TV Time Capsule

For ‘Maude,’ a Nostalgic (and Loud) New Year’s Eve

“New Years Week” continues.

On December 30, 1974, CBS aired “Nostalgia Party,” the “Maude” episode in which the loud-mouthed liberal (Bea Arthur) throws a holiday shindig.

Unfortunately, Maude’s husband Walter (Bill Macy), daughter Carol (Adrienne Barbeau) and neighbors Arthur and Vivian (Conrad Bain, Rue McClanahan) don’t feel like celebrating:

WALTER: Because of inflation, I’m going broke! ’74 was the worst year of my life!

ARTHUR: I agree with Walter! It was a terrible year!

CAROL: Watergate! The energy crisis!

VIVIAN: And those disgusting movies – “The Green Door!” and “The Devil in Mrs. Jones!”

ARTHUR: Disgusting is right! I’d never go to see those again.

MAUDE: Listen, I’ll grant everybody that ’74 wasn’t such a hot year, but we can celebrate the coming year – 1975!

WALTER: ’75 is going to be even worse!

MAUDE: Who says so?

WALTER: President Ford says so! And he never says anything!

Everyone agrees to attend, dressing in a costume that represents their favorite year – then argue at the party over which year truly was the best.

Elderly Aunt Polly (guest star Judith Lowry) hushes them all: “Last year isn’t important. Next year isn’t important. But what is important is what’s happening now!”

See for yourself: “Nostalgia Party” isn’t (legally) available online or on video.

 

On TV

Here’s the prime-time lineup for Monday, December 30, 1974:

8: “The Rookies” (ABC), “Gunsmoke”* (CBS), “Born Free” (NBC)

9: “Gator Bowl” (ABC), “Maude” (CBS), “Frankenstein: The True Story, Part 1”* (ABC)

9:30: “Rhoda”* (CBS)

10: “Medical Center” (CBS) 

 

The Record

For the week of December 29, 1974:

Top novel: “Centennial” by James Michener

Top song: “Angie Baby” by Helen Reddy

Top movie: “The Man with the Golden Gun”

Top TV show: “All in the Family” (CBS)

In the news: President Ford abandoned plans for an income tax surcharge

 

 

 

Captions: “Maude” stars Bea Arthur and Rue McClanahan and guest star Judith Lowry in scenes from “Nostalgia Party.”

Undercover Woman, Exposed: ‘The Betty White Show’

TV Time Capsule begins “Betty, White Hot!,” a series of periodic flashbacks to key moments in Betty White’s amazing television career.

On September 12, 1977, CBS introduced “The Betty White Show,” the fourth – and so far, final – series to carry that title.

The first “Betty White Show” was a local Sunday afternoon series that aired in 1951 on Los Angeles TV station KLAC (now KCOP). The show’s eclectic format was befitting of a medium still inventing itself: the actress sang, read the station’s viewer mail and offered romantic advice to the lovelorn.

Three years later, NBC hired White to host a weekday afternoon talk show – also called “The Betty White Show” – in which she interviewed guests and interacted with bandleader Frank DeVol, the famed composer who went on to write the theme music for “The Brady Bunch” and many other sitcoms.

The third “Betty White Show,” a syndicated sketch comedy, aired in 1957 and featured a small company of regular players, including DeVol and Irene Ryan, who later played Granny on “The Beverly Hillbillies.”

CBS’s 1977 “Betty White Show” was different still – a sitcom that cast White as Joyce Whitman, a middle-aged actress who stages a comeback when she lands the lead role in a TV police drama.

The title of Joyce’s show: “Undercover Woman” – a spoof of “Police Woman,” NBC’s popular Angie Dickinson drama. (White, a “Star Trek” fan, had suggested making Joyce the star of a science fiction series; producers rejected the idea.)

White’s supporting cast was led by John Hillerman as John Elliot, Joyce’s ex-husband and sparring partner, whom the network hires to direct “Undercover Woman;” and Georgia Engel as her spacey friend and roommate, Mitzi Maloney.

“The Betty White Show” was initially conceived as a vehicle for Sue Ann Nivens, the sex-obsessed, insincere “Happy Homemaker” hostess White played on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.”

But as White recalled in her 2005 memoir, “Here We Go Again: My Life in Television,” two other “MTM” spinoffs – “Rhoda” and “Phyllis” – were fading in the ratings by 1977.

The producers also “felt it might be pressing their luck to send Sue Ann out alone. They thought she might be a little much to take every week, and if they knocked some of the edge off of her, they would destroy the character,” White wrote.

(Another distinction: “The Betty White Show” was the first MTM Enterprises’ production to be videotaped; “MTM,” “Rhoda” and “Phyllis” were filmed, giving them a higher-quality look.)

Joyce may not have been as much fun to watch as bitchy Sue Ann, but critics still loved White and her new sitcom; several declared it one of the season’s best new shows.

The Washington Post’s Tom Shales described “The Betty White Show” as “a tart, bright, cheering comedy with characters and performances firmly in the ‘Mary Tyler Moore’ tradition,” adding that the new series “deserves to be a hit and will be.”

“It would be understandable if quite a lot of people wound up loving ‘The Betty White Show,’” wrote the New York Times’ John J. O’Connor.

CBS aired the series on Monday nights at 9, pairing it with Bea Arthur’s “Maude,” which was entering its final season.

“The Betty White Show’s” premiere was the week’s seventh most-watched show; ratings remained solid throughout the fall, but CBS dropped the sitcom in a midseason schedule shakeup.

White took the cancellation in stride.

In “Here We Go Again,” she wrote that the sitcom “was not outstanding. I can’t even say it was one of my all-time favorites, but we had given it our best shot.”

The next “Betty, White Hot!” installment will be posted Tuesday.

 

Also on TV

On September 12, 1977, CBS also aired the debut of the adventure series “Young Dan’l Boone,” the season premiere of “Maude” and the second episode of “Rafferty,” a Patrick McGoohan medical drama; ABC broadcast the debut of “Lucan,” a drama about a boy raised by wolves, and a college football game in which the University of Houston Cougars defeated the University of California, Los Angeles’ Bruins, 17 to 13; and NBC showed the season premiere of “Little House on the Prairie” and “Billy: Portrait of a Street Kid,” a TV-movie starring LeVar Burton.

 

The Record

During the week of September 11, 1977, the number ones included Colleen McCullough’s “The Thorn Birds” (novel) and the Emotions’ “Best of My Love” (song). “Star Wars” was still popular at the movies and in Washington, President Carter’s budget chief was urged to resign amid corruption charges; he did and was acquitted.

 

  

Captions: Betty White in a photograph from TV Guide’s September 10, 1977, fall preview issue (top, photo by Douglas Kirkland); White and John Hillerman on the magazine’s September 24, 1977, cover (middle, photo by Peter Kredenser); and CBS’s advertisement for “The Betty White Show’s” premiere, also from the September 10 edition (bottom).

Sunday, July 4, 1976

The United States turned 200 on July 4, 1976, and television commemorated the occasion with typical restraint.

Walter Cronkite anchored 16 consecutive hours of Bicentennial coverage on CBS, beginning at 8 a.m. In prime time, he was joined by co-hosts Valerie Harper (“Rhoda”), Danny Kaye and Beverly Sills.

NBC’s David Brinkley and John Chancellor, stationed atop the World Trade Center in Manhattan, also signed on at 8 a.m. and logged 10 hours, taking breaks for local news, “Meet the Press” (guests included Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis) and “Bob Hope’s Bicentennial Star-Spangled Spectacular,” a prime-time special featuring Sammy Davis Jr., Debbie Reynolds and the Captain and Tennille (“Bob’s new friends,” according to the TV Guide ad).

ABC, still considered something of a lesser network in those days, scattered three one-hour Harry Reasoner-anchored specials throughout the day.

The day’s activities included President Ford’s speeches at Valley Forge and Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, a San Francisco Bay regatta and the lighting of 33 tons of fireworks in Washington, D.C.

The big highlight: Operation Sail, in which hundreds of vessels navigated the Hudson River.

“As the images of one parade blurred with another, as the clichés of one speech overlapped another, the pictorial surveys of Operation Sail were always distinctive, frequently stunning,” wrote the New York Times’ John J. O’Connor.

He dismissed the rest of the coverage as “easily disposable moments,” including a lecture from Cronkite when he became “rather upset at some young Danes interrupting their Queen’s speech with an anti-American demonstration.”

The Washington Post’s Tom Shales deemed NBC as offering the day’s best coverage; he praised the network for recognizing “that this was a day for people and not just scenery. NBC showed us faces; CBS showed us crowds.”

Shales also pointed out the networks’ different approaches to selling airtime on the Bicentennial:

[On CBS,] Jane Russell sang the praises of a certain bra; kitty litter, suppositories, and a “whole different kind of deodorant” were hawked. But on NBC, Mutual Benefit Life picked up the whole tab and ran only institutional spots with a gently patriotic motif. Commercials may be as American as custard pie, but it was gratifying that on the Fourth of July 1976, at least one company didn’t find it necessary to hit us in the face with them.

Viewers may have enjoyed the nonstop Bicentennial coverage during the daytime but they weren’t much interested after sunset.

The week’s most-watched shows were all reruns, led by CBS’s “M*A*S*H.”

Only two Bicentennial shows cracked the top 20 – Hope’s special, which ranked 20th, and a Brinkley/Chancellor-anchored recap that finished 23rd. CBS’s prime-time coverage ranked 53rd.

Hopefully, most Americans turned off their sets and experienced the historic occasion for themselves.

Elsewhere on Television

TV Guide listings for July 4, 1976:

SYNDICATED JIMMY SWAGGART – Religion

The sermon on “Fear” concludes.

 

For the Record

Also on July 4, 1976:

Top song: Wings’ “Silly Love Songs.” Top book: “Trinity” by Leona Uris. Top movie: “The Omen.” In the news: President Ford’s popularity continues slipping.

Monday, Nov. 24, 1975

“Thanksgiving Week” continues with “The Little Atheist,” the “All in the Family” episode CBS broadcast 34 years ago tonight.

Dress that turkey! Archie and Edith Bunker (Carroll O’Connor, Jean Stapleton) are getting ready to go next door, where their pregnant daughter, Gloria Stivic (Sally Struthers), and her husband Mike (Rob Reiner) are hosting Thanksgiving in their new home. Archie is annoyed when Edith insists he wear a suit: “I’m going over there to eat, not to get buried!”

Can I get an amen? During pre-dinner chitchat, Edith learns Gloria and Mike, an atheist, aren’t planning to take their child to church. “Children ought to go to church when they’re little ’cause when they get older they’re having too much fun to be religious,” Edith advises.

Raspberries before cranberries: During a heated debate over religion, Mike casts his eyes heavenward and makes a spluttering noise. “You’d better find a tailor who can measure you for a lightning rod, buddy!” a spooked Archie screams.

Pass the peace pipe: A weepy Gloria makes Mike apologize to Archie. “Thank you very much, Gloria,” Mike tells her. “It’s Thanksgiving and you made me eat crow.”

Gloria reminds Mike of the three subjects you should never discuss with Archie: “Religion, politics – or anything else.”

Without a grace: Archie insists on saying grace before dinner. “Maybe we can skip grace tonight,” suggests neighbor Irene Lorenzo (Betty Garrett), the Stivics’ other guest. “We been skipping it all year,” Edith chimes in.

Tables turned! Archie continues needling Mike about God and religion until the younger man finally erupts. “I’ve had it,” he yells, leaping from the table to confront Archie, who’s seated in Mike’s chair at the head of the table.

MIKE: This is my house, that’s going to be my child, and no one is going to force his religious beliefs on this family.

ARCHIE: Aw, sit down in your chair and shut up.

MIKE: Yeah, and that’s another thing. I’ve been waiting five years to tell you this: Get outta my chair!

Just desserts: Edith confronts Archie in the kitchen, quietly reminding her husband the Stivics’ baby will “still be one of God’s children” – even if his parents don’t take him to church.

Archie agrees to behave, then lets Edith in on a secret: He plans to take the child to church himself.

“We’re gonna raise that grandson of ours a Christian if we gotta break every commandment to do it!” Archie declares.

TV Land is scheduled to show “The Little Atheist” tomorrow night at 6:30. The episode is also part of the “All in the Family: The Complete Sixth Season” DVD set.

 

From the Pages of TV Guide

Also airing Nov. 24, 1975:

8:30 CBS RHODA

Vivian Vance makes a rare guest appearance as the Gerards’ witty neighbor, whose blossoming friendship with Rhoda is beginning to make Ida jealous. Rhoda: Valerie Harper. Joe: David Groh. Ida: Nancy Walker. Martin: Harold Gould. Brenda: Julie Kavner. Donny: Shane Sinutko.

Monday, Oct. 4, 1976

Thirty-three years ago tonight, Barbara Walters joined Harry Reasoner as co-anchor of the “ABC Evening News,” becoming the first woman to preside over a network newscast.

The pairing proved disastrous.

At the time, Walters was a daytime star, having spent 15 years co-hosting NBC’s “Today,” first with Hugh Downs, and later, Jim Hartz.

ABC lured her away with a then-record $1 million salary, triggering a media sensation.

The Washington Post’s headline: “Million Dollar Baby Handling 5-and-10 Cent News.” The Christian Science Monitor’s: “Barbara Leaves Jim for Harry.”

Reasoner resented having a co-anchor and was rude to Walters on-air.

In one notorious incident, she attempted to engage him in a little light anchor banter, noting Henry Kissinger’s newfound status as a sex symbol.

“You’d know more about that than I would,” Reasoner shot back.

ABC News chief Roone Arledge described watching Reasoner and Walters as being “like arriving for a dinner party at the house of a couple trying to maintain a truce in front of the world while waiting to claw each other’s eyes out.”

Arledge broke up the duo in 1978, replacing them with the trio of Peter Jennings, Max Robinson and Frank Reynolds and renaming the show “World News Tonight.”

Reasoner returned to CBS, where he remained until his 1991 death. Walters reunited with Downs on “20/20” and eventually returned to daytime on ABC’s “The View.”

Today, Walters is credited with blazing a trail for Katie Couric, another “Today” refugee who became the first woman solo anchor when she took over the “CBS Evening News” in 2006, and Diane Sawyer, who is slated to succeed Charlie Gibson at “World News” next year.

 

From the Pages of TV Guide

Also airing Oct. 4, 1976:

8:00 ABC CAPTAIN & TENNILLE – Variety

Gabriel Kaplan joins Toni and Daryl, along with “Happy Days” cast members Ron Howard, Erin Moran, Donny Most, Roz Kelly and the Pinkettes. Comedy spots include Ron as Prince Charming in a modern-day singles bar. Toni and Daryl as a moviegoing couple forced to sit separately in a crowded theater; and Gabe as a confused funeral director with a game-show fixation. The entire cast joins in a finale saluting the ’50s. (55 min.)

Musical Highlights

“Smile” … Toni

“Gimme Some Lovin’,” “How Sweet It is” … Toni, Daryl

8:00 CBS RHODA

Faced with the financial burden of renting separate apartments, Rhoda economizes by swapping places with her neighbor (Ron Silver), who views the trade as a prelude to a cozier arrangement. Rhoda: Valerie Harper. Joe: David Groh. Brenda: Julie Kavner. Carlton: Lorenzo Music.

8:00 NBC LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE

Scheming Nellie Oleson (Alison Arngrim), knocked from her horse after an argument with Laura, pretends to be crippled so she can turn guilt-stricken Laura into her personal handmaiden. First of a two-part episode. Laura: Melissa Gilbert. Charles: Michael Landon. Mrs. Oleson: Katherine MacGregor. Oleson: Richard Bull. Dr. Baker: Kevin Hagen. Caroline: Karen Grassle. Jason: Eric Shea. (60 min.)