This week in TV Guide: December 7, 1968

One of the fun things about looking through these old issues of TV Guide is running across the aftermath from a notable television event. Often, we aren't aware of the significance of these events until after they happen, and in such cases, it's always nice to be able to read about what people thought at the time, rather than after they've had a chance to think things over. And that is most certainly the case this week, as we lead off with a look at the "Letters to the Editor" section, and the fallout from an incident in November that has come to be known as the "Heidi Game." I've talked about this before, and most of you probably know about it, so there's no real sense in rehashing the details; besides, I think you'll get the gist of it from what our letter-writers have to say.

 Most of the letters are brief and to the point: Paul Hudimatch, of Ridgefield, Connecticut, speaks for many of them when he writes, "Thanks a lot, NBC, for cutting off the Jets-Raiders football game with a minute left to play. I hope your peacock dies of feather rot." Now, that is a little harsh, I'll admit, but understandable. Jo-Ann Malanga, of East Orange, New Jersey, asks a reasonable question: "Who wants to see two touchdowns in nine seconds anyway? Especially when you can see Heidi." Good point, Ms. Malanga. Another good question comes from John Brace, in Neptune, New Jersey, wonders: "I would like to know if Heidi received that Lamonica pass," referring to the Oakland Raiders quarterback. Meanwhile, Michael Heslin, of Hopewell Junction, New York, tries (and fails) to put a positive spin on it. "Thanks to NBC’s intelligent thoughtfulness, I was magically whisked from that dull football game (with a minute to play) to a wonderful goat farm in the Alps!"   

Of course, there's always one in every crowd, and a Karen named Marie Donnelly, of West Haverstraw, New York, happens to be the one. "My sincerest and heartfelt sympathy to those poor males left crying in their beer because they missed the end of a football game. Did they ever stop to think of the poor mothers and children left high and dry when a Laurel and Hardy movie or a cartoon festival was canceled due to a sports televised overrun? Try explaining that to a wailing 2- or 4-year-old. Heidi was great." To that, one can only note: 1) I wonder how Jo-Ann Malanga would feel being categorized as a "poor male"? 2) An editor's note following her letter says that "Our heavy mail on this ran three to one against NBC’s action." 

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

Sullivan: Ed’s scheduled guests are opera star Joan Sutherland; Liza Minnelli; comedians Jack E, Leonard and Richard Pryor; the rocking Association; and the Veterans, comedy-acrobatic group. (The episode guide includes Ray Charles and the Venezuelan Folk Ballet.)

Palace: Host Sammy Davis Jr. speaks in cadence to a drum beat. Guests: singers Carmen McRae and Lola Falana, comics Jo Anne Worley of Laugh-In and Jack Carter, the Ike and Tina Turner Revue, and Sammy's discovery, singer-pianist Bobby Doyle. Sammy and Jack mix impressions of show business personalities with a rendition of "Without You."

Obviously, Ray Charles elevates the quality of a Sullivan lineup that already includes Liza Minnelli, Richard Pryor, and the great opera star Joan Sutherland, and that changes things completely. You all know by now that I consider Sammy Davis Jr. probably the most talented entertainer who ever lived, and perhaps without Charles that would have been enough. But the Palace lacks the overall depth this week, so I'm afraid Ed takes the title, with Charles playing the tune.

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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. 

The original (the only!) Hawaii-Five-O ran for twelve seasons, from 1968 to 1980, and was the last television show premiering in the 1960s to go off the air. Jack Lord's Steve McGarrett remains one of the most iconic characters in television history, and among people of a certain age, "Book 'em, Danno" and "Be there. Aloha" are still catch phrases. And so, with all that, we can share Cleveland Amory's puzzlement that the show "hasn't made more of a dent" in the ratings. 

It has much going for it, as Cleve points out. Hawaii is, for one thing, a striking visual location for a television series, and the series takes advantage of that in ways that shows like, for instance, Hawaiian Eye, never did. The fictional state police have their headquarters in the very real Iolani Palace, the only royal palace in the United States, and the location shooting makes it clear that we are, in fact, in the nation's 50th state. For another, Hawaii is apparently a hotbed of crime, judging by each week's episode; "There is so much crime abounding in Hawaii Five-O that the average viewer gets. the distinct impression that, compared with present-day Hawaii, old-time Chicago was the Tournament of Roses." And then there are the characters themselves: Lord, as Five-O boss McGarrett, is, "if he’s a bit one-dimensional, has at least the virtue of not being either so grim or so true-blue that he’s not believable." His number two, Danny Williams (James MacArthur), is earnest, eager to learn, "and yet has a. couple of other expressions too." There are native Hawaiians in the cast as well, Chin Ho Kelly (Kam Fong) and Kono (Zulu), and they're interesting, far from stereotypical, characters.

So what seems to be the problem? It is, says Amory, "that old bugaboo, the plots." There was one story, for example, featuring a couple who preyed on wealthy widows, "And it was all very exciting too—right up to the very end, when it all became so ridiculous you couldn't believe you'd ever believed it." Having seen that episode myself, I can agree with that. However, a subsequent episode in which Danny himself was arrested featured fine performances, not only by Lord and MacArthur, but Gavin MacLeod as a dope peddler. Unfortunately, Amory concludes, without more episodes like this, the half time score is "Hawaii Five-O, viewers 49."

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Pinocchio isn't what you would call a "Christmas" program, but as Sunday's presentation on Hallmark Hall of Fame (7:00 p.m., NBC), it's the kind of family show that fits very comfortably in the season This musical verison has a very appealing cast, including Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits, who maks an ideal Pinocchio, and Burl Ives as Gepetto. Anita Gillette and Charlotte Rae are also part of the cast. In an accompanying feature on the show, producer Richard Lewine discusses some of the challenges presented by the story. "The scene of Geépetto inside the whale’s belly worried me. Everything had to happen at once: the interior of the whale had to look convincing, the whale had to sway, the stove had to spout smoke and the whale’s sneezing had to be heard. And when Gepetto and Pinocchio stage their whale escape, things got even more tricky." 

And then there was the matter of Pinocchio's nose; "We didn't want to cheat the audience out of seeing it grow," Lewine says, so puppeteer Bil Baird was brought in to help solve the problem. "Bil stood behind Pinocchio, out of camera range, holding the end of a rod that attached to the nose. When he pushed the rod, the nose, made from expandable material, lengthened. It worked beautifully," even though it required about two hours of make-up work to hide the separation between Noone's real nose and the fake probecius. 

Lewine says that Pinocchio remains a relevant story for today's world: the generation gap, for instance. "There’s the breakdown in communication between father and son," he says, with Gepetto pushing for Pinocchio to go to school and be a success. And in running away, Pinocchio finds out that "'dropping out' isn’t the answer." I wish this production was available somewhere. 

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On Saturday, it's the sports special O.J. (9:30 p.m., KNEW in San Francisco), a profile of the player "considered by many football experts to be one of the greatest runners ever to play college football." Through interviews with his wife Marguerite, parents Eunice and James, and sisters Carmelita and Shirley, we learn about Simpson the man, who majored in public administration at USC and "wants to work in the City in depressed areas." We see interviews with his high school and college coaches, including USC's John McKay, and fellow competitors and Heisman Trophy winners. And we also hear from O.J. himself, who talks about his hopes for the future. "I plan on breaking a few records, and then going into television and commercials, where I expect to make a killing. Or two."* On a tangentially related note, don't miss the late movie, the excellent Anatomy of a Murder (11:00 p.m., KHSL in Chico), starring James Stewart (in his last Oscar-nominated role), Arthur O'Connell, Lee Remick, and Ben Gazzara.

*That's just a joke, everyone. At least I think so.

We've already looked at Pinocchio as one of Sunday's highlights, but earlier in the day we encounter a provocative topic on William F. Buckley Jr., Firing Line (8:00 a.m., KXTV in Sacramento): "Does TV Decide Who Runs America?" Buckley's guests are Alistair Cooke, BBC correspondent and formerly host of Omnibus; Robert MacNeil, also from the BBC and formerly with NBC; and F. Clifton White, public-relations advisor to Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan. YouTube has the broadcast here. 

Here's another special that's sure to liven up your Monday: an hour of music featuring two of the biggest groups in pop music, the Supremes and the Temptations. (8:00 p.m., NBC) It's called TCB, which stands for "Taking Care of Business," and according to the always-reliable Wikipedia, it is "the first musical TV special of the rock era to air on American broadcast television." It's also, according to YouTube, "the first US national TV special to star an all-black line-up of artists." It goes on to become the top-rated variety show of 1968. And, speaking of YouTube, you can see the broadcast, commercials and all, here.

Let's keep it going here, with more specials. On Tuesday, Joey Bishop moves into primetime with the ABC special "A Guide to the Swinging Bachelor" (8:30 p.m.), billed as "an educational hour for students seeking a bachelor’s degree." (Which just goes to show: don't try this kind of humor at home, folks.) Joey's guests include Shelley Berman, Noel Harrison, Ann Morgan Guilbert, Larry Storch, Dean Jones, and Emmaline Henry, with "Special decorative effects by 12 Playboy Playmates." Unlike Sunday and Monday's broadcasts, this is not available on YouTube; sorry about that.

Wednesday's NET Festival (8:00 p.m.) is a look at today's cinema scene, which includes interviews and excerpts from a variety of movies that demonstrate "the trend  toward treating films as a personal form of artistic expression, not as an industry." Among the films being discussed is a prize-winning film with "no plot, dialogue or characters in the conventional sense." It's called TXH-1138-4EB, and it was made as a thesis by a USC student named George Lucas. Wonder if he ever made it in movies? If music is more your style, then let's go with Kraft Music Hall (9:00 p.m., NBC), hosted this week by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, with Louis Armstrong, Jackie Vernon, and Robin Wilson. And then we have perhaps the best film adaptation of Mickey Spillane's iconic Mike Hammer, the movie Kiss Me Deadly (11:00 p.m., KTVU in Oakland), with Ralph Meeker brilliant as an almost-psychotic Hammer, as well as one of the most spectacular endings in film noir history.

Speaking of spectacular, one of the most famous exits from Hollywood ever seen was that of actress Dolores Hart, who, after making ten films in the course of five years, including two with Elvis Presley (Loving You and King Creole), gave it all up to become a Roman Catholic nun at the Benedictine Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, Connecticut, where she remains, as Mother Dolores Hart, to this day.* On Thursday, we see her in her penultimate movie, Lisa (9:00 p.m., CBS), as an Auschwitz survivor attempting to escape to British Palestine in 1946, with the help of Stephen Boyd.

*Fun fact: Dolores Hart is the only nun to also be a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The Wild Wild West remains a personal favorite, and Friday brings us the return of one of television's great characters, the evil Dr. Miguelito Loveless, played so very memorably by the great Michael Dunn. Tonight (7:30 p.m., CBS), in an episode that sees Charles Aidman filling in for Ross Martin as West's partner (Martin is still recovering from a heart attack), Loveless unleashes an evil scheme to ensnare West by kidnapping seven people, and offering West the clue, "Thursday's child has far to go." Don't you just wonder what that means? By the way, Loveless frequently has a female accomplice, and in this episode she's played by the lovely future soap icon Susan Seaforth.

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This week's highlight is the Christmas special of all specials, A Charlie Brown Christmas (Sunday, 7:30 p.m., CBS). It's really a shame that it's scheduled against Pinocchio, considering how few options there are for this kind of family entertainment. Elsewhere, on Sunday, actress Jeanne Crain introduces a dramatization of Mary’s life in Nazareth. (6:00 p.m., KLOC in Modesto). NET has perhaps one of the more interesting programs of the season on International Magazine (Wednesday, 10:00 p.m.), tracing the national heritage of the three kings who came to see the Christ Child. On Friday, it's A King Family Christmas (7:00 p.m., KNEW), with the entire family providing Yuletide cheer, and on The Magic of Christmas (7:30 p.m., KCRA), Howard Keel and Ann Miller welcome Randy Sparks and the Back Porch Majority. And for your movie entertainment, it's the farcical comedy Christmas in Connecticut, with Barbara Stanwyck, Dennis Morgan, Sidney Greenstreet, and a show-stealing performance from S.Z. Sakall as Uncle Felix.

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A couple of additional Christmas notes that bear mention: in the Teletype, Joseph Finnigan notes that Dean Martin gives away $200,000 worth of toys to orphanages and hospitals on his December 19 Christmas show. Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball, Jack Benny, Bing Crosby, and Jackie Gleason help pass out the gifts donated by a toy company." Dean did this for two or three years, I thnk, at the end of his Christmas shows, and if you've never seen that segment before, it's pretty neat; YouTube has it here, but of course I'd recommend you watch the whole show, with Dean and his special guests.

And the Doan Report tells us that there's another holiday treat in store, if everything goes according to plan. NASA says that if the Apollo 8 flight is on schedule, it plans a live broadcast on Christmas Eve, as the command module flies just 60 or 70 miles above the surface of the moon. As we all know, things do indeed go as intended, and the Christmas Eve "moon show," including the dramatic and moving reading of the Creation Story from the book of Genesis, will become one of the most famous moments ever seen on television. CBS Sunday Morning remembers it well.  TV

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