Elvis Presley has the distinction of having the 1,000th number one single in the UK with “One Night”. Elvis was at the top of the chart last week, too. (SonyBMG inaugurated a reissue series of his 18 number one singles, beginning with “Jailhouse Rock”, in order to celebrate the 70th anniversary of his birth.)

I should mention that, for us, the weather is back to normal: at least six inches of fluffy, white snow is covering everything in sight.

Why do I go on about TV? My earliest vivid memories of the outside world are of pop singles and TV: The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, The Alvin Show, even Laugh-In. On tape, the period of 1966-1969 is even more vivid than on film (for a while, GSN was the only network with live-in-studio programming like this—late 1960s runs of panel shows like To Tell The Truth and What’s My Line? The style, perfectly preserved, is more than the game.

TV is like a Stargate, but throughout the 1970s and most of the 1980s it was a Stargate without a cartouche—nothing to dial to, with precious few exceptions. This is the reason why SCTV is so special, because for many of us, it was the only doorway to quality.

Speaking of SCTV, Shout! factory have announced the release of the Volume 3 (i.e. the third cycle of nine shows from the 1981-1982 run) DVD set on 1 March.

They say Elvis Costello and the Imposters are coming to town concurrent with the release of the 2CD edition of The Delivery Man incorporating The Clarksdale Sessions.