The Clear Horizon

[jam6242]

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[Paul Raven]

Thanks for sharing.

Odd to see B&B's Saul as an action hero! I wonder if those sort of scenes were all staged in the studio?

[jam6242]

I wonder too, especially since Beau’s character apparently drowned.

[Paul Raven]

Happy to find something new to post for Clear Horizon

Tulare Advance Register,19 July 1960

International Three . . . two . . . one . . . zero . . . vacuum cleaners off! CBS-TV, in a new attempt to slow the housewife's routine, has come in with "The Clear Horizon" billed as our nation's first space age soap opera. As the network says, "It is the dramatic story of a young army officer and his wife, stationed at the site of the U. S. army's top-priority missile and rocket-launching project" at Cape Canaveral, Fla. I've spent a week tracking this daily 30-minute series, which left the launching pad at 8:30 a.m. PDT, July 11.

So far, we've met a dozen characters, including the young army officer, Roy Selby, and his wife, Anne, played by Edward Kemmer and Phyllis Avery respectively, who are two pleasing performers.

Recently transferred to - a cushy pentagon chair after a rugged stay In Alaska, Roy suddenly must choose one of three alternatives. He can accept transfer to Canaveral, refuse and hate himself for it, or resign from the service and accept a civilian electronics offer that would bring him a heavy annual payload of money. Of course, we know Roy will go to Canaveral, else there's no show, but he has been reluctant to tell his wife about his decision because she has been taking to suburbia like a Kennedy to a coffee klatsch. . Their active, well-adjusted son, Ricky, also doesn't want to leave his new friends in "Arlington, Va.

To go or not to go has been the problem for the past week. Once Roy goes, he's undoubtedly going to run into his long-lost brother, who is in the army at Canaveral. His future commanding officer has a pretty young daughter and it seems reasonable to expect these kids to be among the high-potency, well-intentioned troublemakers who will mill around the story and help becloud the clear horizon. Script writer Manya Starrmakes slick use of the soap opera shorthand language, even though she's now dealing with the complexities of the missile-and-space era. The soap opera shorthand involves the use of timely phone calls to set a scene, brief wrinkled - brow conversations to the point of a dilemma, fortuitous meetings to heighten showdowns.

You'll be pleased to learn that these techniques, well-known in the horseless carriage days of melodrama, haven't been discarded in the space age. One thing about this sort of shorthand: It doesn't always speed things along. Usually, it serves to add new complications to the main complication. Besides telling its age-old stories In Its new setting, "The Clear Horizon," digs the current dialogue about national purpose, which all to its credit. The emphasis is on dedication, both national and personal, and to sacrifice. The series is perhaps most unusual because it makes no attempt to sugar-coat life at Canaveral. From what I've seen of the enlisted man's off duty life at Canaveral, he'd be better off on Devil's island. The acting is low-key and generally acceptable, even though the dialogue frequently becomes unglued and careens off in different directions. While it's a space age soap opera, it still relies on the oldstyle fueling ingredients, too: Trouble, frustration and hope.

[DRW50]

Thanks so much @Paul Raven it's wonderful to get to read a review I know I'd never see otherwise.

[Paul Raven]

@DRW50 Thank you for the feedback. Much appreciated.