Retro: Detroit/Windsor/Toledo Sat., July 21, 1973

From TV Guide, Detroit Edition:

WJBK Ch. 2 Detroit (CBS)

5:55 News
6 AM Across The Fence
6:30 Summer Semester: "Practical English For Hispanic Americans"
7 AM Pebbles And Bamm Bamm (delay from Sun 9:30 AM)
7:30 Archie's Fun House (delay from Sun 9 AM)
8 AM Bugs Bunny
8:30 Sabrina, The Teenage Witch
9 AM Amazing Chan And The Chan Clan
9:30 New Scooby Doo Movies: "Scooby Doo Meets The Addams Family"
10:30 My Favorite Martian (the original, with Ray Walston and Bill Bixby)
11 AM Flintstones Comedy Hour
12 N Archie's TV Funnies
12:30 Fat Albert And The Cosby Kids
1 PM CBS Children's Film Festival ("Danger Point," '71, from England)
2 PM Movie: "Bowery At Midnight"
4 PM Movie: "Spooks Run Wild"
5:30 New Dick Van Dyke Show (delay from Sun 7:30 PM)
6 PM News
6:30 CBS News (Dan Rather)
7 PM Superstars Of Rock
7:30 Young Dr. Kildare
8 PM All In The Family
8:30 Bridget Loves Bernie
9 PM Mary Tyler Moore
9:30 Bob Newhart
10 PM Miss Universe Pageant (taped in Athens; Bob Barker and Helen O'Connell host and Gilbert O'Sullivan performs)
12 M News
12:30 Movie: "On The Beach"
2:30 Wagon Train
4 AM Divorce Court
4:30 News

WWJ (WDIV) Ch. 4 Detroit (NBC)

6:55 News
7 AM Country Living
7:30 Oopsy! The Clown
8:30 Roman Holidays
9 AM Jetsons
9:30 Pink Panther
10 AM Underdog
10:30 The Barkleys
11 AM Sealab 2020
11:30 Runaround
12 N Around The World In 80 Days
12:30 Talking With A Giant (sex educator Mary Calderone talks about male/female roles and the unisex look among teens)
1 PM Houndcats (delay from 8 AM)
1:30 Mr. Magoo
2 PM Baseball Pre-Game Show
2:15 Baseball: Twins-Red Sox or Giants-Cubs
5 PM Here Come The Brides (time approximate)
6 PM News
6:30 NBC News (Garrick Utley)
7 PM George Pierrot (local travel show; guest Ralph Franklin presents scenes of Cairo and Egypt)
7:30 Johnny Mann's Stand Up And Cheer (salute to George M. Cohan with guest Mickey Rooney)
8 PM Emergency!
9 PM NBC Movie: "Mayerling"
11:30 News
12 M Saturday Tonight Show (James Franciscus, Slappy White, Olympic medalist Bob Seagren)
1:30 News

WXYZ Ch. 7 Detroit (ABC)

6:40 News
7 AM Funny People
7:30 Bewitched (delay from 11 AM)
8 AM H.R. Pufnstuf
8:30 Jackson Five
9 AM The Osmonds
9:30 ABC Saturday Superstar Movie: "The Red Baron"
10:30 Brady Kids
11 AM Super Circus (not the '50s series, but a local show; acts include "Skippy" Kepland and his ponies, the Fenton acrobat family)
11:30 Kid Power
12 N Funky Phantom
12:30 Lidsville
1 PM The Monkees
1:30 American Bandstand (guests: the Electric Light Orchestra)
2 PM AXS Time
2:30 Movie: "Curucu, Beast Of The Andes" (conclusion)
3 PM Movie: "The Mole People" (Part 1)
3:30 Celebrity Bowling (Roy Rogers and Adam West vs. Kent McCord and Gary Collins)
4 PM Boxing: American Light Heavyweight Championship (Mike Quarry vs. Billy Kelly Wagner, 12 rounds, from Madison Square Garden)
5 PM Wide World Of Sports (World Boxing Qualifying Tournament, with amateur boxers from the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean, from Milwaukee)
6:30 Reasoner Report
7 PM News
7:30 Town Meeting
8 PM Partridge Family
8:30 Paul Lynde Show
9 PM Burns And Schreiber Comedy Hour (Ed McMahon, Teresa Graves, the Muledeer and Moondogg Medicine Show)
10 PM Jigsaw
11 PM News
11:30 Movie: "Diamond Head"
1:30 Movie: "Kangaroo"
3 AM News

CKLW (CBET) Ch. 9 Windsor (CBC)

6 AM Ontario Schools
10 AM Cartoon Playhouse
10:30 Drop-In (an animated film made by teens; the art of glass-blowing)
11 AM Drop-In (topic: meteorology and weather forecasting)
11:30 Drop-In (pottery-making, batik, and needlepoint)
12 N Frank DeAngelis
12:30 Drop-In (a cattle roundup; the Calgary Stampede; old cowboy songs)
1 PM Drop-In (interviews with pilots and flight attendants; antique museums)
1:30 Country Canada (fishing in the Maritimes)
2 PM TBA
3 PM Canadian Gymnastics Championships
4 PM Klahanie (how fishing enthusiasts can help preserve game fish)
4:30 Reach For The Top (national high-school quiz bowl; IIRC, Alex Trebek once hosted this show)
5 PM Seaway
6 PM News
6:30 Singalong Jubilee (the Mercey Brothers, Tom Kelly, Jim Bennet, Fred McKenna, Patricia Anne, the Jubilee Singers)
7 PM Untamed World
7:30 It's Up To You (game show)
8 PM All Around The Circle (music show with the Carol Brothers, John White, Evan Purchase, Doug Laite, the Ray Walsh Band)
8:30 Canadian Equestrian Grand Prix
10 PM Countrytime (Fred McKenna is guest; regulars: Don Tremaine, Myrna Lorrie (not to be confused with Myrna Loy), Ron Naugle, Stan Taylor, Jo Anne Newman, the Hickorys)
10:30 Document
11 PM CBC News (George Finstad)
11:15 A Look Back
11:30 Encounter
12 M Movie: "Fear No Evil"

WTOL Ch. 11 Toledo (CBS)

7 AM Summer Semester
7:30 Bugs Bunny (delay from 8 AM)
8 AM Patches And Pockets
9 AM Amazing Chan And The Chan Clan
9:30 New Scooby Doo Movies
10:30 Josie And The Pussycats In Outer Space
11 AM Flintstones Comedy Hour
12 N Archie's TV Funnies
12:30 Fat Albert And The Cosby Kids
1 PM CBS Children's Film Festival
2 PM Movie: "Man On A Tightrope"
4 PM Death Valley Days
4:30 Jim Thomas Outdoors
5 PM Porter Wagoner (guest: Jerry Clower)
5:30 Buck Owens
6 PM News
6:30 CBS News
7 PM Hee Haw (Jody Miller, Joe Stampley, Tony Booth)
8 PM All In The Family
8:30 Bridget Loves Bernie
9 PM Mary Tyler Moore
9:30 Bob Newhart
10 PM Miss Universe Pageant
12 M News
12:30 Movie: "My Cousin Rachel"

WSPD (WTVG) Ch. 13 Toledo (NBC)

7 AM Mulligan Stew
7:30 Cartoon Capers
8 AM Houndcats
8:30 Roman Holidays
9 AM Jetsons
9:30 Pink Panther
10 AM Underdog
10:30 The Barkleys
11 AM Sealab 2020
11:30 Runaround
12 N Around The World In 80 Days
12:30 Talking With A Giant
1 PM Vision On
1:30 World Putting Championship
2 PM Baseball Pre-Game Show
2:15 Baseball: Twins-Red Sox or Giants-Cubs
5 PM Hogan's Heroes (time approximate)
5:30 Untamed World
6 PM News
6:30 NBC News
7 PM Lawrence Welk
8 PM Emergency!
9 PM NBC Movie: "Mayerling"
11:30 News
12 M Movie: "The Cranes Are Flying"
1:30 News

WXON Ch. 20 Detroit (Ind.)

2 PM Rock Church Proclaims
2:30 Real Side (music)
3:30 Movie: "Beyond The Time Barrier"
5 PM Wrestling
6 PM Temple Baptist Church
6:30 Ozzie And Harriet
7 PM Movie: "A Bucket Of Blood"
8:30 Movie: "The Mind Benders"
10 PM 700 Club
sign off 12 M

WDHO (WNWO) Ch. 24 Toledo (ABC)

8 AM H.R. Pufnstuf
8:30 Jackson Five
9 AM The Osmonds
9:30 ABC Saturday Superstar Movie
10:30 Brady Kids
11 AM Bewitched
11:30 Kid Power
12 N Funky Phantom
12:30 Lidsville
1 PM The Monkees
1:30 American Bandstand
2 PM Wrestling
3 PM American Angler
3:30 TBA
4 PM Boxing (see Ch. 7)
5 PM Wide World Of Sports
6:30 Reasoner Report
7 PM Call Of The West (Ronald Reagan plays a cavalry officer who helps a young man find his sister, who was captured by Indians (Native Americans).)
7:30 Johnny Mann's Stand Up And Cheer (guest: Jo Anne Worley)
8 PM Partridge Family
8:30 Paul Lynde Show
9 PM Burns And Schreiber Comedy Hour
10 PM Jigsaw
11 PM ABC News (Sam Donaldson)
11:15 CFL Football: Calgary Stampeders-Montreal Alouettes (exhibition game, taped; Alex Karras does color commentary)

WGTE Ch. 30 Toledo (PBS)

4 PM Sesame Street
5 PM Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
5:30 Electric Company
6 PM Washington Week In Review
6:30 Black Perspective On The News
7 PM Changing Music (how Charles Ives, Arnold Schoenberg, and Elliot Carter changed traditional concepts of tonality)
7:30 French Chef
8 PM The Session (soft rock with the Jake Jones Group)
8:30 Playhouse New York Biography ("Harriet," the life of Harriet Beecher Stowe)
10 PM Together: A Chuck Mangione Concert
sign off 11:30 PM

WKBD Ch. 50 Detroit (Ind.)

8:30 Insight
9 AM NFL Action '73
9:30 Roller Game Of The Week (Los Angeles Thunderbirds-Texas Outlaws)
11 AM Wrestling
12 N Movie: "Kronos" (watch for George O'Hanlon, the voice of George Jetson, in this one from '57)
2 PM Movie: "Wings Of The Navy"
4 PM The Baron
5 PM The Champions (British-made adventure series that aired on NBC in the summer of 1968)
6 PM Star Trek
7 PM Hee Haw
8 PM That Good Ole Nashville Music (David Houston, Barbara Mandrell)
8:30 Nitty Gritty
9 PM Black Omnibus (James Earl Jones hosts; guests: Stu Gilliam, Ahmad Jamal, Esther Phillips, artist Charles White)
10 PM Lou Gordon (topic: equality, with Dr. R.J. Hernstein, Harvard psychology professor, and attorney Dean Robb)
11:30 Movie: "War Of The Satellites"

WTVS Ch. 56 Detroit (PBS)

8:30 Sesame Street
9:30 Sesame Street
10:30 Sesame Street
11:30 Sesame Street
12:30 Sesame Street
1:30 U.S. Pro Tennis Championships (singles' semi-finals; among the entrants are Stan Smith, Ilie Nastase, and Arthur Ashe)
6 PM An American Family (part 3: a lighter side as the Loud daughters prepare to perform in a dance recital, time approximate)
7 PM Philadelphia Orchestra (the orchestra conducts a rehearsal of students at Philadelphia's Curtis Institute of Music)
8 PM The Session
8:30 Playhouse New York Biography
10 PM Together: A Chuck Mangione Concert
sign off 11:30 PM

PBS had been in operation for three years but the channel 56 schedule still looks like the old National Educational Television.

Now, the networks have given up on Saturday nights. Back then, CBS had a line-up people stayed home to watch. Unfortunately, Carol Burnett was preempted this night.

Lou Gordon: What a great show! Too bad nobody like him is around today.

No Lawrence Welk on channel 50???

FredLeonard said:

Now, the networks have given up on Saturday nights. Back then, CBS had a line-up people stayed home to watch. Unfortunately, Carol Burnett was preempted this night.

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I think at this time that Carol Burnett took the summer off. Reruns of Mission: Impossible were running in that time slot until the new season of Carol Burnett started and reruns of Mission: Impossible entered syndication.

bpatrick said:

From TV Guide, Detroit Edition:
WJBK Ch. 2 Detroit (CBS)
7 AM Pebbles And Bamm Bamm (delay from Sun 9:30 AM)

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Hmmm. I thought The Harlem Globetrotters was the 9:30 AM Sunday show on CBS. Pebbles & Bamm-Bamm was already part of the Flintstone Comedy Hour at 11 AM Saturdays. The Trotters got (no pun intended) bounced?

CBS made the change on Sunday on May 27, 1973, according to "The Encyclopedia of Daytime Television," so the listing I posted is correct (BTW, you're from Cumming, GA, and I recall that WAGA normally didn't carry CBS's Sunday cartoons, except for a brief period in the fall of 1976).

To answer a couple of other questions: "Mission: Impossible" was pre-empted by the Miss Universe Pageant; Carol Burnett was off for the summer. And Lawrence Welk was airing on Channel 50 at 7 PM Sunday at the time; he would move to Saturday as "Hee Haw" moved first to Channel 4, then to Channel 2. (I have been unable to find out what happened to "Hee Haw" in Detroit after September 1980; Channel 2 had it during the 1979-80 season, then dropped it, and I have yet to find out who picked it up.)

I wonder why they didn't show repeats of the Carol Burnett Show? They'd done six seasons at this point. They weren't limited to just the past season. Mission: Impossible had run its course at this point and really didn't fit in with a strong comedy line-up.

During that summer, Harvey Korman would have been off filming "Blazing Saddles" ("That's Hedley!") and Carol Burnett would have been filming Billy Wilder's remake of "The Front Page."

Funny that CBS had dumped Hee-Haw. ABC had dumped Lawrence Welk. Both shows continued with strong performance in syndication for years afterwards. And then there's Star Trek, which NBC dumped, also on the schedule.

I think CBS was adhering to an old but antiquated (thanks to videotape) tradition, going back to radio, of summer replacements for the big comedy-variety shows; interestingly, Jackie Gleason's show aired reruns (mostly the Miami-made "Honeymooners") in the summers of 1969 and 1970. As for "Mission: Impossible," it was in its last few weeks on CBS, and I think this was just a convenient way to play it out (it had been on Saturday in the fall of 1972 but was showing its age, leading to one of the great programming decisions of all time: a three-hour block with some of the best comedy ever shown on the tube; the Friday slot it had had since late 1972 was dominated by "Sanford And Son" and "The Brady Bunch" and in the summer of '73 was given over to--believe it or not--"60 Minutes," which still hadn't caught on and wouldn't for another two years; "Calucci's Department" got that Friday slot that fall and died a quick death by January 1974).

"Hee Haw" and Welk were canceled by CBS and ABC, respectively, more for their older and rural-based demographics ("Hee Haw" was still in the top 20 when CBS tried dismantling the cornfield in 1971); their huge successes in syndication no doubt shocked a few network executives and even spurred Roy Clark to record a song, "The Lawrence Welk-Hee Haw Counterrevolutionary Polka," which actually made the Billboard charts in 1972. "Star Trek" was a victim of ratings but also of demographics tending the other way (lots of kids and teenagers); it was that rarity, a network castoff that did better in syndicated reruns ("The Honeymooners" and "The Odd Couple" are two more that come to mind) than in their original network runs. As "Star Trek" became a genuine American institution in the '70s, it would be interesting to know how the folks at NBC reacted.

For some reason, this talk about network castoffs that thrived in syndication makes me think of Lin Bolen's incessant efforts to get "Jeopardy!" off the NBC daytime schedule, which she finally did in 1975 by making a deal with Merv to put "Wheel Of Fortune" on instead. But it's fair, I think, to say. as TV Guide once did, that the answer-and-question game has since become a genuine American institution under Alex Trebek (30 years on the air and counting); BTW, as I'm posting this, today is Alex's 74th birthday; he has said, on the subject of retiring, that Bob Barker did "The Price Is Right" into his 80s and he might just keep hosting "Jeopardy!" that long.

And a final note: "Hee Haw" and Welk were not the only variety shows victimized by demographics; CBS also dropped Gleason, Ed Sullivan, Red Skelton, and Jim Nabors; ABC also dropped Johnny Cash and Pearl Bailey; NBC dropped Andy Williams (and Skelton, when he changed networks in 1970 and flopped).

bpatrick said:

CBS made the change on Sunday on May 27, 1973, according to "The Encyclopedia of Daytime Television," so the listing I posted is correct (BTW, you're from Cumming, GA, and I recall that WAGA normally didn't carry CBS's Sunday cartoons, except for a brief period in the fall of 1976).

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Quite correct. Our TV Guide carried the listings of two other CBS stations, WMAZ in Macon and WDEF in Chattanooga. WMAZ ran the CBS Sunday cartoons, and I must have missed that. WAGA also cleared Aquaman on a week delay to 7 AM Sundays in the 1967-68 season. WATL and WTCG (now WPCH) also cleared CBS's Sunday cartoons for a time.

bpatrick said:

And a final note: "Hee Haw" and Welk were not the only variety shows victimized by demographics; CBS also dropped Gleason, Ed Sullivan, Red Skelton, and Jim Nabors; ABC also dropped Johnny Cash and Pearl Bailey; NBC dropped Andy Williams (and Skelton, when he changed networks in 1970 and flopped).

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CBS dropped Ralph Kramden. The following year, they gave his time spot to Archie Bunker. Now you know the rest of the story.

Patrick, does the TV Guide says whether Mission: Impossible was a first-run episode (getting burned off) or a repeat?

The season after Star Trek was cancelled, Nielsen started providing demographic breakdowns. Up to then, it was just (what we now call) beauty contest numbers. If NBC, and advertisers, knew how great Star Trek's demos were they'd have completed the rest of the "five year mission."

Jeopardy's original announcer is still working SNL and Don Pardo is 96.

Lin Bolen was the basis for Faye Dunaway's character in "Network." Alex Trebeck was one of the young stud hosts she hired when she fired the old guard game show hosts. Interestingly, when she went on her own and produced he own game show, she hired Allen Ludden as host, not one of the studs.

Last night on "Letterman," the enhanced and expanded "CBS orchestra" plus the composer played Lou Gordon's theme song.

When I hear it I think of two things: (1) Lou Gordon ("no idiot boards, no cue cards," ... "this is my wife Jackie who axs me your questions."). And (2) The long version of this song and "In The Gadda da Vida" were always kept handy for emergencies.

Since I never lived in a market where Lou Gordon was carried, how about a quick fiill-in on how he worked? Was he like Joe Pyne, or possibly Irv Kupcinet?

bpatrick said:

Since I never lived in a market where Lou Gordon was carried, how about a quick fiill-in on how he worked? Was he like Joe Pyne, or possibly Irv Kupcinet?

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None of the above. He wasn't selling a point of view. I worked with the guy when he was at WXYZ and later lived in two markets where his show was carried, and I have no idea where he stood politically. Mostly he was against the "arrogance of power." He brought down two Detroit mayors and derailed Mitt Romney's dad's drive for the White House. He was a classic, old school muckraker. His on-air interviewing style was somewhat like Mike Wallace. Funny thing was he did radio and TV part time. His day job was running a dress wholesaler or some such. You can see some his shows on You Tube. The Wikipedia article on his is pretty good.

If I'd compare him to anybody, it would be guys who were even before his time, like Drew Pearson. He was more a one-man Wikileaks than a talk show host.

FredLeonard said:

I wonder why they didn't show repeats of the Carol Burnett Show?

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I found the answer in the August 14, 1972 issue of Broadcasting. Fred Silverman, then CBS's programming head, claimed with the heavy clearance costs of variety show reruns it was just as expensive to put out new programming as rerunning Carol Burnett episodes. And since "Mission" was already in the can, it would be even cheaper.

CBS did not rerun Carol Burnett during the summer until 1978...ironically, after her final season(Anyone know if the repeats were from that season, or a selection from previous years?)

Several times "wrestling" is shown. Any idea what that is? The Sheik's Detroit promotion? Syndicated from New York or Minneapolis?

Most likely the Detroit promotion. Since this was still the era of promotion territories, I somehow doubt (although I could be wrong) if the McMahon shows were seen in Detroit. Somebody who's from Detroit can probably fill you in better than I can.