Red-letter day today

[bpatrick]

Today is the 50th anniversary of Gunsmoke's
debut on television. The show had already
been on CBS radio for three years, and would
continue on radio until 1961, with William
Conrad as Matt Dillon.

John Wayne introduced the first television
episode. He had turned down the chance to
play Matt Dillon, not wanting to be tied down
to a weekly series, and recommended young James
Arness for the part.

As we all know, Gunsmoke was the longest-running
drama series in television history: 20 years and
635 episodes. It was a half-hour show until 1961,
and an hour show until the end in 1975.

I don't have any local schedules for this date, but
I can tell you what the networks aired on Saturday
nights in the fall of 1955, courtesy of Brooks &
Marsh:

ABC: 7:30 Ozark Jubilee (Grand Ole Opry aired
once a month)
9 PM Lawrence Welk
10 PM Tomorrow's Careers
10:30 (Local)

CBS: 7 PM Gene Autry
7:30 Beat The Clock
8 PM Stage Show (Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey
hosted this, the show where Elvis
Presley made his national television
debut Jan. 28, 1956, nearly eight
months before his first appearance
with Ed Sullivan.)
8:30 The Honeymooners
9 PM Two For The Money (Herb Shriner returned
from summer vacation the night of Sept. 10.)
9:30 It's Always Jan
10 PM Gunsmoke
10:30 Damon Runyon Theater

NBC: 7:30 The Big Surprise (Mike Wallace hosted this
big-money quiz for part of its run. The top
prize was $100,000.)
8 PM Perry Como
9 PM People Are Funny
9:30 Texaco Star Theater Starring
Jimmy Durante
10 PM George Gobel
10:30 Your Hit Parade

Tomorrow is a red-letter day as well. I know, it's the
anniversary of the tragedy of 9/11/2001. But television
history was made Sept. 11, 1964, when ABC presented the
last broadcast of The Fight Of The Week, the last weekly
primetime boxing series (and boxing had been a primetime
staple since the '40s) on broadcast television.

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

B. Patrick gave us info on Saturday prime-time TV in the 1955/56 season, including:

> NBC: 7:30 The Big Surprise (Mike Wallace hosted this
> big-money quiz for part of its run. The top
> prize was $100,000.)

Actually, Mike Wallace was not the first host of "Big Surprise", Jack Barry was. He left the show after a few months to launch his own big-money game show (which would become the infamous "Twenty-One") that he co-owned with business partner Dan Enright. With "Twenty-One", Barry not just made money for working as emcee, he made even more money as co-owner of the show.

"Big Surprise" was created and produced by Louis G. Cowan, who a few months earlier put together "$64,000 Question" for CBS. Given the instant success of that show, the networks were clamoring for more big-money game shows. Cowan put this one together and sold it to NBC. As the show was live (and I believe it premiered in early October, 1955), it was possible to put this one together quite fast to capitalize on the big-money game show craze.

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

B. Patrick gave us the ABC Saturday prime-time schedule for the Fall of 1955:

> 7:30 Ozark Jubilee (Grand Ole Opry aired
> once a month)
> 9 PM Lawrence Welk
> 10 PM Tomorrow's Careers
> 10:30 (Local)

Wasn't the 1955 Miss Amnerica pageant (which crowned Miss America of 1956 and was also the first to be hosted by Bert Parks) held on the evening of September 10th, 1955??

I suspect that "Tomorrow's Careers" was pre-empted and that the live pageant telecast began at 10 P.M. EDT until conclusion. I believe the Miss America telecast each September began at 10 P.M. EDT until the 1990's.

Thus, the TV premiere of "Gunsmoke" likely had to go head-to-head (except on the West Coast) against what would soon become one of television's major annual events.

 

[bpatrick]

> B. Patrick gave us info on Saturday prime-time TV in the
> 1955/56 season, including:
>
> > NBC: 7:30 The Big Surprise (Mike Wallace hosted this
> > big-money quiz for part of its run. The top
> > prize was $100,000.)
>
> Actually, Mike Wallace was not the first host of "Big
> Surprise", Jack Barry was. He left the show after a few
> months to launch his own big-money game show (which would
> become the infamous "Twenty-One") that he co-owned with
> business partner Dan Enright. With "Twenty-One", Barry not
> just made money for working as emcee, he made even more
> money as co-owner of the show.
>
> "Big Surprise" was created and produced by Louis G. Cowan,
> who a few months earlier put together "$64,000 Question" for
> CBS. Given the instant success of that show, the networks
> were clamoring for more big-money game shows. Cowan put this
> one together and sold it to NBC. As the show was live (and I
> believe it premiered in early October, 1955), it was
> possible to put this one together quite fast to capitalize
> on the big-money game show craze.
>
The 1955 Miss America Pageant did air on Sept. 10, and it was
indeed Bert Parks' first time hosting. The pageant aired at 10
PM until just the last few years.

Jack Barry, from what I understand, was fired from "The Big
Surprise"; one critic said he had "about as much warmth as
a waiter somebody forgot to tip." Also, the show went through
several format changes; there was a period when a player could
be "rescued" by having someone who looked like the contestant
answer an alternate question; a period when contestants could
choose "easy" or "hard" questions (missing an easy question cost
them all their winnings, missing a hard one cost them only half);
and, finally, a more straightforward approach wherein the contestant
answered questions from $100 to $100,000. A miss at any level past
the first question gave the contestant the next lowest amount, so,
for example, if a contestant had $20,000, went for $50,000 and missed,
they'd wind up with $10,000.

"The Big Surprise" did surface in the rigging scandals; a contestant
named Dale Logue sued for $103,000 after being given a question
she'd missed in a preshow warmup. I don't know if she won her case
because the record was sealed.<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by bpatrick on 09/12/05 09:35 PM.</FONT></P>