First up is a TV Guide for the week of June 10-16, 1978.
Check out that sweet, sweet Close Encounters of the Third Kind inspired cover painting (sorry about that address label, didn't want to risk tearing the cover by trying to remove it):
Very nice!
Ok kids, set your WABAC machine, flux capacitor or TARDIS (depending upon your generational point of reference) to Saturday, June 10, 1978, 5:50 am Eastern Standard Time, head for New Jersey and turn right at the Pine Barrens. Here's the channel line up and early Saturday morning schedule for the New Jersey/Pennsylvania area for this date:
It's hard to believe but there were only seventeen channels total available between New York and Philadelphia back then in '78, and to be honest I don't recall ever getting in channel 23 or 40 where I grew up in central New Jersey--we only ever pulled in fifteen at most, with the UHF channels usually a bit more fuzzy than the majority of the VHF channels (2 through 13).
Even though the listings start at 5:50 am, the actual kid shows didn't really begin until 6:30 am when you had a choice between Casper & Friends on the independent station WNEW-TV channel 5 out of New York or the local live action kid's show Captain Noah on WPVI-TV channel 6, the ABC affiliate out of Philadelphia--unless you were a weird kid and really enjoyed bleary eyed early morning viewings of Agricultural News or the religious program Patterns for Living.
At 7 am you had a few more choices: Underdog on channel 5 being the front runner along with Three Robonic Stooges on CBS channel 10 WCAU-TV out of Philly or Mr. Magoo on WNBC-TV channel 4 out of New York. If for some odd reason you craved live action instead of animation, you had a few additional options at this hour with several live action kid shows to choose from, including Patchwork Family on WCBS-TV channel 2 out of New York, Chief Halftown on channel 6, and some show I really don't recall called Carrascolendas on both the NBC affiliate out of Philly KYW-TV channel 3 or the independent WPIX-TV channel 11 out of New York; though if you were a glutton for punishment, there was always the dreaded religious killjoy Pat Robertson on the 700 Club on channel 17 WPHL-TV, an independent out of Philly.
At 7:30 you had Muhammed Ali on channel 4, Bugs Bunny & Popeye on channel 5, Popeye and Friends on channel 6, or Marlo and the Magic Movie Machine on channel 10, but it was at 8 am that things really started to "get crazy", kid TV wise. If you skipped Three Robonic Stooges earlier at 7 am on channel 10, now was your chance to catch them on channel 2, but chances are those robotic knuckleheads would get passed over yet again for more substantial fare, though you had a hard choice ahead of you: Hong Kong Phooey on NBC channels 3 and 4 or Superfriends on ABC channels 6 and 7 (WABC-TV out of New York) being the main contenders, with the Abbott & Costello cartoon on channel 5 running close behind with the slightly more middle brow Gene London show on channel 10, Dusty's Treehouse on channel 11, and the always stalwart Sesame Street on PBS channel 13 WNET-TV in New York bringing up the rear.
Now if you were of the Lutheran persuasion or even a Clokeyite or just an agnostic with a slight Gumbyist bent, you might just decide to forego Zan and Jayna on the Superfriends and switch the dial to channel 9 WOR-TV, an independent in the New York area, to catch up with Davey and Goliath for a half hour of wholesome fun. Those capsule descriptions above really do sound oddly intriguing: was "Cousin Barney" really Davey's cousin, was Barney even his actual name at all, and why was "Barney's" dad so eager to pawn him off for the whole summer? And what was the strange machine Davey and Goliath discovered in that abandoned house? A spinning jenny? An old bootlegger's still? A printing press used for counterfeit money? An atavachron?
Unfortunately, that's all the time we have for now so those questions will just have to remain unanswered mysteries. Until next time!
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