Variety (November 1954)

Wednesday, November 24, 1954 pamm RADIO-TELE VISIOX 23 Although NBC execs are reluctant at this point to discuss the matter 4n detail, it's,a virtual certainty that Noel Coward- Will he coming over from England to do a tv spectacular for the network. It'll probably be in the spring, though the vehicle in which Coward would be starred isn’t being tipped. Negotiations for finalization of the deal' are meanwhile proceeding. It. would be Coward’s initial tv appearance in this country. Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse are quite excited over the reception accorded their “State Of the_ Union’’ spec last week and it’s likely, they’ll “guest produce’’ another one this season. If the right vehicle can be found, they’d like to reunite the. Margaret Sulla van-Joseph Cotten-Nina Foch team for drama reprise. Meantime, there’s also possibility that; the Monday night “producers Showcase’’ spec will get a one-shot origination . out Of*. Dallas for a Margo Jones theatre-in-the-round production of two original tv plays by Tennessee Williams and William. Inge. It would serve as a “pilot’’ for a contemplated Margo Jones series next season. This one’s still in '"the formulating stage. With the naming of Stanley^- Quinn as producer for “Lux Video Theatre,” Fred Coe has stepped down from his: consultancy berth and client-prpduction-agency liai- son for which he was pacted at $40,000 per annum. It was at Coe’s own request that, having initiated the Quinn move to the Coast, he retire from the scene, which now permits him to devotee full time to the “Producers Showcase” 90-min- ute every-fourth-Monday series on NBC-TV. For the past seven years Quinn has been the producer of “Kraft Television Theatre” on NBC-TV, having produced more full hour live, dramatic stanzas than anyone else in the business. (In the early days of Kraft, Coe and Quinn worked together on the; show, Coe as NBC producer; Quinn • for J. Walter Thompson. That was prior to Coe’s move-in on Philco Play- house.) ,JWT decision to switch Quinn to Lux and the Coast, however, far from resolves the hassle going on in an effort to pump jiew life into the Thursday night NBCrTV stanza. Quinn is being sent westward, orig- inating point for Lux, to inject “eastern thinking and techniques” into the stanza, for, it’s presumed, there are few who more readily know the answers. But just how this will rest with “Corny” Jack- son, JWT’s Coast veepee and exec producer on the show, is some- thing else again. Jackson prefers keeping the Coast-made identity (Stanza, as distinct from. New York-berthed dramatic shows, has a tie-in with pix studios for properties, for one thing.) Jackson’s purported griev- ance isn’t against Quinn moving into, the show, but he’s represented as resenting the supposition that only the east knows how to turn out qualitative hourlong live en- tries. Apparently it’ll simmer down to a question of whether Quinn will have free rein to indoctrinate “eastern thinking” or whether the Jackson command will prevail. NBC has emerged victorious •ver DuMont in the battle for ac- quisition of “Space Cadets,” which Kraft is buying as a Saturday morning showcase for its kid- slanted caramel product. As re- suit, series goes into, the hewly-de* veloped Saturday, morning kid block on NBC, in the 11:30 to noon segment. It starts as a sus- tainer Dec. 11 and goes commer- cial the first week in January. Almost right up to signature time DuMont was in there battling for the billings and. trying to clear major markets in view of the fancy sponsorship coin entailed. When show bows on NBC it will complete the cycle of “Space Cadet” network identifications. Previously it had been on ABC, CBS and DuM. Kellogg had the show for three years on CBS and ABC. Huntoriafa Arnie Rosen & Coleman Jacoby have a bright editorial feature In Nobody Asked Me— But: another amusing byline piece In the 49th Anniversary Number of P'AKlETr ui ith Just Jackie Gleason, currently doii-. bling from his Saturday night CBS-TV show into the Paramount Theatre, N. Y., where he’s com- mitted to six stageshows a day for two weeks, is doing a fast burn over the reported failure of the network’s Gotham flagship station, WCBS-TV, to deliver the promised number of spots as a means of hypoing the theatre biz. Gleason feels attendance at the Par pould be a lot better. (In fact, he en- visioned those around-the-corner queues as in the days of Benny Goodman but they haven't mate- rialized, Neither, he claims, have all those CBS spots.) On the other hand, WABC-TV, with, of course, its Par identifica- tion, via the ABC web, in under- stood to have pitched in with more “see Gleason at the Par” spots than the comic’s own home-berthed station. Gleason’s unhappiness also ex- tends to Capitol Records which re- portedly had arranged to do a sat- uration job among Gotham disk jockeys in calling attention to the Par booking but Which, the comic feels, wasn’t fulfilled, Gleason, Incidentally, has been rehearsing his tv show in snatches —‘'-‘while the feature film is on,” as one showman put it. Gleason, incidentally, racked up his highest Trendex of the season on Saturday (20), with a 45.1, to lead the November pack. nbc nixes McCarthy BID FOR FREE TIME NBC turned down a request for free time for Sen. Joseph McCar- thy this Week. Request, made by the Senator’s wife, presumably was to answer charges relating to his hospitalization. Neither the web nor Mrs. McCarthy gave the reason for the request. Request was made over the weekend to Eugene E. Juster, man- ager of films for the web. By LEONARD TRAUBE Late in the day—-but not too late for tomorrow — is tv program- ming brass discovering the. flexible uses of comedic properties. Sym- bolic of what may well tfepbeat a minor trend into a major “design for laughs” is NBC’s spotting of Paul Winchell into Saturday morn- ing time as a part of a two-hour chock-a-block replete with kid ap- peal that day (Happy Felton, et al.). After the one showcase (20), it’s premature to judge the eventuali- ties; but it’s significant that the web had been aggressively seeking a “sure” slotting for Winchell & Woodmen after, he had failed to make the expected imprint in his erstwhile Sunday-at-7 pm. time. (But neither, incidentally, did his CBS opposite, “Life With Father,” Which had been deemed surefire for all-the-family audiences in a theory that apparently exploded, with “Lassie” moving in on “Life,” now in “big” time as a CBS Tues- day nighter, and Winchell. moving out for the Art Linkletter “People Are Funny.”) Kidult Trend What also appears to be on the way is a “kidult” kick—the berth- ing of . talent and shows in slpts that are conventionally forkids on the time element but, in addition, lure many an adult viewer. A fairly good case can be made out on this in Columbia’s decision to put reruns of “I"Xbve Lucy” into concurrent Sunday networking (off- shoot of the traditional Ball & Arnaz Mondays at 9) at 4:30, which is “everybody’s time.” Proof of the pudding may be in the when, as and if of the sponsorial com- plexion cpme January or so, with the wagers laid on a product or products not limited to gro wimps, eg., cigarets (Philip Morris being sponsor of regular “Lucy.”) CBS isn’t saying and neither is Red Skelton, but the latter, may eventually find himself forgetting all about Tuesday at 8 amid such hot opposition company as the Milton Berle - Martha Raye - Bob Hope rotationer and going “kidult.” Where. or when remains specula- tive, but Skelton has always been a dreamboat of sorts for the mop- pet crowd; added to his kfngsized adherents, it's not too bad a parlay when In the proper slot. A. Sc C. 'Rolling Abbott Sc Costello s e I d 0 m achieved a ‘high grading in their live weekend workouts of past sea- sons, but their half-hour syndi- cated telepiy Series, while not of major stature in the conversation pieces of top brass gatherings, keeps rolling along around' the country in prime kid slots. (Their feature film boxoffice. steimped strategically from the half-pints, complemented, Of Course, by ma and pa, as per circusgoing custom.) Red Buttons, tqo, has the rest of the. season to “make it” on NBC Friday nights at 8, assertedly a-bet- ter kid-geared berth than his two- season CBS Monday at 9:30. There was where a good deal of his wor- ries were pegged around whether he was capable of inheriting , a sub- stantial chunk Of .the “Lucf” audi- ence—which he didn’t accomplish regularly enough--aside from haw- ing to compete with “Robert Mont- gomery Presents.’.’ There are those who “can’t see” Pinky Lee, but taste, bias aside, he’s, building in his late afternoon crossboard spot On NBC; whereas, in the case Of the segueing “Howdy Doody,” it’s known that Gabby Hayes (Bob Smith’s replacement), an engaging cutup oldster in the oaters, feels a bit uneasy as host in this formalized kid setup. Progr tng A TaUnt Vnpi* of ABC Robert M. Weitman expounds hit reasons on Room for All of Us ana of the many editorial features In the 49th Anniversary Number of P^AHIETY Bairds Into ’Babes’ First major teledate Of Bil & Cora Baird, the puppeteers, since their exit as pactees of CBS-TV (and principally on “Morning Show”), will be a Max Liebnian NBC-Saturday spectacular, “Babes in Toyland.” Dec. 18 biggie has also signa- tured Metoperh star Roberta | Peters. There’s going to be a national rating by Hoopeiy all right, but it’s going to be without C. E. Hooper. Date set for start of setup, cover- ing video only, is tentatively March,' '55. The entire affair is a puzzier with chiefly legal ramifications, arid* there’s already trade talk cen- tering around whether the Hooper chieftain can actually start a new rating measurement and still re- move ;himself sufficiently from the scene to satisfy contract obliga- tions made in 1950 with A. C* Niel- sen Co. For the past 15 months there’s been talk, backed by, a statement from Hooper himself,'that he’d re- -enter national ratings as soon as the Nielsen pact would legally per- mit, but it has been anything but common knowledge that Hooper himself is bound to remain out of the business arrangement. To ef- fect this, he proposes nekt" year to set up possibly a separate corpo- rate entity to handle national video ratings. Whether this means ’that he-will, however, retain a (h nancial interest in the firm though he does not have a hand in man- |-agement, was not clarified. In- stead, a statement by Hooper over the last week said the new biz will operate “without the services of C. E. Hooper personally.” It was a written commentary and is seen as perhaps the legal phrase- ology to concur with terms of the Nielsen deal. HoopeiL said that his new nation- al rating will be set up “to the spirit and letter” of his contract with Nielsen. The Hooper topper said he “may be expected to con- tinue to be personally active in local broadcast audience measure- ment and other television search;’’ MURROW DROPS OUT OF NBC-TV SPEC Ed MurroW this week cancelled his scheduled 1 appearance on the NBC color spec salute to the Over- seas Press Club Dec. 13. Murrow said his ankling of a host's role on the “Producers ^Showcase” came about through a “contractual con- flict,” but reportedly it was CBS pressure that caused Murrow to quit. CBS felt that Murrow was put- ting it in an embarrassing position by his appearance on a competing network, but even more important was the fact that he’d be appearing for RCA, One of the two “Show- case” sponsors, in direct competi- tion with the CBS Columbia manu- facturing arm. Murrow is a mem- ber of the CBS board; he's also a co-chairman of the Press Club, reason he was due to appear in the | first place. CBS-TV’s weekend pattern will assume new shapes and sizes be- ginning about mid-December, with the Saturday reshuffle" aimed at recapturing station time and the Sabbath sequencing to be split down the middle in a departure from its uninterrupted skein of “Egghead” shows. -The Saturday time is more significant at the moment in that it returns the web to bigtime basketball, with a -for- mation that slots collegiate “Big 10” dribblers frpm 3 to 4:30 start- ing Dec. 11. It's planned as a 13- week schedule over a. 15-week span since Christmas ana New Year’ both fall oil Saturday this year New Word for 4 Love'? When reruns of CBS-TV’s “I Love Lucy” get launched as a Sunday afternoon second edi- tion of .the first series on tha web starting early next year, the title will be changed to avdid conflict with the Mon- day night fixture. Before the web can pitch the Ball & Arnaz package for sponsorship it needs a station lineup, with, affiliates currently being sounded out on clearances to support what’s hoped will be a substantial network in the 4:30 p. : m. time. In the case of Mountai Zone stations, incidentally— Which are not interconnected —there’ll be local' originations on the telepix skein, and will not include the hoop-la. Among wrinkles to be ironed out are tv blackouts, if any, in given areas, stati clearances and an expansion on school par- ticipation beyond Big 10 scope in order to make “hot” games avail- able, The web already has Amana Freezers and Maytag, Co. as back- ers, with one to go.. In view of th* 3 o’clock start, WCBS-TV’s “Cam- era Three,” one of the most widely kudosed .educational programs, would have to be shifted, with probability that it’ll ride earlier in the postnoon day. Also in th* current lineup is another fixtur* of public service aura; “An Eye (Continued on page 31) Oct. 23 Top 10 Nielsens wer* “no" on one key count and “yes” on two others for NBC-TV, with “Dragnet” dropping to a low sev- enth but web’s pair of spectaculars In the measured period rating 9-10. The GavilanrSakton CBS-Pabst fight rated fourth. -I’he figures: ~I Love Lucy (CBS) . . .....52.0 Bob Hope (NBC) ..50.6 Toast of Town (CBS).; 50.3 Gavilan-Saxton (CBS)...... 49.8 Miltoh Berle (NBQ— 45.6 Jackie Gleason (CBS) . 43.9 Dragnet (NBC) . ... <. 41.1 Groucho Marx (NBC): .... 40.5 Producers Showcase (NBC). 38.9 . (Mon.; Tonight at ,8:30) Sunday SpeolNRClV', 38.8 (Sunday in Town) Radio Back in Biz The N.Y. Times has returned th. printing the week's radio logs in full pn Sunday instead of using th* space-saving “highlight” device. This was reportedly because. of reader complaints; Week’s high- lights (radio and tv) are now pin- pointed with a “star.” Radio-TV Mirror, which had shelved radio listings, is under- stood reinstating them in next Is- sue, It’s recalled that Cue mag dropped radio logs a year or so ago but was forced to reinstate them several weeks later, admitting i a boxed story that readers had pro* tested.