Once again, I am finally getting around to a project that I had intended to do 3 years ago. As with my post Dec 11, 1961, which I initially wanted to post in 2020 for my 60th birthday, I had intended to do another post for my sister the following year for her 60th birthday, this time picking a schedule of shows which appeared on TV the night she was born. In this case I queried her about the choices, since it was intended as a birthday present, so I wanted the shows to be the ones she would have liked to see.
Her tastes being a bit more sedate than mine, for the most part, since she likes old TV westerns and dramas. Unfortunately, in order to stick to the theme, that is, the schedule actually had to be feasible to watch in one night, I couldn't give her an entire night of TV westerns. (To wit, both Wagon Train and The Virginian aired episodes that night, but they were on at the same time.) But for the most part, this is her selection for that night. Once again I am making use of a website that lists the night's available broadcast schedule:
And since by the time she was born our parents were living in Texas, the following listings are in Central Standard Time (as opposed to EST, which I used in my own birthday post).
A brief spoiler alert! I tell the plot of the whole episode in the following encapsulations of each TV show. You can still watch the shows, they are all watchable, but if you want to go through the list and find the episodes and watch them first, I'll still be here when you get back.
As with my post last year for my own birthday TV night, I am endeavoring to post a link to a place where you can watch the episode, always assuming someone hasn't removed it from the internet.
TV Night at Karen's House: October 10, 1962:
7:00 PM: The Virginian: ("The Big Deal")
(Note: Unfortunately there is no YouTube link to this episode, but I found a Daily Motion link, albeit divided into two parts.)
Background: The Virginian was a TV series that was based on a movie, which in turn was based on a novel by a guy named Owen Wister. As with the book and the movie, the main character in the TV show was known only as "The Virginian". Even his friends address him as "Virginian". You can see this crop up occasionally in movies, although in most other cases the character actually has a name given during the course of the plot, even if everybody addresses them by the nickname. (See James Caan's character "Mississippi" in the movie El Dorado. The character actually has a name, "Alan Traherne", but nobody calls him that, not even himself.) The Virginian (James Drury) is the head honcho on a ranch owned by Judge Garth (Lee J. Cobb). The Virginian's main cohort in running the ranch is Trampas (Doug McClure). The show is a typical 60's era western with lots of moral dilemmas solved, along with the occasional gun play that can be found in such series.
In "The Big Deal", Judge Garth is faced with a dilemma. He owns much of the land that he runs his cattle on, but one section he has only been leasing, because it is owned by a South American (Columbia) entrepreneur. The entrepreneur has since died, and his son Enrique Cuellar (Ricardo Montalban) has come to Wyoming to negotiate a sale of the land, as he is not interested in continuing the lease.
Cuellar ingratiates himself with several of the women in town, including newspaperwoman Molly Wood (Pippa Scott) and Garth's daughter, Betsy (Roberta Shore), but he has some trouble making fast friends with male members, including Trampas who just doesn't trust him. Maybe Trampas has a clue on the nature of Cuellar...
Because when the chips are down, Cuellar tells the Judge to make him an offer on his land. The Judge offers a tentative amount of $5000, but Cuellar counters him with an offer of his own, $100,000, which apparently is more than it would cost to buy the whole state of Wyoming, considering the Judge's reaction. The Judge rejects Cuellar exorbitant price.
The Judge tells his men to move the cattle off the meadow where they are grazing back to the base farm area. Unfortunately that requires that he pass through Cuellar's land. And since Garth is not only NOT the owner and no longer has a valid lease for use of it, he is trespassing.
Cuellar objects, but the Judge tells him he will have to wait six days for a circuit judge to come through and issue a restraining order to make him cease and desist. So it comes back down to a battle of wills, and although the Judge is a bullheaded type, Cuellar may just be a bit stronger in that department. Cuellar makes several attempts to get his point across, including stringing up some barbed wire across his section of the land.
The whole thing ends in rather maudlin fashion (not surprising since this is a 60's idealistic vision of the west) as Betsy gets caught up in the barbed wire and is badly hurt. There of course are no bad effects from this, and the two combatants come to an agreement amicably. I gotta say it just seemed to schmaltzy an ending for my tastes however.
Also, after watching a few episodes of the show, I have no love for the Judge character. He is kind of a jerk. But he is the money man in town so everyone seems to kowtow to him. But that's just my opinion.
8:00 PM: The Beverly Hillbillies ("Meanwhile, Back at the Cabin")
Background: The premise of The Beverly Hillbillies is thus: Jed Clampett (Buddy Ebsen), a backwoodsman in the Ozark Mountains region of Missouri discovers oil on his property. As a result he is encouraged to move to the Beverly Hills area of California, because after all, you can't live in the backwoods of Missouri if you worth millions of dollars... The rest of the Clampett clan that moves with him are his daughter, Elly Mae (Donna Douglas), his mother-in-law, Granny (Irene Ryan) and his nephew, Jethro (Max Baer, Jr.). The TV show involved a repetitive series of "fish out of water" vignettes, as the clueless Clampetts and the snobbish elite in Beverly Hills clash.
In the first season we get to witness the arrival of the Clampetts in Beverly Hills, The third episode of the series involves establishing the "fish out of water" theme that would make the series popular during it's initial run, as well as that "meanwhile, back at the cabin...: portion.
In the scenes that take place at the new mansion that the Clampetts have begun their occupation, they are still set in the mindset of life back in the hills. Among the vignettes, we are treated to Granny washing clothes in a tub on the lawn and hanging them out to dry on a clothesline, even though the mansion is probably equipped with one of those "new-fangled" electric washer and dryer contraptions. We also get to see Ellie may take a bath in a wooden washtub set up in the kitchen, with bath water hauled in from the "cement pond" out back (that is a swimming pool to you and me...)
Jethro gets himself a new girlfriend in the form of Miss Hathaway (Nancy Culp), the secretary for Mr, Drysdale ( Raymond Bailey), the executive at the Clampetts' bank. Miss Hathaway has made it her goal to refine Ellie Mae into debutante material, including getting her to dress up in fancy dresses (ye, gods!). And Ellie Mae thinks a bra that Miss Hathaway brought is some kind of a fancy slingshot, further showcasing the tomboy nature of the young girl. And Miss Hathaway is shocked to find out that Ellie Mae is still bathing in a wooden tub, despite the fact that there are several bathrooms upstairs. (The Clampetts think all those rooms upstairs belong to other residents in the mansion.)
"Meanwhile, back at the cabin", Jed's cousin, Pearl (Bea Benaderet) is taking care of the cabin for Jed for when he returns. In the process, she meets Mr. Brewster (Frank Wilcox) who has come to tell Pearl that her cousin and his family are safe in their new digs. Pearl, being the essence of a man hunting female looking for a new beau tries to put the charm on Mr. Brewster. When Mr. Brewster wants to call the Clampetts he finds out the nearest phone is actually some 40 miles away. Pearl offers to help him find the phone, but ends up taking him 60 miles out of the way, and then suggests that they might as well go on to Beverly Hills by car.
This episode, although basically just establishing the naivete of the mountain folks in their new roles as members of high society, is an example of the kind of episodes the entire series would promote. The show lasted for 9 seasons, but by the end of it's last season it proved to be losing it's connection with the public at large. It was cancelled in favor of the pressure by the studio brass to transition to more urban connections. Pat Buttram, a star on another rural series, Green Acres, is quoted as saying that 1971 was "the year that CBS cancelled everything with a tree- including Lassie." The Beverly Hillbillies would be replaced by the likes of All in the Family, Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour and Cannon, as well as a few that wouldn't even last the next season. But that was pretty much it for the theme of rural comedy, for a while at least.
8:30 PM The Dick van Dyke Show ("The Attempted Marriage"):
Background: The premise of The Dick van Dyke Show centered around Rob Petrie (Dick van Dyke), who was a comedy writer for a fictional variety show called "The Alan Brady Show". Working with Rob were two other comedy writers, Sally Rogers (Rose Marie) and Buddy Sorrell (Morey Amsterdam). Some of the sketches centered on them and their interactions at work, while others centered on his home life with his wife. Laura (Mary Tyler Moore) and their son, Ritchie (Larry Matthews). Also making appearances were Mel Cooley (Richard Deacon), the producer of The Alan Brady Show, and occasionally Carl Reiner as the titular star of the fictional TV series, Alan Brady.
In "The Attempted Marriage" Ritchie wakes Rob, who is trying desperately to sleep in on his day off. What Ritchie wants is for Rob to read him the inscription on a platter that he, Ritchie, found while tooling around in the basement (because there's nothing good on TV). The platter, it turns out was a wedding gift from his platoon to Rob and Laura after they got married.
This inspires Ritchie to inquire about the circumstances of how they actually got married. It turns out there were a few problems on the way to the altar. (You didn't think the title "The Attempted Marriage" was just a misprint, did you?)
The first thing is that Rob shuffles and stumbles in his proposal, and is surprised when Laura says "Yes". He actually expected her to reject him... But plans are made to get married that Sunday. (What, no wedding plans that extend for a few months?) Later, on the day of the marriage, Rob sits in the jeep at their site where he proposed, having second thoughts and trying, but failing, to talk himself out of it.
Eventually he comes to his senses, but the jeep is not cooperating with him. He decides he is going to run to the chapel. Except he ends up spraining his ankle. And with less than 10 minutes to get to the chapel, and him being an hour away (now more like two hours, since he is going to have to hop there). Of course, when he gets there the wedding party is long gone. And Laura thinks Rob stood her up for his own marriage.
He convinces her that he sincerely does want to get married and they arrange to do it the next Sunday. But Rob, after getting himself checked out by the Army doctor, finds out that he has a virus and the doctor wants to quarantine him for a week. (Maybe this whole "get married on a Sunday" is a bad idea? Why not try for a Wednesday...)
Of course, the doctor is insisting on the quarantine against the objections of Rob, who rightly so figures that this delay might be the straw that breaks the camel's back on his impending marriage and relationship with Laura, so he tries to duck out. But at the church he collapses. Thus instead of a marriage in a church, Rob and Laura do get married, only in a hospital room.
Ritchie professes his gratitude that they finally did get married, otherwise he wouldn't have been born (at least not while we are entrenched in the conservative 60's TV world..), and thus he would have missed out on his favorite TV shows.
The Dick van Dyke Show, in my humble opinion, was better when it centered on relationships at work. Neither Sally, Buddy or Mel appear in this episode, so the interaction with his co-workers is on hiatus. But it does have quite a bit of the physical comedy for which the show was famous. Van Dyke was a great physical comedian in his early career. (He is still alive as of this writing, and will celebrate his 100th birthday in December).
9:00 PM Naked City ("And by the Sweat of Thy Brow"):
Background: Naked City was a police procedural drama. The police crime show has been a fixture on TV, and radio before it, since the inception of the media. Some have had an everlasting impact on the culture (who hasn't ever heard of Dragnet, with the iconic Jack Webb?) Naked City may not be one the most memorable of the genre, but it ran for 4 seasons. It featured several different lineups over the years, mainly attempts to try to get the public interest going, although in one case, an actor quit the show because he didn't like having to travel all the time to NYC, where the show was filmed. (The show centered around a NYC police precinct, and was filmed there, apparently mostly for authenticity).
One of the things of interest to the modern viewer is the raft of then unknowns who appeared on the show, "before they were famous". (Martin Sheen, for instance, appears in this episode, although he is uncredited... and it's one of those "blink and you'll miss him" appearances... he has one line, and is only on camera for about 15 seconds. The rest of the scene is focused on the other two characters in the scene.)
The scene opens with a guy skimming across rooftops where he is stealing the money left out for milk deliveries. Later identified as Jonah (Richard Jordan in his first role), he catches another guy attempting to perform a purse snatch. The woman, Sarah (Barbara Barrie), is overwhelmed until Jonah swoops in and rescues her. But he doesn't want to hang around for the thanks she has to give
The police are looking for the purse snatcher and eventually come across a man (David Clarke). The man identifies Jonah as the one who was the purse snatcher and seemingly draws their attention away from him, when in fact he was the attacker. The police focus on finding Sarah so she can identify him, but are also looking for the other guy, Jonah.
Meanwhile Sarah seeks out Jonah, trying to draw him out of hiding. Jonah is friendly with her, but is reluctant to come out into the light. The reason for this is he suffered from a disfigurement earlier in his life and because he considers himself hideous, stays in the shadows.
But, as so often happens in these kinds of stories, she eventually draws him out. And the police find Jonah and bring him in. But when two other victims of the purse snatcher identify the other man as the guilty one, they let Jonah go. Detective Adam Flint (Paul Burke) tries to help Jonah and eventually finds him a job.
Both Flint and Sarah succeed in drawing out Jonah from his reclusiveness and it appears, by the end, that a friendship (and possibly a more romantic relationship) may be on the horizon for Jonah and Sarah (who is also something of a loner).
The core of this particular episode is not so much on the police procedural as it on the acceptance of people who are different, making the difference not so important as the two major protagonists may view that difference.
Well, folks, the night's entertainment draws to a close. Time to toddle off to bed.
Quiggy
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