Retro: Philadelphia Sat, Apr 28, 1973

[Bluenoser]

from TV Guide-Philadelphia Metro edition

KYW 3-NBC
5:55 News
6:00 Across the Fence
6:30 Consultation (zero population growth's effects on adoption agencies)
7:00 How They Get That Way
7:30 Your Future is Now
8:00 Houndcats
8:30 Roman Holidays
9:00 Jetsons
9:30 Pink Panther
10:00 Underdog
10:30 Barkleys
11:00 Sealab 2020
11:30 Runaround
noon Challenge (guests Eric Webb of Narbeth, Samuel Magasiny of Cheltenham, Frank D'Amore of Roslyn, and Daniel Rothwell of parts unknown )
12:30 Flashbacks
1:00 Rollin' (on the River?) (guests Delaney and Bonnie & Friends)
1:30 David Frost Revue (taking aim at holidays)
2:00 Baseball Pre-Game
2:15 Baseball: the Battle of the Sox as Chicago travels to Fenway to take on Boston; alt game is KC-Detroit
5:00 Adventurer
5:30 Animal World (inside bee society)
6:00 News
6:30 NBC Nightly News
7:00 Lawrence Welk (Mexican melodies)
8:00 Emergency!
9:00 Movie "A Very Special Favor"
11:00 News
11:30 Movie "If a Man Answers"
1:00 News
1:05 Highway Patrol (bw)

WPVI 6-ABC
7:00 Living in a Nuclear Age
7:30 Chief Halftown
8:00 H.R. Pufnstuf
8:30 Jackson Five
9:00 Osmonds
9:30 Movie "Yogi's Ark Lark"
10:30 Brady Kids
11:00 Captain Noah
11:30 Kid Power
noon League of Women Voters Present Election '73
12:30 Vision On
1:00 Rap Up
1:30 American Bandstand (guest Sam Neely)
2:00 Focus
2:30 Action News Issues & Answers
3:00 Pilot Films "Rx for the Defense"/"Nightside"
5:00 ABC Wide World of Sports: National Special Olympics/Rugby League Cup: Leeds v St. Helens
6:30 News
7:00 Black Omnibus (Slappy White and Scoey Mitchell discuss black humor; music from Lavern Williams, Fred Hubbard, and the Caribbean All-Star Steel Band)
8:00 Here We Go Again
8:30 A Touch of Grace
9:00 Movie "The Defector"
11:00 News
11:30 Movie "The Pawnbroker" (bw)
2:00 Movie "Valley of the Doomed"
3:30 ABC News

WCAU 10-CBS
5:45 Town & Country
6:00 Sunrise Semester "Personality Theory and Creativity"
6:30 Best of Wake Up!
7:00 Sabrina the Teenage Witch
7:30 Amazing Chan & the Chan Clan
8:00 Gene London
9:30 Movie "Sandy's Jekyll and Hyde"
10:30 Josie & the Pussycats in Outer Space
11:00 Flintstones Comedy Hour
noon Archie's TV Funnies
12:30 Fat Albert & the Cosby Kids
1:00 CBS Children's Film Festival: taking a trip to France for 3 shorts-"Carole, I Love You"/"Thunderstorm"/"Clown"
2:00 ABA Playoffs
4:00 You Should'be Seen the One That Got Away (Virgil Ward and friends go fishing)
5:00 Eye on...Kensington (John Facenda)
6:00 News
6:30 CBS Evening News
7:00 UFO
8:00 All in the Family
8:30 Bridget Loves Bernie
9:00 Mary Tyler Moore
9:30 Bob Newhart
10:00 Carol Burnett (guest Valerie Harper)
11:00 News
11:30 Movie "Thunder Bay"
1:35 Movie "Twilight for the Gods"
4:00 Movie "Blackout" (bw/after the movie, 10 takes a page out of future sister station WCBS' playbook, signing-off at 5:35 and returning to the air 40 minutes later)

WHYY 12-PBS Wilmington/Philadelphia
8:30 Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
9:00 Sesame Street
10:00 Electric Company
10:30 Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
11:00 Sesame Street
noon Electric Company
12:30 Hodgepodge Lodge
1:00 Zoom
1:30 Turning Points (a visit to Ann Arbor MI, where weed is legal)
2:00 Soul! (guest Stokely Carmichael)
3:00 TV Garden Club
3:30 Thirty Minutes with...
4:00 Sesame Street
5:00 Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
5:30 Electric Company
6:00 Hodgepodge Lodge
6:30 Zoom
7:00 Festival in Mexico (Cesar Romero takes us on a tour)
7:30 Black Perspective on the News (Gov. Shapp is interviewed by KYW's Malcolm Poindexter and the Tribune's Pamala Haynes)
8:00 Movie "Oliver Twist" (bw)
10:30 David Susskind (wine-tasting contest/way-out rock stars)

WPHL 17-Ind
8:45 Bulletin Board
9:00 Viewpoint on Nutrition
9:30 Charles Blair's Better World
10:00 Black on White
10:30 Larena-Torres Spanish Program
11:30 Doctor Who "Day of the Daleks" (pt 2)
noon Movie "The Wild Dakotas" (bw)
1:30 Movie "The Magic Serpent"
3:00 Movie "Yongary, Monster of the Deep"
4:30 Flipside
5:00 One Step Beyond (bw)
5:30 NHL Action
6:00 Hee Haw (guests Patti Page and Charlie McCoy)
6:50 Baseball Pre-Game
7:00 Baseball: Phillies-Cincinnati
9:30 Movie "April Love"
11:30 12 O'Clock High (bw)
12:30 Charlie Chan (bw)
1:00 RJ's Different World
1:30 Bulletin Board

WNJS 23-NJN/PBS Camden
5pm Turning Points (as 12, 1:30pm)
6:00 Wall Street Week
6:30 World Press
7:00 Bill Moyers' Journal "Who Weeps for Rachel?" (study of rape victims)
7:30 Zoom
8:00 Movie "Oliver Twist" (bw)
10:30 Soul! (as 12, 2pm)

WTAF 29-Ind
7:55 Black History
8:00 Blue Ridge Quartet
8:30 Eastman Encores
9:00 Harry Bristow
10:00 Gospel Singing Jubilee
11:00 Georgie Woods
noon Wally's Workshop
12:30 Sports Action Pro-File (the Knicks' John Roche)
1:00 All Star Bowling
2:00 Roller Derby
3:00 Wrestling
4:00 Movie "Missile Monsters" (bw/movie version of serial Flying Disc Men from Mars)
5:30 Green Acres
6:00 I Dream of Jeannie
6:30 That Girl
7:00 Georgie Woods
8:00 Porter Wagoner (guest Ferlin Husky)
8:30 Country Place
9:00 Wilburn Brothers
9:30 Country Carnival
10:00 That Good Ole Nashville Music (guests Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn)
10:30 Superstars of Rock (performances from Davy Jones, Albert Hammond, Uriah Heep, Argent, and Osibisa)
11:00 Ranch Hope Hour

WKBS 48-Ind
8:30 Gospel News
9:00 Kathryn Kuhlman
9:30 Wrestling
10:30 Roller Game
noon Movie "Blondie's Holiday" (bw)
1:30 Movie "A Tale of Two Cities" (bw)
3:30 Movie "The Beast with Five Fingers" (bw)
5:00 Soul Train
6:00 Wild Wild West
7:00 Dick Van Dyke (bw)
7:30 McHale's Navy (bw)
8:00 Black America: What Now?
8:30 Movie "Shelock Holmes Faces Death" (bw)
10:00 Avengers
11:00 Movie "Castle on the Hudson" (bw)

 

[azumanga]

WCAU 10-CBS
9:30 Movie "Sandy's Jekyll and Hyde"

With very special guests Scooby Doo and the gang -- so special, not only they guest EVERY week, their name appears in the title of the movie program.

 

[njdave9]

Thanks for posting this. Do you have any other Philly listing from 1970 ?

 

[Markd]

Would love a weekday of 1973 in Philadelphia for spring as well as Summer (I vaguely recall summer schedule on 48 - first schedule I recall in fact) - maybe a Sunday as well - From north NJ and we had Philadelphia stations on cable systems but local paper carried listings sproadically till 1975 when they included all of the major Philadelphia stations till the mid 80's.

Thanks

 

[FredLeonard]

Thanks. Enjoy seeing these. Would be nice to see more weekday schedules. Seems that weekend and holiday "retros" pop up a lot.

I'm surprised at how many country music shows appeared here. I wouldn't have thought Philly was a big market for country music TV.

Sort of sad to see the great John Facenda relegated to weekend public service shows like Eye On Kensington (at the time a poor, ethnic White factory neighborhood).

Surprised to see Gene London on as late as 1973. Thought he was long-gone by then.

KYW's Saturday Night movie was called "Saturday Night at the Groovies." Replaced two years after this by SNL. But some interesting and quirky movies before then.

Interesting how great Saturday night was for TV then (especially CBS) and how the networks just throw it away now. Now the networks say people (especially in the money demos) won't stay home; back then TV kept people at home.

17, 29 and 48 were indies then, with some really low-budget but often clever local shows. 48 is pay to pray religion. Indies are gone and so are the kind local shows they used to have. Now it's all syndicated, all the time. Local TV just doesn't try very hard.

 

[Markd]

Gene London ended his show on WCAU TV in 1978. He would run like at 8 AM to 9 or 8:30 to 9:30 or 9 AM to 10 AM. The hour of CBS shows missed used to run in the 7 AM hour. WKBS TV and WTAF TV had some back and forth sign on time situations beginning in the fall of 74. From September to December of 74 both stations ha dcartoons 7-9 AM. Then in the Winter of 75, 48 reverted to 10 AM sign on and 29 reverted to 9:30 AM sign on. Then in the fall of 75 both stations began 7 AM sign on weekdays again - 29 with a 7-9 AM cartoon block and 48 with an hour cartoon block with PTL Club 8-10 AM. Winter of 76 once again WTAF 29 reverted to 9:30 AM sign ons and 48 though continued 8 AM sign on because of PTL Club. Then in the Fall of 75 Channel 48 began 5 AM sign on with PTL Club 5-7 AM and 29 signed on at 7 AM. Both stations had cartoons 7-9 AM. Both stations reverted again in January of 77 with 48 back to 8 AM sign on with PTL Club dropping the weekday morning cartoons once again and 29 WTAF on at 9:30 AM. Then in April of 77, PTL Club went to 29 WTAF and they then began 9 AM sign ons. 48 WKBS reverted to 10 AM sign ons once again.

Fall of 77, FINALLY 29 WTAF began 7 AM sign ons and cartoons 7-9 AM and STAYED WITH THEM eventually signing on 6:30 and 6 AM and going 24/7 in the mid 80's. Channel 48 again followed suit and began 7 AM sign ons again with cartoons 7-9 AM again. Channel 48 then reverted again to 10 AM sign ons the week of Christmas 1977 and would finally begin 6:30 AM sign ons and stick with them once and for all in the Fall of 78.

Channel 17 never went after these two stations and consistantly had no morning cartoon block and signed on at 10 AM all the way until the Winter of 1979. Then finally they began a 7 AM sign on and had a morning and afternoon kids' block. But cartoons were not to last long on Channel 17. They trimmed the afternoon cartoons in November of 79 to one hour and dumped them altogether in January of 1980. They kept the morning cartoons throughout 1980. Then in 1981 they cut those down to one hour. By the end of 1981 Channel 17 left the kids' business altogether taking a WOR-TV/KTLA Los Angeles/KHJ TV Los Angeles/KCPQ Tacoma approach and focus on drama shows, movies, and a few sitcoms.

Then in 1983 when WKBS TV went dark, Channel 17 picked up ,ost of Channel 48's cartoons like post 48/pre 41 Bugs Bunny/Porky Pig, Woody Woodpecker, Casper, Pink Panther, Inspector Gadget, eventually Flintstones and half a dozen old sitcoms from Columbia and MCA and Paramount Like Munsters, Beaver, Bewitched, Dennis The Menace, Brady Bunch, Mork & Mindy but none of the hugest ones by Viacom like I Love LUcy or Beverly hillbillies or Honeymooners or All In The Family (eventually moved to Columbia library) (plus 17 did not renew Andy Griffith or My Three sons when those fell of 17's schedule in 1981). Those Viacom shows would land on Grant's TV 57 2 years later. Channel 17 did get DIck Van Dyke and Gomer Pyle though. Also weekends they stayed religious till Noon and Sundays after 8 PM. They diud not run any cartoons on weekends till the late 80's when the religious groups stopped buying time. Anyhow Channel 17 was okay being they did fill a hole but not well but it was better than them buying none of 48's shows leaving Philly with one station running cartoons. At least they ran sitcoms in the early affternoon rather than keep a movie there. I did not care for their local version of Dance Fever weekdays at 4. Would have rather seen Flintstones and Brady Bunch in that hour and another cartoon at 3:30. I liked the music but not when we have only 2 independents.

Actually I heard the original plan was for Hearst to buy Channel 48 but they were only willing to pay 30 million and field wanted 50 million. Then Providence Journal wanted to buy Channel 48 for 40 million and under the deal they would combine assets and move shows like 3's Company to Channel 17 and much of their movies and the 76ers. But shows like Dance Fever and Little House would not have moved there. What about the religion? Well Providence Journal would have sold Channel 17 to Cornerstone and 17 would have become a religious station. But Prov Journal could not get financing to make it work so instead they just bought some of 48's programming and equipment and 48 went dark. Field did sell 48's trnsmitter (which could trnsmit Channel 47 as well) to Cornerstone TV and they used it to Put all religious station in Altonna PA on the air with guess what calls??? WKBS TV - The FCC assigned them those calls when Field turned them in.

ANyhow 57 did complete the rescue a couple years later - But it was not quite the same. Also 17 during the 1983 to 85 years was just not quite the thing.

 

[Ultimajock]

KYW 3-NBC
1:00 Rollin' (on the River?) (guests Delaney and Bonnie & Friends)

...yes, the show title was shortened to Rollin' for its second season...

WPVI 6-ABC
7:00 Black Omnibus (Slappy White and Scoey Mitchell discuss black humor; music from Lavern Williams, Fred Hubbard, and the Caribbean All-Star Steel Band)

...he actually spelled his last name Mitchlll at the time; his IMDb listing suggests he has shifted back and forth since then...

WCAU 10-CBS
4:00 Movie "Blackout" (bw/after the movie, 10 takes a page out of future sister station WCBS' playbook, signing-off at 5:35 and returning to the air 40 minutes later)

...WCAU-TV/10 wasn't a "future" sister station of WCBS-TV/2, as CBS had owned WCAU-TV/10 since 1958. WBBM-TV/2 Chicago also did the same sign-off-for-less-than-an-hour thing; I suspect fellow CBS O&Os at the time KNXT/2 Los Angeles and KMOX-TV/4 St. Louis did too...

 

[Bluenoser]

WCAU 10-CBS
4:00 Movie "Blackout" (bw/after the movie, 10 takes a page out of future sister station WCBS' playbook, signing-off at 5:35 and returning to the air 40 minutes later)

...WCAU-TV/10 wasn't a "future" sister station of WCBS-TV/2, as CBS had owned WCAU-TV/10 since 1958. WBBM-TV/2 Chicago also did the same sign-off-for-less-than-an-hour thing; I suspect fellow CBS O&Os at the time KNXT/2 Los Angeles and KMOX-TV/4 St. Louis did too...
[/quote]

Had a brain cramp about that one...got confused with the KYW-WCAU network switch after CBS bought Westinghouse, which saw 3 and 10 swapping networks...

 

[azumanga]

WPVI 6-ABC
7:00 Black Omnibus (Slappy White and Scoey Mitchell discuss black humor; music from Lavern Williams, Fred Hubbard, and the Caribbean All-Star Steel Band)

...he actually spelled his last name Mitchlll at the time; his IMDb listing suggests he has shifted back and forth since then...

One has to wonder why the odd spelling?

 

[Gregg]

Interesting to see how the networks programmed Saturday night, which today is a throw-away for the networks. CBS had All in The Family, Carol Burnett, Bob Newhart and Mary Tyler Moore, some of their best shows of the week, all on Saturday night. What a contrast to today, with NBC simply putting repeats, sometimes from earlier that same week, on Saturdays.

Has the American public changed so much that in the 70s we stayed home on Saturday nights and watched excellent first-runTV shows? But today we go out and have no interest in Saturday night television (till SNL comes on at 11:30)?