This week we've advanced a bit in the late '50s - we're up to 1959, and although we may not see it here, I think we're entering an era where television starts to get a little more sophisticated, the technical aspects a tad more sophisticated. Not when we compare it to the '70s, of course, or even the late '60s, but progress is being made nonetheless. Let's see what kind of shows stand out.
KRLD, Channel 4 (Dallas) (CBS)
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Morning
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07:30a
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Cartoons
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08:00a
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CBS Morning News with Richard C. Hottelet
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08:15a
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Captain Kangaroo
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08:45a
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News (local)
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09:00a
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On the Go
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09:30a
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Sam Levenson (guest Mrs. Andy Griffith)
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10:00a
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I Love Lucy
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10:30a
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Top Dollar
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11:00a
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Love of Life
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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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Fashions in Faces
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12:30p
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As the World Turns
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01:00p
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Jimmy Dean
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01:30p
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House Party
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02:00p
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The Big Payoff
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02:30p
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The Verdict is Yours
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03:00p
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The Brighter Day
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03:15p
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The Secret Storm
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03:30p
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The Edge of Night
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04:00p
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Movie –
“Destiny”
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05:15p
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Party Time
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Evening
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06:00p
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News, Weather
(local)
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06:15p
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Douglas Edwards with the News
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06:30p
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Twilight Theater
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07:00p
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Keep Talking
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07:30p
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Trackdown
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08:00p
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The Millionaire
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08:30p
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I’ve Got a Secret
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09:00p
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Armstrong Circle Theater
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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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People and Places
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10:30p
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Movie – “This Is
the Life”
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I referred to Sam Levenson a couple of weeks ago, I believe. His guest is Barbara Griffith, the first of the three Mrs. Andy Griffiths. I always blanch a bit when I see a woman referred to as "Mrs. So-and-So"; I don't think you have to be a raving feminist to recognize that women have an existence and an identity separate from their husbands. Even if their primary (only?) claim to fame is through their spouse, they deserve to be recognized for who they are, not just what they are.
WBAP, Channel 5 (Fort Worth) (NBC)
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Morning
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07:00a
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Today (guests former heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey, singer
Arlyne Frank)
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09:00a
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Dough Re Mi
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09:30a
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Treasure Hunt
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10:00a
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The Price is Right
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10:30a
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Concentration
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11:00a
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Tic Tac Dough
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11:30a
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It Could Be You
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Afternoon
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12:00p
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News (local)
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12:30p
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The People’s Choice
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01:00p
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Queen for a Day
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01:30p
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Court of Human Relations
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02:00p
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Young Dr. Malone
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02:30p
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From These Roots
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03:00p
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Truth or Consequences (color)
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03:30p
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County Fair
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04:00p
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Movie – “She’s
Got Everything”
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05:30p
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Teen-Age Downbeat (color)
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Evening
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06:00p
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News, Weather
(color)
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06:15p
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The Huntley-Brinkley Report
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06:30p
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Wagon Train
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07:30p
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The Price is Right (color)
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08:00p
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Dave King (color)
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08:30p
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Bat Masterson
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09:00p
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This Is Your Life
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09:30p
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Deadline
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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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10:25p
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News (Charles
Vaughn)
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10:30p
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Sports (Bud
Sherman)
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10:35p
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Jack Paar Tonight (guests Danny Scholl, Carmel Quinn)
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12:00a
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News (Charles
Murphy)
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Nice to see Jack Dempsey guesting on the Today show. It's been 33 years since Dempsey was world heavyweight champion, and at this point his celebrity probably rests on his New York City restaurant, which opened in 1935 and didn't close its doors until 1974. nine years before his death. I don't see anything else in his biography to suggest why he might have been on TV at this particular time.
KCEN, Channel 6 (Temple) (NBC)
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Morning
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07:00a
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Today (guests former heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey, singer
Arlyne Frank)
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09:00a
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Dough Re Mi
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09:30a
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Treasure Hunt
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10:00a
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The Price is Right
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10:30a
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Concentration
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11:00a
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Tic Tac Dough
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11:30a
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It Could Be You
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Afternoon
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12:00p
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Weather (Eddie
Schuster)
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12:05p
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Farm Report
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12:25p
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News (Eddie
Schuster)
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12:30p
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TV Reader’s Digest
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01:00p
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Queen for a Day
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01:30p
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Court of Human Relations
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02:00p
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Young Dr. Malone
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02:30p
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From These Roots
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03:00p
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Truth or Consequences (color)
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03:30p
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County Fair
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04:00p
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Our Miss Brooks
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04:30p
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Happy Hour
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05:00p
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Popeye
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05:30p
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Roy Rogers
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Evening
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06:00p
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News (local)
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06:10p
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Sports (Eddie
Schuster)
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06:15p
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The Huntley-Brinkley Report
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06:30p
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Wagon Train
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07:30p
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The Price is Right (color)
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08:00p
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Death Valley Days
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08:30p
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The Gray Ghost
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09:00p
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This Is Your Life
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09:30p
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U.S. Border Patrol
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10:00p
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Weather, News,
Sports
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10:30p
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Jack Paar Tonight (guests Danny Scholl, Carmel Quinn)
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Does anyone remember Bert Parks? For many years he was the host of the Miss America pageant. "There she goes, Miss America" - it all comes back now, doesn't it? What fewer people remember was his role as host of the afternoon game show County Fair, succinctly described as a "daytime game show filled with music and variety." You just don't have shows like that anymore, do you?
WFAA, Channel 8 (Dallas) (ABC)
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Morning
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07:30a
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Sherwood Forest (aka Robin
Hood)
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08:00a
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Topper
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08:30a
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Romper Room
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09:30a
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The Life of Riley
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10:00a
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Burns and Allen
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10:30a
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Julie Benell
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11:00a
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TV Hour of Stars
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Afternoon
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12:00p
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Across the Board
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12:30p
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Pantomime Clubhouse
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01:00p
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Music Bingo
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01:30p
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Our Miss Brooks
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02:00p
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Day in Court
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02:30p
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Gale Storm
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03:00p
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Beat the Clock
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03:30p
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Who Do You Trust?
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04:00p
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American Bandstand (guest Bobby Dell)
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05:30p
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The Mickey Mouse Club
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Evening
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06:00p
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News (local)
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06:20p
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Sports (Wes
Wise)
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06:30p
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Music for a Summer Night (guests Jacqueling McKeever, Elaine
Malbin, Theodor Uppmann, Jack Russell, Alice Ghostley, Earl Wild, Buddy Weed)
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07:30p
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The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet
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08:00p
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The Wednesday Night Fights (Bobby Scanlon vs. Mario Vecchiato)
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08:45p
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Locker Room
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09:00p
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Donna Reed
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09:30p
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Colonel Flack
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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 (Wes
Wise)
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10:30p
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Movie – “Island
Retreat”
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Wes Wise, who gave the sports on WFAA, was a mainstay of Dallas television for decades. His primary fame came at KRLD, where in addition to being sports director he played a pivotal role in the station's coverage of the Kennedy assassination. So well known was he for being on TV, he was elected to the Dallas City Council in 1967, and became mayor in 1971.
KWTX, Channel 10 (Waco) (CBS, ABC)
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Morning
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08:00a
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CBS Morning News with Richard C. Hottelet
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08:15a
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Captain Kangaroo
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09:00a
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On the Go
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09:30a
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Sam Levenson (guest Mrs. Andy Griffith)
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10:00a
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I Love Lucy
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10:30a
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Top Dollar
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11:00a
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Better Living
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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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CBS News (Walter Cronkite)
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12:05p
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News (Joe
Saragusa)
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12:15p
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Farm Report (Johnny Watkins)
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01:00p
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Jimmy Dean
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01:30p
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House Party
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02:00p
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The Big Payoff
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02:30p
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The Verdict is Yours
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03:00p
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The Brighter Day
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03:15p
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The Secret Storm
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03:30p
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The Edge of Night
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04:00p
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American Bandstand (guest Bobby Dell)
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05:30p
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The Mickey Mouse Club
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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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Douglas Edwards with the News
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06:30p
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Disneyland
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07:30p
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Zorro
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08:00p
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The Millionaire
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08:30p
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I’ve Got a Secret
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09:00p
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U.S. Marshall
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09:30p
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Bold Venture
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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 (Ben
Vaughn)
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10:30p
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TV Theater
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According to this issue, Friday is the last day for Jimmy Dean's afternoon variety show, which aired on CBS. I think we may have seen it before, but it's worth reliving: the show in which Jimmy broke the news to his viewers, and had a few choice words to say in the bargain.
KFJZ, Channel 11 (Fort Worth) (Ind.)
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Morning
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09:00a
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The Little Rascals
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09:45a
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Movie Double
Feature – “Straight, Place and Show”, “Havana Widows”
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11:55a
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Take Five
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Afternoon
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12:00p
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Cartoon Clubhouse
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12:45p
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Movie Double
Feature – “A Long Way from Texas”, “As the Earth Turns”
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02:40p
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Take Five
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02:45p
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Ann Alden
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03:00p
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I Married Joan
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03:30p
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Roy Rogers
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04:00p
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Abbott and Costello
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04:30p
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Early Show
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05:30p
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Popeye
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Evening
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06:00p
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Wild Bill Hickok
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06:30p
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The Three Stooges
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06:50p
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Bugs Bunny
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07:00p
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Casey Jones
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07:30p
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Baseball Warmup
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07:45p
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Baseball
(Indianapolis Indians vs. Fort Worth Cats)
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10:00p
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Movie Double
Feature – “Law of the Tropics”, “Nine Girls
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I like the second half of the afternoon double feature - As the Earth Turns. I can envision a couple of television executives sitting around a room bouncing some ideas off each other. "That would be a great title for a daytime show, wouldn't it? As the Earth Turns. Catchy, but philosophical as well. Ties in to the circle of life and all, you know."
"Yeah, but we can't get the rights to the title. Besides, the movie didn't have anything to do with that."
"Wait a minute, I just had an idea. What if we just changed the title a little bit..." TV
"Yeah, but we can't get the rights to the title. Besides, the movie didn't have anything to do with that."
"Wait a minute, I just had an idea. What if we just changed the title a little bit..." TV
On the subject of "Mrs. Andy Griffith"---there was a time (pre-medical privacy days) when hospital admissions and dismissals were listed in the papers. My brothers and I were all born in the 60s, and when my mother was admitted to the hospital to have each of us, she was listed only as "Mrs. Burleigh Bartlett," without a first name of her own. Even accounting for the fashion of the time, this seems particularly odd.
ReplyDeleteOdds & Ends (even odder than usual):
ReplyDelete- One of Jack Paar's guests Tonight! is Pat Harrington Jr.; if I read the listing right, this is from when he was still maintaining the character of "Italian golf pro Guido Panzini", which is how he broke into on-camera performing.
"Panzini" scored a major success, to the point where the Department of Immigration actually started an investigation to determine just when he'd entered the US; once they found out that he was a Manhattan-born Irishman, they withdrew, somewhat embarrassedly ...
- I note that the Wednesday Night Fight is on in Dallas at 8pm, Standard Time.
This fight originated in Chicago, where it aired at 9pm, Daylight Time.
By '59, the Dallas stations had mastered the tape delay necessary to conform with the Central Time Zone, but the fight was a live broadcast, and had to be carried as such (an hour's delay would obviously have an influence on betting on the bout).
WFAA delayed Donna Reed from its normal 8pm timeslot and bypassed the 8:30 entry, Accused (the prime time version of Day In Court).
- Noting that Andy Griffith didn't begin his show until the fall of 1960 (at this point he was just coming off his big Broadway success in No Time For Sergeants) ...
... I wonder if you've had a chance to look at the recently published Andy And Don, written by Don Knotts's brother-in-law.
It's a pretty unsparing look at the two men, whose close friendship dated back to Sergeants.
One revelation in the book: Andy Griffith and Aneta Corsaut became even closer off-camera than Sheriff Andy and Helen the teacher were on-camera (and Griffith was still married at the time).
Think about that the next time you watch a Griffith rerun ...
More later (maybe) ...
Quick addition to the above:
ReplyDelete- Kraft Music Hall Presents The Dave King Show:
That's the full title.
Kraft was marking time until Perry Como took on the Wednesday night time in the fall.
Dave King was a popular singer-comedian in Britain, with several hit records over there to his credit.
Like many Brit entertainers, King wanted to be a star in the States, so when Kraft offered him a summer show in New York, he leaped at the chance.
I recall this show as being fairly good: King had a better-than-average handle on American accents, which helped with the comedy.
As a singer, King held his own; one week, he was joined by lyricist Johnny Mercer for a medley of the latter's many hits.
After the summer run, Dave King stayed on for a while to do a couple of guest shots with Perry Como, but for whatever reason, it didn't take, and he returned to Britain, where he ultimately emerged as a respected character actor.
- While scrolling around, I finally noticed Pantomime Clubhouse on ch8.
This was in fact Mike Stokey's Pantomime Quiz, on the ABC network during the course of its endless march through the TV schedules.
Its best-known incarnation, as Stump The Stars, was still several seasons away.
- Two features in the slick section:
There's a two-page spread of the Three Stooges at the outset of their late-career comeback.
Moe, Larry, and their new partner Curly Joe are at a night club in Philadelphia, playing an early show for a mostly kid audience.
The Stooges shorts had only started showing on TV the previous fall.
After this, nobody doubted the power of TV again.
- Also, take a look at the one-page feature about character actor Lawrence Dobkin.
The pictures show Dobkin in various makeups and costumes for his many on-camera appearances, but curiously doesn't even mention his voice-over work, which over the years made him just as much money.
Dobkin's best-known voice gig began that season.
You'll definitely place his voice, speaking the immortal words:
There are eight million stories in The Naked City.
This has been one of them.
Two notes:
ReplyDelete(1) Didn't Kraft sponsor Milton Berle's short-lived comeback show in the 1958-59 season that had Dave King as a summer replacement?
(2) Can I assume that KRLD's "Party Time" and WBAP's "Teenage Downbeat" were both local clones of "American Bandstand"?
(1) Kraft owned that hour on NBC on Wednesday nights for decades, going back to radio days, when Bing Crosby hosted the Music Hall.
DeleteWhen NBC wanted to give up on the live Kraft Television Theater in '58, it was they who urged Milton Berle on Kraft as a quick filler; Berle's infamous 30-year contract still had 20 or so years left, and this was one of the bones that NBC threw him.
It all became academic the following year when Kraft won a bidding war for Perry Como - but that's another story ...