Newsday TV Books, January 1973.

I'm back at the Newsday TV Books again, but this time I'm going double-retro on you--I'm gonna quickly go over the 1973 issues I've missed so far this year. True, it might seem like I'm giving them short shrift (which, as we all know, is easily the worst of all possible shrifts one can be given), but it's certainly better than nothing. I'm no scholar, but I'm sure Descartes would agree, especially given what a Hawaii Five-O fan he was.

We'll start with the first full week of January, the 7th through 13th, with this Jack Paar cover.

This week's TV Line covers the difference between Julie Sommars and Farrah Fawcett, the music of Kid Power and Love, American Style, and Meredith Baxter Birney's affiliation.

I'm skipping the cover story (spoiler: Paar's part-time comeback didn't take) but here's the Gary Viskupic drawing of Paar teed up alongside Dick Cavett, who would alternate certain weeks with him. Of course, it was really competitor Johnny Carson that thwacked him.

If you need more Paar, here's a close-up on that Monday night premiere. Forget the talk shows, Karloff and Horror Island are on!

Just because "Nosey Clown" makes me laugh, here's a Sag Harbor bank ad.

More Viskupic, with a drawing for Michelangelo Antonioni's Chung Kuo, a prime-time ABC look at modern-day China.

Finally, a close-up on a special that probably confused a lot of young Carol Burnett Show fans, tuning in for some broad sketch comedy and getting a throaty German broad instead.

On to the 14th--hope you're hungry for more Chinese!

Now it's NBC that has a special about China. Nixon's visit had been almost a whole year earlier--maybe the networks were just getting around to cashing in on the hype? I've posted the Viskupic image below on this blog before, but here's the full story to go with it.

TV Line this week drops a bombshell: Fred Sanford was dead all along! Did not see that twist coming!

 

 This week also brought a Jack Benny special, and here's the whole night to go with it, including some typically caustic John Cashman movie reviews.

Never thought you'd miss this guy so much, didja? Looks like Viskupic got some overtime this week with a sketch for Nixon's Saturday morning inauguration. If Tricky Dick had pre-empted the ABC Saturday Superstar Movie "Mad Mad Mad Monsters," described online as a sort-of prequel to Mad Monster Party, I'm pretty sure the enraged, four-year-old me could have successfully wished him into the cornfield.

 The week beginning with the 21st features a cover story with--I shit you not--Shirley Booth (Hazel) and J. Pat O'Malley (every kindly Irish ol' fella on American TV ever). They starred in A Touch of Grace. She was a widow. He was a gravedigger. It lasted three months.

Just one more thing from this ish, the TV Line. (It wasn't the best week of television.) Even this one is nothing special, although it's funny to read that Mark Spitz was considered to take after fellow Olympic swimmer Johnny Weissmuller and step into the Tarzan loincloth. As far as I can tell, nothing came of this new Lord of the Apes "movie serial."

The month closes out with another unlikely network production, CBS' three-hour Much Ado About Nothing, as staged by Joseph Papp. I only recognize Barnard Hughes in the cover photo, but Sam Waterston starred.

The week's TV Line demonstrates that the list of mega-stars hitting the slopes at Hunter Mountain Ski Bowl was truly mind-blowing, and that V.M. of Selden was just a naturally suspicious person.

This Hirschfeld of Heifetz is not especially hard to find on the nets (in fact it's on an album cover), but I liked it enough to include here.

I'm not 100% sure the two pics in this double close-up are by Viskupic, but the one on the right definitely look like his. The minor theme of obscurant lines suggests they are by the same artist.

That's all I got! Covers coming up for February: the Charlie Brown musical, Bobby Darin as Groucho, and underrated hottie Diane Baker!