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."

Top Ten #412

1) Mary Tyler Moore: Mary is the cover gal of the TV Guide from 50 years ago this week that we're spotlighting this week on the site! Later today we'll have a post with a few things from the Guide on this date in 1976.

2) Killdozer: The highly entertaining Retro Rules channel from Paul Van Scott highlighted Killdozer, which we of course talked about in our ninth season.

3) Gilligan's Island: TV Is Good, a new podcast featuring two TV critics discussing TV old and new, paired Widow's Bay and Gilligan's Island recently in a discussion of cursed islands, and while the choice was amusing, I got the sense that the host who conceived it just wanted to make fun of the latter series. Hey, Mike and I didn't claim that Gilligan's was high art, but still, this just left kind of an odd taste in my mouth, unlike Mary Ann's coconut creme pies. You can judge for yourself here.

4) Movin' On:  Speaking of podcasts, TV Confidential recently featured the creator of a Seventies series that doesn't have much buzz: Trucker show Movin' On. The author of a new book about the show was also on, but I don't think she got a word in edgewise as the producer was so anxious to talk.

5) Mel Brooks: The icon turns 100 today! We talk about his When Things Were Rotten right here.

6) Martini Shot: One more podcast link for you: Rob Long's Martini Shot podcast has a great tribute to Jimmy Burrows this week, and it's notable because it give a great specific example of what Burrows could actually do on the set to improve an episode.

7) NY movies on TV 1986: 40 years ago tonight, the 3 major NYC-area independent stations each broadcast a movie, and the Times had interesting comments for each one.

Channel 5: The Champ (1931): "Creaks, wheezes, and drips now; but an emotional classic back when."
Channel 9: Birth of the Beatles (1979): "Dramatization of their early years. If you like imitations." Aren't viewers fully aware that a biopic is going to be an imitation of the real thing?
Channel 11: Victory at Entebbe (1976): "Israeli commandos raid to free hostages in Uganda. Heavy, rambling drama but good Burt (Lancaster) and Kirk (Douglas). Better version is 'Raid on Entebbe.' Wait." Ok, but this is 1986, and it's not like we can rent it from Prime Video.

8) A Woman of Substance: Britbox is airing a new adaptation of the 1979 Barbara Taylor Bradford novel. I mention this because I think I saw commercials for the 1984 version multiple times a day for a while.

9) Merv Griffin: 50 years ago today, Merv had a fascinating array of guests: Maury Wills, Fernando Lamas, The Graduates, Tom Sullivan, Marty Allen.

10) R.I.P. Clive Davis (I hear so many stories about his influence on the music biz that it's kind of like he's the Steve Allen of pop music), Ellen Weston:

Inside the Guide: TV Guide 50 years ago today! (6/26/76 Part 2)

We move on to Sunday, where we see the special Mary Tyler Moore is promoting in the cover story of this 1976 issue!

Otherwise, there isn't a lot going on, though one local channel is showing Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops in the afternoon! An independent station has a retrospective of Your Show of Shows, too!

Inside the Guide: TV Guide 50 years ago today! (6/26/76 Part 1)

For the next week, we'll share some photos from TV Guide of 50 years ago. Note beloved icon Mary Tyler Moore on the cover:

We begin, as the mag does, with Saturday--specifically, Saturday, June 26, 1976. This is a Bay Area edition.

First let's take a look at a few morning shows! There isn't enough Run Joe Run out in the world, but here is a listing for the show that we discussed in our second season:

Then at 10:00, a show I knew nothing about, Westwind. It's a live-action kids series filmed in Hawaii and produced by the same company as Run Joe Run and starring Van Williams.

How about this classic match-up on Celebrity Tennis? The unofficial Canadian Celebrity Tennis Championship is on the line!

I didn't recognize this one but was intrigued by the title:

Ron Schmeck was an RV dealer turned music star with his 1975 country album Easy Livin' The American Way.

Here's a look at an unsold pilot that premiered on this day. I mentioned it in our Facebook group today:

Finally, it amuses me that the mag puts the identical listing back to back for separate channels rather than combine the channels. Why did they do that sometimes but not others? Got me!

Top Ten #411

1) Summer begins: If I write "summer solstice," I feel like something cult adjacent is going to follow and not, hey, remember when "summer replacement shows were a thing, or, hey, remember when you could "discover" a show that aired during the day because you didn't have to go to school?

2) Father's Day: Among the many amazing things Dad has done for me: Introducing me (along with my mom) to The Honeymooners. Thanks, Dad!

3) Sanford and Son: Antenna celebrates today's holiday with a marathon of this series. What father hasn't yelled, "You big dummy!" at his son with love?

4) Siskel and Ebert: Check out the lineup of movies they reviewed this weekend in 1986: American Anthem, Legal Eagles, Karate Kid II, Running Scared. Oh, yeah, it's the mid-Eighties, baby!

5) Me and Mrs. C: 40 years ago tonight, this sitcom began a summer run on NBC. From IMDB: A young Black female ex-convict becomes a boarder with elderly white Mrs. Conklin in an effort to turn her life around

Hilarity ensues! Anyone have an over/under on jokes about hiding the silverware?

6) Action Park: The Retroist podcast just released an episode about this infamous destination and mainstay of 1980s NYC commercial breaks. Every visit was an adventure, all right!

7) The Tonight Show: 40 years ago tonight, guest host Freddie Prinze Jr. welcomed the Jacksons, Jim Bishop, and Brett Somers. Carson really did take a lot of vacation.

8) Bernie Kopell: Among today's TV birthdays, Dr. Adam Bricker of The Love Boat turns 93 today!

9) Check It Out!: We've launched a new regular feature here on the site taking a look at the Eighties Don Adams sitcom. Check it out each week (or so)!

10) R.I.P. Jimmy Burrows, Ronnie Schell, Anne Scheeden, Pete Doherty, John Sanders. Tom Dreesen:

Checkin' in with Check It Out (whoa-oh) #2: Critical reception

I think before I get too deep into the land of--Hold on a second.

Ok, I looked up where Check It Out! was supposed to take place because I didn't remember. it was produced in Canada and aired on CBC, but it also aired in syndication here and on USA Network. I always assumed the grocery store at the center of the action was in California, just like most everything else on TV.

Not so! According to Wikipedia, Cobb's Grocery is in Brampton, Ontario. I don't remember anything in the series pointing to a Canadian setting, but it's been a long time. I wonder if there was ever a scene in which a customer complained at the register about the price of crackers or something and the cashier says, "Oh, but remember, these are CANADIAN dollars."

So before I get to deep into Brampton, Ontario, let me get a sampling of how the show is received, its legacy, so on and so forth.

Harry and Wally's Favorite TV Shows, one of my favorite books, gives the program ** out of *** and, in a brief capsule review, calls it a "simple but sometimes satisfying sitcom." That's better than I expected, really!

IMDB gives it a 5.9 out of 10. That is not good at all.

The New York Times trashes the show twice. In April 1986, Richard F. Shepard says Check It Out! is "silly without being funny at all." He adds, "The comedy deals more with jokes and gag lines, none of them very good, than with situation." Shephard says, There are standards even for inanity, which can be highly entertaining in skilled hands. Here one is left only with inanity that is placebo for entertainment."

In the Fall, tied to the show's debut on USA Network and marketing push, the paper's head TV critic talked about Check It Out! and a few other syndicated sitcoms like What a Country!.   Adams, he explains, manages a supermarket "with a staff consisting exclusively of morons and bimbos, those old standbys of television comedy a couple of decades ago." What, morons and bimbos were passe in 1986?

He continues: "This is the kind of comedy in which somebody gets to leave the room by announcing, 'I have to go to the potty.'" O'Connor closes by saying, "This is the kind of effort that makes any further talk of 'the promise of cable' seem thoroughly pointless."

What am I getting into, folks?

O'Connor stuns me by saying the "first-rate cast" of What a Country! "can make the material seem surprisingly fresh."