I remember as a kid being all excited when the Fall Preview would arrive in the mail and looking through the descriptions for shows that I’d want to watch once the new season started. This was a time before VCRs and while we may have owned a color TV, we’d still have to wait 5 minutes for the set to warm up. Our reception for the ABC channel was always snowy so it was mostly NBC and CBS shows I’d key in on.
Anyway, here’s a review of the preview for 1972 by a former network executive (former because this guy actually has a sense of humor and common sense, which probably didn’t endear him with the network bosses). Watch
Doc
In ’72 I was working on my 3rd kid! I think my fiorst may be your age. Moniker is no lie!
Alright, I don’t have the GAS to watch the entire video but,
If you want to go back in time regarding T.V. programs, what about ‘Life of Riley’, Howdy Doody, ‘Lone Ranger’ or ‘Crusader Rabbit’?
Yep. My pops subscribed to TV Guide in our household.
Essentially we had 3 main channels and I was the remote control….based on what dad wanted to watch and how fast I could get off the sofa to turn the dial.
And now for a word from our (1972) sponsor:
https://youtu.be/JScq272dIaM
Yellowstone, season 5, November 13. I’m hooked.
Yep we had the TV guide in our home.
Went through it to see what was on marking all the shows that had the bold C next to them and then waiting for them to be in Color on a black and white TV, 1965 what a rip off.
Brad yes on Yellowstone, lots of folks need to go to the train station,soon.
1966-1972: We had the 3 networks (and ABC was snowy for us too… was that universal?) and one independent that carried great college sports of local interest (before the NCAA ruined everything for small broadcasters), plus a UHF station that came in once in a blue moon with nothing anyone ever wanted to watch. Sometimes when the clouds were just right we could get some distant network affiliate stations that carried the same prime time programing but of course had different, sometimes wild personalities and commercials for local businesses we’d never heard of.
Saturday mornings were MUST SEE TV for kids with *great* cartoons and the 3 Stooges. So much better, IMHO, than anything kids are watching today.
Back then, a TV show taped ~30 shows for a season, unlike some now that make do with 8 or 10. Then came the reruns followed by the summer replacements—generally crummy TV shows the networks figured no one would bother to watch since most houses didn’t have AC and everyone was out on the front porch anyway. The only summer show that I recall hitting the big time was Hee Haw. 🙂
Simpler times and I think I can make the case for *better* as well.
And these light-weights today have no idea how we had to trudge 19 feet through long shag carpet, (both ways), to change the channel or adjust the sound.
Ol Ex Jarhead, you in Khe San?
My Brother and I had to go on the roof and turn the damn antenna for maximum clarity… you climbed a rickety wood A frame to the top of the closet… pull the ladder up… crank open the window… put the ladder on the lower roof… climb out and set the ladder to the next roof… did you forget your crescent wrench?????
By the time I got to the telco I was a ladder Master. Except I damn near came off a few of those. Luckily never did, but I did fall off two telephone poles whilst climbing with hooks.
Besides Saturday morning cartoons, my most favorite show was Davy and Goliath on Sunday. A little later I added 12 O’clock High, Rat Patrol and Combat.
We had “Rocky and Bullwinkle” and “Jonny Quest” on Sundays. Then it was “All Star Wrestling” with Dr. X and The Crusher and Mad Dog Vashon and Vern Gagne. All on our snowy and unreliable ABC channel.- Dr. Tar
jellybean –
+ Hop-along Cassidy, The Cisco Kid, Gunsmoke, Maverick, Wyatt Earp, Perry Mason, Red Skelton, Milton Berle, Jackie Gleason…
between getting up to change the channels (which meant 10 minutes fidgeting w/ the rabbit ears, w/ the ubiquitous aluminum foil), getting up to change the volume, racing to the can or grabbing a snack during commercials, it’s no wonder we were thin & fit back in the day
you know, ‘back in the day’ … when Momma Cass was an anomaly … now, she’d be a swimsuit model for ‘Sports Wokenated’ … & probably the svelte one
…And Brad’s favorite: Liberace!
(My Mom liked his show and thought he was cute. Gah!)
General Malaise
Dude, don’t let Rip here you say that. You will be headed for the train station. Imagine the most unwoke show you can. Yea, that’s Yellowstone. Someone should figure out why it’s so popular eventually.
I heard Liberace on an old Charlie McCarthy radio show. Dude sounded hella’ straight. Had a sense of humor. Seemed normal.
No idea when the gay Liberace showed up. That guy was crazy.
1972, was looking forward to Alias Smith and Jones.
Dr. Tar now do 1968 sometime. Cartoons also.
This content provider seems to be stocked up on 1970s Fall Previews, perhaps we’ll post some of those when he reviews them. – Dr. Tar
In the fall of 1972, I was down in San Diego going thru Navy boot camp, so I had no idea what was on TV that fall. And I’m sure I didn’t miss much; I didn’t watch a whole lot of TV over the next 3 years either being out at sea on 2 Westpac tours with the Navy. Our first color TV which we got about 1968 had worse reception than our old B&W Westinghouse TV, the color was terrible, mostly greens and yellows and lots of fuzzy pictures. It was like Simon & Garfunkle sang in their song The big bright green pleasure machine. The definition was awful, I noticed a couple of years back while watching an old BBC episode of The Prisoner things I’d never seen before like some really naughty nudie pictures on the wall of a boat the prisoner was escaping from that showed a lot that remained hidden on that old color TV.
I never forgot my Linesman hammer, or my J-hooks, or my Linesman wrench. Or my drop clamps.
“You got your J-hooks and both types of drop clamps?”
“Yes, Sir, in my bug-bag, Sir.”
3-11-15-32-41-78
Lottery Numbers?
Nope, the TV Channels in Louisville back in 72′
What? TV in 72? I was too busy in the back seat trying to figure out bra straps.
We still had only 4 channels in 72, channel 2 KREM ABC, Ch. 4 KXLY CBS, Ch. 6 KHQ NBC and a PBS channel in its early years on ch. 7 and that was it until Cox cable arrived in the mid to late 70’s. And my wife and I pissed off the cable guy in 1977 because our first TV was B&W and he was ticked about putting cable on a B&W TV but that was all we could afford back then just after we had been married.
I remember my first remote control: a Zenith black and white TV. The remote was literally a ‘clicker’: the tv received the clicks and triggered a solenoid to change the channel. Noisiest thing ever!
I know it’s true
all so true
cause I saw it on TV
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwhxeaVfk3s
Sat. night after the news was a good time for The Ghoul and horror like The Mummy 1930’s style or Vincent Price, etc. Cleveland came in just barely at that hour.
The ‘clicker’ was actually a sonic device. There were tuned rods inside that made ultra sonic sounds when ‘clicked’, which was a hammer hitting the rod. If you did it correctly, jingling a set of keys in front of the tv could do the same.
True story,
UHF stands for Ultra Maga High Frequency…
BURR. No, that was the 7th Marines. I was 5th. Bigest fight was Way spelled Hue.
I had a good friend in the 7th who was there. Fair as am I. Got skin cancer 22 years ago. Had it removed. Came back 9 years later. Gone 12 years.
Had mine removed 1o years ago. THANK GOD it has not returned!
yes Bush I said GOD!
🎶🎵🎶🎶 Memories, in the dusty corners of my mind….🎵🎵🎵🎶
Erik, I burned a pole or two in my day as well. Don’t miss hooks at all.
Anyone else besides me here conscripted as the household remote control, before the remote control was invented?
I was 5 – one of my early primers – now I pay $200/mo. to watch those same shows on TVLand, INsp, GACLiving MeTV.