Katrina Bowden stars in TNT’s new series “Public Morals.” Katrina Bowden Taking on Public Morals by Ronald Sklar Hey, don’t make her career talk to the hand, just because she’s beautiful. At one time, Katrina Bowden may have been voted Esquire‘s Sexiest Woman Alive, and she is (so far) best known as Cerie, the vapid model/intern/Liz-Lemon foil on 30 Rock, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t deserve to be taken seriously and win some roles with a little meat on the bone. This is

Barry Livingston Barry Livingston From Child Star to Man Amongst Jersey Boys by Ronald Sklar Character actor Barry Livington has a surprisingly fresh and impressive resume. Yep, he was Ernie Douglas, the prototype nerd on My Three Sons, back in the day. But it’s a new day, baby: you’ve been seeing him a lot lately, and not just in dusty reruns. The in-demand character actor has appeared most recently in Jersey Boys, but has also been featured in The Social Network, Argo, and

Big Hair and Fake Grass – A Funky Ride Through Baseball and America in the Swinging ’70s. Dan Epstein The Hairs and the Squares! Baseball in the 1970s by Ronald Sklar It wasn’t a dream. It really happened. People looked that way, dressed that way and played that way. Yes, the uniforms were that tight… and, oy, those colors. Dan Epstein tells us so in his awesome book, Big Hair and Plastic Grass: A Funky Ride Through Baseball and America in the Swinging ‘70s. A ride indeed, in

NEW YORK, NY – MAY 13: Valerie Harper attends the American Lung Association’s LUNG FORCE national media kickoff event at Houston Hall on May 13, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for American Lung Association) Valerie Harper Kicking Cancer New York Style by Ronald Sklar The beloved Rhoda star helps launch The American Lung Association’s Lung Force initiative. On May 13, 2014 in Manhattan, actress and lung cancer survivor Valerie Harper, along with count

Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock presents the second season of his CNN series “Inside Man.” Morgan Spurlock On the Inside by Ronald Sklar The legendary documentary filmmaker allows us inside his head and inside his hit CNN series, Inside Man. The CNN series Inside Man showcases Morgan Spurlock doing what he loves best: the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. In spades. Spurlock doesn’t dabble; he immerses. He sticks with one passion, honing it and evolving it into a be

Fred Stoller Fred Stoller Sitcom Staple by Ronald Sklar The in-demand character actor describes the unique dilemma of typecast success. Fred Stoller goes though life watching people slowly recognize him. Point at him, snap your fingers, scratch your head, search your memory. You don’t know his name, but you’ve seen him on TV, most notably in a classic Seinfeld episode in which his character does not remember meeting Elaine, causing Elaine to become obsessed with him. Is the l

Erin Murphy Erin Murphy Which Witch is Which? by Ronald Sklar On the eve of the series’ 50th anniversary, the beloved Bewitched baby conjures up many magical memories. Here are some not-too-shabby resume bullet points for this former child actor: Worked closely and regularly with such theater and screen legends as Elizabeth Montgomery, Agnes Moorehead, Maurice Evans, and Alice Ghostley. Her character’s birth was among the most anticipated events in the history of television.

Dawn Wells Dawn Wells Rescued! by Ronald Sklar Here's Exhibit A of making lemonade out of lemons. Dawn Wells is most widely known for a role she played almost 50 years ago. As Mary Ann on Gilligan's Island, she won audiences' hearts and minds, but the critics were less than kind to the series. They thought it was as low as television could possibly sink. Little did they know. The series ran on CBS for three years, and then forever in reruns, cable, DVD, Me TV and Hulu. Three

Melanie in 2012. Photo by Maddy Miller. Melanie’s Brand New Key by Ronald Sklar Look what they’ve done to her song, ma: they’ve made her a pop icon. During the early 1970s, the underground press misunderstood Melanie, but above ground, her fans and future generations did not. Brought up in New Jersey with the full, non-mainstream name of Melanie Safka, she wrote and performed her own songs. This in itself was a new phenomenon in pop music, but that she was a woman wowed the m

Al Capp – A Life to the Contrary by Michael Schumacher and Denis Kitchen Michael Schumacher and Denis Kitchen Al Capp - Exploring A Most Contrary Life by Ronald Sklar Comic strip legend and deeply complicated man, Al Capp channeled his talents but lost to his demons. At the height of cartoonist Al Capp’s success, his satiric, adult-themed comic strip Li’l Abner was featured in 900 newspapers with 90 million dedicated readers. From 1934-1977, hillbilly Abner and his family fac

“Weird Al” Yankovic “Weird Al” Yankovic Straight Outta the Box By Ronald Sklar Some artists – Nirvana, for instance – didn’t feel that they had truly made it until Weird Al Yankovic had parodied them. Right on – the man who got his start with his silly but rockin’ accordion, mailing homemade audio tapes to The Dr. Demento Show on radio is now His Absolute Royal Dementia. He’s the non-negotiable go-to guy for pop music song parody, and it’s not always good being king. He makes

The Best of The Electric Company, Vol. 1 The Electric Company The Best of the Electric Company (Shout! Factory-2006) HEY, YOU GUYS! Just when you thought you couldn’t recapture any more of your TV-watching childhood, The Electric Company has surprisingly and blessedly come to DVD. Nowhere near as good as you remember it – with crude graphics, cheesy synthesizers and overlong segments (it’s stuffed to the gills at 29 minutes per) – you’ll be amazed that you’re still entertaine

I Love Lucy: The Complete Fourth Season I Love Lucy The Complete Fourth Season (1954-1955) (Paramount-2005) Do we really love Lucy, or have we been brainwashed to think we do, like in The Manchurian Candidate? When the laughter subsides, is Lucy truly deserving of our love? Is she as overwhelmingly funny as we are led to believe? Does the Empress have no clown clothes? Perhaps a re-examination is in order. The best way to do this, and to be fair, is to screen Season Four of I

The Bob Newhart Show – The Complete First Season The Bob Newhart Show The Complete First Season (1971-1972) (MTM-2005) Just what the doctor ordered for the touchy-feely seventies, The Bob Newhart Show was a powerful cog in the MTM Productions machine that cranked out hit after hit (Mary Tyler Moore, for whom it was named, lead the way for Bob). Part of the golden-goose Saturday night lineup on CBS (along with Moore, there was All in the Family, M*A*S*H, and The Carol Burnett

Barbra Streisand – The Television Specials Barbra Streisand The Television Specials (Rhino-2005) Your patience with this DVD depends on your Babs tolerance level. However, truth be told, this collection is, well, fabulous. Even if you are not a fan, the music and the voice is so dazzling that, even if you don’t convert, you’ll at the very least question your sexuality. Here are five TV specials that, if you let them wash over you, will drown you with an odd, unusual pleasure.

The Dick Cavett Show – John & Yoko Collection The Dick Cavett Show John & Yoko Collection (Shout! Factory-2005) It’s 1971 and John Lennon is now thirtysomething. His life, finally, is getting interesting. Always on the cutting edge, this time he is on the verge of getting his peacenik ass thrown out of the United States, and not just because he is inflicting Yoko Ono on a nation who never asked for her. Facing deportation for drug possession (and other things that offend Pres

The Brady Bunch – The Complete Fourth Season The Brady Bunch The Complete Fourth Season 1972-1973 (Paramount Home Video-2005) Something suddenly came up, all right – it’s Season Four of The Bunch, just to boogie with you. The gang makes a group leap into adolescence, and the vibe is even more incestuous now that we have the maternal great-grandmother running off to Vegas with the paternal great-grandfather. As Marcia would observe, real mat-chur. You can dress ‘em up in the m

The Frank Sinatra Show – High Hopes The Frank Sinatra Show High Hopes (MVD-2005) The old and true adage that “it’s Frank Sinatra’s world – we just live in it” is best illustrated during his Rat Pack years, from the very late fifties until the early sixties. Here you see the Chairman of the Board in his glorious, power-pipe action, during one in a series of “spectaculars” for the struggling ABC network from 1957-1960 (culminating with his famous welcome-home-from-the-army for

New York Metro Vocal Arts Ensemble New York Metro Vocal Arts Ensemble Operation Opera by Ronald Sklar “Opera is the one art form that combines them all,” says José Alejandro Guzman, guest conductor for the New York Metro Vocal Arts Ensemble (NYMVAE). “If you like dance, singing, ballet, plays or orchestras — scenery or costumes — comedy or drama or melodrama — everything old and new — there is no other art form that one-hundred per cent takes it all in. That’s why there is so

The Ed Sullivan Show featuring The Beatles The Ed Sullivan Show Four Complete Historic Episodes featuring the Beatles (SOFA Entertainment-2003) Ironically, the Beatles’ impact on modern popular culture has been diluted and diminished thanks to the very thing they themselves hath wrought: their successors, wanna-be’s and imitators, wearing us down with forty years of excessive noise.  These trashy new neighbors have brought down the worth of the Beatles’ property value. Second