1/14/09

Well, Patrick McGoohan passed away. He was one of my favorite actors-- I remember watching him on Colombo, The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh and, of course, The Prisoner. That last was one of those shows that really stuck with me when I was young. I was thinking about that today-- those things I saw on television that deeply affected my thinking in terms of theme and imagery. A short list then--

1. The Prisoner
2. Stairway to Heaven (since I only ever saw it on TV-- apparently the rights to this are tied up somewhere so it'll be a long time before it gets re-released).
3. James Burke's Connections
4. I, Claudius
5. The old, old Spider-Man cartoons. These were notable for having a very different design aesthetic from episode to episode, probably the first time I noticed those kinds of things.
6. The Tom Baker Dr. Who years
7. The Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes serials.
8. Saturday afternoon monster/horror flix on Son of Svengoolie
9. The St. Trinian's movies. I won't go into why.
10. The Rockford Files. Which I liked, but liked more because I knew my dad liked them. Best, for my money, of those crime dramas from that era (like Quincey or Ironsides).
11. Classic Star Trek
12. The Alastair Sims version of A Christmas Story. Again one of those things I only saw on TV, and loved in part because my dad liked it so much.

Probably more, but when I think about it, those are the ones that come to mind.