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One of the problems with having a projection system is that if the video isn’t in high definition it can look pretty dingy.    However, sometimes visual quality doesn’t matter.   I use a Roku to stream my video to my projector.  I love the wide array of channels, many for free.  The best of the lot is a channel called Pub-D-Hub.

Pub-D-Hub specializes in all things Public Domain.  From movies to radio and television shows, and even industrial/school films such as ‘How to Date’…   A lot of these films are available on YouTube and Archive.com, but Pub-D-Hub categorizes them and makes them easy to scroll through.

This Saturday I ventured into their Television section.  Along with old episodes of The Andy Griffith Show and Beverly Hillbillies were a bunch of shows that I’d never heard of… some for good reason.   I had a few people over, so I decided to play ‘let’s watch a random television show’.  First Dan saw a show he hadn’t watched since he was a child in the 1960’s.  “Sky King“.

This show goes by the premise that you can make a cowboy show, except instead of a horse our hero flies a plane. “Songbird”. The one we watched moved quickly and was about a couple of vicious but inept highway robbers. High jinx ensues with our Sky King having to fly Songbird through a valley of mountains with no gas. “Look out for that mountain…’ Sky King’s sidekick warns.  Video quality: C-minus; Crowd pleasing scale: B-minus. Although it is entertaining, its still a routine cowboy show.

We then watched Ding Dong School.

Ding Dong School was the ‘nursery school of the air’. One of the first children shows of its kind that tried to teach as well as entertain. The school’s head teacher Miss Francis shows how to blow bubbles, make rabbits out of handkerchiefs, and most of all tells us that we need to tell our Mommies to buy us Kix cereal for breakfast. Fellow viewer Dean was not a good student and thought it was horrifying. I but I was transfixed by the complete calmness of Miss Francis who really seemed to want to teach children how to blow bubbles.

Video Quality: B+. Crowd Pleasing Scale: C-minus. Historically interesting, but at 30 full minutes you can only hear about how good Kix is for so long. The commercials were at least one-third of the show.

We then watched Stump the Stars. One of the most frustrating game shows I’ve ever seen.

In this show, Jeanne Crain and Ed Begley were the guest stars with regulars, Beverly Garland, Hans Conried, Ross Martin, Ruta Lee, Sebastian Cabot. Viewers write in a charade phrase that the stars have to guess in 120 seconds. This is Olympic style charades. The have to figure out not just the name of a book or play, but riddles, puns, parodies, and even a viewers address. The game moves so fast that I found it unbelievable that anyone could have gotten anything right. But how many chances to get to see Ruta Lee play charades with Hans Conried.

Video Quality: B. Crowd Pleasing Scale: B-minus. It was interesting for about ten minutes, then it just became exhausting. It just comes down to that charades is not fun to watch.

But I urge you if have a Roku to check this station out. Lots of fun video to dig through.