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March 1968 Saturday Morning Ratings

B

briancraig

You rarely see historical ratings for dayparts other than prime time. Here's the top 5 Saturday morning shows for each network for the Jan.-Mar. 1968 Nielsen Television Index as reported by Television Age Magazine:

ABC

1. Journey To The Center Of The Earth--8.5
2. The King Kong Show--8.4
3. Spider-Man--7.9
4. Fantastic Four--7.8
George of the Jungle--7.8

CBS

1. Jonny Quest--9.6
2. Superman/Aquaman Hour--9.6
3. Shazzan--9.2
4. Moby Dick and Mighty Mightor--8.9
5. Roadrunner--8.9
Space Ghost--8.9

NBC

1. Flintstones--7.3
2. Samson & Goliath--6.8
3. Top Cat--6.1
4. Birdman and The Galaxy Trio--5.9
5. The Super 6--5.3
Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel--5.3

For the 1967/68 season:

CBS had a 8.5/37
ABC had a 6.9/30
NBC had a 5.9/26

Article also mentioned that NBC had high hopes for next season's Banana Splits to bring it out of last place.
 
Wow, I guess the Beatles cartoon was alread outta steam by Mar 1968; I thought it was still a monster hit at that time.

cd
 
...The Beatles had been moved to Saturdays at Noon ET/PT in September 1967 and to Sundays at 9:30 AM ET/PT sometime in 1968; it's entirely possible the series wasn't any longer considered a Saturday Morning show by this time...
 
"The Beatles" ran away with the 10:30-11 AM (ET) audience
in the 1965-66 season; the next year CBS put "Space Ghost"
against it, cut into its audience, and the Fab Four never recovered.

Do you have any ratings for 1966-67? I believe CBS pretty much
ran away with the Saturday-morning ratings that season. I remember
one show that to this day I still don't know why CBS dropped: "The Beagles,"
about a rock duo consisting of two dogs, Stringer and Tubby. A lot of people
have compared them to Martin and Lewis; they always reminded me more of
Abbott and Costello (Tubby's call of "STRINNNNNGER!" reminded me of Lou Costello's
"HEY ABBBBOTTT!").
 
bpatrick said:
"The Beatles" ran away with the 10:30-11 AM (ET) audience
in the 1965-66 season; the next year CBS put "Space Ghost"
against it, cut into its audience, and the Fab Four never recovered.

Do you have any ratings for 1966-67? I believe CBS pretty much
ran away with the Saturday-morning ratings that season. I remember
one show that to this day I still don't know why CBS dropped: "The Beagles,"
about a rock duo consisting of two dogs, Stringer and Tubby. A lot of people
have compared them to Martin and Lewis; they always reminded me more of
Abbott and Costello (Tubby's call of "STRINNNNNGER!" reminded me of Lou Costello's
"HEY ABBBBOTTT!").
Click to expand...

I dunno if the summary is still there, but www.toontracker.com had a listing about "The Beagles", and it's kinda disappointing, because the only surviving episode seems to be either on that site or YouTube. You have to read it, but I think that the episodes have been destroyed. It was a Total TV Production (Underdog, Tennessee Tuxedo, King Leonardo, et al.). I have the "Man in the Moon" episode, and I think that was the only surviving one, and I have it in B&W. It's also the only TTV Production where one can actually read the copyright date, in this case, "1966" in numerals.

"The Beagles" SOUNDS so much like "The Beatles"....wonder if there was ever a lawsuit.

cd
 
This was the year before CBS installed the absolutely killer Saturday morning lineup that included "The Bugs Bunny-Road Runner Hour", Wacky Races", and "The Archies"...I want to say "Underdog" and "Go-Go Gophers" were part of it too.
 
Corky Marlowe said:
This was the year before CBS installed the absolutely killer Saturday morning lineup that included "The Bugs Bunny-Road Runner Hour", Wacky Races", and "The Archies"...I want to say "Underdog" and "Go-Go Gophers" were part of it too.
Click to expand...

Wasn't Underdog on NBC?
 
Charles1 said:
Corky Marlowe said:
This was the year before CBS installed the absolutely killer Saturday morning lineup that included "The Bugs Bunny-Road Runner Hour", Wacky Races", and "The Archies"...I want to say "Underdog" and "Go-Go Gophers" were part of it too.
Click to expand...

Wasn't Underdog on NBC?
Click to expand...

I think it yo-yo'd from NBC, then to CBS & back again to NBC,

cd
 
briancraig said:
You rarely see historical ratings for dayparts other than prime time. Here's the top 5 Saturday morning shows for each network for the Jan.-Mar. 1968 Nielsen Television Index as reported by Television Age Magazine:

ABC

1. Journey To The Center Of The Earth--8.5
2. The King Kong Show--8.4
3. Spider-Man--7.9
4. Fantastic Four--7.8
George of the Jungle--7.8

CBS

1. Jonny Quest--9.6
2. Superman/Aquaman Hour--9.6
3. Shazzan--9.2
4. Moby Dick and Mighty Mightor--8.9
5. Roadrunner--8.9
Space Ghost--8.9

NBC

1. Flintstones--7.3
2. Samson & Goliath--6.8
3. Top Cat--6.1
4. Birdman and The Galaxy Trio--5.9
5. The Super 6--5.3
Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel--5.3

For the 1967/68 season:

CBS had a 8.5/37
ABC had a 6.9/30
NBC had a 5.9/26

Article also mentioned that NBC had high hopes for next season's Banana Splits to bring it out of last place.
Click to expand...

Cool stuff. I would love to know where you got this, and I would love to see the ratings from 1969-1970 on as well.

I mention that because i'm a big Scooby Doo fan, and from what I understand, the show was a ratings winner for CBS after it premiered.
 
These ratings came from a defunct trade magazine called Television Age (later Television/Radio Age). I don't know if they regularly reported Saturday Morning ratings but will check next time I'm at the library.
 
How on earth did they ever get a bunch of children all hopped-up on Ho-Ho's and
Sugar Smacks to keep a diary? ???
 
Corky Marlowe said:
This was the year before CBS installed the absolutely killer Saturday morning lineup that included "The Bugs Bunny-Road Runner Hour", Wacky Races", and "The Archies"...I want to say "Underdog" and "Go-Go Gophers" were part of it too.
Click to expand...

My seventh birthday (my first birthday with divorced parents) came right before the start of the fall season in '68. I can still remember the promo jingle.... "Saturday morning... C-B-S CARTOONIVERRRRSSE!!!" And I vaguely remember The Beatles and The Beagles too (and knew the difference, even then). I'll have more to say on the Fab Four Saturday show later, I'm out of time.

But let me say that interestingly, the animation for both the TTV shows and the Jay Ward programs were IIRC outsourced to that Mexican outfit, Gamma Productions.

ixnay

ixnay
 
And now to further reflect on ABC's The Beatles...

That show, a Sat. morning staple in our Chester, PA home on then-WFIL-6, introduced me to the Fab Four property (I'm too young to remember them on Sullivan). Thanks to that show, I learned to spell "BEE-tuls" with the a before I knew about the insects of that pronunciation. By the time the Fabs disbanded, I was in 2nd grade and it wasn't until then BION that learned they were fron England, and it wasn't until 1972 that I learned they were from Liverpool (I already knew where Liverpool was from an atlas; I always thought that was a cute toponym :)).

ixnay
(who's driven through Liverpool, PA [north of Harrisburg] and Liverpool, Nova Scotia [on that province's south shore])
 
ixnay said:
(who's driven through Liverpool, PA [north of Harrisburg] and Liverpool, Nova Scotia [on that province's south shore])
Click to expand...

Does East Liverpool, Ohio count?
 
Yes, and in the 70s, kids living in the Mountain Time Zone had to get up at 6 o'clock in the morning to watch Saturday morning cartoons.
"My kids get up at 6 o'clock to watch Bugs Bunny!"
 
blackgold said:
...in the 70s, kids living in the Mountain Time Zone had to get up at 6 o'clock in the morning
to watch Saturday morning cartoons. "My kids get up at 6 o'clock to watch Bugs Bunny!"
Click to expand...

The Bugs Bunny/Roadrunner Hour did indeed air at 8 AM ET/6 AM MT during some of
that era. Except in AZ in the summer, it was shifted to 11 AM, as it came down the
net line at 5 AM.
 
FreddyE1977 said:
ixnay said:
(who's driven through Liverpool, PA [north of Harrisburg] and Liverpool, Nova Scotia [on that province's south shore])
Click to expand...

Does East Liverpool, Ohio count?
Click to expand...

Good thinking. I forgot about having been through East Liverpool (across from Chester, WV [whose own name it shares with the city in SE PA that is my birthplace])

ixnay
 
Since I have never found a Liverpool or West Liverpool in Ohio, it remains a mystery to me
where that name came from.
 
FreddyE1977 said:
How on earth did they ever get a bunch of children all hopped-up on Ho-Ho's and
Sugar Smacks to keep a diary? ???
Click to expand...

Wasn't Quick Draw McGraw the spokeshorse for then-Sugar Smacks back then (much as Bullwinkle was spokesmoose for Cheerios)? IIRC various H-B characters (including the Banana Splits) pitched various Kellogg's products in the '60s.

ixnay
 
ixnay said:
FreddyE1977 said:
How on earth did they ever get a bunch of children all hopped-up on Ho-Ho's and
Sugar Smacks to keep a diary? ???
Click to expand...

Wasn't Quick Draw McGraw the spokeshorse for then-Sugar Smacks back then (much as Bullwinkle was spokesmoose for Cheerios)? IIRC various H-B characters (including the Banana Splits) pitched various Kellogg's products in the '60s.

ixnay
Click to expand...

Yes. I believe that Kellogg's sponsored The Huckleberry Hound Show, The Yogi Bear Show, and Quick Draw until 1966. There are classic cereal websites that will show the characters on the boxes:

Yogi Bear--OK's cereal (like Cheerios)
Huck---Sugar Stars (sugary oat cereal?---then became just Stars w/ caramel flavor, phased out around 1972)
Pixie & Dixie & Jinks---Raisin Bran (but not pictured on the boxes)
Quick Draw---Sugar Smacks
Snagglepuss--Cocoa Krispies (note: Snag's commercials featured on-screen the phrase "Snagglepuss voice by Daws Butler"---apparently, per Wiki, Bert Lahr didn't want folk thinking he endorsed the cereal---Snag was an exaggerated Lahr)

BTW I miss Stars cereal....

cd
 
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