The Incredible Inman

It started with a martian.

Dick Van Dyke turns 100 on December 13th.

During its original five-season run (1961-66), "The Dick Van Dyke Show" could sometimes be quietly controversial.

In the summer of 1949, "Dragnet" premiered on NBC radio.

So I've written a new book about the quiz show scandals of the 1950s.

The biggest television drama of the late 1950s wasn't a romance, or a western, or a cop show.

The 1932 film "State's Attorney" and its 1937 remake, "Criminal Lawyer," are based on the same story by Louis Stevens.

The star of the 1934 film "The Silver Streak" isn't first-billed Sally Blane, or even male lead Charles Starrett.

In the most exciting news since the introduction of the Pocket Catheter, it's time for another installment of Screen Capture Theatre!

"A Charlie Brown Christmas" wasn't intentionally created to be timeless, but because of its simplicity and sincerity, timeless it is.

Barbara Stanwyck enters the 1930 film "Ladies of Leisure" -- and film history -- in a rowboat.

"I'm Van!"

"The Silver Horde" is undoubtedly the most detailed film ever made about the process of canning salmon.

In the 1930 film "The Big House" people are constantly dwarfed by their surroundings.

The 1930 MGM film "Children of Pleasure" tries to whip up big-city showbiz razzle-dazzle in the manner of the same studio's Oscar-winning "The Broadway Melody" or "Chasing Rainbows," but due to a wan leading man and subpar musical numbers (including one w…

Plotwise, the 1930 film "Danger Lights" is "The Broadway Melody" with locomotives -- a love triangle involving two people who hate to hurt the odd one out.

Star-struck sisters coming to New York, struggling songwriter, backstage drama, misguided love -- it's all there, and more, in the 1929 film "The Broadway Melody."

"The Hollywood Revue of 1929," MGM's entry in the look-at-us-we're-talking sweepstakes, is a lot like Warner Bros.'

The opening exchange of the 1928 film "Lights of New York," a conversation between two gangsters in a hotel room, goes something like this: Gangster 1: The bootleg rap against us has been dropped -- and we can go back to the big town tomorrow.

In early 1967, folksinging comedians Tom and Dick Smothers kicked off their own variety show on CBS.

"A Charlie Brown Christmas" wasn't intentionally created to be timeless, but because of its simplicity and sincerity, timeless it is.

When the Directors Guild of America announced its award nominations in 1986, history was made.

OK, I think we can all agree it's been a tough couple of months.

In 1952, Republican Dwight Eisenhower squared off against Democrat Adlai Stevenson in the presidential election.

Ronald Reagan is credited with a great line about his days of making B-movies: "They didn't want them good, they wanted them Thursday."