1] CHRISTMASTIME IS HERE (Written by Vince Guaraldi – from A Charlie Brown Christmas)
Show me a better song representative of Christmas? Okay, maybe The Christmas Song by Nat King Cole – but nothing revs up the Holiday heart strings like this classic tune sung by the Peanuts gang on one of the best Christmas TV specials of all time.
2] THERE’S ALWAYS TOMORROW (FOR DREAMS TO COME TRUE) By Janet Orenstein from Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer TV special
It all started at 4:30 AM, about thirty years ago, at the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.
My contracted 18 months as a Page for NBC had ended, and I began working weekends and periodic weekdays at the Biltmore as a Gold Room Butler for the then-exclusive 9th Floor Executive Suites. It was the type of work I performed as a Bellman for the Marriott Hotel back in Rochester, New York, years before I moved to L.A. and went to work for NBC.
While at the Biltmore, I was also cast as one of the waiters at Duke’s Restaurant on ABC’s General Hospital, and served as an extra or “atmosphere player” on other daytime soaps like CBS’s The Bold and the Beautiful.
“We celebrate the integrity of classic television.”
That’s the motto of The Classic TV Preservation Society (CTVPS), a nonprofit organization that offers TV & Self-Esteem Seminars to schools, colleges, community, senior and business centers or organizations.
The mission?
With NBC’s recent cancellation of the new Ironside (starring Blair Underwood), and newly-announced development of a revamped edition of Murder, She Wrote (to feature Octavia Spencer), I once more feel compelled to offer a few words of counsel on the remake genre…specifically with regard to NBC and its inability to grasp the redo market, especially at the very expense of choice properties from its esteemed list of Universal-connected titles.
As one of the most prestigious networks in TV history (and I my first cherished employer, as a former NBC Page), NBC has presented a cache of superior programming selections over the decades. But time and again in the past few years, the network has failed to take the proper steps in rebooting classic Universal television shows, such as The Rockford Files, The Munsters and The Bionic Woman, among others. In the process, they are damaging core brand names and franchises, and losing millions.
How can any of that be a good thing?
THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW (Season 4, Ep. 7: “A Black Day for Mayberry”)
Written by John Whedon