Tom Holmberg

Island to Icon: the Many Lives of Bob Denver Dreama Denver ISBN: 9781958914519 Bob Denver would never in a million years have thought of himself as an icon, but on this 60th anniversary year of his most famous television series, "Gilligan’s Island," his wife, Dreama Denver, begs to differ. The fact that "Gilligan’s Island" is still airing somewhere on the planet 60 years after its 1964 debut proves that not only is the show iconic, but the man who played the title role is also. Anytime you see someone wearing a red shirt and a white hat, what’s the first thought that comes to mind? If you’re old enough, you think GILLIGAN! She has compiled a Bob Denver memory album from their memorabilia and his mother's scrapbooks to honor her husband and his career. Bob Denver and Gilligan’s Island are still loved and cherished by fans worldwide. ________________________ Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live Susan Morrison ISBN: 9780812988871 The definitive biography of Lorne Michaels, the man behind America’s most beloved comedy show Over the fifty years that Lorne Michaels has been at the helm of Saturday Night Live, he has become a revered and inimitable presence in the entertainment world. He’s a tastemaker, a mogul, a withholding father figure, a genius spotter of talent, a shrewd businessman, a name-dropper, a raconteur, the inspiration for Dr. Evil, the winner of more than a hundred Emmys—and, essentially, a mystery. Generations of writers and performers have spent their lives trying to figure him out, by turns demonizing and lionizing him. He’s “Obi-Wan Kenobi” (Tracy Morgan), the “great and powerful Oz” (Kate McKinnon), “some kind of very distant, strange comedy god” (Bob Odenkirk). Lorne will introduce you to him, in full, for the first time. With unprecedented access to Michaels and the entire SNL apparatus, Susan Morrison takes readers behind the curtain for the lively, up-and-down, definitive story of how Michaels created and maintained the institution that changed comedy forever. Drawn from hundreds of interviews—with Michaels, his friends, and SNL’s iconic stars and writers, from Will Ferrell to Tina Fey to John Mulaney to Chris Rock to Dan Aykroyd—Lorne is a deeply reported, wildly entertaining account of a man singularly obsessed with the show that would define his life and have a profound impact on American culture.

Odd book: Hell-Bent for Leather: Sex and Sexuality in the Weird Western Kerry Fine, etal. ISBN: 9781496241900 "This new collection takes a deep dive into the myriad ways sex and sexuality are imagined in weird western literature, film, television, and video games, paying special attention to portrayals of power and privilege. ...Primary texts range from CBS’s campy BDSM-inflected steampunk western The Wild Wild West to the Star Wars franchise’s popular leather-daddy bounty hunter The Mandalorian,..."

Dead Air: The Night That Orson Welles Terrified America William Elliott Hazelgrove ISBN: 9781538187166 A "granular history" (Wall Street Journal) of the greatest hoax in radio history and the panic that followed, which Publishers Weekly calls "a rollicking portrait of a director on the cusp of greatness" and Booklist, in a starred review, says, "Hazelgrove’s feverishly focused retelling of the broadcast as well as the fallout makes for a propulsive read as a study of both a cultural moment of mass hysteria and the singular voice at its root.” On a warm Halloween Eve, October 30, 1938, during a broadcast of H G. Wells’ War of the Worlds, a twenty-three-year-old Orson Welles held his hands up for radio silence in the CBS studio in New York City while millions of people ran out into the night screaming, grabbed shotguns, drove off in cars, and hid in basements, attics, or anywhere they could find to get away from Martians intent on exterminating the human race. As Welles held up his hands to his fellow actors, musicians, and sound technicians, he turned six seconds of radio silence—dead air—into absolute horror, changing the way the world would view media forever, and making himself one of the most famous men in America. In Dead Air: The Night that Orson Welles Terrified America, Willliam Elliot Hazelgrove illustrates for the first time how Orson Welles’ broadcast caused massive panic in the United States, convincing listeners across the nation that the end of the World had arrived and even leading military and government officials to become involved. Using newspaper accounts of the broadcast, Hazelgrove shows the true, staggering effect that Welles’ opera of panic had on the nation. Beginning with Welles’ incredible rise from a young man who lost his parents early to a child prodigy of the stage, Dead Air introduces a Welles who threw his Hail Mary with War of the Worlds, knowing full well that obscurity and fame are two sides of the same coin. Hazelgrove demonstrates that Welles’ knew he had one shot to grab the limelight before it forever passed him by—and he made it count.

Read a couple of recent books on the Beatles in 1963. That would actually be a more interesting documentary as it's less known in the US "Shake it up, baby! : the rise of Beatlemania and the mayhem of 1963" "The Beatles - 1963 : a year in the life"

You can have it, if you can catch it.

I'm waiting for the situation COMEDY to start. The first visit to George's grave was nice. The second okay. But it's being over done. It loses something each time they use it. Next to visit Meemaw.

At least they aren't talking about brisket!

So is any of the retro channels going to run the "WKRP in Cincinnati" Thanksgiving episode? "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly."

Dec 1st SUNDAYS WITH CAROL BURNETT Gone with the Wind (1939 Dec 8th SUNDAYS WITH CAROL BURNETT - JOAN FONTAINE AND JOAN CRAWFORD Born to Be Bad (1950) Torch Song (1953) Dec. 15th SUNDAYS WITH CAROL BURNETT - OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND AND BETTE DAVIS Heiress, The (1949) Stolen Life, A (1946) Dec. 29th SUNDAYS WITH CAROL BURNETT - FILM NOIR Mildred Pierce (1945) Double Indemnity (1944)

"I saw it in a window, and I just couldn't resist it."

Our elites (scientists, professors, etc,) not their elites (billionaires).

I see "Mildred Pierce" and, of course, "Gone With the Wind."

In Dec TCM is doing Carol Burnett sketch movies on Sundays with Carol co-hosting.

I'd rather talk about the weather than insurance.

Lorre has a thing about evil mothers- Leonard's, Amy's, etc. Again you gotta wonder about his personal life.