Specials or Nothing

The new TV season began last week, prompting Johnny Carson to observe that he had not "seen so much excitement since Animal Kingdom did a 90-minute special on the death of a sponge."

Incredibly--perhaps predictably--the three networks, commanding so much money and production facility, failed in the first of two premiere weeks to contrive anything original, let alone imaginative, for their new dramatic and comedy series. Seven of the new shows are oaters. Now there are 14 of them on the air, and most suffer from hoof-in-mouth disease. High Chaparral (NBC) standing just south of Bonanza's Ponderosa, features Rancher Leif Erickson against Apaches, marauding Mexicans, and a disappointing son who whimpers while he works. ABC has Hondo, an Army trucemaker, some of whose best friends are Apaches, and Custer, which takes scalps from history and Indians in equal number.

Among the non-western adventure shows is Garrison's Gorillas (ABC), a World War II drama about a U.S. platoon of temporarily paroled cons working behind German lines. For those who have not seen Mission: Impossible on TV or The Professionals and The Dirty Dozen in the movies, Garrison's Filthy Foursome might have some appeal; the video Nazis, however, are shown to be so inept that it is a wonder the war lasted so long.

Stern Stereotype. The saps are in full flood among the situation comedies too. Most cynical confection of the season is The Flying Nun (ABC), a mating of The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins. Cutesy Star Sally Field, 21, plays a swinging nun whose starchy cornet launches her airborne in the wind cur rents around her Puerto Rican convent. Naturally, her antics appall the stern, stereotyped mother superior, but Sister Sally manages endless good works and bad gags, such as a crash landing in an Army garbage dump.

Desi Arnaz is back, this time as executive producer of The Mothers-in-Law (NBC). Eve Arden and Kaye Ballard are squabbling next-door neighbors whose children wind up marrying each other. Eve, best known as Our Miss Brooks, is one of the few comediennes in the business who earns her laugh track. Kaye, who plays an Italian housewife, is a versatile actress, but she tends to overdo to the point that the show may be boycotted by Frank Sinatra's Anti-Defamation League. Producer Arnaz thinks he has a winner. "It's not sophisticated," he says, "it's not intellectual; but does it have to be intellectual to be quality? To me, a hot dog is quality--if it's a good one."

In the miscellaneous category, ABC has dusted off Person to Person, titled it Good Company, and put Trial Lawyer F. Lee Bailey in Edward R. Murrow's easy chair. First witness, Actor Tony Curtis, acquitted himself better than his inquisitor, but the jury should await forthcoming interviews with Everett Dirksen and Hugh Hefner before giving up.

Thorough Study. All hope for the season remains with the "special," which can be defined as a one-shot extravaganza of lofty intention whose promotion budget nearly equals the production budget. This time the networks are scheduling 300 specials, half entertainment, half news and public affairs. ABC last week started off right with its $2,000,000 Africa, a thorough, informative study of the continent's ecology, culture and political life. The narration, delivered by Gregory Peck, was crisp and straightforward; the color film, directed by Photographer Eliot Elisofon, was excellent. The show desperately needed tougher editing, however; it ran four hours.*

But most specials are neither that worthy nor that watchable. They range in merit from CBS's production of the Royal Shakespeare Company's King Lear ($500,000 plus) to ABC's Miss Teen International ($400,000 plus). Judging from last week's beginnings and the great bulk of future programming, 1967-68 will be remembered as the Year of the Hot Dog.

* It will be repeated in more digestible one-hour segments on four successive Tuesday mornings beginning next week.

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