ABC Daytime Reruns facts - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

torcan · 04-30-2021, 02:49 PM

During the middle of the show's fourth season, in Januaary 1968 ABC started repeating the then-available 107 episodes on their daytime schedule. Daytime repeats of prime-time sitcoms was quite common back then.

For the most part they ran them in order, recycling back to season 1 once season 3 was completed. In the fall of 1968, they added season 4 to the mix, then in the fall of 1969 added season 5.

For some reason, ABC chose to air the show in black and white until the Dec 29, 1969 broadcast. Even the color episodes were replayed in black and white when they came up in rotation. ABC was more hesitant than CBS and NBC when it came to color programs - apparently at that time it cost more to transmit in color.

Some of you may have old copies if TVGuide which show a color symbol on "Bewitched" reruns beginning in late November 1969. I can attest that this was almost certainly a mistake. I have quite a number of episodes in my collection that have original commercials - at least a half-dozen are daytime rerun prints. One of them is the fifth-season episode "Samantha the Bard", which TVGuide shows as having aired for the first time on 12/24/1969. The copy I have has the season one cartoon - with a slightly different skyline. When it started being shown in color, they used the season 3 skyline and put "IN COLOR" underneath the title. This is absent on my copy which tells me this episode was aired in black and white at least once.

TVGuide had also mistakenly put color symbols on black and white reruns of "Gilligan's Island" in some issues back then, so it wasn't uncommon.

Color broadcasts started on 12/29/1969 with the airing of the third season premiere "Nobody's Perfect". At that time, the black and white episodes were taken out of rotation, never to be seen on ABC again.

ABC added the sixth season episodes starting in November 1970, and for some reason the sixth season was always aired out of order during the daytime. They always started with the Boyce and Hart episode, played thru to the end, then jumped to the middle, then the beginning few episodes. They did this each time season six came up in the rotation.

The network added a Saturday morning rerun in fall 1971 and those were always Dick York episodes from seasons 3-5.

It finally left the network in July 1973, when "Brady Bunch" reruns took its place. The Saturday morning version ended that fall when the show went into syndication.

RetroGuy2000 · 04-30-2021, 03:01 PM

Thanks for this info!

I remember watching Bewitched reruns in daytime the late 1970s, and always wondered if these were network broadcasts of reruns, or syndication runs. Now I know: had to be off-network syndication.

I also remember watching daytime network reruns of series during the summer in the early 1980s, and wonder when that practice stopped.

04-30-2021, 02:49 PM	#1
torcan Member Frequent Poster Join Date: May 04, 2009 Location: Toronto Posts: 154	ABC Daytime Reruns facts During the middle of the show's fourth season, in Januaary 1968 ABC started repeating the then-available 107 episodes on their daytime schedule. Daytime repeats of prime-time sitcoms was quite common back then. For the most part they ran them in order, recycling back to season 1 once season 3 was completed. In the fall of 1968, they added season 4 to the mix, then in the fall of 1969 added season 5. For some reason, ABC chose to air the show in black and white until the Dec 29, 1969 broadcast. Even the color episodes were replayed in black and white when they came up in rotation. ABC was more hesitant than CBS and NBC when it came to color programs - apparently at that time it cost more to transmit in color. Some of you may have old copies if TVGuide which show a color symbol on "Bewitched" reruns beginning in late November 1969. I can attest that this was almost certainly a mistake. I have quite a number of episodes in my collection that have original commercials - at least a half-dozen are daytime rerun prints. One of them is the fifth-season episode "Samantha the Bard", which TVGuide shows as having aired for the first time on 12/24/1969. The copy I have has the season one cartoon - with a slightly different skyline. When it started being shown in color, they used the season 3 skyline and put "IN COLOR" underneath the title. This is absent on my copy which tells me this episode was aired in black and white at least once. TVGuide had also mistakenly put color symbols on black and white reruns of "Gilligan's Island" in some issues back then, so it wasn't uncommon. Color broadcasts started on 12/29/1969 with the airing of the third season premiere "Nobody's Perfect". At that time, the black and white episodes were taken out of rotation, never to be seen on ABC again. ABC added the sixth season episodes starting in November 1970, and for some reason the sixth season was always aired out of order during the daytime. They always started with the Boyce and Hart episode, played thru to the end, then jumped to the middle, then the beginning few episodes. They did this each time season six came up in the rotation. The network added a Saturday morning rerun in fall 1971 and those were always Dick York episodes from seasons 3-5. It finally left the network in July 1973, when "Brady Bunch" reruns took its place. The Saturday morning version ended that fall when the show went into syndication.
	Last edited by torcan; 04-30-2021 at 03:28 PM.

04-30-2021, 03:01 PM	#2
RetroGuy2000 Julie,Julie Anne,&Felice 4Ever Forum Star Join Date: Dec 27, 2013 Posts: 16,914	Thanks for this info! I remember watching Bewitched reruns in daytime the late 1970s, and always wondered if these were network broadcasts of reruns, or syndication runs. Now I know: had to be off-network syndication. I also remember watching daytime network reruns of series during the summer in the early 1980s, and wonder when that practice stopped.
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