The Bad Old Summertime

One evening this week Metropolitan Opera Soprano Patrice Munsel will scoot out to New York City's Idlewild Airport, warble through her Show before TV cameras in the terminal, then wave a heartfelt farewell to her viewers as they watch her fly off for Europe. In her prop wash she will leave the U.S. to make the best of TV's summer season, including her own program's hot-weather replacement, ABC-TV's Frigidaire Summer Theater.

Most TV critics have groused for months over the dreariness of this summer's prospective fare. The economics of the television industry dictate that it should not lavish big budgets on programing when many regular viewers are presumed to be out of range. And, more than most set-sitters like to believe, cost really does determine program quality. It still takes money to buy talent.

The only upsurge of new shows seems to be in participation programs. ABC is shouting Anybody Can Play, NBC challenges quizlings to Pick a Winner or try The Big Game, CBS dares viewers either to Sing Along or Keep Talking! Away from the panels and the quiz masters, there is little in prospect to excite viewers. ABC offers Bobby Troup's Stars of Jazz as relief from the heat. CBS will try its courtroom show, The Verdict Is Yours (TIME. May 19) as an hour evening program, in addition to Verdict's weekday afternoon half-hour run. NBC is scheduling two hour-long live shows, a private-eye staple called The Investigator and the converted Kraft (Mystery) Theater.

Those who failed to foresee anything twinkly in such summer-budget grist could always retire to the beach with their radios. But they would also have to remember that, when replacement time comes in TV, fall is not far behind. If they listened very keenly, they could even now hear a dominant, ominous sound of autumn--the greatest thunder of hoofbeats ever to rumble across the land.

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