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Retro: 50 Years Ago, Fall 1961, Daytime and Weekends

B

bpatrick

Continuing a look back at a half-century ago (seems like a really
long time ago when I put it that way). From Castleman and Podrazik,
"The TV Schedule Book," times are Eastern, new shows in CAPS.

MON-FRI ABC 11 AM The Texan (reruns)
11:30 Love That Bob (Bob Cummings has a new
show on CBS, while ABC reruns his popular
'50s sitcom)
12 N Camouflage
12:30 MAKE A FACE (Bob Clayton, later host of
"Concentration," hosts this game show.)
1 PM Day In Court
1:25 News
1:30 (Local)
2 PM Number Please
2:30 Seven Keys
3 PM Queen For A Day
3:30 Who Do You Trust? (Johnny Carson will leave
for "The Tonight Show" at the end of the season;
Woody Woodbury will replace him.)
4 PM American Bandstand
4:50 American Newsstand
5 PM (Local)
6 PM ABC Evening Report (may air at 6:15, 6:30, or
6:45, depending on the station--the rest of the
hour is local)

CBS 8 AM Captain Kangaroo
9 AM (Local)
10 AM CALENDAR (Harry Reasoner and Mary Fickett co-host
this news and feature program.)
10:30 I Love Lucy (reruns)
11 AM Video Village
11:30 Your Surprise Package (host George Fenneman was best
known as Groucho's announcer-sidekick; he still is)
11:55 News
12 N Love Of Life
12:30 Search For Tomorrow
12:45 Guiding Light
1 PM COLLEGE OF THE AIR (I suspect this is when CBS fed the
program, since it aired on most stations before 8 AM)
1:30 As The World Turns
2 PM PASSWORD (this classic game show solves CBS's 2 PM
problem--nothing had worked there since Robert Q. Lewis
gave up his show in 1956)
2:30 Art Linkletter's House Party
3 PM The Millionaire (reruns)
3:30 The Verdict Is Yours
3:55 News
4 PM Brighter Day
4:15 Secret Storm
4:30 Edge Of Night
5 PM (Local--"Douglas Edwards With The News" airs in some
markets at 6:45)

NBC 6 AM Continental Classroom
7 AM Today
9 AM (Local)
10 AM Say When
10:30 Play Your Hunch (Merv Griffin will move to his first talk show
in the fall of 1962 and Robert Q. Lewis will replace him as host
of this show.)
11 AM Price Is Right (same time as today but that's about the only thing
that's the same)
11:30 Concentration
12 N Truth Or Consequences
12:30 It Could Be You (it will end Dec. 29 and host Bill Leyden will go
directly to "Your First Impression" on Jan. 2, 1962)
12:55 News
1 PM (Local)
2 PM Jan Murray Show (his game show "Charge Account")
2:30 Loretta Young Theater (reruns)
3 PM Young Dr. Malone
3:30 From These Roots
4 PM Make Room For Daddy (reruns)
4:30 Here's Hollywood
4:55 News
5 PM KUKLA AND OLLIE
5:05 (Local--"The Huntley-Brinkley Report" airs in some markets
at 6:45)

SAT ABC 11 AM ON YOUR MARK (Sonny Fox hosts this kids' show)
11:30 MAGIC RANCH
12 N (Local)
2 PM College Football Kickoff
2:15 NCAA Football
4:45 NCAA Scoreboard (time approximate)
5 PM (Local)
7 PM Matty's Funday Funnies (will become "Matty's Funnies With
Beany And Cecil" in January 1962)
7:30 The Roaring Twenties
8:30 Leave It To Beaver
9 PM Lawrence Welk Show
10 PM Fight Of The Week
10:45 Make That Spare
11 PM (Local)

CBS 9 AM Captain Kangaroo
10 AM VIDEO VILLAGE JR.
10:30 Mighty Mouse Playhouse
11 AM Magic Land Of Allakazam
11:30 Roy Rogers Show (reruns)
12 N Sky King (reruns)
12:30 My Friend Flicka (reruns)
1 PM News
1:30 Accent
2 PM (Local)
4:30 NFL GAME OF THE WEEK
5:30 (Local)
7:30 Perry Mason
8:30 THE DEFENDERS
9:30 Have Gun, Will Travel
10 PM Gunsmoke (expands to an hour this season)
11 PM (Local)

NBC 9:30 Pip The Piper
10 AM Shari Lewis Show
10:30 King Leonardo And His Short Subjects
11 AM Fury (reruns)
11:30 Make Room For Daddy (reruns)
12 N UPDATE (news program aimed at teenagers)
12:30 Watch Mr. Wizard
1 PM (Local)
2:30 NBA Basketball (in season)
4:45 Ask Washington (time approximate)
5 PM All Star Golf
6 PM SATURDAY NIGHT REPORT (Sander Vanocur anchors)
6:15 (Local)
7:30 Tales Of Wells Fargo (expands to an hour for what will
be its last season)
8:30 The Tall Man
9 PM NBC SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES (by decade's end
there will be a network movie every night)
11 PM (Local)

SUN ABC 1 PM Directions '62
1:30 (Local)
3 PM ADLAI STEVENSON REPORTS/Issues And Answers
3:30 AFL Football
6:15 All Pro Scoreboard (time approximate)
6:30 Maverick (last season)
7:30 FOLLOW THE SUN
8:30 Lawman
9 PM BUS STOP (meets a premature end after a particularly
violent episode with rocker Fabian as a psychopath)
10 PM Adventures In Paradise
11 PM (Local)

CBS 10 AM Lamp Unto My Feet
10:30 Look Up And Live
11 AM Camera Three
11:30 (Local)
12:30 Washington Conversation
12:55 News
1 PM (Local)
1:45 Pro Football Kickoff
2 PM NFL Football
5 PM Original Amateur Hour (time approximate)
5:30 GE College Bowl
6 PM The Twentieth Century
6:30 MISTER ED (network debut after some time in
first-run syndication)
7 PM Lassie
7:30 Dennis The Menace
8 PM Ed Sullivan Show
9 PM GE Theater
9:30 Jack Benny Program
10 PM Candid Camera
10:30 What's My Line?
11 PM News
11:15 (Local)

NBC 1:30 Frontiers Of Faith/The Eternal Light/
The Catholic Hour
2 PM NFL Football
4:45 PATTERNS IN MUSIC (time approximate)
5 PM Wisdom
5:30 Chet Huntley Reporting
("The Nation's Future" airs 5-6 PM once a month.)
6 PM Meet The Press
6:30 1,2,3--GO! (10-year-old Richard Thomas joins
Jack Lescoulie on this kids' show)
7 PM Bullwinkle Show
7:30 Walt Disney's Wonderful World Of Color (new network,
new name, and now in color)
8:30 CAR 54, WHERE ARE YOU?
9 PM Bonanza (in a new timeslot, it begins working its way
to the top of the ratings)
10 PM DuPont Show Of The Week
11 PM (Local)
 
Random comments:

I was 9 years old at the time, and recall many of these shows. I would see "Lamp Unto My Feet" in the TV Guide, and would laugh thinking it was a funny name for a TV show. I was not raised in a church-going home, so I had no knowledge of Bible scripture.

My father was an animator on The Bullwinkle Show, which had a one-season prime-time run (7:00 Sunday before Disney - against the ratings champ - Lassie). It's interesting that the show enjoyed such fame in the ensuing years considering its prime-time run was so brief.

"Kukla and Ollie?" What happened to Fran?
 
Fran Allison appeared only once a week on this version
of the show. One hundred thirty episodes were made,
plus another 65 in 1962, for a 195-episode syndication
package that year.

The verse from which "Lamp Unto My Feet" comes is
"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path."
WRAL Raleigh produced a program aimed at the hearing-impaired
(someone appeared on camera to interpret the sermon in sign
language) called "Light Unto My Path," which was syndicated
to other stations for years in the '60s and '70s.

"Lamp Unto My Feet," "Look Up And Live," and "Camera Three"
were canceled at the same time in 1979 to make room for "Sunday
Morning." Only about 26 stations were carrying the programs when
they were canceled.
 
It's true, "Kukla & Ollie" ran from 5 to 5:05pm. Wesley Hyatt's book, "The Encyclopedia of Daytime Television," I believe said that it did not get much clearance due to that odd slotting! Looking at my old newspapers online, I think the Miami affiliate ran it on delay (unknown how many days) in a more reasonable slot.

I wish there was a kinnie out there of "Make a Face." It was one of the first TV shows I recall seeing, but it was the kids' version in late 1962. The Milton Bradley home game of it mentions "First Edition," but no others were made! (Hyatt's book has one promotional photo, but the set was not in it.)

cd
 
Also, if "College of the Air" = "Sunrise Semester" later, I guess the wild feed was indeed 1 pm EST. I have read that in other "network-only" listings. IIRC, WTVX 34 in Ft. Pierce FL ran it live for a while! (*Sunrise* Semester at 1pm? Maybe only the "Summer Semester" summertime program was at 1pm!)

cd
 
It's interesting to look back and see several hour long programs scheduled at the half-hour mark of a given hour. Given the business of network television today, I don't think that would happen in modern times.

Disney jumping networks is an interesting development. In the early 50s, ABC, then it's own parent company, loaned Walt Disney $17 million dollars to build Disneyland. They also got exclusive rights to Disney programming. Uncle Walt must've paid the loan back. I'm speculating that if Disney had defaulted on the loan, ABC conceivably could have ended up owning Disneyland and Walt Disney Productions, in one of life's funny little ironies.

It's also interesting (there's that word again) to compare the cartoons of Bullwinkle and the ones shown on Captain Kangaroo. LKeller's father and the rest of the crew did a fabulous job on Bullwinkle, needless to say. It set animation standards, especially in terms of writing and humor.

Two cartoons shown on Captain Kangaroo that I can remember were Paddy The Pelican and Pow Wow, The Indian Boy. CBS must have gotten them cheap. They were easily two of lamest animated shows EVER. They were both produced by Sam Singer, who was referred to as "The Ed Wood of Animation." Paddy was basically cheap pencil drawings without color, and Pow Wow, goes without saying, would be incredibly politically incorrect today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4upgr_fYrU[url=http://[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUHefKQkAYA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUHefKQkAYA]

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUHefKQkAYA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUHefKQkAYA
 
Re Bullwinkle....

I liked the show, but really loved it in its later years, especially as the narrator got more "involved". What other show could get under Durward Kirby's skin? :)

Lkeller's dad was in rare company!

cd
 
Cleveland's KYW-TV 3 had Mr. Ed in the first syndicated season..I also recall reading Kukla, Fran and Ollie was aired at 9:25 AM on KYW for a time in 61-62, just after Funsville, which was from sister station KDKA-2 Pittsburgh..Hostess was Josie Carey, already famous for her WQED "Children's Corner" and giving Fred Rogers his start..
 
Lkeller said:
Random comments:

I was 9 years old at the time, and recall many of these shows. I would see "Lamp Unto My Feet" in the TV Guide, and would laugh thinking it was a funny name for a TV show. I was not raised in a church-going home, so I had no knowledge of Bible scripture.

My father was an animator on The Bullwinkle Show, which had a one-season prime-time run (7:00 Sunday before Disney - against the ratings champ - Lassie). It's interesting that the show enjoyed such fame in the ensuing years considering its prime-time run was so brief.

"Kukla and Ollie?" What happened to Fran?
Click to expand...

"Bullwinkle"'s popularity is even more interesting given that for most of its run it was on Sundays at 11 AM on ABC, when many affiliates (especially in the South) pre-empted for church services or "paid religion" (Falwell, Swaggart, Humbard, Roberts, etc.). Maybe the satire hit a responsive chord, no matter the timeslot.
 
"Washington Conversation" was intended as a temporary replacement
for "Face The Nation" when the latter moved into primetime in the fall
of 1960; for some reason CBS kept it on until the fall of 1963, when
"Face The Nation" returned to its Sunday slot and has been there ever
since.
 
Another "cartoon" that Captain Kangaroo used to feature was "Tom Teriffic" which was very crudely drawn. If I remember correctly, it was basically stick-figure animation. I thought it was pretty lame as a kid.

Also: Our family had a "discussion" over whether we would watch "Bullwinkle" or "Lassie" at 7pm Sundays. "Lassie" won, much to my dismay. Bullwinkle rocks!
 
Also: Our family had a "discussion" over whether we would watch "Bullwinkle" or "Lassie" at 7pm Sundays. "Lassie" won, much to my dismay. Bullwinkle rocks!

Not in my house. My parents appreciated the humor of Bullwinkle. No wonder I turned out like I did.
 
How did America ever survive with only 4 televised football games per weekend?
 
Or, as we irreverent youngsters used to call the series, "Lamp Onto My Foot."

bpatrick said:
The verse from which "Lamp Unto My Feet" comes is
"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path."
WRAL Raleigh produced a program aimed at the hearing-impaired
(someone appeared on camera to interpret the sermon in sign
language) called "Light Unto My Path," which was syndicated
to other stations for years in the '60s and '70s.
Click to expand...
 
Re Walt Disney: I have read that, in exchange for financing on Disneyland
from ABC, he signed a seven-year agreement with the network (1954-61),
one which resulted in "Disneyland/Walt Disney Presents," "The Mickey Mouse
Club," and "Zorro." But when Bob Kintner moved from ABC to NBC, he approached
Disney and in effect said, when your contract with ABC runs out, bring your show
to NBC; we can show it in color, while ABC can't. Disney was on for 20 years on
Sunday nights on NBC.

Also re the "wild feed" of "College Of The Air"/"Sunrise Semester": Castleman and
Podrazik list it as airing at 1 PM until 1980, when it moved to noon for its last two
years. I'm still convinced that this was when the affiliates taped it for airing perhaps
the following morning because, other than the scheduling of the program on WTVX, I've
never seen or heard of any CBS affiliate airing it except between 5:30 and 7:30 AM.
 
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