With a blare of trumpets, a glitter of sequins and an outburst of romantic candles, television's most Spectacular season opened last week. NBC pronounced the summer prematurely over and raised the curtain on a season of high promise with a 90-minute version of the 1943 Broadway musical, One Touch of Venus. Janet Blair had the tiptoe grace required of a goddess awakened after slumbering for thousands of years in marble; Kurt Weill's pleasant music occasionally gave the show levitation; Russell Nype and George Gaynes struggled bravely against the shackling grasp of the heavyhanded plot. But Venus underlined the fact that once a Broadway musical is robbed of its racy dialogue and incident, there is little left to put on TV.
Very quickly, the season's opening stumble should be forgotten, however, in the torrent of big shows to come. The three networks are pouring more than $75 million into the next few months. The deluge will include some memorable repeats from other seasons: there will be, for example, another Peter Pan with the matchless Mary Martin and Cyril Ritchard. But there will also be new productions that ransack libraries, scoop in ballerinas, acrobats, actors, film and ideas from just about everywhere. Most favorites will be back. For the first time, the major Hollywood studios will be onstage or on cathode, shuffling for attention: after years of sulking, the movies have decided to embrace TV. The hug will approach strangulation, but until the oxygen runs out it ought to be the most fun TV fans have ever had.
ABC, in a strong bid for viewers' eyes, brings on The Mickey Mouse Club, a new companion piece to Disneyland, combining all the famed cartoon characters with live entertainment. Disneyland itself will be back with a new series about Davy Crockett and a science-fiction film called Man in Space. Wyatt Earp, billed as the first adult Western TV series, is aimed at achieving the quality of such films as High Noon and Shane. Warner Bros. Presents is an hour-long filmed show that will alternate adventure, romance and Western drama. M-G-M Parade will present shorts and film clips from new productions. Famous Film Festival offers 35 British movies, including such excellent ones as Great Expectations, Brief Encounter, Odd Man Out, Caesar and Cleopatra, The Red Shoes and Tight Little Island.