Cult TV Blog

Welcome to the first in another series of themed posts, this time about TV episodes relating in some way to the circus. I don't particularly have a thing about circuses, but I suddenly had a couple of shows on the subject so looked out some more. This first post is also about a show which, for no good reason, has never appeared here before. Actually I think the reason it's never appeared here is that it was one of my favourites on repeats in the UK in the early 80s, and it's always a bit difficult to look back on your past heroes. Of course there is also the reality that when I first saw it the Monkees' stage of life was ahead of me and I'm now looking back on it so it's slightly painful in all sorts of ways! Another reason the show hasn't appeared here is that it really isn't at all as I remember it. It is very obvious that my memory is faulty in some ways because I don't remember them singing, wihch obviously isn't right, but nonetheless I do w

I had probably better apologise in advance because this post is bound to be even less focussed than usual. I had several posts in mind but none of them has happened because I concluded that it was high time to do something about my laptop. It was an excellent machine, running with no hitches at all, user-friendly, and as fast as lightning, just with the slight problem that the case kept coming apart. This wasn't covered by the warranty from the large (VERY large, and familiar to anyone in the UK because of its red signs) second-hand dealer I bought it from, so I got a man in town to mend it and when it looked like it was coming apart again, sold it back to them before it actually came apart again. And this is how, despite having been very happy with them for years, I'm slightly shocked that they bought that load of rubbish off me. I bought another off them because the credit they gave me couldn't be refused and even though the Dell one I bought wasn't advertised as such

Regular readers will notice that I've commented a few times recently that this blog isn't always representative of what I'm actually watching. This is mainly because I like to do one blog post for one episode of a show, but of course doing it that way is much slower than we ever view TV, requiring as it does at least a little reading round, etc. This post is therefore an experiment to try to do a blog post which represents the TV which is going in through my eyes and ears and running around in my head, to see whether I like this format of post. I will simply write about what I have been viewing, and in this case comment on some episodes which have been in my mind as possible blog posts but probably won't hatch. I have watched my way through Series 9 of The X-Files again. There are two episodes which I was comsidering making blog posts but probably now won't. The first was Improbable, which is an absolute joy because it introduces the subject of numerology to the wor

Strangely, one of the things which gives me most pleasure on this blog is blogging about episodes of shows which no longer exist, such as the posts I've done on series 1 episodes of The Avengers. There is something spectacularly contrary about the cult TV world. The TV stations wipe all their shows (for Reasons) thinking that we won't ever want to watch them again and we spend decades on the internet locating reel to reel off-air recordings and wipe-shaming the BBC into remaking the shows that they made in the first place. We damn well WILL see those shows again even if it's on an odd reel that somehow made its way to Cape Town - it's almost as if the cult TV world *prefers* TV which has been wiped. So we have reconstructed Who, and we have original scripts of The Avengers recorded by Big Finish. Hancock's Half Hour is another show which suffered from junking and has been reconsctructed. If you like the radio shows I cannot recommend The Missing Hancocks highly enou

This is an unusual episode of Get Smart because it doesn't have the chief or 99, so it's just 86 and Hymie - according to IMDB the only episode where this is the case. The basic plot is that KAOS, because the robot Hymie is the only thing which gives CONTROL the edge over them, has invented another robot to destroy Hymie. We have all the usual CONTROL chaos going on. However the main, er, human interest in this episode for me personally is that Hymie isn't actually as robotic as you would think. He has emotions and at one point goes to kiss Max, which Max has to explain men don't do. So how is Hymie a man??? He feels rather resentful that max never invites him to his club, saying that they are unwelcoming to his sort. Max makes the excuse that he'd just never thought he'd play golf. This reflects exactly the sort of situation where we assume something about someone else or just don't think they would 'fit in' in a particular setting. Hymie is also a

High time we had some more Get Smart and this one's wonderful. The plot is quite simple: the head CONTROL scientist is murdered on Smart's watch, and it turns out he wasn't really responsible for his discoveries at all. The rest of the show is working out who The Mysterious Dr T is. What makes this one so excellent is that you get the distinct impression that the sciptwriter and cast approached it as fun and it absolutely sparkles. I have no way of knowing that this was actually their perception but it actually seems to come across when viewing the show - I know this is completely subjective, but if you watch it with this in mind you can see what I mean. In fact perhaps this is how TV should always be made! There is the additional aspect that CONTROL compete with KAOS for Dr T and so there is a bigger role than usual for Siegfried. He and Smart spark off each other in a way they don't usually. Again, this is a completely subjective view but this one just feels very diff

This blog post spoils an essential plot point of this show. Remaining on the other side of the Atlantic (with a distinct absence of tea) for only my first ever post here about Kojak. I can't begin to think what's wrong with me, and I can only say that the fact Theo's never appeared here yet just illustrates that shows which are good haven't all appeared here yet, but shows I think are rubbish never will. One of these days I'm going to do a blog post about rubbish TV and have you all stop reading because you're so offended. Kojak needs no introduction to the readers of this blog. The Chinatown Murders is a two-part adventure over two episodes. That's pushing 100 minutes of television, which broadcast on TV would presumably have had adverts and been even longer. This is a genuinely prodigious adventure for Kojak. My only question would be why it apparently isn't a film. The plot doesn't match any of the Kojak TV movies, and I'm not aware that any o