This week in TV Guide: May 11, 1968

Let's start the week with a couple of related articles on what we can expect to see on the tube this summer, and what we may or may not be seeing this fall.

There is a general sense out there that this summer may well have some television goodies in store, including a surprising number of new shows. The biggest, however, "the Most Gigantic Spectacular Three-Ring Show on Earth," is one that comes along every four years: the campaign for the Presidency of the United States—or, as it's known these days, the Baatan Death March. That wasn't always the case, though; if people weren't exactly looking forward to the presidential campaign, they did concede that it was a colorful, exciting, and often dramatic time, from the primaries through the nominating conventions to the home stretch, ending on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. This year promises to have more uncertainty than usual, although I don't think anyone was prepared for the amount and kind of uncertainty that we wound up with.

British cloak-and-dagger adventure stories are on hand, including Patrick McGoohan's The Prisoner, which replaces Jackie Gleason on CBS, plus Man in a Suitcase on ABC and The Champions on NBC. Red Skelton's CBS variety show will be replaced for the summer by Showtime, a revue show out of London, while NET Playhouse will offer Thirteen Against Fate, a 13-week series of British dramas based on novels by George Simenon. We'll have American-made shows as well, with Dom DeLuise filling in for Jonathan Winters and Glen Campbell taking the place of the Smothers Brothers, and the Golddiggers getting an hour-long show of their own to replace their mentor, Dean Martin. 

If you're more in the mood for fun and games, all three of ABC's prime-time game shows, The Dating Game, The Newlywed Game, and Dream House will have first-run episodes. ABC's also cornered the market on major golf tournaments, with the U.S. Open in June, the British Open and the PGA Championship in July, and the U.S. Amateur in August. You can also get your fill of summer football, with the Coaches' All-America Game in June, and the College All-Stars taking on the Green Bay Packers in August. On a more serious note, documentaries will be in short supply, according to the editors, although we'd be overwhelmed by the numbers that the article cites, including ABC's look at Christian missionaries, CBS's three-part series on "The Cities," and a seven-part prime-time series called On Black America. NBC follows up with a Huntley-Brinkley special on "Whatever Happened to the British Empire," plus reports on the Catholic Church and the art world. 

One thing you won't be seeing more of, reports Richard K. Doan, is original drama, to the regret of CBS. To great acclaim, the network introduced an irregular presentation of taped original dramas under the umbrella title of CBS Playhouse, which I continue to consider a reboot of Playhouse 90. The four dramas presented so far have met with mostly promising reviews, and respectable if not sensational ratings; the season's final installment, Tad Mosel's "Secrets," will be aired this Wednesday at 9:30 p.m., with Arthur Hill and Barbara Bel Geddes. The network promises at least four more next season. 

Unfortunately, this hasn't caused a rush of copycat programs. NBC, of course, has its venerable Hallmark Hall of Fame (which in those days really was good), but most of their presentations are "warmed-over classics," though we might see one original this year. The network also boasts the upcoming On Stage series, sponsored by Prudential, which promises five specials, varying between an hour and 90 minutes in length. "They will be based on original scripts with contemporary themes; only time will tell whether they have more serious theatrical intent than, say 'Fame Is the Name of the Game.'" And that, as they say, is it. 

If Shakespeare wrote for TV, would people watch?

Why the lack of such prestige drama? Well, for one thing, the public doesn't seem to be interested in it; "Hundreds of CBS Playhouse viewers have cried 'More! More!' But they are not an overpowering voice. (Far greater numbers, for example, cried 'More!' for Star Trek.) With the increase in made-for-television movies, the original dramatic play doesn't stand out the way it once would have; many viewers, in fact, don't even notice the difference between the two and are perfectly content to view "Death of a Salesman" and "Dial 'M' for Murder" as movies. 

Good scripts are also hard to come by; CBS's chief programmer Mike Dann complains that sponsors haven't been able to find good scripts for proposed dramas. This, however, is not a universally accepted argument; some of the great playwrights of the Golden Age, such as Reginald Rose, Ernest Kinoy and Paddy Chayefsky, argue that "if the medium provided again the kind of wide-open market it once did for teleplays, the writers would produce them." Chayefsky complains that the networks shy away from anything that has the whiff of controversy, but Barbara Schultz, who oversees Playhouse for the network, says they'd jump at something controversial, "if it's a play." 

These shows aren't exactly cheap to air, either. GT&E paid $525,000 for the Playhouse presentation "Dear Friends"; that air time is normally worth $160,000 per hour, but after the production costs, the net for the network was a mere $75,000. The dramas also tend to be on the dark side; while Dann says that he'd "love" something from Buck Henry or Neil Simon, most of the best writers are looking to make a serious statement with their work. (Those intense dramas don't always pay off, though, as is show in this reap of NBC's "Flesh and Blood" from earlier in 1968.)

So what are we left with? Well, there will be a CBS Playhouse this coming season, and Dann insists it will continue even if it doesn't introduce a new Golden Age. But, as Doan reminds us all, "These are no days in TV for shows that don’t pay their way."

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Throughout the 60s and early 70s, TV Guide's weekly reviews were written by the witty and acerbic Cleveland Amory. Whenever we get the chance, we'll look at Cleve's latest take on the shows of the era.

It's "Second Thoughts" week, where your favorite critic and mine takes another look at reviews and comments from earlier in the year. And leading off is his Unaward of the Year, "familiarly known as the Enemy," which goes to NBC for its cancellation of I Spy, with an honorable mention to the network for halting Ben Gazzara's Run for Your Life. Of I Spy, he says, "Not only has this show been—in acting, in dialog and in scenery—the best one on the air for three years, it is still, for literally millions of people, their No. 1 favorite show." And while Run for Your Life "wasn't always great, it was usually at least good." 

He heaps praise on CBS's aforementioned revival of Playhouse, minus the "90" that used to accompany it. All three of its presentations, especially "My Father and My Mother" with Gene Hackman, were "television landmarks." It was, and should continue to be, "great television." He also has high praise for ABC's evening-long documentary Africa, and the special "How Life Begins." And then there was "The Now Generation," which was nothing more than an interview with Mia Farrow, conducted by her Peyton Place costar, Ryan O'Neal. It was "on the surface charmingly natural and light but underneath made a forceful statement for all of today's youth." He particularly recalls one memorable exchange when O'Neal asks Farrow, "Are you excited about now?" She replies, "Sure, all those things that you wanted to do as a child—living as you please, doing what you please, liking whom you please, loving whom you please—it’s all accepted now." It is, indeed, as good a summary of the Sixties as you can get, for better and worse. 

Lest one think that Amory's got a thing for ABC, though, he saves his greatest vitriol, as always, for The American Sportsman. This show has been a perennial thorn it the side of the animal-rights activist Amory, and he speaks dismissively of the irony of Governor John Connally of Texas, survivor of the Kennedy assassination, talking about the hunting merits of "the eye shot" or "the brain shot." As well, there are the weekly appearances of "endless celebrity has-beens attempting to prove his virility." Cleve concludes the column, and his reviews for the year, by urging readers to continue to write letters of protest to the network. Their responses "are as offensive as ever—but now they are also defensive."

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Speaking of Run for Your Life as we were above, Richard K. Doan says that the network's decision to cancel the series after three seasons was not without some controversy. We, and by that I mean those of us living in today's world, have become so accustomed to "final episodes" of even marginal series, that it might seem unthinkable that Run for Your Life would end without resolving terminally ill Paul Bryan's situation. Bryan, the character portrayed by Ben Gazzara, was, you'll remember, presented to us as a man with an incurable disease, who had only a couple of years to live. And NBC wanted, very much, to have Universal Studios, the production company, wrap up the series with a two-hour climax in which Bryan would either be cured of his illness, or die. 

The studio, however, declined, "insisting this would hurt syndication of the series." Now, this was an argument that unfolded in reverse with The Fugitive, where the same arguments were made—that resolving Dr. Richard Kimble's own run for his life would hurt the show in syndicated reruns—but the final episode pressed on anyway, with record-breaking ratings. NBC made that very point with Universal, to no avail.

Now, this is an interesting argument, this idea that viewers are incapable of watching a series if they know how the premise concludes--essentially, that they can't appreciate a given episode without regarding it as anything more than a piece of the whole. Let's run with that for a minute (pardon the pun). Would you lose interest in watching an episode of Cheers because you already know Sam won't wind up with Diane? If you were a fan of Newhart, is your pleasure of seeing Larry, Darryl and Darryl diminished because they all turned out to be part of a dream? Somehow, I have a hard time believing fans would feel that way. 

On the flip side, there are series like Dexter, How I Met Your Mother, and St. Elsewhere, where the final episodes were considered by many to be less than satisfactory. If you're one of the viewers left with a sour taste in your mouth by how things wrapped up, did it keep you from wanting to revisit your favorite episodes? Maybe it did, maybe it didn't. Maybe the real answer is that if the producers nail the ending, they won't have to worry about whether or not the viewers will lose interest. A radical thought, to be sure, but worth considering all the same.

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On Tuesday, NBC preempts The Jerry Lewis Show for a World of Amimals special, "Big Cats, Little Cats." (8:00 p.m.), "A far-ranging look at the feline world, from the American alley cat to Africa's lord of the jungle," narrated by Lorne Greene. Among the cats portrayed in tonight's special is Room 8, "a feline who 'adopted' a group of sixth-graders in 1952 and has since attended classes daily." In fact, Room 8 was more than this brief description might indicate. He was about five years old when he popped in through a window at Elysian Heights Elementary School in Echo Park, California, settling down in Room 8. He'd disappear during the summer, but would always return on the first day of school in the fall, popping up when the bell rang; newspapers and television stations from around the area would show up every year on that day to watch him make his appearance.

In addition to appearing on "Big Cats, Little Cats" (you can see that segment here), Room 8 was featured in an article in Look magazine, was the subject of a piece by guitarist Leo Kottke, and had several books written about him, including the children's book A Cat Called Room 8. He would lay on desks during the day, sleeping, and enjoyed children reading to him. He died on August 13, 1968, at the age of 21; his obituary in the Los Angeles Times ran for three columns and included a photograph, and was picked up by newspapers throughout the country. Students raised money to purchase a gravestone for Room 8 at the Los Angeles Pet Memorial Park, where his grave is the most visited to this day, and a foundation named after him helps fund cat shelters. He was a little animal, but he made a big impact, and there's a lesson somewhere in there.

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Saturday begins with the fourth (and final) game of the Stanley Cup Final, with the Montreal Canadiens taking on the St. Louis Blues (Noon, CBS). Although the Canadiens sweep the expansion Blues in four games, don't be deceived: all four of the games were decided by one goal, and two of the four went into overtime. In primetime, "The Singers," an ABC News Special (preempting The Hollywood Palace!) profiles two female singers on opposite sides of the success scale: Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, and up-and-coming pop singer Gloria Loring. (9:30 p.m.) You're probably familiar with Franklin's career, and you might know about Loring as well; in addition to a singing career that continues to this day, she acted on Days of Our Lives for six years, was married to Alan Thicke, and had a number of hits, including "Friends and Lovers," which made it to #2 in 1986.

ABC's Sunday Night Movie is 1963's The Leopard, winner of the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, and while the version on ABC is the butchered, edited, and dubbed English version that was widely panned by critics, the release of the longer, classic version in 1983 established it as a classic; it's now considered one of the all-time greats. The historical epic stars Burt Lancaster, Claudia Cardinale, and Alain Delon, and was directed by Luchino Visconti, whom Lancaster considered the finest director he ever worked for. Judith Crist isn't all that impressed with it, calling it "beautifully photographed and badly dubbed," and finds it "ultimately stultifying." I'm sure she must have seen the original at one time; I wonder if it just left her cold, or if she's basing her comments on the edited edition?

A local note on Monday, but one that's not insignificant for TV news buffs: Ray Tannehill is the new anchor of KGO's 6:00 p.m. news, taking over for Roger Grimsby, who's moved to WABC in New York, where he starts a legendary run on the ABC affiliate, co-anchoring with Bill Beutel until 1986 (a news team that included Howard Cosell on sports, and Tex Antoine with the weather). Grimsby is also responsible for beginning the newscast, "I'm Roger Grimsby, here now the news," which SNL fans will recognize as the intro to Weekend Update used by Jane Curtin in honor of Grimsby. So what do you think: was he saying "here now the news" or "hear now the news"? And speaking of all-time great movies, as we were, KEMO has one at 9:00 p.m.: Ingmar Bergman's Oscar-winning Through a Glass Darkly, starring Max von Sydow and Harriet Andersson. If you're a fan of Bergman's, I need say no more.

Tuesday night the Nebraska Presidential Primary takes center stage on the national news scene, but you'll read more about that on Monday. In the meantime, The David Susskind Show (9:00 p.m., KQED) has one of those shows I'd love to have seen. Three segments: segment one features writers Rex Reed, Guy Talise, and Liz Smith discussing show-biz personalities; segment two has culinary experts James Beard and Craig Claiborne talking about food; and segment three has French Canadian politician Rene Levesque on the move for Quebec independence. I don't know how big separatism is anymore, but De Gaulle did quite a bit of rabble-rousing when he was president of France, and I remember watching the returns from a referendum in the 1980s (I think) in which the question very narrowly lost. It seems as if the Canadians have had a lot of problems holding their country together, doesn't it?

Wednesday marks the return of Emma Peel to The Avengers, but before anyone gets too excited, it's only in the form of reruns. (7:30 p.m., ABC) And besides, I think Linda Thorson, as Tara King, was a more than adequate replacement for Diana Rigg (no offense intended). On a musical note (get it?), Kraft Music Hall continues its run of "County Fair" episodes, with host Eddy Albert welcoming Buck Owens and the Buckaroos, Dana Valery, Chris and Beter Allen, and John Byner. (9:00 p.m., NBC)

Maybe the summer preview was right; there won't be as many documentaries on the air as usual. You couldn't prove it by this week, though; in addition to Saturday's ABC News Special on "The Singers" and NBC's special on cats, we've got four crammed into the final two days of this week, proving that the networks still have a "dedication to serving the public interest." And over the last couple of years, no area has been as trendy for documentaries as Africa. Hence, Thursday's NBC News Special "Man, Beast and the Land " (7:30 p.m.). It's bille as "an introduction to the importance and function of the balance of nature," and takes a close look at the Serengeti-Mara region, on the border between Kenya and Tanzania. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. narrates. The documentary preempts this week's cover stars from Daniel Boone, but don't worry; Dwight Whitney's article is mostly about Fess Parker's real estate holdings, and how he's quickly building up one of the most impressive (and most valuable) portfolios around. 

And guess what? On Friday night Douglas Fairbanks Jr. is on another documentary, this time on a different network. It's ABC's Saga of Western Man presentation "Robert Scott and the Race for the South Pole" (7:30 p.m.), narrated by John Secondari, and Fairbanks is on hand to read passages from Scott's journals. At 10:00 p.m., it's another NBC News Special, "Discover America with Jose Jimenez," in which Bill Dana plays his famous (and now-forbidden character) as he takes a whirlwind tour of America, from the Pennsylvania Amish country to forests of Northern California, and a little of everything in-between. You can see it, in segments, here.

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MST3K alert: Teen-Age Crime Wave (1955). Three dangerous juvenile delinquents take refuge in the home of a farmer and his family. Tommy Cook, Mollie McCart, Sue England. (Tuesday, 1:00 a.m. KGO in San Francisco) Let's see, so far we've had Teen-Age Caveman, Teen-Age Strangler, I Was a Teenage Werewolf, and Teenagers From Outer Space, so I suppose this would be the natural succession. Our three stars are the three teens holding the family hostage, but of course one of them has to be the weak link, allowing the plot to fail. Well, what did you expect—In Cold Blood? And if those actors are teenagers, then I'm Truman Capote.  TV

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