On Mon, Jun 27, 2011 at 6:31 PM, PGage <pga...@gmail.com> wrote: > I will give you the short skirts, but the hair and make-up were a joke, and > the dialogue was even worse. It is not so much a period piece as a gross > caricature of what out of touch middle aged white guys must have thought was > hip and groovy 10 years before. The mysteries were often fun, but turned on > implausible plot points and clues so subtle as to be indistinguishable from > background noise and writing and acting imperfections. You might be able to > guess who the bad guy was using some rule of tv formula (second most > obvious, or second least obvious, suspect), but no chance figuring out the > specifics of the how or the why until Banacek's great reveal. I still did > get a bit of a kick out of Peppard hamming it up, but that was not nearly > enough to sustain the thin gruel of the stories. Columbo on the other hand I > can (and do) watch over and over again, and enjoy the writing and the acting > and the characters and the plot as much today as 35 years ago.
As I said, all fair points, but I can still get some enjoyment from the kitsch factor of the series. Onto another tangent that drags us farther off topic: I recently picked up two vinyl albums by Doc Severinsen, for which I paid less than $4.00 for the pair (though this was a low cost purchase, it is monumentally bad -- financially speaking -- that I work across the street from Amoeba Records on Sunset Blvd.). He recorded them both in the mid 1960s, and while they are both good, there is a vibe to the music that unmistakably shouts, "I am to be played at a party attended by Jeannie and Majors Healy and Nelson!" Though many songs on the albums are jazz standards, the arrangements are alarmingly indicative of that era. There was that brief period in big band jazz when they tried to adapt and compete directly with the pop and rock genres -- the modern equivalent would be me trying to pass in the world of urban hip hop. Severinsen's music is well produced and well performed, but man oh man is it dated. Fun to groove to, but entirely dated. -- Kevin M. (RPCV) -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to tvornottv@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to tvornottv-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
