Mitchell Hadley's Blog: It's About TV!, page 137

This week in TV Guide: June 8, 1963

The show where nothing's sacred. That's how Robert Musel, TV Guide's man in the UK, presents the most controversial program on British television: That Was the Week That Was. One American columnist (not Cleveland Amory?) describes TWTWTW as "the best TV show in the world." And while that may be exaggerating things a bit, you can't deny that this series is a candidate in the "show that changed television" category.

The mastermind behind TWTWTW is 31-year-old Ned Sherrin, whom you may recall also created  the hilarious late-70s PBS game show spoof  We Interrupt This Week . The show, which runs at about 11:00 p.m. on Saturday nights (about, because the show doesn't have a specific starting or finishing time) is, in Sherrin's words, "an intelligent television commentary on the week's events, at a peculiar hour posed between the sores and sorrows of one week and the alarms and excursions of the next. What we wanted to do was to try to convert conversation that is worth listening to into television terms."

The show's host, David Frost (24 years old!) expands Sherrin's comments. "There is a good and serious purpose behind everything we do. We produce a funny show about important things. We cater to the people who like to think while they laugh. We try to be as frank on television as one is frank in conversation at home. Nothing, as long as it is important, is sacred to us. What we don't do is deal in trivialities and we don't hit a man when he is down." That's an interesting point, about people who like to think when they laugh. You may recall the piece I wrote a couple of years ago about satire, and how difficult it seems to be to get it right. I think one of the reasons for that is that many satirists forget to be funny—they use the cover of humor as license to proselytize. Not saying that TWTWTW wasn't that way as well, but the point is that Frost's idea is right, whether he always followed it or not. And that bit about not hitting a man while he's down—well, that's long since gone by the by in our culture, but it's a corollary to his remark about nothing being sacred: for satire to be effective, there has to be a sense of equality about it, that everyone is fair game. And by those rules, you don't hit a man when he's down—or a woman, for that matter, nor do you kick dogs and cats.

The Royal Family has not been exempt from all this, of course, although the bits are more gentle than they are against politicians: on a joint visit by West German Chancellor Adenauer and French President de Gaulle: "They went to Rheims Cathedral and inspected troops and graves—an appropriate gesture for two who had spent so many years filling the latter with the former." I wouldn't have laughed at that when it was originally on, because I was only two years old and didn't know anything, but I laugh at it today, because I get it—and because it's true.

As is the case with so many programs from across the pond, an American version of That Was the Week That Was was developed and aired by NBC, and even though it had the same David Frost as host, it didn't fare quite as well, for a myriad of reasons. In Britain, television broadcasting comes under the jurisdiction of the Postmaster-General (don't ask), and the current occupant of that position, Reginald Bevins, quite approves. "On the whole I think the program has had a fairly salutary effect. After all it is human nature. Most people like to see other people lampooned. When I was recently lampooned on it, my family laughed their heads off. And so did I."

Here's a feature on the show for when you have some spare time.


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Speaking of things sacred, some time ago I was walking through an antique store last weekend when I came upon a book with an unusual title: Hollywood Priest .  Face it, when you see a title like that you're going to pick it up, as I suspect the author intended. And that author, I was not surprised to find, was Fr. Ellwood Kieser.

I recognized the name immediately. In 1960, Kieser began a modest, low-budget program called Insight which, at the time of this unsigned TV Guide profile, was entering its third year, given free of charge to some 100 channels throughout the United States. Insight was one of those programs that always seemed to be on somewhere in the early decades of television, filling a gap between programs, usually on Sunday mornings. It might flit from station to station, and you might see the same episodes from time to time, but if you watched enough television you were sure to run across it eventually.

What made Insight unusual was not just its religious message—after all, Bishop Fulton Sheen had been a major TV star in the '50s and early '60s—but Kieser's ability to get major Hollywood talent, Catholic and non-Catholic alike (Raymond Massey, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Jane Wyatt, Irene Dunne, John Forsythe), who appeared for scale and then donated it back, acting on low-budget, minimalist sets. A typical story might involve an estranged family, a man contemplating suicide, or a woman tempted to shoplift - in other words, the drama of everyday life garnished with a moral message.  There are many conflicts in the 20th Century, but the basic conflicts are theological," Kieser is quoted as saying. "We have discovered that theological conflicts make great drama." Its tone might have been earnest but was not especially preachy or moralizing; nonetheless, in its low-key way, it got the point across. Early shows featured Kieser at the blackboard, Sheen-like, but by the second season he had evolved into giving Serlingesque introductions to each episode (though not, perhaps, quite as sanctimonious).

The tone of the article is admiring and respectful, with nary a hint of cynicism—almost too good to be true. Kieser is portrayed as unassuming and modest, perhaps a bit nerdy ("I've found actors give better performances if you feed them."), but with an undeniable presence, as indicated by the story of an unnamed non-Catholic actress who after one rehearsal, tells Kieser she's decided to join the Church.

His television fame brought him a job providing network commentary on what was then called the "Ecumenical Council," i.e. Vatican II., and led to his producing several faith-themed movies, including biographical portrayals of Archbishop Oscar Ramiro and social worker Dorothy Day. Insight itself wound up a 23-year run in 1983, winning six Emmys in the process.  

The book, which was written in 1991, also detailed another side of Kieser, one that a more cynical article might have hinted at back in 1963. Kieser's spiritual struggles in the wake of the changes wrought by the Council, including a romantic (but ultimately chaste) relationship with a nun—one of the hoariest cliches of the post-V2 Church. Kieser considered breaking his vows, leaving the priesthood, marrying (he did none of them). He dabbled in psychotherapy and the New Age. He lived in the limelight, rode the talk-show circuit, and enjoyed it.

In a telling story, Kieser relates how he was once accused by a conservative Los Angeles monsignor of being one of those priests who "start out playing around with the liturgy. Next you question church doctrine. You end up dating nuns." Said Kieser, "I was furious; partially, I guess, because I was doing all three."

Was this all present in 1963, when Kieser was a young priest on a television mission? Did the writer miss it, or choose not to look at it? Or was it all a product of the turbulent times, something just under the surface, waiting for the breakdown in discipline that the era brought, a breakdown that claimed many souls? (Would the same thing, for example, have happened to Bing Crosby's Fr. O'Malley after Going My Way? He is, after all, described in the movie as a "modern" priest.) We'll probably never know, but I'm reminded of the story of a bishop in the early 60s, one of the staunchest defenders of Church tradition, especially celibacy. In the wake of the Pill, he was confronted by a climate that suggested the Church was about to change its mind on many of the principles which the bishop had fought so hard to defend. By the time Paul VI's encyclical Humanae Vitae came out in 1968, reaffirming the Church's opposition to birth control, the horses had been let out of the barn, so to speak.

The bishop wound up leaving the priesthood and marrying a former nun.

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The week that is to be—a nice turn of phrase, don't you think?—starts off on Saturday with the Belmont Stakes (3:30 p.m., CBS), being run for the first time at Aqueduct while Belmont Park is closed for renovation. Chateaugay, winner of the Kentucky Derby and runner-up in the Preakness, On Hootenanny (7:30 p.m., ABC), which features in a pictorial in this issue, Jack Linkletter (son of Art) welcomes the Smothers Brothers, Oscar Brand, Shirley Abicair, and the Tarriers, in a show taped at Rutgers University. And while we're on the topic of universities, this week's combatants on Sunday's G-E College Bowl (4:30 p.m., CBS) are brainiacs from Temple and Bucknell. That's followed at 5:00 p.m. by a Twentieth Century profile of Frank Lloyd Wright, with Mister Ed and Lassie to follow. Remember when Sundays weren't filled from end to end with sports?

Monday sees The Rifleman preempted on ABC for As Caesar Sees It, one of Sid Caesar's occasional specials (7:30 p.m.), and I'd particularly appreciate the skit that shows the perils of pro hockey "for the spectators who get too close to the game." Meanwhile, singer Lena Horne and comic writer Abe Burrows are the guests on Password (9:00 p.m., CBS). On Tuesday, Jack and Rochester play cards to decide who does the household chores, on The Jack Benny Program (8:30 p.m., CBS), and you can guess who loses. At the same time on NBC, the late Dick Powell (who died in January of 1963) makes one of his last appearances on The Dick Powell Theater as a lawyer checking out the potential beneficiaries for a dying man. Powell's wife June Allyson, Edgar and Frances Bergen, Jackie Cooper, Lloyd Nolan, Mickey Rooney, and Barbara Stanwyck are the guest stars. Fortunately, with a cast like that, we're able to watch this episode via YouTube:


Perhaps the highlight of the week is Wednesday's special featuring Julie Andrews and Carol Burnett from Carnegie Hall (8:00 p.m., CBS). Yup, you can see this Emmy-winning special as well:


I like Thursday's Andy Williams Show (9:00 p.m, NBC), with Kate Smith as special guest; at the same time on ABC, Fred Astaire's Premiere casts Claude Akins and Roger Perry as Marines who find themselves in the middle of a Mexican revolution in the 1930s. And on Friday's Jack Paar Program (9:00 p.m., NBC), it's the story of President Kennedy's exploits on PT-109, as Jack shows films from the South Pacific where JFK's boat was sunk, and interviews Benjamin Kevu, the native who found Kennedy and the other survivors, Reginald Evans, who was responsible for their rescue, and 10 of the crew members.

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Finally, if the ghosts of the near future were present in the article on Fr. Ellwood Kieser, the ghosts of our near future might well have been present in an odd little story appearing on Sunday, June 9 on the Dupont Show of the Week. Entitled "The Triumph of Gerald Q. Wert," and starring Art Carney, the story presents us with a dystopian future in which—well, let me give you the description that appears in the listings:

Gerald Q. Wert, the only comedian left on earth, finds his talents in great demand. But plying his trade is dangerous. The totalitarian regime has decreed that making people laugh is a crime punishable by death. Now government agents are hot on his trail and a suspicious little boy has seen him hiding from the police.

Although there's undoubtedly a good deal of humor in this episode, it is not a comedy—far from it. And I can't help but wonder about this; couldn't find anything on Google about it, no clips on YouTube, so I'm forced to rely on this listing for my information, but I wonder how close we are to something like this today? The Thought Police and Speech Police are everywhere, the slightest suggestion of disrespect merits condemnation, and everyone seems a victim, sensitive about everything. We're quick to anger,slow to forgive, disinclined to understand or make allowances. Once we've reached that level of humorlessness, will we even need a regime to outlaw humor, or will we be content to do it ourselves? TV  

Around the dial

We’ll start this week with another look outside the classic TV blogosphere, beginning at Uni Watch, the website devoted to the obsessive study of athletic aesthetics. In this article, Paul leads off with a fabulous commercial for the 1968 Dodge Charger , featuring members of—who else?—the San Diego Chargers! Chrysler was a great sponsor of the American Football League, and it’s great to see an example of it in this commercial.

And if I didn’t need something else to remind me that I’m getting older by the second, Bryan Curtis has an article at The Ringer on “ the present and future of broadcasting ” as heard on the NBA finals. Since I’m not a basketball fan, I can’t speak firsthand; I can only read it and wonder if the days of Chris Schenkel were really that long ago.

At bare-bones e-zine, Jack wraps up his look at the Hitchcock works of James P. Cavanagh with the seventh-season story “Where Beauty Lies,” and a summary of Cavanagh’s output.

“ Hondo and the Hanging Town ” does not sound good, especially if your name happens to be Hondo. Find out the exciting conclusion from Hal at The Horn Section.

David offers a reflection on actress Season Hubley that’s as fresh as a springtime morning, with a review of her many television credits providing some Comfort TV indeed.

At The Twilight Zone Vortex, Jordan celebrates the upcoming first day of summer with a retrospective on the several excellent episodes that prove “ summers are always strange ” in the Twilight Zone.

Opera Winfrey looks like something out of a dystopic dictatorship in the ridiculous getup she’s wearing on the June 3, 1989 cover of TV Guide . Find out what else is in that issue at Television Obscurities.

On the other side of the ocean: Paul Darrow , one of the stars of the British sci-fi cult classic Blake’s 7, died over the weekend at age 78. Terence has an appreciation of his career at A Shroud of Thoughts.

And that, my friends, should hold you until tomorrow.  TV  

When opera on TV was about more than just soap

BENJAMIN BRITTEN CONDUCTING HIS MADE-FOR-TV OPERA, OWEN WINGRAVE (BBC)


PART 1 OF 4
One of the great pleasures I find in studying classic television is the era of staged drama—live and taped performances of plays, musicals, and opera. The nature of the television studio and its confined space, as opposed to the large-scale movie stage, requires innovative direction; the ability to create imaginative set design and utilize camera angles and close-ups allows a freedom not found in a theater or opera house. Of all these various forms of television drama, I find television opera to be the most interesting. It's a relatively brief period of time, covering less than two decades, but it illustrates a type of high culture that had once shown great promise, but has long since disappeared from television. 

I'm dedicating this month to a four-part look at the history of television opera: an overview of opera specifically designed for TV; a look at NBC's bold effort to provide opera on a regular basis; the story of the most famous of all TV operas, one that became television's first Christmas tradition; and the state of opera on television today. We'll begin with Jennifer Barnes's definitive study of opera commissioned for television.

Believe it or not, there was a time when it was thought that television could play an important part in the creation of a new and revolutionary art form. It was called the opera.

In 1952, NBC Opera Theatre prepared to present the American premiere of Benjamin Britten’s Billy Budd, which had been written only the year before. Based on the novel by Herman Melville, one of the opera’s most famous scenes contains a twelve-minute aria by John Claggart, the villain of the piece, “in which the Master-at-Arms delineates his hatred of Budd and reveals his determination to destroy him.” For the broadcast, producer Samuel Chotzinoff elected to excise the entire aria—partly because of the need to compress the opera into a 90-minute timeslot, but also because he felt television presented an opportunity to completely change the way operas were written. Through the use of close-ups and shadows cast by lighting, Claggart’s malevolent intentions were expressed—proving, Chotzinoff said, that a broadcast could “[accomplish] in a few seconds what the aria took twelve minutes to tell us.” The implications were obvious, Chotzinoff felt, thinking it “probably that the composers of the future, writing especially for television, will find no necessity for explanatory and illuminating solo arias, once they realize the revealing potentialities of the television camera.”

Television Opera: The Fall of Opera Commissioned for Television, by Jennifer Barnes, Boydell Press, 138 pages, $29.95

Samuel Chotzinoff certainly understood the visual power inherent in television, but his confidence that it would change the course of modern opera was more than slightly misplaced. In Television Opera: The Fall of Opera Commissioned for Television , Jennifer Barnes shows how such early promise failed to pay off, leaving TV opera, like live drama, a dinosaur of television’s past.

Barnes focuses her book on three specific case studies, all of them operas commissioned for television: Amahl and the Night Visitors, Gian-Carlo Menotti’s landmark Christmas story that was the first ever written for TV; Britten’s Owen Wingrave, which he wrote for the BBC in 1970 after having seen several of his operas adapted for television; and Gerald Barry’s The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit, a 1994 production that was intended to explicitly take advantage of technology that only TV could provide.

While the three operas share a common birth, they differ in substantial ways. For example, Amahl was broadcast live on Christmas Eve in 1951, with Menotti working almost until the last minute to finish the composition. Owen Wingrave was shot on tape, duplicating the feel of a live broadcast while enabling special effects and editing to ensure the best performance possible. Beauty and Deceit was filmed, giving it the look of a movie, and allowing for a production radically different from one presented on the stage of a theater.

In the wake of the success of Amahl (including a rare front-page review in The New York Times), the future of television opera looked bright indeed. NBC Opera Theatre had been a regular presence on the network since 1949, and would continue presenting a handful of operas each season up through 1964. Menotti’s career flourished, as he won two Pulitzer Prizes and received several additional commissions from NBC. While Britten had not been particularly thrilled with the network’s adaptation of Billy Budd (which was edited so severely that he demanded the broadcast be entitled Scenes from “Billy Budd”), he was happier with BBC adaptations of some of his other works, including Peter Grimes, for which Britten conducted the orchestra. While Billy Budd was taped, rather than live, Britten insisted that the music and singing be performed live, rather than dubbed in after the fact (which would become standard in the future, including in The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit).

While many of these productions won great acclaim, however, ratings were something different. Due to its enduring popularity, Amahl never lacked for sponsorship, but most of the other broadcasts were subsidized by NBC. Gradually the number of productions diminished, as did the commissions, until televised opera of any kind—not just that written for the medium—had all but disappeared. Public broadcasting, thought to be the safeguard of such cultural programming, started out with promise, but as government funding dissipated, it too felt the pull of ratings (and donor dollars) and opted for more “popular” programming.

The arts remained active, if not vital, on British television, and The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit was part of a series of operas commissioned by Britain’s Channel 4—with the requirement that they be written in such a way as to make a live performance all but impossible. In other words, the operas were not only written for television, but were meant to be performed only on television. The fact that Barry’s opera went on to an eventual staged production is almost immaterial; several critics suggested that it was intrinsically unsuitable for live performances.

Barnes’ choice of these three operas for close examination does not neglect the overall genre; indeed, they were chosen specifically to illustrate the arc traveled by opera commissioned for television. And while each one is interesting in and of itself, they take on an added dimension when considered as part of the whole, showing how a form of programming which once held such promise never truly fulfilled its potential.

As one might suspect, this isn’t a book to be read casually (though I must say I enjoyed it immensely), but while an appreciation of opera certainly helps, it isn’t absolutely required. Our cast of characters ranges from merely proficient to fascinating to colorful, and Barnes takes a close look at the inside workings of television, spending ample time on the choice of camera angles, why close-ups are sometimes good and sometimes bad, and how in the early days of TV a director’s job was considerably more difficult that it might seem. In doing so she reprints excerpts from several shooting scripts, showing the various stage directions and framings, and provides a glimpse at the challenges inherent in adapting a work for television—especially when the composer of said work is both alive and opinionated!

It may not be for everyone, but anyone wanting to learn more about a niche of television history that in a handful of decades went from accepted fact to invisible memory will find Television Opera not only the definitive resource, but an engrossing story as well.

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Here's the complete broadcast of 1952's "Scenes from Billy Budd"; the title change was demanded by Britten, who felt that Chotzinoff's various cuts, including the excising of Claggart's aria, had so changed the nature of the production that it was no longer the same opera. The quality of the recording is rough, but considering the historical significance of the broadcast, I think we can handle it.


For reference, here's the Claggart aria that Chotzinoff cut from the production, which has come to be considered one of the most significant in the bass repertoire. The bass in question is the great James Morris in a Met performance from 1997.



NEXT WEEK: A look at NBC Opera Theatre.  TV  

What's on TV? Wednesday, June 9, 1965

Middle of the week. Why did I happen to feature this day? I was looking for programs we don't usually see in the listings; the ill-fated My Living Doll, the brief As the World Turns prime-time spinoff Our Private World, some of the daytime shows I mentioned on Saturday. As we move into summer, and television's third season (the second season began in January), we'll probably see more unfamiliar titles; in the meantime, let's get familiar with these. The listings are from the Minnesota State Edition.



 2  KTCA (EDUC.)
Evening
    6:00 WHO READS THE MOUNTAIN—Dr. John Milton
    6:30 EDUCATION PHILOSOPHY
    7:00 SPANISH
    7:30 EFFICIENT READING
    8:00 GUTHRIE THEATER
    8:30 GERMAN
    9:00 MAN VERSUS TIME
  10:30 STRING QUARTET


 3  KDAL (DULUTH) (CBS)
Morning
    7:50 FARM AND  HOME
    8:00 CAPTAIN KANGAROO—Children
    9:00 JACK LA LANNE—Exercise
    9:30 I LOVE LUCY
  10:00 ANDY GRIFFITH—Comedy
  10:30 McCOYS
  11:00 LOVE OF LIFE
  11:25 NEWS—Trout
  11:30 SEARCH FOR TOMORROW—Serial
  11:45 GUIDING LIGHT—Serial
Afternoon
  12:00 TOWN AND COUNTRY—Becker
  12:30 AS THE WORLD TURNS—Serial
    1:00 PASSWORDCelebrities: Tom Poston, Elizabeth Allen
    1:30 HOUSE PARTYGuest: Columnist Jack Smith
    2:00 TO TELL THE TRUTHPanelists: Joan Fontaine, Phyllis Newman, Barry Sullivan, Orson Bean
    2:25 NEWS—Edwards
    2:30 EDGE OF NIGHT—Serial
    3:00 SECRET STORM—Serial
    3:30 JACK BENNY
    4:00 TRAILMASTER—Western
    5:00 LEAVE IT TO BEAVER—Comedy
    5:30 NEWS—Reasoner
Evening
    6:00 NEWS
    6:30 MISTER ED
    7:00 MY LIVING DOLL
    7:30 BEVERLY HILLBILLIES—Comedy
    8:00 DICK VAN DYKE—Comedy
    8:30 OUR PRIVATE WORLD—Serial
    9:00 DANNY KAYEGuests: Fred Gwynne, John Gary
  10:00 NEWS
  10:15 THRILLER—Mystery
  11:15 MOVIE—Drama“Battle Stations” (1956)


 4  WCCO (CBS)
Morning
    6:00 SUNRISE SEMESTER—EducationCivil Rights and Civil Liberties
    6:30 SIEGFRIED—Children
    7:00 AXEL AND DEPUTY DAWG
    7:30 CLANCY AND COMPANY
    8:00 CAPTAIN KANGAROO—Children
    9:00 DR. REUBEN K. YOUNGDAHL
    9:05 NEWS—Dean Montgomery
    9:10 MIKE DOUGLAS—VarietyCo-host: Phyllis Diller. Guests: Dr. Frances Horwich, Oscar Peterson Trio
  10:00 ANDY GRIFFITH—Comedy
  10:30 McCOYS
  11:00 LOVE OF LIFE
  11:25 NEWS—Trout
  11:30 SEARCH FOR TOMORROW—Serial
  11:45 GUIDING LIGHT—Serial
Afternoon
  12:00 NEWS
  12:15 SOMETHING SPECIAL
  12:25 WEATHER—Bud Kraehling
  12:30 AS THE WORLD TURNS—Serial
    1:00 PASSWORDCelebrities: Tom Poston, Elizabeth Allen
    1:30 HOUSE PARTYGuest: Columnist Jack Smith
    2:00 TO TELL THE TRUTHPanelists: Joan Fontaine, Phyllis Newman, Barry Sullivan, Orson Bean
    2:25 NEWS—Edwards
    2:30 EDGE OF NIGHT—Serial
    3:00 SECRET STORM—Serial
    3:30 I LOVE LUCY—Comedy
    4:00 MOVIE—Drama“Steel Fist” (1952)
    5:30 NEWS—Reasoner
Evening
    6:00 NEWS
    6:20 DIRECTION—Religion
    6:25 WEATHER—Don O’Brien
    6:30 MISTER ED
    7:00 MY LIVING DOLL
    7:30 BEVERLY HILLBILLIES—Comedy
    8:00 DICK VAN DYKE—Comedy
    8:30 OUR PRIVATE WORLD—Serial
    9:00 DANNY KAYEGuests: Fred Gwynne, John Gary
  10:00 NEWS
  10:30 MOVIE—Drama“Girl with a Suitcase” (Italian; 1960)
  12:00 MOVIE—Western


 5  KSTP (NBC)
Morning
    6:30 CITY AND COUNTRY  COLOR 
    7:00 TODAYGuests: singer Kay Armen, authors Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre
    9:00 TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES—Game  COLOR 
    9:30 WHAT’S THIS SONG?—Game  COLOR Celebrities: Ross Martin, Barbara McNair
    9:55 NEWS—Newman
  10:00 CONCENTRATION—Game
  10:30 JEOPARDY—Game  COLOR 
  11:00 CALL MY BLUFF—Game  COLOR Celebrities: Nipsey Russell, Eileen Farrell
  11:30 I’LL BET—Game  COLOR Celebrities: Keith Larsen and Vera Miles vs. Robert Sterling and Anne Jeffreys
  11:45 NEWS—Scherer
Afternoon
  12:00 NEWS AND WEATHER  COLOR 
  12:15 DIALING FOR DOLLARS—Game  COLOR 
  12:30 LET’S MAKE A DEAL—Game  COLOR 
  12:55 NEWS—Kalber
    1:00 MOMENT OF TRUTH—Serial
    1:30 DOCTORS
    2:00 ANOTHER WORLD—Serial
    2:30 YOU DON’T SAY!—Game  COLOR Celebrities: Mickey Manners, Anne Francis
    3:00 MATCH GAME  COLOR Celebrities: Sydney Chaplin, Vivian Vance
    3:25 NEWS
    3:30 DIALING FOR DOLLARS—Game  COLOR 
    4:30 LLOYD THAXTON—VarietyGuests: Poor Boys
    5:25 DOCTOR’S HOUSE CALL—Fox
    5:30 NEWS—Chet Huntley, David Brinkley
Evening
    6:00 NEWS  COLOR 
    6:30 VIRGINIAN—Western  COLOR 
    8:00 MOVIE—Comedy  COLOR Wednesday Night at the Movies: “We’re No Angels” (1955)
  10:00 NEWS  COLOR 
  10:30 JOHNNY CARSON  COLOR 
  12:15 MOVIE—Adventure“I Conquer the Sea” (1936)


 6  WDSM (DULUTH) (NBC)
Morning
    7:00 TODAYGuests: singer Kay Armen, authors Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre
    9:00 TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES—Game  COLOR 
    9:30 WHAT’S THIS SONG?—Game  COLOR Celebrities: Ross Martin, Barbara McNair
    9:55 NEWS—Newman
  10:00 CONCENTRATION—Game
  11:00 CALL MY BLUFF—Game  COLOR Celebrities: Nipsey Russell, Eileen Farrell
  11:30 I’LL BET—Game  COLOR Celebrities: Keith Larsen and Vera Miles vs. Robert Sterling and Anne Jeffreys
  11:45 NEWS—Scherer
Afternoon
  12:00 REBUS—Game
  12:30 LET’S MAKE A DEAL—Game  COLOR 
  12:55 NEWS—Kalber
    1:00 MOMENT OF TRUTH—Serial
    1:30 DOCTORS
    2:00 ANOTHER WORLD—Serial
    2:30 YOU DON’T SAY!—Game  COLOR Celebrities: Mickey Manners, Anne Francis
    3:00 MATCH GAME  COLOR Celebrities: Sydney Chaplin, Vivian Vance
    3:25 NEWS
    3:30 GENERAL HOSPITAL
    4:00 DONNA REED
    4:30 BOZO AND HIS PALS  COLOR 
    5:00 BUGS BUNNY—Cartoons
    5:30 NEWS, ROCKY TELLER  COLOR 
Evening
    6:00 NEWS—Huntley, Brinkley
    6:30 VIRGINIAN—Western  COLOR 
    8:00 MOVIE—Comedy  COLOR Wednesday Night at the Movies: “We’re No Angels” (1955)
  10:00 NEWS
  10:15 JOHNNY CARSON  COLOR 


 6  KMMT (AUSTIN) (ABC)
Morning
  10:30 PRICE IS RIGHT—GameGuest: Skitch Henderson
  11:00 DONNA REED—Comedy
  11:30 FATHER KNOWS BEST
Afternoon
  12:00 REBUS—Game
  12:30 FARM MARKETS
  12:35 CARTOONS—Children
    1:00 FLAME IN THE WIND
    1:30 DAY IN COURT—Drama
    1:55 NEWS—Marlene Sanders
    2:00 GENERAL HOSPITAL—Serial
    2:30 YOUNG MARRIEDS—Serial
    3:00 TRAILMASTER—Western
    4:00 CAPTAIN ATOM—Children
    5:45 NEWS—Peter Jennings
Evening
    6:00 NEWS
    6:30 OZZIE AND HARRIET
    7:00 PATTY DUKE—Comedy
    7:30 BILLY GRAHAM CRUSADE—Religion  SPECIAL 
    8:30 BURKE’S LAW—Mystery
    9:30 DEATH VALLEY DAYS—Drama
  10:00 NEWS
  10:15 NIGHTLIFE—Variety
  12:00 NEWS


 7  KCMT (ALEXANDRIA) (NBC, ABC)
Morning
    7:00 TODAYGuests: singer Kay Armen, authors Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre
    9:00 TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES—Game  COLOR 
    9:30 WHAT’S THIS SONG?—Game  COLOR Celebrities: Ross Martin, Barbara McNair
    9:55 NEWS—Newman
  10:00 CONCENTRATION—Game
  11:00 CALL MY BLUFF—Game  COLOR Celebrities: Nipsey Russell, Eileen Farrell
  11:30 I’LL BET—Game  COLOR Celebrities: Keith Larsen and Vera Miles vs. Robert Sterling and Anne Jeffreys
  11:45 NEWS—Scherer
Afternoon
  12:00 NEWS
  12:15 TRADING POST—Jim Syrdal
  12:30 LET’S MAKE A DEAL—Game  COLOR 
  12:55 NEWS—Kalber
    1:00 MOMENT OF TRUTH—Serial
    1:30 DOCTORS
    2:00 ANOTHER WORLD—Serial
    2:30 YOU DON’T SAY!—Game  COLOR Celebrities: Mickey Manners, Anne Francis
    3:00 MATCH GAME  COLOR Celebrities: Sydney Chaplin, Vivian Vance
    3:25 NEWS
    3:30 GENERAL HOSPITAL
    4:00 FATHER KNOWS BEST
    4:30 CARTOONS—Children
    4:45 FUNNY COMPANY—Children
    5:30 NEWS—Chet Huntley, David Brinkley
Evening
    6:00 NEWS
    6:30 MY THREE SONS—Comedy
    7:00 BILLY GRAHAM CRUSADE—Religion  SPECIAL 
    8:00 MOVIE—Comedy  COLOR Wednesday Night at the Movies: “We’re No Angels” (1955)
  10:00 NEWS
  10:30 FINS AND FEATHERS—Gorham
  10:45 MOVIE—Western “Fort Ti” (1953)


 8  WDSE (DULUTH) (Educ.)
Evening
    6:00 WHO READS THE MOUNTAIN—Dr. John Milton
    6:30 EDUCATION PHILOSOPHY
    7:00 SPANISH
    7:30 EFFICIENT READING
    8:00 GUTHRIE THEATER
    8:30 GERMAN
    9:00 MAN VERSUS TIME
  10:30 STRING QUARTET


 9  KMSP (ABC)
Morning
    7:30 MY LITTLE MARGIE—Comedy
    8:00 BREAKFAST—Grandpa Ken
    9:00 ROMPER ROOM—Miss Betty
  10:00 REBUS—Game
  10:30 PRICE IS RIGHT—GameGuest: Skitch Henderson
  11:00 DONNA REED—Comedy
  11:30 FATHER KNOWS BEST
Afternoon
  12:00 NEWS
  12:15 LOIS LEPPART—Interview
    1:00 FLAME IN THE WIND
    1:30 DAY IN COURT—Drama
    1:55 NEWS—Marlene Sanders
    2:00 GENERAL HOSPITAL—Serial
    2:30 YOUNG MARRIEDS—Serial
    3:00 TRAILMASTER—Western
    4:00 DATE WITH DINO—Teen-agers
    4:30 HENNESEY—Comedy
    5:00 NEWS—Peter Jennings
    5:15 NEWS AND WEATHER
    5:30 LEAVE IT TO BEAVER—Comedy
Evening
    6:00 HUCKLEBERRY HOUND
    6:30 OZZIE AND HARRIET
    7:00 PATTY DUKE—Comedy
    7:30 SHINDIG—Music Guests: Piccola Pupa, Everly Brothers, Bobby Sherman, Righteous Brothers, Sandie Shaw, Jimmy Clanton, Glen Campbell, Jackie and Gayle, Clyde King, Bette Lavette, Billy Preston
    8:30 BURKE’S LAW—Mystery
    9:30 DETECTIVES—Police
  10:00 NEWS
  10:30 MOVIE—Drama“Perfect Strangers” (1950)
  12:10 NIGHTLIFE—VarietyTime approximate.


10 KROC (ROCHESTER) (NBC)
Morning
    7:00 TODAYGuests: singer Kay Armen, authors Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre
    9:00 TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES—Game  COLOR 
    9:30 WHAT’S THIS SONG?—Game  COLOR Celebrities: Ross Martin, Barbara McNair
    9:55 NEWS—Newman
  10:00 CONCENTRATION—Game
  11:00 CALL MY BLUFF—Game  COLOR Celebrities: Nipsey Russell, Eileen Farrell
  11:30 I’LL BET—Game  COLOR Celebrities: Keith Larsen and Vera Miles vs. Robert Sterling and Anne Jeffreys
  11:45 NEWS—Scherer
Afternoon
  12:00 NEWS
  12:15 SHOW AND TELL—Mary Bea
  12:30 LET’S MAKE A DEAL—Game  COLOR 
  12:55 NEWS—Kalber
    1:00 MOMENT OF TRUTH—Serial
    1:30 DOCTORS
    2:00 ANOTHER WORLD—Serial
    2:30 YOU DON’T SAY!—Game  COLOR Celebrities: Mickey Manners, Anne Francis
    3:00 MATCH GAME  COLOR Celebrities: Sydney Chaplin, Vivian Vance
    3:25 NEWS
    3:30 LOVE THAT BOB!—Comedy
    4:00 LONE RANGER—Western
    4:30 LEAVE IT TO BEAVER—Comedy
    5:00 YOGI BEAR—Cartoons
    5:30 NEWS—Chet Huntley, David Brinkley
Evening
    6:00 NEWS
    6:30 VIRGINIAN—Western  COLOR 
    8:00 MOVIE—Comedy  COLOR Wednesday Night at the Movies: “We’re No Angels” (1955)
  10:00 NEWS
  10:30 JOHNNY CARSON  COLOR 


11 WTCN (IND.)
Morning
    9:45 NEWS
  10:00 BACHELOR FATHER—Comedy
  10:30 MOVIE—Musical“We’re Not Dressing” (1934)
  11:45 NEWS—Dick Ford
Afternoon
  12:00 LUNCH WITH CASEY—Children
  12:45 KING AND ODIE—Cartoons
    1:00 Movie—Drama“Invitation to Happiness” (1939)
    3:00 GIRL TALK—Panel
    3:30 DAVE LEE AND PETE—Children
    4:30 PETER POTAMUS—Cartoons
    5:00 ROCKY AND HIS FRIENDS
    5:30 LONE RANGER—Western
Evening
    6:00 SEA HUNT—Adventure
    6:30 BOLD JOURNEY—Travel
    7:00 BILLY GRAHAM CRUSADE—Religion  SPECIAL 
    8:00 MOVIE—Adventure “The Saracen Blade” (1954)
    9:30 NEWS, WEATHER, SPORTS
  10:00 MOVIE—Drama“Temptation” (1946)
  12:00 ADVENTURE THEATER—TravelTime approximate.


12 KEYC (MANKATO) (CBS)
Morning
    8:00 CAPTAIN KANGAROO—Children
    9:00 NEWS—Roger Mudd
    9:30 I LOVE LUCY
  10:00 ANDY GRIFFITH—Comedy
  10:30 McCOYS
  11:00 LOVE OF LIFE
  11:25 NEWS—Trout
  11:30 SEARCH FOR TOMORROW—Serial
  11:45 GUIDING LIGHT—Serial
Afternoon
  12:00 RFD 12—Mankato
  12:30 AS THE WORLD TURNS—Serial
    1:00 PASSWORDCelebrities: Tom Poston, Elizabeth Allen
    1:30 HOUSE PARTYGuest: Columnist Jack Smith
    2:00 TO TELL THE TRUTHPanelists: Joan Fontaine, Phyllis Newman, Barry Sullivan, Orson Bean
    2:25 NEWS—Edwards
    2:30 EDGE OF NIGHT—Serial
    3:00 SECRET STORM—Serial
    3:30 JACK BENNY
    4:00 BART’S CLUBHOUSE
    4:30 ROCKY AND HIS FRIENDS
    4:45 BART’S CLUBHOUSE
    5:00 YOGI BEAR—Cartoons
    5:30 NEWS—Reasoner
Evening
    6:00 NEWS
    6:30 MISTER ED
    7:00 MY LIVING DOLL
    7:30 BEVERLY HILLBILLIES—Comedy
    8:00 DICK VAN DYKE—Comedy
    8:30 OUR PRIVATE WORLD—Serial
    9:00 DANNY KAYEGuests: Fred Gwynne, John Gary
  10:00 NEWS
  10:30 MOVIE—Melodrama“The Tingler” (1959)
TV  

This week in TV Guide: June 5, 1965

When political satirist Art Buchwald was funny, there were few writers who could touch him. And his droll article on The Fugitive in this week's TV Guide is Buchwald at his best.

The Fugitive has just finished its second season, the most successful (ratings-wise) of the show's four seasons, and its success spelled the end of CBS' The Doctors and the Nurses, which I wrote about here . Buchwald relates a story about how The Doctors and the Nurses could have won back the Fugitive audience:

In the first show of the season, a man [is] wheeled into the emergency room of the hospital, and as one of the doctors took the sheet off him, the audience would discover he had one arm. Just before he dies on the operating table he would gasp, "I am the one-armed man the Fugitive is looking for. Richard Kimble is innocent and I killed his wife."

The network didn't take the suggestion, however, and so the show was doomed.

Buchwald is a faithful Fugitive viewer, but he has some hilarious problems with the show. For one thing, he thinks Kimble is guilty, and each week he bets his wife $20 that Kimble's going to be caught. He now figures he owes his wife $480, "which only adds to my determination to see Richard Kimble put behind bars." Kimble's nemesis, Lieutenant Gerard, is a bungler who ought to be taken off the case. "One of the things that makes me livid is that every time Gerard is close on the trail of Kimble, he never bothers to look in the kitchen," where the doctor is invariably hiding behind the door. "Sometimes I get so infuriated at Gerard I start screaming at him, 'Dope, why didn't you have the back door covered?'  This gets the neighbors pretty mad."

Buchwald has a simple solution for catching Kimble. For one thing, Kimble is a do-gooder, always stopping to help people in need. Therefore, the first thing he'd do is find the 100 neediest cases in every city he thought Kimble might be in, and have them staked out. The dramatic necessities of the show demand that he has to stop at one of these house, or the ratings will drop to zero. He'd then have NBC and CBS each put up $50,000 rewards for the capture of Kimble dead or alive. "It would be worth it to them to get The Fugitive out of circulation."

Most of all, he's mad at ABC. "It's obvious to anyone who watches the show that neither the producers nor [ABC] is making any effort to see that Richard Kimble is brought to justice. If they were sincere in their efforts, they wouldn't have a dummox like Gerard on the case." And Buchwald wouldn't be out $480 to his wife.

Funny, funny stuff.

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: Scheduled: musical-comedy star Tommy Steele, doing numbers from his Broadway show "Half a Sixpence"; Metropolitan Opera soprano Roberta Peters; singer Trini Lopez; Herman's Hermits, rock 'n' rollers; comics John Byner and George Kaye; Mr. Cox, magician; and the Malmo Girls, gymanists.

Palace: In a repeat, host Victor Borge introduces former motion picture star Alice Faye; pop singer Nancy Wilson; the Swingle Singers, French vocal group; Japanese comic Pat Morita; the tap-dancing Nicholas Brothers; bicyclist Rih Aruso; and De Mille, a 15-year-old high-wire performer.

Interesting week. The Swingle Singers, who are still around, are an incredibly talented a capella  group, as you can see here ; and the jazz great Nancy Wilson just died last year. You'll remember Pat Morita* from Happy Days and his Oscar-nominated role in The Karate Kid. The Nicholas Brothers were without peer—"tap-dancing" doesn't seem nearly adequate enough. And of course, Victor Borge was one of the funniest comics around.

*I love the description—"Japanese comic Pat Morita"—presumably so the audience won't be shocked by his appearance. Seems very odd, doesn't it?

On the other hand, Ed has Roberta Peters, one of the greatest opera singers America ever produced—and his most frequent guest, appearing on his show 65 times.* She made her debut at the Met when she was 20 years old, which is just another little something to make you feel inferior. John Byner remains active and funny; Trini Lopez just did an album a while back with Andre Rieu. Herman's Hermits was a very big deal at the time, and they too remain active, albeit in two versions: one featuring lead singer Peter Noone, ("Herman's Hermits starring Peter Noone") and the other led by longtime member Barry Whitwam ("Herman's Hermits starring Barry Whitwam").

*You'll win a few bets with that information.

I'm calling this one a push, but for those of you who don't like ties, I'll give you an alternative winner: Thursday night's Jimmy Dean Show on ABC, which featured the Mills Brothers, Norm Crosby, and Buck Owens. And of course there's Rowlf the Muppet. The star wattage on this week's programs is immense.

t  t  t
.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. 

This week we have one of the most interesting columns of the year, when Cleveland Amory looks back at his own reviews and gives us his second thoughts: which shows have grown in stature since he first looked at them, and which might be, to put it delicately, something of an embarrassment.

For example, Profiles in Courage, based on the book by the late President Kennedy. Not that it wasn't good, "it was, and at times great—but much of the time it was also unnecessarily heavy and pontifical, and we think that was one of the reasons for its demise." Wendy and Me, the series with George Burns and Connie Stevens, was one of those cases where "a second look was one too many." On the other hand, in the case of The Man from U.N.C.L.E., "either has improved or we were too hard on it—our guess is both." The Rogues, which still doesn't have enough of star David Niven, "was at least a comedy which deserved another year." And The Munsters "seems more amusing than we originally thought it was."

He saves a long section for the end of The Jack Paar Program, which he regrets not having been able to review this year. "For all his pettiness and petulance, he put on a show which did have an inimitable touch—his touch." His going "is a loss to television, make no mistake about it." Amory didn't get to The Alfred Hitchcock Hour either, which is probably a good thing: Cleve finds it preoccupied with "teen-age hoodlums, women alone in houses at night, etc."—problems that "deserve more than the thrills-and-chills approach."

Finally, input from the viewers, who share with Amory their irritation over (1) commercials, (2) canned laughter, (3) two good specials on at the same time, (4) the same celebrities appearing on talk shows over and over again ("Do those networks honestly believe," writes one reader, "we are still thrilled with these overexposed, often rude, egotistical bigwigs?"), and (5) that Amory only reviews network shows, ignoring viewer favorites such as Merv Griffin and Mike Douglas, as well as Alan Whicker's interview of "The Solitary Billionaire," J. Paul Getty, which appeared on public television. Ah well, there's always next year, wouldn't you say?

t  t  t
Gemini IV was the second manned Gemini spaceflight and the first American spacewalk, and was a crucial step in the American race for the moon. As each phase of the space program became more successful, the public became more blase about it, but the early flights were filled with excitement and drama. The networks have extensive coverage throughout the mission, which began with the liftoff the previous Thursday and is scheduled to end with live non-stop coverage of the splashdown Monday morning. ABC plans 60-second updates on the hour; CBS counters with five-minute reports throughout the day; and NBC has a one-minute report prior to the start of each prime time program. In addition, all three plan half-hour daily progress reports. Undoubtedly, I watched as much of this as I possibly could.

Here's Peter Jennings anchoring ABC's coverage, including simulation of Ed White's spacewalk.


t  t  t
Teletype highlights: The new CBS series originally entitled Country Cousins is now The Eddie Albert Show. But you probably know it by its final title—Green Acres.

Screen Gems is working on a pilot for a Western called Lazarus, which would be the first dramatic series to star a Negro. Some additional research turns up a quote from actor Jackie Cooper, who is also a Screen Gems executive, that "The Old West had lots of Negro gunslingers," and that this series would be based on the real-life Negro gunfighter Lazarus Benjamin.* However, if the pilot ever made it to air, I've yet to find it, unless it morphed into the 1968-69 series The Outcasts —which, coincidentally (?) happens to be a Screen Gems production.

*As our reader Paul Duca pointed out, Cooper was correct...it's not common knowledge, but some accounts say as many of one-fourth of the cowboys in the post-Civil War West were black.

And ABC has big plans for the new Early Bird satellite, including live coverage of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which would be won by Masten Gregory and Jochen Rindt. More important, the 1965 race marks the beginning of Ford's challenge to Ferrari, and although the GT40s would fail in 65, they would be back the next year, and would finish 1-2-3. For all you racing fans, here's some vintage footage of the live broadcast from French television. I watched this as well—this footage brings back vivid memories for me.


t  t  t
We're No Angels, starring Humphrey Bogart, Aldo Ray, Peter Ustinov and Basil Rathbone,  is NBC's Wednesday night movie, and I find that strange, since it takes place at Christmas and, just a couple of years ago, was run during Christmas pre-week by NBC. It's kind of like watching It's a Wonderful Life on the 4th of July—which, come to think of it, is just about the time of year when I first watched it. But that's a story for another day.

t  t  t
We've talked about both game shows and soaps in the past. Many of them are legendary: General Hospital, As the World Turns, Another World, Password, Jeopardy, Match Game. But what about the rest, the ones that don't stick in the memory, that aren't readily available on YouTube, that produce not fond memories but puzzled looks?

In the midst of their legendary game shows Truth or Consequences, Jeopardy, You Don't Say! and Concentration, NBC has three games that don't mean much to me: What's This Song? (9:30 a.m. CT), which runs for one year and is the first game show hosted by Wink Martindale (known then as Win); Call My Bluff (11:00 a.m.), hosted by Bill Leyden, which is in the middle of its six-month run; and I'll Bet (11:30 a.m.), hosted by Jack Narz, which started and was cancelled on the same dates as Call My Bluff. As for "daytime dramas," NBC has some heavyweight soaps like Another World and The Doctors, but they also have lesser-knowns like Moment of Truth (1:00 p.m.), a Canadian soap that ran on NBC for most of 1965*. Of the three networks, only NBC stays away from including reruns of their prime-time shows as part of their daytime lineup.

*Sample listing: "Lila embarrasses her daughter." With plotlines like that, it's no wonder it only ran a year.

Bill Cullen, who had polio as a child,
was seldom seen from the waist down


ABC, which was not much of a daytime presence in the mid-60s and filled much of their time with reruns of Father Knows Best, Donna Reed, and Wagon Train (aka Trailmaster), has a pair of soaps you might not have heard of: A Flame in the Wind (1:00 p.m.), which actually runs for two seasons; and The Young Marrieds (2:30 p.m.) also a two-year runner. They have a Concentration-wannabee hosted by Art Linkletter's son Jack called Rebus (12:00 noon), and a game show with a very familiar name, but a much different format: The Price Is Right (10:30 a.m.), hosted by Bill Cullen, which in its ABC incarnation includes a celebrity player.

Only CBS has a thoroughly familiar look, but even there you can see differences if you know where to look. Their soap schedule is a heavyweight one: Love of Life, Search for Tomorrow, The Guiding Light, As the World Turns, The Edge of Night and The Secret Storm, but Search and Guiding Light run for only 15 minutes each (in the half-hour prior to noon), a carryover from their radio days. CBS rounds out its daytime schedule with more familiar faces: I Love Lucy, Andy Griffith, and The Real McCoys (renamed The McCoys for daytime) in the morning, and Password, To Tell the Truth and Art Linkletter's House Party in the afternoon. 

t  t  t
Finally, here's another of those "news quizzes" that double as ads for KSTP, Channel 5. It's another fascinating look at how times have changed—at least in the case of Question #1, literally.


Question #3, regarding the 1965 tornado, hits home on a number of levels.  I remember that storm vividly, one of the most famous ever to hit the Twin Cities, although the tornado didn't touch down in our part of Minneapolis. It did hit Fridley, a Minneapolis suburb, where my best friend lived at the time. She remains somewhat traumatized to this day, remembering how she and her family huddled in the basement while the tornado mowed through their neighborhood. This is how it sounded, and it looked like this:


As for the other two questions—yes, it's true that in 1965 Minneapolis and St. Paul didn't observe the same rules on Daylight Saving Time. I've written about how in the 1950s Minnesota was considering allowing the Twin Cities and Duluth to go on DST while the rest of the state remained on Standard Time. In 1965 St. Paul started "early," with the rest of the country, while Minneapolis started "late," per state law. This meant that, at least for a time, it could take you an hour to cross the street.

And it's also true that there was no sales tax in Minnesota in 1965. It started in 1967, at 3%. It's now the sixth-highest in the country, at nearly 7%. Ironic also that Governor Rolvaag, a Democrat, vowed to veto the tax; it was Republican Harold LeVander who pushed it through. I guess some things actually do change. TV  

Around the dial

Let's go a bit off-topic this week, since there isn't a lot to report in the classic TV universe.

Alison Herman's article at The Ringer about the Deadwood movie-finale brings up a number of things about television: the ensemble drama, the tension between "prestige" television and ratings, and the philosophy behind offering said series a final, wrap-up-all-the-loose-ends episode. I suppose that as television becomes more and more novelistic, people are going to want the closure that they get at the conclusion of a novel: a good ending.

Embedded in Herman's story is a link to Mark Singer's New Yorker profile of David Milch, creator/showrunner of Deadwood and co-creator of NYPD Blue, among others. Milch, one of television's most prolific writers, is in the middle stages of Alzheimer's, and Singer's poignant story covers, among other things, the writing process, the discipline required to find the proper voice in the written word, how to do all this while at the same time battling dementia.

Ready for a quiz? Try the three-word TV series game at Classic Film and TV Café.

At Inner Toob, a look at the many faces (and voices) of Gilligan's Island's Ginger Grant.

As I suggest every week, go to Television Obscurities for the latest in A Year in TV Guide: 1989 , but stay for this old conversation (that keeps getting refreshed via a fascinating comments section) on whether or not there was supposed to be a third season of F Troop . You won't be surprised to find our own Hal from The Horn Section with several comments.

Exciting news from my good friend Carol: she and her co-authors of Bob Crane: The Definitive Biography are about to embark on a new podcast, Flipside: The True Story of Bob Crane . Their Bob bio is a terrific read, and based on Carol's previous podcast you're going to want to listen to this!

Remember RC Cola? As Terence reminds us in a pair of posts at A Shroud of Thoughts, RC used to be a big deal. Movie stars used to endorse it , and it was the sponsor of a Nancy Sinatra special, in which Nancy did two of the commercials . TV  

TV Jibe

TV  

What's on TV? Saturday, May 21, 1977

We're in the Bay Area this week, and no matter how often I see a TV Guide from this part of the country, I don't think I'll ever get accustomed to the time change. It's one thing to live in the Eastern time zone, which I've done a couple of times in my life; that makes more sense than to get it coming and going, as you do in the Pacific. Live events, in this case sports, start in the morning or before you get home from work, while prime time still runs until 11:00, as it does in the East. At any rate, I'm sure this won't keep you from enjoying your favorites.



 2  KTVU (SAN FRANCISCO) (Ind.)
MORNING

     8:00 VOICE OF AGRICULTURE
     8:30 BLACK FORUM
     9:00 ASIANS NOW!
     9:30 REVISTA DE LA SEMANA
   10:00 OUR MEN IN THE CAPITOL
   10:30 LONE RANGER—Western BW 
   11:00 MUSIC HALL AMERICA—Variety Guests: Joey Heatherton, Bobby Bare, Larry Gatlin, Linda Hargrove
AFTERNOON
   12:00 SOUL TRAINGuest: Smokey Robinson
     1:00 TARZAN—Adventure
     2:00 MOVIE—Science Fiction“Destination Moon” (1950)
     4:00 HEE HAWGuests: Tennessee Ernie Ford, Brenda Lee, Jimmy Henley
     5:00 CANDID CAMERA
     5:30 MOVIE—Western“The Magnificent Seven” (1960)
EVENING
     8:00 TESTIMONY OF TWO MEN
   10:00 NEWS
   10:30 THERE’S A GIRAFFE IN YOUR BACKYARD
   11:00 MOVIE—Thriller BW “Tarantula” (1955)


 3  KCRA (SACRAMENTO) (NBC)
MORNING
     6:30 ACROSS THE FENCE
     7:00 WOODY WOODPECKER—Cartoon
     7:30 PINK PANTHER—Cartoon
     9:00 SPEED BUGGY—Cartoon
     9:30 MONSTER SQUAD—Children
   10:00 SPACE GHOSTS, FRANKENSTEIN JR. –Cartoon
   10:30 BIG JOHN, LITTLE JOHN—Children
   11:00 GRANDSTAND              11:15 BASEBALLBaltimore Orioles at New York Yankees
AFTERNOON
     2:00 TENNISSpecial: Italian Open
     3:30 PORTER WAGONER—Music Guest: Melba Montgomery
     4:00 NASHVILLE ON THE ROAD—MusicGuest: Dottie West
     4:30 THAT GOOD OLE NASHVILLE MUSICGuests: Mickey Gilley, Nat Stuckey, Karen Wheeler, Johnny Gimble
     5:00 POP GOES THE COUNTRYGuests: Freddy Fender, Don Williams, Billie Joe Spears
     5:30 NEWS
EVENING
     6:30 ANDY WILLIAMS—VarietyGuests: The Lennon Sisters
     7:00 HEE HAWGuests: Tennessee Ernie Ford, Brenda Lee, Jimmy Henley
     8:00 CIRCUS LIONS, TIGERS AND MELISSAS, TOO
     9:00 MOVIE—Thriller“Spectre” (1977)
   11:00 NEWS
   11:30 SATURDAY NIGHTHost: Buck Henry. Guests: Jennifer Warnes and Kenny Vance


 4  KRON (SAN FRANCISCO) (NBC)
MORNING
     6:00 UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
     6:30 BETTER WAY
     7:00 WOODY WOODPECKER—Cartoon
     7:30 PINK PANTHER—Cartoon
     9:00 SPEED BUGGY—Cartoon
     9:30 MONSTER SQUAD—Children
   10:00 SPACE GHOSTS, FRANKENSTEIN JR. –Cartoon
   10:30 BIG JOHN, LITTLE JOHN—Children
   11:00 GRANDSTAND              11:30 BASEBALLBaltimore Orioles at New York Yankees
AFTERNOON
     2:00 TENNISSpecial: Italian Open
     3:30 WILDLIFE IN CRISIS
     4:00 IRONSIDE—Crime Drama
     5:00 NEWS
     5:30 NBC NEWS—John Hart
EVENING
     6:00 JACQUES COUSTEAU
     7:00 SPACE: 1999—Science Fiction
     8:00 CIRCUS LIONS, TIGERS AND MELISSAS, TOO
     9:00 MOVIE—Thriller“Spectre” (1977)
   11:00 NEWS
   11:30 SATURDAY NIGHTHost: Buck Henry. Guests: Jennifer Warnes and Kenny Vance
     1:00 BOBBY VINTON—Variety Guests: Freda Payne, Foster Brooks
     1:30 NEWS


 5  KPIX (SAN FRANCISCO) (CBS)
MORNING
     6:00 AGRICULTURAL FILM
     6:30 SUMMER SEMESTER
     7:00 CARRASCOLENDAS—Children
     7:30 FAMILY AFFAIR—Comedy
     8:00 SYLVESTER AND TWEETY—Cartoon
     8:30 CLUE CLUB—Children
     9:00 BUGS BUNNY/ROAD RUNNER—Cartoon
   10:00 TARZAN—Cartoon
   10:30 BATMAN—Cartoon
   11:00 SHAZAM!/ISIS—Children
AFTERNOON
   12:00 FAT ALBERT—Cartoon
   12:30 ARK II—Children
     1:00 I BELIEVE—Father RileyGuest: Honey Bruce, widow of Lenny Bruce
     1:30 SOLESVIDA—Marcos Gutierrez
     2:00 VIBRATIONS FOR A NEW PEOPLE—Cecil Williams
     2:30 FAMILY AFFAIR—Children
     3:00 MOVIE—Drama“The Big Circus” (1959)
     5:00 SPORTS SPECTACULARBoxing
EVENING
     6:00 NEWS
     6:30 CBS NEWS—Bob Schieffer
     7:00 LAWRENCE WELK
     8:00 MARY TYLER MOORE
     8:30 BOB NEWHART
     9:00 ALL IN THE FAMILY
     9:30 ALICE—Comedy
   10:00 CAROL BURNETTGuest: Ken Berry
   11:00 NEWS
   11:30 PETER MARSHALL—VarietyGuests: Dionne Warwick, Ed McMahon, Valerie Bertinelli, Donny Most, Pat McCormick
     1:00 DON KIRSCHNER’S ROCK CONCERTPerformers: Al Stewart, Chubby Checker, Bay City Rollers, Queen, Blondie, the Babys, Rick Podell, Mime Company
     2:30 SOLESVIDA—Marcos Gutierrez


 6  KVIE (SACRAMENTO) (PBS)
MORNING
     8:00 MAKING THINGS GROW
     8:30 MAKING THINGS GROW
     9:00 FROM CHANT TO CHANCE
     9:30 FROM CHANT TO CHANCE
   10:00 FROM CHANT TO CHANCE
   10:30 REBOP—Children
   11:00 SESAME STREET—Children
AFTERNOON
   12:00 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHICSpecial
     1:00 FIRING LINE—William F. BuckleyGuest: former astronaut Edgar Mitchell
     2:00 CROCKETT’S VICTORY GARDEN
     2:30 COLLAGE
     3:00 WASHINGTON WEEK IN REVIEW
     3:30 WALL STREET WEEK—Rukeyser
     4:00 SESAME STREET—Children
     5:00 KVIE AUCTIONSpecial
EVENING
     8:00 AUCTION CONTINUES
   11:00 AUCTION CONTINUES


 7  KGO (SAN FRANCISCO) (ABC)
MORNING
     7:00 TOM & JERRY/MUMBLY—Cartoon
     7:30 JABBERJAW—Cartoon
     8:00 SCOOBY-DOO, DYNOMUTT—Cartoon
     9:30 KROFFT SUPERSHOW—Children
   10:30 SUPERFRIENDS—Cartoon
   11:00 ODDBALL COUPLE—Cartoon              11:30 AMERICAN BANDSTANDYvonne Elliman, Crown Heights Affair, Bobby Kosser
AFTERNOON
   12:30 WINNERS—Profile
     1:00 WIDE WORLD OF SPORTSGymnastics, Indy 500 time trials
     2:00 THE PREAKNESSSpecial
     3:00 WIDE WORLD OF SPORTSResumes
     3:30 PERSPECTIVE
     5:00 ARA’S SPORTS WORLD
     5:30 RACERS—Sports
EVENING
     6:00 GREATEST SPORTS LEGENDS
     6:30 ABC NEWS—Ted Koppel
     7:00 NEWS
     7:30 CELEBRITY SWEEPSTAKES—GamePearl Bailey, Jaye P. Morgan, Dick Gautier, Lonnie Shorr
     8:00 BLANSKY’S BEAUTIES—Comedy
     8:30 FISH—Comedy
     9:00 STARSKY & HUTCH—Crime Drama
   10:00 FEATHER & FATHER GANG—Crime Drama
   11:00 NEWS
   11:30 ABC NEWS
   11:45 MOVIE—Drama“Battle of the Bulge” (1965)
     1:40 NEWS


 9  KQED (SAN FRANCISCO) (PBS)
MORNING
     7:00 VILLA ALEGRE—Children
     7:30 MISTER ROGERS—Children
     8:00 SESAME STREET—Children
     9:00 ONCE UPON A CLASSIC—Children
   10:00 INFINITY FACTORY—Children
   10:30 REBOP—Children
   11:00 CARRASCOLENDAS—Children
AFTERNOON
     4:30 VEGETABLE SOUP—Children
     5:00 REBOP—Children
     5:30 ONCE UPON A CLASSIC—Children
EVENING
     6:30 FIRING LINE—William F. BuckleyGuest: former astronaut Edgar Mitchell
     7:30 WORLD PRESS
     8:00 PALLISTERS—Drama
     9:00 AMERICANA—Documentary
     9:30 WOMAN ALIVE!
   10:30 TO BE ANNOUNCED


10 KXTV (SACRAMENTO) (CBS)
MORNING
     6:30 SUMMER SEMESTER
     7:00 ON SATURDAY MORNING
     7:30 FOCUS ON FARMING—Wakeman/Shaw
     8:00 SYLVESTER AND TWEETY—Cartoon
     8:30 CLUE CLUB—Children
     9:00 BUGS BUNNY/ROAD RUNNER—Cartoon
   10:00 TARZAN—Cartoon
   10:30 BATMAN—Cartoon
   11:00 SHAZAM!/ISIS—Children
AFTERNOON
   12:00 FAT ALBERT—Cartoon
   12:30 ARK II—Children
     1:00 CHILDREN’S FILM FESTIVAL
     1:30 WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT?—ChildrenSpecial
     2:00 WHO, WHAT, HOW DO YOU KNOW?—Children
     2:30 BIG BLUE MARBLE
     3:00 F TROOP—Comedy
     3:30 MOVIE—Western“Mrs. Sundance” (1974)
     5:30 NEWS
EVENING
     6:00 CBS NEWS—Bob Schieffer
     6:30 ODD COUPLE—Comedy
     7:00 LET’S MAKE A DEAL—Game
     7:30 BREAK THE BANK
     8:00 MARY TYLER MOORE
     8:30 BOB NEWHART
     9:00 ALL IN THE FAMILY
     9:30 ALICE—Comedy
   10:00 CAROL BURNETTGuest: Ken Berry
   11:00 NEWS
   11:30 MOVIE—Thriller “Journey into Darkness” (1968)
     1:30 PETER MARSHALL—VarietyGuests: Dionne Warwick, Ed McMahon, Valerie Bertinelli, Donny Most, Pat McCormick


12 KHSL (CHICO) (CBS, NBC)
MORNING
     5:55 USDA REPORTS
     6:00 SUMMER SEMESTER
     6:30 POTPOURRI
     7:00 WITHIT—Children
     7:30 BIG BLUE MARBLE
     8:00 SYLVESTER AND TWEETY—Cartoon
     8:30 CLUE CLUB—Children
     9:00 BUGS BUNNY/ROAD RUNNER—Cartoon
   10:00 TARZAN—Cartoon
   10:30 BATMAN—Cartoon
   11:00 SHAZAM!/ISIS—Children
AFTERNOON
   12:00 FAT ALBERT—Cartoon
   12:30 FRIENDS OF MAN
     1:00 CHILDREN’S FILM FESTIVAL
     1:30 WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT?—ChildrenSpecial
     2:00 PRO-FAN—Game
     2:30 POP! GOES THE COUNTRYGuests: Johnny Rodriguez, Leroy Van Dyke, Dottsy
     3:00 NASHVILLE ON THE ROAD—Music Guests: Dottsy, Jim Ed Brown, Jerry Clower, Helen Cornelius
     3:30 GOLFSpecial: Memorial Tournament
     5:00 SPORTS SPECTACULARBoxing
EVENING
     6:00 AGENDA ‘77
     6:30 CBS NEWS—Bob Schieffer
     7:00 LAWRENCE WELK
     8:00 MARY TYLER MOORE
     8:30 BOB NEWHART
     9:00 ALL IN THE FAMILY
     9:30 ALICE—Comedy
   10:00 CAROL BURNETTGuest: Ken Berry
   11:00 DOLLY—Variety
   11:30 MOVIE—Western“The Great Sioux Massacre” (1965)


13 KOVR (STOCKTON-SACRAMENTO) (ABC)
MORNING
     6:25 NEWS
     6:30 VOICE OF AGRICULTURE
     7:00 TOM & JERRY/MUMBLY—Cartoon
     7:30 JABBERJAW—Cartoon
     8:00 SCOOBY-DOO, DYNOMUTT—Cartoon
     9:30 KROFFT SUPERSHOW—Children
   10:30 SUPERFRIENDS—Cartoon
   11:00 ODDBALL COUPLE—Cartoon              11:30 AMERICAN BANDSTANDYvonne Elliman, Crown Heights Affair, Bobby Kosser
AFTERNOON
   12:30 ARA’S SPORTS WORLD
     1:00 WIDE WORLD OF SPORTSGymnastics, Indy 500 time trials
     2:00 THE PREAKNESSSpecial
     3:00 WIDE WORLD OF SPORTSResumes
     3:30 FISHING WITH ROLAND MARTIN
     4:00 FISHIN’ HOLE
     4:30 OUTDOORSMAN—Bel Lange
     5:00 MOVIE—Western“Young Fury” (1965)
EVENING
     6:30 NEWS
     7:00 LAWRENCE WELK
     8:00 BLANSKY’S BEAUTIES—Comedy
     8:30 FISH—Comedy
     9:00 STARSKY & HUTCH—Crime Drama
   10:00 FEATHER & FATHER GANG—Crime Drama
   11:00 NEWS
   11:30 MOVIE—Drama“The Ipcress File” (English; 1965)
     1:30 DRAGNET—Crime Drama
     2:00 ABC NEWS
     2:15 NEWS


31 KMUV (SACRAMENTO) (Ind.)
MORNING
     8:00 MOVIE—To Be Announced
   10:30 PORTUGAL—Chris Da Costa
   11:00 DISCO SHOWDOWN—Ron Travis              11:30 UN ANGEL LLAMADA ANDREA—Novela
AFTERNOON
   12:30 P.T.L. CLUB—Religion
     1:30 WRESTLING
     3:30 WRESTLING
     4:30 SOCCER FROM EUROPE
EVENING
     6:00 FANFARRIA FALCON—Guzman
     7:00 P.T.L. CLUB—Religion
     8:00 ESTA DE LA VITA—Religion
     8:30 GRAN TEATRO
     9:30 LA LEGISLATURA Y USTED
   10:00 COSA JUZGADA—Drama
   11:00 P.T.L. CLUB—Religion


40 KTXL (SACRAMENTO) (Ind.)
MORNING
     6:30 PHYSICAL FITNESS
     7:00 MOVIE—Comedy BW “The Outlaws is Coming” (1965)
     8:30 700 CLUB—Religion
   10:00 IMAGE
   10:30 MOVIE—Drama BW “Pursuit to Algiers” (1945)
AFTERNOON
   12:00 MOVIE—Western“Decision at Sundown” (1957)
     1:30 RACERS—Sports
     2:00 MOVIE—Science Fiction BW “The Amazing Colossal Man” (1957)
     3:30 RON SCHMECK’S EASY LIVIN’ COUNTRY MUSIC
     4:00 WRESTLING
     5:00 WILD, WILD WEST—Adventure
EVENING
     6:00 INVADERS—Drama
     7:00 TESTIMONY OF TWO MEN—Drama
     9:00 MOVIE—Science Fiction“THX 1138” (1971)
   11:00 MOVIE—Thriller“The Mummy” (English; 1959)
     1:00 BOXING FROM OLYMPIC
     2:00 MOVIE—Drama“The Sea Chase” (1955)
     4:00 MOVIE—Drama BW “All the King’s Men” (1949)


44 KBHK (SAN FRANCISCO) (Ind.)
MORNING
     9:00 WORLD OF SURVIVAL
     9:30 WRESTLING
   10:30 ADVENTURES OF THE LONE RANGER
AFTERNOON
   12:00 MOVIE—Thriller“The Revenge of Frankenstein” (English; 1957)
     1:30 MOVIE—Adventure“Tarzan and the Great River” (1967)
     4:30 MOVIE—Comedy BW “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein” (1948)
EVENING
     6:00 EMERGENCY ONE!—Drama
     7:00 ADAM-12—Crime Drama
     7:30 PRO SOCCERSan Jose Earthquakes at Seattle Sounders
     9:30 MOVIE—Adventure“Against All Flags” (1952)
   11:00 BEST OF GROUCHO—Game BW 
   11:30 PRO-FAN—GameGuests: Maury Wills, Meadowlark Lemon



  TV  

This week in TV Guide: May 21, 1977

The Quiz Show Scandal, you may recall, had to do with public deception. Television viewers were tricked into thinking that a contest between two people, a battle of knowledge, was legitimate—on the level. It was not. As far as we know, however, no viewers were damaged by the deception; there's no record of anyone losing thousands of dollars betting on the outcome of the latest Van Doren-Stempel showdown. And since the American television viewers of the 1950s weren't a bunch of snowflakes, they emerged from the scandal more cynical, less willing to believe it what they saw on the tube, but otherwise more or less intact. You wouldn't have known that from the reaction, though: the Congressional investigation, the indictments, the shaming. Oh, the humanity. It was one of the great scandals of the time, a Turning Point in American culture—you know, the proverbial "we'll never see things in quite the same way again."

Anyway, we're now flashing ahead about 20 years, to something I saw at the time, and completely forgot about, until now. It was the odd era of the Heavyweight Championship of Tennis, and it's the subject of not one, but two pieces in this week's issue.

The Heavyweight Championship of Tennis series goes back to the Wild West days of the sport, which at the time lacked a true season-ending measurement of determining the year’s number one. Owing to the nature of the various tours in existence back then, it was quite possible that the world’s best players might not ever face each other outside of the four Grand Slam tournaments*, which resulted in this made-for-TV extravaganza, something more like boxing than tennis (coincidentally, at a time when both sports were much higher in the public’s consciousness than they are today), with gunslingers facing off against each other outside the boundaries of regular tournaments.

*Even with the vagaries of tournament tennis, having the top players meet in the Majors was no sure thing; Wimbledon suffered through a men’s boycott in 1973, and the French Open banned the participation of “contract” players who had signed with the new World Team Tennis league. There's no percentage in going into the politics around all this.

The answer to this was the Heavyweight Championship, a series of "winner-take-all" matches for tennis supremacy, aired by CBS, pitting the reigning champion and consensus #1 player in the world, the odious Jimmy Connors, against a variety of challengers—or contenders, if we're continuing with the boxing analogy. Over a two-year period, Connors takes on (and wins) matches against Rod Laver, John Newcombe, Manuel Orantes, and Ille Nastase, held in such exotic places as the sports pavilion at Caesars Palace. (Yet another boxing hotspot!) There’s only one problem with this, and surprisingly enough it doesn’t come from any of the tennis authorities itself, but from the Federal Government.

That problem: the matches were not winner-take-all, and CBS knew that was the case. Oops.

Connors (L), Nastase (R): both boorsUnlike the quiz shows, the matches weren’t actually rigged. Nonetheless, as Richard K. Doan points out in the Doan Report, the advertising for them was clearly deceptive; Connors’ match against Nastase on March 5, for example, was allegedly for a winner-take-all pot of $250,000, when in reality Connors was guaranteed $500,000, win or lose, and Nastase would get $150,000. According to series promoter Bill Riordan, "The reason the public was told that there was no more than $250,000 at stake was that CBS told me it would be immoral if it was any higher." I know, that's kind of quaint in an era when a golfer can make $10 million for winning a major championship, but this is forty years ago we're talking about.

It all comes to a head at the start of the Connors-Nastase match, when announcer Pat Summerall cited the $250,000 winner-take-all stakes. CBS Sports VP Barry Frank, hearing the claim (it's nice to know he watches his network's presentations), ordered Summerall not to repeat it, but never called for a retraction or correction. A network spokesman claims that the network could not announce the true split because "they did not know how Riordan had doled out the prize money"—implying, of course, that they knew all along there would be a division between the players.

In November , the House Communications Subcommittee holds that CBS did indeed engage in deceptive practices, saying that the network deliberately intended to mislead the public, and calling their conduct "inexcusable." The Federal Communications Commission, adding insult to injury, intends to investigate whether CBS has violated the Communications Act. And if this isn't bad enough, in January 1978 , the International Tennis Federation accuses CBS of deceptive practices in billing an upcoming four-man event between the winners of the Grand Slam tournaments as the "Grand Slam of Tennis," charging that the title will "mislead the American public and do harm to the credibility of the sport," and that CBS's actions, if unchecked, will "cheapen the title 'Grand Slam' and destroy one of the game's great traditions." Not only that, they continue to run commercials listing U.S. Open champ Guillermo Villas as one of the participants, despite him having pulled out due to injury several days previous. Does this network not learn?

This week's As We See It is devoted to the tennis fraud as well. The Editors note that tennis seems susceptible to this kind of thing, often paying appearance fees to players for competing in tournaments, regardless of how they perform. The problem, according to the editorial, is that television money has popularized sports to an extent that borders on corruption. The money leads to problems, "not the least of which are under-the-table deals to hoodwink the suckers (viewers) into thinking there's a real prize at stake, as in the case of the Connors-Nastase payoff." (Shades of the quiz shows...)

The Editors are about as unimpressed with Connors and Nastase as I was, back then. "Connors and Nastase, whose God-given talents could help them set an example of clean living and exemplary conduct for the youth of our time, are a couple of vulgar characters who all too frequently are an embarrassment to the game. To have their arrogance and disdain for the public compounded by a conscienceless promoter and a shameless network sports department is a truly disgusting development." Yet another testament to the power of television.

t  t  t
It must be truth or dare week at TV Guide. Next up, there’s an interesting exchange of opinions in this week’s Letters section, responding to an article by Frank Walton from the April 23 edition, in which Walton criticizes the accuracy of NBC’s Baa Baa Black Sheep (aka Black Sheep Squadron), a series based on the real-life World War II exploits of Gregory "Pappy" Boyington and his famed squadron called the "Black Sheep." (They wanted to be known as "Boyington's Bastards," but the military put the kibosh on that.) Walton, the squadron’s Air Combat Intelligence Officer, sharply disputed the image of the pilots (several of whom he quoted in his article) as “a collection of misfits and screwballs,” and casts a dark eye at what the self-aggrandizement of both Boyington and the actor who plays him, Robert Conrad.

Pappy Boyington with Robert ConradThe first letter comes from none other than Pappy Boyington himself, who accuses Walton of engaging in “more fiction and downright falsehoods than does the dramatization he is criticizing,” and says that Walton “is not a pilot and hasn’t the slightest knowledge of how a combat pilot thinks.” He’s joined in this criticism by the show’s creator, Stephen J. Cannell, who says that Walton “is anxious about the fiction in the series because he is obviously a man with no knowledge about television or storytelling or 8 o’clock violence on TV which would make the kind of documentary story he wants unacceptable to network censors.” And a neutral observer, A.T. LaRoche (Navy retired), asks why Walton sees fit to criticize the show, since “Hogan’s Heroes, McHale’s Navy, etc. are also made for entertainment of the TV-viewing public and are not factual.” That last letter prompts a tart response from the Editor (probably Merrill Panitt), who replies that it does matter, “Because ‘Hogan’ and ‘McHale’ never lived. Gregory “Pappy” Boyington did—and does.”

Now, Cannell (who, you might notice, doesn’t dispute the central tenant of Walton’s article) is probably right in pointing out that any television series designed to entertain is bound to have “a high degree of fiction” in it. But let's take a closer look at what Walton actually wrote in that article. Whereas the series portrays the Black Sheep as "a group of green, inexperienced 18- and 19-year-old kids," in fact the youngest member of the squad was 21—there were no teenagers. Nor were they lacking in experience; nearly a third had completed at least one tour in the South Pacific, and between them they had 16 Japanese kills to their credit—and that's before they joined the Black Sheep.

Boyington portrays the squad in interviews as men who "had nothing to lose, those Black Sheep. They knew if they distinguished themselves, they might get off with easier sentences." Conrad, in a talk show interview promoting the series, added that "All these guys had failed in everything they'd ever done. None of them could make it on their own." In fact, writes Walton, "not a single member of the squadron" was facing, or had ever faced, any kind of disciplinary action. Nor did they engage in the kinds of brawls frequently portrayed in the series.

Eight of the Black Sheep remained in the Marines after the war, all retiring as colonels. As for those who returned to civilian life, seven become owners or presidents of businesses; two are elected mayors of their cities; three are lawyers; seven are directors, executive directors or managers of companies and firms. At a reunion in Hawaii with nearly two dozen members of the squadron, Boyington left with no doubt as to how the men felt about how they were portrayed in the series. Even though he serves as technical adviser to the series, he admitted that he couldn't explain how or why they had been played as misfits and screwballs.

The series only runs for a year and a half, hardly long enough for this to become one of the big controversies in television history. There is, to my ears, something about Walton’s article that rings true, just as the protestations , Boyington and Cannell ring false. Of course we all know that compromises are made when a true story is brought to the small screen; nevertheless, as Walton points out, the "real facts" of the squadron's accomplishments would have made a story of high adventure. Having settled on a narrative, though, Cannell chose to play it through to the end, regardless of how inconvenient the truth might be.

Boyington, who won the Congressional Medal of Honor for his accomplishments, led a very colorful and controversial life both during and after the war, going through multiple marriages and divorces, enduring financial difficulties, and battling both alcoholism and lung cancer—cancer arrested by the squad's former flight surgeon, one of the "misfits." Frank Walton goes on to write a well-received book, Once They Were Eagles: The Men of the Black Sheep Squadron , which he says is the true story of the men from the Black Sheep Squadron, and their own heroic accomplishments. It is published in 1986, two years before Pappy Boyington dies.

t  t  t
On weeks when we can, we'll match up two of the biggest rock shows of the '70s, NBC's The Midnight Special and the syndicated Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, and see who's better, who's best.

Kirshner: Al Stewart, Chubby Checker, the Bay City Rollers, Queen, Blondie, the Babys, comic Rick Podell and the Mime Company.

Special: In performance: guest host Neil Sedaka, Judy Collins, Joan Baez, Helen Reddy, the Captain & Tennille, Thelma Houston, and Kim Carnes.

Plenty of hits to choose from between these two shows, no doubt about it. I grant Neil Sedaka's talent as a songwriter, but I don't like Judy Collins, I don't like Joan Baez, I don't like Helen Reddy, and I don't like the Captain and Tennille. (Personal opinions only; YMMV) That seems to make the choice pretty simple, doesn't it? But I will add that I like Al Stewart, Chubby Checker is a throwback to the old days, and Queen is, well, Queen. That alone is good enough to make Kirschner this week's winner.

t  t  t
Good grief, I've spent a lot of space already on not very much. Let's take a quick look at the rest of the week while we have time.

On Saturday, Kentucky Derby winner Seattle Slew tries to make it two in a row (and succeeds) in the Preakness Stakes (2:00 p.m. PT, CBS). The Slew will go on to become horse racing's tenth Triple Crown winner. On Sunday at 8:00 p.m. PT, CBS presents the first of consecutive nights of big movies, the kind that networks don't run anymore (not that they show any theatrical movies anymore) with a single-night showing of Ben-Hur, the winner of 11 Oscars including Best Picture; its running time of three-and-a-half hours is accomplished by shaving 40 minutes off. They wouldn't cut out the chariot race, would they? (Now that's a real winner-take-all match!)  The following night, CBS comes back with Hello, Dolly!, starring Barbra Streisand and Walter Matthau. (8:00 p.m., Monday) On Tuesday, gossip columnist and occasional What's My Line? panelist Aileen Mehle, better known as Suzy Knickerbocker (or just plain Suzy), hosts an hour-long profile of two giants of their professions: Frank Sinatra and Muhammad Ali. (10:00 p.m., NBC) Earlier in the evening, Henry Winkler makes a crossover appearance as The Fonz on Laverne & Shirley (8:30 p.m., ABC)

David Frost's one-on-one interviews with Richard Nixon come to a conclusion Wednesday (9:30 p.m., syndicated) as the former president reflects on his final days in office, and other events of his presidency. (The Doan Report notes that Frost has agreed to an additional episode consisting of material not previously used, sometime in the fall.) On Thursday, Anthony Hopkins gives a brilliant performance as Bruno Hauptmann in a repeat of the three-hour TV-movie, The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case (8:00 p.m., NBC) Opposite it at 9:30 p.m., an ABC News Special presents Barbara Walters interviewing Cuban leader Fidel Castro. And speaking of Lindbergh, on Friday, Eric Sevareid interviews Charles Lindbergh's widow Anne Morrow Lindbergh, a noted writer and poet in her own right. (8:00 p.m., PBS) The Apollo 8 astronauts, the night before their historic flight to the moon, met with Lindbergh, the Lone Eagle. Said Lindbergh, "In the first second of your flight tomorrow, you'll burn 10 times more fuel than I did all the way to Paris." His death, only three years ago, is recent history indeed, and the end of the era of aviation pioneers. TV  

Around the dial

Acouple of non-classic TV pieces that I include here to start off the week, because I think they have meaning when studying the scholarship of classic television. First, at The Federalist, Ben Domenech has an interesting article on how the conclusion to Game of Thrones sums up what he calls " Life in the Hollow Golden Age of Television ." The money quote: "The appeal of Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Justified, Deadwood, and The Sopranos is obvious. But are shows likes Game of Thrones really what we want history to record what we were doing when the debt ballooned and fertility collapsed? As China’s elites took over the world, America’s elites were really spending their time arguing about a show with a dragon named Drogon?" Nero fiddles, and Rome burns...

Next, at The Ringer, Miles Surrey points out how streaming (and binge-watching) has changed television viewing habits forever, leading to what could be called " No Country for Old-Fashioned Network TV Shows ." As I think I've pointed out before, we don't binge-watch; we usually take in our series viewing one week at a time, which I guess makes us old-fashioned (or just old, I'm not sure which). But I'm not sure Surrey's pointing out anything new; back in the day, we all lived in fear that our favorite show might be cancelled before its time. And back then, most series did not feature a final episode that wrapped everything up. That's just the way things were, and for every series like The Fugitive, that profits from a last episode, or Hogan's Heroes, which should have had one, there are at least a couple hundred that simply didn't need one. Perry Mason, for instance; the last episode of that series simply implied that Perry, Della and Paul were going to go on as they always had. And I think that's just fine.

At Comfort TV, David offers a warm reflection on the three TV stars who've passed in the last couple of weeks: Peggy Lipton, Doris Day and Tim Conway, and what they meant. "I'm glad I was there to see them," is the theme of his piece, which is actually kind of poignant, and I know exactly what he means. With some stars and some shows, it's just a privilege to have been around when they were originally on. After all, that's really what comfort TV is, isn't it?

At The Twilight Zone Vortex Jordan takes us once again to the world of Twilight Zone Magazine. It's April 1982 , the first anniversary of the inaugural issue, and one of the highlights is a story of the party given at the home of author Marc Scott Zicree to celebrate the completion of The Twilight Zone Companion, a book which I've found immensely entertaining and informative. There's a whole lot more you'll want to read, though.

"A Jury of Her Peers" is the latest in the Hitchcock Project by Jack at bare-bones e-zine. It's a 1961 episode that I haven't yet seen, so I'm not going to get much further into reading it other than to offer Jack's judgment that the James P. Cavanagh-scripted episode is "stunning, a great adaptation that improves upon its source with a brilliant script, outstanding direction, and superb acting all working together to spellbinding effect."

At The Lucky Strike Papers, Andrew posts a picture of his lovely and charming mother, Sue Bennett, from the late '80s/early '90s. If you've read his delightful book of the same name , you'll know that she was one of the singers on Your Hit Parade; she died 18 years ago this month.

You'll want to be sure to read the latest in Television Obscurities's TV Guide rundown from 1989, but while you're there check out the broadcast listings for experimental NBC station W2XBS in December, 1940. We probably should keep this in mind the next time we complain about all the channels we get, with nothing to watch. TV