1956 NETWORK DAYTIME FALL TV SCHEDULE

[gregg75]

ABC was all local until 3PM.
7:00
CBS The Morning Show
NBC The Today Show
7:45
CBS Walter Cronkite And The News
8:00
CBS Captain Kangaroo
8:45
CBS Charles Collingwood And The News
9:00
ABC, CBS & NBC local
10:00
CBS Garry Moore Show (variety, the show ran until 11:30 on Fridays)
NBC Ding Dong School
10:30
CBS Arthur Godfrey (mon-thur)
NBC NBC Bandstand (???what was this, band music probably)
11:00
NBC The Home Show (for women, hosted by Arlene Francis of What's My Line fame).
11:30
CBS Strike It Rich (weird game show, people in need of help, viewers could donate to losers)
12:00
CBS Valiant Lady (soap)
NBC Tic Tac Dough (probably popular in 1956, part of game show scandal, cancelled 1958)
12:15
CBS Love Of Life
12:30
CBS Search For Tomorrow
NBC It Could Be You (game show)
12:45
CBS Guiding Light
1:00
ABC & NBC local
CBS News (a whole 10 minutes worth)
1:10
CBS Stand Up And Be Counted (game show)
1:30
CBS As The World Turns
2:00
CBS Our Miss Brooks (sitcom reruns)
2:30
CBS Art Linkletter's House Party
NBC Tennesse Ernie Ford Show (he was everywhere in 1956, the Justin Bieber of the time???)
3:00
ABC Afternoon Film Festival
CBS The Big Payoff (game show, male contestants nominating their woman for prizes)
NBC Matinee Theater (one hour plays with minimal sets, often broadcast live)
3:30
CBS Bob Crosby Show (popular band/orchestra leader)
4:00
CBS The Brighter Day (soap)
NBC Queen For A Day (game show, hosted by Rip Taylor Jack Bailey)
4:15
CBS Secret Storm (soap)
4:30
CBS Edge Of Night
4:45
NBC Modern Romances (soap)
5:00
ABC Mickey Mouse Club
CBS & NBC local

********It looks like ABC was concentrating on prime-time shows at this time. In 1957 American Bandstand began at 3PM (30/60/90 minutes). ABC started at various times from 10:30 to 12:00 (1958-1975). The 90 minute AM AMERICA at 7:00 began in 1975. It seems ABC didn't get hold of the ball until the 4th quarter!

 

[Tim L]

Ive never paid attention to who Justin Bieber is, but I'm sure he doesnt have half the talent as Tennessee Ernie Ford did...

I'd also never heard of the daytime NBC "Bandstand" but by December 3, 1956..(Premiere was actually November 26) Bandstand had been replaced by a show we're all familar with..Bill Cullen's Price Is Right

 

[wbhist]

ABC was all local until 3PM.

********It looks like ABC was concentrating on prime-time shows at this time. In 1957 American Bandstand began at 3PM (30/60/90 minutes). ABC started at various times from 10:30 to 12:00 (1958-1975). The 90 minute AM AMERICA at 7:00 began in 1975. It seems ABC didn't get hold of the ball until the 4th quarter!

ABC didn't begin in late mornings until fall 1958 with "Operation Daybreak" (with the longest-lasting of the original lineup being Day in Court which ran through 1965). In New York, that brought an end to the first of WABC-TV's many ayem movie showcases*, Morning Feature; plus The Afternoon Show which aired around 1 P.M. The film packages WABC had at the time were run, two a week (Mon-Wed and Thu-Sun rotation), on all their movie shows (also including The Night Show which debuted in February 1956 and expanded WABC's broadcast day past their prior 11:30 P.M. sign-off).

* Later ones included: Movie of the Day (1963-67); Prize Movie with Gloria DeHaven (1969-71); The Morning Movie (1969-77); The Movie in the Morning (1977-83); and Spring Cinema (1983).

Over at NBC, Howdy Doody's run as a daytime afternoon show (start time 5:30 P.M.) ended on June 1, 1956; after the network gave back the time to local affiliates, New York's WRCA-TV (later WNBC-TV) launched a P.M. movie show called Evening Theatre that, by February 1957, evolved into Movie 4 which ran on weekday afternoons until 1974 (and at various times on weekends, on and off, through 1976-77). As for Howdy Doody, after June 16, 1956 it was part of NBC's Saturday morning lineup, up to the end of its run in 1960.

 

[gregg75]

My sources differ. I think you are talking about WABC. I am talking about the network.
Maybe WABC was off the air in the morning, that's a possibility.

 

[Gregg]

The NBC Bandstand show was a big band music show hosted by Bert Parks, according to an old NY Journal American Television-Radio Guide I have from 1956. Bert Parks also hosted the Miss America Pagent each year. He'd be the one to sing "Here She Is, Miss America" after the contestant was crowned. Parks also hosted a game show or two after Bandstand was cancelled.

And Dough-Re-Mi was hosted by Gene Rayburn, who later went on to host The Match Game for many years.

There were various daytime music and variety shows in those days, some network, some syndicated, some local. Tennessee Ernie Ford was a country singer who hosted a daytime show for many years, who also did a bit of comedy and concluded each day's show with a hymm. Arthur Godfrey, Johnny Carson, Jack Paar, Bob Newhart, Dinah Shore, Julius LaRosa and others had daytime variety/music/comedy shows. Patti Page, Perry Como, Eddie Fisher, Liberace, Les Paul & Mary Ford all had 15 min. or 30 min. syndicated mostly music shows. When local news ran only 15 min. stations would often use these 15 min. music shows to complete the half hour.


Gregg
[email protected]

 

[gregg75]

Back in my COMIC DAYS if I was on the streets or in a bar with friends and an ugly girl walked by, I'd start singing "There She Is, Miss Bulgaria" and they would die laughing.

Then one day I talked to one of the prettiest girls I'd ever seen in my life. I asked her where she was from, you got it Bulgaria!!!! I found a different song after that.

 

[wbhist]

My sources differ. I think you are talking about WABC. I am talking about the network. Maybe WABC was off the air in the morning, that's a possibility.

No, by 1956 WABC's sign-on was in the morning (either 7 or 8 A.M., I can't tell which). Among the local-based shows Channel 7 had, besides the aforementioned movie umbrellas, was a children's series called Tommy Seven and a program (Memory Lane) hosted by one Joe Franklin who would later become better known at WOR/WWOR-TV where he would hold court from 1962 to 1993. The point was, WABC had plenty of time to fill with local programming in those days, since the ABC network's programming at that point, as you said, didn't start till 3 P.M.; and except for Franklin, much of the daytime programming WABC had fell by the wayside once "Operation Daybreak" was launched in '58.

 

[bpatrick]

Steve Allen was talking on one occasion about a show
on WABC called "Entertainment," which, he said, aired
from 12:30-3 PM; Tom Poston was on that show (it's
apparently where Allen first saw him), along with Gene
Wood, before he got into game shows. Anybody ever
see or hear of this show?

 

[Gregg]

OK, from my NY Journal-American Television Radio Guide, here's Channel 7 WABC-TV for Tues., Aug. 28, 1956...

7:40 -- Morning Prayer
7:45 -- News--George H. Combs
8:00 -- Tinker's Work Shop -- Kids
Cartoons today are "Goofy Goat Antics" and "Where's Smithy?" A farm animal visits.
9:00 -- Romper Room -- Miss Jane (years later moves to Channel 9)
10:00 -- The Drama of Life
"The Bean Farm" The life of a quiet family of bean farmers is distrupted when oil is discovered on their property.
10:30 -- Road of Romance -- Drama
"Wedding March" A solid businessman and a "rolling stone" vie for the hand and heart of a lovely girl.
11:00 -- Movie -- Western
"Bar 20 Rides Again" A dangerous outlaw woos a girl to get control of her father's land. William Boyd
12:00 -- Time for Fun -- Kids
Cartoons include "Merry Kitten" and "Two Trappers"
12:30 -- Memory Lane -- Joe Franklin (Years later moves to Channel 9)
1:30 -- Movie -- Drama
"Letter from An Unknown Woman" (1948) A girl of 15 becomes infatuated with a 25 year old pianist. Joan Fontaine

Then at 3pm, Channel 8 in New Haven CT joins Channel 7 for another movie, followed by The Mickey Mouse Club from 5 to 6pm, so I assume those are ABC Network presentations. To fill up the time before the network signs on, WABC runs two movies, three children's shows, Joe Franklin (who still is heard on WBBR 1130 to this day doing features for the Bloomberg Business News) and two 30 minute dramas. I wonder where those dramas came from? Were those prime time shows from years past? TV and video recording was so new then, I don't think they had many off-network repeats to show then.


Gregg
[email protected]