A Sunday in 1970

Sunday, September 6th, 1970

On Sundays, unless I was up early to catch a Laurel and Hardy movie on the late, late, LATE show, I slept in since there was nothing but religious programming on 'til 8 AM.

At 8, Channel 9 had DASTARDLY AND MUTTLEY. This was followed by WACKY RACES, TOM AND JERRY and CARTOONS A GO GO while the other stations all continued with religious, political or medical programming. At 10, we got SKIPPER RYLE, a holdover from the fifties kids show boom now done as a 2 hour combination of cartoons, music, games and magic, all with a live kid audience. Skipper was also the station's announcer, movie host, bowling show host and weatherman.

At Noon on this day, I was watching Day Two of channel 19's THE MUSIC CONNECTION, passing up Kubrick's PATHS OF GLORY, a film I still have never seen! Otherwise, all I missed was more politics, third string movies and a track meet.

At 4 PM, the choice was between TARZAN THE MAGNIFICENT and Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald in concert on the French Riviera from 1966. Nowadays I would choose the latter. Back then, it would have been Tarzan.

Not much else on in the afternoon other than sports except for reruns of the TV western LAREDO and LEAVE IT TO BEAVER, both opposite each other. At 6, THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. was on, opposite MITCH MILLER and WAGON TRAIN. If I had control of the TV it was Napoleon Solo, of course. If my Mom did, it was one of the other two.

 
At 7:30, it was Disney. Whether we watched that depended on what was on on any given week. This week it was the third and final part of a movie with James MacArthur and Nick Adams apparently called WILLIE AND THE YANK. We probably caught the sitcom TO ROME WITH LOVE instead.

Perennial Sunday night staple ED SULLIVAN also depended o his guests as to whether we watched. On this particular evening, it was Liza Minnelli (whom I had never heard of at that point), Henry Mancini, David Hemmings, Judy Carne and Mason Williams. Sounds like a good show now but Judy would have been the only reason I might have tuned in back then. Eubie Blake had a special on Channel 48 but my parents probably watched THE FBI instead.

BONANZA and MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE were never miss items on Sunday evenings, passing up, as always, THE BOLD ONES and various movies, in this case LOLITA and THE HOUSE ON GREENAPPLE ROAD. The latter was the pilot for the DAN AUGUST TV cop show but, oddly, starred Christopher George as August rather than Burt Reynolds!

The 5th Annual Jerry Lewis MD Telethon came on later that night, broadcast locally on Channel 19 and hosted by Puppeteer Larry Smith and horror host, The Cool Ghoul! Among the star power on the national feed that year were Jack Benny, Danny Kaye, Frank Sinatra, Joan Crawford, Vincent Price, Roy Rogers, and Soupy Sales. A far cry from what passed for celebs on it on later years. I would usually stay up as long as I could before passing out on the couch, then wake up to catch more of it the next day.