tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post2266377997039159050..comments2024-03-27T22:27:16.556-04:00Comments on It's About TV: What's on TV? Tuesday, March 31, 1970Mitchell Hadleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08695771505209080030noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-22984628784407924812020-09-04T17:34:46.481-04:002020-09-04T17:34:46.481-04:00Belatedly:
On Law & Order, Steven Hill rarely...Belatedly:<br /><br />On <i>Law & Order</i>, Steven Hill rarely had more than three or four very brief scenes in any given episode.<br />All such scenes could be filmed in one day of shooting for any episode, so Hill could be written around with no difficulty.<br />Just so you know ... Mike Doranhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14427528138598549103noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-37612200244691320892020-06-15T20:37:21.166-04:002020-06-15T20:37:21.166-04:00Did Morgenthau not work from Friday sunset until S...Did Morgenthau not work from Friday sunset until Saturday sunset?<br />(I would like to know how Dick Wolf dealt with that--for those who don't know, that was the main reason Hill left MISSION:IMPOSSIBLE after the first season)<br /><br />Paul Ducatomservo56954https://www.blogger.com/profile/16574973421722288825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-81801950770284559122020-06-15T20:35:02.784-04:002020-06-15T20:35:02.784-04:00The unique thing about the show is that the contes...The unique thing about the show is that the contestants came from audiences watching from NBC affiliates throughout the country...John Harlan was in charge there. The one episode that exists of the show has the audience at WDSU New Orleans.<br /><br />Suzanne Pleshette with her husband until his death, than she and her great love Tom Poston finally got together. They were a serious item in New York 60 years ago, but she relocated to California for her career and he stayed back East because he wanted to be with his daughter from a previous marriage.<br /><br />Paul Duca<br /><br /><br /><br />tomservo56954https://www.blogger.com/profile/16574973421722288825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-29446248639461610712020-06-15T20:25:17.475-04:002020-06-15T20:25:17.475-04:00I adored Brown's book...read it an an early ag...I adored Brown's book...read it an an early age, but haven't been able to find a copy since. The high point was Mike Dann showing Brown the memos from his programming assistants (including Fred Silverman) on ideas for Operation 100 programming--some of them are in Robert Metz's CBS:REFLECTIONS IN A BLOODSHOT EYE<br />(My favorite is "Although PEYTON PLACE was played out by ABC in the series, I think that with proper promotion (the movie) would do well for us as a 2-parter...but don't promote Lana Turner or that will remind people of THE SURVIVORS" (the season's most visible failure)<br /><br />Paul Duca<br /><br /><br />Paultomservo56954https://www.blogger.com/profile/16574973421722288825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-19053248648273560092020-04-02T23:24:55.529-04:002020-04-02T23:24:55.529-04:00In the early 1960's, Paramount's animation...In the early 1960's, Paramount's animation division produced a series of King Features Syndicate cartoons starring Beetle Bailey, Snuffy Smith and Krazy Kat, using the same animators who worked on the Popeye cartoons.(11:30, WKBS)<br />chckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17064472671332322550noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-82621399701571082132020-03-31T15:23:22.542-04:002020-03-31T15:23:22.542-04:00You can see the opening of IT TAKES TWO from Frida...You can see the opening of IT TAKES TWO from Friday of this week here, w/ host & celebs all in nighttime attire:<br /><br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKB5T4Bdk7Y<br /><br />It's nice that Philadelphia had independent stations to carry JEOPARDY! and THE WHO WHAT OR WHERE GAME when KYW-TV preempted them. I was unfortunate to live in an area w/ no independent stations, so when my local station preempted 3 Ws, I could only see that show via fuzzy signal from 80 miles away. JEOPARDY! had its 6th anniversary on NBC the day before these listings.Jonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00483417885845331990noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-42170657993704777202020-03-30T23:00:36.020-04:002020-03-30T23:00:36.020-04:00I don't have this issue, but I do have some pa...I don't have this issue, but I do have some patches:<br /><br /> - Ever read <i>Television: The Business Behind The Box</i>, by Les Brown (published in 1971)?<br />Les Brown was TV editor of weekly <i>Variety</i> at that time; his idea was to cover the calendar year 1970 with the three commercial networks, the syndication business, and the newly-forming PBS.<br />This was the first book on the subject I ever read, right at the time it came out in '71; for a while it was my Rosetta Stone about TV in general - but that was nearly fifty years ago … <br />In the years since, I've come to notice the condescension and contempt that Brown had for the business and almost everyone in it.<br /><br />As it applies to this week:<br />Two major figures who figure in this book are Mike Dann, CBS's chief programmer, and Paul Klein, NBC's 'research director' and the man who basically discovered demographics for TV.<br />There's a chapter called "Hatfields And McCoys" which deals with the feud between these two men, which reached a crest in the spring of '70 (which period you've covered here the week before last, and this week).<br />In order to win an overall victory in the season-long Nielsen Ratings, Dann started <i>Operation 100</i>, a hundred-day drive to boost CBS's nightly numbers by any means possible.<br />Those means consisted largely of pre-empting the lowest-rated shows in the schedule (which were <i>Get Smart, Tim Conway, To Rome With Love</i>, and <i>Lancer</i>), airing in their stead some very offbeat specials from the inventory, plus putting in bigger-than-normal movies, and bigger-than-usual guest bookings for variety shows, in order to get the 'advantage' by however many (or few) rating points.<br />The Ratings Race that season was practically a dead heat between CBS and NBC; the eventual 'winner' was determined by a fraction of a point (I think; I'll have to check back).<br />For Les Brown, this was a prime source of snark; in his view, Mike Dann was an inferior man (at least to him), while Paul Klein was an "intellectual", whose embrace of demos would be the salvation of Television.<br />We can come to our own conclusions on how well that kind of thinking turned out over fifty years … <br />If you happen to have Brown's book (as I still do), you might want to take another look at it, especially the chapter I mentioned here - definitely an eye-opener.<br /><br /> - Just noticed that indie Channel 29 is carrying a 5-minute commentary spot by Alex Dreier, who had been one of Chicago's leading news anchors only a few years before.<br />By this time, Dreier had relocated to California, where he was trying to launch an acting career in the Sidney Greenstreet mode.<br />Side Note: Over at the <i>Mystery*File</i> blog, I had occasion to mention that I'd always thought Alex Dreier would have been a good choice to play Nero Wolfe in a movie or TV show: he had the physique, the voice, and definitely the attitude to play Wolfe.<br />Once Rex Stout had passed on, and his family put Wolfe into play for adaptation, I hoped that Dreier might at least be considered, but alas, no go … <br /><br /> - NBC's movie tonight is "The Shakiest Gun In The West", Don Knotts's remake of Bob Hope's "Paleface", which had been a box-office success and a critical flop (the movie crickets of that time "knew" that Knotts was a second-rate TV comic, which saved most of them the trouble of actually having to see it).<br /><br /> - Dick Cavett's guest tonight is Robert Morgenthau, the long-term District Attorney of Manhattan, who ultimately became the model for Steven Hill's DA character on the original <i>Law & Order</i>.<br />Circle Of Life, TV style. Mike Doranhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14427528138598549103noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-87462449050577236162020-03-30T08:49:21.082-04:002020-03-30T08:49:21.082-04:00Whoever would imagine that the Tijuana Brass would...Whoever would imagine that the Tijuana Brass would be the "guests" on a Herb Alpert special? Remarkable!Memo2Selfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15697112440087568681noreply@blogger.com