Network Tv was terrific back then. We only had 5 channels but almost everything was really good (including commercials) - those channels wanted to keep us watching & kepg up fierce competition with eachother.
My folks bought one of those Zenith "portable" TV's. I had it until 2005 when the on/off button finally failed. I donated it to a TV repair shop. The thing nust have weighed about 95 pounds.
I feel your pain. Athough to be fair, many people in my family worked for G.E.'s once "arch-rival", Westinghouse Electric, and in "the day" It was verboten for anyone in our family to even CONSIDER buying a G.E. product,LOL. ( a Chevy/Ford or Coke/Pepsi "thing" going back to the whole Edision/Westinghouse rivalry!) It's truly sad to see what happened to BOTH proud seemingly invincible companies that BUILT the electrical/electronic world we live in. wind up forgotten shells. Sad. 😢
The Midnight Special was great, although I missed so many of them when they were broadcast. I worked at my families fast food restaurant during most of the 70's. I always had the Saturday shift from 5PM till 1AM and by the time I got home it was either over or just finishing up. I was SO disappointed many times when I saw who had been on. It was really rare to be able to see your favorite bands like that on TV back then.
I remember that show well. Most, not all, but a lot of the performances were lip synced of the record. I always preferred Don Kirschner's Rock Concert which was on opposite Midnight Special on a different network.
I think that I had one of the coolest teachers when I was a freshman in high school in 1972-73. I had study hall where he was the teacher in charge. He would record "The Midnight Special" and let us watch it if we did not have any homework to do. Great memories!
Things aren't really that different. I mean, you had the Watergate Scandal and Nixon was still in office, the gas shortage, and the end of a questionable war?
Can I join in in repeating what you said, Debbie? Fred's videos constantly amaze me on where he gets these rare treats from "the good old days," and his terrific editing in splicing them all together in a batch highlighting a specific year or type of tv programming.
6:35 I imagine the downside to being married to a girl with ESP is that she'll say "Not tonight, I have a headache" before you can even ask the question.
I was 5. But I remember most of those. I remember my Grandpa got a new car that year. Us kids were not allowed to ride our big wheels near it, haha. I have that car now.
That Inchworm toy was originally manufactured by Hasbro for Romper Room. I'd forgotten that at some point they just put their own imprint on it and eventually discontinued the Romper Room brand, presumably shortly before the Romper Room shows themselves started disappearing from TV.
Holy Christ, I haven't seen that girls club commercial since WAY BACK. I completely forgot about that one. Where the hell you dig up these gems Fred ? WOW , talking about a blast from the past !
@@jpolar394 OMG!! I couldn't believe when I came to comment I quickly laid eyes on your comment and you spoke the very words in my head. I would have been very young at the time of airing of this commercial and think it ran perhaps through 1975, 1976 at latest. I was intensely fixated the second this part of video started - memory wheels were turning & kicking up THICK dust, lol! The end CLINCHED it for me - "Be a girl...be a girl" - then the goosebumps hit me like a sack of bricks. Felt surreal, very exhilarating - knowing the last time I heard that and sang along was likely 44 or so years ago.
@@Dani92670 ......Yes indeed, Fred hit a nerve with that commercial, as you can read in the comments. I seem to remember that commercial being aired during Yankee games. There's another one that seems to be in the back of my mind which also aired a lot during the same time. It was either The boys club, The 4 H clubs, or the NYCPAL. The commercial also had a catchy tune to it. Maybe with a little luck, Fred can go into his majestic time tunnel and dig it up. It was like the commercial for " Don't cross the street in middle of the block " By the way, that commercial sounds like it was sung by Jonee Mitchell for the girls club.
@@FredFlix On the Girl's Club commercial (3:24), do you have one in your fabulous time tunnel for a Boys Club commercial, Fred? Equal time, you know! ;) I don't know if I ever saw that girl's club commercial now from the early '70s, or not! I might have, but it could have been a "one-and-done" I saw 46 years ago, if it showed during the (Watergate Senate hearings) Summer of '73, when I was in Miami Beach! At the end it shows a New York City address, so it could have been shown nationwide a couple of times, but more frequently in the NYC metro area. Just a commercial that was rarely seen then by most people outside of the NYC metro area, I'm guessing, and I'll bet there are others you might have buried in your "time tunnel vault."
@@freeguy77 No, I remember that commercial very clearly, and I didn't grow up anywhere near New York. As I recall, a lot of organizations had their headquarters in NYC back then.
The Saturday Night Massacre - a time long ago when a Republican AG and his Deputy, both appointees of the Republican President, had integrity and decency.
@J Smith I suggest you reconsider what integrity and decency are and how William Barr doesn't know the definition either. But your mind is probably made up and I wouldn't want to confuse you with the facts.
Search, finally someone remembers Search; got the complete series, it was a show that had definite possibilities, rotating leads, with solid acting, good show. Girl with something extra, sweet lighthearted show, had Jack Sheldon on it if I remember correctly, The Magician, another short lived but full of potential series; Bix always brought his own earnest style in everything he did. Good stuff, Fred. Always a pleasure to remember when you have another way back video. Thanks pal.
@@FredFlix Yeah, heartbreaking, all the way around. The poor man man knew tragedy intimately. I do believe that he was well respected if not loved by all that knew him. You watch The Magician or The Incredible Hulk, you are watching the man personally. There was such pathos to his life, yet people were better for knowing him.
Oh my gosh, at 2:43, John Chancellor talks about Watergate, “what may be the most serious Constitutional crisis in the nation’s history.” Chickenfeed compared with what we’ve got now!
Barbara Eden ("I Dream of Jeannie"), at 2:07, was then 42, advertising for Christmas seals. On August 23, (2019) she celebrated her 88th birthday. She is the last survivor of her main cast of co-stars from her 1965-70 tv series that included Larry Hagman ("Tony"), Bill Daily ("Roger"), who died a year ago on Sep. 4, 2018; just 5 days after his 91st birthday, Hayden Rorke ("Col. Bellows"), and sometimes seen Emmaline Henry ("Mrs. Bellows"), who was the first to die, at only 50, in Oct. 1979 of a brain tumor.
Oh no he didn’t but you did ! Bust out with the soul train wow takes me back to being a kid and watching this and just being amazed ! The clothes the dancing. I remember there was a Asian girl with long hair on there and I wanted to be her!!! So taking me back to being a tween going on twenty!
I remember the J5 Alpha Bits commercial. At the time the back of the box had a J5 record on it. You just cut it out and put it on the turntable. I forget which song it was, anyone?
I had a Green one (1971), it was handed down to me when I first got my license. We used to call it the frog. lol We took it in for the rear explosion recall, they put a plate behind the gas tank.
@@Pyridox Ha! "The Frog". They did have a side profile that resembles a frog, especially if it was green. They were fun to drive too, Rick and they got great mileage.
The Zenith TV at the beginning looks like the one my parents bought in 1970. Our first color TV. It served them well for 14 years until the picture tube finally went. The repairman was only called three times during that span. This is a memory jogger. I forgot the Jackson Five did a commercial for Post cereals until now.
"Careful,Steve, Grip it!!!, Hold on!" Made me laugh harder than a man of a "certain age" should at that line. To be fair, I probably laughed just as inappropriately at this very ad in 1973! 😜
THANKS FRED! GREAT STUFF! THANKS A MILLION! PEOPLE DONT SEEM TO KNOW HOW GREAT TV WAS BACK IN THOSE DAYS! PLUS THE ACTING WAS STILL GREAT WITH BETTER LOOKING PEOPLE! EARL OF EL BARRIO, NYC, NY 12/10/19. 9:37PM
At 3:04 is William Ruckelshaus, the deputy Attorney General, who was fired for refusing to dismiss the Special Prosecutor, Archibald Cox. Ruckelshaus passed away this past Nov. 27 (2019), at 87.
Tony Franciosa had quite a second career on TV. But he was best in “A Face in the Crowd,” a cautionary tale about the impact of TV. The other big-impact performer in that 1957 flick was a guy named Andy Griffith.
@@FredFlix this was 1967 before his football career, he was doing his final credit work for graduation from U of M. and was a teacher there for one semester. I should have pointed that out. By the way Fred always look forward to your videos!👍👍
What a year that was for TV! As a newly turned adult, everything was in a changing mode for me, and television was certainly showing me the way. New Ideas "In". Old ideas seemed passe to me. Most of those programs were exciting enough, however, to keep me home nights. Thank you Fredflix, for another look at that time!
FredFlix you're my hero--I was 12 years old in '73 and thanks to you, got to be 12 again in 2020. Man I loved this (esp that Girls Club ad, I haven't seen that in 40+ years)! Thanks Fred, just.... awesome stuff.
Funny, I remember the commercials but not necessarily all the shows. 16 going on 17 in 73 - too busy with friends and school extra-curricular activities during a time my world was turning upside down!! Keep busy and just go with the flow - it made it easier to get through!!!
Such a great compilation, I could go on for 5 or 6 paragraphs describing all the memories this brought back. CBS had all the best shows. I remember watching Chase with Mitchell Ryan every week. The Six Million Dollar Man, The Midnight Special, The Magician, School House Rock, Johnny Carson at the height of his popularity. It was a great time to be 12. Thanks, Fred.
In 1973, many TV sets were furniture. Is there anyone here who seriously misses that TV set genre? If so, WHY? I'm 51 yo; I don't - FLATSCREEN TV SETS RULE THE WORLD!
My grandmother had a big walnut counsel tv. She had a doily on top with a Knick knack right in the center. We watched tv together shows like Marcus Welby MD, Rockford Files and Carol Burnette. She made popcorn and we had Royal Crown Cola (RC). Yes I miss those old TVs.