Mitchell Hadley's Blog: It's About TV!, page 41

When real life intrudes

This seems to be as good a time as any to remind you that, although the It's About TV channel on YouTube doesn't have a lot of content, it does have a playlist devoted to the Christmas programs that comprise such a part of the holiday memories you and I share. These shows, along with a healthy number of movies, animated specials, and variety shows, will make up the bulk of our television viewing for the next month. I first made this available last year, and since then I've been able to add several new programs, which I hope you'll enjoy as much as we do.
But let's take a time out from our Yuletide festivities to look back a couple of weeks at Thanksgiving. It does sometimes seem as if Thanksgiving gets short shrift, a metaphorical speed bump on the way to Christmas, although the recent trend away from having stores open on Thanksgiving seems to have scaled back. But back in the day, when variety shows were common, it was also common to have Thanksgiving-themed shows on or near the holiday, and today we'll take In a look at couple of these shows, ones that have a time capsule significance apart from their entertainment value.
I've written about time capsule moments before, those moments that provide us a glimpse into what the world was like when these shows were aired. They're more subtle than surface appearances like hair and clothing styles, or the kinds of music being played; oftentimes they're left unsaid, requiring the viewer to read between the lines, and if you're not able to put the show into the context of when it was aired, it you might miss it altogether.
One such moment occurred on the Thanksgiving episode of The Jimmy Dean Show , which, appropriately enough, aired on Thanksgiving night, November 28, 1963. It's a fun episode, with the McGuire Sisters, the Jubliee Four, Don Adams, the Crum Brothers, and Rowlf, the Muppet dog who was a regular on the show. Adams contributes a very funny bit where he plays a defense attorney, and a charming scene in which Jimmy and Rowlf talk about what there is to be thankful for.

The moment comes near the very end of the show, and you have to listen for it. The entire cast has just finished singing "Home for the Holidays," and the spotlight falls on Jimmy. Against a dark background, he sings the Gospel song "How Long Has It Been?" and then, after a breath and with some evident emotion, he says, "It's been a trying week, on the entire world. Sometimes, things look very black. But may we all remember that we still have a great deal to be thankful for." The cast then reunites to sing, "Bless This House."
That could be taken as nothing more than a normal, if somewhat darker than usual, reflection on the state of the world, and the need to be thankful for what you have. But it has a much more significant meaning when you place it in historical context. It had indeed been a trying week; the last time the show had aired, on November 21, John F. Kennedy was president of the United States, and spending the weekend in Texas. Since then, Kennedy had been assassinated, his accused assassin had been murdered, and Kennedy had been laid to rest. The funeral and burial took place on Monday, November 25; the new president, Lyndon Johnson, delivered a speech to the nation two days later, on Wednesday, November 27. It's now Thanksgiving Day, but it was a somber one for most people, who very well might have wondered what there was to be thankful for. Yeah, that was a hell of a trying week.
I don't know when this show was taped, and I'd love to find that out. It could be that it had been taped days in advance, and Dean had returned to the studio to record his comments, after which the scene faded to merge with the ending as originally recorded. It's also possible that the show had been done that very week, a day or two before Thanksgiving. Either way, it seems obvious to me that Dean felt it imperative to address the situation, and that he did so in a heartfelt manner, with a couple of sentences that didn't require any other explanation—everyone back then would have known to what he was referring. Regardless, it's a very powerful moment, an intrusion of the real world into the world of entertainment.
The second example comes from an Alan King Thanksgiving special that aired on Tuesday, November 25, 1980, two days before Thanksgiving. Its subtitle is, "What Have We Got to be Thankful For?" and it plays into the acerbic, "kidding-but-not-really-kidding" humor that King was known for. Watching it this year, I have to admit I'd forgotten about some of the events King references, including the infamous Abscam investigation that caught several members of Congress trying to sell their influence in return for large amounts of cash. No wonder King suggests in his opening monologue that there has been "a breakdown of moral fiber."
King goes on to take shots at the economy (bad), the recent actors' strike and the fall TV schedule (bad), and a growing sense that Americans are becoming apathetic to it all. There are several references to the election of the new president, Ronald Reagan, which gets sustained applause from the studio audience. There's also an extended, and very funny, bit in which King attempts to explain the madness of the Middle East in 1980, including the war between Iran and Iraq, the growing involvement of the Soviet Union (including in Afghanistan!), and other complications that remind us how the Middle East has always been a tinderbox and a mess. And that leads to our second moment.

In a show filled with topical humor, it can be hard to identify a moment that can be said to travel under the radar, but it comes, again, at the end of the show, as King concludes with a prayer for the nation, for both the incoming and outgoing presidents (itself something you probably wouldn't see nowadays), and for the viewers, he adds, "If I can ask for an old favor that you granted us once before , see if you can get the Ayatollah [Khomeini] to let our people go."
That's right—the hostage crisis! It's easy to forget that the hostages hadn't yet been freed; that wouldn't come until January 20 of the following year, after Reagan had been sworn in as president. And remember that, although we all know how things turned out, nobody knew that back in November, 1980. I don't recall whether or not King had explicitly mentioned the hostages prior to that moment; I kind of doubt it; it isn't the kind of thing you'd joke about. No, this is a subtle, but knowing, reference to an event that was, again, hanging over everything. It's also heartfelt, as opposed to a bid for cheap applause; bipartisan, rather than attempting to score points. I don't know if entertainers would handle it that way today.
Maybe I make too much of moments like these, but I think there's value to them. They remind us that television is a part of history—our shared history—and that, like anything else in history, it doesn't occur in a vacuum. Television, like other forms of entertainment, often seems to come from the world of make-believe (and there definitely isn't anything real about reality television), but every once in a while, the real world shows itself, and when that happens, it's worth remembering.
These shows can be found on the Christmas playlist as well, and I'll be adding more as the opportunity arises. TV

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Published on December 06, 2023 05:00

What's on TV? Tuesday, December 7, 1982

There's something vaguely encouraging about the title of the WNEV program, So You Think You Got Troubles?!, as if no matter how bad things are for you, they could be worse. It's a good thought. This week's TV Guide is the New Hampshire edition, but you'll notice that it's got comprehensive listings for Boston, and Portland, Maine as well; I recognize all those stations from the four years I lived in Maine. The programming tonight is quiet; we covered the Christmas shows on Saturday, but if you're not yet in the mood, I recommend the WLVI movie, Inherit the Wind, with Spencer Tracy, Fredric March, and Gene Kelly, in the tragic story of the Scopes Monkey Trial. They don't make movies like tht anymore, but then they don't have actors like that anymore, either.
-2- WGBH (Boston) (PBS)

MORNING

6:45

A.M. WEATHER

7 AM

SESAME STREET (CC)—Children

8 AM

MISTER ROGERS—Children

8:30

SESAME STREET (CC)

9:30

ELECTRIC COMPANY

AFTERNOON

Noon

SESAME STREET (CC)

2:30

TRAINING DOGS THE WOODHOUSE WAY

3 PM

FRENCH CHEF

3:30

OVER EASY (CC)

Guest: Jinx Falkenburg

4 PM

SESAME STREET (CC)—Children

5 PM

MISTER ROGERS

5:30

ELECTRIC COMPANY—Children

EVENING

6 PM

SESAME STREET (CC)—Children

7 PM

DOCTOR WHO—Science Fiction

“City of Death,” conclusion

7:30

WILD, WILD WORLD OF ANIMALS

8 PM

NOVA (CC)

9:20

MYSTERY! (CC)

“Melissa,” Part 2

10:30

NEWS

11 PM

THREAT OF NUCLEAR WAR

-3- WCAX (Burlington, VT) (CBS)

MORNING

6 AM

CBS NEWS—Bill Kurtis/Diane Sawyer

6:30

CBS NEWS—Bill Kurtis/Diane Sawyer

7 AM

CBS NEWS—Bill Kurtis/Diane Sawyer

9 AM

HOUR MAGAZINE

Guests: David Horowitz, Dudley Moore

10 AM

NEW $25,000 PYRAMID

Tom Reilly, Florence Henderson

10:30

CHILD’S PLAY—Game

11 AM

PRICE IS RIGHT—Game

AFTERNOON

Noon

NEWS

12:30

YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS—Serial

1:30

AS THE WORLD TURNS

2:30

CAPITOL—Serial

3 PM

GUIDING LIGHT—Serial

4 PM

BEVERLY HILLBILLIES

4:30

AFTERNOON PLAYHOUSE

“The Shooting”

5:30

ALICE—Comedy

EVENING

6 PM

NEWS

7 PM

CBS NEWS—Dan Rather

7:30

FAMILY FEUD—Game

8 PM

BRING ‘EM BACK ALIVE

9 PM

JOHNNY CASH

Guests: Crystal Gayle, Eddie Rabbitt, June Carter Cash, Rosanne Cash, Jack Clement, Mighty Clouds of Joy

10 PM

ANDY WILLIAMS

Guests: James Galway, Dorothy Hamill, Dick Van Patten, Aileen Quinn

11 PM

NEWS

11:30

HAWAII FIVE-O—Crime Drama

12:30

MUPPET SHOW—Variety

-4- WBZ (Boston) (NBC)

MORNING

5:30

MORNING STRETCH—Exercise

6 AM

NEWS

7 AM

TODAY

Guest: Martin Sheen

9 AM

HOUR MAGAZINE

Guest: Phyllis Diller

10 AM

DIFF’RENT STROKES

10:30

WHEEL OF FORTUNE

11 AM

MATCH GAME

11:30

CARD SHARKS—Game

AFTERNOON

Noon

NEWS

12:30

PEOPLE ARE TALKING

1 PM

DAYS OF OUR LIVES

2 PM

ANOTHER WORLD

3 PM

HAWAII FIVE-O—Crime Drama

4 PM

SPECIAL TREAT—Children

“Hot Hero Sandwich”

5 PM

FAMILY FEUD--Game

5:30

NEWS

EVENING

6 PM

NEWS

7 PM

NBC NEWS—Tom Brokaw/Roger Mudd

7:30

EVENING MAGAZINE

8 PM

FATHER MURPHY

9 PM

GALIVAN—Adventure

10 PM

ST. ELSEWHERE—Drama

11 PM

NEWS

11:30

TONIGHT

Scheduled: James Stewart

12:30

LATE NIGHT WITH DAVID LETTERMAN

Guest: Myron Cohen

1:30

NBC NEWS—Ellerbee/Schechner

2:30

NEWS

3 AM

PRIME TIME—Barbara Brilliant

3:30

NEWS CONFERENCE—Interview

4 AM

PEOPLE ARE TALKING

4:30

NBC NEWS—Ellerbee/Schechner

-5- WCVB (Boston) (ABC)

MORNING

5 AM

CHRONICLE—Newsmagazine

5:25

MORNING GLORY

5:30

NEWS

6 AM

NEWS

7 AM

GOOD MORNING AMERICA—David Hartman

9 AM

GOOD DAY!

10 AM

PHIL DONAHUE

11 AM

TOM COTTLE: UP CLOSE

Guest: Rosemary Clooney

11:30

RICHARD SIMMONS—Health

AFTERNOON

Noon

NEWS

12:30

RYAN’S HOPE—SerIal

1 PM

ALL MY CHILDREN

2 PM

ONE LIFE TO LIVE

3 PM

GENERAL HOSPITAL

4 PM

LAW WORKS

4:30

WALTONS—Drama

5:30

ALL IN THE FAMILY

EVENING

6 PM

NEWS

7 PM

ABC NEWS (CC)—Frank Reynolds

7:30

CHRONICLE—Newsmagazine

8 PM

PEARL—Drama

10:30

HEALTHBEAT—Magazine

11 PM

NEWS

11:30

NIGHTLINE—Ted Koppel

Mid.

LAST WORD—Jackson

1 AM

ROMANCE THEATRE

1:30

FIVE ALL NIGHT LIVE—Dan Kain

2:30

FIVE ALL NIGHT

3 AM

NEW HEAVEN/NEW EARTH—Discussion

3:30

NEWS

4 AM

GOOD DAY!

-6- WCSH (Portland) (NBC)

MORNING

5:45

NEWS

5:55

MORNING STRETCH—Exercise

6:25

FIRST RADIO PARISH CHURCH

6:30

NEWS

7 AM

TODAY

Guest: Martin Sheen

9 AM

DAYS OF OUR LIVES—Serial

10 AM

MATCH GAME

10:30

WHEEL OF FORTUNE

11 AM

TEXAS—Serial

AFTERNOON

Noon

NEWS

12:30

PHIL DONAHUE

1:30

DOCTORS—Serial

2 PM

ANOTHER WORLD

3 PM

ALL IN THE FAMILY

3:30

YOU ASKED FOR IT—Jack Smith

4 PM

SPECIAL TREAT—Children

“Hot Hero Sandwich”

5 PM

BEWITCHED—Comedy

5:30

ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT

EVENING

6 PM

NEWS

6:30

NBC NEWS—Tom Brokaw/Roger Mudd

7 PM

THREE’S COMPANY—Comedy

7:30

WKRP IN CINCINNATI—Comedy

8 PM

FATHER MURPHY

9 PM

GALIVAN—Adventure

10 PM

ST. ELSEWHERE—Drama

11 PM

NEWS

11:30

TONIGHT

Scheduled: James Stewart

12:30

LATE NIGHT WITH DAVID LETTERMAN

Guest: Myron Cohen

1:30

ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT—Magazine

-7- WNEV (Boston) (CBS)

MORNING

5 AM

CBS NEWS CONTINUES

6 AM

CBS NEWS—Bill Kurtis/Diane Sawyer

7 AM

CBS NEWS—Bill Kurtis/Diane Sawyer

9 AM

SO YOU THINK YOU GOT TROUBLES?!

9:30

YOU ASKED FOR IT—Jack Smith

10 AM

NEW $25,000 PYRAMID

Tom Reilly, Florence Henderson

10:30

CHILD’S PLAY—Game

11 AM

PRICE IS RIGHT—Game

AFTERNOON

Noon

NEWS

12:30

YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS—Serial

1:30

AS THE WORLD TURNS

2:30

CAPITOL—Serial

3 PM

GUIDING LIGHT—Serial

4 PM

LOOK: HEALTH AND SCIENCE

EVENING

6 PM

NEWS

7 PM

CBS NEWS—Dan Rather

7:30

ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT

Guest: Merv Griffin

8 PM

BRING ‘EM BACK ALIVE

9 PM

JOHNNY CASH

Guests: Crystal Gayle, Eddie Rabbitt, June Carter Cash, Rosanne Cash, Jack Clement, Mighty Clouds of Joy

10 PM

ANDY WILLIAMS

Guests: James Galway, Dorothy Hamill, Dick Van Patten, Aileen Quinn

11 PM

NEWS

11:30

QUINCY

12:40

McMILLAN & WIFE—Crime Drama

2 AM

CBS NEWS

-8- WMTW (Poland Spring) (ABC)

MORNING

5:30

JIM BAKKER—Religion

6:30

ABC NEWS—Bell/Sullivan

7 AM

GOOD MORNING AMERICA—David Hartman

9 AM

MOVIE—Drama

BW “The Outsider” (1961)

10:30

EDGE OF NIGHT—Serial

11 AM

LOVE BOAT

AFTERNOON

Noon

TIC TAC DOUGH—Game

12:30

RYAN’S HOPE—SerIal

1 PM

ALL MY CHILDREN

2 PM

ONE LIFE TO LIVE

3 PM

GENERAL HOSPITAL

4 PM

CHARLIE’S ANGELS

5 PM

HERE’S LUCY—Comedy

5:30

LAVERNE & SHIRLEY & COMPANY—Comedy

EVENING

6 PM

NEWS

6:30

ABC NEWS (CC)—Frank Reynolds

7 PM

JOKER’S WILD—Game

7:30

BARNEY MILLER—Comedy

8 PM

BILLY GRAHAM CRUSADE—Religion

9 PM

THREE’S COMPANY (CC)

9:30

9 TO 5

10 PM

HART TO HART (CC)—Crime Drama

11 PM

NEWS

11:30

NIGHTLINE—Ted Koppel

Mid.

LAST WORD—Jackson

-9- WMUR (Manchester) (ABC)

MORNING

6 AM

ABC NEWS—Steve Bell/Kathleen Sullivan

6:15

JIMMY SWAGGART—Religion

6:45

ABC NEWS—Steve Bell/Kathleen Sullivan

7 AM

GOOD MORNING AMERICA—David Hartman

9 AM

PHIL DONAHUE

Guest: Jimmy Carter

10 AM

RICHARD SIMMONS—Health

10:30

THAT GIRL—Comedy

11 AM

LOVE BOAT

AFTERNOON

Noon

FAMILY FEUD—Game

12:30

RYAN’S HOPE—SerIal

1 PM

ALL MY CHILDREN

2 PM

ONE LIFE TO LIVE

3 PM

GENERAL HOSPITAL

4 PM

EDGE OF NIGHT—Serial

4:30

SO YOU THINK YOU GOT TROUBLES?!

5 PM

SOAP WORLD—Magazine

Guests: Jeremy Slate, John Gabriel, Gail Rae Carlson

5:30

ROMANCE THEATRE

EVENING

6 PM

NEWS

6:30

ABC NEWS (CC)—Frank Reynolds

7 PM

BILLY GRAHAM CRUSADE

8 PM

HAPPY DAYS (CC)

8:30

LAVERNE & SHIRLEY

9 PM

THREE’S COMPANY (CC)

9:30

9 TO 5

10 PM

HART TO HART (CC)—Crime Drama

11 PM

NEWS

11:30

NIGHTLINE—Ted Koppel

Mid.

LAST WORD—Jackson

11 WENH (Durham) (PBS)

MORNING

8:15

A.M. WEATHER

8:30

SESAME STREET (CC)

AFTERNOON

Noon

SESAME STREET (CC)

2:30

NOVA (CC)

“Goodbye Louisiana”

3:30

LILIAS, YOGA AND YOU

4 PM

SESAME STREET (CC)—Children

5 PM

MISTER ROGERS

5:30

ART OF BEING HUMAN (OC)

EVENING

6:30

DOCTOR WHO—Science Fiction

“Stones of Blood,” Part 1

7 PM

NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT

7:30

MacNEIL, LEHRER REPORT

9:10

INTERNATIONAL STARS ON ICE

10:15

TOGETHER WITH LEO—Lecture

11:15

11 ON THE ROAD

11:30

PBS LATENIGHT—Discussion

Guest: Ralph DiOrio

12 WMEB (Orono) (PBS)

MORNING

8:15

A.M. WEATHER

8:30

MISTER ROGERS—Children

9 AM

SESAME STREET (CC)—Children

AFTERNOON

2:30

OVER EASY (CC)

Guest: Jinx Falkenburg

3 PM

ELECTRIC COMPANY—Children

3:40

SESAME STREET (CC)—Children

4:45

MISTER ROGERS—Children

5:20

3-2-1 CONTACT (CC)—Children

EVENING

6 PM

SPEAKING OF LOVE: LEO BUSCAGLIA—Lecture

7 PM

MacNEIL, LEHRER REPORT

7:25

CROCKETT’S VICTORY GARDEN

9:10

MYSTERY! (CC)

“Melissa,” Part 2

10:20

TEX BENEKE AND HIS ORCHESTRA

11:20

PBS LATENIGHT—Discussion

Guest: Muriel Oberleder

13 WGAN (Portland) (NBC)

MORNING

5 AM

CBS NEWS CONTINUES

6 AM

CBS NEWS—Bill Kurtis/Diane Sawyer

7 AM

CBS NEWS—Bill Kurtis/Diane Sawyer

9 AM

RICHARD SIMMONS—Health

9:30

SO YOU THINK YOU GOT TROUBLES?!

10 AM

NEW $25,000 PYRAMID

Tom Reilly, Florence Henderson

10:30

CHILD’S PLAY—Game

11 AM

PRICE IS RIGHT—Game

AFTERNOON

Noon

PEOPLE’S COURT

12:30

YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS—Serial

1:30

AS THE WORLD TURNS

2:30

CAPITOL—Serial

3 PM

GUIDING LIGHT—Serial

4 PM

LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE

5 PM

MERV GRIFFIN

Guests: Johnny Mathis, Deniece Williams, Kal Rudman

EVENING

6 PM

NEWS

6:30

CBS NEWS—Dan Rather

7 PM

M*A*S*H

7:30

MORE REAL PEOPLE

8 PM

BRING ‘EM BACK ALIVE

9 PM

JOHNNY CASH

Guests: Crystal Gayle, Eddie Rabbitt, June Carter Cash, Rosanne Cash, Jack Clement, Mighty Clouds of Joy

10 PM

ANDY WILLIAMS

Guests: James Galway, Dorothy Hamill, Dick Van Patten, Aileen Quinn

11 PM

NEWS

11:30

QUINCY

12:40

McMILLAN & WIFE—Crime Drama

2 AM

CBS NEWS

22 WWLP (Springfield) (NBC)

MORNING

5 AM

MADAME’S PLACE—Comedy

5:30

JIM BAKKER—Religion

6:30

NBC NEWS—Gumbel/Pauley/Scott

7 AM

TODAY

Guest: Martin Sheen

9 AM

PHIL DONAHUE

Guest: Jimmy Carter

10 AM

22 ALIVE—Erica & Kitty Broman

10:30

WHEEL OF FORTUNE

11 AM

TEXAS—Serial

AFTERNOON

Noon

NEWS

12:30

SEARCH FOR TOMORROW

1 PM

DAYS OF OUR LIVES

2 PM

ANOTHER WORLD

3 PM

FANTASY

Guest: Donna Mills

4 PM

ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT

4:30

CHiPS PATROL—Crime Drama

5:30

M*A*S*H

EVENING

6 PM

NEWS

6:30

NBC NEWS—Tom Brokaw/Roger Mudd

7 PM

NEWS

7:30

M*A*S*H

8 PM

FATHER MURPHY

9 PM

GALIVAN—Adventure

10 PM

ST. ELSEWHERE—Drama

11 PM

NEWS

11:30

TONIGHT

Scheduled: James Stewart

12:30

MADAME’S PLACE—Comedy

1 AM

ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT—Magazine

1:30

NBC NEWS—Ellerbee/Schechner

2:30

TWILIGHT ZONE—Drama

BW 3 AM

GUNSMOKE—Western

BW 4 AM

NEWS

4:30

22 ALIVE—Erica & Kitty Broman

25 WXNE (Boston) (Ind.)

MORNING

6 AM

JIMMY SWAGGART—Religion

6:30

UNDERDOG—Cartoon

7 AM

PINK PANTHER—Cartoon

7:30

FORCE FIVE—Cartoon

8 AM

JOSIE & THE PUSSYCATS

8:30

SPORT BILLY—Cartoon

9 AM

LEAVE IT TO BEAVER

BW 9:30

McHALE’S NAVY—Comedy

BW 10 AM

700 CLUB—Religion

11:30

MOVIE—Drama

“Flame of the Islands” (1955)

AFTERNOON

1:30

FLIPPER—Drama

2 PM

SPIDERWOMAN—Cartoon

2:30

FORCE FIVE—Cartoon

3 PM

STARBLAZERS—Cartoon

3:30

PINK PANTHER—Cartoon

4 PM

LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE

5 PM

EIGHT IS ENOUGH

EVENING

6 PM

CHiPS PATROL—Crime Drama

7 PM

MORK & MINDY—Comedy

7:30

WKRP IN CINCINNATI—Comedy

8 PM

THEY CRY ALONE—Report

9 PM

BILLY GRAHAM CRUSADE

10 PM

700 CLUB—Religion

11 PM

CAROL BURNETT AND FRIENDS—Comedy

Guest: Steve Lawrence

11:30

MOVIE—Comedy

BW “Finders Keepers” (1951)

27 WSMW (Worcester) (Ind.)

MORNING

6 AM

NEW ZOO REVUE

6:30

JIM BAKKER—Religion

7:30

BUGS BUNNY AND PORKY PIG

8 AM

WALTONS

9 AM

ELDER AMERICAN—Joe Hyder

9:30

JIMMY SWAGGART—Religion

10 AM

VICKI JAMISON—Religion

11 AM

JIM BAKKER—Religion

AFTERNOON

Noon

CHURCH SERVICE—Catholic

12:30

INN NEWS—Carter/Scott

1 PM

MOVIE—Crime Drama

BW “The Man Who Knew Too Much” (English; 1934)

3 PM

WELCOME BACK, KOTTER

3:30

PITFALL—Game

4 PM

EDGE OF NIGHT—Serial

4:30

MERV GRIFFIN

Guests: Johnny Mathi, Deniece Williams, Kal Rudman

5:30

BACKSTAGE AT THE GRAND OLE OPRY

EVENING

6 PM

THAT NASHVILLE MUSIC

Performers: Razzy Bailey, Jeannie Seely, Keith Stegall

6:30

NEWS

31 WNNE (Hartford/Hanover) (NBC)

MORNING

6 AM

CNN HEADLINE NEWS

6:30

NBC NEWS—Gumbel/Pauley/Scott

7 AM

TODAY

Guest: Martin Sheen

9 AM

RICHARD SIMMONS—Health

9:30

YAN CAN COOK

10 AM

DIFF’RENT STROKES

10:30

WHEEL OF FORTUNE

11 AM

TEXAS—Serial

AFTERNOON

Noon

CNN HEADLINE NEWS

12:30

SEARCH FOR TOMORROW

1 PM

DAYS OF OUR LIVES

2 PM

ANOTHER WORLD

3 PM

FANTASY

Guest: Donna Mills

4 PM

DOCTORS—Serial

4:30

ROMANCE THEATRE

5 PM

WOMAN’S PAGE—Magazine

5:30

CNN HEADLINE NEWS

EVENING

6 PM

NEWS

6:30

NBC NEWS—Tom Brokaw/Roger Mudd

7 PM

ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT

7:30

ALL IN THE FAMILY

8 PM

FATHER MURPHY

9 PM

GALIVAN—Adventure

10 PM

ST. ELSEWHERE—Drama

11 PM

CNN HEADLINE NEWS

11:30

TONIGHT

Scheduled: James Stewart

12:30

NEWS

38 WSBK (Boston) (Ind.)

MORNING

6:30

ROMPER ROOM AND FRIENDS—Children

7 AM

BATMAN—Adventure

7:30

SCOOBY-DOO—Cartoon

8 AM

PORKY PIG/BUGS BUNNY

8:30

CARTOON FESTIVAL

9 AM

F TROOP—Comedy

BW 9:30

DAYTIME—Alison McCann

10:30

WOMAN’S PAGE—Magazine

11 AM

DICK VAN DYKE—Comedy

BW 11:30

INN NEWS—Carter/Scott

AFTERNOON

Noon

MARCUS WELBY, M.D.—Drama

1 PM

MOVIE—Comedy

BW “Paris Playboys” (1954)

2:30

GHOST AND MRS. MUIR

3 PM

EMERGENCY!—Drama

4 PM

BEWITCHED—Comedy

BW 4:30

ODD COUPLE—Comedy

5 PM

CHARLIE’S ANGELS

EVENING

6 PM

M*A*S*H

6:30

JEFFERSONS (CC)—Comedy

7 PM

M*A*S*H

7:30

NHL HOCKEY

Boston at Quebec

10 PM

ODD COUPLE—Comedy

[Time approximate after hockey]

10:30

INN NEWS—Bosh/Harper/Jorgensen

11 PM

MADAME’S PLACE—Comedy

Guest: Geoff Edwards

11:30

TWILIGHT ZONE—Drama

BW Mid.

MOVIE—Comedy

BW “Goin’ to Town” (1935)

41 WVTA (Windsor, VT) (PBS)

MORNING

7:45

A.M. WEATHER

8 AM

SESAME STREET (CC)—Children

11:30

3-2-1 CONTACT (CC)—Children

AFTERNOON

Noon

ELECTRIC COMPANY—Children

2:30

OVER EASY (CC)

Guest: Jinx Falkenburg

3 PM

EVERYDAY COOKING WITH JACQUES PEPIN

3:30

LILIAS, YOGA AND YOU

4 PM

SESAME STREET (CC)—Children

5 PM

MISTER ROGERS

5:30

ART OF BEING HUMAN (OC)

EVENING

6 PM

ART OF BEING HUMAN (OC)

6:30

NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT

7 PM

MacNEIL, LEHRER REPORT

7:30

CROSSROADS: VERMONT’S PUBLIC TV MAGAZINE

8 PM

NOVA (CC)

9:10

MYSTERY! (CC)

“Melissa,” Part 2

10:20

TEX BENEKE AND HIS ORCHESTRA

11:30

MOVIE—Fantasy

BW “Angel on My Shoulder” (1946)

1:10

NORTH TO THE TOP OF THE WORLD—Documentary

44 WGBX (Boston) (PBS)

AFTERNOON

5 PM

FRENCH CHEF

Turkey slices stuffed and shaped into a roast

5:30

WHY IN THE WORLD

EVENING

6 PM

3-2-1 CONTACT (CC)—Children

6:30

NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT

7 PM

MEDIA PROBES (CC)

Return

7:30

MacNEIL, LEHRER REPORT

8 PM

MAKING OF THE OCNTEMPORARY MIND—Instruction

8:30

AMERICAN STORY—History

9 PM

UNDERSTANDING HUMAN BEHAVIOR

9:30

SYSTEMS PERFORMANCE—Instruction

10 PM

MASTERPIECE THEATRE (OC)

“To Serve Them All My Days,” Part 9

56 WLVI (Boston) (Ind.)

MORNING

6 AM

CNN HEADLINE NEWS

6:30

BOZO’S BIG TOP—Children

7 AM

BUGS BUNNY—Cartoon

7:30

TOM AND JERRY—Cartoon

8 AM

WOODY WOODPECKER—Cartoon

8:30

FLINTSTONES—Cartoon

9 AM

GREAT SPACE COASTER

9:30

BANANA SPLITS AND FRIENDS

10 AM

POINT OF VIEW—Discussion

10:30

NEW ENGLAND TODAY

11 AM

LOVE BOAT

AFTERNOON

Noon

CNN HEADLINE NEWS

12:30

MARY TYLER MOORE—Comedy

1 PM

LOST IN SPACE—Adventure

2 PM

YOGI BEAR—Cartoon

2:30

CASPER—Cartoon

3 PM

MIGHTY MOUSE—Cartoon

3:30

WOODY WOODPECKER—Cartoon

4 PM

TOM AND JERRY—Cartoon

4:30

FLINTSTONES—Cartoon

5 PM

BRADY BUNCH—Comedy

5:30

GOOD TIMES

EVENING

6 PM

HAPPY DAYS AGAIN

6:30

LAVERNE & SHIRLEY & COMPANY—Comedy

7 PM

THREE’S COMPANY—Comedy

7:30

SANFORD AND SON—Comedy

8 PM

MOVIE—Drama

BW “Inherit the Wind” (1960)

10:30

CNN HEADLINE NEWS

11 PM

BENNY HILL—Comedy

11:30

SATURDAY NIGHT

Host: Lily Tomlin. Musical guest: James Taylor

TV

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Published on December 04, 2023 05:00

This week in TV Guide: December 4, 1982

I thought we'd try a little experiment this week. Last week , I pointed out in passing that TV's Christmas season seemed to start earlier and earlier every year; today, it pushes right up against Thanksgiving. (Excluding Christmas movies; I'm pretty sure some FAST network is already showing next year's movies, while this year's movies started somewhere around Halloween—or was it Labor Day?)
Now, where was I? Oh yes; in order to prove this hypothesis, we'll take a look at two other issues of TV Guide in addition to this week's issue from 1982. They're from similar points in the month: one from December 4, 1953, the other from December 3, 1966. Is there a difference in how television programmed Christmas back then, or is it all just my imagination? Let's see just what each issue tells us.
We'll start with 1953, and the tale of the tape is pretty easy: there is no Christmas programming this week. Now, that doesn't mean there isn't anything Christmassy on, but most of what you see concerns cooking or decorating ideas for the holidays—how to make a Christmas mobile, for instance, or a table centerpiece with a Christmas motif. The singers on Bob Crosby's daytime variety show (2:30 p.m. CT, CBS) offer a Christmas tune or two, and Omnibus (Sunday, 4:00 p.m., CBS) gives viewers a look at the Christmas windows in NYC's Lord and Taylor department store. Otherwise, that's it.
There's a logical explanation for some of this; as of 1953, there are no animated Christmas specials, and most of the weekly variety shows will air their special episodes closer to Christmas itself. We know that the shopping season is in full swing; there's an article about how toys based on television characters are a hot thing this year, and there's a note in the Teletype that RCA-Victor is putting out a record of Dragnet's complete Christmas episode ("The Big Little Jesus"), which I'm sure would make a fine gift for those who want to relive the moving story over and over. So my bet is that there are plenty of Christmas commercials on the the air, but nothing yet as far as specials.

Fast-forward thirteen years to 1966, and we can see right away that times have changed. On Sunday (5:30 p.m. PT, NBC), it's the second showing of Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer, with all kinds of commercials featuring General Electric's suggestions as to what would make good gifts. ABC's special The Saga of Western Man (Wednesday, 8:00 p.m.) has a show with an explicitly Christmas theme: "Christ Is Born," a recreation of The Nativity and the history surrounding it. It's sponsored by B.F. Goodrich; I'll bet at least one commercial will be for Goodrich's "For a Musical Merry Christmas," the third volume in their annual Christmas series. On Friday, CBS reruns Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker" (7:30 p.m.), narrated by Eddie Albert, with Edward Villella, Patricia McBride, and Melissa Hayden.
There are also specials that are non-Christmas but function as outstanding vehicles for Christmas advertising: Wednesday's Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation of "Blithe Spirit" will have a slew of commercials for Christmas cards—Hallmark always coordinates its shows to align with major card-sending holidays, and after all, it wouldn't do any good to advertise them once it became too late to mail them, would it? There's also a Frank Sinatra special Wednesday on CBS, and that same network's "The Glass Menagerie," with Shirley Booth, Hal Holbrook, and Barbara Loden, on Thursday. But in total we have only three holiday specials and, once again, there are no variety specials.
Now look at how things are in 1982. We start on Saturday, with the acerbically funny movie The Man Who Came to Dinner (7:00 p.m., WGBH in Boston), and A Disney Christmas Gift, scenes with holiday themes from Disney cartoons and animated features. (8:00 p.m., CBS) Monday evening, with a CBS doubleheader: A Charlie Brown Christmas at 8:00 p.m. ET, followed by Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales at 8:30; opposite them, it's Rudolph's Shiny New Year (8:00 p.m., ABC) On Tuesday, it's another CBS doubleheader, and now we're seeing the variety specials: Johnny Cash's Merry Memphis Christmas, with June Carter Cash, Rosanne Cash (no relation), Crystal Gayle, and Eddie Rabbitt (9:00 p.m.), followed by Andy Williams' Early New England Christmas, with Dorothy Hamill, Aileen Quinn, James Galway, and Dick Van Patten. (10:00 p.m.)
On Thursday, we've got a pair of movies: White Christmas (8:00 p.m., WLVI in Boston), and It's a Wonderful Life. (9:05 p.m., WENH in Durham, NH, repeated Friday on WMEB in Orono, ME) But that's not all; HBO is running Laurel and Hardy's March of the Wooden Soldiers and Rich Little: A Christmas Carol throughout the month, including this week; the same goes for Hans Christen Andersen's The Snow Queen, seen several times this week on various PBS stations. Inexplicably, Cinemax also has an Easter movie, Quo Vadis, throughout the week. Quite a difference from years past, don't you think? And in case you're wondering, Rudolph was already on last week; December 1, solidifying its standing as the first Christmas special of the year.
Obviously, one of the reasons for the plethora of programs we're seeing here is simply that there are more of them than in years past, and that's even taking into consideration that the first animated special, Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol, went into syndication in 1970, while the first program of any kind to become an annual Christmas special, Gian Carlo Menotti's opera Amahl and the Night Visitors, hadn't appeared on TV since the late 1970s. In addition, any variety specials are going to come early in the season (for the convenience of advertisers) since there aren't any weekly variety shows anymore.

Now, before we go too far with this, let me stress that I'm not against Christmas programs; from December 1 on, that's pretty much all we watch in the evenings, unless there's something else going on. I say the more programs, the merrier. And I don't mind Christmas commercials, either—who doesn't get a warm feeling remembering the Norelco Santa , or Ed Herlihy talking about Kraft recipes . (And that's not to mention the General Electric elves in the original commercials that ran during Rudolph.) For those of an age, those memories are as much a part of the Christmas season as the programs themselves.
What I don't like is showing all your holiday inventory in the first two weeks of the season, as if the only reason for them to exist at all is as a vehicle for commerce. I particularly don't like the cartoons that don't tell any story at all, but are around as a tie-in to the product they're trying to sell. (The Santa Bear animated special, for instance.) Leave at least a little something for Christmas week itself, even if everyone's already done their shopping. (Remember, they have to spend those gift cards they receive!)
Fortunately, thanks to the plethora of viewing options out there, from FAST stations to on-demand services to the good old-fashioned cable stations, there are options right up to Christmas Day and beyond (I mean, look at them!), and while a lot of them aren't particularly to my taste, beggars can't be choosers. Anyway, we've got our DVDs to keep us warm.
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I don't want you to think that it's all about Christmas this week; far from it. One of the feature programs of the week is the Hallmark Hall of Fame's presentation of "Witness for the Prosecution" (Saturday, 9:00 p.m., CBS), a remake of the classic Agatha Christie courtroom drama, one of the greatest ever made, starring Sir Ralph Richardson as barrister Sir Wilfred Robarts (played in the movie by Charles Laughton), Beau Bridges as Leonard Vole, the defendant (formerly Tyrone Power), Diana Rigg as Vole's wife (Marlene Dietrich), and Deborah Kerr as Sir Wilfred's nurse (Elsa Lanchester). Judith Crist praises the remake and the performances (while finding Bridges a bit lacking), even though she questions the need for such a remake in the first place. It would be a pity if it was because audiences won't watch a black-and-white movie, whether in 1982 or today.
Sunday is a night of specials on CBS, starting at 8:00 p.m. with An All Star Party for Carol Burnett. CBS took more than a little criticism a while back when they didn't take a flyer on the 90th birthday celebration for Carol (it wound up on NBC instead); it's nice to see them honoring her here. Among the guests are Steve Lawrence, Jimmy Stewart, Vicki Lawrence, Tim Conway, Tom Sellick, and Beverly Sills; there are also tributes from Lucille Ball, Bette Davis, Sammy Davis Jr., Monty Hall, Glenda Jackson, Jim Nabors, Jack Paar, and Burt Reynolds. I mention them all here to show that in this instance, "All Star" wasn't just hyperbole. There are also a few stars on hand for the seventh annual Circus of the Stars (9:00 p.m., CBS), although there are a few more examples of "stars" in this case. Mickey Rooney is the ringmaster, assisted by Scott Baio, Morgan Fairchild, Vincent Price, Martha Raye, Debbie Reynolds, and Isabel Sanford; among the performers the bigger names include Robert Culp, Roddy McDowall, Bob Newhart, Jean Marsh, and Brooke Shields.
NBC's blockbuster movie for the week is the made-for-TV Remembrance of Love (Monday, 9:00 p.m.), a somber reflection on the Holocaust (as timely now as it was back then, alas), with Kirk Douglas as a survivor of Auschwitz, traveling to Tel Aviv for the World Gathering of Holocaust Survivors—and to search for the girl he loved and lost during the war. Pam Dawber co-stars as Douglas's daughter, and Robert Clary appears as himself. Judith Crist gives it a guarded recommendation, saying that the recreation of the Holocaust Survivors event "overpowers the contrived plotting."

Now here's a series I have absolutely no memory of. It's called Gavilan (Tuesday, 9:00 p.m., NBC), and perhaps I don't remember it because it's just another one of the many series that Robert Urich starred in; only 10 of the 13 episodes that were made were ever aired before it left the air in March. If I had seen it, it likely would only have been because of the presence of Patrick Macnee as one of Gavilan's sidekicks. I never saw Bruce Boxleitner's Bring 'Em Back Alive (8:00 p.m., CBS) either, but at least I'd heard of it; it's based on the life of big-game hunter Frank Buck. Well, I guess I can't remember everything.
Speaking of shows that weren't, shall we say, memorable, there are a couple more on Wednesday; Tales of the Gold Monkey (8:00 p.m., ABC), starring Stephen Collins, is, like Bring 'Em Back Alive, an obvious attempt to cash in on the excitement generated by Raiders of the Lost Ark; like Bring 'Em Back, it doesn't last very long; 17 episodes for the former, and 22 for the latter. This reminds me of the fad that started in the wake of Animal House; there were three shows based on that, and none of them did very well either. The other little-known series on Wednesday is Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (8:00 p.m., CBS), based "loosely" on the movie of the same name, and starring Richard Dean Anderson. It, too, lasts for 22 episodes, but Richard Dean Anderson will make out just fine. I tell you, though, these series made no impression on me; frankly, I was surprised to find out they lasted as long as they did.
After all that, it was a relief to come to Thursday's listings and see some familiar names: Magnum, P.I., Simon & Simon, and Knots Landing on CBS; Fame, Cheers, Taxi, and Hill Street Blues on NBC; and Joanie Loves Chachi, Star of the Family, Too Close for Comfort, It Takes Two, and 20/20 on ABC. Okay, Star of the Family (10 episodes) and It Takes Two (22 episodes) weren't smash hits; still, you can see what a blockbuster night of television it was on all three networks.
One of the things I miss about television today is that it's so hard to go over the top nowadays. Take Friday's episode of Dallas (9:00 p.m., CBS), in which "J.R. and Sue Ellen's wedding party is interrupted by a brawl between Cliff and the Ewing brothers." Now that was exciting television back then, but today it's just another episode of Real Housewives or one of those other reality shows. Back then you could watch Dallas and enjoy it guilt-free; today, you just shake your head at what the world has come to—a real-life comic book.
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It's been awhile since a regular-season college basketball game drew much attention. After all, even the best teams usually wind up losing several games a year, and they're all getting into the post-season tournament anyway, so the stakes aren't very impressive. It wasn't always that way, though, as we see in William Gildea's article about how Ted Turner's cable superstation, WTBS, outbid the networks for coverage of next Saturday night's highly-anticipated game between Ralph Sampson's Virginia Cavaliers and Patrick Ewing's Georgetown Hoyas. "The game," Gildea says, "has stirred the imagination of fans across the country like no other since 1968, when [Kareem] Abdul-Jabbar's UCLA Bruins took on the Elvin Hayes-led University of Houston in the Astrodome." That game, college basketball's Game of the Century, drew a then-crowd of more than 52,000, and was the first regular season college basketball game ever broadcast nationwide in prime time, on the syndicated TVS network.
The game isn't quite a cable exclusive; with only 34 percent of homes nationwide having access to basic cable, and with the demand for the game far outstripping the supply so to speak, WTBS winds up brokering agreements with local stations in major markets to show the game on broadcast TV. Nevertheless, WTBS's victory represents not only a landmark for television—the first time a cable network has outbid the legacy networks for a major sporting event other than boxing—it's a harbinger of things to come. TBS and its sister station, TNT, will eventually add the NBA, the NHL, the NFL (for a time), and the Final Four to its stable of programming, while more and more major games—not just "niche" sports like tennis and golf—move to cable stations such as ESPN and USA. Today, finding a big game on regular television seems to be the exception rather than the rule; except for the NFL, which might explain why it continues to be the top sport on television, and in every other way of life.
As for the game in question (which you can see here ), it's a good-but-not-great game, won by Virginia 68-63.
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Speaking of which, Jefferson Graham says that "the hot new approach in pay-TV is charging a fee for special events," known as pay-per-view, and he asks if "Paying to see the Super Bowl" is what's next. Graham discusses the recent history of PPV events, such as a recent special airing of Star Wars that earned $2.43 million without even appearing in the theater, thanks to 324,000 people who paid an average of $7.50 to watch it on television. The Rolling Stones broadcast the final concert of last year's American tour to about 25 percent of the total PPV audience, earning $3.7 million, and The Who's "farewell" concert (yeah, right) from Toronto in a couple of weeks will be looking to do the same. And a special showing of the Broadway show The Pirates of Penzance, with Linda Ronstadt, Rex Smith, and Kevin Kline, will be debuting in theaters and PPV the same day.

Studios admit to being worried about the competition, and there are whispers that some might boycott some releases in protest of PPV. Meanwhile, the networks are taking the long view, but concede that competition from pay-cable, and particularly PPV, will hurt them. John Severino, president of ABC, worries that there will be less of an audience for theatrical films by the time they show up on free TV. On the flip side, the studios are enthusiastic, to say the least. "There is no question in my mind," says MGM/UA chairman Frank Rothman, "that the ultimate release pattern is PPV as the first source before theatrical." And so on and so on.
Well, just what did wind up happening here? It's kind of hard to say; PPV on TV has, for the most part, been confined to sports, particularly wrestling, boxing, and MMA; plays, musicals, and other special events have wound up in the theaters, thanks to Fathom Events and similar services. And as for the movie industry, during the virus scare there was a moment where it appeared on-demand streaming would take the place of the theater experience completely, with Warner Bros. and Universal releasing movies in theaters and streaming simultaneously, but by 2022 it was already proclaimed a "dead" practice. Still, the amount of time movies spend in the theater shrinks by the day, with some of them making only a cursory appearance in your neighborhood metroplex. As is so often the case, we know what doesn't work anymore, but we have yet to find out for sure what does. We just know that the Super Bowl isn't headed for PPV—at least, not yet.
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You know that I consider myself second to none when it comes to admiring classic television. At that, I don't think it's ever occurred to me to compare television's sitcoms to the classic French farces of Victorien Sardou and other artists of the Gilded Age. And yet that's precisely the question being asked by Sam Toperoff, professor of art at Hofstra University. Sardou, a master of the comédie de boulevard, or boulevard comedy, in which "all the characters would have a chance to display just about every frailty and foible known to man." Dialogue is crisp and witty, with fast-paced action, misunderstandings, and Toperoff calls it "a beautifully crafted piece of machinery."

Which brings us to 1980s sitcoms, as Toperoff wonders if we have anything like boulevard comedy today. He concedes that "[a]t first glance, the comparison may seem absurd," but then begins to build his case. Like boulevard comedy, today's sitcoms feature ordinary people—"waitresses, cops, entrepreneurs, taxi drivers, maids, schoolteachers, secretaries and soldiers." Like good theater, the best sitcoms are built around a standard set, be it the home living room or the workplace office. Dramatic tension exists, in the conflict between, for example, Judd Hirsh and Danny DeVito's characters in Taxi. Characterizations of human weaknesses abound, but not too much exaggeration, lest the character become a caricature, "not really worth caring about as a human being." Toperoff cites Archie Bunker as an example of this "delicate balance," through which "we learn something about inadequacy in the process—Archie's and our own."
"Just read any of the plot lines to the dozens of situation comedies listed each week," Toperoff says, "and you'll discover the heart of the old boulevard play." "George Jefferson discovers that Louise has taken a job at his competitor's cleaning establishment." On 9 to 5, "Judy is fired and throws the office into a buzz by posing as a man to regain her job." Laverne & Shirley is a "beautiful" example of the boulevard play staple: "a pair of friends—one wise, the other dissolute—[who] set about trying for a day or two to be something they are not." On the other hand, there's Bosom Buddies. "It wasn't unusual, in a Sardou farce, for a young man to spend the latter part of the evening in drag—that was often the comic peak. In Bosom Buddies, it was the comic premise, and a remarkably narrow one. So the show became a predictable, one-note exercise."
I'm not sure how I feel about Toperoff's analysis, whether he's reading too much into all this, or if I've underestimated some of the shows he mentions. And he worries that some of the best examples, shows like Barney Miller and WKRP in Cincinnati, have gone off the air recently, while broader caricatures such Too Close for Comfort and Three's Company, continue on. But then he tunes into an old episode of The Honeymooners, a classic comedy theater done "not for 600 ladies and gentlemen on a glittering Parisian stage once a season, but for the masses every week." It is with that realization that, "maligned as the sitcom may have been over the years, if is, at its best, a superb piece of work. It not only tickles the funny bone; it can touch the heart." And maybe that's what we all need nowadays, n'est-ce pas? TV

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Published on December 02, 2023 05:00

Around the dial

At Cult TV Blog, John looks at the late 1980s American series Max Headroom, and the prescient episode " Blanks ," and how it does a pretty good job of predicting the kind of world we live in today. The episode echoes several points I've made in my "Descent into Hell" series, and John does a very good job of distilling things.
A new occasional feature debuts this week at Comfort TV, as David reviews his 50 favorite classic TV characters, beginning with Hayden Rorke's portrayal of Dr. Alfred Bellows in I Dream of Jeannie—the man who knows something crazy is happening, but looks like a fool when he points it out. Not unlike our times today.
At the Broadcast Archives, take a look at one of the most unusual ways to display the end credits ever seen on television: from the children's show Big Top.
Andrew Solt's second script for Alfred Hitchcock Presents, " The Legacy ," is the topic of Jack's Hitchcock Project this week at bare•bones e-zine. It's a love story with a very successful twist, starring Jacques Bergerac, Leora Dana, and Ralph Clanton.
It's movie review time at Classic Film & TV Café, and one of the movies Rick looks at is The V.I.P.s, a movie I've seen mentioned a time or three in various TV Guides. And what a cast—Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, Louis Jourdan, Rod Taylor, Maggie Smith, Orson Welles, and Margaret Rutherford, who took home a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her work.
At The View from the Junkyard, Mike looks at the Star Trek animated series episode " The Terratin Incident ," which takes full advantage of the difference between live action and animation to present a story of what happens when the crew is shrunk in size and have to figure out what to do to survive.
Perhaps I'm just making up for my critique of today's Christmas movies, but I rather liked Terence's story at A Shroud of Thoughts detailing TCM's Christmas movie selection for this month. They're not all favorites, but with a mix of romance, murder, cynicism, satire, comedy, and drama, it's a durn sight better than what they're making now.
Finally, at Splice Today, Tom DiVenti says, " There's nothing better than good ol' television ," and tells a story I can readily identify with—and I'm sure many of you would agree! TV

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Published on December 01, 2023 05:00

What Christmas is all about, or Missing the (Hall)mark

I first ran this piece last December, but I thought it was worth repeating this year. You won't be surprised to find that my opinions haven't changed in the intervening year; in fact, if anything, they're even stronger than they were originally. If you think you might be offended by my strong opinions toward modern "Christmas" movies, feel free to skip to the next article—nothing personal, no harm done. I can't help the way I feel, though; to paraphrase our good friend Linus, these movies aren't what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

According to Jodi Walker in this article at The Ringer, the 2022 Christmas season will see 169 original holiday movies on various cable and streaming services—Hallmark, Lifetime, Netflix, and the like. (To put that in some perspective, there were 99 two years ago; that number jumped up to 147 last year.) It's no wonder there are so many of them: they're relatively inexpensive to make; they require almost no effort to write, since they all use basically the same plot; and they're extremely popular among viewers.
The hallmark of these movies (no pun intended) is a hero or heroine who returns to their hometown, disillusioned with the life they have lived regardless of the success it may have brought them, who finds a sensitive soulmate, often recovering from a brokenness of their own, who leads them to a better understanding of themselves; overcoming a series of obstacles (with the help of a man who may or may not be Santa Claus), the two come together in a loving embrace under the twinkling of the stars or the sparkle of the Christmas tree, and everyone presumably lives happily ever after.

About that popularity—according to Walker, more than 80 million people watched at least a few minutes of a Hallmark movie last year.* Their appeal is no mystery, either: says Walker, tongue-somewhat-in-cheek, "These movies are specifically built to be discovered in fits of Thanksgiving boredom so debilitating that no member of the family is able to muster the physical or mental strength to change the channel. They are intended to temporarily uplift spirits, smooth gray matter to silk, and make you laugh at their ludicrous conceits." Even the worst holiday movie, Walker points out, "is the best holiday movie because it takes no effort to consume, and there are inevitably cookies involved." You know how even exhibition football games get larger TV audiences than regular season baseball or basketball games? Well, that's how it works with holiday movies.
*Although there's no proof to support it, my theory is that some of them could only make it through a few minutes before they had to go to the bathroom and throw up.

Most of these movies are colloquially billed as Christmas movies; many of them even have the word "Christmas" in their titles. I have to admit, though, that I have more respect for a network like Paramount+ that simply refers to them as holiday movies, though there's no question about what particular holiday we're talking about. Because, as Walker put it in an earlier Ringer article , "The holidays are about finding romantic love, wish-related magic, and firing up IMDb to see where you recognize that person from." But "they’re certainly not about organized religion."
That's a matter of opinion, I suppose, the part about holidays not being about organized religion. I mean, I'll grant you that Independence Day and Labor Day are pretty much religion-free, but nobody makes rom-coms to show on a July 4 marathon. (Shhh—don't give them any ideas.) But there's a real feeling of a missed opportunity here. Not that your average holiday movie has anything to do with love, any more than a given season of The Bachelor; the characters may talk about love, but the stories really deal with romance, which I suppose is why they're not called luv-coms. But this holiday that dares not speak its name—Christmas—is filled with nothing but love, a love that's deeper and more profound than anything you'll see in these movies.
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Bishop Fulton Sheen, in an episode of Life Is Worth Living, said that there are three kinds of love, and used their Greek words to describe them, because there was no English word that could really measure the distinction between them. The first is eros, or affectionate love, which is probably the closest thing to what you see in holiday movies, since eros is where we get the word erotic. Then, there's philia, which is love for others made in the likeness of God. Brotherly love, as the name Philadelphia might indicate. The third is agape, or sacrificial, divine love of God for man. Pure love.

That third kind, agape, is what Christmas is all about. It's the love of God become man, to live among us, with feelings and emotions; to die among us, with the most unimaginable physical and supernatural pain imaginable; and to conquer death in the Resurrection and show us the world available to us after this life has ended. It's a love greater than the love that the handsome but sensitive café owner has for the beautiful heroine who's lost her way and returned home to find it.
And here's another missed opportunity, because the subtext to these movies is frequently that the modern world is not all it's cracked up to be, that the high price required for success in Corporate America is not worth paying. It's the kind of introspection that Christmas demands, getting in touch with the things that matter most: not the number of presents under the tree, not who has the best light display, not the new Lexus in the driveway (although all of these can be pleasurable in moderation), but the love of a God Who gave us the most precious of gifts. These movies may see it obliquely, as if through a glass darkly, but until they give up the childish things, until they replace feelings and sentimentality with something more substantial, they'll never quite get there. And, essential as it is for the protagonist in our movie to succeed in this journey to self-discovery, the German philosopher Josef Pieper understood that self-knowledge is not enough; "we simply cannot satisfy our hunger from within. No amount of self-knowledge will satiate us entirely."
How strange it is that the true meaning of a holiday that is all about love is virtually ignored in favor of movies that talk about romance without going much deeper than, "love means never having to say you're sorry."
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Now, I know what you're thinking: what's this burr I have in my saddle (or the thorn in my side, or the bug up my, well, you know what I mean) when it comes to Christmas movies? We'll use Hallmark as a stand-in for all the various providers of the genre, since they were the first originators. Literally.
The very first episode of the Hallmark Hall of Fame was a Christmas story. An opera, to be precise. It was called "Amahl and the Night Visitors," and it aired live on December 24, 1951. The composer, Gian-Carlo Menotti, took as his inspiration Hieronymus Bosch's painting "The Adoration of the Magi." the original of which was brought to the studio for Menotti's introduction to the program.

The opera tells the story of a young shepherd, Amahl, who suffers from a crippled leg. One night he and his widowed mother are visited by three kings travelling East, following a star. They carry with them containers filled with gold, frankincense, and myrrh, meant as gifts for a newborn King they have heard about. Amahl, too, wants to pay honor to the Child, but he has nothing to give other than his crutch. when he offers it to the kings, his leg is miraculously healed. The opera ends with Amahl leaving with the kings to present his crutch to Jesus in person.
"Amahl and the Night Visitors" was an overnight sensation, garnering headlines and praise from around the country. It was restaged the following Easter, and then during the Christmas season every year through 1966, in the process becoming television's first Christmas tradition. I wrote an article about this many years ago, so you'll forgive me for being biased.
Over the years, Hall of Fame continued to provide high-quality, literate presentations, including the occasional Christmas drama. Many of Shakespeare's plays make an appearance, performed by America's finest actors. "The Lark" adapts a play by Jean Anouilh on the trial of Joan of Arc; "The Green Pastures" tells stories from the Old Testament and features an all-black cast (in 1957!). There are biographical stories on Churchill and Disraeli, adaptations of well-known movies such as "Dial M for Murder," and dramas by Shaw, Rostand, and Hellman. Well into the 1990s, you could count on Hall of Fame for thoughtful movies like "Sarah, Plain and Tall" and "Breathing Lessons." Over the decades, Hall of Fame was known as presenting some of the best in television, appealing to the viewer's desire for quality, middlebrow entertainment. More people probably saw one of its three telecasts of "Macbeth" than all the people who'd ever seen the play in-person up to that point.
Quality, literate, thoughtful television. "The Borrowers," "Man and Superman," "Abe Lincoln in Illinois," "Give Us Barabbas." Not Noel Next Door, A Kismet Christmas, A Magical Christmas Village, and A Christmas Cookie Catastrophe. That's what the bug is.
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Google some variant of "Christmas movies criticism" and you'll get stories from the last few years about how the casts are too white and too heterosexual, how Hallmark nixed gay relationships, how Hallmark backed away from nixing gay relationships, how Lindsay Lohan is using her Netflix holiday movie to reboot her career, and so on. As far as criticism of the content or quality of these movies is concerned, there's not a whole lot to be seen. Most people seem to understand that their plots are derivative, their content is sugary, they won't tax your brain too much, and their goal is escapism. Most people seem to like them.

Now, I'm the first to acknowledge that I'm not a romantic. I'm actually more neo-Baroque. (A little classical music humor there.) Given the choice between a movie by, say, Nora Ephron and one by Bergman, you can probably guess which one I'm going to choose. But there's nothing wrong with being a romantic, or with making extremely successful movies. One of the problems with today's Academy Awards is that it panders to movies that virtually nobody has seen, so there's a lot to be said for popular culture in films.
My problem, I think, is the same problem that Martin Scorsese has with superhero movies. Scorsese, you might recall, once said of the superhero movie that, while "Many of the elements that define cinema as I know it are there in Marvel pictures. What’s not there is revelation, mystery or genuine emotional danger … They are sequels in name but they are remakes in spirit, and everything in them is officially sanctioned because it can’t really be any other way. That’s the nature of modern film franchises: market-researched, audience-tested, vetted, modified, revetted and remodified until they’re ready for consumption." I see much of the same in the Christmas cookie-cutter holiday movie.
I know, I know, people want the sameness, the story of boy-meets-girl, trouble ensues, love overcomes all. And it would be great if that's the way life was. But it isn't. As Scorsese says about cinema, so he could have said about life: it's full of revelation and mystery. The emotional danger is real because you're not guaranteed an ending that's happily-ever-after—that's up to you. But if you don't seek out that drama in your entertainment, how are you going to recognize it in your life?
Am I a hypocrite, considering how many times I say about television that it's OK to watch a show not for its realism or its intellectual content, but just because it's fun? Well, maybe; I was a political science major, which means I know a lot about hypocrisy. But if you'll recall, I also make the point that man does not live on dessert alone. Just as you need a well-balanced diet for your nutritional health, you need it for your intellectual health as well.
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My goal is never to unintentionally offend; if I'm going to offend someone, I want the satisfaction of knowing I did it. So if you're a fan of the rom-com and you're sipping warm coco from the authentic Hallmark Christmas Movie-Watching Mug™, I'm not calling you stupid, or saying your brain is full of mush. A man who watched The Gong Show daily has no place saying that. Besides, my wife used to watch these movies for years, and I know for a fact that she's none of those things. It's just that, like the old Peggy Lee song, I'm left asking "Is That All There Is?".
People gravitate towards movies like these because they offer comfort and hope. But as St. Augustine wrote, "Hope has two beautiful daughters; their names are Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things are, and Courage to see that they do not remain as they are." That was a major theme of Dickens in A Christmas Carol, and the story's held up pretty well for the past 180 or so years. Don't worry that viewers can't handle it: we can. And we, as viewers, can be more discriminating; we need to start challenging ourselves more: to be better, and to demand better.

As I said, I'm not a romantic. And I'll admit to being a bit of a contrarian, but I'm not a humbug. If your Christmas isn't complete without a Christmas movie on Hallmark, Lifetime, Netflix or Paramount+, by all means enjoy. It won't surprise you that I won't be watching any of them; I'll be sticking with the classics, with their subtle subtexts: How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Miracle on 34th Street, which remind us that Christmas is about more than commercialism; Amahl, which shows the power of sacrificial love; the various versions of A Christmas Carol, which demonstrates the importance of repentance, and, echoing the Parable of the Workers , reminds us that it's never too late, no matter how old you are, no matter what you've done in the past. That ought to be as comforting to us as a warm Christmas cookie.
So my wish, this Christmas, is that Hallmark might consider, just once, returning to its roots and doing a movie with quality, depth, and gravitas; and that all of the networks might produce even one movie out of 169 that tells the true Christmas story without some vague allusion to an amorphous spirituality—perhaps something like The Fourth Wise Man , a fine TV-movie with Martin Sheen from years ago. Two or even three movies would make up less than two percent of your annual new output, not including reruns from past years.
Christmas is more than sugar and spice and everything nice. (That's what little boys are made of.) It's more than giving and receiving gifts, more than discovering the things in life that really matter. For that matter, it's more important than crafting the most literate movie ever made. Most important, it's far, far more important than mere romance. Christmas is part of the Greatest Love Story Ever Told, and the challenge in accepting that love.
We deserve better than what we're being given. We need better than that.TV

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Published on November 29, 2023 05:00

What's on TV? Wednesday, November 30, 1960

Watching TV from the 1950s and '60s, it begins to seem as if television was comprised of a vast repertory company of actors and actresses who simply rotated through all the shows and then started over again. You start to recognize some of them by name or face, or, if you're really lucky, by name and face.

Myrna Fahey is one of those names and faces; according to the always-reliable Wikipedia, she appeared in episodes of 37 television series from the 1950s until her untimely death from cancer in 1973 at age 40. As if to prove a point, she's in not one but two shows tonight: first, as the lead guest star in Wagon Train; and then in Hawaiian Eye, and for all I know she's in other shows this week as well. But that was the way of it back then, and it just shows that you didn't have to be a star of a big show to be a familiar face. This week's listings are from the Pittsburgh edition; maybe you'll see some other names you recognize.
-2- KDKA (Pittsburgh) (CBS)

MORNING 6:20

SERMONETTE—Religion