Question about news in the 1960's

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Murphy13, Nov 26, 2014.

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  1. Murphy13

    Murphy13 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Portland
    I was around but too young. I know TV News broke into programming when JFK was killed. Also, when man landed on moon. Any other national stories that actually interrupted regular TV? Were the deaths of MLK and RFK basically saved for the evening TV news or was programming interrupted. Just curious about the 1960's
     
  2. Thomas D

    Thomas D Forum Resident

    Location:
    Bradenton, FL
    I remember it happened sort of often. When the surgeon general determined cigarette smoking causes cancer - they interrupted then. That was 1964 or so, but most were bigger news than that. Normally, it had to be a very big event. I remember it was always an exciting thing when the "Special News Bulletin" graphic suddenly popped on the screen, interrupting a program, because it would be very big and could be anything.
     
    Last edited: Nov 26, 2014
  3. jjh1959

    jjh1959 Senior Member

    Location:
    St. Charles, MO
    Man landing on the moon was not interrupted coverage of regular programming. It was non-stop dedicated programming that was scheduled to come on at specific times during the mission.
     
  4. cathandler

    cathandler Senior Member

    Location:
    maine
    A decade earlier, ABC interrupted regular programming for gavel-to-gavel coverage of the Army-McCarthy hearings. It would take a couple of decades before ABC started to make a name for itself in news, but the coverage did bring the fledgling network some much-needed publicity. In the 70s, PBS would achieve similar prominence with its coverage of the Watergate hearings. One network became noteworthy for what it didn't carry during the 1960s. CBS opted to air The Lucy Show instead of a US Senate hearing about Vietnam in 1966; the decision led to CBS News President Fred Friendly's resignation.
     
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  5. Murphy13

    Murphy13 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Portland
    Wow that is interesting. To be honest, I may have done the same thing if all the other networks were covering it.
     
  6. cathandler

    cathandler Senior Member

    Location:
    maine
    Just last week the Big 4 networks passed on carrying President Obama's prime time immigration speech; nevertheless, some station groups bucked the networks and carried the address and delayed prime time.
     
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  7. Commander Lucius Emery

    Commander Lucius Emery Forum Resident

    RFK was shot late at night California time and lingered for 24 hours. I remember my mother telling me about it that morning. I am pretty sure MLK was news bulletins. This may seem hard to believe now but King had been fading out of national headlines for a couple years. People like Stokely Carmichael and H Rap Brown were getting coverage.
    The death of Apollo astronauts Grissom, Chaffee and White in January 1967 got prime time bulletins.

    My memory in the 1970s all three networks broadcast hours of Watergate hearings
     
  8. PHILLYQ

    PHILLYQ Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brooklyn NY
    I watched hours of it, not all on PBS. My congresswoman(Elizabeth Holtzman) was one of the committee members.
     
  9. cathandler

    cathandler Senior Member

    Location:
    maine
    PBS's Watergate coverage was gavel-to-gavel, which differentiated it from the other networks.
     
  10. The Panda

    The Panda Forum Mutant

    Location:
    Marple, PA, USA
    I remember they broke in for RFK and MLK; clearly remember cause my old man hated both of them and he was raging about them interrupting his watching.
    I watched PBS Watergate religiously when I got home from school and later my summer job. Watched fascinated until the last second til the old man came home, he refused to let anyone watch any fragment of the desecration of such a wonderful man as Dick Nixon. My mother would be 'turn it off, turn it off' and I'd hit the button as the key turned in the lock.
     
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  11. Commander Lucius Emery

    Commander Lucius Emery Forum Resident

    In 1978 the networks interrupted some big prime time events (Emmys, 3 hour premiere of "Battlestar Galactica") for one hour with the announcement of the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel.
     
  12. JFS3

    JFS3 Senior Member

    Location:
    Hooterville
    I remember waking up the next morning to watch Captain Kangaroo only to find an image of a reporter standing in front of a building talking about the assassination of RFK. I remember being completely indignant at the time, as my 7 year old mind couldn't fathom the possibility that there was anything in the world that was actually worthy enough to pre-empt a show as important as Captain Kangaroo.
     
    Last edited: Nov 27, 2014
  13. John54

    John54 Senior Member

    Location:
    Burlington, ON
    The first day that M*A*S*H was in reruns, they interrupted just to say that Sadat or some of the other principals had arrived at Camp David! That was ridiculous.
     
  14. Murphy13

    Murphy13 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Portland
    I think there are so many news outlets now that 100% network coverage may not be needed. Of course, a national emergency is a different thing altogether. I believe it is close to 90% of households with televisions have cable, satellite, or streaming services (Apple TV, etc). Maybe require PBS, since its largely funded by public?

    Was TV interrupted when President Ford was shot at a couple of times?
     
  15. quadjoe

    quadjoe Senior Member

    Yes. As was the attempted assassination of George Wallace in 1972, which left him paralyzed.
     
  16. The Panda

    The Panda Forum Mutant

    Location:
    Marple, PA, USA
    well, I was in college for that and TV was virtually nonexistent, pre-cable
    I do remember coverage being halted when that loon took a shot at Reagan
     
  17. rene smalldridge

    rene smalldridge Senior Member

    Location:
    manhattan,kansas
    IMO it was a terrible decision. At that time there were only 3 national networks and in many , many locales in the USA - people only had major news access through one or maybe 2 of them because all three were not available everywhere.
     
  18. Commander Lucius Emery

    Commander Lucius Emery Forum Resident

    I remember on a Saturday, probably September or October 1974, CBS and ABC broadcast some kind of a press conference or commission meeting for President Ford's Whip Inflation Now campaign. NBC broadcasted its usual baseball game of the week, (may even have been the playoffs) but regularly told the viewers the other networks were broadcasting live and NBC News would have a recap after the games.
     
  19. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    They blew away all programming Friday night and all day Saturday for the Apollo 1 astronauts' death. What was always frustrating to me as a viewer was that they went on the air with basically no facts, and were forced to repeat the essentials of the story over and over again, then interview new people to recount the same bare essentials they know. Very boring.

    Within the last 20 years, all the networks and significant cable channels created small departments to basically create documentaries on the fly whenever a huge event like this happened. That way, they were prepared with background information, graphics, staff, camera people, editors, and so on to keep the news going and make it look polished.
     
  20. Murphy13

    Murphy13 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Portland
    Are all news video stored digitally nowadays? I bet a natinal news outlet's archive was huge back in the day of film. When Elvis died, I remember ABC (I think Geraldo was a part of it) put togeteher an hour long special that was played that evening after local news at 11:30.
     
  21. Macman

    Macman Senior Member

    I vividly remember the bulletin coming on TV for the Kennedy assasination. I seem to think the Mike Douglas Show was on at the time because my mother watched it religiously.
     
  22. Macman

    Macman Senior Member

    My memory of Apollo 11 is that it was non-stop for the three days from launch to landing; that it never left the air during that period. At least on CBS with Walter Cronkite. Am I wrong about that?
     
  23. quadjoe

    quadjoe Senior Member

    I was in school (4th grade) in Amarillo, Texas back then. When the news broke the principal called all of the teachers to his office to tell them the president had been shot. Shortly thereafter, he made the announcement that President Kennedy had died, and that the school was closing. Those of us who could walk home were sent off right away. When I got home I vividly remember walking through the door to find my mom sitting in front of the TV crying.

    We were watching when Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald two days later. It seemed like the TV coverage was non-stop, to me.

    I also remember that the networks used to often interrupt programs for various presidential speeches or announcements back in those days.
     
  24. quadjoe

    quadjoe Senior Member

    I think you're correct. At the very least there was a lot of programming about the Apollo 11 mission, on all the major networks. I thought Jules Bergman on ABC had the most interesting science coverage of the event.
     
  25. shokhead

    shokhead Head shok and you still don't what it is. HA!

    Location:
    SoCal, Long Beach
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