Retro: WJM-TV 12, Minneapolis-St. Paul line-up for 10/4/72 ( yes from MTM )

[mleach]

Yes I know there never was a WJM-TV in the Twin Cities and this line-up is pure fiction but I did get this from the episode "Who's In Charge Here?" from the Mary Tyler Moore show which aired on 9/30/72. In this episode Lou Grant takes control of WJM's programming and in a number of scenes they showed thanks to a board behind his desk the line-up at WJM. Thanks to my pause button..I did get the Wednesday WJM line-up Sadly I didn't get what WJM had "aired" before 9am since Ed Asner/Lou Grant's head was in the way...LOL

WJM-TV channel 12.....

9AM Chef Leroy
10am Morning Movie
11:30 Self Defense
NOON WJM Mattinee Movie
1:30 Your Bottom Dollar
2:00 Homemaking with Mimi
3:00 Gilligan's Island
3:30 Gilligan's Island
4:00 Coast To Coast
5:00 My Mother the Car
5:30 Chuckles The Clown
6:00 News ( Ted Baxter )
7:00 Sporting Scene
7:30 Variety Hour
8:30 Edge Of Everything
9:00 Your City at Night
9:30 Back Stage Little Theatre
10:00 Sports Wrap-Up
10:30 Late Movie

Oh for the record I picked the date of 10/4/72 since that was the first Wendesday after this episode had originally aired.

 

[Stanislav]

Strongly implies that WJM-TV was an indie -- there's not a hint of anything on there that looks like it might have come from even a fictitious network. Movies morning and Noon, old reruns mid-day, just local news, a movie instead of a talk show at 10:30, etc. I haven't seen the show in ages -- were they supposed to be an indie or affiliated with some network?

 

[azumanga]

As far as I know, it was never implied on the show that they were affiliated with a network.

Looking at the above schedule WJM's schedule was heavy with presumably-local programming, with the only syndicated shows being Gilligan, My Mother the Car, movies, the cartoons on Chuckles the Clown's show, and, I assume, the fictitious "Coast to Coast".

 

[Ultimajock]

...anyone know who had the rights to Gilligan's Island and (if anyone) My Mother The Car in the Minneapolis-St. Paul market at the time, and when they were running them? WTCN-TV/11, perhaps?...

 

[LKellerIII]

...anyone know who had the rights to Gilligan's Island and (if anyone) My Mother The Car in the Minneapolis-St. Paul market at the time, and when they were running them? WTCN-TV/11, perhaps?...

Actually, the fictitious WGM looks eerily close to the programming at RKO General's KHJ-TV9 in Los Angeles about the same time. Old movies, followed by more old movies. Add a daily dance party show (RKO also owned Boss Radio KHJ) some F-Troop reruns, and subtract the news...Channel 9 did not do news....though at one point, they did try 3 hours a day of Tempo - essentially a radio call-in talk program with a camera pointed at it.

Wait a damn minute! I don't see Sue Ann Nivens on the WGM schedule...

 

[azumanga]

Wait a damn minute! I don't see Sue Ann Nivens on the WGM schedule...

Sue Ann Nivens did not join the WJM staff until the following year, presumably replacing Chef Leroy and/or Homemaking with Mimi.

 

[LKellerIII]

Wait a damn minute! I don't see Sue Ann Nivens on the WGM schedule...

Sue Ann Nivens did not join the WJM staff until the following year, presumably replacing Chef Leroy and/or Homemaking with Mimi.

Ah - that explains it. How could I have been so stupid?

 

[Corky Marlowe]

I believe this was the day Mr. Fee-Fi-Fo first appeared with Chuckles.

&!#$% Rogue Elephant!

 

[only1moore]

"My Mother The Car"???? The show only lasted one season, yet WJM "aired" the reruns daily? Either that or it must've had a longer run in the "MTM" fictional universe.

 

[azumanga]

"My Mother The Car"???? The show only lasted one season, yet WJM "aired" the reruns daily? Either that or it must've had a longer run in the "MTM" fictional universe.

Well, Allan Burns, one of the co-creators of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, was also one of the co-creators (with Chris Hayward) of "My Mother The Car", hence its inclusion on WJM's schedule.

 

[LKellerIII]

"My Mother The Car"???? The show only lasted one season, yet WJM "aired" the reruns daily? Either that or it must've had a longer run in the "MTM" fictional universe.

Well, Allan Burns, one of the co-creators of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, was also one of the co-creators (with Chris Hayward) of "My Mother The Car", hence its inclusion on WJM's schedule.

Actually, not so unusual in the real world. I compared WGM to LA's KHJ-TV at the top of this thread. Los Angeles had 4 independent TV stations, and a LOT of air-time to fill up in the 1960s and 70s...remember, this was before infomercials, and their were only a few syndicated games shows and court show. Many stations ran 3 or 4 movies a day, but that still left a lot of air time on a 6AM to Midnight schedule.

Reruns of two season sitcoms was certainly not uncommon on KHJ-TV, and the equally low-rent KCOP 13.. I don't remember My Mother the Car, but I remember Topper, Amos and Andy, and F Troop among others. KCOP ran The Munsters 5 days a week for years, repeating those 72 shows every two and half months, or so.

 

[wbhist]

My Mother the Car ran for a brief time in the New York City market in 1967-68 on WNEW-TV Channel 5 (now WNYW). Stranger things have happened.

As for Gilligan's Island, it had shots on all three New York indies: first WOR-TV Channel 9 (now WWOR), then WPIX Channel 11 and finally WNEW-TV. (So did Get Smart, and with the same station trajectory, but that's another tangent - unless you consider that in its final years, MMTC co-creator Chris Hayward was story consultant on GS).