Mitchell Hadley's Blog: It's About TV!, page 142

Around the dial

At Cult TV Blog, John takes a very interesting look at the early '70s British series Doomwatch and the episode "The Human Time Bomb" —a sociological look, one might say, focusing on high rise living, which was, as he says, "the sort of development which was in it's hay day while Our Sort of Television was being broadcast." A wonderful way to entrench an episode in a given period of time.

The Hitchcock Project continues at bare-bones e-zine, and this week Jack looks at "One More Mile to Go," the second season episode that provides the latest in the work of James P. Cavanagh. A great episode, with a wonderful performance by David Wayne as the murderer you might find yourself rooting for.

At Comfort TV, David provides a very nice coda in remembrance of the late Peter Tork via  "The Monkees on Tour," the final episode of season one, a documentary which allows the audience backstage in a sense, giving us a look at the four leads not as characters, but actual flesh-and-blood people living out an incredible ride.

Remember when you'd tune in to Today and see Barbara Walters hawking a subscription to The National Observer or watch Ed McMahon peddling Alpo on The Tonight Show? Call me weird, but I kind of miss those days, but Jodie brings them back at The Garroway Project with a look at Dave Garroway (one of the all-time great pitchmen) doing a commercial for Watkins Products .

Hal returns to "F Troop Fridays" with the season one episode "Iron Horse Go Home" at The Horn Section. What happens when Our Heroes try to set themselves up as latter-day Peter Minuets? As F Troop hits its stride, we get an episode that provides, as Hal says, some wild moments as well as some guilty pleasures.

Episode #64 of Eventually Supertrain is here, and among the features in this episode, Dan and yours truly look at another fun episode of Bourbon Street Beat , a program that we've both gotten a big charge out of. If you've never seen an episode listen in to one of our podcasts—you may want to check it out. (Psst - it's available on the grey market.)

At The Ringer, Alison Herman asks a question that follows up nicely to one that David asked at Comfort TV last week : is a TV show good if no one talks about it? I admit I don't know how you answer that; after all, a major part of TV is entertainment, and if a show doesn't entertain because people don't see it, does it matter how good it is? A case of Schrödinger's TV, I'd say. TV  

TV Jibe: the next two years

What's on TV? Sunday, March 12, 1961

We're in the Twin Cities once again this week, and since KTCA, the educational station, doesn't broadcast on the weekends, we'll start right off with WCCO.




 4  WCCO (CBS)
    MORNING   
    8:00 SACRED HEART—Religion
    8:15 ADVENTURES IN AFRICA
    8:30 LIGHT TIME—Religion
    8:45 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE—Religion
    9:00 BUSINESS AND FINANCE—Dahl
    9:30 MOVIE—Adventure“The Last of the Redmen” (1947)
  11:00 HOPALONG CASSIDE—Western
  11:30 ORGAN RECITAL—Prince Thomas
  11:45 WORLD OF AVIATION—Booen
  AFTERNOON 
  12:00 NEWS—Dean Montgomery
  12:15 BOWLERAMA—Don Dahl
    1:30 SUNDAY SPORTS SPECTACULAR—Winter SportsSki-jumping, world bobsled championships
    3:00 KUNDLA-MARIUCCI SHOW
    3:30 I LOVE LUCY—Comedy
    4:00 AMATEUR HOUR—Ted Mack
    4:30 G-E COLLEGE BOWL—QuizIndiana vs. RPI
    5:00 FATHER KNOWS BEST—Comedy
    5:30 TWENTIETH CENTURY
     EVENING    
    6:00 LASSIE—Drama
    6:30 DENNIS THE MENACE—Comedy
    7:00 ED SULLIVAN—VarietyGuests: Tammy Grimes, Pat O’Brien, Brendan O’Dowda, Clancy Brothers, Tommy Makem, Mary O’Hara
    8:00 G.E. THEATER—Drama
    8:30 JACK BENNY—Comedy
    9:00 CANDID CAMERA—Godfrey
    9:30 WHAT’S MY LINE?—Panel Guest panelist: Joey Bishop. Regulars: Bennett Cerf, Dorothy Kilgallen, Arlene Francis
  10:00 NEWS—Dean Montgomery
  10:15 WEATHER—Bud Kraehling
  10:20 SPORTS—Dick Enroth
  10:30 ALL-STAR BOWLING—Merriman
The 9:30 a.m. movie is another example of a title you probably won't see on TV anymore. The Kundla-Mariucci Show, at 3:00 p.m., features John Kundla and John Mariucci, the coaches of the University of Minnesota basketball and hockey teams, respectively.


 5  KSTP (NBC)
    MORNING   
    7:30 CHRISTOPHERS—Religion
    8:00 BIBLE STORY TIME—Religion
    8:30 FRONTIERS OF FAITH—Religion
    9:00 QUIZ A CATHOLIC—Religion
    9:30 BIG PICTURE—Army
  10:00 MOVIE—Drama“Both Sides of the Law” (English; 1954)
  11:30 FAMILY THEATER—Drama
  AFTERNOON 
  12:00 MOVIE—Western “Pioneer Trail” (1938)
    1:00 INTERNATIONAL ZONE
    1:30 PRO BASKETBALL—Celtics vs. NationalsBoston at SyracuseLast regular game of the season. Starting next weekend, telecasts of the NBA playoffs will be shown
    3:30 ASK WASHINGTON—Discussion
    4:00 CELEBRITY GOLF—Sam SneadGuest competitor: Howard Keel
    4:30 WATER SPORTS PARADE S
    5:00 MEET THE PRESS—Interview CGuest: West Berlin mayor Willy Brandt
    5:30 PEOPLE ARE FUNNY—Linkletter
     EVENING    
    6:00 SHIRLEY TEMPLE—Adventure C“The Peg-Leg Pirate of Sulu”
    7:00 NATIONAL VELVET—Drama
    7:30 TAB HUNTER—Comedy
    8:00 CHEVY SHOW—Musical Fantasy C“O’Halloran’s Luck”
    9:00 LORETTA YOUNG—Drama
    9:30 THIS IS YOUR LIFE—Edwards
  10:00 NEWS—John MacDougall
  10:15 WEATHER—Pete Evanston
  10:20 SPORTS—Al Tighe
  10:30 CAMEO THEATER—Drama C“The Alumni Reunion”
  11:30 AWARD THEATER—Drama“Face to Face”
Some of you hoops fans out there might know that the Syracuse Nationals are now the Philadelphia 76ers.


 9  KMSP (Ind.)
  AFTERNOON 
  12:00 ORAL ROBERTS—Religion
  12:30 ORGAN NOTES—Swanee Swanson
    1:00 SOUL’S HARBOR—Religion
    1:30 COWBOY G-MEN—Western
    2:00 KARTOON KAPERS—Children
    2:30 MOVIE—Biography“Young Tom Edison” (1940)
    4:00 MOVIE—Western “The Americano” (1954)
    5:30 OUR MISS BROOKS—Comedy
     EVENING    
    6:00 MOVIE—Mystery“The Spiral Staircase” (1946)
    7:30 INVISIBLE MAN—Drama
    8:00 DEADLINE—Drama
    8:30 SAN FRANCISCO BEAT—Police
    9:00 MOVIE—Mystery“Black Angel” (1946)
  10:35 NEWS—Paul Sevareid
  10:50 SPORTS—Tony Parker
  10:55 WEATHER—Jere Smith
  11:00 MOVIE—Comedy“Second Honeymoon” (1937)
C.R. "Swanee" Swanson, the host of Organ Notes at 12:30 p.m., was owner of Northwest Organ in Minneapolis, back when it was more common for people to buy organs for their homes. He once played an organ for Northwest Airlines during a flight between New York and the Twin Cities.




11 WTCN (ABC)
    MORNING   
    8:45 WASHINGTON REPORT—Roberts
    9:00 FARM FORUM—Agriculture
    9:30 THIS IS THE LIFE—Religion
  10:00 FAITH FOR TODAY—Religion
  10:30 HOUR OF ST. FRANCIS—Religion
  11:00 CHURCH SERVICE—Religion
  AFTERNOON 
  12:00 OPINION PLEASE—Chick McCuen
  12:30 PIP THE PIPER—Children
    1:00 EXECUTIVE REPORT—Discussion
    1:30 MOVIE—Drama“Parachute Battalion” (1941)
    3:00 WORLD ARTIST’S CONCERT HALL—Music
    3:30 CHAMPIONSHIP BRIDGE—Goren
    4:00 PAUL WINCHELL—Variety
    4:30 ROCKY AND HIS FRIENDS
    5:00 MATTY’S FUNDAY FUNNIES
    5:30 WALT DISNEY—Adventure
     EVENING    
    6:30 MAVERICK—Western
    7:30 LAWMAN—Western
    8:00 REBEL—Western
    8:30 ISLANDERS—Adventure
    9:30 WINSTON CHURCHILL
  10:00 NEWS—Chick McCuen
  10:15 WEATHER—Stuart A. Lindman
  10:20 SPORTS—Buetel, Horner
  10:30 MOVIE—DramaSelect Theater: “The Fugitive” (1947)
  11:45 ROUNDUP USA—News Analysis
Bridge used to be one of those card games that adults were expected to know how to play, and a big help would have come from watching Championship Bridge with Charles Goren, one of the greatest bridge experts ever. His columns on bridge ran in newspapers for decades, and his books on bridge sold over ten million copies. Championship Bridge ran on ABC from 1959 to 1964. Here's an episode with guest Chico Marx.


TV  

This week in TV Guide: March 11, 1961

We're on a bit of a 1961 kick in our encore series of TV Guides. But who could pass up a chance at an interview with the widow of Eliot Ness?

The Untouchables was perhaps, up to that time, the most violent weekly series ever seen on television, as well as one of the most entertaining. It was ostensibly factual, based on the real-life story of Eliot Ness, the U.S. Treasury agent who did much to break Al Capone's bootlegging operations during Prohibition, and his small group of trusted, incorruptible agents, nicknamed "The Untouchables." Ness' autobiography*, written with Oscar Fraley in 1957, was adapted into a two-part presentation on Desilu Playhouse and became a highly successful weekly series on ABC in 1959, running for four seasons.

*The book might be seen, in today's parlance, as "inspired by actual events." Fraley wrote most of the book, embellishing stories and adding fictional characters to the extent that in the closing credits to The Untouchables, it's referred to as a novel. The 21 pages that Ness himself was responsible for were, for the most part, straightforward and factual. The book was released shortly before Ness' death of a heart attack in 1957 at age 54.

It's inevitable that a show about G-Men battling mobsters would be a rough one; it was not a world for the faint of heart. I have to admit to The Untouchables as one of my favorite shows of the era. It's an entertaining, fast-paced program that doesn't require a great deal of thought, but is a great deal of fun. The bad guys generally get theirs in the end (except for Bruce Gordon's Frank Nitti, who is always foiled but never captured—and a good thing, because Gordon's menacing, yet slightly scene-chewing, performance is a highlight of any episode in which he appears), and the show avoids introducing soap-opera elements into the lives of its leads, the downfall of many a modern series. The level of violence is actually fairly mild at the beginning of the series, but ramps up quickly as it goes on, and it isn't long before we see Ness' men smashing illegal liquor stills, tommy guns blazing, bodies dropping everywhere. In comparison to today's television, though, the violence is milder than a baby's chicken broth.

In a fascinating article (which might well have been ghosted by Fraley, who lived until 1994), Elisabeth Ness reminiscences about her husband, and shares her thoughts on the TV series. She likes Robert Stack's performance as Ness; Stack "has the same quietness of voice, the same gentle quality that characterized Eliot. At times, even Stack's small mannerisms are similar." He's a bit more serious than the real Ness, but she adds that "Mr. Stack has been given less to laugh at than Eliot found in real life."

She's also a fan of the program and never misses it, even though by this time the show has strayed so far from real life that "I no longer know what it will be about." However, even though the stories may be fictional, Mrs. Ness says "they are, in spirit, the same—the enforcement of law and order, the fight against exploitation of the law-abiding members of society, the hunting down of criminals." Eliot's admirers, she says, "should not feel let down."

The real Eliot Ness was quite a figure—charming, vital, charismatic. He was three-times married (Elisabeth was the third and final Mrs. Ness), and—ironically, for a man who made his reputation fighting bootleggers—was a heavy drinker who used to frequent bars and amaze people with his tales of crimefighting. He held a Master's degree in criminology and was one of the first law enforcers to use the lie detector; he helped pioneer the use of two-way radios in police cars; he was an early advocate for civil rights and a crusader against juvenile delinquency. He was a fan of art, the theater and ballet—but also boats, cars and the Indy 500. All in all, quite a remarkable man.

Most of all, Elisabeth Ness writes, Eliot should be remembered as a man of integrity and principle, an independent thinker, and a man who "was a practical do-gooder." He enforced the law, but "never tried to reform the world."

☘️  ☘️  ☘️
So what's on this week? On Saturday, Lawrence Welk gets a leg up on Friday's St. Patrick's celebration with the regular cast saluting the big day. (8:30 p.m., ABC; joined in progress on WTCN*) There's no Sullivan vs. The Palace this week, as The Hollywood Palace is still just a glimmer in the eye of some television executive. Ed's guests this week, in case you're wondering, are (in a tribute to St. Patrick's Day) musical comedy star Tammy Grimes, actor Pat O'Brien, Irish tenor Brendan O'Dowda and the Clancy brothers with Tommy Maken, folk-singing group, and Irish harpist Mary O'Hara.

*WTCN joins Welk after its live coverage of the Mrs. Minnesota coronation. The winner, 36 year-old Gloria Schultz, will move on to the Mrs. America pageant at Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Read here for the fascinating, colorful history of the Mrs. America pageant.

Sunday is another day for the wearin' of the green; following Sullivan, The Chevy Show (8:00 p.m., NBC) presents Art Carney in the musical comedy "O'Halloran's Luck," a color special also starring the Baird Marionettes. Carney portrays the aforementioned O'Halloran, an ebullient Irishman heading for America, confident that his Irish luck will help him find fame and fortune; the leprechaun marionettes, however, plan on keeping O'Halloran's luck right here on the emerald isle.

Monday features Howard Duff as Willie Dante, a former gambler turned nightclub owner who insists he's gone straight, in the very likable series Dante (8:30 p.m., NBC). It ran for just one season, but you can find quite a few episodes on YouTube; it's worth your time to see what you think of it. Also on Monday night: the final episode of what surely must be one of the saddest programs in television history, Jackpot Bowling Starring Milton Berle (9:30 p.m., ABC). Ten years ago, Milton Berle was "Mr. Television," the biggest star in the business, and NBC signed him to a 30-year contract; now, with NBC looking to burn off his contract, he's reduced to doing his act at a bowling alley. If that isn't sad, historically speaking, I don't know what is.

Thriller is a much-loved show of very uneven quality; Tuesday night's episode (8:00 p.m., NBC) presents a trio of short stories, all directed by Ida Lupino. In addition to sitting behind the camera, she stars in Act I; one of the stars of Act II is none other than Ebenezer Scrooge himself, Reginald Owen. After that, you can switch over to Garry Moore's show (9:00 p.m., CBS), where his guests are singers Dorothy Collins and Steve Lawrence and comedian Bob Lewis.

Wednesday's Wagon Train (6:30 p.m., NBC) sets up the future of the series; Robert Horton is the feature player in the wake of star Ward Bond's death, but in this week's "The Christopher Hale Story," we're introduced to the man who will become the new wagonmaster, John McIntire. Meanwhile, the train deals with the man who's wagonmaster this week: Lee Marvin. Wonder how that works out. Following that, Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall (8:00 p.m., NBC) features actor Don Amache and his old Bickersons sidekick, singer Frances Langford.

On Thursday, Richard Basehart stars in the Rudyard Kipling story "The Light That Failed" on Breck Family Classics (7:00 p.m., CBS) as a painter struggling with going blind; Ernie Ford welcomes singer Gordon MacRae to his show (8:30 p.m., NBC); and Edward R. Murrow profiles a "Pilot for the Peace Corps" on CBS Reports (9:00 p.m.).

Friday rounds out the week, and on an eclectic episode of the Bell Telephone Hour (8:00 p.m., NBC), it's "Much Ado About Music," an exploration of music inspired by William Shakespeare, with Shakespeare expert (and frequent host of science shows)  Dr. Frank Baxter  hosting an hour featuring opera stars Patrice Munsel and Joan Sutherland, musical theater star Alfred Drake, ballet dancers Violette Verdy and Jacque d'Ambroise, and Sir John Gielgud with dramatic readings. Not bad, if you ask me.

☘️  ☘️  ☘️
We haven't looked at starlets for a while, and as if to make up for it, we have two this week. First up is Asa Maynor, "an up-and-coming TV actress," who will have a brief career and a marriage to 77 Sunset Strip's Edd Byrnes, before retiring become an executive at NBC and interior decorator.

And then there is the other, Lee Remick, who's in the process of making a pretty good career for herself. She's in a temporary "retirement" right now, awaiting the birth of her second child with her husband, TV director William Colleran. It might be wrong to think of her as a starlet; even though she's only 25, she's already a television veteran, having appeared on everything from Hallmark Hall of Fame to Kraft Theatre, Playhouse 90, and Studio One. She's also got a formidable movie career, starting in Budd Schulberg's A Face in the Crowd and reaching its peak with her memorable role as Laura Manion in Anatomy of a Murder, for which she won a Golden Globe award.

"I haven't been very wholesome in my movies," says the woman described in the unbylined article as "as conservative as Herbert Hoover." "Perhaps that's because, in my early television parts, I was just so absolutely wholesome, people would practically gag at the sight of me." Mind you, she's not complaining; "Television gave me my first real break." But then there was that Studio One in which she was cast, as usual, as "the sappy little girl next door." Her costume, she says, "was a little tight and I guess I wiggled. From then on I was doomed." And viewers would forevermore be charmed.

☘️  ☘️  ☘️
Better to see the President with?Is the President overexposed? That's the question the "For the Record" section asks. On Sunday, February 26, JFK appeared on the premiere of the CBS documentary series Accent, where he discussed fellow New Englander Robert Frost. On Tuesday night, he was the subject of the NBC White Paper JFK: Report No. 1. Wednesday saw all three networks carry taped coverage of his press conference. (This was prior to the live televised pres conference.) Thursday he was on that Life magazine anniversary special I referenced a couple of weeks ago . He was also seen throughout the week in taped appeals for the Red Cross. Today, regardless of who the President is, I'm sure people of all parties would be relieved if he only appeared this often.

Speaking of current events, the New York TV Teletype advises us that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has alerted networks of "a probable attempt to launch a man into space from Cape Canaveral in early spring." They speak of a suborbital flight, about 250 miles downrange—the same flight plan that was recently followed by the chimpanzee Ham. That launch, with American astronaut Alan Shepard, comes on May 5, 1961.

NBC's The Nation's Future plans a debate between movie producers Dore Schary and Otto Preminger on the subject "Should the movie industry be forced to classify its films?" The show (which eventually aired on April 29) had Hollywood bad-boy Preminger arguing that movies should be rated, but that the film's producer should be the one responsible for the rating, and that the government should have no involvement whatsoever. Schary thought ratings were a bad idea—after all, what producer would want to classify a film as "not suitable for children." To Schary's thought, such a rating would offer no difference between a pornographic film and one that was simply worthy of mature viewing. Which is, in essence what we've wound up with both the X rating and the NC-17, which most producers regard as the kiss of death.

Finally, "if a sponsor can be lined up," ABC plans to debut its Saturday sports anthology program on April 29, with a bullfight from Seville, Spain. The show did indeed debut on April 29, but instead of the bullfight, it carried live coverage of the Penn and Drake relays. And thus was the start of ABC's Wide World of Sports.

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Back on February 16, ABC Close-Up presented a documentary on the first week of school integration in New Orleans. Entitled "The Children Were Watching," it was, by all accounts, a pretty unsparing look at the anger and racism expressed by the parents of schoolchildren, while those very children watched and learned the attitudes of their parents. That provoked the following letter to the editor from Mrs. John R. Lepak of Santa Ana, California:

The first time I saw a Negro was when I was seven. In fact, it was my seventh birthday - the day my home town was liberated from the Nazis. He gave me the most precious birthday present a person could receive. At the time, I thought the candy he gave me was the best present I ever had. But, of course, now I realize he gave me my freedom, which is by far more precious. So why can't people, like the people in Little Rock and New Orleans, give the Negro his freedom?  I hope that programs like "The Children Were Watching" will continue and open the eyes of people so they can take a good look at themselves. I'm sure they'll be shocked.

That was only 58 years ago, as I write this. Back then, schools like Duke University prohibited black students from enrolling (a situation Duke wouldn't rectify until 1962). A few years ago, Duke proudly commemorated 50 years of integration, and while it's laudable, perhaps if they'd spent a little more time looking at themselves, as Mrs. Lepak suggests, instead of the color of their student body—well, perhaps change would have come a lot earlier. I wonder, if they could watch this documentary today, if they would see themselves still in the images? TV  

Around the dial

Back after a week away from our spin around the dial, so there should be plenty to look at today!

Alex Trebek is a national treasure, according to Clair McNear at The Ringer, and who am I to disagree with that? If you can judge a man by the number of admirers he has, Alex Trebek is quite a man indeed.

"The End of Indian Summer" —ah, the way winter has been going this year, Indian Summer is as much an illusion as anything you're apt to see on Alfred Hitchcock Presents, but in this case it's the latest from Jack's Hitchcock Project at bare-bones e-zine.

Hoopla has nothing to do with March Madness—it's the free streaming service that comes to you courtesy of your neighborhood public library. If you haven't heard of this—and I hadn't—you'll want to check out Rick's piece at Classic Film and TV Café.

At The Horn Section, Hal returns to Love That Bob! with the 1958 episode "Bob Saves Harvey," the follow-up to "Bob Gets Harvey a Raise." Harvey is played by King Donovan, Paul Henning is one of the writers, and Bob himself directs.

Cult TV Blog casts an eye on Jason King, the 1971-72 ITV series starring Peter Wyngarde as the eponymous mystery writer; this week John takes us to "As Easy as ABC," in which the plots of King's novels begin to take place in real life, and you-know-who is the prime suspect.

The de-valuation of television is the latest from David at Comfort TV. TV is far less relevant now that ever; as David points out, "I’m pretty certain that hundreds of television shows have debuted and disappeared over the past 20 years, with the majority of the country unaware of their existence." More proof that we don't speak the same language anymore.

The Last Drive-In takes a good look at Kathryn Leigh Scott and her Dark Shadows legacy, including her book Dark Shadows: Return to Collinwood. And something I didn't know: Kathryn Leigh Scott was born in Robbinsdale, Minnesota, only about 15 minutes from where we live now.

It's the March, 1982 issue of The Twilight Zone Magazine up for review at The Twilight Zone Vortex, and among the goodies in store is Serling's teleplay for "A Passage for Trumpet," a review of Michael Crichton's Congo, and a look at Terry Gilliam's delightful movie Time Bandits.

At Garroway at Large, Jodie shares a story that illustrates why live television was a breed unto itself , and how professionals handle the challenge.

Vanna White graced the cover of TV Guide for March 4, 1989, and 30 years later she's still going strong. It's the latest issue of Television Obscurities's look back at the year in TV Guide; this issue also includes stories on Burt Reynolds and John Lennon, certainly an odd match.

Finally, Television's New Frontier: the 1960s movies to the 1961 season of The Cheyenne Show , which by this time also included Bronco and Sugarfoot, thanks to Clint Walker's earlier walkout. It's the series' fifth and final season; read about the stories and the stars. TV  

The "It's About TV" Interview: Fred Smith, the man behind YouTube's "FredFlix"

If you've spent any time at all watching classic television videos on YouTube, you've probably seen the work of Fred Smith, aka FredFlix . His videos, which run the gamut from television to movies to celebrities to commercials (and celebrity commercials) and are, by turns, funny, nostalgic, and even poignant, are guaranteed to result in at least one "I remember that!" comment per minute.

I've been a fan of FredFlix for a long time, and recently I had the chance to get to know Fred better. and to find out more about the programming genius behind the greatest television network around, WFLS. I'm confident you'll enjoy this look as well!

What's on TV? Friday, March 12, 1965

Here we are back in the Twin Cities for another week, and it's another week where we have the opportunity to take a closer look at Twin Cities television history. Most of these figures I've been mentioning the last few weeks were familiar faces to me growing up; it's nice to not only relive the things I remember from back then, but to find out new facts about them as well. Let's go ahead and see what the rest of the week is like.



 2  KTCA (Educ.)
Morning
    9:15 SPANISH—Grade 4
    9:30 GERMAN—Grade 5
    9:45 PORTFOLIO—Grades 11-12
  10:10 FILM FEATURE
  10:25 MODERN MATH—Grade 6
  11:20 EARTH AND SPACE SCIENCE
  11:30 TO BE ANNOUNCED
Afternoon
  12:55 MUSIC—Grade 4
    1:10 FILM FEATURE
    1:25 SPANISH—Grade 4
    1:40 GERMAN—Grade 4
    1:55 CONTINENTAL COMMENT
    2:25 GERMAN—Grade 6
    2:40 SPANISH—Grade 6Ch. 2 leaves the air until 5:15 P.M.
    5:15 FUN AT 5:15—Smith, Sirois
    5:30 KINDERGARTEN—Education
Evening
    6:00 ANTIQUES—Art
    6:30 CIVIL DEFENSE COURSE
    7:00 INQUIRY—Discussion
    7:30 IRISH DIARY—McKiernan
    8:00 SO THAT THEY MAY HEAR
    8:30 AREA STUDY OF AFRICA
    9:00 AMERICAN INDIANS
  10:00 AMERICANS AT WORK
  10:15 INDUSTRY ON PARADE
  10:30 MENTAL HEALTH—Interview
A Civil Defense Course at 6:30 p.m.—that reminds us that we're in the middle of the Cold War, doesn't it?

 4  WCCO (CBS)
Morning
    6:30 SUNRISE SEMESTER—EducationRussian Literature in Translation
    7:00 AXEL AND DEPUTY DAWG
    7:30 CLANCY AND COMPANY
    8:00 CAPTAIN KANGAROO—Children
    9:00 NEWS—Dean Montgomery
    9:15 WHAT’S NEW?—Women
    9:25 DR. REUBEN K. YOUNGDAHL
    9:30 TUG-O-WAR—Game
  10:00 ANDY GRIFFITH—Comedy
  10:30 McCOYS—Comedy
  11:00 LOVE OF LIFE—Serial
  11:25 NEWS—Robert Trout
  11:30 SEARCH FOR TOMORROW
  11:45 GUIDING LIGHT—Serial
Afternoon
  12:00 NEWS—Dean Montgomery
  12:15 SOMETHING SPECIAL
  12:25 WEATHER—Bud Kraehling
  12:30 AS THE WORLD TURNS—Serial
    1:00 PASSWORD—GameGuests: Eli Wallach, Anne Jackson
    1:30 HOUSE PARTY—Art Linkletter
    2:00 TO TELL THE TRUTH—PanelPanelists: Shari Lewis, Sam Levenson, Florence Henderson, Barry Nelson
    2:25 NEWS—Douglas Edwards
    2:30 EDGE OF NIGHT—Serial
    3:00 SECRET STORM—Serial
    3:30 I LOVE LUCH—Comedy
    4:00 MOVIE—Adventure“Francis in the Haunted House” (1956)
    5:30 NEWS—Walter Cronkite
Evening
    6:00 NEWS—Dave Moore
    6:15 SPORTS—Don Dahl
    6:20 DIRECTION—Dr. R. Gornitzka
    6:25 WEATHER—Don O’Brien
    6:30 RAWHIDE—Western
    7:30 ON BROADWAY TONIGHTGuests: Teri Thornton, Jackie Mason, Frank Gorshin
    8:30 GOMER PYLE, USMC—Comedy
    9:00 SLATTERY’S PEOPLE—Drama
  10:00 NEWS—Dave Moore
  10:15 WEATHER—Bud Kraehling
  10:20 SPORTS—Hal Scott
  10:30 MOVIE—Science Fiction“It Came from Outer Space” (1953)
  12:00 SPORTS—Hal Scott
  12:10 MOVIE—Comedy“Mother Didn’t Tell Me” (1950)
Dr.
 5  KSTP (NBC)
Morning
    6:30 CITY AND COUNTRY   COLOR 
    7:00 TODAYGuest: Sally CarrigharNews in color at 7:25 and 8:25 A.M.
    9:00 MAKE ROOM FOR DADDY
    9:30 WHAT’S THIS SONG?—Game   COLOR Celebrities: Angie Dickinson, Vin Scully
    9:25 NEWS—Edwin Newman
  10:00 CONCENTRATION—Game
  10:30 JEOPARDY—Game   COLOR 
  11:00 SAY WHEN!—Game
  11:30 TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES—Game
  11:45 NEWS—Ray Scherer
Afternoon
  12:00 NEWS—MacDougall   COLOR 
  12:15 WEATHER—Morris   COLOR 
  12:20 DIALING FOR DOLLARS—Game   COLOR 
  12:30 LET’S MAKE A DEAL   COLOR 
  12:55 NEWS—Floyd Kalber
    1:00 MOMENT OF TRUTH—Serial
    1:30 DOCTORS—Serial
    2:00 ANOTHER WORLD—Serial
    2:30 YOU DON’T SAY!—Game   COLOR Celebrities: Jack Palance, Lola Albright
    3:00 MATCH GAMEGuests: Peggy Cass, Chester Morris
    3:25 NEWS
    3:30 DIALING FOR DOLLARS—Game   COLOR 
    4:30 LLOYD THAXTON—VarietyGuest: The Temptations
    5:25 DOCTOR’S HOUSE CALL—Fox
    5:30 NEWS—Huntley, Brinkley
Evening
    6:00 NEWS—Bob Ryan   COLOR 
    6:15 WEATHER—Morris   COLOR 
    6:25 SPORTS—Al Tighe   COLOR 
    6:30 INTERNATIONAL SHOWTIME
    7:30 BOB HOPE—Comedy   COLOR “In Any Language”
    8:30 JACK BENNY—Comedy
    9:00 JACK PAAR—Variety   COLOR Guests: Peggy Lee, Mike Nichols and Elaine May, Senior Wences
  10:00 NEWS—MacDougall   COLOR 
  10:15 WEATHER—Morris   COLOR 
  10:20 SPORTS—Al Tighe   COLOR 
  10:30 JOHNNY CARSON   COLOR 
  12:15 MOVIE—Melodrama“Cat Girl” (1957)
Dialing for Dollars, which as this ad points out was "more than a 'woman's show'," was hosted at this point by Jane Johnston; she was preceded and succeeded by Jim Hutton (not that Jim Hutton). Did you have Dialing for Dollars in your market?

 9  KMSP (ABC)
Morning
    7:30 MY LITTLE MARGIE—Comedy
    8:00 BREAKFAST—Grandpa Ken
    9:00 ROMPER ROOM—Miss Betty
  10:00 ERNIE FORD—VarietyGuests: Denny Zeitlin Trio
  10:30 PRICE IS RIGHT—GameCelebrity: Dorothy Lamour
  11:00 DONNA REED—Comedy
  11:30 FATHER KNOWS BEST—Comedy
Afternoon
  12:00 NEWS—Fahan
  12:15 LOIS LEPPART—Interview
    1:00 FLAME IN THE WIND—Serial
    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 DOBIE GILLS—Comedy
    5:00 NEWS—Peter Jennings
    5:15 NEWS—Don Riley
    5:25 WEATHER—Jerry Smith
    5:30 LEAVE IT TO BEAVER—Comedy
Evening
    6:00 WOODY WOODPECKER
    6:30 FLINTSTONES—Cartoon   COLOR 
    7:00 FARMER’S DAUGHTER—Comedy
    7:30 ADDAMS FAMILY—Comedy
    8:00 VALENTINE’S DAY—Comedy
    8:30 DEATH VALLEY DAYS—Drama   COLOR 
    9:00 12 O’CLOCK HIGH—Drama
  10:00 NEWS—Bill Fahan
  10:15 WEATHER—Jerry Smith
  10:20 SPORTS—Tony Parker
  10:30 MOVIE—Drama   COLOR “Torch Song” (1953)
  12:15 NIGHTLIFE—Variety Time approximate.
Did every market have some kind of teenage dance show back in the '60s? In the Twin Cities, the show was A Date with Dino, which started in the fall of 1964 and went daily in January, 1965. "Dino" is actually George Murphy, a local radio DJ. You can read more about the history of Twin Cities dance shows here.

11 WTCN (Ind.)
Morning
  10:00 NEWS
  10:15 HANK MEADOWS—Foods
  10:30 MOVIE—Mystery “The Glass Key” (1935)
  11:45 NEWS—Dick Ford
Afternoon
  12:00 LUNCH WITH CASEY—Children
  12:45 KING AND ODIE—Cartoon
    1:00 MOVIE—Mystery“Scandal Sheet” (1952)
    3:00 BACHELOR FATHER—Comedy
    3:30 DAVE LEE AND PETE—Children
    4:30 MAGILLA GORILLA—Cartoons
    5:00 CASEY AND ROUNDHOUSE
    5:15 ROCKY AND HIS FRIENDS
    5:30 SEA HUNT—Adventure
Evening
    6:00 RIFLEMAN—Western
    6:30 BOLD JOURNEY—Travel
    7:00 WILD CARGO—Travel
    7:30 HAVE GUN—WILL TRAVEL
    8:00 MOVIE—Adventure“Morgan the Pirate” (Italian-French; 1960)
    9:30 NEWS—Dick Ford
    9:45 WEATHER—Stuart A. Lindman
    9:50 SPORTS—Frank Buetel
  10:00 MOVIE—Drama“Darby’s Rangers” (1958)
  12:00 COMMERCIAL—Music
  12:15 AMOS ‘N’ ANDY—ComedyTime approximate.

Dave Lee, the host of Dave Lee and Pete (the title was actually Popeye and Pete), was popular in the Twin Cities throughout the 1950s and '60s. Lee was a puppeteer, and "Pete" was Pete the Penguin, probably the most famous of his creations. I remember Pete's gimmick was always pulling the ponytails of the girls in the audience; Lee's obituary from 2011 mentions that Pete also pulled on the ties of the boys. Ties—that alone tells you how the times have changed. TV  

This week in TV Guide: March 6, 1965

As my enforced series of encore presentations continues, we're up to an interesting issue: so interesting, in fact, that I've already encored it once. I promise you, however, that there's even more new in this week's look, along with some features you might recognize from the past.

The brooding visage of David Janssen graces this week's cover.  Janssen is in the second of four seasons playing Dr. Richard Kimball, the hero of the hit ABC series The Fugitive. As Arnold Hano notes, Janssen the actor shares many similarities with Kimball the fugitive, among which is a lack of comfort with his surroundings. His friend, novelist Bernard Wolfe , comments that "David is not a fanatically dedicated person. If he were, all this grueling work would have more meaning for him. But he is not dedicated. He has great doubts as to the ultimate aim of it all, as to where it is leading him."

Janssen in fact houses a number of torments: his heavy drinking, which Janssen claims has diminished while doing The Fugitive, but would always remain a part of his life; his ulcer (caused, Janssen wryly notes, by "thinking"); his heavy smoking (two to three packs a day); and the fatigue of his grueling schedule of 14-hour days filming a show in which he is in virtually every scene. When told that executive producer Quinn Martin "speaks grandly of five more years" of The Fugutive, Janssen dully replies, "Five more years? Contractually, I suppose I would have to put in five more years, but—" The Fugitive ran just about the right length of time; David Janssen, who died of a heart attack at age 48, died way too young.

Video trailer for "The Electronic Mirror"

I don't know about the rest of the country, but here in Minnesota we're still in the throws of winter, with another five inches of snow today and lows in the single digits. On a night like this, I can't think of anything better than to sit next to a roaring fireplace with a good book. Unfortunately, I don't have the fireplace, but I do have the book for you: The Electronic Mirror. 

Here's a brand-new trailer for The Electronic Mirror, in case you need help making up your mind:


My thanks as always to the fabulous Carol M Ford Productions for the production and narration of the trailer for The Electronic Mirror. Even if you've already got the book (and if you haven't, why not?) be sure to give it a look. Don't worry about Around the Dial; we'll be back next Friday with even more from the classic TV blogosphere. TV  

The shows that never were

We all know that television is nothing if not derivative. From the beginning of the industry, successful programming has bred copycats; at the outset, it was Westerns, police dramas and private eyes, while in recent decades we've been deluged with shows about nothing (Seinfeld), shows about friends who all seem to live next to each other (Friends), shows about strangers thrown together (The Real World), singers trying to make it big (American Idol), and so on. Most of the time, the imitations are just that, pale knockoffs of the original, and many of them fail miserably. Sometimes, as was the case after the wave of shows imitating National Lampoon's Animal House, they all bomb.

Using this as a starting point, let's consider an intriguing article that appeared recently at The Ringer. The premise, based on Danny Boyle's upcoming movie Yesterday: what if the Beatles had never existed? Would another group have picked up the slack? Would rock music have evolved differently? Would their music still be successful if it were introduced today? It's an interesting exercise, the kind of question that fans love to hash out for hours in a restaurant while the server gives them dark sideways looks, or late night on social media. (Hint, hint!)

(There's a TV angle to this as well; how might The Ed Sullivan Show, for example, have been impacted? The Fab Four's four Sullivan appearances not only created a sensation, they ushered in an alliance between Sullivan and some of the biggest rock acts of the day, geared to appeal to younger viewers. Would this still have been the case if the Beatles never had been, or had this ship already sailed the night Ed welcomed Elvis to the stage?)

Anyway, here's the question before the court, and I'd like to open it up to all of you. Which TV show's absence, in your opinion, would have had the greatest impact on television's history, and on pop culture's history as well? Dragnet? I Love Lucy? All in the Family? Monday Night Football? Survivor? And what is it about this show that changes everything if you wipe it from our collective memory banks? Television is an enormously influential medium; there's hardly a corner of American culture that hasn't been touched by it. Surely the absence of a given show might have enormous ramifications on how the future evolved.

So fill in the blank, as Match Game might have put it: "How would television be different if _________ had never existed?" Use the comments section, and tell us why you feel that way. The possibilities are endless! TV