This week in TV Guide: January 23, 1965

When last we saw Chuck Connors, the actor and former professional athlete was hanging out with his old buddy, Leonid Brezhnev. This week, however, he's involved in something far more mundane: his new Western series Branded, which debuts this Sunday on NBC. Most of you are probably familiar with the show, in which Connors plays Jason McCord, a U.S. calvary officer drummed out of the service on an unjust charge of cowardice. If nothing else, I'm sure you've seen the opening (reproduced below), in which Connors is stripped of his rank, his sword is broken in two, and he's unceremoniously escorted out of the fort. From then on, he spends each episode trying, through his actions, to disprove the charge against him.

It's interesting, therefore, to see how Larry Cohen, the show's 29-year-old creator, envisions Branded's themes. "My intellectual concept of the show is that it’s like a Shakespearean tragedy," he explains, "a man mistakenly, unfairly hated and persecuted—a man who must fight to destroy the image of dishonor that follows him." Cohen acknowledges the show's obvious similarities to The Fugitive, but it differs in that "Connors isn’t chasing a one-armed man." Instead, it's the much more existential concept of honor.

Connors wants to create the image of a man as different as possible from Lucas McCain, his character in The Rifleman. "I even changed my hair. I decided to keep it short and let my sideburns grow, and have it long in the back. I wanted to look military—I’m a West Point man in this show. That’s why I lost weight, too. I’m 12 pounds lighter than when I was doing The Rifleman." (And check out that sweater he's wearing; I used to have a blanket that looked like that.) And unlike The Rifleman, in which he owned only a "small piece," he's "equal partners" with Goodson-Todman, Branded's producer (one of the company's rare non-game show properties). 

At one time, the article concludes, there were 29 Westerns on television. Branded will be TV's first half-hour Western since Have Gun—Will Travel left the air two seasons ago. Connors is confident: "There'll always be a place for Westerns on television, because they’re Americana and you can’t throw America out of America. The Western is the American fairy tale." Unfortunately, Branded only runs a year-and-a-half and leaves the airwaves in September 1966. The late 1960s was not a good time for the American fairy tale—more like the American nightmare.

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During the 60s, the Ed Sullivan Show and The Hollywood Palace were the premiere variety shows on television. Whenever they appear in TV Guide together, we'll match them up and see who has the best lineup.

Ed Sullivan: Tonight's scheduled guests include Metropolitan Opera soprano Birgit Nilson; comic Alan King; impressionist George Kirby; puppeteer Shari Lewis; Vietnamese pop singer Hach Yen; comedians Marty Allen and Steve Rossi; the rock ‘n’ rolling Animals; the Haslevs, tumblers; and roller skaters Ravic and Babs.

Palace: Hostess Kate Smith introduces comedian Mort Sahl, singer Trini Lopez and pantomimist Ben Blue. Also on the bill: the Juan Carlos Copes dance troupe from Argentina; harmonica player Stan Fisher; English comedy dancers Desmond and Marks; and the Karlini and Jupiter dog act.

A fairly straightforward matchup this week, and for my money a fairly straightforward choice. Birgit Nilson is a celebrated legend of the opera stage, and Alan King, George Kirby and Shari Lewis round out a strong top of the lineup. Notwithstanding Kate Smith's legendary status of her own, and Mort Sahl's typically satirical standup, Palace just doesn't have the depth. This week: Sullivan takes the bravos.

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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 takes a look at ABC Scope, a weekly half-hour news documentary airing on, well, ABC. And, says Cleve, Scope is not only well worth your attention but is also one about which the network is legitimately entitled to congratulate itself."

Documentary, though, is such a stuffy word. Today, we'd call programs like Scope newsmagazines. Each show focuses on a specific topic (after all, it only has 30 minutes to work with), but "it does not tie itself to the week's news or even, necessarily, the 'news' at all." One week it could be a look at the Ecumenical Council in Rome, the next an examination of discotheques. Amory was particularly impressed with a pair of episodes written by Ernest Pendrell, one a story about a doctor working in the mountains of Balsam Grove, North Carolina; the other a profile of Preston Lewis, a 48-year-old man who has been consistently unsuccessful at various jobs throughout his life—bellhop, dishwasher, janitor—with one exception: playing Santa Claus. "Two scenes of “The Gift” still stand out in our mind. In one, Mr. Lewis is worried about being a good Santa Claus because he is so thin; in the other, we have the sound, still ringing in his ears as he walks through the park after his job is over, of the child’s voice saying 'I love you, Santa Claus.'" These shows weren't just good, Amory says; they were great.

Other episodes that caught Cleve's eye included a look at the town of Massillon, Ohio, perhaps the most football-crazy town in the United States (it still is today, as far as I know), the other an appreciation of Winston Churchill by Richard Burton. It would have been interesting to see how ABC Scope might have developed, as a kind of forerunner to 60 Minutes, if it had continued in this vein. However, in February 1966, Scope shifts its focus to report exclusively on Vietnam, with each episode subtitled "Vietnam Report" followed by the topic to be examined. Although it continues to be scheduled in primetime, many affiliates push it off to Sunday afternoons, where it can do less ratings damage. The last episode airs in March 1968; I wonder if Cleveland Amory ever reviewed it in this format?

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Richard Rodgers and Lesley Ann Warren

Next, we'll look at an article by a most distinguished contributor: Richard Rodgers. During his career, the composer would go on to win an Oscar, an Emmy, a Tony and a Grammy (the first to do so), as well as a Pulitzer and a Kennedy Center honoree. His partnerships with Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II resulted in just a few musicals you might have heard of: Oklahoma!, Flower Drum Song, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, and The Sound of Music. On his own, he wrote the score for the NBC documentary series Victory at Sea. Not a bad career, hmm?

This week, he's writing about another of his collaborations with Hammerstein: Cinderella, the made-for-TV musical (the only such piece ever written by R&H) which originally debuted in 1957 with Julie Andrews, and was at the time the most-watched television program in history. The new production, which airs next month on CBS, will be in color, and stars 18-year-old Lesley Ann Warren as Cinderella, with Celeste Holm as the Fairy Godmother, Walter Pidgeon and Ginger Rogers as the King and Queen, and Stuart Damon as the Prince. There are other changes as well: a brand-new book (the non-singing dialogue) and a new song that had been composed for South Pacific but wasn't used.

I suspect this is the version of Cinderella that most of you are familiar with; it airs eight times over the next ten years, and it's available on DVD. It's not, in my opinion, one of Rodgers and Hammerstein's best musicals, certainly not in a class with Oklahoma! or The Sound of Music, and it lacks a signature song that provides immediate identification; speaking of the 1957 production, New York Times critic Jack Gould called it "a pleasant Cinderella that lacked the magic touch." Perhaps it was asking a bit much for two of the premier Broadway writers to put together a musical that would have a running time of less than 80 minutes and would be interrupted six times by commercials. Nonetheless, it's a much-loved story that continues to be a crowd-pleaser today.

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And now a word about our sponsor. 

No look at television history would be complete without a mention of Kraft Foods, because Kraft's involvement with television goes back to the very beginning of TV. Starting in 1947, Kraft Television Theatre was television's first commercial network program, and when it left the air in 1958 after 650 episodes, it was the oldest and longest-running dramatic anthology in television history, introducing such stars as Grace Kelly, Jack Lemmon, and James Dean. (For a time, Kraft actually sponsored two completely separate stories each week, one on NBC and the other on ABC.) Then, there was The Kraft Music Hall (which had started on radio in 1933 and was hosted by Bing Crosby for ten years), with first Milton Berle and then Perry Como acting as emcee.

Now, however, there's a new entry in the Kraft stable: Kraft Suspense Theatre, which one critic calls "an oasis of drama in a wasteland of comedy." It airs three out of every four weeks each month, with the fourth week being filled by Como's Music Hall. Talking about the program, executive producer Frank P. Rosenberg compares it to shooting a movie each week; "We try to make a picture that people would walk up to the box office and pay $2 to see." And while, as an anthology, there are no continuing characters, there are what Rosenberg calls continuing characteristics, "basically human characters that the audience can understand as human beings, put in suspenseful situations."

Each episode costs upward of $200,000 to shoot, and while the stars aren't quite up to the caliber of a Crosby, they're filled with recognizable names, such as Steve Forrest and Dana Wynter. As many as four episodes are being shot simultaneously at the time of the article, including "Rapture at Two-Forty," the pilot for Run for Your Life. In the end, Suspense Theatre's run is fairly modest: two seasons, 59 episodes. It may not have the impact of Kraft Television Theatre, but it's an eminently watchable series that enjoyed a healthy existence in syndication, and you can find it on YouTube today. 

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Oh, and how about a trip to Denver? Bob Denver, that is. He's come to Gilligan's Island fresh off of four successful seasons as Maynard G. Krebs in Dobie Gillis. In fact, however, Denver had never set out to be an actor; he originally studied to be a lawyer, and almost turned down the chance to audition for Maynard. (His sister was secretary for the director of new talent at the studio making Dobie Gillis.) He's something of a pessimist, but an all-around good guy. 

But what's most interesting in what we learn is not about Bob Denver per se, but his Gilligan's Island castaway castmate, Tina Louise. "Denver will not say why he and the glamorous Tina do not get along, nor will any of the castaways—they just ignore her, and she ignores them." Between scenes, she sits off by herself while the other six chat and tell jokes. "And recently when Denver was asked to pose for pictures with her, he adamantly refused." I don't suppose any of this is particularly new; there have always been stories about an ambivalence between her and the others, so all this really does is confirm some of that gossip. 

The unbylined profile concludes with the comment that Denver can't be too much of a pessimist these days; "there are reports that Tina Louise will be leaving Gilligan’s Island to go into another series." Well, that didn't happen; Tina was around for all three seasons of the show, and presumably would have been on the fourth season had not Babe Paley become involved in the network's scheduling. But she was also the only member of the original cast to decline involvement in the show's three movie sequels.

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Several items of interest help us round out the week, and I'm sure there must be someone out there thinking, "Finally!" Hopefully, you'll feel I've done you right.

Those things begin with the debut of The King Family Show (Saturday, 7:30 p.m., ABC). For those of you who aren't familiar with the Kings, there are 37 of them—the original King Sisters (Alyce, Luise, Marilyn, and Yvonne), plus other subsets of the family (cousins, children, etc.), the best-known being Yvonne's daughter Tina Cole, who'd go on to My Three Sons. It fits in perfectly with ABC's Saturday night schedule, along with The Lawrence Welk Show and The Hollywood Palace; it runs through June, and then comes back in a half-hour format from September of 1965 to January 1966. There's one more iteration of The King Family Show that ABC airs, starting in March 1969—in the timeslot formerly held by the infamous Turn-On.

On Sunday, Dr. Werner von Braun discusses the future of space travel—specifically, project Apollo—on Science All Stars (5:00 p.m., ABC). As for the past, The Twentieth Century (6:00 p.m., CBS) looks at one of the most enigmatic figures of World War II, Rudolf Hess, and what may have been behind his bizarre flight from Germany to Scotland in 1941. It's also the debut of the aforementioned Branded (8:30 p.m., NBC), and the American premiere of composer Gian Carlo Menotti's new opera, Martin's Lie (9:00 p.m., CBS). It's the first time since Menotti's acrimonious dispute with NBC over a new production of Amahl and the Night Visitors that one of his operas has appeared on another network. Kirk Browning, who directed many productions on NBC Opera Theatre, is the director here.

Monday's episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E., "The Yellow Scarf Affair" (8:00 p.m., NBC), is notable more for the guest stars than for the plot, with appearances by Kamala Devi and Neile Adams, also known as Mrs. Chuck Connors and Mrs. Steve McQueen, respectively. On The Andy Griffith Show (8:30 p.m., CBS), Barney has to deal with the consequences of throwing away a chain letter. (I did that once, which is why I'm here in rural Indiana typing these words instead of enjoying life on the French Rivera.) And The Andy Williams Show (9:00 p.m., NBC) boasts a stellar lineup, with Burke's Law's Gene Barry, Jill St. John, and the brilliant Antinio Carlos Jobim. 

Tuesday's most interesting topic, although it may not be the most interesting program, is an NBC news documentary on The French Revolution. (10:00 p.m.) The reason I'm hedging my bets is because, even today, relatively few Americans understand the ramifications of the Revolution—not surprising, given that the philosophy behind the founding of the United States is based on the Enlightenment, something very much at work in the Satanic horrors of the Reign of Terror. I think, however, it would be well worth watching to see what the take is.

Wednesday's highlight is the 1951 movie Detective Story (Wednesday Night at the Movies, 9:00 p.m., NBC), a tough, gritty police drama starring Kirk Douglas, Eleanor Parker, William Bendix and Lee Grant. The movie was nominated for four Oscars, including a Best Director nom for William Wyler. That's on opposite The Dick Van Dyke Show (9:00 p.m., CBS), with Jerry Van Dyke guesting as Rob's brother Stacey. 

Leonard Bernstein returns with another Young People's Concert on Thursday (8:00 p.m., CBS), highlighting young artists. A couple of artists who are not young, but are quite distinguished, are the husband-and-wife team of Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, two of the greats of the stage, who make a rare TV appearance as the stars of the Hallmark Hall of Fame production of "The Magnificent Yankee" (9:30 p.m., NBC), the story of Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. Somewhere in-between is David Susskind's Open End (9:00 p.m., KVIE), with "Seven Beautiful Airline Hostesses" discussing their "glamorous—and at times difficult—jobs."

Friday night, Bob Hope's Chrysler Theatre (8:30 p.m., NBC) tells the story of "The Loving Cup," in which a yachtsman racing in the America's Cup needs to contact his former wife's flame to raise the financial backing. I find these kinds of stories fascinating, in that how-many-times-has-this-happened-to-you way; it seems as if men are always being forced to seek out rivals for their wife's affection because they need money. Isn't there anyone else around they can borrow money from? Like a bank? Either that, or the population of this country is much smaller than I thought, with about a two-degree separation between a man, his wife, her former flame, and financial security. What are the odds? I mean, what are the odds?

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MST3K alert: Invasion, U.S.A. (1953). "A forecaster named Mr. Ohman envisions the destruction of the United States. Gerald Mohr, Dan O'Herlihy, Peggie Castle, Erik Blythe, Wade Crosby, George Sylvester." (Friday, 11:30 p.m., KNTV). The message of this Cold War thriller: a vote against the military-industrial complex is a vote for communism. Dan O'Herlihy, who plays Mr. Ohman, will be nominated for Best Actor two years later for Robinson Crusoe. Obviously, nobody told him acting was optional here; his performance is much better than the typical B-movie requires. TV  

This week in TV Guide: October 23, 1965

The picture at left is of Chuck Connors, former major league baseball player and pro basketball player, best known for his 1958-63 ABC western series The Rifleman, later co-star of ABC's 90-minute crime series Arrest and Trial, and currently star of NBC's Branded.

Later on you'll see a picture of Chuck Conners in 1973, with General Secretary of the Soviet Union Leonid Brezhnev.

The story behind that picture, as well as the rest of the week of October 23, 1965, is next.

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We're in the thick of the football season, and NBC, in their final year of covering Saturday afternoon college games (the contract would return to ABC in 1966), has one of the most storied of all rivalries on tap, as the #4 USC Trojans travel to South Bend to take on the #7 Notre Dame Fighting Irish. (Noon, CT) USC running back Mike Garrett will win the Heisman the next month, but this would not be his day, as the Irish rout the Trojans 28-7.

On Sunday, pro football takes center stage, and because this is the Minnesota State Edition of TV Guide, we've got an interesting assortment of games to look at from the two leagues. The NFL's coverage begins at 11:45 a.m. with Dallas vs. Green Bay at Milwaukee (Packers win 13-3), in a game seen on the CBS affiliates in Mankato (KEYC) and Mason City, IA (KGLO), and for some reason the NBC affiliate in Alexandria (KCMT). This game would be joined in progress at 12:45 p.m. on the CBS stations in Duluth (KDAL) and La Crosse (WKBT), which had been showing Stoney Burke and Know the Truth, respectively.*

*Joining the game an hour in progress sounds like the kind of stupid thing that KCMT would do. You know, the station we got in The World's Worst Town.™

At 1:00 p.m., WEAU, the NBC affiliate in Eau Claire, presents the AFL game of the week, Denver at Buffalo (the Bills, who will go on to win the AFL title in 1965, best the Broncos 31-13), while at 1:30 p.m. KSTP in the Twin Cities and KROC in Rochester bring us Kansas City at Houston (the Oilers win, 38-36), a game that'll be joined in progress by WDSM in Duluth at 2:30 p.m. (they had a "Film Feature" at 1:30) and the aforementioned Channel 7 at 3:15 p.m. (following the end of the Cowboys-Packers contest).

The final game of the day is Channel 4's coverage of the home team, as the Vikings played the 49ers in Kezar Stadium in San Francisco (1:45 p.m.), a thriller won by the Vikings 42-41.* When I visited San Francisco a few years ago, I took the opportunity to travel to Golden Gate Park to visit the ruins of old Kezar. It was in the heart of the park (imagine a football stadium in the middle of Central Park), and one of the reasons the Niners vacated it in favor of Candlestick Park was that the parking there was atrocious. Kezar was featured in the first Dirty Harry movie; it was where Harry shot the Scorpio Killer in the knee and got in trouble for it.

*And only Channel 4. Interesting the rest of the region's channels took the Packers game.  Or maybe not so interesting—after all, the Vikings were still a pretty mediocre team, while the Packers were headed for their third championship in five years. The Packers were the team in the area back then, and still have a lot of fans in Minnesota today.

So let's recap the weekend: on Saturday, one college football game. On Sunday, one NFL and one AFL game (in most markets). Total number of games the average viewer could see: three.

Total number of games (college and pro) on TV last weekend: 55, beginning on Thursday night and ending on Monday night. As I keep saying, times have changed.

But I find the relationship between television and sports to be fascinating. I love writing about it.

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During the 60s, the Ed Sullivan Show and The Hollywood Palace were the premiere variety shows on television. Whenever they appear in TV Guide together, we'll match them up and see who has the best lineup..

Ed Sullivan: Ed's in Hollywood again, with scheduled guests Helen Hayes; Duke Ellington and his band; comic Myron Cohen; Herman's Hermits, rock 'n' rollers; singer-pianist Ginny Tiu; comedian Richard Pryor; and the Manuela Vargas Ballet Troupe.

Hollywood Palace: host Milton Berle introduces Jose Jiminez (Bill Dana), who discusses his book on jujitsu; Los Angeles Dodger captain Maury Wills, who sings and plays the banjo; singer Abbe Lane; folk rock 'n' rollers Sonny and Cher; quick-change actor Mike McGivney, who offers an abbreviated version of "Oliver Twist"; and the Rudas, Australian dancers.

A strong week for both programs. Bill Dana's Jose Jiminez character, which he created in 1959, was often hilarious, his most famous routine being an astronaut. Abbe Lane, who preceded Charo as Xavier Cugat's wife, was—very nice. As a banjo player, Maury Wills was a fantastic base-stealer.  And Sonny and Cher didn't do too badly for themselves, did they?

But though this would win many weeks, the Palace didn't really stand a chance. Helen Hayes was already a living legend in 1965, as was the great Duke Ellington; Richard Pryor was on his way to becoming one; Myron Cohen was one of the funniest of the ethnic comedians (he was a favorite of Carson's); and Herman's Hermits, with Peter Noone*, was one of the biggest of the 60s Brit-Pop groups.  The verdict: Sullivan, decisively.

*I was always impressed with Peter Noone, who never succumbed to the drugs & booze scene (he was only 15 when he became Herman).  When he hosted My Generation on VH-1 in the late 80s, he talked of the 60s with a kind of detached bemusement; like Tom Wolfe, he was more observer than participant.

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Before we take complete leave of The Hollywood Palace for this week, one footnote. As I've mentioned, one of the benefits of a statewide TV Guide edition is that you get to see what the stations outside your own market were showing. Much of the time it's the same thing you were watching, but when it comes to split-affiliation stations—stations (like KCMT) that were primary affiliates of one network but also showed programming from another—there's almost always something interesting. And so it was with WKBT, Channel 8 in LaCrosse, which on Tuesday night showed the Hollywood Palace episode from the previous week, October 16. Would that it had been the one to go up against Sullivan: Host Frank Sinatra introduces Count Basie and his band; comic Jack E. Leonard; dancer Peter Gennaro; West German singer-dancers Alice and Ellen Kessler; and Colombian high-wire acrobat Murillo.

Sinatra and Basie—a man and his music.  Now that was a show.

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Throughout the 60s and early 70s, TV Guide's 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 series of the era. 

This indeed should be a honey of a review, because this week Cleveland Amory reviews Honey West, or, as he puts it, Jane Blond. (And if you don't like that, there's always the "Woman from A.U.N.T.) It's an idea that, according to Cleve, was "obviously bound to occur to one of the great brains of TV sooner or later." We had hoped it would be later rather than sooner, says Amory, but now that it's here, it's important to point out that if you have "so far managed to miss this miss—well, you haven't missed much."

It's true that Anne Francis, who makes a honey of a Honey, is comely indeed, not to say fetching. It is, however, "far-fetched" to suggest that she is properly cast in Honey West. If you have any doubts as to whether or not this show is supposed to be taken seriously, "Her unsuitability for the role is proof it's a spoof." And if you watch it that way, it might even be enjoyable. Alas—after some early indications that it might indeed be here to spoof a genre that deserves it, all hope evaporated by the second episode, which Amory calls "a carbon copy, and not a top one at that, of the movie Topkapi. The third episode was likable enough, particularly the performances of Irene Hervey as Honey's Aunt Meg, and Bruce, the ocelot that serves as Honey's pet. Says Amory, "He can etch a performance for us any time."

In the end analysis, Honey West can perhaps serve as an indictment of the television of this era—while it's not quite a honey of a show, Amory says, it's not exactly a lemon either. a show with "enough sweet spots to satisfy a not-too-discriminating palate, but for our taste, they're too few and far between." And isn't that exactly the point that Judith Crist was making a few weeks ago in her article about the purpose of a critic, that being to teach the viewers that they shouldn't be afraid to demand more, even from a medium they get for free. Based on the viewer apathy that failed to keep this series alive beyond its 30 episodes, one might say that ABC did indeed listen to their demands—for the show to go away.

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There are several notations throughout this issue concerning the planned launch of Gemini VI (with future CBS space analyst Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford), which was scheduled to go up on Monday morning, a little over 90 minutes after the launch of the Atlas-Agena target vehicle with which it was going to maneuver and dock.  It would then return to Earth on Wednesday, in what was planned to be the first live televised coverage of a splashdown and recovery. 

But six minutes after launch, the Agena exploded, postponing the Gemini VI mission until December, when it would rendezvous with Gemini VII. Gemini VII, incidentally, would be the longest American manned space flight until Skylab—its mission, with astronauts Jim Lovell and Frank Borman, lasted 14 days.

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I enjoy the little dichotomies like the two programs we have competing on Friday night.  At 9:00pm, ABC has a David Wolper documentary entitled "Teenage Revolution," while CBS counters with the Miss Teenage America pageant.  The big production number in the pageant was called "Teenage America, Here We Come!—which, I think, was the point of the ABC documentary in the first place.

There's also an interesting article by Neil Hickey about the prospect of television networks running out of movies to show.  The studios are producing fewer top-grade movies that are suitable for TV.  Many of the movies are too long, too sexy, too violent, too campy, too black & white, or just too bad.  The networks are well on the way to having movies seven nights a week (although not yet at the stage of having movies compete against movies), and they need more material.  The obvious solution - which is, in fact, what happened - is the made-for-TV movie, of which NBC had made three.  The first, The Killers (with Lee Marvin, Angie Dickinson, and Ronald Reagan) famously turned out to be too violent for TV and was released to the theaters instead.  The other two, The Hanged Man and See How They Run,  were over budget, over schedule, and under expectations (a deadly trio).  Fear not, movie fans - things will get better.

And then there was the Letter to the Editor complaining about the extensive network coverage of Pope Paul VI's trip to America (the first ever by a pontiff).  Sez Mrs. Lonnie Tarver, of Slidell, Louisiana, "I wonder if the networks realize that all of their viewers are not Catholic?"  She meant, of course, that not all of the viewers were Catholic, which is true* - but then, all of TV Guide's readers are not literate, either...

*Although, sadly, in the post-Vatican II era it's probably accurate to say that not all of the Catholics are Catholic.

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And now the story of Chuck Connors and Leonid Brezhnev.

The photograph to the right, of Connors and Brezhnev, was taken in June 1973. Connors, a staunch supporter of President Nixon, was Nixon’s guest at a reception for Brezhnev in San Clemente.

As it happened, Brezhnev was a big fan of The Rifleman, one of the few American series to be shown in the Soviet Union. Upon being introduced to the General Secretary, Connors presented him with a pair of matching Colt .45 revolvers that he’d used in Branded, and later showed him how to twirl them. Brezhnev was thrilled with the gift, and the two became fast friends.

Later, as Brezhnev prepared to leave California, he saw Connors standing on the tarmac, “went over to him and vigorously shook his hand, and then jumped off the ground into the startled arms of his western hero.” Connors would visit the Soviet Union later that year as Brezhnev’s guest, filming a documentary called Peace and Friendship and making friends all the while. When Brezhnev died in 1982, Connors asked the State Department to be included in the American delegation to Brezhnev’s funeral, but was turned down.

Connors died exactly ten years after Brezhnev, on November 10, 1992.

Detente, television-style. And now, as Paul Harvey would say, you know the rest of the story. TV  

This week in TV Guide: March 12, 1960

Although the TV Guides in this series are chosen more or less at random, depending on what I happen to have available at the time, I think we're seeing a consistent trend running through the first four decades of the magazine: a constant examination of the role television plays in society, and a challenge to those in charge of programming to do a better job of it.

This week's article is from Erwin D. Canham, editor of The Christian Science Monitor and current President of the United States Chamber of Commerce, and his message is simple and straightforward: "TV should toughen the mind of America, not put it to sleep."

One of the main threats Canham sees - a threat that we also see, over and over, in these essays - is that of depending too much on the ratings to determine which programs survive and which disappear without a trace. He compares the process to that of the print media: if newspapers and magazines used the same criteria to determine their contents, the dominant features would be comic strips, sports, and pictures - what he calls "a completely unbalanced and unacceptable newspaper." Television, writes Canham, must never become overwhelmingly entertainment-based, or else it will lose the tremendous potential it has of "lifting the minds and hearts of mankind into the age which modern technology makes possible." As he puts it, "A dinner composed nine-tenths of chocolate eclairs would be absurd. Popularity is not all."

Canham also warns of "grave challenges" that America faces, and the responsibility to which television must answer. He appeals to the medium to help build "new standards of life and citizenship," that "our minds must not be merely softened up under a salve of bland relaxation". The American people will have to think hard and work hard, and "the pervasive power of television must help them to do so. They need awakening, not tranquilizing. Television must not become the opium of the people. Like all great voices, it must cry out - not by mere editorializing, but by informing and challenging with the factual image it so vividly conveys."

When Canham writes of "the grave challenges we face," I think he's referring specifically to the threat posed by Communism, and the many ways in which Americans have to respond to that challenge. There's an educational one, of course; with talk of the missile gap and the need to match Soviet minds in the space race, it will be vital for America to put a priority on training brighter and better minds, and television must play a role in doing so.

Then there's the value of citizenship itself, and the importance of a free society. "Can we stand up against the earnest, fanatical focused challenge of totalitarian aggression? Will we weaken our society from within? Are our goals and standards the true values of a good society? Have we gone soft?" Here is where television can make the difference; "Nothing can help America to awaken and gird itself for internal and external battles for survival more effectively than television." No other medium can reach so many people or get into their minds. The print media can follow up with the in-depth story, but television must get their attention.

Like others, he sees the quiz show scandal of the past decade not only in terms of what it says about the industry, but about the public as well. To him, the scandal "reveals a national crisis of confidence. People are wondering not so much about television morals as national morals. They are asking whether our national standards and values are as sound and true as they should be, or whether too many of them have become shoddy and specious." And here I think we again turn to the Cold War, for the "national values" Canham refers to are those which we put on display for the rest of the world to see. What are those, in the winter of 1960? The civil rights movement, voting rights, growing racial unrest, poverty, lack of education. Even though more was to come throughout the '60s, these images are already being broadcast, and while they are assuredly bad enough in and of themselves, they also provide fuel for Communist propaganda.

The way in which television faces all these challenges will be just as important as the fact that they are facing them at all. They must be made "as humanly interesting, entertaining and penetrating as much of the trivia and passion of this world is without half trying." To have any effectiveness at all, to involve television in the coming world in the way it must, the programs must engage the viewer, else they won't be seen at all. Those responsible for this programming must, writes Canham, "work as hard to get truly important facts and ideas into the minds of viewers as they do to put over their commercial messages." It is only then that television will be able to play its role in helping to create "a nation of mature decision makers."

I wonder how Canham would view the evolution of television over the past 58 years? With pessimism, I would think. The warnings he penned about television becoming an entertainment medium have for the most part gone unheeded; while there has been much over these past years that has been very good, it has not, for the most part, strengthened the American character; in fact, were it not for the social media contrivances of today, I'd think that TV would bear the burden of being the single instrument most responsible for dumbing down the nation. Or perhaps social media merely took advantage of viewers already softened up by television? The argument was already raging when this article was written, and by the mid-'60s there were a lot of people who looked at programs such as The Beverly Hillbillies (the one it seems is most cited) and threw up their hands in resignation. As far as the education of the public into a "knowledgeable citizenry," collectively we're probably bigger fools than we've ever been. It's everybody's fault, but ofttimes the greatest responsibility goes hand-in-hand with the greatest potential, and the potential of television - well, how high is the sky?

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Starting in 1954, Steve Allen helmed his own NBC variety show which, at the beginning, aired opposite that of Ed Sullivan. It didn't run as long as Ed's, of course, but then Allen said his goal was never to conquer Ed, but to coexist with him, which he did for four seasons. Let's see who gets the best of the contest this week.

Sullivan: To celebrate St. Patrick's Day, Ed hosts a collection of Irish talent, including song-and-dance man Pat Rooney; singers Eileen Brennan and Lee Sullivan; and from Dublin, playwright Seán O'Casey and veteran actor Barry Fitzgerald.

Allen: Steve's guests are comedian Mort Sahl, singer Tony Martin and dancer Juliet Prowse, along with Steve's regular cast of by Don Knotts, Louis Nye, and Bill Dana.

Back in the days when playwrights were actual celebrities, Seán O'Casey was one of the most prominent, having risen to fame primarily as the result of his 1907 play The Playboy of the Western World. I don't know just how entertaining he'd be though, even with Barry Fitzgerald (Going My Way). On the other hand, Tony Martin was always kind of a B-list singer, and I've never been the biggest fan of Juliet Prowse. Eileen Brennan and Mort Sahl offset each other; the verdict: Push.

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Believe it or not, there was once a time when tennis was primarily an amateur sport, and professionals not only were not allowed into the Grand Slam tournaments (Wimbledon, Forest Hills, etc.), they were segregated into their own little touring company.

It's Sunday's CBS Sports Spectacular (2:00 p.m.), and the event comes to us live from the Everglades Club in Palm Beach, Florida. It's all brought to you by former Wimbledon and U.S. champion Jack Kramer, a pioneer in the "open" movement to integrate professionals and amateurs under one banner. Since the 1950's, Kramer has toured the country with his "traveling tennis troupe," featuring Pancho Gonzales, Ken Rosewall, Tony Trabert, Pancho Secura and others. Typically, these would involve head-to-head matches (As seen at right, Kramer himself played former great Bobby Riggs in an 89-match tour, with Kramer winning 69 of them), with a secondary match and a doubles competition on the undercard. On occasion, as is the case in this event, a semi-final match is played the night before, with the winner getting the opportunity to play the leading man, I suppose you'd say, in the final the next day.

Nowadays we'd consider these exhibitions, since the players were generally under contract and guaranteed a set amount of money for the season. There was more than pride at stake, though; as the preeminent player in the world, Gonzales was playing for commercial endorsement money as well, and the more he won, the more his endorsement was worth. There were also tournaments from time to time, and while none of them were as prestigious as, say, Wimbledon, they helped pay the bills.

The idea that the amateur game was as pure as the driven snow was a farce - there were under-the-table payments galore, including appearance fees - and I'm not sure even people in 1960 were naive enough to believe it. Kramer finally won the battle for Open tennis in 1968, which is why the U.S. Championship is now called the U.S. Open. Seeing a listing like this is a real slice of life, though.

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Kathryn and Arthur Murray are hosting a party for Bob Hope on their Tuesday night program. (8:30 p.m., NBC) No offense to Bob, but one of the things I've noticed in looking through these back issues is that whenever a series needs a ratings boost or seemingly has nothing better to offer, they bring in Bob Hope. Honestly, there's no particular reason for this program; Hope hasn't won any awards lately, he isn't celebrating some type of anniversary, and there's no connection I can see to anything else that he might be promoting - his 1960 movie, The Facts of Life (co-starring Lucille Ball) won't be released until November. Well, I'm sure someone had a good reason.

Hope's old sparring partner, Bing Crosby, is on twice this week, both times with Perry Como. At least he's on twice in this issue; his special on ABC, featuring Como and Bing's sons Philip, Dennis and Lindsay, was actually broadcast February 29, but it's being shown this Saturday night at 8:00 p.m. on NBC affiliate WDSM in Duluth. WDSM, along with the rest of the NBC network, will be airing the return broadcast Wednesday night at 8:00 p.m. on Como's Kraft Music Hall*, where they're joined by singer Genevieve and dancer Peter Gennaro.

*Fun fact: from 1936-46, the host of The Kraft Music Hall on radio was none other than Bing Crosby himself. 

New York Philharmonic conductor Leonard Bernstein is also on twice this week; on Sunday afternoon (3:30 p.m.) his CBS special (last in an irregular series sponsored by the Ford Motor Company) illustrates the use of rhythm in the world of music, using the works of Shakespeare and Aaron Copland to illustrate his points. There's an interesting footnote to this; at the conclusion of the program, Joseph N. Welch, the nemesis of Joseph McCarthy, appears in a five-minute "Message for Americans," a feature which appeared in each of the programs in the series. Bernstein, sans Welch, is back on Wednesday night at 6:30 for his Young People's Concert, featuring young performers. Alas, as was the case with the Crosby special above, CBS affiliate WCCO is only now getting around to this broadcast, which was originally carried on March 6. Oh well, better late than never.


We also ought to look at what probably was the funniest program of the week, NBC's Star Parade (Friday, 7:30 p.m.), which this week features "The Victor Borge Show." His guests include Jane Powell, dancers Allegra Kent and Jacques d'Ambroise, and two of his children. I'm betting that if we're not careful, we might also see some of Borge's classic routines, such as Phonetic Punctuation.

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We can't possibly pass up this appraisal by Chuck Connors of his hit series The Rifleman. For a Western whose titular hero does, indeed, carry around a rifle, Connors knows that the real backbone of the show, the element that brings the viewers back each week, is the relationship between his character, Lucas McCain, and McCain's son Mark, played by Johnny Crawford. "Everybody says, 'We like your show because it's a family show.' It's because of the emphasis we try to put on moral values." Killings occur in, Connors estimates, about half of the episodes. "But if you'll notice, the story always turns on the reasons for the violence, usually in the big scene toward the end between Lucas and his son."

And, Connors concedes, that sentimentality "does make the whole thing a little corny. In one script the boy says to me 'You don't like me,' or something like that. Well, instead of beating around the bush or using psychology or anything like that, I just look right at him and say: 'Look, son, I love you!' I love you! Brother, that's corn. That's as pure as they grow it, but that's what people want."

They do indeed, at least the fans of The Rifleman, and they like the corn they're being fed enough to keep the show going for five successful seasons.

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Finally, it's time again for the TV Guide Awards! We've seen this in past years, sometimes with the nominees, sometimes with the winners. In this issue, we have the official final ballot, which you can clip and mail to TV Guide, Box 515, Philadelphia 5, Pa. And although we'll have to wait for another time to find out who came out on top, we do have a bonus: someone in the household of the subscriber to this issue, L.O. Olson of Chisholm, Minnesota, checked their choices for the awards. I don't know why they didn't mail in their ballot but I'm glad they didn't, because it gives us a "you were there" glimpse of what one American family was watching.

Herewith the nominees (the Olson family's choice is listed in CAPS);

Favorite half-hour series:
Father Knows Best
Gunsmoke
Hennesey
The Real McCoys
THE TWILIGHT ZONE

Favorite one-hour-or-longer series:
Bonanza
PERRY MASON
77 Sunset Strip
The Untouchables 
Wagon Train

Best single dramatic program:
CALL ME BACK (Art Carney)
Jebal Deeks (Alec Guinness)
Moon and Sixpence (Laurence Olivier)
Our Town (Art Carney)
Turn of the Screw (Ingrid Bergman)

Best single musical or variety program:
Another Evening with Fred Astaire
FABULOUS FIFTIES
Gene Kelly Show
Meet Cyd Charisse
Tonight with Belafonte

Best news or information program:
CBS Reports
Douglas Edwards with the News
Huntley-Brinkley Report
TODAY
The Twentieth Century

Most popular male personality:
Raymond Burr
Perry Como
Ernie Ford
GARRY MOORE
Jack Paar

Most popular female personality:
Lucille Ball
Donna Reed
Dinah Shore
Ann Sothern
LORETTA YOUNG

The show can be seen on March 25 on NBC, hosted by Robert Young, Fred MacMurray and Nanette Fabray. How will your picks do? How did the Olson family's picks do? You'll just have to wait until next week, when as a bonus I'll present you with the answers. Until then...  TV  

This week in TV Guide: February 7, 1959

Sometimes you just have to play with the hand you're dealt. It was never my plan to do three consecutive issues from 1959; they just happened to be the ones that best fit the calendar. And you know what they say about making lemonade - except none of these issues have been lemons.

For example, NBC's Kaleidoscope, at 4:00 p.m. Sunday afternoon. It's hosted by Charles Van Doren, during the period of time before he was swallowed up by the Quiz Show Scandals, and it reminds me of Omnibus, another Sunday afternoon program on NBC, with topics that ranged from Communist East Germany to atomic energy to the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes, and commentators that included David Brinkley and Edwin Newman.

This week's episode is a drama, "The Third Commandment," written by Ben Hecht and starring Arthur Kennedy, Anne Francis, Fay Spain, Richard Erdman, John Hoyt, Simon Oakland, Regis Toomey, and Jack Weston - familiar names all to classic TV viewers. The play's subject matter is a provocative one, centering on the Third Commandment, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord Thy God in vain." Kennedy plays Jim Mundy, an "embittered young writer" so determined to achieve material success that he ignores his conscience and abandons his principles. Hecht wrote the play for television; according to The Great American Playwrights on the Screen, it was a pilot for a proposed series on the Ten Commandments.

SOURCE: HADLEY TV GUIDE COLLECTION

A thought before we move on: NBC, at this point in television history, had a remarkable record for offering high-class programs. In addition to Kaleidoscope and Omnibus, there was NBC Opera Theatre, Hallmark Hall of Fame, Bell Telephone Hour, and specials such as Astaire Time, which we'll get to later. These weren't attempts to be highbrow, either; they were middlebrow programs designed to appeal to viewers who might not otherwise be exposed to quality drama and music. (The operas on NBC Opera Theatre, for example, were all translated into English.)

One of the many unfortunate consequences of network television's shift to all-sports or all-informercial weekend afternoons is the loss of programming like this. It's true that a lot of these shows were not ratings bonanzas; that's why the networks stuck so many of them on Sunday afternoons, where they wouldn't do much damage to the ratings. But at least they were there, where people who wanted to see them could find them.

How did we get from there to here, from the classics to a network that has been variously labeled as the "Nothing But Coitus" or "Nothing But Crap" network? I know, I know - times change.

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One of Ed Sullivan's first great on-air challenges came from Steve Allen, who left Tonight to take over an NBC variety show which, at the beginning, aired opposite Ed. It didn't run as long as Ed's, of course, but then Allen said his goal was never to conquer Ed, but to coexist with him, which he did for three seasons. Let's see who gets the best of the contest this week.

Sullivan: Ed's guests are actor Richard Boone, actress Nancy Kelly, singer Frankie Laine, singer-actress Miyoshi Umeki, comedians Jan Murray and Wally Griffin, comedienne Trude Adams, singer Johnny Cash and the dancers from the Broadway musical "Jamaica."

Allen: Steve's guests are Liberace, singer Steve Lawrence and teh U.S. Army Chorus, actress Marie McDonald, and comedian Dayton Allen. Steve interviews mythical ex-celebrities, played by Don Knotts, Tom Poston and Louis Nye.

It's not that Steve's show is so bad this week; Steve Lawrence, who's a private in the Army, has been doing shows with the Chorus since finishing basic training, and I suspect his interviews with regulars Knotts, Poston and Nye are pretty funny. But c'mon, let's get real: Richard Boone, Frankie Laine, Jan Murray and Johnny Cash - Johnny Cash! It's a case of quantity and quality over quality this week; Sullivan for the win.

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I mentioned Fred Astaire earlier; last October Fred had starred in a color special with his new partner Barrie Chase, winning tremendous critical and popular acclaim, not to mention nine Emmy Awards including Program of the Year and Best Performance by an Actor.

On Wednesday at 9:00 p.m., NBC repeats the special "by popular demand," and it's a testimonial not only to the brilliance of the show (and of Astaire and Chase), it's a reminder of what things were like before the VCR/DVR/on demand era. Back then when you missed a show you missed it, and there was no guarantee you'd ever get a chance to see it again - particularly if it was a special.

On the other hand, it's also an example of the great strides that television technology had already made. In the earlier days of TV, this would have been a live broadcast, and the only way to repeat it would be to do the show all over again. With the advent of video tape, you not only had the opportunity for an encore presentation, you could preserve the performance so that we could watch it on streaming video 60 years later.

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And now, let's take an annotated look at the rest of the week:

A look at Saturday's college basketball serves as a reminder of how the balance of power changes through the years. On NBC at 2:00 p.m., future NBA superstar Jerry "The Logo" West leads West Virginia against Holy Cross. West Virginia will make it all the way to the NCAA finals in 1959, where they'll lose to California 71-70. That night on ABC (6:30 p.m.), it's The Dick Clark Show; Dwight Whitney reports that two tobacco companies have been battling for sponsorship of Clark's show, with Lorillard finally winning out. Writes Whitney, "Clark's 52-week contract is reputed to be one of the fattest in recent years."

We've already taken a pretty good look at Sunday, but the most interesting thing left might be this ad for the famed Art Instruction, Inc., advertiser on many a matchbook cover and in magazines far and wide. Usually, it's "Draw Skippy!" or something like that, but this week, in honor of Lincoln's Birthday, it's Honest Abe himself! Art Instruction Schools, as it's called now, is still around, and its headquarters are still right here in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Its two most famous graduates are Minnesota native Charles M. Schulz and "Beetle Bailey" creator Mort Walker, who just died last week.

Monday's Lucy-Desi hour features the gang going to Alaska (9:00 p.m., CBS), where Ricky's band is scheduled to appear on Red Skelton's show in a celebration of Alaska's admission to the Union; it became the 49th state just a month ago, on January 3. It's always interesting watching programs from this era; when Jack Paar brings Tonight to Hawaii in 1960, he refers to flying over from the States, whereupon the audience's shouts remind him that Hawaii is now one of the states.

On Tuesday, it's an all-American night of music on the Bell Telephone Hour (7:00 p.m, NBC), with an all-American cast of singers and dancers, including Risë Stevens, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Martha Wright, and the New York City ballet. Elsewhere, Jonathan Winters is the guest of Arthur Godfrey (8:00 p.m., CBS), Bob Hope welcomes Danny Thomas, Maureen O'Hara and Carol Haney to his NBC special (8:30 p.m.), and Cloris Leachman tries to fight off a mysterious strangler on One Step Beyond (9:00 p.m., ABC)

Besides Fred Astaire, Wednesday has other shows of interest in store. Last week Abraham Lincoln was the focus of Omnibus; tonight, on the eve of his 150th birthday, it's Project 20 (7:30 p.m., NBC), which presents a half-hour pictorial essay on the last four years of his life, accompanied by words from Lincoln and the people who knew him. That's followed at 8:00 p.m. by the Kraft Music Hall with Milton Berle - but, according to Burt Boyar's story elsewhere in the issue, next season Perry Como will be taking over Music Hall, with Berle filling in for eight or ten specials in the same time slot. NBC isn't crazy about having Como move from his Saturday night spot, but Kraft owns the Wednesday spot, and they want Como filling it. When you spend $8,000,000 to sponsor an hour of television, you get that kind of clout. If drama is what you're looking for, you'll probably find it on U.S. Steel Hour (9:00 p.m., CBS), with French star Jean Pierre Aumont starring in the Tolstoy story "Family Happiness," with Gloria Vanderbilt and Patty Duke.

Danny Thomas makes a rare dramatic appearance Thursday on Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre (CBS, 8:00 p.m.), playing an Italian immigrant targeted for some rough play by the citizens of Yuca City.* James Mason and Margaret Leighton star in "The Second Man" on Playhouse 90 (8:30 p.m., CBS), while at the same time Cliff Arquette, as Charley Weaver, guests with Tennessee Ernie Ford on NBC. The KMSP movie at 9:00 p.m. is appropriate: Abe Lincoln in Illinois, starring one of the movies' most famous Lincolns, Raymond Massey.

*Not to be confused with The Beast of Yucca Flats. (No offense to the Coleman Francis Fan Club.)

Connie Francis is one of the guests on CBS's Your Hit Parade on Friday (6:30 p.m.); in an article from this year, Francis talks about how the traumas of her rape and her brother's murder almost destroyed her career. On M-Squad, detective Frank Ballinger investigates a series of killings; in an article elsewhere in the issue the actor playing Ballinger, Lee Marvin (who is also half-owner of the series), describes the role as "a strait jacket." "I would get out of this series if I could," he tells his interviewer. "Do you realize I'm playing the same character on 19½ hours of film a year? And it gets pretty dull. In a movie you're on for maybe 45 minutes and that's it. The audience doesn't stand as much chance of anticipating you. After the second week in a series they gotta anticipate you. And when they do - adios!!" It's not nearly as colorful an interview as one we discussed earlier, but Marvin is outspoken and no fool, and it's always interesting reading what he has to say.

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Wrong again!

Polly Bergen was hired to be stupid, according to the cover. What's the rest of the story, hmm? Well, she's currently a panelist on the CBS show To Tell the Truth, along with Kitty Carlisle, Ralph Bellamy, and Don Ameche. Now, she isn't really stupid, but by the same token, according to producer Gil Fates, she wasn't hired to get the right answers, either. She's there for her effervescent personality, her coy mots and saucy rejoinders, tricks she's acquired from her night club experience. Her three rules for playing the game are: "1. Play that hunch. 2. Keep guessing. 3. Gag it up."

She admits to weaknesses: "I must admit I have a little trouble with athletes," she says. "And I'm not very good on the armed forces. I can't even remember whether two stripes on your arm means you're a second lieutenant or only a major." But there remains the big question - "Is that featherbrained gadabout on To Tell the Truth really Polly Bergen? Or is Polly Bergen merely playing a featherbrained gadabout on To Tell the Truth?" Says Polly, "You'd really like to know the answer to that one now, wouldn't you?"

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Finally, Chuck Connors is on the cover this week (along with Johnny Crawford, from The Rifleman).  I've always liked Connors, and he was good for an entertaining article a while back, so it's certainly worth spending a few lines on him.

With The Rifleman, Connors has, as the article puts it, "finally made the big leagues," and in his case that's to be taken literally. For five years he was a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers system, never able to beat out Gil Hodges at first base, so he found himself traded to the Chicago Cubs. After hitting .223, he was sent to the Cubs' minor league team in Los Angeles. He did pretty well in L.A., even hosting a TV interview show between games, where - only in Hollywood - he was spotted by a movie talent scout. His first role was as a state policeman in the Tracy-Hepburn movie Pat and Mike, making $500 a day. "I figured they'd made some mistake on the adding machine, but I stuck the check in my pocket and shut up. Sure enough, the next day they gave me another $500. 'Baseball,' I told myself, 'just lost a first baseman.' "

His big break came a few years later, playing a heavy against James Arness on Gunsmoke. It "typed him as a fellow you could depend on to take a beating gracefully in a Western." When he heard about a new series - The Rifleman - he decided to give it a try. They tossed him a rifle - wanted to see how it handled it. "Feels like a Louisville Slugger," Connors said. The rest, I would say, is a home run. TV