ABC Got No Respect

[Stanislav]

Caught a subtle reference to ABC's once lowly status in, of all places, an episode of The Phil Silvers Show.

Bilko is at CBS in New York, trying to market a Montana cowboy from his platoon as a new Western star. The CBS exec is leery, so Bilko implies that they are not the only ones interested in his services. At one point, he says "May I remind you -- there is another network."

"Another network." Singular. As in "NBC." I guess ABC didn't even register on Bilko's radar, despite the fact that they were operating in the late 50's.

Just thought it was an interesting line...

 

[ixnay]

When I saw the thread title, I thought it had to do with Aretha Franklin (or Otis Redding). :

ixnay

 

[bpatrick]

Interesting observation, considering that the "Cheyenne/Sugarfoot"
combo (on ABC) gave Bilko some tough competition on Tuesday nights.

 

[wbhist]

When I saw the thread title, I thought it had to do with Aretha Franklin (or Otis Redding). :

Naw, I envisioned more connotations with Rodney Dangerfield . . .

 

[cd637299]

As the 50s drew to a close, I would say that there were quite a few "standalone" ABC stations. I'd say that most ABC affiliates had to share with (and most often, play second banana to) another network.

ISTR when I saw my first TV Guide which had a 3-affiliate station (WBOC 16 in the DC/Baltimore edition), ABC seemed to have by far the fewest shows on WBOC.

Getting "Disneyland" & "American Bandstand" helped a bit, but when Disney bolted to NBC for color in 1961, ABC seemed to be back at the bottom.

I am sure there are other stories here....I yield.

cd

 

[landtuna]

My local ABC affiliate was the last of the Big 3 to sign on (last by about 4 years) but it was immediately the most kid-friendly station of all. Not only all the Disney shows and AB but local kid shows produced by the station itself. From '57 thru '60 (when we moved out of town) I probably watched ABC 2-3 times as much as the other two combined.

 

[Al Timiter]

ABC got some traction when WB signed a production deal with them. The WB westerns and detective shows, coupled with their emphasis on the youth market seemed to help them stay afloat.

 

[Hal Erickson]

Many TV markets were able to sustain three channels, but NBC and CBS often put the muscle on them not to. Louisville Kentucky is a classic example. NBC's WAVE-TV and CBS' WHAS-TV were so valuable to their respective networks that ABC was all but exiled from the market until aggressive little WLKY-TV (Channel 32) came along in 1961. Up until then, acity with a half-a-million population had to make do with only two channels. However, ABC's preponderance of popular western shows forced the two Louisville stations to pick up a generous sampling of the network's feed by the end of the 1950s (as well as the Disney shows, Lawrence Welk, and a handful of sitcoms like the Kentucky-friendly REAL McCOYS).
Whenever there was an ABC affiliate in a three-station market, it invariably carried the local ratings (Cincinnati, Detroit, etc.) The two bigger webs didn't like this, and saw to it that the print media would treat ABC as an also-ran at the slightest opportunity.

 

[MCarney]

"Get Smart" was originally proposed to ABC, with Tom Poston penciled in to play Maxwell Smart. They rejected the pilot script and it never got to the pilot stage until NBC picked it up.

 

[cspotrun]

i read somewhere that the thing that put abc on the Radar for good was "The Flintstones"... go figure. it probably didn't hurt that it was about the only thing in the lineup that was in color.

 

[cd637299]

i read somewhere that the thing that put abc on the Radar for good was "The Flintstones"... go figure. it probably didn't hurt that it was about the only thing in the lineup that was in color.

Although all episodes were made in color, only from Season 3 onward (and in syndication) were they actually *shown* in color.

ABC's first show in color was "The Jetsons," likely just days before the Flintstones' season 3 (the season where Pebbles was born).

cd

 

[bpatrick]

Many TV markets were able to sustain three channels, but NBC and CBS often put the muscle on them not to. Louisville Kentucky is a classic example. NBC's WAVE-TV and CBS' WHAS-TV were so valuable to their respective networks that ABC was all but exiled from the market until aggressive little WLKY-TV (Channel 32) came along in 1961. Up until then, acity with a half-a-million population had to make do with only two channels. However, ABC's preponderance of popular western shows forced the two Louisville stations to pick up a generous sampling of the network's feed by the end of the 1950s (as well as the Disney shows, Lawrence Welk, and a handful of sitcoms like the Kentucky-friendly REAL McCOYS).
Whenever there was an ABC affiliate in a three-station market, it invariably carried the local ratings (Cincinnati, Detroit, etc.) The two bigger webs didn't like this, and saw to it that the print media would treat ABC as an also-ran at the slightest opportunity.

WLKY came on the air at just about the time a special Nielsen survey showed ABC on top in the 70 markets where all three networks had an affiliate (at least, when the numbers were averaged; I can't imagine that ABC was number one in Atlanta in 1961). ABC's problem in the '50s and '60s, aside from having the fewest fulltime affiliates, was its habit of latching onto fads (the Westerns and detective shows in the '50s, things like "Batman" and "Shindig" in the '60s) with nowhere to go when the fads ran their course.

I like the way you refer to "aggressive little WLKY." If you look at my Kentucky retros from the '60s onward, it's obvious that Ch. 32 was willing to spend the money on popular syndicated shows as well.

 

[TexasTom]

An old joke from the late sixties:

"How can we end the Vietnam war?"

"Book it on ABC -- they'll cancel it after thirteen weeks!"

As noted by others, the big problem that ABC faced was a weaker line up of affiliates. They finally solved that problem in the mid to late seventies when they poached a number of CBS and NBC affiliates...kind of like Fox did twenty years later.