Big Show Through Bz
For those who thought Emmy went overboard honoring special effects for the likes of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea in the 1960s, I give you the early 1980s version of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century for comparison. Some things never change with TV’s golden statuette, I tell you. And The Big Show was not a sports show but a … well, read on.
The Big Show
NBC Tuesdays 9-10:30 p.m., March 4, 1980-June 3, 1980
W: Costume Design – Series (Pete Menefee)
N: Director – Variety or Music Program (Steve Binder); Art Direction – Variety or Music Program (Brian C. Bartholomew, Bob Keene, production designers; Tony Bugenhagen, set decorator); Videotape Editing – Series (Ken Denisoff, Kevin Muldoon, Andy Zall); Lighting Direction (William M. Klages)
Invoking the memory of Your Show of Shows, beleaguered NBC trotted out this overproduced 90-minute variety series with a chorus line, break dancers, ice skaters, water performers, a dancing bear – oh, sorry, scratch that last one. It employed these elements plus guest hosts with a promising supporting cast of comic actors, including Mimi Kennedy, Edie McClurg and Graham Chapman (formerly of the Monty Python troupe). All this talent, and yet the results were never as satisfying as one would expect. The hosts for the shows nominated by category were Mariette Hartley and Dean Martin for director; Tony Randall and Herve Villechaize for costume design and videotape editing; and Sarah Purcell and Flip Wilson for art direction and lighting direction. Those odd combinations alone may show why The Big Show never made it, though more likely it was the non-nominated uneven writing that hurt it too.
Binder: 4 others. Bartholomew: 4 others. Keene: Richard Simmons, one other. Denisoff: 6 others. Zall: 6 others. Klages: 10 others.
The Big Story
NBC Fridays 9-9:30 p.m.*, Sept. 16, 1949-June 28, 1957
N: Mystery, Action or Adventure Program, 1952
An anthology with a semidocumentary feel, The Big Story dramatized a different story each week of a reporter making an expose or taking part in a significant event in his or her community. Bob Sloane narrated it until 1954, when Norman Rose assumed his role. From what I have seen of it, the writing, production and direction are all fine, but the acting (usually by little-known talent) tended to be overdone and detracted from the realism being sought. The Emmy nomination came around its height of success, when it finished at #22 in the 1952-53 season. In 1955 Ben Grauer also served as host of each episode by serving as a newsman, the same role that Burgess Meredith fulfilled when the show filmed 39 more shows in 1957-58 for syndication.
Big Top
CBS Saturdays Noon-1 p.m.*, July 1, 1950-Sept. 21, 1957
N: Children’s Program, 1952, 1953
CBS’s answer to Super Circus, which coincidentally competed against it both times for an Emmy, Big Top was more elaborately produced yet somewhat noisier and less inspired than the ABC program. Airing live from Philadelphia, it featured Jack Sterling as ringmaster, Dan Lurie as a muscle man and Joe Basile the Brass King and His Band as musical accompaniment along with plenty of guest acts. Its notoriety comes from the fact that Ed McMahon played a clown with the show’s title painted on his pate, years before he became sidekick to Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show.
The Big Valley
ABC Mondays 10-11 p.m.*, Sept. 15, 1965-May 19, 1969
W: Lead Actress, Drama (Barbara Stanwyck), 1966
N: Lead Actress, Drama (Stanwyck), 1967, 1968
“Starring Miss Barbara Stanwyck,” as the opening titles stated, The Big Valley was Bonanza with a distaff tinge, as Stanwyck played Victoria Barker, a indomitable widow running a ranch in California along with her sons Jarrod (Richard Long) and Nick (Peter Breck) and daughter Audra (Linda Evans). Also part of the household was Heath Barkley (Lee Majors), which Victoria’s late husband fathered with another woman – apparently Victoria was quite a forgiving wife. As with its inspiration, all the regulars appeared ready to fight whenever confronted by varmints, and they all had romances without managing to settle down with anyone for long. Never a ratings hit, this standard oater lasted four years before competition from The Carol Burnett Show shot it down. The show earned Stanwyck her second of three Emmys.
Stanwyck: The Barbara Stanwyck Show, The Thorn Birds.
The Bill Cosby Show
NBC Sundays 8:30-9 p.m.*, Sept. 14, 1969-Aug. 31, 1971
N: Comedy Series (Bill Cosby, EP, Marvin Miller, P), 1970; News Series (Cosby, Miller), 1970; Lead Actor, Comedy (Cosby), 1970; Music Composition (Quincy Jones), 1970
Bachelor phys ed teacher Chet Kincaid (Cosby) encountered comic dilemmas both at work at an L.A. high school, dealing with stern principal Langford (Sid McCoy) and bubly guidance counselor Marsha Peterson (Joyce Bulifant), and with his family, including his mom, Rose (Lillian Randolph 1969-70, Beah Richards 1970-71), brother Brian (Lee Weaver) and Brian’s wife, Verna (Olga James). Cosby was game and delightful as ever, but the episodes tended to be too leisurely paced, and the plots were tired chestnuts like Chet having trouble going to sleep and Chet’s date with a beautiful woman being constantly interrupted by his brother. Jones’ music here was the first to earn him an Emmy nomination, but he is better remembered for his themes to two other more successful NBC series, Ironside and Sanford and Son. This is sometimes confused with the better sitcom the star did 13 years later – see The Cosby Show.
Cosby: The Bill Cosby Special, The Cosby Show, I Spy, Second Bill Cosby Special. Jones: Academy Awards, The PJs, Roots.
The Bill Dana Show
NBC Sundays 7-7:30 p.m.*, Sept. 22, 1963-Jan. 17, 1965
N: Comedy Series, 1963
This spinoff of The Danny Thomas Show had Bill Dana’s Jose Jiminez, a Hispanic character introduced on The Steve Allen Show in 1959, as a nice yet somewhat easily confused and bumbling bellhop in a swank New York hotel managed by Jerome Phillips (Jonathan Harris). Jose’s behavior irked Mr. Phillips, so fellow bellhop Eddie (Gary Crosby) tried to tell Jose what he should do to improve his standing, usually with fruitless results. Harris was delectably stern and persnickety – it is a shame he followed this with his better-known hammy Dr. Smith on Lost In Space. Even with that and decent writing, this series is a letdown – Jose was a weak lead, with his broken English a tired gimmick, and he was overshadowed by Don Adams as nutty house detective Byron Glick in the short-lived second season when Crosby did not return, leaving Jose devoid of a valued ally (and giving Adams a dry run in creating his style for Get Smart). Dana’s brother Irving Szathmary provided music for the series, while Danny Thomas and Sheldon Leonard were executive producers.
Blockbusters
NBC Weekdays 10:30-11 a.m., Oct. 27, 1980-April 23, 1982
N: Host or Hostess, Game Show (Bill Cullen), 1982
A team of two faced a competing solo contestant in trying to be the first to line up colored hexagons end to end either horizontally (the pair) or vertically (the solo player) to win money and play a bonus round. To win a hexagon, players heard a question and had to supply the right answer that started with the letter contained in that space. Another show where Cullen came off stronger than the game, it earned a footnote in pop culture in The Andy Warhol Diaries when the author laughed recounting how Cullen asked “Andy Warhol is a ‘V’” and the solo player buzzed in and responded correctly “Virgin.” After a variable year-and-a-half run, NBC revived it in its old time slot on Jan. 5, 1987 with Bill Rafferty as host, but it vanished after 13 weeks.
Cullen: Hot Potato, Three on a Match.
The Bob Crosby Show
CBS Weekdays 3:30-4 p.m., Sept. 14, 1953-Aug. 30, 1957
N: Daytime Program, 1954, 1955
Bing Crosby’s younger brother Bob hosted this easygoing combination of music numbers sung by himself, Joan O’Brien, the Modernaires and others broken up by audience participation games supervised by announcer Steve Dunne, with Bob interviewing contestants from the audience. This fair time killer, live from Hollywood and billed as “BCS on CBS,” somehow merited two daytime series nominations while the program that deservedly beat it in 1954, Art Linkletter’s House Party, failed to repeat in competition in 1955 – why? For a similar nominee, see The Garry Moore Show.
The Bob Hope Buick Show
NBC p.m., Feb. 15, 1961
N: Humor Program; Direction, Comedy (Jack Shea, Richard McDonough)
With a monologue that included his standard racy comments, a telegram from newly elected President John F. Kennedy congratulating its focus on saluting American athletes and several jokes about Jackie Gleason’s recent disastrous game show You’re in the Picture (which folded after one telecast), this became the first Bob Hope special nominated for an Emmy. (Hope himself had won the special Trustees’ Award from the Academy in 1959 due in part to “the consistently high quality of his television programs through the years” even though none had been nominated up to that time. Go figure.)
Bracken’s World
NBC Fridays 10-11 p.m., Sept. 19, 1969-Dec. 25, 1970
W: Film Editing - Series or Single Episode of Series (”Sweet Smell of Success”), 1970
What a great idea for a series - capturing the backstage intrigue at a film studio among cast and crew. Too bad this drama decided to settle for stereotyped situations and a standard dry production that made everything seem flat on the airwaves. John Bracken was the studio head, unseen in the first season (but voiced by Warren Stevens), then played on screen by Leslie Nielsen. A considerable number of cast members came and went in the mere season and a half this series lasted, with the most frequently seen being Peter Haskell as producer/director hotshot Kevin Grant. Mosher, who would receive one more Emmy nomination in the 1970s and continued to work into the 1980s, appeared in one episode of Bracken’s World as - what else? - a film editor.
Mosher: The Waltons.
A Brand New Life
ABC Tuesday 8:30-10 p.m., Feb. 20, 1973
W: Actress, Single Performance, Drama or Comedy (Cloris Leachman)
N: Music, Special (Billy Goldenberg)
Leachman played a 40-year-old woman married to Martin Balsam who finds herself pregnant and must decide if she wants the baby and how it might impact her marriage and career. This is somewhat dated given the number of middle-aged women who now give birth, and there is not nearly enough happening here to sustain a narrative drive for a 90-minute movie. Leachman is as professional as ever, although I think she won the award because her character is the antithesis of Phyllis Lindstrom on The Mary Tyler Moore Show (where she was also nominated this year for Supporting Actress in a Comedy) – meek, unsure, yet engaging, kind of like Mary Richards, come to think of it. Interestingly, she would be nominated in the same categories in 1974. A footnote: Leachman acted opposite Barbara Colby in one scene. In 1975 Colby appeared as her boss on the first episode of Phyllis before she was murdered.
Leachman: Many. Goldenberg: Many.
Brian’s Song
ABC Tuesday p.m., Nov. 30, 1971
W: Single Program – Drama or Comedy (Paul Junger Witt, P); Supporting Actor, Drama (Jack Warden); Writing Achievement in Drama, Single Program (William Blinn); Cinematography for Special (Joseph Biroc); Film Editing for Special (Bud S. Isaacs)
N: Lead Actor, Drama (James Caan) and (Billy Dee Williams); Directorial Achievement in Drama, Single Program (Buzz Kulik); Music Composition (Michel Legrand); Film Sound Editing (Harold E. Wooley, Paul Laune, Marvin Kosberg, George Emick, Ralph Hickey, Wayne Fury, Monty Pearce); Film Sound Mixing (William J. Montague, Alfred E. Overton)
The first TV-movie based on real people, Brian’s Song recounted the friendship between football players Brian Piccolo (Caan) and Gale Sayers (Williams) as the first integrated roommates on the Chicago Bears, led by Coach George Halas (Warden), which tragically ended with Piccolo’s death from cancer. A huge hit in its first airing, when it ran on nearly half of all TV sets in use, and its repeat on Nov. 21, 1972, when it reaped 43 percent of the viewing audience, Brian’s Song remains a high point in TV-movies, with everyone involved in peak form in a tearjerker that earns its weeping honestly. If you do not cry when Caan summons his weakened strength to make a farewell phone call to Williams, or when Williams strains to tell the team in the locker room Caan’s condition, you are made of stone. Though its five wins among 11 nominations were impressive, there should have been more. Caan and Williams canceled each other out as lead actor obviously, but Shelley Fabares as Caan’s wife certainly deserved a supporting actress nod, as she revealed a dramatic depth unseen while on The Donna Reed Show. Kulik and Legrand deserved wins too – this was Kulik’s best effort among his five nominations, and Legrand’s moving theme still gets airplay, while winner John Williams’ theme to “Jane Eyre” on Bell System Family Theatre does not. ABC unwisely remade the movie in 200 , which depicted Piccolo’s illness more realistically yet sacrificed the original’s emotional involvement.
Brigadoon - See Armstrong Circle Theatre.
The Brotherhood of the Bell
CBS Thursday 9-11 p.m., Sept. 17, 1970
N: Writing, Drama, Original Teleplay (David Karp)
The granddaddy of conspiracy-themed TV movies, The Brotherhood of the Bell featured a two-century-old secret society (think the Illimunati or the Bohemian Club) whose 22-year member Professor Andrew Paterson (Glenn Ford) rails against it in public after members murder a colleague, only to discover that no one believes his allegations. Decades of films since 1970 where protagonists fight powerful shadowy groups have dulled the impact of this one, which could have been more tightly written as well as directed (Paul Wendkos helmed that role), and Ford does not quite convey effectively the paranoia his character is facing. There are more solid elements to enjoy, particularly the acting of Dean Jagger as the menacing society head and William Conrad as a reactionary talk show host, plus a score by Jerry Goldsmith that manages to sound both classical and eerie at the same time. This film marked Ford’s TV acting debut.
Karp: The Defenders, Hawkins on Murder.
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
NBC Thursdays 8-9 p.m.*, Sept. 20, 1979-April 16, 1981
W: Music Composition, Series (Bruce Broughton, “The Satyr”), 1981
N: Art Direction, Series (Hub Braden and Fred Luff, art directors; Frank Lombardo, set decorator, “Ardala Returns”), 1980; Costume Design, Series (Alfred E. Lehman, “Flight of the War Witch, Part Two”), 1980 and (Lehman, “The Dorian Secret”), 1981
Piloting the spacecraft Ranger 3 in 1987, Capt. William “Buck” Rogers (Gil Gerard) encountered a freak mishap that placed him in suspended animation. He awoke 504 years later, returned to Earth and learned that the evil alien Draconians were trying to take over the planet. Joined by sleek Col. Wilma Deering (Erin Gray), midget robot Twiki (whose catch phrase “Biddi biddi biddi biddi” never caught on) and a few other supporters, Buck led an unending battle defending freedom and justice for humans. It was bad enough when executive producer Glen Larson ripped off Star Wars to create Battlestar Galactica – now here he exploited elements of that latter series’ sets, costuming, special effects and worst of all lame writing to desecrate the legacy of a pop culture science fiction icon first seen in Amazing Stories magazine in 1928, portrayed by Gerard as a leering jerk. An effort to make this less campy in its second season was a wash. A lot of good talent was wasted here, including Mel Blanc (as Twiki’s voice), Wilfred Hyde-White (as Dr. Goodfellow, 1981) and William Conrad (as narrator, 1979-80).