PBS shows on commercial TV

[nomadcowatbk]

I think Sesame Street and Barney have had a few network specials

 

[azumanga]

I don't recall Barney ever been seen on commercial TV in the US, but Sesame Street had at least a couple of specials on commercial television, including "Big Bird in China" on NBC around 1981, and a quasi-official "Sesame Street Christmas" on CBS in 1978.

CBS carried "The New Ghostwriter Mysteries" in 1997, based on the earlier "Ghostwriter" series on PBS.

On a local scale, many local stations with no local PBS or NET outlet offered "Sesame Street" in the past; some of these also shown "The Electric Company" as well. Some commercial stations, whether or not PBS was available locally, carried "Vegetable Soup", "Villa Alegre" and "Rebop", mainly to score brownie points with the FCC.

 

[Ultimajock]

...I'm pretty sure that, in the other direction, Big Blue Marble was offered to PBS stations in areas where no commercial station wanted to carry it, much like WTTW handles The McLaughlin Group today...

 

[mleach]

On a local scale, many local stations with no local PBS or NET outlet offered "Sesame Street" in the past; some of these also shown "The Electric Company" as well. Some commercial stations, whether or not PBS was available locally, carried "Vegetable Soup", "Villa Alegre" and "Rebop", mainly to score brownie points with the FCC.

Cookin' Cheap which was out of WBRA-PBS in Roanoke, VA was seen on a handful of commerical stations ( mainly low power ) years ago.

While it is true that many local stations in areas without PBS/NET did air Sesame Street and a handful of other PBS kids shows, good luck in trying to get at least some of those stations to admit to it today. One such example was Hagerstown, MD's WHAG who back in the early 70's would air Sesame Street right between Today and whatever NBC had ran at 10am. A few years ago I can recall when someone had wrote a letter to the Hagerstown-Hearld Mail newspaper talking about growing up in Hagerstown in the 70's including "..I remember watching Sesame Street with my papa on CHANNEL 25".

WHAG responded to that letter saying that the station had NEVER NEVER ( they used the word twice )..had carried Sesame Street. Though if one looks at the old listings..well....

 

[bpatrick]

I seem to recall a number of NBC affiliates carrying "Vegetable Soup".
Did the NBC o&os ever carry it?

 

[azumanga]

I seem to recall a number of NBC affiliates carrying "Vegetable Soup".
Did the NBC o&os ever carry it?

I think at least during the 1975-1976 season, the show was fed Sunday mornings on the network.

 

[CleveFan]

I don't recall Barney ever been seen on commercial TV in the US, but Sesame Street had at least a couple of specials on commercial television, including "Big Bird in China" on NBC around 1981, and a quasi-official "Sesame Street Christmas" on CBS in 1978.

I remember seeing a special on Barney's Magical Adventure (?) on the Fox Kids Network around '97 or '98 when a big screen movie involving Barney came out in theaters around that time. I also remember seeing "The Magic School Bus" on Fox Kids as well in the 90's. I miss that show.

 

[CleveFan]

I think I also remember the Elmopalooza special where different artists (The Fugees, Gloria Estefan, Kenny Loggins, Shawn Colvin, etc.) perform songs in videos with the Sesame Street characters, and other guests (Jon Stewart, David Alan Grier, and Rosie O'Donnell among others) would pop up as well. It was on ABC in early 1998.

I think there were some commercial channels that also ran the 1985 Sesame Street movie "Follow That Bird," which also released at the box office.

 

[LKellerIII]

In the pre-PBS (NET) days of the 1960s and earlhy 70s, commercial KHJ-TV in Los Angeles ran the famous Firing Line program, which they re-named The William F. Buckley Show. If I remember correctly, it was a 60 minute show, but came out to 90 minutes with commercials added. Needless to say, the insertion of station breaks was awkward.

 

[Mario500]

"Globe Trekker" was presented by the Travel Channel.

 

[bpatrick]

In the pre-PBS (NET) days of the 1960s and earlhy 70s, commercial KHJ-TV in Los Angeles ran the famous Firing Line program, which they re-named The William F. Buckley Show. If I remember correctly, it was a 60 minute show, but came out to 90 minutes with commercials added. Needless to say, the insertion of station breaks was awkward.

Back around 1968 CBS affiliate WBTV Charlotte ran Buckley on Monday nights at 10. Obviously it was kept to an hour; the 11 PM news was on next.

 

[hubcity]

In the early 1970s, WPIX in New York aired Sesame Street on weekdays at 9am.

(Source: http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php?topic=154869.0 )

There's some interesting comments in the thread about why this came to be, but I remember watching it back then.

A much younger me was fascinated that a Channel 13 show was airing on Channel 11. And after its preview show aired on Channel 4 (yes, over NBC, with commercials, thanks to a generous grant from Xerox.)

...and, yes, it's up on YouTube. Here's the intro:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmfkpxZznN4

There are more clips available from the same user, but I've gotta link off to the end, which features Ernie protesting that they need more time to tell people about the show during the credits here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvyVmHhtWzc

...though, technically, that's an NET show appearing on commercial TV. Will the judges count that?

 

[Ultimajock]

In the pre-PBS (NET) days of the 1960s and earlhy 70s, commercial KHJ-TV in Los Angeles ran the famous Firing Line program, which they re-named The William F. Buckley Show. If I remember correctly, it was a 60 minute show, but came out to 90 minutes with commercials added. Needless to say, the insertion of station breaks was awkward.

...actually, Firing Line started out in 1966 as a syndicated production at RKO General's WOR-TV/9 New York, moving to PBS (through South Carolina Educational Television) in 1971. At the same time, the audio portion of the program was distributed to NPR affiliates (WHA Madison simulcast the series on TV Channel 21 and AM radio 970 for decades). A few years later, Irv Kupcinet did the same thing, taking Kup's Show from commercial syndication to PBS through WTTW. In both cases, a few PBS stations carried the programs in syndication before they became strictly PBS offerings...