This week in TV Guide: April 12, 1969

What's with the talk about the Academy Awards, you're thinking. Weren't they on TV last month? Why is TV Guide bringing it up now, in the middle of April?

Well, that's the way it used to be, back in the days when the only significant movie awards show besides the Oscars was the Golden Globes, and those were confined to an hour-long broadcast on The Andy Williams Show. Back then, the Oscarcast was held in early April, usually on a Monday night, and it was the only awards show for most people. Now, it's just one of many, and soon it won't even be on commercial TV, just YouTube.

Dwight Whitney's take on the Oscars concerns the revamping of the show, under the direction of famed Broadway choreographer Gower Champion. It's been an uphill climb for Champion, who's had to deal with the conservative Board of Governors of the Motion Picture Academy, a group that has "always considered jazzing up Oscar tantamount to jazzing up the Lord’s Prayer." For them, the the one and only important thing about the show is "The Walk," that "interminable walk to the podium" taken by the winners. As producer and former Academy president Arthur Freed says, "It's the World Series. I don't care what you say, it's who's going to win the ball game. The drama is The Walk." William Dozier dryly notes that "The big question is, does the winner kiss his wife or his girl friend when he hears the thrilling news?"Joe Pasternak, producer of three of the most recent Oscarcasts, predicts that "Gower will regret the day he took it on. They will stop him from having a great show. They control the costs."

Nonetheless, after taking five months to consider the Academy's offer, Chamption decided to take on the challenge. And take it on he has. Bob Hope has been replaced as host (Hope said, "Thank God," when Champion boached the subject with him), to be replaced by ten "Friends of Oscar*" who will share the emcee duties. The venue has changed, from the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, and the look will be entirely different; "The customary white-fluted columns and classical-garden settings would give way to elaborate rear-projection effects, slides, clips, silhouettes, mirrors, multiple images on  multiple screens and sets that fly apart and change their conformation at will." 

*Ingrid Bergman, Diahann Carroll, Tony Curtis (replacing Warren Beatty), Jane Fonda, Burt Lancaster, Walter Matthau, Sidney Poitier, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, and Natalie Wood.

And that's not all. The dress code has been relaxed, with black tie replacing white tie and tails. Champion even proposes getting rid of the bleachers outside the auditorium, where the fans gather to watch the stars walk down the red carpet, but that was going too far in the eyes of many, and Champion eventually relented.

Whitney expresses an appropriate level of skepticism regarding Champion's plans. After all, the Academy Awards are now "an electronic monster which no one seems able to control on any level." (Boy, some things really don't change.) But, in the end, the broadcast comes off pretty well. It's one of the longer broadcasts in recent years, checking in at what now would be considered a svelte two hours and 33 minutes, but it brings in good ratings, along with some surprise winners, and Champion is accorded a standing ovation when he arrives at the after-broadcast party. As stagnant and dull as recent broadcasts have been, it's a pity we don't have another Gower Champion waiting somewhere in the wings. And let's be honest: none of the recent hosts have been any "friends of Oscar."

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From 1963 to 1976, TV Guide's weekly reviews were written by the witty and acerbic Cleveland Amory. Whenever they appear, we'll look at Cleve's latest take on the shows of the era.

Many of us may have been tempted, over the past few years, to ask the question, "What's It All About, World?" (The answer is not "Alfie.") This week, Cleveland Amory asks the same question, but without the existential angst that the question merits today. It is, instead, ABC's "Second Season" variety show, hosted by Dean Jones, which Cleve describes as "a kind of Thinking Man's Laugh-In." (A low hurdle to clear, perhaps, but still...) 

Most of us are familiar with Jones from his many appearances in Walt Disney movies over the years, and he gives us a different host than we've become used to, "both charmingly different and genuinely diffident—and that, these days, is difficult." He's also backed by a cast of regulars including comedian Scoey Mitchell, singer Gerri Granger, news commentator Alex Dreier, and the comedy team of Jenna McMahon and Dick Clair. The show has boasted an impressive guest lineup as well, with the Smothers Brothers, Martin Landau and Barbara Bain, Carl Reiner, Barbara Feldon, Alice Ghostley, and Art Carney. Skits tend to be geared toward current events, and they don't shy away from controversial issues in their comedy bits. (Amory notes that previous topics have included overpopulation, obscene children’s books, the "obsolescence" of husbands, and exclusive country clubs taking on minority members. This suggests that Laugh-In isn't the only apt comparison; one might also suggest that the network learned its lessons after the fiasco of Turn On.)

Unfortunately for those who like What's It All About, World?, it's on ABC. And ABC, as Cleve says, has employed a unique strategy toward their second season, which appears to have been, "put out a whole barrage of new midseason shows, then decided to take them—literally before anyone even knew they were on—off." The network, he says, used ratings as an excuse, but "It would have taken a pretty nimble Nielsener just to keep these shows straight, let alone rate them." Before too long, What's It All About, World? becomes The Dean Jones Variety Hour, and after a total of thirteen weeks, it takes on a title that's all too common to ABC series of the day: cancelled.

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No "Sullivan vs. The Palace" this week, even though we're in the right era for it.  And for once, it's not a preemption of The Hollywood Palace that causes it. No, it's Ed who's preempted this week, in favor of Dick Van Dyke's variety special, Dick Van Dyle and the Other Woman, billed as "a program of music, dance and comedy," featuring the "other woman"—Mary Tyler Moore, the two of them together again after the success of their famed sitcom. (Sunday, 8:00 p.m., CBS) THe special is co-produced by Bill Persky and Sam Denoff, the same pair that used to do the series. Says the preview, "The two stars and the two producers hope to produce again the chemistry that once resulted in television success for them." Did they succeed? Well, you don't think I'd ask that question unless you were able to check it out for yourself and draw your own conclusions.

And that's not the only special on Sunday evening. NBC, wisely, scheduled a Dinah Shore special to follow Dick Van Dyke, rather than go head-to-head (9:00 p.m.). Will wonders never cease? It's called "Like Hep," and features an all-star lineup of guests: Lucille Ball, Dan Rowan and Dick Martin, and Diana Ross; and cameos from Tom and Dick Smothers, Lorne Greene, Greg Morris, Victor Buono, and Elisha Cook Jr. You can also see this special and decide, as I often say, who's better, who's best.

But in case you were curious, Saturday night's Palace (9:30 p.m., ABC) is hosted by Diahann Carroll, with her guests, Richard Harris; Mort Sahl, the Checkmates, Ltd., and her young co-stars from Julia, Marc Copage and Michael Link. And yes, this episode exists as well. Can't beat YouTube, can you?

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It's a new era for Major League Baseball, with the two leagues expanding to twelve teams each, the creation of two divisions in each league, and the advent of playoffs between the division winners prior to the World Series. Some would argue that the game hasn't been the same since. (I'd say that it still had a few decades to go before "baseball" evolved into a completely different sport, but the point is well-taken.) The changes are immediately apparent in the season premiere of NBC's Game of the Week, with the San Francisco Giants taking on the expansion San Diego Padres (Saturday, noon PT)—or, depending on where you're located, the game between the Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Indians. 

Sunday continues the sports spectacular, with the final round of the Masters golf tournament (1:00 p.m., CBS). Among the star-studded field, it's unheralded George Archer who comes away with the famed green jacket, finishing one stroke ahead of Billy Casper, George Knudson, and Tom Weiskopf to win his only major championship. And in honor of baseball's opening, CBS reruns one of the oldest, yet least remembered, of the Peanuts specials, Charle Brown's All-Stars. (7:30 p.m., CBS). The special, which premiered in 1966, was an annual feature on CBS until 1972, and made its last appearance on the network in 1982. There was a big promo effort for the cartoon when it first came out; I remember the baseball caps with the "Charlie Brown's All-Stars" logo on the front, and there was a book version of the special (differing slightly from the televised version). In the story, a company offers to sponsor Charlie Brown's team and provide them with real uniforms, but there's a catch: no girls and no dogs allowed on the team. Charlie Brown refuses the offer and then tells the team about it (without telling them why he turned the sponsor down). Predictably, they heap abuse on him until Linus and Schroeder step up to defend Charlie Brown, berating the girls for attacking him. The idea of making females the heavies, along with the dated concept of girls not playing baseball, probably accounts for its disappearance from the rotation.

In addition to the Academy Awards, the Monkees return to the airwaves Monday night in "a superpsychedelic hour" with the Brian Auger Trinity, featuring Julie Driscoll; Fats Domino; Jerry Lee Lewis; Little Richard; the Clara Ward Singers; the Buddy Miles Express; We Three; and Paul Arnold and the Moo. The special isn't named, but it's the infamous 33⅓ Revolutions Per Monkee (8:00 p.m., NBC), which, according to the always-reliable Wikipedia, was "chaotic, both on-screen and off-screen," and which Mike Nesmith described as the television version of their equally infamous movie Head.  The network was said to have been so disappointed by the result that it scheduled the West Coast telecast opposite ABC's live broadcast of the Oscars. (It was seen two hours before the Oscars in most areas.) It would be the final time the Monkees performed as a quartet until 1986. There's also a Carol Channing special (9:00 p.m., ABC, time approximate), which follows the Oscars on the West Coast but was seen prior to the show everywhere else; Danny Thomas and Carol Burnett are Miss Channing's guests.

Tuesday features a repeat of the TV-movie Prescription: Murder (9:00 p.m., NBC), with Gene Barry, whom we loved as a millionaire cop in Burke's Law, playing a doctor who's killed his wife and plans to run off with his mistress. The only problem is when he runs into a particularly dogged detective who won't give up. He's played by Peter Falk and his name is Columbo. It would be wrong to call this a pilot in the strictest sense; another Columbo telemovie will follow, this one with Lee Grant, and the decision to turn it into a series is technically because of that movie. But all the goods are here already, as is the pleasure in watching it unfold. Interestingly enough, Judith Crist wasn't all that thrilled with it, calling it "one of last season’s tailored-for-television contrivances that proves that a pedestrian but tidy one-hour melodrama can’t be stretched into a two-hour movie without stultifying all concerned. Peter Falk, as a persistent cop, is the major, but intermittent, relief." She's right about one thing: Columbo, as a series, was almost always better at the 90-minute length than when stretched into two hours.

Wednesday sees the Beverly Hillbillies, accompanied by Drysdale and Miss Hathaway, heading to London for four episodes, starting this week (9:00 p.m., CBS). This was a popular trope back in the day; stars from Lucille Ball to Danny Thomas to Jack Benny would do episodes from London; Jack Paar did a week's worth of shows from there, as did Today. I wonder, though, given what London has become over the last few years, if it would be quite as popular a location shoot today? Meanwhile, Oliver and Lisa chaperone Arnold the Pig to Hollywood, a much safer (in some ways) location, in the second of a two-part story that sees the pig in the running to appear in a movie. I didn't realize Babe was a remake... (9:30 p.m., CBS)

Thursday, Bob Hope make his final appearance of the season (8:30 p.m., NBC), with an eclectic cast that includes Patti Page, Jack Nicklaus, Sergio Mendes and Brasil ‘66, and Bob‘s newest leading ladies: Jane Wyman, Maureen Arthur, and Tina Louise. The telemovie feature is entitled U.M.C., which stands for University Medical Center and is the pilot for a new fall series. (9:00 p.m., CBS) The movie stars Richard Bradford as Dr. Joe Gannon, with James Daly as his colleague and mentor, Dr. Paul Lochner. Daly, father of future TV-star Tyne Daly, stays with the project when it becomes a series, but Bradford, whom we recognize from the British import Man With a Suitcase, is replaced by Chad Everett when the series, now called Medical Center, makes its debut in September of 1969. The movie wasn't available for preview, but Judith Crist praises the cast, which features Edward G. Robinson, Kevin McCarthy, Maurice Evans, J.D. Cannon, William Windom, and Kim Stanley.

Usually, when a television series appears in a movie slot, it's because the producers took two or more episodes and combined them into a feature-length presentation, but such does not appear to be the case on Friday, when Roger Moore returns as Simon Templar, aka The Saint, in a regular one-hour story in which our hero carries out the last wishes of a notorious gangster: stage a gold robbery that will implicate his four greatest enemies. (10:00 p.m., NBC). Given that reruns of The Saint appear in this timeslot for the next several weeks, I suspect this was nothing more than a typo. It only appears on the San Francisco affiliate, KRON, though; KCRA, the Sacramento NBC affiliate, has Playboy After Dark (10:00 p.m.), with Bill Cosby, Don Rickles, attorney Melvin Belli, Doug McClure, Robert Fuller, the Checkmates, Ltd., and Kelley Garrett.

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By the way, do you find yourselves wondering if any of those shows would have been worth watching? Well, if it were up to Dr. Frank Stanton, you'd have a little more information to go by when making your viewing decisions. In The Doan Report, Richard K. Doan reports that Stanton, the president of CBS, is advocating giving TV critics a chance to review shows before they're broadcast, ostensibly to warn of content that might seem "too risque or violent for younger audiences."  The other networks, NBC and ABC, are aghast at the idea; "Stanton is way out on a limb," one rival says "What are sponsors and their agencies going to say the first time the critics blast a CBS show before anybody else has seen it?"

Many think Stanton is overreacting to the latest Congressional push against TV violence, and with talk of a ratings system continuing to grow, it may be that Stanton is proposing advance screenings as an alternative. But when a CBS spokesman is asked when the previewing will start, he says not before next fall. And as for NBC and ABC, "the betting was it'll never happen."

In this case, I think we can say "never" didn't last quite as long as those networks might have thought. With a few exceptions, most shows have been made available for preview for quite some time now; even in the case of streaming series, critics (and other influencers) are often given the first three or four episodes in order to prime the pumps, so to speak. And it really is difficult to remember a time when this wasn't the case; after all, without previews from the critics, how else would we know what to watch?

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I've written about Garry Moore many times in the past, as well as devoted a full episode of the "American TV History" episode to talking about him. And there's a good reason why. At one time, Garry Moore had logged more hours in front of a television camera than anyone in history. In 1963 he was the highest paid entertainer on television, making $43,000 a week, and at the time of Paul Wilkes's article this week, he's still pulling in about $200,000 a year, for doing nothing.

And therein lies the rub. In a 1966 TV Guide profile, Moore talked about wanting to do something "new and different" from his variety and game show host duties. Three years later, we get a closer look at the fall of Moore's career. He's bored, to be blunt about it. He's still under contact to CBS, and despite that huge salary he's getting, CBS doesn't have (or doesn't want to have) anything for him to do. Although he insists there are joys in his life (even though he doesn't name them), he laments that "I don't want a leftover life to lead." But the fan mail has disappeared, he's seldom recognized anymore when he walks down the street, and the man who once had a radio show and two television series now has more time on his hands than he can count.

It's really a rather sad article. Although he's only 54, he's aged dramatically in the two-plus years since his last CBS show went off the air; one executive says he looks closer to 70. Moore wants to work, but nobody's interested in him; they tell him he appeals to the wrong demographic. He'd like to do something substantial, "like CBS Reports," but the network doesn't mingle its news and entertainment divisions, and while he's under contract to CBS he's prohibited from appearing on other networks without their permission. He's about to start a stint as host of the syndicated To Tell the Truth, which he'll stay with until 1977, and he's making guest appearances on shows like The Carol Burnett Show, but it's just not the same thing. He says he's not bitter, just that "I'd like to be used somehow."

Garry Moore was a unique figure in television. He wasn't a singer, although he could sing, and wasn't an actor, although he could act). Mostly, he played himself, on his variety show as well as his long run hosting I've Got a Secret, and he did it better than anyone else. He was friendly and avuncular, and he put viewers at ease as they watched him, making them feel like his friends.  But as we know, the times are changing; CBS isn't far away from the "Rural Purge," and the people who have grown old with television are now seen as being too old for television.  As the song at the end of Wilkes's article puts it, "oh, how the years have flown."

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An interesting editorial on the front page makes a humorous point about how the years have flown: the editors declaim the state of modern language, and the new catch phrases that dominate: "hang-up," "blow your mind," "generation gap," "tell it like it is," and more.  "Are you up-tight about the language of the acid heads, the teeny-boppers and the flower children?" they ask. "Would you, in short, think it groovy if the English language were discovered to be alive and well and living in the United States—its old turf?"

Humorous, as I say, but making a point. "We are brought to a state of nausea whenever we hear or read one of these banal or crude or cloddish substitutes for thinking that are so horribly ubiquitous these days in broadcasting and in print." I wonder if you couldn't make the same sort of statement today? We don't write or even think in words so much anymore—it's more likely the strange pig-Latin language of texting, with its abbreviations, concepts, half-thoughts, and emojis. Such is the life of a post-literate society, though. And it has consequences, which we see play out today with ever-increasing frequency: "people talking about commitment and value judgments" which they use as weapons against those who have the temerity to disagree with them.

Although we're all about television here, we're also about language, especially the written word. I find there's a great deal of eloquence in writing about TV, even though I may only capture a fraction of its potential. Television, and its history, has painted a vast panoply of imagery over the years, which words are uniquely suited to describe. It's ironic, in that television is mostly a visual medium, one that's been blamed by many for leading to the death of the written word. And yet millions of words have been, and continue to be, written about it, words oftentimes more powerful than those images they describe. And as long as I'm writing about it, I intend to keep looking for the beauty in those words, as well as the pictures which accompany them.

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MST3K alert: Agent for H.A.R.M. (English; 1966) Tale of a creeping blob from outer space that transforms human flesh into fungus. Mark Richman, Wendell Corey, Carl Esmond. (Saturday, 11:30 p.m., KPIX in San Francisco) Peter Mark Richman, Wendell Corey: what are you doing here? H.A.R.M. was, apparently, initially supposed to serve as a pilot for a new series, but wound up in theatrical release instead. My favorite review comes from The New York Times, which called it an "anemic James Bond imitation." I don't believe this is currently part of the MST3K episodes that run on TV; all-in-all, probably a good thing. TV

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This week in TV Guide: January 30, 1960

Ahat are we to make of this week's cover story, "Can Ratings Be Fixed?" Does it imply that the ratings system is broken, that networks and advertisers pay far too much attention to them, sacrificing admirable but low-rated programs at the altar of profitability and popularity? Or do we understand "fixed" to have the same meaning as "rigged," that the integrity of the ratings system has intentionally been breached so the  figures reflect something other than the truth, all to profit an unknown someone in position to tamper with the numbers? Oh, the uncertainty of it all.

As it turns out, according to Bob Stahl, it's a little bit of everything. In addition to those choices above, the overriding question, one on everyone's mind, is: "How can electronic gadgets in only 1050 homes measure accurately what 112,000 viewers are watching?" A Senate investigating committee is looking into it (yes, they don't have anything better to do than that), for as Oklahoma Senator Mike Monroney says, "[t]he struggle for rating supremacy led to rigging of TV quiz programs." Put that way, compared to the constant threat of nuclear war, I guess it is an important question.

The fact is, as is the case with alcohol, guns, technology, and, well, television, the ratings are neither good nor bad, but neutral. "They serve a useful and necessary purpose in the business," Stahl points out. "The fault lies in the way ratings are constantly misused." Max Banzhaf, advertising director of the Armstrong Cork Co. (sponsors of Armstrong Circle Theater), says that ratings are "designed to serve only as a guide in making program judgments," but that "too often [they're] used as a substitute for judgment. ABC President Oliver Treyz says ratings are "only one factor in any program decision." Answering critics who claim networks are too eager to jump on the bandwagon and copycat successful shows, NBC Vice President Hugh M. Beville Jr. replies, "Is it wrong to give the people what they say they want?"

Counters historian Arthur Schlessinger, "The television industry must see its job, not as that of catering to the worst or even the average taste of its audiences, but in part as that of elevating taste." And Marion B. Harper Jr., president of the imposing McCann-Erickson ad agency, says that networks "must telecast more shows of quality than the ratings indicate the public wants to see." (We touched on this question of who decides what quality is in an earlier edition.)

Garry Moore, who's been on TV long enough to know a thing or two about ratings, raises this question: "Is a comedian any funnier when he gets a 30 [rating] than when he gets a 20?" As an example, "[s]uppose the comedian gets a 20 when he has a really good show. His audience will talk up the show to friends; more people will tune in the following week. So he may get a 30 rating that second week and not have as good a show. Wouldn't that mean he was funnier with a 20 rating than with a 30?" Yes, the ratings are necessary, but they "don't show whether viewers buy the sponsor's product." As to the question of whether or not the ratings are rigged, Sen. Monroney says they aren't. "[W]e concluded that rating samples are inadequate, that ratings receive far too much emphasis in the industry, [but] we never charged that ratings were rigged." It's possible that television could see something akin to the payola scandals that rocked the radio world, but unlikely.

Unsurprisingly, reports Stahl, "There is no clear-cut answer to all of this." Broadcasters and advertisers need to be taught how to use the ratings correctly, and, says Beville, since the press aren't experts enough to write about them, "ratings should have no place in the press." Dr. Frank Stanton, president of CBS, offers the final word: beyond ratings, the networks need to know something more: what people want to look at. "We need constantly to know what the audience things we ought to be doing." To that end, they're conducting their own public-opinion polls, but I'm not sure that's necessary, because we all know what the audience thinks the networks should be doing: putting on better shows.

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If you think we're done with Garry Moore because of that little quote above, you've got another think coming. He's looking pretty satisfied on the cover, and for good reason: his Tuesday night variety show has more than held its own against NBC's heavily promoted Startime specials despite the latter's massive budget advantage ($250,000 per show, as opposed to Moore's $100,000), and I've Got a Secret, the panel show he's emceed all these years, is doing "quite all right" against NBC's Perry Como Show. (You'll notice ABC's not even in the discussion, which is par for the course in these days.)

"You can't run scared," Moore says of the doomsayers predicting disaster for both of his prime-time shows at the hands of well-funded competitors. Of his Tuesday night show, he says that "we expected very rough competition and we were prepared for it." It's true that Startime got off to a good start, but Moore credited the loyalty of his viewers for his show's success. "People were familiar with our show from last year and I guess a lot of them liked it." It doesn't hurt either that the supporting cast includes Durward Kirby, Allen Funt and his Candid Camera, and Carol Burnett. "I guess the most important thing is to have faith in what you've all learned over the years and not start running around scared when the ratings slip a point or two."

Regarding that $100,000 per show budget, Moore provides an example of how that money doesn't really go very far. "Nine years ago if we wanted a smoke effect for some kind of a skit, somebody would borrow a bucket from the janitor and get 40 cents' worth of dry ice from the drugstore. Today you've got to have three special-effects men and a hand-forged bucket and the tab is $40. That's the way it goes." Multiply that by thousands, and now we know why simple things cost so much nowadays.

Moore closes with a great take on the quiz show scandals. Asked if they were embarrassed, he says, "Of course we were embarrassed. Embarrassed because no one bothered to investigate us." Apparently giving away $80 per show doesn't attract much attention. But Moore wouldn't have it any other way. "I turned down a job as host on a big-money quiz show because I figured that, on it, I wouldn't be a host at all. I'd be a croupier."

Of course, if you'd like to hear more about the great Garry Moore, I'd point you in the direction of the video I did with Dan Schneider last week.

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Invariably, one of the programming victims of the ratings game is the cultural/educational genre. These shows haven't disappeared from TV completely, but with few exceptions they've been relegated to the Sunday cultural ghetto. This week is a good example, beginning with CBS's famed trio of Sunday morning religious and cultural shows. At 10:00 a.m. ET, Lamp Unto My Feet presents "For God and Country," a documentary on the role of religion and the Scriptures in American politics during the Revolutionary War. At 10:30 a.m., it's Look Up and Live, with "The Betrayal," the final episode in the five-part series "Images of the Bible." Finally, at 11:00 a.m., Camera Three has scenes from Colette's novelette The Vagabond, interpreted in dramatic and dance sequences. 

Speaking of, the culture continues at 3:15 p.m. on NBC (following the NBA game of the week between Detroit and Boston), with NBC Opera Theatre's live, color special of Mascagni's one-act opera Cavalleria Rusticana. The title might not be familiar to you, but this might be: the Intermezzo, one of the lovliest and most famous orchestral pieces in opera, used in all kinds of movies, including Raging Bull.

Following the opera, it's back to CBS at 4:30 p.m., with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic, on Ford's Sunday Musical Showcase (you can see the entire program here). In this program, "The Creative Performer," guest Igor Stravinsky conducts the Philharmonic, with pianist Glenn Gould (making his United States television debut) and Met soprano Eileen Farrell. And after that, it's NBC, with G-E College Bowl at 5:30 p.m. (Case Western Reserve University of Cleveland vs. Purdue; the Boilermakers win, 260-15).

Bernstein is just fortunate that in Ford, he has a big sponsor supporting his show. Hallmark is another big sponsor, which is why Hallmark Hall of Fame airs in color on NBC Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m. It's not one of those saccharine pieces of drivel you see on the Hallmark Channel, either; it's Shakespeare's The Tempest, starring Maurice Evans, Richard Burton, Lee Remick, Roddy McDowall, and Tom Poston. (Watch it here.) Don't worry; I promise I'm not going to go off on one of my celebrated rants about the quality of Hallmark programming. It's just too easy nowadays, like catching fish in a barrel.

The point is none of these shows—none—would be on television today, save some niche streaming service that I'm not aware of. In fact, the best you can do is to seek them out on YouTube, which is not a bad alternative. After all, did you notice how many of these shows are there?

  

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What else? Well, there is sports on Saturday, though not at the volume we have today. Hockey takes center stage with the NHL game of the week, featuring the Detroit Red Wings vs. the Bruins at Boston Garden (2:00 p.m., CBS), while the NBA counters with a matchup between the Philadelphia Warriors (before they moved to San Francisco) and New York Knicks from Madison Square Garden. (2:15 p.m., NBC)

Sunday night, CBS presents a two-hour retrospective on "The Fabulous Fifties," hosted by Henry Fonda, with an all-star cast including Jackie Gleason, Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews, Mike Nichols and Elaine May, Betty Comdon and Adolph Green, and news highlights with Arthur Godfrey, Roger Bannister (the first sub-four-minute mile), Navy Captain William Anderson (who sailed his submarine, the Nautilus, under the polar ice cap), and Edmund Hillary (conqueror of Mount Everest). Eric Sevareid provides commentary. (YouTube has it here.)

We didn't have a "Sullivan vs. Allen" face-off this week, as Ed was preempted by that "Fabulous Fifties" special; anyway, Steverion has moved to Monday nights, and this week his guest is singer Steve Lawrence (10:00 p.m., NBC). Later on, The Du Pont Show with June Allyson (got to get the full name in, right?) features June starring in "So Dim the Light," playing a movie star who discovers she will be totally blind due to injuries from an auto accident. Robert Taylor plays himself in a brief cameo appearance. (10:30 p.m., CBS)

On Tuesday, the aforementioned Startime presents Ed Wynn, Bert Lahr, and Nancy Olson in "The Greatest Man Alive" (8:30 p.m., NBC), a comedy about a man who, deeming his life to have been a failure, prepares to hang himself, when fate intervenes. Garry Moore, who more than holds his own against Startime, welcomes Andy Griffith and Carol Lawrence as his guests (10:00 p.m., CBS). And in the late night movie slot, a feature destined to become a thriller classic: The Night of the Hunter (11:15 p.m., Channel 4), the only movie directed by Charles Laughton, starring Robert Mitchum as a serial killer looking to murder a widow (Shelley Winters) for her money. The movie was deemed a failure in its time; Laughton never directed another film. Today, it's considered one of the greatest movies ever made. I'm always curious as to what leads to these kinds of reassessments. What was it the critics of the time didn't see?

Wednesday, Armstrong Circle Theatre presents "Ghost Bomber: The Lady Be Good" (10:00 p.m., CBS), a docudrama on one of the most enduring mysteries of World War II: the disappearance, without a trace, of an American bomber on a mission to Italy. Last May, the wreckage of the plane was discovered in the Libyan Desert, with no trace of the crew. You may remember a Twilight Zone episode from around this same time, "King Nine Will Not Return," starring Bob Cummings as the pilot of the mystery plane. Among the stars is a very young George Segal. The program is hosted by CBS newman Douglas Edwards

On Thursday night, the great French star Maurice Chevalier stars in a one-man show on CBS (10:00 p.m.), performing all his favorites, including "Thank Heaven for Little Girls," which he sings to some special members of the audience, including the daughters of Joan Crawford and Jack Paar. And in the late movie slot, Fredric March and Betty Field are in for a shock when they find out the German boy they adopted was raised as a Nazi in the 1944 movie Tomorrow the World! (11:15 p.m., Channel 13).

Friday, it's a one-man performance of another kind, as Art Carney stars in three one-act plays: Sean O'Casey's "A Pound on Demand," "Where the Cross is Made" by Eugene O'Neill, and "Red Peppers" by Noel Coward. (8:00 p.m., NBC, and in color, of course.) Elaine Stritch guest stars in "Red Peppers," doing a couple of song-and-dance numbers with Carney. Carney's singled out for praise in one of our Letters to the Editor as well, for his recent performance in "Cal Me Back." Anyone who thinks he's just Ed Norton has another think coming. Also on Friday, Robert Conrad makes a brief cross-over appearance as Hawaiian Eye's Tom Lopaka in "Who Killed Cock Robin?" on 77 Sunset Strip (9:00 p.m., ABC). Warner Bros. is always good that way.

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Interesting note in Burt Boyer's column about how Robert Young wants this to be the last year for Father Knows Best. When you figure that Young started out on the show in 1949 when it was on radio (he was the only member of the cast to make the transition to television), he's already been Jim Anderson for 11 years. Not only does Young want to do something different, his TV daughter, Elinor Donahue, is getting other offers herself. It's said that Young is looking for $11 million to sell a network the show's inventory of close to 250 episodes. As it turns out, this is Young's final season, and while I don't know how much he wound up getting, Father Knows Best ran for another three years in prime time; two seasons on NBC, and a final season on ABC. Think about that: three years of reruns in prime time, and additional years as part of ABC's daytime schedule.* The only similar example I can think of is Marshal Dillon, the name for the half-hour episodes that CBS ran on Tuesdays from 1961 to 1964 (while Gunsmoke was still in first-run), and then in syndication.

*It was an episode of Father Knows Best that was running on ABC affiliates in the Mountain and Pacific time zones at 1:30 p.m. ET on November 22, 1963, when President Kennedy was assassinated. The ABC footage on YouTube shows a follow-up voiceover bulletin interrupting the next to last scene of the episode, "Man About Town," before returning for some commercials and the wrap-up. Knowing what we do now about what the post-JFK years are like, it's actually kind of poignant. I do wonder what happened with Bud and the illusionist, though. 

Then, there's Dwight Whitney's note on Edd Byrnes, one of the stars of 77 Sunset Strip. Byrnes has joined the impressive ranks of Warner Bros. talent, past and present, who've been engaged in contract disputes with the studio, and consequently he's on suspension. In the meantime, he's taken a job as a greeter at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas. He's making $400 a week, which equals what he made playing Kookie. (No wonder he's upset with his contract!) Says Byrnes of his temporary career change, "The bills were piling up. I need the money."

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"Introducing Pat Crowley" in
the role of the Kookie.

Finally, this week's starlet is Pat Crowley, who, aside from her good looks, is known as someone who doesn't pine for her own TV series. She likes being a free-lancer, she explains; comparing it to a gym, she says it allows her to "work out on a different kind of bar bell every week." She's already been a success on the Great White Way, selected as "one of Broadway's most promising new personalities," and after a brief stint with movies ("The timing wasn't good," she explains. "Kookies weren't fashionable.*), she tried her hand at the small screen, and with appearances on Wanted—Dead or Alive, 77 Sunset Strip, and Maverick, she hasn't looked back.

*Except, as we've seen, on Sunset Strip.

She can afford to be choosy, since she's married to a Los Angeles attorney named Gregory Hookstratten. He's better known as Ed "The Hook" Hookstratten, and as one of the biggest legal names in Hollywood, he boasted of clients including Johnny Carson, Elvis Presley, Vin Scully, Joey Bishop, Bryant Gumbel, Tom Snyder, and Dick Enberg. He was general counsel for the Los Angeles Rams, fixed a DUI for Fred Silverman without it getting in the papers, and negotiated contracts for many a celebrity. All that, and Pat Crowley too (even though they wound up getting divorced). Quite an adventure, wouldn't you say? TV

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Around the dial

If you're in a part of the country that's going to get hammered this weekend, I can't think of a better way to spend your time than with some classic television. Well, actually, I suppose there are several ways that would be better, but seeing as how this is a family website, let's stick to television.

And let's start with my latest podcast appearance with Dan Schneider, as we talk about one of television's forgotten stars of the past: Garry Moore. He hosted daytime and primetime variety shows and game shows, was one of the most genial and well-liked personalities of the time, and at one time was not only the highest-paid entertainer on television, but had spent more time in front of the camera than anyone in human history. Did I say "forgotten"? Instead, as Dan says, let's think of him as "misfiled," because someone like him can never be truly forgotten. Anyway, give it a watch and let us know what you think; it was a fun show to do!

At Woman's World, of all places (never let it be said that I don't scour the planet looking for items of interest for my readers), you can enjoy this article on Mr. Ed, Alan Young, and some facts that you may or may not be aware of. 

Speaking of shows that didn't get enough attention, or facts you might not know about, at Comfort TV, David looks back at the very good 1973 series Tenafly, part of NBC's Wednesday Mystery Movie wheel series, starring James McEachin as one of the first black leads on a dramatic television series.

At Cult TV Blog, John resumes his series that focuses on the works of one actor, rather than the episodes of a series. In this case, the subject is Tony Wright, and the show in question is 1960's The House in Marsh Road. 

Frankly, any show that promises both bullets and bikinis in the same episode is probably already a step or two ahead of the rest. At The View from the Junkyard, Roger looks at the A-Team episode of the same name to see if it fulfills its promise.

Two testimonials from Terence at A Shroud of Thoughts, remembering T.K. Carter, a familiar figure on television from the 1980s on; and Roger Ewing, best known as Thad Greenwood on Gunsmoke, both of whom passed away earlier this month. TV

If you enjoy the content here and want to support my broader creative work, please consider making a donation at my Ko-fi page. Any amount you contribute helps me continue writing, researching, and sharing these articles and projects. Thank you!

This week in TV Guide: December 3, 1966

Things should be all smiles on the set of ABC's new war drama The Rat Patrol. It's the biggest new hit of the season, the only new show in the top 20. And yet, as Dick Hobson reports in this week's cover story, almost everyone involved in the original production has been fired, thge actors are "near insurrection," and the series is leaking money at a rate that is beyond alarming. Is this the way all new series start out? Not on your life.

The show's troubles started at once. Producer-Creator Tom Gries, shooting the pilot in Yuma, Arizona (a stand-in for the show's desert setting) had to deal with 118-degree temperatures, jeeps that were constantly breaking down, a scheduled disrupted by star Christopher George's movie commitments, and a price tag that ran $200,000. Gries was sacked, although as creator he still gets a fat check every week. Mirisch-Rich Productions, already having to deal with a feature film, Hawaii, that was $7 million over budget, balked at the cost of shooting the series in Spain (where equipment from Battle of the Bulge and The Great Escape was available), and pushed ahead only after ABC threatened to sue. The new producer, Stan Shpetner, pushed for a "hipper" show, filled with "pungent dialog. . . action, excitement, guts; he wanted the screen to jump." His motto: Audacious, Gassy and Cool. The cast hated Shpetner's scripts, particularly the dialog, while the directors hated the visual effects called for in those scripts, which they called "unshootable." After a showdown, Shpetner was called back to Hollywood, and eventually sacked.

The problems continued; George, as well as co-stars Lawrence Casey and Justin Tarr, were injured in various accicents. It was almost impossible to find Spanish Army Corp soliders tall enough to play Germans. Film footage was lost en ruote from Paris to Hollywood. Associate producer Dick Landau was tasked with rewriting six episodes on the spot, as well as writing two original scripts and collaborating with director John Peyser, one of Shpetner's most outspoken critics, on a three-part story. Landau strove to introduce more realism, to make The Rat Patrol more like Combat! and less like The Wild Wild West, which Shpetner had once worked on. They never viewed the footage, never did a retake, and got almost no feedback from the Front Office on what had been done other than that the footage was "great," or that they were "40 feet short." Thirteen episodes emerged from all this chaos.

On-location shooting in Spain.

Despite all this, the show was an immediate hit. Nonetheless, Lee Rich, head of Mirisch-Rich Productions, pulled the show home from Spain and decided to shoot future episodes on an MGM soundstage, with any location shooting done locally. He had little choice; the show was over budget at a rate that would put it $1 million in the hole by the end of the season, a deficit that would take three years to recap, assuming the show ran that long. Cast and crew, having come together in solidary against adversity, were distressed. Production manager Lemoine, bitter that he wasn't named producer, remained in Spain. Associate producer Landau was replaced by someone from Mirisch-Rich. Director Peyser quit to return to feature films. The new producer, Jon Epstein, came from Tarzan, another series that had run over budget. ABC, just happy that the show was a ratings success, "pooh-poohed" any programs that might have occurred. I don't know about you, but all this exhausts me; nowadays, the inevitable series based on the behind-the-scenes turmoil would be far more interesting and successful that the series itself.

When all was said and done, Shpetner maintained that his epic romanticism was faithful to Tom Gries' original concept. Meanwhile, the former associate producer, former production manager, former directors, and cast maintained that it was their "down-to-earth realism" carried forth Gries' original concept. The only person happy about it all was Tom Gries himself. After all, as Hobson concludes, "He's got what every gambler in the TV Sweepstakes has always craved: a hit show, no headaches, and all that money."

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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: Scheduled guests: baritone Robert Merrill and tenor Jan Peerce of the Metropolitan Opera; comedian Red Buttons; the rock ‘n’ rolling Supremes, and Gary Lewis of the Playboys; singer Lainie Kazan; basketball’s comical Harlem Globetrotters; the Brothers Tonito, tightrope walkers; and trapeze artist Miss Mara.

Palace: Host Victor Borge presents songstress Petula Clark; the singing-dancing team of Jean Pierre Aumont and his wife Marisa Pavan; comics Marty Allen and Steve Rossi, who offer a routine about a Japanese baseball star; French ballet dancers Claire Sombert and Michel Bruel; the Flying Cavarettas, teen-age aerialists; performing elephant Baby Sabu; and escape artist Dennis Breilein. Victor sings soprano, tenor and bass in a parody of Mozart’s operas.

So what do we have this week? The only change in Ed's lineup, from what I can gather, is the substitution of comedians Wayne and Shuster (a Sullivan favorite) for the Brothers Tonito, which improves an already-good cast. In addition to a medley of their hits, the Supremes sing "My Favorite Things," and since this has become a Christmas staple, I'd say they're starting to ring in the season. Combine that with Gary Lewis's farewell appearance before going into the military, and that's a hard lineup to beat. Although the Palace has Victor Borge, whom I always enjoy, this week I'm giving the edge to Sullivan. 

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From 1963 to 1976, TV Guide's weekly reviews were written by the witty and acerbic Cleveland Amory. Whenever they appear, we'll look at Cleve's latest take on the shows of the era. 

This week, Cleve takes on the CBS sitcom Run, Buddy, Run, for which he says you should run, not walk, to your nearest television set to watch. It's a spoof of Fugitive-type shows, with a Coronet Blue-type premise: Buddy (Jack Sheldon), an innocuous sort, has the misfortune to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and when he overhears two Syndicate types utter the words "Chicken Little," he knows that he already knows too much. The mob knows he knows, and Syndicate boss Mr. D (Bruce Gordon, in a wonderful parody of his role as Frank Nitti in The Untouchables) puts a hit out on him. And so Buddy must run, and keep running, to stay one step ahead of a fatal step.

As Amory says, you just can't igonre a setup like this, Buddy's problem, as is the case with our friendly Doctor Richard Kimble, is that he just can't keep running; he's too good-hearted to not stop and help those in need, which means he can never get too far away from those nasty hitmen. In fact, he's so good-hearted, he even attends a fake funeral for Mr. D, which is actually a trap: Mr. D, you see, knew Buddy would show up, being so good-hearted and all, and, "of course, when Buddy got there, you can guess whose funeral Mr. D really has in mind." All this works because the acting is of particularly high calibur, especially from Sheldon and Gordon, who fit their roles to a T. Sheldon, in particular, manages to make Buddy a sympathetic character you root for, which isn't always easy; other actors might tempt you to think that he had it coming, but not in this case. And while it's not always easy to spoof targets that are so obvious, this show manages to do it on a regular basis.

Which makes it unfortunate, Amory says, that CBS has decided to cancel the show. We occasionally get an Amory review of a show that's bound for cancellation, but very seldom does he actually mention the fact in his column, as he does here. The Doan Report says that the network is reconsidering the cancellation, as the ratings are inching up; perhaps Cleve is trying to give that effort a boost by encouraging people to tune in. In a season where the spoof is the everywhere (UNCLE, Batman, et al), a show like Buddy fits right in. It's just a shame that CBS couldn't find a slot into which they could fit it.

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Yes, it's that time of the year agaon, when we sample the seasonal specials the networks are providing for the enjoyment of the advertisers the viewing audience. Actually, I kid about that; Christmas commercials from this era are, I think, among our fondest memories. Noëlco, anyone? 

Leading off is a big on; the third airing of "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer" on the General Electric Fantasy Hour (Sunday, 5:30 p.m., NBC). "A brand new song and new adventures have been added," the ads promise; the new song is "Fame and Fortune," which replaces "We're a Couple of Misfits." As you probably have heard, Rudolph will be airing once again on NBC, for the first time since 1971.

On Wednesday, it's "Christ Is Born" (8:00 p.m., ABC), from the network's acclaimed documentary series Saga of Western Man. Filmed on location in the Holy Land, gospel readings from John Huston are intersperced with footage shot in Jerusalem and at the Sea of Gallilee, the River Jordan, and Madada. Producer John Secondari and his wife, director Helen Jean Rogers, are narrators. ABC plans to repeat the program on Christmas Day. 

Eddie Albert is the host and narrator of Tchaikovsky's classic, The Nutcracker (Friday, 7:30 p.m., CBS), featuring an international cast including Edward Villella, Patricia McBride, and Melissa Hayden. Franz Allers conducts the Budapest Philharmonic in this broadcast, first telecast last December. You can see a clip of it here; it's available on DVD as well.

There are also a couple of local broadcasts: On California U.S.A. (Sunday, 10:30 a.m., KCRA in Sacramento), the Salvation Army Band of Sacramento presents its annual Christmas program. Later that day, the Art of Puppetry (5:00 p.m., KVIE in Sacramento and KIXE in Redding) features the Sacramento State College Little Theatre marionettes in "Punch and Judy," "Alice in Wonderland," and songs of Christmas.

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What else? Well, it's a big week for movies, starting on Saturday, as Richard Harris and Rachel Roberts star in the movie This Sporting Life (11:20 p.m., KPIX in San Francisco), a gritty kitchen-sink British drama about the world of professional rugby; both Harris and Roberts earned Oscar nominations for the movie, one of my favorites. Speaking of Oscars, Saturday also sees Stalag 17 (9:00 p.m., NBC), with William Holden in his Oscar-winning role as a cynical American POW during World War II. Judith Crist, in her review, praises its blend of "human comedy and tragedy," and singles out both Holden and Otto Preminger, at his "nasty-Nazi best" as the camp commendant.

More big movies; on Sunday afternoon, KPIX is back with the magnificent Witness for the Prosecution (5:00 p.m.), Agatha Christie's supreme courtroom drama starring the Oscar-nominated Charles Laughton, Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich, Elsa Lanchester, and, in a small but important role, Ruta Lee. And Glenn Ford stars in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (9:00 p.m., ABC), a remake of Valentino's 1921 silent film classic, with Ingrid Thulin, Charles Boyer, Paul Lukas, Yvette Mimieux, Paul Henreid, and Lee J. Cobb. Big cast, long running time (three hours), disappointing result; Crist pronounces that neither Ford nor anyone else "survives this clumsy, over-blown banality about cousins caught on opposite sides in World War II." As you can tell, the plot differs somewhat from the 1921 original.

Gilligan's Island goes into Twilight Zone territory on Monday (7:30 p.m., CBS), as Gilligan finds his castaway companions disappearing one by one, convincing him that he's a Jekyll and Hyde responsible for it all. Later, on The Felony Squad (9:00 p.m., ABC), the detectives investigate the owner of a pro football team (William Smithers) who framed a former star (Ed Asner) in a murder. Admit it; sports team owners are such a slimy bunch, you'd love to see one of them accused of murder, wouldn't you? And on The Tonight Show (11:30 p.m., NBC), Senator Everett Dirksen (R-Ill.) is one of Johnny's guests. He's not there just to talk politics, but to plug his latest spoken-word album, Gallent Men: Stories of the American Adventure. The following year, the title track will hit #16 on the Billboard 200.

It's William Holden again in another big-screen war epic, The Brtidges at Toko-Ri (Tuesday, 9:00 p.m., NBC), based on the Korean War best-seller by James A. Michener, with an all-star cast including Grace Kelly, Fredric March, and Mickey Rooney. Also on Tuesday, the great Marion Anderson hosts and stars in S. Hurok Presents (9:30 p.m., CBS), a musical tribute to impresario Sol Hurok, the man responsible for bringing Russia's Bolshoi Ballet to the United States in 1959; they also toured the country in 1962, during the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Anderson is joined in the tribute by pianist Van Cliburn, violinist Isaac Stern, guitarist Andrés Segovia, Antonio and the Ballets de Madrid, and prima ballerina Maya Plisetskaya and members of the Bolshoi.

Hallmark has Christmas cards to sell, which helps explain the presence of Hallmark Hall of Fame's "Blithe Spirit" (Wednesday, 7:30 p.m, NBC), an adaptation of Noel Coward's witty comedy, starring Dirk Bogarde, Rosemary Harris, the aforementioned Rachel Roberts, and Ruth Gordon. That's not the only big special on the network Wednesday; following "Blithe Spirit," it's Frank Sinatra: A Man and His Music—Part II (9:00 p.m.), a sequel to Sinatra's one-man show from last November; this year, he's joined by his daughter Nancy, and long-time Sinatra arranger-conductors Nelson Riddle and Gordon Jenkins. 

On Thursday, Shirley Booth stars in a CBS Playhouse adaptation of Tennessee Williams' play "The Glass Menagerie" (9:00 p.m.), with Barbara Loden, Hal Holbrook, and Pat Hingle. If you're not in the mood for Williams's downbeat drama, try Bewitched (9:00 p.m., ABC), with Fredd Wayne playing Benjamin Franklin in the first of a two-part story. Wayne, who was currently touring the country in his one-man "Benjamin Franklin, Citizen", portrayed Franklin on stage and in television shows for three decades.

A big-name cast doesn't help the big-screen movie Genghis Khan (Friday, 9:00 p.m., CBS), with Omar Sharif as the Mongol conqueror, plus Stephan Boyd, James Mason, Telly Savalas, and Robert Morley; Crist says that the commercials will prevent you from sinking "into a relaxing trance" and remind you "what a silly waste of time the whole thing is." If you want my opinion, go with The Time Tunnel for your history (8:00 p.m., ABC); all I can say is that after this episode, Tony and Doug are sure to remember the Alamo.

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Is Garry Moore's career over? Two years ago, he stepped down from the weekly grind after 14 years on morning and primetime shows, including I've Got a Secret and his eponymous variety show. His warm personality and his ability to connect with an audience had given him a weekly audience, between his two shows, of 50 million viewers. In 1964, CBS cancelled The Garry Moore Show, and shortly afterward he handed the reins of Secret over to Steve Allen. 

Back in 1964, Moore tells Robert Higgins, he thought he'd like to try something different, more serious. "I thought I'd enjoy public affairs." He got a daily show on CBS radio, but it didn't work for him. "As a newsman, I was much in demand to read scripts that were already written for me. They did my research, too. It was disillusioning." Then came a show earlier this year on ABC (after CBS had passed on it) called Garry Moore's People Poll. Moore won't even talk about that one; "I've learned," he says, "that performers don't cross the line into public affairs. You're either a Garry Moore or a Walter Cronkite." (Would that more celebrities took a cue from him.) So why not just chuck the whole thing, Higgins asks? "I'm still too young to sit around being bored," he replies. It's not money; he made a half million a year during his peak years, and his contract has eight years to go, whether or not he does anything. 

This September found Moore back with a new version of The Garry Moore Show. He wanted the show to be creative, like his old daytime show, where "The dancers danced, the singers sang and I stayed the hell out of the way." But with the new show near the bottom of the ratings (The Doan Report, in fact, reports that CBS has decided to pull the plug), he's been bringing in guest stars and special episodes. The show's on Sunday nights, up against NBC's Bonanza. Moore's philosophical about it, but hopeful: "If they take me off, who're they going to throw in to do better?" (The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, as it turned out.)

"I’m worried," he continues. "I don’t admit it to myself, but I am. Because if I bomb out, I’m in serious trouble. I won’t know what to do with myself." Moore sounds like a man struggling with a midlife TV crisis. "I’m 51, and what have I been doing? I’ve been going out there once a week and trying to get a few laughs—which is tremendously foolish for a man my age."

Moore sounds not like a bitter man, but one who wonders what he really has to show for his considerable success. "I hated being in the 'famous' business," he says. "The adulation is all out of proportion. Everything is instant service. You get to expect it because you think you've earned it—which you haven't." He didn't and still doesn't, think he's earned it. "I’ve tried desperately to keep my worth in perspective. If nothing else, I’ve tried to live realistically."

As for the future—well, who knows? "As I’ve said," Moore concludes, "this is sort of a last-ditch stand for me: But I feel a winner doesn’t admit defeat until defeat happens to him. So I'll fight. At this point in my life, I'm interested in achieving the impossible." As it turns out, the end of The Garry Moore Show isn't the end of Garry Moore; when To Tell the Truth is revived as a daily syndicated show in 1969, Moore comes on board as host, and stays with it until 1977.

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MST3K alert: The Killer Shrews (1959) Carnivorous beasts terrorize an island. James Best, Ingrid Goude. Craigis: Baruch Lumet. Baines: Gordon McLendon. Lacer: Ken Curtis. (Saturday, 1:00 a.m., KCRA) Yes, that Ken Curtis, and that James Best. Curtis makes for a cowardly villain, Best an unappealing hero, and Ingrid Goude the woman that they inexplicably fight over. Oh, and of course, killer shrews. And that's why this movie is on MST3K. TV