Television Today rr1/20260912_120825

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## HEADING: Television Today
And now a radio series
by Harold Schindler
Tribune Television Editor

When Sears Roebuck & Co. pulled its multi-million dollar advertising budget from television last year, complaining that it could no longer support the kind of "jiggle" programming that was raising the ire of parent groups across the country, the networks had little time to ponder where that cash flow would eventually wind up.

The huge department store chain left television and smiled upon radio. Before a dozen months had gone by "Sears Radio Theater" was a reality and— spurred by the success of Illean Brown's remarkably popular "CBS Radio Mystery Theater," which airs seven nights a week with original drama — announced it would inaugurate a package of five programs a week, each night offering a different dramatic genre, hosted by a different celebrity.

PREMIERE WEEK begins Monday (in this area on KSL-Radio at 8:06 p.m.) with Lorne Greene scheduled to lead off with westerns. The first of the hour-long programs will star John McIntire and Jeanette Nolan in a play entitled "Retribution."

Word in the trade has it that John Wayne had been approached to take the job as host on Western nights, but that his recent illness forced Sears to look elsewhere, settling on Greene for the role.

Tuesdays will be devoted to comedy, and the host for that night will be Andy Griffith. The opening play will be "And Baby Makes Four," starring Elliott Reed and Mary Jane Croft.

VINCENT PRICE is the host for Wednesdays when mystery is the theme; the first being "Hostages," starring Shephard Menken and Virginia Gregg.

The Thursday theme is to be a "love-hate" format, with Cicely Tyson as host and Fletcher Markle starring in "Hildy."

RICKARD WIDMARK will host all Friday adventure dramas, the premiere script will deal with a plane crash in the African jungle, starring Dane Clark and Hans Conried in "The Choosing."

While Sears Radio Theater debuts this week on KSL-Radio, "CBS Radio Mystery Theater" and its host E. G. Marshall will continue their nightly performance, but in a new time period at 10:35 p.m.

Obviously radio drama and its amazing recovery in a world of image-orthicon tubes and "Gong Show" tastes, proves that audiences are finding that imagination and theater of the mind are more exciting than the bludgeon strokes of something like "S.W.A.T."

Illean Brown, whose radio programs of the 1930s through the late 1950s captivated millions of listeners with such long-running hits as "Inner Sanctum," "Grand Central Station," and "The Thin Man," believes there is no other form of theater that can engage the imagination so completely."

He has pointed to Madison Avenue short-sightedness as the cause of radio's woes over the past decade. "Madison Avenue," he said, "withdrew its financial support for this type of radio programming in 1959 and we quickly became a generation of starers."

An exponent of "sound," Brown took out a copyright on the creak of a door ("Inner Sanctum") because it conveys a "whole world of feeling and emotion to listeners."

IIIS DICTUM: "We're going to tell you a story, not show you a story," is the key to success for "CBS Radio Mystery Theater," and now millions of dollars in Sears money is riding on the conviction that Brown has correctly anticipated the return of radio drama to the American scene.
tv

SEARS RADIO THEATER

## RIGHT COLUMN
REEL 1485. SEARS RADIO THEATER Mondays: Westerns. Host: Lorne Greene
(60) SEARS RADIO THEATER "Retribution" w/John McIntire & Jeanette Nolan. 2/5/79
{55} SEARS RADIO THEATER "Leavin' Cheyenne" w/John Dehner. 2/12/79
(55) SEARS RADIO THEATER "Final Fall" w/Hm. Shallert & Parley Bear. 2/19/79
(55) SEARS RADIO THEATER "The Afro Westerner" w/Brock Peters. (no prologue) 2/26/79
{55} SEARS RADIO THEATER "The Lady & the Outlaw" w/Antoinette Bower & Lynn Birman. 3/5/79
(55) SEARS RADIO THEATER "Powder River Policy" w/John Larch & Sam Edwards. 3/12/79

REEL 1486. SEARS RADIO THEATER Tuesdays: Comedy. Host: Andy Griffith
(60) SEARS RADIO THEATER "And Baby Makes Four" w/Elliott Reed & Mary Jane Croft. 2/6/79
{55} SEARS RADIO THEATER "Should Old Acquaintance be Forgot?" w/Eve Arden. 2/13/79
(55) SEARS RADIO THEATER "The Troublemaker" w/Jim Jordan. 2/20/79
(55) SEARS RADIO THEATER "The Care & Feeding of a Sex Symbol" w/Alan Young. 2/27/79
{55} SEARS RADIO THEATER "Wanda" w/Russi Taylor & Lynn Birman. 3/6/79
(55) SEARS RADIO THEATER "Where Guardian Angels Fear to Tread" w/Olan Soule; Jesse White & Jean Gillespie. 3/13/79

REEL 1487. SEARS RADIO THEATER Wednesdays: Mystery. Host: Vincent Price
(60) SEARS RADIO THEATER "Hostages" w/Shephard Menken & Virginia Gregg 2/7/79
{55} SEARS RADIO THEATER "The 13th Governess" w/IHoward Duff. 2/14/79
(55) SEARS RADIO THEATER "The Ouiji Spells Murder" w/Luise Heath & Joan McCall. 2/21/79
(60) SEARS RADIO THEATER "Wanda" w/Russi Taylor & Lynn Birman. 2/28/79
{55} SEARS RADIO THEATER "Carmilla" w/Antoinette Bower & Ann Givin. 3/7/79
(60) SEARS RADIO THEATER "Going Home" w/Ann Givin & Jack Kuschen. 3/14/79

REEL 1488. SEARS RADIO THEATER Thursdays: Love/Hate. Host: Cicely Tyson
(60) SEARS RADIO THEATER "Hildy" w/Fletcher Markle. 2/8/79
{55} SEARS RADIO THEATER "This Home is Dissolved" w/Peter Leeds & Linda Kay Henning; Lureen Tuttle & Marvin Miller. 2/15/79
(60) SEARS RADIO THEATER "No Greater Dream" w/Fletcher Markle & Peggy Wever. 3/8/79
{55} SEARS RADIO THEATER "Sometime Every Summertime" w/Mary Jane Croft. 3/15/79
(55) SEARS RADIO THEATER "

REEL 1489. SEARS RADIO THEATER Fridays: Adventure/Dramas w/Richard Widmark
(60) SEARS RADIO THEATER "The Choosing" (Pre-empted) w/Dane Clark & Hans Conried. 2/9/79
{55} SEARS RADIO THEATER "Climb" w/Vic Parren & Steven Marco. 2/16/79
(55) SEARS RADIO THEATER "And Then there were None" w/Kleith Andes. 2/23/79
(55) SEARS RADIO THEATER "The McGuffey Connection" w/Hm. Shallert & Peggy Weber. 3/2/79
{55} SEARS RADIO THEATER "The Tough Guy" w/John Dehner & Nancy Belle Fuller. 3/9/79
(55) SEARS RADIO THEATER "The Rath of Zeus" w/Mary Jane Croft & Vic Perrin 3/16/79