Network reruns on PBS (besides Lawrence Welk)

[Tim L]

Not the "Showbiz" programs, but WNEO/WEAO Alliance/Akron, Ohio aired "Stars Of the Grand Ole Opry", the color music films produced by Gannaway productions Thursday nights at 9 for many years. Larry Black and the Country's Family Reunion folks are now offering these on DVD..

 

[nomadcowatbk]

Does Captain Kangaroo count?

 

[FredLeonard]

Does Captain Kangaroo count?

Sure does. After CBS cancelled Captain, some segments were repackaged for public television, with some new material, as well. They got rid of the run stuff and the commercial stuff and left in the stuff that would qualify for E/I today.

 

[harrisburgpatv]

WVIA in Scranton definitely aired more network reruns than any PBS station I've ever seen. In the '80s, they aired "Leave it to beaver", "The Honeymooners", "Burns and Allen", "I love Lucy", "Dark Shadows", "Twilight Zone", and "Star Trek". They even had the rights to air some ST:TNG, only a few years after the episodes originally aired. Around the turn of the decade, they also aired "All in the Family" and "The Waltons". The last show I've seen them air, up until about 3 years ago, was "Little House on the Prairie".

 

[deltas69]

Summer of '98 I worked for Al Gannaway putting together a one hour infomercial using his massive library of Grand Old Opry shows at his makeshift studio in Hendersonville, Tenn...It aired right after the Statler Bros. show, the phone banks went nuts for orders...so much so..there were not enough operators to handle the calls....Lots more to that story..but I was stunned at the HUGE library of 35mm film he had stored in a climate controled rental facility..eight 12 by 20 compartments with Judy Garland, and many other from the 30's-80's he had filmed and saved...I was never a country fan at all..still not..but have to admit, I enjoyed editing the tapes..so much at times in fact I forgot what I was doing..and would watch entire shows before realizing all I needed was 2 minutes..lol..Often wondered what happened to all those cans of reels..as Labor day '98 rolled around..I returned the next day to find the studio totally empty..and everything packed up and relocated back to Florida where he had his home...I read he passed away on August 2008..Those films are priceless...if they still exist

 

[EricStein]

Not the "Showbiz" programs, but WNEO/WEAO Alliance/Akron, Ohio aired "Stars Of the Grand Ole Opry", the color music films produced by Gannaway productions Thursday nights at 9 for many years. Larry Black and the Country's Family Reunion folks are now offering these on DVD..

And from there one of the most prolific and successful independent distributors of first-run television programming in the late-'80s/early-'90s, Genesis Entertainment, was born. The Gannaways sold Genesis to Ron Perelman in '93, making them rich, and now Gary Gannaway is one of the most prolific television station website providers out there (WorldNow).

Genesis was re-born a few years back by the former president of the original company.

 

[MDCSWildcats86]

In Oklahoma, OETA ran Lou Grant for a while (uncertain about the exact years, though).

 

[Unregistered]

As did WENH in New Hampshire in the early 1990s.

WHYY in Wilmington DE(Philadelphia) also aired it in the late 70's.

 

[johnnya2k6]

WYES in New Orleans also carried those two syndicated country music shows. I always thought that was just part of the strangeness that can be the New Orleans market. Had no idea other PBS stations ever carried any of the Sho Biz programs.

Speaking of WYES, they also aired SCTV reruns sometime in the '80s.

Since they're never in reruns, I seem to remember CNN's Crossfire being on KAET (Phoenix) around that same time.

By the way...were there any PBS stations that carried Carson's Comedy Classics or Carol Burnett and Friends (after the commercial stations passed on them)?

 

[bpatrick]

In the early 2000s UNC-TV was carrying "The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show" and South Carolina ETV had "The Ed Sullivan Show." I seem to recall Jack Benny and Red Skelton on UNC-TV earlier; I know Benny was carried on Channel 21 on Long Island in 2000. Also, back in the '80s, a couple of stations in Ohio (Columbus and Athens, IIRC) carried Groucho's "You Bet Your Life," and in the late '60s WGTV Athens (GA)/Atlanta carried the last two seasons of the original "You Asked For It" with Smilin' Jack Smith as host (nobody in Atlanta carried the 1971-72 version; WXIA carried the 1981-83 version).

Would Benny Hill count? IIRC, the first station in Dallas to carry him was KERA/13.

And if you want to reverse roles, NBC affiliate KPRC/2 Houston used to play British shows normally associated with PBS on Sunday nights at 10:30. It was the first commercial station in the U.S. to air "Monty Python's Flying Circus."

 

[harrisburgpatv2]

And if you want to reverse roles, NBC affiliate KPRC/2 Houston used to play British shows normally associated with PBS on Sunday nights at 10:30. It was the first commercial station in the U.S. to air "Monty Python's Flying Circus."

That topic could literally go so many ways. "Sesame Street" got some airplay on some commercial stations, especially at the very beginning in 1969 (WPIX-11 in NY aired it at 9:00 am) and in areas where there was no PBS affiliate yet. I have some older issues of TV Guide in 1978 somewhere, where WJAC-TV 6 (NBC in Johnstown) aired "The Electric Company" at 9am.

I also have an early childhood memory of seeing "Sesame Street" on my CBS affiliate (WHP-TV 21 in Harrisburg) instead of the usual PBS station (WITF). In looking at an old Reading Eagle "TV Times" supplement on Google News, I remember reading in either July or August 1980 that WITF would be off the air for a week for transmitter maintenance. I wonder if that had anything to do with 21 airing it...

 

[RyanHoward]

That topic could literally go so many ways. "Sesame Street" got some airplay on some commercial stations, especially at the very beginning in 1969 (WPIX-11 in NY aired it at 9:00 am) and in areas where there was no PBS affiliate yet. I have some older issues of TV Guide in 1978 somewhere, where WJAC-TV 6 (NBC in Johnstown) aired "The Electric Company" at 9am.

I also have an early childhood memory of seeing "Sesame Street" on my CBS affiliate (WHP-TV 21 in Harrisburg) instead of the usual PBS station (WITF). In looking at an old Reading Eagle "TV Times" supplement on Google News, I remember reading in either July or August 1980 that WITF would be off the air for a week for transmitter maintenance. I wonder if that had anything to do with 21 airing it...

Didn't Johnstown-Altoona have PBS from WPSX-TV 3(now WPSU-TV) from Penn State? I'm pretty sure they would have aired "Sesame Street" or "The Electric Company."

 

[rwells2265]

That topic could literally go so many ways. "Sesame Street" got some airplay on some commercial stations, especially at the very beginning in 1969 (WPIX-11 in NY aired it at 9:00 am) and in areas where there was no PBS affiliate yet. I have some older issues of TV Guide in 1978 somewhere, where WJAC-TV 6 (NBC in Johnstown) aired "The Electric Company" at 9am.

I also have an early childhood memory of seeing "Sesame Street" on my CBS affiliate (WHP-TV 21 in Harrisburg) instead of the usual PBS station (WITF). In looking at an old Reading Eagle "TV Times" supplement on Google News, I remember reading in either July or August 1980 that WITF would be off the air for a week for transmitter maintenance. I wonder if that had anything to do with 21 airing it...

"Sesame" did air on some commercial stations in markets which at the time had no PBS. Shreveport, La. and Jonesboro, Ark. come quickly to mind. In Shreveport's case, a parents' group bought time for the stations to air it. Going by a handful of TV GUIDEs I have, it rotated every so often between the CBS and NBC affiliates.

--Russell

 

[thomwim]

One PBS station aired reruns of the Ed Sullivan show back in 2004. I think it was Fresno, CA.
---
Many PBS shows left for a commercial channel. ("The Magic School Bus" was produced by PBS South Carolina, but it moved to Fox Kids, and now it's on Qubo.)

 

[harrisburgpatv2]

J-A did have WPSX, but as you can see here:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=gL9scSG3K_gC&dat=19780911&printsec=frontpage&hl=en

6 carried "Electric Company" at 9:30am.

 

[crainbebo]

Liberty's Kids was on PBS and then went into Cookie Jar syndication (reruns only). I think Univision or Telemundo also aired reruns of Jay Jay the Jet Plane, but I'm not completely sure.

 

[Unregistered]

Jay Jay the Jet Plane was on TLC before PBS.

 

[gregg75]

On some weekends, WYIN Gary, IN will air Hee Haw, as well as Lawrence Welk. The only time I see Ed Sullivan is when it's a pledge drive program (they do pledge drives daily overnights, & select weekday & weekend timeslots). Movies they air are from the public domain.

There is an old joke about the educational channel showing Hee Haw!

 

[anotherguyTN]

I thought I had posted in this thread earlier, but it may have been in another similar thread. in the 90's WKNO in Memphis had a show called TV to Remember in Saturday nights that carried episodes of Jack Benny, Burns and Allen, You Bet Your Life, etc., a lot of what is on cheap PD DVDs now. They also ran The Twilight Zone in the late 90's or early 2000's. Later on for one season probably in the mid-2000's they were running a lot more non-PBS programming late nights and weekends. They had Matlock, Little House on the Prairie, and Mission Impossible, and they also ran movies that would normally be on TCM now. But all that only lasted one season. I can't help but wonder if some big donors who were TV snobs threatened to pull their donations if they didn't stop.

 

[dave73]

"Sesame" did air on some commercial stations in markets which at the time had no PBS. Shreveport, La. and Jonesboro, Ark. come quickly to mind. In Shreveport's case, a parents' group bought time for the stations to air it. Going by a handful of TV GUIDEs I have, it rotated every so often between the CBS and NBC affiliates.

--Russell

I remember reading on WNDU-TV's website many years ago, that they used to air Sesame Street on their station from 1970, until WNIT signed on in 1974. This is in the South Bend market.