Total Adventure

The new season, announced NBC, would be brightened by "Total Television." Unable to devise a slogan so thumping, the other networks simply agreed that they too would try to make their entertainment total--whatever that meant. One result: a clutch of new "Action-Adventure" series, from a 19th century riverboat to 21st century rocket ships.

Twilight Zone (CBS, Fri. 10-10:30 p.m., E.D.T.) is the sort of show that is rare on TV: a half-hour of dramatic entertainment with no pretensions beyond a fresh idea presented by people with a decent respect for the medium and the audience. Playwright Rod (Patterns) Serling's stories of the "fifth dimension, between science and superstition," are plotted as carefully as his more ambitious 90-minute specials and are written, acted, directed with consistent competence. Whether the hero is an Air Force officer suffering hallucinations after more than 400 hours of isolation, or a tired old pitchman bargaining with "Mr. Death," tales from the Twilight Zone are proof that a little talent and imagination can atone for a lot of television.

Men into Space (CBS, Wed. 8:30-9:30 p.m., E.D.T.) is made up of the best kind of science fiction: stories that come as close as careful research can bring them to becoming documentaries of tomorrow. The adventures of Colonel Edward McCauley, U.S.A.F. (William Lundigan), sometimes seem tailored to the familiar serial formula: Will the expedition land successfully on the moon? Will the space tanker explode? Will the colonel get lost among the stars? But the action is always trimmed closely to expert predictions. The show should spin into orbit.

The Man & the Challenge (NBC, Sat. 8:30-9:00 p.m., E.D.T.) is "not a science-fiction series and not a documentary," says its producer, and he is only too right. Challenge is a mixture of some of the trappings of modern engineering and the tedious cliches of old-fashioned melodrama. Theoretically, the show deals with a Government scientist (George Nader) studying the limits of human endurance in dangerous situations. Actually, it presents such high-flown nonsense as a story of top-rank researchers sitting out a nuclear war in an atomic submarine and suddenly tumbling to some old problems such as the extraction of oxygen from sea water.

Troubleshooters (NBC, Fri. 8-8:30 p.m., E.D.T.) is for all incorrigible sidewalk superintendents who like to watch the big power shovels and the ponderous cats crunch through their job, or like to hear the big blast in the deep hole. And those who like to follow the impressive accomplishments of men and machines--from tunnels to tough road jobs, to bridge building in Pakistan--may not mind the pure corn of the story line and the predictable antics of those two hefty part ners, Keenan Wynn and Decathlon Star Bob Mathias.

Riverboat (NBC, Sun. 7-8 p.m., E.D.T.) paddles along for an hour at a stretch--up and down the big midwestern rivers. The romance that boards the river queen Enterprise may be a little too rich for armchair travelers addicted to a river chronicler named Sam Clemens, but the sights and sounds of the trip are pure Twain. The stern-wheeler's rumrunning. roughhewn captain, played by Darren (Mike Hammer) McGavin, looks and acts as a river skipper should. He ought to be able to keep the Enterprise afloat come high water or high-rated opposition.

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