RETRO: New York City TV - Friday, Jan. 31, 1969 (Other VHF's)

[wbhist]

(SOURCE: TV Guide, New York Metropolitan Edition, Jan. 25-31, 1969 issue;
additional movie show title info extrapolated from The New York Times)
(C) - in color

WNEW-TV 5 (Independent; owned by Metromedia Television)
7:30 Yoga for Health
8:00 Casper the Friendly Ghost (C)
8:30 The Bob McAllister Show (C)
9:30 Movie: "Street of Chance" (1942) - Burgess Meredith, Claire Trevor
11:00 Sea Hunt - "The Destroyers" [original airdate 1/21/61]
11:30 Dear Alan (host: Alan Burke) (C)
12:00 Fortune Movie: "Lost" (1955) - David Farrar, David Knight
2:00 The Skitch Henderson Show (guests: Charlie Callas, Denny McLain Quartet, and Fran Lee) (C)
3:30 Alfred Hitchcock Presents - "My Brother, Richard" [original airdate 1/20/57]
4:00 The Outer Limits - "Counterweight" [original airdate 12/26/64]
5:00 My Little Margie - "Vern's Vacation" [original airdate 11/24/54]
5:30 Mister Ed - "Kiddy Park" [original airdate 1/26/61]

6:00 Hazel - "Barney Hatfield, Where Are You?" (C) [original airdate 10/18/62]
6:30 My Favorite Martian - "When You Get Back Home to Mars, Are You Going to Get It" (C) [original airdate 2/27/66]
7:00 I Love Lucy - "Ricky Has Labor Pains" [original airdate 1/5/53]
7:30 Truth or Consequences (host: Bob Barker) (C)
8:00 Pay Cards! (celebrity guest: Bob Melvin) (C)
8:30 The Merv Griffin Show (scheduled: Estelle Parsons, Julie Budd, and comedians Lewis & Christy) (C)
10:00 The 10 O'Clock News with Bill Jorgensen (C)
11:00 The Donald O'Connor Show (guests: Gisele MacKenzie, Gene Baylos, Tom Tully, Don Francis, Irene Papas) (C)
12:30 Movie (repeat of 9:30 A.M. showing)
2:00 News / sign-off (C)

WOR-TV 9 (Independent; owned by RKO General)
7:55 News and Weather
8:00 Cartoons (C)
9:00 Romper Room (C)
10:00 The Joe Franklin Show (guests: Thurmond Scott and Pamela Duncan) (C)
11:30 Journey to Adventure (a tour of the Canary Islands) (C)

12:00 9 at Noon with John Wingate and Mary Helen McPhillips (C)
12:30 Movie: "The Great Gildersleeve" (1942) - Harold Peary, Jane Darwell
2:00 The Loretta Young Theatre - "New Slant" [original airdate 10/14/56]
2:30 Kingdom of the Sea - "Torpedo" (C)
3:00 Fireside Theatre - "Handcuffed" [original airdate 11/20/51]
3:30 The Stella Longo Jackpot Movie: "Tread Softly Stranger" (1958) - Diana Dors, Terence Morgan
5:30 The Real McCoys - "Beware a Smart Woman" [original airdate 10/13/60]

6:00 Gilligan's Island - "New Neighbor Sam" [original airdate 4/3/65]
6:30 I Spy - "Rome . . . Take Away Three" [original airdate 12/28/66]
7:30 The Steve Allen Show (guests: Jack Benny, Jayne Meadows, Janis Ian, Rex Reed) (C)
9:00 What's My Line? (panel: Gene Rayburn, Dr. Joyce Brothers, Jack Cassidy, Arlene Francis) (C)
9:30 Million Dollar Movie: "Ladies Who Do" (1963) - Robert Morley, Peggy Mount
11:00 The Flick: "The Mark" (1961) - Stuart Whitman, Maria Schell, Rod Steiger
1:30 Film (C)
1:45 News and Weather
followed by Moment of Prayer / sign-off

WPIX-TV 11 (Independent; licensor WPIX, Inc., owned by New York Daily News)
7:30 Biography - "Thomas Edison" [originally aired on WNBC-TV 5/28/62]
8:00 Gumby (C)
8:30 Winky Dink / Hercules (C)
9:00 Krazy Kat (C)
9:30 Jack La Lanne (C)
10:00 Movie: "Adventures of Robinson Crusoe" (1954) - Dan O'Herlihy, James Fernandez
11:30 Kimba (C)

12:00 Underdog (C)
12:30 Rocky and Bullwinkle (C)
1:00 The Little Rascals (listed as in color)
1:30 Continental Miniatures - "The San Remo Song Festival" (Part 2)
2:00 Movie: Gas House Kids" (1946) - Robert Lowery, Teala Loring, Billy Halop
3:00 Captain Scarlet (C)
3:30 Speed Racer (C)
4:00 Abbott & Costello
4:30 Skippy - "Double Trouble" (C) [original Australian airdate 4/8/68]
5:00 Adventures of Superman - "The Dog Who Knew Superman" [original airdate 11/14/53]
5:30 The Munsters - "A Visit from Johann" [original airdate 3/17/66]

6:00 Batman - "The Penguin's Nest" [original airdate 12/7/66]
6:30 Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea - "Deadly Invasion" (C) [original airdate 11/20/66]
7:30 F Troop - "O'Rourke vs. O'Reilly" [original airdate 12/7/65]
8:00 The Patty Duke Show - [possibly] "Every Girl Should Be Married" [original airdate 1/6/65]
8:30 Perry Mason - "The Case of the Renegade Refugee" [original airdate 12/9/61]
9:30 Password (guests: Carol Burnett and Roger Smith; originally aired during week of 12/5/66) (C)
10:00 Run for Your Life - "Tell It to the Dead" (C) [original airdate 4/11/67]
11:00 News - Lee Nelson (C)
11:30 Tonight at the Movies: "Force of Evil" (1949) - John Garfield, Beatrice Pearson
1:00 News - Lee Nelson (C)
followed by sign-off

WNDT 13 (NET; owned by Educational Broadcasting Corporation)
8:55 Classroom

12:00 Classroom
4:45 The Friendly Giant (long-running Canadian children's series, hosted by Bob Homme)
5:00 Misterogers' Neighborhood
5:30 What's New (a beaver family at work; techniques of pantomime; bats of Carlsbad Caverns)

6:00 Capitol Report
6:30 Ingles Para Todos
7:00 New Jersey Speaks - "Silent Movie Festival" (last of three parts; focuses on two Mack Sennett comedians, Billy Bevan and Andy Clyde)
7:30 The World We Live In - "The Sun Watchers" (C)
8:00 Washington: Week in Review (C)
8:30 NET Playhouse - "The Blood Knot" (with Athol Fugard and Charles Hyatt)
10:00 Newsfront with Mitchell Krauss
followed by sign-off

 

[Stanislav]

WPIX-TV 11 (Independent; licensor WPIX, Inc., owned by New York Daily News)

9:00 Krazy Kat (C)

Hmmm...I don't recall a whole half-hour devoted solely to Krazy Kat; but then, I would normally be in school at this hour. What I do recall is a few years earlier, when WPIX used to run a selection of those 1960s King Features cartoons based on comic strips (including Krazy Kat, Snuffy Smith, and Beetle Bailey) right after sign-on. Watching the sign-on and following cartoons was a daily ritual for me as I was getting ready for school.

Krazy Kat never made it in animation without losing all the charm, surrealism, and depth of George Herrimann's wonderful strip. The old silent era Kats had basically nothing to do with the strip (one series even had Krazy looking like a feline Mickey Mouse) -- Herrimann was happy to get paid for the use (or misuse) of the characters, but had zero creative input. The 60s toons, made a couple decades after Herrimann's demise, at least made an attempt to be more faithful to the legacy of the strip, but were still sanitized, homogenized, mass-produced fluff -- like a McDonald's hamburger instead of prime rib.

5:30 The Munsters - "A Visit from Johann" [original airdate 3/17/66]

Johann, as I recall, being a cruder, less successful version of Herman also created by Dr. Frankenstein. It gave Fred Gwynne, in the dual role, a chance to act more like the classic Frankenstein monster, though still in a comedic context.

 

[wbhist]

Hmmm...I don't recall a whole half-hour devoted solely to Krazy Kat; but then, I would normally be in school at this hour. What I do recall is a few years earlier, when WPIX used to run a selection of those 1960s King Features cartoons based on comic strips (including Krazy Kat, Snuffy Smith, and Beetle Bailey) right after sign-on. Watching the sign-on and following cartoons was a daily ritual for me as I was getting ready for school.

Krazy Kat never made it in animation without losing all the charm, surrealism, and depth of George Herrimann's wonderful strip. The old silent era Kats had basically nothing to do with the strip (one series even had Krazy looking like a feline Mickey Mouse) -- Herrimann was happy to get paid for the use (or misuse) of the characters, but had zero creative input. The 60s toons, made a couple decades after Herrimann's demise, at least made an attempt to be more faithful to the legacy of the strip, but were still sanitized, homogenized, mass-produced fluff -- like a McDonald's hamburger instead of prime rib.

It's possible that Krazy Kat was simply the overall umbrella for WPIX's airing of those King Features 'toons. Not unlike the "Bugs Bunny" heading used by WNEW-TV over the years although other characters were aired under that umbrella. But then, when William F. Buckley, Jr.'s Firing Line ran on WOR-TV from its 1966 debut until 1971, the heading TV Guide used for the show was Buckley's name. Period.

 

[John Murphy]

WPIX-TV 11 (Independent; licensor WPIX, Inc., owned by New York Daily News)

9:00 Krazy Kat (C)

Hmmm...I don't recall a whole half-hour devoted solely to Krazy Kat; but then, I would normally be in school at this hour. What I do recall is a few years earlier, when WPIX used to run a selection of those 1960s King Features cartoons based on comic strips (including Krazy Kat, Snuffy Smith, and Beetle Bailey) right after sign-on. Watching the sign-on and following cartoons was a daily ritual for me as I was getting ready for school.

I had mentioned this to wbhist privately today myself, though I suspected what he posted above.

During the mid-'60s,there was a show called Snuffy Smith that aired on WPIX at 11 PM weekdays. I myself recall the King Features cartoons during the early '70s weekday mornings.

 

[Tim L]

That was probably the case with the King Cartoons-The whole set syndicated under one character title. Not unlike "The New Hanna Barbera Cartoon Show" of the same period..Titled,"Wally Gator", "Touche Turtle" Or "Lippy The Lion" if they were in stand-alone half hours..

I bought a 600 Cartoon set a while back, which has quite a few samples of the "King Features" Cartoons in the mix..

 

[John Murphy]

That was probably the case with the King Cartoons-The whole set syndicated under one character title. Not unlike "The New Hanna Barbera Cartoon Show" of the same period..Titled,"Wally Gator", "Touche Turtle" Or "Lippy The Lion" if they were in stand-alone half hours..

I bought a 600 Cartoon set a while back, which has quite a few samples of the "King Features" Cartoons in the mix..

I saw a few of them last year myself on YouTube. In fact, my little niece got a kick out of Ignatz constantly pelting Krazy Kat with bricks in one of the cartoons.

 

[wbhist]

A few important corrections, based on looking at New York Times and Daily News listings (in some areas TV Guide is not all that reliable):
- The title of the series at 2 P.M. on WNEW-TV at this time was Skitch Henderson's New York.
- The 11 P.M. newscast on WPIX was called - yep, you guessed it - The Eleven O'Clock News with Lee Nelson.

 

[John Murphy]

A few important corrections, based on looking at New York Times and Daily News listings (in some areas TV Guide is not all that reliable):
- The title of the series at 2 P.M. on WNEW-TV at this time was Skitch Henderson's New York.
- The 11 P.M. newscast on WPIX was called - yep, you guessed it - The Eleven O'Clock News with Lee Nelson.

Thanks for the info, wbhist. I'll update the WNEW log at Yahoo! today.