tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post5852263312026806406..comments2024-03-27T22:27:16.556-04:00Comments on It's About TV: This week in TV Guide: November 16, 1968Mitchell Hadleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08695771505209080030noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-76600417971439701172015-11-23T18:50:12.822-05:002015-11-23T18:50:12.822-05:00The story I heard about Heidi was that NBC tried t...The story I heard about Heidi was that NBC tried to call the master-control room at 30 Rock to tell the man on duty to stick with the football game and "slide" the entire Sunday schedule back several minutes.<br /><br />As I was once told, the phone in master control was busy because the man on duty was on the phone to his girlfriend!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-242766248726226192015-11-17T23:03:05.714-05:002015-11-17T23:03:05.714-05:00I was 7 years old that Christmas and got "Str...I was 7 years old that Christmas and got "Strange Change" it was probably my favorite toy as a kid. Loved it!Richard John Marcejhttp://www.theblabbingbaboon.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-9683864021653898912015-11-16T13:53:46.050-05:002015-11-16T13:53:46.050-05:00One thing I wonder about the "Heidi" gam...One thing I wonder about the "Heidi" game. It's often said it's the reason NFL games are broadcast to the finish no matter the schedule. But before then, how common was it for broadcasters to end coverage before the game was over? Would they be kept on if the game was close?Al Leosnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-61430414899471133172015-11-15T17:12:05.663-05:002015-11-15T17:12:05.663-05:00Some odds and ends (and very odd ends they are):
...Some odds and ends (and very odd ends they are):<br /><br /> - The Heidi Bowl:<br />My family wasn't watching the game (the Bears weren't playing).<br />On that particular Sunday night, ABC got our business: <i>Land Of the Giants, The FBI,</i> and John Wayne.<br />I do recall that particular <i>FBI</i> as being as close to a comic episode as they ever did: Mark Richman was a mobster on the run from the Outfit who found himself hiding out with a ditzy landlady, played by the delightful Dorothy Provine. These two had a sort of "romantic" fling, which provided the comedy relief.<br />Much later, I learned the true significance of this episode:<br />That week's director was British-born Robert Day, who'd just come to the USA after years of Brit features and TV (especially <i>The Avengers</i> during the Diana Rigg period).<br />The significance of that is that here's where Day met Dorothy Provine, whom he married not long after; they remained married for 40+ years, until Provine's death a few years ago.<br /><br />As to <i>Heidi</i>:<br />Jennifer Edwards, who played the title role, went on to a career of sorts in the movies and TV of her father, Blake Edwards (usually playing kooks and weirdos).<br />For a time, Ms. Edwards liked to call herself "the most hated child in Hollywood".<br /> She's now 57, and has in recent years made Julie Andrews a step-great-grandmother (it happens).<br /><br /> - <i>Ensign Pulver</i> was Joshua Logan's own sequel to <i>Mister Roberts</i>, which was his production in the first place; he "hand-picked" the cast (or so he said at the time).<br />That cast, by the way, included a bunch of unknowns like Larry Hagman, Gerald S. O'Loughlin, Peter Marshall, James Coco, Al Freeman Jr., Diana Sands, and a real newbie named Jack Nicholson ...<br /><br /> - About local movies:<br />On Saturday night, Channel 2 had the first Chicago telecast of <i>The Great Impostor</i>, starring Tony Curtis as the real-life Fred Demara, who'd posed as a Benedictine friar, a college professor, a prison warden, a Canadian Navy surgeon, among other things.<br />As it happens, I'd read Robert Crichton's biography of Demara not long before the telecast, and I was surprised at how closely the movie stuck to Demara's "real" story, as Crichton had written it up.<br />Some time after this, I got a look at <i>The Hypnotic Eye</i>, a cheapie thriller in which the real Fred Demara had scored a brief acting role as a doctor.<br />Put it this way: Demara didn't look anything like Tony Curtis.<br />Actually, he looked a lot like the guy who played 'Newman' on <i>Seinfeld</i> ... you know, the fat guy ...<br /><br />More tomorrow, maybe ... depending on which day you pick (which probably won't be the right one, but ...)Mike Dorannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-65565794724872234362015-11-14T18:42:21.054-05:002015-11-14T18:42:21.054-05:00Here's a great article about the Heidi Game th...Here's a great article about the Heidi Game that I found from the Wiki link:<br />http://www.birminghamrewound.com/features/heidi.htm<br /><br />It questions what happened in Birmingham on that day, since the NBC affiliation at the time there was split, and one station was carrying the game and another was carrying "Heidi".<br />I discovered the great Birmingham Rewound site as a result of this link, and although I was neither born nor raised there, I love taking a monthly look at Birmingham, AL in different eras through this webpage.<br /><br />You didn't state which TV Guide edition you have for this issue, but by the channel numbers I see, I'm guessing it's the Iowa edition, or one nearby, as I know there are (or were at the time) NBC affiliates on channels 13 (Des Moines) and 21 (Ft. Dodge, I think). Am I right?<br /><br />I have 2 copies of this edition myself, Kentucky (which I bought at Nashville's Great Escape bookstore in the mid-80s) and NY Metro (which I got in a lot with other TV Guides from a winning EBay bid). I've been a fan of Herb Edelman (the subject of the cover profile) since he starred in NBC's 1976-77 kids' sitcom "Big John Little John". I bought the DVD of the series and found that I didn't like it as much now as I did almost 40 years ago. Jonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00483417885845331990noreply@blogger.com