This week in TV Guide: September 18, 1954

Throughout history, man has strugged with the great intellectual questions of the time: What is the meaning of life? Why are we here, and where are we going? What's for dinner tonight? Among those great questions, I can assure you that "When will Liberace marry?" has not been one of them.

Now, to be fair, the question of Liberace's future matrimonial status is not the focal point of the story (never let it be said that TV Guide couldn't grab you with a cover headline); in fact, the story is really about how a piano player using the name "Buster Keys" and performing in saloons and cafes at the rate of about $30 a week has managed to parlay this into an income nearing $1 million per year and living in a Hollywood mansion. 

Wladziu Valention Liberace's rise to fame started at the age of five; his parents had separated while he was still a small tot; his mother, convinced that her son was a child prodigy, worked two jobs in order to keep the family together. Everything he has done since, he says, he does "for Mom." In the summer of 1952, he got a 13-week gig as the summer replacement for Dinah Shore; that, plus a winning smile that has a magical effect on the ladies, took care of the rest. Today his concerts sell out and movie producers talk about putting him on the big screen; one discusses casting him as a boxer who also plays the piano. "Gee," he exclaimed, "I’d love to do something like that."

It hasn't always been easy for him on the way to the top; the poison-pen set in the press portray him as naive, "a perpetually grinning matinee idol, slightly on the pudgy side, who seems for all the world to be an overgrown little boy dependent on his mother," something that bothers him even in the midst of his success. "Why do they say these things about me?" he wonders out loud. "What have I done to them?" 

Many of these same columnists, upon meeting him in person, find him to be "the most cooperative of souls, wholly uncomplicated, not at all temperamental and with a rare sense of humor." An associate says that this is part of his appeal, that his "sincerity and genuine delight with what he is doing is something that comes across on that television screen." He hasn't forgotten those tough times of the past, and still thinks of himself as a simple Polish boy from Milwaukee. He's quietly generous with associates, fans, and those he does business with; when a contractor working on his home came down with polio, he "saw to it that the contractor and his family were taken care of financially." When he sees tourists "gaping" in front of his home, he invites them in and gives them a personal tour. 

But, you ask, what about the question on the cover? When will Liberace marry? It's a question those press sharpshooters have asked out loud, calling him a "Mama's Boy." I think you can read between the lines of comments like these; Liberace never publicly admitted to being a homosexual, and in fact successfully sues the British Daily Mirror for libel in 1959 after they descxribed him as "a deadly, winking, sniggering, snuggling, chromium-plated, scent-impregnated, luminous, quivering, giggling, fruit-flavoured, mincing, ice-covered heap of mother love". The paper denies they meant to imply he was homosexual (talk about suspending disbelief!); the jury sides with Lee and awards him the equivalent today of £500,000. The unidentified reporter in TV Guide judiciously says that he will not marry as long as his mother is alive, and that "all his devotion is reserved for her and his music." (He has, however, twice come close to the altar.) 

I don't know if it's possible to "explain" Liberace; we're looking at him in his days before he became something of a self-parody, wearing flamboyant, Elvis-like costumes and the like. What I do know is that I've read too many accounts about his kindness to friends and strangers for that to have been a complete act, and the Christmas episode of his 1950s show (you can see it here) is both charming and appropriately devout; he was a lifelong Catholic who considered his 1956 meeting with Pope Pius XII one of the highlights of his life. All in all, I rather liked him.

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We don't often look at the world of late-night television in these old TV Guides, and for good reason: there are no late-night talk shows on network television, no late-night network movies; as a matter of fact, there's no network programming at all, once prime time wraps up. So, you might be wondering, what do people watch? 

Milwaukee's WTMJ leads off with a variety of short informational films in the 10:00 p.m. timeslot, followed by local news and weather at 10:15, reruns of various half-hour dramas at 10:30 and 11:00, the late movie at 11:30, a news wrapup at 1:00, and movies at 1:05 (except for Thursday, when we get wrestling!).   

In Chicago, viewers have four stations to choose from: WBBM, the CBS affiliate, presents 15 minutes of news at 10 p.m., followed by a 15-minute musical program, another 15 minutes of news at 10:30 p.m., and a 15-minute interview program hosted by newspaper columnist Irv Kupcinet. At 11:00 on Monday through Thursday, there's a half-hour drama (comprised of reruns of various series from the last couple of seasons), followed by a five-minute news update at 11:30 and late-night movie at 11:35; on Friday, The Howard Miller Show, a local variety program, runs from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m.

WNBQ, the NBC affiliate, leads off with the 10 p.m. weather, followed at 10:10 by a five-minute variety show, 15 minutes of news at 10:15, 15 minutes of sports at 10:30, 15 minutes of music from Herbie Mintz at 10:45, and a variety of shows at 11:00 that take us to sign-off: voice artist Ken Nordine on Monday, Championship Bowling on Tuesday and Friday, and movies on Thursday.

WBKB, ABC's affiliate, does not have a 10 p.m. newscast; instead, we get various half-hour dramas and sitcoms at 10:00 and 10:30 (Monday through Thursday; Jim Moran hosts a local variety program from 10 to 11 on Friday. That's followed by five minutes of news, five minutes of weather, Tom Duggan's talk show at 11:10 (said to be "the first all-talk show to appear on television"), and the midnight movie.

Finally, there's independent WGN in its pre-superstation days; they lead off with a movie at 10 p.m., news and weather at 11:30, and various paid programming at 11:50, probably leading up to midnight.

Little did we know what was in store for television history the following Monday, September 27: the NBC debut of Steve Allen's Tonight. After that, late night television would never be the same.

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The college football season kicks off Saturday with a showdown between two of the nation's top programs, as Oklahoma, ranked number 1 in the preseason polls, travels to Berkeley to take on number 3 California. (3:30 p.m., ABC) Oklahoma is in the midst of their historic 47-game winning streak, which began in October 1953 and runs until November, 1957; needless to say, they come out on top today, 27-13. (By contrast, the 2024 college football season began on August 24.)

If you're looking for the professional version of the game on Sunday, you're not going to find it; the NFL doesn't start for another week. (As a matter of fact, the only pro football this week is north of the border, with NBC's Canadian football game of the week at 12:45 p.m. on Saturday.) Fear not; there's still plenty to choose from, beginning with the debut of Art Linkletter's People Are Funny ► (6:00 p.m., NBC); the radio version first aired in 1942, and the show would run on both TV and radio until 1960. On Toast of the Town (7:00 p.m., CBS), Ed Sullivan salutes the U.S. Navy with performers who are all naval personnel; previous shows had featured the Army and Air Force.

Monday night gives us one of the major dramas of the Golden Age, Reginald Rose's "Twelve Angry Men" on Studio One (9:00 p.m., CBS). Most people are probably more familiar with the 1957 movie version with Henry Fonda, but Rose originally wrote the story for television, later expanding it into a stage play and eventually a theatrical feature (as was common in the heydays of the dramatic anthology). Both versions are terrific, but I have a soft spot for the original, which stars Bob Cummings as the lone holdout trying to convince his fellow jurors of a defendant's innocence. Cummings is very good in the role, hesitant and nervous at first, but increasingly confident and persuasive as he goes on; it provides an interesting contrast with Fonda's regular, virtuous self (you have to wonder if he was acting at all), and it's good enough to win Cummings an Emmy for Best Actor. You can see it for yourself here.

Tuesday sees the season premiere of Milton Berle's Buick-Berle Show (7:00 p.m., NBC), with special guest star Mickey Rooney. Berle is still Mr. Television, but he's not the same Berle he was in the Texaco Star Theater days, presenting a more restrained and polished persona (you can read about that here) that never really caught on with his longtime fans. His ratings take a dramatic hit, dropping from #5 to #11 nationally (his first time being out of the top ten); next season Buick will drop its sponsorship, and by the end of that season the Berle show will be history.  

Things are somewhat up in the air on Wednesday; the feature attraction was to have been world lightweight champion Paddy DeMarco defending his title against Jimmy Carter (9:00 p.m., CBS), but after this issue went to press, the fight was postponed until November. As an alternative, you can catch Elizabeth Montogmery in "The Light is Cold" on Kraft Theatre (8:00 p.m., NBC), and stick with the Peacock Network for a rerun of This Is Your Life at 9:00, with Martha Raye as the honoree. 

Thursday stars off with Groucho Marx and You Bet Your Life (7:00 p.m., NBC), and continues with Four Star Playhouse (7:30 p.m., CBS), starring Dick Powell as a weary police detective who arrives home after a day in which he was forced to shoot a suspect; later in the evening, he discovers someone has stolen his gun. At 8:00 p.m. it's Dragnet (NBC), with Friday discovering that a robbery suspect is an old Army friend. Ford Theater (the show, not the building) returns at 8:30, with Robert Stack starring in "Ever Since the Day," the story of an Army vet who returns from Korea but has difficulty adjusting to civilian life, and at 9:00 it's The Lone Wolf (WGN), a sneaky-good syndicated series that's kind of an American version of The Saint, with Louis Hayward very good as jewel thief-turned-private detective Michael Lanyard. Prime time ends as it began, with a quiz show: Bill Cullen hosting Name That Tune. (9:30 p.m., CBS)

I always enjoy checking in with Edward R. Murrow's Person to Person, which airs Friday at 9:30 p.m. on CBS; it's a useful barometer for telling what celebrities are hot, and what stories are in the headlines. This week, the celebrity guest is actress Eva Marie Saint; later, Murrow visits the Washington, D.C. home of Agriculture Secretary Ezra Taft Benson. One guest you won't see with Ed is the notorious Keefe Brasselle, "popular young star of The Eddie Cantor Story," who hosts a variety special on NBC at 7:30 p.m.

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There's a show called The Telltale Clue that's the subject of this week's review by Dan Jenkins. You might not have heard of it before; it debuted on July 18 and airs the last of its 13 episodes this Thursday. I can't tell whether it was ever intended to serve as anything other than a summer filler, but if it was, judging by Jenkins' review, it failed the test. 

The series stars Anthony Ross as homicide captain Richard Hale, and the gimmick is the use of forensic evidence to solve otherwise perfect crimes. The telltale clue is introduced at some point during the show, "which the viewer is invited to dig out for himself during the commercial before the denouement." Ross plays Hale with an intensity that, Jenkins says, threatens to create "a certain amount of sympathy for the villain," one of the elements I most dislike in modern police procedurals. As Jenkins points out, "Sympathy for the villain, of course, is prohibited by law." His verdict on The Telltale Clue: "uninspired stuff, filling one of those half hours that might be better spent reading a good book." There are a couple of episodes on YouTube; you can check this one out and see what you think.

Jenkins' other review this week is of anothet series with which you may not be familiar, So You Want to Lead a Band?, which premiered in 1950 and ran, mostly during the summer, through 1955, with a revival from September 1958 to June 1959. It's hosted by bandleader Sammy Kaye, and the premise is right there in the title for everyone to see: amateurs from the studio audience are given the chance to conduct Kaye's band; at the end of the show, the audience then votes on the winner. 

Jenkins sees the show, correctly, as an anachronism, "reflecting the taste of another era and lacking the pace and polish of today’s more breathless efforts." Considering that much the same can be said when comparing the shows of the 1950s to today's output, it must really have poked along. Professional singers, such as Betty Clooney (Rosemary's sister) are brought in occasionally to provide a little more entertainment value, but, as Jenkins notes, the show's success over the years proves there must be something to the sight of a layman "waving a baton in front of a band," but whatever it is, "it has entirely escaped this reviewer's notice."

I mention these two shows not so much to get your opinion on them as to demonstrate just how many programs there are out there that have completely escaped our attention. It's reasonable to have heard of "swing and sway" Sammy Kaye; less so to be familiar with So You Want to Lead a Band? And the fact that there are actually surviving episodes of The Telltall Clue, when episodes of other, better-known, series have vanished from existence is, if not impressive, at least unlikely. The history of television is a big topic; we've probably lost much more than we've saved.

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It is reported that the "most widely circulated TV show in the world" is the half-hour drama series This Is the Life, produced by the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, and if you've spent any time with these ancient TV Guide issues, you won't be surprised by the news. I don't think I've ever read through an issue that didn't have This Is the Life playing in at least one market, and frequently more than one. I'll bet you've seen it a time or two yourself.

This Is the Life is one of a number of similar religious programs—Insight and Crossroads are two others you might be familiar with—that use television to, in the words of the show's creator, pastor Herman Gockel, "reach the non-religious audience, people who wouldn’t tune in if they thought they were going to get nothing but religion." The show is centered around the Fisher family, a typical Lutheran family living in the Midwest, and the everyday problems confronted by them or those passing through their orbit. "We set up a problem, a conflict,” Gockel says, “which can only be resolved by the application of one Christian precept or another." The first ten or fifteen minutes are purely dramatic; once the audience is hooked, it's time for the pitch, usually delivered by the patriarch of the family, Grampa Fisher. Th pitch itself is not specifically Lutheran, but based on Christian precepts.

The series, which began in 1952, is provided free of charge to any station that wants it, and plenty do: it is currently seen by an audience of 20 million on 225 stations in the United States, plus those in Canada and Great Britain. Station managers report that the series generates a "phenomenal" amount of mail, most of it asking for help or advice; every letter is answered by the Missouri Synod. "We do get converts, but we look upon them as a pleasant by-product of the show. A bonus, you might say." An additional bonus: an impressive number of current and future stars who appear on the show.

In 1956, the show's format is changed to eliminate the Fisher family; the show remains set in "Middleburg," and the only regular is Pastor Martin, who ministered to the Fishers when the show began; this format will remain until the show ends production in 1988, dealing with issues that weren't even on the horizon when it began. Of course, you can catch some episodes on YouTube. 

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MST3K alert: The Mad Monster (1942) A mad scientist, ousted from his university, develops a method for transplanting the blood of a wolf into that of a man. Johnny Downs, George Zucco, Anne Neagle, and Glenn Strange. (Thursday, 1:00 p.m., WGN) OK, this is a really bad movie; it makes it to MST3K on merit. We do have the consolation of another episode of Radar Men from the Moon, however. And don't feel too sorry for Glenn Strange as Petro, the monster: he'll go on to play Sam, the bartender of the Long Branch Saloon, in 222 episodes from 1961 to 1973. Now that calls for a drink! TV   

Around the dial

Xt bare•bones e-zine, Jack's latest Hitchcock Project subject is Alvin Sargent, who wrote the ninth-season episode "The Ordeal of Mrs. Snow," with Patricia Collinge, Jessica Walter, and Don Chastain. It's not only a nifty mystery, but it provides a bit of social commentary on the lives of the rich and famous at the same time.

At Drunk TV, Paul focuses on the 1987 miniseries Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story, starring Farrah Fawcett as the department store heiress, Burl Ives as her grandfather F.W. Woolworth (yep, that Woolworth), and a good guest cast; weighing in at nearly five hours, it proves the old adage that nothing exceeds like excess. Your mileage may vary, but it sounds right to me.

Maddy takes on the grim, moody British spy series Callan at Classic Film and TV Corner, with Edward Woodward outstanding as the eponymous agent, assigned to deal with those who threaten UK internal security. It's far closer to John le Carré than Ian Fleming, and cynical in the extreme, which means it's just right for our time.

We'll stick with British TV as John continues his look at the roles of Denis Shaw at Cult TV Blog. This week, it's the 1958 series The Invisible Man, and the episode "Man in Disguise." By the way, one of the things I remember reading about this series, which John confirms, is that we never do find out the actor (or actors) playing the title role. We know Shaw, though, and he's perfect in this episode.

At A Shroud of Thoughts, Terence riffs on the 60th anniversary of Jonny Quest, one of the most-loved animated series of the 1960s, moving from prime time to Saturday mornings and then into syndication before being revived in the late 1990s. In some ways it shows its age, but its fans remain thrilled by its sense of adventure.

At Comfort TV, David draws some interesting parallels between photography and television, not only by looking at how picture-taking has been a part of classic episodes, but whether the ease of taking pictures with your phone makes them somehow less special, just as the glut of television today makes these shows less special. Thoughtful, as always. TV 

TV Jibe: A candidate for today

TV  

What's on TV? Wednesday, September 20, 1972

Madigan, premiering tonight on NBC, would, at first glance, appear to be an odd choice for one of the rotating elements of the network's Wednesday Mystery Movie. In the first place, the title character, a tough New York detective played brilliantly by Richard Widmark, is killed at the end of the movie (also called Madigan) on which the series is based. Second, while the movie took place in gritty New York, the series takes place in Europe, where Madigan has been sent to battle organized crime. Added to that, the Madigan that appears in the movie is not the typically admirable character around whom you'd base a series; he bent the law, cheated on his wife, and botched the case that set up the premise for the rest of the movie. Despite all this, it was quite the coup to get the same actor to play the character in both the movie and the series, let alone an actor with the stature of Widmark. Madigan rotated with Banacek and Cool Millions, but only Banacek survived to a second season. Our listings are from New York City.

This week in TV Guide: September 16, 1972

The start to the new television season, as I've often said, used to be an exciting time, with both new and familiar vieing for attention. This week is a perfect example, as the NFL returns, big movies make their TV debuts, and new shows pop up everywhere. One of the shows you'd think would have done well is Anna and the King (Sunday, 7:30 p.m. ET, CBS), with Yul Brynner returning to the role for which he won an Oscar on the big screen, but no, it's 13 episodes and out. Maybe Walt Disney was too much competition? At any rate there's plenty more to see here, starting with those movie blockbusters.

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It may seem odd that one of the big attractions of the new TV season is the theatrical movie, but this is the way it is before cable, before streaming, when Hollywood's biggest hits used to take years to make it to your living room set. The action starts right away, with NBC rolling out In the Heat of the Night, winner of five Academy Awards including Best Picture, on Saturday night (9:00 p.m. ET) Sterling Silliphant won an Oscar for his screenplay adaptation, and in doing so demonstrates something he must have learned from Naked City: if you're going to do a genre story, no matter what kind of message you want to send, you're still going to have to respect the demands of the genre at the same time. Indeed, although In the Heat of the Night is about race relations, ignorance and prejudice, and the old south coming to terms with a new world, Judith Crist reminds us that it still succeeds as a top-notch whodunit. Of course, having Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger in the cast doesn't hurt.

Neither does it hurt Richard Brooks to have a superior cast for his 1966 The Professionals, led by Burt Lancaster, Lee Marvin, Robert Ryan, Jack Palance, and Claudia Cardinale. CBS brings it to the small screen on Thursday night at 9:00 p.m., so that everyone can appreciate what Crist calls a "supurbly entertaining adventure-suspence Western" that garnered two Oscar nominations for Brooks, for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. It runs twenty minutes over the normal two-hour timeslot, but that includes a Republican political announcement that we're told follows the movie.

Crist's also going to give a good reivew to Tuesday's late movie, Roger Corman's House of Usher (11:30 p.m., CBS), in which Vincent Price "established himself as the nonpareil in the portrayl of intellectual and sophisticated madmen." She isn't as big a fan of Sunday night's big premiere, ABC's Goldfinger, which she writes "isn't up to the standards set by 'Dr. No' and 'From Russia with Love'," as the franchise begins to change focus "from emphatic action and vicarious heroism to sex and sadism, which outweigh the good dirty fun that initially gave Bond his adult comicstrip status with grown-ups." I understand what she means by that, though most fans rate Goldfinger at or near the top; nevertheless, as she points out, "compared with all the imitations that have come along in the past eight years—good old 007 still holds his own."*

*Oh, the things I could say but won't. 

However mild that criticism may be, it's nothing compared to what she thinks of CBS's offering on Friday night, Valley of the Dolls (9:00 p.m., followed by a Democratic political announcement). Quoting in full, "It's a bowdlerized version of the Jacqueline Susann book which provided a mawkish, trite, cheap story and smut; the movie lacks the smut but compensates by being badly acted, badly photographed and sleazily made, with a cheapjack production underlining the near-idiot literacy level of the script. Patty Duke, who scores high in the repulsive bracket, and Susan Hayward, who can count this as her horror movie (all middle-aged stars have to do one, it seems) fortunately survive their appearances herein." Well, I didn't want to watch that one anyway.

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A couple of soon-to-be classics make their debuts on Saturday night. ABC introduces The Streets of San Francisco (9:00 p.m.), with Karl Malden and Michael Douglas co-starring with The City itself. It features one of television's most dynamic opening credit sequences. It serves the series well, as it embarks on a five-season run, the latest success in the Quinn Martin stable. If you don't remember Streets from Saturday, there's a good reason why: it's on up against a CBS sitcom block that starts with Mary Tyler Moore, beginning its third season; the second half of that block is the night's second notable debut, The Bob Newhart Show (9:30 p.m.), the story of "A psychologist who can't handle his own hangups." Throw in In the Heat of the Night, and this really is the kind of night for which the VCR was invented.

Say goodbye to Sunday afternoons; the NFL is in town. The Shield kicks off its 53rd season with a doubleheader on NBC as the New York Jets travel to Buffalo to take on the Bills (1:00 p.m.); the main men in the game: Joe Namath for the Jets, O.J. Simpson for the Bills. Neither makes it to the playoffs. That's followed by the Miami Dolphins and the Kansas City Chiefs, in the first regular season game played at the new Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. The last time these two teams met, it was Christmas Day 1971, with the Dolphins defeating the Chiefs in a double-overtime thriller. Over on CBS, it's the New York Giants and Detroit Lions, from Tiger Stadium in Detroit. (2:00 p.m.)

"The Movie Fractured You. The Series Will Have You in Stitches." That's the way CBS advertises the debut of M*A*S*H on Sunday night (8:00 p.m.). If I didn't know any better, I'd think it was going to be something like Hogan's Heroes. Of course, the tenor of the program does evolve somewhat over the years. If family fare is more your thing, Walt Disney begins its 19th season with "The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes," staring Kurt Russell*. Turning to crime, it's the second-season premiere of Columbo "Etude in Black" (9:00 p.m., NBC), starring John Cassavetes in possibly the worst impression of a conductor ever seen on television. (His performance otherwise is quirky and good, working with his old friend Peter Falk.) Elsewhere in the crime racket, Eddie Egan, the real-life former NYC detective who was the basis for Gene Hackman's character in The French Connection, is "a cop out to nab a killer" in the sixth-season opener of Mannix. (9:30 p.m., CBS) 

*Stay tuned for a Kurt Russell tie-in later on in this feature.

Monday Night Football begins its third season with a major-league showdown between the Washington Redskins and Minnesota Vikings (9:00 p.m., ABC), but right before that ABC features another of its new series, The Rookies (8:00 p.m.), starring Georg Stanford Brown, Michael Ontkean, and Sam Melville as the rookie cops, Gerald S. O'Loughlin. as their mentor, and Kate Jackson as Melville's wife. And do you remember Bill Cosby's variety show? I didn't either, until I was reminded of it here; his big-name guest lineup includes Peter Sellers and Lily Tomlin. (10:00 p.m., CBS)

On Tuesday, WCBS presents the season premieres of two old favorites in new skins (syndicated skins, that is). First, at 1:00 p.m., it's Larry Blyden as the host of the all-new What's My Line? Then, at 7:30 p.m., it's Steve Allen hosting I've Got a Secret. Both harmless entertainment; neither come close to the sophistication and star power of the originals. Later in the evening, The Bold Ones (9:00 p.m., NBC) has the conclusion to one of those crossover episodes that you can only get when diferent series share the same television universe. This time, "The New Doctors" wraps up a storyline that began last week on Ironside; seems a surgeon's (Vic Morrow) daughter has been kidnapped, and only Raymond Burr and his gang can get to the bottom of it. I'm betting on the Chief.

Wednesday's a big night with several new series, including The Paul Lynde Show (8:00 p.m., ABC) with Lynde woefully miscast as a family man. Later, after ABC's Wednesday Movie of the Week, it's the second episode of The Julie Andrews Show (10:00 p.m.), with guests Carl Reiner, Cass Elliot, and Alice Ghostley joining Julie in a wild take-off of All About Eve.

Meantime, NBC has a couple of rookie series that, unfortunately, fail to return for seconds. The night begins with Adam-12 (8:00 p.m.); that's followed by Richard Widmark, reprising his movie role of the tough New York cop Madigan, as part of the network's new Wednesday Mystery Movie (8:30 p.m.); after that, it's SEARCH (10:00 p.m.), a sadly underrated show featuring Tony Francoisa, Hugh O'Brian, and Doug McClure alternating as leads and Burgess Meredith as the hub that keeps them together. 

CBS doesn't need anything new, with a lineup that includes The Carol Burnett Show, Medical Center, and Cannon. But Medical Center (10:00 p.m.) does catch my eye, because something tells me Chad Everett's Dr. Gannon is going to have a very tough day: "Mrs. Slade has a happy secret: after many years of marriage, she is finally pregnant. Mr. Slade has a secret, too, and the implication isn't as happy—three years ago he had a vasectomy." Oops! (Evidentelly, the wife didn't have to give written concent back in those days.) Yes, I think Dr. Gannon's going to need some aspirin before this hour is over, along with a stiff drink.

Thursday gives us the series that becomes the surprise hit of the year. The Waltons (8:00 p.m., CBS), based on the Christmas movie The Homecoming, isn't expected to amount to much in the ratings, but the network puts it on the fall schedule to appease critics (including those in Congress) who've harshly criticized the network for its Rural Purge; the suits figure it won't be much more than fodder for NBC's successful Flip Wilson Show, but the joke's on them, as The Waltons goes on for nine successful seasons, hitting number one in the ratings. On the other hand, ABC rolls out another of those wheel shows, but unlike SEARCH, this one is made up of three separate shows, none of which make the grade: Jigsaw, which debuts tonight (9:00 p.m.) stars James Wainwright as a California state investigator; he'll be alternating with Robert Conrad in Assignment Vienna and Laurence Luckinbill in The Delphi Bureau. 

Friday gives us an example of another staple of the new television season: a multi-episode spectacular. Tonight, in the first of a three-part adventure, The Brady Bunch takes a vacation in Hawaii. (8:00 p.m., ABC) Of course, if you think some fun and sun is all there is to it, you've got another think coming, I recommend Howard Cosell's guest spot on The Odd Couple (9:30 p.m., ABC). NBC presents a lineup that, save Sanford and Son, is entirely new: The Little People (8:30 p.m.), with Brian Keith as a pediatrician and Shelley Fabares as his daughter; Ghost Story (9:00 p.m.), a horror anthology hosted by Sebastian Cabot; and Banyon (10:00 p.m.), a period detective piece with Robert Forster. The Little People, renamed The Brian Keith Show, manages to survive for two seasons; Ghost Story (renamed Circle of Fear, and without Cabot) and Banyon do not. If you're staying up late, I suggest heading over to WNEW at 1:30 a.m. to catch The Stranger, a superior suspense movie starring Orson Welles (who also directed) as a Nazi war criminal masquerading as a teacher, Loretta Young as his fiancee, and Edward G. Robinson as the United Nations agent hunting Welles down. 

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Not to be left out, ABC rolls out its new Saturday morning lineup this week, apparently making it the "place to be," at least on Saturday mornings. Compared to cartoons of the past, some of which can still be seen Saturdays on other networks, this lineup strikes me as—what? Trendy, taking advantage of headlining music groups? (The Jackson 5ive, The Osmonds.) Cynical, spinning off from the network's own primetime shows? (The Brady Girls, with magic myna bird and pandas thrown in for good measure.) Unimaginative, regurgitating some of those old, favorite characters in an hour-long story with a social message? ("Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw, Top Cat, Magilla Gorilla and his other animal friends sail away from Jellystone National Park to escape pollution.") Perhaps all three? It strikes me that this would have been about the time I stopped watching Saturday morning cartoons, which is a shame because I still enjoy the best of them (Rocky and Bullwinkle, Alvin, Felix the Cat, Bugs Bunny), but I'm afraid most intelligent children will see right through some of this claptrap.

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The Doan Report offers a recap of the Munich Olympic Massacre, which had only happened the past week. ABC's coverage of the Games, which started out in color and pagentry, ended in a "spectacle of horror," but the network acquitted itself magnificently, with Jim McKay and Howard Cosell "suddenly cast in the role of headline-news reporters." NBC and CBS scrambled as best they could to provide coverage, but were limited in the amount of satellite time they were able to access, although CBS was able to get an hour, using coverage from the German police TV camera that ABC also had. Hard to imagine now, that one network could have virtually exclusive live coverage of a breaking news story like that, but in 1972 it wasn't all that easy to get satellite time under the best of circumstances; as I recall, ABC faced the same challenges in staying on the air.

Doan also notes that NBC is engaged in a "nation-wide search" for someone to host their proposed new late-late show, Tomorrow. While entertainment is forseen as being part of the new program, the emphasis will be on talk, often on "very important subjects of a nature that might not get discussed on TV at an hour before 1 A.M." No speculation as to the host will be, although it might be someone from "outside show business." (As indeed it is. ►) ABC and CBS are said to be "taking a wait-and-see attitide" toward NBC's new venture.

As for the new season, experts don't see any new trends coming from the new series; All in the Family, Marcus Welby, M.D., and Flip (Wilson) are expected to once again lead the pack. The heavy favorite among the new series is CBS's Bridget Loves Bernie, which lasts only a single season. The real interest lies with public reaction to the so-called "New Permissiveness." "Titillations with the gay life, abortion, unmarried sex and such will abound on TV in the weeks ahead. It's going to induce either drooling or damnation, or both."

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Two months later. . .

Some additional industry news from the Teletype: Here's a program I remember, from the day after Thanksgiving, 1972. They don't have a name for it yet, but it will be called "The Jerry Lucas Super Kids Day Magic Jamboree," filling three hours for ABC on the morning after Turkey Day, and it will feature the New York Knicks star performing magic tricks, passing along basketball tips, and "display[ing] his freakish memory (which allows him to memorize hundreds of pages of telephone directories.)" As I recall, Lucas would go on talk shows and memorize the names of everyone in the audience, and one of his greatest feats was the ability to take any word, at the instant it was spoken, and alphabatize it. He was a very good player, but disarming and fascinating in all these other ways. Sports Illustrated had two interesting articles on him; this one at the height of his memory fame, and this one from 30 years later telling of the interesting turns his life has taken since.

Also: Neil Diamond's received offers from all three networks to do music specials for them. He's mulling them over, but as I recall, he winds up going with NBC, doing a special called "Neil Diamond at the Greek Theatre."  Jerry Lewis plans an appearance on Sonny & Cher on CBS, including a skit in which he and Sonny play chess. (It happens to be the episode that airs this Friday.) And finally, Robert Young plans to star in a TV movie for ABC, entitled "All My Darling Daughters." Now TV Guide doesn't mention this, but I've heard they were going to call it "All My Darjeeling Daughters," but Young said it wasn't his cup of tea. . .

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Believe it or not, NBC's Laugh-In is about to start its fifth season. (Sock it to me.) Almost the entire supporting cast has turned over in that time, with only Ruth Buzzi remaining on the show, and Leslie Raddatz takes the opporunity to catch up with the "six who bowed out," and gets some surprising insights along the way.

Of the six, Goldie Hawn has, by far, enjoyed the most successful post-Laugh-In career, having appeared in three movies, and winning an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for one of them, Cactus Flower. "There was an excitement about Laugh-In then," she remembers of the early days. "There were no egos. Everything was funny." She explains that when she first started, she had a hard time reading the cue cards without giggling, and producer George Schlatter "decided to make something of that." She remembers the camaraderie of those days fondly: working until 2 a.m., singing songs because they'd gotten so slap-happy. "But it had to end sometime," she says wistfully. When the show did its hundredth show, she was the one who didn't come back, because "you can't recapture the past."

Judy Carne only appeared on Laugh-In for two years, during which time she'd do anything for a laugh. Besides being dunked in water, she was sawed in half and shot from a cannon; "I guess I'm just a frustrated stuntgirl." She regrets having left the show when she did. "I was emotionally involved and disturbed, and I felt I had to go. Now I can sit back and view things, and I realize it was not too smart a move." Since then, she did a Broadway show that was less than successful ("The Boy Friend"), and spent six months doing what she called a "disastrous" night-club act. "And I was married for three months." 

Jo Anne Worley remembers that halfway through the first season, "Goldie and I decided that we weren't getting anywhere. Then one day we went shopping together, and we were mobbed. That changed our minds!" She left the show at her agent's suggestion, and since then "I've guested on practically every show and done commercials and been a semiregular on Andy Williams' show." She also spent time in London, doing shows with Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck. "I don't miss Laugh-In as such. It was the relationship that was important—we all laughed and had such a good time." 

Arte Johnson was the only member of the cast to win an Emmy, and though he's most remembered for his "Verrry Interesting" WWII German soldier, he recalls how it took 40 minutes for him to be made up for the old man, another of his signature characters. "Doing him was a tremendous psychological problem. It was always the old man, not me—I stayed constant." He left Laugh-In to pursue other opportunities; "You reach a certain plateau, and you want to reach a higher plateau." He never had time for anything else while on Laugh-In, but since then, "I've done a pilot, two specials, a lot of guest shots, and some summer theater." Like the others, he has fond memories of his time: "It was sheer mayhem sometimes, but nobody in the history of show business ever had the opportunity we did."

Henry Gibson seems to have been an unlikely member of the cast, having studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and earned a dregree in drama from Catholic University, but his entrance to TV was as "a bucolic poet from the Deep South." He recalls his first meeting with Schlatter; after sitting quietly whle Schlatter juggled phone calls from Milton Berle, Frank Sinatra and others, he decided something drastic was needed. "I had paid a stuntman $50 once to teach me a triple flip for a show, so finally I pretended to faint and then did the flip George put down the phone and said, 'I don't know who you are, but you're hired.'" "I hated to leave the show, but after four years you have to make a choice." He wanted a chance to return to his acting roots, and has guested on several shows since, as well as played the voice of Wilbur the pig in Charlotte's Web.

Alan Sues worked in night clubs prior to Laugh-In; his funniest memories involve things that weren't planned, such as the time he was supposed to "fly" in for a scene and was left hanging on wires when everyone else broke for lunch. He considered himself a revue performer rather than a comic, a situation he considers more of a challenge for his abilities: "On TV, they just turn up the laugh track, but out there [on stage] you'd better be funny." Like some of the others, he's done guest shots and some summer stock; "I miss Laugh-In, but when I think about going through tha ttrap door, I don't know."

Only Ruth Buzzi is still on the show (along with Dan Rowan and Dick Martin, but as Judy Carne remembers, they were "never part of" the closeness that the others felt working together as part of a repertory company. "I can see why the others left the show," Buzzi says, "but I don't think anything would have happened for me that hasn't happened anyway." She's done a failed plot, some commercials, and some guest shots; "Now, I'm the last of the red-hot mammas. In my mind, it's a whole new show"

It's difficult, from the perspective of 50+ years, to avoid comparing the sitaution to that of the original Not Ready for Prime Time Players on Saturday Night Live, although the latter left as a group rather than individually. SNL has persisted since then (although Lord knows why), with cast members coming and going, but they're always compared to the originals. Much the same could be said for Laugh-In; despite an effort to reboot the show with a new cast, everyone looks back to the the six who left and the one who remains. 

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MST3K alert: Revenge of the Creature (1955) A young scientist sets out to capture the Creature and use him for scientific studies. John Agar,  Lori Nelson, John Bromfield. (Saturday, 2:30 p.m., WCBS in New York City). One of MST3K's favorite whipping boys, John Agar (aka Mr. Shirley Temple) is out-acted by the great Ricou Browning, and Lori Nelson takes the place of Julie Adams. There's a reason why this movie, and not the original, is on MST3K. On the other hand, we're introduced to Professor Bobo and The Nanites, so how bad can it be? Or is that just a rhetorical question? TV