What are your earliest television viewing memories?

[Wright County Guy]

Probably explains my game show geek side, but I remember nighttime Price is Right with Dennis James. Had to have been 3 since I was born in August 74 and he left the show in the fall of 77 (unless some of his shows got bicycled around to stations after Bob took over, but I've never read that happening.)

 

[seatownmedia]

Probably explains my game show geek side, but I remember nighttime Price is Right with Dennis James. Had to have been 3 since I was born in August 74 and he left the show in the fall of 77 (unless some of his shows got bicycled around to stations after Bob took over, but I've never read that happening.)

Dennis James hosted a syndicated version of the show from '72 to '77. It was weekly, so likely was on Saturday evening before prime-time in your market. Weekly syndicated programming pretty much went away with this decade, so likely one of the last weekly syndicated shows, but someone can correct me on this.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

1989 when PBS affiliates aired Instructional Telecourses back then. That's my first TV memories on KQED9(Current PBS station) and KCSM (former PBS station) both cover the Bay Area.

 

[LKellerIII]

1989 when PBS affiliates aired Instructional Telecourses back then. That's my first TV memories on KQED9(Current PBS station) and KCSM (former PBS station) both cover the Bay Area.

This was nowhere near my earliest TV memory, but I recall the first time we were able to get PBS - then called NET (National Educational Television) was when we first got cable in 1964 or '65. NET for Los Angles was KCET 28, which we had been unable to get over the air because our 1957 era TV did not have a UHF tuner. But the cable company placed KCET on Channel 6. The first thing I remember seeing was Bob Ross's The Joy of Painting show. It ran for many years. According to Wikipedia, his last show aired in 1994, when he was forced to retire due to ill health. Sadly, Ross died not soon after.

 

[NoDakObserver]

Dennis James hosted a syndicated version of the show from '72 to '77. It was weekly, so likely was on Saturday evening before prime-time in your market. Weekly syndicated programming pretty much went away with this decade, so likely one of the last weekly syndicated shows, but someone can correct me on this.

You just made me remember how the local NBC had a different show on each night in the half-hour between the local news and prime-time. Price is Right was either Monday or Tuesday with Candid Camera being the other day. I don't remember Wednesday through Friday very well, although it feels like Happy Days was one of those days. (we had no ABC affiliate, so the CBS and NBC affiliates split ABC programming between them when they could fit it in). By the late 70s they switched to Family Feud every day, and in the late 80s switched again to Wheel of Fortune, which they've shown since then. I grew up in Dickinson, ND.

 

[LKellerIII]

It was, in the 1960s. Moved to KBSC in the 1970s after KCOP moved on to other things.

It was usually a dead heat between the two to see which could be worse. KHJ-TV's nightly movie repeat was RKO policy (they did the same thing at WOR-TV) but KCOP had the worse news department. Their idea of "newsfilm" was to have the interviewee hold the microphone within the camera frame and answer the question posed by the cameraman (!), then have the news anchor (Charlie O'Donnell did a lot of their newscasts) say "when asked about the problem, Supervisor Schabarum said" and then roll the film with his answer.

KCOP also had terrible, low-budget local spots in the daytime, which were all generic film of the business with an equally generic radio-type announcer voiceover. But KHJ-TV ran lots of commercials for General Tire.

KM - do you recall The Credibility Gap? They did satirical news on KRLA for a couple of years in the late 60s, then later some bits for KPPC-FM and perhaps KMET. Among their "news reporters" were Harry Schearer (LeShow on NPR, voices on The Simpsons, This is Spinal Tap), Michael McKean (currently on Better Call Saul), and David L. Lander (Squiggy on Laverne & Shirley to McKean's Lenny)

The Gap did some great stuff, mostly political-Shearer did great impressions of then President Nixon. They would also do some obscure bits. I remember a total hysterical skit that was a parody of KCOP advertising, with the syrupy announcer and sappy Muzak style music bed. Though they couldn't show visuals on the radio, I seem to recall that those KCOP commercials - at least in the 60s) used only still-shots, like a slide-show - no actual live action.

 

[colorwheel]

Test patterns and Baseball, 1948.

 

[sack]

Born 1959
I have vague memories of a black and white cartoon with an old guy, bald head and fuzzy white beard. Also “Diver Dan”. First actual concrete memory was of Wonderama on Sunday mornings.

 

[Prescott Joe]

I recall watching "Rocketship 7" with Dave Thomas and Promo the robot on
WKBW TV 7 and later in the day, "Dialing for Dollars."

 

[Bronx]

I recall watching "Rocketship 7" with Dave Thomas and Promo the robot on
WKBW TV 7 and later in the day, "Dialing for Dollars."

With Nolan Johannes and Elizabeth Dribben. Do you also remember Johnny and Jimmy?

Bronx

 

[Prescott Joe]

I cannot say that I do..... Probably before my time???

 

[Sparkplug]

Before I was of school age I remember seeing Vietnam war coverage back in the late 60's with Dan Rather as a war correspondent. I'll never forget how my mother would cover her mouth and gasp with shock and horror just about every day.

 

[LKellerIII]

I recall watching "Rocketship 7" with Dave Thomas and Promo the robot on
WKBW TV 7 and later in the day, "Dialing for Dollars."

The 50s and early 60s were prime time for kids show hosts on local TV. In LA, we had 4 independent stations, so there was about a dozen of them...Skipper Frank, Tom Hatten, Engineer Bill, Hobo Kelly, Sheriff John, etc. Sheriff John was the longest lasting - into the early 70s.

There was also Chucko the Clown, who I always thought was kind of scary looking
https://www.google.com/search?q=chu...=Ca53WMCoD8WW0wKri664Bg#imgrc=rA-b24CZkGgmJM:

 

[hamster]

The 50s and early 60s were prime time for kids show hosts on local TV. In LA, we had 4 independent stations, so there was about a dozen of them...Skipper Frank, Tom Hatten, Engineer Bill, Hobo Kelly, Sheriff John, etc. Sheriff John was the longest lasting - into the early 70s.

There was also Chucko the Clown, who I always thought was kind of scary looking
https://www.google.com/search?q=chu...=Ca53WMCoD8WW0wKri664Bg#imgrc=rA-b24CZkGgmJM:[/QUOTE}

The 50s, 60s, 70s and well into the 80s were also the heyday of those local teenage dance shows. My parents actually met each other on the set of DC's WTTG's The Milt Grant Show back in the mid 50s. Sometime ago someone had uploaded on You Tube a video from 1968 of Norfolk's WAVY' channel 10's "Disk-O-TEN". Between the kids dancing ( and bumping into each other ) and those HUGE WAVY color cameras from the era it was a very tight squeeze
Same person later also put up video from a similar show from Roanoke's WDBJ. Not only did WDBJ showed the guy playing records but the kids some were dancing while others were drinking Dr. Pepper. Sure the health folks would have a cow about that one today.

 

[LKellerIII]

The 50s and early 60s were prime time for kids show hosts on local TV. In LA, we had 4 independent stations, so there was about a dozen of them...Skipper Frank, Tom Hatten, Engineer Bill, Hobo Kelly, Sheriff John, etc. Sheriff John was the longest lasting - into the early 70s.

There was also Chucko the Clown, who I always thought was kind of scary looking
https://www.google.com/search?q=chu...=Ca53WMCoD8WW0wKri664Bg#imgrc=rA-b24CZkGgmJM:[/QUOTE}

The 50s, 60s, 70s and well into the 80s were also the heyday of those local teenage dance shows. My parents actually met each other on the set of DC's WTTG's The Milt Grant Show back in the mid 50s. Sometime ago someone had uploaded on You Tube a video from 1968 of Norfolk's WAVY' channel 10's "Disk-O-TEN". Between the kids dancing ( and bumping into each other ) and those HUGE WAVY color cameras from the era it was a very tight squeeze
Same person later also put up video from a similar show from Roanoke's WDBJ. Not only did WDBJ showed the guy playing records but the kids some were dancing while others were drinking Dr. Pepper. Sure the health folks would have a cow about that one today.

I remember that well, too. In Los Angeles, there was Shebang! with Casey Kasem, and Lloyd Thaxton, who I think might have been syndicated. The most popular dance party shows were on KHJ-TV - 93/KHJ radio was the top rated Top 40 station, so their DJs hosted Groovy (Robert W. Morgan) and Boss City (Sam Riddle, and later The Real Don Steele)...later morphing into The Real Don Steele Show. I had friends who went on these shows, but I was too chickens**t, not to mention - I couldn't dance worth a damn.

 

[FreddyE1977]

I remember watching the Star Trek episode where the space hippies were looking for the planet Eden
in it's first-run NBC airing. The characters were so weird they stuck in my head even at that age.

I remember sitting and watching Mission:Impossible on CBS with my dad about the same time.

I clearly remember watching the very first episode of Sesame Street.

All of these would have been in the 1968-69 timeframe.

 

[hamster]

I remember that well, too. In Los Angeles, there was Shebang! with Casey Kasem, and Lloyd Thaxton, who I think might have been syndicated. The most popular dance party shows were on KHJ-TV - 93/KHJ radio was the top rated Top 40 station, so their DJs hosted Groovy (Robert W. Morgan) and Boss City (Sam Riddle, and later The Real Don Steele)...later morphing into The Real Don Steele Show. I had friends who went on these shows, but I was too chickens**t, not to mention - I couldn't dance worth a damn.

Lloyd Thaxton was indeed sydicated since I remember seeing it in the listings for Baltimore's WBAL channel 11 in those days.

Back on topic for some odd reason I can remember seeing Joe Garagiola hosting a game show. Don't know what the show was about but I remember Joe. This had to been around 1971 maybe 1972.

 

[landtuna]

In Los Angeles, there was Shebang! with Casey Kasem, and Lloyd Thaxton, who I think might have been syndicated.

When my ship was undergoing a lengthy upgrade in the Long Beach shipyard in 1963 knock-off time was about 5PM in the ship's office. Those of us on watch would turn on the Lloyd Thaxton Show on KCOP. I had never seen him before as his show was not on in the Bay Area but apparently he had a large following not only in CA. He died just a few years ago and his widow posted this: http://lloydthaxton.blogspot.com/

He was fond of poking fun at himself which usually got a "SO WHAT!" response from the kids. He had two signature songs that I am aware of: "My Name Is Lloyd Thaxton" and "Image Of A Surfer". He is also regarded as the father of the music video.

 

[LKellerIII]

When my ship was undergoing a lengthy upgrade in the Long Beach shipyard in 1963 knock-off time was about 5PM in the ship's office. Those of us on watch would turn on the Lloyd Thaxton Show on KCOP. I had never seen him before as his show was not on in the Bay Area but apparently he had a large following not only in CA. He died just a few years ago and his widow posted this: http://lloydthaxton.blogspot.com/

He was fond of poking fun at himself which usually got a "SO WHAT!" response from the kids. He had two signature songs that I am aware of: "My Name Is Lloyd Thaxton" and "Image Of A Surfer". He is also regarded as the father of the music video.

Thaxton did some odd stuff. I recall him playing the piano on his show - only he would do it to popular songs of the day that included piano, so he wasn't really playing, he was...uh...keyboard syncing.

 

[danderson6500]

Early on, my memories were of watching Sale Of The Century and Wheel Of Fortune on NBC in the mornings. My mom watched her soaps and the evening news on ABC. She still does that these days.