Evening star., 1954-05-19

Those daytime serials are eet.-
ting better than eUer."
the door is a matching window
and through it you also can see
a Manhattan skyline. The Van
Gleasons, you think, must be
well-isolated from society, forced
to reach their abode via a long,
narrow corridor. Then Reggie
departs and you can see that
there is wall just a few feet
beyond the door.
Clearly. Reggie Van Gleason
is a fake, phony playboy with
out an orgy to his name. He
spends his time between Satur-
day visits locked up in a closet.
DRAMA BATTLE "A three
way Thursday night fight for the
favors of the one-hour drama de-
voteeS is lining up for next au-
tumn. Already established in
the Thursday-at-9:30 pm. hour
is the ABC-TV (WMAL) version
of Kraft's "Television Theater."
NBC-TV will make it's move
to split this audience at the mid
point in September.
The NBC entry will be Lux's
"Video Theater," which will move
over from CHS and be extended
to an hour. To make room for
it, the network already has.
moved Foreign Intrigue" to
Wednesday at 1890 pm. and has
refused to renew Martin Kane"
for Thursdays at 10.
The third show in the same
field, just announced by CBS-
TV, happily will avoid direct
time conflict with the other two.
This will be a new program
sponsored by Chrysler, scheduled
to fill the 8:30-9:3O hour, start
ing in the fall. 1t will be dra-
matte three Thursdays out Of
four, with a musical-variety
extravaganza every fourth week.
Unprecedented is the word
CHS is applying to the new
Thursday series. It will feature
the greatest stage and screen
stars in their televiSion debuts,
and (Will be- written by the
worlds leading authors and
playwrights."
Says CBS-TV President j. L.
Van Volkenburg: I'VE believe
that each program in the weekly
series will be memorable hour
OF television entertainment. We
regard this forthcoming presen-
tation as a most important mile
stone in CHS Television'S con-
tinuing effort to bring the public
the highest levels of entertain
ment and information. :" Z
! X X Il
PROGRAM NOTES - WASH
ington's Betty Madigan has
another TV guest appearance
coming up, this one with NBC-
TVS Dave Garroway on Friday
night at 8. WMAL-TV's Mil.
ton @. Ford has a junior size
panel show in the works. It.
would have child paneliStS from
Z to IL trying to guess what
contestants in the same age
bracket would like to be when
they grow up. . That's a queS-
tion that might we'll be asked Of
some of the audience-partici-
pants on shows already on the
air
NBC-TV'S Comedy Hour" win
be missing some of its regulars
next season. -. Jimmy Durante
and Donald O'Connor have been
signed to alternate on Saturday
night 9:30-10 comedy show for
Texaco. Which sponsored
Milton Berle for five years until
the price got too. steep. The
! AlCW OOl dAlOC-O NOIlIIOI OIlOWO
will be on three weeks out of
four, the fourth undoubtedly
being reserved for MICS color
"spectacularS." Eddie Cantor,
who was on the first one, also
seems to have made his last
Comedy Hour" appearance this
week. Contracts aren't signed
for next season SO Cantor isn't
talking. But he does say he
won't be doing a variety show.
. He may claim he was mis-
quoted, but the report we have
says he hastens to add: "TV will
always have its variety shows,
and they must be very. very
good"