“You’re in the Picture/The Jackie Gleason Show”
I sometimes feel as if I’m the only person interested in obscure television who hasn’t seen You’re in the Picture. It certainly isn’t a “popular” obscurity but it has a fair amount of recognition, mostly for being one of the few programs in the history of television to be cancelled after only one broadcast. However, I’m not sure it was actually cancelled after one episode. It might be more accurate to say it ended after one episode. But more on that later.
On December 8th, 1960, The New York Times reported that Jackie Gleason would be the host of a new game show called You’re in the Picture, due to bow on CBS on Friday, January 20th, 1961 (replacing The Garland Touch). Each week on the show a celebrity panel would “try to guess the identity of pictures and cartoons” [1].
Gleason had hoped to begin filming episodes of the series during the first week of January 1961. But just eight days before You’re in the Picture was set to premiere, he was unable to agree with sponsors and the network on the makeup of the celebrity panel for the first episode, let alone later ones. Said Gleason: “We’re trying to pick the greatest and most attractive people. We have so many people who want to do the show and so many attractive people, it’s a tough decision to make” [2].
He explained the concept of the series to Cecil Smith of The Los Angeles Times the following way:
“Well, we got this set, a beautiful set and functional. A set like a picture frame with the panel in it. We’re lining up all stars for this panel—we hope. We’re trying to get Raymond Massey, Bea Lillie, Jonathan Winters and–what’s the name of that great dame? — yeah, Lauren Bacall. How’s that for a panel?
“They’re in this picture frame and we fly in a picture with cutouts for their heads. The picture is something ludicrous–only they can’t see it. But they’re supposed to identify it. I feed ‘em little clues. It’s for laughs. [3]
A run-through for the first episode took place on Saturday, January 14th, 1961, with Pat Carroll and Arthur Treacher, two panelists Gleason had signed off on. But on Tuesday, January 16th, producer Steve Carlin wouldn’t say whether Carroll and Treacher would appear on the premiere [4]. At the time, the final panel still wasn’t chosen. It wasn’t until Thursday, January 19th that the panel — made up of Carroll, Treacher, Jan Sterling and Keenan Wynn — was finally announced [5].
At 9:30PM on Friday, January 20th, You’re in the Picture premiered. It wasn’t well received. Vernon Scott of UPI wrote that “Jackie Gleason is a big guy who does everything in a big way. Friday night he laid a big egg.” [6]. He also stated that You’re in the Picture “wasn’t worthy of one of TV’s great performers, and even Art Carney couldn’t have pulled this one out of the fire” [7]. Cecil Smith, responding to a letter written by an irate viewer, called You’re in the Picture “an insult to the audience” [8].
A half-hour on-air apology by Gleason on Friday, January 27th was greeted much better by critics. Smith called it “the most delightful show on television in the last few weeks” [9]. The Kellogg Company, one of the show’s sponsors, wasn’t happy with Gleason’s apology, and “protested to C.B.S. after [the January 27th broadcast] and insisted that Mr. Gleason reinstate the panel program” [10].
Exactly what would be shown on Friday, February 3rd was unknown the day before the broadcast. What eventually went on the air was a continuation of the January 27th apology along with an appearance by a chimpanzee. On February 6th, The New York Times reported that the Kellogg Company had withdrawn its sponsorship of You’re in the Picture “on the grounds that the comedian no longer is presenting the program it bought” [11].
To be sure, what CBS was airing at 9:30PM on Fridays bared no resemblance to You’re in the Picture. During the February 6th broadcast, Gleason was alone “on a bare stage with only a chair and a cupful of booze to sustain him,” and he opened by saying “Welcome to the third chapter of ‘Jackie Gleason in Television Land,’ or ‘Week to Week Panic.’ This might be the first serial where the villain survives” [12].
Now titled The Jackie Gleason Show, for the next seven weeks Gleason held court on CBS, chatting with an assortment of guests including Art Carney, Bobby Darin, Jayne Mansfield (twice) and boxers Floyd Patterson and Ingemar Johnansson. Jack Haley appeared on the February 10th episode following an “abrupt cancellation” by Mickey Rooney [13]. The last broadcast was on Friday, March 24th, with guests George Jessel and Rudy Vallee. The Jackie Gleason Show was replaced the following week by ‘Way Out, an anthology series hosted by Roald Dahl.
The reason I suggested that it might be incorrect to say You’re in the Picture was cancelled after one episode is that there appears to have been a lot of confusion at the time about what CBS would be putting on the air following the first broadcast. The Kellogg Company wanted to continue You’re in the Picture while Jackie Gleason obviously did not. As for CBS, it seems to me that the network was willing to let Gleason do whatever he wanted. Thus, neither the sponsor nor the network actually cancelled the show and Jackie Gleason simply moved on.
Had You’re in the Picture not bombed, the plan was for Gleason to tape as many episodes as possible so there would be a backlog available, allowing him to travel to France in April of 1961 to film Gigot. Instead, he simply ended The Jackie Gleason Show in March of 1961 and left for France.
A second episode of You’re in the Picture was apparently filmed and never broadcast. The one episode that did air and Gleason’s apology the following week have been circulating among private collectors for some time. I’m actually more interested in the whereabouts of the other eight episodes of The Jackie Gleason Show (I don’t know when that title was first used; the third episode supposedly went on the air without a title card). The Paley Center for Media has the two episodes with Jayne Mansfield as the guest plus the aforementioned episode of You’re in the Picture and Gleason’s apology. See my Status Guide for details.
Works Cited:
1 Adams, Val. “Gleason to Head New Panel Show.” New York Times. 8 Dec. 1960: 71.
2 Adams, Val. “Howard K. Smith in C.B.S. Dispute.” New York Times. 12 Jan. 1961: 59.
3 Smith, Cecil. “Gleason: ‘The New Show is Just for Laughs’.” Los Angeles Times. 15 Jan. 1961: E8.
4 Adams, Val. “Panel Unchosen on Gleason Show.” New York Times. 17 Jan. 1961: 75.
5 Adams, Val. “Two TV Roles Set for Julie Harris.” New York Times. 20 Jan. 1961: 59.
6 Scott, Vernon. “Come Back Little Reggie–Van Gleason Needs Help.” United Press International, Los Angeles Times. 23 Jan. 1961: A8.
7 Ibid.
8 Smith, Cecil. “The TV Scene: We Get Letters, but No Scotch.” Los Angeles Times. 27 Jan. 1961: A6.
9 Smith, Cecil. “The TV Scene: Will Hong Kong Gamble Pay Off?” Los Angeles Times. 1 Feb. 1961: A10.
10 Adams, Val. “C.B.S. Post Seen for Blair Clark.” New York Times. 2 Feb. 1961: 59.
11 Adams, Val. “Raymond Massey in Familiar Role.” New York Times. 6 Feb. 1961: 45.
12 Scott, Vernon. “Gleason Scores Again With Armchair Humor.” United Press International, Los Angeles Times. 6 Feb. 1961: A13.
13 Smith, Cecil. “The TV Scene: Gleason Calls for Old Pal Carney.” Los Angeles Times. 14 Feb. 1961: A8.
Related:
March 6th, 2009 at 6:14PM
I remember the Feb. 6 show. It started with Gleason coming out to the chair on the bare stage and starting his “what am I gonna do now?” spiel – when about two or three minutes in, Art Carney walked out unannounced, carrying a chair which he placed next to Gleason’s. The old partners greeted each other warmly, and proceeded to spend the rest of the half-hour swapping stories about debacles in their respective pasts. The studio audience went for it big, and apparently Gleason was able to convince CBS to let him do an ad hoc talk show from then on; the network did insist on knowing who the guests would be ahead of time so they could publicize. This is all from memory – I was 10 years old at the time – but it made a real impression on me.
June 6th, 2009 at 11:30PM
Kellogg’s claimed they cancelled their sponsorship because, officially, “this isn’t the show we bought”; the REAL reason they actually pulled out after the January 27th telecast (according to William A. Henry III’s biography of Gleason, “The Great One”) was due to a bit that Jackie did with his coffee cup during the show, insinuating on camera that it really wasn’t “coffee”. When certain Kellogg’s executives saw this, they were furious. They privately told CBS they didn’t want their name or products, associated with families and kids for decades, linked with someone who suggested he DRANK BOOZE on camera. Liggett & Myers (for L&M cigarettes), however, continued their alternate sponsorship because they liked the way Jackie lingered over his cigarettes on camera, with “participating sponsorship” (and several CBS promos) filling the other weeks until the end of the series on March 24, 1961. Liggett & Myers then sustained Roald Dahl’s “WAY OUT” in the same time period for the next 13 weeks.