NASA, Space, and Popular Culture

NASA’s Golden Age of Projects Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo inspired television programmers and producers to use space as a theme in the 1960s. I Dream of Jeannie starred Larry Hagman as Tony Nelson, an astronaut living in Cocoa Beach, Florida.  Nelson lives in a...

Television, Philadelphia Style

Philadelphia is a rich setting for prime time television shows. Angie aired on ABC in the late 1970s.  Donna Pescow starred in the title role, a working class waitress who falls in love with a doctor, played by Robert Hays of Airplane fame.  Doris Roberts, perhaps...

The Glory Years of Baseball

Today marks the anniversary of a turning point in baseball.  On May 9, 1883, Brooklyn hosted its first home game in professional baseball, playing to a 7-1 victory against Harrisburg in the Interstate Baseball Association. On May 1st, Brooklyn debuted in professional...

Lupo, Bernard, Briscoe, Logan, et al.

Law & Order changed cast members about as often as Mickey Rooney changed wives in its prime time tenure on NBC from 1990 to 2010.  Jeremy Sisto played Cyrus Lupo.  Fans of Six Feet Under know Sisto from his performance as Billy, brother of Brenda and sometimes...

A Mad Man from the Reagan Era

Advertising has provided great fodder for prime television, including the characters Larry Tate of Bewitched, Kip Wilson and Henry Desmond of Bosom Buddies, Jack McLaren of The Closer, Mason McGuire and Conner of Trust Me, Ann Romano of One Day at a Time, and Don...