Minor 60s Shows Left (1 Viewer)

[Matt Hough]

One year too late to save The Judy Garland Show more's the pity.

 

[Charles Ellis]

Not just Judy's show but JACK BENNY!!! Yes, it was Aubrey who forced Benny off CBS. Before James Aubrey came to CBS, The Jack Benny Program was still a highly-rated show, but in Aubrey's eyes Jack Benny was 'old hat' and passe. So what he did he do? Simple: he did the same thing he did to Judy- putting Jack's show in the worst possible time slot. The ratings plummeted, and after so many years of service at CBS, the great Jack Benny was ignobly sacked.

 

[Matt Hough]

I had forgotten that Aubrey was also unkind to Jack Benny, but you're absolutely right. He had it out for both of them and did nothing to try to save their shows.

 

[Joe Lugoff]

I have old TV Guides and Varietys from this era, and I've checked my memory of the Jack Benny situation. I don't think this was really Aubrey's doing.

For the 1962-63 season, for the first time, Jack Benny wasn't scheduled on Sunday. He was moved to Tuesday at 9:30. He followed "The Red Skelton Hour," which ranked #2 in the ratings that season. That's hardly "the worst possible time slot." Jack Benny came in at #11 that year.

The following season, Red Skelton was moved up a half hour, so Benny's lead-in was the new sitcom "Petticoat Junction," and Benny was very unhappy about this. He wanted to follow Red Skelton, which he felt was a good match for his audience. So, very early in the season, he announced that the following year he was returning to NBC, which he had left about 15 years earlier.

As it turned out, "Petticoat Junction" was a smash hit, ranking #4 for the season, with Benny at #12. But it was too late because Benny had already made the deal with NBC.

For 1964-65, he was happy with his lead-in on Fridays on NBC, which was "Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre." Obviously, Bob Hope was a good match with Jack Benny. However, two things went wrong. "The Chrysler Theatre" usually presented a drama, not comedy, so it really wasn't a very good match as a lead-in. And the new sitcom scheduled on CBS against Benny was hugely successful: "Gomer Pyle, USMC," which ranked #3 for the season. Benny's ratings went through the floor and NBC canceled his show after only one season.

I'm sure Aubrey was an awful person, but I don't think he can be blamed for the Jack Benny situation.

 

[Matt Hough]

Thanks, Joe. I stand corrected and much better informed. Appreciate the information!

 

[Neil Brock]

Aubrey's words to Jack Benny: you're through old man.

Braselle wrote a book about the whole experience, purportedly fiction, but not really if you can add 2 and 2. It's called The CanniBalS, The CBS capitalized. But, speaking about the 3 shows, I think The Reporter was the best. I watched all of the episodes a few years ago and it wasn't bad, not as good as Saints and Sinners for example as reporter shows go. Some pretty good guest stars and nice New York City location shooting.

 

[Joe Lugoff]

It's probable that Aubrey said that to Benny (if he said it at all) after Benny complained about not following Skelton in the 1963-64 season.

It doesn't make sense that Aubrey plotted to give Benny a bad time slot, when in 1963-64 he followed the #4 rated show, and his competition on ABC and NBC were two new shows which would flop and run only one season.

This whole incident was a major mistake by Benny, who didn't want to follow a new show that was in the new rural-Beverly Hillbillies style. If he had kept quiet about it, he probably would have continued on CBS into the 1970s, as Lucy did - in color, even.

I feel funny defending Aubrey, who I'm sure was a world-class jerk.

 

[Charles Ellis]

Aubrey also said "you're through" to Judy Garland after taping her final show. This is documented in Coyne Steven Sanders' book about the making (and unmaking!) of her show, Rainbow's End.

 

[Joe Lugoff]

I've read that book twice and I really like it. However, anything in a book of that nature, based on interviews with people looking back over several decades, can hardly be said to be "documented" as much as "reported."

If Judy Garland herself said he said it, then the odds that he really did are, sadly, quite low.

I've watched many of those interviews with TV stars, directors and writers from the Archive of American Television. It's almost unbelievable how many of them get their facts totally wrong.

For instance, Alan Young said "Mister Ed" was canceled in CBS's rural purge (which happened five years after "Mister Ed" went off the air). He also said "The Beverly Hillbillies" was a spin-off of "Mister Ed."

Recently, I watched an interview with some writer who insisted that "Here's Lucy" came before "The Lucy Show."

Anyway, my point is that maybe Aubrey said that to Garland, and maybe he didn't. I'm betting he didn't.

 

[Richard V]

I have a couple of Episodes of The Man and the Challenge and Guestward Ho! And youtube has almost the entire series of It's A Man's World.

 

[jperez]

There's lots on YouTube: all the great Hong Kong episodes, for example, the 13 available episodes of Long Hot Summer, I ould guess all of 12 O"Clock High and many Adventures in Paradise.

 

[jperez]

It's a Man's World is one of the more original series ever, a so called 'dramedy' starring Glenn Corbett before he replaced Maharis in Route 66, Ted Besell before going on to That Girl and young singing Randy Boone before he went on to Wagon Train and other shows. Its fast paced an d good hearted, about a young man (Corbett) who's in college and working in a gas station while living on a docked old ship on the harbor with his younger brother, a, adolescent friend (Boone) and Besell as an always smart ass talking friend who's always scheming things and getting in trouble. The alternation between full comedy and heavy drama is very unusual and unsettling and I don't know, but sometimes I see a strong similarity with the films Truffaut was making in that era even in the visual style.
After it was cancelled in 1963 after only 19 episodes, a massive writing campaign was started trying to save the show but, unlike what happened with Star Trek a couple of years later, it didn't achieve the same success.

 

[oldtvshowbuff]

It's a Man's World is one of the more original series ever, a so called 'dramedy' starring Glenn Corbett before he replaced Maharis in Route 66, Ted Besell before going on to That Girl and young singing Randy Boone before he went on to Wagon Train and other shows. Its fast paced an d good hearted, about a young man (Corbett) who's in college and working in a gas station while living on a docked old ship on the harbor with his younger brother, a, adolescent friend (Boone) and Besell as an always smart ass talking friend who's always scheming things and getting in trouble. The alternation between full comedy and heavy drama is very unusual and unsettling and I don't know, but sometimes I see a strong similarity with the films Truffaut was making in that era even in the visual style.
After it was cancelled in 1963 after only 19 episodes, a massive writing campaign was started trying to save the show but, unlike what happened with Star Trek a couple of years later, it didn't achieve the same success.

BTW, Randy Boone went on to The Virginian and later, Cimarron Strip. Michael Burns went on to Wagon Train, but Boone did a few guest appearances on that show!

 

[jperez]

Yes, I meant The Virginian as a regular character, with the unavoidable guitar... he went on to become a well known country singer.