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My first impulse was to say that I haven't any TV series, but when I stopped to think about it, I really have quite a few! Probably my first was The Prize, a really great series of programs about the history and workings of the oil industry, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book by the same name, which was written by a friend. I also have Ken Burns' Civil War series, which does a great overview of that period of history. I also have four UK series in their entirety: the first is, I, Claudius, a great drama; second, The Black Adder, one of the funniest comedies ever; third, Sharpe's Rifles, a rousing good adventure tale of the Napoleonic wars.
The most recent TV series is one I tracked down and bought with a Christmas gift certificate. It's called Danger! UXB! It's another great drama of a British engineer unit during World War II whose duty is to defuse unexploded bombs (UXBs) found in the wreckage during the German bombing blitz on England during the Battle of Britain. The series was made some 20 years ago and I really got hooked on it, but for some reason never did see the final chapter, so for 20 years I'd wonder from time to time how it ever worked out. Got it early this year and sat down with my wife, who had never even heard of it and watched the whole thing one weekend. Boy, talk about your drama--there were times I had to get up and walk around for awhile before I could come back and see if they defused the bomb or not! Seems like I had forgotten practically the whole story, aside from a couple of memorable scenes in the 20 years since I had last watched it. If you like really authentic war movies, this is one to see!
Oh, one more thing--I have a few of the old "Combat" episodes, back before they started rerunning that series on some cable channels. And I found a couple of chapters from an even harder-to-find series. That's "Stoney Burke," Jack Lord's first TV series in which he played a champion rodeo cowboy! Lord was good in the role, but Warren Oates stole the show and became an instant star as Ves Painter, a ne'er-do-well hanger-on who was always getting Stoney into trouble. Another regular member of Stoney's entourage was Bruce Dern, always a pleasuer to watch on big screen or little. But what really sold the show to me and lots of other rodeo fans was that every time ol' Stoney took to the saddle in a rodeo event, you were really watching the World's Champion All-Around Cowboy, Casey Tibbs! Lord, Dern and Oates furnished the comedy or the drama, but Casey Tibbs made it rodeo! Lawd, he could ride!!!
Last edited by rufnek; 05-10-07 at 05:37 PM.
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