The Shreveport Journal from Shreveport, Louisiana • 52

1 TWENTY The Shreveport Journal Friday Feb 14 1969 TUESDAY ON TV The Character Pays Off For Actor James Nusser IHEVIPb? INS MAMA! MOON 12 kst1A EBt KUM ABC ABSTI Program Listings Subject to Change by Station TUESDAY MORNING Devotional RFD "6" (c) Today Show (c) et Economics (c) Bozo Friends Bozo's Big-Top (e) PO IS 10 (45) Bozo Friends Morning Movie tt IN IP 5:30 6:00 6:30 6:45 (50) Pastor (c) 7:00 Paul Harvey (c) 7:15 (05) CBS News 7:30 (55 Ch 12 News 8:00 Capt Kangaroo (c) 8:30 1 9:00 Debbie Drake fcl 9:30 Bev Hillbillies 10:00 Andy Griffith 10:30 Dick Van Dyke 11:00 Love of Life (c) 11:30 Search T'mrow (c) 11:45 It OP ft OP in Funny (el Snap Judgment (c) Concentration (c) Personality (c) Hywd Squares (c) Jeopardy (c) Eye Guess (c) MmItched 11:30 Report (c) PO -00 I el i 't ''41' I 4''t '1'- i 't i 't i ii ti 0 7se 1 4 1 -1 ''H ii :7 4:11 -p( A- 1 Ni i 1 I 7:::::::: DAY AFTERNOON Dream House (c) Make a Deal (c) Newlyweds (c) Dating Game (c) Gen Hospital (c) 1 Life to Live (c) Dark Shadows fel 3:30 Theatre TUES 12:00 Midday News (e) 12:30 As World Turns (e) 1:00 Love (c) 1:30 Guiding Light (e) 2:00 Secret Storm (e) 2:30 Edge or Night (e) 3:00 House Party (c) 3:30 Lucy Show (e) 4:00 Mc Hale's Navy 4:30 Perry Mason 5:00 (25) Harvey (c) 5:30 CBS News (e) TV Party Line (c) Hidden Faces (c) Days of Lives (c) The Doctors (c) Another World (e) You Don't Say tcl Match Game 1c) Laffalot Club (c) Flintstones (c) Hazel tcl Marshal Dillon (c) NBC News tcl ABC News (c) 5:30 Report (c) iNlewscope (c) I It 00 TUESDAY EVENING 1 6:00 Eyewitness Nws (c) Truth or (25) Weather (c) quences (c) 6:30 "Nat'l Geographic Mod Squad (c) 7:00 Special" (c) 7:30 Red Skelton Takes a Thief (c) 8:00 Hour (c) I PP 8:30 Doris Day (c) 1NYPD (c) 9:00 CBS News Hr (c) 'That's Life (c) Jerry Lewis (c) tP OD Julia (c) Tues Night at Movies (c) PO By CHARLES WITBECK TV Key Writer HOLLYWOOD Louie Pheeters the town drunk braceS himself just outside the Long Branch saloon He needs a drink badly and be calls on his innards to stop the shakes and the queezes long enough to show momentary calmness and control while he cadges the life-saving nectar from Kitty Doc Adams or a "live one" at the bar With his red rheumy eyes tattered clothes and a rasping clipped voice that threatens to run away unless the pressure is on Gunsmoke's Louie Pheeters has become a television tradition over the years and though he only has a line or two at the most in an episode that moment always counts In the past two years thanks to Pheeter fans producer John Mantley and writer Paul Savage Louie is finally coming into his own working in almost every other Oisode RIGHT IN THE middle of an action plot where Festus beds down for the night at the jail there's a knock at the door and it's Louie a shivering pathetic mongrel lying in his teeth as he says "The hotels are full Can I have a room for the night?" Now this is a device to get Pheeters into the jail where he's grabbed by a villain forcing deputy Festus to let the man out to save Louie's useless life It's a small thing but James Nusser as Louie gives it a special touch and he makes the screen come alive with his presence Watching Nusser at work however briefly is a special treat on TV because he is one of the most skillful character actors in the business PRODUCER MANTLEY who used to be Gunsmoke's story consultant knows he has a gem in Nusser and says he's "one of the finest actors in town and one of the most underrated" Mantley's problem is writing in scenes for Louis since guest stars and regulars Matt Dillon Doe Adams Festus and Kitty require most of the story attention If Mantley could find a suitable tale starring Pheeters he'd buy it in a minute There Is a good Pheeters epidose made over a year ago that Mantley hopes to run in soon but ibs' been held up be cause of violence in the early scenes Nusser agrees the held-over episode contains some of his better work and is keeping his fingers crossed "Louie was really sick in this one" he reports "He needs a drink so badly and he goes into the Long Branch only to be taunted by the villain Kitty has a drink up on the bar for him but the villain wants to play cat and mouse with Louie "My father crawled on his hands and knees for a drink" roars the antagonist "You crawl" Louie crawls and by this time he's so humiliated he's lost his need for the glass He picks it up then puts it down and walks away to applause from the crew Nusser has only been doing to It 9:30 PO OP 10 Newscope (c) Op 91 Tonight Show (C) PP CP 10 PM Report (c) It Of Joey Bishop (c) OP it 10:00 Ch 12 News (e) 10:15 (40) Harvey (e) 10:30 (45) Late Movie 11:00 ft 01 11:30 12:00 (15) Wthr Vsprs James Nusser town drunk II Pt Devotional 11 0 Tuesday Viewtips 0 1 Movie Ratings by TV Key: Excellent xxxx Good xxx Fair xx Poor very loyal to his Matt Festus and Doc And he's still sharp despite the drinking He knows what's going on in town and he's always on the lookout for a 'Live one' who will buy a few rounds Louie can get lost you know He can be talking to you and then he'll just go away" In a sense that's been Nusser's plight through the years He grew up in the tradition of Walter Huston Spencer Tracy Bogart character actors like Howard McNear and Charlie heroes and the craft is in every move he makes on "Gunsmoke" There have been lean times for Nusser days when agents called him "his own worst enemy" and it's all there in his face and in his acting Now at last Nusser is coming into a little recognition for his craft It's way overdue but the point is the man may get a taste Watch Louie for a moment on Gunsmoke and see a real pro at work Louie on Gunsmoke for seven years and he goes back to the old oater's radio days Such identification keeps other shows like Bonanza from using the man and this hurts or has hurt until lately This fall Mantley has his character actor working steadily giving him hope of change in the wind hope of some recognition after all these years "I'd like to be a successful actor" Nusser says in his quiet ways and you can see him visually taste the idea Thanks to Mantley it will have to come through the character of Louie Pheeters a man Nusser knows well even though he hedges around the idea "I don't understand Louie any more than I understand myself" he declares "I don't want to know him too well" "Kids like Louie" Nusser continues "and when I ask my wife why she answers 'Louie is a kid' Nusser lets that go by and then he describes the man "Louie's a bit cynical but he's 4 1 "National Geographic Special" "Australia The Timeless Land" is a look at the Down Undercontinent and its rugged frontiersmen who forge a life in the manner of the pioneers of America's Old West The special follows film maker-adventurers Mike and Mal Leyland and two companions on a trek from the bottom of Australia through its primitive center to the top (color) 6:30 pm 12 The Mod Squad disappearance of Capt Greer in a small town with a fiercely guarded secret is probed by the Mod Squad Jason Evers frequently featured on The Guns of Will Sonnett guests as a sheriff (color): 6:30 pm 3 Jerry Lewis Show Tolle Fields and Paul Lynde are guest entertainers on tonight's show (color) 6:30 pm 6 It Takes a Thief Fernando Lamas guest-stars as a thief whom Alexander Mundy tricks into attempting to recover the stolen crown jewels of La Monica (color) 7:30 pm 3 Julia Julia's apartment is burglarized with the unwitting help of Earl Waggedorn's Aunt Wanda Tracy Morgan real-life wife of Hank Brandt (who plays Earl's father) portrays the role of the aunt (color): 7:30 pm 6 Red Skelton Hour Skelton offers a tribute to the late comedian Ed Wynn and presents Mickey Rooney and Hal Frazier as his guests (color) 7:30 pm 12 Tuesday Night at the Movies "The Appaloosa" (1966) Marlon Anjanette Comer John Saxon Emilio Fernandez A man sets out to retrieve his Appaloosa horse and his dignity from a Mexican bandit who has stolen both (color) 8 pm 6 Doris Day Show Buck is excited over his prospects of winning the annual horseshoe tournament until Leroy accidentally neutralizes the pitching arm of Doc Carpenter (color) 8:30 pm 12 In an attempt to apprehend a suspect in the robbery of a local grocery store Det John Corso witnasses a group therapy session at a narcMics rehabilitation center in the conclusion of a two-parter (color) 8:30 pm 3 That's Life Gloria induces Bobby to take her out for a night on the town Guesting on the show are Sid Caesar Milt Kamen and Leslie Uggams (color) 9 pm 3 The Late Movie "Desert Hell" (1958 xti Brian Keith Barbara Hale Legionnaires on a dangerous trek are menaced by tribesmen on the warpath 10:45 pm It Anne to Portray Pig Farmer Brady to Play Pop HOLLYWOOD Anne Baxter as a tattered aging pig-farmer? Somebody in a Hollywood casting office must have gone haywire! The velvet-voiced Miss Baxter herself avows that when she received a call from Name Of The Game producer David Victor to play such a character role in "The Bobby Currier Story" airing Friday Feb 21 on NBC TV she almost came unglued "I'd known David for such a long time and here he was convulsing me with lines like 'there's a terrific scene for you knee deep in mud throwing slop to half-a-dozen pigs' "I told him to send me the script" she laughed huskily "After all a part like that coudn't be all bad!" Anne affirms she'd already made up her mind to accept the role itt the Robert Stack-starrer before she received the script Thus attired in a torn polka dot dress hair up in curlers and mud-spattered movie queen Anne Baxter played her scene' with the pigs then declared to Bob Stack with a grin: "A role like this doesn't come along just every day How lucky can a girl get?" Returned Stack wryly "Who says Hollywood can't make a sow's ear out of a silk purse?" HOLLYWOOD Scott Brady has been signed for a pivotal role in the "Log-102" segment of Universal Televison's Adam-12 half -h police-action series starring Martin Milner and Kent McCord Brady plays the domineering father of a wayward youth involved with drug addiction i- it.