TELEVISION
This is what they call in the trade a "black week," one of four each year (others: Dec. 18-24, April 17-23, June 19-25) when the viewing public is busy elsewhere, when the Nielsen people don't bother with audience ratings, and when the competing networks hold back most of their big shows. Witness:
Wednesday, August 23 WEDNESDAY NIGHT MOVIE (ABC, 8-11 p.m.).* Stewart Granger, Pier Angeli, Anouk Aimee and Stanley Baker in the 1963 Bible thumper, Sodom and Gomorrah. Repeat.
BOB HOPE PRESENTS THE CHRYSLER THEATER (NBC, 9-10 p.m.). A tarnished film queen, Shelley Winters, flips over a couple of surfers who plan to hang ten over her $3,000,000 jewel collection in "Wipe-out." Repeat.
MIDDLE EAST PERSPECTIVE: "CAN PEACE BREAK OUT?" (CBS, 10-11 p.m.). Interviews with Israeli Premier Levi Eshkol and top Arab leaders. Mike Wallace is the anchor man, backed up by Winston Burdett in Israel, Richard C. Hottelet from the U.N., and Marvin Kalb, Bob Evans and Bill McLaughlin in Jordan.
Thursday, August 24
CBS THURSDAY NIGHT MOVIES (CBS, 9-11 p.m.). Kings Go Forth (1958), adapted from a novel by TIME'S Joe David Brown, an interracial love story played against the background of World War II in southern France, starring Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis and Natalie Wood. Repeat.
Saturday, August 26
SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES (NBC, 9-11 p.m.). Sophia Loren, as a gangster's widow, and Anthony Quinn, her lover, seek to establish a lasting relationship despite the protests of her rebellious teen-age son in The Black Orchid (1959). Repeat.
Sunday, August 27
DISCOVERY '67 (ABC, ll:30-noon). "Discovery Visits New York," Part 1, to explore Manhattan's Lower East Side, Washington Square, Chinatown, the Central Park Zoo and Yorkville through the eyes of the city's children.
THE 215T CENTURY (CBS, 6-6:30 p.m.). "Standing Room Only." How science will help feed, clothe, shelter and otherwise make life bearable for a world population of 7.5 billion by the year 2000. Repeat.
Monday, August 28
NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE (CBS, 9:30 p.m. to conclusion). The Green Bay Packers v. the Dallas Cowboys at Dallas in the third of five N.F.L. exhibitions.
THEATER
This summer's news hasn't done much to set the scene for laughter, but theaters across the country are trying to keep 'em chuckling.
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y., Playhouse. Luv, by Murray Schisgal, talks Freud and carries a slapstick, Sept. 26-Oct. 8.
FISHKILL, N.Y., Cecilwood Theater. In Generation, a Midwest adman comes to visit the Greenwich Village pad of his newly married daughter and finds her "that way" and her hippie husband planning to deliver the baby, Aug. 29-Sept. 3.
OGUNQUIT BY THE SEA, ME., Playhouse. The Odd Couple. A pair of just-divorced males try to batch it together—and the experience sends them running back to where the girls are. Aug. 28-Sept. 2.
SKOWHEGAN, ME., Lakewood Theater. The Owl and the Pussycat. A feline prostitute claws and purrs her way into the life of a stuffy book clerk with surprising results. Aug. 28-Sept. 2.
HAMPTON, N.H., Playhouse. Luv, Aug. 21-26; The Owl and the Pussycat, Aug. 28-Sept. 2.