RETURN WITH US NOW TO THOSE ELEMENTARY DAYS OF YORE!

Last week was my birthday and one of the gifts that I received was a DVD set that took me back to the time when I was innocent lad of 14. Those were the days that I lived in the printed worlds of Arthur Conan Doyle and William Sydney Porter (O. Henry). I wouldn’t discover Ray Bradbury for a couple of years. That was the year that a syndicated series began running on Sunday nights right after the News @ Ten. It was called THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES.

Now I know I had seen all the Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce Sherlock Holmes movies growing up and going to the Friday night double features at the old Salisbury Theater with my Aunt Edna. But the TV series was different … Sherlock was a young and dashing Ronald Howard. (Not to be confused with Ron (Opie) Howard.

And for 39 weeks I didn’t miss a single 30-minute episode. I didn’t even notice that the series was produced on really low-budget, and when they walk down a hall most of the doors seem painted on the wall. And even though the series was produced by an American company, it was actually filmed in Paris. And other than the lead roles most of the actors were Frenchmen with bad … very bad … English accents. But who notices things like that when you’re 14?

Anyway for my birthday, my friend Bill gave me the DVD set containing  …

THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES

Unfortunately the photo featured on the DVD case cover is the Holmes and Watson of Rathbone and Bruce. The 39 episodes of the TV series are on three of the four discs. The fourth disc contains three British Sherlock Holmes movies made in the early 30s, and a single Rathbone and Bruce film THE WOMAN IN GREEN.

I’ve decided to watch one episode each night right after the NEWS @ TEN for old times sake.