Wednesday, October 25, 2017

What's On TV Tonight (Mondays 1971)?


Cynthia Lowry, the AP's crisp and oft-crispy TV-radio writer, mostly panned the fifth-season opener of Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In: "some signs of fatigue, or maybe age ... slowed to a walk ... diminished." She bolstered her point with detail on the appearance of Martha/Mrs. U.S. attorney general John Mitchell: "Replying to a question about her husband's reaction to her activity, she replied, 'John and I have an understanding--I don't tell him how to run the Justice Department and he doesn't tell me how to run the rest of the world.' It sounded more like something from a comedy writer's typewriter than native Mitchell wit." I love Cynthia Lowry.

Also, I like Arnie a good bit.



And, of course, I love Here's Lucy , which opened with Flip Wilson as its first guest star. He portrayed Butterfly McQueen in a little-theater production of Gone With the Wind. Here's how CBS promoted each of its Monday-night season openers.


That Stand Up and Cheer thing is actually syndicated. I could see myself getting into it.



Of course, my TV attention is pretty much sucked up by one show on Monday nights in the fall.


The Oct. 25, 1971, game is a doozy: the 4-1 Baltimore Colts at the 4-1 Minnesota Vikings.


61 comments:

  1. It's stunning just how silent the moment of silence really is in Metropolitan Stadium for Chuck Hughes at the outset of this Monday-night game. From a United Press International byline by Richard L. Shook:

    Chuck Hughes was headed to the Detroit Lions' huddle with 63 seconds left to play Sunday when he broke stride and collapsed. Fifty minutes after the game ended, his teammates, silent and weeping, learned of his death. Hughes, a 28-year-old reserve wide receiver who saw little action this season, was stricken with an apparent heart attack or major blood vessel rupture. An autopsy was scheduled for today. Hughes was the fifth fatality in professional football's history.

    Three plays and 36 seconds of playing time before he was stricken Hughes had made a clutch catch of 32 yards to give the losing Lions a first down in a game they eventually lost to the Chicago Bears, 28-23. Hughes was caught between two defenders, Bob Jeter and Garry Lyle, but routinely ran his pass routes twice before being stricken.

    The time of death was fixed at 4:41 p.m., exactly 50 minutes after the game ended. But Dr. Edwin R. Guise, one of the Lions' team physicians, said he was unconscious when the other doctor arrived on the field. "He was a healthy young man and showed an intermittent response . . . finally his body could take it no longer, there was no longer any respiration by 4:41. In that time he had been without adequate circulation to the brain for approximately one hour," Guise said, "and resuscitation attempts were stopped at that time."

    ... Distraught players filed from the silent Detroit clubhouse on hearing the news. Placekicker Errol Mann and tight end Charlie Sanders both wept openly.

    Hughes is survived by his widow, Sharon Leah, and 23-month-old son, Brendon shane. A Philadelphia native, Hughes was one of 13 children in a family which moved (o Texas where he gathered football fame at Texas-El Paso. Funeral details were incomplete.


    Rest in peace, Charles Frederick "Chuck" Hughes.

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  2. One of my favorite things about watching these NFL71 telecasts is that it looks like the NFL of NFL Strategy. The action looks like the action depicted on the play cards in that game, and the crazy plays--the flea-flicker, the maximum blitz, etc.--are run about as frequently/infrequently as one would be wise to run them in NFL Strategy.

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  3. Another of my favorite things about watching these NFL71 telecasts is that it's like watching the DVD deleted scenes without the score for NFL Films movies.

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  4. The Vikings take a 7-0 lead on the Colts. Ed Sharockman jumped in front of Eddie Hinton to intercept Earl Morrall, and then Gary Cuozzo lofted to Stu Voight behind Mike Curtis to advance to the Baltimore 2. Then Dave Osborn ran in, and Fred Cox kicked the extra point.

    Don Meredith is pretty gentle on the quarterbacks in these NFL Monday Night Football broadcasts. It honestly doesn't feel like he's scared to hurt his friends' feelings; rather, he really does bring the perspective of someone who understands the different things that a quarterback is dealing with that might contribute to his making a mistake. So, for example, Meredith pointed out the hesitancy in "Earl's" intercepted throw but also acknowledged the pocket pressure he was under. This is not a particularly good example of what I'm talking about, but, whatever, I didn't remember Meredith being as good at this as what he is.

    By the way, I think Tony Romo is fantastic as a commentator. I've watched football for 45 years, anyway, and I had never heard such good information on the quarterback's responsibility for missed blocking assignments as what Romo pointed out in the course of the NFL17 Dolphins' debacle Thursday night. I thought Romo was an awfully good quarterback, but I think he absolutely has the potential to be the best analyst. Now I get his career change.

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  5. So, the Vikings are 4-1, ahead of 4-2 Chicago and Detroit in the NFC Central. The Colts are 4-1, ahead of 4-1-1 Miami in the AFC East. At this point, one could expect the NFC wild card to come out of the East (5-1 Washington or 4-2 Dallas) or West (4-1-1 Los Angeles or 4-2 San Francisco), and the AFC, from the West (5-1 Kansas City or 5-1 Oakland). So this is pretty darned crucial Week 6 game with regard to the postseason.

    Early in the second quarter, Jim O'Brien comes up short on a field-goal try from the 45-yard line. It's O'Brien's first miss in 12 tries this season, coming off his game-winner in Super Bowl V. As Frank Gifford goes to commercial, you can actually (clearly) hear someone yelling (to Colts coach Don McCafferty, presumably), "THAT'S AN AWFUL LONG WAY TO KICK A FIELD GOAL!" Maybe it was Jim O'Brien's dad.

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  6. And now here's Ralph Malph for Schick razors.

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  7. In the same way that it has been lost to history how highly Ken Anderson was thought of as a quarterback throughout the 1970s and much of the '80s, it is nearly forgotten just how much of a disruptive force 6-foot-7 Ted "The Mad Stork" Hendricks was as an outside linebacker in the same time period. Go and tell all the children.

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  8. No wonder Jerry and Bob are going to be so off the chain for these Monday-prime-time broadcasts of professional football on The Bob Newhart Show starting next TV72 season--this is a freaking great television program.

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  9. Wow ... here's an ABC News special report on some stuff going on in the United Nations regarding "Red" China's membership. I didn't quite follow the reporter's story, but I know the vote did not go the United States' way. I'm about to start a big take-out article on China in the Collier's yearbook covering 1971, so this is quite timely for me.

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  10. Now Baltimore is back to the Minnesota 39, and this time, instead of sending on Jim O'Brien, the Colts go for the first on fourth down. Tom Matte hurdles for the necessary one or two yards, and this ensues a bunch of a praise for Tom Matte. Apparently like every other middle-aged football fan in 1971, per my experience, Frank Gifford and Don Meredith are over the moon for Tom Matte.

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  11. You know what else I'm doing in addition to watching this YouTube broadcast and playing at the HP right now? I'll tell you what else I'm doing--nothing. And it is fantastic.

    I used to write a lot of poetry. I really did. And I do still love it, but I don't often do it these days. But I did write a poem a couple of weeks ago, and here it is:

    Thing
    Thing
    Done
    Done
    Thing
    Done
    Thing
    Thing
    Done
    Thing
    Done
    Done
    Done
    Thing
    Thing
    Thing
    Thing
    Done
    Thing
    Thing
    Done


    For now, I'm calling it "Another Day That the Lord Has Made."

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  12. Everybody went crazy about Gary Cuozzo a couple of years ago when he subbed for Johnny Unitas at the end of a Colts season and threw for a bunch of touchdown passes. And it looked like he was going to be the guy around whom the expansion Saints were going to be built, but that didn't work out at all. So then he got to Minnesota, but he couldn't beat out Joe Kapp, who flashed across the Viking sky like the Northern Lights. And then Jim Finks went out and got Norm Snead from Philadelphia when Kapp and the Vikes split in a huff. Some the Chicago Tribume lamely quoted some anonymous Minnesota assistant coach as "a Joe Kapp who can throw," so I figured Snead was going to be Bud Grant's guy in NFL71. But, alas, here's Cuozzo on prime-time television, against his old team.

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  13. Now here's Howard Cosell going on about Matte's playing quarterback that one season. Have you ever heard that one? Of course you have if your dad or uncle or Algebra II teacher or Scoutmaster or Sunday-school superintendent or whoever was of a certain age.

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  14. Matte just caught a screen pass, and, to hear these guys, you'd think he was Odell Beckham.

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  15. Sharockman again intercepts Morrall, this time in the end zone, and this thing appears to be headed to halftime with the Vikings ahead, 7-0, despite the fact that Baltimore has moved the ball all over Minnesota's defense.

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  16. Tonight's crowd--49,784, per Howard--is the largest in the history of Metropolitan Stadium. My wife, daughter and I went up to Minneapolis a few years ago and visited the Mall of America, which sits on the site of the stadium. I was delighted to see some plaque in the food court, hailing Harmon Killebrew, but I was disappointed to see that all of the mall workers are apparently not required to wear black cleats like Chuck Foreman's.

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  17. Saturday on ABC: Colorado vs. Nebraska in college football and then the Baltimore Orioles vs. the Tokyo Giants on ABC's Wide World of Sports. I'll be interested to see if Earl Weaver is going to play Paul Blair or Merv Rettenmund in center in Japan.

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    1. Oh, Jim McKay is going to be in the dugout with Earl Weaver for that exhibition. That's a neat idea.

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  18. I want to know more about Bears coach Jim Dooley's moving in with Bobby Douglass in advance of that big win over the Lions.

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  19. Gifford tells us the Colts call Ed McCafferty "Easy Rider" because of his light-handed style. I imagine this says more about Don Shula than it does Ed McCafferty, but who knows.

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  20. I've loaded up on Flair pens since the last time I saw one of their commercials.

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  21. The Vikings drive to about the Baltimore 30, but then Bubba Smith becomes unblock-able, engulfing Cuozzo in sacks twice in the same set of downs. On a third-and-15, Cuozzo concedes with a handoff to Dave Osborn instead of dropping back to pass. It returns the ball to about the Colt 35, and, from there, Fred Cox booms in a field goal to extend Minnesota's lead to 10-0.

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  22. Next Monday: Lions and Packers.

    ABC cuts to Johnny Unitas on the sideline, still in his jacket and not warming up as Morrall comes back on with the Colts' new possession. "Pensive, if not disconsolate" is how Cosell describes him; "you have to wonder what John's thinking."

    Frank Gifford reports that Chris Schenkel's mother died over the weekend.

    Carl Eller--whose boyhood neighborhood in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, I once spent a day visiting and imagining him in--overwhelms Dan Sullivan and sacks Morrall to blow up that Baltimore possession.

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  23. Minnesota makes some hay on a couple of runs, and Meredith wonders if the Vikings have gone to a "collapse block" strategy on Bubba Smith, in which the lineman would be allowing Smith to push him into the backfield and then the play is designed to anticipate that hole and run into it.

    ABC cuts to a picture of 6-foot-7, 265-pound Bubba Smith catching his breath, arms akimbo. "How would you like to run into that in a dark alley?" muses one of the announcers, and that, my fellow Americans, is what a lot of our commotion is all about.

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  24. Wednesday on ABC: Anthony Quinn in The Man and the City. I still haven't seen that one.

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  25. Howard is excited to see that Saturday Nebraska-Colorado game on ABC. He is impressed with the Cornhuskers' defense and Colorado's "lad named Branch, who can really break the long one."

    While you're at it, tell all the children about Cliff Branch, too.

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  26. Unitas's first play call is a sweep right to Matte that goes for about seven yards and into Minnesota territory.

    OK, it's getting pretty late in Evansville, Indiana, in October 1971, but my guess is there's one middle-aged football fan who just turned up the ol' Magnavox (or whatever) a little louder, even though it might wake the wife or kids.

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  27. Unitas throws for the first down ... 9:34 and ticking ...

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  28. From the 40, O'Brien nails a field goal. Baltimore inches to within 10-3 ...

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  29. The Metropolitan Stadium field has a giant, script "V" in its middle. Was that standard? I don't remember it at all.

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  30. Jim Marshall and Alan Page, however, overwhelm the left side of Baltimore's line on first and second down, setting up a third-and-15. Then Unitas calls a sweep, which Wally Hilgenberg is camped out and waiting for.

    "Don, that's pretty curious signal-calling by John, wouldn't you say?" wonders Cosell.

    "Well," Meredith offers, "it's a little bit different."


    Baltimore punts.

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  31. The Colts pin Minnesota at its 1.

    And now another ABC News special report: "The United Nations voted tonight to expel Nationalist China and to seat Mainland China ... The Nationalist Chinese delegation left the assembly hall before a vote ... It was a defeat for the United States."

    I once went out on a date with a woman from Taiwan. It was at a California Pizza Kitchen in a mall. She wasn't interested in entertaining my questions about her heritage, which I completely understood--it was just a first (and ultimately only) date. She correctly predicted that night that Friends would end with Rachel and Ross getting back together. I got that one wrong. I seriously thought Friends was going to end up with Chandler and Ross turning out to be gay--with Joey ending up with Rachel and Monica returning to Tom Selleck. I had no idea what was going to go on with Phoebe.

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  32. The 1972 Topps "PRO ACTION" edition for Bob Lee is one of my absolute favorite football cards of all time.

    Bob Lee's intensely-pressured punt from the back of Minnesota's end zone sails only to the Viking 30, where Tom Curtis fields and returns to the Viking 22. The Colts trail 10-3, and here comes Unitas and the offense ..

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  33. First down: Sweep left to Matte again ... Hilgenberg again for a loss of two or three ... "On the last four plays that Baltimore has run, they have lost yardage," notes Meredith.

    Second-and-12: Unitas overthrows Norm Bulaich on a screen, but it's an offsides penalty on the Vikings.

    Second-and-7 at the 19: 2:29 to play ... Bulaich draw to the right side of the Baltimore line, and there's not much more room there. Defensive tackle Gary Larsen downs Bulaich just over the line there.

    Third-and-7: "A field goal's not going to help them much now--basically two minutes to go," Meredith says. "... I'd be very surprised if he doesn't put this one in the air."

    There's a whistle, and 2017 me naturally assumes we are in for a dreaded replay review. No, it's the 2-minute warning.

    AND HERE'S LORELAI GILMORE'S DAD FOR PANASONIC STEREOS! HURRAH!!!

    Rest in peace, Edward Hermann (1943-2014), whose big break is coming up next 1971 month at Arena Stage in his native Washington, D.C.

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  34. Unitas hits Willie Richardson for a curl-in, in front of zoning Charlie West, at the Minnesota 10 and a first down! Time out with 1:49 to go! Johnny U heads to the sideline to chat with Easy Rider. One can only assume that it's Johnny U calling the shots here and Easy Rider's role here is for moral support. Unitas returns to the field to line up with the 4-1 champs at the 10, down seven, with Don Shula and the 4-1-1 Dolphins presumably watching on their TVs ...

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  35. 1:25 at the Minnesota 15 ... Unitas fakes a handoff into the middle of the line and hands to Richardson on a reverse around right end (away from Page) ... Ellen trips up Richardson for a gain of only three ... clock still moving ... third down ...

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  36. Unitas drops back ... Page and Marshall converge ... Unitas lofts to Bulaich open for the screen ... TO THE MINNESOTA 2!

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  37. Time out! Forty-two seconds to go. Fourth down!

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  38. It's a long two. They could make a first down, inside the 1 ...

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  39. Baltimore net rushing in the second half: minus-11 yards.

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  40. No replay yet. Meredith says it was to the tight end (Tom Mitchell was Baltimore's starter, but John Mackey was in at the end). He says he couldn't tell if it was a missed throw or a drop. No replay yet ... come on, Chet Forte ...

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  41. That's it. Final: Minnesota 10, Baltimore 3.

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  42. What a game, and what a TV show. Thank you so much, YouTube user Newton Minnow, Vikings, Colts, ABC, TV and internet makers. That was even worth missing Here's Lucy and How to Frame a Figg for.

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