Mitchell Hadley's Blog: It's About TV!, page 12
April 16, 2025
What I've been watching: April, 2025
Shows I’ve Watched:Shows I’ve Added:World War I
Owen MarshallSherlock HolmesThe New Avengers
It might seem hard to belive for television viewers today, but back in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the idea of a weekly series using only documentary footage was not only possible, it was done several times. In the early part of the 1950s, NBC had scored a big success with its 26-episode Victory at Sea, chronicling the naval campaigns of World War II to a soundtrack by Richard Rodgers that was a success in its own right. The ’60s saw networks leaning hard into historical nonfiction, especially on ABC and CBS, where series like ABC’s FDR (1965) and Churchill: The Valiant Years (1960–61) joined CBS’s own The 20th Century (1957–66) and Air Power (1956–57). These shows were cut from the same cloth: big stories about big figures and eras, told with a mix of gravitas and thrift. FDR (with narration by Arthur Kennedy, and Charlton Heston reading the words of FDR) traced Roosevelt’s life over 27 episodes, while Churchill leaned on Sir Winston’s own words (as delivered by Richard Burton), winning an Emmy for its trouble.
While FDR and Churchill both aired in prime time, CBS’s The 20th Century, a follow-up to Air Power, was a Sunday afternoon staple for a decade. Narrated by Walter Cronkite, The 20th Century tackled everything from the Wright brothers to the Russian Revolution, while Air Power (also voiced by Cronkite) zeroed in on aviation’s military leap. What tied them together? Archival footage was the secret sauce—miles of it, often dirt-cheap or free from government and private collections. This let producers keep budgets lean while delivering authenticity no soundstage could match. In an era before CGI, those flickering images were TV’s time machine, making history feel immediate without breaking the bank.
I mention these not because I'm about to review them for you; I'm not. But it helps put in perspective CBS's 1964-65 series World War I, which is this month's feature attraction. The series aired first on Tuesdays at 8:00 p.m., later shifting to Sundays at 6:30 to sidestep ABC’s Combat! With actor Robert Ryan providing the narration, and a soundtrack by Morton Gould that is both evocative and haunting, the series led viewers from pre-war saber-rattling to the bitter Versailles Treaty, with no gimmicky sound effects, no somber readings by famous voice artists, no on-camera experts talking about what we were seeing. No, the network wisely let the grainy still images and jerky movie footage carry the weight—and carry it it does, over 26 episodes that provide some of the starkest, most sobering images of war ever seen on television. If ever you've wondered about mankind's ability to be both evil and stupid, often at the same time, you'll get your answers here.What set World War I apart in the crowded ’60s TV grid was its scope. This wasn’t just about battles—it dug into the why and how: empires collapsing, technology rewriting warfare, entire continents reshaped. Episodes spanned Sarajevo’s spark to the armistice’s fallout, touching on propaganda, civilians, and the global chessboard. CBS News, with heavyweights like Burton Benjamin and Isaac Kleinerman, treated TV as a public square, not a circus. In a decade where Vietnam was creeping onto screens and the Cold War loomed, a series about a distant war felt like a quiet warning.
It's true that none of these series broke ratings records; in fact, when you browse through TV Guides of the era, you'll see that there were a fair number of affiliates that chose to either substitute their own programming or move these documentaries to a time when their low viewership wouldn't be such a drain on the advertising dollar. However, their critical success, combined with the obvious attention to historical detail, were the networks' answer to the rising criticism coming from influential circles (i.e. Washington) regarding the lack of substance of network programming. Oh, and did I mention that they were relatively easy on the programming budget?
But back to World War I for a moment: it's a part of history that holds a particular interest for me, and I've seen a good number of documentaries over the years telling of the futility of the Great War, and the horrible price the world paid for such folly. Over the 13 hours of this series, you'll see that folly on display over and over again: how naive everyone was in thinking the war would last only a few years; the muck and mire of trench warfare; the evil of the generals sending young men to be slaughtered while they remained safely behind the lines; the utter destruction of countrysides, forests, cities and towns. And for what? So we could do it all over again a couple of decades later? That might be a bit of a simplification, but not by much.
World War I is not easy to find online; I was fortunate enough to cop the DVD set at Half Price Books a couple of years ago. But if you get the chance, make a commitment to find it and watch it. I can't say you'll be sorry, because one of the overriding emotions to come from this series is sorrow: for those who suffered in the past, and those who will suffer in the future. Becuase if there's one thing we learn from history, it's that we don't learn anything from history. TV
April 14, 2025
What's on TV? Sunday, April 11, 1965
Baseball season starts on Monday, and one of the most interesting programs on this Sunday is Requiem for an Arena on KGO (
watch here
), a documentary on the legendary Polo Grounds in New York, which was torn down last year. What makes it even better is that it's narrated by Horace McMahon, who played Mike Parker in that great tribute to New York City itself, Naked City. And why is this of interest to those in the area of this Northern California edition? Because the primary tenant of the Polo Grounds was the New York Giants, prior to their move to San Francisco in 1958. -2- KTVU (SAN FRANCISCO-OAKLAND) (IND.) Morning 9:00 LIVING WORD—Religion 9:15 SACRED HEART—Religion 9:30 MOVIE—Drama “Disaster” (1948) 10:30 MOVIE—Drama “Home of the Brave” (1949) 11:00 CALIFORNIA U.S.A. Afternoon 12:00 TOP STAR BOWLING 1:00 EDITORS’ FORUM 1:30 EDITORS’ FORUM 2:00 MOVIE—Comedy COLOR “Don’t Go Near the Water” (1957) 4:00 MOVIE—Comedy “Just Around the Corner” (1938) 5:30 NEWS 5:45 DAN SMOOT—Commentary Evening 6:00 DICK POWELL—Drama 7:00 MOVIE—Drama “The Decks Ran Red” (1958) Bay Area TV Debut 8:50 ROLLER DERBY—Bombers Bay Bombers vs. Chicago Pioneers 10:45 MANION FORUM--Talk 11:00 MOVIE—Drama “Jennifer” (1953)
-3- KCRA (SACRAMENTO) (NBC) Morning 7:30 CHRISTOPHER PROGRAM 7:45 DAVEY AND GOLIATH—Religion COLOR 8:00 PALM SUNDAY MASS SPECIAL COLOR From St. Peter In Chains Cathedral, Cincinnati 9:00 SACTO’S FAVORITES—Children 9:30 MOVIE—Drama “The Secret of Convict Lake” (1951) 11:30 INSIGHT—Religion Afternoon 12:00 CAPITOL AND THE CLERGY 12:30 HEART OF THE PROBLEM 1:00 NBC SPORTS IN ACTION Grand National Steeplechase, bowling 2:00 WILD KINGDOM COLOR 2:30 SEA HUNT—Adventure 3:00 PROFILES IN COURAGE 4:00 MOVIE—Adventure “The Little Savage” (1959) 5:30 MOVIE—Drama COLOR “Escapade in Japan” (1957) N. Cal. TV Debut Evening 7:30 DISNEY’S WORLD COLOR “Kids is Kids” 8:30 BRANDED—Western 9:00 BONANZA—Western COLOR 10:00 ROGUES—Drama 11:00 MEET THE PRESS COLOR Guest: Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach 11:30 MOVIE—Drama “Down to the Sea in Ships” (1949)
-4- KRON (SAN FRANCISCO-OAKLAND) (NBC) Morning 6:00 ACROSS THE FENCE 6:30 WHITE COLLAR FARMER 7:00 MR. WIZARD—Science 7:30 FRONTIERS OF FAITH—Religion 8:00 PALM SUNDAY MASS SPECIAL COLOR From St. Peter In Chains Cathedral, Cincinnati 9:00 LIGHT TIME—Religion Guest: Roger Williams 9:15 DAVEY AND GOLIATH COLOR 9:30 CARTOON TIME—Children 10:00 ETERNAL LIGHT SPECIAL “Passover with Jan Peerce” 10:30 PASSOVER DISCUSSION SPECIAL “From Exodus to Selma; Marching for Freedom” 11:00 HERITAGE—Disucssion 11:30 THIS IS THE LIFE—Religion Afternoon 12:00 GREEN THUMB—Gillespie 12:30 CAPITOL AND THE CLERGY 1:00 PROBLEMS PLEASE—Panel 1:30 CHILDHOOD—Education 2:00 COLLOQUY “Othello” 2:30 SPEAK OUT—Jerry Jensen 3:00 SUNDAY 4:00 NBC SPORTS IN ACTION Harriman Cup Ski Races 5:00 WILD KINGDOM COLOR 5:30 G-E COLLEGE BOWL COLOR Clarkson College of Technology vs. Wisconsin Evening 6:00 MEET THE PRESS COLOR Guest: Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach 6:30 PROFILES IN COURAGE 7:30 DISNEY’S WORLD COLOR “Kids is Kids” 8:30 BRANDED—Western 9:00 BONANZA—Western COLOR 10:00 ROGUES—Drama 11:00 MOVIE—Drama “Duel in the Forest” (German; 1959) 1:15 NEWS
-5- KPIX (SAN FRANCISCO-OAKLAND) (CBS) Morning 6:30 CHRISTOPHER PROGRAM 7:00 SEARCH—Education 7:30 YOUTH IN ACTION 8:00 TEREZIN REQUIEM SPECIAL “Lamp Unto My Feet” and “Look Up and Live” are pre-empted 9:00 CAMERA THREE 9:30 FACE THE NATION 10:00 ENCOUNTER—Religion 10:30 BIG PICTURE—Army 11:00 DRAMA—Lessons “The Importance of Being Earnest” 11:30 MOVIE—Comedy “Let’s Live a Little” (1948) Afternoon 12:55 KPIX EDITORIAL 1:00 MASTERS GOLF TOURNAMENT SPECIAL Final round, from Augusta, Georgia 2:30 CBS SPORTS SPECTACULAR—Gymnastics, Fishing NCAA Gymnastics Championship, trout fishing contest 4:00 MOVIE—Drama “The Miracle of the Bells” (1948) 5:30 AMATEUR HOUR—Variety Evening 6:00 TWENTIETH CENTURY—Documentary “The Dissenter: Norman Thomas” 6:30 WORLD WAR I—Documentary “The Allies in Russia” 7:00 LASSIE—Drama 7:30 MY FAVORITE MARTIAN—Comedy 8:00 ED SULLIVAN Guests: Maurice Chevalier, Cab Calloway, the San Francisco Ballet company, Felicia Sanders, Soupy Sales, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Rudy Schweitzer, London Lee, Jose Torres, Stiller and Meara 9:00 FOR THE PEOPLE 10:00 CANDID CAMERA 10:30 WHAT’S MY LINE? 11:00 NEWS 11:10 SPORTS—John Weston 11:30 KPIX EDITORIAL 11:35 MOVIE—Drama “Hatter’s Castle” (English; 1948) 1:30 SILENTS PLEASE—Movies “Fall of Babylon”
-6- KVIE (SACRAMENTO) (EDUC.) Morning 9:00 UC SYMPOSIUM SPECIAL Afternoon 12:30 INTERTEL—Documentary SPECIAL 1:30 UC SYMPOSIUM SPECIAL
-7- KGO (SAN FRANCISCO-OAKLAND) (ABC) Morning ALL-NIGHT MOVIE—Continued 7:30 VOICE OF AGRICULTURE 8:00 ADVENTUROUS MISSION 8:30 WORLD OF RELIGION 9:00 TV GOSPEL TIME 9:30 EN FRANCE—Language 10:00 GOLDEN GATE STORY 10:25 NEWS—Gary Bentley 10:30 BEANY AND CECIL—Cartoons 11:00 BULLWINKLE COLOR 11:30 DISCOVERY ‘65 “Explorers before Columbus” Afternoon 12:00 BOSTON SYMPHONY 1:00 DIRECTIONS ’65 SPECIAL “The Final Ingedrient” 2:00 NBA PLAY-OFF—76ers vs. Celtics SPECIAL Philadelphia 76ers vs. Boston Celtics, game 4 or 5 4:00 REQUIEM FOR AN ARENA SPECIAL “Polo Grounds: Requiem for an Arena” 5:00 SCIENCE ALL-STARS—Don Morrow Guest: Edward Teller 5:30 MOVIE—Drama “No Highway in the Sky” (1951) Evening 7:30 WAGON TRAIN—Western 8:30 BROADSIDE 9:00 MOVIE—Western COLOR Sunday Night Movie: “The Big Country” (1958) The half hour of footage cut from this film for its original showing has been replaced for this telecast. 12:00 NEWS 12:15 MOVIE—Comedy “It Happens Every Spring” (1949)
-7- KRCR (REDDING) (ABC, NBC) Morning 9:30 HERALD OF TRUTH—Religion 10:00 ETERNAL LIGHT SPECIAL “Passover with Jan Peerce” 10:30 BEANY AND CECIL—Cartoons 11:00 BULLWINKLE COLOR 11:30 DISCOVERY ‘65 “Explorers before Columbus” Afternoon 12:00 SCIENCE ALL-STARS—Don Morrow 12:30 MANION FORUM—Talk 12:45 DAN SMOOT—Commentary 1:00 DIRECTIONS ’65 SPECIAL “The Final Ingedrient” 2:00 NBA PLAY-OFF—76ers vs. Celtics SPECIAL Philadelphia 76ers vs. Boston Celtics, game 4 or 5 4:00 TO BE ANNOUNCED 5:00 WILD KINGDOM COLOR 5:30 SURVIVAL!—Documentary Evening 6:00 REBEL—Western 6:30 DANIEL BOONE—Western 7:30 DISNEY’S WORLD COLOR “Kids is Kids” 8:30 BROADSIDE 9:00 BONANZA—Western COLOR 10:00 MOVIE—Western COLOR Sunday Night Movie: “The Big Country” (1958) The half hour of footage cut from this film for its original showing has been replaced for this telecast. 1:00 NEWS
-8- KSBW (SALINAS) (CBS, NBC) Morning 8:00 PALM SUNDAY MASS SPECIAL COLOR From St. Peter In Chains Cathedral, Cincinnati 9:00 CAMERA THREE 9:30 FACE THE NATION 10:00 ETERNAL LIGHT SPECIAL “Passover with Jan Peerce” 10:30 HERALD OF TRUTH—Religion 11:00 MOVIE—Drama “Great Day in the Morning” (1956) Afternoon 1:00 MASTERS GOLF TOURNAMENT SPECIAL Final round, from Augusta, Georgia 2:30 HOUR OF ST. FRANCIS—Religion Time approximate 3:00 CANCER SOCIETY PANEL 3:30 DAN SMOOT—Commentary 3:45 MANION FORUM—Talk 4:00 NBC SPORTS IN ACTION Harriman Cup Ski Races 5:00 SCIENCE IN ACTION 5:30 G-E COLLEGE BOWL COLOR Clarkson College of Technology vs. Wisconsin Evening 6:00 TWENTIETH CENTURY—Documentary “The Dissenter: Norman Thomas” 6:30 MISTER ED—Comedy 7:00 LASSIE—Drama 7:30 MY FAVORITE MARTIAN—Comedy 8:00 ED SULLIVAN Guests: Maurice Chevalier, Cab Calloway, the San Francisco Ballet company, Felicia Sanders, Soupy Sales, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Rudy Schweitzer, London Lee, Jose Torres, Stiller and Meara 9:00 BONANZA—Western COLOR 10:00 CANDID CAMERA 10:30 WHAT’S MY LINE? 11:00 NEWS 11:15 THAT I MAY SEE—Religion SPECIAL
-9- KQED (SAN FRANCISCO-OAKLAND) (EDUC.) Morning 9:00 UC SYMPOSIUM SPECIAL Afternoon 12:30 INTERTEL—Documentary SPECIAL 1:30 UC SYMPOSIUM SPECIAL
10 KXTV (SACRAMENTO) (CBS) Morning 6:30 SOCIAL SECURITY IN ACTION 6:45 SACRED HEART—Religion 7:00 BIG PICTURE—Army 7:30 SILVER WINGS—Documentary 8:00 TEREZIN REQUIEM SPECIAL “Lamp Unto My Feet” and “Look Up and Live” are pre-empted 9:00 CAMERA THREE 9:30 FACE THE NATION 10:00 STAR ROUTE, U.S.A.—Music Guest: Skeeter Davis. Host: Rod Cameron 10:30 CALENDAR—Discussion 11:00 MOVIE—Drama “I Wanted Wings” (1941) Afternoon 1:00 MASTERS GOLF TOURNAMENT SPECIAL Final round, from Augusta, Georgia 2:30 CBS SPORTS SPECTACULAR—Gymnastics, Fishing NCAA Gymnastics Championship, trout fishing contest 4:00 MOVIE—Drama “Blazing Sand” (Israeli-German; 1960) Evening 6:00 TWENTIETH CENTURY—Documentary “The Dissenter: Norman Thomas” 6:30 WORLD WAR I—Documentary “The Allies in Russia” 7:00 LASSIE—Drama 7:30 MY FAVORITE MARTIAN—Comedy 8:00 ED SULLIVAN Guests: Maurice Chevalier, Cab Calloway, the San Francisco Ballet company, Felicia Sanders, Soupy Sales, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Rudy Schweitzer, London Lee, Jose Torres, Stiller and Meara 9:00 FOR THE PEOPLE 10:00 CANDID CAMERA 10:30 WHAT’S MY LINE? 11:00 NEWS 11:15 MOVIE—Comedy “The French They Are a Funny Race” (French; 1956) N. Cal. TV Debut
11 KNTV (SAN JOSE) (ABC) Morning 7:30 BIBLE ANSWERS—Drama 8:00 SOCIAL SECURITY IN ACTION 8:15 SACRED HEART—Religion 8:30 KNTV INFORMA—Ed Grigg 9:00 UN CANTO DE MEXICO—Music 9:30 INTERMEZZO LATINO—Music 10:00 VARIEDADES DE MEXICO 10:30 TEATRO MUSICAL 11:00 BULLWINKLE—Cartoons 11:30 DISCOVERY ‘65 “Explorers before Columbus” Afternoon 12:00 FILM FEATURE “Traveler Meets Air Traffic Control” 12:30 ORAL ROBERTS—Religion 1:00 ROLLER GAMES San Francisco Shamrocks vs. Detroit Devils 2:00 NBA PLAY-OFF—76ers vs. Celtics SPECIAL Philadelphia 76ers vs. Boston Celtics, game 4 or 5 4:00 STONEY BURKE—Western 5:00 SCIENCE ALL-STARS—Don Morrow Guest: Edward Teller 5:30 TEEN TALK—Panel Evening 6:00 MOVIE—Western “Gunsmoke in Tucson” (1958) 7:30 WAGON TRAIN—Western 8:30 BROADSIDE 9:00 MOVIE—Western COLOR Sunday Night Movie: “The Big Country” (1958) The half hour of footage cut from this film for its original showing has been replaced for this telecast. 12:00 NEWS 12:15 MOVIE—Comedy “For Heaven’s Sake” (1950)
12 KHSL (CHICO) (ABC, CBS) Morning 7:45 CHRISTOPHER PROGRAM 8:00 ALLEN REVIVAL HOUR 8:30 HERALD OF TRUTH—Religion 9:00 ORAL ROBERTS—Religion 9:30 DOG OF THE HOUR 9:45 MANION FORUM—Talk 10:00 DAN SMOOT—Commentary 10:15 THREE STOOGES—Comedy 11:00 LEAVE IT TO BEAVER—Comedy 11:30 WIRE SERVICE—Drama Afternoon 12:30 MR. LUCKY—Adventure 1:00 MASTERS GOLF TOURNAMENT SPECIAL Final round, from Augusta, Georgia 2:30 CBS SPORTS SPECTACULAR—Gymnastics, Fishing NCAA Gymnastics Championship, trout fishing contest 4:00 TOP STAR BOWLING 5:00 FAMOUS PLAYHOUSE—Drama 5:30 AMATEUR HOUR—Variety Evening 6:00 TWENTIETH CENTURY—Documentary “The Dissenter: Norman Thomas” 6:30 SCIENCE IN ACTION 7:00 LASSIE—Drama 7:30 MY FAVORITE MARTIAN—Comedy 8:00 ED SULLIVAN Guests: Maurice Chevalier, Cab Calloway, the San Francisco Ballet company, Felicia Sanders, Soupy Sales, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Rudy Schweitzer, London Lee, Jose Torres, Stiller and Meara 9:00 FOR THE PEOPLE 10:00 CANDID CAMERA 10:30 WHAT’S MY LINE? 11:00 NEWS 11:15 MOVIE—Comedy “My Favorite Blonde” (1942)
13 KOVR (SACRAMENTO) (ABC) Morning 6:30 NEWS 6:45 SACRED HEART—Religion 7:00 FAITH FOR TODAY—Religion 7:30 THIS IS THE LIFE—Religion 8:00 WONDERAMA—Children 9:00 MOVIE—Drama “Cloudburst” (English; 1951) N. Cal. TV Debut 10:30 BEANY AND CECIL—Cartoons 11:00 BULLWINKLE COLOR 11:30 DISCOVERY ‘65 “Explorers before Columbus” Afternoon 12:00 ROLLER DERBY—Bombers 1:00 DIRECTIONS ’65 SPECIAL “The Final Ingedrient” 2:00 NBA PLAY-OFF—76ers vs. Celtics SPECIAL Philadelphia 76ers vs. Boston Celtics, game 4 or 5 4:00 STONEY BURKE—Western 5:00 MOVIE—Western “Gunsight Ridge” (1957) N. Cal. TV Debut Evening 6:30 VALENTINE’S DAY—Comedy 7:00 SCIENCE IN ACTION 7:30 WAGON TRAIN—Western 8:30 BROADSIDE 9:00 MOVIE—Western COLOR Sunday Night Movie: “The Big Country” (1958) The half hour of footage cut from this film for its original showing has been replaced for this telecast. 12:00 NEWS 12:15 ELEVENTH HOUR—Drama
TV
April 12, 2025
This week in TV Guide: April 10, 1965
Even the word sounds quaint, old fashioned. Smut. Sounds like something your grandmother might have warned you about, and if she'd been around in 1965, reading TV Guide, she might have felt justified after reading Leslie Raddatz's article—first in a three-part series—on "Smut in the Living Room."It's one of the first articles we've seen that indicates a shift, perhaps ever so slight, toward sex replacing violence as the number one concern of television viewers. Raddatz suggests that this may be due to television's ever-increasing use of movies to fill in scheduling gaps. With those older movies that have been staples of broadcasting since the start comes the newer fare from Hollywood, which New York Times critic Bosley Crowther describes as containing "an unmistakable surge of sensuality and just plain smut." Two of the leading offenders of the moment are Kiss Me, Stupid, which Playboy (of all sources) described as "amateur night at a third-rate burlesque house" and The Carpetbaggers, described by Life as "An untalented leering paean to sex." Since this is a three-part article, we're not going to see a comprehensive analysis of the situation right away; indeed, in part one, Raddatz focuses his attention on two men in particular: Billy Wilder, the man who brought us Kiss Me, Stupid; and Joseph E. Levine, the producer of The Carpetbaggers.
Wilder won't discuss Kiss Me, Stupid, but Raddatz has plenty to say about Wilder, whose career and his work "have often verged on an, at best, unconventional and sometimes seamy borderline." Critics have addressed "the inner nihilism, the impatience and contempt for the audience" in many of his movies, and a former associate calls him "the only guy I know who could sneer 'Merry Christmas.' " Despite this, or perhaps because of it, he's one of Hollywood's most honored directors, with the Oscars to prove it.
Is this as hot as it gets while fully clothed?Wilder came from humble origins—when he moved from Berlin to the United States, he initially lived in an unused ladies' lavatory of a hotel—and Raddatz wonders, in the psychoanalytical style of the times, if his desire to bend the boundaries of acceptability somehow constitute "a defense of his base beginnings." His movies tend to deal with "distasteful or single-entendre themes," such as adultery in Double Indemnity and The Apartment, alcoholism in The Lost Weekend, drag in Some Like it Hot, prostitution in Irma la Douce, and—raising the states—double adultery in Kiss Me, Stupid, which Life, in its put-down of the movie, said included "situations and a dialog that would generate blushes in a smoker car." Wilder, an opponent of censorship by "ladies' clubs in Nebraska," professes delight with television, since it gives those in movies "something to look down on."Levine, whose movies, like Wilder's, have won honors, has several already running on television: "Two Women, which involves the rape of a woman and her teen-age daughter, Room at the Top, which concerns adultery; A Taste of Honey, which deals with illegitimacy and homosexuality; and The Mark, which is about a suspected child molester." The movies run later in the evening, at 10:00 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and carry with them a respectability that seems often to be absent from Wilder's films.
They also tend to spark less outrage than those of Wilder's, and Raddatz wonders if this might be the answer to a problem faced by television programmers. "The great thing," according to one Hollywood journalist, "is that television has taken over the place of program pictures and B pictures, so that good adult movies can be made. If these adult films can’t be shown on television, does it mean that all motion pictures are to be made at the level of the TV viewer?" In other words, the critics can focus their barbs on Kiss Me, Stupid and the like, allowing "worthwhile adult films in dignified fashion" such as Room at the Top and Two Women to be viewed as acceptable alternatives.
Or, he wonders at the conclusion of part one, when these new displays of smut turn up on television, will we see things come to a point? Will we see more self-regulation, or is the government, "—either through Congressional committees or the Federal Communications Commission—preparing to move into this sensitive area?"
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From 1963 to 1976, TV Guide's weekly reviews were written by the witty and acerbic Cleveland Amory. Whenever they appear, we'll look at Cleve's latest take on the shows of the era. The question before us is this: is For the People really for the viewers? Cleveland Amory is inclined to think so, although he concedes it may not be for all the people. But as a logical successor to The Defenders, he thinks this legal drama will do just fine. Like its predecessor, the show is long on realism, and desiring of topicality—even though its grittiness may, at times, come close to discouraging us. But, he says, if you stick with it, you won't be sorry.
For the People, as the title might suggest, takes the opposite tack from The Defenders (given that it's produced by the same people, comparisons are unavoidable), with William Shatner as assistant D.A. David Koster, an earnest, bulldog prosecutor, aided by his boss (Howard Da Silva), a friendly detective (Lonny Chapman), and his loyal wife (Jessica Walter), who sometimes wishes he could just let go of the job for awhile. It boasts an equally fine lineup of guest stars, all of whom turn in particularly fine performances. It is, Cleve says, as "equally exciting" as The Defenders, but "even more penetrating and engrossing."
As someone who, for the most part, appreciated The Defenders and, in fact, has seen a couple of episodes of For the People, I can sympathize, even agree, with much of what Amory says. Where we part company, though, is in the matter of the show's star. Amory sees Shatner as "right up there in the big leagues with David Janssen, Robert Lansing, Vic Morrow and Richard Crenna," to which I can only scoff. This is not to be unduly harsh on the Shat, but I've always felt that he was almost always the weak link in every production he's appeared in. In For the People, as in most of his roles, he comes across either as overly intense, or so over the top that you'd think he was working behind a deli counter, he's hurling so much ham around. I know a lot of you might not agree with me on this, but to suggest that he's in the same league as those other actors is probably the funniest thing I'll read in this issue; he might conceivably be close to Morrow (although I can't envision Shatner in Combat!), but as for the other three, it strikes me as, frankly, preposterous. Apparently the viewers felt at least somewhat the same: For the People lasts but 13 weeks before shuffling off this mortal coil.
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This week may seem to you a lot like last week, which wouldn't be surprising, given that Easter doesn't have a fixed date each year. (If you're interested in just how the date for Easter is determined, you can read about it here .) One of those duplicates from last week is the Masters, golf's first major of the season, which concludes this weekend with CBS's coverage of the third and fourth rounds (Saturday, 2:00 p.m. PT, Sunday, 1:00 p.m.) What promises to be a thrilling showdown between golf's big three of Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player—tied for the lead after 36 holes—fails to materialize as Nicklaus puts the pedal to the metal over the weekend, shooting 64-69 to finish with a then-record score of -17, winning by nine shots (another record at the time) over Palmer and Player, who finish tied for second.
One of the commentators on CBS's coverage is Dr. Cary Middlecoff, who won the Masters himself in 1955; this week, he sits down with Melvin Durslag to discuss what he sees as a threat to golf's success on television: overexposure. There's no question that televised golf is thriving at the moment, helping lift prize money to a then-unheard-of $3.5 million over 43 PGA tournaments. (By comparision, last year's Masters—a single tournament—offered $20 million in prize money, including $3.6 million for the winner.) Much of the popularity for the sport, Middlecoff believes, is due to former President Eisenhower, the world's most famous golfer. "While he was in office, he played golf, he watched golf and he talked golf. He made people conscious of the sport." And Arnold Palmer, the most charismatic golfer around, has certainly made the sport attractive. But Middlecoff sees a dark side to all this. "The money is rolling in now," he concedes, "but we could be heading toward overexposure. I wonder what's going to happen if people start watching tournaments, say, 30 times a year on TV." He thinks 15 televised tournaments a year would be about right; "Otherwise, the public will lose interest."This might sound ridiculous at first glance. Is there any such thing as overexposure for a sport on television? For a long while—during the Tiger Woods boom—people couldn't seem to get enough of it on TV. The result is that today, every tournament is televised, either on networks or cable. And not just the final holes of the final two rounds, either; by shuttling between stations, one can see every shot, not only of those weekend rounds, but the first two rounds as well. And when you combine that saturation coverage with prize money that encourages the top professionals to play only a handful of tournaments each year, plus a general lack of charismatic stars—well, is it any wonder why ratings for golf have fallen dramatically over the past few seasons? Having most of the world's best players competing in rival golf leagues doesn't help, either. Clearly, there are probably two dozen tournaments that could be dropped from the TV schedule without anyone noticing. Which would leave us with somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 tournaments that become important viewing. Just what the doctor ordered, it would seem. (Or dentist, in Cary Middlecoff's case.)
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As with last week, this Sunday is Palm Sunday, which leads into some interesting seasonal programming, chief among them being the one-act Passover opera "
The Final Ingredient
," commissioned by and airing on ABC's Directions '65 (Sunday, 1:00 p.m.). The music is by David Amram, with a libretto by Arnold Weinstein, based on a television play by Reginald Rose. Amram, who most recently composed the movie score for The Manchurian Candidate), also conducts the orchestra in this story of inmates in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, preparing to celebrate the Seder for Passover. Willialm Covington, Joseph Sopher, and Malcolm Smith are among the stars in this production, which ABC likely hoped would become an annual event, a la "Amahl and the Night Visitors." Not for the first time, I'm amazed at how little information there is out there on a program that was considered important at the time, was composed by a prominent composer, and was released on record. More info than we see on some lost programs, but still, it goes to show how lost the television historian would be without TV Guide.Among other Passover programs, there's also "From Exodus to Selma; Marching for Freedom" (Sunday, 10:30 a.m, KRON in San Francisco), in which Bay Area rabbis who participated in the Selma civil rights march discuss "the Jewish concept of freedom found in the Passover as translated into present-day civil rights action." It's a prime example of the social justice bug, one of the plagues of the 1960s, working even then to infect religion, turning it away from the spiritual and toward earthly things.
Continuing, NBC presents a Palm Sunday Mass from St. Peter in Chains Cathedral in Cincinnati (8:00 a.m.). Later Sunday, it's That I May See (11:15 p.m., KSBW in Salinas), with Ruth Hussey and Raymond Burr in a story of Bartimeus, the blind beggar healed by Christ. Tuesday's Bell Telephone Hour (10:00 p.m., NBC) offers an hour of music saluting both the sacred and romantic aspects of spring, hosted by Olivia de Havilland, and featuring Metropolitan Opera star Richard Tucker, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Dorothy Collins, Ron Husmann, Anita Gillette, and dancers Edward Villella and Patricia McBride. On Thursday, the First Baptist Church choir and orchestra of San Jose presents a half-hour of Easter music (7:30 p.m., KNTV in San Jose). Finally, a pair of seasonal movies commemorate Good Friday; at 9:00 p.m. it's The King of Kings (KVIE in Sacramento), Cecil B. DeMille's original silent spectacular from 1926, starring H.B. Warner; then, at 10:00 p.m., Paul Newman stars in 1955's The Silver Chalice (KXTV in Sacramento). Newman, by the way, was a better actor than William Shatner.
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Thursday night's Kraft Suspense Theatre (10:00 p.m., NBC) airs "Rapture at 240" (
video here
), the pilot for the upcoming fall series Run for Your Life, starring Ben Gazzara as a man faced with an unspecified terminal illness*, leaving him a couple of years to squeeze in a lifetime of living. The fact that Run for Your Life ran for three seasons always seems to have tainted the series a bit, and some have thought that this was a reason ratings for the series dipped that third season, leading to the show's cancellation. I don't know about that; after all, M*A*S*H, Hogan's Heroes, and Combat! all had longer durations than the wars in which they took place; as someone once pointed out, TV time runs differently from normal time. (There's a website out there that actually posited an unofficial timeline showing how the episodes could have taken place in the given time.) My suspicion is that it might have had more to do with the main character, Paul Bryan, not always being all that likeable, but then I could be reading my own thoughts about Ben Gazzara into that. I think Gazzara might have preferred that the series lean a little more into the existentialism inherent in its concept, which I would agree with. One thing I think we can agree on is that Ben Gazzara was a superior dramatic actor to, say, William Shatner. *Some sites have posited that the disease from which Paul Bryan was suffering was chronic myelocytic leukemia, which is plausible as diseases go. It is true, however, that it was never given a name in the series, and if it were, it would be in this pilot, where we see Bryan's doctor giving him the death sentence.
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Among the rest of the week's highlights, we have more sports: Saturday, it's bowling's preeminent event, the $100,000 Firestone Tournament of Champions in Akron (3:30 p.m., ABC; video here ). Billy Hardwick defeats Dick Weber in the final, taking home a prize of $25,000—more, I'll have you know, than Jack Nicklaus got for winning the Masters. Yes, bowling was a big sport back then. In prime time, KRCR in Redding carries David L. Wolper's documentary The General (6:30 p.m.), a profile of General Douglas MacArthur on the first anniversary of his death. Later, The Hollywood Palace is preempted for the special "Mission to Malaya," a profile of Peace Corps volunteers and the hardships they deal with in Malaya. (9:30 p.m., ABC)
On Sunday, the Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers clash in the fifth game of their Eastern Division final (2:00 p.m., ABC), with the Celtics taking a 114-108 victory and a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series. The Celtics eventually win in seven, on their way to a five-game victory over the Los Angeles Lakers and their seventh consecutive NBA championship. And now that I think about it, it's probably a good thing Palace was preempted this week, because I don't think it would have had a chance against Ed Sullivan's lineup, which includes Maurice Chevalier, Cab Calloway, the San Francisco Ballet, singer Felicia Sanders, Soupy Sales, Gerry and the Pacemakers, juggler Rudy Schweitzer, comedian Loundon Lee, light heavyweight champion Jose Torres, and Stiller and Meara.
Saturday was the first anniversary of Douglas MacArthur's death; Monday is the 20th anniversary of the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Charles Kuralt hosts a one-hour special, "FDR Remembered" (10:00 p.m., CBS), looking at the personal side of the late president. Included among the interviews is one with Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr. at the family home in Hyde Park, New York.
Monday was baseball's Opening Day, and in honor of the season, the Channel 7 all-night triple feature begins with It Happened in Flatbush (Tuesday, 1:00 a.m.), with Lloyd Nolan as a former big-leaguer hired as manager of a team on its last legs. Carole Landis co-stars. Wednesday, Robert Cromie's guest on Book Beat is Ladislas Farago, discussing his book Patton: Ordeal and Triumph, the basis for the 1970 movie biography that won an Oscar for George C. Scott.
The late Richard Chamberlain is put in charge of the annual nurses and residents' review on Dr. Kildare (Thursday, 8:30 p.m., NBC), giving us a chance to find out that the staff of Blair General Hospital is not only much larger but much more talented that we might have thought, what with Darryl Hickman, Rosemary De Camp, ◀ Dorothy Provine, and Jud Taylor being among the guest stars. On Friday, Jack Paar's Good Friday show includes Charlton Heston (a better actor than William Shatner, by the way), who reads a passage from Genesis that inspired Michelangelo's painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel; author Morris West (whose previous novels include The Shoes of the Fisherman), discussing the Vietnam situation in conjunction with his new novel, The Ambassador; and Bob Newhart, who has nothing to do with Good Friday, but is always welcome for good humor. (10:00 p.m., NBC)
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We haven't had a fashion spread for a while, so I can't think of a better time for one than now, to wrap up the week. It features Barbara Barrie modeling the year's hottest trend: leather. For motorcycle riding, you know.
Of course, any fan of The Avengers could talk to you about leather. TV
April 11, 2025
Around the dial
XxDavid has another terrific piece at Comfort TV on
expressions that were once commonplace
enough that they could be used as premises in television episodes of teh day. I'm so conscious of this kind of thing when I write; if I refer to the Irish Sweepstakes, will anyone know what I'm talking about? Do you know what I'm talking about?The "Sylvia Coleridge Season" continues at Cult TV Blog with the episode "The Link-Up" from Shoestring , the private detective series he's reviewed recently, and Sylvia's reole as "a beer-drinking radio ham" is one that could have been written for her. It's great how many British character actors you start to follow when you watch enough British TV.
Terence at A Shroud of Thoughts, Paul at Mavis Movie Madness! and Inner Toob all have features on the latest classic TV icon to pass from the scene, Jay North, who died of cancer at age 73. Best known for Dennis the Menace, North had a long career in the industry, and worked with fellow former child star Paul Petersen in supporting current and former child actors.
At A Vintage Nerd, Daffny reviews one of the great features of I Love Lucy: the cameo appearances of guest stars playing themselves . This is something that keeps popping up in Lucy's series through the years, all the way up to Life With Lucy, and it almost always made for a better, more entertaining episode.
Speaking of Lucy, at Classic Film and TV Corner, Maddie takes a look at " L.A. At Last! " from the fourth season of I Love Lucy; she also has a brief anecdote on how and when she discovered Lucy; it's always a lot of fun to read about people and their initial introductions to the classics. It's a moment of wonderment and discovery that stays with them.
Finally, a couple of shameless self-promotions: my latest "American TV with Mitchell Hadley episodes are up at Dan Schneider's Cosmoetica, a double-header on American news legends: Edward R. Murrorw here, followed by Walter Cronkite . You can also here me on the latest Eventually Supertrain, where Dan Budnick and I discuss Garrison's Gorillas . Any other Dans out there who'd like me as a guest? TV
April 9, 2025
What South Park tells us about ourselves
Your faithful scribe has had his hands full lately, trying to balance several projects simultaneously, including the penultimate draft of a new book, which, let's face it, is to your benefit, as well as some future projects which promise much—especially more work. Therefore, with your indulgence (in addition to avoiding a full-fledged anxiety attack) I present, for your consideration, this piece from 2017, which I think still holds up. Or maybe not, but at the very least it takes up—space, that is, which right now is just what's needed.
And now we come to the confession portion of today’s blog, wherein I tell you that I’ve never, ever, seen an episode of South Park. (Not boasting, just fact. Although I've never watched it, I'm quite familiar with it, thanks to my efforts on behalf of you, dear readers, to keep abreast of the pop culture scene.) Now, I know what you’re thinking – well, duh, all you ever watch is classic TV anyway, so what? True, South Park doesn’t exactly fit into my M.O. for TV viewing, but as
this article at the AV Club reminds us
, it has now been on for 20 years, and so it’s bound to fit into someone’s definition of classic. More than that, and the reason I bring it up today, is that this article asks us to take a close look at the effect South Park has had on society over its run, and how it’s shaped the way people behave. As Sean O’Neill writes, an entire generation has now grown up with South Park always there, a constant part of their lives, with the effect of “allowing a healthy, amused skepticism to ossify into cynicism and self-satisfied superiority, then into nihilism, then into blanket, misanthropic hatred.”
South Park’s influence echoes through every modern manifestation of the kind of hostile apathy—nurtured along by Xbox Live s**t-talk and comment-board flame wars and Twitter—that’s mutated in our cultural petri dish to create a rhetorical world where whoever cares, loses. Today, everyone with any kind of grievance probably just has sand in their v****a; expressing it with anything beyond a reaction GIF means you’re “whining”; cry more, your tears are delicious. We live in Generation U Mad Bro, and from its very infancy, South Park has armed it with enough prefab eye-rolling retorts (“ManBearPig!” “I’m a dolphin!” “Gay Fish!” “…’Member?”) to sneeringly shut down discussions on everything from climate change and identity politics to Kanye West and movie reboots. Why not? Everything sucks equally, anyway. Voting is just choosing between some Douche and a Turd Sandwich. Bullying is just a part of life. Suck it up and take it, until it’s your turn to do the bullying. Relax, guy.
(Sorry about the language there; I tried to edit it as much as possible. But I think it’s equally important to understand just what these cultural forces are, how they walk and talk and influence, and so I’m going to let some of this go through.)
Perhaps this will wind up as part of a chapter in my book, where we can discuss this more at length, but I don’t want to give South Park too much credit for this; we can’t really know whether it created this mindset, exploited it, or merely gave it a louder volume. Neither, however, should we dismiss it's impact as insignificant. The point here is that in comparing television of the past with that of today, one thing we have to consider is the effect the programming has on the public – not just the people who watch the programs, but those who live in the culture populated by and in large part created by those viewers. We’ve seen television pass through many stages during its existence, all the while questioning the effect it has. At various times its purpose has been to entertain, to educate, to challenge, to prevaricate, to lead.
In particular, the history of television is littered with discussions regarding its effect on children. Here, too, the hope has been to educate, but along with that – or maybe I should say in conflict with it – we’ve seen it portrayed as a mindless babysitter, a manic instigator of hyperactivity and short attention spans, an agent provocateur, a thief that robs the young of their childhood and turns them into cynical, sexualized, immature mini-adults. This is what happens when television’s purpose is to tear down.
Sometimes television mirrors the culture, sometimes it drives it. In this case, it’s not clear there’s even anyone at the wheel. Parker and Stone, the creators of South Park, may not have intended this when they started out, and indeed O’Neill suggests they may well have struggled with what their creation hath wrought. But then, we all know the composition of the road to Hell.TV
April 7, 2025
What's on TV? Tuesday, April 10, 1956
There's a good amount of distance between Dallas and Fort Worth. It's not like the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, which share a border; while they're closer now because of the sprawl, they're still two distinct cities. Even so, it's interesting to see the odd affiliate-sharing system between WBAP and WFAA, where they seem to take turns carrying NBC and ABC shows. For example, WFAA has Dinah Shore's 15-minute show (guest hosted tonight by Gordon MacRae), but WBAP has her one-hour special later in the same evening. I guess if it works for them, it works for us, in this Dallas-Fort Worth edition.-4- KRLD (Dallas) (CBS) MORNING 7:00 Good Morning—Will Rogers, Jr. 8:00 Captain Kangaroo—Kids 9:00 Garry Moore Show 9:30 Arthur Godfrey Time 10:30 Strike It Rich—Quiz 11:00 Valiant Lady—Serial 11:15 Love of Life—Serial 11:30 Search for Tomorrow 11:45 Guiding Light—Serial AFTERNOON 12:00 NEWS 12:05 TSCW Workshop 12:30 As the World Turns 1:00 Hair Fashions—Beauty 1:15 Robert Q. Lewis—Variety 1:30 Art Linkletter’s Party 2:00 Big Payoff—Quiz 2:30 Bob Crosby—Music 3:00 Brighter Day—Serial 3:15 Secret Storm—Serial 3:30 Edge of Night—Serial 4:00 Mary Carter’s Cookbook 4:30 Variety Fair—G. Johnson 5:05 Space Adventures—Kids 5:45 NEWS—Douglas Edwards EVENING 6:00 WEATHER, SPORTS, NEWS 6:30 Name That Tune—Quiz 7:00 PHIL SILVERS—Comedy 7:30 NAVY LOG—Drama 8:00 GUY LOMBARDO—Music 8:30 I LED THREE LIVES—Drama 9:00 $64,000 QUESTION 9:30 WRESTLING—Dallas 10:30 BOSS LADY—Comedy 11:00 Japan Hour 11:15 NEWS FINAL
-5- WBAP (Fort Worth) (NBC, ABC) MORNING 6:50 Let’s Go Fishing 7:00 Sunup—Variety 8:00 Kitty’s Wonderland—Kids 9:00 Ding Dong School 9:30 Ernie Kovacs—Variety 10:00 Home—Women’s News 11:00 Texas Living COLOR 11:45 Beauty School COLOR AFTERNOON 12:00 NEWS COLOR 12:30 Ann Alden COLOR 12:45 MOVIE—Comedy Movie Marquee: “Father Makes Good” (1950) 2:00 Matinee Theater COLOR “The Hollow Woman” 3:00 Date with Life 3:15 Modern Romances 3:30 Queen for a Day 4:00 NEWS, WEATHER 4:15 Tricks and Treats—Kids 5:00 Mickey Mouse Club EVENING 6:00 Annie Oakley—Western 6:30 Superman—Adventure 7:00 DINAH SHORE—Variety Guests: Dean Martin, Marge and Gower Champion 8:00 JANE WYMAN—Drama “This Land is Mine” 8:30 PLAYWRIGHTS ’56—Drama “You, Me . . . and the Gatepost” 9:30 BIG TOWN—Mark Stevens 10:00 TEXAS NEWS 10:15 WEATHER, NEWS 10:30 RACKET SQUAD—Drama 11:00 Tonight—Steve Allen
-6- KCEN (Temple) (NBC) MORNING 6:55 Program Previews 7:00 Today—Dave Garroway 9:00 Ding Dong School 9:30 Ernie Kovacs—Variety 10:00 Home—Women’s News 11:00 Tennessee Ernie Ford 11:30 Feather Your Nest AFTERNOON 12:00 Religion in Life 12:15 RFD No. 6—Farm News 12:30 MOVIE—Drama “Donovan’s Brain” 1:30 Cathy’s Corner—Variety 2:00 Matinee Theater “The Hollow Woman” 3:00 Industry on Parade 3:15 Modern Romances 3:30 Queen for a Day 4:00 Pinky Lee—Variety 4:30 Howdy Doody—Kids 5:00 MOVIE—Western Tales of West: “Badmen of Thunder Gap” EVENING 6:00 NEWS, WEATHER, SPORTS 6:15 Spotlight on Texas 6:30 Two on the Aisle—Variety 6:45 NEWS—John Cameron Swayze 7:00 DINAH SHORE—Variety Guests: Dean Martin, Marge and Gower Champion 8:00 JANE WYMAN—Drama “This Land is Mine” 8:30 TEXAS IN REVIEW 9:00 SAGEBRUSH SERENADE 9:30 FROM HOLLYWOOD 10:00 NEWS, WEATHER, SPORTS 10:20 MOVIE—Mystery Late Date Theater: “The Green Scarf” (English; 1955)
-8- WFAA (Dallas) (NBC, ABC) MORNING 6:55 Morning Devotional 7:00 Today—Dave Garroway 9:00 Romper Room—Kids 10:00 Julie Benell—Cooking 11:00 Tennessee Ernie Ford 11:30 Feather Your Nest AFTERNOON 12:00 NEWS 12:05 Magazine—Variety 12:30 MOVIE—Comedy Showtime Matinee: “The Sergeant and the Spy” (1954) 1:30 Trouble with Father 2:00 Afternoon Film Festival 4:00 Pinky Lee—Variety 4:30 Howdy Doody—Kids COLOR 5:00 Kiddie Karnival—Kids 5:30 Frontier Playhouse—Serial EVENING 6:00 NEWS—Joe Templeton 6:10 Weather—Culbertson 6:15 NEWS—John Daly 6:30 Dinah Shore—Music Guest host: Gordon MacRae 6:45 NEWS—John Cameron Swayze 7:00 FOLLOW THAT MAN 7:30 WYATT EARP—Western 8:00 DANNY THOMAS 8:30 CAVALCADE THEATER “Young Andy Jackson” 9:00 RALPH FLANAGAN—Music 9:30 STUDIO 57—Drama “Exit Laughing” 10:00 NEWS—Joe Templeton 10:15 WEATHER 10:25 SPORTS—Ken Kariker 10:30 PATTI PAGE SHOW 10:45 PLAYHOUSE 15—Drama 11:00 Les Paul—Mary Ford 11:05 MOVIE—Drama Channel 8 Theater: “Operation X”
10 KWTX (Waco) (CBS, ABC) MORNING 6:50 Tips on Ten—Previews 7:00 Good Morning—Will Rogers Jr. 8:00 Captain Kangaroo—Kids 9:00 Garry Moore Show 9:30 Arthur Godfrey Time 10:30 Strike It Rich—Quiz 11:00 Valiant Lady—Serial 11:15 Love of Life—Serial 11:30 Search for Tomorrow 11:45 Guiding Light—Serial AFTERNOON 12:00 Dinner Bell—Western Music 12:15 NEWS, WEATHER 12:25 Farms and Gardens 1:00 Better Living—Variety 1:30 Art Linkletter’s Party 2:00 Big Payoff—Quiz 2:30 Bob Crosby—Music 3:00 Brighter Day—Serial 3:15 Secret Storm—Serial 3:30 Edge of Night—Serial 4:00 Uncle Elihu—Kids 5:00 Mickey Mouse Club EVENING 6:00 The Home Folks—Music 6:15 NEWS—Douglas Edwards 6:30 Name That Tune—Quiz 7:00 PHIL SILVERS—Comedy 7:30 WATERFRONT—Drama 8:00 DANNY THOMAS 8:30 TEXAS IN REVIEW 9:00 $64,000 QUESTION 9:30 DO YOU TRUST YOUR WIFE?—Edgar Bergen 10:00 NEWS, WEATHER, SPORTS 10:30 MOVIE—Drama Million $ Theater: “Ruthless” (1948)
11 KFJZ (Waco) (Independent) MORNING AFTERNOON 2:30 Date with Drama “The Cheat” 3:00 MOVIE—Drama Theater 11: “Three for Bedroom C” 4:15 Looney Tunes—Cartoons 4:25 NEWS—Jim Abbott 4:30 MOVIE—Western Gene Autry: “Robin Hood of Texas” 5:30 Looney Tunes—Cartoons EVENING 6:00 Ranger Rider—Western 6:30 NEWS, SPORTS, WEATHER 7:00 LOONEY TUNES—Cartoons 7:10 LITTLE RASCALS—Comedy 7:30 MOVIE—Comedy Million Dollar Movie: “Guest Wife” 8:55 NEWS—Dan Allison 9:00 THE HUNTER—Drama 9:30 CRUNCH & DES—Drama 10:00 NEWS—Porter Randall 10:15 WEATHER 10:30 MOVIE—Melodrama Starlight Theater: “Park Row” (1952)
TV
April 5, 2025
This week in TV Guide: April 7, 1956
With tensions between the United States and Canada running high at the moment, it seems appropriate to lead off this week with an article from Gordon Sinclair, the legendary Canadian journalist who in 1973 will become famous south of the border for
his editorial on behalf of America
at a time when the rest of the world is taking potshots at her. He's writing on the state of Canadian television, which he describes as "green," as it was in America a few years before; "there's no doubt that the future is just as bright" but at this moment, don't expect to see "the same slick technique you get in the States." Indeed, TV in Canada is still a little rough around the edges: "Our scripts are pedestrian, our crews are inexperienced and our directors seem hesitant to direct. Or even to suggest to performers older than themselves how to play a scene better."Canadians produce 38 hours of network television each week, ranking third behind Hollywood and New York. Canadians have produced stars of American television, including Lorne Greene, Gisele MacKenzie and Barry Morse. (But no William Shatner?) Canadian shows have their share of curvy females, including Joan Fairfax and Shirley Harmer. But American television is still more popular than many home-grown shows; one of those native shows, Cross Canada Hit Parade (similar to Your Hit Parade in the States) is a twice-weekly musical showcase. A guest star ("usually American") is invited to sing a top record; MacKenzie, Canada's "most glittering expert in the field of song," has never appeared on the show. She was offered as much as $2,000 for a one-shot, but "showed no interest." And Fairfax, who was once voted "Miss Canadian Television" (because of her picture tubes?) has a Monday variety hour she co-hosts with Denny Vaughan, but it's beaten in the ratings by Robert Montgomery Presents; "You see, American programs are highly popular north of the border."
One of Canadian television's sitcoms, the French-Canadian Plouffe Family, is unique in that "it must be the only dramatic show on earth bradcast in two languages by the same cast playing the identical parts." A nice trick if you can pull it off. And there's the comic team of Johnny Wayne and Frank SHuster, "who are vulgar or delightful, depending on how you feel about such stuff." (Ed Sullivan was one who obviously expressed the latter; he had the two on his show 58 times.) On the Jackie Rae Show, he says, Canadians occasionally get the unexpected—along with imported guests. There are even what Sinclair describes as "fleeting glimpses of high comedy," which means Canada's Jackie doesn't really measure up to America's Jackie (Gleason, that is). Don't despair, thoughf: Sinclair suggests Canadian television will one day thrive. After all, even the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the government-run entity that "frowns on press agentry and commercial exploitation" hasn't been able to completely subdue the spirit of Canadian TV.Where, I wonder, is today's Gordon Sinclair? We could certainly use him, on both sides of the border.
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Let's make sure we take care of the cover stories. The cover picture of Garry Moore, host of the quiz show I've Got a Secret, along with the show's two female panelists of the time, Jayne Meadows and Faye Emerson (much better looking than the male panelists, Bill Cullen and Henry Morgan) doesn't really have anything to do with the inside story. That's about the "secret" files of I've Got a Secret, which aren't really that secret. What is a secret, or at least something many of you might not have known, is that IGAS was created by Allan Sherman, the singer-comedian who was Weird Al before Weird Al, best-known for the hit single "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah." This week Sherman talks about some of the up to 4,000 secrets he receives each week—people with 12 toes or 13 fingers or no eyebrows, but also people with relatives who came to America on the Mayflower or shook hands with Abraham Lincoln, a man who went over Niagara Falls in a rubber ball and lived to tell about it, the first man to cash a Social Security check, or the woman who won the first Miss America pageant. By the way, Sherman says, if you have 40 toes he'll take you, but if it's only 12, don't bother.After that, we go down south to Nashville, and visit the Grand Ole Opry. The Opry is already an American institution, having started in 1925, and what's surprising about its transition to television is not that it's happened, but that it took this long. The 1955-56 fall season brought about the premiere of the Opry on ABC, where once a month it substitutes for Ozark Jubilee, another Country-Western program, and in rural areas (which, remember, make up a much larger part of America in 1956 than they do today), it is absolutely slaughtering the competition, Perry Como and Jackie Gleason.
This week's article takes a kind of quaint approach to the whole thing, pointing out that these Country stars are just as business-savvy as anyone—hardly surprising considering how successful the Grand Ole Opry has been over the years; and when you think of how big Country music has become as a business, I think it shows these "hayseeds" have always been pretty shrewd business people.
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Two new soap operas premiered last week on CBS, and they're unusual in that they run for 30 minutes, rather than the traditional 15-minute format (a carryover from radio; you notice a lot of shows fit into that category). You might have heard of them: As the World Turns and The Edge of Night. Incidentally, The Edge of Night started out as "the daytime version of Perry Mason," with Mason creator Erle Stanley Gardner writing it, but the notoriously temperamental Gardner pulls out due to "creative differences,"* and the character of the heroic lawyer is changed from Mason to Mike Karr, played by John Larkin, who played Mason on the radio.
*According to the always-reliable Wikipedia, those differences include Mason having a regular girlfriend, which throws into question that intriguing relationship with his secretary, Della Street. That's something Gardner, who jealously guarded Mason's image, would never agree to.
Speaking of the great lawyer, there's an interesting item in this week's Hollywood Teletype: "If everybody can agree on the contracts, Fred MacMurray will wind up as lawyer Perry Mason in the new CBS hour-long detective series." Discussions had gotten to the point that a Gardner memo states, "Apparently Fred MacMurray is the person who will probably be selected." It's an intriguing thought; like Burr, MacMurray had played many the heavy in movies up to that time (and would continue to do so; check him out in The Apartment), and there are many who think that Burr brought, from those roles as a heavy, an underlying sense of menace that gave his Mason, especially in the early seasons, a real edge of danger. Could MacMurray have done the same? He was certainly talented enough, but when Burr finally had the chance to audition for the role (he'd previously been tried as Hamilton Burger), he is said to have so impressed Gardner that he told Bur, "In twenty minutes, you captured Perry Mason better than I did in twenty years." That, presumably, was the end of that.l l l
Baseball is back! Well, kind of; it's still Spring Training, but on Saturday the New York Giants take on the Cleveland Indians in a pre-season game live from Dallas, home of this week's TV Guide. (1:25 p.m. CT, CBS). Dizzy Dean and Buddy Blattner call the action. It's not the big sports story of the weekend, though; that would be the final round of the Masters Golf Tournament, live from Augusta, Georgia. (Sunday, 4:00 p.m., CBS) It's the first time for the Masters on television (and the start of the tournament's long association with CBS), and the first major championship for Jack Burke Jr., who came from eight shots behind to defeat amateur Ken Venturi by one stroke. It remains the last time no golfer broke par for the tournament.
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There's some real star power in this week's shows. On Saturday night's Ford Star Jubilee (9:30 p.m., CBS), Orson Welles and Betty Grable make rare television appearances in the comedy "Twentieth Century," written by the famed Broadway duo of Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur. Welles would come to do a lot of television in the last couple of decades of his life—remember those cheesy appearances on the Dean Martin roasts and the commercials for Paul Masson wine? ("We will sell no wine before its time.")—but in 1956 he was still a star, known for The War of the Worlds and Citizen Kane and The Third Man, and still two years away from his noir classic Touch of Evil. Ah, one has to pay the bills, however, and Welles was always looking for money for his latest projects, many of which sadly never came to fruition. As he once famously said, "I hate television. I hate it as much as peanuts. But I can't stop eating peanuts."**By the way, if you're interested in absorbing article on Welles, check out this New Yorker piece by Alex Ross from ten years ago, celebrating the Welles centennial. It truly seems as if Orson Welles could only have been a character concocted in an Orson Welles movie.
On Sunday afternoon the American composer Norman Dello Joio premieres his opera "The Trial at Rouen" on NBC Opera Theatre (3:00 p.m.). It's Dello Joio's second crack at rendering an operatic version of the story of Joan of Arc. His first, "The Triumph of St. Joan," premiered in 1950, but Dello Joio was never happy with it, and eventually reworked the story (but neither the music nor the libretto) into the 75-minute opera (plus commercials) that you'd be seeing on television. There's yet a third version to come, however, as Dello Joio will add some of the music from the 1950 version to the 1956 version while creating some new scenes and expanding on others, resulting in the 1959 version, also called "The Triumph of St. Joan." Many of the critics of the time will consider it to be the best of the three versions of the story.
That night, G.E. Theater (8:00 p.m., CBS) presents Judy Garland in an
informal one-woman show
, performing a half-hour of songs she's never before done in public, and backed by pianist Leonard Pennario and choreographer Peter Gennaro (who did Annie, West Side Story and The Unsinkable Molly Brown, among other Broadway hits). It's introduced by host Ronald Reagan.If you happen to own the boxed set of Studio One episodes that came out a few years ago, you'll have seen the Rod Serling political drama "The Arena," airing Monday night (9:00 p.m., CBS), with Wendell Corey as an ambitious young senator dealing with the legacy (and feuds) of his father. (If not, you can watch it here .) You might have thought, watching it, that it was substandard Serling, one of the episodes that helped drive him to create The Twilight Zone. The problem, as he writes in his 1957 collection of television plays Patterns: Four Television Plays With The Author’s Personal Commentaries, is not a new one: interference from the network and sponsors. His reaction, however, shows us the direction he is already considering going:
I was not permitted to have my Senators discuss any current or pressing problem. To talk of tariff was to align oneself with the Republicans; to talk of labor was to suggest control by the Democrats. To say a single thing germane to the current political scene was absolutely prohibited. So on television in April 1956, several million viewers got a definitive picture of television’s concept of politics and the way government is run. They were treated to an incredible display on the floor of The United States Senate of groups of Senators shouting, gesticulating and talking in hieroglyphics about make-believe issues, using invented terminology, in a kind of prolonged, unbelievable double-talk… In retrospect, I probably would have had a much more adult play had I made it science fiction, put it in the year 2057, and peopled the Senate with robots. This would probably have been more reasonable and no less dramatically incisive.
I suspect this episode was included in the DVD collection because 1) it was Serling, and 2) it was in fairly good condition. There are likely better episodes that could have been chosen. "The Arena" isn't bad, mind you, but far from peak Serling.
Dinah Shore currently hosts a twice-weekly 15-minute show (Tuesday and Thursday evenings on NBC, filling the remainder of the half hour occupied by John Cameron Swayzee's News Caravan), but she's talking about dumping that in favor of an hour-long Tuesday night show; another idea is to keep the current show, while adding a number of hour-long specials. The latter gets a tryout tonight (7:00 p.m., NBC), with Dinah welcoming Dean Martin and Marge and Gower Champion. As it turns out, nothing could be finah than to catch an hour of Dinah: The Dinah Shore Chevy Show starts up this October, and runs until 1963. (Her 15-minute show, which airs at 6:15 p.m. tonight, is guest-hosted by Gordon MacRae.) And, in the "you might be interested" category, a note on The 64,000 Question (9:00 p.m, CBS) tells us that, "As of the 43rd show, emcee Hal March has given out $544,608 and nine luxury automobiles."
On Wednesday, M-G-M Parade (7:30 p.m., ABC) presents "The Greatness of Garbo," the conclusion of a two-part tribute to the legendary star. (Presumably, Garbo speaks.) Parade is the subject of Robert Sanders' review this week, which isn't a positive one; last month, Walter Pidgeon had been introduced as the new host, and the format of the show had been altered to present serialized versions of movies along with clips from the M-G-M vault. The problem, Sanders says, is that this doesn't produce any new material for television; the studio execs seem to "presumptously believe that viewers will be eager to watch their old hit movies and promotional plugs for new movies." And when movies are chopped up into two or three parts, "viewers cannot help but lose interest." Anyway, it only has another month to run. One story you'll get to see all at once is "The Funny Heart," tonight's presentation on The U.S. Steel Hour (9:00 p.m., CBS), with Imogene Coca, the female side of the team that made Your Show of Shows such a success, making her dramatic television debut.
Thursday we see another of those shows that we likely won't see today, The All-American Homemaker of Tomorrow (7:00 p.m., ABC), sponsored by Betty Crocker, with the aforementioned Hal March on hand to crown the winner (or whatever is was they did). The competition, which was comprised of high school students who'd won similar competitions at the local level, began in 1955, and ran through 1977. You might be interested to know that one of the future contestants will be now-Senator Elizabeth Warren, competiting in 1966 as the representative from Northwest Classen High School in Oklahoma City. Meantime, Shower of Stars (7:30 p.m., CBS) presents a review of current musical trends, with Frankie Lane and Joe E. Brown sharing the hosting duties.
On Friday, John Newland, who we'll come to know better as the host of One Step Beyond, stars in "The Bitter Land" on Schlitz Playhouse of Stars (8:00 p.m., CBS), as a father heading West to revenge the death of his son during a bank robbery. Later, Edward R. Murrow interviews pollster George Gallup on Person to Person (9:30 p.m., CBS), discussing the exotic art of measuring public opinion. It was probably just as accurate then as it is today.
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Finally, there's a small ad on the bottom of Wednesday's listings referring to the social event of the year, perhaps the television event of the year, with the provocative question: "How much will you see?"
That event is the marriage of the Academy Award-winning actress Grace Kelly to Prince Rainier of Monaco, and everybody who's anybody will be heading over there to cover it. At the end of this week's What's My Line?, John Daly mentions that both Dorothy Kilgallen and Arlene Francis will be in Monaco to cover the wedding (Dorothy for the New York Journal American, Arlene for her Home show on NBC), and a worldwide audience estimated at 30 million tunes in for the formal ceremony on April 19.It's an interesting mix of attendees; with Rainier as a head of state, a vast assemblage of diplomats and other heads of state are present, while Grace's status as Hollywood royalty attracts such luminaries as Cary Grant (who costarred with her in the Monaco-based To Catch a Thief), David Niven, Gloria Swanson, Ava Gardner and Aristotle Onassis, and her iconic wedding dress is designed by MGM's Helen Rose.* In essence, this is Charles and Di before Charles and Di.
*According to the always-reliable Wikipedia, this dress was the inspiration for that worn by Kate Middleton for her wedding to Prince William.
There are actually two marriage ceremonies; the first, a civil ceremony required by law, was held on April 18, while the Catholic Nuptial Mass, the televised event, was held the following day at St. Nicholas Cathedral. I'm not sure of the answer to TV Guide's question of how much viewers will see, but here's a brief look at what all the shouting was about. TV
April 4, 2025
Around the dial
As you may have heard, after 20 years, the revival of Doctor Who is in a bit of a bind. It's possible, according to some sources, that Disney+ may not renew its option at the end of the current season, meaning that the BBC would probably need to find another partner to help finance the series. This YouGov poll purports to offer some insight into why the series is losing favor, but the figures don't tell much of a story. For instance, among those who've seen both the classic and modern versions, there's no indication as to why viewers may prefer one over the other; for those who've never seen either version (an alarmingly high number), why haven't they watched it? And there has to be a category of people like me who used to watch the new version but no longer do--after all, the ratings are down heavily from where they were. Why? Is it because of cord cutting, is it because the show's too woke, is it because it's not woke enough, is it that they don't like the actors who've played the Doctor more recently? You know the joke about lies, damned lies, and statistics? Well, guess which this is?The "Sylvia Coleridge Season" continues apace at Cult TV Blog, and this week John travels back in time to The Tomorrow People and the story " A Rift in Time ," which gives us a timeline in which Rome never lost rule over Britain. Interesting idea for today, hmm?
At bare-bones e-zine, Jack's Hitchcock Project takes us to the ninth season episode " A Matter of Murder ," written by Boris Sobelman, with Darren McGavin, Pat Crowley, and Telly Savalas. A black comedy follows, and does anyone do those better than Hitchcock?
The progression through 1970s TV has reached Friday, 1975 at Comfort TV where Dan looks at NBC's rare killer lineup: Sanford and Son, Chico and the Man, The Rockford Files, and Police Woman. Oh, and then there are shows like Big Eddie and Mobile One, and the less said, the better.
At RealWeegieMidget, Gill recalls the career of Wings Hauser ("the biggest star you've never heard of") and his many television appearances, focusing on the season two episode " Just a Small Circle of Friends " from The Fall Guy.
This week's classic television obituary—I hate to put it this way, but it's true—is Richard Chamberlain, who certainly left his mark on TV history. Television Obscurities , Classic Film and TV Corner , A Shroud of Thoughts, and the brand-new Mavis Movie Madness! (from our Drunk TV friend Paul Mavis) all share their memories of his life and work. And one more; Travalanche recalls the career of Sian Barbara Allen , who appeared in so many television shows, especially in the 1970s.
We wrap with " Angels of Death ," the latest episode of The New Avengers at The View from the Junkyard, and as Steed sees another of his former friends bumped off, Purdey asks him the pertinent question: why must the show always go on? TV
April 2, 2025
TV Jibe: Tech support is on the way
If you're of a certain age, you can remember when technical problems arose often enough that stations had "Please Stand By" slides that they'd put up, usually with some Mantovani-style music playing in the background. I never saw this one for CBS (or one of its affiliates), but I'd love seeing it used today. The cameraman appears apprehensive that the technician has a handle on the situation. I don't know about you, but I think I'd be on the phone to the Help Desk. TV
March 31, 2025
What's on TV? Wednesday, April 6, 1955
We're so used to seeing Andy Williams as host of his own show, we hardly ever think of him as a guest on someone else's show, but of course he wasn't always a big star, and he had to start out somewhere. And if you'd had this 1955 issue from Chicago, you'd have known right where to find him. The Williams Brothers had just broken up in 1953, and in 1954 he began a regular gig on Steve Allen's Tonight Show. His first summer replacement show would be in 1957; he would have two others in the following two years. The Andy Williams Show as we know it began in 1962, and the rest truly is history. -2- WBBM (CBS) MORNING 6:40 Today’s Thoughts 6:45 Farm Daily—Menard 7:00 Morning Show—Jack Paar Guest: Hermione Gingold Five minutes of local news at 7:25, 7:55, 8:25, 8:55 9:00 Garry Moore—Variety 9:30 Arthur Godfrey Time 10:30 Strike It Rich—Quiz Guest—Joan Weber 11:00 Valiant Lady—Serial 11:15 Love of Life—Serial 11:30 Search for Tomorrow 11:45 Guiding Light—Serial AFTERNOON 12:00 The Inner Flame—Serial 12:15 Road of Life—Serial 12:30 Welcome Travelers 1:00 Robert Q. Lewis—Variety COLOR 1:30 Linkletter’s House Party 2:00 The Big Payoff—Quiz 2:30 Bob Crosby—Music 3:00 Brighter Day—Serial 3:15 Secret Storm—Serial 3:30 On Your Account—Quiz 4:00 The Early Show—Drama “The Diamond” 4:30 Shopping with Miss Lee 4:45 P.J. and Pattee—Kids 4:55 Weather—P.J. Hoff 5:00 Range Rider—Western 5:30 Gene Autry—Western EVENING 6:00 Sports—Bob Elson 6:15 News—Julian Bentley 6:30 News—Douglas Edwards 6:45 Perry Como—Music 7:00 GODFREY AND FRIENDS 8:00 THE MILLIONAIRE 8:30 I’VE GOT A SECRET—Panel 9:00 BEST OF BROADWAY COLOR “Stage Door” 10:00 NEWS AND WEATHER 10:15 IN TOWN TONIGHT 10:30 NEWS—John Harrington 10:45 KUP’S SHOW—Irv Kupcinet 11:00 Ken Nordine Show 11:30 MOVIE—Mystery “Tuxedo Junction”
-4- WTMJ (Milwaukee) (NBC) MORNING 7:00 Today—Dave Garroway Five minutes of local news with Len O’Connor at 7:25, 7:55, 8:25, 8:55 9:00 Ding Dong School—Kids 9:30 Way of the World 9:45 Sheila Graham 10:00 Home—Women’s News 11:00 What’s New in the Kitchen 11:45 Let’s Look at the News AFTERNOON 12:00 Holy Week Meditations COLOR 12:15 Hot Shot Review—Music COLOR 12:30 Weather—Bill Carlson COLOR 12:35 Bob Heiss—Interviews COLOR 1:30 Beulah Donohue—Woman 2:00 Ted Mack—Variety 2:30 Greatest Gift—Serial 2:45 Miss Marlowe—Serial 3:00 Hawkins Falls—Serial 3:15 First Love—Serial 3:30 World of Mr. Sweeney 3:45 Modern Romances 4:00 Your Library Story 4:15 Let’s Experiment—Science 4:30 Howdy Doody—Puppets 5:00 Foreman Tom—Western 5:45 News—Bob Kelly 5:55 Weather—Bill Carlsen EVENING 6:00 Sports—Larry Clark 6:15 Malones and Marvin—Music 6:30 Eddie Fisher—Music 6:45 News—John Cameron Swayze 7:00 I MARRIED JOAN 7:30 MY LITTLE MARGIE 8:00 THEATER—Drama “The Whim of Iron” 9:00 THIS IS YOUR LIFE 9:30 PLAYHOUSE OF STARS “The Fingerprint” 10:00 WEATHER—Bill Carlsen 10:05 TO BE ANNOUNCED 10:20 LET’S LOOK AT THE NEWS 10:30 RACKET SQUAD—Drama 11:00 Tonight—Variety Guests: Andy Williams, Dorothy Collins, Wally Cox 12:00 News at Midnight
-5- WNBQ (ABC) MORNING 6:45 Everett Mitchell—Talks 7:00 Today—Dave Garroway Five minutes of local news at 7:25, 7:55, 8:25, 8:55 9:00 Ding Dong School—Kids 9:30 Way of the World 9:45 Sheila Graham Guest: Ralph Edwards 10:00 Home—Women’s News 11:00 Tennessee Ernie Ford 11:30 Feather Your Nest—Quiz AFTERNOON 12:00 Noontime Comics—Kids 12:30 Cartoonland—Ken Bowers 12:45 Bob & Kay with Doucette 2:00 Ted Mack—Variety 2:30 Greatest Gift—Serial 2:45 Miss Marlowe—Serial 3:00 Hawkins Falls—Serial 3:15 First Love—Serial 3:30 World of Mr. Sweeney 3:45 Modern Romances 4:00 Pinky Lee—Kids 4:30 Howdy Doody—Puppets 5:00 Elmer the Elephant—Kids 5:30 Close Up—Music EVENING 6:00 Weather—Clint Youle 6:05 News—Jack Angell 6:10 Sports—Joe Wilson 6:15 Dorsey Connors—Travel 6:20 Alex Dreier—Features 6:25 Tony Weitzel—Comments 6:30 Eddie Fisher—Music 6:45 News—John Cameron Swayze 7:00 I MARRIED JOAN 7:30 MY LITTLE MARGIE 8:00 THEATER—Drama “The Whim of Iron” 9:00 THIS IS YOUR LIFE 9:30 BIG TOWN—Drama 10:00 WEATHER—Clint Youle 10:10 DORSEY CONNORS—Ideas 10:15 NEWS—Jack Angell 10:25 NEWS—Norm Barry 10:30 NORBY—Comedy 11:00 Tonight—Variety Guests: Andy Williams, Dorothy Collins, Wally Cox 12:00 MOVIE—Adventure “Dangerous Holiday”
-7- WBKB (ABC) MORNING 8:00 Chicago Parade—Variety 9:00 Women and the World 9:30 Play House—Kids 10:00 Creative Cookery—Recipes 10:55 News—Ulmer Turner 11:00 Danny O’Neil Show 11:55 News—Ulmer Turner AFTERNOON 12:00 Happy Pirates—Kids’ Fun 12:55 News—Ulmer Turner 1:00 Midweek Cooking School 2:00 The Doctor Answers—Talk 2:15 TV Dental Clinic 2:30 Double Feature—Dramas 3:30 News—Ullmer Turner 3:35 Time for Uncle Win 3:55 News—Ullmer Turner 4:00 Pied Piper—Art Horn 4:30 Little Rascals 5:00 Five O’Clock Theater “Rock Against the Sea” 5:30 Jack Drees Show 5:55 Weather—Wayne Griffin EVENING 6:00 Kukla, Fran and Ollie 6:15 News—John Daly 6:30 Disneyland “Alice in Wonderland” 7:30 STU ERWIN—Comedy 8:00 MASQUERADE PARTY Panel: Buff Cobb, Bobby Sherwood, Ilka Chase, Ogden Nash. Host: Peter Donald 8:30 WHO SAID THAT?—Panel Panel: Kitty Carlisle, Phil Foster, Bob Considine, June Lockhart. Host: John Daly 9:30 REPORT TO THE PEOPLE 9:45 FOCAL POINT—Shorts 10:00 DOUBLE DATE—Film Dramas 11:00 This Is the Day 11:10 Tom Duggan—Comments 12:00 MOVIE—Double Feature (1) “Close Shave” (2) “Neutral Corner”
-9- WGN (Du Mont) MORNING 9:30 Paul Fogarty—Exercises 10:00 Hi Ladies—Mike Douglas 10:55 News—Steve Fentress 11:00 The Romper Room—Kids 11:55 News—Steve Fentress AFTERNOON 12:00 Best of the West—Kids 12:55 News—Steve Fentress 1:00 All About Baby—Tips 1:15 MOVIE—Drama “Prairie Chickens” 2:00 Paul Dixon—Music 3:00 MOVIE—Mystery “Leave It to the Marines” (1951) 4:00 Bandstand Matinee—Music 4:55 News—Les Nichols 5:00 Bob Atcher Show—Western 5:30 Garfield Goose and Friend EVENING 6:00 Curbstone Cut-up—Simon 6:15 Sports Final—Vince Lloyd 6:30 News—Spencer Allen 6:45 Chicagoland Newsreel 7:00 WHAT’S THE STORY?—Panel Panelists: Bosley Crowther, Harriet Van Horne, Jimmy Cannon. Emcee: John K.M. McCaffery 7:30 EISENHOWER PRESS CONFERENCE 8:00 CHICAGO SYMPHONY 9:30 LIBERACE—Music 10:00 MOVIE—Drama “Young Lovers” (1950) 11:30 News—Les Nichols 11:45 Weather—Carl Greyson 11:50 Ron Terry Show—Music
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It's About TV!
Insightful commentary on how classic TV shows mirrored and influenced American society, tracing the impact of iconic series on national identity, cultural change, and the challenges we face today.
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