Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1950-03-05

~SAAS A2AcAJ W. VAN WI
thing that has happened yet tx
television. This is said with nc
reference to his merits as come.
dian, and with full note to the
fact that he has entertained 8
lot of people on Tuesday nights
and has consistently had the larg-
est TV audience. 1t is this very
success that has made him a men
ace.
Success is bound to be copied
but rarely matched. The latest
young man fitting himself into
the Berle pattern is Jack Carter
who plays the master of cere-
monies of the first half of MICS
new Saturday night show. Mr.
Carter is agreeable enough as a
comedian, and his portion of the
show is engaging enough vaude-
vile, but somebody ought to tell
him this is television.
Even as Berle SO irritatingly
does, Mr.. Carter plays to his stu
dio audience. They're out there
he can hear them breathing. He
punches his comedy across to the
people on the scene. This is no
way to gear humor to the init
macy of a living room, since you
often get the feeling that some
thing is going to burst from the
viewing tube and hit you in the
teeth. Mr.. Carter also has picked
up Berle habit that comes from
this attention to the studio audi
ence. He rarely, if ever, looks at
you. but is continually looking
over your shoulder, as if he'd
rather talk to some one out in the
dining. room, and the heck with
you.
Arthur Godfrey has been quoted
as saying he feels his television
shows are merely a means of
letting people who cannot get
into the studio audience watch
him broadcast, which is certainly
a limited view of the possibilities
OF the medium. Mr.. Godfrey, how
ever, was quick to recognize the
nature of video.
After rather Shaky start on
TV. during which he was being
confused by the charge that his
show lacked movement" which
wasn't the ailment at all, Mr..
Godfrey apparently remembered
his radio credo. Radio, Mr.. God
frey said long time ago, consists
OF one person talking to another
person who is sitting in q room
listening. Well, when you talk to
some one, unless you are a shifty
type. you look at him. When
Godfrey realized that the tele-
vision camera let him do this, his
video troubles were over. You
don't catch him ignoring you in
favor of the studio audience as
you sit there watching him.
The New York half of the NBC
Saturday night show, incidentally,
came off as much slicker pro-
duction and, under the guidance
OF Producer Max Lehman, as a
television show rather than tele-
vlsed vaudeville. It's principal
regular performers, Imogene Coca
and Sid Caesar, also know this
simple fact which Mr.. Godfrey
has learned about holding the at
tention of the living room audi
ence and which Mr.. Carter has
yet to learn.
Two and half hours of varie-
ty show are lot of it, but NBC
is going to be giving lot of
Saturday night parties some
superior entertainment. 1t is not
the sort of thing that can't be
interrupted for conversation and
it certainly is a lot better than
watching that guy who always
wants to try on women's hats.
X X X
Gunnar Back, one time Eng
ilSn teacher at the University of
wisconsin and former member of
the CHS news staff, is a man
who feels mosts at home when
he is pioneering in radio. When
he still was with CHS he in
augurated the prize winning series,
The Undiscovered" about VD,
a subject new to radio. Later he
followed this with another set
of VD documentaries, THE Lone
some Road" which was carried
by six local stations and later
syndicated.
Mr.. Backs newest project is a