CTVA
The Classic TV Archive - US  Arts/Music/Drama Specials
NBC Experiment in Television (1967-71)
aka NBC Experiment in TV
Episode Guide compiled by The Classic TV Archive
with contributions by: Tom Alger
references:
TV Guide / Library of Congress (telnet://locis.loc.gov)
Internet Movie Database (https://us.imdb.com)
UCLA Film and Television Archive
-----------------------------
NBC EXPERIMENT IN TELEVISION
-----------------------------
NBC Production
US Specials 1967-71 approx 31 episodes x 60 min

Premise:
This was a series of 1-hour specials that usually aired Sunday afternoons.
A few episodes aired other days in prime-time (as noted). Each year, the
series began around February (after football season ended). [TA]

####### NBC Experiment in Television ########
########### season 1 - Early 1967 ############
##############################################

1.01 [--] NBC Experiment in Television: LOSERS WEEPERS
19Feb67 NBC Sunday 4:00pm
Original drama by Harry Dolan.
Cast:
Yaphet Kotto
Sonora McKeller
Gloria Calomee
Kyle Johnson
Synopsis:
A former former convict clashes with the mother of his late wife
when he tries to reclaim his children. [TA]

1.02 [--] NBC Experiment in Television: A CONEY ISLAND OF THE MIND
26Feb67 NBC Sunday 4:00pm
Created and performed by 20 members of the school of performing arts
of the University of Southern California, who combine dance, music, and narration. [TA]

1.03 [--] NBC Experiment in Television: GOOD DAY
05Mar67 NBC Sunday 4:00pm
Cast:
Jo Van Fleet
Frank Langella
Synopsis:
A young man visits an old woman in her home in response to a
help wanted ad. [TA]

1.04 [--] NBC Experiment in Television:
THIS IS MARSHALL McLUHAN: THE MEDIUM IS THE MASSAGE
19Mar67 NBC Sunday 4:00pm
Synopsis:
Marshall McLuhan, controversial philosopher of communications, who
was recently appointed to the Albert Schweitzer chair in humanities
at Fordham University, will be the principal voice as well as the
principal topic of this show. [TA]

1.05 [--] NBC Experiment in Television: WE INTERRUPT THIS SEASON
26Mar67 NBC Sunday 4:00pm
Synopsis:
A comedy lampooning various types of television programming
such as election coverage, weather reporting, guided tours of
famous places and late night talk shows. The British comedy
team of Tony Hendra and Nic Ullett are featured. [TA]

1.06 [--] NBC Experiment in Television: THEATER OF THE DEAF
02Apr67 NBC Sunday 4:00pm
Narrated by: Nanette Fabray
Synopsis:
Three leading directors of the theater, Arthur Penn, Joe Layton, and
Gene Lasko, are seen working with deaf actors at the Eugene O'Neil
Memorian Theater Foundation in Waterford, Conn. [TA]

1.07 [--] NBC Experiment in Television: THE QUESTIONS
09Apr67 NBC Sunday 4:00pm
Producer-director: Lewis Freedman
Author: John Hawkes
Cast:
Fritz Weaver
Verna Bloom
Synopsis:
A two-character play about a real or fancied conversation between a
man and a woman. [TA]

1.08 [--] NBC Experiment in Television: A YOUNG AMERICAN IN PARIS
23Apr67 NBC Sunday 4:00pm
Cast:
Bobbie Vicas
Synopsis:
A program filmed in Paris telling of the real and imaginary experiences
of an American boy seeking to understand French attitudes about Americans and
American politics. [TA]

1.09 [--] NBC Experiment in Television: MOVIES IN THE NOW GENERATION
30Apr67 NBC Sunday 4:00pm
Synopsis:
Host George Plimpton introduces eight short films made by students enrolled
in film schools in England, Poland, Belgium, and the United States. [TA]

####### NBC Experiment in Television ########
########### season 2 - Early 1968 ############
##############################################

2.01 [--] NBC Experiment in Television: FOUR DAYS TO OMAHA
18Feb68 NBC Sunday 3:00pm
Synopsis:
A fictional documentary about an American GI who was stationed in
England during World War II, and met his death in the invasion of
Omaha beach in Normandy. His son goes to England with his father's
war time diary and seeks to learn what his father was like from the
people mentioned in the diary. [TA]

2.02 [--] NBC Experiment in Television: THE HAMSTER OF HAPPINESS
25Feb68 NBC Sunday 3:00pm
"The Hamster of Happiness," a new play by Charles Eastman, concerns
two lonely women, one an elderly, cantankerous mother, and the other
a young frightened unsophisticated girl, who is her daughter-in-law.
The play deals with the girl's attempt to win the friendship of the
woman and a place in her home. [TA]

2.03 [--] NBC Experiment in Television: PASSPORT TO PRAGUE
3Mar68 NBC Sunday 3:00pm
Cast:
Hildy Brooks
Fero Velecky
Synopsis:
A bilingual love story filmed in Prague, Czechoslovakia. A vacationing
American woman and a Czech fall in love despite the fact that neither can
speak the other's language. [TA]

[--] 10Mar68 - repeat of
"This is Marshall McLuhan: The Medium is the Massage" (from 19Mar67)

2.04 [--] NBC Experiment in Television: NEW VOICES OF WATTS
17Mar68 NBC Sunday 3:00pm
Synopsis:
"The New Voices of Watts," examines the creative writing that
grew out of the Watts Writers workshop, founded by Budd Schulberg.

[--] 24Mar68 - repeat of "Theater of the Deaf" (from 02Apr67)

2.05 [--] NBC Experiment in Television: TO WALLY PANTONI WE LEAVE A CREDENZA
31Mar68 NBC Sunday 4:30pm
Cast:
Frank McHugh
Ruth White
Synopsis:
Author John Guare describes his play as "a comedy about two silly old
people who never bothered to find out what is really valuable in life. [TA]

2.06 [--] NBC Experiment in Television: WHAT COLOR IS THE WIND
14Apr68 NBC Sunday 4:30pm
Synopsis:
"What Color Is the Wind" is a documentary which shows what a blind
boy can learn about the world around him. This documentary is based
on the achievements of a 4-year-old blind Los Angeles boy whose
twin brother can see. [TA]

2.07 [--] NBC Experiment in Television: YOUTH '68
21Apr68 NBC Sunday 4:30pm
"Youth '68" is a look at youth today. This program expresses the
ideas of young people selected from hundreds of interviews. [TA]

2.08 [--] NBC Experiment in Television: AFRICA AND I
28Apr68 NBC Sunday 4:30pm
The artist and jazz saxophonist, Larry Rivers, and film maker Pierre
Gaisseau present a filmed record of their African journeys of last fall
and winter. Included are visits to Addis Ababa, Nairobi, Mombasa,
the Serengeri plain, Mount Kenya, and Lagos. [TA]

####### NBC Experiment in Television ########
########### season 3 - Early 1969 ############
##############################################

3.01 [--] NBC Experiment in Television: THIS IS SHOLOM ALEICHEM
07Feb69 NBC Friday 10:00pm
Cast:
Jack Gilford
Nancy Walker
David Burns
Synopsis:
Jack Gilford plays the Jewish writer Sholom Aleichem. Nancy Walker and
David Burns play various Sholom Aleichem characters. The program explores
the life, work and personality of the writer. A number of personalities
appear briefly in the program to tell what Sholom Aleichem means to them. [TA]

3.02 [--] NBC Experiment in Television: COLOR ME GERMAN
16Feb69 NBC Sunday 4:30pm
Cast:
James Edwards
Ron Williams
Rosemarie Fendel
An original drama of an African-American schoolteacher. He goes to
Germany to visit his German-born nephew, and is seeing answers to
doubts about his place in life. [TA]

3.03 [--] NBC Experiment in Television: THE CUBE
23Feb69 NBC Sunday 4:30pm
Cast:
Dick Schaal
Synopsis 1:
"The Cube" is a surrealistic comedy which dramatizes the comples, baffling
problems of reality versus illusion. The setting is a small doorless and
windowless chamber made of glowing translucent plastic in which a young
man appears to be trapped. In the course of the play, he is captive host
to a number of visitors in a series of zany scenes. [TA]

Synopsis 2 (Clay Gowran, Chicago Tribune):
"The Cube" has one principal character, actor Dick Schaal, who appers to
be trapped in a small doorless, windowless chamber of glowing, translucent
plastic. For 60 minutes, he plays helpless host to a crazy series of visitors
who come and go thru portals which disappear when he tries to reach them.
The callers, who range from a woman who says she's his wife to a zany janitor
to a monk to pallbearers lugging a coffin, involve Schaal in inane
conversations and situations, some seemingly lighthearted, others foreboding.
And all the questions the trapped man [and you] keep asking go unanswered - or do they? [TA]

[--] 02Mar69 - rerun of "Four Days to Omaha" (from 18Feb68)

3.04 [--] NBC Experiment in Television: THE NEW COMMUNICATORS
16Mar69 NBC Sunday 4:30pm
Synopsis:
An exploration of new uses of movie film, still photography and
audio tape. [TA]

[--] 23Mar69 - repeat of "Passport to Prague" (from 3Mar68)

3.05 [--] NBC Experiment in Television: PINTER PEOPLE
06Apr69 NBC Sunday 4:30pm
Cast:
Donald Pleasence
Vivien Merchant
Richard Briers
Kathleen Harrison
Dandy Nichols
Synopsis:
A program about the British playwright, Harold Pinter, and five short
plays about him. [TA]

3.06 [--] NBC Experiment in Television: FELLINI - A DIRECTOR'S NOTEBOOK
11Apr69 NBC Friday 10:00pm
Synopsis:
Federico Fellini discusses his role as a director and explains his search
for actors and ideas for his films. He visits the abandoned sets for a film,
"The Voyage of G. Mastorna," which he never made and is seen in his office
interviewing actors for his films. [TA]

3.07 [--] NBC Experiment in Television: BYE-BYE BUTTERFLY
13Apr69 NBC Sunday 4:30pm
Synopsis:
"Bye-Bye Butterfly" is a program on the preparation and production
of a Japanese film which takes a contemporary approach to the Madame Butterfly theme. [TA]

3.08 [--] NBC Experiment in Television: BIG SUR
20Apr69 NBC Sunday 4:30pm
Cast:
Gene Troobnick
Synopsis:
"Big Sur" is a new play by Frank Gagliano. It tells the story of a
middle-aged organist (played by Gene Troobnik) who wins a car in a
raffle, decides to fulfill a lifelong dream, and leaves his small
midwestern town to drive across the country to Big Sur in California.
In the course of this modern fable, he encounters many people who
lead him to some unusual discoveries. [TA]

####### NBC Experiment in Television ########
########### season 4 - Early 1970 ############
##############################################

4.01 [--] NBC Experiment in Television: MUSIC!
22Feb70 NBC Sunday 5:00pm
Host:
Alistair Cooke (chief U.S. correspondent for England's Manchester Guardian Newspaper),
Synopsis:
A musical tour of England. The portrait of English life blends performances
by a wide variety of music makers with a kaleidoscope of sights and sounds. [TA]
Segments include:
* Yehudi Menuhin conducting the Bath Festival Orchestra in a Benjamin Britten
funeral march;
* the Beatles recording "Hey, Jude" at EMI's Abbey Road studios, London.
Footage filmed 29Jul68
* pianist Clifford Curzon and conductor Colin Davis rehearsing a Beethoven concerto;
* composer Michael Tippett at a rehearsal of his opera "The Midsummer Marriage."

4.02 [--] NBC Experiment in Television: THIS IS AL CAPP
01Mar70 NBC Sunday 5:00pm
Narrated by: Edward Binns
Guests:
Al Capp
William F. Buckley Jr.
David Susskind,
Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
Milton Caniff (cartoonist)
John Canaday (New York Times art critic)
Paul Krassner (Realist editor)
and a panel of Columbia university students.
Synopsis:
The cartoonist-lecturer Al Capp is profiled and analyzed by his admirers and detractors. [TA]

4.03 [--] NBC Experiment in Television: THE ENGAGEMENT
08Mar70 NBC Sunday 5:00pm
Guest Cast:
David Warner
George Innes
Michael Bates
Synopsis:
"The Engagement" is Tom Stoppard's comedy about a man caught in a web of
frustrating circumstances when he doesn't have enough money to pay his taxi bill.

15Mar70 - repeat of "Fellini - A Director's Notebook" (from 11Apr69)

4.04 [--] NBC Experiment in TV: A BAD CASE OF SHAKESPEARE
22Mar70 NBC Sunday 5:00pm
Guest Cast:
John Geilgud
Christopher Plummer
Diana Rigg
David Warner
appear as themselves.
*
Featuring:
John Castle
Gerald Flood
Sally Falkner
Synopsis:
William Shakespeare comes to life in the person of Shakespeare Smith
in a fanciful, but serious examination of the Bard of Avon. [TA]

05Apr70 - repeat of "Pinter People" (from 06Apr69)

4.05 [--] NBC Experiment in TV: MOBY TICK
12Apr70 NBC Sunday 5:00pm
Guest Cast:
Robert Rounseville
John Devlin
Bruce Davidson
Synopsis 1:
Emanuel Peluso's new play, "Moby Tick," utilizes the character of Ishmael,
from Herman Melville's novel, "Moby" Dick," to show the dilemna of a man
in search of something elusive. [TA]
Synopsis 2:
"Moby Tick" is a play symbolizing a journey thru life in the person of
Ishmael, a character that takes three forms - young, middle age, and old. [TA]

19Apr70 - repeat of "Color Me German" (from 16Feb69)

####### NBC Experiment in Television ########
########### season 5 - Early 1971 ############
############### (final season) ###############

31Jan71 - repeat of "A Bad Case of Shakespeare" (from 22Mar70)

5.01 [--] NBC Experiment in TV: BUCKMINSTER FULLER ON SPACESHIP EARTH
07Feb71 NBC Sunday 5:00pm
Synopsis:
"Buckminster Fuller on Spaceship Earth" looks at the architect, engineer,
inventor, author, scientist, teacher and philosopher who is known for his
geodesic dome designs. His most famous was the United States exhibit
building at Expo '67 in Montreal. [TA]

21Feb71 - repeat of "The Cube" (from 23Feb69)

28Feb71 - repeat of "The Engagement" (from 08Mar70)

07Mar71 - repeat of "This Is Al Capp" (from 01Mar70)

####### NBC Experiment in Television ########
################## the end #################
##############################################

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