weekend television ...

so,in this post i am trying to reconstruct our weekend television viewing . but , i find that i have little memory left on the subject other than the pic above . so , i decided to outsource this subject to mr.t , who seems to have many more functioning brain cells than i . and now,without further ado , here he is ...

  "Here’s my fading memories of TV at Grandmas.               

We rarely showed up on a Friday night and if we did it was with a Camper (or in 1963 the rented trailer). Or maybe it was a holiday like Christmas, or we stayed over on Thanksgiving until Saturday or Sunday. So I would not recall Friday night TV, if we watched anything. We probably played outside in the dark. If watched Friday night TV then it was probably the usual stuff we watched at home like Hogan’s Heroes, Wild Wild West or maybe there was a movie.

Now Saturday, that was different. First Lawrence Welk would be on while we were waiting for Jackie Gleason. In particular, Jackie Gleason’s American Scene Magazine from 1962-66, then he changed it to the Jackie Gleason show, changed the format. But those first 4 years were Crazy Guggenheim, Poor Soul skits, and Reginald Van Gleason. The guest stars were always interesting.

But: “Hya Joe, Hya Mr. Donohee, ehehehehehehe…heeeawww.” Couldn’t wait for that idiot to show up. Then we always thought Frank Fountaine spoiled it by singing at the end. Great voice, but for little kids, singing old songs at the end of nonsense just didn’t cut it, hahahhaa.

There were other shows like Flipper for kids I am sure we watched but don’t recall if it stayed on Saturday nights or switched to Sunday nights. Of course I would watch the Prisoner if I could  in 1968 and rerun in 1969 I could. That came on before the newer Jackie Gleason show.

After that was probably switched to Hollywood palace or some such thing, or the weekend movie. I remember a lot of movies on Saturday night, including Disney ones. Particularly remember seeing an Elvis  Movie once. Was it “Follow That Dream,” where he and his family of hillbilly’s plopped themselves on a piece of land in Florida?

(1962) Follow That Dream 
And that's just what backwoods crooner Elvis Presley and pa Arthur O'Connell do, taking care of three plucky orphan kids as they set up housekeeping on unclaimed government land in Florida, in this fun-filled Presley vehicle that features such songs as "What a Wonderful Life" and "I'm Not the Marrying Kind." Joanna Moore, Simon Oakland co-star. 110 min.

Sunday mornings, after Church, for years, was Bullwinkle. Later it became Laurel and Hardy movies. Marx Brothers occasionally, on the channel from Traverse City. The three station we could pick up via antennae (if you went outside and moved it just right, (before 1977 when Vane and Paul installed an automatic one), were:

Channel 9 and 10 Cadillac and Soo Saint Marie (I think), Channel 12 WJRT in Flint, and I think Channel 7, out of Traverse City. WJRT was ABC, Cadillac was CBS and perhaps Traverse City was NBC, not sure.

By the time the early 1970’s came along, Saturday’s and TV shows had changed: All in the Family, Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart. Other than those, I don’t recall nor cared about TV on Saturday Night, it wasn’t fun anymore, we were older and less impressed by the cornball stuff. Now I miss it terribly. When the 1970’s and All in the Family came on, when they dropped all rural comedies, everything changed about TV, some good, some bad. But it was the end of innocence and turned into the junk that is now on TV which I really don’t care for. Give me Crazy Guggenheim please! I’ll even listen to him sing now! "


many thanx to tom for the info ...