April 29, 2014

The day in TV - April 30, 1974

We haven't done this in awhile, and it's about time - so let's take a look at a day in the week of Saturday's TV Guide.  In this case, the date is Tuesday, April 30, 1974.  The stations are from the Minneapolis-St. Paul viewing area, with appropriate annotations where useful.

KTCA, Channel 2 (PBS)
Morning
10:00a The Electric Company
Afternoon
12:00p Sesame Street
03:00p Efficient Reading
03:30p Film
04:00p Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood
04:30p Sesame Street
05:30p The Electric Company
Evening
06:00p Teaching Role
06:30p This is the Life
07:00p Bill Moyers’ Journal
07:30p Should the Lady Take a Chance? (special)
08:00p Parents Are Responsible
08:30p Washington Straight Talk (guest Vice President Gerald Ford)
09:00p College Concert
09:30p Urban Life

KTCA still broadcasts a less-than-complete schedule, leaving much of its daytime programming to the schools.  According to KTCA's own website, the station was one of the last holdouts in joining PBS, and until the 70s remained committed to educational rather than entertainment programming.  The morning broadcasts of The Electric Company and Sesame Street are repeats from the previous day.

One thing I noticed right away - 8:30's Washington Straight Talk features an appearance from Vice President Gerald Ford.  That's a combination you don't see often; Ford wasn't VP for that long.

WCCO, Channel 4 (CBS)
Morning
06:30a Sunrise Semester – “The Media in America”
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
10:55a Live Today
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 (celebrities Jo Ann Pflug, Fannie Flagg, Ron Masak, Brett Somers)
03:00p Tattletales (celebrities Jackie Joseph and Ken Barry, Roxanne and Jack Carter, Elaine Joyce and Bobby Van)
03:30p Movie – “Swordsman of Siena”
05:30p CBS Evening News (Walter Cronkite)
Evening
06:00p News (local)
06:30p Wild, Wild World of Animals
07:00p Maude
07:30p Hawaii Five-O
08:30p Burt Bacharach (guests Dusty Springfield, Juliet Prowse, Mireille Mathieu)
09:30p One Man’s China
10:00p News (local)
10:50p Movie – “The 39 Steps” (B&W)

Channel 4 was one of the last local stations to continue a block of children's programming.  Carmen, the 7:00am program, features the character "Carmen the Nurse," played by Mary Davies, who originally was part of Axel's Treehouse in the late 50s, and took over in 1966 when Clellan Card, who played Axel, died.  Mary herself died earlier this year; I'm fortunate enough to have her autograph from a book that was written about Axel a half dozen years ago.  Neat lady.

Carmen was followed by Clancy and Willie, with John Gallos as Clancy the Cop and Allan Lotsberg as his sidekick Willie Ketchem.  I was on that show in the late 60s, as part of the peanut gallery.  Fun experience.

Live Today, the five-minute religious show at 10:55am, is the formal title of the Dr. Reuben K. Youngdahl program that so many of you might recognize from listings throughout the 60s.

KSTP, Channel 5 (NBC)
Morning
06:00a Minnesota Today
06:30a Not For Women Only 
07:00a Today (guest Sammy Cahn)
09:00a Dinah Shore (guest Larry Csonka)
09:30a Jeopardy!
10:00a The Wizard of Odds
10:30a The Hollywood Squares (celebrities Amanda Blake, Art Linkletter, Charo, Paul Williams, Jan Murray, Karen Valentine, John Davidson, Paul Lynde)
11:00a Jackpot!
11:30a Celebrity Sweepstakes (celebrities Joey Bishop, John Saxon, Betty White, Greg Morris, Patti Deutsch)
11:30a NBC News (Edwin Newman)
Afternoon
12:00p News (local)
12:15p Dial 5 (guests Cab Calloway, Just Two)
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 (John Chancellor)
Evening
06:00p News (local)
06:30p The Price is Right
07:00p Adam-12
07:30p The Last American (special)
09:00p Love from A to Z (special)
10:00p News (local)
10:30p Johnny Carson (guests Florence Henderson, Euell Gibbons)
12:00a Tomorrow

Not For Women Only was a chatfest hosted by Barbara Walters, who was also on Today at this time.  I'd probably have forgotten all about this show were it not for TV Guide.  Walters is one of the most durable of TV celebrities though, isn't she?  On the air for over 50 years; of course, with The View, I think she's sacrificed any journalistic credibility she might have ever had.

The previous show, Minnesota Today, was hosted by David Stone, who was on KSTP for literally decades, hosting local music programs as well as farm news.  You'd have seen his Organ Notes program in some of the 60s listings, as well as other morning shows.

Speaking of local variety - how on earth did Dial 5 ever get a guest like Cab Calloway?  He must have been appearing locally.  Hi De Hi De Hi De Ho.

KMSP, Channel 9 (ABC)
Morning
07:00a CBS Morning News (Hughes Rudd)
08:00a News and Views
08:30a Romper Room
09:00a Hazel
09:30a Green Acres
10:00a Beat the Clock (guest Robert Horton)
10:30a The Brady Bunch
11:00a Password (celebrities Anita Gillette, Joel Grey)
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 Love, American Style
03:30p Mike Douglas (guests Sen. James Buckley, Richard Thomas, Godfrey Cambridge, Earl Wrightson and Lois Hunt)
05:00p News (local)
05:30p ABC Evening News (Smith/Reasoner)
Evening
06:00p To Tell the Truth (Bill Cullen, Peggy Cass, Alan Alda, Kitty Carlisle)
06:30p Truth or Consequences
07:00p Happy Days
07:30p Movie – “QBVII” (part 2) (special)
10:45p News (local)
11:15p The Big Valley
12:15a The Rat Patrol
12:45a News (local)

As was the case for much of the 60s and 70s, WCCO chose not to carry the CBS Morning News, opting instead for its local kids programming.  It instead found a home on KMSP, as ABC had no morning news of its own.  Anything to cause confusion among the viewers.  The Girl in My Life was a game/reality show that didn't make much of an impression, but for some reason I remember its host, Fred Holliday, whom I rather liked.

One of Mike Douglas' guests, U.S. Senator James Buckley, ran as a Conservative, defeating the Republican incumbent, Charles Goodell, who had been appointed by Nelson Rockefeller to fill the seat following the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy.  Buckley is the brother of the famed columnist William F. Buckley Jr.; Goodell is the father of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.  Small world, isn't it?

I wrote about QBVII on Saturday; you can see how much of a dent it made in the night's prime-time schedule.

WTCN, Channel 11 (Ind.)
Morning
06:30a Random Access
07:00a New Zoo Revue
07:30a Popeye and Porky
08:30a The Munsters (B&W)
09:00a The Flintstones
09:30a I Dream of Jeannie (B&W)
10:00a Father Knows Best (B&W)
10:30a Andy Griffith (B&W)
11:00a That Girl
11:30a What’s New?
Afternoon
01:00p Movie – “The Private Lives of Adam and Eve”
03:00p Gomer Pyle, USMC
03:30p Petticoat Junction
04:00p The Flintstones
04:30p Gilligan’s Island (B&W)
05:00p Bewitched
05:30p Mission: Impossible
Evening
06:30p The Lucy Show (B&W)
07:00p Dealer’s Choice
07:30p Father Knows Best (B&W)
08:00p Merv Griffin
09:30p News (local)
10:00p Perry Mason (B&W)
11:00p Movie – “This Earth Is Mine”

WTCN's programming was always a little thin when it wasn't showing sports - at the time, they were the local station for the Minnesota Twins, North Stars and (occasionally) Fighting Saints, as well as the carrier of syndicated sporting events.  We're in playoff season, which means this prime time schedule might have been preempted.  Otherwise, it's a pretty solid schedule, don't you think?  And, thanks to DVDs, you can probably replicate almost all of it in your own home.

4 comments:

  1. I don't have this TV GUIDE, but I do have the previous week (April 20-26).

    I also have some reference books about TV specials, as well as screening dates for some regular series.

    It seems that the network affiliates weren't overwhelmed with loyalty to their mother ships:

    - On CBS, the regular occupant of 8:30 was The CBS Tuesday Night Movie, which in that season was mainly the wheel series Hawkins (Jimmy Stewart) and Shaft (Richard Roundtree). The Burt Bacharach special is apparently from a number that he made in England for Sir Lew Grade (I can't find it in my book about network specials). That makes the 9:30 show about China another syndie special, bought as filler.

    - On NBC, the local is carrying specials in lieu of Tuesday Mystery Movie and Police Story, which were both in reruns by this time (as CBS would have been above).
    I couldn't find the specials in any of my references; KSTP had a reputation for independent thinking, which indicates that these were also local pre-emptions.

    - On ABC, Tuesday was a regular movie night, followed by Marcus Welby.
    Late night, after the news, ABC had its Wide World Of Entertainment, which at this point was different each night; Tuesday was usually 90-minute taped suspense dramas, made on low budgets either here or in England. ABC didn't get many station clearances for these shows; I'll guess that ch9 was one of the decliners.

    - By this time, Chicago had five independent stations:
    Ch 9 was business as usual: Baseball season had started, so if the Cubs were on the road, they usually got prime time; otherwise, syndie reruns.
    Ch 20 was a PBS substation. Only on part-time.
    Ch 26 aired business news during the day, Spanish-language programming in the evening.
    Ch 32 had just been bought by Kaiser Broadcasting: syndie stuff day and night, Merv Griffin in prime-time, midnight sign-off.
    Ch 44 had only gone on a year before: They had the White Sox, with Harry Caray, almost every day and night; otherwise syndie reruns.
    I could be more specific if I had the actual issue; this will have to do for now.

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    1. It used to drive me crazy when Channel 7 in Alexandria preempted network programming in favor of something local. To a young football fan, it particularly irked me that the station was committed to not carrying the second half of NFL doubleheaders on Sunday, preferring instead to pollute the airwaves with "Chmielewski Funtime." As a matter of fact, I get angry even now thinking about it.

      Of course, I've come since then to appreciate the merits of local programming, and to mourn its disappearance. Notwithstanding that, there are times when local shows can be aired without zapping the network schedule, usually with the breathtaking arrogance that the local station knows better than the viewer what they should be watching.

      Less of an issue now, since so many network programs can be caught on streaming video online.

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    2. In my market,WEWS,and WJW, were pre-emptiion happy during the 1970's. WKYC was owned by NBC at the time, so there were no pre-emptions from them. They did however bump NBC's 10 am EDT/EST programs to 1:00 pm because of the third half-hour of "The Mike Douglas Show",which " TV3 ran from 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.,since the fall of '68 when "Our Man Mark" was cancelled.

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    3. We also, in addition to local WEWS, my market also had access to another station that was an ABC affiliate, WAKR Channel 23 in nearby Akron, which cleared what WEWS turned down from ABC, in many cases, at its proper network time pattern. But there were other cities in Ohio which had had stations that routinely bumped network daytime programming for local content,with those programs winding up on rival stations, whether or not they are linked to a major network. The NBC stations in Columbus, Dayton, and Cincinnati come to mind. They would abandon programs like "Snap Judgement", " It Takes Two", "Dinah's Place", " Concentration", "Personality", " Jeopardy", "Eye Guess", " Name Droppers", The Who, What, or Where Game" "Jackpot", " Baffle" "The Wizard of Odds", " Name that Tune", "Celebrity Sweepstakes", " Winning Steak", "Somerset", and the like, for live, local programming from such Midwest icons as Ruth Lyons, Paul Dixon, Phil Donahue (Dayton), Nick Clooney (Columbus), Vivienne Del Chiesa, and Bob Braun.

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Thanks for writing! Drive safely!