Mitchell Hadley's Blog: It's About TV!, page 46
September 8, 2023
Live from the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention
HUNT VALLEY, MD — One of the advantages to being retired (and there are many) is that, for perhaps the first time in my life, my time is my own. And so, rather than making a hectic, cramped flight to Baltimore followed by a long drive to the hotel, we made the longer (nine hours) but much more relaxing drive to Hunt Valley, home of the Mid Atlantic Nostalgia Convention. And, thanks to being able to bring far more in the car than one is able to cram into a couple of suitcases and carry-ons, I'm able to report to you for the first time live, more or less, on location, rather than waiting until a few days later.As I'm writing this, it's the morning of day two of the convention, which started Thursday and wraps up tomorrow; it's been several years since we last attended MANC, but everything feels pretty much the same; the hotel is still inadequate and the air conditioning is only partly functional in the vendor rooms, which isn't all that welcome when the temperatures outside are hovering in the high 90s. (Thankfully, the convention will be moving to a new venue next year, with this hotel seeing the bulldozers). And even though our friends from past years aren't here this time (Carol, Jodie, Kevin: I'm counting on you to be here next year), it's like old-home week being back.
As proof of our attendance, I submit the following, never-before seen on this website:
Hal Linden (L) and Max Gail (R)
Tim Matheson
Diane BakerWe all know these people are actors, and used to dealing with the public. They're still just people, though, like you and me, and I don't think they ever get tired of people complimenting them on how much pleasure they've given you over the years. They were very nice and generous with their time, and each one had a few specific things to say based on whatever comments you'd made to them; for instance, Diane Baker appeared in the final episode of The Fugitive as the woman whom Dr. Richard Kimble presumably settles down with; I joked that we felt he was now in safe hands, and she went on to talk about what a good actor David Janssen was, what a nice man he was to work with, and how intelligent he was—check out some of his interviews on YouTube, she said, and see how articulate he is talking about various subjects. Hal Linden talked about how fortunate he'd been to work with Danny Arnold, who created Barney Miller, and how, as an independent producer, Arnold hadn't had to satisfy all the network suits during the development process. When Max Gail found out we'd driven nine hours to get here, he wished us a safe trip home. And Tim Matheson talked about how much fun it had been working on Animal House, and how smart it had been for the producers to set it as a period piece to make the humor all the more subversive.
Bond girls Kristina Wayborn (L) and Mary Stavin (R)from Octopussy, prior to a showing of the movie
It's wonderful being in a place where you can go back in time for awhile without having to worry about what's going on outside, where you're hanging out with people who are interested in the same things you are and appreciate what you think; one of the vendors I spoke with said he'd had a customer who'd mentioned my presentation from a few years ago when I'd talked about TV Guide; he'd gotten into collecting them because of my talk. I wasn't presenting this year; we're here strictly as spectators, which is really the way to go because you get to see the celebrities, listen to the seminars and presentations, and hobnob with the vendors (and shell out some money while doing so, I might add). I'm hoping to be back doing something here in the next couple of years in conjunction with the book I'm finishing up, now, but in any event we'll be back, enjoying the benefits of retirement.
The convention continues through Saturday, so stop by if you're in the neighborhood. In the meantime, you'll excuse me, but there's a panel on What's My Line? to catch. . .
UPDATE: A look at some of the loot:
We went to MANC and got a lot more than a (not) lousy T-shirt!
Yes, we will see more TV Guides on the site next year!
The item on the right is a Rocky Soaky to go along with my Bullwinkle at home
And it's autographed, too!TV
September 6, 2023
How to watch TV
I imagine the answer to this must be self-evident to most of you; after all, you wouldn't be here unless you already knew how to watch TV, right? (It certainly can't be for my sparkling, rapier-like wit and charm.) But when you think about it—and, believe me, I have—there are different ways to watch TV, depending on the type of show you're watching. Sometimes, of course, all you need is some white noise, some background chatter to keep you from being distracted by doing something more important. (Like reading this esasy, for instance.) There are other times, though, when you find yourself drawn in by the storytelling, invited into a universe inhabited by the characters you see on screen. This is storytelling at its best. It causes you to think—not in the sense that you're attending a class or listening to a lecture, but because you become an active participant, either in confronting the challenges faced by the characters, or dealing with the issues raised in the story.
For example, let's look at a question raised in a recent episode of Sam Benedict, the legal drama I've been watching: should an attorney leave himself open to severe discipline, perhaps even disbarrment, for failing to provide an adequate defense for a man he knew was guilty? His secretary thinks not: she knows her boss as a good and decent man, and argues that he shouldn't be forced to put his own career on the line for a man who was clearly guilty. (The jury came in with a guilty verdict and death sentence in forty minutes.) Even if an appeal is upheld, the defendant will just be retried, convicted again, and executed anyway; why sacrifice yourself when you're not going to change anything?
For Sam Benedict, the issue is that everyone, regardless of their guilt or innocence, is entitled to a fair trial, and this man—regardless of his guilt or innocence—didn't receive one. His Sixth Amendment rights were violated because he didn't have an adequate defense. And now, hours from the scheduled execution, the attorney has no choice; he is duty-bound to act in the best interests of his client.So what do you think? I know people who'd agree with the secretary, who'd say that there's no sense in giving up your own career over defending a man who was guilty anyway. People are funny that way; they're the same ones who are always saying that "if you're innocent, you don't have anything to fear." But we all know, or should know by now, that this ain't necessarily so. Sure, crime offends us, especially when the victim is a child or a senior citizen, innocent or defenseless. It's the same rationale used by cops who plant evidence on a suspect in order to guarantee a conviction. He's guilty anyway, they say to themselves and others; this is just to ensure nothing funny happens, whether you get a slick lawyer or a lenient judge or jury nullification. It's an easy call when guilt is obvious, right? Well, it is easy to be favor of justice for everyone in the abstract, but what happens when push comes to shove?
This is an example of a story that forces you to think about the questions being raised. You might wonder what you'd do in the same situation, but more likely you're finding that the episode may be challenging your beliefs, questioning your ideas; it might even force you to change your mind.
Then, there's a show like Combat!, where you find yourself in the middle of the action, with bombs bursting around you and bullets whizzing past your head. I don't know about you, but I find it impossible not to put myself in the battlefield, wondering what I'd do if it were me in that trench, seeing death and destruction everywhere—and being grateful that I was never in such a situation. Does it make you consider your opinion toward war and peace? You understand that you're being manipulated; after all, every storyteller tries to control the reaction that story produces, and the producers of Combat! made no bones about it being an anti-war drama, though not in a political sense.
But what happens when a storyline forces you to consider the wounded German soldier, perhaps the very one who was shooting at you just a few minutes ago, as a fellow human being? Is it still a situation of kill-or-be-killed, or do you look at him as a creation of God, deserving of being treated with dignity? You might argue that things are different in wartime, but Christ was well aware of war, yet He still admonished His followers to love their enemies. And again, you find yourself being asked: What would you do? Can you expect the Germans to live up to the Geneva Convention regarding prisoners of war if you're not prepared to do the same? Granted, with shows like these, it's easy to sit back on your couch and declare your certainty that you'd do the right thing if it came to that, but in truth we can't know for sure; things are different when people are shooting at you, or if it's your daughter's killer on trial. One thing is for sure: it's an excellent way for you to come face-to-face with some uncomfortable truths.
Finally, there are those series that invite you to speculate on what Paul Harvey used to call the rest of the story. Hogan's Heroes is a perfect example of this kind of show; lacking a final episode, it's become something of a cottage industry for people to speculate on what happened after the series ended; I engaged in a bit of that myself , in one of the more popular pieces I've written here. But when people come to feel that they know and love the characters they see on screen, it becomes natural to speculate on what happens next.
One series that seems to be ripe for this kind of treatment is another World War II drama, Garrison's Gorillas. Unlike Combat!, Garrison's Gorillas is a more conventional action-adventure program, in which a team of convicts, each with a particular talent, is assembled into a fighting unit designed to carry out particularly difficult missions requiring the kinds of skills which Garrison's men possess. In return for taking part in these missions, the men are promised their freedom—six months after the war ends. But since the show was cancelled after a single season, we never know what the rest of the story is. Do they make it all the way through, or are some of them killed along the way? And does the government hold up their part of the bargain in the end?
After one particular mission, I had the disturbing thought that, in real life, things would not have gone so well for our heroes after the war. Remember, for instance, the pains to which Allen Dulles and the wartime spy machine took to ensure the secrecy of Operation Paperclip, the project that utlized German scientists, some of them war criminals, in the American rocket program. Would Dulles have been sanguine about the American public—or, even worse, American lawmakers—finding out that the U.S. military had recruited convicts, some of them perhaps dangerous, some of them perhaps security risks, to take part in missions that might well have involved documents that, after the war, could have been sold to the highest bidder? And that, as part of the deal, these convicts had been promised their freedom in return? I wonder. Dulles was a devious type, likely part of the cabal to which Taylor Caldwell referred in last week's piece , and I think he would have wanted to keep this operation as secret as possible. Given the nature of criminals, I doubt he would have trusted them either to behave themselves or to keep quite. Therefore, the logical solution would be to have them all killed in the last days of the war. When I expressed this opinion to my wife, she sensibly pointed out that Garrison himself would never stand for such a thing. She's right, of course, which is why Garrision would also have to die. It probably would have been some kind of plane crash on the way back from a final mission, the kind of crash that often occurs to those whom the government views as a liability. A dark conclusion to the story, perhaps, but no less logical than many fan fictions that people write.
And when it comes to it, that's what this is all about. Fan fiction, like any other involvement in the characters and storylines of a television series, is nothing to be ridiculed. Whether or not the stories are logical and well-written or elementary pieces of tripe doesn't matter—what does is that people have engaged in these stories in a way that demonstrates how these programs made them think, rather than sit dully in front of a flickering screen doing their best impressions of someone in a vegetative state. People who say they don't want to be challenged by television shows, that they don't want to be made to think, are missing the whole point. (Remember a few weeks ago I wrote about how even game shows like Supermarket Sweep required the viewer to have a "detailed knowledge of market prices plus the ability to make arithmetical calculations, involving fractions, at high speed."
This isn't to say that every television show is a college-level ethics class masquerading as entertainment; there's enough evidence to the contrary to disabuse anyone of that notion. But a viewer shouldn't be intimidated by the idea of a television show causing those little gray cells to work. That, I think, is the way to watch television. And who knows—they might even find they like it. TV
September 4, 2023
What's on TV? Wednesday, September 5, 1973
Happy Labor Day to one and all out there. I've always found it interesting that Labor Day is a day that should, one would think, be dedicated to the common laborer, the union member, the guy whose sweat makes our life better. And yet it seems to me that the those who benefit from it most are government and white-collar workers, who get to go shopping and take advantage of all those people who don't get the day off. Oh well; when I was working, I never turned down the chance to have a holiday. At any rate, I considered looking at this issue's Labor Day, what with the Jerry Lewis Telethon and all, but that would have been too easy; it would have wiped out most of a day's programming for two stations. What's the fun in that? So here's our average, ordinary day in TV land, courtesy of the Central California edition. Don't work too hard reading it!-3- KEYT (SANTA BARBARA) (ABC) MORNING 8:50 NEWS—Dick McAleer 9:00 SESAME STREET 10:00 MOVIE—Drama BW “The Other Woman” (1954) 11:30 BRADY BUNCH AFTERNOON 12:00 PASSWORD Angie Dickinson, Richard Crenna. Allen Ludden is the host. 12:30 SPLIT SECOND—Game 1:00 ALL MY CHILDREN 1:30 LET’S MAKE A DEAL 2:00 NEWLYWED GAME 2:30 GIRL IN MY LIFE 3:00 GENERAL HOSPITAL 3:30 ONE LIFE TO LIVE 4:00 LOVE, AMERICAN STYLE 4:30 MOVIE—Drama BW “The Other Woman” (1954) 5:55 FOR YOUR INFORMATION EVENING 6:00 NEWS—Bill Huddy 7:00 ABC NEWS—Smith/Reasoner 7:30 HOGAN’S HEROES 8:00 LOVE THY NEIGHBOR—Comedy 8:30 MOVIE—Crime Drama “Toma” (Made-for-TV; 1973) 10:00 OWEN MARSHALL 11:00 NEWS 11:30 DICK CAVETT Guests: James Baldwin, Robert Klein 12:00 NEWS
-6- KSBY (SAN LUIS OBISPO) (NBC) MORNING 7:00 TODAY 9:00 DINAH SHORE 9:30 BAFFLE—Game Barbara Feldon, Peter Lawford 10:00 WIZARD OF ODDS—Game 10:30 HOLLYWOOD SQUARES 11:00 JEOPARDY 11:30 WHO, WHAT OR WHERE—Game 11:55 NEWS—Wendy Grissim AFTERNOON 12:00 THREE ON A MATCH—Game 12:30 DAYS OF OUR LIVES 1:00 DOCTORS 1:30 ANOTHER WORLD 2:00 RETURN TO PEYTON PLACE 2:30 SOMERSET 3:00 JOANNE CARSON’S VIPs Guest: Fernando Lamas 3:30 JEANNIE—Comedy BW 4:00 THAT GIRL 4:30 MERV GRIFFIN Guests: Burt Reynolds, Mike Connors, Lois Nettleton, James Hampton EVENING 6:00 NEWS—Gar Pill 6:30 NBC NEWS—John Chancellor 7:00 BILLY GRAHAM CRUSADE Special: From Atlanta 8:00 ADAM-12 8:30 MOVIE—Drama Special: “A Man for All Seasons” (1966) 11:00 NEWS 11:30 JOHNNY CARSON Guests: Buddy Rich, Sandy Duncan
-8- KSBW (SALINAS) (NBC) MORNING 6:45 PUNTO DE INTERES 6:55 THOUGHT FOR THE DAY 7:00 TODAY 9:00 DINAH SHORE 9:30 BAFFLE—Game Barbara Feldon, Peter Lawford 10:00 WIZARD OF ODDS—Game 10:30 HOLLYWOOD SQUARES 11:00 JEOPARDY 11:30 WHO, WHAT OR WHERE—Game 11:55 NEWS—Wendy Grissim AFTERNOON 12:00 THREE ON A MATCH—Game 12:30 DAYS OF OUR LIVES 1:00 DOCTORS 1:30 ANOTHER WORLD 2:00 RETURN TO PEYTON PLACE 2:30 SOMERSET 3:00 JOANNE CARSON’S VIPs Guest: Fernando Lamas 3:30 JEANNIE—Comedy BW 4:00 THAT GIRL 4:30 MERV GRIFFIN Guests: Burt Reynolds, Mike Connors, Lois Nettleton, James Hampton EVENING 6:00 NEWS—Roy Stearns 6:30 NBC NEWS—John Chancellor 7:00 BILLY GRAHAM CRUSADE Special: From Atlanta 8:00 ADAM-12 8:30 MOVIE—Drama Special: “A Man for All Seasons” (1966) 11:00 NEWS 11:30 JOHNNY CARSON Guests: Buddy Rich, Sandy Duncan
-9- KQED (SAN FRANCISCO) (PBS) MORNING 9:00 SESAME STREET 10:00 ELECTRIC COMPANY AFTERNOON 4:00 SESAME STREET 5:00 MISTER ROGERS’ NEIGHBORHOOD 5:30 ELECTRIC COMPANY EVENING 6:00 THE NEXT BILLION YEARS 7:00 NEWSROOM—Mel Wax 8:00 EVENING AT POPS Guest: Virgil Fox 9:00 WORLD PRESS 9:30 MAN BUILDS, MAN DESTROYS—Ecology 10:00 THE UNREASONABLE MAN—Satire 11:00 NEWSROOM—Mel Wax
12 KCOY (SANTA MARIA) (CBS) MORNING 7:00 CBS NEWS—Hughes Rudd/Sally Quinn 8:00 CAPTAIN KANGAROO 9:00 JOKER’S WILD—Game 9:30 $10,000 PYRAMID—Game 10:00 GAMBIT 10:30 LOVE OF LIFE 11:00 YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS—Serial 11:30 SEARCH FOR TOMORROW AFTERNOON 12:00 MOVIE GAME 12:30 AS THE WORLD TURNS 1:00 GUIDING LIGHT 1:30 EDGE OF NIGHT 2:00 PRICE IS RIGHT 2:30 MATCH GAME ‘73 Richard Dawson, Stephanie Edwards, Stu Gilliam, Jack Klugman, Brett Somers, Betty White. Gene Rayburn is the host. 3:00 SECRET STORM 3:30 MIKE DOUGLAS 5:00 PHIL DONAHUE EVENING 6:00 NEWS 7:00 CBS NEWS—Walter Cronkite 7:30 DIRECTION ‘72 8:00 SONNY AND CHER COMEDY HOUR Guests: William Conrad, Rick Springfield 9:00 DAN AUGUST 10:00 CANNON 11:00 NEWS 11:30 MOVIE—Comedy “The Little Hut” (1957)
17 KJTV (BAKERSFIELD) (ABC) MORNING 8:30 NEW ZOO REVUE—Children 9:00 MOVIE—Drama BW “The End of the Road” (English; 1954) 10:50 JOE BARATTA HEALTH SHOW 11:00 LIVING EASY WITH DR. JOYCE BROTHERS 11:30 BRADY BUNCH AFTERNOON 12:00 PASSWORD Angie Dickinson, Richard Crenna. Allen Ludden is the host. 12:30 SPLIT SECOND—Game 1:00 ALL MY CHILDREN 1:30 LET’S MAKE A DEAL 2:00 NEWLYWED GAME 2:30 GIRL IN MY LIFE 3:00 GENERAL HOSPITAL 3:30 ONE LIFE TO LIVE 4:00 LOVE, AMERICAN STYLE 4:30 BUTCH’S BACK ALLEY—Children 5:00 GREEN ACRES 5:30 NEWS—Bill Barnard EVENING 6:00 NEWS—Smith/Reasoner 6:30 HOGAN’S HEROES 7:00 JEANNIE—Comedy 7:30 TO TELL THE TRUTH Panel: Kitty Carlisle, Peggy Cass, Bill Cullen, Nipsey Russell 8:00 LOVE THY NEIGHBOR—Comedy 8:30 MOVIE—Crime Drama “Toma” (Made-for-TV; 1973) 10:00 OWEN MARSHALL 11:00 NEWS 11:30 DICK CAVETT Guests: James Baldwin, Robert Klein
21 KFTV (HANFORD) (Ind.) AFTERNOON 3:30 LA COMUNIDAD AL DIA 4:00 VELO DE NOVIA BW 5:00 EL AMOR TIENE CARA DE MUJER BW EVENING 6:00 NEWS—Cruz/Gramajo 7:00 MUNECA—Drama 8:00 WRESTLING 9:30 MUCHACHA ITALIANA VIENE A CASARSE BW 10:30 ENTRE AMIGOS—Musical 11:00 NEWS
23 KERO (BAKERSFIELD) (NBC) MORNING 7:00 TODAY 9:00 DINAH SHORE 9:30 BAFFLE—Game Barbara Feldon, Peter Lawford 10:00 WIZARD OF ODDS—Game 10:30 HOLLYWOOD SQUARES 11:00 JEOPARDY 11:30 WHO, WHAT OR WHERE—Game 11:55 NBC NEWS—Edwin Newman AFTERNOON 12:00 NEWS 12:30 DAYS OF OUR LIVES 1:00 DOCTORS 1:30 ANOTHER WORLD 2:00 RETURN TO PEYTON PLACE 2:30 SOMERSET 3:00 THREE ON A MATCH—Game 3:30 MOVIE—Drama “And Now Miguel” (1966) 5:30 NEWS—Burleigh Smith EVENING 6:30 NBC NEWS—John Chancellor 7:00 DRAGNET—Crime Drama 7:30 HOLLYWOOD SQUARES Dom DeLuise, Hope Lange, Suzanne Pleshette, Vincent Price, Carl Reiner, Burt Reynolds, Karen Valentine 8:00 ADAM-12 8:30 MOVIE—Drama Special: “A Man for All Seasons” (1966) 11:00 NEWS 11:30 JOHNNY CARSON Guests: Buddy Rich, Sandy Duncan 12:00 NEWS
24 KMJ (FRESNO) (NBC) MORNING 6:30 LET’S SPEAK SPANISH 6:45 LET’S SPEAK SPANISH 7:00 TODAY 9:00 DINAH SHORE 9:30 BAFFLE—Game Barbara Feldon, Peter Lawford 10:00 WIZARD OF ODDS—Game 10:30 HOLLYWOOD SQUARES 11:00 JEOPARDY 11:30 WHO, WHAT OR WHERE—Game 11:55 NBC NEWS—Edwin Newman AFTERNOON 12:00 NEWS 12:15 TODAY IN AGRICULTURE 12:30 DAYS OF OUR LIVES 1:00 DOCTORS 1:30 ANOTHER WORLD 2:00 MOVIE—Adventure “The Scorpio Letters” (1966) 4:00 McHALE’S NAVY BW 4:30 DICK VAN DYKE BW 5:00 THAT GIRL—Comedy 5:30 NEWS—Murphy/Long EVENING 6:30 NBC NEWS—John Chancellor 7:00 TO TELL THE TRUTH 7:30 BILLY GRAHAM CRUSADE Special: From Atlanta 8:30 MOVIE—Drama Special: “A Man for All Seasons” (1966) 11:00 NEWS 11:30 JOHNNY CARSON Guests: Buddy Rich, Sandy Duncan
26 KMPH (VISALIA) (Ind.) MORNING 7:00 CBS NEWS—Hughes Rudd/Sally Quinn 8:00 BOZO—Cartoon 8:30 BIBLE LESSON 9:00 RIGHT-ON—Don DeGrate 9:30 DEAF HEAR 10:00 700 CLUB—Crisis Counseling AFTERNOON 12:00 THREE ON A MATCH—Game 12:30 NOT FOR WOMEN ONLY 1:00 PHIL DONAHUE Guest: Anne Armstrong 2:00 RETURN TO PEYTON PLACE 2:30 SOMERSET 3:00 TENNESSEE TUXEDO—Cartoon 3:30 VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA 4:30 LIVING EASY WITH DR. JOYCE BROTHERS Guests: Fannie Flagg, Dr. Ari Kiev 5:00 TENNESSEE TUXEDO—Cartoon 5:30 WILD, WILD WEST EVENING 6:30 MOVIE—Western “The Lion and the Horse” (1952) 8:00 BASEBALL Oakland Athletics at California Angels 10:30 ALFRED HITCHCOCK BW Time approximate
29 KBAK (BAKERSFIELD) (CBS) MORNING 7:00 CBS NEWS—Hughes Rudd/Sally Quinn 8:00 CAPTAIN KANGAROO 9:00 JOKER’S WILD—Game 9:30 $10,000 PYRAMID—Game 10:00 GAMBIT 10:30 LOVE OF LIFE 11:00 YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS—Serial 11:30 SEARCH FOR TOMORROW AFTERNOON 12:00 LUNCHTIME WITH POPEYE 12:30 AS THE WORLD TURNS 1:00 GUIDING LIGHT 1:30 EDGE OF NIGHT 2:00 PRICE IS RIGHT 2:30 MATCH GAME ‘73 Richard Dawson, Stephanie Edwards, Stu Gilliam, Jack Klugman, Brett Somers, Betty White. Gene Rayburn is the host. 3:00 SECRET STORM 3:30 POPEYE AND THREE STOOGES 4:00 MY FAVORITE MARTIAN 4:30 MOVIE—Drama BW “Queen Bee” (1955) EVENING 6:00 NEWS—Vince Fleming 6:30 CBS NEWS—Walter Cronkite 7:00 ANIMAL WORLD 7:30 POLICE SURGEON 8:00 BILLY GRAHAM CRUSADE Special: From Atlanta 9:00 CELEBRATION Special 10:00 LAND OF THE SMALL Special 11:00 TRAILS WEST BW 11:30 MOVIE—Comedy “The Little Hut” (1957)
30 KFSN (FRESNO) (CBS) MORNING 6:20 INSPIRATION—Religion 6:25 THIS DAY 6:55 NOTICIAS DE LA COMUNIDAD 7:00 NEWS—Phil Norgaard 7:30 FUNTIME—Al Radka 8:00 CAPTAIN KANGAROO 9:00 JOKER’S WILD—Game 9:30 $10,000 PYRAMID—Game 10:00 GAMBIT 10:30 LOVE OF LIFE 11:00 YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS—Serial 11:30 SEARCH FOR TOMORROW AFTERNOON 12:00 ANSWERS AND ACTION—Radka 12:30 AS THE WORLD TURNS 1:00 GUIDING LIGHT 1:30 EDGE OF NIGHT 2:00 PRICE IS RIGHT 2:30 MATCH GAME ‘73 Richard Dawson, Stephanie Edwards, Stu Gilliam, Jack Klugman, Brett Somers, Betty White. Gene Rayburn is the host. 3:00 SECRET STORM 3:30 FLYING NUN 4:00 JEANNIE—Comedy 4:30 MERV GRIFFIN Guests: Eartha Kitt, Richard Dawson, Michelle Phillips, Uri Geller EVENING 6:00 CBS NEWS—Walter Cronkite 6:30 NEWS—Roger Rocka 7:00 TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES 7:30 HOLLYWOOD SQUARES Marty Allen, June Allyson, Mel Brooks, Glen Campbell, Rose Marie, Dionne Warwicke, Wally Cox 8:00 SONNY AND CHER COMEDY HOUR Guests: William Conrad, Rick Springfield 9:00 DAN AUGUST 10:00 CANNON 11:00 NEWS 11:30 MOVIE—Comedy “The Little Hut” (1957)
47 KJEO (FRESNO) (ABC) MORNING 7:15 RFD 47—Agriculture 7:30 JACK LaLANNE—Exercise 8:00 NEW ZOO REVUE—Children 8:30 SESAME STREET 9:30 MOVIE—Drama BW “The Great Sinner” (1949) 11:30 BRADY BUNCH AFTERNOON 12:00 PASSWORD Angie Dickinson, Richard Crenna. Allen Ludden is the host. 12:30 SPLIT SECOND—Game 1:00 ALL MY CHILDREN 1:30 LET’S MAKE A DEAL 2:00 NEWLYWED GAME 2:30 GIRL IN MY LIFE 3:00 GENERAL HOSPITAL 3:30 ONE LIFE TO LIVE 4:00 MOVIE—Comedy BW “The Big Hangover” (1950) 5:30 NEWS—Colin Dougherty EVENING 6:00 NEWS—Smith/Reasoner 6:30 BONANZA 7:30 MOUSE FACTORY 8:00 LOVE THY NEIGHBOR—Comedy 8:30 MOVIE—Crime Drama “Toma” (Made-for-TV; 1973) 10:00 OWEN MARSHALL 11:00 NEWS 11:30 DICK CAVETT Guests: James Baldwin, Robert Klein
TV
September 2, 2023
This week in TV Guide: September 1, 1973
Growing up, there were certain things that were simply part of the American fabric, events you noticed whether you were interested in them or not. The Miss America Pageant was one of those events. It seemed as if everyone watched Miss America, even though we know that wasn't the case, and while a particular contestant would occasionally capture the hearts of everyone (usually with a winning smile and a particularly spectacular talent presentation), most of the time people tuned in to see if their state's entrant would win. (There were always headlines in the papers on Monday if Miss Minnesota won, which she did three times; the pageant usually ended too late for it to make the Sunday paper.)The pageant isn't until next week, but this week J. Robert Conroy has an article about his uncle, Ed Corcoran, who took over the pageant in 1935. At that point the pageant had endured a colorful, if checkered, early history; if you ever wondered, for instance, why some of the pageants included contestants identified as Miss Chicago and Miss New York City, or that Miss Toronto and Miss Winnipeg once competed to become Miss America, the answer is that the pageant was founded on the idea of increasing tourism in Atlantic City, which is approximately 100 percent dependant on the tourist trade, so if having a Miss Chicago or a Miss Toronto meant more tourists, "that was just dandy with Atlantic City." (In fact, Miss America 1925 was Norma Smallwood, Miss Tulsa. Also landing in the top 15 was Miss Dallas, Rosebud Blondell, better known today as Joan.)
Conroy is frank in stating that his Uncle Ed "ran a leg show, and that was it, period. There wasn't a baton-twirler in the bunch. He wouldn't even let the girls talk, let alone answer cute questions on stage to demonstrate whatever it is that part of the program is supposed to demonstrate." It wasn't that they didn't have talent, "he just believed that things would be better if they kept it to themselves." Contestants would go through a tortuous evening of turning to the left, turning to the right, walking back and forth across the stage, and then turning left and right again, while the judges bickered amongst themselves, plugging for their personal favorites. It took hours; "As often as not, the crowning of the new queen dragged on well beyond midnight into the small hours of Sunday morning, much too late to make any of the Sunday papers, whose representatives had long since fallen asleep in their chairs."
Ed Corcoran with Miss America 1935,Henrietta LeaverThe modern Miss America Pageant began to emerge when Leonra Slaughter took the reins following Corcoran's death; whereas Corcoran built it into a successful tourist event, "an obviously successful device to get the Atlantic City name in print as a place very much alive after Labor Day as well as before," Slaughter took it further, tailoring it for a television audience, and building up sponsors who would provide the money for the pageant's scholarship fund. She also worked with the Junior Chamber of Commerce to take over sponsoring local contests—movie houses had been the primary sponsors prior to that.
Conroy, who became a press agent and whose connection with the pageant had continued after his uncle's death, recounts his own involvement with the Jaycees in their first running of the Miss Chicago pageant. Before the night was over, he found himself serving as the one and only judge of the contest. "So, I picked this long-legged blonde stunner and wrote a rave letter back to Lenora that my beauty was going to win all the marbles. She didn't, but she did make the semifinals. Maybe you can imagine the pride I felt when I saw Cloris Leachman walk on a stage once again, earlier this year —to accept her Emmy."
Conroy notes that "They don't make Miss America Pageants any more the way they used to," and this was back in 1973. Through the years, the pageant suffered the backlash from the woman's lib movement, sex scandals, and more, and cratered during the disastrous tenure of Gretchen Carlson (the last Miss Minnesota to become Miss America) as head of the organization. The pageant moved from Atlantic City to a casino arena in Connecticut, and was dropped from network television. In fact, looking at the information online, the date and location for this year's pageant haven't even been decided yet. It's too bad, but not surprising, Times change, as I'm always saying, and there's no reason to think that Miss America wouldn't be part of the changes. It's just one more event that's disappeared from our common American experience.
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It's always nice to get the Soviet perspective on things, and Richard K. Doan reports that the Russians are accusing Sesame Street of being an "imperialist plot," designed to foster concepts such as "private enterprise and the importance of money." Even though Doan says American shows such as Mighty Mouse, Lassie, and Daktari have been seen on Russian TV (not to mention The Rifleman), the Soviets fear that Sesame Street's "cultural imperialism" could infiltrate Soviet homes when global satellite networks come into being. The Children's Television Workshop points out that Sesame Street already airs in 50 countries, and predicts that someday the show will be shown in the USSR. Close; after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1993, Ulitsa Sezam premieres.
Over at the Tiffany Network, CBS is recoving from a recent double-battering of controversy, starting with the presentation of the movie ◀ Sticks and Bones on August 17. The movie skewered the facade of the "ideal Amerian family," telling the story of a blind and embittered Vietnam veteran named David, his brother Rick, and his parents Ozzie and Harriet. A touchy topic to be sure, but even so the response from the network's affiliates is surprising: 94 of the 186 stations refused to carry Sticks and Bones, although in eight cities it was carried by non-CBS affiliates. One CBS insider, who said that the show was "not even good drama," guessed that "the tune-out in the first half hour must have been astronomical." As if the network hadn't already bought enough trouble, there was also the repeat of the two-part "Maude's Dilemma" story on the popular sitcom, in which Bea Arthur's character has an abortion. The show had been somewhat controversial when it was originally aired in November 1972, but by the time the network decided to repeat the story in August, a campaign had been organized against the network; this time, 39 affiliates chose not to air the episodes (only two had done so on first showing), and CBS received more than 17,000 letters of protest, twice as many as they'd gotten back in November. (I wonder what kind of overlap there was on affiliates who chose not to carry either show?) One can understand why CBS chose to burn the shows in August, before the start of the new season.
Oh, and as if that weren't bad enough, the first ratings are in for the new CBS Morning News with Hughes Rudd and Sally Quinn. "Nielsen reported New Yorkers switched heavily to the [Rudd-Quinn] newscast the first week—then returned in large numbers to the Today show."
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This week's TV Teletype gives us a look at some coming attractions, including a made-for-TV remake of the classic Miracle on 34th Street, starring Jane Alexander, David Hartman, and Sebasian Cabot, which can be seen December 14 on CBS. This movie has its fans, but I'm not one of them; when you have an original like Miracle, what can you possibly add that would make it worthwhile? Oh, and I particularly appreciate the shots of all those lush, non-evergreen trees in full leaf; I understand how telemovies with short production times have to shoot in summertime, but it still makes it look as if you're not even trying.
ABC's working on a morning show of its own, to compete against Today and the CBS Morning News. The network is hoping to have its yet-unnamed show on the air by January 1; Steve Mills, the VP heading up the project, says it "will probably have a team of personalities, a host and/or hostess, sports elements and a variety of specialists." Sounds like every other morning show, doesn't it? In the event, the show, AM America, doesn't premiere until January 6, 1975, and never finds a footing; it's replaced that November by Good Morning America, hosted by the aforementioned David Hartman.We're also told that Jerry Lewis has a big lineup in-store for his annual Labor Day Telethon, airing this weekend. Stars include Rowan and Martin, Dionne Warwicke, Buddy Hackett, Johnny Cash, Tony Curtis, Merv Griffin, Connie Stevens, Peter Falk, and Bobby Darin. And speaking of stars, the latest trend features sports stars in acting roles; boxer Jerry Quarry is playing a bouncer on The Magician, former baseball player Maury Wills is appearing on Adam's Rib, and O.J. Simpson guests on Here's Lucy. There's apparently no truth to the rumor that Simpson had originally been considered for a remake of Run for Your Life.
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But enough of industry news; what's actually on the tube this week? It's the last week before the beginning of the new fall season (the highly-anticipated Fall Preview comes out next week; I reviewed it here ), but there are still things that merit your attention.
The highlight is Wednesday night's special presentation on NBC, the television premiere of 1966's Best Picture winner A Man for All Seasons (Wednesday, 8:30 p.m. PT), starring Oscar winner Paul Scofield as Sir Thomas More, who was martyred by the psychotic Henry VIII for refusing to recognize the king's divorce from Catherine of Aragon. The movie won six Oscars in total; Judith Crist calls it "a thinking man's spectacular," "a gripping human drama in which the passions and turbulence are underplayed, a probing study of conscience whose complexities and subtleties are indicated with brilliant clarity and whose contemporary significance is forcefully presented by implication alone." Interestingly, NBC plans to repeat the movie the following Sunday afternoon as part of NBC Week. I think I've mentioned this before, but this is a movie that took a long time to grow on me; I finally made the commitment a few years ago, and now it's part of my library; it is, indeed, a great movie.Among the movie repeats are a couple of successful pilots: Toma (Wednesday, 8:30 p.m., ABC), starring Tony Musante as the detective who's a master of disguise, and The Six Million Dollar Man (Tuesday, 8:30 p.m., ABC), with Lee Majors as the man-machine. Crist likes the first, but finds the second "somehow wholly unappetizing." Musante leaves Toma after one season, with the series then morphing into Baretta, while The Six Million Dollar Man thrives for five successful seasons, even generating the Bionic Woman spin-off.
My earlier mention of the Jerry Lewis Telethon (Sunday, 7:30 p.m., KFSN in Fresno; 8:30 p.m., KERO in Bakersfield) reminds me that it's Labor Day weekend, with the attendant sports highlights. CBS presents coverage of the first weekend of the U.S. Open tennis championships (Saturday at 1:00 p.m., Sunday at 12:00 p.m.), while on Labor Day itself, it's the world's richest horse race, the All-American Futurity, from Ruidoso Downs, New Mexico (4:30 p.m., syndicated). The third jewel of the quarter-horse triple crown pays the winner $330,000, while the runner up makes $138,000—nearly as much as first prize in the Kentucky Derby. It's still run every Labor Day, televised on the Cowboy Channel, and though it's not the world's richest race, the winner takes home over $1 million, making it the richest race of any kind for two-year olds. I used to watch this every year; it was a nice wind-down from the Telethon.
On Tuesday, NBC devotes its entire prime-time to a three-hour NBC Reports special on the Energy Crisis (8:00 p.m.), which is also the subject of a Neil Hickey piece asking "Will the Lights Go Out All Over the World?" The report's three major segments focus on coal (cheap and safe, it's 7"our most abundant and inexpensive source of energy"), nuclear power ("the risk is small—but we don't know how small"), and oil ("Wells are pumping at full force, yet more and more filling stations are running dry"). Fifty years later, the successful intertwining of energy with climate change means coal is out of the question, nuclear energy is too dangerous, and oil is killing the planet. What it all means, other than that the eco-warriors have a very good public relations machine, is anybody's guess.William Conrad does a Cannon double-dip on Wednesday, first playing the portly detective in a sketch on The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour (8:00 p.m., CBS), where he "searches for baddies at Sonny's pizza parlor"; as himself, Conrad also sings "The Men in My Little Girl's Life." (Rick Springfield is the musicial guest, by the way, singing "What Would the Children Think?") Later, on his own show (10:00 p.m., CBS), Cannon tries to save attorney Jessica Walter from someone who wants her off her latest case.
Thursday night offers sports and music; at 6:00 p.m. on CBS, it's an NFL practice—I mean, "exhibition"—game between the last two Super Bowl champions, as the Miami Dolphins take on the Dallas Cowboys. In truth, though, exhibition games were much different back then, as the starters often played at least half the game, playing themselves into shape. Over at ABC, Tony Bennett and Lena Horne join forces for an hour of music—"and no variety-show small talk." (9:00 p.m.) Fourteen songs are on the menu, with another 24 covered in a medley saluting composer Harold Arlen (including "Over the Rainbow," "Stormy Weather," and "Come Rain or Come Shine.")
Friday night ABC and NBC air primetime specials touting their new Saturday morning lineups. ABC's Saturday Morning Sneak Peak (8:00 p.m.) is hosted by Jack Burns and Avery Schreiber, with Rick Springfield (Mission: Magic!), Lassie (Lassie's Rescue Rangers), and new offerings from Batman and Superman (Super Friends), Yogi Bear (Yogi's Gang), and Goober (Goober and the Ghost Chasers). Meanwhile, NBC Starship Rescue (8:30 p.m.) touts the new animated Star Trek, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids, Go!, and appearances by Kevin Tighe and Randolph Mantooth (Emergency +4) and Johnny Whitaker, Scott Kolden, and Billy Barty (Sigmund and the Sea Monsters). CBS, not to be left out, has a repeat of Weird Harold, one of Bill Cosby's creations, featuring Fat Albert and more of his friends. I was pretty much over the Saturday morning scene by then, but these shows just sound painful to me. l l l
Well, we've just about made it through another summer, with its usual share of reruns, buried documentaries, and the like. Next week comes the Fall Preview, but not the one advertised in the pages of this week's issue. Instead, we'll be looking at the 1965-66 edition, with all the hits the new season has to offer, including magic in a bottle, fun in a POW camp, a honey of a detective, and a program that sets the standards for dumb ideas on TV. You'll want to run for your lives to see it! TV
September 1, 2023
Around the dial
Just the other week, we were looking yet again at the popularity of movies on television, and how the introduction of more recently-made movies was a real game changer; we see evidence of this in
an ad
from the Broadcasting Archives. Pal Joey, the movie being promoted in the ad, is a Sinatra movie from 1957; the implication is that because WBEN shows newer movies, they're the station to beat in Buffalo.David's journey through 1970s TV continues at Comfort TV; in case you've forgotten, he's on a quest to see at least one episode from every series of the decade. This week, he turns to Friday nights in 1972 , It's a fascinating schedule, including shows like Sanford and Son, The Brady Bunch, The Partridge Family, Sonny and Cher, and The Odd Couple. Not bad at all.
At Cult TV, John is watching the classic British comedy Ripping Yarns, with Michael Palin and Terry Jones. Unlike many of John's entries, I've actually seen and enjoyed this series on PBS, even though the "boy's own" genre isn't something native to me. This week, he's looking at " The Curse of the Claw ," and if you're inclined to a Pythonesque type of humor, I think you'll get it.
At Those Were the Days, there's a series of posts on the two TV-movies Elizabeth Montgomery did in the mid-1990s that were based on the autobiography of the famed crime reporter Edna Buchanan. 1995's Deadline for Murder , the second in the series, was Montgomery's final performance before her death later that year; I wonder if there were more movies in the series planned?
We haven't had an Avengers review yet this week, so let's go to The View from the Junkyard, where Roger and Mike dissect " Honey for the Prince ," a Steed-and-Peel episode at the end of the black-and-white era. Their views diverge on this one, and I'm not going to tell you which one I agree with; you'll have to guess that on your own.
And finally, since last we did this, Bob Barker died, 99 years old. It's probable that he was on television before most of us here were born, and it seemed he'd always be around: Truth or Consequences, The Price is Right, the Miss Universe Pageant, the Tournament of Roses Parade. He had what in sports I've called the "big-game voice," the idea that if you heard him on television, you could be pretty sure that whatever he was doing was credible, or at least not a complete waste of time. At A Shroud of Thoughts, Terence has more on the life and career of a television institution.
If you're going to be on the road for this holiday weekend, have a safe time, and I'll see you back here later. And remember, I'll be at the Mid Atlantic Nostalgia Convention next week; let me know if you'll be there too! TV
August 30, 2023
What I've been watching: August, 2023
Shows I’ve Watched: Shows I’ve Added: Captains and the Kings Harbor CommandScience Fiction Theatre
Quiller
I first saw Captains and the Kings during its original airing back in 1976, when it was the inaugural offering of NBC's new series Best Sellers—a series comprised entirely of miniseries—and at some point, perhaps during the fourth episode, I had one of those "Hey, wait a minute!" moments when it occurred to me I'd seen this story before. Not the actual miniseries, of course, nor any previous adaptation of Taylor Caldwell's best-seller, which had only been published in 1972. Nonetheless, even at age 16 I had a premonition as to how things would end, and when it concluded, after eight chapters and nine hours, it was indeed as I had expected; all the parallels became obvious, and I recall having felt somewhat cheated that it could be so predictable. All the same, the miniseries had made an impact on me; I was at that impressionable time in life when one starts to assess his future, and one of the things I knew was that I someday wanted to write. (I also wanted to be a politican and a sportscaster; one out of three isn't bad, I guess.) I was intrigued by the relationship between a miniseries and the book that spawned it, and I've been interested in that ever since; the same goes for Captains and the Kings.
I won't spoil the fun for those of you who haven't seen it (although if you aren't planning to watch it but still want to know how it ends, email me and I'll provided you with the details), but, after running across the complete series at Half Price Books, I was interested in finding out whether or not it still held up, nearly 50 years later. And the answer to that is yes—and no.
Captains and the Kings is dominated by the performance of Richard Jordan as Joseph Armagh, an Irish immigrant living out the ultimate American dream, a rags-to-riches story of becoming one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in the United States, an amalgam of John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, and every other robber baron and business magnate you can think of, determined to make people and events bend to his will. He is, to be sure, naturally gifted at business, but he's also an exploiter of workers, indifferent to ethics and morals, distainful of his wife, and single-minded in pursuit of his life's goal, to which all his fortune and power is devoted: make his son Rory the first Irish-Catholic president of the United States.
Joseph P. Kennedy with sons Joe Jr., Jack, and Bobby And then you realize who Joseph Armagh really is, and why you've seen this story before. He's another Irish-Catholic named Joseph, who shared Armagh's passion for power and politics and making his son president: Joseph P. Kennedy. And once you understand that, everything falls into place—you can even tick off the events as they unfold during the course of the miniseries.
For instance: compare Armagh's daughter Mary, who suffers brain damage in a riding accident and winds up little more than a vegetable, with Joseph Kennedy's daughter Rosemary, who suffered from violent personality swings that resulted in her being subjected to a lobotomy, which left her unable to care for herself. Check.
Then there's Armagh's younger son Kevin, killed while fighting with Theodore Roosevelt in the Spanish-American war, who serves as the stand-in for Joseph Kennedy Jr., the Kennedy son who was supposed to become president but was killed during World War II. Check.
And there's Rory's secret wife, Marjorie; Armagh had the marriage wiped from the books because he had arranged for Rory to marry the Catholic daughter of a political ally*. Does that find its parallel in the rumor that JFK was secretly married to socialite Durie Malcolm in 1947, only to have Joe arrange for the marriage to be annulled and the records made to disappear? Check. So, as we watch Rory's presidential campaign unfold, we pretty much know who he's supposed to be, right?
*That ally of Armagh's, Charles Desmond (played by a smarmy Robert Vaughn) is the U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James, a position held in real life by none other than Joseph P. Kennedy.
This isn't to say that everything in Captains and the Kings is a carbon-copy of the Kennedy story. fter all, Joe Kennedy supposedly made his fortune as a rumrunner during Prohibition, while Joseph Armagh made his fortune as a gunrunner during the Civil War. So there.
With all this as prologue, we come to the true elephant in the room: Armagh's quest to make his son the first Irish-Catholic president. One of the problems with historical fiction, which Captains and the Kings surely is, is when it bumps into historical fact. And unless you want to create an alternate history, one in which a whole bunch of things that happened in real-life maybe didn't happen, you're going to run into trouble. In this case, it's that the viewer knows Rory Armagh isn't going to become the first Irish-Catholic president, because John F. Kennedy was the first Irish-Catholic president. (Had Taylor Caldwell chosen to write a story about a man's quest to make his son the first Jewish president, for example, we might be on to something.)
Someone once wrote that it's almost impossible to play ducks and drakes with historical events such as the assassination of Abraham Lincoln; when that happens, your suspension of disbelief goes to hell in a handbasket. I think the same applies to JFK. Almost 60 years after his death, John Kennedy remains one of the nation's most admired—indeed, revered—presidents, and the Kennedy name remains magic. Such would have been even more the case back in the 1970s; Kennedy had been in his grave less than a decade when the novel was published; his brother Robert was assassinated eight years before the miniseries. So if you're going to pretend that JFK was not the first Irish-Catholic president, it seems to me you've got to have a bigger historical purpose than Captains and the Kings presents; while Caldwell spends a great deal of time examining the role of world business leaders in manipulating the fortunes of nations and peoples alike in their pursuit of even more wealth and power (she'd probably be considered a conspiracy spreader today), there must have been other ways in which the question could have been examined. Unless, of course, she wanted us to understand she was writing a fictionalized version of the life of the Kennedys.
What all this means is that the ending, to both the book and miniseries, can hardly be considered a surprise. I recognized this back when I was 16; there was no other way the story could possibly have ended. When I said earlier that I'd seen it before, I had—eight years before, in fact. But if there's simply no other way for a story to end, does that invalidate the story itself? I think not, and Captains and the Kings, for all its shortcomings, has something to say—not just about the New World Order, but the emptiness of power, wealth, and privilege without love, without faith, without the companionship of others. Joseph Armagh's accomplishments, impressive as they are, mean nothing when they are not just the means to an end (although that's questionable enough) but the end itself. That's a message worth sending, Sam Goldwyn to the contrary. So there's Captains and the Kings as history, but what about as entertainment? Does the miniseries hold up after nearly 50 years? Mostly, if you keep in mind that you're watching television from the more sedate 1970s, rather than the days of show-everything prestige TV. Thus, the sex scenes—and there are several of them—are enticing enough (especially when Jane Seymour is involved), but of course there is no nudity, so they wind up suggesting sex rather than portraying it. It's actually not a bad way to conduct business, but I'm just warning you of what to expect, so you don't get your hopes up. (Or anything else, for that matter.) The point is that while we might expect something more salacious today, something with more of an edge, this was plenty for 1976, and it worked well enough—quite well, actually.
Likewise, while the production quality is very good for a television series, especially for the time, you're not going to see the creativity nor the cinematography that you might find in today's auteur-driven television. What you do get are some fairly dynamic performances from a typically big-name miniseries cast, starting with Richard Jordan as the story's antihero. Jordan was always a fine actor, capable of playing both villains and heroes, and in Captains and the Kings he gets to be a little of both. We admire him in his early years, as the plucky underdog fighting against discrimination and privilege, but, in much the same way as All the King's Men's Willie Stark turns into the very evil that he sets out to fight, Joseph Armagh as paterfamilias and business magnate becomes worthy of contempt, even—something he would have despised—of pity. I never quite understood why Jordan didn't become an even bigger star than he did, but he towers over the story with a charisma and magnetism that even Joseph Kennedy didn't quite have.
There are a number of terrific performances in support of Jordan: Harvey Jason as Harry Zieff, a mild soul who attaches himself to Joseph early in the story and rises with him as his accountant, adviser, and fixer. Zieff is one of the few characters who could be said to have any ethics whatsoever; he may be Joseph's hatchet man, but at least he seems uneasy about it. Jason is the only actor, other than Jordan, to appear in every episode. Along the way, we also run into Charles Durning in a bawdy, delightfully over-the-top performance as Big Ed Healey, young Joseph's business mentor; Vic Morrow, in a Snidley Whiplash-worthy one as Tom Hennessey, Joseph's early business rival, married to Katherine (Joanna Pettet), the saintly woman Joseph loves from afar); and Patty Duke as the daughter whom the dying Katherine begs Joseph to take as his wife in order to get her away from the abusive Hennessey. Joseph doesn't love her—he loves Elizabeth (Blair Brown), Big Ed's daughter, but she's become pregnant by Hennessey and is going to marry him for appearances' sake—but Bernadette marries Joseph anyway, and then becomes an alcoholic. (As my wife noted, maybe she's supposed to be Joan Kennedy?) Anyway, you get the idea.
About halfway through we meet Rory, the anointed one; Perry King is very good as a man conflicted between his love for Marjorie (Jane Seymour), his love for his father, and the thought of being president—an idea that alternately attracts and repels him. In an ideal world, King's performance would have been the equal of Jordan's, but even as the focus of the narrative shifts to Rory, Joseph's shadow continues to lurk over the whole thing, and King's performance never quite emerges from it—as, indeed, may have been necessary. Seymour, not yet the queen of the miniseries, is both attractive and heartbreaking as Rory's doomed wife: doomed to know that her husband will never stand up for her to his father; doomed to have that marriage erased, doomed to have the man she loves taken away from her. (I tell you, the women who come in contact with the Armaghs have about as much success as the women who lived in the orbit of the Kennedys.) There are also smaller, but equally satisfying, appearances by big names from Ray Bolger to Celeste Holm to Henry Fonda. As I said, a typical 1970s miniseries.
What saves all this from sinking into a mire of soap opera suds—watchable ones, though!—is the point that Caldwell has in mind, one that keeps appearing through the bubbles, even those in the miniserises. In the forward to the novel, Caldwell writes of "plots against the people," and refers to "the gnomes of Zurich," a phrase first used by future British prime minister Harold Wilson in 1956, and later echoed by none other than John F. Kennedy. It refers to the sefcretive world of Swiss bankers, of conspirators pulling the strings and controlling world affairs; in Captains and the Kings, they go by the names "Committee for Foreign Studies" and "Scardo Society." Writes Caldwell, "The Caesars they put into power are their creatures, whether they kno it or not, and the peoples of all nations are helpless, whether they live in America, Europe, Russia, China, Africa, or South America. They will always be helpless until they are aware of their real enemy." Heady stuff for a historical romance, eh? It almost seems ripe for a remake today, doesn't it?Before we go, I should mention the lovely score by the great Elmer Bernstein, the sweeping tones of which capture the scope of a story that spans generations and histories. There's something very American about it, in both the grandeur that the United States has always provided and the tragedy that often accompanies it. The main theme wound up being used for the Best Sellers series as a whole, which included three additional miniseries based on historical novels: Once an Eagle, Seventh Avenue, and The Rhinemann Exchange. Despite that (and even though Once an Eagle stars Sam Elliott!), none of the others quite managed the interest generated by Captains and the Kings. Despite its flaws, it was good to revisit it, all these years later.
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This last month also saw us start three new series: Harbor Command, from 1957 starring Wendell Corey, and Science Fiction Theatre, from 1955; both are from the always-reliable Ziv Television Programs, which you'll remember from Sea Hunt and Highway Patrol, among others. There's also Quiller, based on the same series of spy novels that spawned the movie The Quiller Memorandum. I'm still trying to find out what the memo is, but you'll be reading more about these three series next time around. TV
August 28, 2023
What's on TV? Wednesday, August 31, 1955
I've got vacationing on my mind, seeing as how we're getting ready to go on one shortly ourselves, and judging from this week, it's a good time to take one. Garry Moore, Arthur Godfrey, and Robert Q. Lewis are all taking some time off this week, probably their last chance before the new season begins. Speaking of new seasons, Father Knows Best is back "by popular demand" with a new sponsor, Scott Paper Company; my guess is that the old sponsor must have decided not to go on, putting the show's continuation in jeopardy. But fear not, Scott knows best. Meanwhile, baseball fans are probably aware that during the Red Scare of the 1950s, the Cincinnati Reds were known as the Redlegs, but to the best of my knowledge that never extended to the Boston Red Sox, and yet WGN's listing for today's Chicago White Sox game has them playing the "Boston Redlegs." Perhaps someone was just being extra cautious. Anyway, today's listings come to you courtesy of the Chicago edition.-2- WBBM (CBS) MORNING 6:40 Today’s Thoughts 6:45 Farm Daily—Menard 7:00 Morning Show Five minutes of local news at 7:25, 7:55, 8:25, 8:55 9:00 Garry Moore—Variety Guest host: Walter O’Keefe 9:30 Arthur Godfrey Time Guest host: Peter Lind Hayes 10:30 Strike It Rich—Quiz 11:00 Valiant Lady—Serial 11:15 Love of Life—Serial 11:30 Search for Tomorrow 11:45 Guiding Light—Serial AFTERNOON 12:00 Luncheon with Billy 12:30 Welcome Travelers 1:00 Robert Q. Lewis—Variety Guest host: Peter Donald 1:30 Linkletter’s House Party 2:00 The Big Payoff—Quiz 2:30 Bob Crosby—Music 3:00 Brighter Day—Serial 3:15 Secret Storm—Serial 3:30 On Your Account—Quiz 4:00 The Early Show—Drama 4:30 Shopping with Miss Lee 5:00 Horse Racing—Chicago SPECIAL Swaps vs. Nashua, from Washington Park, Chicago 5:30 Gene Autry—Western EVENING 6:00 SPORTS—Bob Elson 6:15 NEWS—Julian Bentley 6:30 NEWS—Douglas Edwards 6:45 Eye on Chicago—News 7:00 FRANKIE LAINE—Songs Guests: Gloria De Haven, Henny Youngman, Morty Gunty, U.S. Army drum, bugle and drill teams 8:00 THE MILLIONAIRE—Drama 8:30 I’VE GOT A SECRET 9:00 U.S. STEEL HOUR—Drama “Counterfeit” 10:00 NEWS, WEATHER, SPORTS 10:15 IN TOWN TONIGHT 10:30 NEWS—John Harrington 10:45 KUP’S SHOW—Irv Kupcinet 11:00 Playhouse—Drama “Old Man’s Bride” 11:30 MOVIE—Mystery “Wolf of New York”
4 WTMJ (MILWAUKEE) (NBC) MORNING 8:00 Today—Dave Garroway Reporting from the “World’s Fair of Power” in Chicago Five minutes of local news at [8:25, 8:55 9:00 Ding Dong School—Kids 9:30 Parents’ Time 9:45 The World at Home Guest: Billy Graham 10:00 Home—Women’s News 11:00 Tennessee Ernie Ford 11:30 Feather Your Nest AFTERNOON 12:00 What’s New in the Kitchen 12:45 Let’s Look at the News 1:00 Hot Shot Review—Music 1:30 Bob Heiss—Interviews 1:55 Weather—Bill Carlsen 2:00 Ted Mack—Variety 2:30 It Pays to Be Married 3:00 Way of the World 3:15 First Love—Serial 3:30 World of Mr. Sweeney 3:45 Modern Romances 4:00 Beulah Donohue—Women 4:30 Howdy Doody—Puppets 5:00 Your Library Story 5:15 Let’s Experiment—Science 5:30 Foreman Tom—Western EVENING 6:00 SPORTS—Larry Clark 6:15 NEWS—Bob Kelly 6:25 Weather—Bill Carlsen 6:30 Eddie Fisher—Songs RETURN 6:45 NEWS—John Cameron Swayze 7:00 KODAL REQUEST PERFORMANCE—Drama “Cardboard Casanova” 7:30 FATHER KNOWS BEST RETURN 8:00 THEATER—Drama “The Chess Game” 9:00 THIS IS YOUR LIFE Guest: Andy Devine 9:30 PLAYHOUSE OF STARS 10:00 PATTI PAGE—Songs 10:15 LET’S LOOK AT THE NEWS 10:25 WEATHER—Bill Carlsen 10:30 RACKET SQUAD—Drama 11:00 Tonight—Steve Allen 12:00 MOVIE—Drama “Outpost in Morocco” 1:30 NEWS
-5- WNBQ (NBC) MORNING 6:45 Everett Mitchell—Talks 7:00 Today—Dave Garroway Reporting from the “World’s Fair of Power” in Chicago Five minutes of local news at 7:25, 7:55, 8:25, 8:55 9:00 Ding Dong School—Kids 9:30 Parents’ Time 9:45 The World at Home Guest: Billy Graham 10:00 Home—Women’s News 11:00 Tennessee Ernie Ford 11:30 Feather Your Nest AFTERNOON 12:00 Noontime Comics—Kids Fun 12:15 Cartoonland—Ken Bowers 12:45 Bob & Kay with Doucette 2:00 Ted Mack—Variety 2:30 It Pays to Be Married 3:00 Way of the World 3:15 First Love—Serial 3:30 World of Mr. Sweeney 3:45 Modern Romances 4:00 Pinky Lee—Kids 4:30 Howdy Doody—Puppets 5:00 Elmer the Elephant—Kids 5:35 Contact—Variety EVENING 6:00 Weather—Clint Youle 6:05 NEWS—Jack Angell 6:10 SPORTS—Joe Wilson 6:15 Dorsey Connors—Travel 6:20 Alex Dreier—Features 6:25 Tony Weitzel—Comment 6:30 Eddie Fisher—Songs RETURN 6:45 NEWS—John Cameron Swayze 7:00 KODAL REQUEST PERFORMANCE—Drama “Cardboard Casanova” 7:30 FATHER KNOWS BEST RETURN 8:00 THEATER—Drama “The Chess Game” 9:00 THIS IS YOUR LIFE Guest: Andy Devine 9:30 BIG TOWN—Drama 10:00 WEATHER—Clint Youle 10:10 DORSEY CONNORS—Ideas 10:15 NEWS—Jack Angell 10:25 SPORTS—Norm Barry 10:30 THE FALCON—Drama 11:00 Tonight—Steve Allen 12:00 MOVIE—Drama “Bush Pilot” (1947)
-7- WBKB (ABC) MORNING 8:55 News—Ulmer Turner 9:00 Time for Uncle Win—Kids 9:30 Play House—Kids 10:00 Hollywood Playhouse 11:00 Mid-week Cooking School 11:55 NEWS & WEATHER—Ulmer Turner AFTERNOON 12:00 Happy Pirates—Kids Fun 12:55 NEWS & WEATHER—Ulmer Turner 1:00 Tom Duggan—Variety 1:55 NEWS & WEATHER—Ulmer Turner 2:00 Mid-day Matinee—Drama 3:45 TV Dental Clinic 4:00 Crazy Acres—Kids 4:30 Little Rascals—Comedy 5:00 Five O’Clock Theater 5:30 SPORTS—Jack Drees 5:45 NEWS—Paul Harvey EVENING 6:00 Kukla, Fran and Ollie 6:15 NEWS—John Daly 6:30 Disneyland “The Story of Donald Duck” 7:30 PALL MALL PLAYHOUSE “Reunion at Steepler’s Hill” 8:00 MASQUERADE PARTY 8:30 PENNY TO A MILLION—Quiz 9:00 BOXING—Cleveland Tommy “Hurricane” Jackson vs. Ezzard Charles 9:45 JIM MILLS SHOW—Events 10:00 DOUBLE DATE—Drama 11:00 Norman Ross Presents 11:10 Tom Duggan—Comments 12:00 Theater—Double Feature (1) “The Witness” (2) “Out of the Shadows”
-9- WGN (Du Mont) MORNING 9:30 Paul Fogarty—Exercises 10:00 Hi Ladies—Mike Douglas 10:55 NEWS—Steve Fentress 11:00 The Romper Room—Kids 11:55 NEWS—Steve Fentress AFTERNOON 12:00 Lunchtime Little Theater 12:45 All About Baby—Tips 1:00 Batting Practice—Warm-up 1:10 Lead-off Man—Interviews 1:25 BASEBALL—White Sox Boston Red Sox at Chicago White Sox 3:45 Tenth Inning—Interviews 4:00 Bandstand Matinee—Music 5:05 News—Les Monypenny 5:10 Bandstand Matinee—Music 5:30 Garfield Goose and Friend EVENING 6:00 Curbstone Cut-up—Simon 6:15 SPORTS—Vince Lloyd 6:30 NEWS—Spencer Allen 6:45 Chicagoland Newsreel 7:00 MOVIE—Drama “Man Bait” (English; 1952) 8:30 HARNESS RACING 9:30 LIBERACE SHOW—Music 10:00 MOVIE—Drama “Mr. Robinson Crusoe” (Chicago TV Debut) 11:30 NEWS—Les Nichols 11:45 Weather—Carl Greyson
TV
What's on TV? Wednesday, Auguist 31, 1955
I've got vacationing on my mind, seeing as how we're getting ready to go on one shortly ourselves, and judging from this week, it's a good time to take one. Garry Moore, Arthur Godfrey, and Robert Q. Lewis are all taking some time off this week, probably their last chance before the new season begins. Speaking of new seasons, Father Knows Best is back "by popular demand" with a new sponsor, Scott Paper Company; my guess is that the old sponsor must have decided not to go on, putting the show's continuation in jeopardy. But fear not, Scott knows best. Meanwhile, baseball fans are probably aware that during the Red Scare of the 1950s, the Cincinnati Reds were known as the Redlegs, but to the best of my knowledge that never extended to the Boston Red Sox, and yet WGN's listing for today's Chicago White Sox game has them playing the "Boston Redlegs." Perhaps someone was just being extra cautious. Anyway, today's listings come to you courtesy of the Chicago edition.-2- WBBM (CBS) MORNING 6:40 Today’s Thoughts 6:45 Farm Daily—Menard 7:00 Morning Show Five minutes of local news at 7:25, 7:55, 8:25, 8:55 9:00 Garry Moore—Variety Guest host: Walter O’Keefe 9:30 Arthur Godfrey Time Guest host: Peter Lind Hayes 10:30 Strike It Rich—Quiz 11:00 Valiant Lady—Serial 11:15 Love of Life—Serial 11:30 Search for Tomorrow 11:45 Guiding Light—Serial AFTERNOON 12:00 Luncheon with Billy 12:30 Welcome Travelers 1:00 Robert Q. Lewis—Variety Guest host: Peter Donald 1:30 Linkletter’s House Party 2:00 The Big Payoff—Quiz 2:30 Bob Crosby—Music 3:00 Brighter Day—Serial 3:15 Secret Storm—Serial 3:30 On Your Account—Quiz 4:00 The Early Show—Drama 4:30 Shopping with Miss Lee 5:00 Horse Racing—Chicago SPECIAL Swaps vs. Nashua, from Washington Park, Chicago 5:30 Gene Autry—Western EVENING 6:00 SPORTS—Bob Elson 6:15 NEWS—Julian Bentley 6:30 NEWS—Douglas Edwards 6:45 Eye on Chicago—News 7:00 FRANKIE LAINE—Songs Guests: Gloria De Haven, Henny Youngman, Morty Gunty, U.S. Army drum, bugle and drill teams 8:00 THE MILLIONAIRE—Drama 8:30 I’VE GOT A SECRET 9:00 U.S. STEEL HOUR—Drama “Counterfeit” 10:00 NEWS, WEATHER, SPORTS 10:15 IN TOWN TONIGHT 10:30 NEWS—John Harrington 10:45 KUP’S SHOW—Irv Kupcinet 11:00 Playhouse—Drama “Old Man’s Bride” 11:30 MOVIE—Mystery “Wolf of New York”
4 WTMJ (MILWAUKEE) (NBC) MORNING 8:00 Today—Dave Garroway Reporting from the “World’s Fair of Power” in Chicago Five minutes of local news at [8:25, 8:55 9:00 Ding Dong School—Kids 9:30 Parents’ Time 9:45 The World at Home Guest: Billy Graham 10:00 Home—Women’s News 11:00 Tennessee Ernie Ford 11:30 Feather Your Nest AFTERNOON 12:00 What’s New in the Kitchen 12:45 Let’s Look at the News 1:00 Hot Shot Review—Music 1:30 Bob Heiss—Interviews 1:55 Weather—Bill Carlsen 2:00 Ted Mack—Variety 2:30 It Pays to Be Married 3:00 Way of the World 3:15 First Love—Serial 3:30 World of Mr. Sweeney 3:45 Modern Romances 4:00 Beulah Donohue—Women 4:30 Howdy Doody—Puppets 5:00 Your Library Story 5:15 Let’s Experiment—Science 5:30 Foreman Tom—Western EVENING 6:00 SPORTS—Larry Clark 6:15 NEWS—Bob Kelly 6:25 Weather—Bill Carlsen 6:30 Eddie Fisher—Songs RETURN 6:45 NEWS—John Cameron Swayze 7:00 KODAL REQUEST PERFORMANCE—Drama “Cardboard Casanova” 7:30 FATHER KNOWS BEST RETURN 8:00 THEATER—Drama “The Chess Game” 9:00 THIS IS YOUR LIFE Guest: Andy Devine 9:30 PLAYHOUSE OF STARS 10:00 PATTI PAGE—Songs 10:15 LET’S LOOK AT THE NEWS 10:25 WEATHER—Bill Carlsen 10:30 RACKET SQUAD—Drama 11:00 Tonight—Steve Allen 12:00 MOVIE—Drama “Outpost in Morocco” 1:30 NEWS
-5- WNBQ (NBC) MORNING 6:45 Everett Mitchell—Talks 7:00 Today—Dave Garroway Reporting from the “World’s Fair of Power” in Chicago Five minutes of local news at 7:25, 7:55, 8:25, 8:55 9:00 Ding Dong School—Kids 9:30 Parents’ Time 9:45 The World at Home Guest: Billy Graham 10:00 Home—Women’s News 11:00 Tennessee Ernie Ford 11:30 Feather Your Nest AFTERNOON 12:00 Noontime Comics—Kids Fun 12:15 Cartoonland—Ken Bowers 12:45 Bob & Kay with Doucette 2:00 Ted Mack—Variety 2:30 It Pays to Be Married 3:00 Way of the World 3:15 First Love—Serial 3:30 World of Mr. Sweeney 3:45 Modern Romances 4:00 Pinky Lee—Kids 4:30 Howdy Doody—Puppets 5:00 Elmer the Elephant—Kids 5:35 Contact—Variety EVENING 6:00 Weather—Clint Youle 6:05 NEWS—Jack Angell 6:10 SPORTS—Joe Wilson 6:15 Dorsey Connors—Travel 6:20 Alex Dreier—Features 6:25 Tony Weitzel—Comment 6:30 Eddie Fisher—Songs RETURN 6:45 NEWS—John Cameron Swayze 7:00 KODAL REQUEST PERFORMANCE—Drama “Cardboard Casanova” 7:30 FATHER KNOWS BEST RETURN 8:00 THEATER—Drama “The Chess Game” 9:00 THIS IS YOUR LIFE Guest: Andy Devine 9:30 BIG TOWN—Drama 10:00 WEATHER—Clint Youle 10:10 DORSEY CONNORS—Ideas 10:15 NEWS—Jack Angell 10:25 SPORTS—Norm Barry 10:30 THE FALCON—Drama 11:00 Tonight—Steve Allen 12:00 MOVIE—Drama “Bush Pilot” (1947)
-7- WBKB (ABC) MORNING 8:55 News—Ulmer Turner 9:00 Time for Uncle Win—Kids 9:30 Play House—Kids 10:00 Hollywood Playhouse 11:00 Mid-week Cooking School 11:55 NEWS & WEATHER—Ulmer Turner AFTERNOON 12:00 Happy Pirates—Kids Fun 12:55 NEWS & WEATHER—Ulmer Turner 1:00 Tom Duggan—Variety 1:55 NEWS & WEATHER—Ulmer Turner 2:00 Mid-day Matinee—Drama 3:45 TV Dental Clinic 4:00 Crazy Acres—Kids 4:30 Little Rascals—Comedy 5:00 Five O’Clock Theater 5:30 SPORTS—Jack Drees 5:45 NEWS—Paul Harvey EVENING 6:00 Kukla, Fran and Ollie 6:15 NEWS—John Daly 6:30 Disneyland “The Story of Donald Duck” 7:30 PALL MALL PLAYHOUSE “Reunion at Steepler’s Hill” 8:00 MASQUERADE PARTY 8:30 PENNY TO A MILLION—Quiz 9:00 BOXING—Cleveland Tommy “Hurricane” Jackson vs. Ezzard Charles 9:45 JIM MILLS SHOW—Events 10:00 DOUBLE DATE—Drama 11:00 Norman Ross Presents 11:10 Tom Duggan—Comments 12:00 Theater—Double Feature (1) “The Witness” (2) “Out of the Shadows”
-9- WGN (Du Mont) MORNING 9:30 Paul Fogarty—Exercises 10:00 Hi Ladies—Mike Douglas 10:55 NEWS—Steve Fentress 11:00 The Romper Room—Kids 11:55 NEWS—Steve Fentress AFTERNOON 12:00 Lunchtime Little Theater 12:45 All About Baby—Tips 1:00 Batting Practice—Warm-up 1:10 Lead-off Man—Interviews 1:25 BASEBALL—White Sox Boston Red Sox at Chicago White Sox 3:45 Tenth Inning—Interviews 4:00 Bandstand Matinee—Music 5:05 News—Les Monypenny 5:10 Bandstand Matinee—Music 5:30 Garfield Goose and Friend EVENING 6:00 Curbstone Cut-up—Simon 6:15 SPORTS—Vince Lloyd 6:30 NEWS—Spencer Allen 6:45 Chicagoland Newsreel 7:00 MOVIE—Drama “Man Bait” (English; 1952) 8:30 HARNESS RACING 9:30 LIBERACE SHOW—Music 10:00 MOVIE—Drama “Mr. Robinson Crusoe” (Chicago TV Debut) 11:30 NEWS—Les Nichols 11:45 Weather—Carl Greyson
TV
August 26, 2023
This week in TV Guide: August 27, 1955
It isn't often that a horse race provides the lead story in TV Guide. It isn't often that a weekday afternoon sporting event, other than the World Series, becomes the most talked-about event of the week. But then, it isn't often that you see two horses like Swaps and Nashua, and therein lies the story.The California-bred Swaps won the Kentucky Derby in May, defeating Nashua, the "Pride of the East," by a length-and-a-half—a "convincing victory," according to Sports Illustrated. Yet Swaps' owner chose not to run him in the remaining Triple Crown races, returning instead to the West Coast, where the horse remained undefeated through the summer. Nashua, on the other hand, ran in, and won, both the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes; the Derby defeat to Swaps was his only loss of the year. The public, and the horse racing industry, clamored for a rematch between the two, to settle the question of which horse was the year's best.
Before we go any further, you have to remember that two of the biggest sports in the United States, circa 1955, were horse racing and boxing. Professional football was just beginning to outgrow its infancy, but was not yet as popular as its college counterpart. Baseball was, undisputedly, the national pastime, but the World Series was still a month away. Basketball, hockey, soccer—well, those are sports for another day. Horse racing was where the wealthy rubbed elbows with ordinary folk, where educated touts who studied the Daily Racing Forum matched wits against amateurs betting on a hunch or a lucky number. It was a brilliant microcosm of America in the 1950s. And so, when Ben Lindheimer, the owner of Washington Park in Chicago, arranged for a match race between the two horses to decide things once and for all, it captured the attention of the nation.
The race was scheduled for the afternoon of Wednesday, August 31, at Washington Park: just the two horses, the Eastern champion vs. the Western champion for horse racing supremacy. The jockeys, Willie Shoemaker on Swaps and Eddie Arcaro on Nashua, were two of the very best in the game. The prize was $100,000, winner-take-all. CBS would broadcast the race live to a national television and radio audience estimated in the millions, and despite a post time of just past 5:00 p.m. Central time, a crowd of 35,262 came to Chicago from around the country, while millions more tuned in on radio or television. It was the Super Bowl of its day.After all that, was the race an anticlimax? Perhaps, although championship games have a way of generating a mystique all their own, regardless of the outcome. Arcaro drives Nashua from the start, forcing Swaps to the outside on a heavy track. (The Western champ was also troubled by a chronic foot problem, but the stakes had been too high to even think of cancelling the race.) Nashua wins the race by six-and-a-half lengths, and with it, the Horse of the Year. Swaps would not race again in 1955, but returned as a four-year-old and won Horse of the Year the following season. Nashua continued to run mostly in the East, Swaps mostly in the West, and although they both raced until 1956, the two never met again.
And even though the names might fade into the history books—unless you're a dedicated sports or racing fan, do you even remember them?—Nashua leaves his mark: his half-brother, Bold Ruler, a champion in his own right, will sire another horse who created a bit of a stir. His name is Secretariat.
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Well, that's quite a way to start the week, isn't it? There's actually more big-time sports over the weekend, though it doesn't quite create as much of a buzz: the Davis Cup tennis finals between the defending champion United States team and the challengers from Australia. (Saturday, 1:30 pm., Sunday, 1:00 p.m., NBC) The Davis Cup is a team competition spread over three days: two singles matches on Friday, a doubles match on Saturday, two singles matches Sunday. The first team to win three matches wins the Cup, although all five matches are played regardless. The U.S., as defending champion, was seeded directly into the final, while Australia competed against 34 other countries in matches running from March through early August. No matter; the Aussies, with some of the world's greatest players on the team, sweep the Americans 5-0 to take back the Cup; they'll win again in 1956 and 1957.
Musical comedy is always a crowd pleaser, and on Saturday Max Liebman Presents showcases 1943's "One Touch of Venus" in a live broadcast (8:00 p.m., NBC) with Janet Blair, Russell Nype, and George Gaynes. The music is by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Ogden Nash, and the book by Nash and S.J. Perelman; I think there are as many stars in the credits as there are in the cast. The TV production is generally considered superior to the movie version (you can see a clip of it
here
; it's on DVD), which starred Ava Gardner and Robert Walker, but I wonder how well it did in the ratings? Live "spectaculars" such as this were the brainchild of NBC's Pat Weaver, but the lavish productions were costly (one Liebman special cost $500,000), and the ratings seldom justified that kind of spending. Lawrence Welk is on at the same time as Liebman, and I'd bet the maestro more than held his own. You all know the premise of You Are There, right? The show presents a historical event as it might have been covered had television been in existence at the time, with Walter Cronkite as the host and actual CBS newsmen interviewing the participants. I don't know that I've ever seen them do a presentation of an event that actually was broadcast on TV, though, but they come pretty close on Sunday, as the show relives the events of December 7, 1941 at Pearl Harbor. (5:30 p.m., CBS) As we know, New York television stations carried wire service reports of the attack (no video from Hawaii, of course), but the major radio networks covered the breaking news. I wonder how many of the newsmen on You Are There were part of that radio coverage?
On Sunday's Toast of the Town (7:00 p.m., CBS), Ed Sullivan's guests are Eartha Kitt, the singing Mariners ( formerly of the Arthur Godfrey show); comedian Jay Lawrence; German child acrobat "Wonder Boy John;" and the Chicago Festival singers. Godfrey and Sullivan feuded over Sullivan's propensity of featuring fired Godfrey performers (e.g. Julius LaRosa) on his show, so I'll bet Ed loved zinging Godfrey by having the Mariners on. Opposite Sullivan, the Colgate Variety Hour (7:00 p.m., NBC) has Charlton Heston as host, promoting his new movie The Private War of Major Benson with reenactments of scenes from the movie; his guests are singer-dancer Marjorie Fields, Edger Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, and comedian Bob Wiliams.
A couple of prominent shows feature guest hosts this week; on the season premiere of The Loretta Young Show (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., NBC), Rosalind Russell fills in as hostess for the ailing Loretta, who won't return to the show until Christmastime; her Hollywood friends will continue to sub for her until then. Meanwhile, Steve Allen isn't ill, just on vacation after finishing his lead role in the movie The Benny Goodman Story, so Ernie Kovacs guest hosts for two weeks on Tonight (M-F, 11:00 p.m., NBC). Ernie winds up hosting Tonight two nights a week beginning the next season.
Speaking of vacations, Kukla, Fran and Ollie return from the summer break on Monday (6:00 p.m., ABC), and compare notes on what each one of them did on their summer vacations. And they're not the only ones starting the new season; Jane Wyman is the new host and occasional star on the dramatic anthology series Fireside Theater (not to be confused with
Firesign Theatre
), which returns Tuesday at 8:00 p.m. on NBC. Wyatt hasn't given up her other job, though; she co-stars with Robert Young in the season premiere of Father Knows Best (Wednesday, 7:30 p.m., NBC), while Joe Friday and Frank Smith kick off the fifth season of Dragnet (Thursday, 8:00 p.m., NBC). Edward R. Murrow is back, too, and his first show of the new season features Dick Powell and his wife, June Allyson; followed by the famed photographer Margaret Bourke-White.And in a preview of coming attractions, The Big Picture, ABC's Army documentary, goes off the air on Tuesday, to be replaced next week by a series that revolutionizes the television Western: The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp.
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This week's cover story by Robert E. Johnson begins with an anecdote about "a shrewd operator who studied the best-seller lists and decided the most consistent money-makers were books about Lincoln, doctors and dogs. So he sat down and wrote a book called Lincoln’s Doctor’s Dog. There is such a story, by the way, a short story by Christopher Morley that was adapted into an episode of Screen Director's Playhouse; it'll be seen at the end of 1955, with Robert Ryan as Lincoln and Charles Bickford as the doctor. (No note on who plays the dog.)
I digress, though. The point of the story is that health, dogs, and Lincoln are three of the subjects most commonly explored on Groucho Marx's You Bet Your Life, now entering its eighth season (including radio) and boasting a weekly audience of 40 million. And what we're here to learn about is what makes the ideal contestant—or foil, if you prefer—for Groucho. According to Bernie Smith, head talent scout for the show, that would be "a sexy relative of Abraham Lincoln's who made a lot of money raising dogs and now spends it trying to improve her health by eating baby food." Failing that, school teachers are always popular; in addition to knowing a lot about Lincoln, "a lot of them are good looking, and we always have at least one pretty girl on the show."
Groucho with contestant Jean Moorhead of MST3K fame Smith and his staff look through the yellow pages (that was the business part of the phone book, for those of you too young to remember, and it was printed on yellow paper), searching for offbeat occupations; public officials and war heroes are also well-received, and if you've been fortunate enough to have gotten your name in the paper recently (for a good reason), you can expect a call from the show. Once they've been vetted, they're interviewed by members of the staff in order to compile information that Groucho and his writers can use for his jokes. "If he knows, for instance, that a man was born a block from the Fulton Fish Market," Smith says, "he’s got the basis for a dozen gags."Johnson's look behind the scenes ends with the story of the female contestant, a mountain climber who'd climed higher mountains than any other woman. Four months later, another contestant, a female aqualung diver who'd gone lower than any other woman. "Now," Groucho said, "all we need on this show is a woman who never did anything!" One hundred fifty letters followed, from women who'd "never been kissed, never had an operation, never been anywhere." One of them wound up a lucky contestant, and ruined her perfect record: she won $145.
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If you've been reading these reviews for any length of time, first of all, you might require a doctor's care, so you'd better check just to be sure. Second, you'll know that one topic I frequently return to is that of movies on TV—or, nowadays, the lack thereof. In 1955, movies comprise between 25 and 30 percent of the average station's broadcast day; when you filter out network programming, movies make up more than half of a station's local schedule. In fact, as Frank De Blois points out, one New York station airs 50 different movies each week, or more than 1,500 bookings (including repeats) over the course of a year. With all those movies floating about, how do stations decide what to show?
William C. Lacey, manager of the film department at WCBS in New York, explains to De Blois his movie programming philosophy. WCBS programs four movies per day, starting with the Late Matinee, which runs Monday through Friday between 5:00 and 6:00 p.m. ("Liberally pruned with the editor's shears," De Blois notes). For this time slot, Lacey prefers "romantic adventure stories," such as Salome, starring Yvonne De Carlo, aka Lily Munster. The Early Show, from 6:15 to 7:25 p.m., features "family" viewing, including It's a Wonderful Life—which, as I've mentioned before, was not always limited to Christmastime viewing.Beginning at 11:15 p.m., The Late Show, perhaps the most famous of the WCBS movie slots, is geared toward an "adult" audience, with "high adventure, romance and an occasional dash of gore." One of this week's features, Susan Hayward's Smash-Up: the Story of a Woman is a good example, as is the station's most popular late night movie, Pygmalion, "which ran 14 times on four channels in New York during a single year." Also in this timeslot: 20 Charlie Chan mysteris, which Lacey bought several years ago; each was run six times, for a total of 120 showings. Chan you beat that?
The most outspoken audience belongs to The Late Late Show, which starts around 12:30 a.m. and runs until nearly dawn. The show boasts of nearly 300,000 regular viewers: "shipyard workers, cab drivers, firemen, waitresses, bartenders, short-order cooks in all-night cafeterias, invalids and people who just can’t sleep." It was temporarly dropped a year or so ago after it lost its sponsor, but viwer outcry was such that the station was forced to bring it back.
Nothing is perfect in TV land, of course, and viewers have complaints about the movies they're offered. Given how the studios view television as a threat to the business, they're reluctant to offer stations anything new; amost all the movies on TV are pre-1950, and it isn't until 1961 and the advent of NBC's Saturday Night at the Movies that movies made post-1950 were shown on network TV. Likewise, viewers get miffed about seeing the same films over and over. ("If you show 'The Bowery Boys' once more," one viewer complained, "I’ll stinkbomb the studio.") And then there are those who complain that the movies are too new: they still want to see Rudolph Valentino and Mary Pickford.
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Are there such things as celebrity authors anymore? I'm not talking about someone like Stephen King, who I view as more "celebrity" than "author" (and I'm still trying to figure that one out), but authors who are famous for being authors. I noted somewhere that when Colson Whitehead appeared on the cover of Time in 2019, it was the first time an author had been on the magazine's cover since Jonathan Franzen in 2010.
There was a time, though, when it was an event for a mainstream novelist to come out with a new book, and that's the case on Friday's Today (7:00 a.m., NBC), when Herman Wouk sits for an interview with Dave Garroway. Wouk, who won the Pulitzer Prize for The Caine Mutiny in 1951, is promoting his new novel, Marjorie Morningstar, which (natch) lands him on the cover of Time, and gets made into a movie starring Natalie Wood, Gene Kelly, and Claire Trevor. The reason I point this out, though (aside from having a vested interest in the fame of authors) is that Herman Wouk has a significant link to television. His novel The Winds of War was published 1971, and its sequel War and Remembrance followed in 1978; both were made into huge miniseres for ABC in the late 1980s and were ratings successes (The Winds of War was the most-watched miniseries ever at the time), but they were also expensive; War and Remembrance, which ran for 30 hours, was the most expensive miniseries ever made, and when it underperformed in the ratings (although winning its timeslot), it was one of the factors that cost ABC programming chief Brandon Stoddard his job. ABC lost between $30 and $40 million on the production, and along with the changing times and the growth of cable, signaled the beginning of the end of the prestige miniseries format.
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That's kind of a downer, though, so let's end on a brighter note, with a look at Eddie Anderson, who's risen to fame—an American institution, according to this unbylined article—as Rochester Van Jones, Jack Benny's valet and foil on the latter's popular radio and television series. Anderson's been with Benny since he debuted in 1937 as a gravel-voiced porter; he proved to be so popuar that the Rochester character was created for him. (Jack Benny owned the copyright to the Rochester character, and sold it to Anderson—for a dollar.)
That was 18 years ago, and now he makes upward of $75,000 a year, owns a custom-built sports car, lives in a handsome four-bedroom home in Los Angeles (with a pool), and until a few years ago had a stable of race horses (none of then named Swaps, sad to say). He's at a bit of a loss since the recent death of his wife; he talks about producing a Western with a Negro cast, based on a true-life character. In the meantime, he lives with his adopted son Billy (a former world-record hurdler and professional football player with the Chicago Bears) and Billy's wife and daughter.Rochester was an enormously popular character, and despite his status as a "colored" servant, he often got the better of Jack, frequently offering acidic commentary that got huge laughts (which is all that Benny ever cared for; he was never selfish about who got them); the writers continuously worked to phase out stereotypical aspects of the character. Anderson remained with Benny until 1965, when the TV show ended, and the two maintained a friendship that lasted until Benny's death in 1974. For many years, Eddie Anderson was the highest-paid black entertainer in the business; he invested his money wisely, and had several business interests. He's a member of the Radio Hall of Fame, and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. As a descendant of slaves who traveled to freedom on the Underground Railroad, that's not bad at all. America—what a country! TV
August 25, 2023
Around the dial
When it comes to classic television, I've long since given up on anything of substance coming from Rolling Stone; its latest is a list of "TV's Worst Decisions." At Comfort TV, David
reviews those choices
that pertain to our favorite genre, and makes some much-needed recommendations of his own. I might add one of the more egregious moments in TV history: the
Heidi Game
from 1968. At bare-bones e-zine, Jack begins a new chapter in his Hitchcock Project with Alan Gordon's " Very Moral Theft ," an affecting sixth-season episode starring Walter Matthau and Betty Field. It's another reminder that Matthau was a very good dramatic actor, and one wonders what kind of a career he would have had had he not goine into more comedic roles.
John takes a break from his X-Files and the American Dream series at Cult TV Blog to look at some of the other programs he's been watching: Monty Python's Flying Circus; Murder, She Wrote; Max Headroom; and The Monkees. I like a man with eclectic tastes in television—probably one reason why we get along well!
The title of The Avengers episode " How to Succeed...at Murder " seems to portend the answer to a practical question, one I'm sure many of us have wondered about from time to time. Alas, the answer we get from Roger and Mike at The View from the Junkyard suggests that this episode is a below-average one, but we're always free to watch and decide for ourselves.
Travalanche resurrects an unusual effort by Rankin-Bass from 1970: The Mad, Mad, Mad Comedians , which the advertisement describes as "Cartoon recreations of famous comics doing your favorite routines." Animated renditions of famous entertainment personalities are nothing new, but to have an entire hour's worth, with voices by Groucho Marx, George Burns, Jack Benny, George Jessel, Henny Youngman, and Jack E. Leonard, amoung others, is intriguing to say the least.
Did you know that in 1993 NBC planned to resurrect the NBC Mystery Movie, with Raymond Burr as Perry Mason, plus vehicles starring Larry Hagman, Louis Gosset Jr., and Kenny Rogers? You can learn about it in a pair of pieces ( 1 ) ( 2 ) at Those Were the Days, highlighting the Rogers element, which was called "MacShayne." I wonder if the title was supposed to be a nod to the old Mystery Movie, with McCloud, McMillian, and (briefly) McCoy?
Thankfully, we no longer live in Minnesota, although I still have a fondness for the memories of growng up there. One of those memories was the kids' show Cap'n Ken , which would later morph into Grandpa Ken; while it's not the most famous of the kids' shows that aired back then, it ran from 1960 to 1973, and this piece at Minnesota Kidvid reminds me of what a big part these local programs played in a child's life, and shows what kids are missing today.
Speaking of kids's shows from the past, the Broadcast Archives links to an article at Slate about the 1970s PBS show ZOOM , which at one time had more viewers than Sesame Street. I knew that Zoom was popular, but I had no idea just how popular; this comment was brought to you by the word "surprised."
Martin Grams has a new book out (where does he get the time?)— Clayton Moore and the Legend of the Lone Ranger 1970-1984 , written with Terry Salomonson, which focuses on the controversy surround actor Clayton Moore and the making of of the 1981 movie The Legend of the Lone Ranger (which starred Klinton Spilsbury as the Lone Ranger and Twin Peaks' Michael Horse as Tonto). If you thought you knew the background regarding the controversial movie, you might be surprised.
Now here's a story from Andrew at The Lucky Strike Papers about another program I hadn't been much familiar with: Trash or Treasure , which aired on DuMont in 1952-1953 and was, according to Andrew, a progenitor to Antiques Roadshow. (Proving that it really is true that what's old is new again.) There's also a brief sidelight concerning the show's announcer, Bill Wendell, who would go on to work with Kovacs and Letterman. Good stuff. TV
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Insightful commentary on how classic TV shows mirrored and influenced American society, tracing the impact of iconic series on national identity, cultural change, and the challenges we face today.
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