Your 2020 Christmas Gift Guide!

One of the more wonderful things about the most wonderful time of the year is that, thanks to our friend the internet, you don't necessarily have to head for the mall on December 24 to get that last-minute gift. With that thought, and keeping in mind some of you might even be looking for a treat for yourself, here are some suggestions for gifts to please the classic TV fan you know and love. I've included the appropriate links to take you to where you can place your order.

Since this is my website, I'm going to cast any modesty aside and start off with my three books, all of which are available in either paperback or for the Kindle. The Electronic Mirror: Wbat Classic TV Tells Us About Who We Were and Who We Are (and Everything In-Between) is my collection of essays on classic television and the effect it's had on American pop culture. Many of the essays come from right here on It's About TV, but The Electronic Mirror also includes ones that were written exclusively for the book. I've also thoughtfully put them together in a narrative form, arranged by subject, so you can see how certain things have changed throughout the years. You can read it from cover-to-cover, or just pick out a story here and there for those times when you've got a few minutes to spare. (In other words, while you're in the bathroom.)

As many of you know, I also write about things other than television; for instance, there's my novel The Collaborator, which tells the story of a conflict for control of the Catholic Church between a liberal pope and traditional cardinal. Any resemblance between this story and current affairs is, well, up to you. And if you're not in the mood to deal with the battle for your eternal soul, there's The Car, in which a man becomes obsessed with trying to find the owner of an abandoned car, and nothing is quite what it seems to be. All of these books can be inscribed as you like; just send me an email.

Assuming, as I do, that you already own all my books, may I recommend David Hofstede's new book, When Television Brought Us Together. It's a look at why so many Americans find themselves left out in the cold when it comes to today's television, and reminds us of when classic shows could bring us together in more ways than one. 

Earlier this year I had the pleasure of talking with William Bartlett, the author of a terrific coffee table book that might just find its way to your nightstand, NBC and 30 Rock: A View from Inside. It's a vivid history of the Peacock Network, lavishly illustrated, and sure to make you feel as if you're right there in the studio with some of television's greatest stars. 

Among the many biographies of television stars, I always recommend Bob Crane: The Definitive Biography by Carol M. Ford, Dee Young, and Linda J. Groundwater. It's a much-needed corrective that sets the story straight on the life and times of a very talented, very complex man 

If you'd rather watch TV than read about it, one of the recent purchases that I've really enjoyed watching is The Eleventh Hour, the 1962-64 NBC psychiatric drama starring Wendell Corey and Jack Ging as two men dedicated to patients whose illnesses don't always show on the outside. Unfortunately, Warners hasn't seen fit to release the second season (yet), in which Ralph Bellamy replaces Corey, but Corey's humane and often moving portrayal of Dr. Theodore Bassett makes the first season a must.

One of my favorite Friday night pleasures is watching Robert Conrad and Ross Martin bringing a little bit of James Bond to the old West in The Wild Wild West. The individual seasons on Amazon are reasonably priced, but if you want the four-season box set, try Ebay or one of your favorite second-hand dealers. You'll find the effort well worth it.

Two classics from the early 1960s made it onto DVD this year: the first seasons of ABC's medical drama Ben Casey, with Vincent Edwards (two volumes and outrageously priced, but it is Christmas); and the much-admired NBC drama Mr. Novak, with James Franciscus as the earnest young teacher. As a bonus, you should pick up the excellent book Mr. Novak: An Acclaimed Television Series, by Chuck Harter. (Read my interview with Chuck here.)

As for some old favorites, there's a trio of British shows you'll want if you don't have them already: the companion series Danger Man and The Prisoner, both starring Patrick McGoohan as secret agent John Drake, and The Avengers, with Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg. (And don't stop there; make the effort to find the episodes with Honor Blackman and Linda Thorson.)

To round out your shopping, I refer you to the guide at one of my go-to sites, Television Obscurities, where you can find excellent gift ideas for both recent and vintage shows.

As I mentioned, the links above are to Amazon, but there are deals to be had out there, and a little investigative work can probably produce them. Regardless, all the ingredients are here for you to make that someone special a little happier come Christmas morning. TV  

What's on TV? Monday, December 4, 1967

W e're told by TV Guide that Monday represents the start of a new morning schedule for ABC. The Family Game and The Children's Doctor have moved to new timeslots, and two new game shows make their delayed* debut: Temptation, hosted by Art James, in which "a trio of contestants try to outguess one another for merchandise prizes"; and How's Your Mother-in-Law, with Wink Martindale, where mothers-in-law are judged on behavior; "three comedians try to prove that their mothers are best" by arguing their case before a jury of unmarried men and women. That last one was created and produced by Chuck Barris, a fact which doesn't surprise me in the least. (He also created the aforementioned Family Game.) Neither would still be on the air next year at this time.

*Production was held up due to the fall strike by the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians against ABC. See what Wink Martindale had to say about the experience here.

Don't give up on the rest of the schedule, though, because there's plenty to see in this selection from the Minnesota State Edition.

This week in TV Guide: December 2, 1967

We're long past the point when television claimed to be an impartial bystander in the stories it covers. After all, just look at last month's presidential election. Or, perhaps less controversially, there's the story from a couple of weeks ago of the ESPN analyst who inserted himself into the story when his lighthearted but derogatory remarks about the Northwestern football team so enraged the players and coaches that they used the insults as motivation in their upset victory over Wisconsin. I'm sure the Badgers really appreciated his support. 

But we're into controversy around here, and in 1967 there's nothing more controversial than the Vietnam War. And so Martin Maloney's cover story asks the question: does TV confuse Americans about Vietnam?

Maloney calls it "TVietnam, the big war in the little box, the war brought to me by courtesy of pain-relievers, deodorants and low-cal beverages." Not, he hastens to add, is he suggesting that television coverage has been anything other than honest and conscientious. But it is inevitable that the immediacy of television's war coverage, its ability to bring "terror, shock and death" right into the living rooms of Americans, "may force them to become participants in the agony of the times." No longer is war "presented" to us through distant radio and newspaper reports while we wait for future historians to tell us what it all meant; we now find ourselves processing the war simultaneously, "as a kind of daily puzzle which we must ourselves piece out and understand." 

The very nature of television news demands movement and urgency. Dramatic developments—or, shall we say, developments that have been deemed to be dramatic—are given the biggest piece of the limited news pie; a crisis calls for, and gets, covered over and over and over. "As a fairly consistent viewer of TV news programs," Maloney writes, "I sometimes get the nightmarish feeling that I have been trapped in a 6 o'clock treadmill: There is nothing new about the news." Television also reduces the size of battle and "detaches the viewer from it." It becomes so incomprehensible to those at home that it is "almost inaccessible to the human intellect." With the U.S. involved in a proxy war between North and South, it becomes nearly impossible to tell who is who, who the Viet Cong are, where the South Vietnamese army has gone. The struggle over territory lacks the clear definition of the march to Berlin; "if the war has actually progressed from North to South, or South to North, or in any discoverable direction, you would never know it from TV."

The end result of TVietnam seems to be "to reduce the whole war to simple numbers, and to report it rather like a series of baseball games in an endless hot summer. Old Walter, or Chet, or Harry, or somebody, comes on and says: 'This was an average fighting week in Vietnam. Opposition casualties: 2473. South Vietnamese: 417. Americans: 201.' But the numbers don't mean anything." In such circumstances, viewers have no choice but to invent the answers for themselves. Maloney compares it to a haunted doll house in which the characters act out their human dramas every night. "But the war inside the box is never acted out in full; this drama continues night after night, world without end." 

It is no wonder, Maloney conludes, that the Americans, having absorbed such coverage, "protest, complain, demonstrate, cry out. They are suffering the ultimate human discomfort: they need desperately to make sense out of one of the crucial events of the time, an event which eats at them—at their secure existence, at their children, at their sense of what is decent and proper, at the whole fabric of their lives. And the sense is not given them. It simply is not there." Sounds a lot like today, doesn't it?

"Meanwhile, the news broadcasters, caught between necessity and habit, will continue to produce their box scores. Meanwhile, the discomfort will become more and more painful. The end is not in sight."

Again: sounds a lot like today, doesn't it? 

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During the 60s, the Ed Sullivan Show and The Hollywood Palace were the premiere variety shows on television. Whenever they appear in TV Guide together, we'll match them up and see who has the best lineup..

Sullivan: Ed's scheduled guests are Ray Charles; comic Bill Dana; Met soprano Marie Collier; the singing-dancing Grand Music Hall of Israel; singer Frankie Fanelli; the Muppets puppets; the Mecners, balancing act; and All-American football players.

Palace: Host Jimmy Durante presents Ethel Merman; the singing Lennon Sisters; the rocking Grass Roots; singer-actor Noel Harrison; the comedy team of Larry Bishop (Joey's son) and Rob Reiner (Carl's son); comedian Milt Kamen; and the acrobatic Berosinis.

Perhaps one of the reasons for the decline and fall of the variety show is that there simply isn't much of an appetite anymore for acts like acrobats or balancers, though I maintain spinning plates are still the best cheap entertainment around. The Lennon Sisters' appearance with Jimmy Durante on Palace prefigures their 1969-70 variety series, an effort that tried to attract young and old but succeeded with neither. If we cancel out the Grand Music Hall and the Grass Roots, and likewise Bishop and Reiner with Frankie Fanelli and Marie Collier, we're left with Ray Charles, Bill Dana, football players and the Muppets vs. Durante, the Lennons, Noel ("Windmills of Your Mind") Harrison and Milt Kamen. In my mind, that makes this week a Push.

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

Television, says Cleveland Amory, bears "a heavy responsibility" for the "almost steady decline of decency and erosion of values" in this country. And what he sees is network television programming as it "shifts from beat-'em-up Westerns and shoot-'em up detective stories to situation comedies, which are funny only in their utter self-satisfaction with the neo-idiotic way of life they represent." Sounds a lot li— wait, we've already done that bit, haven't we?

Anyway, this brings us to Ivan Tors, who, according to Amory, has made "the greatest single-handed effort" to counter this trend, through programs such as Flipper, Daktari and Cowboy in Africa. In doing so, he has "not only fulfilled a crying need in television, he has also shown up the kind of school system which regards science and science fairs as if they were the Second Coming and yet regards anything to do with nature or nature studies as on a par with pagan industry." And this leads to Tors' latest effort, CBS's Gentle Ben. 

Being the animal lover he is, you'd think that Cleve would have gentle words for Gentle Ben, and indeed he allows that it's almost "uncharitable," after all he's said, to critize it. In fact, it's not the animal participants in Tors' series that provide their shortcomings, but the human elements. Even if one were to concede that they're produced for children, "there is no excuse for the prevalence of scripts that would bore a baby," not to mention dialog that's often "too cute for words." But what Gentle Ben has going for it that the others lack is star Dennis Weaver. Weaver is much better than he was when we last saw him in Kentucky Jones; here, he's convincing regardless of what he does, and when he's piloting that airboat, he's "positively dashing." Weaver is so good that he elevates his co-stars, Beth Brickell (who has too little to do) and Clint Howard (who, without Weaver, would be "too cute for even our words.") And while Ben is no Rin Tin Tin, you can't blame him for doing his best work in the opening credits; all he needs is "either better plots or better direction—or, preferably, both."

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It's the first week in December, which means it's time to sell some Christmas merchandise, right? I have to admit, though, that I'm disappointed with Kodak's "very merry special" starring Tennessee Ernie Ford (Sunday, 8:00 p.m. CT, CBS). There's nothing wrong with the cast: Andy Griffith, Diana Ross and the Supremes, the Young Americans, and Danny Thomas. But as far as I can tell, there's no festive content to the show; "Danny does a turn as a flamenco dancer," Ernie sings "Yesterday" and "Funny How Time Slips Away," the Supremes do a medley of traditional songs, and the Young Americans contribue a medley from Doctor Doolittle. It's all do-little for me. Much better is Friday's showing of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (6:30 p.m., NBC), which seems over the years to have become the unofficial start to Yuletide programming. I'd expect we'll see more of this sort next week.

Even without the Christmas spirit, though, specials are a great way for advertisers to get the attention of viewers whose minds have started to turn to thoughts of Xmas shopping. Hallmark's Christmas offering is an adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan (Monday, 8:00 p.m., NBC), with an all-star cast including Genevieve Bujold (in the title role), Roddy McDowall, Maurice Evans, James Daly, Theodore Bikel and Raymond Massey. Two nights later, CBS shows the musical-fantasy Aladdin, as presented by New York City's Prince Street Players, Limited. And for those who didn't get enough of James Daly in Saint Joan, don't worry, because in a couple of years he'll be on Medical Center. But in the meantime, he stars with Hope Lange, Patricia Barry, Eli Wallach, David Wayne and Rosemary Harris in the brittle marital drama Dear Friends on CBS Playhouse (Wednesday, 8:00 p.m.) And in case that isn't enough for you, he also stars in a repeat of Ibsen's subersive play An Enemy of the People on NET Playhouse (Friday, 9:00 p.m., NET). I don't think he's in anything on ABC, but appearing on three of the four networks in the same week is still pretty good, don't you think?

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I kid you not, Jack Paar is back. For his fourth NBC special since leaving his weekly prime-time program, Jack looks at what TV Guide calls "The world's longest-running comedy": the human comedy. And, insists Paar, it proves that "truth is not strainger than fiction—it is far funnier." (Wednesday, 8:00 p.m.) In a very funny article, Jack answers questions on just what he's been doing since leaving weekly television, in an insisive interview conducted by the only man who could possibly be up to the task: Jack Paar.

He's happy to be out of the weekly grind; "I do not miss it nor most of the people in it. There are not enough hours in the day to do all the things I want to do"; some of those things include traveling with his wife, painting, reading, and working on his cars. He recently turned down $75,000 a week to play in Vegas because, he points out, "everyone knows that there's nothing I can do." When Paar asks whether or not he thinks the public misses him, Paar replies in the negative. "I was never an entertainer for the masses, nor did I ever wish to be. It's a Gomer Pyle world. It's a credit to the industry that even occasionally the networks try something better." And as for the medium of television, he thinks its influence has, for the most part, been good. "I feel our children are far brighter and better informed than we were." He's never even seen a bad program, "because I refuse to watch it. God gave me a mind and a wrist that turns things off." 

Mindful of Paar's reputation for controversy, Paar asks him what was the most unfair thing that's ever happened to him; Paar cites the incident at the Berlin Wall in 1961. "[I]t was a nightmare at the time. I was denounced in Congress; editorials in the country's best newspapers were written against me." He was cleared by both the Army and the FCC of any wrongdoing; "This story appeared in only one paper in New York, on the back pages." His infamous water-closet joke, which triggered his famous walkout from The Tonight Show, doesn't rank; besides, "it was mild compared to what is heard on the air today." And speaking of controversy, when asked if he had any regrets, he said if he had to do it over again, he'd be more gentle. "If I hit anyone below the belt, it was because they wore their belt as a halo." 

I've written many times about my admiration for Paar; the one part of this interview with which I disagree is his contention that he is not missed. What with his literate conversation and wit, and considering what we see nowadays, he's very much missed indeed.

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Anything else of note? Well, last year's National Drivers Test is rerun on CBS (Tuesday, 9:00 p.m.), and based on what I see on the roads, we could do with a new version of it this year. One of Alfred Hitchcock's lesser-known movies, Under Capricorn, is the CBS Thursday Night Movie (8:00 p.m.). Contrary to most of Hitch's thrillers, this is a drama about a society woman's descent into alcoholism due to her husband's false conviction for murdering her brother. Ingrid Bergman and Joseph Cotten play the unhappily married couple; the script is by actor Hume Cronyn. I confess this is one of Hitchcock's movies that I was not aware of. 

According to the Teletype, Harry Belafonte will be subbing for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show next year; I wrote about that landmark week here. The networks have put in full-season orders for five of the season's new shows: Batman, Judd for the Defense, Ironside, Mannix and The Mothers-in-Law. Burl Ives plays a small-town defense attorney in The Adversaries, a TV movie for next season co-starring Guy Stockwell and James Farentino. The Teletype reports it could become Roy Huggins' latest series, and it does, in a way: just swap out Guy Stockwell for Joseph Campanella, relabel it from The Sound of Anger (its title when finally broadcast) to The Lawyers, make it one of the three rotating components of The Bold Ones, and you're all set.

Robert Hooks and Judy Ann Elder
in NET's "Day of Absence"

In the Letters section, Carolyn Sawyer of Norton, Massachusetts, wonders why CBS allowed the pro-Vietnam song "An Open Letter to My Son" to be performed on The Ed Sullivan Show while they excised Pete Seeger's anti-war "Big Muddy" from The Smothers Brothers Show. There's TVietnam rearing its ugly head again. (By the way, I think you can explain that decision in three words: L.-B.-J.) Another Bay Stater, Ann Hahn of Easthampton, praises NET's PBL for not pulling its punches with its recent play “Day of Absence,”* performed by black actors in white-face. "Even my husband and I, presumably 'enlightened Northern liberals,' found [it] to be strong stuff. But we'd have been more upset to hear that such a play had been canceled for fear it might offend." Hear, hear.

Finally, on the sports front, ABC has an attractive doubleheader on Saturday, starting with the 68th Army-Navy game, from John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia. (12:30 p.m.) That's followed at 4:00 by Wide World of Sports, with a heavyweight elimination bout between Jimmy Ellis and Oscar Bonavena, part of the tournament to fill the vacancy after Muhammad Ali was stripped of the title for refusing military induction. We started this week in Vietnam; I suppose it's appropriate we end there as well. TV  

Around the dial

If you're old enough to remember the programs I write about each week, then you probably remember the Bobby Darin song "Beyond the Sea" That's the first thing I thought of when I read "Beyond the Sea of Death," the latest Alfred Hayes contribution to Jack's "Hitchcock Project" at bare•bones e-zine. Believe me, the similarities end there.

Next week I'll be unveiling my Christmas Gift Guide (in this era of e-commerce, there's always time!), and one of the items you can be sure is on the list—aside from my own books, of course—is When Television Brought Us Together, the new book by David Hofstede of Comfort TV. Those who read David's blog know what an astute observer of classic television and pop culture he is, and you'll find more of the same in this book. Follow the link to read what David has to say about it.

Speaking of holidays and Gift Guides, Television Obscurities has a great gift guide for that fan of the short-lived TV series. Plenty of DVDs of shows from all eras, shows that shouldn't be overlooked; additionally, some really good books that include details on many of those same shows. 

I've never driven a sports car and I don't know that I ever want to--for one thing, I don't know if I'd fit in one. Be that as it may, I like looking at them, and in that regard, I have something in common with Dave Garroway, as we can see in this piece by Jodie at Garroway at Large. 

At A Shroud of Thoughts, Terence has a handy guide to Christmas movies on TCM this month. Some of them are favorites that you watch every year, but there are others that don't immediately come to mind when you think about holiday flicks. If you get TCM, you'll want to keep this bookmarked.

An interesting question: why has The Twilight Zone survived for so many years when other programs from the era haven't? I'd wager there are some markets where the show's been on in syndication ever since it went off the air. One-time TZ writer Earl Hamner Jr. has some ideas, as Paul recounts at Shadow & Substance.

Abby Dalton, whom I remember from the revamped Joey Bishop Show as well as having been one of the originals on The Hollywood Squares, died this week at age 88. The Hollywood Reporter has the story, as well as a look back at her long and successful television career.

Finally, let's end with some video. Courtesy of Terry Teachout's About Last Night, here's a rare clip from the pre-Johnny Carson Tonight Show: a nearly 13 minute long standup routine by Lenny Bruce, with host Steve Allen at the end.  TV  

Gailey for the Defense (and other concepts that never made it off the drawing board)

Fred Gailey and his most famous client

You may recall a Christmas story I wrote a few years ago; it was, I thought, a moderately humorous piece in which I imagned Fred Gailey, the attorney who cleared Kris Kringle of insanity charges in Miracle on 34th Street, as the Mystery Guest on What's My Line? After all, considering the publicity that Gailey received as a result of the trial, it was reasonable to assume that, New York being what it is, Fred would have become not only a well-known attorney, but a celebrity in a city that loves celebrities. He would have been the ideal guest for the show. And since John Payne, the actor who played Fred in the movie, had appeared on What's My Line? himself, the whole thing made too much sense.

Anyway, as we were watching Miracle on 34th Street on Thanksgiving Eve (for the 31st consecutive year*), it occurred to me that I'd really just scratched the surface of the idea's potential. After the panel had guessed his identity, I'd had him mention to host John Charles Daly that his agent was in negotiations with CBS to do a weekly series based on some of his more famous cases, and that Raymond Burr had been contacted to star in the show. Of course, the idea wouldn't have panned out, and the network would have turned to Erle Stanley Gardner as a result, but that wouldn't have been the only chance to turn Fred Gailey's story into a drama for the small screen. 

*And why not? It is, after all, the greatest Christmas movie ever made. 

They always say that when you're pitching a story, you'd better have Plan B and Plan C ready in case the suits don't like Plan A, so let's take a look at the other storylines Fred Gailey's representative had in his briefcase during that meeting.

THE DEFENDERS

The story of a father-daughter legal team. At the end of Miracle on 34th Street, it's strongly implied that Fred and Doris (Maureen O'Hara) will get married. Fred adopts her daughter Susan (Natalie Wood), who decides to follow in her stepfather's footsteps and go to law school. Each week, the Gaileys defend an unpopular cause or controversial issue, culminating in a courtroom scene that allows one of them to make a lengthy speech pointing out why those who disagree with them are not bad, just narrow-minded. Stars E.G. Marshall as Fred and Stefanie Powers as the grown-up Susan.

GAILEY FOR THE DEFENSE

Fred becomes a jet-setting, high-profile criminal defense attorney in the mold of F. Lee Bailey and Percy Foreman, dressing in a cowboy hat and string tie and flying around the country defending unpopular causes and controversial issues. He's accompanied along the way by his young assistant Alfred, who works at Macy's during the day while going to night school to get his law degree. Stars Carl Betz as Fred, with Dom DeLuise as Alfred. 

FRED GAILEY, COUNSELOR AT LAW

A kindly, compassionate attorney defends various clients charged with murder, rape and other unpopular and controversial crimes, with the help of his young assistant, Thomas Mara Jr., whose father tried and failed to put Kris Kringle in a mental institution. Stars Arthur Hill as Fred, with Wayne Rogers as Tommy. Appears in occasional crossover episodes with another ABC series, Marcus Pierce, M.D., with Hugh Beaumont as a kindly, compassionate doctor who treats geriatric patients.

GAILEY'S PEOPLE

After a career of defending the downtrodden and displaced, Fred enlists the help of crusty New York City political boss Charlie Halloran and is elected to represent Greenwich Village in the state legislature. Each week, the series spotlights the travails of local politicians, while Fred continues to speak out on unpopular and controversial issues. Stars Richard Crenna as Fred and William Demarist as Charlie. Special appearance by Lucille Ball as Jane Jacobs.

HELTER SKELTER

Following the success of Miracle on 34th Street, the Gaileys move to Hollywood, where Fred is elected to succeed Hamilton Berger as district attorney of Los Angeles. Because of his involvement in unpopular and controversial issues, his career rides on successfully prosecuting the infamous Manson Family for a string of brutal murders. Stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Fred, wth Natalie Wood in flashbacks as Sharon Tate. Cameo by Quentin Tarentino as Charles Manson.

THE PEOPLE'S COURT

Fred is the star of a new reality series in which he arbitrates cases between people involved in disputes that are neither unpopular nor controversial. He rapidly becomes the most popular judge in America, and his motto: "Don't tell it to your neighbor, tell it to Fred" is soon a catchphrase. Stars John Payne as Fred, Richard Moll as the bailiff, and Nancy Grace as the court reporter. Things come full circle when, in the first case, a man is charged with producing and distributing bootleg copies of Miracle on 34th Street. TV