This week in TV Guide: July 30, 1966

One of my favorite sections of the old TV Guide was the two-part TV Teletype, which appeared on yellow pages at the front and back of each issue. One page was devoted to industry news from New York, the other to Hollywood; as the television industry moved more and more to the West Coast, the New York sections became smaller and smaller, often running no more than a couple of paragraphs. With its short, succinct sentences separated by ellipses, it was a dandy way to pack a lot of news into a page or two, and it was often the first thing I turned to in each issue—after the sports section, of course.

When it comes to this week's issue, well, it's full of articles but not a whole lot of information, if you know what I mean, especially when it comes to the lede. I can't really ignore an article about Johnny Carson, but I don't want to spend a lot of time on it either. So, I thought: why not write about these articles as if they were part of the Teletype? I can't promise that this little experiment will work, but what's life like without taking some chances? So. . . 

Here's Johnny! MAURICE CONDON reports that the people of Norfolk, Nebraska remember their favorite son, currently hosting NBC's Tonight Show. . . "John Carson was a good student," says Jennie Walker, Carson's math teacher at Norfolk High. "John always had a fast and funny answer" to whatever you might ask him, according to Chuck Howser, high school buddy. . . The Caauwe family now lives in the house Carson grew up in. "I sleep in Johnny Carson's bedroom!" says nine-year-old Theresa. She won't be the only woman to make that claim over the years. . . Carson got his broadcasting start at radio and TV station WOW in Omaha. He once paid for a 20-cent long-distance call by check, delivered to the station's auditor by armed guards. Cost him $25 to rent, recalls general manager Bill Wiseman Sr. . . . For next year's celebration commemorating 100 years of Nebraska statehood, Marie Laubsch, former owner of Carson's favorite hamburger haunt, says, "You tell John to come home and I'll come out of retirement and fatten him up with some of those good Norfolk hamburgers!"

MURIAL DAVIDSON reports from backstage at Virginia Graham's show Girl Talk that it's all fangs and claws when the girls let down their hair and let loose their tongues. . . Show's producer-director, Monty Morgan, says if Clare Boothe Luce wants to write a sequel to "The Women," she should start here: "She would come up with all the feminine cattiness she could ever need.". . . Example: famed gossip columnist Cindy Adams, discussing her various trips and exploits, starts a story about beingin a fabulous restaurant. Interrupts columnist Earl Wilson's wife, "As a waitress?" . . . Columnist Sheila Graham said that Zsa Zsa Gabor's most recent marriage "would last only as long as it took you to walk from Tiffany to Cartier." Zsa Zsa takes offense says Sheila's "too old" to sympathize with those in love. Sheila didn't reply, but friend and fellow columnist Suzy Knickerbocker did: "Zsa Zsa has an age complex and she has a right to one." . . . An actress and an author came to blows before a show; turns out they were both ex-wives of the same husband. . .  Virginia says you can always tell who the biggest stars are: "the bigger the woman, the less mean or catty she is about other women."

Singer John Davidson admits to ROBERT HIGGINS that "I'm terrified that people won't like me," feels that he's trapped in "all-American boy" image. The son of a Baptist minister, Davidson is tired of living up to a certain image, perhaps one reason why he becomes a virulent athiest and humanist. . . Davidson is so dedicated to his career he has no time for anything else. "I'm scared that people will find out that I'm only interested in things that affect me," says that until a year ago, he'd never read a newspaper. . . With no social life, he finds himself at home with monkeys. "They ask nothing in return. It's guaranteed acceptance." When his last monkey died, Davidson cried for a half-hour. . . Davidson knows that until he stops running scared and faces himself, people "will never know how much I have to offer."

Why aren't their more Negroes in the television industry? What it all boils down to, says EDITH EFRON, is that "most Negroes—even, in many cases, graduates of Negro colleges—are still unqualified for work in a complex industry." . . . Broadcast Skills Bank created by National Urban League to increase numbers, provide training lacking elsewhere. Problem: Negroes aren't applying. Westinghouse's George Norford says they haven't been particularly welcome in the past, remain skeptical about the "honesty and sincerity of the programs.". . . Says Otis Finley Jr. of the Urban League, "Our job now is to help our students leapfrog over generations of neglect and frustration into the age of astronauts, automation, cyberneties and mass-communication." It hasn't happened yet, but Negro composer George Broderick says those in the industry today are trail blazers: "They’re opening up the paths that the others will eventually follow." 

So there you have it, highlights from this week's issue. Of course, that's not all there; for the rest, just read on.

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During the 60s, the Ed Sullivan Show and The Hollywood Palace were the premiere variety shows on television. Whenever they appear in TV Guide together, we'll match them up and see who has the best lineup..

Sullivan: Ed's guests are Brigitte Bardot; comics Alan King, and Wayne and Shuster; singers Leslie Uggams, Jimmy Roselli, the King Family and the Four Seasons; and the Bel Caron Trio, adagio dancers. Ed interviews Brigitte about her impressions of the United States, and Wayne and Shuster appear in a sketch about two bank robbers who are being watched on closed-circuit TV. 

Palace: Host Arthur Godfrey presents comedian Sid Caesar; singer Abbe Lane; the Mamas and the Papas, rock ‘n’ roll group; comic Corbett Monica; the Berosinis, Czecholslovakian acrobats; and Les Apollos, balancing act. Sketch: Sid portrays a Viennese filmmaker who tries to save a failing Hollywood studio.

We can be reasonably certain of this week's lineups, since both shows are in the midst of summer reruns. I suppose your affection (or lack thereof) for Arthur Godfrey goes a long way toward determining how you feel about Palace, but he does have a good supporting cast, particularly Sid Caesar and Abbe Lane. (I was never a big fan of the Mamas and the Papas, so we'll give them a pass.) On the flip side, Ed has Alan King, his favorites Wayne and Shuster, and, of course, Bardot. I'm afraid I can't really decide, so I'm calling this week a Push.

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The weekend begins with the world's biggest single-day sporting event, the World Cup soccer final, shown for the first time ever on American television in a same-day broadcast from Wembley Stadium in London, via Early Bird satellite. (Saturday, 9:00 a.m. PT, NBC) The TV Guide Close-Up says it's live, but other sources say it's on a two-hour film delay; my own research indicates that NBC broadcast the match simultaneously in all time zones, and a 9:00 a.m. PT start translates to 5:00 p.m. in London. Since the kickoff actually occurred at 3:00 p.m. over there, this tends to confirm the film-delay theory. I like the idea that it was live, though.

Regardless, it's quite a debut for the sport. The match, played before a crowd of nearly 100,000 (including Queen Elizabeth) pits home favorites England against West Germany. "I After regulation time ends with the match level at 2-2, England scores twice during the 30-minute extra time to win 4-2.* With England's recent loss to Spain in the European Championships, this remains the country's only major international tournament victory. And despite the growth of soccer in the United States, the World Cup final wouldn't be shown live on broadcast television (or even same-day) until 1982.

*A good thing if it's true that the match wasn't shown live here; the two-hour delay would have enabled NBC to edit it to fit its two-hour timeslot.

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It's another week in which summer reruns are dominant, but that isn't going to stop us from finding the odd, the worthwhile, and the otherwise amusing. For example, I'm amused by Saturday's episode of Gunsmoke (10:00 p.m., CBS), in which "Festus is working a sa reporter for Dodge Citys new paper—despite the fact that he can't read or write." Sounds to me like he'd fit right in at most of today's newspapers, such is the state of journalism today.

On Sunday, The third anniversary of New York's Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is celebrated with a tryptic of one-act presentations—a play, a ballet, and an opera—all based on the same source material, Frank Gilroy's one-act play "Far Rockaway," which tells the story of "a man who seeks punishment for an unpunishable crime." Gilroy's play is accompanied by "The Act," a ballet adapted from the story, and the one-act opera "The Hero," which sets the play to music. (7:30 p.m., NET)* If Frank Gilroy's name sounds familiar to you, it should: in addition to winning a Tony and a Pulitzer Prize for his play, The Subject Was Roses, he wrote, produced, and directed movies, and wrote extensively for television, including "Who Killed Julie Greer?", an episode of The Dick Powell Show that served as the pilot for one of my favorite programs, Burke's Law. (Powell played Amos Burke in that pilot.) Quite the Renaissance man, wouldn't you say?

*By the way, virtually all of the above background information comes not from the TV Guide listing, but from online sources which curiosity impelled me to look up. What I won't do for you, the readers.

You remember how I mentioned last week that Burr Tillstrom and the Kuklapolitan Players were servng as guest hosts for Hugh Downs on Today? That was in 1965; this week, Downs is again on vacation, and this Monday (7:00 a.m., NBC), actor James Daly begins his third week of a month-long stint as Downs's substitute. (When you work as hard as Hugh Downs did, you deserve a month-long vacation.) It's not as much of a stretch for Daly as it might seem; he was also one of the hosts on NBC's weekend radio program Monitor for a couple of years, so he knew the lay of the land, so to speak. Among the guests this morning is writer Harold Feisher, discussing the murders of eight student nurses in Chicago on July 13 by Richard Speck. I point this out because of an event that happens less than an hour after the conclusion of The Today Show, something that you don't read about in today's TV Guide: the murder of 15 people in Austin, Texas by sniper Charles Whitman, firing from the observation deck of the Main Building tower at the University of Texas. Remarkably, you can see live TV coverage of the event as it unfolded, broadcast on Austin station KLRN. (Parts one, two, and three.) The Chicago killings were considered America's first mass murder, and therefore, the worst; it only took 18 days for that record to be broken.

On Tuesday, Walter Cronkite hosts a CBS Reports look at "UFO: Friend, Foe or Fantasy" (10:00 p.m., CBS), investigating a controversy that was unresolved in 1966 and remains unresolved today. Cronkite's report looks at several recent high-profile sightings along with possible eplanations, and includes possible explanations for the phenomena. I remember being fascinated by the topic back then, buying UFO magazines and reading about them; I probably watched this show as well. Of course, I was also six years old at the time.

Wednesday gives us a chance to appreciate one of the most talented men on television: Frank Gorshin. He appears first as The Riddler in part one of a two-part Batman in which he pretends to be filming a movie as a cover for his nefarious plan. (7:30 p.m., ABC) Later, he's one of the guests on singer John Gary's summer replacement series for The Danny Kaye Show. (10:00 p.m., CBS) Gorshin does impressions of famous men in history, as if they were played by Richard Burton, John Wayne, Peter Falk, and others. That's pretty good.

Hopefully you've seen my recent podcast on television courtroom dramas, a genre I've alway enjoyed; it's not surprising, therefore, that I notice CBS's Thursday Night Movie, the 1960 courtroom/political potboiler A Fever in the Blood (9:00 p.m.), starring Efrem Zimbalist Jr. as a politically ambitious judge presiding over a high-profile murder trial, and Jack Kelly as his rival for the party's gubenatorial nomination, who also happens to be the procutor in the case. It's produced by Roy Huggins, and includes Angie Dickinson, Don Ameche, Ray Danton, and, in his film debut, Carroll O'Connor. 

Since we started the week with sports, we'll end it the same way, with the College All-Star Game (Friday, 7:00 p.m., ABC), with the best of this year's college seniors taking on the NFL champion Green Bay Packers from Soldier Field in Chicago. I've written about the College All-Star Game before, so I'll just let you know that the game turned out about as one-sided as you'd expect: Green Bay 38, All-Stars 0.

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In "For the Record," Henry Harding reports that both ABC and CBS are considering launching late-night talk shows to compete with Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. The networks are winning support from their affiliates, with more than 80 percent of CBS stations supporting such a move. The challenge being faced by local stations: it's more and more difficult for them to purchase movies. The inventory is shrinking and as the networks add more movie nights (five in the upcoming season), they're buying up all the best ones. No word on who CBS is considering, but the favorite at ABC is Joey Bishop, who's had plenty of experience filling in for Carson. And if you have him in your local late-night host pool, you'll be the winner.

Elsewhere, Frank Sinatra and Mia Farrow tied the not on July 19; he's 50, while she's 21. The marriage only lasts two years, but the couple remain friends until Sinatra's death; after the news broke about Woody Allen's infidelity, Sinatra reportedly offered to have him "taken care of." Frank's also reported to be the real father of Mia's son Ronan, but we have a one-rumor-per-story limit in these things.

Politically, Ron Nessen, NBC's Vietnam correspondent and future press secretary for President Gerald Ford, is in good condition after undergoing surgery for a shrapnel wound suffered while covering the war. Meanwhile, now that Ronald Reagan has thrown his hat in the ring for the California gubernatorial race, he's bowing out as host of Death Valley Days. His replacement is veteran actor Robert Taylor.

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On The Red Skelton Hour

This week's starlet is Christopher West, "100 percent girl and 200 percent expert on how not to get a TV role." She doesn't have to try to succeed at the first part; as you can see, she's got everything it takes. And as for the part about not getting roles—well, it hasn't been for lack of trying. She goes on "four or five" interviews a week, her agent providing "sure-fire" tips such as "Be perky, cute and sexy" or "Look witty" or "Think sinister." 

She also applies what could be called a creative approach to looking for work. Once, she interviewed at Universal, where she was told to "look all-American, wholesome and uncomplicated." The producer barely gave her a minute or two between rushing from the stage to the cutting room to the projection room. The next day, she sent him a skateboard, attaching a note which read, "Knowing how busy you are, I thought you might want something to ride to the set." She didn't get the part. Another time, she was at MGM for a part described as a "grieving sexy type." Between bites of a sandwich, the casting director told her that "we're going to decide from pictures," whereupon the next day she brought him a box lunch with a photo wrapped around each sandwich. "I believe this is what you wanted," she told him. She didn't get that part, either. And then there was the time her reading was continuously interrupted by secretaries and assistants telling the producer that "So-and-so won't be able to pick up Meredith at the airport." After every interruption, he asked her to start all over again and tell about herself. Finally, she said, "Listen, I don’t have anything better to do. Why don’t I pick up Meredith?" Nope, no part.

The parts she has landed have included more than a dozen spots on shows from Dr. Kildare to The Red Skelton Hour. In the meantime, she keeps trying; she comes equipped with résumés with three different heights, depending on what the director's looking for: 5-feet-5, 5-feet-5¼ and 5-feet-5½. Her IMDb credits run through the 1990s, which shows that you can't keep a good actress down. Especially if she's willing to send you a sandwich or a skateboard.

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MST3K alert: Daddy-O (1959) A rock ‘n’ roll singer who doubles as a race driver is charged with manslaughter. Dick Contino, Sandra Giles, Bruno Ve Soto, Gloria Victor, Ron McNeil, Jack McClure, Sonia Torgeson. (Friday, 5:00 p.m., KRON in Oakland) Actually, the thrust of this story is that the singer/race driver infiltrates a criminal organization in order to avenge the death of his best friend (the manslaughter mentioned in the description). It features hot cars, hot blondes, and hot goods. You'd think that would be a winning combination, wouldn't you? Well, wouldn't you?   TV