TVSquad

For all you television fans (and I suspect at least one or two read this site) who are also stamp collectors, there is good news. The United States Postal Service is releasing a set of stamps in 2009 commemorating classic American television shows.

I do like the retro design of the stamps and how each looks like an old picture tube. I see a lot of familiar faces in there, including Phil Silvers, Howdy Doody, Rod Serling, Alfred Hitchcock, The Honeymooners, I Love Lucy and many others. Did they miss anybody?

I think the Postal Service isn't going far enough with this. They should release stamps commemorating television shows for each year, or perhaps more appropriately each television era. For the 70's they could include M*A*S*H and All In The Family. For the 80's they could include Knight Rider and The A Team. At least, they would be included if I designed the stamps.

Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.

I'm getting that deja vu feeling. Didn't I already list season two of Route 66 and both the Get Smart and Starlost complete series DVDs before? Yup, I did. For some reason the Route 66 and Starlost DVDs were delayed. As for Get Smart, Time-Life had a complete series set, but this one is from HBO Home Video.

To confuse things even further, there is another Get Smart complete series set, only it's for the short-lived 90s series with Andy Dick.

• Batman: The Animated Series - Complete Series
• Chowder - Vol. 1
• Fraggle Rock - Complete Series
• Futurama - Bender's Game
• Get Smart - Complete Series Gift Set
• Home Movies - 10th Anniversary
• Howdy Doody - 40 Episodes and Best Of
• JAG - Season 7
• Popeye - Vol. 3
• Primeval - Seasons 1 and 2
• Project Runway - Season 4
• Reaper - Season 1
• Route 66 - Season 2
• Spider-Man - Villains Showdown
• Spin City - Season 1
• The Starlost - Complete Series
• The Wild, Wild West - Complete Series

Bob's recent post about Madame got me thinking about all the puppets that have appeared on television over the years, and specifically the ones that creeped me the heck out. If you're like me and some of those characters that were meant to entertain you only left you with nightmares and a life-long fear of anything even remotely puppet-like, share your tales of woe in the comments. Think of this as group therapy. Let's get started:

Madame: This aging diva may have been hilarious, but as a very young child when I saw her on shows like Hollywood Squares and Solid Gold she only managed to send me cowering behind the sofa. That jutting chin! That piercing voice! Those horrible satanic eyes! Clearly, she was the Banshee of Celtic lore, and I imagined that after every show she returned to her real occupation: flying around screaming to portend the death of Irish family members.