Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Forgotten TV: TWTWTW
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057789/
That Was The Week That Was was on telly in Britain around 1962-63 and in the US in 1964-65. David Frost did the original. Steve Allen was part of the US version. The show looked at current events in a satirical way. Not sure why the runs were short. Perhaps shows like LAUGH-IN were more entertaining a year or two later.
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I remember watching THAT WAS THE WEEK THAT WAS during its brief run. It was a program ahead of its time. Now we have Jon Stewart and Cobert.
I remember it too. Later on the Brits did the satirical Not the Nine O'Clock News with Pamela Stephenson and Rowan Atkinson, among others. HBO did the American version, Not Necessarily the News.
Jeff M.
Tom Leher did some great songs for the show. I sketch sticks in my mind: David Frost reporting "live" when the Queen walked off a pier -- "...and the queen is wearing..."
"One sketch." Not "I sketch." Cursed fumble fingers!
Indeed, I was going to mention that David Frost was in the US version, too...and that "our" TW3 had a more lasting legacy than did LAUGH-IN (outside of MTV), despite the Rowan and Martin show having a sustained success...Tom Lehrer's showcase alone...Satire is what annoys network chiefs when they want to go hang out with their buddies in politics and other big business...see THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS COMEDY HOUR and even, hard as it is believe, Norm MacDonald's WEEKEND UPDATE on SNL...
One reason, as I remember it, that the show went off the air is that the Goldwater campaign bought the half hour of time on NBC that the show was on week after week except for one week in which the show spent the entire time lambasting Barry Goldwater.
TW3, as it was called here in the USA, ran into trouble almost from the beginning, because Jack Paar hated it.
The original tmeslot was on Friday night, just before Paar's primetime show, and Jack constantly complained about the "weak lead-in" he was getting from TW3. In turn, TW3 mercilessly made fun of Paar's vanity and egomania.
When NBC picked up TW3 for a second season, they moved it to Tuesday nights in deference to Paar; this led to Henry Morgan loudly quitting the show, along with many of the regular players.The budget was reallocated to adding color, and the Republican National Commitee made things worse by buying up the least expensive timeslot on NBC.
Oh and the reason that it was the least expensive timeslot:
TW3's competition was Petticoat Junction on CBS and Peyton Place on ABC.
Those were just some of the reasons.
During the show's first season, TV Guide ran an article covering the production of one week's show, depicting the fractious nature of the show and its players, Henry Morgan in particular.
The piece was written by a freelancer named Peter Bogdanovich.
(Whatever happened to him, anyway?)
Ha, Mike. Interesting indeed. Paar was certainly a prima donna but my mother sure loved him.
My mother in law loved Paar. I couldn't stand him.
Jeff M.
I think that sort of host had lost its luster by the time we came along.
Oprah Winfrey, Patti.
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