What I Watched the Week of May 6-13, 1972

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.