The day in TV: January 1, 1964

You have to think that people are hoping January 1, 1964 signals a beginning to a better year. In fact, I think 1963 was for most a harbinger of bad things to come. By 1968 there will have been more high-profile assassinations, more deaths in Vietnam, more violence at home and abroad. The national culture will be virtually unrecognizable from what it is on this day.   And yet, even though it's only been 39 days since the death of JFK, this week's cover wants to put us in a mood to celebrate.  So let's forget what we know about the future, and look at the first full day of 1964.

KTCA, Channel 2 (Educ.)
Afternoon
05:30p   Kindergarten
Evening
06:00p   To Be Announced
06:30p   General Science
07:00p   Inquiry
07:30p   Inquiring Mind
08:00p   Conversational Spanish
08:30p   Carleton College
09:00p   See the West (debut)
09:30p   Word Power (debut)
10:00p   Profile
10:30p   To Be Announced

Good to see KTCA's sticking with its educational programming, and even introducing some new shows!  By contrast, I think this New Year's most PBS stations will be broadcasting the New Year's Gala from Vienna.

WCCO, Channel 4 (CBS)
Morning
07:00a   Siegfried, Axel, Clancy
08:00a   Captain Kangaroo
09:00a   News (local)
09:15a   What’s New
09:25a   Dr. Reuben K. Youngdahl
09:30a   I Love Lucy
10:00a   Cotton Bowl Parade (special)
10:45a   Tournament of Roses (special) (color)
Afternoon
12:45p   Cotton Bowl – Navy vs. Texas (special)
03:30p   Best of Groucho
04:00p   Around the Town
04:30p   Axel and Deputy Dawg
05:00p   Clancy and Company
05:30p   CBS News (Walter Cronkite)
Evening
06:00p   News (local)
06:15p   Sports (local)
06:20p   Spotlight
06:25p   Weather (local)
06:30p   Years of Crisis (special)
07:30p   Tell It to the Camera
08:00p   The Beverly Hillbillies
08:30p   Dick Van Dyke
09:00p   Danny Kaye
10:00p   News (local)
10:15p   Weather (local)
10:20p   Sports (local)
10:30p   Steve Allen (Steve and Jayne interviews at opening of “The Cardinal”)
12:00a   Movie – “It! The Terror from Beyond Space”
12:30a   News (local) (time approximate)

Kind of sad to see reference to the Cotton Bowl parade here.  For many years that was a warm-up to the network's coverage of the Rose parade.  Whether or not it's true, the story I'd always heard was that when the Cotton Bowl game moved from CBS to NBC for a short-lived alliance in the 90s, the network declined to pick up the parade as well - they didn't need it to fill out their programming.  Without a network home, the parade itself folded.  A brief revival a few years ago didn't take.  Chris Schenkel and Pat Summerall call the parade, and will be part of CBS' coverage of the game later in the day.  The network's announcing team for the Rose parade is lovely Bess Myerson and GE Theater host Ronald Reagan - wonder what ever happened to that guy?

The Cardinal, the opening night of which is being covered on Steve Allen's show, was a big-budget movie spectacle based on the best-selling novel of the same name.  It's actually not a bad story, fairly sympathetic to the Catholic Church and the people involved with it.  Tom Tryon, who starred, went on to a bigger career as a novelist.  The great director John Huston did not direct The Cardinal (Otto Preminger did), but instead did a rare acting turn in a small supporting role, and was good enough to snag a Best Supporting Actor nomination,

KSTP, Channel 5 (NBC)
Morning
06:30a   Film Feature
07:00a   Today (Tennessee Williams, Judith Crist, Richard Watts, Maurice Dolbeir, McHenry Boatwright)
09:00a   Say When
09:25a   NBC News (Edwin Newman)
09:30a   Word for Word (color)
10:00a   Concentration
10:30a   Rose Parade (special) (color)
Afternoon
12:45p   Sugar Bowl – Alabama vs. Mississippi (special) (color)
03:45p   Rose Bowl – Illinois vs. Washington (special) (color)
Evening
06:30p   The Virginian (color)
08:00p   Espionage
09:00p   The Eleventh Hour
10:00p   News (local) (color)
10:15p   Weather (local) (color)
10:20p   Sports (local) (color)
10:30p   Johnny Carson (Corbett Mnoica, Sam Levenson, Anna Moffo, Ken Carson)
12:00a   News and Sports (local) (color)

No, I'm not sure why Channel 4 lists the "Tournament of Roses" while Channel 5 has "Rose Parade."  To make things more confusing, the ad for NBC's coverage calls it the "Tournament of Roses Parade."  Oh well.  The ad also promises "Well-Known Surprise Guests," which - according to the listing on the opposite page - include James Franciscus, Bill Dana, Abby Dalton and Whitney Blake - NBC stars all.  There goes the surprise, I guess.  NBC's hosts are Arthur Godfrey and Betty White - Betty a real parade expert,as she's also host of the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade (with Lorne Greene) from 1962-1971.

Quick story about The Eleventh Hour, a psychiatric medical drama that aired for a couple of seasons.  Just as NBC and ABC had competing doctor shows - Dr. Kildare and Ben Casey - they also had competing psychiatrist shows spun off from those hit series.  NBC had The Eleventh Hour, while ABC countered with Breaking Point.  Wendell Corey was the original star of Eleventh Hour, but was replaced for the second season by Ralph Bellamy - who admitted that the show was on too late in the night for he and his wife to watch.  They generally watched Breaking Point instead.

KMSP, Channel 9 (Ind.)
Morning
07:40a   Chapel of the Air
07:45a   Breakfast With Grandpa Ken
09:00a   Romper Room (Miss Betty)
09:55a   ABC News (Lois Leppart)
10:00a   The Price is Right
10:30a   Object Is
11:00a   Mummers Parade (special) (color)
Afternoon
12:30p   Orange Bowl – Auburn vs. Nebraska (special)
03:30p   Trailmaster (joined in progress)
04:00p   Adventures in Paradise
05:00p   News (local)
05:15p   ABC News (Ron Cochran)
05:30p   Leave It to Beaver
Evening
06:00p   The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis
06:30p   The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet
07:00p   Patty Duke
07:30p   The Farmer’s Daughter
08:00p   Ben Casey
09:00p   Channing
10:00p   News, Weather, Sports (local)
10:30p   Robert Taylor’s Detectives
11:30p   Target: Corrupters
12:30a   News (local)
12:35a   Sen. Eugene McCarthy

ABC carried the Rose parade from time to time, but not this year.  You can find some clips of the Auburn-Nebraska Orange Bowl game on YouTube.  It's the last time the game will be played during the day; next year it will become the first prime-time bowl game, and in the process moves from ABC to NBC.  That gives NBC the murderer's row of bowl games that I remember so well from my own youth - the Sugar, Rose and Orange.  It lasts until ABC spirits away the Sugar in 1970.  Now, of course, all these games are on ESPN - along with about 30 other games.

Channing, also known as The Young and the Bold, sounds as if it belongs during the daytime, doesn't it?  It's a drama set at a fictional Channing college, and only ran one season.  The supporting cast was pretty good - I mean, how bad can a series be if it has Suzanne Pleshette as a co-ed?  Leslie Nielsen, Keir Dullea, Marion Ross, Dawn Wells, Joey Heatherton and Leo G. Carroll were also listed as regulars, and it's not a good sign when your entire cast is better known for other shows they appeared in.

WTCN, Channel 11 (ABC)
Morning
10:45a   Kukla and Ollie
11:00a   En France
11:30a   Dateline: Minnesota
11:55a   Tricks for Treats
Afternoon
12:00p   Lunch With Casey
01:00p   Movie – “The Travelling Saleswoman”
02:45p   Lee Phillip
03:00p   December Bride
03:30p   Robin Hood
04:00p   Beetle and Pete
04:30p   Mickey Mouse Club
05:00p   Superman
05:30p   The Lone Ranger
Evening
06:00p   Whirlybirds
06:30p   Bold Journey
07:00p   Expedition!
07:30p   Stoney Burke
08:30p   Desilu Playhouse
09:30p   News (local)
09:45p   Weather (local)
09:50p   Sports (local)
10:00p   Movie – “The Desert Song”
12:15a   Burns and Allen

Stoney Burke hadn't been off the air that long before it was picked up in syndication by WTCN.  That happened with a number of their shows over the years - Run For Your Life, The Invaders and such.  I suppose it made sense to get them on the air while people still remembered them.  On the other hand, Burns and Allen had been around forever.

I mentioned a while back that RadioDiscussions.com, which had a terrific classic TV message board, had gone belly-up.  The good news is that it's been replaced by a new board, Radio Insight Community - I'm now posting this feature over there each week, and there are a lot of other good topics being discussed as well.  It's well worth a trip to check it out!

A day in the week

I thought I'd do something different for this week's Tuesday essay.  Those of you who come from the Radio Discussions.com board know that every week I post a link to the newest "This Week in TV Guide" piece, along with a random day of TV listings from that week.  Today we're going to try an expanded version of this for those of you who don't frequent Radio Discussions (and, by the way, why don't you?), with an additional day's worth of listings from Saturday's issue, along with some added personal commentary that might help put things in perspective.

Ready?  Let's give this a try, with the listings for Minneapolis-St. Paul for Wednesday, April 8, 1970.  This is an issue that, for some long-forgotten reason, was part of my personal collection (as opposed to one I acquired later on), which means that my nine-year-old self looked through these listings compulsively.  And remember, stations reserve the right to make last-minute changes.

KTCA, Channel 2 (NET)
08:30a	Classroom (until 3:00p)
03:00p	Management: A Joint Venture
03:30p	TBA
03:45p	Teaching Spanish
04:00p	Profiles of Progress
04:15p	The Friendly Giant
04:30p	Sesame Street
05:30p	Misterogers' Neighborhood
06:00p	Irish Diary
06:30p	Supervisory Practices
07:00p	Minnesota Meets the Challenge
08:00p	Law Night
08:30p	Urban Partners in the ‘70s
09:00p	Students Search for Religion
10:00p	NET Festival

Throughout the 60s, KTCA's affiliation had been shown only as "Educational," but by 1970 they were part of NET (National Educational Television), forerunner of today's PBS.  And you'll notice that their programming is, for the most part, purely educational, with some even broadcast from city classrooms.  Two of NET/PBS' earliest mainstays can be seen here - Sesame Street and Misterogers' Neighborhood.  In fact, one of the few places you can see the old NET logo is on very old repeats of Misterogers, during the end credits.  Later, of course, you'd know the show by its more familiar name: Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.  At the time I was a bit old for both of these shows, and besides I'd already cast my lot with Captain Kangaroo.

Channel 4, WCCO (CBS)
06:00a	Sunrise Semester – Iranian Culture
06:30a	Siegfried and his Flying Saucer
07:00a	Clancy and Carmen
07:30a	Clancy and Willie
08:00a	Captain Kangaroo
09:00a	‘Morning
09:30a	The Beverly Hillbillies
10:00a	Andy Griffith
10:30a	Love of Life
11:00a	Where the Heart Is
11:25a	Live Today
11:30a	Search for Tomorrow
12:00p	News (local)
12:30p	As the World Turns
01:00p	Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing
01:30p	Guiding Light
02:00p	The Secret Storm
02:30p	The Edge of Night
03:00p	Gomer Pyle, USMC
03:30p	Lucille Ball
04:00p	Mike Douglas
05:30p	CBS News (Walter Cronkite)
06:00p	News (local)
06:30p	Hee Haw
07:30p	The Beverly Hillbillies
08:00p	Medical Center
09:00p	Hawaii Five-O
10:00p	News (local)
10:45p	Merv Griffin
12:15a	News (local)
12:25a	Movie – “The Frightened City”

Siegfried wasn't a character from a Wagner opera, but he was the "host" of an early morning cartoon show.  Actually, host is generous - he was nothing more than a non-animated line drawing, exiting from and entering a flying saucer.  Hey, kids are easily entertained!  The feature I remember most from Siegfried was a character called "Wallace the Weather Bear," another non-animated cartoon character, who would appear on slides giving the forecast for the day. The "Hi" and "Lo" were standard viewing for grade school kids who might be called on in class to repeat them.  (Weather was a big part of growing up in Minnesota.)

In fact, with the exception of Sunrise Semester, all the programming up to 9am is for kids.  It used to be that after-school TV was for kids as well, but by this time that's been replaced by series reruns and Mike Douglas.  That kind of change is one of the more noticeable things one sees as the 60s transition to the 70s.

You can see, with both Hee Haw and The Beverly Hillbillies in the lineup, it isn't quite time for CBS' rural purge. The presence of a show like Hawaii Five-O, however, would suggest that the purge isn't long in coming.

KSTP, Channel 5 (NBC)
06:30a	Minnesota Today
07:00a	Today
09:00a	It Takes Two
09:25a	NBC News (Nancy Dickerson)
09:30a	Concentration
10:00a	Sale of the Century
10:30a	Hollywood Squares
11:00a	Jeopardy
11:30a	Who, What or Where Game
11:55a	NBC News (Floyd Kalbur)
12:00p	Dial 5
12:30p	Life With Linkletter
01:00p	Days of Our Lives
01:30p	The Doctors
02:00p	Another World/Bay City
02:30p	Bright Promise
03:00p	Another World/Somerset
03:30p	Movie – “The Jackpot”
05:30p	NBC News (Huntley/ Brinkley)
06:00p	News (local)
06:30p	The Virginian
08:00p	Kraft Music Hall
09:00p	Then Came Bronson
10:00p	News (local)
10:30p	Johnny Carson
12:00a	David Frost

Dial 5, with Jim Hutton and Jane Johnston, was a staple of local programming on Channel 5.  Jim Hutton (not that Jim) also hosted Dialing for Dollars when that was a stand-alone show.  I'm not sure, but it's likely it was still around as a feature on this show.  Nobody from there ever called our home, at least as far as I'm aware.  Of course, whenever I hear Dialing for Dollars, I think of this:


Life With Linkletter starred tArt and his son Jack.  I don't know if this was an NBC or a syndicated series; perhaps one of our readers can enlighten us.  Art had, of course, been a longtime staple of CBS' daytime schedule.  Another World was, as I've mentioned elsewhere, one of my mother's favorite soaps.  It wasn't until rereading this issue that I remembered the time when NBC split it into two separate, but connected, shows. 

KMSP, Channel 9 (ABC)
07:30a	News and Views
08:00a	Dennis the Menace
08:30a	Grandpa Ken
09:00a	Romper Room (Miss Karen)
09:30a	McHale’s Navy
10:00a	Bewitched
10:30a	That Girl
11:00a	Best of Everything
11:30a	World Apart
12:00p	All My Children
12:30p	Let’s Make a Deal
01:00p	Newlywed Game
01:30p	Dating Game
02:00p	General Hospital
02:30p	One Life to Live
03:00p	Dark Shadows
03:30p	Peyton Place
04:00p	Steve Allen
05:00p	ABC News (Reynolds/Smith)
05:30p	To Tell the Trugh
06:00p	Truth or Consequences
06:30p	Nanny and the Professor
07:00p	The Courtship of Eddie’s Father
07:30p	Room 222
08:00p	Johnny Cash
09:00p	Engelbert Humperdinck
10:00p	News (local)
10:30p	Dick Cavett
12:00a	Movie – “The Light Touch”

I'm always struck by how TV was before it became 24/7.  Channel 9 doesn't come on until 7:30; nowadays, by that time I've already eaten, caught a half-hour of sports, and headed for work.  I mentioned in Saturday's post that ABC was really into the variety show format, and you can see here that they even try to make a TV star out of Engelbert Humperdinck.  It didn't really work, though.

ABC News went through a lot of anchor combinations prior to World News Tonight.  This was, I thought, one of the better ones, with Frank Reynolds and Howard K. Smith.  Reynolds caught some flack from the Nixon White House for his liberal leanings; he was eventually replaced by Harry Reasoner when he jumped from CBS.  When World News Tonight started, though, Reynolds was back in the anchor chair.  Interesting fact - Reynolds covered Ronald Reagan's campaign in 1976, and from what I understand the families became quite close.  When Reynolds died, the Reagans attended the funeral.  Perhaps Reynolds had moderated in his politics, or maybe the two men just liked each other.  Too bad that doesn't happen more in politics today.

WTCN, Channel 11 (Ind.)
06:55a	News (local)
07:00a	Casey and Roundhouse
08:00a	Dave Lee
08:30a	Hobo Kelly
09:00a	News (local)
09:30a	Jack LaLanne
10:00a	Debbie Drake
10:30a	Joan Rivers
11:00a	Girl Talk
11:30a	The Galloping Gourmet
12:00p	Lunch With Casey
01:00p	Movie – “A Life in the Balance”
02:50p	Fashions in Sewing
03:00p	He Said! She Said!
03:30p	Beat the Clock
04:00p	The Addams Family
04:30p	The Flintstones
05:00p	Gilligan’s Island
05:30p	Star Trek
06:30p	Perry Mason
07:30p	Alfred Hitchcock Presents
08:00p	The Alcoa Hour – “Cowboy”
09:00p	Tightrope
09:30p	News (local)
10:00p	Felony Squad
10:30p	Movie – “Voice in the Mirror”
12:30a	News (local)

Casey Jones (Roger Awsumb) was an icon on Twin Cities' kids television, and here he has two shows with his sidekick, Roundhouse Rodney (Lynn Dwyer).  Follow that link to the Lunch With Casey site; you can learn a lot cooler stuff than I have room for here.

Channel 11 is a pretty traditional independent station of the time, with a mix of syndicated programming, reruns and movies, and a lot of sports during the appropriate seasons (it was the station of Twins baseball, North Stars hockey, University of Minnesota hockey and basketball, plus the high school tournaments).  Boy, I remember a lot of these shows - besides Casey, I watched Graham Kerr's Galloping Gourmet, Virginia Graham on Girl Talk, even Jack LaLanne.  I don't remember seeing Debbie Drake, however; I've been told that if I had seen her, I would have remembered.  Maybe I was just too young...


The 1pm movie would have been hosted by Mel Jass, another local legend.  I never liked him when I was watching him back then; I do miss him, though.

KTCI, Channel 17 (NET)
09:00a	Sesame Street
11:15a	Classroom (until 3:30p)
07:00p	Conversations With James Day
07:30p	Book Beat
08:00p	International Magazine
09:00p	Soul!

Channel 17, the second educational channel, was started in 1965.  KTCA and KTCI were sister stations, run by the same organization - Twin Cities Public Television.  It's never really succeeded in having its own identity, alternating between playing repeats of Channel 2 programming (for those who missed it the first time) and being an outlet for local or alternative PBS shows.  I'm not quite sure which category it fits into right now.

In case you're interested in why you'd want to watch a conversation with James Day, he was at the time president of NET.  Book Beat, with Chicago Tribune books editor Bob Cromie, was a long-running show on NET/PBS, much remembered by my wife. 

***

And now a final word about kids' TV shows, because I've mentioned a few today.  I never saw the granddaddy of them all, the Mickey Mouse Club, when it was in first-run, but I saw it in reruns, and I had the requisite share of memorabilia - the ears, the watch, the Transogram game.  And again, I must have been too young at the time, because I'm fairly sure I would have remembered seeing Annette.  I was at the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago a couple of months ago, and as part of one of their exhibits they were running clips from the show.  Just by looking at the shirts, I was able to pick her out, even if I hadn't been able to read the name on the shirt.  (Think about it for a minute; you'll get it.)  I doubt you'd have found too many people who would have been surprised if you'd told them that Annette Funicello would wind up a star - she had talent, personality, and a likeability that woudn't stop.  And if that weren't enough, by all accounts she was a very nice person as well. You can't really beat that combination, can you?  R.I.P., Annette.