This week in TV Guide: November 1, 1980

After months of long, hard, and at times tedious and controversial activity, Campaign '80 is at its conclusion.  And TV Guide tells you how you can pick the winner!

But first, a word from our publisher.

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"TV GUIDE has never before taken a position in a Presidential election and as head of the company that publishes the magazine I intended that it remain silent in this one. I, cannot, however, as a matter of conscience, refrain from speaking up when the result of this election is so critical to the future of this nation."

With that, Walter H. Annenberg, President of Triangle Publications, Inc., makes a rare appearance in the pages of his most famous publication for the purposes of endorsing Ronald Reagan for the Presidency. "To put it bluntly," he says, "we see ourselves as a nation on the decline," a country overwhelmed with problems thought to be too big for anyone to solve. Inflation tops 10%, unemployment "especially among young black people" is glossed over, and foreign policy is a mess. "European and other world leaders are impressed by performance, not conversation," and talk seems to be all they get from the current occupant of the White House, "a well-intentioned, hard-working public servant" who has demeaned the office of the Presidency by portraying his opponent as "a warmonger with simplistic, antiquated economic ideas who would divide the country into antagonistic racial, religious and geographical factions." America needs "an administration determined to solve our painful problems by attacking the basic causes of social and economic ills rather than by applying local anesthetics in the form of quickly dissipated Government handouts."

Annenberg writes that "While I respect the President's supporters for their loyalty to him and have high regard for Rosalynn Carter and her dedication to her husband, his unfortunate record of performance in office does not warrant his reelection." Ronald Reagan, a man Annenberg has known for 30 years "as an actor, as a union leader and as a capable governor," will offer "in place of more years of political expedients to bolster weak domestic and international positions," an administration dedicated to ending "the feeling that we no longer can control our own destiny" and promises to "restore the self-confidence and the self-respect that until recent years have been the foundation of the American spirit." In conclusion, "As we achieve these goals, our friends abroad—and our potential enemies—will respect us too."

It might seem strange, given the pulp fan mag that TV Guide has turned into, to read Annenberg's words—to think that the magazine's political preference would matter, either to the readers or to the nation as a whole. But keep in mind that throughout these years of TV Guide, the magazine took its responsibilities to the public seriously, and felt that its readers were entitled to intelligent discussion of the issues of the day. A critic once observed that TV Guide felt itself closer to magazines such as The New Yorker than to television and movie magazines, and it often showed in the types of articles published in TV Guide.

The Annenbergs and the Reagans.

Annenberg himself was no stranger to Republican politics, having served as ambassador to the Court of St. James during the Nixon administration. (He was, in fact, the man who introduced Reagan to Margaret Thatcher,) Annenberg's wife Lenore was appointed the State Department's Chief of Protocol, and the Reagans and Annenbergs often celebrated New Year's Eve together. This was not merely an endorsement of friendship, though—Annenberg enthusiastically agreed with Reagan's philosophy, and saw in him a man with the confidence and the political acumen to lead the United States through trying times both at home and abroad.

Regardless of where one stands politically, it really is quite something to see a publication like TV Guide—one that took seriously the role and responsibility of television in the shaping of American culture—take a partisan stand like this.* Nowadays, it's more interested in what musical instrument a candidate plays, or what kind of underwear he or she wears.

*And what better way to demonstrate television's gravitas than to endorse for the presidency a man who once hosted a television series?

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In our lead article, Elmer L. Lower, formerly president of ABC News and currently a professor of journalism at the University of Missouri, gives readers a brief recap of each candidate's electoral strategy, and gives viewers tips on what to look for throughout what is expected to be a long and suspenseful election night. For example, the polls close earliest in Indiana and Kentucky; Reagan is strong in Indiana, so he's expected to take it at 6:30 p.m. ET when the evening news programs come on. Carter took Kentucky in 1976 but the state appears less certain for him, so "a Kentucky victory for Reagan would be significantly good news for him."

Meanwhile, five Southern and border states close between 7:00 and 8:00, all of which Carter swept in 1976. Reagan's best chances to break Carter's almost-solid South are Florida, Alabama and West Virginia. And the crucial hour, according to Lower, will be that 7:00 to 8:00 hour, when the networks are expected to project as many as 10 states, including New England and Texas. Reagan is sure of Kansas and Vermont, while Carter can count on Massachusetts. Back in 1976, Gerald Ford won both New Jersey and Connecticut; Reagan will do the same.

Lower is anticipating a long night—for example, by 11:00, it's likely that only Texas and New York, among the large states, will have been projected. Pennsylvania, Michigan and Ohio will still be out, and the polls on the West will just be closing, so "you'll have to stay up late, it appears, if you want to know who your next President is before you fall asleep." In fact, it may well be after 3:00 a.m. before a winner is finally projected; in 1976, NBC was first to project Carter as the winner, at 3:29 a.m., when they gave him victory in Mississippi.

As we now know, of course, such was not the case. The early news is indeed good for Reagan: in addition to Indiana, he does take Kentucky. In the next hour, Carter's "solid South" of 1976 goes entirely for Reagan, with the exception of Carter's home Georgia (which the president takes by a much smaller margin than he did in '76). At 8 p.m., Reagan wins Texas, as well as those two Eastern states he had to win, New Jersey and Connecticut.  And at 8:15 p.m., over seven hours earlier than in 1976, NBC's count puts Reagan at 270 electoral votes, enough to win the election.

Television coverage of the 1980 election is extremely controversial, to say the least. NBC's early projections rely heavily on exit polling data (the first time projections had been made on that basis), and in fact the polls are still open in many Western states at the time of the call. Carter's concession at 9:50 ET, again before the polls have closed on the West Coast, doesn't do the Democrats any favors either, despite reminders from network pundits that there is more than just the presidential election at stake, and the Republicans take control of the Senate for the first time since the Eisenhower administration.

*It wasn't just television; radio reports throughout the day gave updates on the exit polls, with one CBS mid-afternoon broadcast suggesting that the numbers indicated a possible Reagan landslide. 

In retrospect, the results shouldn't have been as much of a surprise as they were. Internal polls had already shown momentum moving toward Reagan, and the Reagan-Carter debate proves to be the decisive moment in the campaign. Reagan's eventual 489-49 victory in the Electoral College is the largest ever for a non-incumbent, and his popular vote percentage of just under 51% is remarkable for a three-way election.

But it's a surprise to most of the "experts," and the stunned expressions of NBC's anchors as they watch Reagan's sudden sweep of the early states remains a vivid memory, over 40 years after the fact.

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And now, some images from Election Night 1980:

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And now the rest of the week. Last Tuesday night, NBC had scheduled a two-hour Bob Hope special, built around Hope's campaign for President.* He's nominated by Johnny Carson, his campaign is managed by Tony Randall, and he uses Angie Dickinson and Stefanie Powers to appeal to women voters (although I think their greater appeal would be to males).

*Of course, having been born in the United Kingdom, Bob would technically have been ineligible to serve as president, but this is a comedy show, after all.

Unfortunately, something came up last Tuesday that prevented the special from airing, namely the Reagan-Carter debate. NBC didn't have many options left for a topical show as time-sensitive as this one, so look for it on Saturday (7:00 p.m. CT), followed by another special with political overtones bumped from Tuesday, an hour of comedy with the Smothers Brothers.

The recent end to the actors strike means we're still seeing season premieres of new and returning shows, and a big CBS player on Sunday night starts out with a bang: Archie Bunker's Place, the successor to All in the Family, opens the 11th season for the combined series with Archie coming to terms with the death of his long-suffering wife Edith. (7:00 p.m.) It's a struggle for Archie, who "refuses to acknowledge his grief." It's also a revelation for anyone who compares this Archie from the Archie of the first episode.

On Monday ABC (7:00 p.m.) and CBS (9:00 p.m.) block out an hour each for paid political programs, while NBC reserves 90 minutes (8:30 p.m.). Meanwhile, PBS comes in first in the early returns, first with the conclusion of the brilliant miniseries Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, starring the incomparable ◄Alec Guinness (7:00 p.m.); followed by the great political satirist Mark Russell in his Election Eve special (8:00 p.m.), live from Buffalo.

Tuesday is Election Day, and for one of the candidates, it will be High Noon (3:30 p.m., WDIO), but if you're looking for an alternative, PBS's Nova (7:00 p.m.) explores the search for a cancer cure, and Dick Cavett has the first of a two-part interview with the legendary Ray Bradbury (10:00 p.m.)

Wednesday's feature event is CBS's Wednesday Night Movie, George Hamilton's hit comedy Love at First Bite (8:00 p.m.), which Judith Crist calls "uneven but frequently very funny," and lauds Hamilton's "hitherto unexpected and unexploited comedic gifts." And on NBC (also 8:00), it's part one of Alcatraz: The Whole Shocking Story, which is not only shocking but "based on a true story," with Michael Beck, Art Carney, Telly Savalas, and Alex Karras.

Thursday night, it's the presumably shocking conclusion of Alcatraz (7:00 p.m., NBC), and PBS scores again with Live at Lincoln Center presenting something they barely have time for anymore: classical music, in the form of Rossini's charming opera La Cenerentola (Cinderella), performed by the New York City Opera. (7:00 p.m.) For the rest of us, 20/20 (9:00 p.m., ABC) has a profile of David Bowie, who was probably promoting his latest hit, "Ashes to Ashes," and NBC presents a "pilot" from 1968: Lassiter (9:00 p.m.), starring Burt Reynolds. The ad boasts that it's the "first time on TV!" and you have to ask yourself just how good a pilot can be if it's taken twelve years to make it to television.

Friday's season premiere of Dallas is preceded by a literal bang—it's a rerun of the season-ending "Who Shot J.R.?" episode (8:00 p.m., CBS). As TV Guide's preview notes, though, "the solution to this whodunnit is still weeks away."

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Finally, a note in the TV Update section that Saturday Night Live is about to be "reborn," with an all-new cast and 15 new writers. New producer Jean Doumanian sees "the public going crazy over them. I went crazy over them." In fact, most people probably would have amended that last sentence to read "I went crazy over them." Doumanian and her new cast almost killed the show.

The new "Not Ready For Prime Time Players" consisted of Charles Rocket, Denny Dillon, Gilbert Gottfried, Gail Matthius, Joe Piscopo, and Ann Risley, with Eddie Murphy as a featured player. This cast is probably best known for the February 21, 1981 program in which Rocket, during a spoof of the "Who Shot J.R.?" craze, dropped the F-bomb on live television. He was fired, along with Gottfried and Risley, and Doumanian was replaced as producer by Dick Ebersol, who had been involved in the creation of SNL and was now being asked to help save the show. At the end of the season he axed the rest of Doumanian's players, with the exceptions of Piscopo and Murphy, around whom the next generation of SNL would be built.

In fact, SNL had fallen behind ABC's Fridays in both audience ratings and critical approval, and was coming quite close to being cancelled altogether. The fact that it continues on the air today, more than 40 years later, may be a testament to the inertia that grips late-night television, but it also demonstrates the necessity of acting quickly in the midst of crisis. Had NBC waited until the end of the 1980-81 season to make changes, there might not be a Saturday Night Live today. Whether or not that's good news? I'll leave that up to you. TV

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Around the dial

WIt Cult TV Blog, John's season of posts about the villainous Doctor Who Autons continues with "Spearhead from Space," the inauguaral eposide from the great Jon Pertwee's run as the good Doctor.

There were a lot of celebrity deaths announced this week, and by the time you read this, there might even have been more, but we'll begin at Comfort TV, where David remembers Michael Gray, whom people of our age remember from Shazam!

At A Shroud of Thoughts, Terence looks back at the career of Walter Koenig, whom we all know as the wonderful Ensign Chekov from the original (and best) Star Trek, who died at the ripe old age of 90.

And speaking of Star Trek, undoubtedly we'll be reading more in next week's blogs on the death of Patrick Stewart. Stewart was never one of my favorite actors and I didn't care for his Captain Picard, but that's no reflection on the man, or his obvious talent.

We'd also be remiss if we didn't comment on the death of Elke Sommer, whose wonderful career stretched for decades, and whose beauty remains timeless. I hope we'll be hearing more on her in the future as well.

Television Obscurities reports on the career of Barbara Barrie, who died on Wednesday. Robert also continues his review of the 1966-67 season of TV Guide with this issue from October 29, 1966, featuring Van Williams and Bruce Lee on the cover.

This week's A-Team review by Roger at The View from the Junkyard is the episode "The Duke of Whispering Pines," and this episode focuses squarely on Mr. T, which means plenty of action. TV

If you enjoy the content here and want to support my broader creative work, please consider leaving a tip at my Ko-fi page. Any amount you contribute helps me continue writing, researching, and sharing these articles and projects. Thank you!

What's on TV? Saturday, October 25, 1969

An uneventful day in an uneventful week, and I suppose we should be grateful for small favors like that. Over on NBC, one of the two schools on College Bowl is the University of Minnesota at Morris, located about ten miles from the World's Worst Town™. They lost badly to Bradley, though, so I don't feel too bad about it. On the syndicated music show Upbeat (1:00 p.m., WGR), whoever edited the listings managed to misspell Lesley Gore's name, but considering the number of typos I make, I shouldn't complain too much. And on tonight's Boston Symphony concert, the narrator of Copland's "Lincoln Portrait" is Senator Ted Kennedy. I wonder when this was recorded; Chappaquiddick, after all, was only three months before. What would Honest Abe have thought?

This week in TV Guide: October 25, 1969

This week's cover features William Windom, star of the NBC series My World and Welcome to It. My World is, for the time, a high-concept show combining live action and animation, as Windom plays cartoonist John Monroe, a thinly-disguised version of James Thurber (whose drawings are included in the series). It's a concept that's really ahead of its time, and if you count yourself a fan of Windom and/or Thurber, then you'll probably love it. Not enough did, however, as it ran for only the 1969-1970 season.

I remember watching it at the time and not really getting it, and it would appear this was a concern to others as well. Carolyn See suggests it "sounds a little like a wonderful cake with a few too many ingredients, or maybe an Indian recipe where you're expected to throw in the onion along with the coconut along with the pickled ginger and 23 other items besides." Windom, however, feels that for viewers willing to give it a chance, to "think outside the box" as we might say today, it's worth forgetting any preconceived notions you might have, particularly if you're a Thurber "purist" who might have trouble with his famous cartoons walking and talking. For those who do so, he says, "Then you can make the decision to take it or leave it alone." You might even wind up learning something about Thurber.

Windom's reputation with his colleagues is that of a man who is "charming and disarming" (former co-star Inger Stevens), is "not crazy about himself" (a worker on the My World set), may or may not still be a ladies' man (he's currently on his fourth marriage, and there will be one more before his was done), and "enjoys every role that life deals out to him." On that subject, he is adamant. "[T]he main thing in life is to participate," he says. "I read the other day that the average college graduate spends over two hours a day watching television. That's disgraceful. You shouldn't watch life, you should be out in it."  I wonder what he'd think of today's stare-at-your-screen culture?

William Windom seemed to defy typecasting. He firmly established himself as a good guy with his role as the Senator in The Farmer's Daughter, and yet he was often cast in guest roles as the villain: the smarmy, slightly greasy con man or killer, or the arrogant but weak authority figure. Later, of course, he'd go on to have a long, long run as Seth in Murder, She Wrote. It appears as if people accepted him as a bad guy as long as he was a guest star, but that he was destined to play the wise, humorous, good-natured type in a series. Whatever; I always enjoyed him, regardless of what he played, up until his death in 2012.

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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: Guests are Liza Minnelli, actor David Hemmings, Henry Mancini, composer-guitarist Mason Williams, Laugh-In's Judy Carne, the rocking Santana and the Trio Hoganas, aerialists. (According to the episode guide, comedians George Kirby and Charlie Manna were also guests, as was hand-shadow puppet-master Albert Almonzino.)

Palace: Host Engelbert Humperdinck presents Sid Caesar (with Maureen Arthur and Mickey Deems), Nancy Ames, Gladys Knight and the Pips, comedian Jack E. Leonard and English musical-comedy performer Lonnnie Donegan.

Well, this is an interesting pair of lineups.  As we move ever closer to 1970, we see a very different set of guests from what we're used to.  Sullivan's lineup, for example, features Judy Carne, one of the stars of the hippest show of the time; David Hemmings, who starred in Antonioni's iconic Blow-Up; Mason Williams, who composed "Classical Gas" and hung out with the Smothers Brothers; Liza Minnelli, now on the verge of moving beyond being Judy Garland's daughter and Santana, who apparently is ageless.

Englebert, who would get his own variety series in a few month, was ABC's attempt to clone the success they had with Tom Jones, but it didn't pan out. I don't think Nancy Ames ever evolved beyond the B list of the era's singers, and I've never been much of a fan of Gladys Knight, et al. Of all the guests on both shows, it's only Sid Caesar who really hearkens back to an older time. And I'm afraid this isn't going to be enough to save Palace; this week, Sullivan takes the title.

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From 1963 to 1976, TV Guide's weekly reviews were written by the witty and acerbic Cleveland Amory. Whenever they appear, we'll look at Cleve's latest take on the shows of the era.

This week Cleveland Amory goes back to school, or perhaps it's he who gives us a schooling in what makes for good television. It's ABC's school comedy-drama Room 222, which Cleve quite likes. It's a prime example of the move by sitcoms of the era to become more relevant, dealing with issues, such as race, which previously had not gotten a lot of attention. 

This is apparent in the very first episode, where he relates an uncomfortable conversation between history teacher Pete Dixon (Lloyd Haynes) and student teacher Alice Johnson (Karen Valentine). In her attempt to balance what we'd today call her "white privilege" with her lack of experience being around minorities ("I went to a segregated school," she explains), she tells Dixon, "I think it's so significant that you're colored." (As if he had anything to say in the matter.) Be honest: doesn't it make you wince to read something like that? Then she goes on to ask him, "do you prefer 'colored' or 'Negro' or 'black'?" to which Dixon replies, "I've always preferred Pete." 

Don't worry, though, that this is all the series is about. One of the things Amory really appreciates is how the characters—black as well as white—stay away from stereotypical characterization, showing various shades of grey instead of (pardon the expression) simple black and white portrayals. The writing and acting are both thoughtful, Amory says; "with a little extra work on the writing, a little extra care on the characterizations and, above all, fine acting . . . a half-hour show can give you more for your money than all the old hour-long bang-bangs and beat-beats put together" and in particular he singles out Haynes and Michael Constantine for praise. Based on the first two episodes he's seen, Amory finds Room 222 an engrossing new series, concluding, "more power—black and white— to it."

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This week's issue is from upstate New York, which gives us an interesting look at the sports programs of the week. The World Series is over, with the New York Mets having put the finishing touches on their remarkable championship run almost ten days before this issue came out,* and so for the most part the stage belongs to football.

*Remember when the World Series ended before Halloween?

CBLT, Channel 6, coming from Toronto, has Canadian Football Saturday at 2:00 p.m., with the Toronto Argonauts taking on the Ottawa Rough Riders in Ottawa. South of the border, ABC has a Big 10 showdown (2:45 p.m.) between Iowa and Michigan State—showdown being a relative word in this case, since these two former powerhouses have fallen on hard times; Iowa will finish this season 5-5, while Michigan State winds up 4-6. Saturday night belongs to hockey, as Hockey Night in Canada gives us the St. Louis Blues and the Maple Leafs in Toronto. (8:00 p.m, CBC)

On Sunday it's more conventional action, although CFTO in Toronto has another CFL contest, this one between the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Montreal Alouettes (2:00 p.m., CTV). NBC has the AFL doubleheader this week, with the early game giving us the Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins starting at 1:30, followed at 4:00 by the Oakland Raiders and San Diego Chargers. Meanwhile, on CBS' NFL coverage, most of the stations in the area get the St. Louis football Cardinals and the Cleveland Browns (1:30 p.m.), with CBLT picking up coverage of the San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Colts. (2:00 p.m.)

And while Monday Night Football won't become a TV staple until next year, CBS makes a tentative foray into the prime-time market with a exhibition game pitting the New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys. CBS supposedly turned down the chance for a weekly Monday night game, leading NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle to offer the package to ABC; the rest, as they say, is history. Perhaps as an indication of CBS' apprehension about football's drawing power, the game starts at 9:30, a half-hour later than next year's start time. That way, it's not so disruptive on the schedule—or the ratings.

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It's a big week on television as we approach November.  Let's check out some of the highlights.

On NBC's Saturday Night at the Movies at 7:30 p.m., it's the network broadcast premiere of the Oscar-winning Best Picture of 1963, Tom Jones. (The movie, not the singer.) It's an utterly charming, totally bawdy sex farce, with Finney* never better as the reprobate Tom, accompanied by a zany cast of bizarre characters. Judith Crist, in her stellar review, wrote that "Movies haven't been the same since," and it's hard to argue with that. You might not think you could produce such a farce out of a novel written in 1749, but Crist praises how the movie "captures [author Henry] Fielding's classic in all the glowing coarseness, robust wit, unadorned venality, forthright hypocrisy, social cruelty and elegant crudity." No wonder it's one of my favorite movies.

*Surely it was an injustice that Finney lost the Best Actor Oscar that year to Sidney Poitier, whom I've always liked. But his performance in Lillies of the Field can't hold a candle to Finney's.

Sunday it's the fourth showing of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (7:30 p.m., CBS), the third Peanuts cartoon to make the transition to television. Like A Charlie Brown Christmas but unlike the second cartoon, Charlie Brown's All Stars, it's become an annual tradition; I wonder how much of a role it played in making Halloween the big deal it is today?  One thing I do recall is from grade school, a year or two after this airing, when I was introduced to one of the "Halloween Carols" to which Linus alludes during the cartoon. To the tune of "Jingle Bells", the refrain went, "Pumpkin Bells, Pumpkin Bells/ringing loud and clear,/Oh what fun Great Pumpkin brings/when Halloween is here." Remember when those Peanuts cartoons were shown on network television?

On Monday, we see what ABC hoped would be a revolutionary scheduling concept: the 45-minute program. Not an hour, not a half-hour, just 45 minutes. And there are, of course, two of them, making up a 90-minute block. It all starts at 7:30 p.m. with the rock/pop variety show The Music Scene, and continues at 8:15 p.m. wth The New People, a kind of Lost prototype. ABC obviously hoped their target audience (e.g. young people) would tune in for the music, and just keep it on at 8:15 rather than flipping over to the already-started Laugh-In. They didn't. and by January both shows were off. Surprisingly, in 1976 ABC was to try this strategy again, this time in daytime, with General Hospital and One Life to Live expanding from 30 to 45 minutes. This was more successful, but by 1978 both shows had adopted the more conventional one-hour format.

Tuesday starts off with "The Desert Whales," the latest episode of The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau, narrated by Rod Serling (7:30 p.m., ABC). That's followed by The Red Skelton Show (8:30 p.m, CBS), with special guest star John Wayne, who's celebrating his 40th year in films. Opposite that, ABC's back with one of their made-for-TV movies, The Young Lawyers, which will return next season, with a slightly different cast, as a regular series. Whatever the viewers saw in the movie apparently doesn't translate to the series, which runs for a mere 24 episodes.

Wednesday has one of the hottest musical acts of the day, along with another big network movie premiere. The musical special stars Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, with special guest star Petula Clark. Herb Alpert (the "A" in A&M Records) and his trumpet are big stuff throughout the '60s, starting with "The Lonely Bull" and featuring five #1 hits; he and his band win six Grammys.

The movie premiere, on ABC's Wednesday Night Movie, is Georgy Girl, a bittersweet comedy-drama which earned star Lynn Redgrave an Oscar nomination for Best Actress.* Judith Crist calls it "offbeat and kooky and sentimental." You may not have seen the movie, but I'm willing to bet you might remember the theme song, which also was Oscar-nominated. The Seekers perform it here, in a clip from an American Bandstand episode of a couple years before:

*That year Redgrave went head-to-head against her sister Vanessa, who was nominated for Isadora. Neither Redgrave sister won.

Thursday's variety night if it pleases you. At 8:00 CBS has The Jim Nabors Hour, with Juliet Prowse as guest star. An hour later flip over to ABC, where This Is Tom Jones (the singer, not the movie) boasts Barbara Eden, Wilson Pickett and comics Hendra and Ullett. To round out the evening, turn to The Dean Martin Show (10:00 p.m., NBC), with Tony Bennett, Sid Casesar, Charles Nelson Reilly and Pat Henry.

Friday morning opens with Today (7:00 a.m., NBC), as Judith Crist makes one of her occasional appearances to preview this weekend's new movies. On The Mike Douglas Show, author Irving Wallace promotes his new novel, The Seven Minutes, which is about a book called The Seven Minutes. It's not as strange as it seems, although the story itself is much stranger. At 4:00 p.m. on NBC is a game show I freely admit I'd never heard of, Letters to Laugh-In, hosted by Laugh-In announcer Gary Owens, and featuring two of the show's regulars each week, along with two guest stars. The premise is that viewers send in their favorite jokes, which are then judged by a panel of four. This week, the two Laugh-In stars are Henry Gibson and Teresa Graves, who are joined by Jack Carter and Louis Nye. The show runs for four months. I wonder if it was even shown in the Twin Cities?

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If you've been reading these features for awhile, then you know one of the frequent subjects discussed in TV Guide is the effect on television on children. This week's article, as is often the case, is written by Edith Efron, and asks the question: what can children learn from television?

The process by which children develop their viewing habits is a fascinating one. At age two, the toddler, driven by an overwhelming curiosity, is captivated by "the light and bright and motion." By three, they understand what they're watching and have "distinct preferences." But by the time they reach elementary school, they're being bombarded by so many information and sensory experiences that "no one can untangle, with any precision," what the child picks up from TV as opposed to other sources.

In fact, the data on television's effect on children is often contradictory, as befits a discussion that has only been around for perhaps twenty years. While some experts suggest that "the brightest children are early starters" who would have watched TV from an early age, other studies claim that bright children who watch TV tend to fall behind children who don't. One thing that many experts on both sides agree on, however, is that by age 10 children start to get bored by television, and their viewing tends to decrease. Why? Because by that time children crave mental stimulation, and they don't find it on TV, which for them is a passive experience.

I can understand this. Though I'm often a harsh critic of the quality of TV, particularly in today's programming, I've always defended television in general, particularly the idea that someone who watches a great deal of it tends to be less creative , less communicative, not as smart. For example, I learned much of history not from my time in the high school of The World's Worst Town™, but by watching Alistair Cooke's America. My love of classical music started with Bugs Bunny cartoons, and my fondness for reading was cultivated by Captain Kangaroo. My desire to write, particularly fiction, came from watching movies and critiquing their storytelling as much as by reading, which I often did while watching television. (A habit I maintain to this day, to my wife's exasperation.)

I don't argue that everyone is like me; there are a lot of TV kids who became couch potatoes, and kids who never watched it who are far better at almost everything than I am. But I'll leave it to you, readers, to decide whether or not television is Savior, or Satan.

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Finally, a word about Joe Foss, host of Saturday afternoon's outdoors show The Outdoorsman (4:30 p.m., syndicated). Well, it takes more than a few words, actually, to do him justice. At this point in his life, he's just a TV host, but his accomplishments includes World War II hero (the leading ace in the Marine Corps), Congressional Medal of Honor winner, general in the Air Defense Command, governor of South Dakota, first commissioner of the American Football League, two-term president of the NRA, Director of the United States Air Force Academy, original host of The American Sportsman, and philanthropist. And what have you done today? TV

If you enjoy the content here and want to support my broader creative work, please consider leaving a tip at my Ko-fi page. Any amount you contribute helps me continue writing, researching, and sharing these articles and projects. Thank you!

Around the dial

At Comfort TV, David presupposes Hall0ween with one of the many vintage made-for-TV horror movies of the 1980s, Don't Go to Sleep, with Dennis Weaver , Valerie Harper, and Ruth Gordon. A classic telemovie cast!

Keeping with the telemovie theme, Gill takes on The Curse of King Tut's Tomb at RealWeegieMidget, in honor of one of its stars, Eva Marie Saint. And in passing, Gill mentions some of the great credits of this remarkable actress.

Cult TV Blog has moved to another "theme" series of posts, this one on the British sci-fi alien creatures the Autons, who made their television debut in the 1966 Doctor Who episode "Invasion." Think Invasion of the Body Snatchers, British style. 

Let's stay with British TV at Cult TV Lounge, where dfordoom looks at the first season of The Power Game, the mid-1960s series about intrigue and cynacism in the world of British industry, considered one of the very best series of the decade. 

Tom Skerritt, who was on just about everything in television and in the movies, died Wednesday at the age of 93, and at A Shroud of Thoughts, Terence has a retrospective of his many, many credits. Terence also honors Michael Forest, best remembered as Apollo in Star Trek, but with a host of other appearances on his CV, who died earlier this month. He was 97.

B.A. gets shot in this week's A-Team episode, "Waiting for Insane Wayne," the subject Roger's review at The View from the Junkyard. Not unlike Hogan's Heroes, it suggests that when the bad guys are the authorities, you have to play them as idiots. 

The 1966-67 TV Guide season continues at Television Obscurities with the issue of October 22, 1966, and among its features is the week's editorial, in which the editors note that politics has become so expensive that "It takes a very rich man, or one with very rich friends, these days, to attain high political office." The more things change, eh? TV

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