Sunday, March 17, 2013

What was on TV March 18th through 24th, 1978

It's time once again for my irregular feature, What was on TV.  This week, it's March 18th through the 24th of 1978 with a  Lyndsey Wagner cover.



On the letter's page, Carol Burnett responds to what must have been critical commentary on her decision to not accept CBS's offer to renew her variety show for the 1979 season.  Ultimately, it was certainly the right decision.  The Carol Burnett show remains a classic.  Sadly, she never came close to matching the show in later ventures.


The Satruday morning lineup.



I was a faithful watcher of The Weekend Special, but somehow I managed to miss "Homer and the Wacky Donut Machine."  Unfortunately, a search on Youtube only turns up the Treehouse of Horror episode where Homer is forced to eat donuts non-stop by the Devil's minions:  "I don't understand it, James Coco went mad after fifteen minutes."


The KPLR Channel 11 Sunday lineup always guaranteed a Godzilla movie.  This week's was Destroy All Monsters.  After that, Bob Hope!

Easter of 1978 fell on March 26th and the week leading up to it offered the following specials:


"The Bugs Bunny Easter Special" was yet another assemblage of Looney Tunes clips with poorly drawn segues linking episodes that had absolutely nothing to do with each other.

Meanwhile "It's the Easter Beagle"  demonstrates yet another example of Charles Schulz giving Charlie Brown the shaft when Snoopy, as the Easter Beagle, runs out of eggs upon reaching poor old Chuck.  It always angered me that Woodstock got one and had no use for it.  Come to think of it, it's kind of creepy giving a cooked egg to a bird as a gift.

This special left absolutely no impression on me.

Nor did this one.

This is the special I remember and never missed.

Perhaps we need to revisit the definition of "treat".

¿Quien es mas macho?   Lee Majors es mas macho.

"Newsroom Update GETS IT ON!"  No they didn't...

Betsey Bruce appears to be psychically willing her thoughts to her typewriter while Dennis Riggs looks suspiciously on.

This NewsCenter 2 ad piggybacks on the success of "Star Wars' font".

True tales of Trauma time.  Chuck Neff (above) was a local radio and television broadcaster later appearing on the locally syndicated show PM Magazine.  Years later, my wife and I were taking our Catholic pre-cana classes at Kenrick Seminary in Webster Groves, Missouri.  Part of the course involved watching a series of films hosted by Chuck and his wife Judy.  One film, of course, dealt with sex.  Chuck and Judy tried to dispel the myth that Catholics aren't allowed to have fun with sex by telling of the early morning quickies they enjoyed before heading off to work.  It scars me to this day.

Before looking at these ads, may I remind you ABC was in first place during these years.



This looks so craptacular, I'm not even going Google it.

The Rutles All You Need is Cash, on the other hand, was an extremely funny made-for-television film parodying the Beatles. Featuring cast members of both Monty Python and SNL, it has become a cult classic.  I haven't seen this since it's original airing.  Seeing this ad compels me to seek it out.

This concludes another episode of "What was on TV".  Join me next week for March 24th through 30th, 1979 (he wrote confidently.)

4 comments:

  1. Sometimes I wish I could crawl into a TV Guide and just be back in that time. So amazing, thanks for sharing these!!!

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    Replies
    1. You and me both, Joe. I have great memories of sitting cross-legged in front of our console television watching all of these shows. I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things after a month hiatus and get some more TV Guides blogged.

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  2. I remember watching "The Big Bus" premiere with my mother. I found a copy years ago via BitTorrent and still enjoy it, at very least as a fond memory of my St. Louis area (Belleville, IL, actually) kid-dom.

    The story: A gigantic atomic-powered bus on it's cross-country maiden trip. Her crew attempts to deal with sabotage while keeping to their timetable, and trying to arrive safely. The movie is funny, with humor similar to that in "Airplane". The cast of lesser 70s stars is typical (and wonderfully schlocky). John Beck aka "Bus Co-Pilot" earlier co-starred in "Rollerball" as James Caan's teammate "Moonpie".

    If you can find this, it is worth a watch.

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    Replies
    1. Okay, you changed my mind. I'll have to seek this out.

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