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Stations that Pre-Empted "One Life to Live" Early on and Why

I read somewhere that early in its run, One Life to Live was dropped by a number of affiliates in the South because of a storyline involving a light-skinned black woman passing herself off as white. Is this true? I do know that WRAL after only a few months dropped the show in favor of Flinstones reruns.
 
WLOS didn't carry OLTL until 1973, also showing
Flintstones reruns instead. It may be for the same
reason; it may also be because "Edge Of Night" was
on at the same time on WSPA and was still quite
popular in 1968, when OLTL debuted. I remember
a few Southern stations such as WGHP and (I think)
WLKY dropping it for a time in early 1976 because of
an interracial storyline, which ABC promptly ordered
killed.


On-topic but off: I remember a lot of opposition from CBS
affiliates to a Chinese-American woman being the central
character on "Love Is A Many Splendored Thing" when it
debuted in 1967. I remember WTVD dropping it but no others.
LIAMST soon became a traditional soap, with David Birney and
Donna Mills getting their breaks on the show.
 
I don't think XETV, then an ABC station, carried One Life to Live during the first five years of the soap's existance. It pre-empted it for cartoons. XETV was notorious for not carrying the soap operas (except Dark Shadows until 1971, then it carried General Hospital later) When XETV lost the affilliation to KCST in 1983. KCST carried the entire ABC daytime lineup after it got the affilliation.
 
Are you sure KCST didn't get the ABC affiliation
until 1983? I think it was more like 1973, since
KGTV got it in 1977 (I know, I was in Southern
California on vacation right at the time of the
KCST/KGTV switch).
 
"Are you sure KCST didn't get the ABC affiliation until 1983? I think it was more like 1973, since KGTV got it in 1977 (I know, I was in Southern California on vacation right at the time of the KCST/KGTV switch)."

Now I'm a little confused - what is KCST? Maybe a San Diego baby boomer can clear it up. I grew up in LA in a fringe reception area for LA stations, but until cable TV came in about 1966, my parents got good reception over the air from San Diego. So I grew up with XETV-6 (ABC), KFMB-8 (CBS) and KOGO-TV-10 (later KGTV) as NBC.

I remember when KGTV flipped affiliation to ABC in the mid 70s. At the time, ABC was number one in the ratings, and NBC was in the dumper, so it made sense for KGTV to make the switch. It also made sense for ABC which probably wanted a better affiliate than the quixotic south-of-the border XETV, which (as stated above) pre-empted shows, and had no local news department.

How does KCST (whatever station that is) fit in? Isn't KGTV still ABC?
 
[size=10pt]Now I'm a little confused - what is KCST? Maybe a San Diego baby boomer can clear it up. I grew up in LA in a fringe reception area for LA stations, but until cable TV came in about 1966, my parents got good reception over the air from San Diego. So I grew up with XETV-6 (ABC), KFMB-8 (CBS) and KOGO-TV-10 (later KGTV) as NBC.[/size]

KCST is now KNSD, NBC 7/39 (owned by NBC). KGTV is now the ABC affiliate, owned by McGraw-Hill.
 
bpatrick said:
Are you sure KCST didn't get the ABC affiliation
until 1983? I think it was more like 1973, since
KGTV got it in 1977 (I know, I was in Southern
California on vacation right at the time of the
KCST/KGTV switch).

Sorry. Typo. It's 1973

KCST were the call letters of channel 39 from 1968-1988. It changed the calls
to KNSD in September 1988.
 
bpatrick said:
WLOS didn't carry OLTL until 1973, also showing
Flintstones reruns instead. It may be for the same
reason; it may also be because "Edge Of Night" was
on at the same time on WSPA and was still quite
popular in 1968, when OLTL debuted. I remember
a few Southern stations such as WGHP and (I think)
WLKY dropping it for a time in early 1976 because of
an interracial storyline, which ABC promptly ordered
killed.


On-topic but off: I remember a lot of opposition from CBS
affiliates to a Chinese-American woman being the central
character on "Love Is A Many Splendored Thing" when it
debuted in 1967. I remember WTVD dropping it but no others.
LIAMST soon became a traditional soap, with David Birney and
Donna Mills getting their breaks on the show.

Wasn't there another soap back in the 70s that raised a few eyebrows? I think it was called "Save A Marriage" or something of that like and I am pretty sure this was on NBC. I am pretty sure this was the soap who made a big deal about having a couple who was really nude in bed in one scene ( though of course you dont see those nude bodies since they were under the covers LOL ) but I do for some reason remember hearing about how people were still shocked none-the-less.
 
"One Life To Live" was pre-empted in Boston on then-ABC affiliate WNAC-TV (Channel 7, now NBC affiliate WHDH) from the time the show premiered in 1968/69 until they dumped their ABC affiliation on 3/19/1972. WNAC was notorious for pre-empting many ABC shows during their affiliation from 1961-1972. WNAC-TV never ran ABC's afternoon line-up in sequence due to their running their "Dialing For Dollars" movie (2-4). It wasn't until 1/13/1969 when WNAC balked and cleared "Dark Shadows" at 4:00 PM (live feed), due to DS's strong following around the country at the time. WNAC did run "General Hospital", "The Dating Game" and "The Newlywed Game" on a one-week color tape delay during the mid-morning hours. Local Independent WSBK-TV (Channel 38) ran "OLTL" and "Dark Shadows" on a one-week kinescope (black and white) recording which looked horrible and grainy. But that's all ABC would provide TV-38 at the time.
 
mleach said:
bpatrick said:
WLOS didn't carry OLTL until 1973, also showing
Flintstones reruns instead. It may be for the same
reason; it may also be because "Edge Of Night" was
on at the same time on WSPA and was still quite
popular in 1968, when OLTL debuted. I remember
a few Southern stations such as WGHP and (I think)
WLKY dropping it for a time in early 1976 because of
an interracial storyline, which ABC promptly ordered
killed.


On-topic but off: I remember a lot of opposition from CBS
affiliates to a Chinese-American woman being the central
character on "Love Is A Many Splendored Thing" when it
debuted in 1967. I remember WTVD dropping it but no others.
LIAMST soon became a traditional soap, with David Birney and
Donna Mills getting their breaks on the show.

Wasn't there another soap back in the 70s that raised a few eyebrows? I think it was called "Save A Marriage" or something of that like and I am pretty sure this was on NBC. I am pretty sure this was the soap who made a big deal about having a couple who was really nude in bed in one scene ( though of course you dont see those nude bodies since they were under the covers LOL ) but I do for some reason remember hearing about how people were still shocked none-the-less.

The title was "How to Survive a Marriage, which was on NBC January 1974-April 1975..Here is it's Wikipedia entry:It refers to the "Nude" scene

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Survive_a_Marriage
 
It wasn't just confined to the South. WITI/Milwaukee, WTAE/Pittsburgh and WPTA/Fort Wayne also pre-empted OLTL during its early years, with WTAE holding out until 1978. And when WDTN/Dayton was a ABC affil it aired replaced the soap with cartoons and talk shows throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
 
RALfan said:
I read somewhere that early in its run, One Life to Live was dropped by a number of affiliates in the South because of a storyline involving a light-skinned black woman passing herself off as white. Is this true? I do know that WRAL after only a few months dropped the show in favor of Flinstones reruns.
I seem to recall that WRAL carried OLTL in the mornings when it
first aired on ABC (likewise, Dark Shadows, although they later
moved that to 4 PM), dropped it sometime in 1969, and didn't
start carrying it again until the summer of 1973. WLOS, OTOH,
didn't carry it at all until fall 1973.
 
My abc affliate WDHN in Dothan, Alabama didn't show the soap TheCity that was the former soap Loving. After the Loving show ended WDHN started showing Rosie ODonnel I never got to see a single show of the City. Also when that soap was cancelled for General Hospital's spin off Port Charles WDHN aired the pilot show on Sunday night but on monday morning was cheers rerun and Extra . Port Charles was not aired here in Dothan until the last season . Why put it on then I still don't know. Also WSFA NBC affliate in Montgomery didn't show Days Of Our Lives when Marlena was possed by the devil.
 
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