This week in TV Guide: June 12, 1965

WI suppose I was about five, the year this issue came out, that I received a book from my mother. It was an illustrated version of "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh!", the hit song by comedian Allan Sherman. I loved both the song and the book, and for many years this was how I knew Sherman—this and the other novelty songs he did, many of which were pantomimed on the beloved Twin Cities children's show Lunch With Casey.

But I digress. As I say, it wasn't until much later that I found out Sherman was also a game-show empresario of sorts. As he describes this week in an excerpt from his autobiography, A Gift of Laughter (which might be worth tracking down some day), he and his partner, Howard Merrill, created the show I've Got a Secret, which they then sold to Goodson-Todman Productions for the princely sum of $1, with the proviso that if the show made it to air they would each receive a weekly royalty of $62.50, and Sherman was named Associate Producer, receiving an additional $125 a week. (A few years later, Sherman notes, Goodson-Todman sold I've Got a Secret to CBS for three million dollars.) 

Lest you think creating a game show concept is all fun and games, it was neither for Sherman; as he puts it, "After all those months of taking out the bugs, we had a regular insectarium on our hands." Sherman frankly admits that the first show was a disaster, and that the "secrets" that they created for celebrity guests were insipid. This came to a stop around the time that actor Monty Woolley's secret was disclosed to be that he slept with his beard under the covers. Asked by Henry Morgan whether this was really true, Woolley shouted, "Of course not, you bloody idiot. Some damn fool named Allan Sherman told me to say it." 

And then, there was the president of one of the sponsors, Prom Home Permanent, who kept meddling with the lineup of the panel. He was "violently" opposed to Laura Hobson, Nina Foch and Faye Emerson, because they all had straight hair. "His idea of the perfect panelist was Harpo Marx."

Sherman also tells of when Sir Edmund Hillary became the first man to reach the top of Mount Everest. Figuring he'd never have a better guest, he told his Production Assistant Adraia to get him on the phone." Where? she asked. "At the top of Mount Everest," he replied. "It had never occurred to me that there might not be a telephone booth at the top of Mount Everest." As it turned out, she was able to get through to the bottom of Mount Everest, where she was told Hillary was expected back in a month. "Too late!" Sherman shouted. Tell them we need him now!"

Frankly, I don't believe this story, or at least I suspect Sherman embellished it for effect, and that effect is very effective indeed. He goes on to share Mark Goodson's mania for memos (when Sherman complained that Goodson would "exhaust the world's supply of paper" if he didn't desist, Goodson replied by memo. Bill Todman wasn't any better; Sherman's request for a raise had to wait until Todman finished a call to Henry Ford to have a Lincoln Continental made to order; Todman then told Sherman that while he wouldn't give him a raise, he had something even better: a promotion from Associate Producer to Producer. 

Whether or not any of this actually happened doesn't really matter, though, because it's entertaining, and Allen Sherman is an entertainer. This book might be worth tracking down some day. In part two of this article, he promises to tell us of the day when he finally got a secretary, and he spent that weekend wondering if she'd be blonde, slinky, with a throaty voice and exotic perfumes. That is, until he got to the office on Monday and met his new secretary, Roger Peterson. 

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During the 60s, the Ed Sullivan Show and The Hollywood Palace were the premiere variety shows on television. Whenever they appear in TV Guide together, we'll match them up and see who has the best lineup.

Sullivan:  Ed's live this week, with comedian Sid Caesar; comics Allen and Rossi; French pop singer Jean Paul Vignon; British rock 'n' roller Tom Jones; comic London Lee; singer Dee Dee Sharpe; the Seekers, folk singers; and the Wychwoods, an illusionist act which uses 14 trained poodles.

Palace:  We’re in the rerun zone at the Palace this week, with host Arthur Godfrey welcoming comedian Shelley Berman; songstress Dorothy Collins; singer John Gary; the comedy team of Gaylord and Holiday; Dwight Moore and His Mongrels; juggler Eva Vidos; and the Dalrays, comic acrobats.

Let's see: dog acts? Check. Comedians? Check. Comedy teams? Check. Singers? Check. Each show has ticked the boxes this week, which leaves us to look at the personalities.  Shelley Berman can be very funny, Dorothy Collins is easy on the eyes, and John Gary has a smooth voice. On the other hand, you have the Ceasar of comedians, and Tom Jones is still going strong! So it's not unusual for Sullivan to be the winner this week.

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Throughout the 60s and early 70s, TV Guide's weekly reviews were written by the witty and acerbic Cleveland Amory. Whenever we get the chance, we'll look at Cleve's latest take on the shows of the era. 

This week, Cleveland Amory is conducting what we might think of as something of a self-review, in which he takes a look back at some of his reviews of the past season about which, in his words, he's had "second thoughts" For, as he says, "One cannot re-review the past season without coming to grips—and possibly even stagehands—with the show which, ratings or no ratings, has become the biggest thing since Amos 'n' Andy." 

That show would be Peyton Place, and while Cleve was taken to task by many over his favorable review of the program, there's no question that everyone was talking about it. He still has one criticism, though: the pace. "The show has an irritating habit of making a federal case out of every conversation. At the wedding, for example: Rod: 'Your mother looks—beautiful.' Allison: 'You were going to say "happy," weren't you? Why didn't you, Rod?' Rod: 'Why didn't I say "happy"? Why didn't I, Allison? I don't know.' Etc, etc." And speaking of Allison, "If she can't get another emotion—or even another boy friend—would it be too much to ask for her to get another speed?"

Amory also offers praise for the best performances of the year: Jim Nabors and Frank Sutton were standouts on Gomer Pyle, as were Elizabeth Montgomery and Dick York on Bewitched. He also mentions a "splendid quartet" in serious drama: Richard Crenna (Slattery's People), David Janssen (The Fugitive), Vic Morrow (Combat!), and Robert Lansing (Twelve O'clock High).  

In late night, Amory's discouraged by the failure of ABC's Nightlife, which he calls a "monument to futility," which started out with Les Crane, and adds that "even when they did finally come up with the right man, Dave Garroway, they didn't seem to know it." And he laments the absence of new faces in the news, with the exception of ABC's Peter Jennings, and the lack of commentary on network news (specifically citing NBC, but it could apply to all three). However, let us not end on a down note. There were three bits of good news: the real possibility of a fourth commercial network, the growth of educational television, and the best news of all: CBS has a new president. James Aubrey is dead, long live James Aubrey.

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We're always looking for good, or interesting, programs during the summer rerun season, and we've got several this week.

Secret Agent is still in first-run on American television, and Saturday's episode is one of particular interest, especially for those who debate whether or not John Drake became Number Six. "Colony Three" (8:00 p.m., CBS) is, as one author put it, "a fascinating anticipation of The Prisoner." The premise: "Drake assumes a new identity and joins a group of defectors about to be transported to a training school for spies in Eastern Europe."

On Sunday, ABC presents the third installment in their Daring Americans series, "Assault on Le Mans" (6:30 p.m.), portraying American Grand Prix champion Phil Hill, one of the greatest racing drivers of the 1960s. Hill was the first American, and the only native-born one, to win the World Driving Championship. Now he's at the fabled Le Mans, a race he's won three times in the past. His teammate in the 24-hour race is Bruce McLaren, as they drive for the upstart American Ford team, taking on the legendary European powers, particularly Ferrari. Hill and McLaren don't win; as a matter of fact, they dropped out after 192 laps. But two years later, Ford would topple mighty Ferrari, the legendary Ford GT taking first, second and third. The documentary is done in cinéma vérité style by Robert Drew Associates, which famously did several similar documentaries on John F. Kennedy, including Primary.

As we move into reruns, Monday's Ben Casey (9:00 p.m., ABC) presents a story that, for all the complaints scriptwriters have about not being able to tell adult dramas, probably wouldn't have been told even five years ago. In "A Disease of the Heart Called Love," Shelley Winters plays a divorced, middle-aged nurse who becomes pregnant. She's also got a medical condition that makes her pregnancy dangerous. Casey and Zorba advise her to "terminate the pregnancy," but she wants to keep the baby. So this touches a number of buttons: unmarried mothers, abortion, the loneliness of the unmarried. They don't get much more adult than that. It's directed by Mark Rydell, and features Milt Kamen and, as Dr. Watson, James Doohan.

Tuesday features one of those how-many-times-has-this-happened-to-you moments on The Fugitive: (9:00 p.m., ABC): "When a philandering husband is found murdered, the chief suspect is his girl friend Lucey Russell. But Lucey has an alibi: she was with Kimble." I did a bit on this many years ago, where I looked at the typical tropes of typical series and wondered just how many times they actually happened to ordinary people. This one is a little better, though, in that you don't have to be relying on an escaped convicted murderer to provide your alibi; it could be someone cheating on their spouse, someone who called in sick to work, or any number of people who wind up in the wrong place at the wrong time doing something they shouldn't be doing. I think it's called karma.

I'm going off the primetime grid for Wednesday's choice: Stanley Kubrick's terrific noir The Killing (10:30 p.m., KMSP), with Sterling Hayden leading a gang planning a race-track robbery. The gang includes Vince Edwards, who was Ben Casey on Monday night; Elisha Cook, Jr. as a very nervous teller working for the gang on the inside; and Marie Windsor as the dame who does him wrong. Based on this movie, Kubrick and his producer, James Harris, got the chance to make a movie for MGM: Paths of Glory. That was a pretty fair movie, too.

Thursday's repeat episode of The Defenders is "Blacklisted" (9:00 p.m., CBS) with Jack Klugman starring as a formerly blacklisted actor whose comeback is being threatened by a "vigilante" group trying to get him fired. So we have Klugman, one of the most intense, scene-chewing actors around; we have McCarthyite villains in the "vigilantes" trying to prevent a decent man from earning a living; and we have The Defenders itself, one of the more strident, issues-oriented programs on the air.

In fact, the episode is quite good. Klugman is, for the most part, well within himself as a man who shows his regrets not by what he says or does, but by what he keeps inside him. Your opinion of the episode is going to be based in large part on your opinions of the blacklist, the Red Scare, and everything that's happened since.  The Defenders was one of the quality programs of the early 60s, a series that wasn't afraid to take on serious issues. Its flaw, and it was a major one, was when it stepped over the line into strident advocacy, as it increasingly did in later seasons. But decide for yourself—you can see it here.

On Friday night, ABC turns its attention to gambling in another amusing documentary, as host Terry-Thomas takes a humorous look at "the urge to gamble" in Everybody's Got a System. (7:30 p.m.) The show visits horse racing tracks in Europe, talks to bettors and bookies to learn about the sport's attraction, visits a bingo parlor to see how even small-scale gambling can thrill, and visits the casinos, where Thomas explains his own "system" at the roulette wheel. It seems lightweight, but a fun show, not unlike something you might see on History or A&E today.

Also on Friday, Jack Paar's in London for this week's rerun (9:00 p.m., NBC), with a stellar cast of his own: the legendary Judy Garland, the very witty Robert Morley, and the distinguished journalist Randolph Churchill, son of the late Winston. I've seen clips of this on one of the Paar compilation videos, and it's very funny—particularly this bit where a slightly tipsy Judy has some fun at Marlene Dietrich's expense:

Oh, and she can still sing a bit, too. What a sad, sad life she led.

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Fashion alert: it's time for another starlet to display the latest in haute fashion.  This time it's actress Janet Margolin, who will go on to a successful career with appearances in media as varied as Woody Allen movies, a Ghostbusters sequel, and episodes of Columbo and Murder, She Wrote.  But never mind that—her mission this week is to show off the newest craze, the Finnish Marimekko, made famous by Jackie Kennedy.

Janet Margolin died of cancer in 1993, not quite 30 years after this issue.

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James Arness is so big (besides being 6'7", that is), he even dominates this week's profile of Milburn Stone, who plays Doc on the long-running Gunsmoke. Stone remembers the first few years working with Arness, and he wasn't impressed: "He'd be late or wouldn't show up—never apologize. And once he was there he'd clown around." When Stone couldn't take it any longer, he lit into Arness at a rehearsal, telling him that he didn't belong in the business, and added that "I've read my contract and there's nothing in it that says I have to put diapers on you or wait for you. And if you ever show up late again, buddy, you'll have two things to explain—not only where you were, but where I went!" To Stone's surprise, Arness took the tongue-lashing like a man, telling him that "You're absolutely right." "From that moment on," Stone says, Arness changed, becoming the consummate profession we've read about in TV Guide. "I began to love that guy. He's a great big wonderful cub bear."

I watched Gunsmoke when I was a kid, primarily because my grandfather did, and although I wouldn't rank it as a favorite it was a memorable show nonetheless. The byplay between the main characters—Matt, Doc, Festus and Kitty, and the obvious chemistry between the actors playing them—is the glue that held the show together, and watching it in reruns today confirms the quality of the program.

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Finally, on this longer-than-usual entry, a brief mention of Edith Efron's profile of Gig Young. Young is an acclaimed stage and movie actor, and his career will end with three Oscar nominations (and one win) to his credit, but in this issue he's talking about his current series, The Rogues, in which he stars along with Charles Boyer and David Niven. I bring this up because this article, which I read some years ago now, was the first time I'd read about The Rogues, a series about a family of good-natured con artists making a living out of swindling people who deserve it. According to the reviews, there is a sense that The Rogues is too literate, too clever, for the average viewer who wants his television without having to think about it.

I first saw The Rogues a few years ago on MeTV, and I was absolutely charmed by it. It's a show that desperately deserves a commercial DVD release (although you can get copies if you know where to look); it's better than Leverage, more humorous than The A-Team, and not nearly as complicated as Mission: Impossible. And since it is a series, unlike The Sting, you get to see it every week. It should have run for more than one season, and if you ever get the chance you should give it a try. I will be surprised if my readers aren't as charmed by it as was I.

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Around the dial

At Comfort TV, David gets the week off to a flying start with a look at Sunday night television in 1978. If you were around you remember the hype machine for Battlestar: Galactica, but what were people actually watching? See if it rings any bells.

"Double Vision" is what I feel I've been having, working on the lead-up to the release of my new novel, The Book of Revelations, next week. But it's also the title of the latest episode of The Omega Factor, which is John's topic at this week's Cult TV Blog. It's a doozy, setting up next week's finale.

At The View from the Junkyard, Roger's weekly review of The A-Team takes us to "Bounty," not as in "Mutiny on the," but as in a group of bounty hunters out to claim the reward for the capture of the Team. Kidnapping, mental hospitals, Decker returns: what more could your ask for?

Terrence pays tribute to the late Anthony Head at A Shroud of Thoughts, and for those of you who, like me, tend to trend older in our classic TV appreciation, he's best known as Rupert on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He's got a long list of credits to go with that, though: learn more about him, as you'll find out.

One of the great pleasures of attending nostalgia conventions (or working at them, if you're on that side of the table), is getting to meet so many people, from those interested in your books, to your entertainment heroes. Martin Grams tells of one such encounter, when he met the great Christopher Lee. 

And why not close out things with some video? The latest edition of American TV with Mitchell Hadley sees Dan Schneider and I discussing two game show icons of the 1970s, appropriate for the month: Paul Lynde and Charles Nelson Reilly. Enjoy! TV

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TV Jibe: Remenber when?

TV

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What's on TV? Tuesday, June 9, 1970

If you're of an age where most of the programs in these TV Guides feel more like old friends than anything else, you'll remember Dialing for Dollars. Almost every market had some form of it, where if you knew "the count and the amount" when the station called, you could win a nice chunk of changes, 1960s style. As you can see this week, it still runs on WLAC in Nashville, appearing periodically throughout the day. But if you look carefully, you'll also see something called "Gilligan's Giveaways" during the afternoon showing of Gilligan's Island. "Gilligan's Giveaways"? Don't you wonder what that might have been? Something kid-oriented, considering the show's airtime and audience? Might have to look into that sometime, but in the meantime, the shows you're seeing this time are from the Nashville edition.

This week in TV Guide: June 6, 1970

In this week's cover story, Digby Diehl has a candid and frequently poignant profile of Robert Young, one of America's favorite fathers who knew best, and now kindly and wise Marcus Welby, M.D. 

"I don't see anything wrong with the myth of the American father," Young says of his own role as Jim Anderson. "That is, as long as you realize that the American mother is really making most of the decisions." Young had fought long and hard to keep his character from being a typical television dad buffoon, but now he thinks things have evolved beyond that. "All those pat answers I used to give, going back to the old 'FKB' on radio, ar just too ridiculous now. The family unit is too related to the outside world and life is too complicated to get away with those old solutions. I doubt very much that father knows best any longer." 

Despite the outward similarities between Anderson and Welby, Young sees a real relevance in his role as the doctor who knows best. He spoke to many doctors in preparation for the role, and has embraced the holistic idea of medicine. "Today you have a headache and you take two aspirins; but you never treat the source of the headache. That's where the really skillful general practitioner can use his intimate knowledge of his patients better than the specialist." He's bullish on the potentials inherent in psychiatry; "I'm very excited that I have such tremendous equipment in the brain to learn and experience so many new things. You could say I'm a nut on mind-expansion." When Diehl mentions that he's starting to sound like a hippy, Young doesn't disagree; "I find that there are similarites in their concern with fuller use of the mind. I think that their motivation is right and their method—I mean drugs—is wrong."

He also sees drug usage as a symptom of something he has intimate experience with. "I think I understand a lot about these kids today because I took a lot of a chemical—alcohol—into my system over the years. I was addicted, but now I don't need it any more, so I don't drink." He's candid, with "a total lack of self-pity" about his long battle with alcoholism. "I've been terribly frightened all of my life. I think I was born frightened. I just reached the point where I was in such a constant state of terror. I couldn't face people. I couldn't face the day without a few martinis." Everyone in the theater, he says, is that way. "They're all terrified, frightened, insecure people who have found this remarkable outlet of playing all these characters who are not themselves." He credits his wife with stabilizing his life: "She  married a frightened boy, not a mature man, and without her I might have ended up a destitute drunk on Fifth Street."

His new series, which, based on the ratings, seems set for a long and successful run, has given him a new energy. He'd been in a state of semiretirement for seven years, following the end of a one season series called Window on Main Street, and was living a relaxing, content life in a retirement community in Rancho Santa Fe. But "you can only shovel up the rose garden so many times," he laughs. "Then either you get bored or the roses die." He'd rejected several movie and television projects, but when executive producer David Victor pitched Welby to him, he was sold. "I liked the character; thought it was right for me. And, after all, I've spent 40 years preparing for this kind of work. To me it isn't even really work—aside from golf, I don't have any other hobbies."

Friends say that Young looks younger, rejuvenated, and he agrees; "I feel younger, stronger, better in every way than I've ever felt in my life." In what Diehl calls "an amazing and moving thing," Young says, "I've changed so recently that I feel like I can still go back to the terror in my mind and touch it. It's like visiting an old haunted house. It's as if I live now in the beautiful house on the hill, and I only wander back to the old one occasionally out of curiosity. . . there really is no point in thinking about that, because you've got to live in the here and now. If you concentrate on guilt about the past, all you end up with is fear about the future."

Like Diehl, I found the entire article tremendously moving. Perhaps it's because I can identify with so much of what he says about fear and how it can cripple you, or because of the praise he gives his wife, which mirrors how I feel about my own. It is a remarkably candid and insightful Robert Young that we encounter here. I've always liked him, and after this I find myself admiring him as well.

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Here's a sign of how times have changed: Thursday's Today Show (7:00 a.m. CT, NBC), as baseball writer Leonard Koppett discusses one of the most controversial aspects of the game: the reserve clause.

The reserve clause was a standard part of the player contract, and its very simplicity belied its contentiousness. It stated that once a player's contract with his team expired, the team continued to retain the rights to that player. Although he could not play for them unless he was under an active contract, the team could still trade him, send him to the minor leagues, sell him to another team, or release him. Only in the last case, if he was released, would he be free to sign with the team of his choice. In all other aspects his ability to earn a livelihood was entirely at the whim of the team holding his contract.

The clause was always controversial; for owners, it was the principal means by which salaries were held under control and teams held together. For players, it meant being locked into service with a club until and unless they decided otherwise. If the player did change clubs, he had little if any say in where he would wind up unless he'd been given his unconditional release. If that were to happen, he would become what was known as a "free agent," and it didn't happen very often. The reserve clause was often the target of reformers; when the Branch Rickey and the Continental League made noises about challenging the two existing major leagues, the abolition of the reserve clause was a fundamental part of their plan.

Koppett's appearance on Today is likely tied to the ongoing court case of Flood v. Kuhn. Following the 1969 season, Curt Flood, a star center fielder for the St. Louis Cardinals, was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies, one of the worst teams in baseball. Flood refused to report to the Phillies, and sat out the entire 1970 season. In addition, he brought suit against Major League Baseball and its Commissioner, Bowie Kuhn, challenging the constitutionality of the clause. The case, supported by the newly empowered Major League Baseball Players Association and its dynamic leader Martin Miller, went to trial in May 1970, and it continued through June and the time of this issue. Flood lost at the trial level, and the case eventually made it all the way to the United States Supreme Court, where the reserve clause was upheld in 1972 by a 5-3 vote, with an incomprehensible opinion authored by Justice Harry Blackmun, based on baseball's exemption from federal antitrust laws.*

*Blackmun also authored the equally incomprehensible opinion in Roe v. Wade, for what it's worth.

It would not be until 1975 that the reserve clause was essentially abolished, when an arbitrator ruled that any player who played without a contract for one season became a free agent. The players and owners would later agree to the terms of free agency in a future collective bargaining agreement.

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This week's letters section is dominated by responses to an article in the May 16 issue written by Vice President Spiro Agnew*.  The article, entitled "Another Challenge to the Television Industry," continues Agnew's attack on the objectivity of television news, which he describes as "manufactured news: revolutionary theater brought into millions of living rooms by the networks." "How much disorder, how many of these illegal demonstrations which pockmark the country would ever take place if the ever-present television camera were not there?"  Agnew holds out hope that the networks will eventually understand their implicit obligations to the welfare of American society, that "most of the leaders of this great industry are willing to accept the responsibility of citizenship along with its benefits.

*It's the cover story, with the cover illustration painted by Norman Rockwell, no less.

Surveys throughout the period show a constant level of support for Agnew's media attacks, as in this letter from S. Richmond of Manitowoc, Wisconsin: "It's about time people realize that violence and depressing news is contagious and spreads (especially in young minds).  It's about time the networks stop trying for the largest audiences and start thinking about improving the outlook of our great country before it's too late!"  Rheba Wellborn of Decatur, Georgia agrees, saying "I hope television will do something soon to help reverse the situation of deterioration and corruption that has evolved within our Nation as a result of ill-directed program planning."  On the other hand, B.J. Butler of Los Angeles, while acknowledging that "TV has room for improvement just as Mr. Agnew has room for improvement," adds that TV shouldn't get all the blame.  "TV is not God, TV is not Congress, TV is not a substitute parent or teacher.  TV can only reflect human nature.  It has yet to make it."*

*An argument similar to some of mine, in which I've cautioned that television is neither good nor bad, but morally neutral.  However, I diverge from Butler, who writes that TV "has yet to make" human nature.  True, but it has an immense power to shape it.

William H. Race of Palo Alto, California (home of Stanford University) takes issue with Agnew's accusation that television encourages demonstrations: "How then does he account for the past two decades of demonstrations in Latin America and Europe, where TV played little or no role?  With that reasoning, one might as well blame television for the war it is covering in every news broadcast." Michael Woodhouse of Ewa Beach, Hawaii agrees, writing that Agnew ignores "the real cause for demonstrations: an immoral war or a polluted environment."  Sally Ann Yater of Easton, Maryland counters that her family is living proof of Agnew's argument. "I wholeheartedly agree with the Vice President", she says, and adds that "my family goes for days, sometimes weeks, without finding anything worth-while on TV."

The letters section is usually a representative sampling of the correspondence TV Guide receives, which indicates how divided the country is on the issue and, by extension, illustrates the social turmoil enveloping the nation.  Not unlike what we're going through today, perhaps, although the letter writers were a lot more civil about it back then.

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Enough with all this!  Let's find something a little less controversial: the Emmy Awards, maybe.  It continues our theme of the '60s transitioning to the '70s, albeit not quite as contentiously.

As we know, the Emmys used to be presented at the conclusion of the first-run television season, rather than prior to the beginning of the new season.  Therefore, we're not surprised to find the 1969-70 awards scheduled for Sunday, June 7 on ABC.  For the last time, the show is bi-coastal, with awards presented both in Hollywood (hosted by Bill Cosby) and New York (Dick Cavett), and it's a most intriguing lineup of nominations.  Once again, the categories are Drama, Comedy and Variety series, joined by Best New Series, Best Single Dramatic Program and Best Single Music/Variety Program (the later two comprised of special programs and regular episodes of a series).

Here are the nominees in various categories; I'll give you the winners at the end.

Best New Series:

The Bill Cosby Show (NBC)

The Forsyte Saga (NET)

Marcus Welby, M.D. (ABC)

Room 222 (ABC)

Sesame Street (NET)

Best Drama Series:

The Forsyte Saga (NET)

Ironside (NBC)

Marcus Welby, M.D. (ABC)

The Mod Squad (ABC)

The Name of the Game (NBC)

NET Playhouse (NET)

Best Comedy Series:

The Bill Cosby Show (NBC)

The Courtship of Eddie's Father (ABC)

Love, American Style (ABC)

My World and Welcome to It (NBC)

Room 222 (ABC)

Best Dramatic Actor:

Raymond Burr, Ironside (NBC)

Mike Connors, Mannix (CBS)

Robert Wagner, It Takes a Thief (ABC)

Robert Young, Marcus Welby, M.D. (ABC)

Best Dramatic Actress:

Joan Blondell, Here Come the Brides (ABC)

Susan Hampshire, The Forsyte Saga (NET)

Peggy Lipton, The Mod Squad (ABC)

Best Comedy Actor:

Bill Cosby, The Bill Cosby Show (NBC)

Lloyd Haynes, Room 222 (ABC)

William Windom, My World and Welcome to It (NBC)

Best Comedy Actress:

Hope Lange, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (NBC)

Elizabeth Montgomery, Bewitched (ABC)

Marlo Thomas, That Girl (ABC)

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I've always remembered something my 10th grade social studies teacher said.  It was before class, on a day when us students were talking about what we wanted to do with our lives - what colleges we hoped to be attending, what jobs we wanted to have.  "You know," he said, "a few years ago you wouldn't have been having this conversation.  You'd have been wondering when you'd be drafted, and whether or not you'd wind up in Vietnam."

He was right; the military draft had ended less than four years before, and although we'd wind up having to sign up for selective service before we were out of college, by 1976 the idea of being drafted to fight in a foreign war was the furthest thing from our own plans. But in June 1970 the draft was a very real thing and, as the listing for the ABC News Special "The Draft: Who Serves?" (Saturday, 8:30 p.m.) notes, men of draft age have four choices: "consent to induction, hope for deferments, refuse to report (and risk imprisonment) or leave the country."

The military draft was one of the stormiest parts of the antiwar movement, and I think the main reason protests over the Gulf Wars have never reached a critical level is that there is no draft to spread the threat around, to make the prospects of fighting more immediate for every young man and woman of a particular age.  That's what having an all-volunteer army has done for us, and as early as 1970 the prospects of such an army were under discussion in this special, as well as various inequities already existing in the draft, and the possibilities of increased future deferments.  Roger Peterson, the veteran ABC correspondent who was a native of the Twin Cities and started his television career at KSTP, is the primary reporter for a special that, as much as anything, shows us how much American culture has changed in the intervening 45 years.

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It doesn't seem as if we've discussed much actual TV this week, does it?  In addition to the heavy issues we're looking at, it's because we've entered rerun season; almost every series has started showing repeats, while the summer replacement series haven't yet made their debut.  Nonetheless, there are still some things to look at with our quick hits.

There are some summer specials: NET presents a "relevant" version of Hamlet, videotaped in Nashville, that attempts to capture both the Elizabethan flavor and the difficulty of taking action in a world that is full of corruption (Friday, 9:00 p.m.) while CBS presents a repeat showing of the latest "Peanuts" special, You're in Love, Charlie Brown (Wednesday, 7:30 p.m., brought to you by the people in your town who bottle Coca-Cola), and ABC gives us the latest in their series of specials on The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau (Monday, 6:30 p.m.).

Of course, we rely on the sitcoms to deal with the issues of the day: The Brady Bunch (Friday, 7:00 p.m., ABC) debates what to do with 94 books of trading stamps, The Governor and J.J. (Tuesday, 8:30 p.m., CBS) investigates dirty books, That Girl (Thursday, 7:00 p.m., ABC) wants to get to the bottom of Don's Las Vegas marriage, and Tom tries to master the art of finger sandwiches on The Courtship of Eddie's Father (Wednesday, 7:00 p.m., ABC). Not to be outdone, dramas get their moment in the sun: Ed gets blamed for a fatal beating on Ironside (Thursday, 7:30 p.m., NBC), Welby deals with a young leukemia patient on Marcus Welby, M.D. (Tuesday, 9:00 p.m., ABC), Vietnamese war victims are treated by Gannon on Medical Center (Wednesday, 8:00 p.m., CBS), and the primetime soap Harold Robbins' The Survivors (Thursday, 9:00 p.m., ABC) returns for summer reruns, giving us all a chance to see if it's as big a bomb as it was in first-run.

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And now the answers to our Emmy quiz. If you're reading this on a laptop or tablet, just turn it upside down. If it's a desktop, turn yourself upside down.

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MST3K alert: The Leech Woman (1959). A woman discovers that she is to be the guinea pig for her husband's weird experiments. Coleen Gray, Grant Williams, Gloria Talbot, Phillip Terry, John Van Dreelan, Kim Hamilton (Friday, 4:00 p.m., WLAC). A really distasteful and sordid little story, and I suppose the only really good thing about it is that all the bad guys get it in the end. I don't think this one is in circulation at the present, and for that you might consider yourself grateful. TV

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