Retro: Washington, D.C. - Monday, August 3, 1970

[RandTV]

Highlights in bold.

4 WRC (NBC)
6:08 News
6:13 Faith and Life
6:23 Down to Earth
6:28 Education Exchange
6:58 Events 4 Washington
7:00 Today
9:00 Frankly Female
9:30 It's Your Bet
10:00 Dinah's Place (debut) - First guests were Dinah Shore's daughter Melissa and son John. The topic was discussing the format of the series.
10:30 Concentration
11:00 Sale of the Century
11:30 Hollywood Squares - Panel: Wally Cox, Rose Marie, Jan Murray, Suzanne Pleshette, Paul Lynde, Sebastion Cabot, Charley Weaver, Della Reese, Pat Henry
NOON Jeopardy
12:30 Who, What or Where Game
12:55 NBC Midday News
1:00 News 4 Washington
1:30 Life With Linkletter
2:00 Days of Our Lives
2:30 The Doctors
3:00 Another World - Bay City
3:30 Bright Promise
4:00 Another World - Somerset
4:30 Movie: "Critic's Choice" (1963) - Bob Hope, Lucille Ball
6:00 News 4 Washington
6:30 NBC Nightly News (debut) - John Chancellor, David Brinkley, Frank McGee
7:00 News 4 Washington
7:30 My World...Welcome to It
8:00 Monday Theater
8:30 NBC Monday Night at the Movies: "Samson and Delilah" (1951) - Victor Mature, Hedy Lamarr
11:00 News 4 Washington (featuring Willard Scott with the weather)
11:30 Tonight Show - Gene Wilder, Erich Segal; Performers: Hines, Hines and Dad (Gregory, Maurice Jr. and Maurice Sr.)
1:00 Across the Fence
1:30 Faith and Life

5 WTTG (Ind.)
7:00 Education
7:30 Cartoon Playhouse
8:00 Wonderama
9:00 Dennis the Menace
9:30 Truth or Consequences
10:00 American West
10:30 Pay Cards
11:00 Divorce Court
11:30 Queen for a Day
NOON Panorama (featuring Maury Povich)
2:00 Galloping Gourmet
2:30 Movie Game
3:00 He Said, She Said
3:30 Strange Paradise
4:00 Flintstones
4:30 Route 66
5:30 My Favorite Martian
6:00 I Love Lucy
6:30 McHale's Navy
7:00 Dick Van Dyke
7:30 Truth or Consequences
8:00 To Tell the Truth
8:30 David Frost - Guests: Danielle Darrieux, Willie Morris, Rosalyn Dexter
10:00 Ten O'Clock News
11:00 Metromedia Movie: "Crime Wave" (1954) - Gene Nelson, Sterling Hayden
12:35 Today in Your Life

7 WMAL (ABC)
6:55 Reflections
7:00 Bozo/Cartoons (Willard Scott formerly played him on WRC 4)
8:00 Magic Door
9:00 Mike Douglas - Co-host: Roger Williams; Guests: Buddy Rich, FCC Commissioner Nicholas Johnson
10:30 Claire
11:00 Girl Talk
11:30 That Girl
NOON News 7 News Report
12:30 A World Apart
1:00 All My Children
1:30 Let's Make a Deal
2:00 Newlywed Game
2:30 Dating Game
3:00 General Hospital
3:30 One Life to Live
4:00 Dark Shadows
4:30 Major Adams
5:30 News 7
6:00 ABC Evening News
6:30 The Game Game - Jim McKrell (from Chuck Barris Productions)
7:00 What's My Line?
7:30 It Takes a Thief (guest starring Wally Cox)1
8:30 ABC Monday Night Movie: "Denver and the Rio Grande" (1952) - Dean Jagger, Sterling Hayden
10:30 Now
11:00 News 7 Final
11:30 Dick Cavett - Guests: Janis Joplin (final TV appearance), Gloria Swanson, Margot Kidder, Dave Meggyesy
1:00 Paul Harvey Comments

9 WTOP (CBS)
5:55 Morning Meditation
6:00 Summer Semester
6:30 Spectrum
6:55 News - Doug Llewellyn (future People's Court reporter)
7:00 Harambee
8:00 CBS Morning News
9:00 Captain Kangaroo
10:00 Lucy Show
10:30 Beverly Hillbillies
11:00 Andy Griffith
11:30 Love of Life
NOON Where the Heart Is
12:25 CBS Midday News
12:30 Search for Tomorrow
1:00 Big News
1:30 As the World Turns
2:00 Love is a Many Splendored Thing
2:30 Guiding Light
3:00 Secret Storm
3:30 Edge of Night
4:00 Gomer Pyle
4:30 Gilligan's Island
5:00 The Saint
6:00 Big News (featuring Max Robinson)
7:00 CBS Evening News
7:30 Gunsmoke
8:30 Lucy Show (guest starring Joan Crawford)
9:00 Washington Senators Baseball: at Detroit Tigers (Senators became today's Texas Rangers in 1972)

14 WFAN (Ind.; left the air Feb. 12, 1972)
3:30 (PM) Movie: "Federal Fugitives" (1941) - Neil Hamilton (Commissioner Gordon from Batman), Doris Day
5:00 Teenarama Party
6:00 Today's Look
6:30 Great Gildersleeve
7:00 Complaint Center
7:30 Spanish News
8:00 Checkpoint/14 News
10:00 Movie 14: "Whispering Ghosts" (1942) - Milton Berle, Brenda Joyce, John Shelton

20 WDCA (Ind.)
11:00 Jack LaLanne
11:30 Our Gang
NOON Romper Room
1:00 Money Movie: "California" (1961) - Jock Mahoney, Faith Domergue
3:00 Cool McCool
3:30 Fantastic Eighth Man
4:00 Li'l Rascals (stylized title in listings; same shorts library from 11:30 AM?)
4:30 Speed Racer
5:00 Batman
5:30 Leave It to Beaver
6:00 Patty Duke
6:30 Munsters
7:00 Addams Family
7:30 Beat the Clock - Jack Narz
8:00 Of Lands and Seas
9:00 Movie 20: "Deadline USA" (1952) - Humphrey Bogart, Ethel Barrymore
11:00 One Step Beyond
11:30 Merv Griffin - Guests: Sandler & Young (singing duo), Mamie Van Doren, Sandy Duncan

26 WETA (NET)
NOON Sesame Street
1:00 French Chef
1:30 Book Beat
2:00 Stock Market Report
4:00 Sesame Street
5:00 Misterogers
5:30 What's New
6:00 Experiment
6:30 Folk Guitar
7:00 Newsroom
8:00 World Press
9:00 NET Journal - Topic: Commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the Hiroshima-Nagasaki atomic bombings
10:00 WETA Movie: "Ella Cinders" (1926, Silent) - Colleen Moore, Lloyd Hughes
11:00 Newsroom (replay?)
MIDNIGHT Newsroom Update

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

This was the Monday after Chet Huntley stepped away from NBC's nightly newscast.

Huntley's retirement sent NBC executives into a panic mode. The solution they came up with was to rotate David Brinkley (who had been Huntley's coanchor), Frank McGee (who had moderated one of the Nixon/Kennedy debates in 1960 but then best known as anchorman for the NBC's live television coverage of space flights), and John Chancellor, a longtime NBC correspondent seven nights a week. On any given night, you'd see at least one, usually two, and rarely, all three of them.

If Huntley had stepped down a year earlier, Chancellor might not have been part of this rotation. But in the early hours of July 21st, 1969, Chancellor relieved McGee at the anchor desk for about six hours during a marathon 30-hour broadcast covering the Apollo 11 moon landing (after the moon walk ended) so McGee could get some sleep. And in April of 1970, Chancellor coanchored (with McGee) during the launch of Apollo 13 at Cape Canaveral, and reporting on the flight from the Mission Control center in Houston once the mission ran into trouble and the moon landing had to be called off. Chancellor won wide raves for both assignments, and that may well have given him an anchor slot.

But this rotation was confusing, as viewers didn't know who they would be seeing on a particular night. A year later, McGee would he taken off the nightly news (and shortly afterwards, reassigned to host the "Today" show), Brinkley would be moved to a nightly commentary spot, and Chancellor was made the sole weeknight anchorman (with a young Garrick Utley anchoring the weekend editions).

(It should be noted that for a couple of years in the late seventies, Brinkley and Chancellor were made coanchors, but by decade's end, Chancellor was again some anchor and Brinkley again given a nightly commentary piece)

Ratings began to rise, but NBC remained second in the evening news ratings through the rest of the decade.

 

[RandTV]

This was the Monday after Chet Huntley stepped away from NBC's nightly newscast.

Huntley's retirement sent NBC executives into a panic mode. The solution they came up with was to rotate David Brinkley (who had been Huntley's coanchor), Frank McGee (who had moderated one of the Nixon/Kennedy debates in 1960 but then best known as anchorman for the NBC's live television coverage of space flights), and John Chancellor, a longtime NBC correspondent seven nights a week. On any given night, you'd see at least one, usually two, and rarely, all three of them.

If Huntley had stepped down a year earlier, Chancellor might not have been part of this rotation. But in the early hours of July 21st, 1969, Chancellor relieved McGee at the anchor desk for about six hours during a marathon 30-hour broadcast covering the Apollo 11 moon landing (after the moon walk ended) so McGee could get some sleep. And in April of 1970, Chancellor coanchored (with McGee) during the launch of Apollo 13 at Cape Canaveral, and reporting on the flight from the Mission Control center in Houston once the mission ran into trouble and the moon landing had to be called off. Chancellor won wide raves for both assignments, and that may well have given him an anchor slot.

But this rotation was confusing, as viewers didn't know who they would be seeing on a particular night. A year later, McGee would he taken off the nightly news (and shortly afterwards, reassigned to host the "Today" show), Brinkley would be moved to a nightly commentary spot, and Chancellor was made the sole weeknight anchorman (with a young Garrick Utley anchoring the weekend editions).

(It should be noted that for a couple of years in the late seventies, Brinkley and Chancellor were made coanchors, but by decade's end, Chancellor was again some anchor and Brinkley again given a nightly commentary piece)

Ratings began to rise, but NBC remained second in the evening news ratings through the rest of the decade.

That's why I have NBC Nightly News highlighted in bold.