TV events that used to be big

[FreddyE1977]

Election coverage for anything other than a Presidential race.
I remember elections for Mayor or state level offices where local stations
would either clear their prime-time schedule for wall-to-wall coverage, or
pre-empt the network for a "movie special" which they could interrupt
conveniently to give updated vote totals.

 

[azumanga]

Manned space launches from Cape Canaveral used to be covered by all three over-the-air networks. Now, it is necessary to go to CNN or FoxNews on cable or the NASA cable channel.

Coverage of space-related events were already out of fashion by the mid-1980s, until Challenger blew up in 1986 -- when it did, only CNN was covering it live, and the other networks had to scramble to get the news out.

 

[searadiofreak]

Re: Miss America. No show has fallen quite like this one. It has been televised since 1954, reaching a peak in the first half of the 1960's. The show started sliding in the late 60's and 70's, fueled by feminism, and the ouster of Burt Parks in '79. As a kid, my family watched it every year. It was an event. Not so much anymore.

 

[ShawnHill1]

I would add:

* Telethons, especially Jerry Lewis's

You can add other big telethons like the United Cerebral Palsy Telethon (John Ritter and Henry Winkler were the co-hosts for many years), which IMO used to rival Lewis' MDA telethon in terms of star power (somewhat) and number of hours on the air (it would start Saturday evening going into Sunday afternoon). Reading an article on Wikipedia*, the UCP still has a local version of a telethon, over Green Bay's WBAY-TV each March.

Also, you had the lesser telethons: Lou Rawls' Parade of Stars (benefit for the United Negro College Fund), Easter Seals Telethon (I think each market had their own version), the Arthritis Foundation Telethon (same status as Easter Seals; Los Angeles' KCOP use to host it each year in the 80s/90s during the spring), and the Children's Miracle Network telethon.

The big telethon that gets noticed here in L.A. is the annual Chabad telethon, which use to air regularly the Sunday after Labor Day, but is now on the Sunday BEFORE Labor Day. KCOP carried it for years until around 2003, where it later moved to KSCI (the local ethnic indie) for a year or two, then over to KCAL, and has been on KTLA since '09. It used to be a seven-hour show, but it's relegated to a three-hour slot on KTLA.

 

[firepoint525]

Seems like Saturday morning cartoons are no longer the big deal that they used to be. When I was a kid, I could get up, and Bugs Bunny and the Road Runner were already on, no matter how early I got up! Now when I get up on Saturday mornings, I see my local news. The children's programming doesn't even start until 9:00 a.m.! (10:00 a.m. on my local NBC channel, because they come back with one more additional hour of news after the Saturday Today Show.)

 

[firepoint525]

Manned space launches from Cape Canaveral used to be covered by all three over-the-air networks. Now, it is necessary to go to CNN or FoxNews on cable or the NASA cable channel.

Coverage of space-related events were already out of fashion by the mid-1980s, until Challenger blew up in 1986 -- when it did, only CNN was covering it live, and the other networks had to scramble to get the news out.

I remember Dan Rather saying, at the launch of the very first shuttle (was it Columbia?) that shuttle launches would become so routine that the networks would no longer cover them. Turns out that he was right about that.

 

[azumanga]

You can add other big telethons like the United Cerebral Palsy Telethon (John Ritter and Henry Winkler were the co-hosts for many years), which IMO used to rival Lewis' MDA telethon in terms of star power (somewhat) and number of hours on the air (it would start Saturday evening going into Sunday afternoon). Reading an article on Wikipedia*, the UCP still has a local version of a telethon, over Green Bay's WBAY-TV each March.

Actually, an unrelated Cerebral palsy organisation, Cerebral Palsy, Inc., sponsors the WBAY telethon, even though Dennis James (who was involved in both local and national UCP telethons) took part in some editions.

Also, you had the lesser telethons... Easter Seals Telethon (I think each market had their own version)...

Starting in the 1970s and into the 1980s, there was a national telethon for Easter Seals, which like Jerry Lewis' telethon, had big hosts, big stars, and local segments. Don't know who hosted it, but I think Jack Klugman did one year.

 

[nomadcowatbk]

What I believed used to be a big TV event was the Olympics! (When they were on ABC, of course.) You got to see live competition and get some stories about the athletes themselves.

they were still tape delayed, Miracle on Ice was shown on tape after a Pink Panther special

 

[nomadcowatbk]

Seems like Saturday morning cartoons are no longer the big deal that they used to be. When I was a kid, I could get up, and Bugs Bunny and the Road Runner were already on, no matter how early I got up! Now when I get up on Saturday mornings, I see my local news. The children's programming doesn't even start until 9:00 a.m.! (10:00 a.m. on my local NBC channel, because they come back with one more additional hour of news after the Saturday Today Show.)

kids don't have to wait til Saturday morning anymore

 

[firepoint525]

Seems like Saturday morning cartoons are no longer the big deal that they used to be. When I was a kid, I could get up, and Bugs Bunny and the Road Runner were already on, no matter how early I got up! Now when I get up on Saturday mornings, I see my local news. The children's programming doesn't even start until 9:00 a.m.! (10:00 a.m. on my local NBC channel, because they come back with one more additional hour of news after the Saturday Today Show.)

kids don't have to wait til Saturday morning anymore

Thanks to E/I requirements! :

 

[anotherguyTN]

Seems like Saturday morning cartoons are no longer the big deal that they used to be. When I was a kid, I could get up, and Bugs Bunny and the Road Runner were already on, no matter how early I got up! Now when I get up on Saturday mornings, I see my local news. The children's programming doesn't even start until 9:00 a.m.! (10:00 a.m. on my local NBC channel, because they come back with one more additional hour of news after the Saturday Today Show.)

kids don't have to wait til Saturday morning anymore

Thanks to E/I requirements! :

And Nick, Disney, Cartoon Network, etc.

 

[azumanga]

Seems like Saturday morning cartoons are no longer the big deal that they used to be.

Thanks to E/I requirements! :

No doubt if it wasn't for E/I, we would have been seeing more news or infomercials on Saturday morning. Some stations, such as WTAE in Pittsburgh, have devoted a chunk of Saturday morning to local news until E/I arrived.

 

[nomadcowatbk]

Seems like Saturday morning cartoons are no longer the big deal that they used to be.

Thanks to E/I requirements! :

No doubt if it wasn't for E/I, we would have been seeing more news or infomercials on Saturday morning. Some stations, such as WTAE in Pittsburgh, have devoted a chunk of Saturday morning to local news until E/I arrived.

what kid watches E/I programming (except maybe in school)?

 

[azumanga]

what kid watches E/I programming (except maybe in school)?

I don't think they even watch them at school -- most of the E/I programs won't even pass muster as educational materials at school.

 

[nomadcowatbk]

what kid watches E/I programming (except maybe in school)?

I don't think they even watch them at school -- most of the E/I programs won't even pass muster as educational materials at school.

A lot of the stuff in watched in school was educational programs taped off the PBS station

 

[johnnya2k6]

The finals of the annual Miss America contest from Atlantic City on Saturday night in September, It was carried on ABC, CBS and NBC in the 50's, 60's and 70's and drew a large number of viewers.

Miss America was never on CBS.

But the Miss (Teen) USA/Universe pageants were on CBS for dozens of years until they were moved to NBC in 2003; back in the day, they were hosted by Bob Barker and later Dick Clark.

As for Saturday morning TV? I pretty much knew the beginning of the end would come with "adult" alternatives like local news and the cooking shows on PBS to go along with the E/I requirements.

 

[nomadcowatbk]

Saturday Morning programming was always the lowest priority for the in the pre-Nickelodeon days. Groups like ACT got restrictions that don't apply to cable channels. Nickelodeon is under no obligation to run anything educational (at least educational by Peggy Charren standards).

 

[bpatrick]

CBS did run the Miss America Pageant in the late '50s and early '60s,
but the pageant is probably more closely identified with NBC. Some of
you may recall CBS running the Miss U.S.A. and Miss Universe pageants
with Bob Barker as host; he quit, supposedly because a mink coat was one
of the prizes awarded to the winner.

 

[Cincinnati Kid]

CBS-TV definitely did carry Miss America in the late 1950's & early 1960's. At one time, they used Douglas Edwards - then doing the CBS Evening News - as the main announcer for the coverage.

 

[BRNout]

A lot of the stuff in watched in school was educational programs taped off the PBS station

Or, going farther back in time, watched live. I recall - before the age of the VCR - that the teacher would reserve the TV for a specific time slot and they'd wheel it into the classroom and turn it on just before the show of interest was to begin. Of course the TV was black and white - despite the fact that we pretty much all had color TVs at home by then.

This was back when a video presentation typically consisted of a slide show accompanied by a record-album narration (with beeps when it was time to change the slide) or - if we were lucky - some 1950s or 60s vintage documentary film. These were often produced by oil companies and the like. Somewhat like the films depicted in The Simpsons.

Ah yes, great memories....