What was on TV March 1st through 7th, 1980

Welcome to Fantasy Island.  Or at least an Al Hirschfeld cover of it.  Hirschfeld is probably the most published caricaturist (or character-ist as he considered himself).  At one point, it seemed every newspaper and magazine columnist had an Al Hirschfeld caricature to represent their column. Hirschfeld was known for hiding his daughter's name (Nina) in a lot of his paintings.  There might be one on this cover, but I think it's obscured by the address label.  I see a suspicious sideways "N" at the bottom.  He passed away at the age of 99 in 2003.

This would have been a highly superhero oriented Saturday morning lineup for me.  Starting with the "Superfriends" at 7, followed by an hour and a half(!) of "Plastic Man", "Scooby and Scrappy Doo", "Spider-woman" and finally "The ABC Weekend Special".  I just realized, all of those shows were on ABC (Channel 2 here in St. Louis).  I didn't even have to get up from by bowl of Cap'n Crunch to change the channel!  I might mention (and probably already have) how angered I was that "Spider-woman" whom I considered a "made-up" character (as opposed to all of the *real* superheroes) got her own show and Spider-man didn't.  Of course, it didn't stop me from watching it.

I don't recall "Kidsworld", and if you missed it the first time around as I did, here is the Kiss interview.  Bonus creepy scene: Peter Criss repeatedly asking the boy interviewer if he likes to be kissed.

I recall the launch of "The Energizer" and was always under the impression it was new battery technology at the time.  As it turns out, Eveready had sold alkaline batteries since 1959 and even called it the "Alkaline Energizer" from 1968 to '74.  Between '74 and '80, it was known as the "Alkaline Power Cell" before being rebadged "The Energizer" and introducing the Bunny to the world.

The quintessential Goldblum expression.

I don't know that "Alice" ever had a shark to be jumped, but if it did, it had to be when Flo left the show.  Perhaps a more appropriate expression would be "Jumped the Grits".

I watched "That's Incredible" every week.  Not once did I make one of those faces.

I think I would believe Lucille Ball fell in love with an encyclopaedia (the Latin spelling no less!) more than I would believe America's favorite comedic redhead had been reduced to hawking them. 

I'm sorry.  I looked, but no luck finding "The Big Show" on Youtube.  Until someone uploads it, I hope you're consoled with this clip of Mummenschanz.  Man those two creeped me out.

I vaguely recall this episode of Laverne & Shirley.  Episodes like this where they tried to be more than a one-off episode of hijinks never worked for me.  And Scatman Cruthers as the porter? Yikes!

I don't recall this series based on the movies.  The fact that it only lasted 5 episodes might explain that.

You can watch the entire movie "White Mama" starring Bette Davis on Youtube.  Of course you can.

I challenge everyone out there to make one of these recipes and report back the results.

The annual broadcast of "The Wizard of Oz" was a highly anticipated event in our house.  Although made in 1939, it still seemed high tech to my eyes and the flying monkeys were as traumatizing as any horror movie I had seen.  Sadly, it doesn't seem that have the same effect on the videogame-infused minds of my children.

"PM Magazine" was a syndicated entertainment news magazine hosted by local broadcasters (Chuck Neff and Jan Tracy in St. Louis).  It typically covered a national story that was shown in all markets followed by a couple of locally produced stories.  I recall it being a fairly good show.

And that's it for this week in television history.