September 28, 2015

What's on TV? Wednesday, October 2, 1974

This week we're back in the Twin Cities, as the new season continues to take shape.  Tonight's programs are a mix of the new (Little House in the Prairie, in its first season, which I don't generally associate with Wednesday), the established (Cannon) and a slew of short-run series (Manhunter, Get Christie Love!, Sons and Daughters).  Let's see what the rest of the day looks like.


KTCA, Channel 2 (PBS)

Morning

10:00a
The Electric Company

Afternoon

12:00p
Sesame Street

03:00p
Practical Speechmaking

03:30p
Education for a New Time

04:00p
Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood

04:30p
Sesame Street

05:30p
The Electric Company

Evening

06:00p
Efficient Reading

06:30p
Inquiry

07:00p
The Men Who Made the Movies

08:00p
Season of Celebration (special)

08:30p
Tim Weisberg – Jazz Rock

09:00p
Festival Films

09:30p
A Special Child

10:00p
People and Causes

The gaps in the KTCA schedule are filled by classroom programming, since the schools in Minneapolis-St. Paul are back in session.  The Men Who Made the Movies was an eight-part series helmed by the famed Time movie critic, Richard Schickel.


WCCO, Channel 4 (CBS)

Morning


06:30a
Sunrise Semester (History of African Civilization)

07:00a
Carmen

07:30a
Clancy and Willie

08:00a
Captain Kangaroo

09:00a
The Joker’s Wild

09:30a
Gambit

10:00a
Now You See It

10:30a
Love of Life

11:00a
The Young and the Restless

11:30a
Search for Tomorrow

Afternoon

12:00p
Midday

12:30p
As the World Turns

01:00p
The Guiding Light

01:30p
The Edge of Night

02:00p
The Price is Right

02:30p
Match Game ’74 (guests Betty White, Richard Dawson, Charles Nelson Reilly, Brett Somers)

03:00p
Tattletales

03:30p
Movie – “Cat Ballou”

05:30p
CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite

Evening


06:00p
News (local)

06:30p
Laurel and Hardy – “Below Zero” (B&W)

07:00p
Sons and Daughters

08:00p
Cannon

09:00p
Manhunter

10:00p
News (local)

10:50p
Movie – “The View from Pompey’s Head”

12:50a
Movie – “Savage”

The Edge of Night was, as I've mentioned in the past, the only soap that had a majority male audience, due to its emphasis on crime and courtroom drama (it was actually a spinoff from the radio version of Perry Mason), and also because it traditionally had a late afternoon timeslot.  By 1974, it had been moved to early in the afternoon (it would leave CBS next year), and the beneficiary was the raunchy Match Game and the celebrity Tattletales, always a fun combo.



KSTP, Channel 5 (NBC)

Morning


06:00a
Minnesota Today

06:30a
Not For Women Only

07:00a
Today (guest Dr. Philip Strax, breast cancer expert)

09:00a
Name That Tune

09:30a
Winning Streak

10:00a
High Rollers

10:30a
The Hollywood Squares (guests George Gobel, Jack Cassidy, Adrienne Barbeau, Pearl Bailey, Rich Little)

11:00a
Jackpot!

11:30a
Celebrity Sweepstakes (guests Pat McCormick, Joyce Haber, Jack Cassidy, Carol Wayne, Barbi Benton)

11:55a
NBC News (Edwin Newman)

Afternoon

12:00p
News (local)

12:15p
Take Five (guest guitarist Michael Hauser)

01:00p
Days of Our Lives

01:30p
The Doctors

02:00p
Another World

02:30p
How to Survive a Marriage

03:00p
Somerset

03:30p
Dick Van Dyke (B&W)

04:00p
The Mod Squad

05:00p
Hogan’s Heroes

05:30p
NBC Nightly News with John Chancellor

Evening


06:00p
News (local)

06:30p
The Hollywood Squares (guests Ernest Borgnine, Mike Conners, Donna Fargo, Buddy Hackett, Rose Marie, Vincent Price, Karen Valentine, Charley Weaver, Paul Lynde)

07:00p
Little House on the Prairie

08:00p
Lucas Tanner

09:00p
Petrocelli

10:00p
News (local)

10:30p
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (guest host Don Rickles, guest Maury Wills)

12:00a
Tomorrow

That's the quintessential NBC daytime schedule you see there: game shows in the morning, soap operas in the afternoon.  Speaking of which, I sometimes forget about the nighttime version of The Hollywood Squares, which was very successful both on the network and in syndication.  Wally Cox, one of the original regular panelists, died last year, and Cliff Arquette, aka Charley Weaver, died the week before this show was broadcast, leaving Paul Lynde, who was not one of the originals, the last - and probably most memorable - of the original Squares.


KMSP, Channel 9 (ABC)

Morning


07:00a
CBS Morning News with Hughes Rudd

08:00a
News and Views (guest Dr. Theodore Rubin)

08:30a
Green Acres

09:00a
I Love Lucy (B&W)

09:30a
Beat the Clock (guest Stu Gilliam)

10:00a
$10,000 Pyramid (guests Soupy Sales, Anita Gillette)

10:30a
The Brady Bunch

11:00a
Password (guests Patty Duke Astin, John Astin)

11:30a
Split Second

Afternoon

12:00p
All My Children

12:30p
Let’s Make a Deal

01:00p
The Newlywed Game

01:30p
The Girl in My Life

02:00p
General Hospital

02:30p
One Life to Live

03:00p
To Tell the Truth (guests Allen Ludden, Kitty Carlisle, Bill Cullen, Peggy Cass)

03:30p
ABC Afterschool Special – “Sara’s Summer of the Swans”

04:30p
Circus

05:00p
News (local)

05:30p
ABC Evening News with Howard K. Smith and Harry Reasoner

Evening


06:00p
Truth or Consequences

06:30p
Name That Tune

07:00p
That’s My Mama

07:30p
ABC Wednesday Movie of the Week – “Death Sentence”

09:00p
Get Christie Love!

10:00p
News (local)

10:30p
Wide World Event (Miss World-USA Beauty Pageant)

12:00a
Movie – “The Road to Hong Kong” part 1 (B&W)

12:45a
News (local)

As I've mentioned before, the CBS Morning News aired for many years on the Twin Cities' ABC affiliate, as Channel 4 was the only local station to still run children's programming.  The ABC Wednesday Movie of the Week was dedicated to made-for-TV movies, and tonight's "world premiere" is no exception.  "Death Sentence" tells the story of a woman on a jury who comes to suspect that the guilty party is not the defendant, but her husband!  If you find this happening to you sometime in the near future, he's the movie so you can tell how you might handle it.



WTCN, Channel 11 (Ind.)

Morning


06:30a
Figure Fitness

07:00a
What’s New?

07:30a
New Zoo Revue

08:00a
Popeye and Porky

09:00a
The Flintstones

09:30a
I Dream of Jeannie

10:00a
Father Knows Best (B&W)

10:30a
Andy Griffith (B&W)

11:00a
The Lucy Show

11:30a
News (local)

Afternoon

12:00p
What’s New?

12:30p
Jeopardy

01:00p
The Virginian

03:00p
Gomer Pyle, USMC

03:30p
Petticoat Junction

04:00p
The Flintstones

04:30p
Gilligan’s Island

05:00p
Bewitched (B&W)

05:30p
Mission: Impossible

Evening


06:30p
Raymond Burr (aka Ironside)

07:30p
The Lucy Show

08:00p
Merv Griffin (guests Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Henry Winkley, Antony Armstrong-Jones [Lord Snowden])

09:30p
News (local)

11:00p
Perry Mason

12:00a
It Takes a Thief

When cable TV finally came to The World's Worst Town™ in 1977, one of the first programs I latched onto was Merv Griffin.  I'd seen it in the CBS version back in the day so I certainly knew who he was, but I didn't really get to appreciate him until watching the syndicated version on Channel 11.  Channel 11 also carried The Andy Griffith Show, and really they could have saved time on the schedule by running this version.



KTCI, Channel 17 (PBS)

Evening


07:00p
Education for a New Time

07:30p
Firing Line (guest former British PM Edward Heath)

08:30p
Book Beat (guest Jerome Holtzman)

09:00p
Inquiry

09:30p
Outdoors with Art Reid

10:00p
Captioned ABC Evening News

Today KTCI carries a full 24 hours of programming, but in 1974 it had a very limited schedule, consisting mostly of reruns from its parent station, KTCA. TV  

2 comments:

  1. That pacing for "Death Sentence" is just that!
    Great cast and 1974 was a good year for Cloris.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I believe Jeopardy at 12:30 on WTCN was punted over from KSTP.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for writing! Drive safely!