Evening star., 1952-01-17
On the Air
TVS 'Irmo'
FoiIed By
Her Writer
By Hory Macarthur

|pie as an idea, even if it doesn'
work out well with unripe crab
apples.
MY Friend Irma" fWTOP-Ty
Tuesday, 1890 p.m.) has al
solid a comedy foundation OF
television as it had on radio. /
has Marie Wilson to. play tn,
typical beautiful-but-dumb blon,
Ief fiction, whose heart is as larg,
as her brain is minute. It ha
Cathy Lewis to play the sensible
roommate whose cross is he
friend Irma. >....-
Both of them have been playinl
these roles for some time on tn,
radio and both Of them play then
equally well before the cameras
Miss Wilson is often q great de.
light as she demonstrates that 9
girl that lack-witted can be vastly
appealing, too, and Miss Levi.
lends just the right slight shade
OF the sardonic to her suffering
of the trials her friend puts hel
through.
These two leading players have
made the transition to televisior
much more gracefully than any.
thing else about MY Friend
Irma." The reason for this i.
somewhat elusive, perhaps, but
it probably has something to de
with the fact that the same
things aren't always funny or
radio and television.
Irma's boy friend, for instance
is q comic figure when he's repre-
sented by dialogue alone, but or
television he's an unmitigated
boor and bore. The visual medium
is such a literal one, while radio
drama Of any sort puts the lis
tener's imagination to work. When
your mind fills in the details, you
have to call yourself a liar to dis
believe them. Television lays the
details right there on the line
for you to believe or disbelieve.
This factor affects the plot con-
trivances Of q show like "My
Friend Irma." too. You will ac-
cept things from radio that you
won't accept from television. What
sounds funny, possibly because its
only half real to start with, be-
comes plain outlandish when il
assumes enough reality to be seen
That. at any rate, is how this
weeks my Friend Irma's" epi-
sode looked to one observer. The
situation isn't too serious, though
since a talented theater artisan
named Richard Whorf is the
producer-director of the TV
series. 1t seems safe enough to
depend on him to straighten
things out. 2
H* 4 n 2
Prophet-"Part of the nature
of the Workshop is that well fall
fiat on our faces now and then.
It was a couple of weeks ago that
Producer Norris Houghtnn uttered
these words and it was last Sun
day night that Mr.. .Houghton
turned out to be a prophet. when
the Columbia Television5 Work
shop" made its debut (WTOP-TV
Sunday, 4 p.m). Flat on its
face is where the Workshop ended
up at the conclusion of its drama
tizatipn y Of Cervantes' Don
Quixote.s with Boris Karloff and
Jimmy Savo in leading roles.
Before Don Quixote" was tele-
vised there were reservations
based on the problem OF turning
such a lengthy work into a half
hour TV program. but a wait-and-
see attitude was the general one
The walters saw, on Sunday
night. that not even the essence
of Don Quixote" can be distilled
into such a small container, or al
least that it was not.
This is not meant to imply
that the 'Television Workshop
was not welcome and is not q
worthy enterprise. It is definitely
both Of Trustworthy and vel
come. The costs of television
production being what they are
the tendency to follow an es-
tahlshed pattern is even greater
than in radio, which leads ma
turally to mediocrity. Television
needs this laboratory even more
than radio needed 1t.
Mr.. Hougl1ton, however, seemed
to be going over ground already
covered on Sunday. His use OF
close-ups was effective. but far
from experimental, since a num-
Der of TV directors already have
learned their value In small
screen drama. His special effects
as tiny toy windmills
turning Solemnly in ierky pre-
cision-were so obviously special
effects that they distracted rather
than added to the proceedings.
Still. it Is another part of the
nature Of the Workshop that an
experiment which doesn't come
OF means only that the premises
will be cleaned out for another
brave attempt. And, indeed, il
this opening show proved to Mr.
Houghton and his associates thai
you lose something the size o1
Don Quixote" trying to tell il
in one half-hour, it wasn't a totaI
loss.
This doesn't seem to have beer
a very cheerful way to say it, but
anyhow, welcome aboard, "Tele.
vision Workshop"
n X n II
Father Knows What? - Pub
|licity release from NBC: Robert
Young. star of NBC radios Father