A Hobby that couldn't have been in the past

When I was young I was pretty involved in lots of things. Mostly Cadets but also camping, survival training and many other things that took me out of the house. When I was working it was often shift and I was away when things I wanted to see on TV were on. I hoped that somehow when I retired I could make a hobby of watching the shows I couldn't see then. TV has not made that possible as most good programs that old are not run these days. If it requires an attention span longer then a blink or an IQ higher than a single digit the programmers think it is to sophisticated for TV ( perhaps they are correct ). However the release of very old shows on DVD's and some of them being on the Internet has made that retirement dream possible. Not easy but possible. I had imagined it would only be a matter of deciding which to watch and as easy changing channels. In those days remote control meant asking your brother to change the channel. ( I'm not sexist just didn't have any sisters. )

The hard parts are one remembering what those shows were and two finding them. The photo at the top is Bill Bixby as the Magician in the 1973 series of the same name. As the show was broadcast on the same night as my Cadet training night I only saw two episodes then. I now have them all in my collection. I have managed to get the whole run of him in The Incredible Hulk. Until the movies they could not make the Hulk as powerful as in the comics. I was a major comic book fan but respected the limitations of then contemporary television. I guess the prize of my collection is the mini-series Shogun with Richard Chamberlain. It's broadcast and the book in many ways caused my interest in languages. Btw with a couple of name changes and the removal of the love story ( there was a love story as his he fathered a line which survives and thrives to this day ) the story is true. Somehow this one man landing in Japan when he did and one leader having the wisdom to make use of his knowledge upset the balance of power and Japan came under a single ruler whose line is the longest dynasty in human history. The real name of the pilot was William Addams. His Japanese name I will leave for you to look up but just realized translates as Ship's pilot.

Satellite television is airing the old series the Rifleman and I am watching that. When I was quite young my Dad took me to a personal appearance of Johnny Crawford who played the young son. He was in his early 20's when I saw him. I was younger when he took me to meet the Cisco Kid. I became a huge fan of Ernest Borgnine when I had a bit part in one of his movies. I was also in charge of armoury security for the time and he hated to eat with the Hollywood types so I smuggled him out to local lunch places for 28 days running. It was the man who is very down to earth I became friends and a fan of. Not the people that he played the parts of. As a result I have made sure I have the Series Airwolf and am still looking for copy of the series "Future Cop" were he played a veteran cop partnered with an android comparable to Data but looking completely human.

The search goes on.