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

[visaman]

^ 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.



cd

Alan Thicke (who is proudly Canadian) had a very popular afternoon talker on CTV in Canada (taped in Vancouver). I guess he thought he could make the leap to US TV.

 

[Tim L]

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.

I dont believe they ever did..WJW-TV had very successful movie packages they ran from the 1950's on (except for Merv..And part of that run, they delayed late night Merv till 4:30 the next day)..

Fridays was the ultra-successful Ghoulardi/Hoolian&Big Chuck/Big Chuck&Lil John Show from 1963-88..The show moved to Saturdays and switched back and forth.. until the end in 2007.The show, especially in the Ghoulardi days, was said to regularly beat Johnny Carson in the ratings..


WOAC-67 in Canton also carried CBS Late Night for several years to help cover the Northeast Ohio Market..

 

[Tim L]

duplicate post..

 

[nsa1]

I do remember the CBS Late Movies on WJW in the approx. 1973-76 time frame, with the Friday movie bumped to Sunday night to accommodate Hoolihan & Big Chuck (they dropped CBS late night programming for good when they started running Mary Hartman in '76).

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.

I dont believe they ever did..WJW-TV had very successful movie packages they ran from the 1950's on (except for Merv..And part of that run, they delayed late night Merv till 4:30 the next day)..

Fridays was the ultra-successful Ghoulardi/Hoolian&Big Chuck/Big Chuck&Lil John Show from 1963-88..The show moved to Saturdays and switched back and forth.. until the end in 2007.The show, especially in the Ghoulardi days, was said to regularly beat Johnny Carson in the ratings..


WOAC-67 in Canton also carried CBS Late Night for several years to help cover the Northeast Ohio Market..

 

[Tim L]

I seem to vaguely remember WJW-TV having the CBS late movies in the 70's..Now that it's been mentioned..

 

[anotherguyTN]

WREG in Memphis managed to beat Carson with MASH reruns and then Cheers, which is why they never carried CBS Late Night until Letterman. I'll have to admit a lot of times I'd watch Carson's monologue and then switched to MASH unless there was something I really wanted to see later.

 

[FreddyE1977]

People in Pittsburgh who wanted to see the classic Saturday Night Live episodes
with Chevy Chase, Dan Akroyd and Gilda Radner had to tune to WPGH 53.

WIIC/WPXI 11, the NBC affiliate, had the long-running and very popular Chiller Theater
late night horror movie, and refused to bump it to clear SNL.

 

[spencerkarter85]

I've also found out that then-indie WKBD 50 in Detroit carried the later years of the NBC show Late Night with David Letterman (1982-1993) which wasn't cleared by WDIV 4.

 

[nomadcowatbk]

I've also found out that then-indie WKBD 50 in Detroit carried the later years of the NBC show Late Night with David Letterman (1982-1993) which wasn't cleared by WDIV 4.

This station also delayed Conan for years, along with it's sister station in Houston

 

[spencerkarter85]

I've heard that KPRC pre-empted Conan's Late Night from 1994-96 and cleared it by KPRC 2 in 1996 on delay basis before going in-pattern. Shame of WDIV and KPRC (and it's owners Post-Newsweek) for refusing to air the now-cancelled Poker After Dark and it's sister show Face The Ace.

 

[azumanga]

I've heard that KPRC pre-empted Conan's Late Night from 1994-96 and cleared it by KPRC 2 in 1996 on delay basis before going in-pattern.

I recall an episode of "Late Night" sometime in the late-1990s, in which Conan visited Houston and roamed the streets, trying to find someone at an open business with a TV watching the show -- this wasn't accomplished until around 2:30AM when he was able to watch his own show -- on a Jumbotron at the Astrodome.

 

[spencerkarter85]

When then-Indie WKBD 50 carried SNL for the first years in place of NBC station WWJ/WDIV 4. I've found out ironically, the late Gilda Radner who was an original SNL castmember was a native of Detroit.

 

[bpatrick]

^ 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.



cd

Alan Thicke (who is proudly Canadian) had a very popular afternoon talker on CTV in Canada (taped in Vancouver). I guess he thought he could make the leap to US TV.

Or Fred Silverman thought he could. Kevin Allman, in his book "TV Turkeys," quotes Rita Zekas, critic for the "Toronto Star":
"He's basically bland. He's like a John Davidson, Ken-doll clone." (Davidson didn't make it with his Group W show either.)

Fortunately, Thicke handled the disaster with aplomb. He claimed he literally fainted in horror while watching the debut of "Thicke Of The Night," and when the thing finally got canceled he said, "When you say it's one of the worst shows in TV history, that's going to be on my tombstone....I don't even drink, and if there was ever a year I could have...We'd have six minutes with Martin Sheen, and then we'd spend twelve minutes on a belly dancer with a one-dollar bill in her navel." And in a 1986 "Perry Mason" movie (after he'd clicked with "Growing Pains") he played an obnoxious talk-show host who gets murdered on the air. His reaction: "It seems redundant."