Variety (July 1958)

40 REVIEW-PREVIEW U&KiETt Wednesday, Jiily 30, 1958 I PREDICT — By ALAN LIPSCQTT ' Hollywood.. This is tlie time of the year when tv Editors through¬ out the land predict what the tv viewer can look forward to in the season of 1958-59. Since, at the turn of the century, I predicted that the automobile would never re¬ place the horse, and 18 years ago I predicted that televi¬ sion was only a passing fancy and the radio set was here to stay, I think I'm qualified to join this legion of pre¬ dictors. So I predict: Marshals, in Westerns all over the dial, will still heat; the hired gunslinger to the draw and dtawi: “Mister, take your gun out real slow,, drop it to the floor and kick It over here!” Matt Dillon will not marry Kitty, and Doc Holliday, despite his week lungs, will not wind up oh Boot Hill. The girl will still be; chasing the boy who. slicks his hair with Brylcreem and the boy will not kiss the gal who doesn't brush her teeth with Gardal. \ Desilu will buy MGM, Warners and 20th Century-Fox. Howard Hughes will buy Desilu. Dinah Shore will duet Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Con¬ certo with Van Cliburn, sing the “Purple People Eater”-, with Lunt & Fontanne, and dance a kazotsky while the Moiseyev dancers do a Virginia Reel in the background. Mort Salil will be interviewed on “Meet The Press,” This year Bob .Hope will fly to Tibet' to do a show. His guests will be Brigitte Bardot, Sophia Loren and Kim Novak. Next year I’ll predict when he’ll fly back. Sherman Adams will not appear as a mystery guest on “What’s My Line?” Steve Aden will write-hooks on “Aztec beehop and Philosophy,” “Comedy During the Inquisition” and “How to Perform a Brain Operation with One Hand.” The following cliches will still haunt us: “Operator, get me the police!” “Don't touch anything until the DA. gets here!” “They couldn't come this far. . Let’s backtrack “D'jever see how the Apaches treat their prisoners?" Sid Caesar will be “discovered” again. : Writers will dream up a batch of new fluffs for Perry Como. Producers will still refer to writers who are collecting social security as “The Boys.” Ralph Edwards will do a “This Is Your Life” on Eli Fotomkin. the Hungarian refugee composer. Eli is too poor to buy a piano, so he does all his composing on a : comb covered with tissue paper. At the end of the show, Ralph will present Eli with—you. guessed it—a new comb covered with fresh tissue paper. “Restless Gun” will be twice as restless. Dody Goodman will not send a valentine to Jack Paar. Next season, when Betty Furness throws that dirty laundry into those washing .machines; she’ll be wearing Don Loper originals. “The Price Is Right” will give away Macy’s, The Sheriff of Nottingham will not hire Charlie .Chan to capture Robin Hood. Dr. Christian v will not make a pitch for socialized medicine. Oscar Levant will he so occupied insulting and apolo¬ gizing to sponsors, he will not find time to play “Rhap¬ sody in Blue/’ ... Bufferin will still get into the bloodstream faster than aspirin. ( You, Too, Con Be An H & H Fan j ■wmm By RICHARD LEVINE —I (Director of Special Programs; CiiS-TV) (Some people collect stamps; others autographs or pictures of vet baseball players. Richard Levnne, CBS- TV’s director special programs , “collects” old Rodgers A Hart tunes, enjoying a reputation, in tv circles as per¬ haps' America’s No. 1 expert on R & H’s less familiar catalog of tunes and lyrics. At Variety’s request he’s Submitted the. following quiz. (Answers on. Page 45). 1. Identify the songs in which these rhymes appear; (a) . . .patricide, , . . . .mattress-side. . . (b) . . .in Chelsea, or. . . . ' . . .Excelsior!. ... (c) » . .sweet trick. . . .Dietrich. . . (d).. . .wife he miist stick to; . . . . . .in flagrante delictu. . „ (e) . . Jor steady company, . . . . .in the Charleston dance I want to bump a knee. . . 2, What R & H song was first called “Make Me A Star”? 8. What Rodgers & Hart song made a.: reappearance in a Rodgers & Haminersteifi show? 4. What stars introduced these songs in what shows? (a) “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered” <b) “Ten Cents A Dance” (c) “Easy to Remember” (d> "You Are Too Beautiful” (e) "I Could Write A Book” 6. Name the songs that made reference.to¬ la) Franklin D. Roosevelt (b) Thomas Dewey fl. Larry Hart believed that nothing succeeded like hard work. Can you identify the three, songs that made this point? ' ; ' (a) from the point of view of a dancer ■(h) from the point of view of a trapeze artist (c) by opposing short cuts 7. Which two songs were written about the same place? U, Rodgers & Hart wrote at least three songs with titles that were also the titles of dramatic plays. What scores were these songs from: (a) “Life With Father ’ (b) “Mornings at Seven” (c) “A Kiss for Cinderella” 9. Name two songs (from two different, shows) with the same title. 10. Which songs had as their subjects: (a) an island (b) a movie house (c) some other composers (d) a virgin' Cornfed Culture By JOHN GUEDEL / :* Hollywood. - Much has be£n said about TV not fulfilling its obligation to educate. Inform, enlighten, improve, broaden the in¬ dividual. To combat this criticism; ; TV has Isolated the “high class” programs on Sunday afternoon, and supported these expensive hobbies by the “froth” programs that, draw the big audiences. Now we must admit there are two fallacies in this kind of programming. The; first is economic: An expensive de¬ ductible hobby cannot he supported indefinitely by the bread and butter business. The second: With the “improvement programs” in Class B time, plus their limited appeal, they simply don’t im¬ prove or educate enough people. And; they appeal to the viewer who needs improvement the least. The solution? .... Consolidate the two camps. Put the ‘‘upgrade ingredi¬ ents”, in the commercial shows that are already drawing the mass audiences. Seems like quite a chore . . ... until you come to the startling realization that a whole parcel of broad-appeal, shows have been doing this right along. Examples: “Ozzie and Harriet,” Danny Thomas and Robert Young have driven home all manner of messages to parents how to handle society’s problems, particularly in connection with youngsters, Sounds dull when I put it this way, but the shows are far from dull. They make their points forcefully enough to get them over without losing the buoyancy necessaiy to float on a high Trendex. Ed Sullivan and Steve' Allen frequently have ballet or operatic performers:;.(Van Cliburn will help the mass cul¬ ture cause; it’s been a long time since anybody in such demand has entered through the high class door.) Ralph Edwards’ “This Is Your Life” has taken Its huge audience into Piney. Woods-to learn- something worthwhile from a Negro educator; I’d say that one out of four of his subjects offer something of lasting substance to the ^Viewer . . . If the program were listed as presenting contemporary biographies of importance, it Would soon be led quietly to the Sunday afternoon pasture, be given twice as many plaques as it Usually gets,' and forgotten. You’ve got to be sneaky in your attempts at “improvement The average viewer doesn’t want to' know: he’s being improved. • ' ■ ; V Out « Limb .' ■ [ On “People Are Funny" we wanted to show the re¬ markable work done these days with artificial limbs. Hardly a show to investigate sueh; a subject. Should be just right for a Sunday afternooner. But we made it palatable by having a contest where a girl danced with three men, one with sound limbs, one with two artificial legs, one with one artificial leg. She missed winning a thousand dollars because she couldn’t tell when she was dancing with the limb-less mariT.Sounds shuddering in the . telling, but it came off in good taste, particularly because one of the ‘‘dancers” headed up this department of re¬ habilitation. for the . Veterans Administration, and in' a pithy interview with Art Linkletter at end of the experi¬ ment, he told of other improvements in the same field. It was a dramatic demonstration of hope through scientific improvements. “House Party” guestf include atomic scientists, judges, educators; psychiatrists, philosophers-.. ../not just from this country but from all over the world. And they are hot just interviews, either. Dramatic visual, demonstrations plus ad : lib discussions in the studio audience put the sugarcoating -on. our improvement pills. , It is not by accident, that many of the same stature appear frequently on ‘‘You Bet Your Life.” Though battling the barbs and jokes, they all manage to say what . they have to say, and GrOucho Marx usually punctuates and summarizes in a, manner understandable to the aver¬ age viewer. In dwelling on our own programs I .don’t mean to imply .. 1 1 or is it infer? . . . no, it’s imply , . . that we have used our airtime to educate the viewer to any greater extent than , other bread and . butter .programs; Certainly Ed Morrow’s “Person to Person” is a mass-appeal program, and the big money quiz programs (obviously mass-appeal) have undoubtedly raised the knowledge level of the average viewer, Armstrong Circle Theatre devotes all of its airtime to mirroring the substantial aspects and problems of con¬ temporary life; Schlitz Theatre (mixed in with its froth) Comes up with a “Steinmetz” and wins an Emmy, which indicates that the. half-hour film dramas can step on the improvement pedal whenever they Want to. The specials, such as “See It Now ” Hallmark, Du Pont, are, of course, upgrade programs (along with the fading hour : drama anthologies)! But all of us in tv have recog¬ nized this fact from the beginning. I’m suggesting; (1) that- the tv publicity boys recognize what’s going on in the bread and butter field and use. it as ammo to combat tv’s detractors and (2) suggest to the producers to step up the infiltration of meatier Clements wherever the format per¬ mits.* IPs a challenge how to do it sometimes, but usually rewarding. v ;. . I don’t recommendUthat we “feed the horse; a little less each day to see how long it takes him to die.” We should . continue to come in the side door, be oblique, for I fear that if . the public begins to think of our programs ,as something other than general entertainment they’ll start saying: Tin not quite up to .that tonight . . . too tired,” and switch to an old movie/ There are a few who take a cold shower in the winter because it isn’t very pleasant, and they figure anything Jhard to take must be good for them, But the viewers with this Spartanesque approach are in the; minority.,' The Readers’ Digest mixes the froth with the meaty In delicately balanced: proportions. Result: Largest circula¬ tion of any magazine. The other general interest magazines of big circulation, are more good examples. When I started writing this . article I frankly didn’t realize tv was to a great extent already doing what I was going to recommend. So i had to switch to “Let’s publicize it more” and “Step it up because it works.” But in examin¬ ing the weekly spewing from the magic box I came to another conclusion: All the cigarets advertised on tv are made for people who smoke outdoors ; . . skeet Shooting, canoeing, cattle-roping, . pole-Vaulting. Next; week we’ll champion tv’s next great need: a good indoor cigaret Mr. Kincaid & The Big Idea = By LEONARD STERN « It was a crisis. The men seated around the Conference table silently agreed on this by a. show of eyes. Why else would Kincaid have called a meeting on, of all days, Sunday? Harrison, a first vice-president’s distance away from Kincaid, stole a look at his watch by pretending to ad¬ just his shirt cuff. Kincaid was in his 15th minute of review. Going over what everyone In thp. room already knew! The waning popularity of quiz shows, the -jver- saturation of the market with synthetic westerns and tha general public’s apathy to television in general. “Boys/’ Kincaid finally said, selecting the worst pos-: sible misnomer for the group of gray and bald heads nodding before him, “the only thing that will save televi¬ sion and Kincaid Co. is a new trend. And, boys, this trend is already in the making!’ Who’d like to tell, me what it is?” He leaned forward on his hands and looked around the . room belligerently; Tan. Seconds of silence clearly established that no one would like; to tell what it was. Kincaid was pleased, “Bbys," .he said again, “the new trend is toward comedians.” However, before Kincaid could shift into his next thought, Hollister was up, "Right, Chief, comedians!” “And that’s where we haVe it made,” added Quale. “We have Harry Homer. Homer’s been on television 10 years now and he’s never been out of the top 10 on at least one of the rating reports.” “We’ve out-trended the other agencies,’’ said Harrison proudly. “Right,” agreed “ Hollister, settiffg off a chorus of “rights” that echoed through the room. “Wrong,” barked Kincaid, then he lowered his voice and gently chided them. “Boys, you should let me finish before you agree with me.” “I was about to say before I was interrupted that the trend is toward comedians—blit not like comedians like Harry Homer who’s already on the air with a high .rating. The trend is toward comedians who are coming hack to tv. When you pick lip a newspaper today whom do you read about in the columns? Who are the columnists writ¬ ing about? They're writing about the Gleasons and the Berles. What are the clients talking about at Twenty- One? Ed Wynn’s new show. What’s the thinking future- wise up and down the street? I’ll tell you what it is. It’s the same as mine: If we want to keep all our sponsors in the shop, we’ve got to go along In the trend. We’ve got to find, ourselves a comedian who has been off. the air for a few seasons. And. there, boys, nutshell-wise is pur problem. All of the big comedians who were off the • air have already been signed for next fall.” . . Kincaid frowned and. sat down in a thinking position, the fingers of his Tight hand pressing against his temples. Quale cleared his throat. “How about George Krell? ” he said tentatively. I / To Hell With Krell “Who’s George Krell?” Kincaid said without taking his : hands from his forehead dr opening his eyes. “He was a hit on the Comedy Playhouse/’ Quale said, “it was on for eight weeks; in 1953.” “Hmm,” Kincaid said, then shook fais head. “Not im¬ portant, enough to bring back. No one’ll remember him.” “That might be an angle. Chief,” Hollister said. “We would get out a big campaign on Krell and convince peo¬ ple that the Comedy Playhouse was the top show of the. season. “Who’ll remember?” Kincaid opened his eyes and considered this possibility.. “Too risky,” be decided, “Crosby and Gould would be on to us in a second.” The group nodded in solemn agreement. “How about Mike and Elaine?” suggested Harrison. “No, no, no,” Kincaid said. “Fella-you. miss the whole point. AH they have to offer Is freshness and originality. They’re not coming back. They’Ve never even been cancelled.” “It’s too bad/’ Kincaid muttered, “it was in ’55 that we made our mistake/* ' ; '. “What, Chief?” asked the puzzled Hollister.; “In 1955 when we hired; those new writers for Harry Homer, that was an error. If it hadn’t been for them and their damned original ideas and those stupid, clever sketches, Homer would’ve been off the air last year and could have made, a triumphant return this year. Wed- beset.” “But people have been watching Homer,” said Cartier who'was in the Production Department and somewhat Out of touch, “why won’t they, keep on watching him? He’s popular.” . “Popular/’ Kincaid 6aid sadly: “what Is. our criterion for popularity?’’ Kincaid waited for an answer. . “Ratings,” Said Hollister. “Exactly/’ Kincaid said; “Who has any confidence in ratings? The true measure of a comedian’s, popularity is when the public, knows all his tricks, when they’re aware of everything he’s going to do, can anticipate his jokes and as a result won’t watch him anymore. That’s when you know a comedian’s truly popular.” Kincaid acknowledged the spontaneous burst of ap¬ plause with a slight bow and then took his wrist chrono¬ meter off and placed it on the table in front of him. “All right, boys” he said, “we can lick this. Lett’s start out with 15 minutes of brainstorming.”: After three sessions pf brainstorming they had four Think-Times and finally a productive lunch. .... It was between the salad add the filet of sole that Kin¬ caid got the Big Idea. “Boys,” he suddenly shouted, Bringing the flat of his hand down on the table and upsetting his coffee on Hol¬ lister. “It’s simple. The answer has been staring right at us.” He paused dramatically, waiting until he had 102% attention. “Kincaid & Co. will not be left out of this trend. We, too, will bring back a comedian, Tha comedian we will bring back to television will be that great, unforgettable star . . Harry Homer! ” “How can we bring back someone who hasn’t been away?” Quale asked. , ti “I was expecting that question," Kincaid said. ‘Wa have to sabotage Homer. How do we do that? . . ; Start¬ ing tomorrow we cause Bad feelings between . Homer and his staff. How do we do that? . . > We tell Homer that there’s oqly one man who really knows what makes his show successful. Then we let him wonder who it is. First he’ll figure it’s the director and he’ll decide to map «ut (Continued on page 46)