What's on TV? Tuesday, October 16, 1962

Something in this week's listings that I've never seen before: a double-check mark (√√) next to shows that TV Guide says are "Of unusual interest." Anyone else ever seen anything like that? Or was it unique to this North Texas edition? I guess after all these years, we should be happy to have something different to look at.

What's on TV? Tuesday, April 10, 1956

There's a good amount of distance between Dallas and Fort Worth. It's not like the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, which share a border; while they're closer now because of the sprawl, they're still two distinct cities. Even so, it's interesting to see the odd affiliate-sharing system between WBAP and WFAA, where they seem to take turns carrying NBC and ABC shows. For example, WFAA has Dinah Shore's 15-minute show (guest hosted tonight by Gordon MacRae), but WBAP has her one-hour special later in the same evening. I guess if it works for them, it works for us, in this Dallas-Fort Worth edition.

What's on TV? Thursday, March 8, 1956

We're back in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex this week, and I'm looking at ABC's Star Tonight, the concept of which is to team "rising young actors and actresses in their first starring roles" with more established actors in supporting roles. I don't know how many of these "new stars" became established on television, but we have one tonight: Frank Overton, who went on to a long and successful career as a character actor, both in movies (To Kill a Mockingbird, Fail-Safe) and television (a regular on Twelve O'clock High, plus guest roles on just about every television show of the 1950s and '60s. He's one of those actors who makes just about everything he's in better because he's in it. There are a lot of stars with more recognizable names and bigger roles who can't make that claim.

What's on TV? Wednesday, October 19, 1960

One of Dave Garroway's guests on NBC's Today is Louis Untermeyer, poet and critic, a literate and cultured man who was one of the original panelists on What's My Line? back in 1950. (To show you how times have changed, it would never have occurred to me, or probably anyone else, to suggest a poet for my revival of WML.) Unfortunately for him, he also held leftist political beliefs; although there was no tangible evidence that he was a Communist, he was, nonetheless, fired from What's My Line? and blacklisted. I've long since given up trying to sort out right from wrong when it comes to that period of American history, so I just note it for the sake of history. Obviously, by 1960 he was no longer exiled; at this point in time, he may well have been promoting The Britannica Library of Great American Writing, which he had edited; he became the Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1961. He died in 1977. Today's listings come from the North Texas Edition.

What's on TV? Wednesday, December 12, 1962

That CBS Reports special "109 Days to Venus" (not to be confused with the MST3K movie First Spaceship on Venus, which got it all wrong) is about the space probe Mariner II, which was launched in August and is expected to fly by Venus on Friday, 109 days later. In these early years of manned spaceflight, an unmanned probe to Venus would have been almost as exotic. And speaking of exotic, I made a note in the listings that the U.S. Steel Hour episode "Big Day for a Scrambler," starring James Whitmore as an aging professional golfer trying for one last lucky streak, is being done live, which must make it one of the few regular programs still doing so. There's something very distinctive and exciting about live television (I wrote about it here); I wish it was still done today. This week's listings are from the Dallas-Fort Worth edition.

What's on TV? Monday, June 10, 1969

Last week, we were in Houston; this week's issue travels north to Dallas. Same state, 11 years apart. Don't know if we've had that kind of yin and yang before. Anyway, here are a couple of things to note: The Red Skelton Hour features Red's famous rendition of the Pledge of Allegiance, being rebroadcast due to "enthusiastic viewer response." (See what TV used to be like before the advent of the VCR?) You can see that original broadcast here, in its original broadcast of January 14, 1969. Meanwhile, on NBC's Monday Night at the Movies, Bobby Darin stars in Gunfight in Abilene, a movie for which he also wrote the score. I can't deny that I'm impressed. How do you feel about the rest of today's lineup?

What's on TV? Thursday, March 26, 1959

Xhis is about as representative a week of television as you're likely to find, and there's nothing wrong with that. We know, for example, that not all shows during the Golden Age were really golden, and quite a few were even below average. Likewise, some of the shows that we're tempted to reject as naïve are actually far more accurate to the tenor of the times than we know. So as you look through these listings from the North Texas edition, concentrate on the genres, the formats, the stars, and ask yourself what they tell you about the era of the late 1960s and the early 1960s. What was considered important back then, what was still a shadow of the past, and what was a preview of things to come?

What's on TV? Saturday, March 7, 1959

After looking at the Tuesday listings for three consecutive weeks (albeit from three different years), I think it's time to look elsewhere, don't you? So let's take a look at the Saturday listings in this Dallas-Fort Worth issue—we haven't done that in awhile. Speaking of which, a few weeks ago Top Cat James mentioned the cover of the February 11, 1967 issue, which bore the headline, "TV on Saturday Mornings: When People Are Second-Best." Well, this is an example of what the article was talking about. In contrast to the late 1960s, when cartoons dominated the Saturday morning scene, TV in 1959 featured mostly live-action adventure shows and Western movies: Robin Hood, Sky King, Circus Boy, Detective's Diary. Sure, there were animated shows, but nothing like it would be. We're back to that now, only much of it is local news, infomercials, and packaged E/I shows. I guess now it's viewers who are second-best. 

What's on TV? Tuesday, October 16, 1962

Something in this week's listings that I've never seen before: a double-check mark (√√) next to shows that TV Guide says are "Of unusual interest." Anyone else ever seen anything like that? Or was it unique to this North Texas edition? I guess after all these years, we should be happy to have something different to look at.

What's on TV? Friday, January 22, 1960

It's been a while since we looked at my old stomping grounds of Dallas, Texas, and while I haven't particularly missed being there, it is nice to revisit some of the old shows. I hadn't quite been born yet when this issue hit the newsstands, and yet some of the programs and personalities are as familiar to me as if I'd grown up with them. The Twilight Zone episode on KRLD is one of the series' most popular, "The Hitchhiker," with Inger Stevens in virtually a one-woman show. Charles Murphy, the newsman on WBAP, plays a role in the local coverage of the JFK assassination, and becomes a regular on ABC news coverage. Wes Wise, WFAA's sportscaster, was a local legend in the Metroplex. And don't forget Teen-Age Downbeat, the local answer to American Bandstand. It's not true that everything looks better in the sepia tones of the past, but it's nice to visit the ones that do.

What's on TV? Tuesday, November 10, 1964

This week we return to the Dallas-Fort Worth area, but it's a slightly different look that those we've seen in the past. Unlike those issues from the '50s, by 1964 we've got more stations to choose from, including KERA, the area's first educational channel. In addition to DFW, we've got a full compliment of stations from the Wichita Falls area, as well as KXII in Ardmore-Sherman-Dennison. In case you hadn't noticed, the letters XII are also the Roman numerals for 12, as in Channel 12. Yes, you probably had noticed.

What's on TV? Thursday, October 17, 1957

Another week, another look-in at television in DFW. We discussed most of today's highlights in our Saturday review, so let's get straight to the listings for the entire day. Note how the 15-minute program still dominates so many of the morning schedules, a carryover from the days of radio.

What's on TV? Saturday, August 8, 1959

Back we are in Dallas-Fort Worth, and since we've seen so many regular weekdays in the late '50s, I thought it might be nice to take a look at the weekend. Hence, here's the first day of the week, according to TV Guide, and the best day of the week, according to me!

What's on TV? Wednesday, June 24, 1959

For this week, I thought we'd take a look at Wednesday's listings. (We're in Dallas-Fort Worth, by the way.) We haven't done a Wednesday lately, and unless there's something outstanding that causes me to choose a particular day, I like to change them up, provide a bit of variety, especially if we've been travelling in the same year or two.

This week we've advanced a bit in the late '50s - we're up to 1959, and although we may not see it here, I think we're entering an era where television starts to get a little more sophisticated, the technical aspects a tad more sophisticated. Not when we compare it to the '70s, of course, or even the late '60s, but progress is being made nonetheless. Let's see what kind of shows stand out.

What's on TV? Thursday, June 14, 1956

In his heyday, Johnny Carson used to compose ridiculous captions and stories to go along with old black-and-white photographs. This week, I find myself in a similar mood, so I've taken some of the more interesting TV Guide program descriptions, and (as Paul Harvey would say) given you "the rest of the story." If you've got some better ones, and I'm sure you do, feel free to chime in.

By the way, this week's listings are from Dallas-Fort Worth.

What's on TV? Saturday, June 2, 1956

W
hen you're doing a string of TV Guides from consecutive weeks in the same year, as we're doing right now, it can get a little redundant. The best antidote for that is to go to a weekend, where all bets are off and everything is different. That's what we're going to see this week, as we look at Saturday programming in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

What's on TV: Friday, June 1, 1956

Friday is my favorite evening of the work week, and I'm sure I'm not alone in that opinion. It's also my favorite night for TV, even more than Saturday night. (Although that's kind of like asking whether you prefer chocolate or popcorn - you can't lose.) That's why I always enjoy looking at the Friday listings; sometimes you'll find the stations broadcast later, there are more late night movies, there's something more exciting about it all.

Today's listings - which, by the way, are from Dallas-Fort Worth - are not extremely interesting, at least not to our eyes today. They're fun, as these always are, but nothing jumps off the page. Imagine yourself back in 1956 though, home after a long week of work. Now you can relax, the two of you, loosen your tie and put your feet up on the ottoman and let the tube take your mind off your worries. Of course, that Wednesday had been Memorial Day - they still celebrated it on May 30 back then - and so you might have been lucky enough to get the rest of the week off. Still, there's nothing like Friday!

Maybe it's Steve Allen and his revolutionary new talk show Tonight on Channel 5. Or it could be the suspense movie on Channel 11's Starlight Theater,  Models, Inc. with Howard Duff and Coleen Gray as a gangster and his moll. If you're in the mood for a little spy fun, it could be I Was an American Spy, the Late Date Theater on Channel 6.

Whatever you're looking for, chances are one of these six stations will have it for you, as you wind down for the weekend.

What's on TV? Tuesday, May 20, 1958

This week it's fun with TV show titles. Don't worry, this won't turn into a regular feature, but sometimes you just have to have a little fun.

Oh, by the way, this week's listings are from the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Let's get started.

What's on TV? Tuesday, April 10, 1956

We're back home in Dallas-Fort Worth this week, and this is the kind of day I enjoy looking at on occasion. Absolutely nothing out of the ordinary; in every sense this is a typical day of American television in 1956.

One think to which I'll call your attention is NBC's evening news program hosted by John Cameron Swayzee. It's popularly known as the Camel News Caravan, and that's how I've listed it here, but this is an alternate-sponsor program, with Plymouth being the other sponsor. Based on the information I've found, I'm guessing that this was a Camel night, but I'm open to correction. Don't you find the show's title interesting, though? No different than other programs of the era, to be sure, but this is the news, after all.  For a few years, The Huntley-Brinkley Report was presented without commercials, so as not to compromise the newscast's integrity. Can you imagine, today, a sponsor's name as part of the newscast? I mean, we all know that the networks are in the pockets of big business, but that would be ridiculous!

What's on TV? Thursday, April 2, 1959

H happy Easter Monday to you all! We're back in DFW this week for an exciting Thursday of television. No station-by-station commentary this time, but I do want to say a word about Continental Classroom, NBC's answer to Sunrise Semester. The topic for today's program is "Nuclear Spin and Hyperfine Structure," and bless those students who got up and went through this class. I don't think I could have done it. Here's a clip from a typical edition of Continental Classroom, and then we'll get to the rest of the listings.