My TV-on-DVD viewing of late has been filled with a deep baritone, a bulky figure and a knack for solving crimes. I've recently started in on watching William Conrad in his two mystery shows - Cannon and Jake and the Fatman. As an old-time radio buff, I'm a big fan of Conrad. He was Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke and a busy character actor who popped up on numerous detective and anthology shows. His great voice also delivers the wonderful narration of The Fugitive. But I had never seen him act on camera. I'm more convinced now, after watching these shows, that Conrad is a truly underrated talent; he was one of those performers who could prove to be interesting to watch, whatever the role.

Cannon, at first blush, falls into the gimmick detective trend of the 70s (Barnaby Jones was old, McCloud was a cowboy, etc.), but once you start watching you see that while Frank Cannon is large and in charge, his weight isn't played for as many laughs as you'd think. Cannon is an ex-cop (pretty solid PI credentials there!) He's a rare combination of brains and brawn (yes, he gets his licks in, mostly karate moves), a TV private eye who, while not side by side with the best of the best Jim Rockford, he definitely is in the same cla$s

I was more cautious going into Jake. I'd heard (and read) less than glowing reviews - after all, it is the only American TV show to have 100+ episodes and never be syndicated. And 80s crime shows are a tricky thing - when they're good, they're very good. When they're bad, you want to avoid them like the plague. But after watching the first three episodes, I'm very pleasantly surprised. Like a modern Nero Wolfe, this show combines the streetwise detective with the homebound master sleuth, and thanks to good chemistry with co-star Joe Penny, Conrad has another winner.

It's interesting - Cannon is an overall better show, with tighter plots and better acting from the guest stars. But Conrad's performance as the Fatman is more fun to watch. As Frank Cannon, for all of his girth, he's a pretty standard issue TV private eye. But J.L. McCabe gives Conrad so many facets to play - he's part Perry Mason in the courtroom and part Columbo at the crime scene. The Fatman is more of a character than Cannon - Conrad clearly loves the part, and as a result, it's more fun for the audience.

My Netflix queue is Conrad-heavy (no pun intended!) for a while. If you're a fan of mysteries, I strongly recommend both of these shows. The only downside is Paramount only released the first half of each show's first seasons. Once the kings of vintage TV DVD releases, Paramount has really slipped, IMO, with these split season releases and the Fugitive music replacement debacle. Here's hoping they straighten up and roll out some full seasons. I'm hungry for more Cannon and Jake and the Fatman!

I realized the other day it had been a while since I wrote anything here - the truth is I've been a little preoccupied. My wedding is less than a month away (!) and I'm working on starting a new job search. I'm still in my current job (the economy is too bad right now to quit, then start looking), so that's making it more frustrating, but I have some leads and contacts so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

In the meantime, once personal things settle down a bit, I hope to be back here, posting and commenting and reviewing. Right now to destress, I'm turning to (surprise) older TV shows! Thanks to Netflix's instant viewer, I've watched a fair amount of McMillan & Wife and McCloud, as well as my DVDs of Cannon and Mannix. Just the cure for the summertime blues. Hope everyone else is enjoying the summer!

As if we needed anymore evidence that there are no more new ideas...TNT has announced plans to remake the acclaimed British crime drama, Cracker. (If you haven't seen it, I suggest you rent the DVDs). Now, remakes are nothing new - and there have been many attempts to bring British shows across the pond with mixed success. NBC struck gold with The Office, but there are more misses on that list than hits.

But there has already been an American Cracker. In 1997, the late Robert Pastorelli filled Robbie Coltrane's shoes as Dr. Eddie "Fitz" Fitzgerald, a psychologist just as twisted and troubled as his patients, working with the police on particularly baffling crimes. Airing on ABC opposite the final season of Seinfeld, the US Cracker faded away after only 16 episodes.

But TNT is going back to the well to bring us another Yankee Cracker. I'm curious to see how this turns out, but I think it will fail just as ABC's effort did. That's not to diminish the ABC series - I really enjoyed it when it aired. It's that the British Cracker is a very atypical, non-traditional mystery series. The show is more about the troubled lead character and how the crimes he investigates impact those around him. It is not a "catch the bad guy and wrap everything up in 60 minutes" kind of show. The ABC version tried to duplicate that, which led to some dark, gloomy viewing - and Americans tend not to enjoy that.

We'll see what happens. American audiences passed on Fitz once, so they may do it again. On the other hand, TNT may have a surprise hit on it's hands...I guess it all depends on the tone of the show and who they cast as Fitz. My hope is they stick with the template and don't get some photogenic guy in his late 20s. Get an older actor who can, God forbid, ACT. Were he not fresh out of The Sopranos, I think James Gandolfini would be a great Fitz. Oliver Platt, Ray Winstone and Chris Cooper are others who spring to mind.

I guess it shouldn't be a surprise. This summer saw a revamp of The Incredible Hulk, just five years after the first movie. Remakes of the remakes of TV shows fit right in with the "do over" trend sweeping through Hollywood.

An icon of TV history has passed away. Earle Hagen was perhaps best known for co-writing (and whistling!) the theme to The Andy Griffith Show. He also penned the themes to many other shows, such as Dick Van Dyke, The Mod Squad, That Girl, and (for my money, one of the coolest theme songs ever) I Spy. It was for I Spy that Hagen won an Emmy in 1968; he was doing whole soundtracks for episodes at a time when most TV shows just used canned music. Sometimes the role of music in a movie or TV series doesn't get as much acclaim, but when you think about some of the cla$$ic shows that could be identified immediately by their themes and incidental music, you can see how important this was. Talk about a guy whose work will live forever!

P.S. - Unrelated to Mr. Hagen's pa$$ing, but I had to amend this because of my use of the word "cla$$ic." Can't TV.com move on from this and allow us to use that word? For fans of...err...vintage (?) TV like myself and others, it just becomes a nusiance after a while!

After 19 years, Indiana Jones finally swings back on to the big screen in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. He'd have been better off leaving us with the final image of riding off into the sunset at the end of The Last Crusade. Is KotCS the worst Dr. Jones adventure? No, that honor still belongs to Temple of Doom. But to say that it's a better movie than Doom isn't saying much.

The movie immediately gets off to a bad start with a car full of teenagers drag racing an Army convoy along a Nevada highway in 1957. Elvis is playing, in case you forgot it's 1957. Later in the film, there's a fight between greasers and college kids in a malt shop, in case you forgot it's 1957. And look, there's Shia LeBouf with a DA and a switchblade. In case you forgot...

My point is this: the other Indy films never hit you over the head with the period setting, other than costumes and cars. Here, Spielberg and Co. can never get past the setting. There are so many unnecessary call-outs to the 1950s that it's incredibly distracting for the first third of the movie. It isn't until Indy heads to Peru that the whole movie starts to seem like an Indiana Jones movie.

You'll notice I said seem. That's because it never reaches the heights of the previous films. In Raiders and Crusade, the adventure worked because (a) there was a clearly defined objective and (b) a sense of urgency. Ex: We've got to get the Grail before the Nazis use it to build an immortal army! Here, the Skull needs to be returned...we're not sure why...to gain a power, and we don't know what it is. It's like the filmmakers were so eager to get this thing before the cameras they didn't take the time to develop a good story. All of the ingredients are there (globe-trotting, booby traps, etc.), but somehow they never gel together. The climax is lifted almost exactly from the second National Treasure movie and the CGI at times makes the on-screen events look more like a video game cut scene. I blame the writers (particularly George Lucas who came up with the story), because the cast does the best they can.

All of the concerns about Harrison Ford's age are put to rest almost immediately. When he puts the hat on, it's like no time has passed since 1989. He's quick on his feet, throws a mean punch and has all of Indy's charm. Too bad the script makes him into an almost absent-minded professor. I'm sorry, but the Dr. Jones I know wouldn't stop in the middle of sinking in quicksand to explain the definition of it.

It's great to see Karen Allen again, but she hardly has anything to do and she especially lacks the firey spirit she had in Raiders. Cate Blanchett could have been a great villainess, but she's saddled with some of the worst dialogue in the film. John Hurt gets to run around acting like Gollum and Ray Winstone never registers as an actual character. Jim Broadbent shows up long enough to get a screen credit.

Shia LaBoef may be Spielberg's fair-haired boy, but he doesn't belong in this movie, ESPECIALLY after a secret about his character is revealed. LaBoef, like the 50s references, takes us out of the story. He's incredibly one-note as an actor, and his tough guy shtick gets old really quickly. When you consider Ford's past screen allies (Denholm Elliot as Marcus Brody, John Rhys-Davies as Sallah, Sean Connery!), little Shia is even more of a pipsqueak.

Is the movie worth seeing? Yes, if you're an Indy fan. There are enough entertaining scenes (though they are scattered and brief) and Dr. Jones gets a nice denouement at the end. But definitely catch it on DVD and not the $9.00 or upwards movie ticket prices. You're better off watching a double-feature of Raiders and Last Crusade.

It's nice to see Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones again, but whereas John McClane came back in a Die Hard movie, they've dropped Dr. Jones into a movie undeserving of his franchise. Just like Indy in a decrepit tomb, proceed with caution.