Saturday, April 8, 2017

What was on TV April 7th through 13th, 1979

After a long hiatus, TV Guide returns again to my blog.  This issue from this week in 1979 features an cover and interview with Maren Jensen of "Battlestar Galactica".

How right you are, 1979. Things do always go wrong at the Oscars. Just ask LaLaLand.




The unholy offspring of Ron Howard and Donnie Most approves of Doral cigarettes.

He's playing game show host, or television has driven him stark raving mad!






Ah, the '70's.  When "marginally retarded" was a compliment. More on "Like Normal People" below.





"Supertrain" is back...at least for another month at which time it was cancelled for good. I wonder how "Love Boat's" Bernie Kopell got ABC to let him make an appearance.  Maybe they already knew this was no competition.





"Friends" (no this is not a prequel to the Matthew LeBlanc/Jennifer Aniston vehicle) lasted less than a month.  But Jill Whelan did go on to have another role in "Love Boat".










It's hard to remember that there was a time when Gary Busey was a respected actor and not insane.


The Easter specials never quite caught on the way Christmas specials did, but at least they did better than "It's the Groundhog, Charlie Brown."




"D.B.'s Delight" was a local kids game show that featured students from local elementary schools competing with each other. Questions were geared toward then current pop culture such as movies and music along with some more academic questions on geography and mathematics. Bobby Day was a local DJ who was later replaced on the show by another DJ Guy Phillips. "D.B. Doorbell" was their Ed McMahon in puppet form.








Something tells me the 700 club came down firmly in the "real" column for the Shroud of Turin.




"Like Normal People" was one of those "very special" made-for-TV movies the '70's (and I) loved so much. Starring teen heart throb Shaun Cassidy (at least he doesn't sing "Da-doo-ron-ron") and Linda Purl, it examined the relationship and struggles of two mentally challenged people who fall in love.










This Virginia Slims ad mimics the Rube Goldberg comic strip, the end result of this one, of course, being the dowsing of a woman smoker.

13 comments:

  1. Not a Good Idea in Retrospect Dept.: a weight loss product called Ayds.

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    1. yes, it's definitely one of those infamously bad product names in terms of timing... : (

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    2. There was a small amount of damage control effort; the company renamed the product "Diet Ayds". Missed it by that much...

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  2. Oh man, I love this post! Memories.

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    1. Glad you enjoyed, Chelly. Good to hear from you.

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  3. Always love the trips back. I like looking at the Saturday morning line ups and wondering what I would have chosen to watch. :)

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    1. Looking at the line-up, I would guess ABC had me hooked most of the morning starting with Scooby's All-Star followed up by Superfriends and then Fangface and finally the Weekend Special.

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  4. is the title of that oscars story spookily prescient, or what? then again, i guess a big mistake was bound to happen sooner or later.

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    1. I'm sure extreme caution will be taken next year.

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  5. The SUPERTRAIN guest cast are all from shows on ABC or CBS. I guess the stars on NBC shows knew better?

    Hal Linden was all over the place here. His own musical special, BARNEY MILLER *and* the AMERICA'S JUNIOR MISS PAGEANT. And since the special aired right after CHARLIE'S ANGELS and starred Linda Lavin, Cathryn Damon and Bonnie Franklin, they should've called it BARNEY'S ANGELS.

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    1. Excellent observation, Brother Herbert. Maybe Supertrain was really a vehicle (no pun intended...okay, yes it was) meant to fail and drag down the competition's stars.
      I would watch Barney's Angels.

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  6. Battlestar Galactica 1979 women, ranked, by 9-year-old me:
    1. Sheba
    2. Cassiopeia
    3. Rigel
    4. Athena (sorry, TV Guide cover girl)

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    1. You know your women of Battlestar Galactica, Chris. For some reason, I never watched the show. I had no idea how large of a cast it had.

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