ABC Daytime Day After Thanksgiving 60s-70s

[hipman2]

Does anybody remember when ABC used to air several hours of their Saturday morning children's shows on the day after Thanksgiving in the 60s and 70s? I'm not sure what year the tradition began or ended, but I first caught a four-hour block of them in 1969. I believe it featured Jerry Lucas the magician between the cartoon shows. Anybody handy with some old TV listings to post what ABC aired during the years they were promoting the cartoon shows (obviously, it got me to sample their shows while the other two networks had regular programming: games, soaps, sitcoms, etc.)

I think CBS tried that for a while, but it was short lived, or was it NBC?

 

[searadiofreak]

I'm not sure this is related or not, but ABC used to run college football the day after Thanksgiving. Perhaps, this was a way to substitute programming during these game days for different time zones. Not sure.

 

[ShawnHill1]

I was thinking as recent the mid-90s, one of the other networks (including Fox) ran their Saturday cartoons on Thanksgiving day. I'm really guessing it was CBS, and of course Fox always ran some of their weekday cartoons on Saturdays year-round.

 

[oldschooler1]

I remember that. Yep, it started in 1967 or so -- back when they had cartoons like Spiderman, King Kong, etc. I remember one year the promo for it was a cartoon turkey singing and playing a banjo.

Strange what you remember.

 

[Tim L]

Here's the 1967 Day after Thanksgiving ABC Schedule (TV Guide Cleveland) along with what was on the other networks at the time.

3 NBC
5 ABC
8 CBS

Friday, November 24, 1967

9:30
3 Mike Douglas (9AM)
5 Bullwinkle
8 Franz The Toymaker

10AM
3 Snap Judgment
5 Milton The Monster
8 Love Of Life (Tape Delay)

10:25
3 NBC News
8 News-Howard Hoffman

10:30
3 Concentration
5 Casper
8 Beverly Hillbillies

10:55
5 Children's Doctor

11AM
3 Personality
5 Fantastic Four
8 Andy Griffith

11:30
3 Hollywood Squares
5 Spiderman
8 Dick Van Dyke

Noon
3 Jeopardy
5 Journey To The Center Of The Earth
8 News Murray Stewart, Harry Jones, Bob (Hoolihan The Weatherman) Wells

12:30
3 Eye Guess
5 King Kong
8 Search For Tomorrow

12:45
8 Guiding Light

12:55
3 NBC News

1PM
3 Three On The Town
5 The Beatles
8 Divorce Court

1:30
3 Let's Make A Deal
5 George Of The Jungle
8 As The World Turns

2PM Back to Regular programming

 

[Toledo Eleven]

Here are the schedules for 2 ABC stations on Friday, November 26, 1971:

WXYZ-TV (7) Detroit, MI
WDHO-TV (24) Toledo, OH

8:30 (7) Movie "Hey, There It's Yogi Bear"
(24) F Troop
9:00 (24) Romper Room
9:30 (24) Hoppity Goes to Town
10:00 (7) Reluctant Toad and Mr. Dragon
10:45 (24) Here's Carol
10:50 (24) Fashions in Sewing
11:00 (7) (24) Jerry Lewis
11:30 (7) (24) Road Runner
12:00 (7) (24) Funky Phantom
12:30 (7) (24) Lidsville
1:00 (7) (24) Jackson 5ive
1:30 (7) (24) Bullwinkle
2:00 (7) (24) Pro Basketball
Baltimore Bullets at Atlanta Hawks.

 

[cklw800]

Unbelievable. I had this conversation with my sister on Thanksgiving Day and we both remember looking forward to two mornings in a row of our favorite ABC cartoons. The Friday airings were reruns of the first episodes of that season as I recall and Saturday brought us brand new episodes. Somebody check me on that, it could've been vice-versa. There are people we know who don't remember that at all, or remembered only when we reminded them. After a while it was football once the Saturday morning cartoon model went on the decline. Thanks for the topic. I might spend part of the day after T-Giving 2010 watching DVDs I have of Huckleberry Hound, Flintstones, etc. Just so you know, and I know from experience, when you show DVDs of these old cartoons to fellow adults your age they go completely nuts. Try it around T-Giving or Christmas this year especially. Showing these starts a whole new conversation about the good times of our youth.

 

[TexasTom]

I remember this tradition myself, from back in the mid-seventies. I'd watch the ABC cartoons during the early afternoon of the day after Thanksgiving on our local ABC affiliate (KOMO-4), then switch over to our independent (KSTW-11) for the normal weekday diet of stuff like "Flintstones" reruns.

It's funny how many of us have fond memories of stuff like this -- and how those fond memories could only have come to be in an environment of scarcity. Our nostalgia for those post-Thanksgiving cartoons must be totally incomprehensible to kids who are growing up with non-stop cartoons and childrens shows on multiple channels seven days a week...after all, when you've got cartoons on four or five different channels whenever you want, what's the big deal over one more channel offering a few hours of cartoons?

 

[cwf1701]

Here are the schedules for 2 ABC stations on Friday, November 26, 1971:

WXYZ-TV (7) Detroit, MI
WDHO-TV (24) Toledo, OH

8:30 (7) Movie "Hey, There It's Yogi Bear"
(24) F Troop
9:00 (24) Romper Room
9:30 (24) Hoppity Goes to Town
10:00 (7) Reluctant Toad and Mr. Dragon
10:45 (24) Here's Carol
10:50 (24) Fashions in Sewing
11:00 (7) (24) Jerry Lewis
11:30 (7) (24) Road Runner
12:00 (7) (24) Funky Phantom
12:30 (7) (24) Lidsville
1:00 (7) (24) Jackson 5ive
1:30 (7) (24) Bullwinkle
2:00 (7) (24) Pro Basketball
Baltimore Bullets at Atlanta Hawks.

looking at the lineup between 11:00AM and 2:00PM, do you think the network programs was fed out to all time zones at 11:00(EST)? this would be a bit unusual for this time. so it could be possible for WXYZ 2 west coast sister stations at the time (KABC and KGO) to get the same programs feed at 8:00AM (PST)?

 

[hipman2]

I noticed that it was highly unusual for ABC to start at 10am ET when they normally started later in the day for their regular daytime programming (as late as 11:30am for sitcom reruns in the early 70s). I did remember seeing ABC start its post-Thanksgiving cartoon special which was for the purpose of getting children to sample their shows in the hopes that it would get them to switch to ABC from CBS and NBC for their cartoons. I'm guessing that ABC's Saturday morning daypart was in third place for most of the 60s and they needed to find a way to promote their lineup. CBS's was popular, followed by NBC.

Through the spring of 1974, ABC's west coast stations aired the shows that followed the East coast time slot pattern. From what I remember seeing that day from XETV and KABC (via cable) that day, here's what the schedule may have looked like for that day (remember seeing Lidsville at 3pm).

10:00 Reluctant Toad and Mr. Dragon (actually, it's Reluctant Dragon and Mr. Toad)
I believe that it was a 1/2 hour show. Was there another cartoon at 10:30am
or did ABC run it for an hour?
11:00 Pro Basketball - Baltimore Bullets at Atlanta Hawks (live)
1:30 Jerry Lewis (actually, Will the Real Jerry Lewis Please Sit Down)
2:00 Road Runner
2:30 Funky Phantom
3:00 Lidsville
3:30 Jackson 5ive
4:00 Bullwinkle

Here are the schedules for 2 ABC stations on Friday, November 26, 1971:

WXYZ-TV (7) Detroit, MI
WDHO-TV (24) Toledo, OH

8:30 (7) Movie "Hey, There It's Yogi Bear"
(24) F Troop
9:00 (24) Romper Room
9:30 (24) Hoppity Goes to Town
10:00 (7) Reluctant Toad and Mr. Dragon
10:45 (24) Here's Carol
10:50 (24) Fashions in Sewing
11:00 (7) (24) Jerry Lewis
11:30 (7) (24) Road Runner
12:00 (7) (24) Funky Phantom
12:30 (7) (24) Lidsville
1:00 (7) (24) Jackson 5ive
1:30 (7) (24) Bullwinkle
2:00 (7) (24) Pro Basketball
Baltimore Bullets at Atlanta Hawks.

looking at the lineup between 11:00AM and 2:00PM, do you think the network programs was fed out to all time zones at 11:00(EST)? this would be a bit unusual for this time. so it could be possible for WXYZ 2 west coast sister stations at the time (KABC and KGO) to get the same programs feed at 8:00AM (PST)?