Radio: The Week in Review

CBS gave some ground to rival NBC last fortnight in the endless contest for network supremacy (TIME, Sept. 20). NBC’s most expensive, ambitious attack to date was Satins and Spurs, starring Betty Hutton, the first of a series of $300,000 “spectaculars” (telecast in color). Most critics gave it restrained applause, but after comparing the Trendex ratings of Satins (16.5) and its own Toast of the Town (34.6), CBS confidently launched its counterattack last week.

Where NBC had put its big money on a one-star bombshell, CBS loosed a volley of diamond-tipped arrows: The Best of Broadway, a new, monthly, one-hour drama series in color with all-star casts.

The opener was an adaptation of The Royal Family, a 1927 comedy hit by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber. A trifle rusty and overdone for 1954 and TV, the play covers the strenuous alarums, excursions, and extravagances of three generations of fiercely theatrical Cavendishes (who bear a neat resemblance to the Barrymores) in the course of resolving the heroine’s now-familiar indecision between the stage and a normal marriage.

The blue-chip cast, all old pros, managed to brush away much of Royal Family’s dust. Fredric March, who played Tony, the skirt-chasing screen idol, in both Hollywood and Broadway versions, roared and pranced through the TV adaptation with his old gusto. Helen Hayes, as the family’s irascible matriarch, and Claudette Colbert, as the harassed heroine, played warmly and well, supported by the harrumphs of Charles Coburn as the family manager. As a play, Royal Family was not the best starter for a prestige builder. The madcap antics, the entrances and exits tended to jumble on the TV screen without jelling. Producer Martin Manulis should have better results with plays to come. Among them: The Man Who Came to Dinner, Panama Hattie, The Philadelphia Story, Arsenic and Old Lace, Ah, Wilderness!

Other high-powered weapons, yet to come, in the CBS arsenal: The Chrysler Show, consisting of two separate series. The first is Shower of Stars (Sept. 30, 8:30-9:30 p.m. E.S.T.), a color-telecast monthly musical series. First offering: a musical “extravaganza,” starring Betty Grable, Harry James, Mario Lanza. Climax (Oct. 7. 8:30-9:30 p.m.) is a thrice-a-month drama show. First offering: The Long Goodbye, with Dick Powell, Teresa Wright, Caesar Romero.

General Electric Theater (Sept. 26, 9-9:30 p.m.), an all-film show last year, starts off live with Nora, an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, starring Gene Tierney, Luther Adler, Patric Knowles.

Jack Benny (Oct. 3, 7:30 p.m.) begins his fifth TV season at a faster, fortnightly pace. With him: Rochester, Don Wilson, Bob Crosby.