The lost "Turn On" episode (?)

[Atl 1996]

I keep hearing about a "lost" episode of "Turn On" (the show that was shown once in the early 1970's, (72??) and cancelled after one episode. Supposedly it is in ABC-TV's vaults.

Does anyone know about this?
Supposedly Tim Conway (a star of the original show) wanted to "dust it off" and have the network show it.

What is known about this episode and the REAL reason ABC cancelled the show? I remember watching it and my mom going nuts at the constant "noise"!!!

[bb]

Turn ON aired in Feb. 1969. I myself would love to see it just to see what the fuss was all about.

I read in a book once that show was so dirty
that when the show was airing in Denver the local station cancelled the show halfway through. Some guy popped on camera and siad the rest of this show will not be seen. Heard the same thing happened in either Buffalo or Philly.

From what I read the show was very sexual in nature ( for 1969 standards, maybe even todays). One scene had Tim Conway and some woman either wrestling with each other or making faces with the words "sex","lets have hot sex", "SEX","give it to me now" flashing across the screen.

I also read that Turn ON had quite a few rather nasty homosexual jokes like "God save the queens", and the use of the word "dyke"
and "***got". Plus a woman going to a vending machine that serves up birth control pills and condoms.
And this was on tv the same time as Family Affair and Ed Sullivan, and on the same channel as Bewitched no-less.

Again this is what I read about Turn On. But as far as TV Land ( or any other channel unearthing this and showing it , doubt that will happen. Heard there is an agreement between ABC and the sponsor of that one show Bristol-Myers than Turn ON will never be "turned on" again. The only way I can see this show will be seen again will be on home video if that ever happens. Even if there was not an agreement it would be a safe bet that gay right groups ( and maybe other groups too ) would protest the airing of this show.

Must have been one bad show !!!

[bb]

oh..ABC cancelled Turn ON because so many ABC stations received so many complaints from viewers. Just days fater the first show aired 60% of the stations had to cancel the program.

There were a few "Turn On's" taped. I wonder who guest stared on the others?

[Jimbo]

I remember watching the first and only episode of "Turn On" the night it premiered on ABC. One of the previous contributors mentioned that some stations took it off the air in mid-program, and mentioned that Philadelphia may have been one of the cities where this happened. I watched the program that night on WFIL (now WPVI) Channel 6, the ABC affiliate in Phila. I'm certain the entire program was shown. Also, I don't think it was necessarily cancelled for its sexual content - it was just a bad show! It was created to be an ABC clone of "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In", which was one of the hottest shows on TV at the time, but "Turn On" just missed the mark completely.

[bb]

KBTV 9 ( now KUSA ) in Denver cancelled the show halfway through. While WFIL in Philly
couldnt handle the phone calls from upset viewers. That was according from the book "Fabulous Fads and Forgotten Flops" ( forgot who worte it ), also many other books talked about the Denver incident with Turn ON. I remember reading in another book about the show being taken off the air in Philly but as is so much the case many tv trivia books contain typos and a lot of mis-info.

I remember my dad telling me he was listening to the long defunt WKBW Radio out of Buffalo
and their sister tv station ( still ABC )
and the dj the day after Turn On said that
they received so many calls against Turn On that it was cancelled halfway through there as well.

As far as the sexual content goes, kinda wish
TV Land ( or some other channel ) or maybe put Turn On out on home video and let modern viewers judge for themselves ( like the 50s Amos & Andy series that so many find racist) but again in the Fads & Flops book from 1995 the author said an agreement between ABC and Bristol-Myers pretty much threw this show into the vaults forever.