Needless to say, this was one show that didn't go on, local Metromedia stations subbing it with movies from their libraries. The issue in which this listing appeared went on sale the Thursday following the national - indeed, global - tragedy. If nothing else, it was a sobering lesson to a still-grieving public on how far in advance the listings section of the Guide went to press.
The 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination this weekend is, naturally, being marked with various tributes, news specials and documentaries. Many will focus on the man, others on the event. Hopefully time will be taken as well to speak of the masterful job television did in covering that horrific day and its aftermath. At least one hard-boiled TV critic, on the day the Kennedy Awards were to have aired, took time to toss a bouquet to the medium that set aside its "vast wasteland" for four days and united a planet in sorrow and tried to expedite its first steps toward healing.
A few weeks later, TV Guide would more than atone for its unintended gaffe with a commemorative issue recounting everything that had transpired before our eyes.(A prior BLTT post looks at some of the programming that had been originally scheduled that weekend.)
I can only imagine how the publishers must have felt about that. But surely most people at the time must have understood, or not?
ReplyDeleteI think most people did, but I'm also sure it didn't negate the shock of seeing that listing. I was quite stunned to see it nearly fifty years later.
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