Tuesday, March 4, 2014

What was on TV March 3rd through 9th, 1979

For those of you who may have joined more recently, I thought I'd take the opportunity to explain what old TV Guides have to do with a Garage Sale blog.  It takes several leaps of faith, so bear with me.

Originally when I started this blog, garage sales were my main source of cheap goodies.  But even by the time I started this blog, the golden age of garage sales was coming to a close.  With the advent of eBay and the generation whose items I was looking for aging out of the garage sale demographic, I was having trouble finding interesting buys.   To remedy this, I began attending estate sales and perusing thrift stores.  I decided to not confine the blog to garage sales, but anywhere I found affordable neat stuff.  Occasionally, either through curbside finds or other sources, I would get things for free and decided those had to qualify for the blog as well.

That brings us to the TV Guides.  About 6 years ago, someone posted these on a local Freecycle group I belonged to.  I was lucky enough (or no one else was interested) to get them.  I decided to start writing a blog about them called Saturday Morning TV Zombie.  It was less than a stellar attempt and I ended up only making a few posts before realizing if I limited myself to Saturday Morning TV, I was going to run out of ideas pretty quickly.

So after I started this blog and had made all of the leaps described above, I thought why not.  Sometimes you start something with a goal in mind and by the time you get to where you going, it's become something else.

Sorry for the rambling intro, but now let's get on with March of 1979 and a Gary Coleman cover.



I remember these ads for the Tab glass and apparently, they actually made them, although I've never seen one in person.  I always thought it was a clever play on an hour-glass figure.  Then I realized it's basically an melding of a Coke and 7-Up glass, which in itself was a play on the Coke glass:





Jessica Savitch  passed away in a car accident 4 years later.  She was a passenger in a car the overturned in a water-filled canal.  Unable to open the doors, she, another occupant, and her dog (the one above?) drowned.



Apparently, Canadian Club hid cases of booze in various locations around the world including the Yukon, the North Pole and Tanzania.  The internet suggests (and it never lies) 5 cases have never been found.


The Season's New Look. I can see I would have struggled with a few nights.  Now I know why I never saw "Cliffhangers": it was opposite "Happy Days" and "Laverne & Shirley".  And I don't know how I ever caught "Diff'rent Strokes" being opposite of "The Incredible Hulk".




I found a number of promos that coincide with this week.



Soap Wars




Stockard Channing just never found her niche.  

"The Mary Tyler Moore Hour" was Mary's attempt at another show after "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" wrapped.  It gave Michael Keaton and David Letterman some of their earliest gigs.  Was it any good?  This clip will speak to that.




Kate Mulgrew seems to have been a staple of late '70's TV.  

Regency Hairweavers might be on to something here:


Loser

Chick Magnet


All of these made-for-tv movies makes me wonder, do the networks still produce them?  I haven't watched network tv in 15 years.

A pre-"That's Incredible" Cathy Lee Crosby in a clip from "Coach"



I don't know why I continue to be amazed when I find something on Youtube.


It looks like "$20,000 Pyramid" was horning in on Bert Convy's "Tattletales" with this celebrity couple special.


Cher looks like a reject from a Frank Frazetta painting in this special.






A poster montage that awesome deserves it's own spot.

Although, I don't recall Kathy Baumann.  Looking through her imdb entry, I'm not sure what should would have been known for.


John Denver, Cheryl Ladd, Valerie Harper, Cheryl Tiegs, Erma Bombeck and Tina Turner.  What else do you need to tell you this is a 1970's TV special?

In case you're wondering who won the 1970 People's Choice Awards.

I always liked Chuck and Bob on Soap, they do look kind of creepy here.




Below is the perfect example of how to ruin a child star.  Call him "incredible", "miraculous, "uncanny" and "brilliant".  Then compare him to the comedic greats with the IQ of Einstein.  All at the age of 10.  Gary Coleman never had a chance.


Another Erin Gray Virginia Slims ad.  David Bartels discovered his newly-wedded wife smoked so he murdered her, I guess?




I've never heard of "Scrunge", but apparently you can still buy them.



And that wraps up this week in 1979 TV.

8 comments:

  1. is it my imagination, or are these coming more quickly these days? these posts are so chock full of stuff, i can't seem to make enough time to comment properly. let's see...

    i remember those Tab glasses. i might have a 7up one somewhere, i think... the downfall of both of them were that they were a pain to clean.

    i had no idea that's what happened to jessica savitch. how horrible!

    the hidden cases of Canadian Club is true. it's a famous example of a good advertising campaign. (i mean, look -- we're STILL talking about it!)

    david letterman as a backup singer on the mary tyler moore variety show?? you just blew my mind. how did we not know this already? THANK YOU, INTERNET!

    you're obviously not a cher fan. that's her big disco album! it went gold, but i can't say i recognize any of the songs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take_Me_Home_(Cher_album)

    i remember kathy baumann -- she was on the CHiPs roller disco episode. of course, i had to look at her bio to be sure. the name certainly rang a bell.

    i can't really say much about gary coleman. he bought all the stuff everyone said about him when he was a kid, and got chewed up and spit out by the celebrity machine. seems like justin bieber's just the latest ongoing example. tragic, and yet it goes on and on.

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    1. >is it my imagination, or are these coming more quickly these
      >days?
      Not your imagination. I have multiple years of TV Guide for certain weeks and some of them are just to good to wait another year to post.
      >david letterman as a backup singer on the mary tyler moore
      >variety show?
      And didn't he look comfortable doing it?
      >you're obviously not a cher fan.
      Not a big fan, but I don't hate her either. I just found that outfit particularly over the top.
      >seems like justin bieber's just the latest ongoing example.
      Exactly.

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  2. I love these posts. Love looking through the old pages and listings and your commentary! These years were classic for me. Such a wonderful lineup almost every day!

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    1. Glad you enjoy it, Joe. What I find enjoyable (and amazing) is I can tie these to Youtube videos of the promos that ran for the same week.

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  3. Almost like little time travel trips!

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  4. The origin of TV Guide on this blog...nice!

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  5. I'm a lil late to tbis Party, but with watching so much cable news lately, due to mostly our new President. Seeing all these political women commentartors & TV news reporters. Reminded me of the one who lead the way for all these women, the Golden Girl herself, Jessica Savitch. She really did pave the way & Her death was very tragic, esp because She was starting a new phase of her life.

    And, to answer your questions about TV movies of the week. No, a big UNFORTUNATELY, they don't make them anymore and haven't since the mid to late 80's. Though, Lifetime now seems to cornered the market on made 4 TV Movies now.

    The made for TV Movies of the 70s were the Big staple at least for my family. Hearing, the entertaining music intro at the begining...made everyone in the family come running with dinner plate in hand. To hunker down together and enjoy the movie. Most are out of print & are NOT aired in reruns, but occassionally you can catch one on cables Chiller channel and a few are posted on youtube.

    Here's a lil clip below. 😊

    https://youtu.be/6kcgQ_B6xUw

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    1. You're never too late to join this party, Tonie. Catch up on the other TV Guide posts. I don't post these as much as I'd like to these days because they take so much time to scan, but never fear, the well is fare from dry. Thanks for the link. I loved made-for-TV movies. The sappier the better. And some like "Duel" are bonafide classics.

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