CTVA
The Classic TV Archive - US Documentary
Series
It Was A Very Good
Year
Episode Guide - April 2007
compiled by
The Classic TV Archive
with contributions by:
Rina Fox
references:
TV Guide
Library of Congress (telnet://locis.loc.gov)
Internet Movie Database (http://us.imdb.com)
UCLA Film and Television Archive
------------------------
IT WAS A VERY GOOD YEAR
------------------------
Alan Landsburg Production
for
ABC
Executive Producer Alan Landsburg / Co-Produced by
Mel Torme
US Documentary series 1971 (summer replacement series)
Hosted by Mel Tormé
Premise:
A Nostalgic look back at selected years from the twentieth century;
each week a different year is selected through the use of film clips
and songs.
######## It Was A Very Good Year ########
############# season 1 1971 #############
#########################################
ABC Mondays (10May71-30Aug71)
1.1 - no details
10May71 ABC Mon
1.2 - no details
17May71
1.3 - no details
24May71
1.4 - no details
31May71
1.5 - no details
7Jun71
1.6 [--] It Was A Very Good Year: THE YEAR WAS 1949
14Jun1971 ABC Mon
Guest
Sid Caesar talks about his characterizations and plays a gangster trying
to get a nickel back from a pay phone;
Hollywood columnist Cecil Smith recalls an early example of TV event coverage:
a three-day attempt to rescue a little girl from a well. [RF]
1.7 [--] It Was A Very Good Year: THE YEAR WAS 1961
21Jun1971 ABC Mon
Guest
Henry Mancini
Synopsis:
John F. Kennedy's inauguration and his signing of the Peace Corps bill;
fashions set by Jackie Kennedy; stills from "West Side Story" paintings
by Grandma Moses, who died in December; and films covering the aborted
Bay of Pigs invasion, and the building of the Berlin Wall. Guest Henry
Mancini joins host Mel Torme for a performance of Mancini's
Oscar-winning song "Moon River" from "Breakfast at Tiffany's". [RF]
1.8 [--] It Was A Very Good Year: THE YEAR WAS 1939
28Jun1971 ABC Mon
Synopsis:
The German invasions of Czechoslovakia and Poland; "The City" a film
short about problems created by new prosperity (such as choking traffic);
stills from "The Wizard of Oz" and "Gone With the Wind"' Pablo
Picasso's antiwar painting "Guernica" (with films of Madrid in flames); the
opening of the New York World's Fair; and Lou Gehrig's farewell to
baseball. [RF]
1.9 [--] It Was A Very Good Year: THE YEAR WAS 1953
05Jul1971 ABC Mon
Guest
Sir Edmund Hillary
Mickey Spillane
Synopsis:
The Coronation of Elizabeth II; the Korean Armistice; Lucy Ricardo
(Lucille Ball) laughably pregnant in "I Love Lucy"; Dark Star beating
Native Dancer in the Kentucky Derby; the premiere of the 3-D movie, "House
of Wax"; Guest Sir Edmund Hillary, with slides of his conquest of Mount
Everest; and Mickey Spillane, reading excerpts from his Mike Hammer
novels. [RF]
1.10 [--] It Was A Very Good Year: THE YEAR WAS 1947
12Jul1971 ABC Mon
Guest
Ralph Edwards
Synopsis:
The attempts by Jewish refugees to enter Palestine; the "Subway Series"
between the New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers; the influx of
married veterans on college campuses; and long-skirt fashions.
Guest Ralph Edwards recites the Miss Hush riddle from his radio program
"Truth or Consequences". [RF]
1.11 [--] It Was A Very Good Year: THE YEAR WAS 1927
19Jul1971 ABC Mon
Guest
Richard Arlen
Synopsis:
The flight of the Charles A. Lindbergh; a Knute Rockne half-time
speech; an excerpt from Al Jolson's "The Jazz Singer"; Helen Morgan singing
"My Bill" (from "Showboat"); excerpts from "Wings" the first
Oscar-winning film. Richard Arlen is the studio guest. Also a recreation of the
Round Table at New York's Algonquin Hotel, mecca of the 20's literati;
played by Victor Buono (Woollcott), Anne Seymour (Edna Ferber), Jonathan
Harris (Noel Coward) and Alice Backes (Dorothy Parker). [RF]
1.12 [--] It Was A Very Good Year: THE YEAR WAS 1941
26Jul1971 ABC Mon
Guest
Agnes Moorehead
Synopsis:
Films include Pearl Harbor; President Roosevelt's "Date That Will Live
in Infamy" speech; the Battle of Britain; arms production in the U.S.;
Japanese-American internment camps; Civil Air Defense training
sessions; and comedians Abbott and Costello selling War Bonds. Agnes Moorehead
visits with Mel and reminisces about Orson Welles and her part in
"Citizen Kane", concluding the program, boxing champ Joe Louis is seen in
training. [RF]
1.13 [--] It Was A Very Good Year: THE YEAR WAS 1932
02Aug1971 ABC Mon
Guest
Jackie Cooper
Synopsis:
Franklin Roosevelt campaigns for the Presidency; the Bonus Army marches
on Washington; Radio City Music Hall opens in New York; Jackie Cooper
talks about his role in "The Champ"; Mel Torme sings excerpts from
Broadway's "Of Thee I Sing"; and a salute to Greta Garbo. [RF]
1.14 [--] It Was A Very Good Year: THE YEAR WAS 1944
09Aug1971 ABC Mon
Guest
Margaret O'Brien
Synopsis:
Films of the D-Day invasion at Normandy; Frank Sinatra wowing bobby soxers
at the New York Paramount; Marlene Dietrich recording "Lili Marlene" for
the OSS; GIs being entertained by stars such as Hope and Crosby and a
tribute to war correspondent Ernie Pyle. Guest Margaret O'Brien discusses
the special Oscar she won for her role in "Meet Me in St. Louis". [RF]
1.15 [--] It Was A Very Good Year: THE YEAR WAS 1919
16Aug1971 ABC Mon
Synopsis:
The films show doughboys enjoying Paris; aerial antics by aces Eddie
Rickenbacker, Hap Arnold and Billy Mitchell; and action in the
scandal-riddled World Series (eight players were convicted of throwing games).
Also a tribute to the Tin Lizzie (with zany clips from the Keystone Kops)
and voice recordings of vaudevillians George Jessel, Fanny Brice and
Nora Bayes. Mel Torme sings, "September Song" and "Just an Ordinary Day"
an original number by Mel and producer Draper Lewis. [RF]
1.16 [--] It Was A Very Good Year: THE YEAR WAS 1936
23Aug1971 ABC Mon
Synopsis:
Jesse Owens' triumphs at the Olympic games in Berlin; the dust bowl
tragedy caputred in the WPA films "The Plow That Broke the Plains" (songs
by Woody Guthrie) and "The River"; the reuniciation of the British
throne by Edward, Prince of Wales; the popular music of Count Basie, Bing
Crosby ("Pennies From Heaven") and Rudy Vallee ("The Whiffenpoof Song");
and the birth of Life Magazine. An 80-second pictorial montage shows
the year's major news events. [RF]
1.17 [--] It Was A Very Good Year: THE YEAR WAS 1925
30Aug1971 ABC Mon
Synopsis:
A look at the flappers and fur-coated college men of the Roaring
Twenties.
A salute to the New Yorker magazine; the Scopes "Monkey" Trial"; movie
stars Lon Chaney (in a clip from "Phantom of the Opera"), Charlie
Chaplin and Theda Bara; the Navy dirigible Shenandoah being torn to pieces
in a windstorm. A visit to Paris, mecca of the arts with clips of
Hemmingway, Picasso, Chevalier, Dos Passos, Gertrude Stein, Beatrice Lillie
and Elsa Maxwell. [RF]
(Last show of the series)
######### It Was A Very Good Year ############
################## the end #################
##############################################
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