1977

21 Oct 1977, Fri The Paducah Sun (Paducah, Kentucky) Newspapers.com 

1977

With Week 1 set to start Sunday, here are my NFL77 rankings as of this moment on Friday, Sept. 16, 1977:

1. Colts 247

2. Rams 233

T3. Patriots 232

T3. Steelers 232

T5. Bengals 203

T5. 49ers 203

7. Vikings 202

8. Raiders 201

9. Broncos 196

10. Bears 195

11. Cowboys 194

12. Chargers 185

13. Washington 173

14. Cardinals 168

15. Dolphins 167

16. Browns 155

17. Chiefs 152

18. Lions 150

T19. Oilers 149

T19. Giants 149

21. Bills 136

22. Saints 136

23. Seahawks 131

24. Eagles 130

25. Jets 126

26. Packers 125

27. Falcons 114

28. Buccaneers 96

Turning to baseball, the American League rallied from Jim Palmer’s start a couple of months ago but came up short:

NL 401 000 020 7-9-1

AL 000 002 102 5-8-0

WP: Don Sutton (1-0) 

LP: Palmer (0-1)

Home runs: Steve Garvey, Greg Luzinski and Joe Morgan (National); George Scott (American)

In other news, the 1977-78 TV season is now underway, and Betty White's new program is cute:

It's incredible how much 1977 is available to revisit in 2024. I am an astronaut. Comments flow ...

1977

Thank you, GoHeath, for the tip to the YouTube link for what is purported to be the first-ever episode of This Week In Baseball.

I’ve been excited about the debut of this show since there was a report on it in the March 13, 1977, edition of the Paducah Sun-Democrat “Channel Selector” pullout. Here’s Dan Lewis writing for the United Feature Syndicate:

At the recent National Association of Television Program Executives convention in Miami Beach, Ernie Banks, the Chicago Cubs great immortalized this year as the newest elected member to Baseball’s Hall of Fame, was on prominent display, letting people know about “This Week in Baseball.”

At the hotel pool, in major league baseball’s suite and at banquets, Banks moved around easily, letting the local program executives know that the commissioner’s office, the owners, an assortment of production companies, a distributor and an ad agency were partners in the TV venture …

Banks, who has remained wit the Chicago Cubs—the only team he ever played for during his major league career—in sales promotion, did his job well. The programmers were anxious to meet him and, in return, listened to his pitch on behalf of baseball.

Mel Allen, the one-time New York Yankees’ play-by-play announcer (for 23 years), will host the series, which will run for 26 weeks, starting April 16—the second of the season.

Pro football highlights are aired weekly by both NBC and CBS during the season on their respective Sunday sports specials that precede games on these networks. But although NBC carries a Saturday game and ABC the Monday night game in baseball, neither offers these highlights.

So the league is packaging its own show. These highlights, culled from the 100 to 150 games each week, will be edited by high-speed equipment and will be ready for airing by Friday. In many areas, it is expected they will be shown on the weekend, probably preceding local major league telecasts. In major league cities, channels that air the local teams will have first option.

It appears there were production delays, because Howard Smith of the Associated Press reports in a syndicated column turning up in papers June 23 and around then that the series is in its fourth week:

... and the reception has been great. In Boston, baseball writers can’t see it Saturday afternoons as a rule because they’re at the Red Sox game so they have requested a special showing. Club officials also are planning to show it on the scoreboard at Fenway Park prior to Saturday games.

The idea of a highlight show is not new. The National Football League has been doing it for years with success. But the NFL only has 14 games every weekend to deal with. There approximately are 70 baseball games every week and, until this year, it has not been economically feasible to produce a highlights show.

This year baseball has purchased a video cassette recorder for each ballpark. Of the 70 games played in a week, generally about 52 of them are televised somewhere. Baseball records the telecasts on the cassettes, ships the film to New York and the highlights are put together for the show. It sounds much easier than it is.

I think it sounds hard. And I'm excited to watch—right before I listen to tonight's A's game, at Detroit.

31 May 1977, Tue The San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, California) Newspapers.com

1977

It's a wrap for Season 1 of Alice. I loved Linda Lavin in Barney Miller; I loved her as a co-host with Mike Douglas earlier this 1977 month; I, of course, loved her in Alice, and I love her in this ...

I've kind of kept tabs on her ever since I heard she had married a fella and lived in Wilmington, North Carolina, about the same time that my wife and I married and lived in Cary. Linda Lavin and her husband opened and ran a theater in Wilmington for a while. She and her husband are now back in New York City, and their Wilmington theater has turned into one of those axe-throwing bars--this one called "Axes and Allies," which is pretty clever.

Wikipedia says she does a lot of teaching. I'll bet Linda Lavin is an excellent teacher, too.

1977

It's Super Bowl (XI) Sunday.

07 Jan 1977, Fri The Paducah Sun (Paducah, Kentucky) Newspapers.com

07 Jan 1977, Fri The Paducah Sun (Paducah, Kentucky) Newspapers.com

07 Jan 1977, Fri The Paducah Sun (Paducah, Kentucky) Newspapers.com

07 Jan 1977, Fri The Paducah Sun (Paducah, Kentucky) Newspapers.com

Here are my background playlists for this week:

• Sunday, Jan. 9, 1977 (/Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024)
• Monday, Jan. 10, 1977
• Tuesday, Jan. 11, 1977
• Wednesday, Jan. 12, 1977
• Thursday, Jan. 13, 1977
• Friday, Jan. 14, 1977
• Saturday, Jan. 15, 1977

I think the Oakland Raiders are going to beat the Minnesota Vikings.

Comments flow ...

1977

One of my big goals of 2024 is to spend more time on the HP, so I think I'm going to try to get one of these root posts up each week for my nostalgia fix. 

31 Dec 1976, Fri The Paducah Sun (Paducah, Kentucky) Newspapers.com

31 Dec 1976, Fri The Paducah Sun (Paducah, Kentucky) Newspapers.com

31 Dec 1976, Fri The Paducah Sun (Paducah, Kentucky) Newspapers.com

31 Dec 1976, Fri The Paducah Sun (Paducah, Kentucky) Newspapers.com

I really like establishing formulaic stuff at the HP (#freakinweekend, #ohky and so forth) to then set up a comments fields to play in as a nice distraction from work or whatever over the course of a week. We'll see how long this particular lark lasts.

Well, anyway, here are my background playlists for this week:

• Sunday, Jan. 2, 1977 (/Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2024)
• Monday, Jan. 3, 1977
• Tuesday, Jan. 4, 1977
• Wednesday, Jan. 5, 1977
• Thursday, Jan. 6, 1977
• Friday, Jan. 7, 1977
• Saturday, Jan. 8, 1977

I've really gotten into Rhoda.

Happy new years!