April 17: Top 10 "Masterpiece"

By Sylvia Gurinsky

Continuing the celebration of the 40th anniversary of "Masterpiece" with a Top 10:

10. The Duchess of Duke Street: Created by John Hawkesworth, the episodes starred Gemma Jones as Louisa Trotter, who rose from the bottom to the top.

9. Downton Abbey: This magnetic series, a recent PBS sensation, stars Hugh Bonneville as the patriarch of a family of daughters in changing times during the second decade of the 20th century, with events in Series 1 framed by the sinking of the Titanic and the beginning of World War I. Series 2 will be shown on "Masterpiece" next year.

8. Edward and Mrs. Simpson: Edward Fox and Cynthia Harris played the title characters, whose romance upended a monarchy and changed England's future.

7. Bramwell: Jemma Redgrave starred as Dr. Eleanor Bramwell, who was a medical pioneer at a time when female doctors in England were almost unheard of. No "Dr. Quinn," this series was scandalous at times.

6. The Six Wives of Henry VIII: One of the early "Masterpiece" presentations, this had six episodes - each one devoted to one of King Henry's wives.

5. Reckless: The love triangle of a fortysomething woman (Francesca Annis), her unfaithful husband (Michael Kitchen) and a thirtysomething doctor (Robson Green) got pulses racing. Probably the best of the modern "Masterpiece" presentations, aside from the "House of Cards" trilogy (See below).

4. House of Cards trilogy: Sir Ian Richardson was memorable as the cold and calculating Sir Francis Urquhart in a trio of presentations: "House of Cards," "To Play the King" and "The Final Cut." This was Shakespearean tragedy (written by Andrew Davies) at its most modern.

3. I, Claudius: Long before Derek Jacobi went back to the future (12th century!) as Cadfael, he was Claudius, narrating the rise and fall of ancient Rome.

2. The Jewel In the Crown: A look at India in the last days of British rule, during the early 1940s. Tim Pigott-Smith starred as Captain Ronald Merrick, who had a few secrets influencing his actions.

1. Upstairs, Downstairs: 165 Eaton Place became one of television's classic addresses because of the 1970s show, which took a look at a family and their servants through the first three decades of the 20th century. "Upstairs, Downstairs," winner of numerous Emmys, was among the first programs shown on American television to be produced by women. One of those producers, Jean Marsh, is back for the continuation currently being shown on "Masterpiece."

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Note: YesterTube will be on hiatus until mid-May.

Until then, Happy Passover, Happy Easter, Happy Spring and Happy Viewing!

Week of April 15: Best of "Mystery!"

By Sylvia Gurinsky

Happy 40th birthday, Masterpiece Theater, and Happy 30th, Mystery!

OK, actually 31st for "Mystery," which went on the air in February, 1980. And the "Theater" is no longer attached to "Masterpiece," whose subheadings now include "Masterpiece Classic" and "Masterpiece Contemporary."

No matter. Both have set standards for television and for the quality of PBS. Mostly British programs, the offerings have been extremely popular.

Here's a Top 10 list for "Mystery." The one for "Masterpiece" will follow in a second blog to run Sunday.

Mystery Top 10

10. Dalgleish: Roy Mardsen played the cerebral detective from the P.D. James series of books.

9. Cadfael: How far back can crime-solving go? Try the 12th century, with Derek Jacobi playing the sleuthing monk.

8. Reilly, Ace of Spies: Sam Neill played Jewish spy Sidney Reilly in this 1983 series of episodes, which won a host of awards.

7. Rumpole of the Bailey: Leo McKern was the crusty lawyer in the series that was part of most of "Mystery's" first 15 seasons, including the first one. A courtroom drama among the detectives.

6. Miss Marple: Agatha Christie's most famous detective keeps going and going, though she didn't make her first "Mystery" appearance until 1985, with Joan Hickson playing the immortal role. Since then, viewers have also seen Geraldine McEwan ("Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves") and now Julia McKenzie in the role.

5. Poirot: The incomparable David Suchet took Agatha Christie's fastidious Belgian detective and made the role his own, first playing it on "Mystery" in 1989 and continuing to the current day, although the new episodes no longer have his faithful assistant Captain Hastings (Hugh Fraser) or that wonderful opening theme by Christopher Gunning.

4. Inspector Morse: There was always a sense of melancholy, possibly taken from his own life, about the way John Thaw played Morse; few teams have been better than Morse and Sergeant Lewis ( Kevin Whately) in the sedate setting of Oxford, where murder seems to lurk at every turn. Viewers mourned Morse's death - and Thaw's soon after. Whately has continued in the fine "Inspector Lewis" with Laurence Fox as Sergeant Hathaway.

3. Foyle's War: Investigating murder during the horrors of World War II? Yes, for Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle (the magnificent Michael Kitchen), who longs to serve the war effort but must stay in Hastings and do his bit for the police along Britain's South Coast. Fortunately, he has two capable assistants in Detective Sergeant Paul Milner (Anthony Howell) and plucky driver Samantha Stewart (Honeysuckle Weeks). Foyle worries for his son, Andrew (Julian Ovenden), a Royal Air Force pilot. Really a drama about the war with mystery elements.

2. Sherlock Holmes: Jeremy Brett brought the world's greatest detective to life in a way no one else has. Channelling all of the quirks that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle put into Holmes, he gave the character humanity and grace. David Burke played a perfect Dr. Watson, but Edward Hardwicke was pretty good, too. Benedict Cumberbatch has shown signs that history and quality will repeat itself (even with the annoying text message graphics) in the new "Sherlock," set in the modern day.

1. Prime Suspect: How can NBC even think of putting its own version on the air when the original was indelible? Before Dame Helen Mirren was an Oscar winner as Queen Elizabeth, she was alcoholic, frequently burned-out detective ("Don't call me Ma'am; I'm not the bloody Queen") Jane Tennison. Both Mirren and the series won Emmys and many other awards.

Special Post: "All My Children" and "One Life To Live" Cancelled

By Sylvia Gurinsky

As many soap opera fans have heard by now, ABC has decided to cancel "All My Children" and "One Life To Live" in coming months. I talked about "AMC's" problems, which might be the same for "OLTL" - changing schedules, declining quality in plots and acting - but their replacements - cooking and lifestyle shows apparently in the style of "The View" - don't make the heart beat faster.

Starting next month, I'll chronicle the greatest moments in the history of the two soap operas - including moments featuring Susan Lucci, who has played Erica Kane through "AMC's" run, and Erika Slezak, who has played Victoria Lord on "OLTL" since 1970.

ABC called the decision "bittersweet."

No way. Damn sad is more like it.

YesterTube Special: Saluting Sidney Lumet

By Sylvia Gurinsky

Director Sidney Lumet, who died late last week at age 86, is being justifiably saluted for his film work - including "Network," a 1976 satire (and sadly, preview) of television written by Paddy Chayefsky.

He's also been commended for his television work during the 1950s and 60s, when he was cutting his teeth on live television dramas on programs such as "Playhouse 90," "You Are There" with Walter Cronkite and "Studio One."

Alas, as was mentioned recently in another context, little of this work is available for public sale so far. Fortunately, Lumet was interviewed by the Archive of American Television and described much of his TV work. Here's the link:

http://www.emmytvlegends.org/interviews/people/sidney-lumet

So long to one of the greats.

Week of April 8: Watch Any Good Books Lately?

By Sylvia Gurinsky

I started reading "Rum & Razors," part of the series of books based on the classic program "Murder, She Wrote," "by Jessica Fletcher and Donald Bain."

Jessica Fletcher, of course, was the character played so wonderfully on the CBS series by Angela Lansbury from 1984-96. Bain is the real writer of the "Murder, She Wrote" series and author of the book "Coffee, Tea or Me?"

Through the 1990s, successful series frequently triggered successful books. Comedies such as "The Partridge Family" and "That Girl" and dramas such as the original "Hawaii Five-O" and "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." came complete with a series of adventurous, not-too-long readers that would frequently go to places the shows didn't - especially the comedies. "That Girl's" Ann Marie (Marlo Thomas) terrorized by people living a real-life "Wuthering Heights?" Never happened in the series, but it did in a book penned by Paul W. Fairman.

Series for teens and science fiction fans, of course, have been principal sources for book writers. "Star Trek," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Full House" have plenty of selections.

eBay is a primary source for finding such books. Even stories from more obscure series, such as 1970s "Nancy" about a president's daughter, are available in paperback.

The eBay search starts in the 1950s with such shows as "Gunsmoke" and "77 Sunset Strip." Just about every scripted television genre one can think of is covered.

So Happy Reading! And until next week, Happy Viewing!

Week of April 1: What's With "All My Children"; All of C-SPAN; Remembering Farley Granger On TV

By Sylvia Gurinsky

Susan Lucci is having to pull double duty in promoting her new book, "All My Life." Besides that, she has to defend "All My Children" against cancellation rumors.

Lucci, who has masterfully played Erica Kane throughout the 41-year run of the series, doesn't have anything to prove. But "AMC's" problems are symptomatic of all problems with soap operas: The O.J. Simpson trial of 1994-95, which replaced many soap operas, began to alter viewing habits. The increase of the Internet continued that change.

The soap operas themselves didn't help matters with substandard casting, scripts and plotlines.


"All My Children," created by Agnes Nixon, began in 1970 with a fine collection of veterans of film and television drama such as Kay Campbell, who played Kate Martin; Hugh Franklin, who played Charles Tyler; Ruth Warrick ("Citizen Kane"), who played Phoebe Tyler; Frances Heflin, who played Mona Kane (Erica's mother) and Mary Fickett, who played Ruth Brent (later Martin). Among the young cast members were Charles Frank, who played Jeff Martin; Richard Hatch (the original "Battlestar Gallactica"), who played Phil Brent; Karen Lynn Gorney ("Saturday Night Fever"), who played Tara Martin and Lucci.

The show set standards for writing and acting and broke barriers; Erica became the first daytime soap opera character to have an abortion in 1973. Her younger daughter, Bianca (Christina Bennett Lind), more recently became part of the first gay marriage on a daytime soap. Darnell Williams and Debbi Morgan, who play Jessie and Angie Hubbard, were the first real African-American supercouple of soaps.

More recently, standards have been the exceptions. Most of the cast members with the series through its glory years have either died (Warrick, Heflin, Campbell, Franklin, Eileen Herlie, who played Myrtle Fargate and recently James Mitchell, who played Palmer Cortlandt), retired (Fickett; Ray McDonnell, who played Joe Martin; David Canary, who played Adam and Stuart Chandler) or have been laid off or had hours chopped (Julia Barr, who played Brooke English; Walt Willey, who plays Jackson Montgomery). With the exceptions of Lucci, Williams, Morgan, Michael E. Knight (Tad Martin since the early 1980s) and a few others, most of the current cast looks like it came off an assembly line of models.


Even if "All My Children" survives the immediate future, its years are probably numbered, sadly. At its best, it was special enough to attract the likes of Carol Burnett and Elizabeth Taylor (mentioned last week). It also broke barriers.


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Farley Granger, who died earlier this week, was best known for his film work. But he spent more than 40 years adding television to his resume.

He worked on soaps "As the World Turns," "The Edge of Night" and "One Life To Live." He guest starred on numerous programs, including "Murder She Wrote," "Ironside," "Hawaii Five-O" (the original) and "The Love Boat."


But the gold standard may be the live television drama programs he did during the 1950s and 60s, including "Playhouse 90," "The United States Steel Hour," "The Kraft Theatre" and more. Alas, we are still waiting for DVD releases of even clips of those dramas.


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To all political history junkies out there: C-SPAN now has an extensive online video library that features not only recent programs and archived programs going back to C-SPAN's beginnings more than 30 years ago, but also other archived material.


You can watch President Harry Truman being inaugurated in 1949 or President Richard Nixon resigning in 1974. There are recent congressional hearings or Question Time of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

It will also be of great benefit to students, historians and journalists. Here's the link:

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/videoLibrary/


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See you next week. Until then, Happy Viewing!