• U.S.

Television: The Dead

2 minute read
TIME

Though the 1964-65 TV season will not be fully under way for eight more months, the casualty list released last week showed that roughly 25 shows are already condemned. Sing Along fans will have to warble commercials next year; NBC has dismissed Maestro Mitch and the gang. NBC has also condemned The Joey Bishop Show, Du Pont Show of the Week, Espionage, The Richard Boone Show, Hollywood and the Stars. The Andy Williams Show, Bell Telephone Hour, Grindl and The Eleventh Hour are all hanging by a nerve end and all are likely to fall.

CBS’s East Side, West Side, which, if often nothing else, is a showcase for Actor George C. Scott’s considerable talent, will disappear. Some critics cried that “serious drama” was vanishing from TV. Series drama, maybe; but well-written plays have always been tantalizingly rare on TV. CBS-TV President James Aubrey has also axed The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, The Twilight Zone, Route 66, The Garry Moore Show, The New Phil Silvers Show, old Jack Benny, and Danny Thomas (who, like Benny, will bob back on NBC). Judy Garland “resigned” with a moving letter. Meanwhile, it was announced that Lucille Ball was going to lose her regular CBS series and appear next season only in scattered specials.

At ABC, 77 Sunset Strip and The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters were dumped in the wake of the late Jerry Lewis Show and 100 Grand, while The Breaking Point, Destry and The Greatest Show on Earth are teetering on the larboard rail.

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