I have to admit, I never was really into 7^th Heaven when it was on television.  In fact, I may have seen only 1 or 2 complete episodes, so learning about it through the 5^th season DVD was an adventure.

7^th Heaven is centered on the Camden family, a large group headed by the father, Reverend Eric (Blood Diamond’s Stephen Collins), and mother Annie (Catherine Hicks, Ryan’s Hope).  Their kids are of various ages and temperaments – there’s Matt (Samantha Who’s Barry Watson), Mary (Jessica Biel, The Illusionist), Lucy (Saw II’s Beverley Mitchell), Simon (Boogeyman II’s David Gallagher), Ruthie (Mackenzie Rosman) and twins Sam and David (Lorenzo & Nikolas Brino). While the title brings natural comparisons to Touched By An Angel & Highway to Heaven, in fact, the show reflects neither.  I believe even the fact that the father is a minister is coincidental to the wordplay the creators sought with the title – extreme happiness within a large family unit.  In fact, Eric Camden’s position is treated the same as any other job, an interesting departure for television portrayals of ministers.

While he may not look as old as some major Hollywood Executives, Phil Cooke has been at the forefront of the media industry for years.  Whether working on his own or partnering with other entertainment industry greats or one of the many schools and programs he teaches for, Phil has no problem expressing himself on the state of media in the world, the Christian's place in that world and how to properly effect change.  He is a television and film director and producer with numerous feature length videos, documentaries and commercials to his credit, including the recent Thou Shalt Laugh videos.  He is also the author of three books, the most recent of which, Branding Faith, he expects to redefine how Christians take hold of the power of the media in the today's world.

Paul Rose, Jr: Well, let’s start by paying the bills.  How did you get involved with directing Thou Shalt Laugh 2?

Phil Cooke: Jonathan Bock at Grace Hill Media and I talked about doing the original Thou Shalt Laugh stand up comedy DVD special a couple of years ago.  And we realized there was a huge need for - not necessarily a Christian comedy video - but a comedy video that anyone in the family could enjoy.  We didn’t want church humor that only Christians would relate to, we wanted stuff that everyone would find funny.  So we started by auditioning about 100 comedians to find seven that were really, really funny.  And so we did the first show, with Jon producing and me directing and our production company, Cooke Pictures, did the production work, crewed it and did all the shooting for it.  It was hugely successful – I’ve been told it’s the biggest selling Christian comedy video of all time.   And so we decided to come back and do the deuce.  And this time, we decided to throw our lot in together and become owners of the project.  So we teamed up, Grace Hill Media, Cooke Pictures, are joint producers of the project, along with Hunt Lowry’s company, Roserock Films, it’s all shot on high definition video – it looks really nice.  And the second one seems to be doing well too, and hopefully we’ll be on television at some point in the future.

Gomer Pyle is a sitcom that would not last today.  Too much screwball and not enough to think about.  Strange to say when we think about the oft-uttered complaint that TV audiences are too easy to entertain these days, but sadly true.

I have fond memories of enjoying the madcap adventures of Gomer Pyle as he tromped his troop into more wacky trouble than any other armed forces, of course, always dragging along the hard-nosed Sgt. Carter (the late Frank Sutton) who is often reduced to nothing more than a screaming foil for the laughable Pyle.  I’m not old enough to remember Jim Nabors creating the character of Gomer Pyle on The Andy Griffith Show, but I am told that he played the part just as wacky and I am sure the show got much of it’s early rating success from people who remember the dopey Nabors palling it up with Andy & Barney.

It’s rare enough that a show these days lasts past a season or two.  But even more deadly to TV longevity, is the spin-off show.  Shows like After MASH, Archie’s Place & The Ropers come to mind.  Then there are the rare exceptions, the shows that take one or two characters from an existing show and give them a good long life of their own – Mork & Mindy, Laverne & Shirley, The Jeffersons,  Family Matters (Perfect Strangers) fall into that category.  Then there’s Frasier.

When Kelsey Grammar was first cast to play Dr. Frasier Crane in Cheers, it was supposed to be a couple episode guest shot, priming the relationship between Sam Malone and Diane Chambers.  Who knew then that he would end up appearing on more episodes than Shelley Long, spin off a guest shot on Wings and then come into his own spin off show that would last as long and gain more attention and Emmy nods than its predecessor.  In fact, other than Richard Belzer (who’s taken Det. John Munch from Homicide to Law & Order, Law & Order Special Victims Unit, Law & Order: Trial By Jury, Arrested Development, The X-Files and The Beat) no other actor has managed to make so much of a single character.

If you don’t remember Love American Style, I wouldn’t blame you.  My own memories are mostly of the syndicated reruns, before more interesting shows like Gilligan’s Island and Wild, Wild West caught my attention.  In fact, Love American Style could be renamed “Love, 60’s Style.”  No other show I can recall, other than possibly Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In or Mod Squad was so firmly locked into the style and fashion plate of its era.

Really, Love American Style is best seen as an interesting look into television’s past.  For starters, the show had an unusual format, especially looking back from today’s TV landscape.  Each episode was made up of three to four little vignettes (otherwise known as skits) that explored various aspects of love and sexuality (there was a ‘sexual revolution’ at the time), broken up with other 30-second to 1-minute one joke punches that tied together the theme of the episode.  The only modern equivalent I can think of is the original Simpsons interstitials that aired as part of the Tracey Ullman Show.  However, at the time, the format was being experimented with on a few shows, Laugh-In and Hee Haw being the most popular outside of Love, American Style.  Then there are the guest stars… It seems that everyone appeared on Love, American Style at some point or another. 

It seems it’s only been a few short weeks since the last volume of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles arrived in my in box, but I am always ready for more Indy.  Leading up the upcoming film, Lucasfilm is doing everything in its power to remind people why they love Dr. Jones and his adventures.  For me, at least, no reminder is necessary.

Once again taking episodes from the show, some aired, some not and fusing them into a series of 8 “Movie-of-the-Week” length features, this set, at least, flows much cleaner than the first volume.  For starters, we no longer deal with the pre-adolescent Henry Jones, focusing all our attention on Sean Patrick Flannery (The Dead Zone) and his portrayal of the iconic archaeologist in training.  And if this set seems tighter than the previous one, it also centers on one time frame – the period where young Indiana Jones ran away from home to join the Belgian army and fight in World War I. 

Long before Johnny Depp busted heads on 21 Jump Street (yes, I’m dating myself), he learned a lot from some other adolescent detectives.  Now you can, too.

After almost 35 years in TV limbo, and a typically mediocre film adaptation, The Mod Squad is back for fans.  The sassy police procedural/youth angst-driven show was an early Aaron Spelling success and centered around a small undercover unit in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, made up of three barely reformed teen criminals who were recruited by Captain Greer to avoid going to jail.  It aired from 1968 through 1973.  Pete Cochran (Mr. Brooks’ Michael Cole) was kicked out by his wealthy Beverly Hills parents and proceeded to steal a car, Lincoln “Linc” Hayes (Mystery Woman’s Clarence Williams III) was arrested for rioting in the Watts ghetto where he grew up, and Julie Barnes (Twin Peaks’ Peggy Lipton) was the daughter of a San Francisco prostitute who had run away from home and had been arrested in LA for vagrancy.  While on probation, all three are contacted by Capt. Greer (the late Tige Andrews, from Gomer Pyle) and offered a ‘second’ chance.

Just a few more casualties and spoils from the ongoing writer's strike.  NBC announced earlier this week that fan fave shows Monk & Psych would move from USA to the Peacock network early in 2008.  You might recall that ABC brought the neurotic detective to their airwaves a few summers ago, to disappointing ratings.  The next day, however, TV Guide's Michael Ausiello let slip some secrets that the cabler is ringing the death toll for two other original shows.  It seems The 4400 and The Dead Zone are not pulling big enough numbers for NBC-Universal, so they are going the way of the dinosaur.  Meawhile, I hope you enjoyed that senses-shattering season finale of JourneyMan, as it appears NBC will not be picking the show up for another season.

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With the ongoing writer’s strike creating the nightmare of a even longer wait for new LOST episodes (but united we stand), the December release of the Season Three DVD brings a small oasis of relief for LOST fans across the country.  And while incoming fans new to the series may feel relieved that they have longer to catch up with older episodes, it’s only because they don’t realize just how addictive LOST can be.  The best part about the DVD’s aside from the lack of commercials is that the 3 month break between the fall mini-season and the other 15 episodes is non-existent here.  Fans who complained that they missed their favorite characters for too long need only watch about 6 hours (one evening, right?) to get back into the meat of the series.

With Jack, Kate and Sawyer in the hands of The Others (again I ask, ‘which Others?’) at the end of season two, the expectations for season three were extremely high.  However, the producers & writers stumbled a bit by trying to create the mini-season (we saw how well that worked for Jericho, too) and then following it up with the remaining episodes after the winter hiatus.  While the episodes in themselves were good and explored not only our three favorite heroes, but more about The Others than we had previously learned, the focus on a limited group and the fact that we knew we were going to have to wait overshadowed their inherent excellence, causing many TV critics and fans to remark that at worst the magic was lost and at best, things were starting a bit too slowly.