Retro: This Week In TV Guide, April 4, 1970 - MSP Edition

[Mitchell H]

This week, we take a look at the state of variety and talk shows circa 1970. There's also a historic final match in bowling's Firestone Tournament of Champions, another political discussion in Letters to the Editor, a profile of The Brady Bunch's Robert Reed, and a preview of the (technological) shape of things to come...

http://www.itsabouttv.com/2013/04/this-week-in-tv-guide-april-4-1970.html

As always your comments, both positive and negative, are welcome.

And here's this week's programming listing. Note that on Tuesday I'll be posting a bonus listing from this week at my blog site, along with more extensive commentary (or at least some snide asides) than I usually have room for in this forum.

Sunday, April 5, 1970
KTCA, Channel 2 (NET)
Afternoon
05:30p NET Playhouse – Two Plays by Thornton Wilder (B&W)
Evening
07:00p The Show
08:00p The Forsyte Saga, part 1 (B&W)
09:00p The Advocates

WCCO, Channel 4 (CBS)
Morning
07:00a WCCO Sunday Morning
08:00a Tom and Jerry
08:30a Batman
09:00a Superman
09:30a Jonny Quest
10:00a Clancy and Company
11:00a Face the Nation
11:30a Let’s Go Traveling
11:45a World of Aviation
Afternoon
12:00p News (local)
12:30p The Bill Anderson Show
01:00p NHL Hockey – Detroit vs. New York
03:30p Gourmet (Time approx.)
04:30p Masters Preview
05:00p Lassie
05:30p CBS News (Roger Mudd)
Evening
06:00p News (local)
06:30p To Rome With Love
07:00p Ed Sullivan
08:00p Glen Campbell
09:00p Mission: Impossible
10:00p News (local)
10:45p Phil Donahue
11:45p Comedy for Big Kids (B&W)
12:30a CBS News

KSTP, Channel 5 (NBC)
Morning
07:15a Bible Story Time
07:45a Insight
08:15a Commercial (music)
08:30a Hymn Time
09:00a Day of Discovery
09:30a Faith for Today
10:00a Mormon Conference
Afternoon
12:00p News (local)
12:15p Sunday with Jane
12:30p Henry Wolf
01:30p Meet the Press
02:00p High School Bowl
02:30p Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom
03:00p Movie – “Sinbad the Sailor”
04:30p Something Else
05:00p The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
Evening
06:00p News (local)
06:30p Wonderful World of Disney – “The Hound That Thought He Was a Raccoon” part 1
07:30p The Bill Cosby Show
08:00p Bonanza
09:00p The Bold Ones – The Law Enforcers
10:00p News (local)
10:30p David Frost
12:00a Movie – “Mighty Ursus”

KMSP, Channel 9 (ABC)
Morning
08:00a Soul’s Harbor
08:30a Oral Roberts
09:00a Fantastic Voyage
09:30a Spiderman
10:00a Bullwinkle
10:30a Discovery
11:00a Dennis the Menace (B&W)
11:30a Young Issues
Afternoon
12:00p Safari
12:15p Commercial (organ music)
12:30p Issues and Answers (guest: NYC Mayor John Lindsay)
12:55p NBA Play-Offs – Teams TBD
03:00p The American Sportsman
04:00p Jimmy Durante Presents The Lennon Sisters
05:00p The Time Tunnel
Evening
06:00p Land of the Giants
07:00p The FBI
08:00p Movie – “The Lonely Men” (B&W)
09:45p News (local)
10:30p Dick Cavett (locally preempted on Friday nights)
12:00a ABC News

WTCN, Channel 11 (Ind.)
Morning
07:25A Inspiration for Living
07:30a Revival Fires
08:00a Challenge of Truth
08:30a Kathryn Kuhlman
09:00a Cathedral of Tomorrow
10:00a Church Service (Catholic)
10:30a Sunday Report
11:00a Town Hall Meeting
Afternoon
12:00p News (local)
12:30p Bishop Sheen
01:00p Movie – “Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure”
02:30p Movie – “Blondie in the Dough” (B&W)
04:00p High School Gymnastic Tournament
05:00p 12 O’Clock High
Evening
06:00p NHL Hockey – Minnesota vs. Pittsburgh
08:20p Hockey Scoreboard
08:30p Jim Klobuchar (newspaper columnist, father of current U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar)
09:00p The World Tomorrow
09:30p News (local)
10:00p Tightrope (B&W)
10:30p Movie – “Gentlemen of the Night”
12:30a Movie – “The Witch’s Curse”
02:20a News

 

[oldiesfan6479]

Sunday, April 5, 1970
WCCO, Channel 4 (CBS)
05:00p Lassie
05:30p CBS News (Roger Mudd)
Evening
06:00p News (local)
06:30p To Rome With Love
07:00p Ed Sullivan

How long did 'CCO air Lassie on a week(?) delay? Network feed would have been
at 6 PM CT. Guess they wanted that 6:00 newscast every night.

 

[MCarney]

So Robert Reed expected "The Brady Bunch" to be a realistic show. Didn't the fact that Sherwood Schwartz, the man who gave us "Gilligan's Island", was the producer tip him off?

As for "Lassie", the Twin Cities was not the only market it was shown on tape delay. Somewhere around 1966 WHDH, the then-CBS affiliate in Boston, delayed "Lassie" and "The John Forsythe Show" by a week and aired them 5p-6p on Saturday nights. They had movies on Sunday airing in the fringe time before network prime time.

 

[Marckd]

Surprised that WTCN 11 as an independent station owned by Metromedia was not airing WOnderama with Bob McCallaster on Sunday mornings. Channel 5 WNEW TV New York, 11 KTTV Los Angeles, 5 WTTG DC, and newly signed on independents in the 70's ran it as well. Also even ABC affiliate 9 KMBC Kansas City ran Wonderama but they only ran it for 2 hours and not 3...WHY??? Because one hour of the three hour Wonderama show employed Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, and Daffy Duck cartoons in which all the Metromedia independents had rights to. The Kansas City station did not have those rights so they ran only live segements. Wonderama was a live show with a large audience of kids where they had various game segements, music segements, and guest appearances. It was taped during the week in the afternoon to air Sundays.

 

[Mitchell H]

Surprised that WTCN 11 as an independent station owned by Metromedia was not airing WOnderama with Bob McCallaster on Sunday mornings. Channel 5 WNEW TV New York, 11 KTTV Los Angeles, 5 WTTG DC, and newly signed on independents in the 70's ran it as well. Also even ABC affiliate 9 KMBC Kansas City ran Wonderama but they only ran it for 2 hours and not 3...WHY??? Because one hour of the three hour Wonderama show employed Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, and Daffy Duck cartoons in which all the Metromedia independents had rights to. The Kansas City station did not have those rights so they ran only live segements. Wonderama was a live show with a large audience of kids where they had various game segements, music segements, and guest appearances. It was taped during the week in the afternoon to air Sundays.

Marckd, not sure how long after this it was, but from my own memory banks I know WTCN was airing Wonderama on Sunday mornings by 1973 (someone on another message board mentions it airing in 73-74). Wikipedia [sic] says that Metromedia purchased WTCN in 1971 and took it over in 1972; that could explain the timeline.

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

The following week (April 11th-17th, 1970), much network programing was pre-empted for the Apollo 13 space flight.

The "big three" had each pre-empted a couple of hours early that afternoon to show the launch and another half-hour late that afternoon to cover the maneuver whereas the command module separated from the third stage of the Saturn 5 rocket and docked with the lunar module (which during launch was in a shroud between the command module and the third stage of he rocket).

The networks weren't planning any more live coverage (apart from brief progress reports) until the spacecraft was to go into orbit around the moon on Tuesday, April 14th.

Of course, late on the evening of April 13th, everything changed (the service module exploded, forcing the astronauts to use the lunar module as a "lifeboat"), and the networks broke into regular programming to report on the emergency. They were on the air all night, and there were frequent updates and several special programs through the splashdown on the 17th.

 

[Markd]

OH That explains why Wonderama was missing. I had always thought Metromedia owned Channel 11 Minneapolis since "The Beginning Of Time" (like in the late 50's??). So thius means that Wonderama hit Channel 11 in 1971 sometime when Metromedia bought them.

Now a mystery to me - Why would WTCN as a Metromedia general entertainment station with strong shows want NBC affiliation in 1978/1979??? My theory is THEY DID NOT. NBC just did not want to affiliate with Channel 9 when Hubbard evicted them from Channel 5 for ABC. My theory is NBC twisted arms at WTCN and they decided to go ahead and affiliate. They then sold the cartoons and less desirable sitocms they lacked room for to Channel 9 who had no cartoons or sitcoms to speak of as an ABC station plus back then boosting to 40 hours a week of news was not an option. Still Channel 11 kept the strongest sitcoms and ran them as an NBC affiliate. They did sell Channel 11 in 1982 to Gannett who moved the station to more of a traditional network station with more first run syndication and news. Channel 9 stayed a traditional independent till the early 2000's when talk and reality became the in thing.

 

[BD Sullivan]

I'm fairly certain that it was during George C. Scott's co-hosting of the Mike Douglas Show this week that Scott sarcastically read the lyrics to "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" in dramatic fashion to show how absurd they were without music.

 

[azumanga]

Why would WTCN as a Metromedia general entertainment station with strong shows want NBC affiliation in 1978/1979??? My theory is THEY DID NOT. NBC just did not want to affiliate with Channel 9 when Hubbard evicted them from Channel 5 for ABC. My theory is NBC twisted arms at WTCN and they decided to go ahead and affiliate.

I believe because no network wanted to get saddled with KMSP, which at the time was a poorly-rated, poorly-performed station, so when KSTP got ABC (and WCCO opting to keep CBS), NBC had no choice but to affiliate with WTCN. In the end the tables were turned -- KMSP did much better as an independent superstation, while WTCN's ratings plummetted, especially due to being saddled with NBC, at the time when its ratings were at its lowest.

I'm fairly certain that it was during George C. Scott's co-hosting of the Mike Douglas Show this week that Scott sarcastically read the lyrics to "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" in dramatic fashion to show how absurd they were without music.

His reading was also accompanied by "rain" actually falling on him, starting with a few sprinkles and ending with a downpour, all while acting like nothing has happened.