You’re traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. – Rod Serling
Since this feature has proven much more popular than I expected, this month I’d like to share my favorite TV shows with you; today we’ll look at my favorite dramas, and tomorrow my favorite comedies. And when I say “look at” I mean that literally; instead of using still pictures I’ve embedded a YouTube video of the introduction to each show. Since it’s not unusual for shows to change the graphics or even the theme music in successive seasons, I’ve selected my favorite ones (when available). Since the entertainment industry has become obsessed with recycling of late, most of these series have been remade or turned into movies, but in each case the one I like is the original. The list is arranged alphabetically, and one thing that may strike you is that there’s a lot of British TV here (4 of 10 in each list) and a preponderance of 1960s shows (half of each list). The reason for that is, I was already becoming annoyed with the stupidity of American network television by the time I was 11 or 12, and stopped watching it entirely in 1980. After that it was nothing but public TV and cable through the entire ‘80s, which meant I saw a lot of British shows; I first saw the two post-1980 American shows on this list in the late ‘90s on cable.
1) The Avengers Though this series premiered in the UK years before the mid-‘60s spy craze, it was syndicated to American television from its fourth season on because of it; the video I’ve showcased here was a short introduction for American viewers which came just before the opening credits in that first syndicated season, so it may be new to my UK and Commonwealth readers. In its first three seasons (never seen in the US until the ‘90s) the show was a straight drama, but later seasons incorporated the unique style and comedic elements for which the show became known. I first discovered it in early ‘70s reruns, and Diana Rigg was the first woman I can remember being attracted to.
2) Batman (The Animated Series) Not the Adam West TV show, y’all; this was the first production from the revived Warner Brothers animation department in the early ‘90s, and it is widely considered the finest animated TV show ever made. The stories were scripted with adults in mind; they were complex, emotionally realistic and beautifully animated, and each episode was separately scored with a full orchestra. Perhaps best of all, the voices were provided by regular actors, not “cartoon voices”, and it shows.
3) Dr. Who This classic British science fantasy serial had been around for almost two decades before debuting on American public television in 1981, starting from the first story with the Fourth Doctor, Tom Baker. By the second week I was hooked, and by the third I no longer cared about the community-theater special effects because the stories, acting and everything else were so good. Our local PBS station eventually aired all the ‘60s episodes and new episodes as well until its cancellation in 1989, and if the BBC ever gets off its collective arse and packages the serials properly by season, I intend to buy all the first five Doctors. Since fans will want to know: my Doctor order of preference is 4, 3, 5, 2, 1, 7, 6.
4) Kolchak: The Night Stalker Because my mother never allowed me to watch “scary shows” I first heard of this from other kids, and saw it in syndication in the early ‘80s. Carl Kolchak is a hard-boiled reporter who investigates all sorts of supernatural occurrences, though much to his chagrin the stories are usually discarded by his long-suffering editor. The series has a strong current of black humor and has been named as an inspiration for a number of other shows, including The X Files.
5) Kung Fu Since we only had one television set and my parents weren’t interested, I had to wait until this acclaimed and groundbreaking series was syndicated in the mid-1980s to see it. It is impossible to overstate the influence of this “Eastern Western”, not only because it spurred a martial arts craze and awakened American interest in Asian philosophy, but more generally in pioneering techniques such as extensive use of flashback and presenting combat in slow motion.
6) The Outer Limits Though I had read about this series and even owned an episode guide, I never actually saw it until an independent TV station picked it up in 1984; even then I only saw a few until cable network TNT broadcast them as part of its Monstervision series in the early ‘90s. While not as consistently outstanding as The Twilight Zone, this series is still a lot of fun and there were a number of excellent and thought-provoking episodes.
7) The Prisoner By the end of his extremely popular Danger Man series (syndicated to the US as Secret Agent), Patrick McGoohan was the most highly-paid television actor in the world, and one of the most respected; he then used his clout to get this 17-episode series produced. It’s doubtful anyone else could’ve; the series is a strange, enigmatic and compelling dramatization of the right of the individual to be individual in the face of a totalitarian surveillance state. If you’ve never seen it, the three-minute introduction below will give you a good idea of the premise.
8) Sherlock Holmes England’s Granada television produced what I and many other Sherlockians consider the finest of all Holmes series. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes ran for two seasons and was later followed by The Return of Sherlock Holmes, The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes and The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, though they are here considered all one series. Jeremy Brett was to me the perfect Holmes, and the series’ production values were impeccable; only a few of the adaptations strayed very far from the spirit and substance of Doyle’s stories.
9) Star Trek I’m sure everyone knew this would be here; is it really necessary for me to introduce this series? Anything I might say is probably already familiar to 95% of my readers. So let me just tell you that I was a really, really major Trekkie, and had every book and model (though I must confess I wasn’t all that good at putting them together and had to ask Jeff for help). Of the sequels I like the animated series best, followed by Enterprise; Next Generation and Deep Space Nine are good but not in my opinion up to the same level as the original, and Voyager was to me completely unwatchable. Of the movies, I only consider The Wrath of Khan and The Undiscovered Country truly worthy of the legacy; the former is in the second tier of my favorite movies.
10) The Twilight Zone Another obvious choice; I have loved this show since first seeing it in reruns as a child, and can remember excitedly repeating the plots to friends in second grade. When the local PBS station started rerunning them on Sunday nights in the early ‘80s, I actually wired up a kill switch on the ancient Motorola I had inherited from my great-grandmother so I could watch them from bed and instantly kill the picture if my mother came in. As with Star Trek, I doubt this show needs an introduction even to most international readers, so I’ll just say that I decided to showcase the first-season opening with the haunting Bernard Herrmann theme rather than the more familiar Marius Constant one.
Two Honorable Mentions
I decided to list these two separately due to issues of scale; the first is an incomplete series which was not renewed and therefore ends in a cliffhanger, while the second was a soap opera with 1225 episodes.
1) American Gothic This horror series was stylish, sexy and very daring, but upset and confused TV executives so much they did their best to kill it and eventually succeeded. It was moved around the schedule without warning and episodes were aired out of sequence or skipped entirely, making the intricate storyline literally impossible to follow. Fortunately I didn’t see it until it was broadcast on the Sci-Fi Channel, complete and in order, in the late ‘90s. The show didn’t really have a traditional intro, but that’s OK because this trailer will give you an idea of the premise and plot.
2) Dark Shadows This soap opera premiered in 1966 as a gothic, but began to introduce supernatural elements about six months later and eventually featured witchcraft, werewolves, time travel, astral projection, Dorian Grey portraits and many other such ideas, often drawn from famous horror novels (including a confusing and not-very-good Lovecraft sequence). The tortured, all-too-human vampire Barnabas Collins eventually became the star of the show and paved the way for every humanized vampire that came after him, thus making this series the ancestor of everything from Anne Rice to Twilight, though IMHO better than any of them and deserving of a true homage instead of the mess Tim Burton recently served up.
I’ll close with a little game for y’all; though I find a number of the male stars of these shows attractive, there’s only one I will consistently name if asked to give examples of celebrities I find attractive. Let’s see how well y’all know me; I’ll give you the answer Friday.
One Year Ago Today
“Delicious Poison” reports on the abuse of a cattle steroid named Oradexon in the brothels of Bangladesh, and the predictable Western response to it.
I agree with most of these – good stuff. I remember watching the original ‘Avengers’ as a young teenager. And yes, there is only ONE Sherlock Holmes and that is Jeremy Brett.
The Avengers (Emma Peel – unknowingly of copurse – gave me first erection at a very, very young age), Dr. Who (from beginning to now – the rebirth of Dr. Who on the BBC some five or six years ago was one of the highlights of my limited TV watching life) and The Prisoner (unfathomable but brilliant and set in the real fantasy that is Portmerion) are three of my favourite television series ever.
did ”american gothic” have lots of sex scenes and nudity?because from what ive seen violence doesnt upset tv executives and parents at all,only sex.the only foreign tv shows i have ever liked is friends and true blood(although the latter was a bit disappointing recently,because in a flashback where a character was supposedly a madam in a san fransisco brothel in 1905 ,sex workers act stereotypically.glazed eyes,cocaine and a foul where sex workers were killed by vampires inside the brothel,wouldnt that be too dangerous for the vampires to be outed?).i would expect it from american television in general,but since that show addresses gay rights,the fallasy of fundamentalism and doesnt present the u.s wars as done to save the world,but as they are,i expected better.
No nudity to speak of, but lots of sex (including very strong BDSM overtones, rape and one show involving underage sex). I think what really upset them was the fact that Sheriff Buck, who is essentially a devil, is incredibly charismatic. American television likes to pretend cops are all heroic; the few corrupt ones are supposed to come to a bad end, not be the main character of a series, and when they ARE bad they’re not supposed to be smooth and appealing.
As for True Blood, that’s the Naked Emperor syndrome for you again.
I gave my sister an American Gothic mug that says, “‘Conscience is just the fear of being caught’ — Lucas Buck” on it.
Buffy was also stereotypical as far as the character of Darla is concerned.although the stereotypes didnt play out too explicitly in the show,as far as i remember(except from the fact that Darla was a prostitute dying of syphilis,but syphilis was an epidemic then,so it might be a bit accurate),the actress who played her stated that she was probably abused growing up.of course,when people in the ”star system”make such claims and even worse portrayals about sex workers it makes me lauph.actors and musicians often come from poor and even abusive backgrounds or never had any attention from their parents,who were often absent(as in Marilyn Monroes case).too many of them have gotten involved with drugs and alcohol and have died far too young.yet,if you labeled each and everyone of them as an attention seeking,psychotic addict they would be furious.why do they think is acceptable to do the same for another group of people,who honestly are not that different in what they sell from hollywood actresses and pop stars?
Especially considering that the professions of actress and courtesan were indistinguishable before Victorian times, largely indistinguishable until the advent of film and morally indistinguishable even now.
The main character on American Gothic is evil, I think that was what really bothered the TV execs. Profit (a similar show except for having no supernatural elements) had the same problem.
Are you sure you are not a man in drag Maggie???!!
Nearly ALL of those were great favourites of mine too.
Judge for yourself:
I really like this picture. I think it’s the umbrella.
It’s one of my favorites as well. Funny story about this picture: I had Grace take it for my very first December 17th column, and though December 10th (the day it was taken) was unusually warm, that’s still unusually warm for December, which is to say quite chilly. Grace’s photography is very scattershot; she takes about 20 pictures and most are terrible, but usually at least one is good and sometimes spectacular. This was the best of the lot, but it had one problem: one of my dogs had walked behind me just as it was snapped! I didn’t want to get naked outside again, so I had a friend of mine Photoshop the dog out; you can see a very slight color discrepancy in the shadow which lies behind my hips (to my right, i.e. picture left).
So there’s actually OUTTAKES of the Red Umbrella laying about on a hard drive somewhere??!! See, this proves there is a GOD and he works through GRACE! 🙂
Just a helpful suggestion – but you COULD remake the shot either today or tomorrow since it’s very warm where you are now. If you need help selecting the perfect one you could then email me a “contact sheet” and I think I can pry myself away from work to help you pick one. 😀
It’s 37 C out; sweat and sunburn are NOT attractive!
Sweat can be sexy, but yeah, not sunburn.
I wouldn’t have noticed the photoshop if you hadn’t pointed it out. My girl is a wiz at photoshop, she learned it when she was making Websites for her business. She had a good side business helping other girls in a similar business to her set up their own Websites for a while.
Goodness, I thought you were older than me. Either that’s an old photo, or you’re younger than I think, or you’re amazingly well-preserved.
I’m 45; when that picture was taken I had just turned 44. But yes, I am indeed amazingly well-preserved; that’s one good side-effect of never having babies. 😉
Wish you go back to work and visit us in the UK, could take you around the Dr Who museum in Wales.
Maggie, I agree with so many of your choices, Dr. Who, Star Trek. But as a libertarian, how could you not pick one of my favorites, “Fire Fly?” It was a brilliant show.
Another one of my all time favorites, a show I consider one of the best ever on television, was “Twin Peaks”.
And of course, “The Wire” was also excellent.
I’ve not yet seen Firefly; Grace owns it but I haven’t got around to watching it yet. I first saw Twin Peaks when I bought it for my husband’s Christmas a few years ago; I did indeed like it, but it didn’t quite make it past American Gothic for me.
I’ll second the brilliance of Firefly, but I’ll also add The Adventures of Robin Hood with Richard Greene. If there is only one Sherlock Holmes, in my opinion, there is also only one Robin Hood (with a nod to Robin Hood Men in Tights, because that movie was great)
Oh, Oh, Oh, and I can never talk about Kung Fu without also mentioning Have Gun Will Travel. There were a lot of westerns around that time, but the only two I ever really got into where Kung Fu and Have Gun, Will Travel.
I have never seen Have Gun, Will Travel, but I’ve certainly heard of it and know the theme song. 🙂
Being older, I remember these and to say “Around that time” for Have Gun, WIll Travel and Kung Fu is a bit inexact, though there were westerns all the time I guess for decades. But “Have Gun” was late 50s or earliest 60s; while Kung Fu was early 70s. Politically very different environments, Have Gun came out in extreme Cold War times, yet Have Gun’s protagonist, Richard Boone/Paladin, was always using science to solve problems and enlighten people. So it was a show on the side of progress, kind of, but not ostentatiously. Kung Fu came out as the American people were realizing that the US had lost in Viet Nam and that Asia might have something worth learning. It was also around the time Kissinger and then Nixon went to China and started normalization of relations.
I should add that I was out of the US and indeed out of the global “west” for much of the late 70s and then the 80s and 90s, so half of these are total unknowns to me, and therefore I’ve no clue as to actors, characters, etc. Nice to touch base with the past – and as to the shows you cited that I did know, I also really liked those. Now I’ll need to check out some of the ones I don’t know. Thanks for posting.
I second “The Wire” which is in the running for Best. Show. Ever.
You might like this short documentary about a couple of Outer Limits episodes (include my all time favorite, Demon with a Glass Hand):
Hmm, didn’t mean to post the whole video, just meant to put the link. Hope it isn’t a problem.
Nope; that just makes it more convenient. 🙂
A couple you didn’t mention but I think you have mentioned them before in your blog …
“UFO” – the British TV series from 1970 and …
“Space 1999” – another Brit sci-fi which ran for two seasons starting in ’75.
I used to watch them – because those were the only NEW things on then. Star Trek was cancelled and in syndication by – well at least the mid-70’s by then.
The shows were kind of campy and maybe a bit low-budget. I really liked how the characters in “UFO” always pronounced “UFO” as “You-FO”.
Some hot women in those series too.
Interesting you mention those together; did you know that Space: 1999 was originally intended to be a second season of UFO?
I did not know that! 🙂
Neither did I. I’m going to have to check out You-FO.
[checks]
Netflix has it, but the very first disk (out of eight) is “Availability Unknown.” I’ve added it to what I call Netflix’s “holding pattern.” The same thing has happened with Tenchi Muyo! Ah well.
I can remember the first ever episode of Dr Who — live; haven’t followed it for yonks.
I can’t agree with Jeremy Brett’s Sherlock; he seemed far too posh to me, I preferred Basil Rathbone. And have you seen the modern series “Sherlock”, a re-imagining for today? It’s wonderful, esp. series 2 episode 1 — the episode with Irene Adler in it; far better than other recent film “remakes”, clever and “brainy is the new sexy”. (From the makers of the modern Dr Who.)
As for Star Trek; yes, it was fun (even if I felt a bit moralizing at times) , but I really went for the spoof “Galaxy Quest”. And not just for Sigourney Weaver and her tits.
I have not seen the modern series, though many of spoken highly of it; I’m a bit too much of a purist to appreciate it, I think. “Updates” always, but always set my teeth on edge. They just strike me as terribly present-chauvinist.
Doctor Who really isn’t an update, but a continuation of the original. There was a TV movie in between. They didn’t “update” the series, just carry on as if it had never been cancelled (well, they did a couple of episodes so people got caught up on the concept).
If your PBS station really was showing 1960s episodes in the 1980s, then please contact them and ask if they still have the broadcast tapes. There are 106 missing episodes from the first two Doctors, and if they have some of those lying around in their archive then both you and they will be truly blessed.
Oh, I know that about the new Doctor Who; in fact I plan to get around to watching it one of these days. I was talking about things like Sherlock where the character is picked up and moved into a contemporary time period.
Alas, my PBS station only had what was in the BBC syndication package, which was missing a number of stories I’ve read about.
When you do watch the new Doctor Who note that a lot of people dislike Doctor 10 – be prepared to skip from 9 to 11 if you really can’t stand him
New Who drives my brother crazy, and he was an old Who fan on the “He has his own toy TARDIS and daleks” variety. I was never as big a fan as he was, but I haven’t found the new series to be “must watch.”
Oh, have you ever seen Nasty Canasta, the burlesque dancer? She has an entire striptease based around her in a Cyberman costume.
Just put your prejudices (bigotry) aside for a moment and watch Sherlock. It’s far more than an update, it’s a re-imagineering. It’s clever, fun and so different from the originals as to be something new. *You* must watch the episode with Irene, *you* really must. Put your puritan morality away for a moment and enjoy!
No guesses on the “attractive man” question yet? C’mon, y’all, I’m disappointed!
Oh, that’s a tough one! I’ve often wished I could figure out what women find attractive.
Ok, I’ll say William Shatner.
You already gave the answer out on that in the comments under one of your fictional columns. You remember the one about the hooker who was dating the guy with the “sonic screwdriver”? THAT post – look down under the comments – you gave the kitty away girl!! 😛
I’ll give a hint … his initials are “TB”.
HAHAHAHA! I want my cookie now!! 😀
Sorry, no cookie; I only said he was the most attractive of the Doctors, and that I find him attractive. I did NOT say I always mention him in conversations of men I find attractive, because that wouldn’t be true.
🙁
Okay – I’ll say it was Leonard Nemoy then – and I’ll wait until Friday for your answer. He’s so completely asexual to me that I’m betting you are ON FIRE (or were) for him.
In fact, I bet the episode where he was fighting the Pon Far had you in a sweat!!
The only TB I know is Tony B Liar — surely not?
No, he was a big governmnet labour guy – absolutely nothing in that package would have turned Maggie on.
Though I kind of liked the guy (no not exactly “that” way).
I like Flashpoint, a show about a Canadian SWAT team.
But it’s not like the normal ideas about swat teams, where it’s all not knock warrants and DEATH TO THE FILTH THAT WOULD VIOLATE THE LEAST OF OUR SACRED LAWS and more about talking people out of hurting other people or themselves. Violence is surprisingly rare and always tragic.The “bad guys” usually have a reason for doing what they do beyond mere greed and that reason is usually an important part of getting them to surrender to the protagonists. It’s a much more nuanced view of armed police work than in most media.
That reminds me of something that I’ve always wanted to ask you about, since I admire your thoughts on masculinity and femininity.
There’s this show that hugely popular among young adult males and has spawned a mind blowing amount of content, such as a fan written story about it that’s longer than war and peace.
The show is My little Pony: Friendship is Magic.
I have another tab open in my browser about the history of the cold war and people getting into detailed histories of the development of the T-64 soviet tank and three of them have My Little Pony avatars.
“Bronyism” is a phenomenon which utterly baffles me, but I’m sure one day some clever psychologist will penetrate its mystery.
LOL. And I’m not kidding, someone did sit down and write a fanfiction that was longer than war and peace. And not just any fanfiction, one that crossed over My Little Pony with Fallout, which I’m going to assume you know about. Serious thought has been put into what kind of cutie mark a violent sadist would have.
Oh, yeah, do you get that email I sent in reply to your very helpful insight to libertarian views on Labor? For reason, it showed up in my inbox and I’m not sure if that’s just what Gmail does, or if they just made some really terrible usability choices.
Alright, let’s do this.
First, I just finished Shattered Sword : The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway, so I’m going to have to start this off by doing something that well make this subject even more baffling.
I’m going to compare My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic to the American Navy at the battle of Midway.
In Shattered Sword, the authors make the case that there was no miracle at Midway. The American Victory was not miraculously snatching victory from the jaw of defeat by a plucky band of dashing heroes. Rather it was a competent, heroic force that, while making a number of mistakes and having a number of flaws managed to exploit systemic flaws and pressures in the Japanese Navel culture.
Similarly, My little pony is decent well made show, with high productions values and skilled voice actors, animators and song writers. But there is nothing overly special about it. It would probably be much more popular than many other animated shows and perhaps most of the people who know about it now would know about without the bronies. Indeed there might even have been a small community of dads who get together on the internet to discuss a few of their favorite jokes after watching the show with their daughters, and that community may have jokingly called themselves bronies.
To put it simply, there is nothing “Faustian” (Do you see what I did?) about the success of My Little Pony.
In order to understand the pony, it is necessary to understand the systemic issues of the culture it found such fertile ground in. My little Pony would not have succeed in Medieval France.
That culture is that of the Young Adult Internet Male Society, and it is without a doubt Male exclusive culture in history. Even the most aggressively male dominated society had some way of accessing female space. But this society has no access nor even understanding of femininity. They are entirely isolated from contact with women. Paradoxically, through pornography, never has there been a culture with so much focus on sexual activity. Furthermore pornography’s obsession with wanton women means the culture is exposed only to people that exclusively act as men.
The culture has no understanding of non-masculinity, it is, in way a mirror-universe of the world Radical Feminists, Neofeminists in … call the Maggie circle ( An injoke that probably only I understand). Where everybody is a man, except some have vaginas.
My Little Pony is the first experience many of this society have with the chaste, nonsexual aspects of femininity. Just as men differ from women in more than having a strong sex drive and women are more than men with overly complicated means of achieving sexual arousal, so do men find more than women’s bodies appealing or even are men attracted to women strictly on sexual grounds.
Modern society in general has very little programming that depicts women in a positive, to the point where having two women talk to each other is actually pretty rare. Most shows aimed at women or involving women are frankly terrible and mocked by all.
My little Pony is the first show any of these “Bronies” have encounter that have women behaving like women toward women and represents the first exposure many of them had to totality of femininity. The way women talk and interact has an appeal to male mind. (I think, I’m not really an expert or anything, I just hung around brony circles for when they would cross over my little pony with something grimdark. I remember there was this one time they crossed it over Empire: Total War, and it was awesome. They totally nailed the way Rarity, magical unicorn spirit of generosity, would behave if placed in charge of supplies at valley forge.)
The appeal of my little pony is similar to the way much of your appeal as a whore lay in nonsexual areas, being able to talk with them, sympathize with them in a way no other man could. (I just used My little pony and whore in the same sentence and I’m reasonably competent it wasn’t creepy. Go me)
To a product of the endless unfulfilled anger and hostility of internet culture, this is perhaps the first innocence thing they’ve encounter. While women aren’t really any better human beings than men, they don’t lash out in the same way as men. Never the kind of naked rage and promise of physical harm that people in their culture responded.
Finally, the very confusion and discomfort other people have toward bronyism is a plus. Men like to defend things, they like to defy things. What could have more masculine appeal than to break taboo, and not just taboos about harming others, but of enjoying something clean and pure.
It’s like kissing your girlfriend in a hardcore BDSM dungeon where heavy whipping is the most vanilla thing. (That’s just an example and is not meant to imply that people into BDSM can’t have loving relationships.)
In fact, 4chan /b/, was pretty much the darkest place on the internet and it was where the brony phenomenon was really born. And what could be better than baffling an experienced courtesan, so superior and so sure of her understanding of men. (Not that I have a problem with you, just kind of an example of how appealing it could be. Bronies basically trolled the entire internet and pwned people the FBI couldn’t touch. 4chan trying and failing to ban bronies was one huge power trip.)
So, there you go, hope you like it. I’m gonna go play Dawn of War now. And is there any chance you’ll have a post on progressive income taxation, because I have this really sweet argument kicking around in my head that uses the Laffer curve.
Reading this has made me glad (though I already was) that I’m a fan of Sailor Moon. The Sailor Senshi may have saved me from becoming a Brony.
Sailor Moon? Now that’s just creepy.
Oh yeah!? 😉
OK, that’s cheating a bit to use the speech from the dub. But as I was reading what you wrote, I kept thinking, “Hm, seems like these guys never saw Sailor Moon,” “Huh, I wonder if that’s part of what appeals to me about Sailor Moon?” “If that’s what these guys are needing in entertainment, I have to wonder how they could possibly have missed Sailor Moon; she’s all over the Internet.” I understand the attraction of cute (ask anybody who knows me) and girly (ditto), so I can’t really look down on Bronies in any way. But for me, well, I’ve already got a source of animated femininity and cuteness that I’m happy with.
But what good is an animated source of femininity and cuteness if you can’t cross it over with fallout and then have Canterlot be the new setting of Dead Money?
I don’t know those shows, but there are several crossovers of Sailor Moon with Star Trek TOS, TNG, DS9, and Voyager. Also with Quantum Leap, Highlander, and The Land of the Lost (1970s TV show, not 1990s TV show or [shudder] movie).
Maybe what we need is a Sailor Moon/My Little Pony crossover. Would be cuteness overload for all but the most macho of men. [thrusts out chest]
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7459545/1/Sailor_Ponies
never read it but that’s 34,047 words of my little sailor moon.
Got it. And thank you.
BTW, you may want to consider signing this. Fanfic.net is ready to throw stories out for sexual content, violence, based on a song, etc. I don’t get it.
My daughter has gotten into the My Little Ponies in a big way. It’s not a bad show, to be honest. It certainly better than the badly drawn violence and sarcasm fests that make me hate Saturday morning TV. And I much prefer it over the Disney princesses. At least the ponies have jobs other than princessing.
But … the Brony thing. Really. It’s just … why? Do you want to never get laid ever? Every time I tell someone about it, they respond with disbelief until they go online and say, “Oh my God! That’s a real thing!”
Boy, that reads like a list I would make. 🙂 I just recently watched the Jeremy Brett Holmes and wrote about it on my blog. Brett is so precise, it’s scary. The last series is difficult to watch though because he was in such poor health and so bloated from the lithium. I prefer it over the Rathbone series, however, because the Grenada series has a smart Watson, which is key to the chemistry. I do think the new BBC series is excellent and several Holmes officianados have told me they liked it.
Did you ever watch “Babylon 5”? I would rank that as one of the top ever series, especially the middle three seasons. Even my wife loved it and that’s saying something.
Oh yes, I like Babylon 5 very much; in fact we’re currently rewatching it. It just doesn’t quite make the cut.
Babylon 5, when it is good it is very, very good but when it is bad it is awful.
True, but the same thing can be said of Star Trek (“And the Children Shall Lead”) and The Twilight Zone (“Cavender is Coming”).
Yes, that’s true. There are some really terrible episodes of Twilight Zone in particular.
Maggie are you familiar with the Agony Booth website (http://www.agonybooth.com/recaps/Star_Trek/). Yeah, the third season of TOS had plenty of episodes that were POS (although I have a closet liking for “Spock’s Brain”. Thankfully no one knows about that).
We do now. 😉
Still, I must confess to often quoting lines from that one in high school, my favorite being “Brain and brain and what is brain?”
For all the talk of True Blood, I’m surprised noone’s mentioned Deadwood. Now that was a TV show. Ian Mcshane for the win!
I am familiar with over half the shows listed and they are all among my favorite shows. I guess I am going to have to take a look at the others.
Join with commentators recommending Firefly (the show, not the movie) and Have Gun Will Travel.
I too watched the first Dr Who series.. Yes I used to watch them from behind the Sofa.
One reason the BBC has not packaged all the series is, they Don’t have them. Some reason they lost whole series, they overwrote tapes, threw out films. Sometimes they get back episodes from foreign broadcasters, or recently from I think an employee who died and widow on clearing the house found a series.
This happened with so many series, including Dads Army, where episodes went missing. The value of these programmes was just not recognised.
You have the same problem finding old episodes of the Ernie Kovacs show, because it took a while for TV studios to learn (“Don’t destroy valuable property” in the US too.)
Oh, I know about the missing episodes of the first two Doctors, but there’s no excuse for the sloppy way in which they’ve done my favorites (Drs 3-5). One has to buy them by individual stories instead of by seasons, which makes them unreachably expensive.
The Batman animated series was great, and felt a little revolutionary for the time. The Superman series the came out after that that was pretty good as well, especially the episodes with Darkseid. There was a Justice League series later that was well-done – although maybe a little too action-focused. One of the cool things about it (to me, at least) is that it was pretty obvious that whoever was making those cartoons really loved Jack Kirby.
In regards to My Little Pony, I have to wonder if Bronys might be the American equivalent of Japanese “grass-eating men”.
I like those series as well, but IMHO the first Batman series outshines them all (though Justice League season 2 is a strong contender).
You list and mine would share several shows, and you and Laura would share at least two, maybe four.
Patrick McGoohan was offered the role of James Bond and turned it down, on the grounds that Bond is an immoral character.
If I were to guess which of these guys you find so attractive… well Shatner is the most classically handsome. He also has that self-assurance which tends to draw women in like heavy fishing line. You’ve also stated that you had crushes on Kirk, Spock, Uhura, and Rand. But I’ve been around the block enough times to know that the man women find most attractive isn’t always the most handsome. Heck, the woman men find most attractive isn’t always the most beautiful.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say it’s Darren McGavin as Carl Kolchak. I have my reasons, and maybe I’ll get into that tomorrow, when I find out if I was right or not.
My brother (who is a huge Bond fan, by the way) always says that James Bond is a bad guy pretending to be a good guy.
He likes to contrast him with Lupin the 3rd, the Japanese cartoon character, who is a good guy pretending to be a bad guy.
I picked Shatner because there’s a significant amount of female Trekkers who really, really like him. A lot.
My sister always went for Walter Koenig, though. Although she stole all my Star Trek dolls at one time or another when I was a kid to play with her Barbies… urgh…. even pointy eared Spock, and she was far from a Trekker.
Maggie,
You look damn good for your age, or for any age beyond twenty, twenty-five. That is not a left-handed complement BTW.
As for Dr. Who, mine’s Tom Baker, but I did like Jon Pertwee also. I think they’ve done well with Eccleston, Tennant, and Smith in the continuing story of Dr. Who. When the show came back on I told my kids that they would pick the one they would remember as their Dr. Who and that is Tennant. I think he did a fine job, though Baker is still the One.
As an aside, there was a Superman series around WWII, which side I forget, that was starkly dramatic, dark, even brooding, in its animation. The Superman of that series was more like the Dark Knight, he was willing to kill. And he did.
Thank you, Ariel! 🙂
The Superman cartoons you’re remembering were done by Max Fleischer studios, best remembered for Popeye and Betty Boop. Since they’re in the public domain, one can find DVDs of them almost anywhere, but here’s a remastered collection from Time-Warner.
Maggie,
Thank you for the link. I caught these maybe 8-10 years ago on a children’s cartoon network very late at night, and was shocked that I had missed these in my childhood. I’m familiar with Fleischer for Popeye and Betty Boop. The early Popeyes with the credits over the opening swinging hatches were the best. Betty Boop was of course superb, though I could never separate her from Mae West. Always saw a dark-haired Mae West so the two meld.
However, I caught a version of Superman that wasn’t edited and had all the un-PC dialogue. If these versions are expurgated, like the Bugs Bunny cartoons of WWII, I’ll pass. No fault on you, but a sign of our latest Puritan revival.
As for the compliment, Maggie, you’re more than welcome. I only spoke my truth knowing myself in my mid-20s.
Also, Ariel is an old British motorcycle, as well my daughter so named. I’m a guy just in case the name confuses. I would expect any woman would say the same regarding your picture.
Emma Peel….oh yeah… I completely understand your attraction to Diana Rigg!