Star power

Xarlier this month, someone on Facebook asked me about my March 7, 1959 TV Guide writeup—in particular, about a teaser that ran across the top of the cover. What, he wondered, was the story "How Deals Are Made for Guest Stars" all about? I told him I'd be happy to oblige, and since writing is what I do here, let's see what that story is, indeed, all about.

Television, as we know, has always been a cutthroat business, and in the early decades of the medium, one of the most ruthless aspects was the competition for big-name guest stars. Movie stars, especially those rarely seen on the tube, were always in big demand, and TV itself had been around long enough to create its own stars. For the sponsors eager for sales and the network executives eager for ratings, that star power—whether applied to a variety show, drama or sitcom—could be a bonanza! 

But how to appeal to the star? Money isn't really an incentive, since the star's income probably puts him in the 90 percent tax bracket; who wants to work for so little in return? As for the exposure that a television appearance brings, he's well aware that too much of it takes the edge off his drawing power. The shows need him more than he needs the shows. Therefore, money alone is seldom the only factor in making a guest appearance. So what does one give the guest who has (almost) everything?

Well, in the case of Jane Powell, Steve Allen has been after her for a long time. But clever Jane waited until her appearance at the Hotel Plaza's Persian Room in New York before taking Steverino up on his offer. The result: increased publicity for her nightclub act, and one less trip required to New York. Coordinating such TV appearances with promoting upcoming movies is a major part of any star's strategy; Tony Curtis plugged his upcoming movie The Vikings with appearances on I've Got a Secret and The Perry Como Show in the same week, and the following week Kirk Douglas was on with Allen for the same movie. 

This strategy isn't always sure-fire, though; Esther Williams was all set to plug her new line of swimming pools with an appearance on the Bob Crosby Show when the show's sponsor nixed the promo—whereupon Esther nixed the appearance.

Cross-familiar promotion is a good way to snag a star; Helen Hayes appeared on the Arthur Murray show to publicize her son James MacArthur's career by dancing with him during the show. (She also contributed her fee to the Mary MacArthur polio fund; charitable donations are also effective in attracting top talent.) James Mason appreciates having his wife Pamela and daughter appear with him; Jerry Lewis wants the opportunity to put in a word for Muscular Dystrophy, and Danny Thomas does the same for St. Jude; perhaps the biggest example of this was Arthur Murray offering Walter Winchell $50,000 for the Damon Runyon Cancer Fund (a fund which Winchell started) if he'd get Red Buttons and Jackie Gleason on his show. Winchell complied, but Gleason first insisted that another $50,000 donation be made to the Runyon Fund in his name alone. 

Finally, there's what I might call the "Ralph Edwards" method, although the two aren't complete alike. In this scenario, the enterprising producer approaches a major star with an offer to appear on a testimonial show, honoring their many years of service to the entertainment industry. "We shall salute you. Not only that, but we'll give you $10,000 just for your trouble." The producer then uses the attraction of this famous star as bait to get the star's friends—only the big ones, like Sinatra, Peck and Bacall—to be part of a "party" for the star, only telling them after they've agreed that the "party" is actually taking place on a television show. But you'll pay them a token fee, even though you know they're really only there to honor the star. Of course it's a racket, but it's too late at this point to back out. The Edwards method worked with Ethel Barrymore and Ed Wynn on a pair of Texaco Command Appearance shows. 

The article concludes with the dwindling list of really important stars who've yet to appear on television: Marilyn Monroe, Danny Kaye, Alec Guinness. But, if some executive out there is brushing up on Izaak Walton's The Compleat Angler, they might come up with the bait to attract them. It's an interesting article, and I'm glad I returned to it here, with an opportunity to go through it in more detail than if it had simply been part of the Saturday review. Today, of course, things have changed. It's prestige television that has the most to offer the movie star, and judging by the success that HBO, Paramount+, AMC and the like have had in attracting them to limited series, I'd say the practice is alive and well. TV  

This week in TV Guide: December 14, 1996

We're back with another of the special, themed issues that TV Guide occasionally dabbled in. Having looked in the past at greatest shows and greatest moments, we're now on to greatest stars. This isn't about the suspense of who's on the list; you can read it right here, without ever looking at the issue. But as I page through the list, my question is whether the list is meant as a historical record or a sign of the times. It is, after all, over 20 years old. If someone falls off the list, is it because they're less important, or less remembered? Are lists made by historians or fans?

Number One is Lucy, and I don't think that would surprise anyone - I actually wrote that sentence before looking at the list, it was that predictable. I mean this as no criticism of Miss Ball, but sometimes I think people who've never even seen her just vote her in as if the position were hers by some kind of divine decree; that's riduculous, of course, because what it proves is that her kind of humor is timeless. Does Roseanne Barr, who comes in at #28, share that trait? I don't think so; her comedy may have been cutting edge at one time, and she might have been a trailblazer in terms of how women are portrayed in sitcoms, but I'm not sure that translates to timelessness. I see her more as a product of her time, not someone a television historian would choose if limited to only 50 picks.

Johnny Carson is #2, and though Terry Teachout described him a while back as virtually unknown by the present generation, any television historian is going to include him on the list. Maybe you've got him at #2, maybe #8, but either way it's a pick you can defend. Less defensible, however, is the omission of Steve Allen, who invented late night television - if Carson refined it, someone still had to come up with it in the first place. Allen was a certifiable legend, not only with Tonight but What's My Line?, Meeting of Minds, and a score or more appearances through the decades. I understand you may not want to load up on talk show hosts, but I don't see how Steve Allen does not make the list, especialy when Phil Donahue is #42.

And then there's David Letterman at #45. TV Guide calls him the natural successor to Ernie Kovacs, and that may have been true back when Dave was doing Stupid Pet Tricks and the like, but by the time he got around to sexually harrassing his staff and espousing liberal politics, he'd lost a lot of his creativity. And yet - if this list were made today, would Letterman be ahead of Carson? He's not only more recent in people's minds, he's still revered by many viewers, and unlike Carson's time, it's now fashionable to get political on late night television. If the list is based on trendiness rather than historical significance, I think Letterman would get the edge. Speaking of Kovacs, he's nowhere to be seen on the list, and I think that's criminal. His greatest sin as an entertainer may have been that he was too far ahead of his time, but he was the first to realize and exploit the potential of television. I would have had him in the top ten. At least they remembered Sid Caesar, at #29.

See how easy it is to demonstrate he should be higher?

Raymond Burr is far too low on the list, at #41. Maybe realism is valued more in courtroom dramas than it was in the days of Perry Mason, but Burr created an iconic character, the symbol of TV lawyers for a generation, and that ought to count for something, don't you think? And while we're on the topic of crime, Jack Webb is another one missing from the list; while Webb might not be considered a great actor, Dragnet revolutionized the way police drama was portrayed on television; his "just the facts" persona and use of detailed realism really changed how the game was played. He was to cop shows what James Arness was to the Western, and Arness makes the list at #20. Fred Rogers is on the list at #35, but is there a Fred Rogers without Bob Keeshen? I don't think you can overlook Captain Kangaroo - but then, Mr. Rogers was on PBS. Why not include them both? And I like the choice of Don Knotts at #27, proving that second bananas have a place - but what about Art Carney? Jackie Gleason is #3, but would he be that high without Carney?

Bill Cosby is #9, and while I was never a great fan of Cosby, I'll certainly defend his place on the list, even though I suspect he wouldn't make the list today. Carroll O'Connor is #38, and rightfully so; starring on a show that redefined the sitcom, he was Archie Bunker. Michael J. Fox is #39, but I question his being on the list. It's not that he's not good, but in sports terms this should be the Hall of Fame, not the Hall of Very Good. Bob Newhart, on the other hand, is probably underrated at #17, having starred in two of the great sitcoms of the era.

Patty Duke is on the list at #40, and I'm not sure why - her signature series, The Patty Duke Show, only ran for three seasons, and while she appeared in 30 TV movies and miniseries, Jane Seymour has probably done the same, and she isn't on the list. My complaint about Patty, as it is with Telly Savalas (#33), is that her fame comes from movies as well as television; you might as well include Sally Field or Denzel Washington or George Clooney or Johnny Depp; they all featured on TV as well. Dinah Shore is #16 - if the list were being made today, would historians recognize her place in TV history? Same with George Burns and Gracie Allen at #13; a list made today probably wouldnot include them.

I do like the picks of Milton Berle (how could you leave out Mr. Television?), Michael Landon, Carol Burnett, and James Garner. I think Rocky and Bullwinkle was an inspired choice, but I'm not sure Bart Simpson falls in the same category; it wasn't long before he was eclipsed by Homer. I think Dick Van Dyke should be rated higher than Mary Tyler Moore, but they both belong there. I think Oprah's done more cultural damage than perhaps any other television personality, but for that very reason she has to be on the list.

Like any list, this one has its good points and bad. We're not quite done with it yet, though - stick around until the end.

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There are only 11 days until Christmas as the week begins, which means we should be able to find some seasonal tidbits to highlight.

What's striking about the mid-'90s, after having spent so much time looking at the '50s and '60s (and '70s), is how Christmas programming was dominated by variety shows. There was at least one on almost every night, and every one of them had a Christmas episode just before December 25. (And that doesn't include the one-off specials by stars like Bob Hope and Perry Como.)

By now, most of your Christmas TV consists of "holiday" episodes of sitcoms with vague, Hallmark-like storylines, such as Ellen (Wednesday, 9:30 p.m. PT, ABC), in which "Christmas goes to the dogs for Ellen, who adopts a stray and ends up not going on a Mexican vacation with Paige because of her new canine attachment." Now, there's nothing wrong with this, although I'd suggest that many of the episodes from years past tend to have at least some kind of more overtly Christmas message in them, such as the Yuletide variety show episode of The Dick Van Dyke show, which coincidentelly appears on Nick at Nite Sunday night as part of their 17-episode classic TV Christmas Party, which includes the Bewitched episode in which Samantha is determined to prove to a skeptical orphan that Santa Claus exists. Shows also love to do variations on It's a Wonderful Life or A Christmas Carol, and we have an example of the latter with Martin (Thursday, 8:00 p.m., Fox) as "Martin has a Dickens of a time scaring up some Yuletide sentiment in this takeoff on "A Christmas Carol" that finds him playing host to some unexpected ghosts.

There are, however, specials this week, and not surprisingly there's a good share of music to be found. For example, there's Opryland's Country Christmas (Saturday, 9:00 p.m., CBS), which features Patty Loveless, Clint Black and LeAnn Rimes. On Wednesday, it's the 15th annual Christmas in Washington (NBC, 10:00 p.m.), in which the cast of 3rd Rock from the Sun and others serenade President and Mrs. Clinton.* And a syndicated special at midnight on Saturday, This is Christmas (KCAL), stars Luther Vandross, with guests Mariah Carey Boyz II Men, U2, Melissa Ehtridge, and Gloria Estefan.

*Do they even do that show anymore? No - it turns out the 2014 edition was the last. They probably couldn't have found anyone to do it this year anyway.

There are also cartoons; ABC has an animated version of Lilly Tomlin's Edith Ann character on An Edith Ann Christmas (Saturday, 8:30 p.m.), while CBS offers a triple-header on Thursday night, beginning at 8:00 p.m. with A Charlie Brown Christmas, followed by A Garfield Christmas, and concluding with Mickey's Christmas Carol. (Not a bad lineup there.) And of course, it wouldn't be Christmas without movies, would it? On Tuesday, KTLA airs A Christmas Story (8:00 p.m.) long before it becomes a Christmas marathon staple; an hour later, Dolly Parton starsas an angel unlike any I've seen in Unlikely Angel (9:00 p.m., NBC). On Wednesday, The Angel of Pennsylvania Avenue (Wednesday, 8:00 p.m., Family) has Robert Urich as a falsely imprisoned mfsadan whose children appeal for help to President Hoover. There are also airings of White Christmas and A Christmas Carol on various stations through the week.

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This week's highlight in sports is on Tuesday night, as Shaquille O'Neal and the Los Angeles Lakers take on Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls on TNT. Good game, as the Bulls - en route to their historic 72-10 season - pull out an overtime win, 129-123. Shaq has 27 points and 13 rebounds, while Jordan scores 30, and his sidekick Scottie Pippen puts in 35. You'd want to point to a game like this for the historical record, for a number of reasons. Besides featuring two all-time greats (and a third, Kobe Bryant, coming off the bench for the Lakers), it gives us a chance to look at another way in which the context of sports has changed in society.

You may recall that Michael Jordan took a fair amount of heat from black political leaders for not being more outspoken on civil rights and other issues, to which Jordan made the famous reply that "Republicans buy shoes, too." Of course, social media didn't really exist back in 1996, unless you count talk radio, newspapers, and face-to-face communication; still, despite the flippant sound of the answer, Jordan made a point that many athletes seem to have forgotten today: athletes are salesmen, and fans are consumers. That doesn't mean an athlete, or anyone else, has to give up their individuality, or their rights of speech, just because they've become famous.

No, the larger point - and I'm not trying to take sides here or get political myself - is that the successful businessperson knows that it's never a good idea to antagonize the customer. The NFL is finding this out now. Granted, we can't know what Jordan may have done had social media been in existence in 1996, nor are today's athletes the first to become politically active - see John Carlos and Tommie Smith in the 1968 Summer Olympics. Nonetheless, in an age when Taylor Swift is criticized for not being political, one can see how different the entertainment landscape has become. The Michael Jordan of 1998 is a reminder of that.

◊ ◊ ◊

Let's take a look at what else the week has to offer.

On Saturday, it's a first-ever prime-time episode of General Hospital (9:00 p.m, ABC), as the shocking story from Friday is continued. Boy, that's classic soap opera jargon, isn't it?  Sunday's highlights include the Yuletide classic Christmas in Connecticut (WGN, 2:00 p.m.), and a Louis & Clark episode that features Howie Mandel as an alien intruder. Meanwhile, A&E's Holiday at Pops (9:00 p.m.) features Tony Bennett with John Williams and the Boston Pops Orchestra. 

Monday night is something of a remembrance of series past: Melrose Place on Fox (8:00 p.m.), The Jeff Foxworthy Show on NBC (also 8:00 p.m.), Murphy Brown and Cybil (9:00 and 9:30 p.m., CBS). Oh, the Bills play the Dolphins on Monday Night Football (ABC, 6:00 p.m.)

Tuesday, Dan comes home to Roseanne to spend the holidays with the family (8:00 p.m., ABC), Fox tries (and fails) to recapture the magic with The Munsters Scary Little Christmas (8:00 p.m.) featuring none of the original cast, and in the night's winner, PBS plays a pair of Wallace and Gromit shorts, "A Grand Day Out" and "A Close Shave" (8:00 p.m.)

On Wednesday Nick at Nite takes home the prize, with Season's Greetings from the Honeymooners (9:00 p.m.), two hours of bits first shown on The Jackie Gleason Show. If you don't like that, there are holiday-themed episodes of NewsRadio (NBC) and Drew Carey (ABC). Thursday brings the first college bowl game of the year, the don't-miss Las Vegas Bowl between Ball State and Nevada (ESPN, 6:00 p.m.) Seriously, these are two pretty good teams, with combined records of 16-6. Many of this year's games should do so well. And Friday has highlights at the beginning and end of the day; Sandi Patti: O Holy Night brings us Christmas music (9:00 a.m., Family), while the prime-time spectacular is NBC's airing of The Sound of Music (8:00 p.m.), or as co-star Christopher Plummer allegedly called it, "The Sound of Mucus." 

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Since this was kind of a short entry this week, that leaves us time for a little self-indulgence. You may be thinking, after reading my comments on the 50 Greatest Stars list, what my choices would have been. (Or maybe not; just play along here.) Do I think I could do any better?

Well, sure. After all, why do anything if you don't think it can be just as good as, if not better than, anyone else's? That doesn't mean it is better, but it does mean it's out there for others to pick on for a change. The list is updated to include stars who appeared after 1996, as well as to rectify oversights from the first one. And as a historian, I tend to take a long view of things; I'm hesitant to include stars who are too recent, whose stardom hasn't yet had a chance to ferment. Real stars have staying power, so it doesn't hurt to be a little cautious.

And so, for what it's worth, here's how I would have done it.

	1.       Lucille Ball	26.   Andy Griffith
	2.       Johnny Carson	27.   Art Carney
	3.       Ernie Kovacs	28.   Edward R. Murrow
	4.       Steve Allen	29.   Robert Young
	5.       Raymond Burr	30.   David Janssen
	6.       Carol Burnett	31.   Bob Keeshan
	7.       Jack Webb	32.   James Arness
	8.       Regis Philbin	33.   Betty White
	9.       Oprah Winfrey	34.   Don Knotts
	10.   Michael Landon	35.   Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca
	11.   Dick Van Dyke	36.   Fred Rogers
	12.   James Garner	37.   Phil Silvers
	13.   Mary Tyler Moore	38.   Jerry Seinfeld
	14.   Jon Stewart	39.   Rocky & Bullwinkle
	15.   William Shatner	40.   Bob Hope
	16.   Jackie Gleason	41.   Carroll O’Connor
	17.   Ellen DeGeneres	42.   Jim McKay
	18.   Bob Newhart	43.   Lawrence Welk
	19.   Bill Cosby	44.   Julia Child
	20.   Milton Berle	45.   Howard Cosell
	21.   Walter Cronkite	46.   Barbara Walters
	22.   Ted Danson	47.   Ed Sullivan
	23.   Peter Falk	48.   Chris Berman
	24.   Tom Sellick	49.   Jane Seymour
	25.   Julia Louis-Dreyfus	50.   Chet Huntley and David Brinkley

There - the floor is now yours.  TV  

This week in TV Guide: February 27, 1960

Only three cities in the United States have ever hosted the Winter Olympics – Lake Placid, New York; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Squaw Valley, California.  Yes, the 1960 Winter Olympics were held in California, a fact that puzzled me no end when I was a boy, reading about the heroic exploits of the U.S. hockey team that year.  Of course I knew there were mountain ranges in California, but it still seemed a strange choice for the Winter Games, and as this issue of TV Guide sees them come to a conclusion, it’s worth spending a moment on just how this unlikely site was chosen as an Olympics host.

It was in 1955 that Squaw Valley was selected for the 1960 Games - "a town with no mayor, and a ski resort with just one chairlift, two rope tows, and a fifty-room lodge."  In fact, there was only one resident of Squaw Valley, a man named Alexander Cushing, who also happened to head the "group" bidding for the Games.  Through an ingenious campaign, Cushing managed to convince first the United States Olympic Committee and then, in a massive upset, the International Olympic Committee, that Squaw Valley was the place for the Games.  This was despite the fact that none of the facilities he included in his bid* even existed yet.  Had he been unable to pull it off, Cushing probably would have gone down in history as one of the great land swindlers of all time, and we'd be seeing his story on an episode of The FBI.

*Seen in a massive 3,000 pound model of Squaw Valley that Cushing commissioned for the IOC, a model so big that it had to be housed in the U.S. Embassy in Paris, where the final vote was taken.

But pull it off he did.  With only four-and-a-half years to get ready, he wasted no time hiring the best people, including famed Olympic course designer Willy Schaeffler, to construct a venue from scratch - everything from freeways, hotels and motels to access roads, bridges and arenas.  The result was a huge success, a spectacular resort venue that continues to thrive today, and a Games that scored a host of notable firsts, including the first to be televised.

Which brings us to this week's coverage, seen on CBS Saturday and Sunday.  Unquestionably Saturday's highlight is the live broadcast of America's upset gold medal victory in hockey.  As would be the case 20 years later, a team comprised of college players, cheered on by a rabid home crowd, takes on and defeats the giants of international hockey: Canada, Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union.  You can see that historic final game, against the Soviets, beginning here, with Bud Palmer doing the play-by-play:


CBS looked at the Games as a news event as much as a sporting one; Walter Cronkite was the anchor for the network's coverage, with Chris Schenkel and event experts joining in.  Douglas Edwards filled in for Uncle Walter on the Sunday night late news, which Cronkite helmed until taking over for Edwards on the weekday evening news.

***

This week's starlet is another destined to make it big, or at least one who has a successful career.  It's Shirley Knight.  The 23 year-old actress is primarily known for her many guest appearances on TV: G.E. Theater, Playhouse 90, Matinee Theater, Johnny Staccato.  She's under contract to Warner Brothers for both television and movies, and says she'll "work every day they'll let me until I'm 65."

And she does work.  Later that year she'll appear in her third movie, The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, for which she'll get an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.  In 1962, her fifth movie, Sweet Bird of Youth, will garner her another Supporting Actress nomination.  Her TV appearances will net her eight Emmy nominations and three victories.  A pretty good career, don't you think?  Probably even more successful than they could imagine over at TV Guide.

***

SOURCE: BROADCASTING AND CABLE

The irony note of the week comes from an article on ABC's smash hit, The Untouchables.  Executive Producer Quinn Martin is the brains behind the rookie show's success, the first of many hits ascribed to Martin during a long and successful career.  One of the complaints about the show surrounds what Martin calls "dramatic license," when the Untouchables are shown capturing Ma Barker and her gang.  In real life (yes, there was a Ma Barker in real life), it was not Eliot Ness and the Untouchables, but the FBI, who captured Barker and her bankrobbing sons.  Martin understands the FBI's ire at this; "After all, the FBI gets its appropriations based on the job it does, and it's understandable that they'd object to credit being given to someone else."

If Quinn Martin had any lingering feelings of guilt about cheating the FBI out of proper credit, hopefully he was able to even the score when it came to one of his longest-running hits: The FBI (1965-74).

Martin has other problems with The Untouchables - the estate of Al Capone, the first victim of Ness' squad, is suing Martin for a million bucks for using his likeness for profit without the family's permission.  The show faces pushback from Italian-American groups for its negative portrayal of Italian-Americans.  Critics claim the show's too violent.  But it's a lot easier to take when you're producing a hit.  Martin stays with The Untouchables for only a year, but his success and influence in television lasts a lot longer.

***

Saturday:  NBC's World Wide 60 presents the comings and goings of two of the world's more important figures: Dwight D. Eisenhower and Nikita Khrushchev.  The American and Soviet leaders are touring the world, vying for influence in various countries.  Ike's in the midst of his South American tour and, just finished a trip to Brazil, is headed for Argentina.  Khrushchev, meanwhile, is in Asia, visiting India, Burma and Indonesia.  NBC continues its coverage of Eisenhower's "Journey to Understanding" with another special on Thursday.

SOURCE: HADLEY TV GUIDE COLLECTION

Sunday:  Pompous program of the week: the Archibald MacLeish drama "The Secret of Freedom," on NBC Sunday night at 7:00 ET, opposite Ed Sullivan on CBS.*  The drama, starring Tony Randall, Kim Hunter and Thomas Mitchell, tells the story of a woman who wonders whether Americans "have lost their souls" when a school tax referendum is defeated in her town.  If this sounds a lot like the tactics that school referendum proponents use to this day, it is.  I don't suppose there's anything in the script about holding the schools to accountability.

*Even then, prestige shows were stuck opposite popular programs.

Monday:  Bing Crosby returns to ABC with another special, this one co-starring Perry Como, dancer-singer Elaine Dunn, singer Sandy Stewart, and Bing's singing sons Philip, Dennis and Lindsay.  The Crosby Boys, as they were known professionally, were around in the '50s and '60s, and actually appeared on more than just their dad's shows.

Tuesday:  Another one of those daytime specials that used to crop up from time to time.  This one, Woman!, runs at 2pm CT on CBS, with Helen Hayes hosting a documentary on the problems of old age.  I like the thought that homemakers watching television are capable of appreciating more than just soap operas.

Wednesday:  Armstrong Circle Theater presents a drama dealing with two topical issues: drugs and beatniks.  "Raid in Beatnik Village" tells the story of cops on the narcotics squad going undercover to bust dope dealers.  Juvenile delinquency is a big deal in the '50s and '60s, and although this drama probably would feel dated today (particularly with reference to "narcotics"), I suspect it's a pretty accurate depiction of the societal anxiety around the coming counterculture, something that would become much, much bigger by the end of this decade.

Thursday:  Speaking of The Untouchables, tonight's episode is part two of an exciting story pitting Ness and the Untouchables* against the attempted assassination of FDR in 1933.  As in real life, Roosevelt escapes unscathed, but Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak is shot and killed.  The official story has generally been that Cermak, like Texas Governor John Connelly thirty years later, was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, but there are revisionist historians, including the writer of this episode, suggesting that the mob had a contract out on Cermak, and that he was at least as much of a target as Roosevelt.

*And please tell me why there isn't an alt-rock group out there called Eliot Ness and The Untouchables?  Or Tao Jones and The Industrial Averages, for that matter?

SOURCE: HADLEY TV GUIDE COLLECTION

Friday:  Art Carney was on a lot more than just The Honeymooners, and tonight he stars on yet another live production, "The Best of Everything," on NBC at 7:30pm.  Actor Roddy McDowall and musical-comedy star Betty Garrett join Art to satirize "the American custom of handing out awards at the drop of a hat."  Considering that I'm writing these words the day after yet another bloated Academy Awards show, they seem more prescient than ever, don't they?

***

Finally, the big news of the week is that Jack Paar has returned!  You may remember that back on February 11, the controversial Paar had walked off the set of The Tonight Show during taping, because NBC had censored a story he'd told on the show the night before, having to do with some confusion over the initials W.C. - meaning, depending on the two main characters in the joke, either "Wayside Chapel" or "Water Closet," i.e. bathroom.  We wouldn't bat an eye at the story today, but literal bathroom humor was a no-no back then.

To compound the debacle, in place of the censored joke NBC substituted a five-minute news broadcast, right there in the middle of the show.  They could have just had the show end five minutes early, I suppose, which might have meant fewer people would have noticed anything was missing.  In any event, Paar complained that the amorphous term "censored" was leading people to speculate that Paar had told a story that was genuinely dirty.

Paar's spectacular walkout dominated the headlines for three weeks, until NBC board chairman Robert Sarnoff and president Robert Kintner flew down to Florida, where Paar had decamped to avoid the press.  According to TV Guide, the pair "were able to sweet-talk [Paar] back into the fold with an alacrity that bordered on the miraculous."  Paar's walkout "lasted just about as long as it takes to get a Florida tan," and Dwight Whitney somewhat cynically speculates that Paar's return will be "one of the most sensational 'comebacks' in entertainment history."

Was it a stunt or not?  Paar always insisted that his walkout was on the up-and-up; when he left the show, he said that "there must be a better way to make a living than this."  Returning on March 7, he added, "Well, I've looked, and there isn't."  TV Guide's letters section presents a cross-section of viewer mail; the editors noted that 78% was pro-Paar, 22% anti-Paar.  Interestingly, the listings for Tonight this week have Arlene Francis guest-hosting and Bill Wendell sitting in for Hugh Downs as announcer, while "Monday Jack returns from his vacation."  I guess that's one way to put it!


TV  

This week in TV Guide: December 28, 1963

There's something about the cover of this issue I really like. It's colorful and cheerful and fun (the picture at left really doesn't do it justice), and perhaps after the grim last month, it was meant to suggest a bright and hopeful future.

On the cover you see the 17-year-old Patty Duke, Academy Award winner and star of The Patty Duke Show, in which she plays twin cousins Patty and Cathy Lane. This show was a modest success, running for three seasons and producing a memorable theme song. The article itself (written by an unbylined author) wasn't particularly flattering, commenting on Duke's lack of personality; one might say, as Gertrude Stein said of Oakland, that there was no there there. Of course, given what we now know about Duke's horrific childhood - which included bipolar disorder, sexual abuse and financial manipulation by her managers/guardians (who also plied her with alcohol and drugs and kept her a virtual prisoner), it probably shouldn't come as a surprise that she came across as little more than a programmed robot with no independent thoughts of her own.  This really is one of those articles that becomes so much more interesting when you know the rest of the story.

I've commented on this before, but it remains interesting to see the different attitude TV Guide had about it's subjects. Back in the day, TV Guide wasn't merely a shill for the stars' publicity machines; at the same time, the writers often appeared to go out of their way to take shots at those whom they profiled, either outright or through snide insinuation.

Take, for instance, Richard Gehman's piece on Joey Bishop, whose sitcom was entering its third season. Bishop had by that time garnered a reputation as being difficult to work with, a trait which Gehman is eager to analyze. Speaking of the two major influences on Bishop's career - Frank Sinatra and Jack Paar - Gehman comments, "Some of their arrogance - the necessary cockiness of deep insecurity - has rubbed off on him." I'm sure Bishop appreciated the free psychoanalysis. Again, while Gehman may be making an astute observation on Bishop, with comments such as this peppered throughout the article, it appears as if he takes particular pleasure in doing so.

Here's another article on an actress named Katherine Crawford. Only 19, her television career has just started, with appearances on programs such as Kraft Suspense Theatre and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. She's cute enough, and apparently has talent, but her major advantage may be that she's was the daughter of Roy Huggins, creator of The Fugitive, The Invaders, and other TV hits. In the title of the article (also anonymously authored), Crawford proclaims, "I'll be acting till I'm 70." As you can see from her IMDB profile, her last credit was in the series Gemini Man in 1976. Well, she made it to 32, anyway.  Maybe she meant that she'd be acting until she was in the 70s.  And by the way, I don't mean for that comment to be snarky - she had a long resume of work up until then - she's accomplished a lot more than I have, that's for sure - and she could well have gone on to a life more productive and more fulfilling than most of us. It's just that it never ceases to be fascinating how short the lifespan of "the next big thing" can sometimes be.

In that light let's look at ABC's Saturday night broadcast of Hollywood Deb Star Ball 1964, in which we meet "the lovely Deb [for debutante] Stars, slated for future stardom by major Hollywood studios." Well, let's take a look. There's Meredith MacRae, daughter of Gordon and Sheila MacRae, who just happened to be the hosts of the show. She did pretty well for herself.  (And for It's About TV as well, as you can see here and here.)  There's the aforementioned Katherine Crawford. There's Susan Seaforth, who as Susan Seaforth Hayes will become a huge soap opera star. One of her Days of Our Lives co-stars, Brenda Benet, perhaps as well known for being Bill Bixby's ex-wife, is there as well. Linda Evans, star of Dynasty, is one of the Deb Stars, as is Chris Noel (whom was profiled in last week's edition), whose remarkable life led her from a modest Hollywood career to her vocation as a radio host and entertainer stationed in Vietnam for the Armed Forces Network, travelling to locations considered too dangerous for Bob Hope and other celebrities. Claudia Martin, Deano's daughter, was one of the ten starlets, and I think it's safe to say that her bloodlines were her biggest claim to Hollywood fame. And then there were Shelly Ames, Anna Capri and Amadee Chabot, who scored minor successes at best. Why do some careers take off while others flounder? Who knows.

***

For college football fans, this is the week of weeks.  The appetizer is served on Saturday, with Air Force taking on North Carolina in the Gator Bowl (won by North Carolina 35-0), and the companion to last week's North-South Shrine All-Star Game, the East-West Shrine All-Star Game, played in San Francisco.

Roger Staubach was to be on Life's
November 29, 1963 cover.  After JFK's
assassination, the mag scrapped 300,000
already-printed copies.

The real deal is on Wednesday, with the New Year's Day quad-fecta (is that a word?), featuring the de facto de facto showdown for the national championship between Texas and Navy at the Cotton Bowl on CBS. Now, let me explain this peculiar description: in 1963, the final AP and UPI polls, which determined the national champion, were taken at the end of the regular season.  The bowl games were seen as exhibitions, rewards to the players for a good season.  They were held in warm-weather locales where people could go to have fun, and fans could watch a football game as part of a festival that often included a parade, a college basketball tournament, and other events.  So entering New Year's Day, the title race had already been decided.  The de facto national champion was Texas, having finished the season at 10-0.

But there's a twist - their opponent, Navy, is the nation's #2 ranked team, with a record of 9-1 and the Heisman Trophy winner, quarterback Roger Staubach.  Exhibition game or not, if Navy defeats Texas there are going to be a lot of people who look on the Midshipmen as the true de facto national champions.  So there you have it.  The game doesn't really count, but it does.  The championship has already been decided, but it hasn't.  Had Navy won, there would have been no little bit of controversy.

And there were a lot of people rooting for Navy.  Keep in mind the context of this game.  The Naval Academy, alma mater of the late President Kennedy, is travelling to the city in which he was assassinated less than six weeks ago.  Emotions are running high - the Middies are taken to the sixth floor of the School Book Depository to see where the assassination happened), and Big D, suddenly the most hated city in the most hated state in America, is desperate to regain its self-esteem, which can only be helped by having its state university win the national title.

In any event, the whole thing is an anti-climax.  Texas wins the game handily, 28-6.

In these times before prime-time football, the Cotton Bowl has to share the spotlight with the Orange (Auburn vs. Nebraska) and Sugar (Alabama vs. Mississippi), all of which were joint opening acts for the Granddaddy of Them All, the Rose (Illinois vs. Washington), which started at 3:45 Central time and ended the college football season. Good games, good times.

Oh, and there's pro football as well.  On Saturday Boston and Buffalo meet in the tiebreaker to decide the AFL's Eastern Division title.  The Patriots win 26-8, which earns them the right to fly to San Diego next week for the AFL Championship, where they'll be demolished 51-10 by the Chargers.

On Sunday morning at 11:45 CT, the Chicago Bears and New York Giants kick off for the NFL title. The early start time is caused by the need to ensure daylight in case the game requires Sudden Death, since Wrigley Field, home of the Bears, has no lights.  The Bears make sure that's no problem, as they defeat the Giants 14-10.*

*Fun fact - this is the last championship for the Bears until 1985, when they defeat the New England Patriots 55-10 in the Super Bowl.  It's the most points scored in a championship game since, well, the Patriots defeat in 1964 - which was the last time the Pats had played for the title.  Needless to say, things have improved since then in New England.

***

Remember Guy Lombardo? He's on hand as usual, on CBS' New Year's Eve special, entertaining with his Royal Canadians, joined by Dorothy Collins and the Willis Sisters.  They're not in their traditional stomping grounds at the Waldorf Astoria, though - for the first time, they're broadcasting from Grand Central Station in New York City, as part of the Bell Ringer Ball for Mental Health.  Channel 4, the CBS affiliate in Minneapolis, always delayed this show by an hour, so the ball in Times Square would drop at midnight local time.  I wonder how many other markets did this - if you're reading this, Mike Doran, how did Chicago handle it?  And for any other readers, what do you remember from your local stations?

A scene from the King Orange parade in the early 60s

Plenty of New Year's cheer earlier in the night, though - Andy Williams has his last special of the year, welcoming Fred MacMurray and Andy's family.  Up against Andy's NBC special is ABC's coverage of the King Orange Jamboree parade, taped earlier.  According to the Miami News, a half-million lined the parade route.  I always remembered this parade fondly for the lights and color; the next year, the game (and parade) would move to NBC, where the game would join the parade as a prime-time spectacle.  And at 11:30pm, the independent Channel 11 presents the New Year's Watch Service, a  a 2½ hour music spectacle by Souls Harbor Church in Minneapolis, broadcast from the Minneapolis Auditorium.  I remember this show from when it was on Channel 9 later in the 60s and early 70s.

Speaking of parades, if you want 'em on New Year's Day, you've got 'em.  CBS kicks it off at 10am CT with the Cotton Bowl Parade from the State Fair grounds in Dallas (which is where the Cotton Bowl stadium is located), hosted by Chris Schenkel (who'll do the game later in the day) and Pat Summerall.  It only runs 45 minutes, though - I'm assuming it's just highlights.  At 10:45 the network cuts to coverage of the Rose Parade from Pasadena, with Ronald Reagan and Bess Myerson reprising their hosting duties.  They join NBC, whose coverage started 15 minutes earlier, with Arthur Godfrey and Betty White behind the mics. ABC joins in the fun with coverage of the Mummers Parade from Philadelphia, the first time on national TV for the legendary parade.  Although the broadcast runs for 90 minutes, that's only a small segment of the all-day parade, which lasts for most of the day before it's done.

Interesting footnote - although only the Sugar and Rose Bowl games are telecast in color, all of the parades save the Cotton are colorcast.  Even though I watched the Rose parade in black and white for many years, I just can't imagine it today.

***

On Sunday, it's the television premiere on ABC of the documentary "The Making of the President 1960," based on the Pulitzer winner by Theodore H. White. I've seen it; it's a very interesting movie. It was completed prior to Kennedy's death, and is being presented unchanged except for a brief prologue by White.  Although this version, like the book, was the best-known and most successful of White's series, there were actually TV versions of the 1964 and 1968 volumes as well.  None of his 1972 edition, though, which itself ended the series.


Later in the week, on Tuesday morning, author Richard Condon is the guest on Today.  Condon is most famous, of course, for his novel The Manchurian Candidate, written in 1959.  The movie version, which came out in 1962, was rumored to have been withdrawn from circulation following JFK's assassination, though this appears to be an urban legend.  Condon is likely promoting one of the two books he'll have published in 1964 - either An Infinity of Mirrors or Any God Will Do.

Finally, on New Year's night, CBS has a news roundtable called "Years of Crisis," in which CBS correspondents gather to discuss the events of the past year and their probable effect on the future.  In case you were wondering, those events included the assassination of JFK, the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald, the death of Pope John XXIII and election of Paul VI, the overthrow of the Diem regime in South Vietnam and the escalation of American involvement, the continuing Ecumenical Council in Rome (Vatican II), the "I Have a Dream" speech in the March on Washington, and more.  Yes, 1963 was quite a year, and yes - it will have far-reaching effects on 1964 and beyond.

As I have said often, TV Guide is - or was - one of the prime cultural indicators of the past. For the cultural archaeologist, it's like opening a treasure chest. It reminds us not only of days gone by, the things that were, but, as in the case of the Deb Ball, some of the things - or careers - that never were. And it is nice, isn't it, to sometimes be able to look to the future in blissful ignorance of what we know is to come? A pity that we can't be more optimistic like that all the time, but then, times have changed. And not always for the best. TV  

Around the dial

Well, it's hard to believe, but it's already December!  Where has the time gone?  Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving.  Now let's see if we can keep the momentum going through the end of the year!

First off, the disappointing news that RadioDiscussions.com, home of one of the best classic TV discussion boards, abruptly shut down today.  I'm sorry to see that; I must have put up one of the last posts on it this morning, when I linked to Saturday's TV Guide piece - it was a great place to talk about old program listings and shows of the past.  For those of our regular readers who've been regulars on RadioDiscussions, any suggestions as to where we can continue our discussions?

Joanna at Christmas TV History* is really in her element this month!  Today she's got a great piece on one of my favorite Christmas shows of the past, the Judy Garland Christmas Show.  Sure, there were some campy elements to it, but there was a kind of meta-self-awareness about how everyone seemed to know they were part of a television show.  One of the reasons I like this program is that it gives us an idealized Christmas - perhaps things weren't that way in 1962 (if they'd ever been that way), but the point is that the audience would have understood that this was an accepted presentation of Christmas, realistic or not.

*And by the way, Joanna, if you're reading this - yes, I know I owe you a piece on Amahl - this weekend, I promise!

Comfort TV delves into a topic that's always been of some interest to me - actors and actresses who've starred in more than one television series.  There have been a few, but whenever this has come up for discussion, I've always thought first of Robert Young - such a big hit with Father Knows Best, and then to follow it up with Marcus Welby, M.D. - not bad.

I really like the idea of TV When I Was Born - it reminds me of why I have such an attraction to the TV Guides of my youth.   There's a kind of connection you make (or at least I do) with the shows of that era, whatever era it might be.  And Dixon sounds to be about my age, which means his look back at TV when he was born is roughly the same as mine.  His latest is a look at TV's first great prime-time animated sitcom, The Flintstones.

It probably goes without saying that the blogs I mention in this space each week are among my favorites - otherwise, how would I know what they were writing about?  So I won't say that Television Obscurities is one of my favs, even though it is.  Here's a wrap-up of a great feature that ran throughout November - a month of local Connecticut TV commercials.  I can appreciate how much work that must have been.  I doubt I'd be able to find my favorite Twin Cities commercials - they all date back to TV when I was born...

Alert readers will notice I switched things up - Around the Dial usually appears on Thursday, but this week you're getting it a couple of days early.  That gives me time to come up with something to write about for the rest of the week - but I'll make it! TV