There are fifteen interesting tracks from the 1940s you may not know as well here, bookended by the Andrews Sisters, who sing both “Christmas Island” and the “Merry Christmas Polka”.

And here’s a list of lesser-known 1950s Christmas and other holiday tunes, such as Stan Freberg’s “Green Christmas,” Gracie Fields’ “Little Donkey,” Joni James’ “Nina Non,” Cathy and Elliot Lewis (of OTR / radio drama fame) wishing us “Happy Holidays”, and Louis Armstrong’s “Cool Yule”.

The tracks spanning the 1960s, and into 1970 proper, are a wide range of musical styles, and show a little of what was going on in the world then. Some tracks include The Marcels’ “Merry Twistmas,” Paul and Paula’s “Holiday Hootenanny”, Bing Crosby’s fun “Christmas Dinner Country Style”, Buck Owens’ “Santa Looked a Lot Like Daddy,” and yes, the Royal Guardsmen’s “Snoopy’s Christmas”. This last was a sequel to “Snoopy vs. the Red Baron,” and reflects the real-life Christmas armistice of World War I.

Then this grouping, of the 1970s and 1980s, which contains as just a smattering, Jethro Tull’s “Ring Out Solstice Bells,” David Essex’s “A Winter’s Tale”, Da Yooper’s “Rusty Chevrolet,” Jona Lewie’s “Stop the Cavalry”, Boney M’s “Zion’s Daughter”, Chris de Burgh’s “A Spaceman Came Travelling,” Merle Haggard’s “Santa Claus and Popcorn,” Sting’s “Gabriel’s Message,” “What Can You Get a Wookiee for Christmas”, and “Santa Claus Must Be Polish” by Bobby Vee. It also has one cheat: it ends with “Christmas Wrapping,” by the Waitresses. While it’s been covered by the Spice Girls and by the Donnas, it’s still an offbeat classic, and while it hits heavy rotation in some markets, others don’t play it so often. This is an interesting article that goes into the “how” of “Christmas Wrapping” – hosted on the songwriter’s website.

There’s word of a reimagined Blake’s Seven on Sky TV in Britain. That’s one SF piece that would be intriguing and worthwhile to see with new special effects – as opposed to Doctor Who, where the effects added to the overall charm. It’s also the most challenging aspect for new viewers of the show to deal with.

Otherwise, there’s no reason that Blake’s Seven couldn’t have the critical acclaim of the current and challenging Battlestar Galactica or Firefly. Certainly, with its emphasis on politics and morality riddles, it’s not a show that only science fiction fans could enjoy.

Plus, that means the original series would probably be released to the US on DVD. Amazingly, despite fans that have collected the show avidly since it was first aired on WGBH-Boston in the early 1980s, Blake’s Seven is still not available in the US.

“How to Get into Rebel Space Opera Blake’s Seven” is an excellent introduction to this series, which has been described as both “Robin Hood in space”, “witty” and “nihilist”. It arguably inspired such later shows as Crusade, but one fun way of viewing Blake’s Seven is to imagine that the Federation of Star Trek has become hopelessly corrupted… in fact, doesn’t the Blake’s Seven symbol kind of look like a side-turned Federation symbol? hmm.

While it’s not quite as difficult to imagine as a non-Shatner “Captain Kirk”, it’s interesting to speculate who would play Blake and Avon, as well as other pivotal characters such as Cally, Jenna and Vila. But particularly Blake. Like the character of Gandalf in Lord of the Rings, his early appearance and character is deceptive. Anna Chancellor has already been bandied about as a worthy Servalan, the scheming villain of the piece.

The L.A. Daily News has an article about the San Fernando Valley’s changing demographics since the film was first released. Star Deborah Foreman, originally a model for Maybelline, now teaches pilates and yoga, after time as a graphic designer and other roles. Foreman generated a lot of the movie’s charm and likability, and cameoed in Coolidge’s other fun teen epic, Reel Genius, which also costarred Valley Girl’s Michelle Meyrink, heroine to a generation of nerds.

And who could forget that music? A mix of gritty power pop and ironic synth-driven pop – it remains one of the best soundtracks of the 20th century, easily holding its own with Saturday Night Fever, Dazed and Confused (another great teen flick that has gained stature in the years since its first release) and American Graffiti. Modern English’s song “I Melt With You” seemed to take on a life of its own, resurrected from the dead years later, after its use in a Burger King commercial!

Interestingly, the opening song, “Girls Like Me,” is from Bonnie Hayes and the Wild Combo, a critically acclaimed new wave band from San Francisco. Hayes’ music, like the movie itself, is deceptively cute. Very accessible pop, yet unique – Hayes was known for using unusual rhythm and time signatures in her pop songs. You can easily download “Girls Like Me” and “Shelly’s Boyfriend” (another song in Valley Girl) from her website for free, since it’s very hard to get ahold of the songs otherwise – and learn what else Bonnie is doing.

During the 1970s and 80s, soap opera was not only at the height of its popularity, but also a quiet innovator for social issues and troubles of the day. There were great performers of all ages — some of whom crossed over into the mainstream, like Alec Baldwin, Demi Moore, and Meg Ryan. Even today, you’ll find some of the best performers anywhere working on soaps. You have to be good to work on a soap – you can’t last if you can’t get through a half hour or hour of script every day.

The question is, are the scripts, and storylines as fresh and as solid as they could be? If you really love soaps, today, the hottest place to find and enjoy them is online – through podcasts and internet radio… and soon, through indie film and perhaps web “TV”.

First, some background. Today, even though there’s a cable channel devoted to soaps and daily rebroadcasts, soaps in the United States have suffered from dwindling audience numbers — and, judging by the outcry over “missing kisses” on As the World Turns, the American soap genre is no longer innovating. Yet soaps from Great Britain and other countries, namely the vibrant telenovelas of South America, continue to find eager viewers. We can thank the telenovela, for example, for the massive US hit Ugly Betty.

British Audio Soaps

In the United Kingdom, “Corrie” and The Archers are also doing quite fine, thank you very much. After a head to head battle, the aged Corrie, in fact, hastened Doctor Who’s 1989 “nap” — which is saying something, considering the draw Who has on the British imagination.

It’s not hard for a new listener to get up to speed on The Archers, a rural soap that has been on the air since 1951. The BBC’s website includes a page just for FAQs and for updates on the latest storylines.

Westway was another innovating soap. Like Archers, it started as an educational soap, but developed into a slice of multicultural life in London. It was very popular with international listeners and expatriate Britons listening over BBC’s World Service. I’m told that some Britons didn’t care for it on the national BBC channels, perhaps expecting overseas listeners to tune into a simple ESL show like The Flatmates. Instead of a simple format that encouraged rote learning, foreign listeners heard a solid, continuing drama that covered both a medical practice and the adaptation of immigrants to a new country. Enough complaints were lodged over Westway’s premature death by budget cuts, that BBC continues to air it in reruns on BBC 7, three years after its end. If you like ER, St. Elsewhere, and were charmed by Bend it Like Beckham, which clarified some of the issues for first generation Britons – it’s worth checking out.

I’m hoping that there are other British audio soaps out there, especially those that are independently produced, just waiting to be dug up.

American Audio Soaps

Long time viewers in North America, posting on various websites and forums, are not happy with the state of soapdom. Their beef is not with the traditional soap format, where ordinary people shared extraordinary problems — but with bad writing, casting and lowered expectations by networks.

What’s an fan of American soaps to do, then, when things look unsteady for continuing favorites, and many of the innovative, well-written soaps are long off the air…? Start supporting independent soaps that bring back the classic style.

Eye of the Storm should appeal to fans of Dallas, Capitol, The Edge of Night and Santa Barbara. These were shows thriving in the 1980s, which were as much about villainous business strategy as they were about torrid love affairs. There are explanations of the Storm characters on the website, but I found it instructive to simply dive into the podcasts, centering on the lives and loves of oil-connected folks in Lafayette, Louisiana. It especially compares well with Texas, the spin-off of Another World that followed the popular anti-heroine Iris Cory (no relation!) to Houston — and it’s solidly plotted.

Amazing casting certainly plays a part in Rockland County, a continuing soap project created by Roger Newcomb of Loger, Inc. Each episode is recorded via telephone voice mail by the performers, a seeming limitation which actually enables many well-connected actors, as well as up-and-comers, to participate. Since Newcomb’s long-time favorite soap is the aforementioned Another World, it is a happy surprise to hear the solid soaper Kale Browne (ex-”Michael Hudson”, AW, and currently starring on Days of Our Lives) on several episodes of Rockland County.

Newcomb’s other project is Scripts and Scruples, which has continued for several years, most recently culminating in the connected indie film Manhattanites, a film which ended primary photography this past December. Judging by the trailer, it looks like a lot of fun for fans of soaps both past and present. I’d mention that the actors here have great chops, only it looks like someone will get chopped during the run-time of the film. Forbes March and David Fumero of One Life to Live, and Aiden Turner of All My Children are just some of the familiar faces here. Darnell Williams, ex-AMC, co-directs with Newcomb’s long-time collaborator Gregori J. Martin.

Frankly… The thrill here for me is spotting March’s castmate Ilene Kristen, who older viewers remember as the instigator of much devilry on Ryan’s Hope. You just know Kristen’s going to be fun to watch when you spot a still like this.

“Mad About the Boy” also has the charm of being hosted by Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys. Tennant started out as a music writer, so his role is not that of a fluffy figurehead announcing songs. You’ll hear new artists discuss Coward’s legacy, some modern “covers” (including a Pet Shops Boys cover of “Sail Away” in synth-pop style), as well as traditional versions of his tunes (best heard with a cocktail or bon-bon in hand).

And while Coward’s music has been overshadowed by his plays, I’m also waiting for the documentary or dramatization of his secret life as a spy in WWII, working for the Allies. At the time he came in for a lot of criticism about his supposedly lush, high living…even though it helped maintain his cover. As radio commentator Paul Harvey once said, Coward never lived up to his name.

Role playing games (especially the character development) influenced Choose Your Own Adventure Books, as well as video games, which in turn influenced many movies. It also showed how mainstream the interest in fantasy, science fiction and other genres really could be – many ordinary, mild-mannered people discovered they liked to game. At its best, LARP (live action role playing games), which I’ve witnessed a few times, can morph into a sort of travelling improv theater.

D&D was fun for those who played – and interesting, sometimes scary fodder for everyone else. It also helped Tom Hanks become a star! Remember Rona Jaffe’s controversial book Mazes and Monsters? — Jaffe’s The Best of Everything is a classic of 1950s literature, but this story, about a RPG player who goes insane, was a OTT potboiler… and unintentionally funny. It was based on widely-discredited reports of college students playing deadly rounds of D&D in underground tunnels. And Tom Hanks starred in the cheesy TV movie. Yep. (Thanks Rona!)

While there are always going to be those who take a hobby too far (the vegetarian I met in college who bought $1000 leather boots for his “character” comes to mind), gaming is not a harmless pastime. It occasionally leads to careers. I know a few writers who first began spinning stories as “gamemasters” sitting with a few friends… and two “geeks” whose interest in tabletop gaming meshed seamlessly with the later analysis and tactical skills they needed to develop as military officers. Dwight Eisenhower liked to paint; you think he’d turn up his nose at a few rounds of Risk, or Axis and Allies?

So here’s to Gary Gygax.

–Patience

Richard Corliss of Time has written a lovely piece about Suzanne Pleshette, who, despite her battle with disease, also appeared to have great work ahead of her. In just a few days, her star on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood will be revealed. Corliss argues, though, that Pleshette would have been a wonderful screwball comedy heroine. He’s right. The New York Times also has a nice obituary for the Newhart actress, who passed on January 21st.

Allan Melvin, who passed away on January 17th, is another actor whose work has been taken for granted. Remembered best for Sam on The Brady Bunch or Corporal Henshaw on the Phil Silvers Show, (depending on your age), Melvin amassed an impressive number of credits in his 84 years, spanning a generation of TV shows: Gomer Pyle, the Andy Griffith Show, All in the Family, and even H.R. Pufnstuf. Melvin’s work was memorable, all right — any time your role becomes the punchline to a joke, as “Sam the Butcher” was, you’ve made it.

This is no laughing matter for children of the eighties. I have a dear friend who credits Knight Rider for giving him a life-saving shot in the arm — as it was the first thing he saw after coming out of a serious illness in the hospital. Now, who can claim that about Miami Vice? (Though, I think it was actually Magnum P.I. and its bumblebee helicopter that helped moi survive the 1980s.)

I’ve also heard a nasty rumor that they are bringing back Knight Rider to TV … without David Hasselhoff. What’s the point?

–Patience

If you’ve never seen or heard of this special, consider yourself lucky. It is truly bad, yet many who love Star Wars and bad B movie culture continue to search for this tarnished grail, in a misguided assumption that this, like Mystery Science Theater 3000, is “good bad”, rather than “truly, really, unreasonably bad,” “hours of your life that you won’t get back bad”. And now, if you are still curious about this travesty of a holiday special, someone has arranged to give you all the details, without forcing you to sit through Carrie Fisher’s mind-numbed (and mind-numbing) singing of the “Life Day” song.

(When AMC switched over to commercial interruptions of their movies, and stopped showing many of their classics (including the hard-to-find, brilliant screwball that is one of my favorites, Midnight), I called foul. Now, with these fun shorts by Kevin Maher and the continuing excellence of Mad Men, have to admit the change was worth it.)

On the other hand, there is some fun Star Wars action to be had this time of year, that is much more cheesy than painful.

One is, of course, the Christmas in the Stars album that came out two years after the Star Wars Holiday Special… which is surprising, considering how much George Lucas hates the original TV special. Not only did no one learn from this experience, but this second holiday project also launched Jon Bon Jovi, singing lead on this song, “R2D2 We Wish You a Very Merry Christmas”. That link to the song comes courtesy of TheForce.net, for years the top resource on the web for Star Wars fans.

During the 1970s, the ubiquitous version of the Star Wars theme wasn’t the original soundtrack and score by John Williams, but by Meco – a sound producer turned instrumentalist who made a “boogying” disco version of Star Wars sail up the charts. While you can still find his greatest hits albums (including versions of the themes to Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Empire Strikes Back, Star Trek, “Spooky” and “Other Galactic Funk”), you might enjoy the more recent (2005) Star Wars Party album. Purists who loved Meco’s discofied tunes will find a mixed bag, but the first track, “I Am Your Father,” is worthy of Lord Vader’s own New Year’s Eve.

My personal favorite discovery, of Star Wars holiday trash, is a pastiche from the old Donny and Marie Show. Readers who’ve heard some of our radio ads know we’re a big fan of Donny, especially here:

Unfortunately the sound tracking is off on the first video, fine on the second. But you get the gist — and the pleasure of seeing Redd Foxx and Paul Lynde! And for a super short version, just to see the classic staging, and costumes by Bob Mackie… featuring a group of Stormtrooper Rockettes… here’s a recent clip projected at a convention:

– Patience

To understand why this is such a shame, we’ve got to travel back in time, to see…

NBC: Replaying Past Mistakes

NBC is not known for having a great track record with classic television science fiction, and understanding the value of its audience numbers. (You could argue its inability to capitalize on smart SF goes back to its radio days, where “Dragnet,” which was great, was given more of a build-up than the equally excellent and standard-setting “Dimension X” and “X Minus One”.)

NBC’s most famous mistake has to be “Star Trek”, and its misunderstanding of how valuable that show’s fans would be to advertisers. Some other stumbles include following the allegorical and vastly entertaining miniseries “V” with a subpar regular series, and the cancellation of “Quark,” “Dark Skies” and “Eerie, Indiana,” acclaimed SF series that were still finding their footing. But, if NBC ever goes off the air, you can bet that its inability to capitalize on “Star Trek” will be part of its epitaph.

In fact, the fascinating book “Inside Star Trek,” by former producers Herb Solow and Robert Justman, argued that NBC might have primarily kept it on the air because its visuals were popular with those who owned color TVs – and because a consortium of independent stations had made the unusual decision to pay for early syndication rights. Funny that NBC missed out on so much more that “Trek” had to offer.

Maybe “Journeyman” isn’t another “Star Trek” — but why risk it?

After more than 30 years and a wildly successful franchise of syndicated series and movies — NBC apparently hasn’t learned any of “Star Trek’s” major lessons:

a) Overall, intelligent and well-written shows need time to develop, but attract dedicated viewers from the beginning, and just need a season to get their “sea legs” and gain word of mouth. They won’t be flash in the pans, but their long term growth may dwarf the first season starters. “Cheers”, “Golden Girls,” “Law and Order,” “The Office” and “Seinfeld” are all excellent examples of well-loved, long-running shows that took time to develop their fanbase, and do terrific business in reruns.

b) Intelligent and well-written shows bring prestige that sticks to the network. (Interestingly, an argument used by Amanda Peet’s network executive on “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” the show that died in “Journeyman”‘s time slot last year, despite being the top “time-shifted” [TIVO, digital video recorded] show on the air). In 50 years, NBC prestige shows like “Rockford Files,” “Hill Street Blues,” “St. Elsewhere,” “Homicide”, “The West Wing,” “I’ll Fly Away”, and yes, “Journeyman,” will still be worth watching. “Citizen Kane” and “It’s a Wonderful Life” weren’t big boffo hits when they first came out in the movie theaters, but they’ve stood the test of time — which is to the benefit of the companies selling the films.

c) These shows attract intelligent, savvy viewers from all walks of life — who in turn will work hard to promote the series amongst their friends, neighbors and strangers on the internet. (How can any broadcast network, in these tough times, turn down free publicity?)

d) These shows also are more likely to sell in boxed DVD sets, because they are worth viewing again and again – unlike most reality shows, which are cheap to make, but wear their welcome out fast. Martha Stewart’s “Apprentice”, anyone?

e) Women, not only men, enjoy well-written SF shows… and since women often do the bulk of household buying, and are involved in a greater percentage of household purchases overall, a TV show that appeals as much to women as to men — ideally a science fiction/relationship-driven drama like “Star Trek” and “Journeyman” — is very valuable to advertisers, indeed.

“Journeyman” — in a nutshell

Scottish actor Kevin McKidd plays Dan, a reporter and recovering gambler-turned-family man. The show’s title is apt — Dan is not a “Hero” looking for glory, but an everyday guy who’s trying to figure out why he’s travelling through time.

McKidd’s costars Gretchen Egolf (“Katie”) and Moon Bloodgood (“Livia”) also give intelligent, thoughtful performances — and the writing for their characters doesn’t limit them to damsel-in-distress, pestering wife or moony oracle stereotypes. The same old, hoary love triangle, where one woman typically plays a temptress and another plays a good girl, is missing from “Journeyman” – halfway through, viewers learn Katie and Livia are actually struggling with the same issues, sixty years apart in time.

My family got hooked after a few weeks — much more interested in each episode than the ballyhooed “Heroes” episode shown beforehand — and hoped that it would catch on and become a sleeper hit, as the post-apocalyptic “Jericho” did in 2006.

It’s more adult than “Heroes,” in the truest sense of that word – with better writing, more sophisticated and thoughtful character development and themes. There are consequences for Dan, and Livia, travelling through time. Many of the more recent serials on TV have dragged out their plot points and love triangles – but not “Journeyman,” which is steady in developing its characters and explaining its mysteries. Viewers did not have to wait through 5 episodes for the main character to convince his wife he’s a time traveler; there are no histronics, and no serial killers wearing out their welcome.

The biggest surprise? Reed Diamond, who often plays heels, shows he is a solid and underrated character actor. His role as Dan’s brother, romantic rival, and sometime antagonist is more complex than what Diamond has played in the past. For possibly the first time since “Memphis Belle,” when he played a naifish WWII bomber crewman, Diamond gets to play someone who is flawed, but actually… somewhat likable. (Anyone who watched the critically acclaimed ’90s show “Homicide”, where he also played a police officer, probably knows what I’m talking about.)

Saving “Journeyman”

“Journeyman” is in a crappy time slot without the benefit of crosspromotion or reairing on NBC-Universal’s other networks. Worse, from the beginning of the season, the network did nothing to show how different “Journeyman” is from its previous time travel drama, “Quantum Leap”, and that probably scared off viewers who are only now catching on to how good the show is. Much as I enjoyed “Leap” for entirely different reasons (“warm fuzzies”), the only thing the two series have in common is the idea of changing history – which, come to think of it, is the theory behind every time travel story, from Ray Bradbury’s “A Sound of Thunder” to “The 4400″.

“Journeyman” is one of the only shows on TV today that is interesting enough to become a classic… and not just with the crowd that usually enjoys science fiction shows, but with those who enjoy family and relationship driven drama like “ER,” “Brothers and Sisters,” “House,” and “Grey’s Anatomy”. The word needs to spread, to a broader number of people who probably gave the show a miss, thinking it was a “Leap” clone, or who think science fiction’s not usually their cup of tea.

If you’ve not yet given “Journeyman” a try, this is the time to do it, while episodes still remain available online. If you like it, visit SaveJourneyman.net — as there’s a movement to send NBC Rice a Roni (the timeless “San Francisco treat”, get it?) boxes to encourage it to return for another season. As of now, NBC has not ordered additional episodes, so Wednesday’s airing of “Journeyman” may be its last. Then again – “Jericho” is in the works to return, despite the excrable and exploitative reality series “Kids Town” being put in its timeslot. You never know…

- Patience