Monday, September 12, 1966: 'The Monkees'

     Imagine the Marx Brothers as a long-haired rock and roll group, who make a movie called "A Hard Day's Night" to be shown on the "Hullabaloo" TV series. That, friends, is the briefest way to describe The Monkees!

     Filmed at the pell-mell pace of teenage existence, photographed with some offbeat movie-making techniques, the program stars a group of three Americans and one English boy who never saw each other before the series.

     The plot? The freewheeling description by NBC puts it this way: "The Monkees quartet play dates, but are more often 'at liberty,' where they must conquer such foes as automation, unemployment, longhair music, landlords, rival musicians, strict parents and fickle girlfriends."

     -- Summary from TV Week, September 1966

     -- Image from TV Guide (via http://monkee45s.net/)

* Official website: @

* www.monkeeslivealmanac: @
* www.monkees.net: @
* Album reviews (www.allmusic.com): @
* TV series (www.imdb.com): @

* " 'The Monkees' broke the fourth wall of 1960s TV" (www.avclub.com): @ 

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Tuesday, September 6, 1966: 'Star Trek'

The science-fiction series' first televised episode, "The Man Trap," premieres on Canada's CTV, two days before its American debut on NBC.

     -- Image from TV Guide, September 10-16, 1966

* Summary (from Memory Alpha): @

* Summary (from StarTrek.com): @

* Summary (from tor.com): @

* Script (from chakoteya.net): @
* Full episode (from CBS.com): @

* "TV: Spies, Space and the Stagestruck" (from The New York Times, September 16, 1966): @
* "Original 'Star Trek' Reviewers Just Didn't Get It" (from time.com, 2014): @ 

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Wednesday, June 8, 1966: NFL-AFL merger

The National Football League and American Football League announced plans Wednesday for a merger into a giant circuit of 26 teams in 25 cities under a single commissioner. The commissioner will be Pete Rozelle of the NFL, who, according to the joint announcement, will administer all inter-league business under a structure similar to major league baseball. The actual merger will not take place until 1970 after existing contracts expire. 

-- Story by Associated Press: @. Photo of Pete Rozelle by Bob Gomel.

* Summary from www.history.com: @

* "How Merger Will Operate" (Associated Press): @

* "Here's How It Happened" (Tex Schramm, Sports Illustrated, June 20, 1966): @
* "Birth of the new NFL: How the 1966 NFL/AFL Transformed Pro Football" (Larry Felser, 2008): @

* "The AFL-NFL merger was almost booted ... by a kicker" (Ken Rappoport, NFL.com, 2009): @
* "The American Football League's Foolish Club" (Jim Morrison, Smithsonian magazine, 2010): @
* NFL history by decade, 1961-1970 (www.nfl.com): @

* "The Merger: Forming the Conferences" (video, www.nfl.com): @
* www.remembertheafl.com: @

* afl-football.50webs.com: @

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Monday, April 25, 1966: 'Pop!'

    Peter Benchley's cover story on pop culture begins: "It's a fad, it's a trend, it's a way of life. It's pop." and goes on to say that "In short, pop is what's happening ... it's anything that is imaginative, nonserious, rebellious, new, or nostalgic: anything, basically, fun." (Full story, from Lichtenstein Foundation via Internet Archive: @)

     Roy Lichtenstein's cover illustration was similar to the comic-book-style words that appeared on screen during fight scenes in TV's "Batman." 

Resources
*"The Continuing Influence of Popular Culture on Contemporary Art" (Queensland Art Gallery, Queensland, Australia, 2003): @

* "American Pop Frankenstein? Andy Warhol, Iconic Experience and the Advent of the Pop Society" (Steve Sherwood, UCLA): @

* Entry from blogs.artinfo.com: @

* Peter Benchley website: @

* Roy Lichtenstein website: @

Related posts
* "Batman" (January 12, 1966): @
* "Notes on 'Camp' " (September 1964): @

* Pop art at the Guggenheim (March 14, 1963): @

* "Pop Goes the Easel" (March 25, 1962): @
* Andy Warhol's soup cans (July 9, 1962): @

* Roy Lichtenstein (1961): @ 

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Wednesday, January 12, 1966: 'Batman'

-- From Susan Sontag's "Notes on 'Camp'," September 1964: @

-- Dialogue from a first "Batman" episode, from Know It All Joe: @

January 12: Batman, "Hi Diddle Riddle." (Premiere) This show, which is part adventure for the kiddies and part satire-pop humor for the adults, will be shown on Wednesdays and Thursdays in two segment. Adam West stars as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin. In this episode, the Riddler (Frank Gorshin) lures our hero into a discotheque were he succumbs to Molly (Jill St. John). Robin is kidnapped and all ends in glorious chaos. -- McClure Newspaper Syndicate: @

January 13: Batman, "Smack in the Middle." More gimmicks, more wild puns and way-out humor in the second installment of the premiere of this new crazy show. The consensus seems to be that you either love the series with a dedicated fervor or it misses you completely. Tonight the Riddler (Frank Gorshin), who is holding Robin (Burt Ward) captive, decides to use him as bait for a horrible trap for Batman (Adam West). -- McClure Newspaper Syndicate: @

Programming note: "Batman" displaced "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" (which moved from Wednesdays to Saturdays). "Shindig!", which had been running on Thursdays and Saturdays, was canceled.

* Guide to Season 1 episodes (Comics Alliance): @

* Summary from Museum of Broadcast Communcations: @

* Interviews from Archive of American Television: @

* The Batcave Archives: @

* Bat-Mania: 1966 Batman Online: @

* The 1966 Batman Message Board: @

* To the Batpoles! (blog): @
* "Now, Batman Hits The Tube! Zowie!" (Joan Crosby, Newspaper Enterprise Association, January 16, 1966): @

* "Here Comes the Batman" (Daytona Beach Sunday News-Journal, January 16, 1966): @
* Life magazine, March 11, 1966: @ 
* Entry from "The Encyclopedia of Superheroes on Film and Television" (John Kenneth Muir, 2004): @
* "Batman Unmasked: Analyzing a Cultural Icon" (Will Brooker, 2013): @
* "Batman" (Matt Yockey, 2014): @

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Monday, December 20, 1965: 'The Dating Game'

-- Note incorrect date.

-- Photos from first prime-time show, October 1966. Karen Carlson, Miss America first runner-up, chooses from the three bachelors (at far right is "Man From U.N.C.L.E." star Robert Vaughn). Summary from The Paley Center for Media: @

* Summary from www.tv.com: @

* Summary, interviews from Archive of American Television: @

* Summary from "The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present" (2007 edition): @ 

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Thursday, December 9, 1965: 'A Charlie Brown Christmas'

Even Christmas threatens to add a bit of "good grief" to the worrisome world of Charlie Brown when the wispy-haired youngster and his "Peanuts" friends, favorites of millions of comic-strip readers throughout the world, make their debut as stars of a television special in "A Charlie Brown Christmas," animated-cartoon presentation in color Thursday, Dec. 9 on the CBS television network (7:30-8:00 pm).

     -- from Nashua (N.H.) Telegraph, December 3, 1965: @

     -- Image from The Vernon (Texas) Daily Record, December 8

* TV Guide, December 9, 1965: @

* Reviews by Associated Press (Cynthia Lowry) and United Press International (Rick DuBrow): @

* " 'A Charlie Brown Christmas': The Making of a Tradition" (Lee Mendelson and Bill Melendez, 2000): @

* "A Charlie Brown Religion: Exploring the Spiritual Life and Work of Charles M. Schulz" (Stephen J. Lind, 2015): @ 

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September 1965: Television debuts

All summaries taken from listings in various newspapers. 

'Run For Your Life'

Debut: Monday, September 13, NBC

Summary: At the outset of this drama series, hero Ben Gazzara is given two years or so to live, which prompts the rather slight premise of cramming a lifetime of incidents into his remaining days and nights.

'My Mother the Car'

Debut: Tuesday, September 14, NBC

Summary: The radio on a used car bought by a young man carries the voice of his departed mother, who says she is going to look after him.

'F Troop'

Debut: Tuesday, September 14, ABC

Summary: The place is Fort Courage, manned by devout cowards in the postbellum west. There's really no reason for Fort Courage, because the Indians are in cahoots with the cavalrymen, but occasionally, just to make things look good for the war department, the soldiers and the Indians stage a little mock war.

'Green Acres'

Debut: Wednesday, September 15, CBS

Summary: Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor playing city husband and wife who set up housekeeping in the country.

'Lost in Space'

Debut: Wednesday, September 15, CBS

Summary: Don't let anyone tell you otherwise, this is a space opera for the kids and they should love it. And if you're older and inclined toward science fiction, the production is first-rate and should hold you, too. The action takes place in 1997 and it's about a space expedition that's thrown off course by the presence of an enemy spy.

'Gidget'

Debut: Wednesday, September 15, ABC

Summary: Here's a series that's strictly for the teen crowd that loves the beach party type film. Adults will find some solace in the fine performance of Don Porter as the intelligent father coping with the problems of his irrepressible 15-year-old daughter while trying to fend off the well-meaning interference of her sister and her buttinsky husband. Sally Field mugs and grimaces her way through the Gidget role.

'The Big Valley'

Debut: Wednesday, September 15, ABC

Summary: Give this series a chance. Tonight's introduction spends too much time setting the scene and introducing the various characters and their potential personal conflicts. The people seem interesting enough and the series comes close enough to "Bonanza" to warrant as much success as that series. The actual story is a simple one about the mean railroad against the decent settlers.

'I Spy'

Debut: Wednesday, September 15, NBC

Summary: One of the more promising of the new series, this one co-stars actor Robert Culp and comedian Bill Cosby (who reveals himself to be a surprisingly good actor) as secret agents who don't mind romping all over the globe in order to fulfill their missions.

'Hogan's Heroes'

Debut: Friday, September 17, CBS

Summary: If you're willing to accept the fact that life in a German prisoner of war camp was a ball, this series brings you vivid slapstick substantiation. The camp is really run by Col.  Hogan (Bob Crane) of the air corps, under the noses of his captors. His men forge passport, smuggle spies, print counterfeit money, have a barbershop and engage in all the little niceties they wouldn't have if they were back with their own forces.

'The Wild Wild West'

Debut: Friday, September 17, CBS

Summary: The perils of an "undercover agent" in this one-hour action series are given added piquancy by the unique character of the time and setting -- the American frontier at its most turbulent.

'Honey West'

Debut: Friday, September 17, ABC

Summary: Anne Francis stars as a private eye who's quite an eyeful. Her partner tries to keep her out of trouble, but this honey attracts it.

'Get Smart'

Debut: Saturday, September 18, NBC

Summary: Starring Don Adams in a new half-hour comedy-adventure color series spoofing the current rage and cloak-and-dagger heroics. Adams portrays Maxwell Smart, Secret Agent 86, who has been carefully trained by a top-secret government organization known as CONTROL. Smart speaks several languages, has a working familiarity with every deadly weapon, is adept and karate and judo, and combines this knowledge with a zealous inefficiency and a remarkable lack of insight. But Smart means business in CONTROL's ceaseless conflict with the nefarious agents of KAOS. Despite Smart's incredible ineptness, he will manage each week to befuddle the enemy, with the aid of Secret Agent 99 (Barbara Feldon.)

'I Dream of Jeannie'

Debut: Saturday, September 18, NBC

Summary: A young astronaut is stranded on a mission and opens a bottle from which pops a beautiful genie who proceeds to complicated his life. 

'The FBI'

Debut: Sunday, September 19, ABC

Summary: Spellbinding stories based on cases in the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, linked with the personal drama of its agents. 

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Thursday, August 5, 1965: CBS report on Cam Ne, South Vietnam

CBS airs Morley Safer's report on U.S. Marines setting fire to houses in Cam Ne, a village southwest of Da Nang Air Base in South Vietnam. Reaction ranges from unease to outrage (by viewers angry at CBS, as well as by President Johnson in a blistering phone call to CBS President Frank Stanton). The report is considered a milestone moment in media coverage of the Vietnam War.

     -- The incident at Cam Ne took place on August 3, while Safer's report aired on August 5. The story at top appeared August 3 in the Logansport (Indiana) Pharos-Tribune; the photo ran August 7 in The La Crosse (Wisconsin) Tribune.

* Watch the segment (CBS News): @

* Video interview with Safer (Archive of American Television, 2000): @

* Account from Safer (from "Reporting America at War," PBS, 2003): @
* "Marines Ordered to Stop Burning Viet Nam Villages" (Los Angeles Times, August 23, 1965): @

* "What Really Happened at Cam Ne" (www.historynet.com, 2006): @

* "When The World Began Watching" (The Alicia Patterson Foundation, 2011): @

* "The Power and The Profits: Part II" (David Halberstam, The Atlantic magazine, February 1976): @

* "The Powers That Be" (Halberstam, 1975): @

* Video interview with Halberstam (WGBH, 1979): @
* "The 6:00 Follies: Hegemony, Television News, and the War of Attrition" (Elizabeth J. Burnette, American Studies at the University of Virginia, 2005): @
* Excerpt from "The Uncensored War: The Media and Vietnam" (Daniel C. Hallin, 1986): @

* Excerpt from "The Legacy: The Vietnam War in the American Imagination" (from chapter titled "Vietnam and the Press," Michael X. Delli Carpini; book edited by D. Michael Shafer, 1990): @
* Excerpt from "The Sixties: From Memory to History" (from chapter titled "And That's The Way It Was: The Vietnam War on the Network Nightly News," Chester J. Pach Jr.; book edited by David Farber, 1994): @
* "Excerpt from "The U.S. Government and the Vietnam War: Executive and Legislative Roles and Relationships, Part IV" (William C. Gibbons, 1995): @

* Excerpt from "The End of Victory Culture: Cold War America and the Disillusioning of a Generation" (Tom Engelhardt, 1995): @

* Excerpt from "Encyclopedia of Media and Propaganda in Wartime America" (edited by Martin J. Manning and Clarence R. Wyatt, 2011): @ 

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Monday, June 28, 1965: 'It's What's Happening, Baby'

In this prime-time special on CBS, hosted by disc jockey Murray the K (Murray Kaufman), performers donate their time and talents to educate teenagers about the function of the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity. ... In between segments, Murray the K and other entertainers comment on the various opportunities provided by the OEO and appeal to employers to help youths find work. (From The Paley Center for Media; link: @)

     -- TV listing from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 28

     -- Image from Martha and the Vandellas' performance of "Nowhere to Run," filmed at Ford's Dearborn Assembly Plant (where the Mustang was built)

Note: As of this writing the entire show is available online. Start here with part 1; to the right are links to parts 2 and 3.

* "Experimental Show Aimed at Teenagers" (Associated Press, June 25): @

* "Hip Show Passes the Word" (United Press International, June 29): @

* "Antipoverty Film Called 'Shameful' " (Associated Press, June 30): @
* "Battle Against Poverty Has Been Beset By Controversy, Criticism, Complaint" (United Press International, July 15): @
* " 'It's What's Happening' did the job: 10,000 wrote" (Washington Afro-American, July 27): @

* Entry from The Murray the K Archives: @

* Entry from Ray Charles Video Museum: @

* Chapter by Norma Coates in "Music in Television: Channels of Listening" (Edited by James Deaville, 2011): @

* Excerpt from "The SAGE Handbook of Popular Music" (Edited by Andy Bennett and Steve Waksman, 2015): @ 

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Friday, January 1, 1965: Soupy Sales

Soupy Sales, host of a children's program on WNEW-TV in New York, tells his young viewers:

"Hey, kids, last night was New Year's Eve and your mom and dad were out having a good time and it's only right, since they work hard all year long. And they're probably still in the bedroom asleep. Now, what I want you to do is tiptoe into the bedroom and don't wake them up and you'll probably see your mom's pocketbook on the floor along with your dad's pants. Now, be real careful, because we don't want to wake them up, but I want you to go into your mom's pocketbook and your dad's pants and you'll find some little green pieces of paper with pictures of guys with beards on them. Now, what I want you to do is take those little pieces of green paper and put them into an envelope, and on the envelope, I want you to write Soupy Sales, Channel 5, New York, New York, and you know what I'm gonna send you in return? A postcard from Puerto Rico."

A week and a half later, after station executives learn that a woman has complained to the Federal Communications Commission, Sales is suspended from the show for several days. (Accounts vary as to how much he actually received in the mail.) The incident only increases his popularity.

-- Quote from the 2001 book "Soupy Sez!" 

* Summary (www.snopes.com): @

* Summary (www.tvacres.com): @

* Sales recounts the incident (video, 1993): @ 
* "A Little 'Good, Clean Violence' Beneficial, Says Soupy Sales" (Associated Press, May 1965): @

* Obituary (New York Times, 2009): @ 

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December 1964: Bob Hope in Vietnam

The comedian, who had entertained U.S. troops during World War II and the Korean War, makes his first USO tour of military bases in Vietnam. Segments from the trip were shown on NBC the following January during "The Bob Hope Christmas Special." Hope would continue the holiday tours until 1972.

     -- Stars and Stripes photo from Tan Son Nuht Airport

* "Bob Hope brings Christmas cheer to troops in Vietnam" (Stars and Stripes, December 26, 1964): @

* "The Bob Hope Show; Christmas Day - 1964; Vinh Long, Vietnam" (vinhlongoutlaws.com): @

* "Hope Indomitable" (Associated Press, December 25): @

* Video from Da Nang Air Base (no sound): @

* Video from Camp Enari (no sound): @

* Front and back covers from "On The Road To Vietnam" (1965): @ and @
* Audio from Bien Hoa: @
* "Bob Hope's Vietnam Christmas Tours" (www.history.net): @

* "On the Road: USO Shows -- Bob Hope and American Variety" (Library of Congress): @

* "Entertaining Troops" (www.bobhope.com): @

* Excerpt from "Bob Hope: A Life in Comedy" (William Robert Faith, 1982): @

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Tuesday, November 3, 1964: Pay television

Californians have voted to outlaw pay television and, in the process, dealt a crippling blow to the ambitious firm that hoped to pioneer the medium across the nation.
     Sylvester L. (Pat) Weaver, president of Subscription Television, Inc., now operating in Los Angeles and San Francisco, declined comment until more votes are counted.
     But a spokesman for the firm said the defeat, by a better than 2 to 1 margin, will be appealed in the courts.
     "You can't vote down free enterprise," said the spokesman. "It's patently unconstitutional, clearly a violation of the First Amendment."
     Proposition 15, an initiative backed by a $1.5 million kitty from theater owners, declared pay TV "contrary to public policy."
     A leader of the fight against pay TV was Eugene V. Klein, president of National General Corporation, which operates 217 theaters, mostly in California.
     "It's obvious that the people of California are for free TV to pay TV.  Californians find it obnoxious to pay $1.50 to watch the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants while the rest of the country gets their baseball on free TV," said Klein.
     The subscription system transmits its program by coaxial cable to a little box which attaches to the customer's regular TV set. There are three channels. Picture, quality and sound are of high caliber.
     The box permits reception of sound and picture and sends back impulses so the firm can know by electronic bookkeeping how much to bill subscribers.
     -- Associated Press, November 4
     -- Image from campaign against pay TV  (videos: @ and @)

* California ballot proposition, 1964 (University of California Hastings Law Library): @

* "The Box: Will it revolutionize TV, reshape the movies, retune the American mind?" (Life magazine, July 17, 1964): @

* "Pay TV: The Day The Money Stopped" (New York Times, November 15): @

* "Stupid Question, Stupid Answer" (Life, November 20): @

* "California High Court Voids Ban on Pay TV" (United Press International, March 3, 1966): @

* "Court Hits California Pay-TV Ban" (Associated Press, October 10, 1966): @
* "Pay Television" (Museum of Broadcast Communications): @

* "Hollywood in the Age of Television" (edited by Tino Balio, 1990): @ 

* "The Rise of Cable Programming in the United States: Evolution or Revolution" (Megan Mullen, 2003): @

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Tuesday, October 27, 1964: 'A Time for Choosing'

On October 27, 1964, future president Ronald Reagan delivered a 30-minute television campaign speech for Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater. Later titled the "A Time for Choosing" speech, it raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Goldwater campaign and helped launch Reagan's political career.

     -- Summary by C-SPAN

Note: The speech, televised by NBC, had been taped a week earlier and was more a reflection of Reagan's own political views than it was an explicit endorsement of Goldwater. Estimates of how much money it raised vary widely, with some saying it ran into the millions.

* Watch the speech (video from Reagan Foundation): @

* Transcript (American Rhetoric): @

* "Why Ronald Reagan's 'A Time for Choosing' endures after all this time" (Stephen F. Hayward, for The Washingon Post, October 2013): @

* "Ronald Reagan and 'A Time for Choosing' " (Los Angeles Times, February 2011): @

* "The Myth of Reagan's GOP convention speech in 1964" (National Constitution Center): @

* Excerpt from "The Right Moment: Ronald Reagan's First Victory and the Decisive Turning Point in American Politics" (Matthew Dallek, 2000): @

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