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The Second Most Important Post I Will Ever Make On This Board

posted 6 years ago by ecarle (14979)
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https://www.tvobscurities.com/articles/cbs_and_psycho/

Why is this the second most important post I will ever make on this board?

Well, if the link above works, y'all will find out.

Its an internet article on how Psycho got scheduled on CBS in September of 1966 and was then pulled because of the murder of US Senate candidate Charles Percy's daughter(and for other reasons.)

We are well acquainted with that story here.

But then there is my PERSONAL story on Psycho, which I have dubbed "My Psycho is not your Psycho."

This personal take on Psycho centers on how the movie came into my consciousness in the mid-sixties through a growing stream of ways: a 1965 re-release that first brought the film into my consciousness; seeing the old 1960 trailer IN 1965 at a movie theater and being terrified by it; this aborted 1966 CBS showing(which nonetheless created great excitement before it was aborted; a TV commercial with the shower scene ALSO terrified me.)

The climax was the actual, for-real showing of Psycho on Los Angeles local TV on November 18, 1967, heralded by billboards all over LA(where I lived) that were pretty spooky, scary, life-changing stuff.

If I could find a photo of that billboard ad(which also appeared in print in TV Guide and the LA Times TV guide)...THAT would be the most important post I will ever make on this board.

But the reason that this is the SECOND most important post that I will ever make on this board is this:

The internet article to which I have linked above has the "TV Guide Close-Up" article on Psycho which was first placed in TV Guide in 1966 for the pulled CBS showing(and that is what the internet article shows us) and was later placed in TV Guide's local Los Angeles edition for the November 1967 debut in LA only.

If you scroll about halfway down the article, you will find the "TV Guide Close Up" on Psycho, dated September 23, 1966 -- (the Guide came out a week before the air date.)

All that YOU will see is a short, small and yellowed article that rather re-states what we all know NOW.

What I see is...memories. Memories of how Psycho "hit" in its most specific, imagination-inducing first form for me: its all here.

This little article conjures up the first time I read the name "Norman Bates"(as in "withdrawn and nervous Norman Bates"), the first time I read the words "Bates Motel," the first time I could conjure up the idea of a "small motel down the hill from....his Mothers decaying American Gothic mansion." The first time I saw Anthony Perkins AS Norman Bates(he looks a bit grim in the photo here, yes?)

Its the first time I read the phrase "called the blackest of black comedies" and had to look up what a BLACK comedy was. (It was not The Jeffersons. At that time.)

And look at the cast list. TV Guide lists character names AND the actor names: Marion Crane...Janet Leigh. Lila Crane...Vera Miles. MILTON Arbogast...Martin Balsam(I read Milton here first.) I recall guessing that Balsam played Marion's employer from whom the money was taken! I didn't know from any detective.

This was the article where I learned that Psycho had garnered four Oscar nominations(which didn't compute; the movie had been sold to me on the playground as this horrific horror film).

This is the article where I learned that Joseph Stefano adapted the screenplay from the novel by Robert Bloch(I'd never forget those names -- but I already recognized Stefano's from a favorite TV show of mine, The Outer Limits. Thus do credits and name billing seep into the consciousness of fans. This is why film writers WANT billing.)

And the article makes this brief, knowing notation:

"Music: Bernard Herrmann." Those three words say a lot about Psycho.

There are other things: "in Alfred Hitchcock's shocker" told me that this WAS a shocker. TV Guide describes the film as "Movie-- Suspense." I never read that monicker before in TV Guide. I'd read "Movie--Drama." "Movie--Comedy." "Movie-Musical." But never before (or since): "Movie-suspense." Well, TV Guide seems to have decided that Psycho needed a monicker all its own.

Its all there in this TV Guide close-up, which was my introduction to Psycho and which has never really left my brainpan, not those phrases at least ("The Bates Motel gets few customers, so the arrival of attractive Marion Crane(who has just stolen $40,000....") ("Withdrawn and nervous Norman Bates") ("A small motel down the hill from his Mother's decaying American Gothic mansion.)

You get a bit of a trivia read with this TV Guide close-up.

I get a jolt of memory so powerful I'm a little shaken by it.

[–] ecarle (14979) 6 years ago

PS. The article shows the ad in TV Guide as posted by CBS showing Psycho as part of a Friday night line up that also includes Hogan's Heroes and The Wild Wild West. The latter show was one of the favorites of my childhood, so that's a bonus in this article. Just think: had CBS had its way, Psycho would have come on right after The Wild Wild West, and that would have been a helluva night of TV. (A year later,in September of 1967, North by Northwest on CBS WOULD play on Friday night right after The Wild Wild West, so I sort of got my wish then.)

PPS. Note that this internet article notes that Psycho made its first local debut not in LA in November of 1967, but in New York City in June of 1967. With the shower stabbing cut from 12 stabs to 3. I wonder what they did in LA? I didn't get to watch that screening. What I DO know -- from a friend who told me at the time -- was that KABC left the Arbogast murder intact. This very scared kid told me how horrible it was to see the blood on Arbo's face and Mother jumping on him on the floor. The stuff of nightmares for us both.

[–] ecarle (14979) 6 years ago

And by the way,

I find it fascinating that CBS paid $800,000 in 1966 dollars to broadcast Psycho twice. The entire movie only cost about $800,000 to make! The article gets into some detail as to how CBS kept trying to find another place for Psycho on its schedule, or to get another movie for the price...but it looks like the network ate its $800,000 investment.

I expect the $800,000 was split between Hitchcock(majority owner of Psycho) and Paramount. Universal didn't own the film yet. So Hitchcock got richer off of Psycho for a buy for a broadcast that never happened!

You have the interesting CBS exec quote(paraphrased), "Psycho is fine as a movie in theaters, but not to broadcast into CBS homes." My how the times have changed.

[–] ecarle (14979) 6 years ago

Psycho would have come on right after The Wild Wild West, and that would have been a helluva night of TV. (A year later,in September of 1967, North by Northwest on CBS WOULD play on Friday night right after The Wild Wild West, so I sort of got my wish then.)

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I have to mention here that, as a kid in the 60's, TV WAS that exciting. The reason there are these ads for Hogan and Wild West and Psycho is that CBS was starting its new fall season so these things were to be promoted heavily. And in the 60s as a kid -- I took the bait, loved the promotion, got excited when my favorite shows came back with new episodes.

That ended eventually -- early 70's I think. I lost the TV bug because I could see, at an advanced age, just how cheaply made and poorly written 70s series like "Charlie's Angels" and "Starsky and Hutch" were.

But in 1966? I was a full tilt TV fan, and the coming of all those Hitchcock movies sandwiched INTO the schedule with my favorite shows -- helped make me a Hitchcock fan.

"Life is timing." If I were born ten years earlier, or ten years later, Psycho and 60s TV would have played differently.

[–] Doghouse (447) 6 years ago

By the time of that KABC airing, I had already pored over the Hitchcock/Truffaut book at stores and the library (I wouldn't own it until the '70s), so I had an idea what to expect from the shower scene. I can't swear that it was complete, but it seemed to go on forever, so I assumed it was. That was the last time I saw it that way until screenings in revival theaters beginning in '71.

All subsequent L.A. broadcasts that I saw in the interim had it cut down to two or three thrusts of the knife. Like your friend, I'm sure the Arbogast murder was intact (and recall that one of the elements of the KABC promo for the first broadcast was a couple or so seconds of the arm-flailing shot; for me, those were the most unsettling images in it).

Something else I remember from all broadcasts of the period, as well as some early revival theater screenings, was black banding that rose discretely from the bottom of the screen with the first shots of Leigh in the shower, presumably to obscure cleavage. I wondered for years if that had always been a part of the film; something added between final cut and release print manufacturing.

[–] ecarle (14979) 6 years ago

By the time of that KABC airing, I had already pored over the Hitchcock/Truffaut book at stores and the library (I wouldn't own it until the '70s), so I had an idea what to expect from the shower scene. I can't swear that it was complete, but it seemed to go on forever, so I assumed it was.

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That's a great insight, doghouse. Recall that I was only TOLD of the content of the murder scenes, but that one scared kid was so vivid in his description of the Arbogast murder that I pictured it pretty much exactly as it played when I saw it. And it must have been intact. But the kid couldn't really describe the entirety of the shower murder(who could?) so I never knew if KABC went "the whole nine yards" and showed the whole thing. Sounds like they DID, if it went on forever.

As I've mentioned before, I did not see my first copy of Hitchocck/Truffaut(in a book store) until AFTER that Psycho TV screening I didn't get to see, so suddenly...the shower scene and the staircase murder took on new, real and frightening impacts.

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That was the last time I saw it that way until screenings in revival theaters beginning in '71.

All subsequent L.A. broadcasts that I saw in the interim had it cut down to two or three thrusts of the knife.

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Yes, it happened that way a lot in the seventies. I loved Merv Griffin with Hitchcock as a guest, gushing that "we will will see the shower scene on this show" and then showing a truncated version.

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[–] ecarle (14979) 6 years ago

Like your friend, I'm sure the Arbogast murder was intact (and recall that one of the elements of the KABC promo for the first broadcast was a couple or so seconds of the arm-flailing shot; for me, those were the most unsettling images in it).

--
Huh..I never saw that commercial with the arm flailing. Everybody gets a different Psycho the first time, I guess.

You know the Arbogast murder as that friend described it was two things: (1) Exactly correct as to the overhead shot, the fall(the kid mentioned nothing about process work), the finishing off; BUT (2) far more savage in the imagining than the playing. The kid said blood gushed all over Arbo's face and gave a much more detailed version of Mother's final attack(from HIS imagination.) There is always "the movie on the screen" versus the "movie in our mind."

I also recall the kid describing Arbogast's fall NOT as a fall. He said: "After he gets slashed on the face, he starts walking backwards down the stairs, trying to get back down the stairs away from the lady..." As if being chased, not falling.

Minor details today. A real scarefest of description back then.

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[–] ecarle (14979) 6 years ago

Something else I remember from all broadcasts of the period, as well as some early revival theater screenings, was black banding that rose discretely from the bottom of the screen with the first shots of Leigh in the shower, presumably to obscure cleavage.

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Funny how, "once upon a time," the shower scene ALWAYS had that black banding(matte). I simply accepted it as the price we paid to watch the scene.

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I wondered for years if that had always been a part of the film; something added between final cut and release print manufacturing.

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Possibly added between. Of course, I never saw Psycho on release. The band WAS there at revival house screenings in the 70s and on TV in the 80's. I think the DVD versions finally changed it, and cable showings.

And this: the black band weirdly RETURNED. At the end. For the shot of Norman in the cell. I think there, the idea was to create the effect of Norman being viewed through a window opening. But that black band is gone today now, too.

Its funny...we really DID have a different Psycho back then than the one everybody sees today. The black bands. The moving truck visible over Norman's shoulder when he's at the swamp burying Arbogast. Even the "tear" in the film as Arbogast reaches the top of the stairs. All digitally removed or changed today.

[–] movieghoul (213) 6 years ago

[–] ecarle (14979) 6 years ago

My understanding is that the black band was not for censorship reasons but due to the fact that 16mm and TV prints of Psycho had a much different shape than the original 35mm and they couldn't frame it without showing a glimpse of Leigh's pasties in the squarer format. Obviously not an issue now when the wider 35mm shape is widely available.

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Well, I will certainly take that explanation...it sounds official and makes sense. I'm a big "guesser."

"Glimpse of Leigh's pasties" could have been a problem.

I know that one of the big issues of movie projection is -- or used to be -- the projectionist framing things correctly so that boom mikes don't show.

I once saw a revival screening of North by Northwest in which the scene of Eva Marie Saint saying goodbye to Cary Grant at the Chicago train station had boom mikes hanging over them(it was sort of a long medium shot to keep them both in the frame.) Evidently that was not a "gaffe" in the filming, it was a gaffe in the projection. But it kinda ruined the scene...made it look like they were, indeed, "just play acting" this dramatic moment.

[–] Doghouse (447) 6 years ago

"Huh..I never saw that commercial with the arm flailing. Everybody gets a different Psycho the first time, I guess."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I've wished for years that I could find a copy of it somewhere on the web.

It was wonderfully effective, with low-key but ominous narration, and some creative re-doing of the Tomasini/Hitchcock editing: Janet Leigh's reaction shots were eliminated from in between the closer-and-closer ones of the "Bates Motel" sign becoming clear through the rain-dappled windshield, approximating the effect of the closer-and-closer jump cuts on the late Dan Faucett; the medium-to-closeup shots of the back of Mrs. Bates's head as she turns, only to cut away just before the face comes into view.

And Arbo's arm-flailing, with only narration and a subdued portion of one of Herrmann's passages audible, in place of the screeching score and stumbling feet we hear in the film, rendered it even more other-worldly: those staring, terrorized eyes, gaping mouth and waving arms as he "floated" backward down the stairs, while the narration calmly understates something about "the secrets within that house" or some such.

Any permutations of "KABC-TV Psycho promo" searches yield mostly Eyewitness News clips of Paul Moyer, Christine Lund, Dr. George Fishbeck or Regis Philbin (slim and with dark hair) and the like...but no Psycho.

[–] ecarle (14979) 6 years ago

I've wished for years that I could find a copy of it somewhere on the web.

It was wonderfully effective, with low-key but ominous narration, and some creative re-doing of the Tomasini/Hitchcock editing: Janet Leigh's reaction shots were eliminated from in between the closer-and-closer ones of the "Bates Motel" sign becoming clear through the rain-dappled windshield, approximating the effect of the closer-and-closer jump cuts on the late Dan Faucett; the medium-to-closeup shots of the back of Mrs. Bates's head as she turns, only to cut away just before the face comes into view.

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Sounds extremely well done and stylized. I can't imagine how I missed it...but then I wasn't watching TV all the time(nor were you, I am sure -- just at the right time in your case. I only saw the CBS commercial with some of the shower scene, once.)

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[–] ecarle (14979) 6 years ago

And Arbo's arm-flailing, with only narration and a subdued portion of one of Herrmann's passages audible, in place of the screeching score and stumbling feet we hear in the film, rendered it even more other-worldly: those staring, terrorized eyes, gaping mouth and waving arms as he "floated" backward down the stairs, while the narration calmly understates something about "the secrets within that house" or some such.

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I've seen Arbogast's fall in commercials with all sorts of music played over it...booming classical, macabre flutes...whatever somebody wants to put on the turntable.

One of the better commercials -- for an 80's TV viewing during a "TV classic festival" -- went the other way: Using the original soundtrack, they showed Arbogast climb the stairs and the door slowly opening at the top.
Then, right on the cut to the high shot and Mother coming out...

....CUT TO: A dark screen and the words "PSYCHO. Thursday Night at 8:00 on the Classic Film Festival" as we only HEARD the attack on Arbogast(screeching violins, feet stumbling on stairsteps, final scream.)

There's more than one way to skin an Arbogast.

[–] ecarle (14979) 6 years ago

Any permutations of "KABC-TV Psycho promo" searches yield mostly Eyewitness News clips of Paul Moyer, Christine Lund, Dr. George Fishbeck or Regis Philbin (slim and with dark hair) and the like...but no Psycho.

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No Psycho. Probably all thrown away...my hunt continues for that KABC billboard and print ad (easily enough done, I guess...go microfiche the 1967 LA newspaper ad, scan it and somehow link it here.)

Meanwhile, back at:
Eyewitness News clips of Paul Moyer, Christine Lund, Dr. George Fishbeck or Regis Philbin (slim and with dark hair) and the like

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We share our LA stories of the 70's and -- maybe I've shared this before -- but I did an unpaid internship at Eyewitness News and met or watched all those people above. I have a few fun stories -- like how "Dr. George" pinned a steel button on my shirt with his promotional photo on it -- and stabbed right through shirt, skin and chest. Ouch. I maintained my smile.

Regis Philbin wasn't THE Regis Philbin then, but he was famous(he'd been Joey Bishop's sidekick on a talk show.) I recall Philbin showing us footage of Charles Bronson chewing him out on some movie set he was visiting. The other Eyewitness guys saluted Philbin on his bravery with Tough Chuck.

In exchange for our slave labor, we learned the newsroom , went out with reporters and...got to stroll over where they were taping shows like Welcome Back Kotter (Mr. Travolta!) and a short lived Captain and Tenille show(we played dress rehearsal audience and Tenille actually kissed me briefly at the faked "end of show goodnights with the audience." So I've got that going for me, which is nice.)

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[–] ecarle (14979) 6 years ago

Technicalities:

1. If Psycho finally got shown on two ABC-owned local stations in '67(LA and NYC), was the price paid again in the $800,000 range as with CBS for nationwide? Probably not but...Hitchcock still got paid and got richer, I'm sure. ($200,000 maybe? ABC owned the stations.)

2. How DO you show a movie like Psycho from a TV station? I think they project the film with sound into some sort of big black box , and the TV camera points at the projected image with sound, and then broadcasts the film from the box...with appropriate pauses for commercial cut-ins.

I saw something like that at another TV station where I was just visiting...

[–] ecarle (14979) 6 years ago

Its all there in this TV Guide close-up, which was my introduction to Psycho and which has never really left my brainpan, not those phrases at least ("The Bates Motel gets few customers, so the arrival of attractive Marion Crane(who has just stolen $40,000....") ("Withdrawn and nervous Norman Bates") ("A small motel down the hill from his Mother's decaying American Gothic mansion.)

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One more point about that "TV Guide close-up":

The way the movie in question is listed in big letters...

Alfred Hitchcock's
Psycho

...with Psycho given a special "forward tilt."

This told me that (a) an Alfred Hitchcock movie was a SPECIAL movie: because it got to be called "Alfred Hitchcock's" and (b) that the word Psycho was going to be hard to learn and pronounce; it was a WEIRD word.

I remember being shocked that Alfred Hitchcock was the director of Psycho. I'd known him as "that guy on TV" and through his books for kids like "Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators" and "Alfred Hitchcock's Haunted Houseful." To learn that HITCHCOCK was responsible for what classmates were telling me was the most gory and horrific movie ever made...it just didn't compute for a year or so.