Retro: New Orleans - Thursday, September 20, 1973

[RandTV]

The day Jim Croce was killed in a plane crash in Natchitoches, LA after a concert, as well as the "Battle of the Sexes" tennis match.

Source: New Orleans Times-Picayune

4 WWL (CBS)
AM
6:00 Prayer
6:05 In the Know
6:15 Town & Country Journal
6:30 Sunrise Semester
6:55 Spanish Eyewitness News
7:00 CBS Morning News - Hughes Rudd, Sally Quinn
8:00 Captain Kangaroo
9:00 The Joker's Wild
9:30 $10,000 Pyramid - Guests: Jo Anne Worley, Ed Asner
10:00 To Tell the Truth - Panel: Alan Alda, Peggy Cass, Bill Cullen, Kitty Carlisle
10:30 Love of Life
10:55 CBS Midday News - Douglas Edwards
11:00 The Young and the Restless
11:30 Search for Tomorrow
PM
12:00 Eyewitness News
12:30 As the World Turns
1:00 Guiding Light
1:30 Edge of Night
2:00 The Price is Right
2:30 Match Game '73 - Panel: McLean Stevenson, Loretta Switt, Stu Gilliam, Brett Somers, Richard Dawson, Ann Elder
3:00 Secret Storm
3:30 Gilligan's Island
4:00 Bonanza
5:00 Eyewitness News
5:30 CBS Evening News - Walter Cronkite
6:00 Eyewitness News
6:30 Truth or Consequences - Bob Barker
7:00 Waltons
8:00 CBS Thursday Night Movie: "Bonnie and Clyde" (1967, Biography/Crime Drama) - Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway
10:00 Eyewitness News
10:30 Mission: Impossible
11:30 CBS Late Movie: "Jack of Diamonds" (1967, Crime Drama/Adventure) - George Hamilton, Joseph Cotten

6 WDSU (NBC)
AM
6:15 Breakfast Edition
6:55 Earl Nightingale
7:00 Today - Barbara Walters, Frank McGee
9:00 Dinah's Place - Guest: Bobby Riggs (taped days or weeks prior to his tennis match with Billie Jean King later that night, in which he discussed)
9:30 Baffle - Dick Enberg; Guests: Jo Anne Worley, Vincent Price
10:00 Wizard of Odds - Alex Trebek (first US game show)
10:30 Hollywood Squares - Panel: Paul Lynde, Cliff Arquette (as Charley Weaver), Karen Valentine, Vincent Price, Nanette Fabray, John Davidson (host of 1986-89 version), Charo, Kent McCord, Florence Henderson
11:00 Jeopardy - Art Fleming
11:30 Who, What or Where Game - Art James
11:55 NBC Midday News (Edwin Newman)
PM
12:00 Midday
12:55 Earl Nightingale
1:00 Days of Our Lives
1:30 The Doctors
2:00 Another World
2:30 Return to Peyton Place
3:00 Movie: "Conflict" (1945, Drama/Mystery) - Humphrey Bogart, Alexis Smith, Sydney Greenstreet
5:00 Channel 6 News
5:30 NBC Nightly News - John Chancellor
6:00 Channel 6 News
6:30 Hollywood Squares (syndicated version; panel roster unknown except for Paul Lynde and Charley Weaver)
7:00 Flip Wilson - Guests: Buddy Hackett, Ruth Buzzi, Richard Pryor
8:00 Ironside
9:00 NBC Follies - Host: Sammy Davis Jr.; Guests: Michael Landon, Connie Stevens, Mickey Rooney
10:00 Channel 6 News
10:30 Tonight Show - Guests: Orson Bean, Carol Lynley, Ricky Segall (just joined The Partridge Family for that season, its last); Performers: Harry Chapin, Monti Rock
12:00 AM Reverend Ike

8 WVUE (ABC)
AM
6:15 Prayer
6:30 World of Life
7:00 Romper Room
7:30 New Zoo Revue
8:00 Ben Casey
9:00 Merv Griffin - Guests: Freddy Martin, Xavier Cugat, Woody Herman, Odia Coates, Jeanine Burnier
10:30 Brady Bunch
11:00 Password - Guests: Sandy Duncan, Peter Lawford
11:30 Split Second - Tom Kennedy
PM
12:00 Alec Gifford News (?)
12:30 Let's Make a Deal
1:00 Newlywed Game
1:30 Movie: "Sail a Crooked Ship" (1961, Crime Drama) - Robert Wagner, Dolores Hart, Carolyn Jones, Frankie Avalon, Frank Gorshin, Ernie Kovacs (final film, released one month before his fatal car crash)
3:00 Gomer Pyle
3:30 Flintstones
4:00 I Dream of Jeannie
4:30 Petticoat Junction
5:00 Alec Gifford News
5:30 Lucy Show
6:00 Alec Gifford Report
6:30 Police Surgeon
7:00 ABC Sports Special: "Battle of the Sexes" tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs from the Houston Astrodome with Howard Cosell as commentator.
9:00 Streets of San Francisco
10:00 Untouchables
11:00 Alex Gifford News
11:30 Movie: "Ride the Tiger" (1970, Action) - George Montgomery, Victoria Shaw, Marshall Thompson
1:30 AM News

12 WYES (PBS)
AM
9:00 Sesame Street
10:00 Educational Programs
PM
4:00 Mister Rogers
4:30 Electric Company
5:00 Sesame Street
6:00 Erica: On Crewel and Needlepoint
6:15 Theonie: On Greek Island Cooking
6:30 Man Builds, Man Destroys
7:00 City: A Study in Survival
7:30 Planning Transportation for People (live telecast of monthly meeting of the Governor's Advisory Committee for the Metropolitan New Orleans Transportation Program)
10:30 David Susskind

26 WGNO (Ind.)
PM
2:50 Green Light
3:00 Underdog
3:30 Jonny Quest
4:00 Speed Racer
4:30 Batman
5:00 Get Smart
5:30 Star Trek
6:30 Hogan's Heroes
7:00 Hogan's Heroes
7:30 Rifleman
8:00 Movie: "The Big Sky" (1952, Western) - Kirk Douglas, Dewey Martin, Elizabeth Threatt, Arthur Hunnicut
10:00 Honeymooners
10:30 Jack Paar Tonite

 

[Gregg.]

I notice on Independent station WGNO 26, there's a 10:30pm program called "Jack Paar Tonight." I didn't know that after quitting the Tonight Show, Paar apparently returned to late night TV a few years later? I guess this was a syndicated offering? It probably didn't last long.

 

[RandTV]

I notice on Independent station WGNO 26, there's a 10:30pm program called "Jack Paar Tonight." I didn't know that after quitting the Tonight Show, Paar apparently returned to late night TV a few years later? I guess this was a syndicated offering? It probably didn't last long.

Note the spelling "Tonite", to avoid any association from the NBC Tonight Show franchise.

 

[Ccook55]

Ah, a day before I turned 17. I remember the Riggs-King tennis match...watched it but didn't see what all the hoopla was about.

 

[TVandMoviefan1995]

About the listing on WVUE Ch. 8 back in '73 at 5:00 was the ABC Evening News then Alec Gifford with local news would be at 6:00pm instead of 5, because Channel 8 didn't add a 5pm newscast in that period until 1982

 

[RandTV]

About the listing on WVUE Ch. 8 back in '73 at 5:00 was the ABC Evening News then Alec Gifford with local news would be at 6:00pm instead of 5, because Channel 8 didn't add a 5pm newscast in that period until 1982

You may be right. It either could've been an error in the Times-Picayune's schedule, or it may have been a slight rescheduling due to the King vs. Riggs match.

 

[Phil Harmonic]

I was DJ-ing at WRNO, could not afford a hamburger!

 

[RandTV]

Regarding that day's Match Game '73 episode (2:30 PM on Ch. 4), it had been long believed to be the day their infamous "Batman" episode aired. The Mark Goodson Fandom's Match Game episode guide has recently changed that episode's airdate to Monday, September 17. The panelists were Bobby Van, his wife Elaine Joyce, Nanette Fabray, and the regulars Brett Somers, Charles Nelson Reilly, and Richard Dawson (passed away ten years ago today). It was likely the Watergate hearings that altered that schedule and some further research about it. Once I get some confirmations, I'll let you know which panel roster is correct.

 

[installLSC]

I notice on Independent station WGNO 26, there's a 10:30pm program called "Jack Paar Tonight." I didn't know that after quitting the Tonight Show, Paar apparently returned to late night TV a few years later? I guess this was a syndicated offering? It probably didn't last long.

Actually it was part of "ABC Wide World of Entertainment", a mix of talk and entertainment shows. WGNO must have picked it up when WVUE passed on the program. What I've read of it Paar thought it was still 1960 and not in a good way.
The program that interests me is that 5 minute Spanish news program on WWL. It's odd to think New Orleans had Spanish language news (even that short) when even the big LA stations didn't in 1973.

 

[RandTV]

Actually it was part of "ABC Wide World of Entertainment", a mix of talk and entertainment shows. WGNO must have picked it up when WVUE passed on the program. What I've read of it Paar thought it was still 1960 and not in a good way.
The program that interests me is that 5 minute Spanish news program on WWL. It's odd to think New Orleans had Spanish language news (even that short) when even the big LA stations didn't in 1973.

Wonder if WWL's Spanish report truncated the end of Sunrise Semester?