vintageTVPrograms

  L to R: Director James Sheldon, Adam West, Burt Ward  Batman was an American superhero comedy television series created by William Dozier based on the DC Comics character of the same name that aired on ABC for three seasons and 120 episodes from January 12, 1966, to March 14, 1968. It stars Adam West as Bruce Wayne/Batman and Burt Ward as Dick Grayson/Robin—two crime-fighting heroes who defend Gotham City from a variety of archvillains. Among them: Mr. Freeze, a cool-thinker who can live only at 50 below zero; Zelda the Great, a Houdinilike escape artist who commissioned an absolutely escape-proof trap for Batman; The Joker, who plays hideous practical jokes; and The Penguin, a long-nosed fellow whose speciality is fiendish umbrellas. An impressive gallery They made an impressive gallery, and Dozier soon had some of the leading character actors in town eager to play his “special guest villains,” among them Burgess Meredith, George Sanders, Anne Baxter, Frank Gorshin and Cesa...

 Editorial This publication has in the past wholeheartedly defended the right of even the Smothers Brothers to have their say on the issues of the day. We are in full accord, however, with the Columbia Broadcasting System in its wise, determined and wholly justified insistence on meeting its responsibilities by retaining the right to preview what it will telecast over its facilities. CBS, however, found out that it could not carry out this duty because the Smothers Brothers, in their arrogance, made it impossible by delaying the delivery of their finished shows. This prevented the tapes from being previewed by the network’s Program Practices Department, the office that speaks for CBS in matters of taste. So CBS has dropped the program. CBS justly holds that it should and must set its own criteria in matters of taste and that it is both its privilege and responsibility to do so. After all, the network is open to censure from the public for its telecasts; it therefore should have som...

  One of my favorite TV shows growing up was the Wild Wild West. The show was cancelled despite its popularity due to concerns by government officials who deemed it too violent. Here is a rather tongue-in- cheek TV Guide story on the show: ---------------------------------- (We don’t know how our man, Dick Hobson, in Hollywood came by this “confidential memorandum,” and we'd just as soon never find out. We do know, however, that he was born with his tongue in his cheek and he’s perfectly capable of making the whole thing up.—Ed.) To: Wild Wild West Producer Bruce Lansbury. From: Program Dept. Bruce, you’ll never believe this but the critics here have been hollering their heads off. They say there’s something slightly “unsavory,” slightly “nasty,” slightly “kinky,” slightly “perverse,” slightly “odious,” slightly “repellent” about Wild Wild West. They're accusing us of the very thing we've been trying so hard to achieve! I say, keep up that stream of evil Iagos! Let them be ...

Article from vintage TV Guide WORLD WAR TI WITH A LAUGH TRACK With an improbable premise and an unlikely star, ‘Hogan’s Heroes’ is marching to TV popularity Hogan's Heroes, which concerns hilarious goings-on in a German prisoner- of-war camp—‘“World War II with a laugh track,” according to a quipster— was dubbed “one of the sleepers of the next semester” by Daily Variety. Last summer, when CBS brought managers of its affiliated stations to Hollywood for wining, dining and viewing the new shows, they seemed to like Hogan’s Heroes better than anything else they saw. And. from Madison Avenue to Vine Street, the talk around the trade was similar in tone to that which preceded the premiéres of such hits as The Beverly Hillbillies and Gomer Pyle, USMC. “It has a good feeling,” says Bob Crane, erstwhile Dr. David Kelsey of The Donna Reed Show and now Col. Robert Hogan of Hogan’s Heroes. “Once when I appeared on The Dick Van Dyke Show, I said to myself, ‘This is a team!’ That’s the way thi...