November 9, 2015

What's on TV? Sunday, November 12, 1978

It's a very sleepy Sunday in the Twin Cities, as reflected in today's listings. Even though I subscribed to TV Guide, I generally threw most of the issues out; this one I kept, for reasons that even now aren't apparent to me. I remember this particular day, though; or at least I remember The Word, which began its four-night run on Sunday. I'd also be willing to bet I watched Soccer Made in Germany; more on that below.


KTCA, Channel 2 (PBS)

Morning


08:00a
Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood

08:30a
The Electric Company

09:00a
Studio See

09:30a
Freestyle

10:00a
Rebop

10:30a
Hot Dog

11:00a
Zoom

11:30a
The Electric Company

Afternoon


12:00p
Black Perspective on the News

12:30p
Congressional Outlook

01:00p
Geraldine Fitzgerald at Reno Sweeney (special)

02:00p
Great Performances – “The Good Doctor”

03:30p
Common Man’s Courage

04:00p
Firing Line (guest Australian P.M. Malcolm Fraser)

05:00p
People and Causes

05:30p
Julia Child & Company

Evening


06:00p
Soccer Made in Germany (Kaiserslautern vs. Schalke)

07:00p
Nova

08:00p
The Duchess of Duke Street (part 4)

09:00p
Global Paper: The Fight For Food (special)

10:00p
Monty Python’s Flying Circus

10:30p
An Evening With Chuck Mangoine (special)

12:30a
Show on the Road

One of my introductions to international soccer came with Soccer Made in Germany, which I loved watching back in the day. Toby Charles called the games, and it made the game seem incredibly exciting - easy to do when you're only presenting extended highlights. For old times' sake, here's a clip of Toby calling a game from the '70s.




WCCO, Channel 4 (CBS)

Morning


06:00a


07:00a
Jobs Now!

07:15a
Allen’s Window

07:30a
Sunday Morning

08:30a
Rex Humbard

09:30a
John Gallos Comedy Hour

10:30a
McHale’s Navy (B&W)

11:00a
Face the Nation

11:30a
Newsmaker

Afternoon


12:00p
News (local)

12:30p
Comedy

01:45p
This is the NFL

02:15p
Pro Football Preview

02:30p
The NFL Today

03:00p
NFL Football (Chicago at Minnesota)

Evening


06:00p
60 Minutes

07:00p
The Word (part 1)

09:00p
Dallas

10:00p
News (local)

10:30p
Movie – “The Stone Killer”

Allen's Window was hosted by Allen Lotsberg, who as Willie Ketchum was the longtime sidekick to John Gallos' Clancy the Cop on weekday mornings. (I was in the audience for one of those shows, my first exposure to a TV studio, as well as the first chance I had to see the set in full color.) Gallos followed at 9:30 with his long-running Sunday morning show, probably featuring either Laurel & Hardy (he was a big part of the comedy duo's revival in the early '70s) or the Bowery Boys.


KSTP, Channel 5 (NBC)

Morning


06:00a
Vegetable Soup

06:30a
Your Church of the Air

07:00a
People

07:30a
Campus Church

08:00a
Day of Discovery

08:30a
Henry Wolf (guest political scientist Dr. Lincoln Bloomfield)

09:00a
Jimmy Swaggart

09:30a
Robert Schuller

10:30a
High School Bowl

11:00a
Call Stoll (U of Minnesota football)

11:30a
 NFL ‘78

Afternoon


12:00p
NFL Football (Denver at Cleveland)

03:00p
NFL Game of the Week

03:30p
Open Forum

04:30p
Youth in Profile

05:30p
News (local)

Evening


06:00p
World of Disney – “The Boatniks”

08:00p
Movie – “Ode to Billy Joe”

10:00p
News (local)

10:30p
World War II: G.I. Diary

11:00p
World at War

12:00a
Movie – “The Reivers”

For all the jabs I take at today's weekend television being nothing but infomercials and nonstop sports, I would have been driven crazy by this week's schedule. Only two games, since the Vikings were playing at home (no game could be broadcast opposite it, in this iteration of the NFL's blackout policy), and the rest of the programming was pretty weak.


KMSP, Channel 9 (ABC)

Morning


07:00a
Directions

07:30a
Jerry Falwell

08:30a
Oral Roberts

09:00a
Senior Citizen’s Forum

09:30a
Kids Are People Too

10:30a
Animals, Animals, Animals

11:00a
News and Views

11:30a
College Football ‘78

Afternoon


12:00p
Issues and Answers

12:30p
Focus

01:00p
Movie – “Terror on the Beach”

02:30p
Juke-Box (guests Jimmy McCullough, White Line)

03:00p
Next Step Beyond

03:30p
Alias Smith and Jones

04:30p
All-Star Anything Goes

05:00p
Hee Haw

Evening


06:00p
Pat Boone and Family (guests Bob Hope, The Hudson Brothers, John Byner) (special)

07:00p
Battlestar Galactica

08:00p
NFL Football (Pittsburgh at Los Angeles (special)

11:00p
News (local)

11:30p
Baretta

12:40a
The Mod Squad

01:40a
ABC Sunday News (Sylvia Chase/Tom Jarriel)

When ABC agreed to show four NFL games on Sunday nights as part of their Monday Night Football package, people thought that football was reaching a saturation point on Sunday. The ratings for these games were not very good, even though the MNF crew were in town and the games were pretty good. Just too many games on the day. Boy, things have changed since then, haven't they?


WTCN, Channel 11 (Ind.)

Morning


06:30a
Probe

07:00a
American Town Hall Meeting

07:30a
The World Tomorrow

08:00a
Concern

08:30a
Church Service

09:00a
The Flintstones

10:00a
Tom and Jerry

11:30a
The Lucy Show

Afternoon


12:00p
Father Knows Best (B&W)

12:30p
Andy Griffith (B&W)

01:00p
Star Trek

02:00p
Movie – “The Odd Couple”

04:00p
Movie – “El Dorado”

Evening


06:00p
Movie – “McCabe & Mrs. Miller”

08:00p
Merv Griffin (guest host Mel Tillis, Jacqueline Bisset, Rita Moreno, Grits Greshem, Steve Bluestein, Steve Dacri)

09:30p
News (local)

10:00p
The Six Million Dollar Man

11:00p
Adam-12

11:30p
Get Smart

12:00a
Ironside

01:00a
Harambee

The Channel 2 listings at 2:00 pm included a Great Performances presentation of "The Good Doctor," a Neil Simon play. Much better to switch over to Channel 11 at the same time, where you can see what is perhaps Simon's best (and funniest) play, The Odd Couple, with the original pairing of Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon, every bit as good as Jack Klugman and Tony Randall. TV  

6 comments:

  1. Actually a lot of interesting listings:
    --Was Ch.2's "Hot Dog" the NBC kids' series from the early 70s?
    --I'm not sure which is more bizarre, that Ch.4 has a noon Sunday news or that their NFL preview is only 15 minutes. Anybody know of other stations with Sunday early afternoon news?
    --Why does Ch.11 have Merv on Sunday nights? Pre-emption, or did he (like Carson) do a best of episode on weekends?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I thought WTCN had the old Minnesota Northstars hockey team until it became an NBC affiliate (and the games moved to KMSP, which had just become an independent), so the "Merv" show on Sunday may have been seen in most of the country sometime that week but was pre-empted locally in the Twin Cities for hockey.

      Delete
    2. WTCN was the North Stars TV station(as well as the Minnesota Twins)

      Delete
  2. You have to love a show simply called "Comedy."

    ReplyDelete
  3. This Bears/Vikings game was moved to a 1:00 PM CT kickoff as the Bears had entered a slump and the Cowboys/Packers game was moved to the late time slot. Either the way the Cowboys/Packers game was not seen in the Twin Cities due to the NFL broadcasting rules of the time

    http://506sports.com/forum/index.php?topic=3006.0

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for writing! Drive safely!