Evening star., 1951-09-11
On the Air
| Saturday
Night Gets
New Look
By Horry Macarthur

sI ''S~SN's'Ss
This past week end must have
been a happy one in the homes of
of the summer recruits to tele-
vision. 1t must have been quite
a relief to know that there is
more to Saturday night than girls
baseball and aged-on- shelf
movies.
NBC-TV came charging back
into the game, obviously refreshed
and prepared to make it tough for
the competition. Its Saturday
night lineup. with the hour long
"All-Star- Revue" at and the
hour-and-a- half "Show of Shows"
at shows glittering promise for
the season to come.
Some one at NBC-TV, though,
remains thoroughly convinced that
the Nations TV homes are full of
people eagerly awaiting pictures of
people in a New York theater
cheering because they were told to
cheer. Some one somewhere should
tell some one at NBC-TV that it
isn't so.
This is. in fact, a great waste
Of time. "All-Star Revue" treated
us not only to pictures of its
happy audience, but also to pic
lures of the outside of the theater
before the show, a questionable
form of entertainment.
One of the minor advantages of
television is that it may be seen
without the trouble of getting
dressed up and going downtown.
If television is going to put us
through the trip to the theaterI
anyhow, we might as well pull
on our shoes and face the real
thing at the movies.
There probably is calculated
plan back of these continuing ap-
pearanceS of audiences in our liv-
ing rooms, a plan to take ad-
vantage of mans gregarious in
stinct, the feeling for being enter
tanned in a group, which keeps
the movies going. 1t is quite
possible. however, that it may not
work out this way. Showing a
man a picture of something will
not satisfy his appetite for It,,
the telemoguls may find, and may,
in fact. irritate him considerably
Enchanted Evening-With this
snarl Git might just be the hay
lfever) out of the way, we can
turn to pleasanter thoughts.
Some of these ought to concern
Ezio Pinza's television debut on
"All-Star Revue" a show which
abounded in high spirits and
talent. 1t was the happy thought
of some one that a show built
around Mr.. Pima ought to be
well-f1avored with Pima songs
and this one, accordingly, was.
The zest for life with which Pima
set the women to sWooning when
he was in South Pacific" comes
through on television, too, and
he'll be welcome back any time
NBC wants to arrange the visit.
Pinza's supporting cast Satur-
day night included Jane Froman,
Ed Wynn, Ben Blue, Valerie Belts
and Olsen and Johnson, on the
set, and, on film, Jimmy Durapte
and Jack Carson. Miss Froman
was in fine voice, Mr.. Wynn was
in happy fettle, Ben Blue contrib
uted a hilarious opera-box sketch
in pantomime, and the films of
Durante and Carson served their
purpose by making you look for
ward eagerly to their return.
Along about midway of this af-
fair, Pima and Miss Belts took
advantage of a romantic setting
and mood to deliver a satirical
commercial which was funnier
than most of the non-commercial
comedy skits seen during the
summer.
II **
Welcome, Autumn-Sid Caesar
and Imogene Coca returned last
week to help brighten the NBC
Saturday night, too. They came
back in midseason form, display
ing the same zest and slick pro-
duction which made this one of
the better shows on the TV air
last season.
Ceasar and Miss Coca were fine
in their portrayals of married
couple, after seeing a sad movie,
visiting a tropical night club, etc.
The opener on Your Show of
Shows" was, in fact, loaded with
Ientertainment-songs by Mar
guerite Piazza, more songs by the
Billy Williams Quartet, still more
by Judy Johnson, Jack Russell
and Bill Hayes, DAMAGES by the
Hamilton Trio and by Mata and
Hari and soloeS by the stars.
Miss Coca's ballet performance
this year is a version of Sleeping
Beauty which might we'll put an
end to ballet and Ceasar was top
notch in his impersonation of
Iloud-mouth trying to cheer