RETRO: CLEVELAND MARKET, JUNE 8, 1968

[BD Sullivan]

Robert F. Kennedy's funeral was on this date. Originally, the funeral and burial were expected to simply preempt the morning and afternoon shows on the network and affiliates. However, because the train carrying Kennedy's body was moving much slower (because of people along the tracks from New York to Washington), the entire evening of programming was also wiped out. Here is what was supposed to air before the assassination:

WKYC Ch. 3 Cleveland (NBC)
AM
7:00 Barnaby Theatre (cartoon)
9:00 Super 6 (cartoon)
9:30 Super President (cartoon)
10:00 The Flintstones (cartoon)
10:30 Samson & Goliath (cartoon)
11:00 Birdman & the Galaxy Trio (cartoon)
11:30 Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel Show (cartoon)
PM
12:00 Top Cat (cartoon)
12:30 Panorama (local stories)
1:00 Movie "Our Little Girl" (1935) (Shirley Temple movie)
2:00 MLB Game of the Week: St. Louis at Cincinnati
5:00 Car and Track
5:30 Northwest Passage (rerun)
6:00 Montage (local stories)
6:30 NBC News (The Frank McGee Report)
7:00 Local News
7:30 The Saint (rerun)
8:30 Get Smart (rerun)
9:00 Movie "Girls, Girls, Girls" (1962)
11:00 Local News
11:20 Movie "The Benny Goodman Story" (1955)
AM
1:00 Movie "Tension at Table Rock" (1956)

WEWS Ch. 5 Cleveland (ABC)
AM
8:30 Herald of Truth
9:00 The New Casper Cartoon Show (cartoon)
9:30 Uncle Al (kids show)
10:00 Spiderman (cartoon)
10:30 Journey to the Center of the Earth (cartoon)
11:00 King Kong (cartoon)
11:30 George of the Jungle (cartoon)
PM
12:00 The Beatles (cartoon)
12:30 American Bandstand
1:00 Parade of Champions: Professional Putt-Putt golf champions
1:30 Cleveland Golf Open Preview
2:00 Wide World of Sports: Champions Track Meet
3:30 World Drag Racing Championships
4:00 Special: "The Racers: Craig and Lee Breedlove" (documentary on husband & wife racing team)
5:00 Upbeat (syndicated music/dance show--filmed in Cleveland)
6:00 John Gary (musical/variety show)
7:00 NFL Action
7:30 The Dating Game
8:00 The Newlywed Game
8:30 The Lawrence Welk Show
9:30 The Hollywood Palace: George Burns host
10:30 Harness Racing (live) from suburban Northfield Park
11:00 Local News
11:25 Movie "The Star" (1953)

WJW Ch. 8 Cleveland (CBS)
AM
7:00 Sunrise Semester
7:30 Cartoons
8:00 Underdog (cartoon)
8:30 Ruff & Ready (cartoon)
9:00 Frankenstein Jr. (cartoon)
9:30 Herculoids (cartoon)
10:00 Shazzan (cartoon)
10:30 Space Ghost and Dino Boy (cartoon)
11:00 Moby Dick & Mighty Mightor (cartoon)
11:30 Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure (cartoon)
PM
12:30 Johnny Quest (cartoon)
1:00 The Lone Ranger (rerun)
1:00 Road Runner (cartoon)
2:00 Cleveland Indians Baseball: Indians @ Detroit Tigers (Harry Jones and Mel Allen broadcasters)
5:00 The Munsters (rerun)
6:00 Wagon Train (rerun)
6:30 The Outer Limits (rerun)
7:00 Death Valley Days (rerun)
7:30 The Prisoner (second episode)
8:30 My Three Sons (rerun)
9:00 Hogan's Heroes (rerun)
9:30 Petticoat Junction (rerun)
10:00 Mannix (rerun)
11:00 Local News
11:25 Movie "Never So Few" (1959)
AM
1:00 Movie "Colonel Effingham's Raid" (1946)

WKBF Channel 61 Cleveland (IND)
AM
10:30 Movie "Devil Goddess" (1955)
12:00 Roller Derby
1:00 Wrestling
2:00 Dennis the Menace (rerun)
2:30 Rawhide (rerun)
3:00 One Step Beyond (rerun)
4:00 The Twilight Zone (rerun)
4:30 Horse Racing from Belmont Park
5:00 Movie "The Adventure of Captain Fabian" (1951)
7:00 Combat! (rerun)
8:00 Hazel (rerun)
8:30 Woody Woodbury (syndicated talk/variety show)
10:00 Alan Douglas (local talk show)
11:30 Alan Burke (syndicated talk show)

 

[Cincinnati Kid]

Some may not know of or otherwise recall that Mel Allen was one of the announcers for Indians' televised games in the 1968 season.

 

[Tim L]

"Montage" was syndicated, at least to the NBC-Owned and operated stations and often did stories of national interest..Producer Dennis Goulden is working with Cleveland State University's Memory Project to restore many of the episodes and make them freely available online..

The "Lone Ranger" on WJW-TV 8 was most likely a Saturday Morning Cartoon from CBS, in the middle of a 3-year run..

 

[johnbasalla]

Unless there was an "Outer Limits" cartoon show that I don't know about, how could "The Outer Limits" run for a half-hour when the series was an hour long? I find it hard to believe that they'd play half an episode and then come back for the second half the next day or next week. So, something has to give. Is there a way to research these listings further?

 

[johnbasalla]

Should have mentioned that "The Outer Limits" is listed as on WJW-TV8 from 6:30 - 7:00pm.

 

[BD Sullivan]

Unless there was an "Outer Limits" cartoon show that I don't know about, how could "The Outer Limits" run for a half-hour when the series was an hour long? I find it hard to believe that they'd play half an episode and then come back for the second half the next day or next week. So, something has to give. Is there a way to research these listings further?

When I saw it, I said the same thing. I have no idea what it was--I doubt they chopped out 25 minutes of the plot.

 

[bpatrick]

Not only that, WJW's listings show "The Munsters" for an hour
but no indication if this was a case of two episodes back-to-back;
likewise, "Wagon Train" is shown as a half-hour, when it aired for
an hour every season it was on except 1963-64, when it expanded
to 90 minutes for one season. Some double-checking is definitely
in order here.

"The Lone Ranger" at 1 PM is the animated version that aired on
CBS.

 

[BD Sullivan]

Not only that, WJW's listings show "The Munsters" for an hour
but no indication if this was a case of two episodes back-to-back;
likewise, "Wagon Train" is shown as a half-hour, when it aired for
an hour every season it was on except 1963-64, when it expanded
to 90 minutes for one season. Some double-checking is definitely
in order here.

That was a typo on my part. Wagon Train began at 5:30. The Outer Limits listing is what was printed in the PD archives.

 

[Corky Marlowe]

Some may not know of or otherwise recall that Mel Allen was one of the announcers for Indians' televised games in the 1968 season.

Was that the only year Allen did Tribe games? I know he'd been fired by the Yankees some years earlier, I think when CBS bought them.

 

[BD Sullivan]

Some may not know of or otherwise recall that Mel Allen was one of the announcers for Indians' televised games in the 1968 season.

Was that the only year Allen did Tribe games? I know he'd been fired by the Yankees some years earlier, I think when CBS bought them.

Yes it was, and part of the reason was he was pretty detached from the team, making numerous mistakes and acting as if he'd rather be elsewhere. Most of the games were shown on weekends, which made Mel's schedule even crazier, because when they were home contests, he flew back to New York to tape a show after the Saturday afternoon game, then flew back to Cleveland before flying back to New York to tape a Sunday night show. After the season, Mel had the audacity to say he didn't want to be considered for the job again in '69, when the fact was that he wasn't going to be hired back.