Sponsor (Oct-Dec 1962)

Record Details:

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THE ROAD TO MARKET MUST PASS MAIN STREET To reach Main Street, U.S.A., turn at Mutual. Main Street, U.S.A. is the big "buy-way"— the street that sells through local radio. Mutual owns Main Street, U.S.A. lock, stock and big town— with 453 local affiliates everywhere. If you want to sell where the buying is biggest, check the signpost, turn at Mutual. LANDMARK: Mutual delivers 97 of the top 100 Main Streets in America. Mutual Radio 1 3M A Service to Independent Stations 'SPONSOR BACKSTAGE by Joe Csida Kickbacks on the new season kickofff A television observer, trying to gauge programing developments this new 1962-1963 season, is hard-pressed to do so without resorting to specially-run tape showings. Take Wednesday (19 September) night, for example. At 7:30 on that evening NBC was presenting the premiere performance of the first ninety-minute western series, The Virginian. CBS was showing a filmed documentary in its CBS Reports series on the potentially explosive theme "The Teen Age Smoker." And ABC was kick ing off its first episode of Wagon Train, which, of course, had shiftel from a successful season on NBC. On the theory that CBS Reports could be counted upon to do its usual thorough and objective job on its subject, and therefore, the content of its "Teen Age Smoker" report was somewhat predictable, and on the further theory that whether on ABC or NBC, Wagon Train would still be substantially Wagon Train, I tuned in the virtually motion picture-length The Virginian. Lee Cobb, who plays a judge in the town of Medicine Bow, and is one of the regulars in the series, has been quoted by newspaper writers as thinking poorly of the show. The gun backfired On nothing more than the viewing of its premiere I think Mr. Cobb may have something. The obvious effort on the part of The Virginian's producers, director, writers, et al was to come up with a western unlike any western previously presented on television. (This presumably to justify the ninety minute length.) The devices used to achieve this were to affect a writing style much like that of undeveloped Irish poets; to use a directorial touch which (when combined with the aforesaid material) resulted in having such excellent actors as Colleen Dewhurst and Hugh O'Brian frequently come off revoltingly precious and nauseatingly pixieish. Anyone who saw Miss Dewhurst in Tad Mosel's Pulitizer Prize winning play "All the Way Home" will readily recognize what a feat of writing and direction this would be. Another technique for making The Virginian quite a far six-shot from other westerns apparently is to use almost no make-up on the players. This is particularly noticeable, of course, in the case of the female players, and it does add a touch of realism. But the most important departure of all is one which baffles this viewer. This is apparently a concept in which the regulars on the show actually have very little to do. This first episode in the season's series, fon instance, was 99% written for and about guest stars Dewhurst and O'Brian, while James Drury in the title part, Lee Cobb as the Judge and owner of the ranch on which Drury is foreman and other regulars played oddly insignificant roles. True, the Virginian talked (Please turn to page 50) 24 SPONSOR/ 1 October 1962