T.H.A.T.
(Television History and Trivia)

from

www.hologlobepress.com
 

by

Victor Edward Swanson,
 Publisher
 
 

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Special Important Announcement

    I now have a document at the website for The Hologlobe Press entitled A COVID-19 Document that Shows the Rottenness of the CDC, Many in the Medical Community, Many in the Media, and All the Democrats, such as Gretchen Whitmer, Andrew Cuomo, and Joseph Biden, and the document can be reached by using this COVID-19 link.
 

- - - T.H.A.T., Edition No. 227 - - -

    Football season is gone, you say.  No, it is not!  The XFL games are on, such as on ABC-TV.  And the USFL is on the way.  With that in mind, I have to report on the NFL.  On Sunday, February 12, 2022, the NFL presented Super Bowl LXII to the world.  In the United States of America, the game was broadcast on Fox TV.  The game was a good game (being not a blow out in one direction or the other).  The next day at least, people were talking about the half-time show for the game, which featured Rihanna.  The cast of The Nine (of WJBK-TV, Channel 2), particularly Deena Centafonti, Ryan Ermanni, and Maurielle Lue, talked about the half-time show on Monday, February 23, 2022, and they said that they liked it.  I did not like it.  And unlike so many others, I have the guts to say that is was not good.  It seems because Rihanna is black, people do not have the guts to put down the show.  I say, overall, the production was not good music, which is commonplace for tunes of today.  For one, the music lacked diversity.  For example, the group of songs sounded much like one continuous song.  There was no real variation of soft and loud.  It was hard to understand the words.  Nothing was such that you could hum it later, such as at 3:00 in the morning.  The so-called song about "diamonds in the sky" was sort of depressing.  In fact, the entire production lacked happiness and niceness.  Dozens of people were jumping around in light-colored suits--often on platforms way up in the air.  That was no big deal!  I state for the record that the half-time show was a lot of hype and fluff--and Rihanna's show had been over-hyped in promos over the eight or so hours before it aired--and the show had no musical substance that was worthwhile.  By the way, Super Bowl broadcast stuff started on Fox TV with a special edition Skip and Shannon: Undisputed, with big jackass Skip Bayliss and semi-jackass Shannon Sharpe.

    Hey, in the previous edition of Television History and Trivia, I did reviews of some new or fairly new broadcast-network series, and now I have more to pass along (which I had sort of put off talking about).  On February 8, 2023, ABC-TV began to run a million little things again (for what is being called the final season).  That series is a throw-up series, and it makes me gag, and it is depressing.  It is more of the socialist's look at life and the world.  On February 8, 2023, ABC-TV also pushed out the first episode of Not Dead Yet. (which is supposed to be a half-hour comedy).  The series is based on a book written by Alexandra Potter called Confessions of a Forty Something F##k Up.  The series is a f##k up!  The first episode was dull and flat, and the characaters were more of those who would not be welcome in my living room from week to week, and, of course, the series pushed out at least one gay guy, and a bunch of other guys were like gals (feminized men).  In essence, since Alexandra Potter is British, Not Dead Yet is more crap from across the pond.  By the way, back in the 1950s and 1960s, much of the things--television series--from across the pond that got syndicated in Canada and the United States of America were fun.

    On Tuesday, February 14, 2023, in the evening, I became aware through a promo that WDIV-TV, Channel 4.1, was going to air a special called Empowering Girls: 20 Years of the Rhonda Walker Foundation soon, and I half paid attention to the information, which was offered up to me in a promo shown on Channel 4.3 (the MeTV-feed channel, which gets local commercials and such).  The next morning, I went looking to see when the program was going to air, which I would learn would be on February 19, 2023, at 7:00 p.m..  Officially, I went to the website for Channel 4.1, and when I did, I was exposed to a bunch of stuff, at least one piece of which was rotten.  The page offered up a story called "UN chief: Rising seas risk 'death sentence' for some nations" [Lederer, Edith M., and Jennifer McDermot.  "UN chief: Rising seas risk 'death sentence' for some nations."  The Associated Press, 14 February 2023, 8:08 p.m.].  I was immediately aware that it was more rottenness--way over-the-top-scare stuff--being pushed along through the help of crappy people at WDIV-TV.  The article was information tied to the secretary-general of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, one thought from whom in the story was that "mega-cities on every continent will face serious effects, including Cairo, Lagos, Maputo, Bangkok, Dhaka, Jakarta, Mumbai, Shanghai, Coperhagen, London, Los Angeles, New York, Buenos Aires and Santiago".   It was more crap trying to sell the idea about the sea levels rising "significantly" in the near future.  The story should not have been passed along by WDIV-TV if WDIV-TV was a worthwhile place.  It was a f##k up!

    On February 3, 2023, a Norfolk Southern train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, and over the next several weeks, there was a lot of talk about the derailment, which I will not cover here, but I have a note about what happened on The View on February 23, 2023, in relation to the incident.  On that show, Joy Behar said--"...That's who you voted for in that district--Donald Trump, who refuses all safety....".  And on the show, Sunny Hostin said--"...I think this is Donald Trump's fault...."  The comments were more crap from gals on The View, a legacy of the crappy Barbara Walters, and the crap was working to sell the idea that Donald Trump was instrumental in causing the accident or in letting that accident happen.  Later in the day, the NTSB (of the federal government) reported that the derailment was traced to a faulty axel on the train.  So without any knowledge about the derailment, Joy Behar and Sunny Hostin--supporters of socialism and communism and progressivism--pushed out the idea by flapping their gums that Donald Trump was the cause of the derailment (having something to do with some order or other from Donald Trump when he was the U.S. president).  Sunny Hostin and Joy Behar pushed propaganda and an evil idea, and I had to report the information to show what rotten people can be found on television in this day and age.

    Now I get to the rottenness of the "transgender movement" and television.  On Sunday, February 26, 2023, the NAACP Image Awards were given out, and the event was broadcast on national television [Note: Keep in mind--The NAACP is a black communistic and socialist entity.].  During the program, Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade--especially Gabrielle Union--pushed out crap in a speech, which, for one, was working to sell the idea that "transgender" stuff is good.  On Monday, February 27, 2023, in around 9:10 a.m., Ryan Ermanni, Deena Centafonti, and Maurielle Lue were hosting The Nine on WJBK-TV (Channel 2.1.) in Detroit, and the subject of the speech by Gabrielle Union was pushed out [Note: The Nine is a weekday morning show on WJBK-TV.].  The crew of The Nine--especially Maurielle Lue--pushed out the idea of how great and powerful the speech from Gabrielle Union was.  I report that the "transgender movement" is rotten, and, for one, it has led to young females and young males cutting off body parts and trying to pretend that they are something that they are not, and history shows that some school staffers in the country are pushing the idea that children can cut off parts and take up the "transgender" thing, and I say that anyone who promotes the "transgender movement" in any way is rotten.  Really, Gabrielle Union and Maurielle Lue had big "f##k-up" moments in relation to the "transgender" themes that they pushed [Note: You will see how "f##k" is a theme of this edition of Television History and Trivia.].  A person who believes in the "transgender" thing has an ill mind!  Maurielle Lue, Denna Centafonti, and Ryan Ermanni should have kept their mouths shut about the "transgender" topic and Gabrielle Union.  And Dwyane Wade is a "f##k"-up man, supporting the cutting up of the body of his offspring known as "Zaya"!

  Announcement for the novice again (reworked in March 2019): To get useful television-delivered news or Internet-delivered news, try Breitbart News Network (the history of which goes back to 2007), WorldNetDaily.com, Newsmax TV (which was started up in 2014), CNS News (which is on the Internet and which was launched on June 16, 1998), and One America News Network (a.k.a. OAN), since the entities do not blindly support Barack Obama-type people (communists, socialists, progressives, liberals, and Shariaists), as do CNN, MSNBC, NBC-TV, CBS-TV, and ABC-TV (Note: To learn about bad journalism, you might tune in to CNN, MSNBC, NBC-TV, CBS-TV, and ABC-TV from time to time to see how they differ from the better places mentioned).  I note that the Fox News Channel is evolving into a rotten channel, becoming like those that I have put down in this paragraph.  If you are unclear of my intentions, I say in different words that you should boycott CNN, MSNBC, NBC-TV, CBS-TV, and ABC-TV and even now much of what is on the Fox News Channel and hope they lose more ratings and advertising revenues, since they are expendable, and it is time for you to find the guts to be mean and heartless and cancel them--since they are hurting you.  In 2019, "The Drudge Report" was sold, and it should be treated as suspect for now.   [Note: Everyone in the Democratic Party in the country is rotten, and the Republican Party establishment has shown itself to be socialistic and communistic within the last few years, and only a few of the rotten people tied to the Republican Party are U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush, and Chris Christie.]
    [Note: Here is an example of Chris Christie's rottenness.  On Sunday, February 6, 2022, Chris Christie was a guest on This Week with George Stephanopoulos (of ABC-TV), which had Martha Raddatz as the host, and Christ Christie pushed out crap.  For example, Chris Christie said--"...And let's face it.  Let's call it what it is.  January 6 was a riot that was incited by Donald Trump...an effort to intimidate Mike Pence and the Congress into doing exactly what he said in his own words last week--overturn the election.  And he's trying to do a cleanup on asile one here...." and "...He actually told the truth by accident.  He wanted the election to be overturned....".  That is bullshit!]

    In 1972, I began to collect information about television on four-by-six-inch index cards, and I was doing that in conjuction with recording (with a fairly good quality reel-to-reel tape machine) themes of television shows off a television set, and I only collected the audio of themes for a few years, but since 1972, I have collected information about television shows on index cards, and it is like a hobby (though the collecting is tied to my career field, which is broadcasting).  Originally, I stored the cards in small steel boxes that I bought at office supply stores, such as one that was within a few blocks of the Fisher Building in Detroit (the location of the famous WJR-AM), and I ended up with at least a dozen file-card boxes before I decided to buy a filing cabinet to store the cards, and, over the years, I have bought three filing cabinets, and, today, I need another (my buying of it has sort of been delayed by my being busy and by the COVID-19 mess), and, today, I have a bunch of cards in small cardboard boxes, and those cards make up my Detroit files.  All the cards that I have are not at one location--the Detroit files are 270-miles away from the national files.  In essence, my files are set up in several main groups--(1) national television (which includes network and syndication), (2) cable television, (3) general stuff (such as television schedules and information on television firsts and color broadcasting and more), and (4) the Detroit files (which is made up of several parts, such as the television-shows section, schedules, and general information (such as about early television sets for sale, which is information from old advertisements)).  Well, my best guest is that I have some 170,000 index cards, many of which I have not looked at in a while because I have been away from them or because I have not needed to get information from them.  For this edition of Television History and Trivia, I am going to do something different (for the first time).  Recently, I thought I would randomly pull out drawers of the cabinets and just sort of reach in and pull out a card--at several places--to see what shows I would come across.  I have to note that the television shows are in alphabetical order, so if I pull on the drawer for "M", I would get shows that have titles that begin with "M" (usually, unless there is a "The" in a title).  Some letters are covered in more than one drawer, and some letters are only tied to one drawer, such as "Z"."  In a way, my picking a draw is not completely random, since if I pull out a drawer that is tied to "C", I have an idea that all the titles of shows will start with "C".  So let me see what I come up with by picking cards (sort of) at random, and, incidentally, when a pull out a card, I will talk about what the television show tied to the card is about, and I may be inspired to talk about something else that the card makes me remember.
    It was on January 16, 2023, that I made this random-pick event.  The first card that I pulled up was the card for the 2006-2007 season for The OT.  That show has been the weekly show that airs after a presentation of NFL football broadcasts on Fox TV.  Since I have nothing that I want to say about The OT, I move on to the next pick.  On Sunday, April 4, 1993, NBC-TV aired the first part of a two-part mini-series called Diana: Her True Story, and the mini-series (which is a long-form movie) was aired under the NBC Miniseries umbrella title.  The second part of the movie was shown on Monday, April 5, 1993, and, in total, the movie ran four hours.  This movie was based on a book written by Andrew Morton, and the movie was filmed in England and Scotland.  I looked over the cards--two cards--for the movie, and I noticed that many performers's names were unfamiliar to me, but the movie was a foreign-made production having performers from, for example, England.  The main character in the movie was Princess Diana, a well-known person (even today), and Princess Diana was played by Serena Scott Thomas.  I sort of know Serena Scott Thomas's name.  David Threlfall played Prince Charles, and I recognize David Threlfall's name.  My cards list 30 persons as performers, and if I were to see faces, I might recognize people.  The movie was reviewed by Variety, and, generally speaking, the reviewer liked the movie, especially the teleplay by Stephen Zito.  By the way, you should be aware that, even though I may have a card on a particular show, it does not mean that I have seen the show--no one could have seen all the shows that are listed in my files.  The next card that I called up was in the cable file, and the show was A Christmas Wedding, and it was aired under the A Lifetime Original Movie umberella title on December 11, 2006, and the movie featured such performers as Sarah Paulson, Eric Marius, and Dean Cain.  By the way, the card came out of the "A" section of the cable file.  Here is something tricky with my filing system.  If a movie begins with "A" as in "A Christmas Wedding, it is filed under the sequence of the "a" followed by the next letter and letters, such as "a" then "c" then "h" then "r", and so you get something like "achristmas" in the search for the movie in the files.  I have to report that my files have a lot of movies with "Christmas" in the title, such as the first word of a title, but I have not counted how many (though, over the last few years, I have thought about making a count, which would include dozens and dozens and dozens of movies), given the period of time for modern television movies or made-for-TV movies began in the fall of 1964.  Hold it!  Here is something.  Dean Cain, who played Superman in a television series, was shown in another made-for-TV movie in December 2006, and that movie was called Dead and Deader, which aired on the Sci Fi cable channel on December 16, 2006, and that movie was about a guy (Dean Cain) who gets infected with a zombie virus), and it was in no way a "Christmas" movie.  Oh, Susan Ward was one of the other performers in Dead and Deader.  The next card that I pulled out was the second card for a long-form movie called Beulah Land, which was under "B" in the main file (the national television file).  Beulah Land was three-part mini-series, which debuted (for part one) on Tuesday, October 7, 1980, and the movie focused on plantation life in the middle of the 1800s, and the movie was based on a book written by Lonie Coleman.  Two directors were involved in making the movie--Virgil Vogel and Harry Falk--and that is because, during production, Virgil Vogel suffered a heart attack; Virgil Vogel had done a lot of directing for prime-time shows before working on Beulah Land, such as on Bonanza and Wagon Train (when I saw Virgil Vogel's name tied to Beulah Land, I immediatelly thought of Wagon Train, having seen his name tied to the series, and since Wagon Train is airing on the MeTV network, as is Bonanza).  Well, when I looked over the cards for Beulah Land, and recognized almost all the named that I had listed.  Let us see how many performers that you know.  Do you know all these that I am familiar with--Lesley Ann Warren, Michael Sarazin, Meredith Baxter Birney, Eddie Albert, Paul Rudd, Dorian Harewood, Hope Lange, Don Johnson, Madeline Stowe, Paul Shenar, Jenny Agutter, Martha Scott, James McEachin, Bibi Osterwald, Laurie Prange, Raylor Lacher, James Naughton, Robert Walker Jr., K.C. Martel, Kevin Hagen, Ilene Graff, and Jonathan Frakes?  Hold it!  Martha Scott appeared in a movie called Cheers for Miss Bishop in 1941, and that movie was shown on WWJ-TV for the first time in February 1948, and that movie--in relation to Detroit television history--is the first "feature" or feature-length movie to be shown on Detroit television; before the airing of Cheers for Miss Bishop, Detroit-area television viewers had seen movies, but those movies had been considered "B" movies, such as westerns.  Oh, I have to report that I am familiar with "Harry Falk" as a director, too. Beulah Land aired over three evenings on NBC-TV.  I now move on to a special called Hollywood Stars' Screen Tests.  This special was aired by NBC-TV on Friday, October 5, 1984, and it ran for one hour, and the program showed screen tests for, in essence, well-known performers, such as Judy Garland (in relation to a movie called Valley of the Dolls), Perry Como, Ingrid Berman, Betty Grable, Christie Brinkley, and Anne Baxter.  The Dick Clark production was hosted by George Peppard, and some of the guests were Dorothy Lamour, Imogene Coca, and Pia Lindstrom.  From the files, I next pulled up cards for Crimes of the Century, which was a syndicated half-hour series, and it showed up in the Detroit area on Channel 2, WJBK-TV, on Saturday, February 11, 1989, airing weekly at 7:30 p.m., and each episode focused on a different bad person, such as "Hacksaw Jones" (Ed Jones), Bruno Hauptmann, "The Yorkshire Ripper," and Caryl Chessman.  The series was from Casablanca IV and Ohlmeyer Communications, the latter of which had been instrumental in making two Crimes of the Century specials for ABC-TV (airing November 5, 1988, and November 12, 1988).  I move on again to another card.  On December 15, 2013, at 10:00 p.m., CBS-TV aired Survivor: Blood vs. Water, and it was the episode in which the winner of the series was revealed.  The next card that I pulled at random was for the National Memorial Day Concert for 2006, which was hosted by Gary Sinise and Joe Mantegna and had such performers as Lee Ann Womack, Big & Rich, and Daniel Rodriguez.  Up to this point, I note that I have not picked any cards a related to the 1950s or 1960s, though the files are loaded with such shows (but, of course, there were not as many shows between 1946 and 1960 than there were between 1961 and 2023).  Let me try again.  By the way, I am writing this on a computer on the first floor of the place where I have the cards, and I go upstairs to make picks (after writing about a show).  Oh, drats, I have another not-so-old show.  On December 5, 1980, ABC-TV presented the special called Merry Christmas from the Grand Ole Opry.  The special had such performers as Lynn Anderson, Mickey Gilley, Dottie West, The Statler Bothers, George Jones, Grandpa Jones, and Ramona, and, of course, Christmas songs were presented.  The host of the country-music show was Robert Urich, who became a big star by playing in the television series called Vegas, which is running on H&I (Heroes and Icons), the subchannel network [Note: There had been a like Christmas special for 1979 with Robert Urich.].  Okay, for this edition, I will make one more pick, and here is goes.  Oh, well, by one card, I missed picking the 1960s Tarzan series, which had Ron Ely playing Tarzan.  The last pick for this edition of Television History and Trivia is Tarzan, and, specifically, the card was the first card for the 1991-1992 season for Tarzan, which was aired for many Detroit-area viewers on Channel 36, WUPW-TV, Toledo, Ohio (Toledo is a short distance away from Detroit).  This version of Tarzan did not show up on a Detroit-based television station.  This syndicated Tarzan series had these performers--Wolf Larsen (as Tarzan), Lydie Denier (as Jane), Sean Roberge, and Malick Bowens.  And this Tarzan series is airing on a subchannel available in Detroit today, and it is presented by the ACE subchannel.
    So that is the first time for that, and maybe I shall try it again, given I happened not to hit any 1950s or 1960s shows, such as Maverick, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Jack Benny Program, Route 66, Peter Gunn, and The Gallery of Mme. Liu-Tsong, but, in the case of The Gallery of Mme. Liu-Tsong, which I talked about in T.H.A.T. #217 and T.H.A.T. #218, the cards for that series have not been refiled in to the filing cabinet in which they belong, so I guess my picking system was a bit corrupted (but not really).  [Note: You should see T.H.A.T. #217 (at T.H.A.T. #217) and T.H.A.T. #218 (at T.H.A.T. #218), since I blow up the idea that Hollywood was racist against Ms. Anna May Wong, and the two documents do not fully show why Hollywood was not racist against Anna May Wong.]

    Announcement: Recently, I have added some new documents to the collection of my documents at the website for The Hologlobe Press.  One of the documents is entitled A Document that Dispels Myths and Nonsense of Science-Fiction Books, Movies, and Television Shows (A Logic Puzzle), which can be reached through this Myths link.  Another document is And So You Think You're Going to the Moon, Mars, or the Stars..., which can be reached by using this Moon link.  And yet another of the documents is entitled And the Stupid Women Shall Lead--and Lead Every Good Individual into Shit, Driven on by Communism, Feminism, and Defective Female Beliefs and Little-Girl Thinking, which can be reached through this Stupid Women link.  And here are other documents--A Review of What Television Controlled by Socialists and Communists Worked to Sell as Truth in Relation to the U.S. President Donald J. Trump Impeachment (at Impeachment) and T.H.A.T. Special Edition--The First Helicopter-based Traffic Reporters on Radio for the Detroit area of Michigan (at Helicopter Traffic).

    I am now passing along some information about nice television and rotten television.  In the Detroit area, television viewers can see a few series that have people (characters) hosting the presentation of B-movies, such as kung-fu movies or horror movies.  For example, "Television Drive-In" (a local Detroit-area broadcast channel, Channel 3.6) airs such programs as Dracula's Kung-Fu Theater, Castle of Blood Monster Mystery Hop, Mansion of Mystery, and Wolfman Mac's Chiller Drive-In (which was produced in the Detroit area for a few years starting in 2006 and which was originally called Nightmare Sinema), and Retro TV has Horror Hotel and Off Beat Cinema, and I have not listed all the series that people can see.  On the weekend of February 18, 2023, and February 19, 2023, I was struck by the stark differences of two series--The It's Alive Show (shown by Television Drive-In on Saturdays at 6:00 p.m.) and Harvey's Festival of Fear (shown on Retro TV on Sundays at 10:00 p.m.).  At the moment, both shows are being shown on a repeat basis--they are currently not in a production phase.  It was the episode of February 19, 2020, for Harvey's Festival of Fear that inspired me to present this paragraph, and it inspired me to contrast the series with The It's Alive Show.  The episode of Harvey's Festival of Fear was originally seen on Retro TV on November 3, 2018, and the episode was special because it had regular cast members sitting in the production studio (which, it seems, was set up in 2014) and talking about the series.  Bob Mauldin (who is known for playing "Halloween Harvey") hosted the event, which is not surprising, and the show had Sonia Martinez (who has played Wanda ("The Crystal Ball" lady) since 2013) and John Lamb (who has played the butler for a short while), and Clay Maudlin and Ryan Mauldin (who are Bob's son) were seen.  Another cast member was Kit Scott (whose real name is Jerry Smitherman), and I report that Kit Scott played Fast Freddie on the series, and I add that Kit Scott, who had started out as a regular on the series when the series proper had began in 2013, died on October 19, 2021.  Fast Freddie had a business called "Fast Freddie's Funeral Home and Fried Pies," and Fast Freddie was married to Zelda (who was played by Glinda Bauer for several years, beginning in 2013).  Glinda Bauer was not on the special show, since she was no longer a cast member, having moved away from the Tyler area of Texas a little while previous [and it seems, in 2018, Glinda Bauer was in Springfield, Missouri]   Oh, the movie shown during the program was The Mad Monster (which features George Zucco).  The program came off as a pleasant piece; that is, the segments with the cast came off as pleasant and likable, though the editing was a little choppy.  Viewers learned that, for example, Sonia Martinez and her husband (Jeremy Janz) bought an old jail house (known as the Old American County Jail and built in 1931) as a residence in 2013, and viewers learned John Lamb lives in a place that started out as a church many decades ago, and viewers learned Bob Mauldin has done another television series in recent years--Expedition Texas.  Through research, I found out that Sonia Martinez and Jeremy Janz at the time the program was made were offering a portion of their building to events, and I learned that the old church tied to John Lamb was built in 1912 and is often called the "Nickel Church," which is located at 501 Avenue A, in Palestine, Texas, and John Lamb acquired the church in about 2000, and I was able to find out that Glinda Bauer and her husband were associated with a business called Starville Soap & Candle Supplies (at 7810 U.S. Highway 271 North in Tyler, Texas) for many of the years from 1998 to at least 2014 [Note: A couple times, they sold the business in the time period and bought it back.].  Tracking work that I did gave me a bit of information about Kit Scott, and I discovered he was a country singer mostly, and he at times was a Kenny Rogers impersonator, and, for example, in around 1998, he was a member of Kit Scott and the Silver Social Club, a musical group.  I have to report that my job of trying to find Harvey's Festival of Fear did not lead to much, and that is because the newspaper industry got involved in cutting back in offering, for example, television listings in about the 1990s.  Incidentally, for the Detroit area, the heyday for television listings in the main newspapers was from the early 1950s to the 1990s, though there had been listings in the 1940s, such as in The Detroit News with the firing up of commercial television in Detroit in June 1947.  After I had done some research, I wrote an email, and I sent it off to Mr. Bob Mauldin.  On Monday, February 20, 2023, I received information about his "Halloween Harvey" franchise.  One thing that Bob Mauldin said was--"Thanks for reaching out  I'm impressed by your research!  The character of Harvey had been a Halloween bit on my morning radio show starting back in 2005.  The bit involved that character [Halloween Harvey] calling into the station to tell me [Bob] his 'Hilarious Halloween jokes' which were terribly unfunny.  As Halloween reared, his frustration with me grew usually to a spooky climax.".  Okay, I have to add that The Bob in the Morning Show (104.1 FM, The Ranch) was the radio show, and it was done for people in eastern Texas.  By the way, the entire story about "Halloween Harvey" is tied to only eastern Texas.  Bob Mauldin also wrote--"In 2009 I had lost my morning show and was working a miserable job to earn money until I could land my next radio gig.  During the massive downtime I had at that job, I created the character of Harvey and shot some screen tests.  By 2010, I had another radio show and approached MYTX about doing six episodes leading up to Halloween.  We cross promoted the show on the radio station....".  I now add that the original Halloween Harvey's Festival of Fear was on in late September 2009 and in October 2009, and, of course, it was not the series proper (the one most people know about now).  Bob Mauldin had this material in his answer to me--"In 2013 we launched on KCEB[-TV] as a seasonal show.  I don't recall exactly how everything transpired beyond that, but we really kicked into high gear when Retro TV started airing the show and we produced around 40 episodes for them.".  Once again, I add information to the story.  The series proper started out on KCEB-TV, Tyler, Texas, and, in essence, the series had a new season start in the fall of a year for few years.   The full title was Halloween Harvey's Festival of Fear (and the short title has been Harvey's Festival of Fear (as it would be called for the runs on, for example, Retro TV)).   The series got picked up by a few other television stations soon after being launched on KCEB-TV, such as KTXD-TV (which began to carry the series on October 2, 2014), KAQC-TV, and KBXZ-TV.  On October 2, 2014, the series began to run on Retro TV (a nationally distributed television network), and it also--around the same time--showed up on The Family Channel.  By the way, between 2015 and today, Harvey's Festival of Fear has had several time slots on Retro TV, and the current one is on Sundays at 10:00 p.m. (for two hours each time).  The final text from Bob Mauldin was--"We haven't produced new episodes in a while, but we are working out details to begin the show again at some point with Retro TV and Family Channel being the primary outlets."  At the moment, I know not if the series is being run by a television station in the country as a showing of the television station.  Oh, I get a little annoyed that, for example, when the football season starts up, WJBK-TV, Channel 2.1, Detroit, which is a Fox TV affiliate and carries NFC games, does not in a pregame show show off the cheerleading team for the Detroit Lions, showing their faces and such and giving their first names--it would be better than yet another person predicting what team will win and offering advice about what it will take to win.  [Note: I am a fan of no sports team, but I would look at the cheerleaders, which seems to be a no-no thing to do these days.]  Hey, maybe, a new episode of Harvey's Festival of Fear could involve Halloween Harvey's having trouble with cheerleaders--The Goolie Girls (or something).  I surely would not want cheerleaders to be involved in promoting the series called The It's Alive Show (which came out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, some years ago) as something to see.  Really, it was the showing of Harvey's Festival of Fear of February 19, 2023, and the showing of The It's Alive Show of February 18, 2023, that really inspired me to write this section for Television History and Trivia #227.  I just happened to catch a short segment of The It's Alive Show on February 18, 2023, and, incidentally, I have always found the series to be unlikable, and the showing on February 18, 2023, really turned me off to the program.  Okay, Halloween Harvey can be crass (at least) at times, but, overall, Harvey's Festival of Fear is likable, though it is low-budget stuff.  At one point, the showing of the episode of The It's Alive Show on February 18, 2023, viewers were treated to crap.  I note that the show was headed by Prof. Emcee Square (who was played by Mark Menold), and I add that other regulars were Pointy (played by Doug Appel) and Stiffy the Dead Clown (played by Shannon Norman), and there were other characters, all of whom came off as unlikable and even ugly.  Mostly, Prof. Emcee Square sort of was centered in the screen, and others (who made up his musical band) were in the background.  Oh, I can only determine that The It's Alive Show was on the air originally in the Pittsburgh area of Pennsylvania from 2006 to 2010 (at least); the show mostly was seen on a low-power television station called  WBGN-TV, but the show had a run on, for example, WPMY-TV (for a short while), beginning on June 13, 2009.  The crap that viewers were subjected to was a song--heavy-metal-type material--performed by Prof. Emcee Square and his band, and Prof. Emcee Square was the lead singer, and he played an electric guitar, and he sang in an angry tone--"...F##k the police, F##k the police, F##k the police....".  [Note: The "F##k" parts got bleeped.]  The music of the song was crappy.  Really, the segment showed to me that the minds of the actors and performers of the series are rotten and unlikable, matching the images of their characters.  As I have said in the past, over time, the nature of a person can show up on the face, and in the case of The It's Alive Show, viewers saw the true nature of the performers.  While on the subject of movie hosts, I report that Lamia (the leader character and the host of Horror Hotel, who is played by Kristina Michelle (which seems to be a stage name)), whom people have seen in recent years on Retro TV, comes off as a little flat and stiff--the actress should loosen up a bit.  Basically, the cast members of Castle of Blood Monster Mystery Hop are likable, and the members of Mansion of Mystery are okay, and the cast of Monster Madhouse are a bit gutter-like or a bit like biker-thug types (and I have yet to determine if the actors are really what they portray).  For now, I report that I can recommend that families tune into Harvey's Festival of Fear, and I say that families should consider The It's Alive Show a dead issue!
    [Note: I have bad news.  After I had written this section, "Television Drive-In" (3.6 broadcast) was shut down.  The channel was a favorite channel for me, especially for airing Sherlock Holmes movies and Charlie Chan movies.  Here, I only report that the channel was shut down, wishing to present--as I will--a long discussion about the station "3" group in the next edition of Television History and Trivia.]

    I have yet another set of reviews, and they cover a new television series and an old television special, and I was inspired to write this section when seeing an episode of Mansion of Mystery, an episode that aired on Television Drive-In (Channel 3.6 broadcast) on Saturday, February 25, 2023, at 1:30 p.m. (Detroit time).  The program shown on Mansion of Mystery was called Arsenic and Old Lace, which had been shown for the first time to the American public on Wednesday, April 2, 1969, by ABC-TV, and the program had run two hours and had been in color.  I did some tracking.  Television reviewers of early 1969 said that the original showing was a flat presentation and was not up to the standard of the 1944 theatrical movie that had Cary Grant in the lead role.  The television presentation had Robert Crane (a.k.a. Bob Crane) in the lead role, and the show was loaded with people that I know, such as Lillian Gish, Helen Hayes, Billy De Wolfe, Fred Gwynne, Jack Gilford, David Wayne, Sue Lyon, Frank Campanella, and Boby Dishy.  When I saw the presentation on February 25, 2023, it looked like a 1950s originally live presentation in black and white like those of, for example, Hallmark Hall of Fame, and it looked like a black-and-white kinescope copy.  Yes, the program was a little flat, but it was not a "bad" presentation or "ugly" presentation.  It was fun to see so many familiar faces.  I could see why a color version of the presentation--in sharp focus--could be viewed as even more not so good by television reviewers of 1969 when compared with the black-and-white 1944 movie presentation.  Color would not help the show, and color could be a problem in relation to tone and mood.  Now I jump up to the new series.  On February 16, 2023, Fox TV showed the second episode of a series called Animal Control, and it was in color and featured such performers as Joel McHale, Vella Lovell, Michael Rowland, Ravi V. Patel, and Grace Palmer.  The episode had the same feel as that of an episode of the somewhat old series called The Office.  The episode was flat, and, for the most part, the characters were childish or a bit weird, like those of The Office.  The cast was more of that in which there was one of that ethnic type and one of another ethnic type and one of yet another ethnic type, et cetera, so all the bases were covered.  It was more phony casting.  It really does not matter who the regulars were, since anyone could be replaced--the performers were just there.  I state that, really, there was no likable humor or big laughs.  There is no reason to watch Animal Control.  You might take a look at Arsenic and Old Lace on YouTube, since it is harmless entertainment, and it has some good moments.

    Oh, in the Detroit area, a person can get 60 or more broadcast channels on their television sets (a lot of the channels are subchannels of main channels), and, in some cases, two channels or three channels have the some thing, such as a shopping network or Get TV, and that is because one of the same thing might be broadcast by a station north of Detroit and that one of the same thing might be broadcast by a station elsewhere in the Detroit area (and some people cannot get both feeds).  A few weeks ago, Start TV (a national-network feed) was now showing up on two channels--Channel 50.5 (of WKBD-TV) and Channel 62.2 (of WWJ-TV).  That is kind of crappy!  You should wonder why it is crappy.  WKBD-TV and WWJ-TV are high-powered stations, as they have been for decades, and both stations are owned by the same entity.  Why the heck is Start TV on two television stations owned by the same entity in Detroit?

    On Tuesday, March 7, 2023, NBC-TV pushed out the first episode of the new season for That's My Jam (and it pushed out an episode of The Voice, too), and That's My Jam is that music show hosted by Jimmy Fallon.  During the show, in essence, NBC-TV pushed out the type of crap that I expect to come from the socialistic (at least) network.  The end big deal of the show had a team of two gals going against a team of a guy and a gal, and, at one point, the song that the people were dealing with was "I Kissed a Girl" (which was made famous by Katy Perry, who--I admit--is sexy, but she has a screwed-up mind).  So, basically, everyone knew the words to the song and were so happy to sing them, and they sang is exuberantly.  It was a moment used to sell lesbianism as good.  Such a crap moment in television it was.

    Looking at the Movies--this is a regular segment of Television History and Trivia documents, and it sometimes urges you to see movies that could get aired on, for example, Castle of Blood Monster Mystery Hop or Harvey's Festival of Fear, since the movies can be called horror movies.  This time to get a movie, I have decided to pull the cards for The White Camellia, which was a movie show hosted by the White Camillia (played by A. Loree Marx) from 1951 to 1956 on WXYZ-TV, Channel 7 (but there was a period of time when it was not on the air, which will not be covered here).  One card noted that a movie called The Purple V was shown by the White Camillia on September 9, 1953, but the movie is not offered for free on YouTube today, so I set that movie aside.  I noticed The Steel Key was broadcast on July 1, 1953, and it was on YouTube.  But I have chosen Mystery Broadcast, which was aired on June 24, 1953, wondering what it was (I was born on June 15, 1953, but I did not see the movie on June 24, 1953, and I went into the broadcasting business).  Here are some of the main performers in this mystery movie--Frank Albertson, Ruth Terry, Nils Asther, Wynne Gibson, and Paul Harvey.  I could say that the plot is about Jan and Mike and a bit of romance.  The main idea is that a gal named Jan (played by Ruth Terry) writes a mystery radio show, and at the end of one show, she reports that next week, she will solve a real crime of the past, and that action kicks off--murders.  Mystery Broadcast is a lighthearted and fun little film that only runs about an hour.  Oh, Frank Albertson plays Mike, who has a radio show that completes with that written by Jan.  And that is the movie for Looking at the Movies, which has no sponsor, so that makes it a "sustainer."
 

    Remember: The Prisoner with Patrick McGoohan was a television show that was produced across the pond and shown on CBS-TV in the late 1960s, and I urge you to find The Prisoner on DVD, maybe from a library, and watch it, and you should show it--all the episodes--to teenagers, or buy it as a present for teenagers.

 
Stay well!

Vic
 

    P.S.: You are urged to see my document entitled One of "The Rules of Man"--A Rule About Health Care that No Politician May Supersede with Law, which can be reached through this Rule1 link.  I have deduced that all the Democrats and most Republicans support the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 and have no intention of killing it, though it should be killed for violating, for one, "The Rules of Man."  For example, Republicans Jeb Bush and Chris Christie support the rotten law, and that is one reason that I define them as stupid men and not men who are good enough--in this day and age--to be the U.S. President.  I note that the "mandate"--which forces everyone to buy government-approved health-care insurance--violates one of "The Rules of Man," and it is a rule that is attacked in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010.  Anyone who supports the "mandate" is not a good enough person or a smart enough person to be the U.S. president--the mandate is "enslavism," and the "mandate" allows government people--who are often usually bad people, as history shows--decide what health care a person can get, and that is bad.
 

copyright c. 2023
Date published: March 10, 2023
The Hologlobe Press
Postal Box 5263
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To see the next edition of T.H.A.T.,
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