TVSquad

No, don't worry, it's not going to be a two-hour live funeral. Turner Classic Movies is going to show three of Karl Malden's best movies in a mini-marathon starting at 8PM. Here's the lineup:

8PM: On The Waterfront
10PM: A Streetcar Named Desire
12:15AM: Birdman of Alcatraz

This will be a good chance for people who only know Malden from The Streets of San Francisco or American Express ads to see what he was like as an actor on the big screen. I think they should be showing more though. TCM must own more movies that feature Malden.

I don't know if the word "obitutainment" has been used before, but it's here now. Jon Stewart mentioned it last night in this installment of the Rippy Awards (I just now realized it refers to R.I.P., ha). And this isn't about Michael Jackson! It's about Karl Malden and his connection to an NBC anchor Brian Williams. I think I'm as connected to Malden as Williams is.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Rippy Awards - Celebrity Crypts
www.thedailyshow.com

The celebrity death march continues.

Karl Malden has died at the age of 97. He was probably best known for his role as Lt. Mike Stone on the ABC series The Streets of San Francisco. Actually, he was probably equally well-known for his American Express "Don't Leave Home Without It" commercials that ran in the 70s and 80s.

He played the lead role in the short-lived NBC series Skag in 1980, but most of his roles were in movies, including Patton, On The Waterfront, A Streetcar Named Desire, Kiss of Death, How The West Was Won, Birdman of Alcatraz, Murderer's Row, and Meteor. One of my favorite Malden roles was in the 50s movie Fear Strikes Out, where he played the pushy father of Red Sox outfielder Jimmy Piersall. His last role was a first season episode of The West Wing.

There was a time I was completely obsessed with The Streets of San Francisco. I never really watched it when it was on ABC in prime time, except for an episode here and there, but I used to watch it every day in the afternoon after school when a local station aired repeats. It was one of the highlights of the day for a while. It's one of those solid 70s shows with a good cast and some interesting guest stars (Arnold Schwarzenegger as a weight lifter who kills people when they make fun of his size!).

CBS is going to remake the show, and I can only imagine it's going to be CSI: San Francisco. The beauty of these old shows was the cast, so I don't know what you get by just taking the title and putting new actors in there. Hopefully they'll keep the old theme song, and resist the urge to add rap lyrics to it.

OK, so you're one of the people who is waiting for the first season sets of The Streets of San Francisco and/or The Untouchables to be released. But now comes word that both Paramount sets have been delayed a week.

The Untouchables set will now be released on April 10, a week later than originally announced, while the Streets of San Francisco set will also be released on April 10.

But there's one piece of good news, for fans of Twin Peaks: the second season will actually be released a week earlier than previously announced, on April 3. That's a Paramount title too. Maybe they wanted to get this one out a week earlier than the other two releases for some reason.

I loved this show when I was a kid. I watched it every single week, and then later in the 80s it was on one of the stations every single day and I watched it then too. It was a well-done show, starring Karl Malden and Michael Douglas. Oh, and theme song was awesome.

I honestly thought, for some reason, that the show was already available on DVD, but that wasn't the case. It is now! The first season of the show (actually, it's one of those "Season 1, Volume 1" deals) will be released by Paramount on April 3. It will be 10 episodes plus the pilot movie. No word or extras or commentaries yet.

It's amazing to see all of the famous faces that graced this show in the 70s, including Martin Sheen, Deidre Hall, Robert Wagner, John Ritter, Stefanie Powers, Harold Gould, Brenda Vaccaro, Stuart Whitman, Jamie Farr, Shelley Morrison (Rosario on Will & Grace), Leslie Nielsen, Dick Sargent, Dean Stockwell, Bill Bixby, Nick Nolte, Jessica Walter, and some guy named Arnold Schwarzenegger. There was a reunion movie in 1992, but Douglas didn't want to be in it (his character "disappeared" and Malden looked for him).