I’m a loyal watcher of the old “Mission: Impossible” TV series. Right now, you can catch one episode a week on METV. Monday mornings at 3 a.m. I expect that whenever the next Tom Cruise “MI” movie comes out, it’ll run more often. That’s what usually happens.

What I love is how it’s a time capsule of making TV in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. The same character actors show up season after season. Sid Haig played eight different people. Arthur Batanides played six. John Vernon, four. They’d play a priest in one episode, disappear for a year, and then reappear as a gangster. It was easier to have that kind of career before DVDs and streaming.

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You can find the four seasons of British sitcom “The IT Crowd” on Netflix – and you should. It’s centered on three people who work Information Technology (I.T.) in the basement of a large London corporation. Chris O’Dowd (“Bridesmaids,” “Girls”) is Roy, the slacker. Richard Ayoade (“Travel Man,” “Submarine”) is Moss, the nerd. Katherine Parkinson is the allegedly normal one stuck with Moss and Roy.

There’s a lot of great small moments between characters, but my favorite episodes are the big farces where small bad choices snowball until there’s no dignified way out. It’s tough to find just one clip that explains all of that, so here’s some “greatest hits.”

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I’m excited to see a three-season (so far) TV comedy is finally coming to the US. “Wellington Paranormal” is a spin-off from the 2014 New Zealand mockumentary, “What We Do in the Shadows.” The movie is both subtle and over the top – a  horror/comedy about vampires who rent a house together in the New Zealand capital, Wellington. You’ll probably recognize Taika Waititi (“Thor: Ragnarok,” “Jojo Rabbit”) and Jemaine Clement (“Flight of the Conchords,” “Moana”).

In the original movie, the vampire lads run into all kinds of trouble, including the local cops, Officers Minogue and O’Leary. They’re by-the-book, but a bit dim.

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I’ve noticed that since the clampdown, late night talk shows (Seth, Stephen, and the Jimmies) are more willing to put their writers on the air as performers. As a show producer, you know they’re funny and you don’t need to go through the trouble of auditioning actors during a pandemic.

“Late Night with Seth Meyers” writer and stand-up comedian Jeff Wright has been appearing by Zoom and in-person for months, commenting on politics and culture. This week, the clip getting passed around is Jeff as personification of all the COVID-19 vaccines interviewing for the gig.

Daily comic strips are still out there, though most folks don’t bother with physical newspapers anymore. Even my 83-year-old mom reads the obituaries on her laptop.

As a kid of the 1970’s, I would tear through a newspaper funnies page. “Peanuts,” “B.C.,” and “Beetle Bailey” were favorites. I had drugstore paperbacks of “Wee Pals,” probably the first strip with an integrated cast. I even read “Love Is…,” the one-panel that makes “Ziggy” look deep.

The few comics I still check out are now digital and not so much a daily read as a binge every week or two. “Nancy” is one of them.

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