Tim Potter's Homepage

I am not the TV Generation. I was not born with TV, it came along when I was growing up.

And I lived with that parental "should we/shouldn't we" agonising which (of course) ended up with us getting one.

Our neighbors across the road had the first TV. Uncle Ron (as we called him) was a great tinkerer and built a lot of electronic gizmos. And he built his own TV, which was about the size of a nuclear power plant and made the same noise (it needed a fan to keep it cool). I think the first thing I ever saw on TV was across the road on his TV and I think it was the Mickey Mouse Club. I was not so much entranced as dumbfounded.

The first show I saw on our TV was a circus program, you probably remember it, hosted by Don Ameche. I had just come home from my friend Andrew's place where I'd been watching The Flintstones (a regular Friday evening ritual). After that I suppose I watched everything that moved for a few years. I remember the Andy Griffith Show, with Andy's laconic manner and a very young Ron Howard. I watched the Donna Reed Show, with her thousand-watt smile. I watched The Dick Van Dyke Show (remember the twin beds in the parents' bedroom, like sex hadn't been invented yet?). I saw the first episode of Bellbird (and lots afterwards), and lots and lots of movies. GTK had a great influence on me, as did a lot of other ABC shows (we were basically an ABC TV household).

These days, I don't watch much TV, but I really enjoy what I do watch. Here are some links to TV programs I enjoy.

It's back!

I saw the first episode, I saw the last episode, and all too few in between. Northern Exposure is great television. My favourite character has to be Chris ("Chris in the morning on KBHR"). But it's a great ensemble: Joel, Maurice, Maggie, Ruth-Ann... and the quality of the writing. A gem, thought to be lost.

Channel Ten had started repeating it but stopped after a few episodes. But now it's back on Foxtel's TV1.

The sparkling repartee between Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) and his brother (David Hyde Pierce) would be enough, but then there's his Seattle apartment and his father (John Mahoney) who walks with a stick (you rarely see that on television), the delightful dog and the fabulous scriptwriting. Read more if you like -- here -- but basically just watch it.

Hamish Macbeth

Very much in the same mold as Northern Exposure (remote small town, off-beat characters, ventures into mystical realism on occasion), Hamish Macbeth - with Robert Carlyle as PC Macbeth - is funny and quirky. Forgive this page it's attempt at the brogue ("Och weel, me wee bairns....") and enjoy this celebration of a terrific piece of television. Okay, it's off our screens now, but with the financial plight of the ABC, I expect a re-run before too long.

The Simpsons

Every episode of The Simpsons, I never fail to laugh out loud. Even when I'm watching by myself.

Sister Wendy

Rare is the day you turn on the television and are immediately transported. From Britain comes a most unlikely TV star in Sister Wendy Beckett, member of the Notre Dame order, a teaching order of nuns. She's written books and for magazines, and now is the most different presenter of television you could imagine.

In her habit and with her protruding teeth and slight speech impediment, she talks about art. But not about brush strokes and schools but of ideas and philosophy!

Sorry but there are no links here. You will find very little about her on the WWW. (If a tree falls in the forest and there is no-one to hear it, does it make a noise? Does something exist if it is not on the Web?)

I can tell you she studied English at University and is an honours graduate from Oxford, she lives in a Carmelite monastery in Norfolk where she lives "a fully contemplative life". I take that to mean they do not speak. Something she makes up for on TV.

I think she is fantastic and you should seek out her programs.

(My thanks to the State Library of SA for what scant information I could glean about Sister Wendy.)

There are those who think Sister Wendy is a fake, no-one dresses in the full old-fashioned nun's habit any more like Wendy does. But if this is all a publicity stunt, what a stunt! Any time she wants to pontificate on portraiture, I'll be there.

Sister Wendy's American Collection You didn't know that Sister Wendy is a Consecrated Virgin, did you? You don't know what it means, do you?

JAZZ A Film By Ken Burns

A flawed but fascinating TV series. Go here to brush up your history

The Rockford Files

Jim Rockford's phone number: (213) 555-3368. Rockford's car: tan Pontiac Firebird, California license OKG-853. Rockford's fee for solving crimes: $200 a day plus expenses. (But he somehow never gets paid.) Vanity Fair 12/95

There are cop shows and then there are cop shows. The Rockford Files stands out from the bunch because of James Garner's laconic style mixed with a kind of "naughty boy" image and an ensemble of actors who seemed more goofy than groomed. Living in a trailer (Aus = caravan) in some beachfront parking lot, Rockford eked out a living as a private dick who avoided a fist-fight and used his mind more than his muscles. The show had an appeal for me. Watching re-runs, alas it doesn't travel that well across the years. But James Garner was my hero.

M*A*S*H

M*A*S*H ran longer than the Korean War, which must mean laughter is more powerful than death.

BJ: He's an Academy man!
Hawkeye: West Point or Arthur Murray?

The Young Ones

Anarchy in the UK. You had to be there. If you weren't, and you see The Young Ones coming around in the TV schedules, don't miss it. But really, you had to be there.

Classic TV

The Three Stooges

When I was quite small, my mother, my father and I would go to my grandmother's, and they would do the gardening, and I would watch TV! We didn't have a TV set then but my grandmother did. And I would watch The Three Stooges. A strange, antique piece of TV, even then, especially now.

And there is now a website with 3 stooges videos.

Interesting background - "My Pal Moe"

The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis

Later, one of my absolute and utter favourites was The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. Sparkling repartee and a genuine, 24-carat beatnik, Maynard G. Krebs. (The G stands for Walter.) It still has a special place in my heart! Until recently, this page was about the only appearance that Dobie-doo made on the web, but lately others have seen the light: probably the best of the crop is The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, complete with a sound file of the theme!

There is even streaming video tMLoDG episodes, but they're on at almost impossible times if you're in Australia. (I downloaded Wimp* especially to watch Dobie. It was a waste of time with periodically garbled sound and jerky vision. I had to try I guess.)

Visit TV Land's collection of tMLoDG sounds & pic's, Maynard's CoffeeHouse and Dwayne Hickman's (Dobie Gillis) website

* Windows Media Player

What's on TV?

Are you brave enough to turn on the TV now? Here's today's Adelaide TV guide.

TV Go Home

But then, could your worst TV nightmare conceive of TV Go Home?

If you enjoyed this page half as much as I did writing it, then I enjoyed it twice as much as you!

Back to the top of this page.

Back to the first page