Week of September 25: Somewhere In 1940s Time

Interested in a recent series that harks back to television's glory years? A terrific one from Great Britain comes out on DVD next Tuesday: "Foyle's War." The program, which also runs as part of PBS' "Mystery" series, is about Christopher Foyle (Michael Kitchen), a supervising detective in the town of Hastings on England's southern coast during World War II. The cast is fantastic, as are the storylines and the period detail. These episodes were created between 2002 and last year, and run from just after Britain's declaration of war against Germany through V-E Day in 1945. More good news: After a "suit" (Britain has them, too) pulled the plug prematurely on this popular series to cut the budget, he was fired; his replacement has announced more episodes.

Anyway, it's a good way to look back at some American series that reference the 1940s, including:

*Hogan's Heroes: A CBS comedy, made during the 1960s and inspired, believe it or not, by the film "Stalag 17." Bob Crane starred in this show about the antics of the prisoners in a German camp, who often seemed to have the upper hand on their captors. Interesting tidbits: Holocaust survivor Robert Clary starred as one of the prisoners (In a discussion in South Florida years ago, he said he took the role to eat, basically.). Werner Klemperer, who played Klink, was Jewish; his family escaped from pre-wartime Germany and his father was the famed conductor Otto Klemperer. Ivan Dixon went on to be a prolific television director and Richard Dawson later hosted "Family Feud." The series is available on DVD.

*Homefront: ABC ran this series from 1991-93; it chronicled the post-World War II experiences of various families in the fictional town of River Run, Ohio. Its most famous alumnus is Kyle Chandler, who would go on to success in CBS' "Early Edition," and now in NBC's "Friday Night Lights." No DVD announcements for "Homefront" yet.
"Homefront" producers Bernard Lechowick, David Jacobs and Lynn Marie Latham were the team behind CBS' "Knots Landing." (And Lechowick also had the distinction of working on the Miami-created PBS series "Que Pasa, USA?")

*The Waltons: Yes, it started in 1933 and its peak years chronicled the Great Depression. But "The Waltons," the classic CBS series, ran long enough to take the family into World War II, with Mary Ellen (Judy Norton-Taylor) losing her first husband, Curtis, and several of the Walton sons serving in the military. The entire series is available in individual seasons on DVD.

See you next week. Until then, Happy Viewing!

Week of September 18: The Good, The Sad and the Emmys

Real life intruded on my ability to update the blog last week, so here's two weeks in one:

*Did anyone happen to catch the vintage episodes of "Jeopardy" and the vintage clips of "Wheel of Fortune" last week? Here's a happy silver anniversary to both shows, still going strong.

*Sorry to report a trio of deaths:

-Singer Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary; the group, of course, appeared on countless television variety shows throughout the 1960s. Go to YouTube for a great video of the trio singing "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine" with Andy Williams on his show.

-Henry Gibson, who made his mark during the 1960s and early 70s on "Laugh-In."

-And Larry Gelbart, whose television writing career began with Sid Caesar's "Your Show of Shows" in the early 1950s and reached its apex with the first four seasons of "M*A*S*H," a show for which he also directed.
On the latter, Gelbart saved his best writing for last: "The Interview," a black-and-white representation of a journalist's newsreel interview of the crew of the 4077th. It closed the fourth season. Shockingly, it wasn't nominated for any Emmys, though Gelbart was nominated for a writing Emmy that year for two other episodes, "The More I See You" and "Hawkeye."

*Incidentally, the Emmys.com website does have a list of all past winners and nominees. Annoyingly, though, individual episodes aren't listed for writing and other awards. That's something to correct, Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

Enjoy the Emmy Awards this Sunday. See you next week. Until then, Happy Viewing!