Saints and Sinners “A Night of Horns and Bells” (December 24, 1962)
It’s New Year’s Eve and cub reporter Nick Alexander (Nick Adams) is drafted into emergency service as the night city editor of a New York paper. He struggles to cover the night’s news with only a skeleton crew, and to make decisions that are new to him, such as whether to run the photo of a missing woman (Cloris Leachman) who may or may not be suicidal. Meanwhile Nick’s society girlfriend fumes over missing the holiday parties, but soon she’s taking down copy over the phone, and a surrogate staff of misfits and drop-ins coheres to get the late edition out. The creator-producer of this short-lived newspaper drama, Adrian Spies, and the writer of this episode, David Davidson, were both veteran journalists, and they brought a predictable verisimilitude to the chaotic newsroom setting. Davidson’s script has the sharp, staccato character sketches of good reporting, epitomized in Edward Everett Horton’s lovely turn as an elderly “pet editor,” filling in on a holiday shift, who enjoys one last moment of glory as a rewrite man once Nick realizes he had apprenticed with some of the legendary Jazz Age newsmen. The ending is perfect: the veteran editor-in-chief (John Larkin) returns to offer a kind but blunt assessment of Nick’s handling of each of the evening’s stories – some better than the competition, some not as good.
It’s New Year’s Eve and cub reporter Nick Alexander (Nick Adams) is drafted into emergency service as the night city editor of a New York paper. He struggles to cover the night’s news with only a skeleton crew, and to make decisions that are new to him, such as whether to run the photo of a missing woman (Cloris Leachman) who may or may not be suicidal. Meanwhile Nick’s society girlfriend fumes over missing the holiday parties, but soon she’s taking down copy over the phone, and a surrogate staff of misfits and drop-ins coheres to get the late edition out. The creator-producer of this short-lived newspaper drama, Adrian Spies, and the writer of this episode, David Davidson, were both veteran journalists, and they brought a predictable verisimilitude to the chaotic newsroom setting. Davidson’s script has the sharp, staccato character sketches of good reporting, epitomized in Edward Everett Horton’s lovely turn as an elderly “pet editor,” filling in on a holiday shift, who enjoys one last moment of glory as a rewrite man once Nick realizes he had apprenticed with some of the legendary Jazz Age newsmen. The ending is perfect: the veteran editor-in-chief (John Larkin) returns to offer a kind but blunt assessment of Nick’s handling of each of the evening’s stories – some better than the competition, some not as good.
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