Sloan Simpson Show (weekdays 9:05 p.m., station WOR) stars the ex-wife of New York’s ex-Mayor Bill O’Dwyer. On a typical show, breathless, throaty-voiced ex-Model Sloan gave a brief review of the Walt Disney movie. The Living Desert (“Really most unusual”), interviewed two sponsors of Manhattan’s Blue Cotillion Ball (“When most people think of balls they are apt to think they are selfish—but this one is for a most worthy cause”), and ended her 25-minute show with a plug for a midtown restaurant (“It’s wonderful for hand-holding”). Though not quite as sure of herself as Maggi McNellis and Jinx Falkenburg, Newcomer Sloan is already as determinedly chatty as any veteran lady of the airways.
Motorola TV Hour (alt. Tues. 9:30 p.m., ABC-TV), another worthy competitor for TV dramatic honors, is handsomely produced, well-cast and ambitiously directed. The TV Hour’s only apparent handicap is a lack of good scripts. Last week’s Brandenburg Gate dealt familiarly with the cold war in beleaguered Berlin, and the plot leaned heavily on devices borrowed from Carol Reed films and Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities. Jack Palance was effective as the present-day Sydney Carton who gives his life to free Maria Riva’s husband from a Communist death cell.
Dr. I.Q. (Thurs. 9 p.m., ABC-TV) had a 20-year run on radio, and should be notably successful on TV. As before, Dr. I.Q. (Jay Owen) fires his questions from a theater stage while his four assistants track down contestants in the audience (“I have a lady in the balcony, Doctor!”). The quiz payoff is made in silver dollars, and the questions are as hard as ever (“Name the states that border on the Mississippi River”). With its dramatic values considerably heightened by television, Dr. I.Q. is not likely to remain unsponsored for long.
Peter Potter Show (Sun. 9:30 p.m., ABC-TV) requires a group of pop-music experts, e.g., Johnnie Ray, Jack Haley, Harry James, to estimate the hit potentials of new records. The proceedings are dominated by Disk Jockey Peter Potter, whose special brand of sugary archness is sometimes topped by the coy commercials for Hazel Bishop lipstick.
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