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Johnny Cash on Saturday

B

bpatrick

Some of you may recall that, along with "Hee Haw," "The Johnny Cash Show" was
a big hit in the summer of 1969. His show started as a summer replacement for
"The Hollywood Palace" on Saturdays at 9:30 (ET). When it returned in January
1970 ABC put it on Wednesdays at 9 (ET), where it stayed until the "rural purge"
ended his run in 1971.

However, when ABC went dark after 9:30 on Saturday nights from January to
September 1971 (except for its 15-minute newscast which was fed at 11), several
affiliates moved Cash back to his original timeslot. I've found a few; does anyone
know of others?

WQXI (WXIA) Atlanta
WTVC Chattanooga
WRAL Raleigh
WXEX (WRIC) Richmond-Petersburg
WFTV Orlando
WLKY Louisville
WTVN (WSYX) Columbus, OH
WJZ Baltimore
 
I decided to see what the situation about "The Johnny Cash Show" was in the Boston/Manchester/Providence areas, so I looked at TV listings from issues of the Boston Globe published in March of 1971.

Two of the three ABC stations listed, WTEV-6 (now WLNE) New Bedford/Providence and WMUR-9 Manchester, New Hampshire, did clear Cash on Wednesdays at 9 P.M.

But the other ABC affiliate listed, WNAC-7 Boston, carried the show on.......(drum roll, please).....Saturday Nights at 9:30 P.M.!

Interestingly enough, the March 20th, 1971 Globe TV listings page had nothing listed for WMUR after 9:30. Could they have decided to sign-off and go home early??
 
As far as I know, just one complete episode of Johnny Cash's early 1970's ABC series is on DVD, which my girlfriend and I borrowed from our local public library a couple of years back.

It was (if my memory serves me correct) taped in early 1971 in Copenhagen, Denmark, aired there as a special and broadcast here in the 'States as an episode of his then-current ABC series.

I believe Carl Perkins was among the guests, with the Tennessee Three and June Carter-Cash (who were regulars or semi-regulars) appearing as well. There may have been other guest stars.
 
WTNH TV in New Haven AFAIK
 
Carl Perkins, June Carter Cash, and the Tennessee Three were all regulars
on Cash's show. Some of his guests during the show's run were from outside
the country field (Bob Hope, for example), and Cash often said he felt uncomfortable
working with these people, and that had he had his druthers he would have had nothing
but country and (maybe) folk artists, for example, Arlo Guthrie or Joni Mitchell. The only
things he would have kept were the "Ride This Train" segment and the closing talk and song.
 
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