"Hey you GUYS!!!!!!"- The Electric Company Comeback

According to PBS, Sesame Workshop has an updated version of the old-school PBS kids show "The Electric Company"(aired 1971-1977) in the works and it is expected to start airing on PBS affiliates in the fall of 2008.I am not only not surprised,I also think it is a great idea and a novel way to introduce a whole new generation to the shows us 30-somethings grew up watching as kids!

I recently borrowed one of the DVD Volumes that were released in 2006 for my daughter and she LOVED it,so much that she knows the theme song now LOL.In my day it was what you graduated to when you grew out of Sesame Street and there were alot of stars like Morgan Freeman, Rita Moreno,and Bill Cosby.They had original recurring characters like "Easy Reader" ,comic shorts of "Spiderman" and a neat part of the show called "Short Circus",a group of singing and dancing kids,including a very young Irene Cara(Fame).In addition to the DVD Volumes,Apple offers classic original episodes of "The Electric Company" through I-Tunes.I can hardly wait to see the remade 2008 premiere!

Flashback TV:"The A-Team"(1983)

In January of 1983,"The A-Team" premiered on NBC and it ran for five seasons.Col. John "Hannibal" Smith ,Lt. Templeton "Faceman" Peck ,Capt. H.M. "Howling Mad" Murdock & Bosco B.A.(Bad Attitude) Baracus were part of an elite Army unit that were on the run after being accused of a crime they did not commit and they were now "for hire" more or less as rogue mercenaries-if you had a problem and if you could find them,you could hire the A Team.LOL.The show had many noteable guest stars over its 4 year run and it has been lampooned many times on various TV shows like "South Park" & "Family Guy".Just hearing the shows theme makes me feel like I am 13 years old again!All 5 seasons are available on DVD for home collections!

Flashback TV:The British Invasion(1964)

On this date in 1964,television and music history was made when The Beatles made their US debut on The Ed Sullivan Show.They had arrived on February 7th at JFK Airport accompanied by producer Phil Spector and others and their appearance set off the British Invasion and invited the pans of critics,who proclaimed the group to be a "fad"!Two days after Ed Sullivan,they appeared in concert for the 1st time in America at the old Washington Coliseum in DC.I will have to dust off my copy of the Beatles Number Ones CD and spin it tomorrow!Yes,I listen to the Beatles-I even have a copy of "Wingspan",from Paul McCartneys Wings.LOL.Nevertheless the Beatles are still one of the greatest groups of all times.

Recent DVD viewing

One of the recent DVD releases I have been wanting to see finally came in-it was released on DVD on January 14th but was on back order and that is Alex Haleys"Queen".Fifteen years ago,in February 1993,it aired as a miniseries on CBS and it told the story of the struggle of one woman,the paternal grandmother of writer Alex Haley and followed her life from just before she was born,through slavery and war,love and loss,and concludes with her recovering from a mental illness and seeing her youngest son,Simon,off to college.I watched the entire 2 disc 8 hour series yesterday since I was on the couch recovering from a cold anyways and I hope to eventually add this one to my collection.The book is always better but the miniseries starred the lovely Halle Berry early in her career,as well as accomplished actors such as the late Paul Winfield,Tim Daly,Ann-Margret,Martin Sheen and Danny Glover.

TV Flashback Alex Haleys "Roots" 31st Anniversary

I did a post a couple months ago about how much I enjoyed the historical epic miniseries "Roots" based on the writings of Alex Haley not realizing the anniversary was forthcoming.On January 23,1977,millions tuned in to ABC for the first of eight record breaking nights.To this day,the final episode of the "Roots" miniseries is the third-highest Nielsen rated TV program in history right behind the "MASH" finale episode and the "Dallas" episode that revealed "who shot J.R."!While alot of the screenplay was different from the actual novels,the tale remained the same and America for the first time took a journey into a time where humans were trafficked from another continent and brought here to be enslaved in America,as well as other countries.The story begins with the young Kunta Kinte being whisked away from the African woods by slave traders and by the eighth night,after following the story of Kunte and his descendants we see Alex Haley meet his distant African family members.In 2002,a 25th Anniversary DVD set of the series was released and TV One Channel shows it occasionally in its uninterrupted entirity,albeit with commercials.It spawned "Roots:The Gift",a much panned TV Christmas special and in 1979 another miniseries,"Roots:The Next Generations" which picked up where the original "Roots" left off.It's a great story,as well as Alex Haleys "Queen",which focused more on Haleys fathers mother and her side of the family.I recommend all of them if you have never seen any,but the original is a must-see!Tv Guide once called it a groundbreaking miniseries and I agree!

80's Flashback TV

One of my favorite shows to come from the 80's was "Unsolved Mysteries" which premiered 20 years ago on NBC,and went to the CBS network in 1997,where actress Virginia Madsen cohosted.It was cancelled in 1999 and resurrected again by Lifetime in 2001 for one more year.It featured re-enactments of mysteries ranging from ghost stories to reunited family members to crimes and appealed to the public for any tips on the cases.Quite a few old cases were solved after being rerun many years later on Lifetime and when that happened,Lifetime would add an update to the end credits.The spooky theme music and Stacks voice was enough to give you the willies before you even watched the show.They did alot of UFO related stories if I recall.

If you were home alone,the scary re-enactments were just too much to take lol but you still watched anyway.I really miss this show,so I was psyched to learn that both HBO and Spike TV have expressed interest in a revamped version of "Unsolved Mysteries" and rumors are flying that James Earl Jones will lend his talents to the HBO show.Great choice,but he is no Robert Stack!

I remember they had one mystery on the show that was local-a man in Sussex County came home to find his mother dead late one night at the hands of a hitchhiker he left on the road earlier after a scuffle.He had picked the guy up at an Arbys in Harrington and if I am not mistaken,there was new info in that case not too long ago.It was a great show and I would love to see it brought back-it has value,just like "Americas Most Wanted" does.Most of the episodes are available on DVD in volumes 1 thru 6,each volume with approximately 30 episodes each and organized by genre-UFO's,ghosts,miracles,etc.