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Friday, August 19, 2022

This Day in TV History: 50 years ago tonight! Saturday, August 19, 1972 in TV Guide

For the next week, we are going to take a trip back to August 1972 thanks to this TV Guide from the BOTNS archives, a Los Angeles Metro edition with Chad Everett on the cover:



Note that it's the end of Summer, and there isn't a lot going on, plus during the week, coverage of the Republican National Convention dominates network broadcasting. However, since it's a West Coast mag and the coverage is live, maybe we'll get some "extra" stuff from this edition.

We start as the mag does, on Saturday, August 19, 1972. One thing that stands out is the preponderance of old movies (well, old even for 1972) on Saturday morning and afternoon. There are a lot of Westerns, for sure.

Hey, you know the vaunted CBS Saturday comedy lineup? Well, it's not quite there yet. Tonight we have iconic All in the Family and Mary Tyler Moore, but they are followed by The New Dick Van Dyke Show and Arnie.



ABC has a "It's Saturday in August" lineup if ever I have seen one. It starts with 1967's The Day the Fish Came Out. TV Guide's movies page describes it as "pretentious," claiming it wastes a good cast. "It's been trimmed 10 minutes for television, but not a scene or character, alas, has been omitted."

Here's a look at the trailer:


After the movie, ABC Comedy Showcase offers two unsold pilots: The Neighbors, which has Jack Burns in a liberals vs. conservatives living next door to each other; and a TV adaptation of Captain Newman M.D. with Jim Hutton.


NBC Comedy Theater is a repeat of The Seven Little Foys, featuring Eddie Foy himself plus The Osmonds and Mickey Rooney. 


Now, the network followed that with coverage of an L.A. Rams preseason NFL game, but I guess it was blacked out in the Los Angeles area, where the game aired on tape delay Sunday morning. So the two affiliates listed show movies instead.


Let's go outside of the networks for the interesting stuff. First off, what is this show with Regis Philbin?


Yes, Philbin hosted a syndicated show about the paranormal for part of 1972. 

Also, check out 10:30 on Channel 5. They are showing the USC-Cal game...from 1971!

Some interesting movies fill out the night. The display ad for The Hangman features Jack Lord, who is not mentioned in the listing on the previous page. Lord, of course, was in Hawaii Five-0 at the time, so this 1972 ad tries to inject a little relevance to the showing of a 1959 film!

Maltin's guide gives it a mere ** out of ****.


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