Mitchell Hadley's Blog: It's About TV!, page 94
June 12, 2021
This week in TV Guide: June 11, 1955
What's this? Another Liberace? Could it be the famous pianist Chandell and his evil twin brother, the archfiend Harry, back to terrorize Gotham City? Close, but not quite; the "other" Liberace to which this week's cover referrs is George, Lee's brother, and he plays not the piano, but the violin. In fact, he was good enough to be first violin with his hometown Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, before setting out on the big band circuit.It wasn't until 1947 that George joined up with Lee; "Up to that time," George says, "he couldn't afford me." George became Lee's musical director (paid, of course), and today the two are equal partners in the million-dollar Liberace Enterprises, with George handling "music selections, business details, lighting, the Bel Canto Publishing Co., the payroll—and the violin." He'll continue with his brother, often serving as the straight man, before touring the country in the 1960's with his own band. Eventually he retires from conducting in the late 1970's and moves to Las Vegas, where he manages the Liberace Museum until his death in 1983.
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Well, that was a fun way to start this week's issue, wasn't it? Here's some more fun for you: the debut of NBC's famous radio program Monitor, which introduces itself to the public via a one-hour television simulcast on Sunday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. The brainchild of NBC president Pat Weaver, Monitor is perhaps the most audactious idea in radio history, aside from the invention of radio itself: a continuous, 40-hour program running from Saturday morning to Sunday midnight, featuring some of the biggest names in entertainment presenting literally everything: news, sports, comedy, live concerts, interviews with celebrities, recorded music, and remote reports from around the world—in other words, a show that will become known for "going places and doing things." Weaver describes his baby as a "kaleidoscopic phantasmagoria," but settled on Monitor as a much simpler name. It is a last-ditch effort to save network radio, to offer something that viewers can't get on television, and it uses that very medium to make the introductions.The first regular full-length show will be next weekend, but in this Sunday preview (the radio broadcast will run another seven hours, until midnight ET), Weaver appears at the outset to introduce the program and explain the concept, before turning the reins over to the first Monitor host (or "communicator," as they would be known), none other than Today's Dave Garroway, the master communicator himself. This very first broadcast takes its audience from New York City to Hermosa Beach, California; Bucks County, Pennsylvania; San Quentin Prison; the Catskills (for a Martin & Lewis performance); and a jazz club in Chicago. We also get to meet some of the show's regulars, including Bob & Ray, sportscaster Red Barber, literary critic Clifton Fadiman, and Morgan Beatty with the news.
Monitor survives, in various forms, until 1975, and the story of this program can be found at this great website , as well as by reading Dennis Hart's book Monitor: The Inside Story of Network Radio's Greatest Program , which I reviewed for this website here .
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Monitor isn't the only radio program making the crossover to television this week; on Saturday, NBC presents a half-hour of the legendary Grand Ole Opry (7:00 p.m.), from the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. Minnie Pearl, Ernest Tubb, and Faron Young are among the performers appearing on the broadcast; unlike Monitor, Grand Ole Opry remains on radio Saturday nights to this day, the longest-running radio broadcast in U.S. history.
Sunday night we see another debut, that of the Colgate Variety Hour, successor to Colgate's long-running Comedy Hour (7:00 p.m., NBC). The inaugural episode, as well as next week's, is hosted by that famed variety show host Charlton Heston. Yes, I had a hard time envisioning that as well, but I suppose it's no stranger than the host turn done on July 24 by Jack Webb, although that one is really a plug for the upcoming Pete Kelly's Blues. But anyway, to get back to this week, Chuck's guests include Sarah Vaughan, Vera-Ellen, and Jimmy Stewart, and includes a salute to the Strategic Air Command. Next year the show will be replaced by The Steve Allen Show. Off we go, I guess. But I can't escape without mentioning G.E. Theater (8:00 p.m., CBS), in which Mike Wallace plays an American tourist in Capri.
On Monday, Art Carney ► and Leora Dana star in "The Incredible World of Horace Ford" on Studio One. (9:00 p.m., CBS). Many of you sharp-eyed fans out there may recognize this title, but not from tonight's broadcast or cast; Reginald Rose's teleplay also appears as a fourth-season episode of The Twilight Zone in 1963, with Pat Hingle and Nan Martin in the lead roles. There is, of course, a story behind this, as recounted at
The Twilight Zone Vortex
. Apparently, there was no little amount of confusion regarding the ending of this story; not only was it a downbeat ending, it also dabbled in time-travel, leaving viewers angry and puzzled as to what happened. (In fact, the network received a flood of complaints from viewers following the airing). When "Horace Ford" was revived for The Twilight Zone, the network was comfortable that viewers would appreciate the fantasy element, but producer Herbert Hirschman asked Rose to give the story a more optimistic conclusion. It was a request with which Rose was happy to comply; as he pointed out later, the story had already been shown the way he wanted it, so he had no problem changing it.Tuesdsay, Armstrong Circle Theater (8:30 p.m., NBC) presents a conundrum that must have been rather interesting for viewers of the time: a congresswoman is torn between her husband, a foreign correspondent returning from a yearlong assignment, and a reelection bid that would enable her to pass a bill of great personal importance. The listing describes it as a story of a woman "torn between her duties to her country and to her husband," which I suspect would make feminists bristle today. The point is, this is an episode that would be nearly impossible to truly appreciate outside of the context in which it was originally written and shown; there's just too much cultural baggage from the subsequent 65 years for us to view it objectively today.
Sometimes a line of text just jumps out at you, as was the case with Wednesday's Tonight Show with Steve Allen (11:00 p.m., NBC). In addition to jazz pianist Erroll Garner and singer Bob Manning, "The voice of hospitalized Gene Rayburn* [Steve's sidekick] is beamed in to give us the latest sports scores and weather reports, with an assist from a pretty in-studio assistant." Given that people back then were often hospitalized for things that a doctor might take care of in his office today, I still wonder what that was all about? But if you're not as curious as I am, you might have watched Norman Ross Presents (Channel 7, 11:00 p.m.). Tonight's story: "A Man and His Kite—Ben Franklin."
◄ *Fun fact: In addition to hosting game shows, Gene Rayburn would go on to be a very popular host for several years on Monitor. An assortment of shows on Thursday, starting with Dragnet (8:00 p.m., NBC), in which Friday and Smith spend New Year's Eve responding to an "officer needs help" call. As I recall, that does not end well. On ABC at the same time, it's Star Tonight, presenting "Strength of Steel," a drama written by Rod Serling (best-known at that point for "Patterns") about a young Army wife and her uneasy relationship with her father-in-law. David Niven stars in Four Star Playhouse (8:30 p.m., CBS) as a priest who must learn to forgive the Indians who tortured him for two years. And in the WGN late-night movie (10:30 p.m.), Tom Conway stars as a lawyer in "I Cheated the Law." You can be sure the law won.It's not that I have a heart of stone, but I've gotten tired of those "surprise" reunions over the years, where a serviceman or woman returns home from a tour and surprises the spouse and/or kids. A little sentimentality goes a long way, you know. Anyway, what got me thinking on these lines is Art Linkletter's House Party (Friday, 1:30 p.m., CBS), in which Art and his crew film a serviceman's wife and the child he has never seen, to send overseas for the soldier-father. Nowadays you're talking about a Zoom or Skype call, or FaceTiming someone, but in 1955 it required a television show to shoot a film and send that film overseas in order to bring a family together. And I think that's worth getting sentimental over.
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That smiling cowgirl on this week's cover is Gail Davis, star of Annie Oakley, the syndicated Western series that will run for three seasons before going to weekend reruns on ABC. (A nice note from
the always-reliable Wikipedia
: "Except for depicting the protagonist as a phenomenal sharpshooter of the period, the program entirely ignores the facts of the historical Oakley's life.")The protege of none other than the Singing Cowboy himself, Gene Autry, Davis has proven that she can handle a both a horse and a gun; she owns Target, the horse that viewers will be seeing in next season's shows ("He's still got a lot to learn"), and Autry, who produces the show, says that "Gail shoots very well, and she's getting better all the time." She's also a popular attraction on personal appearance tours.
Davis hails from Little Rock and graduated from the University of Texas, so playing the role of the cowgirl came easily to her. Six years ago, she came to Hollywood, where she made her debut in Van Johnson's The Romance of Rosy Ridge. She only had one line—"Hello, there"—but she had to say it to Van six times. "It wasn't a line you could do much with," she says, "but I did manage to give it six different inflections." Her big break came with the 1950 Autry flick Cow Town, the first of 15 Autry movies in which she's appeared. Autry had been looking to develop a female counterpart for many years, one that girls could identify with, but once Davis appeared, "I didn't have any more problems."
Despite all this, Gail's career is a relatively brief one. Almost all of the movies she appeared in were Westerns (29 of 32 at one point), and most of her guest-starring roles on TV wer in the same genre, although she did play Thelma Lou's cousin on The Andy Griffith Show. "I tried to find other acting work," she would say, "but I was so identified as Annie Oakley that directors would say, 'Gail, I'd like to hire you, but you're going to have to wait a few years, dye your hair and cut off your pigtails." A career-limiting role, perhaps, but it earned her a place in the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame; how many of us out there can say that?
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Some quick notes:
Soap operas, which migrated from radio to television, are enormously popular, and prove to be a successful buy for soap and cereal sponsors. The networks are trying to give the shows a veneer of respectability, though; according to Bob Stahl's article, these shows (many of which are still 15 minutes long) are now to be called "daydramas." The truth remains that, no matter what you call them, they still "accent human misery," with storylines that boast "Suicides and murders that would rate time on Dragnet, love affairs that would interest Dr. Kinsey and surgery gripping enough for Medic."
And it's those love affairs that have attracted the ire of Harriet Spoon of South Beloit, Illinois, who writes to TV Guide: "Isn't it about time those borderline situations on the daytime serials were cleaned up? If the heroine has to drool over a man, she shouldn't pick one who is married. A lot of housewives like me are gtting sick of the lack of respect TV shows for marriage." It's nice to report that there's not nearly as much sex on soap operas nowadays. Not that the soaps have improved; there are just fewer of them.
And now, something from the teletypes: Ida Lupino, who's one of the four stars on Four Star Theater, is branching out into her own series with husband Howard Duff. Here, it's called Mr. and Mrs., but when it makes it to CBS in 1957, it's called Mr. Adams and Eve.
For years viewers have complained about popular TV shows being scheduled opposite each other, but there's reason to take heart: CBS says next season's ten full-color, 90 minute Saturday night specials will not be shown on the same Saturdays as Max Liebman's NBC Saturday night spectaculars. I'm not going to make the expected comment about the lack of DVRs—no, I'm just remembering the days when networks had big specials on Saturday night, instead of sports and reruns. Either way, it labels me as old.
And since we began with Liberace, we'll end the same way: Dorothy Malone has been signed to appear opposite Lee in his feature film debut, Sincerely Yours. The movie, unlike Liberace's television career, is a bomb—so much so that,
according to Robert Osborne
, by the time the movie made it to Seattle, "the billing was altered even more: Joanne Dru, Dorothy Malone, and Alex Nicol above the title (with big head shots of all three) and below the title in much smaller letters: 'with Liberace at the piano'." Lee was said to have been shaken by the whole experience, but I don't think we should feel too sorry for him; after all, in responding to a nasty review of his stage show, he famously replied, "My brother George and I cried all the way to the bank." TV
June 11, 2021
Around the dial
A reminder that
the latest episode
of Eventually Supertrain is up, as Dan and I continue our episode-by-episode look at
Search
. Stick around for other segments on The Singing Detective and Planet of the Apes; you won't want to miss it.From Bob Crane: Life & Legacy, a note that for those of you who get Starz, this coming Sunday at 9:00 p.m. ET, Bob Crane co-biographer Linda Groundwater appears on Autopsy: The Last Hours of... Bob Crane, helping set the record straight on the many misconceptions that continue.
It's the monthly roundup of YouTube finds at Television Obscurities, with some very interesting clips—from Roller Derby in1949 to the 2004 ABC special “The Best TV Shows That Never Were.” A great snapshot of television history, don't you think?
We spent much of last year celebrating the blog's 10th season, but Terence has been at it for 17 years at A Shroud of Thoughts. Take a look at some of the highlights of the past year , and here's hoping he keeps it up for many more years.
To me, the TV series Flipper meant one thing: Flipper was the mascot of the Miami Dolphins football team, and in the Dolphins' home stadium, the Orange Bowl, there was a giant dolphin pool behind one of the end zones. That tells you what kind of childhood I had; as for the series, read more about it at Drunk TV.
That does it for a quiet week that makes up for it in quality; back tomorrow with a pretty good TV Guide that I think you'll enjoy. TV
June 9, 2021
Point/Counterpoint
X don't know how many of you are old enough to remember "
Point Counterpoint
," the feature that ended each episode of 60 Minutes before Andy Rooney took over that spot. In "Point Counterpoint," two journalists—one liberal, the other conservative—would discuss an issue; one began with the point, the other made the counterpoint. (Get it?) Unlike today's shoutfests, it was exceedingly genteel; both sides of the issue were represented, each got to speak uninterrupted, and that was it.The two best-known participants in "Point Counterpoint," at least to my mind, were James J. Kilpatrick on the right, and Shana Alexander on the left. If you've ever seen the "Weekend Update" bit on Saturday Night Live where Dan Ackroyd calls Jane Curtin an "ignorant slut," this is what they're satirizing, although Kilpatrick was far too civilized to ever call Alexander anything like that, nor would she have responded in kind. Of course, they weren't as funny as Jane and Dan, either.
Anyway, the reason for this digression is that I got a very nice email recently from a loyal reader who wanted to provide a rebuttal—a civilized rebuttal, I should add—to something I wrote recently. As we're always up for a good debate here, I was only to happy to oblige. After all, it gets kind of tiresome living in an echo chamber. And when it's as well thought out as this is, it deserved a place not in the comments section, but as a stand-alone piece. It is the author's request to remain anonymous, but this person is a trustworthy source.
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I'd like to respond to a statement in your May 22 post :
"I think that's a fair point, and ultimately what the editors are saying is that the media has to exercise responsible restraint in how much of a story they tell, while still ensuring that the story itself is told. Not an easy task, but one would assume that teaching this kind of responsibility is what you should get in journalism school.
"And if you thought that, you'd probably be wrong."
As a faculty member of a journalism school, having worked as a reporter and having spent the last 20 years in the academy, please let me speak in defense of my profession.
First, I can promise you that ethics and responsibility are covered in several courses across our curriculum. In fact, programs accredited by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC) are required to incorporate ethics, criticism and reasoning into the programs in order to stay accredited. Even programs too small to be accredited will work ACEJMC-style standards into what they do. Codes of ethics such as the Society of Professional Journalists' Code are also commonly covered in coursework, featured in syllabi, and displayed on classroom walls. I can also promise you that if I catch a student journalist cutting corners or acting unethically, they get to have a very memorable one-sided conversation in my office. I can assure you I'm not the only one who does this.
From experience, I would suggest your criticism is better aimed at the broadcast industry. The economic and business pressures that prompt the relentless drive to be first with the story, to get the exclusive, to fill endless hours with content (no matter how dubious the value), and the need to post high ratings to satisfy the corporate ownership. When you are a newly-graduated junior reporter or producer with no seniority, who beat out a dozen other applicants with your exact qualifications, and you need to keep that job, you learn how the game is played if you want to stay employed.
I have been in the company of enough broadcasters and executives to know there are very good people in the business, and then some that I'd rather not talk about. I have had positive experiences with some of our local broadcasters, and I've also had some experiences that remind me why one should never watch sausage being made. I have to maintain good relations with them for professional reasons, so I can't get into details or say anything personally identifiable.
Those of us who devote our lives to training tomorrow's journalists do our very best to root our students in a strong ethical and moral system. We believe in what we do, and we believe in the purpose that responsible journalism has in a democracy. We do our very best to make our students understand that. But when they leave the academy, it's a different world, and the people they answer to aren't us.
Thank you,
(name redacted)
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Mitchell here. First of all, I think this is great. The internet needs to provide more opportunities for open and honest discussion without degenerating into vicious incoherence. And I'm always open to efforts to change my mind, or at least illuminate my way of thinking.
As to the argument itself, I think there are some valid points. One point on which I'd agree with our guest is that the broadcast media, in particular, is struggling. Many have seemed to exchange accuracy for an increase in ratings, a desire to play to their constituency. I don't have the desire to get into an ideological screed here, so I'll just say that there are examples on both the left and the right, although I do think one side is more egregious than the other. (Note Jake Tapper's comments to the New York Times Podcast that he refuses to book Republicans who believe the election was tampered with, only to have several Republicans belonging to that category claim that Tapper's show has, indeed, tried to book them recently . True, Tapper, whom I've always liked, replied that he wasn't always aware of what his bookers were doing—but then you should be careful what you say.)
Another point I'd make is that a solid liberal arts education is a key to a good education in journalism . Too many journalists, especially the ones based on the coasts, show a lack of understanding about the rest of the country, which invariably has an effect on their reporting. You need to be more well-rounded; you need to think outside your own experiences. But with the liberal arts under attack on many college campuses (for various reasons), prospective journalists are missing just what they need just when they need it. I don't remember who it was who said it, but the jist of the comment was that "too many schools have replaced a core curriculum in liberal arts with job training and specialization." And that goes for all areas of study, not just journalistic ones.
Anyway, this is a great topic, one that could certainly fill a book. Do any of you out there have an opinion? One of the reasons I'm no longer involved in politics is that civil discussion has become almost impossible, but that will never be the case here. TV
June 7, 2021
What's on TV? Thursday, June 8, 1967
Tonight's listings include one of the all-time classic Star Trek episodes, "Shore Leave," in which Captain Kirk and his crew beam down to the surface of a planet where they soon encounter a white rabbit, friends from the past, and other characters: some of them deadly. It's part of a colorful night of television that includes the return of the Lucy-Desi Hour, with crossover guest stars Danny Thomas and his TV family; and the conclusion of a Batman story featuring Roddy McDowall as the Bookworm. And for the nightowls out there, there's the short-lived Bill Dana-hosted
Las Vegas Show
, a two-hour challenger to Carson and Bishop that was the first and only program on the equally short-lived
United Network
. A pity, as it was said to have been very good. Oh well, as you can see from this Minnesota State Edition, some stations were lucky enough to carry it.-2- KTCA (EDUC.) Evening 6:00 PLAINSONG—Manfred 6:30 IT’S A DOG’S LIFE 7:00 MANAGERS IN ACTION 7:30 FRENCH CHEF—Cooking 8:00 NINE TO GET READY 8:30 OBSERVING EYE 9:00 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 9:30 TOWN AND COUNTRY—Wolf 10:00 THIS WORLD OF WATER 10:30 STITCH WITH STYLE—Sewing
-3- KDAL (DULUTH) (CBS) Morning 7:50 FARM AND HOME 8:00 CAPTAIN KANGAROO—Children 9:00 CANDID CAMERA Guest: Jack Paar. Host: Allen Funt 9:30 BEVERLY HILLBILLIES—Comedy 10:00 ANDY GRIFFITH—Comedy 10:30 DICK VAN DYKE—Comedy 11:00 LOVE OF LIFE—Serial COLOR 11:25 NEWS COLOR 11:30 SEARCH FOR TOMORROW—Serial COLOR 11:45 GUIDING LIGHT—Serial COLOR Afternoon 12:00 TOWN AND COUNTRY 12:30 AS THE WORLD TURNS—Serial COLOR 1:00 PASSWORD COLOR Guests: Eva Gabor, Hugh O’Brian 1:30 HOUSE PARTY COLOR Guest: Greer Garson. Host: Art Linkletter 2:00 TO TELL THE TRUTH—Game COLOR 2:25 NEWS COLOR 2:30 EDGE OF NIGHT—Serial 3:00 SECRET STORM—Serial 3:30 MIKE DOUGLAS—Variety COLOR Guests: Buddy Hackett, the Ramsey Lewis Trio, Jackie De Shannon, Jim Fowler 4:00 BART’S CLUBHOUSE 5:00 LEAVE IT TO BEAVER—Comedy 5:30 NEWS—Walter Cronkite COLOR Evening 6:00 NEWS 6:30 LUCY-DESI RETURN 7:30 MY THREE SONS—Comedy COLOR 8:00 MOVIE—Drama COLOR “Damn the Defiant!” (English; 1962) 10:00 NEWS 10:30 LAS VEGAS—Variety COLOR Guest: Dennis Day. Bill Dana is the host
3 KGLO (MASON CITY) (CBS) Morning 7:30 NEWS—Benti COLOR 7:55 NEWS 8:00 CAPTAIN KANGAROO—Children 9:00 MORNING CLUBHOUSE 9:30 BEVERLY HILLBILLIES—Comedy 10:00 ANDY GRIFFITH—Comedy 10:30 DICK VAN DYKE—Comedy 11:00 LOVE OF LIFE—Serial COLOR 11:25 NEWS COLOR 11:30 SEARCH FOR TOMORROW—Serial COLOR 11:45 GUIDING LIGHT—Serial COLOR Afternoon 12:00 NEWS 12:30 AS THE WORLD TURNS—Serial COLOR 1:00 PASSWORD COLOR Guests: Eva Gabor, Hugh O’Brian 1:30 HOUSE PARTY COLOR Guest: Greer Garson. Host: Art Linkletter 2:00 TO TELL THE TRUTH—Game COLOR 2:25 NEWS COLOR 2:30 EDGE OF NIGHT—Serial 3:00 SECRET STORM—Serial 3:30 DAIRY PRINCESS—Contest 5:00 CANDID CAMERA—Comedy 5:30 NEWS—Walter Cronkite COLOR Evening 6:00 NEWS 6:30 LUCY-DESI RETURN 7:30 MY THREE SONS—Comedy COLOR 8:00 MOVIE—Drama COLOR “Damn the Defiant!” (English; 1962) 10:00 NEWS 10:40 MOVIE—Drama “Hideout” (1949) 11:40 NEWS
-4- WCCO (CBS) Morning 6:00 SUMMER SEMESTER—Education 6:30 SIEGFRIED—Children 7:00 CLANCY & COMPANY COLOR 8:00 CAPTAIN KANGAROO—Children 9:00 DR. YOUNGDAHL COLOR 9:05 MERV GRIFFIN—Variety Guests: Erroll Garner, Henry Morgan, Ethel Griffies, Genevieve 10:00 ANDY GRIFFITH—Comedy 10:30 DICK VAN DYKE—Comedy 11:00 LOVE OF LIFE—Serial COLOR 11:25 NEWS COLOR 11:30 SEARCH FOR TOMORROW—Serial COLOR 11:45 GUIDING LIGHT—Serial COLOR Afternoon 12:00 NEWS COLOR 12:15 SOMETHING SPECIAL COLOR 12:30 AS THE WORLD TURNS—Serial COLOR 1:00 PASSWORD COLOR Guests: Eva Gabor, Hugh O’Brian 1:30 HOUSE PARTY COLOR Guest: Greer Garson. Host: Art Linkletter 2:00 TO TELL THE TRUTH—Game COLOR 2:25 NEWS COLOR 2:30 EDGE OF NIGHT—Serial 3:00 SECRET STORM—Serial 3:30 BEVERLY HILLBILLIES—Comedy 4:00 MIKE DOUGLAS—Variety COLOR Guests: Tim Conway, Jim Bishop, Jimmy Boyd 5:30 NEWS—Walter Cronkite COLOR Evening 6:00 NEWS COLOR 6:30 LUCY-DESI RETURN 7:30 MY THREE SONS—Comedy COLOR 8:00 MOVIE—Drama COLOR “Damn the Defiant!” (English; 1962) 10:00 NEWS COLOR 10:30 NFL ACTION—Pro Football COLOR 11:00 MOVIE—Western COLOR “Frenchie” (1950) 12:35 LAS VEGAS—Variety COLOR Guest: Dennis Day. Bill Dana is the host
-5- KSTP (NBC) Morning 6:15 DAVID STONE—Music COLOR 6:30 CITY AND COUNTRY COLOR 7:00 TODAY COLOR Guests: Rev. Leon Sullivan, folk singers Addis and Crofut 9:00 SNAP JUDGMENT COLOR Guests: Soupy Sales, Betty White. Ed McMahon is the host 9:25 NEWS COLOR 9:30 CONCENTRATION—Game COLOR 10:00 PAT BOONE COLOR Guest: Susan Oliver 10:30 HOLLYWOOD SQUARES—Game COLOR Guests: Frankie Avalon, Ernest Borgnine, Annette Funicello, Christopher George, Vera Miles, Vincent Price 11:00 JEOPARDY—Game COLOR 11:30 EYE GUESS—Game COLOR 11:55 NEWS COLOR Afternoon 12:00 NEWS COLOR 12:15 DIALING FOR DOLLARS—Game COLOR 12:30 LET’S MAKE A DEAL—Game COLOR 12:55 NEWS COLOR 1:00 DAYS OF OUR LIVES—Serial COLOR 1:30 DOCTORS—Serial COLOR 2:00 ANOTHER WORLD—Serial COLOR 2:30 YOU DON’T SAY!—Game COLOR Guests: Janis Page, Rod Serling 3:00 MATCH GAME COLOR Guests: Claire Bloom, Roger Moore 3:25 NEWS COLOR 3:30 DIALING FOR DOLLARS—Game COLOR 4:30 OF LANDS AND SEAS COLOR 5:25 DOCTOR’S HOUSE CALL—James Rogers Fox COLOR 5:30 NEWS—Chet Huntley, David Brinkley COLOR Evening 6:00 NEWS COLOR 6:30 DANIEL BOONE—Adventure COLOR 7:30 STAR TREK COLOR 8:30 DRAGNET COLOR 9:00 DEAN MARTIN COLOR Guests: Buddy Greco, Janet Blair, Louis Prima, Bob Newhart, the McGuire Sisters 10:00 NEWS COLOR 10:30 JOHNNY CARSON—Variety COLOR 12:00 NEWS AND SPORTS COLOR 12:15 M SQUAD—Police Time approximate
-6- WDSM (DULUTH) (NBC) Morning 7:00 TODAY COLOR Guests: Rev. Leon Sullivan, folk singers Addis and Crofut 9:00 JACK LA LANNE COLOR 9:30 CONCENTRATION—Game COLOR 10:00 PAT BOONE COLOR Guest: Susan Oliver 10:30 HOLLYWOOD SQUARES—Game COLOR Guests: Frankie Avalon, Ernest Borgnine, Annette Funicello, Christopher George, Vera Miles, Vincent Price 11:00 JEOPARDY—Game COLOR 11:30 EYE GUESS—Game COLOR 11:55 NEWS COLOR Afternoon 12:00 VIRGINIA GRAHAM—Interviews 12:30 LET’S MAKE A DEAL—Game COLOR 12:55 NEWS COLOR 1:00 DAYS OF OUR LIVES—Serial COLOR 1:30 DOCTORS—Serial COLOR 2:00 ANOTHER WORLD—Serial COLOR 2:30 YOU DON’T SAY!—Game COLOR Guests: Janis Page, Rod Serling 3:00 MATCH GAME COLOR Guests: Claire Bloom, Roger Moore 3:25 NEWS COLOR 3:30 SNAP JUDGMENT—Game Guests: Soupy Sales, Betty White 5:00 TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES—Game COLOR 5:30 NEWS—Chet Huntley, David Brinkley COLOR Evening 6:00 NEWS, ROCKY TELLER COLOR 6:30 DANIEL BOONE—Adventure COLOR 7:30 STAR TREK COLOR 8:30 DRAGNET COLOR 9:00 DEAN MARTIN COLOR Guests: Buddy Greco, Janet Blair, Louis Prima, Bob Newhart, the McGuire Sisters 10:00 NEWS COLOR 10:30 JOHNNY CARSON—Variety COLOR
6 KMMT (AUSTIN) (ABC) Morning 9:30 DATELINE: HOLLYWOOD Guests: Bob Hogan, Marilyn Devin 9:55 CHILDREN’S DOCTOR—Advice COLOR 10:00 SUPERMARKET SWEEP—Game COLOR 10:30 ONE IN A MILLION 11:00 EVERYBODY’S TALKING—Game Celebrities: Robert Clary, John Gavin, Gretchen Wyler 11:30 DONNA REED—Comedy Afternoon 12:00 FUGITIVE—Drama 1:00 NEWLYWED GAME COLOR 1:30 DREAM GIRL—Contest COLOR Celebrities: Joanna Barnes, Sandy Baron, Larry Casey, Clint Walker. Host: Dick Stewart 1:55 NEWS COLOR 2:00 GENERAL HOSPITAL 2:30 DARK SHADOWS—Serial 3:00 DATING GAME COLOR 3:30 COMPASS—Travel 4:00 ROY ROGERS—Western 5:00 NEWS—Peter Jennings COLOR 5:30 RIFLEMAN—Western Evening 6:00 NEWS 6:15 NEWS, SPORTS, WEATHER 6:30 BATMAN—Adventure COLOR Guest Villain: Roddy McDowell (The Bookworm) 7:00 F TROOP—Comedy COLOR 7:30 BEWITCHED—Comedy COLOR 8:00 THAT GIRL—Comedy COLOR 8:30 LOVE ON A ROOFTOP COLOR 9:00 SUMMER FOCUS 10:00 NEWS 10:30 JOEY BISHOP—Variety COLOR Guest: Agnes Moorhead 12:00 NEWS
-7- KCMT (ALEX) (NBC, ABC) Morning 7:00 TODAY COLOR Guests: Rev. Leon Sullivan, folk singers Addis and Crofut 9:00 SNAP JUDGMENT COLOR Guests: Soupy Sales, Betty White. Ed McMahon is the host 9:25 NEWS COLOR 9:30 CONCENTRATION—Game COLOR 10:00 PAT BOONE COLOR Guest: Susan Oliver 10:30 HOLLYWOOD SQUARES—Game COLOR Guests: Frankie Avalon, Ernest Borgnine, Annette Funicello, Christopher George, Vera Miles, Vincent Price 11:00 JEOPARDY—Game COLOR 11:30 EYE GUESS—Game COLOR 11:55 NEWS COLOR Afternoon 12:00 NEWS 12:20 TRADING POST—Jon Haaven 12:30 LET’S MAKE A DEAL—Game COLOR 12:55 NEWS COLOR 1:00 DAYS OF OUR LIVES—Serial COLOR 1:30 DOCTORS—Serial COLOR 2:00 ANOTHER WORLD—Serial COLOR 2:30 YOU DON’T SAY!—Game COLOR Guests: Janis Page, Rod Serling 3:00 MATCH GAME COLOR Guests: Claire Bloom, Roger Moore 3:25 NEWS COLOR 3:30 GENERAL HOSPITAL—Serial 4:00 PORKY PIG—Cartoons 4:30 KING KONG—Cartoons 5:00 BATMAN—Adventure Guest Villain: Art Carney (The Archer) 5:30 NEWS—Chet Huntley, David Brinkley COLOR Evening 6:00 NEWS 6:30 DANIEL BOONE—Adventure COLOR 7:30 STAR TREK COLOR 8:30 DRAGNET COLOR 9:00 DEAN MARTIN COLOR Guests: Buddy Greco, Janet Blair, Louis Prima, Bob Newhart, the McGuire Sisters 10:00 NEWS 10:30 JOHNNY CARSON—Variety COLOR
-8- WDSE (DULUTH) (EDUC.) Afternoon 5:30 RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVES Evening 6:00 MAN AND THE UNIVERSE 6:30 WHAT’S NEW—Children 7:00 SPECTRUM—Interview 7:30 GARDEN ALMANAC—Hard 8:00 STITCH IN STYLE—Sewing 8:30 FILM FEATURE 9:30 TOWN AND COUNTRY—Wolf 10:00 REGIONAL REPORT—Drugs SPECIAL
8 WKBY (LA CROSSE) (CBS) Morning 7:30 NEWS—Benti COLOR 7:55 NEWS 8:00 CAPTAIN KANGAROO—Children 9:00 CANDID CAMERA Guest: Jack Paar. Host: Allen Funt 9:30 BEVERLY HILLBILLIES—Comedy 10:00 ANDY GRIFFITH—Comedy 10:30 DICK VAN DYKE—Comedy 11:00 LOVE OF LIFE—Serial COLOR 11:25 NEWS COLOR 11:30 SEARCH FOR TOMORROW—Serial COLOR 11:45 GUIDING LIGHT—Serial COLOR Afternoon 12:00 NEWS 12:30 AS THE WORLD TURNS—Serial COLOR 1:00 PASSWORD COLOR Guests: Eva Gabor, Hugh O’Brian 1:30 HOUSE PARTY COLOR Guest: Greer Garson. Host: Art Linkletter 2:00 TO TELL THE TRUTH—Game COLOR 2:25 NEWS COLOR 2:30 EDGE OF NIGHT—Serial 3:00 SECRET STORM—Serial 3:30 GENERAL HOSPITAL—Serial 4:00 NEWLYWED GAME 4:30 MAGILLA GORILLA—Cartoons 5:00 MUSIC FAVE AT FIVE 5:30 NEWS—Walter Cronkite COLOR Evening 6:00 NEWS 6:30 BATMAN—Adventure COLOR Guest Villain: Roddy McDowell (The Bookworm) 7:00 PISTOLS ‘N’ PETTICOATS 7:30 MY THREE SONS—Comedy COLOR 8:00 MOVIE—Drama COLOR “Damn the Defiant!” (English; 1962) 10:00 NEWS 10:25 FILM SHORT 10:30 MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 11:30 TALL MAN—Western
-9- KMSP (ABC) Morning 7:30 MORNING SHOW—Jerry Smith 8:00 DATELINE: HOLLYWOOD Guests: Ernest Borgnine, Jill Ireland 8:25 CHILDREN’S DOCTOR—Advice 8:30 ROMPER ROOM COLOR 9:30 JACK LA LANNE COLOR 10:00 SUPERMARKET SWEEP—Game COLOR 10:30 ONE IN A MILLION 11:00 EVERYBODY’S TALKING—Game Celebrities: Robert Clary, John Gavin, Gretchen Wyler 11:30 DONNA REED—Comedy Afternoon 12:00 FUGITIVE—Drama 1:00 NEWLYWED GAME COLOR 1:30 DREAM GIRL—Contest COLOR Celebrities: Joanna Barnes, Sandy Baron, Larry Casey, Clint Walker. Host: Dick Stewart 1:55 NEWS COLOR 2:00 GENERAL HOSPITAL 2:30 DARK SHADOWS—Serial 3:00 DATING GAME COLOR 3:30 MOVIE—Drama “The Thief” (1952) 5:00 NEWS—Peter Jennings COLOR 5:30 TIMMY AND LASSIE—Drama Evening 6:00 McHALE’S NAVY—Comedy 6:30 BATMAN—Adventure COLOR Guest Villain: Roddy McDowell (The Bookworm) 7:00 F TROOP—Comedy COLOR 7:30 BEWITCHED—Comedy COLOR 8:00 THAT GIRL—Comedy COLOR 8:30 LOVE ON A ROOFTOP COLOR 9:00 SUMMER FOCUS 10:00 NEWS COLOR 10:30 MOVIE—Biography “The President’s Lady” (1953) 12:20 JOEY BISHOP—Variety COLOR Guest: Agnes Moorhead
10 WDIO (DULUTH) (ABC) Morning 8:50 COLOR BAR COLOR 8:55 MR. MAGOO—Cartoons 9:00 ROMPER ROOM—Children 9:30 DATELINE: HOLLYWOOD Guests: Bob Hogan, Marilyn Devin 9:55 CHILDREN’S DOCTOR—Advice COLOR 10:00 SUPERMARKET SWEEP—Game COLOR 10:30 ONE IN A MILLION 11:00 EVERYBODY’S TALKING—Game Celebrities: Robert Clary, John Gavin, Gretchen Wyler 11:30 DONNA REED—Comedy Afternoon 12:00 FUGITIVE—Drama 1:00 NEWLYWED GAME COLOR 1:30 DREAM GIRL—Contest COLOR Celebrities: Joanna Barnes, Sandy Baron, Larry Casey, Clint Walker. Host: Dick Stewart 1:55 NEWS COLOR 2:00 GENERAL HOSPITAL 2:30 DARK SHADOWS—Serial 3:00 DATING GAME COLOR 3:30 MOVIE—Adventure “The Golden Idol” (1954) 5:15 NEWS, SPORTS, WEATHER 5:30 NEWS—Peter Jennings COLOR Evening 6:00 TWILIGHT ZONE—Drama 6:30 BATMAN—Adventure COLOR Guest Villain: Roddy McDowell (The Bookworm) 7:00 F TROOP—Comedy COLOR 7:30 BEWITCHED—Comedy COLOR 8:00 THAT GIRL—Comedy COLOR 8:30 LOVE ON A ROOFTOP COLOR 9:00 SUMMER FOCUS 10:00 NEWS 10:25 MOVIE—Drama “Abandoned” (1949) 12:00 JOEY BISHOP—Variety Guest: Agnes Moorhead
10 KROC (ROCHESTER) (NBC) Morning 7:00 TODAY COLOR Guests: Rev. Leon Sullivan, folk singers Addis and Crofut 9:00 SNAP JUDGMENT COLOR Guests: Soupy Sales, Betty White. Ed McMahon is the host 9:25 NEWS COLOR 9:30 CONCENTRATION—Game COLOR 10:00 PAT BOONE COLOR Guest: Susan Oliver 10:30 HOLLYWOOD SQUARES—Game COLOR Guests: Frankie Avalon, Ernest Borgnine, Annette Funicello, Christopher George, Vera Miles, Vincent Price 11:00 JEOPARDY—Game COLOR 11:30 EYE GUESS—Game COLOR 11:55 NEWS COLOR Afternoon 12:00 NEWS 12:20 MEMOS FROM MARY BEA 12:30 LET’S MAKE A DEAL—Game COLOR 12:55 NEWS COLOR 1:00 DAYS OF OUR LIVES—Serial COLOR 1:30 DOCTORS—Serial COLOR 2:00 ANOTHER WORLD—Serial COLOR 2:30 YOU DON’T SAY!—Game COLOR Guests: Janis Page, Rod Serling 3:00 MATCH GAME COLOR Guests: Claire Bloom, Roger Moore 3:25 NEWS COLOR 3:30 MISTER ED—Comedy 4:00 DOODLES THE CLOWN—Children 4:30 LEAVE IT TO BEAVER—Comedy 5:00 CISCO KID—Western COLOR 5:30 NEWS—Chet Huntley, David Brinkley COLOR Evening 6:00 NEWS 6:30 DANIEL BOONE—Adventure COLOR 7:30 STAR TREK COLOR 8:30 DRAGNET COLOR 9:00 DEAN MARTIN COLOR Guests: Buddy Greco, Janet Blair, Louis Prima, Bob Newhart, the McGuire Sisters 10:00 NEWS 10:30 JOHNNY CARSON—Variety COLOR
11 WTCN (IND.) Morning 8:30 NEWS—Gil Amundson 9:00 CARTOON CARNIVAL COLOR 9:30 GLORIA—Exercise 10:00 ABBOTT AND COSTELLO 10:30 WHIRLYBIRDS—Adventure 11:00 PDQ—Game COLOR 11:30 COOKING WITH HANK 11:45 NEWS—Gil Amundson Afternoon 12:00 LUNCH WITH CASEY—Children 1:00 MOVIE—Musical “Bring Your Smile Along” (1955) 2:45 MEL’S NOTEBOOK—Interview 3:00 VIRGINIA GRAHAM—Interviews Guests: Lynn Redgrave, Anne Jackson, Cicely Tyson 3:30 BAT MASTERSON—Western 4:00 POPEYE AND PETE—Children 4:30 CASEY AND ROUNDHOUSE 5:30 FLINTSTONES—Cartoon Evening 6:00 MUNSTERS—Comedy 6:30 LARAMIE—Western COLOR 7:30 PERRY MASON—Drama 8:30 BURKE’S LAW—Mystery 9:30 NEWS, WEATHER, SPORTS 10:00 MOVIE—Drama “Strange Confession” (1944)
12 KEYC (MANKATO) (CBS) Morning 7:30 NEWS—Benti COLOR 7:55 FILM SHORT 8:00 CAPTAIN KANGAROO—Children 9:00 CANDID CAMERA Guest: Jack Paar. Host: Allen Funt 9:30 BEVERLY HILLBILLIES—Comedy 10:00 ANDY GRIFFITH—Comedy 10:30 DICK VAN DYKE—Comedy 11:00 LOVE OF LIFE—Serial COLOR 11:25 NEWS COLOR 11:30 SEARCH FOR TOMORROW—Serial COLOR 11:45 GUIDING LIGHT—Serial COLOR Afternoon 12:00 NEWS 12:30 AS THE WORLD TURNS—Serial COLOR 1:00 PASSWORD COLOR Guests: Eva Gabor, Hugh O’Brian 1:30 HOUSE PARTY COLOR Guest: Greer Garson. Host: Art Linkletter 2:00 TO TELL THE TRUTH—Game COLOR 2:25 NEWS COLOR 2:30 EDGE OF NIGHT—Serial 3:00 SECRET STORM—Serial 3:30 INSIGHT—Religion COLOR 4:00 BART’S CLUBHOUSE 5:00 SUMMER SEMESTER—Education 5:30 NEWS—Walter Cronkite COLOR Evening 6:00 NEWS 6:30 LUCY-DESI RETURN 7:30 MY THREE SONS—Comedy COLOR 8:00 MOVIE—Drama COLOR “Damn the Defiant!” (English; 1962) 10:00 NEWS 10:40 MOVIE—Drama “Hideout” (1949)
13 WEAU (EAU CLAIRE) NBC Morning 7:00 TODAY COLOR Guests: Rev. Leon Sullivan, folk singers Addis and Crofut 9:00 SNAP JUDGMENT COLOR Guests: Soupy Sales, Betty White. Ed McMahon is the host 9:25 NEWS COLOR 9:30 CONCENTRATION—Game COLOR 10:00 PAT BOONE COLOR Guest: Susan Oliver 10:30 HOLLYWOOD SQUARES—Game COLOR Guests: Frankie Avalon, Ernest Borgnine, Annette Funicello, Christopher George, Vera Miles, Vincent Price 11:00 JEOPARDY—Game COLOR 11:30 EYE GUESS—Game COLOR 11:55 NEWS COLOR Afternoon 12:00 FARM AND HOME—Discussion 12:30 LET’S MAKE A DEAL—Game COLOR 12:55 NEWS COLOR 1:00 DAYS OF OUR LIVES—Serial COLOR 1:30 DOCTORS—Serial COLOR 2:00 ANOTHER WORLD—Serial COLOR 2:30 YOU DON’T SAY!—Game COLOR Guests: Janis Page, Rod Serling 3:00 MATCH GAME COLOR Guests: Claire Bloom, Roger Moore 3:25 NEWS COLOR 3:30 DARK SHADOWS—Serial 4:00 SHERIFF BOB—Children 4:30 FUGITIVE—Drama 5:30 NEWS—Chet Huntley, David Brinkley COLOR Evening 6:00 NEWS 6:30 DANIEL BOONE—Adventure COLOR 7:30 STAR TREK COLOR 8:30 DRAGNET COLOR 9:00 DEAN MARTIN COLOR Guests: Buddy Greco, Janet Blair, Louis Prima, Bob Newhart, the McGuire Sisters 10:00 NEWS 10:30 JOHNNY CARSON—Variety COLOR 12:00 MOVIE—Drama “My Life with Caroline” (1941)
TV
June 5, 2021
This week in TV Guide: June 3, 1967
I probably mention this every time we look at an issue from this time of the year, but I'll say it again, because I need to keep the word count up: we tend to think of the Emmys as the kickoff to the television season, but truth is that for many years, it was the wrap-up to the year, in much the same way that a sports league hands out its awards at the end of a season. The main reason the Emmys wound up in the fall in the first place is because of a 1977 strike that pushed all kinds of programming out a few months, and at least in the Emmys' case, the show never went back to the old schedule.Thus, we find ourselves at the beginning of June discussing this year's awards. And where would an awards show be without some controversy to keep us all entertained? As it turns out, according to Richard K. Doan's article, controversy and the Emmys go way back. In 1964, for example, CBS and ABC walked out on the Emmys, with CBS president Fred Friendly calling them "unprofessional, unrealistic and unfair." NBC, which broadcast the show that year, ridiculed the actions of its rivals as "a classic of sham and hypocrisy." Leave it to Johnny Carson, that year's host, to get off the best line: "It's nice to be subpoenaed here tonight. This is the first time I've ever been asked to work a mutiny."
And then there were the years when the categories didn't differentiate between drama, comedy or variety, leaving Dick Van Dyke, he of The Dick Van Dyke Show, competing for best actor against George C. Scott (East Side/West Side), David Janssen (The Fugitive), Dean Jagger (Mr. Novak) and Richard Boone (The Richard Boone Show). Or the time when Hallmark Hall of Fame's "Victoria Regina" won Program of the Year, but Drama of the Year went to the series The Defenders. Or the year they scrapped categories altogether and simply recognized accomplishments as voted on by blue-ribbon panels, a show which then-Academy president Rod Serling acknowledged was "two deadly dull hours."
As for 1967, CBS News is continuing its boycott of the awards, not allowing any of its news programs to be submitted for consideration. The whole idea of the Emmys has been attacked by people as varied as Walter Cronkite and What's My Line? producer Mark Goodson, with Defenders producer Herb Brodkin quitting the Academy althgether, saying "What difference does it make which is best, Beverly Hillbillies or Gilligan's Island?" Goodson gave up after a proposal to create separate categories for half-hour Westerns and hour-long Westerns. Cronkite, a former president of the Academy, "got a kind of hopelessness about it all."But the show goes on, broadcast Sunday night at 8:00 p.m. on ABC, hosted by Hugh Downs in New York and Joey Bishop in Hollywood. True to their word, no CBS news specials are nominated. And there are the odd anomalies here and there, such as I Spy being nominated for best drama while one of its episodes gets a director nomination in the comedy category, but for the most part people are excited. You can see what you think of the nominees in the digitally colorized close-up; the winners are listed at the very end.
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While The Hollywood Palace is on summer break, ABC fills the Saturday night time spot with Piccadilly Palace, a London-based variety show starring the iconic British comedy duo of Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise, We'll stop in from time to time during the summer months to see who has the best lineup..
Sullivan: Ed's scheduled guests on this live broadcast are singer Nancy Ames; trumpeter Harry James; the rock 'n' rolling Young Rascals; comedians George Kaye and Rodney Dangerfield; puppets Topo Gigio, and the Muppets; marimba player Roger Ray; and jugglers Chung and Manna.
Palace: Morecambe and Wise welcome singers Bobby Rydell and the rock 'n' rolling Small Faces, and regular Millicent Martin joins the Paddy Stone dancers in song.
No surprise that finding something interesting about this matchup should be a challenge. Wait, I know—Nancy Ames, the singing act on Sullivan, used to be the singer on NBC's That Was The Week That Was, which was a spinoff of a hit British show, which is where this week's Piccadilly Palace comes from.
Well, that was kind of weak, wasn't it?
If this was 1969 instead of 1967, Small Faces would have morphed into Faces, and we'd be talking about how Palace was featuring Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood, and wouldn't that have been something. Unfortunately, it's still 1967, and so instead we have Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane, Jimmy Winston and Kenney Jones. Meanwhile, Ed has the great Harry James and his band, the Muppets, and Rodney Dangerfield. I think that deserves some respect, don't you? This week Sullivan has the edge.
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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. Keeping with the awards theme, we now turn to Cleveland Amory's year-ending column, in which our favorite critic considers the past season, as well as dispensing the coveted "Amorys." The Amorys are chosen by the highest possible authority, "an all-star committee of all-time TV exters. And, as I said to myself as I made up the list, if I did say so, I did a fine job." Sounds like something I'd say, doesn't it?
Anyway, his choices: for drama, Ben Gazzara (Run for Your LIfe) as best actor and Diana Rigg (The Avengers) as best actress. I Spy's team of Robert Culp and Bill Cosby take home best acting team, and Mission: Impossible wins the prize as best drama series. Best comedy series is Occasional Wife, whose stars Patricia Harty and Michael Callan were honorable mentions in the acting team category. Supporting awards go to Art Carney (The Jackie Gleason Show) and Amanda Blake (Gunsmoke), although Judy the Chimp from Daktari is runner-up. The Dean Martin Show wins best variety series, and The Merv Griffin Show takes the prize for best talk show.
As for the season past, there's a growing trend that Cleve doesn't like, not at all. It's the tendency of the rerun season to begin "not in the middle of June, which would be reasonable, or even in May, which would be bearable, but in April." April! Some of the reruns of variety shows, he writes, "were so idiotic you wonder why some network genius couldn't have come up with the idea of at least repating the opening spots." Do you know what it's like sitting down to watch Dean Martin onlyto hear him, in April 1967, talking about being just back from his summer vacation in 1966? "We felt it was a bit much, even for him." He also has a harsh word or two for an NBC special called "The Pursuit of Pleasure," which, he complains, managed "not to come up with a single new idea, a single new thought or even a single piece of real reporting." Not only that, it was done "with a taste which was to the leeward of deodorant commercials."
And that's why, for yet another year, the award for best critic goes to: Cleveland Amory. There was no honorable mention, of course.
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Duff (right) and co-star Dennis ColeThis week's cover features Howard Duff, star of ABC's half-hour police drama Felony Squad. Leslie Radditz calls Duff the anti-Walter Mitty: wheras the quiet Mitty dreamt of performing heroic deeds on a big scale, Duff—who's made a career out of tough-guy roles on radio, movies and television, and off-screen dated Ava Gardner before marrying Ida Lupino—is quiet, introspective, and sensitive when he's not in front of the cameras. As Lurene Tuttle, who played his secretary in the Spade series, describes him, "He comes to work, does his job, praises those who work with him and goes home. No fuss, no fuming." It's a sentiment shared by all his colleagues.If there is anything of the Mitty in Howard Duff, though, it's that he'd like to play in something other than action roles. Richard III, for instance, which he'd like to do "before they cart me away." And during summer breaks, he enjoys performing in summer-stock comedies like Under the Yum Yum Tree and Come Blow Your Horn. Sometimes he thinks maybe he's sold out as an actor, but has he points out, "an actor has to act." And it's not as easy as one thinks to do television: long hours, constant work, location shooting. And he recognizes it's what he's paid to do; "That's really our job, isn't it—to do the best we can with the material and within the time allowed us."
He doesn't talk about that quiet, reflective side, how he reads compulsively and can quote Shakespeare at length, "though he never does," a friend mentions. He's also an accomplished artist; wife Lupino framed one of his works and hung it in the den, but it embarrassed him, and he never calls attention to it.
Felony Squad, which co-stars Dennis Cole and Ben Alexander, runs for three seasons on ABC. (You can see what Cleveland Amory thinks of it in this issue.) It is one of five half-hour dramas on network schedules in the 1966-67 season. I've always enjoyed the half-hour format; it forces a tighter story, doesn't draw things out with fake jeopardy scenarios, and restricts the opportunity to go off into soap opera-like aspects of its characters' lives. The last half-hour drama I can recall on network TV is Adam-12; it's a nice change-of-pace.
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As we move into the summer months (TV-speaking, that is), it can be a challenge finding something new. Cleveland Amory is right—the rerun season comes earlier and earlier. There are really only two types of programming you can depend on to deliver new content: news and sports. Between them, though, we can still come up with something on each day of the week.
We'll start with a look at the Sunday news and public affairs shows. On CBS, Face the Nation (11:30 a.m.) discusses U.S. foreign policy with Roger Hilsman , former assistant secretary of state for Far Eastern affairs, and author of a book about foreign policy during the Kennedy years. Hilsman played a fairly large role in the development of U.S. policy toward Vietnam—reading that profile from the always-reliable Wikipedia, I suspect he had something to do with the Kennedy administration's support for the overthrow of the Diệm regime.
Vietnam carries over to ABC's Issues and Answers (12:30 p.m.), which features a debate between two leading Democrats standing on opposite sides of America's policy: Oregon Senator Wayne Morse, who believes the U.S. should withdraw, and Mississippi Senator John Stennis, a supporter of stronger action in the area. And while NBC's Meet the Press (12;00 p.m.) doesn't deal specifically with Vietnam, you can bet it's a major topic, with economist John Kenneth Galbraith, recently elected chairman of the liberal antiwar group Americans for Democratic Action. Galbraith* was a recent delegate to the "Pacem in Terris II" (Peace on Earth) conference in Geneva, which is the subject of an additional, 90-minute special Meet the Press Sunday afternoon at 3:00 p.m.*One of Galbraith's good friends was the conservative writer William F. Buckley, Jr.; I wish friendships like that were more possible today. I'm certainly more than willing.
Religion is the topic on ABC's early-afternoon Directions (12:00 p.m.), as the program examines the problems popping up in the Catholic Church in the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council. Foremost among the controversies: birth control and the role of laymen in deciding Church policy. In other words, pretty much the same discussion we have today. That's followed at 1:00 p.m. by ABC Scope, which manages to combine both Vietnam and religion in their discussion of chaplains in Vietnam.
On Tuesday, Charles Kuralt narrates, and Sir Michael Redgrave voices the writings of painter Paul Gauguin, in the CBS News Special "Gauguin in Tahiti" (9:00 p.m.,
YouTube here
) which recounts Gauguin's experiences on the island paradise, where he produced the stunning paintings that became his most famous works. Speaking of exotic locales, on Wednesday Edwin Newman takes a trip up north to Montreal for a "good-natured but slightly irreverent look" at the Expo 67 World's Fair. Thursday, Peter Jennings hosts a Summer Focus look at the nation's drug problem (9:00 p.m., ABC). And on Friday, an ABC News Special (8:00 p.m., ABC) narrated by Eddie Albert looks at the reasons behind, and the severity of, the nursing crisis.t t t
And sports, you ask? Saturday's main attraction is the third jewel of horse racing's Triple Crown, the 99th running of the Belmont Stakes (4:00 p.m., CBS). Those who say the Belmont isn't what it used to be might have a point here; the race is being held at Aqueduct, as it has been since 1963, while Belmont Park is being renovated with a new main grandstand to be ready in time for the centennial race next year. We're talking about this year, though, and the story is Preakness champion Damascus, defeating Kentucky Derby winner Proud Clarion to claim two-thirds of the Triple Crown.
While we're used to NBC's Saturday afternoon baseball Game of the Week, this week we get bonus coverage, with one of the network's occasional Monday night specials (6:00 p.m.). The defending National League champion Los Angeles Dodgers, having to do without the retired Sandy Koufax for the first time in a decade, take on the Atlanta Braves, spending their second season in the Georgia capital. As I recall, NBC contracted to do three or four of these Monday night specials a year, before going to a season-long Monday night schedule in the early 1970s.
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And now, as promised, some of the winners of the 1967 Emmy Awards:
Comedy Series: The Monkees. Actor: Don Adams, Get Smart. Actress: Lucille Ball, The Lucy Show.
Drama Series: Mission: Impossible. Actor: Bill Cosby, I Spy. Actress: Barbara Bain, Mission: Impossible.
Drama Special Program: Death of a Salesman. Actor: Peter Ustinov, "Barefoot in Athens," Hallmark Hall of Fame. Actress: Geraldine Page, "A Christmas Memory," ABC Stage 67.
Variety Series: The Andy Williams Show. Special: The Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner, Howard Morris Special.
Actually not a bad list of winners, not at all. Most of these shows are considered classics nowadays. Will people feel the same about this year's winners in 40 years' time?
If you're interested, here's a rare clip from the broadcast, featuring a couple of victories by those very Monkees.
Maybe the shows themselves weren't as good, but I'll bet this was more entertaining than this year's "virtual" Emmys, no? TV
June 4, 2021
Around the dial
At Vulture, there's a very interesting article from last year by Kathryn VanArendonk on how the average police procedural forces you to see things from the police point of view, with everyone else retreating into the background. I'm linking to it now for a couple of reasons: first, because there's what might be called a follow-up article that
she wrote last week
; and second, because I've written a couple of articles of a similar bent myself (
here, for example
). It's a delicate topic, because it can easily devolve into political polemics, but the procedural by definition tends to idealize the authority held by the police, and in such a way that makes it very easy to side with them—you know, the "If you're innocent, you've got nothing to worry about" cop, or as VanArendonk writes, the "plays-outside-the-rules kind of cop, often making unilateral decisions about when to ignore the law in favor of what he sees as justice." That bothers me,a not because I'm anti-police, but because it avoids asking the serious questions that not only make for good television, but for a healthy society as well. I'm not sold on everything she says; far from it, which is why I may well return to this topic in the next few weeks (without delving into full-blown wokeness), but it makes for a good read for you right now.Here's something a little less controversial: at bare•bones e-zine, Jack says farewell to William Fay's Hitchcock contributions with the ninth-season episode " Good Bye, George ," a nasty little story starring Robert Culp, Patricia Hardy, and Stubby Kaye. Jack's write-up is every bit as good as the episode itself.
The great Gavin MacLeod died last week, sparking a tremendous outpouring of affection and appreciation from his many, many fans and colleagues. At Comfort TV, David takes stock of his many memorable moments from a slew of shows over the years. The Flaming Nose recalls an interview done with him back in 2009. And at A Shroud of Thoughts, Terence looks all the way back to MacLeod's career on the stage . Quite a life, wouldn't you say? (Terence also has remembrances of two other faces familiar to classic TV viewers: Arlene Golonka and Robert Hogan .)
At Television Obscurities, Robert takes a long look back at the 1974-75 drama Lucas Tanner, which starred the pre-Good Morning America David Hartman as a professional baseball player and sportswriter who turned schoolteacher after the death of his wife and young son.
Martin Grams has a terrific interview with Garry Berman , author and pop culture expert. It does precisely what a good interview should do: make you wish you knew that person, and make you want to read what he has to say.
And at The Hits Just Keep on Comin', jb looks at a serious question , one that I've asked myself more than once: "Why do I still think about this stuff? Why don’t I just let it go? Isn’t it a little silly for a guy my age to spend so much time remembering stuff that happened when he was 16 or 18 or 22?" The answer (thanks in part to one of my favorite writers, Nick Hornby): because it's the stuff that defines him. I cannot think of a better way to put it, or to say it. TV
June 2, 2021
May 31, 2021
What's on TV? Tuesday, June 2, 1953
Even though we talked quite a bit about Queen Elizabeth's Coronation on Saturday, I thought it was interesting to look at the actual listings for the day as they appear in the Chicago edition, just to see exactly how hodgepodge the coverage was throughout the day. In this era before satellites and videotape, you're really at the mercy of when the airplanes can deliver your film, aren't you? I do want to call your attention to one additional program; Suspense (8:30 p.m., CBS) airs "The Queen's Ring," the story of the tempestuous affair between Queen Elizabeth I and the Earl of Essex. I'm sure the timing is just a coincidence. Now, enjoy a restful Memorial Day.
4 WBBM (CBS) 4:30 CORONATION—Radio Simulcast with pictures 9:00 ARTHUR GODFREY TIME 10:00 NEWS AT TEN—Late Report 10:05 ONE IN EVERY FAMILY 10:30 STRIKE IT RICH—Quiz 11:00 BRIDE AND GROOM 11:15 LOVE OF LIFE—Serial Story 11:30 SEARCH FOR TOMORROW 11:45 GUIDING LIGHT—Serial 12:00 LUNCHEON WITH BILLY 12:25 LEE PHILLIP SHOW—Hints 12:30 GARRY MOORE SHOW 1:00 FREEDOM RINGS—Quiz Game 1:30 LINKLETTER’S HOUSEPARTY 2:00 BIG PAYOFF—Quiz for Men 2:30 ACTION IN THE AFTERNOON 3:00 SHOPPING WITH O’RILEY 3:15 “PHANTOM EXPRESS”—Movie 4:30 GARFIELD GOOS & FRIEND 5:00 CORONATION OF QUEEN ELIZABETH II OF ENGLAND 6:30 CBS NEWS—D. Edwards 6:45 JANE FROMAN’S CANTEEN 7:00 FAMOUS FACES—Panel Jerry Dee emcees 7:30 TO BE ANNOUNCED 8:00 CITY HOSPITAL—Drama 8:30 SUSPENSE—Drama 9:00 DANGER—Mystery Drama 9:30 THE UNEXPECTED—Drama 10:00 CORONATION DAY PROCEEDINGS 10:10 MEET MISS LEE—Weather 10:15 HARRINGTON ON SPORTS 10:25 MUSIC COUNTER—Top Tunes 10:30 HARRINGTON AND THE NEWS 10:45 TAKE IT EASY—Musicals 11:00 KUP’S TV COLUMN—Chats 11:15 SPORTS & COMMENTS—Elson 11:30 MURDER BEFORE MIDNIGHT 12:00 “SPY OF NAPOLEON”—Movie 1:20 LATE WORLD NEWS
5 WNBQ (NBC) 4:30 CORONATION—Radio Simulcast with pictures 7:00 TODAY—CommentaryGibson Parker reporting from London 9:00 DING DONG SCHOOL 9:30 ANIMAL PLAYTIME—Kid’s Fun 10:00 ASK WASHINGTON—Panel 10:30 MRS. U.S.A.—Film Short 11:00 CREATIVE COOKERY—Recipes Date bars and cheese loaf 12:00 NOONTIME COMICS 12:15 “RUBBER RACKETEERS” 12:30 BOB & KAY SHOW—Interviews Alex Dreier reports on the news 2:00 BREAK THE BANK—B. Collyer 2:30 WELCOME TRAVELERS—Chats 3:00 KATE SMITH HOUR—Variety 4:00 HAWKINS FALLS 4:15 GABBY HAYES SHOW—Tales 4:30 HOWDY DOODY SHOW 5:00 CORONATION OF QUEEN ELIZABETH II OF ENGLAND 6:00 WEATHER—Clint Youle 6:05 JOE WILSON—Sports 6:10 DORSEY CONNORS—Tips 6:15 SHORT, SHORT DRAMA—Film 6:30 DINAH SHORE SHOW 6:45 NEWS CARAVAN—J. Swayze 7:00 STAR THEATER—Comedy 8:00 FIRESIDE THEATER—Drama “One Plus One” 8:30 CIRCLE THEATER—Drama “The Right Approach” 9:00 TWO FOR THE MONEY—Quiz 9:30 CORONATION OF ELIZABETH 11:00 HARNESS RACING—Maywood
7 WBKB (ABC) 7:00 CORONATION 9:30 CARTOONS—Youngster’s Film 9:45 BEULAH KARNEY PRESENTS 10:30 EXERCISE WITH ED ALLEN 10:50 YOUR WEATHER—W. Griffin 10:55 ULMER TURNER—News 11:00 BREAKFAST WITH O’NEIL 11:45 MOVIE QUICK QUIZ 11:55 ULMER TURNER—News 12:00 HAPPY PIRATES 12:30 TIME FOR FUN—Kids’ Show 12:55 ULMER TURNER—News 1:00 ALL ABOUT BABY 1:15 “WITHOUT WARNING” 2:25 ULMER TURNER—News 2:30 “TURNABOUT”—Movie 3:00 QUEEN ELIZABETH’S FIRST OFFICIAL ADDRESS 3:55 ULMER TURNER—News 4:00 “ROARING ROADS”—Movie 5:00 CORONATION OF QUEEN ELIZABETH II OF ENGLAND 6:00 AUSTIN KIPLINGER—News 6:10 SPORTS HIGHLIGHTS—Drees 6:25 YOUR WEATHER—W. Griffin 6:30 BEULAH SHOW—Comedy 7:00 “FALL IN”—Movie 8:00 STOCK CAR RACES—Action 9:30 NAME’S THE SAME—Panel Robert Q. Lewis hosts 10:00 AUSTIN KIPLINGER—News 10:15 SPORTS HIGHLIGHTS—Drees 10:25 YOUR WEATHER—W. Griffin 10:30 HEART OF THE CITY—Film 11:00 ULMER TURNER—News 11:10 CHGO. COMMENTS—Chats 12:00 “TWO MUGS FROM BROOKLYN”
9 WGN (DuMont) 9:00 YOUR FIGURE LADIES 9:30 CLETE ROBERTS REPORT 9:45 STEVE FENTRESS—News 11:00 “TRAIL’S END”—Movie 11:45 EARL NIGHTINGALE 12:00 HI LADIES—Interview Fun Guest: Carol Bruce 12:45 NEWS OF THE DAY—Allen 1:00 “SONORA STAGECOAT” 2:00 PAUL DIXON SHOW—Music 3:00 “CALLING PAUL TEMPLE” 5:00 CORONATION OF QUEEN ELIZABETH II OF ENGLAND 6:00 CAPTAIN VIDEO—Adventures 6:30 SPENCER ALLEN—News 6:45 CHICAGOLAND NEWSREEL 7:00 YOUR BIG MOMENT—Dates Melvyn Douglas emcees 7:30 PRESS CONFERENCE—Debate 8:00 PARS, BIRDIES AND EAGLES 8:30 WISDOM OF THE AGES—Panel 9:00 JACKSON & JILL—Comedy 9:30 DOUG. FAIRBANKS, JR.—Fiim 10:00 “FIGHTING BACK”—Movie 11:30 NEWS—Les Nichols Comments 11:45 “THE SCARLET THREAD”
TV
May 29, 2021
This week in TV Guide: May 29, 1953
For a nation still struggling to overcome the effects of World War II, the Coronation of the young, beautiful Queen Elizabeth II this Tuesday, June 3, promises to be an unforgettable event, one you can tell your grandchildren about someday. For now, thanks to the miracle of television, this grand event will be available for the entire nation to see. True, for those who remember back to May 12, 1937, there was a limited broadcast of the coronation of Elizabeth's father, George VI, on the fledgling BBC television; television cameras were excluded from Westminster Abbey, however, which meant they weren't present to carry the most important moment of all: the placing of the crown on George's head by the Archbishop of Canterbury.But this time, thanks to the influence of Elizabeth's husband, Prince Phillip*, cameras will be allowed in the Abbey, and the entire ceremony will be available live to viewers, not only in England but throughout Europe, and via film to other countries, including the United States and Canada. Not only will it be the first time the coronation of a British monarch has been televised in its entirety, it will be the first television event of international proportions.
*Establishment figures, including Winston Churchill and the Queen Mother, argued for maintaining tradition and excluding television from the ceremony, as had been the case for George VI's funeral. Phillip, however, strongly favored modernization and urged that the entire ceremony be broadcast. Ultimately, the Queen herself decided in television's favor.
The event is watched by 27 million people in the U.K., three quarters of the population. It is the first time many of them have ever watched an event live on TV; some people purchase their very first telly just for the occasion, while others rent one for the day. There's a joyful feeling, one that unites the nation, allowing them to experience this monumental event together—young and old, rich and poor, upstairs and downstairs.
And now here we are, 68 years later, and such a broadcast has yet to be repeated. Those who considered Elizabeth's coronation to be a once-in-a-lifetime event couldn't have known that for many millions, that would literally be the case.
Think about it: since that day, there have been fourteen U.K. prime ministers, thirteen U.S. presidents, seven popes (including one who reigned for nearly 37 years), the rise and the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Cold War, the Vietnam War, the first and second Gulf wars, the Falklands War, and countless events large and small (including fourteen Doctor Whos). Russia launched a dog into space, the Americans put a man on the moon, television has gone from a shadowy picture on a small tube through color, cable, satellite, high definition and streaming, and through it all Elizabeth has been the one constant. The point here is not to reflect on the length of Elizabeth's reign, impressive though it may be, as much as it is to ask this serious television question: accepting this event as the first time the coronation has truly been televised, is there any other similar event that you can think of that has only been televised once? Only one* comes to mind—the investiture of the Prince of Wales—and that doesn't really count, for obvious reasons. Empires rise and fall, leaders elected and buried, champions crowned and defeated, but considering how long television has been in existence, the idea that only one British coronation has been televised kind of boggles the mind. Staggering, even.
*OK, two, if you count Turn-On.
If one were to try and calculate the odds, I wonder what they would be.
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A model of one of the 65-foot arches which will span the processional route I was fascinated—still am, in fact—to read about the various plans the networks have for covering the Coronation. They might seem weird to people today, but to someone who was weaned on space shots featuring animated graphics and simulations of the moon's surface, they make perfect sense.CBS and NBC plan to begin their live coverage at 5:30 a.m. ET with radio broadcasts from London, augmented by background graphics, wire photos, and "other graphic arts displays" from their New York studios. ABC, which begins their coverage at 8:00 a.m., has constructed a series of miniature replicas of the Palace, the Abbey, arches spanning the parade route, which they plan to supplement with rear-screen projection to "give viewers the illusion they are actually witnessing the Coronation as it occurs." Fake news alert! (DuMont, in case you were wondering, plans to take the air late in the afternoon.)
NBC has the most audacious plan of all the networks, one which, if it works, will allow at least some live television coverage of the ceremonies. As I mentioned last month, the network hopes to bounce the BBC's video signal off the ionosphere to an antenna on Long Island, and they claim they've had success in tests.
Following the morning coverage (live pictures or not), the networks plan to return at 4:00 p.m. for the Queen's official address, and again at 6:00 p.m. for the kinescopes of the actual ceremony, flown from London. (They hope to show later BBC kinescopes at 10:30 p.m.) As for those flights, both CBS and NBC have hired planes in a desparate race to be first on the air. Paul Mantz, champion air racer, is flying the Peacock's plane, while CBS plans to use a British plane with facilites to develop the film on the way.
How does it all turn out? Well, NBC's signal-bouncing experiment didn't work, so they settled for their backup plan. And while CBS won the race to get the film first, in a bizarre twist, NBC got on the air first. Well, actually, it was NBC and ABC. You see, ABC, with no money to spend on things like charter planes, entered into a deal with the CBC to simulcast their footage from Montreal, which would be ready slightly earlier than either NBC or CBS. But, in yet another twist, NBC's plane was forced to return to England due to bad weather. Knowing they now had no chance to beat CBS, they came up with a bold idea: NBC VP Charles Barry reached out to ABC president, Robert Kintner and offered to pay for the cost of the line from Montreal to New York if ABC would allow NBC to share the CBC's coverage. The deal was struck, and NBC's full-page ad the next day boasted of their victory over CBS. (Perhaps ABC should have asked NBC to kick in the cost of an ad of their own.) The story of the battle for Coronation coverage supremacy is almost a better story than the Coronation itself, and you can read all about it in this wonderful reminiscence by TV legend Reuven Frank.
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Like him or loathe him,Ralph Edwards had the golden touchAnd now, one of the most controversial programs on television: This Is Your Life.
Why, you might ask, is a show like this—lacking sex, violence, or anything as garish as, say, Milton Berle or Howdy Doody—so controversial? Well, depending on who you aski, This Is Your Life is either a "wonderful human interest drama," or one that reveals "the mistakes and foibles in the life of each week's guest" for millions of viewers to see.
The (unbylined) article in this week's issue doesn't really go into a lot of detail about this; as the "Program of the Week," it's a mostly flattering piece. Still, you can pick up bits and pieces of what it might have been all about. The guests weren't always celebrities, back then, and Edwards was often accused of emphasizing the sensational in his choice of subjects. There are, of course, two sides to that story.
Take the show that honored singer Lillian Roth, for example. Roth's once-promising career had fallen victim to alcoholism, a battle which she finally won, and about which she was always frank and forthcoming. Her appearance on This Is Your Life, in a February 1953 special episode, was likewise frank and forthcoming, and done with the complete suport of Alcoholics Anonymous. It was, by definition, a "sensational" topic—an accusation which Edwards often faced. It was also, however, very inspirational (Roth had by then made a successful comeback), and the program generated more than 40,000 letters of support. It's hard to know how many lives might have been changed for the good because of that one episode.
Personally, I've never been a big fan of Ralph Edwards (neither was Art Linkletter, FWIW); I always thought there was something kind of smarmy about him, like a used car salesman. (No offense to any used car salesmen in the audience.) There was no denying, though, that between This Is Your Life and Truth or Consequences, he knew what makes a hit.
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One of the running "jokes," if you will, of Bishop Sheen's Life Is Worth Living is the "angel" responsible for erasing the Bishop's blackboard during each program. If you're not familiar with the show, Sheen would often illustrate a point on his ever-present blackboard, after which he would take a couple of strides toward the center of the stage. When he returned to the blackboard, it had been wiped clean, the work, he would say, of his angel (which he sometimes called "Skippy"). Becuase the cleansing occurred off-camera, viewers never got to see just who this "angel" was, and there was a good amount of curiosity as to his identity.
This week, we get to meet him, along with the other angels—that is, crew members—that keep Bishop Sheen going each week. For the record, the angel in charge of the blackboard is a crew member named Walter Colgan, complete with an oversized sponge. His father, John, is the show's lighting technician. Other angels are responsible for the audio, video, and even the small watches that hang from each camera to remind Sheen of the time on each live broadcast.Our intrepid, nameless reporter asks the crew what it's like working with Bishop Sheen. "He's wonderful to work with," one cameraman says. "Even remembers many of our names, although we rotate crews often." On any given day, the writer says, "he's apt to call them around and distribute rosaries or other gifts." He offered each of them $100 at the end of last season, to "Have a few beers on me," but they declined, and suggested instead that he donate the money to his charity.
And the famous Sheen humor isn't just a pose; "He's at his funniest after the regular program," one member of the audience says, talking about Sheen's habit of going into the crowd to chat after the program. "I could come over to Manhattan to see a play or something, but when I do, it's always with a ticket to see Life Is Worth Living."
I've written before of my admiration for Bishop Sheen, and how we could use a program like his on television today; there's nothing here to change my mind. He'd never make it, though—he's just too positive for today's world.
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How is it that we've gotten this far—nearly to the end—and other than the Coronation, we haven't said anything about what's on this week? Well, what is on? Not much, but we'll do the best we can.
On Monday night, young light-heavyweight boxer Floyd Patterson takes on Gordon Wallace (8:30 p.m. CT, DuMont). Patterson, the former Olympic gold medalist, has only fought six times, but he's considered one of the most promising fighters around. Three years later, having moved up to the heavyweight division, he knocks out Archie Moore to become, at 21, the youngest-ever world heavyweight champion.
Wednesday at 8:30 p.m., all four networks cover President Eisenhower's speech to the nation, live from the Conference Room at the White House, and accompanied by members of the Cabinet. If you want to know why people often talk of Ike's paternal relationship with the American people, here's the start of the speech: "Good evening, everybody. This evening some of the Cabinet members have gathered herewith me to discuss points of interest-points of interest to your Government and to you." He goes on to talk about the importance of the family, the prosperity of the farmer, the necessity for a strong education system, and the need to protect the nation from communism, Some of the Cabinet members then go on to answer questions they've received from the public. Hard to imagine a presidential speech like this today.
Thursday's feature is White Sox baseball (1:30 p.m., WGN), as the Sox take on the defending World Series champion New York Yankees. It's preceded by the pre-game show and, before that, Jack Brickhouse's show Baseball with the Girls. Not going to see that nowadays.
Friday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. on WGN, it's the matinee movie Alaska, starring Dean Jagger, John Carradine, Kent Taylor and Margaret Lindsay. There's nothing particularly notable about the movie, based on a story by Jack London, except that it reminds me that in 1953, Alaska wasn't yet a state. That really was a long time ago, wasn't it?As far as the weekend, it looks as if the Honeymooners are around at least part of the time on Saturday night's Jackie Gleason Show (7:00 p.m,. CBS), with Art Carney and Audrey Meadows, and guest star Merv Griffin. Finally, on Sunday, it's Ed Sullivan's Toast of the Town (7:00 p.m., CBS), and Ed's guests are singer Tony Martin; Spanish dander Jose Greco; comedians Myron Cohen and Joey Forman; Phil Rizzuto and Tommy Henrich of the Yankees, and Ralph Branca and Roy Campanella of the Dodgers. Sounds like a home run to me. TV
May 28, 2021
Around the dial
A busy week awaits us, as we were preempted last week, so let's get right to it.At bare•bones e-zine, the Hitchcock Project continues, as Jack looks at William Fay's season six boxing story " Ten O'Clock Tiger ," adapted from his own short story. And for some additional background on Wiliam Fay, you might want to check out Jack's story here .
Fresh off last weekend's Christopher Lee blogathon, Realweegiemidget is back with the 1971 TV-movie Dr. Cook's Garden , the last movie apperance for star Bing Crosby. It's a sinister story adapted from Ira Levin's sinister play, co-starring Blythe Danner and Frank Converse.
At Classic Film & TV Cafe, Rick reviews a couple of '60s westerns : Death Rides a Horse, with Lee Van Cleef and John Philip Law; and Alvarez Kelly, with William Holden. I've seen Death Rides a Horse, and I'd watch it again just for the terrific title; there's a real art form to coming up with one like that.
It's not only kids who have TV heroes as role models; I've always said that John Charles Daly, the host of What's My Line?, is who I want to be when I grow up. At Comfort TV, David asks what TV figures you wanted to emulate , whether you were a kid or not. Do you see any of them in David's list?
I've been doing some Twilight Zone research for an article I'm working on (you should be reading it in a month or two), so I'm in a TZ frame of mind, and Jordan at The Twilight Zone Vortex fills the order with a review of the May/June 1983 issue of The Twilight Zone Magazine .
Speaking of Twilight Zone, Shadow & Substance notes that the show will be going off of Netflix at the end of June, probably destined for Paramount +. That's probably not good news, and as Paul points out, every time a classic show becomes more difficult to see (and the episodes on MeTV and Syfy are really butchered with cuts), it risks falling down the cultural memory hole. My Blu ray set is on the way.
Garroway at Large is no longer at large; Jodie's back with the final episode of Wide Wide World ?from June 6, 1958, in which the Master Communicator takes a look at " The Western ." You can see the complete episode over there, too.
The Broadcasting Archives at the University of Maryland links to a wonderful article at The Guardian titled, "Your most annoying things about TV." A few of my favorites are there, as well as more in a story from a few years back . As much as I enjoy TV, if you were to ask me to compile a list like this, it would be, I don't know, a couple of books worth?
At Television's New Frontier: the 1960s, we're in the year 1962, and Death Valley Days , for it's 11th season, is experimenting with color. The series may not be the most historically accurate, but television's longest-running syndicated series remains one of the most popular among classic TV fans, and it always boasts an impressive lineup of stars.
A couple of interesting news items at Television Obscurities: first, on June 3, the UCLA Film & Television Archive will be streaming Rod Serling’s “It’s Mental Work,” an episode of Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre, with Lee J. Cobb, Harry Guardino, Gene Rowlands, and Archie Moore. Also, there's a Kickstarter campaign out there, courtesy of the 3-D Film Archive and ClassicFlix, to support the release of the first season of The Abbott and Costello Show on Blu-ray. Anything to upgrade the quality of television history.
Terence at A Shroud of Thoughts has an appropriate appreciation of the career of Charles Grodin , who died last week at 86. I always felt that if What's My Line? was ever revived, he would have made an excellent panelist in the Bennett Cerf chair.
Finally, over at Cult TV Blog, John (who has some very kind words for me, BTW) takes on " The Wrong End of Time ," the first serial from the 1970 children's sci-fi series Timeslip. I so identify with something John says here about his fondness for this show, as well as several children's shows from the early 1970s, "because they embody a probably imagined time before I was born." Isn't that so much of what the appeal of classic television is about? TV
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Insightful commentary on how classic TV shows mirrored and influenced American society, tracing the impact of iconic series on national identity, cultural change, and the challenges we face today.
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