Cleveland Press TV Showtime, December 28, 1973-January 4, 1974--cover, Lee Meriwether ("Barnaby Jones")
Cleveland, Ohio:
(3) WKYC (NBC)
(5) WEWS (ABC)
(8) WJW (CBS)--now FOX affiliate
(25) WVIZ (PBS)*
(43) WUAB (Ind.)--now MyNetworkTV affiliate
(61) WKBF (Ind.)--frequency now occupied by WQHS-TV (Univision)
Akron, Ohio:
(23) WAKR (ABC)--now WVPX, an ION television affiliate
*Because of the school holidays, WVIZ did not begin broadcasting until 4 p.m.
MORNING
7:00
(3) Today Show--Frank McGee, Barbara Walters
(5) WEWS News
(8) CBS Morning News--Hughes Rudd, Sally Quinn (infamous "beauty and the grouch" pairing that did not work due to Quinn's lack of TV savvy; Quinn, now the wife of retired Washington Post publisher Ben Bradlee, left the show in February)
7:30
(5) Casper--children's cartoon
8:00
(5) Morning Exchange--long-running local talk/variety show; reputed to have been a model for "Good Morning America," which premiered in 1975
(8) Captain Kangaroo
9:00
(3) Mike Douglas (90-minute version; show began as local show on channel 3 in 1961. When the FCC ordered NBC, which owned its Philadelphia station, to swap stations with channel 3 (then KYW-TV) owner Westinghouse/Group W in 1965 due to NBC's essentially blackmailing Group W nearly a decade earlier, Douglas (and the callsign, among other things) went to Philadelphia with the ownership. Still, the Cleveland station kept airing the now-syndicated Douglas show for years.
(8) Phil Donahue (60-minute version; Donahue was a native of Cleveland)
9:30
(23) It is Written--WAKR ran a large amount of paid religious programming not only on Sundays, but during the week as well; this was likely due to the large evangelical Christian population in the Akron area, many of whom were industrial workers who migrated to the area from the Southern U.S. The constituency was so large that two prominent televangelists of the day, Rex Humbard and Ernest Angley, based their operations in Akron.
10:00
(5) Split Second--one-day delay
(8) Joker's Wild
(23) Insight--religion
10:30
(3) Baffle--game show hosted by sportscaster Dick Enberg
(5) I Dream of Jeannie--sitcom rerun
(8) $10,000 Pyramid
(43) Romper Room--local version of franchised children's show
(23) (61) Jack LaLanne
11:00
(3) Wizard of Odds
(5) Love, American Style--one-day delay
(8) Gambit
(23) Romper Room--apparently the franchisor, Claster Television, considered Akron a separate TV market and did not regard it as conflicting with the WUAB version, broadcast the previous half hour
(43) Coffee Shoppee--local women's show hosted by Alice Weston; "Shoppe" deliberately spelled with an extra "e" on the end, apparently in order for the two words to rhyme
(61) Newsroom--probably local
11:30
(3) Hollywood Squares
(5) (23) Brady Bunch--sitcom rerun
(8) Love of Life
(43) Romper Room (another episode or a repeat of an hour earlier?)
(61) Kimba--early Japanese anime children's show
11:55
(8) CBS News--Douglas Edwards
AFTERNOON
12:00
(3) Jeopardy
(5) (23) Password--version with original rules, still hosted by Allen Ludden
(8) WJW News (titled "City Camera" for many years)
(43) Real McCoys
(61) Banana Splits--rerun of 1968-70 Saturday-morning children's show
12:30
(3) Who, What or Where Game (cancelled two days later)
(5) WEWS News
(8) Search for Tomorrow
(23) Split Second--game show hosted by Tom Kennedy
(43) Movie--"Deep Valley," 1947
12:55
(3) NBC News--Edwin Newman
1:00
(3) Dinah's Place--tape-delayed from earlier in the day
(5) (23) All My Children
(8) Young and the Restless--tape-delayed from earlier
(61) I Love Lucy
1:30
(3) Three on a Match--game show hosted by Bill Cullen
(5) (23) Let's Make a Deal
(8) As the World Turns--then TV's highest-rated soap opera
(61) Dick Van Dyke
2:00
(3) Days of Our Lives
(5) (23) Newlywed Game
(8) Guiding Light
(61) Make Room for Daddy--sitcom rerun starring Danny Thomas
2:30
(3) Doctors
(5) (23) Girl in My Life--daytime update of "Queen for a Day"
(8) Edge of Night
(43) Barnaby--longtime Cleveland children's show hosted by Linn Sheldon that began on WKYC in 1957 and moved to WUAB in 1968; ran until 1990, a very long run for that genre
(61) New Zoo Revue--syndicated children's show
3:00
(3) Another World
(5) (23) General Hospital (still at that timeslot today)
(8) Price is Right
(43) Adventures of Superman--rerun of 1952-58 series, with George Reeves in the title role
(61) Magilla Gorilla--1960s Hanna-Barbera cartoon
3:30
(3) Return to Peyton Place--unsuccessful daytime adaptation of 1960s smash prime-time soap opera; two days later, NBC canceled the show
(5) (23) One Life to Live
(8) Match Game '73--less than a year old and already daytime's highest-rated show
(43) Speed Racer--cartoon
(61) Three Stooges--probably a single short with at least 7 minutes of commercials
4:00
(3) Somerset--soap that struggled over a 7-year existence
(5) That Girl--sitcom rerun
(8) Adventure Road--long-running daily travelogue; WWJ (now WDIV) in Detroit did something similar in the afternoons during this time with host George Pierrot
(23) Love, American Style--half-hour rerun
(25) Sesame Street
(43) Lost in Space--rerun
(61) Little Rascals--probably same format as "Three Stooges" at 3:30
4:30
(3) Beat the Clock--famous stunt game, syndicated and recorded in Canada
(5) Big Valley--rerun
(8) Merv Griffin (90-minute version)
(23) Tarzan--rerun of 1960s series
(61) Munsters--sitcom rerun
5:00
(3) Mod Squad--rerun of 1968-73 crime drama
(25) Misterogers (Neighborhood)
(43) Gilligan's Island--rerun
(61) Flintstones
5:30
(5) Bowling for Dollars--local version of game-show format popular among stations in the Northeast and Midwest; Don Webster, host
(23) Garner Ted Armstrong--televangelist affiliated with an apocalyptic, "end-times" church
(25) Zoom--children's activity-based show; revived during 1999-2005
(43) Patty Duke--sitcom rerun
EVENING
6:00
(3) WKYC News
(5) WEWS News
(8) WJW News
(23) WAKR News
(25) Coming of a Comet--documentary about the comet Kohoutek
(43) Gomer Pyle, USMC--sitcom rerun
(61) Lucy (Lucille Ball) Show
6:30
(3) NBC Nightly News--John Chancellor
(5) (23) ABC Evening News--Howard K. Smith, Harry Reasoner
(8) CBS Evening News--Walter Cronkite
(43) Green Acres--rerun
(61) Beverly Hillbillies--rerun; viewers could take their pick of one of the two "rural shows" CBS cancelled back in 1971
7:00
(3) WKYC News--station was one of the few in the Eastern Time Zone to run a local newscast in this timeslot; WKYC revived a 7 p.m. newscast in 2000
(5) To Tell the Truth--syndicated version hosted by Garry Moore
(8) Truth or Consequences--Bob Barker in his 17th year of hijinks and stunts; the show would continue in production for another year and a half
(23) The Man from U.N.C.L.E.--rerun
(25) Electric Company--fondly-remembered children's reading-skills show; featured humorous sketches in the lessons
(43) Hogan's Heroes--rerun; first episode of one-hour block
(61) Mission: Impossible--rerun
7:30
(3) Wait till Your Father Gets Home--syndicated adult cartoon by Hanna-Barbera; essentially, an animated "All in the Family"
(5) To be announced (WEWS normally ran a so-called "checkerboard" variety of syndie games and family shows in the slot)
(8) Dating Game--syndicated; had been cancelled six months earlier on ABC daytime
(25) French Chef--Julia Child came on a bit too late to help housewives with their dinner preparations (!)
(43) Hogan's Heroes (see 7:00 above)
8:00
(3) Adam-12--durable Jack Webb-packaged half-hour show about two cops on the L.A. beat; perhaps a forerunner of "COPS"
(5) (23) Dick Clark Special--probably a retrospective of the 1950s and 1960s
(8) Sonny and Cher--last season for the duo (and the last year of their marriage)
(25) Bill Moyers' Journal--the veteran journalist kicked around PBS while not working for CBS or other projects
(43) Untouchables--rerun; the show that caused such an outcry in the early 1960s had been rendered pretty harmless by the passage of time (and vastly more violent TV fare therein)
(61) Night Gallery--rerun of early 1970s Rod Serling anthology on NBC
8:30
(3) NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie--"Tenafly" (essentially a rip-off of the "Shaft" phenomenon featuring an African-American gumshoe; this was the last episode, and NBC would ditch the midweek version of its successful Sunday night feature at the end of the season)
(5) (23) Movie--"A Brand New Life," 1973 (made-for-TV)
(25) Conflicts--anthology series
9:00
(8) Cannon
(43) Movie--"From Hell to Texas," 1958
(61) Movie--"Captain Horatio Hornblower," 1951
9:30
(25) Woman--feminist-oriented women's documentary/interview series
10:00
(3) Love Story--romantic anthology; as far as can be determined, had no relation to the 1970 Erich Segal movie (final episode)
(5) (23) Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law--crime drama starring Arthur Hill
(8) Kojak--the 1973-74 TV season's greatest new hit (by a long shot)
(25) Firing Line--William F. Buckley, Jr.'s weekly forum for intellectual and political-oriented discussion
11:00
(3) WKYC News
(5) WEWS News
(8) WJW News
(23) Bill Anderson--syndicated country-music show; WAKR ran a "checkerboard" of similar Nashville-based shows in this timeslot on weeknights
(43) Boris Karloff Presents--rerun of his "Thriller," which ran from 1960 to 1962 on NBC
(61) Avengers--rerun of British hybrid of crime drama and fantasy
11:30
(3) Tonight Show--Johnny Carson
(5) (23) Wide World of Entertainment--"On Location -- Rod Serling at Los Angeles International Airport" (This is remarkable--Serling appears on two different shows in the Cleveland market on the same day, neither of which is "Twlight Zone")
(8) Movie--"Crimson Pirate," 1952
1:00 a.m.
(3) Tomorrow--Tom Snyder (once a news anchor at Cleveland's channel 3 in the early 1960s, then known as KYW-TV)
(5) Inner Circle--unknown
1:30
(5) WEWS News
1:40
(8) Movie--"The Last Wagon," 1956
Cleveland, Ohio:
(3) WKYC (NBC)
(5) WEWS (ABC)
(8) WJW (CBS)--now FOX affiliate
(25) WVIZ (PBS)*
(43) WUAB (Ind.)--now MyNetworkTV affiliate
(61) WKBF (Ind.)--frequency now occupied by WQHS-TV (Univision)
Akron, Ohio:
(23) WAKR (ABC)--now WVPX, an ION television affiliate
*Because of the school holidays, WVIZ did not begin broadcasting until 4 p.m.
MORNING
7:00
(3) Today Show--Frank McGee, Barbara Walters
(5) WEWS News
(8) CBS Morning News--Hughes Rudd, Sally Quinn (infamous "beauty and the grouch" pairing that did not work due to Quinn's lack of TV savvy; Quinn, now the wife of retired Washington Post publisher Ben Bradlee, left the show in February)
7:30
(5) Casper--children's cartoon
8:00
(5) Morning Exchange--long-running local talk/variety show; reputed to have been a model for "Good Morning America," which premiered in 1975
(8) Captain Kangaroo
9:00
(3) Mike Douglas (90-minute version; show began as local show on channel 3 in 1961. When the FCC ordered NBC, which owned its Philadelphia station, to swap stations with channel 3 (then KYW-TV) owner Westinghouse/Group W in 1965 due to NBC's essentially blackmailing Group W nearly a decade earlier, Douglas (and the callsign, among other things) went to Philadelphia with the ownership. Still, the Cleveland station kept airing the now-syndicated Douglas show for years.
(8) Phil Donahue (60-minute version; Donahue was a native of Cleveland)
9:30
(23) It is Written--WAKR ran a large amount of paid religious programming not only on Sundays, but during the week as well; this was likely due to the large evangelical Christian population in the Akron area, many of whom were industrial workers who migrated to the area from the Southern U.S. The constituency was so large that two prominent televangelists of the day, Rex Humbard and Ernest Angley, based their operations in Akron.
10:00
(5) Split Second--one-day delay
(8) Joker's Wild
(23) Insight--religion
10:30
(3) Baffle--game show hosted by sportscaster Dick Enberg
(5) I Dream of Jeannie--sitcom rerun
(8) $10,000 Pyramid
(43) Romper Room--local version of franchised children's show
(23) (61) Jack LaLanne
11:00
(3) Wizard of Odds
(5) Love, American Style--one-day delay
(8) Gambit
(23) Romper Room--apparently the franchisor, Claster Television, considered Akron a separate TV market and did not regard it as conflicting with the WUAB version, broadcast the previous half hour
(43) Coffee Shoppee--local women's show hosted by Alice Weston; "Shoppe" deliberately spelled with an extra "e" on the end, apparently in order for the two words to rhyme
(61) Newsroom--probably local
11:30
(3) Hollywood Squares
(5) (23) Brady Bunch--sitcom rerun
(8) Love of Life
(43) Romper Room (another episode or a repeat of an hour earlier?)
(61) Kimba--early Japanese anime children's show
11:55
(8) CBS News--Douglas Edwards
AFTERNOON
12:00
(3) Jeopardy
(5) (23) Password--version with original rules, still hosted by Allen Ludden
(8) WJW News (titled "City Camera" for many years)
(43) Real McCoys
(61) Banana Splits--rerun of 1968-70 Saturday-morning children's show
12:30
(3) Who, What or Where Game (cancelled two days later)
(5) WEWS News
(8) Search for Tomorrow
(23) Split Second--game show hosted by Tom Kennedy
(43) Movie--"Deep Valley," 1947
12:55
(3) NBC News--Edwin Newman
1:00
(3) Dinah's Place--tape-delayed from earlier in the day
(5) (23) All My Children
(8) Young and the Restless--tape-delayed from earlier
(61) I Love Lucy
1:30
(3) Three on a Match--game show hosted by Bill Cullen
(5) (23) Let's Make a Deal
(8) As the World Turns--then TV's highest-rated soap opera
(61) Dick Van Dyke
2:00
(3) Days of Our Lives
(5) (23) Newlywed Game
(8) Guiding Light
(61) Make Room for Daddy--sitcom rerun starring Danny Thomas
2:30
(3) Doctors
(5) (23) Girl in My Life--daytime update of "Queen for a Day"
(8) Edge of Night
(43) Barnaby--longtime Cleveland children's show hosted by Linn Sheldon that began on WKYC in 1957 and moved to WUAB in 1968; ran until 1990, a very long run for that genre
(61) New Zoo Revue--syndicated children's show
3:00
(3) Another World
(5) (23) General Hospital (still at that timeslot today)
(8) Price is Right
(43) Adventures of Superman--rerun of 1952-58 series, with George Reeves in the title role
(61) Magilla Gorilla--1960s Hanna-Barbera cartoon
3:30
(3) Return to Peyton Place--unsuccessful daytime adaptation of 1960s smash prime-time soap opera; two days later, NBC canceled the show
(5) (23) One Life to Live
(8) Match Game '73--less than a year old and already daytime's highest-rated show
(43) Speed Racer--cartoon
(61) Three Stooges--probably a single short with at least 7 minutes of commercials
4:00
(3) Somerset--soap that struggled over a 7-year existence
(5) That Girl--sitcom rerun
(8) Adventure Road--long-running daily travelogue; WWJ (now WDIV) in Detroit did something similar in the afternoons during this time with host George Pierrot
(23) Love, American Style--half-hour rerun
(25) Sesame Street
(43) Lost in Space--rerun
(61) Little Rascals--probably same format as "Three Stooges" at 3:30
4:30
(3) Beat the Clock--famous stunt game, syndicated and recorded in Canada
(5) Big Valley--rerun
(8) Merv Griffin (90-minute version)
(23) Tarzan--rerun of 1960s series
(61) Munsters--sitcom rerun
5:00
(3) Mod Squad--rerun of 1968-73 crime drama
(25) Misterogers (Neighborhood)
(43) Gilligan's Island--rerun
(61) Flintstones
5:30
(5) Bowling for Dollars--local version of game-show format popular among stations in the Northeast and Midwest; Don Webster, host
(23) Garner Ted Armstrong--televangelist affiliated with an apocalyptic, "end-times" church
(25) Zoom--children's activity-based show; revived during 1999-2005
(43) Patty Duke--sitcom rerun
EVENING
6:00
(3) WKYC News
(5) WEWS News
(8) WJW News
(23) WAKR News
(25) Coming of a Comet--documentary about the comet Kohoutek
(43) Gomer Pyle, USMC--sitcom rerun
(61) Lucy (Lucille Ball) Show
6:30
(3) NBC Nightly News--John Chancellor
(5) (23) ABC Evening News--Howard K. Smith, Harry Reasoner
(8) CBS Evening News--Walter Cronkite
(43) Green Acres--rerun
(61) Beverly Hillbillies--rerun; viewers could take their pick of one of the two "rural shows" CBS cancelled back in 1971
7:00
(3) WKYC News--station was one of the few in the Eastern Time Zone to run a local newscast in this timeslot; WKYC revived a 7 p.m. newscast in 2000
(5) To Tell the Truth--syndicated version hosted by Garry Moore
(8) Truth or Consequences--Bob Barker in his 17th year of hijinks and stunts; the show would continue in production for another year and a half
(23) The Man from U.N.C.L.E.--rerun
(25) Electric Company--fondly-remembered children's reading-skills show; featured humorous sketches in the lessons
(43) Hogan's Heroes--rerun; first episode of one-hour block
(61) Mission: Impossible--rerun
7:30
(3) Wait till Your Father Gets Home--syndicated adult cartoon by Hanna-Barbera; essentially, an animated "All in the Family"
(5) To be announced (WEWS normally ran a so-called "checkerboard" variety of syndie games and family shows in the slot)
(8) Dating Game--syndicated; had been cancelled six months earlier on ABC daytime
(25) French Chef--Julia Child came on a bit too late to help housewives with their dinner preparations (!)
(43) Hogan's Heroes (see 7:00 above)
8:00
(3) Adam-12--durable Jack Webb-packaged half-hour show about two cops on the L.A. beat; perhaps a forerunner of "COPS"
(5) (23) Dick Clark Special--probably a retrospective of the 1950s and 1960s
(8) Sonny and Cher--last season for the duo (and the last year of their marriage)
(25) Bill Moyers' Journal--the veteran journalist kicked around PBS while not working for CBS or other projects
(43) Untouchables--rerun; the show that caused such an outcry in the early 1960s had been rendered pretty harmless by the passage of time (and vastly more violent TV fare therein)
(61) Night Gallery--rerun of early 1970s Rod Serling anthology on NBC
8:30
(3) NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie--"Tenafly" (essentially a rip-off of the "Shaft" phenomenon featuring an African-American gumshoe; this was the last episode, and NBC would ditch the midweek version of its successful Sunday night feature at the end of the season)
(5) (23) Movie--"A Brand New Life," 1973 (made-for-TV)
(25) Conflicts--anthology series
9:00
(8) Cannon
(43) Movie--"From Hell to Texas," 1958
(61) Movie--"Captain Horatio Hornblower," 1951
9:30
(25) Woman--feminist-oriented women's documentary/interview series
10:00
(3) Love Story--romantic anthology; as far as can be determined, had no relation to the 1970 Erich Segal movie (final episode)
(5) (23) Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law--crime drama starring Arthur Hill
(8) Kojak--the 1973-74 TV season's greatest new hit (by a long shot)
(25) Firing Line--William F. Buckley, Jr.'s weekly forum for intellectual and political-oriented discussion
11:00
(3) WKYC News
(5) WEWS News
(8) WJW News
(23) Bill Anderson--syndicated country-music show; WAKR ran a "checkerboard" of similar Nashville-based shows in this timeslot on weeknights
(43) Boris Karloff Presents--rerun of his "Thriller," which ran from 1960 to 1962 on NBC
(61) Avengers--rerun of British hybrid of crime drama and fantasy
11:30
(3) Tonight Show--Johnny Carson
(5) (23) Wide World of Entertainment--"On Location -- Rod Serling at Los Angeles International Airport" (This is remarkable--Serling appears on two different shows in the Cleveland market on the same day, neither of which is "Twlight Zone")
(8) Movie--"Crimson Pirate," 1952
1:00 a.m.
(3) Tomorrow--Tom Snyder (once a news anchor at Cleveland's channel 3 in the early 1960s, then known as KYW-TV)
(5) Inner Circle--unknown
1:30
(5) WEWS News
1:40
(8) Movie--"The Last Wagon," 1956