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.

What's On TV Tonight (1969)?

We've noted ABC's issues with figuring out what to do with its Wednesday nights. I'm thrilled to see that, as an interim solution, they're getting away from chasing the Laugh-In magic and instead putting on something that looks a whole heck of a lot like a number of my family's wedding receptions and anniversary parties.

Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In

Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In was so big in 1969 that Keller-Crescent of Evansville, Ind., shelled out the dough for Arte Johnson and Judy Carne to make a marketing film for the Sears salespeople who would be channeling its appliances to consumers.