The TV Syndicate: you want your shows sliced or diced?

A word or 2 on syndication.

Yes, I am a classic TV geek (as some have no doubt noticed about me), and one thing I have noticed is how old TV shows stay popular.

Face it, if shows ended their runs on the networks, they'd likely have been long forgotten. Syndication created a market for those old shows, but there was a catch: the main TV channels (of which most markets had maybe 3 on the old days) had their own show lineups. Sometimes a network would keep cashing in on shows they had already run with a new concept called reruns, airing late afternoon or even in the evenings.

Sometime in the 1960s, a new wave of channels came down the pike.

Anyone remember VHF and UHF?

VHF was the signal frequency band running from channels 2-13, while UHF held channels 14 through...get this...83! Trouble was, a lot of older TV sets (weighing about as much as a cement truck), had only a VHF dial in the old days...I think we had one of those sets until I was about 10...and they were grayscale.

Somewhere in the mid-60s, I'd say around 1965, a lot of these new UHF stations came along. Their purpose, it seemed, was to air old movies, old shows, locally produced programs, and some form of religious programming if they so desired.

Some of these channels existed earlier, but it was not until 1964 when the Feds mandated that all new TV sets had a UHF converter did they begin their rise.

The concept did not erupt right away in terms of popularity, at least not until those TV sets with the UHF band became more affordable. These newer serts were also color and not grayscale, although many of the older shows were still in that grayscale.

Sorry, I can't say black and white anymore...not a racial thing...just that those older shows had quite the spectrum from white to black with a ton of gray shades in between. Can you imagine a program reminding you it was time to feed the panda?

I do know that several stations I grew up with began broadcasting in 1965 AFTER that UHF converter law went into effect.

Now, where these stations hit it big was in the syndication market.

Take Star Trek, for example, probably the BEST example. It fared ok when it was on NBC from 1966-69 and built a small cult following, but not enough to maintain a tough production budget.

Almost immediately, it was sold to a fairly good-sized group of independent stations, many of them in that UHF band. The show had only 79 episodes, which meant that the cycle of repeats would restart after four months, maybe a bit less.

What made the difference was that the show was often rerun in late afternoon or early evenings after the kids were home from school and the adults were home from work...and it was 5 days a week, not once a week.

Do you see the magic and genius yet?

This show made Star Trek a household name. Not only that, it led to merchandising, a decent Saturday morning cartoon in the mid 70s, a highly successful movie franchise, and spinoff shows set in the same Federation/Klingon/Vulcan/Roumulan/Kardashian (oops, Cardassian) universe, STILL GOING TO THIS DAY, 60 YEARS LATER!

The magic of syndication did not stop with Shatner.

If you take the 1950s to 1960s alone, viewers were treated to Ozzie and Harriet, Lucy and Ricky, or just Lucy, Andy Griffith, My Three Sons, Gilligan's Island, Dobie Gillis, Patty Duke, Batman, Lost in Space, Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, Petticoat Junction, Gunsmoke, Bonanza, The Wild Wild West, Superman...and that is just a small sampling!

Remember Lorraine's brother in Back to the Future in 1955 asking what a rerun is? By the early 1970s, reruns were all over the place!

The 1970s gave us a lot more, particularly The Brady Bunch. Some of these shows went into syndication with months or a year, others took a bit longer.

Oh wait, did I mention cartoons?

The kids market exploded with cartoons that had been merely old Saturday morning fare OR cartoons that had played in movie theatres before the main feature, like Tom and Jerry, and the Warner cartoon library, which was HUGE, Woody Woodpecker, the Hanna-Barbera world, Rocky & Bullwinkle, Underdog, and so on.

Japan you say? Congratulations, you are in luck! Japanese imports like Ultraman, Speed Racer, Johnny Sokko, and Space Giants got imported right into the syndicated world!

Now, here's an odd one: soap operas. Soaps were generally not rerun, particularly DAYTIME soaps, but there was an exception: Dark Shadows. This Gothic-themed serial filled with vampires, werewolves, time travel, and cheesy production values had gained a following, so it was released in 130-episode packages starting in 1975, with more added as it got more popular, ALTHOUGH the first 200 or so episodes (called the pre-Barnabas era) did not get airtime until The Sci Fi Channel introduced them.

As game shows gained popularity, their syndicated value grew where they languised on the datime circuit. The many Pyramid versions, Joker's Wild, Tic Tac Dough, and Hollywood Squares gained syndicated momentum.

Some programs were popular for decades while others were seminally (meaning not very) popular and were relegated to mornings or early afternoons.

And then there were some programs that last a season or two on networks. Solution? Air them on the summer blocks. Shows like Bosom Buddies, which I am sure Tom Hanks wants us to forget, had a 3 summer run on one of the local Philly stations.

On the other hand, some programs had such a long run that they were broken into different syndication packages.

Separate packages? Whatever do you mean, Bryan?

Take My Three Sons, for example. It lasted 12 years in prime time first-run airings (on 2 networks no less). One package was 1965-71, the other was 1960-65;1971-72. The 1965-71 run was the most popular package, I remember the grayscale/final season set was seldom aired until Nick at Nite aired it in the late 1980s for a healthy set of cycles. Hey, I didn't know Fred Mertz was on the show before I saw those.

Another multi-packaged show was Gunsmoke. No surprise as it was a 20-year program! The package most people saw was 1966-75, pretty much just the color hour longs. Rarely were the half hours with Dennis Weaver shown or the black and white hour longs from 1961-66. Cable outlets like Encore Westerns later showed those rarities fully.

If that weren't enough, there's also the Warner cartoon library. One package from 1948-69, the other was often referred to as "war era" (really the 1930s to 1947). The earlier package was generally a less politically correct set of shorts, often parodying contemporary pop culture and also stereotyping ethnic and racial groups. Many of those non-PC short films saw fewer if not zero airings as the 21st century dawned, maybe even early 1990s. The 1948-69 package was a generally kid friendly set. Whenever I see the 1967-69 set air on MeTV Toons, I groan because they're not all that funny and many famous cartoon voices had been replaced.

So, we still have syndication going now, right? Right? RIGHT?

No, mon frere, we have come a long way from that original syndication golden era. Technological progress killed it over time. As cable channels grew in number and popularity, many of those older shows moved to the cable world (though often cut for more ad time sadly), leaving room on the UHF "dial" for newer shows entering the syndication market. Only most TV's had no dials anymore, it was all remote control channel switching by the late 1980s.

And now in the 2020s, it is pretty much all streaming, even the local channels. Streaming outlets like Antenna TV, MeTV, Heroes&Icons, Decades, and other channels schedule those oldies and if you subscribe (often for free) to Pluto, Tubi, the Roku Channel, and others, you can watch these shows ON DEMAND!

As in, I DEMAND to see the Beav climb into that billboard soup cup in 1961 right now!

Believe it or not, it is often that simple. Not always free, though. As we have seen, there are media mergers and takeovers happening which could create a monopoly (send me to Reading Railroad) and charge whatever the hell they want.

And yet, TV is always evolving. My favorite old shows are on DVD in 2 bins in our house so I don't have to deal with shortened shows or pesky ads.

I feel fortunate to have grown up when I did, when I got 1 episode of Batman or Lost in Space per day. No binge-watching in the 1970s or 80s UNLESS you taped one show each day then watched on the weekend.

Oh, sorry, I must go...the FOSTER KITTEN "syndicate" is summoning me for an offer I can't refuse.

Super Canadian TV

 

All right, I know there's been absolute flack over Canada the last year or so and we all learned to hate Canadians, right? Right?!

No?

Oh, it was a Trump gag? Well then never mind.

Well, while I got you here, I might as well drone on about a favorite Canadian program that will last forever in our memories...HINTERLAND WHO'S WHO!

No, sorry, I was thinking of a series of short nature documentaries that lasted a bathroom break...though the show I am talking about did parody Hinterland Who's Who.

No, the show I refer to is SCTV, or rather Second City Television. 

It grew out of a group of improv performers who did acts at Second City theatres in Toronto and Chicago. They had quite a list of members who would go on to great movie fame and Saturday Night Live. Some members included Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, John Candy, Catherine O'Hara, and Martin Short, among others.

At some point in 1976, the group's Toronto leader Andrew Alexander was getting tired of his cast members departing for Saturday Night Live (even though SNL was still in its freshman year) and wanted to do something on TV, and yet not copy SNL. One perosn at the meeting suggested a show about the day in the life of a cheap struggling TV station.

It went from there, producing two scattered seasons in Toronto, going dark for a bit, then reigniting in Edmonton in 1980. SOmetime in 1981, SCTV moved to NBC to make 2 wildly successful years of 90-minute shows. It came up again on Cinemax after being canceled by NBC, but by then the remaining cast were burnt out.

I actually caught on to SCTV when it was put into a syndicated package of 30 minute shows. The first two seasons were already a half hour, but the two years of 90 minute shows were split into quite a few half hours. This series package was on our local PBS station at 11p.m. weeknights during the summer of 1985.

It was here that I watched the comic genius of John Candy, Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Rick Moranis, Harold Ramis, Martin Short, and Dave Thomas. They put out a variety of skits spoofing TV shows, movies, and commercials.

Most people are familiar with the NBC run, but the station also aired the original Toronto-produced run as well as the first seaosn produced in Edmonton. The Toronto episodes have a bit of a starker feel with a definite lower-than-average set of production values. Yet, the performances are first rate.

My favorite from those early episodes is the Fantasy Island spoof. Eugene Levy's Ricardo Montalban is hilarious and Dave Thomas's Bob Hope impression nails him perfectly. The Harold Ramis episodes were not all that notable in themselves, though he played some funny characters like Officer Friendly and Mr. Green Fatigues and Moe Green the station manager.

The actor who always stood out no matter which episodes were aired was John Candy. He just made every scene come alive whether he was the focus of the scene or a suporting player. His Johnny LaRue evolved from a substance abusing (alcohol, smoking) reality show star to spoiled channel personality always going over budget.

The first season in Edmonton was without John Candy and when I was a kid I generally ignored most of those episodes, though later I came to appreciate them more, mostly for one performer: Rick Moranis. Even though he had not made his bones in the Second City theater, he was quite prolific with his characters and took them with him to NBC. 

A lot of people remember him mostly for his skits with Dave Thomas as the McKenzie brothers called The Great White North. This skit was transformed into a cult classic called Strange Brew in 1983 (one of my favorite DVDs). 

Incidentally, the Great White North came out of a rule that SCTV needed to have 2 minutes of purely Canadian content. Moranis and Thomas just created several 2 minute sketches just riffing about whatever they could think of, and the least worst were aired. They also made a comedy record that held some winners (I love their 12 Days of Christmas rendition!).

Back to Moranis, though, he could do anything! My personal favorite of his material was as manic director Larry Siegel in the spoof "Diff'Rent Folks". The little kid is trying to copy Gary Coleman's cuteness, but Siegel pulls him aside, yelling, "What the hell's wrong with you? You're not Coleman, you're not getting Coleman's salary!"

Dave Thomas was another gem. Besides his Bob Hope, he also did a great impression of Bones McCoy in a few episodes, and also of Richard Harris.

Joe Flaherty and Eugene Levy had their own portfolios of characters, particulary together as serious news casters Floyd Robertson (Flaherty) and incompetent Earl Camembert (Levy).

Andrea Martin was hilarious as the second station manager, leopard print-wearing Edith Prickley. She also did a mean cross-eyed Barbra Streisand.

Catherine O'Hara's tortured falling star Lola Heatherton was genius, and she also had her set of wild characters. I do beleive she was the youngest of the show's performers.

In the middle of NBC's run, O'Hara left as did Moranis and Thomas. Coming in just before their departure was Martin Short, very much a genius like Moranis with a warehouse of characters, most notably Ed Grimley. His Jerry Lewis was quite accurate.

Favorite episdoes:

Fantasy Island (1978)- a whole cast spoof

Zontar (1981)- SCTV is invaded by evil cabbages that when touched, hypnotize all the station workers into talking like zombies. The human liaison is Hank Bain, Conrad Bain's brother (played by Bonar Bain, Conrad's real borther). Even guest Natalie Cole is not spared from hypnotism. DeForest Kelley (Dave Thomas) works with station owner Guy Caballero (Joe Flaherty) to defeat Zontar's leader (John Candy).

CBC/Janitor Strike (1982)- an SCTV janitor strike for some reason disrupts regular show production, so they borrow programs from the CBC(Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), including the aforementioned Hinterland Who's Who. This episode was pretty special because Canadian performers were themselves making fun of  real 
Canadian programming. 

Sweeps Week (1983)- a strange TV presence called the Energy Ball takes human form to kidnap security guard Guy Gustaffson (Eugene Levy), Ed Grimley, and just itself to kidnap Gavin MacLeod (Flaherty) and a TV executive. The Energy Ball is apparently a frustrated response to all the crap aired during sweeps week on all networks to get high ratings.

In conclusion, I am a proud owner of all of the NBC episodes in season sets and a "best of early years" set. It was a genius show mostly because they focused on concepts and did not get topical. Ever watch an old Saturday Night Live from the 1970s? A lot of the jokes fall flat now because they aged badly. SCTV just stayed in its bubble and blew it up as big as they could before it burst.

I'm gonna take off, eh!

I'm Having the AI Time of My Life

 

I want to talk about AI for a moment or 2.

A lot of people are scared of it...hell, we're all scared of technological change a little bit. The problem is, we can't stay in the past for long, especially when the old tech breaks down and there are no replacements (VCRs for example).

Before my foreseen by the mall palm reader existence, my mom worked at Michigan Bell for a while during the time my dad was in the army and my sister was a toddler. Her job was a key punch, meaning she translated paper information into machine readable data by punching holes in cards. Sounds archaic, right? Well, that job was gone before the dawn of the 1980s.

A lot of people were scared of the Internet before they discovered it could provide useful and trivial information as well as free porn (a fact, people).

Music went from records to tape reels to cassettes to CDs to a variety of digital formats, the most popular being MP3s.

Movies went from theatre reels and eventually TV showings to videotape to laserdisc to DVD to Blu Ray and now 4k.

What I have found from taking some low cost AI overview courses is a couple of things.

One, if you ask a question based on current data and straight information, you will most likely get a good and factual answer.

Two, if you ask a question that involves readily available along with hard to find archival data, AI tends to make some things up.

That second one could actually be a safeguard to know it was AI generated. If too many people add too many facts, AI could develop into a dangerous world brain.

No....if anyone is going to be the dangerous world brain, it will be ME!

Sorry, delusions of grandeur....but it's down to just 30 times a day.

Anyway, I also discovered AI is good for creating things. All you need to do is give it the right parameters and adjust if something doesn't look or sound right. For example, the image at the top of this piece was created form me telling the AI system exactly what I wanted to see. I did that for my Batman posts as well.

As you can see, it is good for amusement.

I also ask for recipes uising certain ingredients that I will try making.

The key is checking to make sure the recipes are logistically correct.

What I am really looking for is a way to tap into AI to make my teaching just a little more creative and entertaining, as well as informative and engaging...rhyme intended.

Of course, I would NEVER EVER use AI to create lesson plans...or at least never be stupid enough to make the AI sourcing so obvious, my bosses are no dummies.

Seriously, I do have a work ethic, I just want to continue developing, and a little tech boost is never a bad thing if used responsibly.

In closing, don't be afraid of tech, be afraid of natural flavorings on a food ingredient label, nobody knows what that shit really is (it might be literal shit).

And knowing is half the battle!