Posts by Gino Sassani

Three-time widower Ben Cartwright  (Greene) runs his famous Ponderosa Ranch with the aid of his three grown sons from three different mothers. There’s Little Joe (Landon), Adam (Roberts) and Hoss (Blocker). Set some time in the mid 1800’s, this long-running series followed the family’s many exploits. In the late 1950’s, westerns accounted for six of the top ten programs on TV. Only Gunsmoke had a longer run than Bonanza. From 1959 to 1973, Ben Cartwright and his boys rode across the small screen. Years later in syndication the series re-emerged as Ponderosa, and a handful of TV movies continued the tale into the 90’s.We never have grown tired of the genre that gave us such heroes as John Wayne and Clint Eastwood.

Unlike many of the 1960's Western television shows, Bonanza was all about the characters. You rarely saw a gunfight. There was often a bit of fisticuffs, but usually it ended with a lesson that violence never pays. The show prided itself on using the Western genre to deliver a family kind of show, and it's no surprise that series star Michael Landon would use many of the same kinds of stories and lessons on his own Little House On The Prairie. The Cartwrights are always helping widows, the wrongly accused, and the local Indian population. That help often lands them in hot water.

75 Years Of WWII is a collection of episodes from A&E/History's various war programs that have aired on the networks and have already been released in full sets of their own. It's intended to be somewhat of a greatest-hits DVD collection. If you're not inclined to pick up any of the full sets, this might make a nice addition to your collection, but I believe the full sets are far more worth your time.

Disc one contains a three hour two-part excerpt from WWII In HD on D-Day.

Is there anyone out there who hasn’t noticed that William Shatner the actor has become William Shatner the character over the years?  Give the man some credit for finding ways to reinvent himself. After Star Trek he was the only actor to find himself another regular television character and shakes the typecasting that most actors in the franchise have been victimized by. When TJ Hooker was gone, he found a few other shows and ways to take advantage of what could have been fleeting fame. By the time he did Boston Legal, he had completely reinvented himself as a somewhat humorous character and wonderful mate for James Spader. But all along there was and always will be more than a little Captain Kirk in the actor. And over time the two began to meld into a being that has been the fodder for jokes for most of the world. Shatner’s laughing, too, but not in the way you might think. Shatner’s been laughing all the way to the bank.

Part of his newfound shtick has been putting together these "films" that explore the mythology of Star Trek. As we climb ever closer to the 50th anniversary, expect Shatner to continue to cash in. His latest gets its name from an old Saturday Night Live skit in which Shatner admonishes some diehard fans at a convention to do just that. It's still one of the best SNL skits in decades, and it's an appropriate opening for this release. Unfortunately, we don't get the entire skit. We only get enough for Shatner to deliver the titular line.