You Can't Hit A Dog With An Irishman

      Much to my surprise, PBS tonight reaired an interview with Hal Holbrook on Bill Moyers' NOW programme. After it came a rare rebroadcast of Holbrook's classic one-man performance from 1967 of Mark Twain Tonight! The production is bloody terrific television (though based on a stage-play): it's nothing less than mesmerizing, even 37 years afterwards, and at times wonderfully funny. Watching it tonight in its entirety, it's almost impossible to believe how well Holbrook commands your attention, how thoroughly he rivets you with his story-telling and his mimicry. It's a performance of broad humour and great subtlety, and often both at the same time. It's damned near impossible to find this production on video or DVD -- and TV is terribly reluctant to air it, even its original network, CBS. PBS' airing of it means it's probably going to be in the rotation for a little bit on your local affiliates of the network. Look for it. Find it. Watch it. Television-- and acting-- don't get much better, if any better, than this, and it does it with just one man. It reminds you what really can be done with this medium that we so lackadaisically surrender to the manufacture of melodrama and "reality programming." It reminds you that there can indeed be such a thing as noble television.