Yesterday, for unknown whys and wherefores, my father
decided to strike up a conversation with me about the old Steve McQueen TV
western
Wanted: Dead or Alive.
You may remember
from a previous post that I capitalized on a
Starz/Encore freeview several months back by building an episode collection of
the entire series (I obtained 92 out of 94), but I worked on this out of the watchful
eye of Dear Ol’ Dad, who doesn’t often comprehend how these things work.
(Which is to be expected of the man whose
favorite function on the remote is the “mute” button.)
So I was curious as to how he would have
access to the series.
As it turns out, he watched it the other morning (while
Mumsy and I collected groceries) on WGTA-TV Atlanta—a new channel acquisition
appearing on our DISH Network system.
Digital subchannels like MeTV and Antenna TV are a rarity on DISH; for
unexplained reasons, they won’t carry them—the only such station that DISH
carries (as of this post) is GetTV, and I don’t need to rehash why this is a
wonderful way to stoke my classic television obsession.
(Well, I suppose I could also include Laff;
DISH replaced Blue Highways TV in March with this subchannel devoted to recent comedy movies
and sitcoms.)
So seeing WGTA in the
lineup made my little heart go pitter pat: they’re a Heroes & Icons
affiliate, and H&I has sprinkled its ho-hum rerun schedule (
Hunter,
21
Jump Street) with delectable classic goodies including
12 O’Clock
High,
Combat!,
Wagon Train, and
Broken
Arrow.
I’ve seen the 1950 James Stewart film that inspired the TV
version of
Broken Arrow, but I’ve never actually seen an episode of the
small screen version.
(My mother
announced that she has, and she was kind of smug about it.)
I’m just pleased that DISH added the station
(they removed the Toccoa, GA station that had a fairly impressive rerun library
many months back), and perhaps there will come a day when I will be able to
rejoin my MeTV brethren and sistren. Apologies for the dearth of posts this month, by the way; I've been distracted by various shiny objects but I hope to have a more robust posting schedule in May.
7 comments:
Charter is very good about carrying digital subchannels. We've had Me-TV for years. Unfortunately they won't carry getTV, even though we've had a local affiliate for well over a year now! It's rather frustrating and I keep thinking I should just break down and buy an aerial so I can watch it.
Anyhow, WGTA sounds wonderful. I have part of Wanted Dead or Alive on DVD, but I do enjoy watching it live. I'd also love to see Combat! again. I've seen the entire run, but it has been a while.
Heroes & Icons also carries Cheyenne. I highly recommend it.
Scott Lovrine
Directv doesn't carry the in-between channels either. I really wish they did. I don't understand how they are able to have the regular channels, but not the in-between. Since they have hundreds of shopping channels, clearly it is not for a lack of frequencies.
Terence:
I still haven't forgotten those episodes of The Lieutenant I promised to send you. Just waiting until GetTV finishes their showings before I slap them on some black discs.
Scott jogged my memory:
Heroes & Icons also carries Cheyenne. I highly recommend it.
I think Encore Westerns is still showing Cheyenne, too. (I saw them all when I had EW.) As of this comment, the 'rents are watching Have Gun -- Will Travel until the Braves-Cubs game comes on.
Amanda wondered out loud:
Directv doesn't carry the in-between channels either. I really wish they did. I don't understand how they are able to have the regular channels, but not the in-between. Since they have hundreds of shopping channels, clearly it is not for a lack of frequencies.
A most excellent point, and one I have cogitated on myself from time to time. We had the same problem when we had AT&T U-Verse; they refused to carry the substations (though I had one or two people tell me they were able to access MeTV in their markets).
Hi, Ivan.
Love your blog! I'm not on much social media, so I couldn't figure any other way to contact you except reaching out via this rather unorthodox method. I don't actually mean this as a blog comment, just a brief personal note to you. Like you, I really love these vintage TV shows that are seeing revivals on channels like Decades, MeTV, getTV, etc. A few years ago, I was lucky enough to snag excellent DVD-R recordings of Louis Hayward's detective series THE LONE WOLF from the now defunct AmericanLife Network. Was wondering if you might be willing to swap a copy of the first 5 episodes of THE THIN MAN for some of my LONE WOLFs? I know you must get tons of requests from fans across the country, so I'll understand if you're unable to help me out. But if you'd be up for a small trade, I'd love to chat with you. My email address is curt@maljardin.com. Thanks for all the great work you do with your blog, and I hope to chat with you further.
Regards,
Curt Ladnier
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