MDA Pulling Plug on Annual Telethon

[Don CT]

Very similar to the folks at PBS who know what to program during pledge months, and how long the breaks should be.

They do it because it works. It's not a hobby.

I used to enjoy the pledge programming but now they got so cheesy I tune out during those weeks.

 

[ShawnHill1]

Wasn't there another organization that also did a telethon back in the mid-80s at a different time of the year? Maybe Easter Seals or March of Dimes? Somehow I recall our local CBS affiliate carrying the Jerry Lewis telethon, but our NBC station carrying another one either earlier or later in the year.

Both of those were already mentioned above me, but the United Cerebral Palsy telethon was pretty big back in the '80s as well. In terms of star-power, it pretty much rivaled the Jerry Lewis Telethon, as it featured many of the popular TV (and some movie) stars throughout the 1950s to the mid-1990s, when the national version ended. Those last couple of decades of UCP telethon were led by John Ritter and Henry Winkler as the hosts.

 

[onairb2014]

The March of Dimes had a telethon that lasted very briefly, maybe 3 or 4 years, starting in 1983. It was held in late June. I recall the celebrity hosts being Hal Linden, Gary Colins, and Mary Ann Mobley. My most vivid memory was in 1985, when Linden announced the end of the TWA hijacking/hostage crisis.