This week in TV Guide: July 16, 1966

You might think that being the captain of the most sophisticated nuclear submarine the world has ever seen, with the opportunity to travel the world on scientific missions, encountering strange underwater life and outer space aliens, would be enough for most men. But not for David Hedison. The co-star of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (along with Richard Basehart and the Seaview itself) still struggles with being, in his words, "one of the nameless heroes of television." From being mistaken for John Derek to having his name mispronounced, it's part of the terrain for a man who can only say, "I wish I had an image." 

Part of it, as I suggested, is that he often has third billing next to Basehart and the submarine. And, in fact, the whole premise of Voyage requires something of a suspension of disbelief. "If you can make this believable," he says, "you have really accomplished something." He points to a quote from Basehart that "'Richard III' was easier than this because the lines were there." to show that he appreciates the real accomplishment when an actor can "take nothing and make something of it." At the same time, though, there's only so far you can take it. A co-worker, complimenting him, points out that "He doesn't take himself seriously. He knows it's just a comic strip." And Hedison himself envies an actor like The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'s Robert Vaughn, who "can go so many places and be with women and wear a tuxedo."

Still, there's no doubting that Hedison has come a long way from the times when he would sell his blood at $5 a pint to pay for acting lessons from Uta Hagen. His talent was recognized at an early date by both Hagen and Fredric March; Hagen said of him that "He had a wild temperament, a tremendous eagerness to make good in the theater. He had great promise." He won a 1956 Theatre World Award for his performance in the off-Broadway play "A Month in the Country," the only actor from an off-Broadway production to win. He was signed by 20th Century-Fox to appear in The Enemy Below, a submarine movie.* But since then, his primary claim to pre-Voyage fame came from his starring role in the now-cult classic movie The Fly, when he was known as Al Hedison. 

*Interestingly, the article doesn't mention that Hedison was originally offered the role of Captain Crane in Irwin Allen's original big-screen version of Voyage, but turned it down; Robert Sterling wound up playing the captain. Hedison would also turn down the role of Mike Brady in The Brady Bunch, a move I susped he didn't regret.

For all his doubts about Voyage, he understands the nature of the television business. "When Voyage first started I was apprehensive and didn’t like to talk about it. But then I watched the other shows on television, and I decided ours was nothing to be ashamed of." It's difficult, though, to not look back at his original hopes in the business. Hagen, for one, was sorry to see him go to Hollywood. "Young people see a chance to make some money; and then, without even realizing it, they get trapped. The last time I saw him, when he was visiting New York, he seemed sad. The fire had gone." And Hedison, who spent the Voyage hiatus in London attending the serious plays he still wants to do, followed by a stint in "The Teahouse of the August Moon" near Los Angeles. And then there's the role that still awaits him, that of Felix Leiter in a pair of James Bond movies; but that's another story.

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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: Guests include Ed’s guests are Dinah Shore; comics Jackie Vernon and Dick Capri; Sgt. Barry Sadler; the rock ‘n’ rolling Four Tops; puppet Topo Gigio; guitarist José Feliciano; Les Feux Follets, Canadian folk dancers; and Markworth and Mayana, bow-and-arrow act. Rock ‘n’ rollers Simon and Garfunkel are seen performing in a recently taped segment. (The show originally aired on January 30; the Simon & Garfunkel segment was taped and added to this broadcast.)

Palace: Hostess Kate Smith introduces singer-dancer Juliet Prowse; singer-composer Charles Aznavour; Avery Schreiber and Jack Burns, who offer a comedy sketch about a talking vending machine; Charlie Cairoli and Company in a slapstick routine about a bakery; the Eight Rodos, German tumblers; comic Albert T. Berry; and illusionist Prasano Rao.

It almost seems un-American to go against Kate Smith this week, particularly with Chrlees Aznavour at her side, but let's face it: Dinah Shore, José Feliciano, the Four Tops, and Simon and Garfunkel. So nothing can be finah than Dinah, which gives Sullivan the victory this week.

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

We come to you under somewhat false pretenses this week, as Judith Crist subs for Our Man Cleve, who's on vacation for the summer. And we couldn't have a better show for her to lead off with than the "Outstanding Dramatic Series of 1965," The Fugitive. As the series prepares to enter its fourth and final season (and first in color), Crist steps back to look at just what it is that has made the adventures of Dr. Richard Kimble such compelling viewing, week after week.

After all, the basic framework, which features the good doctor escaping from the clutches not only of the police, but any number of onlookers wishing Kimble ill, "is enough to try the patience of the most gullible among us." For even though it's a given that "the various arms of the law Kimble almost inevitably encounters in each episode are going to be too stupid to recognize him or, if he is recognized, too inept or kindhearted to capture him in the midst of the good deeds he is almost inevitably involved in, we still want to have the empathic thrill of skirting danger and facing doom along with our hero." And besides, common sense tells us that he can't be captured until 1) the series goes off the air, or 2) it changes its title. So what is it that keeps America tuning in to watch its favorite fugitive from justice elude the forces of law and order?

First and foremost is the performance of David Janssen, who plays Kimble "as one of the least monotonous of the secret-sorrow, dogooding, compassionate humanists  to have come our way; he’s remarkably durable on the eyes, interesting in the performance." There's also a freshness in the show's approach, in the "scene, plot and characters that the hero's rootlessness, an able assortment of scriptwriters and directors, and an astute producer provide." In the last three weeks alone, we've seen Kimble match wits with William Shatner (an unequal contest, to say the least) at an exclusive boys' club, Mickey Rooney in a self-serve laundry, and Melvyn Douglas as a neurophysicist. Oh, and did we mention Barry Morse as Lieutenant Gerard. Coincidences may abound, plots may be padded, and storylines may get tangled in overcomplexity, but the secret is in "letting the illogic of the format go by and riding with its presumptions." It is, Crist concludes, "a secret most of us have stumbled on."

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When you've been doing this gig for fifteen years, you look for different angles to approach the highlights of the week. That's especially true during the summer, when, to be honest, it's hard to find anything fresh to talk about. One thing we've noted many times in the past is how, in these pre-VCR days, reruns were the only way to catch up with the shows you'd missed, for one reason or another, earlier in the season. So this week, we'll concentrate on some of those episodes you'll want to see with that second chance. 

Saturday is one of those nights where it seems as if everyone's going to pick their channel and stick with it: ABC with The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet at 7:30 p.m., The Donna Reed Show at 8:00, Lawrence Welk at 8:30, and The Hollywood Palace at 9:30. Over on NBC, you've got Flipper, I Dream of Jeannie, Get Smart, and Saturday Night at the Movies. CBS is the odd man out, at least for part of the evening; at 7:30 it's Continental Showcase, the summer replacement for The Jackie Gleason Show; this week, Jim Backus hosts, with the Swingle Singers leading a group of international acts; Secret Agent at 8:30, with Drake working at a pirate radio station to track down a spy; and The Face is Familiar, with Jack Whittaker hosting celebrity guests Pearl Bailey, Allen and Rossi, and Mel Brooks. Ordinarily the night would be capped with Gunsmoke at 10:00, but this week it's preempted by the Miss Universe Pageant.

It's no surprise that Branded only survived for two seasons, considering the series on at the same time: The FBI on ABC, and The Ed Sullivan Show on CBS. Nonetheless, this Sunday gives us the second of a two-part story in which our hero (Chuck Connors) finds himself in the middle of a war between landowners and gypsies. (8:30 p.m., NBC) You've also got a choice to make at 10:00 p.m.; if you've started watching the ABC Sunday Night Movie at 9:00, you're going to pass up CBS's Candid Camera and NBC's The Wackiest Ship in the Army, which heads for the island of Kanapura, and a group of Australian girls who've been spying on Japanese shipping.

The John Forsythe Show (Monday 8:00 p.m., NBC) didn't fare very well as a successor to Forsythe's successful Bachelor Father, but with competition from 12 O'clock High on ABC and I've Got a Secret on CBS, it was probably an uphill struggle even if the show had been better. Tonight, John has to go toe-to-toe in the ring with Moose Grabowski, the academy's new football coach. I'm afraid he doesn't have his angels to help him out, either. Meantime, you may have missed Art Linkletter's Talent Scouts (10:00 p.m., CBS) while you were trying to decide between The Big Valley and Run for Your Life (although The Big Valley started the season on Wedneday), but tonight you can catch a rerun that features Jim Nabors, Jill St. John, and Ray Walston. Unfortunately, they aren't performing; they're just introducing their talent prospects, one of whom is comedian Alan Sues. 

If you're a fan of Daktari on Tuesday nights, you might have missed this tense episode of Combat! in which a lone German sniper takes aim at Saunders' men (7:30 p.m., ABC). They'd wiped out the German squad earlier, and now the survivor plans to pick them off one by one, saving Saunders for last. Since Combat! returns for a final season this fall, it's safe to assume he won't succeed. You also would have missed a double-bill of sitcoms on NBC; first, on My Mother the Car (7:30 p.m.), "Dave is given one last chance to sell the Porter—before Captain Manzini (Avery Schreiber) shrinks the antique auto to the size of a toy." That's followed at 8:00 by Please Don't Eat the Daisies, as a leaky room convinces the family it's time to sell their old home before it becomes a money pit.

Two of the season's big ratings winners come on Wednesday, where Batman (7:30 p.m., ABC) and The Beverly Hillbillies (8:30 p.m., CBS) both finish in the top ten. As an alternative, we've got a Lost in Space episode that features both space werewolves and hillbilly space farmers. (7:30 p.m., CBS) How could you ask for anything more? Meanwhile, ABC's World War II half-hour spy drama Blue Light (8:30 p.m.), which got smashed by Hillbillies in the ratings, stars Robert Goulet as an American double agent who, tonight, is threatened with exposure unless he agrees to become a triple agent by working for the Soviets. Talk about going from the frying pan into the fire.

You definitely could use a VCR on Thursday: with Daniel Boone on NBC and part two of the Batman adventure on ABC, how are you going to make room for The Munsters on CBS? (7:30 p.m.) Tonight, the family's pet dragon, Spot, runs away after Herman disciplines him, and heads for the sewers. On the other hand, if you did watch The Munsters, you might have stayed for Gilligan's Island (tonight, featuring the Wellingtons, who sing the show's theme, playing a hit rock group looking to escape from their fans), which means you'll miss Gidget (8:00 p.m., ABC), where Gidget goes for a ride with a friend without telling her father first. Whoops!

Then again, there are some shows that just never had a chance; with The Wild, Wild West and The Flintstones as the opposition, even the rerun season (and Nina Wayne) couldn't save Camp Runamuck (Friday, 7:30 p.m., NBC), with features Arch Johnson's Wivenhoe announcing his plan for a successful diet. Honey West (9:00 p.m.), probably didn't have a prayer against Gomer Pyle, USMC, despite Anne Francis doing double duty tonight, playing both Honey and her lookalike, the notorious thief Pandora Fox. And with The Man From U.N.C.L.E. riding high, the rerun season might have been the only time you'd have watched the British import Court-Martial, starring Bradford Dillman and Peter Graves. (10:00 p.m. ABC) Tonight, an MP goes on trial for killing a German concentration-camp commandant. Breathe easy, though: it's not Colonel Klink.

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We do get some specials along with the reruns this week, and they're doubly special because we can actually watch some of them. 

This week's programming may be preempted or delayed by the launch of Gemini X, which took off, as scheduled, on Monday afternoon for a four-day mission, and I suppose some people might be blasé enough about the space program to look at it as a rerun. On board were astronauts John Young and Mike Collins; Collins, who became the first astronaut to perform two spacewalks, will later be a part of the famed Apollo 11 crew, where, as the sole member of the crew to remain in the capsule during the moon landing, he will be farther away from any other human than anyonce since Creation. Young, for his part, will later walk on the moon, and still later will pilot the first flight of the Space Shuttle. Gemini X splashes down safely on Thursday; the networks will provide complete coverage. Speaking of which, here is NBC's coverage of the launch, with Frank McGee.

I mentioned Miss Universe earlier; Margareta Arvidsson of Sweden is crowned Miss Universe 1966 in the pageant, held in Miami Beach. Pat Boone and June Lockhart are the hosts on the stage, while Jack Linkletter does the honors on the television broadcast, which exists in its entirety on YouTube.

On Tuesday, CBS presents an acclaimed portrait of composer Igor Stravinsky, "considered by many to be the world's greatest living composer," originally shown in May. (10:00 p.m.) The network is probably hoping more people see it this week than did in its original run two months ago. Charles Kuralt is the narrator; you can see a clip from it here.

NBC counters with an original news special on Wednesday, as Moscow bureau chief Kenneth Bernstein narrates an hour-long look at "Siberia: A Day in Irkutsk." It's not the Siberia you think of when you hear of dissidents being exiled there; Irkutsk, a city of nearly a half-million, is not only the cultural center of Siberia, it also has the Trans-Siberian Railroad, not to be confused with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, which may or may not have anything to do with Irkutsk, or anything else for that matter. No freebee, but you might be able to watch it if you subscribe to Peacock+.

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Well, we haven't had a fashion spread here for awhile, and we could go for something that's chic and sleek and modern, and who better to display such wares than Janice Rule, the wife of Ben Gazzara and a pretty fair actress in her own right, in both television and on the big screen.

Here she is modeling the latest from the summer collection of Dynasty of Hong Kong, with a decidedly Oriental accent. Wonder if she wore anything like this while Ben was filming The Killing of a Chinese Bookie? Yes, I know that was made ten years after this, but it's still a good thought.

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MST3K alert: Earth vs. the Spider (1958) Teen-agers in a small community are threatened by a giant spider. Ed Kemmer, June Kenney. (Sunday, 3:00 p.m., KSBW in Salinas) The description is accurate as far as it goes, although the spider isn't selective; it's threatening the whole town, not just the teens. But the real highlight is that June Kenney and Eugene Persson, who play the two teens trapped in the spider's lair, also play teens in episode 607, Bloodlust!, which stars a pre-Defenders Robert Reed. What do you think of that? TV  

This week in TV Guide: May 24, 1969

You might well recognize the name of U.S. Senator John Pastore, "the tart-tongued Democrat from Rhode Island," who for years has been the bane of the television industry with his campaign against what he sees as excessive sex and violence on the networks. This week, he explains the motivation behind his campaign to "clean up" television; not surprisingly, it begins with his constituents. 

The networks often point out that they don't really get all that many complaints about the content of their programming, Pastore says, but that's misleading. "People don't write to stations and networks like they write to congressmen, you see, and I have heard from many people," he explains. "I go to church on Sunday, and I’m stopped by half a dozen people who make a complaint about it. Or I have people visit with me or I go to a social affair or I go to a civic club, and it's continuous. It's continuous. I've been swamped with complaints." Pastore doesn't believe that everything on television is junk; in fact, he says about 90 percent of television is good. But that other ten percent; ah, there's the rub. 

"There isn’t a man I’ve met in the broadcasting industry who doesn’t know the difference between right and wrong, who doesn’t know when a joke has gone too far, when a gesture has gone too far, when a dress is cut too low, when the feminine body is too much exposed, when a joke begins to lose its subtlety and becomes a vulgarity—and that has happened!" Pastore says. The networks claim that we live in a more permissive era, and they point to today's motion pictures as evidence of how it's reflected in the entertainment industry. "But the fact remains that television was invented to service the family in the home," Pastore counters. "It's an entirely different medium than a moving-picture theater. With a moving picture, you can read a review. If you feel it's going to be a picture that's a little out of bounds, you don't buy a ticket and you don't go." 

It's different when it comes to television, though. "When you turn on that knob, that knob, and you hear from a licensee of the Government, you expect something decent. And you have a right to expect something decent." Which leads to one idea that Pastore's been advocating for years: pre-screening of shows by the National Association of Broadcasters. Pastore claims that many of the problems resulting from controversial shows such as ABC's Turn-On could have been avoided if such programs were simply screened in advance, the content adjusted when appropriate, and changes made if necessary, not unlike what will be done with the motion picture rating code. Not every program would need to be prescreened; "Take My Three Sons. Who has to prescreen that? The Doris Day Show, do you have to prescreen that?. . . there are so many shows they know beforehand are all right." But, in the case of Turn-On, "there was a reluctance to say exactly why it was taken off the air and finally I butted in and asked, 'Wasn’t it taken off because it was too risque?' and the fellow [Elton Rule, president of ABC-TV] said, "Yes." Said Pastore triumphantly, "That's it!"

Pastore scoffs at those who deny that there's a link between on-screen violence and its real-life counterpart. Relating his conversations with network heads, he urges them to take responsibility for what they show in their programs. "All I'm saying is, look, you're sensible people. You're men of the world. You're fathers of families. You know the difference between right and wrong. There’s so much about this you can do on your own! Then, when you get to the marginal cases, maybe you need a Surgeon General's opinion." 

The last thing he wants, Pastore says, is censorship. "I'm opposed to Government regulation, because I think they can do this job on their own. Not only that, I tell you very frankly, we don’t want to do anything here that will impinge on the basic constitutional rights of freedom of speech. I’m very strong on that." But it's up to the networks, and particularly the judgment of the NAB Code Authority. When Pastore says he's against government regulation, he pointedly adds, "For the time being, of course not."  It's an argument that the editors of TV Guide have made many times themselves, that if the industry doesn't police itself, someone else is going to. Of course, what we may find naïve today is the very idea that television can be cleaned up. And a larger question: does anyone out there even care anymore? 

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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: Tentatively scheduled guests: Theodore Bikel; Beatles’ protege Mary Hopkin (singing "Good-By"); comic Louis Nye; and soul singers Sam and Dave. Also on hand: comic Ron Carey, the singing Primo Family and juggler Ernest Montego. (This appears to be the actual lineup on the show.)

Palace: In a repeat, Van Johnson presents the Beatles (in a film clip from Liverpool); Mickey Rooney (in a baseball sketch); Liza Minnelli; actress Chris Noel (with films of her visit to Vietnam); comic George Carlin; the acrobatic Palace Duo; and comic illusionists Milo and Roger.   

I think when you're able to lead with the Beatles, you've already got a leg up on the competition. Mickey Rooney, Liza Minnelli, and George Carlin give the Palace the bench strength it needs, and even though Ed's lineup is not weak, common sense says this week's nod goes to The Palace.

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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. 

With television's regular season turning to an endless cycle of repeats, Cleveland Amory has the opportunity to look at those programs that the average viewer might not be familiar with, and this week he turns his attention to the Sunday morning ghetto of religious programming, and NBC's Frontiers of Faith.

As was the case with so many religious programs of the time, Frontiers of Faith, which debuted on the network in 1951, has evolved over the years, from being a more or less televised religious service, to one that explores music, dance, and drama, using both documentary and interview formats. Since it's not a commercially-sponsored program (its sponsor is the National Council of Churches), it has the added advantage of not having to deal with sponsor controversies, which means it's free to tackle controversial topics and guests, "from the Archbishop of Canterbury to James Baldwin." Two programs from a couple of years ago, both featuring Dr. Lycurgus M. Starkey Jr., pastor of the College Avenue Methodist Church of Muncie, Indiana, serve to illustrate the point: one was called "The Manly Art of Seduction," while the other explored James Bond movies and sadistic paperbacks, called "The Violent Ones."

Amory singles out a particularly notable series of episodes aired earlier this year. Called "Challenge of a Closer Moon," it was a timely examination of U.S. foreign aid to underdeveloped countries—the "closer moon" of the title—and what we were, and were not, getting from it. Said moderator Donald Barnhouse, "It is said about aid to developing countries that it is a kind of Operation Rathole." He then interviewed guests from the Rockefeller Foundation and the Agriculture Development Council to demonstrate, as Amory says, "that it is not." 

Programs like this are important, even though this isn't particularly my style of religion, but as Amory points out, "the people who wanted preaching and singing went to their church or synagogue; that, if they didn’t, they didn’t want it; and that, even if they did, they didn’t necessarily want it again." What I do want out of television is something challenging, provocative, and willing to take chances with creative formats. You can't accuse Frontiers of Faith of failing in any of those areas.

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Until 1971, Memorial Day was celebrated on May 30. Until 1971, the Indianapolis 500 was run on Memorial Day, whether it fell at the beginning, middle, or end of the week.* That means that this year's race is scheduled for this Friday, with a good number of special programs, all on KXTV, leading up to the self-proclaimed Greatest Spectacle in Racing. On Saturday Track Talk (11:45 a.m.) presents a 15-minute update on qualifying and preparations for the great race, including interviews with some of the drivers. Sunday, it's Rookie (7:30 p.m.), which tells the story of rookie drivers trying to make the field of 33 for the race. It's not an easy task; in 1967, only one first-year driver (not including those with experience in Formula 1) qualified for the 500. Tuesday (7:00 p.m.), it's a half-hour of qualifying highlights, including the pole-winning run of A.J. Foyt. And on the day of the race itself, it's the Indianapolis 500 Festival Parade (1:30 p.m.), held two days ago, and hosted by Steve Allen. The race itself isn't yet shown live on home television; to watch it live, you have to head down to your local movie theater carrying the closed-circuit broadcast, or wait until the following Saturday for the highlights on Wide World of Sports. Otherwise, you can do as I did for many years, and listen to the live radio broadcast. The 1969 race is won by Mario Andretti, the first and only 500 victory for the great racing family.

*When Memorial Day fell on Sunday, the race was transferred to Monday, May 31. Ironically, the race is permanently scheduled on Sunday nowadays, with the actual Monday holiday being the back-up date. 

There's another program note that runs through the week: the debut of Dick Cavett's new thrice-weekly primetime show (10:00 p.m., ABC). It's the latest landing spot for Cavett, whose 90-minute Monday-Friday daytime show ended in January after a little less than a year; it was always problematic that a show with Cavett's relatively intellectual heft would make a go of it as a morning series. The series kicks off on Monday at 10:00 p.m. PT, with Truman Capote, Liza Minnelli, James Coburn, and Candice Bergen; in later weeks, it will air on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, running throughout the summer. I think there was always a thought on the part of the network that Cavett would serve as a backup in case Joey Bishop's show failed, but as it happened, Cavett was thrust into the late-night spot earlier than expected, when Bishop quit in a contract dispute; he slides into the role at the end of 1969.

And the Apollo 10 flight comes to an end this week with the splashdown scheduled for Monday; all three networks plan live updates throughout the weekend and on Monday; NBC's Today expands to three hours for the event, including an appearance by "Harvard medical student Michael Chrichton [sic], discussing health problems that could be created by interplanetary travel." It's too bad that Apollo 10 tends to get overshadowed by the flights of Apollo 7 (first successful Apollo flight), Apollo 8 (first trip around the moon), and Apollo 11 (first moon landing), because its successful test of the lunar module in lunar orbit was essential in making the moon landing possible. And think about this: that Apollo 11 flight took place only two months later. Amazing to think all those missions could take place in such rapid succession, doesn't it?

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What else? Saturday leads off the week with The World of Charlie Brown and Charles Schulz (8:30 p.m., CBS), a look at how Schulz's comic strip Peanuts has become an industry unto itself, from serving as mascot for the Apollo space missions to movies, musicals, books, and more. I've always enjoyed Peanuts, although I'll freely admit that once Calvin and Hobbes came along, that became my favorite, a position it continues to hold today; I always admired Bill Watterson for not selling out his characters for every commercial purpose around, unlike—well, frankly, unlike Charles Schulz. Later that night, CBS is on hand in the sun and fun capital of the world, Miami Beach, for the Miss USA Beauty Pageant (10:00 p.m.), hosted by Bob Barker, with singer John Gary as special guest star. The winner: Miss Virginia, Wendy Dascomb.

In looking through Sunday's features, I came across this description for the 1934 King Kong with Robert Armstrong and Fay Wray: "Bizarre retelling of the “beauty and the beast’ legend." Now, I've heard King Kong called many things, usually variations of "epic," but I've never seen it called "bizarre." Oh well, it's on at 2:00 p.m. on KTXL. Later, Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic spend on hour on what Lenny calles "the first psychedelic symphony," the Symphonie Fantastique of Hector Berlioz, on Young People's Concert (4:30 p.m., CBS). In primetime, NBC Children's Theatre presents a children's ballet based on Louisa May Alcott's Little Women (6:30 p.m., NBC). Think about these last two shows for a minute: the presumption that children, or "young people," would be interested in two one-hour programs dealing with classical music and ballet. 

On Monday, Arthur Godfrey is on hand to host an hour of highlights of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus (8:00 p.m., NBC). The Old Redhead also finds the time for a dressage exhibition on his horse Goldie, and sings "Mr. Clown." If that's just not for you, you might be interested in "The World of Carl Sandberg" (8:00 p.m., NET), an adaptation of the 1961 Broadway show starring Fritz Weaver and Uta Hagen, plus period folk songs from the Tarriers and Carolyn Hester. You can see a clip of this fascinating program here; Sandburg, had only died two years previously at the time of this airing.

Tuesday sees a repeat of A Hard Day's Night (9:00 p.m., NBC), the Beatles' film debut, which Judith Crist calls a "mad mixture of sophisticated satire and glorious silliness." It's the movie's third run on the network, in what Crist hopes will become an annual tradition. One of the most enduring, and endearing, aspects of the original NBC broadcast was the first (only?) appearance of the "NBC Penguin," taking the place of the Peacock to introduce this movie in "lively black and white." 

On Wednesday, that great thespian, William Shatner, stars with Elizabeth Ashley in the Prudential: On Stage presentation of ". . . The Skirts of Happy Chance. . . " (9:00 p.m., NBC), a comedy-drama about the members of an anti-poverty program in a small city. On Stage is the program launched by NBC following the disastrous "Flesh and Blood," called "the worst disaster of the TV season," the previous year; as I noted at the time, the plan was for "five original 'upbeat' dramas" in the coming season—dramas that will be 'exciting, hopeful and affirmative.'" It's produced by David Susskind, and written by Albert Ruben and directed by David Pressman, both veterans of Susskind's N.Y.P.D., which was very good but wasn't exactly what I'd call "upbeat" and "hopeful." But maybe I'm wrong.

Thursday night, it's a repeat of "Arrival," the stunning premiere episode of Patrick McGoohan's surrealistic allegorical drama The Prisoner (8:00 p.m., CBS). Last season, it aired as a summer replacement for The Jackie Gleason Show; this season, it takes the place of the cancelled Jonathan Winters Show. I've found that the best way to prepare for the series is by watching Danger Man, the secret agent series starring McGoohan as John Drake, who bears a stunning similarity to Number 6. Later, the late John F. Kennedy's 52nd birthday is commemorated with a repeat of the 1964 documentary The Life and Times of John F. Kennedy (9:00 p.m., KTVU), narrated by Cliff Robertson, who played JFK in PT-109. 

Other than Michael Crichton, the most interesting guest on Today this week (Friday, 7:00 a.m., NBC) may be author Edward Luttwak, promoting his book Coup d'État: A Practical Handbook, which TV Guide dryly describes as a handbook "on how to take over a nation." It's important, Luttwak notes, to understand the difference between a coup and a revolution; the former consists of "the rapid takeover of governmental mechanisms by insurgents without destroying them, thereby enabling a swift transition of power." Luttwak points out that not every country is suitable for a coup, and that the key to success lies in flexibility and "maximum speed in the transitional phase, and the need to fully neutralize the opposition both before and immediately after the coup." Not surprisingly, it's actually been used as a guide in several coup attempts staged around the world; Luttwak wrote an updated version in 2016, which includes technological advances made since the original version. I'm not sure why this isn't on my bookshelf.

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According to the Teletype, Steve Douglas, the character played by Fred MacMurray on the long-running My Three Sons, is getting married during the new season. No word on who the lucky lady is, but she'll have a seven-year-old daughter in tow. Historian and former JFK assistant Arthur Schlesinger Jr. is writing the script for "The Unfinished Journey of Robert F. Kennedy," the David L. Wolper documentary that will be the only non-fiction film ever shown on ABC's Movie of the Week. And Chad Everett, star of the upcoming CBS drama U.M.C. (it hasn't yet been renamed Medical Center) will be doing a guest appearance on Liberace's summer show for the same network.

Speaking of CBS, Richard W. Jenks, the new president of the CBS Broadcast Group, addressed the many rumors regarding the network's cancellation of the Smothers Brothers. Richard K. Doan reports that Jenks "flatly denied" that the Brothers were dropped due to declining ratings, nor was it done to protect the aforementioned Senator John Pastore from criticism on the show. And it's "simply wrong" to claim that CBS has given up on topical satire. In fact, says Jenks, the decision was made based on the network's responsibility to both viewers and the industry. In strong words, Jenks said that "someone has to be the judge of the difference between entertainment and propaganda," and that the network does not subscribe to the theory that "free speech not only permits, but compels, the dissemination of antisocial material." Voicing an idea that would strike contemporary viewers as being somewhat quaint, Jenks said that those appearing on the network have to be "as interested as we are in avoiding unnecessary offense to the pious, the immature and the innocent." There is, I think, a lot to that. 

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MST3K alert: Invaders from Mars (1953) A boy awakens in the middle of the night to see a spaceship disappearing underground. Helen Carter, Arthur Franz. It's another presentation from the MST3K quasi-spinoff Rifftrax, spotlighting something that we've always known: the surest way for space aliens to conquer the Earth is to take over the back yard of one particular family in one sleepy little town in America. Makes perfect sense to me; maybe they got the idea from reading Edward Luttwak? TV  

This week in TV Guide: May 8, 1965

Xf there's one thing that drove me crazy back when I was watching the news (and I know what you're thinking—only one thing?), it was the ad nauseam intrusion of "Breaking News" headlines, which often were little more than intros to their next segment. (Fox News was an especially egregious offender in this regard.) It's bad enough that the industry moved away from the truly meaningful term "Bulletin" to the more amorphous "Special Report"; now they have to tease everyone with Breaking News just to let them know that the stock market's opening bell is sounding in fifteen minutes. 

As it happens, this isn't a particularly new phenomenon. In fact, back in 1965, the proliferation of bulletins was really starting to rub people the wrong way. Remember, we were just two or three years beyond some of the most disturbing of TV bulletins, those accompanying the Cuban Missile Crisis and the assassination of President Kennedy, and viewers were conditioned, on seeing that BULLETIN slide, to expect either the end of the world, or some very dire news—not "President Johnson’s cold has improved slightly, his physicians reported a moment ago, and he is expected to leave Bethesda Naval Hospital and return to the White House within the next 12 hours."

Based on other anecdoctal evidence I've read over the years, this bulletin, from the lead article by Neil Hickey, is likely verbatim. President Johnson had, in fact, been hospitalized over a nasty case of the flu, and the networks were providing constant updates on his condition. Jim Hagerty, former press secretary to President Eisenhower and now VP at ABC, was dubious about it all: "Admittedly, the President is the most important person in the free world. But honestly, didn’t we all overdo it just a little?" In fact, these interruptions, along with similar bulletins regarding U.S. airstrikes in Vietnam, added to what Hickey calls a situation "which has been argued hotly both by viewers and TV news officials for a long time"—when it is appropriate to interrupt regular programming (and the viewers' regular heart rhythms) with news stories. The practice has been on the increase lately, a mark of the increasing competition between networks to be first with the news, even when it means not thoroughly checking out a story before going on the air. Such was the case last year when CBS went live with an unconfirmed report that Nikita Khruschev had died. If, Hickey says, there had been even a moderate delay to check out the report, they would have been spared the embarrassment of having had to later retract the story.

At least the Khruschev report was newsworthy, unlike the bulletin ABC would later broadcast that Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton had just been married in Montreal. "An ABC news official, watching at home, said later, 'I could have died a million deaths when I saw that one'," and he probably wasnt alone, although maybe things are different today—viewers might consider a story like that real news nowadays. This wasn't the only time ABC came under heat for this kind of decision; their local New York affiliate interrupted a performance of "Swan Lake" by the Bolshoi Ballet, ten minutes before the ballet ended, to report that Malcolm X had been murdered. Most critics agreed that, newsworthy though this may have been, it could easily have been held until the program concluded.

TV Guide recently reached out to network news honchos for their guidelines on when it's appropriate to break into regular programming for news bulletins. They all agreed that the most important thing is to rely on experience and judgment. "Is it a service that the people need at this moment, such as an alarm?" asks CBS news chief Fred Friendly. "Is the news of such great importance that the viewer would want to be interrupted? What program is in progress, and will the content of the bulletin fit tastefully into the context of the program?" Julian Goodman at NBC adds that the network has a process designed to find the best spot in a program to place a bulletin—except in the most dire of circumstances, you can't, for example, "announce the death of an important figure in the middle of a comedy, and then come back to laughter. If we have to wait 10 minutes in the interests of good taste, we do so." But, as ABC head Jesse Zousmer says, "But what's the alternative? Should we come on and say, ‘In a half hour we’re going to tell you something unpleasant’?" In the end, they agree, you can't satisfy everybody.

However, it appears the networks are becoming more sensitive to complaints; one network is preparing a "million-dollar piece of equipment" which will allow them to run updates on the bottom of the screen; although machines like this already exist, they don't have a quick-enough turnaround time to be used for bulletins. Another idea is holding all bu tthe most important bulletins to run over the closing credits of programs. 

And there's one more piece of news: all three agree as well that there is no conspiracy to refrain from interrupting commercials for bulletins, as some have cynically suggested. Money has nothing to do with it, they insist. It's all timing.

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

Sullivan: Ed’s scheduled guests are dancer Juliet Prowse; songstress Della Reese; singer Vaughn Monroe; the Three Stooges, comics; the Kim Sisters, singers; comedian Richard Pryor; Les Doubles Faces, pantomime artists; and comic Jackie Clark.

Palace: The host is singer Steve Lawrence, who introduces Mickey Rooney and Bobby Van in a spoof of the movie Bridge on the River Kwai; operatic soprano Jean Fenn; the Backporch Majority, folk singers; choreographer-dancer Jack Cole; comic Gene Baylos; plate spinners Alberto and Rosita; the Gimma Brothers, novelty act; and 4-year-old drummer Poogie Bell.

Since there are no indications of alterations to Ed's lineup, we'll go with it as listed, and it's a good one that includes a young Richard Prior, before many of us had heard of him. Over at the Palace, the leads are solid; you can be sure that Steve Lawrence, as host, is also going to get some performance time. However, it has neither the star power nor the entertainment value of Sullivan's show—the very fact that Ed has the Three Stooges (even without the sound effects) gives him an edge he won't lose. It's Sullivan this week, you knuckleheads.

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Earlier this week, we saw the ceremonies from England commemorating the 80th anniversary of V-E Day; fewer and fewer are alive to remember what that day was like. It was quite different in 1965, and on Saturday we see just how different, as General Dwight Eisenhower and British commander Field Marshal Montgomary gather via satellite to to look at "Victory in Europe, 20 Years After" (9:00 p.m. PT, CBS, taped from a live broadcast earlier in the day), a joint production between CBS and the BBC. Walter Cronkite and the BBC's Richard Dimbleby anchor the broadcast, which includes past and present images of some of the War's pivotal sites, including the Belsen concentration camp and the Italian monastery of Monte Cassino.

Speaking of the Tiffany Network, I don't know that many people recall that CBS once owned the New York Yankees, prior to their sale by a group led by George Steinbrenner. (The fact that their ownership coincides with one of the bleakest periods in Yankees history may have something to do with that.) We're reminded of it indirectly on Sunday, when CBS Sports Spectacular returns with coverage of the Harlem Globetrotters (1:00 p.m.). What does this have to do with the Yankees, you ask? Well, we're advised that Sports Spectacular will aire on "the seven Sundays when CBS is not covering New York Yankee home games." To this day, that seems like a match made in hell; can you imagine ESPN owning a pro sports franchise? Well, actually, it seems sometimes as if they own entire leagues, so maybe that's not the best comparison. 

The Winging World of Jonathan Winters (9:00 p.m., NBC) is Monday's highlight: a largely unscripted hour with improv from Winters and his guests, including Steve Allen, Leo Durocher, Stiller and Meara, and narrator Alexander Scourby. On a more lyrical note, a CBS News Special (10:00 p.m.) offers a tribute to the famous Finnish composer Jean Sibelius on the 100th anniversary of his birth, including performances of his compositions by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Late night, it's the premiere of Merv Griffin's Group W talk show, with sidekick Arthur Treacher. (11:20 p.m., KPIX) For Merv's first show, his guests are Carol Channing, Danny Meehan, Dom DeLuise, and puppeteer Larry Reeling. 

For music of a more popular sort, Hoagy Carmichael narrates a tribute to "Tin Pan Alley" on The Bell Telephone Hour (Tuesday, 10:00 p.m., NBC), with singers Gordon MacRae, Carol Lawrence, Leslie Uggams and Bill Hayes; pianist Peter Nero and dancer Matt Mattox. On a darker note, The Doctors and the Nurses (10:00 p.m., CBS), which began life simply as The Nurses, takes a look at drug abuse in this story of a doctor who's been requisitioning morphine over the last three weeks, even though none of his patients has need of it.

More historical recognition of V-E Day on Wednesday, as the syndicated documentary series Men in Crisis presents "Truman vs. Stalin: The Potsdam Encounter" (7:00 p.m., KRON), with the story of the discussions between Truman, Stalin, and Winston Churchill about the partition of postwar Europe. Not one of the great moments in history, I have to admit. Later on, it's The Swinging World of Sammy Davis Jr. (8:30 p.m., KGO), and for his first television special in the United States, Davis is joined by fellow Rat Packer Peter Lawford, and two of his co-stars from the Broadway musical "Golden Boy," Billy Daniels and Lola Falana. 

It may only be my opinion, but I think the most interesting program on Thursday—perhaps the entire week, for that matter—is going to require you get up early for it. It's the education program Our World (6:30 a.m., KRON), as Ayn Rand discusses what she terms "the current intellectual crisis in America." I'd have enjoyed watching that. For something a little less intellectually stimulating, although no less exciting, I'd suggest KRCA's 7:00 p.m. movie, Gang War, starring a young Charles Bronson as a high school teacher who witnesses a gangland killing. This was made in 1958; I'd have to think that, had it been made in the 1970s, it would have had an entirely different feel.

NBC continues its extensive coverage of manned spaceflight on Friday with an NBC News Special, "The Man Who Walked in Space" (8:30 p.m.), featuirng interviews with the two Soviet cosmonauts who flew on the historic mission of Voskhod II, Pavel Belyayev, and Alexei Leonov, the world's first spacewalker. That's followed by something decidedly lighter: The Jack Benny Program (9:30 p.m., NBC), in which Jack tries to offer James and Gloria Stewart advise on their latest movie. And if we're talking about movies, here's one I saw just a couple of weeks ago: Joe MacBeth (part of KGO's All-Night Movies, starting at 1:00 a.m.), a nifty noir version of Shakespeare's play, transposed to the gangster era. It stars Paul Douglas and Ruth Roman, and it's well worth watching.

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Henry Harding's "For the Record" notes the death of Edward R. Murrow last week at the age of 57, from cancer. "To the millions who hung on his every word nightly during World War II, Edward R. Murrow was as much a good friend as a famous war correspondent." A later generation knew him as the man who took on McCarthy and won; "Said Murrow later: 'The timing was ripe and the instrument powerful.'" President Johnson praised Murrow, calling him "a gallant fighter, a man who dedicated his life as a newsman and as a public official to an unrelenting search for truth." As Harding says, "Good Night, Good Luck." 

The George Foster Peabody Awards were also awarded last week, with some interesting recipients. (A previous recipients: Edward R. Murrow.) Burr Tillstrom, best known as the creator of Kukla and Ollie, received one "for his moving Berlin Wall depiction on That Was the Week That Was," while Mr. Joyce Hall, president of Hallmark, was recognized for the company's sponsorship of Hallmark Hall of Fame. (He must be spinning in his grave today, seeing what that show has become.) And don't forget everyone's favorite French Chef, Julia Child.

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And now for a word or two on this week's cover story, about the show that gets no respect, Gilligan's Island. Don't believe me? Its stars can tell you a thing or two: Natalie Schafer, who plays Lovey Howell, says, "When you open in a play and bad notices come out, you expect to fold on Saturday. And I expected to fold. I had moved to Hollywood, but I left most of my clothes in New York because I never was very sure about this being a great success. It never entered my head it would go on." Dawn Wells, everyone's Mary Ann, said of her acquaintances, "So many of them looked at the show and said: Gee, you look good, you look great, or you look cute, or the photography’s great. But that’s all they said."

The show that critics love to hate—New York Times critic Jack Gould called it "quite possibly the most preposterous situation comedy of the season," while syndicated columnist Hal Humphrey, who named it the worst comedy on the air, added that "Gilligan's Island is the kind of thing one might expect to find running for three nights at some neighborhood group playhouse, but hardly on a Coast-to-Coast TV network." However, the show has become the sleeper series of the year, muscling into third place in the weekly Nielsens, to the surprise of almost everyone. 

Sherwood Schwartz, executive producer, was not impressed by the show's negative reception among critics. "I was not disheartened by the reviews. Only a bit angry with the lack of understanding of what was being attempted." What that was, he tells Richard Warren Lewis, was something different. "Here are the same men who are forever saying: 'For heaven’s sake, won’t somebody give us something other than the wife and the husband and the two children?' he husband and the two children?’ So you bring something else to the tube and you read very good reviews about the husband and the wife and the two kids with the same old story lines—the wife dented the fender and the husband doesn’t know about it; she insulted the husband’s boss and didn’t know who he was; he forgot their anniversary. They're yelling and crying for a fresh approach. You give 'em a fresh approach, they kill you and praise the guy who’s doing the same old thing." Bob Denver, who plays Gilligan, was similarly sanguine. "I don’t think the critics were ready for broad, silly, physical comedy. You have to adjust to it. They’re entitled to their opinion. It’s silly to put them down. But you can’t expect seven actors to perform at their top, peak level in the first show. I didn’t have time to be upset or depressed with the reviews, I was working so hard at the time."

However, there's something interesting at play: says Lewis, "Many of the principals, despite the popularity of the show, have begun to have second thoughts abou ttheir overwhelming success and potentially lengthy commitment." Jim Backus, who plays millionaire Thurston Howell III, admits that "I would like to do something maybe a little more worth-while or artistically satisfying. Bu tI enjoy the money and I certainly enjoy the recognition." Denver points out that "I don’t think I’ve reached my potential yet as an actor. I did play Falstaff in college." Wells adds that "I've studied the classics. Shakespeare is my favorite. I’d rather do Shakespeare than anything." And Tina Louise, perhaps the most outspoken in her dissatisfaction, says, "I don’t feel fulfilled doing these shows. Most are not quite inventive." Schwartz bristles at such comments; "I would think she would be delighted. She’s an integral part of a major hit. What else does an actress want?" Gee, Sherwood, I dunno. Maybe a chance to actually act? I guess you can't please everyone.

Gilligan's Island does, of course, run three years (a fourth season was supposedly axed in favor of retaining Gunsmoke), and it's fondly remembered today by many boomers. I must admit that, despite my fondness for the cast, Gilligan's Island has never been one of my favorite programs, and probably never will be. That doesn't mean that there isn't room for silly, dumb, slapstick humor on TV; otherwise, I wouldn't be spending so much time watching the Three Stooges. Still, I don't think the critics were entirely wrong about the show. Put to the test, I'd by far prefer the Henningverse shows, especially The Beverly Hillbillies and Green Acres. But the point, I guess, is that television ought to be big enough to encompass all these genres—comedy and drama, smart and stupid, high art and low. That television has manifestly failed in these endeavors is, I think, a topic for another day.

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MST3K alert: Bride of the Monster (1955) An intrepid female reporter investigates a mad scientist who is attempting to harness atomic energy to turn people into superhuman monsters. Bela Lugosi, Tor Johnson, Loretta King. (Thursday, 1:00 a.m., as part of KGO's All-Nite Movie) Two words: Ed Wood. It may not be Plan 9 from Outer Space, but it doesn't have to be, does it? However, it's worth watching for Harvey B. Dunn and his bird, and I don't have to say any more than that, do it?  TV  

This week in TV Guide: May 2, 1964

Often lost in the shuffle of more famous bombs, such as The Jerry Lewis Show, is the failure of Judy Garland's much-heralded TV series debut. This week we'll rectify that oversight, thanks to Vernon Scott's in-depth look at Judy's side of the story.

"I don't blame people for watching Bonanza instead of The Judy Garland Show," she tells Scott. "It was a natural choice." She says it without rancor, without bitterness, because in doing the show, she felt that there was something more important than ratings. "I wasn't disappointed," she says of them. "I don't think we deserved [higher ratings]. The time slot was impossible. After four or five years of loyalty to Bonanza, I can understand why viewers did not switch to my show." What was more important, she insists, is what she demonstrated to the industry. "I did prove to everybody that I was reliable. They said I'd never answer the bell for the second round. But we turned out 26 shows. And some of them were damned good, too. Especially the last five we did."

She calls the experience of doing a weekly series "very enlightening—and funny." It was "instant disaster" from the beginning, and sometimes "instant success." Every week, one way or the other. Speaking of the last five shows, which were done in a concert format (something Judy had wanted from the outset), she says, "By the time we discovered where we were going it was too late." But the network had insisted on a variety series, that it would be impossible to do the equivalent of a special every week, and she went along because "I believed they did know what they were doing." 

They, meaning the network executives, didn't like how she touched her guests so much, that viewers would think she was drunk or that there were sexual impliations. She didn't like the turntable stage they installed on the set; not only was it too noisy, it gave her motion sickness. There were nine different formats during the 24 weeks the show aired, and oftentimes she couldn't hear the orchestra because they were off to one side; she finally succeeded in getting them put on stage behind her. She was never a part of the editing process, so her hairdo and wardrobe would change from scene to scene with no explanation. 

Everyone agrees she could be difficult to work with. She only rehearsed two days a week, Thursdays and Fridays, with taping done on Friday nights. Last minute changes would be made after dress rehearsals, throwing everyone into a panic. Sometimes, she says, she'd be learning the lyrics to new songs by singing them off idiot cards. Despite all this, nobody has a bad word for her. "She wears everybody out," says producer Gary Smith, who lasted the longest of anyone on the show (21 episodes). "But she is a magnificent performer and she adapted herself beautifully to the weekly TV format." Smith, like everyone else who worked on the show, was eventually fired, presumably by Judy. But he only says, "She's a great creative star and an awesome personality." 

It was, Scott says, more of a personal than a professional defeat for Garland, for whom being popular is very important. Yet she remains grateful for having done the series, which she feels introduced her to new fans who'll want to see her in person on concert tours. "All in all, the show was a good thing to have happened to me. I learned a great deal. But if I had known what I was in for, I would never have tried a weekly series. Not ever."

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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: Guests include songstress Patti Page; comics Bill Dana and Vaughn Meader; Jerry and the Pacemakers, English rock 'n' rollers; the Claytons, whip and rope act; and rock 'n' roller Little Stevie Wonder. (Plus the cat of "America Be Seated," with Louis Gossett, May Barnes, and Bibby Oscarwall. Vaughn Meader was apparently a no-show.)

Palace: Host Louis Jourdan introduces Olympic gymnasts Muriel and Abe Grossfeld, Armando Vega and NCAA champion gymnast Ron Barak; songstress Anna Maria Alberghetti; the singing King Sisters; comedian Henny Youngman; tap dancer John Bubbles; ventriloquist Russ Lewis; comics Lewis and Christy; and juggler Johnny Broadway.

We have plusses and minuses on both shows this week; after Palace's brief excursion into Wide World of Sports territory, there are some recognizable names, if nothing to set the world on fire. Over on Sullivan, we can't be too surprised in Vaughn Meader didn't appear; his career all but ended after the death of Kennedy. Otherwise, we see Bill Dana and Jerry and the Pacemakers while they were still big, and Stevie Wonder while he was still little, and that's good enough to give Sullivan the gold medal for the week.

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

There's folk music, as Cleveland Amory points out, and there's folk music. Gospel folk, country folk, city folk, Dixieland folk, and just plain folk folk. And just about all of it can be seen, from week to week, in ABC's music series Hootenanny. The show, hosted by Art Linkletter's son Jack, is broadcast from a different college each week, and features a wider range of talent than just about any other show on the air. Folk music, I should interject here, is just about my least favorite kind of music, and I'm someone with fairly eclectic tastes. Even I've heard of some of these acts, though—the Travelers Three, the Brothers Four, the Serendipity Singers, the New Christy Minstrels, even Johnny Cash, who I'd never considered a folk singer until now, but as Cleve says, just about everything is folk music today except for the Boston Symphony, and he isn't even sure about that.

It's all put together in an unpretentious manner by producer Richard Lewine and director Garth Dietrick, and that has to be a relief compared to some of the more overly produced variety shows on the air today. I doubt, for instance, that you'd see the same kind of staging as you do on NBC's Hullabaloo. "At its best," Amory says, "it's very little short of wonderful and even at its worst it's pretty fair TV fare. You name your favorite song and if you're patient, sooner or later someone will sing it." (I kind of doubt it in my case, but then, who knows?)

It's all music, except for one comedian featured on each show, something that seems to have been a trademark of music shows of the era. One of the best, Amory says, is a "diffident young man" named Jackie Vernon, whom we all know as the voice of Frosty the Snowman. "Everything about me used to be dull," he says in his trademark deadpan voice. "My favorite comedians were Bert Parks and Allen Ludden." He also tells a story about his grandfather, who had to leave the west because "he said a discouraging word." (It helps if you read the line in his voice.) Like so many things, Hootenanny eventually falls victim to the changing musical tastes that resulted from the British Invasion, but it was fun while it lasted. 

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The biggest sports event of the week comes to us from Louisville, Kentucky, where the great Northern Dancer wins the 90th running of the Kentucky Derby (5:00 p.m. ET, CBS). Nothern Dancer will go on to win the Preakness before finishing third in the Belmont Stakes; he will run one more race before pulling up lame and going to stud, having an equally successful career there.

However, the bigger sports news came not from any arena, but at the Hollywood Advertising Club, where ABC president Tom Moore sounded off on a few things, including some "radical changes" to sports in America. According to Henry Harding, these suggestions included replacing college football bowl games with an elimination tournament, determining champion golfers by a points system during the PGA tour, and shortening the major league baseball schedule to 60 games—two per weekend. The reaction from sportswriters was mostly negative, but let's take a step back and look at Moore's suggestions. The PGA has, indeed, gone to a points system, culminating in the FedEx Cup; whether or not that really determines the champion golfer of the year, it's a fact. Also a fact is the creation of the College Football Playoff, which has reduced the role of bowl games to filler on ESPN. It has many faults, but it's a reality. As for shortening the baseball season, it hasn't happened and probably never will, but the increase in playoff teams pushing the World Series into November and rendering much of the regular season meaningless, I think there are a lot of people who'd be on board to at least cut back. It'll probably happen when pigs fly, but who knows?

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Saturday night's late movie on Maine's WMTW is one that should bring a smile to any fan of the Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker team: Zero Hour! (10:30 p.m.), the movie that served as the model for Airplane! Dana Andrews stars as Ted Stryker, the ex-fighter pilot haunted by guilt who's called on to land a passenger airlineer after the crew becomes sick from eating bad fish; Linda Darnell is his wife, who's preparing to leave him because of his inability to pull his life back together; and Sterling Hayden is Captain Treleaven, Stryker's old commanding officer, who's called in to help talk Stryker down. If all this sounds familiar, it should; ZAZ paid $2,500 for the rights to the screenplay in order to make sure they didn't run into a problem with copyright while working on Airplane! (See the comparisons here.) If you're looking for something a little more conventionally great, stick around until 11:40 p.m. for the John Wayne classic The Searchers (WJAR in Providence).

Nelson Rockefeller's brother Winthrop, currently running for governor of Arkansas, is the guest on Sunday's Meet the Press (6:00 p.m., NBC), notable because it originates from the World's Fair in New York. I've noticed that a number of programs are broadcast from the Fair during its two-year run; today, you might see Meet the Press broadcast from the site of the Super Bowl, but only if NBC's showing it, and only if the topic concerns sports on TV. Later, on Lassie (7:00 p.m., CBS), Timmy and Lassie bring an injured raccoon back to the farm after a tornado. No word on whether or not they found a dislodged building with a woman's legs protruding from underneath it.

On Monday, it's the debut of the daytime drama Another World (3:00 p.m., NBC), which will spawn a spinoff, Somerset, and will run on the network for 35 seasons and 8,891 episodes; as I recall, that was one of my mother's favorite soaps. In primetime, the echo of President Kennedy's assassination continues to reverberate on Sing Along With Mitch (10:00 p.m., NBC), a special segment of which is devoted to songs that were favorites of the late president, including "Beyond the BLue Horizon," "Too-ra Loo-ra Loo-ra," and "Greenland's Icy Mountains." I can't help but wonder if those really were JFK's favorites; the whole Camelot legend was predicated in part on stories that the soundtrack to the musical was one of his favorites, although I've read reports that, in fact, he had barely any interest in the show. But as we know, when the truth confronts the legend, print the legend.

Red Skelton's guests on Tuesday are a pair of child stars: Mickey Rooney and Jackie Coogan (8:00 p.m., CBS). Interesting paring, don't you think? And tonight's episode of The Jack Benny Program (9:30 p.m., CBS) is a classic of its type; Jack finds himself (in his dream) on trial for murder, with none othet than the great Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) defending him. You can see that episode, including the hilarious courtroom scene, on YouTube. And the Bell Telephone Hour (10:00 p.m., NBC) presents a truly eclectic hour of music, with Van Heflin narrating "Concord Bridge" to Morton Gould's "Declaration Suite" in honor of Armed Forces Day; Connie Francis singing a medley of popular songs, and opera stars Jon Vickers and Giulietta Simionato performing the judgment scene from Aida.

Speaking as we have been of classics, Wednesday's Dick Van Dyke Show (9:30 p.m., CBS) gives us one of the best: the episode "That's My Boy??," where Rob has doubts that the baby Laura brought home from the hospital is the right one, until he meets the parents of the other baby. You can see, and laugh along with, the episode here; stories persist that the joke from the end of the episode produced the longest laugh ever, much of which had to be edited out due to the length. You can read an interesting anticdote about that episode here. And The Danny Kaye Show (10:00 p.m., CBS) kicks off a series of reruns with its Christmas show, featuring the aforementioned Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore, along with Mr. Christmas, Andy Williams.

On Thursday, the primetime edition of Password (7:30 p.m., CBS) features Lucille Ball and her husband, Gary Morton as the celebrity players. Dr. Kildare (8:30 pm., NBC) has a rare dramatic appearance by Cyril Ritchard as an eccentric writer who throws Blair General into a tizzy when he insists he'll be dead within a week. And on Kraft Suspense Theatre (10:00 p.m., NBC), Keenan Wynn portrays an innocent man charged with murder; when he finds that he enjoys the notoriety, he confesses to the crime.

The week's end kicks off with the day's beginning: the recently retired baseball great Stan "The Man" Musial is a guest on Today (Friday, 7:00 a.m., NBC). Sticking with NBC for primetime, David Frost makes a return appearance on That Was The Week That Was (9:30 p.m.), guesting for the first time since the early weeks of the show; he was, of course, one of the creators and stars of the British edition. And at 10:00 p.m., Jack Paar's guests include Richard Burton, currently starring in "Hamlet" on Broadway; you can see an excerpt from that appearance here. 

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And now the story behind a concept called Project 120, a movie called Johnny North, and the picture below, in which Ronald Reagan is beating the hell out of Angie Dickinson.

It all started with a deal between NBC and the production company MCA to produce a series of two-hour feature movies that would be made especially for television, and distributed later to movie houses. (In the pre-DVD era, this would make more sense that it does today.) The first of the planned features to emerge from Project 120 was called Johnny North, based on Ernest Hemingway's short story "The Killers." "But, as the poet said, there's many a slip 'twixt the conference table and the screen." The movie, which was budgeted at just under $250,000, came in instead at more than $900,000. Not only that (as if that wasn't enough to begin with), the powers that be judget that the finished product was both too sexy (witness a kissing scene between Dickinson and her race-car-driver boyfriend, John Cassavetes) and too violent (not only did Reagan rough up Angie, she also got belted around by both Lee Marvin and Clu Gulager). In order to recoup the costs, MCA has now decided that the movie will be released in theaters, renamed Ernest Hemingway's The Killers. NBC says Project 120 will continue (as, indeed, it does), only with less sex, less violence, and less cost.

As for that picture—well, The Killers was Ronald Reagan's last movie, one which he made against his better judgment. It was the only time he ever playedd the heavy, and he was said to be quite distraught over the scene in which he slaps Dickinson; it was the one role that Reagan most regretted playing. Of course, unbeknownste to all, he has a much bigger role ahead of him. 

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MST3K alert: The Indestructible Man (1956) On his way to the gas chamber, "The Butcher" vowed he'd return from the grave and get the three men who doublecrossed him. Lon Chaney, Casey Adams. (Saturday, 11:30 p.m., WNAC in Boston) When combined with the short that preceded it, part two of "Undersea Kingdom," Lon Chaney became the first and only actor to appear in both segments of a single MST3K episode. Look for a short, fatal, turn from future McHale's Navy star Joe Flynn. Your pleasure, I promise, will not be indestructible. TV