Month: January 2008

Thanks For The View

Here I am going on about the video projector, without giving thanks to the men who made it possible for me to appreciate it. Dr. Mark Hughes and Dr. Brad Shingleton.

I am indebted to Dr. Hughes in particular. My admiration and appreciation of him are without limit. Hughes saved the vision in my left eye, after a retinal detachment eight years ago. I still see him every six to eight months, and he will most likely be performing a procedure on my right eye this year.

Before Hughes, a doctor in Worcester, Massachusetts botched a surgery to repair the detached retina. Immediately after the surgery I knew it hadn’t worked, yet he sent me home. A week later I found Dr. Hughes through my boss, whose wife worked at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary.

Zooming In

Why have a 4:3 screen for a 16:9 front video projector? Because you can zoom in to make 4:3 material B-I-G, that’s why. Here are a couple of photos of the Panasonic PT-AX200U picture, zoomed in to fill the screen, taken from the couch. The image is about 75 inches diagonal. This Superman TV show is on DVD…

The Adventures of Superman

… and this spectacular image of Paulette Goddard’s breathtaking face is from a FiOS recording of “Modern Times.”

Paulette Goddard

Moments of Morty Gunty on PBS

PBS is running a series called Pioneers of Televison. It’s not necessarily about the first TV personalities, but performers who broke new ground in their own time. One of them is Carl Reiner, who had pitched a pilot called “Head of the Family,” featuring Morty Gunty originating the role of Buddy Sorel, later done by Morey Amsterdam in The Dick Van Dyke Show; who, frankly, I thought was too old for the part. It was fun to see a few moments of Morty Gunty on PBS tonight.

[flv:/Video/2008/JAN/TVPioneers.flv 400 300]

If you take a look at this past post, you will see that Morty’s daughter Sheryl has added a comment. I’m very pleased that Sheryl found my Web site, and I hope she spotted her late father on TV this week.