Inside the Guide: BICENTENNIAL FEVER! TV Guide 50 years ago today! (7/3/26 PART 2)

Today is the big day! 50 years ago today was the big bicentennial celebration, the culmination of a huge buildup, and TV Guide had everyone covered with this spread appearing before the day's actual listings:

NBC took out a full-pager:

How about a Bob Hope special? And check out the cool album you can buy!

I can't overstate how much TV was all about the bicentennial on this day. Among the shows, personalities, and specials with themed episodes on this day: Billy Graham, Firing Line, Lawrence Welk, and National Geographic. Local stations aired movies like Yankee Doodle Dandy.

Would there be a letdown when everyone went back to work Monday, July 5 and TV returned to normal? Come back tomorrow!

Inside the Guide: BICENTENNIAL FEVER! TV Guide 50 years ago today! (7/3/26 PART 1)

Yes, the nation had bicentennial fever in 1976, and we are here to revisit it with a look at the special issue of TV Guide (Los Angeles edition) dated July 3, 1976. We'll take a trip, Saturday through Friday, and the first few days are loaded with holiday coverage. Let's jump right into it!

Everyone was talking about the event, even Youth and the Issues:

Metromedia stations offer The Great American Celebration:

That's not to be confused with the Great American Music Celebration, which aired later in the evening and was hosted by Lorne Greene, Dionne Warwick, and Harve Presnell. 

Speaking of music, American Bandstand got in the act with a salute to the bicentennial featuring The Mugelsons, Paul Jabara, and comedia Kip Adotta. "Dick Clark is the host," the listing says. Well, i'm familiar with...Dick Clark.

A TV Movie adaptation of Huckleberry Finn was rerun on ABC tonight. In the cast: Ron Howard in the title role, Antonio Fargas as Jim, and Donny Most as Tom Sawyer!

Worried about the Fourth? CBS has you covered:

Don't feel the need to watch all day! "Drop in any time to see how it's going."

For you eggheads out there, NBC has a program about invention and discovery:

Inside the Guide: TV Guide 50 years ago today! (6/26/76 Part 7)

Today there isn't much to see in the Friday, July 2, 1976 listings, but let's talk about some of the features in the issue.

There is this page, which gets into two topics of interest to BOTNS fans: The decision to break up Rhoda and Joe and also the pending debut of In Search Of!

Other stories include the cover story on Mary Tyler Moore in Moscow, a light piece about a writer trying video dating, and experiments with "two-way cable" and interactive TV. There's a profile of Rich Little, then starring in The Rich Little Show, but there is no review column.

One interesting item in the news section relates how NBC's revenues jumped as its ratings went down. The explanation is that the economy's revival boosted ad spending at a time when CBS and ABC had already sold most of its ad inventory. NBC, in effect, benefited from its plummeting ratings because it had plenty of sports to sell to advertisers looking to spend.

Inside the Guide: TV Guide 50 years ago today! (6/26/76 Part 6)

It's still fairly slow in prime time this week, with reruns dominating, but I do like this local station ad in the Thursday, July 1, 1976 listings:

Inside the Guide: TV Guide 50 years ago today! (6/26/76 Part 5)

There wasn't a lot going on Wednesday, June 30, 1976, on the tube, but NBC did have a patriotic special. It didn't bother taking out an ad for it, though.

I can also tell you that on Dinah Shore's show, Jim Nabors co-hosted, and guests included Lynda Carter, George Gobel, and Minnie Pearl!

Inside the Guide: TV Guide 50 years ago today! (6/26/76 Part 4)

There is a clear highlight in prime time 50 years ago on broadcast television. As America geared up for its bicentennial, NBC premiered the film 1776, itself an adaptation of the musical:

On Channel 8, right before the movie, viewers were treated to an animated Benji special (Other stations aired this syndicated program throughout the week):

Inside the Guide: TV Guide 50 years ago today! (6/26/76 Part 3)

Perhaps the highlight of prime time on Monday, June 28, 1976, is this CBS rebroadcast of the Chuck Jones Yankee Doodle Cricket:

Other than that, there are some neat local station ads:

One thing that stands out to me is the afternoon here. For one thing, William Shatner is on The FBI, which was a very popular rerun in syndication at the time. Also, look at the display ad for Marcus Welby that uses the syndie title Robert Young, Family Doctor:

I get that TV shows got alternate titles for syndication when they were still in first-run, but those alternate titles were usually lame. Happy Days Again is an example. This one is worse, avoiding the character name and just saying, "Here's the show where Robert Young is a doctor."