tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post4469711472328840835..comments2024-03-27T22:27:16.556-04:00Comments on It's About TV: What's on TV? Friday, July 27, 1973Mitchell Hadleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08695771505209080030noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-67156461706263915552020-07-26T17:06:54.731-04:002020-07-26T17:06:54.731-04:00Thank you Mike. A couple of UFO episodes were rega...Thank you Mike. A couple of UFO episodes were regarded as having adult themes and were shown in the UK outside the main run of the series in late night slots. This was particularly true of the last episode in the production run, The Long Sleep, which had drug-related themes. It's not impossible that this is the episode WDIO was screening. <br /><br />UFO must have done decent rating at some point, as one of the networks seriously considered ordering a second season. The premise for the second season was reworked as Space:1999.Ian Fryerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17155388226080168706noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-10929406693897544212020-07-24T20:04:32.512-04:002020-07-24T20:04:32.512-04:00FYI:
The ITC UFO series was syndicated to local s...FYI:<br /><br />The ITC <i>UFO</i> series was syndicated to local stations in the USA in 1972, so this would have been the rerun season of the first (and only) year of production.<br /><br />Since WDIO is running it after midnight, I believe that they're just running out the string; if Channel 10 showed <i>UFO</i> in primetime (or at least early or late fringe time) the previous fall, it was probably less than a hit.<br /><br />As my own faulty memory indicates, <i>UFO</i> ran here in Chicago on WGN-Channel 9, sometime on the weekend (early Saturday or Sunday evenings).<br />I don't recall how well it might have done against CBS's powerful sitcom block on Saturday, or against the Big Three's blocks on Sunday, but my guess would be - not all that well.<br />As always, correction welcomed if needed.Mike Doranhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14427528138598549103noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-15117139795351290692020-07-24T15:12:35.778-04:002020-07-24T15:12:35.778-04:00From my (English) perspective the listing that sta...From my (English) perspective the listing that stands out is KDIO Duluth, who were showing UFO at midnight. I have all manner of questions: Was the series shown on a network or syndicated? Was this likely to be the first run of UFO or a rerun?<br /><br />I don't know if anyone has undertaken the potentially massive task of tracking UFO's initial screenings in the USA, but at least this listing is a starting point.Ian Fryerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17155388226080168706noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-24639682725985051832020-07-22T14:03:09.257-04:002020-07-22T14:03:09.257-04:00I had just moved out of the Twin Cities just month...I had just moved out of the Twin Cities just months before, but I lived there from late 1964 to very early 1973. So there's much about the area's TV and radio I still remember. Obviously, I love these excerpts from TC TV Guides, and look forward to more of them. With regard to your subject, as I recall, it was not unusual for one or more TC stations to preempt the network during the summer. My next to last summer there, KMSP, I remember, had a local Wednesday night movie during the summer of '71; the following summer, WCCO had a Friday night movie, with a neat intro showing boats docked at a lake. Their reasoning, obviously, was, we know what network shows are popular and which won't be missed if we show something of our own, and keep all the ad revenue ourselves instead of having to share it with the network. I don't recall KSTP doing it while I was there, but it has been 50 years, so my memory might leave something to be desired.<br />Leaving the Cities when I did means there were things that happened in the months and years to follow that I heard about but didn't get to see. I didn't see KSTP's switch to Eyewitness News, and KMSP's much-hyped but less-successful Newsnine effort. I also missed KSTP radio's highly successful switch to top 40, or the short but tumultuous period of competitor U100.<br />My last few years there, I was splitting my time between the Cities and a boarding school in New Hampshire, my original home state. The Boston TV stations, in the late 60s/early 70s, were pre-empting like mad. For a few years, then-NBC station WBZ chose to air a noon newscast and Mike Douglas in place of three of NBC's daytime shows, including Jeopardy and the Who What or Where Game; and WNAC (ABC), aired a 2 PM movie instead of the likes of the Dating Game, Newlywed Game, General Hospital and One Life to Live. Independent WSBK, channel 38, showed all those instead.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07952227293553505806noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-78475822601504269582020-07-20T12:23:48.961-04:002020-07-20T12:23:48.961-04:00The sort of thing I notice:
KSTP, the NBC affilia...The sort of thing I notice:<br /><br />KSTP, the NBC affiliate in Minn-StP, is bypassing the network's showing of a Bob Hope comedy in favor of <i>The Invisible Ray</i>, a Karloff/Lugosi programmer from 1936.<br />You've established in the past that the network stations in the Twin Cities had little regard for the mothership's schedules, but <i>this</i> - even in the middle of summer …<br /> … Even with one of Bob Hope's lesser movies (<i>Call Me Bwana</i> was a movie Hope joked about in later years) getting dumped … <br /> … Even with the added attraction of an episode of <i>The Whispering Shadow</i>, a Mascot cliffhanger from a few years before - best recalled these days as one in which Bela Lugosi <b>doesn't</b> play the Villain … <br /> … Was this something that KSTP was doing that summer as a weekly show?<br />A B thriller followed by a weekly chapter of <i>Whispering Shadow</i>?<br />And on a major network affiliate yet?<br />I'm guessing that there's a story behind the story here … <br /><br />Side Note:<br />I happen to have <i>The Whispering Shadow</i> on a scratchy DVD of uncertain provenance (got it at a dollar store); it's not that bad, really … <br />There's a Phantom Villain who has a plot to take over something-or-other, and everybody thinks it's Lugosi, and there are lots of suspicious characters lurking about, and there's a comic handyman (played by Karl Dane, who was a silent comedy star whose career went bad when talkies came in and his Danish accent got in the way), and Lugosi has a slinky female assistant (played by an actress named Viva Tattersall, who walked away from her career some years later in order to marry Sidney Toler - but that's <i>another</i> story …), and a lot of fun stuff like that there.<br />Mascot was at the low end of Poverty Row; all twelve episodes probably had a total budget that wouldn't have covered craft services for <i>Call Me Bwana</i><br />But in 1973, KSTP put it on in prime time (coupled with a Universal horror pic, but still …), and that leads me to wonder: was this something that KSTP did very often? <br /><br />Just askin', is all; the cupboard is pretty bare this week.<br />Maybe next time … <br />Mike Doranhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14427528138598549103noreply@blogger.com