Despite the fact I was still living in the World's Worst Town™ when this issue of TV Guide came out, I have a fondness for this time. For one thing, it was the start of my senior year in high school, which meant I only had one year left before being released out into the general population; for another, it was the year in which cable TV would finally come to the area. We were exposed to Channels 2, 4, 9 and 11 (KCMT had territorial claims to NBC), and when it hit in December, I felt like a prisoner being released from solitary confinement, blinking my eyes at the sudden appearance of the sun. I mention this only because I still recall my delight at getting to see some of these shows, such as Tom & Jerry (3:30 p.m., WTCN). It wasn't that I was such a big Tom and Jerry fan; it was just so—different from what I was used to seeing. Remember, to a man in the desert, even warm water is refreshing. In case you can't tell, we're in the Twin Cities this week.
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2 KTCA (PBS)
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MORNING
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8:00
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SESAME
STREET—Children
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9:00
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ELECTRIC
COMPANY—Children
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9:30
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VILLA
ALEGRE—Children
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10:00
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ZOOM—Children
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10:30
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INFINITY
FACTORY—Children
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11:00
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M.D.—Health
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11:30
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SESAME
STREET—Children
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AFTERNOON
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12:30
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MISTER
ROGERS—Children
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1:00
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ELECTRIC
COMPANY—Children
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1:30
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PAINT
ALONG WITH NANCY KOMINSKY—Instruction
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2:00
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BOOK
BEAT
Guest: John
Toland
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2:30
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LILAS,
YOGA AND YOU
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3:00
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DICKENS
OF LONDON
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4:00
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MISTER
ROGERS—Children
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4:30
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SESAME
STREET—Children
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5:30
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ELECTRIC
COMPANY—Children
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EVENING
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6:00
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ZOOM—Children
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6:30
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MacNEIL/LEHRER
REPORT
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7:00
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UPSTAIRS,
DOWNSTAIRS
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8:00
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CHILDHOOD—Drama
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9:00
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COUNTRY
CORNERS—Documentary
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9:30
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BOOK
BEAT
Guest: Clive
Cussler
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10:00
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DOCUMENTARY
SHOWCASE
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11:00
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UPSTAIRS,
DOWNSTAIRS
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4 WCCO (CBS)
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MORNING
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5:30
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SUMMER
SEMESTER
Latin
America
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6:00
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CBS
NEWS—Morton/Rudd
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7:00
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BUGS
BUNNY/CAPTAIN KANGAROO HOUR
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8:00
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PHIL
DONAHUE
Guest: Dr. Mildred F. Jefferson
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9:00
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HERE'S LUCY
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9:30
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PRICE
IS RIGHT—Game
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10:30
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LOVE
OF LIFE—Serial
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10:55
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LIVE
TODAY—Religion
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11:00
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YOUNG
AND THE RESTLESS
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11:30
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SEARCH
FOR TOMORROW—Serial
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AFTERNOON
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12:00
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MIDDAY
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12:30
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AS
THE WORLD TURNS—Serial
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1:30
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GUIDING
LIGHT—Serial
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2:00
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ALL
IN THE FAMILY
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2:30
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MATCH
GAME
Joyce Bulifant,
Gary Crosby, Richard Dawson, Charles Nelson Reilly, Brett Somers, Mary
Wickes. Gene Rayburn is host.
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3:00
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TATTLETALES—Game
John Ritter
and Nancy Morgan, Gary and Barbara Crosby, Charlie Brill and Mitzi McCall.
Host: Bert Convy
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3:30
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MOVIE—Drama
“The
Hurricane” (1937)
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5:30
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CBS
NEWS—Walter Cronkite
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EVENING
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6:00
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NEWS
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6:30
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LAUREL
AND HARDY—Comedy
“Jitterbugs”
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7:00
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MOVIE—Adventure
“Spider-Man”
(Made-for-TV; 1977)
[Pre-empts
regular programming.]
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8:30
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MOVIE—Crime
Drama
“Relentless”
(Made-for-TV; 1977)
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10:10
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NEWS
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10:35
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SCENE
II—Dave Moore
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11:00
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MOVIE—Crime
Drama
“The Daring
Dobermans” (1973)
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12:50
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NEWS
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5 KSTP (NBC)
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MORNING
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6:00
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MINNESOTA
TODAY
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6:30
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COUNTRY
DAY
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7:00
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TODAY—Tom
Brokaw
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9:00
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TWIN
CITIES TODAY
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10:00
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WHEEL
OF FORTUNE—Game
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10:30
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IT’S
ANYBODY’S GUESS—Game
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11:00
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SHOOT
FOR THE STARS—Game
Nipsey
Russell, Pat Carroll
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11:30
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CHICO
AND THE MAN
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AFTERNOON
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12:00
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GONG
SHOW—Game
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12:30
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DAYS
OF OUR LIVES—Serial
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1:30
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DOCTORS—Serial
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2:00
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ANOTHER
WORLD—Serial
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3:00
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NEW
MICKEY MOUSE CLUB
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3:30
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BRADY
BUNCH—Comedy
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4:00
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EMERGENY
ONE!—Drama
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5:00
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HOGAN’S
HEROES—Comedy
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5:30
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NBC
NEWS—Chacellor/Brinkley
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EVENING
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6:00
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NEWS
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6:30
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GONG
SHOW—Game
Panel: Jaye
P. Morgan, Elke Sommer, Rex Reed. Gary Owens is the host.
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7:00
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BOXING
Special
“A Night with
the Heavyweights”
[The series “The
Oregon Trail” and “Big Hawaii” make their debuts in this time period next
week.]
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10:00
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NEWS
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10:30
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JOHNNY
CARSON
Guest: Myron
Cohen
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12:00
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TOMORROW—Tom
Snyder
Guest: Fred Graham
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1:00
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BEST
OF GROUCHO—Game
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9 KMSP (ABC)
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MORNING
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6:30
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GOOD
MORNING MINNESOTA
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7:00
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GOOD
MORNING AMERICA—David Hartman
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9:00
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DINAH!
Guests: Jack
Jones, Robert Klein, Richard Jordan, Maynard Ferguson, David Horowitz
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10:00
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HAPPY
DAYS
|
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10:30
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FAMILY
FEUD—Game
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11:00
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THE
BETTER SEX—Game
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11:30
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RYAN’S
HOPE—Serial
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AFTERNOON
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12:00
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ALL
MY CHILDREN—Serial
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1:00
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$20,000
PYRAMID—Game
William
Shatner, Leonard Nimoy
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1:30
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ONE
LIFE TO LIVE—Serial
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2:15
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GENERAL
HOSPITAL—Serial
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3:00
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MEDICAL
CENTER—Drama
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4:00
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MIKE
DOUGLAS
Co-host:
Diahann Carroll. Guests: Maynard Ferguson, Leslie Caron, Mary Jo Risher
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5:30
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ABC
NEWS—Reasoner/Walters
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EVENING
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6:00
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NEWS
|
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6:30
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MUPPET
SHOW
|
|
7:00
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EIGHT
IS ENOUGH
Season
premiere
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8:00
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CHARLIE’S
ANGELS—Crime Drama
Season
premiere
[Expands to
two hours, pre-empting regular programming.]
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10:00
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NEWS
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10:30
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STARSKY
& HUTCH—Crime Drama
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11:40
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MYSTERY
OF THE WEEK
“If It’s a
Man, Hang Up”
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1:10
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RIFLEMAN—Western
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1:40
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NEWS
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11 WTCN (Ind.)
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MORNING
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5:30
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WHAT’S
NEW?
|
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6:00
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PTL
CLUB—Religion
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7:00
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ROMPER
ROOM
|
|
7:30
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POPEYE
AND PORKY—Cartoon
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8:30
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ARCHIES—Cartoon
|
|
9:00
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FRED
FLINTSTONE & FRIENDS—Cartoon
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|
9:30
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I
DREAM OF JEANNIE—Comedy
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10:00
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BEWITCHED—Comedy
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|
10:30
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FATHER
KNOWS BEST
|
|
11:00
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COURTSHIP
OF EDDIE’S FATHER—Comedy-Drama
|
|
11:30
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WHAT’S
NEW?
|
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AFTERNOON
|
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12:30
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ANDY
GRIFFITH—Comedy
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1:00
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VIRGINIAN—Western
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3:00
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PARTRIDGE
FAMILY—Comedy
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3:30
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TOM
AND JERRY—Cartoon
|
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4:30
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LEAVE
IT TO BEAVER
|
|
5:00
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I
LOVE LUCY—Comedy
|
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5:30
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MY
THREE SONS—Comedy
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EVENING
|
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6:00
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FAMILY
AFFAIR—Comedy
|
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6:30
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ADAM-12—Crime
Drama
|
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7:00
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ODD
COUPLE—Comedy
|
|
7:30
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MOVIE—Comedy/Drama
“Guess Who’s
Coming to Dinner” (1967)
|
|
9:30
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NEWS
|
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10:00
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FERNWOOD
2 NIGHT
|
|
10:30
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HONEYMOONERS—Comedy
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|
11:00
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GET
SMART—Comedy
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11:30
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LOVE
AMERICAN STYLE
|
|
12:00
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FBI—Crime
Drama
|
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1:00
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ALFRED
HITCHCOCK—Drama
|
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17 KTCI (PBS)
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EVENING
|
|
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6:30
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MEDIA
5
|
|
7:00
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NOVA
|
|
8:00
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GUPPIES
TO GROUPERS
|
|
8:30
|
LOWELL
THOMAS REMEMBERS
|
|
9:00
|
LEAF
FROM A TOWN RECORD—Documentary
|
|
9:30
|
CONSULTATION—Medicine
|
|
10:00
|
ANYONE
FOR TENNYSON?
|
|
10:30
|
ABC
NEWS—Reasoner/Walters
Captioned
for the hearing-impaired
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No HOLLYWOOD SQUARES, I see. I think this is when Fred Silverman had it dumped in the 9-10 AM CT hour, which lots of CTZ stations, including my NBC affiliate in Nashville, usually preempted for trash like DONAHUE by this time. I see KSTP-TV had a local show then called TWIN CITIES TODAY, which it likely renamed GOOD MORNING, TWIN CITIES after changing network affiliation just over a year later.
ReplyDeleteAt some time I'll have to find out who Maynard Ferguson was/is.
Twin Cities Today inexplicably did not change its name or time slot when KSTP became an ABC station.
DeleteA Bit, and Maybe A Piece:
ReplyDelete- The Gong Show:
Recall that Chuck Barris, who created and produced Gong, was a last-minute choice to host.
Fact: when Barris first sold Gong in syndication, Gary Owens was the host, a post he held for the first season of that version.
The network sale to NBC came later; the announced host was John Barbour, who was found "unsuitable" (that could mean anything) during the first days of taping.
Because Gary Owens had other commitments elsewhere, he couldn't take over the daytime Gong; as the deadline for air approached, Chuckie Baby stepped in at The Last Minute - and proved to be the perfect host for this show.
- As to John Barbour:
This gentleman published an autobiography a couple of years back, in which he chronicles one of the oddest careers in showbiz.
Your Mother's Not A Virgin! runs over 700 pages, in which Mr. Barbour explains why all the things that went wrong for him in his career (and there were a bunch of those) were never his fault.
That's par for the course for a first-person showbiz memoir, of course, but Mr. Barbour is sui generis - "of his own kind".
- Noting that on this night, CBS is running the first Spider-Man pilot movie they made, which went round in circles as an irregularly-scheduled series for a season or so.
That said, take note of who's playing one of the villains here: Thayer David, right after he wrapped playing faux-J. Edgar Hoover on Washington: Behind Closed Doors.
1977-78 was the last TV season of Mr. David's life; he had several more guest shots in the hopper, and there was that Nero Wolfe pilot that should have aired during this time frame ...
... which makes this yet another Incredible Coincidence - doesn't it?
- I'm still trying to figure out exactly why ABC's Minn-StP stations wouldn't carry The Edge Of Night, even on a delay.
This was when the great Henry Slesar was headwriter; the storyline they were running in '77 found the main hero, Mike Karr (then played by Forrest Compton), standing trial for a murder that he didn't commit.
Regrettably, this storyline is unavailable on YouTube, and that is a damn shame ...
Fred Silverman was still at ABC when NBC moved 'Hollywood Squares' to that earlier slot. It was Lin Bolen who made that decision, in the summer of '76.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, though she'd left NBC by then, since HOLLYWOOD SQUARES was moved to make room for STUMPERS, which her company produced. STUMPERS was an excellent show, with a great host in Allen Ludden, much better I think than 50 GRAND SLAM, which followed it. Both shows lasted just 13 weeks in NBC daytime.
DeleteI remember Channel 56 in Boston was running Fernwood 2Night w/the Best of Groucho @ this time. It was a great way to be introduced to late night TV as a kid.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I get the feeling that Dr. Jefferson more than held her own against Phil Donahue from listening to her on the David Brudnoy radio show.
Too bad she's dead...she'd be a Trumper today, assuring white folks that no, Donald DOES love the black race and doesn't want to exterminate them, the way Biden does.
DeletePaul
What did Barbour say about the Gong Show? Barris always claimed that Barbour played it straight and didn't get the joke, but I have a hard time believing a clever guy like Barbour didn't understand that the Gong Show was supposed to be played for laughs with deliberately rotten acts.
ReplyDeleteMr. Unknown (whomever you may be):
DeleteAccording to John Barbour's book (pages 500-505), Chuck Barris told him right out front that The Gong Show was always supposed to be a put-on, that the acts were purposely bad, that the idea was to get big laughs from a rowdy studio audience.
Barbour's thought was that if he chatted up the contestants beforehand, he'd get them more empathy from the audience.
Barris wasn't buying; indeed, when NBC's then daytime boss (Lin Bolen, op cit.) insisted that the show begin with the host explaining that the contestants knew that they could be gonged, that was what led Barbour to walk away (it says here).
For the record, Chuckie delivered that very disclaimer at the start of every Gong Show for the whole run.
*Side Note: In an interview many years afterward, Rip Taylor (frequent Gong flyer) stated for the record that all Gong contestants were pros who got paid for their efforts (remember the odd prize money that the "winners" got? That was AFTRA scale after the FICA tax came out - and according to Taylor everybody got that amount).*
As to how "clever" John Barbour might have been:
At the close of the Gong Show chapter, he mentions Barris's book, Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind, and expresses some doubt that the CIA part of the story could be true.
I read that book when it first came out; my feeling then was that anybody who took one word of it at face value was in need of serious professional help.
*Side Note 2: several years later, Chuck Barris wrote another memoir, The Game Show Man, which was a more straightforward account of his life and career; he followed this up in later years with several more books, which recounted his subsequent life (including his daughter's tragic experiences with drugs) quite seriously.*
Well - you did ask ...