This week in TV Guide: April 19, 1969

You may recall the sensation that was The Beatles: Get Back, the eight-hour documentary directed by Peter Jackson that ran on Disney+ over three consecutive nights beginning on Thanksgiving Day, 2021. It seemed, at least to this non-Beatles fan, that everyone was either watching it, talking about it, or both; it aired to great reviews and great ratings. In addition, a feature film was made of the famous rooftop concert that features in the documentary.

I bring all this up because in this week's TV Guide, we have a pictorial featuring the Fab Four, performing on that rooftop, as part of Michael Lindsay-Hogg's documentary Let It Be, being made in support of the album of the same name. "The reason for making an album is obvious. The reason for filming the session is to let the world—all over which the Beatles hope to sell the documentary in a few months— know just how the Beatles go about their work." And part of that work is the recording session on the roof of the Apple Corps building, located in London's Savile Row. Needless to say, the impromptu session attracted quite a number of passersby, who proceeded to gather on the streets and sidewalks below, prompting calls from neighboring shops to the Metropolitan Police demanding that they "quell the noise." But, as TV Guide notes, "Even bobbies couldn't do that."  

The original documentary came out in 1970, by which time it served as something of an epitaph for the group, which was in the process of a highly publicized breakup. As was noted at the time, a good portion of Jackson's documentary was comprised of footage shot by Lindsay-Hogg, which Jackson proceeded to restore and enhance; Jackson himself referred to it as "a documentary about a documentary," a supplement to, rather than a replacement of, the original. It also presented a revisionist account of the making of the Let It Be album, presenting a far more upbeat atmosphere than had been previously thought.

As you know, we're always searching for relevancy here at It's About TV!, and it seems to me that nothing could be more relevant that a pictorial in support of a documentary that would come out the following year and then would be reprised more than fifty years later to become another TV sensation. Who knew?

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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: Norm Crosby; Ken Berry of Mayberry R.F.D.; dancer Peter Gennaro; comic Pat Cooper; and singers Julie Budd, Grace Markay, and the Chambers Brothers.

Palace: Host Steve Lawrence presents Phyllis Diller, Broadway songstress Florence Henderson and Bill Dana (as skydiving instructor Jose Jimenez). Also: the singing Fuller Brothers; ventriloquist Russ Lewis; the Rhodins, aerialists; and Pat Anthony’s wild-animal act. 

To be perfectly honest, neither lineup overwhelms this week, but since I copped out with a push last week, I'm forced to make a choice, so let's bear down and get to it. I've always enjoyed Steve Lawrence, a versatile performer, and although it isn't fashionable anymore, Bill Dana's Jose Jiminez act was very funny. And who can really vote against Mrs. Brady? I liked Norm Crosby on Palace last week, so I have to like him on Sullivan this week, but while there's nothing wrong with Ed's show, I'll give the nod to Palace this week.

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

That Show isn't, as you might think, one of those epaulets that people use when they're talking about something they might have found slightly distasteful, as in, "Did you see that show last night?" It is, in fact, the title of Joan Rivers' new talk show, syndicated five-times-a-week to stations around the country, and as Cleveland Amory says, it really is different from the run-of-the-mill talkfest. For one thing, Rivers attempts to engage her audience during her opening monologue. It might be a little too much for some viewers, with Rivers "[j]umping and bouncing around, weaving, waving, punching and gyrating," and trying (sometimes successfully, sometimes not) to provoke a reaction. In one show, she emerged to great applause from the audience, except for one man who stubbornly refused to clap. Rivers, who honed her talent on the nightclub circuit, naturally picked him out; "You have guts, mister," she said.

Rivers really works the audience, "and make no mistake— she works hard." When a joke fails to get a response she doubles down, building on it until something happens. After a string of cracks about her supposed lack of talent at housekeeping failed to elicit much reaction, she finally got some applause for proclaiming that she had a nice, clean garden. "'Now, you're applauding,' she said, smiling. "I like your applause, you know. I’m a mother—and a working mother."

Perhaps the most novel aspect of That Show—and it is novel—is how Rivers mixes her guests, matching the typical talk show celebrity with a non-celebrity who has an unusual or interesting job or hobby, "which becomes the basis for a discussion with both Miss Rivers and the celebrity. Most of the time the celebrity has only two choices—either play second fiddle or just burn." The match-ups are meant to be incongruous, or at least humorous; one show, for example, paired an etiquette writer and former middleweight boxing champion Rocky Graziano; another featured a psychotherapist who'd authored a book on marital fights, along with James Earl Jones, star of The Great White Hope. Naturally, Rivers and Jones staged a pretend fight for the doctor to critique, at one point moaning, "Where did we lose the magic?" I've never been a fan of Rivers, though I didn't have the animosity toward her that some did, and I have a feeling I'd have asked the same question about That Show.

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Some interesting specials highlight the best of the week, starting on Sunday night with the 23rd presentation of the Tony Awards (10:00 p.m., CBS), hosted by Diahann Carroll and Alan King. It's hard to know how relevant the Tonys have ever been to the public at large; I know that Broadway is a tourist trap, and people planning a trip to the city may depend on the Tonys to give them some idea of what's hot, but I can't help thinking that in 1969, Broadway was much more relevant to the entertainment industry, considering how many stars had roots in the legitimate theater. Just look at some of this year's nominees: Art Carney, James Earl Jones, Brenda Vaccaro, Charlotte Rae, Herschel Bernardi, Jack Cassidy, Angela Lansbury, Joel Grey, Jerry Orbach, and Donald Pleasence. Nowadays, when a big name appears on stage, it's seen as a bid to attract a mainstream audience; back then, it was called making a living.

Monday features an uninterrupted evening of specials, ranging from animation to concerts to dramatic poetry readings, starting with the Babar the Elephant (7:30 p.m., NBC), narrated and voiced charmingly by Peter Ustinov, and based on the first three Babar books. That's followed by the latest Singer Presents musical special starring Don Ho (previous specials have included the legendary Elvis comeback, Sinatra's "A Man and His Music," and Tony Bennett); the theme is "Hawaii-HO!" (I wonder where they got that idea, hmm?), with Don leading viewers on a musical tour of Hawaii (8:00 p.m., NBC; no video, but you can listen to the soundtrack here.) Speaking of Sinatra, you can see him in a repeat of Francis Albert Sinatra Does His Thing (9:00 p.m., CBS), in which Frank is joined by Diahann Carroll and the 5th Dimension for music that's "swinging, soul, spiritual and psychedilic." Sinatra was famous for an aversion to doing multiple takes, and tonight's program is the dress rehearsal tape—Sinatra liked it and decided not to do a final taping. The poetry comes from Spoon River (10:00 p.m., CBS), a one-hour adaptation of Edger Lee Masters' free-verse Spoon River Anthology. Charles Aidman, who stars along with Jason Robards, Joyce Van Patten, and Jennifer West, wrote and directs the play, which he adapted from his own 1963 Broadway version; Hal Lynch and Naomi Caryl Hirshhorn perform the folk songs that accompany Masters' poems. I'm not sure I can imagine anything like this on American television today, not even on PBS.

Things turn more serious on Tuesday's NBC White Paper "Ordeal of the American City" (7:30 p.m.), a 90-minute look at "how urban ills are reflected on campus," with a focus on student unrest, teacher strikes, minority-group protests, and international conflicts. If this sounds a lot like what's going on in the world of education today, I suspect it's no coincidence; this should have been called "a look at how urban ills are caused and exacerbated by what's taught on campus." 

On Wednesday, Barry Sullivan and E.G. Marshall star in "This Town Will Never Be the Same," the latest presentation of Prudential's On Stage series of dramatic stories relating to today's issues (9:00 p.m., NBC). Sullivan plays a newspaper editor facing a dual crisis: his paper is on the verge of collapse, and his son has been implicated as a drug dealer. Vincent Gardenia and Roy Scheider headline a distinguished supporting cast.

Thursday, NBC's acclaimed Project 20 series turns its eye on the father of the country in "Meet George Washington" (7:30 p.m.), the story of "the best-known unknown in our history." In Susan Ludel's background article on the show, producer/director Donald Hyatt explains why Washington should be relevant to the "Now" generation, young people more interested in "new" revolutionaries than old ones: "Most people don't know what George Washington stood for; they don’t know why he was great. People are vague about the principles of the American Revolution, and many of them are unclear about the basic ideas behind the Declaration of Independence. Americans today are." (He could be talking about millennials, couldn't he?) He rejects the idea that history has no bearing on our lives today, and says that "knowledge of the past is a prerequisite to dealing successfully with the present"; "It is ideas that make history and that make the present intelligible. It is from ideas that all movements spring. To say that history doesn’t matter is to say that ideas don’t matter. But they do." Perhaps someone should dust this program off and show it today.

Finally, The Wild Wild West isn't a special, but Friday's episode is special in a way, with Pat Paulson making a surprisingly effective dramatic acting debut as a greenhorn agent assigned to assist West in "The Night of the Camera" (7:30 p.m., CBS). Incidentally, this episode is notable in that Ross Martin's character, Aretemus Gordon, does not appear; Martin suffered a heart attack in August 1968, necessitating guest appearances by several actors filling in for him during his absence. Martin's place in this story is taken by none other than Charles Aidman, who appeared in four episodes; other actors included William Schallert and Alan Hale, Jr. (who is also quite effective, by the way; showing some acting chops he didn't get to display in Gilligan's Island.

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You'll notice I didn't mention Saturday up there, but that doesn't mean I've forgotten it completely—otherwise, we wouldn't have that groovy illustration of him on this week's cover. (And by the way, that just doesn't seem right, does it? A psychedelic Lawrence Welk? You'd have had an easier time selling me the idea of Ronald Reagan as the Democratic nominee for president.) But if you're looking for an entertainer trying to successfully bridge the Generation Gap, who better to turn to than the maestro?

"I think young," Welk tells a somewhat apprehensive Digby Diehl. "I listen to KHJ [a middle-of-the-road rock station in Los Angeles], to the Top 40, in my car and at home, and so I know what goes on. If I hear a song I like, my associates and I analyze it and perhaps try it out at the Hollywood Palladium before considering it for the show." Welk explains the need for a careful, cautious approach; "We've had the mothers and fathers so long, we don’t want to do anything to displease them. We want them to depend upon the fact that we’re not going to use any swear words or do anything that would be inappropriate, in the moral sense, to carry into the home. If there’s a double meaning, we don’t play it on television." He freely admits he doesn't understand much of the new stuff; for instance, a few years back he had a hit with "Puff, the Magic Dragon," and was later horrified to discover the song's possible link to the drug culture. "One of my musicians once told me a couple of years ago, 'Lawrence, I didn’t think there were still people in the world as naïve as you!'"

He carefully considers the meaning behind the Generation Gap. "I think that there are some forces working to disturb us," he says. "If you bring me a song, and I and a group of other people can't understand it, then you're talking about something that's pretty far out. Good music, sensible music, will bring about good thoughts, good living, good common sense. Music out of this world that you can’t understand will bring about confusion." He adds, however, that "if we have an open mind towards this younger generation, we can learn many good things from them."

If it's true, as Diehl asserts, that Welk really doesn't understand what's happening in the world of contemporary pop music, it's also true that it doesn't really matter. Welk has already outlasted Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, and Harry James; the way things are going, he may go beyond the Beatles and Elvis as well. "I'm dedicated to entertaining people. I'm more interested in that than in creating art. If people pay a dollar to hear us, then we ought to give them a dollar and a half's entertainment. If we just do something for ourselves that's 'Art,' we've cheated them. Well, here we are, 55 years later, and The Lawrence Welk Show is still going strong with reruns on many PBS stations. And this is after running on the network and in syndication until 1982—indeed, long after the Beatles (see above) and Elvis fled the scene. That's not to say the others aren't still popular, but so is Welk. The maestro, it would seem, knew what he was talking about after all.

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There's a rare full-page editorial on the cancellation of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour by CBS. As the editors note, "This publication has in the past wholeheartedly defended the right of even the Smothers Brothers to have their say on the issues of the day." They continue, "We are in full accord, however, with the Columbia Broadcasting System in its wise, determined and wholly justified insistence on meeting its responsibilities by retaining the right to preview what it will telecast over its facilities." And the Smothers made that impossible by delaying the delivery of their finished shows to the network for review, as was their contractual obligation. It's their right to do so; after all, it's CBS that "is open to censure from the public for its telecasts; it therefore should have some control of what is said. And the Smothers Brothers have been saying plenty to arouse a substantial part of America." 

To those who claim CBS's decision stomps on free speech, the Editors respond that "Freedom of speech is not, the issue. The issue is taste. And responsibility. And honesty. And perspective. And a proper respect for the views of others." They continue, "Shall entertainers using a mass medium for all the people be allowed to amuse a few by satirizing religion while offending the substantial majority?. . . Shall a network be required to provide time for a Joan Baez to pay tribute to her draft-evading husband while hundreds of thousands of viewers in the households of men fighting and dying in Vietnam look on in shocked resentment?" These are good questions, ones not easily answered, possibly because we've lived in a culture that reveres egalitarianism so much that we casually brush off the idea of anything being sacred. And yet, this was not always the case.

"For all the Smothers Brothers’ pseudo-intellectualism, it seems doubtful that they have ever encountered George Bernard Shaw’s statement that 'Liberty means responsibility.'" The editors agree with CBS's decision, based on a policy "that is determined not to insult the general mores of the country." They also applaud the judgment shown by NBC and ABC in not picking up the Brothers. "Tom Smothers has been quoted recently as saying, “We don’t want to offend anyone out there. But if you get offended, that’s the way the cookie crumbles.” The last person who made a social pronouncement in terms of pastry was Marie Antoinette. And look what happened to her."

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What else? Well, Liz Trotta, one of the best television reporters and war correspondents, talks about her experiences in Vietnam. I would have written about this, except I'm afraid you might be getting Vietnam fatigue. Nonetheless, I didn't want to pass up the opportunity to link to this article I wrote a few years ago about Trotta and her two books, including Fighting for Air: In the Trenches with Television News, a wonderful memoir of her career, including her time in Vietnam. If you're interested, I'd suggest reading the book rather than her brief TV Guide article; it will give you much, much more.

And there's an article by Merle Miller on his hometown of Marshalltown, Iowa, a town where people just don't watch much TV. I have no idea whether or not that is still the case, having never visited Marshalltown despite spending most of my life in a neighboring state that was only a good afternoon's drive away. But let's be honest here; this is a website about television. Do we really want to read about people who don't watch television, even though they may be far more well-rounded and mentally adjusted than we are?

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MST3K alert: Cat Women of the Moon (1954) A rocket ship from the Earth lands on the moon, where its crew discovers a civilization of cat women. Sonny Tufts, Marie Windsor, Victor Jory. (Saturday, 8:00 a.m., KCRA in Sacramento) This is another Rifftrax feature, which, as you know, is close enough for us, if not for government work. Appropriately enough, our riffers are Mary Jo Pehl, who played Pearl Forrester on MST3K, and Bridget Nelson, the better half of Michael J. Nelson. Marie Windsor is campily evil, and Victor Jory appropriately heroic. All this, and Sonny Tufts too! TV  

Around the dial

No look at the history of television would be complete without touching on professional wrestling, a "sport" which seems to have been tailor-made for the confines of the television screen. At Comfort TV, David asks (and answers) the question, can professional wrestling be Comfort TV, complete with a few examples.

At Cult TV Blog, John writes about a series that even he hadn't heard of before, Inside Victor Lewis-Smith, a 1993 comedy series with a concept so bizarre that I'm not even going to try and explain it; read what John has to say about it or, better yet, check out one of the episodes on YouTube.

Update from Garroway at Large: Jodie's still around, and she has     , including a new YouTube Garroway at Large from 1951, and a second title to come from Tyger River Books, publisher of Peace. (And I hope you've gotten your copy; if not, why not?)

At Eyes of a Generation Bobby has a couple of very cool visual posts: one includes the two (apparently) remaining camera cards from Jack Paar's Tonight Show (the "More to Come" cards that we remember from Carson's time), and the second is on how television graphics came to be. Both well worth your time.

Television Obscurities reports the discovery of what is now the earliest surviving entertainment program on color videotape, the October 1958 premiere of Kraft Music Hall, starring Milton Berle. It's going to be shown next week at the UCLA Film & Television Library, for anyone who can make it. Great news for TV preservationists!

James Dean doesn't have a lot to do with classic TV, although he did do some live television, but Travalanche has a look at Dean—the man forever frozen at age 24—that is too interesting to pass up.

At The Lucky Strike Papers, Andrew uses a recent interview with Ringo Starr in the AARP magazine (ouch for all of us!) as a jumping-off point to look at the early years of the Beatles, including their famous Sullivan appearance, and reminds us of Starr's role in the group's success. 

The View from the Junkyard returns to the animated Star Trek with this look at the second-season episode that brings the animated series to a worthy conclusion, "The Counter-Clock Incident." Would we do it the same way if we had it to do all over again? Find out what the answer is. TV  

Around the dial

We'll begin this week's review at Comfort TV, where David's journey through 1970s TV takes him (and us) to Thursday, 1973: The Waltons, Kung-Fu, Ironside, The Streets of San Francisco and more. A very interesting night of TV.

At the Broadcast Archives, a two-page layout for an NBC promotional piece (probably NBC Star Time or one of those magazines they used to put out for the new season) bills NBC in 1962 as "A pageant of the past, the promise of the future." Isn't that a great tag line?

The Hitchcock Project continues apace at bare•bones e-zine, with Jack dissecting the Irving Elman-penned episode "Murder Me Twice," a fourth-season story with a twist ending on the twist ending that appeared in the original short story (and which I preferred, to be honest). See what you think!

One of the stranger, i.e. more illogical, episodes of The Prisoner is "It's Your Funeral," but that doesn't stop John from applying to it the continuing theory that Number 6 is a plant, in his latest installment at Cult TV Blog. It reminds me I have to rewatch Danger Man soon, as a warmup to The Prisoner.

At Realweegiemidget, Gill announces the latest blogathon, the "Mismatched Couples Blogathon," in which we look at movies and TV shows featuring odd couples that have been paired together. This one sounds like fun, and I'll have to think it over. Any suggestions, readers?

Linda Cristal will be well-remembered by anyone who watched The High Chaparral back in the day, and in his latest "Seven Things to Know" feature at Classic Film & TV Café, Rick gives us a deeper look at the life and times of this vivacious star.

At Drunk TV, Paul gives us a pleasing alternative to the Super Bowl: the 1981 telemovie, The Oklahoma City Dolls, perhaps one of the greatest women-playing-football movies around. I don't know how large that genre is, but this still has to be at the top of the list. 

Terence remembers Don Murray, who died last week at age 94, at A Shroud of Thoughts. He had a long and varied career, and is probably best-remembered for the movie Bus Stop and the TV series Knots Landing, but I'm very glad he was still around to feature in Twin Peaks: The Return.

The View from the Junkyard focuses on The Avengers episode "Murdersville," an episode that, writes Roger, shows us "beauty and horror" hidden in a sleepy village. Frankly, I've yet to see many small towns on television that weren't oozing with some kind of evil lurking in the shadows!

It's the 60th anniversary of The Beatles' first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show; can it really be that long ago? Garry Berman is flashing back to that moment this week with a trio of articles on the subject; part one, the Beatles on NYC radio, can be found here.

Finally, I don't often step outside the bounds of television here, and I hardly ever do so with this feature, but indulge me for a moment. Those of you who used to read In Other Words, the culture blog that I used to run (and may revive someday if I need something else to do) might remember the feature "This Just In," an outrageous news satire reminiscent of the things you read at The Onion and The Babylon Bee. Many of those pieces were the brainchild of Steve Harris, aka Hadleyblogger Steve, who not only has a keen and bizarre sense of humor but is also a gifted writer. He has a new book available for pre-order, Dads Like Us: A Survival Guide for Fathers Raising a Child with Disabilities—a topic with which Steve has first-hand experience. If you're living in this kind of situation, or know someone who is, I recommend you get this book. I promise you, you'll be glad you did. TV 

This week in TV Guide: September 11, 1965

It's always a good idea to know what you're in for, and in this special issue previewing the new season, the Editors let you know right away: it should be an amusng season. "It won't be packed with entertainment innovations or impressive drama or cultural uplift, but by and large it should be amusing." (That's encouraging, I guess.) They go on; "The trial and error of past seasons apparently has proved to the networks that nighttime hours are most profitably filled with a week-in, week-out schedule of pure escape—comedy and games and vaudeville and adventure and soap opera. As a result, 97 of the new season’s 100 nighttime network programs are escapist; the other three are informational." (Perhaps they meant "weak-in, weak-out.") 

All is not lost, however; we can still look forward to programs that exhibit "high standards of quality and a semblance of balance" to our viewing. Those programs are called "specials," and one wonders if there is some wishful thinking involved in saying that they will "frequently" pre-empt the regular schedules. As always, however, "television will be most satisfying to those who use the on-off knob most discreetly." 

And with that as an introduction, let's dive right in. Just don't say you weren't warned. 

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The Editors, as you could probably tell, weren't exactly, shall we say, enthusiastic about the season's new shows, yet I think you'll agree that several of them have since attained, if not iconic status, a prized place in the classic TV pantheon. (It could, on the other hand, be that we've simply lowered our standards.) I won't say too much about any of them; I think you're probably pretty familiar with them. 

The weekend alone sees the debuts of Get Smart! and I Dream of Jeannie (both Saturdays on NBC) and The FBI (Sundays, ABC). Get Smart! is described as "a cluck-and-dagger series" (was this written by Cleveland Amory?), with deadpan comedian Don Adams as "the compleat secret agent" except for one thing: he's an idiot. Barbara Feldon is part of the group bailing him out. I Dream of Jeannie, meanwhile, stars Barbara Eden as a "dish" of a genie and Larry Hagman as a "poor sap" of an astronaut; since Jeannie "wears the latest in harem fashions, she’s bound to enchant at least part of the audience." Oh, I think she enchanted more than just a part of the audience, and she still does, 58 years later.

The FBI  "applies the melodramatic touch of Quinn Martin" to actual cases from the files of the Bureau, with Efrem Zimbalist Jr. playing stolid G-Man Lewis Erskine. There's also mention of "a running romance—and an accompanying conflict" because Lew Erskine's daughter (Lynn Loring) is in love with Erskine's partner (Steven Brooks), but Erskine doesn't want her marrying an FBI agent. That subplot lasted about nine episodes before everyone figured out love and justice didn't mix. The lack of attention paid to the private lives of the agents is one of the big things that helped this series last for nine seasons. 

Monday sees the debut of Run for Your Life (NBC), with Ben Gazzara as the man suffering from a terminal illness, trying to "cram a full lifetime into a day—or a minute." Tuesday, the standout is ABC's cavalry sitcome F Troop, which only runs two seasons but takes hold in the hearts of many a viewer, including our friend Hal Horn; its stars include Larry Storch and Forrest Tucker as frontier versions of Bilko, and Ken Berry as the helpless commander. Wednesday gives us a quartet of solid hits: The Big Valley (ABC), starring Barbara Stanwyck as the matriarch of a sprawling family; Lost in Space (also CBS), about "an average American family pioneering the frontiers of the future"; Green Acres (CBS), the latest member of the Hooterville universe, with Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor as the farm transplants; and I Spy (NBC), with Robert Culp and Bill Cosby as globe-trotting spies.

On Thursday, CBS premieres their first movie series, the Thursday Night Movies, which promises 30 big-time features throughout the season. (If this week's selection is any indication, they're more than living up to the hype, but you'll find that out below.) If you want to catch the movie, though, you're going to have to pass up the other sterling debut of the night, The Dean Martin Show (NBC), which Dean describes as "the kind of show where a man can take his wife and kids, his father and mother—and sit around a bar and watch." The blurb promotes big name guest stars but "no sketches"; of course, we know that the sketches, with Dean valiantly trying to keep a straight face, become one of the show's highlights. 

Watch Honey West on a new Magnavox; $498.50    

Friday won't be left out in the cold, beginning with CBS's The Wild Wild West; it would be called a "steampunk"  Western today, but back then it was just a lot of fun, with Robert Conrad and Ross Martin. The preview sees Martin as more of a sidekick, a "Gabby Hayes" to Conrad's leading man, but we know that Martin more than held his own throughout four successful seasons. There's also Hogan's Heroes (CBS), "escapist entertainment in more ways than one," with Bob Crane leading his merry bunch of POWs through six seasons. And then there's "television's slinkiest sleuth," Anne Francis as Honey West (ABC); it lasts only one season, but maintains a popular cult following, and goes into the history books as the first American television action series to feature a female lead.

There are a few other shows that merit mention, even though they weren't big hits: The Loner (Saturday, CBS) is a Rod Serling-helmed Western starring Lloyd Bridges; although it too runs for just a single season, it's admired by many today simply because of Serling's reputation. Since it came out on DVD, people have also found out it's pretty good. Trials of O'Brien (Saturday, CBS) is known today as Peter Falk's favorite series of all those he worked on; to my mind, the combination of courtroom drama and domestic humor doesn't really work, but I'll admit I could be wrong about that. Gidget (Wednesday, ABC), stars Sally Field and Don Porter, and just most people agree it just wasn't very good. And then, there's—well, there's My Mother the Car (Tuesday, NBC), which stars Jerry Van Dyke and the voice of Ann Sothern, and remains one of the dumbest ideas ever for a television show. I won't say any more.

So as we look back on everything, there are some pretty successful series debuting this season, shows that to this day have loyal and loving audiences, and have guaranteed their spots in pop culture history. I counted thirteen, not including the honorable mentions; most of them have since come out on DVD, and you can find many of them on YouTube or the Internet Archive as well. I'd think that over the last 40 years or so, networks would have given a lot to have had a season introducing as many popular shows as this.

Of course, there are the also-rans as well, series such as The Wackiest Ship in the Army, The Legend of Jesse James, The John Forsythe Show, A Man Called Shenandoah, The Steve Lawrence Show, Please Don't Eat the Daisies, O.K. Crackerby!, The Long, Hot Summer, Laredo, Mona McCluskey, Tammy, Camp Runamuck, The Smothers Brothers Show (the sitcom, not the variety show), Hank, Mr. Roberts, and Convoy. All of them have their fans, none of them had the ratings to last more than a season or—in the case of Laredo and Daisies—two.

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First Lady Johnson tours D.C.    
on Thanksgiving (ABC)   

Since the Editors made a point of praising the many specials on tap for the season, I guess I ought to spend a couple of paragraphs on these as well. And they're good, too: Julie Andrews and Gene Kelly team up for a special on NBC; Harry Belafonte does one for CBS, and A Charlie Brown Christmas makes its premiere in December on CBS. Carol Channing (CBS), and Sammy Davis (ABC) host variety hours; Jack Benny, Danny Thomas, Perry Como, and Bob Hope have their regular specials on NBC; Mary Martin returns with Peter Pan, also on NBC; and Andy Griffith hangs out with Jim Nabors and Don Knotts in a CBS special

On the cultural front, Sir John Gielgud performes selections from Shakespeare on Ages of Man for CBS; NBC Children's Theatre presents "Stuart Little" (narriated by Johnny Carson) and others; the United Nations series (Carol for Another Christmas, The Poppy is Also a Flower) returns with two more ponderous dramas on ABC; and Hallmark Hall of Fame boasts six programs for NBC. Peter Ustinov plays the voice of Michelangelo in a two-part special narrated by Jose Ferrer (NBC), and Dick Van Dyke hosts the late Stan Laurel on CBS. 

We're also promised space shots and news specials on all three networks, parades on Thanksgiving and New Year's Day, the Ringling Bros. Circus on NBC, awards shows, and beauty pageants. On the sports front, NBC televises football from the colleges and the AFL, plus the World Series; CBS has the NFL, the Masters golf tournament, and the Triple Crown horse races; ABC has the U.S. Open and PGA golf championships, plus games of the week for major league baseball and the NBA. They all sound special to my way of thinking.

And by the way, if you enjoy these highlights of the fall season, you'll want to tune in again on Wednesday, when I'll have a special insert from this week's issue!

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Meanwhile, time and tide and television wait for no one, so while we're talking about what's upcoming, let's not forget to watch what's on right now.

I'm blowing off the usual "Sullivan vs. The Palace" feature this week for two reasons: first, The Hollywood Palace is a rerun, with Roy Rogers and Dale Evans hosting, and we already looked at that episode here. More important, however, is the headliner for Ed's 18th season opener: The Beatles.

It is the fifth and final "live" performance by the Fab Four on Sullivan, although it was taped on August 14 for airing on this date;* hence, the precise details on their playlist. Interestingly, the Beatles don't kick off the show; they're the fourth act on the bill, following Soupy Sales, Cilla Black, and Fantasio. They perform "I Feel Fine", "I'm Down", and "Act Naturally" in their first set, and then close the show with "Ticket to Ride", "Yesterday", and "Help!"   

*The Beatles were in New York for their legendary Shea Stadium concert on August 15, so their apperance was worked around this schedule. The Sullivan show was usually aired live; I've read contradictory accounts as to whether this particular show was taped in its entirety on August 14, or only the Beatles segment, which was then integrated into the live broadcast. A close look at the way Ed's pocket handkerchief is folded suggests it could have been the former, but maybe Ed just left his hanky in the suit for a month. You can watch the entire show here and make up your own mind.

The show garners Ed a 60 share of the audience. It's also the last black-and-white episode; from  next week on, the show will be broadcast in color. Too bad the studio wasn't ready for that in August.

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Barbra Streisand with her Emmy    
for "My Name is Barbra." It was   
close, though: she won by a nose.   

Sunday turns out to be a big start to the new season; following Sullivan and the Beatles, it's the 17th annual Emmy Awards (10:00 p.m., ABC on tape delay), hosted by Sammy Davis Jr. at the Hilton Hotel in New York, and Danny Thomas at the Hollywood Palladium. This year, the Academy is rolling out a new format for the show; "the categories have been boiled down to four, and the word 'excellence' has replaced 'best,' so that more than one nominee in each category—or none—may get the Academy's nod. The categories: Outstanding Program Achievements in Entertainment; Outstanding Individual Achievements in Entertainment; Outstanding Program Achievements in News, Documentaries, Information and Sports; and Outstanding Individual Achievements in News, Documentaries, Information and Sports." 

In the event, only eleven awards are handed out, covering just five different programs. The big winner is NBC's Hallmark Hall of Fame, with three wins for "The Magnificent Yankee" (not Babe Ruth or Mickey Mantle, but United States Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes), including "Outstanding Program Achievements—" ah, hell, I'm still calling it "Best Show"—along with Alfred Lunt as Best Actor, and Lynn Fontanne as Best Actress. This new format is used only this year; next year's Emmys go back to the old way, which has been used ever since. 

By the way, NBC led with 21 nominations, followed by CBS with 14. ABC garners exactly two.

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Merv Griffin was never one to shy away from controversy (as CBS finds to its dismay during his brief tenure with the network), and on Friday, his syndicated show welcomes one of the most controversial literary figures in the country, poet and playwright LeRoi Jones. (11:20 p.m., KSBW in Salinas) You can see a clip from the interview here

Jones, one of the leaders of the black liberation movement. Jones, who will later change his name to Amiri Baraka, is one of the leaders of the black liberation movement, has spoken out against Dr. Martin Luther King's anti-violence campaign, and has been accused of, variously, anti-Semitism, anti-white racism, armed resistance, and advocating rape; if that doesn't quality as controversial, I'm not sure what does. Merv's other guests include musical-comedy performer David Burns, Boston columnist George Frazier, comic George Carlin, and singers Fleury D‘Antonakis and Johnny Desmond, and that's about as eclectic a combination of guests as you can get. If I'm not mistaken, in the clip you'll see Frazier sitting behind the desk with Merv; he had been an influential jazz columnist for the Boston Herald, while Jones, in 1963, had written Blues People: Negro Music in White America. Meanwhile, Carlin was one of the best-known countercultural comedians in the business. so there's some synergy in the guest lineup; I would have enjoyed seeing them all sitting on the couch together. 

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    Warren McVea in the Astrodome

The rest of the week's fun begins Saturday with the season kickoff of NBC's college football Game of the Week (10:45 a.m. PT), as Tulsa takes on Houston in the historic first football game ever played in Houston's "Harris County Domed Stadium," known to one and all as the Astrodome.* Although the listing doesn't mention this, the game is significant for one additional reason; Houston's Warren McVea becomes the first black player in the university's history. He'll be with them next season as well, when Houston plays Washington State in the first football game ever played on artificial turf. TV Guide refers to previous games between the two teams as being "high-scoring," but Tulsa comes out on top in this one, 14-0.

*Not the first indoor college football game, though, nor even the first one televised, as we saw here.

Sunday, like Saturday, starts off with sports: the American Football League opens its sixth season (and first on NBC) with the New York Jets visiting the Oilers in Houston (11:00 a.m.) Note that this game is not played in the Astrodome, but at Rice Stadium; the Oilers wouldn't move into the Dome until the following season. Meanwhile, the U.S. National Tennis Championships finish up at Forest Hills, New York (2:00 p.m., ABC), with Spain's Manuel Santana defeating Cliff Drysdale of South Africa to win the men's championship; Margaret Smith beats Billie Jean Moffitt to win the women's title. It's not called the U.S. Open yet, since professional players aren't allowed to compete.  

Monday, the new-look 12 O'clock High debuts, as Paul Burke takes over the lead from Robert Lansing when General Savage's plane is shot down. (7:30 p.m., ABC) Don't get me wrong; I like Paul Burke a lot, and he was excellent in Naked City, but Quinn Martin never should have replaced Robert Lansing. Elsewhere, the new season of Hullabaloo opens with Sammy Davis Jr., fresh from the Emmys, hosting; the guests are Sonny and Cher, The Supremes, the Lovin' Spoonful, and the Strangeloves. (7:30 p.m., NBC)

Speaking of format changes, it's not just 12 O'clock High; the fourth-season opener of McHale's Navy (Tuesday, 8:30 p.m., ABC) sees McHale and his entire crew (including Fuji) transfered to southern Italy, along with Binghamton and Carpenter. I've never been sure just how plausible this would have been, and besides: I thought the Americans wanted to win in Europe. But maybe I'm overthinking this; perhaps I should learn how to watch TV. For a more realistic view of warfare, the Korean War drama The Bridges at Toki-Ri, starring William Holden and Grace Kelly, makes its television debut on NBC's Tuesday Night at the Movies. (9:00 p.m.)

Among Wednesday's debuts, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet begins its 14th season, and its first in color. (7:30 p.m., ABC) Compared to them, returning hits like The Beverly Hillbillies (fourth season), The Virginian (also fourth), and The Dick Van Dyke Show (fifth season) look like pikers. And here's another series that found out a format change doesn't necessarily mean an improvement, either in quality or ratings: Burke's Law is now Amos Burke, Secret Agent. (10:00 p.m., ABC) No Detective Tilson. No Detective Hart. No Henry, the chauffeur. No charm. No fourth season.

Here's a change that worked! My Three Sons starts its sixth season on a new network, CBS, after five seasons on ABC. (Thursday, 8:30 p.m.) It will remain on CBS for seven seasons, until it goes off the air in 1972 after a run of 12 years. And just to show that the Tiffany Network is serious about making tonight special, My Three Sons is followed by the debut of the CBS Thursday Night Movie and the TV debut of one of the greatest political thrillers ever: The Manchurian Candidate. (9:00 p.m.) Frank Sinatra stars, in what I think is his finest role, along with Angela Lansbury, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh, and James Gregory. 

On Friday, it's The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'s turn to turn to color. as Rip Torn stars in part one of the second-season opener "The Alexander the Greater Affair." (10:00 p.m., NBC) This is, I think, U.N.C.L.E.'s best season, but its successful first season, with its cheeky combination of spy thriller and satire, has already influenced other shows—including, unfortunately, Burke's Law. And on the late night schedule, it's the 1959 movie The Wasp Woman (11:20 p.m., KSBW). "Janice Starlin’s beauty treatments are made up of wasp enzymes—but they have unexpected effects." Susan Cabot and Anthony Eisley star, and if this movie sounds like it belongs on MST3K, you're almost right: it was riffed on Cinematic Titanic, Joel Hodgson's successor to MST3K, which featured many of the show's original performers. And speaking of MST3K. . . 

 

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MST3K alert: It Conquered the World (1956) A scientist discovers that one of his associates is helping some beings from outer space to conquer the Earth. Peter Graves, Beverly Garland, Lee Van Cleef. (Saturday, 5:30 p.m., KSBW). "He learned almost too late that man is a feeling creature… and, because of it, the greatest in the universe. He learned too late for himself that men have to find their own way, to make their own mistakes. There can't be any gift of perfection from outside ourselves. And when men seek such perfection… they find only death… fire… loss… disillusionment… the end of everything that's gone forward. Men have always sought an end to the toil and misery, but it can't be given, it has to be achieved. There is hope, but it has to come from inside — from man himself." TV  

This week in TV Guide: February 4, 1984

 

It is difficult to look back at the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics with anything other than a sense of tragedy. It's not the same sense one gets from the horror of the Munich Olympics in 1972; nothing even remotely approaching that happened at the Sarajevo games. No, the tragedy of these games occurred years after the fact, when Sarajevo was stained with rivers of blood, and the Yugoslav nation itself ceased to exist.

The future doesn't yet exist in 1984, however, and so there's nothing but excitement and anticipation leading up to Wednesday's Opening Ceremonies, which ABC televises on tape-delay beginning at 8:00 p.m. (CT).  Even before the Olympic flame has been lighted, though, the fun and Games have started, with the hockey competition opening on Tuesday night, with Team U.S.A., defending gold medal champions, taking on Canada. The hockey team was the story of the 1980 Games, especially if you lived in the United States, and people are wondering if Miracles can strike twice, like lightning. In a word, no - the U.S. wins but one of five games in the preliminary round, and winds up in seventh place after defeating Poland 7-4. Instead of hockey, it's ice dancing that captures the imagination of the public in 1984 - Torvill and Dean and Bolero - and the U.S.'s triumphs belong to downhill skier Bill Johnson, the first American ever to take gold in the downhill, the Mahre brothers, who get gold and silver in the slalom, Debbie Armstrong, winner of the gold in the giant slalom, and the great Scott Hamilton, who wins the gold in figure skating.

Not surprisingly, TV Guide's preview centers on Jim McKay, the voice of ABC's coverage, and as William Marsano's article shows, you can't write about McKay and the Olympics without flashing back to Munich in 1972 and McKay's masterful coverage of the terrorist attack and subsequent butchering of the Israeli athletes. McKay's friends at ABC - a true gentleman, he seems to have no foes - say that while he could certainly do play-by-play of college football, for example, nobody can handle the ad-lib situation, such as the Olympics, better than he can. It's coming close to the end of the line for McKay and ABC at the Olympics - 1984's Los Angeles games will be the last of the summer variety for the network before NBC establishes a monopoly, and after 1988's Winter games in Calgary, CBS and NBC become the network of record. I think NBC completely overdoes it; for my money, even though ABC came up with the "up close and personal" way of covering the Olympics, I still prefer their broadcasts. Perhaps I'd feel different without McKay, though.

It's a wonderful two weeks of coverage; ABC's offering a record 63½ hours, and KSTP, the ABC affiliate in the Twin Cities, has two of its reporters in Yugoslavia to cover the Minnesota angle, especially on the hockey team. It's Yugoslavia's chance to shine on the international stage, and for Sarajevo, known primarily as the location for the spark that ignited World War I, it's a chance to create a new image.

Here's a picture of Kosovo Stadium and those Opening Ceremonies, on February 8, 1984, a field of dreams:

After the war, a family picnics near the bobsled run. They're photographed through a hole in the concrete track, used as a Serbian sniper's nest.

Had they but known then.

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Even if you hadn't known this was sweeps week, you might have been able to figure it out from the movies on the schedule. We get a slightly different glimpse of the Olympic idea on CBS Sunday night, with the network television premiere of 1981's Best Picture winner Chariots of Fire, the true story of two British athletes competing against prejudice and the establishment. "Exquisitely produced, brililantly executed," writes Judith Crist, TV Guide's movie critic, "Chariots is exhilarating and inspiring."

In another reminder of why the VCR was invented, Chariots goes up against NBC's Sunday night offering (also from 1981), On Golden Pond, which won Oscars for Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn. Says Crist, "It is a film aglow with tender appreciation of human frailty, of physical change in man and nature, and of the weakness and strengths of age."

In ABC's last free evening before their Olympic coverage, they offer their own 1981 Oscar winner on Monday, Arthur, which garnered a Best Actor nomination for Dudley Moore and a Supporting Actor win for Sir John Gielgud. Crist says it's a "re-creation of a '30s 'madcap' comedy, given heart and substance by endearing performances" from Moore, Gielgud, and Liza Minnelli.

And because it is sweeps week, there's also My Mother's Secret Life on ABC Sunday, with Loni Anderson as a model mother when she's at home, and "the most expensive woman in town" when she's not. It's "unavailable for preview" according to Crist, which is usually all you need to know.

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Is there anything besides the Olympics on TV this week? Well, let's see.

USA used to have a Saturday night program called Night Flight, which started at 10:00 p.m. and ran through the night, to 6:00 Sunday morning. It included "a mix of mainstream and alternative music videos, artist interviews, B movies, documentaries, short films, stand up comedy, cartoons, and more" according to the always-reliable Wikipedia. I remember this show, though I don't think I ever stayed up all night* watching it. You'd think USA could come up with something like this today, wouldn't you? I mean, it would be better than those endless NCIS reruns.

*Another USA program, with a totally different appeal.

Sunday features what at the time was one of the bigger golf tournaments of the year, the Bing Crosby National Pro-Am, from Pebble Beach, California. Even though Bing had died back in 1977, the tournament carried his name for many years thereafter, and that helped produce some of the best fields of the season. CBS provides coverage of the final round starting at 2:00 p.m., with Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Ben Crenshaw, and defending champion Tom Kite among the pros; the amateurs aren't bad either, with former President Gerald Ford, Glen Campbell, Clint Eastwood, and Jack Lemmon leading the celebs.

On Monday, following Arthur, Barbara Walters returns with another of her celebrity interview specials (9:00 p.m.), featuring Mr. T, former swimming actress Esther Williams, and Howard Cosell. It's a nice snapshot of what was in back then. I think I'd have opted for Psycho, the 8:00 p.m. movie on TV Heaven 41.

Interesting program on Showtime Tuesday at noon, called A Talent for Murder, in which Angela Lansbury plays "a celebrated mystery writer with a huge estate - and a houseful of greedy relatives." It's an adaptation of Jerome Chodorov and Norman Panama's 1981 Broadway play*, but it sure sounds a lot like Murder, She Wrote, doesn't it? I'm sure the series must have been in the planning stage long before this time, but still...

*Which featured Claudette Colbert as Jessica Fletcher, er, Anne Royce McClain.

On Wednesday, probably the week's show with the most fun - The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie on CBS. (7:00 p.m.) I defy anyone to watch even one Road Runner cartoon without laughing out loud at least twice. Opposite that is Daffy Duck's Movie: Fantastic Island on HBO (ironic timing, that) and another Oscar-winning epic, The Bridge on the River Kwai, on Showtime. Might want that multiple-programming VCR if you're tickled by that sort of thing, as I am.

Hill Street Blues is NBC's crown jewel on Thursday night, and in the news update section, Steven Bochco tells us that he's being pushed by the network to make changes in order to keep its female audience, which seems to be drifting away to CBS's Knots Landing. They want romance, a neighborhood association made up of housewives, and a sex scandal, perhaps involving tapes. Bochco says he doesn't mind the suggestions, "I'll take them from anybody, even a network president" but he disputes the idea that Hill Street is losing audience: "I don't give a ---- about network research."

Finally, Friday brings the week to a close with an NBC "World Premiere" movies (i.e. made-for-TV), starring the network's most bankable star, Gary Coleman, in The Fantastic World of D.C. Collins; Crist calls it "a very pleasant after-school special misplaced in prime time." I didn't see the movie, although I remember the ads for it. What I do remember, although I didn't know it at the time, is the premiere of a show that would become one of my favorites: the wickedly funny British political satire Yes Minister, which airs at 10:00 p.m. on A&E. I mentioned it in my "16 for 2016" piece back here; it is as hilarious as it is brutal.

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It's been 20 years since the Beatles made their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, after which nothing would be the same again. Bob Greene tries to explain it to those who weren't yet born, or who were too young to remember what it was like. As part of it, he recalls a conversation he'd had with Ringo Starr, before John Lennon's death, about all those people who'd wanted to see the band get back together. "They say, 'I never saw them, and I want to see them just once'," Starr says with a smile. "Well, I never saw the Beatles either. I really wish I could have, but unfortunately I was on stage. I would have loved to have been out in the audience and have seen the Beatles. I would have liked to see what all the excitement was about." Reflecting on it, Greene was struck that Starr really was one of the few people of his generation not to have seen the show on television, and asks him what it was like, all those years ago, appearing on his side of the camera rather than the other side.

"I can never make you understand," he told Greene. "There's only four of us who will ever understand exactly how it was, and that's John, Paul, George and myself . . . Just the four of us." Interesting, isn't it, that Ringo lists the members of the band in the same order that Ed did. Almost anyone who's asked to name the Beatles will do it - John, Paul, George, Ringo - and it's because they heard Sullivan do it that way. The power of television.

There's something else that Greene says in his article, at very end, that speaks to that power, and in its own way it underlines what this blog is about. "We are a generation that is not particularly good at remembering history," he writes. "But perhaps it's worth taking the time - if only the blinking of a moment - to look back on a night when we all gathered in front of television sets and thought that anything was possible in a world that was an inherently joyous place. They really made us feel that way. I guess you had to be there.

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My apologies if this seems shorter than usual this week. True, the issue was a little thin, or at least it seemed so to me on January 28, when I wrote this. If you're reading this on the day it was published, then you have an advantage over me, because you know where you are - and I don't. All I can tell you for sure is that we're somewhere between Texas and Minnesota, hopefully closer to the latter than the former. Anything is possible, though, and since we'll be two or three days on the road, with all our worldly possessions on a truck due to show up sometime, I thought it prudent to get this done before we go. There's one box left to pack, and as soon as I'm done typing this sentence, this issue goes in that box, so forgive me if I'm in a hurry. Next week we may be looking at a new issue, or it may be a rerun, depending. So tune in again next week, same time, same website. Until then, I'll bet the suspense will be killing you - I know it will be me. TV