I know what I was watching 45 years ago. It was the beginning of February sweeps and the networks were pulling out the stops to attract viewers. Here's the local Nashville guide for February 1, 1976. It was a Sunday and I was 9 years old. My dial was probably tuned to WNGE 2 ABC for most of the day. The Three Stooges at 9AM was a must watch. The Superstars sports competition came on at 1PM and I really enjoyed that show too. The big show for me on Sunday nights was The Six Million Dollar Man and the episode airing on February 1, 1976 was a huge part one of a two-part arc that would conclude on Wednesday February 4, 1976. I was really surprised to see no advertisement for this first of the Bigfoot episodes. There was a really nice ad for Rich Man, Poor Man which was premiering on this night. My father would watch all of that mini-series. Monty Python's Flying Circus came on local public television at 10PM.
Rich Man, Poor Man was a sensational hit, but it wasn't popular with me. Since it had adult themes I wasn't allowed to watch it. It was also pre-empting some shows I liked. I know my father enjoyed it. I wouldn't see the tale of the two Jordache brothers until many decades later as I caught it without commercials on some cable station. It was good television, but it still can't compare to Steve Austin battling Bigfoot.
Here is the synopsis for the first part of The Six Million Dollar Man "The Secret of Bigfoot: Part 1" which featured the great Andre the Giant as the giant hairy beast. Every boy I knew in grade school wanted to be Colonel Steve Austin and most of us were also obsessed with Bigfoot. The tabloids would feature Bigfoot sightings in them with some of them even originating in Tennessee. The Patterson film of Bigfoot was something I had seen on a TV special and it fascinated and frightened me. The only nightmare I can ever remember that made me run to my parents room was one in which I dreamed Bigfoot was on our front stoop trying to get into the house. That had happened a few years before and I was determined to not let Bigfoot scare me away from one of my favorite television shows. Colonel Steve Austin would easily win this battle...or would he?
YouTuber Dave Sundstrom shares his memories of the episode and about how he was scared of Bigfoot just like I was back then. I think it's a pretty common thing with the Generation X cohort. He has the official TV Guide print ad too!
Do You Remember...
The two-part episode inspired a Bigfoot action figure from Kenner. Here's a great look at the toy.
Here's all of the music extracted from the Secret of Bigfoot two-parter. Lots of bongos and bionics!
The Six Million Dollar Man Secret of Bigfoot music
The Six Million Dollar Man and Bigfoot would become fodder for parody/homage on The Venture Bros. decades later. It's a brilliant combination of irreverence mixed with reverence. Strange yet delightful.
The Venture Bros.
So that's what I was watching 45 years ago. The global satellite in my mind swoops in for a closeup of a tiny yellow house at 405 Lynn Street. The high temperature that day had been 49 and it would drop to 13 overnight so the little wall heat unit would have been glowing orange that night. I think there was also one in the master bedroom and a small one in the bathroom. There may have been one in my bedroom, but I don't remember. I do remember having a tiny black and white television and Peanuts characters on my curtains (the curtains had been left by the previous owners). I got to watch The Six Million Dollar Man on the color TV in the living room. I probably watched it from under a blanket on the couch. The same couch with a blanket draped over it would become the tunnel which led to Bigfoot's hideout. I never had any of The Six Million Dollar Man action figures as they were too expensive, but it never stopped my imagination. What would you have been watching on this date 45 years ago?
I know all of you loyal readers love diving right into highlights from past Sunday Showcases, but I'm afraid if this is to continue I'm just going to have to solicit some advertisers. I hope you don't mind.
Be sure and run by Cain-Sloan after reading this and buy something from those fine folks. I'd go for the stereo myself. I can use it to play the Top Ten Songs of the week in Nashville.
So what big rock and roll and soul shows were on tap for this November? The Woodstock sensation SHA NA NA promise An Evening of Nostalgia at the Municipal Auditorium on Friday November 15th.
Dickey Betts was putting on "An American Music Show" at the New Grand Ole Opry House. Americana music has been around much longer than No Depression magazine.
Mountain with James Gang will journey to Murfreesboro for a Murphy Center concert. I wonder if Tommy Bolin was still in the James Gang at this point?
Earth, Wind And Fire have no need for an Oxford comma. They had plenty of funk instead. They were riding high in 1974. Their album Open Our Eyes hit No. 1 on the Billboard Soul chart and No. 15 on the Pop chart. They backed up Ramsey Lewis on the Sun Goddess record and it also hit No. 1 on the Soul chart and made No. 12 on the Pop chart.
Excuse me here. It's time to run another advertisement or I can't pay my bills. If you ever find yourself in LaVergne, Mt. Juliet, or Manchester and want to do some department store shopping you won't go wrong with M & M Variety Mart. I know I've got my eye on that Playskool McDonald's set.
The biggest concert on the horizon for Nashville in November, 1974 would have to be David Bowie live at Municipal Auditorium. It was ostensibly the Diamond Dogs Tour, but near the end of the tour he began to add songs from the Young Americans album into the setlist and it became the Soul Tour. This show was the second to last one with a performance in Atlanta's Omni on December 1st closing out his concert run in America for the year. He performed on the Dick Cavett Show on December 4th. Bowie was just an incredible artist whose influence on popular music was and still is massive.
Here's the setlist:
1. Memory of a Free Festival
2. Rebel Rebel
3. John, I'm Only Dancing (Again)
4. Sorrow
5. Changes
6. Young Americans
7. 1984
8. Rock 'n' Roll With Me
9. Love Me Do
10. The Jean Genie
11. Moonage Daydream
12. Can You Hear Me
13. Knock On Wood
14. Suffragette City
15. Rock 'n' Roll Suicide
Encore
16. Future Legend
17. Diamond Dogs
Our time this Sunday is drawing to a close, so let's figure out what worth's watching on television. We're going with Friday November 15, 1974. I'm going to develop a stomach ache and stay home from school so I can watch TV all day.
If I get up early it will be either Ralph Emery or Carl Tipton at 6AM. I'm watching Bozo for sure at 7AM. Heck, I'd probably watch it even now. New Zoo Review was the stuff of nightmares even when I was a kid so I'm flipping over to Channel 5 to see Captain Kangaroo. If that bored me I would switch over to Green Acres on the half hour. 9AM brings Sesame Street into my home and even though I was pushing 8 years old I still wouldn't miss it. I might flip over to High Rollers or I might stay with PBS and hope Spiderman is on Electric Company. Hollywood Squares was amusing to me as a child, even if I didn't get most of the jokes. One of my favorite public television shows ever called Inside/Out came on at 11:30AM. Someone uploaded a bunch to YouTube a few years ago and I watched them all over again and was just as entranced by it.
I remember seeing the Noon Show on Channel 4. I would often be eating a cheese sandwich while it aired. Much of the early afternoon is filled with soap operas that often acted as background noise when I was a kid. My granny would only watch Channel 5 soaps while my mother watched Channel 2's offerings. I know most Generation X types like myself remember watching the hour long Price Is Right in the mornings when staying at home sick from school, but in 1974 it was still only a half hour in length and aired at 2PM. Match Game was on at 2:30PM and I was in my element gulping down a Coke and a honey bun while Charles Nelson Reilly and Fannie Flagg cracked me up. Tattetales confused me. I could have sworn Gilligan's Island ran every weekday of my youth, but obviously not as it is not on this schedule. The Channel 5 afternoon movie is and if had been Elvis week, Universal monsters week, or Godzilla week I would have tuned in.
There's so many great choices in the early evening. The Andy Griffith Show, the Flintstones, Leave It To Beaver, the Lucy Show, and The Mike Douglas Show are all solid possibilities, but I'm most likely to be watching Mister Rogers and Villa Alegre. 5PM brought solid choices with Family Affair, Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C. and Electric Company again. I would have loved to watch Sesame Street again, but in my house it was usually the Channel 5 News at 6PM and then To Tell The Truth at 6:30PM. If I was very lucky though I'd be able to flip over to Channel 8 again and see another all time favorite Zoom. I think most people my age know Boston's zip code thanks to this show. Who else wanted one of those awesome long sleeved striped shirts?
7PM on this night would present another of those agonizing choices with Sanford & Son and Chico & The Man on NBC going up against the Planet of the Apes series on CBS. I'm going ape I guess. Seeing The Six Million Dollar Man listed on any day other than Sunday is weird, but it didn't begin showing on Sundays until January 19, 1975. It was up against the Rockford Files which was another show I really enjoyed. 9PM is time for Kolchak: Night Stalker which I was allowed to stay up and see since it was a Friday. I'd often get to see the Tonight Show too.
That's it for this Sunday's visit to the past. I'll be here again next week with some more old newspaper clippings and other junk.
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