Category Archives: Television

Only murders . . . and criminal negligence?

Posted on May 23, 2025 by Katherine Wikoff

A stairwell on campus is closed for painting, and when I noticed the yellow “CAUTION” tape blocking off the doorway, I suddenly thought about Season 3 of “Only Murders in the Building.” Season 3, you may remember, is the storyline … Continue reading →

Posted in Books and reading, Creativity, Popular culture, Television, Writing, blogging | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Happy (slightly belated) birthday, Bob Mackie!

Posted on March 26, 2025 by Katherine Wikoff

My daughter and I were talking about famed costume designer Bob Mackie yesterday and realized that not only is he still alive but he just had a birthday earlier this week (March 24). I thought he must be close to … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Creativity, design, History, Media studies, Movies and film, Popular culture, Television | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Why the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys always play on Thanksgiving

Posted on November 28, 2024 by Katherine Wikoff

I have wondered about this for years. It seemed like my dad and grandfather watched the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving afternoon every single year of my childhood. Do the Lions always play on Thanksgiving, or is my memory just playing … Continue reading →

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Everything “new” is old (again!😀)

Posted on February 17, 2024 by Katherine Wikoff

I suppose every generation believes it has discovered something new when actually that something has been around not just for a while but for a very long time. Like, sometimes centuries! Let me start off with a little Milwaukee hometown … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Creativity, History, Life, Media studies, Popular culture, Television | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Karma? (Or, what goes around comes around)

Posted on October 1, 2023 by Katherine Wikoff

Remember Rueben Kincaid, the Partridge Family’s manager? A while ago I read David Cassidy’s memoir (C’mon, Get Happy) and discovered that Dave Madden, the comedian and comic actor who played Rueben, was a really sweet, generous person. Among his good … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Life, Popular culture, Television | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Wait, this guy is THAT GUY???

Posted on September 24, 2023 by Katherine Wikoff

Our dog is a “rescue,” and back when we first got her from the Humane Society (and she was extremely restless), we somehow realized that playing “Monk” episodes (the quirky, comedic detective series starring Tony Shalhoub) on our television would … Continue reading →

Posted in Popular culture, Television | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments

Why this year’s Best Picture award dooms the Oscars to irrelevance

Posted on March 28, 2022 by Katherine Wikoff

The last film that students watch in my film and media studies course is whatever has won the Best Picture Oscar that year. I was a little nervous to see what won this year because some of the nominees were … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Higher education, Media studies, Movies and film, News, Popular culture, Television | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Linking to an old (2017) but freshly updated post about SCTV’s “CCCP 1” episode and today’s crisis in Ukraine

Posted on March 1, 2022 by Katherine Wikoff

I noticed that this old post was getting lots of views tonight, so I decided to go in and check on whether the embedded video was still live. Nope. So I found some new clips and also added some commentary … Continue reading →

Posted in Political Analysis, Popular culture, Television | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Remembering the “Star Hustler”

Posted on November 19, 2021 by Katherine Wikoff

There was a partial lunar eclipse visible from Milwaukee last night, which I really wanted to go outside and see but which I didn’t because I also needed to be asleep at 3:00 a.m. so I could do my job … Continue reading →

Posted in Life, Milwaukee, Nature, Popular culture, Science, Television | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments

Look for the Union Label (some thoughts prompted by the Alec Baldwin on-set shooting incident)

Posted on October 24, 2021 by Katherine Wikoff

When I saw this “poster” today, I realized that I haven’t seen any union promotions in a really long time. It also put me in mind of this old TV ad. I’ll bet every American above a certain age still … Continue reading →

Posted in Movies and film, News, Political Analysis, Popular culture, Television | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments