It's the end of the '60s and the beginning of the '70s, and in commemoration I thought we'd take a look at the broadcast schedule for that first day of 1970. For many people New Year's Day means parades and football and the listings confirm this. By the way, one year to the day, January 1, 1971, tobacco advertising in the United States would end; the date was chosen because of the industry's advertising on the parades and games.One other thing, which I neglected to point out on Saturday; because CBS has joined the late-nite talk show wars with The Merv Griffin Show, there is no national broadcast of Guy Lombardo's New Year's Eve concert. The always-reliable Wikipedia mentions that during these years, Lombardo's show was broadcast live on a syndicated hookup, but otherwise there's no New Year's Eve special broadcast on any of the networks. Dick Clark's show is still three years away.
And now, on with the shows!
KTCA, Channel 2 (NET) | ||
Afternoon | ||
04:00p | Guten Tag | |
04:15p | The Friendly Giant | |
04:30p | Sesame Street | |
05:30p | Misterogers | |
Evening | ||
06:00p | Science Convention (special) (B&W) | |
07:00p | Washington Week in Review (B&W) | |
07:30p | The French Chef (B&W) | |
08:00p | Town Meeting | |
08:30p | College Concert (B&W) | |
09:00p | Bell Library (B&W) | |
09:30p | Town and Country | |
10:00p | Your Dollar’s Worth (special) (B&W) | |
Misterrogers was just one name for the first few seasons, until it was changed to Mister Rogers; the rest, as they say, is history.
WCCO, Channel 4 (CBS) | ||
Morning | ||
06:30a | Siegfried and His Flying Saucer | |
07:00a | Clancy and Carmen | |
07:30a | Clancy and Willie | |
08:00a | Captain Kangaroo | |
09:00a | Rose Parade Preview (special) | |
09:30a | Cotton Bowl Parade (special) | |
10:30a | Rose Parade (special) | |
Afternoon | ||
12:45p | Cotton Bowl (Notre Dame vs. Texas) (special) | |
04:00p | Mike Douglas (guests Ray Milland, Ed Ames, David Fry, Kay Thompson, Chambers Brothers) (time approximate) | |
05:30p | CBS News (Walter Cronkite) | |
Evening | ||
06:00p | News (local) | |
06:30p | Family Affair | |
07:00p | Jim Nabors (guest Jerry Van Dyke) | |
08:00p | Movie – “Five Weeks in a Balloon” | |
10:00p | News (local) | |
10:45p | Merv Griffin (guest Hermoine Gingold, New Year’s in Times Square) | |
12:15a | News (local) | |
12:25a | Movie – “Walking My Baby Back Home” | |
We had the Cotton Bowl parade for many years here in Dallas; the parade wound around Fair Park, which is where the Cotton Bowl is. When the game moved to NBC for the 1993 game, the network declined to cover the parade, and it went belly-up. Notre Dame's appearance in the game, against top-ranked Texas, guaranteed a massive viewership.
KSTP, Channel 5 (NBC) | |||
Morning | |||
06:30a | Minnesota Today | ||
06:50a | News (local) | ||
07:00a | Today | ||
09:00a | New Year’s Parade Salute (special) | ||
10:30a | Rose Parade (special) | ||
Afternoon | |||
01:00p | Days of Our Lives | ||
01:30p | The Doctors | ||
02:00p | Another World | ||
02:30p | Bright Promise | ||
03:00p | Name Droppers | ||
03:30p 03:45p | Rose Bowl Pre-Game Rose Bowl (Michigan vs. USC) (special) | ||
Evening | |||
06:45p | Orange Bowl (Penn State vs. Missouri) (special) | ||
09:30p | Bowl Highlights (special) (not seen if Orange Bowl still in progress) | ||
10:00p | News (local) | ||
10:30p | Johnny Carson (guests Jerry Orbach, June Valli, Jacques Levy, Ace Trucking Company) | ||
12:00a | Ski Scene | ||
Michigan's rookie coach Bo Schembechler suffered a heart attack on the eve of the Rose Bowl and was in the hospital while his team battled USC, losing 10-3. I remember being puzzled by it all during the broadcast, as Curt Gowdy would only refer to Schembechler being hospitalized, but had no details of what had put him there or what his condition was. Even though NBC no longer had the Sugar Bowl (see below), it still made for a great day of television, with the prime-time Orange Bowl providing the perfect wrap-up to the day. Nighttime football was still a rarity back in the day.
KMSP, Channel 9 (ABC) | ||
Morning | ||
07:30a | News (local) | |
08:00a | The Farmer’s Daughter (B&W) | |
08:30a | Grandpa Ken | |
09:00a | Romper Room (Miss Karen) | |
09:30a | Steve Allen (guests Lou Rawls, Roger C. Carmel) | |
10:00a | Sugar Bowl Parade (special) | |
11:00a | Bewitched | |
11:30a | That Girl | |
Afternoon | ||
12:00p | Dream House | |
12:30p | Sugar Bowl (Arkansas vs. Mississippi) (special) | |
03:30p | Peyton Place (time approximate) (B&W) | |
04:00p | Lost in Space | |
05:00p | ABC News (Reynolds/Smith) | |
05:30p | To Tell the Truth (Orson Bean, Kitty Carlisle, Bill Cullen, Peggy Cass) | |
Evening | ||
06:00p | Truth and Consequences | |
06:30p | The Ghost and Mrs. Muir | |
07:00p | That Girl | |
07:30p | Bewitched | |
08:00p | This Is Tom Jones (guests Victor Borge, Harry Secombe, Paula Kelly) | |
09:00p | It Takes a Thief | |
10:00p | News (local) | |
10:30p | Dick Cavett (guests Rod Steiger, Bernadette Peters) | |
12:00a | Movie – “Love in a Goldfish Bowl” | |
The Sugar Bowl had been broadcast on NBC since 1959; when the Orange Bowl became a prime-time game and was picked up by NBC, the network had an all-day bowl trifecta consisting of the Sugar, Rose and Orange. 1970 was the first year in the new ABC contract to show the game, which featured Arkansas and Mississippi. Arkansas, which had lost 1969's Game of the Century to Texas the previous month, could not work up the requisite enthusiasm for the game until it was too late, as Archie Manning led the Rebels to a 27-22 upset victory. The game was overwhelmed by CBS' broadcast of the Cotton Bowl, scoring a record-low 8.3 rating.
WTCN, Channel 11 (Ind.) | ||
Morning | ||
07:00a | Casey and Roundhouse | |
07:30a | Dave Lee | |
08:00a | The Munsters (B&W) | |
08:30a | Mister Ed (B&W) | |
09:00a | Patty Duke (B&W) | |
09:25a | News (local) | |
09:30a | Jack LaLanne | |
10:00a | Hawaii Calls | |
10:30a | Alfred Hitchcock Presents (B&W) | |
11:00a | The Galloping Gourmet | |
11:30a | News (local) | |
Afternoon | ||
12:00p | Lunch With Casey | |
01:00p | Movie – “Wizard of Mars” | |
02:45p | News (local | |
02:50p | Fashions in Sewing | |
03:00p | Girl Talk (host Betsy Palmer, guest Liz Carpenter) | |
03:30p | Casey and Roundhouse | |
04:00p | Batman | |
04:30p | The Flintstones | |
05:00p | Gilligan’s Island (B&W) | |
05:30p | Star Trek | |
Evening | ||
06:30p | The Deputy (B&W) | |
07:00p | Judd for the Defense | |
08:00p | The Big Valley | |
09:00p | Run For Your Life | |
10:00p | He Said! She Said! (panelists the Dick Clarks, the Bill Cullens, the Peter Duchins, Peter Lind Hayes and Mary Healy) | |
10:30p | Movie – “The Desert Song” | |
12:30a | News (local) | |
KTCI, Channel 17 (NET) | ||
Morning | ||
09:00a | Sesame Street | |
Evening | ||
06:30p | Film (B&W) | |
07:00p | Continental Comment (B&W) | |
07:30p | NET Playhouse | |
Many of NET's national programs showed up on KTCI, either as first-run programs or as reruns of shows that had been broadcast earlier on KTCA. NET Playhouse features its own year-end program, looking at the trends in the arts and entertainment industries throughout the '60s.