From Balladeer’s Blog’s Forgotten Television category, it’s a look at the 1969 episodes of N.E.T. Playhouse. For the opening look at the 1966 episodes click HERE.
THE TIN WHISTLE (January 10th) – Barbara Bosson starred in this 80-minute adaptation of Richard S. Burdick’s play about 12-year-old Martin Palmer, who channels his newly discovered powers of witchcraft through his tin whistle. Martin targets two teachers who have tried to discipline him. A 10-minute short film, Eugene Atget, which looks at the man’s Belle Epoque photos, padded the runtime to 90 minutes.
THE NATIONAL THEATER OF THE DEAF (January 17th) – The first part of this hour-long production featured members of the National Theater of the Deaf reciting, miming and signing poetry by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, William Blake, Yang Ti, Robert T. Panara and others. The second part saw the theater members performing an adaptation of Puccini’s comedy Gianni Schicchi. The production used instruments specially designed by French sculptor Francois Baschet, which produce vibrations discernible to the deaf.
SILENT SONG (January 24th) – Filmed version of Hugh Leonard and Frank O’Connor’s play with only partial dialogue and the rest in mime. In a trappist monastery, the monks honor their vows of silence but indulge in vices like drinking and betting on horse races. The 75-minute effort starred Tony Selby, Milo O’Shea and Jack MacGowran. Continue reading
TUSSLE IN THE TOP SIX – The number 1 team in the nation – the GRACE COLLEGE LANCERS – took it on the road against the 6th ranked INDIANA WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY WILDCATS. By Halftime the Wildcats had built up a 42-32 advantage, but the Lancers came out of the locker room primed for a comeback. They outscored their opponents 60-36 for a 92-78 victory. Elijah Malone’s 29 points led Grace College. 
NUMBER THREE TAKES A FALL – In this game the HUNTINGTON UNIVERSITY FORESTERS welcomed the 3rd ranked BETHEL UNIVERSITY (IN) PILOTS (Riverboat Pilots). The Foresters were on top 42-31 at the Half, then squeezed out a bit more separation after the break to win the game 88-74. Lane Sparks led Huntington University with his 23 points. 
THE AVENGERS Volume One, Number 92 (September 1971) 
Word has leaked from a Senator named H. Warren Craddock and from the technicians the Avengers swore to confidentiality following last issue’s action. The entire world now knows about how the alien race called the Kree attempted to destroy the Earth. 
AUTO STOP (January 5th) – Henry (David Hemmings) is told by Federika, the older woman he is pursuing, that he needs to gain more experience in the world before she’ll entertain the thought of a romance with him. Henry takes her seriously and roams around Europe, loving and leaving women his own age, encountering a Neo-Nazi and attending a La Dolce Vita party in Rome. N.E.T. Playhouse paired this 75-minute film with the 8-minute cartoon short Tamer of Wild Horses from Yugoslavia’s Zagred Animation. 
A PASSAGE TO INDIA (January 26th) – Long before the theatrical film came this teleplay that was first broadcast on the BBC’s Play of the Month in November, 1965. The cast of this 90-minute adaptation of the E.M. Forster novel included Sybil Thorndike, Virginia McKenna, Cyril Cusack and Zia Mohyeddin. Drama involving life and race relations in 1920s India under the Raj. 
ANDROMEDA NEBULA (1967) – This movie was adapted from the 1957 novel Andromeda: A Space Age Tale by Ivan Yefremov. Unusual for sci-fi writers in the Soviet Union under Stalin, Yefremov courageously defied some of the political limitations that the blood-soaked dictator and his regime placed on fiction. Ivan is credited for, among other things, breaking free of the Soviet policy that limited futuristic tales to just a few years in the future. He continued that trailblazing in his works after Stalin died.
And that brings us back to Andromeda Nebula. The story is set over a millenium in the future, when an Age of World Unification (under a Soviet system, of course) was followed by the establishment of the Ring aka the Great Circle. The Ring is a loosely affiliated assortment of planets who exchange scientific and cultural information and try to facilitate each other’s efforts to colonize space. 
Alan Moore, the overrated and over-praised person who writes – but does not DRAW – comic books, has had multiple wrong takes on his profession’s affect on the real world. Recently, there was another reminder regarding how hilariously off-base and clueless Moore is. 
Look, 
THE AMOROUS FLEA (January 6th) – Majestic Productions put together this operatic comedy adaptation of Moliere’s play School for Wives. A young woman raised in virtual isolation is competed over by her much older patron and the son of that patron’s best friend. Lew Parker starred in this 90-minute presentation, repeating his stage role as the older suitor Arnolphe. 
JOE BIDEN 
Balladeer's Blog 