Mitchell Hadley's Blog: It's About TV!, page 72
June 20, 2022
What's on TV? Monday, June 20, 1955
There's a note at the beginning of each day's listing in the Mid-States edition: "For Daylight Savings Time Areas Programs Are Seen One Hour Later." Longtime readers will remember
past TV Guide discussions
of Daylight Savings, and that it has a torturous history of being applied in a haphazard way, even within neighboring cities in the same state. It helps to explain, though, why some of your favorite programs might be airing at 6:00 p.m.—your town isn't observing Daylight Savings! It doesn't, however, explain why ABC's 6:30 p.m. program is called "Concert." It's actually Voice of Firestone, and TV Guide doesn't seem to shy from mentioning programs with their sponsor in the title. Perhaps Firestone just didn't pay for sponsorship in the issue.-2- WMT (CBS) Cedar Rapids, Ia. MORNING 8:00 MOVIE—To Be Announced 9:00 Arthur Godfrey Time 9:30 Strike It Rich—Quiz 10:00 Valiant Lady—Serial 10:15 Love of Life—Serial 10:30 Search for Tomorrow—Serial 10:45 Guiding Light—Serial 11:00 Musical Varieties 11:10 Weather and Markets 11:15 Road of Life—Serial 11:30 Welcome Travelers AFTERNOON 12:00 Robert Q. Lewis 12:15 Farm Almanac 12:30 News and Weather 12:45 Bill Dutcher—Music 1:00 Big Payoff—Quiz 1:30 Bob Crosby—Music 2:00 Brighter Day—Serial 2:15 Secret Storm—Serial 2:30 On Your Account 3:00 Home Fare—Ladies 3:30 MOVIE—To Be Announced 4:30 Marshal “J” 5:00 Hopalong Cassidy 5:30 Doug Edwards 5:45 To Be Announced EVENING 6:00 Sports, News, Weather 6:30 Mr. District Attorney 7:00 I LOVE LUCY 7:30 ETHEL AND ALBERT RETURN 8:00 SUMMER THEATER “Heart Song” 9:00 EDDIE CANTOR—Comedy 9:30 BURNS AND ALLEN 10:00 NEWS, WEATHER, SPORTS 10:25 MOVIE—Mystery “Silver Blae”
-4- WHBF (CBS) Rock Island, Ill. MORNING 7:00 Morning Show—Jack Paar Guest host: John Herny Faulk 7:25 News and Weather 8:00 Garry Moore—Variety 8:30 Arthur Godfrey Time 9:30 Strike It Rich—Quiz 10:00 Valiant Lady—Serial 10:15 Love of Life—Serial 10:30 Search for Tomorrow—Serial 10:45 Guiding Light—Serial 11:00 The Inner Flame—Serial 11:15 Road of Life—Serial 11:30 Welcome Travelers AFTERNOON 12:00 Robert Q. Lewis 12:30 Linkletter’s House Party 1:00 Big Payoff—Quiz 1:30 Bob Crosby—Music 2:00 Brighter Day—Serial 2:15 Secret Storm—Serial 2:30 On Your Account 3:00 Frankly Feminine—Woman 3:30 Little Rascals Club 4:00 Grandpa Happy 5:00 Big Picture 5:30 Doug Edwards 5:45 Perry Como—Music EVENING 6:00 Burns and Allen 6:30 Talent Scouts—Variety 7:00 I LOVE LUCY 7:30 ETHEL AND ALBERT RETURN 8:00 SUMMER THEATER “Heart Song” 9:00 BIG TOWN—Drama 9:30 MEET MILLIE—Comedy 10:00 NEWS, WEATHER, SPORTS 10:30 MOVIE—Drama “Red Stallion” 12:00 News, Weather, Sports
-6- WOC (NBC) Davenport, Ia. MORNING 7:00 Today—Garroway 8:00 Ding Dong School—Kids 8:30 Way of the World—Serial 8:45 Sheilah Graham 9:00 Home—TV Magazine 10:00 Tennessee Ernie—Music 10:30 Feather Your Next 11:00 MOVIE—To Be Announced AFTERNOON 12:00 Rural Roundup—Bill Gress 12:15 It’s a Matter of Charm 12:30 Especially for You—Sundine 1:00 Ted Mack Matinee 1:30 Greatest Gift—Serial 1:45 Miss Marlowe—Serial 2:00 Hawkins Falls 2:15 First Love—Serial 2:30 Mr. Sweeney 2:45 Modern Romances 3:00 Pinky Lee—Variety 3:30 Howdy Doody 4:00 Texas Jim’s Movie House 4:30 Circle “6” Ranch—Reno 5:25 Sports, News, Weather 5:45 News Caravan EVENING 6:00 Sid Caesar 7:00 THE MEDIC 7:30 ROBERT MONTGOMERY PRESENTS—Drama “There’s No Need To Shout” 8:30 PORKY AND PONCE 9:00 TREASURY MEN IN ACTION 9:30 PLANTATION PARTY—Music 10:00 WEATHER, NEWS, SPORTS 10:15 TONY MARTIN—Music 10:30 TONIGHT—Steve Allen 11:05 MOVIE—To Be Announced
-7- KWWL (NBC) Waterloo, Ia. MORNING 6:00 Today—Garroway 7:00 Today—Garroway 8:00 Ding Dong School—Kids 8:30 Film Subject 8:45 Sheilah Graham 9:00 Home—TV Magazine 10:00 Tennessee Ernie—Music 10:30 Feather Your Next 11:00 MOVIE—To Be Announced AFTERNOON 12:00 News and Farm Picture 12:30 Around the House 1:00 Ted Mack Matinee 1:30 Greatest Gift—Serial 1:45 Miss Marlowe—Serial 2:00 Hawkins Falls 2:15 Film 2:30 Mr. Sweeney 2:45 Modern Romances 3:00 Pinky Lee—Variety 3:30 Howdy Doody 4:00 MOVIE—To Be Announced 5:00 News, Weather, Sports 5:30 Channel Chats 5:45 News Caravan EVENING 6:00 Sid Caesar 7:00 THE MEDIC 7:30 ROBERT MONTGOMERY PRESENTS—Drama “There’s No Need To Shout” 8:30 THIS IS THE LIFE 9:00 WEATHER, NEWS, SPORTS 9:30 BANKO—Bingo Game 10:00 MOVIE—To Be Announced 10:30 LATE NEWS CAPSULE
-9- KCRG (ABC DuM) Cedar Rapids, Ia. AFTERNOON 4:00 Mother Wilson’s Kitchen 4:30 Herb, the Ranch Hand 5:15 John Daly—News 5:30 TV Sightseeing—Travel 5:45 Kenny Hofer Show EVENING 6:00 Iowa Newsreel 6:15 Your Children’s Safety 6:30 Concert—Barlow Guest: Dorothy Warenskjold 7:00 PEE WEEK KING—Music Guests: Ernest Tubb, Audrey Williams 8:30 NAME’S THE SAME—Panel 9:00 BANKO—Bingo Game 9:30 SOLDIER PARADE—Talent 10:00 WEATHER, NEWS, SPORTS 10:15 MARKET REPORTS 10:20 YOUR CHILDREN’S SAFETY
13 WREX (CBS ABC) Rockford, Ill. MORNING 9:00 Good Morning Film 9:30 Strike It Rich—Quiz 10:00 Valiant Lady—Serial 10:15 Love of Life—Serial 10:30 Search for Tomorrow—Serial 10:45 Just for You 11:00 Markets and News 11:15 Road of Life—Serial 11:30 Coffee Time Playhouse AFTERNOON 12:00 Robert Q. Lewis 12:30 Party Line “13” 1:00 Big Payoff—Quiz 1:30 Bob Crosby—Music 2:00 Pleasure Time 2:15 Secret Storm—Serial 2:30 On Your Account 3:00 Meditation Time 3:05 Let’s Talk It Over 3:15 Betty and Suzy 3:30 Stand By for Action 4:00 Trail Tales—Children 4:30 Superman—Adventure 5:00 Kukla, Fran and Ollie 5:15 Weather, Sports, News 5:30 Doug Edwards 5:45 Perry Como—Music EVENING 6:00 Mayor of the Town 6:30 Concert—Barlow Guest: Dorothy Warenskjold 7:00 I LOVE LUCY 7:30 ETHEL AND ALBERT RETURN 8:00 RACKET SQUAD—Drama 8:30 BADGE 714—Police 9:00 WEATHER, NEWS, SPORTS 9:15 CALL THE PLAY—Mel Allen 9:30 MASQUERADE PARTY 10:00 SNICKER FLICKERS
39 WTVO (NBC DuM) Rockford, Ill. AFTERNOON 2:00 Hawkins Falls 2:15 First Love—Serial 2:30 Mr. Sweeney 2:45 Modern Romances 3:00 Pinky Lee—Variety 3:30 Howdy Doody 4:00 Fun Time—Children 4:30 Dick Tracy Show 5:00 News, Sports, Weather 5:30 5:45 Tony Martin—Music News Caravan EVENING 6:00 Sid Caesar 7:00 THE MEDIC 7:30 ROBERT MONTGOMERY PRESENTS—Drama “There’s No Need To Shout” 8:30 BANKO—Bingo Game 9:00 NEWS, WEATHER, SPORTS 9:30 THIS IS YOUR CITY 9:45 MOVIE—To Be Announced
TV
June 18, 2022
This week in TV Guide: June 18, 1955
I don't often lead with a sports item, but sometimes relevant news is hard to come by in these issues from the mid-1950s, and in this case we've got a truly notable event in store: the 1955 U.S. Open golf championship. (Saturday, 6:00 p.m. CT, NBC) If that doesn't sound like a reason to get worked up, just wait for the story behind the headline—or the listing, as it was.Ben Hogan was already a legend in 1955. A movie had been made about his life, starring Glenn Ford; he owned a successful company that manufactured top-level Hogan golf clubs; he wrote a best-selling golf instruction manual that is still considered a classic today; he received a ticker-tape parade in New York after winning the British Open in 1953; and he had earned the admiration of everyone after successfully coming back from a catastrophic auto accident in 1949 that had nearly killed him. Coming into the 1955 Open, he was seeking to become the first man to win five U.S. Open championships. Sports Illustrated's Open preview was entitled, "The Age of Hogan."
Which brings us to the historic Olympic Club in San Francisco, where, as the famed golf writer Herbert Warren Wind says, the fog rolls in on little caddies' feet. In these days, the highlight is "Open Saturday," a 36-hole finale—18 holes in the morning, 18 in the afternoon. With no opportunity to reorder the players after the third round, the leaders are not necessarily the last players on the course. Nevertheless, as Hogan finishes the tournament with an even-par 70, it looks as if his fifth title is in the (golf) bag. His old rival, Sam Snead, is let down by his putter and finishes five strokes behind, along with contender Tommy Bolt. Announcer Gene Sarazan, himself a former two-time champion providing commentary on NBC (it's only the third-ever national golf telecast!), congratulates Hogan on the win, and asks him to hold up five fingers to signify five Open titles. NBC, with only an hour of coverage scheduled, signs off, declaring Hogan the probable winner.
See most of it on TV, anywayAs Hogan accepts congratulations from his fellow competitors in the clubhouse, word comes back that there is only one player remaining with a mathematical chance of catching Hogan: a municipal club pro from Iowa named Jack Fleck, playing about an hour behind Hogan, who needs to birdie two of the final four holes just to tie, on one of the toughest courses to host the Open. A sportswriter comes with the news that Fleck had birdied 15 to pull within one. Pars follow on 16 and 17, and then a report that Fleck's second shot on 18 has rolled to within eight feet of the hole. The room is silent; Hogan, noncommittal as always, remains seated in front of his locker. The clubhouse then echoes with a thunderous roar from the 18th green; Fleck has indeed made the putt to finish with a magnificent 67 and tie Hogan, forcing an 18-hole playoff the following day. On that Sunday, with everyone waiting for Fleck to make a mistake, he shoots a one-under-par 69 to defeat Hogan by three shots in one of the greatest upsets in Open history.Of course, none of this was yet known by viewers tuning in to that final round on Saturday, and they wouldn't see that fantastic finish on 18 anyway. (Nor will they see the playoff on Sunday, NBC having previously declined its option to cover it. They would have only shown the final two holes anyway.) But even if you'd somehow been able to tell them how things would turn out, they wouldn't have believed it.
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People hanging around for an extra night in San Francisco because of the Open playoff might be making things difficult for hoteliers in the Bay Area, many of whom are expecting extra business this week. That's because the United Nations is in town, commemorating its 10th anniversary in the city that hosted the UN's first meeting in 1945, and there's plenty of TV coverage of this last, best hope for peace. (Which makes its abject failure all the more poignant, seeing as how so much faith is being put into it.) It features on the Sunday afternoon public affairs program Comment with newscaster Richard Harkness (2:00 p.m., NBC), and is the single topic on American Week with Eric Sevareid (3:00 p.m., CBS). As well, Henry Cabot Lodge, U.S. ambassador to the U.N., is the guest in San Francisco on Meet the Press (4:00 p.m., NBC).On Monday, Dave Garroway takes Today to San Francisco via remote to interview international delegates. (7:00 a.m., NBC). Meanwhile, the Camel News Caravan (5:45 p.m, NBC), with anchorman John Cameron Swayze, broadcasts the entire week from The City, with film and live coverage from the session. Most ambitious, perhaps, is NBC's Tuesday through Friday schedule, carrying a half-hour address each day from the foreign minister of one of the Big Four nations (the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union). It's a type of daytime television on a commercial network that would be unthinkable today.
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Opposite NBC's U.S. Open coverage, incomplete as it is, Jackie Gleason says farewell for the season on CBS (Saturday, 6:00 p.m.) with a show so big, it takes up almost the entire column. In a concept that seems ripped right from The Dick Van Dyke Show, Gleason emcees a variety show that includes the entire cast, including production personnel. Examples: Six of the June Taylor dancers are joined by a sextet consisting of writer Marvin Marx, associate producer Stanley Poss, conductor Ray Bloch, Gleason's personal manager George Durgom, director Frank Satenstein, and announcer Jack Lescoulie; in another bit, announcers Jimmy Blaine and Bill Nimmo are joined by producers Jack Philbin and Jack Hurdle in a barbershop quartet. The pros are at work too, with performances by Art Carney, Audrey Meadows, and June Taylor.
Speaking of spectaculars though, Gleason is matched by Ed Sullivan, whose Toast of the Town show (Sunday, 6:00 p.m., CBS) devotes the entire hour to the stage play and movie Mister Roberts, celebrating its seventh anniversary on Broadway (and soon to be a major motion picture). The star-studded lineup, recreating scenes from the stage and screen versions, includes the original Roberts, Henry Fonda; the stage and movie versions of Ensign Pulver, David Wayne and Jack Lemmon; and the movie's Captain Morgan, James Cagney. Stage producer Leland Hayward and movie producer-director Mervyn LeRoy are on hand as well. We don't have a rival variety show to compare to Ed this week, but with that list of stars, it wouldn't have mattered. John Henry Faulk, soon to be embroiled in the blacklist controversy, is the substitute host for Jack Paar's weekly morning show (M-F, 7:00 a.m., CBS). As for primetime, it's the last show of the season for Sid Caesar (Monday, 6:00 p.m., NBC), and, as with Jackie Gleason, the whole gang's on hand—Nanette Fabray, Carl Reiner, Howard Morris, Virginia Curtis, and Ellen Parker. Bill Hayes, who's part of the upcoming summer replacement series, is tonight's special guest.
Tuesday night features the Roy Rogers World Championship Rodeo from San Antonio, Texas (6:00 p.m., NBC), and in addition to Roy, Dale Evans, Pat Brady, and the Sons of the Pioneers, we've got bronc riding, calf-roping, saddle bronc riding, steer bulldogging, and wild bull riding. All interspersed with entertainment from the stars, of course. Opposite that, Disneyland looks not to the past, but the future, as Tomorrowland presents "Man in Space." (6:00 p.m., ABC). Here it is; this series of space films helped make Dr. Wernher von Braun a household name and American hero. I've always enjoyed rodeos, but I'm pretty sure I'd have watched this instead.
Wednesday features the other big sports event of the week, the light-heavyweight championship fight between the champion, Archie Moore, and the challenger, middleweight champion Bobo Olson (8:00 p.m., ABC). Moore, the ageless Mongoose, knocks Bobo out in the third round; later in the year, Moore steps up in class to fight Rocky Marciano for Rocky's heavyweight crown. Since Marciano is the only heavyweight champion to retire with a perfect record, we don't need to guess how that one turns out.
We all know that Rod Serling was a prolific writer for television long before The Twilight Zone, and on Thursday's episode of Climax (6:30 p.m., CBS), Wendell Corey, Akim Tamiroff, and Maria Riva star in Serling's "To Wake at Midnight," with a typically provocative storyline: "All the pent-up prejudices and hatreds of postwar Europe are revived when a Nazi lieutenant recovers consciousness in a British hospital after being in a coma for years."There were, I think, four great police series of the 1950s that incorporated their setting as a virtual character in the program: Dragnet (Los Angeles), M Squad (Chicago), Naked City (New York), and The Lineup (San Francisco). And it is the last that we look at on Friday (8:00 p.m., CBS), in the last show of the season. It's not particularly different from the other three; it's not quite as—documentarian?—as Dragnet, but it's a serviceable, enjoyable series that runs for six seasons, three of them in the top 20, and has a likeable cast in Warner Anderson and Tom Tully. Like their L.A. counterparts, The Lineup became a pretty good big-screen movie in 1958, although, unlike Dragnet, in black-and-white.
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In case you thought celebrities getting in trouble for giving political opinions on television is a fairly recent development, the Broadway columnist Earl Wilson, who also happens to have a weekly column in TV Guide, is about to set you straight: "When Sen. John McClelland was a mystery guest on What's My Line?, the panelists discovered he was a Democrat. 'So you're not Joe McCarthy?' said Fred Allen. 'No,' replied the guest. "Congratulations!" shrieked Arlene Francis. McCarthy supporters sent in so many letters that emcee John Daly answered with a form reply saying Miss Francis had merely been congratulating Allen for discovering that the guest wasn't Senator McCarthy." It's always like playing with fire, isn't it?
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Liberace with Ruth Forqueran, whoseclub numbers 3,000 membersJoe McCarthy might have asked the question this way: Are you now or have you ever belonged to a fan club? Maybe you belong to one now, or at least an online group. I think the only one I ever joined was the Doctor Who Fan Club, which I was part of for a few years back in the 1980s. This week, Robert E. Johnson goes behind the scenes of those fan clubs devoted to television stars, including one of the first, devoted to Liberace. His fan club predates television, having been started by a Chicago switchboard operator named Kitty Pastore in 1947, but thanks to the power of TV, there are now "300 Liberace and brother George Liberace fan clubs in the United States and Canada—two of them with more than 3000 members each."
One of the largest belongs to cowboy hero Roy Rogers, who mails as many as 130,000 copies of his eight-page tabloid newspaper to members of his fan club every two months. But clubs come in all shapes and sizes; Irene Jackson, a widow with a 12-year-old son, is the president of Hugh O'Brian's fan club, and a member of 20 other clubs. There are even clubs comprised of presidents of fan clubs; two of which are the International Fan Club League and the International Association of Fan Clubs.
According to Johnson, the average fan club member pays a buck and a half a year, in return for which the member gest a membership card, an 8x10 autographed photo, notices of special club activities, and perhaps three newsletters a year. Many clubs raise money for charities, such as retarded children, an interest of Dale Evans. The dues from the Liberace Club of Lakewood, California go to Lee's favorite charities.
Not every star is thrilled by fan clubs, though, and there are risks. As top Hollywood publicist Charlie Pomerantz points out, fan clubs "are the world's best form of publicity if you can control it. Word-of-mouth publicity is the most powerful form of publicity, but also the most dangerous if it gets out of hand", hence the newsletter that comes directly from the Roy Rogers organization. Meanwhile, other stars allow only one official club, and limit their membership (Desilu has only 150 members). But everyone agrees that for the club organizers, there's no profit; it's just a labor of love. TV
June 17, 2022
Around the dial
Xnly four this week, but it's quality, not quantity. Let's start off right, with the latest Hitchcock Project presentation by Jack at bare-bones e-zine. It's the fourth season episode "
The Diamond Necklace
," the last of Sarett Rudley's contributions to the show, and features wonderful performances by the great Claude Raines and Betsy von Furstenberg.At Cult TV Blog, John continues his fascinating series on The Prisoner, viewed through the prism of Number 6 (Drake? Smith?) being in an asylum. The latest: " Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling ," which I've always enjoyed because the title leads you to think it's some kind of Western, and of course there is an episode of The Prisoner that's set as a Western, but this isn't it. Anyway, another thought-provoking writeup.
At The Hits Just Keep On Comin', JB looks at an odd, sobering bit from the recent Kids in the Hall revival, with Dave Foley as a DJ who keeps broadcasting after the end of the world. It's a jumping-off point for a reflection on being behind the mic in times of stress, and what to do when the end comes. It reinforces the comments I made a couple of weeks ago in that RFK article, and just how intimate radio can be.
The blog Television Obscurities has been on the sidebar almost since the very start of this blog, and this week Robert celebrates 19 years of obscure television . The only further thing I could wish for is that he would blog more, but he took a well-earned step back a few years ago, and believe me, I can't blame him for that! TV
June 15, 2022
What's old is new again
The other night we were watching a YouTube video of ABC's 1968 summer schedule, with the openings to all of their shows, and a programming grid at the end. You know the kind, right? We'd seen this one before, as we have with most of them; it's the type of video that's easy to have on in the background, without having to concentrate too much or take your eyes off what else you might be doing. Like having dessert, for instance, which just happens to be what we were doing at the time.At some point in the proceedings, though, my wife turned to me and said, "Look at how many of these shows we've got. We've seen most of them!" I started thinking about that, not only the ones we've got on DVD, but those we've started watching on various YouTube channels. It occurs to me that the 1968 season must be close to the tipping point at which a majority of TV series still exist, either on DVD, the gray market, or through YouTube. It would certainly be a contender for the 1960s season having the most shows; the Golden Age of DVD releases was very kind to this era. (Going to all-color programming didn't hurt, either.)
I'm also intrigued by how many of those series are from ABC. I'm sure if we were looking at an NBC or CBS video, we'd find the same thing. But you wouldn't necessarily think that so many of these shows from the perennial third-place network still exist. Or maybe you would; someone—it might have been a comment someone left here—once mentioned that because ABC had nothing to lose, they took more chances creating new and different shows than did the other two networks. True, that includes shows like The Dating Game and The Newlywed Game, but as we all know, different does not necessarily equate to better.
At any rate, I've taken a screenshot of the schedule from the end of the video (don't worry; you'll get to see the video)—look at how many of these shows we could be watching right now:
In our own DVD collection, we've got The FBI, The Rat Patrol, N.Y.P.D., The Avengers, Man in a Suitcase, and The Guns of Will Sonnett. Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Big Valley, It Takes a Thief, The Invaders, The Flying Nun, Bewitched, That Girl, and at least some of Peyton Place have gotten commercial releases. The complete (or nearly complete) Garrison's Gorillas, Judd, for the Defense and Felony Squad are on YouTube, along with nearly 150 episodes of The Lawrence Welk Show (plus those you can catch on PBS), at least 75 episodes of The Hollywood Palace, 16 (at least) out of 26 episodes of The Second Hundred Years, and a few from Cowboy in Africa, the Newlywed and Dating Games. You can even find an episode of Dream House! And I suspect many of the movies that aired on Sunday and Wednesday nights, as well as on Off to See the Wizard, are available. (We've watched nine of them on a regular basis.)
All in all, I figure there are 17 series (out of 25, not including the movie shows) that are complete or nearly so, plus four that have a high number of episodes available. Only the three game shows and Cowboy in Africa are significantly less than complete. No matter how you look at it, that's a pretty high percentage, especially when you're talking about shows that were on 54 years ago. In fact, you've got an excellent chance of being able to reproduce any given week from this schedule in its entirety. That is impressive. And since 1968 is a year of particular interest for me, you can see why I appreciate this.
Here's the video in question; undoubtedly, I'll do the same with CBS and NBC someday.
TV
June 13, 2022
What's on TV? Friday, June 18, 1965
Xou know that summer is on the way when you see notices for programs like Vacation Playhouse, which will be filling in for Gomer Pyle starting next week. Reruns dominate the rest of the night, except for that special on gambling that I mentioned on Friday. But I think the Minnesota Twins game on WTCN looks very attractive, especially since this is the year the Twins go to the World Series. At least that's what I was probably watching, since this TV Guide is from the Twin Cities.-2- KTCA (EDUC.) Evening 6:00 BIG PICTURE—Army 6:30 THE PROFESSIONAL—Interview 7:00 INQUIRY—Discussion 7:30 IRELAND REDISCOVERED 8:00 BALLETOMANIA 8:30 TO BE ANNOUNCED 9:30 TO BE ANNOUNCED 10:00 FRESHMAN ENGLISH—Preview 10:30 MENTAL HEALTH—Interview
-4- WCCO (CBS) Morning 6:00 SUMMER SEMESTER—Education Civil Rights and Civil Liberties: Coerced Confessions 6:30 SIEGFRIED—Children 7:00 AXEL AND DEPUTY DAWG 7:30 CLANCY AND COMPANY 8:00 CAPTAIN KANGAROO—Children 9:00 DR. REUBEN K. YOUNGDAHL 9:05 NEWS—Dean Montgomery 9:10 MIKE DOUGLAS—Variety Guests: Allen and Rossi, Charlotte Hallacker 10:00 ANDY GRIFFITH—Comedy 10:30 McCOYS—Comedy 11:00 LOVE OF LIFE—Serial 11:25 NEWS 11:30 SEARCH FOR TOMORROW—Serial 11:45 GUIDING LIGHT—Serial Afternoon 12:00 NEWS—Dean Montgomery 12:15 SOMETHING SPECIAL 12:25 WEATHER—Bud Kraehling 12:30 AS THE WORLD TURNS—Serial 1:00 PASSWORD—Game Celebrities: Jack Cassidy, Gisele MacKenzie 1:30 HOUSE PARTY—Art Linkletter Guest: Ethel Waters 2:00 TO TELL THE TRUTH—Panel Celebrities: Eli Wallach, Anne Jackson, Jan Murray, Phyllis Newman 2:25 NEWS—Douglas Edwards 2:30 EDGE OF NIGHT—Serial 3:00 SECRET STORM—Serial 3:30 I LOVE LUCY—Comedy 4:00 MOVIE—Comedy Drama “Andy Hardy Comes Home” (1948) 5:30 NEWS—Walter Cronkite Evening 6:00 NEWS—Dave Moore 6:15 SPORTS—Don Dahl 6:20 DIRECTION—Dr. R. Gornitzka 6:25 WEATHER—Don O’Brien 6:30 RAWHIDE—Western 7:30 CARA WILLIAMS—Comedy 8:00 OUR PRIVATE WORLD—Serial 8:30 GOMER PYLE, USMC—Comedy Last show of the season. Next week, “Vacation Playhouse” takes over this slot 9:00 SLATTERY’S PEOPLE—Drama 10:00 NEWS—Dave Moore 10:15 WEATHER—Bud Kraehling 10:20 SPORTS—Hal Scot 10:30 MOVIE—Drama “The Wayward Bus” (1957) 12:00 SPORTS—Hal Scott 12:10 MOVIE—Science Fiction “Captive Women” (1952)
-5- KSTP (NBC) Morning 6:30 CITY AND COUNTRY COLOR 7:00 TODAY Guests: Jim Backus, Frank McGee, George Burns News in color at 7:25 and 8:25 A.M. 9:00 TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES—Game COLOR 9:30 WHAT’S THE SONG?—Game COLOR Panelists: Janet Lennon, Jimmie Rodgers 9:55 NEWS—Edwin Newman 10:00 CONCENTRATION—Game 10:30 JEOPARDY—Game COLOR 11:00 CALL MY BLUFF—Game COLOR Panelists: Darryl Hickman, Vivian Vance 11:30 I’LL BET—Game COLOR Mr. and Mrs. Edward Andrews vs. Mr. and Mrs. Joe Flynn 11:55 NEWS—Ray Scherer Afternoon 12:00 NEWS—John MacDougall COLOR 12:10 WEATHER—Johnny Morris COLOR 12:15 DIALING FOR DOLLARS—Game COLOR 12:30 LET’S MAKE A DEAL COLOR 12:55 NEWS—Floyd Kalber 1:00 MOMENT OF TRUTH—Serial 1:30 DOCTORS—Serial 2:00 ANOTHER WORLD—Serial 2:30 YOU DON’T SAY!—Game COLOR Celebrities: Peter Lawford, Rose Marie 3:00 MATCH GAME COLOR Celebrities: Les Crane, June Lockhart 3:25 NEWS—Nancy Dickerson 3:30 DIALING FOR DOLLARS—Game COLOR 4:30 LLOYD THAXTON—Variety Guest: The Newbeats 5:25 DOCTOR’S HOUSE CALL—Fox 5:30 NEWS—Huntley, Brinkley Evening 6:00 NEWS—Bob Ryan COLOR 6:15 WEATHER—Johnny Morris COLOR 6:20 SPORTS—Al Tighe COLOR 6:30 INTERNATIONAL SHOWTIME 7:30 BOB HOPE—Drama COLOR “Murder in the First” 8:30 JACK BENNY—Comedy 9:00 JACK PAAR—Variety Guests: Judy Garland, Robert Morley, Randolph Churchill 10:00 NEWS—John MacDougall COLOR 10:15 WEATHER—Johnny Morris COLOR 10:20 SPORTS—Al Tighe COLOR 10:30 JOHNNY CARSON—Variety COLOR Scheduled: Ethel Merman 12:15 MOVIE—Melodrama “The Man They Could Not Hang” (1939)
-9- KMSP (ABC) Morning 7:30 MY LITTLE MARGIE—Comedy 8:00 BREAKFAST—Grandpa Ken 9:00 ROMPER ROOM—Miss Betty 10:00 REBUS—Game 10:30 PRICE IS RIGHT—Game Celebrity: Ozzie Davis 11:00 DONNA REED—Comedy 11:30 FATHER KNOWS BEST—Comedy Afternoon 12:00 NEWS—Bill Fahan 12:15 LOIS LEPPART--Interview 1:00 FLAME IN THE WIND—Serial 1:30 DAY IN COURT—Drama 1:55 NEWS—Marlene Sanders 2:00 GENERAL HOSPITAL—Serial 2:30 YOUNG MARRIEDS—Serial 3:00 TRAILMASTER—Western 4:00 PETER GUNN—Mystery 4:30 HENNESEY—Comedy 5:00 NEWS—Peter Jennings 5:15 NEWS—Don Riley 5:30 LEAVE IT TO BEAVER—Comedy Evening 6:00 WOODY WOODPECKER 6:30 FLINTSTONES—Cartoon COLOR 7:00 FARMER’S DAUGHTER—Comedy 7:30 EVERYBODY’S GOT A SYSTEM SPECIAL “The Addams Family” and “Valentine’s Day” will not be seen this evening 8:30 DEATH VALLEY DAYS—Drama COLOR 9:00 12 O’CLOCK HIGH—Drama 10:00 NEWS—Bill Fahan 10:15 WEATHER—Jerry Smith 10:20 SPORTS—Tony Parker 10:30 MOVIE—Drama “Highway 101” (1950) 12:10 NIGHTLIFE—Variety Time approximate. Co-hosts: Jan Murray, William B. Williams
11 WTCN (IND.) Morning 9:45 NEWS 10:00 BACHELOR FATHER—Comedy 10:30 MOVIE—Drama “The Biscuit Eater” (1940) 11:55 NEWS—Dick Ford Afternoon 12:00 LUNCH WITH CASEY—Children 12:45 KING AND ODIE—Cartoon 1:00 MOVIE—Adventure “Tarzan’s Hidden Jungle” (1955) 3:00 GIRL TALK—Panel Panelists: Hermoine Gingold, Alice Pearce, Alice-Leone Moates 3:30 DAVE LEE AND PETE—Children 4:30 MAGILLA GORILLA—Cartoons 5:00 CASEY AND ROUNDHOUSE 5:15 ROCKY AND HIS FRIENDS 5:30 LONE RANGER—Western Evening 6:00 SEA HUNT—Adventure 6:30 HARMON KILLEBREW—Baseball 6:40 BAEBALL WARMUP—Ray Scott 6:55 BASEBALL—Twins Minnesota Twins at New York Yankees Regular programs are pre-empted 9:45 SCOREBOARD—Frank Buetel 10:00 NEWS—Dick Ford 10:15 WEATHER—Stuart A. Lindman 10:20 SPORTS—Frank Buetel 10:30 MOVIE—Drama “The Brave Bulls” (1951) 12:30 ADVENTURE THEATER Time approximate.
TV
June 11, 2022
This week in TV Guide: June 12, 1965
I suppose I was about five, the year this issue came out, that I received a book from my mother. It was an illustrated version of "
Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh!
", the hit song by comedian Allan Sherman. I loved both the song and the book, and for many years this was how I knew Sherman—this and the other novelty songs he did, many of which were pantomimed on the beloved Twin Cities children's show
Lunch With Casey
.But I digress. As I say, it wasn't until much later that I found out Sherman was also a game-show empresario of sorts. As he describes this week in an excerpt from his autobiography, A Gift of Laughter (which might be worth tracking down some day), he and his partner, Howard Merrill, created the show I've Got a Secret, which they then sold to Goodson-Todman Productions for the princely sum of $1, with the proviso that if the show made it to air they would each receive a weekly royalty of $62.50, and Sherman was named Associate Producer, receiving an additional $125 a week. (A few years later, Sherman notes, Goodson-Todman sold I've Got a Secret to CBS for three million dollars.)
Lest you think creating a game show concept is all fun and games, it was neither for Sherman; as he puts it, "After all those months of taking out the bugs, we had a regular insectarium on our hands." Sherman frankly admits that the first show was a disaster, and that the "secrets" that they created for celebrity guests were insipid. This came to a stop around the time that actor Monty Woolley's secret was disclosed to be that he slept with his beard under the covers. Asked by Henry Morgan whether this was really true, Woolley shouted, "Of course not, you bloody idiot. Some damn fool named Allan Sherman told me to say it."
And then, there was the president of one of the sponsors, Prom Home Permanent, who kept meddling with the lineup of the panel. He was "violently" opposed to Laura Hobson, Nina Foch and Faye Emerson, because they all had straight hair. "His idea of the perfect panelist was Harpo Marx."
Sherman also tells of when Sir Edmund Hillary became the first man to reach the top of Mount Everest. Figuring he'd never have a better guest, he told his Production Assistant Adraia to get him on the phone." Where? she asked. "At the top of Mount Everest," he replied. "It had never occurred to me that there might not be a telephone booth at the top of Mount Everest." As it turned out, she was able to get through to the bottom of Mount Everest, where she was told Hillary was expected back in a month. "Too late!" Sherman shouted. Tell them we need him now!"Frankly, I don't believe this story, or at least I suspect Sherman embellished it for effect, and that effect is very effective indeed. He goes on to share Mark Goodson's mania for memos (when Sherman complained that Goodson would "exhaust the world's supply of paper" if he didn't desist, Goodson replied by memo. Bill Todman wasn't any better; Sherman's request for a raise had to wait until Todman finished a call to Henry Ford to have a Lincoln Continental made to order; Todman then told Sherman that while he wouldn't give him a raise, he had something even better: a promotion from Associate Producer to Producer.
Whether or not any of this actually happened doesn't really matter, though, because it's entertaining, and Allen Sherman is an entertainer. This book might be worth tracking down some day.In part two of this article, he promises to tell us of the day when he finally got a secretary, and he spent that weekend wondering if she'd be blonde, slinky, with a throaty voice and exotic perfumes. That is, until he got to the office on Monday and met his new secretary, Roger Peterson.
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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: Ed's live this week, with comedian Sid Caesar; comics Allen and Rossi; French pop singer Jean Paul Vignon; British rock 'n' roller Tom Jones; comic London Lee; singer Dee Dee Sharpe; the Seekers, folk singers; and the Wychwoods, an illusionist act which uses 14 trained poodles.
Palace: We’re in the rerun zone at the Palace this week, with host Arthur Godfrey welcoming comedian Shelley Berman; songstress Dorothy Collins; singer John Gary; the comedy team of Gaylord and Holiday; Dwight Moore and His Mongrels; juggler Eva Vidos; and the Dalrays, comic acrobats.
Let's see: dog acts? Check. Comedians? Check. Comedy teams? Check. Singers? Check. Each show has ticked the boxes this week, which leaves us to look at the personalities. Shelley Berman can be very funny, Dorothy Collins is easy on the eyes, and John Gary has a smooth voice. On the other hand, you have the Ceasar of comedians, and Tom Jones is still going strong! So it's not unusual for Sullivan to be the winner this 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. This week, Cleveland Amory is conducting what we might think of as something of a self-review, in which he takes a look back at some of his reviews of the past season about which, in his words, he's had "second thoughts" For, as he says, "One cannot re-review the past season without coming to grips—and possibly even stagehands—with the show which, ratings or no ratings, has become the biggest thing since Amos 'n' Andy."
That show would be Peyton Place, and while Cleve was taken to task by many over his favorable review of the program, there's no question that everyone was talking about it. He still has one criticism, though: the pace. "The show has an irritating habit of making a federal case out of every conversation. At the wedding, for example: Rod: 'Your mother looks—beautiful.' Allison: 'You were going to say "happy," weren't you? Why didn't you, Rod?' Rod: 'Why didn't I say "happy"? Why didn't I, Allison? I don't know.' Etc, etc." And speaking of Allison, "If she can't get another emotion—or even another boy friend—would it be too much to ask for her to get another speed?"
Amory also offers praise for the best performances of the year: Jim Nabors and Frank Sutton were standouts on Gomer Pyle, as were Elizabeth Montgomery and Dick York on Bewitched. He also mentions a "splendid quartet" in serious drama: Richard Crenna (Slattery's People), David Janssen (The Fugitive), Vic Morrow (Combat!), and Robert Lansing (Twelve O'clock High).
In late night, Amory's discouraged by the failure of ABC's Nightlife, which he calls a "monument to futility," which started out with Les Crane, and adds that "even when they did finally come up with the right man, Dave Garroway, they didn't seem to know it." And he laments the absence of new faces in the news, with the exception of ABC's Peter Jennings, and the lack of commentary on network news (specifically citing NBC, but it could apply to all three). However, let us not end on a down note. There were three bits of good news: the real possibility of a fourth commercial network, the growth of educational television, and the best news of all: CBS has a new president. James Aubrey is dead, long live James Aubrey.
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We're always looking for good, or interesting, programs during the summer rerun season, and we've got several this week.
Secret Agent is still in first-run on American television, and Saturday's episode is one of particular interest, especially for those who debate whether or not John Drake became Number Six. "Colony Three" (8:00 p.m., CBS) is, as one author put it , "a fascinating anticipation of The Prisoner." The premise: "Drake assumes a new identity and joins a group of defectors about to be transported to a training school for spies in Eastern Europe."
On Sunday, ABC presents the third installment in their Daring Americans series, "Assault on Le Mans" (6:30 p.m.), portraying American Grand Prix champion Phil Hill, one of the greatest racing drivers of the 1960s. Hill was the first American, and the only native-born one, to win the World Driving Championship. Now he's at the fabled Le Mans, a race he's won three times in the past. His teammate in the 24-hour race is Bruce McLaren, as they drive for the upstart American Ford team, taking on the legendary European powers, particularly Ferrari. Hill and McLaren don't win; as a matter of fact, they dropped out after 192 laps. But two years later, Ford would topple mighty Ferrari, the legendary Ford GT taking first, second and third. The documentary is done in cinéma vérité style by Robert Drew Associates, which famously did several similar
documentaries on John F.Kennedy,
including Primary.As we move into reruns, Monday's Ben Casey (9:00 p.m., ABC) presents a story that, for all the complaints scriptwriters have about not being able to tell adult dramas, probably wouldn't have been told even five years ago. In "A Disease of the Heart Called Love," Shelley Winters plays a divorced, middle-aged nurse who becomes pregnant. She's also got a medical condition that makes her pregnancy dangerous. Casey and Zorba advise her to "terminate the pregnancy," but she wants to keep the baby. So this touches a number of buttons: unmarried mothers, abortion, the loneliness of the unmarried. They don't get much more adult than that. It's directed by Mark Rydell, and features Milt Kamen and, as Dr. Watson, James Doohan.
Tuesday features one of those how-many-times-has-this-happened-to-you moments on The Fugitive: (9:00 p.m., ABC): "When a philandering husband is found murdered, the chief suspect is his girl friend Lucey Russell. But Lucey has an alibi: she was with Kimble." I did a bit on this many years ago, where I looked at the typical tropes of typical series and wondered just how many times they actually happened to average people. This one is a little better, though, in that you don't have to be relyiI' ng on an escaped convicted murderer to provide your alibi; it could be someone cheating on their spouse, someone who called in sick to work, or any number of people who wind up in the wrong place at the wrong time doing something they shouldn't be doing. I think it's called karma.
I'm going off the primetime grid for Wednesday's choice: Stanley Kubrick's terrific noir The Killing (10:30 p.m., KMSP), with Sterling Hayden leading a gang planning a race-track robbery. The gang includes Vince Edwards, who was Ben Casey on Monday night; Elisha Cook, Jr. as a very nervous teller working for the gang on the inside; and Marie Windsor as the dame who does him wrong. Based on this movie, Kubrick and his producer, James Harris, got the chance to make a movie for MGM: Paths of Glory. That was a pretty fair movie, too.
Thursday's repeat episode of The Defenders is "Blacklisted" (9:00 p.m., CBS) with Jack Klugman starring as a formerly blacklisted actor whose comeback is being threatened by a "vigilante" group trying to get him fired. So we have Klugman, one of the most intense, scene-chewing actors around; we have McCarthyite villains in the "vigilantes" trying to prevent a decent man from earning a living; and we have The Defenders itself, one of the more strident, issues-oriented programs on the air.
I don't say that this wasn't a good episode; regardless of the show's political slant, The Defenders was one of the quality programs of the early 60s, a series that wasn't afraid to take on serious issues. It's their advocacy that often grinds on me. Likewise, Klugman's a man who's very good at intense but doesn't have any other speed, and I think it's a race to see who tires first: the actor or his audience. And we don't need to deny that there were misdeeds done during the blacklist to acknowledge that the anti-Communists make a juicy straw man target. But decide for yourself—you can see it here .
On Friday night, ABC turns its attention to gambling in another amusing documentary, as host Terry-Thomas takes a humorous look at "the urge to gamble" in Everybody's Got a System. (7:30 p.m.) The show visits horse racing tracks in Europe, talks to bettors and bookies to learn about the sport's attraction, visits a bingo parlor to see how even small-scale gambling can thrill, and visits the casinos, where Thomas explains his own "system" at the roulette wheel. It seems lightweight, but a fun show, not unlike something you might see on History or A&E today.
Also on Friday, Jack Paar's in London for this week's rerun (9:00 p.m., NBC), with a stellar cast of his own: the legendary Judy Garland, the very witty Robert Morley, and the distinguished journalist Randolph Churchill, son of the late Winston. I've seen clips of this on one of the Paar compilation videos, and it's very funny—particularly this bit where a slightly tipsy Judy has some fun at Marlene Dietrich's expense:
Oh, and she can still sing a bit, too. Yesterday would have been her 100th birthday. What a sad, sad life she led.
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Fashion alert: it's time for another starlet to display the latest in haute fashion. This time it's actress Janet Margolin, who will go on to a successful career with appearances in media as varied as Woody Allen movies, a Ghostbusters sequel, and episodes of Columbo and Murder, She Wrote. But never mind that—her mission this week is to show off the newest craze, the Finnish Marimekko , made famous by Jackie Kennedy.
SOURCE: HADLEY TV GUIDE COLLECTIONJanet Margolin died of cancer in 1993, not quite 30 years after this issue.
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James Arness is so big (besides being 6'7", that is), he even dominates this week's profile of Milburn Stone, who plays Doc on the long-running Gunsmoke. Stone remembers the first few years working with Arness, and he wasn't impressed: "He'd be late or wouldn't show up—never apologize. And once he was there he'd clown around." When Stone couldn't take it any longer, he lit into Arness at a rehearsal, telling him that he didn't belong in the business, and added that "I've read my contract and there's nothing in it that says I have to put diapers on you or wait for you. And if you ever show up late again, buddy, you'll have two things to explain—not only where you were, but where I went!" To Stone's surprise, Arness took the tongue-lashing like a man, telling him that "You're absolutely right." "From that moment on," Stone says, Arness changed, becoming the consummate profession we've read about in TV Guide. "I began to love that guy. He's a great big wonderful cub bear."
I watched Gunsmoke when I was a kid, primarily because my grandfather did, and although I wouldn't rank it as a favorite it was a memorable show nonetheless. The byplay between the main characters—Matt, Doc, Festus and Kitty, and the obvious chemistry between the actors playing them—is the glue that held the show together, and watching it in reruns today confirms the quality of the program.
As for Stone, he's now making the circuit with Ken Curtis, the former Ripcord star who plays Festus, playing fairs, rodeos and horse shows. Of all the characters on Gunsmoke I think Doc and Festus were my two favorites. Seeing them appear together must have been quite an experience.
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Finally, on this longer-than-usual entry, a brief mention of Edith Efron's profile of Gig Young. Young is an acclaimed stage and movie actor, and his career will end with three Oscar nominations (and one win) to his credit, but in this issue he's talking about his current series, The Rogues, in which he stars along with Charles Boyer and David Niven. I bring this up because this article, which I read some years ago now, was the first time I'd read about The Rogues, a series about a family of good-natured con artists making a living out of swindling people who deserve it. According to the reviews, there is a sense that The Rogues is too literate, too clever, for the average viewer who wants his television without having to think about it.I first saw The Rogues a few years ago, when we first got MeTV, and I was absolutely charmed by it. It's a show that desperately deserves a commercial DVD release (although you can get copies if you know where to look); it's better than Leverage, more humorous than The A-Team, and not nearly as complicated as Mission: Impossible. And since it is a series, unlike The Sting, you get to see it every week. It should have run for more than one season, and if you ever get the chance you should give it a try. I will be surprised if my readers aren't as charmed by it as was I. TV
June 10, 2022
Around the dial
It's kind of a light week in the blogosphere; I hope that means more people are out there enjoying themselves instead of sitting in front of a computer like I am. (And since I am, that means you're stuck with me.) But this does give me the opportunity to make an observation before we get to the rest of the week's news.You'll recall that on Wednesday, I reprinted a story from a few years ago looking at radio and television coverage of the assassination and funeral of Robert F. Kennedy. It was, I thought, a measured story, and with the exception of a mention that one didn't have to agree with Kennedy to appreciate the tragic nature of his death, a story that was totally apolitical. There was, in fact, a wealth of information about how radio and television networks reacted to the event (even though Mike Doran didn't agree with Broadcasting magazine's description of The Flying Nun episode*)—enough that nobody could possibly have disagreed with its inclusion on a television website.
*Just kidding, Mike. We kid because we care.
I was, therefore, dismayed to see some of the comments that were directed at the story in one of the classic television Facebook groups to which I belong. (I won't share the name because I don't want to cast aspersions on the mostly serious people who contribute to it.) The comments weren't directed at me, so I've no personal bone to pick.
No, what bothered me was that the conversation immediately turned to who was responsible for Kennedy's death, and whether or not it was part of a conspiracy. "J. Edgar Hoover," one person suggested. His assertion was challenged by someone else. A third commentor piped in with "Mr. Green Jeans," the name of one of Captain Kangaroo's friends.
For some reason, I had a flash of true anger reading this, and I'm a man who doesn't get that angry that often anymore. I replied to one and all that I didn't want to regret having posted the story, but unless they stuck to the topic of the broadcast coverage—which was, after all, what the group was about in the first place—I wouldn't blame the administrator for pulling it. Not only that, there was something so—so juvenile about it all. I swear, these people were like the kids you went to school with who would titter when someone mentioned the word "breast" or "intercourse" or any other word subject to a double entendre. The comments could have come straight from an episode of Bevis and Butthead. They're why we can't have nice things.
There were, fortunately, more comments that were of a serious bent, many from people who remembered the pain themselves; one had seen Kennedy speak during the campaign with her now-husband.
There have been very few moments on this website when we've had bad comments, and most of those I've deleted. (Including spam, although I may have missed a chance at $14 million dollars, I'm not sure.) I haven't had to do it much, though, because the comments we get here are of a uniformly high quality, knowledgeable in the extreme, educational, thoughtful, and funny. I couldn't ask for a better readership. A bigger one, perhaps, but not a better one. Perhaps I don't mention that often enough; perhaps it takes the bad apple to remind one that the rest of the crop is pretty good.
And now to our regular programming.
You all know them. In fact, I may be one of them. They're the most annoying people on television, the most demanding, the most energetic—whatever, they're the people that are only tolerable on television , and David has them at Comfort TV.
Ah, " The General ." The episode of The Prisoner I've been meaning to write about for months, and still haven't gotten around to. But don't wait for me: it's the latest episode that gets John's thoughtful Prisoner in the Asylum treatment at Cult TV Blog. And yes, when we get this back on the schedule, John, I'll share my thoughts. Need to get through Danger Man again first.
At Classic Film & TV Cafe, Rick looks at In Like Flint , the sequel to James Coburn's Our Man Flint, which puts Coburn squarely in the race for the coolest secret agent around. We've got both of those movies in our collection, and the hotline sound is the ringtone on my phone. Call me sometime and I'll show you.
Linda Lawson , who appeared in many the television episode in the 1950s and '60s, and made a comeback in the '90s, died last month, aged 86. Her career receives a proper remembrance by Terence at A Shroud of Thoughts.
Tomorrow would have been Judy Garland's 100th birthday , and as a fellow native of Minnesota, I think it's well worth commemorating, as Aurora does at Once Upon a Screen. Can you think of many other stars as big as she was, who have been dead for as long as she has, who are just now reaching 100? TV
June 8, 2022
Five days in June
Today marks the 54th anniversary of the funeral of Robert F. Kennedy. I'm currently reading a book about his presidential campaign—totally coincidental, I might add; I don't have enough foresight to plan this kind of thing—and not long ago finished one examining the evidence against Sirhan. So, what with the occasional flashbacks I've been seeing pop up in the last few days, it's difficult not to have it on the mind, especially if you remember the moment. Here's something I wrote several years ago about those times, lightly edited for improvement. It still holds up pretty well, if I do say so myself.
It was the middle of the night when Robert F. Kennedy was shot following his victory in the California primary—arguably the biggest American news event ever to occur during the overnight hours. Kennedy gave his victory speech at a quarter past midnight Pacific time—3:15 a.m. on the East Coast—and in those wee hours of the early morning, many people would get their first news of the shooting not from television, but from radio.* In the days before 24/7 television, it's not hard to imagine people lying in bed with the radio on, unable to sleep, listening to a late-night music program when the news broke, and thereafter continuing to lay there in the stillness of the dark, listening to disembodied voices describing what had happened in far-away Los Angeles. *According to a contemporary poll, 56% first received the news on radio. And most people didn't even find out until they'd gotten up that morning; less than 20% had heard the news by 5:00 a.m. ET. By 7:00 a.m., however, 15.9% of all homes with television were watching; on a usual morning, the figure was 1.6%
In Minneapolis, Franklin Hobbs was hosting his popular overnight music program "Hobbs House" on clear channel WCCO-AM, and he presented wire-service reports until CBS came on the air with network coverage.* One thing that stands out from these contemporary bulletins is how fresh in the memory the assassination of JFK still was—RFK is often referred to as "the brother of assassinated President John Kennedy." One report talked of Kennedy's eyes being "open but unseeing," and Hobbes, perhaps trying to keep listeners from panicking, cautions that this might be an "overly-dramatic" report.
*Those early reports had Kennedy being shot in the hip; I've never been sure if someone originally misunderstood "head" as "hip," or if they confused the wounds with those of one of the other bystanders who'd been shot.
I've referred in the past to television as being the most intimate form of communications, but radio can be even more intimate, more one-on-one, especially at nighttime. Television reporters talk at you, their words providing a backdrop to the dominant pictures, while radio reporters talk to you, and the effect can be far more intimate.* And so, lacking the images that television could provide, radio reporters were forced to paint word pictures for their listeners, and these disembodied voices, speaking in that lonely darkness of Wednesday morning, create an unreal, almost surrealistic atmosphere. *As any baseball fan can tell you.
Imagine listening to the reports as you lay in bed during those small hours, your bedside alarm clock silently glowing. Perhaps you were agitated, you had to get up and walk around, slipping on your robe, trying to comprehend this latest horror in a year of increasing horrors—as you looked out your window, was the neighborhood shrouded in blackness, with only the radio voices breaking the dead night? Did you lay there, unwilling or perhaps even afraid to turn on the lights, preferring the shelter of the night, your agony a silent and solitary one? Or did lights begin to snap on in houses up and down the block as the news spread, and did you perhaps call a friend or family member yourself, compelled to share your agitation with others?
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The television networks scrambled to get back on the air. Tabulation of the vote had been miserably slow, in spite of—or perhaps, as Howard K. Smith noted wryly, because of—new automated voting equipment. Therefore, coverage had already stretched more than two hours beyond the planned cutoff by the time Kennedy came down to the ballroom of the Ambassador Hotel to claim victory. He then left the stage, cutting through the pantry behind the ballroom, headed for a press conference that was never held.
By this time, according to Broadcasting magazine, CBS had already ended their coverage, and in New York ,anchor Joseph Benti was across the street at a bar, unwinding a bit after the long broadcast. As news spread, he raced back to the studio and went on the air with the bulletin. At NBC , the only one of the three networks to be broadcasting from Los Angeles, Frank McGee, having received unconfirmed reports in his earpiece, vamped for a few minutes, keeping the studio coverage live until the report could be confirmed. ABC , the only network yet to project Kennedy as the winner, was in the process of signing off in favor of Joey Bishop's show; the credits were actually rolling when the first report came in, and after a couple of "please stand by" announcements, Howard K. Smith returned with the news.
WPIX in New York broadcast the single word "Shame" for overtwo hours Wednesday morning as RFK underwent surgery.
Kennedy underwent surgery early that Wednesday morning; expected to last less than an hour, it instead ran for almost four. The networks maintained continuous coverage throughout the morning; in ABC's case, devoting Dick Cavett's morning talk show to commercial-free discussion of the breaking story. (See here and here .)
Kennedy clung to life for over 24 hours, and his passing, like the shooting itself, came in the middle of the night. Throughout Wednesday afternoon and evening, networks provided periodic medical bulletins and special reports, otherwise maintaining a semblance of their regular programming, albeit with subtle changes: ABC cancelled a planned repeat of the murder mystery Laura (featuring Lee Radziwill, Jackie Kennedy's sister). Wednesday's Joey Bishop Show was expanded to two hours, commercial free, and included an interview with Andrew West of Mutual Broadcasting, who had been only feet away from Kennedy when the shots were fired, resulting in a memorable radio broadcast.
Kennedy died just after 4:30 a.m. Eastern time Thursday morning. and the networks remained on the air until noon, returning later in the afternoon for the departure of the plane returning his body to New York. CBS preempted its primetime schedule for continuous coverage, while ABC and NBC presented special broadcasts following an abbreviated schedule. ABC substituted episodes of less violent episodes of The Avengers and The Flying Nun,* and Johnny Carson devoted that night's entire Tonight Show to the assassination. Meanwhile, on NET, Fred Rogers presented the first primetime episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood to help parents talk about the assassination with their children.
*The Flying Nun too violent? Oh, yes; that night's storyline involved Sr. Bertrille finding herself in the middle of a mob hit.
Kennedy's body lay in state in St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York throughout Friday. The funeral Mass was held there on Saturday, and then the body was taken by funeral train to Washington, D.C. where he was buried next to his brother on Saturday night.
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YouTube is loaded with television coverage of John F. Kennedy's assassination, and there's a good chunk of broadcast material from Robert F. Kennedy's as well, including the initial broadcasts from all three networks. When hard news wasn't being rehashed, discussion turned to the issues of violence in American (in general) and gun control (in particular), not only on programs like The Dick Cavett Show, but from news commentators as well. If you want proof, look no further than Frank Reynolds and his impassioned commentary on gun control during ABC's Wednesday morning coverage.
These television broadcasts are all fascinating, as they would be to someone who runs a blog called It's About TV!, but it's the radio coverage I want to return to. I began by discussing how the news spread on radio, and thanks to this amazing collection of radio broadcasts we can hear how the coverage proceeds throughout the early morning hours on Wednesday, to the announcement of Kennedy's death Thursday, and the funeral and burial on Saturday. Particularly interesting is Arthur Godfrey's shrewd commentary on his CBS morning show Thursday. Amid the calls for restrictions on guns and other liberties, Godfrey says, people will say that "there ought to be a law." But, he continues, "We can only hope and pray that reason will continue to prevail...the danger at hand, it seems to me, is that men of questionable purpose will find an excuse in what's happened to alter our system, to use our emotional state as a cover for rushing through some repressive laws that purport to cure the ills of society. In my view it's not a time for hysterical action or pejorative oratory." Godfrey was a master of communication, it's true, but even so it's difficult to imagine that a television commentator (other than, perhaps, Ronald Reagan), could make the same connection to an audience.
In much the same way, radio coverage of Saturday's funeral and burial provides a dimension different from that of television. Without the fillers that TV pictures provide, the announcers were forced to describe the unfolding events, and during the many times when nothing at all was happening, their commentary provided nothing so much as an insight into their own hearts. During the funeral, covered on CBS radio by Douglas Edwards and Maury Robinson, the men struggle with the unfamiliar "new" liturgy of the Catholic Church (a hybrid between the old Latin Tridentine rite and the soon-to-be-revealed Vatican II Novus Ordo), all the while explaining the significance of the words and gestures occurring in front of them.
Images of Saturday (upper): Ted Kennedy eulogizes his brother; Leonard Bernstein conducts the New York Philharmonic in the Adagietto from Mahler's Seventh; (lower) a passenger train coming from the other direction kills two in New Jersey; RFK is laid to rest hours behind schedule. Without the pictures, the listener is forced to remember not the sights, but the sounds, of those events: the quivering voice of Edward Kennedy eulogizing his brother; the mournful strains of Mahler's Adagietto accompanying the procession of Kennedy youngsters as they brought the Communion offerings to the altar, the smooth, sad voice of Andy Williams singing "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" as the pallbearers prepare to remove the casket from the Cathedral. Amazingly, near the end of Kennedy's funeral, a news update informs us that James Earl Ray, accused of assassinating Martin Luther King a mere two months before, had been apprehended in London. News, like death, takes no holiday.
The funeral train taking Kennedy's body from New York to Washington was both a tribute and, in some respects, a fiasco. Two people were killed in Elizabeth, New Jersey by an express train travelling in the opposite direction, and after that the Penn Central shut down northbound rail traffic. The funeral train was almost five hours late in arriving in Washington, travelling slowly to afford the crowds, estimated at perhaps two million people, a better chance to view it. It had been expected that the burial would occur in late afternoon or early evening, and Major League Baseball had rescheduled the day's games to the evening, to start after the ceremony. Instead, the first pitches were thrown as the train continued its slow progress; the actual burial didn't occur until after 10:00 p.m. Eastern. On television the remote images showed the train pulling into Washington's Union Station; on radio, one hears only the lonely ringing of the train's bell. As the motorcade processes down Constitution Avenue to Arlington, a radio reporter apologizes for not being able to provide better coverage, but the darkness combined with the leafy canopy formed by the trees lining the street served to obscure her view. George Herman, anchoring CBS' radio coverage, mentions the Kennedy people asking CBS to pass along a request to those lining the funeral route and listening to transistor radios that they light a match as the cortege passes by.
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I was eight years old in 1968, and I have more of a personal memory of Robert Kennedy's death than that of John's. I watched the coverage the day through, not really understanding or appreciating what I was saying. I was upset that the baseball game had been preempted, and as the day and night wore on I hung in there, waiting for the Bedtime Nooz , Channel 4's late-Saturday night satiric comedy news show. When it did air, as the hour approached midnight, it was done straight, without humor. Again, I was disappointed.
Watching and listening to the events from that week (covered in fascinating detail in this issue of Broadcasting ) has provided an opportunity to reflect on everything that happened, and how it was broadcast. Nineteen sixty-eight had already been an eventful, grim year: the Tet Offensive, Eugene McCarthy's challenge to President Johnson and LBJ's subsequent decision not to seek reelection, the assassination of Martin Luther King, race riots, war protests, and now this. Still to come was the tumultuous Democratic convention in Chicago and the election; one of the few bright spots was Apollo 8's memorable Christmas Eve trip around the moon.
As such, I think the American people were a more cynical lot, numbed somewhat to the events that seemed to cascade, one after another, throughout the year. Whereas JFK's assassination was truly shocking, if not incomprehensible, by June of 1968 the assassination of Robert Kennedy was all-too believable. And perhaps that's what made it such a deeply sad event for so many, for without the anesthesia of shock to cushion the blow, the emotions that had been rubbed raw were there for the taking. It was so stunning, so unexpected, so quick. I freely admit that I am not now and never have been a fan of the Kennedys politically; in most issues, we're about as far apart as can be. But the events of that week in June worked on so many levels: the political, the personal, the familial. And as the day drew to an end, and the country worried about what might come next,
That night, in recounting the "stunning tragedy" of Robert F. Kennedy, ABC's Keith McBee reviewed the "unique, painful events" of Saturday, June 8, 1968. Those two descriptions combined the best of the elements we've discussed, picture and sound. It was, indeed, a unique, painful, and tragic week. TV
June 6, 2022
What's on TV? Monday, June 10, 1969
Last week, we were in Houston; this week's issue travels north to Dallas. Same state, 11 years apart. Don't know if we've had that kind of yin and yang before. Anyway, here are a couple of things to note: The Red Skelton Hour features Red's famous rendition of the Pledge of Allegiance, being rebroadcast due to "enthusiastic viewer response." (See what TV used to be like before the advent of the VCR?) You can see that original broadcast
here
, in its original broadcast of January 14, 1969. Meanwhile, on NBC's Monday Night at the Movies, Bobby Darin stars in Gunfight in Abilene, a movie for which he also wrote the score. I can't deny that I'm impressed. How do you feel about the rest of today's lineup?-3- KFDX (WICHITA FALLS) (NBC) MORNING 6:30 R.F.D. 3—Wichita Falls -C- 7:00 TODAY -C- [News and weather at 7:25 AM. and 8:25 A.M.] 9:00 IT TAKES TWO -C- Guests: Michael Landon, Shari Lewis, David Soul and their spouses. Host: Vin Scully. 9:25 NEWS—Nancy Dickerson -C- 9:30 CONCENTRATION—Game -C- 10:00 PERSONALITY—Game -C- Celebrities: Anne Jackson, Eli Wallach, Shelley Winters, Ella Fitzgerald. Host: Larry Blyden. 10:30 HOLLYWOOD SQUARES—Game -C- Players: Jack Cassidy, Robert Culp, Sally Ann Howes, France Nuyen, Mickey Rooney 11:00 JEOPARDY—Game -C- 11:30 EYE GUESS -C- 11:55 NEWS—Edwin Newman -C- AFTERNOON 12:00 NEWS, WEATHER -C- 12:30 HIDDEN FACES—Serial -C- 1:00 DAYS OF OUR LIVES—Serial -C- 1:30 DOCTORS -C- 2:00 ANOTHER WORLD—Serial -C- 2:30 YOU DON’T SAY!—Game -C- Guests: Jack Albertson, Vera Miles 3:00 MATCH GAME -C- Guests: Garry Moore, Connie Stevens. Host: Gene Rayburn 3:25 NEWS—Floyd Kalber -C- 3:30 ROCKY AND HIS FRIENDS -C- 4:30 GILLIGAN’S ISLAND—Comedy -C- 5:00 ERNEST TUBB—Music -C- 5:30 NEWS—Chet Huntley, David Brinkley -C- EVENING 6:00 WEATHER, NEWS, SPORTS -C- 6:30 STAR TREK -C- 7:30 JULIA -C- 8:00 MOVIE—Western -C- “Gunfight in Abilene” (1967) 10:00 NEWS, WEATHER -C- 10:30 JOHNNY CARSON -C-
-4- KRLD (DALLAS) (CBS) MORNING 6:30 BLACK HERITAGE—History -C- 7:00 NEWS—Joseph Benti -C- 8:00 CAPTAIN KANGAROO -C- 9:00 LUCILLE BALL -C- 9:30 BEVERLY HILLBILLIES—Comedy -C- 10:00 ANDY GRIFFITH 10:30 DICK VAN DYKE 11:00 LOVE OF LIFE -C- 11:25 NEWS—Douglas Edwards -C- 11:30 SEARCH FOR TOMORROW—Serial -C- AFTERNOON 12:00 NEWS, WEATHER -C- 12:30 AS THE WORLD TURNS—Serial -C- 1:00 LOVE IS A MANY-SPLENDORED THING—Serial -C- 1:30 GUIDING LIGHT -C- 2:00 SECRET STORM -C- 2:30 EDGE OF NIGHT -C- 3:00 LINKLETTER SHOW -C- Guests: Marty Ingels, Ada Allegretti 3:30 MISTER ED—Comedy 4:00 GILLIGAN’S ISLAND—Comedy -C- 4:30 MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. 5:30 NEWS—Walter Cronkite -C- EVENING 6:00 NEWS, WEATHER -C- 6:30 LANCER—Western -C- 7:30 RED SKELTON -C- 8:30 DORIS DAY—Comedy -C- 9:00 60 MINUTES -C- Special 10:00 NEWS, WEATHER, SPORTS -C- 10:35 LAW OF THE LAND -C- 10:40 NEWS -C- 11:00 MOVIE—Science Fiction -C- “Conqueror of Atlantis” (Italian; 1964) 12:30 MANHUNT—Police
-5- WBAP (FORT WORTH) (NBC) MORNING 6:30 GOOD MORNING -C- 7:00 TODAY -C- [News and weather at 7:25 AM. and 8:25 A.M.] 9:00 IT TAKES TWO -C- Guests: Michael Landon, Shari Lewis, David Soul and their spouses. Host: Vin Scully. 9:25 NEWS—Nancy Dickerson -C- 9:30 CONCENTRATION—Game -C- 10:00 PERSONALITY—Game -C- Celebrities: Anne Jackson, Eli Wallach, Shelley Winters, Ella Fitzgerald. Host: Larry Blyden. 10:30 HOLLYWOOD SQUARES—Game -C- Players: Jack Cassidy, Robert Culp, Sally Ann Howes, France Nuyen, Mickey Rooney 11:00 JEOPARDY—Game -C- 11:30 EYE GUESS -C- 11:55 NEWS—Edwin Newman -C- AFTERNOON 12:00 NEWS -C- 12:30 HIDDEN FACES—Serial -C- 1:00 DAYS OF OUR LIVES—Serial -C- 1:30 DOCTORS -C- 2:00 ANOTHER WORLD—Serial -C- 2:30 YOU DON’T SAY!—Game -C- Guests: Jack Albertson, Vera Miles 3:00 MATCH GAME -C- Guests: Garry Moore, Connie Stevens. Host: Gene Rayburn 3:25 NEWS—Floyd Kalber -C- 3:30 MIKE DOUGLAS—Variety -C- Co-host: Joe Namath. Guests: Sue Lyon, Julie Budd 5:00 TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES -C- 5:30 NEWS—Chet Huntley, David Brinkley -C- EVENING 6:00 WEATHER, NEWS, SPORTS -C- 6:30 STAR TREK -C- 7:30 JULIA -C- 8:00 MOVIE—Western -C- “Gunfight in Abilene” (1967) 10:00 NEWS, WEATHER -C- 10:25 NEWS, SPORTS -C- 10:35 JOHNNY CARSON -C- 12:00 NEWS -C- 12:10 BOBBIE WYGANT—Review -C-
-6- KCEN (TEMPLE-WACO) (NBC) MORNING 6:40 R.F.D. 6—Bolt -C- 7:00 TODAY -C- [News and weather at 7:25 AM. and 8:25 A.M.] 9:00 IT TAKES TWO -C- Guests: Michael Landon, Shari Lewis, David Soul and their spouses. Host: Vin Scully. 9:25 NEWS—Nancy Dickerson -C- 9:30 CONCENTRATION—Game -C- 10:00 PERSONALITY—Game -C- Celebrities: Anne Jackson, Eli Wallach, Shelley Winters, Ella Fitzgerald. Host: Larry Blyden. 10:30 HOLLYWOOD SQUARES—Game -C- Players: Jack Cassidy, Robert Culp, Sally Ann Howes, France Nuyen, Mickey Rooney 11:00 JEOPARDY—Game -C- 11:30 EYE GUESS -C- 11:55 NEWS—Edwin Newman -C- AFTERNOON 12:00 NEWS, WEATHER -C- 12:15 CATHY’S CORNER -C- 12:30 HIDDEN FACES—Serial -C- 1:00 DAYS OF OUR LIVES—Serial -C- 1:30 DOCTORS -C- 2:00 ANOTHER WORLD—Serial -C- 2:30 YOU DON’T SAY!—Game -C- Guests: Jack Albertson, Vera Miles 3:00 MATCH GAME -C- Guests: Garry Moore, Connie Stevens. Host: Gene Rayburn. 3:25 NEWS—Floyd Kalber -C- 3:30 DENNIS THE MENACE—Comedy 4:00 MOVIE—Drama “Breakthrough” (1950) 5:30 NEWS—Chet Huntley, David Brinkley -C- EVENING 6:00 WEATHER, NEWS, SPORTS -C- 6:30 STAR TREK -C- 7:30 JULIA -C- 8:00 MOVIE—Drama “Crisis” (1950) 10:00 NEWS, WEATHER, SPORTS -C- 10:30 JOHNNY CARSON -C-
-6- KAUZ (WICHITA FALLS) (CBS) MORNING 6:30 FILM—Navy -C- 6:55 NEWS, WEATHER 7:00 NEWS—Joseph Benti -C- 8:00 CAPTAIN KANGAROO -C- 9:00 LUCILLE BALL -C- 9:30 DONNA’S NOTEBOOK -C- 10:00 ANDY GRIFFITH 10:30 DICK VAN DYKE 11:00 LOVE OF LIFE -C- 11:25 NEWS—Douglas Edwards -C- 11:30 SEARCH FOR TOMORROW—Serial -C- AFTERNOON 12:00 NEWS -C- 12:15 PAUL HARVEY—Commentary -C- 12:30 WEATHER -C- 12:30 AS THE WORLD TURNS—Serial -C- 1:00 LOVE IS A MANY-SPLENDORED THING—Serial -C- 1:30 GUIDING LIGHT -C- 2:00 SECRET STORM -C- 2:30 EDGE OF NIGHT -C- 3:00 LINKLETTER SHOW -C- Guests: Marty Ingels, Ada Allegretti 3:30 BEVERLY HILLBILLIES -C- 4:00 MIKE DOUGLAS—Variety -C- Guests include Mason Williams 5:30 NEWS—Walter Cronkite -C- EVENING 6:00 WEATHER, NEWS, SPORTS -C- 6:30 LANCER—Western -C- 7:30 RED SKELTON -C- 8:30 DORIS DAY—Comedy -C- 9:00 MOVIE—Drama -C- “That Forsyte Woman” (1949) 10:00 NEWS -C- 10:15 PAUL HARVEY—Commentary -C- 10:20 SPORTS, WEATHER -C-
-7- KLTV (TYLER) (NBC, ABC, CBS) MORNING 7:00 TODAY -C- [News and weather at 7:25 AM. and 8:25 A.M.] 9:00 IT TAKES TWO -C- Guests: Michael Landon, Shari Lewis, David Soul and their spouses. Host: Vin Scully. 9:25 NEWS—Nancy Dickerson -C- 9:30 CONCENTRATION—Game -C- 10:00 PERSONALITY—Game -C- Celebrities: Anne Jackson, Eli Wallach, Shelley Winters, Ella Fitzgerald. Host: Larry Blyden. 10:30 HOLLYWOOD SQUARES—Game -C- Players: Jack Cassidy, Robert Culp, Sally Ann Howes, France Nuyen, Mickey Rooney 11:00 LOVE OF LIFE -C- 11:25 NEWS 11:30 EYE GUESS -C- 11:55 NEWS—Edwin Newman -C- AFTERNOON 12:00 OPEN HOUSE 12:15 NEWS, WEATHER, SPORTS 12:30 HIDDEN FACES—Serial -C- 1:00 DAYS OF OUR LIVES—Serial -C- 1:30 DOCTORS -C- 2:00 ANOTHER WORLD—Serial -C- 2:30 YOU DON’T SAY!—Game -C- Guests: Jack Albertson, Vera Miles 3:00 MATCH GAME -C- Guests: Garry Moore, Connie Stevens. Host: Gene Rayburn. 3:25 NEWS 3:30 DARK SHADOWS—Serial 4:00 GENERAL HOSPITAL—Serial 4:30 LET’S MAKE A DEAL—Game 5:00 GOOD NEWS FOR TODAY 5:30 NEWS—Chet Huntley, David Brinkley -C- EVENING 6:00 NEWS, WEATHER, SPORTS -C- 6:30 MOD SQUAD -C- 7:30 JULIA -C- 8:00 MOVIE—Western -C- “Gunfight in Abilene” (1967) 10:00 NEWS, WEATHER 10:30 MOTHERS-IN-LAW—Comedy -C- 11:00 JOHNNY CARSON -C- 12:00 NEWS
-7- KSWO (LAWTON-WICHITA FALLS) (ABC) MORNING 8:30 PANORAMA—Travel -C- 9:00 DANCERCIZE—Drake -C- 9:30 MOVIE—Drama “Parachute Battalion” (1941) 11:00 BEWITCHED—Comedy 11:30 FUNNY YOU SHOULD ASK—Game -C- 11:55 CHILDREN’S DOCTOR -C- AFTERNOON 12:00 DREAM HOUSE—Game -C- 12:30 LET’S MAKE A DEAL -C- 1:00 NEWLYWED GAME -C- 1:30 DATING GAME -C- 2:00 GENERAL HOSPITAL -C- 2:30 ONE LIFE TO LIVE -C- 3:00 DARK SHDOWS—Serial -C- 3:30 PROFILE—Stapleton -C- 4:00 TWILIGHT ZONE—Drama 5:00 NEWS—Reynolds/Smith -C- 5:30 MARSHAL DILLON—Western EVENING 6:00 NEWS, WEATHER -C- 6:30 MOD SQUAD -C- 7:30 IT TAKES A THIEF -C- 8:30 N.Y.P.D.—Crime Drama -C- 9:00 LAREDO—Western -C- 10:00 NEWS, WEATHER -C- 10:30 JOEY BISHOP -C- Guests: Sarah Vaughan, Jackie Vernon
-8- WFAA (DALLAS) (ABC) MORNING 6:00 OPERATION LIFT -C- 6:30 R.F.D.—Murray Cox -C- 6:55 NEWS -C- 7:00 MR. PEPPERMINT—Children -C- 8:00 REAL McCOYS—Comedy 8:30 PAUL HARVEY—Commentary -C- 9:35 MOVIE—Drama -C- “Black Widow” (1954) 10:30 DIVORCE COURT—Drama -C- 11:00 BEWITCHED—Comedy 11:30 FUNNY YOU SHOULD ASK—Game -C- 11:55 CHILDREN’S DOCTOR -C- AFTERNOON 12:00 DREAM HOUSE—Game -C- 12:30 LET’S MAKE A DEAL -C- 1:00 NEWLYWED GAME -C- 1:30 DATING GAME -C- 2:00 GENERAL HOSPITAL -C- 2:30 ONE LIFE TO LIVE -C- 3:00 DARK SHDOWS—Serial -C- 3:30 MOVIE—Drama “Anatomy of a Psycho” (1963) 4:55 PAUL HARVEY—Commentary -C- 5:00 NEWS—Reynolds/Smith -C- 5:30 WHAT’S MY LINE?—Game -C- EVENING 6:00 NEWS -C- 6:30 MOD SQUAD -C- 7:30 WAGON TRAIN—Western -C- 9:00 DICK CAVETT—Variety -C- Guests: The Cowsills, James Simon Kunin and Tony Dolon 10:00 NEWS -C- 11:00 JOEY BISHOP -C- Guests: Sarah Vaughan, Jackie Vernon 12:30 NEWS -C-
10 KWTX (WACO) (CBS ABC) MORNING 7:00 NEWS—Joseph Benti -C- 8:00 CAPTAIN KANGAROO -C- 9:00 LUCILLE BALL -C- 9:30 BEVERLY HILLBILLIES—Comedy -C- 10:00 ANDY GRIFFITH 10:30 DICK VAN DYKE 11:00 LOVE OF LIFE -C- 11:25 NEWS—Douglas Edwards -C- 11:30 SEARCH FOR TOMORROW—Serial -C- AFTERNOON 12:00 TEN ACRES -C- 12:30 AS THE WORLD TURNS—Serial -C- 1:00 LOVE IS A MANY-SPLENDORED THING—Serial -C- 1:30 GUIDING LIGHT -C- 2:00 SECRET STORM -C- 2:30 EDGE OF NIGHT -C- 3:00 LINKLETTER SHOW -C- Guests: Marty Ingels, Ada Allegretti 3:30 BETTER LIVNG -C- 4:00 DREAM HOUSE—Game 4:30 BEWITCHED—Comedy 5:00 GENERAL HOSPITAL—Serial 5:30 NEWS—Walter Cronkite -C- EVENING 6:00 WEATHER, NEWS, SPORTS -C- 6:30 LANCER—Western -C- 7:30 RED SKELTON -C- 8:30 DORIS DAY—Comedy -C- 9:00 MOVIE—Musical “Yes Sir, That’s My Baby” (1949) [Movie resumes after 10 P.M. news] 10:00 NEWS, WEATHER, SPORTS -C- 11:15 ALFRED HITCHCOCK—Drama
11 KTVT (FORT WORTH) (Ind.) MORNING 6:45 NEWS—Don Sturgis 7:00 SLAM BANG THEATER -C- 8:30 ROMPER ROOM—Children -C- 9:00 JACK LA LANNE—Exercise -C- 9:30 PDQ—Game -C- 10:00 GIRL TALK—Panel -C- 10:30 MOVIE—Drama “The Rising of the Moon” (1957) AFTERNOON 12:00 NEWS, WEATHER, BUSINESS REPORT -C- 12:30 CARTOON CARNIVAL -C- 1:00 GALLOPING GOURMET -C- 1:30 PETER GUNN—Mystery 2:00 SEA HUNT—Adventure 2:30 WHIRLYBIRDS—Adventure 3:00 RIPCORD—Adventure 4:00 THREE STOOGES—Comedy 5:00 CISCO KID—Western -C- 5:30 TWILIGHT ZONE—Drama EVENING 6:00 WELLS FARGO—Western 6:30 WANTED—DEAD OR ALIVE 7:00 LAWMAN—Western 7:30 PERRY MASON—Mystery 8:30 ALFRED HITCHCOCK—Drama 9:00 MOVIE—Police “Running Wild” (1955) 10:00 NEWS, WEATHER -C- 11:00 MOVIE—Drama “Strange Confession” (1944) 12:30 NEWS -C-
12 KXII (ARDMORE-SHERMAN-DENNISON) (NBC) MORNING 7:00 TODAY -C- [News and weather at 7:25 AM. and 8:25 A.M.] 9:00 IT TAKES TWO -C- Guests: Michael Landon, Shari Lewis, David Soul and their spouses. Host: Vin Scully. 9:25 NEWS—Nancy Dickerson -C- 9:30 CONCENTRATION—Game -C- 10:00 PERSONALITY—Game -C- Celebrities: Anne Jackson, Eli Wallach, Shelley Winters, Ella Fitzgerald. Host: Larry Blyden. 10:30 HOLLYWOOD SQUARES—Game -C- Players: Jack Cassidy, Robert Culp, Sally Ann Howes, France Nuyen, Mickey Rooney 11:00 JEOPARDY—Game -C- 11:30 EYE GUESS -C- 11:55 NEWS—Edwin Newman -C- AFTERNOON 12:00 TWELVE ACRES—Rudy Dockray 12:30 HIDDEN FACES—Serial -C- 1:00 DAYS OF OUR LIVES—Serial -C- 1:30 DOCTORS -C- 2:00 ANOTHER WORLD—Serial -C- 2:30 YOU DON’T SAY!—Game -C- Guests: Jack Albertson, Vera Miles 3:00 MATCH GAME -C- Guests: Garry Moore, Connie Stevens. Host: Gene Rayburn. 3:25 NEWS—Floyd Kalber -C- 3:30 WOMAN’S WORLD—Cox 4:00 MISTER ED—Comedy 4:30 WESTERN CLUBHOUSE 5:00 McHALE’S NAVY—Comedy 5:30 NEWS—Chet Huntley, David Brinkley -C- EVENING 6:00 NEWS, WEATHER, SPORTS -C- 6:30 STAR TREK -C- 7:30 JULIA -C- 8:00 MOVIE—Western -C- “Gunfight in Abilene” (1967) 10:00 NEWS, WEATHER, SPORTS 10:30 JOHNNY CARSON -C-
13 KERA (DALLAS) (NET) AFTERNOON 1:30 DRIVER EDUCATION 4:00 SING HI—SING LO—Music 4:15 FRIENDLY GIANT—Children 4:30 WHAT’S NEW—Children 5:00 MISTEROGERS—Children 5:30 DRIVER EDUCATION EVENING 6:30 SHORTCUTS TO FASHION 7:00 TO BE ANNOUNCED 7:30 REPUBLICAN PARTY 8:00 NET FESTIVAL—Yves Montand 9:00 FIRING LINE—Debate -C- Guest: Al Capp
21 KFWT (FORT WORTH) (Ind.) AFTERNOON 4:00 MOVIE—Comedy “Public Deb No. 1” (1940) 5:30 DON SHOOK—Variety -C- EVENING 6:00 MOVIE—Comedy “The Late George Apley” (1947) 7:30 SOUTHWEST SPORTS -C- 8:00 NEWS, WEATHER, SPORTS -C- 8:15 MOVIE—Drama “Frenzy” (1946) 9:30 MOVIE—Drama “Wrecking Crew” (1942)
39 KDTV (DALLAS) (Ind.) MORNING 9:00 NEWS 9:15 STOCK MARKET OBSERVER AFTERNOON 1:30 BIOGRAPHY—Documentary 2:00 JOAN RIVERS -C- Guest: Anne Meara 2:30 MOVIE—Drama “Edge of Hell” (1955) 4:00 BOZO’S BIG TOP -C- 5:30 LITTLE RASCALS—Comedy EVENING 6:00 F TROOP—Comedy -C- 6:30 DENNIS THE MENACE—Comedy 7:00 FINANCIAL FINAL -C- 7:30 MOVIE—Drama “Detective Story” (1951) 9:30 ALLEN LUDDEN—Variety -C- Guests: Allan Sherman, Bridget Hanley, Damita Jo
TV
June 4, 2022
This week in TV Guide: June 7, 1969
As you have undoubtedly noticed over these many years, I don't always feature the cover story first, and sometimes I don't even write about it at all. It depends on my fickle nature, the barometric pressure, and other mysteries of life. Sometimes, however, the cover gets in your face, so to speak, and forces itself on you whether you like it or not. This is one of those instances. You'd be asking about it anyway, so here it is.Dancing is a big deal on television of the 1960s. Most variety shows have their own dance troupes, prominently featured in the opening credits (The June Taylor Dancers!)*, singers employ them to enliven a static stage, and shows like Hulabaloo thrive on them. And one of the busiest dancers out there is Debbie Macomber—so busy, apparently, she can't even stand still for the cover. She was a regular on The Jerry Lewis Show, good enough that she was actually put under contract, a rarety in the business. She would have been on Turn-On, had ABC not turned it off. She played a dancing version of Holly Golightly in a musical version of Breakfast at Tiffanys that was so bad it closed before it opened. She almost got into the movie Cabaret, but "they gave the part to some buxom, sexy dame."
*Or the Juul Haalmeyer Dancers, if you prefer.
You know you wanted this pictureDancing is a way for her to reach out and touch people, to "make everyone feel they are dancing." It also fills an emptiness in her life; her father is dead, her mother is all the family she has, and she "has no boyfriends—only male friends who are dancers." (They probably wouldn't be any help in the boyfriend market, anyway.) Dancing is her life. She loves "the show-business atmosphere, the drive, the competition"; Jerry Lewis is "the greatest man I ever worked for," and is into astrology, meditation and the metaphysical, numerology, and the psychic world. And even though dancers, she says, "work the hardest and are paid the least," she stays with it because it is her future. What is the future for Debbie Macomber? Her IMDb bio is virtually non-existent; her last listed credit is the aforementioned Turn-On. There is, as it turns out, a fairly prominent Debbie Macomber, but unless I'm very mistaken, the well-known and best-selling romance novelist is not the same as the not-quite famous dancer. After all, the author Debbie Macomber has a net worth of about $10 million, and as we know, dancers aren't paid that much.
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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. The Hollywood Squares, Cleveland Amory writes, is really "several games in one." That is, I think, overcomplicating the matter. In fact, I'm not even sure it's a game at all, not in the competitive way we think of it. Sure, there are winners and losers, and anyone who wins five consecutive times also wins a new car; even if you don't get the car, there's money to be won—not enough to retire on, perhaps, but you could at least relax with a nice dinner.
Amory finds that part of the show a little complicated, though, and wisely skips over it in favor of what The Hollywood Squares is really all about: Peter Marshall feeding questions to celebrities, who respond with a variety of jokes, one-liners and double-entendres. The same thing could probably be accomplished sitting on the couch with Johnny on The Tonight Show. But would it be as much fun?
Cleve doesn't dwell on that question, and it's really a pointless one, just as it was trying to figure out whether or not You Bet Your Life was anything other than a vehicle for Groucho. And as far as I know, he's not on the Squares, but Vincent Price is, and he is Amory's favorite among those panelists who are "primarily good jokesters rather than good guessers." Close behind Price is Paul Lynde, whose answers are part of television lore. "Paul," Peter Marshall asks, "what should you call half a pair of pants?" "Indecent," Lynde replies. Marshall calls The Hollywood Squares "the wildest show in the world." "It isn't all that," Amory says, "but it's a lot more for your money than most game shows, and these days that's something"
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Outwardly, there's nothing in Arnold Hano's profile of David Hartman that suggests someday he'll be the extremely popular, outrageously successful host of ABC's morning news program Good Morning America. Oh, the article covers the usual terrain; how he majored in economics at Duke University, did a tour in the Air Force, paid his dues as a struggling actor for several years, and finally made it as a regular on The Virginian before he was plucked from the West to become a doctor as part of NBC's upcoming series The Bold Ones. When you look at it that way, there's nothing to distinguish David Hartman from any other up-and-coming television star of the era. But, as is so often the case when one looks at things retrospectively, the signs not only are there, they're obvious. I mean, read the following paragraph: "Such is the buoyant view of life of David Hartman. Call it the power of positive delusion. He kids himself into thinking that not only does every cloud have a silver lining, but the cloud itself is beautiful." Doesn't that perfectly describe a morning show host? Frank Price of Universal says of him, "He's so nice, it's scary." Hano describes him as "the nicest young man since Jimmy Stewart wrestled evil on the floor of Congress one score and nine years ago" Older woman want to mother him, younger women want to date him. He blushes when a girlfriend asks him to kiss her over the phone.
Hartman grew up in a caring home; "This open-handed, warm, loving treatment has left its mark. 'I'm not a closed person,' says David Hartman. 'I like to express myself. American men are too often afraid to feel, to emote It's a pity. The foreign male is not afraid. He's not even afraid to kiss another man. If I like something, I'm effusive." I'm left wondering why it took another six-and-a-half years for a network to put him on in the morning. I mean, this guy has it all.
And in case you're wondering, I'm not doing a hit piece on him. I liked him on Good Morning America; I liked him when he'd appear with Jerry Lewis on the Labor Day telethons. I liked him in The Bold Ones. (Lucas Tanner, not so much.) But the next time a network wants to write a job desciption for a morning show host, all they need to do is read this article.
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Whenever we enter the summer season, I'm always left with one thought: among the reruns that dominate the airwaves, will I find anything interesting? Now, your idea of what's interesting may be different from mine, but as I've pointed out before, I'm the one sitting behind the keyboard, so I get to choose. And what have I chosen this week?
Well, arguably the biggest show of the week is the 21st annual Emmy Awards (Sunday, 9:00 p.m. CT, CBS), hosted by Bill Cosby at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, and Merv Griffin at Carnegie Hall in New York. You can see by the close up that the folks who owned this TV Guide were keeping score at home, which is a detail I really appreciate; it feels like I'm holding a piece of history you can date all the way back to the broadcast. (The winners are circled.)
A couple of interesting tidbits; first, according to the always-reliable Wikipedia, NET Playhouse's win as Outstanding Drama Series was the first ever win in a major category by a show from outside the big three networks. Second, in an effort to prevent the same performers and programs from winning each year, all shows that had aired more than two seasons were ineligible. Intriguing idea, s'il vous plaît? (Another interesting item: the show is scheduled for a 90-minute running time. Right.)
Arguably, the biggest sports event of the week is on ABC's Wide World of Sports: highlights of the Indianapolis 500 (Saturday, 4:00 p.m.), held Friday, May 30. It's a historic race, as the great Mario Andretti wins his one and only Indy 500. This was always one of the highlights of the Wide World year, given that same-day taped coverage won't begin for another two years, and live coverage doesn't start until 1986. If you want to see it as it happens, you've got two choices: pay to go see the closed-circuit broadcast in a local theater, or listen to the live broadcast on the radio. (To this day, true fans like yours truly watch the race with the sound muted and listen on the radio.) That's not the only sports headliner, though; at the same time on CBS, Majestic Prince goes for the Triple Crown at the Belmont Stakes, trying to be the first to claim the Crown since Citation in 1948. Alas, it's not to be, as the Prince finishes second to Arts and Letters, the second-place finisher in the Derby and Preakness.
And speaking of sports, this note from The Doan Report, that old favorites such as Laugh-In and Lucy have a new kind of competition on the way: ABC has agreed to telecast 13 consecutive weeks of prime-time football next season from the newly merged National and American Football Leagues. "Each game will run close to midnight or after in the East." It's a prime-time breakthrough for pro sports; the deal is "for a 'minimum' of three years." Fifty-three years later, it's still going.
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Earlier in this issue, you read Cleveland Amory's review of The Hollywood Squares, and a few weeks ago, I wrote about a profile of Peter Marshall. Well, there's no reason not to keep; a good thing going, so we'll start with Saturday morning's Storybook Squares (11:00 a.m., NBC), in which our favorite celebrities play nursery rhyme and other children's characters. Remember that? Cliff Arquette played himself, or rather Charley Weaver, just as he did on the regular version, but otherwise you have Abby Dalton playing Little Miss Muffet, Nanette Fabray as The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe, Stu Gilliam as Merlin the Wizard, Carolyn Jones as Morticia Addams (natch), and others. In case you're curious how that worked, you can see an episode here from February 22, 1969, and since this week's show is a rerun, it might very well be this one.
Also on Saturday: it was a couple of weeks ago that I wrote about the "wedding of the year" on Mister Peepers, and mentioned other big TV weddings, but here's one I neglected: Max and Agent 99 on Get Smart (7:00 p.m., NBC). I really did think that killed the show, but then what do I know? Best to opt for the debut of The Johnny Cash Show, the summer replacement for The Hollywood Palace (8:30 p.m., ABC). On this premiere show, Johnny's guests are Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Doug Kershaw, and Fannie Flagg. His regulars are June Carter and the Carter Family, Carl Perkins, the Statler Brothers, and the Tennessee Three. Not bad, not bad.Leaving aside the Emmys, the most interesting thing about Sunday might be that tonight's Smothers Brothers Show (8:00 p.m.) is the last show of the series, CBS's patience having finally run out. Beginning next week, Hee Haw, a country variety show, debuts in this time spot. Including its 23 seasons in first-run syndication, the Kornfield Kounty rubes stick around until 1993. Of personal interest, The Frank McGee Report (4:30 p.m., NBC) covers the Minneapolis mayoralty race, between conservative independent Charles Stenvig, running on a law-and-order platform, and liberal Republican Joe Angotti. I remember this election well; we had a Stenvig sign on our lawn, and he would win the first of his three terms as mayor, before being defeated by Democrat Al Hofstede. To date, Stenvig is the last non-Democrat mayor of Minneapolis, and that may explain a lot.
On Monday, Steed and Mrs. Peel go up against "The Fear Merchants." No, it's not those people from the National Institutes of Health; it's the latest plot by a megalomaniac businessman to conquer the world, in The Avengers (6:30 p.m., ABC). After that, it's the local debut of The Allen Ludden Show (9:30 p.m., KDTV); the password is "variety," with his guests Ken Berry, Harvey Korman, and Gerri Granger.
Talk about a man who can do it all: Yves Montand hosts a one-man variety hour on this rerun of NET Festival (Tuesday, 8:00, NET), which features him singing in French, dancing with the Dirk Sanders Ballet, and performing classic Nichols and May skits with the recorded voice of his wife, actress Simone Signoret.
Wednesday, and another one of those Charlie Brown specials that didn't really catch on, not like Christmas and the Pumpkin: You're in Love, Charlie Brown (7:30 p.m., CBS). This is, according to the always-reliable Wikipedia, notable in that it is the first television appearance of Peppermint Patty, who would eventually come to take over a good part of the storytelling in the strip. This Peanuts cartoon aired six times on the network. That's followed by a repeat doubleheader from Hooterville: at 8:00 p.m. on CBS, The Beverly Hillbillies head there to celebrate Thanksgiving with those folks from Petticoat Junction and Green Acres; next, Petticoat Junction's Uncle Joe crosses over to Green Acres as part of Hooterville's centennial celebration. If only they could have done a Petticoat Junction episode with someone from one of the other two shows—but no, it's time for Hawaii Five-O next, and there's no crossover from anything there.A couple of great variety show lineups stand out on Thursday; This is Tom Jones (8:00 p.m., ABC) features Mama Cass Elliot, the Dave Clark Five, George Carlin, and Spanish singer Massiel; The Dean Martin Show (9:00 p.m., NBC) welcomes Lena Horne, Sid Caesar, Victor Borge, and the comic Times Square Two.
A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned one of my new favorites, Judd, for the Defense; on Friday, it's a case that even Perry Mason never had to deal with: "Judd probes the family crisis of a widow whose daughter murdered her husband, killed herself, but spared their child. Appointed guardian, Judd must decide what's best for the infant: the unstable home of close relatives or an institution." The top-flight guest cast includes Margaret Leighton, Brian Bedford, Penny Fuller, Carrie Snodgress, and Dabbs Greer.
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Finally, a little something for when company drops by:
As always, if anyone tries this, let us know how it is. TV
It's About TV!
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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