Don't worry. I will actually get to
it, and get to it soon.
Yesterday I mentioned today's blog
would be about your responses to the historical “what if” piece I
wrote on Tuesday, the one that supposed Calumet had actually become
the capital of Michigan. Well, for two reasons, I'm gonna wait until
tomorrow to post it and, unlike last week when I never did get around
to writing the blog about why computers are stupid, I WILL get to
this one. I promise.
Now, I'm sure the curious among you are
wondering why I'm not doing it today, and like I said I actually do
have two good reasons. The first is that I'm still getting in a few
notes from people who took the time to read Tuesday's blog, and I
want to make sure that they have the chance to get their two cents
in. As you may know, some people read this on a daily basis, while
other binge-read them two or three or a week at a time. I'm just
waiting to hear from those people. The other reason?
Hugh Wilson died Tuesday.
Who is (or, more appropriately was)Hugh
Wilson? Well, Hugh Wilson was a movie director of some modest
success, with films like the original “Police Academy” and “First
Wives Club” to his credit. But that's not why I'm interrupting
regularly scheduled programming to write about him. Nope; while Hugh
Wilson did have a little modest success as a director, he was best
known for creating and being the driving force behind one of the best
TV shows ever, one of my favorites of all time, “WKRP in
Cincinnati”.
That's why I pre-empted your regularly
scheduled blog.
Those of you who've read this over the
past few years may remember my abject joy when the entire series was
finally released (with most of the original music) on DVD back in '14
or '15. I killed a good chunk of the winter that year watching all
88 episodes, and came away with a renewed appreciation for one of the
most under-rated TV shows ever. I remember viewing it during its
original run as a younger person and thinking it was an amazing show
(one of the reasons I work in radio, I guess), but upon this latest
viewing I was struck by just how deep and, on occasion, how
subversive the show was. It was never given a chance by CBS; I think
it had 12 different time periods in the four seasons it was on the
air. But if the show was in first-run now, and given the proper
chance to grow, I could see some cable network making a killing in
terms of both ratings and prestige by airing it. To me, at least the
show was that good.
If you ever have the chance, check out
an episode or two for yourself. And while everyone would probably
choose the most famous episode of the show—the Thanksgiving show
where they dropped turkeys out of a helicopter—there are so many
others that are simply amazing, like the first season's “A
Commercial Break” or “Fish Story”, the second season's “In
Concert”, the third season's (the best, in my opinion) “Real
Families”, “Venus & the Man”, and “Clean Up Radio
Everywhere”, and one of my favorites of all time, the two-part
fourth season opener called “An Explosive Affair”. You can't go
wrong with none of these. In fact, you probably can't go wrong with
any of the show's episodes), but these are among the most outstanding.
Trust me on that.
Okay, I don't want to bore you, so
that's all I'm gonna say. Tomorrow, we return to our regularly
scheduled topic. I promise.
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