Retro: Dallas/Fort Worth - Friday, Novemember 21, 1980

[RandTV]

A red-letter date in TV history!

Sources: Dallas Morning News and Fort Worth Star-Telegram

4 KDFW (CBS)
AM
5:00 Channel 4 News
5:30 Sunrise Semester
6:00 Captain Kangaroo
7:00 Channel 4 News
7:30 Morning
8:30 Rhoda
9:00 Jeffersons
9:30 Alice
10:00 The Price is Right
11:00 The Young and the Restless
PM
12:00 Channel 4 News
12:30 Search for Tomorrow
1:00 As the World Turns
2:00 Guiding Light
3:00 Prisoner: Cell Block H
3:30 Newlywed Game
4:00 Sanford and Son
4:30 Good Times
5:00 Live on 4 at Five
5:30 CBS Evening News
6:00 Channel 4 News
6:30 Family Feud
7:00 Incredible Hulk
8:00 Dukes of Hazzard
9:00 Dallas ("Who Done It" The landmark episode everyone has been waiting for!)
10:00 Channel 4 News
10:30 All in the Family
11:00 CBS Late Movie: "Billy Jack" (1971, Drama/Action) - Tom Laughlin, Delores Taylor
NOTE - Several other CBS stations, including their O&O's, aired "Freebie and the Bean" (1974, Comedy/Action) for the CBS Late Movie.
AM
1:00 Channel 4 News replay
1:30 4-Country
2:00 Sign-off

5 KXAS (NBC)
AM
6:00 Charlie Rose AM
6:30 Action News
7:00 Today
9:00 Charlie Rose
9:30 Donahue
10:30 Password Plus - Tom Kennedy; Guests: Audrey Landers, Jack Jones
11:00 Card Sharks
11:30 The Doctors
PM
12:00 Action News
12:30 Days of Our Lives
1:30 Another World
2:30 Texas
3:30 Merv Griffin - Guests: Eddie Rabbitt, Patrick Duffy, Dick Shawn
4:30 M*A*S*H
5:00 Action News
5:30 NBC Nightly News
6:00 Action News
6:30 Dallas Cowboys Weekly
7:00 Daredevils - Robert Conrad, Gary Collins
9:00 NBC Magazine with David Brinkley
10:00 Action News
10:30 Tonight - Guests: Carl Reiner, Raquel Welch
11:30 Midnight Special - Hosts: Sissy Spacek, Levon Helm; Guests: Beverly D'Angelo, Phyllis Boyens, Anne Murray, Queen, the Spinners, Rupert Holmes, the Cate Brothers Band
AM
1:00 Action News replay
1:30 Day by Day (sermon)
1:35 Sign-off

8 WFAA (ABC)
AM
6:00 Daybreak
6:15 Lift
6:30 Peppermint Place
7:00 Good Morning America
9:00 Hour Magazine
10:00 Love Boat
11:00 Family Feud
11:30 Ryan's Hope
PM
12:00 All My Children
1:00 One Life to Live
2:00 General Hospital
3:00 Edge of Night
3:30 Movie: "Love Me Tender" (1956, Drama/Musical) - Elvis Presley (film debut), Debra Paget, Richard Egan
5:00 News 8 at Five
5:30 ABC World News Tonight
6:00 News 8 at Six
6:30 PM Magazine
7:00 Benson
7:30 I'm a Big Girl Now
8:00 ABC Friday Night Movie: "Convoy" (1978, Drama/Action) - Kris Kristofferson, Ali MacGraw, Burt Young, Ernest Borgnine
10:00 News 8 Update
10:30 Movie: "The Magnificent Seven" (1960, Western) - Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughan, James Coburn, Brad Dexter, Horst Bucholz (Hollywood film debut)
AM
1:00 Fridays - Musical guests: Heart
2:10 Movies (to dawn)

11 KTVT (Ind.)
AM
6:40 Morning Report
7:00 Slam Bang Theater
8:00 Comedy Capers
8:30 New Zoo Revue
9:00 Leave It to Beaver
9:30 My Three Sons
10:00 Make Room for Daddy
10:30 Love, American Style
11:00 Your New Day
11:30 Metroplex News
PM
12:30 Movie: "The Death Policy" (UK title: "Lady Killer") (1973, part of the British anthology series "Thriller") - Barbara Feldon, Robert Powell
2:30 Popeye and Friends
3:30 Battle of the Planets
4:00 Bugs and Porky
5:00 Happy Days Again
5:30 What's Happening!!
6:00 Welcome Back, Kotter
6:30 Happy Days Again
7:00 Gunsmoke
8:00 Movie: "Victory at Entebbe" (1976, Action/Drama) - Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Dreyfuss, Anthony Hopkins, Linda Blair, Helmut Berger
10:00 Mary Tyler Moore
10:30 Bob Newhart
11:00 Movie: "Guns for San Sebastian" (1968, Action/Adventure) - Anthony Quinn, Anjanette Comer, Charles Bronson, Sam Jaffe
AM
1:05 News
1:15 Meditations
1:20 Sign-off

13 KERA (PBS)
AM
5:45 Weather
6:00 Captioned ABC News
6:30 American History 1
7:30 American Government 2
8:00 News Day
8:30 Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
9:00 Sesame Street
10:00 Electric Company
10:30 Instructional TV
12:00 American Goverment 2
12:30 3-2-1 Contact
1:00 Instructional TV
3:00 Psychology
3:30 Over Easy
4:00 3-2-1 Contact
4:30 Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
5:00 Sesame Street
6:00 Electric Company
6:30 MacNeil/Lehrer Report
7:00 News Day
7:30 Wall $treet Week
8:00 Washington Week in Review
8:30 Here's to Your Health
9:00 Bill Moyers' Journal - Guest: Hamilton Jordan
10:00 Cosmos: "Travels in Space and Time"
11:00 Dick Cavett - Guest: Jessamyn West
AM
12:30 Sign-off

39 KXTX (Ind.)
AM
5:30 Ross Bagley
6:00 Romper Room
6:30 Tom & Jerry
7:00 Bugs Bunny and Friends
7:30 Popeye
8:00 Flintstones
8:30 Little Rascals
9:00 700 Club
10:30 Doris Day
11:00 Marcus Welby, M.D.
PM
12:00 Big Valley
1:00 Green Acres
1:30 Andy Griffith
2:00 Father Knows Best
2:30 Popeye and Bugs
3:00 Flintstones
3:30 Tom & Jerry/Woody Woodpecker Hour
4:30 Scooby-Doo
5:00 Wonder Woman
6:00 Star Trek
7:00 Rockford Files
8:00 Let's Make a Deal
8:30 Independent Network News
9:00 700 Club
10:30 Movie: "They Drive by Night" (1940, Film Noir) - George Raft, Ann Sheridan, Ida Lupino, Humphrey Bogart
AM
12:30 Look Up (sermon)
12:35 Sign-off

 

[RandTV]

One other station, KNBN Channel 30, was all financial and stock market coverage. The one exception was The John Davidson Show at 4:30 PM.

As most of you know, that Dallas episode "Who Done It" was crowned the highest-rated prime time broadcast of all time, breaking the previous record holder, the 8th and final episode of Roots from January 30, 1977. It enjoyed that reign for only two years and three months when it was unseated by the M*A*S*H finale "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen", which retains that reign to this day!

This was also the day of the deadly fire at the MGM Grand (now Bally's) in Las Vegas. For those who perished, I bet most of them were anxiously looking forward to watching Dallas that night.

 

[Ccook55]

Rolling Stone on the Dallas episode in their Dubious Achievement Awards: "Bobby discovered in shower. Where's Norman Bates when you need him?"

 

[SteveRichards]

4 KDFW (CBS)

11:00 CBS Late Movie: "Billy Jack" (1971, Drama/Action) - Tom Laughlin, Delores Taylor
NOTE - Several other CBS stations, including their O&O's, aired "Freebie and the Bean" (1974, Comedy/Action) for the CBS Late Movie.

KDFW was likely running The CBS Late Movie a week behind at 11 p.m., as opposed to the network time of 10:30 p.m. Some CBS affiliates that delayed The CBS Late Movie did it on a one-week delay, but some did it on a one-day delay. I think WTVF in Nashville did a same-night delay, but WTVF delayed The CBS Late Movie to 11:30 p.m. (CT) (as opposed to 11 p.m.), which was an exception. I could very well be wrong, but to my knowledge, WTVF was the only CBS affiliate allowed by the network to delay The CBS Late Movie to 11:30 (CT).

 

[RandTV]

KDFW was likely running The CBS Late Movie a week behind at 11 p.m., as opposed to the network time of 10:30 p.m. Some CBS affiliates that delayed The CBS Late Movie did it on a one-week delay, but some did it on a one-day delay. I think WTVF in Nashville did a same-night delay, but WTVF delayed The CBS Late Movie to 11:30 p.m. (CT) (as opposed to 11 p.m.), which was an exception. I could very well be wrong, but to my knowledge, WTVF was the only CBS affiliate allowed by the network to delay The CBS Late Movie to 11:30 (CT).

Any idea what the cause of that delay was? Perhaps the actors' strike of that year?

 

[SteveRichards]

KDFW tape-delayed The CBS Late Movie so they could air a syndicated rerun of All in the Family at 10:30. CBS fed The CBS Late Movie to affiliates at 10:30 CT.

 

[TexasTom]

KDFW tape-delayed The CBS Late Movie so they could air a syndicated rerun of All in the Family at 10:30. CBS fed The CBS Late Movie to affiliates at 10:30 CT.

Delaying the late night programming of their networks in favor of syndicated programming was very common practice for both CBS and ABC affiliates prior to the mid-nineties. This was especially true in the Central and Mountain time zones, where that half hour at 10:30 could be very profitably filled with syndicated programming that would often get better ratings than the network programming that would have otherwise aired at that time. In many markets, syndicated sitcom reruns on the CBS or ABC affiliate would outrate the first half hour of the "Tonight Show" on NBC.