Chicago's Very Own WGN turns 65; WGN Superstation turns 35

[1960'sTVfan]

Originally Posted by tnawcwvictoriafa

Well I can respect that

also, the problem with WGN Morning News is that they play 6 hours of news, I mean, as I said before, it was good back in the day and I do like Larry Potash and Robin Baumgarten (since they have been on the program for years since the beginning), but 6 hours of news from 4-10 is too much and WAY too early and that's my opinion

I sometimes catch it online like 8 or 9 am since I don't live in Chi-Town, plus I hate to break this to ya, but WGN Morning News has been the #1 Morning News in Chicago and this fall, they are celebrating its 20th Anniversary on the air

also, whoever @ Tribune Broadcasting put in charge of WGN America Programming needs to be booted, IMO

I know that WGN has been entertaining america for 35 years as of 2013 ever since they started the SuperStation after the success of WTBS (now TBS the SuperStation), but if they want to entertain people like me, they need to bring back so many good shows as well as the Outta Sight Retro Night and maybe even some Classic Cartoons and put them on either Weekday Mornings or Afternoons and/or on Saturday Mornings after the Weekend Morning News and they need to stop airing too many marathons of the same thing

I mean, showing marathons of AFV, How I Met Your Mother and Rules of Engagement is NOT all that entertaining, IMO

I stopped watching AFV when Tom Bergeron took over, and nothing against him, he's a good emcee, but some of the videos are not all that funny, IMO

as much as I like Neil Patrick Harris on Doogie Howser, M.D. and he was alright on Stark Raving Mad and plus, I enjoyed his performance on the TNT Original Movie Cold Sassy Tree, How I Met Your Mother is overrated and Rules of Engagement is not all that funny to me either

Matlock and In the Heat of the Night are now on Weekends on WGN America and Matlock can also be seen on INSP

But getting back, WGN America needs to go back to the way WGN was back in the 70's, 80's, 90's and the early 2000's

If WGN morning news is #1 in Chicago, that just tells me there are a lot of hooligans in that city who think the news has to be funny. In my opinion, that newscast is done in extremely poor taste. WGN should be ashamed, but oh well, that's todays mentality, a sign of the times.

I agree AFV is not that good a show, some of the videos are funny, others are not, some are just plain dumb and stupid. But AFV is watchable compared to the other garbage WGN America is airing right now. How I Met Your Mother and Rules Of Engagement are total trash.

Unfortunately, WGN will never go back to their heyday of the 70's and early 80's, those days are over. Changes to programming started being made during the mid 80's, those years had a mix of good programs and bad. By 1988, the station had gone completely downhill.

[jonathan c herron]

Unfortunately, WGN will never go back to their heyday of the 70's and early 80's, those days are over. Changes to programming started being made during the mid 80's, those years had a mix of good programs and bad. By 1988, the station had gone completely downhill.[/QUOT

True they will never go back
but as long as we have video tape trading and people who taped wgn back in the late 70"s and early 80"s we can still relive the good old days

[schmave]

For me at least, the WB leaving the national WGN in October 1999 is what started the current spiral of the superstation that continues to this day. It gave Tribune the perfect opening to further separate the Chicago and national feeds, from the programming to vastly different logos to something relatively small such as giving time for the programs in Eastern Time (not Central, which gets me to this day).
Until the fall of 1999, the superstation was the stepchild of the local feed in terms of showing a lot of Chicago programming, including commercials. Even most of the news still was aired nationally back then. Ever since, they've become two pretty much completely separate channels.

[Zoneboy]

We're Going Nowhere.

[1960'sTVfan]

Originally Posted by jonathan c herron

Unfortunately, WGN will never go back to their heyday of the 70's and early 80's, those days are over. Changes to programming started being made during the mid 80's, those years had a mix of good programs and bad. By 1988, the station had gone completely downhill.[/QUOT

True they will never go back
but as long as we have video tape trading and people who taped wgn back in the late 70"s and early 80"s we can still relive the good old days

Agreed. I'm glad I kept my tapes with the East Side Kids and Bowery Boys airings. I have since transferred the tapes to DVD's, so I have the movies in both formats VHS and DVD.

[1960'sTVfan]

Originally Posted by Zoneboy

We're Going Nowhere.

[IllinoisTVFan]

I watched it all the time as a child and before it became a superstation. No other Bozo is as fantastic as WGN's Bozo.

[schmave]

Originally Posted by tlc38tlc38

I don't remember hardly any of these shows airing on WGN, must've been before I started watching it. The only shows I watch on the channel are "In the Heat of the Night" and "Matlock".

I remember a lot of those shows airing in the 80s and early 90s. Back then, Cheers, Full House, WKRP and Empty Nest (possibly among others) were limited to the local signal. I remember one Friday after a Cubs game back in 1992 or 1993, the Full House that was supposed to air only locally aired in the superstation almost in its entirety until someone realized that was a mistake.
Andy Griffith still airs locally, I believe overnights before the WGN Morning News.
The first time I remember knowing that WGN aired different shows locally and nationally was when I was 13 or 14. WGN had heavily promoted (even on the national signal at times) that it would air Golden Girls reruns in the evenings, but those were local only. I was on the phone with a cousin in the suburbs one night and asked what was on WGN. He was seeing Golden Girls. I was seeing something else, but I can't remember what.

[simmytbone]

I agree that we can't go back to the good ol' days of WGN, but thank GOD for YT and other Video Sites for putting old WGN Promos on the net

I think that the reason why so many people have been on WGN News for many years is mainly b/c they have a great atmosphere and they love their jobs and love what they do

God Bless WGN

also, WGN Morning News celebrated 20 years this year, but I guess the reason they don't wanna put it on WGN America for 6 hours is probably to avoid competition against The Today Show, Good Morning America (which is THE #1 Morning News Show on Television for the last couple of years since the Early 90's) and CBS This Morning, IMO

Plus, WGN-TV is showing The Best of WGN Morning News on their station and they also brought back The Andy Griffith Show to their network which is a good thing

Originally Posted by installLSC

This is what I remember from WGN (late 80s/early 90s)
Harry Cary and Steve Stone doing Cubs games
Dick Van Dyke in the afternoon
Bozo in the morning
Good Times and Soul Train Saturday morning
The Bud Biliken(?) parade every fall
...oh yeah and this commercial

I can remember so much about WGN

Like on Weekday Mornings, it was Cartoons and The Bozo Show in the Morning, Newscope @ Noon, Sitcoms in the afternoons like One Day at a Time, Welcome Back Kotter and The Andy Griffith Show and more Cartoons in the Afternoons as well as Comedies like Benson, WKRP, The Facts of Life and Barney Miller among others, Movies @ 7 was before it was affiliated with The WB and later The CW, Nine O'Clock News and INN/USA Tonight, SOAP @ 10:00 and WGN Presents as well as Comedy Break

Saturdays, it was Soul Train, Good Times, Weekend Theater, Charles in Charge, It's a Living, Mama's Family, Puttin' on the Hits and Bustin' Loose among others

Sundays, it was Movies and News among others

Those were the good ol' days

[70s show watcher]

Originally Posted by tnawcwvictoriafa

Well I can respect that

also, the problem with WGN Morning News is that they play 6 hours of news, I mean, as I said before, it was good back in the day and I do like Larry Potash and Robin Baumgarten (since they have been on the program for years since the beginning), but 6 hours of news from 4-10 is too much and WAY too early and that's my opinion

I sometimes catch it online like 8 or 9 am since I don't live in Chi-Town, plus I hate to break this to ya, but WGN Morning News has been the #1 Morning News in Chicago and this fall, they are celebrating its 20th Anniversary on the air

also, whoever @ Tribune Broadcasting put in charge of WGN America Programming needs to be booted, IMO

I know that WGN has been entertaining america for 35 years as of 2013 ever since they started the SuperStation after the success of WTBS (now TBS the SuperStation), but if they want to entertain people like me, they need to bring back so many good shows as well as the Outta Sight Retro Night and maybe even some Classic Cartoons and put them on either Weekday Mornings or Afternoons and/or on Saturday Mornings after the Weekend Morning News and they need to stop airing too many marathons of the same thing

I mean, showing marathons of AFV, How I Met Your Mother and Rules of Engagement is NOT all that entertaining, IMO

I stopped watching AFV when Tom Bergeron took over, and nothing against him, he's a good emcee, but some of the videos are not all that funny, IMO

as much as I like Neil Patrick Harris on Doogie Howser, M.D. and he was alright on Stark Raving Mad and plus, I enjoyed his performance on the TNT Original Movie Cold Sassy Tree, How I Met Your Mother is overrated and Rules of Engagement is not all that funny to me either

Matlock and In the Heat of the Night are now on Weekends on WGN America and Matlock can also be seen on INSP

But getting back, WGN America needs to go back to the way WGN was back in the 70's, 80's, 90's and the early 2000's

We use to have WGN back in the 80's an then they took it off of our Cable System in 1989 to replace it with TNT, but I would go watch it in Shreveport, but thank GOD that they brought it back in the spring of 2003 with SuperStation WGN (WGN-TV was still affiliated with The WB before merging with The CW) and we also had The WB Television Network and later the CW Television Network on another TV and I use to watch California Dreams and Soul Train among others, but still, they need to improve a lot with their entertaining america

I read that this is the last year that wgn America will be telecasting bulls games I for one am going to miss seeing the games but that being said I cant stand neil funk he grates on my nerves the late ji miss the late johnny red kerr to me johnny red keer was like your fave uncle doing the teleacast neil funk is like your annoying loudmouthed neighbor who never shuts up

[TonyDaLoccsta]

I watched The Bozo Show before i went to school in the early 1980's...Miss those days!