Who Wrote This Stuff?

Memories of a TV guy: Born the same year as "I Love Lucy," I cannot remember a time when there was no television. Of course, the television I first knew was on a small, black-and-white screen with the picture dependent on what an antenna brought in.

(Living in eastern Virginia, I remember the occasional thrill from catching a signal from a Richmond station; it was fuzzy but it was there, and sometimes the Richmond stations carried shows the broadcasters closer to home refused. I think "Sticks and Bones" was one example.)

I started writing about television on an occasional basis in the early 1970s while filling other duties at the Daily Press in Newport News, Va. I began following TV on a more regular basis in 1979, starting as a free-lancer for newspapers in Albany, N.Y., then from 1981 while a fulltime reporter for the Schenectady Gazette (later the Daily Gazette and Sunday Gazette).

In 1994, I joined the Akron Beacon Journal as the TV writer and I remain there to this day. That meant I reviewed shows, interviewed the people who make television, wrote a weekly mailbag column for the print editions as well as handling an online mailbag at www.ohio.com, and wrote a weekly column about TV shows on DVD. And, as you know, I write for this blog, which tells you a lot about my daily life.

My duties changed in late 2006, when I became popular culture writer for the Beacon Journal. This still includes some TV writing, though less than before. But I have added movies to the things I cover, both reviewing occasionally and writing longer trend pieces. My weekly mailbag now includes non-TV questions. My weekly DVD column, running Sundays, now covers video releases of movies as well as TV.

Regular writing also includes the print version of the HeldenFiles, which appears in the Wednesday and Saturday editions, space permitting. It contains gossip, news bits and commentary collected from wire services, Web sites, local news and some original reporting.

Because of the broader reach, this blog has ranged farther afield than it did when it was just about TV; I have also added several pages of favorites in TV, movies and music, and may come up with some other topics. (State capitals I have visited? Well, maybe not that.) I have not updated them in a couple of years but will do some soon.

I am a member of the Television Critics Association and have been its vice president and president. I have written one book, "Television's Greatest Year: 1954" (1994) and co-written two others, "Ghoulardi: Inside Cleveland TV's Wildest Ride" (1997) and "Cleveland TV Memories" (1999), both with Tom Feran.

I expect to write more books someday, and have a first draft of a mystery set on a TV critics' press tour. Working title: "Death Wore a Name Tag." Yes, it's supposed to be funny.

When not watching TV and movies for a living, I like to watch for fun. I also read some, and you will find occasional notes here about books. Reading in 2009 has included Doris Kearns Goodwin's "Team of Rivals" (still reading it), "The Ten-Cent Plague" by David Hajdu and "Beat the Reaper" by Josh Bazell, among other titles. I have also been dipping into Henry James for a seminar at the University of Akron, where I am a graduate student. An ollllld one.

I also enjoy listening to music. (Some recent listening in September 2009: Jenny Lewis, "Acid Tongue"; Funkadelic, "Maggot Brain"; Allman Brothers Band, "Whipping Post" at the Fillmore, a couple of Joss Stone CDs; Angie Stone, "Stone Love," Miles Davis, "Bitches Brew:) I have also discovered the wonders of home improvement, one bent nail at a time. Nature's wonder: the hacksaw. Next project: removing and replacing some old sidewalk block.

I live near Akron with my wife, known to all of you here as The Bride. We have three grown children and two cats. Besides this blog, you can find me on Twitter (some) and Facebook (appallingly often), and on my not-updated-often-enough other blog, Northeast Ohio Onscreen.