Haven’t done one of these in a while. Let’s say it’s the
week of May 6-12, 1972 and I’m in the Cincinnati area. I was 13 years old. What
would I have watched on TV every evening?
Saturday
My mother liked NBC’ EMERGENCY but my dad liked CBS’s ALL IN
THE FAMILY. We all liked ABC’s BEWITCHED, though, and even though it was a late
rerun, I think that’s what we watched. That would have left us open to switch
to CBS for the rest of the night for MARY TYLER MOORE, THE NEW DICK VAN DYKE
SHOW, ARNIE, and then at 10 back to ABC for Gary Collins’ THE SIXTH SENSE.
Sunday
On Sundays, whether or not we watched WALT DISNEY depended
on what was on and this week it was a rerun of “Joker, the Amiable Ocelot,”
which we would have skipped. Probably would have watched TOM JONES with the Bee
Gees, Tim Conway, and Lulu. At 9, we definitely watched Tom Jones as he starred
in one of my favorite specials of the day, THE SPECIAL LONDON BRIDGE SPECIAL. I
know because I sat in front of the set and audiotaped it! The Carpenters, Elliot
Gould, Chief Dan George, Terry-Thomas, and Hermione Gingold headed an all-star
cast directed by David Winters (I believe), many years later a FB friend! My
mother would have watched THE BOLD ONES right after that but not me.
Monday
Normally the choice here was between LAUGH-IN and GUNSMOKE, the latter being my dad’s favorite series. This being
rerun season, though, I’m betting we watched Dan and Dick. Rich Little guested
on HERE’S LUCY at 9 (I shook hands with him 8 years later) and we rarely
skipped THE DORIS DAY SHOW. At 10, we watched Anne Bancroft’s rerun special.
Tuesday
At 8, we had to choose between PONDEROSA (??), GLEN
CAMPBELL, and MOD SQUAD. We watched them all and none of the episodes look
familiar so not sure which we saw that night. Either way, we probably turned it
off halfway through because my mom was a buff for beauty pageants and AMERICA’S
JUNIOR MISS was on.
Wednesday
For some reason, two local stations preempted network
programming—including McCLOUD, THE SMITH FAMILY, THE MARTY FELDMAN COMEDY
MACHINE, and THE COURTSHIP OF EDDIE’S FATHER for old movies tonight! This left
us with CAROL BURNETT and MEDICAL CENTER. At 10, the movies ended and we had to
choose between NIGHT GALLERY and MANNIX.
Thursday
ALIAS SMITH AND JONES was opposite the legendarily bad ME
& THE CHIMP. If we watched the latter that night, then at 8:30 we probably
watched MY THREE SONS (although in retrospect, I wish we’d watched THE OLD
RADIO COMEDIANS on PBS). IRONSIDE with Raymond Burr was a favorite on at 9 but
we also watched LONGSTREET fairly often on the other channel. DEAN MARTIN
probably beat out OWEN MARSHALL, COUNSELOR AT LAW but maybe not. It was the
latter show that made me (briefly) want to become an attorney.
Friday
My BRADY BUNCH was vying against my dad’s SANFORD AND SON. I
remember watching this Brady episode, though. After that, Fridays were straight
ABC at our house always—THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY, THE ODD COUPLE, ROOM 222, and
LOVE AMERICAN STYLE.
And that was the week that was (to coin a phrase) in May of
1972.
