February 25, 2019

What's on TV? Saturday, February 25, 1961

Thought we'd take a look at Saturday this week. You can see that it's a bit different from what we'd come to expect later; the Saturday morning cartoons are mostly contained within local kids' shows, and there are lots of Westerns and adventure series. KTCA, the educational station, doesn't broadcast on Saturday, so it's only the four major channels from the Twin Cities. As I've been doing of late, we'll try and take a look at some Minnesota television history as well.

-4- WCCO (CBS)

     MORNING   

    7:00
FLYING SAUCER—Siegfried

    8:00
AXEL AND DOG—Clellan Card

    8:30
CLANCY THE COP—Children

    9:00
CAPTAIN KANGAROO—Children

  10:00
ALLAKAZAM—Children

  10:30
ROY ROGERS—Western

  11:00
SKY KING—Adventure

  11:30
JUNIOR AUCTION—Erickson

   AFTERNOON 

  12:00
MIGHTY MOUSE—Cartoons

  12:30
HOBBY AND HANDICRAFT

    1:00
NATIONAL FOOTBALL—49ers vs. Cowboys
Played November 20, 1960

    2:00
HOCKEY—Zephyrs vs. Saints
Muskegon Zephyrs at Saint Paul Saints
Played February 22

    3:30
BIG 10 BASKETBALL—Illinois vs. Indiana

    5:00
BIG 10 LOCKER ROOM

    5:15
ALMANAC NEWSREEL

    5:30
POLKA PARADE—Dick Sinclair

      EVENING    

    6:00
NEWS—Dave Moore

    6:15
Sports—Don Dahl

    6:25
WEATHER—Bud Kraehling

    6:30
PERRY MASON—Mystery

    7:30
CHECKMATE—Mystery

    8:30
HAVE GUN—WILL TRAVEL

    9:00
GUNSMOKE—Western

    9:30
DEATH VALLEY DAYS—Drama

  10:00
NEWS—Dave Moore

  10:15
WEATHER—John Gallos

  10:20
SPORTS—Don Dahl

  10:30
MOVIE—Western
Critics Award: “The King and Four Queens” (1956)

John Gallos, who gives the 10:20 p.m. sports, was a longtime announcer and personality at WCCO. He played Clancy the Cop (8:30 a.m. here, plus weekday afternoons), hosted a Sunday morning religious program, and later would be the host of a Laurel and Hardy program during their revival. In fact, it's hard to think of anything that he didn't do at the station. He is, of course, in the Minnesota Broadcasting Hall of Fame.

-5- KSTP (NBC)

     MORNING   

    6:45
COUNTRY STYLE, U.S.A.—Music
Guest: Jimmy Dickens

    7:00
TODAY ON THE FARM—Arnold

    7:30
FARM SCENE—David Stone

    8:00
MOVIE—Western
“Lawless Rider” (1955)

    9:00
SHARI LEWIS—Children    COLOR 

    9:30
KING LEONARDO—Cartoons    COLOR 

  10:00
FURY—Adventure

  10:30
LONE RANGER—Western

  11:00
TRUE STORY—Drama

  11:30
DETECTIVE’S DIARY—Mystery

   AFTERNOON 

  12:00
MR. WIZARD—Education

  12:30
NORTH STAR STORY—Johnson

    1:00
PRO BASKETBALL—Warriors vs. Royals    COLOR 
Philadelphia Warriors at Cincinnati Royals

    3:15
INSIDE SPORTS—Basketball

    3:30
BOWLING STARS—Bud Palmer

    4:00
CAPTAIN GALLANT—Adventure

    4:30
DATELINE TOMORROW—Panel    SPECIAL 

    5:00
CHAMPIONSHIP BOWLING
Ray Bluth vs. Ed Kawolics

      EVENING    

    6:00
NEWS—Bob Ryan

    6:15
WEATHER—Johnny Morris

    6:20
SPORTS—Dick Nesbitt

    6:30
BONANZA—Western    COLOR 

    7:30
TALL MAN—Western

    8:00
DEPUTY—Western

    8:30
NATION’S FUTURE—Debate

    9:30
DANGEROUS ROBIN—Drama

  10:00
NEWS—Bob Ryan

  10:15
WEATHER—Johnny Morris

  10:20
SPORTS—Dick Nesbitt

  10:30
MIKE HAMMER—Mystery

  11:00
STATE TROOPER—Police

  11:30
MR. DISTRICT ATTORNEY

I've mentioned David Stone before; you've probably seen his name many times in these Twin Cities listings. He's in the Minnesota Broadcasting Hall of Fame as well, but his career outside of Minnesota is equally interesting, having been an announcer for the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville prior to his arrival in the Twin Cities. (He's part of the Oral History project at the Country Music Hall of Fame.)  His last position at KSTP was as Farm Director; this area is so urban now, I'm not even sure they have a Farm Director anymore.

-9- KMSP (Ind.)

   AFTERNOON 

    3:30
CRUNCH AND DES—Adventure

    4:00
MOVIE—Drama
“Lassie Come Home” (1943)

    5:30
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE

      EVENING    

    6:00
JIM BOWIE—Adventure

    6:30
HONEYMOONERS—Comedy

    7:00
WRESTLING—Minneapolis

    8:00
SHERIFF OF COCHISE—Police

    8:30
MOVIE—Drama
“Pride and Prejudice” (1940)

  10:30
ROUGH RIDERS—Western

  11:00
RACKET SQUAD—Police

  11:30
MEDIC—Drama

Not much on Channel 9 today, although their schedule would be considered pretty good for a classic TV fan. The wrestling at 7:00 would move to Channel 11, as All-Star Wrestling, when KMSP became an ABC affiliate, and WTCN an independent station. That will be happening in three months.


11 WTCN (ABC)

     MORNING   

    9:15
AMERICANS AT WORK

    9:30
ON THE BOOK SHELF

  10:00
MOVIE—Comedy
“Earthworm Tractors” (1936)

  11:00
CASEY JONES—Adventure

  11:30
FELIX THE CAT—Cartoons

   AFTERNOON 

  12:00
SOUPY SALES—Children

  12:30
PIP THE PIPER—Children

    1:00
COLLEGE BASKETBALL—Army vs. Navy

    2:45
NEWS—Brad Johnson

    3:15
MOVIE—Melodrama
“Son of Frankenstein” (1939)

    4:15
DIAL 999—Police

    4:45
NEWS AND SPORTS—Huston

    5:00
ALL-STAR GOLF—Demaret
Bob Rosberg vs. Doug Sanders

      EVENING    

    6:00
TOMBSTONE TERRITORY

    6:30
HOCKEY—STATE HIGH SCHOOL TOURNAMENT    SPECIAL 
“The Roaring 20’s,” “Leave It to Beaver,” “Lawrence Welk,” “Fight of the Week,” and “Make that Spare” will not be seen tonight

  10:30
NEWS—Stuart A. Lindman

  10:45
WEATHER—Brad Johnson

  10:50
SPORTS—Buetel, Horner

  11:00
MOVIE—Adventure
Select Theater: “Tarzan’s Peril” (1951)

    1:00
YOUR ALL STAR THEATER

The state high school hockey tournament is one of the select sporting events in Minnesota. It's not quite what it once was, now that we have professional hockey and the multi-class system eliminates the true small-town underdogs, but it's still a big deal. Frank Buetel, the announcer for the tournament, did it all for WTCN: the Minnesota Gophers, the Minnesota North Stars, the Minnesota Twins, the hockey and basketball tournaments, the weekly Minnesota Vikings show, and the evening sports. He is, of course, in the Minnesota Broadcasting Hall of Fame. Are you surprised?  TV  

4 comments:

  1. Given four hours for high-school hockey, it was probably a doubleheader of the two semifinal games (with the finals probably being the next day), or if there were two divisional tournaments, the two divisional state championship games.

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    Replies
    1. Back then, the hockey tournament was still one class, starting on Thursday with eight teams and ending on Saturday night, so it was a doubleheader - the third-place game followed by the championship.

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  2. Back then, Saturdays on network television often meant the best prime-time shows of the week instead of a dumping ground for reruns with only some sports events.

    During the 1950's, 1960's, 1970's and through most of the 1980's, if a network scheduled a prime-time show for Saturday night, that meant the network thought that the show was really entertaining and of very high quality.

    But maybe too much has changed (maybe more people going out on Saturday nights?) for those days to return.

    ReplyDelete
  3. What I love about pursuing over your schedules is finding shows and movies I have never heard of. By 1961 reruns were stapes of morning and independent stations and they showed the movies they could get. This, fortunately for me, continued well into the mid-1980s and the death of the independent station.

    What I like about pursuing your posts is discovering films I have never heard of before, like "Earthworm Tractors” (1936). This is Joe E. Brown !! This is Warner Brothers !! (thought it is a First National Picture) Why doesn't TCM show this gem?

    Thank you again for all your hard work and MY continuing education.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for writing! Drive safely!