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.