TV Guide Ad: Gilligan’s Island and Mr. Broadway

I’ve mentioned in the past how I’m always trying to find ways to make use of my TV Guide collection. I want to get the most out of these issues. Last month I decided to start gathering advertisements and “Close-Ups” and this being Television Obscurities, of course I looked for ads promoting short-lived TV shows. I was able to compile a mixture of ads for TV shows and specials from the 1960s and 1970s for. I’ll be posting one every Friday for the next 13 weeks. Then I’ll switch to posting “Close-Ups” for 13 weeks.

Here’s a CBS TV Guide ad from September 1964 promoting two new Saturday shows: Gilligan’s Island (8:30-9PM) and Mr. Broadway (9-10PM):

Scanned black and white TV Guide ad

TV Guide Ad for Gilligan’s Island and Mr. Broadway – Copyright 1964 Triangle Publications, Inc.

The two debuted on Saturday, September 26th, 1964. We all know the story of Gilligan’s Island. It went into syndication following its three-season tour and has been entertaining viewers ever since. Mr. Broadway, on the other hand, was soon cancelled. Just 13 episodes aired before the show went off the air in December 1964.

This particular ad is from the Western New England Edition of TV Guide. Channel 3 was WTIC-TV (CBS) in Hartford, CT.

Image Credit:
TV Guide, September 26th, 1964 (Vol. 12, No. 39), Western New England Edition, Page A-11.


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9 Replies to “TV Guide Ad: Gilligan’s Island and Mr. Broadway”

  1. Thanks for posting this. I’m looking forward to following this series over the next weeks, and then the series after that.

  2. This is a funny coincidence. I am watching “Gilligan’s Island” on MeTV right now. I thought I would check this site for new postings, and saw this.

      1. A tar is slang for a sailor. Primarily British but also heard in the U.S.

  3. I have to admit, the first time I had ever heard of MR. BROADWAY was finding a copy of the theme on a greatest hits collection by Dave Brubeck. Never saw an episode, but considering who they turned to for the music, that sounds like a good sign, maybe…?

    1. Craig Stevens had been TV detective Peter Gunn and eagerly signed on as the lead to Mr. Broadway, in part because it rescued him from the cast of the lackluster Broadway musical Here’s Love (based on, and eventually retitled, Miracle on 34th Street). Also in the Here’s Love cast — Fred Gwynne, TV’s Herman Munster.

      Mr. Broadway was created by Garson Kanin (a Hollywood and Broadway writer/director of some acclaim, married to actress Ruth Gordon).

      It’s Executive Producer was Television Hall of Famer David Susskind (more renowned as a TV interviewer). This was the second of two edgy, smart, entertainment TV dramas (along with East Side/West Side) that CBS “green lit” only for the network to water them down or dumb them down to mush. The show was cancelled after 13 episodes — uncommon in TV in 1964 and exceedingly rare for CBS.

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