Pantomime Quiz through Run for Your Life
Pantomime Quiz
DuMont Tuesdays 8:30-9 p.m.* (also CBS, NBC and ABC), July 3, 1950-Oct. 9, 1959 (also syndicated)
W: Most Popular Program, 1948
N: Outstanding Personality (Mike Stokey), 1948, 1949; Live Show, 1949; Game and Audience Participation Show, 1950
Pantomime Quiz was simply charades with celebrities, with creator/producer Mike Stokey moderating the contest between two teams of four celebrities, with one of the foursome being a “home team” of regulars. A member of the quartet received a phrase, usually a pun or twist on a usual saying submitted by a viewer, then enacted it without speaking to entice the three other team members to guess the answer before time ran out. A durable program with an inviting living room set, Pantomime Quiz generally aired in the summers on all the networks during the 1950s, but most of its nominations came when it was a local show in Los Angeles. Stokey later revived the series as Stump the Stars (CBS 1962-63 and syndicated 1969) and Celebrity Charades (syndicated 1979). When it won the Emmy – the first ever given to a series, by the way – its title was Pantomime Quiz Time, and a filmed version in syndication in the early 1950s gave the title as Mike Stokey’s Pantomime Quiz Time.
Password
CBS Weekdays 2-2:30 p.m.* (also ABC and NBC), Oct. 2, 1961-March 24, 1989
W: Game Show, 1974, 1982; Host of a Game Show (Allen Ludden), 1976
N: Panel, Quiz or Audience Participation, 1963; Achievement in Daytime Programs (Frank Wayne, EP; Howard Felsher, P), 1973; Game Show Host (Ludden), 1974; Director, Game Show (Stuart Phelps), 1974 and (George Choderker), 1986
Members of two teams, each with a celebrity and contestant, alternated in having one member of each give a one-word clue to his or her partner to induce the other to say the mystery word or “password” for that game. A wrong guess let the other team do the same thing. This show’s first version had teams compete to be the first to score 25 points to play a bonus round, with points starting at 10 for the first clue, 9 for the second, 8 for the third, etc., while the second one (from 1979 onward) had the “password” serve as a clue to another “password” to be identified to win money and do the bonus. A durable concept, easy to play and watch, Password ran on CBS from 1961-67 (also nighttime from 1962-67), ABC from 1971-75, and NBC from 1979-82 (as Password Plus) and 1984-89 (as Super Password), with Allen Ludden as host until 1980, Tom Kennedy from 1980-82 and Bert Convy from 1984-89. It earned dedicated, repeated participation from such stars as Ross Martin, Elizabeth Montgomery (whose Bewitched decimated it in direct nighttime competition in 1964-65), and Betty White, who married Ludden in 1963. She won an Emmy for The Mary Tyler Moore Show in 1976, which made them the first married couple to both win Emmys in the same year.
The Patrice Munsel Show
ABC Fridays 9:30-10 p.m.*, Oct. 18, 1957-June 13, 1958
N: Direction (Clark Jones)
An opera singer who did just fine lending her vocals to pop standards plus dancing as well, Patrice Munsel was ABC’s attempt to be the network’s Dinah Shore. After her opening number, there would be a storyline involving her and her guests, typically a male vocalist and a comedian, which included time for several elaborate production numbers. This show dripped with talent – Larry Gelbart was co-writer, co-choreographer Danny Daniels earned two Tony nominations in the 1960s, and singer/songwriter Hugh Martin (“The Trolley Song”) was vocal arranger and appeared onscreen with his group the Martins. Yet while very competent and enjoyable, there was a spark missing somewhere to make it great, and Munsel’s aria midway through each show may have turned off those who disliked opera. Running its first three months against the hit Dick Powell’s Zane Grey Theatre on CBS did not help matters either. Jones, who also co-produced this series, lost a third time in his eight nominations without a win.
Jones: The Bell Telephone Hour, The Perry Como Show, Night of 100 Stars, Night of 100 Stars II, Producers’ Showcase, The Tony Awards, Your Hit Parade.
People Are Funny
NBC Saturdays 7:30-8 p.m.*, Sept. 19, 1954-April 2, 1961
N: Audience, Guest Participation or Panel Program, 1954, 1955
Art Linkletter proceeded over a variety of alleged amusing activities involving members of the studio audience in this obvious knockoff of Truth or Consequences. Maybe I just saw a kinescope of a weaker outing, but it was anything but funny to me watching strained sketches and stunts such as a person having to call a stranger and keep him on the phone for a few minutes that were tiresome and poorly paced – and that is with the show being filmed and edited. Somebody must have chuckled over it, as it managed to peak at #21 in the 1956-57 season before CBS’s competition of Perry Mason in 1959 and the never-nominated Rawhide in 1960 forced it to spend its last season in the relatively little-viewed time slot of Sundays 6:30-7 p.m.
Perry Como’s Kraft Music Hall
NBC ,
When it became Perry Como’s Kraft Music Hall in 1961, there was now a quartet of supporting musical comedy players (Kaye Ballard, and Paul Lynde from 1961-62 followed by ). A big introductory number with singing and dancing by Perry and his guests and a new segment saluting states with music and skits were added. Good comedy (Goodman Ace, Selma Diamond, Frank Peppiatt and John Aylesworth were among the writers, Dwight Hemion director, Nick Vanoff producer).
Pete and Gladys
CBS Mondays 8-8:30 p.m., Sept. 19, 1960-Sept. 10, 1962
N: Lead Actress (Cara Williams), 1962
Pete Porter (Harry Morgan) disparaged his unseen wife Gladys often on December Bride. A year after that series ended, Cara Williams personified the object of his disaffection as Gladys, whose well-intentioned plans to help him or her normally backfired. Hilda Crocker (Verna Felton) from the first show joined her in the first year, along with other supporting cast members. An ersatz I Love Lucy rehash, with everyone working at less than peak form. It lacked the charm of December Bride, and when that show’s regular Frances Rafferty came onto Pete and Gladys in 1961 as a different character, it was a sign of how far afield the spinoff was. This bombed opposite Cheyenne on ABC, yet somehow its reruns on the CBS morning lineup from 1962-64 lasted as long as its nighttime run. Williams, formerly a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee for The Defiant Ones (1958), earned her nomination in a weak year for actresses – it was the only time a daytime soap star (Mary Stuart, Search for Tomorrow) competed in the category, for example. She starred in The Cara Williams Show from 1964-65 and appeared some on Rhoda in 1974 before disappearing from TV.
Peter Gunn
NBC Mondays 9-9:30 p.m.* (also ABC), Sept. 22, 1958-Sept. 25, 1961
N: Drama Series – Less Than One Hour, 1959; Actor – Continuing Performance – Dramatic Series (Craig Stevens), 1959; Supporting Actor – Dramatic Series (Herschel Bernardi), 1959; Supporting Actress – Dramatic Series (Hope Emerson), 1959 and (Lola Albright), 1959; Direction – Single Program of a Dramatic Series, Less Than One Hour (Blake Edwards, “The Kill”), 1959; Writing – Single Program of a Dramatic Series, Less Than One Hour (Blake Edwards, “The Kill”), 1959; Musical Contribution (Henry Mancini, composing Peter Gunn theme), 1959
Unflappable, debonair Peter Gunn (Stevens) was a man for hire involved in offbeat cases (e.g., gangsters in pursuit of a seal that swallowed stolen diamonds) who enlisted the reluctant help of his fretful pal, Lt. Jacoby (Bernardi), to crack them. He relaxed off duty with girlfriend Edie Hart (Albright), who sang at a jazz nightclub run by towering pianist/vocalist Mother (Emerson). When Emerson left her role for The Dennis O’Keefe Show (1959-60), her replacement as Mother, Minerva Urecal, lacked her vocal chops, so Albright took a bigger role on the show. But its real stars were Blake Edwards, who created and produced it as well as wrote and directed many episodes, and Henry Mancini, whose bold theme and expert scoring of episodes created music that appeared on hit albums and established his popularity. Even with polish on every level, the show failed to topple its competition, Make Room for Daddy, after two years, and a switch to ABC in 1960 was no more fruitful. But its emphasis on style and quirky cases remained durable into the 21st century on such series as Monk. Edwards revived the character in a 1967 theatrical movie, Gunn, starring Stevens, and a 1989 TV-movie, Peter Gunn, starring Peter Strauss.
Mancini: The Thorn Birds.
Petula
NBC Tuesday p.m., April 9, 1968
N: Electronic Camerawork (Karl Messerschmidt, technical director; Roy Holm, Bob Keyes, Wayne Nostaja, Tony Yarlett, cameramen)
Petula Clark’s first TV special in America after finally breaking through as a singer in England for years with “Downtown” in 1965, mostly taped without a studio audience, is overdone in nearly every department - gaudy lighting, “mod” costumes, swarms of dancers, camera tricks, far out sets and outdoor locations, and so on. It even relied on that hoariest method in the mid- to late 1960s of making a personality seem “hip” by having him or her sing a Beatles tune (in this case, it was Petula doing ”We Can Work It Out”). Too often, everybody involved - including usually reliable producer/director Steve Binder - is trying too hard to make her into the next Streisand for TV instead of letting Petula’s own magic shine. Petula’s hitmaking days faded soon after this aired, and it would be forgotten were it not for the fact her sponsor, Plymouth cars, wanted to edit out the one truly effective moment in the show, when Petula placed her hand on the elbow of guest Harry Belafonte for a few seconds at the end of their duet. (Yes, parts of America were that nervous about a white woman and black man touching even briefly in 1968.) The official Emmy nomination has him listed as “Bob Keyes,” but most references say he is the same cameraman as “Bob Keys,” hence the listing without the extra “e” below.
Messerschmidt: All the Way Home, Barbara Mandrell’s Christmas: A Family Reunion, Cosby, The Dean Martin Show, A Different World, Doug Henning’s World of Magic, Lynda Carter Body and Soul, NBC Live Theater. Holm: Ain’t Misbehavin’, Barbara Mandrell’s Christmas: A Family Reunion, Bell System Family Theatre, A Christmas Special…With Love, Mac Davis, An Evening with Julie Andrews and Harry Belafonte, The Fred Astaire Show, Jennifer Slept Here, The Magic of David Copperfield, The Magic of David Copperfield VI, The Magic of David Copperfield VII, The Midnight Special, Mitzi and 100 Guys, Mitzi Roarin’ in the ’20s, Mitzi What’s Hot What’s Not, NBC Live Theater, The People vs. Jean Harris, The Perry Como Christmas Show, Punky Brewster, Sara, Sheena Easton Act One. Keyes: Ben Vereen His Roots, Fail Safe, The Golden Girls, Hallmark Hall of Fame, IBM Presents Clarence Darrow, Julie Andrews the Sound of Christmas, The Kennedy Center Honors, Liberty Weekend Closing Ceremonies, Motown Returns to the Apollo, Neil Diamond Hello Again, The Neil Diamond Special, The Perry Como Christmas Show, Survivor the Reunion, The Three Tenors in Concert 1994, We the People 200 A Constitutional Gala, Whose Line is it Anyway? Nostaja: The Magic of David Copperfield. Yarlett: Dave’s World, The Fred Astaire Show, The Perry Como Christmas Show, Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In.
The Phantom of Hollywood
CBS Tuesday 9:30-11 p.m., Feb. 12, 1974
N: Makeup (William Tuttle)
Worldwide Studios is on the verge of selling its 40-acre back lot in Los Angeles to developers, but a mysterious masked and costumed figure called the Phantom is killing people who tamper with the decrepit movie sets with a flail. Company head Roger Cross (Peter Lawford) enlists Captain O’Neal (Broderick Crawford) and Lt. Gifford (John Ireland) to capture the Phantom before his murder spree spooks (sorry, couldn’t resist) the property sale. Movie buffs will get a slight kick from seeing how the MGM lot used here looked before its sell-off in real life, as well as footage of the auctioning off its props (a foolhardy move) and a montage used in That’s Entertainment!, a 1974 theatrical release using clips of MGM films that featured Lawford as one of its hosts. But the overall mood for this endeavor is an air of cheesiness, and there is absolutely no suspense over who the Phantom is. Tuttle, a leading makeup artist with more than 300 credits for MGM since the 1930s who contributed his respectable though not outstanding work here on disguising the killer, won an honorary Oscar in 1965 for 7 Faces of Dr. Lao.
Tuttle: Babe.
Philco Television Playhouse
Phyllis
CBS Mondays 8:30-9 p.m.*, Sept. 8, 1975-Aug. 30, 1977
N: Lead Actress, Comedy (Cloris Leachman), 1976
Following Rhoda, The Mary Tyler Moore Show unleashed its second spinoff as Mary’s flighty cousin/landlord Phyllis Lindstrom (Leachman) moved to San Francisco after the death of Lars, her never seen but oft mentioned husband. Daughter Bess (Lisa Gerritsen) joined her in living with Lars’ mother Audrey (Jane Rose), Audrey’s second husband Jonathan Dexter (Henry Jones), and his crotchety Mother Dexter (Judith Lowry). Phyllis worked at a photography studio the first year and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors the second, but neither job clicked for her, nor really did Phyllis itself. A top 10 hit in 1975-76 thanks largely to Rhoda as lead-in, it died in 1976-77 opposite Little House on the Prairie as audiences found the cast and setup unappealing. Desperation for ratings emerged as both Beth and even Mother Dexter married, Mary Tyler Moore visited and producers planned to give Phyllis yet another job. And Phyllis had been an antagonist, making her a dubious series lead, although Leachman was in top comic form as ever. She reprised Phyllis on the last episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, which was a better way to say goodbye to the character.
Leachman: Plenty.
Pictionary
Syndicated Daily 30 minutes, September 1997-1998
N: Game/Audience Participation Program, 1998
Pictionary was a revival of Win Lose or Draw hosted by Alan Thicke. Its placement in the game show Emmy category showed how slim competition was to fill its slots by the late 1990s, as it was the shortest-lived game show ever nominated there. There was a 1989 syndicated series by the same name from a different production company based more on the original Pictionary board game and hosted by Brian Robbins.
The Pinky Lee Show
NBC Weekly 5:30-6 p.m.*, Jan. 4, 1954-June 9, 1956
N: Children’s Series, 1955
Hyperkinetic comic Pinky Lee had only a minor entertainment career since the 1930s before this program propelled him into vogue – but only briefly. In front of a revved-up juvenile studio audience Pinky cracked jokes, introduced talent, led games and mugged it up in sketches with assorted regulars, including singers Molly Bee from 1954-55 and Roberta Shore from 1955-56. While kids loved him, many adults disdained him and fellow comics mocked him, so it is rather incredible this series received even an Emmy nomination, though it does reflect how popular it was in the mid-1950s (it even aired six days a week from March 1955 through May 1956). But by the time of the Emmy ceremony for this nomination Lee already was losing in the ratings to The Mickey Mouse Club on ABC, and he went to Saturdays only for his last season. He hosted The Gumby Show in 1957 before being shunted aside by the TV industry, rarely appearing on it thereafter until his death in 1993 at age 85. By the way, his real name was not too far from his stage one – he was born Pincus Leff.
Play It Again, Charlie Brown
CBS Sunday 7-7:30 p.m., March 28, 1971
N: Children’s Programming, Individual Achievement (John Scott Trotter, music director)
In an effort to win Schroeder’s affection over music by Beethoven he liked to play on his toy piano, Lucy gets him a gig to perform at a local PTA meeting. To Schroeder’s dismay, they expect him to play rock music with Snoopy and some other Peanuts. He leaves on principle, putting Lucy back at square one. The animation and storyline are more freeform than usual from this crew, including Snoopy floating in the air while listening to Schroeder’s music, Lucy’s face popping up amid music bars appearing when Schroeder played, and oddest of all, Lucy pressing spray cans that release human vocals. The title is misleading; Charlie Brown shows up only about midway into the program in a rather minor role. Overall a somewhat average Peanuts special, which nevertheless means above average compared to most other animated specials.
Trotter: Babar.
Playhouse 90
CBS Thursday 9:30-11 p.m., Oct. 4, 1956-Jan. 21, 1960
N: Single Performance by an Actor (Paul Muni, “Last Clear Chance”), 1959
Tony and Oscar winner Paul Muni earned his only Emmy nomination here, although to be fair he rarely performed on the medium. Playing lawyer Sam Arlen, he wore an earpiece because he needed his lines read to him by the director for the live performance to remember them. According to Lewis Funke and John E. Booth’s Actors Talk About Acting (1961), Muni felt TV was more felicitous for directors than actors and his demand to have his script at least four weeks in advance of getting before the cameras limited his offerings.
Pontiac Presents Playwrights 56
NBC Tuesdays 9:30-10:30 p.m., Oct. 4, 1955-June 19, 1956
W: Art Direction – Live Series (Otis Riggs), 1955
Live from Hollywood (at least for the East and Midwest) twice a month alternating with Armstrong Circle Theatre, this was a prestige dramatic anthology produced by Fred Coe. A decent enough show, but the problem was that everyone expected it to be another Philco Television Playhouse, and despite the participation of talent like Paul Newman, the emphasis on “name” writers like Ernest Hemingway did not impress people as much as the efforts of writers on other dramas who actually were familiar with the needs of the medium. This collapsed opposite The Red Skelton Show and The $64,000 Question on CBS. Riggs, whose work was impressive on the multiple sets this series used, won his statuette for both this series and Producers’ Showcase.
Riggs: Another World.
Pontiac Star Parade
NBC Various days and times 60 minutes, Feb. 28, 1959-April 16, 1960
N: Direction – Single Musical or Variety Program (Gower Champion, Joe Cates, “Accent on Love”)
GM’s vehicle division Pontiace sponsored this irregular series of lavish color variety specials. “Accent on Love” ran on Feb. 28, 1959, and included Gower Champion dancing with his then-wife Marge. Champion earned 15 Tony nominations for his choreography and direction on Broadway and won there eight times, from Lend an Ear in 1949 to his posthumous victory for 42nd Street in 1981.
Cates: Annie, the Women in the Life of a Man, Jack Lemmon in ’S Wonderful, ’S Marvelous, ’S Gershwin.
Poppies Are Also Flowers
ABC p.m., April 22, 1966
W: Supporting Actor, Drama (Eli Wallach)
Incorrectly listed in most places (including the Emmys!) as The Poppy is Also a Flower, this UN special has a stupefying cast that included Stephen Boyd, Yul Brynner, Angie Dickinson, Rita Hayworth, Trevor Howard, Trini Lopez (as himself), Marcello Mastroianni, Anthony Quayle, Omar Sharif and Barry Sullivan. Starting with a quick credit roll, the movie whizzes by as it details efforts of various officials including E.G. Marshall (inappropriately looking and sounding like Bob Hope at times) to intercept and destroy opium smugglers from the Middle East into Europe. It comes across as no more than a weak James Bond film, no surprise given the director was Bond favorite Terence Young and the story idea came from 007’s creator himself, Ian Fleming. (The producer was Edgar Rosenberg, later the husband of Joan Rivers.) The acting, editing, direction and cinematography suggest that almost everyone was rushing through this project and did everything in one take. Wallach, playing shifty Italian Happy Lacarno, was an exception and invested genuine emotion into his part, although it is disappointing that for less than 10 minutes on screen, he won the Emmy over Leo G. Carroll for The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Leonard Nimoy for Star Trek. In his autobiography The Good, the Bad and Me, Wallach claimed he did his part as a lark and had no idea when he attended the Emmy ceremonies that he was even nominated for it. Final note: A sequence featuring women in bikinis wrestling must’ve given 1966 ABC censors nightmares.
Wallach: Dear Friends.
Private Secretary
CBS Sundays 7:30-8 p.m.* (also NBC), Feb. 1, 1953-Sept. 10, 1957
N: Situation Comedy, 1954; Actress, Series (Ann Sothern), 1954, 1955; Comedienne (Sothern), 1955, 1956; Cinematography (Robert Pittack), 1955
Susie MacNamara (Sothern) assisted her New York talent agent boss Peter Sands (Don Porter) excessively in both his home and work life, with receptionist and switchboard operator Violet “Vi” Praskins (Ann Tyrrell) often caught up in Susie’s overeager actions. A wan typical early filmed sitcom complete with a laugh track amused by the blah situations, Private Secretary is certainly not as strong in any department as the series which it aired alternately every week from 1954-1957, The Jack Benny Program. Sothern’s character was considered liberated by 1950s sitcom standards because she was happily single, which just shows how far we have come in that regard. Tyrrell, joined later by Porter, reunited with Sothern on The Ann Sothern Show.
Sothern: Ann Sothern Show. Pittack: General Electric Theater, Twilight Zone.
Producers’ Showcase
NBC Mondays 8-9:30 p.m., Oct. 18, 1954-May 27, 1957
W: Dramatic Series, 1955
N: Program of the Year (“Peter Pan”), 1955; Actress, Single Performance (Mary Martin, “Peter Pan”), 1955 and (Claire Trevor, “Dodsworth”), 1956; Producer, Live Series (Fred Coe), 1955; Musical Contribution (“Love and Marriage” from “Our Town” by Sammy Cahn and James Van Heusen), 1955; Art Direction – Live Series (Otis Riggs), 1955; Actor, Single Performance (Frederic March, “Dodsworth”), 1956
Martin: Over Easy. Trevor: Lux Video Theatre. Coe: Cahn: The Legend of Robin Hood. March: Best of Broadway, Shower of Stars.
Profiles in Courage
NBC Sundays 6:30-7:30 p.m., Nov. 8, 1964-May 9, 1965
N: Program Achievement in Entertainment (Robert Saudek, P)
Using then-Sen. John F. Kennedy’s 1955 Pulitzer Prize-winning book as its source material, this filmed anthology dramatized the real-life stories of people, mostly American political figures, caught in having to make momentous and possibly unpopular decisions that turned out to be the right ones in the long run. For example, David McCallum played John Adams when the future president successfully defended British soldiers charged with murder in the “Boston Massacre” in 1770 despite favoring the cause of American patriotism, thus affirming the notion of a fair trial in the colonies. A collection of earnest portrait of the past that tended towards the preachy, Profiles in Courage at least had noble intentions, even if it did come off often as appearing as a revamped You Are There without the CBS reporters present. Saudek previously produced Omnibus, which won a series Emmy that is not credited to him in the Academy’s official records.
Pure Goldie
NBC p.m., Feb. 15, 1971
N: Music, Lyrics (Billy Barnes); Videotape Editing (Steve Orland, Martin J. Peters)
“We’ve been rehearsing for three weeks now, and tonight we’ll find out if that’s been enough,” Goldie Hawn said at the start of this, her first starring TV special. It wasn’t. Joined by Ruth Buzzi, Bob Dishy and the Muppets (plus a cameo by Johnny Carson at his Tonight Show set), Hawn encountered overworked references to gold in comic and musical sketches where she acts, dances and sings (not as badly as she has at other times, although her rendition of “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” here was too breathy and wimpy). The overall effect was variable at best but most often leaning towards disappointing, particularly the mini-musical version of Crime and Punishment with music by Barnes, who also appeared on camera at the piano. This was the third of his five Emmy nominations without a win, and his weakest one of the lot. The official title of this special was Clairol Command Performance Presents … Pure Goldie in honor of its sponsor.
Barnes: Cher, Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In.
QB VII
ABC p.m., April 29 and 30, 1974
W: Supporting Actor, Comedy or Drama Special (Anthony Quayle); Supporting Actress, Comedy or Drama Special (Juliet Mills); Music Composition, Special (Jerry Goldsmith); Graphic Design and Title Sequences (Phill Norman); Film Sound Editing (Marvin I. Kosberg, Richard Burrow, Milton C. Burrow, Jack Milner, Ronald Ashcroft, James Ballas, Josef Von Stroheim, Jerry Rosenthal, William Andrews, Edward Sandlin, David Horton, Alvin Kajita, Tony Gerber, Jeremy Hoenack)
N: Drama or Comedy Special (Douglas S. Cramer, P); Supporting Actor, Comedy or Drama Special (Jack Hawkins); Supporting Actor, Comedy or Drama Special (Lee Remick); Director, Comedy or Drama Special (Tom Gries); Writing, Comedy or Drama Special (Edward Anhalt); Art Direction or Scenic Design, Drama Special or Film (Ross Bellah and Maurice Fowler, art directors; Audrey Blesdel-Goddard and Terry Parr, set directors); Cinematography, Entertainment Special (Paul Beeson, Robert L. Morrison); Film Editing, Entertainment Special (Byron “Buzz” Brandt, Irving C. Rosenblum)
World War II veteran and author Abe Cady (Ben Gazzara) faced a libel charge for saying Sir Adam Kelno (Anthony Hopkins), a Polish doctor relocated to England after the war who was knighted for his medical advances, castrated Jews in concentration camps. The trial occurred at Queens Bench courtroom No. 7, the Royal Courts of Justice in London. The first night had flashbacks of each man’s story since 1945, including doubts of Kelno’s wife (Leslie Caron) about his past and Cady’s cheating on and divorcing of Samantha (Mills), a nurse who treated him in the war, followed by romancing Lady Margaret (Remick). The second night had mostly courtroom fireworks. This adaptation of the Leon Uris bestseller was a TV landmark – a network had never devoted so much time to an entertainment special (over five hours without commercials), and its cast (more than 150 speaking parts), crew (roughly 1,500 personnel) and location filming in four countries were unprecedented. The material broke a few TV taboos too – rarely had “testicles” and “slut” been said in an entertainment program before, and there was no hiding the naked bodies in footage of actual Jews suffering from Nazi atrocities. As can happen with epics, this was a little overstuffed with extraneous padding, but generally everyone is in top form to make this a classic. The lack of nominations for Gazzara and Hopkins was startling, as was Mills’ win over Remick, who had more screen time and been nominated previously for The Blue Knight (it was the only Emmy nod ever for Mills). Quayle won for playing Hopkins’ defender, beating Hawkins as the judge. Also, Goldsmith’s score is majestic and incredible, and the soundtrack earned him a Grammy nomination for Original Score – the first TV score so honored since Mission: Impossible won in 1967.
Goldsmith: Babe, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Masada, The Red Pony, Star Trek: Voyager, Thriller.
Quantum Leap
NBC
The Time Tunnel with intelligence, Quantum Leap was an imaginative
Racket Squad
CBS Thursdays 10-10:30 p.m.*, June 7, 1951-Sept. 28, 1953 (also syndicated 1950)
N: Mystery, Action or Adventure Series, 1952, 1954
“What you are about to see is a real-life story,” intoned host Capt. John Braddock (Reed Hadley) at the start of each Racket Squad episode. Using files from police bunco squads and business protection associations, the show intended to expose swindles that it said took more money from people than bank robberies. Capt. Braddock sometimes appeared in the stories, which involved grifters, individuals selling wrecked cars that were fixed as new ones, and other unscrupulous types. Overall a little stodgy and humorless, not unlike the show that beat it twice for the Emmy, Dragnet, but it meant well and avoided tedium generally. On CBS the captain urged viewers to support sponsor Philip Morris too, because it was against scams and he liked their cigarettes. The advertiser replaced the series with Philip Morris Playhouse in the fall of 1953, but the company ended that poorly received anthology for another series starring Reed Hadley, The Public Defender, in March 1954 (it ran until June 1955). By then, Racket Squad was in repeats, yet it qualified as a series in production for an Emmy in 1954 … was that a racket too?
Ramar of the Jungle
Syndicated
N:
Ransom for a Dead Man
NBC
The Ray Bolger Show
ABC Thursdays 8:30-9 p.m.*, Oct. 8, 1953-June 10, 1955
N: Art Direction, Filmed Show (Claudio Guzman), 1954
Broadway star Raymond Wallace (Bolger) enmeshed himself in a predicament each week often involving his brother Jonathon (Allan Joslyn), while finding support and an impromptu singing and dancing partner each show with coffee shop operator June (Betty Lynn). After its first year, the show changed its format and time slot in hopes of attracting more viewers, but it died opposite The Life of Riley on NBC. Apart from Bolger’s fancy footwork, this was just an average 1950s sitcom emphasizing slapstick, which means not too hot. Guzman would win the Emmy in the same category in 1958, then move into directing and producing TV series, including doing both for I Dream of Jeannie. This series was sometimes known in its first year by its subtitle, Where’s Raymond?
Guzman: Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse
Rhoda
CBS Mondays 8-8:30 p.m.*, Sept. 9, 1974-Dec. 9, 1978
W: Lead Actress, Comedy (Valerie Harper), 1975; Supporting Actress, Comedy (Julie Kavner), 1978
N: Comedy Series (James L. Brooks and Allan Burns, EP; David Davis and Lorenzo Music, P), 1975; Writing, Comedy Series (Norman Barasch, Carroll Moore, David Lloyd, Music, Burns, Brooks, Davis, “Rhoda’s Wedding”), 1975; Lead Actress, Comedy (Harper), 1976, 1977, 1978; Supporting Actress, Comedy (Nancy Walker), 1975, 1976, 1978 and (Kavner), 1975, 1976, 1977; Single Performance in a Comedy or Drama (Ruth Gordon, “Kiss Your Epaulets Goodbye”), 1976 and (Walker), 1977
Everybody’s favorite 1970s gal pal, Rhoda Morgenstern (Harper), left The Mary Tyler Moore Show to return to New York City and room with her sister Brenda (Kavner) in an apartment building with a drunk doorman named Carlton (voice of Lorenzo Music) – Ruth Gordon earned her nomination for playing Carlton’s mother, by the way. Rhoda’s domineering mother Ida (Walker) and loving father Martin (Harold Gould) became part of her world along with Joe Gerard (David Groh 1974-77), who wed Rhoda in the best, funniest marriage ever done on TV in a one-hour edition in November 1974. No one seemed to know where to go from there, which made the best new comedy of 1974 aimless and less amusing thereafter. After the first two seasons in the top 10, Rhoda fell dramatically in the ratings, provoking a raft of changes in the supporting cast and Rhoda’s divorce, none of which resuscitated the enterprise. Still, the regulars except Groh stayed bright and funny, with Walker robbed of an Emmy for her superb if stereotyped portrayal of a Jewish mama, and early episodes were so well acted, directed and written that you could be forgiven if you thought Rhoda might be even better than its parent show. See also Carlton Your Doorman.
The Richard Boone Show
NBC Tuesdays 9-10 p.m., Sept. 24, 1963-Sept. 15, 1964
N: Drama Series; Lead Actor, Series Performance (Richard Boone); Actress, Lead, Single Performance (Bethel Leslie, “Statement of Fact”) and (Jeanette Nolan, “Vote No on 11”); Writing, Drama, Adaptation (Walter Brown Newman, “The Hooligan”)
A ticket with the seat number H-101 appeared in the opening as the series’ title was superimposed. It dissolved to a shot of a chandelier and craned down to a stage where 11 actors appeared in shadows. One of them, host Richard Boone, walked forward into the light to say “Good evening. We are the players in this theater and we welcome you, our audience,” before announcing the name of that week’s play, usually an original. Then he, Leslie, Nolan, Robert Blake, Lloyd Bochner, Laura Devon, June Harding, Harry Morgan, Ford Rainey, Warren Stevens and Guy Stockwell assumed various roles in that week’s show, which was filmed on soundstages. Leaving the hit Have Gun – Will Travel, Boone aimed here for an arty anthology. But the show died opposite the inane Petticoat Junction sitcom on CBS. Not helping were that despite the typically great polish of producer Buck Houghton, formerly of The Twilight Zone, the scripts were uneven and Boone’s acting tended to be hammy. Another drawback was the format that let the players assume a featured role at least once during the season – why watch a show when the star played only a bit in it? Among its one-time nominees, blonde beauty Leslie was a staple guest star on many TV dramas from 1951-63, became a regular on The Doctors in the late 1960s and acted sporadically until her death in 1999, while Newman was a three-time Oscar writing nominee, include one for Cat Ballou (1965).
Boone: Have Gun – Will Travel, Medic. Nolan: The Awakening Land, Dirty Sally, I Spy.
The Rifleman
ABC Tuesdays 9-9:30 p.m.*, Sept. 30, 1958-July 1, 1963
N: Western, 1959; Supporting Actor – Continuing, Drama (Johnny Crawford), 1959
People in North Fork, New Mexico, relied on widowed rancher Lucas McCain (Chuck Connors) to defend them in the Old West with his trusty double-barrel Winchester rifle that could shoot 12 bullets in a single round. Lucas made sure his son Mark (Crawford) knew why he used force by emphasizing what each perpetrator did was morally wrong, and this finely portrayed relationship with Mark’s devotion to his dad put this a notch above most other westerns (a good drinking game: take a shot every time Crawford says “pa” and you will be buzzing by the end of an episode). A smash in its first year, peaking at #4 (the highest rating ever for any western on ABC), it was a top 30 fixture until its last season opposite The Lucy Show on CBS. Crawford’s acting career faded as an adult (which included a frontal nude scene in the 1973 movie The Naked Ape), so he became a bandleader. As for Connors, he was a regular on six other series and made many guest spots and TV-movies until his death in 1992 but never received a nomination.
Ritual of Evil
NBC p.m., Feb. 23, 1970
W: Cinematography, Special or TV-Movie (Lionel Lindon)
A sequel to the non-Emmy-nominated 1969 TV-movie Fear No Evil, this effort brought back Louis Jourdan as David Sorrell and Wilfred Hyde-White as Harry Snowden, Lindon won the first of two consecutive Emmys in his category with this TV-movie, followed by Vanished, Parts I and II in 1971. He was not involved with Fear No Evil. He previously scored Oscar nominations for cinematography for Going My Way in 1944 and I Want To Live! in 1958, and an Oscar win for Around the World in 80 Days in 1956.
Lindon: Run for Your Life, Vanished Parts I and II
The Robert Q. Lewis Show
CBS Weekdays 2-2:30 p.m., July 6, 1954-May 25, 1956
N: Daytime Program, 1954
Former radio deejay Robert Q. Lewis tried often in the 1950s to become a leading TV personality, and this show was his most fruitful effort, if two years on the air can be considered a success. Coming live from New York, Lewis made witty quips, interacted with his studio audience and introduced various guests and a roster of changing regulars (conductor Ray Bloch was the only performer beside Robert to last the show’s entire run). It lost the Emmy to the show that followed it, Art Linkletter’s House Party.
Robert Young and the Family
CBS p.m., March 10, 1971
W: Art Direction or Scenic Design (George Gaines, set director; James Trittipo, art director)
A semi-sequel to this special, Robert Young With the Young (ABC, May 6, 1973), is of note because its guests the Carpenters later recorded one of the songs performed by others on the show, “Sing,” and made it one of their top hits. This was the second Emmy for Gaines and the third for Trittipo.
Gaines: Armstrong Circle Theatre, Cheers. Trittipo: Fred Astaire Show, Hallmark Hall of Fame, The Hollywood Palace.
The Rosemary Clooney Show
Syndicated Weekly 30 Minutes, 1956-1957
N: Female Personality, Continuing Performance (Rosemary Clooney), 1956; Musical Contribution (Nelson Riddle), 1956
Rosemary Clooney (a top early 1950s vocalist and George Clooney’s aunt) sang with the male quartet the Hi-Los and guests while Nelson Riddle conducted. Rosemary looked and sounded great, but all 1950s filmed variety series came off flat in comparison to live ones, and this one suffered from obvious canned applause from a nonexistent studio audience. This was the third of four consecutive years of nominations for Riddle, who never won an Emmy despite praise for his extensive work in TV and music, including his 1956 instrumental hit “Lisbon Antigua.” See also The Lux Show Starring Rosemary Clooney.
Riddle: Several.
Route 66
CBS Fridays 8:30-9:30 p.m., Oct. 7, 1960-Sept. 18, 1964
N: Lead Actor, Series (George Maharis), 1962; Single Performance, Lead Actress (Ethel Waters, “Goodnight Sweet Blues”), 1962
Wandering across America in a spiffy Corvette, Tod Stiles (Martin Milner) and Buz Murdock (Maharis 1960-63) Decent enough character studies, but nothing too special. Waters, previously an Oscar nominee for supporting actress in Pinky in 1949, rarely acted after this nomination in favor of singing gospel music on religious programs, particularly for Billy Graham’s revival specials. She was the first black female to be Emmy-nominated, with Harry Belafonte preceding her as the first Emmy-nominated black male performer (twice in 1955 before winning in 1960 on Revlon Revue).
The Roy Rogers Show
NBC Sundays 6:30-7 p.m.*, Dec. 30, 1951-June 23, 1957
N: Western Series, 1954
The opening credits said this starred in order Roy Rogers, his “golden palomino” Trigger, Dale Evans (“queen of the west”), Pat Brady, and Roy’s “wonder dog” Bullet, a German shepherd. They played themselves (easy for the animals to do) and lived in the present day rather than the Old West in fictional Mineral City, where Roy defended the town while his love interest Dale ran a café and Pat served as its chef. The action and plots were elementary and designed to appeal to Roy’s considerable young fan base, which he cultivated in movies in the 1940s. In fact, he filmed this series while engaged in a lawsuit to prevent his old films to run on TV, since he would receive no money from that exposure (the suit ended in 1957 allowing the old ones to run, thus resulting in Roy ending this show). The result is mixed – the contemporary setting dates the show in some ways worse than setting it in the 1800s would have, and Brady, who drove a sputtering jeep called Nellybelle, is a truly irritating comic relief, even if you are a wee one. Still, some consider it great. CBS reran this Saturdays from 11:30 a.m. to noon from 1961-64.
Run for Your Life
NBC Mondays 10-11 p.m.*, Sept. 13, 1965-Sept. 11, 1968
N: Drama (Jo Swerling, P), 1967 and (Roy Huggins, EP), 1968; Actor, Drama (Ben Gazzara), 1967, 1968; Music (Pete Rugolo, composer), 1966, 1967, 1968; Cinematography (Lionel Lindon, “The Cold, Cold War of Paul Bryan”), 1966
Middle-aged bachelor attorney Paul Bryan (Gazzara), learning from four doctors that he has at most 18 months to live, but will be in good health until the last few weeks, decides to go traveling to find himself before he passes away (or as he put it, “squeeze 30 years of living into one or two”). Along the way he encounters many adventures and romances, but never stays long enough to settle with any person at any place. If this sounds like The Fugitive except the lead is not being pursued by anyone but death, it should not surprise you that it came from the same executive producer, Roy Huggins. But Run for Your Life is glossier and less substantial than that series, although Gazzara is compelling to watch in a basically one-man show. He was at least worthy of nomination, as were Rugulo for his propulsive theme and background music and Lindon for his clear color cinematography. Though never a ratings hit, NBC canned it after three years because they thought people would wonder why a man given two years to live was now starting his fourth one, so Huggins sold them The Outsider, a bomb starring Darren McGavin.
Swerling: Baretta, Captains and the Kings, Wiseguy. Huggins: Captains and the Kings. Gazzara: An Early Frost, Hysterical Blindness. Rugolo: The Bold Ones, The Challengers, Do You Take This Stranger?, The Last Convertible, Thriller. Lindon: Ritual of Evil, Vanished Parts I & II.