Some episode reviews from season 2 of Perry Mason, a series that raised the bar in terms of complex plotting in 1950s U.S. TV and demonstrated the potential of the hour-long episodic TV drama. And that terrific cast! Always fun to revisit.

My review: https://cult-tv-lounge.blogspot.com/2020/01/perry-mason-season-2-part-2.html

#culttv #culttelevision #vintagetv #vintage television #PerryMason #RaymondBurr #ErleStanleyGardner #50stv #1950stv #50stelevision #1950stelevision

M Squad was a 1957-60 NBC US TV cop series starring Lee Marvin. Action-packed, hard-edged, with a film noir vibe. It dives right into the seamy side of life. Marvin oozes charisma. He's like a pressure cooker about to blow. Superb TV.

My review: https://cult-tv-lounge.blogspot.com/2020/02/m-squad-season-one-1957.html

#retrotv #retrotelevision #culttv #culttelevision #50stv #1950stv #classictv #classic television #LeeMarvin #copshow #copshows

Johnny Staccato (1959) a stylish gritty jazz-fuelled film noir-inflected PI TV series with John Cassavetes as a piano player/private eye. Similar to Peter Gunn but better - more neurotic, edgy and noirish.

My review: https://cult-tv-lounge.blogspot.com/2019/07/johnny-staccato-1959-revisited.html

#Noirvember #filmnoir #culttv #JohnCassavetes #PeterGunn #50stv #1950stv #retrotv #privateeyes #classictelevision #vintagetv #classictv

Hi-Jack, an episode of the 1950-51 Dick Tracy TV series. I'm a bit of a Dick Tracy fan and the series did star Ralph Byrd, the definitive screen Dick Tracy. Alas the plot is too conventional and it all looks a bit stodgy. A curiosity more than anything else.

My review: https://cult-tv-lounge.blogspot.com/2023/09/dick-tracy-tv-series-1950-51.html

#culttv #retrotv #vintagetv #1950stv #50stv #DickTracy

Today is the birthday of stage and screen actor Carlton Carpenter, who died in 2022 at age 95.

In 1954, he played one of American TV's first identifiably gay characters, when NBC broadcast a production of the 1941 Broadway musical LADY IN THE DARK. The show takes place largely in the offices of a fashion magazine, and Carpenter played the supporting role of Russell, an overwrought gay fashion photographer (originally played on stage by Danny Kaye). Here's a short video clip: https://youtu.be/Z3vYAqTwKV4

In interviews in the 1980s, Carpenter talked about what it was like to be a gay actor in 1950s Hollywood, and the lengths that the studio went to in order to build up a fake macho and heterosexual image for him.

#television #gay #musicals #LGBTQ #queer #50sTV #1950sTV #Broadway

The bundle of All 6 seasons of Adventures of Superman is currently on sale on VUDU for $20.

#superman #adventuresofsuperman #dccomics #georgereeves #noelneill #jacklarson #loislane #jimmyolsen #perrywhite #clarkkent #50stv #vintagetv

TODAY IN QUEER TV HISTORY

THE ERNIE KOVACS SHOW - 7/2/1956, NBC

One of the few ongoing queer characters on 1950s American television was Percy Dovetonsils: comedian Ernie Kovacs's beloved lisping, purse-lipped poet who recited bad verse on a set representing his Greenwich Village penthouse. Kovacs used this character on various shows for more than ten years.

Given 1950s censorship of LGBTQ content, Percy's sexuality was mostly hinted at, though on rare occasions he would do things like comment on a cameraman's "muscular legs" or pluck petals from a flower reciting "He loves me, he loves me not..." This clip is from the premiere of Kovacs's summer 1956 series on NBC.

https://youtu.be/wzemP2PX3D8

#ErnieKovacs #50sTV #gay #queer #LGBTQ #television #SketchComedy #1950sTV

For April, my #ClassicTV watchlist looks something like this:
#FridayThe13th #BarneyMiller #HighwayPatrol #TheOddCouple #Cheers #NightCourt #AreYouBeingServed? #Werewolf #TalesFromTheCrypt #Columbo #FernwoodTonight #FamousFive #Isis #30Rock #Highlander #ForeverKnight #Frasier #Batman #FalconCrest #RudeAwakening #MollyDodd #MagnumPI #MikeHammer #HarryO #TheStreetsOfSanFrancisco

#ClassicTV #ClassicTelevision
#90sTV #80sTV #70sTV #60sTV #50sTV

Rod Serling's The Sixteen-Millimetre Shrine, one of my favourite Twilight Zone episodes (1959). A faded movie star (played superbly by Ida Lupino) lives in the past, the past when she was a star.

A wonderful bitter-sweet story. With a terrific twist ending which was copied by a certain well-known film director some years later.

My review: https://cult-tv-lounge.blogspot.com/2023/01/the-twilight-zone-sixteen-millimetre.html

#RodSerling #TwilightZone #IdaLupino #retrotv #culttv #vintagetv #scifitv #scifi #sciencefiction #50stv #horrortv