Yes, it's time for another edition of everyone's favorite - What's On TV? This week we're taking a look at the listings for Friday, December 10, 1965. You can read all about that issue of TV Guide here; now, be prepared for an in-depth look at the day. We'll get right to it, after the break.
KTCA, Channel 2 (Educ.)
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Morning
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09:15a
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Classroom
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(off air from
11:40a to 12:55p)
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Afternoon
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12:55p
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Classroom
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02:10p
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Film Short
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02:25p
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Classroom
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(off air from
2:55p to 5:00p)
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05:00p
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Kindergarten
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05:30p
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Inquiry
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Evening
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06:00p
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French
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06:50p
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Anthropology
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07:40p
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Modern Literature
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08:30p
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Macalester College
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09:00p
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Moliere
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10:00p
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Biology
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We're lucky to have gotten this much from the local public broadcasting channel; next week they're off the air for the Christmas holiday. (This TV Guide is so old, even the public broadcasting station refers to it as Christmas.)
WCCO, Channel 4 (CBS)
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Morning
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06:00a
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Sunrise Semester
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06:30a
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Siegfried and His Flying Saucer
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07:00a
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Axel and Deputy Dawg
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07:30a
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Clancy and Company
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08:00a
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Captain Kangaroo
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09:00a
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Dr. Reuben K.
Youngdahl
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09:05a
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News (local)
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09:10a
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Mike Douglas (co-host Milton Berle, guests Paul
Anka, Al Kelly, George Kirby)
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10:00a
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Andy Griffith
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10:30a
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Dick Van Dyke
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11:00a
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Love of Life
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11:25a
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CBS News
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11:30a
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Search for Tomorrow
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11:45a
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The Guiding Light
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Afternoon
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12:00p
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News (local)
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12:15p
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Something Special
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12:25p
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Weather
(local)
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12:30p
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As the World Turns
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01:00p
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Password (contestants Virginia Graham, Chester
Morris)
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01:30p
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House Party (guest Johnny Crawford)
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02:00p
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To Tell the Truth
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02:25p
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CBS News
(Douglas Edwards)
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02:30p
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The Edge of Night
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03:00p
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The Secret Storm
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03:30p
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I Love Lucy
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04:00p
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Movie – “The
Bandit of Zhobe” (1959)
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05:30p
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CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite
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Evening
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06:00p
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News (local)
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06:15p
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Sports (local)
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06:20p
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Direction
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06:25p
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Weather
(local)
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06:30p
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The Wild, Wild West
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07:30p
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Hogan’s Heroes (color)
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08:00p
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Gomer Pyle, USMC (color)
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08:30p
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Smothers Brothers
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09:00p
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The Trials of O’Brien
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10:00p
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News (local)
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10:15p
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Weather (local)
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10:20p
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Sports (local)
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10:30p
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Movie – “A
Hatful of Rain” (1957)
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12:00a
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Sports (local)
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12:10a
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Movie – “Dead
Men Tell” (1941)
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Virginia Graham, one of the celebrity contestants on Password, is the host of Girl Talk, the syndicated program shown at 3pm on Channel 11. Johnny Crawford, Art Linkletter's guest on House Party is, of course, Mark McCain from The Rifleman. You can see him often on MeTV commercials. The Trials of O'Brien, on at 9pm, would seem at first glance to be a poor vehicle for its star, Peter Falk, Perhaps we're just too used to seeing him on Columbo to believe in him as a courtroom attorney. But not to fear too much - O'Brien has his share of quirks and messes in his personal life as well. In fact, Falk said he preferred this role to that of Columbo. Have a look for yourself.
KSTP, Channel 5 (NBC)
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Morning
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06:00a
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Continental Classroom
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06:30a
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City and Country (color)
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07:00a
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Today (examining the student protest movement) (color)
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09:00a
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Fractured Phrases (color)
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09:00a
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NBC News
(Edwin Newman)
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09:30a
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Concentration
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10:00a
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Morning Star (color)
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10:30a
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Paradise Bay (color)
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11:00a
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Jeopardy (color)
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11:30a
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Post Office (color)
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11:55a
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NBC News (Frank
McGee)
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Afternoon
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12:00p
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News (local)
(color)
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12:10p
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Weather
(local) (color)
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12:15p
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Dialing for Dollars (color)
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12:30p
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Let’s Make a Deal (color)
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12:55p
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NBC News
(Floyd Kalber)
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01:00p
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Days of Our Lives (color)
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01:30p
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The Doctors
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02:00p
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Another World
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02:30p
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You Don’t Say! (contestants Hal March, Mary Ann
Mobley)
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03:00p
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The Match Game
(contestants Ray Bolger, Betty White)
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03:25p
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NBC News
(Nancy Dickerson)
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03:30p
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Dialing for Dollars (color)
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04:30p
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Lloyd Thaxton (guest Tommy Sands) (color)
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05:25p
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Doctor’s House Call (color)
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05:30p
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Huntley-Brinkley Report (color)
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Evening
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06:00p
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News (local)
(color)
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06:15p
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Weather
(local) (color)
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06:25p
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Sports (local)
(color)
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06:30p
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Camp Runamuck (color)
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07:00p
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Hank (color)
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07:30p
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Convoy
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08:30p
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Mr. Roberts (color)
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09:00p
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The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (color)
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10:00p
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News (local)
(color)
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10:15p
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Weather
(local) (color)
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10:20p
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Sports (local)
(color)
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10:30p
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Johnny Carson (color)
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12:15a
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Movie –
“Invasion of the Saucer Men” (1957)
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Looking at the listings for both WCCO and KSTP, I'm struck by the notion that they both have early-morning educational programs - Continental Classroom here, and the better-known Sunrise Semester on Channel 4. Imagine that today.
You can really see how NBC has embraced colorcasts - the only prime-time program in B&W is Convoy, which was made that way due to its location shooting, I believe.
KMSP, Channel 9 (Ind.)
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Morning
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07:30a
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My Little Margie
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08:00a
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Riley ‘Round the Town
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08:30a
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Grandpa Ken
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09:00a
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Romper Room (Miss Betty)
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10:00a
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The Young Set
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11:00a
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The Eleventh Hour
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Afternoon
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12:00p
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Ben Casey
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01:00p
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The Nurses
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01:30p
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A Time For Us
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01:55p
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ABC News (Marlene
Sanders)
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02:00p
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General Hospital
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02:30p
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Young Marrieds
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03:00p
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Never Too Young
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03:30p
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Where the Action Is (guests The Animals, Dusty Springfield)
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04:00p
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Soupy Sales
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04:30p
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Dennis the Menace
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05:00p
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Peter Jennings with the News
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05:15p
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News (local)
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05:25p
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Weather
(local)
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05:30p
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Leave it to Beaver
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Evening
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06:00p
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Woody Woodpecker (color)
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06:30p
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The Flintstones (color)
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07:00p
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Tammy (color)
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07:30p
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The Addams Family
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08:00p
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Honey West
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08:30p
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The Farmer’s Daughter (color)
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09:00p
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Jimmy Dean (guests Cliff Arquette, Jerry Vale,
Joanie Sommers, Leroy Van Dyke)
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10:00p
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News (local)
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10:15p
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Weather
(local)
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10:20p
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Sports (local)
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10:30p
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Movie – “The
Bad and the Beautiful” (1952)
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We're used to seeing hour-long dramas from ABC in the daytime schedule - with the exception of General Hospital, ABC wasn't exactly known for that part of their programming. Until Chuck Barris came along, that is. But to see two of them is, I think, interesting. And the choices - The Eleventh Hour was actually an NBC program, which competed with ABC's own psychiatrist drama, Breaking Point - which itself was spun off from Ben Casey, the noontime offering. I wonder if Eleventh Hour was just a syndicated pickup for Channel 9?
Don Riley, the host of 8:00am's Riley 'Round the Town, was a sports columnist for the St. Paul Pioneer Press and hosted a call-in sports show on the radio. He was known for having a big mouth and liked provocative stories, but I met him at a carnival when I was young, and he was very nice to me. Far as I'm concerned, that's all that's important.
WTCN, Channel 11 (NBC)
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Morning
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09:15a
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News (local)
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09:30a
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Movie –
“College Scandal” (1935)
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10:55a
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News (local)
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11:00a
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Donna Reed
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11:30a
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Father Knows Best
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Afternoon
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12:00p
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Lunch with Casey
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12:45p
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The King and Odie
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01:00p
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Movie –
“Rhythm on the Moon” (1940)
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02:45p
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Mel’s Notebook
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03:00p
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Girl Talk (guests Dody Goodman, Wendy
Vanderbilt, Rachel Goodman)
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03:30p
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Amos ‘n’ Andy
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04:00p
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Popeye and Pete
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04:30p
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Casey and Roundhouse
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04:45p
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Magilla Gorilla (color)
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05:00p
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Rocky and Friends (color)
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05:30p
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Bachelor Father
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Evening
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06:00p
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The Rifleman
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06:30p
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Bold Journey
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07:00p
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Wild Cargo (color)
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07:30p
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Movie –
“Sahara” (1943)
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09:30p
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News (local)
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09:45p
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Weather
(local)
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09:50p
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Sports (local)
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10:00p
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Movie –
“Destination Moon” (1950) (color)
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12:00a
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Sleepy Time (time approximate)
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Ah yes, the aforementioned Rifleman, with Johnny Crawford. See how interconnected these listings are? It's strange looking at Channel 11 with a normal schedule; I mean that for many years it was the go-to station for sports: Twins, North Stars, Vikings highlights, high school championships, syndicated boxing, etc. I'm always a little taken aback when I see just a normal programming day. Lots of movies, hmm?
***
A few points here and there:
ReplyDelete- The 11:00 am ABC network offering was repeats of Donna Reed and Father Knows Best - which I note were picked up by Ch 11, the indie station at that time.
Thus, Eleventh Hour was a syndicated pickup by ch 9.
- I noticed that that ch 4, the CBS station, didn't carry The CBS Morning News, which Mike Wallace was anchoring at the time.
Wallace was using the news show as a career comeback of sorts; His previous network gig was an interview show on ABC that got the network sued by several people that guest had spoken ill of. Wallace spent several years doing syndicated shows (Biography, mainly) and commercials (Parliament cigarettes and Fluffo shortening, among others) before CBS took a chance and gave him the Morning News.
- You'd have to be at least my age to remember that when Peter Falk was starting out, his typecast was totally different than what it eventually became.
Falk was the Joe Pesci of the early '60s - fast-talking tough guys, sometimes funny, often nasty.
That opening title of Trials Of O'Brien - the quick-cut montage of Falk's hands in furious gesticulation - was his trademark at that point.
- On local TV:
I briefly mentioned ch 26, then the only commercial UHF station in town.
They mostly had old syndicated TV and ancient B-movies, plus some local talking heads in Spanish or Polish.
But ch 26 began their broadcast day - at 3:30 pm - with a local kid show, Two-Ton And Pals.
That was Dick "Two-Ton" Baker the Music Maker, a popular club entertainer in Chicago for years, and one of the first kid-show stars in town
His original show in the '50s was The Happy Pirates, wherein he dressed as (surprise!) a pirate and pounded away on a tack piano, singing old novelty songs (his hits were "I'm A Lonely Little Petunia In An Onion Patch" and "The Music Goes 'Round And 'Round"), and joking with a changing cast of regulars.
That sort of show went out of style circa 1960, and Two-Ton went back to the clubs; this UHF show was an attempt at a TV comeback. Little came of it, and Two-Ton went back to the clubs for the rest of his days.
-In the early mornings, ch 7, the ABC station, was running Dr. Posin's Universe, which had previously run on ch 11, the educational station (PBS didn't come along until 1970).
Dr. Dan Q. Posin was a professor of astronomy at DePaul University in Chicago, and got into TV as soon as ch 11 started up.
Dr. Dan was a natural on TV: he was short, slightly built, with a ruglike mustache and a manner I can best describe as distracted, and humor of the dry variety - sort of a Victor Borge of science. He rarely appeared on camera without his cat, Minerva, and his set was designed to resemble a "planet", with charts and maps on the wall and books and papers piled up all around him.
A few years before this, Dr. Posin joined ch 9, the independent station, and became Dr. Dan the Weatherman. His set there was laid out like a garden, with the weather maps mounted on trees, and in the foreground was a birdbath, with a ceramic statue of Dr. Dan in "winged victory" pose, holding an umbrella aloft.
His distracted manner remained: when he spoke of weather around the country and the world, it came out like this:
" In New York, it was 65 degrees, and in Los Angeles it was 80, and in Paris it was 75, and on Mars it was 235."
Ultimately, Dr. Posin retired from DePaul and left Chicago. I only found out recently that he lived well into this century, passing away in his nineties circa 2005.
And between that and Mary Ann Mobley, I feel so old now ...
... later.
I hit the character-count wall last time (who the hell can count to 4096, anyway?).
DeleteThere was one other thing I wanted to mention:
The 12:10 am movie on ch 4: "Dead Men Tell" was the next-to-last Charlie Chan film that Fox made before canceling the series in '42.
Besides Sidney Toler and Victor Sen Yung, the cast wasn't quite as impressive as "Treasure Island", but ...
Here's an annotated list:
Sheila Ryan (Mrs. Pat Buttram)
Robert Weldon (?)
Don Douglas (??)
Kay Aldridge (Republic serial queen)
Paul McGrath (2nd voice of the Creaking Door on INNER SANCTUM)
George Reeves (here he's a mustachioed bad guy)
Truman Bradley (later of SCIENCE FICTION THEATRE; here he's a scruffy sea captain)
Milton Parsons (spooky guy; you'd know the face)
Lenita Lane (she's with Milton)
and Ethel Griffies (see below).
Ethel Griffies was a British actress under contract to Fox who specialized in wild old hags; she played a similar part in the last Fox Chan, Castle In The Desert.
Her best known movie role was in the diner scene in THE BIRDS, as the old biddy who knew everything about birds, smoking cigarettes all the while.
Years later, Griffies was semi-retired in NYC, where she appeared in off-Broadway plays and sometimes guested on Merv Griffin's talk show.
One time, Miss Griffies came on at the end of the show and greeted the other guests, then went to the end of the couch to greet her old friend Arthur Treacher, thus:
Griffies: "What do you do here, anyway?"
Treacher (glumly): "Damned if I know, ducks ..."
Great Moments In Television!
More later, maybe ...
Mary Ann Mobley (RIP) was also on "You Don't Say!" the day I was born, 5 months earlier, that time with Rick Jason of "Combat". I wonder what kind of puns the YDS writers invented for her, making 10 different joke clues out of her name. At least she had 3 different names to use! :)
DeleteMilton Parsons appeared in at least 3 different classic sitcoms in each decade of the 50s, 60s, & 70s. He appeared in "I Love Lucy"'s "Ricky Thinks He's Going Bald" as 1 of many bald men that Lucy hired, in "Dick Van Dyke Show" as the spooky caretaker of the cabin, and in "The Brady Bunch" as Peter's science teacher in "Power of the Press". He also made many dramatic appearances over the years. He died in 1980.
I neglected to mention the "Dick Van Dyke" episode where Milton Parsons appeared. It was "Ghost of A. Chantz".
DeleteAbout "Convoy", I've read that it aired in B&W because of all the WWII stock footage that it used. It would've been very expensive to stage & refilm that footage in color. It was replaced in January by "The Sammy Davis, Jr. Show", which was in color. I think that Mitchell has written about this show elsewhere and its various problems, including that Sammy had to miss 3 early episodes of his own show, but he was replaced on 1 of them by none other than Johnny Carson.
Delete