Tue 12 Apr 2016
TV Review: THE REPORTER “Extension Seven” (1964).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV Drama[17] Comments
THE REPORTER: “Extension Seven.” CBS, 60m, 25 September 1964 (Season 1, Episode 1). Cast: Harry Guardino (Danny Taylor), Gary Merrill (Lou Sheldon). Guest Cast: Rip Torn, Shirley Knight. Series created by Jerome Weidman. Writer-director: Tom Gries.
This was from all reports, a highly ambitious TV series, but it evidently didn’t catch on withe viewing public, since it ended in December the same year, with only 13 episodes aired.
This is the only episode I’ve been able to see. Others don’t seem to be around, or else I haven’t been looking hard enough. But based on this sample of size one, it was obvious that a lot of effort and talent was put into it. Harry Guardino plays a columnist/reporter for the New York Globe, while Gary Merrill is his city editor. I was reminded of an old-time radio show starring Frank Lovejoy called Night Beat, in which he comes across all kind of crooks and other people with problems, all grist for his column for a Chicago newspaper, but the basic idea I’m sure has been around for a long time.
According to Wikipedia, all kinds of big names (or soon-to-be big names) showed up in the 13 episodes: Nick Adams, Eddie Albert, Edward Asner, Dyan Cannon, Richard Conte, Herb Edelman, James Farentino, Anne Francis, Frank Gifford, Arthur Hill, Shirley Knight, Jack Lord, Archie Moore, Simon Oakland, Warren Oates, Claude Rains, Paul Richards, Robert Ryan, Pippa Scott, William Shatner, Barry Sullivan, Roy Thinnes, Daniel J. Travanti, Franchot Tone, Rip Torn, Jessica Walter, and Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.
In this the first episode, Rip Torn plays a nobody of a man who is encouraged by one of Danny Taylor’s columns to not not stand idly by when he sees a woman being seriously harassed by a gang of juvenile delinquents. For this he gets a knife in the stomach, and he blames Danny Taylor, whom he calls to vent his frustration and feelings.
Problem is, he will die if he doesn’t get medical attention, but he doesn’t know where he has found refuge, only the extension number on the phone. The hoods are also looking for him so they can finish off the job, which provides exactly the kind of suspense that makes a 60 minute program, including commercials, pass very quickly. On the other end of the line, while Danny is trying to have the call traced, is Shirley Knight, a copy girl for the paper and another lost soul, and a second kind of connection is made.
The script does get kind of preachy at times, especially when Merrill reminds Guardino that his job is not to feel guilty for getting the victim to risk his life on the basis of his newspaper column — Guardino seems to have been around long enough to not need a rookie reporter’s pep talk — but all in all, this was a top notch production that did what it was supposed too, keep the viewer’s eyes on the screen at all times.
April 12th, 2016 at 11:48 pm
This series has a legendary back story. Keefe Brasselle saved the CBS head James Aubrey from a Mafia hit (!). In exchange, Aubrey put three of Brasselle’s series straight on the air – no pilots.
This, plus The Cara Williams Show, and The Baileys of Balboa all flopped, and helped result in Aubrey’s ouster.
April 13th, 2016 at 12:20 am
I remember the series and never got through an episode. I didn’t like the look of the show which was a much like early live television, as intended. Lots of people must have agreed. Also thought Guardino’s character a bore. Gary Merrill worked a little better, but had little to do by comparison.
April 13th, 2016 at 8:02 am
Barry
You have put your finger on something that hadn’t quite gelled for me but makes a lot of sense, now that you have pointed it out. The show WAS a lot like early live TV, including being shown in black and white, but by 1964, the TV audience was ready to move on, and they did.
April 13th, 2016 at 1:06 am
Creator Jerome Weidman was a novelist and won the Pulitzer Prize For Drama for his work with the book for the Broadway musical FIORELLA!. (1960)
Tom Gries wrote and directed WILL PENNY. He won an Emmy for his directing on EAST SIDE/ WEST SIDE (1964) and GLASS HOUSE (1972).
There are episodes of THE REPORTER floating around the collector’s market with Robert’s Hard to find Video offering two episodes (“Rachel’s Mother” and “Extension Seven”) for $14.95.
I have not seen this series. It sounds too much like NBC’s 1962 series SAINTS AND SINNERS with Nick Adams as a reporter for a New York newspaper whose job gets him involved with people and the issues of the times.
April 13th, 2016 at 8:08 am
Michael
I knew there was an earlier TV with the same premise, but since I’ve never seen SAINTS AND SINNERS, I couldn’t come up with it. If that was on two years earlier, that’s another good reason as to why the TV audience in 1964 probably wasn’t interested in THE REPORTER.
April 13th, 2016 at 10:10 am
– The Reporter flopped in midyear for two major reasons:
– Twelve O’clock High on ABC.
– Jack Paar on NBC.
My recollection of the time was that Paar usually won the hour; his show went off that season, at his own behest (as Paar’s shows usually did).
– For the record, Saints and Sinners had a similar situation two years earlier: The Rifleman on ABC and Lucy and Danny Thomas on CBS.
So I don’t think genre was a major factor in either case.
– Given its behind-the-camera talents, I’d have guessed that CBS might have given The Reporter a little slack (such as a new timeslot), were it not for the Brasselle/Aubrey connection.
There were few people in TV who were as hated as Aubrey (with Brasselle a close second); had they produced the second coming of Playhouse 90, it would likely have met the same fate, for the same reason.
(Not that either of them would have, of course …)
– That “New York film” look that so many are mentioning was fairly commonplace, especially on CBS during this period; it didn’t seem to hurt Herbert Brodkin’s series any (The Defenders, The Nurses, et al.)
The incursion of color was increasing, but the deluge was still a year away.
So also, the increasing hegira to Hollywood and slickness.
Today, we notice the rough edges of NY-TV more, because they don’t exist anymore.
But when we were all younger and more innocent, we seemed to accept different styles and looks more easily.
My DVD wall here at home has many of these older shows, and I always find it necessary to “turn back the clock” in my mind, that I may have a better appreciation of what I’m looking at (context – it’s wonderful!).
April 13th, 2016 at 1:26 pm
The New York look in early TV was caused by most of the talent working in theatre. When TV production moved to Hollywood the talent was more experienced in film and it changed everything from the lighting to acting.
Here is an example of SAINTS AND SINNERS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FEhIn4rhoU
TV Obscurities has a great review of the series SLATTERY’S PEOPLE that aired in the same season of THE REPORTER. The review mentions THE REPORTER. Oct 31, 1961 TV GUIDE mention three CBS series in trouble due to low ratings. They were THE REPORTER, SLATTERY’S PEOPLE and MR. BROADWAY. Production was halted at 13 episodes for THE REPORTER and MR. BROADWAY with their fates hanging by the next ratings result.
THE REPORTER had everything against it including the critics attention. SLATTERY’S PEOPLE was the critics darling and the TV critics were focused on saving that series.
More from TV OBSCURITIES, the January 9th issue of TV GUIDE looked back at the start of the 1964-65 season and critics reactions. Only seven new shows received approval from the critics. Does anyone here – cough Mike Doran cough – have a copy of that TV GUIDE?
You can find the TV OBSCURITIES article here:
http://www.tvobscurities.com/articles/slatterys_people
The 64/65 and 65/66 seasons at CBS were chaotic at the top. Beyond the melodrama of how THE REPORTER got on the air there was total confusion in handling SLATTERY’S PEOPLE and it would continue next season with CORONET BLUE.
April 13th, 2016 at 3:37 pm
This was the season they tried to get away from cop and cowboy and went for more dramas that weren’t about tried and true things like crime reporters,firemen, and doctors, and the results were a number of very well produced and interesting series that too often felt dated, more like live television drama or radio drama or even movies than television. This one reminds me a bit of -30- the film.
Over the years Hollywood tried this again and again with varying degrees of success, LOU GRANT, EAST SIDE WEST SIDE, THE TRIALS OF O’BRIEN (which has the distinction that the novelization was by Ed McBain), THEN CAME BRONSON, a whole spate of them in the seventies trying for relevance. In general none of them lasted that long. Some might be a platform for a breakout star or producer, some an outlet for a famous name wanting to be associated with something classier, some spun off from another less revolutionary series. They almost all failed.
In general tried and true won out, cowboys, cops, lawyers, doctors, and comedies with a few of the more childish science fiction outings like VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA having a decent run if positioned early enough, and a couple of spy series doing well.
Just in general though drama that didn’t involve cops, doctors, or lawyers didn’t last too long with exceptions like EMERGENCY (which was in part at least a medical show). Even series like TWELVE O’CLOCK HIGH and COMBAT were action oriented to an extent no matter how much high octane drama they managed to pack into the series.
Once the era of live television ended hard hitting drama seemed to fade with it. They kept trying, but it seldom seemed to last more than a couple of seasons at most no matter how much critical attention it got.
Guardino was a fine actor, but never seemed to fare well as a lead and Gary Merrill had little to do here. And while that list of guest stars is impressive, at the time this was made they were mostly in the categories of hadn’t made it yet, familiar at the time, or on the way down.
I don’t recall enough episodes of this to know if it was a central character oriented series or if it was a platform for the guest stars with the central character mostly on the fringe of the story. At the time series were usually either about the central characters (PETER GUNN, most of the private eye series, HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL, BONANZA …) or semi anthology series like WAGON TRAIN where the central characters were often on the periphery of the story. This was right at the point the semi anthology series started to lose ground, with THE FBI one of the few to hang on very long. Today no one does the semi anthology series anymore and all series are about the central characters.
April 13th, 2016 at 7:55 pm
Just happened to have the TV GUIDE with the critics survey.
January 9-15, 1965 (Cast of BROADSIDE on the cover).
Numerical breakdown:
Mostly favorable: seven (7) series.
More favorable than not: six (6) series.
Evenly split: four (4) series.
Generally unfavorable: sixteen (16) series.
That comes out to 13W, 16L, 4T.
I could go into more detail later, if you like …
Mr. Vineyard:
I also have on hand the novelization of Trials Of O’Brien.
I’ve got it in my hand, right now.
Its author was Robert L. Fish.
Just so you know …
April 13th, 2016 at 8:30 pm
Mike, my vote is definitely in favor of you telling us more.
1963 to 1965 and a few years beyond is really for me a black hole in time, as far as what was on TV is concerned. I was too busy trying to adapt to grad school as well as married life, and what was on television didn’t register at all.
I have never heard of BROADSIDE at all. I had to look it up.
April 13th, 2016 at 9:28 pm
Here’s a copy of the TV GUIDE that Mike has:
April 13th, 2016 at 9:39 pm
9. Mike, did the TV GUIDE name names – who was the 7 favorable?
10. Steve, BROADSIDES can be seen at YouTube. I can leave a link if you are curious.
April 13th, 2016 at 10:32 pm
OK, here’s the list:
Division One (Mostly Favorable):
Slattery’s People
World War I
The Rogues
12 O’clock High
Flipper
Jonny Quest
Kentucky Jones
Division Two (More favorable than not):
Bewitched
The Bing Crosby Show
The Munsters
Gomer Pyle, USMC
The Man From UNCLE
The Tycoon
Division Three (Evenly divided):
Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea
My Living Doll
The Entertainers
The Addams Family
Division Four (Mostly unfavorable):
Everything else, but some of the bigger blasts were reserved for Gilligan’s Island, Peyton Place, and the Brasselle Trio (the Aubrey story was starting to get around).
I should have put this at the top:
This was a survey of 22 TV critics, according to whether or not they liked the new shows.
There weren’t rankings as such; the high score would have been 22, the low score zero. Quotes were chosen mainly for snark value (Gilligan and Peyton really brought out the savagery in some people).
I was in high school when I first read this, and it was my first real lesson in the general incompetence of television critics, particularly at the daily newspaper level.
April 13th, 2016 at 11:46 pm
I enjoyed Wikipedia look at James “Smiling Cobra” Aubrey. It also had an interesting note about THE REPORTER. According to the LA TIMES (September 11, 1994) mentioned THE REPORTER was $450,000 over budget after nine episodes.
The times were changing in TV. Hollywood escapism was replacing the serious social conscious drama from those trained on the New York stage. Stars from the 50s such as Jack Benny and Gary Moore were on their way out. Yet Lucy returned with some success. CBS dominated TV in ratings for prime-time despite the turmoil in the New York network office and Hollywood’s hatred for Aubrey.
Government involvement was growing with the success of TV, the country’s newest form of mass media.
Like any season there were some great programs. BONANZA was number one in ratings. I was ten and remember watching series such as MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E., BRANDED, RED SKELTON HOUR, BURKE’S LAW, THE JIMMY DEAN SHOW, and THE ADDAMS FAMILY. There was quality TV such as DICK VAN DYKE SHOW, THE FUGITIVE and THE DEFENDERS. There was series still fondly remembered today such as ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW. BEWITCHED, PERRY MASON, JONNY QUEST and GILLIGAN’S ISLAND.
April 14th, 2016 at 3:27 pm
Thanks, everyone, for a great discussion on network TV in the mid-60s. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I learned a lot.
April 20th, 2016 at 5:08 am
Kindness to GOMER PYLE while pretending even GILLIGAN’S ISLAND was worse is indeed evidence of utter incompetence as a critic.
May 20th, 2021 at 11:39 pm
Glowing article on ‘Night Beat’ and ‘Johnny Dollar’ (OTRR)
https://www.greatdetectives.net/detectives/night-beat/
I didn’t know Edmond O’brien was in the pilot episodes of ‘Night Beat’. His character not even named ‘Randy Stone’ but (something like) “-Mitchell”