This week in TV Guide: October 22, 1966

When it comes to "Mod," no city defines the term better than the London of the 1960s. And that's where Lucille Ball is this Monday in a special hour-long edition of The Lucy Show entitled "Lucy Goes to London" (8:30 p.m. PT, CBS), with Anthony Newley on hand to take the world's favorite redhead around on a tour of the world's swingingest city. The premise sees Lucy winning a limerick contest that earns her a one-day tour of the city. Newley plays her tour guide, the owner of a threadbare travel agency, her other guests are Wilfrid Hyde-White as a museum guide; James Robertson Justice as the museum's drector; Peter Wyngarde as Petruchio, Shakespeare's male lead in The Taming of the Shrew, and the Dave Clark Five (as themselves?). Newley also finds some time, as himself, to perform songs from his hit musicals Stop the World and The Roar of the Greasepaint). 

As Robert Musel looks on, Lucy is preparing for a mod dance sequence to be staged at Osterley House, one of the stately homes you always see in tours of England. Looking at some of the "far-out costumes that end 6 inches above the knees", she wonders out loud to Musel if they're supposed to be short skirts or long belts, then proceeds to show off her own "notably elegant legs" in various outfits that form a pictorial during the scene. It can be painful sometimes watching these shows where your favorite stars try to act younger than their years, but if anyone can pull it off, I suspect it's Lucille Ball. Anyway, you've got a link to the video up there; you can check it out for yourself. 

In case you were wondering, and it should come as no surprise, the Brits love Lucy as mucg as we do; throughout her time there, "Truck drivers gaped and slowed down to give her the traditional thumbs up of approval, and there was a good deal of cheerful backchat with passers-by." In fact, while cast and crew were filming at Mme. Tussard's, she received quite a fright when she was approached for an autograph by a cleaning woman. The poor lady just wanted a good look at Lucy, so she had stood quietly, staring at the star and hoping not to attract any attention, totally unaware that from an angle she appeared to be part of one of the wax displays. And, of course, when one of those figures appears to come to life and start walking toward you—well, what else can you do but scream? Lucy happily, if somewhat shakily, signed the autograph. 

One scene in particular demonstrates Lucy's dedication to her work. It takes place at the poluted river Thames, which Musel describes as "'not much better than a sewer in some stretches." Lucy's character expresses a desire to go punting on the Thames, but Newly's hapless travel agent can only come up with an inflatable raft. Ball was warned that if she sank with the raft, as was called for in the script, she'd need typhoid and other shots, and if she swallowed any of the "sludge," she'd probably have to have her stomach pumped. Why don't we just go to a nice, clean—and safe—reservoir and film it there? Lucy, however, disagreed, and since she also happened to be Executive Producer of the special, her word was final. To prove it, she "went into the Thames up to her lips right then and there." No stunt doubles for this star.

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

Sullivan: Ed's scheduled guests: Jim "Gomer Pyle" Nabors, who sings "The Impossible Dream" and "Swanee"; singer Peggy Lee; jazz pianist-bandleader Duke Ellington; Mirella Freni and Gianni Raimondi, of the Metropolitan Opera; comics Joan Rivers and Norm Crosby; the Kovac and Rabovsky Gypsy Ballet; Upstairs at the Downstairs, comedy troupe; Tanya the Elephant; and the Muppets puppets.

Palace: Comedienne Phyllis Diller, making her debut as a Palace hostess, presents singer Tony Martin; comedian Bob Newhart, who offers a monolog about a policeman and a would-be suicide; Herman’s Hermits, rock ‘n’ roll group; dancer Lada Edmund Jr.; magician Kirk Kirkham; Del Morals’ acrobatic act; and the Palace Duo, trapeze artists.

You might remember that last week I promised I'd compare TV Guide's scheduled listing of Sullivan guests with the actual show lineup; this week's description was pretty accurate. There was only one significant addition, but I think it's worth mentioning; the four-person comedy troupe Upstairs at the Downstairs, one of those members being one Madeline Kahn. Otherwise it's a tough call, with Bob Newhart and Herman's Hermits making a strong statement for Palace. On the whole, though, I think Peggy Lee and Duke Ellington make the difference, and on that basis Sullivan carries the week.

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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. 

It's always nice to be able to analyze one of Cleveland Amory's reviews from the perspective of having actually seen the series he's reviewing, and this week we have such a case, with CBS's WWII action-adventure series Jericho. I never saw it during its original sincle season, but I had the chance to view the entire series this year, so when Cleve calls Jericho "the season’s best new adventure-filled, action-packed series involving undercover work in a fun war," I'm in a position to agree with him. Mind you, I didn't like the show quite as much as he did, or perhaps his ardor dimmed somewhat as the season progressed, but as Amory points out, it has a good many things going for it.

Start with the three principals, Don Francks, John Leyton, and Marino Masé, playing the three members of a special unit, code-named Jericho, sent to pull off impossibly impossible missions with the help of local partisans. They're all good actors, playng characters that are "intrinsically interesting," and though the show can be heavy-handed at times, well, what isn't? Amory singles out one episode which he considers "one of the finest individual episodes of any show we've ever seen," which is high praise indeed, particularly coming from Our Critic. It involved choirboys being smuggled into a secret German submarine base carrying loaves of bread containing bombs, and if that doesn't whet your appetite enough to go to Roku and check it out for yourself, there's not a whole lot more I can do for you. (It's called "A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread—and POW!" but don't let that stop you; remember that reporters don't compose their own headlines, either.) 

Having watched Jericho just after finishing Garrison's Gorillas and just before starting Combat!, I can tell you that the show, good as it might be, doesn't measure up to either one of those. It's certainly not as gritty as the latter (but then, what series is?), and the entertainment value of the former was just that much bit higher that it allowed one to overlook the implausibility in which both Garrison and Jericho traffic. However, as a devoted fan of Hogan's Heroes, I'm in no position to lecture anyone on plausiblity. Amory himself points out that the the trio might be well-served by going about their jobs displaying a little more grimness and a little less relish. As he concludes, "Fun's fun, boys—but still . . .

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I've had numerous occasion over the years to quote from Richard K. Doan's weekly Doan Report, a valuable source not only of insider stories, but of hard news perspectives on various issues within the industry. This week, while we're still absorbing the debuts from the new season, we get to see the debut of the Doan Report itself! Doan was, in the past, the radio-TV editor of the New York Herald Tribune; now, with the Herald Tribune closed for good as of August, the newspaper industry's loss is TV Guide's gain. And what, pray tell, is the first item on the plate? The ratings for the season's new shows, of course!

The first "definitive" poll of the season is in, that being the Nielsens for October 10, and while the week's top show was a returning favorite—Green Acres—first among the newcomers is ABC's WWII series The Rat Patrol. As for the biggest disappointment, at least in terms of potential, that belongs to the network's Stage 67, which was highly touted at the start of the season but "was so scorned by critic and viewer alike" that it's likely going to be replaced by a Wednesday night movie. The jury's still out on where Stage 67 winds up, and whether it survives as a weekly series or an occasional special. But since a Wednesday night movie requires more than just an hour, that's going to necessitate moving the week's second airing of Peyton Place. Where to? At this point, probably in place of The Man Who Never Was, although Shane and Hawk, two hour-long dramas, are in big trouble already. As for the year's biggest bomb, The Tammy Grimes Show, well, that's already a scratch.

The axe swung quickly at CBS as well, with Jean Arthur's new comedy to leave the air on December 5 after 12 episodes, to be replaced by a prime-time version of To Tell The Truth. And while the network hasn't announced any other casualties yet, "the Smothers Brothers, signed for a new variety hour, had been alerted to stand by for a January debut." Sure enough, when the new year comes around, the Brothers will be sitting in place of the revival of Garry Moore's show. Perhaps the best news for the Tiffany Network applies not to this season, but next Carol Burnett will be returning next fall in a comedy-variety hour, the first woman to helm such a show since Dinah Shore; it's probable she'll be replacing Danny Kaye, who's "experiencing ratings fatigue." 

Meanwhile, all is quiet at NBC; there are no reports of "second season talk," although The Roger Miller Show and The Hero are said to be on tenuous ground. A possible replacement: a long-promised live-action version of Dick Tracy. It's only been 58 years, but we're still waiting.

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President Johnson's tour of Asia takes up some airtime this week, with all three networks providing special programs of the events leading up to the Manila Conference dealing with the Vietnam War. CBS and ABC have reports on Saturday night, while CBS covers the president's arrival in Manila on Sunday (6:30 p.m.), the opening ceremonies of the conference on Tuesday (10:00 p.m.), and a 15-minute special on the conference's close on Thursday. (10:45 p.m.) Meanwhile, NBC plans daily coverage on Today (7:00 a.m.), and ABC, in addition to any special reports, plans to cover the story on the evening news. ABC also has a special, "To Save a Soldier" (Monday, 10:00 p.m.), narrated by Henry Fonda, which looks at the medical evacuation teams working on the battlefields in Vietnam. 

As for the rest of the week, on Sunday, KXTV tours the magnificent collection of Oriental art donated to the city of San Francisco by Avery Brundage; Brundage may be best known to most of you as the head of the International Olympic Committee from 1952 to 1972, a man for whom amateurism in the Olympics was a hill to die on, and one of the most controversial figures in sports in the 20th Century. Tuesday, Truman Capote is one of the guests on David Susskind's program (9:00 p.m., KQED), discussing his life and works, including "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and In Cold Blood. On Wednesday, Tony Bennett stars in his first hour-long special (10:00 p.m., ABC), with trumpeter Bobby Hackett, drummer Buddy Rich, vibraphonist Milt Jackson, Candido on bongos and conga drums, and flutist Paul Horn and his quintet. Bennett also performs with the Ralph Burns orchestra. Thursday sees the conclusion of a two-part Batman adventure (7:30 p.m., ABC) starring Liberace in the dual role of Chandell, the famouns pianist, and his evil twin brother Harry; as I recall, this story pulled in the highest ratings of Batman's run. And on Friday, Swingshif Theatre (1:00 a.m., KNTV in San Jose) presents "Who Killed Julie Greer?," an episode of The Dick Powell Show that served as the pilot for Burke's Law, with Powell himself in the role of our favorite millionaire police detective, Amos Burke.

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On Thursday, one of television's most enduring—and endearing—specials, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown makes its television debut(8:30 p.m., CBS). It's the third of the Peanuts animated specials, after A Charlie Brown Christmas, which aired for the first time last December; and Charlie Brown's All Stars, which premiered in June. 

I think it's safe to say the Great Pumpkin is the second-most popular of all the Peanuts cartoons after A Charlie Brown Christmas, and it's probably also the second-most successful as far as merchandise marketing is concerned. I mean, have any of you gone been in a grocery store in the last month? If so, you've almost certainly seen boxes of pumpkins for sale, and just about every one of those boxes has Charlie Brown, Linus, and Snoopy on the side, sitting in a sincere pumpkin patch, waiting for the Great Pumpkin. And this is 58 years after the cartoon first aired! I've mentioned in the past how Hallmark really cashed in on it at the time, putting out The Peanuts Book of Pumpkin Carols, including the classics "Great Pumpkin is Comin' to Town" and "Pumpkin Bells." (Maybe they still publish it; it's been a while since I've been in a Hallmark store.) Then, of course, there's the legend of Snoopy vs the Red Baron; the storyline had been introduced in the comic strip the previous year and was instantly popular (just ask the Royal Guardsmen); it plays a crucial role in the plot of The Great Pumpkin. We don't do much for Halloween in the Hadley household besides greating trick-or-treaters at the door, but we always make it a point to watch The Great Pumpkin on Halloween night.

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Arthur Schlesinger Jr., John F. Kennedy's house historian and a past contributor to TV Guide, writes this week about the changes television hath wrought in politics. "More and more Americans, it appears, are forming their impressions of the world on the basis of the things they see on the tiny screen," he begins, adding that in 1964 Broadcasting magazine declared that "television had become the 'Nation’s primary news medium.'" (Substitute "social media" for television, and we're probably at the same point.) Some argue that reliance on the medium produces "a more alret and better-informed electorate" while others counter that it is "reducing our politics to a mixture of high-pressure salesmanship and beauty contests." Schlesinger attempts, in this article, to sort through the various claims and evidence and come up with an understanding of where the truth lies.

As far as news is concerned, Schlesinger believes that "the greatest influence in shaping political judgment is stil the reality of events themselves." This is the area in which television has had its most pronounced success; Schlesinger cites television coverage of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings on Vietnam as a prime example of an event that would not have had the same effect on the public had it not been on television, not only exposing the public to open debate on the issue, but giving viewers "the effect in many cases of heightening the sense of popular participation in public matters." This day-by-day coverage of politics has also made it more difficult for important issues and personalities to fly below the radar, giving the electorate "a larger knowledge of public personalities and a greater acquaintance with public issues."

On the other hand, television has also played a role in what Schlesinger refers to as "pseudo-news"; that is, "the creation of news on the initiative of the medium." That news may be legitimate, even important, but too often it winds up being "mischievous and irresponsible," as in the case where a TV news crew attempted, in the course of an interview, to spur Schlesinger into criticizing President Johnson. Although their efforts failed (and, to the crew's credit, they still aired the interview even without any provocative comments), this kind of interview technique, "designed to lure or trap people into sensational statements they would not otherwise make[,] can be dispensed with."

Schlesinger is less sure about the effect or usefulness of editorialization by news personalities. Frankly, he wonders, it's quite possible that television has a tendency to constrain such commentary. His preference is for panel discussion shows, most frequently seen on public broadcasting or local television. Schlesinger believes these shows "have improved the level of political discussion in part because they permit the suggestion of subtleties and complexities in public problems." Shows of this kind nowadays tend to become either echo chambers or shoutfests—one can only imagine what he'd think of them.

Finally, there's the question of paid political programming. Schlesinger's greatest fear is reserved for what he refers to as the "spot announcement," what we'd call a commercial. The length of political speeches has steadily decreased in the era of mass communication; whereas 60 years ago an audience would travel miles to hear a candidate discourse for a couple of hours on important issues, the coming of radio reduced such speeches to 45 minutes, then a half hour. By 1956, Adlai Stevenson's television advisers said that 15 minutes "represented the outer limit of the attention span of an American audience." Today, even that is too long. The result has "degrad[ed] the level and character of our political discourse" (preach it, Art!), resulting in "the vulgarization of issues, the exaltation of the immediately ingratiating personality and, in general, an orgy of electronic demagoguery." Perhaps the majority of the television audience doesn't want an intelligent discussion of the issues (it doesn't), but doesn't the media have an obligation to provide it for the minority who do? Schlesinger suggests that government subsidies enabling networks to give more time to candidates without losing ad revenue might be a possible solution.

Television has also resulted in an emphasis on style over substance, preferring "the poised, photogenic, otherdirected, manipulable candidate." Presidents such as Adams, Jackson, and Lincoln wouldn't have stood a chance in such an environment. Of course, Schlesinger's former boss, JFK, was among the first politicians to recognize the power and potential of television, and the words "poised" and "photogenic" describe him to a T. Schlesinger doesn't acknowledge that, but he does allow as to how the national grief following Kennedy's assassination was in part "a result of the way television had made him a cherished figure in remote lands." If television would "app[ly] as much as much thought and talent to this as it does to selling detergents," it could play a great role in making "our democracy more rational and responsible." 

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MST3K alert: I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957) A psychiatrist's drugs turn a youth into a monster. Michael Landon, Whit Bissell, Yvonne Lime, Tony Marshall. (Saturday, 1:00 a.m., KCRA in Sacramento) "You are not drinking a piña colada at Trader Vic’s, young man, you’re just not old enough."Michael Landon was two years away from Bonanza when he starred in Werewolf, and he remained a fan of the movie for the rest of his life. "I think it's a good movie. I like it. My kids like it. They better like it, their dad's in it." TV  

Around the dial

That looks like the coolest TV setup, doesn't it? It reminds me of fall Sundays back when I was a kid, when I'd bring a portable set out from the bedroom and put on top of the console in the living room, so I could watch two football games at once. Whenever one of them looked like it was getting interesting, I'd turn up the sound on that one and turn it down on the other. I don't watch football anymore, and I don't miss it—but I do miss memories like that.

There are other memories worth pursuing, though. A couple of weeks ago, we looked at an article about ways people could secure tickets to be in the studio audience for their favorite television shows, and I asked if anyone had been in the audience for a show. Our loyal reader Bill chimes in with his own memories: "I was fortunate to attend tapings of Wheel of Fortune on two occasions when they did special themed weeks in Orlando, Florida.  The first was at Universal Studios Florida in 1999 and the second at SeaWorld Orlando in 2008 (actually won an audience prize for correctly guessing the name of the 1973 pilot which was called Shopper’s Bazaar). I also remember Pat Sajak after one episode thanking everyone for attending the late evening recordings, that he and Vanna were taking a quick break to change clothes, and when coming back 'we’ll all pretend it’s tomorrow!'  It was a fun experience, although ironically I don’t really watch the show itself." Sounds like a lot of fun, Bill!

And now, on with the show. At bare•bones e-zine, Jack's Hitchcock Project turns to Francis Irby Gwaltney's tenth-season story, "Lonely Place," a dark, nasty piece of work with Teresa Wright, Pat Buttram, and Bruce Dern doing their best to chill us all.

At Cult TV Blog, John detours, as he sometimes does, to look at the Big Finish series of audio adventures based on popular British shows of the past. This week, it's "Remember Me," from the supernatural mystery series Sapphire and Steel, but that's not all; there's also a bonus review of the slasher film The Flesh and Blood Show. Two for the price of one!

David returns to his journey through 1970s TV this week at Comfort TV, and he's up to Monday nights in 1974. For me, Mondays always meant Monday Night Football back then (there's that game again!), but there was much more than that; how about CBS's lineup of Gunsmoke, Maude, Rhoda, and Medical Center? Not bad.

I've mentioned this before, I think, but there's always something haunting about Judy Garland, especially when you contrast pictures of her from her Wizard of Oz days with those taken in the 1960s, when she looked at least fifteen years older. At Realweegiemidget, Gill reviews one of the many movies about Garland's youth, the teleflick Rainbow: The Judy Garland Story, with Andrea McArdle.

Let's stay on the Garland express for a moment and look, not at a portrayal of Judy, but the real thing: The Clock, a 1945 movie co-starring Robert Walker, which gives her a chance to demonstrate her dramatic acting chops after a string of musicals. You can read Maddie's take on it at Classic Film and TV Corner.

A couple of weeks ago I talked about Lucille Ball on the Dan Schneider Video Interview, so it's a good tie-in to look at Paul's review of Lucy & Desi: A Home Movie over at Drunk TV. It's not a biopic, but a documentary, and it's indeed based on home movies of the couple during the first years of their marriage. If you're a Lucy fan, you might want to make sure you see this if you haven't already.

I've said this before, but the only thing as much fun as watching a classic movie or TV show is reading about it, and Martin Grams is on the job this week with reviews of four new books from Bear Manor Media, covering a quartet of classics: Lawman, Sheena, Queen of the Jungle; Shane; and North by Northwest. All signs point to some good additions to your library.

Last week I wrote a brief tribute to Doctor Who's William Russell, who died at the age of 99; this week Terence adds some well-selected words of his own at A Shroud of Thoughts; he also has an appreciation for film and television star Janis Paige, who died June 2, aged 101. Both of them are well worth remembering.

At A View from the Junkyard, Mike and Roger compare notes on "Killer," an episode of The Avengers that doesn't feature Linda Thorson. After the Diana Rigg years, it was bound to be difficult getting used to a new companion for Steed, but I thought Thorson grew into the role quite well, and her Tara is endearing on her own merits. See what they think, and what you think.]q

One of my favorite guest panelists in the last years of What's My Line? was the columnist Suzy Knickerbocker; endearingly, her last name was so long that, after her first couple of appearances, her nameplate simply said "Suzy." There's much to know about her, and you can read some of it at Travalanche. TV  

Around the dial

Xt the Broadcasting Archives, we start the week with an intriguing look at how The Lucy Show almost wound up breaking new ground in television, and why the show didn't continue with its mildly feminist outlook.

One of my favorite underappreciated shows is The Rogues, about a merry band of con men (Charles Boyer, David Niven, and Gig Young), and at Christmas TV History, Joanna continues her "Christmas in July" series with Boyer making merry in the Yuletide episode "Mr. White's Christmas." 

At Cinema Scholars, it's a look at the spy craze that became the in-thing on American television in the 1960s. It was fun for awhile, but from Batman to The Man from U.N.C.L.E. to Amos Burke, Secret Agent, camp took over and, one by one, many of them sank slowly into the sunset.

Jodie discusses one of the most difficult aspects of Dave Garroway's life at Garroway at Large, one that was also challenging to write about: Garroway's struggle with depression, and his ultimate suicide. This week she writes about how she tried to cover it with sensitivity and discretion.

John's series on The X-Files and the American Dream continues, and while his writeup of the episodes is very good, it's his exploration (as a non-American) of how the dream started out, and what it has become over the years, that adds significant value.

At The View from the Junkyard, we return to the world of The Avengers and "The Danger Makers," a 1966 episode in which we get a glimpse of the difficulties a war veteran has when returning home, and what happens when they try to create some danger for themselves. 

Finally, the website The Hits Just Keep On Comin' celebrates 19—count 'em, 19—years, and as is custom, JB takes a look at some of his favorites from the past year. Congratulations, JB, and I hope you've got 19 more in you! TV  

This week in TV Guide: July 15, 1967

I'd suppose most of you are familiar with Desilu Productions, if for no other reason than the number of times its logo appears at the end of your favorite programs, from The Untouchables to Mission: Impossible to Star Trek—and, of course, the series of sitcoms starring its president and 60-percent owner, Lucille Ball. Desilu has, under Lucy's leadership, become the largest TV-producing facility in the world, and as Dwight Whitney picks up the story, Desilu has become the target of Charles Bluhdorn, owner of the $650 million conglomerate Gulf & Western Industries, who not long ago added Paramount to his financial empire.  

The executive suite which Lucy occupies is oak-paneled, once occupied by Joseph Kennedy and Howard Hughes; she gave it a womanly touch that probably would leave Joe shaking his head. But don't think that this is all fun-and-games for her, one of those adventures that her TV-self might be involved in; since buying out her ex-husband Desi Arnaz in 1962, she's turned a loss of more than $665,000 into a profit of $830,000, and she's shown a deft hand at choosing good advisors ("and having sense enough to listen to them"). She has what Whitney describes as an "almost fanatical" loyalty to her people, and evokes a similar loyalty from them. She agreed with Fred Friendly's recent complaint that CBS chose to air a Lucy rerun rather than vital Vietnam hearings. 

She's also proved to be a strong advocate for the shows her studio produces, including Star Trek, which she championed, and Mission: Impossible, "a show which she had bulled through over strong opposition both from within her own studio and, particularly, from [CBS]." And then there's her own show, which CBS values to the tune of $350,000 annually and which she perennially hangs over the heads of network executives, with the threat that "I have other things I want to do." Her most recent contract with CBS provides "financing for the show at a record $90,000 per half hour, two one-hour CBS-financed Lucy specials, and a deal for future daytime stripping of her present series which [her advisor] estimates will bring in excess of $7,000,000 to Desilu before it is through."

Lucy knows that times are changing in the industry. "A company in TV alone cannot survive today’s market. You have to make 20 pilots to get three. How do you amortize that?" She knows that Bludhorn's offer makes sense—it would give her about $10 million of G&W stock, and it would be arranged to give her a "substantial" capital gain—and it would ease the "ataggering interest burden" on the $3 million she borrowed to buy Desi out. Still, she remains reluctant throughout the process until, impressed by Bludhorn, she agrees to the merger. 

Was it worth it? Many people at Desilu will complain in the future about Paramount's management of the company, how it no longer has the buzz of a family enterprise which it once had, and many of its properties will suffer from penny-pinching and corporate interference. Lucy, following the merger, will found her own new production company, Lucille Ball Productions, which continues to profit from residuals from Here's Lucy. And nobody ever thought twice about the idea of a crazy redhead running a major studio.

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While The Hollywood Palace is on summer break, ABC fills the Saturday night time slot with Piccadilly Palace, a London-based variety show starring the iconic British comedy duo of Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise. We'll stop in from time to time during the summer months to see who has the best lineup..
Sullivan:  Ed's guests in this rerun are Ginger Rogers; singers Johnny Mathis, the Lovin’ Spoonful and Abbe Lane; comics Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, and Bob King; the tumbling Three Kims; and puppet Topo Gigio. 

Piccadilly:  Guests are singer Frankie Avalon and the New Vaudeville Band, with regular Millicent Martin.  Hosts Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise do some wild impressions of Julius Caesar, and Samson and Delilah; and Wise offers an improbable version of Grieg’s Concerto in A Minor. Frankie sings "What Is This Thing Called Love?" and "I Could Write a Book" while the New Vaudevlle Band sings "If I Had a Talking Picture of You" and "Finchley Central." Millicent sings "Window Wishin'"

Piccadilly Palace is just different enough from Ed—the show is centered around the skits of Morecambe and Wise—that the matchups become imprecise. Having said that, I'm no particular fan of either the Lovin' Spoonful or the New Vaudeville Band, and Morecambe and Wise's skits sound ridiculously funny. But Stiller and Meara can be very clever, and with Ginger Rogers and Johnny Mathis, chances are Sullivan takes the week.

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There's a lot of history in this week's programs. Not the kind of history that necessarily shows up in the books, but history all the same. It's something I've stressed since I started this project all these years ago: the idea that TV Guide represents a history book, a pop culture mirror, all kinds of things besides what's on TV tonight.

Here's an example of something that is in the history books, although you might not all be familiar with it. It's the CBS News Special "How Israel Won the War" (Tuesday, 10:00 p.m.), with Mike Wallace leading the look at Israel's devistating victory in what came to be known as the Six-Day War, including interviews with Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan and Army Chief of Staff (and future prime minister) Itzhak Rabin. We've grown used to endless wars, in these last few decades; the idea that a major war could be conducted, and won, in less than a week, is almost hard to imagine. 

Tensions in the Middle East were, then as now, at a heightened level, which came to the boiling point when Egyptian president Nassar closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping, and ordered the UN emergency force out of the area. On June 5, as the UN personel were evacuating, Israel launched a preemptive strike, wiping out Egypt's air defenses and occupying the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip. Jordan and Syria entered the war on Egypt's side, but a ceasefire was agreed to on June 11. There were more than 20,000 Arab casualties, while Israel suffered fewer than 1,000.* The politics, as well as the ramifications from the war, can be debated, but it created a mystique about the efficiency of the Israeli military that would continue for decades. 

*Elsewhere in this issue it is mentioned that Ted Yates, NBC's acclaimed reporter, was killed in Jerusalem during the war.

Next we head ringside, for what's being billed as a "heavyweight elimination fight" between George Chuvalo and Joe Frazier, live from Madison Square Garden in New York (Tuesday, 7:00 p.m., syndicated). This refers to the June 20 decision to strip Muhammad Ali of the heavyweight title after he refused draft induction. (Ali was also sentenced to five years in prison for draft evasion, fined $10,000, and banned from boxing for three years. His conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court in 1971.) 

This "elimination fight" business in the ad is a bit misleading; the World Boxing Association did set up a tournament involving the top eight heavyweights, the winner of which would be their new champion. Frazier, however, declined to take part in the tournament, instead continuing to build up his undefeated record, and Tuesday's fight against Chuvalo will be his toughest test yet, one which he'll pass with flying colors by stopping Chuvalo in a fourth-round TKO. It's likely that the only "elimination" aspect of this fight was that whoever lost was out of the running for the time being. 

In March 1968, Frazier defeats Buster Mathis in the inaugural event at the new Madison Square Garden to win recognizition by the New York State Athletic Commission (and five other states) as its heavyweight champ. Frazier defeats Jimmy Ellis, the winner of the WBA tournament, in February 1970 to win the undisputed championship; he'll retain that title with an epic victory over the reinstated Ali in March 1971.

And then, there's the revolution that wasn't. The supersonic transport—SST—was supposed to be one of the great aviation advancements of the 20th century, revolutionizing transatlantic flight. That it wasn't is a fascinating story in and of itself, but in 1967 the promise of the SST is still alive, if not yet functional, and forms a major thread in "The Aviation Revolution," an NBC News Special reported by Chet Huntley. (Wednesday, 9:00 p.m.) The report looks at the challenges facing commercial aviation, including overcrowding skies, increasing noise pollution, and pressure on designers and builders.

In 1967 the SST is still in the planning stages; the United States, Britain and France, and the Soviet Union are all designing SSTs, with Boeing working on the American version. Controversy continues to dog the plane, though, with concerns about sonic booms and the plane's effect on the ozone layer causing a lengthy and contentious debate that results in Congress killing funding for the SST in 1971, and banning overland commercial supersonic flights over the United States. When the Anglo-French Concorde begins service in the mid-1970s, it's prohibited from flying into New York City, although the ban is eventually overturned. (The Soviet version, the Tupolev Tu-144, began flight in 1975.) Even after environmental concerns are overcome, though, the SST fails to become profitable, and both versions are eventually retired from use. So much for the plane of the future

By the way, here's a footnote for you: In 1967, Boeing was still headquartered in Seattle; when the city was awarded an NBA expansion team (which, ironically, began play in 1967) the team took the name SuperSonics, in tribute to the forthcoming plane. Today, there is no SST, and the Seattle SuperSonics are now the Oklahoma City Thunder. And if you want more irony, the FAA sonic boom tests that so conerned congress were conducted in 1964—in Oklahoma City. 

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Here's some more sports: the final round of the British Open, telecast live via Early Bird satellite from the Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake (Saturday, 7:30 a.m., ABC). Unlike major tournaments today, which run from Thursday-Sunday, the Open plays from Wednesday through Saturday, with any playoff round held on Sunday; this schedule lasted until 1980. As for the tournament itself, ◀ Roberto De Vicenzo, whom you may remember from the more unfortunate day when a scoring error cost him the Masters, wins the Open by two shots over the defending champion, Jack Nicklaus.

Competition of a different kind: the Miss Universe Pageant, live from Miami Beach (Saturday, 10:00 p.m., CBS; tape-delayed in PT). Bob Barker is the host in the Convention Center, June Lockhart hosts the TV broadcast, and singer Jean-Paul Vignon is the musical guest. The winner is Miss USA, Sylvia Hitchcock from Alabama. This is, incidentally, the first time hosting the Miss Universe Pageant for Barker; he'll host both this and the Miss USA pageant through 1987.

A quartet of notable guest stars appear on Thursday's reruns, starting with Daniel Boone (7:30 pm., NBC), which has Jimmy Dean playing a banjo-strumming woodsman on the lam from a murder charge. At the same time over on CBS, Tallulah Bankhead plays herself as Lucy's new neighbor on The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour; in order to impress her, Lucy tries to talk Fred and Ethel to pose as her maid and butler. Later on, Vincent Price is Count Sforza on F Troop (8:00 p.m., ABC), and the troopers at Fort Courage are convinced that he's a vampire responsible for the disappearance of Wrangler Jane. And finally, Reginald Owen, known to most people here as  Ebenezer Scrooge in the 1938 version of A Christmas Carol, guests on Bewitched (8:30 p.m., ABC) as Aunt Clara's boyfriend, Ocky, and he comes along just in time: Clara has just blacked out the entire Eastern Seaboard.

Friday night features a couple of classics on local TV. First, on KHSL in Chico, it's the chilling Twilight Zone episode "It's a Good Life" (7:00 p.m.), in which ►Billy Mumy casts anyone who makes him angry into the cornfield. Later, it's the supurb Twelve Angry Men (9:00 p.m., KXTV in Sacramento), with Henry Fonda single-handedly holding up the dignity of the judicial system. Interesting to note that the description refers to it as "an adaptation of Reginald Rose's TV classic"; for many years, the TV version, which appeared on Studio One and starred Robert Cummings in the Fonda role, was thought lost; it's since been recovered, but I'd imagine that nowadays very few people know about it and think only of the movie version. Personally, I think you could make a case that Cummings dones a better job than Fonda, but that's just me.

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On Coronet Blue (Monday, 10:00 p.m., CBS), Denholm Elliott and Juliet Mills guest star in a story that features Alden (Frank Converse) caught between a fugitive revolutionary and the gunmen out to get him. Coronet Blue has been the surprise hit of the summer season—but Richard K. Doan warns its fans that they'd better "prepare themselves to be left dangling." You see, the program, which was approved by Jim Aubrey (one of his "last ventures before his fall as CBS-TV czar") for the 1965-66 season. After Aubrey was bounced, his successor, Jack Schneider, "thought it a poor show and shelved it." However, producer Herbert Brodkin, who had a firm contract with the network for 13 shows, went ahead and shot them. This year, CBS decided to burn off the series in order to recoup some of its investment, and scheduled 11 of the 13 episodes for the summer. Without, of course, an explanation of the cryptic storyline. (Even if CBS wanted to continue the show, star Converse had already moved on (no pun intended) to N.Y.P.D. on ABC.) 

I'm sure many, if not most, of you are familiar with the Coronet Blue debacle, but here's an excellent article at Television Obscurities that goes into detail, including how the mystery was supposed to e wrapped up. You can see it on DVD, and while it may not live up to its mythic status, it's still fun.

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MST3K alert: Teen-Age Crime Wave (1955). Three dangerous juvenile delinquents take refuge in the home of a farmer and his family. Tommy Cook, Mollie McCart, Sue England. (Thursday, 3:300 p.m., KHSL) Let's see, so far we've had Teen-Age Caveman, Teen-Age Strangler, and Teenagers From Outer Space, so I suppose this would be the natural succession. Our three stars are the three teens holding the family hostage, but of course one of them has to be the weak link, allowing the plot to fail. Well, what did you expect—In Cold Blood? And if those actors are teenagers, then I'm Truman Capote. TV  

Around the dial

Oh, why don't we start this week at The Horn Section, as Hal returns to the world of Love That Bob and the episode "The Double Date," in which Bob finds himself stuck having to take nephew Chuck (the late Dwayne Hickman) out for his 18th birthday the same night Bob has a date with the delectable Boom Boom Laverne.

At Cult TV Blog, it's "Detectives on the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown," a very, very funny parody of four of the most popular British TV detectives of the 1970s, as seen by the stars of the London comedy club "The Comic Strip." 

Cary O'Dell has a wonderful article at TV Party (courtesy of the Broadcasting Archives) on a Christmas gift boxed-set of the complete Lucy Show, which demonstrates that Lucille Ball's career after I Love Lucy was far from, as one critic put it, coasting on the “fumes” of her past glories.

The tributes to Betty White continue to pour in, and this week it's The Last Drive In, where Joey gives us a clip-filled retrospective of Betty's career. And it was quite a career, wasn't it? And that's not all—

Meanwhile, over at A Shroud of Thoughts, Terence looks at her groundbreaking first sitcom Life with Elizabeth, of which Betty was a co-producer, one of the first women to fill such a role. (Terence also has a great piece on the 50th anniversary of Sanford and Son that you should check out.

At RealWeegieMidget, it's the start of a new blogathon: the Odd or Even Blogathon. Rather than have me try to explain it, why don't I just send you over to Gill's site so you can see for yourself. And Gill, don't hold it against me that I haven't been in the last few. I'll be back again, I promise! 

Finally, Terry Teachout—author, drama critic at The Wall Street Journal, opera librettist, essayist and playwright—died last week at the far-too-young age of 65. You might recognize the name; I mentioned him many times here, and a couple of times in The Electronic Mirror. I never met him, but we corresponded several times through Twitter. He had some very kind things to say about my writing—both the blog and the book, which he had read and enjoyed. He wasn't singling me out for praise; Terry was a generous man, always quick to let people know when they'd said or written something that gave him pleasure, a lesson we could all learn. Whenever I asked him a question, he was quick to try and find an answer, even if it meant tweeting his friends in search of it. His books, like his writing, were elegant and straightforward, a pleasure to read. It's always seemed to me that social media has played fast and loose with the term "friend," but if it's possible to have as a friend someone you haven't met, then he was a friend, and I will miss him. TV  

Around the dial

I'm generally a sucker for courtroom dramas. Maybe it's all the years I spent watching Perry Mason (which has the best of them, by the way), but whenever I run across one, I'll generally stop and see if it's worth watching. (There's one major exception to that; the two-part QB VII, which represents VI hours of my life I'll never get back.) If you're like me, check out David's entry at Comfort TV on three memorable cases from classic TV.

The third of those three cases is from The Addams Family, and the Secret Sanctum of Captain Video gives us a look at the animated version from 1973, which hews closely to Charles Addams's original characters. Be sure to keep reading, to see the Addams Family comic book!

I'm not much for using this blog as a confessional, but I have to confess that I've never been a fan of Lucille Ball. I don't make this as an authoritative statement, that you have to agree with me or else, it just is what it is. But that doesn't stop me from reading Television's Last Frontier: The 1960s and this look at the The Lucy Show from 1962, with some very interesting background information.

I missed the phonomenon that was Rich Man, Poor Man, which wasn't carried in the World's Worst Town, so I probably wouldn't have watched the sequel, Book II, when it aired in 1976; of course, I didn't get the choice, since that wasn't shown up there either. But thanks to Drunk TV, I'm still able to get a feel of this rushed, but entertaining, miniseries.

At Cult TV, John focuses once again on The Avengers (but who wouldn't, given the chance?), with an episode which has a title too long to reprint here, so I'll just call it "(Stop Me If You've Heard This One)." As befits such a title, it has a star-studded comedic guest cast including John Cleese; it also gives us a chance to recall that while Tara King may not be Mrs. Peel, she does have a way of growing on you. TV  

Around the dial

It's been a couple of weeks since we visited the classic TV blogosphere, what with my book review from last week, but we're back to normal today, with some great things for you to gander at.

The Hitchcock Project continues at bare-bones e-zine, with Jack giving us a rundown on the Francis and Marian Cockrell teleplay "The Gentleman From America," based on the short story by Michael Arlan. I keep pointing out these features because I really like what Jack does; not only does he give us a synopsis of the episode, he goes into detail on the original story, showing how the teleplay changes it in order to convert it to something appropriate for television, as well as giving us more fun facts. It's very well done, and quite different from what we generally read elsewhere.

I don't usually do sneak previews of upcoming stories, but tomorrow's TV Guide review names the top 40 TV stars of all time, and one of them appears in the Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour episode "Lucy Wins a Racehorse," the subject of Aurora's review at Once Upon a Screen. 

The Avengers episode "The Positive-Negative Man" is one of John's favorites over at Cult TV Blog, and one of mine as well. (With some great comments from our own Mike Doran.) The Avengers rotated out of our Friday night spot a couple of years ago when we watched the final Steed-Tara episode, but reading these recaps makes me want to go back and start over again. Maybe in 2018...

I reviewed Adam-Michael James' "final episode" Bewitched novel last week; this week David at Comfort TV has a similar review. (The fact that we both liked it should settle the question for anyone thinking about purchasing it, don't you think?) And I really like the link back to David's first blog piece, “Does how a television show ends have any impact on its legacy?" That's something worth considering by itself.

At Christmas TV History, Joanna relates her experience in the 2017 Christmas Story Run- who knew? I'm no runner, but it sounds like a fun time - where else are you going to see all those pink rabbits running a distance race? And for good measure, check out this spot on Joanna's Christmas podcast appearances.

The Broadcasting Archives at the University of Maryland has an interesting bit on "the Hitchcock of the [radio] airwaves," William Spier - the longtime producer-director of the legendary radio series Suspense.

Speaking of radio, here's something from a couple months back that I just noticed, courtesy Faded Signals - a picture of Miami radio station WIOD, with the motto "Wonderful Isle of Dreams." That describes classic radio to a T, and what television is capable - though too frequently falling short - of doing.

Can you take one more radio story? You'd better, because The Chairman, Frank Sinatra himself, is in it. Martin Grams shares with us the time in 1949 when Sinatra appeared in the Christmas story "The Enchanted Ghost" on Inner Sanctum.

A moment of whimsy indeed (and who amongst us couldn't use a bit of it nowadays?) - Jodie at Garroway at Large gives us a clip of Dave with Kukla, Fran and Ollie. If you don't smile after watching that, you have no heart.

Did you know that, in the off-season, the legendary baseball star Jackie Robinson sold television sets? I didn't either, until I read it in Andrew's piece at The Lucky Strike Papers. That's right - in the olden days, athletes used to work in the off-season, oftentimes as car or insurance salesmen, in order to make ends meet. Now, instead of selling TVs, they can buy a television station.

TV Obscurities returns with another obscure sitcom, this one from the 1964-65 season. It's The Baileys of Balboa, starring Paul Ford, whom you ought to remember as Bilko's nemesis. I've certainly heard of the show, but didn't know all that much about it until this terrific article.

Hopefully, you'll now stay out of trouble until the next time we meet - tomorrow!  TV  

Around the dial

This week saw the passing of yet another television legend, as Monty Hall died, aged 96. At our partner website, In Other Words, my colleague Bobby has a very nice tribute to the long and illustrious career of America's biggest dealer.

At Comfort TV, David offers a fine apologia for Here's Lucy, the 1968-74 successor to The Lucy Show and, before that, I Love Lucy. It doesn't get either the notoriety nor the credit that its predecessors do, but David offers ten episodes that suggest why you shouldn't underrate it.

Now that we're in October, Christmas technically is the month after next (even though it's actually more like three months away, so don't panic if you don't have your shopping done yet). That means we're in the mood for Joanna at Christmas TV History as she looks back at the '83 Loretta Swit telemovie The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.

It's been awhile since we've visited British TV Detectives, so let's take the opportunity to check in on this review of the 2009-2012 series Above Suspicion, the story of a rookie detective and the cases she deals with. The first two series can be viewed on Acorn.

Let's continue with the British theme - Cult TV Blog returns with a look at Steptoe and Son, the forerunner to the American series Sanford and Son. John has some very insightful comments, the kind I love to read, on the offbeat episode "Porn Yesterday."

If you follow the weekly TV listings here, you know that from time to time we visit the Philadelphia TV market; this week, The Broadcasting Archives at the University of Maryland visits one of those stations, WFIL, with a look at the WFIL Studio Schoolhouse Teacher’s Manual, 1955-56. WFIL-AM, WFIL-TV, and School District of Philadelphia. PA Board of Public Education. Fascinating look at how television used to be utilized.

I always enjoy the "Retro Review" feature at Television Obscurities, and this one is obscure even to me: It's a Man's World, a 1962-63 NBC drama starring Glenn Corbett as a college student raising his 14-year-old brother. The series never went into syndication - no wonder it's so obscure.

What's not obscure is The Twlight Zone, and in this week's edition of The Twilight Zone Vortex, Jordan dips back into the archives with Volume 1, Number 4 of the Twilight Zone Magazine.

As I often think, if you can't find something interesting in this list, you aren't trying very hard. See you back here tomorrow, or whenever you show up. TV  

This week in TV Guide: May 16, 1959

No, I'm not going to say anything about the fashion sense displayed on the front cover of this week's edition. It's just too easy, there's no percentage in it. Besides, it violates the number one rule around here, which is: Don't discuss things out of their cultural context. I'm sure 58 years ago people would have seen this through an entirely different lens. It is distracting, though...

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I'm in the mood for something different this week. Rather than focusing on individual nights or programs, let's just hop through the issue and see what we can find.

Here Isn't Lucy: Dwight Whitney reports that "When Lucy Ball showed up for a benefit in Oklahoma City's 12,000-seat Taft Stadium, she took one look at the sparse crowd (variously estimated at from 800 to 2400) and blew her stack. Somebody goofed, she wailed, by failing to publicize the thing. But that didn't stop Lucy from goofing herself. She refused to go on, thereby garnering some of the worst press a major TV star has yet to achieve, and leaving herself open, with good reason, to the charge that she didn't love her fans half as much as they loved Lucy."

A Song in His Heart: Ernie Kovacs returns to television in an NBC special Friday night (8:00 p.m. ET) called "Kovacs on Music." It's included in the first volume of the Ernie Kovacs Collection put out by Shout a few years ago. (And if you don't have it yet, why not?) The show is every bit as surrealistic as you'd expect from Kovacs, including an extremely abridged version of Swan Lake performed by dancers in gorilla suits, a truly weird bit about a singing commercial with Louis Jourdan as one of the singers and Andre Previn as the conductor, and a very funny skit with Edie Adams as part of an American troupe putting on a televised operetta on Italian television. But Adams, who had a beautiful voice, also sings a lovely number by Heitor Villa-Lobos, and Kovacs displays his serious knowledge of classical music. It's a good thing the show's available, though; the TV Guide listing gets several descriptions wrong, including putting the Nairobi Trio in the operetta skit. Oh well.

There are eight million stories down there.

The Naked Truth: Bob Johnson's review of The Naked City calls the police drama "a disappointing piece of theater for many reasons," chief among them the show's insistence on seeing the host city as the star of the series. "Dragnet learned how to deliver sociology as interpreted by Lt. Joe Friday and nobody else. Unless Naked City abandons its premise of featuring New York City as its star, and settles down to telling every story from [star Horace] McMahon's viewpoint, the show may swallow him up as did its former star, [John] McIntire." Of course, today's television historians view that very trait - the show's use of New York City as a living, breathing character every bit as much as its actors - as one of the main reasons Naked City is considered one of the finest police dramas of its kind. And starting in season two it's Paul Burke, not Horace McMahon, as the human star of the show.

And They're Off! Sports highlight of the week is the Preakness Stakes, second jewel in horse racing's Triple Crown, telecast live from Pimlico in Baltimore. As opposed to the marathon coverage given the races this year on NBC and NBCSN, CBS's telecast is a mere half hour (5:30 p.m. ET), with Fred Capossela calling the race, Bryan Field on color, and Chris Schenkel doing interviews from the winner's circle. Tomy Lee, the Kentucky Derby winner two weeks ago, is passing up the Preakness and the final race, the Belmont Stakes (his British handlers thought the racers were run too close together), leaving Royal Orbit, a "fast-closing fourth" in the Derby, to take the run for the Black-Eyed Susans.

Who Are You Two Again? There's a game show on NBC called Laugh Line (9:00 p.m., Thursday), its primary claim to fame being that it's hosted by Dick Van Dyke. A brief description of the show: "the panelists sit around ad-libbing captions for living cartoons pantomimed by stock-company actors. Then each panel member moves the actors around into new positions to fit his own laugh line." (It sounds like something that was done much, much better by Who's Line is it, Anyway?) The show might well have amounted to more, however, had it stuck to its original plan, which was to have, as two of the regular panelists, the comedy team of Mike Nichols and Elaine May. There's an article telling us a little more about the duo, who hit it big a year or so ago with their appearance on Omnibus, and they're looking forward to plying their trade on television. But by the time the programming section is printed up, the lineup has already changed; with Nichols and May signed for Broadway in the fall, the producers have decided to replace them with Roger Price and Pat Harrington, Jr. (as Guido Panzini) in order to create a permanent cast. Laugh Line isn't picked up for the fall, while in the meantime Mike Nichols and Elaine May, both together and separately, go on to legendary careers.

Allen vs. Sullivan: We even have a rare appearance this week of our Steve Allen vs. Ed Sullivan matchup. Both shows air Sunday nights; Steverino starts things off at 7:30 p.m. on NBC with his guests, comedian George Gobel, singers Diahann Carroll and Vaughn Monroe, the Pensacola Naval Air Training Center Cadet Choir, and the Nicholas Dancers. Ed counters at 8:00 p.m. on CBS with Louis Prima and Keeley Smith; comedians Shelley Berman, Jack Carter and Frank Libuse; singer Al Hibbler; dancer Conrad "Little Buck" Buckner; trick violinist Baron Bulka; and the United States Military Academy Cadet Choir. Both shows have good lineups tonight (aside from the probability that the country has now been left undefended due to the Army and Navy being on television), but in this case I think I'm going to have to give the edge to Sullivan due to Berman's comedy, and the talent of Louis Prima and his then-wife, Keely Smith. In case you haven't ever had the opportunity to see them, here's a clip - could well be from this very show.


So Who Did Discharge Bilko? Since the question's on the cover, we'd better try and provide the answer. The Phil Silvers Show, originally known as You'll Never Get Rich but known colloquially as Bilko after Silvers' character, scheming Master Sergeant Ernie Bilko, has long been regarded as one of the great sitcoms of the Golden Age, and so it may come as something of a surprise to learn that the series ran only for four seasons, and 1959 marks the end of the road. What happened? According to Silvers, who perhaps protests a bit too much, it's because Camel, his main sponsor, is so closely identified with the series, even tailoring the spots to fit the platoon, that secondary sponsors ("You can't do a weekly show like ours these days without two sponsors.") never felt they were getting as good a deal. When his most recent second sponsor, Schick, left the show, CBS wasn't able to find a new one. Of course, he adds, "I don't think CBS tried too hard to sell us. But as I said, I'm not sorry. I'm tired of the role and of the constant grind." Fortunately for the network, Westinghouse just happens to have wanted to move their show, Desilu Playhouse, to the Silvers timeslot all along. So all's well that ends well, I guess.

What Else Is Worth Watching? On Friday night, ABC's Walt Disney Presents (8:00 p.m.) features two delightful cartoons based on British author Kenneth Grahame's wonderful children's stories: "The Wind in the Willows" and "The Reluctant Dragon." Basil Rathbone is among the voices for the cartoons. The long arm of the law has yet to catch up with Charles Van Doren, so he's still one of the hosts on Today each weekday morning on NBC. Alan King, Dorothy Collins, and the Dukes of Dixieland are guests on The Garry Moore Show (CBS, Tuesday, 10:00 p.m.). Claudette Colbert hosts the premiere of Woman!, a series of occasional hour-long afternoon dramas airing on NBC. Tuesday's question: Do They Marry Too Young? A Monday spectacular airing on CBS at 8:00 p.m., "America Pauses for the Merry Month of May," is hosted by Burgess Meredith and takes viewers around the country to celebrate "Maytime," including Larry Blyden in Teaneck, New Jersey; Molly Bee in Mobile, Alabama; Art Carney in Douglaston, New York, and Marion Anderston at Yosemite National Park. Finally, on the aforementioned Desilu Playhouse (still on Mondays at this point, 10:00 p.m, CBS) the aforementioned Lucille Ball plays a dancing teacher who learns she's inherited a boxer from her late uncle. Imagine her surprise when the boxer turns out to be not a dog, but a prizefighter!

Loretta Young Without That Hat! In fairness, since we started with Miss Young, we should end with her as well. Her series, The Loretta Young Show, has just wrapped up season six, and during that time she's played no fewer than 129 different characters, from farm girls to gangster's molls. During her illustrious career, she's won an Oscar (and been nominated another time), two Emmys (plus four additional nominations), and 37 other awards. She's learned a lot during that time, and not just about acting, but business as well. It turns out that her company owns the films she's made for her series, and she's not about to part with them as so many other stars have. Rumor has it she's been offered $4 million for them, to no avail. "[I]f they can make money for somebody else - well, I'd figure they could do the same for me. I'd figure, why not retain ownership? I'm just supposing, remember."

She's also no-nonsense when it comes to making the show: for years she'd been bothered when shooting stopped in order to reset the lights and move the camera in for a close-up. "Get a boom," she'd tell the director, to which the answer was always the same - it's too expensive to rent. Finally, she'd had enough, and told them to buy a boom and rent it out when they weren't using it. "Let somebody pay us rent for it." It's now paid off and bringing in extra dollars. If the show's budget can't afford a particular guest star, she tells them to take the difference out of her own salary. She gets an allowance of $20 a week in cash, and that's good enough for her. Quite a gal, all in all. But maybe we could all chip in a little more to buy her a better hat? TV