It's About TV

If you read the classic TV blogosphere links every Friday on "Around the dial," you’ve probably noticed mention of The Bob Crane Show: Reloaded, a wonderful podcast hosted by Eric Senich, whose father was Bob Crane’s first cousin, and Carol Ford, the author of Bob Crane: The Definitive Biography, which is, well, the definitive biography. I had the great pleasure of interviewing Carol early last year, and now it’s time to welcome Eric Senich to the infamous It’s About TV Interview, which we conducted a couple of weeks ago.

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It's About TV: Eric, let's start off by telling me about what you do, how you got interested in it, and how that ties in to Bob Crane.

Eric Senich: I’m a disc jockey for a classic radio station in Connecticut (WRKI FM, www.i95rock.com). I started working in radio back in the early 90s when I joined my college radio station in New Haven at Southern Connecticut State University. From there I eventually got my first paying gig with the great WCCC in Hartford, CT as a weekend jock named Fletch! I went on to work with a few other Connecticut stations before landing a full-time weeknight gig at WRKI in the late 90s and have been there ever since.

All of this began because of my Dad. I used to hang out with him at the radio stations he was on the air for when I was a kid and got the radio bug from him. As it turns out, Bob Crane was a huge reason why my Dad got into radio, so without Bob’s radio career there wouldn’t be my Dad’s radio career. Without my Dad’s radio career, I wouldn’t be in radio today and for that I am truly grateful to both Bob and my Dad.

What are your first memories of Bob? Did you ever meet him in person, or was it from what your father told you about him? Was this while Bob was still alive, or after his death?

Although I was around when Bob was alive I never got to meet him and that is something I wish was different. I would have loved to have met him and talked radio with him. I was just six when he died. I’m sure I would have if things turned out differently.

My first memory of Bob was as a kid of around maybe 9 or 10 years old watching Hogan’s Heroes after school one day and hearing my Dad say, “You see that guy there? You’re related to him!” I remember it starting to click that this Colonel Hogan did look very similar to my Dad! It really is crazy how much they look alike. It’s as if they were brothers instead of cousins.

As time went on my Dad would tell me more and more about Bob. I remember we had a pair of drumsticks that Bob gave to my Dad, which was pretty darn cool! It wasn’t until I got into radio that my Dad started to tell me all about Bob’s radio career. He eventually lent me Bob’s KNX promo album and some of his other tapes. That’s when I really became a fan of Bob.

Eric Senich

Tell me about your father's relationship with Bob. What kind of impact did Bob have on his life, and vice versa? And how did your father hand this down to you?

They were very close during the years Bob lived in Connecticut before heading out to Los Angeles. My Dad is almost ten years younger than Bob so he really looked up to Bob while Bob really seemed to have a “big brother” type of feeling towards my Dad. My Dad said Bob made sure to never leave him out of conversations and activities and would let him bang away on Bob’s drum kit too! My grandparents would take my Dad and his brother Dick to the Crane’s on many weekends for family get togethers thanks to my grampa Demetrius Senich – they called him “Mitsy” - who really worked towards keeping the family together as a unit. My Dad thought the world of Bob’s parents particularly his mom Rose who was a great cook, had a great laugh and was always smiling. Fans can get a great summary of those times in episode 7 of The Bob Crane Show: Reloaded Podcast called “Connecticut’s Drummer Boy: Bob Crane’s Early Years”. There are some great audio clips from my Dad too. He really captures the feeling of those times.

As the years went on and Bob moved out to the West Coast, he would keep in touch with my Dad through phone calls and audio letters. Bob would go into the KNX production studio and record a message to my Dad; one of them I put up on YouTube and it really gives people an idea of their relationship.

That’s one of the things that really struck me about the podcast, and your YouTube channel, that although we’ve read some of these letters in Carol’s book, now we can actually hear them. It not only makes it more immediate, there’s a level of intimacy in hearing Bob’s voice talking to your Dad. It’s really very powerful.

Yes, you can hear how much Bob cared about my Dad, how encouraging he was and how important it was to give him the support he needed to continue with his radio career. It’s been the same and then some when it comes to my Dad with my career. There is no better Dad around, I can guarantee you that. My Dad is like Bob was – extremely talented, smart, very sensitive to other’s feelings, very caring and thinks the world of all his children.

We know about Bob's troubled personal life - more than we should have known about it, had he not died when and in the way he did. Did that ever bother you - was your image of him tainted by that, or was that not a factor based on what your father had told you about him?

It’s funny I can’t recall when I first found out about all of that stuff. I don’t recall knowing about it until maybe my late teens or early 20s. I know my Mom and Dad didn’t want me to know about it as a kid and they did a good job of protecting me from that. The pre-internet era certainly helped protect from it too. Honestly, it never bothered me nor did it change my image of him. I just remember thinking that the only error in judgment he made was getting involved with women while he was married. He was a good-looking famous guy with a charming personality so the temptations came often I’m sure. As far as the videos he made I just didn’t see it the way others did. I’ve read and heard that Bob hid the cameras from some of the women he was with and there is nothing to substantiate that. It was all consensual. Carol researched Bob’s life from top to bottom and there was no indication of that. That really gets to me, ya know?

And so many people have their minds made up – you can tell them the truth until they’re blue in the face, but they know what they know.

The worst part of it, though, is how Bob’s life ended. I remember when the E! True Hollywood Story episode on Bob aired in the early 2000s. I set my VCR ahead of time and recorded it so I could watch it with my Dad later. I went to my Dad’s and put in the tape and we watched. They got to the part of Bob’s murder and showed the images of Bob in that bed and it was horrendous. I remember looking over to my Dad and he just put his head in his hands and couldn’t bear to watch. I turned it off immediately. For him and his other family members it was personal, for millions of other people watching it was a famous celebrity, not a person. That’s the hardest part. To this day I’ll tell people that I’m related to Bob and it just doesn’t seem to connect with some as it should. They make comments like, “Was he gay?” or “Who do you think killed him?”. Thankfully I get just as many positive comments; comments about how much joy he brought them with Hogan’s Heroes and they still watch the show religiously. I have a co-worker who has a son around 10 years old and knows every episode by heart. That is something I know Bob would be so happy to hear.

At what point did you decide you wanted to become more involved in telling Bob's story? How did you meet Carol and put the podcast together?

It was after meeting Carol that the idea came up. She had seen one of the videos of Bob I posted on YouTube so we connected through that. Later on I met up with her when she had a book signing in Waterbury, CT. That was in the summer of 2016. I wanted to personally thank her for including my Dad in her book Bob Crane: The Definitive Biography and tell her what a great job she did. Over time we stayed in touch and I had expressed how much I’d like to do a podcast. She didn’t forget that and eventually approached me about doing a podcast version of her book. I jumped at the chance. I know if my Dad was up to doing it he would. These days he’s in a nursing home so, since he couldn’t do the podcast, I felt like it was my chance to carry out his mission – to speak the good word of his cousin Bob. To celebrate his life and career and clear up the misconceptions. I remember playing the first episode to my Dad. That was a wonderful moment for sure. What I love is that Carol kept the audio recordings she did with my Dad about 9 years ago and uses them in the podcast so, really, my Dad is in the podcast and that really makes me happy.

When you talk about Bob Crane and his work, most people probably think about Hogan’s Heroes, but you and Carol have turned the spotlight on his work in radio, which I think is an area that’s been neglected. Tell me about that legacy, and some of the material you've shared on your YouTube channel. What would you like to educate people on regarding his radio career?

Oh boy. His legacy is hard to put in words. He used soundbites and sound effects long before it was the norm and in his day he didn’t have them easily accessible on computers like they are now. He had all of them on records behind him. Bob would pluck the album down from the wall behind him, pull the vinyl out of the sleeve, drop it on the turntable, cue it up and run with it on the fly live. He used them for live commercial reads, which had never been done before. He took a huge risk but it paid off. Radio stations were making a lot of money off Bob through the creative way he advertised the clients’ commercials. Just his whole style was and is timeless. Donald Freed directed Bob in his first play and listened to Bob on the radio every day. Audio of him commenting on Bob’s radio talents are in a recent episode of our podcast. He said it best by saying Bob had a rhythm to his restlessness. He was constantly moving but it was all played out like a great song. That speaks to his drumming skills. He had an internal rhythm that just came across so well on the radio.

On my YouTube videos I’ve got some good ones for sure. They all came from reel-to-reel tapes my Dad handed over to me around 2005 or so. He hoped I could transfer them digitally before they were too old to save and I thankfully was able to. Among them are an interview actor Del Moore did with Bob in 1960, another one where Bob spoke to students at L.A. City College around ’62 or ’63. My favorite of them all, though, is Bob’s audio letter to my Dad in 1963. This one is special. My Dad was just starting out in radio and was getting frustrated with where his career was going. He thought about quitting. Bob tells my Dad not to give up, tells him he listened to my Dad’s air-check and really liked what he heard and, at the very end, he congratulates my Dad on his upcoming marriage to my Mom. I never tire of listening to it and I think all of Bob’s fans will enjoy hearing this. It’s Bob Crane the person not Bob Crane the celebrity.

Crane at WLEA, Hornell, NY, 1950

Being in radio yourself, I'm sure must have had some influence on your on-air work.
I do something on my radio show that I got from him. I like to call it “Forecast Funnies”. I thought of how boring it is for the listener to just hear the DJ read the forecast so I decided to use soundbites and sound effects to spice it up. That’s Bob right there. That’s something he would do.

What's the biggest misconception you feel people have about Bob? Conversely, what do you think was Bob's greatest contribution, your favorite work of his? Was it Hogan's Heroes, or do you think his radio work was even more influential? What would you like people to know about him that they don't know?

The biggest misconception is of who he was as a person. If you go just on the salacious stories you’ll think this was a guy who didn’t care about anyone but himself, who was out to get whoever and whatever he wanted. He wasn’t like that. He was a great father, he cared about people, he didn’t want to make waves or hurt anyone, he wanted to make people laugh and smile. He developed an addiction that threw darkness over a lot of that light. How many times have you heard about an alcoholic or drug addict where they say he/she was the best person to be around when they were sober but when they had a drink or did drugs it was a whole different story? It’s kinda like that with Bob.

So many people know and love Bob through Hogan’s Heroes but, honestly, I am a huge fan of his radio career. Listening to the tapes of his shows I really connected with his style. I got some of his genes for sure.

Why was Bob so good in Hogan's Heroes? And why does the show remain so popular, after so many years?

Great question. Carol just got me the whole series on DVD so I was able to watch them all again. I think that character really fit him perfectly. From reading Carol’s book and hearing the stories from my Dad, Bob was always the guy you would want to lead the charge. Even going back to his childhood years that seemed to be the case. He was the guy you would do anything for because he’d be there for you when you needed him and, let’s be honest, he was a charming dude! I mean, how could you not feel good seeing Bob with that cap tipped up ever so slightly upwards, arms folded, body swaying back and forth as he’s thinking up another brilliant scheme to get one over on Colonel Klink!

I always like to ask people questions like this - do you have a pet theory on how Hogan's Heroes would have ended if they'd done a final episode?

Hmmm. Well, I would like to think that the war has ended, the boys get to go home and Colonel Robert E. Hogan goes on to open a famous restaurant chain. He hires all the guys like Newkirk, Carter and Kinch to help out. His most popular item on the menu - The Hogan’s Hero Sandwich. Of course his master chef will be none other than Corporal Louis LeBeau. As for Colonel Klink and Sergeant Schultz whereabouts? I know nothing! NOTHING!

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My thanks to Eric Senich for generously allowing me to tap into his busy time. (As well as being a great guy who's a lot of fun to talk to!) Again, make a point of checking out Eric and Carol’s The Bob Crane Show: Reloaded podcast. It doesn’t take the place of the book, nor is it simply a rehash of it – think of it as a companion that enriches your knowledge. No matter what you think you know about Bob Crane, you won’t be sorry. TV

Some interesting food for thought this week - at least I thought it was interesting, but as always YMMV.

In his article about the current series Mozart in the Jungle, Brian Phillips at The Ringer makes the comment that "TV shows at this moment are so often interested in participating in a larger cultural discourse," something that has frustrated me no end. Yes, it's true that my interest in classic television extends to what it says about the culture at the time it was made, but that is as often due to its inadvertent role as a time capsule, and our retroactive analysis of what it all meant. Phillips looks at a specific episode of Girls, for example, "the way it plugged into an existing conversation about male power and the nature of consent."

This is a good segue to David's recent piece at Comfort TV, in which he looks back at the Brady Bunch episode in which Marcia tries to join an organization that's a thinly-disguised version of the Boy Scouts. You might be reminded of that episode in light of the news (old news, now - must be at least a couple of weeks ago) that the Boy Scouts will now accept girls. David's point - one which he's made in the past, and quite well - is that "classic TV – even those series that are deemed the most simplistic by our ‘sophisticated’ modern standards, can do more than just provide 30 or 60 minutes of entertaining diversion. They teach us something about the times in which they were made – and might even teach us something about the times we live in now."The Brady Bunch does that in this episode; Marcia isn't trying to make some sort of grand political statement, not really. She just wants to prove that "women should have the same opportunities if they have the requisite skills." Nowadays, says David, the same episode might be interpreted to mean "that everyone should be allowed to do everything on their terms, regardless of any preexisting criterion." A bit of a difference there, don't you think? The point is that sometimes (most times?) you can make your point without turning your program into some kind of grand political manifesto. Just let the action develop organically - it will do the rest.

Elsewhere, at Thrilling Days of Yesteryear Ivan reviews Where's My Fortune Cookie?, Phil Proctor's autobiography, in which we learn what it was like being a part of the great Firesign Theatre group. Having mentioned Bob Cummings a time or two, I was particularly amused by Phil's recollection of working with Cummings in the theater. I won't spoil that for you - go over there and read the whole thing.

At Made for TV Mayhem, Amanda interviews Lisa Holmes from Music Box Films/Doppleganger Releasing, regarding the release of made-for-TV movies on Blu-Ray, including Summer of Fear, with Lee Purcell and Linda Blair. Amanda's so right - the telefilm is a genre that continues to be interesting; for the many bad ones that may have come along, it's clear that the filmmakers were really trying to do something with this type of movie.

If you like The Twilight Zone, you're in luck, as The Twilight Zone Vortex's Jordan gives us a list of the best TZ podcasts. It can be hard knowing where to start with all the casts out there; getting a roadmap from someone who knows what he's talking about helps.

Speaking of both Amanda and podcasts, you won't want to miss this week's Eventually Supertrain, in which she and Dan discuss two late-'80s slasher movies, Iced and Moonstalker. (Nice segue, don't you think? I'm full of them this week.)

At Cult TV Blog, John brings up the British children's show The Feathered Serpent as a jumping-off point for a discussion of children's TV in general, and how it works (or doesn't work) as a means of imparting knowledge on its young viewers.

I really like Jodie's entry at Garroway at Large this week, not just because of its discussion of Dave's Wide Wide World program, but because it reminds us of what a wonder television was in the beginning, and how we could still be wowed by this big, wonderful world and the technology that brought it to us.

Terry Teachout taps into the wonderful Archive of American Television for this interview with composer Fred Steiner, who talks about composing the immortal theme to Perry Mason.

If you have any others we should know about, let me know. Otherwise, back tomorrow with some more fun. Right? Right! TV

I wasn't planning on doing this issue when I opened the laptop today, to be honest. I have a list showing what issue is scheduled for each week, of course; it runs through the end of 2018 (with a few weeks in 2019 already spoken for as well), and because I've taken care of it well in advance, the revelation of each week's issue always comes as something of a surprise to me. This morning I consulted the list, ready to open the box and dig out the appropriate issue: October 25, 1986. And it's been a long week and I'm tired, and suddenly the thought of plowing through an issue from the late '80s had no appeal to me, no matter what might have been inside it. (And with Kim Novak on the cover, I'm sure it would have been quite satisfactory.) Quickly I scanned down to the lineup for 2018, wondering if that issue would be any easier to get into - this is the result. Did I choose wisely? I think so, but ultimately you're the judge. It'll make next year that much more interesting, anyway.

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I like that cover portrait of Judy Garland by René Bouché; it manages to cut through the wear and tear that has left her looking at least 20 years older than her actual age of 41, and offers a glimpse of the frightened little girl inside that woman, the one who thrilled us skipping down the Yellow Brick Road and putting on a show with Mickey and meeting us in St. Louis. The sketch doesn't pretend that those ensuing years haven't happened; it's like being caught just right by the rays of the the setting sun on an autumn afternoon that reveal the promise and the hope and the vulnerability of a woman who's lived a train wreck of a life. You've heard how artists can capture details that a photograph can't? This right here is an example.

There's no question about Garland's talent, never has been. The idea of a Judy Garland television series is an irrestible one, particularly for the admirers that refer to her as "a living legend." A special on G.E. Theater last year was a smash, leading to her new Sunday night series, one in which CBS is investing at leats $140,000 a week - for the priviledge of going up against television's number-one show, Bonanza. This for a woman who, as Dwight Whitney writes, is "in an almost constant state of emotional turmoil; that, as a result, her career as a movie superstar had been cut short because the studios deemed her undependable (which she denies); and that she had suffered several breakdowns." In typical Garland fashion, however, she wins over the skeptical affiliates at their annual meeting, poking fun at her own reputation by singing Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen's lyrics, "Call me unreliable,/Call me irresponsible,/Call me unpredictable, toooooo. . ."

We know how the Garland story ends, and it's not a happy one, and though that ending is still six years away at the time of this article, I don't know that anyone back then would have been surprised by it; the chaos surrounding the show mirrors, in a way, the turmoil of Garland's life. The idea of taking the chance on Garland originates with James Aubrey, the mercurial president of CBS. He chooses a production crew headed up by George Schlatter, who will wind up as executive producer of Laugh-In, and employs a talented group of writers. Together the team works effectively with Garland, producing "big, brassy, weekly specials" with big songs, big numbers - shows designed to take advantage of Superstar Judy. "Everyone, including the sponsors, was delighted. Most remarkable of all, Judy had put a saddle on her jumping nervs and seemed relaxed and happy."

And then Aubrey intervenes. After five successful shows, he dismisses Schlatter and the rest of the crew, hiring Norman Jewison as the new producer and telling him that he wanted a show similar to Garry Moore's, "as folksy and old-shoeish as the Cartwrights - or maybe Ed Sullivan - so much so that he was willing to rock the boat to achieve it." Says John Bradford, one of the writers who was dismissed, "Judy is not the girl next door. She is explosive, dynamic, electric, one of the few superstars left. To try to patter her appeal after a Western is absurd." One cynic looks at the confusion wrought by the network and comments, "They are just thankful to get her there to do a show every week. They don't care what else happens"

A look at a rehearsal underlines the change in atmosphere. Judy stands by the piano, on which sits "a brown bottle of Liebfraumilch, the light white wine which is a favorite of hers. Beside the bottle is a tumbler with three ice cubes." She stars singing a song, gets a fit of the giggles. Starts again, giggles. "Jewison looks anxious. Judy tells a funny story. More laughter - nervous laughter - from co-workers."

"One comes away," writes Whitney, "with a deep feeling of sadness. Which si strange bedcause chances are Judy Garland will run true to her old form, score a dramatic last-ditch triumph over adversity - doesn't she always? - and once again be inundated in superlatives and love." How many people loved Judy Garland - or did they just use her? Her series ends after a single season, a failure that's said to be crushing to her. Six years later, not yet 50 years old, she's dead. Just like that, and yet it is a long time coming.

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Throughout the 60s and early 70s, TV Guide's reviews were written by the witty and acerbic Cleveland Amory. Whenever we get the chance, we'll look at Cleve's latest take on the series of the era.

Arrest and Trial has been considered in many respects the precusor to Law & Order, but with a crucial difference. The first half of the 90 minute series deals with the investigation and arrest, led by detective Ben Gazarra. However, we see the trial from the point of view not of the prosecutor, but of defense attorney Chuck Connors, who's determined to win an acquittal, or at least a fair shake, for his client. "Unfortunately," as Cleveland Amory writes this week, "the series has been more trying than arresting."

One of the challenges in a series set up in the manner of Arrest and Trial is that every week, one of our heroes is bound to be wrong; either the police have arrested the wrong person, or the attorney is defending a guilty person. The way in which the program tries to deal with this inherent contradition, says Amory, is the problem: the bad guys are "by no means all bad." In one typical instance, man charged with vehicular homicide in the death of a motorcycle policeman undergoes heavy psychiatric treatment, after which he is sentenced to 18 months in what we'd refer to today as a tennis prison. Says his girlfriend, in a demonstration of how there are no "bad" people, just people who need help, "he always boasted to me that he never said 'thanks' to any man. Not once in all his life. . . Today he actually said it. That's a good sign, isn't it?" Replies Amory, "Actually, it was an excellent sign, becaue, among other things, it was the last line of the show."

You get the picture. Amory singles out Connors in particular for praise, but his final verdict? "As in so many series this season, the acting is so far above the scripts that it hardly seemed worth it."

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In his book Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam uses the sport (and it is a sport) as a symbol of the significant social changes America has undergone over the past six or so decades; whereas we once bowled together in leagues, we now bowl alone.* I think it says a lot about these times that the most prevalent sport on television this week is bowling; there are three bowling programs just on Sunday. WCCO's venerable Bowlerama airs at 12:15; the program, featuring local bowlers, visits a different location each week, with today's broadcast coming from Maplewood Bowl in St. Paul (which, sadly, closed in 2013). At 4:30 p.m. it's the long-running Championship Bowling on WTCN (don't know what episode it is, but you can see an example of a show from 1963 here), and at 10:30 p.m, following the late local news, WCCO is back with All Star Bowling, live from Minnehaha Lanes in St. Paul.

*I suppose nowadays there's an app you can use to bowl in a league without ever having to, you know, come in actual contact with anyone.

Minnehana Lanes closes in 2008, which is a shame. I know that neighborhood well; used to drive by all the time on the way to church. More of that shopping area is scheduled to be torn down to make way for a redevelopment that includes the new soccer stadium for Minnesota United FC. If you'd told someone back in 1963 that bowling would be a niche sport but that soccer would be big time, that person would probably have looked at you as if you were crazy. Next thing you know, they'll be talking about phones with pictures in them so you can see who you're talking to.

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Robert Drew is considered one of the pioneers - perhaps the father - of the American cinéma vérité (or Direct Cinema) movement. He famously said that his type of documentary would be "a theater without actors; it would be plays without playwrights; it would be reporting without summary and opinion; it would be the ability to look in on people’s lives at crucial times from which you could deduce certain things and see a kind of truth that can only be gotten from personal experience."

Drew's mainstream breakthrough came in 1960 with the documentary Primary, an in-depth look at the Wisconsin primary contest between John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey, in which he was allowed extraordinary access to the candidates and their campaigns. The success of Primary led to a close working relationship between Drew and Kennedy, as evidenced in Drew's follow-up, the 1961 ABC Close-Up! episode "Adventures on the New Frontier," taking his cameras and microphones into the Oval Office to show us the day-by-day life of Kennedy's White House. Kennedy had been concerned about his ability to conduct business while cameras and microphones hovered over his shoulder, but, as with Primary, he became inured to their presence, to the point that his advisors frequently had to remind him to be careful what he said while they were around.

Drew considered this a warm-up for an even more extensive documentary, one that depicted the the presidential decision-making process as a crisis unfolds. The result, Crisis - Behind a Presidential Commitment. airs on Monday at 6:30 p.m. It's the story of the showdown between Kennedy and George Wallace over the integration of the University of Alabama. Drew's cameras are not only in the White House, where Kennedy discusses the situation with his brother Robert and other advisors, but in Tuscaloosa, where the Alabama governor vows to fulfill his pledge to block any attempt to integrate the university.

Crisis is a masterpiece of the Direct Cinema movement, a dramatic demonstration for anyone who thinks The War Room invented the genre. There is one final collaboration to come between Drew and Kennedy, though the latter's participation is hauntingly tangental. It is the 1964 film Faces of November; its 11 minutes, without dialogue or narrative, cover the three days of JFK's funeral.

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Not exactly a starlet this week, but a fashion layout with actress Susan Strasberg, daughter of the legendary Method teacher Lee Strasberg. (I wonder what her motivation was?) It's a very sleek, elegant look by Anne Klein, with the casual outfit by Jax - both names that you've probably seen in the closing credits, as in "Miss Albright's wardrobe by Jax." A timeless style, don't you think?

SOURCE: HADLEY TV GUIDES

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What else is on this week? Well, Hallmark Hall of Fame has a Sunday afternoon spot (5:00 p.m. CT, NBC), airing a repeat of 1960's "The Tempest" with what's literally an all-star cast: Maurice Evans, Richard Burton, Lee Remick, Roddy McDowall and Tom Poston. Brilliant. Also on Sunday, the debut on WTCN of a program called Tele-Bingo. Here's the write-up: "To become eligible to play, viewers must get a free Tele-Bingo card from a local supermarket. If a viewer scores a bingo, he must take his card to the store, which will then give him a prize and add his card to those of other home winners. From this group, 300 cards are drawn and those persons are invited to join the studio audience to compete for bigger prizes." I remember those shows - not that one specificaly, but shows like it. Interactive TV at its best!

On Monday at 9:00 p.m., ABC's psychiatrist drama Breaking Point airs the episode "The Bull Roarer," directed by Ralph Senensky. The story concerns a construction worker (Lou Antonio) who watches his brother (Ralph Meeker) savagely beat up a man who'd been hassling them. He's so shocked by the violence - the outpouring of testosterone, so to speak - that, as the listing puts it, "he begins to have doubts about his own virility." In fact, as Dr. Thompson (Paul Richards) intuits, the young man worries that his lack of machismo might mean he's gay. Writes Senensky, "I am 99 and 44/100 percent sure that was the first time the word 'homosexual' was uttered in a drama in an American television show."

Johnny Carson is the special guest on Tuesday's episode of The Jack Benny Program (CBS, 8:30 p.m.) - "Jack says that Johnny should become more versatile, so Johnny struts his stuff, performing cards tricks, ventriloquism, a drum solo and a song-and-dance." I'll bet acting with Benny was a thrill for Johnny. On Wednesday's episode of NBC's psychiatric drama, The Eleventh Hour (9:00 p.m.), Robert Wagner plays man who "always got by handsomely on his exceptional looks" - until half of his face is destroyed by a fire. Diahann Carroll, Shirley Knight and Michael Constantine co-star.

Thursday features the aforementioned Susan Strasberg as Dr. Kildare's patient (NBC, 7:30 p.m.), and Andrew Prine as her husband, an ambitious and irresponsible intern. Kraft Suspense Theatre (NBC, 9:00 p.m.) has a terrific cast - Gig Young, Nina Foch, Katherine Crawford and Peter Lorre - in "The End of the World, Baby," which doesn't deal with nuclear war at all but a shady sculptor (Young) who may be trying to bilk an older woman (Foch). And if you're not inclined to change channels, The Tonight Show has a pretty fair show, with Robert Preston, Benny Goodman and Abbe Lane.

Friday, the best night of the week, starts with Bob Hope's latest special (NBC, 7:30 p.m.) - his guests are Andy Griffith, Martha Raye, Jane Russell, Connie Haines, Beryl Davis, and L.A. Dodgers Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale and Tommy Davis. The night ends with an interesting movie on KMSP's 10:30 p.m. "Masterpiece Theatre" (not to be confused with the future PBS series): Mr. Roberts, with Henry Fonda, James Cagney, Jack Lemmon and William Powell. It's one of the few times I've seen a locally broadcast movie get the full close-up treatment - almost makes me wonder if it had originally been shown on ABC but pre-empted by KMSP for something else.

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On Friday night ABC airs a documentary with the deceptive title The World's Girls. While it might sound like one of Frankie and Annette's beach party movies, it is in fact a penetrating glimpse into the future: the women behind the new feminist movement.

The question on the table is simple: what is the role of the modern woman in today's fast-changing world? Answers come from all over - from actresses and housewives, intellectuals in the colleges and beauties in their salons. The names that jump out, though, are ones that point in one direction. There's Betty Friedan, for example, who earlier in the year published The Feminine Mystique, and Simone de Beauvoir, author of The Second Sex, considered the foundation of feminist theory. French actress Simone Signoret, who rejected the feminist label but fought alongside radical feminist groups for the rights to abortion and birth control.

I don't know how seriously these women and their theories are taken at the time of the broadcast, nor what its overall tone is; after all, Playboy bunnies and expectant brides are among those being interviewed, so viewers are likely to get all kinds of viewpoints. Nonetheless, this strikes me as a chance for a profound look into the future - a brave new world, perhaps? In one month John F. Kennedy will be asassinated, and, so we are told, everything will change going forward. All the accepted truths, the universal values, the traditional definitions upon which the structures of society have been built, will be up for grabs. I cannot imagine a more perfect time for this show (produced and directed by Arthur Holch and narrated by John Secondari) to have aired; I doubt it could have been done in the late '50s, and by the late '60s it would have been old hat. But those who watch it in 1963 are looking through a glass darkly, and then they will see the future face to face. TV

Back in the Twin Cities this week, and I'm struck by how ordinary a week it is. Look at tonight, for example - CBS has The Beverly Hillbillies, the top-rated show on television, followed by The Dick Van Dyke Show, which ends the season as #3, and The Danny Kaye Show, which comes in at #30. Meanwhile, NBC has The Virginian at #17, while on ABC, The Patty Duke Show is #18. Clearly people enjoyed watching television on Wednesday nights. Let's see the rest of the schedule.

	2 KTCA (Educ.)
	Morning
	8:55	FRENCH – Grade 4
	9:10	SPANISH – Grade 4
	9:30	SPANISH – Grade 5
	9:45	PORTFOLIO – Grade 11
	10:10	SPANISH – Grade 6
	10:25	GERMAN – Grade 5
	10:40	EARTH AND SPACE SCIENCE
	11:00	PORTFOLIO – Grade 11
	11:45	KINDERGARTEN
	Afternoon
	12:30	MAN’S LIVING BODY – Dearden
	1:00	SPANISH – Grade 4
	1:20	SPANISH – Grade 5
	1:35	GERMAN – Grade 4
	1:50	SCIENCE – Grade 6
	2:20	GERMAN – Grade 6
	2:35	SPANISH – Grade 6
	2:50	EXPLORING SCIENCE – Grade 6
	3:15	GERMAN FAIRY TALES
	3:45	SPANISH – Preview
	5:30	KINDERGARTEN
	Evening
	6:00	BALANCE OF FEAR
	6:30	GENERAL SCIENCE
	7:00	INQUIRY – Discussion
	7:30	CONTINENTAL COMMENT
	8:00	FOLK MUSIC NOW AND THEN
	8:30	MACALESTER COLLEGE
	9:00	LABOR PROBLEMS – Panel
	10:00	PROFILE – History
	10:30	FACES OF A GIANT – Education

Not really much to say about this lineup, is there? Except that in some way it seems like what educational television ought to be.

	4 WCCO(CBS)
	Morning
	6:30	SUNRISE SEMESTER Outlines of Art
	7:00	SIEGFRIED, AXEL, CLANCY
	8:00	CAPTAIN KANGAROO
	9:00	NEWS – Dean Montgomery
	9:15	WHAT’S NEW? – Women
	9:25	DR. REUBEN K. YOUNGDAHL
	9:30	I LOVE LUCY – Comedy
	10:00	McCOYS – Comedy
	10:30	PETE AND GLADYS – Comedy
	11:00	LOVE OF LIVE – Serial
	11:25	NEWS – Harry Reasoner
	11:30	SEARCH FOR TOMORROW
	11:45	GUIDING LIGHT – Serial
	Afternoon
	12:00	NEWS – Dave Moore
	12:15	SOMETHING SPECIAL
	12:25	WEATHER – Bud Kraehling
	12:30	AS THE WORLD TURNS – Serial
	1:00	PASSWORD – Allen Ludden Guests: Sydney Chaplin, Marjorie Lord
	1:30	HOUSE PARTY – Art Linkletter
	2:00	TO TELL THE TRUTH – Lewis Panel: Darren McGavin, Orson Bean, Bess Myerson, Phyllis Newman
	2:25	NEWS – Douglas Edwards
	2:30	EDGE OF NIGHT – Serial
	3:00	SECRET STORM – Serial
	3:30	BEST OF GROUCHO – Quiz
	4:00	AROUND THE TOWN – Harvey
	4:30	AXEL AND DEPUTY DAWG
	5:00	CLANCY AND HIS FRIENDS
	5:30	NEWS – Walter Cronkite
	Evening
	6:00	NEWS – Dean Montgomery
	6:15	SPORTS – Don Dahl
	6:20	SPOTLIGHT – George Rice
	6:25	WEATHER – Don O’Brien
	6:30	CBS REPORTS – Documentary “The Great American Funeral”
	7:30	GLYNIS – Comedy
	8:00	BEVERLY HILLBILLIES
	8:30	DICK VAN DYKE – Comedy
	9:00	DANNY KAYE – Variety Guests: Gene Kelly, Michele Lee, Clinger Sisters
	10:00	NEWS – Dave Moore
	10:15	WEATHER – Bud Kraehling
	10:20	SPORTS – Hal Scott
	10:30	ROUNDY PREDICTS – Football
	11:00	STEVE ALLEN – Variety Guests: Telly Savales, Lulu Porter, Stiller and Meara
	1:00	MOVIE – Drama “Fighter Attack” (1953) News will follow the movie

Ironic that we're seeing Danny Kaye's show this week, considering Saturday's discussion surrounding Judy Garland. From what I've read, CBS first offered (or scheduled) Kaye the Sunday night slot opposite Bonanza, which he refused precisely because he knew the toughness of the competition. I have nothing to go on in this speculation, but I wonder - by allowing Kaye to veto that Sunday spot (thereby putting Garland there instead), were they suggesting that they valued Danny's show more, that it was more likely to have a long run without its star blowing up?

	5 KSTP (NBC)
	Morning
	6:30	CITY AND COUNTRY
	7:00	TODAY – Hugh Downs Guests: Sterling Hayden, Raymond Massey, Adam Keefe Local news at 7:25 A.M. and 8:25 A.M.
	9:00	SAY WHEN – Art James
	9:25	NEWS – Edwin Newman
	9:30	WORD FOR WORD C
	10:00	CONCENTRATION – Hugh Downs
	10:30	MISSING LINKS – Ed McMahon COLOR Panel: Ann Sheridan, Nipsey Russell, Sam Levenson
	11:00	YOUR FIRST IMPRESSION COLOR Panel: Dennis James, Ruth Warrick, Corbett Monica
	11:30	TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES COLOR
	11:55	NEWS – Ray Scherer
	Afternoon
	12:00	NEWS – MacDougall COLOR
	12:15	WEATHER – Morris COLOR
	12:25	WOMAN’S WORLD COLOR
	12:30	TREASURE CHEST COLOR
	1:00	PEOPLE WILL TALK COLOR
	1:25	NEWS – Floyd Kalber
	1:30	DOCTORS – Drama
	2:00	LORETTA YOUNG – Drama
	2:30	YOU DON’T SAY – Kennedy COLOR Panelists: Diana Lynn, Richard Conte
	3:00	MATCH GAME – Gene Rayburn
	3:25	NEWS – Sander Vanocur
	3:30	MAKE ROOM FOR DADDY
	4:00	MOVIE – Mystery “So Long at the Fair” (English; 1951)
	5:25	DOCTOR’S HOUSE CALL – Fox
	5:30	NEWS – Huntley, Brinkley
	Evening
	6:00	NEWS – Bob Ryan COLOR
	6:15	WEATHER – Morris COLOR
	6:25	SPORTS – Al Tighe COLOR
	6:30	VIRGINIAN – Western COLOR
	8:00	ESPIONAGE – Drama
	9:00	ELEVENTH HOUR – Drama
	10:00	NEWS – MacDougall COLOR
	10:15	WEATHER – Morris COLOR
	10:20	SPORTS – Al Tighe COLOR
	10:30	JOHNNY CARSON – Variety COLOR Guest: Sterling Hayden
	12:00	NEWS AND SPORTS COLOR

Sterling Hayden's busy making the rounds, isn't he? I think he also pops up elsewhere during the course of the week. He's probably plugging his book Wanderer, his fascinating (and controversial) memoir of life away from Hollywood, in which he defied both movie bosses and his ex-wife by taking his children and sailing the sea.

	9 KMSP (ABC)
	Morning
	7:40	CHAPEL OF THE AIR – Religion
	7:45	BREAKFAST – Grandpa Ken
	9:00	ROMPER ROOM – Miss Betty
	10:00	PRICE IS RIGHT – Bill Cullen
	10:30	SEVEN KEYS – Jack Narz
	11:00	ERNIE FORD – Variety Guest: Leo Diamond
	11:30	PEOPLE ARE FUNNY – Linkletter
	Afternoon
	12:00	GENERAL HOSPITAL – Serial
	12:30	FATHER KNOWS BEST – Comedy
	1:00	PEOPLE’S CHOICE – Comedy
	1:30	DAY IN COURT – Drama
	1:55	NEWS – Lisa Howard
	2:00	QUEEN FOR A DAY – Bailey
	2:30	WHO DO YOU TRUST?
	3:00	TRAILMASTER – Western
	4:00	ADVENTURES IN PARADISE
	5:00	NEWS – Bob Allard
	5:15	NEWS – Ron Cochran
	5:30	LEAVE IT TO BEAVER – Comedy
	Evening
	6:00	DOBIE GILLIS – Comedy
	6:30	OZZIE AND HARRIET – Comedy
	7:00	PATTY DUKE – Comedy
	7:30	PRICE IS RIGHT – Bill Cullen
	8:00	BEN CASEY – Drama
	9:00	CHANNING – Drama
	10:00	NEWS, WEATHER, SPORTS
	10:30	DETECTIVES – Police
	11:30	TARGET: CORRUPTORS – Drama
	12:30	NEWS

We have an interesting theme developing on some of tonight's shows - on Patty Duke, "The girls are planning a slumber party, but kid brother Ross is not asleep at the switch - he's planning to tape their conversation for blackmail purposes." Interesting use of the word there; usually Ross' actions would be considered "hijinks" or something like that. "Blackmail" puts me in mind of Perry Mason. Later, on Channing, a candidate for state's attorney "knows that his opponent will expose him for having once stolen some college funds." Meanwhile, over on CBS, Rob accidentally overhears what Jerry and Millie really think of them, thanks to Ritchie's toy intercom, and NBC's Espionage has the British government dealing with a security leak of top-secret information. What a suspicious night!

	11 WTCN (IND.)
	Morning
	10:45	KUKLA AND OLLIE – Children
	11:00	EN FRANCE - Education
	11:30	DATELINE: MINNESOTA,
	11:45	TAKE FIVE – Jan Werner
	Afternoon
	12:00	LUNCH WITH CASEY – Children
	12:45	KING AND ODIE – Cartoon
	1:00	MOVIE – Musical Comedy “So This Is Love” (1953)
	2:45	LEE PHILIP – Women Guest: Peggy Wood
	3:00	DECEMBER BRIDE – Comedy
	3:30	ROBIN HOOD – Adventure
	4:00	BEETLE AND PETE – Dave Lee
	4:30	MICKEY MOUSE CLUB – Children
	5:00	SUPERMAN – Adventure
	5:30	LONE RANGER – Western
	Evening
	6:00	WHIRLYBIRDS – Adventure
	6:30	BOLD JOURNEY – Travel
	7:00	EXPEDITION – Documentary
	7:30	STONEY BURKE – Drama
	8:30	DESILU PLAYHOUSE – Drama
	9:30	NEWS – Dick Ford
	9:45	WEATHER – Stuart A. Lindman
	9:50	SPORTS – Buetel, Horner
	10:00	MOVIE – Drama “The Lost Weekend” (1945)

Just a thought - it's a heck of a way to kick off your broadcasting day with Kukla and Ollie, isn't it? Frankly, I wish more stations would do it today - I rather like the idea of starting your morning with a smile on your face.

The historian at work - but where's the television set?

I don't Google my own name very often; it strikes me as just a bit pretentious, as if I expect to find something about myself that I don't already know. It's also a bit embarrassing (at least to me) to see my name in print thanks to someone else - I don't even like to see myself on tape or listen to my voice on a recording, so the idea of reading what someone else thinks about me is a bit much.

Occasionally, I'll run across my name because of something I wrote, usually for this site. As I've noted before, for some reason I don't get pinged when someone links to one of my pieces, so I usually find out purely by accident and oftentimes long after the fact. If the person in question said something nice about me then I have to reply with an apology for not having acknowledged them sooner (while they probably were thinking I was a jerk for ignoring them), and more embarrassment ensues.

The point of all this is that apparently I'm now recognized on the internet as a television historian. And as we all know, if it's on the internet it has to be true.

Let me explain.

A couple of weeks ago I was looking up Sterling Hayden to check on some details for this piece. As is my wont, I wound up getting lost in one of those rabbit holes that led to the Wikipedia page for "United Nations television film series."* As you might recall, I wrote an article about this very thing for TV Party! a few years ago, so naturally I was interested in what this had to say that I might have missed in my earlier research. Now, in my opinion, next to reading about yourself, the most embarrassing thing that can happen to you is to read an article about a topic you're written about yourself. Suppose it's better than what I wrote? Suppose the author found out more information than I did, or - horror of horrors - contradicted me? Could I have been wrong? Did I make a fool out of myself? How will people take me seriously after this? If nothing else, this little exercise demonstrates how insecure writers can be; no wonder so many wind up in analysis. (Something I've been able to avoid so far, as long as the drugs keep working.)

*In case you're interested, the trail was "Sterling Hayden/Carol for Another Christmas/United Nations television film series"

Anyway, the entry was pretty good: comprehensive, well-written, and - as far as I could tell - no contradictions! The only regret I had was that there was a lot more information that what I'd included, but then greatness is often built on the shoulders of giants. And then, right near the end, I came to it. Under the section "Other films associated with the series," the first paragraph starts off, "According to TV historian Mitchell Hadley. . ."

Well! If that don't beat all! I might as well hang it up, now that I've been recognized by no less an authority than Wikipedia as a TV historian! (You can see it for yourself right here.) In fact, what had been written, according to me, was something I didn't even remember. If you were interviewing me today and you asked me about it, I wouldn't have had a clue. Oh, there was no doubt I'd written it, and when I went back and reread my own article at TV Party!, it all came back to me. It's just that it was so long ago, and of all the things that I've written, I found it curious to be identified as a TV historian for something so obscure I'd forgotten all about it. But, then, perhaps that's what a TV historian does.

In fact, my article was cited several times as a source for the Wikipedia entry, which actually didn't surprise me; I've been listed as a source before, partly because I do tend to write about obscure things that nobody else cares about. Besides, my UN article was one of only three sources that weren't contemporary to when the original telefilms ran, and the other two were merely providing background, so if you're going to rely on the word of a historian writing about this in retrospect, it's pretty much me or nothing.

Still, there's no denying that it's a bit of an ego boost to see oneself identified as a "TV historian" by someone I don't know (and I promise I didn't write it myself). For a minute it even made me think that I'd arrived, that the thousand pieces I'd written for this webpage over the last six years had finally been justified. As Mary Tyler Moore might have said, "You're gonna make it after all!"

And then, of course, someone in the comments section of the blog pointed out I'd misspelled a word in one of those thousand pieces. I was glad of it, glad that I had to go back and correct something I'd written. I hope you keep doing that to me, to keep me honest whenever you see something that doesn't look quite right. Here at "It's About TV," we strive for 100% accuracy, which is a good way to achieve and maintain credibility. Being reminded that you're not perfect keeps you humble.

Besides, if I was perfect, wouldn't that be just too much? TV

Ah, the weekend is in sight. Unless, of course, you're reading this at a later date, in which case the weekend may be in full swing, or you might be looking forward to the next weekend. At any rate, whenever it is that you read this, I think you'll find something worthwhile.

This week David reviews the DVD set of the '70s TV series Petrocelli, with Barry Newman and Susan Howard, and asks whether it passes the crucial Comfort TV test: is this a series you'll watch once and forget, or does it have the all-important "re-watchability" factor? Inquiring minds want to know.

Joanna's latest foray into Christmas TV History takes us to the eerie pre-WWII cartoon "Peace on Earth," one of the more disturbing cartoons I've seen. It's a blunt look at war and its aftermath, and yet there's no question it's entirely appropriate for the season. If you haven't seen it before, she's got a link to it; it's not long, so take the time to watch it.

Television Obscurities visits the Nielsen Bottom 10 for the week of October 23-29, 1972. It's an interesting and surprising look at the least-popular shows of the week: Streets of San Francisco? Night Gallery? Dean Martin? A repeat of Yellow Submarine? Of course very few shows get to go out on top; there's almost always a fall in popularity. Still, some revered shows here.

It's another journey to the Hitchcock Project at bare-bones e-zine, where Jack takes us inside the first season episode "A Bullet for Baldwin," written by Eustace and Francis Cockrell. I'm always fascinated by these articles, where Jack takes us through the process from the original story as it was written, and winding up with the version that hits our screens. It's a far cry from the episode guides we usually see for other shows.

Want an example of how I watch television? Read Miles Surrey's article at The Ringer, "51 Questions about The Good Doctor."It's not the kind of series I'm ever likely to watch, but the point is that when I'm watching a show, I pick at it exactly the way Surrey does here. (Even some the shows I like!) It's why my wife watches her favorite programs while I'm at work. It also demonstrates that the really good series are ones that keep opportunities for you to think this way to a minimum.

Not a lot of links this week (c'mon!), but quality makes up for quantity! TV

This is an election year, and Tuesday of this week is Election Day.* The off-year elections lack the drama and glamour of a presidential year, but besides containing some key races at the state and national level, it's the first test of the political parties since Richard Nixon was elected in 1968.

*If I were a lazy man, I'd use Tuesday for this week's listings, considering the election returns would wipe out most of the primetime lineup. I am lazy, but not that lazy. You'll have to wait until Monday to see what day I do use.

It may be hard to appreciate now, but back in the day the networks provided comprehensive coverage of the returns throughout the evening, from the conclusion of their evening news until midnight (and, in some cases, afterwards). For NBC, it's the first election since 1952 in which Chet Huntley will not be a part of the coverage. David Brinkley remains on the lead team however, along with Fran McGee, John Chancellor, Sander Vanocur and Edwin Newman. Local covearge begins at 6:00 p.m. ET, with network coverage kicking in at 7:00. Walter Cronkite is the man on CBS, joined by Mike Wallace, Roger Mudd, Dan Rather and Bill Stout, with author Theodore H. White (The Making of the President series) providing commentary. Like NBC, the Tiffany Network's coverage begins with the local news at 6:00 p.m. and continues following Cronkite's evening news at 7:00. Lone among the networks, ABC chooses to air an hour of regular primetime programming - The Mod Squad, for those of you scoring at home - before their "informal" coverage, led by Frank Reynolds and Howard K. Smith, begins at 8:30 p.m. Even the independents get into the act: WNEW, will interrupt their 11:30 movie with results, while WPIX and WNET start their coverage at 10:00 p.m,, continuing until the returns are conclusive.

And how did things go in 1970? Well, the Republicans may have the White House, but the Democrats control Congress, and after tonight, the results will be much the same. In the House, the Dems pick up 12 seats to stretch their majority to 255-180. In the Senate, the GOP has a net gain of two, but the Democrats retain a majority, 54-44, with one independent, and one member of the Conservative Party. That Conservative senator? It's James Buckley, brother of William F., who defeats both Democrat Richard Ottinger and Republican incumbent Charles Goodell.* Goodell isn't remembered much today for having been a United States Senator, but he might be better known as the father of the commissioner of the NFL, Roger Goodell.

*Appointed by Nelson Rockefeller to fill the unexpired term of the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy.

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Throughout the 60s and early 70s, TV Guide's reviews were written by the witty and acerbic Cleveland Amory. Whenever we get the chance, we'll look at Cleve's latest take on the series of the era.

People remember Don Knotts as Deputy Barney Fife in The Andy Griffith Show. They may remember him as Ralph Furley in Three's Company. They possibly remember him from movies like The Ghost and Mr. Chicken and The Reluctant Astronaut (seen in last week's TV Guide), movies that capitalized on his high-strung Fife persona. But they probably do not remember him as the star of his own variety show, The Don Knotts Show. That's not surprising, given that the show only lasted for 24 episodes; that the show only lasted one season is not surprising, given Cleveland Amory's assesment that "a lot of fans, watching Don go from second banana to top banana, are going to split - and not, unfortunately, their sides."

Make no mistake, Cleveland Amory is a fan of Don Knotts - he's funny and likable. That doesn't mean he should have his own show, though. In fact, the idea that he wasn't up to the job was, reports Amory, the running gag for the entire first episode. "All too soon, though, the gag was walking. For one thing, it was all too painfully true." In particular, a sketch in which Anthony Newley plays the floor manager brings the show to life for the first time, precisely because someone other than Knotts is in charge. The idea of Don trying to be a host was very funny; unfortunately, it wasn't supposed to be the joke.

Occasionally the odd bit works, but even then the show plays it to death by doing it over and over. Even worse, some of the least funny sketches are also the ones that tend to run the longest. It's too bad, Cleveland says, because there are a few recurring features that work - Bob Williams and his performing dog, for example - and when Knotts is called upon to do the comedy that falls into his wheelhouse, "Few comedians could have done [it] better or fuinnier." It's just a case of too litte, too infrequent. Don Knotts won five Emmys for his work on Andy Griffith; for his work here, he should give one back.

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On Saturday afternoon, ABC's Wide World of Sports brings us a landmark event, one with cultural as well as sporting implications: the return of Muhammad Ali.

It's been three-and-a-half years since Ali set foot in a boxing ring. At the time, he was the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, one of the most revered and reviled athletes in the world, the most colorful sports figure this side of Joe Namath. On March 15, 1967, he received his draft notice; seven days later, on March 22, he knocked out Zora Folley to retain his title. His conscientious objector status having already been rejected, on April 28 he refused induction, with the immortal line, “I ain’t got no quarrel with them Vietcong.” He was convicted of draft evasion on June 20 and sentenced to five years in prison, fined $10,000, and banned from boxing for three years. He was also stripped of the heavyweight title.

As his appeal worked its way through the courts (his conviction will ultimately be overturned by the Supreme Court in 1971), Ali remained out on bail and in the headlines, becoming an outspoken opponent of the war and speaking on college campuses throughout the country, and seeing his popularity rise as opposition to the war grew. Finally, in 1970, he won reinstatement of his license in Georgia. His return to the ring in Atlanta on October 26, against heavyweight contender Jerry Quarry, is the first step in his return to boxing prominence. He'll win that fight against Quarry as well as a fight in December against Oscar Bonavena, setting up on of the great title fights in history and one of the most heralded sporting events ever, against Joe Frazier in March 1971. But that, as we say, is another story.

Here's the broadcast of that historic Ali-Quarry fight, tape-delayed from October 26.

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"The whole concept is hogwash," television writer Harold Medford says of Mannix, the show for which he produces scripts on a regular basis. "A real private eye is a sleazy character who works divorce cases. Mythic or not, I rather like Joe Mannix, who is non-Mike Hammer. Physical, sure, but also a kind of gentleman, and not in the bogus sense of a Philo Vance or an Ellery Queen."

The appeal of Mannix has always been twofold: the concept, an anachronism straight out of the days of Marlowe, Spade and Hammer but updated to modern times; and the star, Mike Connors, a man who invests Mannix not only with his own likability but with a deep-seated humanity uncommon to the genre. “He really is everybody’s ombudsman; he’ll make it right,” writer Aben Kandel tells Dwight Whitney. “He deals with people problems. He says I’m going to do something worse than kill you; I’m going to understand you.” Kandel defends the contrived situations, the “dark alleys” that Mannix often finds himself going down,* as a necessary servant of the plot, saying, “[t]he dramatist picks out the moment.”

*And usually getting clunked over the head. If Joe Mannix actually sustained as many concussions as he seems to acquire every week, he'd make the plight of today's former football players look tame in comparison.

View-Master: When you know you've made it.

Whitney’s article looks at the six men who, by and large, are responsible for seeing to it that Joe Mannix has a new case to investigate each week. It’s an interesting look at the psychology of the scriptwriter, the money they make for each episode, and the process they go through in producing their scripts, but to me it’s far more interesting to look at how each of them view their central character. Cliff Gould, considered the Mannix specialist in "interpersonal relationships," prefers to "write people, not devices" but at the same time understands how television works: "[T]here's got to be a bomb someplace, and one way or another it's got to go off." He works around it by using a visual teaser to suggest the character-driven conflict that is his forte - for example, a rich kid's birthday party, one of those affairs that has everything one could ask for. "Camera draws back and we see the kid is alone except for a chauffer and two bodygards. Then I do a Poor Little Rich Kid in Jeopardy story."

And in this vein the conversations continue. You can see the point here - the realism in Mannix, such as it is, arises not from a gritty, torn-from-the-headlines approach, but through an understanding that the classic private eye drama, anachronistic though it may be, is something that the audience knows and likes, and that in Joe Mannix they have an archetypal hero who represents the victory of good over evil (Kandel, Whitney says, "is quite capable of seeing Joe Mannix as 'a Christ figure'"), regardless of whether or not what we see on the screen is, strictly speaking, plausible.

As Alison Herman points out in her astute analysis of why the CW series Riverdale attracts a loyal teen audience, "The show is so stylized, so clearly not aiming for verisimilitude that there’s no way it can be mistaken for pandering" - it "can’t ring as inauthentic because authenticity was never the goal." That, my friends, is the formula for a successful television show.

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SOURCE: HADLEY TV GUIDE COLLECTION

Remember now, we're back in the days when people stayed home on Saturdays to watch TV, and when big-screen movies could still make an impression by being on TV. We're also in the pre-VCR days when you had to choose what you wanted to watch, and it's this triumverate that makes for interesting viewing on Saturday night. It starts at 9:00 p.m. ET with NBC's Saturday Night at the Movies presentation of The War Wagon, a revenge tale starring John Wayne as a wronged man looking to get even, with the help of gunman Kirk Douglas and Howard Keel, whom Judith Crist describes as "a snobbish Indian who thinks all other Indians are dumb Indians." It runs two hours, which means you run the risk of missing the first fifteen crucial minutes of Ingemar Bergman's "bleak allegory"The Seventh Seal (10:45, WOR), with Max von Sydow and Bengt Ekerot staging one of the most memorable chess matches ever. If that's a big too heavy for you, or if you want to keep with The Duke, you can watch him as he "helps Jimmy Stewart to Capitol Hill and Lee Marvin to Boot Hill" in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance at 11:30 on WABC. Hartford's WTIC ought to be mentioned as well; it's showing the Oscar winner On the Waterfront at 11:25, with Marlon Brando, and WNHC in New Haven has Bogart's breathrough hit The Desperate Hours, costarring Fredric March, at 11:30.

Sunday's news shows are all pointed toward Tuesday's election, so we can skip over that in favor of CBS's Camera Three with the intriguing title "The Metaphysics of Buster Keaton," (11:00 a.m.) discussed by film critic Andrew Sarris and curator Raymond Rohauer. It's rivalry week in the newly-merged NFL, at least judging by the televised games, beginning at 1:00 p.m. on CBS with the first-ever regular season meeting between the Giants and Jets. That's followed at 4:00 p.m. on NBC with two old AFL rivals, the Oakland Raiders and Kansas City Chiefs, meeting in K.C. And if you're interested in variety shows, I think you could do a lot worse than Glen Campbell, who welcomes Bob Newhart, singer Jackie DeShannnon, and special guests Johnny and June Carter Cash. (9:00 p.m, CBS) I rather like the electic Fanfare at 10:00 p.m. on WNET, which features British musical singer Georgia Brown singing the songs of Kurt Weill.

The inaugural season of Monday Night Football continues, with the Cincinnati Bengals taking on the Pittsburgh Steelers at the new Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. (9:00 p.m., ABC) Carol Channing guests on Laugh-In (NBC, 8:00 p.m.), while Ricardo Montalban and Cass Elliott do Carol Burnett's show (10:00 p.m., CBS). We know that Tuesday night is dominated by election coverage, which means turining elsewhere for light entertainment. How about the brooding drama The Pawnbroker, starring Rod Steiger and Geralding Fitzgerald, at 8:00 p.m. on WOR?

Greer Garson makes her first television appearance on Wednesday, in an episode of The Men from Shiloh (nee The Virginian) at 7:30 p.m. on NBC. (No offense, but I suspect more people will remember her narration of The Little Drummer Boy two years earlier, in 1968.) By the way, that episode also features E.G. Marshall and James Whitmore - not a bad lineup. At 8:00 p.m., WOR's Million Dollar Movie features Mr. Roberts, which we talked about last week. And at 9:00 p.m., NBC presents an hour of highlights of the 1971 Ice Capades - you remember their ice show broadcasts in the past - hosted by David Janssen, with guest star Florence Henderson. Of course, whenever I think of ice-themed variety shows, I always think of David Janssen.*

*Yes, I know he hosted The Hollywood Palace once. Versatile guy.

Future husband-and-wife Robert Wagner and Jill St. John star in How I Spent My Summer Vacation, the Thursday afternoon matinee on WNBC (4:30 p.m.). Bewitched has part seven of a story taking place in Salem, Mass., which one would think is not a good place for Samantha to be. H.P. Lovecraft's story "The Shuttered Room" translates into CBS's Thursday movie (9:00 p.m.), starring Carol Lynley, Gig Young and Oliver Reed. Judith Crist calls this one "foolishness," a story messed up by sex and sadism.

Friday ends the week with a plethora of familiar shows: The Brady Bunch, Nanny and the Professor, The Partridge Family, That Girl, Love American Style and This is Tom Jones. They're all on ABC, and in a sense they represent a prototype of the shows that, later in the '70s, will lead the network to #1 in the ratings. Frankly, I think they'd all be at home in a lineup that includes Happy Days (which was, after all, spun off from Love American Style), Laverne & Shirley (spun off from Happy Days), Three's Company, The Love Boat and The Six Million Dollar Man, don't you think? As far as late-night goes, at midnight Merv Griffin (WCBS) welcomes Dr. David Reuben, author of (as TV Guide puts it) "Everything You've Always Wanted to Know . . .", Barbara Feldon and Comic Jerry Shane.

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I'm amused by TV Guide's reluctance to spell out the full title of Dr. Reuben's book, "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex*unless it was abbreviated to save space. If the former, it's kind of a wasted gesture, since the book appears in the add for Book-of-the-Month Club.* What else is a bestseller? Inside the Third Reich, Albert Speer's blockbuster memoir of life as Hitler's architect, William Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, John Updike's Couples, the groundbreaking Ball Four by Jim Bouton, Down all the Days by Christy Brown (written with his left foot) and The Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer and Marion Becker.

*but were afraid to ask. Hey, the asterisk is right there in the title, folks. I didn't think I'd ever get a chance on this blog to actually use an asterisk for the right reason, and that's as good a note as any on which to end the week. TV

We're back in New York this week, but I thought I'd change things up a bit, so I've included the listings for WTIC in Hartford and WATR in New Haven. Not a big change, but it does give us a little more variety. So see if you can find any of your favorites!

	2 WCBS (CBS)
	MORNING
	6:30	SUNRISE SEMESTER -C- Urban Man
	7:00	CBS NEWS – John Hart -C-
	8:00	CAPTAIN KANGAROO -C-
	9:00	LEAVE IT TO BEAVER – Comedy
	9:30	DONNA REED – Comedy
	10:00	LUCILLE BALL -C-
	10:30	BEVERLY HILLBILLIES -C-
	11:00	FAMILY AFFAIR -C-
	11:30	LOVE OF LIFE – Serial -C-
	AFTERNOON
	12:00	WHERE THE HEART IS -C-
	12:25	CBS NEWS -C-
	12:30	SEARCH FOR TOMORROW – Serial -C-
	1:00	GALLOPING GOURMET -C-
	1:30	AS THE WORLD TURNS -C-
	2:00	LOVE IS A MANY SPLENDORED THING – Serial -C-
	2:30	GUIDING LIGHT -C-
	3:00	SECRET STORM – Serial -C-
	3:30	EDGE OF NIGHT – Serial -C-
	4:00	GOMER PYLE, USMC -C-
	4:30	MIKE DOUGLAS -C- Co-Host George Hamilton, Guests Skitch Henderson, Evie Sands, Kathryn and Arthur Murray
	EVENING
	6:00	NEWS – Jim Jensen -C-
	7:00	CBS NEWS – Walter Cronkite -C-
	7:30	GUNSMOKE -C-
	8:30	HERE’S LUCY -C-
	9:00	MAYBERRY R.F.D. -C-
	9:30	DORIS DAY -C-
	10:00	CAROL BURNETT -C- Guests: Ricardo Montalban, Cass Elliot
	11:00	NEWS – Bob Young -C-
	11:30	MERV GRIFFIN -C- Guests: Angie Dickinson, Tim Conway, Lew Alcindor, Elena Verdugo, Jackie Cooper
	1:00	NEWS -C-
		MOVIE – Drama “The Last Hurrah” (1958)
	3:25	MOVIE – Western -C- “Take Me to Town” (1953)

Very appropriate that Channel 2 is showing The Last Hurrah, starring Spencer Tracy, on election eve; one of the great political movies of all time, as I mentioned here.

	3 WTIC (HARTFORD) (CBS)
	MORNING
	6:00	SUNRISE SEMESTER -C- Urban Man
	6:30	YOUR COMMUNITY -C-
	7:00	CBS NEWS – John Hart -C-
	8:00	CAPTAIN KANGAROO -C-
	9:00	HAP RICHARDS – Children -C-
	9:15	YOGI BEAR – Children -C-
	9:30	LUCILLE BALL -C-
	10:00	MOVIE – Drama “The Clown”
	11:30	LOVE OF LIFE – Serial -C-
	AFTERNOON
	12:00	NEWS – Dick Bertel -C-
	12:25	CBS NEWS -C-
	12:30	SEARCH FOR TOMORROW – Serial -C-
	1:00	VIRGINIA GRAHAM -C-
	1:30	AS THE WORLD TURNS -C-
	2:00	LOVE IS A MANY SPLENDORED THING – Serial -C-
	2:30	GUIDING LIGHT -C-
	3:00	BEVERLY HILLBILLIES -C-
	3:30	FAMILY AFFAIR -C-
	4:00	RANGER STATION -C-
	4:30	HAZEL – Comedy -C-
	5:00	PERRY MASON – Mystery
	EVENING
	6:00	NEWS, WEATHER, SPORTS -C-
	6:30	CBS NEWS – Walter Cronkite -C-
	7:00	MOVIE – Drama -C- “Lure of the Wilderness” (1952)
	9:00	MAYBERRY R.F.D. -C-
	9:30	DORIS DAY -C-
	10:00	CAROL BURNETT -C- Guests: Ricardo Montalban, Cass Elliot
	11:00	NEWS – Bill Hanson -C-
	11:25	MOVIE – Drama “Blue Denim” (1959)
	1:25	NEWS AND WEATHER -C-

When I see that 11:25 movie, all I can think of is Bobby Vinton singing, "She wore Blue Denim..." Am I wrong for feeling that way?

	4 WNBC (NBC)
	MORNING
	6:30	EDUCATION EXCHANGE -C-
	7:00	TODAY -C- Guests: Lady Bird Johnson, Norman Rockwell
	9:00	FOR WOMEN ONLY -C-
	9:30	KUP’S SHOW – Discussion -C- Guests: Robert Mitchum, Bob Crane, Buddy Hackett, Eileen Fulton
	10:00	DINAH SHORE -C- Guest: Jack Palance
	10:30	CONCENTRATION -C-
	11:00	SALE OF THE CENTURY -C-
	11:30	HOLLYWOOD SQUARES -C- Guests: Godfrey Cambridge, Dennis Weaver, Abby Dalton, Paul Lynde, Rose Marie, Vincent Price
	AFTERNOON
	12:00	JEOPARDY – Game -C-
	12:30	WHO, WHAT OR WHERE -C-
	1:00	IT’S YOUR BET – Game -C- Guests: Joe Flynn, Rosey Grier, Tracy Reed
	1:30	WORDS AND MUSIC -C-
	2:00	DAYS OF OUR LIVES -C-
	2:30	DOCTORS – Serial -C-
	3:00	ANOTHER WORLD/BAY CITY – Serial -C-
	3:30	BRIGHT PROMISE -C-
	4:00	ANOTHER WORLD/SOMERSET – Serial -C-
	4:30	MOVIE – Comedy -C- “Man’s Favorite Sport?” (1963)
	EVENING
	6:00	NEWS – John Palmer -C-
	7:00	NBC NEWS -C-
	7:30	RED SKELTON -C- Guest: Michael Landon
	8:00	ROWAN AND MARTIN’S LAUGH-IN – Comedy -C- Guest: Carol Channing
	9:00	MOVIE – Crime Drama -C- “Berlin Affair” (1970)
	11:00	NEWS – Jim Hartz -C-
	11:30	JOHNNY CARSON -C- Guests: Tony Randall, Hines, Hines & Dad
	1:00	NEWS – Bob Teague -C-
	1:15	MOVIE – Adventure -C- “Invincible Swordsman” (French-Italian; 1963)

You won't want to miss today's Dinah Shore episode, in which Jack Palance prepares stuffed cabbage. Yep, you read that right.

	5 WNEW (IND.)
	MORNING
	7:30	CISCO KID – Western -C-
	8:00	MARINE BOY -C-
	8:30	CASPER -C-
	9:00	BEANY AND CECIL – Children -C-
	9:30	HUCKLEBERRY HOUND -C-
	10:00	MOVIE – Comedy “The Lady Eve” (1941)
	AFTERNOON
	12:00	PAY CARDS – Game -C-
	12:30	YOU DON’T SAY! – Game -C-
	1:00	MOVIE – Comedy “Without Love” (1945)
	3:00	BUGS BUNNY – Children -C-
	3:30	SUPER HEROES – Children -C-
	4:00	RIFLEMAN – Western
	4:30	FLINTSTONES – Children -C-
	5:00	LOST IN SPACE – Adventure -C-
	EVENING
	6:00	FLYING NUN – Comedy -C-
	6:30	PETTICOAT JUNCTION -C-
	7:00	I LOVE LUCY – Comedy
	7:30	TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES -C-
	8:00	TO TELL THE TRUTH – Game -C- Panelists: Orson Bean, Kitty Carlisle, Peggy Cass, Bill Cullen
	8:30	DAVID FROST -C- Guests: Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson, Dana Valery
	10:00	NEWS – Bill Jorgensen -C-
	11:00	PEYTON PLACE – Serial -C-
	11:30	MOVIE – Comedy “The Big Hangover” (1950)
	1:00	REEL CAMP – Comedy

I suspect any classic TV channel would be pleased with this lineup. Great lineup on To Tell the Truth.

	7 WABC (ABC)
	MORNING
	7:00	LISTEN AND LEARN -C-
	7:30	NEWS – Tom Dunn
	8:00	A.M. .NEW YORK -C-
	9:30	MOVIE – Drama “That Brennan Girl” (1946)
	11:30	THAT GIRL -C-
	AFTERNOON
	12:00	BEWITCHED -C-
	12:30	WORLD APART – Serial -C-
	1:00	ALL MY CHILDREN – Serial -C-
	1:30	LET’S MAKE A DEAL -C-
	2:00	NEWLYWED GAME -C-
	2:30	DATING GAME -C-
	3:00	GENERAL HOSPITAL -C-
	3:30	ONE LIFE TO LIVE -C-
	4:00	DARK SHADOWS -C-
	4:30	MOVIE – Drama -C- “Bus Stop” (1956)
	EVENING
	6:00	NEWS – Grimsby/Beutel -C-
	7:00	ABC NEWS -C-
	7:30	YOUNG LAWYERS -C-
	8:30	SILENT FORCE -C-
	9:00	PRO FOOTBALL -C- Cincinnati at Pittsburgh
	12:00	NEWS – Grimsby/Beutel -C-
	12:30	MOVIE – Drama “The Enemy General” (1960)

Monday Night Football: Pittsburgh 21, Cincinnati 10. The Steelers were not the Super Bowl contenders that we think of today, but they're on the way. In 1969 their record was 1-13; this season they improve to 5-9. By 1972 they'll be in the playoffs.

	8 WATR (NEW HAVEN) (ABC)
	MORNING
	6:10	NEWS
	6:15	PERSPECTIVES
	6:45	NEW DAY – Religion
	7:00	MR. GOOBER – Children -C-
	9:00	CONN-TACT -C-
	10:00	PEYTON PLACE – Serial
	10:30	BEAT THE CLOCK – Game -C-
	11:00	THAT GIRL -C-
	11:30	NEWS -C-
	AFTERNOON
	12:00	MIKE DOUGLAS -C- Co-Hosts: Sonny and Cher Guests: Barry Goldwater, Margaret Truman Daniel, Marty Barris
	1:30	LET’S MAKE A DEAL -C-
	2:00	NEWLYWED GAME -C-
	2:30	DATING GAME -C-
	3:00	GENERAL HOSPITAL -C-
	3:30	ONE LIFE TO LIVE -C-
	4:00	DARK SHADOWS -C-
	4:30	DAVID FROST -C- Guests: Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson, Dana Valery
	EVENING
	6:00	NEWS – Ralph Wenge -C-
	6:30	ABC NEWS -C-
	7:00	TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES -C-
	7:30	YOUNG LAWYERS -C-
	8:30	SILENT FORCE -C-
	9:00	PRO FOOTBALL -C- Cincinnati at Pittsburgh
	12:00	NEWS – Ralph Wenge -C-
	12:30	MOVIE – Drama “Sands of Iwo Jima” (1949)
	2:30	NEWS

Lady Bird Johnson's making the talk show rounds today - first the Today show, and this afternoon the David Frost show (and this evening, depending on which station you see it on). She's plugging her book A White House Diary, covering the time from JFK's assassination to Richard Nixon's inauguration.

	9 WOR (IND.)
	MORNING
	7:30	NEWS AND WEATHER -C-
	8:00	CARTOONS -C-
	9:00	MOVIE – Drama “A Woman’s Secret” (1949)
	10:30	JOURNEY TO ADVENTURE -C-
	11:00	ROMPER ROOM -C-
	AFTERNOON
	12:00	JOE FRANKLIN -C-
	1:00	MOVIE – Drama “Til the End of Time” (1946)
	2:55	NEWS
	3:00	VIRGINIA GRAHAM -C- Guests: Nina Foch, Bob Dishy, Stanley Myron Handleman, Louise Huebner
	4:00	MOVIE GAME -C- Guests: George Carlin, Joe Flynn, James Mason, Mary Tyler Moore, Terry Moore, Stefanie Powers
	4:30	CANDID CAMERA
	5:00	GILLIGAN’S ISLAND -C-
	5:30	FLIPPER – Drama -C-
	EVENING
	6:00	GET SMART – Comedy -C-
	6:30	DICK VAN DYKE – Comedy
	7:00	WHAT’S MY LINE – Game -C- Panel: Joanna Barnes, Bert Convey, Arlene Francis, Soupy Sales
	7:30	DIVORCE COURT – Drama -C-
	8:00	MOVIE – Comedy -C- “Bell, Book and Candle” (1958)
	10:00	AVENGERS – Adventure -C-
	11:00	MOVIE – Drama -C- “The Lonely Professor” (1969)
	1:00	JOE FRANKLIN -C-
	2:00	NEWS AND WEATHER -C-

Interesting to see George Carlin in The Movie Game - I never thought of him as a celebrity who'd be on a game show.

	11 WPIX (IND.)
	MORNING
	7:15	NEWS – Roy Whitfield -C-
	7:30	POPEYE – Children -C-
	9:30	FASHION IN SEWING -C-
	9:40	JACK LaLANNE – Exercise -C-
	10:00	TELL ME DR. BROTHERS -C-
	10:30	GOURMET – David Wade -C-
	11:00	SUBURBAN CLOSEUP -C-
	11:30	GUMBY – Children -C-
	AFTERNOON
	12:00	BOZO – Children -C-
	12:30	UNDERDOG – Children -C-
	12:50	FASHIONS IN SEWING -C-
	1:00	STEVE ALLEN -C-
	2:00	CATHOLIC WINDOW -C-
	2:25	NEWS -C-
	2:30	PATTY DUKE – Comedy
	3:00	POPEYE – Children -C-
	3:30	FELIX THE CAT – Children -C-
	4:00	MAGILLA GORILLA -C-
	4:30	BATMAN – Adventure -C-
	5:00	MUNSTERS – Comedy
	5:30	F TROOP – Comedy
	EVENING
	6:00	LAND OF THE GIANTS -C-
	7:00	BEAT THE CLOCK – Game -C- Guest: Bobby Rydell
	7:30	STAR TREK – Drama -C-
	8:30	DRAGNET – Crime Drama -C-
	9:00	PERRY MASON – Mystery
	10:00	NEWS – Lee Nelson -C-
	11:00	CAN YOU TOP THIS? – Game -C-
	11:30	MOVIE – Drama “This is My Affair” (1937)
	1:00	NEWS – Roy Whitfield -C-

If memory serves me correctly, the original Beat the Clock didn't have a celebrity guest. This was the version of Beat the Clock that I knew, that I grew up with; I'd never seen the original one with Bud Collyer until a few years ago. After seeing it, the celebrity guest (so popular in the '60s and '70s) just doesn't seem to fit.

	13 WNET (PBS)
	MORNING
	8:30	GERMAN - Education
	9:00	CHILDREN’S SPECIAL Special
	10:00	CLASSROOM – Education
	AFTERNOON
	3:00	COLLEGE ADMISSIONS
	3:30	KUKLA, FRAN AND OLLIE -C-
	4:00	CHILDREN’S SPECIAL Special
	5:00	MISTEROGERS – Children -C-
	5:30	HODGEPODGE LODGE -C-
	EVENING
	6:00	WHAT’S NEW – Children -C-
	6:30	COURSE OF OUR TIMES -C-
	7:00	PROBLEM SOLVING -C-
	7:30	POLITICAL TALK
	8:00	WORLD PRESS -C-
	9:00	REALITIES -C-
	10:00	BOOK BEAT -C-
	10:30	FREE TIME -C-

Bob Cromie's guest on Book Beat is James MacGregor Burns, the renowned historian and political scientist, author of the FDR study Roosevent: Soldier of Freedom.

	25 WNYE (EDUC.)
	MORNING
	9:00	CLASSROOM - Education
	AFTERNOON
	4:30	MUSICAL INTERLUDE
	EVENING
	6:30	SESAME STREET – Children
	7:30	PLACES IN THE NEWS
	8:15	MOVING IMAGE – Filmmaking
	8:30	COMMUNITY REPORT

"Today's in-school classes: health, oceanography, black history, music, geography, arts. (7 hrs., 30 min.)" Bring back any memories?

	31 WNYC (IND.)
	MORNING
	9:30	AROUND THE CLOCK
	10:00	SESAME STREET – Children -C-
	11:00	CHEMISTRY – Education -C-
	AFTERNOON
	12:00	BLACK FRONTIER
	1:00	CASPER CITRON - Interview
	1:30	AROUND THE CLOCK
	2:00	ADVOCATES
	2:30	NASA PRESENTS
	3:00	RETURN TO NURSING
	3:30	ONE TO ONE – Art -C-
	4:00	FORSYTE SAGA
	5:00	AMERICAN GOVERNMENT
	EVENING
	6:00	NEWS -C-
	6:15	FILM
	6:30	ENVIRONMENT
	7:00	ON THE JOB – Fire Department
	7:30	CHEMISTRY - Education
	8:30	CONSULTATION
	9:00	NEW YORK REPORT -C-
	9:30	NEWS -C-
	9:45	FILM
	10:00	BROOKLYN COLLEGE

Once again, WNYC will pre-empt its evening lineup for taped coverage of the United Nations, if it was in session today.

Interesting article last week at The Ringer about the shows you hate yourself most for having watched, or, put another way, the shows that caused you to realize that the time spent watching them was time you'd never have back. In many respects, my journey into the heart of classic television was because of this experience; as I became more and more fed-up (i.e. angry) with the shows I had been watching, I started to invest more and more time building a library of shows that I was pretty sure weren't going to raise my blood pressure by another twenty points.

In some cases, the shows were ones I was familiar with and knew I was going to like: The Fugitive, Perry Mason, Hawaii Five-O, The Prisoner. Others, however were either shows I'd never watched (Naked City, Breaking Point) or programs that I remembered from growing up but hadn't really paid that much attention to (The Man from U.N.C.L.E, Peter Gunn); some, like the British drama The Human Jungle, I'd never even heard of until I started going down rabbit holes. Because for the most part I choose my own programming, it's hard to say that I have a show that, in retrospect, I'd consider a total waste of time. The closest I've come to that, however, is probably in the third season of Route 66.

Route 66 was a blind buy for me; of course I'd heard of the show, was familiar with the stars, knew the premise. Until I bought season one, though, I'd not actually seen any episodes. This isn't new to fans of classic television; we often depend on recommendations from others as to shows we might be interested in, and Route 66 was one of the more acclaimed shows out there. For me, the breaking point came with the departure of co-star George Maharis in the middle of season three. He and Martin Milner had spent more than two years traveling the USA in their Corvette, meeting interesting people and getting themselves involved in even more interesting situations, not all of them positive ones. I'd gotten more and more in the habit of muttering, under my breath, "Don't go there. Turn around and get out of town right now!" as they got involved in yet another affair that was really none of their business, one which they'd soon regret, after which they'd make some sanctimonious point.

As my wife pointed out, this was the whole premise of the series. "They're looking for adventure," she said. "They're not going anywhere in particular - why not get involved?" This was true, particularly since if Tod and Buz started playing it safe, Route 66 would soon become as interesting to the general public as one of those nature shows on PBS (no offense to nature fans out there). I might have had some misgivings, but I figured I could live with it.

When Maharis left the series, though, something happened. Until Glenn Corbett came on the scene as Maharis' replacement, Milner was left to carry the show by himself. It was true that he was probably the better actor of the two, and certainly the more professional (if some of the backstage stories can be believed), but without Buz to provide a certain balance, Tod came across as - let's be honest here - something of a prick, impetuous and with a chip on his shoulder, spoiling for fights, convinced that his answers were the best. It was at that point that I started working on other projects while the show was on, something I generally don't do when I'm watching a DVD. (After all, if I just wasn't in the mood, why not save it for another time?) It was as if I simply wanted to get it over with. When, in Corbett's first episode, Buz' character got into what I saw as a needless fight with him, I gave up completely. From that point on, Route 66 went on hiatus, and stayed there for more than a year. I wouldn't have called the past couple of years watching it a waste of time, but it was time to find something "better" to watch.

Eventually, as we cycled through our Friday night lineup, a couple other series we'd been watching came to an end, and it was time to reevaluate Route 66. To tell the truth, my main motivation was that 1) we'd already invested so much time, it was a shame to let it go to waste, and 2) I'd already spent the money on season three, so I might as well finish it, even if I decided against season four. So we went back and wrapped up the last half of the season. It did improve, somewhat; I actually came to view Corbett's character as more interesting and likable than Milner's, although they were basically too much alike to provide the dynamics required for the show to succeed. When the season ended, I felt as if I'd at least done my due diligence.

Now, as I mentioned, there is one more season to go, although most everyone agrees that Route 66 should have wrapped it up after season three. We haven't gotten it yet, and if there's any advantage to having waited this long, it would be because there's a better chance of finding it on eBay for less money. (We tried watching the streaming version on Shout! TV, but the signal kept buffering, so that's not the answer.) It's only 23 episodes, after all.

What about you out there? Are there any shows you've watched, either from the classic era or today, that have sucked the life out of you, that make you think you've wasted all that time for nothing? TV

Lots of variety in the blogs this week; let's jump right in and see what's new.

GET CHRISTIE LOVE! I mean, how can you write about this series without talking IN CAPITAL LETTERS? Hal Horn does an admirable job of restraining himself at The Horn Section as he reviews "The Big Rematch," complete with Bobby Riggs and Rosemary Casals as an extra bonus! I'm not sure I could stand much more excitement.

There was, once upon a time, a football player called Fair Hooker. Don't believe me? Go ahead, you can look it up. Or you can just read Jeff's article at Classic TV Sports, in which he examines whether or not Monday Night Football's Don Meredith really told that joke - you know, the one that goes. . .

The Bob Crane Show: Reloaded has a pair of podcasts just right for Halloween. Carol and Eric do look at Bob Crane's involvement with the TV version of Arsenic and Old Lace, as well as an episode of the radio program The Zero Hour. Good stuff, but it's the wild two-part story involving a rescue mission to Transylvania that steals the show(s). And if you listen closely, you'll have the chance to hear a rare audio appearance by yours truly - in character, of course. All objectivity aside, I love those two!

At The Twilight Zone Vortex, Jordan has a very good writeup of "The Gift,"the third season episode that might well mark the beginning of the series' decline. I really enjoy the in-depth writeups of these episodes; like Jack's Hitchcock Project posts, they offer a critical examination of episodes that goes far beyond the kind of background one usually reads.

Speaking of which, I was listening to a TZ podcast the other day, one of the points in the discussion being that classic TV (especially Twilight Zone) was dialogue-heavy - we've become so accustomed to chases and action and whatnot that it would be difficult for a show to duplicate Rod Serling's often insightful writing. Does The Good Place offer that kind of insight? The Ringer talks to a philosopher about that very thing - and I probably ought to write about it someday.

You'll recall that last week in this space we looked at 1939's "Peace on Earth," the post-apocalyptic Christmas cartoon, at Christmas TV History. This week Joanna gives us that cartoon's sequel, "Good Will to Men," from 1955. Whereas "Peace on Earth" recalled the horrors of World War I, "Good Will to Men" resides firmly in the shadow of nuclear war, which comes clear in its chilling conclusion.

"The Secrets Broker"is, writes John at Cult TV Blog, one of those episodes that makes The Avengers The Avengers. It's all there - mystery, blackmail, suspense, technology, Steed and Mrs. Gale, and wine tasting - all in glorious black-and-white. Who, I say, could ask for anything more? Read on and find out.

That should give you something to think about until tomorrow - see you then! TV

If I've said it once, I've said it a hundred times, and I'll say it here again: "Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose" - the more things change, the more they stay the same. Case in point: this week's cover star, Lloyd Haynes. star of ABC's successful new series Room 222.

Since Haynes plays a history teacher on television, it's natural that he has some ideas of his own about history, and some of it doesn't sound all that different from what one might read today. For example, he calls George Washington a bigot (where have I heard that before?), and is frustrated by the lack of visibility when it comes to the role of blacks in American history. South Bend, Indiana, his home town, was run by the Ku Klux Klan and the Mafia when he was growing up.

He hit his stride during a stint in the Marines, which funded his education at City College and San Jose State, and then it was on to Heater-Quigley, where we worked his way up from office boy to production assistant, with the goal of eventually breaking into acting. After a series of successful guest spots in various series, he now has one of his own, and he's making the most of it.

And now, for some of you youngsters out there, if you ever want to understand what the 1960s were really like, I'm about to tell you. You see, Lloyd Haynes is "an enthusiastic aficionado of marathon encounter groups where people try to allieviate their Uptightness [sic] by spending several sleepless days and nights together screaming, touching, huging, nestling in 'human sandwiches,' and pouring out their most intimate feelings in continuous emotional and physical involvement." Not surprisingly, Haynes thinks "they're a gas," although they would be more likely to give me gas.

Haynes goes on to recount the time he was the only black in an encounter group. "A lady looked over at me and said, 'I hate you.' I asked why and she said, 'Because you're black.' She lived at Newport Beach or somewhere like that, you know, lily white. She figured if she could attack me, it would keep the others from finding out what was really wrong with her."

I mean, I don't want to insult any of you out there who may have taken part in groups like this (they're still out there, you know), but I don't see how anyone can read what I've just written without breaking out into hysterical laughter. It's just so, so. (If you ever want to see a great parody of these new age group therapy sessions, check out Semi-Tough, the movie based on Dan Jenkins' wonderful novel. I'd like to think we've come a long way from that white woman from Newport Beach, though I know we haven't come far enough. I'd also like to think we've come a long way from those ridiculous encounter sessions; I know that isn't true, either.

◊ ◊ ◊

During the 60s, the Ed Sullivan Show and The Hollywood Palace were the premiere variety shows on television. Whenever they appear in TV Guide together, we'll match them up and see who has the best lineup..

Sullivan: Ed's guests: Pearl Bailey, Petula Clark, comic impressionist David Frye, country singer Buck Owens, the country-rock sound of The Band, comic Rodney Dangerfield and the Feux Follets, French-Canadian follk dancers.

Palace: Host Sammy Davis Jr. headlines a lively hour with Mama Cass Elliot, jazz great Lionel Hampton, pal Peter Lawford, singer Dana Valary, actor-singer Rosey Grier and the Dells, classical-soul quintet.

It's a big week on TV for Sammy Davis Jr., as we'll see later on, and he's one of the main reasons I'm giving this week to the Palace. Ed may have more stars - Pearl Bailey, Petula Clark, David Frye, Rodney Dangerfield - but the stars on Palace are more to my liking. Sammy and Lionel Hampton are a great combo, Sammy and Peter Lawford make up almost half of the Rat Pack, and Cass Elliot away from The Mamas and the Papas (so I don't like them; sue me) is better. I'm not a fan of The Band, which takes points away from Ed. It's close enough to call it a split decision, but Palace takes it.

Here's Lionel Hampton and Sammy - five minutes that clinch Palace's victory.

◊ ◊ ◊

Throughout the 60s and early 70s, TV Guide's reviews were written by the witty and acerbic Cleveland Amory. Whenever we get the chance, we'll look at Cleve's latest take on the series of the era.

Cleveland Amory likes Marcus Welby, M.D. I say that because he spends the entire first paragraph explaining to us what a General Practitioner is, as well as something called a "house call." Certainly it helps, for you whipperstappers out there who don't remember these things, but it also takes up a full 25% of the column, leaving that much less room for him to launch one of his attacks

Which is a good thing, because Cleveland doesn't really have anything bad to say about this show. Both Robert Young, as the good Dr. Welby, and James Brolin, as his young assistant Dr. Kiley, are "very good," and the guest on the initial episode, Susan Clark, playing a young schoolteacher who's going to die, was "magnificent." It was, Amory writes, "the finest first episode of a show we have ever seen." Various scenes are played out with a delicate mixture of humor and drama, particularly in a scene where she tries to explain her impending death to her schoolchildren, and in another when Welby gives Kiley a lesson in bedside manner: "For most of us, death comes alone, in a hospital, in the middle of the night. There may be a nurse but it very much depends on whether she has compassion or whether even she is there. Miss Adams is alone - in the middle of the night."

The second episode, in which Welby is persistent in his attempts to breakthrough to an autistic boy, was, says Amory, "almost equally good." And at the end of this review, Amory engages in what I think is a rare moment of self-reflection, a nod to the style for which he is so well-known. He refers to an exchange between Kiley and Welby, when the young doctor, in exasperation, says to Welby, "Who are you? Sigmund Freud or Annie Sullivan?" Replies Welby, "You're too old for whimsey and too young for sarcasm." And, concluding this unusually straightforward review, Amory notes, "For a show as good as this one, aren't we all?"

◊ ◊ ◊

SOURCE: HADLEY TV GUIDES

I mentioned earlier that this is a big week for Sammy Davis Jr. While he's hosting The Hollywood Palace with his old friend Peter Lawford on ABC, he's appearing with Lawford and their old friend Frank Sinatra in Sergeants 3, NBC's Saturday night movie. Then, on Tuesday, Davis stars in the made-for-TV suspense thriller The Pigeon (7:30 p.m, ABC), in which he plays a private detective trying to protect a young woman who doesn't want protecting. He's joined by a very good cast - Ricardo Montalban, Dorothy Malone, and Pat Boone in his TV dramatic debut.

Speaking of Sammy's Rat Pack friends, Sinatra is on CBS Wednesday night (8:00 p.m.) in his fifth television special, a one-man show in which Frank belts out some of his biggest hits, including "All the Way,""The Tender Trap,""My Way,""Fly Me to the Moon,""Please Be Kind," and "My Kind of Town." Responding to the changing times, he also takes a crack at more contemporary tunes such as "Little Green Apples,""A Man Alone," and "Goin' Out of My Head." With, I might add, slightly less success.

Frank's back on Thursday night, starring with Dean Martin in the western 4 For Texas (8:00 p.m.) with Anita Ekberg and Ursula Andress making up the four.* Charles Bronson is there as well, and Arthur Godfrey and the Three Stooges appear in cameos. The last half of 4 For Texas overlaps with Dean's own show on NBC, with another terrific lineup of stars: Bing Crosby, Eva Gabor, Jack Gilford and Dom DeLuise. ABC, not to be left out, has This is Tom Jones at 8:00 p.m., with Connie Stevens, Matt Munro, the Moody Blues, and Shecky Greene, followed at 9:00 by It Takes a Thief, with Fred Astaire guesting as Robert Wagner's father.

*Along with Frank and Dean, of course. What did you think I meant?

◊ ◊ ◊
Not so fast, my friend! The Doan Report takes a look at the early ratings race, now that we've had a couple of months to digest the new shows. The most successful among the rookies are Marcus Welby, M.D., The Jim Nabors Hour, Room 222, and The Bill Cosby Show, and old favorites like Bonanza, Gunsmoke, The Jackie Glason Show, Mayberry, R.F.D., The Glen Campbell Goodtime Show, and Family Affair are, in the report's words, "looking strong."

On the other hand, there are those that aren't looking so hot, and most of them won't surprise you, primarily because unless you frequent Television Obscurities you might not have heard of them. ABC's experiment with 45-minute programming, The Music Sceneand The New People, are said to be in "deep trouble," along with Mr. Deeds and Jimmy Durante Presents the Lennon Sisters. You might be surprised to see The Brady Bunch on the list of endangered shows, though; after a slow start, the sitcom manages to "hang on" for five seasons, plus countless spin-offs and an enduring place in the hearts of many television fans to this day. Mission: Impossible, too, is said to be in trouble, and while there's little doubt that the series isn't the same without Martin Landau and Barbara Bain, it will continue until 1973. Not every series is so lucky, though; I Dream of Jeannie, one of NBC's "worries," will go off at the end of this season, as will newcomer Bracken's Worldand The Leslie Uggams Show, and The Ed Sullivan Show will continue for just one more season.

Of course, as one series leaves the air, another is set to take its place. With an eye toward some of its weak links, ABC is said to be lining up variety shows for Johnny Cash, Engelbert Humperdinck, and Pat Paulson. (Dick Cavett is also said to be on this list, but he unexpectedly winds up in Joey Bishop's timeslot after the latter quits his show.) They're also rumored to be preparing a version of The Odd Couple, with Tony Randall and Jack Klugman. CBS's summer hit Hee Haw is being primed for a return, and NBC's working on a hour-long show for Flip Wilson. Surprisingly, all of these make it on the air (with varying degrees of success, it should be added); however, there's no record of an Arte Johnson show ever hiting the small screen, and a pop show version of Harper Valley, PTA does make it - in 1980.

◊ ◊ ◊
On Monday night at 8:30 p.m, President Nixon is scheduled to address the nation on Vietnam, and this presents an unusual challenge to the networks, since the speech comes smack-dab in the middle of the evening's entertainment. CBS lucks out; they have a block of half-hour sitcoms from 7:30 to 9:00, and so The Doris Day Show gets an unexpected night off. It's not so easy for NBC and ABC, however: NBC's movie Frankie and Johnny (starring President Nixon's friend Elvis) starts at 8:00 and gets a half-hour before being interrupted for the speech, before resuming at 9:00 (time approximate). ABC's solution is even more interesting: the hour-long Love, American Style, which also begins at 8:00, is interrupted not only for the president's speech, but for ABC News analysis at 9:00, with Love, American Style returning at 9:30. Kind of ingenious, actually - it's made up of three separate stories, so they might be able to split the show in two without cutting into any of the stories.

ABC has some pretty adult movies on this week, beginning on Sunday night with The Carpetbaggers (8:00 p.m.), based on the Harold Robbins novel of the same name, starring George Peppard and Carroll Baker. Judith Crist says that, by "today's smut standards," it's pretty tame stuff, and adds that "Carroll Baker, as always exuding about as much sex appeal as a whole-wheat uffin, doesn't even get to strip!" Then on Wednesday, it's A Man and a Woman, Claude Lelouch's French art-house movie from 1966. It's a "mature" love story, one that Crist says is so lovely to look at that it "almost manages to obscure the vapidity of performance and superficiality of the content."

Also on Wednesday (10:00 p.m.), NET presents "The Heartmakers," a Science Special that looks at the development of the artificial heart, including interviews with two of the most important heart surgeons of the day, Drs. Denton Cooley and Michael DeBakey. And on Thursday, for us early risers, Today has an interview with the three Apollo 11 astronauts, returning from their world tour; that evening, Bob Hope is back in a 90 minute special that's a change of pace - it's "Roberta," the 1933 musical comedy that made Hope a Broadway star. John Davidson, Janis Page, and Michele Lee costar with Hope. The moon must have been the only place that Hope didn't travel to entertain Americans in uniform.

◊ ◊ ◊
Edith Efron is back this week with the fourth in a series of articles on the relationship between television and children, this one asking the simple question: "What is TV doing to them?" Unfortunately, for such a simple question, there's no simple answer; instead, what Efron mostly gets is a series of contradictions.

For example, everyone agrees that parents could use some guidance in helping them determine what their children watch. The PTA has such an advisory group; so does the National Association for Better Broadcasting, a television watchdog. The two groups agree on virtually nothing; while the NABB says that Heckle and Jeckle is "a cartoon series of excellent quality," the PTA calls it "just a heap of rubbish." Likewise, NAAB says that American Bandstand "lacks grace and gaiety," while according to the PTA, it has "gentle manners, good taste and friendly gaiety."

Likewise the American Council for Better Broadcasts has formed its own advisory group of critics to provide aid and comfort for parents; their recomendations are similarly contradictory. Their opinions on Gunsmoke run from "Too gory and violent" to "Suitable for family viewing," and when it comes to Lost in Space, it's either "Marked by violence, greed, selfishness, trickery and disregard for accepted values" or "imaginative, with good moral concepts." Thanks a whole hell of a lot, right?

Efron asks several pointed questions about the relationship between children and TV: What picture of Man is TV teaching our children? What picture of personal relationships is TV teaching our children? Moral conflicts? Sociopolitical problems? In almost every case, these and other questions can be answered "Take your choice."Writes Efron, "[C]ritics dedicated to child welfare are in belligerant disaccord about whether or not any given show is Ethical, True or Beautiful." Furthermore, "The quarrels range through every kind of programming that children see - everything except late-night fare." They can't even agree on the problems, so is it any surprise that they can't agree on the solutions?" Should television be realistic or soothing? Is a specific drama educational or pathological? It all depends on who you ask.

At the risk of engaging in amateur psychology, I think the rise of this question - which, in one form or another, has been around since the beginning of television - can be related directly to the state of the family in the changing times of the '60s. Increasingly, television is looked upon as a babysitter, and teens are becoming more autonomous in their viewing selections. Parents are less available to directly oversee the programs that their young children watch, and the generation gap makes it less likely that teens and their parents are even in the same room, let alone watching the same programs. (Ed Sullivan discovered this to his dismay; by introducing rock acts to the show, he actually highlighted the gap and wound up undermining the homogeneity of his audience.) Experts debated the effect of shows like Howdy Doody on children, but it's likely the discusion took place in an environment much changed by 1969.

And so, in the end, it's appropriate that we end this week the way we started. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. Or, if you prefer, sic semper erat, et sic semper erit: "Thus has it always been, thus it shall ever be." If we've anything at all from the last six years of TV Guide, it's been that. TV

I enjoy doing Saturdays; I think I've mentioned that before. In particular, it's always interesting to see the Saturday morning cartoons, especially before they get overrun by superheroes. Look at CBS this week; not only do we have Wacky Races, there's also the two spin-offs, Dastardly and Muttley and Penelope Pitstop.* I don't know why they didn't just line up the three cartoons in a row and show them that way.

*Is that the only case where one show has produced two spinoffs - not the way Yogi Bear was spun off from Huckleberry Hound, but actual characters from the narrative?

Personally, I think Saturdays like this are more interesting than they are now; I watch my fair share of Premier League soccer and college football, but it's nice to see other programs - old westerns, matinee movies, Thunderbirds. (Which, by the way, is not a cartoon.) Let's get to the listings and you can see what I mean.

By the way, the two NET stations, KTCA in Minneapolis and WDSE in Duluth, are not broadcasting on Saturday.

	3 KDAL (DULUTH) (CBS)
	MORNING
	7:00	JETSONS -C-
	7:30	LAKEHEAD FARM AND HOME TIME -C-
	8:00	TREETOP HOUSE -C-
	8:30	DASTARDLY AND MUTTLEY – Children -C-
	9:00	PERILS OF PENELOPE PITSTOP – Children -C-
	9:30	JUNIOR AUCTION -C-
	10:00	ARCHIE -C-
	11:00	MONKEES -C-
	11:30	WACKY RACES – Children -C-
	AFTERNOON
	12:00	SUPERMAN -C-
	12:30	JONNY QUEST -C-
	1:00	BUGS BUNNY/ROAD RUNNER – Children -C-
	2:00	MOVIE – Satire -C- “The Mouse That Roared” (English; 1959)
	3:30	MOVIE – Drama -C- “Bonjour Tristesse” (English; 1957)
	5:00	WRESTLING -C-
	EVENING
	6:00	NEWS – Roger Mudd -C-
	6:30	JACKIE GLEASON -C- Guest: Mike Douglas
	7:30	MY THREE SONS – Comedy -C-
	8:00	GREEN ACRES – Comedy -C-
	8:30	PETTICOAT JUNCTION – Comedy -C-
	9:00	MANNIX -C-
	10:00	NEWS -C-
	10:15	MOVIE – Mystery -C- “Charade” (1963)
	12:15	RUN FOR YOUR LIFE – Drama -C-

It is, once again, quite interesting to see a Saturday afternoon with no sports save wrestling at 5:00 p.m. Today, CBS would be broadcasting an SEC college football game, and the rest of the time would probably be taken up with infomercials.

	4 WCCO (CBS)
	MORNING
	6:00	SUNRISE SEMESTER -C-
	6:30	SIEGFRIED – Cartoons -C-
	7:00	JETSONS -C-
	7:30	BUGS BUNNY/ROAD RUNNER – Children -C-
	8:30	DASTARDLY AND MUTTLEY – Children -C-
	9:00	PERILS OF PENELOPE PITSTOP – Children -C-
	9:30	SCOOBY-DOO – Children -C-
	10:00	ARCHIE -C-
	11:00	MONKEES -C-
	11:30	WACKY RACES – Children -C-
	AFTERNOON
	12:00	NEWS -C-
	12:30	HOBBY SHOW -C-
	12:45	JOBS NOW! -C-
	1:00	THUNDERBIRDS – Cartoon -C-
	2:00	MOVIE – Comedy “Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion” (1950)
	3:30	MOVIE – Comedy “Francis Goes to the Races” (1951)
	4:45	WORLD OF AVIATION -C-
	5:00	LASSIE – Adventure -C-
	5:30	NEWS – Mudd -C-
	EVENING
	6:00	NEWS C
	6:30	JACKIE GLEASON -C- Guest: Mike Douglas
	7:30	MY THREE SONS – Comedy -C-
	8:00	GREEN ACRES – Comedy -C-
	8:30	PETTICOAT JUNCTION – Comedy -C-
	9:00	MANNIX -C-
	10:00	NEWS -C-
	10:45	MOVIE – Documentary -C- “A Face of War”
	12:15	NEWS – Dave Moore -C-
	12:30	THIS MUST BE THE PLACE -C-
	1:00	NITE KAPPERS – Comedy

World of Aviation, which airs here at 4:45 p.m. but which I remember usually being a Sunday morning program, was said to be the world's only regularly scheduled aviation television program. It premiered on WCCO in 1952 and ran for 28 years. It's host for all that time was Sherm Booen, a member of the Minesota Broadcasting Hall of Fame. For many years he lived in Richfield, the same Minneapolis suburb that we did; he was grand marshal of the city's 4th of July parade one year. I'm told he was very much a gentleman.

	5 KSTP (NBC)
	MORNING
	7:00	HECKLE AND JECKLE – Children -C-
	8:00	HERE COMES THE GRUMP – Children -C-
	8:30	PINK PANTHER – Children -C-
	9:00	H.R. PUFFNSTUF – Children -C-
	9:30	BANANA SPLITS – Children -C-
	10:30	JAMBO -C-
	11:00	FLINTSTONES – Children -C-
	11:30	UNDERDOG -C-
	AFTERNOON
	12:00	COLLEGE FOOTBALL HIGHLIGHTS -C-
	12:30	BIG TEN FOOTBALL HIGHLIGHTS -C-
	1:00	HIGH SCHOOL BOWL -C-
	1:30	MOVIE – Drama “1984” (British; 1956)
	3:30	POLKA BEAT – Music -C-
	4:00	F TROOP – Comedy -C-
	4:30	MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. -C-
	5:30	NEWS – Chet Huntley, David Brinkley -C-
	EVENING
	6:00	NEWS -C-
	6:30	ANDY WILLIAMS – Variety -C- Guests: Debbie Reynolds, Rod Serling, Henry Mancini, Flip Wilson, Edwin Hawkins Singers
	7:30	ADAM-12 -C-
	8:00	MOVIE -C- “Sergeants 3” (1962)
	10:15	NEWS -C-
	10:45	JOHNNY CARSON -C-
	12:00	MOVIE – Drama “Golden Boy” (1939)

High School Bowl, which pitted two Twin Cities high schools against each other, was one of the many variations on G.E. College Bowl, which is why I find it ironic that KSTP doesn't carry the College Bowl broadcast at 4:30 p.m. It's especially interesting considering the University of Minnesota might have been in it, depending on how they faired against Bradley last week.

	6 WDSM (DULUTH) (NBC)
	MORNING
	7:00	HECKLE AND JECKLE – Children -C-
	8:00	HERE COMES THE GRUMP – Children -C-
	8:30	PINK PANTHER – Children -C-
	9:00	H.R. PUFFNSTUF – Children -C-
	9:30	BANANA SPLITS – Children -C-
	10:30	JAMBO -C-
	11:00	FLINTSTONES – Children -C-
	11:30	UNDERDOG -C-
	AFTERNOON
	12:00	PRO FOOTBALL – Highlights -C-
	1:00	BIG PICTURE – Army -C-
	1:30	SKIPPY – Adventure -C-
	2:00	MOVIE – Western -C- “El Paso” (1949)
	4:30	COLLEGE BOWL -C- Cleveland State vs. Bradley or Minnesota
	5:00	FILM – Racing -C-
	5:30	HIGH Q – Quiz -C-
	EVENING
	6:00	NEWS – Huntley/Brinkley -C-
	6:30	ANDY WILLIAMS – Variety -C- Guests: Debbie Reynolds, Rod Serling, Henry Mancini, Flip Wilson, Edwin Hawkins Singers
	7:30	ADAM-12 -C-
	8:00	MOVIE -C- “Sergeants 3” (1962)
	10:15	NEWS -C-
	10:45	WACKIEST SHIP – Adventure -C-

The racing film at 5:00 p.m. is the official film of the 1969 Indianapolis 500, which was won by Mario Andretti. Hopefully this wasn't a spoiler for any of you who were planning to watch it on YouTube later.

	7 KCMT (ALEX) (NBC, ABC)
	MORNING
	7:00	ST. CLOUD COLLEGE COURSE
	8:00	HERE COMES THE GRUMP – Children -C-
	8:30	PINK PANTHER – Children -C-
	9:00	H.R. PUFFNSTUF – Children -C-
	9:30	BANANA SPLITS – Children -C-
	10:30	JAMBO -C-
	11:00	FLINTSTONES – Children -C-
	11:30	UNDERDOG -C-
	AFTERNOON
	12:00	SKIPPY – Adventure -C-
	12:30	NASHVILLE MUSIC -C-
	1:00	COLLEGE FOOTBALL PRE-GAME SHOW -C-
	1:15	COLLEGE FOOTBALL -C- Ohio State vs. Northwestern
	4:30	COLLEGE BOWL -C- Cleveland State vs. Bradley or Minnesota [Time approximate]
	5:00	NEWS -C-
	5:15	OUTDOORS WITH BUD -C-
	5:30	NEWS – Chet Huntley, David Brinkley -C-
	EVENING
	6:00	NEWS -C-
	6:30	ANDY WILLIAMS – Variety -C- Guests: Debbie Reynolds, Rod Serling, Henry Mancini, Flip Wilson, Edwin Hawkins Singers
	7:30	ADAM-12 -C-
	8:00	MOVIE -C- “Sergeants 3” (1962)
	10:15	NEWS -C-
	10:45	MOVIE – Drama -C- “The New Interns” (1964)

Don't worry, Heckle and Jeckle fans. Even though KCMT bumps it off the Saturday schedule in favor of an extension class from St. Cloud State, you'll be able to catch it tomorrow at 9:30 a.m.

	8 WKBT (LaCROSSE) (CBS)
	MORNING
	7:00	JETSONS -C-
	7:30	BUGS BUNNY/ROAD RUNNER – Children -C-
	8:30	DASTARDLY AND MUTTLEY – Children -C-
	9:00	PERILS OF PENELOPE PITSTOP – Children -C-
	9:30	SCOOBY-DOO – Children -C-
	10:00	ARCHIE -C-
	11:00	MONKEES -C-
	11:30	WACKY RACES – Children -C-
	AFTERNOON
	12:00	SUPERMAN -C-
	12:30	JONNY QUEST -C-
	1:00	MUSIC CAROUSEL
	1:30	RIFLEMAN – Western
	2:00	SUGARFOOT – Western
	3:00	FILM -C-
	3:30	FILM
	3:45	THE HUNTER -C-
	4:00	DRUG TURN-ON -C- Special
	EVENING
	6:00	PACKERAMA – Football -C-
	6:30	JACKIE GLEASON -C- Guest: Mike Douglas
	7:30	MY THREE SONS – Comedy -C-
	8:00	GREEN ACRES – Comedy -C-
	8:30	PLEASE DON’T EAT THE DAISIES – Comedy -C-
	9:00	MANNIX -C-
	10:00	WEATHER, NEWS, SPORTS
	10:30	MOVIE – Comedy “The Trouble with Angels” (1966)

I find it fascinating what shows the affiliates choose to preempt for local programming. Sometimes it's easy to figure out, if the content is questionable or the show is clearly a ratings bomb. In this case, though, I've no reason why WKBT would replace Petticoat Junction with Please Don't Eat the Daisies. Do you?

	9 KMSP (ABC)
	MORNING
	7:00	CASPER – Children -C-
	7:30	SMOKEY BEAR -C-
	8:00	CATTANOOGA CATS -C-
	9:00	HOT WHEELS -C-
	9:30	HARDY BOYS -C-
	10:00	SKY HAWKS -C-
	10:30	GULLIVER – Children -C-
	11:00	FANTASTIC VOYAGE -C-
	11:30	BANDSTAND – Music -C- Guests: Andy Kim, Joe South
	AFTERNOON
	12:30	TONY PARKER FOOTBALL SHOW -C-
	1:00	COLLEGE FOOTBALL PRE-GAME SHOW -C-
	1:15	COLLEGE FOOTBALL -C- Ohio State vs. Northwestern
	4:30	WIDE WORLD OF SPORTS -C- Time approximate. National 500 Stock Car Race, International Sky Flying Championship
	EVENING
	6:00	COLLEGE TALENT – Variety -C- Host: Arthur Godfrey. Judges: Don Marshall, Dinah Shore, Craig Stevens
	6:30	DATING GAME -C- Guest: John Forsythe
	7:00	NEWLYWED GAME -C-
	7:30	LAWRENCE WELK -C-
	8:30	MOVIE – Drama -C- “War and Peace” (Italian-American; 1956)
	12:15	NEWS -C-

Channel 9, as is its wont at the moment, shows Hollywood Palace tomorrow afternoon at 3:00 p.m., opposite NFL football on CBS and AFL football on NBC. Brilliant move, that. The movie that replaces it, War and Peace, runs three hours and 45 minutes. When I looked back at this, there was such a long gap between that and the late news that I thought for a moment I'd left something out

	10 WDIO (DULUTH) (ABC)
	MORNING
	7:00	CASPER – Children -C-
	7:30	SMOKEY BEAR -C-
	8:00	CATTANOOGA CATS -C-
	9:00	HOT WHEELS -C-
	9:30	HARDY BOYS -C-
	10:00	SKY HAWKS -C-
	10:30	GULLIVER – Children -C-
	11:00	FANTASTIC VOYAGE -C-
	11:30	BANDSTAND – Music -C- Guests: Andy Kim, Joe South
	AFTERNOON
	12:30	FILM
	1:00	COLLEGE FOOTBALL PRE-GAME SHOW -C-
	1:15	COLLEGE FOOTBALL -C- Ohio State vs. Northwestern
	4:30	WIDE WORLD OF SPORTS -C- Time approximate. National 500 Stock Car Race, International Sky Flying Championship
	EVENING
	6:00	TWILIGHT ZONE – Drama -C-
	6:30	DATING GAME -C- Guest: John Forsythe
	7:00	NEWLYWED GAME -C-
	7:30	LAWRENCE WELK -C-
	8:30	HOLLYWOOD PALACE -C- Host: Sammy Davis Jr. Guests: Mama Cass Elliot, Lionel Hampton, Peter Lawford, Dana Vallery, Rosey Grier, the Dells
	9:30	BILL ANDERSON – Music -C-
	10:00	NEWS -C-
	10:30	MOVIE – Western “The Gunfighter” (1950”

To show you another way in which coverage of sports has changed on TV, the National 550 NASCAR race that's on Wide World of Sports was held on October 12. Rather than 45 or 50 minutes of highlights a month later, today it would be broadcast live, as all NASCAR races are.

	11 WTCN (IND.)
	MORNING
	7:20	NEWS -C-
	7:30	MILITARY REPORT -C-
	8:00	FARM FORUM -C-
	8:30	4-H SHOW -C-
	9:00	CARTOON CARNIVAL -C-
	9:30	HI JERRY -C-
	10:00	TO BE ANNOUNCED
	10:30	TO BE ANNOUNCED
	11:00	PRO FOOTBALL – Highlights -C-
	AFTERNOON
	12:00	LUNCH WITH CASEY -C-
	1:00	SCENE SEVENTY – Music Guests: Leslie Gore, the Buckinghams, Gene Chandler, the Winstons, the Bookends
	2:00	SKIPPY – Adventure -C-
	2:30	MOVIE – Adventure -C- “Ape Man of the Jungle” (1964)
	4:00	TO BE ANNOUNCED
	4:30	VOYAGE – Adventure -C-
	5:30	DEATH VALLEY DAYS – Drama -C-
	EVENING
	6:00	WRESTLING -C-
	7:00	PRO HOCKEY -C- Minnesota at Pittsburgh
	9:15	SCOREBOARD – Harrigan -C- Time approximate
	9:30	HUGH HEFNER – Variety -C-
	10:30	MOVIE – Adventure “The Dirty Game” (French-German-Italian-British; 1965)
	12:30	MOVIE – Western “The Gallant Legion” (1948)
	2:20	NEWS -C-

Yes, I know Lesley Gore's name is misspelled in the description for Scene Seventy at 1:00 p.m. I looked at the description twice to make sure I hadn't gotten it wrong, and I even looked it up online just in case I was the one that was wrong. Usually I correct these kinds of TV Guide mistakes, such as when a show's listed in color that I know is manifestly wrong. I thought I'd let this one ride, not only to give you a true sense of the issue, but because I didn't have anything else to write about here

	13 WEAU (EAU CLAIRE) (NBC)
	MORNING
	7:00	HECKLE AND JECKLE – Children -C-
	8:00	HERE COMES THE GRUMP – Children -C-
	8:30	PINK PANTHER – Children -C-
	9:00	H.R. PUFFNSTUF – Children -C-
	9:30	BANANA SPLITS – Children -C-
	10:30	JAMBO -C-
	11:00	FLINTSTONES – Children -C-
	11:30	UNDERDOG -C-
	AFTERNOON
	12:00	COUNTRY CARNIVAL – Music -C-
	12:30	HARBORLIGHTS – Religion -C-
	1:00	BIG PICTURE – Army -C-
	1:30	YOUNG WISCONSIN MUSICIANS -C-
	2:30	DEATH VALLEY DAYS – Drama -C-
	3:00	WAGON TRAIN – Western -C-
	4:30	COLLEGE BOWL -C- Cleveland State vs. Bradley or Minnesota
	5:00	WILBURN BROTHERS – Music -C- Guest: Mary Taylor
	5:30	PORTER WAGONER – Music -C- Guest: George Morgan
	EVENING
	6:00	GREAT OUTDOORS -C-
	6:15	NEWS, WEATHER, SPORTS -C-
	6:30	ANDY WILLIAMS – Variety -C- Guests: Debbie Reynolds, Rod Serling, Henry Mancini, Flip Wilson, Edwin Hawkins Singers
	7:30	ADAM-12 -C-
	8:00	MOVIE -C- “Sergeants 3” (1962)
	10:15	NEWS -C-
	10:45	FBI -C-
	11:45	MOVIE – Drama -C- “Sergeant Ryker” (1968)

The TV Guide listing doesn't say what kind of movie Sergeants 3 is - you know: comedy, drama, adventure. Further down in the description, it's described as a western spoof, but I didn't want to be presumptious enough to insert anything on my own. As was the case above, sometimes it's best to just let TV Guide speak for itself.

Idon't know about you, but it seems to me as if it's been a very long week, and now that it's Friday it's time for a little anticipatory celebration. Let's see what's out there to keep us amused on the way.

The Week reports that the boom in scripted TV shows - there are more than 500 now, including nearly 100 on streaming services such as Amazon and Netflix - has resulted in an unexpected byproduct: increased opportunities for bad actors. "Thanks to our unflagging thirst for new shows, more shows, better shows, any shows, the so-called golden age of TV is dissolving into a new golden age of bad acting."

"The Dummy," from season three of The Twilight Zone, has a shock ending that even after all these years packs a punch. Jordan takes a closer inspection at The Twilight Zone Vortex, along with a fascinating look at the history of ventriloquismas as a plot device. Very interesting.

With temperatures in the 20s here in lovely Minneapolis, I can't help but get into the Christmas spirit, and at Christmas TV History Joanna lets you know where you can find her detailed discussions on Christmas entertainment. She's unquestionably one of the very best sources of information on how television covers this magical season.

When it comes to continuing the classic television tradition, one of the challenges us classic TV fans face as we age is how to introduce this most pleasing hobby to others. As David points out at Comfort TV, there's definately a right way and wrong way to do this, so take his advice and find out how to spread the joy around.

I'm always delighted when Jack pops up with another of his Hitchcock Project pieces at bare-bones e-zine, and this week he continues his look at the scripts of Francis and Marian Cockrell with the season one story "You Got to Have Luck." I've seen most of the first four seasons of Hitchcock, and it's always fun to read about an episode you saw a long time ago, and wait for the bell to ring.

The Land of Whatever reviews the 1979 Nero Wolfe telefilm, made by Burke's Law honcho Frank Gilroy, with Thayer David as Wolfe. I confess no familiarity with this movie, but as much of an admirer as I am of the rotund detective, this told me everything I needed to know about the movie: "David effected a serviceable mimic of Sydney Greenstreet, who starred as Wolfe on radio, but Gilroy's preference to make Wolfe more like [Amos] Burke, or any other romantic sleuth, wasn't the brightest of ideas." No kidding!

Television Obscurities introduces us to another of TV's nearly-forgotten shows, Eye Witness, which aired on New York's WNBT between 1947 and 1948. You can even see an episode of the program - and isn't it remarkable to think of a television show being 70 years old? Or does that just show how old I am?

And at Those Were the Days, don't miss a terrific photo featuring some of television's most famous cowboys, circa 1957: Clint Walker as Cheyenne Bodie, James Arness as Matt Dillon, Richard Boone as Palladin, Robert Horton as Flint McCullough, James Garner as Bret Maverick and John Payne as Vint Bonner. Wow!

That should whet your appetite until tomorrow, and you won't want to miss the TV Guide I've got in store for you. TV

This week's feature spotlight is on one of America's greatest murder cases, the 1954 conviction of Cleveland osteopath Dr. Sam Sheppard for the murder of his pregnant wife Marilyn, his 1964 release on appeal, and his 1966 retrial and acquital. The case transfixed the nation, resulted in a landmark Supreme Court decision, and catapulted Sheppard's young attorney, F. Lee Bailey, to overnight (and lasting) fame.

On Monday night, NBC reviews the story in a three-hour made-for-TV movie, Guilty or Innocent: the Sam Sheppard Murder Case (7:00 p.m.), starring George Peppard as the enigmatic Sheppard, who insisted from the very beginning that he was innocent, that the murder had actually been committed by a "bushy-haired intruder" who had then attacked Sheppard before escaping. The case is probably at least as well known for supposedly being the inspiration for The Fugitive as it is on its own merits.

I wrote about the Sheppard Case over at the other site back in 2007, on the eve of the anniversary of the murder, so no need to rehash the details here. What is interesting is Michael Fessier Jr.'s article on the challenges of casting such a challenging movie. The Sheppard story requires a huge cast; not just the principles, but the smaller roles as well, and don't let anyone tell you that it's the biggest roles that cause the biggest headaches. One actor was up for a minor role; casting director Milt Hammerman knew the actor's agent had grossly inflated his rate, based on a part he'd had in Chinatown, and the cost would hardly be worth it. But director Harold Gast took one look at him, said "That's my doctor," and Hammerman knew the budget would be taking another hit.

And so it goes. Barnard Hughes is scheduled to play Sheppard's first defense attorney, William Corrigan (called Philip Madden in the movie), but Hughes has just started a new series, Doc, on CBS and his contract prevents him from appearing in other programs this early in the new season. "I suppose it's too late to get Melvyn Douglas," director Bobby Lewis moans. (As it turns out, the difficulties are cleared up, and Hughes winds up playing Madden - brilliantly.) The tension is always there, as Hammerman experiences; there's always a delicate balance between the right actor and the right price.

The biggest challenge, not surprisingly, is casting the lead role, Dr. Sam. Since the actor playing Sheppard will be required to age 12 years, the length of time between the two trials, they have a choice either to sign a young actor and age him, or choose an older man and de-age him. He'll have to be physically fit, a trait which Sheppard maintained through most of his life. Most important, Fessier points out, "the actor selected would have to be able to handle the ambiguity of the role, the unknown guilt or innocence." Bruce Dern, a fine actor, was rejected for this very reason: "He's too guilty. The audience looks at him and knows he did it." On the flip side, James Garner, who was "a strong contenter" early on, was thought to be "too permanently winsomely 'innocent'." On it went - Hal Holbrook was "too cerebral," Beau Bridges "too soft," Jon Voight, Gene Hackman and James Caan were too big, i.e. too expensive, to be considered unless "somebody here knows them personally?" They finally settle on George Peppard, veteran of Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Carpetbaggers, and the series Banacek, who calls this "the best part I have ever been offered in my career."

Peppard (left) as Sam Sheppard, with Barnard Hughes
as his defense attorney.

They made the right choice. Peppard is outstanding in the role, constantly insisting on his innocence, radiating a certain charisma, yet, as Judith Crist says, he "treads a fine line" in his portrayal of Sheppard, with that necessary ambiguity that means you're never quite comfortable with him. In fact, the movie never definitively proclaims Sheppard's innocence, although it leans strongly in that direction - strong enough to convince me of his innocence. that it convinced me, when I saw it that night. The performances were compelling, and the period detail very affecting - for example, in drawing the contrast between the look of the two courtrooms Sheppard was tried in, it's not just the aesthetics that we notice, but subliminally the differences that they suggest - the dark, wood-paneled courtroom that suggests the traditions and morals and formalities of the time (the prosecution's motive was Sheppard's adultery), the oppressive heaviness of it all, versus the brighter, less ornamented courtroom of 1966 foretelling an era of openness, supposed enlightenment, the '60s bursting into bright color after the drab colorless, hypocritical '50s. A cliche perhaps, but an effective one. For those times when the movie does take liberty with the historical record, it's usually done to emphasize a point rather than distort it; the trial, for example, wasn't quite the zoo that the movie makes it out to be, but it captures the spirit, the essence of it all rather well.

To this day the Sheppard case remains haunting, disturbing. I'd probably heard of the Sheppard case befored (the retrial had only happened nine years before the movie was made), but I was captivated by the story; I bought and read as many books about the Sheppard case as I could, and I'm looking at four of them on my bookshelf as I write this; it's the reason I saved this particular issue of TV Guide. I was fascinated by F. Lee Bailey, who is of diminished stature today but was an enfant terrible as Sheppard's defender; the case made him world-famous overnight. In Cleveland, where the drama played out, it still arouses strong feelings on both sides, and old-timers remain convinced of the doctor's guilt.* It is a story of a flawed marriage, one that either was on the road to recovery (Mrs. Sheppard was pregnant at the time of her murder) or doomed to tragedy; a story of a man, whether guilty or innocent, who was hounded by the press and public in a trial that at times resembled a circus more than a legal proceeding.

*During the retrial Vegas had odds of 20:1 on Sheppard's acquittal; in Cleveland it was only 6:5.

Most important, the conclusion tells us one of two things: either Sam Sheppard was guilty of murdering his wife and unborn child, and ultimately got away with it (albeit after spending a decade in jail), or he was a man unjustly deprived of that decade, an innocent man destroyed by the experience in prison. And if the truth points to the latter rather than the former, it also means that a murderer escaped detection, escaped punishment, and continued to wander in the darkness - even though the killer carried with him or her a pair of hands that, like Lady Macbeth, could not be cleansed of innocent blood. Jack Harrison Pollack, author of the book on which the movie was based, called the Sheppard case "An American Tragedy." Tragic it was, and will always remain.

◊ ◊ ◊

On weeks when we can, we'll match up two of the biggest rock shows of the '70s, NBC's The Midnight Special and the syndicated Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, and see who's better, who's best.

Kirshner: Steppenwolf, Graham Central Station and Emmylou Harris are guests. Music: "Mr. Penny Pincher" and "Caroline" (Steppenwolf); "Bluebird Wine,""Jambalaya" and "Amarillo" (Emmylou Harris).

Special: Hostess Helen Reddy, with Jimmie Walker, David Essex, Brenda Lee and instrumental jazz-rock group Tom Scott and the L.A. Express. This week's hit is Elton John's "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road." Also: a tribute to Jan and Dean.

Fun fact: during the days of the late, unlamented United States Football League*, the team in Los Angeles was called the L.A. Express. Now, does this outweigh a rock group named after a novel written by the famous German novelist Hermann Hesse? You might as well ask if a musician who shares his last name with the regal Essex House hotel in New York City measures up to a band who adapted their name from that same city's storied Grand Central Station. In the end, it all comes down to one question: do you like Emmylou Harris better than Brenda Lee? I do, and on that (admittedly esoteric) basis I award the week to Kirshner.

*The league whose New Jersey franchise was owned by none other than a future President of the United States.

◊ ◊ ◊

Throughout the 60s and early 70s, TV Guide's reviews were written by the witty and acerbic Cleveland Amory. Whenever we get the chance, we'll look at Cleve's latest take on the series of the era.

You'll recall that when it first debuted, Saturday Night Live was known simply as NBC's Saturday Night. That's because the "Live" moniker had already been taken by ABC's entry in the Saturday night variety sweepstakes, Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell. The problem with this, explains Cleveland Amory, is that "the producers here now seem to spend their time thinking of ways to keep Cosell off camera. This is sad, because incisive interviewing and abrasive sportscasting were the making of Cosell's reputation. Being a host who is seldom seen on his own show could be the unmaking of it."

It's not that ABC hasn't been able to attract names to the show. But, in the "nothing exceeds like excess" category, that doesn't mean you have to hype the daylights out of them. Shirley Bassey, for example, "was overplugged as 'the greatest singing star on the internation scene.' Charo, a sort of singer-cum-professional-talk-show-guest, was overplugged as 'that electrifying vivacious bombshell.' You perhaps hadn't been electrified by her on any other show for at least a couple of hours." And another thing, writes Amory: "At other times, we were frquently introduced to 'the No. 1 rock group - but it was a different group every time. Aren't there any No. 2s?"* Of course, any show featuring Cosell is, I'm afraid, going to be subject to hype of one kind or another.

*Nice no-apostrophe usage there.

Further examples of what viewers can expect are, frankly, a little embarrassing. While being interviewed, John Wayne comments about would-be assassins (there'd been a plague of them recently, as we'll see shortly) by saying that we should "bloody them up a bit," maybe tear out their hair, then put 'em on TV and say, "They missed. Think what we would have done to them if they hadn't." The very next week, who should show up but none other than F. Lee Bailey, who talked about his current client, Patty Hearst, and said "Despite everything you've read and seen, I find her to be a very nice young lady." A clearly-exasperated Cleve remarks that "One of the credits for this show reads 'Executive in Charge of Talent.' It's too bad they can't afford one in charge of taste."

It's not all bad - an interview with Joe Frazier's son was good; so was an appearance by Cosell's friend Muhammad Ali, and a stand-up by the always-funny Alan King. Surprisingly, a duet sung by Cosell and Barbara Walters, of all people, also seemed to work. And the Rockettes were "suburb," which leads Amory to conclude that "in television, where's there's live, there's hope." In two months, though, the plug will be pulled on the live-support machine, but even though Saturday nights lost a Cosell, Saturday Night gained a Live.

◊ ◊ ◊

That assassination thing I was talking about: back in September, in the course of seventeen days, President Ford had been the subject of not one but two assassination attempts. The first one, on September 5 in Sacramento, had been perpetrated by Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, a member of the Manson Family (this story just keeps getting weirder, doesn't it?), was no more than an arm's-length away from Ford when she pointed her gun at him and pulled the trigger.* The attempt failed when the gun jammed; Fromme was dragged away by Secret Service agents, screaming, "It didn't go off. Can you believe it? It didn't go off".

*Said Ford later, "I saw a hand come through the crowd in the first row, and that was the first active gesture that I saw, but in the hand there was a gun"

Then, on September 22, it was Sara Jane Moore's turn. This one happened in San Francisco, and unlike Fromme, Moore did succeed in getting a shot off. However, like Fromme, her inexperience did her in; she was unaware that the sights were six inches off the point-of-impact at that distance. A former Marine, Oliver Sipple, grabbed her arm and her second shot went awry, wounding a bystander. Had her gun not been faulty, a judge later observed, her attempt likely would have succeeded.

This all leads up to "Assassination: An American Nightmare," an ABC Wide World Special on Monday night at 11:30 p.m., hosted by Peter Lawford (who, as a Kennedy in-law, knew a thing or two about assassinations), with Gov. George Wallace, confined to a wheelchair since surviving an assassination attempt in 1972; former Rep. Allard Lowenstein, who will himself be assasinated by a "mentally ill gunman" in 1980; and Paul Schrade, who was wounded in the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in 1968. That, my friends, is a remarkable lineup. The show covers, in film, the history of American assassinations beginning with McKinley in 1901 and culminating in the two attempts against Ford.

The following Saturday, November 22, will be the 12th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and another Wide World Special (Friday, 10:30 p.m.) called "JFK - A Time to Remember" looks back at the private side of the late President (although it probably doesn't cover the most private moments), with reminiscences by Sen. Ted Kennedy, Pierre Salinger, Dave Powers, and other Kennedy cronies.

And a final note on this point: on Sunday at 11:00 a.m., KSTP's Henry Wolf interviews the man who would have been president had either Miss Fromme or Miss Moore succeeded in their efforts: Vice President Nelson Rockefeller. He would have hated to get it that way, but Rocky would never be that close to the presidency again.

◊ ◊ ◊
In the mood for an all-star disaster flick? It's one of those things that TV picked up from the movies and does so well, or at least so often - example being Murder on Flight 502, an ABC telemovie Friday night at 8:00. The hook: "A plane ride that turns into an ordeal of suspense when a letter is found stating that someone will be murdered before the jet lands." The cast is a mixture of former A-listers, TV has-beens, and those trying to stay relevant: Ralph Bellamy, Hugh O'Brian, Theodore Bikel, Polly Bergen, Sonny Bono, Walter Pidgeon, Fernando Lamas, George Maharis, Dane Clark, Danny Bonaduce, Robert Stack and Laraine Day. Oh, and Stack's daughter Elizabeth.

Judith Crist doesn't have anything to say about Flight 502 - it was unavailable for preview - but she does note the irony about NBC's rerun of the gritty Sarah T. . .Portrait of a Teen-age Alcoholic, a "serious and alarming" drama starring Linda Blair, being followed by the Miss Teenage America Pageant. (Saturday, 9:00 p.m.) What was it Cleveland Amory said about having an Executive in Charge of Taste? Me, I'm just trying to figure out why "teen-age" is hyphenated in the name of the movie, but not the name of the pageant.

There's plenty more star power the rest of the week (or "star" power, if you prefer), beginning Sunday with The Donnie and Marie Osmond Show (6:00 p.m., ABC), with - as the ad puts it - Bob Hope! Paul Lynde! The Osmond Brothers! The Shipstads and Johnson Ice Follies! and Kate Smith! (singing "God Bless America!") Later on, ABC follows up with The Great Gatsby, the lavish Robert Redford-Mia Farrow adaptation of the Fitzgerald novel, which Crist labels "a bomb" in which "the actors seem to have come from Central Miscasting and gone before the cameras without meeting their colleagues." No wonder she says it will leave viewers thinking more about the $6,500,000 budget than with the novel's human tragedies.

*In two months, Donnie and Marie return in this time slot with their weekly series, which runs for three seasons.

Meanwhile, the very funny Don Rickles has a "wild new comedy special" on CBS Wednesday (9:00 p.m.), with Don Adams, Jack Klugman and Michele Lee, and special appearances by James Caan, Michael Caine, Jose Ferrer, Arthur Godfrey, Elliot Gould, Larry Linville, Otto Preminger and Loretta Swit. Well, it is Las Vegas, after all. And Thursday it's McLean Stevenson's turn on NBC (7:00 p.m.), with Raquel Welch as his guest. OK, he only gets one guest star, but with Raquel there wouldn't be room for much more, right? Besides, Tommy Newsom is conducting the orchestra. What more do you want? Personally, I'd answer that question by pointing to what follows McLean on NBC - it's the Bell System Family Theatre with "Ann-Margret Smith," her husband Roger Smith, Sid Caesar, Michel Legrand, and the Bay City Rollers.

Now, if you want real stars, check out CBS's broadcast of That's Entertainment! on Tuesday night, MGM's magnificent tribute to its 50 year history of musicals. It's hosted by Fred Astaire, Judy Garland and Gene Helly, and it features ten times that number of stars in 72 of the studio's greatest films. It is, as Crist says, what movies are all about.

◊ ◊ ◊
When I criticize the dumbing down of the modern TV Guide, which I do from time to time, this is the kind of issue I point to as an example of how the magazine used to be. The News Watch section features a column by former presidential advisor John Roche, who askes the pointed question, "Does the TV generation lack a sense of history?" The answer back in 1975 is yes; God Himself only knows what Roche would think of today's students, who not only lack a sense of history, but sense itself.

And then there's one of the "Background" articles that the old magazine does so well. Michael Meyer, biographer of Swedish playwright Henrik Ibsen, puts into context the writing of Ibsen's great play "Hedda Gabler," which PBS televises on Thursday night with Janet Suzman, Ian McKellen, and (for all you Paul McCartney fans) Jane Asher. Meyer gives us a brief look at Ibsen's life, his personal and professional relationships, and the genesis of some of his most famous works. His article not only familarizes the reader with Ibsen, it adds to the viewing experience for those planning to watch "Gabler," or those who might be encouraged to check in after having read Meyer's piece. TV Guide published articles like this with some degree of frequency back in the day, part of the mission to educate readers and give legitimacy to television's endeavors. Given what many people call the new Golden Age that television has radiated in the last few years, these kinds of Background articles might have provided insight into series from The Young Pope to Mad Men. If, that is, it could for even a few minutes stop acting like a fan magazine. TV

I would have been a couple of months into 10th grade when this TV Guide came out, so I remember the programs pretty well. Not that I could see many of them; living in the World's Worst Town™, you recall, meant one commercial television station - Channel 7 - and Channel 10, the public broadcasting station from Appleton, which carried most, but not all, of that seen on KTCA. The way I look at it, it was spending part of my time in Purgatory here on earth. Let's see some of what I was missing, shall we?

	2 KTCA (PBS)
	MORNING
	10:00	ELECTRIC COMPANY
	11:30	VILLA ALEGRE – Children
	AFTERNOON
	12:00	SESAME STREET
	3:30	MEDIA 5
	4:00	MISTER ROGERS – Children
	4:30	SESAME STREET
	5:30	ELECTRIC COMPANY
	EVENING
	6:00	CONSULTATION
	6:30	EVENING EDITON WITH MARTIN AGRONSKY
	7:00	TRIBAL EYE – Documentary
	8:00	GREAT PERFORMANCES – Drama
	9:00	SPIRIT OF LATVIA
	9:30	WOMAN ALIVE – Report
	10:00	PEOPLE AND CAUSES
	10:30	EVENING EDITION WITH MARTIN AGRONSKY

I don't know if you think of Great Performances often, or at all, but whenever I think of it I think of opera, orchestral works, dance - things like that. But here, GP, which is a weekly rather than an occasional program, is showing the conclusion of "Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill," with Lee Remick. Never fear; next week, Leonard Bernstein is back with the Philharmonic in Tchaikovsky's Fourth.

	3 KDAL (DULUTH) (CBS)
	MORNING
	7:00	CBS NEWS – Rudd
	8:00	CAPTAIN KANGAROO
	9:00	PRICE IS RIGHT – Game
	10:00	GAMBIT – Game
	10:30	LOVE OF LIFE – Serial
	10:55	CBS NEWS – Edwards
	11:00	YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS – Serial
	11:30	SEARCH FOR TOMORROW – Serial
	AFTERNOON
	12:00	TOWN AND COUNTRY – Linde
	12:30	AS THE WORLD TURNS – Serial
	1:00	GUIDING LIGHT – Serial
	1:30	EDGE OF NIGHT – Serial
	2:00	MATCH GAME Celebrities: Julie Harris, William Shatner, Fannie Flagg, Brett Somers, Charles Nelson Reilly, Richard Dawson
	2:30	TATTLETALES – Game Celebrities: Lee Grant and Joe Feury, Buzz Aldrin and Beverly Van Zile, Joe Silver and Chevi Colton
	3:00	GIVE-N-TAKE – Game
	3:30	DINAH! Guests: Bing Crosby, Phil Harris, Pat Boone, Dong Kingman
	5:00	ADAM-12 – Crime Drama
	5:30	CBS NEWS – Walter Cronkite
	EVENING
	6:00	NEWS
	6:30	MARY TYLER MOORE
	7:00	TONY ORLANDO AND DAWN Guests: Freddie Prinze, Adrienne Barbeau
	8:00	CANNON – Crime Drama
	9:00	DON RICKLES – Comedy Special Guests Don Adams, Jack Klugman, Michele Lee
	10:00	NEWS
	10:30	BANACEK – Crime Drama

Later this week on Chico and the Man, Tony Orlando returns the favor with his own guest appearance: "Chico falls in love with an attractive accountant. But his overtures get a firm rejection: he is a dead ringer for her former, detested fiance." Guess who Tony plays?

	4 WCCO (CBS)
	MORNING
	5:30	SUNRISE SEMESTER
	6:00	CBS NEWS – Hughes Rudd
	7:00	CARMEN
	7:30	CLANCY AND WILLIE
	8:00	CAPTAIN KANGAROO
	9:00	PRICE IS RIGHT – Game
	10:00	GAMBIT – Game
	10:30	LOVE OF LIFE – Serial
	10:55	LIVE TODAY – Religion
	11:00	YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS – Serial
	11:30	SEARCH FOR TOMORROW – Serial
	AFTERNOON
	12:00	MIDDAY
	12:30	AS THE WORLD TURNS – Serial
	1:00	GUIDING LIGHT – Serial
	1:30	EDGE OF NIGHT – Serial
	2:00	MATCH GAME Celebrities: Julie Harris, William Shatner, Fannie Flagg, Brett Somers, Charles Nelson Reilly, Richard Dawson
	2:30	TATTLETALES – Game Celebrities: Lee Grant and Joe Feury, Buzz Aldrin and Beverly Van Zile, Joe Silver and Chevi Colton
	3:00	GIVE-N-TAKE – Game
	3:30	MOVIE – Comedy “Indiscreet” (1958)
	5:30	CBS NEWS – Walter Cronkite
	EVENING
	6:00	NEWS
	6:30	LAUREL AND HARDY – Comedy BW BW
	7:00	TONY ORLANDO AND DAWN Guests: Freddie Prinze, Adrienne Barbeau
	8:00	CANNON – Crime Drama
	9:00	DON RICKLES – Comedy Special Guests Don Adams, Jack Klugman, Michele Lee
	10:00	NEWS
	11:00 1:00	MOVIE – Musical “Daddy Long Legs” (1955) MOVIE – Musical “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” (1954)

Laurel and Hardy airs on Sunday morning as well as in the 6:30 p.m. timeslot, back in the days when the "local access" period wasn't simply filled with syndicated game shows and reruns of network sitcoms. Both the Sunday and Wednesday versions were hosted by John Gallos, a wonderful man who also plays Clancy the Cop at 7:30 a.m.

	5 KSTP (NBC)
	MORNING
	5:50	MINNESOTA TODAY – Stone
	6:20	GRANDPA JIM
	6:30	HILARIOUS HOUSE OF FRIGHTENSTEIN
	7:00	TODAY – Hartz/Walters Guest: Craig Claiborne
	9:00	CELEBRITY SWEEPSTAKES – Game Celebrities: David Groh, Jed Allan, Lola Falana, Liz Torres, Dick Martin, Carol Wayne
	9:30	WHEEL OF FORTUNE – Game
	10:00	HIGH ROLLERS – Game
	10:30	HOLLYWOOD SQUARES – Game Celebrities: Karen Valentine, Richard Castellano, McLean Stevenson, Theresa Merritt, Vincent Price, Zsa Zsa Gabor, David Brenner, Paul Lynde, Rose Marie
	11:00	MAGNIFICENT MARBLE MACHINE – Game Celebrities: Leslie Uggams, Jamie Farr
	11:30	3 FOR THE MONEY – Game Celebrities: Barbara Feldon, Jim McKrell
	11:55	NEWS – Newman
	AFTERNOON
	12:00	NEWS
	12:15	TAKE 5 – Jane Johnston
	12:25	TAKE KERR – Cooking
	12:30	DAYS OF OUR LIVES – Serial
	1:30	DOCTORS – Serial
	2:00	ANOTHER WORLD – Serial
	3:00	SOMERSET – Serial
	3:30	BRADY BUNCH – Comedy
	4:00	MOD SQUAD – Crime Drama
	5:00	HOGAN’S HEROES – Comedy
	5:30	NBC NEWS – John Chancellor
	EVENING
	6:00	NEWS
	6:30	HOLLYWOOD SQUARES – Game Celebrities: Ted Knight, Mike Connors, Ester Rolle, Roddy McDowall, Sally Field, Demond Wilson, Rose Marie, Paul Lynde, Charley Weaver
	7:00	LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE
	8:00	DOCTORS HOSPITAL – Drama
	9:00	PETROCELLI
	10:00	NEWS
	10:30	JOHNNY CARSON Guests: Freddie Prinze, Ann-Margret
	12:00	TOMORROW – Tom Snyder Guests: Stan Lee, Carmine Infantino

When I saw Grandpa Jim I immediately thought of Channel 9's longtime morning kids show Grandpa Ken, aka Cap'n Ken. Any similarity? I guess we'll never know; even Tim Hollis' authoritative Hi There, Boys and Girls! doesn't have anything about Grandpa Jim.

	6 KBJR (DULUTH) (NBC)
	MORNING
	7:00	TODAY – Hartz/Walters Guest: Craig Claiborne
	9:00	CELEBRITY SWEEPSTAKES – Game Celebrities: David Groh, Jed Allan, Lola Falana, Liz Torres, Dick Martin, Carol Wayne
	9:30	WHEEL OF FORTUNE – Game
	10:00	HIGH ROLLERS – Game
	10:30	HOLLYWOOD SQUARES – Game Celebrities: Karen Valentine, Richard Castellano, McLean Stevenson, Theresa Merritt, Vincent Price, Zsa Zsa Gabor, David Brenner, Paul Lynde, Rose Marie
	11:00	MAGNIFICENT MARBLE MACHINE – Game Celebrities: Leslie Uggams, Jamie Farr
	11:30	3 FOR THE MONEY – Game Celebrities: Barbara Feldon, Jim McKrell
	11:55	NBC NEWS – Newman
	AFTERNOON
	12:00	ONLY FOR GIRLS
	12:30	DAYS OF OUR LIVES – Serial
	1:30	DOCTORS – Serial
	2:00	ANOTHER WORLD – Serial
	3:00	SOMERSET – Serial
	3:30	NOT FOR WOMEN ONLY
	4:00	MIKE DOUGLAS Co-host John Davidson. Guests: the Jackson 5, Peter Marshall and the Chapter V singers, Henri Lamothe, Henri Lewin
	5:30	NBC NEWS – John Chancellor
	EVENING
	6:00	NEWS
	6:30	BEVERLY HILLBILLIES
	7:00	LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE
	8:00	DOCTORS HOSPITAL – Drama
	9:00	PETROCELLI
	10:00	NEWS
	10:30	JOHNNY CARSON Guests: Freddie Prinze, Ann-Margret
	12:00	TOMORROW – Tom Snyder Guests: Stan Lee, Carmine Infantino

Yes, the Stan Lee on with Tom Snyder; he's accompanied by another comic book artist, Carmine Infantino, I'll bet that was a fun show.

	6 KAAL (AUSTIN) (ABC)
	MORNING
	7:00	GOOD MORNING AMERICA – David Hartman
	9:00	DINAH! Guests: Bing Crosby, Phil Harris, Pat Boone, Dong Kingman
	10:30	HAPPY DAYS
	11:00	SHOWOFFS – Game Celebrities: Sally Struthers, Orson Bean, Ellen Corby, Michael Glass
	11:30	ALL MY CHILDREN – Serial
	AFTERNOON
	12:00	RYAN’S HOPE – Serial
	12:30	LET’S MAKE A DEAL – Game
	1:00	$10,000 PYRAMID – Game Celebrities: Frank Gifford, Sandy Duncan
	1:30	RHYME AND REASON – Game Celebrities: Pat Harington, Jamie Farr, Adrienne Barbeau, Conny Van Dyke, Anita Gillette, Fred Travalena
	2:00	GENERAL HOSPITAL – Serial
	2:30	ONE LIFE TO LIVE – Serial
	3:00	YOU DON’T SAY! – Game Celebrities: Gary Collins, Mary Ann Mobley, Charlie Brill, Mitzi McCall
	3:30	AFTERSCHOOL SPECIAL – Drama Special
	5:00	ABC NEWS – Harry Reasoner
	5:30	NEWS – Darrell Larson
	EVENING
	6:00	I DREAM OF JEANNIE – Comedy
	6:30	PRICE IS RIGHT
	7:00	WHEN THINGS WERE ROTTEN – Comedy
	7:30	THAT’S MY MAMA
	8:00	BARETTA – Crime Drama
	9:00	STARSKY AND HUTCH – Crime Drama
	10:00	NEWS
	10:30	MOVIE – Thriller “Reflections of Murder” (1974)
	12:30	NEWS – Bill Hudson

This week's issue features the stars of Starsky and Hutch, David Soul and Paul Michael Glaser, on the cover. What we find out is that the two are as inseperable as Siamese twins on the set, very much in unity against anything and anyone they see as a threat to the success of their show. From everything I read in the issue, they don't sound like particularly nice guys to work with. (I knew there was a reason I was never a fan of either one.)

	7 KCMT (ALEXANDRIA) (NBC, ABC)
	MORNING
	7:00	TODAY – Hartz/Walters Guest: Craig Claiborne
	9:00	CELEBRITY SWEEPSTAKES – Game Celebrities: David Groh, Jed Allan, Lola Falana, Liz Torres, Dick Martin, Carol Wayne
	9:30	WHEEL OF FORTUNE – Game
	10:00	HIGH ROLLERS – Game
	10:30	HOLLYWOOD SQUARES – Game Celebrities: Karen Valentine, Richard Castellano, McLean Stevenson, Theresa Merritt, Vincent Price, Zsa Zsa Gabor, David Brenner, Paul Lynde, Rose Marie
	11:00	MAGNIFICENT MARBLE MACHINE – Game Celebrities: Leslie Uggams, Jamie Farr
	11:30	3 FOR THE MONEY – Game Celebrities: Barbara Feldon, Jim McKrell
	11:55	NBC NEWS – Newman
	AFTERNOON
	12:00	FARM TODAY
	12:20	TRADING POST
	12:30	DAYS OF OUR LIVES – Serial
	1:30	DOCTORS – Serial
	2:00	ANOTHER WORLD – Serial
	3:00	SOMERSET – Serial
	3:30	WELCOME INN
	4:00	LOST SAUCER – Children
	4:30	ADVENTURES OF GILLIGAN – Cartoon
	5:00	LET’S MAKE A DEAL – Game
	5:30	NBC NEWS – John Chancellor
	EVENING
	6:00	NEWS
	6:30	WILD KINGDOM
	7:00	LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE
	8:00	DOCTORS HOSPITAL – Drama
	9:00	PETROCELLI
	10:00	NEWS
	10:30	JOHNNY CARSON Guests: Freddie Prinze, Ann-Margret
	12:00	TOMORROW – Tom Snyder Guests: Stan Lee, Carmine Infantino
	1:00	NEWS

Here's a good example of how Channel 7 fused together it's NBC/ABC affiliation: following the local variety show Welcome Inn, the remainder of the afternoon schedule consists of two programs from ABC's Saturday morning lineup - The Lost Saucer (a Sid and Marty Krofft production), The Adventures of Gilligan (the less said the better) - and the always-popular Let's Make a Deal. This was very typical of KCMT's programming at this point in time.

	9 KMSP (ABC)
	MORNING
	7:00	GOOD MORNING AMERICA – David Hartman
	9:00	DINAH! Guests: Beverly Sills, Marvin Hamlisch, Anthony Perkins, Charley Pride, Barry Zweig
	10:00	YOU DON’T SAY! Celebrities: Gary Collins, Mary Ann Mobley, Charlie Brill, Mitzi McCall
	10:30	HAPPY DAYS
	11:00	SHOWOFFS – Game Celebrities: Sally Struthers, Orson Bean, Ellen Corby, Michael Glass
	11:30	ALL MY CHILDREN – Serial
	AFTERNOON
	12:00	RYAN’S HOPE – Serial
	12:30	LET’S MAKE A DEAL – Game
	1:00	$10,000 PYRAMID – Game Celebrities: Frank Gifford, Sandy Duncan
	1:30	RHYME AND REASON – Game Celebrities: Pat Harington, Jamie Farr, Adrienne Barbeau, Conny Van Dyke, Anita Gillette, Fred Travalena
	2:00	GENERAL HOSPITAL – Serial
	2:30	ONE LIFE TO LIVE – Serial
	3:00	DARK SHADOWS – Serial BW
	3:30	AFTERSCHOOL SPECIAL – Drama Special
	4:30	VISION ON
	5:00	NEWS
	5:30	ABC NEWS – Harry Reasoner
	EVENING
	6:00	TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES – Game
	6:30	NAME THAT TUNE
	7:00	WHEN THINGS WERE ROTTEN – Comedy
	7:30	THAT’S MY MAMA
	8:00	BARETTA – Crime Drama
	9:00	STARSKY AND HUTCH – Crime Drama
	10:00	NEWS
	10:30	MOVIE – Thriller “Reflections of Murder” (1974)
	12:30	GHOST AND MRS. MUIR
	1:00	NEWS

I checked out a video of You Don't Say!, which I had fond memories of from the mid-'60s. Even though it stil has Tom Kennedy as MC, it's sadly nowhere near the same show. I don't know, maybe some of you will prefer the new version. If so, don't say anything about it.

	10 KROC (ROCHESTER) (NBC)
	MORNING
	7:00	TODAY – Hartz/Walters Guest: Craig Claiborne
	9:00	CELEBRITY SWEEPSTAKES – Game Celebrities: David Groh, Jed Allan, Lola Falana, Liz Torres, Dick Martin, Carol Wayne
	9:30	WHEEL OF FORTUNE – Game
	10:00	HIGH ROLLERS – Game
	10:30	HOLLYWOOD SQUARES – Game Celebrities: Karen Valentine, Richard Castellano, McLean Stevenson, Theresa Merritt, Vincent Price, Zsa Zsa Gabor, David Brenner, Paul Lynde, Rose Marie
	11:00	MAGNIFICENT MARBLE MACHINE – Game Celebrities: Leslie Uggams, Jamie Farr
	11:30	3 FOR THE MONEY – Game Celebrities: Barbara Feldon, Jim McKrell
	11:55	NBC NEWS – Newman
	AFTERNOON
	12:00	NEWS
	12:10	TAKE TEN – Virginia
	12:30	DAYS OF OUR LIVES – Serial
	1:30	DOCTORS – Serial
	2:00	ANOTHER WORLD – Serial
	3:00	SOMERSET – Serial
	3:30	ROBERT YOUNG, FAMILY DOCTOR – Drama
	4:30	HOGAN’S HEROES – Comedy
	5:00	ADAM-12 – Crime Drama
	5:30	NBC NEWS – John Chancellor
	EVENING
	6:00	NEWS
	6:30	WILD KINGDOM
	7:00	LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE
	8:00	DOCTORS HOSPITAL – Drama
	9:00	PETROCELLI
	10:00	NEWS
	10:30	JOHNNY CARSON Guests: Freddie Prinze, Ann-Margret
	12:00	TOMORROW – Tom Snyder Guests: Stan Lee, Carmine Infantino

I love how, back in the days when you couldn't syndicate a program that was still in network first-run and use the show's title, syndicators would come up with such clever ideas. Robert Young, Family Doctor, for example - gee, I wonder what that show is? It was also done with Ironside, I believe, which resurfaced as The Raymond Burr Show or something like that. Happy Days was Happy Days Again, Wagon Train became Trailmaster, and so on.

	10 WDIO (DULUTH) (ABC)
	MORNING
	7:00	GOOD MORNING AMERICA – David Hartman
	9:00	CARTOON CARNIVAL
	10:00	RYAN’S HOPE – Serial
	10:30	HAPPY DAYS
	11:00	SHOWOFFS – Game Celebrities: Sally Struthers, Orson Bean, Ellen Corby, Michael Glass
	11:30	LOVE AMERICAN STYLE
	EVENING
	12:00	NEWS
	12:05	LIFESTYLE – Peggy Chisholm
	12:30	LET’S MAKE A DEAL – Game
	1:00	$10,000 PYRAMID – Game Celebrities: Frank Gifford, Sandy Duncan
	1:30	RHYME AND REASON – Game Celebrities: Pat Harington, Jamie Farr, Adrienne Barbeau, Conny Van Dyke, Anita Gillette, Fred Travalena
	2:00	GENERAL HOSPITAL – Serial
	2:30	ONE LIFE TO LIVE – Serial
	3:00	YOU DON’T SAY! – Game Celebrities: Gary Collins, Mary Ann Mobley, Charlie Brill, Mitzi McCall
	3:30	ALL MY CHILDREN - Serial
	4:00	CALL IT MACARONI
	4:30	AFTERSCHOOL SPECIAL Special
	5:30	ABC NEWS – Harry Reasoner
	EVENING
	6:00	NEWS
	6:30	CANDID CAMERA
	7:00	WHEN THINGS WERE ROTTEN – Comedy
	7:30	THAT’S MY MAMA
	8:00	BARETTA – Crime Drama
	9:00	STARSKY AND HUTCH – Crime Drama
	10:00	NEWS
	10:30	MOVIE – Thriller “Reflections of Murder” (1974)

	11 WTCN (IND.)
	MORNING
	6:30	WHAT’S NEW?
	7:00	NEW ZOO REVUE
	7:30	POPEYE AND PORKY – Cartoon
	9:00	FLINTSTONES
	9:30	I DREAM OF JEANNIE – Comedy
	10:00	FATHER KNOWS BEST BW
	10:30	ANDY GRIFFITH – Comedy BW
	11:00	THAT GIRL – Comedy
	11:30	WHAT’S NEW? Guest: Rudy Vallee
	AFTERNOON
	12:30	LUCY SHOW
	1:00	VIRGINIAN – Western
	3:00	GOMER PYLE, USMC
	3:30	I DREAM OF JEANNIE – Comedy
	4:00	BEWITCHED – Comedy
	4:30	GILLIGAN’S ISLAND
	5:00	FLINTSTONES
	5:30	PARTRIDGE FAMILY – Comedy
	EVENING
	6:00	LOVE AMERICAN STYLE
	6:30	ADAM-12 – Crime Drama
	7:00	FBI – Crime Drama
	8:00	MERV GRIFFIN Guests: Redd Foxx, Mac Davis, Anson Williams, Rhonda Bates, Tommy Butler
	9:30	NEWS
	10:00	DRAGNET – Crime Drama
	10:30	IRONSIDE – Crime Drama
	11:30	MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE
	12:30	ALFRED HITCHCOCK – Drama BW

I heartily approve of WTCN's schedule today. Classics almost the whole way through.

	12 KEYC (MANKATO) (CBS)
	MORNING
	7:00	CBS NEWS – Rudd
	8:00	CAPTAIN KANGAROO
	9:00	PRICE IS RIGHT – Game
	10:00	COFFEE BREAK
	10:30	LOVE OF LIFE – Serial
	10:55	CBS NEWS – Edwards
	11:00	YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS – Serial
	11:30	SEARCH FOR TOMORROW – Serial
	AFTERNOON
	12:00	NEWS
	12:30	AS THE WORLD TURNS – Serial
	1:00	GUIDING LIGHT – Serial
	1:30	EDGE OF NIGHT – Serial
	2:00	MATCH GAME Celebrities: Julie Harris, William Shatner, Fannie Flagg, Brett Somers, Charles Nelson Reilly, Richard Dawson
	2:30	TATTLETALES – Game Celebrities: Lee Grant and Joe Feury, Buzz Aldrin and Beverly Van Zile, Joe Silver and Chevi Colton
	3:00	GIVE-N-TAKE – Game
	3:30	GAMBIT – Game
	4:00	BEWITCHED – Comedy
	4:30	BONANZA
	5:30	CBS NEWS – Walter Cronkite
	EVENING
	6:00	NEWS
	6:30	WILD KINGDOM
	7:00	TONY ORLANDO AND DAWN Guests: Freddie Prinze, Adrienne Barbeau
	8:00	CANNON – Crime Drama
	9:00	DON RICKLES – Comedy Special Guests Don Adams, Jack Klugman, Michele Lee
	10:00	NEWS
	10:30	BANACEK – Crime Drama

A big week for George Peppard - tonight, CBS airs a rerun of Banacek in their late-night spot, and earlier in the evening he appeared in his own NBC series, Doctors Hospital. Of course, on Monday, he was a different kind of doctor: Dr. Sam Sheppard.

There are many classic television programs out there - more than we'd like to admit - that, through no fault of their own, have falled through the cracks, existing more as a memory than as a true celluloid creation. Episodes, if they exist at all, usually amount to no more than a handful of the series' total output, and pictures and descriptions from TV Guide serve to create an almost mythical aura. Meanwhile, people with fond memories of the show are left with very little with which they can explain their pleasure to those who aren't familiar with it.

Unless, of course, the series has a champion. Mr Novak is such a series, and Chuck Harter is such a champion.

Chuck recently published Mr. Novak: An Acclaimed Television Series, the first book to tell the story about the series, which ran on NBC from 1963 to 1965 and starred James Franciscus as the young, idealistic high school teacher John Novak. The book includes comprehensive coverage of the original filming and airdates, an episode guide with vintage reviews and fresh perspectives, a list of all the awards the series won, E. Jack Neuman’s writers guide for the show and more, and it's also lavishly illustrated. It is the complete profile of one of the finest series that ever aired.

In case you want additional reasons to read this book, take the words of some of those involved with Mr. Novak: Director Richard Donner (Superman the Movie, Lethal Weapon), who directed seven episodes of the series, says, “I’m so glad that Chuck Harter is bringing the Mr. Novak experience to a wider audience…read his detailed behind-the-scenes account.” The late Martin Landau (Mission: Impossible, Ed Wood, and a personal favorite of mine), who appeared in two of the best episodes of Mr. Novak, writes in the Forward that “Chuck Harter has produced a superlative book that is both fascinating and informative.” In an Afterward, Walter Koenig (Star Trek), who appeared in three episodes of Mr. Novak and whose role of a Russian exchange student in “The Boy without a Country” led, in part, to his game changing role of Ensign Chekov on Star Trek, writes that, “You don’t have to be an actor…just a student to appreciate the skillful way in which Chuck Harter unfolds the stories behind the cameras.” I'll tell you, it's hard to pass up recommendations like that.

Chuck was kind enough to spare a few minutes for the latest It's About TV Interview, when we had a chance to discuss his relationship to the show, how the book came about, and more about the denizens of Jefferson High School.

◊ ◊ ◊

Chuck Harter in front of John Marshall H.S.
(The real Jefferson High)

It's About TV: I'm guessing you weren't alive when the show originally aired, or at least you weren't watching programs like this. So what drew you to Mr. Novak? What had you heard about it?

Chuck Harter: I was just a kid when it originally aired from ’63 to ’65. It was on opposite the very popular Combat! TV series and as my Dad was in the Air Force, and we had one set, the family watched Combat! So I never saw it in the original run. However, star James Franciscus, with his handsome visage, was featured in many of the teen magazines of the day such as 16 and Teen Screen. The girls in my classes would bring them in and drool over Mr. Novak so I was at least aware of the show from their fan’s devotion. As the years went by, I saw a few references to the show in some books on the history of television that were complimentary, yet brief. I never saw any of the reruns on the TNT Network in the late eighties. So I vaguely knew that it was an excellent dramatic TV series about High School life.

So how did you finally catch up with the series and become a fan?

About three years ago, a friend in New York, who sells underground music dvds, sent me a package. Along with a few music discs where 12 dvds marked “Mr. Novak.” I didn’t make the connection and called him to inquire about this unexpected gift. He said that as I liked 60’s music, here was a teacher show from that time period. I thanked him and hesitated to watch any segments as it was probably a dated and uninteresting relic from the past. For several weeks I paid no attention to them but just before I was going to file the discs away, I decided to watch one since my friend had sent them as a gift. I put on “First Year, First Day” which was the pilot. As the show unfolded, I was pleasantly surprised to find it an excellent program that had superior acting, scripting and directing. When the hour ended, I was really impressed by the series and watched a second episode on the disc called “The Risk.” This was a story of an ex-alcoholic teacher who has reformed and wishes to return to an educator position at the fictitious Jefferson High School. It was even better than the earlier segment. The same level of quality in every department and no part of either episode was dated in the least.

That's one of the great things about being a fan of classic television - finding one of these hidden treasures that you didn't know anything about, so you have no real expectations, and then when you do see it, you're blown away. And, and least in your case, at some point, you decide to write a book about it.

As a result of my favorable impression of the show, I wanted to buy a book on the series to learn more about this amazing program and discovered there wasn’t such a book. I searched for a biography on star James Franciscus and found that one didn’t exist. Frustrated by this lack of documentation, I discovered a website run by a teacher who apparently was a first year High School teacher when the show first aired in 1963. He wrote that the show helped him become a better teacher and his website was basically a love letter to the series. I called him and he told me that he knew of many young people who became teachers because of the show. I then decided that I would write the book about this unique television production of such superior quality.

Considering the lack of information on the series, you must have felt like you were something of a trailblazer, plowing new ground, that kind of thing. I don't know what your expectations were, but any surprises as you went through the process?

There were many delightful surprises in the course of putting the book together. I ended up interviewing over 50 people and every single one of them, when approached to talk about Mr. Novak, immediately agreed and had much good to say about the show. I interviewed over 40 actors and as many hadn’t seen their episode(s) in fifty years, or had never seen them, they asked me to send DVD copies for their reference. I did so, and everyone was absolutely amazed at what a great program it was and how the story elements, production, acting and direction had not dated at all. The many progressive themes of the show were still valid in the modern world of education.

I was astonished to learn that the show won 47 awards during its two year run with the majority of them coming from educational institutions including the National Education Association. Mr. Novak even won a prestigious Peabody Award for excellence. In a medium of much mediocrity both then and now, this series was a rare example of true excellence that encapsulated the finest qualities of television programming.

How long did it take you to research and write the book?

It was close to a three-year journey between research and writing. There were some gaps in that timeline, of course, but the work was pretty steady throughout.

Was there anybody you talked to who was particularly helpful?

I would say that Marian Collier, who was a regular on the series as Miss Marilyn Scott, the Home Ec teacher, was one person who really went the extra mile. It turned out that five years after the show ended, she married the late E. Jack Neuman, who was the series Creator/Producer. She gave me complete access to Jack’s archives which yielded much interesting and useful material. Several collectors opened their own archives to me based on their love and respect for the show which also helped considerably. I ended up hearing from several former students of John Marshall High School. This Los Angeles based institution was used for the filming of the pilot and exteriors were used throughout the series’ run. They all were very positive and recalled the days of Mr. Novak with much affection. One student in particular, Laure Georges (Gonzalez), was beautifully enthusiastic in her memories of those happy days and as a result, I ended up partially dedicating the book to her. Nearly everyone who participated was helpful in one way or another.

We're in the early '60s when Mr. Novak begins, and we're also in the thick of the space race with the Soviet Union, when there's a renewed emphasis on the importance of education. Did this play any role in the thinking of Jack Neuman and Boris Sagal, the co-creators, when they came up with the idea?

I don’t think the times’ emphasis on education played much of a part in their creation. At some point Sagal suggested to Neuman that a series based on high school life might be a possible project. Neuman initially rejected the idea as he didn’t feel there could be many valid storylines. Sometime later, he visited a high school and spoke to some of the Administrators. After hearing from them, Neuman realized that the real life triumphs and tragedies of both students and teachers had not been explored in previous television programs about schools. They had been sitcoms and while entertaining, didn’t reflect the realities of school life. He developed the central character of a young teacher who is committed to making a difference in the education of his students. Neuman and Sagal proceeded with their concept and the series became a reality.

You have to admit that in a television world populated by policemen, private detectives, and cowboys (with the occasional social worker thrown in), a show about teachers might be thought of as a hard sell. Did NBC have any qualms about the concept, maybe concerns about the kind of subject matter that might be brought up, or that it might be kind of a downer, a la East Side/West Side?

E. Jack Neuman’s reputation as a writer and Producer of integrity and creativity was well known at NBC. He had written many scripts for various productions and was instrumental in the creation of the extremely popular Dr. Kildare series. The MGM studio, which ultimately filmed the Mr. Novak program, was also the home of the Kildare show. In initial meetings with the executives at MGM, there were some suggestions that Neuman’s new series would continue in the comic vein similar to the previous sitcoms. Neuman didn’t commit to a format and visited some additional schools to gain additional story concepts. When he was ready to proceed, the MGM studio green lighted his project with complete faith in his abilities based on his sterling reputation. In fact, during the first season, a rough agreement was established with the executives who ultimately didn’t interfere with the production. This was rare in an era when studio brass exerted a strong guiding hand in the production of their properties. After the pilot was finished and exhibited, it was only a matter of weeks until NBC bought the new series.

Before Mr. Novak, there was a movie from 1955 called Blackboard Jungle that showed a really rough side of inner-city schools, maybe for the first time to a lot of people. I don't see that kind of tension in Mr. Novak, at least in the episodes I've seen . I know that there is an episode later in the series that tackles the issue of integration, but was this a conscious effort to present a different kind of school from Blackboard Jungle?

Blackboard Jungle was an intense film set in an inner city school. The fictitious Jefferson High School of Mr. Novak was set in a middle class community so there really wasn’t a comparison. That being said, the Novak series provided cutting edge and provocative storylines that concerned cheating, racial prejudice, anti Semitism, unwed teenage mothers, alcoholism, dropouts, drugs, teacher’s inadequate salaries and extremism. The show, while presenting these vibrant themes, was always entertaining as well as informative.

The stars of Mr. Novak: Dean Jaggger (L)
and James Franciscus

Aside from the great writing, the show has to be remembered for the two leads - James Franciscus and Dean Jagger. Franciscus had most recently come from a very tough police show, Naked City, and the movie Marjorie Morningstar. How did he come to the role of John Novak?

James Franciscus had a youthful following from his role on Naked City as well as the many guest shots he had done. The actor had been the first choice to play Dr. Kildare when that series was in development, but was contractually bound to a pilot. His option would have cleared in a matter of days but the producers had to proceed with the Kildare series and cast Richard Chamberlain in the lead. Neuman would have known of Franciscus’ reputation as a dedicated actor of professionalism and integrity. Franciscus liked the approach of the program and agreed to be cast as the lead.

Dean Jagger was coming off of a very successful movie career, winning an Oscar for Twelve O'clock High and stealing the show (in my opinion) in White Christmas. What brought him to Jefferson High?

Dean Jagger was Neuman’s first choice to portray Principal Vane. The actor had not performed in many television shows but was intrigued by the concept of both the series and his character. He agreed to participate in the new series and became a major asset to the production.

One of the other major leads in the beginning was Jeanne Bal as the Assistant Principal. As I recall, there was an article in TV Guide about how her role was eliminated because of, let's say, the way she filled out her sweater and the effect that might have in a high school. Any truth to that?

Jeanne Bal, who played Assistant Principal Jean Pagano, became a major factor in the series’ success during its first season. She was a very attractive lady and there were a few comments from critics about her being too pretty. The majority of the critics however, lauded her performances and she became a big part of the success of the show. Early, in the first season, Dean Jagger suffered an attack of ulcers and had to leave the production for some weeks. Bal was given his lines and situations to great effect. Upon Jagger’s return, she was given more to do and even had a few episodes built around her character. She was to receive third star billing behind Franciscus and Jagger in the upcoming second season. During the summer of 1964 between the first and second seasons, a new Producer named Leonard Freeman was hired. He had his own ideas of the concept of the show and wanted to reduce the number of episodes that Bal would appear in. Bal disputed the change and ultimately left the series. This was a major blow to the program as she had been a real favorite with both the production and the viewing audience.

How was Mr. Novak regarded by real-life teachers and the education community?

The series was almost universally praised by the educational community. The National Education Association assigned script advisors to keep the stories as accurate as possible. Many educational associations awarded the show and the series was hailed as a landmark in the positive depiction of educators. Many young people, who had watched the show, decided to become teachers such was its positive influence. The series laid the ground work for such future programs about schools such as Room 222 and The Paper Chase.

Mr. Novak runs only two seasons - 60 episodes - and yet, despite the fact that it doesn't seem to have had an extensive run in syndication, and that even many classic TV fans aren't aware of it, there is still a core group of people who do remember it and think about it warmly. Why is that, do you think?

The people who saw the show during its initial run and were impressed by its superior qualities do retain the memories. The series really impacted its viewing audience in the middle sixties and it was such a new and realistic depiction of high school life that it was not forgotten. The reasons for this have been stated in this interview. It is interesting to note that during the work on the book, many people watched the show for the first time and were all impressed by its qualities. When the DVD set is released next year, and people either reacquaint themselves with a remembered part of their youth or discover it for the first time, I feel strongly that the result will be a very favorable opinion of this program.

If Mr. Novak were to be revived today, John Novak might well find that things had changed quite a bit from the Jefferson High of the early '60s. How do you think the issues he dealt with would be different, if in fact they would be different?

There would be, of course, changes since it has been fifty years since the program aired. One interesting example occurred in an episode from 1965 called “Enter a Strange Animal” in which Martin Landau guest starred as an aggressive salesman of a new device called a teaching machine. It was a primitive computer. He states that the computer can do the work faster and more accurately than the human educator. Another teacher argues the point that human interaction between the educators and students is paramount to success in learning. In today’s high schools, how much of the teaching is done by computers? There would, of course, be changes due to the shift in society and attitudes in the ensuing decades, but the real themes of the majority of the Novak episodes remain relevant to the modern day. This is why this series is indeed a genuine classic in the history of dramatic television programming. As said before, virtually everyone I contacted while doing the book remarked at how well the episodes held up and that they were not dated at all.

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Mr. Novak: An Acclaimed Television Series by Chuck Harter is published by BearManor Media. It is available in hardcover, paperback and Ebook editions from Amazon.com and at the Bear Manor Media website. The book’s website is here, and I'd encourage you to check that out for more information.

Thanks again to Chuck for his generosity, and stay tuned - we'll have a review of Mr. Novak: An Acclaimed Television Series in this space on Friday!

Mr. Novak: An Acclaimed Television Series
by Chuck Harter
BearManor Media, 374 pp, $27.00

For a series that lasted only two seasons and was seldom seen thereafter in syndication, it’s remarkable how fondly Mr. Novak is remembered. Until recently, I’d never seen an episode myself, and yet I knew about the show, that it starred James Franciscus, that it was about a high school teacher, that Dean Jagger, whom I had enjoyed immensely in White Christmas, played the principal, and that the series dealt with the typical issues that confronted high school students in the early 1960s. That was about it, but one can say that this is about all that most people know about most television shows that

It wasn’t good enough for Chuck Harter, though. A late-comer to Novak himself, he was surprised to find that there had been so little written about a series that had won such acclaim during its brief lifetime. So he did what writers are wont to do – he wrote a book about it. Mr. Novak: An Acclaimed Television Series does the show proud, and reflects well on the talent and passion of its author for his subject matter.

Many books have been written about television series over the years; some of them have, not surprisingly, found their way to my bookshelves. Most of them follow a fairly standard template: a recounting of how the series came to be; bios of the major participants; an episode guide, including thorough credits for everyone involved, with varying degrees of information about each episode; and an epilogue that brings us up to date on what happened to everyone after the show’s run ended. It provides an effective blueprint for writing a successful book on a given series, but sometimes these books serve as little more than television junk food – fun to read, with entertaining stories from many of the show’s participants, leaving the reader full for the moment but ultimately wanting a little more substance.

Harter’s book has all these things, but it’s what he does with them that makes this book a cut above the standard. In providing us with those brief bios, for example, Harter does a particularly good job in using them to illustrate the evolutionary process that led to the airing of Novak. At the same time, he introduces us to people whose names might ring a bell, especially with classic television fans, but who perhaps ought to be more widely known than they are. His chapter on E. Jack Neuman, for example, not only pays tribute to Neuman’s role in creating Novak, but it allows us to get to know a talented man with a long and successful career in radio and television who, even had he never been involved in Novak, would still have been an interesting character.

Likewise, Harter isn’t afraid to take a deep dive in writing about the series’ development. I suppose we sometimes think a television series sprouts, fully developed, from the ground,* when the truth is far different. Here is another area in which Harter excels, taking the time to use the filming of the Novak pilot as a primer on how a television series gets made. We go behind the scenes as Neuman and his partner, Boris Sagal, flesh out their ideas for the series and choose the writers and actors to bring it all to life, and Harter gives us a fascinating look at how a network – NBC in this case – goes about building the publicity machine that can make or break a new series.

*Reminding me of the scene from 1776 in which John Adams explains how the history books will regard the forming of the United States – “Franklin did this and Franklin did that and Franklin did some other damn thing. Franklin smote the ground and out sprang George Washington, fully grown and on his horse. Franklin then electrified him with his miraculous lightning rod and the three of them - Franklin, Washington, and the horse - conducted the entire revolution by themselves.”

We find out from the people involved – from Ed Asner, playing one of the new teachers, to some of the nearly 1,000 students of the real-life John Marshall High School in Los Angeles, extras essentially playing themselves – how things started to come together. As one of the co-stars, Marian Collier (who later would marry Jack Neuman) recalls, “we all had a real good feeling about the show being picked up by the network.” It was a feeling shared by Franciscus, co-star Jagger, and ultimately the network.

Ultimately, what really sells this book is that Harter illustrates how a television show can almost assume a life of its own. He writes what amounts to a biography of the two years that the show was on the air – the highs (critical acclaim, testimonials from actual teachers and the National Education Association, a bushel of awards) and the lows (Neuman’s ouster from the show in the second season and the replacement of several actors, including Jeanne Bal, amid salary conflicts and disputes with network personnel), and everything in-between. It’s really a history of the fictional (or is it?) Jefferson High, as well as the people who brought it to life. Whereas many books depend on the episode guide to provide the story, Harter’s use of a narrative format is one of the book’s most notable facets, as well as one of its biggest pluses

Harter does include an episode guide, but it’s likely to be more comprehensive that what you might be used to, including contemporary reviews that help give us a sense not only of the episode itself, but how it went over with viewers and critics. It’s valuable color, particularly when you’re talking about a series that many people haven’t seen (or haven’t seen for years) – in fact, one of the best pieces of news we’ve seen lately in the classic TV market was that Mr. Novak would finally be making it to DVD next year. Harter’s descriptions of these episodes won’t take the place of viewing them yourself, but they will act as far more of a companion to the viewing than is often the case with these books. There’s more to the book – a list of the many awards won by the show, including the Peabody, a writers guide written by Neuman, and a provocative episode on venereal disease (starting on Novak and concluding on Dr. Kildare) that was ultimately vetoed by the network. And that's not to mention dozens of very good interviews, and delightful contributions by Richard Donner, Walter Koenig, and the late Martin Landau.

Can a book make you care about a television show you’ve never seen, perhaps never even heard of? Can it make you want to watch the show? If you were to ask me that, I’d respond by saying that it depended on how well the book made its case, how it convinced me that I should care, how curious it made me to actually watch an episode or two. In the case of Mr. Novak: An Acclaimed Television Series, Chuck Harter has succeeded on all fronts: he’s educated me on a series of which I’d only had a rudimentary knowledge, he’s made me become interested in it, and he’s made me want to watch it. Other than writing a best-seller, it’s about all an author can hope for, I suppose. A book like this is all a classic TV fan can hope for, as well.

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In case you missed it, my interview with Chuck Harter appears here. Be sure to check it out for more information on Chuck's book, the seris, and some great photos! TV

What a week, indeed! I don't know if you can read everything listed on the cover, but this is the kind of week that restores your faith in television and its ability to make things feel special. For me, growing up, Thanksgiving was always a big week; it's still, next to Christmas, my favorite time of the year. And when television crams as many specials and big events into a week that's already exciting - well, you can probably spend the whole time doing nothing other than watching TV and eating turkey. Yeah, my kind of week.

It's made doubly special in that 1965 is the first Thanksgiving I can actually be sure of remembering. By that I mean that while I may have memories from even earlier years (say, visiting the relatives for dinner), this is the first year I can specifically trace back to a year. Not surprisingly, I remember it because of the football games played that day. They both ended in ties.

I figure the best way to do this is to start with what's on the cover, with some extras thrown in as we go along.

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Saturday: Back in the day, before college football was irrevocably changed by conference realignment and billion-dollar television contracts, when there were no conference championship games and only a dozen bowl games, the Saturdays on either side of Thanksgiving were the days when the sport's storied rivalries took center stage. The highlight of the Saturday after Thanksgiving was the Army-Navy game, played before 100,000 fans in Philadelphia, and this Saturday gives us some of the great conference showdowns. Since NBC's contract with the NCAA limits us to one game per Saturday, the games are parceled out on a regional basis. Fans in the middle of the country get highly-ranked Missouri taking on Kansas, out East it's the Harvard-Yale game, down South Texas Tech plays Arkansas, and in the upper Midwest (and perhaps most of the country) it's The Game: Ohio State and Michigan. Usually, this game decides the Big 10 championship, but not in 1965: top-ranked Michigan State, the eventual national champion, is heading for the Rose Bowl, so the Buckeyes and Wolverines are playing for pride. Ohio State wins a tough defensive struggle, 9-7.

Sunday: Richard Nixon's appearance on Face the Nation (11:30 a.m. CT, CBS) is notable in that, after having been defeated by John Kennedy for the Presidency in 1960 and by Pat Brown for Governor of California in 1962, his political career was thought to be dead. However, by 1964 he's started to emerge as something of an elder statesman for the GOP; as one of the few "establishment" Republicans to not spurn Barry Goldwater (he even introducted Goldwater at the convention), Nixon is able to placate the party's conservative activists even as he remains part of the party's Eastern base. He spends most of 1965 and 1966 criss-crossing the country in support of Republican candidates in the mid-term elections; by 1967, he's become a serious possibility for the presidential nomination in 1968. It's a comeback quite unlike anything we've seen in American politics.

As for pro football, in Minnesota the AFL game on NBC pits the Kansas City Chiefs against the Boston Patriots (1:00 p.m.), while over on CBS (except for the blacked-out Twin Cities) the Green Bay Packers play the Vikings at 1:00, followed by the Cleveland Browns and Dallas Cowboys at 3:00 (although I suspect it'll actually be joined in progress.

Also of note: Robert Young hosts the Bell Telephone Hour's Thanksgiving program on NBC at 5:30 p.m., with Carol Lawrence, John Gary, Jean Fenn, William Walker, Matt Mattox, and the Choristers of teh LIttle Church Around the Corner.

Monday: I'm a little surprised that TV Guide didn't mention this, but on Monday Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall returns for a Thanksgiving special (8:00 p.m., NBC), with Gertrude Berg, Bobby Vinton, and the Lennon Sisters. It just wouldn't be a major holiday without Perry on television.

Tuesday: CBS's Salute to Stan Laurel (7:30 p.m.), who had died earlier in 1965, is hosted by Dick Van Dyke, the comedian most often compared to Laurel. The show, liberally spiced with clips from famous Laurel and Hardy movies, includes appearances by Buster Keaton and Lucille Ball, Harvey Korman, Phil Silvers, Bob Newhart, Audrey Meadows, Danny Kaye (who accepted an honorary Oscar for Laurel in 1961), Gregory Peck (as head of the Motion Picture Academy), and Audrey Meadows, Louis Nye, Tina Louise, Cesar Romero, and Leonid Kinskey. When they call this an all-star show, they aren't kidding.

Also of note: At 9:00 p.m, CBS presents "The National Citizenship Test," hosted by Harry Reasoner and Mike Wallace. Viewers who are scoring at home* can keep track of their answers on a scoresheet found in their daily newspaper, and find out if they know enough about Constitutional and state rights, and how state and Federal governments work in order to be thankful for being a citizen.

*Or just watching the show.

Wednesday: Thanksgiving Eve features one of the biggest star in entertainment, Frank Sinatra, in "A Man and His Music" (8:00 p.m, NBC), featuring the Chairman's greatest hits from his 25 years in show business. Sinatra had tried and failed with two previous series, in part because he put little effort into selling them; after all, when you're Frank Sinatra, you don't feel as if you have to prove anything. These annual specials (this being the first), which start out on NBC and later move to CBS, are a perfect formula for success: highly-anticipated specials in every sense of the word, with few guest stars or comedy bits, concentrating on what Sinatra does best - singing his hits.

At 9:00 p.m., just in time for Thanksgiving Day, ABC presents "Mayhem on a Sunday Afternoon," a history of professional football from 13th century England to today's modern game. The documentary, a David L. Wolper production produced and directed by William Friedkin (The Exorcist, The French Connection) and narrated by Van Heflin, features clips from the game's greates, including Jim Thorpe, Red Grange, and Sammy Baugh. If that's a bit rough for you, NBC's "Congress Needs Help," hosted by David Brinkley, shows what happens when an efficiency expert looks at how the Congress is run and how it could be made to function more effectively. I was not able to find a recording of this show, more's the pity.

Thanksgiving: Lady Bird Johnson's lasting contribution as First Lady was her campaign to beautify America, and at 9:00 p.m. ABC takes a look at the success of that effort in the area including and surrounding Washington, D.C. Earlier in the day, the same network offers the incomperable Sammy Davis Jr. in "The Wonderful World of Children" (4:00 p.m.), in which Sammy joins with a group of "talented youngsters" to return to their "happy-go-lucky" world - which includes an appearance by Dino (Martin Jr.), Desi (Arnaz Jr), and Billy (Hinshe). At the risk of dipping into Twilight Zone-esque territory*, it doesn't seem as if the world of children is such a happy-go-lucky one today, what with the pressures and temptations they face well before they even become teens. That makes a special like this almost a museum piece - or does it? I like one of the kids' mottos, which I think kids have held to since the beginning of time: "Whatever it is I didn't do it unless it's good in which case I did it even if I didn't."

*Specifically, "A Stop at Willoughby."

"Music by Cole Porter" (7:30 p.m., NBC) continues the week's musicial specials, with with Robert Goulet, Maurice Chevalier, Nancy Ames, and Peter Gennaro offering a tribute to the late Cole Porter, who died just over a year ago. Of course, one of the greatest interpreters of Porter's sophisticated lyrics is none other than Frank Sinatra, who sang some of Porter's best, including "I've Got You Under My Skin" and "I Get a Kick Out of You."

But the best part of the day - parades and football! CBS carries its traditional assortment of parades (9:00 a.m.) from New York (hosted by Arthur Godfrey and Bess Myerson), Philadelphia (Bud Collyer), Detroit (Frank Gifford and Marilyn Van Derbur) and Toronto (Jack Linkletter), all hosted by Captain Kangaroo and Shari Lewis. Meanwhile, NBC's telecast of the Macy's parade (9:00) is hosted, as usual, by Lorne Greene and Betty White.

CBS follows its parade coverage with the traditional NFL game from Detroit (11:00 a.m.) as the Lions play the Baltimore Colts (final score: 24-24); NBC counters with a college-AFL doubleheader, starting at 12;30 p.m. with the then-traditional Turkey Day matchup between Oklahoma and Nebraska (the #3 ranked Cornhuskers win 21-9). The Thanksgiving games between these two resulted in some classics, including their 1971 game thought by many to be the greatest college game ever played; alas, thanks to conference realignment, this, too, is a rivalry that has fallen by the wayside. The day closes with the defending AFL champion Buffalo Bills playing the team they defeated for the title, the San Diego Chargers, from San Diego. Like the NFL game, this also ends in a tie - 20-20. Doesn't stop the Bills, though, as they wind up the season successfully defending their title, again against San Diego.

Friday: Can there possibly be room for anything else? There can, if your name is Sean Conery and you play James Bond for a living. Friday night's special "The Incredible World of James Bond" airs at 9:00 p.m. on NBC, and takes a look behind the scenes at the forthcoming Bond flick Thunderball. Fittingly, the show it preempts for the evening is The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

What a week - did I already say this once?

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During the 60s, the Ed Sullivan Show and The Hollywood Palace were the premiere variety shows on television. Whenever they appear in TV Guide together, we'll match them up and see who has the best lineup..

Sullivan: Ed's scheduled guests: political satirist Mort Sahl; pianist Peter Nero; singer Johnny Mathis; Killer Joe Piro and his Discotheque Dancers; comedienne Jean Carroll; German musical-comedy star Heidi Bruhl; puppet Topo GIgio; singer-pianist Ginny Tiu and her family; and the Monterey singing boys choir.

Palace: Host Bing Crosby introduces songstress Diahann Carroll; song-and-dance man John Bubbles; comic Charlie Manna; the singing Kessler Twins (Ellen and Alice); Michael the Waiter, German juggler; Desmond and Marks, English comics; and the Black Theater of Prague, pantomomists.

Well, this isn't the best lineup we've seen, but we've got enough information to make a call. Mort Sahl and Peter Nero edge Bing Crosby's lineup, and with Johnny Mathis in tow, chances are that Ed takes the week.

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Throughout the 60s and early 70s, TV Guide's reviews were written by the witty and acerbic Cleveland Amory. Whenever we get the chance, we'll look at Cleve's latest take on the series of the era.

To say that you can do far worse than F Troop may sound like faint praise, but when Cleveland Amory says it, then you're doing pretty good. In fact, he says at the end of the first paragraph, "the first and third episodes were two of the funniest shows we've seen all season."

Amory is a big fan of Ken Berrty, as the inept Captain Parmenter, who "mumbles, bumbles, stumbles and even fumbles his way from reveille to retreat." He's also a fan of Melody Patterson, who plays Parmenter's inamorata Wrangler Jane, Frank de Kova as Chief Wild Eagle, and Edward Everett Horton as Roaring Chicken. He really enjoyed Bernard Fox, who in the third episode played Major Bentley-Royce, the "Phantom Maja from Inja," a master of disguise who tries to make everyone in F Troop invisible, disguising them as tree stumps, horses and even buffalo; the result, says Amory, is "hilarious." Strangely enough, though, he has very little to say about Forrest Tucker and Larry Storch, who play Sergeant O'Rourke and Corporal Agarn. Most people who've seen F Troop would likely remember them more than anyone else, but then again, it may be a case of the devil being in the details, or something like that.

Now, you'll recall in the first paragraph that Amory thought the first and third episodes were very funny, but that leaves the second episode. It's a story in which Parmenter's Philadelphia finacee arrives to try and get Parmenter away from both Fort Courage and Wrangler Jane, not necessarily in that order. It's a mix of "Annie Get Your Gun" and "Pygmalion," but even though fiancee Lucy faints twice and O'Rourke and Agarn faint once each, the show just doesn't add up. By way of explanation, Amory quotes Wild Eagle, who first offers the aphorism "Bark of tree never bitter to a hungry squirrel," and then, when asked what it means, shrugs and replies, "Well, it loses a little something in translation." So does this episode, which - as Amory concludes, "shows how quickly F Troop can go from F sharp to F flat.

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There was a lot of excitement among classic TV fans when the Rod Serling-developed Western The Loner, starring Lloyd Bridges hit the DVD market last year. It was a fairly unexpected development, as the series only ran for 26 episodes, but as I say, people were stoked about it. Part of the anticipation, I think, was due to the Cult of Serling, which in general holds that "It's Serling, it has to be good." Now, before you jump all over me, I've seen a couple of episodes - it is pretty good. Not great, but certainly watchable. Serling may have had his flaws as a writer, but he had more than a few gems as well.

This week, Fritz Goodwin's article goes behind the scenes on The Loner. It's really about Lloyd Bridges and how he came to the lead role - the attraction of working on a Serling project, of course - but by November, the series is in trouble, production has been suspended, and Serling is at war with the suits at CBS. What he'd sold the network, he insists, was "a series of 24-minute weekly shows - all legitimate, human, dramatic vignettes - set against a Western background." Now, he complains, the network looks at the ratings and demands "a show with violence and killing attendant on a routine Western." Michael Dann, the VP in charge of programming, denies that he told Serling this; instead, he had merely asked for more "action" and "movement" - "chases, running gun battles, runaway stagecoaches, etc." Of course, that sounds a lot like violence to me, but what do I know?

At this point, the show's ratings are still disappointing, but the network has put the show back into production with an assurance that it will stay on the air, at least through the winter. It's still struggling to find its place; even Bridges was bothered that his character's background wasn't more fleshed out, though he trusts Serling on this point. Finally, in March, the plug is pulled. It's easy to appreciate Serling's frustration - he was once heard to say that he wished the week would go straight from Friday to Sunday and skip Saturday so there wouldn't be any Loner. He couldn't have been surprised; after all, it was network interference that resulted in him going the sci-fi route in the first place.

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What else? Well, we've got a starlet - it's Marta Kristen, born Birgit Annalisa Rusanen, who's currently starring as Judy Robinson on Lost in Space. Melvin Durslag writes about the current controversy in pro football as to whether or not new, unproven rookies should be paid big bucks. "For the Record" examines how television covered the Big Blackout in New York the previous Tuesday; most networks shifted their live operations to Washington and used the West Coast feed to get their programs to the affiliates. The most memorable moment came when NBC switched to Frank McGee, reporting live from New York - by candlelight.

I don't know how to top that, so I think it's time to blow out the candle and say good night. TV

The Minnesota State Editions aren't always my favorites, but I enjoyed this one immensely, because of the variety in what different network affiliates decided to show. As I suggested on Saturday, there's just something about the programming today, how early it starts and how long it runs, that just makes the day seem special all day long. Of course, that turkey aroma doesn't hurt, does it?

	2 KTCA (EDUC.)
	Afternoon
	5:00	CLASSROOM
	5:30	TO BE ANNOUNCED
	Evening
	8:30	PRIVATE COLLEGE CONCERT
	9:00	THE PROFESSIONS
	9:30	TOWN AND COUNTRY
	10:00	WINGSPREAD

KTCA, like WDSE, doesn't begin broadcasting today until 5:00 p.m. Unlike WDSE, they don't seem to have a good idea of what they'll be showing. I wonder how many of their programs would ordinarily have been live. and aren't being broadcast due to the holiday?

	3 KDAL (DULUTH) (CBS)
	Morning
	7:35	FARM AND HOME
	7:45	TREETOP HOUSE – Becker
	8:00	CAPTAIN KANGAROO
	9:00	THANKSGIVING PARADES SPECIAL
	11:00	PRO FOOTBALL – Colts vs. Lions SPECIAL COLOR
	Afternoon
	2:00	TO TELL THE TRUTH – Panel
	2:25	NEWS – Edwards
	2:30	EDGE OF NIGHT – Serial
	3:00	SECRET STORM – Serial
	3:30	NEVER TOO YOUNG – Serial
	4:00	SAMMY DAVIS SPECIAL COLOR “The Wonderful World of Children”
	5:00	YOGI BEAR – Cartoons
	5:30	NEWS – Cronkite
	Evening
	6:00	NEWS
	6:30	MUNSTERS
	7:00	GILLIGAN’S ISLAND – Comedy COLOR
	7:30	MY THREE SONS – Comedy COLOR
	8:00	MOVIE – Fantasy COLOR Thursday Night Movie: “Mysterious Island” (English; 1961)
	10:00	NEWS
	10:15	THE SAINT – Mystery
	11:15	CHANNEL 3 THEATER – Drama

At this point, Duluth is without an ABC affiliate; WDIO won't come on the air until January of the following year. With no CBS network programming to pose a conflict, it's not surprising that KDAL would be receptive to picking up Sammy Davis Jr.'s special The Wonderful World of Children. They also carry ABC's teen soap Never Too Young, which debuted in September and runs to June of the following year.

	4 WCCO (CBS)
	Morning
	6:00	SUNRISE SEMESTER – Education
	6:30	SIEGFRIED – Children
	7:00	ALEX AND DEPUTY DAWG
	7:30	CLANCY AND COMPANY
	8:00	CAPTAIN KANGAROO
	9:00	DR. REUBEN K. YOUNGDAHL
	9:05	NEWS – Dean Montgomery
	9:30	MIKE DOUGLAS – Variety Co-host: Shelley Winters. Guests: Juliet Prowse, Xavier Cugat
	10:00	THANKSGIVING PARADES SPECIAL Joined in progress
	11:00	PRO FOOTBALL – Colts vs. Lions SPECIAL COLOR
	Afternoon
	2:00	NEWS
	2:15	SOMETHING SPECIAL
	2:25	WEATHER – Bud Kraehling
	2:30	EDGE OF NIGHT – Serial
	3:00	SECRET STORM – Serial
	3:30	I LOVE LUCY – Comedy
	4:00	MOVIE – Comedy “Stop! Look! and Laugh!” (1960)
	5:30	NEWS – Cronkite
	Evening
	6:00	NEWS
	6:20	DIRECTION – Religion
	6:25	WEATHER – Don O’Brien
	6:30	MUNSTERS
	7:00	GILLIGAN’S ISLAND – Comedy COLOR
	7:30	MY THREE SONS – Comedy COLOR
	8:00	MOVIE – Fantasy COLOR Thursday Night Movie: “Mysterious Island” (English; 1961)
	10:00	NEWS
	10:30	MOVIE – Musical COLOR “Walking My Baby Back Home” (1953)
	12:00	MOVIE – Melodrama “Port Sinister” (1953)

Now this, had I been old enough to recognize it, would have driven me crazy - preempting the first hour of the Thanksgiving Day parades for Mike Douglas? Seriously? Yes, I know I could just have turned over to NBC to watch the Macy's parade; and yes, I understand that there may well be a contractural reason why WCCO had or felt compelled to bypass the parades for Mike. I don't care - it's still utterly ridiculous.

	5 KSTP (NBC)
	Morning
	6:00	THANKSGIVING SPECIAL SPECIAL COLOR
	6:30	CITY AND COUNTRY COLOR
	7:00	TODAY COLOR Guests: Michael Dyne, Frank Jenkins
	9:00	THANKSGIVING PARADE SPECIAL COLOR
	11:00	UNDERDOG SPECIAL COLOR
	11:30	LET’S PLAY POST OFFICE – Game COLOR
	11:55	NEWS – McGee
	Afternoon
	12:00	NEWS AND WEATHER COLOR
	12:15	DIALING FOR DOLLARS – Game COLOR
	12:30	COLLEGE FOOTBALL – Oklahoma vs. Nebraska SPECIAL COLOR
	3:30	PRO FOOTBALL – Bills vs. Chargers SPECIAL COLOR
	Evening
	6:30	NEWS COLOR
	7:00	DIALING FOR DOLLARS COLOR
	7:30	MUSIC BY COLE PORTER SPECIAL COLOR Guests: Maurice Chevalier, Robert Goulet, Nancy Ames, Peter Gennaro
	8:30	MONA McCLUSKY – Comedy COLOR
	9:00	DEAN MARTIN COLOR Guests: Milton Berle, Lisa Kirk, Phil Ford and Mimi Hines, Xavier Cugat, Charo and Company, Windsor Boys Choral Group, Ronnie Demarco
	10:00	NEWS COLOR
	10:30	JOHNNY CARSON COLOR
	12:15	MOVIE – Science Fiction “Day the World Ended” (1956)

The "Thanksgiving Special" on at 6:00 a.m. is a half-hour of recorded hymns played by longtime KSTP host David Stone, a member of the Minnesota Broadcasting Hall of Fame. You can read about him here. He's also in the Country Music Hall of Famein Nashville.

	6 WDSM (DULUTH) (NBC)
	Morning
	7:00	TODAY COLOR Guests: Michael Dyne, Frank Jenkins
	9:00	THANKSGIVING PARADE SPECIAL COLOR
	11:00	UNDERDOG SPECIAL COLOR
	11:30	BEN CASEY – Drama
	Afternoon
	12:30	COLLEGE FOOTBALL – Oklahoma vs. Nebraska SPECIAL COLOR
	3:30	PRO FOOTBALL – Bills vs. Chargers SPECIAL COLOR
	Evening
	6:30	DANIEL BOONE COLOR
	7:30	MUSIC BY COLE PORTER SPECIAL COLOR Guests: Maurice Chevalier, Robert Goulet, Nancy Ames, Peter Gennaro
	8:30	MONA McCLUSKY – Comedy COLOR
	9:00	DEAN MARTIN COLOR Guests: Milton Berle, Lisa Kirk, Phil Ford and Mimi Hines, Xavier Cugat, Charo and Company, Windsor Boys Choral Group, Ronnie Demarco
	10:00	NEWS COLOR
	10:30	JOHNNY CARSON COLOR

Underdog premiered on NBC in 1964, and 1965 marked the first appearance of the famed balloon at Macy's Thanksgiving parade. To piggyback off of the appearance, NBC is running a special Underdog cartoon today, in which "Underdog tries to thwart Simon Barsinister's plot to destroy Thanksgiving Day."

	6 KMMT (AUSTIN) (ABC)
	Morning
	10:00	YOUNG SET – Discussion Guests: Gloria Swanson, Budd Shulberg
	11:00	DONNA REED – Comedy
	11:30	FATHER KNOWS BEST
	Afternoon
	12:00	BEN CASEY – Drama
	1:00	NURSES – Serial
	1:30	A TIME FOR US – Serial
	1:55	NEWS – Marlene Sanders
	2:00	GENERAL HOSPITAL – Serial
	2:30	YOUNG MARRIEDS – Serial
	3:00	NEVER TOO YOUNG – Serial
	3:30	WHERE THE ACTION IS Guests: Bobby Vee, Len Barry
	4:00	SAMMY DAVIS SPECIAL COLOR “The Wonderful World of Children”
	5:00	CAPTAIN ATOM – Children
	5:30	RIFLEMAN – Western
	Evening
	6:00	NEWS – Peter Jennings
	6:10	NEWS, SPORTS, WEATHER
	6:30	SHINDIG – Music Guests: Len Barry, Ian Whitcomb, Glen Cambpell, Dodie Marshall, Bobby Sherman, the Welingtons
	7:00	DONNA REED – Comedy
	7:30	O.K. CRACKERBY! – Comedy COLOR
	8:00	BEWITCHED – Comedy
	8:30	PEYTON PLACE – Drama
	9:00	FIRST LADY’S TOUR SPECIAL COLOR
	10:00	NEWS
	10:30	UNTOUCHABLES – Drama
	11:30	NEWS

In a day that's packed with specials, ABC is almost the odd man out; no parades, no football, just Sammy Davis Jr. in the afternoon and First Lady Lady Bird Johnson at 9:00 p.m., touring parts of Washington, D.C. that were targeted for improvement as part of her program to beautify America.

	7 KCMT (ALEX) (NBC, ABC)
	Morning
	7:00	TODAY COLOR Guests: Michael Dyne, Frank Jenkins
	9:00	THANKSGIVING PARADE SPECIAL COLOR
	11:00	PRO FOOTBALL – Colts vs. Lions SPECIAL COLOR
	Afternoon
	1:30	COLLEGE FOOTBALL – Oklahoma vs. Nebraska SPECIAL Joined in progress
	3:30	PRO FOOTBALL – Bills vs. Chargers SPECIAL COLOR
	Evening
	6:30	DANIEL BOONE COLOR
	7:30	MUSIC BY COLE PORTER SPECIAL COLOR Guests: Maurice Chevalier, Robert Goulet, Nancy Ames, Peter Gennaro
	8:30	MONA McCLUSKY – Comedy COLOR
	9:00	DEAN MARTIN COLOR Guests: Milton Berle, Lisa Kirk, Phil Ford and Mimi Hines, Xavier Cugat, Charo and Company, Windsor Boys Choral Group, Ronnie Demarco
	10:00	NEWS
	10:30	SKI SCENE – Sports
	10:45	FUGITIVE – Drama
	11:45	UNEXPECTED – Drama

Had I not seen this with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed it; even now, holding the issue in my hands and looking at the listings, I can't be sure there isn't some kind of mistake. KCMT, Channel 7, the station that routinely preempted the second half of football doubleheaders while I lived in The World's Worst Town™, the station that always seemed to have a good reason for not carrying NBC programming, not only has both of NBC's football games, they're also picking up the CBS broadcast of the early game. I've never seen KCMT pick up a CBS program before - well, maybe once in six years, but still. Of course, they don't carry Tonight yet, but Rome wasn't built in a day. I tell you, it was worth it getting this issue just to see this. Excuse me, I have to go back and read it again.

	8 WDSE (DULUTH) (EDUC.)
	Afternoon
	5:00	CLASSROOM
	5:30	BOOK BEAT – Mari Sandoz
	Evening
	6:00	COLLEGIUM STRING QUARTET
	6:30	WHAT’S NEW – Children
	7:00	U.N. DAY CONCERT – Music SPECIAL
	8:45	FILM SHORT
	9:00	THE PROFESSIONS
	9:30	TOWN AND COUNTRY

That taped U.N. Day concert at 7:00 p.m. has a fantastic lineup, if you like classical music: Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic, with soloists Martina Arroyo, Regina Resnik, Jon Vickers, and Justino Diaz. Trust me, those are very big names.

	9 KMSP (ABC)
	Morning
	7:30	MY LITTLE MARGIE – Comedy
	8:00	RILEY ‘ROUND THE TOWN
	8:30	GRANDPA KEN – Children
	9:00	ROMPER ROOM – Miss Betty
	10:00	YOUNG SET – Discussion Guests: Gloria Swanson, Budd Shulberg
	11:00	ELEVENTH HOUR – Drama
	Afternoon
	12:00	BEN CASEY – Drama
	1:00	NURSES – Serial
	1:30	A TIME FOR US – Serial
	1:55	NEWS – Marlene Sanders
	2:00	GENERAL HOSPITAL – Serial
	2:30	YOUNG MARRIEDS – Serial
	3:00	NEVER TOO YOUNG – Serial
	3:30	WHERE THE ACTION IS Guests: Bobby Vee, Len Barry
	4:00	SAMMY DAVIS SPECIAL COLOR “The Wonderful World of Children”
	5:00	NEWS – Peter Jennings
	5:30	LEAVE IT TO BEAVER – Comedy
	Evening
	6:00	STINGRAY – Children COLOR
	6:30	SHINDIG – Music Guests: Len Barry, Ian Whitcomb, Glen Cambpell, Dodie Marshall, Bobby Sherman, the Welingtons
	7:00	DONNA REED – Comedy
	7:30	O.K. CRACKERBY! – Comedy COLOR
	8:00	BEWITCHED – Comedy
	8:30	PEYTON PLACE – Drama
	9:00	FIRST LADY’S TOUR SPECIAL COLOR
	10:00	NEWS
	10:30	GALLANT MEN – Drama
	11:30	MAVERICK – Western

I don't know that I would have described Stingrayas "Children" - I think I would have opted for "Puppets." I admit it; I thought those were fun when I was a kid.

	10 KROC (ROCHESTER) (NBC)
	Morning
	7:00	TODAY COLOR Guests: Michael Dyne, Frank Jenkins
	9:00	THANKSGIVING PARADE SPECIAL COLOR
	11:00	UNDERDOG SPECIAL COLOR
	11:30	LET’S PLAY POST OFFICE – Game COLOR
	11:55	NEWS – McGee
	Afternoon
	12:00	NEWS
	12:15	SHOW AND TELL – Mary Bea
	12:30	COLLEGE FOOTBALL – Oklahoma vs. Nebraska SPECIAL COLOR
	3:30	PRO FOOTBALL – Bills vs. Chargers SPECIAL COLOR
	Evening
	6:30	DANIEL BOONE COLOR
	7:30	MUSIC BY COLE PORTER SPECIAL COLOR Guests: Maurice Chevalier, Robert Goulet, Nancy Ames, Peter Gennaro
	8:30	MONA McCLUSKY – Comedy COLOR
	9:00	DEAN MARTIN COLOR Guests: Milton Berle, Lisa Kirk, Phil Ford and Mimi Hines, Xavier Cugat, Charo and Company, Windsor Boys Choral Group, Ronnie Demarco
	10:00	NEWS
	10:30	JOHNNY CARSON COLOR

You might have noticed Xavier Cugat earlier today with Mike Douglas. No word on whether or not his wife, Charo, appeared with him there as well.

	11 WTCN (IND.)
	Morning
	9:15	NEWS
	9:30	MOVIE – Comedy “Have Rocket, Will Travel” (1959)
	10:55	NEWS – Gil Amundson
	11:00	DONNA REED – Comedy
	11:30	FATHER KNOWS BEST
	Afternoon
	12:00	LUNCH WITH CASEY – Children
	12:45	KING AND ODIE – Cartoons
	1:00	MOVIE – Fantasy "The Fabulous World of Jules Verne" (Czech; 1959)
	2:45	MEL’S NOTEBOOK – Interview
	3:00	GIRL TALK – Panel Guests: Monique Van Vooren, Selma Diamond, Lynda Gloria
	3:30	BACHELOR FATHER – Comedy
	4:00	POPEYE AND PETE – Children
	4:30	CASEY AND ROUNDHOUSE
	5:15	ROCKY AND FRIENDS COLOR
	5:30	HAVE GUN – WILL TRAVEL
	Evening
	6:00	DEATH VALLEY DAYS – Drama COLOR
	6:30	BOLD JOURNEY – Travel
	7:00	WILD CARGO – Travel COLOR
	7:30	AMERICAN WEST – Travel COLOR
	8:00	MOVIE – Drama “Mission over Korea” (1953)
	9:30	NEWS, WEATHER, SPORTS
	10:00	MOVIE – Western COLOR “The Road to Denver” (1955)
	12:00	AMOS ‘N’ ANDY – Comedy Time approximate

Have Rocket, Will Travel is one of two Three Stooges movies being shown today; the other is Stop, Look and Laugh on Channel 4. I don't know about you, but I think the Three Stooges make a pretty good choice for kids to watch while the adults are watching football.

	12 KEYC (MANKATO) (CBS)
	Morning
	7:30	NEWS – Mike Wallace
	7:55	FILM SHORT
	8:00	CAPTAIN KANGAROO
	9:00	THANKSGIVING PARADES SPECIAL
	11:00	PRO FOOTBALL – Colts vs. Lions SPECIAL COLOR
	Afternoon
	2:00	TO TELL THE TRUTH – Panel
	2:25	NEWS – Edwards
	2:30	EDGE OF NIGHT – Serial
	3:00	SECRET STORM – Serial
	3:30	TAKE 12 – Bob Gardner
	4:00	BART’S CLUBHOUSE
	4:30	ROCKY AND HIS FRIENDS
	4:45	BART’S CLUBHOUSE
	5:00	HUCKLEBERRY HOUND
	5:30	NEWS – Cronkite
	Evening
	6:00	NEWS
	6:30	MUNSTERS
	7:00	GILLIGAN’S ISLAND – Comedy COLOR
	7:30	MY THREE SONS – Comedy COLOR
	8:00	MOVIE – Fantasy COLOR Thursday Night Movie: “Mysterious Island” (English; 1961)
	10:00	NEWS
	10:30	MOVIE – Satire “The Mouse That Roared” (English; 1959)

Mysterious Island is the second of two movies involving Jules Verne (good day for theme movies, isn't it?) - this one is based on the book by Verne, which is a sequel to Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, and reunites us with Captain Nemo. The other film, The Fabulous World of Jules Verne, was the matinee movie on Channel 11.

The It's About TV Interview: Eric Senich, co-host of "The Bob Crane Show: Reloaded"

Around the dial

This week in TV Guide: October 19, 1963

What's on TV? Wednesday, October 23, 1963

The TV historian

Around the dial

This week in TV Guide: October 31, 1970

What's on TV: Monday, November 2, 1970

The shows you hated but couldn't stop watching

Around the dial

This week in TV Guide: November 1, 1969

What's on TV? Saturday, November 1, 1969

TV Jibe: The gentlemanly sport

Around the dial

This week in TV Guide: November 15, 1975

What's on TV? Wednesday, November 19, 1975

The "It's About TV" Interview: Chuck Harter, author of Mr. Novak: An Acclaimed Television Series

Taking the readers to school - with class

This week in TV Guide: November 20, 1965

What's on TV: Thursday, November 25, 1965