TV Guide (November 13, 1954)

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The “new” Red Buttons of the 1954-55 season has switched from CBS to NBC, from Monday night to Friday night, from one bevy of writers to another bevy of writers—but he is still Red Buttons. If one is an aficionado, he is the greatest. Other¬ wise . . . Discounting his ability to hop up and down while cupping his ear, Buttons has no comic traits peculiar to him alone. He is not funny per se. A Jack Benny can be hilarious just standing with his arms folded, staring at an old lady in the front row. But¬ tons can’t. He needs material. Material, however, apparently isn’t finding its way to NBC on Fridays any more easily than it did to CBS on Mondays. Red’s writers, whose numbers must by now be as forlorn as they are legion, keep coming up with the punch-drunk fighter (it’s been seen), the Army take-off (it’s been seen), the Kupke Kid (it’s, etc.) Buttons, to this reviewer, has al¬ ways been a club-date man. He was fleetingly sensational when he first appeared on television, but, of all the media, TV is the one that most de¬ mands staying power—a basic talent which can rise above material and carry its own weight on off-weeks. Buttons, thus far this season, has dis¬ played very little of it.—D.J. FINE TUNING By OLLIE CRAWFORD Court refuses to bar TV release of old Autry, Rogers films. It’s a sort of cowhands-off policy. • It shows what can happen to a wrangler, when he starts wrangling with lawyers. • Republic Pictures wanted to release the films. Gene complained that some of the movies were made when he was young enough to understudy Jackie Coogan. He claims he played Billy and Coogan played the kid in “Billy the Kid.” Autry says these look funny, now that he’s more mature than Victor. • When he used a rifle in these old films, he didn’t know it would turn out to be a repeater. • Roy Rogers also claims that some of the pictures were made when he was a boy and his revolver was a Colt. In those days, he was not only a tenderfoot, he was tender all over. • It was so long ago even his Western pants were a couple of other chaps. • The Supreme Court ruled that if Republic’s brand was on ’em, by gum, they was Republic’s. • Now Gene and Roy are threatening to appeal to a real defender of law and justice— the Lone Ranger. 23