TV and Burgers

"Two American scientists are lost in the swirling maze of past and future ages, during the first experiments on America's greatest and most secret project, the Time Tunnel. Tony Newman and Doug Phillips now tumble helplessly toward a new fantastic adventure, somewhere along the infinite corridors of time." The Time Tunnel ran for one season on ABC from 1966 – 67.  A grand total of 30 episodes were produced and I loved every one of them.  Obviously the fact that I was a mere two year old when the show first aired meant that I only saw this show in reruns, but that never detracted from my enjoyment.  For those that somehow missed this sci-fi treasure, here’s the scoop: In a series of complexes 800 floors deep in the Arizona desert exists a top secret government project known as Project Tic-Toc.  Over 36000 people were employed there so how this was kept a secret must have been some sort of miracle in itself.  Where they all parked their cars was ...

Back in the day, before it was so popular to turn old TV shows into movies, it was fairly common to have a popular movie turned into a weekly TV series.  This rarely worked, but there are some notable exceptions such as M*A*S*H and Alice.  But for every one of those there are dozens that littered the TV landscape.  The problem was that most of those cinematic features did not really translate well to a television audience.  No one was really interested in watching Animal House get watered down to a weekly series called Delta House.  Some shows took the film’s original premise, tweaked it a bit, ignored the film’s ending and started over.  Such was the case with the 1977 series Logan’s Run. A little background for those who have forgotten:  Logan’s Run was a 1976 science fiction film about a dystopian society in the 23 rd century.  The people live in a “perfect world of total pleasure” with only one catch.  No one is allowe...

Back in the 1970’s the made for TV movie was much more prevalent on the networks than it is today.  Sure, we still get those occasional Jesse Stone films, but unlike the 70’s we no longer have entire nights devoted to movies of the week.  Often times these movies were pilots for series.  Such was the case with James at 15.    On September 5, 1977 the made for TV movie, James at 15, was first broadcast on NBC.  As it turned out it was the number one show of that week with an astounding 42% share of the viewing audience.  Almost immediately, NBC green-lit the series and it premiered on October 20 th 1977 where it quickly became one of my favorites.   If you don’t remember the show or if you never saw it to begin with let me tell you the plot.   James (Lance Kerwin) was a 15 year old boy that was transplanted across the country from Oregon to Massachusetts after his father took a teaching position.   James had a difficu...

I’d like to take this opportunity today to announce a new occasional series here at TV & Burgers.  Starting soon (which means whenever I feel like it and get around to it) I will be taking a nostalgic look back at some of my favorite shows from when I was just a kid.  In the days before Sir Griffin became an international sensation, he spent many a day sitting in front of the TV, mostly because sitting behind the TV was kind of pointless.  You could hear it, but that was about it.  Due to the fact that I spent countless hours watching TV I feel a certain obligation to my audience to share with you some of the shows that are long gone, yet bring back fond memories. Me and the Chimp Now I am not talking about going into to detail about the greatest hits of the past.  Gilligan’s Island may be the most brilliant show of all time, but that may be a little too mainstream for Sir Griffin to write about.  And yes, I loved Bewitched, My Three S...

Last night I accessed my DVR looking to see what I had recorded and ready to watch.  After being forced to sit through NCIS: LA for the sole reason that it was the second part of a storyline started on Hawaii Five-0, I decided I wanted some comedy.  I had seen that one of my new shows had recorded the previous night so I pushed play.  I got myself all relaxed and ready to see another episode of the hilarious Best Friends Forever, but instead I saw the beginning of some old grandma reality show featuring Betty White.  What the hell?  I knew immediately that my show was a goner.  Before I get much further please allow me to vent.  I am sick and tired of Betty White.  I officially suffer from Betty White fatigue.  Okay, she was kind of cute and funny in that Sandra Bullock movie a couple of years ago (The good one and not that bore fest that won her an Oscar) but ever since then we have had Betty White forced upon us in unprecede...