January 23, 2017

What's on TV? Sunday, January 24, 1971

Weekend program listings are often the most enjoyable, because unlike most weekdays, there's less network programming scheduled during on Saturday and Sunday mornings and afternoons (unless it's football season). True, we have football, hockey, and basketball on tap today, but it's nothing like the saturation coverage that can exist nowadays. There's even some room for afternoon movies! The listings are from the Philadelphia metropolitan area.


KYW, Channel 3 (NBC)

Morning


06:25a
News (local) (B&W)

06:30a
Community College

07:00a
International Zone

07:30a
One Reach One

08:00a
Sunday

08:30a
On the Scene

09:00a
Grump

09:30a
Hot Dog

10:00a
Jambo

10:30a
Movie – “The Clown”

Afternoon


12:00p
A Matter of Pride

12:30p
OIC Report

01:00p
Meet the Press (guest Rep. Carl Albert)

01:30p
NBC News Special – “The New Faces of the Senate”

02:30p
Movie – “Scandal at Scourie”

04:00p
Movie – “The Merry Widow”

Evening


06:00p
Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom

06:30p
NBC News (Garrick Utley)

07:00p
News, Weather, Sports (local)

07:30p
The Wonderful World of Disney

08:30p
Bill Cosby

09:00p
Peggy Fleming at Sun Valley (special)

10:00p
The Bold Ones (The Doctors)

11:00p
News, Weather and Sports (local)

11:30p
Movie – “On the Beach”

02:00a
News (local)

That late-nite movie, On the Beach, is based on one of the most disturbing novels I've ever read. I don't think the movie does the book justice, but then they seldom do, even if they do have Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner. 11:30 p.m. is probably a perfect time for a movie as disturbing as this, but is the end of the world really the last thing you want to see before you turn off the lights at the end of the night?


WFIL, Channel 6 (ABC)

Morning


07:05a
The Christophers (guest Frank Blair)

07:35a
Christian Answer (B&W)

08:10a
Living Word

08:25a
NASA Reports

08:30a
Cartoon Castle

09:00a
Puerto Rican Panorama

09:30a
Davey and Goliath

09:45a
Menorah

10:00a
Jonny Quest

10:30a
Mayor Tate

11:00a
News Conference

11:30a
Discovery

Afternoon


12:00p
Larry Ferrari

01:00p
Directions

01:30p
Favorite Hymns

01;45p
NBA Preview

02:00p
NBA Basketball (Knicks vs. Pistons)

04:15p
The American Sportsman (guests Milburn Stone and Ken Curtis, Patrick O’Neal) (return)

05:15p
Blackbook

05:45p
Movie – “Carousel”

Evening


08:00p
The FBI

09:00p
ABC Sunday Night Movie – “In Harm’s Way” part 1 (B&W)

11:30p
Movie – “The Quick Gun”

01:15a
ABC News (Bill Beutel)

Guest on The Christophers is none other than Frank Blair, the longtime news reader for Today. He always my favorite of that cast.


WCAU, Channel 10 (CBS)

Morning


06:00a
Official Report

06:30a
Bill Bennett

07:00a
Tom & Jerry

07:30a
Perils of Penelope Pitstop

08:00a
Gene London

08:30a
Tell It Like It Was

09:00a
Input

10:00a
Lamp Unto My Feet

10:30a
Look Up and Live

11:00a
Camera Three

11:30a
Governor Cahill

Afternoon


12:00p
Update

12:30p
Face the Nation (guest Sen. Mike Mansfield)

01:00p
NHL Hockey (North Stars vs. Rangers)

03:30p
NFL All-Star Pre-Game Show

04:00p
NFL All-Star Game

Evening


07:00p
Lassie

07:30p
Hogan’s Heroes

08:00p
Ed Sullivan (guests Godfrey Cambridge, Nancy Ames, Sergio Franchi, B.J. Thomas, Peter Gennaro, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Texas A&M Singing Cadets)

09:00p
Glen Campbell (guests Sonny and Cher, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, John Byner, R.G. Brown)

10:00p
Jackie Gleason (guest George Chakiris)

11:00p
CBS Sunday News (Dan Rather)

11:15p
News, Weather and Sports (local)

11:30p
Movie – “Thunder Bay”

01:30a
Movie – “Monster on the Campus” (B&W)

03:00a
News (local)

As I mentioned on Saturday, it's not really the NFL "All-Star Game," but this is a historic one, the first time that stars from the NFC and AFC have faced off. I have to think that something of the NFL-AFL rivalry still existed in the first couple of years of the combined league.


WHYY, Channel 12 (Wilmington) (PBS)

Afternoon


03:00p
The French Chef

03:30p
TV Garden Club

04:00p
Karate-Wrestling Championships

Evening


06:00p
Speaking Freely

07:00p
Firing Line (guest Tom Wolfe)

08:00p
Kukla, Fran and Ollie

08:30p
The World We Live In

09:00p
Masterpiece Theatre – “The First Churchills, part 3”

10:00p
Fanfare (guest Merle Haggard)

"The First Churchills" is the very first presentation of Masterpiece Theatre. Critics of the time were split on the quality of the series, and the Masterpiece Theatre idea itself was controversial - was presenting imported British drama really part of the mission of American public broadcasting? More than 35 years later, it still runs on PBS Sunday nights, though I'd suggest it has little of the quality found in that first decade or two.


WPHL, Channel 17 (Ind.)

Morning


08:00a
Day of Discovery

08:30a
Oral Roberts

09:00a
Wonderama

11:00a
Wonderama

Afternoon


12:00p
The Invaders

01:00p
M Squad (B&W)

01:30p
Visual Girl

02:00p
Pet Set

02:30p
Movie – “The Terrornauts”

04:00p
Movie – “Night and the City”

Evening


06:00p
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

07:00p
Movie – “Mad Monster Party”

09:00p
Movie – “All These Women”

11:00p
Hugh Hefner (guests Barbara McNair, B.B. King, Mel Torme, Pete Barbutti, McCall and Brill)

Wonderama was a show I loved - although it's primarily identified with New York, it was a production of Metromedia, and was broadcast (I think) on all the Metromedia-owned stations. WTCN in Minneapolis was one such station; thus, we received the marathon show Sunday mornings. I did, and still do, have great respect for its host, the late Bob McAllister.


WTAF, Channel 29 (Ind.)

Morning


08:00a
Rev. McKinley Williams

08:30a
Rev. Bert Hare

09:00a
Lost in Space

10:00a
Batman

10:30a
Cattanooga Cats

11:00a
Bullwinkle

11:30a
Space Angel

Afternoon


12:00p
My Mother, the Car

12:30p
Where It’s At

01:00p
Bowling

02:00p
Movie Double Feature – “The Camp on Blood Island” (B&W), “Attack From Below” (B&W)

05:00p
Tarzan

Evening


06:00p
Daktari

07:00p
NHL Hockey (Flyers vs. Sabres)

10:00p
Larry Kane

11:00p
Harry Bristow Show

You have to like that double feature on WTAF - it's the epitome of the weekend matinee that local stations used to show. They've all but disappeared today; watching movies with commercial interruptions is a hard sell nowadays, and the airtime is now filled up for the most part with sports and infomercials.


WKBS, Channel 48 (Ind.)

Morning


08:00a
Cathedral of Tomorrow

09:00a
Gigantor (B&W)

09:30a
Cool McCool

10:00a
Kimba

10:30a
Banana Splits

11:00a
Superman

11:30a
The Flintstones

Afternoon


12:00p
Movie – “God Is My Co-Pilot” (B&W)

02:00p
Movie – “The Toast of New York” (B&W)

04:00p
Wagon Train

05:45p
The Flintstones

Evening


06:00p
McHale’s Navy (B&W)

06:30p
Dick Van Dyke (B&W)

07:00p
The Champions

08:00p
Roller Games (Eastern Warriors vs. Chicago Hawks)

10:00p
Ben Casey (B&W)

11:00p
Cathedral of Tomorrow

Ah, Cool McCool and Roller Derby; can there be any better reminder of the late '60s and '70s? TV  

7 comments:

  1. Depending on the length of the telecast of the hockey game between Minnesota anf the New York Rangers, the NFL All-Star pre-game show may have ended up being less than half an hour long.

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  2. Huh, I don't remember Hogan's Heroes airing on Sunday nights. I realize that this was it's last season (there'd only be seven new episodes after this week's show) and I know I watched HH first run for most of it's run, but Sunday night's, just doesn't feel right to me.

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  3. HOGAN'S HEROES appeared for its 6th & final season in the Sunday night timeslot between LASSIE & Ed Sullivan. This hammock timeslot had previously had such shows as DENNIS THE MENACE, MY FAVORITE MARTIAN (Which aired right before the Beatles' 1st 3 Sullivan appearances), IT'S ABOUT TIME, and GENTLE BEN. For its last 2 seasons between these shows CBS aired TO ROME WITH LOVE (which moved to a different night to start its 2nd & final season) and finally HOGAN'S HEROES. CBS cancelled LASSIE (which had 2 remaining original seasons in syndication) and Ed Sullivan as part of its "Rural Purge" of 1971, cancelling shows which still had decent ratings but the wrong demographics. (Their viewers were too old and/or rural.) HOGAN'S HEROES may have been part of this purge as well.

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    Replies
    1. Yeah I knew about the rural purge (though I wouldn't include HH as part of that. It's final season was uneven at best, especially with the replacement of Ivan Dixon's Kinch with Kenneth Washington's Baker without an explanation, considering that no escapes was a huge plot with nearly all the episodes) I was just reacting to the different day of airing. I think so many of us who grew up at that time tend to remember specific shows with specific days (Andy Griffith=Mondays, Mary Tyler Moore=Saturdays, etc...) that when we see a TV Guide from that time clashing with our memories, well, it throws ya for a loop! :)

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  4. HH's last season episodes were shown on Saturdays around 5-5:30 pm in Boston during their run. my memory's a little hazy, but I believe HH was preempted by local programming on Sunday, with the episodes that were to run Sunday night pushed over into the following Saturday. It probably did not help the show's ratings.

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  5. Thanks for sharing this. Happy memories of Kimba and its theme song on the old Channel 48, although I normally associate it with weekday afternoons at 3 p.m. Gene London is the last great Philadelphia children's host still with us, he is on Facebook and is a specialist in the great Hollywood costumes.

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  6. WFIL pre-empted THE YOUNG REBELS to run CAROUSEL...

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Thanks for writing! Drive safely!