"Another Network"

[bpatrick]

I have several tapes of the Ford Motor Company sponsored Tennessee Ernie Ford NBC Show (Thursday nights, 9:30 PM) Ford Sponsored another show during the week.. After the Ford Show credits, the announcer invited you to watch a certain show "On another network"

Likewise I have some audiotapes of Groucho's "You Bet Your Life" from the period when it aired on both NBC radio and television, and was sponsored by the DeSoto-Plymouth dealers. At the end of one of them, George Fenneman reminds us not to miss "the big Chrysler Corporation show on another network." I don't recall what that show was.

 

[Corky Marlowe]

I think it was a mix of fake episodes of real shows, and totally made up shows, but they were able to mention the other nets; In other words, "tonight over on ABC..."

 

[anotherguyTN]

I can remember in reruns of Match Game on GSN that when it was mentioned that Richard Dawson was hosting Family Feud and Gene Rayburn would say it was on "another network," but then Dawson or someone else on the panel would say something like "It's as easy to remember as ABC!" ;D

 

[bk77]

Even more likely, I bet whoever wanted to do such a promo got "cold feet" and even had Savitch lived, I highly doubt this would ever seen the light. Imagine the backlash from viewers. Calling your competition "trash" isn't exactly a smart thing to do. However from a legal standpoint, I doubt there would be anything Savitch or NBC could have done to stop it. Actually the result may had ended up being in Savitch's ( and NBC's ) favor.

I disagree. To use that footage without permission would be inviting legal action, especially such a notorious clip. Even if the local station were an NBC affiliate and had general permission to use network footage for their promos, why would they want to diss their own network? NBC was VERY upset about that incident, and they quickly "impounded" the tape and expunged it from the archives. Of course, anyone who happened to be taping NBC that night (or unofficially taping the live feed in-house at NBC) would have it, and it eventually did see the light of day. (I only recently saw it for the first time when someone posted an edited version to their blog.)

There's another Savitch moment I'd love to see. When she was a local Philly anchor (forget whether she was at KYW or WCAU -- one of the two) one day during a local newscast she went ballistic during a break over some technical faux pas. Supposedly the in-house tape shows her ranting and raving like a madwoman until the moment when they did a brief live "bump" between commercials (showing the news set with the anchors). With flawless timing, she cut her rant off a second before they went live, suddenly looking serious and studious as she perused her script. The second the red light went off, she switched gears and went right back into bitch mode, picking up her tirade where she had left off. Someone at the station later set the clip to music -- Khachaturian's "Sabre Dance" -- and the music perfectly complimented the action, with the raucous brass and kettle drum bombast subsiding to a calm, quiet passage during the bump, then picking up again when she resumed her rant. ;D

Savitch was at KYW when that tape was done. Actually Lifetime aired bits of that tape when they were doing a biography on Savitch several years ago. What got me was despite Savitch going bonkers, yelling ( though you don't hear what she was saying thanks to the music that was dubbed in ), the other anchors on the set didn't even as much as bat an eye. They minded their own business.

Lifetime also aired that infamous newscasts ( which of course like many other things is on You Tube now ) but I believe they got their copy from someone's private collection. Had this incident took place in 1973 rather than 1983, chances are we would never see it.

 

[anotherguyTN]

I also happened to think about a time when Gallagher (Mr. "Sledge-o-matic") appeared either on Carson or Letterman wearing a t-shirt with the logo for Showtime, who was carrying his cable specials at the time. The logo was blocked out, although you could see glimpses of it at times, and they were joking about it on the show.

 

[Ultimajock]

There's another Savitch moment I'd love to see. When she was a local Philly anchor (forget whether she was at KYW or WCAU -- one of the two) one day during a local newscast she went ballistic during a break over some technical faux pas. Supposedly the in-house tape shows her ranting and raving like a madwoman until the moment when they did a brief live "bump" between commercials (showing the news set with the anchors). With flawless timing, she cut her rant off a second before they went live, suddenly looking serious and studious as she perused her script. The second the red light went off, she switched gears and went right back into bitch mode, picking up her tirade where she had left off. Someone at the station later set the clip to music -- Khachaturian's "Sabre Dance" -- and the music perfectly complimented the action, with the raucous brass and kettle drum bombast subsiding to a calm, quiet passage during the bump, then picking up again when she resumed her rant. ;D

...allegedly, this is one of the two reasons Keith Olbermann uses the same music under his nightly "Oddball" segment on "Countdown." The other, of course, is that it was so frequently used by those odd acts -- especially the guys who kept the plates spinning atop those thin poles -- every three weeks or so on "The Ed Sullivan Show" and "Hollywood Palace"...

 

[Ultimajock]

...there were two particularly memorable breaches of this policy. One was when John Charles Daly pulled double network duty, running ABC's news division and hosting "What's My Line?" on CBS. During some "WML?" episodes that have run on GSN, Daly makes a reference to "my other workplace, which shall remain nameless -- but its initials are A.B.C." There was also a gag on an installment of "That Was The Week That Was" on NBC in which Henry Morgan commented that it had just been announced that the entire ABC network schedule would soon be seen on the CBS network in the mornings (this when Morgan was also pulling dual network duty, frequently guesting on NBC's "TW3" and sitting on the panel of CBS' "I've Got a Secret")...

...since Goodson-Todman panel shows have been popping up here, I guess I should bring up the incident on the syndicated '70s version of "To Tell The Truth" in which Peggy Cass made mention of NBC, at whose New York studios the show was then taped, in her questions. Garry Moore, before the next line of questioning, made a point of mentioning that the show was also seen on "several fine affiliates of CBS and ABC" as well as independent stations...

 

[Stanislav]

What got me was despite Savitch going bonkers, yelling ( though you don't hear what she was saying thanks to the music that was dubbed in ), the other anchors on the set didn't even as much as bat an eye. They minded their own business.

From what I understand, that was largely because they were used to it by then -- Savitch's mood swings were well-known at the station -- so they had learned that the best defense was to just ignore her and let her get it out of her system.

 

[bhayes1016]

I do remember "another network" being used commonly on Carson...As far as being able to mention other networks, Letterman used to have a running bit in the NBC days called "What's On Other Channels", with the Paul Shaffer-sung theme song that began, "There's CBS, and ABC, and a little thing called Fox", so by the late 80's, maybe it was OK.

Letterman always used to make reference to the CBS Late Movie, always harping on the fact that it wasn't an actual movie, but crime drama reruns.

 

[Stanislav]

I'm pretty sure it was always OK, even back in the day, to bring up another network in a satirical or negative light (a la Letterman). (Remember Milton Berle's famous remark that the Vietnam War would be over in 13 weeks if they put it on ABC?) It was plugging another network's show in such a way that it might actually tempt you to switch channels that was verboten.

 

[bpatrick]

Berle made the crack about ending the
Vietnam war by putting it on ABC and it
would be over in 13 weeks after ABC
canceled his 1966 Friday-night show
(which actually ran 16 weeks). Berle
had taken a pay cut from NBC in order
to do the show, which was quickly buried
by the CBS Friday-night movie and "The
Man From U.N.C.L.E." on NBC.

BTW, in an earlier post concerning Groucho,
George Fenneman, and "the big Chrysler Corporation
show on another network," I've done a little checking
and am 99.9% positive that Fenneman was referring
to "Climax!", a drama anthology which aired Thursday
nights on CBS from 1954-58 and was pre-empted once
a month by a variety show, "Shower Of Stars," usually
hosted by Jack Benny. Both "Climax!" and "Shower Of
Stars" were sponsored by Chrysler Corporation, as was
Groucho's show on NBC (the DeSoto-Plymouth dealers).

Tennessee Ernie's announcer may have been referring
to the "Ford Theater" on ABC.

 

[Stanislav]

Tennessee Ernie's announcer may have been referring
to the "Ford Theater" on ABC.

Gee, I don't care if the sponsor is Ford -- given what happened back in 1865, would you really want to name a TV show "Ford Theater?"

 

[Ultimajock]

(Remember Milton Berle's famous remark that the Vietnam War would be over in 13 weeks if they put it on ABC?)

...back in November 1938, Fred Allen desperately wanted to put a spoof of Orson Welles' CBS "War of the Worlds" dramatisation on NBC's "Town Hall Tonight." The order *not to* spoof the Welles broadcast came down from NBC's king of kings, David Sarnoff himself. Any black eye for a competing network was considered strictly verboten to make fun of, probably by direct personal agreement between Sarnoff and Bill Paley. Interestingly, the two circulating airchecks of the Summer 1936 stretch of "Town Hall Tonight" during which Colonel Stoopnagle & Budd filled in for vacationing Fred Allen contain direct spoofs by name of "Buck Rogers" and "Gang Busters," both of which were running on CBS at the time...

 

[bpatrick]

Things must have really changed by the '40s,
because I've heard two Allen shows that satirized
shows on other networks: "King For A Day," wherein
Jack Benny wins a free pressing of his trousers (as
the stagehands move in to remove them Benny shouts,
"Allen, you haven't seen the end of me!" and Allen
replies, "It won't belong now!"), is a spoof of "Queen For
A Day," then on Mutual. A couple of years later, Allen
and Don McNeill satirized ABC's "Break The Bank" with a
sketch called "Break The Contestant."

But I don't know if he was poking fun of CBS shows at
that time.

 

[Ultimajock]

Things must have really changed by the '40s,
because I've heard two Allen shows that satirized
shows on other networks: "King For A Day," wherein
Jack Benny wins a free pressing of his trousers (as
the stagehands move in to remove them Benny shouts,
"Allen, you haven't seen the end of me!" and Allen
replies, "It won't belong now!"), is a spoof of "Queen For
A Day," then on Mutual. A couple of years later, Allen
and Don McNeill satirized ABC's "Break The Bank" with a
sketch called "Break The Contestant."

But I don't know if he was poking fun of CBS shows at
that time.

...difference here was that those shows weren't considered embarrassments to their networks. Although Orson Welles stayed with CBS off and on for ten more years, the "War of the Worlds" broadcast was such a touchy subject that it wasn't issued on commercial records until the late '50s; by comparison, Herb Morrison's coverage of the Hindenburg disaster had been issued on commercial 78s by both the ARC labels (Columbia subsidiaries) and an RCA Victor subsidiary label before the end of 1937. I'm sure that if a CBS show wanted to spoof the "Chase & Sanborn" NBC Red Network broadcast on which Mae West conversed suggestively with Don Ameche and Charlie McCarthy, Bill Paley would have said no as well...

 

[Kurt Toy]

There was a show that was sponsored by Plymouth called "Date With The Angels" in which, during the closing credits, a young Tom Kennedy would intone that Plymouth brought its viewers "Climax" on another network[referring to CBS, "Date was on ABC in the late 50s.}

 

[bpatrick]

One star (perhaps because he was a superstar)
who got away with mentioning his network was
Bob Hope, when he appeared on "I Love Lucy"
in 1956. Lucy, of course, was on CBS; you know
the episode: Bob appears at the Club Babalu and
does a number with Lucy and Desi called "Nobody
Loves The Ump" (after Lucy has caused him to be
hit in the head by a home run blast at a
baseball game while trying to get him to appear
at the club, not knowing he's already agreed).
At any rate, he sings a special version of "Thanks
For The Memories" to Lucy and Desi, Lucy plants
a big kiss on him, and he turns to the audience and
says, "I may never go back to NBC."

 

[johnnya2k6]

I can think of a couple of examples...

Back in the day, the then-World Wrestling Federation would never mention (even so now, to a certain extent) the name of whatever network was carrying one of their shows or shows featuring one of their personalities. Big example was whenever you watched one of their syndicated shows (Wrestling Challenge or Superstars of Wrestling), and an upcoming episode of Saturday Night's Main Event was to air, they never mention it being on NBC, but either "National Television" or "Check Your Local Listings".

Speaking of WWE...who could ever forget the last Raw on Spike before moving back to USA? Spike censored any and all references to "USA Network" until they gave up; apparently, WWE caught wind of it and decided to stick it to Spike by slapping the words "Next week on USA" in the end credits.

 

[ShawnHill1]

Speaking of WWE...who could ever forget the last Raw on Spike before moving back to USA? Spike censored any and all references to "USA Network" until they gave up; apparently, WWE caught wind of it and decided to stick it to Spike by slapping the words "Next week on USA" in the end credits.

I certainly do remember that...I was still watching Raw rather regularly at that time, and it was big news when it announced they were going back to USA. I think Spike was rather caught off-guard when WWE linked back up with USA, because their acquisition of WWE/F programming was a big part of the transformation from TNN to what Spike became today.

 

[JeffM]

Gee, I don't care if the sponsor is Ford -- given what happened back in 1865, would you really want to name a TV show "Ford Theater?"

"The Ford Theatre" was a carry-over from radio, and one week when Bob Hope was the guest star, he conspired with the announcer and director to slip a one-liner into the show's intro. Announcer: "This is the Ford Theatre!" Hope: "Say, isn't that where they shot Lincoln?" Huge laugh from the audience. After the show, Henry Ford II, who was watching the show from the sponsor's VIP booth, approached Hope saying "I had no idea you were going to do that!" Hope replied, "Don't worry, I got in a free plug for your other car, didn't I?" (Ford Motor, of course, also makes Lincolns, and after his initial surprise, Mr. Ford was delighted with Hope's remark.)