Ever since that fateful day in 1974 when KERA, the public television station in Dallas, became the first PBS station in the U.S. to broadcast Monty Python’s Flying Circus I have wondered just what went on in the heads of Oxford graduates, Terry Jones and Michael Palin, and Cambridge graduates, Eric Idle, John Cleese and […]
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As Downton Abbey closes its doors this evening on PBS stations across the United States, viewers that have already begun their separation anxiety classes can, at least, cling to the knowledge that series 3 is currently in production with a target transmission date of Fall 2012 in the UK and January 2013 on PBS in […]
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Not since the photo of the Doctor Who/Wizard of Oz mash-up with the somebody dropped a TARDIS on my sister graphic has ‘crossover’ talk hit an all-time high in the world of geek. Before a flood of comments come my way, I’m using the ‘geek’ as a good thing and in the most complimentary of […]
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David Kelly. He was Grandpa Joe Bucket in Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, rode a motorbike naked in Waking Ned Devine, starred alongside Peter O’Toole and Peter Ustinov in the Irish mini-series, Strumpet City, and played a vicar in The Italian Job. The Dublin-born actor possessed a “wicked sense of humor”, according to […]
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Nothing screams Valentine’s Day like a bit of British comedy. SInce Hallmark tells us it’s a day for couples what better way to celebrate than to take a look back at those couples that have been a part of our collective telly families for a number of years. Unlike Hyacinth, I hope you’re ok with […]
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If you’re a broadcaster or producer, you just thought your clashes with the FCC began back in 2004 and Janet Jackson’s infamous “wardrobe malfunction” incident. A full 30+ years prior to that special Sunday, one of the producers of the brilliant Python film, Monty Python and the Holy Grail was approached by a member of […]
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As the great Patricia Routledge inches closer to her 83rd birthday on Friday, 17 February, I’m reminded of a point in time in the late 1990’s that we had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to interview Ms. Routledge for a salute to British comedy program for broadcast on public television in the States. For weeks before the […]
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Talk of the town anywhere in the U.S. on Sunday was either Patriots-Giants or Grantham-Crawley. Judging from the overnight television ratings, the obvious winner was the Super Bowl, but Downton Abbey held its own to a much greater degree on PBS than any other program in recent memory up against the ‘big game’. Thankfully, the […]
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Judging from the original review of the first two broadcasts of Doctor Who, the word of a telly critics in the early 60’s was not taken as gospel, thankfully. Doctor Who will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2013 despited the fact that Mary Crozier, telly reviewer for The Guardian was less than impressed when the […]
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