This week in TV Guide: July 5, 1969

Like many of you, I rue the day when "fake news" entered the vocabulary. It may have been a good idea at the time, but that time is long past, and the term has been so overused, so distorted, that it no longer means anything at all. But whether or not there is such a thing as "fake news," the idea that we're not getting all the news, all the time, isn't a new one. This week's lead article comes from Nicholas Johnson, an FCC commissioner who agrees with network heads that censorship is a serious problem in America, but he adds that the problem doesn't come from the government, but from the networks themselves.

Johnson, who was appointed to the FCC by Lyndon Johnson and will be reappointed by Richard Nixon, offers several examples: NBC cutting off Robert Montgomery when, during a discussion with Johnny Carson on Tonight, he mentioned a CBS station being investigated by the FCC; Joan Baez being prevented from giving her political views while on The Smothers Brothers Show; and the subsequent cancellation of that show. "Sure, there's censorship," Johnson says. "But let's not be fooled into mistaking its source." Network officials, he writes, "are keeping off your television screens anything they find inconsistent with their corporate profits or personal philosophies." 

The success of the American experiment, Johnson says, is "the concept of an educated and informed people." Today, that information comes from three networks and two wire services, and these broadcasters "are fighting, not for free speech, but for profitable speech." Case in point: a Febuary 10, 1966 Senate hearing on the Vietnam War. "Fred Friendly, who was president of CBS News at the time, wanted you to be able to watch those hearings. His network management did not permit you to watch. If you were watching CBS that day you saw, instead of George Kennan’s views opposing the Vietnam war, the fifth CBS rerun of I Love Lucy." Friendly quit CBS over the matter; his subsequent book, Due to Circumstances Beyond Our Control, begins with the quote, "What the American people don't know can kill them."

Johnson accuses the media of being in thrall to the big corporate dollars that sponsor their programs. The tobacco industry spends about $250 million a year on radio and television commercials, but "the broadcasting industry has been less than eager to tell you about the health hazards of cigarette smoking." The auto industry spent more than $361 million on advertising in 1964 alone, but the media was silent when it came to the 50,000 highway deaths yearly, virtually "all" of which could have been saved if cars were designed properly. Television news basically ignored recent Senate hearings on truth in food packaging—is it a coincidence that 52.3 percent of TV's total advertising comes from the top-50 grocery-products advertisers? And as for the "law and order" refrain that's swept the news, who knew that much of that crime is of the white-collar variety? "A single recent price-fixing case involved a 'robbery' from the American people of more money than was taken in all the country's robberies, burglaries and larcenies during the years of that criminal price fixing." 

And there's more: Black lung disease is on the rise, the life expectancy of the average adult American male is going down, natural-gas pipelines are exploding, color television sets are emitting excess X-ray radiation. Says Johnson, "Note what each of these items has in common: (1) human death, disease, dismemberment or degradation, (2) great profit for manufacturers, advertisers and broadcasters, and (3) the deliberate withholding of needed information from the public." 

Paraphrasing Bob Dylan, Johnson says that "The 'Silent Screen' of television has left you in ignorance as to what it's all about." And unless and until the media allow all viewpoints to be heard, popular as well as unpopular, there can be no true freedom; as a recent Supreme Court decision declared, "Freedom of the press from governmental interference under the First Amendment does not sanction repression of that freedom by private interests."

(By the way, pharmaceutical companies paid out $1.68 billion on ad campaigns last year. Just thought you'd like to know that.)

Johnson admits that there are no easy answers, but as an FCC commisioner, he feels as if someone has to speak about these issues. "And all I’m urging is that, when in doubt, all of us —audience, networks and Government —ought to listen a little more carefully to the talented voices of those who are crying out to be heard." "I would far rather leave the heady responsibility for the inventory in America’s 'marketplace of ideas' to talented and uncensored individuals—creative writers, performers and journalists from all sections of this great country—than to the committees of frightened financiers in New York City. Wouldn’t you? I think so." He's glad, he concludes, that the networks have raised the issue of censorship. "I hope they will permit us to discuss it fully."

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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. 

This week, Cleveland Amory presents his annual Amory Awards for the best in television over the past year. There isn't anything particuarly clever or witty about them, just a straightforward recitation of the winners—or co-winners, as Amory borrows heavily from the year's Acadamy Awards, which saw a tie for Best Actress between Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand. (Talk about the devil and the deep blue sea.) 

At any rate, since it's the bon mots that we usually tune in for, I'm afraid this is going to be rather dull, except as an indicator of what shows were really big back then. And some are good reminders of shows we don't talk about often here, for instance the co-best comedies, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir and Julia, each of which won additional awards as well: Mrs. Muir's Hope Lange and Julia's Diahann Carroll share best actress in a comedy, while Edward Mulhare wins best actor in a comedy, and Lloyd Nolan takes best supporting actor in a comedy. Raymond Burr of Ironside is best actor in a drama, while his co-star Barbara Anderson shares best actress with Mission: Impossible's Barbara Bain. The supporting actor and actress drama awards go to Leonard Nimoy (Star Trek) and Joan Blondell (Here Come the Brides), and the comedy supporting actress is Kay Medford of That's Life. The rest of the best show winners are shared as well; drama belongs to Ironside and Mission: Impossible, the musical-variety winners are This Is Tom Jones and The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, and the talk-show host winners are Art Linkletter and Dick Cavett. 

There are a lot of winners here, to be sure; either Cleve couldn't make up his mind, or he was really milking that joke about co-winners—milking it a little too much, if you ask me. But then, not every column can be a winner, or even a co-winner, can it?

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America's got moon fever, baby! The Apollo 11 launch is scheduled for next week, and TV's gearing up for coverage of the great adventure with a handful of specials. On Sunday, The 21st Century (4:00 p.m. PT, CBS), has "Stranger Than Science Fiction," a look at how yesterday's sci-fi compares to today's reality, including movie depictions of space travel. One of those movies may well be First Men in the Moon (Wednesday, 9:00 p.m., KOVR in Sacramento), based on H.G. Wells' classic about a trip to the moon in 1899. NET has a pair of science-orieted programs: Tuesday, John Fitch's Science Reporter (11:30 p.m., NET) welcomes Dr. Wernher von Braun, director of the Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, who discusses space flights beyond the Apollo program. That's followed on Wednesday by Moon Research (10:00 p.m.) with Nobel Prize winner Harold Urey, one of the scientists who'll be evaluating the lunar samples brought back by the astronauts. NBC's Today Show has reports scheduled for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday mornings (7:00 a.m.) And maybe it's just a coincidence, but the KTXL (Sacramento) movie on Tuesday night is Dangerous Moonlight. (11:00 p.m.) It has nothing to do with space travel, but doesn't the title fit in well? By the way, if you want to see what television did with the epic flight, we covered that here.

The Apollo pre-coverage highlights a week that also includes the Wimbledon tennis finals (Saturday, 9:30 a.m. and 2:00 p.m., NBC). The early program is same-day coverage of the men's final, in which defending champion Rod Laver defeats fellow Australian John Newcombe for his fourth Wimbleton title. Laver is on his way to winning the Grand Slam for a second time, the only man to do so; no man has done it since. The afternoon coverage features the women's final, which was played Friday afternoon; Brit Ann Jones upsets American Billie Jean King in the final to become the first British champion since 1961. Incidentally, TV Guide refers to this as the "Wimbledon Open," which sounds cumbersome (as well as incorrect), but it's probably done to specify that this is the second Wimbledon open to professionals as well as amateurs; pro players on both the men's and women's side were banned from the Grand Slam championships until 1968.

A few other shows of varied interest: 

• Meet the Press (Sunday, 1:00 p.m., NBC), with guests Senators George McGovern (D-SD) and Harold Hughes (D-IA). Why it's interesting: the two chair the Democratic Committee on Party Structure and Delegate Selection. Thanks to their liberalization of the delegate selection process, including more women and minorities, Senator McGovern is able to capture the 1972 Democratic presidential nomination, becoming the sacrificial goat to Richard Nixon's landslide victory. 
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  The Ed Sullivan Show (Sunday, 8:00 p.m., CBS). Tonight, Ed's guests are Gordon MacRae, Lainie Kazan (right), comies Jackie Vernon and Charlie Manna, singer Bobby Vinton, the Sugar Shoppe, magician Al Koran, and Valente and Valente, balancing act. Why it's interesting: The Hollywood Palace is off for the summer, replaced by Johnny Cash, so this was our only chance to see what Ed has in store; pretty good lineup, I think.
• Star Trek (Tuesday, 7:00 p.m., NBC), in which a beautiful woman removes Spock's brain from his skull. Why it's interesting: It isn't, which is what makes it unusual. "Spock's Brain" is generally considered by many Trekkers as one of, if not the, worst episode of the series.
• NET Playhouse (Thursday, 7:00 p.m., NET) presents "Trapped," the story of a young man whose brushes with the law work against him when he's accused of a murder he didn't commit. Why it's interesting: It's written by Georges Simenon, creator of the famed Inspector Maigret stories, although Maigret does not feature in this, one of Simenon's "psychological dramas."
• Dead Ringer (Thursday, 9:00 p.m., CBS), starring Bette Davis in a dual role; she kills her twin sister, only to find out that sis's lush life is more dangerous than she thought. Why it's interesting: Judith Crist praises Davis, who "gives her all, in doubles yet." It's also an example of an increasingly rare occurrence on prime-time network television: a black-and-white movie.

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Kent McCord is the cover story this week, and he talks with Burt Prelutsky about how his attitudes toward the police have evolved since he started on Adam-12. He should have been excited, he acknowledges, to co-star in a TV series at the ripe young age of 26, a series with a good chance for success, created by one legendary television figure (Jack Webb) and co-starring another (Martin Milner), but he still wasn't happy. "I just don't like cops," McCord says. "I never had much trouble with them—just the usual kid-cop experiences, like being stopped and being asked where I was going—but they always seemed to be rousting peole for no good reason. They never seemed to be there when you wanted them, and always around when you didn't want 'em."

Things started to change when, according to McCord, he and Milner did some on-the-job training with real LAPD officers to get the hang of things. "I spent 14 nights riding around in a prowl car with a young officer named Mike Watters. It changed my attitude. I got to see the other side of the picture. You see, I had real qualms about glamorizing cops on the show, but riding around on patrol that way helped me get over that. A policeman, you discover, has to put up with a hell of a lot of abuse. A man in any other line of work would nail a guy who laid that kind of abuse on him. I know I would." Watters remembers how it went. "[O]on the second night we went out on a drunk call, and the drunk tried to kick Kent in the face. I think that's when his attitude started to change—when he began to really see what we're up against," he recounts. "I started to think of him as a partner, who'd do what he could to protect me—even though he didn’t carry a firearm."

McCord's connection with the show goes back to his appearance in the Dragnet revival, a set-piece story involving only Webb, Harry Morgan, and McCord. His performance was not forgotten ; says producer R.A. (Bob) Cinader, "When it came to casting Adam-12, it took us 10 seconds to make our decision. Jack had a real thing about Kent." McCord, says Webb, "has all the attributes of a big star." Working on Adam-12 has been an eye-opener for McCord in more ways than one, as Milner points out. "Kent's come a long way this season. He’s much looser now than he was in the beginning. You have to realize that he’s probably done more acting this year than he did in his entire career up to this show." 

He's frustrated by the slow development of his character Jim Reed—he'd like him to be more active, reflect more self-assurance—but officers tell him he's doing it just right, that it's the way they were when they were rookies. He's glad that the show is starting to show things like it really happens out there, and adds, "I think it's a mistake that we don't have more violence in the show." And he admits he's still a bit reluctant to be seen as an advertisement for the police; he knows that his performance has made younger people consider law enforcement as a career when they might not otherwise have done so. "I don’t want to be a propagandist for anything but my own feelings, and, hell, I don’t want to be a cop. But I’m an actor and it’s just a job."

Kent McCord goes on to a long career in television and movies, and almost wound up playing a police officer one more time; Jack Webb was planning to make Jim Reed Joe Friday's partner in a new Dragnet series, but died before the series went into production. Now that's something I would have enjoyed seeing.

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I know this may be hard for you to believe if you're one of our younger readers, weaned on dedicated real-life channels like Court TV, but there was a time when television cameras weren't allowed in courtrooms. Not only that, but in the wake of several court decisions on media coverage of trials (notably Sheppard v. Maxwell), still photographers were mostly barred as well, meaning that the most important person in the courtroom, at least as far as the networks are concerned, is the courtroom artist.

The artist deals in more than just a likeness; sometimes they're barely more than an outline, lacking even the detail seen in graphic novels. The artist has to capture the intangible—the drama, the gravitas, the history, the atmosphere filling the courtroom and spilling out into the news coverage. Lacking pictures or video, the sketch needs to convey all of this, and in the most economical way possible; Ben Blank, ABC's director of graphic arts for news and public affairs, lays out the job description. "They must be able to work in different styles, appropriate to the trials they're covering. We don't want anything too arty, because this is a reporting job—the artist is really just a stand-in for the TV camera. A good memory is also important, because some judges will allow artists in court to observe only, and will insist that the drawings be made outside the courtroom." It is, in a sense, a theater of the mind, not unlike radio when it comes to letting the imagination do the heavy lifting.

Below are sketches from some of the more recent trials of note: Sirhan Sirhan, on trial for the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy; Clay Shaw, on trial for consipiracy in the assassination of John F. Kennedy; the court martial of Lloyd Bucher, commander of the U.S.S. Pueblo; Alice Crimmins, on trial for the murder of her two children, ages five and four.

Few, if any, trials go without television coverage today (the last regular haunt of the courtroom artist might be the Supreme Court), and I think that's worked to the detriment of justice. Not because the lawyers or witnesses or judges are playing to the camera, though that certainly happens. (See: O.J. Simpson trial.) No, I think the problem is that the mystique, the grandeur of justice, is lost when it's filtered through a video camera. A still photograph can approach it, but even there it's destined to fall short. Modern courtrooms don't much look like temples of justice, to be honest; they more closely approach hotel conference rooms, kind of dull and boring, hardly the stuff of Perry Mason. With the courtroom artist, however, all the background noise is removed. You're focused on the defendant, the prosecutor, the spectator looking on, and you read everything in their faces, in what you see and what you don't see. 

That's what I meant by that analogy to radio; in this world, the world of the artist, there's an inherent mystery at work, one filled in by the mind's eye. Maybe, just maybe, it would help us take it all just a little more seriously. Whether it deserves to be or not. TV  

This week in TV Guide: August 2, 1969

Until its reappearance as a guest-star vehicle for Rick Dalton in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, it was mostly only oldtimers like us who remembered Lancer, the western which ran on CBS for two seasons from 1969 to 1971. As is the case with so many Westerns, Lancer thrives on drama involving intertwined family trees; Bonanza's Ben Cartwright sired three sons with three different mothers, The Big Valley had an outsider who turned out to be the illegitimate son of the deceased Tom Barkley, The High Chapparal featured a second wife 30 years younger than John Cannon. (These family patriarchs sure did get around, didn't they?)

In the case of Lancer, our patriarch is one Murdoch Lancer, dealing with the tensions brought on by the relationship between his two estranged sons, each the product of a different marriage, who are now brought together to help the old man protect his ranch, also known as Lancer, from land pirates. It probably seemed like a good idea at the time, and in fact even though the series only ran two seasons, it was well-regarded by many western fans, and boasted good scripts and fine guest stars. It also had the advantage of this week's cover star, Andrew Duggan, in the title role. 

   With his two "sons," James Stacy (left)
and Wayne Maunder.

Dugan is one of those actors who invariably makes any show better than it would be otherwise, and even comes through bad shows with his dignity intact. And "dignified" is a good way to describe the subject of Leslie Raddatz's article: standing 6-feet-5 and 205 pounds, with his prematurely gray hair (he's only 45, but "I have always looked old," he tells Raddatz), and smooth voice (product of several years on the stage), he knows how to command a stage. Not that he lords it over people; those who work with him describe him as "unpretentious," "a fine human being," and "a real man." Of his work in Lancer, he acknowledges that "It barely gets through the second layer of you," but he doesn't complain; as a professional actor who's never wanted to be anything else, "I do the next thing to come along."

Lancer is the second show in which Duggan has starred, following the Warners detective series Bourbon Street Beat, and although I've always enjoyed his work, it was his portrayal of detective Cal Calhoun in BSB that made me a fan. He was adept at playing both heroes and villains (and sometimes you were unsure until the final scene), though his turns on the dark side were often complex and three-dimensional, and usuallty featured his own brand of charm. You're likely to recognize him from his many movies (70, including the unlikely coupling of The Incredible Mr. Limpet, with Don Knotts, and Seven Days in May, with Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster) and guest-starring appearances on television (more than 140). When he died of cancer in 1988, only 64, it was a loss. No matter what he was in, it was always worth a watch. 

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The humorist S.J. Perelman was a frequent visitor to the pages of TV Guide in the day. I'm not sure how many of you remember Perelman, who died in 1979, and how many more of you know him only as a name. As has been the case with so many humorists of the time (Thurber, Parker, Levenson, Menken, Buchwald), Perelman's style of writing, which featured most prominently in The New Yorker, has fallen out of favor over the years*, and reading him today can be a struggle, even for those of us who consider ourselves reasonably well-read, although I'm perfectly willing to take the blame for it.

*Arguably, P.G. Wodehouse is the one humorist from that era who has remained reasonably popular, probably because of his beloved creations Jeeves and Wooster. I'd be willing to include Damon Runyon in that category, thanks to Guys and Dolls and his eccentric, "Runyonesque" characters.

Anyway, Perleman is writing this week about nudity on television, and if you think I was going to pass up that story, you're crazy. The origin of the story comes from a recent BBC documentary dealing with nudism. The whole thing bothers Perleman, not because the site of naked men and women offend him; after all, as he points out, "every schoolboy polled [in Britain] knew more about sex than his family obstretician." No, what bothers our author is how the BBC wasted this nakedness on a documentary, eschewing "the juicy potential of skin as entertainment."

As an alternative, Perleman proposes a story based on the recent case of Miss Pamela Brewer, 18, who was found guilty of violating University of Florida rules for posing nude "on a bear rug" for a men's magazine. In Perleman's hands, Miss Brewer becomes Crystal Gondorf, a "demure but zottick freshmen, with a brain rivaling Spinoza's encased in the body of a Lollobrigida" Having undeniably verified that the picture is, in fact, of Miss Gondorf, university president Butterfoss has no alternative but to expel her. Crystal claims her innocence, comparing her situation to that of Josef K. in Kafka's The Trial. Eventually, it turns out the picture was doctored, the culprit being one Babs Cheesewright, a classmate jealous of Crystal's (pre-nude) popularity.

Perleman has some other ideas as well, his story running for another two pages. It's humorous (as opposed to funny), but I couldn't help but think, and again I may be the one to blame here, that the story was a bit like the skits we see in classic variety shows, running just a little too long for its own good. I appreciate long-form writing as much as anyone, but I kept wondering how I was going to summarize this story without taking up the entirety of today's column. As you can see, I finally gave up. This isn't meant to serve as a recommendation against reading Perleman's pieces, unless your job is to condense them. It just seems as if nudity on television should be, well, a bit more exciting, don't you think?

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You'll forgive me for taking a moment to catch my breath after all that. (Pause) Well now, for something else that's out of this world, The Doan Report takes a look at how last month's flight of Apollo 11 went over with TV viewers. It was, to coin a phrase, a smash. A worldwide audience estimated at 700 million watched the epic journey of Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins from the launch pad in Florida to the ghostly images live from the moon and the triumphant splashdown; just about the only parts of the world to miss the adventure were China, India, and most of Africa. But it was seen in Poland and Czechoslovakia, and even Moscow TV ran taped coverage of the moon walk three times in one day. Summing it all up was actress Gina Lollobrigida (she of the Perleman story above), who said, "Nothing in show business will ever top what I saw on television today." 

As for the coverage itself, the clear winner was CBS; Walter Cronkite and Wally Schirra garnered about 45 percent of the total audience, and Doan had high praise for the commentary of the former astronaut, who reassured viewers with clearly-understood explanations of what was going on during tense moments. 

And in a little more space news, on Saturday, the unmaned Mariner 7 is scheduled to pass by the southern region of Mars, five days after the flyby of its twin, Mariner 6, beaming black-and-white pictures of the Martian surface back to earth. The networks may preempt regular programming for coverage, including the possibility that the planet could support life.

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It's about time we get to what's on TV this week, don't you think? 

Spread across the weekend is coverage of President Nixon's visit to Romania and London, and back then it really was a big deal for an American president to visit a country behind the Iron Curtain; as a result, NBC plans live coverage of Nixon's arrival in Bucharest Saturday at 6:00 a.m. ET, while CBS has a prime-time special scheduled at 7:30 p.m., preempting Jackie Gleason's show—for one night, he wasn't the Great One after all. I'd assume there was more coverage than what was scheduled, though.

Here's something that caught my eye: an episode of All Star Theater entitled "The Tryst." (1:30 p.m., WIBF) Is the story any good? I don't know, but the cast is, with William Lundigan, Edward Arnold, and two very young future stars: Anne Francis and Vera Miles. The night rounds out with NBC's Saturday Night at the Movies (9:00 p.m.), showing a rerun of the pilot for this fall's new series Then Came Bronson, starring Michael Parks. a kind of Route 66 on two wheels. Unlike Tod, Buz and Linc, Bronson's adventures only ran for one season.

It's too bad we don't have Sullivan vs. the Palace this Sunday, but while The Hollywood Palace takes the summer off, Ed's back in reruns with a strong lineup: Johnny Mathis, singing a medley of songs by Henry Mancini (with Mancini conducting the orchestra); Diana Ross and the Supremes; dancer and chorergrapher Peter Gennaro; singer Shani Wallis; comedy from Burns and Schreiber and Rodner Dangerfield; and the balancing Rolan Brothers. (8:00 p.m., CBS) That's followed by a very good lineup on Hee Haw (9:00 p.m,. CBS), featuring Loretta Lynn and Waylon Jennings, along with Roy Clark and Buck Owens and the Buckaroos. For all of the ridicule Hee Haw takes from its cornpone humor, just about every big name country star appeared on that show over the years.

Monday's highlight is a rerun of the 1966 historical epic Khartoum (8:30 p.m., NBC), the story of the 1884–1885 Siege of Khartoum, in the Sudan. Judith Crist hails this "intelligent epic," especially Robert Ardeny's screenplay, and a star-studded cast led by the two antagonists: Charlton Heston's "very good portrait of the enigmatic General 'Chinese' Gordon," leader of the British forces defending the city of Khartoum, and Laurence Olivier's "simply superb portrait" of the Mahdi, leader of the Arab tribesmen besieging the city. It is, says Crist, "the rare spectacular that engrosses the mind as well as the eye." If you're in the late-night mood, check out the guest hosts on the chat shows: Flip Wilson on The Tonight Show (11:30 p.m., NBC) and Pat Butrram (!) on The Joey Bishop Show (11:30 p.m., ABC); Pat's guests, by the way, include Gene Autry and Xavier Cugat and Charo. That might be the show of the week.

If you haven't figured it out yet, this week's shows are heavy on the rerun side, but that doesn't mean they aren't worth watching; after all, it's when people used to catch up on the shows they'd missed in this pre-VCR era. For example, one of Tuesday's choices is "All Our Yesterdays," the much-loved episode of Star Trek that sends our heroes back in time: Kirk has to defend himself against charges of whichcraft, while Spock and McCoy are stranded in a prehistoric ice age with the woman who captures Spock's pre-Vulcan heart, Mariette Hartley.* Of course, if you're going to give this a watch, you'll have to pass up this week's episode of Lancer, with guest star Johnnie Whitaker. (7:30 p.m., CBS)

*Typo alert: in the TV Guide, she's listed as "Mariette Hart."

Mariette Hartley—this time with her name spelled correctly—is back on NBC Wednesday night, this time as a naive Missouri girl who hires David Ross to find her missing brother (Rick Jason) in Darren McGavin's cynical P.I. series The Outsider (10:00 p.m., NBC). One of these days, I'm going to have to dip into the grey market and get some episodes of that. Fortunately, I won't have to do that with "And When the Sky Was Opened," an excellent first-season episode of The Twilight Zone, starring Rod Taylor, Jim Hutton and Charles Aidman as the first three astronauts into space, who find upon returning to Earth that not all is as it seems. After all, I just bought the complete series. (6:30 p.m., WPHL)

Have you had the feeling, especially in the last year or so, that you're just a piece on a chessboard, being moved at will by someone else? Find out what happens when this is literally the case, on a rerun of "Checkmate" on The Prisoner (8:00 p.m., CBS). As usual, the plot involves one of the favorite topics in The Village: conformity. As usual, Number 6 meets the challenge with his own favorite topic: escape. Otherwise, check out one of those movies I mentioned that features our cover star, Andrew Duggan. Yes, it's The Incredible Mr. Limpet (9:00 p.m., CBS), which Judith Crist describes as "a movie about a schnook who becomes a dolphin." I'm not sure who Duggan plays, but Don Knotts is the schnook. 

Friday boasts an interesting lineup of guest stars, beginning on The Wild Wild West (7:30 p.m., CBS), with opera star Patrice Munsel as—what else; a tempestuous opera star—who's run afoul of the sinister Order of Lucia. That's followed at 8:30 p.m. by The Name of the Game (NBC), a Robert Stack episode featuring Ricardo Montalban as a ghetto priest taking on the syndicate, led by—not Bruce Gordon, alas, but Edward Andrews. On NET Playhouse (8:30 p.m., NET), David Hemmings, who's since become famous in Antonioni's Blow-Up, stars in "Auto Stop," the story of a "callow youth" hitchhiking across continental Europe in hopes of becoming a man. The Saint (10:00 p.m, NBC) features one of Roger Moore's future co-stars, Lois "Moneypenny" Maxwell, as Simon Templar becomes involved in revenge, blackmail, and murder. Sounds as dangerous as anything Bond will come up against. 

A precaution, though: President Nixon is scheduled for an address to the Nation tonight, at which he'll reveal his new welfare initiative, the Family Assistance Plan. Typical of the time, the speech will be followed by analysis from network correspondents. Regular programming will be preempted, rescheduled, or delayed.

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An interesting Letter to the Editor this week, from Bill Cifton of Shelton, Washington, writing about a recent article on whether or not there's too much violence on television. (A recent poll indicated viewers felt excessive violence on TV was detrimental to society.) It's a little long, but I'm going to repeat it because I think it resonates with many of us out here:

My boss tells me what time to come to work, take my coffee break, eat lunch, get my paycheck, take my vacation and go home at night. Then my wife tells me to cut the grass, trim the hedge, take out the garbage, eat my dinner, not drink too much, and lastly what time to get up. The bank tells me when to make my house payment, car payment, TV payment and bring more money because my account is overdrawn. The only escape I have is watching TV—especially a nice violent show—because now somebody else is getting theirs. If I don't get any healthy violence to watch, I'm going to get even: I'm going to call the bank to come get the TV set. Then I'll send Nielsen his 50c and form back and tell him I just listen to radio.

I'd like to shake Mr Clifton's hand.

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Finally in this issue from Philadelphia, dueling news legends:

In this corner, one-half of the news lineup on WCAU, narrator par excellence of NFL Films, John "The Voice of God" Facenda!

And in this corner, present newsman of WLS and future star of NBC News, Tom "The Tomorrow Man" Snyder!

Who have you got?

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OK, I lied. Here's the final thought. It comes from former U.S. senator Henry Clay, as quoted in a letter from Ira H. Schoen of Yonkers, N.Y., writing about that poll on TV violence. Said Clay, "Statistics are no substitute for judgment." Make of that what you will. TV  

Around the dial

Seeing as how we're celebrating the 50th anniversary of man's first steps on the moon, it seems appropriate to start with Jordan's review at The Twilight Zone Vortex of the fourth-season episode, "The Parallel," a mediocre yet intriguing story of bad things that can happen to you if you fly into space.

Britain's newspaper The Sun isn't necessarily the most family-friendly source you can find, but this week it offers this fascinating story of how the BBC almost missed Neil Armstrong's giant leap for mankind.

At bare-bones e-zine, Jack's Hitchcock Project on writer Arthur A. Ross takes us to the ninth-season episode "Anyone for Murder?" a droll look at marital murder for-hire with Barry Nelson, Patricia Breslin, Edward Andrews, and Richard Dawson.

It's F Troop Friday at The Horn Section, and for our viewing pleasure, Hal looks at "The Girl From Philadelphia," featuring a rare siting of former No Time for Sergeants co-star Laurie Sibbald, as well as an appearance by former Tammy star Linda Marshall.

At Cult TV Blog, John travels to the land of The X-Files and looks at "The Erlenmeyer Flask," one of the show's all-time great episodes; the first-season finale, and the end of the character known and loved as "Deep Throat."

Two of my favorite personalities celebrate birthdays on the same day this week, as covered by two of my favorite people: Carol celebrates Bob Crane's birthday at Bob Crane Life & Legacy, while Jodie honors the Old Tiger, Dave Garroway, at Garroway at Large.

At Television's New Frontier: The 1960s, we're introduced to the 1961 Australian Western series Whiplash, starring Peter Graves, based more or less on a true story, which was syndicated in the United States and other countries.

One more moon story for the week: the July 15, 1989 TV Guide features Isaac Asimov discussing what he'd do on the moon. That plus a story on Sesame Street, the highlights from TV 30 years ago,  and much more at Television Obscurities. TV  

TV Guide and Apollo 11

Imagine if television cameras had been present when Columbus sailed for the New World? Or when Lewis and Clark set off on their expedition? Or when Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic? That is only the beginning of what it was like when man set foot on the moon, and this time we were all present, thanks to television. In recognition of the 50th anniversary of this most monumental of events, I hand things over once again to Tom Rednour for this illustrated guide to TV Guide's coverage of Apollo 11.

by Tom Rednour

Practically every TV Guide and space memorabilia collector has the July 19, 1969 issue that featured Neil & Buzz on the moon. Excellent issue, with feature articles by Neil Hickey and Walter Cronkite. But what programs aired before the mission and what follow-up shows aired after the mission? Well, I'm here to tell you!

TV Guide helped us to watch the space race, live in living rooms across the US (see my "TV Guide and the space race" on this website). The magazine also prepared us for the historic landing on the moon by letting us know of special programming before the mission got under way. Unless noted, all items are from New York Metro editions.