What's on TV? Wednesday, November 30, 1960

Watching TV from the 1950s and '60s, it begins to seem as if television was comprised of a vast repertory company of actors and actresses who simply rotated through all the shows and then started over again. You start to recognize some of them by name or face, or, if you're really lucky, by name and face. 

Myrna Fahey is one of those names and faces; according to the always-reliable Wikipedia, she appeared in episodes of 37 television series from the 1950s until her untimely death from cancer in 1973 at age 40. As if to prove a point, she's in not one but two shows tonight: first, as the lead guest star in Wagon Train; and then in Hawaiian Eye, and for all I know she's in other shows this week as well. But that was the way of it back then, and it just shows that you didn't have to be a star of a big show to be a familiar face. This week's listings are from the Pittsburgh edition; maybe you'll see some other names you recognize.

What's on TV? Sunday, November 6, 1955

Unless I'm mistaken, I think we have a winner in the contest for the year's best program description: WSTV's 6:00 p.m. listing for Lassie. "Dog Drama." That about says it, doesn't it? Elsewhere, NBC Opera Theater makes its season debut with Lukas Foss' made-for-TV opera Griffelkin, about a young devil residing in Hell's nursery. That's preceded by an interview with former president Herbert Hoover, when he had been out of office for nearly 23 years (2:00 p.m., WTRF). You Are There takes us to the O.K. Corral, as Walter Cronkite and his news team interview the Earps and Clantons, played by Robert Bray, John Larch, John Anderson, DeForest Kelley (who, sadly, doesn't play Doc Holliday), Arthur Reese, and Ernest Baldwin. Not a bad day of broadcasting, as seen in the Pittsburgh Edition.

What's on TV? Saturday, July 17, 1954

X won't spend a lot of time trying to analyze this week's listings, but you'll notice a few things right away. First, these affiliations are all over the place; it must have been kind of a free-for-all as to who carries what. I'll leave that to those with a greater understandng of Pittsburgh TV history to analyze. (Or more time readng Wikipedia pages.) However, WDTV, which will become KDKA in 1955, has a rich history as one of the oldest television stations in America. The other historic Pittsburgh station, WQED (now a PBS affiliate), is notable in its own right as the first community-sponsored television station in the U.S. It doesn't appear in today's listings; like so many educational stations of the time, it doesn't broadcast on the weekends. That won't stop you from finding plenty to watch on this Saturday in July, though, so let's get to it.

What's on TV? Thursday, August 20, 1970

A while back - quite a while, now that I think of it - someone mentioned here that I didn't have very many issues from 1970. And by golly, they were right - at the time, I might have had one, or none at all. Although you probably know my affinities don't lay with the 1970s for a number of reasons, I have no particular animus against 1970 other than aesthetics: I don't like the TV Guide redesign. Otherwise, as I've pointed out before, the first part of the decade more closely resembles the end of the '60s than it does the rest of the '70s. For those of you who'd like to see this rectified, you'll be glad to know that this recent increase in 1970 issues (this is the second in a month) is going to continue through this year and into next year. It won't be an every-other-week kind of thing, but I'll be ramping up the frequency a little more. Right, Kenneth?

Today's issue, by the way, is from Pittsburgh, with added assistance from the surrounding areas.

What's on TV? Monday, March 13, 1972

One of these days I'm going to enlist some help from you all out there. I know some of you are far more familiar with these markets than I am, so if you'll email or comment here and volunteer for the task, I'll share these listings with you prior to posting them, so you can provide the local details and color I probably don't have. While my areas of interest remain Minneapolis-St. Paul (my old home) and Dallas-Fort Worth (my new home), I've got issues from all kinds of markets throughout the country, and your input would make these weekly features even more enjoyable than they (presumably) are now. So if you have the courage, let me know - you too can be a star!

This week, we come to you from Pittsburgh.

What's on TV? Wednesday, January 13, 1954

As promised, we're back in Pittsburgh today. One of the things you'll notice is the number of shows that run only 15 minutes. Take WDTV, below: All of CBS' classic soaps - Love of Life, Search for Tomorrow and The Guiding Light, as well as The Brighter Day, are 15 minutes; by the early 60s, only one or two soaps will still adhere to that format, a carry-over from radio.

You can see how big Arthur Godfrey was, with not one but two shows on; Arthur Godfrey Time in the morning, and Arthur Godfrey and His Friends in prime time. You can also see how popular wrestling and boxing were in the early days of television; they were perfectly shaped programs to appear on the television tube.

On Saturday I mentioned Ray Scott, the announcer of all those great Green Bay Packer games, doing the sports on WDTV; I also notice here that Bob Prince, the revered long-time announcer for the Pittsburgh Pirates, gives the local sports on WENS. And since we've brought up the news, take a look at how WENS carries not only ABC's news with John Daly, but the NBC news with John Cameron Swayze.

Enough of me, though - let's get to the listings.

This week in TV Guide: January 8, 1954

As was the case with last week's issue, we're in Pittsburgh this week. But what a difference a week makes- or a dozen years, as it were. For whereas the issue of January 1, 1966 was, in every way, a TV Guide familiar to anyone who'd read issues from the '60s, flipping the pages of this issue is something like entering a foreign country.

The first thing you'll notice is that the viewing week begins on Friday, not Saturday, and runs through Thursday - a format that continues through July of this year. That can be a bit startling when you first see it. Speaking of which, when you get to the programming section, you won't see the familiar TV tube-shaped bullets denoting channel numbers. Instead, you'll see white numbers encased in a black circle, or black numbers with no outline at all.

In fact, as you page through the issue - all the pages are shiny, by the way, rather than the newspaper-like stock that the program section is printed on throughout most of TV Guide's run - you might be forgiven for thinking you're looking at one of those supplements from the Sunday newspaper, or perhaps the free handout you get at a convenience store. The magazine is heavy on local columnists and viewpoints, interspersed in the programming section rather than gathered at the front of the issue. There's a good reason for this - as TV Guide became a national publication, it frequently absorbed existing local publications, rebranding them but often retaining certain features that might have been unique to the market. In the case of Pittsburgh, it would appear that TV Guide's predecessor was a magazine named TV Digest, published by Television News, Inc. While the graphics, editorial, TV Teletype and some of the articles are from the national headquarters, there's also Bill Adler's Pittsburgh Parade (W.F. Adler was the editor on the Television News masthead), Harold V. Cohn's Observation Post, and a host of local advertisements.

There's nothing wrong with any of this, of course - it's just different.

***

ALL: HADLEY TV GUIDE COLLECTION   

I wonder. For all the talk about the Golden Age, for all the iconic shows from the decade of the '50s, the programs that are said to define the American fabric, is there any single show more indicative of America in 1954 than I Led 3 Lives?

The ad to your left says all about the '50s. In 1954, the Army-McCarthy hearings will become must-see viewing, the Cincinnati Reds will informally change their name to the Redlegs, and the Hollywood Blacklist is at its height. On the radio, I Was a Communist for the FBI, starring Dana Andrews, is syndicated to over 600 stations nationally. It is with this backdrop that in 1953, Ziv - the producer of the radio drama - makes a companion piece for television, I Led 3 Lives.

The show is based on real life, the story of Boston advertising executive Herb Philbrick, played by Richard Carlson, who joins the Communist party at the behest of the FBI. The catchphrase on that ad - "Citizen! Communist! Counterspy!" comes directly from the subtitle of Philbrick's 1952 book, I Led Three Lives: Citizen, 'Communist', Counterspy. According to the always-reliable Wikipedia, J. Edgar Hoover himself approved all the scripts.

I'm not going to get into a political discussion of the program's merits, although longtime readers might be able to guess where I stand on it, but from the standpoint of a cultural archaeologist, it's a shame that I Led 3 Lives hasn't come out with an official DVD release of its three season. (One season for each life?) For regardless of whether or not you agree with the premise, whether or not you think it a good show, I can't think of any program that explains mid-50s America - its fears and anxieties, its politics, its heroes and villains, or the one issue that was an undercurrent to practically everything that went on in this country up to and including rock music - than I Led 3 Lives. It's a program that symbolizes it all in a nutshell.

***

Not only are the programs different from last week, the stations are as well. Channel 2, long the mighty KDKA, is WDTV here, the call letters it carries as a DuMont affiliate. There are only two other stations in Pittsburgh; WENS, Channel 16, the ABC affiliate, will go off the air in 1957, returning in 1959 as WQEX. It isn't even in last week's issue, nor is WKJF, Channel 53; that station will go off the air in August, not returning until 1969 when it is reborn as WPGH, the call letters it retains to this day. Speaking of WKFJ, look at the ad to your right, urging people to make the switch to UHF. I speak not of the technical merits of UHF vs. VHF, but doesn't the ad give off a little of the battle between AM and FM radio? "Convert NOW to FM for radio's clearest signal!" I can see that ad, can't you?

However different the lineups may be, there's still plenty that's familiar in this issue; you just have to look a little harder to find it. On Friday, for example, Jeanne Cooper and Walter Reed star in Pepsi-Cola Playhouse presentation of "The Gold Thumb" on ABC; Jeanne Cooper, of course, becomes a soap opera icon, as well as mother of Corbin Bernsen. Walter Reed does not go on to discover the cause of yellow fever and have a hospital named after him.

On Saturday Yvonne DeCarlo, still years away from playing Lily Munster, is part of "the average family" in The Backbone of America, and Barry Sullivan, not yet The Tall Man, is nonetheless a heroic newspaperman risking his life to help recapture the escaped killer he once saved from the Chair, in Ford Theater. Also on Saturday, Dave Garroway may be in the process of becoming a legend as host of NBC's Today Show, but he also has time to host his own variety show at 6:00pm Saturdays on NBC.*

*Although this issue doesn't show network affiliations, WDTV seems to take the smorgasbord approach - DuMont, NBC and CBS. Of course, at this point DuMont isn't even fielding a full schedule of programming each night.

On Sunday at 2:00pm ET, WJAC in Johnstown airs Studio One. The show is usually run on CBS Monday nights at 10:00pm, and when I flipped to the Monday listings, sure enough - there it is. But not on WJAC, which is instead showing NBC's Robert Montgomery Presents. At any rate, this episode of Studio One gives us comedian Jack Carter in a rare acting role in the story "Runaway," about a Brooklyn bus driver who uses his bus to drive to Miami. Now, Jackie Gleason played Ralph Kramden, a bus driver, and in the 1960s Gleason moved his show to Miami. Coincidence?

Also on Sunday, the Hallmark Hall of Fame, back when it was a weekly series, has "Crusade to Liberty," the true-life story of James Oglethorpe, "who fought a single-handed battle against England's debtor prisons" and later founded the colony of Georgia. Kind of a contrast to the sentimental chick-flick dreck that Hallmark has on today, don't you think?  And at 7:00pm on ABC, it's the third telecast of Motorola TV Hour, with a musical version of James Thurber's fanciful tale "The Thirteen Clocks" featuring an all-star cast: Roberta Peters, who will go on to become one of the all-time greats at the Metropolitan Opera, Basil Rathbone, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, and John Raitt.

Meanwhile, on Monday, it's the regular telecast of Studio One, "The Remarkable Incident at Carson Corners," written by Reginald Rose. You can see that episode here. On Tuesday, Bishop Fulton Sheen discusses philosophy and religion in DuMont's Life Is Worth Living. (Let's not forget Bishop Sheen also did many programs discussing the evils of Communism.)  Wednesday is fight night on CBS, and Blue Ribbon Bouts presents former heavyweight champion Ezzard Charles taking on Bob Satterfield in a ten-round bout. If you're interested in another example of early television, here is the broadcast of Charles' knockout victory.


If, like my wife, boxing leaves you squeamish, then NBC has This Is Your Life on opposite the fight, with perhaps the greatest program description I've ever seen, keeping in mind the show was broadcast live: "THIS IS YOUR LIFE. Ralph Edwards. Someone's life story." Almost like a Bob & Ray bit, don't you think?*

*By the way, the subject du jour on This Is Your Life turned out to be character actress Hope Emerson, whom us classic TV fans recognize as Mother on Peter Gunn.

There's nothing particularly noteworthy on Thursday, but I did notice something charming in the listing for Channel 2's 11pm news. It's called The World Tonight, with future legendary Pittsburgh anchorman Bill Burns and future legendary football announcer Ray Scott.* A notable pairing to be sure, but what intrigued me was that the listing also includes this note: "Sponsor: Fort Pitt Brewing Company." I dare say you wouldn't see that in a TV Guide of the '60s.

*Scott's signature call as the announcer of Green Bay Packers games: "Starr...Dowler...Touchdown, Green Bay." How many times I thrilled to that. Scott was known and loved for his economy of words when announcing a game, a trait today's announcers could take note of.)

***

A couple other things that caught my eye. The first is the ad below for the Copa nightclub in Pittsburgh, which I suspect Kliph Nesteroff could probably tell us more about.. Has nothing whatsoever to do with television; in fact, it might be thought of as a competitor. I suppose it's no different from the ads I've seen in '60s Twin Cities issues for the Guthrie Theater and local movie houses, but it still seems strange.

The second thing is this picture from the cover story on model-turned-actress Joan Caulfield. Had I not known she had been a model, this would have convinced me - it's a much more attractive picture than that used on the cover - even nicer than the picture of Dinah Shore they have earlier in the "TV Guide Singer Album." I wonder why they didn't use it?

TV  

What's on TV? Monday, January 3, 1966

This is, I think, the first time we've visited the Pittsburgh area, home to some of the oldest and most storied local stations in television history. For instance, there's KDKA, the CBS affiliate, which started out in 1949 as WDTV, a DuMont affiliate. According to the always-reliable Wikipedia (let's just call it ARW), "The station also represented a milestone in the television industry, providing the first 'network' that included Pittsburgh and 13 other cities from Boston to St. Louis."

And then there's WQED, born in 1954, which has the distinction of being "the first community-sponsored television station in the United States as well as the fifth public television station." (ARW, again.) You might recognize the call letters from the end of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Carmen Sandiego and any other number of programs it's produced for PBS.

Another notable in this issue, which I have seen in others as well, is that WARD, Channel 56 in Johnstown, does not broadcast in color, even if the program itself is in color. It's now the CW affiliate, owned by CBS (same as KDKA), and presumably it broadcasts in color.

But enough with the background - it's the first Monday of 1966, so let's see what kind of programs the steel city has in store for us. As noted, besides Pittsburgh we've also got listings for the nearby areas of Johnstown and Altoona in Pennsylvania, and Steubenville and Youngstown in Ohio.  Next week we'll return to Pittsburgh, a dozen years earlier and a much different landscape.