The New Shows

The Red Skelton Show (Wed. 8 p.m., CBS-TV) is a summer replacement revue (for Arthur Godfrey) that indicates that some of Comedian Skelton's best writers may be on vacation too. While Skelton's characterizations of the tramp, Freddie the Freeloader, and the goon, Clem Kiddlehopper, were pretty much up to par on the first program, some of his straight monologue material was merely second-rate. Skelton's first guest was the sugar-coated Pianist Liberace, who 1) mooned interminably through Debussy's Clair de Lune and grinned ecstatically through a Latin rhythm piece, 2) cavorted with Skelton in a dance number, and 3) played straight man when Skelton came to call as a treblesome piano tuner. Item: Liberace, in his famed toothpasty smile, showed portraits of his four greatest inspirations -- "Bach, Beethoven, Paderewski . . . and my dentist."

The Blue Angel (Tues., 10:30 p.m., CBS-TV) stars a quiet, wry, young (26) comedian named Orson Bean who has a happy way with a joke. On a set simulating Manhattan's Blue Angel nightclub, Bean casually introduces a few expert acts (including, on one program, Comic Leo De Lyon, who can whistle and hum two songs at once) and spends the rest of the all-too-brief half an hour in bland comedy. Example: the prizes for a contest run by the National Kumquat Growers' Association -- $5,000 worth of sneakers (size 17E), six miles of dental floss, an all-expense, two-week vacation trip to Youngstown, Ohio, one brand-new screen door (together with 200 flies).

Conversation (Sun. 7:30 p.m., NBC Radio) is half an hour's worth of stimulating and sometimes brilliant talk by Book Critic-M. C. Clifton Fadiman and two or three guests, whose only guide is a topical springboard, e.g., "American Women," "Middle Age," "Basic Fears." The show started off as a local TV program last spring. NBC and Producer Louis Cowan pulled it off the air after eleven weeks, overhauled it, then gave it a splashless launching all over again on radio. From week to week such sophisticated raconteurs as Bennett Cerf, Marc Connelly, Abe Burrows, Steve Allen and Sam Levenson join Fadiman for the kind of lively gab that has not been heard on radio since the old days of Information Please. Item: Punster Cerf's line about Ireland's Poet George ("A E") Russell and an angry moment when "A E's Irish rose." The next step, in the normal course of events, is back to television. Meantime, NBC, in the belief that talk is cheap, is footing the radio bill -- a mere $500 a week.

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