Network shows notable for Controversy

Re: TV Shows That Had Trouble In Certain Regions Of The County

AB was carried on every ABC affiliate in North Carolina.
Even in the days when it was a daily show it was carried
on both (!) ABC affiliates in the state: WRAL Raleigh and
WLOS Asheville.

I don't recall any pre-emptions of either Sing Along With
Mitch or The Ed Sullivan Show in North Carolina. However,
no NBC affiliate in the state carried Nat King Cole's show;
WSB Atlanta did (but its management was a lot more racially
tolerant than most in the '50s), but I don't think it fared well
against Name That Tune on WAGA and Cheyenne on then-WLW-A
(now WXIA). Whether it was Cole's color or just two strong
competing shows, I don't know.

Re: TV Shows That Had Trouble In Certain Regions Of The County

oldiesfan6479 said:

milton77 said:

KSL-TV still does not air Saturday Night Live. It airs on a CW or MyNetwork affiliate.

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Before the SLC affiliation/ownership musical chairs, then-NBC affil KUTV
for years delayed SNL until 11:30 MT, rather than in pattern at 10:30.

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WPSD-TV channel 6 in Paducah, KY, also delayed SNL by an hour for many years, until sometime in the '90s, I believe. (That was actually the result of a compromise! They originally weren't going to carry it at all until they got too much negative feedback about it!) Of course, by the time WPSD started carrying it on time, it was such a dud that I didn't want to watch it anymore! :

I don't know how they got around airing "the best of SNL" back in the late '70s (in prime time!), when I was in high school. Maybe they just aired it anyway! ??? :

Re: TV Shows That Had Trouble In Certain Regions Of The County

Braves2005 said:

Here in San Antonio, KSAT-12 aired Soap at 9:30 PM on Tuesday nights with Family airing 30 minutes earlier at 8:30 PM during the 1977-1978 season. When it moved to Thursdays after Barney Miller in 1978, KSAT kept the show in the regular 8:30 PM time slot.

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Channel 7, WBBJ, the ABC affiliate in Jackson, TN, aired the Gong Show in place of Soap. I didn't care! I was 13 at the time, and I loved the Gong Show, and I couldn't see it in its usual time because I was usually never able to get home from school in time to see it!

Re: TV Shows That Had Trouble In Certain Regions Of The County

RALfan said:

I would like to point out that WRAL did not air the first three seasons of the 1980s version of "Ripley's Believe It or Not" placing "Solid Gold" in the Sunday 7:00pm slot against "60 Minutes" (it wasn't until 1985 did WTVD pick up Ripley's). Any speculation as to why, other than for ratings purposes?

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I find it amusing that they would put Solid Gold on in prime time! Weren't the dancers' outfits considered extremely skimpy for those days, especially Darcelle's? I remember the aforementioned channel 7 occasionally showing Solid Gold in primetime, again probably for ad revenue or ratings purposes, but its regular time slot was late night, usually an hour or so after the late local news.

Re: TV Shows That Had Trouble In Certain Regions Of The County

firepoint525 said:

I find it amusing that they would put Solid Gold on in prime time! Weren't the dancers' outfits considered extremely skimpy for those days, especially Darcelle's? I remember the aforementioned channel 7 occasionally showing Solid Gold in primetime, again probably for ad revenue or ratings purposes, but its regular time slot was late night, usually an hour or so after the late local news.

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In San Antonio, it was totally the opposite as Solid Gold aired at 6:00 PM Saturday nights on KSAT-12 opposite Hee Haw on KENS-5. They also aired a repeat of that week's episode of Solid Gold very early Saturday mornings between 1:00 AM and 2:30 AM depending on what time the movie on ABC ended because KSAT delayed the ABC late night shows after reruns of Charlie's Angels or The Fall Guy later on at 11:00 PM.

About Lawrence Welk, I remember when KSAT dropped the show in 1978 and it was on at 6:00 PM opposite Hee Haw for about 3 years starting in 1975 after being shuffled all over the place either on Saturday afternoons, Saturday nights or Sunday afternoon for the disco show Soap Factory Disco and I never got to see the rest of Lawrence Welk's last 4 seasons of first-run episodes on the air until I saw the reruns of the show on PBS. I don't know why KSAT did this but I know that it wasn't because of ratings.

Re: TV Shows That Had Trouble In Certain Regions Of The County

WPXI (11) in Pittsburgh dropped "Diff'rent Strokes" and "Silver Spoons" for two years in favor of "Hee Haw" on Saturday nights. They also aired "Star Search" instead of "Mr. Smith" and "Jennifer Slept Here" on Friday nights.

KDKA (2) also pre-empted one of CBS's Saturday night comedies for local programming starting around 1976 - the first season of "Alice" and a few other shows that never went anywhere anyway. They also dumped most of the last year of "WKRP in Cincinnati".

Re: TV Shows That Had Trouble In Certain Regions Of The County

A few of you mentioned pre-emptions by Southern stations, and it jarred my memory over an NBC affiliate's sporadic pre-emptions of "The Huntley-Brinkley Report." Any time a report on the civil rights movement would air, the station would suddenly put up a "technical difficulty" sign.

I'm not mentioning the call letters because I'm not 100% sure, but if I remember correctly, the station eventually lost its license.

Re: TV Shows That Had Trouble In Certain Regions Of The County

WLBT in Jackson, Mississippi was the one that feigned technical difficulties, and eventually lost its license.

Re: TV Shows That Had Trouble In Certain Regions Of The County

Russell W. said:

johnnya2k6 said:

We have read so many posts here about WLBT (Jackson, Miss.) blacking out certain portions of "The Huntley-Brinkley Report" during the Civil Rights movement of the '50s and '60s and pretending they're experiencing "technical difficulties."

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WHBQ-13 in Memphis was even worse than WBRC-6/Birmingham when it came to such matters. Hot L Baltimore wasn't carried at all on 13, and Soap didn't run for at least the first two seasons. I remember well the night "Hot L" debuted .... Lance Russell, WHBQ-TV's program director (yes, of wrestling ringside fame), came on screen with a lot of gobbledygook about how the new ABC show "doesn't meet our standards", yadda yadda, and that Channel 13 would be airing something "more appropriate for family viewing.": reruns of Green Acres.

--Russell

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You're kidding... Lance Russell as a PD! That was a Saturday noontime staple here in Louisville, not so much for the wrestling but for the comic relief! I'm so glad Mid-South Wrestling met his standards! I must admit "Green Acres" is much much more appropriate for family viewing, but I've heard Arnold was quite a pig!

Re: TV Shows That Had Trouble In Certain Regions Of The County

bpatrick said:

AB was carried on every ABC affiliate in North Carolina.
Even in the days when it was a daily show it was carried
on both (!) ABC affiliates in the state: WRAL Raleigh and
WLOS Asheville.

I don't recall any pre-emptions of either Sing Along With
Mitch or The Ed Sullivan Show in North Carolina. However,
no NBC affiliate in the state carried Nat King Cole's show;
WSB Atlanta did (but its management was a lot more racially
tolerant than most in the '50s), but I don't think it fared well
against Name That Tune on WAGA and Cheyenne on then-WLW-A
(now WXIA). Whether it was Cole's color or just two strong
competing shows, I don't know.

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I know WLOS always carried AB weekdays, but WRAL? Are you sure? I'm certain WSOC and WBTV never carried AB--of course they were secondary ABC affils (And who can forget Kilgo's Canteen on WSOC?). And, WGHP never carried AB weekdays, but was the weekday version still on the air when WGHP came on in 1963? Yes, I know Ed Sullivan and Sing Along With Mitch were always on in the major NC markets--I remember my older bigoted relatives complaining about both shows.

Re: TV Shows That Had Trouble In Certain Regions Of The County

WRAL switched from NBC to ABC on August 1, 1962,
while AB was still a daily show, and they did run it.
WGHP, on the other hand, signed on after AB had
cut back to Saturdays only (they did run Lloyd Thaxton
in the late afternoons, though).

Back in the late '50s I believe that WSOC, WTVD,
and WSJS (WXII) carried a portion of AB; WSOC and
WSJS were NBC affiliates; WTVD, CBS (and got The
Secret Storm and Edge Of Night in before airing AB
at 5). But by '62 WSOC and WSJS were no longer
running AB, and WSOC wouldn't again until switching
to ABC in 1978 (WBTV did carry the Saturday show until
it moved to WCCB in 1967).

Some of the local dance parties, besides Kilgo's Kanteen,
included: Bob Waddell's RC Dance Party on WFMY, Teenage
Frolics (later just Frolics) on WRAL, The Dick Bennick Show
on WGHP (before he went to Florida and became Dr. Paul
Bearer), and Top Ten Dance Party on WTVD.

And lest we forget, there was a time when Ed Sullivan wasn't
carried in Birmingham; viewers in the Magic City did not see the
Beatles unless they had an antenna that could pick up Huntsville,
Montgomery, Columbus, GA, or Atlanta.

Re: TV Shows That Had Trouble In Certain Regions Of The County

I believe WRAL switched from NBC to ABC because of NBC's
increasing interest in the Civil Rights Movement. Future U.S.
senator Jesse Helms basically controlled WRAL in those days
so he would preempt the last 10 minutes of ABC's nightly
news to give his own commentaries on the Civil Rights
Movement.

Re: TV Shows That Had Trouble In Certain Regions Of The County

Star Trek as I understand was preempted or not shown at all
in a number of southern Television markets.

Re: TV Shows That Had Trouble In Certain Regions Of The County

I heard that Walter Kronkite was preempted in Cincinnati
at one point-why was that?

Re: TV Shows That Had Trouble In Certain Regions Of The County

classictvfan said:

I heard that Walter Kronkite was preempted in Cincinnati
at one point-why was that?

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According to the book "News Is People", which is about the history of local television news, the person to blame for that was legendary Cincinnati newscaster Al Schottelkotte. As the anchor/managing editor/news director at WCPO, he apparently took issue with CBS and its long-form reports mostly on world events, complaining that they "thought they owned the world" and "hardly covered anything west of Washington"; therefore, because of Schottelkotte's outright disdain for it (even when it expanded to a half-hour in '63), Cronkite's Evening News was not seen in Cincinnati for many years. It was also one of the reasons that Schottelkotte came up with the format that would later serve as the inspiration for CNN Headline News.

Re: TV Shows That Had Trouble In Certain Regions Of The County

In Northeastern New Brunswick, CHCR/CHCN did not air CBC's Barbara Allen Show in the late 1970s to air North East Report, a regional program. These stations were satellites of CHSJ in Saint John, which itself aired Barbara Allen.

Re: TV Shows That Had Trouble In Certain Regions Of The County

WAGA Atlanta didn't carry Cronkite for about three
years (1963-66); it's one reason CBS established a
bureau in New Orleans, headed by Dan Rather. mainly
to cover the civil-rights story (although, as we know,
Rather was in Dallas and broke the news of JFK's death
on CBS Radio). However, when WAGA opened its new
studios on Briarcliff Road in 1966, Cronkite was on hand
to cut the ribbon; Cronkite (then Rather) aired on WAGA
until it went to Fox in 1994.

In fact, at one point in the '60s Atlanta viewers had one
network newscast: Huntley-Brinkley; WSB was that dominant.
Channel 11 ran ABC's newscast off and on; it was carrying
Peter Jennings when he expanded to 30 minutes in 1967.
However, like many ABC affiliates in 1968, it dropped the newscast
when Frank Reynolds took over; no doubt, like many stations
(and not just in the South), it considered Reynolds' commentaries
to be too liberal. ABC News didn't return to 11 until December 20,
1971, during the Smith/Reasoner era, and remained until the
switch to NBC in 1980.

Re: TV Shows That Had Trouble In Certain Regions Of The County

M.J. said:

In Northeastern New Brunswick, CHCR/CHCN did not air CBC's Barbara Allen Show in the late 1970s to air North East Report, a regional program. These stations were satellites of CHSJ in Saint John, which itself aired Barbara Allen.

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CHCR/CHCN opted out of CHSJ programming for quite a few years to run regional programs for Miramichi/North Shore viewers...TV listings in the Maritimes would often indicate CHSJ's programs for the top of the hour, followed by a listing for the opt-out at :01 with the disclaimer "North Shore Only". In its last days before the CBC takeover, some of the programs were shown provincewide/regionwide (CHSJ's Moncton and Saint John tx reached parts of Nova Scotia and PEI) on Sunday mornings.

Re: TV Shows That Had Trouble In Certain Regions Of The County

classictvfan said:

Star Trek as I understand was preempted or not shown at all
in a number of southern Television markets.

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What was the reasoning for that?

Also another pair of then-NBC affiliates that preempted Star Trek: WICS-20 Springfield, IL/WICD-15 Champaign (then and now still sister stations--now owned by Sinclair). The link below to an Aug. 24, 1967 TV listing from a central Illinois TV history website ("Doug Quick Online") gives more info on the Star Trek preemption in central IL:

http://www.dougquick.com/TVschedule1967-0824.html

Re: TV Shows That Had Trouble In Certain Regions Of The County

Tim from Springfield said:

classictvfan said:

Star Trek as I understand was preempted or not shown at all
in a number of southern Television markets.

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What was the reasoning for that?

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I guess the automatic supposition would be because of the presence of Uhura? In the midst of all the civil rights turmoil of the 60's and the desperate attempt to hold on to the "traditional" roles of the races, here comes a show with an intelligent, capable black woman who is a critical member of the crew and treated with respect and equality by her colleagues. I also understand that early on there was some concern about the "Satanic" appearance of Spock; in fact, one of the earliest NBC promo photos of the character was airbrushed to minimize the ears and eyebrows. Not to mention that Star Trek depicted a future Earth society that was largely at peace and prosperous with the strong implication of a united world government, which belied the chaotic future that right-wing doomsayers were (and still are, to some extent) prophesying if the "progressive" forces and movements in U.S. society took hold.

I wonder about other early TV shows featuring black characters as well. Was I Spy a difficult sell in the south? A black man (Alexander Scott, played by Bill Cosby) who is a highly respected government agent, a Rhodes Scholar no less, in a friendship and mutually respectful working relationship with a white man? And Scotty was also depicted as more experienced and level-headed than Kelly as well, and was often the "hero" of the day. That must have been a little difficult to swallow in some of the more regressive corners of 1960's Southern society, no?