This week in TV Guide: July 21, 1973

The year is 1967, and you're a Navy flier in Vietnam. While flying a mission on May 18 of that year, you're shot down over North Vietnam and taken prisoner. For nearly six years, until March 4, 1973, you're shuttled from prison to prison, including the infamous "Hanoi Hilton." During that time, you've missed Laugh-In, the Smothers Brothers, and Neil Armstrong walking on the moon. You didn't see the end of The Fugitive, Peyton Place or The Ed Sullivan Show. You've never seen Monday Night Football or Big Bird. Even though it's only (!) been six years, you have, in essence, missed an entire generation of American pop culture. This is the world that Lt. Robert Naughton returned to when he was released from North Vietnam custody, and this week he tells Clifford Terry how television has changed during his time as a POW.

He never saw television during those six years, but he and his fellow prisoners talked about it. "I must give it credit for providing us with a lot of entertainment," he says. "We'd discuss the shows we had seen in order to pass the time and cheer each other up." In doing so, he says, "[T]hat's when I awakened to its lack of depth. If I tried to tell the guys the story of a certain episode, I'd realize there really wasn't any. Nor any message." As he thought of the shows he'd once considered his favorites, such as The Andy Griffith Show and The Dick Van Dyke Show, he came to the same conclusion. "My feeling now is that you can be entertained and at the same time have your intellect stimulated."

What might surprise you—or not, when you think about it—is that Naughton doesn't see much of any change in television now from how he remembered it. "only the names of the prime-time shows are different. I saw The Doris Day Show and Sanford and Son, and got a few laughs out of them, but I couldn't watch to the end." He'd always enjoyed Dean Martin, but after seeing a recent show, "I'm sorry to say it was a kind of nothing." As for the #1 show in America, All in the Family, "I thought it was funny, but someone who doesn't do any analyzing may think, 'Oh, everyone's laughing, that must be the way to live.' I couldn't see any subtlety to it. And kids might pick up some of the words, the bigotry."

He enjoys Alistair Cooke's America ("If that could represent the over-all quality, television would be above reproach"), and thinks shows such as Face the Nation and Meet the Press are great, but that it's "almost criminal" that they're stuck on Sunday mornings or afternoons. He's impressed with public television and its capacity to educate young people. As a matter of fact, television's ability to educate as well as enlighten is a big point with him; he points out how more and more people get their news not from newspapers but TV. "The communications media have a real obligation to the country—especially television, because of the fast pace of American life." He enjoys newsmen who present their opinions as well as the news, from Eric Sevareid and Harry Reasoner to Paul Harvey, and he stresses the need of news programs to subject politicians to public scrutiny. "Of course," he cautions, "if it ever should come to the point of slanting the news, then it should be stopped. I heard a lot of slanted news in North Vietnam in the last few years—propaganda that was directed to about the 6th- or 7th-grade level. No subtlety at all."

Not surprisingly, the subject of Hogan's Heroes comes up. "I think they begin [the show] from the point where the prisoners already have been beaten up; they assume everyone knows that a POW is tortured—just by the fact that he is a POW. The program misrepresented what I went through, but the fact that a person is able to laugh at the situation is very true." As Reader's Digest always said, laughter is the best medicine; "A sense of humor got us through quite a bit. We called it 'sick prison humor'." He likes TV's new candidness, as long as it's "handled intelligently and not used as an excuse to make bawdy jokes" He appreciates talk shows such as Dick Cavett's, which isn't afraid to discuss issues frankly and honestly.

In terms of this discussion, one of the things he appreciates most of all is freedom,; radio programs in North Vietnam were broadcast over loudspeakers in the streets, "so you listen whether you want to or not. Here, you can always walk up and turn off the radio or TV. That's one of the freedoms I've come to appreciate: the right to quit." To have the freedom to watch TV or not; that is a great thing. One of the understandings that Robert Naughton came to in prison was the importance, the value, of time. "I thought a good deal about how much time I had watched television—unproductive programs. I more or less made a resolution that I wasn't going to become glued to the TV screen."

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Two of TV's definitive 70s-era rock music shows, NBC's The Midnight Special and ABC's In Concert, faced off on Friday nights. Midnight Special was a weekly show, airing after Johnny Carson, while In Concert was an every-other week part of Wide World of Entertainment.  Whenever the two slug it out, we'll be there to see who's better, who's best.

Funny thing about Channel 9, the then-ABC affiliate in MSP. Throughout the sixties and seventies, Channel 9 would show a movie in place of the network’s Friday late-night offering, showing the pre-empted program instead on Sunday after the late local news. Has to do with revenue from those commercials, I know, but it’s still an interesting quirk in KMSP’s programming.*

*They also frequently delayed the Monday through Thursday offering, particularly during the Les Crane and Joey Bishop eras, until after their 10:30 movie.

So even though there wasn’t a Midnight Special-In Concert clash scheduled for this week, we’ll have one anyway, using Channel 9’s Sunday night’s broadcast of last Friday’s episode. Talk about luck!

In Concert: The Guess Who, B.B. King and Melanie perform in this rock concert taped at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. Produced by Dick Clark Teleshows, Inc.

Midnight Special: Hostess Dionne Warwicke, with Johnny Mathis, Kenny Rogers and the First Edition, folk singer Leo Kottke, rock group Malo and pop singer Bud Brisbois.

Dionne Warwicke was in her “e” phase in 1973*, and was also making the talk show rounds. Just before this Midnight Special appearance, she’s appearing with guest host Jerry Lewis on the Tonight Show, and—at least on the Special—she’s going with what made her famous: the songs of Burt Bacharach, including 1968’s hit “I Say a Little Prayer.” Johnny Mathis follows with one of his hits, “Killing Me Softly with Her Song.” Throw in the pre-Gambler Kenny Rogers and singer Leo Kottke (later a frequent guest on radio’s Prairie Home Companion), and you have the kind of eclectic music mix that was a hallmark of top-40 radio, and is virtually non-existent nowadays.

*From the always-reliable Wikipedia: Warwick, for years an aficionado of psychic phenomena, was advised by astrologer Linda Goodman in 1971 to add a small "e" to her last name, making Warwick ‘WARWICKe’ for good luck and to recognize her married name and her spouse, actor and drummer William ‘Bill’ Elliott. Goodman convinced Warwick that the extra small ‘e’ would add a vibration needed to balance her last name and bring her even more good fortune in her marriage and her professional life. Unfortunately, Goodman proved to be mistaken about this. The extra ‘e,’ according to Dionne, "was the worst thing I could have done in retrospect, and in 1975 I finally got rid of that damn ‘’e” and became “Dionne Warwick“ again.’” You’d think she would have known that would happen, don’t you?

Meanwhile, In Concert features some hits of its own: The Guess Who’s “American Woman,” B.B. King’s “The Thrill Is Gone,” and Melanie’s “What Have They Done to My Song, Ma?” So who’s the winner this week? I’m afraid I’m going to show my age here, but if you can’t share it with your friends, who can you share it with? Midnight Special, on style points alone.

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If it’s July, it must be football season, right? This Friday night the gridiron greats return with coverage of the College All-Star Game from Soldier Field in Chicago (8:30 p.m, CT, ABC), pitting the NFL champion Miami Dolphins (coming off their undefeated season) against a team featuring future pro stars Bert Jones, Otis Armstrong and John Matuszak. Melvin Durslag’s preview article discusses the history of the game, which started in 1934 as a benefit for the Chicago Tribune Charities.*

*The game was started by Tribune sports editor Arch Ward, who was also responsible for major league baseball’s All-Star Game.

One of the problems the game faces (which helped end the game in the mid '70s) is a growing reluctance of NFL teams to allow their newly drafted stars to participate, due to both a concern about injuries and the amount of training camp the rookies will miss. This helps explain why the game’s usually a rout, and this year’s edition is expected to be no different, but the All Stars, coached by USC’s legendary John McKay, give the Fins all they can handle, and more. In the fourth quarter, buoyed by a strong defense led by Matuszak, the Stars trail the Dolphins only by 7-3, before Miami running back Larry Csonka scores the clinching touchdown in a surprisingly tough 14-3 victory.

And speaking of baseball’s All-Star Game, that’s this week as well. Before the days of cable TV and regularly scheduled interleague play, the All-Star Game really was must-see TV. For many of us living in Minnesota, it was one of the rare times we got to see National League players, whom we’d otherwise only see on the Saturday game of the week.

This year’s game is Tuesday night in Kansas City (7:00 p.m., NBC), with the Nationals (the league, not the team, which won't be around for another thirty years or so) routing the Americans 7-1 for their 10th win in the last 11 years. They aren't kidding about this being an all-star game, either; the Nats featured nine future Hall of Famers, including Johnny Bench, Hank Aaron, Joe Morgan, Ron Santo, Tom Seaver, Don Sutton, Billy Williams, Willie Mays and Willie Stargell—plus that pesky Pete Rose character. The Americans countered with nine of their own: Carlton Fisk, Rod Carew, Brooks Robinson, Reggie Jackson, Carl Yastrzemski, Nolan Ryan, Catfish Hunter, Rollie Fingers and Bert Blyleven. I wonder—will this year’s game do as well?

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What with so many regular series in summer reruns, we’ve been focusing the last few weeks on summer replacement shows. Ready for some more? Saturday night, Jack Burns and Avery Schreiber star in The Burns and Schreiber Comedy Hour (8:00 p.m., ABC), in place of the cancelled Julie Andrews show, with guests Ed McMahon, Teresa Graves and the Muledeer and Moondogg Medicine Show. On Thursday night NBC has Helen Reddy sitting in for Flip Wilson at 8:00 p.m., with fellow feminist Gloria Steinem, B.B. King, the New Seekers, Albert Brooks and the Modern Jazz Quartet; that's followed at 9:00 p.m. by the premiere of Dean Martin Presents Music Country, this week starring Johnny Cash, Mac Davis, Loretta Lynn, Marty Robbins and a cast of thousands.

There are plenty of movies to choose from this week, including the summertime staple, failed pilots for series that never came to pass. Two such are I Love a Mystery, an unsold pilot from 1966 with Ida Lupino (Monday, 8:00 p.m., NBC) and Crime Club (Tuesday, 8:30 p.m., CBS), which is only a year old, starring Lloyd Bridges, Barbara Rush, Paul Burke, Cloris Leachman, Martin Sheen, Victor Buono and William Devane. Great cast; I wonder why it didn't sell.

There is one kind of summer program not seen anymore, at least in Minneapolis: the twin Aquatennial parades. When I was a kid, the Minneapolis Aquatennial was the biggest summer festival around (it even featured as the backdrop for an episode of Route 66), and the two parades—the Grande Day Parade on Saturday and the Torchlight Parade on Wednesday—were major events. WCCO preempts its regular programming Saturday afternoon for the Grand Day parade starting at 2:30 p.m., featuring a pair of celebrity grand marshals, Larry Linville from M*A*S*H* and evangelist Billy Graham, and an appearance by Colonel Sanders. Keeping with the “Seas of Antiquity,” there are also a number of representatives from Turkey, Egypt, Lebanon and Greece.

*No coincidence that a CBS star would appear on a parade being televised by a CBS affiliate, right?

KSTP does the honors for the Torchlight parade, beginning at 8:30 p.m. (preempting Madigan and Search) with grand marshal Simcha Dimitz, Israeli Ambassador to the United States, along with the Israeli consul general, and another appearance by Colonel Sanders. Although the floats are the same ones from the Saturday parade (now with lights attached), I wonder if all of the Arab representatives still participated, considering the company they’d be keeping? After all, the Yom Kippur War is less than three months away.

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Since we’re talking about old TV, here’s something interesting—a program about TV shows that were already considered old in 1973. That’s not too meta for you, is it?

It’s CBS News Retrospective, airing Sunday afternoons at 5:00 p.m., in which the network dips into its vaults to rebroadcast some of its most acclaimed and influential CBS Reports documentaries from the fifties and sixties. This week it’s the 1963 documentary “The Silent Spring of Rachel Carson,” the landmark program that first shown the spotlight on ecology and the environment, specifically the uses of DDT and other pesticides, and the effects they had on birds, fish and the soil. Carson’s assertions were controversial then, and they remain controversial today.

Thanks to being in the Twin Cities for the summer (after the first of six years in the World's Worst Town™), I was able to see this limited-run series, which included several documentaries by Edward R. Murrow. This was advocacy television at its finest (in terms of quality, that is, not necessarily ideology), and these programs were great examples of a type of television journalism that’s pretty much nonexistent today. And I can’t help but wonder about the method behind CBS airing these shows at this particular time. Could it be that the Tiffany Network was reminding viewers of their great news tradition, in order to bolster the division’s credibility during the continuing coverage of the Watergate hearings? Or is that too cynical a thought?

Speaking of which, we’re reminded at the start of the programming section (as well as several times throughout the week) that regular programming stands to be preempted for those Senate Watergate hearings. The nation has just been stunned the previous week by former presidential aide Alexander Butterfield’s casual comment that there was tape recording going on in the Oval Office. On Monday, July 23, special prosecutor Archibald Cox will demand that the White House turn over transcripts of those taped conversations, which President Nixon will refuse to do, citing Executive Privilege.

What’s interesting is that even at this point, roughly a year before Nixon will be forced to resign, the public is still divided over the issue. While 50% believe former aide John Dean’s accusations that Nixon is covering up the affair, they’re also split evenly (38%-37%) as to whom they would believe if Nixon denies the charge. Ah, politics.

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We'll wrap things up with our cover story. Back in the days before the internet, Americans relied on television to give them the information they couldn’t get from their doctors. And what better “virtual” physicians to have than the kindly Marcus Welby and the dedicated Joe Gannon? Muriel Davidson’s cover story shares real-life incidents of lives being saved because of what viewers had seen on their favorite medical shows. 

A boy in Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota, administers mouth-to-mouth and heart massage on his asthmatic brother because he’d seen it done on Marcus Welby, M.D.; a man in Springfield, Missouri watching Welby self-diagnoses himself with a bleeding ulcer (he was right); a woman living in Los Angeles sees a man on Medical Center suffering from slurred speech, numb hands, and difficulty seeing – symptoms identical to hers. She tells her doctor she thinks she has M.S., because that’s what the character on Medical Center had. The skeptical doctor runs the tests, which confirm her suspicions. It’s not all WebMD-type diagnoses, though; another Welby episode tells the story of a brain-damaged boy who’s been labeled “slow”—the sensitivity and compassion of the episode produced thousands of letters of commendation.

Doctors caution people not to rely on fictional television stories in place of actual medical care, and point to patients having cancelled scheduled needed surgeries after seeing a Bold Ones episode about an unscrupulous doctor performing unnecessary surgery for profit. The producers of the shows say that their purpose is not to replace doctors, but to provide awareness education for viewers, pointing out potential health concerns or de-stigmatizing others, such as sexually-transmitted diseases.

Ultimately, the money line in the story points to the growing role of television in American society, and its power—at the time—to unify. Says a mother of a child suffering from a similar brain-damaged syndrome, who used the Welby episode to educate teachers and classmates on his condition, “It’s a miracle what can be done when people no longer are alone.” Words for thought, eh? TV

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This week in TV Guide: June 1, 1974

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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This week in TV Guide: October 16, 1965

As anyone who watches television knows, sponsorship is the lifeblood of the medium. Commercials on TV are, by and large, annoying, infuriating, stupid, loud, and wind up telling you very little about the products they're supposedly advertising. There are too many of them, they last too long, and they're so intrusive that they can leave a viewer running for cover just to escape. Even public television has them, although they're not called such. There was a time when a television series couldn't even make it to the airwaves without already having sponsors lined up.  

Which leads us to this week's question: just how do programs go about getting sponsorship? Here to provide the answers, in a very funny article that contains more truth than I suspect we might think, is Robert Leonard. Leonard is a man who should know, having spent ten years as Vice President in Charge of Television at one of Madison Avenue’s biggest ad agencies. It was his job to sell prospective programs to sponsors looking to finance the season's next big thing, which would just so happen to provide the sponsor's product with the best possible platform for exposure to the millions of viewers who, until this very moment, had no idea that said product was so essential to their quality of life. There are, Leonard says, four basic types of pitches known to the industry, one to cover each type of program the agency might encounter; in the right hands, each of these pitches guarantees sure-fire results every time.

The safest kind of program to pitch, according to Leonard, is the "Likewise, I'm sure" kind of show. You know the kind: a show that"carbon-copies some other well-rated program as closely as the laws of infringement permit." Imagine, if you will, a show starring "an outspoken housemaid." You can't call it Hazel, of course, but what about Ethel? It's the perfect response for the sponsor who demands something on the order of, say, Bonanza. "You might come right back at him with a drama called Briganza that takes place on a big Oregon ranch called The Sequoia, which is owned by Bill Wheelwright who has four sons. ('A real switcheroo, eh, Harry?')" I'm sure we've all seen an example or two of this kind of program over the years, haven't we, Dick Wolf? 

Speaking of whom, the second kind of show, Leonard says, is the one with the sterling "credit rating." This is something everyone who watches television today ought to be familiar with; Dick Wolf has made a career out of selling concepts based on the simple fact that they were created by one Dick Wolf. You can, in fact, make this kind of pitch all the way down the line, "through scriptwriters, film editor and wardrobe mistress." With this kind of credit in the bank, you can push for extra star power in the casting, in something called a "fresh format." Think of "something like combining Willie Mays and Chet. Huntley in a psychological Western, or Lawrence Spivak playing the role of a kindly football coach." Why, the pitch practically writes itself: "Believe me, Louie, the rating services will Top-10 this baby! It’s got everything going for it!"

Then, there's something called "integrated programming." In this kind of program, the commercial is practically a part of the show; imagine, Leonard proposes, a series called D.S.C., featuring the brave men of the "Department of Street Cleaning." Sounds exciting, right? Well, maybe not to you or me, but what if you were in charge of ad buying for a company famous for its detergent products. See where we're going here? Each week, "exciting episode after episode takes us into the everyday lives of the men who preserve our sanitation; their hopes and fears, their home life; the things they have inside their homes that they’ve collected in line of duty." All brought to you by the company that makes their uniforms sparkle! 

What if, however, your program lacks that certain je ne sais quoi? The kind of show that "Doesn’t aim very high, so it can’t fall very far." It's still on the market, even though it's been on the air for a few weeks. "The network is desperate. The packager is frantic. The price is slashed! And the concessions you get! Quick-escape clauses! Extra commercial positions!" Sounds good—but, you might be wondering, why hasn't someone bought it up yet? "Maybe it's a real stinker. Maybe everyone who saw the pilot threw up." In that case, it's not that the's show's bad; it's just offbeat, not for everyone, victim of a bad timeslot. Don't look at it as a bad show; think of it as a good bargain.

 
And so there you have it, the concise explanation for how your favorite (or least-favorite) show got its sponsor. There's only one last detail remaining: the Return on Investment, here expressed as the CPM: cost per thousand homes per minute of commercial. You arrive at this by taking the weekly average audience from last season, and add 25 percent "to prove you have confidence in the new vehicle you picked." Divide that by the sponsor's cost per episode, and then again by the number of commercial minutes per episode. And that is your magic number, the one that enables you to close the deal. However, Leonard offers this warning in conclusion: "Don’t dare put the CPM in writing. Because when your television turkey is staggering around next spring just asking to be slaughtered, the CPM can get your neck, too."

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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: In Hollywood, Ed's scheduled guests are Sid Caesar; actor Sean Connery; the singing McGuire Sisters; singer Pat Boone; the rock 'n' rolling Animals; comics Guy Marks and Totie Fields; and the Fiji Military Band. (Note that according to the episode guide, Connery was a no-show, while Caesar was joined by Joyce Jameson (who also sings) in a sketch, and musical group Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs and tumbling group The Gimma Brothers also appeared.)

Palace: Host Frank Sinatra welcomes Count Basie; comic Jack E. Leonard; dancer Peter Gennaro, choreographer for Perry Como and the recent Andy Griffith special; West German singer-dancers Alice and Ellen Kessler; and Colombian high-wire acrobat Murillo.

What I enjoy about this week's matchup is that it shows off the extremes of my own musical tastes: The Animals (singing "The Work Song") and Pat Boone ("Night and Day" among other selections) on Sullivan, and Frank Sinatra and Count Basie on the Palace. And despite the temptation to push it, I'm going for The Palace, but in this pre-DVD era watch for Sullivan on reruns.

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

This week Cleveland Amory demonstrates that there was, in fact, such a thing as life before Columbo for Peter Falk. Falk, of course, knew this well; prior to donning the lieutenant's rumpled raincoat, he'd received two Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor, won an Emmy for "The Price of Tomatoes," and had starred in the subject of this week's review, a series which he's called his favorite, Trials of O'Brien. And Cleve has some news for you: "If you think that Peter Falk is an overrated young man who looks like the late John Garfield and acts like a road-company James Cagney—and that, furthermore, he is inclined to make a federal case out of saying 'hello' and yet plays a big scene as if it should have been handled in small-claims court—then you are not going to like this show." On the other hand, if you think he is the coolest, hippest, In-est actor to come along since The Birth of a Nation, then you are going to love it. For, make no mistake about it, this is Falk’s show."

And what this is is a legal drama laced with a liberal dose of comedy; in fact, it might not be a stretch to view Danny O'Brien, Falk's character, as a distant relative of Columbo, one of those familial characters that keep popping up in the stories the lieutenant tells suspects as he's luring them into his trap. He is, as the American Bar Association disparingly described him in a complaint to CBS, a man who "(1) plays the horses, (2) parks his car in a no-parking zone, (3) throws his brief case, crammed with important papers, into the back of his open convertible and (4) is divorced and, apparently worst of all, is behind on his alimony payments." In addition, they don't like his habits, manners, and dress. All of this, the ABA claims, combines to bring the legal profession into disrepute and suspicion. (As if they weren't capable of that on their own.)

To all this, Amory replies, the network should "throw the American Bar Association out of court." Yes, make him pay his parking fines, but the back alimony points to one of the strongest parts of the series, O'Brien's relationship with his ex-wife Katie, played by Joanna Barnes, whom Amory calls "the brightest new spot of the new season." "[E]ven if the writers make her act mean, she doesn’t really mean to be mean—she’s not all on the side of the Bar Association." Falk, in fact, is surrounded by a strong supporting cast; in addition to Barnes, there's Elaine Stritch, Ilka Chase, and David Burns, and guest-starring appearances by Herschel Bernardi, Robert Blake, Buddy Hackett and Cloris Leachman. But, as will be the case with Columbo, the center of gravity at all times is Falk, who is on screen 90 percent of the time and can "tough-guy it and hard-heart it with anybody but the Supreme Court." And the network itself; despite a positive reception (even from critics not named Cleveland Amory), the series ends after a run of 22 episodes.

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For political junkies, the Sunday interview shows are a feast. With the death of President Kennedy last year, former President Dwight Eisenhower is seen even more as the elder statesman of the presidency (along with Harry Truman, to a lesser extent), and on Issues and Answers (1:30 p.m., ABC), he sits down for a one-on-one interview with White House correspondent Bill Lawrence from the Civil War battlefield at Gettysburg. General Eisenhower* analyzes military tactics in the Vietnam War, discusses the final volume in his memoirs, and talks politics, including "a plan for limiting Senate and Congressional terms of office." Ah, Ike always was a man ahead of his time.

*As a five-star general, Eisenhower was given the choice as to what title he wished to use following his presidency. He always chose to be referred to as "General" rather than "President."

From left: Beame, Lindsay, Buckley

Meanwhile, Meet the Press (4:30 p.m., NBC) interviews the three major candidates for mayor of New York City: Republican John Lindsay, Democrat Abe Beame, and Conservative William F. Buckley, Jr. Buckley's stated reason for entering the race is an attempt to deny victory to the liberal Lindsay (indeed, Beame may well be less liberal than Lindsay), and although he fails (Lindsay wins with 43% to Beame's 39% and Buckley's 13%), WFB does get off the best line of the campaign: declining his rebuttal time during a debate, he remarks that "I am satisfied to sit back and contemplate my own former eloquence."* Would that there was even one candidate of this caliber running today.

*I've used this line many times over the years myself. Although there are those who would have preferred I stop with "I am satisfied to sit back."

There's no guest listed for Face the Nation (9:30 a.m., CBS), but a quick Google search reveals that it was Alabama Attorney General Richmond Flowers, who's there to discuss the trial of KKK member Collie Leroy Wilkins for the murder of civil rights worker Viola Liuzzo following the march from Montgomery to Selma. Wilkins' first trial ended in a hung jury, and the moderate Flowers, a proponent of civil rights legislation, has announced that he will personally take over the prosecution of the retrial because, as state AG, he won't be subject to the pressures that local prosecutors might face. The sensational case has drawn worldwide attention, as well as a move to have the KKK investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee. Wilkins is never convicted by an Alabama court (thus escaping the electric chair), but is found guilty of civil rights violations in a subsequent Federal trial.

*Fun fact: Flowers' son, Richmond Jr., was a football player at Tennessee and went on to play in the NFL for the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Giants. (He chose Tennessee over Alabama because of his father's controversial politics.) He was also a star hurdler, a contender to make the 1968 Olympic team (a torn hamstring prevented him from qualifying), and was known at the time as "the fastest white boy alive."

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Let's continue with the sports theme for a moment. The World Series has ended, and now the spotlight turns fully to football. (Another sign of how the times have changed; today, it's the World Series that fights for a place in the spotlight.) The college game of the week on Saturday features a Southwestern Conference showdown between two of the nation's top teams, #1 Texas and #3 Arkansas (1:00 p.m., NBC). Arkansas, after blowing a 20-0 lead, rallies to defeat Texas 27-24. Four years later, the two teams will play "The Game of the Century" for the national championship; once again, Arkansas jumps out to a lead, but Texas rallies in the fourth quarter to win the game and the national title, 15-14. Today, the SWC is but a distant memory, while the two teams compete in the Southeastern Conference.

I discussed musical tastes earlier in the "Sullivan vs. The Palace" feature; Monday night offers us plenty of the same, beginning with Hullabaloo (7:30 p.m., NBC), where host Paul Anka welcomes the Supremes, Leslie Uggams, the Back Porch Majority, and jazz dancer David Winters. Later, it's the 18th  season premiere of Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall (9:00 p.m., NBC), with Perry joining singer Nancy Ames in a look back at the radio days of Kraft Music Hall, beginning with the Bing Crosby and Al Jolson days of the Thirties and Forties, and through the Fifties, when Perry himself took over. And I'll bet you get plenty of fall recipes during the commercial breaks.

On Tuesday, CBS presents master documentarian David L. Wolper's adaptation of Theodore White's best-seller The Making of the President 1964 (9:30 p.m.). Neither the book nor the documentary have quite the cachet of White's original 1960 book (and subsequent documentary), but it's still a valuable portrait of the tumultuous 1964 campaign, as LBJ tries to step out of the shadow of JFK. As with the previous documentary, stage actor (and frequent What's My Line? guest panelist) Martin Gabel provides the dignified narration.*

*Elsewhere in this week's issue is this ad for the John F. Kennedy half-dollar coin set, a valuable collectors item as silver is being phased out of coin-making. Is the placement a coincidence?  And what about that Dallas mailing address?

Barbra Streisand burst onto the television scene in April 1965 with her special "My Name Is Barbra," and CBS repeats the Emmy-winning show on Wednesday night (10:00 p.m.) It tops off a night of great variety that started with the 15th season opener of Hallmark Hall of Fame (7:30 p.m., NBC) and its original drama "Eagle in a Cage," the story of Napoleon's exile to the island of St. Helena and his plot to return to France, starring Trevor Howard and James Daly. (Admit it: can you see Hall of Fame showing something like that today? Not enough of a chick flick, I'd say.) That's followed by a Bob Hope Special (9:00 p.m., NBC), with Bob and his guests James Garner, We Five, Carol Lawrence, and Phyllis Diller. 

I couldn't possibly get through this week's music programs without stopping on Thursday to see the unexpecdted spectacle of Hedy Lamarr hosting Shindig (7:30 p.m., ABC), with the Dave Clark Five, the Kingsmen, Joe Tex, Brenda Holloway, and Lulu and the Luvvers. Over on NBC, Dean Martin (10:00 p.m.) has a stellar lineup with Louis Armstrong and his combo, Robert Goulet, Lainie Kazan, the Kirby Stone Four, the dance team of Brascia and Tybee, and the comic contortionists Trio Leema. And if you didn't get enough Frank Sinatra on The Hollywood Palace, there's more, with the network TV premiere of the original Ocean's 11 (9:00 p.m.), the Rat Pack romp co-starring the aforementioned Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, Joey Bishop, Angie Dickinson, and a movie-stealing Cesar Romero.

Awards shows haven't quite progressed to the point where they're stand-alone programs. The Golden Globes, for example, were a feature for several years on The Andy Williams Show, and on Friday night the Country Western Music Awards are handed out on The Jimmy Dean Show (10:00 p.m., ABC). Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, Norma Jean Beasler, Del Reeves, and the team of Roy Drusky and Priscilla Mitchell are among the performers, and Tex Ritter and Roy Acuff are on hand as presenters. The show runs the typical one hour; nowadays, it seems as if there's a Country music awards show every other week. What's that? You say there is?

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Some interesting feedback in the Letters to the Editor section regarding a writer's roundtable featured in an issue that I wrote about many years ago. There's an interesting response from Howard Bell, the NAB Code Authority Director, who takes issue with the idea that the Code is responsible for the decline in TV drama. "[T]he TV code is not designed to stifle creativity in writers, nor does it do so in actual practice," Bell writes, quoting extensively from Section 1 of the Code: "It is in the interest of television as a vital medium to encourage and promote the broadcast of programs presenting genuine artistic or literary material, valid moral and social issues, significant controversial and challenging adult themes." While the Code isn't responsible for television's premier dramas, Bell writes, neither has it been a deterrent. If there has been a decline in the quality of television drama, there are undoubtedly reasons for it, but "from the Code Authority point of view, the excuse of censorship through the TV Code is misleading."

Leo Monaghan of Springfield, Massachusetts, also sees the issue of censorship as a straw man, pointing out that "Movies, paperbacks and magazines have amply shown that elimination of censorship is not the answer to mediocrity, but merely an invitation to degradation." According to Monaghan, the answer is not license, but talent. And while Maureen Bendich of Saratoga, Colorado, says that the article was "appalling and stimulating," suggesting that she sympathizes with the writers, she says it also "confirms my impressions that there is no room left for creativity." Finally, Robert Shaw, a "visiting Briton" writing from Jamaica, New York (the Robert Shaw, perhaps?), finds the whole thing ironic, having "been lectured on the 'evils' of government-controlled TV [i.e. the BBC] compared to the free enterprise system, as practiced here where 'no censorship exists.'" It's not clear whether Shaw finds the complaining or the assertion of no censorship to be the most humorous.

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The networks lost a combined $10,000,000 in revenue during their coverage of Pope Paul VI's historic visit to New York City earlier in October, but it was worth it, as Henry Harding reports they "rose magnificently to the occasion." The networks devoted virtually all of October 4 to coverage of the papal visit, with 90 pool cameras broadcasting images to over 140 million viewers during the 14 hours of coverage, including a high point of 70,000,000 at one point. Compared to "the esteem and gratitude of millions of viewers," the loss of revenue may be well worth it.

And they could use it, according to Samuel Grafton, in the first of a three-part series on how television covers the news. His question: does TV news really give the viewer the whole story? His answer: no. It's quite interesting, and another indication of how times have changed, that the article is full of comparisons between television and newspapers. NBC's Reuven Frank, for example, says that "A television news show is a front page. It is not a full news service, like a complete newspaper." Washington correspondent Clark Mollenhoff, who covers the capital for the Des Moines Register and Tribune and the Minneapolis Star and Tribune, says, "They touch the surface," but to do anything further would take "depth knowledge of a subject, which they don't have, or don't have time to acquire." Even Walter Cronkite, in a recent interview on the educational station WNDT, admits that "I do not think we cover the news"

Grafton compares the newspaper reporter, who "works through contacts he develops over the years, with many people, great and small," with the television reporter, who "comes through like a parade, with his truck and his cameras." Complicating things is television's fear of boring viewers, requiring them to reduce stories "to a small enough compass so that the viewer can take all of it," unlike the newspaper reader who commits himself to a thorough review of the daily paper. For the same reason, television news avoids stories that lack mass attention—"news of music, of the theater, paintings and new books." As Frank says, although "[t]here's no subject that can't be covered on television," it should only be covered if it's of interest to the layman—"not if it is interested only in a specialist's way."

By comparison, local television news is seen as a strength of the medium. Now, most sane people today consider local news to be pretty much, not to put it too delicately, crap. The "if it bleeds, it leads" mentality, combined with the boy-girl happy news anchor teams, most of which look as if they're auditioning for a fashion runway rather than the newsdesk, has heavily influenced network television. However, the advantage that local news had in the mid-1960s was that its audience was interested—these were stories that had a direct impact on viewers, ranging from commentaries to reviews of new plays.

The lack of commentary on television news is particularly striking, since the three major anchors—Cronkite, Huntley, and Brinkley—all have five-minute daily radio spots in which they often make pointed comments. Why radio and not TV? Huntley acknowledges that "We're still feeling our way on television. We'd feel naked on TV doing a one-and-a-half-minute think piece." Lacking commentary, there's always hard-hitting reporting, but even here, television falls short. According to Raymond Brand, an editor at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, it's because TV newsmen are too worried about their own images, too "dignified" and respectful, to lower themselves into the muck. CBS's Fred Friendly hopes this changes; "We want yeast. We want savvy. We want what comes out of a reporter's deep experience. Our reporters are going to dig, not just read."

Much as was the case with that drama writers' roundtable, the main obstacle to television news seems to be a sort of censorship, a reluctance to go beyond self-set limitations. But with expenditures of over $100 million annually, it's clear that television news won't remain static.

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MST3K alert: The Amazing Transparent Man (1959) A scientist enlists a convicted safecracker to help him steal radioactive material using the scientist's newly-developed method for turning a person invisible. Marguerite Chapman, Douglas Kennedy. Typical of the time, this sci-fi non-epic concludes with military personnel contemplating the prospects of an all-invisible army. Would that they had made the short, the Union Pacific safety film The Days of the Years, invisible; it's fortunate for the nation's economy that Union Pacific is better with the railways than with filmmaking.  TV

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