February 8, 2016

What's on TV? Tuesday, February 7, 1956

We're back in Dallas-Fort Worth this week, which I find extremely helpful since it serves to educate me in the television history of my adopted home. I don't know nearly as much about DFW's TV history as I do MSP, but just give me some time. In the meantime, let's see what's on.


KRLD, Channel 4 (CBS)

Morning

06:50a


07:00a
The Morning Show

07:55a
Agricultural News

08:00a
Captain Kangaroo

08:55a
News

09:00a
Garry Moore

09:30a
Arthur Godfrey Time

10:30a
Strike It Rich

11:00a
Valiant Lady

11:15a
Love of Life

11:30a
Search for Tomorrow

11.45a
The Guiding Light

Afternoon

12:00p
News

12:05p
TSCW Workshop

12:30p
Love Story

01:00p
Hair Fashions

01:15p
Robert Q. Lewis

01:30p
House Party (guest host Jack Slattery, guest Edith Head)

02:00p
The Big Payoff

02:30p
Bob Crosby

03:00p
The Brighter Day

03:15p
The Secret Storm

03:30p
On Your Account

04:00p
Mary Carter’s Cookbook

04:15p
Tricks and Treats

04:30p
Variety Fair

05:05p
Space Adventures

05:45p
Douglas Edwards With the News

Evening


06:00p
Weather, Sports, News (local)

06:30p
Name That Tune

07:00p
Phil Silvers

07:30p
Navy Log

08:00p
Meet Millie

08:30p
I Led Three Lives

09:00p
The $64,000 Question

09:30p
Wrestling

10:30p
Famous Playhouse

11:00p
Boss Lady

11:30p
News Final (local)

Bob Crosby, bandleader and host of the eponymously-named show at 2:30pm, is the brother of Bing Crosby. But you probably knew that already.


WBAP, Channel 5 (NBC)

Morning

06:50a
Let’s Go Fishing

07:00a
Sunup

08:00a
Kitty’s Wonderland

09:00a
Ding Dong School

09:30a
Ernie Kovacs

10:00a
The Home Show

11:00a
Texas Living (color)

11:30a
Beauty School (color)

11.45a
The Jones Place (color)

Afternoon

12:30p
Ann Alden (color)

12:45p
Movie – “The Women of the Town”

02:00p
Matinee Theater

03:00p
Date with Life

03:15p
Modern Romances

03:30p
Queen for a Day

04:00p
News, Weather (local)

04:15p
Tricks and Treats

05:00p
Mickey Mouse Club

Evening


06:00p
Annie Oakley

06:30p
Superman

06:45p
Camel News Caravan

07:00p
Bob Hope (guests Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Yana)

08:00p
Jane Wyman

08:30p
Armstrong Circle Theater

09:30p
Big Town

10:00p
News, Weather

10:30p
Racket Squad

11:00p
Tonight

Ernie Kovacs, who hosts a 9:30am show, is no stranger to morning television. While working in Philadelphia in 1950, he hosted a 7:00 - 9:00am show on WPTZ called Three to Get Ready, the first early morning show in a major television market. The show was a major success for both Kovacs and WPTZ, and also served as inspiration for NBC's Today, which debuted about two years later. WPTZ was an NBC affiliate, as it happens, and they were eventually forced to cede the time to Today, forcing Ernie to another show.


KCEN, Channel 6 (Temple) (NBC)

Morning

06:55a
Program Previews

07:00a
Today (guest Mrs. Elizabeth Ives, sister of Adlai Stevenson)

09:00a
Ding Dong School

09:30a
Ernie Kovacs

10:00a
The Home Show

11:00a
Tennessee Ernie Ford

11:30a
Feather Your Nest

Afternoon

12:00p
Religion in Life

12:15p
RFD No. 6

12:30p
Movie – “Undercover Agent”

01:30p
Cathy’s Corner

02:00p
Matinee Theater

03:00p
Hollywood Backstage

03:15p
Modern Romances

03:30p
Queen for a Day

04:00p
Pinky Lee

04:30p
Howdy Doody

05:00p
Tales of the West – “Rustler’s Hideout”

Evening


06:00p
News, Weather (local)

06:15p
Eddy Arnold

06:45p
Camel News Caravan

07:00p
Bob Hope (guests Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Yana)

08:00p
Jane Wyman

08:30p
Texas in Review

09:00p
Sagebrush Serenade

09:30p
From Hollywood

10:00p
News, Weather, Sports

10:20p
Late Date Theater – “Heat Wave”

Following the Kovacs show is NBC's The Home Show, hosted by Arlene Francis, along with her sidekick, Hugh Downs. This makes Arlene another one of What's My Line?'s two-network stars, joining John Daly. For his part, Hugh was an NBC stalwart, later taking his sidekick role to late-night with Jack Paar, then becoming host of Today, and adding the game show Concentration to his portfolio. It isn't until the late '70s, after retiring from NBC and hosting Over Easy on PBS, that he moves to ABC to take over 20/20.


WFAA, Channel 8 (ABC)

Morning

06:55a
Morning Devotional

09:00a
Romper Room

10:00a
Julie Bennell

11:00a
Tennessee Ernie Ford

11:30a
Feather Your Nest

Afternoon

12:00p
News

12:05p
Magazine

12:30p
Movie – “Village Barn Dance”

01:30p
Trouble with Father

02:00p
Afternoon Film Festival

04:00p
Pinky Lee

04:30p
Howdy Doody

05:00p
Kiddie Karnival

05:30p
Frontier Playhouse

Evening


06:00p
News (Joe Templeton)

06:10p
Weather (Warren Culbertson)

06:15p
John Daly and the News

06:30p
Dinah Shore

07:00p
The Man Called X (debut)

07:30p
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp

08:00p
Danny Thomas

08:30p
Cavalcade Theater

09:00p
The Whistler

09:30p
Studio 57

10:00p
Final Edition News

10:15p
Weather

10:30p
Patti Page

10:45p
Playhouse 15

11:00p
Les Paul and Mary Ford

11:05p
Channel 8 Theater – “New Frontier”

I've been listening to a good deal of the radio version of The Whistler, and the very thing that makes it good radio is why it didn't work out so well as a TV show. After all, the title character doesn't really appear in the story, except as a taunting narrator. While that works on the radio, it's a little harder sell in a visual medium - but then, everything was making the transition from radio to TV. Incidentally, two of the actors who voiced The Whistler on the radio would become familiar faces on television: Joseph Kearns (Mr. Wilson in Dennis the Menace) and Marvin Miller (The Millionaire).


KFJZ, Channel 11 (Ind.)

Afternoon

02:30p
Date with Drama

03:00p
Theater 11 – “Kid Monk Baroni”

04:15p
Loony Tunes

04:30p
Gene Autry Theater 

05:30p
Looney Tunes

Evening


06:00p
Range Rider

06:30p
News, Sports, Weather (local)

07:00p
Looney Tunes

07:10p
The Little Rascals

07:30p
Million Dollar Movie – “Love Happy”

08:55p
News (Dan Allison)

09:00p
Counterpoint

09:30p
City Detective

10:00p
News (Porter Randall)

10:30p
Starlight Theater – “Dishonored Lady”

KFJZ, the first independent television station in Texas, is now KTVT, a real tongue-twister until one gets used to it; I think it took me two years until I was able to get comfortable with not saying "KTTV" or something like that. It's also no longer an independent, but is now the CBS affiliate. Times change, don't they? TV  

6 comments:

  1. I've been back and forth between this post and my Chicago edition.

    Several of the listings have me scratching my head:

    - Dinah Shore did have a network show this week - on NBC, Tuesday and Thursday at 6:30 pm, for fifteen minutes, just before John Cameron Swayze's news.
    This was NBC's format that season; Tony Martin had the slot on Monday, Eddie Fisher on Wednesday and Friday.
    So what the heck is Dinah doing on the ABC station, in the right slot, but for a half-hour?
    And in the hour wherein ABC is carrying Cheyenne?

    - In a related story:
    Why is the CBS station bypassing Red Skelton in favor of the syndicated I Led Three Lives?
    My Chicago edition shows that Skelton's show was in color, but this was CBS's notorious "non-compatible" color system, which you needed special equipment to pick up. Could this be the reason for the Dallas bypass?

    - Meanwhile, the NBC station is apparently showing Superman at 6:30, but for 15 minutes, just before the Swayze news.
    You don't suppose ...
    ... maybe the Dallas printing plant switched the Superman and Dinah Shore lines, and Supes is on the ABC station and Dinah is on NBC?
    Quick way to check: go to Thursday and see which station Dinah is on then.
    Get back to us on that, OK?

    - Channel 8's 6:00 news and weather:
    Several years after this issue, Warren Culbertson brought his Weather By Radar to Channel 7 in Chicago (also an ABC station), where he held forth for about a decade.
    About the time he left to go back to his native Oklahoma, news anchor Joe Templeton, who'd been the main anchor at the ABC station in Washington DC, came in to take over the main anchor chair at the selfsame Channel 7 in Chicago, to replace the network-bound Frank Reynolds. Templeton had a decent run in Chicago before giving way to Joel Daly and Fahey Flynn, and returning to Washington DC.

    - ABC didn't have much of a daytime schedule in 1956.
    The Afternoon Film Festival consisted of British movies from the J. Arthur Rank library, which ABC picked up at bargain prices in one of the first major sales of cinema product to US commercial TV.
    ABC's only other network daytime show was Mickey Mouse Club.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Soon as I get home, I'll find out about the Dinah question. Nothing could be finer, right?

      Great comments, as usual. I wonder if you aren't right about the color on Skelton - I'll have to make sure I didn't miss anything.

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    2. Dinah's on channel 8 Thursday, as she was on Tuesday. Red Skelton's show on Monday night at 10pm in B&W. Don't you love these days?

      Delete
  2. To answer your question, WFAA ran some NBC programming due to the fact that the signal of the NBC affiliate in Ft. Worth, WBAP-TV, didn't reach Dallas very well. That changed in 1957 when NBC threatened to pull the network unless WBAP built a new tower to better serve the entire DFW metroplex. Since that time, Channel 5's tower has been located in Dallas County at Cedar Hill - along with all the other TV and most radio station towers.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good info, Chris. Do you live in DFW right now, or have you had some past experience with the area's television history? I'd love to learn more about it!

      Delete
    2. WFAA and WBAP both had radio stations that shared two frequencies until the early 1970's: 570 and 820 kilohertz. Both stations had relationships with the ABC and NBC radio networks.

      570 is a 5,000 watt station; 820 has 50,000 watts. During the day, both stations (according to Radio Locator.com) have about equal coverage areas. At night, 820 has a far larger signal area, covering much of the country.

      Both stations had NBC and ABC affiliations, but with a twist: NBC was always on 820 (regardless of whether WBAP or WFAA was using it) while ABC was always on 570 (again, regardless of whether WBAP or WFAA was using it).

      In the early 1970's, this arrangement ended. WFAA went full-time on 570 (and an affiliation with ABC's American Entertainment Radio Network), while WBAP went 24/7 on 820, as an NBC Radio Network affiliate.

      Some years later, WFAA got out of radio and today, 570 is home to KLIF. WBAP still broadcasts on 820.

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Thanks for writing! Drive safely!