Late Night Local TV And Fabulous Saturday Night Discomania in the 1970s | Television

I Really Miss Local Television Programming

I really miss 1970s television.

Not just the great shows that were in prime-time, but late-night LOCAL TV – which simply doesn’t exist anymore, except for local news in the afternoons and evenings.

This video is an audio of a broadcast aired in the middle of the night, right before The Late Show, which was a show dedicated to old movies. CBS would broadcast old movies under the banner The Late Show, followed by the Late, Late Show. These have nothing to do with comedy.

In a future post, I will discuss this. But let’s get down to the subject at hand.

The first video above is a montage of commercials and some other programming from June 17, 1978. Jimmy Carter was President of the United States.   

Right after the commercial the local announcer (Dave Campbell) actually gives us the news radio–style – The Early Morning Report! 

There was unrest in New York – to be truthful, while I love the 1970s, it wasn’t a great decade for New York, which nearly defaulted, among other problems.

The highlight of those years for New Yorkers (unless you were a Mets fan) was that the New York Yankees won the World Series twice.

Speaking of the Yankees, at around the 8:16 mark in the video it is announced that the Boston Red Sox now have a 13-game lead on the New York Yankees, who were in 4th place. 

The 1978 Yankees went on to have one of the greatest comebacks in sports history, while the Red Sox had an epic collapse, The Yankees went on to crush the Red Sox in a one-game playoff and win the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers!

If the local networks currently have room to fill late at night, they just put on some dreadful infomercials.

I used to love watching the local channels sign off for the night, too.

I really loved WNEW (Channel 5) when it was owned by Metromedia and Channel 11 when it was owned by Tribune (Channel 11 almost got stolen by Sinclair Broadcasting Group! Thank goddess that didn’t happen!)

Betamax Commercials

I love YouTube, and I’m always trying to find local TV from that era. Most people didn’t have video recorders then. Betamaxes were quite expensive.

You don’t usually find too much of it before the 1980s, because most people didn’t have video recorders yet. When I find one, it is a precious gift.

There isn’t that much out there, because very few people had anything to record them, so when I find them, it’s like a precious gift. 

The only recording device out there at the time was the Betamax, and very few people had those. This was probably recorded on a Betamax, by someone – who? 

I remember longing for a Betamax although that wouldn’t have stopped my late-night local TV watching!

The two videos below are fabulous 1977 Betamax commercials.

The first video has Dracula promoting the Betamax, and the second one has “ordinary” people telling how much they love their Betamaxes.

Late Night Local Television

There I was safe in the den, my parents asleep, and I had no real worries. Nothing would have changed my night owl tendencies, especially during the summer with no school!

Besides, late-night television back then had a slightly surreal feel. It was like entering a dream world.

This was back in the day when there was actual LOCAL programming. Channel 2 (WCBS-TV New York) used to program old films (heck, all of the local channels did that).

What’s interesting to me is that sometimes the commercials bring back a certain era even more than the shows do.

But my favorite moment is at the very end, with the classic Channel 2 intro to The Late Show! How many old movies did I discover watching that show?!

*Sigh* I miss local late nights, or even local TV in general. It just doesn’t exist anymore!

Time Capsule of Late 1970s New York City

Who knows, I may very well have been watching this very channel at this very moment in time when this commercial aired.

While you check out the above video, at around the 1:00 mark (after the local CBS station, WCBS Channel 2 in New York, had finished showing The Channel 2 Showcase – apparently a rerun of an old The Name of the Game episode) they ran a hilarious and rather endearing commercial for a disco record – Saturday Night Discomania!

This delightful commercial, a true time capsule, is blatantly trying to cash in on the huge success of the 1977 film Saturday Night Fever, complete with John Travolta wannabe, complete with a white suit, filmed in a real disco!

The record includes a booklet to teach you all the latest disco dances!

The songs included in the disc are true classics, more early 70s Philly sound than Bee Gees era disco. You can buy the vinyl record or 8-track tape! Or pay C.O.D. (cash on delivery!)

And in small print is the disclaimer:

“Not affiliated with Saturday Night Fever”

Sure, Jan.

Further Reading

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