August 26, 2019

What's on TV: Thursday, August 29, 1974

Remember how last year, during one of these TV listings, I was waxing philosophic about the fleeting fame of television? We saw how the shows in the listings often included the names of the hosts, and while we might not have recognized those names, at least we knew who it was responsible for the shows. This week, 11 years later, we see how much those listings have changed; we don't see any names except for the people hosting the news broadcasts, so we're depending on our own knowledge of television history to know that Jack Barry is host of The Joker's Wild. Many of these shows don't even include category descriptions; how else would we know that The Brady Bunch is a comedy while The Flintstones is a cartoon? I guess by now the editors of TV Guide are giving us credit for having a clue.

By the way, someone can correct me on this (Mike Doran would probably know), but to the best of my knowledge, The Waltons is one of the very few program titles in the listings to include the article "The" - ordinarily, it would only read "Waltons." The only other show I can think of is the 1972 series The Men. Another piece of useless trivia.

No surprise that this week's listings are once again from the Twin Cities.


 2  KTCA (PBS)

AFTERNOON

     3:30
DESIGNING SUCCESS STRATEGY

     4:00
MISTER ROGERS

     4:30
SESAME STREET

     5:30
ELECTRIC COMPANY

EVENING

     6:00
TO BE ANNOUNCED

     6:30
OUR MUSICAL HERITAGE

     7:00
EVENING AT POPS—Music
Guest: Ana Marie Vera

     8:00
INTERNATIONAL PERFORMANCE—Music

     9:30
YARD AND GARDEN



 4  WCCO (CBS)

MORNING

     6:30
SUMMER SEMESTER

     7:00
CARMEN

     7:30
CLANCY AND WILLIE

     8:00
CAPTAIN KANGAROO

     9:00
JOKER’S WILD—Game

     9:30
GAMBIT—Game

   10:00
NOW YOU SEE IT—Game

   10:30
LOVE OF LIFE—Serial

   10:55
LIVE TODAY—Religion

   11:00
YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS—Serial
         
   11:30
SEARCH FOR TOMORROW—Serial

AFTERNOON

   12:00
MIDDAY

   12:30
AS THE WORLD TURNS—Serial

     1:00
GUIDING LIGHT—Serial

     1:30
EDGE OF NIGHT—Serial

     2:00
PRICE IS RIGHT—Game

     2:30
MATCH GAME

     3:00
TATTLETALES—Game
Phyllis Diller and Ward Donovan, Patty Deutsch and Donald Ross

     3:30
MOVIE—Drama BW 
“Ransom” (1956)

     5:20
SCENE AT THE FAIR

     5:30
CBS NEWS—Walter Cronkite

EVENING

     6:00
NEWS

     6:30
BOBBY GOLDSBORO
Guest: Maureen McGovern

     7:00
THE WALTONS—Drama

     8:00
MOVIE—Drama
“Secret World” (French; 1968)
[Postponed from an earlier date]

   10:00
NEWS

   10:50
MOVIE—Drama BW 
“Dead Ringer” (1964)

   12:50
MOVIE—Western
“The Desperados” (1969)



 5  KSTP (NBC)

MORNING

     6:00
MINNESOTA TODAY—Stone

     6:30
NOT FOR WOMEN ONLY

     7:00
TODAY—Hartz/Walters

     9:00
NAME THAT TUNE—Game

     9:30
WINNING STREAK—Game

   10:00
HIGH ROLLERS—Game

   10:30
HOLLYWOOD SQUARES

   11:00
JACKPOT!—Game
         
   11:30
CELEBRITY SWEEPSTAKES—Game

   11:55
NBC NEWS—Edwin Newman

AFTERNOON

   12:00
NEWS

   12:15
DIAL 5

     1:00
DAYS OF OUR LIVES—Serial

     1:30
DOCTORS—Serial

     2:00
ANOTHER WORLD—Serial

     2:30
HOW TO SURVIVE A MARRIAGE—Serial

     3:00
SOMERSET—Serial

     3:30
MAYBERRY R.F.D.

     4:00
MOD SQUAD—Crime Drama

     5:00
HOGAN’S HEROES

     5:30
NBC NEWS—John Chancellor

EVENING

     6:00
NEWS

     6:30
BOWLING FOR DOLLARS

     7:00
MAC DAVIS—Variety
Guests: Andy Griffith, Stiller and Meara, Steve Simon
[Last show of the series]

     7:30
JUST FOR LAUGHS

     8:00
IRONSIDE

     9:00
NBC NEWS PRESENTS—Documentary
Special “Social Change in the South”

   10:00
NEWS

   10:30
JOHNNY CARSON
Guest host: Sammy Davis, Jr. Guest: Roger Miller

   12:00
TOMORROW—Discussion
Guest: David Hoy



 9  KMSP (ABC)

MORNING

     7:00
CBS NEWS—Hughes Rudd

     8:00
NEWS AND VIEWS—Smith

     8:30
ROMPER ROOM

     9:00
I LOVE LUCY BW

     9:30
GREEN ACRES

   10:00
BEAT THE CLOCK

   10:30
BRADY BUNCH

   11:00
PASSWORD—Game
         
   11:30
SPLIT SECOND—Game

AFTERNOON

   12:00
ALL MY CHILDREN—Serial

   12:30
LET’S MAKE A DEAL—Game

     1:00
NEWLYWED GAME

     1:30
GIRL IN MY LIFE

     2:00
GENERAL HOSPITAL—Serial

     2:30
ONE LIFE TO LIVE—Serial

     3:00
$10,000 PYRAMID—Game

     3:30
MIKE DOUGLAS
Co-host: John Davidson. Guests: Pat O’Brien, Ben Vereen, Morton Halpern, Kip Adotta

     5:00
NEWS—Boyett/Bremen

     5:30
ABC NEWS—Smith/Reasoner

EVENING

     6:00
TO TELL THE TRUTH

     6:30
TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES

     7:00
TEMPERATURE’S RISING—Comedy
[Last show of the series]

     8:00
KUNG FU—Drama

   10:00
NEWS

   10:30
WIDE WORLD SPECIAL
“Geraldo Rivera: Good-Night America”
Guests: Carol Channing, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, Marlo Thomas

   12:00
MOVIE—Drama BW 
“The Mudlark” (1951)

     1:00
NEWS



11 WTCN (IND.)

MORNING

     6:30
PROBE—Discussion

     7:00
NEW ZOO REVUE

     7:30
POPEYE AND PORKY—Children

     8:30
BATMAN

     9:00
FLINTSTONES

     9:30
I DREAM OF JEANNIE—Comedy

   10:00
FATHER KNOWS BEST BW 

   10:30
BEWITCHED—Comedy

   11:00
GOMER PYLE, USMC
         
   11:30
DAYS AT THE FAIR

AFTERNOON

     3:00
GOMER PYLE, USMC

     3:30
I DREAM OF JEANNIE—Comedy

     4:00
FLINTSTONES

     4:30
GENTLE BEN

     5:00
BEWITCHED—Comedy BW 

     5:30
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE

EVENING

     6:30
LUCY SHOW—Comedy

     7:00
FAIR DAYS

     7:30
FATHER KNOWS BEST BW 

     8:00
WFL FOOTBALL
Birmingham Americans at Chicago Fire

   11:00
PERRY MASON

   12:00
MOVIE—Western
“No Name on the Bullet” (1959)



17 KTCI (PBS)

EVENING

     6:30
DESIGNING SUCCESS STRATEGY

     7:00
HUMANIST ALTERNATIVE

     7:30
HISTORY OF THE JUVENILE COURT

     8:00
MEDIA 7 PRESENTS

     9:00
EVENING AT POPS—Music
Guest: Ana Marie Vera

   10:00
ABC NEWS FOR THE DEAF

TV  

12 comments:

  1. Sometimes you lock on to the silliest things …

    In re whether the show was listed as The Waltons, or simply as Waltons -
    - Who the hell cared?
    When the show was in first-run, I didn't care - in fact, I never even noticed.
    Apart from the printing plant manager (or whoever had charge of typesetting), I doubt that anybody in the immediate world noticed.
    As part of my due diligence, I did check the comparatively few TV Guides I have from the '70s (this one isn't among them), and what I found was that while the article appears in the early run of The Waltons, it kind of disappears by the mid-'70s, so the listing just says WALTONS - Drama.
    And throughout the length and breadth of our great land - nobody gave a rat's rear end.
    In recent times, I've seen some very odd reactions indeed to the disappearance of The from the opening titles of the last two seasons of Twilight Zone.
    As above - nobody noticed, nobody cared.
    Until the belated emergence of the Continuity Dweebs (of which I am one, but not to this OCD extent - I hope).

    By the way, The Men was a wheel series: Jigsaw, Assignment: Vienna, The Delphi Bureau, in that order of rotation.
    TV Guide's policy with wheels was to list by the component parts, so this series was never listed as The Men - or even as Men.
    And the one I was able to find in my (admittedly quick) search was listed as Delphi Bureau - no article.
    Nobody noticed, nobody cared - this is so damned silly …

    As I said above, I don't have this issue, but I can contribute - sort of.
    - In your header grab, I noticed the bobtailed part of the listing for Just For Laughs, ABC's 'Failure Theater' of unsold comedy pilots.
    Check back, and you'll see that this was Ernie, Madge, And Artie, a fantasy about a widow (Cloris Leachman) who gets remarried to an old friend (Dick Van Patten), only to be reunited with the ghost of husband #1 (Frank Sutton); hilarity ensues (it says here).
    You'll note that this broadcast was "Postponed from an earlier date".
    What happened was that back in June, Frank Sutton had died in real life - and someone at ABC thought it would be in questionable taste to run this show so soon after the unfortunate event.
    So ABC delayed Ernie, Madge, And Artie - for one whole week.
    True Story …

    - Also from the header grab:
    Tonight's Ironside rerun is "Riddle At 24,000", about Ironside visiting an old friend, a Cuban-born doctor who's become the coroner for a small California town, and they work together to solve a murder that takes place in a small plane in mid-air.
    The doctor is Desi Arnaz (Senior, though not called that in the titles), for whom this was a backdoor pilot (I didn't know the term at that time, but my dad, my brother, and I all spotted it as such).
    Dr. Domingo the series didn't sell; I have it on an Ironside Season 7 DVD (from Australia, where the late seasons were released that way, unlike Stateside).
    I liked it, anyway …

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mike, nothing personal, but it's my site, and I'm going to write about whatever interests me. That's who cares. Grammar and punctuation interest me. You're more than happy to start your own and write about what whatever interests you. As Jon points out below, sometimes articles can change the meaning of things. . .

      Delete
    2. Give it a rest, Mike. Are you ever satisfied?

      Delete
    3. Mitchell, old friend:

      You're the one who asked me.
      If you don't want an answer, don't ask the question.

      (Or is it that the news about MeTV's forthcoming program switch ticked you off {see: shooting the messenger}?)

      Delete
    4. Mike, I really appreciate your contributions to this forum but you are regularly condescending toward Mitchell. As far as "The" appearing before a show title, frankly I wondered the same thing over the years.

      Respectfully, can we not focus on the enjoyment we receive from Mitchell's research and not be snarky about minutiae?

      Delete
  2. As I think you mentioned in the past, ABC's 1977-78 game show THE BETTER SEX also should have "THE" in front of it, or its meaning is completely different.

    I see that this day was finally the end of the line for TEMPERATURES RISING, after 2 years & 3 formats. TVG incorrectly inserted an apostrophe before the 'S' in the 1st word of the title.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Where would we all be if we dropped T.H.E. from the 60's series starring Robert Loggia? Personally, Mitchell, I noticed the same thing as an avid Guide reader from the early 1960's on. Glad you reference it regularly. If anything, it proves that copywriters (or typesetters back then) got lazy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. T.H.E. CAT was the man's name - initials and all.
      No article - no omission.
      And no issue.

      Anybody here old enough to remember that Bob Kane's comic book hero was originally called The Batman?
      Nobody made a big whoop when that was dropped.

      Delete
    2. How do you know, Mike? There were no blogs. Plus, it was meant to add a little levity to the discussion.

      Delete
  4. There must have been a major county or state fair that week in the Twin Cities since it appears a couple of special programs ( a ten minute show on WCCO at 5:20 P.M. and a half-hour on WTCN at 7 P.M.) originated from the fairgrounds.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Mike Doran: Worst. Post. Ever.
    Article optional.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Mike Douglas features comic Kip Adotta, who just passed on...

    Paul

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for writing! Drive safely!