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Wide Wonderful World of Media - A Look Back At Television
Phillip Dampier:
To close our retrospective, here is a clip of WWOR's news opening when they were a UPN station. It's been a long ride for the station, and unfortunately its biding its time these days with the crap shoveled at it from My Network TV... a godawful excuse for a network. BTW, Fox purchased the station and runs it as a secondary outlet, spending most of its effort on WNYW Channel 5.
BTW, check out the absolute decline in the quality of the news WWOR carries, just from the headlines. Absolute garbage non-news....
WWOR-TV News Open
Uploaded by dampier
Ellemeno:
--- Quote from: Phillip Dampier on July 08, 2007, 12:13:18 am ---WOR moved its city of license to Secaucus, New Jersey in 1983 to appease the FCC. The station needed to re-do their ID's, and was already starting to suffer some money troubles, so they went on the cheap. But after that, if you watched WOR at all during the 1980s, you'll certainly remember Million Dollar Movie!
WOR-TV Station ID and Million Dollar Movie Open - 1983
Uploaded by dampier
--- End quote ---
They may have moved to NJ, but all those images are Manhattan - the Plaza Hotel, Lincoln Center, Sardi's! :)
Phillip Dampier:
Just thought I would throw in these two moving promos from WXIA-Atlanta (11 Alive) from 1984 before we move on to our next series!
WXIA We're With You promos 1984
Uploaded by dampier
Phillip Dampier:
As folks have been enjoying TV show openings, I thought this would probably fit more comfortably in The Culture Tent... as it is a form of pop culture. I'll also be restarting the updates this weekend.
Phillip Dampier:
Back in the 1950s and 1960s, it was very common to see your favorite TV stars shilling sponsors' products, usually playing off their characters in some way. Since many shows were often sponsored by a single company, the networks went all out for them. In fact, sponsors had much more power over the TV shows of the early days of television than they do now - even to the point of objecting to certain plotlines and characters.
ABC was the youngest of the three major networks of the time, having been formed after NBC and CBS had already been on the air for several years. For that reason, ABC had a tough time landing affiliates in medium-sized television markets which had only two television stations. Large cities weren't a problem, particularly with the failure of the DuMont Television Network (many of their affiliates either became independent stations or later signed with ABC).
ABC was derided all the way into the 1970s for having low ratings, not the best programming, and a news division that simply couldn't compete with NBC and CBS. But several shows on ABC would endure and remain familiar to viewers for many decades after leaving the air. Bewitched was one great example.
In 1965, Chevrolet commissioned several stars of popular network shows to sell their new cars. Oddly, shows like Bewitched (ABC) were featured right along side other shows like Bonanza (NBC), from another network!
Let's take a look, and pay extra attention to Agnes Moorhead and her hairstyle. Moorhead's fashion choices made her a favorite of drag shows even after Bewitched was run into the ground in syndication!
1965 Chevrolet's Bewitching Bonanza
Uploaded by dampier
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