ABC Still the One! 1977

1977 Fall Image Campaign from ABC

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• ABC
• ID
• TV
• 1970's
• 70's

[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.

[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).

[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.

[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 :)

[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

[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...

[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.

[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.