What's on TV? Tuesday, January 29, 1980

If you're a fan of M*A*S*H and you have a sharp eye, you've probably been able to figure out the episode that's on WKYT, Channel 27, at 7:30 p.m. Since it's listed in black-and-white, it has to be "The Interview," the final episode of the fourth season and the only one to be shot in B&W, and features TV journalist Clete Roberts essentially playing himself as a war correspondent interviewing members of the 4077th. For my money, the pick of the night is 1964's Seven Days in May, on of the great political thrillers of all time, with Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster and a brewing military coup in the U.S. As timely as ever, don't you think? The listings are from the Kentucky edition.

What's on TV? Thursday, June 26, 1980

Speaking of classics, as we often do here since this is a classic TV website, one of the all-time sitcom classics airs at 11:30 on WXIX: the Chuckles the Clown episode of Mary Tyler Moore. It doesn't get much better than that. And look at the listings between 4:00 and 5:00 p.m., at how many black and white shows stations are showing. Not all of them, mind, but many of them. That's how I learned about the classics when I was a tot, and I'm sure many of you were the same. The listings, by the way, are from the Kentucky edition.

What's on TV? Tuesday, May 6, 1980

Not only do we see the basketball and hockey playoffs this week, we're also in the midst of the presidential playoffs! The Texas primary was Saturday, and today we've got primaries in Indiana, North Carolina, Tennessee, and the District of Columbia. On the GOP side, Ronald Reagan already has things all but wrapped up; George Bush, his only remaining opponent, wins only Washington, D.C. and he'll withdraw by the end of the month. The Democrats, on the other hand, are still battling it out mano a mano; like Reagan, President Carter loses only in D.C.; his rival, Senator Edward Kennedy, has some late momentum after the failed Iranian hostage rescue attempt last month, but at this point Carter has a dominant lead and wins the nomination later in the summer. In this long, drawn out playoff season, Reagan and Carter (and independent John Anderson) won't meet in the playoff finals until November; gotta give the advantage to the stick-and-ball sports this time. The listings come to us live from the Kentucky edition.

What's on TV? Thursday, February 21, 1980

Reviewing this week's Kentucky edition of TV Guide put me in a nostalgic kind of mood. Not for these particular shows, necessarily, but for what it was like to come home from school every afternoon and turn on the TV. I talk frequently about being old, because I am old—but it wasn't during their original runs that I watched shows like Gilligan's Island on Channel 11 or McHale's Navy on Channel 9; it was by watching them after school. That's when I was introduced to the Francis the Talking Mule movies on Channel 4, having no idea that the human acting opposite Francis was the legendary Donald O'Connor. And though I didn't bother to watch Star Trek or Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea when they were on the networks, I watched them around dinnertime on Channel 11. Part of what makes the memory of a show so strong, so special, is when and where you watched it. It makes afterschool memories special as well, as if simply being out of school wasn't special enough. What kind of afterschool TV memories do you have?

What's on TV? Saturday, February 23, 1980

Sometimes I think I don't pay enough attention to the weekend listings. In truth, if we were to sort through the 281 previous "What's on TV?" features, we'd probably find that Saturdays and Sundays are represented just as often as any other day of the week. (We'd probably also find that we have far too much free time on our hands.) In this case, looking at Saturday's listings was an obvious choice since we just looked at a 1980 issue last month. Trust me, the weekday daytime programs haven't changed that much in a month. Today's listings, which give us a nice mix of shows, movies and sports, comes from the Kentucky issue, which includes Cincinnati.

What's on TV? Wednesday, January 23, 1980

We've looked at several editions of TV Guide from the Cincinnati area, but this is the first time, I believe, that we've seen Cincinnati from the point of view of the Kentucky edition. Well, change is good. A notice at the beginning of the day's listings reminds us that there's a chance the State of the Union might be given tonight, but no need to fear: it was given on Monday instead, so what you see here is as it was. And if you don't believe me, believe Fred Sanford.