Independent stations that ran major network late night fare in the '60s-'80s

[Ultimajock]

...a few comments about then-indie WVTV/18 Milwaukee carrying late night programming from NBC, ABC and CBS at various times in the '60s, '70s and '80s just made me wonder, what other independent stations did that during the same decades? The ones I definitely know of are:

WVTV/18 Milwaukee: ran Joey Bishop and Dick Cavett from ABC, Merv Griffin from CBS and Johnny Carson from NBC
KFIZ-TV/34 Fond du Lac WI: ran Griffin (retransmitted WVTV's day-later delays, in fact)
WLRE(WGBA)/26 Green Bay: ran The CBS Late Movie/CBS Late Night (didn't they also carry Fridays from ABC?)
WKBD/50 Detroit: ran Saturday Night Live from NBC (didn't they carry Tomorrow with Tom Snyder at one point as well?)

 

[bpatrick]

In Atlanta, WATL/36 (in its late '60s/early '70s incarnation) carried
Joey Bishop in the fall of '69, after WQXI/WXIA/11 decided to go
with movies (11 did pick up Dick Cavett when he replaced Joey that
December). Channel 17 carried both Merv and the CBS Late Movie
when WAGA dropped them, although Channel 5 ran off and on with
the movies, especially in the later years when crime-drama reruns made
up the bulk of CBS's late-night programming. (5 eventually stopped airing
CBS late night about the time Arsenio Hall's show started, and Channel 69
carried such shows as "Night Heat" and "Personals").

WBFF/45 picked up Johnny Carson in Baltimore when WMAR/2 decided to
carry "Thicke Of The Night" in 1983; likewise, WZTV/17 Nashville picked up
Carson when WSMV/4 decided to air sitcom reruns around the same time.

 

[cd637299]

^ An aside....

I could never understand all the hoopla about "Thicke of the Night," and why it was so publicized. (Especially why an established NBC station would dump Carson for it!) Alan Thicke was certainly NOT a household name at that time, except maybe in Hollywood circles.

I think I read that WBFF wouldn't let go of Carson even after Thicke's show was gone. I say it served WMAR right.

cd

 

[bpatrick]

Maybe it was Fred Silverman, who produced Alan Thicke's show,
trying to re-establish himself as a producer after being let go by
NBC. (He did have some better luck later, producing "Matlock,"
"In The Heat Of The Night," and the new Raymond Burr Perry Mason
TV-movies.)

 

[crainbebo]

Slightly OT but checking a 1970 TVG KIRO-7 here in Seattle never had Merv's CBS show. It would always be movies. KVOS-12 in Bellingham had Merv, however. By the early 80s when he was syndicated it was on KOMO-4 (ABC) in the afternoon hours.

-crainbebo

 

[anotherguyTN]

In the early 80's when it was still an independent, WPTY 24 in Memphis carried the CBS late night programming. WREG CBS 3 in Memphis was carrying reruns of MASH and later Cheers until David Letterman moved to CBS.

 

[Firebird]

WCLQ/61 in Cleveland ran CBS Late Night from September 1983 until 1985 or 86. Not sure if WJW/8 ever carried the program when it was a CBS affiliate.

 

[azumanga]

WKBD/50 Detroit: ran Saturday Night Live from NBC (didn't they carry Tomorrow with Tom Snyder at one point as well?)

Yes they did -- they picked it up in February 1978 after WWJ-TV (WDIV) dumped the show:

http://vintagetoledotv.squarespace.com/print-ads-wkbd/wkbd-tv-50-print-ads/2323860

Ironically, a few months earlier on June 26, 1977, Snyder hosted a special tribute to WKBD's legendary talk show host Lou Gordon, after his death:

http://vintagetoledotv.squarespace.com/print-ads-wkbd/wkbd-tv-50-print-ads/2290841

 

[Bob1370]

Why did Alan Thicke's first American stab at late night get a lot of clearance even at the expense of other established shows, even Carson in a few markets? Some of it was the reputation of Fred Silverman, the man behind it all--he had a cachet from having been a programming genius in network TV (remaking CBS and ABC in succession) and while he stumbled a little at NBC he also had some successful moments there too...so if he got behind a project, as he did with this show, it had some instant credibility with station programmers.

Besides, there were rumors that Carson (who was approaching 60 at the time) was thinking about retiring, which he wouldn't do for another decade, and some said he was vulnerable to a younger host with a fresher approach--so they were willing to try something, and someone, new and with the people involved in it, trying the show out made a certain amount of sense. Thicke's work on Canadian TV looked promising, and he did turn out to be a strong performer as a sitcom actor later on in the 80s. Silverman was a master of show packaging. But Thicke of the Night just wasn't put together well. It was one of those many shows that seemed like a good idea at the time...put together by people who had done interesting work before and would do better and more successful work later. But everyone had an off day all at once on this one....

 

[LKellerIII]

Why did Alan Thicke's first American stab at late night get a lot of clearance even at the expense of other established shows, even Carson in a few markets? Some of it was the reputation of Fred Silverman, the man behind it all--he had a cachet from having been a programming genius in network TV (remaking CBS and ABC in succession) and while he stumbled a little at NBC he also had some successful moments there too...so if he got behind a project, as he did with this show, it had some instant credibility with station programmers.

Silverman stumbled "a little" at NBC? I'd say that's a huge understatement. He bombed at NBC. But Silverman aside, any NBC affiliate that dropped Carson for Thicke was being greedy and stupid. Carson had been the king of late night for almost 2 decades with consistently high ratings, having beaten back Joey Bishop, Dick Cavett, and Merv Griffin. Yes - Johnny took a lot of nights off, and maybe there were a few rumors of retirement, but he was still a safe bet to stay on top.

 

[cd637299]

As to "Thicke of the Night"....ambitious, maybe; but then again, so was "The Wilton North Report."

 

[Ultimajock]

Silverman stumbled "a little" at NBC? I'd say that's a huge understatement. He bombed at NBC.

...to the extent of losing crucial affiliates for the network (one I can think of most immediately is KSTP-TV/5 St. Paul-Minneapolis, which dumped NBC for ABC after Hubbard had their fill of Silverman's shenanigans)...

 

[spencerkarter85]

I know some other indies (and others) that carried network late-night programming inplace of actual network affiliates.

KCIT 50 (defunct) in Kansas City, MO would carry Joey Bishop (in place of KMBC) since it's October 1969 sign-on, and later Merv Griffin (in place of KCMO now KCTV) and after KCIT went off the air permantely in July 1971, other indie KBMA (now KSHB NBC) carried Dick Cavett in place of KMBC.

In Charlotte, North Carolina CBS affiliate WBTV carried Joey Bishop in place of then-ABC (now FOX) WCCB in the late 1960s as I looked at the old listings on this site.

 

[bpatrick]

Silverman sold "Thicke Of The Night" on the assumption that it would
draw younger audiences than Johnny. What he got, if you read Kevin
Allman's "TV Turkeys," was another "Jerry Lewis Show" in terms of how not
to do a show.

As for Joey, WCCB was carrying him by the summer of '68, but another ABC
affiliate, WVEC/13 Norfolk, never carried either Joey or Dick Cavett. CBS
affiliate WTAR (WTKR)/3 picked up Joey until CBS put Merv into the 11:30
slot in the summer of '69. Not only did Ch. 3 want to stay loyal to its network,
it had been carrying Merv in syndication (and would again when Merv left CBS).

OTOH, I know of at least one ABC affiliate going the other way. When Louisville's
then-CBS affiliate WHAS turned down Merv, WLKY picked him up and aired him at
3:30 PM, the same time he'd been on in syndication, and thus was able to carry
both Merv and Joey (and Dick Cavett).

As for KSTP, when WSB switched to ABC, a spokesperson for that network said
the Atlanta catch was bigger than the Twin Cities. Silverman had only been at
NBC a little over six months when KSTP made the move in early '79, and, said the
ABC person, really couldn't be blamed for that move. But WSB changed in September
1980: "[NBC] has no alibi for this one," the person said in the Atlanta Journal.
That discounts the fact that NBC lost WRTV Indianapolis, WDTN Dayton, WTLV Jacksonville,
and WATE Knoxville on Silverman's watch as well.

 

[Wright County Guy]

Hopefully, someone from the Twin Cities can add some more details, but I've heard that KMSP aired the CBS Late Movie (which WCCO didn't carry at the time) instead of ABC Late Night during the station's waning days as an ABC affiliate--and continued carrying the CBS Late Movie for at least a little bit after the 1979 affiliation switch resulted in it becoming independent. (For example, see http://tcmedianow.com/video/kmsp-tv-news-final-segment-and-commercials-from-1979/.)

KMSP did run the CBS Late Movie as cited above, but by the fall of 80, Rockford Files and other syndicated fare filled the 10:30 (CT) timeslot. Most of the 80s found CBS Late Night missing in action in the Twin Cities. KXLI (now Ion's KPXM) did run ABC's "Eye on Hollywood", which KSTP didn't clear. KTMA (now CW affiliate WUCW) ran "Later with Bob Costas" at its God-given time of 12:30, going against the second half of Letterman on KARE (which delayed Carson and Letterman by 35 minutes).

 

[Wright County Guy]

Since this was in the late '80s (after the launch of Fox), this may go against the intent of the thread: In Madison, WMSN picked up Pat Sajak's CBS talk show (which WISC declined) to run after Arsenio Hall. I still remember the promos involving an altered version of "Yakety Yak" ("Arsenio and Pat--back to back").

In Milwaukee, the Fox station had Chevy Chase at 10, Letterman from CBS at 11, and Arsenio at midnight with ads in the Milwaukee papers touting "New", "Improved" and "Original Formula"

 

[Toledo Eleven]

WKBD/50 Detroit: ran Saturday Night Live from NBC (didn't they carry Tomorrow with Tom Snyder at one point as well?)

Yes they did -- they picked it up in February 1978 after WWJ-TV (WDIV) dumped the show:

http://vintagetoledotv.squarespace.com/print-ads-wkbd/wkbd-tv-50-print-ads/2323860

Ironically, a few months earlier on June 26, 1977, Snyder hosted a special tribute to WKBD's legendary talk show host Lou Gordon, after his death:

http://vintagetoledotv.squarespace.com/print-ads-wkbd/wkbd-tv-50-print-ads/2290841

And didn't WKBD run the CBS Late Movie at some point? Here's an ad for when they ran SNL:
http://vintagetoledotv.squarespace.com/picture/snl760724.jpg?pictureId=3793240&asGalleryImage=true

 

[ShawnHill1]

Since this was in the late '80s (after the launch of Fox), this may go against the intent of the thread: In Madison, WMSN picked up Pat Sajak's CBS talk show (which WISC declined) to run after Arsenio Hall. I still remember the promos involving an altered version of "Yakety Yak" ("Arsenio and Pat--back to back").

In Milwaukee, the Fox station had Chevy Chase at 10, Letterman from CBS at 11, and Arsenio at midnight with ads in the Milwaukee papers touting "New", "Improved" and "Original Formula"

Quite a contrast somewhat from down the road in Chicago, where WBBM had both Sajak AND Arsenio back-to-back in the beginning. If I remember, when Sajak's show ultimately got cancelled, Arsenio moved up to 10:30 after the news, delaying CBS Late Night by an hour.

 

[spencerkarter85]

WKBD/50 Detroit: ran Saturday Night Live from NBC (didn't they carry Tomorrow with Tom Snyder at one point as well?)

Yes they did -- they picked it up in February 1978 after WWJ-TV (WDIV) dumped the show:

http://vintagetoledotv.squarespace.com/print-ads-wkbd/wkbd-tv-50-print-ads/2323860

Ironically, a few months earlier on June 26, 1977, Snyder hosted a special tribute to WKBD's legendary talk show host Lou Gordon, after his death:

http://vintagetoledotv.squarespace.com/print-ads-wkbd/wkbd-tv-50-print-ads/2290841

And didn't WKBD run the CBS Late Movie at some point? Here's an ad for when they ran SNL:
http://vintagetoledotv.squarespace.com/picture/snl760724.jpg?pictureId=3793240&asGalleryImage=true

Page not found!

 

[azumanga]

And didn't WKBD run the CBS Late Movie at some point? Here's an ad for when they ran SNL:
http://vintagetoledotv.squarespace.com/picture/snl760724.jpg?pictureId=3793240&asGalleryImage=true

Page not found!

Here's a couple of WKBD TVG ads for SNL -- one from WKBD themselves, the other from NBC:

http://vintagetoledotv.squarespace.com/print-ads-wkbd/wkbd-tv-50-print-ads/2250289
http://vintagetoledotv.squarespace.com/print-ads-wkbd/wkbd-tv-50-print-ads/2309794

Looking at past retro listings, I don't think WKBD ever carried the CBS Late Movie which, as far as I know, has always been cleared by WJBK.