Lily Tomlin was on Laugh-In with Dan Rowan & Dick Martin. That's the show that gave Goldie Hawn her start. The Smothers Brothers were guests on a lot of variety shows, & then they had their own; they were always at loggerheads with the censors, & eventually they got cancelled. The Church Lady was on Saturday Night Live. Censors were a biggie in the sixties; remember the Carol Burnett episode about the nudists? The writers had something in the script describing slow dancing, & the censors rejected the wording as too suggestive. Frustrated, Carol Burnett asked them how they, the censors, would like the actors to refer to the dancing. the answer.... "cheek to cheek" & Our Miss Brooks- wasn't Osgood Conklin, the principal, played by Gale Gordon, later of "Lucy" fame? & Walter Denton, Connie Conklin's would-be suitor, was played by Richard Crenna!

Hey Donaleen, Schoolhouse, AlexKitchen and all the rest -- are any of you still here? *I'm* not! I nipped back onto gardenweb to find the name of this series to give to the mother of a friend who was a terrific gardener in her day and had one of the first gardening or kitchen TV shows I think? She didn't have a TV... ;) Sadly, when I click on all these links ... gone. It says they're removed for copyright infringement by BBC. So I'm wondering: why do they not release the videos for sale and not permit them to be sold? I guess I probably know the reason, someone from the series, perhaps Ruth Mott or her family? ...likely has some copyright issues and BBC cannot release them. I know that happened with Alistair Cooke's stuff. But I can't find the series anywhere! The wartime kitchen series is on utube and the victorian kitchen and garden is, but not the victorian kitchen! I'm wondering whether anyone has any information or links to this series that still works. It really was such a wonderful series. The reason I even thought of it was because of that section about the mushrooms that were grown. A friend visited with a housegift of a block of fungus that you water and out of it grows mushrooms -- it's really, really wild. So fast and weird and strange and beautiful and slimy they are! I was reminded of the series. Thanks any for whatever functional links anyone might have....

I never saw The Avengers when originally broadcast, but I enjoyed watching some of the episodes on DVD. Diana Rigg was amazing. I find that while I have fond memories of some shows, I don't enjoy them when I try to watch them today. My favorite series will probably always be The West Wing. I have the digital version and when I want some relaxing downtime, those are the episodes I like to watch. That series was an almost perfect blending of actors, writing and directing where heavy, serious topics were leavened with the quirky humanity of the characters. Another show that I wish would become available in digital format is Reasonable Doubts with Mark Harmon and Marlee Matlin. I don't know if I would still like it, but I'd sure love to have the opportunity to view the episodes again.

I would like to see a Carol Burnett marathon on some station. I'd be glued to my seat all day and night, and so would DH. The skits with Burnett, Conway, and Korman were priceless. And the time Carol basically dared a young man from the audience to come up and sing, and he did, and did a WONDERFUL job with "What I did for love." And the time Carol had Beverly Sills on the show, and sang with her. Chills! A locked chord whenever I hear it still gives chills! As a kid, we didn't have TV. But later, I remember George Goeble's gentle humor, and Tennessee Ernie, and Perry Como. Yes, I miss the variety shows. Who knows what we'd see if that format was brought back? I don't even want to think about it.