PBS stations carrying non-public TV fare

[harrisburgpatv]

I thought this topic fit in with all the other ones that go against the grain.

WVIA in Scranton (Pittston to be specific), back in the '80s and early '90s, used to air a lot of non-PBS fare. Reruns of Leave it to Beaver, the Honeymooners, I Love Lucy, All in the Family, and even Dark Shadows.

There was a time they had "Star Trek" marathons on Saturday nights. Any other PBS stations doing or did this?

 

[pqgeorge]

I thought this topic fit in with all the other ones that go against the grain.

WVIA in Scranton (Pittston to be specific), back in the '80s and early '90s, used to air a lot of non-PBS fare. Reruns of Leave it to Beaver, the Honeymooners, I Love Lucy, All in the Family, and even Dark Shadows.

There was a time they had "Star Trek" marathons on Saturday nights. Any other PBS stations doing or did this?

WVIA/44 also played a lot of Creature Features on Saturday nights back in the 80's. I picked them up frequently during summer trops (when local WGBX/44 in Boston would be off the air overnights). It was a very unique PBS station.

But also, today, KBYU-TV (Channel 11, Provo, UT/PBS) carries reruns of "Perry Mason", "I Love Lucy", "My Three Sons", "The Brady Bunch" and yes..... "Hogan's Heroes" on a regular basis. Last time I was in the SLC area I was quite surprised and pleased to see such unusual fare on a PBS affiliate. It must be good for them come pledge time! (But then again, the LDS (Mormon) Church owns them as well as Bonneville's KSL-TV (Channel 5)).

The old WQEX/16 (Pittsburgh) also ran a unique sked of mainstream programs as well in the 80's and early 90's. It had quite the following, more so than the mothership station WQED/13. But, 'QED quickly put 16 as a simulcast with 13 and sold it a few years ago after a few years of home shopping stuff. (16 had always had a commercial license, but ran it non-commercially)

Also, the old New Jersey Network used to run "Dark Shadows" as well, back in the 80's. Jonathan Frid ("Barnabas Collins") used to do the pitches for NJN. (Some of Mr. Frid's NJN pledge breaks can be seen on YouTube!)

 

[anotherguyTN]

WKNO 10 in Memphis carried The Twilight Zone in the late 90's until Sci-Fi got exclusive rights. Then there was a period in the mid-2000s that they carried The Twilight Zone, Mission Impossible, Matlock, and Little House on the Prarie on late nights and weekends, and classic movies like would be on TCM on Friday late nights. This only lasted one season though. I never heard the real reason why they were dropped, but it wouldn't surprise me if some TV snobs put pressure on them to drop the shows or lose their donations. :-\

 

[James Pagan]

WUNC ran a recycled version of Ernie Kovacs' ABC series "Silents Please" on weeknights in the early 70's. The program was retitled "The History of the Motion Picture." The station also, for a while, aired silent features and early talkies on Friday evenings, as well as all twelve chapters of Gene Autry's 1935 serial, "The Phantom Empire," which held me spellbound.

In the 80's, the station aired "The Twilight Zone" Monday-Fridays at 11pm; on Saturdays, WUNC aired "The Avengers" and "The Prisoner." Those were the days!

 

[FreddyE1977]

WQEX, the somewhat eclectic former sister station of WQED in Pittsburgh,
used to run The White Shadow on weekday afternoons. Never was exactly
sure why.

 

[Al Timiter]

......a real obvious one: a-one and a-two and-a "Lawrence Welk."

 

[pqgeorge]

WQEX, the somewhat eclectic former sister station of WQED in Pittsburgh,
used to run The White Shadow on weekday afternoons. Never was exactly
sure why.

'QEX/16 also ran "Perry Mason" and "The Honeymooners" and a lot of syndicated fare back in the day! Had more ratings than WQED/13 could ever get!

 

[dave73]

......a real obvious one: a-one and a-two and-a "Lawrence Welk."

WYIN Gary, IN has run Lawrence Welk, along with Hee-Haw on weekends, & continue to do so today. They also will air an occasional movie, but it's usually something from the public domain (also on weekends). WYIN also shows some high school sportscasts, & it's usually produced by the station themselves. I have even seen an occasional college sportscast that they either produce themselves, or is airing it via satellite from another station (college sportscasts not seen on the top 4 networks or most cable channels).

WTTW occasionally airs a movie too, but the movies they show are typically made within the last 40 or 50 years, & usually still copyrighted. So movies are shown sparingly. Since going digital, whatever movie they show on 11.1 on Saturday will air the next night on WTTW Prime 11.2.

WYCC still shows movies, but not as often as they used to. Since devoting more program hours to children's programming during the week, the instructional programming got moved to the overnight hours. As a result of the instructional programming moving to overnights, the 2am timeslot only shows movies early Saturday & Sunday mornings at 2am (used to be every night). The movies are from the public domain, & are usually poor quality black & white, or poor quality color (referring to picture, & not necessarily the movie itself), & none in widescreen (whether anamorphic or cinemascope). Today, most of WYCC's non PBS/APT programming comes from Mhz Worldview.

 

[MCarney]

WGBX, the sister station of WGBH Boston, often runs classic movies on the weekend.

WSBE Providence used to run a show called "Ship Shape" about boating. It also airs on CSN New England. Can't remember if their sponsor ads ran on WSBE though.

Other than that I can't remember any other commercial programming airing in New England (other than "Meet the Press" and ABC News in the early 60s without the commercials on WGBH).

 

[Tim L]

For a few years in the 1980's, WNEO-45 Alliance/Youngstown and WEAO-49 Akron ran The Burns and Allen Show weekdays 5:30-6 and once that series ran out, also showed the George Burns/Connie Stevens sitcom from 1964-65, "Wendy And Me"in the same time slot.  They also showed Grand Ole Opry Color Films from the 1950's Thursdays at 9PM for several years..

Sort of a coincidence:Both 45 and 49 were ABC affiliates in the 1950's until 45 moved down to 33 in 1959..(WYTV-33 is still ABC today)

In 1958, Pittsburgh's WQED-13 aired some low-rated News/Public affairs programming from all 3 networks on Sunday afternoons.

The Ford Show starring Tennessee Ernie Ford was aired on some PBS affiliates a few years ago..I kept pleading for WVIZ-25 or 45/49 to pick up the show but they never did..

 

[nsa1]

WEAO/49 in Akron (Cleveland market), in the 90's on weekend afternoons, often showed (presumably public domain) kinescopes of old shows (including the original commercials) from the early/mid 50's like Red Skelton, You Bet your Life, and the Colgate Comedy Hour.

WVIZ/25 Cleveland showed classic movies on Saturday evenings around a decade ago.

I thought this topic fit in with all the other ones that go against the grain.

WVIA in Scranton (Pittston to be specific), back in the '80s and early '90s, used to air a lot of non-PBS fare. Reruns of Leave it to Beaver, the Honeymooners, I Love Lucy, All in the Family, and even Dark Shadows.

There was a time they had "Star Trek" marathons on Saturday nights. Any other PBS stations doing or did this?

 

[Wright County Guy]

KTCA in Minneapolis/St. Paul ran SCTV reruns Friday nights.

 

[pqgeorge]

WGBX, the sister station of WGBH Boston, often runs classic movies on the weekend.

WSBE Providence used to run a show called "Ship Shape" about boating. It also airs on CSN New England. Can't remember if their sponsor ads ran on WSBE though.

Other than that I can't remember any other commercial programming airing in New England (other than "Meet the Press" and ABC News in the early 60s without the commercials on WGBH).

Speaking of WSBE, back in the early 80's, they also ran "The Jackie Gleason Show" (the original black and white, CBS show) from the mid 1960's, with Frankie Fontaine (as "Crazy Guggenheim").

WENH-TV (Channel 11/Durham, NH and their satellites throughout New Hampshire) used to run "The Twilight Zone" back in the 80's as well. I also believe that WPBT in Miami also ran "The Twilight Zone" at about the same time.

WGBH-TV (Channel 2/Boston) used to run "The Huntley/Brinkley Report" from NBC back in the early 1960's (minus the commercials, of course) as well as "Meet The Press" on Sundays. I've been told that during coverage of President Kennedy's assassination, WGBH carried the NBC coverage as well. WBZ-TV (Channel 4) had the tendency to bypass "Huntley/Brinkley" and "Meet The Press" well into the mid 60's.

WGBY/57 Springfield, MA (sister to WGBH/WGBX in Boston) ran "The George Burns/Gracie Allen Show" back in the late 70's.

 

[johnnyu]

......a real obvious one: a-one and a-two and-a "Lawrence Welk."

WITF in Harrisburg has carried Lawrence Welk for years.

 

[Tim L]

A little more on Channel 45/49 Youngstown/Akron airing Network shows:

It was done at least in 1985-86..Wendy and Me was carried at one point at 8:30 and later at 11PM..They also carried Timmy and Lassie and You Bet Your Life in the same period..

 

[anotherguyTN]

WKNO in Memphis also had a show in the 90's called TV to remember that carried episodes of You Bet Your Life, Jack Benny, and Burns and Allen along with other shows from the 50's and early 60's, a lot of which are available on PD DVDs now.

And WKNO and WLJT in Lexington/Jackson, TN also carry Lawrence Welk.

 

[cd637299]

KTCA in Minneapolis/St. Paul ran SCTV reruns Friday nights.

Glad you mentioned....WPBT Miami as well! WPBT was my first exposure to SCTV.

WPBT also ran the syndicated version of "The Goldbergs."

But....and this one just hit me, the oddest one of all.....in 1976-77, WPBT ran Monday night NHL hockey! It was syndicated otherwise, and WPBT filled the commercial space, IIRC, with mini pledge drives. A classmate in my night school was on screen answering the phones!

cd

 

[Laura151]

I. too, remember WPBT Miami. They were the station that ran Mary Hartman,Mary Hartman, which, at the time,didn't seem like standard public tv fare.

 

[cd637299]

I. too, remember WPBT Miami. They were the station that ran Mary Hartman,Mary Hartman, which, at the time,didn't seem like standard public tv fare.

Indeed, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman too. Excellent to remember that.

Seems like maybe WPBT has led the way in non-public public TV.

cd

 

[azumanga]

Other than that I can't remember any other commercial programming airing in New England (other than "Meet the Press" and ABC News in the early 60s without the commercials on WGBH).

Speaking of which, from the mid-1970s and early-1980s, WGBH produced the open-captioned version of ABC's evening newscasts, which was seen on many PBS stations. The content was the same, other than the commercial breaks, which were replaced with text featuring other news items, as well as sports scores and weather.