Tag: 1950s TV

Byron’s TV Listings REPRINT

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What Columbus Indiana Watched On Television in Shades of Black and White

 

From April 3, 2021

G’day! Coming to you from somewhere on Rottnest Island, another weekend of spectacular TV! Just don’t ask us where we get it…

10:23 P.M.  Ch. 22  NEWS with The Three Stooges

Moe, Larry, and Curly deliver news, weather, pokes in the eye, and nyuk-nyuk-nyuks. Special guest: Bertrand Russell

10:30 P.M.  Ch. 31  ROUTE 216–Picaresque Cautionary Tale

Buzz and Fuzz finally manage to push their ancient Corvette past the 25-mph mark–and break into a parallel universe where socialism really works–for gigantic man-sized insects with a thirst for blood and fritters. Buzz: Pinky Lee   Fuzz: Bruno Sammartino  Big Bug: Prince Charles

27   Movie–Philosophical Reflections

“Momma Was a Crackerball!” (1997) The incredibly aged Bowery Boys have only two days to pull off a heist at Louie’s Soda Shop before a Bela Lugosi look-alike comes to collect their souls. Leo Gorcy, Huntz Hall. Lugosi Look-Alike: Dick Cavett. Old Man: Al Jolson.

18  SURVIVAL BOWLING

Can the celebrity contestants knock all the pins over before they release a noxious gas? Tonight’s guest bowlers: Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Una O’Connor, Dr. Joyce Brothers. Host: Tim McCarver. With Al Gore and his orchestra.

10:36 P.M.  Ch 44   OUR MISS FANGS–Situation Comedy

Wally Jumblatt (Soupy Sales) and his friends at Foogoo County Night School have to pass Miss Pikestaff’s course in Transylvanian Literature while avoiding her fangs–for this teacher is a vampire! Miss Pikestaff: Anne Blyth.  Pencilhead: Robert Young. Mr. Shotglass, the Principle: a medium-sized pumpkin.

Well, that’s that! We hope we have livened up your weekend.

The Incredible Dyslexic TV Western

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If you’re into 1950s TV, you’ll recognize Paladin’s business card from Have Gun, Will Travel. But how many of you know the show only turned out the way it did because a famous Hollywood producer suffered from a reading disability?

Believe it or not, Have Gun, Will Travel was originally set in East Africa, not the Old West, and Richard Boone’s “Paladin” was originally named “Dinalap” and was not a gunslinger-for-hire, but a safari guide. And the show’s title was Have Gnu, Will Travel.

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Then the script fell into the hands of producer Izzy Kidden, who had dyslexia and didn’t usually read scripts himself. But he read this one, and confused “Gnu” with “Gun” and his imagination did the rest. Westerns were the hottest thing on TV, anyhow–the studio could hardly go wrong, offering another one.

What is not known by hardly anyone is that the associate producers had already gone ahead and obtained a tame gnu, or wildebeest, to co-star with Richard Boone. Boone took an instant liking to the animal, named it “Jambo Jimbo,” and used to drive it around in his car. He threw one of Hollywood’s more famous tantrums when he was informed that the new show would be a Western without Jambo Jimbo in it.

The director, however, who had gotten on Jambo’s bad side and been chased up ladders by the wildebeest several times, felt greatly relieved by the studio’s decision.

“No gnus is good news!” he said.

Memory Lane: ‘The Cool Ghoul’

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A lot of you are gonna say “Huh? What’s he talking about?” And some might even get a little cheesed off. But it isn’t everyone whose career extends over six decades; and Zacherley, “the Cool Ghoul”–horror movie host, disc jockey, presidential candidate–had the hottest show on TV when I was ten years old. And here he is at 94, still working. How I love to hear that trademark wacky laugh of his!

Come on down a little-traveled stretch of Memory Lane. No one ever came close to matching Zacherley, when it came to spoofing Grade-D horror movies: often imitated, never duplicated. Great singing voice, too. I still find myself, at odd and unexpected intervals, singing one of his ditties. “When a mummy meets a mummy, floating down the Nile/ Should a mummy greet a mummy with a nasty smile?”

It was all in fun, just a lot of innocent horsing around on TV, and my friends and I all loved it.

I wonder if it’s too late to get a copy of Zacherley’s short story anthology, Zacherley’s Vulture Stew.

Special Treat: A Slightly Weird Commercial

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For those of you who missed out on 1950s TV because you weren’t born yet, Wagon Train was one of the hit series of the era. And here are the three stars of the show, still in character, doing a car commercial (Ward Bond, Frank McGrath, Terry Wilson).

I find something pleasantly weird about this commercial, although I’ll be dashed if I can tell you what it is.