Newsday TV Book, June 23-29, 1974.

I've already taken a look at the Newsday TV Books of June 1974, but with just the covers and a couple of pages each. Here, now, for you, in your face, is a more comprehensive look at the fourth issue from that month.

Former Miss America and then-Buddy Ebsen co-star Lee Meriwether dishes to Emily Trautmann for this week's cover story.
(Click images to enlarge.)

The TV Line features a question about Merv Griffin's trumpeter Jack Sheldon, but unforgivably neglects to mention that he's the voice of the "Conjunction Junction" and "I'm Just a Bill" segments of Schoolhouse Rock! (Okay, I'll let it slide on the latter episode, since it hadn't actually been created yet.)

Sunday night is interesting to me for Gary Viskupic's take on Playboy's "Bunny of the Year" pageant on WNEW channel 5. The close-up says the guest stars are on hand for distraction, but I'm pretty sure even Burns & Schreiber wouldn't have drawn my eyes from the tig ol' bitties on that woman/rabbit hybrid. Rowrrr, Dr. Moreau's got a chubby!
Also of note, I want John Cashman's four-word review of Blackmail (WCBS 2, 1:10am) on a t-shirt.

Monday morning's schedule was accompanied by an ad for "All Method Working People Hair Center," but you'd be pardoned if you called it "Morrie's Wigs."

Tuesday's late listings are notable to me because I would later--say in fifth grade or so--become a fan of the Pilobolus dance company, although I was only five as of this airing of "Pilobolus and Joan" (Joan being singer Joan McDermott, btw). It was a production of WNET 13's Television Laboratory (or just "TV Lab"), which allowed artists access to the prohibitively-expensive video equipment of the day. The program lasted from 1972 until 1984, and I've read that its demise was attributed to lack of funding, but I'd guess that better availability of workable technology was part of it. (You can read about my fandom of the dance troupe in this post, look for the long bit between the ninth and tenth photos. My, what odd boys my friends and I were.)

This page is also notable for Pedro Armendariz Jr. fans. You know who you are.

Because you've been so patient, here are the pages covering all day Friday and Saturday, sans my stupid commentary! You deserve it!

Long before those dingleberry Coronet Brothers assured late-night viewers that their commercials would not include talking orangutans (for the unfamiliar, I'm not even kidding: "No talking orangutans" was their allegedly humorous tagline), the print ads boasted that their family business was "a happy place to shop." Which is always a plus in a toy store, eye-roll emoji.

Finally, the back cover ad is a rare (in my collection, anyway, which is far from comprehensive, thus making my evaluation of its ubiquity completely meaningless) full-pager for Westrock Beef in color. (Well... red, anyway.) I dig that little cowboy mascot, with his slacks-sporting horse.

That's all for now. I'm Audra Lee. See you next time on KidsBeat!
(I love a reference that will literally be understood by two people: me and Audra Lee.)

Newsday TV Book, June 12-18, 1977.

I can't claim to be much of a fan of summer anymore. I could do without the heat and humidity, and, as an inveterate night-owl, the daylight that feels endless. When I was a kid it was a different story, of course, with summer a blessedly school-less stretch of days spent splashing in my family's above-ground pool or visiting the park at the end of our suburban block, making an occasional trip to a Long Island beach, and chasing the ice cream man as he jingled through my neighborhood a few times a week. This week's TV Book comes from a particularly epic summer: the one that brought Star Wars into my life, less than three weeks earlier, an obsession that would last for another five years or so. (I can't claim to be a fan of Star Wars anymore either, but the nostalgia for that feeling is still strong with this one.)

I was definitely a fan of Shields and Yarnell, the married mime duo that graces this issue's cover. I didn't quite grasp the concept of a summer replacement series, so as school reared its Catholic head in the fall I was left wondering where my robot friends The Clinkers had gone, and the same went for the Keane Brothers Show and other temporary variety-show timeslot-fillers.
(Click each pic to enlarge)

Their story is told by Bill Kaufman, with an interesting mention of another fan of note: Groucho Marx (who would pass just two months later) compared the pair to his brother Harpo.

In the TV Line column, inquiring Islanders ponder such topics as the whereabouts of the eldest Semonski Sister, Kristy MacNichols' favorite, and that goony beanpole on CPO Sharkey.

Here's Sunday morning, when Bud & Lou and the Bowery Boys met the Keystone Kops and ghosts, respectively...

...and Sunday afternoon, with a Viskupic illustration for an exploration of the brain, and a choice at 1pm between the Marx Brothers and Jerry Lewis. (No choice at all, in fact--The Bellboy is nearly unwatchable merde, John Cashman's charitable review notwithstanding.)

We move along to Friday and Saturday, the full days' schedules for ya.

Finally, some ads, starting with Harvey Sound in Woodbury touting the new, smaller Advent VideoBeam 750 projection TV.

In the "1977 Photoview of Long Island" (whatever that means), we see the whole coo-coo cutting crew of Shear Shack in Selden, plus the Crest Hollow Country Club of Woodbury.

Now that I'm headed down the other side of the middle-age peak, if you will, I'm trying to appreciate the sweaty summers I have left. Ice cream helps... just as it always did.
See you next time!

Esther’s on the Scene.

Esther arrives and checks things out, soon realizing she is not alone.