What was on TV April 26th through May 2nd, 1980

I apologize for the TV Guide dry spell -- I didn't have the last few weeks.  After the long wait, we now return to April, 1980.

"United States" was a show by the developer of the M*A*S*H TV series.  It starred Beau Bridges and Helen Shaver and promised to be a show of the '80's with comedy based on real-life situations.  It was pulled by CBS after 6 episodes.  Critics blamed the writing and the characters as being too unlikable.

By 1980, traffic helicopters were becoming popular with local television stations across the country and this article questions their necessity and rasises concerns about their safety.  Just last month, 2 people were killed and 3 injured when a traffic helicopter crashed in Seattle.

I think I'd rather be concerned about what my kids were watching on TV in 1980 than what they might be looking at on the internet in 2014.

Marlin Perkins hosted "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom" for 22 years.  He was a native of Missouri and lived the last 24 years of his life here in St. Louis.

According to Wikipedia:

Following the revelation that The Walt Disney Company had fabricated footage of a mass suicide of lemmings in its film White Wilderness, CBC journalist Bob McKeown challenged Perkins in an interview as to whether he had ever done something of that sort. Perkins, then in his seventies, "firmly asked for the camera to be turned off, then punched a shocked McKeown in the face."

I think I'd like to see that.  These days, it would have been released on youtube immediately.  Here's Perkins in a promo for Shedd Aquarium in Chicago from this month in 1980:

"Fighting the Gas War".  Beano ad?  No, an ad for Yamaha motorcycles.  Gas was still in short supply in 1980 and had just broken the $1.00/gallon mark.

Karen Black always looked cross-eyed to me.  "Confessions of a Lady Cop" was an episode of the series "Police Story" whose first episode actually became the pilot for Angie Dickinson's vehicle "Police Woman".

I remember receiving educational cards like these as samples in the mail.  We never ordered the full set, so we just had the starter cards for plants, animals, presidents, etc.

Shabba-Doo?  Joey Joe Joe Junior? 

This ad for "The Investigators" on ABC News reinforces the saying that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Looks more like Gauguin the Constipated.

And that concludes our broadcast.