TVSquad

[via Paleo-Future]

It's another holiday, and that means more TV marathons and specials! Here's a handy guide to the 4th (and the 5th and 6th).

July 4

• AMC has Planet of the Apes movies all morning, then the Jaws movies starting at 10:30am.
• At 6am, USA has a Walker, Texas Ranger marathon.
• TMC has episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (80s version) at 6, then Hitchcock movies all day.
• At 7, ESPN2 has coverage of Wimbledon Tennis.
• At 8, A&E has a marathon of Paranormal State.
• Biography has a City Confidential marathon starting at 8.
• There's a Twilight Zone marathon starting at 8 on Sci-Fi.
• At 9, TruTV has a Beach Patrol marathon.
• FX has a King of the Hill marathon at 9.
• At noon, NBC has more Wimbledon.
• At 2pm, TV Land has an I Love Lucy marathon.
• At 3, HGTV has a Design Star marathon.
• At 8, PBS has A Capitol Fourth.
• At 9, NBC has the Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular.
• At 10, CBS has the Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular.

Apparently, someone had some free time on his or her hands and used it to post various stills from The Simpsons episodes which mimic various famous movie or television scenes. Considering that the show has been around for almost 20 years, it's certainly had time to get such pastiche correct.

These stills seem to originate from earlier episodes, back when the naysayers would say the show was good. I admit I don't recognize every Simpsons episode in the list (or for that matter every movie still in the list), but it's easy to tell that the writers and animators were trying to reference the original movie or show for satire's sake.

You probably remember the classic Sesame Street album Sesame Street Fever (on the right), a takeoff on the movie soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever and the disco craze in general. The producer of that best-selling album died of bladder cancer on Monday in New York City.

Arthur Shimkin also produced the Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer album sung by Jimmy Durante and came up with the idea that spawned Little Golden Records, which included such artists as Bing Crosby, Alfred Hitchcock, Roy Rogers, and Burl Ives. He also produced the 1961 version of Peter and the Wolf, with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic. I remember that album really well. When I was in fourth or fifth grade, if you finished your work in class early, you got to go over to the corner of the room, sit in a comfy chair, and listen to albums on headphones, and that was one I listened to over and over again.

The obit says that Shimkin produced over 3000 records, and that is quite an achievement.

Veteran character actor Jeremy Slate - you might not know the name but you definitely know the face - died of complications from throat surgery last week in Los Angeles.

Slate was known for his movie roles in Girls! Girls! Girls!, Lawnmower Man, and Hell's Angels '69, but he was even more known for the massive amount of work he did on the small screen, starting in the late '50s. Slate was a regular on the 1960 series The Aquanauts, and had guest roles on many shows, including Route 66, Perry Mason, Dr. Kildare, Naked City, Have Gun, Will Travel, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Mr. Lucky, The Untouchables, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Bewitched, Combat, Tarzan, Bonanza, Ironside, Mission: Impossible, Mannix, Wonder Woman, The Wonderful World of Disney, and many others. Most recently he guest-starred on an episode of My Name Is Earl.

I remember him most from his two soap roles: he played Chuck Wilson, Asa's assistant, on One Life To Live for many years, and had a short-lived role as songwriter Locke Walls on Guiding Light in the mid-80s (he was involved with Alexandra Spaulding and her son Nick, if I'm not mistaken).

I miss Dick Cavett's talk show. In fact, I miss Dick Cavett's type of talk show on television. Charlie Rose comes close I guess, with the spare set and the serious devotion to subjects, but it's not the same. Luckily, Cavett is coming back to television (sort of), on Turner Classic Movies.

The movie network is going to run eight classic episodes of Dick Cavett's 70's show throughout the fall. The shows will run every Thursday night, as part of a theme night about a certain star or director. The first episode will air on September 7 and will include a brand new interview Cavett has with Mel Brooks. Later Thursdays will have classic interviews with people such as Katherine Hepburn, Groucho Marx, Robert Mitchum, Alfred Hitchcock, Woody Allen, Ingmar Bergman, and Bette Davis.

• Anthony Lapaglia's Jack gets some action on Without A Trace, as he strikes up a romance with Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. Lapaglia says that the two are at "a hot dog stand" and he "plants a big one on her." I'm assuming that means a kiss, and "hot dog stand" isn't a euphamism for something else.
• Matt Roush reviews the controversial new series The Book Of Daniel (he also likes the season opener of Battlestar Galactica but calls Four Kings "a generic dud.")
• Did Alfred Hitchcock actually work on his TV show or just host it? Who used to pitch Paul Masson wines on TV? And what's the deal with Snuffleupagus? The Televisionary knows all.
• In the print edition: a Q and A with Jill Hennessey, a behind the scenes look at the Cold Case Sprinsteen episode, and a guest column from designer Isaac Mizrahi.