WKRP in Cincinnati to Zoom
With its use of CBS newsmen in the dramas, some may question including You Are There as an entertainment series here, but I do not. I also think that it is safe to say that Zoom likely will remain as the last entry here in the Emmy nominees listings (now watch someone produce an entertainment show called Zwieback and prove me wrong).
WKRP in Cincinnati
CBS p.m.*, 1978-1982
N:
The Wacky World of Jonathan Winters
Syndicated 30 Minutes Weekly, 1972-1974
N:
Wagon Train
NBC Wednesdays 7:30-8:30 p.m.* (also ABC), Sept. 18, 1957-Sept. 5, 1965
N: New Program Series of the Year, 1957; Dramatic Series With Continuing Characters, 1957; Western Series, 1959; Art Direction (Howard E. Johnson), 1957; Cinematography (Walter Strenge, “The Sam Elder Story”), 1961 and (Strenge), 1962; Film Editing (Marston Fay, Gene Palmer), 1962
Gene Roddenberry famously promoted Star Trek to network executives as “Wagon Train to the stars” – but ironically that sci-fi show is better known to younger generations than this one.
Johnson: The Gangster Chronicles, Little Women. Strenge: Marcus Welby, M.D., My Little Margie, Portrait: A Man Whose Name Was John. Palmer: Marcus Welby, M.D. (movie)
War and Peace
PBS p.m., Nov. 20, 1973-Jan. 15, 1974
N: Costume Design (Charles Knode, for concluding episode)
A spotty adaptation in all departments of Leo Tolstoy’s classic novel, this 1972 BBC miniseries does occasionally sparkle in certain areas, including a typically great job by Anthony Hopkins as the intellectual Pierre, which should have been Emmy-nominated. The battle scenes were great as well, but when you adapt one of the longest books ever written starting with a 30-second introductory scene of setting a table, it does not set the proper tone nor pace for top entertainment, and some of the indoor drawing room scenes are so staid and talky that they come across as an unintentional parody of British TV drama. This was the first of five Emmy nominees (with one a win) for Knode.
Knode: Alice in Wonderland, Dinotopia, Don Quixote, Snow White: A Tale of Terror.
Waterfront
Syndicated Weekly 30 minutes, 1953-1955
N: Mystery or Intrigue Series, 1954
A curious mixture of moderate action and light domestic drama, Waterfront featured Preston Foster as Capt. John Herrick, who helmed the Cheryl Ann tugboat docked in the Los Angeles harbor, with Tip Hubbard (Pinky Tomlin) and cook Billie Slocum (Willie Best) on board. There, often ne’er-do-wells attacked him, his boat or fellow seamen, prompting his son, Lt. Jim Herrick (Harry Lauter) with the harbor patrol, to investigate. Capt. John would relax from the fisticuffs at home with his wife May (Lois Moran) and the rest of his family, including his grandchildren (the captain was a beefy fiftysomething). With the backing of the powerful MCA talent agency, this series stood out in the syndication field at the time due to a rather large amount of players in each episode along with a few notable guest stars (e.g., Ernest Borgnine) and a decent amount of outdoor location filming for some scenes, but the overall effect is average at best. Surprisingly, Foster also earned an Outstanding New Personality Emmy nomination in 1954 too – despite having been in movies since 1929!
The Web
CBS Sundays 10-10:30 p.m.*, July 11, 1950-Sept. 26, 1954
N: Mystery, Action or Adventure Program, 1953
Jonathan Blake, host, narrator and commercial pitchman for Kent cigarettes, opened each episode of this series by intoning “This is the exciting and dramatic story of people caught in the web” as a drawing of a spider’s web appeared on screen. What followed was an often highly melodramatic bordering on campy live suspense tale from New York City, with Lew White’s organ music only adding to the overbaked quality. A definitely dated drama that deservedly lost to Dragnet. In its last two years on the air it ran before What’s My Line? and shared that series’ producers, Mark Goodson and Bill Todman.
What’s My Line?
CBS Sundays 10:30-11 p.m.*, Feb. 2, 1950-Oct. 3, 1967
W: Audience Participation, Quiz or Panel Program, 1952, 1953, 1959
N: Audience Participation, Quiz or Panel Program, 1954, 1955
A panel of four urbane socialites (the longest-running ones being Bennett Cerf, Arlene Francis, Dorothy Kilgallen and a guest) attempted to deduce the occupation of two to three contestants each show by asking yes-or-no questions, with 10 “no” answers ending the game in favor of the contestant, who would win $50 with that triumph. Host John Daly also presided over a “Mystery Guest” segment wherein panelists wore blindfolds as a familiar celebrity (sometimes more than one) came in view to the audience and disguised his or her voice to fool the panel. The only program to be at least a nominee for every best game show Emmy in the 1950s, What’s My Line? is the longest running nighttime network game show ever, and deservedly so. The occupations were offbeat and intriguing, the interplay between panelists in trying to figure them out often was hilarious, and Daly injected dignity into a field not known for that approach. The series had a syndicated revival from 1968-1975 with only Francis returning as a regular, and though it was successful, it gained no Emmy nominations and never generated the same adulation as the original. See also I’ve Got a Secret and To Tell the Truth.
What’s The Name of That Song?
KTSL
N: Most Popular Program, 1948
Based on a radio show created and hosted by Dud Williamson in 1943, this Name That Tune imitator had contestants guess the title of a song played by an offstage band and then try to sing the first two lines for additional winnings. It later became a 1964-65 daytime series on NBC called What’s That Song? hosted by Wink Martindale (billed as “Win” because someone at the network did not think people would accept Wink as a first name). Interestingly, there was a pitch for a revival of this series to be hosted by Tennessee Ernie Ford in the late 1960s under its original name before it came out instead as Win With the Stars, a 1968-69 syndicated series hosted by Allen Ludden. Even more incredibly, two summer series in 2007 came out using the same basic format – The Great American Singing Bee on NBC and on Fox. The more things change …
Where’s Raymond? – See The Ray Bolger Show
Wild Bill Hickok
Syndicated Weekly 30 minutes, 1951-1958
N: Western or Adventure Series, 1954
Marshal James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok (Guy Madison) maintained law in Central City, located somewhere west of Kansas City, assisted by Jingles Jones (Andy Devine), an obese, dimwitted type who nevertheless could provide a good shot or punch whenever Hickok needed him to help subdue scofflaws. This series shared only Hickok’s famous name, and Devine’s performance was as broad as Madison’s was stilted, but it was competently done if a bit jarring to watch today (Madison shooting a full round face forward into the camera in the opening titles would no doubt bring protests from current parents). At least one writer for the series, Maurice Tombragel, also provided scripts for the western that won this category in 1954, Stories of the Century.
The Wild Wild West
CBS Fridays 7:30-8:30 p.m., Sept. 17, 1965-Sept. 19, 1969
W: Supporting Actress, Drama (Agnes Moorehead, “Night of the Vicious Valentine”), 1967
N: Cinematography (Ted Voigtlander), 1966; Lead Actor, Drama (Ross Martin), 1969
Federal undercover agents James West (Robert Conrad) and Artemus Gordon (Martin) protected the safety of the Union and President Ulysses S. Grant at various western locales from their base in a train car. A canny blend of the western, spy and science fiction genres, The Wild Wild West generally avoided camp in presenting fantastic adventures (e.g., shrinking humans to miniature sizes) while employing West as the brawn and Gordon as the brains of the team. Two actors who were recurring villains should have had at least one nod for a statuette for their delicious portrayals – Victor Buono as classy wizard Count Manzeppi and as scientific genius Miguelito Loveless. Moorehead won her only Emmy for playing ringleader of a literally deadly dating service in 1967, the same year she received for the second of six consecutive nominations for her role on Bewitched. This incredibly was the only nomination for Martin, a talented fixture on dramas and game shows who often played multiple roles in disguised voices and faces on each episode and reunited with Conrad to recreate their roles in TV-movies in 1979 and 1980 before he died of a heart attack in 1981.
Moorehead: Bewitched. Voigtlander: Plenty.
Win Lose or Draw
See also Pictionary.
Wrangler
NBC Thursdays 9:30-10 p.m., Aug. 4, 1960-Sept. 15, 1960
N: Achievement in Electronic Camerawork (KTLA-Hollywood camera crew)
This oater starring Jason Evers as Pitcairn, the Wrangler, a wandering cowboy, would be a forgotten seven-week summer replacement series were it not for the fact that it was the first if not only western videotaped rather than filmed. Some other drama series attempted using videotape around this time (e.g., The Twilight Zone), but they found that its limitations in comparison to film made it less desirable to use and gave up on it rather quickly. Most critics were indifferent to the novelty here and more unimpressed by the poor quality of the scripts instead. It is interesting that an independent Los Angeles TV station could have claimed an Emmy for a show seen on a network had this won, however. Though copies are not available on the trading circuit at present, somewhat surprisingly all Wrangler episodes do exist at the UCLA Film and Television Archives – an unexpected development given how many producers simply erased videotapes to use them over again, particularly with daytime game shows.
You Are There
CBS Sundays 6:30-7 p.m.*, Feb. 1, 1953-Oct. 13, 1957
W: Art Direction, Live Show (Bob Markell, “Mallory’s Tragedy on Mt. Everest”), 1954; Art Direction, Film Series (William Ferrari), 1955
N: Producer, Film Series (James D. Fonda), 1955; Director, Film Series (Bernard Girard, “Grant and Lee at Appomatox”), 1955; Direction – Half Hour or Less (William Russell, “First Moscow Purge Trial”), 1956
Was this news, entertainment or something in between? It also earned a 1956 Best Public Service Emmy nomination, so it must be the latter. Anyway, it did provide Ferrari earned an Oscar for his black-and-white art direction and set direction for Gaslight in 1944 and an Oscar nomination for his color work for How the West Was Won in 1963. This also earned an Emmy nomination for Best Public Service Series in 1956
Markell: Bicentennial Minutes, The Defenders, DuPont Show of the Month. Russell: Family Affair, The Farmer’s Daughter.
You Don’t Say
NBC Weekdays 3:30-4 p.m., April 1, 1963-Sept. 26, 1969
N: Individual Achievement in Daytime Programming (Tom Kennedy), 1967
One member each of two competing pairs of a celebrity and a contestant received a person’s name, place or thing and alternated in having to convey a clue to his or her partner consisting of a sentence with the last word omitted – the part “you don’t say” – as the clue for the mystery item. For example, for “Robert Horton,” Mel Torme told his partner that he liked to drop his G’s and he had a pain in his arm that was really _________ (“hurtin’” being the implied clue). The winning pair competed in a bonus round for money. If this sounds to you like Password, the producers of that series agreed and sued Ralph Andrews Productions unsuccessfully for copyright infringement. A mainstay of NBC’s 1960s daytime lineup, You Don’t Say had unsuccessful revivals on ABC in 1975, with Tom Kennedy reprising his hosting duties, and in syndication in 1978, with Jim Peck as emcee. This marked Kennedy’s only Emmy nomination in a game show hosting career stretching from The Big Game in 1958 through Wordplay in 1987, although he did host two series which won the Emmy as Outstanding Game Show, The Price is Right and – ahem – Password.
Your Show of Shows
NBC Saturdays 9-10:30 p.m., Feb. 25, 1950-June 5, 1954
W: Variety Series, 1951, 1952; Actor (Sid Caesar), 1951; Actress (Imogene Coca), 1951
N: Variety Series, 1950, 1953; Actor (Caesar), 1950 and 1953; Actress (Coca), 1950 and 1953; Comedian or Comedienne (Caesar), 1951 and (Coca), 1951; Comedian (Caesar), 1952; Comedienne (Coca), 1952; Series Supporting Actor (Carl Reiner), 1953
Incredibly, because the writing category did not exist until 1954, and by that time the series was ending, the talented staff never received a nomination for this series.
Your Show Time
NBC Fridays 9:30-10 p.m., Jan. 21, 1949-July 15, 1949
W: Film Made for Television (“The Necklace”), 1948
N: Film Made for Television, 1949
The first network show to win an Emmy, Your Show Time also was the first filmed network drama series, an anthology of short stories in the public domain. The pilot was “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant, with John Beal and Maria Palmer as a plain couple in 1880s Paris who lost a friend’s diamond necklace. They sold their goods and worked extra chores for a decade to pay the 12,000 francs they owed for a loan to cover making a duplicate, only to learn that the original was a paste necklace not worth more than 100 francs. Besides predating the twist endings of later shows such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, this production deserves note for its elaborate (by 1949 TV standards) period sets, costumes, direction and editing, all of which contributed to its Emmy win. Host Arthur Shields, billed as “the bookshop man,” introduced tales from a reading room set overflowing with volumes on shelves behind him while narrating parts of the story (a dated device). As it was filmed in Hollywood, NBC put it on its East Coast network once a completed episode was shipped to New York. The popular show’s costs were higher than what its advertising agency was willing to pay, so it ended after 26 episodes but ran long enough to be eligible for the following year’s Emmy contest. It ran in repeats later on local stations as Story Theater with Shields still as host.
Your Witness
ABC Sundays 9-9:30 p.m.*, Sept. 19, 1949-Sept. 26, 1950
N: Live Show, 1949
This obscure Chicago drama owes its Emmy nomination to the fact that by 1949 a connection was in place between the Midwest and West network of TV stations to allow for live transmissions between the Windy City and Los Angeles. Too bad on the East Coast it ran against hits like The Fred Waring Show and Kraft Television Theatre, dooming it to only one year on the network.
You’re a Good Sport, Charlie Brown
CBS p.m., Oct. 28, 1975
W: Children’s Special (Lee Mendelson, EP; Bill Melendez, P)
Snoopy plays tennis against Woodstock and loses, then joins Charlie Brown in competing against Peppermint Patty in a motocross race. A moderately amusing special that gets more enjoyable towards the end, although a little short from the leagues of the classic 1960s Peanuts specials. It tied with Huckleberry Finn in its category in 1976.
You’re in Love, Charlie Brown
CBS p.m., Feb. 9, 1967
N: Children’s Programming (Bill Melendez, Lee Mendelson, P), 1968; Individual Classification of Individual Achievements (Melendez, director), 1968 and (Charles M. Schulz, writer), 1968
It’s the end of the school year, and Charlie is dying to show the Little Red Haired Girl (that’s her name, apparently) his affection for her, but he constantly bumbles it, such as inadvertently blurting out his feeling for her during a classroom presentation of a report. Will he ever connect with her? Quite possibly the funniest Peanuts special ever, with classic lines, like Linus wondering how pulling petals off a flower serves as an accurate form of prophecy. Everyone is in top form, so I guess votes for Melendez and Schulz were split in the individual achievement category and cancelled each other out, and apparently the same thing happened in the other category with the lesser He’s Your Dog, Charlie Brown taking away votes there. Still, this one ought to be televised annually like the Halloween and Christmas specials.
Yves Montand on Broadway
ABC Thursday 10-11 p.m., Nov. 30, 1961
N: Performance, Variety or Musical Program or Series (Yves Montand), 1962
Rerun May 11, 1962.
Ziggy’s Gift
Zoo Parade
NBC Sundays 4:30-5 p.m.*, May 28, 1950-Sept. 1, 1957
N: Children’s Program, 1952, 1953, 1954
“Television’s original Zoo Parade,” as host and commercial pitchman (for Ken-L Ration) Jim Hurlbut announced at the top of the show, presented five to 10 animals for review from the Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo by that organization’s then-director, Marlin Perkins, typically organized around a subject for that day’s show. The last two years of the show featured creatures from other zoos across America as well as on film in safari in Africa, all the while with Perkins’ unflappable narration about each species on display whether at the indoors set or on location. The precursor to Perkins’ later series Wild Kingdom, its excellence is reflected by the fact that ABC put two similar shows directly in competition with it, Sunday at the Zoo in 1950 and Your Pet Parade in 1951, and both failed. Besides the listed nominations, Zoo Parade also earned an Outstanding Education Show nomination in 1950.
Zoom
PBS Weekdays p.m., 1972-1979
W: Achievement in Children’s Programming (Christopher Sarson, P), 1973 and (Sarson and Jim Crum, P), 1974; Children’s Entertainment Series (Cheryl Susheel Bibbs, EP; Monica Joblin and Mary Benjamin, P), 1977
N: Children’s Entertainment Series (Austin Hoyt, EP), 1976 and (Terry Payne Francis, EP; Bob Glover and Janet Weaver, P), 1978
The best series for children starring children, Zoom featured kids from the Boston area