Evening star., 1949-11-27
News of VideO and Radio
CHS and NBC Have Plans for Bettering
Saturday Night TV Fare
BY Harry Macarthur

There is good news for Satur'
day night stay-at-homes in th'
word passed along during tn,
week from New York. Any new
about Saturday night teleview'
ing would be good. of course. Al
most any change would be fol
the better. All during television''
first boom years every one ha'
passed this over as an off-night-
every one, that is, except millions
of televiewers who have beer
complaining about the sparsenes'
Of their Saturday night fare.
The discovery that some people
actually do stay at home OF
Saturday night and might very
easily be trapped by televisior
show ,has been made by botf
CHS and NBC. The results. how
ever, will not be seen until aftel
the first of the year.
January Z is given as the start.
ing date for the CHS entry in the
Saturday night sweepstakes. This
will be a televersion of Ken Muir.
rays "Blackouts." The revue re.
Gently met a snarling reception
from the New York drama critics
though it ran for eight years or
the West Coast. Broadway sue.
cess, or no, however, CHS has big
plans for 'Blackouts," with 8
sponsor signed and willing tt
spend a sizable amount of money
on talent and production.
Saturday night also is the one
chosen by NBC for presentation
of a series of four operas in Eng
lish. The series will start on jan
uary IA with Down in the VAL
ley," a half-hour work written by
Kurt WE'LL. The three others, al
an hour long, will be Puccini's
Madame Butterfly" (February
ID, Johann Strauss ''The Bat
March ID and Offenbach's
:'Tales of Hoffman," (April 81
These will be special television
productions, directed by DR.. Peter
Herman Adler.
Video's Saturday night already
has been bolstered, temporarily al
least, with Twenty Questions,
which last night started a limited
period as a simultaneous TWAIN
feature. The parlor game became
another television first" with this
deal, incidentally. On radio, 1t is
on Mutual, while the video version
comes by way of NBC. the pickup
in New York being made by WOR-
TV, Mutual's station.
Television's man of the week
undoubtedly was ABC's Burke
Crotty, the oducer-director in
charge of televising last Monday
nights opening Of the Metropoli-
tan Operas season. Last years
opening, which was not seen here.
drew several complaints from a
technical standpoint-criticism Of
lighting, makeup, camera work,
etc. This year, thanks to Mr..
Crotty and his crew, everything
was fine.
You may have felt that der
Rosenkavalier" was being a dra-
matte absurdity while it was be-
ing musical treat. but it was
given the best television produc-
ton possible. short of one specifi-
eally staged for the medium
There was evidence of consider
able advance planning last Mon
day night. Mr.. Crotty had his
cameras well placed and used
them to good advantage to make
interesting video.
No special lighting or makeup
were used this year, but the pho
Biography was uniformly good. It
may have fallen short little in
the third act, during part Of which
the stage was in something close
to total darkness, but there is no
point in television trying to
change something so traditional
as an opera stage direction.
x 4 X
Telenotes: Mike Hunnicutt, who
has built uD a considerable local
following as radio personality.
has signed an exclusive TV con-
tract with WMAL-TV. Currently
he is seen on Saturday nights at
z with his wife Polly Friday
nights at 8 with Charlie Keaton
and Mondays, Tuesdays and
Thursdays on the afternoon
sports Parade" which originates
In Baltimore. Du Mont, a