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