1971 ABC Fall Preview Part 1

[hankaaron1961]

I was 10 years old when this promo aired. This clip evokes such beautiful feelings inside of me. And it doesn't matter how sad, angry or stressful I am. When I play this clip I have an orgasmic sense of serenity.

[elise4ya]

wow I remember these faces, such great shows back then. @zibbyzubb I thought I was the only one that noticed tvland is not tvland anymore! and how can we get it back. awesom memories thanks.

[zl1vette427]

Boy, does this bring back memories. And for those of you who say that we had the same problems then as we do know, yes to a certain extent. But the difference then was that we were a more unified country and people. You didn't have a 24/7 news cycle on cable and the Internet so people would just 'give it a rest' after Walter Cronkite went off the air. Only 3 major networks...everybody watched the same shows at the school bus stop...ditto adults at dinner parties...a simpler time for all.

[Htos1av]

The ABC FRIDAY Night movie was always the schizzola,though.

[Htos1av]

...AND on only three vhf channels,a PBS station,and two flea powered channel 89 uhf stations-IF you lived in a major urban area.Our fights,in our family,was whether we watched Friday night shows for the girls or for the boys.(The girls ALWAYS won,btw!)

[fromthesidelines]

That's Jack Sheldon in the "MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL" promo; part-time actor, part-time trumpeter (he was in Mort Lindsey's band on "THE MERV GRIFFIN SHOW" at the time).

[timpriddy73]

ATLEAST THIS INVITES YOU TO ENTERTAINMENT

[DickieAnginson]

I used to watch Room 222! I wanted to look like Karen Valentine, she was so cute. :)

[squirm13]

I always liked usa tv i am in the uk, i used to be really jelous of saturday morning tv, we did not ever have that over here, the thought of 3 hours of non stop cartoons seemed incredible.

[jlomax]

I miss these previews so much! For me, they meant it's time for Summer to come to a close...time to go back to school...and our family would get tpgether and watch these previews and pick which shows and movies we wanted to see and which shows looked "dumb"! LOL!

What do we have now???Kids go back to school in early mid or late August..no previews..and all trashy reality shows and stupid singing and dancing competitions!

[RJSchex]

The background music played during "The FBI" promo (6:20) sounded a lot like "Chump Change" by Quincy Jones (the theme from "Now You See It")

[mrcharlie1997]

These posting are great!!!! Brings back so many good memories.

[tcidolfan]

Everytime I see this classic preview, I start to tear up!!! This was WAY before I was born!!! I Bet the 70s was a magical time for television!!

[valentineshoney]

Awwww...This was great. It used to go hand in hand with the TV GUIDE.

[prestush]

The mom in silhouette in the last bit kinda looks like the Symbicort lady.  Scary, huh? Do ya think? Naw!

[Slushpup2]

This when TV was focused on family entertainment. I am so tired of these so called "reality" shows I could shoot my TV!!!

[macgyver504]

I was 17 in '71 and knew back then that there were experienced broadcasters behind a quality product. I am now in broadcasting myself, as I have been for 30 years and have watched the steady decline of quality in programming. Technology has given us the ability to produce the dreams we had 30 years ago,but now the programmers in charge have the technology, but no dream.

[MrJamie1932]

Why they don't have these truly classic shows on TV Land???????????????

[Raptor3400]

Ahh...when TV producers had souls.

[chairmanofthebored1]

RIP Don Meredith

[tylerstattoo]

So glad you posted these. I'm a huge Pete Duel/Alias Smith and Jones fan, and I have the complete series on DVD and the back of the case says it aired on NBC. I said "I DON'T THINK SO" Thanks for proving that I'm not crazy, it WAS on ABC. Oh the memories.

[ftsjr]

A nice memory trigger. In the early 70s, the TV at my house was usually tuned to ABC. I used to watch all these shows. The Odd Couple and Love American Style were particular favorites of mine.

[SuperAV21]

This ABC fall preview was 17 years b4 I exist'd in this world. I was in 1988. So, my generation of TV watching is diff'rent from the folks saw it back then.

[DSCOBLUE]

Reminds me of growing up in DC during the late sixties and early seventies... You came in when the street lights came on and you turned on the TV for some great television. I tell my kids all the time, it's sad but I had it alot better than you...

[hankaaron1961]

Correct me if you disagree. But doesn't the guy in the Monday Night Football segment sound a lot like the voice of the bill ("I'm just a bill, yes I'm only a bill"), in the School House Rock video?

[nickai22]

@hankaaron1961 That's jazz trumpet great and Merv Griffin, side-kick Jack Sheldon. a/k/a "I'm Just a Bill on Capitol Hill" and "Conjuction Junction, What's Your Function?"  School House Rock dude

[dadoctah]

@nickai22 Also fresh off "The Girl With Something Extra" with Sally Field and John Davidson, and a frequent guest star on "Dragnet" before that.

[aftershock71]

I just had to comment again. Mama was preggers with me, when this was happening on TV. I now have my own teenage brats...one in college and one in High school. I really wish we could go back to this era!!

[rayjr62]

God, I had a major league crush on Karen Valentine.

[apriltlady]

How'd you get these videos? Did somebody have a home video recorder in 1971 and recorded this off the air?

[shrunkenone]

While this is before my time (my time being the 80's) it still brings back memories of good shows from my own childhood. And some of these I still saw in syndication. Thanks for uploading this. :)

[StormsongK]

Is that Jack Sheldon of "Schoolhouse Rock" fame in the Monday Night Football promo? Sure sounds like him sometimes.

[hankaaron1961]

Seems like half of these shows are remakes, or remakes in the works.

[CTubeMan]

Thank you for posting these, Bob! Do you have an ABC Fall Preview for 1976? I'd like to see it for the "Let Us Be the One You Turn To" they likely had at the beginning. What other Fall Previews do you have, and how did you get them?

[emerald2058]

@bobtwcatlanta Do you have anything from a Made for TV movie "Message to my Daughter" it aired Dec 12, 1973. I would love a posting from that. Thanks from Austin, Tx

[mofrakker]

Opening is a lot more relaxed than the hype were used to nowadays. This was the year I was born, very interesting to see the tendencies at the time.

[darrylhaynes]

richard long died that year....nanny and the professer

[glasscitadel12]

i thought it was '74, but yet again i was so young.

[aftershock71]

This was the fall that I was born (October) That line from the Courtship of Eddie's Father was classic...."35 isn't ancient?"

[Nikes62]

Out of this crop of shows, "Nanny & the Professor" would be the major flop. This was also Bewitched's swan song.

[vividwatch47]

"Nanny & The Professor premiered on 1/21/'70. Some say that when they switched it to Monday night for its third and final season, it was clobbered by "Gunsmoke" and "Rowan & Martin's Laugh In", though it came after "A.B.C.'s Monday Night Football", which occasionally ran over three hours. Because of this, the show was seen on Sunday afternoons at 5:00.

[Nikes62]

That opening guitar riff is ripped off from Harry Nilsson's "everybody's talkin". But I love the mellowness of "this is the place to be".

[mrkrinkle72]

ill bet you if the networks for one day just wiped all thier crud from the air and replaced them with these shows the ratings would go thru the roof

[ZABRISKIEPOINTER]

lol..none of these shows would make it today!!!..I do wish they would bring back a movie night though!

[mrkrinkle72]

yeah there not filthy or dumb enough to make it but yeah movies of the week would be sweet

[mrkrinkle72]

to me it was so simple then tv was to escape your life for awhile now tv just shows you other peoples crappy lives and they try to beat the hell out of you with thier ads!

[adbartels]

Wow- Never expected to see this again- what a time capsule- and that theme is something I never forgot- Thanks for posting this rarity!

[jupitr2]

That was Ronny Howard in 'The Smith Family' after his 8-yr run on 'The Andy Griffith Show' and one season before 'Happy Days'. I loved this show, too bad it only lasted one season. Thanks for a flashback to when TV was really something special.

[ZIPPTPH77]

I was in the 8th grade then, buncha horny dudes looking up "Miss Kalna's" dress.....

[NowhereMan1966]

I wonder what city they flew over?

[sitedezynz]

The city is Los Angeles.  The two towers you see are the Arco Towers in downtown LA.

[NowhereMan1966]

Thanks, I figured it was LA but I wanted to be sure.  It's a shame we don't have programming like that anymore.

[vividwatch47]

"True Grit" wouldn't be broadcast until the following season. Only "Owen Marshall, Counselor At Law" survived the season.

[vividwatch47]

"True Grit" was the highest rated theatrical movie in A.B.C.'s history

[mediamadman747]

Suddenly, I've got a hankering for a Percocet, or TWO.

[zibbyzubb]

I love these fall promo videos. I hope more will be posted. What great TV we had back then, and those shows still look good today. Thank God for DVD since the idiots progamming TV Land insist on ignoring geat shows any older than 15 years or they show the same shows (Gunsmoke/Bonanza) that they've shown for 10 years now. As for TV today, somehow I don't think 30 years from now we will be looking back fondly on reality crap like Dancing With The Stars, Survivor, The Bachelor, Big Brother etc.

[vividwatch47]

Could somebody please find and post the 1971 C.B.S. Fall Preview?

[PBNYC1271]

@zibbyzubb I have got to go with you on that. I really dont watch TV much anymore...just DVDs mostly of some of my favorite actresses.....I love this video...it was the year I was born............why cant we go back to siimilar times. Reality TV is anything but.......its just Crap TV to me really.....Reality TV is just as fixed...

[chairmanofthebored1]

@zibbyzubb You said it, everyone in my household loves those damn reality crappy shows, not me.

[jimbobago]

@zibbyzubb Why do you think people look fondly on old TV shows? Because we were fond of them back then. Well, if people like The Bachelor, Survivor or Dancing With The Stars now (and millions do), then that's the stuff that will be thought of as "the good old days" in 30 years. Maybe you think it's reality crap but that's what kids are raised on today just like kids in the 50s were raised on westerns.

[zibbyzubb]

@jimbobago I don't believe that the "reality" crap on TV today will NOT be remembered fondly in 30 years. They won't have the years and years of syndicated reruns either so they will be more easily forgotten for that reason alone. Shows like the Bachelor and Survivor need to go away to make room for smart, scripted television.

[rodrigoarayap1995]

@zibbyzubb Maybe, but even with the fact that I don't have a time machine, I think that older people back in '71 were complaining about the same thing we do now (I am not making any justice to the television ''shows'' produced now), specially when prime time was cut down to three hours and cigarette commercials (until then the largest source of television advertising) were banned, apart from the same troubles we face in 2011: a deteriorating economy, civil unrest and socially relevant comedies.

[humbleradio]

@zibbyzubb You said it!

[imbluz]

This trip down memory lane makes me want to cry.

[rayjr62]

Same here. I was starting the 3rd grade. LOL

[MalubaySyecado]

Could you imagine any network having this strong a lineup today?

[ErichRemarque]

Nanny and the Professor! She was gorgeous.

[Juliaflo]

She is also the elder sister of Hayley Mills.

[vividwatch47]

She won an Emmy for her performance in Q.B.VII" which aired on A.B.C.

[Baltimoreman78]

She was the Witch on Passion!!!

[kstarpictures]

The beginning riff of the "This Is The Place To Be!" song reminds me of "Everybody's Talking" by Harry Nilsson. Coincidence, or was it purposely done to grab your attention?

[dlsofsetx]

I always considered this promo a masterpiece.Ironically,the season was a disaster for ABC.

[williewill037]

This was an amazing look back into time.

I was just a kid and remember this promo like it was yesterday.

Thanks for posting and post more please.

[luvs2cover]

thanks for posting these old shows i'm with frank those were the good old days of television and the best of times.

[MeInTX]

Did the NFL not allow ABC to use actual game footage to promote the new season of MNF, or did they actually think that that obnoxious guy insulting the hosts was the best way to sell the games? Or was all that actually considered funny in 1971?

[jupitr2]

I loved all these shows (well except for 'The FBI') and remember how great Henry Fonda was in 'The Smith Family', a terrific show that is forgotten. Ron Howard even played Fonda's son! Quite a change of character for him on this show and this was just about two years before 'Happy Days' hit the air. There were some outstanding shows on then with some amazing talent. Thnx for the post!

[sitedezynz]

Wow The Smith Family was my favorite show. I was so in love with Henry Fonda. Remember Michael James Wixted who played the younger son? Wonder what ever happend to him.

[taratupa73]

I was a 16 year-old high school junior, back then, and, though I had girls and grades (In that order) on my mind, I remember all these shows. Seeing them again, brought back some sweet memories. Many thanks, Bob! Please post more!

[JP5466]

Even with the Nam war going on, it seemed like such an easy, relaxed time back then. I have fond memories of that period. I yern to be 5 years old again... sigh.

[saphopoem]

You couldn't be more right.

[frankd1965]

great seeing these prteviews from the good old days of television.

[Juliaflo]

I second that. Today's television is.....whatever.

[frankd1965]

Those were the days