September 16, 2019

What's on TV? Thursday, September 19, 1963

It's odd, considering this is the Fall Edition, that there are very few new shows premiering this Thursday. So why, you may ask, did I choose to spotlight this day? Partly a random choice, and partly because there are still things to report on in the listings. At any rate, I think you'll like what's on tap. We're looking at the Minneapolis-St. Paul edition.


 2  KTCA (EDUC.)

Morning

    8:40
ARITHMETIC—Grade 3

    9:00
TO BE ANNOUNCED

    9:50
SINGING TOGETHER—Grade 4

Afternoon

  12:30
COMMUNICATIONS—Paterek

    1:00
TO BE ANNOUNCED

    1:30
AGE OF KINGS—Shakespeare

    2:30
TO BE ANNOUNCED

    2:50
HEALTH—Grade 4

    3:15
CHEMISTRY—David Stoppel

Evening

    6:30
BIG PICTURE—Army

    7:00
QUEST FOR CERTAINTY

    7:30
TO BE ANNOUNCED

    8:00
GUEST ARTIST CONCERT

    8:30
TO BE ANNOUNCED

    9:00
TOWN AND COUNTRY—Wolf

  10:00
BIG PICTURE—Army

  10:30
TO BE ANNOUNCED

A lot of TBD today, but it's nice to see An Age of Kings, which I've written about before; a clever way to present, in linear fashion, Shakespeare's history plays.


 4  WCCO (CBS)

Morning

    6:30
UNDERSTANDING OUR WORLD

    7:00
SIEGFRIED AND CLANCY

    8:00
CAPTAIN KANGAROO—Children

    9:00
NEWS—Dean Montgomery

    9:15
WHAT’S NEW—Women

    9:25
DR. REUBEN K. YOUNGDAHL

    9:30
I LOVE LUCY—Comedy

  10:00
McCOYS—Comedy

  10:30
PETE AND GLADYS—Comedy

  11:00
LOVE OF LIFE

  11:25
NEWS—Harry Reasoner

  11:30
SEARCH FOR TOMORROW

  11:45
GUIDING LIGHT—Serial

Afternoon

  12:00
NEWS—Dave Moore

  12:15
SOMETHING SPECIAL

  12:20
WEATHER—Bud Kraehling

  12:30
AS THE WORLD TURNS—Serial

    1:00
PASSWORD—Allen Ludden
Guests: Carol Channing, Robert Reed

    1:30
HOUSE PARTY—Art Linkletter
Guest: Joseph Cossman

    2:00
TO TELL THE TRUTH—Collyer
Panelists: Joan Fontaine, Dana Andrews, Jan Murray, Phyllis Newman

    2:25
NEWS—Douglas Edwards

    2:30
EDGE OF NIGHT—Serial

    3:00
SECRET STORM—Serial

    3:30
BEST OF GROUCHO—Quiz

    4:00
AROUND THE TOWN—Harvey

    4:30
AXEL AND DEPUTY DAWG

    5:00
YOGI BEAR—Cartoons

    5:30
NEWS—Walter Cronkite

Evening

    6:00
NEWS—Dean Montgomery

    6:15
SPORTS—Don Dahl

    6:20
SPOTLIGHT—George Rice

    6:25
WEATHER—Don O’ Brien

    6:30
OUTDOOR SPORTS—Johnson

    7:00
PERRY MASON—Mystery
Next week, “Rawhide” movies into this time period, followed by “Perry Mason,” 8-9 P.M.

    8:00
TWILIGHT ZONE—Drama
Next week, “Perry Mason” takes over this time period, with “Twilight Zone” moving to Friday, 8:30 P.M.

    9:00
NURSES—Drama

  10:00
NEWS—Dave Moore

  10:15
WEATHER—Bud Kraehling

  10:20
SPORTS—Hal Scott

  10:30
STEVE ALLEN—Variety
Guests: Mel Tormé, Daniele Aubry

  12:00
MOVIE—Western
“The Dalton Girls” (1957)
News will follow the movie

Tonight's Twilight Zone, "The Thirty-Fathom Grave," is the last of the hourly episodes; next week, when TZ moves to Friday at 8:30 p.m., it will be returning to its traditional (and more effective) half-hour.


 5  KSTP (NBC)

Morning

    6:45
COUNTRY STYLE, U.S.A.—Music

    7:00
TODAY—Hugh Downs

    9:00
SAY WHEN—Art James
Guest: Bill Dana

    9:25
NEWS—Edwin Newman

    9:30
PLAY YOUR HUNCH—Lewis  COLOR 

  10:00
CONCENTRATION—Hugh Downs

  10:30
MISSING LINKS—Ed McMahon  COLOR 
Panelists: Kitty Carlisle, Nipsey Russell, Sam Levenson

  11:00
FIRST IMPRESSION  COLOR 
Panelists: Ross Martin, Elena Verdugo, Dennis James

  11:30
TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES

  11:55
NEWS—Ray Scherer

Afternoon

  12:00
NEWS—John MacDougall

  12:15
WEATHER—Johnny Morris

  12:20
TREASURE CHEST  COLOR 

    1:00
PEOPLE WILL TALK  COLOR 

    1:25
NEWS—Floyd Kalber

    1:30
DOCTORS—Drama

    2:00
LORETTA YOUNG—Drama

    2:30
YOU DON’T SAY!—Tom Kennedy  COLOR 
Guests: Suzy Parker, Lee Marvin

    3:00
MATCH GAME—Gene Rayburn
Guests: Abe Burrows, Dorothy Collins

    3:25
NEWS—Sander Vanocur

    3:30
MAKE ROOM FOR DADDY

    4:00
BETTY WELLS CHATS

    4:05
MOVIE—Drama
"Lifeboat" (1944)

    5:25
DOCTOR’S HOUSE CALL—Fox

    5:30
NEWS—Huntley, Brinkley

Evening

    6:00
NEWS—Bob Ryan

    6:15
WEATHER—Johnny Morris

    6:25
SPORTS—Al Tighe

    6:30
TEMPLE HOUSTON—Western  DEBUT 

    7:30
DR. KILDARE—Drama

    8:30
HAZEL—Shirley Booth  RETURN   COLOR 

    9:00
EXPERIMENT IN EXCELLENCE  SPECIAL 

  10:00
NEWS—John MacDougall

  10:15
WEATHER—Johnny Morris

  10:20
SPORTS—Al Tighe

  10:30
JOHNNY CARSON—Variety  COLOR 
Guests: Patachou, Bill Dana, Anita Ray and Diane Hall

  12:00
NEWS AND SPORTS

Not that I'm obsessed with this kind of minutiae or anything, but I have to wonder why The Doctors is listed as "Drama" rather than "Serial." Perhaps Mike Doran, our go-to on daytime dramas, has some insight; I've always known The Doctors as a serial, but if any daytime drama deserved to be called a "Drama," I'd have said The Edge of Night.


 9  KMSP (ABC)

Morning

    7:40
CHAPEL OF THE AIR—Religion

    7:45
BREAKFAST—Grandpa Ken

    9:00
ROMPER ROOM—Miss Betty

  10:00
PRICE IS RIGHT—Bill Cullen

  10:30
SEVEN KEYS—Jack Narz

  11:00
ERNIE FORD—Variety

  11:30
PEOPLE ARE FUNNY—Linkletter

Afternoon

  12:00
GENERAL HOSPITAL—Serial

  12:30
FATHER KNOWS BEST—Comedy

    1:00
PEOPLE’S CHOICE—Comedy

    1:30
DAY IN COURT—Drama

    1:55
NEWS—Lisa Howard

    2:00
QUEEN FOR A DAY—Bailey

    2:30
WHO DO YOU TRUST?

    3:00
TRAILMASTER—Western

    4:00
ADVENTURES IN PARADISE

    5:00
NEWS—Bob Allard

    5:15
NEWS—Ron Cochran

    5:30
LEAVE IT TO BEAVER—Comedy

Evening

    6:00
TOP CAT—Cartoon

    6:30
FLINTSTONES—Cartoon  COLOR 

    7:00
DONNA REED—Comedy

    7:30
MY THREE SONS—Comedy

    8:00
JIMMY DEAN—Variety  DEBUT 
Guests: Fred Flintstone, Dick Shawn

    9:00
SID CAESAR—EDIE ADAMS TOGETHER  SPECIAL 

  10:00
NEWS, WEATHER, SPORTS

  10:30
UNTOUCHABLES—Drama

  11:30
CAIN’S HUNDRED—Police  RETURN 

  12:30
NEWS

A couple of things in play here. First, The Flintstones kicks off their new season with the rightfully famous episode in which Ann-Margret appears (or at least her voice does), as "Ann-Margrock." Whoever wrote the program description seems a little disappointed that there's not more to the episode, describing her as "easy on anyone's eyes" (true), and adding that she's "lending her voice (and voice only)" to tonight's show. Oh well. Later on, that Sid Caesar-Edie Adams special is a kind of warm-up for the separate shows they'll be hosting on alternate weeks.


11 WTCN (IND.)

Morning

  11:25
WE LEARN TO LIVE—Religion

  11:30
CARTOON CIRCUS—Children

  11:45
NEWS—Bob Landon

  11:55
TAKE FIVE—Jan Werner

Afternoon

  12:00
LUNCH WITH CASEY

  12:45
KING AND ODIE—Cartoon

    1:00
MOVIE—Drama
“Deception” (1946)

    2:45
LEE PHILLIP—Women
Guests: the Smothers Brothers, Dr. Willis J. Potts

    3:00
DECEMBER BRIDE—Comedy

    3:30
ROBIN HOOD—Adventure

    4:00
POPEYE AND PETE—Dave Lee

    4:30
MICKEY MOUSE CLUB—Children

    5:00
SUPERMAN—Adventure

    5:30
ROCKY AND HIS FRIENDS

Evening

    6:00
WHIRLYBIRDS—Adventure

    6:30
BOLD JOURNEY—Travel

    7:00
SEVEN LEAGUE BOOTS—Travel

    7:30
SEA HUNT—Adventure

    8:00
LET’S GO TO THE RACES

    8:30
ONE STEP BEYOND—Drama

    9:00
DEPUTY—Western

    9:30
NEWS—Dick Ford

    9:45
WEATHER—Stuart A. Lindman

    9:50
SPORTS—Beutel, Horner

  10:00
MOVIE—Drama
“All the King’s Men” (1949)

Let's Go to the Races is one of those programs where you pick up a card at your local grocery store and play along with the show as it presents filmed horse races from Florida. Here's a story about the 1970s version, which has the same host (Jack Drees) and appears to follow the same format. I preferred the version that had racing cars rather than horses, called Race to RichesTV  

4 comments:

  1. In direct response to your call-out:

    - When NBC started The Doctors, they set great store by the fact that it was not a serial.
    In its earliest days (beginning in April of'63), The Doctors tried to do a different story every day; a few months in, the producers determined that a more practical approach was to do a self-contained five-part story each week.
    The Doctors didn't become a full-fledged daily serial until March of '64, just shy of its first anniversary.
    Take another look at the Channel 9 listing: General Hospital is a serial, while Day In Court (which did a self-contained story each day) is a drama.
    Those categories always seemed to me (even as a kid) to be kind of arbitrary: I would have classified Edge Of Night as a mystery - but hey, that's just me …

    Elsewhere:
    - Noting that Channel 4 is bypassing the CBS network offering at 6:30, the final showing of Fair Exchange, one of my "lost favorites" from my kidhood.
    This was the one about American and British families sending their teenage daughters to live with each other for a year; pretty funny show - and America's first exposure to Judy Carne (it was while she was filming this show in Hollywood that she met Burt Reynolds - but that's another story …).
    Fair Exchange started out as an hour-long show; CBS cancelled it midyear, but Lucy Ball strong-armed the net into bringing it back in spring as a half-hour (she even did promo spots calling it "my favorite show"), but to no avail.
    It happens …

    - On ABC, Sid Caesar and Edie Adams were underwritten by a sponsor, the Consolidated Cigar Co., makers of Muriel Cigars (Edie: "Why don't you pick one up and smoke it some time?") and Dutch Masters (Sid's legacy from the late Ernie Kovacs). They bought the weekly slot from ABC, which guaranteed them the full year, ratings notwithstanding (and they didn't - and that's another story …).

    - On the bicycle this week, I will note that Steve Allen's show in Chicago tonight features Kyu Sakamoto, the Japanese crooner whose single "Sukiyaki" was a major earworm during the summer of '63; Channel 4 should be getting this one in a week's time.

    - Lee Phillip's talk show on Channel 11 is a pickup from WBBM, Channel 2 (CBS) in Chicago; how much of a delay I don't know (Chicago got it live every day).
    Dr. Potts was a local pediatrician who was a frequent guest with "Miss Lee", as she was phasing out of being called.

    - Lee Marvin on You Don't Say! - playing a game?
    Not as odd as you might think.
    This season, Marvin is promoting his new syndie series, Lawbreaker.
    This series is a semi-documentary dramatization of true crime stories from various cities throughout the USA.
    The real cops, and sometimes the real crooks, are interviewed on camera (Marvin is edited into the interviews, quite obviously), with the dramatizations done by local talent.
    Each show spotlights a different city; the whole series is available on DVD.
    I would call your attention to an episode taking place in Dallas, Texas; several of the Dallas cops appearing in the episode may look familiar, from an unrelated event that occurred later that year - and that's definitely another story …

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Re The Doctors - I was writing up a future TVG issue with Dr. Benjamin Spock, and he referred to how he used to think The Doctors dealt with some fairly serious medical issues (which would coincide with the "drama" classification), but he didn't watch it much now because it had gotten more into the private lives and romances of the doctors (and nurses). By this time, TVG classifies it as a "serial" just like the other soapers.

      Delete
  2. I'm interested to know how "Fred Flintstone" made a guest appearance on Jimmy Dean's show.

    ReplyDelete
  3. "The Doctors" current airs every weekday at noon EDT on Retro TV.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for writing! Drive safely!