TV Week listings for Tuesday, October 2, 1973.

The new season was kicking into high gear, as the networks were running the first or second episodes of most of their fall slates.

On ABC at 7:00 PM, season 2, episode 2 of "Temperature's Rising" starring Paul Lynde and a pre-Blazing Saddles Cleavon Little.  I caught a couple of episodes but my 11-year-old self didn't find anything terribly funny about it.

On CBS at 7:00 PM, it was the fourth episode of "Maude," which was getting a lot of buzz for its controversial topics, most of which are tame by today's standards but that is somewhat due to the battles that Norman Lear fought with "Maude."  Esther Rolle played Maude and Arthur's maid, Florida, and she left halfway through the season to go back to the projects and anchor "Good Times."

An interesting premiere tonight, also on CBS.  "Hawkins" starred Jimmy Stewart as a defense attorney.  "Hawkins" was one-third of a rotating trio of shows that CBS used to imitate the success of NBC's "Sunday Mystery Movie."  One of the other shows was a TV adaptation of "Shaft," starring Richard Roundtree, late of the theatrical movie.  It seems audiences were confused - unlike NBC's "Sunday Mystery Movie" ("McMillian and Wife," "Banacek," "Columbo," "McCloud," among others) which had thematically similar programs, CBS put the cerebral Jimmy Stewart on one week and Roundtree's private dick that's a sex machine to all the chicks the next (Hey, I'm talking about Shaft).  They pulled the plug in March 1974.

NBC had three premieres this night.  At 9:00 PM, it was the critically acclaimed "Police Story." A true anthology, "Police Story" told a different story with different characters every week and the cops weren't always the good guys.  It was a direct ancestor to "Hill Street Blues" and "Law & Order," among many others.  It ran weekly for four years before being shifted to a two-hour occasional series for its final year.

At 8:00 PM, Bill Bixby was "The Magician."  Tony Blake was a world famous illusionist, who travelled the world (we only saw him travel the United States, but still) in his private 707.  He drove around in a white 1973 Corvette, and, of course, his plane had a car-sized cargo bay so he hauled the Corvette everywhere he went.  Tony helped people in need by creating elaborate illusions to help them escape or expose corruption, and solved mysteries by deconstructing crimes as intricate illusions.

Halfway through the season, NBC reconfigured "The Magician."  They jettisoned Tony's newspaper columnist friend and grounded the 707, as well as the pilot.  They had him living in the Magic Castle in Los Angeles, and had him solving the same types of mysteries but only within driving distance in LA.  They also upgraded his car, from the 1973 ducktail to a 1974 torpedo tail, still in gleaming white.  My 11-year-old self loved "The Magician," even after they ditched the 707 but NBC killed the series after one season.  Bill Bixby would go on to star in "The Incredible Hulk," so it's all good.

And at 7:00 PM, NBC rolled out he first episode of "Chase," a show that my 11-year-old self absolutely loved and why not?  A cop show specifically designed for car chases, car wrecks, and explosions?  Yes, please.  The show centered around a plain-clothes task force led by Captain Chase Reddick, played to sleazy, aggro perfection by Mitchell Ryan. Get it, his name is "Chase," and his unit specializes in car chases?  Layers, man.  The task force's sergeant was also a canine officer, so we had a cool german shepherd in every episode.  One officer was a former race driver and he drove an all-white 1973 Plymouth Satellite 4-door with a hood scoop, fat tires, and a jacked up rear end.  Another officer flew a red and white Hughes 500 helicopter.  Yet another officer drove a motorcycle.  By today's standards, the motorcycle was like a toy, probably a Kawasaki 175, but at the time it was impressive enough (Side note: my Honda Goldwing's engine has a larger displacement than my brother's Nissan automobile. Times change).  All of these officers and vehicles were mixed and matched in every episode until the ultimate, and identical conclusion, a car chase.  The white Plymouth would growl and spin its tires, the helicopter would fly too close to the ground, and the motorcycle would almost wipe out but still keep up with the bad guys.  Then the K9 dog, Fuzz, would chomp the bad guy after he ran 50 feet from the vehicle he just crashed.  Finally, Captain Chase would make a sarcastic remark or pun that would one day inspire the writers at "CSI: Miami."  Did I mention my 11-year-old self loved this show?  It was a time to turn off the brain and wait until the adrenaline kicked in.

Alas, after 13 episodes, NBC reconfigured the show.  That's a polite way to put it.  They gutted it.  Reached in and yanked out everything good about the show.  The chopper? Gone.  The white hot rod? Gone.  The frail little motorcycle? Gone.  The three 20-something pretty-boy officers?  Gone.  Now it was a show about a task force that solved crimes the old fashioned way and rarely had a car chase.  The three young officers were replaced by two yawn-inspiring veteran officers.  11-year-old me was crushed.

But I liked the first few episodes so much, I saved the Tribune's TV Week from the week of "Chase's" premiere for posterity.  Then forgot about it for 49 years, until I was cleaning the house a few months ago.  And that is why you are being entertained by scans and recollections of TV from 50 years ago this week.  My 11-year-old self says, "You're welcome."

Tomorrow: Jodie Foster and Truman Capote, but not at the same time.