Evening star., 1951-11-09
Ion the Air
. :. =
| |TheAudience
AT Home Is
| The Big One J.
By Harry Macarthur

=
By Hurry Macarthur
This is one of those days when
the mail seems to be BOBBY
trapped. Those innocent looking
little envelopes turn out to be
holding bludgeons.
One constituent rises to a point
Of argument about this depart
ment's continuing contention that
/ television shows Should pe per-
formed for the television audience
and not for the sole delight of
studio audiences. A man In the
broadcasting business. or on the
publication fringe of it. he sets
forth curious argument.
Laying hundreds of dollars on
the line for a TV set so you can
sit home and shun the movies is
one thing" he writes. ''but asking
the comedians and actors and dog
acts to play to you? Nobody has
any more right to expect that
than they have to see first-class
fights and other events, per Sc.
But apparently watching Hope and
Benny do vaudeville performance
is not enough-you want they
should talk to us yet?"
Later on he suggests, In an
ironic vein. What of inserting
clause in the NCAA football Tv
contract stipulating that Mary
land and Navy open up with lots of
passing for the benefit of the
viewer?" There is more, but this
fairly well covers his argument.
/ Well, it is natural for any old
friend of broadcasting to be a
friend of the studio audience. It Is
complete nonsense. though. to
suggest that comedians are in the
same class with football games.
Football games. fights. jai alai
matches and such are staged for
q paying audience and the tele-
viewer doesn't have any right to
watch them unless some sponsor
pays his way in. Il
The entertainment program isl
something else. 1t is staged in al
ITV studio for the television audi
ence and it has no reason for be-
ing other than to entertain people
who own TV sets. II it is a spon-
sored program, it Is so because
the sponsor hopes to get his mess
age into several million living
rooms.
Nobody is going to pay that
price for Bob Hope or Jack Benny
just to sell cigarettes to 300 or S00I
people gathered in a TV theater.
IH the sponsor wants to get our
attention at home, the best way toI
get 1t is with q show designed for
us at home.
This doesn't mean that the
studio audience has to be elimi-
mated or deprived Of the free en-
tertainment for which it pays with
undue laughter. It means that
such as Hope and Benny ought
to treat that studio audience as
the secondary audience. Let them
use 1t for timing and pace If they
have to, but let them direct their
major efforts toward the cameras
eye instead Of projecting over our
shoulders all the time.
This wouldn't make 1t necessary
for Bob Hope to stare immobile at
the camera for 80 minutes. No
body could stand that. 1t does
mean, though. that man who
6purports to be talking to you but
lneyeT once looks, you in the eye
Is considered d pretty shifty char
acter and some TV comics will be
In q bad way when this thought
occurs to IA millions televiewers.
And Take That-Another note,
signed either Anonymous" or
Anxious" Gthough the latter
seems unlikely is more to the
point.
I'VE are really mad at your On
the Air write up, I really don't
think you like any one" it says.
Now. if you can think Of any,
thing that has been on telv. forI
some time just half a nice ast
Milton Berle's said it or let IT.
drop. If you don't enjoy him don't
look. We just can't wait for
Tues. night to come. We also Il
love Lucy. So you see nearly every
one likes Uncle Miltie 81 also love
Itelv."
Weekend Guests
Tomorrow-Ed Wynn, Dorothy
Lamour. Buster Keaton and Bob
Hope, on "All Star Reyue"l
tWNBW-8 p.m). Jeanette
Macdonald and Gene Raymond.
on 'The Ken Murray Show
(WTOP-TV-8 p.mJ. Patrice
MunSel, on the Sid Caesar -Imo-
gene Coca "Show Of Shows"
(WNBW-9 PM.
Sunday-Artist Norman Rock
well, on "The Sarah Churchill
Program" (WTOP-TV-5:45 p.m1
:. Jane Hutton, Louis Prima and
lMeribeth Old, on "Star Of the
Family" (WTOP-TV-6:30 p.m.).Y
Mimi Benzell, on 1.-THE Paul
Whiteman Revue" (WMAL-TV-I
7 p.mo. Harpo Marx and
Donald O'Connor, on 1.-THE Com
edy Hour" (WNBW-8 p.m.). I
Peter Lind Hayes and Mary Healy.
on Toast Of the Town" (WTOP-
Tvs pmD. BremwellI
Fletcher, in Flight to Freedom. "I
I'm 'Te1evisinn p1ovho,,eoD fxxyNTnyry