Los Angeles TV - Monday, February 21, 1966

[Ultimajock]

4:30
7 - Where The Action Is

5 PM
5 - Shebang! (local music show with Casey Kasem)
9 - Ninth Street West

6 PM
13 - Lloyd Thaxton

7:30
4-10 - Hullabaloo - The Righteous Brothers host; Nancy Sinatra, Mel Carter, Paul Revere & The Raiders, Paul and Barry Ryan

...all of these were music-based variety shows geared towards teenagers. ABC's "Where The Action Is" was a Dick Clark Production, starring Paul Revere & The Raiders, in the weekday time slot Clark's "American Bandstand" had vacated in 1963; Paul Revere & The Raiders would return to the time slot with "It's Happening," another Dick Clark joint, in 1968. "Shebang" and "Ninth Street West" were direct competitors hosted by local radio disc jockeys, the former being KRLA's Casey Kasem and the latter being KHJ-AM-FM's Sam Riddle. Curiously enough, "Shebang" was taped not in Los Angeles, but at KERO/23 Bakersfield. "Ninth Street West" eventually morphed into other series geared towards teenagers in the same time slot on KHJ-TV, most using other KHJ Radio personnel: "Groovy," a beach-based dance party hosted by Michael Blodgett; "The Groovy Game," a retread of "Juke Box Jury" co-hosted by Riddle and teen model Kam Nelson; "The Robert W. Morgan Show," and "The Real Don Steele Show." Steele also hosted a Saturday evening version of "Ninth Street West," which was nationally syndicated as "Hollywood A-Go-Go." Lloyd Thaxton on KCOP was the father of Hollywood rock 'n roll TV, having started at Channel 13 in 1958; by 1964, the Thaxton show was syndicated nationally. And, of course, NBC's "Hullabaloo" was one of two mid-'60s prime time teen music series (ABC's "Shindig" with KRLA's Jimmy O'Neill was the other one) that the networks tried out...

10 PM
9 - Catman - Spoof of ABC's "Batman" series

...would this have been a locally-produced special or series? And were any KHJ Radio disc jockeys involved in this show as well?...

 

[Ccook55]

The synopsis shows that Tony Reese was Catman and Pepper Davis was his sidekick Reuben. Reese and Davis were a Las Vegas nightclub act. They also did comedy albums. It was probably a local shot as KHJ took out excitable blurbs touting the show ("WHERE'S CATMAN? WHO'S CATMAN?" and "CAN YOU TAKE IT? CATMAN'S ALMOST HERE!")

And a quick correction: The NBC News capsule at 10:25 AM is incorrect. It should be at 9:25 AM, following Eye Guess.

 

[Ultimajock]

...thanks for clarifying about "Catman." BTW, the 9:15 newscast on KHJ-TV/9 may have been co-anchored by Ann Marshall; she had been an actress, including a stretch as a semi-regular on "My Favorite Martian" as Bill Bixby's girlfriend, before apparently becoming L.A.'s first late news anchorwoman; a photo of her in her KHJ-TV days is at http://ann_marshall0.tripod.com/id2.html on her Tripod site. She later turned to singing and became a member of The Mike Curb Congregation and lead vocalist for Heaven Bound...

22 - KPOL (Ind.) Los Angeles

5:30
22 - Rainbow Valley

6 PM
22 - Trouble With Father

6:30
22 - Rex Bell Western

7:30
22 - Film Drama

8 PM
22 - Dateline Europe

8:30
22 - Film Drama

9 PM
22 - Movie: "Return Of The Whistler" (1948)

10 PM
22 - Rex Lease Western

...the KPOL-TV schedule is interesting. It looks as if they were simply trying to stay on the air at this point; Rex Bell and Rex Lease were stars of quickie Westerns in the 1930s, the latter of whom had in fact just died the previous month. Rainbow Valley was the title of one of John Wayne's cheap Westerns for Monogram Pictures in 1935, running only 52 minutes, so I suspect a chopped version of that film is what was shown at 5:30. "The Trouble with Father" was an alternate title for "The Stu Erwin Show," the 1950-55 ABC sitcom. Interestingly, The Return of The Whistler was one of those hour-long film noir items that co-starred Dick Lane, who by this time was doing double duty on KTLA/5 and KCOP/13, announcing both pro wrestling matches and Los Angeles Thunderbirds "Roller Games" (a variation on Roller Derby). Later in 1966, KPOL would sell off the TV station, and its new owners would rename it KWHY-TV, making it into primarily a financial news outlet during the day and ethnic independent in late afternoons and evenings...

 

[onairb]

Any idea when KABC moved the movie to (presumably) 3:30, and started doing news at 6 o'clock? Also, does that one hour of news at 5 include whatever ABC's national newscast was at 5:30?

 

[Ccook55]

Probably did--the Herald-Examiner TV supplement (TV Weekly) was riddled with omissions, so it was hard to tell.

 

[LKellerIII]

...thanks for clarifying about "Catman." BTW, the 9:15 newscast on KHJ-TV/9 may have been co-anchored by Ann Marshall; she had been an actress, including a stretch as a semi-regular on "My Favorite Martian" as Bill Bixby's girlfriend, before apparently becoming L.A.'s first late news anchorwoman; a photo of her in her KHJ-TV days is at http://ann_marshall0.tripod.com/id2.html on her Tripod site. She later turned to singing and became a member of The Mike Curb Congregation and lead vocalist for Heaven Bound...

QUOTE]

Marshall's website bills Marshall as the "first female newscaster" So not true! Ruth Ashton Taylor - the first woman and first Latina newscaster on radio (KNX), appeared on KNXT as early as 1951. I remember Taylor anchoring mid day news on the weekends, but it may have been shortly after Marshall on KHJ, gving Marshall bragging rights to "first woman anchor." Also worth noting - "30/60 News" was a joke - just a news brief of no more than a minute in length, at least 20 seconds of which the anchor had to tease The Million Dollar Movie or some other Channel 9 program.

 

[bpatrick]

IIRC, KABC moved its movie to 3:30 in 1974, adding a 5 PM "Eyewitness News" and moving ABC News to 7 PM (in the early '80s LA was one of five markets--the others being New York, Washington, Boston, and Atlanta--where all three network newscasts aired at 7; it was the success of "Jeopardy!" at 7 on the ABC o&os in the late '80s that started the move on the part of all network affiliates to air the news at 6:30, although WSB Atlanta (ABC) and WRC Washington (NBC) still air their network newscasts at 7, as do CBS's WJZ Baltimore, KDKA Pittsburgh, WRGB Schenectady, and WCAX Burlington, VT).

When KABC (and KGO, IIRC) made the change to a 3:30 movie and 5 PM newscast, the ABC daytime schedule began to follow the Central time zone (10:30 AM-3:30 PM), although there were exceptions: "The Big Showdown" aired at 2:30 ET/1:30 CT/11:30 PT; "The Money Maze" was on at 4 ET/3 CT/11 AM PT. I don't know exactly when, but ABC's Pacific stations finally began airing the network's daytime schedule just as it was in the Central time zone. Perhaps someone has some LA schedules from the late '70s/early '80s; I don't.

 

[onairb]

IIRC, KABC moved its movie to 3:30 in 1974, adding a 5 PM "Eyewitness News" and moving ABC News to 7 PM (in the early '80s LA was one of five markets--the others being New York, Washington, Boston, and Atlanta--where all three network newscasts aired at 7; it was the success of "Jeopardy!" at 7 on the ABC o&os in the late '80s that started the move on the part of all network affiliates to air the news at 6:30, although WSB Atlanta (ABC) and WRC Washington (NBC) still air their network newscasts at 7, as do CBS's WJZ Baltimore, KDKA Pittsburgh, WRGB Schenectady, and WCAX Burlington, VT).

When KABC (and KGO, IIRC) made the change to a 3:30 movie and 5 PM newscast, the ABC daytime schedule began to follow the Central time zone (10:30 AM-3:30 PM), although there were exceptions: "The Big Showdown" aired at 2:30 ET/1:30 CT/11:30 PT; "The Money Maze" was on at 4 ET/3 CT/11 AM PT. I don't know exactly when, but ABC's Pacific stations finally began airing the network's daytime schedule just as it was in the Central time zone. Perhaps someone has some LA schedules from the late '70s/early '80s; I don't.

Neither do I, but I had a feeling that KGO and KABC would have made that schedule change, if not simultaneously, then a very short time apart. San Francisco(initially) was one of the few markets with an ABC O & O which did not air "Jeopardy"; the show, and 'Wheel of Fortune", did not move to KGO until early 1992, when KRON had to drop them in order to do the experiment with 'Early Prime' scheduling(7 to 10 PM prime time).

 

[K.M. Richards]

Later in 1966, KPOL would sell off the TV station, and its new owners would rename it KWHY-TV, making it into primarily a financial news outlet during the day and ethnic independent in late afternoons and evenings...

100% correct, King Daevid. A quick check of the Broadcasting archives shows that the sale was announced at the end of May, 1966. The new owners held minority interests in Coast Radio Corp., which was KPOL-AM/FM's licensee (the sale of which to Capital Cities had been announced in early March) and 90% owner of KPOL-TV's license. Essentially, majority owner Hugh Murchison was retiring from the business. And, since the radio and television stations were going to be under separate ownership, the change in call letters was required. An article in Broadcasting's November 7, 1966 issue implied that KWHY-TV was specifically chosen because it fit the new stock market/business news format; since the calls changed in August and the ownership didn't really "change" I would presume that was the plan all along and that the minimal programming shown above for KPOL-TV continued for a while. I haven't been able to pin down exactly when they started selling airtime for foreign language telecasts in the evening but my personal recollections is that those were taking up all the evening and weekend airtime by 1973 at the latest.

 

[K.M. Richards]

I also have a personal request.

If the archives from which these listings were derived extend into 1968-1969, I'd like to see a typical day from that period which included KKOG/16 in Ventura ... and/or if they include 1962-1964, a day that included KCHU/18 San Bernardino.

 

[Unregistered]

Proof at Last!

The synopsis shows that Tony Reese was Catman and Pepper Davis was his sidekick Reuben. Reese and Davis were a Las Vegas nightclub act. They also did comedy albums. It was probably a local shot as KHJ took out excitable blurbs touting the show ("WHERE'S CATMAN? WHO'S CATMAN?" and "CAN YOU TAKE IT? CATMAN'S ALMOST HERE!")

And a quick correction: The NBC News capsule at 10:25 AM is incorrect. It should be at 9:25 AM, following Eye Guess.

You cannot believe how many years it has taken me to obtain proof that the show "Catman" ever existed. It aired on KHJ TV 9 a total of 3 times. The first episode ran twice, and the second episode ran once. It was similar to Fractured Flickers where silent footage was dubbed over. The start of the show had a sexy girl in bikini chained to a wall. It was most likely produced locally at channel 9.

 

[K.M. Richards]

Oh, just for the record, I found listings for KCHU's entire history in the San Bernardino Sun archive at Newspapers.com, so you can cancel that request I made back in June.

 

[Ccook55]

And another error made by me--On the channel list for the listings, I omitted KOGO/channel 10 (NBC) out of San Diego.

 

[K.M. Richards]

KM Richards TV Listings

I thought perhaps Ccook would appreciate the very few gaps in the Her-Ex's listings being filled, so I pulled up this date from the San Bernardino Sun and the Long Beach Independent and did some cross-checking.

Anything I do not list below was the same in all three papers, but bear in mind that the only non-L.A. station I could cross-referenced was KFMB/8, via the Sun. However, that paper also had listings for local NET station KVCR/24, so I've added that. (If San Diego is important to anyone, I can see if the Union-Tribune is available for that date.)

It appears that much of what was not listed in the Her-Ex was programs of 15 minutes' or less duration.

--------
5:40am
2 - Give Us This Day

5:45
2 - Farm Report, News

5:50
8 - This Is My Faith

5:55
8 - California Farm Report

6:15
7 - Daily Word, News

6:25
4 - Art of Journalism (not 6:30, as the Her-Ex had listed)

6:30
2 - European History (topic of the listed program "Odyssey"?)

6:50
9 - Voice of Agriculture

6:55
4 - News
11 - Morning Prayer

7:00
9 - Engineer Bill (whose last name was Stulla, not Holly, and was never billed that way on the air ... same at 8:00)

7:25
2 - Clete Roberts

7:30
8 - Mike Wallace (CBS Morning News)

9:15
13 - Guideposts (religious programming, not "school")

9:25
4 - News (confirming the correction by the OP later in the thread)

10:45
24 - Frontiers in Southern California

11:25
2-8 - News

Noon
9 - Film Feature

12:25pm
4 - News

2:55
7 - News

3:00
13 - Mickey Mudturtle (host of listed kiddie show?)

4:00
24 - Related Codes and Ordinances

5:30
24 - What's New

5:45
4-7 - News
28 - Sing Hi-Sing Lo

6:00
24 - French Chef
28 - Dr. Posin's Giants (not "Guests")

6:30
24 - Western Civilization

7:00
24 - Related Codes and Ordinances (again!)

7:30
5 - Movie: "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" (1953)
24 - Great Decisions

8:00
24 - Valley College Basketball

9:00
4 - Andy Williams (I'm 99.9% certain "Griffith" was an uncaught typo by the OP)
28 - The Pitchmen (topic of listed "International Magazine"?)

[Note to OP: There was no missing listing at 9:30. Apparently the 7:30 movie ran until 10:00.]

10:00
5 - News
24 - Cecil Brown (same as "News Comment" at 10:30 on 28)

10:40
28 - Art Seidenbaum (also listed at 8:40; likely he was the host of "Off Ramp" and this is a replay)

11:00
28 - Diary (presumably the Her-Ex listed the episode title)

1:00am
4 - News

2:15
9 - News

2:30
2 - Spectrum



And now, some bonus content for the Unregistered Guest who was trying to prove the existence of "Catman".

First, a mention in Terry Vernon's "Tele-Vues" column in the Independent on this date:


And the Independent rated it as one of two "Top Viewing Today" shows:


Plus the KHJ-TV paid announcement in the listings:


Click on thumbnails for larger, readable versions.

 

[Ccook55]

Much obliged for the gap fills. And the Catman blurbs are nice!

 

[Gregg.]

I had noticed that "Friendly Giant" (a favorite kids show of mine in the day) was listed for Channel 28 at 5:30 but now I see at 5:45 is "Sing Hi, Sing Lo." Since Friendly Giant was only a 15 minute show, I figured something was missing at 5:45. NET stations had to find another show to fill out the half-hour if they ran The Friendly Giant. I also see that "The French Chef" is listed on Channel 28 at 12:30pm, with another showing on Channel 24 in San Bernardino at 6pm. So if you had a good UHF antenna, you had Julia Child twice that day.

And I appreciate the info on KPOL-TV. I'd imagine it was almost impossible to run a successful UHF Independent station in a market where there were already four VHF Independent stations. What off-network programs were left once KTLA, KHJ, KCOP and KTTV got their hands on the available syndicated shows to fill up their schedules? And how many TV viewers even bothered with UHF receivers and antennas when they had three network and four Independent stations on VHF? I'm sure that hurt KCET 28 in its early days as well.

One note about "The Pancake Man" at 7:30am on KABC-TV 7. I remember the show running in NYC as well, which I'd catch it some mornings before going to school. It was a rotund guy dressed in a white smock and chef's hat, pushing IHOP dishes between airings of some sort of animated programming. Was it Coco The Clown cartoons? He sang his own song about "I'm the Pancake Man!" But it was low budget. I don't think he had any musical instrument accompany him. In those days, be it Buffalo Bob, or Pinky Lee, the host of a kids program would open the show singing a song about himself. The Pancake Man would show us dishes of pancakes, and he'd pour blueberry or raspberry syrup on them, something revolutionary in a world where pancakes were always served with maple-flavored syrup. I think I asked my parents if we could go to an IHOP but in those days there weren't that many restaurants in the chain and none near us. I wonder if IHOP gave the stations the show for free since so much of it was a promotion for their stores? And I'm using IHOP as an abbreviation. I doubt anyone shorted it to four letters back then. It was always International House of Pancakes.

 

[K.M. Richards]

And I appreciate the info on KPOL-TV. I'd imagine it was almost impossible to run a successful UHF Independent station in a market where there were already four VHF Independent stations. What off-network programs were left once KTLA, KHJ, KCOP and KTTV got their hands on the available syndicated shows to fill up their schedules? And how many TV viewers even bothered with UHF receivers and antennas when they had three network and four Independent stations on VHF? I'm sure that hurt KCET 28 in its early days as well.

If you liked the info on KPOL-TV in this thread, you're going to be ecstatic when Clarke Ingram unveils the new "History of UHF Television" website (any day now; the files are all sitting on my computer while we deal with a glitch in FTP uploading to the server), which will include my well-researched article on KBIC-TV/KIIX/KPOL-TV/KWHY ... including a screenshot of the famous KBIC-TV station ID which was the only programming ever transmitted under those calls.

 

[Ccook55]

Just before our family upped it from Riverside CA to Macon GA, we saw The Pancake Man in the mornings but don't recall seeing Koko the Clown on it (the Hal Seeger version of it). They usually had the most low budgeted cartoons around (Spunky & Tadpole) but for the life of me I can't recall what they did show. KTTV had the Harveytoons package, KCOP had Felix the Cat, and KTLA had Popeye and the pre-1948 Warner Bros. package (Merrie Melodies and color Looney Tunes).

 

[K.M. Richards]

If you liked the info on KPOL-TV in this thread, you're going to be ecstatic when Clarke Ingram unveils the new "History of UHF Television" website (any day now; the files are all sitting on my computer while we deal with a glitch in FTP uploading to the server), which will include my well-researched article on KBIC-TV/KIIX/KPOL-TV/KWHY ... including a screenshot of the famous KBIC-TV station ID which was the only programming ever transmitted under those calls.

And this afternoon, Santa left it under the tree as a present to everyone.

http://www.uhftelevision.com