Mitchell Hadley's Blog: It's About TV!, page 8
June 23, 2025
What's on TV? Thursday, June 26, 1969
The Miss Wool of America Pageant is, admittedly, not one of the more glamorous titles in the world of pageant lore. Its location, San Angelo, Texas, isn't as famous as Atlantic City or Miami Beach. None of its winners, as far as I can tell, went on to any lasting fame. And yet it had a 20-year legacy, from 1952 to 1972, as well as a run on national television; you can even see a clip from the 1968 pageant
here
. Art Linkletter was the host for that, as he is in tonight's broadcast from the Northern California edition.-2- KTVU (BAY AREA) (IND.) MORNING 8:05 NEWS -C- 8:15 RELIGION—Evangelist -C- 8:30 JACK LA LANNE—Exercise -C- 9:00 POPEYE—Children -C- 9:30 BEVERLY HILLBILLIES—Comedy -C- 10:00 ANDY GRIFFITH 10:30 BURKE’S LAW—Mystery 11:45 ROMPER ROOM—Children -C- AFTERNOON 12:30 BEAT THE ODDS—Game -C- 1:00 MOVIE—Biography “Rembrandt” (1936) 3:00 LINKLETTER SHOW -C- Guests: Zero Mostel, Leonard Barr 3:25 NEWS -C- 3:30 POPEYE—Children -C- 4:00 TIMMY AND LASSIE—Adventure 4:30 LEAVE IT TO BEAVER—Comedy 5:00 DENNIS THE MENACE—Comedy 5:30 PATTY DUKE—Comedy EVENING 6:00 MY FAVORITE MARTIAN 6:30 McHALE’S NAVY—Comedy 7:00 I LOVE LUCY—Comedy 7:30 TWO FOR TRAVEL -C- 8:00 BEAUTY PAGEANT -C- 1968 Miss Wool of America Pageant. Host: Art Linkletter 9:00 DELLA REESE—Variety -C- 10:00 NEWS—Gary Park -C- 11:00 UNTOUCHABLES—Drama 12:00 ALFRED HITCHCOCK—Drama 1:00 NEWS -C-
-3- KCRA (SACRAMENTO) (NBC) MORNING 6:00 RHYME AND REASON 7:00 TODAY -C- Guests: Lillian Hellman, Bruce Tulloh, Chuck Stone 9:00 IT TAKES TWO -C- Guests: Mickey Manners, Leslie Nielsen, Nehemiah Persoff, and their wives. Host: Vin Scully 9:25 NEWS -C- 9:30 CONCENTRATION -C- 10:00 PERSONALITY -C- Celebrities: Jack Carter, Joan Fontaine, Betsy Palmer. On-film: Ann-Margret 10:30 HOLLYWOOD SQUARES—Game -C- Players: Jack Albertson, Jack Cssidy, Nanette Fabray, Shirley Jones, Jo Anne Worley, Wally Cox, Paul Lynde, Rose Marie, Charley Weaver 11:00 JEOPARDY—Game -C- 11:30 EYE GUESS—Game -C- 11:55 NEWS—Edwin Newman -C- AFTERNOON 12:00 NEWS C 12:30 DAYS OF OUR LIVES -C- 1:00 DOCTORS—Serial -C- 1:30 ANOTHER WORLD -C- 2:00 MOVIE—Drama “The Amazing Mrs. Holliday” (1943) 3:30 MERV GRIFFIN—Variety -C- Guests: Bob Hope, B.B. King, Diane Keaton, Jackie Kannon, Charlie Manna 4:30 FLINTSTONES—Children -C- 5:00 TRAVENTURE THEATRE -C- EVENING 6:00 NEWS—Chet Huntley/David Brinkley -C- 6:30 NEWS—Whitten/Jervis -C- 7:30 DANIEL BOONE -C- 8:30 IRONSIDE -C- 9:30 DRAGNET -C- 10:00 DEAN MARTIN -C- Guests: Lena Horne, Don Rickles, the Andrews Sisters 11:00 NEWS -C- 11:30 JOHNNY CARSON -C- Tentative: Ann-Margret, Kaye Ballard, Dr. George Bach 1:00 NEWS -C-
-4- KRON (BAY AREA) (NBC) MORNING 6:00 BLACK HERITAGE—History -C- 6:30 NEWS—Dick Doughty -C- 7:00 TODAY -C- Guests: Lillian Hellman, Bruce Tulloh, Chuck Stone 9:00 IT TAKES TWO -C- Guests: Mickey Manners, Leslie Nielsen, Nehemiah Persoff, and their wives. Host: Vin Scully 9:25 NEWS -C- 9:30 CONCENTRATION -C- 10:00 PERSONALITY -C- Celebrities: Jack Carter, Joan Fontaine, Betsy Palmer. On-film: Ann-Margret 10:30 HOLLYWOOD SQUARES—Game -C- Players: Jack Albertson, Jack Cssidy, Nanette Fabray, Shirley Jones, Jo Anne Worley, Wally Cox, Paul Lynde, Rose Marie, Charley Weaver 11:00 JEOPARDY—Game -C- 11:30 EYE GUESS—Game -C- 11:55 NEWS—Edwin Newman -C- AFTERNOON 12:00 NEWS -C- 12:30 DAYS OF OUR LIVES -C- 1:00 DOCTORS—Serial -C- 1:30 ANOTHER WORLD -C- 2:00 YOU DON’T SAY!—Game -C- Guests: Mike Minor, Linda Kaye 2:30 MATCH GAME -C- Guests: Lauren Bacall, David Frost 2:55 NEWS—Floyd Kalber -C- 3:00 HIDDEN FACES—Serial -C- 3:30 REAL McCOYS—Comedy 4:00 FLINTSTONES—Children -C- 4:30 CARTOONS—Children 4:45 VOYAGE—Adventure 5:45 NEWS—Frank Dill -C- EVENING 6:00 NEWS -C- 6:30 NEWS—Chet Huntley/David Brinkley -C- 7:00 WIDE WONDERFUL WORLD -C- 7:30 DANIEL BOONE -C- 8:30 IRONSIDE -C- 9:30 DRAGNET -C- 10:00 DEAN MARTIN -C- Guests: Lena Horne, Don Rickles, the Andrews Sisters 11:00 NEWS -C- 11:30 JOHNNY CARSON -C- Tentative: Ann-Margret, Kaye Ballard, Dr. George Bach 1:00 JOAN RIVERS -C- Guests: Gwen Vernon and Bob Fosse 1:30 NEWS -C-
-5- KPIX (BAY AREA) (CBS) MORNING 6:30 CITIES IN CONFLICT 7:00 NEWS—Joseph Benti -C- 7:30 NEWS—Ron Magers 8:00 CAPTAIN KANGAROO -C- 9:00 LUCILLE BALL -C- 9:30 HOTLINE—Discussion -C- 10:30 DICK VAN DYKE 11:00 LOVE OF LIFE -C- 11:25 NEWS -C- 11:30 SEARCH FOR TOMORROW—Serial -C- AFTERNOON 12:00 NEWS -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 MIKE DOUGLAS—Variety -C- Guests include Norm Crosby 4:30 MERV GRIFFIN—Variety -C- Guests: Bob Hope, B.B. King, Diane Keaton, Jackie Kannon, Charlie Manna EVENING 6:00 NEWS -C- 6:30 NEWS—Walter Cronkite -C- 7:00 NEWS—John Weston -C- 7:30 ANIMAL WORLD -C- 8:00 PRISONER—Drama -C- 9:00 MOVIE—Drama -C- “The Defector” (French-West German; 1966) 11:00 NEWS -C- 11:30 PERRY MASON—Mystery 12:30 MOVIE—Drama -C- “Wuthering Heights” (1939)
-6- KVIE (SACRAMENTO) (NET) AFTERNOON 5:45 FRIENDLY GIANT—Children EVENING 6:00 MISTEROGERS—Children 6:30 WHAT’S NEW—Children 7:00 MISTEROGERS—Children 7:30 BRIDGE—Jean Cox 8:00 NET PLAYHOUSE—Drama “A Song of Summer” 10:00 SPECULATION
-7- KGO (BAY AREA) (ABC) MORNING 6:00 NAVY STORY 6:25 A.M.—Jim Dunbar -C- 8:30 GIRL TALK—Interviews -C- Guests: Dinah Christie, Rosette Shaw, Barbara Tai Sing 9:00 MOVIE—Comedy “Two Weeks With Love” (1950) 11:00 ANNIVERSARY GAME -C- 11:30 GALLOPING GOURMET -C- AFTERNOON 12:00 BEWITCHED—Comedy 12:30 FUNNY YOU SHOULD ASK—Game -C- Guests: Mike Connors, Stu Gilliam, Shari Lewis, Rose Marie, Jan Murray 12:55 CHILDREN’S DOCTOR -C- Last show of the series 1:00 DREAM HOUSE -C- 1:30 LET’S MAKE A DEAL -C- 2:00 NEWLYWED GAME -C- 2:30 DATING GAME -C- 3:00 GENERAL HOSPITAL -C- 3:30 ONE LIFE TO LIVE -C- 4:00 DARK SHADOWS -C- 4:30 MOVIE—Drama “Edward, My Son” (1949) EVENING 6:00 NEWS -C- 7:00 NEWS—Frank Reynolds/Howard K. Smith -C- 7:30 FLYING NUN—Comedy -C- 8:00 THAT GIRL—Comedy -C- 8:30 BEWITCHED—Comedy -C- 9:00 MAMA CASS—Variety -C- Special: Guests: Buddy Hackett, Martin Landau and Barbara Bain, Mary Travers, Joni Mitchell, John Sebastian 10:00 HAWAIIAN EYE—Mystery 11:00 NEWS -C- 11:30 JOEY BISHOP -C- 47th Photoplay Awards with Carol Burnett, Glen Campbell, Diahann Carol, Michael Cole, Peggy Lipton, Charence Williams III, Debbie Reynolds 1:00 NEWS -C-
-7- KRCR (REDDING) (ABC, NBC) MORNING 7:00 TODAY -C- Guests: Lillian Hellman, Bruce Tulloh, Chuck Stone 9:00 IT TAKES TWO -C- Guests: Mickey Manners, Leslie Nielsen, Nehemiah Persoff, and their wives. Host: Vin Scully 9:25 NEWS -C- 9:30 CONCENTRATION -C- 10:00 PERSONALITY -C- Celebrities: Jack Carter, Joan Fontaine, Betsy Palmer. On-film: Ann-Margret 10:30 HOLLYWOOD SQUARES—Game -C- Players: Jack Albertson, Jack Cssidy, Nanette Fabray, Shirley Jones, Jo Anne Worley, Wally Cox, Paul Lynde, Rose Marie, Charley Weaver 11:00 JEOPARDY—Game -C- 11:30 EYE GUESS—Game -C- 11:55 NEWS—Reeter -C- AFTERNOON 12:00 HIDDEN FACES—Serial -C- 12:30 FUNNY YOU SHOULD ASK—Game -C- Guests: Mike Connors, Stu Gilliam, Shari Lewis, Rose Marie, Jan Murray 12:55 CHILDREN’S DOCTOR -C- Last show of the series 1:00 DREAM HOUSE -C- 1:30 ANOTHER WORLD -C- 2:00 NEWLYWED GAME -C- 2:30 DATING GAME -C- 3:00 GENERAL HOSPITAL -C- 3:30 ONE LIFE TO LIVE -C- 4:00 DARK SHADOWS -C- 4:30 LET’S MAKE A DEAL—Game 5:00 BEWITCHED—Comedy 5:30 NEWS -C- EVENING 6:30 NEWS—Chet Huntley/David Brinkley -C- 7:00 FLYING NUN -C- 7:30 DANIEL BOONE -C- 8:30 IRONSIDE -C- 9:30 DRAGNET -C- 10:00 DEAN MARTIN -C- Guests: Lena Horne, Don Rickles, the Andrews Sisters 11:00 NEWS -C- 11:30 JOHNNY CARSON -C- Tentative: Ann-Margret, Kaye Ballard, Dr. George Bach
-9- KIXE (REDDING) (NET) EVENING 6:00 KIXE AUCTION 7:00 KXIE AUCTION CONTINUES 8:00 KXIE AUCTION CONTINUES 9:00 KXIE AUCTION CONTINUES 10:00 KXIE AUCTION CONTINUES 11:00 KXIE AUCTION CONTINUES
10 KXTV (SACRAMENTO) (CBS) MORNING 6:00 BIG PICTURE—Army -C- 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 -C- 11:30 SEARCH FOR TOMORROW—Serial -C- AFTERNOON 12:00 NEWS -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: Zero Mostel, Leonard Barr 3:25 NEWS -C- 3:30 PASSWORD—Game -C- Celebrities: John Forsythe, Barbara Rush 4:00 MIKE DOUGLAS—Variety -C- Guests include Norm Crosby 5:30 NEWS—Walter Cronkite -C- EVENING 6:00 NEWS -C- 6:55 FISHING REPORT -C- 7:00 WHAT’S MY LINE?—Game -C- Panel: Arlene Francis, Anita Gillette, Anthony Roberts, Soupy Sales. Host: Wally Bruner 7:30 ANIMAL WORLD -C- 8:00 PRISONER—Drama -C- 9:00 MOVIE—Drama “Our Man in Casablanca” (Italian; 1966) 11:00 NEWS -C- 11:25 FISHING REPORT -C- 11:30 MOVIE—Drama “Man in the Shadow” (1957)
12 KHSL (CHICO) (ABC, CBS) MORNING 6:25 SOIL CONSERVATION 6:30 FILM -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 -C- 11:30 SEARCH FOR TOMORROW—Serial -C- AFTERNOON 12:00 PDQ—Game -C- Celebrities: Jack Cassidy, Will Hutchins, Shari Lewis 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: Zero Mostel, Leonard Barr 3:25 NEWS -C- 3:30 MIKE DOUGLAS—Variety -C- Guests: Kenneth Tynan, Kaye Stevens, George Segal, Pat Henry 4:30 MERV GRIFFIN—Variety -C- Guests: Peggy Cass, Bob, June and Chris Crosby 5:30 NEWS -C- EVENING 6:30 NEWS—Walter Cronkite -C- 7:00 I DREAM OF JEANNIE -C- 7:30 ANIMAL WORLD -C- 8:00 PRISONER—Drama -C- 9:00 MOVIE—Drama -C- “The Defector” (French-West German; 1966) 11:00 NEWS -C- 11:30 JOEY BISHOP -C- 47th Photoplay Awards with Carol Burnett, Glen Campbell, Diahann Carol, Michael Cole, Peggy Lipton, Charence Williams III, Debbie Reynolds
13 KOVR (SACRAMENTO) (ABC) MORNING 6:25 NEWS -C- 6:30 JACK LA LANNE—Exercise -C- 7:00 AGRICULTURE TODAY -C- 7:15 CARTOONLAND -C- 8:20 LINUS—Children 8:50 JACK LA LANNE—Exercise -C- 9:20 FASHIONS IN SEWING -C- 9:30 MOVIE—Mystery ”Railroaded” (1947) 11:00 TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES -C- 11:30 GALLOPING GOURMET -C- Morwong Cru AFTERNOON 12:00 BEWITCHED—Comedy 12:30 FUNNY YOU SHOULD ASK—Game -C- Guests: Mike Connors, Stu Gilliam, Shari Lewis, Rose Marie, Jan Murray 12:55 CHILDREN’S DOCTOR -C- Last show of the series 1:00 DREAM HOUSE -C- 1:30 LET’S MAKE A DEAL -C- 2:00 NEWLYWED GAME -C- 2:30 DIVORCE COURT—Drama -C- 3:00 GENERAL HOSPITAL -C- 3:30 ONE LIFE TO LIVE -C- 4:00 DARK SHADOWS -C- 4:30 GILLIGAN’S ISLAND -C- 5:00 I LOVE LUCY—Comedy 5:30 NEWS—Frank Reynolds/Howard K. Smith -C- EVENING 6:00 NEWS -C- 6:30 PERRY MASON—Mystery 7:25 OUTDOORSMAN—Lange -C- 7:30 FLYING NUN—Comedy -C- 8:00 THAT GIRL—Comedy -C- 8:30 BEWITCHED—Comedy -C- 9:00 MAMA CASS—Variety -C- Special: Guests: Buddy Hackett, Martin Landau and Barbara Bain, Mary Travers, Joni Mitchell, John Sebastian 10:00 COLLEGE TALLENT -C- Judges: Dick Patterson, Raymond St. Jacques, Sue Lyon. Host: Dennis James 10:30 NEWS—Rashleigh -C- 11:00 NEWS -C- 11:30 JOEY BISHOP -C- 47th Photoplay Awards with Carol Burnett, Glen Campbell, Diahann Carol, Michael Cole, Peggy Lipton, Charence Williams III, Debbie Reynolds 1:00 NEWS -C-
19 KLOC (MODESTO) (IND.) AFTERNOON 5:00 FILM 5:30 HOKEY POKEY—Children EVENING 6:00 CHESTER SMITH—Variety 7:30 MOVIE—Drama “Bitter Victory” (1957) 9:00 LATIN AMERICAN MUSIC 10:00 DAVID TERRELL
40 KTXL (SACRAMENTO) (IND.) MORNING 11:00 ROMPER ROOM—Chldren -C- AFTERNOON 12:00 HIDDEN FACES—Serial -C- 12:30 MOVIE—Western “Stagecoach to Fury” (1956) 2:00 YOU DON’T SAY!—Game -C- Guests: Mike Minor, Linda Kaye 2:30 MATCH GAME -C- Guests: Lauren Bacall, David Frost 2:55 NEWS—Floyd Kalber -C- 3:00 CAPN’S LOCKER—Children -C- 4:00 POPEYE—Children 4:30 LITTLE RASCALS—Children 5:00 MUNSTERS—Comedy 5:30 MY FAVORITE MARTIAN -C- EVENING 6:00 MOVIE—Science Fiction “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” (1956) 7:30 DONALD O’CONNOR -C- Guests: Terry Moore, Guy Marks, Don Cherry, Sue Raney, Hank Ballard 8:55 NEWS—Kline -C- 9:00 MOVIE—Drama -C- “The Defector” (French-West German; 1966) 11:00 MOVIE—Western “The Man from Colorado” (1948)
TV
June 21, 2025
This week in TV Guide: June 21, 1969
This week's cover story is a fascinating interview with Jackie Gleason by Larry King, who had the very easy task of asking Gleason what he thinks about a number of topics, and then sitting back and letting The Great One share what's on his mind. On the assumption that what's good for Larry King is good for moi, we'll follow suit and let Jackie take center stage; he is, as one might suspect, never at a loss for words. Therefore, here's Gleason on:Fame: "It's a strange thing about popularity. You want it all your life and when you get it, after you're a success, anonymity is priceless. I’m a nut for five-and-ten-cent stores. | like to wander around notions counters and things like that. | can't do that today because a lot of people would stop me. Yet, I’d be disturbed if they didn’t. That's the paradox of this business. You want everybody to present you with accolades and you want everybody to say, ‘Oh, there he goes; there’s the Great'One.’ And, at the same time, you want to be alone."
The networks: "Every television performer has problems with his network. The performer always thinks he’s bigger than the network. It’s a constant kind of war . . . We were trying to put on a show and we would have people strolling in at all hours, the hierarchy you know, and they were telling us how to do particular things. So I went right to Mr. Paley [William Paley, chairman of the board of CBS] and said that I wanted a letter from him saying that I was to have sole control over my show, with no interference from anyone. He gave it to me. Now I just show it to these guys before they say anything to me."
Psychiatry: "I can see how it helps certain people, but I’ve never had a need for it. Once some friends told me that I was too fat because of some mental hangup. I thought it was because I liked to eat a lot. Anyhow, they suggested I see a psychiatrist, so I did. He weighed about 270 pounds. I tried to help him with his problem."
The Now Generation: "I'm encouraged by part of it. I feel some good is done and some bad. The trouble is they’re so mixed up you can’t discern who’s who. That’s the problem. Some are sincere and some are not. Some really want some good for everybody and the others are sincere about their insincerity. It’s tough. You can't tell what's constructive and what’s destructive. I don’t feel out of their world, but I guess I would if they were running the whole show. . . I don’t rap the long-hair thing. Christ had long hair. So did Ben Franklin and those people. You can't judge people by the way they dress. A genius might be under a Daniel Boone jacket."
Religion: "Being a Catholic is no hangup with me. You know when you've sinned and you know the consequences. I thought of switching religions to have a more comfortable way of sinning. I studied them all. At first they appeared very attractive because they were easier, not because they made more sense. I believe you should stick with the religion you’re brought up with. Religion is an obligation . . .| know you don’t have free will. What you have is free choice. You can't jump over the ball park, but you can choose to think about it."Living in Florida: "I’m here to stay. I’m addicted to golf and here I can play it all year 'round. The people here have been nice to me. You know, Larry, Howard Hughes offered me one million dollars, tax free, to take my show to Las Vegas. I almost fell out of my chair. The thought of one million clams, tax free, doesn’t happen every day. I thought about it and decided not to. I wouldn’t like Las Vegas no matter what I got."
Life: I’m 53 years old. I love what I do. I have all the money I'll ever need. I’m not looking for challenges. I do what I do very well and think I get better at it. My weight doesn't bother me because I don’t mind it. I like good food so I eat it. I smoke because it’s a habit I’m too old to break and I enjoy cigarettes, too. I drink because it’s a lot of fun. I admire great boozers. Guys who can go all day and never show it. I play golf every day and am more fascinated with it all the time. . . Everything I've wanted to do I've had the chance to do. Life ain't bad, pal."
As I said, never at a loss for words. They called him the Great One for a reason.
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From 1963 to 1976, TV Guide's weekly reviews were written by the witty and acerbic Cleveland Amory. Whenever they appear, we'll look at Cleve's latest take on the shows of the era. When the summer season comes upon us, our man Cleve often turns his attention toward programs that wouldn't ordinarily find their way into his column, and this week is no exception, as we look at the venerable sudser As the World Turns, now in its fourteenth action-packed season. In case you haven't followed the show lately, here is a capsule summary for your benefit. It is, as Amory says, "really very simple, once you get the hang of it":
Start with Chris. Chris is married to Nancy, who is the mother of Bob, who was married to Lisa, who had an affair with Michael, who was married to Claire, who is the mother of Ellen, who is married to David, who is the father of Dan, who is married to Susan, but who is in love with Liz, who is dating Paul, who is doctoring Martha, who is the mother of Sandy, who is engaged to Bob, who was married to Lisa and is the son of Chris. See, we're right back to Chris. It’s just one big happy family circle, or, actually, two family circles—the Hughes and the Lowells—who, among other things, are congenital intermarriers. But don't worry about that. If you want to worry about something, worry about the illegitimate children. The place is crawling with them.
Got all that? It provides us, says Cleve, with an example of what we've come to call hate viewing. You'd think that with all this bed-hopping going on, things would be pretty entertaining, but, in fact, "It's all so deadly serious that the best way to watch it is in a kind of negative way. Don't root for, root against." And it seems that this is exactly the way its "fans" watch it. When Eileen Fulton, who played villainess Lisa Hughes, left the series, fans were furious. "They had become so devoted to hating her that they demanded her return." She did return, eventually, but do you think that changed things? Upon running into a viewer who wanted to know if she "was" Lisa Hughes, Futon smiled and said she played the "part," whereupon the woman "slapped Miss Fulton in the face, shouting, 'You're mean! You're rotten! You're despicable!' She was, of course, a fan of Lisa's. As well as a typical soap opera fan, we have to think.
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Since we featured Jackie Gleason in this week's lede, it's only appropriate that we begin Saturday with a look at a full-hour Honeymooners skit, in which the Kramdens and Nortons continue their shark-jumping around-the-world trip (7:30 p.m., CBS). Don't think that things are all fun and games, though; while in Paris, Ralph and Norton are arrested for passing counterfeit francs. My money—and it's not counterfeit—is on them to work their way out of it. But if you want some real crime drama, stay up late for the 11:00 p.m. movie on KOVR in Sacramento: Compulsion, a fictionalized account of the Leopold-Loeb case, with Dean Stockwell and Bradford Dillman as the youthful killers, and Orson Welles in a brilliant performance as their attorney, who in real life was Clarence Darrow.No "Sullivan vs. The Palace" this week, as Johnny Cash fills the summer Hollywood Palace slot; Ed's still hard at work, though, and his guests this week are Flip Wilson, Jackie Mason, country singer-guitarist Sonny James, singers Karen Wyman and Hal Frazier, and the Georgia Tech Glee Club. (Sunday, 8:00 p.m., CBS)
Remember when Bill Cosby was a respected role model, a man who crossed the color barrier to become America's favorite dad? Yes, well, times have changed, haven't they? On Monday's NBC Children's Theatre (8:00 p.m.), Cosby hosts "As I See It," a presentation of short films made by youngsters between the ages of 6 and 12, who were given the opportunity to "film their world as they see it." They then talk about their lives with Cosby, who shares memories of his own childhood growing up in Philadelphia. Later, on Dick Cavett's prime-time show (10:00 p.m., ABC), Dick welcomes an eclectic big-name cast: opera star Beverly Sills, movie star Natalie Wood, political columnist Drew Pearson, and comedian Pat McCormick.
Remember when 60 Minutes was just a twice-monthly series of specials? That's how it was back in 1969, and on Tuesday's program (10:00 p.m., CBS), Yugoslavian leader Josip Tito is interviewed on the challenges posed by the youth movement and calls for more freedom. Tito was one of the rare Eastern block leaders who was respected in both East and West, and his ability to hold Yugoslavia together is even more impressive today given how violently the country fragmented in the post-Soviet era.
Wednesday features a rerun of last season's highly-regarded special The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (9:00 p.m., ABC), starring Jack Palance as the man with the split personality, produced by Dark Shadows creator Dan Curtis, and written by Ian McLellan Hunter. Over on NBC, Kraft Music Hall, which is hosted by Sandler and Young for the summer, features guest Sid Caesar. (9:00 p.m.). If you're looking for something a little different, here's a program that won't interfere with either of these shows: Book Beat (8:30 p.m., NET), with host Bob Cromie interviewing the legendary Lillian Gish on her book The Movies, Mr. Griffith and Me.
The most challenging show of the week—or any other week, for that matter—is probably The Prisoner, and the disturbing episode "The Schizoid Man," in which Number 6 is confronted by his double. (Thursday, 8:00 p.m., CBS) It's the second year in a row that CBS has used The Prisoner as a summer replacement series, and as was the case last summer, it's by far the best thing going. Cass Elliot has a variety special tonight (9:00 p.m., ABC), with an eclectic guest cast to say the least: Buddy Hackett, Martin Landau and Barbara Bain, Mary Travers, Joni Mitchell, and John Sebastian. And in the "wasted potential" category, the Thursday night movie is The Defector (9:00 p.m., CBS), Montgomery Clift's last film, a cold-war drama that, according to Judith Crist, is a run-of-the-mill antiheroic espionage film, "wasting talent along with fine location atmosphere."The Name of the Game on Friday is "The Black Answer" (8:30 p.m., NBC), as reporter Jeff Dillon (Tony Franciosa) is thrown into the investigation of the killing of a non-violent black activist; the suspect is a black militant group called the Black Battery, led by Joe X (Ivan Dixon). A more conventional thriller finds The Saint embroiled in an assassination attempt against the prime minister of a British colony (10:00 p.m., NBC); Roger Moore is joined by Edward Woodward for the thrills.
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The Doan Report notes that the recent Emmy show was a very bad advertisement for television, but not quite in the way you think. The best comedy series award went to Get Smart, which had been cancelled by NBC (although subsequently renewed by CBS). The best comedy-writing award went to The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, likewise cancelled. And then there were the acting awards: best dramatic actor went to Carl Betz for Judd for the Defense, best actress to Barbara Bain of Mission: Impossible, and best comedy actress to The Ghost and Mrs. Muir's Hope Lange. You guessed it; Judd and Mrs. Muir were cancelled (although the latter was picked up by ABC), and Bain had already left M:I. And if that weren't bad enough, the award for best dramatic series went not to any of the commercial network contenders, but to NET Playhouse. There's no disputing the quality of that show, given that it was awarded a Peabody earlier in the year, but none of this speaks very highly of the commercial networks.Doan also has a note on this little thing coming up next month called a moon landing. Can you believe it's almost here? NBC has announced plans to preempt 30 consecutive hours to cover the landing, including all 22 hours that astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin plan to be on the moon's surface, with coverage beginning at 11:00 a.m. on the Sunday of the landing. CBS and ABC quickly announced similar plans. Boy, I can still remember that like yesterday; one of the most amazing things those of us who were alive back then will ever have the privilege to see.
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Back on June 1, ABC had a special called D-Day Revisited, hosted by movie mogul Darryl F. Zanuck, who returned to the beaches of Normandy, where he filmed his epic The Longest Day in 1962. Zanuck provided commentary on the battles of that monumental day, accompanied by clips from the movie.
I'm not sure what the network's expectations were for this program, but based on this week's Letters section, I think I can be fairly confident in saying that this is not what they were counting on. As you know, whenever there's a disputatious issue being discussed in the section, the editors present a cross-section of letters that roughly correspond to the ratio of opinions expressed in said letters. If that is, indeed, the case, I'd say the response was universally negative. We begin with this letter from Nicholas Snider of Coaling, Alabama, who compares the program to CBS's 1964 documentary in which the Normandy tour guide was none other than General Eisenhower himself. Zanuck's version, says Mr. Snider, "was so inferior as not to be noticed, were it not for its unrelenting vulgarity. That the program itself was completely inept is one thing, but that one hour of such shameless horn-blowing should even consider itself a tribute to human courage or the war dead is the ghastliest sarcasm of the season."
We next move on to U.S. Representative Frank Horton (R, NY), who accuses Zanuck of using the solemn occasion as a cheap ploy to promote the upcoming re-release of The Longest Day in theaters. It was, he says, "a transparent attempt to capitalize" on the efforts of the men who landed at Normandy, and adds, for good measure, "It seems in bad taste to tie the marketing of such entertainment to the gallant efforts of the men who died on those beaches a quarter century ago. The facade fell away quickly as soon as the first promotion spot came on the television screen, advertising the fact that the motion picture would “soon be seen at your neighborhood theater."
The coup de grâce, however, belongs to this brief letter, which serves, I think, as the final word on the issue. "Despite certain overtones reminiscent of a barker’s come-on at a county fair, and the self-glorification which seemed to emanate from ABC’s 'D-Day Revisited' program, neither a book called 'The Longest Day,' nor the screenplay of the movie, was written by Darryl F. Zanuck. In the midst of his celebration of himself, he might do well to read 'The Longest Day' dedication: 'For all the men of D-Day.' They, not Mr. Zanuck, made 'The Longest Day.'" It's signed "Mrs. Cornelius Ryan , Ridgefield, Connecticut, " and she should know: her husband did write the book and screenplay.
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MST3K alert:
Village of the Giants
(1965) A mysterious substance causes teenagers to become giants. Tommy Kirk, Johnny Crawford. (Sunday, 2:00 p.m., KXTV in Sacramento) There's no two ways about it; this is just an awful movie, so bad it isn't even good. What movies like this never try to explain is how, when people suddenly become giants, they don't just tear right out of their clothes like the Incredible Hulk. Somehow, though, even if they'd all suddenly become naked, I don't think that would help matters much. TV
June 20, 2025
Around the dial
It came as a revelation to me, many years ago, to see a reference in an old TV Guide to "Win" Martindale. At first I assumed it was a typo, but as we can see in this post from the Broadcast Archives,
Wink Martindale
was known, for a time, as Win. Either way you look at it, he was one of game show history's biggest winners.At Comfort TV, David's journey through 1970s TV takes us to Monday nights, 1976 . The highlight, of course, was Monday Night Football, but for every touchdown (Little House), there's an incomplete pass or two: The Captain and Tennille, All's Fair, Executive Suite. Stick to the movies and the game.
John returns to the world of the private detective at Cult TV Blog, with a look at the Shoestring episode " Find the Lady ," with our heroic private "ear" on the trail of a murder—or is it? Check out an interesting story with a stellar guest cast.
At Captain Video's Secret Sanctum, we take a look at 2009's Spaceballs: The Animated Series , which ran for 13 episodes, and is pretty much exactly what you'd expect from an animated Mel Brooks project. I wonder what I was doing that I don't remember this?
Does a movie count as TV if you saw it on your television? It does in this case, as at Classic Film and TV Corner, Maddy reviews the top four performances from one of the all-time greats, Toshiro Mifune . I've seen all four of these movies, and I can't argue with a one of them; they're all superb.
Speaking of superb, at The View from the Junkyard, Roger reviews the concluding episode of The New Avengers, " Emily ," which serves as a fitting end to the series, "a celebration of everything this show does best."
At A Shroud of Thoughts, Terence pays tribute to the legendary Brian Wilson, who died last week at 82. He was certainly a familiar face on television in the 1960s, given the prominence of the Beach Boys, and one of those tortured geniuses who accomplished so much, and paid a price for it.
Martin Grams is back with another selection of book reviews designed to appeal to the TV and film buff in you. I mention these not just because they sound interesting, but to remind me that I have a pile of books to review myself, all on hold while I finished my own book. Which is done, by the way.
And that leads to my reminder that if you'd like to sign up for updates on Darkness in Primetime: How Classic-Era TV Foresaw Modern Society's Descent into Hell , you can do so at this link . There's another reveal next week leading up to the August release date; why not take a moment to sign up? TV
June 18, 2025
The home of tomorrow, today
with my book Darkness in Primetime: How Classic-Era TV Foresaw Modern Society's Descent into Hell scheduled for release in August, it seemed an appropriate time to resurrect this piece from five years ago, when I took another, less sinister, look at how television of the past predicted the future. Enjoy!l l l
We spend a lot of time looking back at the past in an effort to understand it, but it can be just as enlightening to consider how the past viewed the future. Does our present look anything like the future that was imagined in the past?
For example, the computers in Star Trek appear laughably primitive when compared to today's technology (which is likely one reason why the remastered versions of the series have upgraded special effects). In fact, today's technology has far surpassed what Gene Roddenberry & company imagined; there's probably more power in an iPhone than there was running the Enterprise. Sometimes it seems as if we're afraid to let our imaginations truly run wild and imagine the possibilities. On the other hand, we still don't have the flying cars from The Jetsons.
Before pro football completely took over Sunday afternoons, CBS had a long-running documentary series called The 20th Century , which took a look back at the major historical events of the century. In January 1967, the show changed both its title and focus; renamed The 21st Century, the program now looked forward to what the future might have in store.
In that light, I'm reminded of David Gelenter's book 1939: The Lost World of the Fair, in which Gelenter reminds us that much of the scientific progress on display at the 1939 World's Fair was designed for one purpose: to make our lives easier. Not that there weren't world-altering inventions on display, but we shouldn't underestimate the importance attached to such technological marvels as the washer and dryer or the refrigerator. We may take them for granted now, but these were major accomplishments.
With that in mind, let's take a look at this episode of The 21st Century from March 1967, in which Walter Cronkite hosted this episode, entitled "At Home: 2001." How much do you think they got right?
TV
June 16, 2025
What's on TV? Tuesday, June 17, 1958
All this week, WGBH is broacasting specials from the
Boston Arts Festival
, which has been held, off and on, since 1952. In 1958, the festival would have been held at Boston's Public Garden, and the event was considered a major step in bringing the arts to the people, where it belongs. Tonight's feature: the Folk Dance Festival. As you might have guessed, the listing comes from the New England edition.-2- WGBH (CAMBRIDGE) (Educational) AFTERNOON 5:45 SING HI, SING LO—Kennett EVENING 6:00 PSYCHOLOGY 1—Prof. Boring 6:30 NEWS—William Pierce 6:50 INSIDE THE ARTS—Morgenthau 7:05 SPORTS, WEATHER 7:15 SING HI, SING LO—Kennett 7:30 MATHEMATICS—High School 7:45 ALMANAC—Photography 8:30 BOSTON ARTS FESTIVAL SPECIAL 10:30 BRIEFING SESSION
-4- WBZ (BOSTON) (NBC) MORNING 6:30 HORIZONS—Documentary 6:45 DAILY ALMANAC—Chase, Kent 7:00 TODAY—Dave Garroway 8:55 NEWS, WEATHER 9:00 REX TRAILER—Kids 10:00 DOUGH RE MI—Quiz 10:30 TREASURE HUNT—Quiz 11:00 PRICE IS RIGHT 11:30 TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES—Stunts AFTERNOON 12:00 NEWS—Jack Chase 12:10 WEATHER—Don Kent 12:15 BIG BROTHER—Bob Emery 1:00 MOVIE—Drama “Watch on the Rhine” (1943) Part 2 2:25 NEWS—Streeter Stuart 2:30 KITTY FOYLE—Serial 3:00 MATINEE THEATER COLOR “The Man with Pointed Toes” 4:00 QUEEN FOR A DAY 4:45 RECORD SHOP HOP—Maynard 5:15 MOVIE—Drama “Man Hunt” (1936) EVENING 6:45 NEWS—Arch Macdonald 6:55 WEATHER—Don Kent 7:00 WHIRLYBIRDS—Adventure 7:30 TREASURE HUNT—Quiz This is the last nighttime show of the series. Next week at this time a new quiz show debuts. 8:00 INVESTIGATORY COLOR 9:00 McGRAW—Mystery 9:30 BOB CUMMINGS 10:00 CALIFORNIANS 10:30 STUDIO 57—Drama “No Sentiment” 11:00 NEWS, WEATHER 11:15 MOVIE—Drama “I Was an Adventuress” (1940)
-5- WHDH (BOSTON) (ABC, CBS, NBC) MORNING 8:45 NEWS—Stuart Novins 9:00 IT’S FUN TO REDUCE 9:15 TOWN AND COUNTRY TIME—Variety COLOR 9:30 ROMPER ROOM—Kids COLOR 10:30 FRANKIE LAINE—Music 11:00 NEWS 11:15 WE BELIEVE—Religion COLOR 11:30 FOR WOMEN ONLY COLOR 11:45 FARM AND FOOD COLOR AFTERNOON 12:00 TIC TAC DOUGH—Quiz 12:30 IT COULD BE YOU 1:00 EDGE OF NIGHT—Serial 1:30 BEULAH—Comedy 2:00 TROUBLE WITH FATHER 2:30 RAY DOREY—Music COLOR 3:00 AMERICAN BANDSTAND—Music 3:30 DO YOU TRUST YOUR WIFE?—Quiz 4:00 AMERICAN BANDSTAND 5:00 SIR LANCELOT 5:30 CAPT. BOB—Cartoons COLOR EVENING 6:00 DATELINE BOSTON COLOR 6:30 CAPT. BOB—Cartoons COLOR 6:45 NEWS—Chet Huntley, David Brinkley 7:00 NEWS, SPORTS COLOR 7:10 WEATHER—Cole COLOR 7:15 NEWS—Douglas Edwards 7:30 CHEYENNE—Western 8:30 WYATT EARP—Western 9:00 BROKEN ARROW—Western 9:30 PANTOMIME QUIZ—Mike Stokey 10:00 WEST POINT—Drama 10:30 SEA HUNT—Adventure 11:00 NEWS, WEATHER 11:15 JACK PAAR
-6- WCSH (PORTLAND) (NBC) MORNING 6:55 FARM MARKET FACTS 7:00 TODAY—Dave Garroway 8:55 NEWS, WEATHER 9:00 LIFE WITH ELIZABETH 9:30 ROMPER ROOM—Kids 10:00 DOUGH RE MI—Quiz 10:30 TREASURE HUNT—Quiz 11:00 PRICE IS RIGHT 11:30 TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES—Stunts AFTERNOON 12:00 TIC TAC DOUGH—Quiz 12:30 IT COULD BE YOU 1:00 DOWNEAST DATELINES 1:30 SUSIE—Comedy 2:00 HOMEMAKING—Agnes Gibbs 2:30 BINGO AT HOME—Phil Murray 3:00 MATINEE THEATER COLOR “The Man with Pointed Toes” 4:00 QUEEN FOR A DAY 4:45 MODERN ROMANCES 5:00 I MARRIED JOAN—Comedy 5:30 FUN HOUSE—Kids EVENING 6:00 WOODY WOODPECKER 6:30 NEWS, SPORTS, WEATHER 6:45 NEWS—Chet Huntley, David Brinkley 7:00 HAWKEYE—Adventure 7:30 TREASURE HUNT—Quiz This is the last nighttime show of the series. Next week at this time a new quiz show debuts. 8:00 INVESTIGATORY COLOR 9:00 McGRAW—Mystery 9:30 BOB CUMMINGS 10:00 CALIFORNIANS 10:30 FRANK SINATRA—Drama 11:00 NEWS, WEATHER 11:15 JACK PAAR
-7- WNAC (BOSTON) (CBS) MORNING 7:00 LAUREL AND HARDY—Comdy 7:45 FILM SHORT 8:00 CAPTAIN KANGAROO 8:45 STAR TIME—Variety 10:00 GARRY MOORE 10:30 OUR MISS BROOKS—Comedy 11:00 ARTHUR GODFREY 11:30 DOTTO—Quiz AFTERNOON 12:00 LOVE OF LIFE 12:30 SEARCH FOR TOMORROW—Serial 12:45 GUIDING LIGHT—Serial 1:00 LOUISE MORGAN—Women 1:30 AS THE WORLD TURNS 2:00 MR. AND MRS. NORTH 2:30 HOUSE PARTY 3:00 HOLLYWOOD HALF-HOUR 3:30 VERDICT IS YOURS 4:00 BRIGTHER DAY—Serial 4:15 SECRET STORM—Serial 4:30 MY LITTLE MARGIE—Comedy 5:00 AMOS ‘N’ ANDY—Comedy 5:30 MICKEY MOUSE CLUB EVENING 6:00 FRANK LUTHER—Kids 6:30 I SEARCH FOR ADVENTURE 7:00 COMBAT SERGEANT—Drama 7:30 NAME THAT TUNE 8:00 MR. ADAMS AND EVE 8:30 PLAYHOUSE—Drama “Web of Circumstance” 9:00 TO TELL THE TRUTH 9:30 RED SKELTON Guest: Jayne Meadows 10:00 $64,000 CHALLENGE 10:30 CODE 3—Police 11:00 NEWS, WEATHER 11:15 MOVIE—Double Feature 1. “Bulldog Drummond Escapes” (1937) 2. Let’s Fall in Love” (1934)
-8- WMTW (POLAND SPRING) (ABC, CBS) MORNING 11:55 NEWS AFTERNOON 12:00 LOVE OF LIFE 12:30 MISSIO0N AT MID-CENTURY 1:00 MOVIE—Drama “Never the Twain Shall Meet” (1931) 2:00 BEAT THE CLOCK 2:30 HOUSE PARTY 3:00 AMERICAN BANDSTAND—Music 3:30 DO YOU TRUST YOUR WIFE?—Quiz 4:00 AMERICAN BANDSTAND 4:30 COMMODORE BOB—Kids 5:00 SIR LANCELOT 5:30 MICKEY MOUSE CLUB EVENING 6:00 MOVIE—Drama “Bad Bascomb” (1946) Part 2 7:00 POLITICAL TALK 7:05 NEWS, WEATHER 7:15 NEWS—John Daly 7:30 CHEYENNE—Western 8:30 ZANE GREY THEATER “No Man Living” 9:00 BROKEN ARROW—Western 9:30 RED SKELTON Guest: Jayne Meadows 10:00 WEST POINT—Drama 10:30 NEWS, WEATHER 10:45 WATERFRONT—Adventure 11:15 FILM DRAMA
-9- WMUR (MANCHESTER) (ABC, CBS) AFTERNOON 2:45 OUR FAITH—Religion 3:00 AMERICAN BANDSTAND—Music 3:30 BINGO AT HOME—Saunders 4:30 MOVIE—Drama “Dangerous Millions" (1946) EVENING 6:00 NEWS, SPORTS 6:15 GERRY’S GUITAR—Music 6:30 FOREIGN INTRIGUE--Adventure 7:00 BINGO AT HOME—Gus Bernier 8:00 MOVIE—Drama “Racket Man” (1944) 9:30 N.E. TOWN MEETING 10:00 BIG STORY—Drama 10:30 MAN CALLED X—Adventure 11:00 NEWS, SPORTS, WEATHER 11:15 MOVIE—Drama “Sons of Steel” (1934)
10 WJAR (PROVIDENCE) (ABC, NBC) MORNING 6:30 FARM SHOW 6:45 PASTOR—Religion 7:00 TODAY—Dave Garroway 8:55 NEWS, WEATHER 9:00 WORLD AROUND US—Betty Adams 9:30 HIPPITY HOP—Cartoons 9:45 MOVIE—Drama “Intermezzo” (1939) 11:00 PRICE IS RIGHT 11:30 TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES—Stunts AFTERNOON 12:00 TIC TAC DOUGH—Quiz 12:30 IT COULD BE YOU 1:00 MOVIE—Drama “I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang” (1932) 2:30 KITTY FOYLE—Serial 3:00 MATINEE THEATER COLOR “The Man with Pointed Toes” 4:00 QUEEN FOR A DAY 4:45 MODERN ROMANCES 5:00 MOVIE—Drama “Heaven with a Barbed Wire Fence” (1939) EVENING 6:15 NEWS, WEATHER 6:30 OZZIE AND HARRIETF—Comedy 7:00 UNION PACIFIC—Adventure 7:30 WYATT EARP—Western 8:00 INVESTIGATORY COLOR 9:00 McGRAW—Mystery 9:30 BOB CUMMINGS 10:00 CALIFORNIANS 10:30 HIGHWAY PATROL—Police 11:00 NEWS, WEATHER 11:15 MOVIE—Drama “Our Wife” (1941)
12 WPRO (PROVIDENCE) (CBS) MORNING 7:00 WEATHER 7:15 STORYTIME—Beth Chollar 7:45 NEWS—Dave Mohr 8:00 CAPTAIN KANGAROO 8:45 ROMPER ROOM—Kids 9:15 TOPPER—Comedy 9:45 NEWS—Virginia Stuart 10:00 GARRY MOORE 10:30 HOW DO YOU RATE? 11:00 ARTHUR GODFREY 11:30 DOTTO—Quiz AFTERNOON 12:00 LOVE OF LIFE 12:30 SEARCH FOR TOMORROW—Serial 12:45 GUIDING LIGHT—Serial 1:00 MR. DISTRICT ATTORNEY 1:30 AS THE WORLD TURNS 2:00 BEAT THE CLOCK 2:30 HOUSE PARTY 3:00 BIG PAYOFF—Quiz 3:30 VERDICT IS YOURS 4:00 BRIGTHER DAY—Serial 4:15 SECRET STORM—Serial 4:30 EDGE OF NIGHT—Serial 5:00 SIR LANCELOT 5:30 MICKEY MOUSE CLUB EVENING 6:00 SALTY BRINE’S SHACK—Kids 6:30 NEWS, SPORTS, WEATHER 6:45 NEWS—Douglas Edwards 7:00 DR. HUDSON’S JOURNAL 7:30 NAME THAT TUNE 8:00 MR. ADAMS AND EVE 8:30 PLAYHOUSE—Drama “Web of Circumstance” 9:00 TO TELL THE TRUTH 9:30 RED SKELTON Guest: Jayne Meadows 10:00 $64,000 CHALLENGE 10:30 STAR PERFORMANCE—Drama 11:00 NEWS, WEATHER 11:15 JACK PAAR
13 WGAN (PORTLAND) (CBS) MORNING 8:00 CAPTAIN KANGAROO 8:45 NEWS—Stuart Novins 9:00 ALONG MAIN STREET 9:30 GREAT GILDERSLEEVE—Comedy 10:00 GARRY MOORE 10:30 HOW DO YOU RATE? 11:00 ARTHUR GODFREY 11:30 DOTTO—Quiz AFTERNOON 12:00 LOVE OF LIFE 12:30 SEARCH FOR TOMORROW—Serial 12:45 GUIDING LIGHT—Serial 1:00 GOLDBERGS—Comedy 1:30 AS THE WORLD TURNS 2:00 BEAT THE CLOCK 2:30 HOUSE PARTY 3:00 BIG PAYOFF—Quiz 3:30 VERDICT IS YOURS 4:00 BRIGTHER DAY—Serial 4:15 SECRET STORM—Serial 4:30 EDGE OF NIGHT—Serial 5:00 JUNIOR G-MEN—Serial EVENING 6:00 JUNGLE JIM—Adventure 6:30 NEWS, SPORTS, WEATHER 6:45 NEWS—Douglas Edwards 7:00 BOOTS AND SADDLES 7:30 NAME THAT TUNE 8:00 MR. ADAMS AND EVE 8:30 PLAYHOUSE—Drama “Web of Circumstance” 9:00 TO TELL THE TRUTH 9:30 STUDIO 57—Drama “Rebel Rookie” 10:00 $64,000 CHALLENGE 10:30 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 11:00 NEWS, WEATHER 11:15 MOVIE—Melodrama “The Cat Creeps” (1946)
TV
June 14, 2025
This week in TV Guide: June 14, 1958
According to the television calendar, we're now into "Rerun Season," Between cable, streamers, and on-demand, I'm not sure most people today would actually understand what "Rerun Season" is, but back in 1958, June was officially proclaimed as the end of television's "regular" season, a time to take inventory of the past season and proclaim winners and losers. Therefore, much of our attention this week will be spent not on what is, but what was, and what will be, beginning with Frank DeBlois' year-end review of the 1957-58 season.Among the winners are CBS' Gunsmoke, one of the biggest of winners in the Western genre; the "charming" Leave It to Beaver, hailed as television's best new comedy series; ABC's American Bandstand, "a national favorite among teen-agers", and a flock of drama series, including Hallmark Hall of Fame, Omnibus, Kraft Theatre and Playhouse 90. There's also praise also for news documentaries from Edward R. Murrow and Lowell Thomas, and docu-series like The Twentieth Century and Bell System Science Series. There's praise aplenty too for variety shows from Victor Borge ("Comedy and Music"), Mary Martin ("Annie Get Your Gun"), Stars of Jazz, Crosby and Sinatra on The Edsel Show, the Young Peoples Concerts of Leonard Bernstein, The General Motors 50th Anniversary Show and NBC Opera Theatre.
And then—well, there are those shows that didn't do so well, such as Sid Caesar Invites You on ABC, which "was often embarrassingly bad," series by Frank Sinatra and Eddie Fisher that were "respectively bad and fair," and "flops" by Gisele MacKenzie, Guy Mitchell and Polly Bergen. As far as the quiz show circuit is concerned, there's The $64,000 Question, which "supposedly enables a viewer to win thousands," and that's before they found out it was rigged. On the other hand, Frank found NBC's You Bet Your Life to be "a refreshing contrast," in which "Groucho [Marx] continues to prove that money isn't always everything on television."
While there is much to like about the season just ended, DeBlois notes that there are still too many Westerns—17 on the networks, and another 15 in syndication—and dramas seem to be declining. But then, who determines the difference between a good show and a bad one? It is the critic, which one TV executive described as "any former obituary writer who happens to own a television set."
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We're not just looking backwards in this issue, though; there's also a preview of coming attractions for this summer. Although the networks aren't looking for prestige dramas or breakout hits as they do today, they are looking to add some new blood, and perhaps find a series or two that has some staying power. They promise "at least 18 spanking new shows," including eight—count 'em, eight—quiz shows.
There is, for example, E.S.P. , ABC's panel show, hosted by Vincent Price, which may well be "the most interesting of the new shows" but runs only from July 11 to August 26. On the other hand, Buckskin , replacing Tennessee Ernie Ford's Thursday night show on NBC, is a "promising newcomer" that debuts July 3 and actually makes the fall schedule, with original episodes lasting until May 1959, and appearing in summer reruns in both 1959 and 1965. The closest any network comes to "experimental programming" is probably NBC's plan to run 13 pilots (or "test films," as they're described) in hopes that "some will attract enough interest to win network time slots next fall."
Some familiar faces make appearances in unfamiliar settings: Andy Williams, for example, who's pinch-hitting for Pat Boone this summer (Thursdays at 9:00 p.m. on ABC); it's still awhile before he becomes a staple of NBC's regular schedule. George Fenneman, the longtime sidekick to Groucho Marx, gets to host his own show, ABC's Anybody Can Play, on Sunday nights at 9:30 p.m. Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, mainstays for years on television, get a chance at their own show, filling in for Steve Allen Sundays at 8:00 p.m. (going up against Ed Sullivan); and a rotating list of stars including Edie Adams, Stan Freberg, and Rowan and Martin take over for Dinah Shore.There's the switcharoo: Destiny takes the place of Zane Grey Theater, while reruns of Zane Grey fill in for December Bride. I Love Lucy moves back to its original Monday night timeslot with a series of reruns, taking the place of Danny Thomas' show; Lucy, in turn, is replaced in its current timeslot by reruns of Gerald McBoing-Boing. There's the recycled show. On Trial, last seen in 1957, returns in reruns Saturdays at 10:30 p.m. as The Joseph Cotten Show (taking over for Your Hit Parade), while No Warning!, which has actually been on for a few months, is nothing more than warmed-over Panic! episodes from last season. And an as-yet unnamed anthology show, made up of reruns from Schlitz Playhouse and G.E. Theater, spells Red Skelton. Got all that?
The only interesting note I see is for Perry Mason; the series is "featuring new material in order to get a head start in next fall's race against Perry Como." (Como is being replaced for the summer by bandleader Bob Crosby, brother of Bing, in a show that's live "purely in its technical sense.") That's a creative, nay innovative, approach to summer programming - nearly as creative as you might see today.
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This isn't to say there aren't new shows on this week, and one of the most noteworthy is Playhouse 90's presentation of "A Town Has Turned to Dust" (Thursday, 9:30 p.m., CBS), written by Rod Serling, directed by John Frankenheimer, and featuring a cast including Rod Steiger, Fay Spain, James Gregory, and the great William Shatner. (If the town does turn to dust, it's probably the only thing that keeps Shatner from chewing the scenery. Besides, he'll have to fight of Steiger in that department.) Seriously, though, the play deals with some heavy issues, and the story behind the story is, if anything, even more interesting. It also helped propel Serling straight into The Twilight Zone.For some time Serling had wanted to do a script based on the real-life story of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old black teenager who was murdered in Mississippi in 1955 for flirting with a white woman. His first stab at dramatizing the story was "Noon on Doomsday," written in 1956 for the U.S. Steel Hour, in which the murder victim was intended to be a Jewish storekeeper. As this article shows, though, the program soon became bogged down in politics, especially after word leaked out that the story might be based on the Till case. The location, which was never specified, was now to be New England, to avoid any possible suggestion that it could be in the South. The Jewish victim was now an "unnamed foreigner," and the killer was not a psychopath but merely "a good, decent, American boy momentarily gone wrong." (Happens all the time, doesn't it?) At no point in the script could the word "lynch" be used. It was a total beatdown for Serling, and although the show was pretty good, he complained that "its thesis had been diluted, and my characters had mounted a soap box to shout something that had become too vague to warrant any shouting."
"A Town Has Turned to Dust" is Serling's second crack at the Till story, but if he thinks it will be any easier this time (and, considering his past experiences with networks, he likely doesn't), he'll be sadly mistaken. When CBS gets done with his script, the story has been shifted to the American Southwest, the time period changed from the present day to the 1870s, and he victim is now a poor Mexican boy guilty of admiring a white girl from afar. Once again, the episode gets pretty good reviews; New York Times critic Jack Gould calls it "a raw, tough and at the same time deeply moving outcry against prejudice," and is particularly effusive in his praise for "superlative" performances by Rod Steiger and William Shatner, and the "superb" direction of John Frankenheimer, which he says "truly strengthened Mr. Serling's intent." Interestingly, the final paragraph of Gould's review references how both Serling and the show "had to fight executive interference, reportedly requiring some changes in the story line, before getting their play on the air last night. The theatre people of Hollywood have reason to be proud of their stand in the viewer's behalf."
While Gould's conclusion makes it sound as if Serling had the last word, the author himself felt quite differently. “By the time the censors had gotten to it, my script had turned to dust,” he later said. “They chopped it up like a room full of butchers at work on a steer.” Was Serling justified in his outrage, or was he just a sensitive author who didn't want anyone to touch his work?
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Among the week's other highlights, Ed Sullivan takes us on a tour of the Brussels World's Fair (Sunday, 8:00 p.m., CBS), with the celebrities appearing at the Fair, such as Sophia Loren, Brigitte Bardot, Mitzi Gaynor, William Holden, the Platters, French comedian Jacques Tati, and others. and Maurice Chevalier. Remember when World's Fairs were a thing? They're still held on an occasional basis, but one of the drawbacks to the "global community" is that we've gotten used to seeing other cultures, whether on television or in our own communities, and the world, in a way, has become too small for these big expos.Some of those new shows we were talking about earlier make their debuts this week, including The Joseph Cotten Show (Saturday, 10:30 p.m., NBC) and ABC's Traffic Court on Wednesday. On Thursday, NBC premieres Confessions, which is not about Roman Catholic priests but does focus on convicted criminals, with a panel of sociologists, penologists, clergymen, psychiatrists and lawyers providing commentary. Frigidare Summer Theater, one of those clearinghouses for reruns of dramas from old anthology series, makes its debut on Friday on ABC.
TV Teletype tells us about two new series being prepared for a fall debut: Gunn for Hire, starring Craig Stevens, is set for Mondays on NBC. You know it by the name they finally settled on: Peter Gunn. Also on tap for NBC is a new Western series, Virginia City, going into production next month. When it debuts, it too will be under a different name: Bonanza.
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This week's cover features Robert Young, the beloved star of Father Knows Best, and Dan Jenkins' feature looks at the relationship between the show's adult actors and the children who play such a prominent role, as well as the impact the show has had on the American landscape, "impressing itself upon the collective conscience of the American Organization," in the words of writer Dan Jenkins.
In the 1957-58 season alone, Jenkins notes, the show has received requests from 22 organizations for personal appearances: a New York life insurance company (Jim Anderson, Young's character, is an insurance salesman), the U.S. Army Recruiting Services (Young and co-star Jane Wyatt appeared on the Army float in the 1958 Rose Parade), the National Safety Council (Young views his work for them as a year-around job), and the Mount Sinai Hospital and Clinic (recognizing Young as Father of the Year, "a title twice bestowed upon him by the National Father's Day Committee), among others. The show, winner of three past Emmys, is seen in 21 countries and is a smash in Australia.
Yes, Father Knows Best is one of the most popular shows on television, a gentle, literate family comedy about "a pleasantly intelligent and happy American family with all the built-in values," and Robert Young is one of the most popular stars on television. For a generation he becomes the very model of a husband and father, and while Father Knows Best lives on in syndication, another generation will come to consider him the very model of what a doctor's bedside manner should be like, in Marcus Welby, M.D. None of this earns him credit with his real family, though: one of his daughters recently chastised him for saying he didn't know the answer to a question she asked. "Jim Anderson always knows," she said, to which Young replied, "Jim Anderson has two writers. Bob Young doesn't have any."
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This week's starlet is Whitney Blake who in a little over two years has gone from selling ice cream at an Oregon stand to becoming "one of TV's most active free-lance actresses". "I always wanted to be an actress," she says, but it wasn't until her family finally settled in Oregon that she was able to pursue her passion. "My mother wanted me to do something sensible, like get married. But I knew what I really wanted."After studying at Pasadena City College, Blake heads for Hollywood, where she's seen by a talent agent, after which the roles just kept coming. She honed her skills playing in summer stock, and now she's ready for the future. "I'm an actress now," she says. "Even Mother now accepts that."
Indeed she is. In addition to her many guest-starring roles, Whitney Blake the actress will be best known for her four seasons as Dorothy Baxter in the sitcom Hazel. But there's also Whitney Blake the television mogul; she and her husband Allan Manings will create the sitcom One Day at a Time. And then there's Whitney Blake the businesswoman; in the '90s, she and her son will own the Minneapolis bookstore Baxter's Books, which over the years helped me fill a shelf or so in my library. (Had I known, I might have demanded to see the owner.) Most famous, perhaps, is Whitney Blake the mother; her daughter, Meredith Baxter, will inherit her mom's looks and have a pretty good career of her own.
So as TV Guide starlets go, Whitney Blake is definitely one of the winners.
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Finally, just to show that you can find magic out of even the most innocuous items, there's Wednesday's presentation on Kraft Theatre, a mystery entitled "Now Will You Try for Murder?" (9:00 p.m., NBC). The plot: "One of the biggest money winners in TV-quiz history is murdered on the day that he is scheduled to try for a record sum. An investigation reveals that a number of people connected with the show had motives for killing the contestant, including the top executive, the director, the producer and the producer's pretty assistant."
For every good reason, that reminds me of Dotto. The show airs weekdays at 11:30 a.m. on CBS, and since its January premiere, it's become so popular that a nighttime version is planned to debut next month on NBC. In this week's review, Dan Jenkins says that frankly, he doesn't see much to write about; it's "still another in the apparently never-ending succession of new quiz shows, [which] comes out of the same old mold." "The game's the thing," he says, "the money prizes rarely going higher than about $3000."
And yet, only two months after this issue, Dotto disappears from the airwaves. It's not that it suffered a sudden drop in popularity; on the contrary, one could say that its cancellation came about because it got too much of the wrong kind of attention. It began the previous month, when one of the contestants, Ed Hilgemeier, discovered a notebook belonging to another contestant, Marie Winn. Turns out that notebook contained the answers to questions she would be asked on the show. Hilgemeier took his suspicions to the contestant defeated by Winn, Yaffe Kimball, and then to the show's producers. The producers paid all three of them off to keep quiet, but as often happens with these cover-ups, Hilgemeier wound up going to the authorities anyway. And—well, as Paul Harvey would say, I'm sure you all know the rest of the story.
I wonder: if this play had been scheduled to run later in the year, would the network still have aired it? Or would it have been cutting a little too close to the bone, so to speak?
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MST3K alert:
Cat-Women of the Moon
(1954) A rocket ship from the Earth lands on the moon. Sonny Tufts, Marie Windsor, Victor Jory. (Saturday, 1:00 p.m., WCSH in Portland) That description doesn't tell us much about this Rifftrax feature, so let's look at the Amazon description: "An expedition to the moon discovers a subterranean cavern of ferocious, love-starved cat-women who have not seen men in centuries." Yes, that's much better. TV
June 13, 2025
Around the dial
Let's kick things off this week with one of my favorite British detectives, Frank Marker, as played by Alfred Burke in Public Eye. But this isn't about either Frank or Alfred; it's the finale of the "Sylvia Coleridge Season" at Cult TV Blog, and I'll forgive John for ending the season since he's chosen well: the episode "
No Orchids for Marker
."At Comfort TV, David looks at some of our classic shows to see what they have to say about the ubiquitous computer, which was a thing to behold back then—and something to be feared. The question that these shows posed: can the computer be trusted?
The Broadcast Archives celebrated Game Show Wednesday this week with a look at the "Golden Age" of game shows, at least in number: the 1970s . They were everywhere, and I'm willing to bet you're going to recognize at least one or two of the hosts pictured.
Jack's Hitchcock Project returns at bare•bones e-zine with " Act of Faith ," a seventh season episode written by Nicholas Monsarrat, starring George Grizzard and Dennis King. It is, as Jack says, a curious choice for a Hitchcock episode; you'll have to see whether or not it works.
At The View from the Junkyard, Roger continues to survey The A-Team, and points out that this week's episode, " The Out-of-Towners ," keeps a trend going: that of the team taking on missions to right wrongs, rather than purely as mercenaries. It's part of what makes the show fun.
Television's New Frontier: The 1960s is back with the 1962 episodes of The Danny Thomas Show , and I'm always amazed that a show as successful as this was, with a star as big as Thomas was, can become so obscure today. Or maybe it's just me, I don't know.
At A Shroud of Thoughts, Terence bids farewell to Pippa Scott , a frequent presence on classic TV over the years, who died last month at the age of 90. If you had a favorite show back in those days, the chances are excellent that she was on it.
Better twice than never: at Drunk TV, Paul reprises a piece from Mavis Movie Madness on NBC's 60th anniversary show in 1986 . I think it's safe to say that both Paul and I have our doubts about how well it worked, and what it may augur for the 100th anniversary show coming up. TV
June 11, 2025
How classic television foresaw the future
Xx Unless you're a complete stranger to this website—and if so, what took you so long?—you know that for years, I've been beating the drum for the value of classic-era television as a primary document of sorts, a glimpse into not just the history of television itself, but of our culture: the trends, the influences, how it reflects our national and cultural history, and how, in turn, how it has been influenced by it. However, if you require any further proof of this, my new book Darkness in Primetime: How Classic-Era TV Foresaw Modern Society's Descent into Hell gives you a precise look at our current world—as it was envisioned by the writers of television shows in the 1950s and 1960s. With remarkable foresight, these writers applied the lessons they'd learned from history—the French Revolution, the rise of Communism, the McCarthy era of the Blacklist—to a view on what the world might be like twenty, thirty, fifty years from now. It was, in many ways, a depressing look, filled with totalitarian images, widespread consumerism, constant surveillance, oppressive governments, and a purposeless society that had descended into an endless quest for pleasure. By then, many people had abandoned God altogether, content with their reinvention as their own gods, masters of the environment, controllers of the mind, arbiters of the soul. In place of the individual, there was only the monolith: the State, the collective, the society in which all must look alike, think alike, be alike, in order to avoid confronting our worst fears.
If we'd paid more attention to these programs at the time, and what they were saying—ah, but that ship has long since sailed. As cultural historians, we can only look back at the themes of these shows and what they reveal about the world that helped spawn them. These programs served as more than simple entertainment, though entertaining they often were; the problem was that even the television industry didn't take them seriously enough. My efforts to track down some of these programs were ample proof that when it came to preserving its own history, television took itself no more seriously than many of its critics did. It was, as I write, as if "painters were to throw out their canvases following an exhibition, or playwrights burned their manuscripts after a performance." Hopefully, in addition to informing readers about the fascinating history of these programs, it will serve as a reminder that television can do more than produce cheap laughs, real-world exploitation, and dramas that carry no moral weight.
Many of you have probably seen this already, but for those of you who haven't, this is the trailer for Darkness in Primetime. Please take a couple of minutes to watch it, and feel free to share with others who have an interest in classic-era television.
Darkness in Primetime will be available in August; you can sign up for updates on when you can preorder, as well as information not only about this book but the others that I've written. I feel confident that after you've read Darkness in Primetime, you'll have a new appreciation for the value of classic-era programs, and the light they can shed on our history: who we were and who we are. TV
June 9, 2025
What's on TV? Sunday, June 11, 1972
A little something for everyone today, especially in the sports arena: baseball (two different games), tennis, track and field, judo, even roller derby. It's hard to complain about that. You'll notice what's missing, though: basketball and hockey, both of which have their finals series going on at the time that I'm typing this. In 1972, the NBA Finals ended on May 7 (!), while the Stanley Cup playoffs skated to an end on May 11. Those really were the days weren't they? Today's listings are from the Eastern New England edition.-2- WGBH (BOSTON) (PBS) AFTERNOON 2:00 VIBRATIONS—Music -C- 3:00 MOVIE—Documentary Film Odyssey: “Man of Aran” (1934) 4:30 NET PLAYHOUSE ON THE ‘30s -C- Special: “The Movie-Crazy Years” EVENING 6:00 BLACK JOURNAL -C- 6:30 OUR STREET -C- 7:00 ZOOM—Children -C- 7:30 FRENCH CHEF -C- Lamb shashik, shishkebab, sea scallops 8:00 FIRING LINE -C- Guests: Laurence Bellenson, Alan Barth 9:00 MASTERPIECE THEATRE -C- “The Possessed,” chapter 3 9:45 MASTERPIECE THEATRE -C- “The Possessed,” chapter 4 10:30 MOVIE—Drama Film Odyssey: “Sawdust and Tinsel” (Swedish; 1953)
-3- WTIC (HARTFORD) (CBS) MORNING 7:45 CHRISTOPHER CLOSEUP -C- 8:00 DAVEY AND GOLIATH -C- 8:15 GUMBY -C- 8:30 CAPTAIN BOB -C- 9:00 LEER SIN LETRAS: READING WITHOUT LETTERS -C- 9:30 WE BELIEVE -C- 10:00 LAMP UNTO MY FEET -C- 10:30 LOOK UP AND LIVE -C- 11:00 CAMERA THREE -C- 11:30 TO BE ANNOUNCED AFTERNOON 12:00 PERCEPTION -C- 12:30 FACE THE NATION -C- 1:00 YOUR COMMUNITY -C- 1:30 MOVIE—Adventure “Congo Crosssing” (1956) 3:00 AAU INTERNATIONAL CHAMPIONS -C- Kennedy Games, National Judo Championships 4:30 CBS TENNIS CLASSIC -C- Cliff Drysdale vs. Jeff Borowiak 5:00 TARZAN -C- EVENING 6:00 60 MINUTES -C- 7:00 FACE THE STATE -C- 7:30 MOVIE—Thriller -C- “Killer by Night” (Made-for-TV; 1972) 9:30 CADE’S COUNTY—Crime Drama -C- 10:00 BOLD ONES -C- The Doctors 10:30 NEWS, SPORTS, WEATHER -C- 11:05 MOVIE—Drama -C- “Written on the Wind” (1956)
-4- WBZ (BOSTON) (NBC) MORNING 6:15 SIGN ON SEMINAR 6:45 LIVING WORD -C- 7:00 INTERNATIONAL ZONE -C- 7:30 BOOMTOWN -C- 9:00 FOR KIDS ONLY -C- 9:30 WATCH YOUR CHILD -C- 10:00 INSIGHT -C- 10:30 A SHOW OF FAITH 11:00 TALENT AUDITIONS -C- 11:30 NEWS, SPORTS, WEATHER -C- AFTERNOON 12:00 MOVIE—Drama “The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner” (English; 1962) 1:55 RED SOX WARM-UP -C- 2:00 BASEBALL -C- California Angels at Boston Red Sox 4:30 SURVIVAL -C- 5:00 MEET THE PRESS -C- 5:30 WILD KINGDOM -C- EVENING 6:00 NEWS, SPORTS, WEATHER -C- 6:30 NBC NEWS—Garrick Utley -C- 7:00 PEOPLE GAMES -C- 7:30 WORLD OF DISNEY -C- “Way Down Cellar,” part 1 8:30 JIMMY STEWART—Comedy-Drama -C- 9:00 BONANZA -C- 10:00 BOLD ONES -C- The Doctors 11:00 NEWS, SPORTS, WEATHER -C- 11:30 DAVID FROST’S FINEST HOUR. . . AND A HALF -C- Guests: Pearl Bailey, Lawrence Welk, Irving Caesar, Bill Withers 1:00 DEATH VALLEY DAYS -C-
-5- WCVB (BOSTON) (ABC) MORNING 7:00 CHRISTOPHER CLOSEUP -C- 7:30 DIRECTIONS -C- 8:00 PRAISE THE LORD -C- 8:30 DAVEY AND GOLIATH -C- 9:00 JABBERWOCKY FILM THING -C- 10:00 RELUCTANT DRAGON AND MR. TOAD -C- 10:30 DOUBLEDECKERS -C- 11:00 BULLWINKLE -C- 11:30 MAKE A WISH—Children -C- AFTERNOON 12:00 MOVIE—Drama “Above Us the Waves” (1955) 2:00 MOVIE—Adventure -C- “Swordsman of Siena” (Italian; 1961) 4:00 ISSUES AND ANSWERS -C- 4:30 PRIMUS -C- 5:00 STORY THEATRE -C- 5:30 CIRCUS! -C- EVENING 6:00 NEWS, SPORTS, WEATHER -C- 6:30 MOVIE—Science Fiction -C- “Night Slaves” (1970) 8:00 FBI -C- 9:00 MOVIE—Comedy-Drama -C- “The Day the Fish Came Out” (1967) 11:00 NEWS, SPORTS, WEATHER -C- 11:15 ABC NEWS—Bill Beutel -C- 11:30 MOVIE—Comedy “This Could Be the Night” (1957) 1:30 SOUND OFF -C- 2:00 PRAISE THE LORD -C-
-6- WTEV (NEW BEDFORD) (ABC) MORNING 6:45 FARMER’S CORNER 7:15 DIRECTIONS -C- 7:45 WORSHIP 8:00 CHURCH SERVICE—Jewish -C- 8:45 CHURCH SERVICE—Catholic -C- 9:30 SAMPSON -C- 10:00 RELUCTANT DRAGON AND MR. TOAD -C- 10:30 DOUBLEDECKERS -C- 11:00 BULLWINKLE -C- 11:30 MAKE A WISH—Children -C- AFTERNOON 12:00 PASSPORT TO PORTUGAL -C- 12:30 PORTUGUESE AROUND US -C- 1:00 MODEL CITIES REPORT -C- 1:30 ISSUES AND ANSWERS -C- 2:00 MOTHERS-IN-LAW -C- 2:30 MOVIE—Drama “All That Heaven Allows” (1955) 4:00 MOVIE—Drama “Scarlet Angel” (1952) 5:30 MONTY NASH EVENING 6:00 SAINT -C- 7:00 LAWRENCE WELK -C- 8:00 FBI -C- 9:00 MOVIE—Comedy-Drama -C- “The Day the Fish Came Out” (1967) 11:00 NEWS, SPORTS, WEATHER -C- 11:30 MOVIE—Drama “Meet Me at the Fair” (1953)
-7- WNAC (BOSTON) (CBS) MORNING 6:25 CONSULTATION -C- 6:55 NEWS 7:00 ORAL ROBERTS -C- 7:30 PAUL BENZAQUIN -C- 8:30 RELIGION AT ISSUE -C- 9:00 CHRISTOPHER CLOSEUP -C- 9:15 CHURCH SERVICE—Catholic -C- 10:30 LOOK UP AND LIVE -C- 11:00 CAMERA THREE -C- 11:30 LAMP UNTO MY FEET -C- AFTERNOON 12:00 MOVIE—Drama -C- “The Mountain” (1956) 2:00 ANIMAL WORLD -C- 2:30 FACE THE NATION -C- 3:00 AAU INTERNATIONAL CHAMPIONS -C- Kennedy Games, National Judo Championships 4:30 CBS TENNIS CLASSIC -C- Cliff Drysdale vs. Jeff Borowiak 5:00 THE NEWSMAKERS -C- 5:30 NEWS, SPORTS, WEATHER -C- EVENING 6:00 60 MINUTES -C- 7:00 ONE MORE TIME—Drama -C- 7:30 MOVIE—Thriller -C- “Killer by Night” (Made-for-TV; 1972) 9:30 CADE’S COUNTY—Crime Drama -C- 10:30 NEWS, SPORTS, WEATHER -C- 11:00 CBS NEWS—Dan Rather -C- 11:15 MOVIE—Comedy -C- “Boys’ Night Out” (1962) 1:25 RELIGION AT ISSUE -C-
-8- WTNH (NEW HAVEN) (ABC) MORNING 7:30 WORSHIP FOR SHUT-INS -C- 8:00 CHURCH SERVICE—Catholic -C- 8:30 THIS IS THE LIFE -C- 9:00 FAITH FOR TODAY -C- 9:30 DIALOGUE -C- 10:00 A NEW DAY -C- 10:30 DOUBLEDECKERS -C- 11:00 BULLWINKLE -C- 11:30 MAKE A WISH—Children -C- AFTERNOON 12:00 FOR THE CONSUMER -C- 12:15 HEALTH BEAT -C- 12:30 BLACK IS -C- 1:00 EIGHTH DAY -C- 1:30 ISSUES AND ANSWERS -C- 2:00 BASEBALL -C- Houston Astros at New York Mets 4:00 TO BE ANNOUNCED 4:30 DEATH VALLEY DAYS -C- 5:00 MOVIE—Comedy -C- “Palm Springs Weekend” (1963) EVENING 7:00 IT TAKES A THIEF -C- 8:00 FBI -C- 9:00 MOVIE—Comedy-Drama -C- “The Day the Fish Came Out” (1967) 11:00 NEWS, SPORTS, WEATHER -C- 11:15 ABC NEWS—Bill Beutel -C- 11:30 AVENGERS -C- 12:30 FOR THE CONSUMER -C-
-9- WMUR (MANCHESTER) (ABC) MORNING 8:00 BILLY JAMES HARGIS AND HIS ALL-AMERICAN KIDS -C- 8:30 HERALD OF TRUTH -C- 9:00 ORAL ROBERTS -C- 9:30 INSIGHT 10:00 FAITH FOR TODAY -C- 10:30 DAY OF DISCOVERY -C- 11:00 BULLWINKLE -C- 11:30 MAKE A WISH—Children -C- AFTERNOON 12:00 CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING -C- 1:00 CLYDE JOY 1:30 FISHIN’ HOLE -C- 2:00 MOVIE—Western “On the Old Spanish Trail” (1947) 3:00 MOVIE—Western “Yodelin’ Kid from Pine Ridge” (1937) 4:00 WESTERNERS 4:30 FILM -C- 5:00 MOVIE—Drama “City for Conquest” (1940) EVENING 7:00 ROLLER DERBY -C- Pioneers vs. Jolters 8:00 FBI -C- 9:00 MOVIE—Comedy-Drama -C- “The Day the Fish Came Out” (1967) 11:00 ABC NEWS—Bill Beutel -C-
10 WJAR (PROVIDENCE) (NBC) MORNING 7:00 TIMOTHY CHURCHMOUSE -C- 7:30 CHRISTOPHERS -C- 8:00 INSIGHT -C- 8:30 THIS IS THE LIFE -C- 9:00 ON THIS DAY -C- 9:30 DIALOGUE -C- 10:00 REX HUMBARD -C- 11:30 TO BE ANNOUNCED 11:45 BLACK PROFILE -C- AFTERNOON 12:00 LOOK HERE -C- 12:30 COMMENT -C- 1:00 MEET THE PRESS -C- 1:30 NEWS CONFERENCE -C- 2:00 U.S. NAVY FILM -C- 2:30 TO BE ANNOUNCED 3:15 MOVIE—Drama “Johnny Trouble” (1957) 4:30 WILD KINGDOM -C- 5:00 BIG VALLEY -C- EVENING 6:00 NEWS, SPORTS, WEATHER -C- 6:30 NBC NEWS—Garrick Utley -C- 7:00 HOW TO CATCH A SMILE -C- 7:30 WORLD OF DISNEY -C- “Way Down Cellar,” part 1 8:30 JIMMY STEWART—Comedy-Drama -C- 9:00 BONANZA -C- 10:00 BOLD ONES -C- The Doctors 11:00 NEWS, SPORTS, WEATHER -C-
12 WPRI (PROVIDENCE) (CBS) MORNING 8:00 CAMERA THREE -C- 8:30 SOUL VILLAGE -C- 9:00 ORAL ROBERTS -C- 9:30 DAY OF DISCOVERY -C- 10:00 LAMP UNTO MY FEET -C- 10:30 LOOK UP AND LIVE -C- 11:00 FACE THE NEWS -C- 11:30 FACE THE NATION -C- AFTERNOON 12:00 TWELVE ROUNDTABLE -C- 12:30 MOVIE—Comedy “Tammy and the Millionaire” (1967) 2:00 BASEBALL -C- California Angels at Boston Red Sox 4:30 CBS TENNIS CLASSIC -C- Cliff Drysdale vs. Jeff Borowiak 5:00 SURVIVAL -C- 5:30 BONDS OF ACCESS -C- EVENING 6:00 60 MINUTES -C- 7:00 LASSIE -C- 7:30 MOVIE—Thriller -C- “Killer by Night” (Made-for-TV; 1972) 9:30 CADE’S COUNTY—Crime Drama -C- 10:30 NEWS, SPORTS, WEATHER -C- 11:00 MOVIE—Comedy “The Brass Bottle” (1965)
27 WSMW (WORCESTER) (Ind.) MORNING 11:00 CAPTURE -C- 11:30 BOLD JOURNEY AFTERNOON 12:00 BILLY JAMES HARGIS AND HIS ALL-AMERICAN KIDS -C- 1:00 REX HUMBARD -C- 2:00 GOSPEL SINGING JUBILEE -C- 3:00 JUDGE ROY BEAN -C- 3:30 MOVIE—Comedy “The Bowery Boys Meet the Monsters” (1954) 4:30 MOVIE—Musical “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm” (1938) EVENING 6:00 DR. SIMON LOCKE—Drama -C- 6:30 BOWLING—Worcester -C- 7:30 TOM JONES -C- Guests: Shirley Jones, Dick Cavett, Dusty Springfield, Engelbert Humperdinck, the Foundations 8:30 ENGELBERT HUMPERDINCK -C- Guests: Gina Lollobrigida, Lou Rawls, Kaye Ballard, Roger Whitmore 9:00 DAVID SUSSKIND -C- 11:00 WOOLNER BROTHERS -C-
36 WSBE (PROVIDENCE) (PBS) EVENING 6:00 ANDY JACKSON 6:30 INSIGHT 7:00 ZOOM—Children -C- 7:30 FRENCH CHEF -C- Lamb shashik, shishkebab, sea scallops 8:00 FIRING LINE -C- Guests: Laurence Bellenson, Alan Barth 9:00 MASTERPIECE THEATRE -C- “The Possessed,” chapter 3 9:45 MASTERPIECE THEATRE -C- “The Possessed,” chapter 4
38 WSBK (BOSTON) (Ind.) MORNING 11:00 COUNCIL OF RABBIS -C- 11:30 AMERICAN RELIGIOUS TOWN MEETING -C- AFTERNOON 12:00 ROLLER DERBY -C- 1:00 ASK THE MANAGER -C- 1:30 MOVIE—Mystery “Inn on the River” (West German; 1962) 3:00 ADDAMS FAMILY -C- 3:30 WAGON TRAIN -C- 5:00 DAKTARI -C- EVENING 6:00 GIRL FROM U.N.C.L.E. -C- 7:00 I DREAM OF JEANNIE -C- 7:30 HOGAN’S HEROES -C- 8:00 MOVIE—Drama "Devil’s Agent” (Italian; 1950) 9:30 VICTORY AT SEA 10:00 GOLDDIGGERS -C- Guests: Vikki Carr, John Rowles, Barker and Corbett 10:30 VIEWPOINT ON NUTRITION -C- 11:00 THE DRUM—Report -C- 11:30 WORSHIP FOR SHUT-INS -C-
44 WGBX (BOSTON) (PBS) AFTERNOON 2:00 VIBRATIONS—Music -C- 3:00 MOVIE—Documentary Film Odyssey: “Man of Aran” (1934) 4:30 NET PLAYHOUSE ON THE ‘30s -C- Special: “The Movie-Crazy Years” EVENING 6:00 BLACK JOURNAL -C- 6:30 OUR STREET -C- 7:00 ZOOM—Children -C- 7:30 FRENCH CHEF -C- Lamb shashik, shishkebab, sea scallops 8:00 FIRING LINE -C- Guests: Laurence Bellenson, Alan Barth 9:00 MASTERPIECE THEATRE -C- “The Possessed,” chapter 3 9:45 MASTERPIECE THEATRE -C- “The Possessed,” chapter 4 10:30 MOVIE—Drama Film Odyssey: “Sawdust and Tinsel” (Swedish; 1953)
53 WEDN (NORWICH) (PBS) AFTERNOON 4:00 GUITAR—Lessons 4:30 SPEAKING FREELY -C- 5:30 SWEET RAIN EVENING 6:30 BLACK JOURNAL -C- 7:00 ZOOM—Children -C- 7:30 FRENCH CHEF -C- Lamb shashik, shishkebab, sea scallops 8:00 FIRING LINE -C- Guests: Laurence Bellenson, Alan Barth 9:00 MASTERPIECE THEATRE -C- “The Possessed,” chapter 3 10:00 A FRESH BREEZE DOWN EAST—Folk Concert -C- Special 10:30 GUITAR, GUITAR -C-
56 WKBG (BOSTON) (Ind.) MORNING 8:00 WORDS AND MUSIC -C- 8:30 I BELIEVE IN MIRACLES -C- 9:00 KIMBA -C- 9:30 HUCKLEBERRY HOUND -C- 10:00 UNDERDOG -C- A 10:30 YOGI BEAR -C- 11:00 SPEED RACER -C- AFTERNOON 12:00 OUTER LIMITS 1:00 MOVIE—Musical -C- “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” (French-West German; 1964) 3:00 MOVIE—Suspense “The Window” (1949) 4:30 MOVIE—Melodrama “Gambling House” (1951) EVENING 6:00 STAR TREK -C- 7:00 AVENGERS 8:00 MOVIE—Mystery “Suspicion” (1941) 10:00 LOU GORDON -C- Guest: Pat Paulsen
TV
June 7, 2025
This week in TV Guide: June 10, 1972
In the midst of television's infatuation with Upstairs, Downstairs, The Six Wives of Henry VIII, Elizabeth R, and other prestigious British costume dramas, it seems appropriate to remind viewers that "British television is not all kings, queens and high-flown drama." There is, for example, science fiction, an example of which is the long-running (now in its ninth season) series Doctor Who, about to make its debut in American syndication this fall. The episode in question in this week's article is "The Sea Devils," and with its over-the-top story of sea monsters trying to reconquer the Earth. It's a prototypical Who story for those of us in the know, but for readers whose idea of British television was Masterpiece Theatre, I can only imagine what they must have thought of the article's attempt to explain the storyline, not to mention the various eccentricities of the Doctor. At this point in the show's history, the Doctor's ability to travel in time and space had been disabled by the Time Lords; I'm sure that time travel would have pushed some of these readers over the edge.
Doctor Who made its premiere the day after John F. Kennedy's assassination; by 1972 it's on its third actor to portray the Doctor, Jon Pertwee. Pertwee will play the role for five seasons, to be followed by the man who brought the series its greatest fame in the United States, Tom Baker. And it won't be until Doctor Who becomes a staple of local public television stations throughout the nation that the show develops its cult following, one that continues to this day.
From left: the Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee), the Master (Roger Delgado), a Sea Devil, the Doctor and companion Jo Grant (Katy Manning)
For old-time Whovians like yours truly, it's been difficult to watch the show's decline since its revival many years (and many Doctors) ago. I stopped watching it several years ago, and I've got no particular desire to return to it—if, indeed, the show returns from the hiatus the BBC is reportedly preparing for it. We've been watching the classic episodes from the very beginning over the last year or so, and it's been a pleasant reminder of how much fun it used to be, and how much moral power it carried. I haven't made any secret of my disappointment with the turn it's taken in its reincarnation, so I won't tread the same ground here. Suffice it to say that, back in 1972, there was little indication that the program would still be airing in 2025, through 40 seasons and 15 incarnations of the Doctor. If only we had known!
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From 1963 to 1976, TV Guide's weekly reviews were written by the witty and acerbic Cleveland Amory. Whenever they appear, we'll look at Cleve's latest take on the shows of the era. Cleveland Amory's last column of the season is a look at the mailbag, and in typical Amory fashion, the pithy answers to the questions from readers are just as entertaining as the letters themselves.
Typically, we hear from those who felt Our Critic was a little too hard on their favorite shows and/or stars. For instance, Alan Thomas, of Macon, Georgia, asks Cleve why he was so down on the Tony Curtis-Roger Moore adventure series The Persuaders!, a show which I found quite entertaining, by the way. "I do not like you one bit," Mr. Thomas says. "They are good actors. They have their faults. So does everybody." In defense of the Curtis-Moore duo, Amory replies, "In this show the fault, dear Brutus, was not in the stars." Meanwhile, Donald Parker, of Madison, South Dakota, suggests that Amory's review of McMillian & Wife proves that "Cleveland Amory has a severe case of the cynics." "Yes," Amory responds, "but that's the show that gave it to us." And E. H. Scheckler Jr., of Elizabeth, New Jersey, is more blunt about it all. "I wish that someone would review one of Cleveland Amory's reviews and have him canceled, as so many of these programs have been." Not so fast, responds Cleve: "But wouldn't you get tired of the reruns?" Erika Ela (no address) suggests that Amory have a panel of reviewers to review shows. Ah, but as Amory retorts, "Who do you think we is?"
Not everyone has a bone to pick. Alexander McCormick, of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, wasn't impressed with NBC's coverage of the Winter Olympics in Japan, and wonders what Amory thought. "[T]he announcers and experts were dull and the '[Jack] Perkins Pieces' overrated. I still remember the time they cut away from a terrific fight at a hockey game to a downhill ski race which you couldn't see anyway on account of a snowstorm. And I also remember spending hours on the distance skating, with the same guy [probably the great Dutch triple-gold medal winner Ard Schenk ] going around and around. For all we know, he's still going around." Jeannie Adlon of New York City wondered about Cleve's opinion of the recent Emmys telecast. There were too many awards given for single performances, Amory thought; as for the Emmy show itself, "it was awful. It would be easy to produce it right, too—just give us more and longer scenes from the nominations and less junk, bad jokes, long, dull thank yous and bad taste."
Not everything is so negative, though. Mrs. D.E. Woods of Richmond, Indiana says, "I'm 50 years old and I'm in love with three men—my husband, Peter Falk and Cleveland Amory." "Dear Sis," Amory responds, "we thought your letter would never come."
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Movies form a big part of this week's highlights, beginning on Saturday with a repeat of the political thriller Seven Days in May (8:30 p.m. ET, ABC), starring Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Fredric March, Ava Gardner, and Edmond O'Brien, directed by John Frankenheimer, and with a Rod Serling script that uses large sections of the Fletcher Knebel-Charles Bailey II novel verbatim. If it shakes your faith in government, it reinforces your faith in Hollywood's ability to tell a terrific story that's far more than just a political potboiler. On the more lighthearted side, Once upon a Dead Man (9:00 p.m., NBC) is the pilot for the aforementioned McMillan and Wife; I wonder what Cleveland Amory thought of this? And at 11:30, it's Compulsion, a fictionalized version of the Leopold-Loeb case, with Dean Stockwell and Bradford Dillman as the youthful killers, and Orson Welles brilliant as their Darrowesque attorney.The features continue Sunday with the "angry young man" drama The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (noon, WBZ), directed by Tony Richardson, with Tom Courtney as the reform school student who finds fulfillment, of a sort, through distance running. At 1:00 p.m., it's Jacques Demy's jazz opera The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (WKBG), with the music of Michel Legrand (the movie's biggest hit: " I Will Wait For You "), and starring Nino Castelnuovo and the luminous Catherine Deneuve. In primetime, the great actor of our lifetime, William Shatner, stars as the heavy in Cade's County (9:30 p.m., CBS), as Glenn Ford tries to prevent him from setting off a nuclear warhead. Forget the county; no scenery is safe in this scenario.
If you thought that we were done with opera after The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, guess again. On Monday, it's the movie For the First Time (7:00 p.m., WTIC), with opera star Mario Lanza, in a nice bit of casting against type, playing—surprise!—an opera star who falls in love with a deaf Viennese girl. If you want something a little more serious, turn to NET Opera Theatre's presentation of Benjamin Britten's magnificent " Peter Grimes " (8:00 p.m., PBS), one of the greatest operas of the 20th century, starring Peter Pears, Heather Harper, and Bryan Drake. But if you want to get back to the movies, I can't think of anything better than the documentary Hollywood: The Dream Factory (8:00 p.m., ABC), an hour-long retrospective of Hollywood's Golden Age, narrated by Dick Cavett.
Tuesday begins with a perceptive episode of The Mod Squad (7:30 p.m., ABC) that looks at the difficulty Vietnam veterans have adjusting to civilian life, as Robert Pine plays a vet who looks at domestic dissidents as "the enemy." There's no telling how he would have treated Cannon's adversary (9:30 p.m., CBS): a cult leader with "an almost satanic influence" over his followers, who include Arthur Rubenstein's son John, June Lockhart's daughter Anne, and Dennis Weaver's son Rick. And Dick Cavett's sole guest tonight (11:30 p.m., ABC) is none other than Jack Paar. I always enjoyed the British import The Persuaders! (Wednesday, 9:30 p.m., ABC), starring Roger Moore and Tony Curtis; a pity it only lasted one season. In this week's explosive episode, Tony's walking around with an attache case attached to his wrist, little knowing that while he tries to prevent the "Other Side" from getting it, he's putting his own life in danger: the case is loaded with explosives that could go off "at the shake of a wrist." If you'd prefer something a little more macabre, try out tonight's Night Gallery (10:00 p.m., NBC), which includes "Green Fingers," with Elsa Lanchester as the little old gardener who isn't all she seems.
On Thursday night, NBC kicks off Adventure Theater (8:00 p.m.), one of those summer quasi-anthology series that were so common back then, either failed pilots or, in this case, "a series of dramas from the Sixties," specificially reruns from Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre, swhich works out well since that show was filmed entirely in color. In this case, it's "The Lady is My Wife," first shown in 1967, and it's notable not only for a fine cast that includes Bradford Dillman and Jean Simmons, but because it's directed by Sam Peckinpah. Expect something that's a little toned down from what we're used to seeing from him in the theaters. Over on PBS, it's NET Playhouse on the '30s (8:30 p.m.), with Dustin Hoffman and Orson Bean in Maxwell Anderson's time-travel comedy " The Star Wagon ," which also features Eileen Brennan.
Since we started with movies, we'll finish the same way, with Antonioni's L'Avventura (Friday, 8:30 p.m., PBS), the story of a missing woman that becomes a series of "metaphors for spiritual listlessness." Judith Crist isn't particularly a fan—she describes it as "a difficult, slow-paced film, marked by uneven acting and stolid characters"—but acknowledges the movie's reputation as a "masterpiece." Monica Vitti and Gabriele Ferzetti star in what has subsequently been listed as one of the top ten greatest films ever made.l l l
I sense something of an underlying theme in this week's features. First, we have Cleveland Amory's second appearance in this week's issue, authoring the cover story on Doris Day. The focus, not surprisingly, is on Dodo's involvement in the animal rights movement, her love of dogs, and her efforts to rescue them from cruel treatment. There's some mention of her personal life, virtually none of her CBS sitcom, although it's hard to imagine that anyone would be turned off from the show based on this very flattering portrayal.
That's followed by a brief story on Eric Knight, the author of a Saturday Evening Post story that's spanned even more years than Doctor Who: "Lassie Come Home," which originally appeared in the Post in 1939 before being expanded into a novel the following year. The book inspired a movie that catapulted its two child actors, Elizabeth Taylor and Roddy McDowall, to a stardom that endures to this day. It also inspired a series, Lassie, that has been a presence on television for 17 years. Lassie Comes Home has recently been reissued by Holt, Rinehart and Winston, at the request of Knight's widow, Jere. It is a timeless story, that of a boy and his dog, isn't it? Finally, an animal story that's probably less of a favorite with Cleve: Melvin Durslag's look at the upcoming Belmont Stakes. (Saturday, CBS) It's the longest and most grueling of the three Triple Crown races, and six potential Triple Crown winners (including last year's Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Canonero II) have failed the test. The challenges are many: the distance, the timing (the three races are run over the course of six weeks), and the excitement of the Triple Crown. It's one of the rare times when horse racing takes center stage on the American sports scene; considering the ratings the races generate, it's often asked why one of the networks doesn't splurge on a weekly Saturday racing show. The answer, says Durslag, is that trainers and owners of the best horses spend too much time avoiding each other to guarantee audience-generating matchups. By the way, this year's Belmont does not carry the potential of a Triple Crown winner, but Riva Ridge, the year's best three-year-old, dominates the race, adding to his Kentucky Derby victory. No need to worry, though; Riva Ridge's stablemate will take the Triple Crown next year. His name: Secretariat.
(In-between these stories is a form-fitting fashion layout featuring two-time Emmy Winner Susan Hampshire, but that's a different kind of animal altogether.)
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MST3K alert: The Crawling Eye (English; 1958) In a radioactive cloud lies a tentacled monster, awaiting its victims. Forrest Tucker, Laurence Payne, Jennifer Jayne. (Saturday, 9:15 p.m., WKBG) One of Forrest Tucker's finest roles (and I'm not being sarcastic) sees him as a UN consultant investigating mysterious goings-on at a village in the Alps. Two of the most notable members of the supporting casts aren't listed here: Janet Munro, who enjoyed a very successful film and television career, including three Disney movies; and Andrew Faulds, who goes on to star in the UK series The Protectors before serving more than 20 years as a Labour member of Parliament. TV
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