Inside the Guide: 8/20/55 Part 10: News and Info

The 1955 TV Guide has a good deal of news and gossip, including a page of local tidbits that has this note about Fred Rogers:

In the back of the mag, Sheila Graham has a page of brief items. We're told Earl Wilson will have the space next week. Among Graham's scoops: Liberace's show will return next season with a bigger budget, bigger sets, and more extravagance in general. Eve Arden has taken an apartment in town near the studio where Our Miss Brooks is filmed. Gary Cooper is on the hunt for a TV project.

"The Jack Webbs are building a big, beautiful home in the Valley, despite rumors of discord." 

Anita Ekberg, then starring in Warner Brothers Presents: Casablanca, "held up production when her toy poodle came down with heat prostration. Finally, even the director was applying ice packs to the pup--and to himself."

The TV Teletype feature includes nuggets like this: Four Star Productions wants to make Grand Motel as a TV series and a movie, and it wants BOTNS fave George Gobel to star in the movie. Playhouse of Stars was just "renewed for its fourth straight year of 52 films, no repeats."

Joseph Cotten will be host of General Electric's upcoming hourlong 20th Century Fox Show. ABC is scheduling its licensed J. Arthur Rank films 30 minutes before Toast of the Town and Colgate Variety Hour to try to topple those two.

NBC is boosting its color shows by about 500% this season, showing Davis Cup matches this week and doing color broadcasts of college football and the World Series. Max Liebman is producing a big series of Saturday night spectaculars for the same network, opening with Heidi on October 1 and featuring musicals like Jerome Kern's The Cat and the Fiddle.

The opening editorial is an interesting slant; the magazine criticizes the increasing practice of giving Hollywood studios free publicity. It cites Ed Sullivan as pioneering the idea of giving a studio an hour of his show to promote an upcoming release.

Inside the Guide: 8/20/55 Part 9: August 20-26: More features

 TV Guide is not just a trove of listings. It's filled with features and reviews! Here  is a look at a few in the back of the August 20, 1955 edition.

Reviews include Caesar Presents and an early Johnny Carson show:

I like this piece about syndicated "film" programs. It name-checks a lot of interesting shows from syndicators like Ziv and more. There's a special shout-out for Guild Films' Liberace, which WPIX in New York (one of 200 stations that carries it) broadcasts twice a day, five days a week.

Inside the Guide: 8/20/55 Part 8: Friday, August 26, 1955

We close out our look at the listings of 70 years ago today with a post about Friday, August 26, 1955.

I like that a single sponsor took out an ad listing the various programs it was responsible for:

One of the interesting syndicated daily programs that runs this week is Tele-Comics, AKA NBC Comics.

 It's considered the first network animated program, with the word "animated" being used loosely! The 15-mintue series featured limited movement of various rotating segments. Here's an example:

You don't expect live sports on a random Friday afternoon, but Channel 7 has tennis, live and in color!

Here's a snapshot of early primetime, with a good array of programs:

Finally, here's a cool ad for Swing Shift Theater, a lineup of movies for people who are up late:

Inside the Guide: 8/20/55 Part 7: Thursday, August 25, 1955

There is one interesting display ad in the Pittsburgh listing for 70 years ago: Climax!

Today let's just take a look at the whole page here:

At 11:15, it's not regular Rasslin'; it's TEXAS RASSLING!

I'm curious about "Stop and Go on Bike" on Channel 13.

A little earlier, check out what's on at 7;30:

EZC Ranch Girls was a show sponsored by Wilkens department stores and featuring a Pittsburgh-area country music group.

Inside the Guide: 8/20/55 Part 6: Wednesday, August 24, 1955

Here are a few peeks at what was on 70 years ago today in the Pittsburgh area:

I like the listing of the segments in this Arlene Francis show. Ooh, a segment on draperies!

I was curious about Flynn's Inn in the above pic. Charlie Flynn was a personality at the station, WFBG, which later became WTAJ, my local CBS affiliate as I was growing up. That's all I got! I see references to the show, but not details of what it's about--something that's true in a lot of these local TV listings rabbit holes.

Way of the World, shown here on WJAC, which was my NBC station growing up, was a short-lived (10 months) soap opera that ran different stories as opposed to one continuous narrative. A permanent hostess, Linda Porter, actually actress Gloria Louis, introduced the stories, according to Wesley Hyatt's Encyclopedia of Daytime Television. 

At 2:30, you see a real celebrity, and I don't mean Robert Q. Lewis. It's President Eisenhower! Some stations aired this later that night, after prime time:

Finally, a look at Frankie Laine's variety show, featuring a young Joel Grey. Again, I like the detail in the listings in these early Guides, with nearly every segment touted ahead of time. Laine's show was a summer replacement for Arthur Godfrey's program.

Laine also gets a feature story in the back of the issue.

Inside the Guide: 8/20/55 Part 5: Tuesday, August 23, 1955

Here's a look at some items in the listings 70 years ago today in Pittsburgh!

I wish I had this one below. I like that you're sitting there looking up what's gonna be on tonight, and then the mag tells you, hey, go get the new issue! It's already out there!

Check out what's on at 4:30 and every weekday on Channel 10: Roller Derby!

Here is what is up against the hottest show on TV, The $64,000 Question. China Smith is a syndicated adventure series starring Dan Duryea, Truth is another game show, and With a View to Music is something about which I know nothing!

Inside the Guide: 8/20/55 Part 4: Monday, August 22, 1955

Here are some highlights of the programming in Pittsburgh 70 years ago today!

Monday morning, Arlene Francis gets a new show to precede her existing program, and look who's along with her: BOTNS star Hugh "Over Easy" Downs!

The big showcase production of the day is, well, Producers' Showcase, a 90-minute prestige production.

Here's a glimpse of one of my favorite obscure shows: It's a Great Life, a syndicated sitcom about three guys living in a boarding house run by Francis Bavier. I'd love to get a set of complete episodes of that one!

Here's a look at the sports lineup for the week. Notice what's missing: Baseball! No national games in this week in August. I believe Pittsburgh Pirates broadcasts on local TV did not start until two years later.

Inside the Guide: 8/20/55 Part 4: Sunday, August 21

 I want to highlight a few things today, but let's start with this look at a Boy Scout jamboree!

Religion is a big part of Sunday TV (not just the morning, either, but the whole day), but unlike the heavy diet of televangelism that would become common in the eighties, you get a variety of faith-themed anthology programs, including different episodes of the same series.

And look at this episode of Pall Mall Theatre. Didn't every TV Western use this plot at one time or another?

Inside the Guide: 8/20/55 Part 3: The listings! Saturday, August 20

It was 70 years ago today that...a lot of locally produced programming was on the air, at least in the Pittsburgh area. I don't only mean shows made in Pittsburgh, but shows made at local stations. It was a different time, when network affiliations were much looser and everyone was still trying to figure things out.

KDKA-2 and WJAC-6 at the time are listed as affiliates of ABC, CBS, Du Mont, and NBC! Every channel in the listings apart from WQED-13 (later a PBS station) have multiple network affiliations.

70 years ago, Saturday, August 20, 1955, this program stands out, right here in the middle:

Yep, that's our pal Fred "Mister" Rogers! Notice pals like Daniel Tiger are already here, too, in this Pittsburgh original.

Later in the day, we get Rassling. Not wrestling. RASSLING.

Here are a few ads for the shows in prime time tonight:

Here's an overview of late prime time. One thing I like about early TV is that the same show will appear on different networks, different channels, even with different episodes on the same evening. An example here is Your Play Time, one of the many, many dramatic anthologies on the airwaves this week.

Wrestling at 11:05 is obviously a different show than RASSLING earlier in the day.

Earlier in the evening, all kinds of stuff. Take 8:00's The Soldiers, a short-lived military comedy that stars John Dehner, Tom D'andrea, and this issue's cover subject, Hal March!

Musical Chairs is a panel show, I think, not a literal game of musical chairs. There's a lot of game show and music action in Summer 1955 on TV.

Inside the Guide: 8/20/55 Part 2

Yesterday I focused on the cool cover story about The $64,000 Question, but there are other features in the Guide this week. For example, this look at The Ina Ray Hutton Show, a syndicated program starring the biggest female band leader of the Big Band era. Years later, research indicated that Hutton was of mixed race and had been "passing as White" during her heyday. I don't know if this TV show exists in any form.

They were putting a lot of stuff out there in the early days of the medium, but how about TV dentistry? Jerry Robinson and Jerry Helper are nowhere to be seen here, but I trust these guys know what they're doing.

Tomorrow we'll dive into the listings!

Inside the Guide: 70 years ago, "The $64,000 Question" was the hottest thing on TV (August 20-26, 1955)

This week we'll go back in time and look at the TV Guide Pittsburgh edition from August 20-26, 1955--70 years ago!. Here's a look at the front cover:

You will notice the cover subject is Hal March, emcee of The $64,000 Question. That quiz show had premiered just about two months earlier but was the talk of the medium, breaking summertime viewership records and capturing the public's collective attention. Newspapers, street corners, water coolers...all were abuzz with discussions about the smash program.

Yes, this was one of the shows implicated in the quiz show scandals that would soon take down the genre and help lead to network, rather than sponsor, control over TV programming. $64,000 Question was not the first quiz show exposed, nor the most egregious, but it was believed sponsor Revson did influence the direction of the series in multiple ways. At least one contestant on the spinoff 64,000 Challenge (a head-to-head format, unlike the escalating-questions-solo format of its predecessor) claimed he was given answers in advance. Producer Louis Cowan became president of CBS TV after this show took off, but he was booted out in the wake of the scandals.

All this makes the issue in question (Ha!) a fascinating read. Ah, to be innocent and read this as it played out in Summer 1955, 3 years before the scandals broke. The cover story talks about how producers select contestants, not directly mentioning how sponsors might manipulate the gameplay or try to juke ratings.  One amusing note mentions how producers verified that potential participants weren't "misrepresenting themselves": "Cowan checks with their, ministers, priests, or rabbis, with their banks and their place of work." Note: Lack of semicolons and Oxford commas is from the original text.

The article mentions that people write the mag all the time asking how the show can afford to give away the big cash prizes. Actually, the program is much cheaper to produce than most primetime entertainment shows, as a helpful list indicates. The Jackie Gleason Show cost over $72K per week last season, but even with cash winnings averaged in. Question is estimated at a little over $25K.

The "TV Teletype" feature at the front of the mag has an item on the show, saying that American Research Bureau figures reveal it draws 47 million viewers each week. "That's unprecedented for summertime TV. 

This is my favorite reference in the issue, though, an item from the "Letters to the Editor" page:

Knowing what would happen a few years later, this is quite a thing to read here!

Inside the Guide: May 4-10 1985 Features and Articles

We went through the heart of the issue--the listings--but what about the mind? Or is it the soul? The elbow? What portion of a TV Guide is the features/articles/reviews section?

I'll leave that up to you and report on what this issue offers. It's an odd mix of "serious" and frivolous, with the feature on the production of Lace II  a tongue-in-cheek look at the miniseries that is also the cover subject.

There is an article claiming popular TV shows are a good way to talk about values with teenagers. Some of the ideas therein are compelling, but it's funny to read this kind of discussion from a Ph.D. who uses examples from Charles in Charge and Gimme a Break.

The issue-closing review discusses Hour Magazine, calling it bland but OK for what it was.

A preview of the Kentucky Derby spans several pages.

Buried in the back with little fanfare is a piece by Jason Robards pointing out how television glamorizes drinking. Robards was a public alcoholic, and the perspective is interesting, but he seems to really have it in for Dynasty and TV in general in 1985.

The first feature is a provocative look at local TV news doing advocacy and involving itself in stories and doing things for the public good. I thought this was the best story in the mag, but it's telling that the cover touts Phoebe Cates and talking to your teens but has no mention of it. Too boring for the masses?

Inside the Guide: May 4-10 1985 Part 6: Friday night!

Friday, May 10, 1985 is a little slower than the last few days we've covered from this issue, but there is some cool stuff.

CBS starts the evening with a pair of Bugs Bunny repeats:

Things pick up at 9:00, though, with an even more exciting pair: DECEIT and DESIRE! Wasn't that a tag team in GLOW in the Eighties?

Check out this duo on NBC. Do you remember that Dean Martin was a regular on Half Nelson?

Here's a cool ad for Night Flight on USA. The cable network was a pretty aggressive advertiser in the magazine in the Eighties.

And finally, here's an ad that just says, OK, here's Clint. What more do you want? Does he look particularly beguiled in this shot?

Inside the Guide: May 4-10 1985 Part 5: Thursday night!

Thursday night, May 9, 1985, brings some big-ticket programming. Just look at this classic comedy lineup on NBC. Oh, but ignore that odd pic of Michael J. Fox.

CBS has repeats of Magnum and Simon and Simon before an all-new Knots Landing.

On ABC, as you see in the listings above, Dennis Franz guests on a rerun of Street Hawk (I sure wish there were a display ad for it), and then there is this awesome special:

At 10:00, is Henry out of control on Hill Street? Furillo's expression indicates HE IS!

After all this, ABC's puny, colorless ad for 20/20 looks like an afterthought despite the provocative subject matter:

I'd really like to see that Trivial Pursuit special. I loved Trivial Pursuit, I loved 80s TV stars, and I would have loved to seen a combination of those things, but I was probably watching NBC that night.