September 12, 2016

What's on TV? Thursday, September 17, 1970

The  listings for the week are a mix of old and new, as CBS and NBC roll out their new seasons, while ABC hypes next week's premiere week. These weeks were some of the most exciting of the television season, as you got a chance to see the old shows for the last time, while getting a first glimpse at the new ones, wondering which ones you'd wind up watching each week, and expecting that at least a couple of your new favorites would be cancelled anyway. I miss those days.

By the way, this week's listings are from Nashville, with a guest appearance from Bowling Green.


WDCN, Channel 2 (NET)

Morning


08:35a
In-School Programming (B&W)

09:00a
Sesame Street

10:00a
In-School Programming (B&W)

Afternoon


02:30p
All Aboard

03:00p
Sesame Street

04:00p
What’s New (B&W)

04:30p
Art Studio, Too (B&W)

05:00p
Auto Mechanics (B&W)

05:30p
Film (B&W)

Evening


06:00p
Film – “The Quitters” (B&W)

06:30p
Misterogers (B&W)

07:00p
Washington Review

07:30p
Which Craft (B&W)

08:00p
Gent’s a Gourmet (B&W)

08:30p
Firing Line (B&W)

09:30p
Look at Us, Lord (B&W)

WDCN is still broadcasting mostly in B&W, but some of the NET broadcasts are in color. I look at that old NET logo, with its tagline "National Educational Television," and I think to myself that this was a noble idea. In execution, however, not so much. I don't think anyone looks at today's PBS as educational television.


WSM, Channel 4 (NBC)

Morning


06:00a
Morning Show

07:00a
Today

09:00a
Dinah’s Place

09:30a
Concentration

10:00a
Sale of the Century

10:30a
The Hollywood Squares

11:00a
Jeopardy

11:30a
The Who, What or Where Game

11:55a
NBC News (Floyd Kalber)

Afternoon


12:00p
Noon Show

01:00p
Days of Our Lives

01:30p
The Doctors

02:00p
Another World/Bay City

02:30p
Bright Promise

03:00p
Another World/Somerset

03:30p
Star Trek

04:30p
The Wild Wild West

05:25p
Weather (Bob Olson)

05:30p
NBC Nightly News

Evening


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

06:30p
Flip Wilson (guests James Brown, David Frost, Sunday’s Child, Oscar the Grouch and Big Bird) (debut)

07:30p
Ironside

08:30p
Dragnet

09:00p
Dean Martin (guests Orson Welles, Petula Clark, Joey Bishop, Kay Medford, Laurie Ichino)

10:00p
News, Weather, Sports (local)

10:30p
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (guests Richie Havens, Pat Morita)

It probably doesn't mean anything, but I find the prime-time lineup interesting - we have the premiere of The Flip Wilson Show, an important show in the integration of network television; Ironside, with a TV veteran (Raymond Burr) in a newer show, Dragnet, an old show that's made a comeback, and The Dean Martin Show, featuring veterans like Orson Welles and Joey Bishop, and Laurie Ichino, a teen music artist. Covers it all, doesn't it?


WLAC, Channel 5 (CBS)

Morning


05:45a
Country Journal

06:00a
CBS Morning News with John Hart

06:30a
Jake Hess

06:55a
Morning Watch/Dialing for Dollars

07:55a
Wake Up With Jackie

08:00a
Captain Kangaroo

08:30a
Mike Douglas (co-host Pat Boone, guest Celeste Holm, O.C. Smith, Grandpa Jones, Victor Buono)

10:00a
Family Affair

10:30a
Love of Life

11:00a
Where the Heart Is

11:25a
CBS News (Douglas Edwards)

11:30a
Search For Tomorrow

Afternoon


12:00p
News (Brad James)

12:05p
Singing Convention/Dialing for Dollars

12:30p
As the World Turns

01:00p
Love is a Many Splendored Thing

01:30p
The Guiding Light

02:00p
The Secret Storm

02:30p
The Edge of Night

03:00p
Gomer Pyle, USMC

03:30p
Gilligan’s Island

04:00p
Movie – “Black Sabbath”/Dialing for Dollars

05:00p
Weather (Bob Lobertini)

05:30p
CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite

Evening


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

06:30p
Family Affair

07:00p
Jim Nabors (guests The Jackson 5)

08:00p
Thursday Night Movie – “The Brotherhood of the Bell”

10:00p
News, Weather, Sports (local)

10:30p
Merv Grifin

Merv Griffin is starting his first week in Los Angeles, after having been based in New York for the entire run of his show. In doing so, he loses Arthur Treacher as his sidekick, since Treacher didn't want to make the move to the West Coast. A pity; I always liked Treacher's presence on the show. Merv really was better with a sidekick.


WSIX, Channel 8 (ABC)

Morning


06:30a
Tales of Wells Fargo (B&W)

07:00a
Bozo the Clown

08:50a
Lucille Rivers

09:00a
The Lucy Show

09:30a
The Beverly Hillbillies

10:00a
Bewitched

10:30a
That Girl

11:00a
The Best of Everything

11:30a
A World Apart

Afternoon


12:00p
All My Children

12:30p
Let’s Make a Deal

01:00p
The Newlywed Game

01:30p
The Dating Game

02:00p
General Hospital

02:30p
One Life to Live

03:00p
Dark Shadows

03:30p
F Troop

04:00p
Daniel Boone

05:00p
News, Weather, Sports

05:30p
ABC Evening News with Frank Reynolds

Evening


06:00p
Dick Van Dyke

06:30p
Animal World

07:00p
That Girl

07:30p
Bewitched

08:00p
The Many Sides of Don Rickles (guests Don Adams, Robert Goulet, Harvey Korman) (special)

10:00p
News, Weather, Sports (local)

10:30p
Television & Outdoors

10:50p
Movie – “April Love”

I'd imagine the Don Rickles special was probably pretty funny. I know he's an acquired taste; you either like him or you don't. I acquired the taste a long time ago, which may explain more about me than anything else I write. And by the way, I think I mentioned this when I wrote about Nashville previously, but you have to admit that no matter why the reason, it's amusing that a station with the call letters WSIX would be Channel 8.


WLTV, Channel 13 (Bowling Green, KY) (ABC)

Morning


10:00a
Bewitched

10:30a
That Girl

11:00a
The Best of Everything

11:30a
A World Apart

Afternoon


12:00p
All My Children

12:30p
Let’s Make a Deal

01:00p
The Newlywed Game

01:30p
The Dating Game

02:00p
General Hospital

02:30p
One Life to Live

03:00p
Dark Shadows

03:30p
Divorce Court (B&W)

04:00p
America Sings (B&W)

04:30p
Gospel Caravan (B&W)

05:00p
Country Music Holiday (B&W)

05:30p
ABC Evening News with Frank Reynolds

Evening


06:00p
News, Weather, Sports (local) (B&W)

06:30p
Animal World

07:00p
That Girl

07:30p
Bewitched

08:00p
The Many Sides of Don Rickles (guests Don Adams, Roubert Goulet, Harvey Korman) (special)

09:00p
Harold Robbins’ The Survivors (last show of the series)

10:00p
News, Weather, Sports (local) (B&W)

10:30p
Dick Cavett (guest Victor B. Scheffer)

WSIX didn't carry Dick Cavett's show, so unless you had access to signals from Bowling Green, you were out of luck. A pity; I didn't always like Cavett or his manner (he often seemed more interested in his own opinions than those of his guests), but he was the most literate host on late night.


WMCV, Channel 17 (Ind.)

Afternoon


03:20p
News/Community Calendar

03:30p
News, Weather, Sports (local) (B&W)

03:45p
Laurel and Hardy (B&W)

04:30p
Topper (B&W)

05:00p
The Munsters (B&W)

05:30p
My Favorite Martian

Evening


06:00p
I Spy

07:00p
Run For Your Life

08:00p
The Movie Game (guests Dyan Cannon, Paul Henreid, George Peppard, Alan Sues, Brenda Vaccaro, Ray Walston)

08:30p
Movie – “Black Legion” (B&W)

A nice lineup for an independent station of the early '70s; almost all of them would be considered staples of classic television today. TV  

14 comments:

  1. Did Ch.13 air those afternoon music programs every day? If they did, that's stunning that in 1970 a small market would air that much local programming--and kudos for them.

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    1. When WLTV-13 first went on the air in 1962, its call letters stood for "Wonderful Live TV" Throughout the 1960s, and even for a time after the station affiliated with ABC in 1967, WLTV continued to air live gospel and country shows. Best that I can tell, by the very early 1970s, these local music shows began to fade away, so this 1970 schedule probably represents some of the last gasps of that programming.

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  2. My family moved to the Nashville metro area late in 1976, so I knew these stations pretty well from then until the early 80s, when I started college out of state.

    In Dec. 1973, WDCN and WSIX switched channels, WDCN moving to channel 8 and WSIX (which means "Where Service Is Excellent" and still remains on an FM radio station having once been also on an AM radio station) moving to channel 2 & changing its call letters to WNGE (meaning With Nashville General Electric). Around 1983 GE sold WNGE to Knight-Ridder, which changed the call letters to WKRN. (Knight-Ridder has since sold the station to Young Broadcasting, which later became Media General & Nexstar, but the call letters remain today.) WDCN (which stood for Davidson County Nashville) received equipment from WNGE to allow local color broadcasting. Its call letters are now WNPT (Nashville Public Television).

    WSM-TV (meaning "We Shield Millions", the slogan of its then-parent, National Life and Accident Insurance Company) became WSMV in 1981 when the station was sold to a broadcaster named George Gillette. It has been sold a few times since then and now belongs to Meredith Corporation. WSM radio (650 AM) originated in 1925 and still today broadcasts the Grand Ole Opry weekly.

    WLAC, named for Life and Casualty Insurance, shared its call letters with a radio station (1510 AM) and changed its call letters to WTVF in 1975 when it was sold to the Hobby family of Houston. The long-running CBS & syndicated country music variety show Hee-Haw was taped at WLAC/WTVF studios from its 1969 beginning until well into the 1980s. I still recall hearing about the 1977 passing of Elvis Presley while watching a Gomer Pyle rerun on WTVF.

    WMCV went out of business about 6 months after this issue, sometime in March 1971, but the station came back early in 1976 as WZTV. I was thrilled finally to be living in a tv market with an independent station with more off-network reruns than the network affiliates had time to run. WZTV at one time ended up with Johnny Carson's Tonight Show when NBC wouldn't allow WSMV to postpone the show by half-hour for Three's Company reruns. WNGE had the Tonight Show for a little while until it found it had been getting better ratings with its MASH reruns, which it restored. Eventually Tonight got back to WSMV, certainly by the Jay Leno era. WZTV is now Nashville's Fox affiliate, and there are other new stations in the 80s & 90s which eventually became the CW & MyNetwork affliates.

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    Replies
    1. To add a bit about WLTV out of Bowling Green:
      It premiered as an independent station in 1962 and became an ABC affiliate in March 1967. WBKO probably affiliated with ABC because of the relatively weak signal from WSIX when it was on channel 8. Its original owners sold it in 1971, at which time the call letters became WBKO, which they remain today. It now has subchannels for Fox & CW networks in Bowling Green.

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    2. Yes, in the Bowling Green market, WSIX-8 was tougher to receive than WSM-4 and WLAC-5, hence the reason WLTV-13 affiliated with ABC. (I know this reception-wise as I have family in that area, and I recall WSIX-8 was the toughest to receive, followed by WSM-4. WLAC-5 came through loud n' clear.)

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  3. Talk about a tough after-school decision on weekdays: F TROOP, GILLIGAN'S ISLAND and STAR TREK all on at 3:30 in the afternoon.

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  4. WSIX has the Don Rickles special running from 8:00 to 10:00 while WLTV has that same special running from 8:00 to 9:00 with The Survivors airing in the 9-10 slot. I’m guessing that the WSIX listing may be a typo, I mean, I like Don Rickles but I can’t see him insulting people for two solid hours.

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    Replies
    1. Don't have the issue in front of me at this second, but you're undoubtedly right. (On both points, that is!)

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    2. According to other sources, DRAGNET was replaced by the debut of NANCY (a sitcom about a country vet and his wife...the President's daughter)

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    3. I verified with a copy of this same issue from NYC that on ABC the Rickles special was just 60 mins long, followed by the final rerun of THE SURVIVORS. NANCY also premiered this day at 9:30 PM ET on NBC, replacing DRAGNET.


      WCBS in NYC preceded the CBS sitcom reruns starting at 10 AM ET with reruns of LEAVE IT TO BEAVER and THE DONNA REED SHOW. The network only reran its own sitcoms in its morning programming, but its affiliates, including its O&Os like WCBS, were free to rerun sitcoms which originally appeared on other networks, like those two.

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    4. I just looked at this issue again, from Nashville, and WSIX-TV & WBKO-TV both had THE SURVIVORS at 9 PM CT. WSM-TV both here & in that day's NASHVILLE TENNESSEAN lists DRAGNET at 8:30 PM, but the NBC network aired the premiere of NANCY that day. This was likely an error by WSM-TV, since it appears in both places.

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    5. I looked at THE TENNESSEAN (on www.newspapers.com) from this date a bit more. Oddly enough WSM-TV has an ad for NBC Week along w/ the listings where it again shows DRAGNET at 8:30 PM w/ an illustration of Jack Webb and description of him & his costar, Harry Morgan. From what I've seen looking at later Thursday nights on WSM, DRAGNET ran in place of NANCY all season. THE TENNESSEAN made no mention of NANCY at all, as lead actress Renne Jarrett was only mentioned in 1970 in a January MOD SQUAD episode, and Celeste Holm was mentioned that year only for her appearance in John Wayne's Nov. 29 special, "Swing Out, Sweet Land".

      There is also a good review of the Don Rickles special. Its full name was "The Many Sides of Don Rickles", and it mentions that most of the show was Rickles and his costars Don Adams, Harvey Korman, & Robert Goulet "...sitting around and talking and breaking each other up". (I imagine Korman was broken up the most, based on his well-known "breaking up" on THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW.) The ending has Rickles speaking w/ "a psychiatrist, a sociologist and a doctor about what makes him tick". The reviewer laments that this segment was "too short". I think it would be fun to see this, along w/ THE JIM NABORS HOUR season premiere w/ the Jackson 5.

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  5. WSIX was airing The Lucy Show and Beverly Hillbillies from CBS since WLAC was airing the syndicated Mike Douglas Show at 9 a.m. For a couple of years, WSIX delayed Dark Shadows by a half hour, running it at 3:30 so the teenagers could see it after school. By this point it was beginning to fade so I guess ch. 8 decided to return it to the ABC 3 p.m. Time slot.

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Thanks for writing! Drive safely!