It’s still August! I hope you’re finding time to relax and recharge before the month is over.

I’m still with family in Maine trying to do my own recharging and relaxing (no small feat with a 6-year-old), and as such I’m sharing some previous posts of mine that dig into all things television.

The posts below include interviews with directors and writers as well as deep dives into magical moments in TV history, theremin cameos, and SWASs (a show within a show).

I hope you enjoy!

Certain tropes pop up from time to time in television. (Pneumatic tubes are one of them, in fact, and yes I also have a post on that.) The two articles below focus on why so many television series have a “show within a show,” or SWAS. I used Apple TV’s Murderbot as a recent prime example. I also noticed that the theremin, a musical instrument that makes eerie synth sounds when someone moves their hands in the air around it, keeps popping up in shows. I interviewed the theremin player who worked on Severance, and more. Give them a read!

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In the 1950s, television was an evolving, experiential medium. I explore this moment in entertainment through the magician Dell O’Dell, who was one of the first magicians to have her own live television show.

I’ve been lucky enough to interview renowned documentarians like Ken Burns. Here is my interview with him as well as the brother team behind another great PBS documentary on Thoreau.