Newsday TV Book, September 3-9, 1972.

Well now, it seems this li'l bloggy bowl of nostalgic noodlings has found some fresh partakers thanks to a piece on Metafilter, along with a few other nice write-ups I've recently discovered. (Btw, Meta, it's called "Don't Parade IN My Rain," and maybe someday I'll cough up the five bucks to correct you...)

Welcome, and please now to enjoy the 1972 "Fall Preview" issue of the Newsday TV Book!

We begin with the cover by mystery artist Sudduth, not especially inspired or interesting, although the colors are nice and autumnal.

The TV Line has a housewife buggy for Robert Fuller, print too small for the small screen, Dennis Cole (and a mention of his ill-fated son Joe), and, believe it or not, Wordsworth...

(Don't forget: always click on the pic to make it big, ya dig?)

The Fall Preview begins with a look at all the blockbuster movies the networks were offering this season, perhaps a reaction to earlier efforts to lure movie stars to their own shows which then bombed. Why not instead funnel that money into, say, two showings of My Fair Lady? (Three million bucks!?!)

The next couple of pages cover the kinds of shows being rolled out, along with specials and kid stuff.

Now the day-to-day, with Sunday giving us Yul Brynner, George Kirby, Jonathan Winters, and the returns of Richard Boone and Robert Vaughn.

Monday and Tuesday brought back the Cos, Edith's cousin Maude, some Rookies and an All in the Family-ish animated show that I vaguely recall enjoying.

Wednesdays introduced Police Surgeon, Paul Lynde, Search (formerly Probe--ouch), and a Julie Andrews variety show, the first for both her and the ABC studio.

Thursday ushered in Young Dr. Kildare and Black Beauty, and gave the Waltons their 8 PM home for the next nine years.

Brian Keith returned to TV on Fridays with The Little People (and that doesn't mean Buffy and Jody), and then Mr. French spooked us worse than, well, Buffy and Jody.

Finishing out the week, Grasshopper entertains and enlightens us every fourth week (?), Bob Hartley sets up office, and Birney and Baxter are the new Stiller and Meara--yeah, right!

The Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Telethon began Sunday night, so along with The Shirley Bassey Show, one may have had the opportunity to see Paul Anka and The Establishment twice in the wee hours.

The Olympics continued from Munich, with the massacre of the Israeli athletes and coaches taking place the morning of the 5th (the night of the 4th for New Yorkers).

On Tuesday night, old ushered in new as Howdy Doody introduced NBC cartoon crap such as The Barkleys for the Saturday morning line-up. Buffalo Bob shows up of course, along with Clarabell and Cynthia Goodheart. Forget them, what happened to that hottie Princess Summerfall Winterspring?
(The answer is awful, btw.)

The work of Gary Viskupic turns up twice in this issue--first on Wednesday for a CBS Reports special about Justice William O. Douglas...

...and then for a PBS Dizzy Gillespie bio two nights later.

Back on Thursday, Miss America 1965 (and Christian ventriloquist--totally not kidding) Vonda Van Dyke turned out for the Pageant Parade. (Also note Billy Graham's "The Devil Made Me Do it" sermon at nine and Devil Doll at 1 AM.) Anyone know the title of the movie listing continued at upper left? The beginning of the description is "A weird mailman decides he's due for..."

Answer: Tiger Makes Out.

Obscure Long Island Advertising Character: The Pix Photographic Enterprises Gunslinger!

Here's that Saturday morning of premieres and returns. Remember how you'd wake up at dawn because you could hardly wait for Roman Holidays to start? I didn't think so.

Saturday night had the Miss America Pageant (with the amazingly-to-this-day-still-pretty-hot Phyllis George) and some interesting specials on NBC...

...with late-night bringing the chilling horror, thrilling adventures, and distilling John Cashman reviews.

Since there's yet another boring bank ad on the back cover, I've got something different for you: this edition included a film processing mailer. Try explaining this to a young'un for dull stares and eye-rolls galore!

Hey, the back of the envelope has some great offers on pens and memo pads, and I could really use those! Here, let me just write down that addre---ah, goddammit!

See you next time, if I remember!