Sunday, February 3, 2013

What was on TV January 20th through 26th, 1979 -- The Superbowl Sunday Edition

I was never a sports fan growing up, or even now for that matter.  My family just never watched sports.  But I can appreciate the significance of the Superbowl, especially when it's given a retro spin.

A few years back, I came into possession of a large lot of vintage TV Guides.  I acquired them from Freecycle.  If you're unfamiliar with Freecycle, it's a Yahoo! Group that allows people to offer up items they no longer want.  You can reply that you want the item and then you and the other person work out a time to pick the item up.  The groups are set up by localities, usually by city or county.

It's from that batch that I present you Super Bowl XIII from the January 20-26, 1979 edition of TV Guide.



As I said, I wasn't a sports fan, so I certainly wasn't watching that year's Superbowl which was between the Dallas Cowboys and the Pittsburgh Steelers.  I was more apt to be watching something like this:


Of course, Love Boat was on Saturday Nights, so that's not what I would have been watching in place of the Superbowl.  Looking at the Sunday night schedule, pickings were slim.  The best I could hope for that night was The Hardy Boys and Alice.  I hated when sports preempted the regular lineup!

But let's jump back to Saturday afternoon.  Our local independent station, KPLR channel 11 here in St. Louis always guaranteed an Abbott & Costello movie and a Ma & Pa Kettle.  I was always a fan of the monster-themed Abbott & Costello's, so I'm sure this Saturday's offering thrilled me.


What was it about 70's movies and people dying?!

Looks like Ted dodged a bullet (or knife) here

I'm sure this was capitalizing off of the success of Animal House

I came across this ad for Battlestar Galactica.  I recognized the artwork immediately as a Frank Frazetta knock-off, until I looked at the artist.  It was actually Frank Frazetta.  Apparently, he did at least 4 ads for the  show. This site states that 3 ads were produced, but the one below isn't among the examples given.


Another 70's disaster movie.  This one involving a blimp crashing into the Superbowl stadium.  In real life this year at the Superbowl, the power went out.  Not quite a disasterous.

I had no idea this show existed.  

Of course Youtube has a clip of it.  Seriously?  "Ghetto Man"?  What, to be a black superhero, you MUST have come from the ghetto?  And bumping hips with Batman no less?  Adam West and Burt Ward reprise their roles for this show, despite the fact that Burt Ward was 34 years old at this point.

Some shows I would have been watching on Wednesday night.  Weird, I only remember The Incredible Hulk being on Friday nights.

Hello, Larry was an extremely short-live series that was spun off from Diff'rent Strokes.  It starred McLean Stevenson and staple 70's child actress Kim Richards.

Apparently, a regular piece in the TV Guide was "Flicker Snickers."  Not one of these made me snicker.

A glorious double-page ad for The Dukes of Hazzard.

"You're in Hazzard County where the lawmen are crooked, the good guys are outlaws and ever'body's in-laws!"  Was this a cute way of saying they were all inbreds?

And finally, closing out this issue is a double-page ad for the new 1979 Chevy Chevette featuring it's many standard offerings including such luxuries as AM radio, a battery, an engine and carpeting.  Man, how could they miss?!


3 comments:

  1. i thought "Hello, Larry" was a spin of (of sorts) from McLean Stevenson's character from MASH. no? one thing's for sure, it didn't last more than a season, i don't think. great flashback stuff, especially the BSG ad. i didn't realize frazetta did any for that show.

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  2. There was a crossover episode of Diff'rent Strokes that introduced the Hello Larry characters. McLean Stevenson's MASH character died in a helicopter crash, remember?

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  3. how could i forget? still one of the most amazing, heartbreaking moments on TV. ( i think i was thinking of Trapper, and "Trapper John, MD" or something). anyway, about that episode: i know that they didn't tell the cast what was going to happen to him, so the reactions you see in the show are real. Radar only knew moments before he went in to read his lines. #trivia

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