Walking Distance

In this entertaining and informative book, Victor L. Cahn revisits memorable episodes from eleven classic television shows, including The Twilight Zone, Maverick, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Fugitive, The Avengers, and All in the Family. He provides background for each program, details about the creative individuals involved, close readings of the scripts, and reflections on why these series were influential when originally broadcast and why they continue to be enjoyed decades later by baby boomers, their children, and their grandchildren. With a scholar's insight and a fan's enthusiasm, he offers a unique perspective on an integral part of mid-twentieth-century American culture.

Victor Cahn's Walking Distance is a wonderful tribute to some of the most beloved television shows. What makes this book unique is Cahn's ability to analyze an entire series and put it in context historically, politically, and socially through the exploration of a single episode. Walking Distance is a love letter to the power of TV and its effect on all of us who grew up during such a ripe time of American creativity.
--James Manley, Garden State Journal

In Walking Distance, Victor Cahn's passionate stroll through memory lane, we learn that there is a lot more merit to some of the most beloved television episodes than we ever realized. Elegantly written, full of information and insight.
--Doug Strassler, New York Press


Victor L. Cahn is Professor Emeritus of English at Skidmore College. He is the author of five books on Shakespeare, volumes on Tom Stoppard and Harold Pinter, the memoir Classroom Virtuoso, and the novels Romantic Trapezoid and Sound Bites. Several of his plays have been produced Off-Broadway and published by Samuel French, Inc.