Everybody Loves Dean Martin Sometime

Dino Crocetti emerged from the hardscrabble existence in Steubenville, Ohio to become one of the biggest stars in the second half of the 20th century.  With a new moniker of Dean Martin, a legendary partnership with Jerry Lewis, and a fixture status in the famed Rat...

Lonesome Rhodes, Will Stockade, and Andy Taylor

Corruption rooted in ego, fame, and power forms the foundation for A Face in the Crowd, a 1957 film; Budd Schulberg wrote the screenplay based on his short story The Arkansas Traveler. Andy Griffith stars as Lonesome Rhodes, a country bumpkin discovered by television...

148 Bonnie Meadow Road

Humor, it is often said, serves us best when it is grounded in reality.  The Dick Van Dyke Show espoused this theorem. Carl Reiner, formerly a writer and performer on Your Show of Shows and Caesar’s Hour, starring television comedy pioneer Sid Caesar, created a...

Thursdays at 10

For nearly 30 years, from 1981 to 2009, NBC defined quality television programming in the 10:00 p.m. time slot.  Hill Street Blues debuted in 1981 and changed the production of television drama. Story lines became story arcs, lasting several episodes.  Moving cameras...

Fraternal Bonds Are Eternal Bonds

This post first appeared on my blog on October 10, 2010.   Time is relentless, punishing, and unforgiving. But this weekend, I had the opportunity to defeat time, albeit just for a few bright, shining moments. On this date – 10/10/10 – Tau Epsilon Phi celebrates its...