This week in TV Guide: November 3, 1962

Last week's TV Guide presented us with a look at Election Night coverage, 1954-style. This week, thanks to the vagaries of the calendar, we're back with another mid-term issue, and a look at how things have changed over the course of eight years.

For one thing, there's a lot more coverage this time; NBC (led by Chet Huntley and David Brinkley) and CBS (with Walter Cronkite in the anchor chair) begin theirs at 7:00 p.m. ET, while ABC (anchored by Ron Cochran) follows suit a half-hour later. Everyone anticipates a long night; the networks promise to stay on the air until "the major races are decided," and one of the biggest races is on the West Coast, where former Vice President Richard Nixon is challenging incumbent Pat Brown in the California gubenatorial contest.  

And that's something else about this year's election: it's as much about 1964 as it is 1962. After all, there's no chance for the Republicans to capture control of the Senate, and little chance for the House. So what this really means is that everyone is looking at those gubenatorial races, and what they mean for the 1964 presidential campaign. Besides Nixon in California, Nelson Rockefeller is running for reelection in New York; should Rocky win a second term handily, it could make him the front-runner for the GOP nomination. Should either Rockefeller or Nixon stumble, (Nixon has already said that if he wins in California, he will not be a candidate for president in 1964), Michigan's George Romney and Pennsylvania's William Scranton could be waiting in the wings—if they're successful in their own races. 

In the end, the prognosticators are right: the Democrats come out of the election with a 65-33 advantage in the Senate (two seats are vacant), and a 258-176 majority on the House. Nelson Rockefeller wins handily in New York against Robert Morgenthau; meanwhile, George Romney narrowly defeats incumbent John Swainson, and Bill Scranton defeats Richardson Dilworth, keeping them both viable. The 1964 Republican nomination, however, will go to a man not on the ballot in 1962: Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater.

As for Richard Nixon, he loses by an unexpectedly clear-cut margin (5%) to Brown, after which he famously remarks to the press that "You won't have Nixon to kick around any more." It's viewed as the end of Nixon's political career. 

Or so everyone thinks.

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Gotta hand it to the local stations this week—their movie selections display a puckish sense of humor. Why else would you have The Last Hurrah, John Ford's sentimental political drama starring Spencer Tracy as an old-style big-city mayor running for reelection one final time, on not just one, but two channels: WBZ in Boston at 11:15 p.m. Saturday, and WGAN in Portland at 5:30 p.m. Sunday. And WGAN doubles down on the theme with the superb, supremely cynical Best Picture winner of 1949, All the King's Men, with Broderick Crawford and Mercedes McCambridge in Oscar-winning performances, at 11:15 p.m. Sunday. (You can find both of those movies on my "24 for '24" political movies and shows list.) I'm only surprised that no one's showing Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. The movie version, that is, but there's a TV series by the same name, as you'll see next.

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Let's face it: we're just not going to be able to escape politics. I mean, there are more political programs on this week than there are holiday programs at Christmastime. Case in point is this week's episode of The Joey Bishop Show (Saturday, 8:30 p.m., NBC) in which Joey's wife, Ellie (Abby Dalton, and Joey definitely married above his station there) rebels against his joke that "A Woman's Place" is not in politics—and promptly annouces that she'll run for assemblywoman. It's all in good fun, though. On the other hand, there's the aforementioned Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (8:30 p.m., ABC) with Fess Parker as James Stewart, and I'd expect nothing less than politics from that; but this week's episode seems pretty neutral: Senator Smith (Fess Parker) tries to help straighten out a hostile teen by making him his Senate page. But the title of the episode: "The Senator and the Page Boy"—well, that would open up a whole 'nother can of worms today, wouldn't it?

On Sunday, the networks present their last-minute analyses before the election; Politics '62 (4:30 p.m., ABC) previews those races that will be at the front of the network's election-night coverage. The same goes for Campaign '62 (5:00 p.m., CBS), including a visit to Massachusetts, site of the Senate battle to fill the seat previously held by John F. Kennedy. The contenders: Republican George Lodge, son of former senator (and Nixon running mate) Henry Cabot Lodge, and Democrat Edward Kennedy, brother to Jack and Bobby*. You know how this turns out. Turning to prime-time, the highlight has to be Ed Sullivan's salute to the legendary composer Richard Rodgers, live from Carnegie Hall. (8:00 p.m., CBS) Joining Sullivan and Rodgers are Peter Nero, Diahann Carroll, Nancy Dussault, Steve Lawrence, Peggy Lee, Gordon MacRae, Roberta Peters, Cesare Siepi, and Alan Jay Lerner; Arthur Fiedler conducts the orchestra. No way The Hollywood Palace would match up to that one, even if it was around.

*Fun fact: the combined ages of Kennedy and Lodge, 65, remains the youngest for two major candidates in a United States Senate election. By contrast, the average age of a U.S. Senator today is 64; four are over 80.

 

The newspaper drama Saints and Sinners (Monday, 8:30 p.m,. NBC), starring Nick Adams, continues the political theme with a storyline concerning an elderly state senator (Charlie Ruggles) being asked to bow out of the gubernatorial race in favor of a younger, more dynamic candidate. Newspaperman Nick writes an article about it, which inadvertently touches off a grass-roots movement in favor of the old man. The Danny Thomas Show (9:00 p.m., CBS) features son Rusty (Rusty Hamer) running a campaign of his own, for president of the junior class. Charley (Sid Melton) suggests a rally including some of Danny's entertainment buddies, starring the Smothers Brothers. But enough of these amateur efforts: Chet Huntley and David Brinkley anchor The Campaign and the Candidates (10:30 p.m., NBC), with a look at the stakes for tomorrow night, and how the network plans to cover them.

Tuesday is, you know, Election Day, so I have to tell you there isn't going to be much to choose from. There is, in fact, only one network prime-time program listed that isn't election coverage: the movie Crisis (7:30 p.m., WMTW in Poland Spring, Maine), starring Cary Grant as a neurosurgeon who's kidnapped while on vacation and forced to operate on a despotic dictator (Jose Ferrer). Meanwhile, Cary's wife, played by Paula Raymond, is kidnapped by opponents who want the good doctor to "accidentally" make a mistake during the surgery. So I guess maybe there is a little politics involved, after all.

So, with the election out of the way, I bet you thought it was safe to turn the television back on, right? Hah! On Wednesday, CBS wraps things up with a Campaign '62 special, "What the Election Means." (7:30 p.m.) Among the topics up for discussion: the makeup of the new congress, and the possible effects of the Cuban crisis on voting. More interesting, perhaps, is Armstrong Circle Theater's live presentation "Tunnel to Freedom" (10:00 p.m., CBS) By this time, Circle Theater has adopted the docudrama format, and tonight's story tells of "a group of elderly East Berliners who, no longer able to tolerate Communist oppression, planned a 100-foot tunnel under the Berlin Wall." What makes this even more intriguing is the similarity to the NBC news documentary "The Tunnel," which tells the story of East Germans escaping through a tunnel dug under the Berlin Wall. I wrote about this a couple of years ago, so I'm not going to rehash the details, except that "The Tunnel" was originally supposed to air on October 31, but was shelved at the request of the State Department, which thought it might be a little spicy to air three days after the missile crisis had ended. I wonder if there were any such doubts about "Tunnel to Freedom"?

Oh, what the hell—here's another political tie-in. It comes on Thursday morning's Continental Classroom class, "American Government" (6:30 a.m., NBC), featuring guest lecturer Theodore H. White, fresh off receiving the Pulitzer Prize earlier this year for The Making of the President 1960. White will be discussing presidential campaigns with instructor Dr. Peter H. Odegard; I imagine there might be some speculation about the 1964 election; of course, they've no idea how things will change by then. If that's too early for you to start your TV viewing, and if 10:00 p.m. isn't too late, then why not catch The Andy Williams Show (NBC), with quite the variety of guests: Betty Grable and Lawrence Welk.

Friday presents an intriguing episode of Route 66 (8:30 p.m., CBS) which, thankfully, has nothing to do with politics but does have Rod Steiger and Ed Asner in a story of a convict who asks Tod to pass along a message to his brother. One of the nits I always had regarding Route 66 was that the pair (no matter who was paired up with Martin Millner) were always finding themselves involved in situations that were none of their business. I probably wouldn't have gotten anywhere near most of them. But then, that's probably why I haven't lived a more exciting life. Also, I'm not a character in a television series.   

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We're still a year away from Cleveland Amory taking over as TV Guide's weekly television critic, and in the meantime the erudite writer and critic, Gilbert Seldes, mans the station. And this week's subject happens to be none other than Saints and Sinners, which we saw earlier as part of our marathon of politically-themed shows. But there's nothing political in general about Saints and Sinners, no crusading for some current social issue, a la Lou Grant, for instance. No, Saints and Sinners is, Seldes say, a crime show, pure and simple. "Kidnapping, racketeering, graft and killings occur on and off stage." 

Nick Adams, boy reporter, and his boss,  
John Larkin  

Ah, but, you say, star Nick Adams isn't a police detective or a private eye; he's a newspaperman! Correct! But, as Seldes again points out, that angle does work itself into the story: "In order to trick the kidnappers, the paper holds back the story. . . In the case of the racketeers, Nick is ordered by his city editor to lay off and we get some idea of newspaper ethics. In the prison case, Nick is in prison." For refusing to divulge his sources, I hasten to add; Nick may be many things, but a criminal he is not. Also, you might not be surprised to discover, there's only a "faint resemblance" between the actual workings of a newspaper and what we see here. "You can ask that the newspapermen and women resemble human beings and that's exactly what they do in Saints and Sinners—they resemble." They also resemble the kinds of characters you might have expected to see in The Front Page, Deadline U.S.A., and, for that matter, All the President's Men. (I suppose you could throw in Kolchak: The Night Stalker too.) 

But, Seldes says, if the show isn't particularly realistic, it is particularly well-done, skillfully and with interesting and colorful storylines. "It isn't the kind of life you and I know," Seldes allows, "but we aren't newspapermen, and the way the chunks of drama support or interfere with one another certainly prevents dullness." It doesn't hurt that the show also attracts top-flight guest stars, such as Brian Donlevy and Joseph Cotton. They are so good, Seldes says, "as to make you forget they might be more seriously employed."

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A note on our cover star, Stanley Holloway, star of the ABC sitcom Our Man Higgins, in which he plays an English butler "inherited" by a suburban American family. A male version of Hazel, perhaps, albeit with more urbanity and "veddy" British aplomb. As was the case with so many series, Our Man Higgins started out on the radio, as It's Higgins, Sir, and ran for 13 weeks in 1951; having heard a couple of episodes, I didn't think it was very funny, but then it didn't have Stanley Holloway in it, either, so maybe I shouldn't judge the television version too hastily.

As Edith Efron points out, it would be wrong, very wrong, to call Holloway an overnight sensation; he's been a star on the British musical-comedy stage for more than 50 years, done Shakespeare, and appeared in between 30 and 40 movies. For all that, though, it wasn't until he hit the Broadway stage in 1955's My Fair Lady that he "catapulted" to fame in America. (He was nominated for a Tony for the Broadway production; he reprised his role in the 1965 movie version and was nominated for an Oscar.) Since then, he's been made an OBE by Queen Elizabeth, and now he's enjoying himself on American television. And in American itself; he's spent about three years here, and says, "I like everything here and dislike nothing. Americans make life as easy as it can be made. The great Amerianism is 'No problem.' Anywhere else, they scratch their jaws and don't know what to do. But the American says 'No problem,' and it's solved!"

It's also been no problem for Holloway making friends wherever he goes; he counts Rex Harrison, Alan Jay Lerner, and Frederick Loewe, all from My Fair Lady, as warm friends, and he's part of the Old Guard of the British theater, along with Cyril Ritchard, Cedric Hardwicke, and Noel Coward. Paul Harrison, the producer of Higgins, calls him "the kind whom you can count on to do his job with utter perfection." He is, in Harrison's words, "A grand old Victorian." That attitude shows when Holloway expresses his views on current theatrical productions. "The theater is being dragged down. All these ugly things exist [in real life] but why talk about them in the theater?" 

Our Man Higgins has only a 13-week run, but it's not the end of Stanley Holloway's butlering days; he plays Beach, the butler, in the BBC's 1967 adaptation of P. G. Wodehouse's Blandings Castle stories, and made several appearances on the Dean Martin and Red Skelton shows. He acted until he was 89, playing his last role in 1980, before dying in 1982. 

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This week's starlet is Roberta Shore, who currently appears as a regular on The Virginian. One of the most interesting things about Roberta, according to the article, is her middle name: Jymme. (Gee, I'd have thought they could find something more interesting than that.) She'd had a pretty robust career to this point, with numerous appearances on television and co-starring roles in several Disney productions, but The Virginian is probably her high point. She is a regular for the first three seasons and then is married off to Glenn Corbett in the fourth season.

After that, according to the always-reliable Wikipedia, her career pretty much tails off. She does a pilot and makes a few more appearances here and there, but with the exception of a radio gig in the early '80s, that's about it. She's still alive though, at the age of 81, which is more than can be said for many of the people in this issue.

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MST3K alert: The Crawling Eye (English; 1958) A radioactive cloud houses a tentacled monster. Forrest Tucker, Laurence Payne, Jennifer Jayne. (Saturday, 12:30 a.m., WHDH in Boston) One of Forrest Tucker's finest roles (and I'm not being sarcastic) sees him as a UN consultant investigating mysterious goings-on at a village in the Alps. Two of the most notable members of the supporting casts aren't listed here: Janet Munro, who enjoyed a very successful film and television career, including three Disney movies; and Andrew Faulds, who goes on to star in the UK series The Protectors before serving more than 20 years as a Labour member of Parliament. TV