A Tuesday in 1970

Tuesday, September 8th, 1970

This would, I believe, have been my first day back at school, the beginning of sixth grade. Obviously, I would have missed TV until probably 4...when I never missed DARK SHADOWS during this period, even if I sometimes had to stop at my friend Debbie's house (which was closer to the school than mine) to catch it! According to IMDB, this would have been the series 1097th episode. According to the booklet with the box set, the plot revolved around David and Hallie, the two teenage stars. I had such a crush on Kathleen Cody who played Hallie Stokes. In 2011, I exchanged a couple of emails with her.

After that, I most likely got dinner but had it in front of the TV watching MARINE BOY/ROCKET ROBIN HOOD, a combination half hour featuring two completely unrelated series. Corrine Orr did the voice of Marine Boy and in 2007, I spoke with her on the telephone. ROCKET ROBIN HOOD featured art by Wally Wood and Gray Morrow(both of whom I run blogs on) and Jim Steranko whom I've met a couple of times.

At 5, I could have watched reruns of HAZEL, RAWHIDE (with Mary Astor from THE MALTESE FALCON) or, out of Dayton, I LOVE LUCY. On Channel 19, however, my favorite channel, was BATMAN--a penguin episode.

After BATMAN came THE PATTY DUKE SHOW and then VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, all watched whilst mostly news played out on the other channels.

At 7, Milton Berle guested on an F TROOP repeat but we most likely stuck with TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES. My Mom loved Bob Barker. Oddly, in later years, my Dad loved Bob on THE PRICE IS RIGHT.

As prime time hit, we had the US debut of Kenneth Clark's CIVILIZATION. Are you kidding? I was 11. Pass.

Opposite that was a Billy Graham Crusade. These came along fairly often in those days and were remembered by me mainly for cutting off more interesting programs. Interesting to note that the ancient looking George Beverly Shea appeared and sang...and that Shea, well over a hundred years old now in 2013--is still alive as of this writing!

Graham displaced an episode of THE MOD SQUAD with Sammy Davis, Jr that still ran on the Dayton channel we never could bring in. Other than a TV western movie with John Gavin, my only real choice was Channel 19's MUSIC CONNECTION again so I may have read for a while.

At 8:30, Diahann Carroll's JULIA was on, opposite Suzanne Pleshette in the TV film, ALONG CAME A SPIDER. At 9, pre-empted locally by a Charlton Heston movie (!!), was a re-airing of the pilot for McCLOUD, a series which was getting set to debut and which would eventually become one of my faves form that era.

Channel 19 had O. HENRY'S FULL HOUSE with Fred Allen and Marilyn Monroe, which I know I didn't see til a decade later, and Channel 48  offered a 1968 Duke Ellington profile, which I didn't have the sense yet to appreciate. At 9:15, CBS debuted a documentary entitled A DAY IN THE LIFE OF THE UNITED STATES.

I may have come back to MARCUS WELBY, MD with Delores Del Rio (I had another crush on Elena Verdugo who played the Doctor's nurse) but most likely I read until bedtime.

The late night talk show guests included Arlo Guthrie, George Jessel, Joey Heatherton (another crush!) and Dick Clark but I was undoubtedly asleep by then.