The new TV season has started! There are some new shows that have been very interesting. Here are some of my old favorites.

NBC once ran a Sunday night mystery series with a rotating schedule of shows. Early on it was three shows: 'McMillan and Wife', 'McCloud', and 'Columbo'. 'Columbo' would go on to run on it's own, air for many seasons, and even have a few movies produced as well. The Columbo Phile: a Casebook, by Mark Dawidziak has the sub, sub-title of 'a complete and illustrated history of television's finest mystery series'. (I do love these sub-titles, look back at the one for The Official Prisoner Companion)! At the end you'll find quotes from various episodes, and a trivia quiz. :-)

My copy of M*A*S*H: the Exclusive, Inside Story of T.V.'s Most Popular Show, by David S. Reiss is the updated version that includes the final episode. I did not see said final episode for some time, due to a conflict with a class at WSU in the era before VCRs, and a decision from the network not to air it again that summer. It was worth the wait.

I got hooked on 'Law and Order' because of Jerry Orbach. I had heard him for years on various records (then cassettes, then CDS) of his Broadway musicals. He was the first to sing 'Try to Remember' (The Fantasticks) and for me, does the ultimate 'Lullaby of Broadway' (42nd Street). Law and Order: the Unofficial Companion, by Kevin Courrier and Susan Green only goes through the 1999 season, but it provides an excellent history of the show and a program guide to that point.

For some odd reason I picked up Homicide: Life on the Streets: the Unofficial Companion, by David P. Kalat before I started watching the show. The first episode I watched may have been a cross-over show with Jerry Orbach, but watch it I did, and found it interesting enough to keep watching.

A silly book to end this post: Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Tunes Into TV. It is from the Bathroom Readers Institute (!) (it's based in Oregon). Facts, histories, quizzes, and lists from the birth of television to 2011. Surprise hits, amazing flops, all told in entries designed for short, or longer, visits to ... well, you know where!

The books about tv shows are fewer now, but I still have a few left about more recent shows for a future post. :-)

Reading Hermit With Dog