The series Ozzie and Harriet is often included with other sitcoms of the '50s and '60s as shows idealizing an America that never really was. Television's New Frontier: the 1960s takes a closer look at the show and its stars, and explains why it doesn't exactly fit the mold of those other sitcoms.
Of all the members of the Mills family, my favorite was Juliet, probably from her **sigh** inducing performance in Nanny and the Professor, but Classic Film and TV Cafe is all about her sister Hayley, no slouch herself, and her five best film performances.
And now, some brief highlights of continuing series:
Cult TV Blog continues to look at allegory in The Prisonerwith the classic "Living in Harmony," and shows - in so doing, find how "the episodes lend themselves to different interpretations." Terrific stuff.
I saw a billboard for Westinghouse the other day, on my way home. For a minute I was probably more distracted than they recommend if you're behind the wheel; it's just that I was surprised. I didn't even know that Westinghouse still existed, let alone that they were still advertising. It interested me because the name Westinghouse has had a long and rich relationship with television, dating back almost to the beginning, when the company was known for making household appliances of all kinds.
The logo you see above is from Westinghouse Studio One, the Golden Age anthology the company sponsored on CBS from 1948 to 1958. During those years, the show was recognized as one of the greats of early television, with adaptations of classic books such as Wuthering Heights and Nineteen Eighty-Four, and original teleplays that became movie hits, like Twelve Angry Men (starring Bob Cummings, which I actually prefer to the cinematic version with Henry Fonda). Studio One also made a household name of a lesser-known actress named Betty Furness, who parlayed her gig as the company's live commercial spokeswoman into a career as a consumer advocate, presidential assistant, and newswoman. Her commercials are charming and warm, always ending with the heartfelt tagline, "You can be sure if it's Westinghouse."
(Yup, over two minutes for a commercial. Well, I guess you can do that if you sponsor the whole show and your name's in the title.)
Westinghouse also had a successful sponsorship relationship with Dezi Arnez' production Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse, which in its two seasons (1958-1960) gave us two pilots for long-running shows: The Twilight Zone and The Untouchables.
Although those might have been the best-known examples, that wasn't the limit of Westinghouse's involvement with television. One of the company's many divisions was Westinghouse Broadcasting, better known as Group W. It began as Westinghouse Radio Stations before making the transition to television, and in addition to owning seven television stations, it produced two pretty successful series of its own, The Mike Douglas Show and PM Magazine. Later on it would add a couple of subsidiaries, TelePromTer and Filmation.
There's a long and complex history regarding Group W's sometimes contentious relationship with the FCC, which we'll skip over because it's kind of dull. Suffice it to say that the biggest move in television came in 1995, when the company bought CBS lock, stock and barrel, in the process changing the company's name from Westinghouse to CBS. (Though at least initially, nothing much changed.) Eventually, the network was folded into Viacom, and the company divested itself of almost all of its non-media assets.
So where does the new Westinghouse name come from? Well, in fact it's Westinghouse Electric Company, which is controlled by another company with links to television, Toshiba, and it's a nuclear power company. (I think, but I'm not sure, that they've licensed the name from CBS - as I said, it's complicated.) And I think I can be forgiven for thinking that Westinghouse was simply a name from the past, since it's gotten so far afield from its original appliance manufacturing roots. If you know more about it than I do feel free to chip in, because I can be sure of only one thing - it's a Westinghouse.
f you've paid attention to these Minnesota State Editions, you'll notice the ways they've changed over the years. A half-dozen or so channels have changed call letters since the statewide editions of the early 1960s, and WXOW in LaCrosse doesn't even come on the scene until 1970; meanwhile, in thenew in the Twin Cities, three stations change their affiliations. There are also several PBS affiliates from around the state, but I didn't include them because their programming was mostly redundant. I did, however, share what you'd be seeing on Superstation WGN.
Ed Asner and Mason Adams, the stars of Lou Grant, are on the cover of this week's issue, and with a name like Lou Grant it has to be good, right?*
*Bonus points to anyone who gets that joke. If you're not sure, here's a clue.
Seriously, I digress from this TV Guide for a moment to take a look at the issue of April 23, 1977. In the TV Teletype, we read a story about how Asner's going to be doing a new CBS series this fall about the newspaper business. Asner describes the show, to be set in Los Angeles, as a "modern epic," capturing "the ambiance of a newspaper." He admits he's a bit nervous, never having carried an hour-long series before: "I have yet to meet a happy hour-series star," but adds that the show will be about 30% comedy. The writer of the blurb notes that it will have seven recurring characters.
What's interesting here is that nowhere is the name of the series mentioned, nor that it will be spinning off Asner's character from The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Did they even know it would be at this point? Was it something that was added later on, as if they decided the show needed an extra hook? Or were they shying away from it, fearful that viewers would be leery of a sitcom character being spun off into a drama? The always-reliable Wikipedia's no help here, although it does note that none of the main characters from MTM were ever seen or even referenced to in the series, and that the only crossover character to ever appear on both shows was Eileen Heckart as Mary's aunt Flo, a recurring bit in the former series who made a single appearance in the later. So, what's the scoop* here? Inquiring minds want to know. Mike Doran, are you out there?
*A little newspaper lingo there.
The article itself is about Adams, and mentions his famous Smuckers commercial among the extensive radio and commercial work that has distinguished his career. Amongst Lisa See's review of that career and the details of his life (voracious reader, consummate professional, adeptness at playing different voices during rehearsals), one statement stands out that tells us a lot about the life of an actor. Adams strikes me as being just about as well-adjusted as anyone in the business, and yet he's unable to escape that constant worry that unemployment is just around the corner: " I'm lucky. I've always worked. I've never had barren periods. But there's nothing you can count on. My reach has far exceeded my grasp. I guess pessimism is just my nature." Lest that sound like too much of a downer though, he adds, laughing, "Maybe it's just the fear of becoming smug."
***
In many of these early October issues, I've gotten the chance to write about coverage of the World Series. But it's 1980 now, and we've got another layer of playoffs to deal with: the League Championship Series. It's quite a contrast to 1963, with the division winners in each league facing off in a best 3-of-5 series to determine who goes to the Series, but it seems positively simple if you compare it to today's setup, with three division winners and two wild card teams from each league, and an LCS that's expanded to 4-of-7. Next year the Series will probably end in November, which means it will likely be the month's first turkey.
At any rate, the regular season comes to an end on Sunday, with ABC's cameras there to cover the pivotal games in the pennant chase. Actually, I should say the season is supposed to end on Sunday, and would have if the Houston Astros had been able to defeat the Los Angeles Dodgers in even one of the three games they play to end the season. They don't, however, and the Dodgers' win on Sunday forces a one-game playoff which ABC covers on Monday afternoon. I remember catching that game after coming home from class; pretty much everyone expects the Dodgers to keep rolling and take Houston, but the Astros score an upset win to take the division and go on to face the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLCS.
ABC has no trouble televising the League Championship Series games; the National League starts Tuesday night and continues Wednesday afternoon, while the American League starts on Wednesday night and follows up with a Thursday night game. Friday, the National League plays in the afternoon, the American League in the evening. Not so complicated, is it? Ah, for those simpler days. And the games weren't bad, either: see for yourself, with Game 3 of the NLCS on Friday, October 10, between the Phillies and Astros in Houston.
Oh yeah, the NFL is on as well. In the Twin Cities the Vikings home game against Pittsburgh is blacked out; the rest of the state gets it on NBC, however. The late game, on CBS, has the 49ers playing the Rams in Los Angeles (or Anaheim, to be precise). The Monday night matchup on ABC has Tampa Bay taking on the Bears in Chicago. And that's it - no Sunday night game, no Thursday night game. As I said, simpler.
***
Big week for movies, not surprisingly since we're still early in the fall season. On Monday, NBC features the Oscar-winning Julia, starring Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave and Jason Robards. ABC's offering, on Sunday night, is a repeat of Jaws, which goes head-to-head with CBS's made-for-TV A Perfect Match, which draws its prestige from its teleplay, written by the great director/writer John Sayles. Down one rung from that is the third Sunday night movie, NBC's repeat of Burt Reynolds in The End. We won't discuss the Thursday night movie on NBC, The Castaways on Gilligan's Island, which Judith Crist describes as "tedious even with 24 of its 72 mediocre minutes cut." At least it still has Dawn **sigh** Wells as Mary Ann.
Speaking of the miniseries, in 1980 it remains a force to be reckoned with. TV Update tells us of NBC's massive success with Shogun; the gamble to kick off the season with the 12-hour drama pays big dividends, the estimated 125 million viewers and 51% share making it the second-highest rated miniseries of all time, outdone only by the original Roots.
In other news from the update, a follow-up to our look a couple of weeks ago at the Reagan-Anderson presidential debate. ABC indeed stuck with Midnight Express because of President Carter's absence, but even with one major and one minor candidate and only two networks, the debate scored 42% of all viewers in New York, 44% in Chicago, and 44% in Los Angeles. Express, meanwhile, drew 42% and 39% in New York and Chicago; Priscilla Presley's Thos Amazing Animals, which aired against the debate on the West Coast, scored a mere 24% in Los Angeles.
Finally, "ABC has agreed to grant Kaiser Aluminum air time to reply to a report on 20/20 that asserted that aluminum wiring for homes is unsafe." All the two sides have to do now is decide how much time Kaiser will get, and when it will be broadcast.
***
The cross-section of decades represented by these TV Guides gives testimony not only to the role of television within culture, but to the shape of the culture itself, as we can see from some of this week's articles.
In the 1950s, Howdy Doody stirred controversy by asking whether or not children should be watching the same kinds of shows as adults. Back then, it meant the manic comedy of a Milton Berle. This week, Marlo Thomas writes about the role television plays in presenting "the facts of life." It's a companion piece to Thomas' controversial Body Human special "The Facts for Girls," running Tuesday afternoon on CBS. Says Thomas, "Using television to bring accurate, straightforward information about sexual facts and feelings into the home can provide a starting point of shared feelings and information." Almost seems quaintly naive today, doesn't it? It's a far cry from the '50s and '60s, when dramatists had so much trouble writing about adult themes, but it's also light years away from today's television, when even broadcast networks present decidedly adult topics with a frankness that might have made people in the '80s blush. Or maybe not; I don't know.
Speaking of which, there's also a very interesting article by Richard D. Heffner on what the movie ratings system really means. Heffner, who produces David Susskind's Open End* program and teaches communications and public policy at Rutgers, is also the chairman of the Classification and Rating Administration, which helps determine what a movie's rating is.
*Also known, by Susskind's detractors, as Open Mouth.
Among other things, Heffner points out that nothing is actually prohibited in today's movies - "Nothing is banned by our system, or refused a rating." And in answer to the question (posed by himself; Heffner the college professor interviews Heffner the CARA chairman) "Don't you ever want to refuse even your ultimate X rating to some of the awful things you see?" he replies, "Don't you think I share your sensibilities, your outrage, your disgust at some of what appears on the screen? Believe me, I do. . . But as an erstwhile American historian, I'm convinced that the price of film censorship in this country would be too great." The Production Code, which held sway until 1968, had gradually given way in the face of competition from television, and the movie audiences' increasing willingness to make box office smashes out of movies that didn't receive the code. (Some Like It Hot, for one.) Again, this article tells us much about how the times have changed, particularly in regards to sex and violence, and how they'll continue to morph.
***
Last but not least, there's a full-page ad at the beginning of the programming section touting a new and revolutionary network that will change the way you consume news. Ta-da!
ALL: HADLEY TV GUIDE COLLECTION
Take a look at that programming guide. Gotta say, it looks a hell of a lot better than what CNN has on today. Back when they had, you know, actual news. TV
Last week I linked to Classic Film and TV Cafe write-up of the '60s British spy drama Man In a Suitcase. This week, my go-to blog for Brit shows, Cult TV Blog, presents a dissenting opinion on Suitcase. I think I come down somewhere in-between; I said last week that based on the episodes I'd seen, the series was very good. However, I think it could have been much better. (By the way, I like the new picture in the header!)
Speaking of Classic Film and TV Cafe, this week's entry is on the Ava Gardner Museum in Smithfield, North Carolina. I remember one of the first movies I saw Ava Gardner in - I don't remember the name anymore, but I remember clearly thinking, "That's Ava Gardner." I lived in North Carolina for thirteen months, drove past billboards advertising the Museum, but do you think I ever made it there? The answer would be no.
It looks to me as if I'm always going to be about a week late with this, but from last Friday, it's the second installment of Television Obscurities' look at TV Guide for the season 1964-65, this time the issue of September 26, 1964 - another issue I don't have, so I enjoyed the recap immensely. As I said last week, Robert really gives you a feel for what the issue is like.
Comfort TV is back with another look at TV themes, this time from the 1960s. What an iconic list of themes! If you're my age, you know them all, can sing along with them whenever they're on TV, and probably even remember what the credits backing them looked like. Several of them are better than the shows themselves. Hawaii Five-O is fortunate to not be using the Sammy Davis Jr. version. The only bone I'd pick with the list is that it's missing my favorite theme of the decade, The FBI.
Over at Professor Barnhardt's Journal, the good Professor takes a look at fall previews over the years from each of the four networks (Fox, NBC, CBS and ABC). They come from a variety of decades; I'll let you decide for yourself as to whether or not things have gotten better.
A great article at TV Party from frequent contributor Cary O'Dell on how the TV you watch now is different from how it used to be, i.e. when I was young. Among the things: the national anthem to signal the end of the broadcast day, news breaks between programs, and the networks giving new series the time to succeed. I remember them all.
All Things Kevyn presents the '80s version of The Alphabet Game, with a number of those letters having a television connection. My favorite: M is for Martha Quinn. Remember her? She was one of the original MTV veejays (back, as Kevyn says, when they actually played videos). "Dwight Garner recalled: 'Every sentient straight male in the country developed a schoolboy crush on Martha Quinn, one of the first V.J.'s, fresh out of New York University and so cute she could make your cranium detonate.' Yup. Sounds about right to me." Sounds about right to me too, Kevyn.
Well, that ought to keep you busy for awhile, hmm? Back here on Saturday for another trip to the '80s with TV Guide. TV
The series Ozzie and Harriet is often included with other sitcoms of the '50s and '60s as shows idealizing an America that never really was. Television's New Frontier: the 1960s takes a closer look at the show and its stars, and explains why it doesn't exactly fit the mold of those other sitcoms.
