As I was watching Mystery on PBS last night

[question everything]

with the familiar drawings of Edward Gorey with the damsel in distress on top of the roof, I was reminded that that program used to be underwritten by Exxon.

And wouldn't it be nice if Exxon would not send some of its gazillions of dollars back to underwriting this program?

[xxqqqzme]

1. It would also be nice if mobil/exxon

paid their fines for the Valdez Alaskan oil spill.

[question everything]

2. I was wondering about that, when the salary of the CEO

was publicized, of whether the oil spill was ever resolved.

Wouldn't it be nice if Congressman Young and Senator Stevens, with their pork projects and with their enthusiasm of drilling in ANWR hauled these executives to their committees to demand answers and actions. The communities impacted are their constituents, after all

[AnnInLa]

3. Many programs on PBS are underwritten by

Big Business. Damn, with the their profits, the could underwrite PBS totally....but, they would try to control the message too.

I love Mystery too!! And, the new mysteries on BBC America, but they are rather dark and gruesome. The best, in my opinion, are the older British Mysteries: Cracker, Silent Witness, Touch of Frost, Morse, Poirot, Tennyson.

Any other British Mysteries fans out there?

[spindrifter]

4. Here!

I love all the British mysteries.

[htuttle]

5. Check out the A&E Biography channel on weekends

Saturday night, they run Sherlock Holmes and Nero Wolfe (and unfortunately...Columbo...).

Sunday, it's Poirot, Midsomer Murders and Sherlock Holmes all day long -- 6-8 episodes back to back.

[KoKo]

11. I wish PBS would run some of their old classics from the BBC...

They should be cheap and they were good escapism.

[question everything]

12. Catch all of them on occasions

Either PBS or A&E once tried the Nagio Marsh mystery but it was only one story and that was it. Too bad. I think that I've read all of her books.

And then there was Ellis Peters' brother Cadfael.

[patdem]

6. Here too. Do not forget Agatha Christie

I love all the period pieces they do also. Why I love the English Countryside is beyond me!

[AnnInLa]

15. English countryside.....it speaks to me too!

Maybe in a past life? I think why I just eat up all of the British Mysteries and the British Comedies.

Does anyone remember a British Comedy from years ago? It was called, "Mother and Son," and was set in Australia or NZ. Even today, I can think of some of the scenes, and laugh out loud. (Sometimes poses a problem, depending on where I am.)

I'm not a prude or a censor-monger, but I think I like the British mysteries and comedies because they are totally interesting, on an adult level, intelligent....without gratuitous sex/violence. And, that's not something you see very often on TV.

Am going to London for a week in September, and hope to take some day-trips out into the countryside. Maybe I'll see my own British mystery or comedy!

[ceile]

7. I saw that there's going to be a Prime Suspect 7!

Should be the last one-I think it said 11/2006. I love Helen Mirren!

[KoKo]

10. Yes....and I liked the older ones also. They didn't have as dark an edge

as the new ones. I liked the "Peter Whimsey series" and especiallly "Inspector Morse," many others. I don't get BBC America but the new mysteries in the last years on PBS have gotten very dark. The new Miss Marple is interesting, though.

[Warpy]

8. I remember when it was Mobil

and the announcer would say OIL like he was tasting the stuff.

Now that you mention it, I haven't seen much oil company advertising at all, not for the last year or so.

[Misskittycat]

9. Have you seen the earlier, Joan Hickson, version of this episode?

If so, was't the storyline quite different than last night's? Which one was more faithful to the book? It's been bugging me, and I haven't had time to check it out at the library.

[question everything]

13. I do not remember that one but it would not surprised me

It appears that with these new Miss Marple stories that have decided to take a literary freedom.

In the Body in the Library from last season, in the story, the dance teacher was secretly married to the widowed son in law of the old man. In the new versions, it was a lesbian liaison between the dance teacher and the widowed daughter in law.

Christie would have never written about so openly homosexual relations and not only that, they changed the identity of the murderer!

I wonder whether it is a calculated risk that most viewers would not be familiar with the stories, which is hard to accept. I think that most of us who watch these mystery stories have read the stories before, thought not necessarily remember the details. I did not, with the the Body in the Library, but I knew that Christie would have never written about an openly lesbian affair, so I found the book in my library and read it again and was quite stunned.

(P.S. not that there's anything wrong with it, etc...)

[helderheid]

14. They're trying to ax PBS again

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1409202