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.

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.

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.

We first meet Chick Benetto one on of the worst days of his life.  Having descended into an alcoholic stupor, he is momentarily roused when he learns he was not invited to his own daughter’s wedding, because the family was worried he would make a scene.  As he drives away, traveling down the highway near his hometown, he nearly gets killed in a car accident when he drops his beer – triggering a moment of truth for him.  Realizing that he doesn’t actually care that he almost died, he decides to take matters into his own hands.  Walking out on to his personal field of dreams, he has a spark of memory – happier days when he was younger – then just as he’s raising the gun to his temple, something stops him…

We then see Chick’s life in a series of flashbacks as he tells a writer how he got to the point where he almost killed himself.  The descent, from the moment he wasn’t there to say goodbye to his mother when she died suddenly, to his escape into alcoholism and despair, losing his job, alienating his family and friends to the point where we first met him.  But as we once again see his near-suicide, the story continues, throwing Chick into a surreal world where everything is how he remembers it, but nothing is quite the same.

Friday Night Lights has reached new lows and record highs in one episode. Maybe they should have titled this episode, “Adventures in Underwear” for the many times we caught glimpses of the clever articles of clothing. I think the gutter award goes to Tim Riggins’ roommate for sporting only his tighty whiteys around the house. Maybe that could be a scenario for Fear Factor – how long can you watch a large man in his underwear making smoothies? Following Riggins’ eye-full, we find Smash getting caught with a college football players’ girlfriend. Just as Smash gets his clothes off, the boyfriend breaks down the door and a chase through the dorm ensues. Friends, this guy was not a small fry; Smash put speed behind his nakedness to avoid a massive pounding. Finally, not to be undone, Matt Saracen put the moves on his grandma’s nurse and their clothes took to the air. Boys, boys, boys! Bring back the football games, please! They say the show is all about the town and the people. That’s fine, but we desperately need those football games. Bring it in guys.

Tin Man, Sci-Fi channel’s latest miniseries, has potential.  Unfortunately, that’s about the best compliment I can give the show.  Tin Man is a twist on Frank Baum’s classic “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” but purists need not apply because the new story is drastically re-imagined for the miniseries.  And while the changes to the story and universe make for interesting viewing, it was a little frustrating to watch, because I kept thinking about how the show was almost great.  In the end, though, Tin Man is merely watchable.

All the main characters have an analogue in Tin Man.  DG (yes, that’s actually her name, not a nickname) is the Dorothy character, and she finds herself transported by way of tornado to the Outer Zone (the OZ).  Hard times have fallen on the once idyllic OZ, and DG quickly finds herself caught up in the conflict between the natives and the military.  She also encounters her three traveling companions: Glitch, whose brain was removed (we later find out why); Cain, a former cop or “tin man” whose has been trapped for years in an iron suit and forced to re-watch his family captured and killed; and Raw, a timid man/lion creature who has telepathic powers.