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Mitchell Hadley's Blog: It's About TV!, page 52
May 29, 2023
What's on TV? Thursday, June 3, 1965
I noticed something interesting in today's listing from the Northern California edition. I don't know if it's been present before; I suspect it has, but I hadn't noticed it until now. You can see it too, if you look. All three networks have five-minute afternoon newscasts, they've been doing it for years. CBS and NBC usually have them in the morning too, except for the space coverage today. Douglas Edwards hosts the CBS newscast, but today the ABC anchor is Marlene Sanders, and the NBC broadcast is by Nancy Dickerson. Two women anchoring news in 1965; even though it's only five minutes, that counts for something. Sanders and Dickerson were among the pioneers of female newscasters, as was Lisa Howard, Sanders's precedessor. We ought to remember their contributions more, perhaps, than we do.-2- KTVU (SAN FRANCISCO-OAKLAND) (IND.) Morning 9:50 RELIGION TODAY—Protestant 10:00 NEWS—Walt Harris 10:30 JACK LA LANNE—Exercise 11:00 ROMPER ROOM—Children Afternoon 12:00 JACK BENNY—Comedy 12:30 TV HOUR OF STARS—Drama 1:30 I WANT TO KNOW—Mel Venter 2:00 MOVIE—Western “The Tall Stranger” (1957) 3:25 NEWS 3:30 CAPTAIN SATELLITE—Children 4:30 LLOYD THAXTON—Music Guests: Timi Yuro, Roger Miller 5:30 MICKEY MOUSE CLUB Evening 6:00 TOPPER—Comedy 6:30 WOODY WOODPECKER 7:00 YOU ASKED FOR IT—Jack Smith 7:30 AMERICA!—Travel COLOR 8:00 EXPEDITION!—Documentary 8:30 WORLD OF ADVENTURE 9:00 NEW BREED—Police 10:00 NEWS—Helmso, Jacobs, Mann 10:30 BEST OF GROUCHO—Quiz 11:00 MOVIE—Drama “Platinum High School” (1960) 12:45 STAR PERFORMANCE—Drama
-3- KCRA (SACRAMENTO) (NBC) Morning 4:00 GEMINI SPACE FLIGHT—Cape Kennedy SPECIAL COLOR Chet Huntley and David Brinkley Regularly scheduled programs will be pre-empted. 9:00 TO BE ANNOUNCED 9:55 NEWS 11:00 CALL MY BLUFF—Game COLOR Celebrities: Henry Morgan, Kitty Carlisle 11:30 I’LL BET—Game COLOR Gisele MacKenzie and Bob Shuttleworth vs. Rod and Carol Serling 11:55 NEWS Afternoon 12:00 NEWS 12:25 NEWS 12:30 LEAVE IT TO BEAVER—Comedy 1:00 DOCTORS—Serial 1:30 ANOTHER WORLD—Serial 2:00 YOU DON’T SAY!—Game COLOR Celebrities: Joanie Sommers, Frank Gorshin 2:30 MOVIE—Drama “Brute Force” (1947) 4:00 MOVIE—Comedy “The Mating of Millie” (1948) 5:45 NEWS, WEATHER Evening 6:00 NEWS—Chet Huntley, David Brinkley 6:30 NEWS 7:00 MOVIE—Drama “The Dark Past” (1945) 8:30 DR. KILDARE—Drama 9:30 HAZEL—Comedy COLOR 10:00 SUSPENSE THEATRE COLOR “Twixt the Cup and the Lip” 11:00 NEWS 11:30 GEMINI SPACE FLIGHT—Report SPECIAL Frank McGee Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show” resumes at 11:45 P.M. 11:45 JOHNNY CARSON—Variety COLOR 1:00 NEWS
-4- KRON (SAN FRANCISCO-OAKLAND) (NBC) Morning 4:00 GEMINI SPACE FLIGHT—Cape Kennedy SPECIAL COLOR Chet Huntley and David Brinkley Regularly scheduled programs will be pre-empted. 9:00 TO BE ANNOUNCED 9:55 NEWS 11:00 CALL MY BLUFF—Game COLOR Celebrities: Henry Morgan, Kitty Carlisle 11:30 I’LL BET—Game COLOR Gisele MacKenzie and Bob Shuttleworth vs. Rod and Carol Serling 11:55 NEWS Afternoon 12:00 LET’S MAKE A DEAL—Game COLOR 12:25 NEWS 12:30 MOMENT OF TRUTH—Serial 1:00 DOCTORS—Serial 1:30 ANOTHER WORLD—Serial 2:00 YOU DON’T SAY!—Game COLOR Celebrities: Joanie Sommers, Frank Gorshin 2:30 MATCH GAME COLOR Celebrities: Joe Garagiola, Whitey Ford 2:55 NEWS—Nancy Dickerson 3:00 MOVIE—Western COLOR “Thundercloud” (1950) 4:30 MAYOR ART—Children 5:30 BACHELOR FATHER—Comedy Evening 6:00 NEWS—Chet Huntley, David Brinkley 6:30 NEWS 6:55 SPORTS—Ed Hart 7:00 DETECTIVES—Police 7:30 DANIEL BOONE—Adventure 8:30 DR. KILDARE—Drama 9:30 HAZEL—Comedy COLOR 10:00 SUSPENSE THEATRE COLOR “Twixt the Cup and the Lip” 11:00 NEWS 11:30 GEMINI SPACE FLIGHT—Report SPECIAL Frank McGee Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show” resumes at 11:45 P.M. 11:45 JOHNNY CARSON—Variety COLOR 1:00 NEWS
-5- KPIX (SAN FRANCISCO-OAKLAND) (CBS) Morning 4:00 GEMINI SPACE FLIGHT—Cape Kennedy SPECIAL Walter Cronkite and Mike Wallace Regularly scheduled programs will be pre-empted. 9:00 TO BE ANNOUNCED 11:00 LOVE OF LIFE 11:25 NEWS 11:30 SEARCH FOR TOMORROW--Serial 11:45 GUIDING LIGHT—Serial Afternoon 12:00 NEWS 12:30 AS THE WORLD TURNS—Serial 1:00 PASSWORD—Game Celebrities: Orson Bean, Nancy Ames. Host: Allen Ludden. A Gemini space flight progress report is scheduled at 1:25 P.M. 1:30 HOUSE PARTY Guests: Alma Day (Doris Day’s mother), Gloria Tracy 2:00 TO TELL THE TRUTH Panelists: Jack Carter, Dina Merrill, Phyllis Newman, Cliff Robertson. Host: Bud Collyer 2:25 NEWS—Douglas Edwards 2:30 EDGE OF NIGHT 3:00 SECRET STORM 3:30 MIKE DOUGLAS—Variety Co-host: Patrice Munsel. Guests: Al Kelly, the Highwaymen There is a Gemini space flight report scheduled from 4-4:05 P.M. 4:30 MOVIE—Comedy “No Time for Love” (1943) Evening 6:00 NEWS 6:30 NEWS—Harry Reasoner 7:00 RIFLEMAN—Western 7:30 MUNSTERS—Comedy 8:00 PERRY MASON 9:00 PASSWORD—Game Celebrities: Barry Sullivan, June Lockhart. Host: Allen Ludden. A Gemini space flight progress report is scheduled at 9:25 P.M. 9:30 CELEBRITY GAME Panelists: Robert Mitchum, Douglas Fairbanks, Anne Baxter, June Allyson, Allan Sherman, Jan Murray, Janis Paige, Jack Jones, Donna Loren. Moderator: Carl Reiner 10:00 DEFENDERS—Drama 11:00 NEWS 11:15 GEMINI SPACE FLIGHT—Report SPECIAL Walter Cronkite 11:30 MERV GRIFFIN—Variety Guests: Vivian Vance, Casey Stengel, Yogi Berra, Susan Watson, Lou Jacobi 12:50 MOVIE—Drama “Bahama Passage” (1941)
-6- KVIE (SACRAMENTO) (EDUC.) Evening 6:30 STOCK MARKET REPORT 6:35 MUSICAL PORTRAITS 7:00 WHAT’S NEW—Children 7:30 THE HOME—Discussion 8:00 VIEWS—Sacramento 8:30 CHANGING CONGRESS 9:00 OPEN END—David Susskind “Fun and Games in Washington”
-7- KGO (SAN FRANCISCO-OAKLAND) (ABC) Morning 4:00 GEMINI SPACE FLIGHT—Cape Kennedy SPECIAL Jules Bergman Regularly scheduled programs are pre-empted for coverage of the Gemini launch. 9:00 GIRL TALK—Panel Panelists: Nardie Campion, Marguerite Piazza, Ann Blair 9:30 MOVIE—Drama “Three Stripes in the Sun” (1955) 11:20 NEWS—Bob Dunn 11:30 TO BE ANNOUNCED Afternoon 12:00 DONNA REED—Comedy 12:30 FATHER KNOWS BEST 1:00 REBUS—Game 1:30 OH, MY WORD!—Game Guests: Ronnie Schell, Barbara McNair 2:00 FLAME IN THE WIND 2:30 DAY IN COURT 2:55 NEWS—Marlene Sanders 3:00 GENERAL HOSPITAL 3:30 YOUNG MARRIEDS 4:00 TRAILMASTER 5:00 MOVIE—Melodrama “The Manster” (1962) Evening 6:20 LEAVE IT TO BEAVER—Comedy Time approximate. Sports with Bud Foster follows. 7:00 NEWS 7:15 NEWS—Bob Young 7:30 JONNY QUEST—Cartoon COLOR 8:00 DONNA REED—Comedy 8:30 MY THREE SONS 9:00 BEWITCHED 9:30 PEYTON PLACE 10:00 JIMMY DEAN—Variety Guests: Henny Youngman, Johnny Tillotson, Vikki Carr 11:00 NEWS 11:15 GEMINI SPACE FLIGHT—Report SPECIAL Peter Jennings 11:30 NIGHTLIFE—Variety Co-hosts: Louis Nye, William B. Williams 1:00 MOVIE—Triple Feature 1. “Yankee Buccaneer” (1952) C Bay Area TV Debut. 2. “Broadway” (1942) 3. “Girls in Prison” (1956)
7W KRCR (REDDING) (ABC, NBC) Morning 4:00 GEMINI SPACE FLIGHT—Cape Kennedy SPECIAL COLOR Chet Huntley and David Brinkley Regularly scheduled programs will be pre-empted. 9:00 TO BE ANNOUNCED 9:55 NEWS 11:00 CALL MY BLUFF—Game COLOR Celebrities: Henry Morgan, Kitty Carlisle 11:30 TO BE ANNOUNCED Afternoon 12:00 DONNA REED—Comedy 12:30 FATHER KNOWS BEST 1:00 REBUS—Game 1:30 ANOTHER WORLD—Serial 2:00 FLAME IN THE WIND 2:30 DAY IN COURT 2:55 NEWS—Marlene Sanders 3:00 GENERAL HOSPITAL 3:30 YOUNG MARRIEDS 4:00 TRAILMASTER 5:00 HOPPITY HOOPER—Cartoons 5:30 WOODY WOODPECKER Evening 6:00 NEWS 6:30 NEWS—Chet Huntley, David Brinkley 7:00 MY THREE SONS—Comedy 7:30 FLINTSTONES—Cartoon 8:00 DR. KILDARE—Drama 9:00 BEWITCHED 9:30 HAZEL—Comedy COLOR 10:00 SUSPENSE THEATRE COLOR “Twixt the Cup and the Lip” 11:00 NEWS 11:15 JOHNNY CARSON COLOR 11:30 GEMINI SPACE FLIGHT—Report SPECIAL Frank McGee Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show” resumes at 11:45 P.M. 11:45 JOHNNY CARSON—Variety COLOR
-8- KSBW (SALINAS) (CBS, NBC) Morning 4:00 GEMINI SPACE FLIGHT—Cape Kennedy SPECIAL COLOR Chet Huntley and David Brinkley Regularly scheduled programs will be pre-empted. 9:00 TO BE ANNOUNCED 9:55 NEWS 11:00 LOVE OF LIFE 11:25 NEWS 11:30 I’LL BET—Game COLOR Gisele MacKenzie and Bob Shuttleworth vs. Rod and Carol Serling 11:55 NEWS Afternoon 12:00 LET’S MAKE A DEAL—Game COLOR 12:25 NEWS 12:30 AS THE WORLD TURNS—Serial 1:00 PASSWORD—Game Celebrities: Orson Bean, Nancy Ames. Host: Allen Ludden. A Gemini space flight progress report is scheduled at 1:25 P.M. 1:30 HOUSE PARTY Guests: Alma Day (Doris Day’s mother), Gloria Tracy 2:00 TO TELL THE TRUTH Panelists: Jack Carter, Dina Merrill, Phyllis Newman, Cliff Robertson. Host: Bud Collyer 2:25 NEWS—Douglas Edwards 2:30 EDGE OF NIGHT 3:00 SECRET STORM 3:30 MOVIE—Drama “Missiles from Hell” (English; 1959) 5:30 WOODY WOODPECKER Evening 6:00 NEWS 6:30 NEWS—Harry Reasoner 7:00 DETECTIVES—Police 7:30 MUNSTERS—Comedy 8:00 PERRY MASON 9:00 HAVE GUN—WILL TRAVEL 9:30 HAZEL—Comedy COLOR 10:00 DEFENDERS—Drama 11:00 NEWS 11:15 JOHNNY CARSON COLOR 11:30 GEMINI SPACE FLIGHT—Report SPECIAL Frank McGee Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show” resumes at 11:45 P.M. 11:45 JOHNNY CARSON—Variety COLOR
-9- KQED (SAN FRANCISCO-OAKLAND) (EDUC.) Afternoon 3:00 KQED AUCTION SPECIAL Day 4 5:00 KQED AUCTION—Continued Evening 7:00 KQED AUCTION—Continued 9:00 KQED AUCTION—Continued 11:00 KQED AUCTION—Continued
10 KXTV (SACRAMENTO) (CBS) Morning 4:00 GEMINI SPACE FLIGHT—Cape Kennedy SPECIAL Walter Cronkite and Mike Wallace Regularly scheduled programs will be pre-empted. 9:00 TO BE ANNOUNCED 11:00 LOVE OF LIFE 11:25 NEWS 11:30 SEARCH FOR TOMORROW—Serial 11:45 GUIDING LIGHT—Serial Afternoon 12:00 NEWS 12:30 AS THE WORLD TURNS—Serial 1:00 PASSWORD—Game Celebrities: Orson Bean, Nancy Ames. Host: Allen Ludden. A Gemini space flight progress report is scheduled at 1:25 P.M. 1:30 HOUSE PARTY Guests: Alma Day (Doris Day’s mother), Gloria Tracy 2:00 TO TELL THE TRUTH Panelists: Jack Carter, Dina Merrill, Phyllis Newman, Cliff Robertson. Host: Bud Collyer 2:25 NEWS—Douglas Edwards 2:30 EDGE OF NIGHT 3:00 SECRET STORM 3:30 DOBIE GILLIS—Comedy 4:00 GEMINI SPACE FLIGHT—Report SPECIAL 4:05 MIKE DOUGLAS—Variety Co-host: Patrice Munsel. Guests: Al Kelly, the Highwaymen 5:30 LLOYD THAXTON—Music Guests: Dino Martin, Desi Arnaz Jr. and Billy Hinsche Evening 6:30 NEWS—Harry Reasoner 7:00 NEWS 7:30 MUNSTERS—Comedy 8:00 PERRY MASON 9:00 PASSWORD—Game Celebrities: Barry Sullivan, June Lockhart. Host: Allen Ludden. A Gemini space flight progress report is scheduled at 9:25 P.M. 9:30 CELEBRITY GAME Panelists: Robert Mitchum, Douglas Fairbanks, Anne Baxter, June Allyson, Allan Sherman, Jan Murray, Janis Paige, Jack Jones, Donna Loren. Moderator: Carl Reiner 10:00 DEFENDERS—Drama 11:00 NEWS 11:15 GEMINI SPACE FLIGHT—Report SPECIAL Walter Cronkite 11:30 MOVIE—Drama “Hold Back the Dawn” (1941)
11 KNTV (SAN JOSE) (ABC) Morning 4:00 GEMINI SPACE FLIGHT—Cape Kennedy SPECIAL Jules Bergman Regularly scheduled programs are pre-empted for coverage of the Gemini launch. 9:00 HOCUS POCUS—Children 9:30 BUCKAROO 500—Buck Weaver 9:45 HOCUS POCUS—Children 10:00 GIRL TALK—Panel Panelists include Hermione Gingold, Molly Bee 10:30 PEOPLE’S CHOICE—Comedy 11:00 REBUS—Game 11:30 TO BE ANNOUNCED Afternoon 12:00 DONNA REED—Comedy 12:30 FATHER KNOWS BEST 1:00 BINGO—Game 1:30 AFTERNOON—Jess and Lu 2:00 FLAME IN THE WIND 2:30 DAY IN COURT 2:55 NEWS—Marlene Sanders 3:00 GENERAL HOSPITAL 3:30 YOUNG MARRIEDS 4:00 TRAILMASTER 5:00 LEAVE IT TO BEAVER—Comedy 5:30 RIFLEMAN—Western Evening 6:00 NEWS 6:30 NAKED CITY—Police 7:30 JONNY QUEST—Cartoon COLOR 8:00 DONNA REED—Comedy 8:30 MY THREE SONS 9:00 BEWITCHED 9:30 PEYTON PLACE 10:00 JIMMY DEAN—Variety Guests: Henny Youngman, Johnny Tillotson, Vikki Carr 11:00 NEWS 11:15 GEMINI SPACE FLIGHT—Report SPECIAL Peter Jennings 11:30 MOVIE—Comedy “No Time for Sergeants” (1958)
12 KHSL (CHICO) (CBS) Morning 4:00 GEMINI SPACE FLIGHT—Cape Kennedy SPECIAL Walter Cronkite and Mike Wallace Regularly scheduled programs will be pre-empted. 9:00 TO BE ANNOUNCED 11:00 LOVE OF LIFE 11:25 NEWS 11:30 SEARCH FOR TOMORROW—Serial 11:45 GUIDING LIGHT—Serial Afternoon 12:00 OUR MISS BROOKS—Comedy 12:30 AS THE WORLD TURNS—Serial 1:00 PASSWORD—Game Celebrities: Orson Bean, Nancy Ames. Host: Allen Ludden. A Gemini space flight progress report is scheduled at 1:25 P.M. 1:30 HOUSE PARTY Guests: Alma Day (Doris Day’s mother), Gloria Tracy 2:00 TO TELL THE TRUTH Panelists: Jack Carter, Dina Merrill, Phyllis Newman, Cliff Robertson. Host: Bud Collyer 2:25 NEWS—Douglas Edwards 2:30 EDGE OF NIGHT 3:00 SECRET STORM 3:30 JACK BENNY—Comedy 4:00 GEMINI SPACE FLIGHT—Report SPECIAL 4:05 MOVIE—Drama “The Guilt of Janet Ames” (1947) 5:30 HAVE GUN—WILL TRAVEL Evening 6:00 NEWS 6:30 NEWS—Harry Reasoner 7:00 M SQUAD—Police 7:30 MUNSTERS—Comedy 8:00 PERRY MASON 9:00 PASSWORD—Game Celebrities: Barry Sullivan, June Lockhart. Host: Allen Ludden. A Gemini space flight progress report is scheduled at 9:25 P.M. 9:30 CELEBRITY GAME Panelists: Robert Mitchum, Douglas Fairbanks, Anne Baxter, June Allyson, Allan Sherman, Jan Murray, Janis Paige, Jack Jones, Donna Loren. Moderator: Carl Reiner 10:00 DEFENDERS—Drama 11:00 NEWS 11:15 GEMINI SPACE FLIGHT—Report SPECIAL Walter Cronkite 11:30 MOVIE—Comedy “Holiday” (1938)
13 KOVR (SACRAMENTO) (ABC) Morning 4:00 GEMINI SPACE FLIGHT—Cape Kennedy SPECIAL Jules Bergman Regularly scheduled programs are pre-empted for coverage of the Gemini launch. 9:00 TO BE ANNOUNCED 9:50 TOM FLYNN—Interviews 10:00 FATHER KNOWS BEST—Comedy 10:30 DONNA REED—Comedy 11:00 REBUS—Game 11:30 TO BE ANNOUNCED Afternoon 12:00 NEWS 12:15 TODAY IN AGRICULTURE 12:30 MOVIE—Drama “Ride the High Iron” (1957) 2:00 FLAME IN THE WIND 2:30 DAY IN COURT 2:55 NEWS—Marlene Sanders 3:00 GENERAL HOSPITAL 3:30 YOUNG MARRIEDS 4:00 TRAILMASTER 5:00 CAP’N DELTA—Children 5:30 WOODY WOODPECKER Evening 6:00 NEWS 6:30 WELLS FARGO—Western 7:00 HAVE GUN—WILL TRAVEL 7:30 JONNY QUEST—Cartoon COLOR 8:00 DONNA REED—Comedy 8:30 MY THREE SONS 9:00 BEWITCHED 9:30 PEYTON PLACE 10:00 JIMMY DEAN—Variety Guests: Henny Youngman, Johnny Tillotson, Vikki Carr 11:00 NEWS 11:30 MOVIE—Melodrama “See Naples and Die” (Italian; 1951) N. Cal. TV Debut. 1:00 NEWS
TV
May 27, 2023
This week in TV Guide: May 29, 1965
Let's give top billing this week to one of the most under-appreciated actors in television, Dick York. As Edith Efron points out in the story's intro, there's a pile of press clippings in an executive office of Screen Gems. It has to do with one of the studio's new hits, Bewitched, a show "that has a good part of the Nation in a tizzy," and the pile of clippings weighs about 10 pounds, "And the subject of every article is the witch herself—with a few kind words about her witch mother. The advertising-man husband is almost never mentioned."The "witch" is, of course, Elizabeth Montgomery, and her mother is Agnes Moorehead. York's friends and colleagues are indignant about his press invisibility; producer Danny Arnold calls the critics "shallow" and points out that without York for Montgomery to bounce her character off of, "nobody would care. He supplies the motive for everything she does." Adds Moorehead, "Dick plays a very important part. Ignoring Dick isn’t constructive criticism. It’s absurd." And Montgomery says that "anyone who watches him work appreciates his talent."
York is philosophical about it all. "The two witches," he says, "are by far more spectacular than I am. I’m just a human being. And I’m identified by the critics as being just like themselves. I, too, am watching the witch from the sidelines." He then adds, in a disconcerting prophesy, "{T]the only way to tell if it’s me or not is to kill me off in one show, give the witch another husband and see if I’m missed."
York's entire career has been, as Efron puts it, "steady if nonamazing." He's worked in theater, radio, and television, and has worked with the best, including Elia Kazan and Stanley Kramer, all of whom agree that he is a very good actor. But York is without the passion that drives so many in the profession; "I don't work because I love it," he allows. "In our household, work is something Daddy sdoes to provide us with things we need for our physical comforts." His great passion is his wife Joan and their five children, about whom he talks endlessly. He writes short stories, he paints, he sculpts, he studies religion. And, although the article makes no mention of it, he's in almost constant pain as a result of the back injury that will eventually force him to leave the show.Dick York describes himself as "a man who's looking for something. He's still looking for a self." Even today, when considering his signature role of Darrin Stephens, he's often identified as "Darrin #1." And that's too bad, because not only is a fine actor, he also sounds like a fine man.
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During the 60s, the Ed Sullivan Show and The Hollywood Palace were the premiere variety shows on television. Whenever they appear in TV Guide together, we'll match them up and see who has the best lineup.Sullivan: Scheduled guests: musical-comedy star Anthony Newley, who will sing numbers from his Broadway musical "The Roar of the Greasepaint—The Smell of the Crowd"; comedian Bert Lahr doing his "Woodman, Spare That Tree" routine; singers Connie Frances and Wayne Newton; comic Jackie Vernon; the comedy team of Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara; monologist Morty Gunty; the De Mille aerialists; and comedian Pat Henning. .
Palace: Hostess Kate Smith welcomes satirist Mort Sahl; singer Trini Lopez; silent comic Ben Blue; the Juan Carlos Copes dance troupe from Argentina; harmonica-player Stan Fisher; Desmond and Marks, English comedy dancers; and the Karlini and Jupiter dog act.
A couple of good lineups on tap this week; it's hard to go wrong with Kate Smith, especially when she's singing "God Bless America" (which she will), and Mort Sahl probably has as much to satirize as he ever does. I think it comes in second, though; Anthony Newley has several hits in "Roar of the Greasepaint," including " Who Can I Turn To? " and Bert Lahr's "Woodman" route is a classic. ( Here it is from an early episode of Omnibus.) The rest of the lineup isn't bad either, so on that basis Sullivan wins the week.
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Throughout the 60s and early 70s, TV Guide's weekly reviews were written by the witty and acerbic Cleveland Amory. Whenever we get the chance, we'll look at Cleve's latest take on the shows of the era. Weep not, Hollywood Palace fans, for though you may not have won this week's battle with Sullivan, you have won Cleveland Amory's vote. "We admire Ed Sullivan for doing his show live, but the fact is ABC’s Palace, on tape, seems more alive." It also doesn't hurt that a few times a year, you're going to get Bing Crosby as the host. "To say that Bing is the best somehow seems not enough. At singing, acting, or just being himself, name your best—and Bing is better."
Cleve speaks highly of all the hosts, in fact, a long and distinguished list that includes Burl Ives, Pat Boone, Eddie Fisher, Victor Borge, Robert Goulet, and Debbie Reynolds—and, "you won't believe this," even Debbie was good. He particularly liked the show we looked at a few weeks ago, in which Louis Armstrong was honored for 50 years in show business; in particular, the closing "Old Man Time," which Satchmo sang with Jimmy Durante, was wonderful. Bette Davis was another standout, both in performing (a song-soliloquy) and in introducoing guests like dancer Barrie Chase and Nerveless Nocks, the amazing high-pole act. ("This is one time, with no net, when we thoroughly appreciated the fact the show's on tape—they couldn’t have fallen.")
The show's first anniversary celebration—hosted by Bing, of course—was "one of the fastest-moving, most pleasant variety hours we have seen all season," Amory recalls. And, in one of the great compliments any critic can pay any performer, he recounts the old jokes and tireless cliches that Crosby trots out in a vaudeville spoof with Frank McHugh and Beverly Garland. ("I have a dog named Ginger." "Does Ginger bark?" "No, Ginger snaps.") "Somehow," Cleve notes, "when Bing does it, it’s not only different, it’s great." It could be said for The Hollywood Palace as well; the lyrics to an old song go, "Until you’ve played the Palace, you haven't played the top," and when Cleveland Amory says that about you, then you know it's true.
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Big doing in the manned space program this week, as Gemini IV—the second two-man American capsule—is scheduled to launch this Thursday, with James McDivitt and Edward White the astronauts. Gemini IV is important for a number of reasons: not only will this be the longest American flight, at four days, it will include the first American spacewalk, with White scheduled to take the 20-minute walk during the first day. Coverage begins Tuesday night when Chet Huntley and David Brinkley preempt the drama anthology Cloak of Mystery (a series of reruns from G.E. Theater and Alcoa Presents) to preview the mission, including interviews with crew members and key NASA personnel. (9:00 p.m. PT) Similar reports air on Wednesday, anchored by Walter Cronkite (8:00 p.m., CBS) and Jules Bergman (ABC Scope, 10:30 p.m.) Launch day coverage begins at 4:00 a.m. Pacific time, with Chet and David (NBC), Cronkite and Mike Wallace (CBS), and Bergman (ABC); the coverage continues until 9:00 or 9:30 a.m., with updates continuing throughout the day; ABC plans one-minute evening bulletins on the hour, NBC with similar updates prior to every show, and CBS with a five-minute report at 9:25 p.m. All three networks have 15-minute reports scheduled at 11:15 p.m. The same schedule is planned for Friday evening, and presumably continue throughout the weekend, until splashdown Monday morning.
The Gemini IV mission proves to be a complete success. Not only is it a crucial next step in the lunar program, it matches Soviet achievements, sending the Russkies a message that the U.S. is in it to win it.
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It's a rare occasion when Lawrence Welk takes a week off from his own show, but he's absent from Saturday's broadcast (8:30 p.m., ABC). The reason: he's back in his home state of North Dakota, receiving an honorary degree from North Dakota State; I'm sure Myren Floren can man the show just fine in the maestro's absence. The Music Makers pay tribute with "My North Dakota Home," which I confess I'm not familiar with despite having spent a half-century living next door to it.
Sunday afternoon, CBS airs the American debut of Martin's Lie (4:00 p.m.), the one-act opera by Gian-Carlo Menotti about a young boy who must choose between telling the truth and saving a man's life. It was originally scheduled for a primetime debut in January, but was pushed back to today. The director is Kirk Browning, who worked with NBC Opera Company for many years prior; it's also the first collaboration between the network and Menotti, who broke up with NBC acromoniously after the final production of Amahl and the Night Visitors.
Back in the 1960s, before the Uniform Monday Holiday Act that created so many three-day weekends, Memorial Day was May 30. That falls on Sunday in 1965, so everything's been moved to Monday, including National Golf Day, the day when the U.S. Open champion plays the PGA champion for $10,000. More important, the winning score sets the target for amateur golfers across the country, who have had two weeks to submit their best handicap score in competition with today’s winner. (In 1964, 4,751 amateurs received PGA certificates by beating Jack Nicklaus’s 67.) Live coverage from the Laurel Valley Country Club in Ligonier, PA begins at 2:00 p.m. on NBC; PGA champ Bobby Nichols will edge U.S. Open titelist Ken Venturi by one stroke, shooting a two-over-par 73. Just for the fun of it, I Googled "National Golf Day" to see if it's still around. It is, but it's a little different now: it's a day for leading organizations and industry leaders to educate (i.e. lobby) Congressional members on golf's impact.The movie highlight of the week is the Spencer Tracy classic Bad Day at Black Rock (Wednesday, 9:00 p.m., NBC), with an outstanding supporting cast including Robert Ryan, Anne Francis, Dean Jagger, Walter Brennan, Ernest Borgnine, and Lee Marvin. It's perhaps my favorite Tracy movie; if the title leads you to expect a Western, you'll be in for a surprise.
Rounding out the rest, the great Ethel Merman makes a rare dramatic non-singing appearance in the Kraft Suspense Theatre presentation "Twixt the Cup and the Lip" (Thursday, 10:00 p.m., NBC), the story of a timid man (Larry Blyden) who schemes for revenge after being fired from his job; the Merm plays the owner of the boarding house in which he lives.
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We've talked before about cross-promotions where the stars of a show on one network appear as guests of a show on another network. One of the more unusual examples happens this week on The Match Game (Tuesday through Friday, 2:30 p.m., NBC), where the celebrity guests this week are baseball's Joe Garagiola and Whitey Ford. Garagiola works for NBC as a co-host on Today, while Ford is in the final seasons of his great career as a pitcher for the New York Yankees—and that technically makes him an employee of the Yankees' owner, CBS. The network purchased the perennial champions (14 of the last 16 American League pennants) last year, and as Melvin Durslag reports, it's been anything but smooth going. The presumption has been that CBS purchased the Yankees in an effort to control baseball on television; right now, the Yanks are one of only two teams exempt from ABC's national baseball contract due to previous commitments (the Philadelphia Phillies are the other); William MacPhail, Yankees VP, says the network hasn't yet decided if they'll join the TV package next year. He also denies CBS had anything to do with the firing of manager Yogi Berra and long-time announcer Mel Allen; those decisions were made "before we bought the club." And the team is under threat from their crosstown rivals, the hapless New York Mets, who outdrew the Yankees by 400,000 fans last year; the network is still assessing how to compete with the Mets.CBS's ownership of the Yankees falls far short of expectations. The team fails to win the pennant in 1965, and the next year finishes the season in last place for the first time since the sinking of the Titanic. Their greatest stars, including Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Elston Howard, and Ford, either retire or are traded away. Perhaps most embarrassing is the World Series victory for the Amazin' Mets in 1969. While the seeds of the next great Yankees teams are planted through shrewd drafts and trades, and the team makes a deal with the city to remodel Yankee Stadium, CBS sells the team to a group led by George Steinbrenner in 1973*, saying that the network had concluded "that perhaps it was not as viable for the network to own the Yankees as for some people."
*They bought the team for $11.2 million, sold it for $10 million. Not one of the network's better deals.
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The young (19) Liza Minnelli is this week's fashion plate, and as you can see, even though we haven't reached peak-60s style yet, the color palate is definitely changing. Layouts like this are as good an indication of cultural trends as anything in TV Guide.
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MST3K alert:
Killers From Space
. (1942) Flying over a bomb-test area, a scientist notices a strange light. Peter Graves, Barbara Bestar, James Seay. (Saturday, 6:00 p.m., KSWB, Salinas) Another presentation on MST3K's sister, Rifftrax. Peter Graves was in a lot of movies like this back in his pre-Mission: Impossible days. The description means nothing without mention of the bug-eyed monsters, though (created from cut-in-half ping-pong balls). And don't forget that Peter Graves graduated from the University of Minnesota. . . TV
May 26, 2023
Around the dial
This week I'm starting with an extended quote from my friend John at Cult TV Blog, who makes a point that I think is worth repeatng. There is something spectacularly contrary about the cult TV world. The TV stations wipe all their shows (for Reasons) thinking that we won't ever want to watch them again and we spend decades on the internet locating reel to reel off-air recordings and wipe-shaming the BBC into remaking the shows that they made in the first place. We damn well WILL see those shows again even if it's on an odd reel that somehow made its way to Cape Town—it's almost as if the cult TV world *prefers* TV which has been wiped.
He goes on to point out how missing episodes of Doctor Who have been reconstructed, and missing episodes of The Avengers are recreated through the Big Finish audios. I'm sure that if more of this would happen (especially in the United States), at some point, television networks would find they've spent more money on recreations than it would have cost to preserve the shows in the first place. Very interesting! Anyway, the prompt for this meditation is Hancock's Half Hour , a series from 1959 that's benefitted from the desire to put things back the way they were.
At Comfort TV, David has a very nice mention of yours truly and the blog as a preface to an essay that really cuts to the heart of what comfort TV is and why it's so important these days. It is a nice compliment to his most recent book, When Television Brought Us Together (and if you don't have this book, why?), and it reminds us that no matter what else happens, our memories are one thing they can't take away from us.
The Broadcasting Archives links to A Word from Our Sponsor for a terrific series of graphics on the general topic, " What is the future of television? " I've linked to the first one, but be sure to click on the home page and look at them all—you'll thank me for it.
And from Garroway at Large, the news we've been waiting for these last few years: Jodie's book Peace: The Wide, Wide World of Dave Garroway, Television's Original Master Communicator is now a reality! We talked about this way back in 2017 , and I couldn't be prouder of her!
At Silver Scenes, a link to an article at ReMind magazine on iconic TV houses that are now being demolished . Which leads me back to David's piece earlier—pretty soon, it seems as if all we will be left with are memories. That's why all of us feel it's important to keep the institutional memory of classic TV alive. If we won't do it, who will?
If you read Wednesday's piece, you'll know that I've been adding a fair number of British programs to our viewing schedule, but Cult TV Lounge looks at one that I haven't yet seen: The Professionals , the late 1970s show that provides a very violent (and prophetic?) look at a counter-terrorist squad that pretty much makes its own law.
Martin Grams has a new book out: Maverick: A History of the Television Series , written with Linda Alexander and Steven Thompson. I'll be getting back to that series before too long, but if the book is as spectacular as the picture on the cover, then it ought to be a winner.
At Shadow & Substance, Paul looks at a less-than-memorable episode of The Twilight Zone: the third season comedy " Cavender is Coming ," which starred Carol Burnett and was originally intended as a pilot. Serling wasn't happy with it, and penned an elegant apology to Carol, along with a promise that if he got a second chance (which he didn't), he'd make it up to her.
On the occasion of Leslie Uggams's 80th birthday, Travalanche flashes back to her 1969 variety series The Leslie Uggams Show , a quick fill-in for the cancelled Smothers Brothers, and takes a look at her career and influence.
It's time for another look at The Avengers at The View from the Junkyard, and this week Roger and Mike compare notes on " Two's a Crowd ," a fourth-season episode that, as Roger says, is something unusual at this point in the series: "a straight-up spy story."
Speaking of The Avengers, here's a nifty site that you should definitely check out: Alan Hayes's The Avengers Declassified . It's a very good looking site, and the information in it is even better! If you're a fan of Steed and Mrs. Peel (or Mrs. Gale, or Tara King, or David Keel, or Venus Smith), you're going to want to spend a lot of time here. And if you're not a fan, who should be!
Finally, I know that some of you don't read the Saturday material until Monday, so for those of you in the United States, have a safe and restful Memorial Day, and remember what the day is all about. TV
May 24, 2023
What I've been watching: special British edition
Shows I’ve Watched:Shows I've Added:The Man in Room 17One Step BeyondMaigretPublic EyeMan of the World
When last we visited this feature, you'll recall, I was recovering from a
crisis of confidence
in my ability to successfully pick TV shows to watch. There were consequences to be dealt with after the fact, though; one doesn't come through an ordeal like that without leaving some scar tissue. My decision to temporarily shelve Alfred Hitchcock Presents left a four-night hole in our television viewing, and there was still some apprehension on my part about choosing the replacement. Rather than play it safe, I decided to go for broke; not one, but four shows would take Hitchcock's place: furthermore, all of them would be an hour in length, and to top it off, they were all British series from the early-to mid-1960s. I'm happy to report that these changes have made for a mostt satisfying result to the TV crisis, so let's take a look at this latest version of Britian's Fab Four.
Michael Aldrich (left) and Richard VernonFor Monday night, I chose The Man in Room 17, a quirky 1965-67 mystery series from Granada TV, starring Richard Vernon and Michael Aldridge as, respectively, Edwin Oldenshaw and Ian Dimmock*, criminologists working for the British Department of Social Research in the top-secret Room 17 (a room so secure it has a double-door entrance; nobody can enter without being let in). Their job is to assist the authorities in solving difficult cases, often involving sensitive political or diplomatic issues. The gimmick: they never leave Room 17; instead, they solve the cases through intuition and research, issuing instructions to various contacts (official and otherwise) after a thorough analysis of the situation.*Due to illness, Michael Aldrige is replaced in the second season by Denholm Elliot as the similarly-monogrammed Imlac Defraits; the reason for this obsession with initials will be explained in due course.
Oldenshaw and Dimmock undertake their assignments (provided they choose to accept them) with rapid-fire erudition and caustic wit, as well as total distain for their internal liaison, the bumptious and easily flustered Sir Geoffrey Norton (Willoughby Goddard). As one critic puts it, "Giving them orders would be an exercise in futility since they’d only ignore them anyway." When we come upon them, they're invariably engaged either in drinking tea, reading the newspaper, or playing the board game Go (the show's opening credits utilize the game's black and white stones as the motif). Each assignment is treated as an irritating intrusion, but they soon become wrapped up in the outcome—not so much because they want to defeat their adversary, but rather to prove they were right all along.
Some viewers might find the duo a little hard to take at times, with their air of condescension and superiority; Oldenshaw, in particular, can be acidly cynical about the government's involvement in these situations in the first place. They don't strike me that way, though; they're quirky, original characters, that you'll warm to, and their cases never fail to interest us—even when they don't interest them.
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I consider myself fortunate to have found Rupert Davies's version of Maigret for Tuesday nights. Many actors have assumed the role of Georges Simenon's famous French police detective, including Michael Gambon and Rowan Atkinson, and while Gambon's excellent interpretation is probably the best-known, but for my money the definitive interpretation belongs to Davies, who played Maigret for four seasons between 1960 and 1963; among those who share my opinion is Simenon himself, who, upon meeting Davies for the first time, shouted, "At last, I have found the perfect Maigret!"The exterior scenes in Maigret were filmed on location in Paris, lending an appropriate touch given that all of the actors are clearly British and make no attempt whatsoever to suggest any kind of French accents (a trait shared by all other British versions of the series*). That can be disconcerting at first, especially since French terms—monsieur and mademoiselle, oui, merci, patron (boss)—are sprinkled throughout the series. It doesn't take long, however, to get into the swing of things, thanks to well-written stories, an excellent supporting cast (Neville Jason and Victor Lucas as Maigret's colleagues, and Helen Shingler as his loving wife), and the performance of Davies himself.
*By contrast, if Maigret was adapted for American televsion, they'd simply relocate the series to New York or Los Angeles, change everyone's name, and lose all of the charm in the process.
As Maigret, Davies infuses the character with shrewdness and intuition, a world-weariness offset by wry good humor, and a blunt, direct style of questioning; he has a particular ability to put himself in place of the victim and see where it leads him, and a determination to get there. Unlike, say, Oldenshaw and Dimmock, he also projects a warmth and humanity unusual in most serious police dramas. He can be tough when necessary, and isn't above slapping around someone who deserves it, but it's so unexpected when it happens that it underscores Maigret's dedication to finding the truth. He's honest, loyal to his colleagues, and devoted to his wife. The cases are always interesting and the outcomes not always predictable, but the real pleasure is in watching Maigret solve them—and it is a real pleasure.
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Not all private detectives are as suave as Peter Gunn, as tough as Mike Hammer, or as ready with a quip as Richard Diamond. Some of them are just hard workers, like Frank Marker, the title character of Public Eye, which aired on ABC Weekend TV and Thames Television from 1965 to 1975, and runs on Wednesday nights for me. As played by Alfred Burke, Marker is the prototypical private detective: a loner, cynical and world-weary, working out of a shabby, cramped office, taking on whatever cases come his way. Public Eye makes clear that the business of being an "enquiry agent" is hardly glamorous; there are no car chases, no shootouts, no romances with beautiful, mysterious clients, and very few flying fists; his cases range from divorce actions to missing persons, what we're left with is Marker wearing out shoe leather, assuming various identities in order to ask lots of questions, and arriving at what is often an ambivalent conclusion to the case. In the case of the missing girl, nothing really changes at the end: Marker tracks her to an organized crime gang, where she has become a high-priced prostitute. She refuses his offer of help, thinking she has the leverage to take care of herself. She doesn't, of course, but she only finds this out too late, by which time Marker himself has been threatened off the case, forcing him to relocate from London to Birmingham. By the end of the third season, when Marker is betrayed by his client and winds up in prison after being convicted of receiving stolen property. The fourth season begins with him being released on parole, and having to accustom himself to life outside prison, his relationship with his landlady, and return to investigating.
Public Eye's long and successful run, and its status as a much-loved show of the past, can be attributed to the partnership of creator/writer Roger Marshall, and the performance of Burke. Burke is excellent in his portrayal of a three-dimensional, low-key hero who brings a sense of dignity to a quest for justice that often remains unfulfilled; while Marshall's stories are often downbeat and thought-provoking, frequently failing to provide neat and clean solutions to scenarios that don't wrap themselves up nicely at the end of the hour. Working together, the two give us a look at the moody, atmospheric world of England in the 1960s and 1970s, a world where the truth is elusive and there are no easy answers
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Speaking as we were of Peter Gunn, two of the men who made that series so memorable—Craig Stevens and Henry Mancini—reunite for Man of the World, the 1962-63 ITC drama that provides a perfect conclusion to this quartet of programs. Stevens is charming, smooth, and in control—in short, everything you'd expect him to be—as Michael Strait, a world-famous American photojournalist who travels around the world on his boat, covering stories big and small, accompanied by his lovely and resourceful assistant Maggie MacFarland (Tracy Reed), who's become quite used to her boss's duties bringing him out from behind the camera lens. Throw in Mancini's elegant opening theme, and you're all set for an hour of globetrotting glamour and adventure.You wouldn't necessarily think that beng a photographer would be so dramatic, not to mention dangerous (it's a lot safer operating a studio in a busy storefront), but Strait obviously thrives on it, often taking on assignments for intelligence agencies in locales such as West Berlin, Vietnam, and Cuba, using his photographic skills to provide cover for obtaining information on various threats to the free world. And when he's not involved in high-stakes geopolitics, he's dealing with millionaire clients, mysterious heiresses, and ruthless killers. I guess it does beat working for a portrait studio. One early episode, "The Sentimental Agent," serves as a backdoor pilot for the later series of the same name, starring Carlos Thompson as an import-export agent who, for the right prices, is willing to undertake assignments as far removed from his business as, well, photography is for Strait. In this case, he's recruited by Maggie to rescue Strait from a Cuban prison after Michael's been caught taking pictures of the wrong person. Does he succeed? C'mon, it's only the sixth episode; what do you think?
If you think Man of the World sounds as if it bears a passing resemblance to shows like The Saint and The Baron, you're absolutely correct. It also comes from an era when Lew Grade, the head of ITC, was convinced that casting an American star was the way to crack the U.S. market, a la The Avengers and The Saint. It didn't work, which is why this series might not be familiar to more of you. And while it doesn't have the dash and success that the latter two series had, it's certainly a pleasant way to spend an hour. Best of all, it won't leave you second-guessing your viewing choices—like some series we could name. TV
May 22, 2023
What's on TV? Friday, May 27, 1955
We're back in the Big Apple this week, and fortunately there's a baseball game to keep us occupied. It's not just any game though; it's the bitter National League rivals, the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants, from the Polo Grounds (7:55 p.m., WPIX). You'll note that the game is proceeded by the pregame show with actress Laraine Day, and if you're wondering when she switched over to a sports host, it's because she's married to Giants manager Leo Durocher. In other family matters, Margaret Truman sits in for Edward R. Murrow on Person to Person (10:30 p.m., CBS), and her guests are: her parents, former President Truman and Bess. Talk about a cushy assignment! And the Thomas Dodd guesting on People's Lobby (7:00 p.m., WNHC) is the father of future U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd, who would go on to be the head of the Motion Picture Association of Amerca. See if you can find any other favorites from this week!-2- WCBS (NEW YORK CITY) (CBS) MORNING 6:45 Previews 6:55 Give Us This Day 7:00 Morning Show—Jack Paar Guest: Burl Ives 8:55 Memo—Margaret Arlen 9:00 George Skinner—Variety 10:00 Garry Moore—Variety 11:30 Strike It Rich—Quiz AFTERNOON 12:00 Valiant Lady—Serial 12:15 Love of Life—Serial 12:30 Search for Tomorrow 12:45 Guiding Light—Serial 1:00 The Inner Flame—Serial 1:15 Road of Life—Serial 1:30 Welcome Travelers 2:00 Robert Q. Lewis—Variety 2:30 Linkletter’s House Party Guest: Rafael Mendez 3:00 The Big Payoff—Quiz 3:30 Bob Crosby—Music 4:00 Brighter Day—Serial 4:15 Secret Storm—Serial 4:30 On Your Account—Quiz 5:00 Barker Bill’s Cartoons 5:15 MOVIE—Drama “The Fighting Stallion” (1950) EVENING 6:00 News—Robert Trout 6:05 Feature—Bill Leonard 6:10 Sports—Jim McKay 6:15 MOVIE—Adventure Early Show: “The Shark God” (1949) 7:25 WEATHER—Carol Reed 7:30 NEWS—Douglas Edwards 7:45 PERRY COMO—Music 8:00 MAMA—Peggy Wood 8:30 TOPPER—Comedy 9:00 PLAYHOUSE OF STARS “The Argonauts” 9:30 OUR MISS BROOKS 10:00 THE LINE-UP—Drama 10:30 PERSON TO PERSON Guest host: Margaret Truman. Guests: President and Mrs. Truman 11:00 Late News—Ron Cochran 11:10 Weather and Sports 11:15 MOVIE—Comedy Late Show: “Laxdale Hall” (English; 1954) NY TV debut. 12:30 MOVIE—Mystery Late Late Show: “Roaring City” (1951) Time approximate
-4- WRCA (NEW YORK CITY) (NBC) MORNING 6:55 Daily Sermonette 7:00 Today—Dave Garroway Guest: Tennessee Williams 8:55 Herb Sheldon—Kids 10:00 Ding Dong School—Kids 10:30 Way of the World 10:45 Sheilah Graham 11:00 Home—Women’s News AFTERNOON 12:00 Tennessee Ernie-_Variety 12:30 Feather Your Nest—Quiz 1:00 Norman Brokenshire Show 1:30 News—Kenneth Banghart 1:35 Brokenshire—Continued 2:00 Beauty Advice—Willis 2:30 Jinx Falkenburg’s Diary 3:00 Ted Mack—Variety 3:30 The Greatest Gift 3:45 Miss Marlowe—Serial 4:00 Hawkins Falls—Serial 4:15 First Love—Serial 4:30 The World of Mr. Sweeney 4:30 Modern Romances 5:00 Pinky Lee—Kids 5:30 Howdy Doody—Kids EVENING 6:00 Sheldon at Six—Kids 6:30 Sky’s the Limit—Games 6:45 News—John Wingate Weather—Tex Antoine 7:00 SCIENCE FICTION THEATER “The Brain of John Emerson” 7:30 EDDIE FISHER—Songs 7:45 NEWS—John C. Swayze 8:00 MIDWESTERN HAYRIDE 8:30 LIFE OF RILEY—Comedy 9:00 BIG STORY—Drama 9:30 DEAR PHOEBE—Comedy 10:00 BOXING—Garden Carmelo Costa vs. Lulu Perez 10:45 SPORTS—Red Barber 11:00 News—John McCaffery 11:10 Weather—Tex Antoine 11:15 Steve Allen—Variety 11:30 Tonight—Steve Allen Guest: Art Tatum 1:00 MOVIE—Adventure “Drums,” part 4
-5- WABD (NEW YORK CITY) (Du Mont) MORNING 11:15 News—Jay Sims 11:30 Wendy Barrie Show AFTERNOON 12:00 Funny Bunny—Kids 12:30 Food for Thought—Graham 1:00 Glamour Secrets—Mann 1:30 News—Don Russell 1:45 All About Baby—Ruth Crowley 2:00 Maggi McNellis—Women 2:30 Letter to Lee Graham 3:00 Film Drama “Ward of the Golden Gage” 3:30 Film Drama “A Kiss for Aunt Sophie” 4:00 MOVIE—Crime “Guilty Bystander” (1950) 5:30 The Old-Timer—Kids EVENING 6:00 Magic Cottage—Pat Meilke 6:30 Ames Brothers—Songs 6:45 Looney Tunes—Cartoons 7:00 MOVIE—Western 7:25 WEATHER—Janet Tyler 7:30 LIFE WITH ELIZABETH 8:00 SECRET FILE USA—Drama 8:30 COUNTERPOINT—Drama 9:00 MR. AND MRS. NORTH 9:30 CITY ASSIGNMENT—Drama 10:00 CHANCE OF A LIFETIME 10:30 TO BE ANNOUNCED 11:00 News—Don Russell 11:10 Featurama
-7- WABC (NEW YORK CITY) (ABC) MORNING 8:00 Tinker’s Work Shop—Kids 9:00 Film Drama “Night Train to Danger” 9:30 Film Drama “Unfinished Business” 9:55 News—George H. Combs 10:00 Road of Romance 11:00 The Romper Room—Kids AFTERNOON 12:00 Time for Fun—Kids 12:30 Entertainment—Variety Guests: Ada Moore, Lee Goodman, L’Apache 3:00 Romantic Interlude “Adventure in Java” 3:30 Memory Lane—Franklin 4:00 Hopalong Cassidy 5:15 Tales of the Traveler EVENING 6:00 Files of Jeffrey Jones 6:30 Film Drama “The Letters” 6:45 Sports Review 6:50 News—Don Goddard 6:55 Weather—Scotty Scott 7:00 KUKLA, FRAN & OLLIE 7:15 NEWS—John Daly 7:30 RIN TIN TIN—Drama 8:00 OZZIE & HARRIET 8:30 RAY BOLGER—Comedy 9:00 DOLLAR A SECOND 9:30 THE VISE—Drama 10:00 I LED THREE LIVES 10:30 MR. DISTRICT ATTORNEY 11:00 Film Drama “The Sermon of the Gun” 11:30 Weather—Scotty Scott 11:35 Late Sports Review 11:45 News—George H Combs
8 WNHC (NEW HAVEN) (ABC, CBS, NBC, Du Mont) MORNING 7:00 Today—Dave Garroway Guest: Tennessee Williams 9:00 Yankee Peddlers—Nielsens 10:00 Ding Dong School—Kids 10:30 Way of the World 10:45 Sheilah Graham 11:00 Shopping Hints—Malgren 11:30 Strike It Rich—Quiz AFTERNOON 12:00 Bob Crosby—Music 12:15 Love of Life—Serial 12:30 Search for Tomorrow 12:45 The Bontempis—Variety 1:00 Public Service Film 1:30 Welcome Travelers 2:00 Industry on Parade 2:15 Robert Q. Lewis—Variety 2:30 Guiding Light—Serial 2:45 News—Joe Burns 3:00 The Big Payoff—Quiz 3:30 The Greatest Gift 3:45 Miss Marlowe—Serial 4:00 Hawkins Falls—Serial 4:15 Secret Storm—Serial 4:30 On Your Account—Quiz 5:00 Outdoor Adventure Club 5:30 Howdy Doody—Kids EVENING 6:00 Stage 8—Drama “You’re Only Young Once” 6:30 Sportscope—Syd Jaffe 6:40 Weather Report 6:45 News Report 7:00 PEOPLE’S LOBBY—Goade Guest: Rep. Thomas Dodd (D-Conn.) 7:15 SPORTS SPOTLIGHT 7:30 EDDIE FISHER—Songs 7:45 NEWS—John C. Swayze 8:00 MAMA—Peggy Wood 8:30 LIFE OF RILEY—Comedy 9:00 BIG STORY—Drama 9:30 DEAR PHOEBE—Comedy 10:00 BOXING—Garden Carmelo Costa vs. Lulu Perez 10:30 SPORTS DESK—Jaffe 11:00 I Led Three Lives—Drama 11:30 Badge 714—Jack Webb 12:00 MOVIE—War Drama “Gung Ho!” 1:00 News Report
-9- WOR (NEW YORK CITY) (Ind.) AFTERNOON 1:30 MOVIE—Comedy “The Cure for Love” 3:00 Ted Steele—Variety 5:00 Teen Bandstand—Steele EVENING 6:00 Merry Mailman—Kids 6:45 News—Lyle Van 6:55 Sports—Jack O’Reilly 7:00 A MAN’S WORLD 7:30 MOVIE—Melodrama Million Dollar Movie: “Park Row” (1952) 9:00 BADGE 714—Jack Webb 9:30 INNER SANCTUM 10:00 MOVIE—Melodrama Million Dollar Movie: “Park Row” (1952) 11:30 MOVIE—Mystery “The Straw Man” (1953)
11 WPIX (NEW YORK CITY) (Ind.) AFTERNOON 12:00 New York Calendar 12:15 Travel Film 12:45 What’s Your Trouble? 1:00 Big Picture—Army Film 1:30 Picture Parade 2:00 MOVIE—Western “South of the Rio Grande” 3:00 MOVIE—Drama “The Golden Gloves Story” (1950) 4:30 Dione Lucas—Cooking 5:00 Cartoon Comics 5:30 Clubhouse Gang Comedies EVENING 6:00 Ramar of the Jungle 6:30 Liberace—Music 7:00 NEWS—Kevin Kennedy 7:10 WEATHER—Joe Bolton 7:15 NEWS—John Tillman 7:25 SPORTS—Jimmy Powers 7:30 BIG PLAY BACK—Powers 7:45 LARAINE DAY—Sports 7:55 BASEBALL—Giants Brooklyn Dodgers at New York Giants 10:40 FRANKIE FRISCH SHOW 10:50 NEWS—John Tillman 10:55 WEATHER—Joe Bolton 11:00 Liberace—Music 11:30 MOVIE—Mystery “Solution by Phone” (English; 1954)
13 WATV (NEW YORK CITY) (Ind.) MORNING 8:58 TV Pastor—Religion 9:00 Casa Serena—Comedy 9:30 MOVIE—Italian 11:00 Musical Moments 11:15 Aldo Aldi—Variety AFTERNOON 12:00 News Report 12:05 Report to Parents 12:30 Shop, Look, Cook—Bean 1:00 MOVIE—To Be Announced 2:00 MOVIE—War Drama “Against the Wind” (English; 1948) 3:30 Comedy Corner 4:00 MOVIE—Western 5:00 Junior Frolics—Fred Sayles 5:45 Fun Time—Kids EVENING 6:00 MOVIE—Western “Sombrero Kid” 7:00 BARRY GARY—Comment 7:15 SPORTS OF THE DAY 7:45 VEDA ROBERTS—Songs 8:00 HOUSE DETECTIVE 8:30 WRESTLING—Laurel Gardens 11:00 MOVIE—Mystery “The Mandarin Mystery”
43 WICC (BRIDGEPORT) (ABC, Du Mont) EVENING 6:35 News Report 6:45 Family Rosary—Religion 7:00 TELE-COMICS—Kids 7:15 NEWS—John Daly 7:30 RIN TIN TIN—Drama 8:00 OZZIE & HARRIET 8:30 RAY BOLGER—Comedy 9:00 DOLLAR A SECOND 9:30 THE VISE—Drama 10:00 THIS IS THE LIFE
TV
May 20, 2023
This week in TV Guide: May 21, 1955
This week's "Back in the Day" item: live television covearge of an atom bomb blast. It was called "Operation Q," the involvement of an NBC-CBS pooled crew of 95 technicians, engineers, announcers and photographers in Yucca Flat, Nevada*, for the planned detonation of an atomic bomb. The plan brought such media luminaries as Charles Collingwood, Dave Garroway, Walter Cronkite, John Cameron Swayze, Morgan Beatty, Sarah Churchill, and John Daly from New York to the frigid (28 degrees) site for an event that was to become "the highest rated show never to go on the air."
*Yes, the same Yucca Flat as in the immortal MST3K movie The Beast of Yucca Flats.
Collingwood (CBS) and Garroway (NBC) were there for their networks' respective morning shows, with the plan of showing not only the blast itself, but the instant reactions from those hunched in a trench less than two miles (!) from the 500-foot steel tower holding the bomb. The technicians had arrived five days ahead of the scheduled April 26 date to set up their equipment, including seven cameras and a microwave route to Las Vegas, from which the picture would be transmitted via cable to Los Angeles. Only one problem with this carefully planned scenario: it doesn't happen. Apparently even the prospect of nuclear war is dependent on things being glitch-free, and Operation Q was far from that. The test was plagued with postponment after postponment, with each one causting the networks $5,000 per day, in addition to the original $80,000 setup cost. Finally, after the seventh postponment, the networks pulled the plug on the planned coverage; everyone headed home, leaving just one camera crew behind to cover the event, which finally came off on May 5.
You're probably quite familiar with this atomic bomb test; you've seen it many times, even if you weren't aware of it. This was the test in which the military built a replica town in Yucca Flat, complete with "furnished homes, industrial buildings, and clothed mannequins." The journalists covering the test called it "Doom Town," (I can see why that wasn't included in the TV Guide story.) The film of the explosion and its effect on the town have been a standard part of nuclear blast warnings ever since, and even after all these years pictures of it never fail to shock:
Life magazine did an extensive layout of the effecs of the test on Doom Town, which you can see here . It's sobering, to say the least. It's also quite understandable that television would want to cover something like it; it was yet another example of the awesome power made availabe by science, and being unleashed by man. True, you could have seen it in a newsreel in your local theater, but the idea of bringing this into one's home to share with viewers—well, I suppose it was meant to be both frightening and reassuring at the same time. (Send a message to those Russkies, you know.) I'm not quite sure what today's equivalent would be.
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It would be nice if I had something clever to follow up with here, something like a story about the biggest television bombs of the year, but I'm afraid the best I can do is another story on the effect violent (but non-atomic) television has on children, this one by Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver. Kefauver, who previously garnered headlines for his investingation into organized crime, is now looking at juvenile deliquency, and while TV has been helpful in calling attention to this situation, there's still work to be done.
Understand, Kefauver is not a critic of television in the way that so many others are in the 1950s. Indeed, the medium has been very kind to him; television coverage of his committee's hearings on organized crime was a hit, catapulting him to national prominence (his victory in the 1952 New Hamphsire presidential primary encouraged President Harry Truman to drop out of the race), and the publicity for his deliquency hearings promises to keep him in the headlines. Personally, Kefauver and his family enjoy television, with practical restrictions. "In my family, there is one rule for all four of my children. They must do their homework before they are permitted to watch TV. Then they may watch till bedtime." The youngest aren't allowed to watch programs with violence, but his older kids (9 and 13) can watch whatever they want. "There are travelogs, historical shows, programs of news and current events. Generally speaking, television does a fine job." This wouldn't be much of a story if all the news was good, though, and Kefauver insists that, for the recent progress television has made, there's still too much violence being portrayed. There are other effects that concern him as well; to those who claim that police shows like Dragnet teach kids that crime doesn't pay, Kefauver counters that it can send a mixed message. "The boy, in the training school for a relatively minor infraction, sometimes sits up and comments, 'Hey, I didn’t do anything nearly as bad as that and the law sent me here for even longer.' So those programs teach some boys they can commit lots worse offenses and pay no heavier penalty."
He also thinks that, while censorship is wrong, the government should be stronger in creating overall standards, and that stations violating the voluntary Code of Good Practice should be reported to the FCC. "It should be evidence to be considered at license renewal time." He also believes that too many producers of filmed shows subscribe to the Code, and that one answer might be for the industry to form a board of review, similar to that in existence for movies, which can issue a seal of approval for shows that comply with its guidelines.
I don't know; it sometimes gets tiresome looking at these stories on TV and violence. They come up so regularly, and after an initial flurry of activity nothing really seems to change. And ten years from now, in the mid-60s, we'll be talking about what effect Saturday mornng superhero cartoons have on kids. But it's a sign of the culture, of how important this issue seems to people, that it keeps coming up.
There's also something interesting about Kefauver and television; as I mentioned earlier, he was one of the first politicians to realize the potential for TV to expand the reach of candidates for high office. As in 1952, he's one of the front-runners for the Democratic presidential nomination again in 1956, again losing out to Adlai Stevenson. But when Stevenson leaves the choice of running mate up to convention delegates, he engages in a spirited contest wth young Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy, another advocate for the power of television in politics, with Kefauver eventually winning out. Had he chosen to run a third time, he would have been one of the favorites, and again would have cla(Sunday, 6:30 p.m., CBS)shed with Kennedy; he decides against it, though. Ironically, he dies in 1963—just as Kennedy does.
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Ah, you ask—but what's actually on TV this week?
Remember You Are There, the program that recounted historical events as if they were being covered on television? It started on radio in 1947, where it continued until 1950, and then moved to television in 1953, and ran until 1957, with Walter Cronkite as host. (There was also a brief revival as a Saturday morning show in 1971.) This week, Cronkite and crew cover the sinking of the Titanic (Sunday, 6:30 p.m., CBS). Now, as you know, I've always been fascinated by
related to the Titanic
, so you'd expect me to bring this up, right? For good measure,
here's the link to the broadcast
. Not quite as spectacular, perhaps, as Kraft Television Theatre's live production of A Night to Remember the following year, but it will certainly do.Keeping with the nautical theme, Ed Sullivan and his guests salute Armed Forces Week onboard the USS Wisconsin on Toast of the Town (8:00 p.m., CBS); Ed's guests include balladeer Burl Ives (who's currently in the Tennessee Williams play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof *) with the Arizona Boys Choir; Carol Haney, a star in The Pajama Game; comedian Jack E. Leonard; singer June Valli; British comedian Richard Hearne; jugglers The Balladinis; and the Marines drill team, along with the band of the Wisconsin. Ed's competition is Promenade (7:30 p.m., NBC), a Max Liebman color review, hosted by Tyrone Power, with actresses Judy Holliday, Barbara Baxley, and Janet Blair; dancers Bambi Linn and Rod Alexander; singers Kay Starr and Jack Russell; and comedian Herb Shriner. Who do you give the edge to there?
*Ironically, the movie version, which Ives is also in, comes out in 1958, the same year as The Big Country, for which Burl wins a Best Supporting Actor Oscar; good year for him.
On Monday, Today (7:00 a.m., NBC) continues a series of reports on the upcoming British parlimentary elections, to be held on Thursday, with Edwin Newman in London. Edward R. Murrow is also in London for the elections, and he'll be presenting his report on See It Now (Tuesday, 10:30 p.m., CBS) The contenders are the current Prime Minister, Anthony Eden, and Labour leader (and former Prime Minister) Clement Attlee. You can tell the hightened interest in the elections here in the United States; Winston Churchill, America's favorite prime minister, had retired just the previous month, with his successor, Eden, calling a snap election to obtain a mandate. He gets it, as the Conservativs win a 60 seat majority; Eden himself will resign less than two years later following the Suez debacle. See how much history you can learn here?
Walt Disney shows us what he does best on this week's Disneyland (would that Disney would do that today), with a preview of the upcoming animated movie Lady and the Tramp, feauting ◀Peggy Lee recording several of the voices she does for the movie. (Wednesday, 7:30 p,m., ABC). There's also a montage of cartoons featuring Pluto, celebrating his 24th year in movies. Meanwhile, on Kraft Television Theatre (9:00 p.m., NBC), we get a look at the early pre-Bewitched career of Dick York, who plays a rookie major league pitcher in "Million Dollar Rookie." Burl Ives is back on TV Friday morning as Jack Paar's guest on The Morning Show (7:00 a.m., CBS), and again, he's described as a balladeer—the thesaurus must not have been at arm's length this week. (No mention of his acting career, though.) Today (7:00 a.m., NBC) presents a roundup of the British elections, as I imagine the other news programs will also. And in non-British politics, Margaret Truman guest hosts for Murrow on Person to Person (10:30 p.m., CBS); you can read more about that in my Monday piece.
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And now, away we go with Gleason's million-dollar baby, Audrey Meadows, profiled by Kathy Pedell.
The Great One recently signed a contract with his sponsor and with CBS that amounts to $11,000,000, and for playing Ralph Kramden's long-suffering wife Alice, Audrey gets approximately one-eleventh of that—in other words, a cool million. It hasn't changed her that much, though; she bought a few good things ("I didn't feel too guilty when I bought my (first) mink stole"), and bought a new bedspread and some drapes for the three-room apartment that she used to share with her sister, Jayne, before Jayne married Steve Allen; Audrey says she's planning to stay there. But in case the temptation gets too strong, most of her cash was tied up by her lawyer brothers in investments; she admits she had more spending money when she was earning $75 a week.
Who says they're not a couple of dolls?The two sisters, who have a close relationship in a business that's been known to drive wedges between celebrity siblings, have "Audrey" and "Jayne" dolls hitting the market this summer, they're also doing some recording and endorsing products. It's best not to take things for granted, Audrey says; "You may be in favor for three years—or 10—and then you may be out."Getting the Gleason gig wasn't particularly straightforward; "[H]e had never seen me act, he had never heard of me, except from my manager. He didn’t know if I could act." And when her manager first suggested Audrey to Gleason, he vetoed her on the grounds that she was too pretty. "Alice has gotta be a mess," he said. Whereupon she brought in some photographers for a candid session. "My hair was uncombed, I wore my oldest clothes, a torn apron and no make-up. Then I stood in the kitchen and fried eggs. I looked awful. Even the eggs didn't look edible." When Gleason saw the pictures, and confirmed that it was Audrey, he said, "Any girl who would let herself be seen like that for a job deserves it."
Oh, and those lawyer brothers that Pedell mentioned at the outset? Well, as it turns out, brother Edward inserted a clause into that contract with Gleason providing that, should the Honeymooners episodes ever be rebroadcast, Audrey would receive a payment for them. Over time, she earned millions of dollars in residuals from the "Classic 39." She would be the only cast member to do so; only when the "lost" episodes were later released would anyone else receive them. Sometimes, it pays to have your brothers look after you.
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It might only interest me—I mean, let's face it, that's what this blog is all about—but I enjoyed this brief articles showing us what goes into putting on the WCBS Late News, anchored by Ron Cochran.
It's a different era for news broadcating. There are no computers, no satellite hookups, no video cameras allowing for live remote broadcasts. The remote footage is comprised of film which has to be brought back to the station, developed, and edited before it can be shown. There's nothing fancy about the WCBS News Department, a cramped space located on the top floor of the Grand Central Station Annex, "an aged combination of sprawling, corridor-like rooms and tiny, closet-like offices" filled with teletype machines, cameras and projectors, typewriters, writers and newsmen. There's a constant rush of people back and forth, loud, chaotic. Cochran, who arrives at his office at 5:00 p.m., is the picture of calm, a man "who never raises his voice, or lowers his tie." He will be in the eye of the storm until he goes on the air.It begins with a review of the early newspapers and wire services. At 6:30 p.m. there's a brief break for dinner, and then watching the 7:30 Douglas Edwards national news for a look at the news film. The top eight or ten stories are selected and given to the editor. The latest news film is screened; there's this description: "Cut out shots of mother crying over body of son, killed by car. Cut interview with cop; too funny for this tragedy." Not using the crying mother film shows a sensitivity that seems so alien to the "if it bleeds, it leads" culture, and I'd like to know what that cop interview was like.
The stories are divided up and work commences on the script. There are worries that the film needed for two stories won't be available until 10 p.m.; it arrives at 9:27, a triumph for everyone. The first run-through is at 10:05; the show runs 30 seconds too long. A story is cut, the teleprompter is edited, the cues in the script are changed. An additional story is added at 10:20, "just in case we run short." Cochran heads to the studio for makeup at 10:27. Camera cues are reviewed. Twenty minutes before airtime, a story requires updating; it's too late to change the teleprompter copy so Cochran will have to read the story from the script.
Finally, at 11 p.m., it's airtime. The theme runs, the announcer makes the intro, Cochran begins. Cues fly from the control room. Film is inserted into the broadcast. Cochran receives updates on timing. Fifteen minutes later, after the last story runs; "That's the news. Good night, all." It's 11:15 p.m, time for The Late Show.
Do you think Ted Baxter could have handled it all?
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Last but not least, the shape of things to come, from the TV Teletype: "A long-time top-rated Los Angeles show, LAWRENCE WELK and his "champagne music," makes its network bow Sunday, July 2, on ABC." It remains in first-run, in one form or another, until 1982, and in reruns forever after. TV
May 19, 2023
Around the dial
Whenever we'd go to Chicago, we'd always include in our stops a trip to the Museum of Broadcast Communications, one of my favorite museums. The Broadcast Archives has the story of how the
MBC has been forced out of its home
; hopefully, this won't be the end of the line for them. At Classic Film & TV Cafe, Rick shares seven things to know about The Jimmy Stewart Show , the 1971-72 comedy that marked the star's first foray into series television. As was the case with so many 1970s series fronted by major movie stars, the show lasted a single season, so here's your chance to learn more about it.
The Hitchcock Project continues at bare-bones e-zine, with Jack beginning his look at the teleplays of Halsted Welles. This week's episode, from the show's fourth season, is " The Dusty Drawer ," a revenge story starring Dick York and Philip Coolidge. Not one of my favorites, but Jack's writeup, as always, is spot-on.
Keeping with the Hitchcockian theme, The Last Drive In series on the leading ladies of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour returns with some fine work by Betty Field, Teresa Wright, Kim Hunter, Margaret Leighton, and Juanita Moore. Stand by for extensive episode descriptions and pictures galore!
At The Horn Section, Hal is back in F Troop land with the season one episode " A Fort's Best Friend is Not a Mother ," and the mother in question is Captain Parmenter's own. How do O'Rourke and Agarn get the Captain out of this jam and preserve the good thing they've got going with O'Rourke Enterprises? Don't worry; they're up for the challenge.
Hammer House of Horror is always good for a chill or two, and at Realweegiemidget, Gill takes us through the chilling " Children of the New Moon ," with a terrific performance by British film star Diana Dors as the "far too helpful and friendly" woman we always know we should be wary of.
One of the things I always appreciated about Columbo was that the show didn't skimp on big stars in supporting parts—not just the killer, but smaller roles as well. This week, at Once Upon a Screen, Aurora focuses on those murderers, with five movie stars turned Columbo killers . Not that they actually killed Columbo—you get the point.
Cult TV Blog makes a rare trip across the Atlantic as John reviews the Kojak episode " The Chinatown Murders ," a terrific two-hour episode in which Theo Kojak has to deal with a Mafia war in Chinatown, including plenty of twists and turns.
One of the more interesting aspects of domestic sitcoms is the architecture of the family home. While most of them were similar in construction, Terence looks at a couple of exceptions at A Shroud of Thoughts: the homes seen in The Real McCoys and Dobie Gillis. Find out what makes these homes unusual .
Speaking of Dobie Gillis, at Travalanche, Trav looks at the many shows of its star, Dwayne Hickman . Thanks to the aforementioned Horn Section, we know Dwayne from Love That Bob as well as Dobie, but you'll be able to see a long list of credits here.
And where would we be without a look at The Avengers, a show which is about to reappear on our personal weekly viewing schedule. At The View from the Junkyard, Roger and Mike take turns on the sci-fi flavored " Man-Eater of Surrey Green ," with Steed and Mrs. Peel battling man-eating plants.
There—that should give you all something to chew on, so to speak. TV
May 17, 2023
The Descent into Hell: "They" (1970)
Left to right: Gary Merrill, Cornelia Otis Skinner, Joseph Wiseman, Carmen Mathews, and Jack Gilford
W
e’re viewing a documentary being shown to us in the present time—that is, 1990. The presenter (Linda Decoff), an icy young woman speaking with the cold precision of one totally convinced of the truth of her words, explains that what we are about to see is based on "an old-style written report" describing "an outmoded culture." The purpose of the presentation is to counteract the rising influence of this "report," which is being spread by the underground press, especially effecting "those now reaching 40." It is important to counteract this propaganda now, before it can destabilize the new society and the technological rationality that has made it what it is today; before it can lead to the return of love, compassion, and similar feelings—feelings that cannot be permitted to rise again under the appearance of "humanity."
What follows is the story They don’t want you to see.
I
It begins in a beachfront house in a deserted area somewhere on the Northeastern coast of the United States. It serves as the home for five artists: Barney (Gary Merrill), the oldest of the five, the painter; his wife Annie (Carmen Mathews*), the group’s earth mother, a giver rather than a taker; Joey (Jack Gifford), the popular musical-comedy songwriter; Joseph Wiseman, the orchestra conductor; and Kate (Cornelia Otis Skinner), the novelist who has kept the written record of their time in exile—the "report" of the documentary.*Maureen O’Sullivan was originally cast in this role, but was forced to bow out due to illness and was replaced by Mathews, a distinguished actress in her own right.
It has been twenty years since They came into power, the rebellious and computerized youth, the "now" generation. Taking advantage of violence and racial unrest in the major cities, of continued military adventures in Vietnam and elsewhere, of the private gain triumphing over the public need, "They finally got themselves together in a unified national organization and started to draw plans for the takeover at the next elections." For it was not a putsch, not a revolution, but an electoral victory that They had won. And after that, the new laws meant to facilitate the institution of the new society.
The old, They had determined, were the most resistant to the progress They had proposed. The young blamed them for these problems—but then, since they had already cut themselves off from their parents, how could they know many of them had opposed all this as well? And so, since the old were the most resistant to the progress They were proposing, a new constitution was put into effect. The newly created Age Agency instituted a mandatory retirement age of 50; those beyond that age were to be isolated from the young, including their own families, and from life in general.
"We were permitted to live either in a community or in our own houses," Kate remembers, "provided that these houses were isolated from urban centers and concentrations of the young, and reasonably close to computerized service centers especially set up to provide the needs of the old, specifically food and medical attention for minor afflictions." They will remain here, with no radio, no television, no means of transportation except to bring groceries home: a small electric car (!) with a maximum speed of twenty-five miles an hour and a range dictated by the amount of batteries.
It’s not forever, though, for as the old were seen as "a drain on society," they would be subject to periodic computerized medical examinations, until they become seriously ill or reach the age of 65, whichever occurs first, when they are given a choice: self-disposal or compulsory liquidation, they called it. "It was very liberal of Them," comments Kate, "considering that every year of our useless lives was costing them that much more money and administration needed for the new exiles. The computer saw to that, as it saw to everything."
By now, an apparent majority have given up, their shock and denial giving way to numbness and then acceptance, a macabre version of the stages of grief. They wanted "none of the complications of the outside world," and accepted the idea of "easeful death," as it was euphemistically called, helped by an unlimited supply of drugs, cigarettes, and booze which They had provided, in hopes that they would bring about their own demise.
But not these longtime friends, who have lived here in isolation, defiant members of that "outmoded culture" that They rebelled against. The ramshackle old house had been a summer place for Kate and her husband Jeff before They had taken over, but then Jeff had committed suicide by walking into the tide. The others had been allowed to join Kate in exile, given their prominence in the arts—a magnanimous gesture, it would seem, but then it simply afforded more space in the camps for others. Practical, you know.
There is solace in their being together, in sharing their exile, their memories, their pain, their values. They engage in activities to keep them mentally and physically engaged, sense-sharpening games such as Blind Day, Deaf Day, and One-Arm Day. Barney works in his garden, Joey and Lev play the piano, Annie spends her time in the kitchen, and Kate documents their discussions. But mostly they spend their time talking. Discussing the heritage of the past. Preparing a manifesto of sorts, a statement of ideals. All of which Kate faithfully transcribes, best as she can, in case there is anyone out there who might someday see and read it (if anyone reads anymore), to find out what their "outmoded culture" was all about.
And they talk about how it all started, each through their own experiences. For Barney, it was the beginning of the modern art movement: "The junkmen and fakers who call themselves artists had no humility. They said, ‘Don’t paint what you see; paint what you feel. . . Back to your navels, boys, and yourselves!’ "According to Joey, "It was hearing my songs used as commercial jingles to sell cars or soft drinks, it was the dirty lyrics sung by dirty bums, it was going to a show that was made of four-letter words and repulsive people and then reading next day how great it was, how ‘significant.’ It was a lot of rank amateurs making it overnight."
For Lev it was the rise of the "barbarians" and their atonal music, filled with tape and weird noises, what he calls "electronic masturbations." "I really liked some of their songs, until they amplified them to the point of insanity . . . the rape of the ear. . . before songs became grunts." It’s a total depersonalization of art, of feeling, of human warmth.
("Individual and subjective criticism in all the arts has been supplanted by our infallible computer value scales," our presenter reminds us.)
Kate remembers how They took over the universities: "They first demanded the right to determine what was to be taught, and then who should teach them." They were "hostile and incoherent, contemptuous of law, using force (as the only tool of the spiritually illiterate), screaming against the counter-force they brought on them—every instinct in us froze." It was a totalitarian breed, one that showed no mercy.
Annie recalls the moment that she first became afraid of the young, tough and hard and dirty-mouthed. "Were our beliefs and convictions so alien to them? They blocked out the past so they could move ahead."
"Of course," Lev replies disdainfully, "because only the present exists for them, they are the children of Now."
Joey recalls a young painter saying, "For this generation, history is about ten seconds ago."
"We should have known," Kate remembers, "long before They actually took over that something of the sort was going to happen, but people never really believe anything until it does happen."
And then one day they come upon a young man (Robert McLane) washed up on the shore, thin, bearded, with long, scraggly hair. He’s near death when they find him; they revive him, but find that he can neither read, write, or speak. They decide to call him Michael.
II
Robert McLane (seated) with (L-R)Cornelia Otis Skinner, Gary Merrill,
and Joseph Wiseman"We were told daily that mind—logic, reason—meant nothing and that only sensation counted," Kate remembers. "Words were of no importance, except to the intellectual arbiters who used them to tell us this." And yet words are all they have, and so they continue to use them.
As time passes, the rest find themselves using Michael as a surrogate audience, finding that they speculate about him when he is around, and talk about him when he is not. They still don’t know where he came from, or how he got there: an escapee from a youth camp’ a refugee from the cities’ perhaps someone from outer space, maybe even an angel of death. (So inexplicable is his appearance, even the last two seem plausible.) Because his association with them would be against all the isolation rules that They set up, the others are careful to hide him when the patrols come by.
He helps Barney in the garden, and Barney says the boy seems to have an aptitude for drawing—he’s particularly given to doing line drawings of a television set—but is it something he learned, something he’s observed, or is it something instinctive? But does he understand what they are saying to him? And even if he does, do their words, the testimony they are giving, mean anything to him? But he seems comforted to be in their presence.Their discussions continue. What’s the state of the world today? They are convinced that the divisions into which the country had fractured had grown wider, more numerous, more deadly: Black/White, Right/Left, Reds/Us, Rich/Poor, Old/Young, Man/Woman. There’s no doubt that They felt let down by the older generation, blamed them, held them in contempt, demeaned them, stripped them of their worth, ignored their existence. To Barney, it’s even worse than hate. "Most of the time we didn’t exist, we were dead before we died!" The barbarian code, Lev puts it; do unto others as they have done unto you." They’re left to debate what they call Articles of their belief, a kind of last testament even though they’re not sure anyone will ever read it. But even there, it becomes more and more difficult to say what any of it means anymore.
Although this situation was never going to approach anything like permanence, the truth of the impending end becomes ever more apparent, ever more real. The physical and mental exercises which the group have for so long undertaken to maintain their energy and defiance-- Blind Day, Deaf Day—have gradually, one by one, dropped by the wayside. Finally, a day comes, as we knew from the beginning it must. Barney’s declining health—his harsh cough, his difficulty speaking, his increasing frailness—has become impossible to ignore; Annie is terrified it’s cancer, and none of the others are foolish enough to try and talk her out of it. It will be impossible for him to pass his next physical, and that means an automatic sentence of death. It hurts her too much for her to watch him suffer any more; she’s convinced that any moment the truck from the Age Agency will be there to take him away.
The implications of this are clear for everyone. Barney’s time was limited anyway; he was the oldest of the group. The others, except for Annie (who has no desire to go on living without Barney) are under no immediate obligation; they still have some time left, and no matter what anyone says in the abstract, when the time comes, nobody really wants to die. However, they have always resolved that when it was time, they’d all go together; they’ve been together for too long, and waiting for Them to come and do the job would be an admission of defeat. They latch on the method of delivery: drugged whiskey, "Pills and liquor."
The final night becomes part wake, part elegy. Kate sums it up for the rest when they discuss the kind of message they want to leave if They ever read it. "That you fight for your humanity and dignity. That you refuse to be bent, folded, spindled, or mutilated by any machine. That you perceive and love the nature of the universe inside and outside of yourself." They say their toasts and drink their poison—and then, as they had wished, after they have lost consciousness Michael sets fire to the house and flees with the manuscript, delivering it to the underground. He had understood after all.
But—there’s one last tragic scene, one final ironic act. Because there could be no winner it a story like this, and how else could it end? For as They grew older ("deprived of their past," Mannes writes, "and fearful of their future."), They began to realize that Their laws, sooner or later, would apply to Them as well.
Thus, whether through enlightenment or self-preservation, the government had been toppled a few weeks before the final farewell, and the laws regarding age had been repealed.
III
"They," based on Marya Mannes’ controversial 1968 novel (and adapted by Mannes and Charles LeMay), originally aired on the Public Broadcasting Service’s NET Playhouse on April 17, 1970 as the final episode in an eight-part sub-series of plays titled "A Generation of Leaves," dealing with what was popularity known at the time as the Generation Gap. Jac Vanza, executive producer of NET Playhouse, described the central theme of all eight episodes as "the seemingly world-wide breach between youth and elders." "The younger generation questions its inheritance," said Vanza, "the older generation questions the values of the younger generation and herein lies the communications gap. Which is, by the way, nothing new."Mannes’ didactic story of a man-made post-apocalyptic society is both simple and complex, and despite what some might thing, it defies pigeonholing into an easy category. For despite the similarities one might see with today’s cancel culture and the virulent fascism of many of today’s youth, this is not a one-sided conservative screed against the left. (After all, remember that the Patriot Act and the Department of Homeland Security were both products of a Republican administration.)
Mannes*, who described herself as a "liberal social critic" and was in agreement with many of the young in their attitudes toward the war, abortion, women’s rights, and other benchmarks of the left, denied that "They" should be seen as inherently anti-youth. "I am violently against the concept of a generation gap," she told one interviewer. "It is a losing game—everybody loses."
*Mannes should be no strager to readers here; she was a frequent contributor to TV Guide in the 1960s, observing the culural scene with a sharp eye and even sharper tongue.
Indeed, Mannes approaches the story as a woman of the left, the old left, believing in discussion and debate and the free exchange of ideals and ideas. "What upsets me the most is the assumption that the world started in 1970, that there was nothing before," she said. "That one generation, they young, have a monopoly on religion, truth, courage. . . I think they’ve made it hard for themselves by deliberately antagonizing all others except themselves, by making of themselves a self-conscious, almost conformist power group. They talk about love a great deal, and it’s true among themselves, but they have very little love or tolerance not only to those older but to those who don’t go along with them."
Writing in The New York Times, Mannes shared her experience adapting her novel for the screen. "I was prepared to snip, inject, remove, amputate, drain and transfuse wherever necessary, anesthetizing myself rather than the patient when the pain began. What—cut that brilliant scene, that moving dialogue, that lovely appendix?" Not surprisingly, it is in the novel that we get the full effect of Mannes’ opinions on many of these issues. Not all of them have to do directly with the story, but they provide insight into her thoughts on contemporary issues.
For instance, she has nothing but distain for the dehumanization effects from the rise of computers and Artificial Intelligence: "The machines were part of the takeover, for they had invaded every function of daily life. We were told, of course, that the machine was still the servant of the man: that what you put into it determined what came out of it. And the simple fact was that when the programmers, in their new, special, and to us, totally incomprehensible language, fed their machines the plethora of data available on the old, out came the one recurrent and irrefutable answer: dispensable."
She also mocks the efforts of the old to be "with-it": "Older men, once handsome and secure in their gray or receding hair, dyed it or bought themselves toupees. Older women hiked their skirts above their knobby knees and had silicone pumped into their breasts or faces. To dress (unless they were rich enough to command their style) they were forced to dress like dolls because no clothes were made for women. The word had become obsolete: it implied maturity." "Our sin, she concludes, "was age."
Several times Mannes returns to the idea of the new generation as "barbarians": "Barbarians are essentially people without a past or a future, living entirely for the gratification of their immediate desires. They’re an aggressor, against language, sex, nature, love, art, life. The barbarian is a violator: the agent of violence." She adds, however, that none of this could have been possible with those in the older generation. "Don’t forget that a lot of this sort of crap was pushed on the public by people old enough to know better. Don’t blame Them if Their mini-talents were blown up out of all proportion. The cultural elite was so goddamn scared of missing the boat they’d ride on junk."
And in perhaps the most pertinent, most timeless comment of them all; one that could be applied to contemporary issues—forced equality, fraudulent egalitarianism, demanding an equality of results rather than opportunity, the culture of victimhood—she reminds us that "Democracy cannot survive without individual responsibility, and equality has never existed in the first place. Certain people are better than others and always will be, and it is only the barbarians who do not know this."
IV
The Who hoped to die before they got old. Mick Jagger called getting old a drag. Jack Weinberg warned us not to trust anyone over 30. They’re all well over that mark by now, though.Although "They" is set in the near future (20 years from the date the novel was written), it is—unlike so many dystopian stories—most assuredly not science fiction. The setting, the clothes, the language, are all very much of our time; the few futuristic elements—whether technological (like computers and AI) or cultural, were already in the works by 1968, and Mannes’ predictions for their use in the future are disconcertingly on-target. Perhaps most disturbing is the idea that They came to power not through a revolution or a nuclear post-apocalyptic society, but from—an election. No, despite some surface similarities, I don’t think you can compare "They" to something like, say, Logan’s Run.
One of the most interesting aspects of "They" is the lack of religion. Mannes doesn’t make a big issue of this, other than to mention that none of these people saw themselves as "religious." There’s no discussion of any stand by religious leaders, any attempt to square the new laws that They create with the axioms of traditional religious faith; it simply isn’t a thing, and it that I suppose she’s presaging not only the advent of today’s millennials, but the lukewarmness of today’s faith. Remember the nearly worldwide shutdown of churches during the Covid lockdown? Remember how quickly so many of today’s religious "leaders" latched on to the mantra of the vaccine? Maybe they found a way to rationalize it all as well.
Nonetheless, Kate’s account, as presented in the novel, concludes on an intriguing note—a note of hope, a plea for help, perhaps born of faith, perhaps simply the need for comforting words. It’s the Libera me ("Deliver me") from the Catholic Office of the Dead. "Deliver me, O Lord, from death eternal on that fearful day/When the heavens and the earth shall be moved/When thou shalt come to judge the world by fire."
V
Reviews of "They" were mostly favorable; Donald Kirkley of the Baltimore Sun pronounced it "a plight to remember," and the Mansfield News-Journal called it an "enchanted visit with a group of veteran characters, played with taste and sensitivity by an eloquent cast of actors." The New York Times described it as "hauntingly effective and heartrending." "The cast was so excellent that it would be unfair to pick out one member over another. [Director Marc] Daniel effortlessly moved his company about the stage and through deft psychedelic electronics achieved the desired quality of eerieness to complement the human element."It appeared to hit home with viewers as well, some of whom were left shaken by what they’d seen. Mary Ann Lee from the Memphis Press-Scimitar reported receiving one letter from a viewer comparing "They" to "a bad dream," and added "Such a world in 1990 would be worse than anything that comparative Pollyanna, H.G. Wells, ever dreamed up."
Percy Shain of the Boston Globe was less enthusiastic, finding that it was "chilling and well put, but failed to provide the dramatic tension necessary for a compelling experience." However, Shain may have inadvertently touched on the real message of the story when he wrote that "the concluding suicides were almost welcome." For in the world which Mannes had constructed, there could have been no other way; the lack of drama itself emphasizes the lack of options—the tragedy.
One critic remarked that "They" "had some telling things to say about the consequences of rudeness in the young and permissiveness by their elders—and about the new outlook that comes to a youthful rebel of 20 when he reaches 40." This is a perceptive comment as far as it goes, but it would seem that Their homicidal madness extends much farther than simple "rudeness."
The most ironic comment, however, came from a critic who commented that, "…if taken to an ultimate, ugly extreme, the society of They would not be impossible. I doubt, however, that even Miss Mannes believes it is probable."
I wouldn’t be so sure about that today. Nowhere in the world They created do we see or hear the word "fascism." It exists, though.
VI
José Ortega y Gasset, the Spanish writer and philosopher, warned in his 1930 book The Revolt of the Masses of the dangers inherent in the rule of a regime very much like the one They established. "As they say in the United States: 'to be different is to be indecent,' he wrote. "The mass crushes beneath it everything that is different, everything that is excellent, individual, qualified and select. Anybody who is not like everybody, who does not think like everybody, runs the risk of being eliminated. And it is clear, of course, that this 'everybody' is not 'everybody.' 'Everybody' was normally the complex unity of the mass and the divergent, specialized minorities. Nowadays, 'everybody' is the mass alone. Here we have the formidable fact of our times, described without any concealment of the brutality of its features.
He also describes the brutality of so many of today's youth, edgy teans turned radical students turned snowflakes, intolerant of any differing opinions, hatred burning in their eyes. "The Fascist and Syndicalist species were characterized by the first appearance of a type of man who 'did not care to give reasons or even to be right', but who was simply resolved to impose his opinions. That was the novelty: the right not to be right, not to be reasonable: 'the reason of unreason.' " Their opinions, of course, are the exception; they are always right. Error, they proudly declare, has no rights.
VII
The fact that 1990 came and passed without Mannes’ predictions coming to fruition—well, that really isn’t important. We’d already come to see the aged as a drain on society long since then, thanks to the breakdown in the family structure and the explosion in retirement communities, where Grandma and Grandpa could be shuffled off without too much thought. We stopped caring about them a long time ago.
As our economies continued to hemorrhage, and our foreign adventures became more frequent and more costly, we looked at how much it cost to take care of those who, if you’re being honest, contribute very little, at least as far as productivity was concerned. Social Security always seemed to be getting in the way of balancing the budget, and it was obvious that healthcare was one of those resources that was simply going to have to be rationed, and we had to make sure, after all, that the most productive members of society could continue to function, in order to create a new society, a pragmatic society, one built to meet the needs and withstand the pressures of a modern world.
Anyway, what about all the stress that people put on the planet, things like climate change and global warming and overpopulation and running out of clean energy alternatives? We hardly had enough food and clean water and land to go around now; how were we going to manage in the future, as the population grew older, unless we did something drastic?
The problem was there were too many parasites around: people who didn’t contribute, people who were, when you came right down to it, were just too expensive to take care of? Of course, we didn’t actually call them that, parasites; it wouldn’t have been polite, and we had to always take pains not to offend; but that’s what they amounted to, in our eyes: they took more and more, and contributed less and less, and it produced a model that was simply unsustainable for the future.
So we talked about things like "Quality of Life," and asked whether, if you couldn’t do the things you did when you were young, your life was really worth living? Therefore, assisted suicide—or euthanasia, as its proponents might prefer—was not only an act of mercy, it was really the only sensible thing for a responsible person, someone who cares about the next generation, to do, n'est-ce pas? A Final Solution, you might even say.
We created the computers that became part of our everyday life, and we dreamed about the day when they could think for themselves; "Artificial Intelligence," we called it. "We were told, of course, that the machine was still the servant of the man: that what you put into it determined what came out of it. And the simple fact was that when the programmers, in their new, special, and to us, totally incomprehensible language, fed their machines the plethora of data available on the old, out came the one recurrent and irrefutable answer: dispensable." And when enough people tell you that, you "become what others believe."
And we created things like lockdowns, where we isolated those that were most vulnerable, the sick and the elderly and the shut-ins, we understood that the deprivation of love, of human contact, would demoralize those who hadn’t already lost hope, would make them feel like outcasts. And we threatened others, those who didn’t follow the rules, with a different kind of isolation, for "the good of society." We knew just how potent that deprivation could be.
So here we are, in 2023. So They were late. Big deal.
At one point Lev remarks, "People do not really want change. They are told by a minority that they must have it, and then a minority fights for it—and the majority are changed."
Maybe, then, we don’t need to wait for Them to take over.
Maybe They already have. TV
My thanks to Maureen Carney and Jodie Peeler for asssistance with images and other background material.
OTHER ENTRIES IN THIS SERIES: 1984 Darkness at Noon Dialogues of the Carmelites The Obsolete Man Murder in the Cathedral Number 12 Looks Just Like You The Children's Story. . . but not just for children Moloch A Taste of Armageddon The Architects of Fear The Brotherhood of the Bell The General The Monsters are Due on Maple Street
The descent into Hell: "They" (1970)
Left to right: Gary Merrill, Cornelia Otis Skinner, Joseph Wiseman, Carmen Mathews, and Jack GilfordW
e’re viewing a documentary being shown to us in the present time—that is, 1990. The presenter (Linda Decoff), an icy young woman speaking with the cold precision of one totally convinced of the truth of her words, explains that what we are about to see is based on "an old-style written report" describing "an outmoded culture." The purpose of the presentation is to counteract the rising influence of this "report," which is being spread by the underground press, especially effecting "those now reaching 40." It is important to counteract this propaganda now, before it can destabilize the new society and the technological rationality that has made it what it is today; before it can lead to the return of love, compassion, and similar feelings—feelings that cannot be permitted to rise again under the appearance of "humanity."
What follows is the story They don’t want you to see.
I
It begins in a beachfront house in a deserted area somewhere on the Northeastern coast of the United States. It serves as the home for five artists: Barney (Gary Merrill), the oldest of the five, the painter; his wife Annie (Carmen Mathews*), the group’s earth mother, a giver rather than a taker; Joey (Jack Gifford), the popular musical-comedy songwriter; Joseph Wiseman, the orchestra conductor; and Kate (Cornelia Otis Skinner), the novelist who has kept the written record of their time in exile—the "report" of the documentary.*Maureen O’Sullivan was originally cast in this role, but was forced to bow out due to illness and was replaced by Mathews, a distinguished actress in her own right.
It has been twenty years since They came into power, the rebellious and computerized youth, the "now" generation. Taking advantage of violence and racial unrest in the major cities, of continued military adventures in Vietnam and elsewhere, of the private gain triumphing over the public need, "They finally got themselves together in a unified national organization and started to draw plans for the takeover at the next elections." For it was not a putsch, not a revolution, but an electoral victory that They had won. And after that, the new laws meant to facilitate the institution of the new society.
The old, They had determined, were the most resistant to the progress They had proposed. The young blamed them for these problems—but then, since they had already cut themselves off from their parents, how could they know many of them had opposed all this as well? And so, since the old were the most resistant to the progress They were proposing, a new constitution was put into effect. The newly created Age Agency instituted a mandatory retirement age of 50; those beyond that age were to be isolated from the young, including their own families, and from life in general.
"We were permitted to live either in a community or in our own houses," Kate remembers, "provided that these houses were isolated from urban centers and concentrations of the young, and reasonably close to computerized service centers especially set up to provide the needs of the old, specifically food and medical attention for minor afflictions." They will remain here, with no radio, no television, no means of transportation except to bring groceries home: a small electric car (!) with a maximum speed of twenty-five miles an hour and a range dictated by the amount of batteries.
It’s not forever, though, for as the old were seen as "a drain on society," they would be subject to periodic computerized medical examinations, until they become seriously ill or reach the age of 65, whichever occurs first, when they are given a choice: self-disposal or compulsory liquidation, they called it. "It was very liberal of Them," comments Kate, "considering that every year of our useless lives was costing them that much more money and administration needed for the new exiles. The computer saw to that, as it saw to everything."
By now, an apparent majority have given up, their shock and denial giving way to numbness and then acceptance, a macabre version of the stages of grief. They wanted "none of the complications of the outside world," and accepted the idea of "easeful death," as it was euphemistically called, helped by an unlimited supply of drugs, cigarettes, and booze which They had provided, in hopes that they would bring about their own demise.
But not these longtime friends, who have lived here in isolation, defiant members of that "outmoded culture" that They rebelled against. The ramshackle old house had been a summer place for Kate and her husband Jeff before They had taken over, but then Jeff had committed suicide by walking into the tide. The others had been allowed to join Kate in exile, given their prominence in the arts—a magnanimous gesture, it would seem, but then it simply afforded more space in the camps for others. Practical, you know.
There is solace in their being together, in sharing their exile, their memories, their pain, their values. They engage in activities to keep them mentally and physically engaged, sense-sharpening games such as Blind Day, Deaf Day, and One-Arm Day. Barney works in his garden, Joey and Lev play the piano, Annie spends her time in the kitchen, and Kate documents their discussions. But mostly they spend their time talking. Discussing the heritage of the past. Preparing a manifesto of sorts, a statement of ideals. All of which Kate faithfully transcribes, best as she can, in case there is anyone out there who might someday see and read it (if anyone reads anymore), to find out what their "outmoded culture" was all about.
And they talk about how it all started, each through their own experiences. For Barney, it was the beginning of the modern art movement: "The junkmen and fakers who call themselves artists had no humility. They said, ‘Don’t paint what you see; paint what you feel. . . Back to your navels, boys, and yourselves!’ "According to Joey, "It was hearing my songs used as commercial jingles to sell cars or soft drinks, it was the dirty lyrics sung by dirty bums, it was going to a show that was made of four-letter words and repulsive people and then reading next day how great it was, how ‘significant.’ It was a lot of rank amateurs making it overnight."
For Lev it was the rise of the "barbarians" and their atonal music, filled with tape and weird noises, what he calls "electronic masturbations." "I really liked some of their songs, until they amplified them to the point of insanity . . . the rape of the ear. . . before songs became grunts." It’s a total depersonalization of art, of feeling, of human warmth.
("Individual and subjective criticism in all the arts has been supplanted by our infallible computer value scales," our presenter reminds us.)
Kate remembers how They took over the universities: "They first demanded the right to determine what was to be taught, and then who should teach them." They were "hostile and incoherent, contemptuous of law, using force (as the only tool of the spiritually illiterate), screaming against the counter-force they brought on them—every instinct in us froze." It was a totalitarian breed, one that showed no mercy.
Annie recalls the moment that she first became afraid of the young, tough and hard and dirty-mouthed. "Were our beliefs and convictions so alien to them? They blocked out the past so they could move ahead."
"Of course," Lev replies disdainfully, "because only the present exists for them, they are the children of Now."
Joey recalls a young painter saying, "For this generation, history is about ten seconds ago."
"We should have known," Kate remembers, "long before They actually took over that something of the sort was going to happen, but people never really believe anything until it does happen."
And then one day they come upon a young man (Robert McLane) washed up on the shore, thin, bearded, with long, scraggly hair. He’s near death when they find him; they revive him, but find that he can neither read, write, or speak. They decide to call him Michael.
II
Robert McLane (seated) with (L-R)Cornelia Otis Skinner, Gary Merrill,
and Joseph Wiseman"We were told daily that mind—logic, reason—meant nothing and that only sensation counted," Kate remembers. "Words were of no importance, except to the intellectual arbiters who used them to tell us this." And yet words are all they have, and so they continue to use them.
As time passes, the rest find themselves using Michael as a surrogate audience, finding that they speculate about him when he is around, and talk about him when he is not. They still don’t know where he came from, or how he got there: an escapee from a youth camp’ a refugee from the cities’ perhaps someone from outer space, maybe even an angel of death. (So inexplicable is his appearance, even the last two seem plausible.) Because his association with them would be against all the isolation rules that They set up, the others are careful to hide him when the patrols come by.
He helps Barney in the garden, and Barney says the boy seems to have an aptitude for drawing—he’s particularly given to doing line drawings of a television set—but is it something he learned, something he’s observed, or is it something instinctive? But does he understand what they are saying to him? And even if he does, do their words, the testimony they are giving, mean anything to him? But he seems comforted to be in their presence.Their discussions continue. What’s the state of the world today? They are convinced that the divisions into which the country had fractured had grown wider, more numerous, more deadly: Black/White, Right/Left, Reds/Us, Rich/Poor, Old/Young, Man/Woman. There’s no doubt that They felt let down by the older generation, blamed them, held them in contempt, demeaned them, stripped them of their worth, ignored their existence. To Barney, it’s even worse than hate. "Most of the time we didn’t exist, we were dead before we died!" The barbarian code, Lev puts it; do unto others as they have done unto you." They’re left to debate what they call Articles of their belief, a kind of last testament even though they’re not sure anyone will ever read it. But even there, it becomes more and more difficult to say what any of it means anymore.
Although this situation was never going to approach anything like permanence, the truth of the impending end becomes ever more apparent, ever more real. The physical and mental exercises which the group have for so long undertaken to maintain their energy and defiance-- Blind Day, Deaf Day—have gradually, one by one, dropped by the wayside. Finally, a day comes, as we knew from the beginning it must. Barney’s declining health—his harsh cough, his difficulty speaking, his increasing frailness—has become impossible to ignore; Annie is terrified it’s cancer, and none of the others are foolish enough to try and talk her out of it. It will be impossible for him to pass his next physical, and that means an automatic sentence of death. It hurts her too much for her to watch him suffer any more; she’s convinced that any moment the truck from the Age Agency will be there to take him away.
The implications of this are clear for everyone. Barney’s time was limited anyway; he was the oldest of the group. The others, except for Annie (who has no desire to go on living without Barney) are under no immediate obligation; they still have some time left, and no matter what anyone says in the abstract, when the time comes, nobody really wants to die. However, they have always resolved that when it was time, they’d all go together; they’ve been together for too long, and waiting for Them to come and do the job would be an admission of defeat. They latch on the method of delivery: drugged whiskey, "Pills and liquor."
The final night becomes part wake, part elegy. Kate sums it up for the rest when they discuss the kind of message they want to leave if They ever read it. "That you fight for your humanity and dignity. That you refuse to be bent, folded, spindled, or mutilated by any machine. That you perceive and love the nature of the universe inside and outside of yourself." They say their toasts and drink their poison—and then, as they had wished, after they have lost consciousness Michael sets fire to the house and flees with the manuscript, delivering it to the underground. He had understood after all.
But—there’s one last tragic scene, one final ironic act. Because there could be no winner it a story like this, and how else could it end? For as They grew older ("deprived of their past," Mannes writes, "and fearful of their future."), They began to realize that Their laws, sooner or later, would apply to Them as well.
Thus, whether through enlightenment or self-preservation, the government had been toppled a few weeks before the final farewell, and the laws regarding age had been repealed.
III
"They," based on Marya Mannes’ controversial 1968 novel (and adapted by Mannes and Charles LeMay), originally aired on the Public Broadcasting Service’s NET Playhouse on April 17, 1970 as the final episode in an eight-part sub-series of plays titled "A Generation of Leaves," dealing with what was popularity known at the time as the Generation Gap. Jac Vanza, executive producer of NET Playhouse, described the central theme of all eight episodes as "the seemingly world-wide breach between youth and elders." "The younger generation questions its inheritance," said Vanza, "the older generation questions the values of the younger generation and herein lies the communications gap. Which is, by the way, nothing new."Mannes’ didactic story of a man-made post-apocalyptic society is both simple and complex, and despite what some might thing, it defies pigeonholing into an easy category. For despite the similarities one might see with today’s cancel culture and the virulent fascism of many of today’s youth, this is not a one-sided conservative screed against the left. (After all, remember that the Patriot Act and the Department of Homeland Security were both products of a Republican administration.)
Mannes*, who described herself as a "liberal social critic" and was in agreement with many of the young in their attitudes toward the war, abortion, women’s rights, and other benchmarks of the left, denied that "They" should be seen as inherently anti-youth. "I am violently against the concept of a generation gap," she told one interviewer. "It is a losing game—everybody loses."
*Mannes should be no strager to readers here; she was a frequent contributor to TV Guide in the 1960s, observing the culural scene with a sharp eye and even sharper tongue.
Indeed, Mannes approaches the story as a woman of the left, the old left, believing in discussion and debate and the free exchange of ideals and ideas. "What upsets me the most is the assumption that the world started in 1970, that there was nothing before," she said. "That one generation, they young, have a monopoly on religion, truth, courage. . . I think they’ve made it hard for themselves by deliberately antagonizing all others except themselves, by making of themselves a self-conscious, almost conformist power group. They talk about love a great deal, and it’s true among themselves, but they have very little love or tolerance not only to those older but to those who don’t go along with them."
Writing in The New York Times, Mannes shared her experience adapting her novel for the screen. "I was prepared to snip, inject, remove, amputate, drain and transfuse wherever necessary, anesthetizing myself rather than the patient when the pain began. What—cut that brilliant scene, that moving dialogue, that lovely appendix?" Not surprisingly, it is in the novel that we get the full effect of Mannes’ opinions on many of these issues. Not all of them have to do directly with the story, but they provide insight into her thoughts on contemporary issues.
For instance, she has nothing but distain for the dehumanization effects from the rise of computers and Artificial Intelligence: "The machines were part of the takeover, for they had invaded every function of daily life. We were told, of course, that the machine was still the servant of the man: that what you put into it determined what came out of it. And the simple fact was that when the programmers, in their new, special, and to us, totally incomprehensible language, fed their machines the plethora of data available on the old, out came the one recurrent and irrefutable answer: dispensable."
She also mocks the efforts of the old to be "with-it": "Older men, once handsome and secure in their gray or receding hair, dyed it or bought themselves toupees. Older women hiked their skirts above their knobby knees and had silicone pumped into their breasts or faces. To dress (unless they were rich enough to command their style) they were forced to dress like dolls because no clothes were made for women. The word had become obsolete: it implied maturity." "Our sin, she concludes, "was age."
Several times Mannes returns to the idea of the new generation as "barbarians": "Barbarians are essentially people without a past or a future, living entirely for the gratification of their immediate desires. They’re an aggressor, against language, sex, nature, love, art, life. The barbarian is a violator: the agent of violence." She adds, however, that none of this could have been possible with those in the older generation. "Don’t forget that a lot of this sort of crap was pushed on the public by people old enough to know better. Don’t blame Them if Their mini-talents were blown up out of all proportion. The cultural elite was so goddamn scared of missing the boat they’d ride on junk."
And in perhaps the most pertinent, most timeless comment of them all; one that could be applied to contemporary issues—forced equality, fraudulent egalitarianism, demanding an equality of results rather than opportunity, the culture of victimhood—she reminds us that "Democracy cannot survive without individual responsibility, and equality has never existed in the first place. Certain people are better than others and always will be, and it is only the barbarians who do not know this."
IV
The Who hoped to die before they got old. Mick Jagger called getting old a drag. Jack Weinberg warned us not to trust anyone over 30. They’re all well over that mark by now, though.Although "They" is set in the near future (20 years from the date the novel was written), it is—unlike so many dystopian stories—most assuredly not science fiction. The setting, the clothes, the language, are all very much of our time; the few futuristic elements—whether technological (like computers and AI) or cultural, were already in the works by 1968, and Mannes’ predictions for their use in the future are disconcertingly on-target. Perhaps most disturbing is the idea that They came to power not through a revolution or a nuclear post-apocalyptic society, but from—an election. No, despite some surface similarities, I don’t think you can compare "They" to something like, say, Logan’s Run.
One of the most interesting aspects of "They" is the lack of religion. Mannes doesn’t make a big issue of this, other than to mention that none of these people saw themselves as "religious." There’s no discussion of any stand by religious leaders, any attempt to square the new laws that They create with the axioms of traditional religious faith; it simply isn’t a thing, and it that I suppose she’s presaging not only the advent of today’s millennials, but the lukewarmness of today’s faith. Remember the nearly worldwide shutdown of churches during the Covid lockdown? Remember how quickly so many of today’s religious "leaders" latched on to the mantra of the vaccine? Maybe they found a way to rationalize it all as well.
Nonetheless, Kate’s account, as presented in the novel, concludes on an intriguing note—a note of hope, a plea for help, perhaps born of faith, perhaps simply the need for comforting words. It’s the Libera me ("Deliver me") from the Catholic Office of the Dead. "Deliver me, O Lord, from death eternal on that fearful day/When the heavens and the earth shall be moved/When thou shalt come to judge the world by fire."
V
Reviews of "They" were mostly favorable; Donald Kirkley of the Baltimore Sun pronounced it "a plight to remember," and the Mansfield News-Journal called it an "enchanted visit with a group of veteran characters, played with taste and sensitivity by an eloquent cast of actors." The New York Times described it as "hauntingly effective and heartrending." "The cast was so excellent that it would be unfair to pick out one member over another. [Director Marc] Daniel effortlessly moved his company about the stage and through deft psychedelic electronics achieved the desired quality of eerieness to complement the human element."It appeared to hit home with viewers as well, some of whom were left shaken by what they’d seen. Mary Ann Lee from the Memphis Press-Scimitar reported receiving one letter from a viewer comparing "They" to "a bad dream," and added "Such a world in 1990 would be worse than anything that comparative Pollyanna, H.G. Wells, ever dreamed up."
Percy Shain of the Boston Globe was less enthusiastic, finding that it was "chilling and well put, but failed to provide the dramatic tension necessary for a compelling experience." However, Shain may have inadvertently touched on the real message of the story when he wrote that "the concluding suicides were almost welcome." For in the world which Mannes had constructed, there could have been no other way; the lack of drama itself emphasizes the lack of options—the tragedy.
One critic remarked that "They" "had some telling things to say about the consequences of rudeness in the young and permissiveness by their elders—and about the new outlook that comes to a youthful rebel of 20 when he reaches 40." This is a perceptive comment as far as it goes, but it would seem that Their homicidal madness extends much farther than simple "rudeness."
The most ironic comment, however, came from a critic who commented that, "…if taken to an ultimate, ugly extreme, the society of They would not be impossible. I doubt, however, that even Miss Mannes believes it is probable."
I wouldn’t be so sure about that today. Nowhere in the world They created do we see or hear the word "fascism." It exists, though.
VI
José Ortega y Gasset, the Spanish writer and philosopher, warned in his 1930 book The Revolt of the Masses of the dangers inherent in the rule of a regime very much like the one They established. "As they say in the United States: 'to be different is to be indecent,' he wrote. "The mass crushes beneath it everything that is different, everything that is excellent, individual, qualified and select. Anybody who is not like everybody, who does not think like everybody, runs the risk of being eliminated. And it is clear, of course, that this 'everybody' is not 'everybody.' 'Everybody' was normally the complex unity of the mass and the divergent, specialized minorities. Nowadays, 'everybody' is the mass alone. Here we have the formidable fact of our times, described without any concealment of the brutality of its features.
He also describes the brutality of so many of today's youth, edgy teans turned radical students turned snowflakes, intolerant of any differing opinions, hatred burning in their eyes. "The Fascist and Syndicalist species were characterized by the first appearance of a type of man who 'did not care to give reasons or even to be right', but who was simply resolved to impose his opinions. That was the novelty: the right not to be right, not to be reasonable: 'the reason of unreason.' " Their opinions, of course, are the exception; they are always right. Error, they proudly declare, has no rights.
VII
The fact that 1990 came and passed without Mannes’ predictions coming to fruition—well, that really isn’t important. We’d already come to see the aged as a drain on society long since then, thanks to the breakdown in the family structure and the explosion in retirement communities, where Grandma and Grandpa could be shuffled off without too much thought. We stopped caring about them a long time ago.
As our economies continued to hemorrhage, and our foreign adventures became more frequent and more costly, we looked at how much it cost to take care of those who, if you’re being honest, contribute very little, at least as far as productivity was concerned. Social Security always seemed to be getting in the way of balancing the budget, and it was obvious that healthcare was one of those resources that was simply going to have to be rationed, and we had to make sure, after all, that the most productive members of society could continue to function, in order to create a new society, a pragmatic society, one built to meet the needs and withstand the pressures of a modern world.
Anyway, what about all the stress that people put on the planet, things like climate change and global warming and overpopulation and running out of clean energy alternatives? We hardly had enough food and clean water and land to go around now; how were we going to manage in the future, as the population grew older, unless we did something drastic?
The problem was there were too many parasites around: people who didn’t contribute, people who were, when you came right down to it, were just too expensive to take care of? Of course, we didn’t actually call them that, parasites; it wouldn’t have been polite, and we had to always take pains not to offend; but that’s what they amounted to, in our eyes: they took more and more, and contributed less and less, and it produced a model that was simply unsustainable for the future.
So we talked about things like "Quality of Life," and asked whether, if you couldn’t do the things you did when you were young, your life was really worth living? Therefore, assisted suicide—or euthanasia, as its proponents might prefer—was not only an act of mercy, it was really the only sensible thing for a responsible person, someone who cares about the next generation, to do, n'est-ce pas? A Final Solution, you might even say.
We created the computers that became part of our everyday life, and we dreamed about the day when they could think for themselves; "Artificial Intelligence," we called it. "We were told, of course, that the machine was still the servant of the man: that what you put into it determined what came out of it. And the simple fact was that when the programmers, in their new, special, and to us, totally incomprehensible language, fed their machines the plethora of data available on the old, out came the one recurrent and irrefutable answer: dispensable." And when enough people tell you that, you "become what others believe."
And we created things like lockdowns, where we isolated those that were most vulnerable, the sick and the elderly and the shut-ins, we understood that the deprivation of love, of human contact, would demoralize those who hadn’t already lost hope, would make them feel like outcasts. And we threatened others, those who didn’t follow the rules, with a different kind of isolation, for "the good of society." We knew just how potent that deprivation could be.
So here we are, in 2023. So They were late. Big deal.
At one point Lev remarks, "People do not really want change. They are told by a minority that they must have it, and then a minority fights for it—and the majority are changed."
Maybe, then, we don’t need to wait for Them to take over.
Maybe They already have. TV
OTHER ENTRIES IN THIS SERIES: 1984 Darkness at Noon Dialogues of the Carmelites The Obsolete Man Murder in the Cathedral Number 12 Looks Just Like You The Children's Story. . . but not just for children Moloch A Taste of Armageddon The Architects of Fear The Brotherhood of the Bell The General The Monsters are Due on Maple Street
May 15, 2023
What's on TV? Wednesday, May 20, 1953
We've traveled all the way back to the seventh national edition of TV Guide, a point at which most editions, such as this one from Chicagoland, maintained much of their local content. You can also see how the magazine is going to evolve over the first few years; there are no TV-shaped channel bullets for channel numbers, for instance, and the day isn't split into the familiar Morning-Afternoon-Evening thirds. And Chicago's television scene will be evolving as well; in this issue, WBBM, the CBS affiliate, is channel 4, but in less than two months, it'll change to channel 2, where it remains to this day. Let's see what they have on, as well as the other three stations available in the Windy City.4 WBBM (CBS) 6:45 Town And Farm—Discussion 7:00 Today—News and Comments 9:00 Arthur Godfrey Time—Musical 10:00 News At Ten—Information 10:05 There’s One In Every Family 10:30 Strike It Rich—Warren Hull Guest: Jan Miner 11:00 Bride & Groom—TV Wedding 11:15 Love Of Life—Serial Story 11:30 Search For Tomorrow—Drama 11:45 Guiding Light—Serial Story 12:00 Luncheon With Billy—Musical 12:25 Lee Phillip Show—Tips 12:30 Garry Moore Show—Comedy 1:00 Double Or Nothing 1:30 Art Linkletter’s House Party 2:00 Big Payoff—Quiz For Men 2:30 Action In The Afternoon 3:00 Shopping With O’Riley 3:15 “Turn Of The Tide”—MOVIE 4:30 Garfield Goose And Friend 5:00 Western Movie Time—Film 5:30 Silhouettes Of The West—Film 5:55 Chicago Weather—Frank Reynolds 6:00 Sports & Comments—Elson 6:15 News With Fahey Flynn 6:30 CBS News—Douglas Edwards 6:45 Perry Como Show—Musical 7:00 ARTHUR GODFREY & FRIENDS Guest emcee: Ed Sullivan 8:00 STRIKE IT RICH—Quiz Contest 8:30 MAN AGAINST CRIME—Drama 9:00 BLUE RIBBON BOUTS—Boxing Norman Hayes vs. Jesse Turner 9:45 SPORTS SPOT—Review 10:00 FAHEY FLYNN—News Data 10:10 MEET MISS LEE—Weather 10:15 HARRINGTON ON SPORTS 10:25 MUSIC COUNTER—Top Tunes 10:30 HARRINGTON AND THE NEWS 10:45 OUR SONG—Favorite Tunes 11:00 KUP’S TV COLUMN—Chats 11:15 11:15 EDITION—Fahey Flynn 11:30 MURDER BEFORE MIDNIGHT “Revolt Of The Zombies” 12:00 “LOVE ON THE DOLE”—MOVIE 1:00 LATE WORLD NEWS—Data
5 WNBQ (NBC) 9:00 Ding Dong School—For Kids 9:30 Animal Playtime—Kid’s Show 10:00 Ask Washington—News Panel 10:30 Mrs. U.S.A.—Film Short 11:00 Creative Cookery—Recipes 12:00 Noontime Comics—John Coons 12:30 Bob & Kay Show—Interviews 1:00 “He Couldn’t Take It”—MOVIE 2:00 Break The Bank—Quiz Show 2:30 Welcome Travelers—Chats 3:00 Kate Smith Hour—Musical 4:00 Hawkins Falls—Small Town Tale 4:15 Gabby Hayes Show—Tall Tales 4:30 Howdy Doody Show—Puppets 5:00 Elmer, The Elephant—Movie 5:30 Kids Karnival Kwiz—Games 5:50 Clifton Utley And The News 6:00 Joe Wilson’s Sports Corner 6:15 Town Crier—Tony Weitzel 6:30 Eddie Fisher Show—Musical Guest host: Gordon MacRae 6:45 News Caravan—John Swayze 7:00 I MARRIED JOAN—Comedy 7:30 MUSIC HALL—Tune Time Hostess: Patti Page. Guests: Mary Ellen Terry, Vaughn Monroe, Richard Haymen, the Whiffenpoofs 8:00 KRAFT THEATER—Drama “One Left Over” 9:00 THIS IS YOUR LIFE—Tale 9:30 CITY DESK—Discussion 10:00 WEATHERMAN—Clint Youle 10:10 DORSEY CONNORS—Ideas 10:15 CLIFTON UTLEY & THE NEWS 10:30 LET’S LOOK AT SPORTS 10:45 HERBIE MINTZ SHOW—Musical 11:00 “DANGER FLIGHT”—MOVIE
7 WBKB (ABC) 9:30 Cartoons—For The Kids 9:45 Beulah Karney Presents—Tips 10:30 Let’s Exercise With Ed Allen 10:50 Your Weather—Wayne Griffin 10:55 Ulmer Turner—News Report 11:00 Breakfast With Danny O’Neil 11:55 Ulmer Turner—News Report 12:00 Happy Pirates—Fun For Kids 12:30 Time For Fun—Nick Francis 12:55 Ulmer Turner—News Report 1:00 All About Baby—Discussion 1:15 “Ghost Town”—MOVIE 2:25 Ulmer Turner—News Report 2:30 “Sing As You Swing”—MOVIE 3:55 Ulmer Turner—News Report 4:00 Lucky 7 Ranch—Western Film “Romance River” 4:45 Rootie Kazootie—Puppet Fun 5:00 Laugh Time—Film Shorts 5:30 Adv. Time With Bob Atcher 6:00 Austin Kiplinger & The News 6:10 Sports Highlights—Jack Drees 6:25 Your Weather—Wayne Griffin 6:30 Date With Judy—Comedy 7:00 LAUREL & HARDY TIME 7:30 STU ERWIN SHOW—Comedy 8:00 CARUSO SHOW—Musical 8:30 WRESTLONG FROM RAINBO 10:00 FOREIGH INTRIGUE—Drama (Tentative) 10:30 THIS IS CHARLES LAUGHTON 10:45 COMEDY CAMEO—Film Short 11:00 ULMER TURNER—News 11:10 “BUSH CHRISTMAS”—MOVIE 12:15 “HEADLINE WOMAN”—MOVIE
9 WGN (Independent) 9:00 Your Figure Ladies—Fogarty 9:30 Clete Roberts World Report 9:45 Steve Fentress & News 10:00 A To Z Of Cookery—Recipes 11:00 “Terrors On Horseback”--MOVIE 11:45 Earl Nightingale Program 12:00 Hi Ladies—Jack Payne 12:45 Baseball With The Girls 1:00 Batting Practice—H. Creighton 1:10 Lead Off Man—Vince Lloyd 1:30 Baseball—Cubs vs. New York 3:45 Tenth Inning—Interviews 4:00 “Wagon Wheels Westward”—MOVIE 5:00 Time For Beany—Puppet Fun 5:15 Talent Time—Linn Burton 5:30 Robert F. Hurleigh—News 5:45 Sports Review—Brickhouse 5:55 Chicago Weather—Frank Reynolds 6:00 Captain Video—Adventures 6:30 Spencer Allen And The News 6:45 Chicagoland Newsreel—Data 7:00 “MEET THE MISSUS”—MOVIE 8:00 FRONT PAGE DETECTIVE 8:30 THROUGH THE CAMERA EYE 9:00 OLD AMERICAN BARN DANCE 9:30 LIBERACE SHOW—Musical 10:00 “GHOSTS ON THE LOOSE”—MOVIE 11:30 NEWS—Les Nichols Comments 11:45 “FLYING SERPENT”—MOVIE
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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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