Which ones are you too young to remember? LOL
75th-anniversary Special Reminds US of CBS' Storied History Top Stories
November 02 4:05:00 AM EST
Live from New York's Hammerstein Ballroom, it's a three-hour shebang called "CBS at 75."
Hmm, this comes just 5 <SUP>1</SUP>/<SUB>2</SUB> years after a May 1998 special called "CBS: The First 50 Years."
You old dog, CBS. How'd you manage that? Simple. Add the audio-only years.
Sunday's star-studded presentation, kicking off the first full week of the November "sweeps," craftily uses 1928 for starters. That's the year in which founding father William S. Paley bought 16 radio stations and christened them the Columbia Broadcast System. Two decades later, CBS officially entered the television age with a national prime-time lineup that included "Riddle Me This," "Roar of the Rails," "Cap'n Billy's Mississippi Music Hall," "Kobbs Korner," "Toast of the Town" and its first big hit, "Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts."
Godfrey and Paley since have passed on, as have fellow CBS giants Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Edward R. Murrow, Ed Sullivan, Red Skelton, Jackie Gleason, Jack Benny, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Rod Serling, Danny Thomas, Phil Silvers, Garry Moore, Raymond Burr, Buddy Ebsen, Elizabeth Montgomery, Carroll O'Connor and numerous Lassies.
Still, it promises to be quite a turnout for Sunday's "rea-l-l-l-l-y big show," as Sullivan used to say. Even the Smothers Brothers are scheduled to reappear on a network that canceled their hit variety hour in 1969 for being too politically outspoken. The replacement show was "Hee Haw."
CBS' legacy otherwise is a case study in cream rising to the top. The so-called "Tiffany Network" long has been home to a succession of gold-standard programs and gilded stars. Let's name a few:
At least 12 surviving members of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame have said they'll be on hand Sunday night: They are: Carol Burnett, Walter Cronkite, Mary Tyler Moore, Don Hewitt, Mike Wallace, Andy Griffith, Alan Alda, Dick Van Dyke, Betty White, Ed Asner, Angela Lansbury and Tim Conway. That number would grow if Jean Stapleton, Norman Lear, Carl Reiner, Bob Newhart and Harvey Korman show up.
Not yet in the Hall of Fame, but deserving to be, are CBS stalwarts James Arness, Bob Barker, Larry Hagman, Pat Summerall and the aforementioned Smothers Brothers. Only Arness, 80, apparently will be unable to make it on Sunday night. David Letterman likewise should be in the Hall of Fame, although CBS would have to share him with NBC. In either case, he's not an announced participant Sunday night, which should surprise no one. Dave just doesn't do these things anymore, but maybe we'll see him on tape doing "The Top Ten Reasons Why CBS Should Be Proud of `The Dukes of Hazzard.'"
Since the birth of the Nielsen ratings system in 1950, CBS has had TV's No. 1-rated series in 28 of the 53 prime-time seasons. Here we go: "Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts," "I Love Lucy" (four times), "The $64,000 Question," "Gunsmoke" (four times), "The Beverly Hillbillies" (twice), "The Andy Griffith Show," "All in the Family" (five times), "60 Minutes" (five times), "Dallas" (three times), "Survivor" and "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" (likely to repeat this season).
CBS has the two most-watched telecasts of all-time. The Feb. 28, 1983, finale of "M(ASTERISK)A(ASTERISK)S(ASTERISK)H" was seen in 50.15 million homes. The "Who Shot J.R.?" episode of "Dallas," telecast on Nov. 21, 1980, has the runner-up spot with 41.47 million homes. Total viewer numbers, which weren't computed then, likely would more than double both totals.
You want signature TV characters? CBS has them in abundance. Lucille Ball as Lucy Ricardo. Carroll O'Connor as Archie Bunker. Jean Stapleton as Edith Bunker. Larry Hagman as J.R. Ewing. Buddy Ebsen as Jed Clampett. Mary Tyler Moore as Mary Richards. Ed Asner as Lou Grant. Ted Knight as Ted Baxter. Sherman Hemsley as George Jefferson. James Arness as Matt Dillon. Andy Griffith as Andy Taylor. Don Knotts as Barney Fife. Alan Alda as Hawkeye Pierce. Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher. Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden. Candice Bergen as Murphy Brown. Dick Van Dyke as Rob Petrie. Tom Selleck as Thomas Magnum. Richard Thomas as John Boy Walton. Bob Newhart as Bob Hartley and Dick Loudon. Raymond Burr as Perry Mason. Bea Arthur as Maude Findlay. Phil Silvers as Ernie Bilko. And if we must, Bob Denver as Gilligan.
Through it all, CBS has clung to the now-antiquated notion that network programming by and large is meant to entertain America at large, not just advertiser-craved 18- to 49-year-olds. In other words, it's the only network that dares to air "JAG," whose principal appeal is among viewers 50 years of age and older.
So as CBS turns 75, here's to its continued health. Can't wait for the 100th anniversary special. That should be three or four years from now.
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