Retro: Boston - Monday, April 1, 1963

[MCarney]

Because of the mention of "Ben Jerrod" in the Forgotten Network/Syndicated Shows of the Past thread (http://radiodiscussions.com/smf/index.php?topic=202073.400) I went and found the premiere date listing. Three other better known and longer running shows also premiered that day - "General Hospital", "The Doctors" and "You Don't Say!". Oddly enough, despite being located in a fictional Rhode Island town, "Ben Jerrod" was not carried in Providence.

Source – Boston Globe – Monday, April 1, 1963
The Globe did not note color programs in the listings. Color denotations are from other sources (TV Guides of the era, Wikipedia).

2 – WGBH Boston (Educational)
08:30a Focus
09:45a Focus
10:45a Science 6
02:30p Parlons Francais 2
03:30p Parlons Francais 1
04:00p College of the Air
05:15p The Friendly Giant
05:30p What’s New?
06:00p Discovery
06:30p News – Louis Lyons
06:45p Americans at Work
07:00p Probability and Statistics
07:30p Of Travels and Travelers
08:00p The French Chef – fish fillets poached in white wine
08:30p Museum Open House
09:00p The American Assembly
10:00p News – Louis Lyons
10:15p Industry on Parade
10:30p Marketing on the Move

4 – WBZ Boston (NBC)
06:00a Continental Classroom
06:30a Sign-On Seminar
06:45a Daily Almanac
07:00a Today Show
09:00a News at Nine
09:30a Best of Groucho
10:00a Say When!
10:30a Play Your Hunch (color)
11:00a The Price is Right (color)
11:30a Concentration
12:00p News, Weather
12:30p Hollywood Playhouse “Boulder Dam” 1936
01:50p News, Weather
02:00p Ben Jerrod (DEBUT, color) – Michael Ryan stars in a new color series based on the cases of a young New England lawyer. Addison Richards, Jeannie Baird costar. Atty. Jerrod returns to his home town and immediately becomes involved in a murder case.
02:25p NBC News – Floyd Kabler
02:30p The Doctors (DEBUT) – Jock Gaynor, Richard Boat, Margot Moser, Fred J. Scollay in a new anthology series of medical dramas. After an unsuccessful operation on a 7-year-old girl, Dr. William Scott (Gaynor) is summoned to the emergency room where a new-born infant is close to death.
03:00p Loretta Young
03:30p You Don’t Say! (DEBUT, color) – New game show in which audience contestants and guest celebrities try to identify famous people, using incomplete sentences as clues; Tom Kennedy, m.c., Cesar Romero, Jayne Meadows, guest celebrities; colorcast
04:00p The Match Game
04:25p NBC News – Sander Vanocur
04:30p Clubhouse 4
05:00p Boston Movietime “Immortal Sergeant” 1943
06:30p News, Weather
06:45p Huntley/Brinkley Report
07:00p Biography – Charles de Gaulle
07:30p At The Movies “My Cousin Rachel” 1952
09:30p Art Linkletter Show – Jayne Meadows and Carl Reiner; Shirley Booth as guest panelist
10:00p David Brinkley’s Journal “Inside Jimmy Hoffa”
11:00p News
11:15p Steve Allen – guests: Jo Stafford, Johnny Nash, Larry Adler, Gabe Dell
12:45a World News
01:45a Highway Patrol

5 – WHDH Boston (CBS) – all studio programs originated in color
06:00a College of the Air
06:30a Continental Classroom
07:00a Morning Key Club (color)
07:30a Captain Bob (color)
08:00a Captain Kangaroo
09:00a Romper Room (color)
09:45a Debbie Drake
10:00a News; Women Only (color)
10:15a We Believe (color)
10:30a I Love Lucy
11:00a The McCoys
11:30a Pete and Gladys
12:00p Love of Life
12:25p CBS News – Harry Reasoner
12:30p Search for Tomorrow
12:45p The Guiding Light
01:00p News; Farm and Food (color) – according to TV Guide, news is @ 1:00p, Farm & Food is @ 1:05p
01:30p As the World Turns
02:00p Password
02:30p House Party
03:00p To Tell the Truth
03:25p CBS News – Douglas Edwards
03:30p The Millionaire
04:00p The Secret Storm
04:30p The Edge of Night
05:00p Bozo the Clown (color)
05:45p Rocky and His Friends (color)
06:00p News, Dateline Boston (color) – according to TV Guide, news is @ 6:00p, Dateline Boston is @ 6:05p
06:30p Sea Hunt
07:00p Walter Cronkite with the News
07:15p News, Weather (color)
07:30p To Tell the Truth
08:00p I’ve Got a Secret
08:30p The Lucy Show – Lucy goes to night school
09:00p The Danny Thomas Show
09:30p The Andy Griffith Show – Barney buys a car from a little old lady
10:00p Password – guests: Danny Thomas and Marjorie Lord
10:30p Stump the Stars – guests: E.G. Marshall, Robert Reed, Zina Bethune, Martha Scott
11:00p News (color)
11:20p Sports (color)
11:30p Tonight Show (NBC)

6 – WTEV New Bedford (ABC)
06:30a Operation Alphabet
07:00a Annie Oakley
07:30a Billy Bang-Bang
08:30a Abbott and Costello
09:00a Ed Allen Time
09:30a Edge of Night (CBS, delayed from 4:30p)
10:00a Divorce Court
11:00a The Life of Riley
11:30a Seven Keys
12:00p Tennessee Ernie Ford
12:30p Father Knows Best
01:00p General Hospital (DEBUT)
01:30p Community – Bob Bassett
02:00p Day in Court
02:25p ABC News – Alex Dreier
02:30p Jane Wyman Presents
03:00p Queen For a Day
03:30p Who Do You Trust?
04:00p American Bandstand
04:30p Discovery ‘63
04:55p American Newsstand
05:00p Mickey Mouse Club
05:30p Whirlybirds
06:00p ABC News – Ron Cochran
06:15p News, Weather
06:30p The Detectives
07:30p The Dakotas “Reformation at Big Nose Butte”
08:30p The Rifleman “Which Way Did They Go?”
09:00p Stoney Burke “Color Him Lucky”
10:00p Ben Casey “Father Was an Intern”
11:00p News
11:25p Hong Kong

7 – WNAC Boston (ABC)
06:25a Farm-Market Report
06:30a Understanding Our World
07:00a Discovery ’63 (delayed from 4:30p)
07:25a Three Stooges
08:30a Jack LaLanne
09:00a People Are Funny
09:30a Expert Opinion
10:00a Calendar (CBS)
10:30a Queen For a Day (delayed from 3p)
11:00a Jane Wyman Presents (delayed from 2:30p)
11:30a Seven Keys
12:00p Tennessee Ernie Ford (1st anniversary show)
12:30p Father Knows Best
01:00p General Hospital (DEBUT) – John Beradino, Emily McLaughlin star in a new series set in a busy metropolitan hospital. Dr. Steve Hardy (Beradino) tries to reassure a 18-year-old girl (Jana Taylor), injured in an auto accident, that plastic surgery will restore her beauty.
01:30p Who Do You Trust? (delayed from 3:30p)
02:00p Day in Court
02:25p ABC News – Alex Dreier
02:30p Leave It to the Girls
03:00p Girl Talk
03:30p Early Show “This Above All” 1942
05:00p Three Stooges
05:30p Quick Draw McGraw
06:00p ABC News – Ron Cochran
06:15p News, Weather
06:30p The Phil Silvers Show
07:00p Target – The Corruptors
08:00p The Detectives
08:30p The Rifleman “Which Way Did They Go?”
09:00p Stoney Burke “Color Him Lucky”
10:00p Ben Casey “Father Was an Intern”
11:00p News
11:15p Late Show “The Flame and the Arrow” 1950

9 – WMUR Manchester (ABC)
09:30a Movie at Home
09:45a Woman’s World
10:00a Movie “Never Say Die”
11:30a Seven Keys
12:00p Tennessee Ernie Ford
12:30p Father Knows Best
01:00p General Hospital (DEBUT)
01:30p Country Store
02:00p Day in Court
02:25p ABC News – Alex Dreier
02:30p Jane Wyman Presents
03:00p Queen For a Day
03:30p Who Do You Trust?
04:00p American Bandstand
04:30p Discovery ‘63
04:55p American Newsstand
05:00p Uncle Gus
06:00p Robin Hood
06:30p News, Weather
06:45p ABC News – Ron Cochran
07:00p Whirlybirds
07:30p The Dakotas “Reformation at Big Nose Butte”
08:30p Trackdown
09:00p Stoney Burke “Color Him Lucky”
10:00p Ben Casey “Father Was an Intern”
11:00p News
11:15p Movie “Alias Nick Beal”

10 – WJAR Providence (NBC)
06:30a Continental Classroom
07:00a Today Show
09:05a The World Around Us
09:30a Talk of the Town
10:00a Say When!
10:30a Play Your Hunch (color)
11:00a The Price is Right (color)
11:30a Concentration
12:00p Best of Groucho
12:30p Truth or Consequences (color); Wikipedia has NBC News @ 12:55p but it’s not in the listings
01:00p Movie “Border Town”
02:25p NBC News – Floyd Kabler
02:30p The Doctors (DEBUT)
03:00p Loretta Young
03:30p You Don’t Say!
04:00p The Match Game
04:25p NBC News – Sander Vanocur
04:30p Make Room for Daddy
05:00p Movie “Rebel Without a Cause” (movie was in color but I don’t know if it was shown that way)
06:30p News, Weather
06:45p Huntley/Brinkley Report
07:00p Death Valley Days
07:30p At The Movies “My Cousin Rachel” 1952
09:30p The Law and Mr. Jones
10:00p David Brinkley’s Journal “Inside Jimmy Hoffa”
11:00p News
11:15p Tonight Show

12 – WPRO Providence (CBS)
06:30a College of the Air
07:00a Three Stooges
07:30a Story Time
08:00a Captain Kangaroo
09:00a Romper Room
09:30a Merry-Go-Round
10:00a Calendar
10:30a I Love Lucy
11:00a The McCoys
11:30a Pete and Gladys
12:00p Love of Life
12:25p CBS News – Harry Reasoner
12:30p Search for Tomorrow
12:45p The Guiding Light
01:00p Girl Talk
01:30p As the World Turns
02:00p Password
02:30p House Party
03:00p To Tell the Truth
03:25p CBS News – Douglas Edwards
03:30p The Millionaire
04:00p The Secret Storm
04:30p Salty Brine’s Shack
05:30p Movie “Dragonfly Squadron”
07:00p Walter Cronkite and the News
07:15p News, Weather
07:30p To Tell the Truth
08:00p I’ve Got a Secret
08:30p The Lucy Show – Lucy goes to night school
09:00p The Danny Thomas Show
09:30p The Andy Griffith Show – Barney buys a car from a little old lady
10:00p Movie “The Death Around Us”
11:20p Movie “Odd Man Out”

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

While "Ben Jerrod" didn't have a long run, the other daytime network shows premiering that day became long-running hits, and one of them, "General Hosptial", is still on the air, although it was to have been cancelled last year.

What saved "GH" from oblivion, and allowed it to recently celebrate its fiftieth birthday, was the fact that ratings for "The Revolution", one of two ABC daytime lifestyle-talk shows that had replaced long-running soaps, had tanked. ABC was going to reduce their daytime schedule from four hours every weekday to three (so the network's O&O's some affiliates would have been able to pick-up Katie Couric's syndicated talk show), and "GH" was on the chopping block.

But with "The Revolution" having been axed, "GH" got a reprieve, although in most cities, it now airs an hourly earlier than previously.

 

[bpatrick]

"The Doctors" did a new five-part story every week for about a year,
then switched to the standard soap format. I remember when the talk
show "The Doctors" was announced, a lot of people thought the soap
was coming back.

"Ben Jerrod" was replaced by a game show that, while not a hit at the
time, evolved into one of the classics of the genre. The show was "People
Will Talk," with host Dennis James. Fifteen members of the studio audience
secretly voted yes or no to a question such as "Is it OK to kiss in public?".
Then two contestants would pick from the fifteen and try to guess which way
that person voted, earning money for correct guesses. I guess Merrill Heatter
discovered that viewers didn't care what total strangers thought, but with celebrities,
it was a different story (plus, you could hire writers to give them jokes before they
revealed their answers). So the fifteen audience members became nine celebrities,
Carl Reiner became the new host, the title was changed to "Celebrity Game," and aired
in primetime on CBS in the spring and summer of 1964, then came back as a midseason
replacement in 1965. The revisions seemed to work better, so Heatter began mulling the
idea of another show with a large group of celebrities, and in his thinking, he got the
idea of placing them inside a giant tic-tac-toe board. As Paul Harvey might have said,
"You know the rest of the story," because the result was "Hollywood Squares."

 

[Dighton Rockhead]

CBS must have been "less than pleased" that Providence's WPRO Channel 12 would pre-empt "The Edge of Night".....and shove it off onto New Bedford's WTEV Channel 6.

Didn't the networks have stricter rules back then about affiliates pre-empting shows?

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

CBS must have been "less than pleased" that Providence's WPRO Channel 12 would pre-empt "The Edge of Night" (in April of 1963).....and shove it off onto New Bedford's WTEV Channel 6 (which had just signed on the air).

Didn't the networks have stricter rules back then about affiliates pre-empting shows?

Given that today, network affiliates today almost never pre-empt network shows (usually if they do, it's for breaking news, live coverage of a special local news or sports event, or some similar circumstance), I would think that the rules today are "stricter" than they were then.

I suspect the turning point was in the mid-1990's, when there were numerous network affiliation changes around the country in the wake of Fox's capturing half of the Sunday-afternoon NFL TV package. I believe that around that time, the networks began clamping down on affiliate pre-emptions.

 

[MCarney]

"Edge" wasn't the only show from one of the other networks that WTEV took - they also got prime time shows like "Ironside" and "The Monkees" and ran them late on Sunday afternoons. I have TV Guides from the late 60s with WTEV ads for "Ironside".

WHDH also took "Edge" when they signed on as an ABC affiliate in November 1957. They cut out the last half hour of "American Bandstand" for it.

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

Talk About Affiliate Pre-Emptions!(Was:Re: Retro: Boston, Monday, April 1, 1963)

As bad as the affiliation pre-emptions of network programs here in Boston (and nearby Providence) were in 1963, there may have been at least one city where local network affiliates were more pre-emption happy.

It was Kansas City in 1969 and 1970, where the three network stations at the time appeared to "willy-nilly" pre-empt network shows left and right, allowing then-new independent KCIT-50 (which wouldn't last long) to pick-up a number of network shows.

David P. Johnson, who lived in Kansas City at the time, has set-up a tribute website for KCIT (whose call letters meant "Kansas City Independent Television") which focuses on all the pre-empted network shows in Kansas City at the time, many (but not all) got picked-up by KCIT.

You can see it at http://www.wtv-zone.com/dpjohnson/kcit50 .

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

"Edge" wasn't the only show from one of the other networks that WTEV took - they also got prime time shows like "Ironside" and "The Monkees" and ran them late on Sunday afternoons. I have TV Guides from the late 60s with WTEV ads for "Ironside".

WHDH also took "Edge" when they signed on as an ABC affiliate in November 1957. They cut out the last half hour of "American Bandstand" for it.

Leading to an ironic question: did WTEV clear "Edge" when the soap moved to ABC in December 1975--less than 2 years before the station switched to CBS?

 

[MCarney]

According to the Boston Globe, "Edge" was cleared on WTEV and WMUR but not WCVB when it switched to ABC. WCVB ran reruns of "The Big Valley" at 3p.

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

Leading to an ironic question: did WTEV clear "Edge" when the soap moved to ABC in December 1975--less than 2 years before the station switched to CBS?

According to the January 12th, 1976 Boston Globe, WTEV-6 did clear "Edge" when it moved to ABC, and "in pattern" (weekdays from 4 to 4:30 P.M. EST/EDT).

By contrast, Boston's WCVB-5 carried "Edge" on a delayed basis (the following morning at 11 A.M.).

 

[MCarney]

I just looked at the December 2 listing and saw the same thing. Forgot about the regular time being 4p. At some point WCVB gave up the delayed airing - probably around 1980.

There is a note in the TV column about WCVB not being able to air "Edge" until the following Monday due to a scheduling conflict. No mention is made of the 11a air time.

 

[skipeastport]

WCVB dropped The Edge of Night in 1976. It was picked up by independent station WLVI channel 56. WLVI carried the show until September 1, 1978. After that Edge was never shown again by a Boston affiliate.