This week in TV Guide: June 11, 1960

Since you're bound to wonder, that "lady comic" mentioned on the cover, the one who's apparently having zany experiences, is none other than Audrey Meadows, who says, by way of explanation, "I used to think I was the popular girl-comic because I was so stable. I pictured myself as having a great inner calm, as the mother figure to whom everyone ran for comfort. And then, one day, it occurred to me that I was just as cuckoo as the rest of them."

It first occurred to her that she was different when she found herself playing catch for an hour with Phil Silvers, which would be strange enough in itself, but this happened in the middle of a party he was throwing for thirty people, and took place inside. When she was asked if she thought anything strange had happened at the party, she replied, "No, nothing in particular." She credits her appearances with Silvers to being "the only girl he'd met to whom he didn't have to explain baseball." 

Right now she's playing Sid Caesar's wife in a series of specials for CBS, the fourth actress to do so. Caesar, she says, is a "perfectionist," and gives the cast plenty of time to prepare. Jackie Gleason, whose wife she plays in The Honeymooners, is a different breed altogether, who "ad-libs wildly and uses actors who don't panic." With Gleason, "no one knows what the show is about until it's over." He's also keyed up in the moments before a show, whereas Caesar can be glum and moody. And then, there's Audrey's brother-in-law, Steve Allen. "Steve is the only person I know who could actually forget he had a show to do," she says, recalling a time before he and Jayne Meadows were married, when Steve was at their home for dinner; afterwards, he stretched out to watch TV." "Don't you have a show tonight?" Jayne screamed. "What night is it?" he asked. When they told him, he told them they were right, and dashed to the studio. The glories of live television.

But back to that zany lifestyle. At her favorite dress show, she has the habit of stepping into a store window to beckon shoppers to come inside. "She does this all the time," a saleswoman says. One time she stood in the window for so long that the crowd outside thought she was a mannequin, "until I began to twitch. A woman almost fainted. Why do I do this? I don't know. Just cuckoo, I guess." Works for me.

l  l  l

Nineteen-sixty is (in case you didn't already know) an election year, and thanks to television, you aren't likely to forget about it either. With the national conventions just a month away, World Wide 60 (Saturday, 9:30 p.m. ET, NBC), Frank McGee is the host for "Politics and Primaries," an hour-long look at the state of the presidential race. While Vice President Nixon has the Republican nomination all but wrapped up, the race on the Democratic side is still up for grabs, and McGee, along with reporters Herb Kaplow and Sander Vanocur, look at the relative strengths of the candidates, what they're doing to court support from convention delegates, and the issues that can determine the outcome. Ah, for the days when conventions actually meant something.

The trend continues on Sunday, as Senate Majority Leader (and Democratic presidential candidate) Lyndon Johnson guests on Let's Look at Congress (11:45 a.m., WPIX). That's followed by College News Conference (1:00 p.m., ABC), where former President Harry Truman will be quizzed by a panel of college students on issues of the day, including his support for fellow Missourian and U.S. Senator Stuart Symington's presidential campaign. At 3:30 p.m., political analyst Louis Bean looks at the results of the South Dakota and California primaries on Campaign Roundup (WPIX); Hubert Humphrey was the winner in South Dakota, while California goes with favorite son Governor Pat Brown, a proxy for John Kennedy. Kennedy's foreign policy advisor Connecticut Representative Chester Bowles, is the guest on Face the Nation (5:00 p.m., CBS), and the man himself, Democratic front-runner Kennedy, appears on Meet the Press (6:00 p.m., NBC). Later, former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt hosts "The Future of Democracy Abroad" on Prospects of Mankind (9:00 p.m., WNEW); among her guests are presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson and Henry Kissinger, director of the Harvard Defense Studies Program. 

l  l  l

Politics isn't the only thing on tap this week. The Belmont Stakes, longest and last leg of horse racing's Triple Crown, is contested at New York's Belmont Park (Saturday, 4:30 p.m., CBS); Kentucky Derby winner Venetian Way and Preakness champion Bally Ache are favored, but Bally Ache comes up lame the day before the race, and Celtic Ash pulls away in the stretch for an easy victory.

On Sunday, Ed Sullivan celebrates his 12th anniversary on the air with comedian Victor Borge; heavyweight boxing champion Ingemar Johansson and challenger (and former champion) Floyd Patterson, promoting their title fight on June 20; Louis Prima and Keely Smith, backed by Sam Butera and the Witnesses; Jay North of Dennis the Menace; singer Connie Francis; the comedy team of Wayne and Shuster; and Dick Gautier, later to be Hymie the Robot on Get Smart but presently starring as Conrad Birdie in Bye Bye Birdie. 

Andy Griffith is the guest star on The Danny Thomas Show (Monday, 9:00 p.m., CBS), in "Danny Meets Andy Griffith," the backdoor pilot for The Andy Griffith Show, as Danny is nabbed by Sheriff Taylor for running a stop sign in the small Southern town of Mayberry, North Carolina. Ronny Howard appears as Andy's son Opie, while Francis Bavier is on-hand as well, not as Aunt Bee but as Mayberry resident Henrietta Perkins. Although this isn't listed as a rerun, the episode originally aired in February.

Tennessee Ernie Ford hosts How Tall is a Giant? (Tuesday, 8:30 p.m., NBC), a 90-minute documentary on the Little League baseball team from Monterrey, Mexico, comprised of small boys from poor homes, that made history by coming from nowhere to become the first team from outside the United States to win the Little League World Series. This real-life Hoosiers story, in which "pint-sized, ambidextrous" pitcher Angel Macias hurled the first (and, to this date, only) perfect game in the championship, is narrated by the team's coach, Cesar Faz.

Last week we read about the demise of Armstrong Circle Theatre; for the last several years of its run, Circle Theatre alternated on a every-other-week basis with another of television's great Golden Age anthologies, The U.S. Steel Hour. This week's story (Wednesday, 10:00 p.m., CBS) demonstrates why that reputation is well-deserved; it's "The Imposter," the story of an amnesia victim who may or may not be Alinda's husband, a long-lost World War II veteran. Ann Sheridan, in a rare television appearance, plays the hopeful Alida; Jean Pierre Aumont is the mystery man.

You have to wait until late night for Thursday's highlight, as politics returns with the appearance of Senator Kennedy on The Jack Paar Show (11:25 p.m., NBC); he shares top billing with actress Anne Bancroft, currently starring on Broadway in The Miracle Worker. Here's a clip of Paar interviewing JFK; it marks the first time a presidential candidate has ever appeared on a late-night talk show; Paar, who was a friend of both Kennedy and Nixon, would have the latter on his show later in the year.

Person to Person, the venerable CBS interview program, is no longer hosted by Edward R. Murrow; newsman Charles Collingwood took over those duties in 1959, and will remain with the show until it goes off the air in 1961. The format of the show remained the same under Collingwood, however, and on Friday the CBS cameras visit the North Hollywood home of Gordon and Sheila MacRae, and their four children (including daughter Meredith); in the second half of the program, he talks with portrait photographer Philippe Halsman, who was responsible for many magazine covers over the years including TV Guide, from his New York apartment.

l  l  l

We've already covered the story running across the top of the cover, so now it's time to get to the feature: the surprise success that is Bachelor Father. 

For four seasons, the sitcom has exploited one of the oldest clichés in television: that of the bachelor parent. "The aunt who is raising a nephew, the uncle who is raising a niece, the widowed father who is mothering his children," as one CBS executive put it. Despite this, Bachelor Father become one of the most popular shows on television when it premiered, alternating in its time spot with The Jack Benny Program for two seasons before moving to NBC, where it is about to start its second season as a weekly series. 

Its star, John Forsythe, is just as unlikely a choice to play swinging bachelor Bentley Gregg, who unexpectedly finds himself raising his niece after the death of her parents in an automobile accident. Forsythe, a former public address announcer for the Brooklyn Dodgers who came to television after a career spent between New York (where he acted on Broadway and in television) and Hollywood (doing features and radio serials), is anything but a swinger; he's married with three children, and he took the role in Bachelor Father because he wanted to settle down and do a regular TV series. A pilot, "Uncle Bentley Steps Out," attracted little interest until it came to the attention of G.E. Theater; it turned out to be one of G.E.'s most popular shows of the 1956-57 season, and American Tobacco picked up the show to alternate with Benny.

It hasn't exactly been smooth sailing since, either. Benny worried that the show would be a weak audience attraction until the ratings came in, and sponsors have tried, without success, to foist guest stars on the show; its ratings have been high anyway. For one thing, there's a satisfying chemistry between the cast members, which include Noreen Corcoran as Bentley's niece Kelly, and veteran Chinese-American character actor Sammee Tong as Peter, Bentley's houseboy. A motivational researcher attributes its success to the fact that the characters are real, and "shown as able to suffer." Forsythe himself thinks it's the "basic joke" that lies behind the show's premise: "The real joke is not that I, a bachelor, am the girl’s father. The funny part is that Sammee Tong behaves, in all our family crises, as if he were her mother. The basic idea may be a cliché, but Sammee and I are the funniest parents on the air, in the opinion of a lot of people."

At the end of the coming season, there will have been 118 episodes of Bachelor Father made, enough to provide it with a successful syndication run. (It eventually runs for 157 episodes over five seasons, the last of which is on ABC, making it the only primetime series to appear in consecutive years on all three networks.) Forsythe, who owns a half-share in the series, estimates that its value by then will be about a million dollars, but he's already preparing for that day when Bachelor Father is no longer. He and his producer have optioned two novels for motion pictures, neither of which involves a bachelor parent. Nor do the two hit series that will round out his long and successful career: Charlie's Angels and Dynasty. 

l  l  l

Some scattered notes to fill out your day: NBC's color schedule for 1960 will total 920 hours, an average of just over two-and-a-half hours per day; the march to color is now well under way. Dennis Weaver has announced that this coming season of Gunsmoke will be his last, having played Chester for six seasons. I think he'll make out all right. And ABC's Western series Bronco and Sugarfoot will no longer air weekly; instead, they'll become part of the rotation for Cheyenne.

Frank DeBlois, reviewing Today, describes the morning show, now in its ninth season, as "a book where flowers bloom and maidens gambol in the dreadful wasteland of daytime network TV." Don't let the flowery prose get to you, though; DeBlois praises the show's consistent excellence, as well as its dedication to taking viewers all over the world. In April alone, the program followed John Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey battling it out in the Wisconsin primary; spent a week in Rome, where Dave Garroway took viewers on a tour of the city and then explored modern Italian art and fashion; reported on the racial problems in South Africa; and featured a Martin Agronsky interview with Vice President Richard Nixon. 

That was followed up in May by coverage of the aborted Paris summit between President Eisenhower and Soviet Premier Khrushchev (aborted, in case you were wondering, by the U2 spy plane incident); showed a clip from the new movie The Gallant Hours, plus Garroway's interview with the movie's star, James Cagney; went behind the scenes with Jerry Lewis directing his TV special; and hosted guests including Arlene Francis and Vivien Leigh. "If you're not afraid of mental stimulus so early in the morning," DeBlois says, "Today's not a bad bet at all

l  l  l

Finally, a last note on the campaign: there's been some talk that the major party candidates for president just might get together to debate the issues on national television. If, that is, they can get around the equal time requirements under which the networks labor, and if you think that's much ado over nothing, consider that in 1956, there were eleven presidential candidates on the ballot in one state or another. In order for one-on-one encounters (or, for that matter, for joint interviews by newsmen, or just plain speeches) to take place, the networks have asked Congress to approve a measure that would permit them to donate free air time to the major party (i.e. Republican and Democratic) candidates without having to do likewise for the minor party candidates.

The editors of TV Guide are one hundred percent in favor of this measure, seeing it as "a sensible and orderly" way to avoid last-minute scrambling to raise money, buy time, and pre-empt regularly scheduled programming. "Because Congress is thinking about adjournment, it is necessary that this public service broadcast measure be passed without delay," the editorial concludes. "A word to your Senators, and to your Congressman, would be helpful." 

It might be useful at this point to recall that the first Kennedy-Nixon debate, which took place on September 26, was the highest-rated broadcast in American television history. We also should remember, though, that these, and all those that have followed, could hardly be considered "debates" in the formal sense of the word. They most often consist of pre-rehearsed talking points, filled with attractive soundbites, that might possibly address, in some vague way, a question that itself might or might not be relevant; more often than not, they completely ignore the question altogether. Nor is there any real back-and-forth debate between the candidates; instead, what we have is more like a joint press conference, run by a news media that frequently has its own agenda, comprised of risible questions that, as Perry Mason might say, "assume facts not in evidence." 

In other words, that "word to your Senators and Congressman," if asked today, would likely as not be a resounding "No!" Still and all, the editors might have had a point; how many of us today would remember the Kennedy-Nixon-Hess-Decker-Faubus-Dobbs-Sullivan-Lee Debates?  TV  

This week in TV Guide: January 16, 1960

Cliff Arquette is one of those personalities whose name means different things to different people, depending on how old you are.

To a certain generation he'll be known, if at all, as the grandfather of actresses Rosanna (who wasn't really the inspiration for the song by Toto) and Patricia (who was nominated a few years ago for an Oscar for Boyhood). To my generation, he's "Charley Weaver," the beloved lower left square in The Hollywood Squares. And to the generation reading this week's TV Guide, he's the jolly host of The Charley Weaver Show on ABC.

The Weaver shtick started in the late '40s, and has been smoothly refined by now. In addition to his show, Arquette is the author of Charley Weaver's Letters From Mama, many of which he reads during one of his regular appearaces on Jack Paar's Tonight. His homespun humor is based on the goings-on in the fictional town of Mount Idy, and most of his jokes deserve some kind of rim shot.  ("Elsie Krack was just married so we all pitched in and gave her a shower. It took six of us to drag her into the bathroom.")

What's interesting about Charley Weaver, or Cliff Arquette, is how his career spans so many different times.  Like many television stars, he and his character came of age on radio. By the time of this issue of TV Guide, in the pre-JFK days of 1960, he was already well-established on television, yet his greatest fame probably came on Squares, on which he appeared until his death in 1974. He spanned the years from the static of network radio to the musty black-and-white days of this issue to the vivid color and double entendres of the '70s. Three different ages, three different worlds. And he was there for them all.

t  t  t

Now, I know what you're thinking here: what in the name of Sherwood Schwartz is Mrs. Brady, aka Florence Henderson, doing as one of the hosts of NBC's Today, ostensibly a morning news program? Well, the answer to this question, as well as many others, lies in the phrase "Today Girl."

With Jack Lescoulie and Dave Garroway

As we've mentioned before, from the show's beginning until the mid '60s, the "Today Girl" (or "Woman's Editor," as they were originally called) had a specific role: to report on woman's issues (fashion, lifestyle), to give the weather, and to spar with the male host of the show (variously Dave Garroway, John Chancellor and Hugh Downs). None of the "Today Girls" were news reporters or, in fact, had much of a news background at all; they were either singers (Henderson, Helen O'Connell) or actresses (Estelle Parsons, Maureen O'Sullivan, Lee Meriwether and Betsy Palmer). Not to put to fine an edge on the point, but they were eye candy just as much as anything.

Barbara Walters was the final "Today Girl," joining the program in 1964 and being promoted to full-fledged co-host in 1966. According to Walters, the show's producers (and many in the television industry, to be honest) were concerned that "nobody would take a woman seriously reporting 'hard news.'" We can see that begin to change in the pages of TV Guide; anyone who's read the program listings from the early '60s has probably noticed ABC's Lisa Howard and Marlene Sanders as two pioneers in the news business, hosting five-minute afternoon updates. (By the way, the story of Lisa Howard, ABC's first female newscaster, is a fascinating one. You can read about it here.)

As for Florence's selection, it wasn't really all that hard a decision, says Dave Garroway. Following Betsy Palmer's departure, the show had been rotating different girls to sit on the panel for a week or so, but "It took me only about 20 minutes to know that Florence was just what we were seeking. She's more alive, more sensitive, with an indefinable quality of awareness. She has good taste and intelligence too." Since joining the team, her assignments have included reporting on fashion shows and interviews with authors, actors and other people in the news, duties that didn't some easily for her at first. (Why should a singer know how to interview Gore Vidal?) But, says Garroway, "we gave her hints on where she went wrong, and she straightened herself out." Her husband, Ira Bernstein, works as company manager for Paddy Chayefsky's new Broadway play, and with a two-year-old daughter at home, she doubts she would have taken the job if Today was still being broadcast live, but since it's taped in the afternoon for showing the next morning, she's been able to juggle everything nicely.

When Florence Henderson died in 2016, her time on Today was more a footnote than anything else. But even with her success in musical theater and on variety shows, and a lovely singing voice that never left her, it was as the lovely lady of The Brady Bunch that she won enduring, and endearing, fame. And considering the success that her other "Today Girl" colleagues had over the years, it seems fair to say that The Today Show has been a breeding ground for more than just successful journalists.

t  t  t

Yes, we all know that Saturday night is the television graveyard today, and that this wasn't always the case. I've referred frequently to the "Murderer's Row" that CBS used to have—All in the Family, Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart, M*A*S*H and Carol Burnett—but even before then, Saturday was a big TV night; the famed Sid Caesar-Imogene Coca Your Show of Shows aired on Saturday, as did Gunsmoke, Lawrence Welk, Perry Mason and many other hits. Now, of course, people go out to bars, restaurants, or other special events on Saturdays (or at least they used to, when people were allowed to socialize), but back when they went out, it was often to someone else's home for a night of television. TV was the special event.

We get another example of the power of Saturday night broadcasting this week, with back-to-back color specials on NBC. First, at 7:30 p.m. CT, it's Jerry Lewis, hosting his second comedy special of the season, with opera star Helen Traubel, jazz great Lionel Hampton, football quarterback Johnny Unitas, and Jerry's sons Gary and Ronnie. It's a big lineup for one of the biggest comedians in the business. And guess what? You can see it here, in this remarkably clear color broadcast.

Following that, at 8:30, it's another comedian, Art Carney, starring in a much different role. It's the one-man drama "Call Me Back," in which Carney plays a man whose life is on the verge of destruction. His marriage has ended and taken his daughter away, he's been fired from his job, and his friends have deserted him. Sitting alone in his home with only a diminishing bottle of booze and the telephone, he tries to maintain a tenuous connection with the world. As I said, a different show altogether.

Live TV isn't dead yet, and we have three reminders of that on Sunday night alone.  First is Ed Sullivan (7:00 p.m., CBS), with singers Rosemary Clooney, Billy Daniels, Nelson Eddy and Gale Sherwood, musical-comedy star Carol Lawrence, and an assortment of dancers, acrobats, ventriloquists and other novelty acts. The Chevy Show, on NBC at 8:00 p.m., has Jane Powell hosting an hour of variety featuring Peter Gunn's Craig Stevens, Tales of Wells Fargo's Dale Robertson, Miyoshi Umeki, Taina Elg and Carl Ballentine.* Opposite that, at 8:30, The DuPont Show of the Month on CBS presents a live 90-minute adaptation of Sinclair Lewis' Pulitzer-winning novel Arrowsmith, starring Farley Granger and Diane Baker.

*Peter Gunn and Tales of Wells Fargo are both NBC programs. Imagine that.

Monday's guest on The Mike Wallace Interviews (10:00 a.m., KFJZ) is Dorothy Day, one of the most influential American Catholics of the second half of the 20th Century. Day, who is currently being considered for canonization by the Catholic Church, founded the Catholic Worker Movement, dedicated to peace and social justice. She's and has continued to grow in statue since her death in 1980. This interview with her, capturing her work in the moment, is a cultural touchstone, much like Wallace's interview with, for example, Ayn Rand. I wish there was a video copy of it, but various organizations have audio copies.

Rod Cameron was an interesting guy—after divorcing his wife, he married his former mother-in-law; a co-worker called him the bravest man he'd ever seen—and a shrewd businessman. Hal Erickson, in his book, Syndicated Television: The First Forty Years, 1947–1987, points out that Cameron recognized a syndicated series would provide him with a greater share of the residuals than one backed by a network, and thus vowed to work only in syndication. His third and final such series, the detective show Coronado 9, premieres Tuesday at 9:30 p.m. on WBAP. As evidence of Cameron's smarts, those three shows (City Detective and State Trooper were the other two) provided him with over $200,000 a year in residuals.

Wednesday sees the last show of the series for The Lineup (6:30 p.m., CBS), often thought of as the San Francisco version of Dragnet. Like Dragnet, the show started on radio (in 1951, one year after Dragnet) before making the move to television (in 1954, three years after you-know-what), where it was a staple of the CBS schedule for six seasons. Its syndicated title is San Francisco Beat, and it continues to air on local stations throughout the black-and-white era. Later, it's yet another live variety show, as Perry Como welcomes Lena Horne, Corbett Monica and Robert Horton to his colorcast. (8:00 p.m., NBC) 

On Thursday, it's the final regular broadcast of one of the Golden Age's most prestigeous dramas, Playhouse 90 (8:30 p.m., CBS), with Richard Basehart starring in the political drama "A Dream of Treason," in which he plays a State Department press secretary accused of leaking confidential documents to a reporter. Playhouse 90's audience has dropped to half of what it was last year, and from now on it will appear only as an occasional special. Don't remember the series for this play, though; think instead of Requiem for a Heavyweight, The Miracle Worker, Judgement at Nuremburg, and so many more outstanding dramas.

Friday finishes things off with the only prime-time sports that anyone's likely to find: boxing. And tonight's bout on the Gillette Cavalcade of Sports is Sugar Ray Robinson vs. Paul Pender for Robinson's world middleweight championship.* In an epic battle, Pender wins a controversial split decision to take the crown. He'll retain it in a rematch with Robinson later in the year, and will retire as champion in 1963.

*That is, if you define "world" as Massachusetts, New York, and The Ring magazine. Robinson had previously been stripped of his title by the National Boxing Association for having failed to defend it for 22 months. In case you're wondering why Massachusetts recognized Robinson, could it be because that would make this bout, being held in Paul Pender's hometown of Boston, a title fight?

t  t  t

Mort Sahl was, in a sense, the Dennis Miller of his day, a comedian thought too intellectual for audiences to be able to appreciate. As one television executive put it, "Mort's just wonderful. Isn't it too bad the average guy can't understand him?" Targets in his standup routines include Bernard Baruch an the Berlin crisis; "he never tells a sentimental joke, and seldom an untopical one." 

That's all changed now, though, as Sahl has become a hot ticket on TV. "The powers that be weren't too enthusiastic about me a couple of years ago," he says. "I had to keep telling myself, you can do it, you can sell it, you can. Luckily I have a stopgap, the nightclubs." His stint last April as one of the six emcees at the Academy Awards* was, Sahl phrases it, "a turning point. People even began to put me in their movies to get 'my audience.'" He'll be hosting Pontiac Star Parade on NBC this coming Friday at 7:30 p.m., costarring with Eddie Cantor in a show called "The Future Lies Ahead," a showcase for young entertainers. Not surprisingly, Sahl has some strong opinions about television. "Now my idea is, we've gotta get all the people from radio and movies out of TV. Give it a chance to ruin itself," he says, and he's probably only half-kidding. 

*The other four: Jerry Lewis, Tony Randall, Bob Hope, David Niven and Sir Laurence Olivier. Niven remains the only Oscarcast host to win during the same ceremony, taking Best Actor for Separate Tables.

Last year Sahl became the first comedian to win a Grammy, and later this year he'll become the first comedian to land on the cover of Time. He counts John F. Kennedy, Adlai Stevenson and Hubert Humphrey among the fans of his political satire, and there are rumors that all three networks are considering him for five-minute newscasts from both political conventions this year. In the Time profile, he'll accuse TV news of 'spoon-feeding' the public, of being responsible for the "corruption and ignorance that may sink this country." "I'm against those guys who read the news with a gas pump in front of them," he says. (Huntley-Brinkley?) A little humor never hurt the validity of any idea, he says; too bad we never got a chance to find out.

t  t  t

A glance at the movies on TV this week show that, unlike today, big stars frequently starred in B movies, sometimes several per year, and even with channels like TCM we might not recognize some of those movies today.  For example, WBAP has Cloak and Dagger, the story of an atomic scientist spying on the Nazis' atomic development from within German-occupied Italy, starring Gary Cooper and Lilli Palmer. There's They Met in Bombay on KFJZ, a jewel-heist story with Clark Gable and Rosalind Russell, which also has another Gable flick, Love on the Run, a spy story co-starring Joan Crawford, and The Secret Heart, about a rich widow and her stepchildren, with Claudette Colbert and Walter Pidgeon. Of course, there are plenty of familiar titles to choose from as well: Meet Me in St. Louis, Summertime, My Favorite Wife, Scarlet Street. Back when TV stations loved movies; those were the days, weren't they?

Finally, what's old is new again. Even in 1960, polio is something to be feared, though the Salk and Sabin vaccines have dramatically reduced the risk in the United States. Still, we're not that far removed from the time when even the whisper of the word polio was enough to send everyone into a panic (kind of like the word COVID, don't you think?), and we're reminded of that by KRLD's Monday night report on the Mother's March on Polio (10:30 p.m.), with reports given "by the team captains of each section of metropolitan Dallas." Good thing we could never have a scare like that again today. TV  

Around the dial

I'm not really sure just how much stock to put in lists, and that includes—perhaps especially—my own. They're always fun to read, though, which is why the Classic TV Blog Association, to which I proudly belong, recently polled its members on the 25 Greatest Classic TV Series of all time.

Part of the challenge with contributing to a list like this lies in the guidelines. In this case, programs were limited to those that aired in prime time, and debuted prior to 1990. We were also asked to consider criteria such as enduring popularity, social impact, and influence on other TV series. In other words, this isn't simply a list of favorite television shows.

1. The Twilight Zone
2. I Love Lucy 
3. The Mary Tyler Moore Show
4. Columbo
5. All in the Family
6. Dragnet
7. Monty Python’s Flying Circus
8. Star Trek
9. The Prisoner
10. M*A*S*H
11. The Dick Van Dyke Show
12. The Fugitive
13. Dallas
14. Doctor Who
15. The Andy Griffith Show
16. The Defenders
17. The Golden Girls
18. Perry Mason
19. SCTV
20. The Honeymooners
21. Alfred Hitchcock Presents
22. Hill Street Blues
23. The Odd Couple
24. The Outer Limits
25. The Avengers

For the record, I believe two of my choices made the top 10, and there are perhaps a half-dozen in the top 25 that I definitely wouldn't have put on any list. A couple of them are shows that I didn't have, but heartily approve of; likewise, I grudgingly included two that I don't particularly like, but had to acknowledge their cultural and/or historical significance. Some of you might be taken aback by shows that I omitted, or equally surprised by those I included. (Being a coward at heart, I'm refraining from being any more specific than that.)

The Last Drive In, Comfort TV, and Classic Film and TV Café have particularly good takes on the results. Ultimately, though, television is, or at least was, something very personal to people—as I've written before, the most personal of all communications media. A particular program may bring back memories of where you were, what you were doing, or what was happening when you watched it, and something like that is impossible to quantify. If there's any program here that you've never seen before but are encouraged to check out because it's on the list, then we've done our job as curators of the past. What are your thoughts—where do you agree or disagree?

In other news...

It was 67 years ago this week that The Today Show premiered on NBC, and at Garroway at Large, Jodie gives us a look at what the critics had to say on the morning after. Hint: I doubt many of them thought we'd be having this conversation 67 years later.

The Hitchcock Project moves on to writer James P. Cavanagh, as Jack at bare-bones e-zine looks at the first season episode "The Hidden Thing." I'm afraid  I'll have to agree with Jack that what was most hidden in this episode was a satisfying resolution.

It's Bart Maverick's turn to lead on Maverick Mondays at The Horn Section, as Hal reviews the fifth-season episode "The Golden Fleecing." James Garner's long-since left Maverick, but Jack Kelly does his best in a good, but not quite great, evocation of the show's past.

At Cult TV, the emphasis is on the late '70s and the British police drama Target. As John points out, Target was a series known for its violence, and the episode "Blow Out" is perhaps one of the most violent, along with some suspect police methods.

The Broadcasting Archives at the University of Maryland links to this provocative article at Dazed on how Soul Train was "the most radical show on American television." Never watched it myself, so I appreciate this kind of serious analysis as to its cultural weight.

At Television Obscurities, Robert is once again taking on the task of documenting a year in TV Guide, from beginning to end. This time it's 1989, and since that's not a time period that I generally write about myself, I'm very much looking forward to these weekly recaps.  TV  

Around the dial

At Comfort TV, David says something I've believed for a long time: the end of the classic era of television starts with the end of television as a communal experience. (No wonder we get along so well.) For David, that era ended in the '80s, and this week he cites the signposts that mark the end of an era.

A frightening sight indeed: the original Ronald McDonald, courtesy of the Broadcast Archives at the University of Maryland. It's a good thing they went back to the drawing board.

When do seven lady truckers become "Seven Lady Captives"? When it's an episode of BJ and the Bear, in the latest review by Daniel at Some Polish American Guy.

Jack is back at bare-bones e-zine, but this time it's not the Hitchcock Project; instead, this week it's an appreciation of the author Frederic Brown and TV adaptations of his works. Case in point: "The Thin Line," an adaptation that appeared on Four Star's The Star and the Story.

Is Gary Seven a hero or a villain? That's the question at Classic Film and TV Cafe, where Rick considers the character played by Robert Lansing in the Star Trek episode "Assignment: Earth." Rick comments that Kirk is rarely as indecisive as he is here; it's also rare that a guest proves to be the equal of Kirk and Spock, as Seven is. It goes without saying that Lansing is terrific.

I like Jodie's piece on "The questionable narrator" over at Garroway at Large, proof that nothing takes the place of research. Did J. Fred Muggs really bite someone on Today? You'll just have to follow the link and find out!

Television's New Frontier: The 1960s takes a look at a show that's fairly unremarkable, but one that I find quite likable: Lock Up, a legal drama starring Macdonald Carey as real-life attorney Herb Maris. No courtroom scenes, but enjoyable nonetheless, and certainly available on YouTube.

At Cult TV Blog, John writes about The Avengers and the episode "November Five," which I remember having written about for TV Party! a few years ago. What struck me at the time was that it was an episode involving politics, a man with a rifle, and a date in November - all three of those being things with great significance in this country. TV  

This week in TV Guide: August 5, 1967

Far be it from me to suggest for even a moment that a country like Russia might attempt to exert influence over United States media. I mean, who ever heard such a foolish thing as that?

Believe it or not, in this week's TV Guide Neil Hickey and Susan Ludel voice their suspicions that the Soviet Union is trying to influence how TV documentaries portray the country. Why, for heaven's sake, they might even be censoring coverage! There have been a raft of news programs in the early 60s about this mysterious and foreboding land; the question, as Hickey and Ludel put it, is just how accurate these programs are. “Can a documentarian- given the rather severe restrictions placed on his actions by the soviet government – convey a valid picture of what really is going on in the Soviet Union?” The networks deny any interference, probably to protect their news bureaus inside Russia, but privately many in the business agree that because of Soviet interference, “American TV documentaries are not presenting a true picture of the Soviet Union.”

Few newsmen are as outspoken as CBS’ Marvin Kalb, who in 1960 presented “The Volga,” a program detailing life along the famed 2300-mile river. The documentary portrayed Russia as a country locked into “a vast and impersonal bureaucracy,” spending heavily on its space program at the expense of its “backward” countryside, its young people resigned to “dull and faceless elements” in the machine. It was not the picture of Russia that the Soviets wanted people to see, and they demanded that CBS delay the program until they could issue a response. CBS refused, and in the wake of the broadcast CBS’ Moscow bureau was closed for eight months, while the Soviets withdrew permission for other network programs, including NBC’s coverage of the Tchaikovsky International music competition..

That backlash worries some American journalists, who think Kalb’s criticism may be ruining it for everyone. Says an unnamed NBC newsman, “I completely agree with the Russians about ‘The Volga.’ Kalb was spiteful, nasty and biased; the Russians were very upset about it. I talked to some CBS people about this, and they agree with me.” One who did go on the record, ABC VP Thomas Wolf, defends his network’s documentary, “Ivan Ivanovitch,” said to portray a typical Soviet family. “Isn’t it a fact that many Russians are living closer to American standards of physical comfort?” he asks. “I think that what we photographed is an accurate picture.”

An anonymous documentary producer isn’t having any of that, though. “[I]t’s preposterous that the family in ‘Ivan’ is average,” he says in reply. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the Soviet Union put the family in that apartment, painted it before the TV crew arrived, then sent the family back where they came from when the filming was over.” The producer can’t talk about this publicly; if he did, “my network could be closed off forever from doing documentaries in Russia.” For those who want to play the Soviet game, though, “Spoonfeeding is the order of the day.”

That the Soviet Union may be attempting to control media portrayals of its country is, in Captain Renault’s words, shocking.* (Insert sarcasm icon here.) That there are American journalists agreeing with the Soviets is no less so.

◊ ◊ ◊

While The Hollywood Palace is on summer break, ABC filled the Saturday night time slog with Piccadilly Palace, a London-based variety show starring the iconic British comedy duo of Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise, We'll stop in from time to time during the summer months to see who has the best lineup..
Sullivan: Ed’s guests are comedian Corbett Monica; singers Lou Rawls, Nancy Ames, and the Kim Sisters; the U.S. Air Force Academy Chorale; puppet Topo Gigio; the Rudas Dancers; acrobat Arthur Haynes; and the Pollack Brothers’ Circus Elephants.

Palace: In addition to regular Millicent Martin, this week Morecambe and Wise welcome Eric Burdon and the Animals, and singer Gene Pitney.

Your fun fact for the week: Millicent Martin, the house singer on Piccadilly, was best-known for her turn singing the topical songs on the BBC’s That Was The Week That Was – a role filled on the American version by none other than Nancy Ames. Small world, isn't it?*

*As Stephen Wright says though, I wouldn't want to paint it.

Well, I don’t think this requires much thought. Gene Pitney’s no slouch, singing “Town Without Pity,” the theme from Kirk Douglas' gritty courtroom drama, and while The Animals – or, as they were also known during this time, Eric Burdon and the New Animals – might not be the group that rocked the scene with "House of the Rising Sun," they can still bring it with hits like "When I Was Young."  I don’t know if this clip is from that broadcast, but it’s from American TV, and it’s 1967, so that’s good enough for me.


Compared to that, even an puppet like Topo Gigio can’t compete. The verdict: no matter the country, it’s the Palace this week.

◊ ◊ ◊
We haven’t had much to talk about in the sporting world lately, so it’s good that we’ve got a few big events this week.

On Saturday afternoon, ABC’s Wide World of Sports expands to two hours to present a heavyweight boxing doubleheader from the Astrodome in Houston, part of the elimination tournament to select a new champ after Muhammad Ali was stripped of the title earlier in the year for refusing military induction. On the card, the 8th ranked Jimmy Ellis defeats #9 Leotis Martin in a 9th round TKO, while Thad Spencer, #5 in the world, wins an easy 12-round decision over #4 Ernie Terrell (who’d lost to Ali in a previous title bout). Eventually, Ellis will go on to win the vacant title, defeating Jerry Quarry in a 15-round decision in April 1968, but he’s a lightly-regarded champion who defends his title only once in twenty months before being knocked out in February 1970 by a fighter who’d declined to take part in the tournament – Joe Frazier, who becomes undisputed heavyweight champion.

Meanwhile, Sunday features one of those things that goes a long way toward explaining why it took soccer so long to become a big sport in this country. American fans with long memories will recall how, until relatively recent history, they had to suffer through broadcasts that included commercial interruptions during the match - but don’t worry; if we miss a goal they’ll bring it to us on instant replay after the break. In fact, referees were even known to call fake “injury” delays and questionable fouls in order to work those commercials in without missing any of the action. Bad as that was, this story might go one better.

CBS’ Game of the Week features the Toronto Falcons taking on the Oakland Clippers. The match starts at 2:30 p.m. Sunday afternoon, and is scheduled for a two-hour timeslot. A soccer match lasts 90 minutes, plus a 15-minute halftime. Now, supposing CBS had a five-minute pregame, and allowing for any additional stoppage time, that’s going take us pretty much up to the two-hour limit. And yet, at the end of the listing for Sunday’s game, we get the following: “Channel 3D [KDAL, Duluth] will leave the game at 4 P.M. in order to join the Western Open.”

By my measure, this would mean that anyone watching on KDAL would probably have missed the last 20 minutes of the match. Given that Oakland won 2-0, it’s quite possible that the outcome would still have been in doubt when the station made the switch. It’s soccer’s own version of the Heidi Game, one year before the Raiders and Jets.* Adding to the confusion, three of the four stations carrying the syndicated coverage of the Western Open golf tournament were, like KDAL, CBS affiliates also showing the soccer – but the other two channels, KGLO in Mason City, Iowa and KEYC in Mankato, Minnesota, chose to stay with the soccer and join the golf in progress. Given that the golf coverage was for only 90 minutes, that means those viewers probably got to see only the last two or three holes of Jack Nicklaus’ victory. If you were a fan of soccer and golf, it was a tough day no matter how you look at it.

*Appropriately, the match was even played in the same stadium – the Oakland Coliseum. Coincidence? I think not.

Finally, there’s a very interesting article on NBC sportscaster Curt Gowdy, the cowboy from Wyoming turned sportscaster. Longtime readers will recognize Gowdy as one of my “big-game” announcers, and in 1967 he’s also one of the busiest. He’s just left his 15-year gig as play-by-play man for the Boston Red Sox to take over the Game of the Week for NBC. He’s also NBC’s main broadcaster for the American Football League, and hosts NBC’s Sportsman’s Holiday and ABC’s American Sportsman outdoor shows.

Something I didn’t know about Gowdy is that for years he’d suffered from back troubles that caused stabbing pain so severe he once missed an entire season for the Red Sox, and often had required him to remain standing throughout his broadcasts. Today, the pain has subsided somewhat; Gowdy can at least sit through a game without awful pain, but “I still can’t do anything so strenuous as play golf. Fishing and walking are about my limit.”

Gowdy has some interesting thoughts on the games he announces; he thinks football should move kickoffs from the 40 to 30 yard line to encourage more returns (as indeed they would, before eventually moving the kickoff back to the 35), and that baseball needs to do something about that “slow-motion pace” I discussed earlier. “The fans deserve a little more action,” he says. Quite an announcer, and quite a guy.

◊ ◊ ◊
We're reaching the part of the summer where there isn't a lot to write about in the program details, so we'll wrap it up with a look at this week's cover, featuring the long-running duo of  NBC’s Today Show (and later ABC’s 20/20), Hugh Downs and Barbara Walters. Now, I'll admit that I’ve never been a fan of Walters, either professionally or personally, and as the years go by she seems more like the wacky aunt of the family. Still, there’s much of interest in Edith Efron’s feature story on Walters, bearing the provocative title, “How to Manufacture a Celebrity.”

In truth, Today’s always had something of a split identity. Is it a news show or a variety program? Entertainment or information? Hugh Downs, the show’s third host (following Dave Garroway, an all-around personality, and John Chancellor, a hard newsman) came to the program after years as Jack Paar’s Tonight sidekick, and after Today concludes he’s off to another studio to host the game show Concentration. When Downs is on vacation, his replacements are most often entertainment types such as James Daly (later of Medical Center) and Burgess Meredith (soon to be Batman’s Penguin). And one of the show’s arguably most famous personality was a chimp.

The show’s female component – the “Today Girl” – has likewise sent mixed messages, featuring the likes of Lee Meriwether (former Miss America, future Catwoman), Helen O’Connell (former bandsinger), Florence Henderson (future Mrs. Brady), Betsy Palmer (later of I’ve Got a Secret), Pat Fontaine (former weather girl), and Maureen O’Sullivan (Tarzan’s Jane, and mother of Mia Farrow). It was into this role that Barbara Walters stepped, and by 1967 she’s become the show’s longest-running female member.

As a television “personality,” Walters wasn’t exactly created out of thin air –she did have some journalistic chops, certainly more than her predecessors, and viewers like that she acts like a reporter instead of “a feather-headed hostess.” And yet there’s also no question that NBC’s publicists are out to build Barbara Walters into a star. There’s a profile in TV Guide, a photoshoot for Life, and Vogue asks for her beauty secrets. She writes regular articles for the Ladies’ Home Journal and appears daily on NBC’s popular radio program “Monitor.” She’s more visible doing live commercials on Today and appears in ads for the program. She’s out on the lecture circuit, receiving awards from various groups, appearing on talk shows, and getting invitations to fashionable parties, including one at the White House. Her hair and makeup have changed, her wardrobe is more glamorous.

But for all that, says Efron, Walters is still “only about a third of the way through the assembly line,” nowhere near “the big leagues, inhabited by women like Zsa Zsa or even by Arlene Francis.” Walters herself remarks that “if somebody recognizes me in New York I’m thrilled to death.” And her colleagues say she remains unpretentious and easy to work with. Barbara Walters hasn’t yet become the icon she is today, but life as a star isn’t bad. “It’s chic to say these things don’t matter,” she says, “but it’s terribly nice to have the recognition.” TV  

Around the dial

At bare-bones e-zine, Jack starts a new cycle of "The Hitchcock Project" with the first of two Clark Howard stories that were adapted for Hitch. This week it's the third season drama "Enough Rope for Two," a tough crime drama with Steven Hill, Jean Hagen, and Steve Brody.

I hope you've been keeping up with this year's "Christmas in July" feature over at Christmas TV History. Joanna's now up to #19, Laura Rachel, who explains, among other things, why It's a Wonderful Life is the perfect Christmas movie to put in a time capsule. My offering should be up sometime next week.

One of the as-yet unwatched DVD sets in our collection is the 1967 cult hit Coronet Blue, starring Frank Converse as a man with a memory problem. I've no problem remembering it, just no time yet to watch it. Fortunately, at Classic Film and TV Cafe, Rick gives us the lowdown on the five best episodes. I don't think I'll read it yet; wait until I've seen them, sometime...

The Broadcast Archives at the University of Maryland commemorates the anniversary of John Chancellor assuming the Today Show host's chair in 1961. Chancellor is often the forgotten host of Today, coming as he did between original host Dave Garroway and the well-remembered Hugh Downs, but it's worth remembering his short run for the show's change in style.

Speaking of Garroway, who better than our friend Jodie at Garroway at Large to commemorate the 105th birthday, earlier this week, of the Master Communicator himself. It's also the first anniversary of the website, and we get some tantalizing hints about the progress of the upcoming Garroway biography.

It was "Maverick Monday" at The Horn Section this week, as Hal takes us back to the 1957 James Garner-helmed episode "War of the Silver Kings."  I love some of the character names the show's writers came up with, and this is no exception, with Leo Gordon playing a chap named Big Mike McComb.

I saw this over at Carol's Bob Crane: Life & Legacy site, and I'm still having a hard time believing it: last Friday would have been his 90th birthday.  Since we watch Hogan's Heroes every night, and since Bob died at a fairly young age, he's been kind of frozen in time for me; the idea of him as an older man, let alone 90, just doesn't computer.

When September comes around, I usually make mention of the Miss America pageant as seen in the pages of the old TV Guides. David at Comfort TV takes us back to those days when Miss America was a big deal, and one of the most watched shows of the year. Yes, times change, but even so the pageant just isn't what it used to be, and with Gretchen Carlson at the helm, I don't look for those glory days to return. TV  

Around the dial

Politics is such a contentious thing today, and television has done more than its share to promote that; the Broadcasting Archives at the University of Maryland takes us back to a day when broadcasters offered a helpful pamphlet, rather than unhelpful arguments.

At Once Upon a Screen, Aurora takes us back for a look at The Golden Girls, from conception to execution. I'll admit I was never a fan of this series, but that doesn't prevent me from steering a story -your way, especially when it's as well-written and informative as this!

Over at Bob Crane: Life & Legacy, Carol has some great pictures from behind the scenes at a Hogan's Heroes photo shoot for the November 19, 1966, cover of TV Guide, in support of an inside story on Robert Clary. I happen to have that issue; a very good profile of Clary, who was a concentration camp survivor himself and understood well the difference between that and a POW camp.

Gotta hand it to Dan at Some Polish American Guy - he always knows how to highlight the best parts of BJ and the Bear, if you know what I mean. This week it's the season three episode "Beauties and the Beast." Oh, and by the way, I hope you're enjoying our review of Bourbon Street Beat over at the Eventually Supertrain podcast; Dan is such a gracious host!

Always glad to see The Classic TV History Blog come back to life, even if it's only occasionally; here, Stephen has a nice remembrance of Harlan Ellison, including an interview he did with him early in Stephen's career.

At Classic Television Showbiz, Kliph gives us some terrific video of the great Gene Krupa, performing on The Tonight Show in 1962 with guest host Donald O'Connor.

I'd be remiss if I didn't stop over at Television Obscurities, where Robert takes a moment out to remember Tab Hunter, who died this week aged 86, and who starred in the very obscure Tab Hunter Show back in 1961-62.

And you didn't think I'd leave out part three of Jodie's look at the life and times of Jack Lescoulie over at Garroway at Large, did you? TV  

Around the dial

We begin the week at bare-bones e-zine, where Jack continues his Hitchcock Project look at John Cheever's stories with "O Youth and Beauty!", a sixth-season episode adapted by Halsted Welles and starring Gary Merrill. Successful? You decide...

At Comfort TV, David returns to his occasional feature, "Purchase or Pass." This week's entrant: the single-season detective series Honey West, with Anne Francis. So should we purchase, or pass? Considering David's comment that Honey West was the role Francis was born to play, I think you know the answer.

Ed Nelson and David Opatoshu, two actors I've always liked, star in the Twilight Zone episode "Valley of the Shadow," written by Charles Beaumont and the subject of The Twilight Zone Vortex. It doesn't really work, says Jordan, but it's worth a look anyway.

The Bob Crane: Life & Legacy website is active again, and Carol celebrates with some rare photos of Bob behind the mic at KNX radio in Los Angeles. Great as he was in Hogan's Heroes, he had a rare talent on radio; if you're not familiar with it, now's the chance to find out more.

It's Hondo time again at The Horn Section and I love the title of the episode in question: "Hondo and the Sudden Town," featuring Noah Beery Jr.; if you only know him as Rocky from The Rockford Files, you owe it to yourself to check out his many classic TV performances. Oh, and it also has Rod Cameron - what else do you need?

It's "Christmas in July" time at Christmas TV History, and you'll want to peruse the entries throughout the month, starting here. Joanna's come up with some very interesting questions on tap this year, and the answers should be fascinating to read. Hopefully I'll get my own responses over to her soon.

Good news from Television Obscurities, where the UCLA Film & Television archives have uploaded some of their vintage episodes of The United States Steel Hour to YouTube. Any time we get a chance to see some more examples of Golden Age anthologies, it's a treat - and if they're not all masterpieces, neither is everything on TV today.

Finally, if you enjoyed part one of Jodie's look at Today's Number Two man, Jack Lescoulie, you'll want to be sure and read part two at Garroway at Large, with more to come. TV  

Around the dial

Ah, now here's an interesting one to start off the week: the first of two stories by John Cheever to be adapted for Alfred Hitchcock Presents. It's the sixth-season episode "The Five-Forty-Eight," and naturally it's the topic of Jack's latest at bare-bones e-zine.

I thought this was a very timely piece, a reminder of what the world was like in 1970 - Comfort TV reviews the Adam-12 episode "Elegy for a Pig," David's latest entry in a series he calls "The Unshakeables." It never hurts to put the times in historical perspective.

The great Harlan Ellison died yesterday (Thursday) at the age of 84; remembered, of course, for the Star Trek episode "City on the Edge of Forever," though I remember him as well for his comment that Doctor Who was the greatest sci-fi TV series ever. The Twilight Zone Vortex gives us another chance to remember him; Jordan's latest look at the Twilight Zone Magazine features the December 1981 edition, including an interview with Ellison on "The Art of Making Waves."

Every time I check out Made for TV Mayhem, I read about something else the fantastic Amanda is up to - books, liner notes, commentary tracks. You really know how to hurt a guy. Read the latest, very cool, developments here, and then take some time to look over the blog and find out the rest of the amazing story.

I'm always in the mood for the British perspective on things, and I think John makes some very perceptive comments at Cult TV Blog on The X-Files episode "Never Again." I like how he looks seriously at both the overt and underlying themes, as he's done throughout his series on the show.

Care to escape the bad news that seems to surround us? Take a few minutes to look at this terrific piece at The Federalist on the Mister Rogers documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor?  What a remarkable, remarkable man Fred Rogers was - and is, really, because as long as videos of his show still exist, and stories are told of his interactions with people, there will always be a part of him with us.

I would be remiss if I didn't stop off at Television's New Frontier: the 1960s, not just because it's always interesting, but because this week the topic is one of my favorite cartoons of all time, 1961's Top Cat, with a cast comprised of memorable voice talents.

Martin Grams has a very nice remembrance of Clint Walker, the gentle giant who was the star of the WB western series Cheyenne, and so many more things. Martin shares his own encounter with Walker, as well as a wonderful story about the time when...

At Garroway at Large, Jodie (can't wait to see you at MANC!) takes some time for part one of a well-deserved appreciation of Jack Lescoulie, the brilliant number two on Today. As she points out, he's all but forgotten today, but at one time was a very common sight on our television screens.

That should do it for now - back tomorrow! TV