada
Wednesday, June 7, 2023
Tuesday, June 6, 2023
Power Rankings: The best regular segments on "Entertainment Tonight"
Sunday, June 4, 2023
Top Ten #252
Saturday, June 3, 2023
YouTube Spotlight: John Tesh's "Roundball Rock"
Friday, June 2, 2023
Power Rankings: Entertainment Tonight recurring segments that should have been
Thursday, June 1, 2023
Show Notes and Video Playlist: Episode 11-2: Entertainment Tonight
Episode 11-2: Entertainment Tonight
In our first listener poll episode of the season, we cover two episodes of the original entertainment news magazine Entertainment Tonight. First up, the series premiere. While the show looks familiar, the hosts might not. Luckily, Burt Reynolds is there to hold the hands the audience and fifty pregnant women. Next, an episode from the classic Mary Hart-John Tesh era. This one has 1986 written all over it--Lionel Richie, the Mets, and Judd Nelson!
#podcast #tv #retrotv #seventies #eighties #entertainmenttonight #maryhart #johntesh #leezagibbons
Wednesday, May 31, 2023
Tuesday, May 30, 2023
YouTube Spotlight: "Meet Millie" with a young Florence Halop
Monday, May 29, 2023
Happy Memorial Day from BOTNS!
Sunday, May 28, 2023
Top Ten #251: Happy Memorial Day!
1) Night Court: We had a lot to say about the 1980s sitcom this week on our Season 11 premiere!
2) Memorial Day: We thank and honor everyone who died serving in the United States military. Since this holiday belongs to Gary Sinise and Joe Mantegna now (And their work is commendable), here is a look at Mantegna in The Money Pit:
3) Gimme a Break and Kate and Allie: VEI Entertainment re-releases both series on DVD this week.
4) Celebration America: Get this: 40 years ago, NBC aired portions of a Democratic Party fundraising telethon in prime time. The event was hosted by Daniel J. Travanti and Leslie Uggams, and Tom Shales--not for political reasons; he trashes James Watt and The 700 Club in the same piece--panned it.
5) Sirota's Court: We mentioned this big What We'd Like to See on the podcast this week. The 1976 NBC courtcom predated Night Court by nearly a decade.
6) National Hamburger Day: Celebrate!
7) The Brady Bunch house: It's on the market again! Listing price is $5.5 million. Just think how much it would be if that lovely vase conveyed!
8) The Wheelers: They didn't make Friday's power rankings, but they are still in our hearts:
9) One Night Band: Also airing 40 years ago tonight, this unsold pilot from MTM Enterprises starred Stepfanie Kramer as the singer of a country band. Lee Goldberg's Unsold Television Pilots says the premise had the band staying one step ahead of their evil manager, who is hunting them down for welshing on the bad contract he conned them into signing. Also in the cast are Brad Maule and, according to Goldberg's book, a young Dennis Haskins!
10) R.I.P. Tina Turner, Ed Ames, Marlene Clark:
Saturday, May 27, 2023
YouTube Spotlight: Starry Night presents "Nikki and Alexander"
Night Court creator Reinhold Weege and his Starry Night Productions produced the unsold pilot Nikki and Alexander in 1989, and you can take a look at the full episode here.Tim Matheson is a New Yorker who takes in a homeless woman from Russia. It was referred to as a "spinoff" of Night Court in TV Guide, and the TCM website makes the same reference, but I can't figure out how it is.
Irena Ferris (now Medavoy) is not playing the same character she does on Night Court--a glamorous blonde Soviet official denying Yakov a visa in "Russkie Business," which we mention on the pod! Monte Markham and Nana Visitor also appear. And shout-out to Kyle Heffner, who co-stars and, hey, appears to be the uploader! The great Robert Costanzo appears as a cop.
I can't find much more info about this pilot, but I do know that the end credits look a little familiar:
Friday, May 26, 2023
Power Rankings: Night Court!
Thursday, May 25, 2023
Show Notes and Video Playlist: Episode 11-1 Night Court
Wednesday, May 24, 2023
Monday, May 22, 2023
What to expect here on the website for Season 11
We are excited about the pending Season 11 of your favorite award-giving classic TV podcast! Here is the schedule you can expect once we get going:
THURSDAY: The greatest day of the week. It's PODCAST DAY! We will continue to premiere new episodes each Thursday morning in season for your listening pleasure! Episodes will be available here and on all other major podcast platforms.
Also each Thursday, we will post the Show Notes and the Video Playlist for each new episode. The latter will be on YouTube and linked in that Show Notes post.
FRIDAY: Each Friday will be a Power Rankings Friday with a subjective but totally meaningful ranking of some aspect of the program or topic we cover on the week's podcast episode.
SATURDAY: YouTube Spotlight pulls one of the videos out of the playlist for the week and takes a closer look.
SUNDAY: The long-running Top Ten (250 weeks in a row and counting!) continues each and every Sunday!
MONDAY: and TUESDAY: There will be a variety of posts on these days, but we may not publish every Monday and Tuesday in season, and they may be unrelated to the current podcast episode. (How's that for solid information? Almost Nimoy-esque!)
WEDNESDAY: We tease the next day's new episode and get you ready for the "podcast week" to begin again!
A few words about the subject matter in Season 11: As you know, we like to keep our schedules under wraps to preserve some surprise from week to week. We can tell you that this is the most listener-influenced season yet, with two episodes chosen by you in polls and more listener-suggested/requested episodes then ever before!
Two other tidbits: Get ready for a nice stretch of BOTNS because this should be the longest season yet. Also, we are doing several programs we have wanted to do for a long time. I guarantee you we have a wide variety of TV shows and specials on the docket this season...including some actual variety!
Thanks again for your support, and we hope you will join us for this entire exciting season on Battle of the Network Shows!
Sunday, May 21, 2023
Top Ten #250: Special "250" Edition!
Wednesday, May 17, 2023
Sunday, May 14, 2023
Top Ten #249: Special Mother's Day Edition
Tuesday, May 9, 2023
Promo Theatre: A Year at the Top gets a push from CBS!
Sunday, May 7, 2023
Top Ten #248: Special "May the 7th be with you" Edition
Monday, May 1, 2023
RetroFan magazine #26 looks at "Super Friends," "All in the Family," and more
Sunday, April 30, 2023
Top Ten #247: Special "Hey, April only has 30 days?" Edition
Friday, April 28, 2023
Rex Reed on "Three Amigos"
Sunday, April 23, 2023
Top Ten #246: Special 'Keep America Beautiful--put on a shirt if you go out jogging" edition
Monday, April 17, 2023
HBO never was just for fans of "Dream On" and "The Hitchhiker"
Sunday, April 16, 2023
Top Ten #245: Special "National Eggs Benedict Day" Edition!
Friday, April 14, 2023
And now a word from their sponsor: He has a name! It's Joey Stivic!
Wednesday, April 12, 2023
"Work it out, talk It out!" Now even easier than before!
Sunday, April 9, 2023
Top Ten #244: Special Easter Sunday edition!
1) Easter Sunday: Happy Easter and greetings to all of you celebrating holidays this weekend!
2) Michael Learned: Happy birthday to the Waltons star. Wait, or is it the birthday of Michael Lerner?
NOTE: I wrote and published this post before learning about the death of Lerner this weekend. We mean no disrespect to the talented performer and leave up the link in the spirit in which it was intended, a fun tribute to the longtime character actor.
3) Warner Brothers: The fabled studio celebra5tes 100 years this month by...jettisoning the Discovery Networks stuff? Putting Adventures of Superman on HBO Max? Resurrecting Warner Archive Instant?
Well, probably none of that, but we can at least enjoy the old Warner logo:
5) The Mike Douglas Show: Look at the guest lineup on an episode broadcast 50 years ago today: Paul Williams, Julie Newmar, Geoffrey Cambridge, Hollywood photographer Allan grant, and musician (and early Springsteen bandmate) George Theiss!
6) John Bartholomew Tucker: If you grew up in the BOTNS era, you heard Tucker's voice...A LOT. He was born 90 years ago today and left us in 2014.
7) Saturday Night Live: A new episode premiered 40 years ago tonight, hosted by Joan Rivers with performances by Musical youth.
8) Nike: The new movie Air tells the story of how a shoe company took over the market--no doubt with entirely ethical and above-board business practices in addition to Michael Jordan.
9) The Masters: A tradition unlike any other. I doubt they would want their prestigious event associated with something so base as a top ten list or a podcast, but here you go.
10) R.I.P.: Judy Farrell, Butch Miller:
Sunday, April 2, 2023
Top Ten #223: special baseball is here edition
1) Baseball: We welcome the return of Major League Baseball, with Baseball Fever a fine way to reduce withdrawal symptoms from the end of March Madness.
2) Welcome Back Kotter: And we also welcome back Gabe Kotter, who has been MIA from streaming for years but can now be seen on Tubi. Some of the fashions and attitudes may be dated, but you know what never gets old? A good, "Did I ever tell you about my Uncle Saul?" joke.
3) The Facts of Life: Mere hours after publishing a look at a handful of female-driven sitcoms not on streaming, guess what shows up on Tubi? No, not Welcome Back Kotter, but a shout to all you Marcia Strassman fans out there. The first 6 seasons of Facts are on Tubi, and now the masses wait for the Clooney Era.
4) Wrestlemania: It's what the world is watching this weekend! (Except me; I'll maybe check out some highlights. I miss the days of Jim Crockett Promotions...but then again, I also miss "Did I ever tell you about my Uncle Saul?" jokes.
5) Night Court: Catchy Comedy (formerly Decades) at least gets off to a decent start with a marathon of the OG Night Court this weekend.
6) Dallas: The long-running smash hit premiered 45 years ago as a miniseries, but from that moment on, there was nothing "mini" about it.
7) AFI Salute to John Ford: 50 years ago tonight, CBS honored the legendary director with this taped special looking at his extraordinary career. In his speech, he railed on for 5 minutes about how superhero movies were destroying cinema.
8) Jeopardy!: The game show honored the late Alex Trebek this week by running his very first episode this past week.
9) Alcohol Awareness Month: Believe us, we aren't just aware of alcohol in April nor in only one single month.
10) R.I.P.: Chabelo, Kathryn Hays, Larry McMurtry, Mark Russell: