This week in TV Guide: June 1, 1974

We continue our tour through American history, TV Guide-style, we come to late spring, 1974, and the question before the house (and Senate, for that matter), is this: whether or not the impeachment of President Nixon, if it comes to that, should be televised.

Remember, at this point in time we're still a long way from regular television coverage of the House and Senate. C-SPAN is just a gleam in Brian Lamb's eye; with the exception of the State of the Union and other major speeches, cameras have never been permitted in the hallowed halls of Congress. With an eye toward the ultimate in summer replacement series, TV Guide's Neil Hickey takes Congressional temperatures to see what the forecast is.

Hickey canvassed 135 members of the House; 78 favored full coverage, and another 10 leaned toward it, while the remainder opposed bringing in the cameras. Interestingly, there doesn't seem to be a partisan split on this issue—Illinois Democrat Dan Rostenkowski, who would wind up one of the most powerful men in the House, is strongly against it. "Every one of us in the House is 'political,' and that animal in all of us will surface if each is allowed an amount of time to make a televised speech." He fears that under these circumstances, members who didn't usually speak publicly would be forced into it, lest their constituents wonder why they were silent on the issue. 

On the other hand, future New York City mayor Ed Koch, then a member of the House, favors it: "We do—in democratic fashion—what the Russians and the Chinese, who have closed societies, do by revolution and killing." Republican representative Delbert Latta of Ohio, who also favors coverage, thinks the public will see through any attempt at grandstanding, but Pennsylvania Republican George Goodling thinks "no good" will come from televising the hearings. And Walter Fauntrov, a Democrat from the District of Columbia, worries that national television coverage might endanger the right to a fair trial later on; nevertheless, he feels the public's right to know supersedes these concerns, which he adds can be mitigated by safeguards. Future House Speaker Tip O'Neill opposes the cameras, but everyone knows the true answer lies with the current Speaker, Carl Albert of Oklahoma, and he's not speaking.

It winds up a moot point, at least this time. Although the House Judiciary Committee votes to send the articles of impeachment to the full House, President Nixon resigns before things go any further. By the time of President Clinton's impeachment, cameras are already standard issue in Congress. It is fascinating, though, to see the representatives struggling with this question, caught up in the conflict between practical tradition and the march of technology. What's really amazing is that by the time of Donald Trump's two impeachment trials, most people didn't even seem to notice. I may be generalizing that; I can't recall whether or not the networks provided complete coverage, or if large parts of it were relegated to the cable news channels. But it certainly represents a different time, doesn't it?

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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.

The television season comes to an end, and with it comes one of the industry's most coveted awards: The Amorys. In the midst of a humorous take on awards shows, Cleve dispenses his honors on the best of the television season.

Telly Savalas, star of Kojak, wins Best Actor in a Dramatic Show; Jean Marsh of Upstairs, Downstairs wins Best Actress in a Dramatic Show. The supporting races each end in three-way ties: Supporting Actor is split between Gordon Jackson (Upstairs, Downstairs), John Alderton (Upstairs, Downstairs) and Ralph Waite (The Waltons), while Angela Badderly (Upstairs, Downstairs), Nicola Pagett (Upstairs, Downstairs) and Rachel Gurney (Upstairs, Downstairs) make the Supporting Actress race an intramural affair.

Caroll O'Connor of All in the Family and Mary Tyler Moore of—what else? The Mary Tyler Moore Show—take home Best Actor and Actress in a Comedy; Ed Asner and Ted Knight demonstrate the power of MTM's supporting cast by dividing Supporting Actor, while on the Supporting Actress side there are no losers! Valerie Harper (MTM), Suzanne Pleshette (The Bob Newhart Show), Adrienne Barbeau (Maude) and Susan St. James (McMillan & Wife) share the honors. Oh, and Karl Malden and Michael Douglas of The Streets of San Francisco win best Support of Each Other. Walter Cronkite is Best Newscaster, and William F. Buckley Jr. is both Best Interviewer and Best Interviewee. Finally, the shows: Kojak is Best New Drama, Good Times is Best New Comedy, and Calucci's Dept. is Best New Comedy to be Canceled.

An Editor's Note at the end tells us that "The Amory Awards to not necessarily reflect the views of TV Guide, but the editors will defend to the death, or thereabouts, Mr. Amory's right to bestow them." Freedom of the Press still lives! Well, sort of.

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On special occasions, we get to take a simultaneous look at three of the great rock music shows of the pre-MTV era: NBC's The Midnight Special, ABC's In Concert, and the syndicated Don Kirshner's Rock Concert. Let's look at this week's listings and see who's better, who's best.

Yes, this is a very special week. Not only do we have all three of them this week, but thanks to the multiple stations carrying Kirshner, we actually have two editions to compare to Special and Concert. Let's not waste any time; we'll get right to it!

Kirshner #1 (KRCR, Redding): The Mark-Almond band, Dave Mason and Jessie Colin Young are the guests. Also a taped segment featuring the late Jim Croce. Highlights: "The Neighborhood Man" (Mark-Almond), "Baby...Please" (Mason), "Song for Juli" (Young).

Kirshner #2 (KOVR, Sacramento): The Eagles, Linda Ronstadt and Jackson Browne team up on "Take It Easy." Other highlights: "Silver Threads and Golden Needles" (Ronstadt), "James Dean" (Eagles, Browne).

Special: The Kinks are this week's hosts, with the Electric Light Orchestra, Buddy Miles, and rock artists Suzi Quatro and Alan Price. Highlights: "You Really Got Me" (Kinks), "Showdown" (ELO), "Life is What You Make It" (Miles), "Glycerine Queen" (Quatro).

In Concert: Emerson, Lake and Palmer and Black Oak Arkansas, from the California Jam. Highlights: "Lucky Man," "Karn Evil 9 Impressions 1 and 3" (Emerson, Lake & Palmer), "Hot 'n' Nasty," "Dixie" (Black Oak Arkansas).

What a feast of choices, hmm? I admit that I'm not a fan of anyone on Kirshner #2, but they're all big name, and if you like them, it's a spectacular show. In Concert would probably have been better if they'd had Emerson, Lake and Palmer for the whole 90 minutes. And Kirshner #1 has hits from top to bottom, and you can't go wrong with Mark-Almond as your lead act. But The Midnight Special has a very strong cast, from the Kinks through to Suzi Quatro, and one of my personal favorites, ELO. Any show with them will almost always get the nod, and so we'll give the edge this week to The Special. I wonder when we'll run across a matchup like this again?

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How about some food? If you're like me (and, as always, be glad if you aren't), you might have had hot dogs on Memorial Day. But what if you're looking for something just a little different from the typical wiener-in-a-bun? 

If you're interested, the Fourth of July is right around the corner!

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We're in the Bay Area this week, and of course things are a little different, given that we usually visit the area in one of our 1960s editions. But let's see what kind of fun we have in store!

One of the highlights has to be KQED, 20th annual Auction, which begins Saturday (1:00 p.m. PT) and runs throughout the week. Several PBS stations throughout the nationstaged fundraisers like this in the 70s, including KTCA in the Twin Cities. These were tremendously fun affairs to watch; Action Auction, our local event, was once held in the Garden Court at Southdale, the nation's first indoor mall, and for several years after that was broadcast from the State Fairgrounds; representatives from all the local stations took part as guest auctioneers, selling routine items as well as vacations, cars, and popcorn wagons. KQED has a fine collection of prizes this year: a guest role as an extra on The Streets of San Francisco, cruises to Hawaii, South America and Alaska, and an antique Persian rug. This article relates the colorful history of KQED's auction which, like that of KTCA's, has long since faded into the ether of television history.

As far as Saturday morning is concerned, do you remember this era, when ABC was really into doing hour-long "movie" cartoons, often crossing over with the network's prime-time programs, past and present? Well, Marlo Thomas voices her most famous character, Ann Marie, in ABC's animated movie That Girl in Wonderland (11:00 a.m.), in which she visits Snow White, the Wizard of Oz, and Sleeping Beauty while preparing a book of fairy tales. Meanwhile, the real Alice in Wonderland, played by Charlotte Henry, turns up in the classic, star-studded 1933 movie version (6:30 p.m., KGSC), with a guest cast that includes Gary Cooper, Edward Everett Horton, W.C. Fields, Richard Arlen, Cary Grant, Billy Barty, and Jack Oakie. 

Also on Saturday, Summer Semester (6:30 a.m.) begins an interesting, and timely, series on "The American Presidency," with political scientist Dr. Robert Remini is the lecturer; when I saw the topic I thought it might be someone I'd read in college, but no such luck.

Sunday gives us a Columbo repeat (8:30 p.m.) that's on my list of all-time favorite political episodes; a "dynamic" Senatorial campaign stages the murder of his campaign manager to look like an attempt on his life, in an effort to win the election, Jackie Cooper is very good, and appropriately greasy and shift, asn the candidate parties won't kill to get. Later, the latter-day Walter Mitty, George Plimpton, does another of his documentaries in which he goes behind the scenes of his attempt to become an actor in John Wayne's Rio Lobo. (9:00 p.m., KTXL).

And speaking of smarmy, greasy characters as we were a moment ago, Rod Steiger is up there with the best of them, and he chews the scene in the movie No Way to Treat a Lady (Monday, 9:00 p.m., ABC), as a "mad but clevel" killer. Would have made a great episode of Columbo, don't you think? We've also got a "Panic Now!" CBS Reports special entitled "Food—The Next Crisis!" (10:00 p.m.) that deals with the coming food shortage in the United States in the wake of the "worldwide competition for food." For instance, "more American-grown food is being 'drained and tapped' abroad because “grain-eating and pork-eating countries have now acquired a taste for beef." The result is sure to mean tightening the belt for American consumers.

Tuesday is the night of the California primary, a local affair given that it's a non-presidential year, but KTVU celebrates in another of my all-time favorite political thrillers, 1962's Advise and Consent (8:00 p.m.), based on the Pulitzer-winning novel of the same title, with a cast that includes Henry Fonda, Charles Laughton, Don Murray, Walter Pidgeon, Burgess Meredith, Peter Lawford, Gene Tierney, Franchot Tone, Lew Ayres, George Grizzard, and Paul Ford. The story ain't bad, either.

In case you haven't noticed, the week is heavy with movie highlights, since in the land of the rerun, the movie is often king. We start with 1964's The World of Henry Orient (Wednesday, 9:00 p.m., NBC), which Judith Crist really likes, calling it a "delightful 1964 lineation of the agonies and ecstasies, the laughter and the lump-inthroat of teen-age girlhood," with Tippy Walker and Merrie Spaeth as the adolescents, and Angela Lansbury, Peter Sellers, Paula Prentiss, Tom Bosley and Bibi Osterwald are some of the adults.

That's followed on Thursday by the network prime-time premiere of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (9:00 p.m,. CBS), with Maggie Smith brilliant in her Best Actress Oscar-winning performance. Crist adores this one as well, particularly Smith's portrayal of "the spinster teacher, a romantic tyrant, a woman of self-delusion who imposes her illusions upon others in the guise of putting 'old heads on young shoulders.'  'Give me a girl at an impressionable age,' she declares, 'and she is mine for life.'" And that, friends, is why school is so important—for good or ill.

On Friday, one of television's most literate and funniest sitcoms, The Odd Couple (9:30, ABC), comes up with a doozy: Metropolitan Opera star Marilyn Horne, one of my favorite singers, stars as Felix's latest discovery, "a timid woman who’s too shy to perform in Felix’s opera unless her friend Oscar is in it too." And that leads us to. . .

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MST3K alert: The Amazing Colossal Man (1957) Plutonium transforms an army colonel into a 70-foot madman. Glenn Lanagan, Cathy Downes, William  (Friday, 11:00 p.m., KBHK in San Francisco) Admit it; you'd be plenty teed off too if you'd been transformed, though no fault of your own, into a 70-foot giant. Unfortunately, since the rights to use the movie expired, you can no longer see the MST3K version except on YouTube. However, you can catch the unwanted, unasked-for sequel, War of the Colossal Beast, with a completely different cast. Take it from me: if you've seen one colossal man, you've seen them all. TV

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This week in TV Guide: December 29, 1973

Of the four traditional major college football bowl games—Rose, Sugar, Cotton, Orange—the Sugar was often cast in the role of the red-headed stepchild. It was frequently the fault of the Sugar Bowl organization itself, in that it was the victim of its own racial policies, for instance, in refusing to invite integrated teams to play schools from the South. (Louisiana State, the team that has played in the Sugar Bowl more than any other, was actually prohibited by state law until 1961 from playing integrated teams; even after that, the ban existed informally. I wrote about that whole situation here.) As a result, the quality of teams participating in the game often suffered, falling significantly behind that of the other three. In 1972, in an effort to separate the game from the rest of the New Year's Day games, the Sugar Bowl was moved to New Year's Eve, where its only competition came in the form of serious drinking and debauchery.

In 1973, however, the Sugar Bowl presented the sport with a game for the ages, an underrated gem that tends to get lost amongst the other contenders for "Game of the Century": a matchup between the #1, undefeated Alabama Crimson Tide, and the #3, undefeated Notre Dame Fighting Irish, with nothing less than the mythical national championship on the line.* (Monday, 7:00 p.m. CT, ABC)

*Oklahoma, ranked #2, was on probation and ineligible to play in bowl games. It wouldn't prevent the Sooners from winning the crown the following year, though.

It had been dark and rainy during the day, with tornado warnings in the area, and at one point, ABC Sports head Roone Arledge allegedly wondered out loud if he might be able to persuade the two schools to postpone the game for a few days, so that the weather wouldn't play a factor. Absurd, I know—even he didn't have that kind of power back then. (It wouldn't be until 1987 that television had that kind of clout, when NBC "persuaded" the organizers of the Fiesta Bowl to move a similar #1-vs-#2 matchup from New Year's Day to January 2 for greater exposure.) At any rate, the moment passed, the weather dried up, and the game kicked off as scheduled. The two teams traded the lead into the fourth quarter; then, with Notre Dame nursing a one-point lead, the Fighting Irish found themselves staring at third and long from inside their own five-yard line. In a daring bit of play-calling—the kind that wins national championships—Notre Dame quarterback Tom Clements, from his own end zone, completes a pass to Roben Weber for 35 yards and a first down. Notre Dame holds on from there for the 24-23 win in this first-ever meeting between the two college giants, and claims the national title. 

Today's college football playoff system may be better at choosing a national champion (although I think the jury's out on that, too), but it's come at the expense of the New Year's bowl games. It's also greatly lessened the entertainment value of New Year's Day television, and I"m not sure we'll ever get that back. 

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On special occasions, we get to take a simultaneous look at three of the great rock music shows of the pre-MTV era: NBC's The Midnight Special, ABC's In Concert, and the syndicated Don Kirshner's Rock Concert. Let's look at this week's listings and see who's better, who's best.

Kirshner: Johnny Winter and Argent perform at New York's Palace Theatre. Music: Johnny Winter (band) - "Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo," "Stone County," "Jumpin' Jack Flash," "Johnny B. Goode" and "Silver Train." Argent - "God Gave Rock and Roll to You," "I Am the Dance of Ages," "I Don't Believe in Miracles," "It's Only Money" and "Hold Your Head Up."

Concert: We're not given much information other than that the performers are Seals & Crofts, Jessie Colin Young, Eddie Kendricks, and Walter Heath.

Special: Every gues sings a million-selling hit on this show, which includes the Edgar Winter Group ("Frankenstein"), the late Jim Croce ("Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown), Loggins and Messina ("Your Mama Don't Dance"), Al Green ("Call Me"), Curtis Mayfield ("Superfly"), Billy Preston ("Will It Go Round in Circles?"), Gladys Knight and the Pips ("Midnight Train to Georgia"), Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show ("Cover of Rolling Stone"), the O'Mays ("Love Train"), Gilbert O'Sullivan ("Get Down"). 

It's quite the red-letter day here, as this is, by my count, only the fifth time we've had the chance to compare all three of these shows at the same time. For all that, it's kind of an uneven playing field this week, as Special counters the regularly-scheduled episodes on the other two series with a compilation show featuring nothing but million-sellers. Practically every song on this lineup is part of the soundtrack for anyone who grew up in the 1970s (or listens to 70s on 7 on SiriusXM). However, we deal with what we have, and this week there's no question: the clock strikes midnight for In Concert and Kirshner, which makes it a special night for The Midnight Special.

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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. 

We are, Cleveland Amory points out, in the era of alternates. Some series, such as The Name of the Game, alternated leads from week to week; others, the best-known of which is NBC's Sunday Mystery Movie, alternated the series themselves, a concept known as the "wheel" series. Shaft, the focus of this week's review, falls into that category, alternating with Hawkins (starring James Stewart) and The CBS Tuesday Night Movies. Next season, Cleve suspects, we'll see even more alternating, perhaps between offense, defense, and special teams. 

At any rate, Shaft is a rarity among television series spun off from movies, in that the star of the movies, Richard Roundtree, reprises his role on the small screen. That is a plus as far as things go, and that's about as far as it does go, because otherwise Shaft is pretty much as run-of-the-mill as every other private detective series on TV: there's the PI, his frienemy on the police force, and his client, plus the assorted baddies that are out to get the client. The result, Amory points out, is that "each episode must rely almost entirely on the guest stars and the plot. And so far the plots have been, at best, only fair to muddling." And this leads almost directly to another problem the series faces: its 90-minute running time, which is why the Tuesday Night Movies can be part of the format. "Ninety minutes is movie length, and only a very exceptional TV episode can carry it without dragging. And when a detective show drags, make no mistake, it is a real drag." 

Even when the plot clicks, as it did in the premiere, it requires a certain suspension of disbelief that may be a bit too much for the average viewer. The premiere revolved around a kangaroo court set up to retry "guilty" defendants who had escaped punishment through one means or another, along with the guilty party's lawyer. The story was fast-paced and exciting, aided by fine performances from Richard Jaeckel as the bad cop (naturally), Dean Jagger as the corrupt judge, and Robert Culp as the ringleader of the entire operation. Now, a cast like that is movie quality. However, for this to work, you had to accept the concept that such a court could continue to operate in New York City without getting caught. If you could, great. If not, well, as Cleve says, "join the club." He also has trouble with what he views as gratuitous and unnecessary violence, not to mention the use of slow motion and stills. In another episode, a pimp's brother takes a slow-motion dive out a window, "and kind of stays up—well, the only thing left to believe was that the 90 minutes too, must be up." 

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Since we're on the subject of comparisons, there was something else on Monday night besides the Sugar Bowl: the battle of the network New Year's Eve programs. It's easy to forget that Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve premiered not on ABC, but NBC, appearing in the timeslot usually occupied by The Tonight Show (10:30 p.m. CT). This year, the show comes from the ballroom of the Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA with host George Carlin, Billy Preston, the Pointer Sisters, Tower of Power and Linda Ronstadt—and, of course, live coverage of the ball drop with Dick in Times Square. (Ironically, ABC's Wide World of Entertainment counter-programs that night with American Bandstand's 20th Anniversary Show, starring—of course—Dick Clark.) Beginning in 1974, New Year's Rockin' Eve adds Dick's name to the title and moves to ABC, where it remains to this day.

Meanwhile, on CBS Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians make their 18th consecutive New Year's Eve appearance on television, having started on CBS radio in 1929. (10:30 p.m., CBS) Guy's sole guest was singer Barbara McNair. Among the pieces the Royal Canadians would play that night, besides "Auld Lang Syne," is "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown," and if you've ever seen Sinatra sing this song, you'll appreciate that it can be a painful thing to see and hear. When I was growing up, the local CBS affiliate in Minneapolis-St. Paul, WCCO, always tape-delayed this broadcast to begin at 11:30 p.m., in order for the balldrop celebration to occur at midnight local time. In the interests of broadcast accuracy, I'll note that most stations in the Central time zone probably carried it at 10:30 p.m.

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A great lineup for New Year's Day. CBS kicks things off at 9:00 a.m. with the Rose Parade preview, featuring hosts Bob Barker and June Lockhart and Grand Marshal Charles Schulz. NBC counters with the Junior Orange Bowl Parade at the same time (the King Orange Jamboree Parade had been shown the previous evening), followed by their own parade preview show, hosted by Doc Severinsen (9:45 a.m.) At 9:30 a.m. CBS is off to Dallas for the Cotton Bowl Parade, while the independent WTCN carries KTLA's coverage of the Rose Parade preview.  At 10:30 a.m., everyone's on hand for the Tournament of Roses Parade, and the fitting theme, "Happiness Is . . . " We could all use the suggestions. 

With the move of the Sugar Bowl to New Year's Eve, the bowl scene is a little less cluttered, with each game having its own block of time: the Cotton Bowl (1:00 p.m., CBS), with Nebraska defeating Texas 19-3; Rose Bowl (3:45 p.m., NBC), with a final score of Ohio State 42, USC 24; and Orange Bowl as the nightcap (7:00 p.m., NBC), Penn State beating LSU 16-9. Back then college football games didn't run four hours; NBC even scheduled a recap of the day's coverage for 9:45 p.m., before the local news.

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For no particular reason, we'll take this opportunity to look back once again on CBS's murderer's row of Saturday night shows, starting with All in the Family at 7:00 p.m., and continuing through to M*A*S*H, Mary Tyler Moore (in which Phyllis discovers her husband is having an affair with Happy Homemaker Betty White), The Bob Newhart Show, and The Carol Burnett Show (with guests John Byner and Helen Reddy). It's still unequaled for star power, as far as I can see.

Sunday belongs to professional football, with the NFC and AFC championships.  In the NFC, Minnesota takes on Dallas (noon, CBS), with the Vikings coming out on top, 27-10. In the AFC, the defending Super Bowl champions, Miami, defeats Oakland by the same score (3:00 p.m., NBC). Two weeks later, the Dolphins will overwhelm the Vikings in the Super Bowl, the last win for Miami and the second of four defeats for Minnesota. By contrast, this year the NFL's regular season won't even be done on December 30. For something a little different, Malcolm Muggeridge, the British humorist and journalist whom you've read many times here at the blog, is William F. Buckley Jr.'s guest on Firing Line (9:00 p.m., PBS).

On Monday, Gunsmoke (7:00 p.m., CBS) presents a backdoor pilot for an upcoming series, Dirty Sally, starring Jeanette Nolan. When this was originally shown in 1971, it received more mail on than any other episode in the series' long run. Despite Nolan being nominated for an Emmy, the series will disappear after the obligatory 13 weeks. After that, our favorite private detective, Joe Mannix (Mike Connors) visits Lucy on a Here's Lucy tale that has the redhead being chased by two bank robbers (8:00 p.m., CBS). 

I suppose the only thing that can compete with football on Tuesday is a disaster flick, and ABC has the answer with a rerun of the telemovie Short Walk to Daylight, with James Brolin starring in this tale of New York City earthquake survivors stranded in the subway system. (7:30 p.m.) Judith Crist says "The plot's as incredible as the characters are stereotyped." Better to stick to the football. 

Wednesday, The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour welcomes Tennessee Ernie Ford and Lyle Waggoner to the first show of the new year. (7:00 p.m., CBS) Late night, Rod Serling travels to Los Angeles International Airport for a talk with people involved in the air travel business, including pilots and stewardesses, airport security personnel, and nervous travelers (10:30 p.m., ABC). Is there any resemblance at all between air travel then and now, besides the idea that you're flying through the air in a metal tube?

On Thursday, an NBC News Presents special entitled "The College Money Crunch" (9:00 p.m.) goes to show that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Edwin Newman's report focuses on the middle-class, caught between the poor, who receive all the financial support, and the wealthy, who don't need it. I can't imagine how the amount of debt back then would compare to what it is today. 

One more bit of sports rounds out the week on Friday: a rare regular-season prime time appearance by the National Hockey League, as the Boston Bruins take on the New York Rangers from Madison Square Garden; it's the kickoff (to mix a metaphor) of NBC's NHL coverage for the year. (7:30 p.m.)

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And now the news. In The Doan Report, Rhode Island Senator John Pastore is again calling for hearings on television violence—something that seems to come around every so often, like malaria, only to have it recur again a few years later. There's also a movement afoot to curb the proliferation of network reruns. In favor: unions, who hope that more episodes will increase studio employment.  Opposed: the networks, who claim that cutting back on reruns would pose a significant financial hardship. Now, we've got "seasons" that barely last more than a dozen episodes, and a proliferation of "unscripted television" that renders the whole point of employment moot. I may complain about television in the 1970s, but there's a reason why we still include the decade when we talk about the "good old days." 

Speaking of episodes, the new year used to introduce what was called the "Second Season," when the networks introduced their first wave of replacements for their failed shows, and so a number of series make their swan songs this week: Tenafly and the anthology Love Story on NBC, and Roll Out! on CBS. Roll Out! was, some thought, the Tiffany Network's attempt, to copy the success of M*A*S*H, transferred to a World War II setting, while Tenafly was notable for being one of the first series to feature a black actor in the lead role, with James MacEachin starring as a former police detective-turned private eye. You'll notice, between Tenafly and Shaft, that it was a bad season for black private detectives. I suspect this has more than a little to do with how television turned potentially unique characters into bland copycats of those that were already on the airwaves.

Back to the subject at hand, though, which is the upcoming Second Season. With the shifting of the schedules, a few favorites are preparing for new timeslots: ABC's Toma, which will take a circuitous route to become Baretta next season, will be moving from Thursday to Friday to make way for two new series, Chopper One* and Firehouse; neither new series will make it past the Second Season. Arthur Hill's legal drama, Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law is also on the move, from its Wednesday time to Saturdays. 

*A type in TV Guide rendered this series "Hopper One."  Perhaps that's why they weren't able to find an audience; the audience wasn't able to find the show.

And then there's a series that did make just a little splash. At the conclusion of the final episode of "The Little Farm" on PBS's Masterpiece Theatre, the TV Guide notes that "Next week: 'Upstairs, Downstairs,' a 13-part drama about life in Edwardian England" will begin. As I recall, that went over a bit more than those other series...

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And that kid on the cover? That's "Mason Reese, 7-year old huckster." Back in the early 70s, Reese was ubiquitous on television, appearing on commercials for Ivory soap, Post Raisin Bran, Perdue chicken, Underwood chicken spread, the Zayre store chain, and more. If he wasn't pitching products, he was chatting it up with the likes of Dick Cavett and Mike Douglas.

When asked how he liked the business, he replied, "It's fun. You get to travel around and meet lots of important people and shoot crap with the cameramen."

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MST3K alert: The Undead (1957) Experiments in reincarnation hurtle a scientist back to the dark ages. Pamela Duncan, Richard Garland, Allison Hayes. (Saturday, 11:30 p.m., WTCN) "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

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This week in TV Guide: October 5, 1974

This may come as something of a shock to those of you who think history started just last week, but before there was fake news, there was fake news. As Edwin Kiester Jr. discovered, "a significant—and perhaps growing—number of sponsored "news items" are appearing on your favorite newscast, probably without your being fully aware of it." And, as is almost always the case, the surest way to find them is to follow the money trail.

For example, there was a recent report on "how cereal manufacturers are increasing the amount of nutrients in their products," which included a clip of a production line showing vitamins added to the cereal mixture. This report was seen by an estimated 11 million people on 100 stations nationwide. And, oh-by-the-way, it was sponsored by the Cereal Institute, the trade group of cereal manufacturers. And then there was the feature on the Plymouth National Trouble-shooting Contest, held in Texas Stadium in Irving, Texas. The competition "pits teams of high school auto mechanics against one another to see which can find and fix an auto-repair problem most quickly." Millions of viewers saw this film which was sponsored by Chrysler, manufacturer of Plymouth cars. And so on.

These one-minute segments, which spring up in big- and small-market stations alike, from independents to network O&O stations, "capitalize on the objective news around them to plug, plead or simply image-build for the clients who pay for them." In some cases, a station will run a caption on the film identifying the source or identifying the source verbally; other times,  a station will run the footage with no attribution whatsoever. The Federal Communications Commission, much in the news lately, has a rule against such things (which is why you see those "valuable consideration" messages at the end of game shows), but it's never been applied specifically to newscasts, except in the cases of information provided by politicians or other groups "promoting controversial causes." 

Kiester points out that there's nothing inherently wrong with wanting to improve one's public image; as well, many of the items discussed in these "commercials" are legitimately of interest to the public. It's also often the case that local stations face obstacles to acquiring such footage themselves; in the case of a recent natural gas fire in California, only specially equipped film crews from PG&E were able to get close enough to film it. And need we mention that it offers a terrific return on investment? "For as little as $3500, a businessman can get his message in the hands of 200 of the Nation's 934 TV stations and, according to most industry estimates, can expect 50-60 per cent of them to use it." Most of these clips are more interested in building a positive image, rather than getting involved in a controversial issue or plugging a particular product. 

Kiester stresses that it's not easy getting such planted items into newcasts; news directors are wary of items they can't verify (imagine that!), and many stay away from them altogether. However, it's also true that directors often get bombarded with these kinds of clips, and there's often too little time to vet each one. As Dean Reeter, news director of KRCR in Redding, California, says, "I don't philosophically say no to unsolicited material. I'd be foolish not to look at another source of material." There's no agreement on whether or not use of such clips is increasing or decreasing, although as news budgets shrink, anything that "diminishes the necessity of putting on more personnel is a help." Most directors say the real rule of thumb they use is "whether they'd have filmed the event for themselves had they been able to send their own crew."

If all this sounds a little familiar, as if you'd been aware of it even without reading this article, it's probably because it's still going on. Back a few years ago, Sinclair Broadcast Group was fined $13.3 million by the FCC "for running over 1,700 commercials designed to look like news broadcasts over a six-month period without properly identifying them as paid content." In addition, Sinclair has been known for producing scripted news segments that are then labeled "must-run" on news broadcasts at the stations owned by the broadcast giant. Unlike some of the plants discussed above, many, if not most, of these scripted stories do contain a hard political message, one that leans to the right. (There was a wonderful compilation video showing dozens of news anchors, all reading verbatim the same story.) And then, who among us hasn't seen an infomercial or two that's been tricked up to look like a news story. (Considering the falling trustworthiness of television news, though, that may not be such an asset anymore.)

You can make of this what you will. Money talks, and nowadays it seems as if everything and everyone is up for sale, so I'll go back to the follow-the-money mantra. And, as we always say around here, plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. 

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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. 

Cleveland Amory is back on the soap opera beat this week with the NBC sudser How to Survive a Marriage, and given that the series ran a little over 15 months, I think we can safely say that many, many marriages survived for a longer stretch. Considering that it aims, in Amory's words, to "be different" (aimed at "the young marrieds and divorcees, people in their early 30s—you know, the old folks."), it could perhaps more accurately have been called How to Survive a Bad Idea the Viewers Didn't Want.

We could see the difference in the very first episode, a 90-minute gargantuan edition that, in Cleve's words, "seemed to reach for a new high in the new low, or anything goes, trend." A sample: "Chris gives a birthday party for her husband Larry, and in waltzes, or rather frugs, Sandra from the 'curculation' department in Larry's office. In the living room, Larry catches Sandra's pass, and Chris intercepts. After the party, there is a scene. Larry goes to Sandra's and immediately gets very sleepy. There is a bed scene that is not only explicit, but also, by TV standards, bare." But there's more, including a later scene in which "Larry gets sleep again, and this time he goes to bed with Chris. (You remember—his wife.)" This attempt at reconciliation falls flat, though (so to speak); "They can't, he tells her, communicate. Our theory is that they can't take the dialogue lying down." Larry eventually leaves Chris for Sandra, but even here, says Amory, storm clouds are on the horizon: "For one thing, he thinks she is washing his shirts, while in reality she sends them to the cleaners." (If that doesn't scream "new generation," I don't know what does.) Furthermore, she wants a serious relationship with Larry, and a friend advisers her to talk to him and see if "what you have is worth salvaging." Amory's observation: Chris would be better off to "hire a deep-sea diver."*

*There's also an article this week by Steve Elmore, the original Peter Willis before he was replaced; Elmore's article gives us a behind-the-scenes view of a program in shambles: drawing the wrong audience (teens instead of divorced women), cast and personnel changes, and fading morale. Frankly, I'm surprised the show made it for even 15 months.   

This brief review barely scratches the surface of How to Survive a Marriage, though, and it's fortunate for all concerned that the star of the show is psychiatrist Julie Franklin, played by soap opera veteran Rosemary Prinz. And it's a good thing, too, Amory affirms, for his show really needs a psychiatrist. "Not for the characters, but for the writers." It's all a bit too much for Amory, and for the viewers too, it would appear; while some of the women are "fairly interesting," the men are almost uniformly grumpy. "Maybe they should try another profession, like say, becoming critics. You know, where you're supposed to be grumpy."

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On special occasions, we get to take a simultaneous look at three of the great rock music shows of the pre-MTV era: NBC's The Midnight Special, ABC's In Concert, and the syndicated Don Kirshner's Rock Concert. Let's look at this week's listings and see who's better, who's best.

Kirshner: Rory Gallagher, Electric Flag, Steeleye Span, and comic Robert Klein are the guests. Selections include "Million Miles Away," "Who's That Comin'," "Every Now and Then."

Concert: Anne Murray (hostess), rock-and-roll singer Suzi Quatro, and the Spnners and Ohio Players soul groups are the guests. Songs include "Just One Look," "You Won't See Me," "Son of a Rotten Gambler" (Anne); "48 Crash," "All Shook Up" (Suzi); "Mighty Love," "I'm Coming Home," "Love Don't Love Nobody" (Spinners).

Special: Jose Feliciano (host), Buffy Sainte-Marie, Jesse Colin Young, the rock group Hot Tuna, and Main Ingredient soul artists. Songs: "My Sweet Lord," "Golden Lady," "Love's Theme," "Chico and the Man," TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)" (Jose); "I Can't Take it No More," That's the Way You Fall in Love" (Buffy).

For only the third time that we've been doing these TV Guide reviews, we have all three music shows on hand, so if you can't find anything here to your liking, you've no one to blame but yourself. Of course, I blame myself for things quite frequently, so it's anyone's guess how this is going to turn out. One way to distract myself from this decision is to look at the lineup on Soul Train (Friday, 10:00 p.m., WSBK), which features Marvin Gaye, Al Green, the Jackson 5, B.B. King, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Johnny Mathis, the O'Jays, Smokey Robinson, Sly and the Family Stone, the Staple Singers, and Tower of Power. An easy winner, right? This, however, is not an option, since Soul Train is neither Kirshner, In Concert, or Midnight Special. Given this choice, therefore, while each program has its advantages, I'll give the nod to Jose and the Special, even though it may be just kind of special.

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Saturday sees the beginning of Major League Baseball's League Championship Series. For those of you too young to remember, there was a time when only four teams qualified for the baseball postseason: the two division winners from each league. It made the playoffs kind of special, a concept (one among many) that baseball seems to have forgotten about over the years. At any rate, Oakland and Baltimore are the combatants in the American League, while Los Angeles faces off with Pittsburgh in the National. (I know, some of those teams seem strange to see in the postseason, too.) The action begins at 1:00 p.m. ET on NBC with the National League opener, live from Pittsburgh, followed at 4:00 p.m. by the American League curtain-raiser from Oakland. At this rate, the World Series will easily conclude before Thanksgiving! 

Sunday's centerpiece is the television premiere of The Last Picture Show (9:00 p.m., ABC), Peter Bogdanovich's adaptation of the Larry McMurtry best seller (who also co-wrote the screenplay), which transcends what Judith Crist calls "The Winter of '52" type of storytelling to become a movie that exhibits "sensitivity, taste, intellectual honesty and intelligence [that] distinguish[s] their work from then warmed-over nostalgic schmaltz that has become the commerce of recent years." Its story combines coming-of-age elements with a time of societal decadence, using as a metaphor the closing of a small town movie house. The cast includes Oscar winners Ben Johnson and Cloris Leachman, along with Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Eileen Brennan, Cybill Shepherd, and Ellyn Burstyn, who combine to produce "an outstanding American film by one of our top young talents." For my money, it should have won Best Picture over The French Connection, but what do I know? On the other hand, you might just decide to check out after watching The Sonny Comedy Revue (8:00 p.m., ABC), with Sonny's guests Barbara Eden, James Brolin, and the Temptations. YMMV.

Half of the Rat Pack—Sammy Davis Jr. and Peter Lawford—star in Salt and Pepper on NBC's Monday Night at the Movies (9:00 p.m.) The duo (Davis plays Salt and Lawford is Pepper, and we're supposed to laugh because, you know, we'd expect the black guy to be named after the black condiment and the white guy—well, you get the joke. Ha ha.) play a pair of gamblers trying to crack a murder committed at their club. Don't let that lame premise fool you, though; it's actually a pretty good movie, with a crisp script by Michael Pertwee* and entertaining performances by the two stars; even Judith Crist likes it, and that says a lot.

*Brother of Doctor Who star Jon Pertwee.

ABC's Tuesday Movie of the Week (8:30 p.m.) is, well, impossible to pass up. I mean, look at the ad; would you not take a chance on Yvette Mimieux as a Hit Lady? She's Angela Villard, "a successful artist who works part time as a ruthless syndicate assassin." And she never misses. Hell of a part-time job, isn't it? I wonder if she ever ran into Chuck Barris during her assignments? (By the way, Mimeaux also wrote the script.) And speaking of professional hits, an explosive Hawaii Five-O (9:00 p.m., CBS) features William Windom as a senator who's the victim of a bomb threat—a threat that was apparently made by the senator himself. The fool, to think that he could pull the wool over Steve McGarrett's eyes.

Wednesday's highlight is a Bing Crosby special that's not Christmas-oriented, even though Der Bingle does sing "White Christmas." It's Bing Crosby and His Friends (9:00 p.m., CBS), and his friends include Bob Hope, Pearl Bailey and Sandy Duncan. Notwithstanding Crosby's long association with Hope, it's further proof (as if we needed it) that there was no such thing as a variety special that Bob Hope wouldn't do. And while we've already got our MST3K feature for the week (see below), here's one that should have been on the show: the 1974 TV movie Locusts, which includes "a swarm of grasshoppers threatening to destroy an entire town's harvest; and a local boy who needs to prove he's a man, not a coward." (8:30 p.m., ABC) It just goes to show you what you get when you cross Svengoolie with an Afterschool Special.

Speaking of sports as we were earlier, Thursday sees the second episode of one of the best and most delightful series PBS has ever had to offer: The Way it Was (8:00 p.m.), with sportscasting great Curt Gowdy hosting a look back at great moments in sports history. Tonight's show (view it here) recalls the famous 1958 NFL Championship Game between the Baltimore Colts and New York Giants, the first sudden-death playoff game in history; it's often called "the greatest football game ever played," and was unquestionably one of the games that put professional football on the map. Johnny Unitas, Raymond Berry, Lenny Moore, Frank Gifford, Kyle Rote, and Charlie Conerly are the legends who join Gowdy*. Back in the days before the internet, when it was near impossible to see clips from old sporting events, The Way it Was was one of the few places where one could revisit these classic contests. I loved this series; I don't think I ever missed an episode.

*Unitas, Berry, Moore, and Gifford are all today in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and Gowdy is in the American Sportscasters Hall of Fame. What a collection of talent.

And it's hard to find a better way to bring down the curtain on our broadcasting week than with a repeat presentation of John Wayne's Oscar-winning performance in True Grit (8:30 p.m., ABC). Kim Darby and Glen Campbell co-star, and of course I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that the Cohn brothers' remake of True Grit won an Oscar for none other than one of the stars of The Last Picture Show, Jeff Bridges. Funny how those things work, isn't it? Later on, Police Woman (10:00 p.m., NBC) investigates two crimes that may or may not be related: "the rape of a socialite, and the murder—and possible rape—of a trollop." (Trollop: don't you just love that word? You seldom see as part of the modern vocabulary, and more's the pity. Here's a challenge: try and work it into a part of your normal conversation today.) What do you want to bet Pepper has to go undercover in this one?

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We've talked before about how syndicated reruns of series often went by different names if the original series was still in first-run on a network. Two of the more innocuous were Happy Days Again and Laverne & Shirley & Company, while The Rockford Files went by Jim Rockford, Private Investigator, Marcus Welby, M.D. was known as Robert Young, Family Doctor, and Ward Bond's Wagon Train episodes were called Major Adams, Trailmaster. 

With Ironside still wheeling along on NBC, the syndicated episodes were shown under the title The Raymond Burr Show, which, to my way of thinking, was slightly off; after all, everyone knows that the real Raymond Burr show was Perry Mason. Be that as it may, I think WTEV in New Bedford handles it all pretty well, don't you? Notice how it draws the eye to the name of the character, rather than the show itself. Bloody genius, as our friends from across the pond might say.

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MST3K alert: Last of the Wild Horses (1948). Strong Oregon scenics and a punchy finale brawl help this standard tale of a ranchers' war. James Ellison. (Saturday, 2:30 p.m., WSBK in Boston) A rare incursion into the Western genre for MST3K, it's probably better remembered for an outrageous host segment parody of the Star Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror," in which Dr. Forrester and TV's Frank are forced to riff the movie while Tom Servo and Gypsy try to rescue Mike and Crow from the alternate universe. Considering the movie that awaits them, I'm not sure they really want to return. TV

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This week in TV Guide: November 3, 1973

I had the option this week of several issues having to do with an election or its aftermath, but I think we're going to be getting more of that than we want over the next few days (and longer?), so let's skip ahead a couple of days to early November, and the man who may have "The Best Job in Sports." 

And why not? Jim McKay "travels 250,000 miles a year to the world's most exotic locales and the world's most exciting sports events, and he gets paid a great deal of money to do so." A lifetime "spanning the globe" has covered a lot of big events over the years: the Olympics; the Masters, U.S., and British Opens; the Indianapolis 500, the Grand Prix of Monaco and the 24 Hours of LeMans; the Grey Cup; the World Cup; the Triple Crown; Wimbledon; figure skating; track and field; even the world barrel jumping championship. How's that for starters? 

Jim McKay was one of what I call the "big game" announcers: whenever you heard his voice on television, you knew there was something big going on. Unlike most of the other announcers in that category—Curt Gowdy, Pat Summerall, Lindsay Nelson, Mike Emerick, for example—Jim McKay wasn't necessarily doing the biggest game— in town, but he had that rare ability to transcend the event he was covering, to make it important because the people participating in it were important. And for McKay, anyone taking part in an athletic event was important. In his charming autobiography The Real McKay, he tells the story of being in Islip, New York covering a demolition derby for Wide World of Sports. Interviewing the winner, McKay was inclined to treat the whole thing as a lark. But it was no lark to the winner, who had just won the demolition derby "world championship" and discussed his strategy as seriously as would any other athlete. McKay learned a valuable lesson that day: "I had committed an unforgivable bit of gaucherie, looking down on this man in a condescending manner during what he considered the greatest moment of his life." From then on, McKay said, he tried to approach all sports "through the eyes of its competitors."

McKay didn't start out in sports, nor did he even start out with the name McKay. His real name was Jim McManus, and he got his television start in Baltimore, as a serious news journalist. He worked with people like Douglas Edwards, interviewed scientists, and covered presidential inaugurations, or at least the parades. When he became host of a daily variety show in Baltimore, he was asked to change his last name so that the show could be called "The Real McKay." He did so, grudgingly, but always thought of himself as McManus and retained the name for the family that played such an important role in his life.  "It vaguely annoys me," he tells interviewer Neil Hickey. "But when you're young and working in Baltimore, you let yourself be talked into a lot of things.

It should be no surprise, then, that McKay proved himself more than equal to the task at his most famous, and most tragic, appearance: covering the massacre of the Israeli athletes at last year's Munich Olympics. It's still fresh in the mind, a year and two months later; "I've never had a reaction to anything I've ever reported that approximates the public response to what we did that day." He won a Peabody and an Emmy for that, to go along with other Emmys and other awards that marked his stellar career. They were all well deserved. 

There's also McKay the family man, who refers to he and his wife Margaret as "a team," and credits that "team" for much of his professional and personal success. He knows that hard work is essential to a successful marriage and family, and believes that a common faith and shared interests have much to do with it. He's proud of his son, Sean McManus, who will eventually become Chairman of CBS Sports, and equally proud of his daughter Mary, a counselor. Of the life he and his wife have shared, he says, "There is little more we could ask for." The miles add up over the years, as they will when you've got a job that spans the globe—over three million as of 1973—and he's often heard to mumble, "I gotta start figuring out how to stay home a little more, and I don't know how I'm going to do it."

McKay always felt it was a priviledge to have the job he had, to see the places and cover the events to which he was taken on Wide World, but in fact the priviledge was ours as well, to be able to have him take us there. He was one of the last of a (literally) dying breed, the sportscaster who put the game ahead of himself.

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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 day. 

We all know that in the world of television only one thing counts: ratings. And so it doesn't matter what the "extra" is in NBC's new sitcom The Girl with Something Extra is, as long as that extra includes extra viewers. Sally Field was a familiar face on television when this series premiered, but it would be wrong to think of her as a star, or at least a two-time Academy Award-winning star. And it's a good thing, because I'd hate to think that this is the best you could come up with for a star of that magnitude. 

The Girl with Something Extra features Field and John Davidson as a young married couple, with a challenge that most young marrieds don't usually face: Field has ESP, which on the "extra" scale is probably on par with, say, being a witch. And yet TGWSE (if we can call it that) comes and goes quicker than you can wiggle your nose; 22 episodes in all. Cleveland Amory may have identified the problem early on, when he points out that the producers have made the conscious decision to eliminate one of the key plot potentials: the chance that Field could use her supernatural powers for profit on, say, game shows (the emcee has to be thinking of the correct answer while he's reading the question) or the track (she'd know which horses felt like running). Says producer Larry Rosen, "For someone less honest than Sally, ESP could be a powerful tool But for her, as well as her husband, it proves to be more a continuing source of trouble." And that, says Cleve, is "stuffy stuff," as well as gloomy. "If you have a funny gimmick, why not go with it and have fun?"

This isn't to say the show doesn't have promise; Amory finds Field a "cutie pie," as is Davidson, though he could do with a little less of it (I've always just found him smarmy myself), and their co-stars, Jack Sheldon and Zohra Lampert, do everything with what they have. As well, some of the stories are very funny—how, for example, do you buy someone like that a surprise birthday present that's a real surprise? But if the show's going to survive, "it's time for the producers and writers to do something too—only different. ESP isn't after all, a fatal illness. And this show isn't soap opera. You don't turn it on to enjoy the misery. You turn it on, presumably, for the fun." You'd think they would have known that, wouldn't you? 

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On occasion, we get to take a simultaneous look at three of the major rock music shows of the pre-MTV era: NBC's The Midnight Special, ABC's In Concert, and the syndicated Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, Let's look at this week's listings and see who's better, who's best.

Kirshner: Van Morrison and Richie Havens are guests. Songs: "Gloria," "Caravan" (Van Morrison) and "Get it On Down" (Richie Havens).

Special: Jerry Lee Lewis is the host. Guests include he Ike and Tina Turner Revue, blues singer B.B. King, rock groups Flash and Ballin' Jack, pop singer Linda Gail Lewis. 

In Concert: Singer-composer Cat Stevens is the center of this 90-minute tribute to his own works. Linda Ronstadt, Donny Hathaway and Dr. John are also featured performing Cat's compositions.

Note that may interest only me: In the Twin Cities, you could watch these shows back-to-back-to-back without missing a thing. In Concert is at 10:30 p.m. for 90 minutes, followed by The Midnight Special at midnight for 90 minutes, followed by Kirshner on WCCO at 1:45 a.m. for 90 minutes. That's really a heck of a night if you're into that kind of thing. Of course, you'd need to stay up until nearly 3:30 in the morning to see it all; your mileage may vary, of course, but if I could cherry-pick from each, I'd take Van Morrison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Tina Turner, B.B. King, and Dr. John, and I'd have quite a program. You'll notice, though, that most of these acts come from one show, which means that this week, The Midnight Special really is special.

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The World Series finished a couple of weeks earlier, and surprise—according to The Doan Report, half of all Americans with their televisions on were watching it. It's the first time three consecutive games have appeared in prime time, which isn't so remkarable now when you consider the first night game in World Series history wasn't until 1971, and the ratings are called unprecedented. MLB would absolutely kill for numbers like that today. (Recent headline: World Series ratings hit record low—again.) The only show to compete with the Series? The Waltons. Speaking of ratings, it's the time of the year when the networks start to spend more time looking at them, and we can tell which series have now assumed what the sports world calls the hot seat. At CBS, The New Perry Mason and Calucci's Dept. are called "dead ducks," while NBC is trying to "salvage" Lotsa Luck, but hopes are fading for Diana* and Love Story. Meanwhile, ABC's shaky list includes the veteran Partridge Family, as well as The New Temperatures Rising and Toma. In the end, only Toma can be said to have lasted; it was retooled with a new star and turned into Baretta.

*Starring Diana Rigg. Talk about failing to provide a star with the proper vehicle.

There's also speculation about a one-hour network evening newscast. This seems to pop up in TV Guide every few years, and as we know nothing ever comes from it. This time it's CBS, with the idea that they might expand the Cronkite news by adding an extra half-hour. The local stations won't mind, the thought is, because their local programming hasn't been profitable. Of course, this was before the strip programming that dominates the half-hour before prime time: Entertainment Tonight, TMZ, Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy! and the rest. I'll bet nobody thinks those aren't profitable now.

Speaking of news, ABC has multiple ads in this issue for the ABC Evening News with Howard K. Smith and Harry Reasoner, each one urging us to "Find out why more and more people are watching," presumably by tuning in. Apparently not enough people must have been watching: Smith is demoted to commentary in 1975, and Reasoner will be joined by Barbara Walters a year later.  Reasoner, who hated working with Walters, returns to CBS in 1978.

Sticking with ABC, the Teletype reports that the migration of big-name Hollywood stars to made-for-TV movies continues. Kirk Douglas will star in ABC's telefilm Mousey, about a man who plots to kill his wife, while Bette Davis is on tap for the network's Scream, Pretty Peggy. And Pat Boone bears the burden of a school principal accused of having an affair with a student on Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law. (Maybe it was just a case of April love.) As Joseph Finnigan notes, it seems like it was just yesterday when people were "gushing" about Boone's first screen kiss. 

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In some other highlights of the week, The Graduate makes its TV debut on CBS (Thursday, 8:00 p.m. CT), six years after its release. I always feel I have to point this kind of thing out, for the benefit of those who're used to seeing movies almost as soon as they hit the theater, that such was not always the case. Anyway, what's particularly interesting about the timing is that the movie was just re-released in theaters earlier this year, and it packed them in, just as it did in 1967. Judith Crist calls it "the milestone-in-youth-movies hit," and that pretty much sums it up, with brilliant performances by Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft, stylish direction by Mike Nichols, and "a put-it-all-together honey of a score" by Simon and Garfunkel. It comes on right after The Waltons, which is presumably doing even better in the ratings now that it doesn't have to go against the World Series.

For most of my life, WCCO passed up the opportunity to carry CBS's Sunday morning triumverate of Lamp Unto My Feet, Look Up and Live, and Camera Three. (9:00-10:30 a.m.) I've complained about this before, and I probably will again; even though I wouldn't have watched them at that age, I'd probably watch them today, so I'm retroactively offended. This week's Camera Three* has a profile of one of my favorite authors, the unconventional Austrian novelist and playwright Peter Handke. His best-known work is probably The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick, later adapted into a movie by Wim Wenders, with whom Handke works several times, most notably on the screenplay for Wings of Desire; in 2019 he's awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. 

Carroll O'Connor gets a chance to show his acting chops outside of All in the Family in a trio of short dramas about women called Three for the Girls (Monday, 8:30 p.m., CBS). Joining him are Lee Grant, Barbara Sharma and Joan Blondell. It sounds to me a lot like the 1968 British Male of the Species, which I mentioned here. 

Another show not on in the Twin Cities (at least not in its regularly scheduled timeslot) is Hollywood Television Theatre (Wednesday, 9:00 p.m., PBS). Keir Dullea, Rip Torn, Jack Albertson, Geraldine Page, Hurd Hatfield and Earl Holliman star in "Montserrat," a drama of political terror in Venezuela (so what's new?) adapted by Lillian Hellman. In a special two-hour episode of Ironside (Thursday, 7:00 p.m., NBC) Ironside is off the force and onto skid row after a 10-year-old murder witness is killed while in his custody. Will the chief wind up out of the gutter and back in his wheelchair? Since the description doesn't include "Last show of the series," my answer is "Yes." 

Finally, on Friday, CBS's movie is Sunshine (7:30 p.m.), starring Cliff DeYoung as a young father having to deal with his 20-year-old wife's (Cristina Raines) battle for live against cancer. Judith Crist is of two minds about the two-and-a-half hour (!) movie; the cast is very good, led by DeYoung's "brilliant" performance, and Raines holds her own against a script that requires "constant emoting," but the movie still consists of cliches, gimmicks and endless repetition, and Brenda Vaccaro as "Marcus Welby in drag." Your reaction to the story "depends on how vicarious you like your agony." I'm not of two minds about it; any movie that features a soundtrack by John Denver, including the excreable title song, deserves to go to the bottom of the ocean like the Titanic.

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Be honest now—when was the last time you heard about Deirdre Lenihan? She's on the cover, so I should spend a moment on her. Currently, she's one of the stars on NBC's short-lived (14 episodes) series Needles and Pins (Friday, 8:00 p.m.), which also stars Norman Fell, Bernie Kopell and Louis Nye, all of whom had done or would do better work than this.

It's interesting, because Dwight Whitney's article spends several pages on her, while admitting that "[n]o one seems entirely sure who she is. Certainly not her fellow actors. Even the studio press department, usually bullish in these matters, seems to have only the haziest recollection." She worked in Joseph Papp's Shakespeare theater and did some other TV and movie bits, and at the time of this article had a "gentleman friend" named Jimmy Sloyan, a fellow actor. They're not against marriage, just haven't had time yet. They did find time eventually, had two children who've done some acting (Samantha Sloyan and Dan Sloyan), and as far as I know they're still married. But Deirdre Lenihan never did become the Next Big Thing, and it just goes to show that being on the cover of TV Guide isn't always everything it's cracked up to be. Nor, as we often discover, does it need to be. TV