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Week-end shows disappointed

There seemed to be very i good prospects of very good’ television on Friday and Sat-1 “ I urday evenings,, but life isfull of disappointments and this was one of them. Bill Cosby, for instance, is! one of our favourite comedians, and regard for his style j and timing is quite wide- 5 spread. On Friday he had the i talented Dick Van Dyke asi I his guest. But the thing simply failed to click, and the script did not allow ;either to do the other jus-! I tice. ! .It is-not enough simply to--put a star’s name into the: r cast list and leave it at that. I , But for really corny com-! edy, “Gunsmoke” took a loti of beating. The regular wes-| tern features on our television programmes are aimed at 'those who like the old-, [fashioned dramas of the great (outdoors, a'nd the little comic I j parts written in to some of I

!the series can be tolerated. But a western show depending on cowboy comics—we I I hardly saw Matt Dillon—is a let-down for almost everyone. "This is a Hospital?” a new American comedy, might not ! have pleased everyone, either. This viewer found it I much better than some comedy series. It looked rather like an American version of the British “Carry On” films; it made a very refreshing change from the Kildares and Welbys of this Television world. A house orderly who runs liousie over an inter-com [system and is generally, engaged in making a fast buck pvherever possible, lends him-[ [self to some amusing situa-l (tions in a hospital. Some of! : the comedy was forced, but! iby and large it was a welcome :additibn to the present pro-! Igrammes. The main Friday and Satur-! I day features were “Games"!

[and “The Miracle Worker.” An assessment of the Helen ■ Keller story from a colleague, was that it was rather too much of a good thing; that the tensions and crises which arose in bringing up Helen Keller were probably faith- . ful to the situation, hut that cramming them together so l ■ closely made it all very repetitive and grossly overdramatised. There were times when the Friday night thriller, “Games” really got home to the audience, but they were relatively few. It was a way-outl i sort of story, with some imI possible, or at least highly improbable reactions from the principals to ludicrous [ situations; and Simone SigInoret would have been rather more chilling and menacing, [in this utterly predictable plot, if she had not gone through the whole film looking as if she had left on her. lovernight cold cream.—PANI DORA.

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19721211.2.38.6

Bibliographic details

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33096, 11 December 1972, Page 4

Word Count
438

Week-end shows disappointed Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33096, 11 December 1972, Page 4

Week-end shows disappointed Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33096, 11 December 1972, Page 4