March 26 - April 1:

Catch Me if You Can (2002)
Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks
I really loved this movie, which is surprising, since I don't tend to be a fan of DiCaprio, Hanks or director Steven Spielberg. It's based on the true story of Frank Abagnale, Jr., who, as a teenage runaway, managed to con millions of dollars out of banks all over the world by passing bad checks, while posing alternately as a Pan Am pilot, pediatrician and prosecutor. Utterly fascinating, despite Hanks' terrible attempt at a Boston accent. I put the book upon which it's based on hold at the library, because now I want to know more.

Love, American Style (1969) (Episode: "Love and the Geisha")
Carolyn Jones, Red Buttons
Viewed at the Museum of Television and Radio, NYC. Sports widow Vera can't tear her husband away from televised sports, so she leaves him. Conveniently, the Japanese woman he had an affair with while stationed in Japan shows up, wanting only to serve him. You know where this is going: Vera returns, finds them together and zany mayhem ensues. Ultimately they both leave in disgust and he returns to watching the big game.

My Three Sons (1964) (Episode: "The People House")
Fred MacMurray, William Frawley
Viewed at MT&R. Steve enters an interior design contest in an attempt to pick up a pretty magazine editor and Bub becomes obsessed with winning. They don't even place in the contest, but Steve does get a date!

The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. (1967) (Episode: "The Moulin Ruse Affair")
Stefanie Powers, Noel Harrison
This especially goofy episode features Shelley Berman as a dwarf nutritionist who's created a vitamin powerful enough to turn people into killing machines. Yvonne DeCarlo guest stars as a THRUSH agent who drinks enormous martinis. I now NEED April's clear go-go boots.

March 19 - March 25:

77 Sunset Strip (1961) (Episode: "A Face in the Window")
Peter Breck, Edd "Kookie" Byrnes, Roger Smith
Have I yet mentioned this week how much I love '60s crime dramas? This episode guest stars Merry Anders as the starlet-in-distress, on the verge of her big break, with a sinister secret. Ginchy!

Surfside 6 (1962) (Episode: "Dead Heat")
Lee Patterson, Van Williams
A Troy Donahue-free episode, but that's okay, since Lee Patterson is the one I dig. He has weird highlights in this episode, but it doesn't deter from the overall fabulousness. Like 77 Sunset Strip before it, this episode centers around a seemingly innocent woman in danger, but is she really the driving force behind the mayhem? Cherchez la femme!

Bachelor Father (season unknown--ran from 1957-62) (Episode: "Vacation at Home")
John Forsythe, Noreen Corcoran, Sammee Tong
Viewed at the Museum of Television and Radio, NYC. I was eager to see this show, since my mother (Hi, Mom!) got the idea for my name from the teenaged Kelly, played by Noreen Corcoran. I particularly enjoyed Peter, the "houseboy," and the young (well, younger than Dynasty, anyway) John Forsythe. Kelly had great hair and clothes!

Honey West (1965) (Episode: "The Abominable Snowman")
Anne Francis, John Ericson
Viewed at MT&R. Henry Jones, a favorite of ours because of his performance as the unfortunate Leroy in The Bad Seed, guest starred as the bad guy. I'm depressed, because now I've seen the MT&R's entire catalogue of Honey West episodes. I want to BE her! She drives a zippy convertible, is a judo and karate master, has a Nolan Miller-designed leopard print wardrobe, a pet ocelot named Bruce and a fabulous pad. In researching this entry (I actually do research these shows before writing them up, believe it or not) I discovered that someone is offering Honey West DVDs of dubious legality. I am SO tempted. Dare I cross over to the Dark Side?

Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1973)
Robert Urich, Anne Archer, Anita Gillette, David Spielberg
Viewed at MT&R. I didn't even know this film had become a TV series. I stumbled on it searching for something else and watched out of curiosity. Perhaps it's because I'm seeing it 33 years later, but I thought it was a scream. Wealthy professionals in California, trying to get in touch with their inner feelings, '70s-style. My father would have called them fruits and nuts. In this episode, Bob and Carol are glowing after returning from a retreat, where they went "naked swimming" with eight strangers and found it life-changing. Zany mayhem ensues when they tell Ted and Alice they want to go naked swimming with them. It was Henry Jones Day for me, since he showed up in this episode as Alice's father (who's onto their naked swimming antics).

March 12 - March 18:

Fist of Fear, Touch of Death (1980)
Fred Williamson, Adolph Caesar
Really, really, horrifically bad movie (and I'm not just saying that because my sleazy ex-boss wrote it) about a martial arts competition to determine the successor to Bruce Lee, who, according to one judge, was killed by the "touch of death," applied by some unknown foe. Contains pseudo-documentary biographical footage of Lee that isn't even close to being accurate. I don't mean to imply that the film isn't entertaining--it is. The best part is seeing Sleazy Ex-Boss, in a cameo, being jacked up by Fred Williamson. I highly recommend it at the end of a really bad day, when you think your life can't get any more ridiculous or depressing. At least you didn't make this film.

Smile, Jenny, You're Dead (1974)
David Janssen, Jodie Foster, Andrea Marcovicci
The pilot for the TV series Harry O, which is the first thing we watched after we had our cable installed Monday. I'd never seen the show before, but really liked David Janssen as Harry O. The creepy murderer reminded me of someone (creepy) I know.

Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964) ("The Vulcan Affair"--premiere episode)
Robert Vaughn, David McCallum
I am so glad we got cable in time for Premiere Week on AmericanLife. They're showing the premiere episodes of all these '60s shows I adore. We taped this one when it was repeated at midnight because it was so fabulous. Pat Crowley guest stars as a woman from "Middleton, NY," who is recruited by U.N.C.L.E. to get close to her old college boyfriend, now the head of THRUSH. Since she's posing as a rich widow she gets all kinds of fabulous clothes and jewelry and very big hair. I was in heaven and I loved our town's brush with greatness (the closest it will ever get).

Kung Fu (1972)
David Carradine, Barry Sullivan
Pilot for the TV series, also viewed during Premiere Week on AmericanLife. I've officially seen more martial arts programming this week than in the rest of my prior life combined. I was curious to see Kung Fu, both because it's the show Peter and Joanne bond over in Office Space and because Paul always had to watch it on the B&W TV in his mother's room when he was a kid, since the main TV was dedicated to Planet of the Apes. He finally got to see it in color! I enjoyed it a lot, particularly the way Caine was able to escape from every dire situation in which he found himself. There are clearly benefits to being a Shaolin monk.

March 5 - March 11:

Bob Newhart Show (1961) (second episode)
Bob Newhart, Dan Sorkin (announcer)
Viewed at the Museum of Television and Radio. I never even knew Bob Newhart had a variety show in the early '60s until yesterday! I watched this one because his special guest was Martin Denny, who, along with his group, played exotica, complete with a hula dancer. The sketches were really funny and I especially loved one by the Way Off-Broadway Players, featuring one of my favorite character actresses, Pearl Shear, in a bit part, about a guy with no cash trying to get out of his hotel without tipping the bellhop.

My Favorite Martian (1965) (Episode: "El Senor from Mars")
Ray Walston, Bill Bixby
Viewed at MT&R. I've never really seen this show before, so I thought I'd check it out. Bill Bixby was really funny! In this episode Tim and Uncle Martin travel to Mexico for the opening of a box that had supposedly been buried during ancient times, featuring the likeness of Martin, since he was there for the original burial. He's afraid that, if the world sees his image, they'll know he's from Mars, so he has to stop the opening. It's pretty convoluted and zany mayhem ensues, but it all works out in the end. Features Bernie Kopell as a Mexican.

Dragnet (1953) (Episode: "Big Producer")
Jack Webb, Ben Alexander
Have I yet mentioned this week how much I adore cheap DVDs? In this episode a washed-up Hollywood producer who's fallen on hard times makes his living getting kids (one of whom was played by "Marty" Milner) to sell filthy joke books and photos at their schools. Also features young Carolyn Jones (who was spelling her name "Caroline" in those days) as a Hollywood hopeful.

Dragnet (1953) (Episode: "Big Betty")
Jack Webb, Ben Alexander
I could get seriously hooked on Dragnet. I love Joe Friday's one-track mind and the way it's all so procedural and sort of, in a way, boring. I imagine it's what police work is really like most of the time. They break up a particularly sleazy bunco racket in this one.

The Lucy Show (1966) (Episode: "Lucy and the Ring-a-Ding-Ring")
Lucille Ball, Gale Gordon
A very Lucy plot: she tries on the ring Mr. Mooney bought for his wife and can't get it off. Yes, the mayhem that ensues is indeed zany.

The Lucy Show (1967) (Episode: "Viv Visits Lucy")
Lucille Ball, Vivian Vance
Lucy and Viv hit the Sunset Strip, decked out in their best hippie attire, to find the son of some folks back home who has turned into one of those freaks. They dance, they tell off the fuzz, they get caught in a raid. You know, a typical day for two middle-aged women!

Click here to see what we watched in February and early March...

Click here to see what we watched in January and early February...