December 4, 2017

What's on TV? Friday, December 8, 1961

It's the first week of December; I think I've mentioned this before, but although there were many more seasonal programs on television in the late '50s and '60s, they tended to air later in the month than they do now. Cartoons were always something of an exception, since their basic purpose has always been to sell toys. But Rudolph and Charlie Brown and the Grinch are all still a little ways away, and since the variety shows usually air their Christmas episodes right before December 25, things are pretty much as normal this week. The listings are from the Twin Cities, and although there's nothing too spectacular, I think you'll enjoy some of the familiar names and programs.


 2   KTCA (EDUC.)
x

MORNING


    9:55
SCIENCE – Grade 1

  10:20
GERMAN – Grade 5

  10:35
MUSIC – Grade 4

  11:00
YA HABLAMOS ESPANOL

  11:15
BRITISH CALENDAR

  11:30
ECONOMICS
Ch 2 leaves the air until 1:30 P.M.

AFTERNOON


    1:30
YA HABLAMOS ESPANOL

    1:45
KOMM, LACH UND LERNE

    2:00
EXPLORING SCIENCE – Grade 4

    2:30
BEGINNING GERMAN

    3:00
EFFICIENT READING – Brown
Ch 2 leaves the air until 6 P.M.

EVENING


    6:00
WORDS ON RELIGION – Education

    6:30
EFFICIENT READING – Brown

    7:00
ECONOMIC FORECAST – Lunde S

    7:30
SCORED FOR THREE – Music

    8:00
MUSIC OF GREGORIAN CHANT

    8:30
GOALS FOR AMERICANS

    9:00
INTRODUCTION TO THEATER

  10:00
AMERICANS AT WORK

  10:15
INDUSTRY ON PARADE

  10:30
BACKGROUND – Dr. Ziebarth

  10:40
SPEAK UP – Education


 4   WCCO (CBS)
x

MORNING


    6:30
COLLEGE OF THE AIR
“New Biology”

    7:00
ON THE SCENE – Farm News

    7:05
FLYING SAUCER – Siegfried

    8:00
CAPTAIN KANGAROO – Children

    9:00
NEWS – Dean Montgomery

    9:10
DR. REUBEN K. YOUNGDHAL

    9:20
WHAT’S NEW? – Arle Haeberle

    9:30
I LOVE LUCY – Comedy

  10:00
VIDEO VILLAGE – Monty Hall

  10:30
YOUR SURPRISE PACKAGE

  10:55
NEWS – Harry Reasoner

  11:00
LOVE OF LIFE – Serial

  11:30
SEARCH FOR TOMORROW – Serial

  11:45
GUIDING LIGHT – Serial

AFTERNOON


  12:00
NEWS – Dave Moore

  12:15
SOMETHING SPECIAL – Merriman

  12:25
WEATHER – Bud Kraehling

  12:30
AS THE WORLD TURNS – Serial

    1:00
PASSWORD – Allen Ludden
Contestants: Betsy Palmer, Zachary Scott

    1:30
HOUSE PARTY – Art Linkletter
Guest Host: Ralph Story
Guest: Norman Rockwell

    2:00
MILLIONAIRE – Drama

    2:30
VERDICT IS YOURS – Drama

    2:55
NEWS – Charles Collingwood

    3:00
BRIGHTER DAY – Serial

    3:15
SECRET STORM – Serial

    3:30
EDGE OF NIGHT – Serial

    4:00
AROUND THE TOWN – Haeberle

    4:30
BOZO THE CLOWN – Children

    5:00
AXEL AND DOG – Clellen Card

    5:30
CLANCY THE COP – Children

    5:55
MR. MAGOO – Cartoon

EVENING


    6:00
NEWS – Dean Montgomery

    6:10
WEATHER – Don O’Brien

    6:15
NEWS – Douglas Edwards

    6:30
RAWHIDE – Western

    7:30
ROUTE 66 – Adventure

    8:30
FATHER OF THE BRIDE – Comedy

    9:00
WESTINGHOUSE PRESENTS  SPECIAL  
“Come Again to Carthage”

  10:00
NEWS – Dave Moore

  10:15
WEATHER – Bud Kraehling

  10:20
SPORTS – Ray Scott

  10:30
MOVIE – Drama
“Drango” (1957)


 5   KSTP (NBC)
x

MORNING


    6:00
CONTINENTAL CLASSROOM   COLOR 
“Modern Algebra”

    6:30
CONTINENTAL CLASSROOM   COLOR 
“American Government”

    7:00
TODAY – John Chancellor
Guest: Cleveland Amory

    9:00
SAY WHEN – Art James

    9:30
PLAY YOUR HUNCH – Merv Griffin   COLOR 
Guest: Minnie Pearl

  10:00
PRICE IS RIGHT – Cullen   COLOR 

  10:30
CONCENTRATION – Hugh Downs

  11:00
TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES

  11:30
IT COULD BE YOU   COLOR 

  11:55
NEWS – Ray Scherer

AFTERNOON


  12:00
NEWS – John MacDougall

  12:15
WEATHER – Johnny Morris

  12:20
TREASURE CHEST   COLOR 

    1:00
JAN MURRAY – Game   COLOR 

    1:30
LORETTA YOUNG – Drama

    2:00
YOUNG DR. MALONE – Serial

    2:30
FROM THESE ROOTS – Serial

    3:00
MAKE ROOM FOR DADDY

    3:30
HERE’S HOLLYWOOD – Interviews
Guest: Pat Carroll

    3:55
NEWS – Sander Vanocur

    4:00
TOPPER – Comedy

    4:30
KUKLA AND OLLIE – Tillstrom

    4:35
T.N. TATTERS – Children   COLOR 

    5:15
MAN FROM COCHISE – Police

    5:45
NEWS – Huntley, Brinkley

EVENING


    6:00
NEWS – Bob Ryan

    6:15
WEATHER – Johnny Morris

    6:30
INTERNATIONAL SHOWTIME

    7:30
DETECTIVES – Robert Taylor

    8:30
BELL TELEPHONE HOUR – Music   COLOR 
Guests: Joan Sutherland, Margot Fonteyn, Michael Somes, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, Luboshutz and Nemenoff, Dorothy Collins and Raymond Scott

    9:30
HERE AND NOW – Frank McGee

  10:00
NEWS – John MacDougall

  10:15
WEATHER – Johnny Morris

  10:20
SPORTS – Dick Nesbitt

  10:30
JACK PAAR – Variety   COLOR 

  12:00
NEWS AND SPORTS – Krupp

 9   KMSP (ABC)
x

MORNING


    7:55
CHAPEL OF THE AIR – Religion

    8:00
BREAKFAST WITH CAP’N KEN

    8:30
OUR MISS BROOKS – Comedy

    9:00
JACK LA LANNE – Exercise

    9:30
MOVIE – Mystery
“Donovan’s Brain” (1954)

  11:00
TEXAN – Western

  11:30
YOURS FOR A SONG – Bert Parks


AFTERNOON


  12:00
CAMOUFLAGE – Don Morrow

  12:30
MAKE A FACE – Bob Clayton

    1:00
DAY IN COURT – Drama

    1:25
NEWS – Alex Drier

    1:30
MY LITTLE MARGIE - Comedy

    2:00
NUMBER PLEASE – Bud Collier

    2:30
SEVEN KEYS – Jack Narz

    3:00
QUEEN FOR A DAY – Bailey

    3:30
WHO DO YOU TRUST? – Carson

    4:00
AMERICAN BANDSTAND – Clark

    4:50
AMERICAN NEWSSTAND – Sharp

    5:00
LOONEY TUNERS CLUB – Children

    5:40
NEWS – Bob Allard

    5:45
NEWS – ABC Evening

EVENING


    6:00
BUGS BUNNY – Cartoons

    6:30
STRAIGHTAWAY – Adventure

    7:00
HATHAWAYS – Comedy

    7:30
FLINTSTONES – Cartoon

    8:00
77 SUNSET STRIP – Mystery

    9:00
TARGET: CORRUPTORS – Drama

  10:00
NEWS – Bob Allard

  10:15
WEATHER – Jere Smith

  10:20
SPORTS – Tony Parker

  10:30
MOVIE – Mystery
“I Confess” (1953)

  12:30
CHAPEL OF THE AIR – Religion

11  WTCN (IND.)
x

MORNING


    9:45
CARTOON CIRCUS – Children

  10:00
ROCKY AND HIS FRIENDS

  10:15
ROMPER ROOM – Miss Betty

  11:15
BURNS AND ALLEN – Comedy

  11:45
NEWS – Jack Huston

AFTERNOON


  12:00
LUNCH WITH CASEY – Children

    1:00
MOVIE – Drama
“The Woman Accused” (1933)

    2:30
DR. HUDSON’S JOURNAL

    3:00
LIFE OF RILEY – Comedy

    3:30
AMOS ‘N’ ANDY – Comedy

    4:00
POPEYE AND PETE – Dave Lee

    4:45
ROCKY AND HIS FRIENDS

    5:00
SUPERMAN - Adventure

    5:30
DICK TRACY - Cartoons

    5:45
NEWS – Jack Huston

EVENING


    6:00
TWO FACES WEST – Western

    6:30
ROCKY AND HIS FRIENDS

    7:00
HIGHWAY PATROL – Police

    7:30
MOVIE – Drama
“The Locket” (1946)

    9:00
JOHNNY MIDNIGHT – Mystery

    9:30
NEWS – Jack Huston

    9:45
WEATHER – Stuart A. Lindman

    9:50
SPORTS – Buetel, Horner

  10:00
M SQUAD – Police

  10:30
MOVIE – Adventure
“Sinbad the Sailor” (1947)

  12:30
NEWS AND WEATHER

TV  

2 comments:

  1. Since you regularly decide not to deal with the weekly series, I thought I'd fill the gap, with assistance from my DVD wall:

    - CBS, 6:30:
    Rawhide has an episode called "The Blue Spy".
    The logline says it's about the local Indians raiding a theatrical company and taking their various costumes, and a distressed actress (Phyllis Thaxter) tries to get the drovers to help.
    No one seems to remember this these days, but the Rawhide drovers were mainly veterans of the Confederate Army.
    "The Blue Spy" refers to the fact that the actress I referred to above was a spy for the Union Army, which causes dispute among the drovers over whether to help her.
    I remember the Civil War Centennial celebration, which had started up in earnest in '61; I was 11 at the time, and I recall that blue and gray caps were highly popular among my schoolmates during this time.
    And the issues behind the War Between The States ... they got a passing mention here and there ...

    - ABC, 6:30:
    Straightaway, a weekly half-hour about a pair of race car drivers, ha as its guest star Diana Dors, the British bombshell actress who was trying to take America by storm, with indifferent to poor success.
    Miss Dors eventually returned to Britain, leaving behind her children and her husband, a standup comic known at the time as Dick Dawson.
    It was afew years after this that Dick Dawson took out US citizenship for himself and his sons, and upgraded his professional billing to Richard Dawson -
    - and the rest, I believe you know ...

    CBS, 7:30:
    Route 66 has an episode called "The Thin White Line: in which Tod drinks a glass of beer, unaware that it's been spiked with a hallucinogenic drug that sends him into psychosis.
    Remember, this is 1961, long before this sort of thing became fashionable ...

    - ABC, 8:00:
    77 Sunset Strip has the first showing of "Reserved For Mr. Bailey", the now-legendary episode in which Efrem Zimbalist Jr. is the only actor on screen for the whole hour; written and directed by Zimbalist's friend Montgomery Pittman (about whom there should be college courses, in my opinion).

    -ABC, 9:00:
    I watched Target: The Corruptors from the old DVD Wall today.
    This week's show was "Silent Partner", about a Mob attempt to infiltrate the garment industry, written by Shimon Wincelberg (on leave from Naked City).
    Luther Adler was the Mob boss; Everett Sloane and Robert H. Harris were the put-upon dress manufacturers.
    There was a subplot about how the Mob boss's son wanted to make the family business "honest", sort of (there was a "romance" with a designer which figured in this).
    This is one of those shows that concentrated on the guest stars, in this case Adler, Sloane, and Harris; Stephen McNally, the nominal star, had a tendency to shout his narration, which may have held down the show's potential popularity (if you remember McNally's gravelly growl, you'll know what I mean here).

    ReplyDelete
  2. Since Mike took care of some of the shows, I'll do the movies.
    "The Woman Accused" is a Paramount Picture, part of the MCA TV distribution package many stations had. The story is by Polan Banks (from a Liberty magazine serial chapter by Gertrude Chapman).
    During a 3-day pleasure cruise, a murder victim's friend tries to trick a new bride into admitting her guilt. Now, I know that don't stand much for plot, but the cast includes Nancy Carroll, John Halliday and a young fellow who went on to score some film renown - Cary Grant.

    Most eveyone knows the story of Sinbad. In this case, a Technicolor spectacle released by RKO Radio Pictures in 1947. Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Maureen O'Hara are the stars. But guess what? WTCN doesn't show it in color, as all most stations could get at this time were basic B&W prints (color is still a relatively NEW thing in TV, you know, even if KSTP has done it longer). Anyway, this one's a must see for all the lavishness laid out. But if you want it in color, you're gonna have to wait a while.

    I Confess is classic Alfred Hitchcock, but then there's Donovan's Brain, which actually came out the same year (Confess in February '53; Donovan in Sept.). Felix Feist directed and Hugh Brooke adapted the screenplay from Curt Siodmak's novel about an honest scientest keeping the brain of a dead millionaire alive in a tank. Donovan manages to impose his powerful will on the scientist, and uses him to murder his enemies.
    The cast features Lew Ayres, Ronald Regan's wife (then known as Nancy Davis), Steve Brodie and Tom Powers. This almost reminds me of that Hawaii Five-O pilot called "Cocoon", but that's light years away from now, so we'll save that for another time.

    Finally, we have WCCO's late movie, the searing story of "ONE MAN AGAINST A TOWN GONE MAD WITH LUST!" It goes like this: Major Clint Drango (Jeff Chandler) of the U.S. Army and his aide, Capt. Marc Banning (John Lupton) ride into a burned-out Georgia town shortly after the end of the Civil War with orders to set up a military governorship. The townspeople are bitter over the earlier destruction of their crops, homes, schools and church by Sherman and Union troops-but they do not know Drango was a participant in that destruction. Renegade former Confederates under Clay Allen (Ronald Howard) plan to undermine Drango's benign administration in hopes of restarting the war. The Renegades commit a series of crimes and killings, but Drango's honesty and character eventually win him a few converts.
    A Hall Bartlett production, released by United Artists. The supporting cast includes Joanne Dru, Julie London, Donald Crisp, Milburn Stone (Gunsmoke's Doc), Morris Ankrum, Parley Baer and Barney Phillips.

    WHEW! Where would I be without good ole IMDb? Probably up the creek-without a creek to go up towards!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for writing! Drive safely!