Evening star., 1952-02-04
On the Air
.'GoIdberqs'
Have More
Troubles
By Horry Macarthur

The little tflalS Inc do1uOefsS
suffer in their Bronx apartment
|are small ones indeed alongside
the troubles they have in the cold,
|cruel world Of television. The
latest blow felt by the program,
which has ranked close to the
top among popular non-teleVised
|TV shows this season, is the loss
of one and possibly two of three
new sponsors before 1t could get
back on the air.
The return was. and apparently
still is, scheduled for tonight at
'7:15 on NBC-Tv (WNBW), with
''The Goldbergs'' to be Monday,
Wednesday. Friday feature. This,
you will remember, is the quarter
hour the network Topped of Of the
''Kukla. Fran and Ollie" time to
keep. it explained. that program
on as many stations as possible.
It appears now that NBC may
have been right all along about
what might have happened to
'K-F-O" if too much Of it had
been dispatched to the stations on
"a sustaining basis. '"The Bob and
Ray Show at any rate, despite
some enthusiastic admirers OF the
.off-beat and sometimes subtle
comedy of Messrs. Elliott and
Goulding, wasn't enough to hold
the time for the network.
II NBC wasn't going to sell that
7:15 quarter -hour. the individual
station bosses reasoned, they might
as we'll sell it locally. Many OF
them did just that and that is why
some intended sponsors Of 'The
Goldbergs" bowed out before the
program bowed back in. The time
couldn't be cleared on enough sta
tions.
MICS plans for "The Gold
bergs" aren't known as yet, but 1t
wouldn't be too surprising If a
new spot on the schedule was
sought. Once a time period slips
away from network control like
this, the web has a hard time get
ting it back, for simple economic
reason. The fee an individual sta
ton collects for network show is
less than the fiat card rate it
charges for the same time sold on
a local basis.
II 4 =
This Marvellous Age-Science is
rampant (oh, rampant. at the
very least) around NBC-TV these
days.
Item: MICS Engineering De-
velopment Group, at the request
of the Special Effects Department,
has developed "gun shot rein
forcer." Starting this week it will
be plugged into the line carrying
the sound portion of TV programs
requiring gunfire. to make sure
electronically that guns go BAN!
and not pop.
Item: Dave Garroway. who used
to learn his lines in advance OF
a television show. used to wear
horn-rimmed glasses which were
all horn rim and no glass. On
Today" however. he is forced to
do a lot of reading, so is forced
to wear glasses with lenses. Science
has not let him down. His glasses
now are coated with something
called silicon which cuts down
the glare and makes them look
like horn-rimmed glasses that are
all horn rim and no glass.
Item: "Howdy Doody Time" will
celebrate it's 1,000th telecast on
February II, with Bob Smith in
New York and Howdy Doody 5000
miles away In Hollywood. Since
it is Mr.. Smiths voice you hear
when Howdy Doody's mouth
moves, the NBC Engineering De-
partment is preparing to set
long distance record in ventrilo-
quiSm which should stand Tor
years.
II 4 y Il
Reassurance-The young Of the
land can relax. Roy Rogers at
tendance at the Fat Stock Show
in Houston, Tex, is only for
purposes of relaxation, or pos
sibly publicity and the earning of
a buck. He is not there, at any
rate, to dispose of any fat palo-
mino stock named Trigger. He had
an offer for Trigger. his publicity
people did not try very hard to
keep secret, of 100000. but Roy
is a cool man in a crisis. Said he:
II couldn't sell Trigger because
I know that Trigger is not mine
to sell. He belongs to the kids.
too"
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