preemption

Aww Man, My Show’s Not On!?

Posted on by

Back before there were a gazillion TV channels, I’m sure you remember the scenario of sitting down to watch your favorite program and being greeted with an announcement like this:

You probably reacted with some form of sadness and despair: “Aww man, my show’s not on!? What am I going to watch now?”  Then you start flipping channels to find out what you would watch.  50 years ago tonight, Star Trek was preempted for the second time in the first season, the program replacing it was highlights of the 1967 show of the Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey Circus.  As you have probably heard, that circus is shutting down this year after 146 years in operation.  Here is an ad for the airing of that show on WNBC in New York:

The interesting thing is that, while the Thursday 8:30-9:30pm time period was preempted by WATE for the Rawhide repeats, the powers that be decided not to do that and instead air this program!  Guess they like lions and tigers and bears but not Vulcans! (Oh my!)

The 3/16/1967 TV Schedule

Now, I never really was a circus fan, so I probably would have flipped over to another network and watched something else.

In case you were curious what those programs were:

CBS

8:30pm –  My Three Sons – “Charley O’ The Seven Seas” (not seen in Knoxville on WBIR – instead it would be the final 30 minutes of Theater 10 – “The Gift of Love”)
9:00pm –  Beginning of the CBS Thursday Night Movie – “Major Dundee”

ABC

8:30pm – Bewitched – “The Crone of Cawdor”
9:00pm – That Girl – “The Honeymoon Apartment”

If I were somewhere else, I probably would go with My Three Sons. If I had to choose in Knoxville, it would be “Bewitched.”

By the way, have I ever told you how much I used to love that CBS Special Presentation intro of yesteryear?

I know I’m not the only one that loved that intro!

A Look Back at a Jack Benny Special

Posted on by

December 1st, 1966.  If you were to sit down that night in front of your TV set all warmed up at 8:30pm Eastern time, you might have thought you would see Star Trek on NBC.  At that moment, you would be in for a shock.  Watch…

If you’re a little kid, that announcement at the beginning will probably make you say, “Noooo!” or “Gee whiz!“.   Me, the 1966 TV viewer at the ripe age of 37, would keep watching.   You can’t go wrong with a comedy legend like Jack Benny.  All of the sketches made me laugh.  What’s interesting in this special is the Smothers Brothers.  According to IMDB, their CBS variety show debuted on February 5, 1967.  What I’m guessing is that someone saw them on this special, or something prior to that, and thought that they should have their own show.  They were always hilarious.

The most memorable bit here is by far the Tijuana Strings with Mel Blanc doing the famous “Sy Si Sue Sew” bit that dates back to Benny’s earlier days.

A very hilarious hour indeed.

But wait, there more!

In Knoxville, what happened to this special?  If you’ll remember in this article, Star Trek was not seen on WATE.  So, with this special airing in that slot, there was only one solution.  Tape delay!

It was tape delayed to the following Sunday, December 4th, at 4:00pm.  And it might not have even played at that time because right before it on NBC was an AFL football game between the Boston Patriots and Buffalo Bills.  (Boston won 14-3, in case you’re curious.)   If I had to guess that game probably didn’t run over it’s 3 hour time slot, given for the fact that there were a *lot* less commercials during sports broadcasts in 1966 than there are today.  That’s another examination for another day, however.

The real thing to point out, however, is that if you look at the grid of what was on other stations, you will notice that on WRCB (Chattanooga’s NBC station) and WCYB (Bristol’s NBC station), you will see Meet the Press.  Wait, what?  That means WATE was preempting one network program with a tape delay of another network program that was preempted by a locally ran program.  That sounds totally bizarre, doesn’t it?

That’s why I like looking at old TV listings!