Kaiser Aluminum Hour to Lux Video Theatre
Prior to 1974, only two cartoon series ever earned an Emmy nomination. One was The Flintstones for Outstanding Program Achievement in Humor in 1961. The other was Linus the Lionhearted, for Carl Reiner’s voice work under the Special Classifications of Individual Achievements. If you ask me, members of the Academy, here’s another genre you got wrong again.
The Kaiser Aluminum Hour
NBC Tuesdays 9:30-10:30 p.m., July 3, 1956-June 18, 1957
N: Art Direction – One Hour or More (Jan Scott), 1956
This live biweekly anthology series had a definitely distinctive filmed opening - two men on opposite sides of the screen lifted a big sheet of aluminum and tilted it toward the camera as the narrator announced that Kaiser is “the bright star of metals.” Too bad its dramas presented afterward did not have the same novel impact as did their much more lauded business competitor’s series, The U.S. Steel Hour. This is rather surprising given that Worthington Miner of Studio One fame was its executive producer and several talented other individuals connected with that series appeared here in front of and behind the camera, such as Franklin Schaffner as producer and director. But running opposite The Red Skelton Show and The $64,000 Question on CBS, it had no chance to be a hit no matter what was presented. Scott’s staging was quite elaborate (for example, in “The Rag Jungle” the set included large working sewing machines as part of a potboiler involving New York’s garment district) and deserved the nomination, but an Emmy win did not occur until 11 years and four more nominations later - see Armstrong Circle Theatre.
Scott: Armstrong Circle Theatre, Blind Faith, CBS: On the Air, CBS Playhouse, Cruel Doubt, DuPont Show of the Week, Evergreen, The Gathering, Hallmark Hall of Fame, Hollywood Television Theatre, I’ll Be Home for Christmas, The Kennedys of Massachusetts, The Lie, The Long Hot Summer, Marilyn: The Untold Story, Orphan Train, Roots, Studs Lonigan, Theatre 62.
Kate & Allie
CBS Mondays 8-8:30 p.m.*, March 19, 1984-Sept. 11, 1989
Kate McShane
CBS Wednesdays 10-11 p.m., Sept. 10, 1975-Nov. 12, 1975
N: Lead Actress, Drama (Anne Meara)
Kay Kyser College of Musical Knowledge
NBC Thursdays 9-10 p.m., Dec. 1, 1949-Dec. , 1950
N: Game and Audience Participation Show, 1950
Kaz
CBS Sundays 10-11 p.m.*, Sept. 10, 1978-Aug. 19, 1979
W: Lead Actor, Drama (Ron Leibman)
Keep Talking
CBS Wednesdays 8-8:30 p.m.* (also ABC), July 15, 1958-May 3, 1960
N: Game Show, 1959
Opening with audience laughter to set the mood, this New York City-based comedy game show pitted two sexually integrated celebrity trios - one called “The Chatterboxes,” the others ”the Gabbers” - in a battle to see who could ad lib the best, a forerunner of sorts to Whose Line Is It Anyway? Each member competed in at least one head-to-head round where the host (Monty Hall the summer of 1958, Carl Reiner 1958-59 and Merv Griffin 1959-60) read the start of a story while both players received their individual secret phrases they had to employ following the host’s setup. Adding to the difficulty of trying to work some awkward statements into the conversations, the two players had to deal with a buzzer that could ring at any moment and force the one talking to wind up the comment while the other player continued his or her storyline. When the final buzzer sounded around the three-minute mark, the players on each trio that did not participate in the round had to determine if their opponent had in fact said the secret phrase and, if so, what the phrase was. Teams received one point for saying the phrase in the story and another point for fooling the other panelists. Watching the players struggle to make a story work while trying to say their phrase without making it obvious was often amusing, particularly when the buzzer sounded fast and furiously. Most often seen on the show were Morey Amsterdam, Joey Bishop, Pat Carroll, Peggy Cass, Danny Dayton and Paul Winchell. Herb Wolf produced the series, which lost the Emmy to What’s My Line? and the ratings battle to The Garry Moore Show when it moved to ABC in its final season.
The Ken Murray Show
CBS Saturdays 8-9 p.m.*, Jan. 7, 1950-June 21, 1953
N: Variety Show, 1950
Ken Murray conceived, produced and hosted this easygoing offering, with the introductory segments performed on a set at the corner of Hollywood and Vine even though it aired live on the East Coast from New York City (go figure). It had a vaudeville flavor to it, with various segments introduced by jokes and patter from Murray. Among them were Jack Mulhall and Nelson Case pitching Budweiser beer, Darla Hood (formerly of the Little Rascals movie group as a child) served as a glamorous songstress backed by the male singing quartet the Enchanters, and Joe Besser did his patented “sissy” routine. A respectable presentation overall, though it pales in comparison to the show that succeeded it on Saturdays night in 1952, The Jackie Gleason Show (q.v.). Ironically, Murray spent his last season alternating weekly with the series that beat this one for the variety Emmy, The Alan Young Show (q.v.).
The Kopycats – See The ABC Comedy Hour
Kraft Suspense Theatre
NBC Thursdays 10-11 p.m., Oct. 10, 1963-Sept. 9, 1965
N: Cinematography (Ellis F. Thackery, “Once Upon a Savage Night”), 1964
A sad far cry from its 1950s drama series, this anthology sponsored by Kraft featured trite, violent plots with often unexceptional acting to boot. The color cinematography and striking animated opening titles with a theme by John Williams were about its only virtues. Thackery also earned an Oscar nomination for special effects in 1940 for his work on Women in War.
Kung Fu
ABC Thursdays 9-10 p.m.*, Oct. 14, 1972-June 28, 1975
N: Drama
Land of the Giants
ABC Sundays 7-8 p.m., Sept. 22, 1968-Sept. 6, 1970
N: Cinematography (Howard Schwartz, “The Crash”), 1969; Film Sound Editing (Don Hall, Jr., Larry Meek, William Howard, John Kline, Robert Cornett, Frank R. White, “A Small War”), 1970
ABC replaced creator/producer Irwin Allen’s own Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea on its schedule with this effort by him, an even dopier slice of sci-fi schlock. Supposedly on June 12, 1983, the aircraft Spindrift encountered a space warp while on its way to London, forcing it to crash land on a planet where the crew and passengers were 1/12th the size of surrounding areas and creatures. Fighting for survival were Capt. Steve Burton (Gary Conway), his co-pilot Dan Erikson (Don Marshall), stewardess Betty Hamilton (Heather Young), con artist Alexander Fitzhugh (Kurt Kasznar), glamorous heiress Valerie Scott (Deanna Lund), businessman Mark Wilson (Don Matheson) and cloying 12-year-old orphan Barry Lockridge (Stefan Arngrim) and his mutt Chipper. Their real foes were not giants but mundane plots and dialogue, plus a relationship between Fitzhugh and Lockridge aping Dr. Smith and Will on Lost In Space. And for a technical crew groomed by Allen in the 1960s, plus the highest budget per episode at the time, this series often had shoddy special effects, with too many having the actors superimposed over larger scenes. Even so, this gave Allen a perfect four-for-four record regarding his TV series and Emmy nominations. Why, Academy?
Schwartz: Airwolf, The Ghost of Flight 401, The Immortal, Night of Terror, Rainbow, Rich Man Poor Man, Sandburg’s Lincoln. Hall: Several. Kline: Several. Cornett: Several. White: Several.
Lassie
CBS Sundays 7-7:30 p.m., Sept. 12, 1954-Sept. 12, 1971 (also syndicated 1971-74)
W: Children’s Program, 1954, 1955
N: Actress, Drama Series (Jan Clayton), 1956, 1957 and (June Lockhart), 1959; Drama, 1957; Children’s Program, 1960
This classic family series featuring the perpetually popular titular collie anchored leading off CBS’s Sunday night lineup for 17 years, nine in the top 30 (it peaked at #12 in the 1963-64 season). Lassie went through four different masters on CBS, with the best remembered being the first two – Jeff Miller (Tommy Rettig), his mom Ellen (Clayton) and “Gramps” (George Cleveland), followed in 1957 by the Martins, mother Ruth (Cloris Leachman 1957-58, June Lockhart 1957-64), father Paul (Jon Shepodd 1957-58, Hugh Reilly 1957-64) and their adopted son Timmy (Jon Provost 1957-64). As many have noted, the dog was the real star, as Lassie seemed to help anyone and provide love where appropriate, but watch the actors’ interaction with her and you will realize they played a pivotal role in the series’ success. In fact, Lassie should have earned some children’s program nods in the 1960s, when it was better produced, written and acted than the 1950s. Clayton’s nominations were a head scratcher, as she did relatively little in most shows. Lockhart’s portrayal was warmer and more active and led to her starring in two 1960s CBS series when she left, Lost In Space and Petticoat Junction, plus much guest work thereafter. She previously competed for a Best Actress Emmy in 1952. There have been several attempts to revive Lassie since 1974, none Emmy nominated.
The Last Day of Patton
CBS p.m., Sept. 14, 1986
W: Makeup, Miniseries or Special (Del Acevedo, Alan Boyle, Eddie Knight)
N: Music Composition, Miniseries or Special (Allyn Ferguson)
Gen. George S. Patton (George C. Scott) discovered that the acclaim he won for his tactics in World War II dissipated with U.S. officials in 1945 who felt he was too forgiving of ex-Nazi leaders and too hard on Russia. Forced out of leadership, he tried to find his place in the postwar world. This TV-movie’s narrative is not compelling to justify a nearly two-and-a-half-hour running time (without commercials), and it really bogs down after Patton is paralyzed in a car accident at the midway point, an incident that limits the dynamic Scott to play the rest of the movie in bed amid unenlightening flashbacks to when as a young man (played by other actors). If you have seen the great 1970 movie Patton (which won Oscars for Best Picture and Scott for Best Actor), the comparisons with that movie’s scope and impact are even less flattering. Still, Scott was as solid as always, thanks in part now to being about the same age as Patton was at the time, as was Eva Marie Saint as his wife, and the makeup on Scott after his head injury, supervised by Acevedo, is quite convincing. The movie was filmed totally in England.
The Law and Mr. Jones
ABC Fridays 10:30-11 p.m.*, Oct. 7, 1960-Oct. 4, 1962
N: Supporting Actor or Actress – Single Program (Peter Falk, “Cold Turkey”), 1961
Abraham Lincoln Jones (James Whitmore) was an attorney as principled as his namesake, although he had a tendency to use his fists if necessary to make his points with his clients and/or adversaries (he was a star football player, he often pointed out). Assisting him in his cases were C.E. Carruthers (Conlan Carter, playing a character so meek it’s shocking to realize he would be nominated for an Emmy himself a few years later for the war drama Combat!) and his secretary Martha Spear (Janet De Gore). This comedy-drama is woefully weak in both departments, and it was not helped in its poor initial late Friday night time slot either. As for Falk, one wonders if his back-to-back supporting Oscar nominations for Murder Inc. in 1960 and Pocketful of Miracles in 1961 might have played a part in him earning this one too, since there were no big audiences watching his performance.
Falk: Columbo,
The Lawless Years
NBC Thursdays 10:30-11 p.m.*, April 16, 1959-Sept. 22, 1961
N: Cinematography (William Margulies, “The Morrison Story”), 1960
Distinguishing this tough police drama was the fact that its lead character, the rather angry Det. Barney Ruditsky (James Gregory), spoke directly to the camera to introduce each story – that is, after someone got beaten up and/or killed in the segment before the opening credits. Otherwise, this series, set in New York City in the 1920s with blaring backgrounds and snarling criminals, must have been one of the shows FCC Chairman Newton Minow watched when he referred to the medium as a “vast wasteland” in 1961. Nominee Margulies received the third of four consecutive cinematography Emmy nominations, alas all without a win.
Margulies: Have Gun Will Travel, Outlaws.
The Lawrence Welk Show
ABC Saturdays 9-10 p.m.*, July 2, 1955-Sept. 4, 1971 (also syndicated 1971-1982)
N: Tape Sound Mixing (Dick Wilson), 1978
Who would have thought that of all the great 1940s “big band” orchestras, the one that would have the biggest TV success was the one most sophisticated listeners sneered as being cornball? The Lawrence Welk Show ran more than a quarter century led by the title conductor speaking fractured English (“Friens, we haf a wunnerful show for yew tonight”). Energetic singers, dancers and musicians performed their hearts out too (but not at any level too frenzied), and the mostly elderly audience had time to dance as well. And there were plenty of bubbles at the introduction, as Welk’s group boasted it played “champagne music” (because it was light and bubbly, though critics disagreed). Watch any show of the series, which has been in reruns on most public TV stations since 1987, and you can see its professionalism and efforts to stay contemporary by adapting many current hits, but also its occasional lack of true feeling for music – I have yet to witness any less soulful version of “I Can’t Stop Loving You” than what I heard once here. As to why the Academy nominated it once, your guess is as good as mine.
Wilson: Emmy Awards, Fridays, Star of the Family, Welcome Back Kotter.
The Legend of Lizzie Borden
ABC Monday 9-11 p.m., Feb. 10, 1975
W: Editing, Special or TV-Movie (John A. Martinelli); Costume Design (Guy Verhille)
N: Lead Actress, Special, Comedy or Drama (Elizabeth Montgomery); Art Direction, Special or TV-Movie (Jack De Shields, art director, Harry Gordon, set director); Film Sound Editing (David Isaacs, Don Higgins, Larry Kaufman, Jack Kirschner, Dick LeGrand, Gary Vaughan, Gene Wahrman, Frank White, Harold Wooley)
“Lizzie Borden took an ax/And gave her mother 40 whacks/When she saw what she had done/She gave her father 41.” This familiar eerie nursery rhyme has its basis in fact – Lizzie (Montgomery) faced trial in Massachusetts for the 1892 murders of her father and stepmother, and though acquitted, many people nevertheless believe she did the crime, including William Bast, the writer/associate producer of this movie. A wonderfully done suspense drama by all involved, creating just the right atmosphere of turn-of-the-century New England crossed with a foreboding sense of doom. The lack of a nomination for Bast (later nominated for Bell System Presents Man in the Iron Mask) and never-nominated director Paul Wendkos was a shame, as was no nod for Billy Goldenberg’s chilling score. Montgomery’s spellbinding performance lost this time to Katharine Hepburn in Love Among the Ruins. For the winners, this marked the first of three Emmys for Martinelli, while Verhille never received another nomination.
Martinelli: Defection of Simas Kudirka, Marco Polo, Murder in Texas, S.O.S. Titanic, Winds of Kitty Hawk. Montgomery: Bewitched, more. De Shields: Barbary Coast, Ordeal of Dr. Mudd, Washington: Behind Closed Doors. Higgins: 2 others. Isaacs: 3 others. Kaufman: 5 others. Kirschner: 2 others. LeGrand: 3 others. Vaughan: 2 others. White: 3 others. Wooley: 2 others.
The Legend of Robin Hood
For a better remembered TV version of the tale, see The Adventures of Robin Hood.
Let’s Make a Deal
ABC Weekdays 1:30-2 p.m.* (also NBC), Dec. 30, 1963-July 9, 1976 (also nighttime 1967-71 and syndication 1971-76)
N: Game or Audience Participation Show (Stefan Hatos, EP; Alan Gilbert, P), 1975, 1976; Host – Game or Audience Participation Show (Monty Hall), 1975; Director – Game or Audience Participation Show (Joseph Behar), 1975
To many TV critics, Let’s Make a Deal was the ultimate example of game shows excess – it was loud, had contestants who acted with little restraint (they even dressed in costume in the audience to attract the host’s attention to play games), and required no skill at all, just having to use a hunch to guess whether what was hidden under a box or behind a curtain onstage was better than the money or prizes offered by the host to exchange for the unknown items. Students of the form know it deserves better consideration than that. Host Monty Hall moved the proceedings swiftly so that he had several players ready to pick to play the “Big Deal of the Day,” a final chance for two of them to exchange what they had won for what was behind Door #1, Door #2 or Door #3, and there was always suspense and fascinating prizes (or worthless ones known as “zonks”) for each game. Watch one and you will see why Let’s Make a Deal was once so big that when it switched from NBC to ABC in 1968, it helped lead the latter network to second place in daytime while NBC fell to third. It has had several flop revivals each decade since its cancellation – maybe people just liked the original better with Carol Merrill as the model and Jay Stewart as the animated announcer/assistant.
Behar: Days of Our Lives
The Letter
ABC 9-11 p.m., May 3, 1982
W: Cinematography – Limited Series or Special (James Crabe); Art Direction – Limited Series or Special (James Hulsey, art director, Jerry Adams, set director); Costume Design – Special (Donald Brooks)
N: Music Composition Limited Series or Special (Laurence Rosenthal); Makeup (Jack Freeman, Jack Barron)
Another unnecessary TV remake of a silver screen classic, The Letter substituted Lee Remick in the role Bette Davis portrayed in 1940 in an overheated Somerset Maugham tale of passion and murder. Davis and the production won Oscar nominations; this rendition won in three of five technical areas. Costumer Donald Brooks received a Tony nomination for No Strings in 1962 and Oscar nominations for The Cardinal (1963), Star! (1968) and Darling Lili (1970).
Crabe: Two others. Hulsey: Two others. Adams: Four others. Rosenthal: Five others. Freeman: Haywire.
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp
ABC Tuesdays 8:30-9 p.m., Sept. 6, 1955-Sept. 16, 1961
N: Actor, Continuing Performance, Drama (Hugh O’Brien), 1956; Writing, Half Hour or Less (Dan Ullman, “The Buntline”), 1956
Marshal Wyatt Earp (O’Brien) This has been overlooked as one of TV’s best westerns, with O’Brien a personable, handsome yet formidable lead, and excellent scripting by Ullman, Frederick Hazlitt Brennan and others that attempted to avoid falling back on old standbys like gunplay in favor of realistic dialogue and unexpected twists. Also deserving of praise was the harmonies of the Ken Darby Singers, which augmented the atmosphere This was ABC’s top-rated series for the 1957-58 season (at #6) and was a top 20 entry for all six of its seasons except its first and last. It ended with
The Life of Leonardo da Vinci
CBS Sundays 9:30-10:30 p.m., Aug. 13, 1972-Sept. 10, 1972
N: Drama/Comedy, Limited Episodes (RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana, EP); Actor, Leading Role, Comedy or Drama, Limited Episodes (Philippe Leroy)
A rare Italian series import to America, this five-part offering featured French-born Leroy as the title character, the first and possibly only actor nominated for an Emmy while speaking a foreign language (he and the rest of the cast were dubbed). Telling the story of one of the world’s great geniuses is a nifty premise, but this one does not operate on all cylinders due to an overreliance on the narration of English-speaking Guilio Bosetti to describe important events rather than dramatize them. Even so, the overall story is compelling, and Leroy is a magnetic presence. The production deserved several other nominations, including its excellent cinematography, costumes and art direction. Public television repeated the series in 1974 with Ben Gazzara as narrator, but the DVD restores Bosetti’s version.
Life With Linkletter
ABC Fridays 7:30-8 p.m., Oct. 6, 1950-April 25, 1952
N: Game and Audience Participation Show, 1950
As slick on the medium in 1950 as he would be in later years, Art Linkletter’s first network TV series (filmed in Hollywood) set the pattern for the routine he used on most of his later ones – questions with his studio audience, a visit by famed movie costume designer Edith Head critiquing frankly the fashions of selected female audience members, a surprise gift to a deserving woman in the audience, and interviews with five adorable moppets. What set this apart was its considerable plugging of sponsor Green Giant’s canned vegetables to the extent that life-sized products were put on stage next to Linkletter at the show’s opening – Linkletter pitched the food along with his announcer Jack Slattery. Still, overall this was an efficient and enjoyable way to pass 30 minutes, if not exactly quality television. John Guedel, producer of Linkletter’s hit 1940s network radio shows, did the same chores here, while Stuart Phelps, a 1974 Emmy nominee for Password, served as director. Linkletter hosted three other Emmy-nominated shows; for more details on them, see Art Linkletter’s House Party.
Light’s Diamond Jubilee
ABC, CBS, DuMont and NBC Sunday 9-11 p.m., Oct. 24, 1954
W: Scoring of a Dramatic or Variety Program (Victor Young)
N: Program of the Year; Original Music (Young)
The first TV show to cost more than $1 million – and in 1954 dollars at that – Light’s Diamond Jubilee celebrated the 75th anniversary of Thomas Edison inventing the light bulb under the auspices of movie producer extraordinaire David O. Selznick (Gone With the Wind, Rebecca). Interested in learning the medium, he consented to produce the special, the first to air on all networks. His name attracted talent who rarely worked on TV to the project, including performers Kirk Douglas and Kim Novak and directors King Vidor and William Wellman. Hosted by Joseph Cotten with live and filmed segments, the special received mixed reviews, went over budget and led Selznick to avoid TV afterward, finding it unworthy of his time and money. Victor Young lived up to his first name in one of the categories for which he received nominations for this program. He might have won the other had he not been competing against himself for his work on Medic. The same dilemma faced Frederic March in 1954; see The Best of Broadway. Some references incorrectly refer to this as Diamond Jubilee of Light.
Young: Medic.
Lily
Lily For President?
CBS
N: Videotape Editing (Jimmy B. Frazier, Ken Laski)
Why not? We have picked lesser chief executives than Lily Tomlin. She ran for and won office after an auto accident convinced her the country needed a change, even while she supervised making the movie version of her show “The Seven Ages of Woman.” Using the creative team from Lily: Sold Out except for Irene Mecchi absent as writer and Tom Trbovich as director, this special is more preachy and contrived than that one, and its musical segments with Lily as soulful Purvis Hawkins and folkie Holly Owens are not that funny nor inspired. Lily’s fans will be happy with the time and jokes given to her best characters – Ernestine, Edith Anne, Judith Beasley and Tess the Bag Lady – and the cast is impressive. Scott Baio, Eileen Brennan, James Coco, Howard Duff and Sally Field play characters, Edwin Newman, Regis Philbin, and Paul Reubens (Pee Wee Herman) play themselves, and Jane Fonda (as Judy the secretary from her movie with Lily, 9 to 5), James Garner (as Bret Maverick), Linda Lavin (as Alice Hyatt) and Penny Marshall (as Laverne DeFazio) appear in character as Lily’s supporters.
Frazier: Dorothy Hamill Special, Police Story, Superstunt.
Lily: Sold Out
CBS ,
W: Variety Program (Lily Tomlin, Star and Executive Co-P, Jane Wagner, Executive Co-P, Rocco Urbisci, P)
N: Variety Writing (Nancy Audley, Ann Elder, Irene Mecchi, Elaine Pope, Ziggy Steinberg, Rocco Urbisci, Jane Wagner, Rod Warren); Choreography (Tony Charmoli)
Our gal Lily came to Caesars Palace in Las Vegas to perform her new one-woman show “The Seven Ages of Woman” but succumbed to pressure to make it less cerebral and more glitzy, like everything else on the Sunset Strip. This special fascinatingly delineated the climate Tomlin has faced from TV executives much of her career, yet she was savvy enough to clue viewers she was winking at them about her supposed dilemma and did typically amusing bits with most of her regular characters, plus the debut of Wayne Newton clone Tommy Velour. The strong cast included Audrey Meadows as a costumer, Harvey Lembeck as hack comic Mickey Gold, Alex Rocco as a PR flack, Melanie Mayron as a pushy reporter, Jane Fonda and Dolly Parton as bag ladies (!), and in cameos as themselves, Paul Anka, Liberace and Joan Rivers. Although there was no laugh track in the special, shot on location, the VHS tape shows a preview taped in “Sin City” where the enthusiastic crowd obviously got Tomlin’s joke and relished it. The Emmy win and nominations were well deserved, but why no director nomination for Bill Davis?
Lincoln Mercury Startime – See Ford Startime
Linus the Lionhearted
CBS Saturdays 11-11:30 a.m.* (also ABC), Sept. 26, 1964-Aug. 31, 1969
N: Special Classification of Individual Achievements (Carl Reiner, voices)
Linus (voice of Sheldon Leonard) was the king of a very colorful jungle in this animated tale, created to promote a line of Post cereals in conjunction with many of the characters. That blurring of product and entertainment had it banned from reruns by a stricter FCC in the 1970s, even though the only character still around on cereal boxes was the laidback Sugar Bear. It was no great loss. This is nothing better than an average humorous cartoon, although with the talent involved – besides Leonard and Reiner, Jonathan Winters and Ruth Buzzi provided vocals too – you would have expected more. Reiner’s nomination had to be due to sentimentality about him ending production on The Dick Van Dyke Show in 1966, since CBS cancelled this cartoon that year when The Beatles on ABC outrated it (the remaining three years on ABC were repeats). More importantly, Reiner’s characters were not that impressive – Dinny Kangaroo (with a bogus Australian accent), Rory Raccoon and Sasha Grouse are hardly even the best characters on the cartoon, let alone memorable characters for TV animation in general.
Reiner: The Dick Van Dyke Show,
Liza with a “Z” – See Singer Presents Liza with a “Z”
Love Among the Ruins
ABC p.m., March 6, 1975
W: Lead Actor, Special (Laurence Olivier); Lead Actress, Special (Katharine Hepburn); Writer, Special - Drama or Comedy (James Costigan); Director - Drama or Comedy (George Cukor); Costume Design (Margaret Furse); Art Direction or Scenic Design (Tessa Davies, set decorator; Carmen Dillon, art director)
N: Special - Drama or Comedy (Allan Davis, P)
A bachelor barrister (Olivier), smitten with a former actress/wealthy widow (Hepburn) whom he had an intense three-day affair 40 years earlier, must defend her in a breach of promise trial in 1911 London against a young man claiming she agreed to marry him. The actress has forgotten the affair but needs his help desperately or else will be drained of her fortune. That description may make this TV-movie sound insufferably pretentious and stodgy, but it is anything but, particularly as it progresses amusingly with Hepburn determined to prove she is young and vital while Olivier struggles to restrain his lingering passion at the same time. A delicious script with crisp dialogue, sparkling performances, assured direction and top work in all other departments make this a winner. Hepburn was one of the first actresses able to say “bitch” on TV (to describe her young boyfriend’s mother). Surprisingly, this was her only Emmy win out of four acting nominations (and two informational specials outside the scope of this project). It’s somewhat less shocking to report it was the great director George Cukor’s only Emmy as well, since he only directed one other TV show, the 1979 TV-movie The Corn is Green starring Hepburn. The production’s only loss out of seven Emmy nominations. was to The Law, in a mild upset.
Olivier: Brideshead Revisited, David Copperfield, King Lear, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, The Lost Empires, The Merchant of Venice, The Moon and Sixpence. Hepburn: The Corn is Green, The Glass Menagerie, Mrs. Delafield Wants to Marry. Costigan: Eleanor and Franklin, Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years, Ford Startime, Hallmark Hall of Fame.
Love is a Many Splendored Thing
CBS Weekdays 2-2:30 p.m.*, Sept. 18, 1967-March 23, 1973
N: Individual Achievement in Daytime Drama (Victor Paganuzzi, scenic designer, and John A. Wendell, set decorator), 1971 and 1973, (James Angerame, technical director), 1971, and (Peter Levin, director), 1973
A continuation of the popular 1955 Best Picture Oscar nominee of the same name, Love is a Many Splendored Thing was a pet project of CBS daytime programming head Fred Silverman after he lobbied unsuccessfully to expand As the World Turns to one hour in 1967. Unfortunately, as he later acknowledged, actress Nancy Hsueh was inadequate as the Eurasian lead actress, and creator Irna Phillips bolted soon, forcing several cast and crew changes. Even with that and the familiar theme played by a 12-piece ensemble, this did considerably less well than its predecessor Password in retaining the huge lead-in audience from As the World Turns, and a time slot switch in the fall of 1972 assured its cancellation. After another joint nomination with Wendell, Paganuzzi earned one more nomination along with Neil J. Deluca as set designers for the sports segment of the CBS morning news show in 1980, while Angerame received three more Emmy nominations for sports and informational programs.
Paganuzzi and Wendell: CBS Daytime 90. Levin: ABC Matinee Today, Lou Grant.
Love Is … Barbara Eden
ABC p.m., Dec. 15, 1972
N: Videotape Editing (Mike Wenig)
Some might argue with the title’s claim, but Besides the cross-references provided at the end, nominee Wenig did win an Emmy in 1973 for his work on the 1972 Summer Olympics, as he would for the 1976 Winter Olympics (also a nomination for the 1976 Summer Olympics) and coverage of the Indianapolis 500 in 1982.
Wenig: ABC Comedy Hour, Academy Awards
The Lucy Show
CBS Monday 8:30-9 p.m.*, Oct. 1, 1962-Sept. 16, 1968
W: Actress in a Comedy Series (Lucille Ball), 1967, 1968
N: Lead Actress, Series (Ball), 1963; Lead Actress, Comedy (Ball), 1966; Supporting Actor, Comedy (Gale Gordon), 1967, 1968; Directorial Achievement in Comedy (Maury Thompson), 1967; Comedy Series (Tommy Thompson), 1968; Writing Achievement, Comedy (Ray Singer, Milt Josefsberg, “Lucy Gets Jack Benny’s Bank Account”), 1968
The first format of The Lucy Show had widow Lucy Carmichael (Lucille Ball) and her children Chris (Candy Moore) and Jerry (Jimmy Garrett) sharing a house in Danfield, New York with divorcee Vivian Bagley (Vivian Vance) and her son Sherman (Ralph Hart). Lucy and Vivian got into slapstick mishaps much in the same way the actresses did in I Love Lucy. Then in the fall of 1965, Lucy moved to Los Angeles and left the others behind except for Theodore J. Mooney (Gale Gordon), a banker in charge of her trust fund since 1963 who eventually hired her to work for him. The first version was much more realistic and enjoyable than the limited, sketch-style plots of the second; the Academy unbelievably preferred the latter. Lucy was the most disappointing element during this transformation. Though she tried to recapture magic from her earlier series – her character even shared the same maiden name, MacGillicuddy – she fell back on yelling and overacting as years went by, and Lucy Carmichael became stupid in ways that Lucy Ricardo never did. Yet Ball won the same number of Emmys here as she did for I Love Lucy, and her 1968 win was especially vexing – besides beating her superior competition of Paula Prentiss (He and She), Elizabeth Montgomery (Bewitched), Barbara Feldon (Get Smart!) and Marlo Thomas (That Girl), she kept out Barbara Eden (I Dream of Jeannie), Eve Arden and Kaye Ballard (The Mothers-In-Law), Irene Ryan (The Beverly Hillbillies) and Eva Gabor (Green Acres), all of whom were better. And the 1968 best comedy nomination should have gone to He and She instead. But The Lucy Show was a top 10 hit throughout its run, making Emmy voters feel it deserved something. They were wrong, with the possible exception for writing – that episode was funny, thanks largely to nominee Milt Josefsberg having written for Jack Benny in the past.
Ball: I Love Lucy. Gordon: Here’s Lucy, Our Miss Brooks. Josefsberg: All in the Family, Jack Benny Program.
The Lux Show Starring Rosemary Clooney
NBC Thursdays 10-10:30 p.m., Sept. 26, 1957-June 19, 1958
N: Musical Contribution (Frank De Vol)
After a season in syndication with The Rosemary Clooney Show, the star moved to network TV in an OK mostly musical variety series with vocal support by Paula Kelly and the Modernaires (succeeded by the Jones Boys quartet three months before cancellation). This effort so disappointed its sponsor, who used it to replace its long-running Lux Video Theatre, that Lux reverted to an anthology format the next season with Lux Playhouse on CBS. As with Clooney’s earlier show, her musical director received an Emmy nomination. Here it was Frank De Vol, who conducted the orchestra here with verve and made scores of TV appearances as a conductor and occasional actor from the 1950s through 1970s, but had his best success in the medium writing theme songs for series, including Family Affair and My Three Sons.
Lux Video Theatre
NBC Thursdays 10-11 p.m.* (also CBS), Oct. 2, 1950-Sept. 12, 1957
N: Actress, Single Performance (Ruth Hussey, “Craig’s Wife”) and (Claire Trevor, “Ladies in Retirement”), 1955; Actor, Single Performance (Frank Lovejoy, “Double Indemnity”), 1955; Camerawork, Live Show (Joe Strauss), 1956; Art Direction, Live Series (William Craig Smith), 1956
The aural predecessor for this live dramatic anthology (a half hour on CBS its first four years, an hour on NBC its last three) was Lux Radio Theatre, a series mainly notable for the use of top Hollywood stars in audio adaptations of hit movies. For TV, well, even by the early medium’s standards, the acting nominees listed above were not big names, and suffered in comparison with the original works from which they were adapted (it would be hard to believe Lovejoy’s performance would surpass Fred MacMurray’s splendid turn in the original 1944 theatrical film of Double Indemnity, for example). What does hold up for Lux Video Theatre is its nonacting nominees, which reflected some of the best work on live TV at the time and made it a respectable if not outstanding dramatic entry. The only exception is the awkwardly scripted and acted interviews by the host (James Mason 1954-55, Otto Kruger 1955-56, Gordon MacRae 1956-57) with the stars of the show after ended as well as stars of the next week’s show to preview that presentation. Despite the strong lead-in of The Ford Show in 1956-57, the show remained a ratings loser, so Lux replaced it with a variety series (see The Lux Show Starring Rosemary Clooney).
Trevor: Producers’ Showcase. Strauss: The Fred Astaire Show. Smith: Skag.