tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post263519020636550541..comments2024-03-29T11:16:07.637-04:00Comments on It's About TV: This week in TV Guide: February 25, 1961Mitchell Hadleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08695771505209080030noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-31639919884391262932019-02-28T15:31:29.200-05:002019-02-28T15:31:29.200-05:00Good post, as usual.
I have been an Arch Obole...Good post, as usual. <br />I have been an Arch Oboler radio fan for quite a few years but I have never thought his live action or movies were particularly that good. While his social philosophy drove him endlessly, it hampered making his points creative. He was always hitting you over the head with a Ball Peen hammer. Laceyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15518371151074926960noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-13085916627672660532019-02-27T11:10:51.727-05:002019-02-27T11:10:51.727-05:00I thought that 20C was mostly WWII films too, but ...I thought that 20C was mostly WWII films too, but looking at the episodes listed on IMDB (and checking with Einstein's book on network news shows) shows that over half (132 of 221 episodes) were about current or future events. The 65/66 season was all new material.<br />I've gathered what shows there are about outer space for my TV Guide project.tomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04957477838561809456noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-55908210948737924252019-02-23T22:44:21.563-05:002019-02-23T22:44:21.563-05:00A quick nit-pick:
Ernie Kovacs was not the host o...A quick nit-pick:<br /><br />Ernie Kovacs was <i>not</i> the host of <i>Silents Please</i> in its first summer run in 1960.<br />When ABC ordered up a second series for the following summer (this one), they and Dutch Masters Cigars imposed Kovacs as on-camera host, to the distress of <i>Silents</i>'s producer Paul Killiam.<br />Killiam was a serious film historian, a champion of the silent film; he had created <i>Silents Please</i> as a labor of love, and getting the ABC network to put it on in prime time was a personal triumph.<br />When ABC and Dutch Masters offered a second summer, Killiam went for it, but the imposition of Kovacs's comedy went against his serious approach; he ultimately went along, but after that summer he stopped any further dealing with ABC and took the series into syndication - <i>without</i> any of the Kovacs material. <br /><br /> Off-topic:<br />Dan Budnik just put up # 63 of <i>Eventually Supertrain</i>, which I just listened to.<br />I'll have something to say over there once he gets the post proper up, but some things you and he said about continuity set me to thinking, thusly:<br /><br />About a week back, MeTV was running <i>77 Sunset Strip</i>, season 4; by this time it was in spring of 1962.<br />The episode was called "Upbeat", a sequel to a first-season show called "Downbeat";<br />the first show had Stu Bailey undercover "in disgrace", to draw out a traitor who ultimately got away, while the sequel found the traitor coming back to wreak more havoc, this time from an estate in old New Orleans. <br />So anyway, at one point Old Stu runs afoul of a local thug, but fortunately the New Orleans cops come around just in time to save his hash -<br /> - and wouldn't you know, one of the cops is a real tall guy in a white suit and a plantation hat, and lo and behold, it's <i>Cal Calhoun</i>, who went back to the NOPD after Rex Randolph decamped to the Sunset Strip!<br />After busting the bad guy, Stu and Cal chatted a bit about their mutual friend, before returning to their respective assignments (this was just an in-joke cameo).<br />Note: Andrew Duggan made six appearances on <i>77SS</i> all told, covering the whole run of the series - different characters each time.<br />That was Warner Bros TV - a rep company: everybody worked as often as possible.<br />Another example: John Dehner made at least as many appearances here as Duggan did; the other night, MeTV had one set in a movie studio, wherein Dehner played <i>himself</i>, an actor friend of Jeff Spencer who helps out with the case of the week.<br />Beating this point to death, we note that that '60-'61 was the season that Roger Moore did <i>Maverick</i>, So There Too.<br />- And just one more:<br />Check the listing for this week's <i>Surfside Six</i>: there's a footnote there that you (and Dan) might find interesting (as usual, no spoilers; look it up yourself).<br />There's a whole book - maybe even a series of volumes - in Warner Bros' TV operation with ABC during the '50s-'60s. What a damn shame nobody's written it yet (and since most of the people are long gone, probably no one ever will …).<br /> <br />Shortly, I'll be going to the Old DVD Wall to find various episodes from this week; who knows, maybe I'll get lucky and find something <i>really</i> odd … Mike Doranhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14427528138598549103noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-47567122479514890932019-02-23T16:33:00.881-05:002019-02-23T16:33:00.881-05:00At the time the "Life 25th Anniversary Specia...At the time the "Life 25th Anniversary Special" was taped and broadcast, NASA hadn't made public the fact that Alan Shepard had been selected for the first Mercury flight (I think the agency was worried that had the choice been made public, he would have been hounded by the media).<br /><br />In fact, NASA had named the three men who would fly the first three missions: Shepard for the first sub-orbital flight, Gus Grissom for the second sub-orbital flight, with John Glenn as backup pilot for both of them and prime pilot of the third manned flight. Depending on how the Shepard and Grissom flights went, Glenn's flight would either be the third sub-orbital flight, or the first flight to go fully into orbit.<br /><br />(Of course, the Shepard and Grissom flights were successful enough that Glenn would go into orbit in February of 1962, becoming the most famous of the "Mercury 7")<br /><br />Bob Hope probably did some banter with the Mercury 7, pointing out that "one of these seven heroes will become the first man to be launched into space".<br /><br />But the Russians spoiled the party by launch Yuri Gagarin into orbit three weeks before Shepard's flight.Jofushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05591730159623555357noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-85409401737583236442019-02-23T16:25:07.833-05:002019-02-23T16:25:07.833-05:00The ad for the "twentieth Century" episo...The ad for the "twentieth Century" episode on France was a relative rarity for that long-running program: Most episodes looked back on major events of the past.<br /><br />Only a few episodes dealt with current issues.<br /><br />Perhaps because Walter Cronkite as host and narrator, "Twentieth Century" was quite popular. It ended in 1966 and would be replaced by a science documentary series titled "The 21st Century", which Walter Cronkite also hosted.<br /><br />CBS News producer Burton "Bud" Benjamin was producer and director of both series.Jofushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05591730159623555357noreply@blogger.com