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Red-letter day: Monday September 4, 1972

B

bpatrick

It was the fourth of September...that day I'll always remember
(sorry, Temptations, I had to do that): CBS put game shows in
the morning for the first time since the demise of "Video Village"
in 1962. One, as we all know, is still running: "The Price Is Right."
But "The Joker's Wild" had a lengthy run, especially in syndication
(Jim Peck really should have replaced Jack Barry after Barry passed
away in 1984; the setup made it difficult for Bill Cullen to move
around, but "Joker" and "Tic Tac Dough" were about to run afoul
of "Wheel Of Fortune" and "Jeopardy!" so probably no matter),
and "Gambit" had two runs, the second as "Las Vegas Gambit" on
NBC in the early '80s (personally, "Gambit" was my favorite of the
three). GSN's "Catch 21" is essentially a modified version of "Gambit."

But CBS made a major mistake that afternoon. At Procter & Gamble's
request that all its CBS soaps air in a block, "Edge Of Night" was moved
to 2:30/1:30. That move is said to have cost the show one-half of its
audience, mainly men and teenagers, not yet home from work or school.
"Edge" ended up as CBS's lowest-rated soap, was canceled in 1975 to
make room for an hour-long "As The World Turns" (then CBS's highest-
rated soap), and was picked up by ABC, which hoped to get back the
affiliates which had opted for syndicated programs in the 4/3 slot. "Edge"
got decent ratings on ABC, once it was back in late afternoon, for a time,
but an increasing number of affiliates aired it in the morning (Atlanta was one)
or not at all ("Edge" did well, IIRC, in the Central time zone, where it aired
on ABC at 3 PM). But in late 1984 ABC got hit with a number of affiliates
announcing they were dropping the show in the first quarter of 1985, prompting
ABC and P&G to pull the plug on December 28, 1984. It was the end of perhaps
the most unique soap--with its emphasis on cops and lawyers rather than love
stores--to air on daytime, and one that usually tops the list of departed soaps
viewers would like to see again, even though there are plenty who would like
to have Josh and Reva ("Guiding Light") back. ("Edge" is also the only P&G soap
to have aired on ABC.)

There was one rather humorous moment near the end of "Edge"'s long run: Mike and
Nancy Karr, who had (by P&G rules) slept in twin beds for years, finally opted for a
double bed. I never heard one word of complaint.
 
1972 was also the year Harry Kramer lost his announcing gig on The Edge of Night; Hal Simms took over from then on (staying with the show even after the 1975 move from CBS to ABC). Kramer also lost the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite some time early in the year; after a few months where Kramer's backup/fill-in/sub (heard on opens of clips such as this 1970 "Earth Day" special; if anyone knows of his name, please advise) kept the announcer's seat warm, by the fall Bob Hite stepped up to the plate to open and close the CBS Evening News up to his company-mandated retirement in 1979. (At the time Hite became Evening News announcer, his main fill-ins became Dave Campbell and Lee Jordan.)
 
radioman148 said:
Video Village--WOW! I wonder how many people remember Monty Hall from that show?
Click to expand...

I do, I do! I remember Video Village from those halcyon days. I always wished that someone would revive it, but they didn't. It was a personal favorite. They had a kids' version on Saturdays that I also liked.
 
Thankfully The Price Is Right is still airing(and reruns aired on GSN for a while and some older episodes are on a certain website where you can watch videos ;D. The Joker's Wild of course has had both its original syndicated run and a couple seasons of its CBS run aired on GSN in the past.

However(and it's unfortunate), Gambit has never aired on GSN, because apparently either the tapes have been erased, or GSN just has never bothered to air the shows that do exist, either way, its too bad that show has never had its older shows rerun on GSN like some other shows.

On The Joker's Wild I do have one thing to say about it: there really needs to be a revival of it. I know Sony tried it, but shelved it back in 2007. However, I think with casino games(Poker, Blackjack, etc.) being everywhere on TV now, I really think somebody should get Sony(who owns TJW) now to revive the show in some form, either for cable or syndication.

I really think The Joker's Wild with the giant slot machine, and a flashy enough set could work nowadays, maybe in syndication over cable; of course, with all the talk and court shows on now, time slots could be at a premium, but they could at least still try it.
 
"But in late 1984 ABC got hit with a number of affiliates announcing they were dropping the show in the first quarter of 1985, prompting ABC and P&G to pull the plug on December 28, 1984. It was the end of perhaps the most unique soap--with its emphasis on cops and lawyers rather than love stores--to air on daytime, and one that usually tops the list of departed soaps
viewers would like to see again,"

Correct me if I'm wrong--but wasn't the impending arrival of Oprah Winfrey in national syndication one of the factors that caused the network to give back that 4 PM hour to affiliates?
 
Bob1370 said:
"But in late 1984 ABC got hit with a number of affiliates announcing they were dropping the show in the first quarter of 1985, prompting ABC and P&G to pull the plug on December 28, 1984. It was the end of perhaps the most unique soap--with its emphasis on cops and lawyers rather than love stores--to air on daytime, and one that usually tops the list of departed soaps
viewers would like to see again,"

Correct me if I'm wrong--but wasn't the impending arrival of Oprah Winfrey in national syndication one of the factors that caused the network to give back that 4 PM hour to affiliates?
Click to expand...

AM Chicago The Oprah Winfrey Show went national on 9/8/86. At least for the first few years, the show was owned by ABC (the copyright notice at the end of the credits said "WLS-TV" at least until the early '90s, IIRC), so it wouldn't surprise me if ABC gave that hour back even though they didn't syndicate the show themselves.
 
KeithE4 said:
Bob1370 said:
Correct me if I'm wrong--but wasn't the impending arrival of Oprah Winfrey in national syndication one of the factors that caused the network to give back that 4 PM hour to affiliates?
Click to expand...

AM Chicago The Oprah Winfrey Show went national on 9/8/86. At least for the first few years, the show was owned by ABC (the copyright notice at the end of the credits said "WLS-TV" at least until the early '90s, IIRC), so it wouldn't surprise me if ABC gave that hour back even though they didn't syndicate the show themselves.
Click to expand...

Also, while many stations carried Oprah at 4PM, some carried the program at other times -- WLS included, which carried it at 9AM CT.
 
I don't know what plans ABC had for Oprah in 1984, beyond hosting
"AM Chicago," but I do know that several affiliates were going to drop
"Edge Of Night," so it was a mutual decision on the part of ABC and Procter
& Gamble to end it on December 28, 1984.

And there were indeed stations that aired Oprah at 5/4 and could have continued
to carry "Edge" at 4/3. Also remember that Oprah was syndicated and aired on CBS
or NBC affiliates in some markets.

Somehow I don't think, given it was almost two years between the cancellation of
"Edge" and the national debut of Oprah, that the two are connected. "Edge" had become
daytime's lowest-rated soap, affiliates were dropping it, so what else could ABC do?
 
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