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TV Jibe: Did you notice how TVs seem to be everywhere now?
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Around the dial
The professional note is that I'm confirmed on the schedule for this September's Mid Atlantic Nostalgia Convention in Hunt Valley, Maryland. The Convention runs September 16-18, and right now I'm scheduled for 11:00 a.m. on the first day:
I think it's going to be a very cool presentation, even though I'm not absolutely sure yet as to what I'm going to say. Hopefully I'll also have copies of my in-progress book The Electronic Mirror, in which I argue that classic television can help us learn - as the presentation says - who we were then (as a society), who we are today, and everything in-between. The focus on this continues to evolve as well, so I'm probably as interested as you are in finding out what the finished product looks like. At any rate, if you've got vacation time coming, or if you're in a position to make the trip to Maryland in September, I hope you'll consider it; I met some of you out there last year (looking at you, Jack, Jodie, and Carol), and I'd like to run into even more of you this year! (Note that if you're looking at their website, it's an odd mix right now of new information for this year and carry-over information from last year, so keep checking back.)
And now the request: last week, I got an email from Melissa Thomas at the Franklin Township Library in Somerset, New Jersey. The library has a patron looking for some specific articles from TV Guides of the 1980s. I was able to help her out with one of them, but there are several that we're still looking for. I'm going to publish the list below in hopes that one (or more) of you happen to have these issues in your collection and would be willing to scan the articles in question and send them to me.
- TV Guide: Linda Lavin Only Laughs When It Hurts 10/23/1976
- TV Guide: One Heart of Gold, Coming Up 4/8/1978
- TV Guide: Features article on Beth Howland 5/12/1979
- TV Guide: No Longer Tied to Vera's Apron Strings 5/12/1979
- TV Guide: Relates to "Alice" Linda Lavin, Diane Ladd, and cast on front cover 4/19/1980
- TV Guide: Polly Holliday got where she is by being. . .Brazen and Brainy by Bill Davidson 11/8/1980
- TV Guide: Features article on Polly Holliday 11/15/1980
- TV Guide: Features an article on Celia Wesson of Alice 11/14/1981
- TV Guide: 100 Pounds Heavier. . .16 Inches Taller. . .Yes, Philip McKeon has Grown Up on Alice by Kenneth Turan 12/22/1984
Speaking for Melissa, we'd be grateful for any assistance that any of you out there can provide.
And now, elsewhere in classic television land. . .
At The Twilight Zone Vortex, Jordan shares the essential TZ/Serling books that should be on your bookshelf. It's a long but impressive list - even adding two or three of these volumes to your library should be an enriching experience.
Ah, "Miss Paisley's Cat" - that's this week's episode in Jack's Hitchcock Project over at bare-bones e-zine. I loved this episode, although I was sorry to see the cat get it. I also think I would have preferred the original ending, rather than the one that the requirements of the times demanded.
I'm not sure how many people remember Hawkins, James Stewart's 1973-74 series, in which he plays a shrewd down-home lawyer. As Rick points out at Classic Film and TV Café, the series bears more than a passing resemblance to Matlock, especially since Andy Griffith was first choice for the role.
I really like David's title for this piece at Comfort TV - "When Bad Things Happen to Good TV Shows." How true is that? I can't think of a single TV series that I watch where there hasn't been at least one bad episode - well, perhaps The Grand Tour hasn't had any bad episodes, but some are better than others...
At The Lucky Strike Papers, Andrew links to an article in the New York Times Magazine about Rodney Dangerfield. Sometimes when I'm working out, I'll find a clip of Dangerfield on The Tonight Show or somewhere else, and laugh out loud. He's one of those guys that you don't really want to like, but find yourself enjoying immensely, if that makes any sense.
The Land of Whatever has a nice short piece on East Side/West Side, the grim drama on social work in New York City, which appeared on CBS in 1963-64. It starred George C. Scott, perhaps the only star out there intense enough to stand up to the intensity of the series, which ought to be on DVD but isn't.
And at Garroway at Large, Jodie answers a question that demonstrates how hard it is to follow a smash act: whatever happened to Kokomo Jr., the replacement chimp for the famous J. Fred Muggs, such a memorable part of the original Today cast. It's a charming story!
If all this doesn't satisfy you, come on back tomorrow, and we'll do another TV Guide. TV
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This week in TV Guide: February 7, 1959
For example, NBC's Kaleidoscope, at 4:00 p.m. Sunday afternoon. It's hosted by Charles Van Doren, during the period of time before he was swallowed up by the Quiz Show Scandals, and it reminds me of Omnibus, another Sunday afternoon program on NBC, with topics that ranged from Communist East Germany to atomic energy to the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes, and commentators that included David Brinkley and Edwin Newman.
This week's episode is a drama, "The Third Commandment," written by Ben Hecht and starring Arthur Kennedy, Anne Francis, Fay Spain, Richard Erdman, John Hoyt, Simon Oakland, Regis Toomey, and Jack Weston - familiar names all to classic TV viewers. The play's subject matter is a provocative one, centering on the Third Commandment, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord Thy God in vain." Kennedy plays Jim Mundy, an "embittered young writer" so determined to achieve material success that he ignores his conscience and abandons his principles. Hecht wrote the play for television; according to The Great American Playwrights on the Screen, it was a pilot for a proposed series on the Ten Commandments.
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| SOURCE: HADLEY TV GUIDE COLLECTION |
One of the many unfortunate consequences of network television's shift to all-sports or all-informercial weekend afternoons is the loss of programming like this. It's true that a lot of these shows were not ratings bonanzas; that's why the networks stuck so many of them on Sunday afternoons, where they wouldn't do much damage to the ratings. But at least they were there, where people who wanted to see them could find them.
How did we get from there to here, from the classics to a network that has been variously labeled as the "Nothing But Coitus" or "Nothing But Crap" network? I know, I know - times change.
One of Ed Sullivan's first great on-air challenges came from Steve Allen, who left Tonight to take over an NBC variety show which, at the beginning, aired opposite Ed. It didn't run as long as Ed's, of course, but then Allen said his goal was never to conquer Ed, but to coexist with him, which he did for three seasons. Let's see who gets the best of the contest this week.Sullivan: Ed's guests are actor Richard Boone, actress Nancy Kelly, singer Frankie Laine, singer-actress Miyoshi Umeki, comedians Jan Murray and Wally Griffin, comedienne Trude Adams, singer Johnny Cash and the dancers from the Broadway musical "Jamaica."
Allen: Steve's guests are Liberace, singer Steve Lawrence and teh U.S. Army Chorus, actress Marie McDonald, and comedian Dayton Allen. Steve interviews mythical ex-celebrities, played by Don Knotts, Tom Poston and Louis Nye.
It's not that Steve's show is so bad this week; Steve Lawrence, who's a private in the Army, has been doing shows with the Chorus since finishing basic training, and I suspect his interviews with regulars Knotts, Poston and Nye are pretty funny. But c'mon, let's get real: Richard Boone, Frankie Laine, Jan Murray and Johnny Cash - Johnny Cash! It's a case of quantity and quality over quality this week; Sullivan for the win.
On Wednesday at 9:00 p.m., NBC repeats the special "by popular demand," and it's a testimonial not only to the brilliance of the show (and of Astaire and Chase), it's a reminder of what things were like before the VCR/DVR/on demand era. Back then when you missed a show you missed it, and there was no guarantee you'd ever get a chance to see it again - particularly if it was a special.
On the other hand, it's also an example of the great strides that television technology had already made. In the earlier days of TV, this would have been a live broadcast, and the only way to repeat it would be to do the show all over again. With the advent of video tape, you not only had the opportunity for an encore presentation, you could preserve the performance so that we could watch it on streaming video 60 years later.
And now, let's take an annotated look at the rest of the week:
A look at Saturday's college basketball serves as a reminder of how the balance of power changes through the years. On NBC at 2:00 p.m., future NBA superstar Jerry "The Logo" West leads West Virginia against Holy Cross. West Virginia will make it all the way to the NCAA finals in 1959, where they'll lose to California 71-70. That night on ABC (6:30 p.m.), it's The Dick Clark Show; Dwight Whitney reports that two tobacco companies have been battling for sponsorship of Clark's show, with Lorillard finally winning out. Writes Whitney, "Clark's 52-week contract is reputed to be one of the fattest in recent years."
On Tuesday, it's an all-American night of music on the Bell Telephone Hour (7:00 p.m, NBC), with an all-American cast of singers and dancers, including Risë Stevens, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Martha Wright, and the New York City ballet. Elsewhere, Jonathan Winters is the guest of Arthur Godfrey (8:00 p.m., CBS), Bob Hope welcomes Danny Thomas, Maureen O'Hara and Carol Haney to his NBC special (8:30 p.m.), and Cloris Leachman tries to fight off a mysterious strangler on One Step Beyond (9:00 p.m., ABC)
Besides Fred Astaire, Wednesday has other shows of interest in store. Last week Abraham Lincoln was the focus of Omnibus; tonight, on the eve of his 150th birthday, it's Project 20 (7:30 p.m., NBC), which presents a half-hour pictorial essay on the last four years of his life, accompanied by words from Lincoln and the people who knew him. That's followed at 8:00 p.m. by the Kraft Music Hall with Milton Berle - but, according to Burt Boyar's story elsewhere in the issue, next season Perry Como will be taking over Music Hall, with Berle filling in for eight or ten specials in the same time slot. NBC isn't crazy about having Como move from his Saturday night spot, but Kraft owns the Wednesday spot, and they want Como filling it. When you spend $8,000,000 to sponsor an hour of television, you get that kind of clout. If drama is what you're looking for, you'll probably find it on U.S. Steel Hour (9:00 p.m., CBS), with French star Jean Pierre Aumont starring in the Tolstoy story "Family Happiness," with Gloria Vanderbilt and Patty Duke.
Danny Thomas makes a rare dramatic appearance Thursday on Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre (CBS, 8:00 p.m.), playing an Italian immigrant targeted for some rough play by the citizens of Yuca City.* James Mason and Margaret Leighton star in "The Second Man" on Playhouse 90 (8:30 p.m., CBS), while at the same time Cliff Arquette, as Charley Weaver, guests with Tennessee Ernie Ford on NBC. The KMSP movie at 9:00 p.m. is appropriate: Abe Lincoln in Illinois, starring one of the movies' most famous Lincolns, Raymond Massey.
*Not to be confused with The Beast of Yucca Flats. (No offense to the Coleman Francis Fan Club.)
Connie Francis is one of the guests on CBS's Your Hit Parade on Friday (6:30 p.m.); in an article from this year, Francis talks about how the traumas of her rape and her brother's murder almost destroyed her career. On M-Squad, detective Frank Ballinger investigates a series of killings; in an article elsewhere in the issue the actor playing Ballinger, Lee Marvin (who is also half-owner of the series), describes the role as "a strait jacket.""I would get out of this series if I could," he tells his interviewer. "Do you realize I'm playing the same character on 19½ hours of film a year? And it gets pretty dull. In a movie you're on for maybe 45 minutes and that's it. The audience doesn't stand as much chance of anticipating you. After the second week in a series they gotta anticipate you. And when they do - adios!!" It's not nearly as colorful an interview as one we discussed earlier, but Martin is outspoken and no fool, and it's always interesting reading what he has to say.
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| Wrong again! |
She admits to weaknesses: "I must admit I have a little trouble with athletes," she says. "And I'm not very good on the armed forces. I can't even remember whether two stripes on your arm means you're a second lieutenant or only a major." But there remains the big question - "Is that featherbrained gadabout on To Tell the Truth really Polly Bergen? Or is Polly Bergen merely playing a featherbrained gadabout on To Tell the Truth?" Says Polly, "You'd really like to know the answer to that one now, wouldn't you?"
Finally, Chuck Connors is on the cover this week (along with Johnny Crawford, from The Rifleman). I've always liked Connors, and he was good for an entertaining article a while back, so it's certainly worth spending a few lines on him.
With The Rifleman, Connors has, as the article puts it, "finally made the big leagues," and in his case that's to be taken literally. For five years he was a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers system, never able to beat out Gil Hodges at first base, so he found himself traded to the Chicago Cubs. After hitting .223, he was sent to the Cubs' minor league team in Los Angeles. He did pretty well in L.A., even hosting a TV interview show between games, where - only in Hollywood - he was spotted by a movie talent scout. His first role was as a state policeman in the Tracy-Hepburn movie Pat and Mike, making $500 a day. "I figured they'd made some mistake on the adding machine, but I stuck the check in my pocket and shut up. Sure enough, the next day they gave me another $500. 'Baseball,' I told myself, 'just lost a first baseman.'"
His big break came a few years later, playing a heavy against James Arness on Gunsmoke. It "typed him as a fellow you could depend on to take a beating gracefully in a Western." When he heard about a new series - The Rifleman - he decided to give it a try. They tossed him a rifle - wanted to see how it handled it. "Feels like a Louisville Slugger," Connors said. The rest, I would say, is a home run. TV
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What's on TV? Sunday, February 8, 1959
3 KDAL (DULUTH) (CBS) | |||
MORNING | |||
9:00 | RELIGIOUS TOWN HALL | ||
9:30 | LOOK UP AND LIVE—Religion | ||
10:00 | THIS IS THE LIFE—Religion | ||
10:30 | CAMERA THREE—Macandrew | ||
10:55 | NEWS—Harry Reasoner | ||
11:00 | QUIZ A CATHOLIC—Religion | ||
11:30 | MOVIE—Drama “Mr. Motto Takes a Chance” (1938) | ||
AFTERNOON | |||
12:30 | FILM SHORT | ||
12:45 | BOWLERAMA | ||
2:00 | ALL-STAR GOLF—Sea Island, Ga. | ||
3:00 | SPORTS ROUNDUP—Nelson | ||
3:30 | BEHIND THE NEWS—Smith | ||
4:00 | G-E COLLEGE BOWL Princeton vs. Georgetown or Northwestern | ||
4:30 | AMATEUR HOUR | ||
5:00 | SMALL WORLD—Murrow | ||
5:30 | TWENTIETH CENTURY—Documentary | ||
EVENING | |||
6:00 | LASSIE—Drama | ||
6:30 | JACK BENNY | ||
7:00 | ED SULLIVAN Guests: Richard Boone, Nancy Kelly, Frankie Laine, Miyoshi Umeki, Jan Murray, Wally Griffin, Trude Adams, Johnny Cash, dancers from “Jamaica” | ||
8:00 | G.E. THEATER | ||
8:30 | ALFRED HITCHCOCK | ||
9:00 | KEEP TALKING | ||
9:30 | NEW YORK CONFIDENTIAL | ||
10:00 | NEWS | ||
10:15 | WEEKLY TELENEWS | ||
10:30 | MOVIE—Drama “Vice Squad” (1953) | ||
3 KGLO (Mason City) (CBS) | |||
MORNING | |||
8:45 | THROUGH THE PORTHOLE | ||
9:00 | LAMP UNTO MY FEET—Religion | ||
9:30 | LOOK UP AND LIVE—Religion | ||
10:00 | EYE ON NEW YORK—Leonard | ||
10:30 | CAMERA THREE—Macandrew | ||
10:55 | NEWS—Harry Reasoner | ||
11:00 | THIS IS THE LIFE—Religion | ||
11:15 | MOVIE—Drama “The Birthday Present” (English; 1955) | ||
AFTERNOON | |||
1:00 | CHAMPIONSHIP BOWLING | ||
2:00 | LAST WORD—Panel | ||
2:30 | WORLD OF IDEAS—Discussion | ||
3:00 | FACE THE NATION—Interview | ||
3:30 | BEHIND THE NEWS—Smith | ||
4:00 | FILM FEATURE | ||
4:30 | AMATEUR HOUR | ||
5:00 | COMMAND PERFORMANCE | ||
5:30 | TWENTIETH CENTURY—Documentary | ||
EVENING | |||
6:00 | LASSIE—Drama | ||
6:30 | JACK BENNY | ||
7:00 | ED SULLIVAN Guests: Richard Boone, Nancy Kelly, Frankie Laine, Miyoshi Umeki, Jan Murray, Wally Griffin, Trude Adams, Johnny Cash, dancers from “Jamaica” | ||
8:00 | G.E. THEATER | ||
8:30 | ALFRED HITCHCOCK | ||
9:00 | KEEP TALKING | ||
9:30 | 26 MEN | ||
10:00 | NEWS | ||
10:15 | TV READER’S DIGEST—Drama | ||
4 WCCO (CBS) | |||
MORNING | |||
8:00 | SACRED HEART—Religion | ||
8:15 | THE WAY—Religion | ||
8:45 | THROUGH THE PORTHOLE | ||
9:00 | BUSINESS AND FINANCE | ||
9:30 | CISCO KID—Western | ||
10:00 | RAMAR—Adventure | ||
10:30 | HOPALONG CASSIDY—Western | ||
11:00 | ROBIN HOOD—Adventure | ||
11:30 | SEARCH FOR HEALTH | ||
11:45 | HOBBIES AND HANDICRAFT | ||
AFTERNOON | |||
12:00 | SPORTS, WEATHER | ||
12:15 | WORLD OF AVIATION—Booen | ||
12:30 | NEWS | ||
12:45 | BOWLERAMA | ||
2:00 | MOVIE—Drama Command Performance: “99 River Street” (1953) | ||
3:45 | NEWS—Dean Montgomery | ||
4:00 | G-E COLLEGE BOWL Princeton vs. Georgetown or Northwestern | ||
4:30 | AMATEUR HOUR | ||
5:00 | SMALL WORLD—Murrow | ||
5:30 | TWENTIETH CENTURY—Documentary | ||
EVENING | |||
6:00 | LASSIE—Drama | ||
6:30 | JACK BENNY | ||
7:00 | ED SULLIVAN Guests: Richard Boone, Nancy Kelly, Frankie Laine, Miyoshi Umeki, Jan Murray, Wally Griffin, Trude Adams, Johnny Cash, dancers from “Jamaica” | ||
8:00 | G.E. THEATER | ||
8:30 | ALFRED HITCHCOCK | ||
9:00 | KEEP TALKING | ||
9:30 | WHAT’S MY LINE?—Panel | ||
10:00 | NEWS | ||
10:30 | ALL-STAR BOWLING | ||
5 KSTP (NBC) | |||
MORNING | |||
7:30 | CHRISTOPHERS—Religion | ||
8:00 | BIBLE STORY—Religion | ||
8:30 | CATHOLIC HOUR—Religion | ||
9:00 | QUIZ A CATHOLIC—Religion | ||
9:30 | BIG PICTURE—Army | ||
10:00 | MOVIE—Drama “Man Against the Sun” (English; 1949) | ||
11:00 | MOVIE—Western Boots and Saddles: “Border Brigand” | ||
AFTERNOON | |||
12:00 | UNEXPECTED—Drama | ||
12:30 | NEWS | ||
12:45 | STARS ON PARADE—Variety | ||
1:00 | BOSTON BLACKIE—Mystery | ||
1:30 | PRO BASKETBALL—Knicks vs. Nats | ||
3:30 | ASK WASHINGTON—Byrson Rash | ||
4:00 | KALEIDOSCOPE—Van Doren “The Third Commandment” | ||
5:00 | MEET THE PRESS—Interview Guest: West German Mayor Willy Brandt | ||
5:30 | CHET HUNTLEY—News Analysis | ||
EVENING | |||
6:00 | SABER OF LONDON—Mystery | ||
6:30 | MUSIC SHOP—Bregman Guests: Jim Backus, Ralph Sanford, Jerry Wallace | ||
7:00 | STEVE ALLEN Guests: Liberace, Steve Lawrence and the U.S. Army Chorus, Marie McDonald, Dayton Allen | ||
8:00 | DINAH SHORE Guests: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Jane Powell, Mel Torme | ||
9:00 | LORETTA YOUNG—Drama | ||
9:30 | MACKENZIE’S RAIDERS | ||
10:00 | NEWS | ||
10:15 | MAN WHO WAS THERE | ||
10:30 | TO BE ANNOUNCED | ||
11:00 | TV THEATER—Drama | ||
11:30 | COMMAND PERFORMANCE | ||
6 WSDM (DULUTH) (NBC) | |||
MORNING | |||
9:30 | BACK TO GOD—Religion | ||
9:45 | CHRISTIAN SCIENCE—Religion | ||
10:00 | RELIGIOUS FEATURE | ||
10:30 | AGRICULTURE—Education | ||
11:00 | ARMED FORCES—Government | ||
AFTERNOON | |||
12:00 | MOVIE MUSEUM—Variety | ||
12:30 | COMMAND PERFORMANCE | ||
1:00 | BIG PICTURE—Army | ||
1:30 | PRO BASKETBALL—Knicks vs. Nats | ||
3:30 | CHAMPIONSHIP BOWLING | ||
4:30 | THIS IS ALICE—Comedy | ||
5:00 | LONE RANGER—Western | ||
5:30 | FLIGHT—Drama | ||
EVENING | |||
6:00 | LAWMAN—Western | ||
6:30 | REAL McCOYS—Comedy | ||
7:00 | STEVE ALLEN Guests: Liberace, Steve Lawrence and the U.S. Army Chorus, Marie McDonald, Dayton Allen | ||
8:00 | DINAH SHORE Guests: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Jane Powell, Mel Torme | ||
9:00 | LORETTA YOUNG—Drama | ||
9:30 | ROUGH RIDERS—Western | ||
10:00 | NEWS | ||
10:15 | THIS IS YOUR LIFE—Edwards | ||
10:45 | MOVIE—Drama “Another Dawn” (1937) | ||
6 KMMT (AUSTIN) (ABC) | |||
MORNING | |||
10:30 | MAN TO MAN—Religion | ||
11:00 | RELIGIOUS TOWN HALL | ||
11:30 | JOHNS HOPKINS—Lynn Poole | ||
AFTERNOON | |||
12:00 | BISHOP PIKE—Discussion | ||
12:30 | UNION DISCUSSION | ||
12:45 | CHRISTIAN SCIENCE-Religion | ||
1:00 | COLLEGE NEWS CONFERENCE | ||
1:30 | THIS IS THE LIFE—Religion | ||
2:00 | GOSPEL IN ART—Cartoons | ||
2:15 | WHAT’S YOUR TROUBLE? | ||
2:30 | ORAL ROBERTS—Religion | ||
3:00 | OPEN HEARING—Secondari | ||
3:30 | ROLLER DERBY—Ravens vs. Chiefs | ||
4:30 | BOWLING STARS—Chicago | ||
5:00 | FAMILY HOUR—Joe Mott | ||
5:15 | PAUL WINCHELL—Variety Guests: Alice Pearce, Les Orioles, Eric Badicton | ||
5:30 | VARIETY TIME—Music | ||
EVENING | |||
6:00 | WILD BILL HICOCK—Western | ||
6:30 | MAVERICK—Western | ||
7:30 | LAWMAN—Western | ||
8:00 | COLT .45—Western | ||
8:30 | DATELINE EUROPE—Drama | ||
9:00 | COMMAND PERFORMANCE | ||
9:30 | MEET McGRAW—Drama | ||
10:00 | NEWS | ||
10:30 | MOVIE—Drama “Fire Alarm” (1932) | ||
8 WKBT (LaCrosse) (CBS) | |||
MORNING | |||
11:00 | THIS IS THE LIFE—Religion | ||
11:30 | THIS WE BELIEVE—Panel | ||
AFTERNOON | |||
12:00 | RELIGIOUS TOWN HALL | ||
12:30 | CHRISTIAN SCIENCE—Religion | ||
12:45 | THROUGH THE PORTHOLE | ||
1:30 | PRO BASKETBALL—Knicks vs. Nats | ||
3:30 | WAGON TRAIN—Western | ||
4:30 | AMATEUR HOUR | ||
5:00 | DECEMBER BRIDE—Comedy | ||
5:30 | TWENTIETH CENTURY—Documentary | ||
EVENING | |||
6:00 | LASSIE—Drama | ||
6:30 | JACK BENNY | ||
7:00 | ED SULLIVAN Guests:Richard Boone, Nancy Kelly, Frankie Laine, Miyoshi Umeki, Jan Murray, Wally Griffin, Trude Adams, Johnny Cash, dancers from “Jamaica” | ||
8:00 | G.E. THEATER | ||
8:30 | ALFRED HITCHCOCK | ||
9:00 | KEEP TALKING | ||
9:30 | ALL-STAR THEATER—Drama | ||
10:00 | NEWS | ||
10:15 | NEW YORK CONFIDENTIAL | ||
10:45 | ZANE GREY—Western | ||
11:15 | SILENT SERVICE—Drama | ||
9 KMSP (Ind.) | |||
AFTERNOON | |||
12:00 | ORAL ROBERTS—Religion | ||
12:30 | CARTOONS—Kids | ||
1:00 | SOUL’S HARBOR—Religion | ||
1:30 | MOVIE—Comedy “Let’s Get Tough” (1942) | ||
2:30 | MOVIE—Comedy “Life Begins for Andy Hardy” (1940) | ||
4:00 | MOVIE—War Drama “Flying Tigers” (1942) | ||
5:30 | MOVIE—Western Sagebrush: “Hidden Valley Outlaws” (1944) | ||
EVENING | |||
6:30 | OUR MISS BROOKS—Comedy | ||
7:00 | VICTORY AT SEA—Documentary | ||
7:30 | SHERLOCK HOLMES—Mystery | ||
8:00 | OFFICIAL DETECTIVE—Police | ||
8:30 | PUBLIC DEFENDER—Police | ||
9:00 | MOVIE—Drama “Nightmare Alley” (1947) | ||
10:30 | NEWS—David Lee | ||
10:45 | MOVIE—Drama “Min and Bill” (1930) | ||
11:55 | NEWS—Joe Cooper | ||
10 KROC (Rochester) (NBC) | |||
MORNING | |||
10:00 | MOVIE—Double Feature “Chinatown Squad” (1935) “Crime of Dr. Forbes” (1936) | ||
AFTERNOON | |||
12:30 | ORAL ROBERTS—Religion | ||
1:00 | INDUSTRY ON PARADE | ||
1:15 | CHRISTIAN SCIENCE—Religion | ||
1:30 | PRO BASKETBALL—Knicks vs. Nats | ||
3:30 | THIS IS THE LIFE—Religion | ||
4:00 | KALEIDOSCOPE—Van Doren “The Third Commandment” | ||
5:00 | MOVIE—Comedy “Claudia and David” (1946) | ||
EVENING | |||
6:30 | MUSIC SHOP—Bregman COLOR Guests: Jim Backus, Ralph Sanford, Jerry Wallace | ||
7:00 | STEVE ALLEN Guests: Liberace, Steve Lawrence and the U.S. Army Chorus, Marie McDonald, Dayton Allen | ||
8:00 | DINAH SHORE Guests: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Jane Powell, Mel Torme | ||
9:00 | SILENT SERVICE—Drama | ||
9:30 | BEHIND CLOSED DOORS—Drama | ||
10:00 | NEWS | ||
10:15 | MOVIE—Comedy “A Kiss in the Dark” (1948) | ||
11 WTCN (ABC) | |||
MORNING | |||
9:30 | RELIGIOUS TOWN HALL | ||
10:00 | FAITH FOR TODAY—Religion | ||
10:30 | THIS IS THE LIFE—Religion | ||
11:00 | CHURCH SERVICE—Lutheran | ||
AFTERNOON | |||
12:00 | CARTOONS—Kids | ||
1:00 | MOVIE—Mystery “Secret of the Blue Room” (1933) | ||
2:00 | MOVIE—Comedy “Two Guys from Texas” (1948) | ||
3:30 | NEWS | ||
4:00 | ROLLER DERBY—Ravens vs. Chiefs | ||
4:30 | BOWLING STARS—Chicago | ||
5:00 | PAUL WINCHELL—Variety Guests: Alice Pearce, Les Orioles, Eric Badicton | ||
5:30 | LONE RANGER—Western | ||
EVENING | |||
6:00 | YOU ASKED FOR IT—Smith | ||
6:30 | MAVERICK—Western | ||
7:30 | LAWMAN—Western | ||
8:00 | COLT .45—Western | ||
8:30 | DEADLINE FOR ACTION | ||
9:30 | MEET McGRAW—Drama | ||
10:00 | MOVIE—Comedy “Monsieur Beaucaire” (1946) | ||
11:30 | I LED THREE LIVES--Carlson | ||
13 WEAU (Eau Claire) (NBC) | |||
MORNING | |||
7:00 | FILM FEATURE | ||
7:30 | MICHAELS IN AFRICA | ||
8:00 | INDUSTRY ON PARADE | ||
8:15 | CHRISTIAN SCIENCE—Religion | ||
8:30 | GOSPEL HOUR—Religion | ||
9:00 | MOVIE—Western “Git Along Little Doggie” (1937) | ||
10:00 | MOVIE—Western “Sundown Terror” | ||
11:00 | MOVIE—Western “Heart of the Golden West” (1942) | ||
AFTERNOON | |||
12:00 | THIS IS THE LIFE—Religion | ||
12:30 | THIS IS THE ANSWER—Religion | ||
1:00 | ORAL ROBERTS—Religion | ||
1:30 | PRO BASKETBALL—Knicks vs. Nats | ||
3:30 | BOWLING STARS—Chicago | ||
4:00 | BIG PICTURE—Army | ||
4:30 | CHAPEL TIME—Music | ||
4:45 | CARTOONS—Kids | ||
5:00 | TWENTIETH CENTURY | ||
5:30 | LONE RANGER—Western | ||
EVENING | |||
6:00 | TOWN CRIER—Variety | ||
6:20 | NEWS—Howard Tricky | ||
6:30 | MUSIC SHOP—Bregman Guests: Jim Backus, Ralph Sanford, Jerry Wallace | ||
7:00 | STEVE ALLEN Guests: Liberace, Steve Lawrence and the U.S. Army Chorus, Marie McDonald, Dayton Allen | ||
8:00 | DINAH SHORE Guests: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Jane Powell, Mel Torme | ||
9:00 | MR. AND MRS. NORTH—Drama | ||
9:30 | WANTED—DEAD OR ALIVE | ||
10:00 | NEWS | ||
10:30 | MOVIE—Drama “Rebecca” (1940) | ||
↧
Maria Callas does The Sullivan Show, 1956
 |
| ED SULLIVAN WITH MARIA CALLAS AND GEORGE LONDON, NOVEMBER 25, 1956 |
He also realized that there was a great middlebrow audience out there, viewers who enjoyed seeing the latest Broadway plays and New York operas but didn’t have much of a chance to see them in person, and he was dedicated to giving them that opportunity through his show. Recreations of scenes from plays, musicals, and operas were common, with the singers and actors appearing in costume on a reproduced set. It wasn’t enough, thought Sullivan, to recreate the performance; he wanted to recreate the experience as well.
And that’s how, in November of 1956, the great Maria Callas came to be on The Ed Sullivan Show. Callas had made her Met debut on opening night of the 1956-57 season in Bellini’s Norma. On November 19, she would premiere perhaps her most famous role, that of Puccini’s Tosca. Sullivan knew the headlines that would be generated by Callas’ debut on American television, and booked Callas to appear on the show.
Maguire recounts some of the behind-the-scenes tension; Callas, a diva to the last, refused to do Tosca, preferring to save it for the paying customers at the Met. Sullivan, in turn, threatened to boot her off the show if she didn’t fulfill her half of the bargain. The result, of course, was this performance, from November 25, 1956. The first person you’ll see is Rudolf Bing, the general manager of the Metropolitan, followed by scenes from Act II of Tosca, featuring the Canadian bass-baritone George London as the villainous Count Scarpia. The orchestra is under the baton of Dimitri Mitropoulos.
In 1956, opera and theater were not uncommon on television. Aside from an occasional appearnce on PBS, where are the outlets for such programming today? TV
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↧
Around the dial
At bare-bones e-zine, Jack, who writes the terrific "Hitchcock Project" articles, this week covers Oh, For the Life of an Author's Wife, a biography of Fredric Brown by his second wife, Elizabeth. You'll recognize Brown's name from the stories he wrote that were adapted for Hitchcock, among many other shows. Sounds as if Mrs. Brown has some wonderful stories about her husband.
Who among us doesn't have a favorite show or two that everyone else things is absolutely awful? For David at Comfort TV, the terrible show he likes is Gemini Man, which I confess I've only seen when a couple of episodes were cobbled together into a movie that was riffed on MST3K. Perhaps I really have been missing something.
Great news for all fans of The Avengers (the real ones, not the cartoon superheroes), and of course I include myself in that category. At Cult TV Blog, John reports that an episode previously thought lost, "Tunnel of Fear," is not only found, but coming out on DVD. Sign me and my region-free player up, though I suspect it will make it over here before too long.
The Broadcast Archives at the University of Maryland links to a very interesting article from Current on how Sesame Street got PBS to start acting like a network.
Really interesting story at Garroway at Large, where Jodie tells about how Today covered the breaking news - one hour before airtime - of the death of King George VI in 1952. Impressive, especially considering the pioneering show had only been on the air for a month.
A Shroud of Thoughts has a very good, very comprehensive review of the military sitcoms of the 1960s. There are more of them out there than you might think, upholding a great tradition of military comedy that goes back to the 1950s in both movies and television.
Yes, a good week indeed - and you can start off the weekend on the right foot by being back here tomorrow for TV Guide. Just look for the issue with the stars of Peter Gunn and Mr. Lucky on the cover. TV
↧
This week in TV Guide: February 13, 1960
Contrast that with the 15 hours that CBS is scheduled to bring viewers when the 1960 Winter Olympics kick off from Squaw Valley, California on Thursday, February 18. Walter Cronkite anchors the coverage, which begins with a half-hour of highlights from the Opening Ceremonies, staged by Walt Disney and Art Linkletter. Vice President Richard Nixon will officially open the Games, partly because he's from California and partly because by tradition, no American president has ever opened the Olympics. (A situation that continues until Ronald Reagan in 1984.)
This marks the first time America has hosted the Winter Olympics since 1932, when they were held at Lake Placid, New York. Just how Squaw Valley came to be the host city is quite a story; you might say that the organizers sold the International Olympic Committee a bill of goods, convincing them that a puny, virtually undeveloped ski resort - it had only one ski lift - was capable of handling an international sporting event the magnitude of the Olympics. Virtually everything was built from scratch, in less than four years, at a cost of $80,000,000. It paid off, though; the intimate setting (you could walk to almost everything) and the snow-covered mountains (it helped that the Opening Ceremonies were delayed for an hour by a blizzard), plus the Disney touch, made the Games a success.
This is also the first time that the Olympics have been televised in the United States, although they've been shown previously in Europe (where every Winter Games save the Lake Placid edition had been held). In fact, according to the always-reliable Wikipedia, the television coverage actually played a role in one of the events; "During the games, officials asked Tony Verna, one of the members of the production staff, if it could use its videotape equipment to determine whether or not a slalom skier missed a gate. Verna then returned to CBS headquarters in New York City and developed the first instant replay system, which debuted at the Army–Navy football game in 1963." For its 15 hours of coverage, CBS paid a half-million dollars. By contrast, NBC is paying about $12 billion for the rights to the Summer and Winter games through 2032.
On the cover this week we have the stars of Blake Edwards'Peter Gunn and Mr. Lucky. You could say that Edwards is the one who's lucky, with two hit series already under his belt, and a potential third on the way - but you can read more about that one farther down the line. Gunn and Lucky have many similarities: they both feature smooth, dark-haired leading men compared to Cary Grant (Craig Stevens and John Vivyan), with attractive girlfriends (Lola Albright and Pippa Scott), and a jazzy texture supported by the music of Henry Mancini. At the moment Lucky is the luckier of the two series, with a rating of 25.7 compared with 20.3 for Gunn.
 |
| John Vivyan (left) and Ross Martin |
It's true - having seen Mr. Lucky, there's a noticeable drop in quality once the change in premise takes place. The show's easy charm disappears, the plots become routine, and Ross Martin, Lucky's show-stealing partner/sidekick, is totally wasted as a maître d'. I quit watching it after the changeover, but the show's ratings remained high enough that it should have been renewed. (It finished in the top 25 for the season.) It wasn't, though - Lever Bros. dropped its sponsorship completely (so why bother with the change in format?), and the network was unable to find a replacement. Lacking a sponsor, the network dropped the series. It cost John Vivyan a movie role opposite Ingrid Bergman; he'd turned down the role thinking (reasonably so) that Lucky would be renewed.*
*Vivyan always felt the show had been cancelled as a favor to Jack Benny; its replacement on Saturday nights, Checkmate, was produced by Benny's JaMco Productions.
*The Boston Terrier never did make it as a weekly series, but appeared twice on Dick Powell Theater, with Vaughn in the lead role.
Of course, for Robert Vaughn the best is yet to come. He'll get an Oscar nomination for The Philadelphians (left), a movie he did in 1959, and in the mid-60s he'll co-star in the series that brought him lasting fame, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. I remember him from 1972 or so, hosting a local telethon in the Twin Cities to support clean water. (Buster Crabbe, and Don Herbert, Mr. Wizard, were two of the other national stars appearing.) As I've written before, I was never a big fan of Vaughn's, although I liked him a lot in U.N.C.L.E., and as a proud Minnesotan I've always been proud to claim him as one of us.
No "Sullivan vs. Allen" this week; Steverino is preempted on Sunday by what is, for my money, the TV highlight of the week: NBC's live color presentation of Steven Vincent Benet's classic "The Devil and Daniel Webster." (7:00 p.m.) Edward G. Robinson, in a rare television appearance, stars as Webster, while David Wayne is Old Scratch, and Tim O'Connor the poor soul who sold his in return for "seven years of glittering fortune." It's replayed in 1962; too bad it's not out on DVD today.
Were it not for the above, the show of the week might have been Frank Sinatra's special on Monday (8:30 p.m., ABC). The theme is "Here's to the Ladies," as the Chairman "offers a valentine to the female sex in general and introduces some women he particularly admires." Among the stars are Lena Horne, Mary Costa, Juliet Prowse, Barbara Heller - and Eleanor Roosevelt. Quite an interesting mix, don't you think? Mrs. Roosevelt "talks with Frank about the hopes of the world and recites the lyrics of the song 'High Hopes.;"
Another of the week's rare color presentations is on Tuesday, when Joan Fontaine, John Ireland and Agnes Moorehead star in "Closed Set" on Startime. (7:30 p.m., NBC) Meantime, at 8:00 on CBS, it's Tightrope!, starring the pre-Mannix "Michael" Connors as an undercover police officer whose real identity is never divulged during the run of the show; he's referred to occasionally as "Nick" but otherwise simply assumes whichever undercover role he has for that case. I've seen a few episodes; it's a pretty good show. Of course, Connors was good in almost everything he was in.
Robert Vaughn (there's that name again!) pops up in CBS's Men Into Space at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. He plays one of two geochemists conducting a search for radioactivity on the moon. "McCauley [star William Lundigan] finds that one of his men is more interested in outdoing his colelague than in making the mission a success." The listing doesn't say which of the two men it is - really, it doesn't have to, does it? After that it's The Millionaire at 8:00, with a pre-Bewitched Dick York using his new fortune to try and find out why his fiancée broke off their engagement. And if you'd rather have some tunes, you might want to check out Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall with José Ferrer, Patrice Munsel, Señor Wences and Frank D. Rone. (8:00, NBC)
Once a month, DuPont (""Better Things for Better Living...Through Chemistry") sponsors The Show of the Month on CBS, preempting regularly scheduled programming. This Thursday, Show of the Month (8:30 p.m.) presents Edith Wharton's grim story "Ethan Frome," with an outstanding cast including Julie Harris as Mattie Silver and Sterling Hayden in the title role. I think I'd rather have watched The Ford Show (NBC, same time), with Ernie's guest Peter Palmer (try saying that five times fast), currently starring as Li'l Abner.
This week's starlet is Susan Cummings, currently appearing in the sydicated Western Union Pacific with Jeff Morrow and Judson Pratt. We don't learn a whole lot about Susan in this brief article: we know she can handle dialects, since she was born in Germany; she wears her hair long because producers seldom have wigs made well enough to fit or be the right color; and although she's only 29, she's already been married and divorced twice. (Her third husband will die in 1975; her fourth will outlive her.) Her resume following Union Pacific is thin; a few guest shots in TV, and some movie roles. Her most famous role - well, it's more like a line, delivered in a famous episode of an equally famous television series, when she yells to Lloyd Bochner, "It's a cookbook!" Can you name it?
I confess that our loyal reader Mike Doran has me stumped, as in truth he often does. Writing about yesterday's "Around the Dial," he mentions something to look for in the New York edition of TV Teletype. I've looked and I've looked, and I've surfed through mysteryfile.com in search of clues (or, as Ellery Queen might put it, "clews"), and I've come up with nothing. I have confidence, though, that in today's comments section he'll clear it up for me.
And finally, John Barba of Hamden, Connecticut, has this TV business down pat. In his letter to the editor, he relates to us a "hot tip" on this week's Perry Mason episode.
There is going to be a murder. Lieutenant Tragg is going to pick up an innocent person. The person will be defended by Perry Mason. Ah, who is this? Why it's the famous district attorney, Hamilton Burger. He has only lost 150 cases. But, this case might be different. Who is the murderer? Will Perry win? Is the defendant guilty? Paul Drake or Della Street enters and slyly gives some inside information to Perry. He recalls a past witness, who turns out to be the murderer. The score for Burger is 151.
I couldn't have described it better myself. TV
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What's on TV? Tuesday, February 16, 1960
2 KTCA (Educ.) | |||
MORNING | |||
8:30 | SCIENCE—Grade 7 | ||
9:00 | SCIENCE—Grade 4 | ||
9:30 | SCIENCE—Grade 7 | ||
10:00 | GUIDANCE INFORMATION | ||
10:30 | SCIENCE—Grade 7 | ||
11:00 | GUIDANCE INFORMATION | ||
11:30 | SCIENCE—Grade 7 | ||
AFTERNOON | |||
12:00 | GUIDANCE INFORMATION | ||
1:00 | SCIENCE—Grade 2 | ||
1:30 | ART—Grade 5 | ||
2:00 | SCIENCE—Grade 7 | ||
2:30 | GUIDANCE INFORMATION | ||
EVENING | |||
6:00 | PROSPECTS OF MANKIND | ||
6:45 | UNITED NATIONS REVIEW | ||
7:00 | ICE SKATING—Kirby | ||
7:30 | FROM OUR HERITAGE | ||
8:00 | CHRISTIAN ETHICS—Esbjornson | ||
8:30 | RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD | ||
9:00 | BEGINNING GERMAN | ||
9:30 | THROUGH EYE AND EAR | ||
10:00 | ANTARCTICA—Dr. L. Gould | ||
10:30 | LANGUAGE IN ACTION | ||
3 KDAL (Duluth) (CBS) | |||
MORNING | |||
7:00 | CONTINENTAL CLASSROOM | ||
7:30 | CONTINENTAL CLASSROOM | ||
8:00 | NEWS—Allan Jackson | ||
8:15 | CAPTAIN KANGAROO | ||
9:00 | RED ROWE—Variety | ||
9:30 | ON THE GO—Linkletter | ||
10:00 | I LOVE LUCY | ||
10:30 | DECEMBER BRIDE | ||
11:00 | LOVE OF LIFE | ||
11:30 | SEARCH FOR TOMORROW—Serial | ||
11:45 | GUIDING LIGHT | ||
AFTERNOON | |||
12:00 | NEWS—Walter Cronkite | ||
12:05 | TOWN AND COUNTRY—Becker | ||
12:30 | AS THE WORLD TURNS—Serial | ||
1:00 | FOR BETTER OR WORSE—Dr. James A. Peterson | ||
1:30 | HOUSE PARTY | ||
2:00 | MILLIONAIRE | ||
2:30 | VERDICT IS YOURS | ||
3:00 | BRIGHTER DAY | ||
3:15 | SECRET STORM | ||
3:30 | EDGE OF NIGHT | ||
4:00 | LIFE OF RILEY—Comedy | ||
4:30 | MY LITTLE MARGIE—Comedy | ||
5:00 | BANDSTAND—Rassbach | ||
5:30 | TEXAS RANGERS—Western | ||
EVENING | |||
6:00 | NEWS | ||
6:15 | NEWS—Edwards | ||
6:30 | QUICK DRAW McGRAW | ||
7:00 | TO BE ANNOUNCED | ||
7:30 | DOBIE GILLIS—Comedy | ||
8:00 | TIGHTROPE! | ||
8:30 | RED SKELTON Guest: Marilyn Maxwell | ||
9:00 | GARY MOORE Guests: Shirley Booth, Larry Blyden, Marquis Chimps | ||
10:00 | NEWS, SPORTS | ||
10:15 | MOVIE—Mystery “The Clouded Yellow” (English; 1950) | ||
3 KGLO (Mason City) (CBS) | |||
MORNING | |||
8:00 | NEWS—Allan Jackson | ||
8:15 | CAPTAIN KANGAROO | ||
9:00 | ELEMENTARY SPANISH | ||
9:30 | ON THE GO—Linkletter | ||
10:00 | I LOVE LUCY | ||
10:30 | DECEMBER BRIDE | ||
11:00 | LOVE OF LIFE | ||
11:30 | SEARCH FOR TOMORROW—Serial | ||
11:45 | GUIDING LIGHT | ||
AFTERNOON | |||
12:00 | NEWS | ||
12:30 | AS THE WORLD TURNS—Serial | ||
1:00 | FOR BETTER OR WORSE—Dr. James A. Peterson | ||
1:30 | HOUSE PARTY | ||
2:00 | MILLIONAIRE | ||
2:30 | VERDICT IS YOURS | ||
3:00 | BRIGHTER DAY | ||
3:15 | SECRET STORM | ||
3:30 | EDGE OF NIGHT | ||
4:00 | BOB CAVANAUGH—Variety | ||
5:00 | BART’S CLUBHOUSE—Kids | ||
5:45 | NEWS, MARKETS, WEATHER | ||
EVENING | |||
6:15 | NEWS—Edwards | ||
6:30 | WHIRLYBIRDS—Adventure | ||
7:00 | DENNIS O’KEEFE—Comedy | ||
7:30 | DOBIE GILLIS—Comedy | ||
8:00 | TIGHTROPE! | ||
8:30 | RED SKELTON Guest: Marilyn Maxwell | ||
9:00 | GARY MOORE Guests: Shirley Booth, Larry Blyden, Marquis Chimps | ||
10:00 | NEWS, SPORTS | ||
10:30 | MOVIE—Adventure “The Golden Mistress” (1954) | ||
4 WCCO (CBS) | |||
MORNING | |||
7:00 | CARTOONS—Siegfried | ||
8:00 | NEWS—Allan Jackson | ||
8:15 | CAPTAIN KANGAROO | ||
9:00 | REUBEN K. YOUNGDAHL | ||
9:15 | NEWS—WHAT’S NEW? | ||
9:30 | ON THE GO—Linkletter | ||
10:00 | I LOVE LUCY | ||
10:30 | DECEMBER BRIDE | ||
11:00 | LOVE OF LIFE | ||
11:30 | SEARCH FOR TOMORROW—Serial | ||
11:45 | GUIDING LIGHT | ||
AFTERNOON | |||
12:00 | NEWS | ||
12:15 | SOMETHING SPECIAL—Merriman | ||
12:20 | WEATHER, MARKETS—Jim Hill | ||
12:30 | AS THE WORLD TURNS—Serial | ||
1:00 | FOR BETTER OR WORSE—Dr. James A. Peterson | ||
1:30 | HOUSE PARTY | ||
2:00 | RANDY MERRIMAN—Variety | ||
2:30 | VERDICT IS YOURS | ||
3:00 | BRIGHTER DAY | ||
3:15 | SECRET STORM | ||
3:30 | EDGE OF NIGHT | ||
4:00 | AROUND THE TOWN—Haeberle | ||
4:30 | BOZO THE CLOWN—Kids | ||
5:00 | AXEL AND DOG—Clellan Card | ||
5:30 | CLANCY THE COP—Kids | ||
5:55 | SPORTS, NEWS, WEATHER | ||
EVENING | |||
6:15 | NEWS—Edwards | ||
6:30 | HUCKLEBERRY HOUND | ||
7:00 | GRAND JURY—Drama | ||
7:30 | DOBIE GILLIS—Comedy | ||
8:00 | TIGHTROPE! | ||
8:30 | RED SKELTON Guest: Marilyn Maxwell | ||
9:00 | GARY MOORE Guests: Shirley Booth, Larry Blyden, Marquis Chimps | ||
10:00 | NEWS, SPORTS | ||
10:30 | NOT FOR HIRE—Drama | ||
11:00 | WEATHER—Don O’Brien | ||
11:05 | NIGHT COURT—Drama | ||
5 KSTP (NBC) | ||||
MORNING | ||||
6:00 | CONTINENTAL CLASSROOM—Education “Physics” | |||
6:30 | CONTINENTAL CLASSROOM—Education COLOR “Chemistry” | |||
7:00 | TODAY—Garroway Guest: Steve Allen | |||
9:00 | DOUGH RE MI | |||
9:30 | PLAY YOUR HUNCH | |||
10:00 | PRICE IS RIGHT—Contest | |||
10:30 | CONCENTRATION | |||
11:00 | TRUTH OR CONSEQUENES—Game | |||
11:30 | IT COULD BE YOU—Bill Leyden | |||
AFTERNOON | ||||
12:00 | NEWS | |||
12:20 | TREASURE CHEST—Quiz | |||
1:00 | QUEEN FOR A DAY | |||
1:30 | LORETTA YOUNG | |||
2:00 | YOUNG DR. MALONE | |||
2:30 | FROM THESE ROOTS | |||
3:00 | THIN MAN—Mystery | |||
3:30 | YANCY DERRINGER | |||
4:00 | TOPPER—Comedy | |||
4:30 | MY LITTLE MARGIE—Comedy | |||
5:00 | ROBIN HOOD—Adventure | |||
5:45 | NEWS—Huntley, Brinkley | |||
EVENING | ||||
6:00 | NEWS | |||
6:15 | WEATHER—Johnny Morris | |||
6:30 | LARAMIE—Western | |||
7:30 | STARTIME—Drama COLOR “Closed Set” | |||
8:30 | ARTHUR MURRAY COLOR Guests: Farley Granger, Roddy McDowall, George deWitt | |||
9:00 | M SQUAD—Police | |||
9:30 | THIS MAN DAWSON—Police | |||
10:00 | NEWS, SPORTS | |||
10:30 | HIGHWAY PATROL—Police | |||
11:00 | JACK PAAR—Variety Guests: Sol Hurok, Tina Louise, Charley Weaver | |||
12:00 | NEWS | |||
6 WSDM (Duluth) (NBC) | ||||
MORNING | ||||
7:00 | TODAY—Garroway Guest: Steve Allen | |||
9:00 | DOUGH RE MI | |||
9:30 | PLAY YOUR HUNCH | |||
10:00 | PRICE IS RIGHT—Contest | |||
10:30 | CONCENTRATION | |||
11:00 | TRUTH OR CONSEQUENES—Game | |||
11:30 | IT COULD BE YOU—Bill Leyden | |||
AFTERNOON | ||||
12:00 | NEWS | |||
12:05 | LAUREL AND HARDY—Comedy | |||
12:30 | PEOPLE’S CHOICE—Comedy | |||
1:00 | QUEEN FOR A DAY | |||
1:30 | LORETTA YOUNG | |||
2:00 | YOUNG DR. MALONE | |||
2:30 | FROM THESE ROOTS | |||
3:00 | THIN MAN—Mystery | |||
3:30 | YANCY DERRINGER | |||
4:00 | CAPTAIN Q AND POPEYE—Kids | |||
EVENING | ||||
6:00 | NEWS | |||
6:15 | NEWS—Huntley, Brinkley | |||
6:30 | LARAMIE—Western | |||
7:30 | STARTIME—Drama COLOR “Closed Set” | |||
8:30 | ARTHUR MURRAY COLOR Guests: Farley Granger, Roddy McDowall, George deWitt | |||
9:00 | M SQUAD—Police | |||
9:30 | WICHITA TOWN—Western | |||
10:00 | NEWS, SPORTS | |||
10:15 | TO BE ANNOUNCED | |||
10:59 | SPORTS—Bob Junkert | |||
11:00 | JACK PAAR—Variety Guests: Sol Hurok, Tina Louise, Charley Weaver | |||
12:00 | NEWS | |||
6 KMMT (Austin) (ABC) | |||
MORNING | |||
11:00 | THIS IS THE LIFE—Religion | ||
AFTERNOON | |||
12:00 | RESTLESS GUN—Western | ||
12:30 | LOVE THAT BOB!—Comedy | ||
1:00 | ABOUT FACES—Alexander | ||
1:30 | NEWS, WEATHER | ||
1:40 | PIERRE—Variety | ||
2:00 | DAY IN COURT—Drama | ||
2:30 | GAIL STORM—Comedy | ||
3:00 | BEAT THE CLOCK—Games | ||
3:30 | WHO DO YOU TRUST?—Quiz | ||
4:00 | AMERICAN BANDSTAND Guests: Annette Funicello, Johnny Rivers | ||
5:30 | RIN TIN TIN—Adventure | ||
EVENING | |||
6:00 | NEWS | ||
6:15 | NEWS—John Daly | ||
6:30 | SUGARFOOT | ||
7:30 | WYATT EARP—Western | ||
8:00 | RIFLEMAN—Western | ||
8:30 | PHILIP MARLOWE—Mystery | ||
9:00 | ALCOA PRESENTS—Drama | ||
9:30 | KEEP TALKING—Comedy | ||
10:00 | NEWS, SPORTS | ||
10:30 | SHERLOCK HOLMES—Mystery | ||
11:00 | PARIS PRECINCT—Police | ||
11:30 | NEWS BRIEFS | ||
8 WKBT (LaCrosse) (CBS) | |||
MORNING | |||
10:00 | I LOVE LUCY | ||
10:30 | DECEMBER BRIDE | ||
11:00 | LOVE OF LIFE | ||
11:30 | SEARCH FOR TOMORROW—Serial | ||
11:45 | GUIDING LIGHT | ||
AFTERNOON | |||
12:00 | COLONEL FLACK—Comedy | ||
12:30 | AS THE WORLD TURNS—Serial | ||
1:00 | FOR BETTER OR WORSE—Dr. James A. Peterson | ||
1:30 | HOUSE PARTY | ||
2:00 | MILLIONAIRE | ||
2:30 | VERDICT IS YOURS | ||
3:00 | BRIGHTER DAY | ||
3:15 | SECRET STORM | ||
3:30 | EDGE OF NIGHT | ||
4:00 | TV HOUR OF STARS—Drama | ||
5:00 | THIS IS ALICE—Comedy | ||
5:30 | RIN TIN TIN—Adventure | ||
EVENING | |||
6:00 | FARM DIGEST | ||
6:05 | SPORTS, NEWS, WEATHER | ||
6:15 | NEWS—Edwards | ||
6:30 | COULEE CROSSROADS | ||
7:00 | RIFLEMAN—Western | ||
7:30 | WYATT EARP—Western | ||
8:00 | TIGHTROPE! | ||
8:30 | PETER GUNN—Mystery | ||
9:00 | GARY MOORE Guests: Shirley Booth, Larry Blyden, Marquis Chimps | ||
10:00 | NEWS, SPORTS | ||
10:20 | SPORTS ALBUM | ||
10:30 | BAT MASTERSON—Western | ||
11:00 | CHARLEY WEAVER—Comedy | ||
11:30 | DR. CHRISTIAN—Drama | ||
9 KMSP (Ind.) | |||
MORNING | |||
10:30 | CHAPEL OF THE AIR—Religion | ||
10:45 | MOVIE—Drama “Strange Conquest” (1946) | ||
11:45 | NEWSBEAT—Lee, Parker | ||
AFTERNOON | |||
12:00 | KARTOONTIME—Pegge and Dave | ||
12:30 | CHUCK CARSON—Variety | ||
1:00 | COMBAT SERGEANT—Drama | ||
1:30 | BEULAH SHOW—Comedy | ||
2:00 | MOVIE—Musical Comedy “If You Knew Susie” (1948) | ||
4:00 | IT’S A GREAT LIFE—Comedy | ||
4:30 | I MARRIED JOAN—Comedy | ||
5:00 | SUSIE—Comedy | ||
5:30 | OUR MISS BROOKS—Comedy | ||
EVENING | |||
6:00 | LOONEY TUNERS CLUB—Lee | ||
6:30 | MY HERO—Comedy | ||
7:00 | SPORTS HOT SEAT—O’Neil | ||
7:30 | BISHOP SHEEN—Religion “How to Compare World Religions” | ||
8:00 | WEST POINT—Drama | ||
8:30 | MEN OF ANNAPOLIS—Drama | ||
9:00 | HONEYMOONERS—Gleason | ||
9:30 | KEEP TALKING—Comedy | ||
10:00 | MOVIE—Drama “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” (1941) | ||
11:45 | NEWSBEAT—Lee, Parker | ||
12:00 | TV READER’S DIGEST | ||
10 KROC (Rochester) (NBC) | |||
MORNING | |||
6:00 | CONTINENTAL CLASSROOM—Education “Physics” | ||
6:30 | CONTINENTAL CLASSROOM—Education C “Chemistry” | ||
7:00 | TODAY—Garroway Guest: Steve Allen | ||
9:00 | DOUGH RE MI | ||
9:30 | PLAY YOUR HUNCH | ||
10:00 | PRICE IS RIGHT—Contest C | ||
10:30 | CONCENTRATION | ||
11:00 | TRUTH OR CONSEQUENES—Game | ||
11:30 | IT COULD BE YOU—Bill Leyden C | ||
AFTERNOON | |||
12:00 | NEWS | ||
12:15 | CHANNEL 10 CALLING | ||
12:30 | CHRISTOPHERS—Religion | ||
1:00 | QUEEN FOR A DAY | ||
1:30 | LORETTA YOUNG | ||
2:00 | YOUNG DR. MALONE | ||
2:30 | FROM THESE ROOTS | ||
3:00 | THIN MAN—Mystery | ||
3:30 | YANCY DERRINGER | ||
4:00 | WHAT’S NEW?—Don Perry | ||
4:30 | CIRCUS BOY—Adventure | ||
5:00 | THREE STOOGES—Comedy | ||
5:30 | QUICK DRAW McGRAW | ||
MORNING | |||
6:00 | NEWS | ||
6:15 | NEWS—Huntley, Brinkley | ||
6:30 | LARAMIE—Western | ||
7:30 | STARTIME—Drama C “Closed Set” | ||
8:30 | ARTHUR MURRAY C Guests: Farley Granger, Roddy McDowall, George deWitt | ||
9:00 | M SQUAD—Police | ||
9:30 | YOU ARE THERE—History | ||
10:00 | NEWS, SPORTS | ||
10:30 | JACK PAAR—Variety Guests: Sol Hurok, Tina Louise, Charley Weaver | ||
11 WTCN (ABC) | |||
MORNING | |||
8:30 | FILM FEATURE | ||
8:55 | FARM NEWS—Stuart A. Lindman | ||
9:00 | ROMPER ROOM—Miss June | ||
9:45 | SHAPE UP—Louraine Larson | ||
10:15 | MOVIE—Drama “Jezebel” (1938) | ||
11:45 | NEWS, WEATHER | ||
AFTERNOON | |||
12:00 | RESTLESS GUN—Western | ||
12:30 | LOVE THAT BOB!—Comedy | ||
1:00 | ABOUT FACES—Alexander | ||
1:30 | BURNS AND ALLEN | ||
2:00 | DAY IN COURT—Drama | ||
2:30 | GAIL STORM—Comedy | ||
3:00 | BEAT THE CLOCK—Games | ||
3:30 | WHO DO YOU TRUST?—Quiz | ||
4:00 | AMERICAN BANDSTAND Guests: Annette Funicello, Johnny Rivers | ||
5:00 | CASEY JONES—Kids | ||
5:30 | RIN TIN TIN—Adventure | ||
EVENING | |||
6:00 | UNION PACIFIC—Adventure | ||
6:30 | SUGARFOOT | ||
7:30 | WYATT EARP—Western | ||
8:00 | RIFLEMAN—Western | ||
8:30 | PHILIP MARLOWE—Mystery | ||
9:00 | ALCOA PRESENTS—Drama | ||
9:30 | DENNIS O’KEEFE—Comedy | ||
10:00 | NEWS, SPORTS | ||
10:20 | MOVIE—Drama “Beyond the Forest” (1949) | ||
11:25 | FINAL NEWS ROUNDUP | ||
11:30 | STAR PERFORMANCE—Drama | ||
13 WEAU (Eau Claire) (NBC) | |||
MORNING | |||
6:00 | CONTINENTAL CLASSROOM—Education “Physics” | ||
6:30 | CONTINENTAL CLASSROOM—Education C “Chemistry” | ||
7:00 | TODAY—Garroway Guest: Steve Allen | ||
9:00 | DOUGH RE MI | ||
9:30 | PLAY YOUR HUNCH | ||
10:00 | PRICE IS RIGHT—Contest | ||
10:30 | CONCENTRATION | ||
11:00 | TRUTH OR CONSEQUENES—Game | ||
11:30 | IT COULD BE YOU—Bill Leyden | ||
AFTERNOON | |||
12:00 | FILM FEATURE | ||
12:30 | NEWS, MARKETS | ||
12:45 | FILM SHORT | ||
1:00 | QUEEN FOR A DAY | ||
1:30 | LORETTA YOUNG | ||
2:00 | YOUNG DR. MALONE | ||
2:30 | FROM THESE ROOTS | ||
3:00 | THIN MAN—Mystery | ||
3:30 | YANCY DERRINGER | ||
4:00 | CHRISTOPHERS—Religion | ||
4:30 | CARTOONS—Kids | ||
5:00 | SUPERMAN—Adventure | ||
5:30 | CARTONS—Kids | ||
5:45 | NEWS—Huntley, Brinkley | ||
EVENING | |||
6:00 | OUR LAND, OUR LIVING | ||
6:10 | NEWS, WEATHER | ||
6:30 | LARAMIE—Western | ||
7:30 | STARTIME—Drama COLOR “Closed Set” | ||
8:30 | ARTHUR MURRAY COLOR Guests: Farley Granger, Roddy McDowall, George deWitt | ||
9:00 | M SQUAD—Police | ||
9:30 | TO BE ANNOUNCED | ||
10:00 | NEWS, SPORTS | ||
10:30 | OFFICIAL DETECTIVE—Sloane | ||
11:00 | MOVIE—Comedy “Arizona Wildcat” (1938) | ||
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Voices carry
by Jodie Peeler
A couple years ago as I was starting to get serious about the Dave Garroway book project, a friend gave me a telephone number and an e-mail address. "Get in touch with this man," my friend said. "Frank worked with Garroway." It took a little courage for me to give him a call (the telephone is not my favorite thing in the world), but the result was more than worth it. Not only was Frank on one of the camera crews for the very first Today program in January 1952, but he worked with Garroway on other television programs, and decades later his memories remained vivid.
During that conversation Frank, who is one of the kindest people you could ever meet, invited me to his home in Florida. A couple weeks later I drove down to see him. What I'd planned as a two-hour interview went even longer, as story after story of days gone by transfixed me. Frank told me not only about working with Garroway, but about working with Wally Cox and Bob Hope and Steve Allen and Johnny Carson and so many others, a couple of encounters with Thomas E. Dewey during his 1948 run for the Presidency, a great story about a Robert Montgomery Presents that went slightly awry. He told stories of General Sarnoff and Pat Weaver and Mike Dann and others from the executive suites. I had brought my own list of questions, but the more I listened the more I felt Frank's recollections were by far more interesting, so I kept listening, taking notes as I could (I didn't record the interview, and will spend the rest of my days wishing I had). It was an incredible experience to hear these stories from someone who was there, who interacted with so many people whose names are legendary.
Like so many who had a hand in turning television into a truly national medium, Frank was a World War II veteran. He had worked with electronics during his time in the Army Air Force, joined RCA after the war, and ended up in a group of 60 that RCA assembled to get television going in the postwar era. For so much of what we consider iconic about the early days of television, Frank was there: working on Howdy Doody, the first days of Today, the Milton Berle show, the dawn of color. After he left RCA, Frank went on to other ventures in television, and even in his 90s was helping pioneer new broadcast technologies. His love for the medium, and his pride in being part of it, was unmistakable.
But time is now the enemy. As the members of the Greatest Generation leave us, we are losing countless stories. For the military historian, it's the little stories of units and battles that add up to the big story of winning a war. And for the media historian, it's the stories of carving a medium out of the wilderness, spreading it across the country, and giving it color. Now we're also losing the next generation, as the Baby Boomers who built on that foundation are passing away - those who were there as cable and satellite changed the landscape, who formed sports broadcasting into what we now take for granted, who worked for the networks when the networks still were giants. Their stories matter, too, and we're just as surely losing them, as the retirees associations' websites chronicle on a sadly routine basis.
There have been efforts to record stories from these pioneers. Jeff Kisseloff interviewed dozens upon dozens of people who played roles in television history; from those interviews he formed his oral history The Box, essential reading for anybody who loves the medium. The Archive of American Television (www.emmytvlegends.org) has recorded lengthy interviews with hundreds of broadcasting figures, everyone from legendary performers and respected executives to producers, directors, writers, stage managers, technical directors, set designers...you name it. And, better still, they're available online for anyone to watch. They're not only essential sources for authors and historians, but also great viewing for their own sake.
But for every one of those interviews, there's a broadcast industry veteran whose stories have been forever lost because no one got to them in time. Or no one knew just what that person did, or appreciated what it meant, and never asked them. Or sometimes that person didn't think there was anything special about what they did. The problem is, it really was special, and those stories matter too. They are a glimpse not only into a time gone by, but into how the future began.
Some of these stories will be captured by the professional historians, but not all of them will. We can take this as something to be mourned – or, perhaps, we can take it as a challenge. Those of us who are passionate about television history probably know at least one person who's worked in the business at some level. It doesn't have to be someone who worked for the networks. Even the stories at the local level matter. The stories from the kids' show host, the local anchor, the camera operator, the director, the master control operator are just as significant a contribution to our medium's history. And more often than not, there are great stories to be had - of big stories that had to be covered, of moments that went hilariously wrong, of unexpected grace, of brushes with greatness. Those stories matter, and they need to be saved, too. So why don't we each do our part, and help save them?
The morning I spent with Frank is still one of my favorite things from this research project, and every time I look over my notes I still find things that amaze and amuse. I remember how his eyes lit up as he recounted those moments from yesteryear. The memories Frank shared will add detail and warmth to the Garroway book, and my experience with him has me looking forward to all the interviews yet to come for this project, and all the stories I’ll get to hear. And yet I wonder whose now-stilled voices could have contributed to this project if only I'd started even a few years earlier. Whose now-lost stories could have added even more detail and insight? And what other great stories from broadcasting’s rich history are still out there, waiting to be preserved? TV
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Around the dial
Sadly, another week - another obituary of a classic entertainment legend. This week it's Vic Damone, who died on Sunday at age 89. In addition to having his own summer replacement show, Damone was a frequent guest on all kinds of variety shows, as well as musical comedies such as The Dangerous Christmas of Red Riding Hood and The Stingiest Man in Town, to name just two. A Shroud of Thoughts has the look back. He also remembers John Gavin, the former actor and U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, who died Friday at 86, who will be a familiar face to classic TV and movie fans. And lest we forget, Marty Allen, the "Hello dere" half of Allen and Rossi and the onetime "Darling of Daytime TV" died on Monday at the ripe old age of 95.
At Garroway at Large, our guest blogger Jodie returns to her usual haunts with an ad for Dave's Place, the unsuccessful 1975 radio comeback effort by Dave Garroway.
The Broadcasting Archives at the University of Maryland has a terrific-looking full-color copy of NBC's 1967 full-color schedule.
Cult TV Blog looks at the Doctor Who adventure "The Time Machine,"starring the irrepressible Tom Baker. I remember, when last I saw this story some years ago, having an opinion not much different from that of John's, who said, "it is probably best avoided by people who may be overly critical of the quality of the TV they watch."
Eventually Supertrain is back, with episode 39! In this installment, Dan and the gang are back to look at The Green Hornet, Ellery Queen Mysteries, and Garth Marenghi's Darkplace. Be sure to give a listen to one of my favorite podcasts, and I don't say that just because I'll be on a future episode or two...
Another returnee is Television's New Frontier: the 1960s, and the new show on the block is the 1961 animated Dick Tracy Show, featuring a host of well-known voices. I remember this show growing up; I thought those two-way wrist radios were the coolest thing! Little could we imagine what the iPhone would be capable of.
At bare-bones e-zine, Jack brings us to part 13 of the latest Hitchcock Project on Francis and Marian Cockrell - season three's "Miss Bracegirdle Does Her Duty." It's another episode with a great punchline; let Jack explain why!
And at The Twilight Zone Vortex, part 7 of Jordan's review of The Twilight Zone Magazineincludes pieces by Theodore Sturgeon, Gahan Wilson and George Clayton Johnson, among others.
Pretty good week, if you ask me. We'll have to do our best to keep up with it. Tomorrow we'll look at an unusual TV Guide - and remember, the Classic TV Villains piece is on Monday, so TV listings are moved to Wednesday for this week only. TV
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This week in TV Guide: February 19, 1966
Our story opens as the issue opens. At first everything is normal - but then, after the New York Teletype on page 4, the next page in the issue is - page 11. So that's why the story on Fred Friendly starts in the middle. Page 12 is there, so we're back on firm ground, and then - the programming section. What happened to pages 13 through 18? A close inspection of the binding and the pages on the other side of the local section reveals some tears right along the fold, which leads me to believe that the original owner of this issue removed some of the contents. It's part of the risk you run when you purchase issues from antique stores; you never really know what you're getting. Perhaps there were some coupons or other ads that someone really wanted.
That's not the end of it, though. Every day, from Monday through Friday, the noontime programs have been cut out, leaving a empty spot where once there lived a television show. It has to be the same program being cut out each day; that's the only explanation, since it comes at the same time each day. The cumulative effect is somewhat like the letters soldiers sent home during the war, after they'd passed through the censor's office. When you combine that with the checkmarks placed next to each one of the movies in the issue, it's clear that what we have here is a TV Guide that's been lived in. In a way it's kind of charming - this is no museum exhibit, no reproduction of an old magazine. This is the real thing, used by a family for the purpose it was intended. It's a slice of real life, and compared to that, any minor annoyance by an amateur historian is small potatoes.
There are some practical aspects to this, of course. If you want a thorough analysis of that Fred Friendly piece, talking about how he's fought for his baby, CBS Reports, you're probably not going to get it. We do know, though, that Friendly is very proud of his CBS news division, over which he presides as president. He's adamant on how the division should remain above the cheap and sensational; "CBS Reports cares little for the show-business world." He is also scornful of attempts to make the news department a profit center rather than a servant of the public. "There's a limit to just how much entertainment can be created. You can be overentertained, but never overinformed." Despite ratings that indicate popular series such as, well, Bonanza, outperform CBS Reports by five-to-one, Friendly is adamant. "The fact remains that shooting a man up in a rocket is more exciting than shooting a cowboy on Bonanza and seeing catsup seep out of his shirt." Even so, it's more important for the news to be educational than entertaining. "We must have the right to be dull at times."
It is ironic, then, that the "For the Record" section, which for the record is intact, makes mention of CBS's new programming chief, John Schneider, vetoing Friendly's plans to televise the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's live hearings on Vietnam, preferring instead to show The Lucy Show. This incident will lead to Friendly's resignation from CBS (on February 15, before this issue had even hit the newsstands); it is, Friendly said, "the most important act of my life ... a matter of conscience." As networks begin to demand more from their news divisions, namely ratings to attract advertising dollars, Friendly condemns what he sees as the bleak future of television: being "twisted into an electronic carnival, in which showbiz wizardry and values obscure the line between entertainment and news."
So in fact, I suspect this story from "For the Record," and its follow-up, is probably a lot more important than whatever it is we're missing from the rest of the issue. Maybe this won't be such a bad edition to look at after all.
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 are sitirist Allan Sherman; the rock 'n' rolling Dave Clark Five and the Supremes; Menasha Skulnik, currently starring in Broadway's "The Zulu and the Sayda"; comics Stiller and Meara; and Ugu Garrido, who juggles with his feet. Julie Andrews is seen in a clip from the film "The Sound of Music."
Palace: Host Bing Crosby introduces singers Rosemary Clooney and Bing's sone Gary; Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy; comedian Henny Youngman; dancer Hugh Lambert; comedy xylophonist Roger Ray; and the Fiji military band.
This is a pretty straightforward week. Palace starts out with an advantage due to Bing as host, but throw in Rosie, Bergen and McCarthy, and Henny Youngman, and that produces a winning formula every time. This week the Palace comes out on top.
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. I love it when Cleveland Amory lets us know what he thinks right away, and that's the case this week with The Wackiest Ship in the Army. "It's a tough title to live down to, but this show does it," he writes in the opening paragraph, and it's all downhill from there.
Wackiest Ship is set it World War II, "[b]ased on the television thesis that wars are a scream - as long as they are least one war before the one we're in now," and takes place on the USS Kiwi, a two-masted schooner used in espionage missions. The series, as you might gather from the title, purports to be a comedy - at least from what Amory "learned from survivors of its first viewing," and then "developed" into "a strange mixture of low comedy, high adventure and low dresses." (So far I'm already holding my sides in anticipation.) As for the stars of this adventure, aside from Jack Warden and Rudi Solari, who have their moments, "the general cailber of the acting and directing is so near sea level that we can only aedvise you to keep your eyes on the Kiwi," which is not only the best-looking, but the best-acting, thing in this series.
Does this series drag? I can't say for myself; it's probably been over fifty years since I saw an episode (but then, there were only 29 of them to see), but Cleve says that he saw an episode in October "which we will swear to you is still going on." Sadly, that looks to be the only way Wackiest Ship will stay on the air.
Majors is young, good looking, and ambitious. He also confident - very confident,saying that after a few years on TV, he'd like to get into movies. "Seven years from now, if everything works, I'll be getting an Academy Award nomination." He was not only compared to Dean, but some saw in him a stance reminiscent of Paul Newman. Barbara Stanwyck, star of The Big Valley, found his magnetism "irrestible." He's seen as the key component to attracting young viewers to the show, and the network isn't shy about promoting him that way. It rubs some of his co-stars the wrong way, actors like Richard Long and Peter Breck who've already starred in their own series.
It's not all his fault though, says one of the show's producers, Jules Levy. There are, after all, five other stars on the program, making it harder for any one of them other than Stanwyck to break out. He's also been upstaged by a hot young prospect from another ABC show, The Long Hot Summer's Roy Thinnes. Levy's still bullish on Majors though, despite associate producer Lou Morheim's statement that "He's not exactly the rage of the network.""This kid," says Levy, "jumps out of the screen at you. One day people will come to discover it."
It's one of those predictions, and we see them from time to time in these pages, that actually comes true. Lee Majors goes on to become a very big star for ABC, first on The Six Million Dollar Man and then on The Fall Guy. He marries a woman who goes on to become one of the most desirable in Hollywood, Farrah Fawcett. To this day he continues to guest star in various series and appear in television movies. And although he never quite reaches the heights of James Dean and never gets those Oscar nominatons, his career has by far outlasted Dean's entire life. All in all, I suspect Lee Majors would be pretty satisfied with that.
Let's see if we can find anything interesting in the programming week - at least in the remaining pages.
Tuesday's headliner is the season finale to Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts (6:30 p.m,, CBS) in which he presents an internationl group of teenage pianists and young conductors. None of the names on the show look the least bit familiar, with the exception of the 25-year-old conductor Edo de Waart, who 20 years later will become the music director of none other that our very own Minnesota Orchestra. I've seen him in person several times; he's very, very good.
Part two of "Michaelangelo: The Last Giant" returns on NBC Wednesday night at 8:00 p.m.; part one was, as I recall, back in November, but hey - he's not going anywhere, and neither are his magnificent works. Tonight's show looks at the last 50 years of Michaelangelo's life, including his glorious fresco in the Sistine Chapel. José Ferrer is the narrator, and Peter Ustinov reads excerpts from the artist's letters. On The Dick Van Dyke Show (8:30, CBS), Sally (Rose Marie) takes a page from The Dating Game, deciding she's going on a TV show to advertise for a husband. Maybe she was really thinking about The Bachelorette. And movie star Dolores Del Rio makes a rare television appearance on I Spy (9:00, NBC); her fellow guest star is the classic movie villain Victor Jory.*
*Fun fact: according to the always-reliable Wikipedia, Victor Jory was the narrator of the classic children's film "Tubby the Tuba."
On Thursday, David Wayne takes his place in the Batman guest villian hall of fame, playing the Mad Hatter (6:30 p.m., ABC). He's assisted by Diane McBain. On CBS's Thursday Night Movie, it's the movie that Jimmy Stewart always said was his favorite: "Harvey," the story of Elwood P. Dowd and his invisible rabbit friend.
Friday gives us one of those Sammy Davis Jr. episodes in which Sammy actually appears (7:30 p.m., NBC); his guests are Juliet Prowse, George Maharis, Barbara McNair, Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich, and Bob Melvin. Pretty good lineup, if you ask me. At 9:00 p.m., CBS presents one of those news specials of which Fred Friendly is so proud, "16 in Webster Govers." Says host Charles Kuralt in "For the Record,""I thought we would be doing a film about dissatisfaction and rebellion among teen-agers. Instead we found. . . a drive for financial success, an obsession about going along with the 'in' crowd, a lack of awareness of the world about them." Interesting how quickly things change.
Finally, we've seen how The Beverly Hillbillies can explain your salvation; now we're going to see how it can also explain your appetite - satisfying it, that is. From the upcoming Granny's Hillbilly Cookbook by series co-star Irene Ryan and Cathey Pinckney, we present a sample recipe:
As Julia Child would say, "Bon Appétit!"
Before we wrap up, a reminder that the Classic TV Blog Association blogathon on Classic TV Villains begins tomorrow. My entry is on Monday, which means the TV listings from this issue will be postponed to Wednesday. Be here - Aloha. TV
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The cop you loved to hate
1.The viewers don't root for you;Based on those standards, Lieutenant Philip Gerard makes the perfect villain.
2.The show's characters actively try to stop you from succeeding; and
3.You’re attacked in real life for what you do on the screen.
Gerard (brilliantly played by Barry Morse) is, as you all probably know, the police detective who serves as the nemesis of Dr. Richard Kimble in The Fugitive. You can’t really mention one without the other; they’re almost a team. In fact, we’re introduced to the two men at virtually the same time, sharing opposite ends of a pair of handcuffs while riding a train bound for the death house in Indiana. Kimble has been convicted (wrongly, we are assured) of murdering his wife; Gerard is the detective who investigated the case and is escorting Kimble to prison. When the train derails, Kimble escapes, leaving Gerard holding the bag, or the broken handcuffs, as it were. From that moment to the end of the series, Gerard has but one mission, which is his obsession: to recapture Kimble and bring him in so his death sentence can be carried out.
Series creator Roy Huggins always said that Gerard was based on the character of Inspector Javert, the relentless antagonist in Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables. It was an obvious idea, really; every chase story requires a pursuer as well as a pursued, and in the intimate world of television, where familiarity means everything, it made far more sense for Kimble to have a semi-regular pursuer than to be on the run from an impersonal authority figure each week. It served to focus the threat in the person of a single man whose individuality provided the face for the long arm of the law.
In fact, Gerard only appears in 37 of the show’s 120 episodes, but it is the threat of Gerard (he's seen in the opening credits of every episode) that makes him so threatening. Even in those episodes where he doesn't appear, his presence hangs over Kimble like the Sword of Damocles; he's the bogeyman hiding under the bed, the monster in the closet, the mysterious something hiding in the shadows of those dark, rain-slick streets.
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| The three principals: (l to r) The One-Armed Man, Dr Richard Kimble, Lt. Philip Gerard |
Beginning with the very first episode broadcast, "Fear in a Desert City," Gerard finds out just how difficult recapturing Kimble is going to be. Appearing at the end of the episode and (as usual) just missing Kimble, he tries to convince Monica Welles (the luminous Vera Miles), a woman whom Kimble had befriended, to tell him where the fugitive had gone. "He's innocent!" Wells tells him. "The law says guilty," Gerard says. Welles' retort: "The law isn't perfect." Welles replies.*
*A sentiment similar to that of Earl Holliman's marshal in "The Good Guys and the Bad Guys," who remarks, "most of the people who make the laws aren't exactly perfect. So I figure that the laws can't be too perfect, and maybe every once in a while they deserve to get broken." That kind of attitude drives Gerard crazy.
Ah, yes - as Charles Dickens wrote, "If the law supposes that, the law is an ass." At this point, Gerard - as relentless as Schwarzenegger's Terminator - must have been receiving some kind of "Unable to Compute" error message. Time and time again over the four seasons of the series, he would be stymied by people whom he felt had been taken in by Kimble. Women attracted to him as if he were a lost kitten needing rescue, or drawn to his smoldering, subdued charisma; men returning favor for favor after witnessing Kimble's loyalty or benefiting from his help; children who saw in him a fellow lost soul, a grown-up who understood them in ways others didn't. (Kimble was, after all, a pediatrician.) It didn't help that Gerard often came off as prickly, self-righteous, or arrogant (which he often was) - in a competition for the hearts and minds of the public, there was never any doubt about who would come off second-best.
On occasion, as in episodes like "Corner of Hell" and "The Evil Men Do," Kimble's allies might even try to do Gerard harm in order to facilitate Kimble's escape, at which the good doctor himself would have to step in on Gerard's behalf. There are even separate episodes where Kimble befriends Gerard's wife and son. Do you think Gerard undergoes any kind of conversion, begins to have even the slightest doubts or second thoughts about continuing his chase of a supposedly guilty murderer who intervenes to save his pursuer's life? Even just to give him, say, a 30 minute head start? Of course not! "I suppose Gerard would say that personal relationships, as between himself and Kimble, are not affected by the accidental happenings which befall him," Morse said. "He would simply say, 'Whether or not this man saved my life doesn't affect my duty to deliver him to the legal system which employs me and which has convicted him. Whether he has been wrongly convicted or not is not my business." Maddening, yes, but in its own way quite admirable.*
*You wonder if Kimble subconsciously needs Gerard to believe in and accept his innocence in order to feel fully vindicated? If Gerard were not around - would it be quite as satisfying?
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| The passage of time: Gerard now wears glasses. |
Nonetheless, even these glimpses of humanity don't disguise the fact that Gerard can be, and often is, something of a jerk. In one of the greatest Fugitive episodes, the two-part "Landscape with Running Figure," his obsession with Kimble causes his wife (played by Barbara Rush) to leave him*; she poignantly remarks at one point, “Life without Kimble…what a pretty dream that used to be.” In "Nemesis," it's Gerard's son (Kurt Russell), hiding in a car which Kimble steals, who helps the fugitive make his escape. (Need I mention that Philip Gerard Jr. was along because he and his dad were supposed to be on a fishing trip?) In a memorable exchange, young Gerard refuses to tell his dad which way Kimble went. "He says he didn't do it!" Junior says, to which the lieutenant replies, "Of course he says that!" But then his son asks, point blank, "And if he's right? If he's right?" Gerard, after a long pause, can only say, "Well, it means that I'm wrong...doesn't it, Phil?"
*So obsessed with your job that you drive away Barbara Rush? How dumb is that?
In the end, Gerard has one job, to bring Kimble back to face his punishment. It's what makes Gerard's turn in the final episode that much more remarkable. If you've not seen it, I won't spoil it for you, but suffice it to say that it can only be the knowledge of Kimble that Gerard had gained over the four years of the chase that allowed him to finally make the leap. And no matter how much he might try to explain it away by logic, it also means he had to admit to himself that he was wrong.
Actors often talk about how they enjoy playing villains; they're more interesting, there's more to the role. David Janssen was brilliant as Kimble, but without Barry Morse as Gerard, The Fugitive wouldn't be nearly as compelling as it is. It proves that every hero needs a villain, and Philip Gerard, "the most hated man in America," one of television's most complex and unlikely villains, was more than up to the job. TV
The Classic TV Villain Blogathon is hosted by the Classic TV Blog Association. Please check out the rest of the wonderful villains by clicking here.
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What's on TV? Saturday, February 19, 1966
I don't know if, in all this chaos, I've taken the time to mention that this week's issue is from Iowa, including listings for the Quad Cities in Illinois. They're good listings - enjoy them!
2 WMT (CEDAR RAPIDS) (CBS) | ||
Morning | ||
7:00 | CAPTAIN KANGAROO | |
8:00 | HECKLE AND JECKLE—Cartoons | |
8:30 | TENNESSEE TUXEDO—Cartoons | |
9:00 | MIGHTY MOUSE | |
9:30 | LINUS | |
10:00 | TOM AND JERRY—Cartoons | |
10:30 | QUICK DRAW McGRAW—Cartoons | |
11:00 | SKY KING—Adventure | |
11:30 | LASSIE—Drama | |
Afternoon | ||
12:00 | MY FRIEND FLICKA—Drama | |
12:30 | TO BE ANNOUNCED | |
12:45 | FILM FEATURE | |
1:00 | NATIONAL BIBLE COURSE | |
1:15 | COLLEGE BASKETBALL—Tulsa vs. Cincinnati | |
3:00 | BIG TEN BASKETBALL—Iowa vs. Ohio State | |
5:00 | FAMILY THEATER—Drama | |
5:30 | COMMERCIAL—Art, Music | |
5:45 | LEO GRECO—Music | |
Evening | ||
6:00 | NEWS | |
6:30 | JACKIE GLEASON | |
7:30 | SECRET AGENT | |
8:30 | LONER—Western | |
9:00 | GUNSMOKE | |
10:00 | NEWS | |
10:30 | MOVIE—Drama “Darby’s Rangers” (1958) | |
3 KTVO (OTTUMWA)(CBS, NBC) | ||
Morning | ||
7:00 | CAPTAIN KANGAROO | |
8:00 | HECKLE AND JECKLE—Cartoons | |
8:30 | TENNESSEE TUXEDO—Cartoons | |
9:00 | MIGHTY MOUSE | |
9:30 | LINUS | |
10:00 | TOM AND JERRY—Cartoons | |
10:30 | QUICK DRAW McGRAW—Cartoons | |
11:00 | BUGS BUNNY—Cartoons | |
11:30 | LASSIE—Drama | |
Afternoon | ||
12:00 | MY FRIEND FLICKA—Drama | |
12:30 | CBS GOLF CLASSIC Weaver/Aaron vs. Nichols/Floyd | |
1:30 | PRO BOWLERS TOUR | |
3:00 | BIG TEN BASKETBALL—Iowa vs. Ohio State | |
5:00 | GIDGET—Comedy | |
5:30 | NEWS—Mudd | |
Evening | ||
6:00 | POLKA PARADE | |
6:30 | JACKIE GLEASON | |
7:30 | LAWRENCE WELK | |
8:30 | LONER—Western | |
9:00 | GUNSMOKE | |
10:00 | NEWS | |
10:15 | COMMERCIAL—Chinchilla | |
10:30 | TRIALS OF O’BRIEN—Drama | |
11:30 | NEWS—Hal Oyler | |
11:40 | MOVIE—Western “South of St. Louis” (1949) | |
4 WHBF (ROCK ISLAND)(CBS) | ||
Morning | ||
7:00 | CAPTAIN KANGAROO | |
8:00 | HECKLE AND JECKLE—Cartoons | |
8:30 | TENNESSEE TUXEDO—Cartoons | |
9:00 | MIGHTY MOUSE | |
9:30 | LINUS | |
10:00 | TOM AND JERRY—Cartoons | |
10:30 | QUICK DRAW McGRAW—Cartoons | |
11:00 | SKY KING—Adventure | |
11:30 | LASSIE—Drama | |
Afternoon | ||
12:00 | MY FRIEND FLICKA—Drama | |
12:30 | BEST OF GROUCHO—Quiz | |
2:00 | CBS GOLF CLASSIC Snead/Dickinson vs. Dan/Dick Sikes | |
3:00 | BIG TEN BASKETBALL—Iowa vs. Ohio State | |
4:30 | HORSE RACE—Hialeah COLOR Widener Handicap | |
5:00 | RACKET SQUAD—Police | |
5:30 | NEWS—Mudd | |
Evening | ||
6:00 | POLKA PARADE | |
6:30 | JACKIE GLEASON | |
7:30 | SECRET AGENT | |
8:30 | LONER—Western | |
9:00 | GUNSMOKE | |
10:00 | NEWS | |
10:15 | THE SAINT—Mystery | |
11:15 | MOVIE—Science Fiction “Earth vs. the Flying Saucers” (1956) | |
5 WOI (AMES) (CBS) | ||
Morning | ||
7:30 | HOPPITY HOOPER—Cartoons | |
8:00 | SUPERMAN—Adventure | |
8:30 | ROBIN HOOD—Adventure | |
9:00 | PORKY PIG | |
9:30 | BEATLES—Cartoons | |
10:00 | CASPER | |
10:30 | MAGILLA GORILLA—Cartoons | |
11:00 | BUGS BUNNY—Cartoons | |
11:30 | MILTON THE MONSTER—Cartoons | |
Afternoon | ||
12:00 | FARM AND MARKET DIGEST | |
12:30 | AMERICAN BANDSTAND—Variety Guests: The Mamas and the Papas, Bob Lind | |
1:30 | OZZIE AND HARRIET—Comedy | |
2:00 | FILM SHORT | |
2:15 | COMMERCIAL—Magazine | |
2:30 | PRO BOWLERS TOUR | |
4:00 | WORLD OF SPORTS COLOR Track and Field | |
5:30 | BASKETBALL REVIEW | |
5:45 | NEWS, WEATHER | |
Evening | ||
6:00 | HONEY WEST—Mystery | |
6:30 | POLKA PARADE—Hollywood | |
7:00 | DONNA REED—Comedy | |
7:30 | LAWRENCE WELK | |
8:30 | HOLLYWOOD PALACE COLOR Host: Bing Crosby. Guests: Rosemary Clooney, Gary Crosby, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, Henny Youngman, Hugh Lambert, Roger Ray, Fiji military band | |
9:30 | MOVIE—Adventure COLOR “Terror of the Steppe” (Italian; 1963) | |
11:00 | MOVIE—Mystery “The Hand” (English; 1960) Time approximate | |
6 WOC (DAVENPORT) (NBC) | ||
Morning | ||
7:30 | POPEYE—Cartoons | |
8:00 | JETSONS—Cartoon | |
8:30 | ATOM ANT | |
9:00 | SECRET SQUIRREL—Cartoons | |
9:30 | UNDERDOG—Cartoons | |
10:00 | TOP CAT—Cartoon | |
10:30 | FURY—Drama | |
11:00 | FIRST LOOK | |
11:30 | EXPLORING | |
Afternoon | ||
12:00 | WORLD IN COLOR | |
12:30 | BIG PICTURE—Army | |
1:00 | MOVIE—Double Feature 1. “Stranglehold” (Drama; 1962) 2. “The Fearmakers” (Drama; 1958) | |
4:00 | SHELL’S WONDERFUL WORLD OF GOLF COLOR Nichols vs. Sota | |
5:00 | GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY—Parker | |
5:30 | WYATT EARP—Western | |
Evening | ||
6:00 | ZANE GREY—Western | |
6:30 | FLIPPER—Drama | |
7:00 | I DREAM OF JEANNIE—Comedy | |
7:30 | GET SMART C | |
8:00 | MOVIE—Musical Saturday Night at the Movies:“Meet Me in Las Vegas” (1956) | |
10:15 | NEWS, WEATHER, SPORTS | |
10:35 | MOVIE—Drama “Run Silent, Run Deep” (1958) News follows the movie | |
7 KWWL (WATERLOO) (NBC) | ||
Morning | ||
7:30 | THIS IS THE ANSWER—Religion | |
8:00 | JETSONS—Cartoon | |
8:30 | ATOM ANT | |
9:00 | SECRET SQUIRREL—Cartoons | |
9:30 | UNDERDOG—Cartoons | |
10:00 | TOP CAT—Cartoon | |
10:30 | FURY—Drama | |
11:00 | FIRST LOOK | |
11:30 | EXPLORING | |
Afternoon | ||
12:00 | ACTION A GO-GO—Music | |
12:30 | SERGEANT PRESTON | |
1:00 | CHAMPIONSHIP BOWLING | |
2:00 | ROLLER DERBY | |
3:00 | MOVIE—Western “Lights of Old Santa Fe” (1944) | |
4:00 | SHELL’S WONDERFUL WORLD OF GOLF COLOR Nichols vs. Sota | |
5:00 | ALL STAR WRESTLING | |
Evening | ||
6:00 | NEWS | |
6:30 | FLIPPER—Drama | |
7:00 | I DREAM OF JEANNIE—Comedy | |
7:30 | GET SMART | |
8:00 | MOVIE—Musical Saturday Night at the Movies:“Meet Me in Las Vegas” (1956) | |
10:15 | MOVIE—Western “Garden of Evil” (1954) News follows the movie | |
8 WQAD (MOLINE) (ABC) | ||
Morning | ||
8:30 | LET’S READ A BOOK | |
9:00 | PORKY PIG | |
9:30 | BEATLES—Cartoons | |
10:00 | CASPER | |
10:30 | MAGILLA GORILLA—Cartoons | |
11:00 | BUGS BUNNY—Cartoons | |
11:30 | MILTON THE MONSTER—Cartoons | |
Afternoon | ||
12:00 | HOPPITY HOOPER | |
12:30 | AMERICAN BANDSTAND—Variety Guests: The Mamas and the Papas, Bob Lind | |
1:30 | YOUTH SPEAKS—Moline | |
2:00 | COLLEGE CLOSE-UP | |
2:30 | PRO BOWLERS TOUR | |
4:00 | WORLD OF SPORTS COLOR Track and Field | |
5:30 | HONEY WEST—Mystery | |
Evening | ||
6:00 | RAMAR—Adventure | |
6:30 | OZZIE AND HARRIET | |
7:00 | DONNA REED—Comedy | |
7:30 | LAWRENCE WELK | |
8:30 | HOLLYWOOD PALACE COLOR Host: Bing Crosby. Guests: Rosemary Clooney, Gary Crosby, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, Henny Youngman, Hugh Lambert, Roger Ray, Fiji military band | |
9:30 | JIMMY DEAN—Variety Guests: Molly Bee, Roy Clark, Jerry Caterino | |
10:30 | NEWS—Don Raymond | |
10:45 | ALL STAR WRESTLING | |
8 KRNT (DES MOINES) (CBS) | ||
Morning | ||
6:30 | RURAL AMERICA—Farming | |
7:00 | CAPTAIN KANGAROO | |
8:00 | HECKLE AND JECKLE—Cartoons | |
8:30 | TENNESSEE TUXEDO—Cartoons | |
9:00 | MIGHTY MOUSE | |
9:30 | HERCULES—Cartoons | |
10:00 | TOM AND JERRY—Cartoons | |
10:30 | QUICK DRAW McGRAW—Cartoons | |
11:00 | SKY KING—Adventure | |
11:30 | LASSIE—Drama | |
Afternoon | ||
12:00 | MY FRIEND FLICKA—Drama | |
12:30 | LINUS—Cartoons | |
1:00 | FILM SHORT | |
1:15 | COLLEGE BASKETBALL—Tulsa vs. Cincinnati | |
3:00 | BIG TEN BASKETBALL—Iowa vs. Ohio State | |
5:00 | FAMILY THEATER—Drama | |
5:30 | NEWS—Mudd | |
Evening | ||
6:00 | NEWS | |
6:30 | JACKIE GLEASON | |
7:30 | SECRET AGENT | |
8:30 | LONER—Western | |
9:00 | GUNSMOKE | |
10:00 | NEWS | |
10:30 | MOVIE—Adventure COLOR “Saskatchewan” (1954) | |
9 KCRG (CEDAR RAPIDS) (ABC) | ||
Morning | ||
9:00 | PORKY PIG | |
9:30 | BEATLES—Cartoons | |
10:00 | CASPER | |
10:30 | MAGILLA GORILLA—Cartoons | |
11:00 | BUGS BUNNY—Cartoons | |
11:30 | MILTON THE MONSTER—Cartoons | |
Afternoon | ||
12:00 | HOPPITY HOOPER | |
12:30 | AMERICAN BANDSTAND—Variety Guests: The Mamas and the Papas, Bob Lind | |
1:30 | MAVERICK—Western | |
2:30 | PRO BOWLERS TOUR | |
4:00 | WORLD OF SPORTS COLOR Track and Field | |
5:30 | LONE RANGER—Western | |
Evening | ||
6:00 | POLKA PARADE | |
6:30 | OZZIE AND HARRIET | |
7:00 | DONNA REED—Comedy | |
7:30 | LAWRENCE WELK | |
8:30 | HOLLYWOOD PALACE COLOR Host: Bing Crosby. Guests: Rosemary Clooney, Gary Crosby, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, Henny Youngman, Hugh Lambert, Roger Ray, Fiji military band | |
9:30 | JESSE JAMES—Western | |
10:00 | MOVIE—Drama “Man in the Shadow” (1957) “ABC News and Sports” follows the movie | |
13 WHO (DES MOINES) (NBC) | ||
Morning | ||
7:00 | AGRICULTURE U.S.A. | |
7:30 | ATOM ANT | |
8:00 | JETSONS—Cartoon | |
8:30 | POPEYE—Cartoons | |
9:00 | SECRET SQUIRREL—Cartoons | |
9:30 | UNDERDOG—Cartoons | |
10:00 | TOP CAT—Cartoon | |
10:30 | FURY—Drama | |
11:00 | FIRST LOOK | |
11:30 | EXPLORING | |
Afternoon | ||
12:00 | AT HOME—Bob Williams | |
12:15 | FILM SHORT—Farming | |
12:30 | FARMING | |
1:00 | SPECTRUM—Junior Achievement | |
1:30 | MOVIE—Adventure “The Golden Hawk” (1952) | |
3:00 | DISCOTHEQUE—Music | |
4:00 | SHELL’S WONDERFUL WORLD OF GOLF COLOR Nichols vs. Sota | |
5:00 | CAMP RUNAMUCK—Comedy | |
5:30 | NEWS—Ray Scherer, Robert MacNeil | |
Evening | ||
6:00 | NEWS | |
6:15 | SPORTS DESK—Bob Graham | |
6:30 | FLIPPER—Drama | |
7:00 | I DREAM OF JEANNIE—Comedy | |
7:30 | GET SMART | |
8:00 | MOVIE—Drama COLOR “Pillars of the Sky” (1956) | |
10:00 | NEWS | |
10:30 | MOVIE—Adventure COLOR “River of No Return” (1954) | |
21 KQTV (FORT DODGE) (NBC) | ||
Morning | ||
7:30 | ATOM ANT | |
8:00 | JETSONS—Cartoon | |
8:30 | NAVY SHOW OF THE WEEK | |
9:00 | SECRET SQUIRREL—Cartoons | |
9:30 | UNDERDOG—Cartoons | |
10:00 | TOP CAT—Cartoon | |
10:30 | FURY—Drama | |
11:00 | FIRST LOOK | |
11:30 | EXPLORING | |
Afternoon | ||
12:00 | ROY ROGERS—Western | |
2:00 | CHAMPIONSHIP BOWLING | |
3:00 | TEEN HOP—Music | |
4:00 | SHELL’S WONDERFUL WORLD OF GOLF COLOR Nichols vs. Sota | |
5:00 | BIG PICTURE—Army | |
5:30 | NEWS—Ray Scherer, Robert MacNeil | |
Evening | ||
6:00 | NEWS | |
6:15 | FILM SHORT | |
6:30 | FLIPPER—Drama | |
7:00 | I DREAM OF JEANNIE—Comedy | |
7:30 | GET SMART | |
8:00 | MOVIE—Drama “Pursued” (1947) | |
10:00 | NEWS | |
10:15 | BARN DANCE—Bobby and Dee | |
11:15 | MOVIE—Biography “The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell” (1955) | |
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Around the dial
This is certainly worth a listen: Jim Benson's TV Time Machine interviews Mark Dawidziak, author of the book Everything I Needed to Know I Learned in The Twilight Zone.
As part of Black History Month, A Shroud of Thoughts educates us on the first black performer to host his own television show: Trinidadian born singer Hazel Scott, who hosted The Hazel Scott Show on the DuMont Network from July 3 to September 29 1950.
At The Lucky Strike Papers, Andrew remembers the late Vic Damone with a clip of his April 1949 appearance on DuMont's Morey Amsterdam Show. (This must be the week for DuMont.) Jb also remembers Damone with this very nice retrospective at The Hits Just Keep On Comin'.
Jodie shares the story of the Today Show interview that wasn't, with someone who just happened to show up at the famous picture window - former President Harry Truman - at Garroway at Large.
Classic Television Showbiz takes us back to one of television's most famous incidents: Jack Paar walking off The Tonight Show. Audio only, but even if you've heard the scene before, you'll want to check out this recording of the entire program.
That should keep you busy for awhile, or at least until tomorrow. Come back and find out what's waiting for you then. TV
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This week in TV Guide: February 26, 1966
Anyway, while I sometimes have the luxury of shaping, if you will, the story I'm going to tell over a number of weeks, I'm usually left with only one issue from which to choose, and that's only because I've gone out and purchased that issue to fill my need. That's what seven years of this will do to your TV Guide inventory. But enough about backstage drama - let's get on with the show.
I confess that, seeing the ad for the coming attractions in last week's issue (surprisingly enough, it was on a page that hadn't been cut up), I was intrigued by the banner at the top of the cover: "TV's impact on our civilization - a startling appraisal.""I wish I was writing about that issue," I thought to myself. And lo and behold, here it is!
The author is Louis Kronenberger, Professor of Theatre Arts at Brandeis, writer of novels and essays, and former drama critic for Time. This must be understood, Kronenberger says at the outset: "[T]elevision is not just a great new force in modern life, but that it virtually is modern life. What, one might ask, doesn't it do?" It is, he concludes, "a truly stupendous addition to American life - our supreme cultural opportunity." It is, as well, "a supreme cultural commodity," a case of Big Business operating in tandem with Bigger Business. "Business calls - or cuts short, or calls off - the tune." And because of this, nothing else about television and its potential matters; "it makes any other fact about TV and its effect upon our civilization ultimately subsidiary and expendable."
Kronenberger compares television to the menu of a vast banquet; a fair amount on the menu is "unexceptionable" while a good deal more is "harmless entertainment." Some is even very good, but much else is not good, and even more is "truly dreadful." In offering this argument, though, Kronenberger goes beyond the artistic merits of the program itself, whether it is "good" or "bad" in conventional terms. Instead, he refers to the effect that such programs have on the audience. Not only does it pander to the lowest common denominator, it does so in the hopes of keeping that denominator low - hence, making it easier to keep the audience entertained, and available for the messages of its advertisers.
More than that, however, is the corrosive effect the programming has on the, for lack of a better word, dignity of the individual watching it. Take the Quiz Show Scandal for example: the technical crime, as Kronenberger puts it, was that the shows were being rigged, the immorality being that the networks should and probably did know about it. "But what was really degrading, indecent, uncivilizing was that, rigged or not, the quizzes pandered to the venality of a whole nation, had multitudes glued to their televisions not at all for the fun of the game, but for the size of the stakes. Knowledge had become the grossest, the most uncultural, of commodities." To despoil the purity of knowledge, to turn it into a tool for making ever larger sums of money - aye, there's the rub.
It's not just this, of course - the corruption extends to violence, to "cheap gags and gossipy wisecracks," to an invasion of privacy - "not just in terms of outright gossip, but in the way of candid 'discussion,' or psychiatric 'discovery,' or photographs of the sick, the unhappy, the doomed?" In other words, the kind of exploitation found in everything from Strike it Rich to today's reality television. (Or, as I put it some time ago, trafficking in human misery.) The ratings system encourages "not merit but mass popularity"; by basing the value (and therefore continued existence) of programs on ratings, "it turns any illiterate into a critic; an entrepreneur into a craven; a defeated contestant into a criminal."
And it all surrounds money, money, money, making the offscreen antics just as craven, just as uncivilized, as what happens on the tube: "TV doesn't even wash its dirty linen in public; it merely waves it." The Great Networks are assisted by the Great Advertising Agencies and the Great Artists' Representatives, with the end result that "the alluring daughters and nieces of art - Language and Laughter, Melody and Declamation and Dancing - are constantly bedded and wedded to the paunchy sons and nephews of Mammon. The general effect is often about as civilized as gluttony." There's nothing in the least altruistic about the actions of the network executives responsible for all this; they have absolutely no interest in improving their audience, in enlightening them, in doing anything other than analyzing them not as individuals, as humans, but as statistics on a balance sheet.It's a pretty harsh assessment, especially for a self-professed fan of television such as yours truly to have to record. And yet while I don't know that I can wholeheartedly agree with everything Kronenberger says - to do so would be to call into question most of the shows that I spend so much time watching and enjoying - I find it difficult to disagree with most of what he says, particularly the idea of how the quest for profit has made television's effect on the public both coarse and profane. "TV," writes Kronenberger, "has consistently either imposed uncivilized elements on American life, or aggravated and intensified those it found there. It has helped destroy respect for privacy, it has helped foster a more rackety publicity."
But herein lies the dilemma. Certainly we can argue about the corrupting influence of advertisers on viewers. Quoting Gore Vidal from some time back, what television could use is "a sense that getting people to buy things they do not need is morally indefensible." As for the coarsening of culture, as my friend Gary used to say, he feared letting his small son watch something as harmless as golf on TV because he didn't want to be asked "What does erectile dysfunction mean?" It's understandable that under these circumstances, networks want the highest ratings they can get in order to attract the advertisers whose dollars keep the network on the air. And since Kronenberger mentions sports in passing, let's take a moment with that as well - it's more than just ED commercials. Look at how TV has gone from covering the games to influencing them - start times, endless commercials stretching game lengths, advertising covering the players and saturating the stadiums, rules changes designed to make the game more exciting, more palatable to targeted demographics. And whereas once upon a time the goal was to win the championship, now it often seems that, as was the case with the quiz shows, winning means being able to get more money in the next contract negotiation.
What's the alternative, though? Sure, there's government subsidy, as you'd see in Britain, but if television is as pervasive in the culture as Kronenberger said it was in 1966 (and, expanding the definition of television to encompass all of today's mass media, it's probably even more so today), do you want the government to be controlling that? Really, do you? But if you go the PBS route, you're going to run into what PBS itself has discovered, namely that you still have to have "popular" programs in order to get viewers to contribute - which means more British series and aging Baby Boomer rockers. Frankly, I don't have an answer, if indeed one exists, which suggests that perhaps television was doomed from the start.
Kronenberger's conclusion is not optimistic. About television, he says, "There has been nothing too elegant for it to coarsen, too artistic for it to vulgarize, too sacred for it to profane."
As predicted last week, the resignation of Fred Friendly makes headlines in "For the Record" - right below the item commending the networks for covering the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's hearings into the progress of the Vietnam War. (In particular, author Henry Harding singles out NBC for covering the hearings in their entirety, unlike some other networks we could name but won't.) I don't suppose it's an exaggeration to say that these hearings, chaired by powerful Arkansas Senator J. William Fulbright, mark the beginning of the end of majority support for the war, or as the above article says, they "parted the curtain," allowing the public a view of what was actually going on. Although the clip below shows the appearance of Secretary of State Dean Rusk, it is probably the testimony of General Maxwell Taylor, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that is the most pivotal (and I believe that it was the failure to cover all of that testimony that led to the Friendly-CBS split); it is Taylor's contention that Hanoi will never agree to negotiate unless they are convinced that the United States is committed to fighting on behalf of the South Vietnamese.
The hearings, according to historian Marc Selverstone, "legitimized public dissent" over the war, creating a story that, along with its fallout (e.g. Watergate), would dominate television - and the nation - for much of the next decade.
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: Scheduled guests are comic Alan King; singer Petula Clark; rock 'n' rollers Gary Lewis and the Playboys; singer Jerry Vale; comic Richard Pryor; the Tokyo Happy Coats, a girls' jazz band; and the Berosini Chimps.
Palace: Host Liberace presents comedian Bob Newhart; singers John Davidson and Marni Nixon; the comedy team of Avery Schreiber and Jack Burns; magician Channing Pollack, and trapeze artist Betty Pasco.
Well, this was easy. Liberace and Newhart start out pretty well, but after that the Palace goes off a cliff. No offense to Marni Nixon, who has a lovely voice, but I can't stand John Davidson, and Burns & Schreiber always left me cold. On the other hand, Ed has a great lineup top to bottom - King and Pryor, Petula Clark, Jerry Vale, and Gary Lewis make this a unanimous victory for Sullivan.
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. This week we're looking at the original Smothers Brothers show - not the variety show, but the sitcom that preceded it, wherein Tom plays an angel (on probation) who has to do good to earn his wings, and Dick is his brother, presumably the beneficiary - or victim - of Tom's good deed-ing. "If you accept it all," writes Cleveland Amory, "you can have a very good time with this show. If, however, you can't accept it and are on the side not of the angels but the angles, and you even regard the whole thing as a rather "B" switch on Bewitched - you won't have a good time."
Amory is of two minds on the show; sometimes it works, other times, "we have seen another one which was so bad we wouldn't have accepted the fact that there were ,are, or even ever have been, two brothers named Smothers." A different producer has made the show, in Amory's words, character-funny instead of funny-funny, which is an improvement - especially when the writers avoid saddling Tom with hackneyed jokes.
So things are looking up. But there's one thing they absolutely need to do, according to Cleve, and that's improve the show's beginning. I mean the real beginning - the theme, which is "bad enough," and what follows it, when the brothers come on to tell everyone what's about to happen in the show. "Honestly, it takes strength to handle it when you don't know, but when you do - well, never mind." After one particularly painful beginning, "you could hardly wait for the first commercial."
His final verdict: like the angel Tom, the show needs to do not only good, but better.
It's not a terribly exciting week of television, but that's never stopped us from finding things of interest, has it?
By 1966, our local NBC affiliate, KSTP, had ceased showing The Bell Telephone Hour on a regular basis, so when it did pop up, it would be on the independent station, WTCN. This week Cyril Ritchard is host to a tribute to Alan Jay Lerner, with a cast that includes Florence Henderson. (Sunday, 5:30 p.m.) One of the many things I find interesting about this series is that it was usually broadcast live; along with What's My Line? and I've Got a Secret, was it one of the last non-soap opera, non-news program to do so?
On Monday night, Vivian Vance guests on I've Got a Secret (7:00 p.m., CBS), and that's followed (not surprisingly) by The Lucy Show, with guest stars Jay "Dennis the Menace" North and the wonderful character actor Vito Scotti. Meantime, on the music side, Hullabaloo (NBC, 6:30 p.m.) has George Hamilton doing the hosting, with guests Lainie Kazan, Simon and Garfunkel, Mel Carter, and the Young Rascals. Later, at 8:00, NBC preempts Andy Williams for Perry Como's once-a-month Kraft Music Hall, with Judy Garland and Bill Cosby. Big show!
Some big guest stars on Tuesday's lineup, including John Wayne as Red Skelton's sole guest (7:30 p.m., CBS) and Zsa Zsa Gabor as a Hungarian gypsy on F Troop going after Agarn (Larry Storch). That must have been great. Later, on the IBM-sponsored Town Meeting of the World (9:00 p.m., CBS), the subject for debate is "How to Stop the Spread of Nuclear Weapons." The debaters: Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in New York, French presidential adviser General Pierre Gallois in Paris, former West German Defense Minister Franz Josef Strauss in Munich, and Lord Chalfont, British Foreign Minister, in Geneva. Eric Sevareid is the moderator. Perhaps the best-known of these Town Meetings would come a year later, when RFK debates California Governor Ronald Reagan over the Vietnam War (there's that war again). Alas, it was not to be a preview of coming presidential attractions.
Thursday features some familiar names: Barbara Rush, who played the wife of Lieutenant Gerard in The Fugitive (see Wednesday's essay for more), is in a very different role - Sister William - in Laredo (7:30 p.m., NBC), while at the same time one of my favorites, Leon "General Burkhalter" Askin, is secret agent U-45 in ABC's short-lived The Double Life of Henry Phyfe, starring Red Buttons. CBS's Thursday Night Movie (8:00 p.m.) is "The Devil at 4 O'clock" with Spencer Tracy, Frank Sinatra and Jean Pierre Aumont. And if you're in Duluth, a couple of late movies you might want to see for different reasons: the great "On the Waterfront" with Brando at 10:15 p.m. on KDAL up against "Frankenstein - 1970" and Karloff on WDIO.
On Friday Britt Ekland, aka Mrs. Peter Sellers, makes her U.S. TV debut on Trials of O'Brien (9:00 p.m., CBS). Meanwhile, Johnny Carson wraps up another week off on The Tonight Show; his guest hosts this week were Alan King (Monday and Tuesday), Hugh Downs (Wednesday) and Henry Morgan (Thursday and Friday). If that isn't your late night style, you've got a couple more movies to choose from: "Beat the Devil," the sly Humphrey Bogart spoof on KDAL at 10:15 p.m., and the classic "All About Eve" on KEYC in Mankato at 10:30 p.m. For those of us in the Twin Cities, we have a nice consolation prize movie: "Witness for the Prosecution" at 10:30 on KMSP. Or you can wait until ten minutes after midnight for "Mothra" on WCCO.
This week's young actress and actor are, in order, Debbie Watson, star of Tammy, doing a photo shoot in California, and Dick Kallman, star of NBC's Hank, who first came to attention in the national touring company of the smash musical "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying." Kallman comes across as a good guy with endless energy and ambition, who hopes that someday people will feel about him as a comedian the way he does about Sir Laurence Olivier. Alas, he never quite makes it in showbiz, but becomes a very successful antiques dealer before he and his partner are murdered in a robbery attempt in 1980.As for Debbie Watson, since there's not much text to accompany the pictures, you'll just have to settle for (left).
Of course, how can we leave without at least a word about Barbara Stanwyck? Missy, she's called on the set (mostly affectionately) comes across as confident yet insecure, an accomplished actress who feels she still has something to prove, a strong woman who still hasn't found what (or who) she wants in life. A woman of contradictions, a puzzle, but leaving absolutely no doubt that she's a star. And when you're a star the magnitude of Barbara Stanwyck, you don't get that way simply by telling people you're a star, or acting like a star. You just are. Her anthology series of the early '60s was, she hoped, a way to be able to play a strong character on television, and although that failed, I think you can say that as Victoria Barkley, the matriarch of The Big Valley, she's tougher than all of her sons put together. I like that woman. TV
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What's on TV? Wednesday, March 2, 1966
Some notables: Art Linkletter's guest on House Party is Bennett Cerf; it's always nice to see a panelist from What's My Line? appearing on a different program. And over on NBC, the program listed as "Bob Hope"is actually the Chrysler Theatre, or if you want to be picky about it, Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre, which is why I included the title of tonight's story. (That's so you're not looking to see where Anita Ekberg or Angie Dickinson are; Angie's on Password, actually.) Anyway, have at it!
2 KTCA (Educ.) | ||
Morning | ||
9:00 | CLASSROOM | |
Afternoon | ||
3:15 | TEACHING MATHEMATICS | |
3:30 | TEACHING MATHEMATICS | |
3:45 | SPANISH PREVIEW | |
5:00 | KINDERGARTEN—Education | |
5:30 | CHILDREN’S FAIR | |
Evening | ||
6:00 | BEGINNING FRENCH—Rydell | |
6:50 | ANTHROPOLOGY—Gerlach | |
8:30 | COLLEGE OF ST. THOMAS | |
9:00 | FOLIO—Arnold Walker | |
9:30 | DESEGREGATION—Pettigrew | |
10:00 | BIOLOGY—Magnus Olson | |
3 KDAL (DULUTH) (CBS) | ||
Morning | ||
7:35 | FARM AND HOME | |
7:45 | TREETOP HOUSE—Miss Jane | |
8:00 | CAPTAIN KANGAROO—Children | |
9:00 | I LOVE LUCY—Comedy | |
9:30 | McCOYS—Comedy | |
10:00 | ANDY GRIFFITH—Comedy | |
10:30 | DICK VAN DYKE—Comedy | |
11:00 | LOVE OF LIFE | |
11:25 | NEWS | |
11:30 | SEARCH FOR TOMORROW—Serial | |
11:45 | GUIDING LIGHT—Serial | |
Afternoon | ||
12:00 | TOWN AND COUNTRY—Becker | |
12:30 | AS THE WORLD TURNS—Serial | |
1:00 | PASSWORD Contestants: Angie Dickinson, Peter Lind Hayes | |
1:30 | HOUSE PARTY COLOR Guest: Bennett Cerf | |
2:00 | TO TELL THE TRUTH—Panel | |
2:25 | NEWS—Edwards | |
2:30 | EDGE OF NIGHT—Serial | |
3:00 | SECRET STORM—Serial | |
3:30 | 87th PRECINCT—Police | |
4:30 | SUPERMAN—Adventure | |
5:00 | LEAVE IT TO BEAVER—Comedy | |
5:30 | NEWS—Walter Cronkite | |
Evening | ||
6:00 | NEWS | |
6:30 | LOST IN SPACE—Adventure | |
7:30 | BEVERLY HILLBILLIES—Comedy | |
8:00 | GREEN ACRES COLOR | |
8:30 | DICK VAN DYKE—Comedy | |
9:00 | DANNY KAYE COLOR Guests: Joanne Woodward, Robert Goulet | |
10:00 | NEWS | |
10:15 | MOVIE—Drama “Middle of the Night” (1959) | |
4 WCCO (CBS) | ||
Morning | ||
6:00 | SUNRISE SEMESTER—Education | |
6:30 | SIEGFRIED—Children | |
7:00 | AXEL AND DEPUTY DAWG | |
7:30 | CLANCY AND COMPANY | |
8:00 | CAPTAIN KANGAROO—Children | |
9:00 | DR. REUBEN K. Y OUNGDAHL | |
9:05 | NEWS—Dean Montgomery | |
9:10 | MIKE DOUGLAS—Variety Co-Hosts: Allen and Rossi. Guests: Eydie Gormé, Gower Champion, Jeff Tarr | |
10:00 | ANDY GRIFFITH—Comedy | |
10:30 | DICK VAN DYKE—Comedy | |
11:00 | LOVE OF LIFE | |
11:25 | NEWS | |
11:30 | SEARCH FOR TOMORROW—Serial | |
11:45 | GUIDING LIGHT—Serial | |
Afternoon | ||
12:00 | NEWS | |
12:15 | SOMETHING SPECIAL | |
12:25 | WEATHER—Bud Kraehling | |
12:30 | AS THE WORLD TURNS—Serial | |
1:00 | PASSWORD Contestants: Angie Dickinson, Peter Lind Hayes | |
1:30 | HOUSE PARTY COLOR Guest: Bennett Cerf | |
2:00 | TO TELL THE TRUTH—Panel | |
2:25 | NEWS—Edwards | |
2:30 | EDGE OF NIGHT—Serial | |
3:00 | SECRET STORM—Serial | |
3:30 | I LOVE LUCY—Comedy | |
4:00 | MOVIE—Adventure COLOR “Bold Adventure” (French; 1956) | |
5:30 | NEWS—Walter Cronkite | |
Evening | ||
6:00 | NEWS | |
6:20 | DIRECTION—Religion | |
6:25 | WEATHER—Don O’Brien | |
6:30 | LOST IN SPACE—Adventure | |
7:30 | BEVERLY HILLBILLIES—Comedy | |
8:00 | GREEN ACRES | |
8:30 | DICK VAN DYKE—Comedy | |
9:00 | DANNY KAYE COLOR Guests: Joanne Woodward, Robert Goulet | |
10:00 | NEWS | |
10:30 | MOVIE—Drama “Armored Command” (1961) | |
12:00 | MOVIE—Comedy “Angels in Disguise” (1949) | |
5 KSTP (NBC) | ||
Morning | ||
6:00 | CONTINENTAL CLASSROOM | |
6:30 | CITY AND COUNTRY | |
7:00 | TODAY | |
9:00 | EYE GUESS—Game | |
9:25 | NEWS—Newman | |
9:30 | CONCENTRATION—Game | |
10:00 | MORNING STAR—Serial | |
10:30 | PARADISE BAY—Serial | |
11:00 | JEOPARDY—Game | |
11:30 | LET’S PLAY POST OFFICE—Game | |
11:45 | NEWS—McGee | |
Afternoon | ||
12:00 | NEWS AND WEATHER | |
12:15 | DIALING FOR DOLLARS—Game | |
12:30 | LET’S MAKE A DEAL—Game | |
12:55 | NEWS—Floyd Kalber | |
1:00 | DAYS OF OUR LIVES—Serial | |
1:30 | DOCTORS | |
2:00 | ANOTHER WORLD—Serial | |
2:30 | YOU DON’T SAY!—Game COLOR Contestants: Allan Sherman, Jeanne Crain | |
3:00 | MATCH GAME COLOR Contestants: Milt Kamen, Gisele MacKenzie | |
3:25 | NEWS | |
3:30 | DIALING FOR DOLLARS—Game | |
4:30 | CHEYENNE—Western | |
5:25 | DOCTOR’S HOUSE CALL—James Rogers Fox | |
5:30 | NEWS—Chet Huntley, David Brinkley | |
Evening | ||
6:00 | NEWS | |
6:30 | VIRGINIAN | |
8:00 | BOB HOPE COLOR “Wind Fever” | |
9:00 | I SPY | |
10:00 | NEWS | |
10:30 | JOHNNY CARSON COLOR Guest Host: Hugh Downs | |
12:15 | MOVIE—Mystery “Notorious” (1946) | |
6 WSDM (DULUTH) (NBC) | ||
Morning | ||
7:00 | TODAY | |
9:00 | EYE GUESS—Game | |
9:25 | NEWS—Newman | |
9:30 | CONCENTRATION—Game | |
10:00 | MORNING STAR—Serial | |
10:30 | PARADISE BAY—Serial | |
11:00 | JEOPARDY—Game | |
11:30 | LET’S PLAY POST OFFICE—Game | |
11:45 | NEWS—McGee | |
Afternoon | ||
12:00 | GIRL TALK—Panel | |
12:30 | LET’S MAKE A DEAL—Game | |
12:55 | NEWS—Floyd Kalber | |
1:00 | DAYS OF OUR LIVES—Serial | |
1:30 | DOCTORS | |
2:00 | ANOTHER WORLD—Serial | |
2:30 | YOU DON’T SAY!—Game COLOR Contestants: Allan Sherman, Jeanne Crain | |
3:00 | MATCH GAME C Contestants: Milt Kamen, Gisele MacKenzie | |
3:25 | NEWS | |
3:30 | JACK LA LANNE | |
4:00 | BOZO AND HIS PALS | |
5:30 | NEWS, ROCKY TELLER | |
Evening | ||
6:00 | NEWS—Huntley, Brinkley | |
6:30 | VIRGINIAN | |
8:00 | BOB HOPE COLOR “Wind Fever” | |
9:00 | I SPY | |
10:00 | NEWS | |
10:20 | JOHNNY CARSON COLOR Guest Host: Hugh Downs | |
6 KMMT (AUSTIN) (ABC) | ||
Morning | ||
10:00 | SUPERMARKET SWEEP—Game | |
10:30 | DATING GAME | |
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 | |
3:00 | NEVER TOO YOUNG | |
3:30 | WHERE THE ACTION IS—Variety Guests: Vic Dana, Wilson Pickett, Paul Revere and the Raiders | |
4:00 | CAPTAIN ATOM—Children | |
5:30 | RIFLEMAN—Western | |
Evening | ||
6:00 | NEWS—Peter Jennings | |
6:10 | NEWS, SPORTS, WEATHER | |
6:30 | BATMAN—Adventure | |
7:00 | PATTY DUKE—Comedy | |
7:30 | BLUE LIGHT!—Drama COLOR | |
8:00 | BIG VALLEY—Western | |
9:00 | LONG HOT SUMMER | |
10:00 | NEWS | |
10:30 | UNTOUCHABLES—Drama | |
11:30 | NEWS | |
7 KCMT (ALEXANDRIA) (NBC, ABC) | ||
Morning | ||
7:00 | TODAY | |
9:00 | EYE GUESS—Game | |
9:25 | NEWS—Newman | |
9:30 | CONCENTRATION—Game | |
10:00 | MORNING STAR—Serial | |
10:30 | PARADISE BAY—Serial | |
11:00 | JEOPARDY—Game | |
11:30 | LET’S PLAY POST OFFICE—Game | |
11:45 | NEWS—McGee | |
Afternoon | ||
12:00 | NEWS | |
12:20 | TRADING POST—Jon Haaven | |
12:30 | LET’S MAKE A DEAL—Game | |
12:55 | NEWS—Floyd Kalber | |
1:00 | DAYS OF OUR LIVES—Serial | |
1:30 | DOCTORS | |
2:00 | ANOTHER WORLD—Serial | |
2:30 | YOU DON’T SAY!—Game COLOR Contestants: Allan Sherman, Jeanne Crain | |
3:00 | MATCH GAME COLOR Contestants: Milt Kamen, Gisele MacKenzie | |
3:25 | NEWS | |
3:30 | GENERAL HOSPITAL—Serial | |
4:00 | FATHER KNOWS BEST—Comedy | |
4:30 | EXTENSION NEWS, VIEWS | |
5:45 | FUNNY COMPANY—Children | |
5:30 | NEWS—Chet Huntley, David Brinkley | |
Evening | ||
6:00 | NEWS | |
6:30 | VIRGINIAN | |
8:00 | BOB HOPE COLOR “Wind Fever” | |
9:00 | I SPY | |
10:00 | NEWS | |
10:45 | HONEY WEST--Mystery | |
11:15 | UNEXPECTED—Drama | |
11:45 | TO BE ANNOUNCED | |
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 | SUPERMARKET SWEEP—Game | |
10:30 | DATING GAME | |
11:00 | DETECTIVES—Police | |
11:30 | MIKE HAMMER—Mystery | |
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 | |
3:00 | NEVER TOO YOUNG | |
3:30 | WHERE THE ACTION IS—Variety Guests: Vic Dana, Wilson Pickett, Paul Revere and the Raiders | |
4:00 | ROUTE 66—Drama | |
5:00 | NEWS—Peter Jennings | |
5:15 | NEWS AND WEATHER | |
5:30 | LEAVE IT TO BEAVER—Comedy | |
Evening | ||
6:00 | HUCKLEBERRY HOUND—Cartoons | |
6:30 | BATMAN—Adventure | |
7:00 | PATTY DUKE—Comedy | |
7:30 | BLUE LIGHT!—Drama | |
8:00 | BIG VALLEY—Western | |
9:00 | LONG HOT SUMMER | |
10:00 | NEWS | |
10:30 | MOVIE—Drama “The Hoodlum Priest” (1961) | |
10 WDIO (DULUTH) (ABC) | ||
Morning | ||
10:00 | SUPERMARKET SWEEP—Game | |
10:30 | DATING GAME | |
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 | |
3:00 | NEVER TOO YOUNG | |
3:30 | WHERE THE ACTION IS—Variety Guests: Vic Dana, Wilson Pickett, Paul Revere and the Raiders | |
4:00 | MOVIE—Adventure “Tarzan’s New York Adventure” (1942) | |
5:30 | NEWS, SPORTS, WEATHER | |
5:45 | NEWS—Peter Jennings | |
Evening | ||
6:00 | REBEL—Western | |
6:30 | BATMAN—Adventure | |
7:00 | PATTY DUKE—Comedy | |
7:30 | BLUE LIGHT!—Drama | |
8:00 | BIG VALLEY—Western | |
9:00 | LONG HOT SUMMER | |
10:00 | NEWS | |
10:15 | MOVIE—Comedy “Our Miss Brooks” (1956) | |
11 WTCN (Ind.) | ||
Morning | ||
9:15 | NEWS—Gil Amundson | |
9:30 | MOVIE—Drama “Rumba” (1935) | |
10:55 | NEWS—Gil Amundson | |
11:00 | DONNA REED—Comedy | |
11:30 | FATHER KNOWS BEST | |
Afternoon | ||
12:00 | LUNCH WITH CASEY—Children | |
1:00 | MOVIE—Mystery “Donovan’s Brain” (1954) | |
2:45 | MEL’S NOTEBOOK—Interview | |
3:00 | GIRL TALK—Panel Guests: Dagmar, Joan Rivers, Lisa Kirk | |
3:30 | AMOS ‘N’ ANDY—Comedy | |
4:00 | POPEYE AND PETE—Children | |
4:30 | CASEY AND ROUNDHOUSE | |
5:30 | WHIRLYBIRDS—Adventure | |
Evening | ||
6:00 | RIFLEMAN—Western | |
6:30 | BOLD JOURNEY—Travel | |
7:00 | WILD CARGO—Travel | |
7:30 | ISLANDS IN THE SUN | |
8:00 | ROGUES—Drama | |
9:00 | SKI SCENE—Miller | |
9:30 | NEWS, WEATHER, SPORTS | |
10:00 | MOVIE—Drama COLOR “Written on the Wind” (1956) | |
12 KEYC (MANKATO) (CBS) | ||
Morning | ||
7:30 | NEWS—Mike Wallace | |
7:55 | FILM SHORT | |
8:00 | CAPTAIN KANGAROO—Children | |
9:00 | I LOVE LUCY—Comedy | |
9:30 | McCOYS—Comedy | |
10:00 | ANDY GRIFFITH—Comedy | |
10:30 | DICK VAN DYKE—Comedy | |
11:00 | LOVE OF LIFE | |
11:25 | NEWS | |
11:30 | SEARCH FOR TOMORROW—Serial | |
11:45 | GUIDING LIGHT—Serial | |
Afternoon | ||
12:00 | NEWS | |
12:30 | AS THE WORLD TURNS—Serial | |
1:00 | PASSWORD Contestants: Angie Dickinson, Peter Lind Hayes | |
1:30 | HOUSE PARTY COLOR Guest: Bennett Cerf | |
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 | YOGI BEAR—Cartoons | |
5:30 | NEWS—Walter Cronkite | |
Evening | ||
6:00 | NEWS | |
6:30 | LOST IN SPACE—Adventure | |
7:30 | BEVERLY HILLBILLIES—Comedy | |
8:00 | GREEN ACRES | |
8:30 | DICK VAN DYKE—Comedy | |
9:00 | DANNY KAYE COLOR Guests: Joanne Woodward, Robert Goulet | |
10:00 | NEWS | |
10:35 | COMMUNITY CAMPUS—Mankato | |
11:05 | THRILLER—Mystery | |
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Billy Graham, R.I.P.
Who Billy Graham was was a man who appeared 60 times on Gallup's list of the world's most admired men, who integrated his own crusades in 1953, who preached with Martin Luther King Jr. and once bailed him out of jail, who sold out Madison Square Garden in New York for 16 consecutive weeks 1957, who understood the power of radio and television and used it successfully in a way few ever have. (His radio program, Hour of Power, continued for 60 years.) As a dynamic speaker who could mesmerize television audiences as well as those viewing him in person, he was rivaled - perhaps - only by another evangelist, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen.
Let's talk a bit more about Billy Graham and television. Those sold-out crusades in New York City in 1957 were telecast on ABC, Saturday nights from 8:00-9:00 p.m. Today, it would be unthinkable to see such programming on a national broadcast network, but it was the first of four times Graham would appear regularly with his crusades on ABC over a two-year span. Later, when the networks banished such programs from their their regular lineups, Graham would appear on syndicated broadcasts carried by massive numbers of network affiliates; those stations, who would gladly preempt network programming in order to gain advertising revenue, carried Graham's crusades commercial-free. Granted, the time was bought by Graham's organization so it wasn't as if the stations were being totally altruistic, but neither were they ignoring that which appealed to their viewership.
I don't know how many people came to Billy Graham through television, who found their way to a relationship with Christ that changed their lives; I think you could plausibly argue that he had a greater direct impact on his viewers than any other star of any other television program that has ever been shown. Although he didn't preach my particular brand of Christianity, I would sit mesmerized listening to the man speak, and seldom heard anything I could disagree with. Watching the young Graham preaching from the Garden, there is a power, a magnetism, a fire, to his words that is almost astounding - if you've only heard Graham in his later years, even in the '70s when he'd become somewhat less the revivalist preacher, you owe it to yourself to look up one of his sermons online; his own website has many of them, and be reminded of the power of speech.
For many years, Graham was associated with the Twin Cities, his headquarters being in Minneapolis, and he appeared here with his crusades several times, but I saw him in person only once, in the '90s when he was older and more frail. So unassuming was he that when he took to the podium to speak, not everyone realized it at once. But when he did speak, it was as if time had stood still, perhaps even wound its way back a decade or two. Standing there preaching about Christ and salvation, his face was animated, his voice strong and clear, and it was obvious that during a half a century of preaching, the externals may have changed - the celebrities who appeared with him, the hairstyles, the clothing - but the message never changed.
After his death last week, The Wall Street Journal asked rhetorically whether or not there would ever be another Billy Graham. The answer, of course, is no; there is never a second version of a one-of-a-kind. The question, I think, is whether or not this medium, present as it is in today's culture, will ever see anyone like him again. Forget the message, think only of the man and the way he penetrated the camera lens and met the viewer wherever he or she happened to be, physically or emotionally. The answer to that, without doubt, is also no. TV
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"Don't be a fool"
by Jodie Peeler
Back in 1992 the PBS series The American Experience aired an hour-long documentary about the quiz-show scandal of the 1950s. For those who love television history, it was a treasure: plenty of clips from the handful of surviving kinescopes, still images from network publicity files and magazine archives, and interviews with key figures in the story (several of whom passed away not long after filmmaker Julian Krainin interviewed them).
Krainin was also able to get the cooperation of a few contestants who appeared on the rigged programs, including the Rev. Stoney Jackson, James Snodgrass (whose letters describing his instructions on how to handle himself on Twenty One, sent to himself via registered mail, were key evidence in the investigation), and Herbert Stempel, the contestant who "lost" to Charles Van Doren on Twenty One. But Van Doren, the most prominent contestant from the scandal, didn't participate.
Much has been written about the quiz show scandals in general and Charles Van Doren in particular, and after he admitted during a 1959 Congressional hearing that he had been one of the rigged contestants, Van Doren mostly dropped out of sight. He continued to write and teach, and every once in a while appeared on television in conjunction with one of his projects. He even appeared on Today in December 1985 to promote his book The Joy of Reading, and during the interview the quiz scandals didn’t come up.
In 2008 Van Doren finally broke his long silence with a lengthy essay in The New Yorker. Among the revelations was that when he told his soon-to-be wife in 1956 that he was going to be on a quiz show, she didn't like the idea; three and a half decades later, she was likewise cool to Krainin's entreaties on the documentary. "I think you're being foolish," she told Charles as they discussed the proposal. Later, when Krainin extended a $100,000 offer from Robert Redford to be a consultant on the movie Quiz Show, Gerry was again cool to the idea: "Please don't be a fool." In the end, Charles took her counsel and resisted the temptation.
In these times it seems quaint to imagine someone refusing to cash in on a moment of infamy. If someone confessed to cheating on a game show these days, we'd hardly blink; within days, said cheater would be getting book contracts and endorsement deals, a cameo in a Saturday Night Live sketch (if not a guest-hosting gig), and maybe even their own reality series. But in 1959 Van Doren found himself going from hero to punchline, with Columbia University relieving him of his teaching duties and NBC firing him from his gig on Today. Dave Garroway wept on the air as he dealt with the news about Van Doren, whom he had come to consider not only a valuable contributor to the program but also a good friend. The illusion was shattered, and the nice young man who symbolized intelligence and read poetry on national television turned out to be as susceptible to temptation as any of the rest of us.
But as the news settled in, it became apparent the ones really being fooled were ourselves, and for the most dangerous reason: because we allowed ourselves to be fooled. The Trappist monk Thomas Merton, who had been Mark Van Doren's student at Columbia University and maintained a friendship with him, struggled with the revelations. In a letter to Mark Van Doren, Merton wrote that the younger Van Doren was "seduced into impersonating himself, in order to please and comfort this foolish, and pitifully foolish, nation with a day-dream of itself....America wants to be kidded and the only crime is letting the people know, realize, the falsity. We are such babies that we want our unrealities to be real and the only thing we resent is the reminder that they are not."
People had sunk so much effort into believing in Charles Van Doren's innocence that to deny this, to admit he had cheated, would not only negate all that belief, but reveal something about themselves that would be unsettling and disturbing. But, beneath that, how much of it was being manipulated, and how much of it was wanting to be manipulated? How much of the quiz show craze was really about watching average people display incredible knowledge, and how much of it was, as Martin Scorsese's businessman in Quiz Show put it, about wanting to "watch the money?"
And has this ever really changed? When the big-money game shows came back (albeit in non-rigged form), they drew a following. It wasn't because Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? required you to know a lot of trivia or because Deal Or No Deal required a gambler's sense of risk. Certainly the gimmicks helped - as The $64,000 Question had its IBM sorting machine and its isolation booth, so Deal had the array of models with briefcases. And the dramatics - the music, the theatrical lighting, the catchphrases, the timing. Some combined the drama with humiliation, as contestants on The Weakest Link gladly let themselves be verbally abused for a chance at a big prize. Others, like Survivor and the countless other reality competition shows it spawned, let us watch along as contestants acted out Lord Of The Flies for our enjoyment.
But it's an illusion. The average game of Deal Or No Deal or Millionaire would have taken five minutes, but was sliced thinner than prosciutto to fill an hour's time, build suspense and keep viewers on the edge of their seats. Reality shows craftily edit hours of footage, stripping context and truth in favor of maximum conflict and drama. No matter how the contestants fare, the hosts and producers and staff get paid either way. And yet, even when we know we're being manipulated, we still tune in. It's too tempting. What if it was me playing for that million? What if I was able to outwit everyone else on the island? The Walter Mitty in all of us enjoys the fantasy too much.
Maybe after all these years of scandal after scandal wearing us down, with everything in life from our television programs being less than they seem to be, to a long list of evangelists being revealed as frauds, to the clay feet of business and government leaders being exposed, we'd respond to a modern quiz-show scandal with a hardened, cynical shrug. We’d watch the offending contestant milk his or her fame for all it was worth, turning infamy into C- or D-list stardom, because doing what Charles Van Doren did - taking your lumps, retreating into exile, quietly working to rebuild your name in an honorable way – would mean missing out on an opportunity to cash in. (“Don’t be a fool” is such a quaint notion in our times, isn’t it?) Then we’d shift our attention to the next thing and gnaw it down to the marrow, because there’s always a next thing.
How much of that daydream Thomas Merton warned about turned into our reality? And is it that we no longer resent reminders that it’s unreal, or is it more that we’re hardened to the unreality itself? Perhaps I’ll think about it later. Right now, there’s this really great new show I want to watch…. TV
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Around the dial
David at Comfort TV has a look at how the sitcom has portrayed psychiatrists and psychologists over the years. I'd forgotten about some of these; for instance, that Dr. Bellows on I Dream of Jeannie was a psychiatrist. I just remembered him as long-suffering. Of course, it's been a while since I've seen it...
The Hitchcock Project continues apace at bare-bones e-zine, and this week Jack takes us to the season three episode "The Impromptu Murder," adapted by Francis Cockrell and starring the wonderful Hume Cronyn. I really enjoy these recaps!
Speaking of Hitch, don't miss the picture at the Broadcasting Archives at the University of Maryland - it shows the great man impersonating Ringo Starr for the opening of one of his shows!
At Garroway at Large, Jodie has some additional information on the story from a couple of weeks ago about Today's reporting on the death of George VI. It was a big story for the young show to cover, and I always enjoy reading the inside story about how coverage like this is put together, as well as how it came off to those who saw it.
Love that Bob! returns to The Horn Section as Hal reviews the 1956 episode "The Dominant Sex," in which our hero Bob takes on the challenge of beautiful Italian starlet Ana Maria Scarpitta, who says "American men are unromantic businessmen who are completely dominated by women."
Ever thought of traveling to Nebraska to learn more about Star Trek? Outspoken and Freckled tells us how the Gage County Classic Film Institutegives Trekkies a good reason why.
For Black History Month, Joanne at Christmas TV History gives us a look at the 1982 Christmas episode of Diff'rent Strokes. It blends together a number of threads from different - or diff'rent - Yuletide storylines, but its moral is one that's bound to make you feel good, whether or not you were a regular viewer of the show.
Also for the occasion, A Shroud of Thoughts presents a history-making moment by Petula Clark and Harry Belafonte in 1968. Some food for thought indeed.
Hard as it may be to believe, I've been accused of being ponderous from time to time, but even I find this essay on The Andy Griffith Show (a series I've never been a big fan of, by the way) to be just a bit too much on every account. Am I wrong, or doesn't this kind of thing really take the fun out of just watching television?
Let's try and have some fun out there, and come on back tomorrow. TV
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This week in TV Guide: March 5, 1966
Ronald Searle, the famed British satirical cartoonist, was responsible for multiple covers, including illustrations of David Janssen, the cast of The Beverly Hillbillies, and Lucille Ball. Lucy was also the subject of Richard Amsel, who did many covers over the years. Of course, last year we saw Salvador Dali's surrealistic cover and the accompanying story featuring Edith Efron's attempts to interview Dali. Al Hirschfeld's rendition of Carol Burnett in 1970 came just a few weeks before the great Norman Rockwell produced this photo-like portrait of Johnny Carson. LeRoy Neiman was the natural choice for football-themed covers, producing them in 1973 and 1991, and the hipster Peter Max produced this cover for the 1998 election.
There have been many striking photos on the cover of TV Guide as well; one of my favorites was this festive Patty Duke picture in 1963 that looks much more colorful in real life than the picture. But there are times, such as this reflective 1970 portrait of the retiring Chet Huntley, that a painting or drawing captures the mood in a way that a photograph can't quite match. Intentional or not, what this suggests to me is that the magazine felt real artwork lent a gravitas and seriousness, demonstrating that TV Guide deserved to be mentioned in the same conversation as other magazines with important artwork on the cover - The New Yorker, The Saturday Evening Post, the old covers of Fortune - and that mirrors the seriousness with which the editors felt the contents of TV Guide should be taken. And without question, the art itself tells us much about the times that produce it.
Today's modern covers feature pictures that are nice enough, I suppose, if you can see them through the screaming text that threatens to obscure everything, but there's nothing special anymore, just as there's nothing special about the contents inside. That's no surprise, though; if the articles themselves have been dumbed down, why should the covers be any different?
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: Scheduled guests are singers Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello; the Ramsey Lewis Trio, jazz instrumentalists; comedians John Byner, and Tony Hendra and Nick Ullett; French songstress Mireille Mathieu; and Topo Gigio, the Italian mouse.
Palace: Host Milton Berle welcomes "Batman" Adam West, who makes his singing debut and does a "Batman" spoof with Milton, Martha Raye, and Henny Youngman. Other guests: singer-dancer Elaine Dunn; Sandler and Young, musical-comedy duo; and the Amin Brothers, acrobats.
Not a great lineup for either show this week in my opinion (although your mileage may vary), but there's a camp value alone to Adam West singing and spoofing Batman, and with the rest of the acts pretty much cancelling each other out, the Batsignal is showing me a narrow victory for The Palace.
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. American actor Steve Forrest's British TV series The Baron is one of those short-run shows I've thought about picking up if the price ever comes down.* I've never seen an episode of it though, so when The Baron shows up in Cleveland Amory's review, it makes me sit up and take notice. Or take notes, as the case may be.
*It's over $65 right now, although if you shop around you can find it for about $35.
The long and short of it, according to Cleve: it's good. The source material, crime writer John Creasey, gives it an edge right off the bat. And, being a British series (although, strangely, it debuted here before it did across the pond, which means it isn't simply a "Second Season" rental), it has what Amory considers the cardinal virtues of Brit dramas: "understated humor, understated heroics and even understated, though well-developed, heroines." The star, Forrest, is a rarity in these shows: an American actor playing an American. As the titular hero, "The Baron" is the owner of three exclusive antique shops, but he's also an undercover agent whose job is to recover priceless stolen objects. He's aided in these exploits by the aforementioned well-developed heroine, Sue Lloyd.
Amory doesn't go into a lot of detail about the relative virtues of the series, instead relying on summaries of several recent shows, which display entertaining plots, tight, clever writing, dry humor, and very good acting. At one point Amory even uses the word "wonderful," and non-ironically at that, which counts as quite an endorsement in my book. At the end of a typically exciting adventure, The Baron asks Sue if she's all right, to which she replies, "Yes, thank you." It's the politeness, Amory says, that puts things over the top. As does this review, if the DVD set of The Baron goes on sale.
The Fred Friendly saga continues for the third week running, as our Letters to the Editor section gives us a clue as to public opinion. It's usually the custom of the editors to run letters that typify how viewer sentiment runs; in this case, we have one pro-Friendly letter and one con. In support of Friendly's stand (which you can read about in the last two "This Week in TV Guide" features) is Robert Lighthouse of Rochester, New York, who says in part that "it is a sad day when a top executive of a network noted for excellence in news coverage can decide to show reruns in preference to Senate hearings on the most important issue facing the American people." It's not just the networks to blame, though; it "must be shared by an apathetic public which prefers its world of daydreams to facing reality." Among those members of the public, apparently, is Mrs. Donald Willis of Indianapolis, who writs that "we housewives have at least one friend in court. I was made, mad, mad about having a whole day's schedule of programs canceled to make way for Vietnam discussions." Which leads one to wonder if Mrs. Willis and her husband have any boys who will come of draft age in the next five or six years. It would be interesting to see if her opinion has changed by then.
Of course, one can argue, Mrs. Willis and those who share her opinion eventually win the day, but to what end? Except for the biggest stories, broadcast networks have virtually ceded coverage news coverage to cable networks, with the result that every story becomes a big story in order to fill the insatiable demand created by 24-hour networks. In the meantime, the remaining "news" programs on the networks drift more and more into sensationalist reporting, the glorification of celebritydom, and "fake" news from both sides; many of these shows are barely discernible from the reality programming that fills other parts of the schedule. Who could have seen this coming? Of course, even if they had, would it have made any difference?
How about something a little lighter? Let's find some celebrities! (And no, they're not on the news.)
Game shows are still a good place for celebrity guests. This week Lloyd Bridges and Florence Henderson appear on CBS's Password (1:00 p.m. CT), while the parents of the Space Family Robinson, Guy Williams and June Lockhart are on NBC's You Don't Say! (2:30 p.m,), followed by Jayne Mansfield and Bennett Cerf* on Match Game (3:00 p.m.) Both What's My Line? (Sunday, 9:30 p.m., CBS) and the nighttime version of I've Got a Secret (Monday, 7:30 p.m., CBS) have two guest celebrities: on WML?, Mrs. John V. Lindsay (aka Mary Anne Harrison) and Tony Randall join the panel; meanwhile, on IGAS Edgar Buchanan has the secret, and Lee Remick sits in for vacationing Bess Myerson.
*Now there's an interesting pairing. No doubt Bennett would be delighted at the appearance of the "curvaceous cutie" Mrs. Mansfield.
On the week's variety shows (besides Sullivan and The Palace), Pat Boone hosts Hullabaloo (Monday, 6:30 p.m., NBC), with Donovan, Nancy Ames, and the Womenfolk; then (8:00 p.m., NBC) Andy Williams's guests are Tony Bennett, Peggy Lee, and Frank Gorshin. Tuesday's Red Skelton Hour (7:30 p.m., CBS) has Fernando Lamas, looking marvelous, and Ike Cole, brother of the late Nat and a fine musician in his own right. Wednesday it's Danny Kaye's turn (9:00 p.m, CBS), and he's joined by Nancy Wilson and John Gary. Thursday belongs to Dean Martin (9:00 p.m., NBC), with Ella Fitzgerald, Johnny Mathis, Shelly Berman, the Young Americans, and Gene Sheldon. Friday rounds out the week with a twin bill; first, Sammy Davis Jr. (7:30 p.m., NBC), with Gordon and Sheila MacRae, Peter Lawford, Mel Tormé, and Timmie Rogers; followed later by Jimmy Dean (9:00 p.m., ABC), with Roberta Sherwood, Boots Randolph, Norm Crosby, and Marvin Laird.
There's one more celebrity appearance that's worth noting: on NBC Children's Theatre (Sunday, 5:30 p.m.), Johnny Carson narrates an adaptation of E.B. White's children's classic, "Stuart Little," with a cast composed entirely of nonprofessionals. The charming adaptation goes on to win a Peabody; the citation states that it "was so technically adroit and so uncondescending in approach as to win the hearts of all—young and old." Here - judge for yourself.
A couple of news specials give us a little more context to these soon-to-be turbulent times. On Tuesday at 9:00 p.m., a CBS News Special entitled "Our Friends, the French" explores the recent rift between the longtime allies, with France recently pulling out of the NATO military structure and deciding to go it alone with development of its own atomic program. Led by the headstrong DeGaulle, this was a source of major contention back in the day, with the French ability to make mischief on an international stage causing more than one country to have more than one outbreak of heartburn. Tune back in after Vietnam heats up to see what effect this has.
Speaking of Vietnam, ABC preempts Cleveland Amory's favorite, The Baron, on Friday night at 9:00 p.m. to present "Operation Sea War," a look at the Navy's role in the conflict, narrated by Glenn Ford, who is also a commander in the Navy Reserve. This is just a guess on my part, but I don't think the program probably mentions the Gulf of Tonkin; it did, however, come up* in those Senate hearings I mentioned earlier - you know, the ones that CBS and Fred Friendly butted heads over. I wonder if Mrs. Donald Willis watched this? Nah, she was probably watching the movie on CBS. ("The Interns," starring Cliff Robertson, Michael Callan, James MacArthur, and Suzy Parker.) That seems about right.
*To be precise, Committee Chairman J. William Fulbright referred to it as "the fraudulent Gulf of Tonkin episode."
Finally, a last visit with Andy Warhol. Besides this week's cover, he did the inside fashion shoot with Barbara Feldon. Here are a couple of shots that leave no doubt as to the Warhol touch.
Think we'd see anything like that from someone of Warhol's stature in today's TV Guide? Somehow, I doubt it. TV
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