What's on TV? Sunday, January 16, 1966

Tonight, KHSL airs the final episode of Amos Burke, Secret Agent. It's being shown in an off-network hour, which means it was probably shown on ABC last week. Regardless, it's one of many examples through the years of network interference ruining a perfectly good show. As Burke's Law, the program combined mystery with light comedy, with Gene Barry being aided by an excellent supporting cast. But ABC, inspired by the success of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and the James Bond movies, wanted to capitalize on the spy craze, despite opposition by Barry and series creator Aaron Spelling. They were right; the network was wrong. Amos Burke, Secret Agent didn't even last the season. But you can see the listing here in this Northern California edition.

This week in TV Guide: January 15, 1966

As the reach of American television continues to expand around the world, it was almost inevitable that it would eventually penetrate the Iron Curtain, and this week Neal Hickey takes a look at how television is making its presence in Eastern Europe in ways that newspapers and magazines can't begin to approach. Why, Bonanza has become the favorite show in many parts of the Soviet bloc!

In fact, the list of American programs being bought by the Communists is a fascinating mix of drama, music, and culture. Among the most popular are Dr. Kildare, Perry Mason, The Defenders, Ben Casey, The Rebel, and Playhouse 90 on the drama side, while Leonard Bernstein's Young People's concerts, The Jackie Gleason Show, The Dinah Shore Show, and The Swinging World of Sammy Davis Jr. have given viewers music to tap their toes to. There's also been a brisk business in documentaries on JFK, Shakespeare, Casals, and Hemingway, as well as stalwarts such as The Twentieth Century, Wild Kingdom shows are favorites in Czechoslovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia, and Bulgaria. 

What's behind this gold rush of American television? As Hickey says, it's not too hard to figure out: "greater tourism from the West, a growing independence of thinking among the long-oppressed peoples of Eastern Europe, and their natural desire for a manner of life with a little more fun in it." According to George A. Graham Jr., president of NBC Enterprises, satires on the government are even being allowed in a few countries. (Imagine the thought of That Was the Week That Was, Soviet-style. Kind of boggles the mind, doesn't it?) 

The one country that so far has resisted the trend, you probably won't be surprised to find out, is the Soviet Union itself. After all, these shows we've been talking about are designed to provide entertainment to viewers, which goes against the Soviet line that "television is a mighty tribune which helps in carrying out Party and government policy. This is the main task of our television... ” The Central Committee recently adopted a resolution calling on television to "demonstrate the people’s condemnation of loafers and good-for-nothings who try to live at the expense of others." 

Despite the dryness of Eastern bloc television (a typical evening on Bulgarian television, for instance, includes a news program, a speech by the Deputy Minister of Defense, a documentary on the Bulgarian Army, and a basketball game between the Bulgarian and Russian Army teams), one recent traveler reports that "TV antennas are sprouting from every type of house, including the tenements of the poorest districts," and over the last decade, the number of television sets in use behind the Iron Curtain has expanded from a little over one million to nearly twenty million. Sixty percent of Czechs watch television from two to four hours a day, and ninety percent of the country has television reception. A service called Intervision links all the Communist countries (excepting Albainia and Yugoslavia) to provide telecasts of major sporting events, concerts, and special news events. 

Analysts are bullish on television's ability to bridge the gap between East and West, and, as Hickey concludes, the trend may be impossible to stop, even if authorities want to. "If the Iron Curtain ever does lift, to allow those poor nations full commerce with the free world, television can claim much of the credit." Or the blame, one might suppose.

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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: Scheduled: musical-comedy performers Phil Ford and Mimi Hines, who do scenes from Broadway’s “Funny Girl’; the Lettermen, vocal-instrumental group; actor-impressionist Frank Gorshin; song stylist Barbara McNair; TV personality Mike Douglas; and the comedy team of Stiller and Meara. (It looks like this was, indeed, the lineup.)

Palace: Host Phil Harris presents Alice Faye (Mrs. Harris), tenor Sergio Franchi, the singing Kim Sisters, comedians Tim Conway and Georgie Kaye, the acrobatic Three Mecners and the Jubilee Four, Phil’s own singing group.

Well, there's not a lot to say about this week. Each show has a perfectly serviceable lineup, neither one of them knocks the other out of the park. Where does that leave us? Why, with a Push, of course.

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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

This week, Our Man Cleve heads West: the Old West, that is, or at least the West in the post-Civil War era, with Rod Serling's new Western, The Loner, airing on CBS. The results are, as is so often the case, a mixed bag.

First, the good: Lloyd Bridges, the titular loner, who plays William Colton, a former Union officer in the War, in search of meaning to his life after four years of killing. I had never been a huge admirer of Bridges as a dramatic actor, but, like Amory, I came away from my viewing of The Loner greatly impressed by his performance. As Amory says, Bridges "is convincing in every department of an exceedingly demanding role," one that requires him to appear in virtually every scene. The show also has its share—perhaps more than its share—of fine episodes, featuring excellent performances from such guest stars as Barry Sullivan, who was particularly good in a story involving a handicapped surgeon who has to walk Colton through the process of operating on a gunfighter with a ruptured appendix. Brock Peters was another standout as a black Union soldier who returns home from the war only to find out that his father has been lynched.

Ah, but whenever you have good news, you also have bad, for, as Amory points out, Serling was obviously intent on developing a "realistic, adult Western," one that presented a contrast to that typically seen on television. However, based on the ratings, The Loner is "either too real for a public grown used to the unreal Western or too adult for juvenile Easterners—we hesitate to say which." Amory also points out something that fans of The Twilight Zone will recognize as an unfortunate Serling trait: the tendency to overwrite. In "The Oath," the episode featuring Sullivan, a young Spanish girl says, "Never tempt death, senor. Never beckon for it. Death comes in its own good time." Likewise, there is this "strange" speech that Peters gives to his father's hanging body: "Hey, Papa. I’m here. Hey, Papa. I done fight the war to make us free. Hey, Papa." Now, perhaps this is the way real people talk in real situations, although I doubt they talk with this kind of eloquence or rhythm. Nonetheless, as one of my favorite authors, D. Keith Mano, once said when a student of his explained a particularly bad piece of writing by saying that this is how it had happened in real life, "Yes. And see to it that it doesn't happen again." My own experience with The Loner, more often than not, was that the verbosity didn't interfere with the dramatic effectiveness, and to be fair, some of the worst episodes were those not written by Serling. Nevertheless, as Cleve points out, the patient that Colton operates on eventually dies—as will The Loner itself.

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It's that time of the year when news starts leaking out regarding shows being considered for the Fall schedule, and the editors have some thoughts on these shows in the As We See It editorial. There is, for example, Pursuit, in which the hero travels from town to town, chasing a wanted criminal. There's also Run, Buddy, Run, in which the hero travels from town to town, being chased by the Mafia. If you like war shows, we have Operation Razzle-Dazzle, a military comedy set behind enemy lines, The Recruiters, about a funny recruiting sergeant, The Sea Wolves, a submarine-service melodrama, Jericho, a commando melodrama, and Assault, a Pacific-war melodrama. 

On the comedy side, there's Hero in the House, about an inept, bumbling Western actor, Green for Danger, about an inept, bumbling insurance agent, The Clumbsys, about an inept, bumbling family, and Ace of the Mounties, about an inept, bumbling dog. And if stories ripped from the comic pages are your thing, there's Tarzan, Li'l Abner, and Dick Tracy. There's also The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., Mr. Terrific, Silver Springs, about a game warden’s son who finds a mermaid, The Best Years, dramatizing the life of a small-town doctor, Hawk, whose detective hero happens to be a Mohawk Indian, and The Unpardonables, a comedy featuring funny inmates of a civilian prison.

Now, not all of these series will make it to television. There are some in that batch you should recognize, however, enough to convince you that this list is for real. But, the editors assure us, "we thought you’d like to know that, despite what you may have heard, the present season’s shows are not the last word in originality, creativity, or freshness. Next season may top them.

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But what about this season, you may ask? Well, wonder no more. Saturday's highlights come in the late-night movie slots,  At 11:20 p.m., KPIX has Town Without Pity, a movie that spawned a hit record for Gene Pitney, and a pretty good courtroom drama to boot, dealing with the uneasy post-war relationship between the United States and West Germany. 1:00 a.m., KPIX is back with It Happened One Night, the first movie to win the Big Five Academy Awards of Best Picture, Best Actor (Clark Gable), Best Actress (Claudette Colbert), Best Director (Frank Capra), and Best Adapted Screenplay (Robert Riskin). Only two movies have done it since: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and The Silence of the Lambs. And at 2:00 a.m., KGO's all-night movies feature a Thin Man doubleheader: After the Thin Man, with a very young James Stewart in a very untypical role, and Shadow of the Thin Man.  

Sunday's highlights start early, with "In the Beginning, God...." (8:00 a.m., CBS), an historic hour-long program of sacred music from San Francisco's Grace Cathedral, written by Duke Ellington and performed by the Duke and his orchestra, hailed by religious leaders for its combination of jazz and sacred music. At 6:30 p.m., it's music of a different kind on The Bell Telephone Hour (NBC), with Donald O'Connor hosting a salute to "The Song-and-Dance Man," starring musical-comedy star Anthony Newley, singers Janet Blair, Shani Wallis and Nancy Dussault, and the dancing Nicholas Brothers.

Monday night's episode of Run For Your Life is the pilot, "Rapture at 240" (10:00 p.m., NBC), which was originally shown April 15, 1965 on Kraft Suspense Theatre. This episode includes Paul Bryan (Ben Gazzara) receiving the deadly news from his doctor* that his disease is incurable. Normally, I'm not a fan of series where the episode establishing the premise is shown after several other episodes have been run, but given that this is technically a repeat of the original showing, we'll let it go this time. I wonder if he was ever tempted to get a second opinion from either Dr. Kildare (8:30 p.m., NBC) or Ben Casey (10:00 p.m,. ABC). Perhaps not. 

*Fun fact: the doctor is played by S. John Launer, who was the judge in many an episode of Perry Mason, where he never had to deliver the death sentence to one of Perry's clients.

On Tuesday, The Red Skelton Hour (8:30 p.m., CBS) welcomes mime Marcel Marceau, who for the second straight year joins Red in "A Concert in Pantomime." The entire hour, needless to say, is in mime, with Marceau and Skelton performing separately, and joining together for the finale, in which they portray a toy soldier and rag doll who team up to bring happiness to a little girl who never smiles. And later, on NBC's Tuesday Night at the Movies (9:00 p.m.), it's The Tin Star, starring Henry Fonda and Anthony Perkins, which served as the inspiration for Fonda's later Western series The Deputy. Last, but certainly not least, it's The National Health Test (10:00 p.m., CBS), the latest in the network's series of programs (including The National Driver's Test and The National Citizenship Test) allowing viewers to test their knowledge on a variety of important subjects. Harry Reasoner and Mike Wallace are the hosts.

Wednesday's highlight is the traditional close to televison's Christmas season, the Bob Hope visit to Vietnam (9:00 p.m., NBC). Bob's joined on this trip by actresses Carroll Baker and Joey Heatherton; singers Jack Jones, Kaye Stevens and Anita Bryant; comics Jerry Colonna and Peter Leeds; Dianna Lynn Batts, Miss U.S.A. titlist in the Miss World contest; the dancing Nicholas Brothers; and Les. Brown and his band. We also see entertainers Martha Raye; Eddie Fisher and song-and-dance man John Bubbles, who were doing separate tours in Vietnam. 

Bob's show preempts I Spy, ironic since our cover features the stars of I Spy, Robert Culp and Bill Cosby. Dick Hobson's cover story focuses on Culp, who by all accounts is a man devoted to his craft, and what he believes in. For instance, Godfrey Cambridge, the controversial black comedian and actor, calls Culp the real deal, a white man who doesn't pretend to use hip, urban lingo, but prefers to let his work speak for him. At a time when "A Negro’s always got to be the Good Guy on TV these times," Cambridge says Culp dared to cast him as the heavy on I Spy. Cosby speaks warmly of Culp as well; "I could be just a nothing. I could be crumpled and crushed if Bobby had turned out to be the kind of guy who wants everything for himself," Cosby says. "But we made contact. We tuned each other in. Now Bobby knows me better than anybody. We’re closer than brothers." Culp talks of his early years in the business, when he had what he believes was a deserved reputation for being difficult to work with, sparked by his desire to say something in his work. With help from his agent, Jimmy McHugh, Culp was able to transform his image by steering him toward comedy as well as drama, which paid off with four successful feature movies over a two-year period, and wound up with I Spy. Without minimizing the impact of Cosby's various crimes, one of the unfortunate side effects was the kneejerk reaction to yank I Spy from various viewing options, which certainly does a disservice to Culp's talents.

Thursday sees the premiere of another ITC British import targeted for American audiences: The Baron (10:00 p.m., ABC), a mystery-adventure series starring Steve Forrest as John Mannering, a wealthy American antique dealer (nickname: "The Baron") who occasionally gets involved in cases with British intelligence. It is not a great show, but it is fun to watch; if you enjoy The Saint, I think you'll find this to your liking. Also to your liking is this morning's Today (7:00 a.m., NBC), which features an appearance by Kukla, Fran, and Ollie.

Friday night sees a repeat showing of the 1960 production of the delightful Peter Pan (7:30 p.m., NBC), making its first appearance in three years, starring Mary Martin and Cyril Ritchard. It's not only one of television's most beloved productions of all time, it's one of the most significant TV specials of television's first two decades; when the original live version was shown in 1955, it drew 65 million viewers, making it, at the time, the largest audience to ever see a television program. It was done live again the following year, and then recorded in 1960; it's that version that's being shown tonight. Don't accept any cheap substitutes.

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And now, the sports. Now that the champions have been crowned in the NFL and AFL, it's on to the all-star games. The AFL All-Star Game (Saturday, 10:30 a.m., NBC) features a unique, one-time format in which the AFL champion Buffalo Bills take on a team of stars from the rest of the league, live from Houston. (The All-Stars win, 30-19, by the way.) On Sunday, it's the NFL's turn with the Pro Bowl Game, live from Los Angeles. (1:00 p.m., CBS) In this more conventional setup, the East All-Stars, including Frank Ryan, Jim Brown, and Bob Hayes, route the West All-Stars, led by Fran Tarkenton, Gale Sayers, Mike Ditka, and Alex Karras, 36-7.

You'll notice that I made a point of mentioning that those games were live. One that is not live, at least in this issue, is the NBA All-Star Game, which took place on January 11 in Cincinnati, but is seen Saturday night at 11:00 p.m. on KCRA in Sacramento. An explanation: ABC is, for the second year, the national home of the NBA, but the contract does not include the All-Star Game, which was broadcast by Sports Network International. And while parts of the country saw the game live, Sacramento was not one of them. Reminds me of the days when the NBA Finals were shown on tape delay after the late local news. The league's come a long way since then. And if you're interested, the East wins in a walk, 137-94.

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MST3k alert: First Spaceship on Venus (Italian-German; 1962) Eight scientists set out for Venus. Yoko Tani, Oldrick Lukes. (Wednesday, 5:00 p.m., Channel 7) This isn't a terrible movie, which alone makes it a rarity on MST3K, but that doesn't mean it's good, either. The movie was made in Poland, where it was titled The Silent Star (a better title, if you ask me), it has the kind of ethnically-diverse cast that was somewhat unusual for the time. Still, as Mary Jo Pehl says, it doesn't make you care about the fate of the characters. TV

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Around the dial

The picture above shows a woman celebrating Christmas in the Soviet Union, 1966. It almost looks as if it could be a decade earlier, doesn't it? I mention this because the lead story in tomorrow's TV Guide deals with American television behind the Iron Curtain, and while imported programming has become very popular in the Soviet bloc, Russia itself still refuses to show American programs. That will change, of course; Brezhnev himself was a big fan of The Rifleman, and became a great friend of lifelong conservative Chuck Connors. But that's another story, and in the meantime, we've got some stories of our own to look at.

We begin this week at RealWeegieMidget, where Gill reviews Alina Adams's book Super Soap Scenes: A Time Capsule of Daytime Drama’s Greatest Moments. It's particularly interesting to read her reactions, given that Gill lives in Finland, and was familiar with but hadn't seen most of these shows, 

I wish American television still offered regular dramatic anthology series, something that still survives on British TV, although at Cult TV Blog, John goes back to the 1960s and The Wednesday Play, in this case "The Last Train Through Harecastle Tunnel," and strange just begins to describe it.

The A-Team continues to satisfy at The View from the Junkyard, and this week Roger looks at the episode "Curtain Call," a clips show that finds Murdock fighting for his life, having taken a bullet intended for Hannibal, while the others reminisce about various past stories involving him.

And it's a triple feature of anniversaries at A Shroud of Thoughts, as Terence commemorates the 60th anniversary of Batman and Daktari (both premiered in January, 1966), and the 90th anniversary of the radio classic Gang Busters, which had a brief but successful run on TV as well. TV

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And now for something completely different

If you subscribe to my monthly newsletter (and if you don't, why not?), then you know I've got another book coming out this year. 

After years of writing about television and its makers, I’ve turned to something more personal and inward: The Book of Revelations, a quiet, literary novel that follows one fractured life across decades through changing voices and memories. At its heart is a child whose world collapses in a single night, and the long, uneven aftermath—how absence reshapes identity, how the past refuses to stay buried, and how some promises, made in childhood, wait decades to be kept. It’s a departure from my usual work, more meditative than historical, more concerned with what lingers inside than what appears on screen. 

It's my first novel in a decade, and I must admit I've thoroughly enjoyed my return to writing fiction. It was my first writing love, and even though I've been at the television beat for more than fifteen years, fiction remains my favorite type of writing. There's something liberating about building a world from the inside out—starting with the blank page, letting characters speak in fragments, trusting the reader to what's said, and what's left unsaid. 

The first draft of The Book of Revelations weighs in at just over 70,000 words. (For comparison, The Electronic Mirror ran a little more than 80,000 words, including the appendix. That's still available, by the way, so if you don't have a copy yet, you know what to do!). Even though it's taken me only four months to write the initial draft, it's a story that's been with me for more than a decade, growing slowly and quietly, much like the life it follows: one careful sentence at a time, no hurry, no spotlight. 

As writers like to say, now that the initial version is done, the real work begins: line-by-line editing, Beta readers, revisions, and probably two or three more passes through. Even though authors never like to say that their books are done, eventually The Book of Revelations will go to press, and then, hopefully, to your hands. If you're curious about how it took shape—early drafts, discarded scenes, the small decisions that shaped the final book—sign up for my monthly newsletter on the sidebar. I'll share updates, occasional excerpts, special offers, and the occasional glimpse behind the curtain, always keeping it brief and without clutter. And when the publication date comes, you'll be the first to know! As for what the future holds, I've already got a file full of notes for the next novel, and as long as the Lord's willing and the creek don't rise, I'll be working on the initial draft by the end of this year.

In the meantime, as you've noticed, work continues apace here at It's About TV. I won't pretend it's easy working on both projects at the same time; there are times when it feels as if I have very little left to share regarding television, but thanks to the wonders of TV Guide (and a fairly sizable backlog of posts), new posts keep popping up at the rate of four per week. You may have detected an increase in the number of reruns (or "encore presentations," as the business likes to call it), but in choosing them, I've tried to dip into the past, choosing articles from a few years back, ones that might not be quite so familiar to you. I can't promise that it won't continue this year; all I can say is that I'll do my best. Eventually, of course, this grand experiment in mixing television and culture will come to its natural conclusion, but until then, I appreciate your continued support, and as always, I thank you for being here. TV

If you enjoy the content here and want to support my broader creative work, please consider making a donation at my Ko-fi page. Any amount you contribute helps me continue writing, researching, and sharing these articles and projects. Thank you!

What's on TV? Tuesday, January 13, 1970

Tonight, ABC presents a documentary on a bygone era. "The Golden Age of the Automobile," written and narrated by John Secondari (The Saga of Western Man) looks back at the amazing rise of the car, from its days as a culture-changing "horseless carriage" to today's threat to the environment. I've never been a car buff myself, but I've never been anti-car, and I am a lover of auto racing, and in this documentary you can see the incipient evolution of the car from pleasure vehicle to utilitarian transportation to what it is today: distained by the younger generation, so complicated and computerized that few can work on their own cars anymore (or build them from scratch, as was the case with so many teen boys and their hot rods), and so expensive that your car loan may well outlive the life of the car itself. And as an auto racing fan, I can see the effects of this: fewer new fans among the young, fewer attending races, more and more gimmicks introduced in hopes of increasing the audience. But Drive to Survive can only take you so far, and after that, what will survive? This and more comes to you from the Eastern New England edition.

This week in TV Guide: January 10, 1970

This week, Super Bowl IV takes top honors on TV. Mind you, you won't see Roman numerals anywhere in the issue; it's only the "Super Bowl." Of course, we all know how much the Super Bowl has changed since its earliest days...

...But wait. Maybe we don't all know that. After all, if you're under, say, 40, you've probably never known any other Super Bowl than what we have today. And if that's the case, then this one TV Guide is going to tell you everything about what the Super Bowl is by showing you what it was, and what it wasn't.

What it wasn't, first of all, was a ratings monster. How do we know that? Easy: the game started in the afternoon (3:30 p.m. ET, CBS), with only a half-hour pregame show. It's true that nothing big was scheduled against it*; G-E College Bowl, Issues and Answers, some local movies and syndicated series, but in the days before saturation sports on TV, that was pretty standard fare. 

*The following season, when NBC has the Super Bowl, CBS would even schedule an NHL game directly opposite it. 

It was about the game, not the commercials. It was the final matchup between the American and National Football Leagues, a rivalry as bitter as anything in sports; with Kansas City's victory over Minnesota, the final Super Bowl tally between the two leagues ends at 2-2. People watched it for what happened on the field, and complained that the first Super Bowls were generally boring and uncompetitive, unlike what they saw during the regular season. There were no special commercials back then: the commercials were standard edition and annoying. And anyway, the game's only allocated three-and-a-half hours of airtime, and you have to figure that last half hour is reserved for the trophy presentation. (When the commercials* are the most important thing about the broadcast, I can promise the game and the trophy presentation aren't going to get done in that amount of time.)

*And the halftime "concert." In perhaps the first example of a Super Bowl halftime extravaganza, Al Hirt was the headliner of a Mardi Gras celebration.

The two leagues had played their championship games just a week before, on January 4, so there was no extra week to build up the hype machine. As you can see from the Close Up, TV Guide doesn't even know who the two teams playing in the game are, so they give the rosters for the four teams in the league championships: the Chiefs and Oakland Raiders in the AFL, the Vikings and Cleveland Browns (you heard that right!) in the NFL. Two of these teams will compete for the trophy; tune in Sunday to see who they are.

There's no special section in TV Guide, by the way, dealing with the game. No sidebar on "memorable moments" (such as last year's shocking upset win by the New York Jets over the Baltimore Colts), no "gameday recipes" for your Super Bowl party. Just a two-page article by TV Guide's resident sports expert Melvin Durslag, writing about the general surprise that this year's game was being played in New Orleans instead of making Miami the permanent home (as many had expected), and wondering about how long football would continue to remain America's top sport (I think they're pretty safe in that regard).

Don't misunderstand me; there's no question that the 1970 the Super Bowl is a big deal. It's one of the biggest sporting events of the year. But that's all it was, and sometimes it helps to have a reminder of when, unlike today, that was the case.

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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: Tiny Tim and his bride Miss Vicki are the headliners, offering a medley of love songs through the ages. Scheduled guests: Flip Wilson, Peter Gennaro, Stiller and Meara, country singer Sonny James, and songstress Karen Wyman. (The actual show was headlined by the Ike and Tina Turner Revue, and included sword balancer Vino Venito and Adagio dance duo Carter & Lynn; the rest of the lineup is the same except for Tim being backed up by the Enchanted Forest, an all-girl band.)

Palace: Bacharach tunes predominate as hosts Burt Bacharach and his wife Angie Dickinson present jockey Bill Shoemaker (singing and dancing in his show business debut), comic Scoey Mitchell, and singers Dusty Springfield and Sam and Dave.

This is a strange week, isn't it? I know that Tiny Tim was big stuff back then; I even remember watching his marriage to Miss Vicki on Carson's show. Even if they weren't the headliners (and Ike and Tina elevate the lineup considerably), it still points to a certain lack of, shall we say, gravitas. Burt Bacharach is scheduled to do several of his own songs tonight, with the Ray Charles singers (not that Ray Charles), and while he's not a particularly good singer, he's written some wonderful songs that should make for a very good show, especially when someone else like Dusty Springfield is singing songs like "The Look of Love." Angie could probably just stand there and look good, and it wouldn't hurt the show one bit. Tonight, Palace has the look of a winner.

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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. 

Jim Nabors is one of those rarities in show business. He left a hit series, Gomer Pyle, USMC, at the height of its popularity, in order to star in his own variety show. According to Cleveland Amory, Nabors prefers his new series because (1) he likes to sing, and (2) the hours on this show are better. There's only one problem with this, says Amory: "a lot of us are learning, the hard way, the rigors of listening to Mr. Nabors sing. It's not that he's a bad singer—he's not. But he's just not a singer. He's a comedian." And what that means, for viewers of The Jim Nabors Hour, is that "every time he sings a serious song we (1) can't get out of our head that album of the New York Mets singing and (2) have an almost uncontrollable urge to grab Mr. Nabors, say 'Terrific game, Jim,' pour champagne on his head and push him into the showers."

Singing is one component of the three-legged variety show formula. The second leg is dancing, and Nabors is no dancer either. That leaves only the third leg, comedy. "And here let us say it does pass muster. Not only is Mr. Nabors a fairly funny fellow to begin with, he has a very funny way of making even unfunny stories come off funny." It helps that his former Pyle sidekick Frank Sutton is a regular on the show, and also that his guest stars, such as Carol Burnett, have been given very funny sketches to work in.

But then it comes back to singing, such as the duet he did with Kate Smith in which "Mr. Nabors deferred to Miss Smith so much that it was hardly a duet at all." Fortunately, this too was saved by what Amory refers to as "one of their typical unfunny funnies," to which Amory confesses, "well—OK. We laughed." A lot of people did when they were watching Jim Nabors, and plenty of people did like his singing, even if Cleve wasn't one of them. The Jim Nabors Hour survived on CBS for two seasons, and with its good ratings would probably have lasted longer were it not for the network's rural purge. Jim Nabors popularity, however, never waned.

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WSBK's Saturday night movie is Koroshi (10:30 p.m.), starring Patrick McGoohan in his role as John Drake from Danger Man. The "movie" is actually a combination of two somewhat related episodes from the series, something that used to be quite popular in the movie world. (There were several Man from U.N.C.L.E. movies, as an example, using this technique; it was a way to make money off the international market.) What's interesting about this is that these are the only two color episodes of Danger Man, done before McGoohan decided to abandon the series in favor of his new brainchild, The Prisoner.

On Sunday, Jim Henson and Rowlf teach children "How to Make a Puppet" on an NET Children's Special (7:00 p.m.). In addition to demonstrating how muppets work, Henson tours puppet history and demonstrates various kinds of puppets. That's followed at 8:00 p.m. by the debut of NET's The Show, a program "created by and for teen-agers" as a forum for them to share their voices. Each week, 25 high school students from around the nation will join host Bob Walsh and a variety of guests; this week's lineup includes Olympic decathlon champion Bill Toomey, and Kenny Rogers and the First Edition.

Monday ABC's failed Monday night lineup makes its final appearance. The network's experiment in 45-minute programming, The Music Scene (7:30 p.m.) and The New People (8:15 p.m.), as well as the serial drama Harold Robbins' the Survivors, all air their last episodes; next week, ABC's new lineup will consist of It Takes a Thief and the ABC Movie of the Week. A definite upgrade, in my opinion. It's also part one of the epic El Cid (9:00 p.m., NBC), starring Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren; part two airs at the same time tomorrow night. 

Tuesday offers a few interesting viewing options, some of which you'll be reading about in the Monday piece. However, there's always something left over, in this case WGBH's live presentation of the Boston Symphony (7:30 p.m.), with the television debut of the orchestra's 25-year-old assistant conductor, Michael Tilson Thomas, who would go on to be a familiar face on TV, taking over the Young People's Concerts from Leonard Bernstein, as well as doing some well-regarded music documentaries for public television. Always an interesting man. And music of a different kind features on The Red Skelton Hour (8:30 p.m., CBS), with Duke Ellington and his orchestra.

Wednesday's NET Festival (8:00 p.m., NET), features host John Gielgud, looking at several productions of Hamlet over the years, from the Oscar-winning performance of Laurence Olivier to interpretations by Nicol Williamson, John Barrymore, Maximillian Schell, and Gielgud himself, as well as opinions on the role by Brian Bedford, Tom Courtenay, and Richard Chamberlain. Opposite this is The Wonderful World of Girls (8:00 p.m., NBC), with host Gene Kelly welcoming Barbara Feldon, Ruth Buzzi, Kay Medofrt, Chanin Hale, and over two dozen members of the Las Vegas Folies Bergere. Later, Rowan and Martin take time off from Laugh-In to host a satirical look at television, with Carol Burnett, the Smothers Brothers, Sammy Davis Jr., and a host of cameos; it's directed by Gordon Wiles, a former veteran of Laugh-In. (9:00 p.m., NBC)

The final Christmas program of the season airs on Thursday, as Bob Hope shares highlights from his 15-day tour entertaining the troops in Germany, Italy, Turkey, Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan, and Guam. (8:30 p.m., NBC) Accompanying Bob on his 24,000 mile tour: Connie Stevens, dancer Suzanne Charney, Miss World Eva Reuber-Staier, the Golddiggers, Romy Schneider, Teresa Graves, and Neil Armstrong (whom the troops were probably more excited to meet than anyone). And one of the oddest lineups you'll see on late-night television is on The Dick Cavett Show (11:30 p.m., ABC), with Dick's tentative guests, director Federico Fellini and musician John Sebastian.

Finally, Friday rounds out the week with the final episode of Jimmy Durante Presents the Lennon Sisters (10:00 p.m., ABC), with their guests Ed Ames, David Frye, and Ferrante and Teicher. Jimmy and the Lennons sing "Try to Remember," and I wonder if that's the epitaph on their show? For something a little more lighthearted, the CBS Friday Night Movie, Robin and the 7 Hoods (9:00 p.m.), with most of the Rat Pack (Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr.), plus Bing Crosby, Edward G. Robinson, Peter Falk. Barbara Rush, Victor Buono, and Allan Jenkins. A cast like that makes the rest of the night—Lee Meriwether, Yvonne DeCarlo, and cameos by Rudy Vallee, Edward Everett Horton, and Estelle Winwood on The Name of the Game (NBC, 7:30 p.m.), Bill Mumy, Harold Gould, and Larry Linville on Here Come the Brides (ABC, 8:00 p.m.)—pale by comparison. 

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Buried in The Doan Report this week is one of those quotes that convince us there's nothing new under the sun. The debate is whether or not network commentary should be labeled as "editorial opinion." It's an issue that's been raised by Vice President Agnew, who cites unlabeled commentaries as evidence of a liberal network bias. One major station-ownership group, Storer Broadcasting, is threatening to put its own superimpositions on screen, even if NBC and CBS refuse to do so. (ABC is currently the only network to clearly label commentary as such.)

Richard S. Salant, president of CBS News, is uncomfortable with the whole thing. "What a can of worms that opens up!" he says of the Storer threat. "The trouble these days is, everything somebody agrees with is fact, and anything they don't agree with is opinion. I wish I knew how they're going to define what is 'editorial'." Now, substitute "news" and "fake news" for "fact" and "opinion", and try that one on for size. With the proliferation of the internet and social media, I'd argue that things are even worse today than they were in Salant's time—but it hardly began yesterday.

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Finally, there's this ad touting Rosemary Prinz's debut on ABC's All My Children. The ad runs every day this week, giving you an idea of what a big deal this is. Prinz was famous for playing Penny Hughes on As the World Turns from 1956-68. She and her on-screen husband Jeff Baker were, according to the always-reliable Wikipedia, daytime television's first supercouple, although I might have suggested Mike and Sara Karr from The Edge of Night, but I digress.

Prinz was part of All My Children for six months, during which her name ran above the title, and she was the only cast member to have her picture in the opening credits. It was the first month for All My Children. Not a bad way to make a splash, hmm? TV

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Around the dial

At The Twilight Zone Vortex, it's a look at Volume 4, Number 2 of The Twilight Zone Magazine, with Gahan Wilson's review of John Carpenter's Christine, an interview with director John Sayles, dystopian movies of the 1970s and 1980s, and more!

A terrific story from David at Comfort TV on his visit to the Brady home, the home shown in The Brady Bunch that was renovated into a replica of what you saw on the series. What a fantastic experience; read about it for yourself.

At Cult TV Blog, John reviews "Killer with Two Faces," an episode of the 1973-76 British series Thriller (not to be confused with the American version hosted by Boris Karloff), and the insights gained from repeated viewings of the episode.

How on earth can you have a "non-violent" episode of The A-Team? Well, as Roger finds out at The View from the Junkyard, it can be done, as we see in the episode "Semi-Friendly Persuasion." Well, at least for a time, anyway.

Rounding out this short but sweet week is A Shroud of Thoughts, where Terence reflects on the legacy of Inner Sanctum Mysteries on the occasion of the radio show's 85th anniversary. The show made the transition to both the big screen and television, but it's the radio program that continues to be the most remembered. TV

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TV Jibe: Violence on TV

TV

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What's on TV? Monday, January 6, 1969

You'll notice that as of today, Bob Clayton is now the host of Concentration, taking over for the show's original host, Hugh Downs. Downs had a remarkable run, not only hosting Concentration from 1958, but also acting as Jack Paar's sidekick on The Tonight Show until Paar left in 1962, and then moving on to host The Today Show. And before that, he'd been with Arlene Francis on The Home Show from 1954 to 1957. Of course, there's also 20/20, Over Easy, and other programs he either hosted or was part of. At one time, he'd appeared on more hours of commercial television than any other personality. Fear not, though; you can still catch him on Today in this Northern California edition.

This week in TV Guide: January 4, 1969

For our first TV Guide of 2026, we look back to the first issue of 1969. After one of the worst years in the nation's history, people must have looked forward to a new year with a mixture of relief (it has to be better, right?) and trepidation (that's what we thought last year). 

So what's new this week? Well, there's a fourth national network, for one thing. Richard K. Doan reports that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is creating a hookup for 150 noncommercial stations to facilitate receiving a unified broadcast schedule. In the past, National Educational Television (NET, the predecessor to PBS) had shipped many of these programs from station to station on film or tape. It is hoped that this will make it easier to promote public television on a national basis. A recent study indicates that ratings for public broadcasting shows are down by an "alarming" amount over the past three years, with the exception of cities such as Boston and San Francisco, where such programming is heavily promoted. Another survey shows that the most watched series on public television may be David Susskind's syndicated talk show Open End, which in fact is not a CPB program at all, but is merely a program picked up by some public broadcasting stations. (Many stations choose to classify it as "educational," which in fact it probably is, when compared to what airs on PBS nowadays.)

In fact, Doan says, the whole situation begs the question—several, in fact:

• If public television, which is supposed to act as an alternative to commercial broadcasting, has so few viewers, does the nation really need to invest in this? Does the public want such an alternative?
• On the other hand, has public television lacked the funds to do the kind of "quality" programming that viewers want?
• OR, does the quality already exist, but goes unseen because of the lack of advertising and promotion?
• Otherwise, why has the government earmarked $5 million for programs that the public apparently doesn't want?

You know, I'm not sure we even have the answer to this today.

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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: Tentatively scheduled guests: Johnny Mathis; singers Diana Ross and the Supremes, and Shani Wallis; composér-conductor Henry Mancini; comedians Rodney Dangerfield, and Jack Burns and Avery Schreiber; and the Rolan Brothers, novelty act. (The episode guide notes that the Pter Gennaro dancers also appeared, and that the audience bows came from Jack Lord and Jean Claude Killy.)

Palace: Palace begins its sixth year as Bing Crosby and Bob Hope receive the first annual show business Hall of Fame Awards. Bing is also the host; his guests are Tiny Tim, Bobbie Gentry, Judy "Sock It to Me!" Carne of Laugh-In, comic Stu Gilliam, the acrobatic Dovyeko troupe of the Moscow State Circus and columnist Earl Wilson, who presents the awards.

It's always hard to go against Bing Crosby, and doubly so when he's joined by his old partner, Bob Hope, for the first (and last?) Show Business Hall of Fame Awards. (You can see a clip of that here.) However, let's be honest: Diana Ross and the Supremes, Johnny Mathis, Henry Mancini, and Rodney Dangerfield. You're just not going to beat a lineup like that. My decision: Sullivan kicks off the new year right.

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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. 

A show that you don't hear about much anymore, but one that still has a loyal following if the interwebs are to be believed, is The Name of the Game, which Cleveland Amory reminds us was billed as television's first "motion-picture series." It featured a rotating cast of stars, headed by Gene Barry as the head of an international publishing empire, with Robert Stack as editor of Barry's crime magazine, and Tony Franciosa as Barry's chief investigative reporter. The show is big, big concept—and has a 90-minute running time to boot. The advantages to such an arrangement were obvious, in that by having three stars alternating each week, the producers would have as much as three weeks to shoot each episode. Good idea, right? Except, says Cleve, for "one small detail. They forgot to get another good idea—one for the show itself."

One of the show's problems lies in the viewer having to figure out which side he was supposed to be on as he watched. "Most of the episodes so far have been, from opening tease to final wheeze, so crammed full of false values and phony status standards that, as movies, they move all right, but as far as moving you goes, our guess is that it will be primarily to turn them off." And that's too bad, because no show on television can match the star wattage of the guest lineup on The Name of the Game, even though most of them get shot ("from their good side, of course") before they can make much of an impact. "Even so, and hard as it is to believe, they were all overwhelmed by a sea of muddy melodrama and messy, unmotivated characterization." 

As far as the stars (i.e. the good guys), we haven't seen much of Franciosa so far ("apparently he not only alternates but hibernates, too"), but Barry and Stack have two expressions between them. "Barry is better than Stack, but that is still a long way from a compliment." And Susan Saint James, the only character to appear with all three leads, is caught between a mod Mata Hari and an "immod impression of Paula Prentiss." So what's left except to leave the magazine, marry Rock Hudson, and start solving murders? Maybe they should have hired her to run the crime magazine.

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Saturday's highlights belong firmly in the late-night hours, with a trio of classics to satisfy any movie lover's tastes, beginning with The High and the Mighty (11:15 p.m. PT, KXTV in Sacramento), the original airliner-in-jeopardy movie, starring John Wayne, Robert Stack, Claire Trevor, and Laraine Day, and capped by a memorable score from Dimitri Tiomkin. At 11:30 p.m., it's one of the great political melodramas of all time, All the King's Men (KGO in San Francisco), Robert Penn Warren's gothic horror show that won Oscars for Broderick Crawford and Mercedes McCambridge, as well as taking Best Picture. And early Sunday morning, it's the original Cat People (1:50 a.m., KPIX in San Francisco), Jacques Tournier's classic starring Simone Simon and Kent Smith.

Sunday starts off with perhaps the most meaningless professional football game this side of preseason, the Bert Bell Memorial, also known as the NFL Play-Off Bowl (10:30 a.m., CBS), featuring the second-place teams from the Eastern and Western conferences, playing essentially to determine who finishes in third place in the league. If common sense hadn't ended this game, the players' association most certainly would have. On Firing Line (7:00 p.m., KQED in San Francisco), William F. Buckley Jr. and heart transplant surgeon Dr. Christiaan Barnard discuss whether or not moral and theological considerations should influence medical decisions, a topic that continues to be hotly debated today. And at 10:00 p.m., it's the premiere of the comedy-crime series My Friend Tony (NBC), a show I can honestly say I'd never heard of until I saw the opening credits for it on FredFlix a few years ago. One episode, which I wasn't able to watch all the way through, was enough for me to understand why I'd never heard of it; James Whitmore stars as a crime-fighting criminology professor, while Enzo Ceruico plays Tony, the young man he met in Italy during the war, who assists him in the field. It runs for 16 episodes, so catch it while you can.

On an otherwise undistinguished Monday, we'll recall a little-remembered soap opera named Hidden Faces, a "daytime drama" now in its second week (noon, NBC) that could easily be mistaken for a game show based on the title. ("Players try to uncover a hidden celebrity's visage by solving clues!" See how easy it would be?) Debuting on December 30, 1968, it runs until June 27, 1969, so catch it while—wait, I used that one already, didn't I?

We've got dueling newsmagazines on Tuesday, beginning with the premiere of First Tuesday (9:00 p.m.), one of NBC's many efforts over the years, hosted by Sander Vanocur. The show's title says it all: it airs on the first Tuesday of each month. Tonight's episode includes an interview with strongman Charles Atlas, who will see to it that no beach bully kicks sand in your face. Going up against the second hour of that two-hour program is the granddaddy of fthem all, 60 Minutes (10:00 p.m., CBS), which at this point is still shown on a twice-monthly basis. This week's edition includes a behind-the-scenes look at television comedy, and an interview with vice-president elect Spiro Agnew. 

Back to the movies on Wednesday, with the television premiere of Otto Preminger's suspense thriller Bunny Lake Is Missing (9:00 p.m., ABC), starring Carol Lynley, Keir Dullea, Lauirence Olivier, and Noel Coward. Judith Crist describes it as "long on gimmicks and short on logic," but this story of a missing child—who may or may not even exist—provides plenty of mystery. Perhaps more straightforward is this week's Green Acres (9:30 p.m., CBS), which details Oliver's headaches when he tries to introduce chicken-raising to the farm. If you think this will go well, you don't know Green Acres. 

On Thursday, Ironside (8:30 p.m., NBC) takes on drug use, when Eve's niece is busted on a drug charge. Later, Les Crane talks about drug rehab (9:30 p.m., KNEW in San Francisco), with representatives of the controversial organization Synanon, which later turned into a religious cult, and (according to the always-reliable Wikipedia) disbanded in 1991 after several members were convicted of offenses including financial misdeeds, evidence tampering, terrorism, and attempted murder. And Orson Welles is among Dean Martin's guests (10:00 p.m., NBC); the brain behind Citizen Kane offers a humorous song, and joins Dean in comic vignettes aimed at American tourists in Paris. On the lighter side, ABC preempts its regular programming for a one-hour music special called This Is Tom Jones (7:30 p.m.). Don't be surprised to see this become part of ABC's regular schedule.

Among Friday's highlights is the memorable Star Trek episode "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" (10:00 p.m., NBC), an allegory about racial strife, starring Frank Gorshin and Lou Antonio as the half-white, half-black combatants. Like many Trek episodes, it's a bit heavy-handed in making its point, but it remains one of the best-remembered stories of the series, and there's nothing wrong with the moral of the story. Better, perhaps, is an episode of Judd for the Defense (10:00 p.m., ABC), dealing with the mental capacity of a young woman on trial for murder. She's already pleaded guilty, and may well be: the question is, considering her diminished capacity, should she face life in prison or have a chance at being cured?

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One of Wednesday's shows is Hawaii Five-O, and so we'd be remiss if we didn't mention Leslie Raddatz's profile of Jack Lord, who has come a long way from the rodeo circuit of Stoney Burke (an underrated series, in my opinion) to the beaches of Hawaii. 

Lord has long referred to his admiration for his idol, Gary Cooper. However, while he boasts a lifestyle far removed from Cooper's (including "a 30-foot long, 16,000-pound, all-steel mobile dressing room, decorated by his wife and complete with |bedroom, kitchen, bath, make-up area, stereo, two air-conditioners and a self-contained water purifier"), Raddatz supposes that Cooper may not have had to work as hard, either. The Five-O crew often puts in 18-hour days, six days a week, utilizing as many as five different locations daily. The permanent sets, including McGarrett's and the governor's offices, are not soundproof, and often shooting is interrupted by the sound of rain on metal roofs, the rumble of passing trucks and planes flying overhead, and actual shooting from a nearby rifle range. Ah, well, nobody ever said stardom was easy.

Lord was not the first choice for the role of Five-O head McGarrett; as producer Leonard Freeman recounts, "You always start with Gregory Peck. Who knows? You might call him up and he’d feel like doing a television series that day." Neither, however, was Lord at the bottom of the pile. He and Freeman had worked together on an unsold pilot, and Freeman says of Lord that "He’s terrific. I'm a perfectionist, and so is he. Having a star like Jack is like having money in the bank. He’s always on time, no bags under his eyes, and he always knows his lines." He also projects the gravitas necessary to make viewers buy in; "When he flashes his badge, people believe it."

For Lord, who takes both himself and his work seriously, it's been a long haul to the top. He is a painter (the Metropolitan Museum of Art owns five of his works done when he was 18 years old) and can recite poetry at the drop of a hat (his father would give the five children a penny for every line of poetry they memorized). He's also sensitive and vulnerable, and still resents an article from years ago (which I think was in TV Guide, actually) that suggested he visualized himself as a second Cooper. He and Cooper had been friends until the latter's death, but Lord denies he ever had "illusions of filling his idol’s boots." And Lord has no need of such lofty dreams today, given the success of Hawaii Five-O (which will run until 1980, the last series of the 1960s to go off the air), part ownership of the series, and financial security (known as a shrewd businessman, he's not even represented by an agent). Not to mention an apartment at Waikiki. 

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One of our other stories this week looks at the so-called "waist-up" fashion displayed by many female television personalities. The phrase refers to the fact that what these women wear below the waist is generally hidden from viewers, and while this is often true for men as well as women, the article is written by Cindy Adams, which explains why the accent is on the distaff side. Barbara Walters, for example, is often clad in "stunningly attired top half winks and blinks with the regulation three-piece set—earrings, pin and one refined-looking bracelet" while, below the desk, she's wearing sneakers and slacks. Walters remarks that "I live in fear that one of these days the camera will catch me standing up or walking away."

Then, there's the story of Nancy Dickerson, one of NBC's most prominent correspondents and anchor of the network's five-minute morning news update. Her wardrobe consists mostly of "double-breasted lapel suits with turtle-necked blouses. The fabrics and colors vary but seldom 'the look, since she considers it her most flattering." As proof of this, Adams flashes back to last July 5, when Dickerson, following her newscast, headed off to the hospital to give birth the next day to a bouncing baby boy. Not a single viewer even suspected she was pregnant. A similar story applies to ABC's Marlene Sanders, who continued to do the news even after she'd severed her Achilles' tendon, leaving her to hobble around in a cast for several weeks. On air, she was cool, calm, and authoritative. "Meanwhile, back at the studio, her crutches were stacked against a wall and her leg was propped up on a chair off to the right." Pauline Frederick, reporting for NBC from the United Nations during the Six-Day War, couldn't even wait for her clothes to be cleaned, and so raced to Saks and grabbed something that had a good neckline but was too large. Said Frederick, "I’ll have it altered when the war’s over." 

I recall Peter Jennings talking about this kind of thing many years ago. Long considered one of the best-dressed men on television, he explained that he often wore inexpensive suits bought off the rack, and plain shirts. However, when combined with a pocket hanky and cufflinks, it made all the difference. The moral, according to Jennings: use that hanky, and you've got it made. Hey, works for me.

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Speaking of the news, as we can see this week, there's more than one way to look at it:

At least Fox News's advertisements weren't quite this blatant. 

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MST3K alert: Attack from Space (Japanese; 1964). Spies from the planet Sapphire force a Japanese scientist to aid them in their plans for invading earth. Ken Utsui, Junko Ikeuchi. (Sunday, 11:30 a.m., KCRA in Sacramento) Another less-than-classic from Rifftrax, featuring a not-so-heroic figure named Starman, trying to fight off space aliens from the Death Star by using ordinary guns. Not ray guns, not lasers, just regular guns with bullets in them. Ah, technology is wonderful, isn't it? TV

If you enjoy the content here and want to support my broader creative work, please consider making a donation at my Ko-fi page. Any amount you contribute helps me continue writing, researching, and sharing these articles and projects. Thank you!