TVSquad

A roundup of TV people from in front of the camera and behind the scenes who have passed away.

• Dody Goodman: She was a comic and character actress who appeared on several TV shows, including Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, The Tonight Show, St. Elsewhere, Diff'rent Strokes, Murder, She Wrote, The Phil Silvers Show, Punky Brewster, Alvin & The Chipmunks, and The Love Boat, and was in movies such as Grease and Splash. She died at age 92.

Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.

• The 4400 - Season 4
• Acapulco H.E.A.T. - Complete Series
• 'Allo 'Allo - Series 8
• Avatar The Last Airbender - Book 3 Fire, Vol. 3
• Bewitched - Season 6 (color)
• Crossing Jordan - Season 1
• Greg the Bunny - Best of the Film Parodies: Vol. 2
• A Haunting - Hauntings in America
• Hiya Kids! A 50's Saturday Morning Box
• The Jack Benny Show - The Jack Benny Show
• Madeline - Next Stop America
• Man vs. Wild - Collection 1
• Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie (widescreen)
• Naruto - Uncut Boxed Set Vol. 7 (special edition)
• Punky Brewster - Season 1, Vol. 1
• Sgt. Preston of the Yukon - Best Of
• Speed Racer: The Next Generation - Vol. 1
• Spider-Man - Mutant Agenda
• That Girl - Season 1, Vol. 1

Hey, so do I, and I didn't even protest anything.

A Salem, MA man who was arrested three years ago while protesting a statue put up by TV Land in honor of Elizabeth Montgomery and the classic show Bewitched is suing the Witch City for $1 million. He says his civil rights were violated, he was roughed up by two cops, and that the whole arrest was unnecessary. The man, Richard Sorrell, was protesting the placement of the statue, across the street from where several people died in the witch trials. The trial started yesterday. The police disagree with Sorrell and say that he was treated professionally. They also say that Sorrell actually elbowed and knocked down people during the protest.

This was actually a debate that was going on at the time, whether or not the town should let TV Land put the statue in Salem. The town heard arguments of various citizens for and against the statue and ultimately decided to erect the statue.

A roundup of TV people from in front of the camera and behind the scenes who have passed away.

• Dennis Letts: He was a teacher who taught at universities for 30 years and then decided to get into acting. He appeared in several TV shows, including Walker, Texas Ranger, Once and Again, and The CBS Summer Playhouse, as well as the TV movies Dallas: The Early Years, Challenger, and The Last Prostitute. On the big screen he was in Cast Away, Infamous, Passenger 57, A Perfect World, and many others. He died of cancer at age 73.

Remember Sony's Minisode Network? Basically Sony is sitting on a huge library of television episodes that don't see much airtime anymore. So the company decided to slice up classic TV shows like Charlie's Angels, and T.J. Hooker and create 5 minute "minisodes."

The interesting thing is that the cliff notes versions of these shows work surprisingly well, if you don't care about things like plot, character development, and dialog.

The minisodes were originally available online at MySpace. Now Sony is making the mini-shows available on Crackle, AOL, and Joost, as well as MySpace. Sony is also bringing more shows out of the vault including Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie and The Jeffersons.

[via The New York Times]

A roundup of TV people from in front of the camera and behind the scenes who have passed away.

• Alice Ghostley: She was best known for her role as bumbling witch Esmerelda on Bewitched. She was also a regular on Designing Women and Evening Shade and made appearances on many shows over the years, including The Golden Girls, Passions, Simon & Simon, Maude, Good Times, Love, American Style, Family, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, The Odd Couple, It Taks A Thief, Get Smart, and many others. She died in Studio City, CA at age 81 of complications from cancer and strokes.

Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.

• All Creatures Great and Small - Series 7 and Complete Series sets
• Aqua Teen Hunger Force (movie)
• Avatar: The Last Airbender - Book 2: Earth, Vol. 4
• Bewitched - The Complete Seasons 1-5
• Brian Regan: Standing Up
• Doctor Who - #75 and #158
• Dynasty - Season 2
• Elvis: The Miniseries
• The Fugitive (original) - Season 1, Vol. 1
• Home Run Derby - Vol. 2
• Kids in the Hall - Pilot: Headcrusher Edition
• Loonatics: Unleased - Season 2
• Masters of Horror - "Valerie on the Stairs" and "We All Scream For Ice Cream"
• McLeod's Daughters - Season 3

Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.

• Beauty and the Beast - Season 2
• Bewitched - Season 5 (Color)
• Extras - Season 2
• The Film Crew: Hollywood After Dark (Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett)
• Home Run Derby - Vol. 1
• Hustle - Season 3
• My Super Sweet 16 - Seasons 1 and 2
• Punky Brewster - Vols. 1-6

Happy Valentine's Day! I hate February 14th.

But it's a fine day for all you sickening happy lovey-dovey couples to hold hands and skip around your garden and have dirty dirty sex. Below are 5 great TV couples who are probably celebrating the day this way. Well, at least four of them.

1. Rob and Laura Petrie (The Dick Van Dyke Show): Has there ever been a married couple on television that had the chemistry that Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore had? Hell, they both even have three names! You could tell they loved each other and cared for each other, and you could imagine they were intimate, even if they did have those damn separate beds.

There are drinkers, and then there are drinkers. The ones that always seem to have a drink in their hand. It's a social thing, it's a private thing, but most of all, it's an everyday thing. Here are five TV characters who drank. A lot.

1. Larry Tate (Bewitched): Sure, it was the 60s and drinking was everyone and not frowned upon like it is in a lot of situations today, but mother of God Larry used to drink a lot. Every single time he came over to the Stephens' home he rushed over to their bar and made himself a drink, or Samantha gave him one. He seems like a prime candidate for alcoholism: a harried advertising guy, always on the go, and an ad exec who works for him that seems to vanish or have odd things happen to him all the time. That couldn't have been easy to deal with. This guy drinks a lot. In fact, if you play the Bewitched drinking game (take a drink every time Larry takes a drink), you probably won't make it past an episode.

... Four Small Screen to Big Screen flops.

It had to be bad movies, because I couldn't think of four TV shows that have been made into good movies. The bar was set pretty high with The Brady Bunch Movie when they decided to go full-on campy. Sure, there have been some decent efforts like Starsky & Hutch and the dark and brooding Miami Vice. But this is the time for my inner Grinch to let loose and call out the bad ones, and there are a lot of them. It's too bad I can't take the TV Squad crystal ball and write about the ones still in the pipeline, like Wilder Valderrama in the CHiPs movie, or 2008's The A-Team movie. I pity the fool who tries to displace Mr. T.

Since the TV show adaptations were a bit thin this year (and I have a love/hate thing with Miami Vice. Love Michael Mann, hated the flick ... so I've decided that those cancel each other out for me, leaving a neutral effort on the floor), we're going back through the annals of the past few years and singling out some stinkers.

Another fun list over at The Onion, and as usual they miss the mark as often as they hit it. It's their selections for the 17 Memorable Thanksgiving Television Moments.

I love the fact that they remembered to include the Bob Newhart episode "Over The River and Through The Woods," where the gang gets drunk on Thanksgiving night and try to order Chinese food over the phone ("More moo goo!"), and the choice of A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and Bewitched are good choices. But I'll take exception to their choice of the Friends episode "The One Where Ross Got High." It's certainly a good episode, with the whole "Rachel makes a dessert" plot, but Friends was famous for its Turkey Day episodes, and "The One With All The Thanksgivings" is even better. It's the flashback episode where we see Ross and Chandler go to Ross' home for Thanksgiving and we meet fat Monica and then thin Monica a year later, when she accidentally cuts off part of Chandler's toe. That's hysterical.

I know, the name probably doesn't ring a bell, but you'll certainly remember the role she's famous for. Rogers played Louise Tate, Larry Tate's wife on Bewitched. She died on July 6 in L.A. following a stroke.

Tate had a lot of television roles over the years, on many shows including Perry Mason, Adam-12, Maverick, Wanted: Dead or Alive, and 77 Sunset Strip. Here's something I didn't know though: she was the wife strangled in the classic Alfred Hitchcock film Strangers on a Train! She played the role under the name Laura Elliott.

On a side note, did Louise know how much of a drinking problem her husband Larry had? I mean, seriously. You watch Bewitched, and he always has a drink in his hand, whether it's at Samantha and Darrin's house, at a restaurant, or when he's smoozing a client for his ad agency. Forget that "Hi Bob" drinking game for Bob Newhart. Watch Bewitched and take a shot everytime Larry drinks.

But those were the carefree days of the 60s, when drinking too much was cool and cigarettes weren't bad for you.

We all know the story: a TV show will recast a major character (because the other actor wanted more money or they wanted to go in another direction with the character or some other reason), and many times it's not as good. But that's not always true (it's not even true in the most famous example given, Bewitched, but more on that below). Here are five recasts that actually worked out.

1. Noel Neill (The Adventures of Superman): Neill took over for Phyllis Coates after Coates played Lois Lane in the first season only, and she's really the one we remember from the show.

Every Tuesday morning here on TV Squad we will highlight the week's TV-on-DVD releases. Some noteworthy releases today, June 21, 2005:

• Bewitched - Season One (Colorized and Original Black & White)
• Oz - Season Five
• Degrassi: The Next Generation - Season Two
• Farscape - Starburst Edition: Volume 4
• The New Outer Limits - Aliens Among Us Collection, Death & Beyond Collection, DVD Collection, Fantastic Androids & Robots Collection, Mutation & Transformation Collection
• The Queer Eye for the Straight Guy - For The Red Sox
• Tabitha - Complete Series