Mitchell Hadley's Blog: It's About TV!, page 136

What's on TV? Thursday, June 25, 1964

It's always nice to be back in New York. This is a little earlier edition than we've looked at in the past, so we have fewer channels in the lineup. It's an entertaining day—but then, I've been known to find strange things entertaining. Let's see what we can find.




 2  WCBS (CBS)
Morning
    6:20 PREVIEWS
    6:25 GIVE US THIS DAY—Religion
    6:30 SUMMER SEMESTERModern Comparative Drama
    7:00 NEWS AND WEATHER
    8:00 CAPTAIN KANGAROO
    9:00 MY LITTLE MARGIE—Comedy
    9:30 PEOPLE’S CHOICE—Comedy
  10:00 NEWS—Mike Wallace
  10:30 I LOVE LUCY—Comedy
  11:00 McCOYS—Comedy
  11:30 PETE AND GLADYS—Comedy
Afternoon
  12:00 LOVE OF LIFE—Serial
  12:25 NEWS—Robert Trout
  12:30 SEARCH FOR TOMORROW
  12:45 GUIDING LIGHT—Serial
    1:00 LEAVE IT TO BEAVER
    1:30 AS THE WORLD TURNS
    2:00 PASSWORD—Allen LuddenPanelists: Chester Morris, Gloria Swanson
    2:30 HOUSE PARTY—Linkletter
    3:00 TO TELL THE TRUTH—Panel Guests: Phyllis Newman, Frankie Avalon, Joan Fontaine, Jan Murray
    3:25 NEWS—Douglas Edwards
    3:30 EDGE OF NIGHT
    4:00 SECRET STORM—Serial
    4:30 LOVE THAT BOB!—Comedy
    5:00 MOVIE—DramaEarly Show: “Never Trust a Gambler” (1951)
Evening
    6:30 NEWS—Walter Cronkite
    7:00 NEWS—Robert Trout
    7:30 PASSWORD—Allen LuddenCelebrities: Carol Channing, Steve Lawrence
    8:00 RAWHIDE—Western
    9:00 PERRY MASON—Drama
  10:00 NURSES—Drama
  11:00 NEWS—Jim Jensen
  11:20 MOVIE—ComedyLate Show: “Miss Grant Takes Richmond” (1949)
    1:00 NEWS

MOVIE—DramaTime approximate. Late Late Show: “Interns Can’t Take Money” (1937)
    2:40 MOVIE—ComedyTime approximate. “She Knew All the Answers” (1941)
    4:20 MOVIE—DramaTime approximate: “Evenings for Sale” (1932)
That movie on the Late, Late Show, Interns Can't Take Money, sounds as if it should be one of those madcap pictures from the '30s, doesn't it? Guess again: the cast includes Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea, and Lloyd Nolan, and McCrea plays the young intern, fella name of Dr. James Kildare. It's the only time playing the role for McCrea, but don't worry—as a matter of fact, we'll meet two of his successors tonight.


 3  WTIC (HARTFORD) (CBS)
Morning
    6:25 TOWN CRIER
    6:30 SUMMER SEMESTERModern Comparative Drama
    7:00 OF MEN AND MOTIVES
    7:30 WORLD AROUND US
    8:00 CAPTAIN KANGAROO
    9:00 HAP RICHARDS—Children
    9:15 DEPUTY DAWG
    9:30 LEAVE IT TO BEAVER
  10:00 NEWS—Mike Wallace
  10:30 MOVIE—Drama“The Killer that Stalked New York” (1950)
Afternoon
  12:00 LOVE OF LIFE—Serial
  12:25 NEWS—Robert Trout
  12:30 SEARCH FOR TOMORROW
  12:45 GUIDING LIGHT—Serial
    1:00 MOVIE—Drama“The Hasty Heart” (1950) Part 4
    1:30 AS THE WORLD TURNS
    2:00 PASSWORD—Allen LuddenPanelists: Chester Morris, Gloria Swanson
    2:30 HOUSE PARTY—Linkletter
    3:00 EDGE OF NIGHT—Serial
    3:30 TO TELL THE TRUTH—PanelPanelists: Phyllis Newman, Milt Kamen, Lauren Bacall, Barry Nelson
    3:55 NEWS—Douglas Edwards
    4:00 RANGER ANDY—Children
    4:30 MOVIE—Adventure  COLOR “Mighty Ursus” (Italian; 1961)
Evening
    6:10 SPORTS—Bob Steele
    6:15 NEWS—Bruce Kern
    6:25 WEATHER
    6:30 NEWS—Walter Cronkite
    7:00 WYATT EARP—Western
    7:30 PASSWORD—Allen LuddenCelebrities: Carol Channing, Steve Lawrence
    8:00 RAWHIDE—Western
    9:00 PERRY MASON—Drama
  10:00 NURSES—Drama
  11:00 NEWS AND SPORTS
  11:00 WEATHER
  11:15 MOVIE—Drama“Convicted” (1950)
    1:00 NEWS AND WEATHER
That 1:00 p.m. movie, The Hasty Heart, part 4? It concludes tomorrow,  Interesting idea, splitting the movie up into five half-hour segments. It's an hour and 42 minutes, or 102 minutes which means 48 minutes of commercials, or nearly ten minutes out of each half-hour. Hard to get any kind of momentum going, I'd think.

 4  WNBC (NBC)
Morning
    6:25 SERMONETTE—Religion
    6:30 EVOLUTION OF AN IMAGE“Scientific Information”
    7:00 TODAY—Jack LescoulieGuests: Mabel Mercer, Dr Albert Britt
    9:00 BIRTHDAY HOUSE—Children
    9:55 NEWS—Bob Wilson
  10:00 SAY WHEN—Art James
  10:25 NEWS—Edwin Newman
  10:30 WORD FOR WORD  COLOR 
  11:00 CONCENTRATION—Downs
  11:30 JEOPARDY—Fleming  COLOR 
Afternoon
  12:00 YOUR FIRST IMPRESSION  COLOR Guests: Dale Robertson and his daughter
  12:30 TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES—Bob Barker  COLOR 
  12:55 NEWS—Ray Scherer
    1:00 WOMEN ON THE MOVEGuest: Carol Channing
    1:30 BACHELOR FATHER—Comedy
    2:00 LET’S MAKE A DEAL  COLOR 
    2:25 NEWS—Floyd Kalber
    2:30 DOCTORS—Serial
    3:00 ANOTHER WORLD—Serial
    3:30 YOU DON’T SAY!—Kennedy  COLOR Guests: Dorothy Malone, Michael Rennie
    4:00 MATCH GAME—Gene RayburnPanelists: Peggy Cass, Sal Mineo
    4:25 NEWS—Sander Vanocur
    4:30 MAKE ROOM FOR DADDY
    5:00 MOVIE—Drama“Dr. Kildare’s Wedding Day” (1941)
Evening
    6:30 LOCAL NEWS—Pressman, Ryan
    6:55 WEATHER—Pat Hernon
    7:00 NEWS—Huntley, Brinkley
    7:30 TEMPLE HOUSTON—Western
    8:30 DR. KILDARE—Drama
    9:30 HAZEL—Shirley Booth  COLOR 
  10:00 KRAFT SUSPENSE THEATRE  COLOR “The End of the World, Baby”
  11:00 NEWS—Frank McGee
  11:10 WEATHER—Tex Antoine
  11:15 LOCAL NEWS—Jim Hartz
  11:30 JOHNNY CARSON—Variety  COLOR Guest: Anna Moffo
    1:00 NEWS—Bill Rippe
    1:10 MOVIE—Comedy “Father’s Dilemma” (Italian; 1952)
    2:55 SERMONETTE—Religion
And here are the two other Dr. Kildares (Drs. Kildare?), starting with Lew Ayres at 5:00 p.m. Kildare is scheduled to get married, but we know how that's going to turn out, don't we? At 8:30 p.m., it's the other Kildare, Richard Chamberlain, in an episode that includes Claude Rains, William Demarest, and Burt Mustin, in the story of a man trying to deal with the death of his granddaughter.

 5  WNEW (IND)
Morning
    7:00 CALL TO PRAYER—Religion
    7:15 NEWS
    7:30 MEANING OF COMMUNISM
    8:00 SANDY BECKER—Children
    8:45 KING AND ODIE—Cartoons
    9:00 SANDY BECKER—Children
    9:30 TOPPER—Comedy
  10:00 MOVIE—Mystery“The Phantom Thief” (1946)
  11:00 METROPOLITAN MEMO
  11:25 NEWS
  11:30 ROMPER ROOM—Children
Afternoon
  12:30 CARTON PLAYTIME
  12:40 KING AND ODIE—Cartoons
  12:55 CARTOONS—Fred Scott
    1:25 NEWS
    1:30 MOVIE—Mystery“The Phantom Thief” (1946)
    2:50 METROPOLITAN MEMO
    2:55 NEWS
    3:00 TEXAN—Western
    3:30 CARTOON PLAYTIME
    4:00 ASTROBOY—Cartoon
    4:30 HALL OF FUN—Fred Hall
    5:30 SANDY’S HOUR—Children
Evening
    6:30 MICKEY MOUSE CLUB
    7:00 MAGILLA GORILLA—Cartoons
    7:30 STONEY BURKE—Drama
    8:30 CALL MR. D—Mystery
    9:00 WRESTLING—Washington
  11:00 NEWS
  11:10 MOVIE—Drama“The Woman in the Window” (1944)
    1:05 NEWS
    1:15 CRIME AND PUNISHMENTTime approximate
Crime and Punishment—not the Dostoevsky story, but a program hosted by war correspondent and reporter Clete Roberts, looking for insight into the psychology of crime. Tonight, he talks with "a prisoner who is a sexual deviate, and is serving time for auto theft. Must have been some type of autoeroticism.


 7  WABC (ABC)
Morning
    6:20 NEWS
    6:30 PROJECT KNOW—Education
    7:00 EARLY BIRD CARTOONS
    8:00 COURAGEOUS CAT—Cartoons
    8:20 BILLY BANG BANG—Cartoon
    8:25 NEWS
    8:30 LITTLE RASCALS—Comedy
    9:00 MOVIE—Drama“Her First Beau” (1941)
  10:30 PRICE IS RIGHT—CullenGuest: Georgia Brown
  11:00 GET THE MESSAGEPanelists: Stephen Sondheim, Robert Horton, Carol Lawrence, Lauren Bacall
  11:30 MISSING LINKS—Clark Panelists: Florence Henderson, Sam Levenson, Robert Q. Lewis
Afternoon
  12:00 FATHER KNOWS BEST
  12:30 ERNIE FORD—VarietyGuests: Sam Donahue and the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, Frank Sinatra Jr., Helen Forrest, Pied Pipers, Charlie Shavers
    1:00 MOVIE—Mystery“Ladies Love Danger” (1935)
    2:30 DAY IN COURT—Drama
    2:55 NEWS—Lisa Howard
    3:00 GENERAL HOSPITAL—Serial
    3:30 QUEEN FOR A DAY—Bailey
    4:00 TRAILMASTER—Western
    5:00 MOVIE—Drama “Outpost in Morocco” (1949)
Evening
    6:30 LOCAL NEWS—Bill Beutel
    6:45 NEWS—Ron Cochran
    7:00 BATTLE LINE—Doumentary
    7:30 FLINTSTONES—Cartoon  COLOR 
    8:00 DONNA REED—Comedy
    8:30 MY THREE SONS
    9:00 ENSIGN O’TOOLE
    9:30 JIMMY DEAN—VarietyGuests: Patti Page, Ferlin Husky, Norm Crosby
  10:30 ABC NEWS REPORTS
  11:00 NEWS—Bob Young
  11:10 LOCAL NEWS—Richard Bate
  11:20 MOVIE—ComedyBest of Broadway: “The Jackpot” (1950)
    1:00 LES CRANE—InterviewsTime approximate. Guests: Florence Henderson, Sidney Chaplin, Bill Cosby
Tonight's ABC News Report is on "The Missilemen," the military men in charge of our missile deterrent system. Hosted by ABC's science reporter Jules Bergman.


 8  WNHC (NEW HAVEN) (ABC)
Morning
    6:40 NEWS AND WEATHER
    6:45 PRAYER WITH MONSIGNOR
    7:00 UNIVERSITY OF THE AIR
    7:30 MR. GOOBER—Children
    8:30 JACK LA LANNE—Exercise
    9:00 GIRL TALK—PanelPanelists: Nancy Andrews, Hilda Vincent, Charlotte Rae
    9:30 QUEEN FOR A DAY—Bailey
  10:00 GENERAL HOSPITAL—Serial
  10:30 PRICE IS RIGHT—CullenGuest: Georgia Brown
  11:00 GET THE MESSAGEPanelists: Stephen Sondheim, Robert Horton, Carol Lawrence, Lauren Bacall
  11:30 MISSING LINKS—Clark Panelists: Florence Henderson, Sam Levenson, Robert Q. Lewis
Afternoon
  12:00 FATHER KNOWS BEST
  12:30 ERNIE FORD—VarietyGuests: Sam Donahue and the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, Frank Sinatra Jr., Helen Forrest, Pied Pipers, Charlie Shavers
    1:00 MOVIE—Western“Northwest Stampede” (1948)
    2:30 DAY IN COURT—Drama
    2:55 NEWS—Lisa Howard
    3:00 TRAILMASTER—Western
    4:00 ADMIRAL JACK—Children
    5:00 RIFLEMAN—Western
    5:30 HUCKLEBERRY HOUND
Evening
    6:00 LOCAL NEWS—Salmona
    6:10 WEATHER—Joe Francis
    6:15 NEWS—Ron Cochran
    6:30 FIVE FINGERS—Mystery
    7:30 FLINTSTONES—Cartoon  COLOR 
    8:00 DONNA REED—Comedy
    8:30 MY THREE SONS
    9:00 ENSIGN O’TOOLE
    9:30 JIMMY DEAN—VarietyGuests: Patti Page, Ferlin Husky, Norm Crosby
  10:30 SILENT REVOLUTION  SPECIAL 
  11:00 NEWS—Bob Young
  11:10 WEATHER—Carole Wilson
  11:15 LOCAL NEWS—Thompson
  11:25 SPORTS—John Langelier
  11:30 MOVIE—Comedy“Are You with It?” (1948)
    1:20 NEWS
Get the Message was a short-lived game show that, at the time of this broadcast, was hosted by Frank Buxton, who would be better-known as the host of Discovery. But have you ever seen a more eclectic lineup of players than today? Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim, actor Robert Horton, Carol Lawrence, who appeared in the Broadway production of West Side Story (lyrics by Stephen Sondheim), and professional legend Lauren Bacall.


 9  WOR (IND.)
Morning
    9:20 FARM REPORT
    9:25 NEWS AND WEATHER
    9:30 MOVIE—Drama“Man’s Castle” (1938)
  11:00 STORY OF ITALY—Discussion
  11:30 GIRL TALK—PanelPanelists: Bess Myerson, Ann Landers, Charlene Holt
Afternoon
  12:00 NEWS—John Wingate
  12:15 MEMORY LANE—Joe Franklin
    1:30 MOVIE—Drama“Man’s Castle” (1938)
    3:00 NEWS—Joseph King
    3:15 THE V.I.P.’s—Biography
    3:30 HIGH ROAD TO ADVENTURE  COLOR 
    4:00 FIRESIDE THEATER—Drama
    4:30 MORTY GUNTY—Children
    5:00 MOVIE—Melodrama“Dracula’s Daughter” (1936)
Evening
    6:30 CHEYENNE—Western
    7:30 MOVIE—Comedy  COLOR Million Dollar Movie: “Knock on Wood” (1954)
    9:00 MOVIE—Science Fiction“The Man from Planet X” (1951)
  10:30 LADIES OF THE PRESS
  11:00 MOVIE—Comedy  COLOR Million Dollar Movie: “Knock on Wood” (1954)
  12:30 NEWS AND WEATHER
Ladies of the Press was more or less a female version of Meet the Press, with a female news figure being interviewed by female reporters. It was hosted by Clifford Evans—I suppose that was too big a job for a lady.


11 WPIX (IND.)
Morning
    8:30 CARTOONS—Children
    9:30 JACK LA LANNE—Exercise
  10:00 OPERATION ALPHABET
  10:30 HIGH ROAD—John Gunther
  11:00 BOZO THE CLOWN—Britten
Afternoon
    1:00 MOVIE—Melodrama“Frankenstein’s Daughter” (English; 1958)
    2:20 NEWS
    2:30 RACKET SQUAD—Police
    3:00 EXPLORE THE WORLD
    3:30 WILLIAM TELL—Adventure
    4:00 HERCULES—Jack McCarthy
    4:30 CHUCK McCANN—Children
    5:30 SUPERMAN—Adventure
Evening
    6:00 THREE STOOGES—Comedy
    6:30 HUCKLEBERRY HOUND
    7:00 NEWS—Kevin Kennedy
    7:10 LOCAL NEWS—Tillman
    7:25 WEATHER—Gloria Okon
    7:30 MOVIE—Adventure“Devil Goddess” (1955)
    8:30 YOU ASKED FOR IT—Smith
    9:00 NAKED CITY—Police
  10:00 STUMP THE STARS—Stokey Panelists: Clint Eastwood, Paul Brinegar, Eric Fleming, Diana Dors, Sebastian Cabot, Ruta Lee, Ross Martin, Beverly Garland
  10:30 BEST OF GROUCHO—Quiz
  11:00 NEWS—Kevin Kennedy
  11:10 WEATHER—Marilyn Grey
  11:15 STEVE ALLEN—Variety Guests: Rowan and Martin, Ron Husmann, Peggy Dietrich, Rip Taylor, Indra Devi
I so, so wanted to find out that Frankenstein's Daughter was on the same channel as Dracula's Daughter. I mean, what a double feature that would have been.


13 WNDT (EDUC.)
Afternoon
    5:00 ONCE UPON A DAY—Children
    5:30 WHAT’S NEW—Children
Evening
    6:00 OPERATION ALPHABET
    6:30 PROFILE: NEW JERSEY
    7:00 COLLEGE PERSPECTIVES  SPECIAL 
    7:30 LITTLE ORCHESTRA
    8:00 ART AND MAN—Documentary
    9:00 ART OF FILM—Kauffmann
    9:30 SCIENCE REPORTER
  10:00 WORLD AT TEN
  10:30 AMERICA: ARTIST’S EYE
  10:35 PHOTOGRAPHY
  11:05 REFLECTIONS
My wife asked me who the host of Photography was. I replied that it was Ansel Adams . "Yeah," she said, "I guess you'd learn something from him." TV  

This week in TV Guide: June 20, 1964

There's enough in Richard Gehman's article on "The Negro in Television" that we could probably spend an entire week writing about it. The relationship between black entertainers and television is a complex one; on the one hand, shows like Ed Sullivan's have always provided a stage for black entertainers to display their talent; likewise, many consider this season to be the first in which black actors are appearing in dramatic shows as "human beings, working in the same jobs and coping with the same human situations that face whites—by presenting them not as mummers but as people." And it's projected that more and more will be on the screen in such acting roles in the season to come. As Herbert Hill, the national labor secretary for the NAACP, says, "Progress is being made."

Speaking with network representatives, Gehman repeats their assertions that there is no discrimination in television; they provide lists of programs that have had regular representation by Negro actors; they stress that they are working in studios in accounting, machine, and transportation departments, or as musicians and composers, actors and extras. And yet, it's difficult to demonstrate the progress. The networks all claim they don't keep records, the studios say their files "don't indicate which employees are Negro." One activist responds that, "They know damned well there are less than 10 percent. . . the Negroes constitute 10 percent of our population, but get a much lower percentage of the jobs."

One thing that strikes me in this article—something that's not just a remnant of the '60s, but is very real today, is a sense of fear when it comes to talking about race. "The roots of fear are very, very deep in the prejudiced," says Gehman, "but they are just as deep in those who are the victims." Blacks fear being labeled as troublemakers if they speak out, making their job searches even more difficult; "nearly every white actor" is hesitant to say anything because of their eagerness to please those in power. Many activists, both black and white, wish that those who have been successful, people like Nat King Cole and Sidney Poitier, would be more outspoken. Cole's NBC variety program was unable to stay on the air, despite support from stars who worked for scale, because of a lack of sponsors; says the network did it's best, but as for the ad agencies, he adds that "most of the agency men are afraid of the dark."

George Norford, perhaps the highest-ranking black man working at any network, is an editor in NBC's broadcast standards department, and worked with New York State's Commission for Human Rights on exploring more opportunities for blacks on television. Norford urges broadcasters to utilize blacks in television. "We try to convince them that at stake are not only jobs for Negroes, but the reflection of our society as it is. The exclusion of this group in a representation of American life amounts to a distortion in the eyes of the world, for more and more American television shows are being sold abroad." He doesn't see malice as much as a lack of thought. When producers asked for 40 or 50 extras for a crowd scene, the Extras Guild would send over white actors unless specifically asked otherwise. "They just hadn't thought much about Negroes." When producers of Westerns say that it would be "unrealistic" to put black actors in their dramas, Norford points out that many Negroes moved from the South to the West after the Emancipation Proclamation; enough that "it wouldn't be incompatible with reality to show them working as blacksmiths, wheelwrights, carpenters and so on."

This image of Harry Belafonte and Dinah Shore
performing together could have gotten a show
taken off the air in the South.Overall, Gehman's article points out the need for reform, acknowledging that it's a scandal that there is no series starring a black, while maintaining a cautious optimism about the future. There may be a fair amount of naivety about it all; since this is only part one of a two-part article, Gehman doesn't get into the potential resistance of Southern viewers to an increased presence by blacks on television. As I was researching my TV Guide presentation for the Mid Atlantic Nostalgia Convention last year, I ran across some Letters to the Editor responding to Gehman's article that point out in a most illuminating way the obstacles to increasing the presence of blacks on television. An anonymous letter, appearing in the July 4, 1964 issue, said that “When a Negro entertainer appears on our screen we immediately switch stations. We are not against Negroes who can act, but are against putting them on as models and singers.” In the same issue, an unnamed individual from St. Augustine, Florida wrote, “The people in the South do not like Negroes on TV. If Negroes start getting on all those TV shows, there are going to be a lot of shows dropped. The Defenders, for example, is a show not many people watch in the South.”

There were letters applauding the networks for expanding the black presence on TV as well, but these letters demonstrate—if you needed any proof—that the route to equality for blacks on television is a long one indeed, as is always the case any time one is dealing with ignorance.

t  t  t
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: An extended portion of tonight's show is devoted to judging the 50 contestants competing for the title of National College Queen, and the crowning of the winner. Also scheduled: Sally Ann Howes; comics Allen and Rossi; rock 'n' roller Bobby Vinton; and Harve Presnel, co-star of The Unsinkable Molly Brown.

Palace: Host Donald O'Connor performs with the Louis DaPron dancers and the singing Wellingtons. Also: soprano Mary Costa; comic Don Knotts; singer-pianist Buddy Greco; comedians Jakc Olvin and Yvonne Wilder; juggler Francis Brunn; and the Pompoff Thedy musical clowns.

Alice Ruby, a sophomore at Bennington College in Vermont, wins the National College Queen pageant; I'm sure she was a worthy winner, but I'm always a little hopeful that events like this have a winner who winds up being a household name, a big star of some kind. Oh well. According to TV.com , Trini Lopez and John Byner are also guests with Ed, as well as the new U.S. Open golf champion—but more about that below. Still, Palace has a great entertainer in Donald O'Connor. . . I don't know. I guess I'll have to call it a Push. Your thoughts, of course, may differ.

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Throughout the 60s and early 70s, TV Guide's weekly 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. 

The last time we looked at Cleveland Amory's column, it was his season-ending piece where he reviews letters from his readers. Such is the case again here this week, and in an extra-long column that runs onto the next page, we find that his readers have a lot to say.

Amory reports that the two columns which generated the most mail were his negative reviews of What's My Line? and Queen for a Day. and in both cases the mail ran strongly in his favor. Readers also liked his positive reviews of programs like Mr. Novak, The Fugitive, The Farmer's Daughter, and Combat! They most definitely did not like his attack on Petticoat Junction; one letter warned Cleve to "stay outa the hills if you 'spect to live long," while another said that his hit piece "was a pitiful example of what is becoming common today—the bad review."

And then there are the letters voicing outrage at shows cancelled by the networks: The Richard Boone Show, East Side/West Side, and generating the most of all, Breaking Point. Amory takes a moment here to quote a letter from Jeannette Dumais of St. Anne, Illinois, who speaks for a lot of readers, and Cleve as well: "Why, in heaven's name, I demand to know, are persons who are a little particular in their taste discriminated against by the TV networks?. . . I rebel against the average and below-average majority forcing out TV programs which might make them think a little. . . Don't the networks and/or the sponsors have any pride in their work?" Mrs. Dumais, Amory adds, is 27—hardly what you'd call an old crank. And while there are more good shows out there than she gives the networks credit for, it's also true that "if the networks and the sponsors don't have enough pride in their work, perhaps others will." He was right then and he'd be right now; there are both good and bad shows on TV, although more bad ones and not as many good ones as we'd like. In many cases, we're still waiting for someone to show that pride in programming that Amory foresaw.

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This week's sports highlight is the 64th United States Open Golf Championship (Saturday, 4:30 p.m. ET, NBC). For the final time, the final 36 holes are played on Saturday—18 holes in the morning, another 18 in the afternoon—and the United States Golf Association couldn't have chosen a more fateful location than the blast furnace of Congressional Country Club, in Bethesda, Maryland. At 7,053 yards, it's the longest course ever to host the Open, and on "Open Saturday" the grueling challenge is compounded by high humidity and temperatures that are over 100° by the start of the final round. (It was measured at 112° by the cup on one green.)

Ken Venturi, once one of golf's biggest names before his game cratered to the point where he had to beg invitations to tournaments, is surprisingly in contention as the third round starts, and although he struggles in the heat, he shoots a brilliant 66 to move within two shots of the lead. However, Venturi had literally staggered in, his whole body shaking from what might have been heat stroke. With ashen face and glazed eyes, he went to lie down on a bed in a private room while a member of the club who was also a doctor gave him salt tablets and water. His fellow pros watched him closely, worrying about his health.

After the 50 minute break, it was time for the final round. The doctor warns him that going out in that inferno again could kill him, but when a man is at rock bottom, what does it matter? The crowd cheering him on, Venturi makes his agonizing way around the course, remaining steady as the other contenders begin to fade. By the turn, he's taken the lead, and slowly begins to pull away. The doctor is with him, feeding him salt tablets and glasses of iced tea, and as he walks the fairways he wraps his neck in towels dipped in ice water. His 10-foot par putt on 18 gives him a four-shot victory, and, remarkably, the second-lowest score in Open history; as the crowd cheers, he drops his putter and raises his arms wearily in triumph, the picture that makes the cover of Sports Illustrated the next week. "My God," he says, "I've won the Open."

Ken Venturi goes on to a long and successful career as an announcer with CBS. It's true that his fine career never reaches the heights he seemed destined for as a young golfer, but his memorable Open victory—although he remembers virtually nothing about that final round—remains one of the most famous and most dramatic Opens in the tournament's long history, and his victory one of the most popular.

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Let's take a quick spin around the rest of the programming, where some quality programs await.

Saturday's Late Show movie on WCBS (11:20 p.m.) is I Married a Woman, and back in 1964 there would have been nothing ironic about that title. George Gobel is the idea man at an add agency, and Diana Dors, who at the time of this airing was Mrs. Richard Dawson, most certainly must be the woman.

The Sunday matinee movie on WNHC in Hartford is 12 Angry Men (5:00 p.m.), a very good movie with an exceptional cast; I've always thought that Henry Fonda, as the pivotal juror during the tense jury deliberations, is the movie's weak link. Not that Fonda isn't good in it—he is, just as he is in almost everything. It's just that he's a little too good, a little too noble, even down to his light-colored suit. For my money, the better choice is Bob Cummings' hesitant, beseeching performance in the original Studio One production  from 1954.

On Monday, Breaking Point, the program so liked by Cleveland Amory's letter-writers, presents "And If Thy Hand Offends Thee," a very good episode with James Daly as a man whose cramped hand may have a psychosomatic link to his World War II experiences—what we today would probably consider PTSD. (10:00 p.m., ABC) I've really enjoyed the episodes of Breaking Point that I've been fortunate enough to see; I just wish there had been more of them. It deserved a second season. 

That very same Henry Fonda is the host of Henry Fonda and the Family, a comedy revue from 1962 that's being rerun on CBS Tuesday night at 10:00 p.m. It's billed as a spoof of "all those statistics compiled about the American family," with Dick Van Dyke, Cara Williams, Dan Blocker, Carol Lynley, Michael J. Pollard, Paul Lynde, Verna Felton, and Flip Mark. Three more guest stars and it could have been a remake of 12 Angry Men. (12 Dissatisfied People?)

Every Wednesday this summer, WPIX airs "The Special of the Week," encore presentations of specials that you might have missed the first time around. First up is "Wild is Love," a variety hour hosted by Nat King Cole, including songs from Cole's new album. (8:30 p.m.) Sounds like a pleasant way to spend the evening, doesn't it?

WPIX follows this up on Thursday with a Naked City repeat of "The King of Venus Will Take Care of You" (9:00 p.m., ABC), a typically excellent episode that stars Jack Warden in an exceptionally nuanced performance as a criminal on the run, with Mike McGreevey as the young boy (the titular "King of Venus") who forms a complicated relationship with the fugitive.

On Friday, Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre presents an adaptation of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's landmark novel One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (8:30 p.m., CBS) starring Jason Robards, Jr. as the prisoner in a Soviet gulag. Later, The Jack Paar Program (10:00 p.m., NBC) has what must have been a very lively program, with Shelley Berman, Oscar Levant, and singer Linda Bennett. Oscar "discusses the Levant neuroses and comments on celebrities," and I would love to have seen that. TV  

Around the dial

Some self-promotion to start the week: I'm back on the  Eventually Supertrain  podcast this week, talking with Dan Budnik about one of our favorite shows, Bourbon Street Beat. But even if you think you've heard too much from me just by reading this blog, listen for Amy The Conqueror talking about Eerie, Indiana, and Amanda Reyes discussing Masquerade. If you have as much fun listening as I get from doing my segment, you'll have a great time!

At Vox, Todd VanDerWerff has a thoughtful piece on “storytelling bloat, ” the consequence of the boom in TV drama due to the demand for programming on streaming services and cable networks. According to VanDerWerff, what we’re seeing is a confluence of TV storytelling and movie storytelling, where three-hour stories are being stretched out to as many as 10 hours.

Today, the kinds of mid-budget movies that used to lure adults into the theater are increasingly consigned to streaming services and cable networks. And because the success of those services often depends on how much time they can get you to spend watching them, they stretch out too many of these stories like taffy if they can.

The cure for storytelling bloat: perhaps a simple return to how television used to operate, letting the characters and their lives evolve over time, done within the framework of episodes featuring self-contained stories. It’s an interesting meditation on what television is, and what it should be; I highly recommend you read it.

Elsewhere, at bare-bones e-zine, Jack has opened a new chapter in his Hitchcock Project with “Three Wives Too Many” (what a great title!), the inaugural Hitchcock script from Arthur A. Ross. We’ll be on the lookout for more Ross stories in the coming weeks.

At The Horn Section, Hal has turned his attention back to Crazy Like a Fox, with the result being a look at the 1985 episode “Is There a Fox in the House?” driven, as usual, by the always-entertaining father-son relationship between the great Jack Warden and John Rubenstein.

I know Dave Garroway was ubiquitous in the early days of television, but hosting a preview of the upcoming college football season called Kickoff 1953? I would like to have seen Matt Lauer do that! Seriously, this is a fun clip from Jodie at Garroway at Large that shows just how versatile the Master Communicator was.

At A Shroud of Thoughts, Terence tells of how Guy Williams almost joined the cast of Bonanza , and what that would have meant not only for the show, but for television history as well. Ah, what might have been.

Joanna is at it again, preparing for this year’s “Christmas in July” party at Christmas TV History. You’re welcome to join in the fun, either my sharing your own answers to this year’s questionnaire (as your faithful scribe will be doing), or just reading what everyone else has to say. It’s all good fun, though.

Donna Mills graces the cover of the June 17, 1989 issue of TV Guide , the latest in Robert’s “A Year in TV Guide” series at Television Obscurities. There’s also a piece on Father Knows Best timed to coincide with CBN’s Father’s Day marathon, plus the week’s programming.

Oh, and that picture at the top? The two men standing are Don Hewitt on the left, and Dr. Frank Stanton, head of CBS, on the right, and they're checking out a monitor prior to the beginning of the first Kennedy- Nixon debate. A dramatic moment, to be sure. TV  

The epic story of "Amahl and the Night Visitors"

PART 3 OF 4

Back in 2004, the late television network Trio aired a program called The Christmas Special Christmas Special. I didn't know then the kind of effect this would have on my future writing, only that I'd watched a lot of Christmas specials on TV growing up and thought it would be fun to watch. Bring back a few of the old memories, you know; 'tis the season, after all.

It was a typical Trio type of show, full of hipness and snark—not to be confused with, you know, knowledge. I rode with this for awhile, and then we got to Amahl and the Night Visitors. Now, I'll admit that in 2004 my knowledge of this opera was limited. I did know it was an opera, and I knew that it had been on television in the 1950s and '60s, but although it had been aired several times during my lifetime, I'd never watched it; in fact, the brief clip they showed on The Christmas Special Christmas Special was the first time I'd ever seen it.

It might all have ended there, but for the way in which the clip was presented. It was smug, yes, but it was also ignorant. The narrator referred to Amahl as "the first—and very likely the last—opera written for television." Well, we know this isn't true; our look at Jennifer Barnes's Television Opera shows us that American television networks have, through the years, commissioned 24 operas for performance on the tube.* Granted, the last such one was in 1974, but as we alluded to last week, there are a lot of cultural factors at work there.

*At the time that Barnes' book was written in 2003—the year before the Trio special was aired—another 27 had been commissioned by British and Canadian television networks. I guess, when you're looking to score points, factual accuracy isn't that big a deal, nor is international television.

As if that wasn't bad enough, one of the experts went on to pontificate on the supposed "failure" of Amahl to gain a television foothold. "Three little words describing why this never became a Christmas classic: it's—an—opera!"*

*My gratitude to the commentator at IMDb who was able to provide the exact quote; I remembered it being something like this, but when my point is to be accurate with your history, I probably ought to do the same.

I don't know how I knew this wasn't true, but I knew it to be the case. In fact, the research involved was ridiculously easy, thanks to the Internet. As it turned out, Amahl had appeared on NBC every year between 1951 and 1966; the premiere broadcast (live, on Christmas Eve 1951) had pulled in five million viewers, and was reviewed the next day on the front page of The New York Times. When it did go off the air after the 1966 broadcast, it wasn't because of low ratings, but due to a dispute between the composer, Gian Carlo Menotti, and the network.

All this was in the future, though. For the present, I knew three things: 1) the show was factually inaccurate (and if it could get Amahl wrong, what else might it have screwed up?); 2) I didn't like the attitude of the talking heads on the program; and 3) I already knew more than many of these so-called experts. Imagine what I could do if I worked at it?

From then on, I made it something of a personal mission to tell  an accurate history of Amahl and the Night Visitors, a mission that became even more personal after I managed to get a copy of the kinescope of the original, live broadcast. Amahl was charming and stirring, with a lovely and moving narrative; it had everything that a "real" opera had, including an overture, a ballet, duets, arias and recitative; and, as the first "studio opera" I'd seen (that is, one taped in a television studio rather than in a live stage performance), I was struck by how the director could, by choosing the camera angle, provide home viewers a look at the opera that those in the opera hall would never have. In the picture at the top of this essay, just to the left of the camera in the center, you can see another camera pointing toward Amahl and his mother. That camera is used for shots of the Three Kings, the dancers, and other stagings that would have been denied live spectators. It was incredibly intimate, compared with the operas from the Met that I'd seen on TV previously.

But now the real question: how to be heard? For that, there was really only one answer: Billy Ingram’s TV Party! website , one of the very best television websites anywhere. I emailed him and asked if he’d be interested, and he was only too happy to oblige, with plenty of encouragement. When the article “Three Kings in 50 Minutes” appeared, complete with additional pictures that Billy sourced, I was delighted.

Researching and writing my Amahl article was a wonderful experience; I was able to track down a wealth of information in the archives of Time magazine and The New York Times; I found some terrific pictures online, and was fortunate to talk with some very nice people who provided me with additional pictures; and I lucked into finding a copy of Television Opera. Just when I thought I was finished, VAI released a copy of the 1955 broadcast of Amahl, which included a terrific little booklet, and a bonus interview with Rosemary Kuhlmann, who played the mother in every NBC broadcast between 1951 and 1966.

The rest, of course, is history: blogs, podcasts, interviews, a book, even a couple of citations on Wikipedia. I’m now considered a television historian, and, as we all know, if it says that on the Internet it has to be true.

It’s not that Amahl needed my help—the fact that the information was all readily there for me to discover shows that it was never really forgotten, but I like to think that some of the favorable mentions of Amahl that I’ve seen over the years, even when there’s no attribution, were in some way influenced by what I wrote. Reading over it again, I think I’d probably write parts of it a little differently today; there’s no question in my mind that I’m a better writer today, thanks to the repetition of regular writing. But I’m still pretty pleased with it; even a little proud, if vanity doesn’t get in the way too much.

I was already a lover of opera when I started writing about Amahl, but the whole concept of studio opera has come to fascinate me; and, in so doing, I think I’ve gained a greater appreciation for all forms of studio broadcasting, from Hallmark Hall of Fame to Studio One and Playhouse 90, to musical comedy and variety shows, to straight drama. There is, within the technical confines of television broadcasting, a real art to staging and directing a studio broadcast (witness the steps Kirk Browning had to take with Amahl, not only integrating a live orchestra in another building, but having to communicate with his cameramen through an intermediary because of union rules).

Had none of this happened, I’d still be a fan of classic TV, of course. I don’t think I’d be as knowledgeable, though, nor do I think I’d have become interested in so many different aspects of it. And I’d probably be more intimidated by “experts” than I am now—after all, if I can be one, just about anyone can. All it takes is curiosity, and the willingness to work a little in order to satisfy it. Come to think of it, that’s pretty much the key to doing a good television show as well.

I’ve linked to Amahl on this website a few times, as I will here, following the excerpt below. It stands as proof that television opera, though it perhaps didn’t attract enough of an audience to survive on commercial television, was never a failure, and that, indeed, it created one of the medium’s greatest Christmas traditions. Perhaps some time, somewhere, an American network will go into the studio and give it another try.

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From "Three Kings in 50 Minutes":
The history between NBC and Gian Carlo Menotti went a long way back. The Old Maid and the Thief had been a commission from NBC radio, premiering on April 22, 1939 as the first opera ever written for radio. (Menotti procrastinated with the composition, finishing it less than a month before the broadcast – a foreshadowing of difficulties to come.) The opera was a landmark success, and from there Menotti had gone on to even greater fame. The Medium (1949) was a smash; The Consul (1950) won the Pulitzer Prize. His picture was on the cover of Time. Menotti was the man.

And so it was not surprising that in 1950 he received another commission from NBC, this time to write a Christmas opera for television. The opera would be brief, short enough to fit in a one-hour timeslot, and would be written – as were nearly all of Menotti’s operas – in English. However, much to the consternation of the network, Menotti’s penchant for procrastination once again appeared. (A November 8, 1951 article in The New York Times, headlined “Menotti Writing an Opera for TV,” said that NBC hoped to have the world premiere “around Christmas.” The article neglected to mention that Menotti had already been working on the commission for over a year.)

As the deadline drew nearer, Menotti continued to struggle, at one point even offering to give back to NBC the money it had paid him. He was, he said later, without “one idea in my head.” Finally, in November of 1951, as he walked through the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, he saw Hieronymus Bosch’s famous painting “The Adoration of the Kings.” “[S]uddenly I heard again…the weird song of the Three Kings.”

It was then, he said, that the idea came to him, as he was flooded with memories of his childhood in Italy where it was the Three Kings, and not Santa Claus, who brought presents to children at Christmastime. There was another detail of his childhood that he did not mention at the time – that as a young boy he had been a cripple, suffering from a lame leg until he was taken to a statue of a Madonna at a nearby church, whereupon his leg was healed.


With this, the story—now titled Amahl and the Night Visitors—began to take shape.

Read the entire story here .
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Here is the famed world premiere of Amahl and the Night Visitors, as originally broadcast by NBC on December 24, 1951:

The 1963 production that caused so much trouble between Menotti and the network:


And a real rarity: Amahl e Gli Ospiti Notturni—Amahl on Italian television! This illustrates the worldwide impact the telecast had, since most of its notoriety at the time came from its television broadcasts.


NEXT WEEK: The series concludes with a look at how televised opera has evolved, from the end of NBC Opera Theatre to the Metropolitan Opera in HD. TV  

What's on TV? Thursday, June 21, 1962

I think I've written about this before, but for a network that was perennially in third place until the late '70s, ABC was home to some iconic shows. Look at tonight's schedule, for example: Ozzie and Harriet, Donna Reed, The Real McCoys, My Three Sons and The Untouchables. Only The Law and Mr. Jones is missing from a hall of fame lineup of classic television. Not that they were all great shows; I've never been able to get into any of them save The Untouchables, in fact, but they're familiar names to anyone familiar with classic television. And then NBC follows up with Dr. Kildare, Hazel and Sing Along With Mitch. No, if you can't find something to watch here, you aren't really looking very hard. The listings, as you might expect, are from the Twin Cities.

 2  KTCA (EDUC.)
     EVENING    
    6:30 CONVERSATIONAL CRAFTS
    6:45 GERMAN FAIRY TALES
    7:00 EXPLORATION OF SPACE
    7:30 NEWS—Star and Tribune
    8:00 ST. OLAF CHOIR CONCERT
    8:30 ITALY—Documentary
    9:00 TO BE ANNOUNCED
    9:30 TOWN AND COUNTRY—Wolf
  10:00 SCHOOL STORY—Documentary
  10:30 PRIMITIVE ART—Education


 4  WCCO (CBS)
    MORNING   
    6:30 AFRICA—Social Studies
    7:00 FLYING SAUCER—Siegfried
    7:45 ROCKY AND HIS FRIENDS
    8:00 CAPTAIN KANGAROO—Children
    9:00 NEWS—Dean Montgomery
    9:10 DR. REUBEN K. YOUNGDAHL
    9:20 WHAT’S NEW?—Arle Haberle
    9:30 I LOVE LUCY—Comedy
  10:00 VERDICT IS YOURS—Drama
  10:30 BRIGHTER DAY—Serial
  10:55 NEWS—Harry Reasoner
  11:00 LOVE OF LIFE—Serial
  11:30 SEARCH FOR TOMORROW—Serial
  11:45 GUIDING LIGHT—Serial
  AFTERNOON 
  12:00 NEWS—Dave Moore
  12:15 SOMETHING SPECIAL—Merriman
  12:25 WEATHER—Bud Kraehling
  12:30 AS THE WORLD TURNS—Serial
    1:00 PASSWORD—Allen Ludden
    1:30 HOUSE PARTY—George Fenneman
    2:00 MILLIONAIRE—Drama
    2:30 TO TELL THE TRUTH—Panel
    2:55 NEWS—Douglas Edwards
    3:00 SECRET STORM—Serial
    3:30 EDGE OF NIGHT—Serial
    4:00 AROUND THE TOWN—Haeberle
    4:30 ROCKY AND HIS FRIENDS
    4:45 CLANCY AND SPACE ANGELS
    5:00 YOGI BEAR—Cartoons
    5:30 ROGER!—Children
    5:55 MR. MAGOO—Cartoon
     EVENING    
    6:00 NEWS—Dean Montgomery
    6:10 WEATHER—Don O’Brien
    6:15 NEWS—Harry Reasoner
    6:30 FRONTIER CIRCUS—Western“Ichabod and Me” will not be seen. “Frontier Circus” is seen at this earlier time tonight only
    7:30 JOHN BROWN’S BODY—Drama  SPECIAL 
    8:30 ZANE GREY—Western
    9:00 CBS REPORTS—Documentary
  10:00 NEWS—Dave Moore
  10:15 WEATHER—Bud Kraehling
  10:20 SPORTS—Hal Scott
  10:30 BEST OF GROUCHO—Quiz
  11:00 OUTDOOR SPORTS—Johnson
  12:00 NEWS—Dave Moore


 5  KSTP (NBC)
    MORNING   
    6:30 FARM SCENE—David Stone
    7:00 TODAY—John ChancellorLocal news at 7:25 and 8:25 A.M.
    9:00 SAY WHEN—Art James
    9:30 PLAY YOUR HUNCH—Merv Griffin  COLOR 
  10:00 PRICE IS RIGHT—Cullen  COLOR 
  10:30 CONCENTRATION—Hugh Downs
  11:00 YOUR FIRST IMPRESSION—Bill Leydon  COLOR 
  11:30 TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES
  11:55 NEWS—Ray Scherer
  AFTERNOON 
  12:00 NEWS—John MacDougall
  12:15 WEATHER—Johnny Morris
  12:20 TREASURE CHEST  COLOR 
    1:00 JAN MURRAY—Game  COLOR 
    1:25 NEWS—Floyd Kalber
    1:30 LORETTA YOUNG—Drama
    2:00 YOUNG DR. MALONE—Serial
    2:30 OUR FIVE DAUGHTERS—Serial
    3:00 MAKE ROOM FOR DADDY
    3:30 HERE’S HOLLYWOOD—InterviewsGuests: Cliff Arquette, Robert Dix
    3:55 NEWS—Vanocur
    4:00 TOPPER—Comedy
    4:30 KUKLA AND OLLIE—Tillstrom
    4:35 T.N. TATTERS—Children
    5:15 LOVE THAT BOB!—Comedy
    5:30 DOCTOR’S HOUSE CALL
    5:45 NEWS—Huntley, Brinkley
     EVENING    
    6:00 NEWS—Bob Ryan
    6:15 WEATHER—Johnny Morris
    6:25 SPORTS—Al Wester
    6:30 OUTLAWS—Western
    7:30 DR. KILDARE—Drama
    8:30 HAZEL—Comedy
    9:00 SING ALONG WITH MITCH  COLOR Guest: Gloria Lambert
  10:00 NEWS—John MacDougall
  10:15 WEATHER—Johnny Morris
  10:20 SPORTS—Al Wester
  10:30 TONIGHT—Variety  COLOR Guest Host: Steve Lawrence
  12:00 NEWS AND SPORTS


 9  KMSP (ABC)
    MORNING   
    7:55 CHAPEL OF THE AIR—Religion
    8:00 BREAKFAST WITH CAP’N KEN
    9:00 JACK LA LANNE—Exercise
    9:30 PEOPLE ARE FUNNY—Linkletter
  10:00 MY LITTLE MARGIE—Comedy
  10:30 OUR MISS BROOKS—Comedy
  11:00 ERNIE FORD—Variety
  11:30 YOURS FOR A SONG—Bert Parks
  AFTERNOON 
  12:00 CAMOUFLAGE—Don Morrow
  12:30 WINDOW SHOPPING—Kennedy
    1:00 DAY IN COURT—Drama
    1:25 NEWS—Tom Casey
    1:30 MARY JO TIERNEY—Interviews
    2:00 JANE WYMAN—Drama
    2:30 SEVEN KEYS—Jack Narz
    3:00 QUEEN FOR A DAY—Bailey
    3:30 WHO DO YOU TRUST?—Carson
    4:00 AMERICAN BANDSTAND—Clark
    4:50 AMERICAN NEWSSTAND—Sharp
    5:00 MOVIE—Drama“Alias the Champ” (1949)
     EVENING    
    6:00 NEWS—Ron Cochran
    6:15 NEWS—Bob Allard
    6:25 WEATHER—Jere Smith
    6:30 OZZIE AND HARRIET—Comedy
    7:00 DONNA REED—Comedy
    7:30 REAL McCOYS—Comedy
    8:00 MY THREE SONS—Comedy
    8:30 LAW AND MR. JONES—Drama
    9:00 UNTOUCHABLES—Drama
  10:00 NEWS—George Grim
  10:15 WEATHER—Jere Smith
  10:20 SPORTS—Tony Parker
  10:30 PETER GUNN—Mystery
  11:00 MOVIE—Western “Ramrod” (1947)
  12:30 CHAPEL OF THE AIR—Religion


11 WTCN (IND.)
    MORNING   
  10:55 WE LEARN TO LIVE—Religion
  11:00 ROMPER ROOM—Miss Betty
  11:45 NEWS—Bob Landon
  AFTERNOON 
  12:00 LUNCH WITH CASEY—Children
    1:00 MOVIE—Drama“One Way Passage” (1932)
    2:25 MAHALIA JACKSON SINGS
    2:30 BURNS AND ALLEN—Comedy
    3:00 MEDIC—Drama
    3:30 AMOS ‘N’ ANDY—Comedy
    4:00 POPEYE AND PETE—Dave Lee
    5:00 SUPERMAN—Adventure
    5:30 DICK TRACY—Cartoons
    5:50 NEWS—Dick Ford
     EVENING    
    6:00 WHIRLYBIRDS—Adventure
    6:30 OUTDOOR FUNLAND—Kent
    7:00 WYATT EARP—Western
    7:30 PRE-GAME SHOW—Killebrew
    7:40 BASEBALL WARMUP—Ray Scott
    7:55 BASEBALL—TwinsMinnesota Twins at Chicago White Sox
  10:45 SCOREBOARD—Frank Beutel
  11:00 NEWS—Dick Ford
  11:15 WEATHER—Stuart A. Lindman
  11:30 MOVIE—Adventure“Safari” (1940)



  TV  

This week in TV Guide: June 16, 1962

A few years ago the concept of "six degrees of separation"* was coined, the idea being that everyone in the world could be connected to everyone else by no more than six degrees. The same could be said, I suppose, for articles in TV Guide. To test this theory, we took a look at this week's issue to see if we could bring it all the way from 1962 to today in six steps or less.

*Or "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon," if you prefer.

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1.  Right doctor, wrong role: Westinghouse Presents was an occasional series of dramas sponsored by the electronics giant, previous sponsor of Studio One. On Wednesday evening (9:00 p.m. CT, CBS) Westinghouse Presents features Margaret Leighton in "The First Day," the story of a woman returning to her former life after having been hospitalized for a nervous breakdown. Leighton's husband in the play is played by Ralph Bellamy, who the next year would star as Dr. Richard Starke in NBC's psychiatric drama  The Eleventh Hour. I would presume that everything turns out all right for Leighton but, if not, perhaps she could make an appointment with Dr. Starke.

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2. Speaking of which: The Eleventh Hour was a spin-off from NBC's enormously successful doctor show Dr. Kildare,* starring Richard Chamberlain as the young intern James Kildare, with Raymond Massey as his mentor, the veteran Dr. Leonard Gillespie. The two men share the cover of this week's issue, with the feature article focusing on Massey, whose signature role prior to Kildare was Abraham Lincoln, whom he portrayed several times on stage, screen and television.  (There's a wonderful story from Wikipedia of how a fellow actor joked that Massey wouldn't be satisfied with his Lincoln impersonation until someone assassinated him.)

*The Eleventh Hour ran for only two seasons, but was still more successful than ABC's similar drama Breaking Point, which itself was a spin-off from the Kildare clone Ben Casey.

Massey won plaudits for his portrayal of Gillespie, a much more nuanced and less caricaturish performance than those rendered in the movies by Lionel Barrymore. He was a distinguished actor, with two stars on Hollywood's Walk of Fame—one for movies, one for television, and Dwight Whitney's article highlights some colorful aspects of his life: an uncle was a bishop, his older brother was Governor General of Canada, and the Massey family owned the Massey-Harris Harvester Company, which we would recognize today as the manufacturing giant Massey Ferguson . His first Broadway role came courtesy of Noel Coward and Norman Bel Geddes (mid-century design icon and father of Dallas' Barbara Bel Geddes), and his movie career started with an offer from Sir Gerald du Maurier, father of the famed novelist Daphne.*

*Who, as far as I could tell, never wrote a work adapted into a movie in which Massey appeared.

Massey was a dignified actor—sadly, not too many of those around anymore.

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3. Since you mentioned it: In addition to his several portrayals of Lincoln, Raymond Massey also played the abolitionist John Brown in a pair of movies—Santa Fe Trail and Seven Angry Men—and onstage in a dramatic reading of Stephen Vincent Benét's Pulitizer Prize-winning poem John Brown's Body. And it's that very story—John Brown's Body that CBS has on Thursday night at 7:30 p.m, preempting the police drama Brenner. This one doesn't have Massey, but it does feature Richard Boone as the Narrator, with Douglas Campbell as John Brown. In a couple of seasons, Boone will star on NBC in The Richard Boone Show, an anthology series with a rotating repertory cast. Despite critical praise, it will only run one season before being canceled, replaced by The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Boone finds out about it not from the network, but from the trade papers.

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4. Her stock is rising: Actress Diana Millay, as it happens, appeared in both The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and The Eleventh Hour. But that is in the future—today, in addition to being one of the hardest-working actresses in New York (nearly 100 live shows to her credit), the 23-year-old is also making her mark as a day trader in the stock market. While most actresses are concerned with their reviews, Millay can be seen pouring over Forbes and The Wall Street Journal between takes. Later she'll find more success in commercial real estate and fine art.

This article is typical of so many that have run in TV Guide over the years, and you might wonder if anything ever happened with Millay or if she faded to obscurity like many a starlet from previous profiles. But in this case, Diana Millay did all right for herself, assuring lasting fame as Laura Collins in Dark Shadows. No word on how much of a killing she made in the market.

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Paul Anka and Friend5. Did someone say "young star"? Any discussion of talented young performers has to include Paul Anka. At the time of this writing Anka is still 20—three years younger than Diana Millay, but in that time he's accomplished—well, let the statistics speak for themselves. At 15 he signed a contract with Don Costa at ABC/Paramount, and had his first hit: "Diana," which sold 8,500,000 copies. He followed that up with "Lonely Boy" and "Puppy Love," each of which were million-sellers. He's appeared as an actor in movies, most recently in the war drama The Longest Day, for which he also wrote the theme. According to the famed musical writing team of Comden and Green, "it is not too early to mention Paul Anka in the same breath with musical immortals." He's accessible, appearing constantly on variety shows: Sullivan, Como, Shore. He's a mean Password player. He makes well over a million dollars a year.

And he isn't even old enough to vote or drink. Go ahead and grit your teeth if you want.

The unbylined article portrays Anka as a driven businessman. He has little time for personal relationships, other than those that are part of the business. He has little time for girls, even though the broken romance is a staple of his songs. He's insecure—"I care about being liked. I want everybody to like me," he tells his interviewer. He's angered by those who resent his early success, and those who ridicule rock music in general.

What's particularly interesting about this article is that although Anka is already established as a major star in records, television and movies, his biggest hits are still ahead of him: "My Way," the Sinatra hit for which he wrote the English lyrics; "She's a Lady," the Tom Jones hit, and "Johnny's Theme," the Johnny in question being Johnny Carson.  And the guy's still only 77—not bad, huh?

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6. What's old is new again: Paul Anka was payed a royalty every time the theme for The Tonight Show was played—over 1,400,000 times by one estimate. Every night Johnny's monologue began with that theme, and ended with Johnny's golf swing. And that brings us to the present day, and the highlight of the sporting week.

The U.S. Open golf championship, or the National Open as it was frequently called back in the day, is—then as now—this weekend's Big Event. (3:30 p.m. Saturday, NBC) This year's tournament is at Pebble Beach, the famed California course, but back in 1962 it's across the country, at Oakmont, outside of Pittsburgh. There's another difference in 1962: the tournament is scheduled for three days, concluding on "Open Saturday" with a 36-hole marathon.

Golf's reigning superstar, Arnold Palmer, is the hometown hero (from nearby Latrobe), and having shared the lead after the second and third rounds, everything seems to point to his second Open championship. However, at the end of 72 holes Palmer finds himself tied with a rising star: the 22-year-old Jack Nicklaus, who had been the low amateur at the last two Opens. The two meet in a playoff on Sunday, in front of a raucously pro-Palmer crowd. Jack leads Arnold by four shots after six holes and goes on to a three-shot victory. It's the start of the Nicklaus dynasty: his first professional win, and the first of his 18 major professional championships. Palmer, who had won the Masters earlier in the year and will add the British Open in July, takes his third Masters in 1964, but after that never wins another major title.

t  t  t
And there you have it: from Margaret Leighton in "The First Day" to the U.S. Open in the present day, all in six steps. Not bad, hmm?

t  t  t
Notes from the Teletype and more:  In the works for the coming season: The Patty Duke Show, Lee Marvin's  Lawbreakers , and Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol. All of them made it to the small screen, and all of them are available on DVD. . . Future Oscar winner Marvin stars this week in The Richest Man in Bogota, based on the sci-fi story by H.G. Wells . . . NBC announces that 68% of its prime-time programs for 62-63 will be in color, compared with 57% this season and 41% a year ago.  NBC remains the dominant player in the color television market . . .I wrote about the TV Guide Awards here ; the 1962 version will air next week, headlined by Judy Holliday, Art Carney and Dave Garroway. . .Pat Weaver, former head of NBC television, was a prominent figure in my article about television opera last Wednesday; this week, he has an article on how television can "make the common man the uncommon man," which is why he believed in the potential of cultural programming. . .Premiering this week on CBS daytime: To Tell The Truth, which adds the daytime component to its long-running nighttime run, now in its sixth season. The prime-time version will run until 1967, daytime ends a year later. Longtime soap The Secret Storm expands from 15 minutes to a half-hour, leaving only The Guiding Light and Search For Tomorrow in the old radio-era length. Both will finally go to 30 minutes in 1968, bumping—To Tell The Truth.

t  t  t
By the way, if you really do want to play this game with Kevin Bacon, then step 6 is as follows: Paul Anka was in  Mad Dog Time  with Diane Lane, who was in  My Dog Skip   with Kevin Bacon. See how easy? TV  

Around the dial

R
obert Earle died last week at the age of 93, and for those of a certain age, that name will probably bring back warm memories. From 1962 to 1970 he was the host of G-E College Bowl, the academic quiz show that pitted two teams of college students against each other in a battle of wits that left most viewers grasping at straws while trying to recall what general led Sparta into the Peloponnesian War against Athens.

He was a community-relations specialist for General Electric, and chairman of the radio-TV department at Ithaca College in New York, when the job with College Bowl came open after Allen Ludden left to concentrate full-time on Password. An article by Bob Stahl in my cherished copy of the January 25, 1964 TV Guide describes how Earle prepared his audition tape:

The following Sunday he set up the tape recorder next to his TV set and tuned in College Bowl. He recorded Ludden and the college students playing the game. Then he had his secretary transcribe the tape and took it to WHCU, the Ithaca radio station where he had once worked. There he edited the tape to delete Ludden’s voice, retaining intact the voices of the students and the show’s sound effects.

Next he went to WICB-TV, the Ithaca College studio, set up a lectern in front of a movie camera and put his tape on a playback machine controlled by a foot pedal. As the film rolled, he stood at the lectern and acted as the College Bowl host. Cutting with split-second precision back and forth to the tape, he voiced Ludden’s exact dialog from the transcribed notes. On the finished film, he was the College Bowl quizmaster.

I remember reading that when I was a kid, and for many years thereafter, and I thought that use of technology was the coolest thing. Nowadays, of course, anyone could do that with a phone, but back then there was a bit more to it, and Earle’s brainstorm won him the job over more established names such as Win Elliot and Dick Stark. Viewers at the time remarked on the physical resemblance between Earle and Ludden (minus the smarminess, of course); Betty White relates a story that the producers took Earle to Ludden’s optometrist to get the same frames that Ludden wore. Earle remained the host until the show went off the air in 1970, due in part to negative publicity from the rise of student protests on campuses.

Robert Earle was a warm presence on television, and had great rapport with the students who appeared on the program. College Bowl, which aired on Sunday afternoons for most of its twelve-year run, remains a vivid reminder of a time when weekend afternoons on television weren’t dominated by sports and infomercials. Even though I was only 10 when the show went off the air, I still have fond memories of it.

Want some more? This article at Slate by Lynn Yu tells the story of what was probably the most famous episode of College Bowl, and one of the greatest game show upsets of all time: tiny Agnes Scott College's victory over Princeton, which you can see on YouTube .

In other news, it’s Maverick Monday at The Horn Section, and this week Hal looks at the very funny 1959 episode “ A Fellow’s Brother, ” in which Bret (James Garner) suddenly finds himself with the reputation as a feared gunslinger. You’ll want to see how he talks his way out of that.

We haven’t visited Cult TV Blog for awhile, so let’s see what Jack has to say about “ Jackpot ,” an episode from the 1970s British crime series The Sweeney. I really enjoy Jack’s comment at the end about how “I just like TV to be unreal because I can fully see that this episode wouldn’t hang together in reality, but if TV was strictly real it wouldn’t be an escape, would it?” I need to keep that in mind more often.

From the UK newspaper The Guardian, this story on how " America's rural radio stations are vanishing—and taking the country's soul with them ." It's not about TV, but it echoes the concerns I have about how, in the era of syndication and informercials and homogenized news anchors, local television barely has anything "local" about it. And that's a loss to us all.

At Comfort TV, David asks an excellent question: are the '80s "comfort TV"? I have never considered them part of my own personal comfort TV (YMMV), but David's article (he says yes, by the way) got me thinking: what are the shows from the '80s that I watch? Doctor Who, Police Squad!, SCTV, MST3K, Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister, the entire Blackadder series—I guess there are more of them there than I would have realized.

One of the shows that's not on my list—The Wonder Years (no offense intended)—is the cover subject of this week's " A Year in TV Guide " feature at Television Obscurities. Head on over and find out what else the issue has to offer. TV  

The life and death of "NBC Opera Theatre"

PART 2 OF 4
Viewed from today’s perspective, the marriage of classical music and television would seem to be an unlikely one. And yet, in the early days of TV, it was a natural match. The new medium needed inexpensive, reliable programming. It needed the prestige and credibility that well-done presentations could provide. Perhaps even more important, it needed viewers—especially upscale viewers that would attract the attention of advertisers needed to sponsor these programs.

NBC’s commitment to classical music programming dated back to the pre-TV days; founder David Sarnoff believed the network had an obligation to serve the public interest, and one way of doing that was through such programming. To that end, Sarnoff hired the great Arturo Toscanini to create and head up the NBC Symphony Orchestra in 1937.

It was inevitable that this partnership would continue on television as the new medium began to grow after World War II. as part of a more concentrated effort to bring high culture to the growing middle class. Time relates a story of how, in the late 1940s, Samuel Chotzinoff, who headed up NBC’s music programming, along with director Peter Herman Adler and accompanied by a small group of singers, cornered Sarnoff and presented a three-minute excerpt from Puccini’s La bohème right there in the hallway. Sarnoff, moved to tears (so the story goes), asked, “Could that be done on television?”

Moved to tears Sarnoff may well have been, but his interest in classical music wasn’t entirely altruistic, of course. For one thing, the FCC was said to be keeping a close eye on the broadcast content of the young medium, to make sure it reached its true educational potential. There were more practical, commercial considerations involved as well—selling television sets, for example, which was particularly important to NBC’s parent company, RCA. Few men understood this better than NBC’s head of programming, Pat Weaver.

Weaver, who was nothing less than a creative genius when it came to television, was the father of what he called “spectaculars,” a sort of “must-see TV” of the ‘50s. These live specials (often lavish, star-studded, and broadcast in color) were advertised to the hilt and designed to encourage people to purchase new sets—RCA color sets—in order to see them. “Prestige” television was a part of this overall strategy; Weaver calculated that the audience for such programs would be upscale, more likely to have disposable income, and less likely to be regular TV viewers. It was a fantastic carrot to dangle before prospective advertisers: sponsor this show and you’ll have access to an audience you wouldn’t otherwise reach. An audience with money, ready to spend it.

*He created the Today and Tonight shows, and was co-creator of the actress Sigourney Weaver, but that’s another story.

Whatever the reasons, opera was on its way to television, and NBC Television Opera Theatre, with Samuel Chotzinoff as producer and Peter Herman Adler as artistic and music director, made its debut on March 16, 1949, with Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Old Maid and the Thief (which NBC Radio had commissioned; it was one of the first operas ever commissioned specifically to be broadcast on radio). From then through 1964, the company would perform nearly 50 operas, including several commissioned by the network, beginning with Menotti’s Christmas opera Amahl and the Night Visitors.

Not just for TVMany of the operas were abridged in order to fit a 90-minute or two-hour timeslot, and all were performed in intelligent English versions to make them more accessible to viewers. And while most of the operas were broadcast on Sunday afternoons, there were exceptions, as the series garnered three Emmy nominations. Chotzinoff and Adler believed in the power of television to bring opera to a wider audience than ever before, and to that end NBC Opera Theatre developed a reputation for naturalistic acting, creative staging and camera angles, and handsome wardrobes and sets. It was, at times, more like musical theater than opera; director Kirk Browning described it as  "drama with music more than, you know, an opera on camera." It was a radical attempt to create a dynamic production for a "non-operatically experienced target audience."

NBC's efforts were warmly applauded by critics, and have long been cited as a cultural high point in television history, but it would be a mistake to assume that they were a smash hit on television. Amahl and the Night Visitors, which premiered on December 24, 1951 as the inaugural presentation of the Hallmark Hall of Fame, was a sensation (the broadcast was reviewed the next day on the front page of The New York Times), but in general NBC Opera Theatre struggled to find a commercial sponsor. Most of the time it was a sustaining broadcast, supported by the network itself.

However, when FTD signed on to sponsor the April 10, 1960 broadcast of Mozart's Don Giovanni, it brought the issue to a head and suggested the inexorable, inevitable conclusion. The 2½ production featured two of opera's great stars: Cesare Siepi, the rare European star who was also fluent in English, in his signature role as the Don, and American Leontyne Price. who had first appeared on Opera Theatre in 1955* and was now on the verge of international stardom, as Donna Anna. A sizable audience was anticipated, and—much in the same way that Hallmark always seems to sponsor television shows just before holidays that prompt people to send greeting cards—FTD thought this would be the perfect program to sponsor, with Easter the following Sunday.** It was an ideal example of Weaver's theory linking "prestige" TV shows with potential sponsors. But there was a catch: unlike Hallmark's uninterrupted sponsorship of Amahl (with a running time of less than an hour, Hallmark put their commercials before and after the opera), FTD insisted on five commercial breaks during the broadcast, requiring the cuts of three arias as well as the epilogue (although it would have been edited anyway to fit in the timeslot).

*Price's debut, in the January 23, 1955 production of Tosca, marked the first time an African-American had appeared in a leading role on a television opera. As might be expected for the time, several NBC affiliates refused to carry the broadcast.

**Sample commercial line: "Clothes are important to us girls, particularly at Easter—almost as important as flowers." The commercials, shown every half-hour on the half-hour, featured opera star Rise Stevens in a faux floral store setting, chatting casually with a florist on the benefits of selling flowers by telegraph.

While critics were in general praiseworthy of the production, and the witty English translation by W.H. Auden and Chester Kallman, the commercials came in for a roasting. The New York Herald Tribune critic Paul Henry Lang called the result "barbarous," the result of having to watch "idiotic acts of commercials." "Morally and artistically," he said, "this atrocity is ... reprehensible," "criminally unworthy of a nation that pretends to have a culture," and concluded with this salvo: "All right, ‘Send flowers to your loved ones’ but not at the expense of a great work of art. They will wilt and stink. Nature’s most beautiful creations have been used to harm a most beautiful creation of the human mind.” Winthrop Sargeant, in an otherwise mostly favorable review in the New Yorker, wrote of the commercials that "... rather than listen to Don Giovanni on these terms, I would prefer not to hear it at all."

However, Paul Hume, writing in the Washington Post, provided perspective on the whole affair. He was no fan of the commercials himself (the title of his review was "Don Giovanni on TV; Sponsor Routs Mozart"), but pointed out that if NBC Opera Theatre continued to be sustaining, it was probably that many affiliates would cease carrying it (150 stations cleared Giovanni, probably the most people ever to see the opera). "Under our system of television," he wrote, "that is the way things have to be," and added that "between having commercials and not having "Don Giovanni" at all I think there is no question as to which is preferable." Take that, Winthrop Sargeant!

The audio of the Don Giovanni broadcast
By 1963, average viewership of NBC Opera Theatre had reached 15 million; by comparison, last season's highest rated program, NBC's Sunday Night Football, averaged a little over 18 million viewers a week, but times were different back then. The number of productions each year steadily declined, even as the costs of each production went up. Voice of Firestone and Omnibus, the other two great cultural icons of television, were both gone. And, in an unexpected way, the network was the victim of its own success: in trying to create a new art form, in attempting to humanize opera , bringing the drama home to the viewer and making it more realistic for the small screen, they perhaps did their job too well. As director Kirk Browning noted, "we reached the point where the audience was saying, ‘Why are they singing?’"

Samuel Chotzinoff died in 1964, the same year the Beatles premiered on Ed Sullivan's show. And while Sullivan had always been a champion of culture, presenting many opera stars and excerpts of productions, it was never enough to enable televised opera to break through the cultural barrier. Chotzinoff's death meant the death of NBC Opera Theatre, and while opera hung on for a few more years, making occasional appearances on commercial television, the handwriting was on the wall. Soon studio opera was gone altogether, and any opera that did appear on television would come from the great opera houses themselves, not a television studio in New York City. It was a short lifetime, but what a time it was.

I'm indebted to Daniela Smolov Levy's Democratizing Opera in America, 1895 to the Present for many of the details concerning NBC Opera Theatre's techniques and sponsorship challenges.

NEXT WEEK: The story behind the classic Amahl and the Night Visitors. TV  

The life and death of NBC Opera Theatre

PART 2 OF 4
Viewed from today’s perspective, the marriage of classical music and television would seem to be an unlikely one. And yet, in the early days of TV, it was a natural match. The new medium needed inexpensive, reliable programming. It needed the prestige and credibility that well-done presentations could provide. Perhaps even more important, it needed viewers—especially upscale viewers that would attract the attention of advertisers needed to sponsor these programs.

NBC’s commitment to classical music programming dated back to the pre-TV days; founder David Sarnoff believed the network had an obligation to serve the public interest, and one way of doing that was through such programming. To that end, Sarnoff hired the great Arturo Toscanini to create and head up the NBC Symphony Orchestra in 1937.

It was inevitable that this partnership would continue on television as the new medium began to grow after World War II. as part of a more concentrated effort to bring high culture to the growing middle class. Time relates a story of how, in the late 1940s, Samuel Chotzinoff, who headed up NBC’s music programming, along with director Peter Herman Adler and accompanied by a small group of singers, cornered Sarnoff and presented a three-minute excerpt from Puccini’s La bohème right there in the hallway. Sarnoff, moved to tears (so the story goes), asked, “Could that be done on television?”

Moved to tears Sarnoff may well have been, but his interest in classical music wasn’t entirely altruistic, of course. For one thing, the FCC was said to be keeping a close eye on the broadcast content of the young medium, to make sure it reached its true educational potential. There were more practical, commercial considerations involved as well—selling television sets, for example, which was particularly important to NBC’s parent company, RCA. Few men understood this better than NBC’s head of programming, Pat Weaver.

Weaver, who was nothing less than a creative genius when it came to television, was the father of what he called “spectaculars,” a sort of “must-see TV” of the ‘50s. These live specials (often lavish, star-studded, and broadcast in color) were advertised to the hilt and designed to encourage people to purchase new sets—RCA color sets—in order to see them. “Prestige” television was a part of this overall strategy; Weaver calculated that the audience for such programs would be upscale, more likely to have disposable income, and less likely to be regular TV viewers. It was a fantastic carrot to dangle before prospective advertisers: sponsor this show and you’ll have access to an audience you wouldn’t otherwise reach. An audience with money, ready to spend it.

*He created the Today and Tonight shows, and was co-creator of the actress Sigourney Weaver, but that’s another story.

Whatever the reasons, opera was on its way to television, and NBC Television Opera Theatre, with Samuel Chotzinoff as producer and Peter Herman Adler as artistic and music director, made its debut on March 16, 1949, with Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Old Maid and the Thief (which NBC Radio had commissioned; it was one of the first operas ever commissioned specifically to be broadcast on radio). From then through 1964, the company would perform nearly 50 operas, including several commissioned by the network, beginning with Menotti’s Christmas opera Amahl and the Night Visitors.

Not just for TVMany of the operas were abridged in order to fit a 90-minute or two-hour timeslot, and all were performed in intelligent English versions to make them more accessible to viewers. And while most of the operas were broadcast on Sunday afternoons, there were exceptions, as the series garnered three Emmy nominations. Chotzinoff and Adler believed in the power of television to bring opera to a wider audience than ever before, and to that end NBC Opera Theatre developed a reputation for naturalistic acting, creative staging and camera angles, and handsome wardrobes and sets. It was, at times, more like musical theater than opera; director Kirk Browning described it as  "drama with music more than, you know, an opera on camera." It was a radical attempt to create a dynamic production for a "non-operatically experienced target audience."

NBC's efforts were warmly applauded by critics, and have long been cited as a cultural high point in television history, but it would be a mistake to assume that they were a smash hit on television. Amahl and the Night Visitors, which premiered on December 24, 1951 as the inaugural presentation of the Hallmark Hall of Fame, was a sensation (the broadcast was reviewed the next day on the front page of The New York Times), but in general NBC Opera Theatre struggled to find a commercial sponsor. Most of the time it was a sustaining broadcast, supported by the network itself.

However, when FTD signed on to sponsor the April 10, 1960 broadcast of Mozart's Don Giovanni, it brought the issue to a head and suggested the inexorable, inevitable conclusion. The 2½ production featured two of opera's great stars: Cesare Siepi, the rare European star who was also fluent in English, in his signature role as the Don, and American Leontyne Price. who had first appeared on Opera Theatre in 1955* and was now on the verge of international stardom, as Donna Anna. A sizable audience was anticipated, and—much in the same way that Hallmark always seems to sponsor television shows just before holidays that prompt people to send greeting cards—FTD thought this would be the perfect program to sponsor, with Easter the following Sunday.** It was an ideal example of Weaver's theory linking "prestige" TV shows with potential sponsors. But there was a catch: unlike Hallmark's uninterrupted sponsorship of Amahl (with a running time of less than an hour, Hallmark put their commercials before and after the opera), FTD insisted on five commercial breaks during the broadcast, requiring the cuts of three arias as well as the epilogue (although it would have been edited anyway to fit in the timeslot).

*Price's debut, in the January 23, 1955 production of Tosca, marked the first time an African-American had appeared in a leading role on a television opera. As might be expected for the time, several NBC affiliates refused to carry the broadcast.

**Sample commercial line: "Clothes are important to us girls, particularly at Easter—almost as important as flowers." The commercials, shown every half-hour on the half-hour, featured opera star Rise Stevens in a faux floral store setting, chatting casually with a florist on the benefits of selling flowers by telegraph.

While critics were in general praiseworthy of the production, and the witty English translation by W.H. Auden and Chester Kallman, the commercials came in for a roasting. The New York Herald Tribune critic Paul Henry Lang called the result "barbarous," the result of having to watch "idiotic acts of commercials." "Morally and artistically," he said, "this atrocity is ... reprehensible," "criminally unworthy of a nation that pretends to have a culture," and concluded with this salvo: "All right, ‘Send flowers to your loved ones’ but not at the expense of a great work of art. They will wilt and stink. Nature’s most beautiful creations have been used to harm a most beautiful creation of the human mind.” Winthrop Sargeant, in an otherwise mostly favorable review in the New Yorker, wrote of the commercials that "... rather than listen to Don Giovanni on these terms, I would prefer not to hear it at all."

However, Paul Hume, writing in the Washington Post, provided perspective on the whole affair. He was no fan of the commercials himself (the title of his review was "Don Giovanni on TV; Sponsor Routs Mozart"), but pointed out that if NBC Opera Theatre continued to be sustaining, it was probably that many affiliates would cease carrying it (150 stations cleared Giovanni, probably the most people ever to see the opera). "Under our system of television," he wrote, "that is the way things have to be," and added that "between having commercials and not having "Don Giovanni" at all I think there is no question as to which is preferable." Take that, Winthrop Sargeant!

The audio of the Don Giovanni broadcast
By 1963, average viewership of NBC Opera Theatre had reached 15 million; by comparison, last season's highest rated program, NBC's Sunday Night Football, averaged a little over 18 million viewers a week, but times were different back then. The number of productions each year steadily declined, even as the costs of each production went up. Voice of Firestone and Omnibus, the other two great cultural icons of television, were both gone. And, in an unexpected way, the network was the victim of its own success: in trying to create a new art form, in attempting to humanize opera , bringing the drama home to the viewer and making it more realistic for the small screen, they perhaps did their job too well. As director Kirk Browning noted, "we reached the point where the audience was saying, ‘Why are they singing?’"

Samuel Chotzinoff died in 1964, the same year the Beatles premiered on Ed Sullivan's show. And while Sullivan had always been a champion of culture, presenting many opera stars and excerpts of productions, it was never enough to enable televised opera to break through the cultural barrier. Chotzinoff's death meant the death of NBC Opera Theatre, and while opera hung on for a few more years, making occasional appearances on commercial television, the handwriting was on the wall. Soon studio opera was gone altogether, and any opera that did appear on television would come from the great opera houses themselves, not a television studio in New York City. It was a short lifetime, but what a time it was.

I'm indebted to Daniela Smolov Levy's Democratizing Opera in America, 1895 to the Present for many of the details concerning NBC Opera Theatre's techniques and sponsorship challenges.

NEXT WEEK: The story behind the classic Amahl and the Night Visitors. TV  

What's on TV? Monday, June 10, 1963

Perhaps it's just because it's a warm evening as I type this, but I have no trouble imagining that it felt like summer on June 10, 1963. (Checks quickly.) Well, actually, the high was only 73 on that date, so maybe it didn't feel so much like summer after. But a perusal of the news headlines gives us an idea of what we might be seeing on TV the next few weeks: Roman Catholic cardinals gather in Rome to prepare for the conclave that will eventually elect Paul VI; a high-level conference is set for July in Moscow to negotiate a nuclear test-ban treaty; Governor George Wallace prepares to block black students from enrolling in the University of Alabama; and black Muslims want to create a "Negro Nation" within the United States. Fortunately, there's none of that in today's listings, which come from Minneapolis-St. Paul.



 2  KTCA (EDUC.)
   AFTERNOON 
    5:00 COMMUNICATIONS—Paterek
      EVENING    
    6:15 PROFILE—History
    6:45 BACKGROUND—Dr. E. Ziebarth
    7:00 WORLD AMERICA FACTS
    7:30 TO BE ANNOUNCED
    8:00 QUEST FOR CERTAINTY
    8:30 EXPLORATION OF SPACE
    9:00 AT HOME WITH MUSIC
    9:30 LANGUAGE—Robert Spencer
  10:00 TOUCH OF FAME—Biography
  10:30 TO BE ANNOUNCED
Ironic, don't you think, that Quest for Certainty follows "To Be Announced"? I guess they just weren't that certain.


 4  WCCO (CBS)
      MORNING   
    6:30 FACES OF ARICA
    7:00 SIEGFRIED AND CLANCY
    8:00 CAPTAIN KANGAROO--Children
    9:00 NEWS—Dean Montgomery
    9:15 WHAT’S NEW?—Arle Haeberle
    9:25 DR. REUBEN K. YOUNGDAHL
    9:30 I LOVE LUCY—Comedy
  10:00 McCOYS—Comedy
  10:30 PETE AND GLADYS—Comedy
  11:00 LOVE OF LIFE—Serial
  11:25 NEWS—Harry Reasoner
  11:30 SEARCH FOR TOMORROW
  11:45 GUIDING LIGHT—Serial
   AFTERNOON 
  12:00 NEWS—Dave Moore
  12:15 SOMETHING SPECIAL
  12:25 WEATHER—Bud Kraehling
  12:30 AS THE WORLD TURNS—Serial
    1:00 PASSWORD—Allen LuddenCelebrities: Eli Wallach, Anne Jackson
    1:30 HOUSE PARTY—Art LinkletterGuest: Pat Hitchcock
    2:00 TO TELL THE TRUTH—CollyerPanelists: Sam Levenson, Sally Ann Howes, Peggy Cass, Artie Shaw
    2:25 NEWS—Douglas Edwards
    2:30 MILLIONAIRE—Drama
    3:00 SECRET STORM—Serial
    3:30 EDGE OF NIGHT—Serial
    4:00 AROUND THE TOWN—Haeberle
    4:15 POLITICAL TALK—Republican
    4:30 AXEL AND BOWERY BOYSMovie: “Feudin’ Fools” (1952)
    5:30 QUICK DRAW McGRAW
      EVENING    
    6:00 NEWS—Dean Montgomery
    6:10 WEATHER—Don O’Brien
    6:15 NEWS—Walter Cronkite
    6:30 TO TELL THE TRUTH—Collyer
    7:00 I’VE GOT A SECRET—PanelGuest: Arnold Palmer. Guest Panelist: Lauren Bacall. Panelists: Bill Cullen, Henry Morgan, Betsy Palmer
    7:30 LUCILLE BALL—Comedy
    8:00 DANNY THOMAS—Comedy
    8:30 ANDY GRIFFITH—Comedy
    9:00 PASSWORD—Allen LuddenCelebrities: Lena Horne, Abe Burrows
    9:30 STUMP THE STARS—StokeyGuests: Tab Hunter, Frankie Avalon, Harvey Lembeck, Jim Backus, Sebastian Cabot, Ross Martin, Beverly Garland, Has Conried
  10:00 NEWS—Dave Moore
  10:15 WEATHER—Bud Kraehling
  10:20 SPORTS—Hal Scott
  10:30 STEVE ALLEN—VarietyGuest: Henny Youngman
  12:00 MOVIE—Western“Quincannon, Frontier Scout” (1956)News will follow the movie
Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson, the celebrities on the afternoon version of Password, were at the time married in real life. The Pat Hitchcock who appears as a guest on House Party is not the daughter of the famed director, but is in fact the wife of anthropologist Ben Hitchcock; her appearance is to talk about the couple's two years in Nepal.

 5  KSTP (NBC)
      MORNING   
    6:45 FAR HORIZONS—Travel
    7:00 TODAY—Hugh DownsGuests: Jane Rosenthal, the Muppets
    9:00 SAY WHEN—Art James
    9:25 NEWS—Edwin Newman
    9:30 PLAY YOUR HUNCH—Lewis  COLOR Guest: Tony Randall
  10:00 PRICE IS RIGHT   COLOR 
  10:30 CONCENTRATION—Hugh Downs
  11:00 YOUR FIRST IMPRESSION   COLOR  Panelists: MacDonald Carey, Betty White
  11:30 TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES
  11:55 NEWS—Ray Scherer
   AFTERNOON 
  12:00 NEWS—John MacDougall
  12:15 WEATHER—Johnny Morris
  12:20 TREASURE CHEST   COLOR 
    1:00 BEN JERROD—Serial   COLOR 
    1:25 NEWS—Floyd Kalber
    1:30 DOCTORS—Drama
    2:00 LORETTA YOUNG—Drama
    2:30 YOU DON’T SAY!—Tom Kennedy   COLOR Guests: Gisele MacKenzie, Frankie Avalon
    3:00 MATCH GAME—Gene RayburnCelebrities: Joan Fontaine, Rod Serling
    3:25 NEWS—Sander Vanocur
    3:30 MAKE ROOM FOR DADDY
    4:00 BETTY WELLS CHATS
    4:05 MOVIE—Drama“Three Faces West” (1940)
    5:30 POLITICAL TALK—Republican
    5:40 DOCTOR’S HOUSE CALL—Fox
    5:45 NEWS—Huntley, Brinkley
      EVENING    
    6:00 NEWS—Bob Ryan
    6:15 WEATHER—Johnny Morris
    6:25 SPORTS—Al Tighe
    6:30 MOVIE—Drama   COLOR Monday Night at the Movies: “Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison” (1957)
    8:30 ART LINKLETTERGuest: Cara Williams
    9:00 DAVID BRINKLEY’S JOURNAL   COLOR 
    9:30 HENNESEY—Comedy
  10:00 NEWS—John MacDougall
  10:15 WEATHER—Johnny Morris
  10:20 SPORTS—Al Tighe
  10:30 JOHNNY CARSON   COLOR 
  12:00 NEWS AND SPORTS
It's interesting that we're still looking at 15-minute evening news segments; in about three months, both CBS and NBC will expand to a half-hour. ABC will eventually follow suit—in 1967.

 9  KMSP (ABC)
      MORNING   
    7:45 BREAKFAST—Grandpa Ken
  10:00 DEBBIE DRAKE—Exercise
  10:15 RANDOM—Variety
  11:00 PEOPLE ARE FUNNY
  11:30 SEVEN KEYS—Jack Narz
   AFTERNOON 
  12:00 ERNIE FORD—Variety
  12:30 FATHER KNOWS BEST—Comedy
    1:00 GENERAL HOSPITAL—Serial
    1:30 MY LITTLE MARGIE—Comedy
    2:00 DAY IN COURT—Drama
    2:25 NEWS—Alex Drier
    2:30 JANE WYMAN—Drama
    3:00 QUEEN FOR A DAY—Bailey
    3:30 WHO DO YOU TRUST?
    4:00 AMERICAN BANDSTANDGuest Host: Ray Stevens
    4:30 DISCOVERY ’63—Children
    4:55 AMERICAN NEWSSTAND—Lord
    5:00 MOVIE—Western“Hidden Guns” (1956)
      EVENING    
    6:00 NEWS—Ron Cochran
    6:15 NEWS—Bob Allard
    6:30 DAKOTAS—Western
    7:30 AS CAESAR SEES IT—Comedy  SPECIAL “The Rifleman” is pre-empted
    8:00 STONEY BURKE—Drama
    9:00 BEN CASEY—Drama
  10:00 NEWS—George Grim
  10:15 WEATHER—Jere Smith
  10:20 SPORTS—Tony Parker
  10:30 ADVENTURES IN PARADISE
  11:30 CALL MR. D—Mystery
  12:00 SAN FRANCISCO BEAT—Police
  12:30 NEWS
Bill Lord, the host of ABC's youth-oriented American Newsstand, had real news credentials; he was one of the correspondents in Dallas on November 22, and was reporting there throughout the weekend. 

11 WTCN (IND.)
      MORNING   
  11:30 CARTOON CIRCUS—Children
  11:45 NEWS—Bob Landon
   AFTERNOON 
  12:00 LUNCH WITH CASEY--Children
  12:45 KING AND ODIE—Cartoon
    1:00 MOVIE—Drama“Sharpshooters” (1938)
    2:25 TAKE FIVE—Jan Werner
    2:30 STATE TROOPER—Police
    3:00 DECEMBER BRIDE—Comedy
    3:30 AMOS ‘N’ ANDY—Comedy
    4:00 POPEYE AND PETE—Dave Lee
    4:30 DICK TRACY—Cartoons
    5:00 MICKEY MOUSE CLUB—Children
    5:30 SUPERMAN—Adventure
      EVENING    
    6:00 POLITICAL TALK—Republican
    6:15 NEWS—Dick Ford
    6:30 BOLD JOURNEY—Travel
    7:00 HIGH ROAD—John Gunther
    7:30 WRESTLING—Minneapolis
    9:00 M SQUAD—Police
    9:30 NEWS—Dick Ford
    9:45 WEATHER—Stuart A. Lindman
    9:50 SPORTS—Buetel, Horner
  10:00 MOVIE—Musical Comedy“April Showers” (1948)

The Republican "Political Talk" shown on all three of the commercial stations is probably for the Minneapolis mayoral election. Minneapolis has always elected its mayor in an off year, and in 1963 the election was held in early July. Back then, it was still possible that the city could elect a Republican mayor, though it should be noted that Minneapolis has not elected one since 1959. And they call Chicago a one-party city. TV