ME & METV

Around 6:00 PM there is absolutely nothing I’d rather do than slip into my ratty, old comfortable robe and watch TV. I get too sleepy to do anything else. Remember, I often get up at 5:30 AM and sometimes earlier. Thanks to my DVR I can nap between programs.

Autumn has arrived along with the new television season. Always it’s a mixed bag! Many of these programs won’t be around after November, if that long.

Summer to me is synonymous with movies, ice cream, and air conditioning. Last time around I found myself seduced by some dusty treasures on METV.

I happened across 2 of my old favorites THRILLER & ALFRED HITCHCOCK. It had been 50 years since viewing any of these programs! Some episodes, such as “A Wig for Miss Devore” and “The Hungry Glass” on THRILLER, I recalled in vivid detail as if I’d viewed them just yesterday. Others, I began to recall only as they were unfolding. Sometimes, I remembered the ending, sometimes not.

Most fascinating of all was watching now famous TV stars only a few short years from their big break-out role. The first time these episodes aired many were unknown struggling actors.   William Shatner appeared in several HITCHCOCK episodes just 3 or 4 years before becoming Captain Kirk of the Starship Enterprise. Plus he starred in “The Hungry Glass” on THRILLER along with Russell Johnson, later to be the Professor on GILLIGAN’S ISLAND. Also this same teleplay featured Donna Douglas in a brief, non-speaking, but significant role shortly before becoming Elly Mae Clampett on the BEVERLY HILLBILLIES.

Elisabeth Montgomery was featured on another episode of THRILLER as a domestic vampire before becoming a domesticated witch later in the decade. I could go on and on and on!

Two of my favorite actresses Patricia Barry and the impossibly gorgeous Susan Oliver were nearly ubiquitous on the small screen in those days. Both highly talented actresses, yet, they never became famous as they deserved to be.

Many popular actors I once enjoyed have suddenly vanished! A family friend used to say, “They’re off enjoying their millions somewhere.” -- A choice preferable to guest shots on those sleazy shows that followed in the coming decades. In my opinion, anyway!

METV also brought to mind all of the chaotic events going on in MY life back then. The atmosphere was crazy, stressful, and everything about to unravel!

One episode of HITCHCOCK I recall only because I watched it in a New Orleans motel room. This was our last family vacation before my father lost his high-paying job and our lives spun right into a ditch.

Both THRILLER & HITCHCOCK were pulled from the METV line-up after the calendar hit September. I wasn’t ready to say good-bye.

Also METV ran the movie THE THING THAT COULDN’T DIE! The first time I saw this film, I was 11 years old. This was on a late October Saturday afternoon during a storm with heavy rain and lightning. I was so frightened; my nails were almost bitten bloody. Then right in the middle of the picture my electricity was suddenly knocked out! -- I have waited literally 52 years to see the ending of that movie!!! This time around I’d been toughened-up by zombie films. I had no problem watching it alone in the dark, my manicure remained intact. -- And the THING COULDN’T DIE did, way too easily in fact!

Last summer, I opened a door to the past and enjoyed a nostalgic jaunt down memory lane, but now with the fall season here, that door is closed, (well, ajar) at least at least until next June.