At this moment, more than 400 reporters are covering the conflict, 82 of whom are employed by the three American broadcast networks. It carries, all agree, "the highest emotional—if not cerebral—impact of any reporting medium." It's a different kind of reporting, as ABC's Saigon bureau chief Jack O'Grady points out, where the search is always on for something new; " The competition between the networks is fierce here in Saigon, and the bureau chiefs are always gambling that the other fellow doesn’t have a story you’ve missed. It’s a game of guts, timing, talent and luck." And it demands a high price from those involved; Jack Fern, until recently NBC's bureau chief, says, "If you don’t want to go into combat, there’s nothing wrong with you; in fact, it’s probably a sign of high intelligence. But if you come to this party, you’ve got to dance; you’ve got to go into the fighting day after day in order to cover this story." It's been known to crack some: "I've had men come to me and say, 'I can’t go out any more. I’m scared,' Fern says. "That’s when I take them off duty and send them home. These guys push themselves. You can see it happening. Maybe some have a need to test themselves. Whatever the reason, the fear and fatigue eventually catch up with them." At the end of the day, he concludes, "I start waiting for the phone to ring to see if everybody is OK—and, secondarily, if they've gotten the battle on film and have managed to ship it."
For all that, the reporters there would rather be out in the field, covering combat, than back in Saigon. "There's more truth out there," says one reporter. "Anyway, I don’t consider myself a political expert, and in Saigon you have to do stories on the murky and mercurial political situation. You’re treading on eggs when you try to describe it. I'll take a nice simple battle any day." And as dangerous as it is out there in the jungle, in one way it's actually safer: ABC reporter Ron Headford says, "You have no protection while filming a civil demonstration. You can get hit from any side." Indeed, one reporter was recently pushed into a police wagon, his camera destryed. And all agree that there's nothing worse than covering the official briefings provided by the military. The information is often old and incomplete, and frequently inaccurate. Additionally, and understandably, the military prioritizes looking good and getting good publicity. "You can't possibly rely on them," says ABC’s Roger Peterson. "I don't feel any animosity to the briefers; they're doing what they're told, and often they'll level with you if you approach them privately."
It all adds up to a nightmarish situation, not just for the men fighting the war, but for those covering it. The war often appears to be fought for no reason, with the results often inconclusive, in an environment that is, to put it kindly, hellish. In an effort to lessen the impact, which includes "a peculiar form of Asian distemper which afflicts many newsmen who remain in Vietnam overlong," the networks have instituted mandatory R&R programs in which their personnel are sent to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, or Manila. Still, it can be hard to take. One reporter recalls how "A few weeks ago, I suddenly realized I had to get out of here for a while, or go nuts. So I went up to Hong Kong and just: sat around for a few days." He frequently gets, he says, the feeling that it seems to have no end." And the demands made by the competition between the networks, which never lets up.
It's certainly a different picture from that which one gets when watching movies set in World War II, which was bad enough. Politics aside, it often forces one to wonder "what the hell we were doing there." And that's just if you're reporting it; it must have been even worse if you were fighting it. I think that the reporting about Vietnam was frequently one-sided and misleading. (To be fair, so was the information coming from the military.) Nobody can doubt, though, that the men and women covering the story were themselves, in their own way, warriors.
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: Scheduled guests: comedians Wayne and Shuster, Allen and Rossi, and Richard Pryor; singer Petula Clark; flamenco dancer Manuela Vargas; and the Berosini Chimps. (This appears to be an accurate account of this week's lineup.)
Palace: Adam "Batman" West presents blues singer-composer Ray Charles and the Raelettes; Western singers Roy Rogers and Dale Evans; singer-dancer Joey Heatherton; comic George Carlin, who offers a monologue about the Américan Indian; ventriloquist Fred Roby; Landon’s Midgets, slapstick comedians; and highpole performer Danny Sailor.
Ed Sullivan absolutely loved the Canadian comics Wayne and Shuster, who were frequent guests on the program, as were the comedy team of Marty Allen and Steve Rossi; neither of them became as big as Richard Pryor, though, and Petula Clark is at the peak of her career. Compared to this, we have George Carlin (offsetting Pryor), Roy Rogers and Dale Evans (offsetting either Wayne and Shuster or Allen and Rossi, take your pick); Ray Charles, offsetting Pet Clark; and Joey Heatherton, in all likelihood offsetting her spinal alignment. (If you've ever seen her dance, you know what I mean.). And by the way, there's no truth to the rumor that Landon's Midgets are Lorne Greene and Dan Blocker. These really are two fine lineups, but I'm leaning toward a Hollywood moment with The Palace.
Ed Sullivan absolutely loved the Canadian comics Wayne and Shuster, who were frequent guests on the program, as were the comedy team of Marty Allen and Steve Rossi; neither of them became as big as Richard Pryor, though, and Petula Clark is at the peak of her career. Compared to this, we have George Carlin (offsetting Pryor), Roy Rogers and Dale Evans (offsetting either Wayne and Shuster or Allen and Rossi, take your pick); Ray Charles, offsetting Pet Clark; and Joey Heatherton, in all likelihood offsetting her spinal alignment. (If you've ever seen her dance, you know what I mean.). And by the way, there's no truth to the rumor that Landon's Midgets are Lorne Greene and Dan Blocker. These really are two fine lineups, but I'm leaning toward a Hollywood moment with 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. Marlo Thomas, says Cleve, is "not just pretty funny—she is very pretty and very funny. She looks like Paulette Goddard, which is a good way to look to begin with, and on top of this she has the most engaging smile you’re likely to find." And she has a "most charming" ability to talk fast-talk herself out of trouble, faster than any double-talk artist you're likely to see anywhere. We got a glimpse of this in the very first episode, in a scene where she's appearing in a perfume commercial, trying to speak while a piece of tape is being placed over her mouth. "She blurts out a story about trying to buy a desk ("It'saterrificrolltopdeskmyfather'salwayswantedonejustlikethatallhiswholelifebutyoureallydon'tcaredoyou?") And, even though the tape stopped her, I tell you every man in that TV audience did care." When you add in boyfriend Don (Ted Bessell) who, seeing her taped up like that, assumes she's in danger and tries to rescue her, it makes for "a very funny scene."
The idea behind the series isn't the most dramatic—a young actress tries to make it big in the Big Apple—but the execution is sharp, the supporting cast is winning, and, best of all, there's Marlo herself. As for whether or not she'll make it after all (to coin a phrase from a future sitcom about a single professional woman), "We think she will. AndwereallydocareAnnMariehonestiywedo."
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Before we get to the programs of the week, we've got a trio of variety specials this week, starting with Carol & Company, one of the comedienne's occasional specials prior to the start of her weekly series (Sunday, 10:00 p.m., CBS); her guests tonight are Rock Hudson, Frank Gorshin, and Ken Berry.
On Wednesday, Pearl Bailey hosts Something Special (10:00 p.m., KXTV), taped in London, with Ethel Waters, the Krofft Puppets, and Pearl's husband-drummer, Louis Bellson.
And speaking of Carol Burnett as we were, her traditional opening-night guest on her weekly series (she called him her "good luck charm") was Jim Nabors. On Wednesday, Nabors hosts his first variety special, Friends and Nabors (9:00 p.m., CBS), with guests Andy Griffith, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Shirley Jones, and operatic soprano Marilyn Horne. William Price Fox Jr.'s cover story about Nabors is one of those tiresome articles that takes the form of a letter from the author to his mother. You know, "Dear Ma," that kind of thing. And it has a "aw, shucks" quality to it, typical of many articles about Nabors, that's also tiresome.
Having said that, Fox concludes his article with a very perceptive point about how clueless Hollywood is when it comes to country-tinted artists (witness previous efforts to change Ernie Ford and Jimmy Dean). "Out here in Hollywood they have a thing called typecasting. You are called a Rock Hudson type or a Steve McQueen type or maybe an Annette Funicello type. But everyone has to be a type or else they don’t fit in, Well I guess they just figured Jim didn’t fit in so they’re going to work on him and make him into a type. Right now they’re fooling around making him Al Jolson and Fred Astaire. Maybe they'll try Art Linkletter or Frankie Avalon next."
There's just one problem with this, Fox continues. "[I]t’s kinda funny and kinda sad the way everything is working out for Jim. 'Cause when Jim is himself he’s about the best thing I’ve seen out here. He’s a born entertainer and I mean don’t a soul even cough when he’s on stage 'cause everyone is watching everything he does. . . When you get right down to it, I guess the new Jim Nabors isn't so new after all. I figure he could be new if they left him alone. But right now they’re trying to make him do everything and they're spreading him thinner than the hamburger we used to get out at Lonnie’s." Hollywood really doesn't get those of us in flyover country, does it.
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When I used to watch football, I said that the real season doesn't begin until the Series ends, and given that we're almost there, Saturday's college game of the week figures to be an important one, with top-20 teams Tennessee and Georgia Tech facing off from Atlanta (1:00 p.m., ABC); the network's top team of Chris Schenkel, Bud Wilkinson, and Bill Flemming are on hand to call the action. Meanwhile, Sunday's pro action sees the Philadelphia Eagles vs. the Dallas Cowboys (12:15 p.m., CBS regional), the defending champion Green Bay Packers in San Francisco to play the 49ers (12:45 p.m., CBS regional), and the expansion Miami Dolphins taking on the Oakland Raiders following NBC's World Series coverage.
Sunday also sees a trio of variety shows (in addition to Sullvan): Garry Moore welcomes Dionne Warwick, comic Chuck McCann, the Bitter End Singers and actress Mary Louise Wilson (9:00 p.m., CBS), while Andy Williams' guests are Anthony Newley, Bobby Darin, Nancy Wilson, and humorist Herb Shriner. (10:00 p.m., NBC)
Here's an interesting program on Monday: Cineposium, a program about cinema on San Francisco's educational television station KQED, helmed by talk show host Michael Jackson (no, not that one). Tonight, Jackson looks at "The Silent Crisis," a film about deaf children by Ned Bosnick, with his guests, producer-director Roger Corman and actor Victor Buono. I don't know about you, but I didn't have them on my bingo card as guests on this kind of film. I don't know why this surprises me; Buono was a very erudite man, and Corman not only did a lot to help young film directors, he was also responsible for distributing many foreign films in this country. Later on, the great Ray Bolgert makes a rare television appearance on The Jean Arthur Show (10:00 p.m., CBS), playing a most entertaining millionaire businessman.
If you're like me, you probably got a lot of your pop culture education watching television after school, when you had your choice of programs such as Gilligan's Island, talk shows like The Mike Douglas Show, or movies featuring Abbott and Costello and the Three Stooges. I mean, we were literally raised on television like this (the foreign films were usually shown earlier in the afternoon, before we got home), which is what makes Tuesday's matinee movie on KCRA so unusual: it's We'll Bury You (4:00 p.m., a 1961 documentary detailing "the rise of Communism from Karl Marx to the Cold war, including its growth in China, Cuba and North Korea." I wonder if this was done on purpose, as a way of trying to influence the thinking of school-age children in the wake of the anti-Vietnam tumult. Perhaps I'm reading too much into it, but it does make you wonder. And then at 5:25 p.m., California Republican gubernatorial candidate Ronald Reagan appears for a five minute political talk on KSBW. See how it all fits together?
*In fact, it's not a stretch to view The Carol Burnett Show as the successor to Kaye, with Korman simply remaining a part of the cast.
The Hollywood Blacklist is a recurring theme in Darkness in Primetime, and another example of it comes on Thursday night with Carl Foreman's movie The Victors, starring George Hamilton, George Peppard, Eli Wallach, and Vince Edwards. (9:00 p.m., CBS) Foreman, who wrote High Noon, The Bridge on the River Kwai, and Cyrano de Bergerac, was blacklisted in 1950 after his association with the Communist Party more than ten years ago became known. He wrote several movies, including Kwai, under a pseudonym, but had since resumed work under his own name, including a massive hit with The Guns of Navarone, and he both wrote and directed The Victors. Want something a little lighter? Try tonight's Star Trek episode, "Mudd's Women," with Roger C. Carmel and a bevy of beauties.
Friday night it's the television premiere of the hit musical Bye Bye Birdie (9:00 p.m., CBS) starring Dick Van Dyke, Janet Leigh, Ann-Margret, and Paul Lynde. (Not surprising that it's on CBS, giving the musical's generous ode to Ed Sullivan.) In case you've ever wondered why I make a point of these movie TV-premieres, it's because they are a big deal; in For the Record, Henry Harding points out that ABC and CBS have shelled out, between them, more than $92 million for feature-length movies. ABC recently paid $5 million for two airings of Cleopatra, which won't even air until 1971, and paid a total of $39.5 million for The Longest Day, Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, Shane, and The Robe. Meanwhile, CBS paid $52.8 million to MGM for the rights to 63 of their properties, including Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Night of the Iguana, The Yellow Rolls-Royce, and North by Northwest. Those were the days.
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And with Christmas just around the corner, a couple of seasonal notes: for the first time in 15 years, the Christmas opera Amahl and the Night Visitors will not be shown. Gian-Carlo Menotti, the composer of Amahl, was never happy with the 1963 version of the the opera, which NBC recorded without his participation, and now that the rights to Amahl have reverted to him and his publishers, he has chosen to exercise his authority to stop the network from airing the opera. "I would rather see no production at all of Amahl than a bad one," Menotti tells reporters. As it turns out, Menotti relents in November, and Amahl does air as originally scheduled on December 25, 1966; that, however, will be it until a new production, directed by Menotti himself, premieres on NBC in 1978. You can read more about Amahl in my article, which as far as I know is one of the only in-depth looks at the production of this famous TV special.
There is, however, a new Christmas tradition on the horizon, as Harding notes: "CBS paid the record-breaking sum of $315,000 for the Dr. Seuss cartoon, "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," to be seen in mid-December.
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Since I spent some time trashing Hollywood a few paragraphs ago, I can't let things go without a mention of one of the true pioneers of Hollywood, Ida Lupino. Dwight Whitney is on the set with Ida, where she's directing "Deadeye Dick," an upcoming episode of The Virginian. And therein lies one of the great stories, for Ida Lupino is, according to Whitney, "the first and maybe the last of the lady TV directors."
Eventually, though, the roles began to come less frequently, and Lupino and her then-husband, Collier Young, turned to producing, making a series of hard-boiled crime movies with director Elmer Clifton. During the filming of the first movie, Not Wanted, Clifton fell ill and Lupino took over. She was especially good with young, inexperienced actors, earning herself a reputation for being a wet nurse for up-and-coming talent. She also had a reputation for being hard-boiled, which led Richard Boone to hire her for an episode of Have Gun—Will Travel that included "a rape, eight murders and a sandstorm."
Before she knew it, she was considered an "action director," and she's since logged more than 100 television shows (becoming, in the process, the only person to both act in and direct episodes of The Twilight Zone). She knows what she's in for when a producer calls her to do a "tender little love story "He means he’s got a runaway horse, two shoot-outs and a cattle stampede he wants me to handle. So I take the job, what else? My old boy and I have gotta eat, don’t we?" Crew members like her, says Whitney; one told him that "She directs like a man." Actors like her as well: "being an actress herself, they think she understands their problems." And she's managed it all while still retaining her femininity. "I don’t believe in wearing the pants," she says. "You don’t tell a man, actors, crews. You suggest to them. Let’s try something crazy here. That is, if it’s comfortable for you, love. And they wind up making old Mother look good."
She's unfazed by it all. "'I'd rather write a song (she has written 28 of them) or a short story," she tells Whitney. But, with a wave toward her swimming pool, she continues to direct. "Who would pay for this?" And while she admits that she likes to act, she adds that "there are 48 years that I'll admit to. And I came here when I was 16. Roles that make sense for my age are. . . scarce." She adds, however, that "I’m glad I wasn’t born a raving beauty. The worst thing is to be a glamorpot and have to face the day when you’re no longer that." I think she's selling herself a little short there.
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