This weekend, I watched some old-school TV, dusting off a few DVDs I've picked up some time ago. First off was The Best of Ernie Kovacs. Bizzare by the standards of his time, bizarre by modern standards. Sort of like David Letterman meets Spike Jones and His City Slickers meets Monty Python at their silliest. More surreal than outright hilarious most of the time, but the Nairobi Trio certainly made me laugh--a musical trio of men in monkey masks, you could tell the conductor monkey was getting enraged by the antics of his peers when the man in the mask would breathe heavy and suck the mask in and out...I guess you'd just have to see it. And the various syncronized musical numbers were pretty awesome. If you've never seen him (I hadn't), it's worth checking out. The Best of Ernie Kovacs DVD has a lot of material, though after about 90 minutes in one sitting, it becomes a bit overwhelming. Be sure to pace yourself.

After that, I watched a couple episodes of Peter Gunn. I've enjoyed the soundtrack CD from the show, and figured I should check out the source. It's decent entertainment. It was a bit ridiculous, in the tradition of old serials, in that it seemed like Peter Gunn should have died in every episode I watched (but I guess Peter Gunn as the Detective who Dies wouldn't be very exciting). And 25 minutes isn't really enough time for a well-developed film noir detective story to play out. But it's still reasonably exciting, with great music and a hip style. I was surprised how well the episodes I saw held up. Not earth-shattering stuff, but not bad.