TELEVISION: Under the Spreading FCC

When CBS announced that giveaway shows could no longer accept free goods in exchange for plugs on the air (TIME, Dec. 14), merchandise marts such as Art Linkletter's House Party seemed to be headed for the boneyard. Last week CBS gave them new life, promised to reimburse the giveaway shows for the cost of the hardware that was formerly provided by schlock-hungry companies. The bill will not be cheap: House Party and two other Linkletter shows alone will cost the network about $3,000 a week.

Meanwhile, CBS President Frank Stanton, the industry's leading anti-schlock-meister, was the subject of a new joke in the industry. According to Variety, a revised version of a popular song is being sung this way at CBS: "Stanton on the corner, watching all the plugs go by."