ABC Still the One! 1977

[thespotrocks]

I always thought this the most ironic network slogans. In 1976, ABC, after nearly three decades of futilty, finally became America's top-rated network. They *never were* The One until the very time this promo aired. That slogan and jingle might have been better suited for CBS a few years earlier, had Orleans recorded it then.

[johnnielikes]

As far as Im concern ABC is still the one. Theirs nothing to the songs and sitcoms of the 70'ths OMG. Nothing comes close. I grew up in that era, Keep On rockin.

giovanni

[brui4ns1]

To Proken: You are missing the point of what ABC did. They portrayed actors on their shows as normal people mixed in with their performances, while promoting their #1 network shows. And YES, it did work. As the one-time doormat of the ratings, ABC held onto the #1 spot for years partially because of ads like this showing the viewer's favorite actors as if they were their friends next door.

[tonywallacess45]

Boy, they sure knew how to screw up a great song. You're Still The One by Orleans is still one of my favorite songs after 34 years.

[proken58]

All three networks spend tons of money on campaigns like this until the early 1990's, when they realized that nobody watched broadcast networks - they watched broadcast network SHOWS. For all of the flash and glitz of these kinds of campaigns, they resulted in no increase in viewers.

[odantoro]

Just an FYI...this promo is referring to the surprising fact that ABC was the most-watched TV network in the US at the time, thanks to Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley, among others.

Even ABC execs were still pinching themselves as if they were dreaming; throughout the '60s and early '70s ABC was traditionally in third place behind CBS and NBC (there was no FOX network yet.)

This ad commemorates the first great TV network shake-up.

[smldfw]

wow that's so caucasian

[OctoberWytche]

I agree. The seventies were pretty special. I still had my dad. All I had to worry about was going to school.

[buffguy31264]

i was there

oh the 70's

[bloodymeerkat78]

god i wish i grew up in the 70. but i grew up in the early 90's

[DarthTigreros62]

the 70's were great. Too bad you missed it.

[bloodymeerkat78]

thanks for making me feel WORSE!!!!!

[DarthTigreros62]

Don't feel bad, the 90's was my favorite decade anyway. We didnt have the internet in the 70's so you couldn't tell if someone was lying or not.

[violetbernice]

LOL!

[okumahowa]

We didn't have the internet in the 70s and we also didn't have: 1. Aids 2. Drive by shootings 3. Guns in school 4. $4.00 per gallon gas 5. The choking game 6. Rap 7. $100 sneakers 8. Deadly peanut butter 9. $40 jeans 10. 911

[bloodymeerkat78]

there wasent 911 back then?

[kidstl]

fuck you smart ass, pitty you werent in the wtcs on 911, fucking asshole !

[bloodymeerkat78]

look who's talking!!!!

[MadameLil]

Okuma meant "911" as in the emergency phone number - not Sept. 11, 2001.

[kidstl]

you are wrong "911" was operational in the early 70s like NYC / Chicago / L.A. and some others...

[Bonkoz]

There wasn't 9/11 OR 911. In an emergency, you dialed the Operator - just "0".

[mark40511]

@Bonkoz

I was a "0" operator from 1999 to 2005 and people would still dial "0" instead of 911, even though they had 911 available to them. I never could figure out why they dialed "0"....and often times it was for something so pathetically stupid.

[MGR1900]

This video actually makes me kind of depressed actually. I was a kid then and this video brings back all sorts of memories that I miss severely. The internet is fantastic no doubt, but to be honest I'd gladly give it up to return to the environment of the mid 70s through mid 80s. Leisure suites be damned! The 1970s and first half of the 80s was a great time to be a kid.

[lonelyboy03]

sure was and HOW!!

[snoops71]

@MGR1900 Yes, I agree. It was a fantastic time to be a kid. I wouldn't trade it for any other era to have grown up in.

And speaking of the Internet, look what we're doing with it- looking at vids like this, and longing for the '70s :)

[Squirrlyburt]

I had forgotten about this campaign that ABC ran for a few years. It reminds me that at one time it housed some decent shows and basically has offered the public nothing but pure garbage for years...and years.

[F1M1]

It would be great to see a better version, higher quality.

Any chance ?

[44skins]

Man,people back then,before major medical breakthrough's like we have today,before technology,before anything even close to what we have today, were so happy! So much energy went into t.v back then! It really was about quality rather then quantity!

[narutomustgonow]

Amen to 44 skins

[44skins]

I just love how good the music is and how friendly this promo made was! Just super top quality!! Today thing's are so unfeeling and so dam uninspiring! Thank's so much for this!!

[zetareticula007]

Holy F'n S**t is this a long promo!

Things were a lot slower in the 70's. Nearly no one had cable and many cities only had the 3 major networks and perhaps 2 or 3 local channels... that's it.

You were pretty much forced to watch whatever was on and forced to sit through lame promos like this... great clip though.

[narutomustgonow]

Orleans singing it would have been better

[CoolWhiteChick]

Yes, these promos WERE long back in the day and we watched them ALL because some TV's didn't have remotes so it was like we were forced to sit through it or

inconveinience ourselves. LOL!

[tomloft2000]

to alwrig:actually Orleans had another fairly big hit"dance with me" a little later.but they did vanish from the scene shortly after.

[bumperhead1]

surprisingly slick promo.

[DanBeltran1]

I'm a sucker for 70s fonts, and this promo features them all quite nicely! Thanks for posting this!

[mx94racer]

I remember this promo. Amazing how long it was. Must be why I remember it.

[BENJ1969]

I vividly remember this commercial. I recall getting a kick out of the flash back to some of ABC's earlier hit TV show mixed in with the new season's programs. And the period of this commercial is obvious with the Up With People Version of Orleans' "Still The One." Can this commercial get more 70s? Nevertheless, gives me goosebumps.

[raposofan]

ABC owed a great deal of its number one status to the instincts of superproducer Aaron Spelling. Spelling single-handedly imagined almost every hit on ABC during that era... and I miss that era BADLY.

[BENJ1969]

Why, for Pete's sake? Spelling may have been responsible for some of ABC's biggest hits. But he also left a legacy of some of the worst TV shows in history. Popular, high in the ratings shows didn't always mean quality (see Love Boat & Fantasy Island). And up until "Dynasty," Spelling kept churning out toe curling drek that was celebrated at the water cooler.

[aknowneemus]

why should we remember the bad shit?

spellings shows play a huge role in my childhood and charlie's angels is still one of the best theme songs ever in my opinion.

just my 2 cents.

[BENJ1969]

Nostalgia has a way of looking past reality. I'm the same way with shows from my childhood. Emotional ties to certain theme songs from TV shows (or songs on the radio) hit sentimental buttons for sure. But they can mask the reality of the situation. I can't disagree w/ you in theory, but in reality, Spelling's shows, though hits in their time, were and are even more in hindsight absolute drek!

[narutomustgonow]

"Drek" must also apply to the 90s stuff he and Darren Star conjured up in the holier than thou Clintonian Era such as (wrech) 90210 and Melrose Place and other shorter lived crap like Robin's Hoods and the Heights. Let's be fair especially to all you 90's nostalgia fans. the stench of Spellings '90s crapola lives today in the CW so for all your 70s bashing BENJI1969 le's not forget spelling's biggest hits were from the 90s! and the scars it has left on TV today.

Thak God 4 UTube

[BENJ1969]

Absolutely! But w/o his initial successes of the 70s, he wouldn't have had a leg to stand on to produce his future crap. I've never liked ANYTHING he produced. But growing up in the 70s (born in 61), it's what I was raised on the rings the most bells, and consequently never watched his future shows as a result to bash them enough as his 70s shows. Not that I ever watched his 70s crap with regularity. But bear in mind, there were significantly less channels to turn to for alternative viewing.

[rrunner81sg]

The one to thank the most for ABC's "dynasty" in the mid-to-late 1970s was then-President of ABC Fred Silverman. He put shows on that the public wanted to see and did not care how much the critics panned ABC's hit shows. He saved Happy Days and created probably the greatest lineup in TV history--Tuesday night from 1976-1980. Tuesday's, and even Wednesday's, shows were unbeatable, which included 3 consecutive #1s (Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, Three's Company).

[raposofan]

Thank you; thumbs up.

[alwrig]

Bet that 70s one-hit wonder Orleans made themselves a nice bit of cash from ABC for doing a variant of their song.

[jaworskij]

Polo Park Shopping Centre in Winnipeg, Canada also used the Still The One song as their "theme" in the mid-1980s after their expansion to a 2nd storey.

I can't remember this tune on ABC from the 70s though.

[KBJ1962]

This was my favorite TV promo of all time! Thanks for posting.

[Gerkinstock]

Do you remember "You and Me and ABC" in 1980? Or CBS' "You and CBC are Looking Good" that same year?

[fabulbabe]

THIS is big time network TV!!

[JORDAN3005]

great promo. best era of televsion ever. memorable characters on tv back then

[mikewpu04]

Now this was television. Not the crap thats on TV today!

[Juliaflo]

AMEN!!!

Happy Thanksgiving to you.

[richgimmel]

I was News Director of the ABC affiliate in Lexington, KY in 1977 when the network emerged from its perennial spot in the ratings basement and became Number One for the first time in its history. What a thrill that was... and this promo certainly captured the moment of a much-maligned operation suddenly working its way to the top. A great piece of broadcast history... for its meaning, if nothing else.

[rrunner81sg]

ABC's first #1 hit was Marcus Welby in the 1970-71 season, but ABC still lacked hits in the top 20. Tuesday's Mod Squad, Marcus Welby, and Tuesday Movie of the Week were top 20 mainstays. But after Fred Silverman took over as President of ABC in 1975, the network had 2/3 of the top 20, a feat ABC never came close to accomplishing. Once he left for NBC in 1978, the network suffered a little, but remained a hit network, particularily on Tuesday, which kicked butt in the 1970s & 80s.

[MadameLil]

Wow - never though I'd see this again!! It certainly was a fun network at the time.

If only I could see this clip more clearly, instead of all that pixilation ...

[Bonkoz]

There's another in "Related Videos," exact title:

"ABC Still The One Promo (1977)".

[Polaris912b]

God help me, I remember this. TV hasn't gotten any better since.

[Bonkoz]

You're d*mn right! IN FACT, TV has gotten a lot WORSE since then with all this low-budget reality crap and whatnot, with only a handful of sitcoms. Hopefully things'll change...

[lonelyboy03]

The sitcoms we get anymore are for the most part, low watt or animated. Quality has went way down. Look at the Norman Lear ones that ruled the 70s for example. Nothing compares to that now. Nothing.

[OctoberWytche]

I know.  Only Norman Lear could make shows so good that he could make spinoffs from the spinoffs, like one of my favorite 70s sitcoms, Good Times.

[34airflow]

This commercial had to have cost a lot of money to make.

[tachoX2]

I remember this as well as the Laverne and Shirley version. This was 30 years ago, oh man...

[ScorpDanny]

I can still remember thinking, "I don't care if you're number one, Happy Days is still CRAP!!!

[entertainme3000]

@ScorpDanny I'm only 30 and I loved Happy Days and everthing abc 70's/80's but if you'd rather switch with me for the crap you think is "hip" today, okay go find us a chamber, I beg you'll want to come back to your own generation. I supposed you think rap is a hell of a lot better than disco and classic rock? We'll have problems if you do...

[jackbox1971]

I remember that campagin. I also remember being excited about Fall programming... new Saturday morning cartoons, cool Tuesday and Thursday lineups... no one gets that into it anymore.

[Dirkboy69]

Hey there Jack! I feel the same way. I remember those days of TV when I was so excited to see the new Fall promos and the individual network jingles! You actually looked forward to the Fall!

And it was also a time when a TV season went from Mid September to about the end of May, with absolutely no repeats! WOW! What a concept!

[yahtzee55555]

The TV season NEVER went through September to May with no repeats. Never, ever, ever in the history of TV. Shows used to produce more episodes -- but that means they used to produce about 27 new shows a year instead of the 22 more common today. There were plenty of reruns.

[gladteck]

Could someone have encoded this better?

[nevik62]

I'm so excited. I just had an orgasm.

[xguyla]

LOVED IT! I remember a later version where PENNY & CINDY ("Laverne & Shirley") shout, "We're still the one." And I have been trying (and dying) to see that version. Any help? Great song and campaign.

[Ecossaise]

How groovy ! I remember singing along to this way back in 77 ! :D

[AllRequired]

And just think, CBS has a big problem with youtube airings, but for the most part ABC doesn't.

[mwhite36]

Hmmmm. Really? There used to be quite a few ABC TV promos, station IDs, etc., on this site, but now, A LOT of them are now gone. Disappeared.

I had some of these promos and such saved. Well I used to. Now, they have now ALL DISAPPEARED!

I thought, well maybe I deleted them by mistake. So, I did a search for some of them, and either I got "Deleted for User Violation" message or they just didn't come up.

[mwhite36]

Oh, and this goes for WPIX (New York), too.

[Quadruplex]

Classic!