Wide Wide World: “The Western,” June 6, 1958

I am remiss. There, I’ve said it. I won’t bore you with the personally-related reasons for my silence1, though given my line of work you can imagine it’s been an interesting time. But the semester is over and I can think about other things for a little bit (well, I think I can, anyway).2

By way of making up for it a little, here’s a king-size treat for you: an episode of Wide Wide World from 1958, in which we take a look at westerns. By this point, Wide Wide World was no longer doing what it once did, which was hopscotching around to show amazing sights that live cameras picked up as they happened.3 Plus, the program’s founder, Pat Weaver, was long gone from NBC by this point and his “going places and doing things” philosophy had given way to what would become more traditional forms of program content.4

There are other changes you’ll notice if you’re a Wide Wide World enthusiast. David Broekman’s lush, elegant theme is preceded by an otherworldly series of notes as a crude animated globe forms.5

And, as it turned out, “The Western” was the final installment of Wide Wide World. General Motors, which had sponsored the series since its debut, proposed altering the format to 15 one-hour installments. But those plans never took, and no other sponsor took the show over. Wide Wide World was gone, and with it went some ambitious plans for the fourth season, including a visit to Europe and possibly a trip into the Soviet Union to interview Russian leaders within the Kremlin.

That said, when you’re able to get the likes of Gary Cooper, James Arness, Gene Autry and James Garner6 on your program, it’s not a small way to say farewell. So, even though it’s a blurry copy of the program, enjoy the final Wide Wide World, from June 6, 1958.

  1. There are some other reasons, as I’ve alluded to, but I am waiting for more appropriate times to share that news. It doesn’t directly involve me, mind you – I’m fine, and have been all this while, but it involves outside circumstances. None of it will delay the book, though.
  2. In fact, I’m writing this from a hotel room. It’s the first time I’ve spent the night in a hotel in about a year and a half. It feels a little strange, but the change of venue is awfully welcome, both physically and psychologically. It is very nice to get out of the proximity of the things that have brought so much stress at work.
  3. Or as they were arranged to happen. The field coordination and general choreography for Wide Wide World was hard and exacting work, but it came across beautifully most of the time, and deserves a book all its own.
  4. The same shift happened with NBC Radio’s weekend service Monitor, another Weaver brainchild, which had gradually morphed from a “let’s get glimpses of what’s happening live right now around the country” format into a program of music, reports, and more traditional vignettes.
  5. One viewer who hated the new intro called the jarring prelude “a woeful, weird, irritating noise that doesn’t seem to fit the program. It seems more like a warning of a raid from Mars.”
  6. James Garner? Yes please.