The PBS "afternoon trio"

[harrisburgpatv2]

For a good many years, I remember (and also seeing it in old listings too, to verify) my local PBS station (WITF) running Sesame Street at 4, Mister Rogers at 5, and Electric Company at 5:30. Was this the option for most places as well? Also, for discussion's sake, what's the most that you've seen a PBS station run SS in a day?

At one point I think WVIA (Scranton) ran it four times a day.....7:30am (previous day's episode), 9am, noon, and 4pm (current day episode)..

As an aside, I think my station's the only one I know of that runs it at 7pm....And it has for well over 20 years now...

 

[onairb]

I guess I'm a little young to remember my PBS station (KQED in San Francisco) repeating 'The Electric Company' in the afternoons. It was already out of production by the time I watched it, around 1978. I know KQED re-aired Mr. Rogers and 'Sesame Street' for many years(and, in 1980, '3-2-1 Contact' had its only airing of the day at 5:30 PM, following Rogers and 'Sesame Street'.)

 

[harrisburgpatv2]

I guess I'm a little young to remember my PBS station (KQED in San Francisco) repeating 'The Electric Company' in the afternoons. It was already out of production by the time I watched it, around 1978. I know KQED re-aired Mr. Rogers and 'Sesame Street' for many years(and, in 1980, '3-2-1 Contact' had its only airing of the day at 5:30 PM, following Rogers and 'Sesame Street'.)

As per old TV Guide listings, when 321C premiered, WITF aired it at 6:30pm - previously occupied by "Zoom"...

 

[Ultimajock]

...according to the Wisconsin Edition of TV Guide, on September 25, 1972, WMVS/10 Milwaukee and WHA-TV/21 Madison ran "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" at 4:00, "Sesame Street" at 4:30 and "The Electric Company" at 5:30. Although WPNE-TV/38 Green Bay was already operating, its listings weren't yet appearing in TV Guide; as a semi-satellite of WHA-TV in its earliest decades, it probably ran the same programs in this pattern. Commercial indie KFIZ-TV/34 Fond du Lac had carried "Sesame Street" and "The Electric Company" in 1971-72 as part of its contract with the educational TV agency NEWIST, but once WPNE-TV signed on, KFIZ-TV lost that contract. KFIZ-TV had simulcast the 3:30 PM airings of "Sesame Street" OTA from WMVS, with their own "Uncle Doug's Cartoon Club" following at 4:30 and a syndicated rerun of "Land of the Giants" at 5:30, with "The Electric Company" only appearing earlier in the day or on Saturdays. KFIZ-TV never ran "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood." So I suspect that pattern described in the OP can pretty much be traced to the beginning of the 1972-73 season...

 

[RonM]

When I was a kid, back in the 70s (not sure of the exact dates), this was Alabama Public Television's afternoon line-up:

2:30 Villa Alegre
3:00 Sesame Street
4:00 Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood
4:30 Electric Company
5:00 Zoom!

After Zoom!, I believe, APT would run normal PBS programming (McNeil/Lehrer report, etc). I also remember APT running 5 hours of Sesame Street repeats on Saturday mornings from 7AM-12 Noon.

I also remember this similar schedule being run on Pensacola's PBS affiliate, WSRE-23, when we moved there in 1978.

 

[harrisburgpatv2]

I seem to remember WVIA in Scranton running maybe 4 hours of Sesame Street on Sunday mornings back in the '80s.

Looking at early-mid '70s PBS lineups also show some of them running the same 4pm-6pm kids lineup on Saturdays and Sundays as well.

 

[blackgold]

I remember all those shows! I grew up with "Sesame Street," "Mr. Rogers" and "The Electric Company." Did you know that singer Irene Cara was a member of the house band "The Short Circus?"