Another cool toy car: THE MOD SQUAD

I haven't been a big Mod Squad watcher, and in fact I don't remember it even being on much when I was growing up. TV Land showed it for a while, and I saw some of it when Aspire ran it a few years back, but the series has a relatively low profile these days. 

This is a cool-looking package, though:

In fact, this collectible is about 75% packaging! I still like it, though. Who can resist that iconic 1970 Plymouth GTX?

OK, I admit, as neither a Mod Squad guy nor a car guy, I can't tell you much about the Plymouth GTX, but it's up on my wall and makes a nice affordable TV display item.

The series has been available complete on DVD for some time, but it hasn't hit a major streaming site. Actually, I did try to watch an episode on YouTube several months ago, bookmarked it, and then found it was yanked.

This Day in TV History: Mr. Merlin debuts

40 years ago tonight, CBS premiered Mr. Merlin, a show set in present-day San Francisco and featuring Barnard Hughes as the legendary wizard training a replacement so he can retire. In the meantime, he's running an auto garage as a civilian. Why not?

Up against The Greatest American Hero and Real People, the series didn't do too well, and it was moved to Monday nights at midseason. There is was up against...That's Incredible.

Mr. Merlin lasted but a single season and was not well regarded, but like many other shows in the Sony vaults, it is now streaming on Crackle. I watched the pilot last night, and there's a certain charm to it. There aren't a lot of great laughs, and it's all a bit too silly, but, hey, they tried. It's an 8:00 sitcom aimed at a younger crowd.

Also in the cast are Elaine Joyce, glammed up (maybe a bit more than you'd think for an 8:00 sitcom) as "Alexandria," who passes along "their" messages to Merlin and vice versa. It's not clear at first who "they" are, but they are powerful. Clark Brandon, also known as Jo's boyfriend Eddie on Facts of Life, is the dopey apprentice Zac, and remember Throb? Jonathan Prince from that syndicated sitcom is Zac's pal Leo.

Happy National Coaches Day!

Here's to you, Coach! Everyone enjoy this National Coaches Day!

This Day in TV History: WOR debuts in New York

I talk often on the podcast (and here) about my beloved New York TV stations I watched during my youth. WPIX 11 was my favorite--I mean, come on, Honeymooners!--but a close second was WOR 9, which was less hip, less energetic, and somehow more New Jersey than PIX, but it had one big advantage over WNEW 5: It had WWF wrestling!

On this day in 1949, WOR-TV started broadcasting with Game 1 of the Yankees-Dodgers World Series. Its official debut with regular programming started the following week, but I want to celebrate the channel's birthday today because I am in the mood to think about old NY television. To be fair, I always am!

WOR started its decline in 1987 when it added a W and corporate owner MCA made it "Universal 9." It outright jumped the shark when it became a UPN station in 1995. It had a great run for about 40 years, though.

Some of my favorite programs on Channel 9 back in the day include: 

*Romper Room
*Joe Franklin
*Tic-Tac Dough (I watched a lot of the game shows on there)
*New York Mets baseball and Kiner's Korner
*The Morton Downey Jr. Show (It was a natural transition from Romper Room)
*The Howard Stern Show

Most notable: It was the station that got me hooked on pro wrestling with All-Star Wrestling Saturday mornings, Championship Wrestling Saturday evenings, and shows like Wrestling Spotlight sprinkled in as well. I grew to love NWA on TBS much more, but it all started with the WWF on Saturdays.

WPIX had more of my favorite shows, and WNEW had more cartoons, but Channel 9 had the wrestling. WPIX soon added some of its own to get into the game, but as far as I knew, WOR was there first, ensuring that decades later I would still remember it with fondness.

Happy birthday, WOR!

BOTNS Investigates: Crackle and the disappearance of its shows (updated 10/5)

This summer saw an explosion of short-lived vintage TV on Crackle--some of it beloved, some of it surprising in its addition, some of it just bizarre. it felt like anything in Sony's vaults was fair game, and Crackle became the most surprising and interesting SVOD service out there.

Then came October 1. As I checked to see what new material was added, I discovered that while a few things might be new--That Girl, for one--most of that cool stuff added over the summer was now gone!

Bridget Loves Bernie, Camp Runamuck, Hawk, Occasional Wife, The Fantastic Journey...all gone. Even series that had been on a little longer like My Two Dads were no longer there. Because I am in the habit of checking Crackle multiple times a week, I can report that some series like Mr. Merlin, Living Dolls, and UPN Chris Hardwick-starrer Guys Like Us (!) were on Crackle a day, maybe two, before vanishing.

I went to the source and asked Crackle's customer support. Here is our exchange: 

What happened to the dozens of rare shows you added recently, like Hawk, Melba, Occasional Wife, etc.? It's like overnight half of your TV library disappeared without notice. Are they off temporarily?

Hello,

Thanks for contacting Crackle Support. We change our content the first day of every month and we are glad to hear from our users and consider every show & movie they suggest to us. Some movies and shows are only available for a limited time due to agreements with programming providers. Please check back as it may return another time. The best way to stay up to date on Crackle’s programming is to sign-up for our newsletter emails on your account settings.

Any request you send is going to be analyzed by the Programming Team.

We hope you continue streaming shows & movies on Crackle.

Regards,
Crackle Customer Support

Obviously this is not the whole story. Most of these series were added in scattershot fashion at random times during the month. Many were missing episodes. The Famous Teddy Z debuted with the first handful of its episodes, then finally added the rest...only to be purged with so many others in October. There's no way someone licensed Guys Like Us for two days.

This weekend, a few shows, like Melba, returned. Others were added, like The Beverly Hillbillies and Bonanza--but that's no gain. It's the same public domain episodes available all over the place. Where are the rarities like Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice (yes, there was a TV show)? 

My theory was that the shows had a "soft opening" and weren't really supposed to be there. It's tough to tell since Crackle doesn't seem to promote complete lists of what is coming each month. I also thought shows were temporarily pulled to give them time to assemble more episodes and then re-add them. Yet the service rep didn't want to admit that if true. Plus Melba is still only there in partial form.

What is going on here? Why offer so much and then yank it without warning? BOTNS will continue to monitor this developing situation!

UPDATE 10/5: Most of the shows have returned to the service after an absence of several days, and in fact Crackle issued a press release listing them among the many new shows coming to the service in October. In fact, there are several more coming soon according to this.

That's all well and good, but I still wonder what happened. And if the series were coming right back after a temporary break for some reason, why not just tell me that instead of spitting out some corporate gobbledygook? How about something like, "Hey, don't sweat it, they'll be back soon. In fact, we're also getting Crazy Like a Fox, which might make a fun episode for your podcast!"

Top Ten #135

1) The Rockford Files: We revived our ninth-season opener this week with our exclusive power rankings of the characters this week, and number one may surprise you!

Well, no, actually, it won't.  But number 8 might!

What do you think?

2) Art Hondros and the many stars of BOTNS: Please check out this brilliant artist, creator of the awesome new design in our store!

3) Madlyn Rhue: Happy birthday to the late Madlyn Rhue, who of course we know as Fences from Poor Devil.  Since no one has yet compiled her scenes from that one, here is this:

4) Ricardo Montalban: One of our favorites from this past season sat down with TCM for an extensive interview in 1995, and it's a recent addition to its YouTube channel:

5) National Boyfriend Day: You know who makes a nice, reliable boyfriend? George Glass. Jan really lucked out when she met that guy, didn't she?

6) Captain Kangaroo: Bob Keeshan's seminal show premiered on this day in 1955 and entertained many kids throughout the 1970s and 1980s. 

7) Jack Wagner: Happy birthday to the former Frisco Jones, and thanks for giving me an excuse to post a Solid Gold clip!

8) Red Flag: The Ultimate Game: This movie premiered 40 years ago tonight on CBS. The cast includes Barry Bostwick, William Devane, and Joan Van Ark, and how 1980s does that sound?

9) Night Court: The reboot just got a series order from NBC. Please, please, please let this be a way to get the original on HBO Max or Peacock (HBO Max can do better, IMHO, than Family Matters, Step by Step, and Full House, all of which are new on there this month)!

10) Soul Train:  Thanks to Mario500 (check out his site here) for passing along this episode of the It's Been a Minute podcast (adapted for the web for your reading pleasure, too) appreciating the long-running show that we just discussed this season!

Power Rankings: The Rockford Files!

We're going through the big shows we covered this season on the podcast and sharing our exclusive Power Rankings, and this week it's time to look back at The Rockford Files, that beloved NBC P.I. show that kicked off our ninth season.

Remember how this works: I look and think, if these characters all squared off in my rumpus room in Oswego, who would win? With that said, let's get to it.

(Note that for the purposes of this list, characters had to be featured in at least two episodes)

1) Jim Rockford: No brainer here. James Garner created one of the most popular characters in TV history.

2) Dennis Becker: Sure, Dennis doesn't always act the way we want--at first--but he usually comes through despite getting yelled at by his superiors. Overall he's a great pal for Jim, and I gotta feel for the guy when things go south for him, which is about every other episode.

3) Beth Davenport: Another one of those characters who it just seems had to have been in more episodes than she was (33), Beth is practical, assertive, and a great match for Jim. She makes each episode better.

4) Rocky: I didn't totally "get" Jim's dad (not to be confused with Jim's Dad from American Pie) until watching a bunch of episodes, but he's an essential part of the series. It clicked for me seeing The Four Pound Brick recently, which is probably my favorite Rocky episode.

5) Lance White: Tom Selleck's "charmed life" rival PI makes only a couple appearances but remains one of the show's most memorable figures.

6) Rita Kapkovic: Rita Moreno won an Emmy for prostitute with a heart of gold Kapkovic. OK, I am selling the show and the character way short with that glib description. She's a likable and charismatic guest star who has great rapport with Rockford and seems to have had potential to become a semi-regular.

7) Marcus "Gabby" Hayes: This smooth-talking PI may be one of the more underrated things Louis Gossett Jr. has done in his career. I would love to see more than just the two times he showed up to make life difficult for Rockfish--uh, Rockford. I'm looking ahead to...

8) Gandolf "Gandy" Fitch: The episode "Just Another Polish Wedding" shows what the proposed Gabby and Gandy show would have been like, and you know what? It would have been fun! Isaac Hayes is tough to look away from as the troubled Fitch, and his calling Jim "Rockfish" never gets old, but let's be honest: The character is an a-hole at best and a felon at worst.

9) Richie Brockleman: Admit, he kind of grows on you, right? He did get his own spinoff, and it didn't work, but don't blame Dennis Dugan. You can blame him for Big Daddy.

10) Angel Martin: When I researched the series for the podcast, I got the impression that Angel was a much more divisive character than I had expected. I put myself in the "little goes a long way" camp while enjoying his occasional appearances. A list like this without him would be incomplete, though.

Also receiving votes: Chapman, Diehl, "Anthony Boy" Fred Beamer