This week's TV Guide is advertised as the Northern Minnesota edition, and you'll see some differences from our usual Minnesota State Edition. The stations shown include a pair from Fargo, North Dakota, and the Twin Cities educational channel, KTCA, hasn't yet started broadcasting. Many areas only have two stations, which means we have more split affiliations than usual. You'll notice that variety shows are a regular part of the daytime schedule. And, of course, Daylight Saving Time plays havoc with some of our schedules. It's just an average day in the broadcasting week.
April 29, 2019
April 27, 2019
This week in TV Guide: April 27, 1957
There’s discontent rising in the land, my friends, and it’s about to boil over. It pits neighbor against neighbor, city against city, network against network; and there’s no telling how far it may go before it’s done. I speak, of course, of: Daylight Savings Time.
Daylight Time was scheduled to go into effect for the year at 2:00 a.m. on Sunday, April 28. That is, in places where it was observed. And what a mess that was, as TV Guide points out. "Duluth, Minn., and Superior, Wis., lie right next to each other in the Central Time Zone. Both receive programs from the same TV stations. During the winter, everything is fine. Come summer, Superior goes to daylight time; Duluth, however, stays on standard (unless the state legislature passes a new law). To which of the two times should programs be geared?"
See, at this point both the federal and some state governments have left it up to local communities to decide whether or not to go on Daylight Savings Time. Minnesota, as a state, did not observe it; the legislature, however, was in the process of debating a law that would put Minneapolis-St. Paul and Duluth on it, leaving the rest of the state on Standard Time. This becomes a major issue for the networks, who are at this point still dealing with a substantial number of live programs. The advent of tape has helped things to an extent, but it's still confusing, as this example of the Ed Sullivan and Steve Allen shows illustrates. The shows are initially broadcast live at 8:00 p.m. in New York. New York follows Daylight Time.
Do you have a headache yet? If not, consider that Seattle remains on Standard time, which puts it an hour behind Los Angeles. Seattle is frequent host to televised boxing. With an air time of 10:00 p.m. EDT, this means the main event must begin at 6:00 p.m. PST, with the undercard starting even earlier. As an NBC exec says, "What fight fan wants to watch a fight at 6 o'clock? He hasn't even had is dinner yet."
The effect of this national confusion isn't limited to TV, of course—airlines and railroads have to deal with the shifting sands of time as well. Whatever you have to say about Daylight Savings Time (I'm against it, personally), I think everyone can agree that things were much worse back then.
As you can see from the cover, the feature story this week is on Groucho Marx, whose show You Bet Your Life is one of the top-rated programs on TV. Groucho was seldom at a loss for words, and this week's interview, conducted at Romanoff's restaurant by staff writer Dan Jenkins (not this one) is no exception.
Groucho on criticism of TV: "I don't see why everybody, including myself, should spend so much time criticizing television. I think television has done a remarkably good job considering the circumstances. If you were the advertising man entrusted with the spending of two or three million dollars, would you try to elevate the public or would you try to find yourself a good commercial show? When the public wants to be elevated, it will do its own elevating."
On Hollywood creativity: "People look upon Hollywood as a great outdoor lunatic asylum. This is not true. There are some very intelligent people in Hollywood—intelligent enough to know what all the rest of the lunatics want in the way of entertainment."
On appearing as a guest on other programs: "I've regretted most of the guest spots I've done. But for one of them, a four-minute spot, I got $25,000. How can I regret that? If somebody wants to spend his money that foolishly, I am quite happy to help him out."
On the unfairness of the TV ratings system: "The only way to judge a show's value is to examine the sales record of the show's product. I think I am safe in saying that De Soto [the car company that sponsored his show] barely existed in the public's mind before You Bet Your Life, and then only as a character who preceded Mark Twain on the Mississippi. I think they know now that De Soto is an automobile. I drive two of them myself, though not at the same time."
On the photographer suggesting Groucho might want to hide his drink before being photographed: "Why? And if it looks like tomato juice, tell 'em there's vodka in it. I don't see why I should hide the fact that I have a drink with my lunch. Let's order a drink for the photographer. He probably needs one more than I do."
On the future: "The future will have a TV screen covering your living-room wall. All in color." Lest this sound too scholarly, considering this has pretty much come to pass, he adds, "The set itself will erupt popcorn at regular intervals. They'll even send a man to your house to put his feet on your shoulders and provide background talking and paper rustling."
Saturday morning's presentation of Winky Dink and You on CBS is the last show of the series, to be replaced the next week by Susan's Show, hosted by Susan Heinkel. Susan's Show debuted in 1956 on Chicago CBS affiliate WBBM before moving to the network a year later.* The premise of Susan's Show was pretty simple: using a magic flying stool, Susie would travel to mystical lands, where she would engage in adventures with her dog Rusty. In other words, pretty standard kids' TV fare.
*Chicago was a hotbed of television in the early days, and many series made the transition from local to national broadcasts.
By the way, did I mention that Susan Heinkel is 12 years old? Not only that, she's a show biz veteran, having started her career in St. Louis at the age of three, and she's a hit in Chicago, trailing only the Mickey Mouse Club in the daytime ratings. Notes the article, "Susan ad-libs commercials with astonishing poise."
Think about that next time you get a bumper-sticker talking about how your kid's an honor student. Impressive, but does she have her own TV show yet?
Starting in 1956, Steve Allen hosted his own NBC variety show which, at the beginning, aired opposite that of Ed Sullivan. It didn't run as long as Ed's, of course, but then Allen said his goal was never to conquer Ed, but to coexist with him, which he did for several seasons. Let's see who gets the best of the contest this week.
Sullivan: Ed welcomes Lena Horne, singer; young actor Anthony Perkins, in his TV singing debut; Bill Haley's Comets; comedians George de Witt and Jack Paar; Apaka, Honolulu's top recording star; the Happy Jesters, instrumental group; Heidi, Toronto's adding dog; and Jim Piersall, Boston Red Sox outfielder.
Allen: Steve greets comedians Jack Carson and Don Adams' songstresses Brenda Lee and Abbe Lane, who is joined by Xavier Cugat and his band; and dancers Peter Gennarro and Ellen Ray from the Braodway musical "Bells Are Ringing."
Not bad. You can clearly see Ed's vaudeville roots showing, far more than Allen, who concentrates on more established stars. Abbe Lane, profiled in the front of the magazine, is not only a talented singer and dancer, she's a knockout (with "one of the world's most remarkable torsos"), who's married to the bandleader Cugat (his fourth wife; he later divorces her and marries Charo). Don Adams will eventually become Maxwell Smart, and Jack Carson is a TV mainstay.
On the other hand, it's hard to top the great Lena Horne, and although Perkins is supposed to sing, he's also there to plug the movie Fear Strikes Out, the true story of Jim Piersall's struggle with mental illness.* But the reason I'm giving this one to Sullivan is a more whimsical one: Jack Paar, who's appearing on Ed's show, will - three months later - take over the Tonight Show; the very program that Steve Allen had given up. I love that kind of irony.
*Perkins' widow, Berry Berenson, was killed on American Airlines flight 11 during the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Baseball season! But it's pre-major league baseball in the Twin Cities, so there's no Minnesota Twins. Instead, there's the Minneapolis Millers, the Triple-A affiliate of the New York Giants, who the year before moved from Minneapolis to the brand-new Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington (even though TV Guide, which lacks the subtleties, says the Met is in Minneapolis). The new digs have been built in hopes of luring a major league team, and in time they will—the Washington Senators, who make Minnesota their home in 1961. On Thursday night the Millers take on the Louisville Colonels. A quick glance at the lineups gives me the name of at least one future star, Orlando Cepada, who plays for the Millers before being called up to the Giants, now in San Francisco, in 1958. Cepada is elected to the Hall of Fame in 1999.
There is major league baseball on TV Saturday afternoon, though it isn't seen in the Twin Cities. (Perhaps the Millers were playing at home and the games were blacked out?) Lindsay Nelson and Leo Durocher are behind the mic for NBC as the Brooklyn Dodgers and Pittsburgh Pirates face off from Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, while the irrepressible Dizzy Dean and Buddy Blattner call CBS's telecast of the Detroit Tigers and the Cleveland Indians in Cleveland's Municipal Stadium.
"To a national audience, Mike Wallace is known as the sympathetic quizmaster on "The Big Surprise," which recently left the air. New Yorkers, however, know him as the incisive interviewer on a late evening local program which made its debut last fall and created widespread interest."
And with that, ABC launched the debut episode of The Mike Wallace Interviews (Sunday, 10:00 p.m., ABC), which introduced us to the Mike Wallace we all came to know and love (or hate). I've seen clips of Wallace as game show host, actor and commercial pitchman, and I'm sure that acting experience helped hone his skills when it came to interviewing. Still, it's hard to imagine Mike Wallace as anything other than the newsman and 60 Minutes star, isn't it? Kind of like finding out your parents were once young—it just doesn't compute.
Also, there's a note in the Teletype that confirms "CBS's new Perry Mason show, starring Raymond Burr, will replace Jackie Gleason next fall." Who could have imagined how that would turn out.
Speaking of which, we'll end today with the kind of footnote to which I'm so often drawn. Again from the Teletype:
This was, of course, before the Quiz Show Scandals, before he was exposed as being part of the rigged show, before he was fired from NBC and Columbia University. In other words, before everything fell apart.
But as far as this issue of TV Guide is concerned, all of that is in the future. And what impresses me the most is looking at this note, so innocent and without guile. It's not a reprint, it's not a message that blinks on a computer archive. (As you'll be reading it.) No, what I hold in my hands is the actual TV Guide, a historical document, if you will, which came out before anything had hit the fan. It was not only written in the context of the time, it was printed and sold in that context as well. It's kind of like the difference between a lithograph of the Declaration of Independence and the real thing, though not nearly as important, of course. It is, nonetheless, living history. Our history. And that never fails to impress me. TV
Daylight Time was scheduled to go into effect for the year at 2:00 a.m. on Sunday, April 28. That is, in places where it was observed. And what a mess that was, as TV Guide points out. "Duluth, Minn., and Superior, Wis., lie right next to each other in the Central Time Zone. Both receive programs from the same TV stations. During the winter, everything is fine. Come summer, Superior goes to daylight time; Duluth, however, stays on standard (unless the state legislature passes a new law). To which of the two times should programs be geared?"
See, at this point both the federal and some state governments have left it up to local communities to decide whether or not to go on Daylight Savings Time. Minnesota, as a state, did not observe it; the legislature, however, was in the process of debating a law that would put Minneapolis-St. Paul and Duluth on it, leaving the rest of the state on Standard Time. This becomes a major issue for the networks, who are at this point still dealing with a substantial number of live programs. The advent of tape has helped things to an extent, but it's still confusing, as this example of the Ed Sullivan and Steve Allen shows illustrates. The shows are initially broadcast live at 8:00 p.m. in New York. New York follows Daylight Time.
Instead of being televised [live to other parts of the country], they are recorded on tape. The tape is held for three hours, then transmitted at 8 o'clock Los Angeles PDT. The tape is simultaneously fed back to stations in the Central Standard Zone for broadcast at the usual air time there of 9 o'clock and in the Mountain Standard Zone at 8 o'clock.
Do you have a headache yet? If not, consider that Seattle remains on Standard time, which puts it an hour behind Los Angeles. Seattle is frequent host to televised boxing. With an air time of 10:00 p.m. EDT, this means the main event must begin at 6:00 p.m. PST, with the undercard starting even earlier. As an NBC exec says, "What fight fan wants to watch a fight at 6 o'clock? He hasn't even had is dinner yet."
The effect of this national confusion isn't limited to TV, of course—airlines and railroads have to deal with the shifting sands of time as well. Whatever you have to say about Daylight Savings Time (I'm against it, personally), I think everyone can agree that things were much worse back then.
♦️ ♦️ ♦️
As you can see from the cover, the feature story this week is on Groucho Marx, whose show You Bet Your Life is one of the top-rated programs on TV. Groucho was seldom at a loss for words, and this week's interview, conducted at Romanoff's restaurant by staff writer Dan Jenkins (not this one) is no exception.
Groucho on criticism of TV: "I don't see why everybody, including myself, should spend so much time criticizing television. I think television has done a remarkably good job considering the circumstances. If you were the advertising man entrusted with the spending of two or three million dollars, would you try to elevate the public or would you try to find yourself a good commercial show? When the public wants to be elevated, it will do its own elevating."
On Hollywood creativity: "People look upon Hollywood as a great outdoor lunatic asylum. This is not true. There are some very intelligent people in Hollywood—intelligent enough to know what all the rest of the lunatics want in the way of entertainment."
On appearing as a guest on other programs: "I've regretted most of the guest spots I've done. But for one of them, a four-minute spot, I got $25,000. How can I regret that? If somebody wants to spend his money that foolishly, I am quite happy to help him out."
On the unfairness of the TV ratings system: "The only way to judge a show's value is to examine the sales record of the show's product. I think I am safe in saying that De Soto [the car company that sponsored his show] barely existed in the public's mind before You Bet Your Life, and then only as a character who preceded Mark Twain on the Mississippi. I think they know now that De Soto is an automobile. I drive two of them myself, though not at the same time."
On the photographer suggesting Groucho might want to hide his drink before being photographed: "Why? And if it looks like tomato juice, tell 'em there's vodka in it. I don't see why I should hide the fact that I have a drink with my lunch. Let's order a drink for the photographer. He probably needs one more than I do."
On the future: "The future will have a TV screen covering your living-room wall. All in color." Lest this sound too scholarly, considering this has pretty much come to pass, he adds, "The set itself will erupt popcorn at regular intervals. They'll even send a man to your house to put his feet on your shoulders and provide background talking and paper rustling."
♦️ ♦️ ♦️
Saturday morning's presentation of Winky Dink and You on CBS is the last show of the series, to be replaced the next week by Susan's Show, hosted by Susan Heinkel. Susan's Show debuted in 1956 on Chicago CBS affiliate WBBM before moving to the network a year later.* The premise of Susan's Show was pretty simple: using a magic flying stool, Susie would travel to mystical lands, where she would engage in adventures with her dog Rusty. In other words, pretty standard kids' TV fare.
*Chicago was a hotbed of television in the early days, and many series made the transition from local to national broadcasts.
By the way, did I mention that Susan Heinkel is 12 years old? Not only that, she's a show biz veteran, having started her career in St. Louis at the age of three, and she's a hit in Chicago, trailing only the Mickey Mouse Club in the daytime ratings. Notes the article, "Susan ad-libs commercials with astonishing poise."
Think about that next time you get a bumper-sticker talking about how your kid's an honor student. Impressive, but does she have her own TV show yet?
♦️ ♦️ ♦️
Starting in 1956, Steve Allen hosted his own NBC variety show which, at the beginning, aired opposite that of Ed Sullivan. It didn't run as long as Ed's, of course, but then Allen said his goal was never to conquer Ed, but to coexist with him, which he did for several seasons. Let's see who gets the best of the contest this week.
Sullivan: Ed welcomes Lena Horne, singer; young actor Anthony Perkins, in his TV singing debut; Bill Haley's Comets; comedians George de Witt and Jack Paar; Apaka, Honolulu's top recording star; the Happy Jesters, instrumental group; Heidi, Toronto's adding dog; and Jim Piersall, Boston Red Sox outfielder.
Allen: Steve greets comedians Jack Carson and Don Adams' songstresses Brenda Lee and Abbe Lane, who is joined by Xavier Cugat and his band; and dancers Peter Gennarro and Ellen Ray from the Braodway musical "Bells Are Ringing."
Not bad. You can clearly see Ed's vaudeville roots showing, far more than Allen, who concentrates on more established stars. Abbe Lane, profiled in the front of the magazine, is not only a talented singer and dancer, she's a knockout (with "one of the world's most remarkable torsos"), who's married to the bandleader Cugat (his fourth wife; he later divorces her and marries Charo). Don Adams will eventually become Maxwell Smart, and Jack Carson is a TV mainstay.
On the other hand, it's hard to top the great Lena Horne, and although Perkins is supposed to sing, he's also there to plug the movie Fear Strikes Out, the true story of Jim Piersall's struggle with mental illness.* But the reason I'm giving this one to Sullivan is a more whimsical one: Jack Paar, who's appearing on Ed's show, will - three months later - take over the Tonight Show; the very program that Steve Allen had given up. I love that kind of irony.
*Perkins' widow, Berry Berenson, was killed on American Airlines flight 11 during the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
♦️ ♦️ ♦️
Wouldn't be able to get away with this today. |
There is major league baseball on TV Saturday afternoon, though it isn't seen in the Twin Cities. (Perhaps the Millers were playing at home and the games were blacked out?) Lindsay Nelson and Leo Durocher are behind the mic for NBC as the Brooklyn Dodgers and Pittsburgh Pirates face off from Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, while the irrepressible Dizzy Dean and Buddy Blattner call CBS's telecast of the Detroit Tigers and the Cleveland Indians in Cleveland's Municipal Stadium.
♦️ ♦️ ♦️
"To a national audience, Mike Wallace is known as the sympathetic quizmaster on "The Big Surprise," which recently left the air. New Yorkers, however, know him as the incisive interviewer on a late evening local program which made its debut last fall and created widespread interest."
And with that, ABC launched the debut episode of The Mike Wallace Interviews (Sunday, 10:00 p.m., ABC), which introduced us to the Mike Wallace we all came to know and love (or hate). I've seen clips of Wallace as game show host, actor and commercial pitchman, and I'm sure that acting experience helped hone his skills when it came to interviewing. Still, it's hard to imagine Mike Wallace as anything other than the newsman and 60 Minutes star, isn't it? Kind of like finding out your parents were once young—it just doesn't compute.
Also, there's a note in the Teletype that confirms "CBS's new Perry Mason show, starring Raymond Burr, will replace Jackie Gleason next fall." Who could have imagined how that would turn out.
♦️ ♦️ ♦️
Speaking of which, we'll end today with the kind of footnote to which I'm so often drawn. Again from the Teletype:
"Charles Van Doren, Twenty-One winner, has signed an exclusive contract with NBC. Tentatively, they'll build a quiz show around him, use him as consultant on educational shows. He'll continue as college prof."
This was, of course, before the Quiz Show Scandals, before he was exposed as being part of the rigged show, before he was fired from NBC and Columbia University. In other words, before everything fell apart.
But as far as this issue of TV Guide is concerned, all of that is in the future. And what impresses me the most is looking at this note, so innocent and without guile. It's not a reprint, it's not a message that blinks on a computer archive. (As you'll be reading it.) No, what I hold in my hands is the actual TV Guide, a historical document, if you will, which came out before anything had hit the fan. It was not only written in the context of the time, it was printed and sold in that context as well. It's kind of like the difference between a lithograph of the Declaration of Independence and the real thing, though not nearly as important, of course. It is, nonetheless, living history. Our history. And that never fails to impress me. TV
April 26, 2019
Around the dial
Since this space tends to get used as a catch-all from time to time, I thought I'd lead off with a couple of unrelated notes. First, a big thanks to Bruce, who ran across the August 9-16, 1958 issue of TV Guide in his mother's possessions, and was generous enough to send to me as a contribution to the Hadley TV Guide Archives. (You'll be reading about this issue come August.) I really am touched by the kindnesses shown by you all; it's gratifying, as well as humbling, to know that what I'm doing is connecting with you.
Second, a question that came up in the comments thread from Brune, who asks, "Can I please buy a copy of the show Get It Together. where these artist performing The Ides of March / Vic Dana / Little Anthony and the Imperials?" Well, Brune, if you want to buy that, it's OK with me! Wait, what's that? Oh, you want to know where you can buy a copy of it? Well, so would I, because then I'd be able to tell you, and it would make me look like I really know what I'm writing about here. I'm afraid I don't, though: does anyone out there have a suggestion for Brune?
And now on to our regular programming, and since we were off on Good Friday, we have some catching up to do. At bare-bones e-zine, it's Part 8 of Jack's Hitchcock Project look at the works of James P. Cavanagh, and it's the fifth season opener, "Arthur," a black comedy directed by Hitch himself, starring Laurence Harvey, Hazel Court, and Patrick Macnee.
Meanwhile, over at Comfort TV, David returns with part two of his look at the 100 most memorable songs introduced by classic TV. (Part one was during our bye last week.) You can count me in on any list that includes "The Lumberjack Song."
Amanda's launching a new project over at Made for TV Mayhem: a look at the long-running religious series Insight, produced by our old friend, Fr. Elwood Kieser. Lest you be scared away by "religious" programming, Fr. Kieser was always careful to avoid being "preachy" in his program, which (as was the case also with Bishop Sheen) made them even more effective.
A couple of remembrances by Jodie at Garroway at Large: first, Sarah Lee Lippincott, Dave Garroway's third wife, who passed away in February; and then, a really wonderful piece on Charles Van Doren, whose death I mentioned in passing a couple of weeks ago. Again, we need to keep these pieces of TV history alive.
At The Twilight Zone Vortex, Jordan reviews another of the episodes on the show's new incarnation, "A Traveler," starring Steven Yeun, which aired last week. A very interesting observation by Jordan, who notes that while he likes the new series, "there is a noted lack of humanism in the new series which is replaced with a bleak and sometimes utterly hopeless outlook on the future of human relations."
Kirk Cameron and Jason Bateman are on the cover of the April 22, 1989 edition of TV Guide: find out more about what's inside in Television Obscurities' continuing look back at TV Guide 30 years ago. Farrah Fawcett, Mr. T, and Nazi hunters - who can beat that? TV
Second, a question that came up in the comments thread from Brune, who asks, "Can I please buy a copy of the show Get It Together. where these artist performing The Ides of March / Vic Dana / Little Anthony and the Imperials?" Well, Brune, if you want to buy that, it's OK with me! Wait, what's that? Oh, you want to know where you can buy a copy of it? Well, so would I, because then I'd be able to tell you, and it would make me look like I really know what I'm writing about here. I'm afraid I don't, though: does anyone out there have a suggestion for Brune?
And now on to our regular programming, and since we were off on Good Friday, we have some catching up to do. At bare-bones e-zine, it's Part 8 of Jack's Hitchcock Project look at the works of James P. Cavanagh, and it's the fifth season opener, "Arthur," a black comedy directed by Hitch himself, starring Laurence Harvey, Hazel Court, and Patrick Macnee.
Meanwhile, over at Comfort TV, David returns with part two of his look at the 100 most memorable songs introduced by classic TV. (Part one was during our bye last week.) You can count me in on any list that includes "The Lumberjack Song."
Amanda's launching a new project over at Made for TV Mayhem: a look at the long-running religious series Insight, produced by our old friend, Fr. Elwood Kieser. Lest you be scared away by "religious" programming, Fr. Kieser was always careful to avoid being "preachy" in his program, which (as was the case also with Bishop Sheen) made them even more effective.
A couple of remembrances by Jodie at Garroway at Large: first, Sarah Lee Lippincott, Dave Garroway's third wife, who passed away in February; and then, a really wonderful piece on Charles Van Doren, whose death I mentioned in passing a couple of weeks ago. Again, we need to keep these pieces of TV history alive.
At The Twilight Zone Vortex, Jordan reviews another of the episodes on the show's new incarnation, "A Traveler," starring Steven Yeun, which aired last week. A very interesting observation by Jordan, who notes that while he likes the new series, "there is a noted lack of humanism in the new series which is replaced with a bleak and sometimes utterly hopeless outlook on the future of human relations."
Kirk Cameron and Jason Bateman are on the cover of the April 22, 1989 edition of TV Guide: find out more about what's inside in Television Obscurities' continuing look back at TV Guide 30 years ago. Farrah Fawcett, Mr. T, and Nazi hunters - who can beat that? TV
April 24, 2019
The "It's About TV" Interview: Edward "Torchy" Smith, author of Shooting the Breeze with Baby Boomer Stars!
It's About TV: Torchy, welcome to the It's About TV Interview. If you're looking to talk about the past, you've come to the right place!
Torchy Smith: I live in the past and I am proud of it.
So what gave you the idea to reach out to and talk with the child stars of the past?
I always wanted to be a kid star myself. I was a cute red-haired freckled kid and drew a lot of attention back then. The only thing holding me back was that I did not live close enough for my mother to take me to any casting call in Hollywood.
My kids were in the business. My daughter was a TV producer for the “E” Channel and my son was a talent agent. After my retirement I thought it was my turn now.
I liked how you talk at the beginning about how you contacted these people. It seems that in most cases, it’s just a matter of having the guts to reach out to them.
Guts and getting their right contact information. I think because I did my class reunions, I had the skills to know how to reach and FIND THEM.
Was there a common thread when it came to the experiences of the stars you talked to, of the conclusions that you or they might have arrived at, or are they all really unique situations?
A common thread is MONEY. They need it and as many artists (take out extra word here) are bad business people. The ones that took lemons and made lemonade have taken their fame and seemed to make a springboard from that. The business part of show business is just that. And there are many ways to still be in the business without being in front of the camera. Look up the terms called BELOW THE LINE and ABOVE THE LINE. Google them.
Speaking of money, one thing that comes through in many of your interviews is the question of royalties—or perhaps I should say the lack of royalties—that they earned for their work. Some people might be surprised to find that early success doesn't necessarily translate to great wealth.
In 1965, when Ronald Reagan was president of The Screen Actors Guild—that was the watershed year for TV royalties. All early TV actors and writers got screwed. The most amazing story is about the Jackie Coogan Laws. Google that. This can be a very long subject and a very interesting one. Many stars tell that they have recently gotten checks for about 15 cents.
Torchy Smith |
Yes….many hung up on me. Some had substance abuse problems.
Which leads to my next question: it seems that with so many of today's child stars—the kids who were on Disney Channel shows, for example—we hear about wild lifestyles, gender fluidity, drug and alcohol problems, the works. Granted, it's tough to handle stardom no matter how old you are, but was there a secret to the kids who made it through this period relatively unscathed?
I have concluded that if the parents had a plan “B” for their kids, that would help face the real world. If the parents did not live off their kid’s money, then the pressure did not hurt the kid later on when the spotlight turned off.
How difficult was it for them to transition into an "ordinary" life? Or was it just a case of them doing what they were told because that’s what kids do?
Paul Petersen has a line about that. “I never knew one kid that would drive himself or herself to a casting call.” They all had difficulties.
What makes a child star grow into an adult star? In other words, do those who stay in the business and become successful have something in common, as opposed to those who kind of leave that life behind and do something else?
Very few can start as a child star and maintain their fame without being type cast. Not everyone can be a Mickey Rooney or a Ron Howard. The only common denominator is not to be typecast. But then, how do you know if your show is going to be a big hit for years?
And then there's someone like Shirley Temple, who had a remarkable career after show business: politician, diplomat, ambassador, parent. Was she just extraordinary, or do we just not hear about the child stars that go on to live “normal” lives without looking back?
Yes, many have normal lives without looking back…But they were not as famous as Shirley. (Shirley you must be joking) (Laughs) From the movie Airplane.
In the course of your interviews, you actually seemed to have a lot in common with many of these stars, such as sharing an acquaintance, even though it might not have been a personal connection. Did that surprise you, or, for lack of a better description, are stars really that much like you and me?
I don’t like the term HAS BEANS…but that made it easier in some ways. In other ways their agents are no longer around. After I got known and word spread, I most always dealt through their PR guy. Many still have some connection to a representative because they would write a book or needed a rep for personal appearances. Most stars are not like the average person. They have a deep-rooted experience that they rest cannot comprehend. Once they get to know more about them you can understand that. Of course, they have the same feelings and eat, and crap just like us. I have noticed that after awhile the fame settles in and becomes a part of their life that gets easier to appreciate.
What does our continuing fascination with the stars of the past tell us about our relationship to that time period? Do we romanticize it too much, or were things then really that different from how they are now?
The TV pie back the (extra word taken out) 50’s and 60’s was in three pieces. Today it is about 300 pieces and cut up with the same viewership. This is a big difference for competition with programs now compared to back then. If you were in a bad TV program and it was aimed at kids, we still watched it and still talked about it to our friends on the playground at school. We had no other choices. So, the TV kid stars were known no matter what.
I feel frustrated that my grandchildren will never know that somehow things felt better with less choices. We had three flavors of ice-cream and enjoyed it just as much as they do with 31 flavors. We felt safe and the reason why is that program called “Happy Days” was because THEY WERE.
Was there anyone who opened up to you in an unexpected way, maybe telling you something that they hadn’t talked about before, or something that really caught you off-guard?
Yes..Sherry Jackson from the Make Room for Daddy show and many other TV and film appearances.
Until she dies, I promised I would not say. And I believed every word of it. She talked on the phone with me almost once a week. We became friends, then ended up in an argument. I was going to write her life story. That is all I can say for now.
Without going into too much detail—obviously, I want people to buy your book!—what are some stories you can share that might really surprise us? For example, you mention that Anson Williams's second cousin was Dr. Henry Heimlich, who came up with the Heimlich Maneuver.
Mark Metcalf, who played Neidermeyer in Animal House, did everything he could to avoid going to Vietnam, which mostly included hiding out in the woods of Oregon for about a year. After that he went back to face the music and they didn’t want him anymore. The irony here is that at the end of the movie they showed funny and fictitious updates of the Animal House Kids and they labeled Neidermeyer with “Killed by his own troops in Vietnam.”
Staying with Animal House, Stephen Furst, who played Ken Dorfman, arrived in Los Angeles seeking a career in acting and not knowing one soul there. He found his first job as a pizza delivery boy and came up with the genius idea to staple his headshot and resumé to each pizza box he delivered. BINGO ! It worked. He got his first audition that way from Matty Simmons, the producer of Animal House.
Not quite as good as Lana Turner's story, but it'll do!
Billy Gray, who's best known for his role as Bud in the TV series, Father Knows Best, was in a ton of feature films before that including one of the most important science fiction movies of all time called The Day the Earth Stood Still. As a little boy he taught Mr. Carpenter, the spaceman [played by Michael Rennie] all about the ways of earthlings. Recently they made a new version of that classic movie. Billy contacted them about playing a small part or even a bigger part of the old professor that was originally played by Sam Jaffee. He seemed perfect for that role. The casting people seemed enthused and gave him the script to study. He spent a lot of time practicing the German Professor with an accent and even put a screen test on YouTube. They chose John Cleese instead. The reviews were harsh, and the movie was a bomb.
It's always nice to see some cosmic justice, so to speak, in Hollywood.
Kathy Garver, who played Cissy on TV’s Family Affair, got her big break as a child in 1956, when she played a child slave in Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments. Garver was told as an extra to sit in a wagon with a lamb on her lap for the beginning of the great march of thousands of slaves leaving Egypt. At first when Mr. DeMille spotted Garver he thought she might steal the scene and bellowed out to the cameraman, “Don’t let that little girl’s face get in the shot!" So, they placed a blanket over her face. Then all of a sudden, he changed his mind and little Kathy stole his heart. Mr. DeMille had a short scene written just for her on the spot. It was an auspicious beginning.
Finally, Lyle Waggoner was best known for his many years working with Carol Burnett and the cast of memorable characters on her variety show. But it wasn’t until after his stint with the TV series Wonder Women that he really made some serious money. On location shots he was provided a mobile trailer that was used as his dressing room. He asked the production head that if he bought one would they rent it from him. They said “yes.” He went out and purchased one and leased it to the show for $450 a week for three years. Waggoner eventually attained a whole fleet in various models and created a multi-million-dollar company called “Star Waggons” that his son now operates. Seems all of Hollywood leases from the company.
I really appreciate your taking the time to talk with me today, Torchy. Anything in closing that you'd like to add?
This is an update that has a connection to my book and interviews…Johnny Crawford of The Rifleman TV series had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and has been placed in a facility dealing with that horrible disorder. Paul Petersen, a lifelong friend, has started a Go Fund Me Page to raise money for the expensive cost incurred at such a facility. The Go Fund Page is called Johnny Crawford’s Alzheimer’s Fund. I have interviewed both of these cherished Baby Boomer Celebrities in person and for my Radio Show. Both are featured in my book. I had one of the last interviews that Johnny ever gave.
In case I didn't make it clear in the interview, Shooting the Breeze is a terrific read—fun and easy. His chats with the stars ("interview" is too stuffy a word; "shooting the breeze" is an apt description) are filled with tidbits that you've probably not read anywhere else. If you're one of us living in the past, or at least taking long vacations there, I think you'll appreciate adding Shooting the Breeze to your bookshelf.
My thanks once again to Torchy Smith for joining me at the It's About TV Interview, and a special word of appreciation to Jeff Abraham for helping to arrange our conversation. Be sure to check out Torchy's website, Baby Boomers Talk Radio, and his Facebook site, Baby Boomers VIP Interviews, for more fascinating trips back into the wonderful world of the past. TV
April 22, 2019
What's on TV? Sunday, April 22, 1973
It's Easter Sunday, and today's broadcasting schedule, which comes to us from the Minnesota State Edition of TV Guide, gives us a mix of religious programming and playoff hockey and basketball. Through in a few movies, and you've got a little something for everyone.
April 20, 2019
This week in TV Guide: April 21, 1973
When I showed my wife the cover of this week's TV Guide with Raymond Burr as Pope John XXIII, and added that the Pope was actually the good guy in the program, she remarked, "Boy, they wouldn't do that on TV today, would they?"
The program in question is Portrait: A Man Whose Name Was John, an ABC special airing at 7:00 p.m. CT on Easter Sunday. It tells the true story of Archbishop Angelo Roncalli, who in 1958 would be elected John XXIII, but during World War II was the apostolic delegate (i.e. ambassador) to Turkey, and his battle to save over 600 Jewish children from being shipped to Nazi Germany. It was a cherished experience for Burr, who had personally met John four times* during his papacy and called him the most impressive human being he had ever met. "There was absolute communication between us," he said of their first meeting in 1959, which had been arranged by Family Theatre producer Father Patrick Peyton. Though not Catholic—he describes himself as "believing in all religion"—Burr had long hoped to do a film project based on John's life (a film for "all people"), when he was approached by producer David Victor with the idea for A Man Whose Name Was John. It was less ambitious than Burr's plan, but "it told a lot about the kind of man Roncalli was." Eventually, Burr decided, "it wouldn't be a bad idea" to take it on. As far as I know, Burr's own movie on John was never made.
*At this point I should point out, not unkindly, that given Burr's predilection for creating events in his own life, one has to be careful not to put too much stock into this. Still, his impressions of John are so strong I'm inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt.
The whole movie is, not surprisingly, available on YouTube. Burr makes for a very convincing John; dare I suggest that TV Guide's cover shot makes him look even more papal than the current pope?
♦️ ♦️ ♦️
Given that Easter doesn't have a set day every year, this is the second of back-to-back issues we've looked at with Easter programming of one kind or another, and this issue is no exception. In addition to John, there are several religious-themed movies, mostly on Saturday night on local TV: The Robe (9:00 p.m., Austin's WEAU), A Man Called Peter (10:30 p.m., WKBT in LaCrosse, Wisconsin), The Nun's Story (10:45 p.m. WDIO in Duluth), and The Song of Bernadette (10:50 p.m., WCCO in Minneapolis).
As for Easter itself, CBS has a live broadcast of an Easter service from New York, conducted by the famed positive thinker Dr. Norman Vincent Peale (10:00 a.m.), NBC presents a Sunday morning documentary on the rebuilt Coventry Cathedral in England (10:00 a.m.), while ABC's Directions covers the Easter Mass from St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York. (12:00 p.m.) Later in the day (12:30 p.m.), Eau Claire's WEAU gives us an hour of sacred music from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and at 4:00 p.m., PBS has Handel's Messiah (which Handel wrote as an Easter, rather than Christmas, piece), featuring the Arion Musical Club of Milwaukee. In case you're looking for ABC's annual airing of The Ten Commandments, that didn't start until 1973.
TV's two definitive 70s-era rock music shows, NBC's The Midnight Special and ABC's In Concert, faced off on Friday nights. Midnight Special was a weekly show, airing after Johnny Carson, while In Concert was an every-other week part of Wide World of Entertainment. Whenever the two slug it out, we'll be there to give you the winner.
Don't know if you can call this week's matchup entirely fair, as In Concert goes with a three-hour marathon (originally broadcast as two separate shows) featuring Alice Cooper; The Allman Brothers Band; Blood, Sweat and Tears; Curtis Mayfield; Seals and Crofts; Chuck Berry; Poco; and Bo Diddley. I count eighteen songs during the show, with almost everyone doing at least one of their biggest hits ("School's Out," "Ramblin' Man," "Roll Over, Beethoven," "Summer Breeze," etc.) The 90-minute Midnight Special counters with an all-50s show hosted by Jerry Lee Lewis with Little Anthony and the Imperials, Chubby Checker, the Shirelles, the Ronettes, Freddy Cannon and the Diamonds.
You can't say the stars weren't out this Friday night, can you? I'm going to give it to In Concert strictly on the basis of it being twice as long; as far as the talent, it's a push.
.Throughout the 60s and early 70s, TV Guide's weekly reviews were written by the witty and acerbic Cleveland Amory. Whenever we get the chance, we'll look at Cleve's latest take on the series of the era.
Friends, this is a column to be savored, to be remembered; indeed, to be immortalized. For in this column, friends, Cleveland Amory admits he has made a mistake.
Back in the summer, Cleve reviewed The Bobby Darin Show and wrote, among other things, that this show would never make it past the summer. First of all, it's a variety show, and we all know that they're on their last legs. Second—well, to be frank about it, the show wasn't very good. But, as Our Critic says, "we can't always be right, can we?" The show is back, and much better than it was during the summer. For one thing, Darin has made liberal (or should we say conservatively?") included the oldies in his repertoire, songs like "I Get a Kick Out of You" and "Hello, Young Lovers" that made him big in the first place. His guest list has improved as well, with terrific appearances by Burl Ives and Sid Caesar, among others, and the welcome addition of 8½ year old Charlotte Wong—a girl for all ages, according to Amory—as a regular. The show's skits have improved as well, particularly Darin's takeoff on Groucho Marx.
At the outset, Amory remarks that one of the reasons variety shows are in trouble is that if they appeal to seniors, then they're not attractive to sponsors; if, like Sonny & Cher, they appeal to the younger set, well, that's a fickle audience with a short attention span. And despite the fact that Amory has an animus against shows that try to appeal to everyone, it's clear that this is just what The Bobby Darin Show does. He doesn't love it, but he does like it. And coming from Cleve, that's pretty good.
♦️ ♦️ ♦️
Besides John, there are some other very interesting specials on this week—or at least they were interesting to me, even though I didn't see any of them. Yes, it's time for more tales from the World's Worst Town™. As you know, my six years in exile were spent primarily watching two television stations; the main channel, KCMT, was primarily an NBC affiliate, but picked up additional programming (mostly sports and some specials) from ABC. We did get TV Guide up there; this very issue, in fact, which still carries my name and address on the label Unfortunately, the Minnesota State Edition meant I was continually being taunted with glimpses of shows I would never see. Nonetheless, a number of these shows intrigued me—they seemed fraught with a suggestion of gravitas that lent them importance, or so it seemed.
*I realize I'm being quite shallow in judging quality of life based on number of television stations received, but you have to remember I was only 13 at the time. On the other hand, the promoters of cable TV would surely have agreed with me.
Monday night, for example, CBS counters with its own special Monday night, as Rex Harrison stars in The Adventures of Don Quixote, (8:00 p.m.), a co-production with the BBC, sponsored by IBM. Frank Finlay is his Sancho Panza, and Rosemary Leach is Dulcinea. Doctor Who fans will recognize Roger Delgado, The Master, as a Monk. (Not a meddling one, as Whovians will understand.)
Tuesday is one of those nights that made the VCR inevitable; Cliff Robertson stars in ABC's The Man Without a Country (7:30 p.m.), available (naturally) on YouTube. I suspect viewers today might wonder what all the fuss was about back then. The final 30 minutes dovetails with CBS's Playhouse 90 at 8:30 p.m. (yes, it's still around, though as an occasional special rather than a regular series), presenting Ingmar Bergman's made-for-TV play The Lie, the story of a husband and wife (George Segal and Shirley Knight Hopkins) struggling to hold their marriage together. An all-star supporting cast includes Robert Culp, Victor Buono, William Daniels, Dean Jagger, and Mary Ann Mobley. As one of the unhappily marrieds comments, "People have to lie and deceive in order to live together." Does this in any way resemble The Secret Life of Dentists?
PBS weighs in with a couple of specials of their own: on Sunday night at 7:30 p.m., the opera great Joan Sutherland continues a series of abridged operas on Who's Afraid of Opera (this week: La Traviata), and on Thursday evening at 7:00 p.m., the network presents a restored version of David Lean's epic Oliver Twist, which includes nine minutes of footage originally cut from the American film version.
Now, you may notice that none of these are on NBC, which means none of them are seen in our household. Oh, there was an NBC special: The Going Up of David Lev (Wednesday, 7:30 p.m.), a musical saluting the 25th anniversary of the creation of Israel, starring Topol (Fiddler on the Roof), Brandon Cruz (The Courtship of Eddie's Father), Melvyn Douglas and Claire Bloom. And on Friday, NBC's documentary series The American Experience looks at three turbulent eras in U.S. history—the Revolution, the Civil War and the Depression. The program is entitled "Strange and Terrible Times," which not only seems to describe our own times, but certainly is an apt way to put my six years in the wilderness. But don't start cheering—neither of these were on KCMT, which preempted them for Twins baseball games. That the games were what I would have watched anyway is besides the point.
This week's "Shape of Things to Come" feature: this note in The Doan Report, asking "Will the Senate's Watergate probe early next month develop, as some observers predict, into a major TV show?" The Senate committee, led by North Carolina Democrat Sam Ervin, is welcoming the cameras into the hearing room, and NBC News president Richard Wald tells Doan that "We'll air a live pickup if the hearings are interesting enough." Oh, they will be, Mr. Wald—trust me on this.
That note makes all the more poignant a CBS news special on Thursday, Five Presidents on the Presidency (8:00 p.m.), in which the incumbent, Richard Nixon, is quoted as saying, "The most important thing about a public man is not whether he's loved or disliked, but whether he's respected. I hope to restore respect to the Presidency."
Doan also tells us of the strange Star Trek craze; even though the show has been off the air for several years, there are still devoted fans "hold[ing] reunions to bemoan its loss." For them, producers hope to provide some solace with a new sci-fi series entitled Starlost, created and written by legendary writer Harlan Ellison, starring Keir Dullea (2001: A Space Odyssey). It winds up being called The Starlost, and if you've never heard of it, this article—with the title "Is The Starlost the Worst Science Fiction Series Ever Made?" might provide an explanation.
And finally there's the coming end of the third and final incarnation of Jack Paar's talk show, the one that featured on ABC's Wide World of Entertainment. Paar had made the comeback, in part, to help out his old friend and protege Dick Cavett, but speculation is that ABC and Paar "will mutually call off his late-night comeback as an unsalvageable disappointment." A pity; we could use that intelligent conversation today. TV
The program in question is Portrait: A Man Whose Name Was John, an ABC special airing at 7:00 p.m. CT on Easter Sunday. It tells the true story of Archbishop Angelo Roncalli, who in 1958 would be elected John XXIII, but during World War II was the apostolic delegate (i.e. ambassador) to Turkey, and his battle to save over 600 Jewish children from being shipped to Nazi Germany. It was a cherished experience for Burr, who had personally met John four times* during his papacy and called him the most impressive human being he had ever met. "There was absolute communication between us," he said of their first meeting in 1959, which had been arranged by Family Theatre producer Father Patrick Peyton. Though not Catholic—he describes himself as "believing in all religion"—Burr had long hoped to do a film project based on John's life (a film for "all people"), when he was approached by producer David Victor with the idea for A Man Whose Name Was John. It was less ambitious than Burr's plan, but "it told a lot about the kind of man Roncalli was." Eventually, Burr decided, "it wouldn't be a bad idea" to take it on. As far as I know, Burr's own movie on John was never made.
*At this point I should point out, not unkindly, that given Burr's predilection for creating events in his own life, one has to be careful not to put too much stock into this. Still, his impressions of John are so strong I'm inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt.
The whole movie is, not surprisingly, available on YouTube. Burr makes for a very convincing John; dare I suggest that TV Guide's cover shot makes him look even more papal than the current pope?
Given that Easter doesn't have a set day every year, this is the second of back-to-back issues we've looked at with Easter programming of one kind or another, and this issue is no exception. In addition to John, there are several religious-themed movies, mostly on Saturday night on local TV: The Robe (9:00 p.m., Austin's WEAU), A Man Called Peter (10:30 p.m., WKBT in LaCrosse, Wisconsin), The Nun's Story (10:45 p.m. WDIO in Duluth), and The Song of Bernadette (10:50 p.m., WCCO in Minneapolis).
As for Easter itself, CBS has a live broadcast of an Easter service from New York, conducted by the famed positive thinker Dr. Norman Vincent Peale (10:00 a.m.), NBC presents a Sunday morning documentary on the rebuilt Coventry Cathedral in England (10:00 a.m.), while ABC's Directions covers the Easter Mass from St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York. (12:00 p.m.) Later in the day (12:30 p.m.), Eau Claire's WEAU gives us an hour of sacred music from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and at 4:00 p.m., PBS has Handel's Messiah (which Handel wrote as an Easter, rather than Christmas, piece), featuring the Arion Musical Club of Milwaukee. In case you're looking for ABC's annual airing of The Ten Commandments, that didn't start until 1973.
♦️ ♦️ ♦️
TV's two definitive 70s-era rock music shows, NBC's The Midnight Special and ABC's In Concert, faced off on Friday nights. Midnight Special was a weekly show, airing after Johnny Carson, while In Concert was an every-other week part of Wide World of Entertainment. Whenever the two slug it out, we'll be there to give you the winner.
Don't know if you can call this week's matchup entirely fair, as In Concert goes with a three-hour marathon (originally broadcast as two separate shows) featuring Alice Cooper; The Allman Brothers Band; Blood, Sweat and Tears; Curtis Mayfield; Seals and Crofts; Chuck Berry; Poco; and Bo Diddley. I count eighteen songs during the show, with almost everyone doing at least one of their biggest hits ("School's Out," "Ramblin' Man," "Roll Over, Beethoven," "Summer Breeze," etc.) The 90-minute Midnight Special counters with an all-50s show hosted by Jerry Lee Lewis with Little Anthony and the Imperials, Chubby Checker, the Shirelles, the Ronettes, Freddy Cannon and the Diamonds.
You can't say the stars weren't out this Friday night, can you? I'm going to give it to In Concert strictly on the basis of it being twice as long; as far as the talent, it's a push.
♦️ ♦️ ♦️
.Throughout the 60s and early 70s, TV Guide's weekly reviews were written by the witty and acerbic Cleveland Amory. Whenever we get the chance, we'll look at Cleve's latest take on the series of the era.
Friends, this is a column to be savored, to be remembered; indeed, to be immortalized. For in this column, friends, Cleveland Amory admits he has made a mistake.
Back in the summer, Cleve reviewed The Bobby Darin Show and wrote, among other things, that this show would never make it past the summer. First of all, it's a variety show, and we all know that they're on their last legs. Second—well, to be frank about it, the show wasn't very good. But, as Our Critic says, "we can't always be right, can we?" The show is back, and much better than it was during the summer. For one thing, Darin has made liberal (or should we say conservatively?") included the oldies in his repertoire, songs like "I Get a Kick Out of You" and "Hello, Young Lovers" that made him big in the first place. His guest list has improved as well, with terrific appearances by Burl Ives and Sid Caesar, among others, and the welcome addition of 8½ year old Charlotte Wong—a girl for all ages, according to Amory—as a regular. The show's skits have improved as well, particularly Darin's takeoff on Groucho Marx.
At the outset, Amory remarks that one of the reasons variety shows are in trouble is that if they appeal to seniors, then they're not attractive to sponsors; if, like Sonny & Cher, they appeal to the younger set, well, that's a fickle audience with a short attention span. And despite the fact that Amory has an animus against shows that try to appeal to everyone, it's clear that this is just what The Bobby Darin Show does. He doesn't love it, but he does like it. And coming from Cleve, that's pretty good.
Besides John, there are some other very interesting specials on this week—or at least they were interesting to me, even though I didn't see any of them. Yes, it's time for more tales from the World's Worst Town™. As you know, my six years in exile were spent primarily watching two television stations; the main channel, KCMT, was primarily an NBC affiliate, but picked up additional programming (mostly sports and some specials) from ABC. We did get TV Guide up there; this very issue, in fact, which still carries my name and address on the label Unfortunately, the Minnesota State Edition meant I was continually being taunted with glimpses of shows I would never see. Nonetheless, a number of these shows intrigued me—they seemed fraught with a suggestion of gravitas that lent them importance, or so it seemed.
*I realize I'm being quite shallow in judging quality of life based on number of television stations received, but you have to remember I was only 13 at the time. On the other hand, the promoters of cable TV would surely have agreed with me.
Monday night, for example, CBS counters with its own special Monday night, as Rex Harrison stars in The Adventures of Don Quixote, (8:00 p.m.), a co-production with the BBC, sponsored by IBM. Frank Finlay is his Sancho Panza, and Rosemary Leach is Dulcinea. Doctor Who fans will recognize Roger Delgado, The Master, as a Monk. (Not a meddling one, as Whovians will understand.)
Tuesday is one of those nights that made the VCR inevitable; Cliff Robertson stars in ABC's The Man Without a Country (7:30 p.m.), available (naturally) on YouTube. I suspect viewers today might wonder what all the fuss was about back then. The final 30 minutes dovetails with CBS's Playhouse 90 at 8:30 p.m. (yes, it's still around, though as an occasional special rather than a regular series), presenting Ingmar Bergman's made-for-TV play The Lie, the story of a husband and wife (George Segal and Shirley Knight Hopkins) struggling to hold their marriage together. An all-star supporting cast includes Robert Culp, Victor Buono, William Daniels, Dean Jagger, and Mary Ann Mobley. As one of the unhappily marrieds comments, "People have to lie and deceive in order to live together." Does this in any way resemble The Secret Life of Dentists?
PBS weighs in with a couple of specials of their own: on Sunday night at 7:30 p.m., the opera great Joan Sutherland continues a series of abridged operas on Who's Afraid of Opera (this week: La Traviata), and on Thursday evening at 7:00 p.m., the network presents a restored version of David Lean's epic Oliver Twist, which includes nine minutes of footage originally cut from the American film version.
Now, you may notice that none of these are on NBC, which means none of them are seen in our household. Oh, there was an NBC special: The Going Up of David Lev (Wednesday, 7:30 p.m.), a musical saluting the 25th anniversary of the creation of Israel, starring Topol (Fiddler on the Roof), Brandon Cruz (The Courtship of Eddie's Father), Melvyn Douglas and Claire Bloom. And on Friday, NBC's documentary series The American Experience looks at three turbulent eras in U.S. history—the Revolution, the Civil War and the Depression. The program is entitled "Strange and Terrible Times," which not only seems to describe our own times, but certainly is an apt way to put my six years in the wilderness. But don't start cheering—neither of these were on KCMT, which preempted them for Twins baseball games. That the games were what I would have watched anyway is besides the point.
♦️ ♦️ ♦️
This week's "Shape of Things to Come" feature: this note in The Doan Report, asking "Will the Senate's Watergate probe early next month develop, as some observers predict, into a major TV show?" The Senate committee, led by North Carolina Democrat Sam Ervin, is welcoming the cameras into the hearing room, and NBC News president Richard Wald tells Doan that "We'll air a live pickup if the hearings are interesting enough." Oh, they will be, Mr. Wald—trust me on this.
That note makes all the more poignant a CBS news special on Thursday, Five Presidents on the Presidency (8:00 p.m.), in which the incumbent, Richard Nixon, is quoted as saying, "The most important thing about a public man is not whether he's loved or disliked, but whether he's respected. I hope to restore respect to the Presidency."
Doan also tells us of the strange Star Trek craze; even though the show has been off the air for several years, there are still devoted fans "hold[ing] reunions to bemoan its loss." For them, producers hope to provide some solace with a new sci-fi series entitled Starlost, created and written by legendary writer Harlan Ellison, starring Keir Dullea (2001: A Space Odyssey). It winds up being called The Starlost, and if you've never heard of it, this article—with the title "Is The Starlost the Worst Science Fiction Series Ever Made?" might provide an explanation.
And finally there's the coming end of the third and final incarnation of Jack Paar's talk show, the one that featured on ABC's Wide World of Entertainment. Paar had made the comeback, in part, to help out his old friend and protege Dick Cavett, but speculation is that ABC and Paar "will mutually call off his late-night comeback as an unsalvageable disappointment." A pity; we could use that intelligent conversation today. TV
April 19, 2019
Good Friday with Bishop Fulton Sheen, 1964
I often make the point on these pages of how much things have changed over the years, not only in television but culture in general.
Bishop Fulton J. Sheen's Life Is Worth Living ran on DuMont, ABC and in syndication from the early 1950s through the late 1960s. Blessed with a sharp mind, a whimsical sense of humor and a gift of gab, Bishop Sheen brought his ecumenical message to millions of viewers each week; as Brooks and Marsh put it in their Complete Guide to Prime Time Programming, the word "homily" would be strong for the friendly, accessible talks from the good Bishop.
A half-hour of religious programming in prime time on a national broadcast network would be unthinkable today - that pretty much goes without saying. And while that is one measure of the change in television between then and now, it's actually another point that I'm thinking of: the idea of a "talking head" as entertainment programming.
There were no fancy graphics, no special effects, on Life is Worth Living; the closest thing being the invisible "angel" (actually a stagehand) responsible for erasing the blackboard Sheen used to illustrate his points. People watched and enjoyed that, week after week. As someone wrote not long ago about the Dick Cavett shows, it hearkens back to a day when conversation was actually considered entertainment - and by that I mean actual, you know, talking, rather than shouting, interrupting, declaiming, insulting, offending, and what have you. Of all the changes we've seen in television over the years, I think this is one of the most underrated and underappreciated.
What we have here is from Good Friday, 1964; It was presented without commercial interruption (as was the norm with religious programming back then, even on network television.*)
*Even series like Studio One, when broadcasting religious-themed episodes such as "Pontius Pilate" and "The Nativity", would show them without interruption, instead grouping the commercials before and after the presentation.
Back tomorrow with another TV Guide blast from the past. TV
Bishop Fulton J. Sheen's Life Is Worth Living ran on DuMont, ABC and in syndication from the early 1950s through the late 1960s. Blessed with a sharp mind, a whimsical sense of humor and a gift of gab, Bishop Sheen brought his ecumenical message to millions of viewers each week; as Brooks and Marsh put it in their Complete Guide to Prime Time Programming, the word "homily" would be strong for the friendly, accessible talks from the good Bishop.
A half-hour of religious programming in prime time on a national broadcast network would be unthinkable today - that pretty much goes without saying. And while that is one measure of the change in television between then and now, it's actually another point that I'm thinking of: the idea of a "talking head" as entertainment programming.
There were no fancy graphics, no special effects, on Life is Worth Living; the closest thing being the invisible "angel" (actually a stagehand) responsible for erasing the blackboard Sheen used to illustrate his points. People watched and enjoyed that, week after week. As someone wrote not long ago about the Dick Cavett shows, it hearkens back to a day when conversation was actually considered entertainment - and by that I mean actual, you know, talking, rather than shouting, interrupting, declaiming, insulting, offending, and what have you. Of all the changes we've seen in television over the years, I think this is one of the most underrated and underappreciated.
What we have here is from Good Friday, 1964; It was presented without commercial interruption (as was the norm with religious programming back then, even on network television.*)
*Even series like Studio One, when broadcasting religious-themed episodes such as "Pontius Pilate" and "The Nativity", would show them without interruption, instead grouping the commercials before and after the presentation.
Back tomorrow with another TV Guide blast from the past. TV
April 17, 2019
The end of an era—in more ways than one
If it were a secret, it would be the world’s worst-kept. Game of Thrones is back.
If you’ve never heard of Game of Thrones, then one can only conclude that you’ve spent too much time, well, on the throne—the porcelain kind, that is. Now, that’s not the same thing as never having seen it—I’ve never seen a second of it myself, and that’s only partially because I don’t have HBO and haven’t had any incentive to get it. Mostly it’s because the show just doesn’t grab me. Lord of the Rings, with its Christian allegory embedded in the books (less so in the movies), was a horse of a different color; Game of Thrones, on the other hand, strikes me as just too much—too much legend, too much scope, too much time required, too much violence, too much incest, too much everything.
It’s the very universality of Game of Thrones that was the subject of Alyssa Bereznak’s article last week at The Ringer, “How ‘Game of Thrones’ Became the Last Piece of the Monoculture,” which asks the question: does the upcoming end of Game of Thrones also represent the end of the shared cultural experience?
For those who hang out in the virtual water cooler part of the Internet, there’s very little else that’s being talked about. In fact, if this season disappoints somehow, I’ve no doubt that there will be those calling on Robert Mueller to launch an investigation, thereby combining the internet’s too most recent obsessions. (It’s a good thing Meghan Markle was never on the show, otherwise the internet might well and truly break, and it would probably be a good thing.) Talk of the series’ final season is everywhere—The Ringer, for instance, which posts at least a couple of new stories each day, but also just about every other place on the internet. In fact, you’d have to make a conscious effort to avoid it. I’ve read enough about it, in my role as cultural archaeologist, to get the gist of what’s going on; it should help me, in a television sense, to keep up with the stories that will follow.
But what I find interesting about this—and I promise I’ll keep this short, no longer than a novella—is the irony of it all. Thanks to what Bereznak calls “entire online ecosystems,” made possible by “a media environment that thrives on obsessive fandom,” Game of Thrones has become the “de facto water cooler topic of the decade.” Yet, as she points out, it’s this very technology that makes it unlikely any other show—or possibly event, short of war—will ever come along again. The internet that helped birth Game of Thrones has, in a sense, moved beyond it, creating “a hyperactive attention economy that has revolutionized both the content people consume and how they consume it.” Using the data mined from viewership numbers and shaped by algorithms, the result is “shows that are far more fractured and niche.”
I started this off by mentioning how unlikely it would be to run across anyone who wasn’t aware of Game of Thrones—I have no doubt that somewhere in the middle of the rain forests of the Congo, there was a viewing party riveted to last weekend’s events—but it would be good to put things in a bit of perspective. The numbers that the program pulls in are modest when compared, say, to the ratings for The Beverly Hillbillies back in the mid ‘60s, and it isn’t as if we haven’t had this kind of excitement and anticipation over a television series before: look at the “Who Shot J.R.?” era of Dallas, for example.
But those came in a different era, when there were only three broadcast networks and the culture was more homogeneous than it is today. In what might be the understatement of all time, things have changed since then. Without trying to get too depressing, it’s probably safe to say that there is no common, shared culture in America anymore. As perhaps befits a country that’s always treasured the rights of the individual, we’ve become a nation of individuals—we’ve ditched radio in favor of our own downloaded playlists, we increasingly cut the cord and program our own television networks, we fractionalize our politics into smaller, more bitter factions with nothing in common.
It’s been held for some time now that only the Super Bowl continues to bring America together in a shared experience, all of us (metaphorically speaking) engaged in the same activity at the same time. Other things have the capacity to do that; 9/11, for instance. But very few pleasant things fit that description, and the more we fragment, the more we’re instructed by social media as to what is and isn’t permissible to be found pleasant, the fewer things we’ll find to celebrate. A while back, David Hofstede wrote a piece in which he discussed the number of television programs that slip under the radar simply because there are too many of them to keep track of, being made by too many different studios. (There’s that too much meme again.) Can television fit the definition of entertainment if there’s nobody aware of it, nobody watching it?
So the world congregates to celebrate the beginning of the end to a series that technology helped to build into a monocultural event, at a time when technology is doing everything possible to prevent that from ever happening again. That is ironic, isn’t it? And it would have made a great topic for an ABC Movie of the Week back in the day, a cautionary tale of artificial intelligence being used to tear apart the fabric of communal society. It probably would have gotten big ratings back then, too. Thing is, it would never get an audience today. TV
If you’ve never heard of Game of Thrones, then one can only conclude that you’ve spent too much time, well, on the throne—the porcelain kind, that is. Now, that’s not the same thing as never having seen it—I’ve never seen a second of it myself, and that’s only partially because I don’t have HBO and haven’t had any incentive to get it. Mostly it’s because the show just doesn’t grab me. Lord of the Rings, with its Christian allegory embedded in the books (less so in the movies), was a horse of a different color; Game of Thrones, on the other hand, strikes me as just too much—too much legend, too much scope, too much time required, too much violence, too much incest, too much everything.
It’s the very universality of Game of Thrones that was the subject of Alyssa Bereznak’s article last week at The Ringer, “How ‘Game of Thrones’ Became the Last Piece of the Monoculture,” which asks the question: does the upcoming end of Game of Thrones also represent the end of the shared cultural experience?
For those who hang out in the virtual water cooler part of the Internet, there’s very little else that’s being talked about. In fact, if this season disappoints somehow, I’ve no doubt that there will be those calling on Robert Mueller to launch an investigation, thereby combining the internet’s too most recent obsessions. (It’s a good thing Meghan Markle was never on the show, otherwise the internet might well and truly break, and it would probably be a good thing.) Talk of the series’ final season is everywhere—The Ringer, for instance, which posts at least a couple of new stories each day, but also just about every other place on the internet. In fact, you’d have to make a conscious effort to avoid it. I’ve read enough about it, in my role as cultural archaeologist, to get the gist of what’s going on; it should help me, in a television sense, to keep up with the stories that will follow.
But what I find interesting about this—and I promise I’ll keep this short, no longer than a novella—is the irony of it all. Thanks to what Bereznak calls “entire online ecosystems,” made possible by “a media environment that thrives on obsessive fandom,” Game of Thrones has become the “de facto water cooler topic of the decade.” Yet, as she points out, it’s this very technology that makes it unlikely any other show—or possibly event, short of war—will ever come along again. The internet that helped birth Game of Thrones has, in a sense, moved beyond it, creating “a hyperactive attention economy that has revolutionized both the content people consume and how they consume it.” Using the data mined from viewership numbers and shaped by algorithms, the result is “shows that are far more fractured and niche.”
I started this off by mentioning how unlikely it would be to run across anyone who wasn’t aware of Game of Thrones—I have no doubt that somewhere in the middle of the rain forests of the Congo, there was a viewing party riveted to last weekend’s events—but it would be good to put things in a bit of perspective. The numbers that the program pulls in are modest when compared, say, to the ratings for The Beverly Hillbillies back in the mid ‘60s, and it isn’t as if we haven’t had this kind of excitement and anticipation over a television series before: look at the “Who Shot J.R.?” era of Dallas, for example.
But those came in a different era, when there were only three broadcast networks and the culture was more homogeneous than it is today. In what might be the understatement of all time, things have changed since then. Without trying to get too depressing, it’s probably safe to say that there is no common, shared culture in America anymore. As perhaps befits a country that’s always treasured the rights of the individual, we’ve become a nation of individuals—we’ve ditched radio in favor of our own downloaded playlists, we increasingly cut the cord and program our own television networks, we fractionalize our politics into smaller, more bitter factions with nothing in common.
It’s been held for some time now that only the Super Bowl continues to bring America together in a shared experience, all of us (metaphorically speaking) engaged in the same activity at the same time. Other things have the capacity to do that; 9/11, for instance. But very few pleasant things fit that description, and the more we fragment, the more we’re instructed by social media as to what is and isn’t permissible to be found pleasant, the fewer things we’ll find to celebrate. A while back, David Hofstede wrote a piece in which he discussed the number of television programs that slip under the radar simply because there are too many of them to keep track of, being made by too many different studios. (There’s that too much meme again.) Can television fit the definition of entertainment if there’s nobody aware of it, nobody watching it?
So the world congregates to celebrate the beginning of the end to a series that technology helped to build into a monocultural event, at a time when technology is doing everything possible to prevent that from ever happening again. That is ironic, isn’t it? And it would have made a great topic for an ABC Movie of the Week back in the day, a cautionary tale of artificial intelligence being used to tear apart the fabric of communal society. It probably would have gotten big ratings back then, too. Thing is, it would never get an audience today. TV
April 15, 2019
What's on TV? Friday, April 22, 1960
We're back to the Minnesota State Edition this week, and without further adieu, here are the Friday night listings!
April 13, 2019
This week in TV Guide: April 16, 1960
Wait, what's this? A new TV Guide—can it be? It can, and it is. Don't get too excited now; the employment circumstances still don't allow for new purchases (if you want to help, buy my books!), but this happens to be one I've had for awhile that I just haven't gotten around to—until now. Next week begins another brief cycle of encore presentations (most of them mixed with new content, to be sure), so enjoy this one while you can!
♦️ ♦️ ♦️
Seeing as how I'm currently appearing on a podcast that's doing an episode-by-episode look at Bourbon Street Beat, it seems appropriate to kick off this week's issue with that story stripped across the top of the cover, and see just what kind of strange we're talking about.
Bourbon Street Beat is out of the Warner Bros. stable, to use a racing metaphor, a detective series in the mold of the studio's 77 Sunset Strip and Hawaiian Eye (with Surfside 6 still to follow) with a bunch of good looking guys living in exotic locations and solving crimes that invariably involve attractive girls. Some call these cookie-cutter shows, and there's more than a little validity to this, but originality has always taken second place to entertainment when it comes to television, and Warner has tended to produce some very entertaining series—among them, Bourbon Street Beat. It's set in New Orleans, stars Richard Long, Andrew Duggan, and Van Williams as the guys, and Arlene Howell as the girl, plus a fine cast of guest stars.
Actually, when it comes down to it, there's nothing particularly strange about Bourbon Street Beat at all. It's the way writer Bob Johnson frames the story, referring to a 1957 episode of the ABC anthology series Conflict called "The Money," noting that the entire cast of unknowns and semiknowns in the episode have since gone on to appear as regulars in various series. Included in that cast was the 6 foot 5 Duggan, who played a crooked private eye turned killer in "The Money," but has since gone straight as one of the good guys on Beat. It's the culmination of a career that has included radio, theater, movie and television work, including appearing as a killer on 77 Sunset Strip, and a three-episode gig as Gentleman Jack Darby on Maverick, both WB properties. He and Long work well on Bourbon Street Beat, and so far the show has raised ABC's Monday night ratings (although not enough to merit a second season).
So is there anything truly strange about all this? Well, not strange, perhaps—I'd probably say "ironic." A couple of weeks ago (1960 time), the show featured an episode called "Twice Betrayed." It's a remake of "The Money," except that this time Duggan's private eye solves the murder instead of committing it. Only in Hollywood, right?
I've raised this point before, usually at Christmastime, but at the risk of beating a dead horse (and just why would someone do that, anyway?), this issue provides us with another example of the continuing disappearance of religion from popular American culture.
April 17, 1960 is Easter Sunday, but the seasonal selections actually begin on Saturday night with NBC's World Wide 60 color presentation of "The Way of the Cross" (8:30 p.m.),a documentary look at the world seen and heard by Jesus during His lifetime. (Capitalization in the original.) Come Sunday morning, it's time for church: CBS leads things off at 9:00 a.m. with a Solemn Pontifical Mass from the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.; that's followed at 10:00 a.m. by an Episcopal service from the National Cathedral, also in D.C. On opposite that, KSTP has a color broadcast of the Easter High Pontifical Mass from St. Peter in Chains Cathedral in Cincinnati.* At 11:00 a.m., WTCN presents a local broadcast of services from the Simpson Methodist Church in Minneapolis.
*Both the 9:00 a.m. Mass in Washington and the 10:00 a.m. Mass in Cincinnati are scheduled for one hour. I've been to several Pontifical High Masses in my day, and I can assure you that they will not be done in one hour; 90 minutes is more likely. I wonder how the networks handled this?
At 11:00 a.m., the CBS Television Workshop presents "Tobias and the Angel," the Old Testament story from the book of Tobit. At 11:15 a.m., KSTP has a 15-minute program of Easter music by the St. Paul Central Senior High School chorus; that's followed at 11:30 p.m. by Richard Kiley as St. Peter in "The Power of the Resurrection." At 1:00 p.m., KROC in Rochester has "Kiss of Judas," the tragic story of Judas Iscariot, and at 5:30 p.m. Raymond Burr stars in a Resurrection story on KMMT in Austin. Finally, at 7:00 p.m. on NBC, Victor Jory introduces an hour of Easter music from Salt Lake City, including selections by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the ballet corps from the University of Utah.
One other thought: The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King is Ned Brooks' guest on Meet the Press (5:00 p.m., NBC); I wonder if it's just a coincidence that Rev. King is appearing on Easter?
It's also the start of baseball season, the last in the Twin Cities before the advent of the Minnesota Twins in 1961. There is no unified television contract between Major League Baseball and the networks; each team is free to make its own deals. All three networks offer weekend games; CBS carries a game each on Saturday and Sunday, with Dizzy Dean and Pee Wee Reese calling the action, while NBC matches the two-games-a-weekend schedule with Lindsey Nelson and former manager Fred Haney behind the mics. (In most cases, you'll see the same two teams on both days.) Over at ABC, it's only Saturday coverage, with Jack Buck and Carl Erskine covering a schedule made up predominantly of San Francisco Giants home games. For starters, this weekend CBS has two games with the Milwaukee Braves and Philadelphia Phillies, while NBC counters with a par featuring the Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds. ABC's game has the Giants hosting the Chicago Cubs from the brand-new Candlestick Park by the bay. And you won't want to miss the debut of Home Run Derby, which airs here at 10:30 p.m. Monday night on WCCO; they don't come much bigger than this battle between Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays.
Starting in 1954, Steve Allen helmed his own NBC variety show which, at the beginning, aired opposite that of Ed Sullivan. It didn't run as long as Ed's, of course, but then Allen said his goal was never to conquer Ed, but to coexist with him, which he did for several seasons. Let's see who gets the best of the contest this week.
Sullivan: Ed's guests are gospel singer Mahalia Jackson; song stylist Roberta Sherwood and her three sons; Wayne and Shuster, who cavort as advertising men trying to popularize the income tax; singers Patricia Neway and Regina Sarfaty, who appear in a scene from Gian Carlo Menotti's opera The Consul, David Seville and the Chipmunks, novelty act.
Allen: Steve's guests are Charles Laughton, Martha Raye and singer Mark Murphy. Steve and Don Knotts, Louis Nye, Gabe Dell, Bill Dana and Pat Harrington Jr. join Martha in a sketch about the problems of a night club singer.
If you want to know how Ed Sullivan managed to stay on top for so long, tonight is a pretty good example: comedy, pop music, gospel, opera, and the Chipmunks—you're not going to find that combination very often. Menotti's opera The Consul, one of his best, won the Pulitzer Prize and opened on Broadway. I'll bet he never imagined it would share the same stage with Alvin.
But then Steverino's pretty good this week as well. I would imagine Laughton might be doing one of the readings that he became so famous for in the latter part of his career; maybe from the Bible, considering the time of the year. And his cast of regulars is almost without parallel. Still, although it's a close call, Sullivan gets the nod this week.
Seeing as how I'm currently appearing on a podcast that's doing an episode-by-episode look at Bourbon Street Beat, it seems appropriate to kick off this week's issue with that story stripped across the top of the cover, and see just what kind of strange we're talking about.
Bourbon Street Beat is out of the Warner Bros. stable, to use a racing metaphor, a detective series in the mold of the studio's 77 Sunset Strip and Hawaiian Eye (with Surfside 6 still to follow) with a bunch of good looking guys living in exotic locations and solving crimes that invariably involve attractive girls. Some call these cookie-cutter shows, and there's more than a little validity to this, but originality has always taken second place to entertainment when it comes to television, and Warner has tended to produce some very entertaining series—among them, Bourbon Street Beat. It's set in New Orleans, stars Richard Long, Andrew Duggan, and Van Williams as the guys, and Arlene Howell as the girl, plus a fine cast of guest stars.
Actually, when it comes down to it, there's nothing particularly strange about Bourbon Street Beat at all. It's the way writer Bob Johnson frames the story, referring to a 1957 episode of the ABC anthology series Conflict called "The Money," noting that the entire cast of unknowns and semiknowns in the episode have since gone on to appear as regulars in various series. Included in that cast was the 6 foot 5 Duggan, who played a crooked private eye turned killer in "The Money," but has since gone straight as one of the good guys on Beat. It's the culmination of a career that has included radio, theater, movie and television work, including appearing as a killer on 77 Sunset Strip, and a three-episode gig as Gentleman Jack Darby on Maverick, both WB properties. He and Long work well on Bourbon Street Beat, and so far the show has raised ABC's Monday night ratings (although not enough to merit a second season).
So is there anything truly strange about all this? Well, not strange, perhaps—I'd probably say "ironic." A couple of weeks ago (1960 time), the show featured an episode called "Twice Betrayed." It's a remake of "The Money," except that this time Duggan's private eye solves the murder instead of committing it. Only in Hollywood, right?
♦️ ♦️ ♦️
I've raised this point before, usually at Christmastime, but at the risk of beating a dead horse (and just why would someone do that, anyway?), this issue provides us with another example of the continuing disappearance of religion from popular American culture.
April 17, 1960 is Easter Sunday, but the seasonal selections actually begin on Saturday night with NBC's World Wide 60 color presentation of "The Way of the Cross" (8:30 p.m.),a documentary look at the world seen and heard by Jesus during His lifetime. (Capitalization in the original.) Come Sunday morning, it's time for church: CBS leads things off at 9:00 a.m. with a Solemn Pontifical Mass from the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.; that's followed at 10:00 a.m. by an Episcopal service from the National Cathedral, also in D.C. On opposite that, KSTP has a color broadcast of the Easter High Pontifical Mass from St. Peter in Chains Cathedral in Cincinnati.* At 11:00 a.m., WTCN presents a local broadcast of services from the Simpson Methodist Church in Minneapolis.
*Both the 9:00 a.m. Mass in Washington and the 10:00 a.m. Mass in Cincinnati are scheduled for one hour. I've been to several Pontifical High Masses in my day, and I can assure you that they will not be done in one hour; 90 minutes is more likely. I wonder how the networks handled this?
At 11:00 a.m., the CBS Television Workshop presents "Tobias and the Angel," the Old Testament story from the book of Tobit. At 11:15 a.m., KSTP has a 15-minute program of Easter music by the St. Paul Central Senior High School chorus; that's followed at 11:30 p.m. by Richard Kiley as St. Peter in "The Power of the Resurrection." At 1:00 p.m., KROC in Rochester has "Kiss of Judas," the tragic story of Judas Iscariot, and at 5:30 p.m. Raymond Burr stars in a Resurrection story on KMMT in Austin. Finally, at 7:00 p.m. on NBC, Victor Jory introduces an hour of Easter music from Salt Lake City, including selections by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the ballet corps from the University of Utah.
One other thought: The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King is Ned Brooks' guest on Meet the Press (5:00 p.m., NBC); I wonder if it's just a coincidence that Rev. King is appearing on Easter?
♦️ ♦️ ♦️
It's also the start of baseball season, the last in the Twin Cities before the advent of the Minnesota Twins in 1961. There is no unified television contract between Major League Baseball and the networks; each team is free to make its own deals. All three networks offer weekend games; CBS carries a game each on Saturday and Sunday, with Dizzy Dean and Pee Wee Reese calling the action, while NBC matches the two-games-a-weekend schedule with Lindsey Nelson and former manager Fred Haney behind the mics. (In most cases, you'll see the same two teams on both days.) Over at ABC, it's only Saturday coverage, with Jack Buck and Carl Erskine covering a schedule made up predominantly of San Francisco Giants home games. For starters, this weekend CBS has two games with the Milwaukee Braves and Philadelphia Phillies, while NBC counters with a par featuring the Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds. ABC's game has the Giants hosting the Chicago Cubs from the brand-new Candlestick Park by the bay. And you won't want to miss the debut of Home Run Derby, which airs here at 10:30 p.m. Monday night on WCCO; they don't come much bigger than this battle between Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays.
♦️ ♦️ ♦️
Sullivan: Ed's guests are gospel singer Mahalia Jackson; song stylist Roberta Sherwood and her three sons; Wayne and Shuster, who cavort as advertising men trying to popularize the income tax; singers Patricia Neway and Regina Sarfaty, who appear in a scene from Gian Carlo Menotti's opera The Consul, David Seville and the Chipmunks, novelty act.
Allen: Steve's guests are Charles Laughton, Martha Raye and singer Mark Murphy. Steve and Don Knotts, Louis Nye, Gabe Dell, Bill Dana and Pat Harrington Jr. join Martha in a sketch about the problems of a night club singer.
If you want to know how Ed Sullivan managed to stay on top for so long, tonight is a pretty good example: comedy, pop music, gospel, opera, and the Chipmunks—you're not going to find that combination very often. Menotti's opera The Consul, one of his best, won the Pulitzer Prize and opened on Broadway. I'll bet he never imagined it would share the same stage with Alvin.
But then Steverino's pretty good this week as well. I would imagine Laughton might be doing one of the readings that he became so famous for in the latter part of his career; maybe from the Bible, considering the time of the year. And his cast of regulars is almost without parallel. Still, although it's a close call, Sullivan gets the nod this week.
♦️ ♦️ ♦️
What else have we got this week?
Tuesday's Startime (7:30 p.m., NBC) is an unusual episode. "Well, What About You?" produced by former movie honcho Dore Schary, is a star-studded, non-partisan get-out-the-vote variety special (and you thought "Rock the Vote" was original?) hosted by Eddie Albert and featuring Marian Anderson, Polly Bergen, Mike Wallace, Martin Gabel, Fred Clark, Joseph N. Welch (of Army-McCarthy fame) are among the stars, and they're surrounded by a host of politicians, including Nelson Rockefeller, Adlai Stevenson, and the spokesmen for both parties—who just happen to be Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy.
On Wednesday, Gene Fullmer defends his middleweight boxing championship against Joey Giardello from Bozeman, Montana. (9:00 p.m., ABC) Fullmer retains the title on a draw; he'll lose the title two years later to Dick Tiger.
DuPont Show of the Month (7:00 p.m., CBS), with Sandra Church (currently appearing on Broadway in the smash musical Gypsy) as the young Ruth Gordon Jones, along with Robert Preston, looking every bit as charming as Professor Harold Hill. In case you didn't know, Ruth Gordon had quite a writing career, including three Academy Award screenplay nominations, and a co-writing credit for the Spencer Tracy-Katharine Hepburn comedy Adam's Rib.
Ruth Gordon is known as one of America's finest stars of stage and screen, but Thursday night she makes a rare television appearance—or rather, it's her writing in the spotlight. Her autobiographical play, "Years Ago," is featured on the DuPont Show of the Month (7:00 p.m., CBS) with Sandra Church as the young Ruth Gordon Jones, starring opposite Robert Preston, looking every bit as charming as Professor Harold Hill.
Friday's Playhouse 90 special (8:00 p.m., CBS) has an intriguing story. "Journey to the Day" takes place in a state mental hospital, where six patients are involved in group therapy. John Frankenheimer directs, with a cast including Mary Astor, Mike Nichols, Janice Rule, Steven Hill, and James Dunn.
And finally, in New York, the TV Teletype reports that Jackie Gleason is flying Edward R. Murrow in from Asia and Mickey Rooney from Hollywood to appear as themselves in his new TV special "Million Dollar Incident," due to air next season on CBS. I've never seen this, and the reviews I've read have been mixed, but it sounds like a lot of fun. The premise: Gleason, playing himself, "is kidnapped and discovers nobody will pay the $1,000,000 ransom." How sweet it isn't? TV
Tuesday's Startime (7:30 p.m., NBC) is an unusual episode. "Well, What About You?" produced by former movie honcho Dore Schary, is a star-studded, non-partisan get-out-the-vote variety special (and you thought "Rock the Vote" was original?) hosted by Eddie Albert and featuring Marian Anderson, Polly Bergen, Mike Wallace, Martin Gabel, Fred Clark, Joseph N. Welch (of Army-McCarthy fame) are among the stars, and they're surrounded by a host of politicians, including Nelson Rockefeller, Adlai Stevenson, and the spokesmen for both parties—who just happen to be Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy.
On Wednesday, Gene Fullmer defends his middleweight boxing championship against Joey Giardello from Bozeman, Montana. (9:00 p.m., ABC) Fullmer retains the title on a draw; he'll lose the title two years later to Dick Tiger.
DuPont Show of the Month (7:00 p.m., CBS), with Sandra Church (currently appearing on Broadway in the smash musical Gypsy) as the young Ruth Gordon Jones, along with Robert Preston, looking every bit as charming as Professor Harold Hill. In case you didn't know, Ruth Gordon had quite a writing career, including three Academy Award screenplay nominations, and a co-writing credit for the Spencer Tracy-Katharine Hepburn comedy Adam's Rib.
Ruth Gordon is known as one of America's finest stars of stage and screen, but Thursday night she makes a rare television appearance—or rather, it's her writing in the spotlight. Her autobiographical play, "Years Ago," is featured on the DuPont Show of the Month (7:00 p.m., CBS) with Sandra Church as the young Ruth Gordon Jones, starring opposite Robert Preston, looking every bit as charming as Professor Harold Hill.
Friday's Playhouse 90 special (8:00 p.m., CBS) has an intriguing story. "Journey to the Day" takes place in a state mental hospital, where six patients are involved in group therapy. John Frankenheimer directs, with a cast including Mary Astor, Mike Nichols, Janice Rule, Steven Hill, and James Dunn.
And finally, in New York, the TV Teletype reports that Jackie Gleason is flying Edward R. Murrow in from Asia and Mickey Rooney from Hollywood to appear as themselves in his new TV special "Million Dollar Incident," due to air next season on CBS. I've never seen this, and the reviews I've read have been mixed, but it sounds like a lot of fun. The premise: Gleason, playing himself, "is kidnapped and discovers nobody will pay the $1,000,000 ransom." How sweet it isn't? TV
April 12, 2019
Around the dial
Whether or not you remember him (and in an era that seems to lack any sense of the past, that probably includes a lot of people), Charles Van Doren was one of the major figures in television history. His rise to fame following his electrifying appearances on Twenty-One, and the subsequent revelation that he was part of the Quiz Show Scandal, guaranteed that; however, unlike the disgraced celebrities of today (say, Lori Loughlin), Van Doren didn't consult a crisis expert afterward; he accepted the exile that was an inevitable consequence of what he'd done, and remained there, writing books and teaching but otherwise refusing the opportunity to reenter public life. I've always found something dignified about that, even noble in a way. Van Doren died this week at age 93; the Broadcasting Archives at the University of Maryland links to this Washington Post obit. I'd also recommend reading the one and only time Van Doren addressed what happened, when he wrote about it in The New Yorker.
Last week we looked at FredFlix's open letter to MeTV, which contained a kind of wish list for a future broadcasting schedule. Well, he's back this week with a revised schedule, based suggestions from his viewers. I know you'll want to watch it.
This isn't really about television, but I enjoyed it anyway: Ben Lindbergh's essay at The Ringer on how the Cleveland Indians' rally in the movie Major League shouldn't have counted. I include this because if you read it, you'll know something of what it's like watching TV with me.
Part seven of Jack's Hitchcock Project on James P. Cavanagh over at bare-bones e-zine, and it's the third season episode "Sylvia." I must confess that although I've seen this episode, I don't remember it. (Getting old, I guess.) I trust Jack's observation that it's a good one.
Commentary tracks can be one of the simple pleasures of a DVD, although I'll readily admit that I don't make enough use of them. But at Comfort TV, David helps fill in the gaps with three favorite commentary tracks, and one that should have been.
At Bob Crane: Life & Legacy, Carol offers a warm, heartfelt remembrance of Johnny Thompson, "The Great Tomsoni," who died last month. Johnny and his wife, Pam, were part of Carol's Herculean efforts to give people the truth about Bob Crane's life. R.I.P.
Television's New Frontier: the 1960s moves to 1961 to pick up the second half of the second season of Dennis the Menace. Recognizing the popularity of Dennis's long-suffering next-door neighbor, the show could have been renamed The Constant Humiliation of George Wilson. You get the point.
"A Busy Person's Guide to TV" could describe what things are like today, with a myriad number of cable and streaming options for the television aficionado, but in fact it's the cover story of the April 8, 1989 issue of TV Guide. Read all about it at Television Obscurities. TV
Last week we looked at FredFlix's open letter to MeTV, which contained a kind of wish list for a future broadcasting schedule. Well, he's back this week with a revised schedule, based suggestions from his viewers. I know you'll want to watch it.
This isn't really about television, but I enjoyed it anyway: Ben Lindbergh's essay at The Ringer on how the Cleveland Indians' rally in the movie Major League shouldn't have counted. I include this because if you read it, you'll know something of what it's like watching TV with me.
Part seven of Jack's Hitchcock Project on James P. Cavanagh over at bare-bones e-zine, and it's the third season episode "Sylvia." I must confess that although I've seen this episode, I don't remember it. (Getting old, I guess.) I trust Jack's observation that it's a good one.
Commentary tracks can be one of the simple pleasures of a DVD, although I'll readily admit that I don't make enough use of them. But at Comfort TV, David helps fill in the gaps with three favorite commentary tracks, and one that should have been.
At Bob Crane: Life & Legacy, Carol offers a warm, heartfelt remembrance of Johnny Thompson, "The Great Tomsoni," who died last month. Johnny and his wife, Pam, were part of Carol's Herculean efforts to give people the truth about Bob Crane's life. R.I.P.
Television's New Frontier: the 1960s moves to 1961 to pick up the second half of the second season of Dennis the Menace. Recognizing the popularity of Dennis's long-suffering next-door neighbor, the show could have been renamed The Constant Humiliation of George Wilson. You get the point.
"A Busy Person's Guide to TV" could describe what things are like today, with a myriad number of cable and streaming options for the television aficionado, but in fact it's the cover story of the April 8, 1989 issue of TV Guide. Read all about it at Television Obscurities. TV
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