I'm hooked.

I've been a fan of movies since I was a kid.

Next to reading a good book, the movies are the best way to travel to places you will more than likely never have the opportunity to let alone see, better yet go to.

In the early 1990s, when we were living in the bucolic town of Hornick, I was convinced that we would never again have cable television. Who would wire a town of just over 200 for cable? It would never happen.

So, I devised a plan to get a satellite dish. In those days, a 12 foot dish that you had to move to access different satellites and programming was the way to go to get entertainment in rural areas.

I worked out a barter agreement with a dealer and got the dish and descrambler installed and set about discovering what was 'out there.'

Looking back 15 years, the technology seems rather archaic, but it got the job done. I was able to see episodes of syndicated programs a week early, receiving the same feeds that affiliates got. Got to watch network anchors in between commercial breaks, which was quite amusing. Some of the big names in news are not very nice to their co-workers.

Perhaps the best thing about having satellite TV was discovering the then fledgling 24-hour networks that featured only old movies of the 1930s, 40s and 50s. American Movie Classics (AMC) was the first of these networks, but today Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is clearly the leader in commercial-free old movies.

But in those days, AMC and host Bob Dorian opened an entire new world of movies to me. I got to see Henry Fonda, Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers and an entire universe of stars that I knew nothing about.

It was great.

Perhaps the best thing I discovered were the comedians. W.C. Fields, Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, The Marx Brothers. Such wonderful geniuses! What a joy to discover for the first time!

This past weekend, TCM, as part of their month-long "Summer Under the Stars" featured 24 hours of Laurel and Hardy films. The majority of what was shown were 30 minute shorts that were probably part of the longer movie experiences of the day.

The brilliance of Laurel and Hardy is that there is a grain of truth in their comic misadventures that we all can relate to. In one of the shorts, "Blotto," the pair are planning a night out on the town without their wives. Hardy has already "escaped" his wife, but Laurel is having difficulty finding a way to slip past his wife.

The pair develop a plan that Laurel receives a telegram that will call him out on urgent business. Laurel's wife, listening on the telephone extension, gets wise to the plan. The pair plans to steal a bottle of liquor that Laurel's wife has been saving. His wife proceeds to empty the bottle and replace its contents with cold tea, salt, pepper, tabasco sauce and nearly everything but the kitchen sink.

After successfully sneaking out, the duo arrives at club and begin drinking what they believe is liquor. They become drunk by placebo, having a wonderful time until Mrs. Laurel arrives with a shotgun. (It seems that many marital arguments in these comedies were "resolved" with weapons) The duo, realizing they are not drunk and are in dire straights, sober up and flee for their lives, catching a taxi cab for a quick getaway.

Mrs. Laurel takes aim at the fleeing cab, fires both barrels and the cab literally falls apart. It looked as if people were standing on both sides with cables and literally pulled the old Model T apart.

I laughed until I cried.

The humor is universal, nearly 80 years later. No curse words, no racial slurs, no potty humor.

That's true genius.

As always, I welcome your comments. You can reach me by email at tstangl@lemarscomm.net, telephone 712-546-7031, x40 or toll free 1-800-728-0066 x40.

Thanks for reading, I'll keep in touch. Feel free to do the same.