Thanks to ThatDerek for letting me know that Today (as I post this) is Harlan Ellison's 80th birthday! The controversial writer and all-round kibitzer is, of course, best-known for his highly original science-fiction short stories but I think my favorite books by him are his two collections of TV criticism columns from the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s. Harlan had himself BEEN a TV writer (BURKE'S LAW, STAR TREK, etc) and therefore had a rare insight that he shared with his readers. I'm looking forward to reading them yet again in conjunction with the book below which I recently ordered from Amazon for a penny after looking for it for 3 decades. First the upbeat, hopeful previews (NOT by Harlan!), then Ellison's skewering, where deserved.
Happy birthday, Harlan!
One of my first encounters with raw Ellison was a paperback copy of "The Other Glass Teat". As a teen I was fascinated with the potent writing and the even more potent opinion about a medium which I knew but didn't understand until I read Ellsion.
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