The World of Howard Beale

In 1976, Americans were mad as hell.  And they didn’t want to take it anymore. The fury, of course, was depicted in an iconic scene from the movie Network.  Before FOX constituted a legitimate fourth television network in the 1980s, the triad of CBS, ABC, and...

Beyond Gil Grissom

CSI, after 15 years, has been canceled.  William Petersen starred in the show about Crime Scene Investigators in Las Vegas from its debut in 2000 until 2008 as Gil Grissom, the lead investigator of the night shift.  Grissom was fascinated by the different aspects of...

Welcome to the St. Gregory

Aaron Spelling, the television producer who injected fantasy into ABC’s prime time lineup in the 1970s and the 1980s, created Hotel, based on the 1965 novel of the same name by Arthur Hailey.  Where Hailey’s novel took place in New Orleans,...

The Many Faces of Dennis Franz

Dennis Franz stayed with NYPD Blue for its entire run on ABC from 1993 to 2005.  But before he won Emmy Awards for his portrayal of Detective Andy Sipowicz, Franz starred in several television series.  Some may be long forgotten. In 1982, NBC debuted Chicago Story an...

Maxwell Smart, Spy Extraordinaire

Get Smart parodied the popular spy genre in the 1960s, countering serious offerings, including The Man from U.N.C.L.E.  Created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, Get Smart gave American television audiences a humorous view of espionage during the Cold War.  Don Adams...