TVSquad

Movies are great, and Encore Western has feasted on showing lots of theatrical features and shorts. However, the premium channel has wisely veered from its bread and butter, by mixing in TV shows. The channel will soon be adding to the TV fare when Gunsmoke, Rawhide, and Have Gun Will Travel join Encore Westerns.

These are three classic TV westerns that had significant long runs and big name stars. They'll be a nice addition to shows like Cheyenne and Maverick currently on the net, as well as the Roy Rogers and Gene Autry programmers that run through the day.

In her Oscar-winning movie Funny Girl, Barbra Streisand as Fanny Brice described herself as "a bagel on a plateful of onion rolls." Last night, CBS served up the Barbra bagel in the one-hour TV special Streisand Live 2006. As music specials go it was a delicious serving of all-time great hits like "Somewhere," "Evergreen," "The Way We Were" and "Don't Rain on My Parade." But at just an hour -- probably 48 minutes considering the commercials -- the show just wasn't enough. It was a smidge of Streisand. I wanted the whole thing.

From a marketing point of view, this was probably just what the Streisand camp wanted. On Tuesday, April 28, Sony is releasing a 3-DVD set of Barbra TV concerts, including the full, two-hour-plus version of Streisand Live 2006. So in many ways, the CBS special was an extended preview, an infomercial, a nibble that would make you want to buy the DVD.

Every Sunday throughout June and August, Tom Kenny (Mr. Show, SpongeBob SquarePants) will be hosting Funday Night at the Movies, a showcase of classic family films on Turner Classic Movies that both children and adults can enjoy. The weekly summer movie showcase will air at 8:00 p.m. on Sunday nights and feature the following films:

• Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
• Bringing Up Baby (1938)
• Little Women (1949)
• Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
• Oliver! (1968)
• Pride of the Yankees (1942)
• Shane (1953)
• Singin' in the Rain (1952)
• Sounder (1972)
• The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
• The Wizard of Oz (1939)
• Treasure Island (1934)
• 20,000 Leagues under the Sea (1954)

A friend of mine sent me this link of the fifty greatest cartoons of all time as voted on by folks in the industry back in 1994. The peeps at Cityrag scoured video sites for the cartoons and have links to all but six of the cartoons for your viewing enjoyment.

I have to say, I can't find too many things wrong with this list. Warner Bros. figures heavily on the list, naturally, but it's nice to see Popeye and Betty Boop pop up on the list as well, not to mention "The Cat Came Back," a great Canadian cartoon based on the old song of the same name.