The state of the blog

As you can see by this morning’s review of The Red Skelton Hour in Color DVD collection, Thrilling Days of Yesteryear is back in the blogging saddle.  I profusely apologize for being away so long; my original plan was to start applying the paddles to TDOY last week, but this cold my sister gave me for Christmas morphed into a wicked bout of flu—the kind where you don’t feel like doing anything outside of glancing at the trashcan that sits beside Count Comfy von Chair and marveling at the amount of Kleenex you’ve gone through.

Be that as it may, I did not spend all the time counting snot rags; no, indeedy—I was formulating plans towards once again revamping the content here at TDOY…and sadly, this means some of the regular features will be given their pink slips (they will, however, receive a most generous severance package).  I will not sugarcoat this: my reaction to some of these standbys is that they’re a little too much like work.  An example of this is B-Western Wednesdays; I like to sit down with a good oater with the best of them…but when it gets to the point where I’m looking at the calendar and saying to myself: “Geez, I need to set aside some time to watch a programmer for the blog before Wednesday”—well, that’s when watching movies ceases to be fun.  I want to write about movies I’ve recently glanced at for the joy of sharing them…not because I’m conforming to a schedule.

So while B-Western Wednesdays won’t disappear entirely from TDOY it’s been relegated to “irregular” status.  I’ve been kind of slack on the television material with regards to the blog, so I’m hoping to dust off some of my boob tube-related DVDs and watch a classic or two on occasion.  I mentioned in a previous post that Forgotten Noir Fridays will be wrapping it up in a few months, and I hope after that’s finished to welcome back the off-and-on Crime Does Not Pay shorts (I lucked out when the Warner Archive collection was on sale at Amazon and I picked up the entire set for a mere bag of shells).

The silent movies I write about on Thursdays will be sticking around, as will be Overlooked Films on Tuesdays—Overlooked is kind of an extension of the “Where’s That Been” column I write for ClassicFlix, and I get a lot of pleasure out of sitting down with a movie that may have slipped under the radar of many a classic film fan.  Finally, I want to apologize for not getting the last TDOY giveaway started when I promised: I will have an announcement for this on Saturday, word of honor.  (It will be a month since the last swag contest, so everyone will get an opportunity to participate.)

2017 is going to be a dark year for many in the TDOY faithful.  Contrary to some of the smack being written about me on Twitter, I remain the happy-go-lucky individual dedicated to wallowing in nostalgia, and sharing that delight with like-minded classic movie and TV fans, so I’m hoping that the blog will provide a respite for those people who find themselves overwhelmed and just need a safety valve to restore a little bit of sanity.  As a wise cartoon Indian once said: “Hoopy doopy—we have fun!”  I most certainly intend to, and I invite you to join me.