October 16, 2017

What's on TV: Tuesday, October 15, 1968

We're back in New York City this week, and if you can make it there you can make it anywhere, right? It's a good enough day of television, including the Olympics. Let's just cut to the chase and get to it.


 2   WCBS (CBS)

Morning

    6:30
SUNRISE SEMESTER   COLOR 

    7:00
NEWS   COLOR 

    7:05
NEWS – Joe Benti   COLOR 

    7:30
NEWS – Joseph Benti   COLOR 

    7:55
NEWS   COLOR 

    8:00
CAPTAIN KANGAROO   COLOR 

    9:00
LEAVE IT TO BEAVER – Comedy

    9:30
DONNA REED – Comedy

  10:00
LUCILLE BALL – Comedy   COLOR 

  10:30
BEVERLY HILLBILLIES

  11:00
ANDY GRIFFITH – Comedy   COLOR 

  11:30
DICK VAN DYKE – Comedy

Afternoon

  12:00
LOVE OF LIFE   COLOR 

  12:25
NEWS – Joe Benti   COLOR 

  12:30
SEARCH FOR TOMORROW – Serial   COLOR 

    1:00
FARMER’S DAUGHTER

    1:30
AS THE WORLD TURNS – Serial   COLOR 

    2:00
LOVE IS A MANY SPLENDORED THING – Serial   COLOR 

    2:30
GUIDING LIGHT   COLOR 

    3:00
SECRET STORM   COLOR 

    3:30
EDGE OF NIGHT   COLOR 

    4:00
HOUSE PARTY   COLOR 
Guest: Paul Winchell

    4:25
NEWS - Edwards

    4:30
MIKE DOUGLAS – Variety   COLOR 
Co-Host: Trini Lopez. Guests: Anthony and the Imperials, Julie Newmar, Urbie Green, Hunter Davies

Evening

    6:00
NEWS – Jim Jensen   COLOR 

    7:00
NEWS – Walter Cronkite   COLOR 

    7:30
LANCER – Western   COLOR 

    8:30
RED SKELTON   COLOR 
Guests: Martha Raye, the First Edition

    9:30
CBS PLAYHOUSE – Drama   SPECIAL   COLOR 
“The People Next Door”

  11:00
NEWS – Bob Young   COLOR 

  11:30
MOVIE – Biography
“Jeanne Eagels” (1957)

    1:50
NEWS C

    1:55
MOVIE – Adventure   COLOR 
“Lady Godiva” (1955)

    3:40
MOVIE – Musical   COLOR 
“The Big Beat” (1958)

Yes, the Joe Benti anchoring the 7:05 a.m. news is the same Joseph Benti that anchors the 7:30 a.m. news. A matter of the space available, I'd think; another station airs the 7:05 news along with WCBS, and that extra channel symbol was probably enough to cause them to shorten Joseph to Joe in order to keep everything on one line.



 4   WNBC (NBC)

Morning

    6:30
EDUCATION EXCHANGE   COLOR 

    7:00
TODAY   COLOR 
Guests: Chet Huntley, Tony Curtis, C. Northcote Parkinson

    9:00
FOR WOMEN ONLY   COLOR 

    9:30
JOAN RIVERS   COLOR 
Guests: Florence Henderson, Rita Chazen

  10:00
SNAP JUDGMENT   COLOR 

  10:25
NEWS – Dickerson   COLOR 

  10:30
CONCENTRATION   COLOR 

  11:00
PERSONALITY   COLOR 

  11:30
HOLLYWOOD SQUARES – Game   COLOR 

Afternoon

  12:00
JEOPARDY – Game   COLOR 

  12:30
EYE GUESS – Game   COLOR 

  12:55
NEWS – Newman   COLOR 

    1:00
PDQ – Game   COLOR 
Guests: Wally Cox, Shari Lewis, Dick Patterson

    1:30
MAKE A DEAL   COLOR 

    2:00
DAYS OF OUR LIVES – Serial   COLOR 

    2:30
DOCTORS – Serial   COLOR 

    3:00
ANOTHER WORLD   COLOR 

    3:30
YOU DON’T SAY!   COLOR 

    4:00
MATCH GAME   COLOR 

    4:25
NEWS – Kalber

    4:30
MOVIE – Drama   COLOR 
“Honeymoon” (English; 1966)

Evening

    6:00
NEWS – Lew Wood   COLOR 

    7:00
NEWS – Chet Huntley, David Brinkley   COLOR 

    7:30
JERRY LEWIS   COLOR 
Guests: Flip Wilson, Nancy Ames, Osmond Brothers

    8:30
JULIA – Comedy   COLOR 

    9:00
MOVIE – Comedy   COLOR 
“The Reluctant Astronaut” (1967)

  11:00
NEWS – Jim Hartz   COLOR 

  11:10
WEATHER – Field   COLOR 

  11:15
NEWS – Jim Hartz   COLOR 

  11:25
SPORTS – Kyle Rote   COLOR 

  11:30
JOHNNY CARSON –   COLOR 
Guests: Jill St. John, Kaye Reid

    1:00
NEWS – Bob Teague   COLOR 

    1:15
MOVIE – Musical Comedy
“Thin Ice” (1937)

C. Northcote Parkinson may seem to be the least-known of the guests on Today, but there's a good chance you've had a closer encounter with him than you have either Chet Huntley or Tony Curtis. He's the author of the famous "Parkinson's Law," which states that "Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion." Who among us hasn't run into that?



 5   WNEW (IND.)

Morning

    7:30
YOGA FOR HEALTH – Exercise

    8:00
DAPHNE’S CASTLE   COLOR 

    9:30
MARINE BOY – Children   COLOR 

  10:00
SEA HUNT – Adventure

  10:30
MOVIE – Drama
“The Wicked Lady” (English; 1945)

Afternoon

  12:30
MOVIE – Comedy
“Hold That Baby” (!949)

    1:30
FAST DRAW – Game   COLOR 
Guests: Michael Dunn, Phyllis Kirk

    2:00
SKITCH HENDERSON – Variety   COLOR 
Guests: Engelbert Humperdinck, the Harlem Globetrotters

    3:30
BEANIE AND CECIL   COLOR 

    4:00
MIGHTY MOUSE   COLOR 

    4:30
BOB McALLISTER   COLOR 

    5:30
McHALE’S NAVY – Comedy

Evening

    6:00
FLINTSTONES   COLOR 

    6:30
MY FAVORITE MARTIAN

    7:00
I LOVE LUCY – Comedy

    7:30
TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES – Quiz   COLOR 

    8:00
PAY CARDS! – Game   COLOR 

    8:30
MERV GRIFFIN – Variety   COLOR 
Guests: Henry Morgan, Phyllis Newman, Rocky Graziano, Joe Williams, Helen Gurley Brown

  10:00
NEWS – Bill Jorgensen   COLOR 

  11:00
DONALD O’CONNOR – Variety   COLOR 
Guests: Irene Ryan, Sal Mineo, Sajid Khan, Jackie Kahane, Jack Haley, Jr.

  12:30
ALAN BURKE   COLOR 

    1:00
BOLD JOURNEY – Travel

    1:30
NEWS

One of the pleasures of these out-of-town (for me, at least) TV Guides is the chance to read about programs I haven't previously been familiar with. For instance, I never knew that Donald O'Connor and Skitch Henderson had programs of their own. Good guest casts for each.



 7   WABC (ABC)

Morning

    6:50
NEWS

    7:00
CARTOONS   COLOR 

    8:00
MOVIE – Drama   COLOR 
“Raintree County” (1957)

  10:00
VIRGINIA GRAHAM – Interviews   COLOR 
Guests: Eydie Gorme, Genvieve, Connie Stevens

  10:30
DICK CAVETT   COLOR 
Guest: Sol Linowitz

Afternoon

  12:00
BEWITCHED – Comedy

  12:30
TREASURE ISLE –   COLOR 

    1:00
OLYMPIC GAMES –   SPECIAL   COLOR 

    2:00
NEWLYWED GAME   COLOR 

    2:30
DATING GAME   COLOR 

    3:00
GENERAL HOSPITAL – Serial   COLOR 

    3:30
ONE LIFE TO LIVE   COLOR 

    4:00
DARK SHADOWS   COLOR 

    4:30
MOVIE – Comedy   COLOR 
“Love in a Goldfish Bowl” (1961)

Evening

    6:00
NEWS - John Schubeck   COLOR 

    6:30
NEWS – Reynolds   COLOR 

    7:00
OLYMPIC GAMES   SPECIAL   COLOR 

    8:30
IT TAKES A THIEF   COLOR 

    9:30
N.Y.P.D. – Crime Drama   COLOR 

  10:00
THAT’S LIFE   COLOR 
Guests: Robert Goulet, Alan King

  11:00
NEWS – Roger Grimsby   COLOR 

  11:10
WEATHER – Antoine   COLOR 

  11:15
NEWS – Roger Grimsby   COLOR 

  11:30
JOEY BISHOP   COLOR 
Guests: Cliff Robertson, Don Allen, Joe Tex, Michele Burke

    1:00
MOVIE – Mystery
“The Trunk” (English; 1960)

Today on ABC's Olympic coverage: the men's 200 meter qualifying and weightlifting finals in the lightweight division highlight the afternoon coverage, while prime time focuses on the finals in the discus, 400 meter hurdles and 800 meters for men, and the women's 100 meter final and 400 meter semifinals.



 9   WOR (IND.)

Morning

    7:40
NEWS AND WEATHER

    7:45
JOB HUNT   COLOR 

    8:00
SCRUB CLUB   COLOR 

    9:00
ROMPER ROOM   COLOR 

  10:00
JOE FRANKLIN   COLOR 
Guest: Beveridge Webster

  11:30
JOURNEY TO ADVENURE   COLOR 

Afternoon

  12:00
NEWS – John Wingate, Mary McPhillips   COLOR 

  12:30
MOVIE – Drama
“Almost a Gentleman” (1939)

    2:00
LORETTA YOUNG – Drama

    2:30
WEAKER (?) SEX – Discussion   COLOR 
Guest: Keir Dullea

    3:00
DIVORCE COURT – Drama   COLOR 

    3:30
MAKE ROOM FOR DADDY

    4:00
MOVIE – Western
“Belle Starr” (1941)

    5:30
REAL McCOYS – Comedy

Evening

    6:00
GILLIGAN’S ISLAND – Comedy   COLOR 

    6:30
I SPY – Drama   COLOR 

    7:30
WHAT’S MY LINE? – Game   COLOR 

    8:00
STEVE ALLEN – Variety   COLOR 
Guests: Martin Landau, Julie Newmar, Pat Harrington, Tim and Mickey Rooney Jr.

    9:30
MOVIE – Mystery
“I Bury the Living” (1958)

  11:00
MOVIE – Drama
“I Love a Mystery” (1945)

  12:30
FILM   COLOR 

  12:45
NEWS AND WEATHER

The syndicated Weaker (?) Sex (2:30 p.m.) was a CBC production hosted by Pamela Mason, former wife of actor James Mason and a well-known personality in her own right. No wonder Keir Dullea was a guest; he's Canadian, and 2001 had opened earlier in the year.



11  WPIX (IND.)

Morning

    7:30
BIOGRAPHY – Documentary

    8:00
GUMBY – Children   COLOR 

    8:30
MIGHTY HERCULES – Children

    9:00
UNDERDOG – Children   COLOR 

    9:30
JACK LA LANNE   COLOR 

  10:00
MOVIE – Biography
“Rembrandt” (1936)

  11:30
KIMBA – Children   COLOR 

Afternoon

  12:00
BOZO – Children   COLOR 

  12:30
LITTLE RASCALS   COLOR 

    1:00
ROCKY – Children

    1:30
BURNS AND ALLEN – Comedy

    2:00
PERFECT MATCH   COLOR 

    2:30
PATTY DUKE – Comedy

    3:00
CAPTAIN SCARLET   COLOR 

    3:30
SPEED RACER   COLOR 

    4:00
THREE STOOGES   COLOR 

    4:30
SUPERMAN – Adventure

    5:00
MUNSTERS – Comedy

    5:30
BATMAN – Adventure   COLOR 

Evening

    6:00
F TROOP – Comedy   COLOR 

    6:30
VOYAGE – Adventure   COLOR 

    7:00
LATIN AMERICAN DILEMMA

    7:30
RAT PATROL – Drama   COLOR 

    8:00
RUN FOR YOUR LIFE – Drama   COLOR 

    9:00
NEWS – Lee Nelson   COLOR 

    9:30
PASSWORD – Game   COLOR 
Guests: Agnes Moorhead, Barry Nelson

  10:00
PERRY MASON – Mystery

  11:00
GAME OF THE WEEK   COLOR 

  11:30
MOVIE – Drama
“The Spirit of West Point” (1947)

    1:00
NEWS – Lee Nelson   COLOR 

Password in syndicated reruns? I'd never thought of that before, although there's no reason why not, considering the show isn't particularly timely. Just make sure the celebrities are still alive, right? Although looking in a past issue of TV Guide, I've read of just that kind of thing happening. As the editorial concluded, no wonder people were confused.



13  WNDT (NET)

Morning

    8:55
CLASSROOM – Education

Afternoon

  12:00
CLASSROOM – Education

    4:30
LITTLE ADAM   COLOR 

    4:45
FRIENDLY GIANT – Children

    5:00
MISTEROGERS – Children

    5:30
WHAT’S NEW – Children

Evening

    6:00
ONE TO ONE – Readings

    6:30
PLAYING THE GUITAR

    7:30
NET JOURNAL – Documentary

    8:30
POPULATION PROBLEM   COLOR 

    9:00
EEN CHRONICLE   SPECIAL   COLOR 

  10:30
NEWSFRONT – Mitchell Krauss

What, you may ask, is EEN Chronicle? I wondered that myself' it's a public-affairs program underwritten by the Ford Foundation. Tonight's program is on the institution of the presidency, and it's moderated by John Charles Daly, our favorite from What's My Line?, who appears here in his role as former head of the Voice of America. And no, I don't know what EEN stands for.



31  WNYC (IND.)

Afternoon

    3:00
NASA PRESENTS – Science

    3:30
FILM

    4:00
AROUND THE CLOCK – Police

    4:30
FILM

    5:00
FILM

    5:30
CONTINENTAL COMMENT

Evening

    6:00
CASPER CITRON – Interview

    6:30
FILM   COLOR 

    6:45
NEWS

    7:00
REPORT TO THE PHYSICIAN

    7:30
HUMAN RIGHTS FORUM

    8:00
REPORT TO THE DENTIST

    8:30
SCIENCE SEMINAR

    9:30
FILM

    9:45
NEWS – Herbert Boland

  10:00
COLLEGE ELECTIVES

WNYC may have broadcast more than we see here; if the United Nations is in session, they'll broadcast that live and in color, beginning at 10:30 a.m.



47  WNJU (NEWARK) (IND.)

Afternoon

    5:25
NEWS

    5:30
MOVIE – Drama
“El Hombre Leopardo” (1943)
(Dubbed in Spanish)

Evening

    7:30
MIGUELITO VALDES   COLOR 

    8:00
PUMAREJO – Variety   COLOR 

    9:30
SPANISH DRAMA   COLOR 

  10:00
VARIETY HOUR – Lanza   COLOR 

  10:30
NEWS – Corrigan   COLOR 

  10:45
VARIETY HOUR – Lanza   COLOR 

  11:15
MOVIE – Drama
“El Hombre Leopardo” (1943)

  12:30
NEWS – Raul Davila

I think this is the first time I've seen a movie that was dubbed into Spanish; it stars Dennis O'Keefe. TV  

18 comments:

  1. If I recall correctly, EEN stood for Eastern Educational Network, a predecessor to NET (National Educational Television), based in Boston (WGBH).

    Rick

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Rick, you';re correct.

      Delete
    2. EEN was actually an alternate distributor to NET and, later, PBS; EEN is today American Public Television.

      Delete
    3. WABC's afternoon movie was still known at this juncture as "The Big Show"; it wouldn't become "The 4:30 Movie" until early the next year. It was also before the famous 18-second theme music (composed by Walter Raim) made its debut, which would have been some time in the next month.

      Delete
  2. Just back from IMDb ...

    Keir Dullea is a native of Cleveland, Ohio.

    *Old Joke: Keir Dullea, gone tomorrow ...*
    (Hey, I said it was old - not good ...)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Was "The CBS Morning News" 55 minutes (7:05-8 A.M. ET) in length during the fall of 1968?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Probably not, that 5 minutes starting at 7:00 might have been for local news in some areas.

      Delete
    2. That's what I was thinking - and then it might have repeated at 7:30. I know at least one area that did that, ran it back-to-back for an hour.

      Delete
  4. I see that the NBC 9 o'clock movie is the Don Knotts feature, “The Reluctant Astronaut”. I realize that it wasn't a huge or a blockbuster film, but it was just released a year before (1967). If I recall, back in the days before cable, VCR tapes, DVD's, etc... films usually wouldn't make it to commercial TV at least for a couple years after it's theatrical release.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. NBC and MCA-Universal had a long-standing sweetheart deal with regard to feature films, particularly lower-budgeted ones.
      The economics of feature booking were changing fairly rapidly in the late '60s; programmers like the Knotts comedies were in the process of being squeezed out of theaters in favor of bigger ticket movies.
      Thus, big studios like Universal began to figure on the TV sale even while the movies were being made - it was part of the budget.
      If you recall, it was during this time that some "adult-oriented" films would make alternate scenes for TV use; language and violence were usually handled this way.

      Delete
  5. Just back from your archive:

    In March of 2014, you had occasion to write up the TV Guide for the first week of March of 1961.
    Among the shows referenced was "Private Eye, Private Eye", a comedy special on The U.S. Steel Hour, headlining Ernie Kovacs.

    A few weeks ago, I took delivery on Shout Factory's just-issued collection of the surviving 49 episodes of Take A Good Look, Ernie's "panel game" from this same period.
    Because I ordered directly from Shout Factory, I received a bonus DVD - "Private Eye, Private Eye", which has apparently gone unseen since its original airing.
    I haven't looked at it in its entirety yet, but apparently U.S. Steel and Max Leibman gave Kovacs a bigger budget and plusher facilities than he had at ABC; freedom of content, not so much ...

    As to Take A Good Look, here's s real early '60s time capsule:
    The panelists were suppose to guess what the visiting guests had done to be in the news at the time; the "clues" were surreal gags which touched on the events in question (sort of).
    The celebrity panelists were mainly friends of Ernie's, who understood that they were there to be an audience for the gags; if they happened to figure who the guest was or what he'd done, that was OK too, but that was a bonus (on one show, a totally bewildered Hans Conreid cried out, "Please Ernie - tell them it's rigged!!")
    Other frequent panelists included Cesar Romero, Ben Alexander, Carl Reiner, Jim Backus, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Edie Adams (not surprisingly, she was on more than anybody else) - and on at least one occasion, Hollywood mogul Mervyn LeRoy ( I'm spacing these shows out for myself, hoping for a few more surprises).
    As to the guests, these included the first elected congressman from the new State of Hawaii, Daniel Inouye (who became even more famous later), Mack Sennett (who passed on not long after his appearance), Fred Demara, The Great Impostor (who looked nothing like Tony Curtis), author Leon Uris (when Exodus was on the best-seller list), numerous athletes who'd never been seen in close-up or out of uniform -
    - well, like I said, a time capsule (and the digital video restoration is top-notch).
    Anyhoo, it's from shout Factory; order directly from them and you get the bonus show.
    *The preceding was an unsolicited testimonial.*

    ReplyDelete
  6. Is the Virginia Graham program on WABC-TV 7 at 10 a.m. her "Girl Talk" series. I know she left to later on to launch an hour-long talk show.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Was the late afternoon Douglas Edwards newscast not in color?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. In a similar vein--

      Was 4:25 P:M ET still a "color non grata" timeslot on the nets in the fall of '68? (See "Floyd Kalber, NBC News...Chicago")

      And while the evening 'casts on WABC 7 are shown as being "lensed in tint" (Variety loved to use that term)--what's with the 6:50 AM eye-opener version of Eyewitless News in B&W? Didn't ABC have the budget to bring in a "color-qualified" NABET engineer at 6:00 AM to put one camera on a registration chart and gray scale for air? Or if it was just a booth announcer reading copy over slides, I'm pretty sure ABC had color film chains by then.

      Delete
  8. On that night's Merv Griffin, you have guests from both ends of the spectrum, Henry Morgan and Helen Gurley Brown. Oooooohhhh!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Can you post any NYC listings from Sept or Oct of 1966. Much appreciated

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for writing! Drive safely!