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Ben Gazzara and Imogene Coca are only the beginning of a queue of stars that has been lined up for '63-'64. Judy Garland has a new regular program, and so, for the first time, does Danny Kaye, both on CBS. East Side, West Side is the CBS-TV series to which Actor George C. Scott has mortgaged himself in order to pay for his gallant theatrical experiment, the Theater of Michigan Company. He plays a social worker. The Bill Dana Show (NBC) stars the man who created José Jiménez but presents Jose in a new role—as a Manhattan elevator operator in a posh cooperative. The Richard Boone Show (NBC) is a series of hour-long original dramas with Clifford Odets as script supervisor. Jerry Lewis will begin a weekly variety series on ABC. ABC's The Greatest Show on Earth stars Jack Palance, with props by Ringling Bros. Phil (Bilko) Silvers is back on CBS in a series in which he plays an industrial foreman. Patty Duke has her own show too, a situation comedy in which she plays two roles, an American girl and her Scottish cousin.
More or Less? In public-affairs programming, Charles Collingwood's Eyewitness has been ended by CBS, and Chet Huntley and David Brinkley are giving up their regularly scheduled programs on NBC. This could appear to signify the beginning of a swing back to the old cretinic days before the scandals forced the networks to adopt a strong interest in public affairs in order to rebuild TV's shattered image. It merely indicates a shift in emphasis, the industry insists.
Next season both NBC and CBS will be offering full half-hour news broadcasts each evening. As a result, public affairs will actually command more network evening time next season than it did in the past one. Additionally, NBC plans 40 hours of public-affairs specials, and a new hour-long show called Sunday, which will cover political, cultural and scientific news something in the fashion of a weekly newsmagazine. CBS has a new show called Chronicle that will consist of frequent specials on everything from the two world wars and innumerable revolutions of the 20th century to the life of Edgar Allan Poe. ABC has replaced Howard K. Smith and his contentious comments with a half-hour of commentary by assorted specialists.
NBC's and CBS's news staffs have grown in preparation for the daily 30-minute newscasts, and the great curly-haired gods of current events are not at all sorry to be giving up their own weekly shows, since they are losing neither exposure nor income; they will be the oracular voices of the specials and the casters of the daily news.