TVSquad

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

• Eddy Arnold: The legendary country singer was best known for classic songs such as "Make The World Go Away." He also hosted his own TV show in the early 50s called The Eddy Arnold Show and guest starred on many shows, including The Milton Berle Show, The Dean Martin Show, The Jackie Gleason Show, The Tonight Show, and many others. His songs have been used on many TV shows and films, including How I Met Your Mother, Bad Santa, Nurse Betty, Private Parts, and Groundhog Day. He died in Nashville at age 89.

This question comes up at least once a year: do we still need PBS?

Of course, I think the real question people want an answer to is, do we still need to fund PBS? Charles McGrath looks at both sides of the issue in this New York Times piece.

The Bush administration (and let's face it, more than a few citizens) want to slice the annual budget for PBS in half. They've been trying for several years (there was even a West Wing episode where this was one of the plots), but every year they get their money. The main arguments against funding are twofold: 1.) is PBS really necessary in this age of 150 channels, and 2.) should we keep funding PBS since they do their own fund raising every year and also make money on the stuff they sell? The network pulls in less viewers now (though the viewers that remain are loyal and help save the network every year). So what should happen?

On August 15, 2007, PBS World, a new 24/7 PBS channel, will launch in 20 markets, including major ones like New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Cleveland and Tampa.

This is cool news for folks like myself who see PBS as a kind of oasis on the television landscape: a place away from the cacophony of lame reality shows, egregious sitcoms and screaming political pundits. Still, I can't help but wonder how a 24/7 PBS channel will fare in an age where so many other channels offer the same kind of nature, science and documentary programming PBS does. I submit that Nova, Frontline, Independent Lens and Nature are still the best shows in their particular field, but it's not like this is the old days when PBS was the only place to catch a special about elephants.

The new 24-hour format will also allow member stations to tailor programming to local tastes. The aforementioned series will also be a part of the new channel, along with other PBS shows and original non-fiction series.

PBS is taking the council of teens. Conor Reynolds, a member of PBS' Teen Council, wrote a short essay for the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle in which he talked about PBS' strategies to attract younger audience members. As you might suspect, their strategy is to go digital - offering clips of shows via YouTube or via free downloads on iTunes. It's a "hang out where the kids hang out" strategy that has, at the very least, attracted Conor Reynolds to show interest in the network. There is, of course, a major problem with this strategy. If we take the metaphor a little further, being the creepy, middle-aged guy hanging out where the kids hang out isn't going to do anything for your audience numbers.

Horrifying news out of New Hampshire: former Zoom cast member Jared Nathan has died in a car crash.

Nathan was home from school (he was studying acting at Julliard in New York City) for the holidays and was a passenger in a car driven by 19 year-old Gabriel King. King has been charged with drunk driving.

Nathan was on Zoom when the show made a comeback in the late 90s. I remember seeing the show a few times when it came back. I was curious to see what they did with the show that I used to watch all the time when I was a kid in the 70s. They had a good cast, and I remember Nathan as being quite funny and personable on the show.

No word yet on funeral arrangements.

If you were a kid during the early 1970s, those were your salad days for children's programming. If you weren't getting up before your parents on Saturday mornings to watch Scooby-Doo or Superfriends, you were up before your parents on weekday mornings to watch Captain Kangaroo or your local kid's show.

Also likely, since you only had about four channels to choose from back then, you were spending some time watching your local public television station. If you were really little, you would probably be watching Sesame Street, which was just hitting its stride with all of the preschool set (we called it nursery school back then, dangnabit!). If you had already learned all of your letters and numbers, and Susan was losing some of her allure, you were probably watching Sesame Street's older brother -- The Electric Company.