Retro: Atlanta/Chattanooga/Macon Sunday, December 25, 1966

[bpatrick]

From TV Guide, Georgia (Atlanta) Edition:

WSB Ch. 2 Atlanta (NBC)

7 AM Light Unto My Path
7:30 Gospel Jubilee
8:30 Cartoon Cavalcade
10:30 Wild Kingdom (a trip to British Guiana in search of a
vampire bat, the comical ukaris monkey, and an anaconda
snake which can grow to 50 feet in length, delay from 5 PM)
11 AM Church Service
12 N Championship Bowling (Harry Smith vs. Don Johnson--no, this is
not the former host of the CBS "Early Show" against the star
of "Miami Vice" and "Nash Bridges")
12:30 Popeye Club Christmas Program
1:30 Movie: "Alakazam The Great!" (1961 Japanese animated feature
about an arrogant monkey who misuses his magical powers, with
the voices of Jonathan Winters, Frankie Avalon, Sterling Holloway,
Arnold Stang, and Dodie Stevens)
3 PM Northwest Passage
3:30 Movie: "Shipwreck Island"
5:30 I Walked Today (Ch. 2's Ray Moore's August trip to the Holy Land
includes not only Biblical landmarks but a look at the modern era:
an aerial fight between Israeli and Syrian jets.)
6 PM News (Tom Wassell)
6:30 Amahl And The Night Visitors (the 1963 version of Gian Carlo Menotti's
opera, which was the first "Hallmark Hall Of Fame" production in 1951)
7:30 Walt Disney's Wonderful World Of Color (Professor Ludwig von Drake tells
"The Truth About Mother Goose"--who he claims is his grandmother--
by explaining the backgrounds of some of the rhymes.)
8:30 Hey Landlord!
9 PM Bonanza (guest: Wayne Newton)
10 PM Andy Williams (Edgar Bergen, Charlie McCarthy, Mortimer Snerd, the
Osmond Brothers, Peggy Fleming, Julian and His Dogs, juggler Gil Dova,
magician Channing Pollock)
11 PM News (Tom Wassell)
11:30 Movie: "Mr. Belvedere Rings The Bell"

WRCB Ch. 3 Chattanooga (NBC)

8 AM Comedy Playhouse
8:30 God Is The Answer
9:30 Living Word
9:45 Christopher Program
10 AM Herald Of Truth
10:30 Faith For Today
11 AM Christmas At Washington Cathedral (NBC carried the service
at the time; much later Allbritton Communications took it over,
through the facilities of WJLA.)
12 N Gospel Roundup
12:30 Jaycee Question
1 PM Meet The Press (McGeorge Bundy, president of the Ford Foundation,
talks about the foundation's proposal for a noncommercial communications
satellite.)
1:30 Eternal Light
2 PM LeFevres (gospel music)
2:30 Wally Fowler (gospel music)
3:30 Rip Van Winkle (the Rufus Rose Puppets dramatize the story)
5 PM Wild Kingdom (winter: migratory patterns of elk in Colorado's mountains;
a family of foxes in northern Wisconsin)
5:30 GE College Bowl: the University of Puget Sound meets either Smith College
(MA) or North Central College (IL)
6 PM Frank McGee Report (northeast Brazil, once one of the world's most prosperous
areas but by 1966 one of the poorest)
6:30 Amahl And The Night Visitors
7:30 Walt Disney's Wonderful World Of Color
8:30 Hey Landlord!
9 PM Bonanza
10 PM Andy Williams
11 PM Movie: "Lady In A Jam"

WAGA Ch. 5 Atlanta (CBS)

6:55 News, Weather
7 AM Sunrise Semester: "Philosophy"
7:30 Sacred Heart
8 AM Wills Family (gospel music)
8:30 LeFevres
9 AM Insight
9:30 Faith For Today
10 AM Herald Of Truth
10:30 This Is The Life ("Child Of Bethlehem" retells the story of
the birth of Christ; watch for Marvin ("The Millionaire")
Miller.)
11 AM Church Service
12 N Camera Three: Godfrey Cambridge, Hermione Gingold,
Henry Morgan, and Brendan Burke offer readings of humor
and light verse related to Christmas, delay from 11 AM.
12:30 Face The Nation (Dr. Eugene Carson Blake, president of the World
Council of Churches)
1 PM Christmas With Mr. Pix (marionettes perform "The Shoemaker And
The Elves," rerun from Sat 7 PM)
1:30 The Nutcracker (performed by the San Francisco Ballet Company)
2:30 Movie: "The Three Worlds Of Gulliver"
4:20 Movie: "The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad"
6 PM On The Twelfth Day (the Victorian lady's lover gives her all the
presents as each verse of "The Twelve Days Of Christmas" is
dramatized; also, WAGA staff members sing carols)
6:25 News
6:30 Green Acres (delay from Wed 9 PM)
7 PM Lassie
7:30 It's About Time
8 PM Ed Sullivan (Ed plays ringmaster at the Krone Circus Arena in Munich;
performers include the Atlas-Sahara acrobatic troupe; the Titos, trampoline
artists; contortionist Fatima Zohra; the Tumbling Ferkos; the Two Mascots,
balancing sisters; three clown acts; swaypole artist Fattini; Adolf Althoff's
horse-riding Bengal tiger; the Sembach-Krone Circus Horses)
9 PM Garry Moore (Mel Torme, Buddy Rich and his orchestra, Durward Kirby's son
Randy)
10 PM Candid Camera (people on the street are asked about imaginary TV programs;
customers in a small-town diner are served by a singing waitress; a spoof of
a razor-blade commercial; Fannie Flagg reads unusual New Year's cards)
10:30 Let's Discuss It
11 PM News (Jim Axel)
11:15 CBS News (anchor not given, although I think Harry Reasoner was anchoring
at the time)
11:30 Movie: "Bell, Book And Candle" (one of two inspirations for "Bewitched," from 1958;
the other was 1942's "I Married A Witch")

WGTV Ch. 8 Athens/Atlanta (NET)

2:30 Movie: "The Pied Piper Of Hamelin"
4 PM Experiment (following the childhood of a chimpanzee)
4:30 Sad Santa
5 PM International Magazine (Buddhist demonstrations in Vietnam and their alleged
involvement with fascism in Japan; St. Bernards are trained to rescue skiers
in the Alps; London Jews discuss interfaith marriages; voodooism in Haiti; Christmas
in Leningrad)
6 PM Star Of Bethlehem (55 children dramatize the Nativity story; presented by James and
Pamela Mason, and Richard Burton)
6:30 Festival (Shakespeare's ideas about love, as seen in scenes from "A Midsummer Night's
Dream," "As You Like It," and "Romeo And Juliet")
7:30 Folk Guitar
8 PM Cutting Edge (Dr. Albert Burke discusses Chinese involvement in Vietnam.)
8:30 Movie: "Rooney"

WTVC Ch. 9 Chattanooga (ABC)

7:45 Social Security In Action
8 AM Revival Hour
8:30 Gospel Jubilee
9:30 Oral Roberts
10 AM Beany And Cecil
10:30 Peter Potamus
11 AM Bullwinkle
11:30 Discovery '66 (Burr Tillstrom takes Kukla, Ollie, and Beulah Witch
on a two-part tour of London; stops include Vidal Sassoon's salon,
Carnaby Street (home of "mod" fashions at the time), Westminster Abbey,
and the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace.)
12 N Christopher Program
12:30 Light Unto My Path
1 PM Directions ("Christmas In The Marketplace," about a band of gypsy actors
who re-enact the Christmas story in a small European town on Christmas Eve.)
2 PM ABC Scope ("Home For Christmas" interviews servicemen in Vietnam and their
families stateside about holiday-season homecomings, delay from Sat 10:30 PM)
2:30 Movie: "Tarantula"
4 PM Saga Of Western Man: "Christ Is Born"
5 PM Christmas Music (the Signal Mountain Baptist Choir)
5:30 It's A Small World
6 PM Iron Horse (delay from Mon 7:30 PM)
7 PM The Dangerous Christmas Of Red Riding Hood (Cyril Ritchard, Liza Minnelli,
Vic Damone, and The Animals in a tale of how Mr. Lone T. Wolf was ostracized
for trying in his own way to befriend Lillian Hood, who had been warned about
wolves.)
8 PM The FBI (guest: Ralph Bellamy)
9 PM ABC Movie: "The Dangerous Days Of Kiowa Jones"
11 PM ABC News (anchor not given)
11:15 Bourbon Street Beat

WAII (WXIA) Ch. 11 Atlanta (ABC)

8 AM Church Service
9 AM Revival Fires
9:30 Linus The Lionhearted
10 AM Beany And Cecil
10:30 Peter Potamus
11 AM Bullwinkle
11:30 Discovery '66
12 N ABC Scope (same as Ch. 9)
12:30 House Detective (real-estate listings)
1:30 Analysis
2 PM Movie: "Heidi" (1937 version with Shirley Temple)
4 PM Saga Of Western Man
5 PM Film: "What Is Christmas?" The Christmas story is told by
the Westminster Youth Choir of Dallas and the Ruth Mitchell
Dancers of Atlanta.
5:30 The Rounders (delay from Tue 8:30 PM)
6 PM Combat! (delay from Tue 7:30 PM)
7 PM The Dangerous Christmas Of Red Riding Hood
8 PM The FBI
9 PM ABC Movie: "The Dangerous Days Of Kiowa Jones"
11 PM News
11:20 Arrest And Trial (sort of a forerunner of "Law And Order," with
Ben Gazzara as the cop who arrests the suspects and Chuck
Connors as the lawyer who defends them; tonight's guests:
Robert Duvall, Jack Klugman)
12:50 ABC News

WDEF Ch. 12 Chattanooga (CBS)

9 AM Children's Gospel Hour
9:30 Sunrise Semester: "Studies In Style"
10 AM L'Enfance du Christ (Hector Berlioz' 1854 oratorio is performed
in abbreviated form by opera singer Georgio Tozzi and ballerina
Carmen De Lavallade.)
11 AM Camera Three (same as Ch. 5)
11:30 This Is The Life (same as Ch. 5)
12 N Word Of Life
12:30 Point Of View
1 PM Joyful Hour (Pat O'Brien (the actor) introduces this dramatization of the
Christmas story.)
2 PM Hawaiian Eye
3 PM CBS News 1966 (Harry Reasoner anchors this review of the year's news:
racial tensions, including the shooting of James Meredith; the Republican
comeback in November's elections (when Ronald Reagan was elected governor
of California); the Great Society; Luci Baines Johnson's wedding; Vietnam; space
achievements; the election of Harold Wilson as British Prime Minister; the growing
power of China; strained U.S.-French relations. Andy Rooney wrote and produced.)
4 PM Wire Service
5 PM Password (Peter Lawford, Lee Remick)
5:30 Across The Seven Seas
6 PM Christmas In Spanish Harlem (Charles Kuralt goes into the ghetto where Christmas
is alive and well, including parties in homes, churches, and settlement houses.)
6:30 Littlest Hobo
7 PM Lassie
7:30 It's About Time
8 PM Ed Sullivan
9 PM Garry Moore
10 PM Candid Camera
10:30 What's My Line? (columnist Suzy Knickerbocker, Martin Gabel, Arlene Francis,
Bennett Cerf)
11 PM CBS News
11:15 Movie: "Pal Joey"

WMAZ Ch. 13 Macon (CBS/ABC)

7:30 Bugs Bunny (ABC, delay from Sat 12 N)
8 AM Fun Time
8:30 Gospel Jubilee
9:30 The Answer
10 AM Christopher Program (Frank Blair talks about television's contribution
to society.)
10:30 This Is The Life (same as Ch. 5)
11 AM Mabel White Baptist Church
12 N Wild Kingdom (NBC, same as Ch. 2)
12:30 Face The Nation
1 PM Ronnie Thompson (country music)
1:15 Del Ward (Del presents an original story, "Angie, The Christmas Tree
Star.")
1:30 Film Feature: the 1966 All-America football team
2 PM Something Special (folk music with the New Christy Minstrels, the
Righteous Brothers, and the New Generation)
3 PM CBS News 1966
4 PM Movie: "The Man In The Gray Flannel Suit"
7 PM Lassie
7:30 It's About Time
8 PM Ed Sullivan
9 PM ABC Movie: "The Dangerous Days Of Kiowa Jones"
11 PM CBS News
11:15 Burke's Law

 

[Mike Stroud]

From TV Guide, Georgia (Atlanta) Edition:

WSB Ch. 2 Atlanta (NBC)

12 N Championship Bowling (Harry Smith vs. Don Johnson--no, this is
not the former host of the CBS "Early Show" against the star
of "Miami Vice" and "Nash Bridges")
5:30 I Walked Today (Ch. 2's Ray Moore's August trip to the Holy Land
includes not only Biblical landmarks but a look at the modern era:
an aerial fight between Israeli and Syrian jets.)
6 PM News (Tom Wassell)
7:30 Walt Disney's Wonderful World Of Color (Professor Ludwig von Drake tells
"The Truth About Mother Goose"--who he claims is his grandmother--
by explaining the backgrounds of some of the rhymes.)

WRCB Ch. 3 Chattanooga (NBC)

1 PM Meet The Press (McGeorge Bundy, president of the Ford Foundation,
talks about the foundation's proposal for a noncommercial communications
satellite.)

WGTV Ch. 8 Athens/Atlanta (NET)

4:30 Sad Santa

WDEF Ch. 12 Chattanooga (CBS)

10 AM L'Enfance du Christ (Hector Berlioz' 1854 oratorio is performed
in abbreviated form by opera singer Georgio Tozzi and ballerina
Carmen De Lavallade.)
10:30 What's My Line? (columnist Suzy Knickerbocker, Martin Gabel, Arlene Francis,
Bennett Cerf)

WMAZ Ch. 13 Macon (CBS/ABC)

1 PM Ronnie Thompson (country music)

More Christmas merriment now, bp, with my trademark brand of snark and nonsense. This beats British pantomime as a Yuletide tradition any day, I think.

WSB, 12 Noon: Strange, but I always thought competitive bowling (in a game show-like format) was something only seen on Northern stations back in the day. But Atlanta had a lot of "Yankees" even then, so this may have been for homesick folks wanting a taste of Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Cleveland, New Jersey, wherever.

WSB, 5:30 p.m.: Ray Moore was a legendary newsman in Atlanta for years, I understand. Anybody know if he is still living? He would have to be in his nineties if so.

WSB, 6 p.m.: The newscaster had a most convenient name for the season: a homonym for "Wassell" is "wassail" as in the traditional hot British cider drunk at this time of year.

WSB, 7:30 p.m.: Now Ludwig would claim that, wouldn't he? If that's the case, then Mother Goose is the great-great aunt of Donald Duck, and thus the great-great-great aunt of Huey, Dewey, and Louie (how many times removed or what, I can't imagine--it would make my head hurt to figure that one out).

WRCB, 1 p.m.: I imagine Bundy's appearance on Meet the Press may well have been the first presentiment the public received about what would become the Corporation for Public Broadcasting the following year, 1967. As things would turn out, over a decade later, AFAIK, PBS would become the first U.S. network to employ satellite connections to the affiliates, instead of the phone lines.

WGTV, 4:30 p.m.: I am almost afraid to inquire what THAT might have been about. Perhaps an art film from NET or something. In any case, I suspect this didn't get any takers--can't say I blame them. Whatever it was, it was definitely not for kids.

WDEF, 10 a.m.: If this was a CBS production, it speaks volumes about the fact that commercial broadcasters still felt some responsibility for cultural uplift. By the time I came along, the only things of that sort left were the occasional "Festival of Lively Arts for Young People" seen on CBS on Sunday afternoons. And those were gone by the early 1980s. People didn't know how good they had things back then--I am dead serious about that. In this age of thousands of channels, I am sure there are others than me who would BEG for classical music, serious theatre, ballet, and other fine arts to get at least an occasional airing on some channels other than PBS. Makes you wonder sometimes whether the Public Broadcasting Act did more harm than good, by deflecting FCC pressure off commercial broadcasters and casting cultural programming into the public TV "ghetto." I know I could get a good thread started on that alone, so I will desist here.

WDEF, 10:30 p.m.: Appropriate for Christmas time, this was a family panel: actor Martin Gabel was the husband of "WML?" stalwart Arlene Francis.

WMAZ, 1 p.m.: I take it this was the show that launched Thompson into the mayoralty of Macon in 1967. Thompson gained notoriety during his eight years in that position for his hard-line law-and-order stance toward civil rights, peace demonstrations, and the like. He bore the (pardon the reference here, but it is historic) moniker of "Machine Gun Ronnie." Thompson was the unsuccessful Republican nominee for governor of Georgia in 1974, and faded from the public spotlight not long after that. Thompson, FWIK, began as a gospel singer and parlayed that into local fame.

Hell, I didn't even make one joke during all that. What's wrong with me? Oh, well, I'll make up for it with my Christmas-time surprise coming over the next few days. The only hint I'm giving is that these listings are from the Sixties and are from two different Southern markets. Just like you cannot open your presents until Tuesday, so you will have to check back to see. Meanwhile, may your houses be Grinch-proof.

 

[spb]

No WML? on WAGA?

From TV Guide, Georgia (Atlanta) Edition:

WAGA Ch. 5 Atlanta (CBS)


10 PM Candid Camera (people on the street are asked about imaginary TV programs;
customers in a small-town diner are served by a singing waitress; a spoof of
a razor-blade commercial; Fannie Flagg reads unusual New Year's cards)
10:30 Let's Discuss It
11 PM News (Jim Axel)

 

[bpatrick]

"What's My Line?" took a sharp drop in the ratings after Dorothy
Kilgallen's death in 1965, and it was around that time that WAGA
dropped the show (WBTV Charlotte also dropped it and was running
Andy Williams on NBC in December 1966). Ironically, when WXIA dropped
syndicated "Line" in favor of "Concentration" in 1974, WAGA carried the
last year of that version.

And in answer to the posting about "L'Enfance du Christ," it was a CBS
presentation that pre-empted "Lamp Unto My Feet" and "Look Up And Live."
It would be nice to see some productions of this sort (I think of the New
York Philharmonic concerts with Leonard Bernstein, especially the "Young
People's Concerts," that used to be a staple on CBS), but money-grabby
corporations aren't going to pass up a potential profit for telecasts of this nature.

But just look at what the networks offered that Christmas Day 46 years ago:

ABC: the one-hour "Directions" special "Christmas In The Marketplace" (1 PM)
"Saga Of Western Man: Christ Is Born" (4 PM)
for kids, "The Dangerous Christmas Of Red Riding Hood" (7 PM)

CBS: "L'Enfance du Christ" (10 AM)
a special "Camera Three" Christmas show (11 AM on Ch. 12, 12 N on Ch. 5)
"Christmas In Spanish Harlem" (6 PM)

NBC: "Christmas At Washington Cathedral" (11 AM)
"Amahl And The Night Visitors" (6:30 PM)

How many programs of this type do you see on Christmas Day on the broadcast
networks today? Absolutely none. Instead you get the Disney World Christmas
Parade (sorry, no slam at Disney intended) and an NBA doubleheader on ABC,
and that's about it.

 

[Mike Stroud]

And in answer to the posting about "L'Enfance du Christ," it was a CBS
presentation that pre-empted "Lamp Unto My Feet" and "Look Up And Live."
It would be nice to see some productions of this sort (I think of the New
York Philharmonic concerts with Leonard Bernstein, especially the "Young
People's Concerts," that used to be a staple on CBS), but money-grabby
corporations aren't going to pass up a potential profit for telecasts of this nature.

But just look at what the networks offered that Christmas Day 46 years ago:

ABC: the one-hour "Directions" special "Christmas In The Marketplace" (1 PM)
"Saga Of Western Man: Christ Is Born" (4 PM)
for kids, "The Dangerous Christmas Of Red Riding Hood" (7 PM)

CBS: "L'Enfance du Christ" (10 AM)
a special "Camera Three" Christmas show (11 AM on Ch. 12, 12 N on Ch. 5)
"Christmas In Spanish Harlem" (6 PM)

NBC: "Christmas At Washington Cathedral" (11 AM)
"Amahl And The Night Visitors" (6:30 PM)

How many programs of this type do you see on Christmas Day on the broadcast
networks today? Absolutely none. Instead you get the Disney World Christmas
Parade (sorry, no slam at Disney intended) and an NBA doubleheader on ABC,
and that's about it.

And we never will again, bp. Dignified, quality TV of the type we grew up on is dead. Hence we haunt this place for nostalgia to remember "the way we were" (nod to Barbra Streisand here).

PBS is just about the best bet for anything remotely serious tomorrow, I expect. Schedules will vary from place to place, but you can count on music specials, especially choirs.

Merry Christmas to you and yours, friend. I knew I could count on you to put up with my foolishness for the umpteen years I've been posting. Now if I can only persuade my family to do likewise (!!!)