Major League Baseball's playoffs started this week, and Classic TV Sports has a review of television's coverage of the first years of the League Championship Series. I'm just old enough to remember the days before playoffs, when there were only ten teams in each league, and the pennant winners went straight to the World Series. Sadly, in today's bloated playoff landscape, the '70s now look like the good old days.
Martin Grams has a behind-the-scenes look at the making of one of The Twilight Zone's most memorable episodes—1960's "The Eye of the Beholder." Besides having one of the great shock endings in the history of the series (or in all of television, for that matter), there's great insight into how the episode came to be—and why some people might know its title as "The Private World of Darkness."
In the context of discussing the series of debates between William F. Buckley Jr. and Gore Vidal that ABC aired during the Republican and Democratic conventions, Terry Teachout at About Last Night Terry Teachout touches on how television (and American culture) have changed in nearly 50 years. Here's the money quote, which puts this (and so much of what I write about) in context:
On the other hand, we’re as far away in time from The Louvre and the Buckley-Vidal debates as the 1968 nominating conventions were from the presidencies of Woodrow Wilson and Warren G. Harding. To put it another way, we’re as far away in time from The Carol Burnett Show as that program (which I did watch as a boy, devotedly) was from Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid, which was at least as important to American comedy in 1921 as Burnett’s series was in 1968.
My review of The Merv Griffin Show on Wednesday put me in mind to write more about talk shows, and Kliph Nesteroffhas the answer. Here's Jerry Lewis from June 1962, hosting The Tonight Show during the interim between the departure of Jack Paar and the arrival of Johnny Carson. It's said that Jerry's well-received hosting gig led to ABC giving him his own two-hour Saturday night show, which unfortunately remains one of the bigger debacles in television history.
I love the quizzes at Classic Film and TV Cafe, even though I'm not usually sharp enough (or timely enough) to get in on the fun. This week, it's another edition of The Movie-TV Connection Game, in which we try to figure out what connects a pair or trio of celebrities. Why don't you give it a try and see how your luck goes?
Sean Collins' piece at Grantland doesn't deal with classic TV per se, but his analysis of why Space Ghost Coast to Coast might be television's most influential showdoes hearken back to the original Space Ghost, which aired on CBS Saturday mornings from 1966-68. It's the right time period that I might well have watched it, but aside from a few vague memories, the '90s reboot that Collins writes about is much more familiar to me.
Ewing tacos?Michael's TV Tray makes me hungry, and it isn't even National Taco Day anymore!(Of course, that's a title that no self-respecting Texan, native or not, could ever pass up.)
That's it for today; apologies for the lateness of this post. Remember, tomorrow is TV Guide day. Be here—aloha. TV
Last week I mentionedgetTV's new lineup of Monday night variety shows, starting October 12: The Judy Garland Show, The Merv Griffin Show and various variety specials. The Garland shows have been out on DVD for some time, and last year a box set came out highlighting Merv's shows throughout the years. Nonetheless, most of these episodes, along with the variety specials, have probably not been seen on television since their original airings, and you don't have to be a classic TV aficionado to appreciate the entertainment value of these shows, as well as their historical importance. Let's take a quick look at the first evening's offerings, in reverse order.
The Merv Griffin Show (10:00pm ET) Date: October 3, 1967 Guests: Robert F. Kennedy, Carl Reiner, Genevieve Page and Josephine Premice Why You Should Watch: Not to put too fine a point on it, this is an extraordinary episode, unlike anything you'd see on today's late-night chucklefests. Yes, Carl Reiner is funny, but it's because he's naturally a funny guy. He volunteers that he's wearing his toupee for the show, sparking a discussion of when one wears their rug and when they don't. And any anecdote about Reiner's buddy Mel Brooks - in this case, a story about Brooks' time as a writer for Jerry Lewis - is bound to be good for a laugh.
Merv has more in mind than setting up the next one-liner, though. He asks Reiner about writing for television, and what makes a show funny. Reiner's response: if his children can predict what happens next, he'd better do something different. His kids know television, having grown up watching so much of it with him, and if they can see the next gag coming, then it's probably become a cliche. And while you can decide to use a cliche intentionally, under no circumstances should you use it just because it's the easy way out. When asked about television's latest trends, Reiner notes adventure shows (Mission: Impossible, I Spy) and Westerns (although he didn't mention them, he was probably thinking of shows like The High Chaparral and The Guns of Will Sonnett); when Merv notes that some people have pronounced the half-hour sitcom dead, Reiner acknowledges it's lean right now, but reminds us that television is often cyclical, and that sitcoms would be back - as indeed they were.
SOURCE: ABC
It's the interview with RFK though, eight months before his death, that is most remarkable. Merv often welcomed newsworthy guests, from Martin Luther King to Timothy Leary, and the junior Senator from New York was a natural. Kennedy is clearly ill at ease with the talk show format, spending most of the time with his head down, his fingers nervously playing with the desktop and the microphone, looking at Merv sideways and at the audience rarely if at all. The conversation is hard news all the way, with questions and answers that sound as if they could have come from Face the Nation or Meet the Press. Not for the first time, I was struck by how timely Kennedy's comments were - not just to 1967. but to today. Talking about the source of rage in the inner cities, for example, Kennedy suggests that the Vietnam War has made violence and killing an acceptable method of settling things in the eyes of young people, that they are less inclined to value human life. Hearing that, I wondered if violent movies and video games don't send much the same message. He lamented the growing sense of isolation that people are feeling, and it made me think of how social media tends to cocoon people. He acknowledges that with the government spending billions on the war, the money doesn't exist to address all of society's ills, and says that the private sector has to be encouraged to become involved, through incentives like tax credits and tax breaks.
The questions were serious, and Kennedy's answers were serious - except for when Merv broached the topic of the 1968 elections. LBJ is the presumptive Democratic nominee - Kennedy says that he is not a candidate for president and does not encourage anyone to organize on his behalf - and when asked about the Republicans, RFK says he knows who they'll nominate, but won't say for fear of encouraging him. Merv poses an interesting hypothesis, that if the GOP nominates a liberal many Democrats might vote for him, while conservative Republicans could vote for Johnson, and asks Kennedy if he can see that happening. RFK's response is a sly "yes," so reminiscent of when his brother was asked if he'd encourage young people to run for office, and JFK said no, at least not for a few years.
I know many would cite Stephen Colbert as the host bringing serious discourse back to late night, but I don't see it, at least not this way. Yes, Merv could be goofy and silly and self-centered, as all good hosts must, but he wasn't interested in how Robert Kennedy felt, or in humanizing him. He wanted to know Kennedy's plans for the nation, just as he wanted to know why Carl Reiner was successful. Throw in Genevieve, whose interview we don't see but who interacts with the other guests*, and Josephine Premice, who ends the show with a dramatic song, and you have a prime example of what I'd call television for grown-ups, when only adults stayed up late enough to watch talk shows, and were rewarded for their insomnia.
*Pointing out yet again the value of having guests stick around after their segment was done. They're called talk shows for a reason, you know.
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The Judy Garland Show Date: December 8, 1963 Guest: Mickey Rooney Regular: Jerry Van Dyke
Why You Should Watch: If there's one episode of Judy Garland's single-season variety show that people are familiar with, it's probably the Christmas episode, which featured Jack Jones, Mel Torme, and Garland's children Liza Minnelli and Lorna and Joey Luft. Most people who see the episode probably think it was a special, but in fact it was merely a regular episode of her series, aired a mere two weeks after this particular episode.
SOURCE: YOUTUBE
Judy Garland has to be one of Hollywood's more tragic figures, and I couldn't help but think, as I always do when watching clips of her from this time period, how old she looks. She's only 41 when this was made, yet I'd suspect her of being a decade older. But she can still sing - boy, can she sing - and when she's reunited with her dear friend Mickey Rooney, she positively shines. Knowing what we do about her unhappy life makes it all the more poignant; more than once she laments how it had been so many years since they'd worked together, and one gets the feeling that Mickey might well have been the only friend she could trust, the only person who might have been able to save her from herself. When they react their shtick from the Andy Hardy days, or looking at pictures from the movies they did together when they were young, it's with equal parts nostalgia and sadness - but likely this is because we know how the story ends. I wonder how the people watching it at the time saw it?
Anyway, we're reminded why Rooney was known as one of the greatest all-around entertainers, as we see him singing, dancing, joking around, while Garland's solo efforts demonstrate why her series had been so eagerly anticipated. CBS didn't really know what to do with this show, and by the time they figured all the audience really needed was Judy singing with Mort Lindsey's* orchestra, it was too late to save the series. Less than six years she would be dead, a flame that burned far too brightly for too short a time. That's why this series, imperfect though it may be, is so important.
*Merv Griffin's orchestra leader, incidentally.
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Carol Channing & Pearl Bailey on Broadway Date:March 16, 1969
Why You Should Watch: 'Cmon, it's Carol Channing and Pearl Bailey singing showtunes! What more reason do you need?
SOURCE: YOUTUBE
Seriously - they were two of the biggest stars around at the time, and in an era when Broadway tunes were still pop standards, the opportunity to see these two singing and clowning is worth some of the painful jokes and corny dialogue. Carol Channing is one of those about whom it's said that if she didn't exist, someone would have had to invent her; likewise, Pearly Mae is larger-than-life, fresh off her smash success in Hello Dolly, the role which Channing had made famous. As a matter of fact, one of the best moments in the show comes when Channing makes a joke about having been passed over for the movie version of Dolly in favor of Barbra Streisand (an injustice if ever there was one). Make no mistake about it, there's a bite-and-a-half to this joke; behind the laughs, there has to be pain.
You might not think this show will appeal to you; it was the last of the three previews I watched, and while it might lack the historical significance of Merv's show or the backstory of Judy's, it's an hour of great fun, the kind of variety show that used to be rolled out as one of a network's big guns.
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There's been a boom in television nostalgia over the last few years, with networks such as MeTV, Cozi, Antenna, and Decades leading the way; and there's a tendency to wonder how long it can last, given that vintage television shows are by definition a finite number, with the same shows tending to show up over and over. Up to now getTV has concentrated on movies, but with the addition of vintage Westerns on Saturdays and this variety show lineup on Monday, the network has now joined the battle. By addressing a programming niche - the variety show - that has mostly been ignored by the other networks, they have the potential to become a serious player indeed. Let's hope they keep looking for opportunities to introduce different kinds of series to their lineup, ones that have played such a major role in the history of the medium and the hearts of its viewers.
We took a good look at this TV Guide on Saturday, and now it's time to take a closer look at Monday's listings. I didn't know a lot about Philadelphia television, other than that it's where Ernie Kovacs got his start, but as we get into it we get a glimpse of the city's rich broadcasting history, one of the most prominent in the United States. So there's plenty to share this week, and this will just scratch the surface of it!
It's true that John Kennedy was the first TV president, but Dwight Eisenhower was the president of television's Golden Age; and unlike JFK, Ike didn't need television to introduce him to the public. This week, as we approach the one-year anniversary of his successor being chosen, the former president sits down to spend some significant time with CBS' Walter Cronkite on Thursday night at 10:00pm (ET).
Tonight's show, the first of three, focuses on Eisenhower's views on the Presidency: what constitutional powers the president has and how he can use them, the qualities of leadership required in the men who would presume to hold the office, and his own adjustment from being Supreme NATO Commander and President of Columbia University to President of the United States.
The CBS crew that arrived at Eisenhower's farm in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, found the four days spent with the former president a special occasion. "It was like a nice, warm visit with your grandfather," according to Cronkite, who would one day inspire the same feelings from his viewers. Executive Producer Fred Friendly, who had instructed the crew "against bothering Mr. Eisenhower* for autographs for 'telling him how you fought alongside him during the war'," said that Eisenhower "was wonderful. He wrote me several letters after we completed the job and returned to New York. He also wrote generous letters to Mr. [William] Paley [head of CBS] about Walter, about the crew and me." Cronkite abstained from what he called "Mike Wallace" questions, and Eisenhower was frank in many of his answers
*Throughtout the article, the former president is referred to as "Mr. Eisenhower." A bit of decorum that we don't often see anymore.
All in all, it sounds like a very interesting show, with a man who is obviously still revered by the American people. I wonder how it did in the ratings, up against Sing Along With Mitch and The Untouchables?
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At 1:45pm Saturday afternoon on NBC, it's Game Three of the Fall Classic, the World Series, pitting the heavily favored New York Yankees, led by new home run king Roger Maris, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford and the rest, against the surprise National League champion Cincinnati Reds, led by Frank Robinson and Joey Jay. The teams unexpectedly split the opening two games in New York, which means the Reds can capture the title by winning their three games at home. Alas for the Redlegs, it's the Yankees who sweep the three games, and the Series, which concludes on Monday afternoon. Here's a brief clip from the original broadcast of that Game Three.
Following the Series, ABC's college football game of the week takes us to Los Angeles, where #1 ranked Iowa takes on USC. In a spectacular game, the Hawkeyes edge the Trojans 35-34; it is, alas, the last hurrah for Iowa, which finishes the season a disappointing 5-4. USC's season ends dismally as well, at 4-5-1. Neither team will be seen in the New Year's games.
Saturday night, it's the 1953 movie Titanic on NBC's Saturday Night at the Movies, starring Clifton Webb, Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Wagner*. This was the first movie I'd ever seen about the Titanic (though I saw it several years later on local TV), and though I was initially frightened by the upcoming collision between the ship and the iceberg, I was nonetheless hooked for life on the great tragedy.
*Fun fact: In the movie, Stanwyck plays an unhappy wife who's left Webb, taking her two children with her. Wagner plays a college student who romances Stanwyck's eldest daughter during the trip. In reality, Wagner and Stanwyck (whe was 23 years his elder) were in the midst of a torrid four-year affair.
If the sinking of the Titanic isn't up your alley*, you might be more interested in ABC's Fight of the Week, featuring journeyman heavyweight Alex Miteff taking on the unranked but up-and-coming fighter Cassius Clay. We're told that Clay "didn't look too impressive in his last bout" and "is up against a strong, aggressive puncher tonight." Clay, of course, comes out on top; a little less than two-and-a-half years later, he would be heavyweight champion. If you're curious, here's how it looks, brought to you by El Producto:
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The World Series continues on Sunday, as does professional football. The defending NFL champion Philadelphia Eagles are at home this week, which according to the archaic NFL blackout rules, means there's no televised NFL football in Philadelphia, home of this week's issue. On the other hand, the AFL has no such restrictions, and it's the ABC (and later NBC) telecasts of AFL games into blacked-out NFL markets that helps the new league gain a foothold in the nation. This week, the Buffalo Bills take on the defending AFL champion Houston Oilers in Houston; the Bills take an upset victory, 22-12.
Sunday also brings us a little Cold War news, in the person of Ed Sullivan, who's taken his show to West Berlin to entertain 6000 Allied military personnel and their families. Tonight Ed gives us a highlights show, featuring Louis Armstrong, Sid Caesar, Shari Lewis, Maureen O'Hara, Rowan and Martin, opera star Roberta Peters (Ed's favorite guest), and more.
Later still on Sunday, CBS presents Candid Camera, and there's an accompanying article in the national section that tells about the show's own Cold War moment: how creator Allen Funt successfully smuggled 90,000 feet of film (and two cameramen) in and out of the Soviet Union. Funt tells writer Martin Cohen how he had feared bureaucratic red tape would prevent him from ever getting there legally, so he and his crew simply went there on their own, registering as tourists, and spending over a week doing some of their most famous bits before unsuspecting Russian citizens, all with hidden cameras that would likely get them arrested if they were ever discovered. Fortunately for them they weren't, and Funt emerges with, he says, enough footage for an hour's program, which will be seen sometime in the future.
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John Daly, the longtime anchor of ABC's evening news (as well as its news director), has left the network, which leaves him free to concentrate on What's My Line?, as well as make guest appearances on other shows. This Monday, he's hosting NBC's Westinghouse Presents variety special "The Sound of the Sixties," starring Art Carney, Vic Damone, Gogi Grant, Pat Harrington, Mahalia Jackson, Andre Previn and Tony Randall. Too bad they couldn't get any stars.
On Tuesday, Lee Marvin and Arthur Kennedy star in the initial presentation of ABC's new anthology series Alcoa Premiere, with Fred Astaire as host and occasional star. He's not on tonight's program, "People Need People," starring Arthur Kennedy as a psychiatrist who's given ten days to prove the value of his new treatment for mentally ill former soldiers - what we'd call PTSD. Lee Marvin plays the afflicted vet, and I wonder how quaint, or how insightful, the discussion of treatment would look to us today, given what we now know about the syndrome.
You might be wondering, after seeing this ad for The New Bob Newhart Show (Wednesday 10:00pm, NBC), what the old one was like. It's kind of hard to say, because the evidence points to this being his first series. Perhaps they mean it's a new series, as opposed to the old ones it replaced; this is, after all, its debut episode. One thing's for sure - history will show that more people were interested in Bob Newhart's really new series - The Bob Newhart Show that featured him as a psychologist in Chicago, with Suzanne Pleshette as his wife.
SOURCE ALL: HADLEY TV GUIDE COLLECTION
In any event, the buttons on the ad refer to Newhart's celebrated comedy album The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart, which won the Grammy as Album of the Year in 1961 (before that award was specified for musical performances). The album features most of Newhart's greatest bits, including the imaginary telephone conversations, and NBC must have felt this made him a natural for a variety show. As it turns out, it was not the variety format that suited him best (he also featured in The Entertainers, a failed variety show with rotating hosts, one of whom was Carol Burnett), but the sitcom. Admittedly, that might not have been so obvious back in 1961, but as we've seen since, Newhart was one of the first of many stand-up comedians to have a successful sitcom shaped around his act, or shtick. In Newhart's case, it happened successfully not once, but twice. Not bad at all.
Also on Wednesday, a couple of things: a great animation block, with The Alvin Showon CBS at 7:30pm, and Top Cat on ABC at 8:30pm. Loved them both. On Armstrong Circle Theatre, host Ron Cochran - soon to move to ABC as anchor of its nightly news, thanks to Daly's resignation - presents a dramatization of the Lizzie Borden story, "Legend of Murder."
On Friday, it's one of the very best episodes of The Twilight Zone, featuring Jack Klugman and Jonathan Winters in "A Game of Pool." \It's an example of Klugman's one-note intensity used to its best effect, in a powerful performance as a man trying to prove that there's one thing he can do better than anyone else - play pool. He's countered by an equally good Winters, in a rare dramatic role as Fats, the long-dead legendary pool great, come back to force Klugman to prove that his game is more than just talk - that he has the guts to be the best.
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Finally, I'll leave you with some more ads. Here's one for Broderick Crawford's new series King of Diamonds, in which he's looking very much like Chief Dan Matthews in Highway Patrol.
Before Mike Connors was a star in Mannix, he played an undercover agent in the tense drama Tightrope! His character was so undercover, he didn't even have a regular name. Speaking of which, I'm surprised to see him referred to here as "Mike" - although that's how we know him today, back then he was usually billed as "Michael."
This "Special Offer to Roger Maris Fans" reminds us that Maris had just completed one of the greatest season any baseball player ever had, breaking Babe Ruth's famed single-season home run record.*
*With the help of *, of course. Perhaps he did need some extra games, but he didn't need PEDs.
And Richard Burton isn't on television this week, at least not in his own program - but just because you can't watch the "star of stage, screen and TV" doesn't mean you can't drink the wine he does. And it's imported from Denmark!
Hard as it may be to believe, this is the first blog post of October; we're now able to say, in all honesty, that Thanksgiving is next month. Don't panic; it's still almost two full months away, but still. Means we'll be watching It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown at the end of this month. More important to us now, though, is what we're watching now. Here are some of this week's highlights.
At Classic Television Showbiz, Kliph is back with a fascinating article on how the Mafia seized control of CBS primetime. It hearkens back to the days of the "rural purge" at CBS, and while the two events aren't absolutely conjoined, they're not completely separate either. It's pay-to-view, but for a good cause - financial support for the blog - and well worth it.
Television Obscurities reminds us that GetTV, one of the newer retro channels, will be offering reruns of two throwbacks from the day - The Judy Garland Show and The Merv Griffin Show. It starts later this month, but I'll have a pre-review of them next week. Garland's show has been available on DVD for a while, and there was a great boxed set of Merv shows a couple of years ago, but it's nice to see shows like this making it to a wider audience. Now if only I had access to GetTV...
Made for TV Mayhem has a piece on one of those '70s TV movies that has the kind of title we love: Doctors' Private Lives. If that isn't an inducement to watch, I don't know what is. John Gavin, one of the movie's stars*, has a wonderful description of the plot: “Barbara [Anderson] plays my wife, and Donna [Mills] plays a widow with whom I become involved. But only physically and emotionally. It doesn’t go any deeper than that.” Well, then.
*Fun fact: in a few years, Gavin trades movies like this for a juicer role, that of U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, appointed by his old friend President Ronald Reagan.
Continuations of excellent, thought-provoking series reviews at two sites: Cult TV Blog, with his examination of apartheid in The Prisoner, and more of The Hitchcock Project at bare-bones e-zine. I wish I had time to get back to these kinds of long-form essays more often, but I've had a different writing project taking up most of my free time lately. More on that to come.
To explore these and other pressing questions, I'd suggest you come back here tomorrow, same time, same channel, to see what our next TV Guide has to offer. TV
