tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post7505478328864767255..comments2024-03-29T11:16:07.637-04:00Comments on It's About TV: What's on TV? Friday, November 29, 1968Mitchell Hadleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08695771505209080030noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-87432778629629758972020-10-14T17:07:35.807-04:002020-10-14T17:07:35.807-04:00WABC-TV's Eyewitness News was only 18 days old...WABC-TV's <i>Eyewitness News</i> was only 18 days old at this point (having begun Nov. 11 - not Nov. 17 as Al Primo has long said, and in any case was on a Sunday which was also the night of the infamous "Heidi Bowl"). Its movie skein that preceded the 6:30 edition of <i>EWN</i> was still <i>The Big Show</i> at this point, not to become <i>The 4:30 Movie</i> until late January 1969. (However, it was around this time that the now iconic theme, by Walter Raim, which would play well into the early 1990's, was first recorded and then introduced by Channel 7.)<br /><br />The noon newscast on WOR anchored by John Wingate and Mary McPhillips (the latter later a co-host of <i>Straight Talk</i>) was the first but not the last time the station would go by the <i>News At Noon</i> umbrella (preceding the Tom Dunn/Sara Lee Kessler version by several years). This version of <i>NaN</i> would be ended in early 1969 in favor of a short-lived New York version of the <i>Stock Market Observer</i> franchise that had begun back in 1964 on WCIU-TV in Chicago and would last there into the 1990's.wbhisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02270661237413315760noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-62742247600284688582018-11-28T12:40:39.574-05:002018-11-28T12:40:39.574-05:00Looks like slight false advertising on ABC's p...Looks like slight false advertising on ABC's part - those poor New Haven kids only got two cartoons at 9:30 and 10:00am before they tossed a movie and variety show in. :( Thanks for posting this, Thanksgiving and day after listings, and what the networks do each year is something I've always found very interesting. Aaronhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14792179042272710027noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-24232175083675073412018-11-28T11:00:38.320-05:002018-11-28T11:00:38.320-05:00I've seen 2 existing episodes of PERSONALITY o...I've seen 2 existing episodes of PERSONALITY on GSN & YouTube. These were from very late in the series, consecutive days July 28 & 29, 1969 (Mon/Tues of their week), and Jack Cassidy, Joan Rivers & Flip Wilson were the guest celebrities, who played for viewers who sent in postcards (similar to what was done on EVERYBODY'S TALKING). Each celebrity would be prefilmed, asked questions revealing their personalities in various ways, such as "As what animal would Flip Wilson come back if reincarnation were possible?", and Larry Blyden would give 3 possibilities for an answer, asked of the other 2 celebrities, and those who guessed correctly would receive $25 for their home viewer, and the top home viewer winner would win a prize, like a trip to the Caribbean. Near the end of the show there would be a guest celebrity on film (probably always the 4th celebrity listed in TVG, and TVG would often designate this person as being "on film" or "on tape". Don Rickles was the guest celebrity on the earlier show, and Jack Cassidy's then-wife Shirley Jones was the guest on the later show. Shirley was asked the questions apparently in a room of their house, since Jack was seen in a picture behind her. Coincidentally Jack won that show. I think there was a 3-way tie on the earlier show, and all 3 home viewers won the trip. I loved the look of this show, along w/ Bob Cobert's great theme (which was also used later for THREE ON A MATCH), but I found the game play itself rather slow & dull. TV Guide had an article about this show in its issue of Oct. 28, 1967, which was about how Bob Stewart thought people would be interested in knowing how celebrities thought. Nowadays it seems that we can't get enough of their thoughts, at least in their minds.Jonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00483417885845331990noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-17959326632353778562018-11-27T22:16:36.673-05:002018-11-27T22:16:36.673-05:00Personality was an unusual panel from Bob Stewart,...<i>Personality</i> was an unusual panel from Bob Stewart, after he left Goodson-Todman. <br />Larry Blyden was host, his first such show in that capacity.<br />The weekly panel would be three celebrities, who would watch clips of another celeb (different each day), who would answer questions about various personal aspects of their own lives.<br />Blyden would give the panel three choices; one was the actual celeb answer.<br />I can't recall the scoring mechanism, i.e., who would win or lose, but somebody must have …<br /><i>TV Guide</i>'s listings followed a protocol usually: the first three names were the week's panel, while the fourth name was the filmed celeb giving the answers.<br />Problem for me is that I'm not sure; since you've got the issue, what you do is check the day-to-day listings and see which names are on every day. You should have three as daily panelists, and a different fourth one on each day's show.<br />So check, and be sure to let us know, OK? OK!<br /><br />Footnote:<br />Several years after this, George C. Scott and his then-wife Trish Vandevere put in a week on <i>Hollywood Squares</i>, in service of a movie they'd just done together (which Scott directed).<br />From all indications, George C. Scott apparently enjoyed the experience.<br />So There Too.Mike Doranhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14427528138598549103noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-74641660140590185632018-11-27T21:12:47.250-05:002018-11-27T21:12:47.250-05:00That's what I was thinking, too. Just thinking...That's what I was thinking, too. Just thinking of George C. Scott on a game show boggles the mind.Mitchell Hadleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08695771505209080030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-1146229471894077512018-11-27T20:54:56.007-05:002018-11-27T20:54:56.007-05:00I don't know anything about the game show Pers...I don't know anything about the game show Personality, but with George C. Scott, Peter Fonda, Godfrey Cambridge, and Joan Rivers all taking part, that had to be pretty interesting.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04598321249896138287noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-4305218436302138872018-11-27T13:36:48.628-05:002018-11-27T13:36:48.628-05:00Fixed - thanks!Fixed - thanks!Mitchell Hadleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08695771505209080030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-35674276638738608712018-11-27T13:36:33.673-05:002018-11-27T13:36:33.673-05:00Excellent as always!Excellent as always!Mitchell Hadleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08695771505209080030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-15865535313946852412018-11-26T22:12:28.265-05:002018-11-26T22:12:28.265-05:00Error Alert:
The listing for Hollywood Squares sh...Error Alert:<br /><br />The listing for <i>Hollywood Squares</i> should be under Channel 4 (NBC), rather than Channel 3 (CBS).<br /><br />What follows is <b>CONFIDENTIAL</b>:<br />Dan Budnik has just officially posted #58 of <i>Eventually Supertrain</i>; there's a tease of the next <i>Bourbon Street Beat</i> episode, "Inside Man" (#15).<br />Assuming that you and Dan haven't yet recorded your colloquy about this episode, allow me to possibly answer the Big Question you may have about "Inside Man" (consider this a <i>Spoiler Alert</i> for what follows:<br /><br />*******************************************************************************<br /><br />"Inside Man" is, as you likely noted, a highly abridged remake of the classic 1949 Warner Bros. crime movie <i>White Heat</i>, which starred James Cagney and Edmond O'Brien.<br />The screenplay was written by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts, then under contract to WB (many years before their TV successes with <i>The Rogues</i> and <i>Mannix</i>).<br />Under the prevailing contract rules, Goff & Roberts were paid for the script, with small royalty payments attaching for any other use that WB would put the property to, including remake rights.<br />When ABC talked Jack Warner into going into TV, one of the persuaders was that WB could turn any story properties they owned into teleplays; this they did with impunity.<br />Had WB chosen to do so, they could have turned <i>White Heat</i> into an eight-minute <i>Looney Tune</i>, with Daffy Duck and Porky Pig in the Cagney and O'Brien roles, and would have been perfectly within their contractual rights.<br />A year before, WB used <i>77 Sunset Strip</i> to do tab remakes of two Hitchcock movies, <i>Strangers On A Train</i> and <i>Dial M For Murder</i>, both WB properties: Richard Long appeared in both (and these likely got him the <i>Bourbon Street</i> gig - but I digress).<br />WB TV used its 'library' freely throughout its early ABC years: watch the credits closely, and you'll see many credits for "screenplays" and "plays" that served as sources for episodes of any and every WB series - westerns, detectives, anything - and often multiple times.<br />In re <i>White Heat</i>/"Inside Man", Goff & Roberts got a credit for their 1949 screenplay - and that was the entirety of their involvement with <i>Bourbon Street Beat</i>; Howard Browne (whose name you've seen before) did the TV abridgement solo.<br />So that should answer your Big Question before you even ask it.<br />You're welcome.<br />See you in mid-month.<br /><br />*************************************************************************** <br /><br /><br />Mike Doranhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14427528138598549103noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-4567196933227564892018-11-26T19:12:04.169-05:002018-11-26T19:12:04.169-05:00Thanks for another great look back. I think, howe...Thanks for another great look back. I think, however, that HOLLYWOOD SQUARES appeared on WNBC-TV, not WTIC-TV, which was a CBS affiliate. You have nothing listed for 11:30 AM on WNBC-TV, and WTIC-TV's DONALD O'CONNOR SHOW ran for 90 minutes, judging by the listing for the same program on WNEW-TV. <br /><br />Roy Stuart, who was a guest on O'Connor's show that night, had recently left his recurring role as Cpl. Boyle on GOMER PYLE, USMC, to appear in movies for Nat Hiken. Unfortunately for him, just a couple weeks after this week, Hiken died and his projects died with him. Stuart's departure allowed Ronnie Schell, who'd starred in the recently cancelled GOOD MORNING, WORLD, to return to the show as now Cpl. Duke Slater, Sgt. Carter's new Corporal. Schell had previously appeared as a fellow PFC w/ Gomer Pyle and the other recruits.Jonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00483417885845331990noreply@blogger.com