Around the dial

Xt bare•bones e-zine, Jack's latest Hitchcock Project subject is Alvin Sargent, who wrote the ninth-season episode "The Ordeal of Mrs. Snow," with Patricia Collinge, Jessica Walter, and Don Chastain. It's not only a nifty mystery, but it provides a bit of social commentary on the lives of the rich and famous at the same time.

At Drunk TV, Paul focuses on the 1987 miniseries Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story, starring Farrah Fawcett as the department store heiress, Burl Ives as her grandfather F.W. Woolworth (yep, that Woolworth), and a good guest cast; weighing in at nearly five hours, it proves the old adage that nothing exceeds like excess. Your mileage may vary, but it sounds right to me.

Maddy takes on the grim, moody British spy series Callan at Classic Film and TV Corner, with Edward Woodward outstanding as the eponymous agent, assigned to deal with those who threaten UK internal security. It's far closer to John le Carré than Ian Fleming, and cynical in the extreme, which means it's just right for our time.

We'll stick with British TV as John continues his look at the roles of Denis Shaw at Cult TV Blog. This week, it's the 1958 series The Invisible Man, and the episode "Man in Disguise." By the way, one of the things I remember reading about this series, which John confirms, is that we never do find out the actor (or actors) playing the title role. We know Shaw, though, and he's perfect in this episode.

At A Shroud of Thoughts, Terence riffs on the 60th anniversary of Jonny Quest, one of the most-loved animated series of the 1960s, moving from prime time to Saturday mornings and then into syndication before being revived in the late 1990s. In some ways it shows its age, but its fans remain thrilled by its sense of adventure.

At Comfort TV, David draws some interesting parallels between photography and television, not only by looking at how picture-taking has been a part of classic episodes, but whether the ease of taking pictures with your phone makes them somehow less special, just as the glut of television today makes these shows less special. Thoughtful, as always. TV 

TV Jibe: A candidate for today

TV  

What's on TV? Wednesday, September 20, 1972

Madigan, premiering tonight on NBC, would, at first glance, appear to be an odd choice for one of the rotating elements of the network's Wednesday Mystery Movie. In the first place, the title character, a tough New York detective played brilliantly by Richard Widmark, is killed at the end of the movie (also called Madigan) on which the series is based. Second, while the movie took place in gritty New York, the series takes place in Europe, where Madigan has been sent to battle organized crime. Added to that, the Madigan that appears in the movie is not the typically admirable character around whom you'd base a series; he bent the law, cheated on his wife, and botched the case that set up the premise for the rest of the movie. Despite all this, it was quite the coup to get the same actor to play the character in both the movie and the series, let alone an actor with the stature of Widmark. Madigan rotated with Banacek and Cool Millions, but only Banacek survived to a second season. Our listings are from New York City.

This week in TV Guide: September 16, 1972

The start to the new television season, as I've often said, used to be an exciting time, with both new and familiar vieing for attention. This week is a perfect example, as the NFL returns, big movies make their TV debuts, and new shows pop up everywhere. One of the shows you'd think would have done well is Anna and the King (Sunday, 7:30 p.m. ET, CBS), with Yul Brynner returning to the role for which he won an Oscar on the big screen, but no, it's 13 episodes and out. Maybe Walt Disney was too much competition? At any rate there's plenty more to see here, starting with those movie blockbusters.

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It may seem odd that one of the big attractions of the new TV season is the theatrical movie, but this is the way it is before cable, before streaming, when Hollywood's biggest hits used to take years to make it to your living room set. The action starts right away, with NBC rolling out In the Heat of the Night, winner of five Academy Awards including Best Picture, on Saturday night (9:00 p.m. ET) Sterling Silliphant won an Oscar for his screenplay adaptation, and in doing so demonstrates something he must have learned from Naked City: if you're going to do a genre story, no matter what kind of message you want to send, you're still going to have to respect the demands of the genre at the same time. Indeed, although In the Heat of the Night is about race relations, ignorance and prejudice, and the old south coming to terms with a new world, Judith Crist reminds us that it still succeeds as a top-notch whodunit. Of course, having Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger in the cast doesn't hurt.

Neither does it hurt Richard Brooks to have a superior cast for his 1966 The Professionals, led by Burt Lancaster, Lee Marvin, Robert Ryan, Jack Palance, and Claudia Cardinale. CBS brings it to the small screen on Thursday night at 9:00 p.m., so that everyone can appreciate what Crist calls a "supurbly entertaining adventure-suspence Western" that garnered two Oscar nominations for Brooks, for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. It runs twenty minutes over the normal two-hour timeslot, but that includes a Republican political announcement that we're told follows the movie.

Crist's also going to give a good reivew to Tuesday's late movie, Roger Corman's House of Usher (11:30 p.m., CBS), in which Vincent Price "established himself as the nonpareil in the portrayl of intellectual and sophisticated madmen." She isn't as big a fan of Sunday night's big premiere, ABC's Goldfinger, which she writes "isn't up to the standards set by 'Dr. No' and 'From Russia with Love'," as the franchise begins to change focus "from emphatic action and vicarious heroism to sex and sadism, which outweigh the good dirty fun that initially gave Bond his adult comicstrip status with grown-ups." I understand what she means by that, though most fans rate Goldfinger at or near the top; nevertheless, as she points out, "compared with all the imitations that have come along in the past eight years—good old 007 still holds his own."*

*Oh, the things I could say but won't. 

However mild that criticism may be, it's nothing compared to what she thinks of CBS's offering on Friday night, Valley of the Dolls (9:00 p.m., followed by a Democratic political announcement). Quoting in full, "It's a bowdlerized version of the Jacqueline Susann book which provided a mawkish, trite, cheap story and smut; the movie lacks the smut but compensates by being badly acted, badly photographed and sleazily made, with a cheapjack production underlining the near-idiot literacy level of the script. Patty Duke, who scores high in the repulsive bracket, and Susan Hayward, who can count this as her horror movie (all middle-aged stars have to do one, it seems) fortunately survive their appearances herein." Well, I didn't want to watch that one anyway.

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A couple of soon-to-be classics make their debuts on Saturday night. ABC introduces The Streets of San Francisco (9:00 p.m.), with Karl Malden and Michael Douglas co-starring with The City itself. It features one of television's most dynamic opening credit sequences. It serves the series well, as it embarks on a five-season run, the latest success in the Quinn Martin stable. If you don't remember Streets from Saturday, there's a good reason why: it's on up against a CBS sitcom block that starts with Mary Tyler Moore, beginning its third season; the second half of that block is the night's second notable debut, The Bob Newhart Show (9:30 p.m.), the story of "A psychologist who can't handle his own hangups." Throw in In the Heat of the Night, and this really is the kind of night for which the VCR was invented.

Say goodbye to Sunday afternoons; the NFL is in town. The Shield kicks off its 53rd season with a doubleheader on NBC as the New York Jets travel to Buffalo to take on the Bills (1:00 p.m.); the main men in the game: Joe Namath for the Jets, O.J. Simpson for the Bills. Neither makes it to the playoffs. That's followed by the Miami Dolphins and the Kansas City Chiefs, in the first regular season game played at the new Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. The last time these two teams met, it was Christmas Day 1971, with the Dolphins defeating the Chiefs in a double-overtime thriller. Over on CBS, it's the New York Giants and Detroit Lions, from Tiger Stadium in Detroit. (2:00 p.m.)

"The Movie Fractured You. The Series Will Have You in Stitches." That's the way CBS advertises the debut of M*A*S*H on Sunday night (8:00 p.m.). If I didn't know any better, I'd think it was going to be something like Hogan's Heroes. Of course, the tenor of the program does evolve somewhat over the years. If family fare is more your thing, Walt Disney begins its 19th season with "The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes," staring Kurt Russell*. Turning to crime, it's the second-season premiere of Columbo "Etude in Black" (9:00 p.m., NBC), starring John Cassavetes in possibly the worst impression of a conductor ever seen on television. (His performance otherwise is quirky and good, working with his old friend Peter Falk.) Elsewhere in the crime racket, Eddie Egan, the real-life former NYC detective who was the basis for Gene Hackman's character in The French Connection, is "a cop out to nab a killer" in the sixth-season opener of Mannix. (9:30 p.m., CBS) 

*Stay tuned for a Kurt Russell tie-in later on in this feature.

Monday Night Football begins its third season with a major-league showdown between the Washington Redskins and Minnesota Vikings (9:00 p.m., ABC), but right before that ABC features another of its new series, The Rookies (8:00 p.m.), starring Georg Stanford Brown, Michael Ontkean, and Sam Melville as the rookie cops, Gerald S. O'Loughlin. as their mentor, and Kate Jackson as Melville's wife. And do you remember Bill Cosby's variety show? I didn't either, until I was reminded of it here; his big-name guest lineup includes Peter Sellers and Lily Tomlin. (10:00 p.m., CBS)

On Tuesday, WCBS presents the season premieres of two old favorites in new skins (syndicated skins, that is). First, at 1:00 p.m., it's Larry Blyden as the host of the all-new What's My Line? Then, at 7:30 p.m., it's Steve Allen hosting I've Got a Secret. Both harmless entertainment; neither come close to the sophistication and star power of the originals. Later in the evening, The Bold Ones (9:00 p.m., NBC) has the conclusion to one of those crossover episodes that you can only get when diferent series share the same television universe. This time, "The New Doctors" wraps up a storyline that began last week on Ironside; seems a surgeon's (Vic Morrow) daughter has been kidnapped, and only Raymond Burr and his gang can get to the bottom of it. I'm betting on the Chief.

Wednesday's a big night with several new series, including The Paul Lynde Show (8:00 p.m., ABC) with Lynde woefully miscast as a family man. Later, after ABC's Wednesday Movie of the Week, it's the second episode of The Julie Andrews Show (10:00 p.m.), with guests Carl Reiner, Cass Elliot, and Alice Ghostley joining Julie in a wild take-off of All About Eve.

Meantime, NBC has a couple of rookie series that, unfortunately, fail to return for seconds. The night begins with Adam-12 (8:00 p.m.); that's followed by Richard Widmark, reprising his movie role of the tough New York cop Madigan, as part of the network's new Wednesday Mystery Movie (8:30 p.m.); after that, it's SEARCH (10:00 p.m.), a sadly underrated show featuring Tony Francoisa, Hugh O'Brian, and Doug McClure alternating as leads and Burgess Meredith as the hub that keeps them together. 

CBS doesn't need anything new, with a lineup that includes The Carol Burnett Show, Medical Center, and Cannon. But Medical Center (10:00 p.m.) does catch my eye, because something tells me Chad Everett's Dr. Gannon is going to have a very tough day: "Mrs. Slade has a happy secret: after many years of marriage, she is finally pregnant. Mr. Slade has a secret, too, and the implication isn't as happy—three years ago he had a vasectomy." Oops! (Evidentelly, the wife didn't have to give written concent back in those days.) Yes, I think Dr. Gannon's going to need some aspirin before this hour is over, along with a stiff drink.

Thursday gives us the series that becomes the surprise hit of the year. The Waltons (8:00 p.m., CBS), based on the Christmas movie The Homecoming, isn't expected to amount to much in the ratings, but the network puts it on the fall schedule to appease critics (including those in Congress) who've harshly criticized the network for its Rural Purge; the suits figure it won't be much more than fodder for NBC's successful Flip Wilson Show, but the joke's on them, as The Waltons goes on for nine successful seasons, hitting number one in the ratings. On the other hand, ABC rolls out another of those wheel shows, but unlike SEARCH, this one is made up of three separate shows, none of which make the grade: Jigsaw, which debuts tonight (9:00 p.m.) stars James Wainwright as a California state investigator; he'll be alternating with Robert Conrad in Assignment Vienna and Laurence Luckinbill in The Delphi Bureau. 

Friday gives us an example of another staple of the new television season: a multi-episode spectacular. Tonight, in the first of a three-part adventure, The Brady Bunch takes a vacation in Hawaii. (8:00 p.m., ABC) Of course, if you think some fun and sun is all there is to it, you've got another think coming, I recommend Howard Cosell's guest spot on The Odd Couple (9:30 p.m., ABC). NBC presents a lineup that, save Sanford and Son, is entirely new: The Little People (8:30 p.m.), with Brian Keith as a pediatrician and Shelley Fabares as his daughter; Ghost Story (9:00 p.m.), a horror anthology hosted by Sebastian Cabot; and Banyon (10:00 p.m.), a period detective piece with Robert Forster. The Little People, renamed The Brian Keith Show, manages to survive for two seasons; Ghost Story (renamed Circle of Fear, and without Cabot) and Banyon do not. If you're staying up late, I suggest heading over to WNEW at 1:30 a.m. to catch The Stranger, a superior suspense movie starring Orson Welles (who also directed) as a Nazi war criminal masquerading as a teacher, Loretta Young as his fiancee, and Edward G. Robinson as the United Nations agent hunting Welles down. 

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Not to be left out, ABC rolls out its new Saturday morning lineup this week, apparently making it the "place to be," at least on Saturday mornings. Compared to cartoons of the past, some of which can still be seen Saturdays on other networks, this lineup strikes me as—what? Trendy, taking advantage of headlining music groups? (The Jackson 5ive, The Osmonds.) Cynical, spinning off from the network's own primetime shows? (The Brady Girls, with magic myna bird and pandas thrown in for good measure.) Unimaginative, regurgitating some of those old, favorite characters in an hour-long story with a social message? ("Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw, Top Cat, Magilla Gorilla and his other animal friends sail away from Jellystone National Park to escape pollution.") Perhaps all three? It strikes me that this would have been about the time I stopped watching Saturday morning cartoons, which is a shame because I still enjoy the best of them (Rocky and Bullwinkle, Alvin, Felix the Cat, Bugs Bunny), but I'm afraid most intelligent children will see right through some of this claptrap.

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The Doan Report offers a recap of the Munich Olympic Massacre, which had only happened the past week. ABC's coverage of the Games, which started out in color and pagentry, ended in a "spectacle of horror," but the network acquitted itself magnificently, with Jim McKay and Howard Cosell "suddenly cast in the role of headline-news reporters." NBC and CBS scrambled as best they could to provide coverage, but were limited in the amount of satellite time they were able to access, although CBS was able to get an hour, using coverage from the German police TV camera that ABC also had. Hard to imagine now, that one network could have virtually exclusive live coverage of a breaking news story like that, but in 1972 it wasn't all that easy to get satellite time under the best of circumstances; as I recall, ABC faced the same challenges in staying on the air.

Doan also notes that NBC is engaged in a "nation-wide search" for someone to host their proposed new late-late show, Tomorrow. While entertainment is forseen as being part of the new program, the emphasis will be on talk, often on "very important subjects of a nature that might not get discussed on TV at an hour before 1 A.M." No speculation as to the host will be, although it might be someone from "outside show business." (As indeed it is. ►) ABC and CBS are said to be "taking a wait-and-see attitide" toward NBC's new venture.

As for the new season, experts don't see any new trends coming from the new series; All in the Family, Marcus Welby, M.D., and Flip (Wilson) are expected to once again lead the pack. The heavy favorite among the new series is CBS's Bridget Loves Bernie, which lasts only a single season. The real interest lies with public reaction to the so-called "New Permissiveness." "Titillations with the gay life, abortion, unmarried sex and such will abound on TV in the weeks ahead. It's going to induce either drooling or damnation, or both."

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Two months later. . .

Some additional industry news from the Teletype: Here's a program I remember, from the day after Thanksgiving, 1972. They don't have a name for it yet, but it will be called "The Jerry Lucas Super Kids Day Magic Jamboree," filling three hours for ABC on the morning after Turkey Day, and it will feature the New York Knicks star performing magic tricks, passing along basketball tips, and "display[ing] his freakish memory (which allows him to memorize hundreds of pages of telephone directories.)" As I recall, Lucas would go on talk shows and memorize the names of everyone in the audience, and one of his greatest feats was the ability to take any word, at the instant it was spoken, and alphabatize it. He was a very good player, but disarming and fascinating in all these other ways. Sports Illustrated had two interesting articles on him; this one at the height of his memory fame, and this one from 30 years later telling of the interesting turns his life has taken since.

Also: Neil Diamond's received offers from all three networks to do music specials for them. He's mulling them over, but as I recall, he winds up going with NBC, doing a special called "Neil Diamond at the Greek Theatre."  Jerry Lewis plans an appearance on Sonny & Cher on CBS, including a skit in which he and Sonny play chess. (It happens to be the episode that airs this Friday.) And finally, Robert Young plans to star in a TV movie for ABC, entitled "All My Darling Daughters." Now TV Guide doesn't mention this, but I've heard they were going to call it "All My Darjeeling Daughters," but Young said it wasn't his cup of tea. . .

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Believe it or not, NBC's Laugh-In is about to start its fifth season. (Sock it to me.) Almost the entire supporting cast has turned over in that time, with only Ruth Buzzi remaining on the show, and Leslie Raddatz takes the opporunity to catch up with the "six who bowed out," and gets some surprising insights along the way.

Of the six, Goldie Hawn has, by far, enjoyed the most successful post-Laugh-In career, having appeared in three movies, and winning an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for one of them, Cactus Flower. "There was an excitement about Laugh-In then," she remembers of the early days. "There were no egos. Everything was funny." She explains that when she first started, she had a hard time reading the cue cards without giggling, and producer George Schlatter "decided to make something of that." She remembers the camaraderie of those days fondly: working until 2 a.m., singing songs because they'd gotten so slap-happy. "But it had to end sometime," she says wistfully. When the show did its hundredth show, she was the one who didn't come back, because "you can't recapture the past."

Judy Carne only appeared on Laugh-In for two years, during which time she'd do anything for a laugh. Besides being dunked in water, she was sawed in half and shot from a cannon; "I guess I'm just a frustrated stuntgirl." She regrets having left the show when she did. "I was emotionally involved and disturbed, and I felt I had to go. Now I can sit back and view things, and I realize it was not too smart a move." Since then, she did a Broadway show that was less than successful ("The Boy Friend"), and spent six months doing what she called a "disastrous" night-club act. "And I was married for three months." 

Jo Anne Worley remembers that halfway through the first season, "Goldie and I decided that we weren't getting anywhere. Then one day we went shopping together, and we were mobbed. That changed our minds!" She left the show at her agent's suggestion, and since then "I've guested on practically every show and done commercials and been a semiregular on Andy Williams' show." She also spent time in London, doing shows with Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck. "I don't miss Laugh-In as such. It was the relationship that was important—we all laughed and had such a good time." 

Arte Johnson was the only member of the cast to win an Emmy, and though he's most remembered for his "Verrry Interesting" WWII German soldier, he recalls how it took 40 minutes for him to be made up for the old man, another of his signature characters. "Doing him was a tremendous psychological problem. It was always the old man, not me—I stayed constant." He left Laugh-In to pursue other opportunities; "You reach a certain plateau, and you want to reach a higher plateau." He never had time for anything else while on Laugh-In, but since then, "I've done a pilot, two specials, a lot of guest shots, and some summer theater." Like the others, he has fond memories of his time: "It was sheer mayhem sometimes, but nobody in the history of show business ever had the opportunity we did."

Henry Gibson seems to have been an unlikely member of the cast, having studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and earned a dregree in drama from Catholic University, but his entrance to TV was as "a bucolic poet from the Deep South." He recalls his first meeting with Schlatter; after sitting quietly whle Schlatter juggled phone calls from Milton Berle, Frank Sinatra and others, he decided something drastic was needed. "I had paid a stuntman $50 once to teach me a triple flip for a show, so finally I pretended to faint and then did the flip George put down the phone and said, 'I don't know who you are, but you're hired.'" "I hated to leave the show, but after four years you have to make a choice." He wanted a chance to return to his acting roots, and has guested on several shows since, as well as played the voice of Wilbur the pig in Charlotte's Web.

Alan Sues worked in night clubs prior to Laugh-In; his funniest memories involve things that weren't planned, such as the time he was supposed to "fly" in for a scene and was left hanging on wires when everyone else broke for lunch. He considered himself a revue performer rather than a comic, a situation he considers more of a challenge for his abilities: "On TV, they just turn up the laugh track, but out there [on stage] you'd better be funny." Like some of the others, he's done guest shots and some summer stock; "I miss Laugh-In, but when I think about going through tha ttrap door, I don't know."

Only Ruth Buzzi is still on the show (along with Dan Rowan and Dick Martin, but as Judy Carne remembers, they were "never part of" the closeness that the others felt working together as part of a repertory company. "I can see why the others left the show," Buzzi says, "but I don't think anything would have happened for me that hasn't happened anyway." She's done a failed plot, some commercials, and some guest shots; "Now, I'm the last of the red-hot mammas. In my mind, it's a whole new show"

It's difficult, from the perspective of 50+ years, to avoid comparing the sitaution to that of the original Not Ready for Prime Time Players on Saturday Night Live, although the latter left as a group rather than individually. SNL has persisted since then (although Lord knows why), with cast members coming and going, but they're always compared to the originals. Much the same could be said for Laugh-In; despite an effort to reboot the show with a new cast, everyone looks back to the the six who left and the one who remains. 

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MST3K alert: Revenge of the Creature (1955) A young scientist sets out to capture the Creature and use him for scientific studies. John Agar,  Lori Nelson, John Bromfield. (Saturday, 2:30 p.m., WCBS in New York City). One of MST3K's favorite whipping boys, John Agar (aka Mr. Shirley Temple) is out-acted by the great Ricou Browning, and Lori Nelson takes the place of Julie Adams. There's a reason why this movie, and not the original, is on MST3K. On the other hand, we're introduced to Professor Bobo and The Nanites, so how bad can it be? Or is that just a rhetorical question? TV  

Around the dial

In our last episode, you may recall, we looked at a new series that John was starting at Cult TV Blog concentrating on actors and their roles rather than simply individual series. This week, we look at Denis Shaw's contribution to The Avengers in the final season episode "Requiem." You may also recall that this is the episode reviewed at The View from the Junkyard last week; now it's time for John's authoritative review.

Dick Powell made one of the great career transitions in history, going from a song-and-dance man in light comedies to a a star of hard-boiled noir crime dramas, and at Classic Film & TV Cafe, Rick takes us back to the movie that started it all: Murder, My Sweet, where Powell lays claim to being the definitive Philip Marlowe.

At The Last Drive In, monstergirl gives us part one of a two-part profile of Adrienne Barbeau, who may be best-known to readers here for her long-running role on Maude, but there's much more to her career, as we see in her autobiography, There Are Worse Things I Could Do. Be sure to come back next week for part two, monstergirl's interview with Adrienne.

Paul returns at Drunk TV with a review of the fantastic 1959 TV adaptation of Budd Schulberg's scorching show-biz expose What Makes Sammy Run?, with a terrific cast that includes Larry Blyden, John Forsythe, Barbara Rush, Dina Merrill, and Norman Fell. Paul sees this as an example of how early television could, at times, rival the quality of anything you'd see in the theater, and I agree.

Terence commemorates 70 years of television's Lassie this week at A Shroud of Thoughts. Seventy years, and many permutations over its nineteen seasons. He also members the late, great James Earl Jones, who died this week at age 93. Besides all the roles he played in his distinguished career, it's hard to imagine CNN without him.

We occasionally touch on Land of the Lost here, and so it seems fitting to stop at Travanche, where it's been 50 years since the debut of that series. I was, for lack of a better word, stuck with that show, living in the World's Worst Town™ at the time, and NBC was the only show in town on Saturday mornings. Of course, not watching television was never an option.

At Shadow & Substance, Paul looks at the Twilight Zone episode "A Game of Pool," starring Jonathan Winters and Jack Klugman, in particular how Rod Serling changed the original ending from George Clayton Johnson's script. I agree with Paul that Serling's change made the episode stronger, but there's a lot to be said for Johnson's as well. And you have to like how Winters holds his own with Klugman. TV  

Two for today: Mike Wallace and Rod Serling

My latest appearance on the Dan Schneider Video Interview is now up. Make that plural; we recorded a pair of shows on two legends in the television industry: Mike Wallace and Rod Serling. 

What with our collective memory getting shorter and shorter every day, it's good to take some time and reflect on the importance of these two men to American culture: one, the most feared interviewer on television; the other, one of its most articulate and socially conscious writers. They're both known for seminal programs—60 Minutes and The Twilight Zone—yet there's much more to their contributions. 

They each run about an hour (or 60 Minutes, if you prefer), starting with Rod Serling:

And finishing with Mike Wallace:

 

And for good measure, here's the Rod Serling interview with Mike Wallace which we refer to; it's from 1959, just before the premiere of The Twilight Zone.

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What's on TV? Thursday, September 15, 1966

We looked at bit tonight's lineup during Saturday's fall preview, but now we get a chance to see things in action. It's the full-color lineup, even though color won't help some of them a bit. (We're looking at you, Tammy Grimes!) The idea of showing a theatrical movie in two parts, as is the case with The Music Man tonight and tomorrow, must seem strange to modern eyes, but it was also a sign of prestige; only the biggest movies (and the ones most guaranteed to bring in big ratings) were spread over two nights. When The Music Man is repeated a few years later, it's all in one night, which really is the way to see it. You have to make room for all those commercials, though; given the choice between watching it uncut or watching it all in one sitting, I suppose I might choose the former, myself. Anyway, these listings come from the Northern California edition. 

This week in TV Guide: September 10, 1966

For this year's Fall Preview, I thought I'd treat you to what many of you feel is a very special issue: a look at the 1966-67 season.

Over the years, I've written about a number of these Fall Previews, and they're always a bit of a challenge. I mean, there's so much content, where do you even begin? They're also gteat fun to read (again), with the result that it's hard to decide what to leave in and what to take out. Some years, I've tried to write about everything; other years, I've concentrated on more specific areas: the new shows, the hits, the bombs. 

This year, the focus is on lists. Very long lists. And not just of new shows, but returning ones as well. And from these lists of new and old favorites, we have what many critics have called the greatest single season in the history of television. (If you don't believe me, ask Thom Shubilla—he wrote an entire book about that single season, and there aren't many seasons that can make that boast.) Let's make our way through, and at the end we'll see what we think.

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The first show out of the gate in the "New Series" sectdion is Mission: Impossible, and that's a good sign, a portent of some very familiar titles that have warmed people for years: The Monkees, Family Affair, The Rat Patrol, That Girl, The Time Tunnel. There's also one of the most legendary debuts we've seen, that of Star Trek. We're only considering it a legend retroactively, of course; at the time, it built a loyal cult following, but in its three seasons it was never the ratings blockbuster you might have thought from all the hubbub that followed. Tarzan, with Ron Ely in the starring role, makes it to two seasons but isn't exactly a hit 

There are shows that have their following, but didn't make it for a second season; The Green Hornet, which never could decide if it was going to be a spoof like Batman or if it would play it more straight, and The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., which discovered too late that the U.N.C.L.E. camp phenomenon was already starting to die out. Hawk, Burt Reynolds' first solo starring role in a television series, only ran for seventeen episodes on ABC, but it was resuscitated by NBC in 1976 to capitalize on Reynolds' growing popularity. Love on a Rooftop and Occasional Wife both have their fans, but they didn't have enough of them to come back for a second season. Pistols 'n' Petticoats, a half-hour Western starring Ann Sheridan as a gun-tottin' mamma, was cut short after Sheridan died of cancer. Jericho, the code name of a WWII commando unit, was a lot of fun to watch, but not fun enough to make it to a second go-round. 

There are series that somebody believed in enough to give them midseason retools in hopes they'd be revived: The Pruitts of Southampton became The Phyllis Diller Show, but people didn't watch it under either title. It's About Time actually resolved its original premise, rescuing its astronaut heroes after they were thrown back to the stone age, but the new format, in which they made it back to their own time, along with a couple of stowaways, didn't cut it either. It is available on DVD, though.

Some series just disappeared into the ether. The Man Who Never Was, a spy drama with Robert Lansing and Dana Wynter, was good, but not as good as it should have been (or needed to be). The Rounders and Shane both proved that sequels to classic movies ought not to be encouraged (however, David Carradine was much more successful in his next Western, Kung Fu). The Road West and The Monroes had great Western vistas, but, like the previous two, didn't signal a revival of the Western genre. The Hero was a funny idea with a good cast, including Richard Mulligan and Mariette Hartley; perhaps it was jsut a little ahead of its time. Hey Landlord! was Garry Marshall's first go at a sitcom; it wouldn't be his last. The Roger Miller Show wasted a singer at his peak, who didn't really want to star in his own series. 

And that's not all; you'll read about some of the rest in the paragraphs to come. And you can see them all in this terrific YouTube video from one of my favorite channels, RwDt09; he has other great videos from that season, and many others, as well.

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The real magic, though, lies in the list of returning series, a list of favorites that's as familiar as any television has ever seen. CBS alone boasts Andy Griffith and Gomer Pyle; The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, and Petticoat Junction; Daktari; Ed Sullivan, Jackie Gleason, Red Skelton, and Danny Kaye; Gilligan's Island; What's My Line?, I've Got a Secret, and To Tell the Truth; The Lucy Show, Gunsmoke; Hogan's Heroes; Lassie; Lost in Space; My Three Sons; The Wild Wild West; and the Thursday night movie

Over at NBC, the lineup is similiarly stellar: Andy Williams and Dean Martin; The Kraft Music Hall; Bonanza; Daniel Boone; Flipper; I Dream of Jeannie; I Spy; The Man from U.N.C.L.E.; Run for Your Life; The Virginian; Walt Disney's Wonderful World; Get Smart; Bob Hope's Chrysler Theatre; The Bell Telephone Hour; Laredo; and the Saturday and Tuesday night movies.

Even ABC, long the back-marker, has series that today are considered classics at best, and at least fondly remembered: 12 O'clock High; The Avengers; Batman; Bewitched; The Big Valley; The Dating Game; Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea; Peyton Place; The Fugitive; The FBI; Combat!; F Troop; The Hollywood Palace, Lawrence Welk, and The King Family; and the Sunday night movie.

That's an astonishing list of series, the boomer equivalent of a television hall of fame. More than thirty of them have been released on DVD; even many of the variety shows have best-of compilations, and many others are on YouTube or floating around in the grey market. (And that doesn't include the new series, at least a dozen of which have their own DVD releases!) 

Fall 1967 also marked the first time that all three networks would be broadcasting their weekly prime time lineups in color; from now on, only movies, daytime programs, and location news specials would be in black-and-white. While this is no problem for new series, there are several existing series that make the transition to color, including The Wild Wild West, Twelve O'clock High, I Dream of Jeannie, Combat!, The Fugitive, and Bewitched. Some of them thrive in the new environment; Jeannie and The Wild Wild West are more vivid, more fantastic, with great use of the color pallet. On the other hand, I don't think many can argue that the noirish Fugitive and the gritty Combat! both suffer from the change, particularly the backlot sets that are much harder to disguise in color. It's also the final season for each, and while this can't be directly attributed to the change (David Janssen was exhausted from then strain of carrying The Fugitive, and it's hard to see how the network could have squeezed another season out of World War II), it certainly didn't help.

Danger is his business

And I don't want to overlook the Saturday morning lineup, either. New to NBC is Super 6, Space Kidettes, and Cool McCool, joining Atom Ant, Secret Squirrel, and The Jetsons. CBS adds Frankenstein Jr., Space Ghost, The Road Runner, The Beagles, and animated versions of Superman and The Lone Ranger to a lineup with Captain Kangaroo, Underdog, Mighty Mouse, and Tom & Jerry. The only new toon on ABC is King Kong, but he joins a lineup with The Beatles, Magilla Gorilla, Bugs Bunny, Milton the Monster, Hoppity Hooper, and (The New) Amerian Bandstand. I'd be surprised if you didn't recognize some of them.

Taken as a whole, this combination of new classics and established favorites certainly demonstrates why the 1966-67 season stands out. In fact, if you were to have the time, the money, and the resources, you'd probably be able to recreate entire days, if not weeks, of prime time programming, including many of the movies. I daresay it would be a lot more satisfying than what you'll be seeing with this season's shows.

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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: Beginning his 19th season, Ed welcomes Red Skelton, who pantomimes a father giving his son castor oil and offers a monolog on Texas; singer Robert Goulet; comedienne Joan Rivers; and the rockin' Rolling Stones. Also: highlights of "Holiday on Ice."

Palace: Host Fred Astaire welcomes Ethel Merman and Jack Jones; Marcel Marceau, who pantomimes "Bip the Lion Tamer" and "The Butterfly Collector"; comedian Pat Morita; the Roggé Sisters, balancing act; and the Hardy Family, tumbling acrobats. Fred dances to "Bugle Call Rag" and learns how to belt out a song in the Merman manner.

You didn't think, just because of the emphasis on the new, that we'd forget about our old friends, did you? Nonsense! Now, on the face of it this wouldn't seem to be an apples-to-apples comparison, given that it's the season premiere for Ed and you'd expect him to pull out all the stops. And you certainly can't argue with Red Skelton, Robert Goulet, Joan Rivers and the Stones, right? (The online episode guide also includes Louis Armstong.) But look at the Palace lineup: Fred Astaire, Ethel Merman, Jack Jones, Pat Morita, and Marcel Marceau! With all that talent on display, I don't see how you can be fair other than to call it a Push. 

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The NFL kicks off its regular season with a rare Saturday night contest pitting the defending champion Green Bay Packers against their archrivals, the Baltimore Colts, from County Stadium in Milwaukee (9:30 p.m., CBS). It's a rematch of last year's dramatic tie-breaker playoff for the Western Division championship, which the Packers won in sudden-death overtime, 13-10. Despite the Saturday opening, the NFL doesn't rule television yet; I suspect the game was scheduled as counterprogramming against the Miss America pageant, which CBS lost to NBC. You'll be reading about that momentarily, but in our Nothern California edition, there is no conflict: Miss America is on live, but the Packers-Colts game is being shown on a three-hour delay for West Coast viewers, so as not to upset the regular CBS schedule. You wouldn't see that happen today! (By the way, the Packers win, 24-3.) Not to worry, though; your favorite teams will be back in action Sunday, live and in color. 

There's more than just football on the sports calendar, though. Earlier on Saturday, Cassius Clay defends his world heavyweight champtionship against West German Karl Mildenberger live from Frankfurt, West Germany, on ABC's Wide World of Sports. (11:30 a.m.) It's his sixth title defense, and the fourth on a"world tour," that started after he refused military induction and was denied permission to fight in Illinois. The tour has taken him so far to fights in Toronto (March) and London (May and August), and this is his second title defense in five weeks. Incidentelly, he's already changed his name to Muhammad Ali, but many publications and media sources, including TV Guide, continue to refer to him as Clay. He'll return to the U.S. to fight in November.

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The start of the fall season was always something to look forward to, not only because of new hits and returning favorites, but also because of the big events that networks typically unleash. We'll see plenty of those in this issue, starting right away!

As we noted earlier, the Miss America Pageant takes place Saturday night in Atlantic City, carried for the first time on NBC; it's also the first time the pageant has been broadcast in color (7:00 p.m.), with Bert Parks as the emcee and former Miss America Bess Myerson doing the TV honors. Bert has the honor singing "Here She Comes" to Miss Oklahoma, Jane Anne Jayroe. NBC also has a variety special, Class of '67, which serves as a lead-in to Miss America in most of the country, but on the West Coast is seen following the pageant, at 9:00 p.m. George Hamilton is the host of this "song-and-dance review of the American college scene," with Don Adams, Nancy Sinatra, Peter Nero, Burns and Schreiber, singer Trudy Desmond, dancer Lada Edmund Jr., and the Doodletown Pipers. Despite my frequent protestations of being old, I was nowhere near college age in 1966, so I'm curious as to just how reflective of the college scene this really was in 1966. 

More sports on Sunday, including that of the political kind; in a special edition of Meet the Press, California Governor Pat Brown faces off against his Republican opponent, Ronald Reagan. (3:30 p.m., NBC; taped from a live broadcast) With two months to go before the election, polls show Reagan with a three-point lead; he'll go on to defeat Brown by 15 points. As for conventional sports, there's the men's final of the U.S. Tennis Championships, from Forest Hills, New York (noon, ABC); you'd recognize it now as the U.S. Open, but back in 1966 the field was limited to amateurs; unseeded Fred Stolle defeats John Newcombe to take the title. At 2:00 p.m. on NBC, it's the final round of the made-for-TV World Series of Golf, a 36-hole tournament that pits the winners of the year's four major tournaments; Gene Littler takes home the whopping first price of $50,000. 

In prime-time, NBC debuts the sitcom Hey Landlord! (8:30 p.m.), with Will Hutchins as the titular character, and Sandy Baron as his sidekick, followed by the season premieres of Bonanza (9:00 p.m.) and The Andy Williams Show (10:00 p.m.) Garry Moore revives his old variety series for CBS but finds that you can't go home again (9:00 p.m.); and ABC's Sunday Night Movie is a big one: a rerun of the Oscar-winning The Hustler (9:00 p.m.), with Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason, Piper Laurie, and George C. Scott. 

NBC shows it's not just monkeying around on Monday nights with the premiere of The Monkees (7:30 p.m.), and according to TV Guide, "it’s a series which, at least, is different." Freely adapted from the Beatles' movies, The Monkees was never a huge ratings hit, but it developed a devoted audience, and today it remains a much-loved show, along with its stars. (And, as someone who grew up with the show, it's impossible to believe that Mickey is the only one left.) 

It's a big night for debuts, in fact; NBC also premieres The Roger Miller Show (8:30 p.m.) and The Road West (9:00 p.m.), an "all-family adventure series" set in 1860s Kansas starring Barry Sullivan, Andrew Prine, and Glenn Corbett. Not to be outdone, ABC presents Iron Horse (7:30 p.m.), Dale Robertson's return to series television as a gambler who wins a railroad in a poker game; The Rat Patrol (8:30 p.m.), with Christopher George leading a team of jeep-riding desert commandos against Nazis; and The Felony Squad (9:00 p.m.), a very good police drama (it ran for three seasons) starring Howard Duff, Dennis Cole, and Ben Alexander as big-city detectives. Meanwhile, CBS unveils Run, Buddy, Run (8:00 p.m.), a comedy "that's part Fugitive, part Untouchables, part Mack Sennett — and all spoof," with Jack Sheldon as a meek accountant on the run from the underworld boss Devere (Bruce Gordon, spoofing his own role as Frank Nitti from The Untouchables); Family Affair (9:30 p.m.), another much-loved series of the time, with Brian Keith as a bachelor who suddenly finds himself father to three orphans; and The Jean Arthur Show (10:00 p.m.), described as a sort-of comic version of The Defenders, with Arthur as a high-octane lawyer and Ron Harper as her son and partner in the firm. 

Tuesday night, the CBS news special Young Mr. Eisenhower (10:00 p.m.) takes us on a trip down memory lane as the former president talks with Harry Reasoner about his early years, first at the former family home in Abilene, Kansas, and then to West Point, New York, where the two talk about Ike's years as a cadet and how it helped shape his character. Throughout, the general talks about "his small-town upbringing and how it helped foster the values he holds important: industriousness, self-control, acceptance of responsibility and love of country." Perhaps the disappearance of small-town America has something to do with the problems we're in today. 

Wednesday sees the debut of ABC Stage 67 (10:00 p.m.), what the network calls "one of the most exciting and challenging programs ever presented by a national television network." It's a showcase for original dramas, comedies, musicals, variety shows and documentaries—in other words, programs that might ordinarily have been shown as specials, but instead will be seen as regular, weekly productions. The best-known of the 26 episodes that were aired were probably Truman Capote's "A Christmas Memory" and "A Time For Laughter: A Look at Negro Humor in America"; tonight's premiere is "The Love Song of Barney Kempinski," starring Alan Arkin, Lee Grant, John Gielgud, and Alan King. One of its problems: it's up against NBC's I Spy and CBS's The Danny Kaye Show; when it's moved to Thursdays, it finds itself opposite The Dean Martin Show.

Thursday, CBS kicks off its new movie season with the television premiere of The Music Man (9:00 p.m.), with Robert Preston unforgettable as Professor Harold Hill, the conman who winds up getting his foot caught in Shirley Jones's door. Buddy Hackett, Pert Kelton, Paul Ford, Hermione Gingold, and Ronny Howard also star; the two-part presentation, which concludes Friday at the same time, is one of the finest adaptations of a stage musical to film. It's on up against the second season premiere of The Dean Martin Show (10:00 p.m., NBC), with Peggy Lee, the aforementioned Buddy Hackett, Guy Marks, Dorothy Provine, and Rowan and Martin. Whatevet else you do, though, make sure you catch episode number two of The Tammy Grimes Show (8:30 p.m., ABC), because after this, you'll only have two more chances before the show becomes one of the quickest cancellations in TV history; I wrote about the disaster a few years ago.

"Wherever Tony and Doug are, at least they're
not with Britt and Kato"

I've mentioned before that one of television's saddest sights was Milton Berle hosting Jackpot Bowling back at the start of the decade; this time, Uncle Miltie is back for one last hurrah with The Milton Berle Show. (Friday, 9:00 p.m., ABC) It comes from the people who brought you The Hollywood Palace, and in fact, it plays like an episode of Palace with Berle hosting. It reminds me of an aging athlete past his prime who insists he can still deliver in the big game, even when it's obvious to everyone else that he ought to just hang it up. Even a lineup like tonight's, with Phyllis Diller, Adam West, Van Williams and Bruce Lee, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Donna Loren, and Joe Pyne, can't help; he'll be off the air just after the new year begins, replaced by Tim Conway's Rango. Another single-season show that deserved a better fate is T.H.E. Cat (9:30 p.m., NBC), with Robbert Logga as a smooth, dangerous cat burgler turned bodyguard. Fortunately, you'll have time to watch The Green Hornet (7:30 p.m.) and The Time Tunnel (8:00 p.m.) first. 

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ABC wants to know what you think! Throughout this issue, ads for ABC's new shows have invited readers to "be a television critic," and now comes the payoff. In a four-page color ad that appears at the end of the programming section, the network asks for your "your honest, candid opinion of our shows," both new and returning. After you've had a chance to check them all out during the "Seven Nights to Remember," fill in the attached entry form and send it in.

But, you may be asking yourself, why should I act as an unpaid TV critic for your network?" That's where ABC sweetens the pot: "By way of encouragement and thanks, we’re offering 25 General Electric 19-inch color television sets and 2,000 General Electric transistor radios as prizes." They promise that your chances of winning won't be affected by giving negative reviews; "We just want to know what you honestly think." What could be more fair?

For what )it's worth, ABC did not do well in the 1966-67 ratings. The network placed only two shows in the top 20, Bewitched and The Lawrence Welk Show. The hightest rated new show was The Rat Patrol, which finished tied for 23rd (with Petticoat Junction!), and eleven of the network's seventeen fall offerings were cancelled after a single season. (The survivors were Felony Squad, Iron Horse, The Newlywed Game, The Rat Patrol, That Girl, and The Wednesday Night Movie.) Several of the network's returning shows also bit the dust, including 12 O'Clock High, Combat!, F Troop and The Fugitive.

I wonder how many replies the network received? More important, and perhaps more interesting, I wonder what the results of the poll were? Did they have any influence on the network's programming decisions? And were the results ever shared with the public? I'll admit I haven't done an exhaustive search, but I haven't been able to find any press releases or stories that suggest it was publicized. Considering what the ratings indicated, though, perhaps the public's opinions were better left unsaid. TV  

Around the dial

Xt Comfort TV, David addresses a topic near and dear to my heart: the 15 best classic TV shows still not available on DVD. People who depend on streaming for their classic TV may be sorry when those programs suddenly disappear, but your DVDs are your own. And not only The Defenders: where are the second seasons of Burke's Law and The Eleventh Hour? 

Gill is back at Reelweegiemidget with another edition of recommended TV movies from the last month. The viewing list from August includes flicks starring William Shatner, James Brolin, Mike Farrell, Cheryl Ladd, and more; be sure to look for your favorites. 

At bare-bones e-zine, Jack's Hitchcock Project looks at the ninth-season episode "A Nice Touch," by Mann Rubin. Anne Baxter and George Segal star in a murder mystery that has a nice touch, indeed. By the way, I remember how nice it was to find out that Mann Rubin was an actual person and not a pseudonym; it always sounded like one of those names WB would come up with during a writers' strike.

John starts a new series at Cult TV Blog in which he focuses not on the shows, but on the stars who appear in them. First up on his list is the British actor Denis Shaw, and John looks at his performance in The Prisoner episode "Checkmate." Looking forward to this.

At Classic Film and TV Corner, Maddy has a charming story of the time her mother met Roy Rogers and Trigger. Roy was one of the most accessible of stars, and it's nice to see others sharing their stories of meeting him!

Peter Marshall's recent death brings to mind Bob Quigley, the producer of The Hollywood Squares and, coincidentelly, the head writer on Kay Kyser's College of Musical Knowledge. And that is what brings us to The Lucky Strike Papers, for Andrew's mother, Sue Bennett, was a singer on Kyser's show. Read all about it.

SerlingFest 2024 is next weekend in Binghamton, New York, and Paul has all the details at Shadow & Substance, including a stimulating lineup of guest speakers, video presentations, and, on Sunday, the dedication of the Rod Serling statue. We'll have to visit this fest some year!

 

A Shroud of Thoughts and Travalanche both have tributes to the late James Darren, who died earlier this week at the age of 88. From Gidget to The Time Tunnel, from singing to acting, his was an impressive career; he was also, from what I hear, a great guy as well. Terence's piece is here, while you can read what Trav has to say here.

Finally, A View from the Junkyard gives us our weekly Avengers fix, with an excellent episode from the Steed/Tara season: "Requiem." Or is it excellent? See what Roger and Mike have to say; better yet, watch it for yourself and make up your own mind. TV