Sally to Swing Out Sweet Land
Here we have some fondly remembered children’s shows (The Shari Lewis Show, The Shirley Temple Show) mixed with some classic specials (Singer Presents Liza with a “Z”) and the usual oddball entries you would not associate with the word “Emmy” (77 Sunset Strip, Somerset). For those of you who wonder what series won for Best Western besides Gunsmoke and Maverick, your answer is here too – see Stories of the Century.
Sally
NBC Sundays 7:30-8 p.m., Sept. 15, 1957-March 30, 1958
N: Supporting Actress, Drama or Comedy Series (Marion Lorne)
Frank Ross, husband of actress Joan Caulfield, came up with this sitcom starring his wife as Sally Truesdale, who toured the world (or how the world looks on a Hollywood studio) and unintentionally found herself in mischief at every stop with her wacky employer, Mrs. Myrtle Banford (Lorne). Lorne was delightfully dizzy as always, but the scripts were nowhere near as fulfilling as the competition that beat this series, The Jack Benny Program and Bachelor Father on CBS and Maverick on NBC, and the ending promotional segment where Caulfield and Lorne talked about their next episode with a few clips included did not encourage viewership either. A month before it ended, the series made a last-ditch appeal by having Sally and Myrtle return home to work at the department store Myrtle co-owned with Bascomb Bleacher (Gale Gordon) and interact with Bascomb’s impetuous son Junior (Arte Johnson) and swinging bachelor Jim Kendall (Johnny Desmond), but the infusion of talent did nothing for the ratings, and NBC replaced it the rest of the season with the unsuccessful dramatic anthology No Warning. This was the third of five Emmy nominations for Lorne, who won for her last role, on Bewitched.
Lorne: Bewitched, Mister Peepers.
Sam Benedict
NBC Saturdays 7:30-8:30 p.m., Sept. 15, 1962-Sept. 7, 1963
N: Actor, Single Performance (Joseph Schildkraut)
This lawyer drama was NBC’s attempt to steal some of the audience CBS had accumulated in the early Saturday time slot for Perry Mason the previous five years before moving it. Unfortunately for NBC, viewers preferred the CBS replacement, Jackie Gleason and the American Scene Magazine, over this show, and it’s pretty easy to see why. Edmond O’Brien surprisingly and ineffectively underplayed the title San Francisco defense attorney except when grilling witnesses on the stand, his sidekick, Henry Tabor (portrayed by Richard Chamberlain-like Richard Rust), was no Della Street, and it just was not as well written as Perry Mason. Schildkraut, nominated for playing a rabbi, previously won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for The Life of Emile Zola in 1937. This nominated role was one of his last acting parts - he died on Jan. 21, 1964.
San Francisco International Airport
NBC Tuesday 9-11 p.m., Sept. 29, 1970
N: Writing Achievement, Drama, Original Teleplay (William Read Woodfield, Allan Balter); Film Sound Mixing (Roger Parish, Robert L. Hoyt)
Universal Studios exploited its 1970 hit film Airport with this ridiculous TV-movie about complications at the title facility, shot some on location. The chief obstacle for airport manager Jim Conrad (Pernell Roberts) and security chief Bob Hatten (Clu Gulager) involved stopping a $3 million heist led by Staycek (Tab Hunter) that included two kidnappings, one being the wife of pilot Ross Edwards (David Hartman). The worst Emmy-nominated TV-movie script ever sported inane dialogue and plot contrivances so farfetched (e.g., a boy somehow got into a private plane while the airport was in lockdown, flew it and then landed safely with prompts from Roberts piloting another plane near it) that Balter and Woodfield’s previous Emmy-winning fantastical turns on Mission: Impossible look mundane in comparison. John Llewellyn Moxey’s underline-the-obvious direction and cardboard acting did not help. If you must see this, watch the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version – the show uproariously sent up Hunter, Gulager, Hartman and Roberts, including the fact that the latter lost the role to Lloyd Bridges when it became a series (!) on NBC a month later (Oct. 28, 1970). Gulager did make the transition to series, but it lasted only one season through Aug. 25, 1971.
Balter: Mission: Impossible. Woodfield: Mission: Impossible.
The Second Barry Manilow Special
ABC p.m., Feb. 24, 1978
N: Special - Comedy or Musical (Miles J. Lourie, EP; Ernest Chambers, Barry Manilow, P and star); Directing (George Schaefer); Writing (Chambers, Manilow); Music Direction (Jimmie Haskell)
A less satisfying show than its predecessor, this one comes short chiefly in the area of writing and producing, despite nominations in both areas. Manilow unwisely dropped most of the team in those areas he used his first time out, including key contributor Steve Binder, and the segments come off more phony and contrived, including a flat dramatic sketch with Barry as an introvert talking to a girl at a party. Some of the musical numbers are overkill too, like going the cute angle with having groups of kids and senior citizens sing “Daybreak” with him. There are solid parts, however, including duets with Ray Charles, an appearance at the start by Barry’s mother on the streets of New York (and somehow it ended with a shot of a theater marquee boasting a John Holmes X-rated film - how did that get by the censors?) and the final 15 minutes or so with Barry in concert with a live studio audience supplying the energy the show needed earlier. Followed by, and see also - what else? - The Third Barry Manilow Special.
Lourie: The Barry Manilow Special. Chambers: Manilow: Many. Schaefer: Many. Haskell: A Salute to America’s Pets, See How She Runs.
A Sensitive, Passionate Man
NBC Monday 9-11 p.m., June 6, 1977
N: Film Sound Mixing (Dean Hodges, Hoppy Mehterian, Eddie J. Nelson, George E. Porter)
Michael Delaney (David Janssen), fired from his aerospace job, responded by drinking heavily and in the process upset his loving wife Marjorie (Angie Dickinson) and their two sons. No “The Days of Wine and Roses” – in fact, some ABC Afterschool Specials have more subtlety in delivering their messages – but Janssen and Dickinson did have effective chemistry with each other, and it is unsettling to watch Janssen intoxicated particularly if you know about his battle with booze in real life. Janssen also co-wrote the theme song (!). Mehterian, Nelson and Porter were nominated the same year with other sound mixers for In the Matter of Karen Ann Quinlan and Having Babies II and lost for them too, plus had three other unsuccessful nominations from 1977-79. They also earned nominations working together The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau in 1973, while Mehterian alone earned three nominations in 1981 and 1982 for sound mixing on informational programs without winning a statuette. Nelson and Porter were more successful, though – for details on their Emmy wins, see .
Mehterian: A Christmas to Remember, Having Babies II, Ike, In the Matter of Karen Ann Quinlan, Roots. Nelson: Porter:
77 Sunset Strip
ABC Fridays 9-10 p.m.*, Oct. 10, 1958-Sept. 9, 1964
N: Lead Actor, Drama (Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.), 1959; Cinematography (Ralph Woolsey, “Secret Island”), 1960
The title was the address of a fictional Hollywood office run by handsome private eyes Stuart Bailey (Zimbalist) and Jeff Spencer (Roger Smith), who fought crime with help from colorful contacts Suzanne Fabray (Jacqueline Beer), Roscoe (Louis Quinn) and Gerald “Kookie” Kookson III (Edd Byrnes), a valet at Dino’s restaurant next to Stuart and Jeff’s office who became their partner in the fall of 1961. As 77 Sunset Strip peaked at #6 in its second season, its production company Warner Brothers virtually remade it in three other ABC series, Bourbon Street Beat (1959-60), Hawaiian Eye (1959-63) and Surfside Six (1960-62). The original’s pluses were smooth direction and cinematography, a relaxed job by Zimbalist, and a catchy theme song by Mack David and Jerry Livingston (try not to snap along with it). Minuses were moldy plots (some scripts were modified from Warner western series) and most of the acting. Smith was more wooden than a splinter, while Byrnes’ narcissistic posing and “hip” lingo wore out his welcome quickly among anyone above puberty. It collapsed in its fifth season as viewers preferred Route 66. The last year with just Zimbalist as a regular did worse. When it ended, Warner had no drama series slotted on ABC, the first time that situation existed since the studio entered the medium in 1955.
Zimbalist: A Family Upside Down. Woolsey: Maverick, It Takes a Thief.
The Shari Lewis Show
NBC Saturdays 10-10:30 a.m., Oct. 1, 1960-Sept. 28, 1963
N: Children’s Programming, 1961
Puppeteer, ventriloquist and virtual woman of all trades Shari Lewis starred in this pleasant if plainly produced and directed trifle designed for anyone younger than grade school, which allowed her to sing, act and tell stories along with interacting with her hand puppets, including the adorable Lamb Chop. Shari also did a few commercials on the series. She came back with a longer running national series in the 1990s – see Lamb Chop’s Playhouse.
The Shirley Temple Show
NBC Sundays 7-8 p.m., Sept. 18, 1960-Sept. 10, 1961
N: Children’s Programming
After airing as specials on ABC in 1958 and then every third Monday in 1959 as a replacement for Cheyenne, Shirley Temple and her collection of dramatized stories for children came to NBC as one of network TV’s first videotaped color series. Joined by several notable names (e.g., John Raitt), Temple starred in adaptations of many classic tales, including “The Land of Oz,” which gave her a chance to appear with the Scarecrow and the Tin Man that she would have received had she played Dorothy in the 1939 film classic The Wizard of Oz, as MGM head L.B. Mayer originally wanted because of her superstar status then as a Depression-era moppet. The series’ intentions were noble, but the results often came up short, chiefly because the scripts were never as clever and punchy as the material presented than, say, fellow nominee Captain Kangaroo. More viewers preferred Lassie and Dennis the Menace on CBS over this, so after one year NBC replaced the last half hour with the more successful Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color.
Shower of Stars
CBS Thursdays 8:30-9:30 p.m. monthly; Sept. 30, 1954-April 17, 1958
W: Art Direction, Filmed Show (Ralph Berger, Albert Pyke, “A Christmas Carol”), 1954
N: Program of the Year (“A Christmas Carol”), 1954; Variety Series, 1955; Actor, Single Performance (Fredric March, “A Christmas Carol”), 1954; Art Direction, Live Show (Robert Tyler Lee), 1954; Original Music for Television (Bernard Herrmann, “A Christmas Carol”), 1954; Scoring, Variety or Dramatic Program (Gordon Jenkins, first show), 1954; Choreographer (James Starbuck, Ethel Merman show), 1955
Astoundingly, this was Herrmann’s only Emmy nomination in a career than included one Oscar win (for 1941’s All That Money Can Buy) and four other nominations there, plus great scores for episodes of The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents, among others. Berger previously scored an Oscar nomination too, for 1942’s Silver Queen. Starbuck also received a nomination jointly crediting his work on Max Liebman Presents in 1955, but this was his only Emmy nod.
Berger: Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse. March: The Best of Broadway, Producers’ Showcase. Jenkins: Frank Sinatra: A Man and His Music, Frank Sinatra: A Man and His Music Part II.
The Sid Caesar Imogene Coca Carl Reiner Howard Morris Special
CBS p.m., April 5, 1967
W: Variety Special (Jack Arnold, P); Writing - Variety (Mel Brooks, Sam Denoff, Bill Persky, Carl Reiner, Mel Tolkin)
N: Directing - Variety or Music (Bill Hobin)
A joyful reunion of the starring quartet and much of the writing staff from Your Show of Shows, this hour of comedy employed the standard sketches of that show but fresh and funny material. This is the way revivals should be done, with everyone in fine form. All segments were amusing, but the best was the dead-on parody of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (the movie version). And it was a kick to see the Three Haircuts updated with flowing follicles doing an electric rock routine. Arnold, who did not produce the original series, received his sole Emmy nomination and win here, although he did produce other shows in the 1960s and 1970s including Gilligan’s Island and It Takes a Thief. This marked the first Emmy win for Brooks, who won receive three more for guest shots on Mad About You.
Brooks: Caesar’s Hour, Get Smart, Mad About You. Denoff: The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Julie Andrews Show (special). Persky: The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Julie Andrews Show (special), Kate & Allie. Reiner: Many. Tolkin: All in the Family, Caesar’s Hour, The Danny Kaye Show, Love Sidney. Hobin: The Bill Cosby Special, Your Hit Parade.
The Silver Theater
CBS Mondays 8-8:30 p.m., Oct. 3, 1949-June 26, 1950
N: Film Made for Television (“Guiding Star”), 1950
Veteran actor Conrad Nagel hosted this early assortment of live and filmed dramas, which never reached the popularity of the show that followed it on most CBS stations, Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts. The series’ syndicated title in reruns was Hollywood Half Hour.
Sinatra
CBS Wednesday p.m., Nov. 5, 1969
N: Variety or Music Program (Frank Sinatra, star and EP; Carolyn Raskin, P)
Joined here by Don Costa and his orchestra on stage, this one-man show has Frank singing “For Once in My Life” and “My Way,” among other mostly contemporary material, in his own inimitable style. As usual, he is at his best when he shuts up and just sings. The dubbed laughter and applause grates, as it usually does on most Sinatra specials, and he cuts into having to do too much here by showing clips from his old films between talking about them, but he did have enough humor to laugh at clips from his 1948 movie disaster The Kissing Bandit. Otherwise, nothing too outstanding here, but hey, it is Sinatra.
Sinatra: Francis Albert Sinatra Does His Thing, Magnavox Presents Frank Sinatra. Raskin: Dinah!, Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In.
Singer Four Star Playhouse – See Four Star Playhouse
Singer Presents Barbra Streisand and Other Musical Instruments – See Barbra Streisand and Other Musical Instruments
Singer Presents Burt Bacharach
CBS p.m., March 14, 1971
W: Single Program, Variety or Musical (Burt Bacharach, star; Gary Smith, Dwight Hemion, P); Writing, Comedy, Variety or Music Special (Bob Ellison, Marty Farrell)
This could have (and maybe should have) been called Singer Presents Barbra Streisand, as the vocalist shows up to perform several tunes written by Bacharach, including a duet with Burt on “Close to You” and a duet with herself on “One Less Bell to Answer.” Incidentally, this won in the single program category over “Another Evening with Burt Bacharach,” a segment of The Kraft Music Hall that included the same star and producers!
Singer Presents Liza with a “Z”
NBC Sunday p.m., Sept. 10, 1972
W: Variety and Popular Music, Single Program (Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse, P; Liza Minnelli, star); Director, Comedy, Variety (Fosse); Music (Ebb and John Kander); Choreography (Fosse)
N: Writing, Comedy, Variety (Ebb); Music Composition (Kander and Ebb); Cinematography (Owen Roizman); Film Editing (Alan Heim)
A justifiably heavily lauded special, this presented Liza in great voice and shape and let viewers know her fine performance in Cabaret was not a fluke on film. Amid a black-tie audience at a performance recorded May 31, 1972 at Manhattan’s Lyceum Theatre, Fosse treated the concert like a movie and filmed Liza on stage at virtually every angle imaginable, yet the results were electrifying rather than showy. Sometimes singing solo and other times working with your typical Fosse dancers (including derbies and tight, flashy outfits), Liza naturally did a bang-up job with Kander and Ebb’s compositions, including the inevitable Cabaret medley, but she did fine as well with contemporary pop hits such as “I Gotcha” and “Son of a Preacher Man.” The result was Fosse became the first director to win an Emmy, an Oscar (for Cabaret) and a Tony (for Pippin) in the same year, and Liza proved she was much more than just Judy Garland’s daughter. (Unfortunately, she has also spent much of her career trying to recapture much of the magic she showed here as well.) This was the only Emmy nomination for Roizman, who earned five Oscar nominations for cinematography on some of the greatest films ever – The French Connection (1971), The Exorcist (1973), Network (1976), Tootsie (1982) and Wyatt Earp (1994).
Fosse: Minnelli: Goldie and Liza Together, Liza Minnelli Live from Radio City Music Hall, A Royal Gala Variety Performance … Ebb: Goldie and Liza Together, Gypsy in My Soul, Liza Minnelli Live from Radio City Music Hall. Kander: An Early Frost, Liza Minnelli Live from Radio City Music Hall. Heim: Holocaust, Introducing Dorothy Dandridge.
Singer Presents the Californians – See The Californians
The Six Wives of Henry VIII
CBS Sundays 9:30-11 p.m., Aug. 1, 1971-Sept. 5, 1971
W: Actor, Lead Role, Single Performance (Keith Michell, “Catherine Howard”)
N: Drama Series (Ronald Travers and Mark Shivas, P); New Series (Travers and Shivas); Single Program (“Jane Seymour,” Travers and Shivas); Actor, Lead Role, Continuing Performance (Michell)
Airing in America following the initial summer run of The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, this British import was quite possibly the first production Americans saw that switched from tape inside to film outdoors. Both were excellent, and it is a shame that the cinematography did not get a nomination. Anyway, it was a sparkling presentation, albeit a tad windy at points, examining the king’s story and love life while emphasizing themes of religion, family, loyalty and much more. Michell’s win was deserved in presenting the monarch rather warmly than blustering, a more nuanced portrait than Charles Laughton’s Oscar-winning turn as Best Actor in 1934’s The Private Life of Henry VIII (that does not mean at all that Laughton’s honor was without merit, however). He holds the distinction of being the first actor to be nominated both for a continuing performance and single one in a series (rules have prevented that from happening since that time).
61*
HBO Saturday p.m., April 28, 2001
W: Casting, Miniseries, Movie or Special (Mali Finn); Sound Editing, Miniseries, Movie or Special (Robert Grieve, supervising sound editor; Scott M. Silvey, sound effects editor; Meg Taylor, Wayne Griffin, dialogue editors; Kimberly Harris, ADR editor; Stephanie Lowry, music editor; Richard Partlow, Ellen Heuer, foley artists)
N: Made for TV Movie (Billy Crystal and Robert Greenburg, EP; Robert Colesberry, P); Lead Actor, Miniseries or Movie (Barry Pepper); Directing, Miniseries, Movie or Special (Crystal); Cinematography, Miniseries or Movie (Haskell Wexler); Writing, Miniseries or Movie (Hank Steinberg); Editing, Miniseries, Movie or Special (Michael Jablow); Makeup, Miniseries, Movie or Special (Patty Bunch, Mark Landon, Peter Montagna); Art Direction, Miniseries, Movie or Special (Denise Hudson, art director; Anne McCulley, set director; Rusty Smith, production designer); Hairstyling, Miniseries, Movie or Special (Hazel Catmull, William Farley, Dino Ganziano); Sound Mixing, Miniseries, Movie or Special (Gary Coppola, Gary Gegan, Matthew Iadarola, re-recording mixers; Jeff Wexler, production mixer)
In the summer of 1961 New York Yankees teammates and roommates Roger Maris (Pepper) and Mickey Mantle (Thomas Jane) chased Babe Ruth’s single-season home run record of 60 set in 1927. Mantle fell short due to injuries, but Maris ended up surpassing that number by one. Yet Commissioner Ford Frick (Donald Moffat) ruled that since it occurred during a game in the first expanded season, the statistic would have an asterisk attached to it. Framing it is newsreel footage of Mark McGwire breaking the record in 1998 and paying tribute to Maris afterward. A labor of love from co-executive producer/director Crystal (yes, the actor and comedian), who effectively recreates the atmosphere and excitement of a time and place that he witnessed as a spectator as a child. Even most non-baseball fans should be engrossed by the chase and the contrasts between Mantle (boozing, womanizing, carefree fan favorite) and Maris (sober, faithful, non-smiling “hick” unloved by much of the press and public), all the while with the two men having respect for each other. This is a rare production with Emmy nominations for a father (cinematographer Haskell Wexler) and son (sound mixer Jeff Wexler) – both also have several Oscar nominations, with Haskell’s cinematography winning for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) and Bound for Glory (1976), but this was the only Emmy nomination for each of them. The same surprisingly is true for most of the winning sound editors on this TV-movie.
Finn: Indictment: The McMartin Trial. Partlow: Battlestar Galactica. Heuer: Creature. Crystal: Academy Awards, All Star Toast to the Improv, Billy Crystal: Midnight Train to Moscow, Comic Relief, Grammy Awards, Saturday Night Live. Colesberry: The Corner, Death of a Salesman. Bunch: Will & Grace. Montagna: Saturday Night Live. McCulley: Backstairs at the White House, Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years, The Gathering, Homefront. Smith: Chicago Hope, Northern Exposure. Catmull: Eleanor, First Lady of the World, Gypsy, Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager. Ganziano: Murder She Wrote, The Mystic Warrior, Star Trek: Voyager, War and Remembrance. Coppola: The 60s. Gegan: The Simpsons, Northern Exposure.
Somerset
NBC Weekdays 4-4:30 p.m., March 30, 1970-Dec. 31, 1976
N: Costume Design, Daytime Programming (Julia Sze)
For nearly seven years NBC aired this spinoff of Another World, but it never came close to the latter’s success. Originally Sam Lucas (Jordan Charney 1970-73), his wife Lahoma (Ann Wedgeworth 1970-73) and Missy Matthews (Carol Roux 1970) moved over from Another World to the town of Somerset (50 miles from Bay City) to meet new characters, but none really caught on, leading to many changeovers in the cast and crew and a general lack of theme that did not attract many viewers. Future stars in the series included Ted Danson and JoBeth Williams as well as Jewish theater legend Molly Picon, who spent seven months as sick, aged Sarah Briskin in 1976. As she noted in her autobiography Molly! (1980), “It was lucrative work but incredibly boring … Frankly, I was glad when they finally finished me off.” The series itself ended not long after her character’s death. Its sole nominee lost to ABC Matinee Today.
The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour
CBS Wednesdays 8-9 p.m.*, Aug. 1, 1971-Aug. 29, 1977
W: Directing, Comedy, Variety or Music (Art Fisher), 1972
N: Variety Series, Musical (Allan Blye and Chris Bearde, P; Sonny and Cher), 1972, 1973, 1974; Single Program, Variety or Musical (with Tony Randall), 1972; Writing, Variety or Music (Phil Hahn, Paul Wayne, George Burditt, Coslough Johnson, Bob Arnott, Steve Martin, Bob Einstein, Blye, Bearde), 1972, (same as 1972 except Martin gone and Jim Mulligan added), 1974 and (Hahn, Arnott, Johnson, Jeanine Burnier, Iris Rainier, Stuart Gillard, Frank Peppiatt, John Aylesworth, Ted Zeigler), 1976; Music, Lyrics and Special Material (Earl Brown), 1972, 1973; Costume Design (Bob Mackie, Ret Turner), 1972, 1974, 1977; Directing, Variety or Music (Fisher), 1973, 1974 and (Tim Kiley), 1976; Lighting Direction (John R. Beam), 1973; Technical Direction and Electronic Camerawork (Charles Franklin, technical director; Gorme Erickson, Jack Jennings, Tom McConnell, Richard Nelson, Barney Neeley, cameramen), 1973; Music Direction of Variety, Musical or Dramatic Program (Marty Paich), 1974; Achievement in Creative Technical Crafts (Rena Leuschner, hairdresser), 1974
When CBS programming head Fred Silverman saw how well singers Sonny Bono and his wife Cher guest co-hosted on The Merv Griffin Show, he offered them their own summer variety series whose success led to a regular series in January 1972. Bookended by their two biggest hits – it opened with a funky instrumental version of “The Beat Goes On” and closed with them singing “I Got You Babe” – the show emphasized humor. For each opening, the star couple needled each other (Sonny on Cher’s nose, Cher on Sonny’s family and nasal voice), then performed skits with guest stars in sketches ranging from Cher playing vamps to Sonny operating a pizza parlor with a raucous staff. Much was simply silly, but because of the incredible outfits, impressive special effects that included animated segments and transitions (except for the opening and closing, the show was taped without a studio audience, using a laugh track instead), and presentation of strong musical material such as Cher’s solo hits “Dark Lady” and “Half Breed,” it became the last top 10 variety show, peaking at #7 in the 1973-74 season. Unfortunately, Bono and Cher divorced that year, forcing its cancellation. They did solo shows in the 1974-75 season – see Cher for more info – but the lack of success for both convinced them to reunite professionally in 1976. But a former couple exchanging putdowns was not what the public wanted, so the show ended in 1977. Among the nominees, Steve Martin left for a successful career as a comedian and actor (and occasionally performed on the show), Bob Mackie designed costumes here along with The Carol Burnett Show, and winner Art Fisher previously worked with much of the talent on The Andy Williams Show. See also And the Beat Goes On.
Startime – See Ford Startime
Steambath
Public Television, p.m., May 4, 1973
N: Special, Comedy or Drama (Norman Lloyd, EP); Writing Special (Bruce Jay Friedman)
A sauna consisting mostly of men, led by Bill Bixby, as well as the voluptuous Valerie Perrine, slowly realize that they are stuck there and that the attendant with a Spanish accent (Jose Perez) is really God. The sometimes salty language and look-real-quick-you’ll-see-Valerie’s-nipples scenes resulted in many public TV outlets banning this videotaped special, but the ones that did carry it received higher than normal ratings. This adaptation of a 1970 off-Broadway production that ran four months and featured Anthony Perkins as its director and star has its adherents, but I am not one of them. I found it more profane than profound, and director Burt Brinckerhoff added to the tedium by framing it pretty much as if you were watching it from an orchestra seat and pausing for supposed laughs that really are not there. Friedman later earned an Oscar nomination for writing the 1984 hit comedy Splash, while during the same period Lloyd enjoyed his biggest success as an actor on St. Elsewhere. This aired as part of Hollywood Television Theatre.
Lloyd: The Name of the Game.
Stories of the Century
Syndicated Weekly 30 Minutes, 1954-1955
W: Western or Adventure Series, 1954
Railroad detective Matt Clark (Jim Davis), assisted by Frankie Adams (Mary Castle, 1954) and then Margaret “Jonesy” Jones (Kristine Miller, 1955), somehow managed to be on the spot during the capture or killing of major outlaws in the Old West such as Billy the Kid, and he narrated his adventures along with dramatic re-enactments. One of the more obscure Emmy series winners, Stories of the Century employed footage from Republic Pictures’ earlier westerns to supplement its action sequences, giving it a richer quality than most TV oaters of the time. But if it was quality adult storytelling the Academy wanted to honor, the Emmy should have gone to the Death Valley Days instead, as it was superior to Stories of the Century in every respect. Maybe because of this undeserving win, the Emmys had only one more Best Western category thereafter, when Maverick won in 1959. The series appeared in repeats briefly under the title The Fast Guns, and oddly its pilot was released as a 1957 theatrical movie called Last Stagecoach West.
Story Theater – See Your Show Time
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
ABC Sunday 9-11 p.m., Jan. 7, 1968
N: Dramatic Program (Dan Curtis, P); Actress, Supporting Role (Tessie O’Shea); Individual Achievement, Visual Arts (Dick Smith, makeup) and (Bert Gordon, graphic design)
Robert Louis Stevenson’s familiar tale of good and evil in one man received a vivid videotaped production here, with all nominations deserved ones. In particular the twisted graphics set a suitably ominous mood, and Smith’s makeup took star Jack Palance’s already angular face and emphasized it resembling a gargoyle while looking realistic when he became Dr. Hyde. Unfortunately overlooked for Emmy mentions were Palance in the lead, Denholm Elliot in support and Charles Jarrott as director. O’Shea, a plump English actress and singer who was quite busy in the American entertainment scene in the 1960s without breaking through to the big time, won a supporting or featured actress Tony in 1964 for The Girl Who Came to Supper.
Curtis: War and Remembrance, The Winds of War. Smith: Mark Twain Tonight!, North and South Book I.
The Streets of San Francisco
ABC Thursdays 9-11 p.m.*, Sept. 16, 1972-June 23, 1977
N: Drama Series (Quinn Martin, EP; John Wilder, P), 1974, (Martin, EP; Wilder, William Robert Yates, P), 1975, (Martin, EP; Yates, P), 1976; Lead Actor, Drama (Karl Malden), 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977; Supporting Actor, Drama (Michael Douglas), 1974, 1975, 1976; Lead Actor, Single Appearance, Drama (Bill Bixby), 1976; Lead Actress, Single Appearance, Comedy or Drama (Jessica Walter), 1977; Film Editing (Jerry Young), 1975 and (Ray Daniels), 1975; Directing, Drama (Harry Falk, “The Mask of Death”), 1975; Music Composition, Series (Patrick Williams), 1975
Det. Lt. Mike Stone (Malden) guided his sometimes impulsive younger partner, Inspector Steve Keller (Douglas), into tracking down baddies in the city by the bay. Beautiful filming on location and focused acting by the leads and most guest stars cannot outshine rather routine scripting and directing, plus the inevitable standard gunplay and chases for a Quinn Martin production. The loss of Douglas to the movies (he had produced Oscar Best Picture winner One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest in 1975) and replacement by the adequate but not stellar Richard Hatch as Inspector Dan Robbins in 1976-77 dropped it out of the top 30 after three seasons and led to its cancellation. Sixteen Emmy nominations and no wins is not a record for a series, but it ranks high up there, especially for a show that ran only five years. Still, it speaks well that almost all involved received at least one more Emmy nomination (and often at least one win), except for director Falk, whose TV directing career stretched from the mid-1960s through the late 1980s and included 11 episodes of this series.
Martin: Cannon. Malden: Fatal Vision. Yates: Disneyland. Douglas: Will & Grace. Bixby: The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, Rich Man Poor Man. Walter: Amy Prentiss, Arrested Development, Trapper John, M.D. Young: Attack on Terror, Shogun. Daniels: Hill Street Blues, Hollywood Lives, L.A. Law. Williams: After Jimmy, Blind Spot, Columbo, The Corpse Had a Familiar Face, Danielle Steel’s Jewels, The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd, FM, Geronimo, Hallmark Hall of Fame, Kingfish: The Story of Huey P. Long, Lou Grant, Mr. Smith, The Princess and the Cabbie, Seduced, We Were the Mulvaneys, Yesterday’s Children.
Super Circus
ABC Sundays 5-6 p.m., Jan. 16, 1949-June 3, 1956
N: Children’s Program, 1952, 1953
ABC’s longest-running daytime weekend program of the 1950s was this vibrant assortment of regular and guest acts under the big top, including the expected acrobats, baton twirlers and animal acts, all presented live to an excited audience of youngsters from Chicago. Six-foot-five ringmaster Claude Kirchner deftly presided over the affair, joined by clowns Cliffy (Cliff Soubier), Scampy (Bardy Patton 1949-53, Sandy Dobritch 1953-55) and Nicky (Nick Francis 1950-55) and blonde assistant Mary Hartline, who was so popular she had her own daily show in Chicago that ABC picked up for a few months in 1951. Then unwisely at the end of 1955, ABC dumped all the crew, replaced them with Jerry Colonna as ringmaster with other regulars and aired it from New York City. The unnecessary revamp flopped and led to the show’s cancellation. But in its prime, Super Circus was one of the few ABC series ever to outrank its competition, which was quite a notable achievement. See also Big Top.
Suspense
CBS Tuesdays 9:30-10 p.m., March 1, 1949-Aug. 17, 1954
N: Mystery, Action or Adventure Program, 1953
Original and adapted tales running the gamut from intrigue to the supernatural were the backbone of this anthology, which began on radio in 1942 and managed to last to the end of old time network entertainment programming on that medium until 1962. It managed a five-year run on TV but had less success there as it finished second opposite Armstrong Circle Theatre on NBC most of its run. The throbbing organ background music by Hank Sylvern and occasionally heated acting may date it among some viewers today, but its emphasis on foreboding atmospheres and surprise endings make it a laudable forerunner to later genre entries such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Rex Marshall was its announcer and commercial spokesman.
Swing Out Sweet Land
NBC Sunday p.m., Nov. 29, 1970
N: Live or Tape Sound Mixing (Marshall King)
A mind-boggling patriotic special on America’s history hosted and occasionally acted by John Wayne, this mix of historical information, singing, dancing, drama and comedy will alternately amuse, bore, irritate, confuse and overwhelm you. Chief blame goes to the script by producer Paul W. Keyes, who sets no consistent tone for the enterprise – it has lectures by Wayne interrupted by variable guest spots that run from emotionally gripping to low comedy, often back to back. The best example of this is when Lorne Greene, Hugh O’Brian, William Shatner and Ross Martin effectively portray respectively George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Alexander Hamilton mulling over their leadership of the new nation, followed by Greene then encountering Jack Benny, who was gleeful to know that the dollar he found on the Potomac was not one tossed by Washington, yuk yuk. Probably the best bit was Bob Hope’s sharp comic monologue, but even there having him deliver it to the supposedly frigid soldiers in the Revolutionary War was in poor taste. The star power (26 listed in the opening credits, most of them with NBC series at the time) made it one of the highest-rated TV specials ever, but Emmy was right to give it just one technical nod, which King definitely earned for balancing segments taped outside on a variety of California locations with the same level and quality as those done on a soundstage. This is available on DVD as John Wayne’s Tribute to America.
King: American Film Institute Salute to James Cagney.