One of my favorite TV shows once upon a time was the American edition of a British TV show called That Was the Week That Was — a live half-hour of humorous looks at the week’s events. It aired on NBC from November 1963 until May 1965 but there was a period during the 1964 presidential election when it didn’t air because the Republican National Committee kept buying up that time slot for political commercials and to keep the show and its jokes about Barry Goldwater off the air. Thank goodness politics doesn’t keep any show off the air these days.
Among the people involved in TW3 (as it was abbreviated) in front of or behind the camera were David Frost, Alan Alda, Henry Fonda, Elliot Reid, Henry Morgan, Buck Henry, Tom Lehrer, Elaine May, Mike Nichols, Gloria Steinem, Herb Sargent, Gene Hackman, Tom Bosley, Phyllis Newman, Doro Merande, Margaret Hamilton and Nancy Ames. Ms. Ames was called “The TW3 Girl” and she sang the opening and closing themes with new and timely lyrics each week.
These folks were not all on every week…and of course, the show itself was not on some weeks. One of its frequent features was puppeteer Burr Tillstrom — the man behind Kukla, Fran and Ollie — who did what they called “Hand Ballets.” They were kind of like dramatic puppet shows with no puppets…just Mr. Tillstrom telling stories showing only his bare hands. I know that sounds ridiculous but it really worked…sort of.
Wanna see an episode? So do I. The videotapes of the shows are said to be all destroyed but there are audio recordings around…and I’ve heard there are some kinescopes but I’ve never seen a complete one. Drop me a note if you know where they are.
The video we have here calls itself That Was the Week That Was and uses the theme song from the show but it isn’t an episode. It’s a collection of clips from TV shows that ran in prime-time on the three networks the week of May 16-22, 1964…and yes, there’s a clip from the real American version of TW3 in there near the end. That might be the only footage from the show I’ve seen since 1965…
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