Catching up with some forgotten shows

Let's see what we've passed in our DVD pile of late.......

There was a great deal of hubbub in the press when 50's star Robert Alda guest-starred on son Alan's series, M*A*S*H, a few years into the series' run. So it was a little odd to see father & son pictured together on the cover of a DVD compilation of Robert's 1955 series, Secret File USA, a show so obscure, there are no available clips on YouTube to speak of.

What happened was some jackass decided to photoshop a shot of Alan, in his role as Hawkeye, alongside Robert, to make it appear as though Alan actually appeared on the show, which was highly unlikely. I watched three of the four episodes on the disc, and concluded that the otherwise reputable Miracle Pictures, which held the rights, had engaged in a little false advertising in order to attract attention to Secret File, which otherwise probably doesn't get much sales, even for a public domain release.

Secret File is a pedestrian espionage series filmed overseas, and likely wasn't given much of a chance, if any at all, to catch on with American audiences, lasting just 1 season. Robert Alda is fine, but that's about it.

Edit: 8/19/15: There are now some episodes available on YouTube. Here's "Mission: Assassin":



Rating: D.

On the opposite end of the scale is ageless wonder Betty White. In her 7th decade on television, Betty is still plugging along, her latest series being TV Land's Hot In Cleveland, which teams her with Wendie Malick (ex-Just Shoot Me), Valerie Bertinelli (ex-One Day at a Time), & Jane Leeves (ex-Frasier). Not exactly Golden Girls for a new generation, and it's easy to make jokes and suggest that Betty might be able to outlive Methuselah, but we can conclude that today, she's virtually critic-proof.

That cannot be said, however, for her first series, Life With Elizabeth, a Don Fedderson entry that spent a couple of seasons on ABC, the first of three in a row for White, the last being her first self-titled series.

Life, with each episode split into three "sketches" in the form of chapters, is a poor man's I Love Lucy, but co-star Del Moore is no Desi Arnaz. Future game show host Jack Narz is the MC, and helps Elizabeth (White) along from time to time, such as in the episode, "Whistler's Father":



As we documented before, Narz's brother, Tom Kennedy, handled announcing duties for White's next series, Date With The Angels, another Fedderson sitcom. Unfortunately, Fedderson never considered either brother for his game show, Who Do You Trust?, which went instead to Johnny Carson. Otherwise, Trust might've lasted longer.

Life With Elizabeth gets a C+.