Around the dial

Wally Cox once described himself as "a harmless preoccupied guy in a constant state of reduced effect," but at Comfort TV, David remembers him as one of the memorable figures of classic TV, and with a resume that includes Mr. Peepers, Underdog, and The Hollywood Squares, who can disagree? Read on for more. 

At bare-bones e-zine, Jack's Hitchcock Project comes to Casey Robinson's fourth-season episode "The Waxwork," a dark and mysterious ghost story starring Barry Nelson, Everett Sloane, and Shai K. Ophir, and a reminder that you shouldn't have yourself locked in a museum after hours. 

And speaking of Hitch, Martin Grams reminds us of "the best Hitchcock book you will ever read," François Truffaut's Hitchcock, in which the two directors sit down and spend 50 hours talking about Hitchcock's career. You can't be a film buff if you don't have this on your shelf.

Gill remians on the TV beat at RealWeegieMidget, and this week she looks at the work of some of this year's dearly departed: Shelley Duvall, Shannen Doherty, and Dabney Coleman, in three very different roles spanning two series and a telemovie. We can always be grateful for the work they left behind.

For a change of pace, John dips into the world of TV documentaries at Cult TV Blog, and this week's offering is the three-part BBC series Disciples, looking at the cult (no pun intended) the Synagogue Church of All Nations and its founder, TB Joshua. It's a sad reminder of how desperate people can get to find a reason for being in their lives.

A couple of quizzes for your entertainment and edification: Rick and the "We Name the Cast, You Name the Movie" game at Classic Film & TV Cafe, and the Metzingers' "Impossibly Difficult Name that Movie Game" at Silver Scenes. Let's see just how bmuch of an expert you are.

At Classic Film and TV Corner, Maddy looks back at the dual careers of Ida Lupino, who starred as one of the great actresses in front of the camera, and as the only female film director in America behind it. A remarkable woman, in so many ways.

Cult TV Lounge reenters the world of Perry Mason this week, with a look at a variety of episodes from the show's second season, one in which the series really starts to hit its stride. More mystery than courtroom drama, but loads of fun any way you look at it.

At A Shroud of Throughts, Terence remembers the life and career of writer/producer George Schenck, who wrote for shows including The Wild Wild West, Bonanza, and Fantasy Island, created Crazy Like a Fox and Bring 'Em Back Alive, and served as an executive producer on NCIS.

We'll close out with Michael and Roger at The View from the Junkyard, debating the Twilight Zone fifth-season episode "Black Leather Jackets." Their views differ, but that should just encourage you to check it out and make up your own mind. TV  

This week in TV Guide: June 22, 1968

The nation still reels from the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy a little over two weeks ago, and television is no exception.

Periodically throughout its history, the medium's majordomos have engaged in bouts of soul-searching, and as television increases in cultural importance, it displays something of a schizophrenic attitude regarding its responsibility to society. In the aftermath of the assassinations of Kennedy and Martin Luther King, as well as increasing urban turmoil, all eyes turn toward the effect that TV might have had on creating a "climate of violence."

This week, Richard K. Doan asks the question: "Had television's violence-prone "action-adventure" drama contributed substantially to today's climate of solution-by-murder?" People from all walks debate the issue, from historian (and Kennedy camp follower) Arthur Schlessinger to playwright Arthur Miller to the president of the United States himself, who asks "whether 'the seeds of violence' have been nurtured by TV, movies and news media." The Louisville Times refers to "America the Brutal," and points the finger at TV as "a root" of the evil, using a picture of Richard Boone as Paladin in Have Gun—Will Travel as evidence. (I know it's hard to believe, considering what one sees on TV nowadays, but at one time Have Gun—Will Travel was considered one of the most violent programs on television.

New York Representative John Murphy condemns the networks, saying that "[n]ight after night one program after the other shows violence in great detail and in living color." Miller, the playwright, says that the country was now at the stage where "any half-educated man in a good suit can make his fortune by concocting a television show whose brutality is photographed in sufficiently monstrous detail."

It's not just politicians and pundits raising Cain, though, as a perusal of the Letters to the Editor section shows. Casey Willis of Tucson complains that although there have been hundreds of gun killings in the U.S., "many of the most popular shows on TV have been based on firearms and violence," and suggests that TV "should search its own soul." Mary Hendrickson of Hudson, NY adds that "I can censor my own children's programs, but what of the children whose parents don't know or care what is pounded into their impressionable little heads?" TV has done a good job covering the recent tragedies; now, "do something to prevent them." And P. Corcoran of the Bronx says that "TV is one of the worst offenders in this crime" of violence flooding the country, citing Mission: Impossible as one of the shows "warping our youngsters."

Of course, there's one problem with these theories: the possibility, if not probability, that Kennedy's assassination was a political act. We're not here to debate the identities of the individuals or organizations behind the assassination, but we are talking about the television's culpability in the murder, and so it bears pointing out that if Sirhan Sirhan, who was convicted of Kennedy's murder, was indeed guilty, then one also has to accept that his motive was not the violent content on TV, but a hatred of Kennedy for his support of Israel, and that the act itself was planned in a cold, calculating manner. If, on the other hand, the assassination was part of a conspiracy (whether or not it included Sirhan), then you have to conclude that the killing was a geopolitical act, involving the FBI, the CIA, the military, the LAPD, or any one of countless organizations, and requiring a fairly high level of coordination. In either case, this leaves no room for televised violence as a cause. Political zealots probably don't have time to watch television let alone be influenced by it, and it's highly unlikely that the conspirators at the FBI got the idea from watching Seven Days in May on Saturday Night at the Movies. It probably would have happened even if the most violent thing on television was a fluffy white kitten attacking a ball of yarn.

Be that as it may—and, as we all know, there's no room for logic when emotion is involved—the ensuing hue and cry virtually demands a response from network executives, and one shape this takes is by pulling its most violent episodes off the air, at least for the short term. NBC also released a statement assuring the public that they "have established policies and procedures to guard against the depiction of violence fore its own sake," while CBS president Frank Stanton promised that the network  "would seek to 'de-emphasize' violence" on their programs.

One testimony to the effect of the assassination on television is the slew of shows bearing the legend "Postponed from an earlier date," the heaviest concentration of which appear on Saturday. Although network coverage of the assassination and aftermath were nowhere near the 1963 levels, all three networks preempted virtually all of their Saturday programming for Kennedy's funeral and burial. The intent had been to return to regular programming at the start of prime time, but the funeral train was four-and-a-half hours late, and the entire slate wound up being wiped out. The Prisoner, Hogan's Heroes, The Dating Game, Petticoat Junction, an ABC profile of land speed-record holder Craig Breedlove—all were victims of the accordion effect of postponements and rescheduling. (The Breedlove documentary finally airs this Saturday at 4:00 p.m. PT on ABC.)

And so the landscape changes, for a time, and kinder, gentler programming will now be the fashion, with programs such as The Wild Wild West no longer on network schedules. But for how long? (As Doan points out, four days later NBC's action series The Champions featured a scene in which one of the show's heroes "was tortured by being stretched on an automobile version of the medieval rack.) I suppose there's any number of studies that could isolate when the trend toward more violent fare resumed, and let's face it: no matter how noble the intent might be, ultimately ratings (and the concurrent advertising dollars) rule, and the viewers cast the deciding votes. The level of violence on television today is astonishing; I can't imagine what the people, who were so aghast at '60s violence, would think of it. One could argue that, having grown up in a so-called culture of violence, people are more inured to it, making them less likely to be influenced by it. And yet, things seldom change much: every time there's a school shooting or bombing or other act of violence, the cry arises once again. If it's not television, it's video games; if not that, then something else.

For a long time, television has attempted to have it both ways, downplaying the influence its programs have on viewers' behavior while at the same time accepting ads designed to influence viewers' behavior. That's always seemed a bit disingenuous to me. Of course the content of television programming affects viewers. Likewise, though, there can't be much doubt that the audience is receptive and willing. It's a chicken-and-egg situation: does the problem lie with the programming, or the people watching 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..

Sullivan: On this first in a series of reruns, CBS renames its Broadway theater in honor of Ed. Guests: New York City mayor John Lindsay, Pearl Bailey, Alan King, Met baritone Robert Merrill, actress-dancer Gwen Verdon, comedians Wayne and Schuster, the Argentine singing group Los Nimos Cantores de Murialdo, and the Emerald Society pipe bands of New York's police and fire departments.

Palace: Host Sid Caesar dominates this hour of comedy and music. Guests: Marlo Thomas (who narrates a showing of 1968 resort fashions), singers Sergio Franchi and Fran Jeffries, and the rocking Checkmates, Ltd. In a mime spot, Sid conducts Tchaikovsky’s "1812 overture."  Sketch: The hiring of a too-attractive maid brews trouble for three neighboring couples. 

I suppose that we should be impressed by New York Mayor John Lindsay's appearance at the dedication of the Ed Sullivan Theater; CBS could just as well have had William Paley make the presentation instead. (Of course, Lindsay was the flavor of the month back then.) It's a bug, not a feature; even so, no matter how good Sid Caesar might be, Marlo Thomas and the Checkmates are not going to edge out Pearl Bailey, Alan King and Robert Merrill. Never mind the politicians: this week, my vote goes to Sullivan.

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The summer months mean not only reruns, but summer replacement series. We'll start, however, with Kup's Show (Saturday, 9:00 p.m., KEMO in San Francisco), hosted by the legendary Chicago Sun-Times columnist Irv Kupcinet. At three hours, it's the longest talk show on television (not including David Susskind's Open End, which could last who-knows-how-long), but it's often worth it. Tonight's guests are indeed an eclectic collection: Alf Landon, former governor of Kansas and the unsuccessful 1936 Republican presidential candidate (they wouldn't win until 1952); Charlie Grimm, former manager of the Chicago Cubs, who managed them to the World Series in 1945 (they wouldn't be back for another 71 years); and Arlene Francis, who doesn't seem to fit any of these categories but is a delightful presence nonetheless.

CBS must be breathing a sigh of relief; the Smothers Brothers are on vacation for the summer, and in their place is  The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour (Sunday, 9:00 p.m.). Glen's special guest tonight is Nancy Sinatra, and they'll be joined by Smothers regulars Pat Paulsen and Leigh French. Campbell, riding a string of hits (with more on the way), is everything that a network could hope for from a variety show host, and he'll do well enough in the ratings to merit a return engagement the following January, where he remains until January 1972.  

Monday night sees the debut of Comedy Playhouse (9:00 p.m., NBC), a collection of comedy episodes that originally appeared on Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theater back in 1966. Monty Hall is the host this time around, and we start things off with "And Baby Makes Five," a frothy story about the differences between city and country life, with a cast that makes up for the plot: Cliff Robertson, Angie Dickinson, Nina Foch, and Walter Abel.

Tuesday's a night for summer variety shows, beginning with Showcase '68 (8:00 p.m., NBC), hosted by Lloyd Thaxton, which serves as the replacement for The Jerry Lewis Show. The show highlights young entertainers performing for a group of guest judges; tonight's show comes from the World's Fair in San Antonio, Texas, with Bobby Vinton as the special guest. A more conventional variety show is the similarly-named Showtime (8:30 p.m., CBS), the summer stand-in for The Red Skelton Hour, this week with Eddy Arnold as host. Showtime is one of a number of British imports produced by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment, a mainstay of 60s TV; other shows of theirs finding spots in the American summer schedule include the terrific Man in a Suitcase (Friday, 8:30 p.m., ABC), in place of its Disney-wannabee Off to See the Wizard; the aforementioned The Champions (Monday, 8:00 p.m., NBC), subbing for Laugh-In; and The Prisoner (Saturday, 7:30 p.m., CBS), filling in for The Jackie Gleason Show. 

Wednesday's highlight comes in the late-night hours, with the 1950 noir classic D.O.A. (12:15 a.m., KBHK in San Francisco), starring Edmund O'Brien as a poisoned man trying to solve his own murder before he dies. If that's too late for you, you might be interested in Kraft Music Hall (9:00 p.m., NBC), with John Davidson finishing up his stint as host, and guests including Kaye Ballard, Soupy Sales, and the Irish Rovers. I wouldn't be interested, but you might. You might also choose the ABC Evening News (5:30 p.m.), which has an extended report on cryonics—the practice of freezing the dead bodies of disease victims until a cure can be found. It's a wonder Walt Disney didn't do a science feature on this.

Dean Martin never worked summers, and this year his replacement is none other than the Golddiggers, the singing and dancing group of luscious lovelies that first appeared with Deano in the spring. Appearing in Dean's regular timeslot (Thursday, 10:00 p.m., NBC), the Golddiggers will go on to be the top-rated series of the summer; they'll also be the summer replacement for Martin in 1969 and 1970, and that fall they become regulars on his show. Tonight's show is headed up by Joey Heatherton and Frank Sinatra Jr., with guests Paul Lynde, Barbara Heller, the Times Square Two, Stanley Myron Handelman, Stu Gilliam, and Skiles and Henderson. 

Friday night features the first college football game of the season, the late and unlamented Coaches' All-America Game, played in Atlanta. (5:30 p.m., ABC) It's actually the last game of the 1967 college season, since both teams are staffed by seniors about to join NFL training camps.* Recognizable names: UCLA quarterback Gary Beban, winner of the Heisman Trophy, Syracuse fullback Larry Csonka, one of the stalwarts of Miami's Super Bowl teams; and USC's Ron Yary, the first pick in the 1968 NFL Draft and an all-pro for Minnesota; both Csonka and Yary are now in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

*This game, like the much-loved College All-Star Game that pitted college stars against the defending NFL champions, was a victim of increased concerns over injuries, and pro teams' desires to get their players in camp earlier. It lasted, believe it or not, until 1976.

The CBS Friday night movie is A Night to Remember (9:00 p.m.), the 1958 story of the sinking of the Titanic, starring Kenneth More, David McCallum, and Honor Blackman. Judith Crist rightly calls Eric Ambler's screenplay an "outstanding" adaptation of Walter Lord's best-seller, and describes it as a movie "that you should not miss." Longtime readers will recall that the story of the Titanic has been one of my lifetime passions, and this movie (I'd already read the book) solidified that passion 

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Documentaries and news specials are always popular in the summer; they're not reruns, and they aren't preempting first-run episodes of popular series. That might be a cynical take, but this week's programming backs it up. CBS weighs in the crisis in America's cities with The Cities, a three-part look at the staggering problems facing America's urban areas, which airs at 10:00 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. The question confronting the country is "whether black and white can share a Nation's cities in peace and dignity." A heavy question then, and one that's still being asked today.

On Thursday at 10:00 p.m., ABC ups the ante with the first in a six-part examination of racism in America (not on consecutive nights, thankfully); "Bias and the Media," hosted by Frank Reynolds, looks at "the mass media’s portrayal of and discrimination against the Negro, and their effect on the black community," concentrating on job discrimination within the industry and the stereotypes being perpetuated by it. Reynolds is joined by Harry Belafonte, Lena Horne, psychiatrist Alvin Poussaint, and black nationalist poet-critic Lawrence Neal.

The talk isn't limited to network programming; San Francisco station KRON's Assignment Four (Thursday, 7:00 p.m.) examines "Our Delinquent Society" through a week in the life of Berkeley policemen Roy Nedro, from the daily meeting in the squad room to calls dealing with robbery, domestic quarrels, fires, and other emergencies.

Not everything's so heavy, though; ABC presents a repeat of the Jacques Cousteau special "The Savage World of the Coral Jungle," narrated by Rod Serling and Captain Cousteau. (Tuesday, 8:30 p.m.) The "graceful movements of ocean life" must be soothing indeed to viewers frazzled by the rest of the news.

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We'll wrap up this week's review with Robert Higgins's profile of  "intergalactic golden boy" William Shatner, who's hit it big with Star Trek, but he's not a happy man. He's a classically trained actor, a veteran of Shakespearean productions and high-class TV dramas, but as he said, "A plaque on the wall doesn't by baby food." The man who wowed audiences as Henry V when he was 22 and has a lengthy list of credits in television has found that success doesn't necessarily translate to happiness, nor does flying around the universe lead to professional satisfaction. When a dream dies, he says, "there’s such a terrible void, such a loss. I find myself clinging to times when life was a joy, a thing to cherish. Today, I’d characterize success as security and love."

He's struggling in other ways as well.  His father died a year ago, he's now separated from his wife of 10 years, and he sees his life as "an empty pit." He hungers for friends, but finds only fans; "people who’ve known me since I was born want my autograph. I want to yell out, 'Hey, I’m not different. Give me your arms, not your pens.'" 

Higgins leaves us with a classic Shatner moment though, one that you can almost hear as you read it on the page. Addressing the National Conference of Christians and Jews, the Shat tells the audience that "I'm a Jew, but I do not believe in your God...I do know we are all afraid of dying...we are all afraid of loneliness. Those are universal truths. Are you scared? I'm scared...I love you...I need you."

The words of a transformed man, don't you think?

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MST3K alert: The Undead (1957) A reincarnation researcher follows a harlot’s soul back 1000 years—and finds that in her first life she was condemned to die for witchcraft. Pamela Duncan, Richard Garland, Allison Hayes. (Saturday, 1:35 p.m., KGO in San Francisco) "I've never known more about what isn't going on in a movie," Mike says about this melodrama featuring shape-shifters, imps (played by Billy Barty!), witches, and the Devil, all directed by Roger Corman. If that isn't nightmare fuel, I don't know what is. TV  

Around the dial

At bare-bones e-zine, Jack's Hitchcock Project continues with "Mink," Irwin Gielgud and Gwen Bagni's first-season story, a complex story of deception and suspicion that also serves as a time capsule to the mid-1950s.

John turns his attention to documentaries at Cult TV with a look at 24 Hours, a BBC news program that ran from 1965 to 1972; the episode in question, regarding the 1966 assassination of South African prime minister Hendrik Verwoerd, provides a disturbing look at the country's apartheid policy.

Art has been a subtle but significant part of many classic TV series, and at Comfort TV, David proposes a Museum of Classic TV Paintings, along with his suggestions for some of the more prominent exhibits; how many of them ring a bell with you?

Paul takes Drunk TV to one of the great anthologies of the Golden Age, Studio One, with a look at the DVD set Studio One Anthology (a copy of which I'm pleased to say I have), representing seventeen of the series' plays, good and bad; and what it tells us about the early days of television. 

Cult TV Lounge has written in the past about TV tie-in novels, and we have another one of them this week, with "The Cornish Pixie Affair," the fifth original novel based on The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. How well does it mirror the tone of the series? Read on and find out.

In doing the Saturday TV Guide review, I've mentioned a time or two that it doesn't seem there was ever a variety show or special that Bob Hope didn't appear in, and Travalanche backs me up on this assertion with a simple but telling rundown of how many show he hosted, let alone guested in.

At A Shroud of Thoughts, Terence honors a couple of the entertainment world's most recent passings: Darryl Hickman, brother of Dwayne, who did a great deal of movie and voiceover work; and Richard M. Sherman, composer (with his brother Robert) for so many great Disney movies over the years.

Finally, it's back to Land of the Lost at The View from the Junkyard where Mike reviews "Hot-Air Artist," another quixotic episode that displays the show's later tendency away from serious sci-fi to "silly fiction," and again raises the question of where these characters would wind up if they ever escape. TV  

This week in TV Guide: May 6, 1967

The "minority" mentioned in the headline for Edith Efron's cover story is not a racial minority, or even a sexual minority. And, as Efron points out, it's not all that small, either. The "minority" refers to the audience for "the neglected stepchild of television," the documentary. And, surprise, the worn-out chestnuts about documentaries—that nobody watches them, that they only watch them when they're about movie stars, that only intellectuals watch them—well, they all turn out to be "lies, all lies."

According to the ratings books themselves, "documentaries ‘get ratings that are fully comparable to those of many entertainment shows." And there's no great difference in the demographic information between those who watch documentaries and those who watch entertainment programs. It seems worthwhile, therefore, to talk to some experts on the form and find out what kind of documentaries prove successful with the viewer, and why. 

In talking with news executives, documentary producers and directors, and investigative reporters, one thing is clear: storytelling is all-important. Reuven Frank, executive vice president of NBC News, says, "You cannot interest people unless you tell stories. Usually, in a good story there’s a protagonist, a conflict, and a resolution." That's a sentiment echoed by Thomas Wolf, VP and director of documentaries at ABC, who says, "The most successful documentaries have dramatic qualities—heroic protagonists, conflicts, a triumph of good over evil." Bob Drew, independent documentarian, says that "Nothing can compete with dramatic logic. Reality films must have similar ingredients to those in fiction—a protagonist, a dramatic conflict." 

Don Hyatt, producer of documentaries such as "The Tall American" and "The Road West" (which I've probably mentioned here in the past), says that "The successful documentary must, above all, have hero figures, figures that represent human ideals; it must have an empathetic projection of a certain idealism, a certain poetic, romantic view of this country, of life and of man." Ted Yates, who has produced or directed almost 90 documentaries for NBC, adds that "There is in fact, in reality, a dramatic composition to life. Good and bad, happiness and disaster—this is what makes the world go round. If you flatten it out, demolish the dramatic content of life, turn it into an illustrated lecture on statistics, you get dull life—and a dull documentary."

There's much more to this very long story, including a breakdown of the correlation between the subject matter of documentaries and the ratings they produce (no surprise; Americans are more interested in their own history than that of other countries), and whether or not networks have an obligation to look at subjects that are of relatively little interest, or if that's a judgment that goes beyond the scope of their duties. But the key takeaway I'm looking at comes from this quote by Efron: "The American public responds strongly to reality films to the degree that they resemble the dramatic art."

This points out both the greatest asset of the successful documentary, and the biggest flaw. A well-done documentary, and I've seen more than a few of them, can be gripping, spellbinding, captivating in such a way that it encourages the viewer to read more, to watch more, to learn more about the topic. The music, the narration, the writing and editing—all of it can combine to make a memorable, and, more important, a convincing, case in support of its thesis.

Don't get me wrong; I greatly enjoy well-made documentaries. Drew, Bud Greenspan, David L. Wolper, Errol Morris—I'll watch almost anything that comes from them. However, those same qualities that can make a documentary so compelling can also be used to craft a story that crosses the line between documentary and advocate piece, that seeks to promote an agenda or create a particular interpretation of a historical event. What's that old line about never letting the facts get in the way of a good story? And who says that historical events always have a dramatic story arc in the first place? 

How many times have we heard people complain that sports announces stick to a predetermined storyline and push it, over and over, regardless of what's playing out on the field? It happens a lot, and that's part of the danger I'm talking about—that, in service of creating the drama essential to a successful documentary, too many facts can be manipulated or compromised, too many complex ideas truncated, and decisions can be made based on how well they fit the narrative, rather than how they fit the truth. Once that happens, a program has ceased to be a documentary, and instead has become a docudrama. Just look online at the amount of space devoted to supposedly factual movies—The King's Speech is one egregious example that comes to mind—where changes are made to the historical record in the name of "dramatic license." 

I'm not pointing fingers here—the reason I bring it up, aside from the fact that it's the subject of a substantial piece in TV Guide—is that it demonstrates the power of television, and the danger. In an era when truth has never been more relative and when media is under a closer microscope than ever, it's undeniable that an article like this provides some food for thought. Yes, as Ted Yates points out, history should never be dull or stuffy, because it isn't. At the same time, though, remember the warning from John Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance: "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend." It's something that anyone who promotes drama über alles must keep in mind, especially with a medium like television.

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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.

Sullivan: Ed's scheduled guests: the Supremes; Xavier Cugat and his singing wife Charo; soprano Roberta Peters of the Metropolitan Opera; comedians Richard Pryor, and Claire and McMahon; singer Frank Ifield; and taped highlights from Holiday on Ice.

Palace: Host Gene Barry offers a dramatic reading about a man’s farewell to his soldier son. Guests are folk singer Theodore Bikel; comedians Jack E. Leonard, and Avery Schreiber and Jack Burns; singer Lana Cantrell; political satirist Mort Sahl; and Damorra and her doves.  

Interesting week. Ed leads with music, with the Supremes (always faves of his), plus Roberta Peters (who appeared on the show more than any other singer), and follows up with Richard Pryor. On the other hand, I've always liked Palace host Gene Barry, Mort Sahl certainly has a lot of material to work with right now, and Theo Bikel is always an interesting performer. Barry's reading of "So Long Son" is unexpected and movie, and on that basis, I'll give the nod to Palace this week.

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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. 

We don't get over to National Educational Television very often in this space, which means, as Cleveland Amory points out, "you have been missing many happy happenings." Chief among them is the network's anthology series NET Playhouse, "a truly extraordinary series" which seeks to present, on a weekly basis, major plays and films, including offerings from new writers. 

NET Playhouse is, in Cleve's estimation, responsible for "the two best-produced classics yet seen anywhere on TV," Chekhov’s "Uncle Vanya" and Ibsen’s "An Enemy of the People." Both boasted stellar casts—"Vanya" stars Sir Michael Redgrave, Sir Laurence Olivier, Rosemary Harris, Joan Plowright, and Dame Sybil Thorndike, while "An Enemy of the People" hasJames Daly, Kate Reid, Philip Bosco, Barbara Dana, William Prince and George Voskovee—and present dark, intense, and provocative ideas. There hasn't been anything like them seen on American television since the Golden Age presentations of Playhouse 90, Hallmark Hall of Fame, and Dupont Show of the Month, and they justify the potential that so many had always seen in educational television. That's not to say that every presentation on NET Playhouse is a home run; Shaw’s "Misalliance" and Wilde’s "The Importance of Being Earnest" were both talky and over the top. That's offset, though, by a "superb" documentary on the Battle of Culloden by Peter Watkins, in Amory's opinion, "the world's leading documentarian."

 

Tempting as it might be for us to assume that NET Playhouse simply morphed into Masterpiece Theatre, it would be a mistake to do so. True, many of the productions do come from the BBC, but others are strictly American in both content and performance, while still others come from Canada and France, among other countries. Additionally, the series offered not just plays and historical documentaries, but operas, concerts, and profiles as well as well; a look at the six-year history of NET Playhouse includes programs as varied as "The Trail of Tears" with Joseph Cotten, Johnny Cash, and Jack Palance; Duke Ellington's "Concert of Sacred Music," and "America, Inc." with Abbie Hoffman. I've mentioned before that one of the early controversies involving NET/PBS was the network's dependence on British imports at the expense of American productions; nowhere is this more apparent than in contrasting Masterpiece Theatre with the variety seen here. It is, I think, another example of public broadcasting's abdication of one of their prime obligations, and by now it's too late to turn around; not only has public broadcasting changed, so has the public.

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We've talked about the United Network in the past, the fourth network wannabe that started life as the Overmyer Network and ended life after one month of programming. The first and only program to be carried on United was The Las Vegas Show, a two-hour talk-variety show hosted by Bill Dana, which premiered on May 1. On Monday, KLOC, the independent station in Modesto, signs on to The Las Vegas Show, carrying it at 8:30 p.m. PT. It was envisioned as a challenger in the late-night sweepstakes, but, as we can see here, scheduling was all over the map, with some stations (such as KLOC) carrying it in primetime, and others even showing it in daytime. (As you can see from the ad at the left, the show was a goodfit for CBS affiliates lacking a late-night show of their own.) The show, and the network, ended abruptly on June 1; Dana would memorably quip later that "I'm the first man in history to sink an entire network." Robert has an excellent overview of the program at Television Obscurities, including a comment by our own Mike Doran. It's another interesting case of what might have been.

Speaking of the late-night wars, The Doan Report notes early troubles for ABC's Joey Bishop Show, which premiered on April 17, with some critics predicting the show "was not long for this TV world." Initial reviews were "kind but mostly unenthusiastic"; the early ratings were not kind, with the only available figures showing that Bishop was outdrawn in New York by the late movie. ABC boss Leonard Goldenson defends the show, saying that the network had "no expectation that Joey was going to come on like gang busters," and noting that Bishop has a 39-week contract and committed sponsors. Ratings do improve over time, though never challenging Johnny Carson except on rare occasions, and when the show leaves the air in December 1969, it's due to a contract dispute between Bishop and the network.

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The sports highlight of the week is the 93rd running of the Kentucky Derby, live from Churchill Downs in Louisville (Saturday, 2:00 p.m., CBS). Proud Clarion is the upset winner, with Derby favorite Damascus finishing third; Damascus, however, will storm back to win the Preakness and Belmont Stakes, and is named three-year-old horse of the year. Later, Wide World of Sports expands to two hours to cover the 37th annual Notre Dame Old-Timers' Football Game, pitting recent alumni against the varsity team (5:00 p.m., ABC). It's the last year for the Old Timers' Game; next season, two squads of varsity players will face each other, a popular format that's now used by virtually every major college as part of their spring practice. No wonder; can you imagine NFL teams allowing their young players to take part in an exhibition game like this today?

On Sunday, Robert Goulet and Mary Grover star in a television adaptation of Rogers and Hammerstein's "Carousel" (9:00 p.m.), part of ABC's revival of Armstrong Circle Theatre as a series of occasional specials. Pernell Roberts and Charlie Ruggles are part of the supporting cast. You can see it at YouTube; don't be intimidated by the running time on the video; the actual program is less than two hours. This was one of three Broadway musical adaptations shown by ABC under the Circle Theatre imprimatur, the other two being "Brigadoon" in 1966 (also starring Goulet, with Sally Ann Howes and Peter Falk), and "Kismet," later in 1967, with Jose Ferrer, Barbara Eden, Anna Maria Alberghetti, and George Chakiris. 

I think we'd all agree that, despite the occasional documentary or educational special, most television programming has at least something to do with the pursuit of pleasure. Coincidentally, that's the title of an NBC News Special on Monday (10:00 p.m.), hosted by Sander Vanocur. In this case, the pleasure that the young generation is pursuing is mostly related to sex and drugs, as evidenced by some of those interviewed: Timothy Leary, advocating LSD; Ralph Ginzburg, convicted of publishing pornography; and Ray Anthony, author of The Housewife's Handbook on Selective Promiscuity. Also included is a debate on the amount of freedom a society can permit without destroying itself, featuring Hugh Hefner, William F. Buckley Jr., and Harvard Divinity School's Dr. Harvey Cox. That last question is something we're finding the answer to which right now, methinks.

An otherwise-lackluster Tuesday is perked-up considerably with an appearance by the comedy team of Bob and Ray on Today (7:00 a.m., NBC). Granted, they're pretty low-key, sly satirists; still, you have to wonder if the early-morning audience is ready for their humor. But then, Ernie Kovacs started out with a morning show in Philadelphia, so perhaps they're just what the doctor ordered for a good start to the day. I know that would have been the case for me.

There is no MST3K alert this week, which is a pity, but there's at lease one movie that should have been on the show: College Confidential (1960), with columnists Walter Winchell, Sheilah Graham, Earl Wilson and Louis Sobol portraying themselves in a story of a college sociology professor studying student sex habits (Wednesday, 6:00 p.m., KGO in San Francisco). It stars Steve Allen, Jayne Meadows, and Mamie Van Doren; among the supporting cast are Rocky Marciano, Conway Twitty, Pamela Mason, Elisha Cook Jr., and Mickey Shaughnessy. Howard Thompson, in The New York Times, wrote of Steve and Jayne that "it is truly painful to find them co-starring in a piece of movie claptrap like College Confidential."

Armstrong Circle Theatre isn't the only Golden Age show being dusted off this week; on Thursday, the Colgate Comedy Hour makes a return, with a contemporary twist courtesy of producer George Schlatter (10:00 p.m., NBC). Among the acts are Rowan and Martin (a preview of next year's Laugh-In?), Shelley Berman, Bob Newhart, Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks (doing the 2000-year-old man bit), Dick Shawn, Phyllis Diller, and more. It's up against ABC Stage 6 and the musical revue "Rodgers and Hart Today" (10:00 p.m.), with Petula Clark, Bobby Darin, the Supremes, the Mamas and the Papas, the Doodletown Pipers, and Count Basie and his orchestra. And don't dismiss F Troop earlier in the evening, with guest star Milton Berle as Wise Owl (8:00 p.m.).

If you've learned anything about me over the years we've been doing this site together, it's that I have a fine eye for irony, and that's in evidence on Friday night with a couple of competing programs. At 9:00 p.m. on the aforementioned NET Playhouse, it's "Acquit or Hang!" a courtroom drama based on the court-martial of ten mutineers from the HMS Bounty. The title comes from a section of the 1792 naval regulations that states "sailors who do not try to prevent a mutiny share equal guilt with active mutineers." The ten defendants in the court-martial claim they took no part in the mutiny, but did they try to prevent it? Only two verdicts are available to the panel: acquit, or hang. Now here's the good part: the movie on opposite it, at the same time, is—you guessed it—Mutiny on the Bounty, the 1935 version with Charles Laughton, Clark Gable, and Franchot Tone. (KXTV, Sacramento)

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Finally, a couple of celebrity profiles. John Banner, who as Sergeant Schultz owns the title of "the most huggable Nazi on TV," has some strong words for those who criticize his character. Banner’s reply: “There is no such thing as a cuddly Nazi. Maybe Goering was cuddly to his wife; he wasn’t cuddly to the city of Rotterdam. I would refuse to play a sympathetic Nazi. Schultz is not a Nazi. I see Schultz as the representative of some kind of goodness in any generation." 

He's enjoyed a long career as a character actor in Hollywood, and he's had the occasion to play numerous Nazis in war stories. "Who can play Nazis better than us Jews?" He rejects the idea that he's "an instrument of Hitlerism," and the fan mail he receives would seem to back up the assertion that critics of the show are overthinking the whole thing. "It amazes me, the response from kids. Beautiful blondes don’t write me. It’s always kids. I go over big with them. I’m not a father figure. I’m more the good uncle. It’s so touching." It's evidence that, contrary to his character, John Banner knows far more than nothing.

On the cover is Harry Morgan, Jack Webb's new partner on the revival of Dragnet. Harry is playing essentially the same character as that played for so many years by Ben Alexander on the radio and TV versions of the show. (In fact, Webb tried to get Alexander for the revival, but he was under contract for the ABC drama Felony Squad.) 

He's a man who's seen a lot in his long years in Hollywood, and not much bothers him anymore. He understands how some actors could be troubled, or at least distracted, by Webb's constant presence on the Dragnet set, how he could micromanage every gesture seen on the screen. Not at this stage in his career, he replies; "Matter of fact, I don't think it ever really did." 

Speaking of his time on Pete and Gladys, in which he co-starred with the temperamental Cara Williams, he admits that "I wasn't sorry to see it end." It probably took "a lot of deep breathing" during the two seasons of the show, says writer Mike Fessier Jr. And he's philosophical about his career; he knows that "maybe he could have done better if he were a different kind of guy," one with "more push." But then, there are plenty of his friends, good actors, who are now "selling shoes at the department store or pumping gas." And the fact is he's done well enough with his real-estate investments that he really doesn't have to work at all if he doesn't want to. 

Like Banner, Harry Morgan is popular with his colleagues and those who've worked with him in the past. Says one, "He’s a very well-rounded citizen. He’s droll, pleasant, philosophical. A fine example of a man." And just think: he hasn't even played his most famous role yet. TV  

This week in TV Guide: July 29, 1967

This week we've got yet another article telling us how cable television is going to change the industry forever, and we'll get to that in a bit, but this must be the umpteenth time TV Guide has featured one of these stories, and to tell you the truth, there are only so many ways one can go through them and say, yes, this one came true, and no, this one didn't, and this one did but on your phone instead of your TV. And, seeing how I just read something about how more Americans now get their programs from streaming services than cable, it seems as if we're talking more about what was and what will never be.

So instead we're starting off with a look at a man who's always interesting, Steve Allen.

Allen, "the well-known producer, director, actor, comedian, musician, songwriter, sculptor, poet, political theorist, lecturer, biographer and novelist" (in Dick Hobson's words), is being wooed (along with Jackie Gleason and Jack Paar) to return to the late-night wars as host of a new CBS show. He's not enthusiastic about the idea, though, telling Hobson that "(1) I can make a lot more money doing an early-evening show, and (2) it would take too much of my time." Instead, he's content to host the summer replacement Steve Allen Comedy Hour, which gives him the chance to "do satire and social commentary on current events." 

In fact, Allen's focus now is on the bigger picture. Asked if he worries about his show's rating, he replies, "I am worried about mankind's rating." He likes the format of his show because it gives him the chance to touch on those issues; "My sketches almost always have a point of view; they're not just silly jokes. We've taken on political extremism, for example, and air and water pollution." He still remembers with distain the time back in 1960, when NBC's Broadcast Standards department "axed as 'too controversial' a serious roundtable discussion of crime and punishment with actors portraying St. Thomas Aquinas, Aristotle, Darrow, Dostoyevsky, Freud, Hegel, Montaigne and Socrates. 'NBC would have preferred that I function in an intellectual vacuum, restricting myself to making audiences laugh rather than think.'" Allen does eventually find someone to take on that idea, though; he's describing Meeting of Minds, which aired on PBS from 1977 to 1981 and rarely failed to fascinate. 

Despite his unwillingness to go back to late-night, he does offer a few ideas on what makes a good host. "There may be only four or five guys in the world who can do it," he says (apparently in contrast to the current television fad of thinking that anyone can host a late-night show, and then going on to prove that Allen was right all along). He says there are five keys to success: first, the host has to appear as if he's a non-show-biz type. "The viewer thinks we're just plain folks, just like himself." Second, the audience needs to see you as a good guy. "They should feel toward you as toward a friend. Fast wit and repartee is less important than being likable." Third, "You have to be good at interviewing others and develop the ability to be interested in the person interviewed." Fourth, the host should "be at ease." Bishop, he thinks, isn't there yet. Paar never was, but he was never boring; "his keyed-up-emotionalism made him interesting." Finally (the lesson today's hosts seem to have the most trouble learning), "We shouldn't compete with our guests. I never try to top anybody, especially another comedian."

In the end, Allen successfully wards off CBS's interest in him as a late-night host; they wind up going with Merv Griffin. He does return to the talk wars with a syndicated series in 1968, which ran for three years and was shown at various times of the day in different markets. He writes a successful series of mystery novels in which he and wife Jayne star as fictional versions of themselves, and becomes a vocal opponent of obscenity on television. As I say, always interesting.

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While The Hollywood Palace is on summer break, ABC fills the Saturday night time slot with Piccadilly Palace, a London-based variety show starring the iconic British comedy duo of Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise. We'll stop in from time to time during the summer months to see who has the best lineup..
Sullivan:  In this rerun from Expo 67, Ed welcomes operatic soprano Birgit Nilsson; comic Alan King; singer Petula Clark; the Seekers, vocal group; and choreographer Peter Gennaro, who leads a dance-tour of the fair. Canadian artists: pianist Ronald Turini; singer Claude Leveillee; Les Feux Follets, dance group; and the Montreal Symphony.

Piccadilly: The rockin’ Kinks and singer Engelbert Humperdinck storm the Palace tonight. Hosts Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise take to the air in scale model planes, and perform a slapstick ventriloquist act. Millicent Martin, Michael Sammes singers.

To be honest, I was seriously considering dropping the Sullivan/Piccadilly segment, or at least putting it on pause. Piccadilly Palace is much more like, say, The Dean Martin Show than it is The Hollywood Palace, which makes it difficult to get a true matchup with Sullivan. And then I looked at this week's lineup, and decided I owed it to everyone to include a show that has the unlikely combination of Engelbert Humperdinck and Ray Davies and the Kinks! For that reason alone, even though Ed has some big name talent, I'm calling the week a Push.

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I'm not sure we've ever had a Eugene Burdick week here at the blog, but it just goes to show you there's a first time for everything. And before the puzzled expressions you usually have when reading the material here become permanently frozen like some character on The Twilight Zone, I'll explain it all to you. 

The feature on Saturday Night at the Movies (9:00 p.m., NBC) is The Ugly American, an adaptation of the novel by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer outlining what they saw as failed U.S. policy in Southeast Asia (remember, this was written in 1958); the movie stars Marlon Brando as an American ambassador who fails to understand the complexity of the situation in the region until it's too late. 

Skip ahead to the end of the week, and the CBS Friday Night Movie (9:00 p.m.) is based on yet another Eugene Burdick novel, Fail-Safe, this one written with Harvey Wheeler. The story of an accidental nuclear war stars Henry Fonda as the president, Walter Matthau (in a very nasty performmance) as a neocon political scientists, and Dan O'Herlihy (in a very sensitive performance) as the Air Force Chief of Staff. 

Judith Crist calls the pairing "serious melodramas, topical in theme and honorable in intent," but adds that they "give unconventional themes purely conventional treatment." Despite that (and I haven't seen The Ugly American, but I think Fail-Safe is very good), what I wouldn't give to have more theatrical films of a serious bent like these, rather than a steady diet of action adventure and superhero movies.

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Since we've gotten a head start on the week's activities, let's just keep on going. 

Remember a couple of weeks ago TV Guide featured the cast of the ABC series The Big Valley on the cover? Well, on Saturday, the seventh annual Captain Weber Days Parade (held in honor of Captain Charles Maria Weber, the founder of Stockton, California) has a trio of stars from the show serving as grand marshals: Lee Majors, Richard Long, and Peter Breck. (6:30 p.m. PT, KOVR in Sacramento) KOVR, by the way, happens to be an ABC affiliate. Coincidence?

And speaking of coincidence, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (Sunday, 7:00 p.m., ABC) has a plot that sounds familiar, at least if you read my recent piece on The Outer Limits episode "A Feasibility Study": "An army of rock men attacks the Seaview. The lumbering creatures are commanded by a half-human, half-fossilized madman bent on conquering the world." Frankly, had I seen this earlier, it might have changed my entire understanding of "Feasibility Study." Hmm. . .

On Monday, we have a most interesting cast of guests this week on The Match Game (2:30 p.m., NBC): sportscasters Sandy Koufax, Mel Allen, Curt Gowdy, Kyle Rote and Paul Christman; and former football great Y. A. Tittle. Recognize all of them, and I enjoyed listening to them all. Later in the evening, the same network presents an encore showing of the NBC News Special "Khrushchev in Exile—His Opinions and Revelations" (8:00 p.m.), as host Edwin Newman talks with the former Soviet premier about world events during his time as leader, and the "loneliness and boredom of being banished to oblivion." The documentary was originally shown on July 11, but was pushed out of prime time due to the length of the baseball All-Star Game, a 15-inning affair that ran for more than three-and-a-half hours. By the way, two of the announcers on that game were Curt Gowdy and Sandy Koufax.

Also on Monday, Coronet Blue continues on CBS (10:00 p.m.), which reminds me of a Letter to the Editor this week from Eileen S. Macdonald of New York City, who complains about the network's cancellation of the show without a concluding episode. Her letter, which begins, "I'm so annoyed I can hardly type this letter fast enough," says, in part, "All I can say is that I think it’s a good show, and so does my teen-age son. In fact, we seldom agree on programs and I consider that most of what he watches is junk—that’s why we're a two-set family. Isn’t it time that advertisers woke up and stopped letting the networks push the audiences around?" To that I would say two things: 1) I agree; and 2) Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny aren't real, either. Of course, the story is more complicated than what Ms. Macdonald suggests, but it's certainly unfortunate all-around.

Peter Graves did a lot of B-movie sci-fi before Fury, Court-Martial, and Mission: Impossible, and Tuesday's episode of The Invaders (8:30 p.m., ABC) sounds like it could have been right out of one of them: "The murder of two astronauts prompts David and an Air Force security officer (Graves) to investigate the invaders' interest in the manned lunar program." Joanne Linville and Anthony Eisley guest-star; I'm just sorry we don't get a chance to see Graves's character, wild-eyed, shouting, "You've got to believe me!"

Hands-down, Wednesday's highlight is the KOVR 9:00 p.m. movie, The Third Man, starring Joseph Cotten, Orson Welles, Ailda Valli, Trevor Howard, and Bernard Lee. It's a terrific movie, which spawned both a radio series, also starring Welles, and a television series, with Michael Rennie playing as a reformed Harry Lime after the war. This means that Lime survived that shootout in the sewer at the end of the movie, which might be a stretch, but on the other hand, we never did see Lime actually get shot, did we? And as Welles himself once said, "If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story."

Continuing on to Thursday, it's a good night for comedy. At 7:30 p.m., the only regularly-scheduled black-and-white program left on television, The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour (repeats of the 1957-58 series of specials) airs an episode featuring Lucy's new neighbors, Ernie Kovacs and Edie Adams, and immediately starts wooing Edie to get a spot for Dezi on Ernie's TV show. If you're not a fan of Lucy, then I'd recommend an F Troop repeat (8:00 p.m., ABC) in which Larry Storch plays a dual role: Corporal Agarn and his visiting Russing cousin Demtri Agarnoff. I can imagine just how over-the-top Storch was in this episode, which is why I think it's worth watching. I wonder what Hal Horn thinks of this one?

One of the things I really miss from my youthful sports fandom is the College All-Star Game, the football game that matched the defending NFL champions against a group of college all-stars, played at Soldier Field in Chicago. (Friday, 6:30 p.m., ABC) This game, along with the Coaches All-America all-star game earlier in the month, signaled the unofficial start of the football season. I've written about it before so I won't bore you with the details, but as the Green Bay Packers were my team, you know I was rooting for them here. They'd beaten the Stars 38-0 the year before, and even though this year's All-Star team features Steve Spurrier, Bob Griese, Floyd Little, Bubba Smith, Alan Page, and others, the Packers crush them again, this time 27-0.

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And now that story about cable TV. 

CATV, according to Albert Warren, represents "the four letters that have rocked broadcasting." Until recently, cable has mainly brought TV to rural and isolated areas not able to otherwise get a decent signal. (Average cable bill: $5 per month.) But now, it's being rolled out in more metropolitan areas as a kind of test—New York City, for example—where skyscrapers can interfere with clear signals. "The facts are that scarcely anyone in New York can get all nine with the consistently high technical quality CATV [especially color broadcasts] would provide." 

One of the beauties of CATV is that there's no technical limit to the number of channels you can transmit through the cable. Most have space currently for 12, but "engineers are working on systems providing 20, 30 or more." The growth of cable is limited for now by the FCC, which narrowly voted to maintain severe restrictions, such as not bringing in stations from distant cities, and not originating its own programming. The rationale is that since local stations require both large viewing audiences and sponsor advertising in order to maintain free program, it would be unfair for them to have to compete with cable. There are also questions about copyrighted material, for which CATV operators say they're willing to pay a "fair rate," but a couple of recent conflicting court cases have suggested Congress will probably have to get involved eventually.

There's plenty of speculation as to what the CATV system of the future will look like: "electronic newspapers, shopping, teaching, voting, surveying, gas and electric meter reading, library research, mail delivery, emergency warnings—you name it. Even now, CATV provides news, weather services and even stock quotations on channels not occupied by local TV stations." (I noticed there was nothing about 24-hour sports networks, but then who could possibly be interested in that?)

There's more, but I think you get the gist of it. One of the intriguing footnotes is that all three broadcast networks have "dipped their toes" in the cable pool; "ABC was hot about CATV for a while, but it marked time while the FCC considered its merger with ITT. CBS has been quietly buying systems—but all in Canada, to gain operating experience while avoiding the complications of U.S. ownership. NBC has bought a couple of small systems, also for toe-dipping purposes." Today, of course, NBC is owned by a cable system, Comcast, and each network is involved, in one way or another, with streaming services. We've already passed throught the expansion of cable and now we're seeing its contraction. As for what comes next, I think one would be a fool to even try and predict what even the next few months have in store. But it's safe to say that those four letters rocking broadcasting have been replaced with three words: Cut the Cord.

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Some assorted notes to round out the week: this week's "As We See It" concerns CBS's recent inquiry into the Warren Report on the assassination of President Kennedy. Running for an hour each night for four consecutive nights, June 25 through June 28, the editors call it "a major journalistic achievement," revolutionizing the way such information is presented by spreading it out over multiple evenings rather than telling it all in a three- or four-hour documentary. The content was "supurb" as well, "a masterful compilation of facts, interviews, experiments and opinions—a job of journalism that will be difficult to surpass." Most important, the shows were a ratings hit, beating almost every show that was scheduled opposite it, and proving that "[w]hen serious programs that interest them are scheduled during prime time, viewers will tune in." Would they do so today? Well, it depends on whether or not you think we're still a serious people. I remember my seven-year-old self being fascinated by this, but then I always was precocious.

A sign that cooler heads have prevailed is evident in the Hollywood Teletype, which reports that "the idea of having a girl for Leonard Nimoy in Star Trek has been abandoned." It's also a sign that there was some level of insanity in the NBC executive offices to even consider such a thing. I guess not everyone back then was "serious."  

Finally, there's that cover picture on the stars of The Rat Patrol. As you may recall, that show was a favorite of mine when I was growing up, but took a severe dive upon rewatching last year, enough so that it's now on the resell pile. But it's worth a mention that the feature is a profile of Gary Raymond, the English actor who plays Sergeant Moffitt, the most likeable of the four members of the team. And, according to Leslie Raddatz's story, he seems like a pretty good guy. Glad to hear it!

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MST3K alert: Night of the Blood Beast (1958) An alien entity takes control of an astronaut’s body. Is he friend or foe? Michael Emmet, Angela Greene, Ed Nelson, Tyler McVey, Ross Sturlin. (Saturday, 2:00 p.m., KGO in San Francisco) Yet another science fiction movie involving aliens and self-sacrifice, but not quite as good as "A Feasibility Study." In other words, the kind of movie Ed Nelson did before he wound up on Peyton Place. The MST3K version is combined with a really bad short, "Once Upon a Honeymoon," which features Virginia Gibson before she wound up on ABC's Discovery. Well, I guess everybody has to start somewhere. TV