NBC Opera Theatre through Outlaws
Slim pickings on here right now, I know, but more will be coming soon. The nominations for The Outer Limits in both its original series format and as a remake has occurred a few other times as well, such as with Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Mission: Impossible, although unlike here, in most of the other cases the original version earned more nominations.
NBC Matinee Theater – See Matinee Theater
The NBC Opera Theatre
NBC Various days, times and lengths, Oct. 19, 1952-1964
N: Direction, One Hour or More (Kirk Browning, “La Boheme”), 1956; Achievement in Music, 1962, 1963; Original Music (Gian Carlo Menotti, “Labyrinth”), 1963
It aired weekend afternoons monthly from 1952-57. In 1957 the shows assumed a new title, NBC Opera Company. Browning earned an individual Emmy news nomination in 1968 for directing “Crisis in the Cities” on NET’s Public Broadcast Laboratory. This also earned a Best Public Service nomination in 1956.
Menotti: Hallmark Hall of Fame.
Naked City
ABC Wednesdays 10-11 p.m.*, Sept. 30, 1958-Sept. 11, 1963
W: Film Editing (Harry Coswick, Aaron Nibley, Milton Shifman) 1961 and (Hugh Chaloupka, Charles L. Freeman, Nibley), 1962; Cinematography (John S. Priestley), 1962, 1963
N: Drama Series, Less Than One Hour, 1959; Drama Series, 1961, 1962, 1963; Lead Actor (Paul Burke), 1962, 1963; Supporting Actor (Horace McMahon), 1962; Directing (Arthur Hiller), 1962; Supporting Role, Actress (Nancy Malone), 1963; Single Performance, Actress (Diahann Carroll, “A Horse Has a Big Head, Let Him Worry”), 1963; Film Editing (Jack Gleason, Chaloupka, Coswick, Freeman, Nibley), 1963
The best crime show of the early 1960s bar none, Naked City first ran as a half-hour entry from 1958-59, with Jim Halloran (James Franciscus) and Dan Muldoon (John McIntire) as the lead detectives until March 1959, when McIntire had his character killed off because he wanted to return to Hollywood rather than continue to work on location in New York City. Replacing him was Lt. Mike Parker (McMahon) who along with Frank Arcaro (Harry Bellaver) reappeared when the show returned in 1960 in a hour version. Joining them there was the new lead, Adam Flint (Burke) and his blonde girlfriend and partner at the police station, Libby Kingston (Malone). The expansion allowed better character development for both the regulars (I liked McMahon’s seen-it-all Lt. Parker the best) and juicy guest parts, such as Diahann Carroll’s nominated turn as a meek school teacher distraught that one of her blind students escaped her watch and is missing somewhere in Gotham. This was no standard shoot-’em-up (relatively few guns were fired in fact), as evidenced by the great outdoors cinematography showing the Big Apple in all of its glory in fabulous black and white. Given all its pluses, it is incredible that the superlative writing here never received a single nomination. Among the nominees, editor Freeman won an Oscar for Best Special Effects for 1948’s Portrait of Jennie, Malone went on to a successful career behind the scenes as a TV director and producer by the 1970s, and Hiller would go onto a successful movie directing career (including an Oscar nomination for 1970’s Love Story) without receiving another Emmy nod. Lawrence Dobkin supplied the narration at the opening and close of each episode, including the ending lines “There are eight million stories in the Naked City. This has been one of them,” which was first heard in the 1948 movie of the same name on which this series was based.
Priestley: East Side/West Side. Malone: Bob Hope: The First 90 Years, Sisters, The Trials of Rosie O’Neill. Carroll: A Different World, Grey’s Anatomy, Julia, The Sweetest Gift.
The Name of the Game
NBC Fridays 8:30-10 p.m., Sept. 20, 1968-Sept. 10, 1971
W: Supporting Actress, Series (Susan Saint James), 1969
N: Drama Series (Richard Irving, Leslie Stevens, David Victor, P), 1969 and (Irving, George Eckstein, Dean Hargrove, Norman Lloyd, Boris Sagal), 1970; Single Performance, Lead Actress (Anne Baxter, “The Bobbie Currier Story”), 1969; Supporting Actress, Series (Saint James), 1970, 1971; Music, Lyrics and Special Material (Billy Goldenberg, David Wilson), 1971; Music Composition for a Series or Single Episode of a Series (Goldenberg, Robert Prince, “LA 2017″), 1971
A pioneering drama in terms of its setup, The Name of the Game presented three leads who rotated starring in stories every week, each supervised by different producers. Arguably the top one was Gene Barry as Glenn Howard, whose magazine publication company in Los Angeles included the muckraking People featuring superstar investigating reporter Jeff Dillon (Tony Franciosa) and hard-hitting Crime focusing on tough editor Dan Farrell (Robert Stack). Acting as assistant to all of them was the young, dedicated and sometimes flustered Peggy Maxwell (Saint James). Sporting the usual Universal production sheen and given an hour and a half to tell stories, the program was a notch above most TV dramas at the time in being able to develop novel plots with interesting angles and good characterizations. Still, I would resist classifying this as a great series, as it too often could have been thematically deeper in its approach. It never was a hit despite three years on the air, and when ABC debuted the more successful The Partridge Family against its first half hour in 1970-71, it was toast. The beeping electronic theme by Dave Grusin deserved a nomination as well, in my opinion.
Navy Log
ABC Wednesdays 8:30-9 p.m.* (also CBS), Sept. 20, 1955-Sept. 25, 1958
N: Film Editing (Jason H. Bernie, “Operation 3 in 1”), 1956
This utterly unremarkable dramatic anthology of stories based on stories about personnel involved with one branch of the military (guess which!) should not be confused with a similarly themed syndicated series that aired in 1956, Men of Annapolis. (What was the fascination with the Navy on TV at that time?) CBS switched it from its original leadoff at 8 p.m. Tuesdays with The Phil Silvers Show and had it follow that series, but it still bombed behind that strong lead-in. That did not stop ABC from carrying it another two lackluster years, however. Nominee Bernie began editing films in the 1940s and continued until the late 1960s, culminating with the horrible Custer TV series in 1967.
The Nurses
CBS Thursdays 10-11 p.m.*, Sept. 27, 1962-Sept. 7, 1965
N: Lead Actress, Series (Shirl Conway), 1963
CBS’s answer to the successful Ben Casey on ABC and Dr. Kildare on NBC was this distaff view, set at fictional Alden Hospital in New York City, where it was filmed. Coming from the same production crew that created The Defenders, specifically executive producer Herbert Brodkin, the focus here was on head nurse Liz Thorpe (Conway) and her interaction with student nurse Gail Lucas (Zina Bethune) and assorted other medical personnel and patients she encountered in her duties. The series struggled through three unexceptional years, and while there may have been some sexism involved in getting early 1960s nighttime viewers to watch a drama not featuring men, I think the real difficulty was one of perception. The older male leads on the ABC and NBC doctor shows were crusty and secondary to the action, which must have confused viewers as to why Liz was up front in the action and an unexpectedly rather warm albeit efficient personality, carefully listening to and responding kindly to all who addressed her. The addition of regular male physician leads in the last season, when it became The Doctors and the Nurses, did not significantly change that perspective. Also, some reactionary viewers may have disliked the fact that Alden was an integrated hospital. The final flaw was that the series just was not as well written as The Defenders to be considered its medical equivalent in terms of quality. Conway, who lost to Shirley Booth for Hazel (this was back when sitcoms and dramas competed directly in acting categories) was little seen on network TV after this ended. She and her husband moved to Washington state in the 1970s to continue acting, and she died there in 2007.
Ol’ Blue Eyes is Back - See Magnavox Presents Frank Sinatra.
The Outer Limits
ABC Mondays 7:30-8:30 p.m.*, Sept. 16, 1963-Jan. 16, 1965
N: Art Direction and Scenic Design (Jack Poplin), 1964
A science fiction-horror-fantasy anthology, The Outer Limits ran just a year and a half (thanks largely to ABC unwisely moving it in its abbreviated second season to Saturday nights opposite Jackie Gleason on CBS), yet proved popular enough in reruns to inspire a revival (see next entry). That’s because it remains one of the few TV efforts in the supernatural genre to employ thoughtful, adult storytelling along with relatively high quality production values. Poplin deserved his nomination and arguably a win too – one of his spaceship sets was recycled for use by no less than The Twilight Zone – but the Academy overlooked the exceptional work by Wah Ming Chang and Bene Warren, heads of Projects Unlimited, in designing distinctive monster costumes for virtually every episode. After his Emmy nomination, Poplin earned an Oscar nomination for his black-and-white art direction on 1965’s The Slender Thread.
The Outer Limits
Showtime Various Days and Times 60 Minutes, March 26, 1995-Jan. 28, 2002
W: Guest Actress, Drama (Amanda Plummer), 1996
N: Guest Actor, Drama (Beau Bridges), 1995
This revival of the old chestnut ran nearly seven years without garnering the same critical and popular attention as the original.
Outlaws
NBC Thursdays 7:30-8:30 p.m., Sept. 29, 1960-Sept. 13, 1962
N: Cinematography (William Margulies, “Outrage at Pawnee Bend”), 1961
Outlaws (no “The” before it, despite what some sources claim) originally presented western adventures from the perspective of the criminal perpetrators, with each episode focusing on them instead of the lawmen who eventually rounded them up, Deputy Marshal Will Forman (Don Collier) and U.S. Marshal Frank Caine (Barton MacLane). It was like Wagon Train, only most of the major guest stars were baddies. That unique approach did not entice enough viewers away from the competing The Donna Reed Show in NBC’s view, so in its second season the network put it in color, dropped Barton MacLane and added new characters while focusing on Marshal Forman’s conventional exploits instead. The result was even bigger ratings for The Donna Reed Show, leading to this series’ cancellation. Its nominated show was a clever, humorous outing despite its purplish title, tops in all departments – I’d rank it among the top 100 TV western episodes ever. Jonathan Harris played a mild-mannered conductor who stole an express car with a million dollars in it from a train under the watchful eye of a boastful captain played by Paul Ford. Harris said this was his favorite TV role, and Ford was wonderful too – I could see them being nominated for best guest actor had the category existed then. This was Margulies’ fourth and final consecutive Emmy loss, beaten by George Clemens for The Twilight Zone. Margulies remained in heavy demand as a cinematographer before retiring after the 1974 TV-movie The Family Kovack. He died in 1988.
Margulies: Have Gun – Will Travel, The Lawless Years.