Talk:George Schaefer (director)

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Not in the Deep South

If there is some special significance to the statement "distributed by Westinghouse Broadcasting to a select few cities, none of them in the Deep South", then the article does not make clear what that might be.
Varlaam (talk) 13:55, 21 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It's a detail about PM East/PM West that tells you something about American syndicated TV talk shows. They were a new frontier in 1962. It was revolutionary to distribute a talk show that lasted more than an hour to as many places as you could. You were competing with networks, which went everywhere. As with any talk show or quiz show where people adlibbed, censorship was an issue. This article points out a comment someone made about George Schaefer that had a gay undercurrent -- very controversial for 1962.

In 1962 networks reached Mississippi and Alabama where viewers sometimes bombarded their local affiliates with phone calls if they saw whites and blacks interacting equally on the screen. In January 1962 CBS affiliates in the Deep South took a lot of <expletive deleted> when Ella Fitzgerald kissed the female panelists on the cheek during a live telecast of What's My Line?.

Getting back to PM East/PM West, remember that the episode described in this article is the only one with the TV screen saved for posterity. That is one of three reasons I feel the notation about the Deep South missing the show is relevant. Another reason is that the article points out that during the telecast someone who was talking about George Schaefer made a risque comment that was in the ballpark of having a gay undertone. That would have enraged Southerners who watched a TV show that came from New York, but it didn't because Westinghouse Broadcasting didn't reach the South. Another reason I feel "Deep South" belongs here is that listing all the cities that broadcast PM East/PM West in 1961 and 1962 would be too wordy. It isn't too wordy for the Barbra Streisand article where those cities are relevant because she sang and talked about Zen Buddhism and other topics that "nationwide" American television rarely addressed during her several appearances on PM East/PM West. Schaefer appeared just once as far as we know from the UCLA Film and Television Archive. Old newspapers and magazines would be necessary to place him on other episodes, if any, and almost all the video and audio were destroyed, anyway. Old newspapers and magazines are necessary for the article on PM East/PM West, but nobody has used them to make that article more than a stub. In a nutshell, the unique existence of George Schaefer's episode of that TV talk show makes the distribution of the show relevant. The Deep South missed it. And remember, he was mainly a director of network TV specials like his version of Macbeth. Southerners could watch that in 1960. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.24.244.156 (talk) 18:52, 23 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]