LUCY’S OPENING NIGHTS!

In 1962 & 1963, CBS launched their new season with a televised special celebrating their programming!

CBS’s Opening Night

September 24, 1962

Jack Webb (Host) “Dragnet”

Hank Simms, Announcer

Sunday

• “College Bowl”
• “The Twentieth Century” with Walter Cronkite
• “Password”
• “Lassie”
• “The Ed Sullivan Show” (clip promoting 15th season)
• “Dennis the Menace” (scene starring Jay North and Gale Gordon)

Monday

Above: Friday introduces Monday!

“The Lucy Show” – Lucille Ball intro in her dressing room; 

Lucy and Lou Krugman recreating a scene from “Lucy Gets Into Pictures” (ILL S4;E19); 

Promo clip from “Lucy Waits Up For Chris” (TLS S1;E1) starring Lucille Ball, Candy Moore, and Vivian Vance.

• “I’ve Got A Secret”
• “To Tell The Truth”
• “Make Room for Daddy” starring Danny Thomas
• “The Andy Griffith Show”
• “Naked City”
• “The New Loretta Young Show” (clip from “America at Home” (S1;E1) starring Loretta Young, James Philbrook, Dack & Dirk Rambo, Sandy Descher, Cindy Carol, Beverly Washburn)

Tuesday

• “The Jack Benny Program” (clip of Benny and announcer Don Wilson)
• “The Garry Moore Show” (clip of Durward Kirby and Moore  in old lady drag)
• “The Lloyd Bridges Show” (clip of “A Pair of Boots” (S1;E4) starring Lloyd Bridges)

Wednesday

• “The New Red Skelton Hour” (promo with Skelton claiming Lucy is not the only new redhead on CBS and doing a variety of his best known characters)

Thursday

• “Mr. Ed” (clip starring Mr. Ed and Alan Young)
• “Doctors and Nurses” (clip starring Shirl Conway and Zina Bethune)
• “The Dick Van Dyke Show” (promo starring Dick Van Dyke and Larry Mathews)
• “The Beverly Hillbillies” (clips from “The Clampetts Strike Oil” (S1;E1) starring Buddy Ebsen, Bea Benadaret, Max Baer, Donna Douglas, Irene Ryan,  Raymond Bailey)
• “The Real McCoys” (promo about their move to CBS starring Walter Brennan, Richard Crenna, and Tony Martinez)

Friday

• “Rawhide” (promo starring Clint Eastwood)
• “The Defenders” (promo starring E.G. Marshall, Robert Reed, John Boruff)

Saturday

• “Jackie Gleason: American Scene Magazine” (promo starring Jackie Gleason and Sue Ann Langdon)
• “Have Gun – Will Travel” (promo starring Richard Boone, Kam Tong)
• “Gunsmoke” (promo starring Amanda Blake, Dennis Weaver, Milburn Stone)
• “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour” (promo starring Alfred Hitchcock)

General Foods Opening Night

September 22, 1963

Produced by: Leland Hayward

Written by: Goodman Ace

Synopsis: Fearing they’ll all be fired after hearing Phil Silvers is getting his own show on the CBS / General Foods line up, the stars band together to ruin Silvers’ show. All the shows were sponsored by General Foods. 

Starring:

• Phil Silvers (“The New Phil Silvers Show”)
• Lucille Ball (“The Lucy Show”)
• Jack Benny (“The Jack Benny Program”)
• Andy Griffith (“The Andy Griffith Show”)
• Danny Thomas (“Make Room for Daddy”)
• Garry Moore (”I’ve Got A Secret”)
• Don Wilson, Announcer (“The Jack Benny Program”)

In his new show, Silvers plays Harry Grafton, a supervisor at Osborne Industries, which produces a variety of different items (according to the plot that week). Harry schemes to do as little work as possible while still receiving maximum benefits. His efforts usually end in disaster. The show was canceled after just one season.

Lucille Ball (“The Lucy Show”) and Phil Silvers perform “Slowly I Turned,” the classic vaudeville and burlesque sketch. It has also been performed by comedy teams like Abbott and Costello and The Three Stooges.  

Ball first performed the sketch as Lucy Ricardo on “The Ballet” (ILL S1;E9) opposite Buffo the Clown (Frank J. Scannell) in 1952. This time, Lucy takes the role of the clown, and Phil Silvers is the one with the kind face!

CBS commissioned Al Hirschfeld to draw the line-up for their 1963-64 season.

CBS: The Stars’ Address

September 25, 1963

“The Lucy Show” (1962-68)

• Lucille Ball
• Vivian Vance

“The Beverly Hillbillies” (1962-71)

• Max Baer
• Buddy Ebson
• Donna Douglas
• Irene Ryan

“Rawhide” (1959-65)

• Eric Fleming
• Clint Eastwood

“The Jack Benny Program” (1950-65)

“The Ed Sullivan Show” (1948-71)

“The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite”

New! “The New Phil Silvers Show” (1963-64)

The Alfred Hitchcock Hour” (1962-65)

Archive Footage

• Bea Benadaret (“Petticoat Junction”)
• Elizabeth Taylor
• Red Skelton
• Jackie Gleason
• Judy Garland