Well, dear readers, wasn’t our birthday celebration for our very own Jason filled with merriment and mirth and laughter and legs? There are times when this site does us all proud – such warmth and camaraderie, unlike other less popular sites on the Internet. Can you feel the love tonight – oh, a Lion King reference. Another long day at work yesterday, and not without some tumult, but one survives the tumult as best one can. I have survived the tumult, dear readers, and I am here to tell the tale and also the tail. However, the tale/tail of the tumult/tumult is too too boring to even go into. Suffice it to say that one doesn’t always enjoy the folks one works with (that said, 99% of the folks on this show are splendidly splendid – it’s just that 1% bad egg that spoils the brisket – or is it the broth? Or is it the soup? Or is it the frying pan?). Anyway, if you can’t take the heat don’t eat the broth or the brisket and throw the bad egg into the soup. What the hell am I talking about?
Last night I watched a brand spanking new DVD of Studio One, an old “live” television show from the 50s. This DVD was transferred from the only surviving kinescopes, which were found in an old Westinghouse storage facility. So far, there are two volumes, one with a two-part live drama called The Defender, and one with two live dramas, one of them starring James Dean. I chose to watch the second of those dramas because it sounded interesting and something about it just piqued my curiosity. The title of the show is The Night America Trembled and it’s about the reaction to the broadcast of Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds broadcast on CBS that caused panic all over the country. Now, here is the amazing thing, dear readers. The minute the show came on (hosted by Edward R. Murrow) I was swept back in time with the most vivid memories of seeing this show when it aired, when I was a mere sprig of a twig of a lad of a youth. I remembered as if it were yesterday, sitting close to the television, riveted by the unfolding drama. And as I watched last night, I started remembering scenes before they were shown. Isn’t that amazing? Isn’t that just too too? I mean, this hasn’t been shown again since 1958. In any case, it’s still a riveting show – the technical stuff is rickety, of course, and the writing isn’t swell, but the subject matter is wonderful and the cast – well, you won’t believe the cast of this show. In both large and small parts are such actors as Warren Beatty, John Astin (billed under another name, but unmistakably Astin), Ed Asner (two lines), Vincent Gardenia, Alexander Scourby, Warren Oates, I mean the mind boggles, oh, yes, the mind simply boggles. And, in a touching bit of fate, a very young James Coburn (billed as “Jim”. I’ll be reporting on the other shows as I watch them, but I cannot recommend this highly enough.
Well, why don’t we click on the Unseemly Button below, because I must leave now that I’ve waxed nostalgic for so long.
You see, I have used up all my time waxing nostalgic about a show I haven’t seen for forty-five years or so. And now, I cannot wax about anything else. I have to hold back the wax and I must just polish and be done. There was simply too much waxing and now my time has waned. I was so busy waxing while time was so busy waning. Waxing and waning is the problem here, and now I must be gone with the wind.
Have I mentioned that time has been waning whilst I have been waxing? And so, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must go to work and put out of my head the person I do not care for and I must simply do my job and then leave. Today’s topic of discussion: Today is Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me all of your excellent questions. If you should have no excellent questions then you may also discuss whatever you like, including whether you’ve had any experiences similar to the one I discussed – where you’ve started to watch a show from a number of years ago only to realize you remember every single minute of it. Ask away and post away, my pretties, and I’ll check back in a bit.