Wednesday, December 25
TODAY (NBC, 7-9 a.m.)* An all-musical program of 16th century works performed by the New York Pro Musica Renaissance Band.
NBC OPERA (NBC, 9-10 p.m.). All-new production of Gian Carlo Menotti's opera Amahl and the Night Visitors, an NBC Christmas staple since 1951. Color.
Thursday, December 26
KRAFT SUSPENSE THEATER (NBC, 10-11 p.m.). A professional gambler teams up with a Texas millionaire in a scientific attempt to break the bank at a Las Vegas casino. Jack Kelly and Pat Hingle guest-star. Color.
Saturday, December 28
ABC's WIDE WORLD OF SPORTS (ABC, 5-6:30 p.m.). The Davis Cup tennis championship from Adelaide, Australia.
Sunday, December 29
CBS SPORTS SPECTACULAR (CBS, 5-5:30 p.m.). Sky diving and parachuting from Fort Bragg, N.C.
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY (CBS, 6-6:30 p.m.). The 1943 Allied invasion of Sicily.
WALT DISNEY'S WONDERFUL WORLD OF COLOR (NBC, 7:30-8:30 p.m.). Dumbo, popular cartoon about the big-eared baby elephant who ends the jeers by learning to fly. Color.
PROJECTION '64 (NBC, 10-11 p.m.). NBC correspondents around the world review the events of 1963 and forecast those of 1964. Color.
Monday, December 30
MONDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES (NBC, 7:30-9:30 p.m.). Kiss Me Kate, starring Kathryn Grayson and Howard Keel. Color.
HOLLYWOOD AND THE STARS (NBC, 9:30-10 p.m.). A look at the social, economic and political life of the nation's movie capital.
EAST SIDE/WEST SIDE (CBS, 10-11 p.m.). Carol Rossen portrays a prostitute found unfit to care for her child in a repeat of this series' best episode.
Wednesday, January 1
YEARS OF CRISIS (CBS, 7:30-8:30 p.m.). CBS correspondents survey the major news events of the past year.
THEATER
THE BALLAD OF THE SAD CAFE. Brawny Colleen Dewhurst is matched with Michael Dunn, a prancing, saturnine dwarf, in Edward Albee's enigmatic adaptation of Carson McCuller's novella. The play retains some of the moody ambiguity of the original, but lacks more than a fragmentary stage life of its own.
BAREFOOT IN THE PARK, by Neil Simon. Elizabeth Ashley and Robert Redford break from a wedding march into a scrappy farrago of newlywed problems. Director Mike Nichols paces the contest to leave the audience a few breaths between laughs.
THE PRIVATE EAR and THE PUBLIC EYE are two sharply observed but compassionate one-act comedies — about a bashful boy who finds that his chosen Venus is just another dumb blonde, and a brash detective who chews macaroons and Brazil nuts and sweetly seasons a marriage that is stewing in acrid juices.
CHIPS WITH EVERYTHING resounds to marching boots at a peacetime R.A.F. training base, but what Playwright Wesker sets out to trample—with bright, biting argument and laughter—is the British class system.
THE REHEARSAL rehearses a young and innocent governess for the later cruelties of life. Playwright Anouilh orchestrates a seduction scene—the play's best—with brasses of bravado, violins of pity, and flutes of tenderness.