This week in TV Guide: May 24, 1969

You might well recognize the name of U.S. Senator John Pastore, "the tart-tongued Democrat from Rhode Island," who for years has been the bane of the television industry with his campaign against what he sees as excessive sex and violence on the networks. This week, he explains the motivation behind his campaign to "clean up" television; not surprisingly, it begins with his constituents. 

The networks often point out that they don't really get all that many complaints about the content of their programming, Pastore says, but that's misleading. "People don't write to stations and networks like they write to congressmen, you see, and I have heard from many people," he explains. "I go to church on Sunday, and I’m stopped by half a dozen people who make a complaint about it. Or I have people visit with me or I go to a social affair or I go to a civic club, and it's continuous. It's continuous. I've been swamped with complaints." Pastore doesn't believe that everything on television is junk; in fact, he says about 90 percent of television is good. But that other ten percent; ah, there's the rub. 

"There isn’t a man I’ve met in the broadcasting industry who doesn’t know the difference between right and wrong, who doesn’t know when a joke has gone too far, when a gesture has gone too far, when a dress is cut too low, when the feminine body is too much exposed, when a joke begins to lose its subtlety and becomes a vulgarity—and that has happened!" Pastore says. The networks claim that we live in a more permissive era, and they point to today's motion pictures as evidence of how it's reflected in the entertainment industry. "But the fact remains that television was invented to service the family in the home," Pastore counters. "It's an entirely different medium than a moving-picture theater. With a moving picture, you can read a review. If you feel it's going to be a picture that's a little out of bounds, you don't buy a ticket and you don't go." 

It's different when it comes to television, though. "When you turn on that knob, that knob, and you hear from a licensee of the Government, you expect something decent. And you have a right to expect something decent." Which leads to one idea that Pastore's been advocating for years: pre-screening of shows by the National Association of Broadcasters. Pastore claims that many of the problems resulting from controversial shows such as ABC's Turn-On could have been avoided if such programs were simply screened in advance, the content adjusted when appropriate, and changes made if necessary, not unlike what will be done with the motion picture rating code. Not every program would need to be prescreened; "Take My Three Sons. Who has to prescreen that? The Doris Day Show, do you have to prescreen that?. . . there are so many shows they know beforehand are all right." But, in the case of Turn-On, "there was a reluctance to say exactly why it was taken off the air and finally I butted in and asked, 'Wasn’t it taken off because it was too risque?' and the fellow [Elton Rule, president of ABC-TV] said, "Yes." Said Pastore triumphantly, "That's it!"

Pastore scoffs at those who deny that there's a link between on-screen violence and its real-life counterpart. Relating his conversations with network heads, he urges them to take responsibility for what they show in their programs. "All I'm saying is, look, you're sensible people. You're men of the world. You're fathers of families. You know the difference between right and wrong. There’s so much about this you can do on your own! Then, when you get to the marginal cases, maybe you need a Surgeon General's opinion." 

The last thing he wants, Pastore says, is censorship. "I'm opposed to Government regulation, because I think they can do this job on their own. Not only that, I tell you very frankly, we don’t want to do anything here that will impinge on the basic constitutional rights of freedom of speech. I’m very strong on that." But it's up to the networks, and particularly the judgment of the NAB Code Authority. When Pastore says he's against government regulation, he pointedly adds, "For the time being, of course not."  It's an argument that the editors of TV Guide have made many times themselves, that if the industry doesn't police itself, someone else is going to. Of course, what we may find naïve today is the very idea that television can be cleaned up. And a larger question: does anyone out there even care anymore? 

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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: Tentatively scheduled guests: Theodore Bikel; Beatles’ protege Mary Hopkin (singing "Good-By"); comic Louis Nye; and soul singers Sam and Dave. Also on hand: comic Ron Carey, the singing Primo Family and juggler Ernest Montego. (This appears to be the actual lineup on the show.)

Palace: In a repeat, Van Johnson presents the Beatles (in a film clip from Liverpool); Mickey Rooney (in a baseball sketch); Liza Minnelli; actress Chris Noel (with films of her visit to Vietnam); comic George Carlin; the acrobatic Palace Duo; and comic illusionists Milo and Roger.   

I think when you're able to lead with the Beatles, you've already got a leg up on the competition. Mickey Rooney, Liza Minnelli, and George Carlin give the Palace the bench strength it needs, and even though Ed's lineup is not weak, common sense says this week's nod goes to The Palace.

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From 1963 to 1976, TV Guide's weekly reviews were written by the witty and acerbic Cleveland Amory. Whenever they appear, we'll look at Cleve's latest take on the shows of the era. 

With television's regular season turning to an endless cycle of repeats, Cleveland Amory has the opportunity to look at those programs that the average viewer might not be familiar with, and this week he turns his attention to the Sunday morning ghetto of religious programming, and NBC's Frontiers of Faith.

As was the case with so many religious programs of the time, Frontiers of Faith, which debuted on the network in 1951, has evolved over the years, from being a more or less televised religious service, to one that explores music, dance, and drama, using both documentary and interview formats. Since it's not a commercially-sponsored program (its sponsor is the National Council of Churches), it has the added advantage of not having to deal with sponsor controversies, which means it's free to tackle controversial topics and guests, "from the Archbishop of Canterbury to James Baldwin." Two programs from a couple of years ago, both featuring Dr. Lycurgus M. Starkey Jr., pastor of the College Avenue Methodist Church of Muncie, Indiana, serve to illustrate the point: one was called "The Manly Art of Seduction," while the other explored James Bond movies and sadistic paperbacks, called "The Violent Ones."

Amory singles out a particularly notable series of episodes aired earlier this year. Called "Challenge of a Closer Moon," it was a timely examination of U.S. foreign aid to underdeveloped countries—the "closer moon" of the title—and what we were, and were not, getting from it. Said moderator Donald Barnhouse, "It is said about aid to developing countries that it is a kind of Operation Rathole." He then interviewed guests from the Rockefeller Foundation and the Agriculture Development Council to demonstrate, as Amory says, "that it is not." 

Programs like this are important, even though this isn't particularly my style of religion, but as Amory points out, "the people who wanted preaching and singing went to their church or synagogue; that, if they didn’t, they didn’t want it; and that, even if they did, they didn’t necessarily want it again." What I do want out of television is something challenging, provocative, and willing to take chances with creative formats. You can't accuse Frontiers of Faith of failing in any of those areas.

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Until 1971, Memorial Day was celebrated on May 30. Until 1971, the Indianapolis 500 was run on Memorial Day, whether it fell at the beginning, middle, or end of the week.* That means that this year's race is scheduled for this Friday, with a good number of special programs, all on KXTV, leading up to the self-proclaimed Greatest Spectacle in Racing. On Saturday Track Talk (11:45 a.m.) presents a 15-minute update on qualifying and preparations for the great race, including interviews with some of the drivers. Sunday, it's Rookie (7:30 p.m.), which tells the story of rookie drivers trying to make the field of 33 for the race. It's not an easy task; in 1967, only one first-year driver (not including those with experience in Formula 1) qualified for the 500. Tuesday (7:00 p.m.), it's a half-hour of qualifying highlights, including the pole-winning run of A.J. Foyt. And on the day of the race itself, it's the Indianapolis 500 Festival Parade (1:30 p.m.), held two days ago, and hosted by Steve Allen. The race itself isn't yet shown live on home television; to watch it live, you have to head down to your local movie theater carrying the closed-circuit broadcast, or wait until the following Saturday for the highlights on Wide World of Sports. Otherwise, you can do as I did for many years, and listen to the live radio broadcast. The 1969 race is won by Mario Andretti, the first and only 500 victory for the great racing family.

*When Memorial Day fell on Sunday, the race was transferred to Monday, May 31. Ironically, the race is permanently scheduled on Sunday nowadays, with the actual Monday holiday being the back-up date. 

There's another program note that runs through the week: the debut of Dick Cavett's new thrice-weekly primetime show (10:00 p.m., ABC). It's the latest landing spot for Cavett, whose 90-minute Monday-Friday daytime show ended in January after a little less than a year; it was always problematic that a show with Cavett's relatively intellectual heft would make a go of it as a morning series. The series kicks off on Monday at 10:00 p.m. PT, with Truman Capote, Liza Minnelli, James Coburn, and Candice Bergen; in later weeks, it will air on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, running throughout the summer. I think there was always a thought on the part of the network that Cavett would serve as a backup in case Joey Bishop's show failed, but as it happened, Cavett was thrust into the late-night spot earlier than expected, when Bishop quit in a contract dispute; he slides into the role at the end of 1969.

And the Apollo 10 flight comes to an end this week with the splashdown scheduled for Monday; all three networks plan live updates throughout the weekend and on Monday; NBC's Today expands to three hours for the event, including an appearance by "Harvard medical student Michael Chrichton [sic], discussing health problems that could be created by interplanetary travel." It's too bad that Apollo 10 tends to get overshadowed by the flights of Apollo 7 (first successful Apollo flight), Apollo 8 (first trip around the moon), and Apollo 11 (first moon landing), because its successful test of the lunar module in lunar orbit was essential in making the moon landing possible. And think about this: that Apollo 11 flight took place only two months later. Amazing to think all those missions could take place in such rapid succession, doesn't it?

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What else? Saturday leads off the week with The World of Charlie Brown and Charles Schulz (8:30 p.m., CBS), a look at how Schulz's comic strip Peanuts has become an industry unto itself, from serving as mascot for the Apollo space missions to movies, musicals, books, and more. I've always enjoyed Peanuts, although I'll freely admit that once Calvin and Hobbes came along, that became my favorite, a position it continues to hold today; I always admired Bill Watterson for not selling out his characters for every commercial purpose around, unlike—well, frankly, unlike Charles Schulz. Later that night, CBS is on hand in the sun and fun capital of the world, Miami Beach, for the Miss USA Beauty Pageant (10:00 p.m.), hosted by Bob Barker, with singer John Gary as special guest star. The winner: Miss Virginia, Wendy Dascomb.

In looking through Sunday's features, I came across this description for the 1934 King Kong with Robert Armstrong and Fay Wray: "Bizarre retelling of the “beauty and the beast’ legend." Now, I've heard King Kong called many things, usually variations of "epic," but I've never seen it called "bizarre." Oh well, it's on at 2:00 p.m. on KTXL. Later, Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic spend on hour on what Lenny calles "the first psychedelic symphony," the Symphonie Fantastique of Hector Berlioz, on Young People's Concert (4:30 p.m., CBS). In primetime, NBC Children's Theatre presents a children's ballet based on Louisa May Alcott's Little Women (6:30 p.m., NBC). Think about these last two shows for a minute: the presumption that children, or "young people," would be interested in two one-hour programs dealing with classical music and ballet. 

On Monday, Arthur Godfrey is on hand to host an hour of highlights of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus (8:00 p.m., NBC). The Old Redhead also finds the time for a dressage exhibition on his horse Goldie, and sings "Mr. Clown." If that's just not for you, you might be interested in "The World of Carl Sandberg" (8:00 p.m., NET), an adaptation of the 1961 Broadway show starring Fritz Weaver and Uta Hagen, plus period folk songs from the Tarriers and Carolyn Hester. You can see a clip of this fascinating program here; Sandburg, had only died two years previously at the time of this airing.

Tuesday sees a repeat of A Hard Day's Night (9:00 p.m., NBC), the Beatles' film debut, which Judith Crist calls a "mad mixture of sophisticated satire and glorious silliness." It's the movie's third run on the network, in what Crist hopes will become an annual tradition. One of the most enduring, and endearing, aspects of the original NBC broadcast was the first (only?) appearance of the "NBC Penguin," taking the place of the Peacock to introduce this movie in "lively black and white." 

On Wednesday, that great thespian, William Shatner, stars with Elizabeth Ashley in the Prudential: On Stage presentation of ". . . The Skirts of Happy Chance. . . " (9:00 p.m., NBC), a comedy-drama about the members of an anti-poverty program in a small city. On Stage is the program launched by NBC following the disastrous "Flesh and Blood," called "the worst disaster of the TV season," the previous year; as I noted at the time, the plan was for "five original 'upbeat' dramas" in the coming season—dramas that will be 'exciting, hopeful and affirmative.'" It's produced by David Susskind, and written by Albert Ruben and directed by David Pressman, both veterans of Susskind's N.Y.P.D., which was very good but wasn't exactly what I'd call "upbeat" and "hopeful." But maybe I'm wrong.

Thursday night, it's a repeat of "Arrival," the stunning premiere episode of Patrick McGoohan's surrealistic allegorical drama The Prisoner (8:00 p.m., CBS). Last season, it aired as a summer replacement for The Jackie Gleason Show; this season, it takes the place of the cancelled Jonathan Winters Show. I've found that the best way to prepare for the series is by watching Danger Man, the secret agent series starring McGoohan as John Drake, who bears a stunning similarity to Number 6. Later, the late John F. Kennedy's 52nd birthday is commemorated with a repeat of the 1964 documentary The Life and Times of John F. Kennedy (9:00 p.m., KTVU), narrated by Cliff Robertson, who played JFK in PT-109. 

Other than Michael Crichton, the most interesting guest on Today this week (Friday, 7:00 a.m., NBC) may be author Edward Luttwak, promoting his book Coup d'État: A Practical Handbook, which TV Guide dryly describes as a handbook "on how to take over a nation." It's important, Luttwak notes, to understand the difference between a coup and a revolution; the former consists of "the rapid takeover of governmental mechanisms by insurgents without destroying them, thereby enabling a swift transition of power." Luttwak points out that not every country is suitable for a coup, and that the key to success lies in flexibility and "maximum speed in the transitional phase, and the need to fully neutralize the opposition both before and immediately after the coup." Not surprisingly, it's actually been used as a guide in several coup attempts staged around the world; Luttwak wrote an updated version in 2016, which includes technological advances made since the original version. I'm not sure why this isn't on my bookshelf.

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According to the Teletype, Steve Douglas, the character played by Fred MacMurray on the long-running My Three Sons, is getting married during the new season. No word on who the lucky lady is, but she'll have a seven-year-old daughter in tow. Historian and former JFK assistant Arthur Schlesinger Jr. is writing the script for "The Unfinished Journey of Robert F. Kennedy," the David L. Wolper documentary that will be the only non-fiction film ever shown on ABC's Movie of the Week. And Chad Everett, star of the upcoming CBS drama U.M.C. (it hasn't yet been renamed Medical Center) will be doing a guest appearance on Liberace's summer show for the same network.

Speaking of CBS, Richard W. Jenks, the new president of the CBS Broadcast Group, addressed the many rumors regarding the network's cancellation of the Smothers Brothers. Richard K. Doan reports that Jenks "flatly denied" that the Brothers were dropped due to declining ratings, nor was it done to protect the aforementioned Senator John Pastore from criticism on the show. And it's "simply wrong" to claim that CBS has given up on topical satire. In fact, says Jenks, the decision was made based on the network's responsibility to both viewers and the industry. In strong words, Jenks said that "someone has to be the judge of the difference between entertainment and propaganda," and that the network does not subscribe to the theory that "free speech not only permits, but compels, the dissemination of antisocial material." Voicing an idea that would strike contemporary viewers as being somewhat quaint, Jenks said that those appearing on the network have to be "as interested as we are in avoiding unnecessary offense to the pious, the immature and the innocent." There is, I think, a lot to that. 

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MST3K alert: Invaders from Mars (1953) A boy awakens in the middle of the night to see a spaceship disappearing underground. Helen Carter, Arthur Franz. It's another presentation from the MST3K quasi-spinoff Rifftrax, spotlighting something that we've always known: the surest way for space aliens to conquer the Earth is to take over the back yard of one particular family in one sleepy little town in America. Makes perfect sense to me; maybe they got the idea from reading Edward Luttwak? TV