This week in TV Guide: February 26, 1977

If you require any evidence that it's never too early to start thinking about the new Fall Season, look no further than this week's co-cover story by Bill Davidson, who explains that what you see in the fall may depend on what you watch in the spring.

Last spring, ABC had what it felt was a promising new series in development, called Family. Were it to be handled in the conventional manner, with a pilot thrown into the usual March "selling season" to compete with cop dramas and sitcom pilots, it probably would have been lost in the shuffle, relegated to that category of new series marked for "early elimination." Instead, ABC programming head Fred Silverman suggested making just six episodes, and starting the series in that March period. Some of his colleagues thought the idea was crazy; usually, early tryouts come in the summer, and then only with comedy and variety shows, not dramas. But Family was an immediate hit with critics, and slowly built up an audience that guaranteed it a spot in the fall schedule. "The public," Davidson says, "had helped make the programming decision."

The other networks noticed this, and so this March you, the viewer, will be treated to a number of new shows receiving a limited tryout to see what they're made of. ABC, having pioneered the technique, has several in mind, including three episodes of How the West Was Won, marking the return of James Arness to series television; Eight Is Enough, based on the best-seller by columnist Tom Braden; Westside Medical, a "throwback" to Marcus Welby and Medical Center; and Future Cop, with Ernest Borgnine and John Amos. Well, two out of four ain't bad. NBC and CBS plan to follow suit. The upshot for September: "A lot of old junk in the new shows—and some quality." 

Expect the miniseries to contine as a TV staple. ABC, the network that popularized the genre, is placing big hopes on Washington: Behind Closed Doors, based "loosely" on John Erlichman's novel; ABC hopes to develop it into a permanent series. CBS plans to counter with Adolf Hitler, based on John Toland's massive (and excellent, I might add) biography, and NBC has A Man Called Intrepid and Boys and Girls Together* in the planning stage.

*Although NBC announced the project, Boys and Girls Together never made it past the talking stage.

As for more conventional fare, NBC plans a revival of Laugh-In, and has high hopes for The Richard Pryor Show, starring "one of the funniest men alive." (We all know how that turned out.) ABC has its own variety show in the works starring former Sanford and Son star Redd Foxx. The network, smarting over having turned down Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, also has its own soap spoof, called, appropriately enough, Soap. CBS is betting you'll like Ed Asner enough to follow him to the coast in a drama about a big-city newspaper editor, Lou Grant. And NBC hopes that some of the magic from The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman will rub off on its own sci-fi spectacular, The Man from Atlantis.

As for how all this turns out, Davidson says that the audience can help make the final decision. You'll get more of the same "if you don't exercise your prerogative and turn in the higher-qualoity material that appears in the tryout season that lies just ahead."

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On weeks when we can, we'll match up two of the biggest rock shows of the era, NBC's The Midnight Special and the syndicated Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, and see who's better, who's best.

Kirshner: Performers include the Staples, Donna Summer, the Group with No Name, the comedy team of Jim Samuels and Marty Cohen, and comics Tim Thomerson and Gary Muledeer. Selections include "Love Me, Love Me, Love Me," "Pass It On" (Staples); "Come with Me," "Could It Be Magic?" (Donna); "Baby Love," "It's a Wonder" (Group with No Name). 

Special: Guest hosts K.C. and the Sunshine Band are joined by Gordon Lightfoot, Heart, ABBA, Jose Feliciano and comic Andy Kaufman. Highlights: "Shake Your Booty" (K.C., Sunshine Band); "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" (Gordon); "Magic Man" (Heart); "Dancing Queen" (ABBA).

There's no question about this week, at least in my mind. Regardless of what one's personal tastes might be, The Midnight Special has some of the biggest names of the era; if you want to know what the late 1970s were all about, you can do a lot worse than K.C., Lightfoot, Heart, and ABBA. (By the way, have you ever heard the interview that Minneapolis-St. Paul radio host TD Mischke did with an Edmund Fitzgerald expert, where Mischke sang every question to the tune of Lightfoot's song? Here it is.) And even though I'm no fan of Andy Kaufman, he was definitely a conversation piece back then. It's a resounding win for The Special.

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"Trashsport" is loosely defined as "An event designed to entertain television viewers that is supposedly a sport but has no real sporting content." No decade did trashsports better than the 1970s, and in the lull between football and baseball, we get some prime examples of it, starting on Sunday with Superteams (1:00 p.m., ABC), as members of the Minnesota Vikings and Oakland Raiders face off in a series of athletic competitions such as Hawaiian rowing, the obstacle course, and the always popular Tug-of-War. Superteams was a spin-off of Superstars, a competition that actually did have a purpose, of sorts: to determine who was the best all-around athlete from among a group of the world's top athletes competing in events other than their own. According to TV Guide, this week the Vikings "get another shot at their Super Bowl XI vanquishers," but somehow, I don't think winning this competition would have really made up for losing the Super Bowl, do you?

On opposite Superteams is another example of the genre, Challenge of the Sexes (1:00 p.m., CBS), in which top athletes from around the world—yes, male vs. female, you've got it—compete in their own sports. This week, former Davis Cup and U.S. champion Pancho Gonzales takes on former Wimbledon champion Althea Gibson, while Olympic gold medealist Shiela Young races against Erhard Keller in speed skating. You can argue that these are, at least, legitimate sporting competitions, but the "battle of the sexes" component reeks of gimmickry. 

These, however, rank as elite athletic events when compared to the ultimate in trashsports, Challenge of the Network Stars (Tuesday, 9:00 p.m., ABC). Howard Cosell does nothing to enhance his reputation in hosting this collection of all-star competitors including Jacyln Smith, Sonny Bono, Kevin Dobson, Karen Grassle, Dan Haggarty, Penny Marshall, and more, representing their respective networks in relay races, baseball throwing, a nearest-to-the-pin golf tournament, volleyball, and, of course, the ubiquitous tug-of-war. Most mentions of Network Stars events tend to focus on the female participants, especially the ones wearing tight-fitting uniforms. 

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This is the edition I have   

And now for some real sports: Lawrence Ritter, in one of those great "Background" articles that TV Guide used to publish, shares the story behind the writing of The Glory of Their Times, his acclaimed book on the early days of baseball, made into a documentary that premieres next week on PBS. (And you thought PBS only discovered baseball thanks to Ken Burns.) The project, to capture the memories of men who played the game in the big leagues 60, 70, even 80 years ago, was not an easy one. 

"I was searching for a few remaining old men who had been forgotten for years by virtually everyone except a rapidly dwindling number of other old men—who, as kids in short pants, had watched in awe and delight as the men I now sought performed on distant summer afternoons in rickety ballparks," Ritter writes. With little in the way of resources to consult—many of them had no Social Security records, there were no pensions, and even the Baseball Hall of Fame failed to reply to Ritter's inquiries—Ritter resorted to the public library, looking through phone books from the towns where the players had been born, reasoning that many of them may have returned home, or might have relatives still living there. And, surprisingly, it often worked. 

That doesn't mean everything was easy, though; Ritter recounts the adventures that he encountered attempting to track down Sam Crawford, an outfield for the Detroit Tigers who played with, and was compared to, Ty Cobb. Lead after lead failed him, until he found himself in Baywood Park, California, sitting in the laundromat watching the clothes spin. "Seated next to me was a tall, elderly gentleman reading a frayed paperback. Idly, I asked if he had ever heard of Sam Crawford, the old ballplayer. "Well, I should certainly hope so," he said, "bein' as I'm him."

The Glory of Their Times is now considered a classic of baseball literature, in print virtually uninterrupted since its publication in 1966. Ritter, who travelled 75,000 miles between 1962 and 1966 to interview his subjects, paid royalties well into the 1980s to the 22 men profiled in the book. The documentary, which was produced by Ritter and Bud Greenspan, was rejected for years before premiering on PBS. The Glory of Their Times, both book and movie, tell of a magic time, both in sports and in America, one we're not likely to ever see again. 

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Usually, it's the national movie week that takes center stage, but a couple of local flicks take the prize this week, beginning on Saturday with The Hospital (4:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m., KTTV in Los Angeles), Paddy Chayefsky's blistering satire that does for the medical profession what Network will later do for television. George C. Scott is outstanding as a hospital administrator confronted with striking doctors, dying patients, and incompetence all the way around; his performance is so good that the Motion Picture Acadamy had to nominate him for Best Actor, one year after he'd declined the award for Patton; Diana Rigg is her usual winsome self as the daughter of a comatose patient. For something a little more tame, try Mary Tyler Moore (8:00 p.m., CBS), where Lou, Murray, and Ted, down in their cups, each wonder what it would be like married to Mary.

On Sunday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—the same RFK Jr. who's been in the headlines just a bit lately—helps rehabilitate a young golden eagle on The American Sportsman (2:30 p.m., ABC). Also on today's show: golfer Lee Trevino and journalist Grits Gresham fish for big-mouth bass in Sonora, Mexico. Late night, it's Sammy and Company (11:30 p.m., KNBC), Sammy Davis Jr.'s variety show, with the Lennon Sisters, Della Reese, Gary Muledeer, singer Walter Jackson, and the Rev. Bob Harrington, "the 'Chaplain of Bourbon Street'." Even later, it's Once upon a Dead Man (11:40 p.m., KNXT), the pilot for McMillian and Wife, with, of course, Rock Hudson and Susan Saint James.

Monday gives us the second big local movie presentation, Battle of the Bulge (8:00 p.m., KTLA), the epic depiction of the famed World War II battle, with an all-star cast (and I'm not kidding), including Henry Fonda, Robert Shaw, Robert Ryan, Dana Andrews, George Montgomery, Charles Bronson, and James MacArthur. I remember seeing this in the theater when it came out, which would have made me five; I also have a book about the battle that I got specifically because of my interest in the movie. What kid wouldn't be fascinated by a battle fought in the snow?

I know Police Woman has a lot of fans. I watched it back in the day, but I always had a hard time taking it seriously as a "crime drama," and Tuesday's episode (9:00 p.m., NBC) is one reason why: "Pepper assumes the role of a porn queen following the murder of an actress who played in hard-core films." I fully realize that these kinds of undercover investigations do occur, but am I being too cynical in thinking that there's more than a little titilation factor involved in this episode? It's followed by a Police Story episode featuring Gabe Kaplan (!) as a narc officer "whose bizarre work habits—which include the use of a female mannequin on stakeouts—convince his stuffy lieutenant that he is genuinely insane." (10:00 p.m., NBC) That the "stuffy lieutenant" is played by Norman Fell makes this idea work, but this, too, sounds a little gimmicky. Meanwhile, over on CBS, a 1975 episode of Kojak features Sylvester Stallone as a young cop being investigated for an on-the-job shooting. (10:00 p.m,. CBS) The success of Rocky had nothing, I'm sure, to do with deciding to rerun a two-year-old episode.

Wednesday is a night of specials on ABC, beginning at 8:00 p.m., as America's latest skating sweetheart, Dorothy Hamill, parlays her gold metal into a prime-time variety special, with Beau Bridges, ballet star Edwards Villella, and the Carpenters. That's fofllowed at 9:00 p.m. by the John Denver Special, Thank God I'm a Country Boy, a country-themed hour featuring Glen Campbell, Roger Miller, Mary Kay Place, and Johnny Cash. And to top it off at 10:00 p.m., it's the Barry Manilow Special, with the emphasis on Manilow's greatest hits, plus Penny Marshall and Barry's backup trio, Lady Flash. I tell you, nothing says more about the 1970s and its stars than this lineup. A more interesting choice might be the Mobil Showcase presentation Minstrel Man (9:00 p.m., CBS), a made-for-TV movie that looks at ragtime, black vaudeville, and the challenges met by black entertainers at the turn of the century. Judith Crist calls it "engrossing and entertaining," offering "first-rate" performances.

An ad for Thursday's 6th Annual Las Vegas Entertainment Awards (10:00 p.m., NBC) led me on a brief search that reveals the event still exists, at least in name. (Note to organizers: if this event is as big a deal as you make out, it might be a good idea for your website to include a tab on, you know, its history. I guess it's true that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.) Gabe Kabplan, Barbara Eden, and Wayne Newton are the hosts, while Bobbie Gentrie and Sammy Davis Jr. are among the entertainers; there are also highlights from the Vegas shows "Folies Bergere" and "Bare Touch of Vegas."

Remember how I said that Wednesday night's specials represented the 1970s in a nutshell? Well, we have another contender for that honor: The Brady Bunch Hour (Friday, 9:00 p.m., ABC), the inconceivable attempt to turn the much-loved half-hour sitcom into an hour-long variety show. I don't suppose I should pick on it, if that's what I was doing; it did last nine episodes, after all. (Including a different episode that aired on Sunday!) And who among us wouldn't give up a successful career as an architect for a chance to star in a genre that was already in trouble? With Rip Taylor as a next-door neighbor? Vincent Price and puppets H.R. Pufinstuf and Kiki Bird are the guests. (The show's produced by Sid and Marty Krofft.) Fortunately, you can opt instead for the aformementioned The Man from Atlantis (9:00 p.m., NBC), starring Patrick Duffy and Belinda J. Montgomery. It's the first of four movies to air this spring, leading to a 13-episode run in the fall. There are many people who still think of this show first when they think of Patrick Duffy.

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MST3K alert: Agent for H.A.R.M. (English; 1966) A creeping blob from outer space transforms human flesh into fungus. Mark Richman, Wendell Corey, Carl Esmond. (Sunday, 1:55 a.m., KNXT in Los Angeles) Peter Mark Richman, Wendell Corey: what are you doing here? H.A.R.M. was, apparently, initially supposed to serve as a pilot for a new series, but wound up in theatrical release instead. My favorite review comes from The New York Times, which called it an "anemic James Bond imitation." I don't believe this is currently part of the MST3K episodes that run on TV; all-in-all, probably a good thing.  TV 

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  

This week in TV Guide: January 17, 1970

It's not often that we lead off with one of our features; thinking back on it, I'm not sure that I've ever done it before. But, then, I'm not sure that we've ever encountered anyone quite like Michael James Brody, Jr., especially not on The Ed Sullivan Show. And when you have the potential to use that as the lede, why look any further?

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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 guests are Muhammad Ali, actress June Allyson, singer Buddy Greco, comics Bill Dana (as Jose Jimenez) and Minnie Pearl, magician Mac Ronay, millionaire Michael James Brody Jr. and his wife Rennie, and the Kessler Twins, singer-dancers. 

Palace: Hosts Bobbie Gentry, John Hartford and Roy Clark present Frankie Laine, Louis Nye, dancers Szony and Agnese, the rocking Brooklyn Bridge and comic Jackie Gayle.

The listing for this week's Sullivan show was skimpy on details, forcing me to consult the IMDb to find out exactly who appeared, and I'm glad I did; otherwise, we'd have no reason to talk about Michael James Brody Jr.. 

Brody, a 21-year-old margarine heir from New York, was, for a time, "the most beloved millionaire in the world"; newspaper headlines proclaimed him as the "Hippie Angel," dedicated to world peace and the sharing of prosperity. He had a fortune of $25 million, or so he said, his portion of a trust fund set up by his grandfather, margarine magnate John Jelke. He first started to attract headlines when he bought out all the seats on a Pam Am 707 (cost: $7,000) so that he and his new wife, Renee (whom he'd met three weeks before when she showed up at his house to make a hash delivery for her drug-dealing then-boyfriend) could return home from their Jamaican honeymoon in private. 

Naturally, that kind of behavior is bound to garner attention, and after Pan Am spread the story, photographers and newsmen were on hand at Kennedy Airport to capture their arrival. Apparently inspired by all the publicity, Brody fanned the flames by announcing that he wanted to give away his fortune. (New York Times headline: "He Wants to Aid Poor and Peace.") "Money hasn’t made me satisfied," he told the Times reporter. "I wasn’t satisfied until I found Renee. Now I have everything I want—love, fresh air, food. So why shouldn’t I give my money away?" He made public his phone number and address, and urged people to send him their requests. He was said to be worth at least $25 million, and NBC placed the number at $50 million. Predictably, he was besieged by letters, telegrams, and calls, and opened up an office to handle the deluge of mail.

His behavior was extravagant; said the Times, "He is reported to have given $2,500 to a man with mortgage trouble, $1,000 to a taxi driver, $500 to a heroin addict, $100 to a barber who opened a door for him and $100 to a newsboy who sold him a paper—all on Thursday." And, in the midst of all this, he and Renee (her name appears as "Rennie" on the IMDb credits) wound up on The Ed Sullivan Show, where he received $3,500 for his appearance, which included "play[ing] a Bob Dylan song ("You Ain't Going Nowhere") on his acoustic guitar as the host marveled over 'the youngster giving away $25 million.' Audience members applauded wildly." And you thought last week's issue was full of stories behind the stories. He signed a record contract, and tried to land a helicopter on the lawn at the White House, where he wanted to meet with President Nixon and discuss world peace.

If it all seems too good—or too weird—to be true, it unfortunately proves to be the case. Checks started to bounce, and it turned out that he'd overestimated his fortune just slightly: in reality, his portion of the trust was worth more like $1.25 million. Checks started to bounce, Brody briefly disappeared from sight, and in April he was being held in a psychiatric center in the Bay Area. In May, he was arrested on drug charges, and the following year he was arrested for threatening President Nixon's life. He ultimately took his own life by gunshot on January 26, 1973.

You can read more about this colorful and, ultimately, very sad story in this feature at the New York Post (which incorrectly identifies the date of his Sullivan appearance as January 11). And even though The Hollywood Palace has a strong Country-themed lineup—in fact, it's probably a stronger lineup overall—nothing is going to top a story like that. This week, Sullivan is worth a million.

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Well, I admit that's a hard act to follow, but we'll gamely soldier on. Carolyn See knows a little about that; getting Don Galloway to talk about himself is a little like pulling teeth, or, as she puts it, getting blood from a stone. He's reticent to talk about himself and his accomplishments in the business, which have peaked with his current role on Ironside, in which he plays one of Raymond Burr's trusted lieutenants—or, in the case of Galloway's character, Ed Brown, sergeant. "Perhaps," See wonders, "his modesty and shyness are not so much a by-product of being a supporting actor as they are reasons for his becoming a supporting actor in the first place."

Up to now, his career has consisted mainly of "generally forgettable parts," or fairly good parts "in forgettable series," including Arrest and Trial, 90 Bristol Court, and the movie Rare Breed, in which he was overshadowed by stars Brian Keith and Maureen O'Hara. Ironside would seem to offer, as See says, few challenges, but Galloway is fine with it. "It’s a question of values. Some people want to be a star. Some people want to be rich. I really just want to act and make a living acting." And then he shifts the talk, as he has been doing throughout the interview, away from himself and toward, in this case, "that big guy who rides in a wheel chair." "I've been quoted as saying that Raymond Burr is the best actor in America. I actually didn’t say exactly that. I said there are none better." A stickler for detail, he adds, "There may possibly be actors as good as he is—l mean, you could argue it—but | don’t believe there’s a better actor in the country."

So much for his career. "I just feel that the story of my life isn't exactly high drama." When asked how he met his wife, he responds simply, "On a cigarette commercial." Pressed for details, he adds, "In Red Bank, New Jersey." And when asked for the best time he's ever had in his life, he mentions The Rare Breed, and steers it once again away from his career. "That's when my wife had our first daughter, and | met my old friend and poker-playing buddy, Jack Elam." His passions are his work, his family, and poker, and it's hard not to understand Don Galloway as a happy, satisfied man. "When you come home from work, and talk to your wife and play with the kids, and play a little poker, there isn’t much time left."

In his series of "It's About TV" articles on Ironside, Stephen Taylor mentions Don Galloway, and his first impressions are quite similar to what we read here: "He’s just an anonymous guy wearing a suit who happens to carry a badge. He has no gravitas. No bearing. He’s simply not believable." And then immediately corrects himself; in the third season episode "Tom Dayton Is Loose Among Us," he shows to us all that he can really act. That episode is due to air in April 1970; I wonder if Carolyn See was able to catch it?

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Let's take a look at some sports. 

    Program from the final game

For ten years, the American Football League has battled for recognition and respect from the National Football League and football fans throughout the nation. Over the last four years, the rebel league has battled the establishment to a dead heat in the Super Bowl, with each league winning two games. Now, as the leagues merge into the new and improved NFL, the AFL plays its last-ever game, as the best of the Eastern and Western Divisions clash in the final AFL All-Star Game, live from the Houston Astrodome (Saturday, 11:00 a.m., NBC). It's the end of an era, one that I think many American Football League fans are sorry to see come to a conclusion; by being merged into the NFL, where it will become the "American Conference" (complete with three teams from the NFL joining the ten former AFL teams), the league loses something of its identity, its style of play, its "rebel with a cause" reputation. Those were the days.

But there's more: on Sunday it's the NFL's turn, with the 20th annual Pro Bowl, another East-West affair, from Los Angeles (1:00 p.m., CBS). The Pro Bowl will continue as an American Conference vs. National Conference setup, with steadily decreasing interest, until the game is finally abolished in 2022 (the 2021 game was cancelled because of the virus). And on Tuesday night, it's basketball's turn, as stars from the East and West meet in Philadelphia (5:30 p.m., ABC). 

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The previous year, the NBA All-Star Game had been played on the same night as President Johnson's final State of the Union Address; in one of the strangest occurrences in the history of televised sports, ABC breaks away from the live action midway through the first half to switch to Washington for the speech, returning at halftime and, after showing a brief highlights package, resuming live coverage with the start of the third quarter. There's no such conflict this year, as President Nixon delivers his first State of the Union on Thursday at 9:30 a.m.—that's 12:30 p.m. in Washington. It's been years since I've watched that dog and pony show, but as far as I know, it's usually in primetime; it's hard to imagine such a major media event being doing during the day today.

But that means Thursday's TV schedule is unaffected, including the debut of a show hosted by Nixon's fellow politician, Pat Paulsen. Paulsen's 1968 presidential campaign now gives way to the premiere of The Pat Paulsen Half a Comedy Hour (7:30 p.m., ABC), with special guests Hubert Humphrey (probably still thinking it should be him giving the State of the Union), Debbie Reynolds, and Daffy Duck. You might recall that back in 1968, the producers of Laugh-In tried unsuccessfully to get Humphrey to appear on the show; instead, it was Nixon who got the "Sock it to me" line and won the election. Perhaps Hubert has learned his lesson, as tonight he makes his comedy acting debut in a sketch that involves him aiding a distressed motorist (Pat)—you can see how that plays out here. Myself, I thought Hubert did pretty well, but the series only lasts 13 episodes; perhaps Pat should have had him on every week. 

Unfortunately, having the State of the Union on in the afternoon also means that the premiere of Paris 7000 goes on as scheduled (10:00 p.m., ABC). No offense to George Hamilton, whom I quite liked when I saw him at the Mid Atlantic Nostalgia Convention last year, but this show, in which he plays a troubleshooter working out of the U.S. consulate in Paris, is even less successful than Pat Paulsen's—it runs for only 10 episodes. Maybe they could have had an episode featuring Hubert Humphrey stopping by while passing through France.

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Thursday's not the only night that sees new shows in the lineup; if we go back a night we'll run into a few more, again on ABC, which, I suppose, tells us something about the network's relative standing in the ratings race. On Wednesday, the luminous Juliet Mills stars in Nanny and the Professor (7:30 p.m., ABC), in which she plays a nanny who mysteriously shows up at the home of widowed professor Richard Long and his three children. Says TV Guide, "She can't fly, and she's no magician, but this British nanny is quite extraordinary all the same," and truer words have seldom been spoken.

Next, it's the return of The Johnny Cash Show (9:00 p.m., ABC), which had a successful run as a summer replacement for The Hollywood Palace. Tonight, Johnny's show is from the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, where he welcomes guests Arlo Guthrie, Jose Feliciano, and Bobbie Gentry; his regulars include his wife June Carter Cash and the Carter Family, Carl Perkins, the Statler Brothers, and the Tennessee Three. In the history of television (and you can freely correct me here), I'm not sure there are many stars with the stature and star power of Johnny Cash who have ever hosted their own weekly series. That's followed at 10:00 p.m. 

The night is topped off by ABC's answer to, well, their own star. Having had great success with the weekly series hosted by Welch singer Tom Jones, the network is back with The Engelbert Humperdinck Show, hosted by the British singer of the same name. Both Jones and Humperdinck wear tuxedos, have great sex appeal with the ladies, and speak with accents, but Engelbert doesn't quite become the sensation that Tom is; his series runs for six months (and may have only been a limited series anyway). Surprisingly, or maybe not so surprisingly, you can see eleven of the eighteen episodes here.

In addition to the premieres, ABC's been moving around some of their established shows. It Takes a Thief is now on at 7:30 p.m. Monday (replacing The Music Scene and a portion of The New People, both toast), while The Flying Nun has moved to Fridays at 7:30 p.m. (in place of Let's Make a Deal), and Love, American Style takes the 10:00 p.m. slot formerly held by Jimmy Durante Presents the Lennon Sisters.*

*And that isn't even the show with the longest title of the season; that honor belongs to Lana Turner starring in Harold Robbins' "The Survivors". Beat that!

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As it's turning out, Wednesday is a pretty big night on the tube. In addition to ABC's shenanigans, Joan Crawford makes a rare dramatic television appearance on The Virginian (7:30 p.m., NBC) in the story "Nightmare," written especially for her by Gerry Day and Bethel Leslie*. She plays the new wife of a prominent businessman in town, who faces the "smoldering jealousies" and resentments from people who don't want to accept her in her new role. Well, you know what they say about the trouble with stepmothers. 

*Yes, Bethel Leslie the actress, who featured on so many television shows of the 1950s and 1960s. In addition to acting, she was an accomplished scriptwriter, writing for Gunsmoke, Barnaby Jones, McCloud, Falcon Crest, and other series. She was also the head writer for The Secret Storm.

That's followed by a special episode of Kraft Music Hall, as the Friars Club roasts Jack Benny. Johnny Carson is the roastmaster, with George Burns, Ed Sullivan, Alan King, Milton Berle, Henny Youngman, Phil Harris, and Dennis Day. Oh, and there's one more special guest: the vice president of the United States, Spiro Agnew. ("I don’t know how old Jack is. I only know that the Treasury Department sent me Jack’s income-tax return, and his Social Security number was 1.") The unbylined article on the taping of the roast gives us a look at the backstage preparations: Johnny Carson, "brandishing a nailed-on grin"; the half-dozen blue-suited Secret Service agents scanning the room, each wearing "a face that would stop a clock"; and various comics (including Benny) walking off their nerves and trying out lines that bomb. The actual roast lasts about 90 minutes but is edited down to a little over half that time for broadcast. "It’s shorter because some of the wisecracks fizzled and—more important—a few of the ad libs would send NBC’s Priscilla Goodbody into cardiac arrest." When the Friars roast, they use a blue flame, to put it mildly. Here's the version that aired—you knew it would be on YouTube, didn't you?

Some movies of interest round out the week. Judith Crist is bullish on NBC's Saturday night move, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (9:00 p.m.), the funniest thing being director Richard Lester, who directed the Beatles in A Hard Day's Night and Help!, and provides his special brand of film fun here. Even better are stars Zero Mostel, Jack Gilford, and Phil Silvers, "these pros make a funny thing just that." She also likes How to Steal a Million (Monday, 9:00 p.m., ABC), a heist caper with Audrey Hepburn and Peter O'Toole as "an utterly delightful pair of respectable thieves" and Eli Wallach and Hugh Griffin on hand "to steal scenes." It's "an absolute strawberry shortcake of a film." Never Too Late (Thursday, 9:00 p.m., CBS), with Paul Ford and Maureen O'Sullivan, is a delight; the two veterans "make the contrivances very bearable indeed." And she recommends My Sweet Charlie (Tuesday, 9:00 p.m., NBC) sight unseen, based on stars Patty Duke and Al Freeman Jr. "Their performances in a vehicle derived from a fine novel and excellent stage play cannot be less than interesting."

And last but not least, on KXTV in Sacramento, Thursday brings The Killers (9:00 p.m.), the existential 1964 remake of the 1946 classic based on the short story by Ernest Hemingway, with Lee Marvin and Clu Gulager as the hitmen trying to find out why their latest target (John Cassavetes) put up no resistance when they arrived to kill him. Angie Dickinson is the moll who traps men in her web, and in his final screen role (and only time as the heavy), Ronald Reagan plays the crime boss at the center of it all. It was supposed to be part of NBC's Project 120 made-for-TV movies, but it was deemed too violent for TV, and wound up in the theaters. It's a dandy remake, and part of quite a string of films for Lee Marvin: between 1964 and 1967, he made The Killers, Cat Ballou, Ship of Fools, The Professionals, The Dirty Dozen, and Point Blank. That's not a bad record for any actor. TV  

This week in TV Guide: January 6, 1968

Well, here we are with the first issue of 1968, and after everything that happened last year—the "long hot summer" of race riots, especially in Detroit and Newark; the expansion of the war in Vietnam; the Apollo 1 fire; the Six-Day War in the Middle East; and that's just for starters—it's a new year, and with it a fresh start. I mean, 1968 can't help but be better, right? Right?

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If you're hoping for something "fresh and innovative" on television this coming season, you're probably out of luck. That's the message from Richard K. Doan at this week's Doan Report, where the word is that "Unless the networks are keeping something up their sleeves—which is possible but unlikely—the new prime-time-shows next season will be just more of the familiar stuff." 

The dilemma that network programmers face is a twin one: on the one hand, they feel "it is too risky and expensive to try the untried." (Nothing new there.) On the other hand, though, they've already tried "just about every variation in a known successful series formula." One executive reports the mood in Hollywood as being "panic-stricken. Nobody knows which way to turn next." The elephant in the room, if there is one, has been the prime-time movie, which has overrun all but the most popular of weekly series. Those shows—think Gomer Pyle, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Bonanza—can't last forever, though; sitcom "nonsense" abounds with its endless variations, Westerns are just about dead, and the only new variety shows are those helmed by Jonathan Winters on CBS and Rowan and Martin on NBC. With Doris Day the only big name on the calendar for the new season, the odds of finding something to take on the big, bad movies, and the ratings, seem pretty slim; NBC's plans to add a third movie night in the fall are proof of that.

When you look at the programming for the next few seasons, you see the problem. Next year's schedule includes 60 Minutes, which is probably as close to "new and innovative" as it comes, and the biggest drama series are Hawaii Five-O and Columbo. ABC's Movie of the Week series, comprised entirely of made-for-TV movies, adds to the movie onslaught. Old, tired formats such as Danny Thomas's return in Make Room for Granddaddy, and The New Andy William Show, prove to be short-lived. In the end, the most ground-breaking shows of the next few years are a pair of sitcoms: All in the Family and The Mary Tyler Moore Show.  

Oh, and there's one other series that makes its debut in a couple of seasons, one that's still on today: Monday Night Football. But hold that thought; we'll be back to it at the end.

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Throughout the 60s and early 70s, TV Guide's weekly reviews were written by the witty and acerbic Cleveland Amory. Whenever we get the chance, we'll look at Cleve's latest take on the shows of the era. 

The creative team responsible for The Dick Van Dyke Show—Bill Persky, Sam Denoff, Sheldon Leonard, and Carl Reiner—have been at work on a new sitcom for CBS, Good Morning World. The problem, says Cleveland Amory, is that it was "obviously not very hard." The idea behind the show is, apparently, "not to have any idea at all. Just have five characters in search of an offer." Well, that's not a very promising start, is it?

The five characters in question are a pair of radio disc jockeys, their big, bad boss, the wife of one of the DJs, and their next door neighbor. And if the show really does have no idea, then that's offset by the fact that it also has no stars. The best of them, Joby Baker, as good-guy DJ David, "somehow manages to get some real fun into his role," but his sidekick, Ronnie Schell, the swinging sidekick Larry, "comes on strong as the bad guy" who wants to stay single, for at least the length of the series. "Our guess is he'll make it in a walk." Billy de Wolfe, the boss, "mugs and shrugs his way through his role" (if you've ever seen the animated Frosty the Snowman, where he voices the evil magician, you'll understand what Cleve's talking about), while Julie Parrish plays Joby's wife, and Goldie Hawn, who has bigger and better things ahead of her, is the neighbor, who's in love with Ronnie. 

At least, Amory says, "if you've got no basic idea for your show, then you've at least got to come up each episode with something pretty new and different. "Typical plots include Sandy, stuck with a girlfriend who's starting to get "ideas," telling her he can't marry her because doctors don't know how long he has to live. (But, then, whose doctor can?) "The important thing is to live each day to the hilt—with a smile on your face—like Ben Gazzara." Unfortunately, that was the high point of the episode; had they really wanted to be clever, they might have had the DJs interview Gazzara as himself, plugging Run for Your Life. Sure, it's on another network, but why not? And then, there was the story about the duo having to do their show on location from the Sunshine Dude Ranch. Only problem is that there's been a misunderstanding: it's actually the Sunshine Nude Ranch. Well, you get where it goes from there. Points to the writers for coming up with something different each week. But wouldn't it have just been easier to come up with an idea instead? "[N]ot a big one, mind you, just a teensy weensy little one."

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The bowl games are over, and the Super Bowl isn't until next week, but that doesn't mean we don't have football on tap, including the most meaningless football game of the season, the Playoff Bowl (Sunday, 11:00 a.m. PT, CBS). The concept of the Playoff Bowl, a charity game played in Miami to benefit the NFL players' pension fund, pits the second place teams of the Eastern and Western Conferences in a game for third place; it was originally called the Runner-Up Bowl, a more descriptive if no more glamorous title. If you're a football fan, you're no doubt aware of the growing trend in the college game of players opting out of meaningless dot.com bowl games in order to eliminate the risk of getting injured prior to the draft. You also probably know that the Pro Bowl, the NFL's all-star game, was changed to a skills competition a few years ago, for more or less the same reason. Now imagine telling these players that they're expected to play in a nationally televised game to determine the third best team in the league—or "second loser," if you will. No wonder the game ended after ten years. For the record, in this year's game, the Los Angeles Rams defeat the Cleveland Browns, 30-6.

  

A far more meaningful version of the game can be found in the critically acclaimed documentary The Violent World of Sam Huff (Sunday, 6:00 p.m., CBS), a profile of the New York Giants star linebacker originally telecast in 1960 but being rerun now because of Huff's recent retirement. Narrated by Walter Cronkite, The Violent World of Sam Huff was the first film to afford viewers the opportunity to actually see and hear the sounds of pro football, via ground-level cameras and a microphone embedded in Huff's uniform. The "controlled violence" of the sport thrilled and captivated the audience, and, coming as it did on the heels of the 1958 NFL Championship Game, aka "The Greatest Game Ever Played," and with Cronkite's gravitas providing a suitable background, The Violent World of Sam Huff played a major role in the growing popularity of professional football. More than 60 years later, the documentary still holds up today, as you can see here.

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January traditionally marks the start of television's second season, so there are a good number of premieres and specials among the week's offerings. 

Saturday Night at the Movies opens the season with an instant classic: the network TV premiere of Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 nightmarish The Birds, starring Rod Taylor and Tippi Hedren (9:00 p.m., NBC). Hitchcock called it his "Vision of Judgment Day," while Judith Crist calls it "tedious" for as long as the humans hold center stage. "But when those winged creatures come to the fore the blandness of Tippi Hedren and stolidity of Rod Taylor are overshadowed and Hitchcockian terror takes over triumphantly. It’s enough to make you kick the next pigeon you come across."

How about Jack Palance as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? He's the star of a two-and-a-half hour adaptation this week, produced by Dan Curtis (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., ABC), and featuring Leo Genn, Oscar Homolka, Billie Whitelaw, and Denholm Elliott. It's been a troubled production from the start: Jason Robards was originally scheduled to star (that would have been interesting), working off a script by Rod Serling. However, Robards was unhappy with the script, and shooting delays led to him dropping out. Curtis hired Ian McLellan Hunter for a new script, hired Palance (whom he'd worked with in Dracula) to replace Robards, and moved production from London to Toronto, where shooting would be cheaper. It was nominated for four Emmys, including Outstanding Dramatic Program; you can see it for free at Tubi.

On Monday, Jacques Cousteau debuts the first of a proposed twelve-part documentary series (telecast over three years) called "The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau" (7:30 p.m., ABC). Although Cousteau had first appeared on ABC in 1966 in a film called "Conshelf Adventure," it is "The Undersea World," which winds up producing 36 episodes and lasts until 1976, that clinches his reputation as "television's most celebrated maker and presenter of documentaries about the underwater world." Although it's not mentioned in this issue, Rod Serling narrates the series on ABC (Richard Johnson does the honors on the BBC); later on, it will be the equally distinguished Joseph Campanella.

Monday night, Robert Wagner's a guest on The Joey Bishop Show (11:30 p.m., ABC); Tuesday, it's the "Special World Premiere" of Wagner's new series, It Takes a Thief (8:30 p.m., ABC). Coincidence? I think not. For those of you who don't remember the premise, Wagner appears as Alexander Mundy, a convicted cat burglar who's paroled from prison in order to ply his trade for a thinly-disguised version of the CIA, with Malachi Throne as his handler, Noah Bain. It's a fun series, running for three seasons; some of the best episodes involve Mundy's father Alistair (Fred Astaire), also a master thief. Tonight's 90-minute debut, directed by Leslie Stevens, pulls out all the stops, featuring a guest cast including Senta Berger, John Saxon, and Susan Saint James, with cameos from Raymond Burr, Wally Cox, Joe Louis, Leslie Nielsen, and others. It's up against The Red Skelton Hour (8:30 p.m., CBS), in which Red presents a one-man show reviewing his career from vaudeville days to the present.

The Avengers returns for a new season on Wednesday (7:30 p.m., ABC), with Steed and Mrs. Peel investigating the case of a treasury official who's been shrunk to miniature size, along with the Rolls-Royce he was driving. I've often wondered about the usefulness of a shrinking machine, whether it could be used for good purposes as well as world domination—and by the way, just how would that work ruling the world as a giant? It didn't do much good for that guy living in the beanstalk, did it? On the Kraft Music Hall, Bobby Darin is the host and the theme is "It's a Grand Night for Swinging" (9:00 p.m., NBC), with his guests Bobbie Gentry, George Kirby, and Bobby Van. One of Kirby's bits involves an impression of Bobby Kennedy; I wonder if they tried to get Bobby Vinton or Bobby Rydell?

Robert Wagner isn't the only one doing the late-show promo circuit; on Wednesday, former astronaut John Glenn appears on The Tonight Show (11:30 p.m., NBC) to promote his program the following night, Great Explorations (Thursday, 7:30 p.m., NBC), a David Wolper production (his second of the week!) in which Glenn follows the trail taken by Henry Stanley in his search for Dr. David Livingston. The show, and Glenn's role in it, is the subject of producer and writer John Peer Nugent's article. Glenn, whom the team comes to call "Bwana Satellite," takes an active role in the making of the show, having insisted before accepting the assignment that "The emphasis must be not on what the explorers did so much as what their discoveries did, or did not do, for the peoples and lands discovered." At one point Glenn is forced to drop a rogue elephant with a couple of well-placed shots from his rifle. It is a task which gives him no great pleasure; " 'In the war, I had to kill and I didn’t like it then,' he said, oblivious to the shouts of congratulations. 'I don’t like it now either.' " It's interesting to see Glenn here in something other than as either an astronaut or a politician.

On Friday night, it's the premiere of the nighttime edition of The Hollywood Squares—not the syndicated version, but the network run that would last until September as a midseason replacement for Accidental Family (and NBC didn't make an accident with that change, did they?). Tonight's players are Edie Adams, Morey Amsterdam, Milton Berle, Raymond Burr, Wally Cox, Abby Dalton, Nanette Fabray, Buddy Hackett and Charley Weaver (9:30 p.m., NBC). If that's not your style, you might prefer the CBS Friday movie, A Shot in the Dark (9:00 p.m.), the second outing of Peter Sellers' bumbling Inspector Clouseau. It's once again directed by Blake Edwards, and having Elke Sommer in it doesn't hurt. 

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Robert Musel takes a look at Lee Bouvier Radziwill's upcoming acting debut in ABC's remake of Laura, scheduled for next week. In a previous TV Guide review from last year, I shared some of the reviews from that broadcast, including star Robert Stack's comment that "the production resembled a junior high school effort." Musel takes a closer look at the drama behind the scenes of David Susskind's production, which he describes as "Society Girl Becomes Overnight Star." That's not what happens, though. 

Lee Radziwill and Farley Granger 

Susskind, well-aware of the challenge of turning Jacqueline Kennedy's sister into an instant star despite the lack of acting experience, surrounded her with a veteran cast, including Arlene Francis, who thinks that she'll turn out all right even though "she’s had no time to develop her talent or her technique." "Her performance is a tribute to what can be done with a camera, boom shots, writing, lighting, direction and patience," Arlene continues. "And she looks ravishingly beautiful."

Lee Bouvier grew up in a world of privilege, wealth, and social position. She's married to Prince Stanislas Radziwill, a real-estate millionaire and descendant of Polish royalty. She campaigned vigorously in 1960 for her brother-in-law, John F. Kennedy. She regularly appears in fashion magazines and on best-dressed lists. But inside, she harbored the desire to be an actress; her friend, Truman Capote, convinced her to follow that dream. Two years of private coaching followed, and last June she debuted in Chicago in a stage revival of The Philadelphia Story. It was the first time in her 34 years that she'd appeared on any professional stage. Representative of the reviews was one critic who commented, "A star is not born." She insists this is not a hobby, that if she didn't try it, "I'd never know if I had it in me."

Susskind says all the right things. "I really think she'll be a star," he says, comparing her to another princess, Grace Kelly. "A star is one who attracts an audience. . . She has that quality." Farley Granger, who plays her lover, says "She's working hard," and that she's learning. Robert Stack calls her "uncomplicated and untemperamental," and adds that "she doesn’t seem to have any of the qualms that a beginner usually has." Musil himself concludes by saying that she's "already thinking about her next starring role." It never comes.

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One last word about football. We've got three letters to the editor this week lamenting the amount of football on television each week: Patricia McClintic of Jeffersonville, Indiana asks, "Why must we be subjected to football game after football game for two whole days every, weekend?" while Mrs. Jim Grace of Shepherd, Michigan says, "I've sat at home Saturday after Saturday afternoon and steamed because channel after channel has nothing but sports to offer." And it's not just limited to the football widow, either; Charles A. Westfall of Severance, NY writes, "Frankly I am so fed up with football games I could scream!" And this was when the usual compliment of games amounted to five or six per weekend; it now starts on Thursday, ends on Monday, and encompasses perhaps a dozen games on broadcast television, plus dozens more on cable or streaming.

But to the point of this week's letter-writers, the fact is that nobody seems to think there's too much football on television today. Well, I don't literally mean "nobody"; I'm exaggerating to make a point—the point being that, according to Sportico, 82 of the top 100 most-watched U.S. TV broadcasts of 2022 were NFL games, and of the remaining 18, five were college football games. Only six of the programs were non-sports related, those being the Oscars, the Macy's parade, and news/political events. "The nearest a scripted TV episode got to the upper echelons was Paramount Global’s multi-network simulcast of the Season 5 premiere of Yellowstone, which claimed the No. 132 entry with an average draw of 12.5 million live-plus-same-day viewers." CBS's FBI, the highest-rated entertainment series on television, averages 7.21 million viewers per week, compared to the games in the Sunday football window, which average 25.8 million per week.

True, streaming, on-demand programming, and viewing habits, among other things, have changed everything. Still, the overall dominance of football on TV is impressive. I suppose the good news for people like Mrs. Grace is that she has more non-football shows than ever to choose from. That is good news, right? TV