The Week in Review

Televiewers had a chance last week to let the networks know what they wanted in dramatic shows. NBC's Producers Showcase presented Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra, with Sir Cedric Hardwicke as the ennuied Caesar and Claire Bloom as a kittenish Cleopatra with the claws of a full-grown tiger. Even the supporting roles were graced by top-notchers--Judith Anderson, Cyril Ritchard, Jack Hawkins and Farley Granger. For producer, NBC turned to Anthony Quayle. who had just starred in Marlowe's Tamburlaine on Broadway. Though compressed into 90 minutes, the Shavian comedy kept the refreshing crackle of ideas crisply delivered (the central theme: in 20 centuries man has made no progress save in mechanical ingenuity), and offered a witty appraisal of human strength and weakness. But the TV audience, according to Trendex, gave the show only a trifling rating of 16.5--roughly on a par with the Mickey Mouse Club.

Sudsy Souffle. The kind of drama the viewers really like, apparently, was served up by CBS on Climax! Its hour-long production of The Louella Parsons Story scored a handsome 27.0 Trendex--the highest rating ever won by the show. What viewers saw was a sudsy narrative with all the impact of a souffle hitting a concrete wall. In a slick amalgam of film and live TV, Teresa Wright played Gossipist Louella to near-perfection, catching the whining needle of the Parsonian voice and delivering ex cathedra pronouncements on Louella's likes (dancing, pretty clothes, dogs, young people, food and Hollywood) and dislikes (being called "Lolly," being lied to about stories, being doublecrossed by news sources). Lolly's headlong pursuit of trivia was highlighted by interviews with a passel of film folk, enabling Climax! to boast that 31 Hollywood stars-were in the cast of characters. The smaller audience that viewed Caesar and Cleopatra may well have been a more valuable, intelligent and perceptive group than the larger one that soaked up Louella's story. But, unfortunately for TV's future, the advertisers who sponsor programs are primarily interested in selling their products, and therefore must inevitably bet their advertising dollars on the programs that draw the most viewers.

Extra Hazard. In the New York metropolitan area, viewers who wanted to watch either show were faced by an additional hazard--the necessity of ungluing their small fry from the channel that featured the 1933 movie King Kong on station WOR-TV's Million Dollar Movie. Some distraught parents reported that their entranced children had watched the single-minded pursuit of Fay Wray by the colossal gorilla every single night of the five it was shown. Said a happy WOR executive: "This has been the biggest thing since Davy Crockett."

* Three failed to appear: Gene Autry, Jeanette MacDonald, Red Skelton.

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