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ABC, Part 2: Road to the ’70s
Tonight! In full color! The incredibly true story of America’s boldest TV network, brought to you as only ABC can! (Music theme of Wide World of Sports) In the battle of the balding billionaires, first they endured the Agony of Defeat. Then, in a blaze of shamelessly popular entertainment, they tasted the Thrill of Victory! It’s all here, the dreamers, the hustlers, the lawyers, the regulators, in the boardrooms and bedrooms of Hollywood and of Central Park West! (Wide World of Sports theme rounds the final turn and heads for home with a fanfare of trumpets), This…is part 2 of the story of the American Broadcasting Company! It’s headed your way, and it all begins…right now!
There’s an expression in show business, “Nothing’s as cheap as a hit.” One hit, if it’s big enough, can turn around a viewer’s impression of the channel it’s on. The Untouchables had been such a hit, a lurid, staccato crime thriller at the turn of the darkening Sixties. By the fall of 1965, ABC was poised to launch another influential hit show, Batman. They chose to make it a mid-season replacement, holding it back until early 1966. It was a wise move. The show’s timing was perfect, riding in on a wave of pop culture and comic-book-based pop art.
ABC wanted to sell itself to ITT, one of Wall Street’s most aggressive conglomerates, headed by Harold Geneen, one of the most famous tycoons of his day. It would be a stock swap, with ABC management retaining some seats on the merged board. The company badly wanted this deal to go through. Washington was their obstacle. Because it involved a broadcaster, it required signoffs from the Justice Department and the FCC. Senior staff of both companies devoted months of their time to the agreement. The legal work ran into tens of thousands of billable hours. And…
The government turned ABC down flat. There was a silver lining: Forced to finance its expansion with its own cash flow, the company discovered efficiencies that other broadcasters hadn’t been pushed to find. Dollar for dollar, they became the most profitable of the Big Three.
ABC was the last of them to embrace color television. All three networks’ costs of converting to color included higher payments to the studios who made TV shows, due to their own higher technical expenses for film, costumes, makeup, lighting, and sets. The ratings of ABC’s black-and-white shows weren’t suffering yet: Burke’s Law, Peyton Place, The Addams Family, The Patty Duke Show, 12 O’ Clock High, Combat. But by 1964, color TV sales were finally taking off, and ABC was forced to catch up.
In 1966-’67, Batman helped ABC in two ways: by giving the network the enormous advertising revenues attached to a surprise smash hit; and by giving other show producers (on rival networks) the fatal temptation to imitate Batman’s wacky, cartoonish style, above all its nodding-and-winking lack of belief in the show’s premise. It worked for Batman; it sank The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Batman was such a hit that ABC scheduled it twice a week, as they’d done with Peyton Place.
The network tried for a follow-up hit with The Green Hornet. They failed, but that show’s second lead ended up going somewhere—Bruce Lee. The color era brought ABC action shows—The Rat Patrol, Garrison’s Gorillas—and kept up ABC’s groove with middle-of-the-road family shows like The Big Valley, Marcus Welby M.D., and The FBI.
ABC did inventive things. They did occasional live prime-time dramas. Lacking their own hit spy show, they imported The Avengers from the UK. They wrung profits from daytime with soaps like General Hospital. They had a paranoid UFO show, The Invaders, three decades before The X-Files. They even filmed a TV movie, Shadow on the Land, that was going to lead to a weekly series about present-day America being run by a fascist government. Hard to picture that as competition for Bonanza or The Dean Martin Show.
Every network’s largest profit centers included their advertising-rich “O and Os,” their five owned-and-operated big city TV stations–in those days, the limit of what each network could outright own. The many hundreds of ABC’s other affiliated stations were, like those of the other two networks, bound to them by no ideology or sentiment but by short-term contracts. Affiliate relations were important to maintaining a tenuous and highly breakable loyalty, based on sharing advertising time and revenue. The most effective conservative protests of the classic TV network era weren’t mass movements of millions of viewers, but of hundreds of representatives of restless network affiliates, meeting several times a year, whose regions didn’t always like what was coming down the coaxial cable from New York.
For a few months, I’d get to see ABC up close.
In March 1970, I registered for the draft, on the morning of my 18th birthday. From 1967 on, cities and college campuses all over the country had been wracked with demonstrations against the Vietnam War. The very next morning, a block and a half from my NYU dorm at 55 East 10th Street, a building at 18 West 11th Street was reduced to rubble when three radical bomb-makers accidentally blew themselves up. By May, even schools without riots canceled classes a month early. This national crisis was screwing up my plans of making some money over the summer. Fortunately, a distant relative got me an interview at ABC, and I was hired for a mailroom temp job. It paid $1.50 an hour; not bad.
ABC’s Manhattan headquarters was a new skyscraper that had just recently joined “broadcaster’s row” on 6th Avenue. NBC was (and still is) in its original, Depression-era home in Rockefeller Center near 50th Street. CBS was in an elegant Eero Saarinen-designed headquarters, nicknamed Black Rock, at 6th Avenue and 53rd Street. ABC was at 6th and 54th. In those pre-cable, pre-internet days, that’s a lot of media power concentrated in four city blocks. The New York Times, the Associated Press, the Hearst company, the Time-Life magazine empire, the head offices of MGM, United Artists, Columbia, and Paramount studios, and many of the ad agencies of Madison Avenue, were a ten-minute walk from ABC’s front door.
I worked noon till 8. The end of the day was busy for send outs, peaking from 4 to 6. After that, volume usually slowed, slacking off after 7. Almost every night ended with a couple of us preparing a case of memos and documents to go air courier overnight to ABC’s offices in Los Angeles, rushed to La Guardia and JFK by ABC News motorcycle messengers, who otherwise spent their days bringing unprocessed news film from airport tarmacs right to the door of the developing labs.
Getting out of work at 8 pm wasn’t always ideal, but it was summertime. My girlfriend often rode into the city to surprise me, waiting in the lobby when I left work. I instinctively knew I’d never take that for granted. We’d make a plan on the spot and go out, to one of midtown’s countless movies or restaurants. Even on the hottest of days, it was usually cooling off by 8.
I rarely saw famous actors at headquarters. British singer Tom Jones walked in. He had a show on the network. Local ABC 7 worked out of studios on the west side, so we rarely saw the Eyewitness News team. But we did see a lot of athletes when they came through New York. ABC Sports frequently did talent signings and press conferences in front of corporate backdrops and symbols. Sports had done far more than their share in making ABC profitable, so much so that Sports division supremo Roone Arledge would later be given a reward he coveted: a controversial promotion to be head of ABC News.
One time, my girlfriend entered the lobby ahead of a pair of men. One had a distinctive voice so loud it boomed off the marble-clad walls. She turned and saw a tall, vague-looking middle-aged man. “Young lady,” he demanded, “Do you know who I am?” My gal had the courtesy not to say, “Why don’t you ask the receptionist? She’ll know.” Instead, she said, no doubt politely, “No, but your voice sounds familiar.”
“I’m Howard Cosell!” he harrumphed before walking away.
Even as ABC entertainment ratings soared, ABC News stayed mired in third place. News Division had its bright spots, like space and science reporter Jules Bergmann, a favorite of the astronauts. The Nixon White House felt the network was the only one of the three that even tried to be fair, and Nixon granted a rare one-on-one interview to ABC anchor Howard K. Smith.
To a greater degree (at the time) than the other networks, ABC ran their TV programming and production out of semi-autonomous offices on the Coast. Chairman Leonard Goldenson didn’t see himself as ABC’s showman, but as its wise man, the dealmaker. The New York headquarters was mostly unglamorous business: ad sales, billing, banking and payroll, government and legal affairs, public relations, and affiliate relations. HQ was impressive, all shiny and new, but functional, not fancy. The whole building understood The ABC Way: keep an eye on costs. Even network VPs kept long-distance calls short. Mail went first class, but not certified or registered.
One useful life lesson to a teenager: to my surprise, the offices of the top bosses were often the last ones to leave the building each night. What do you know; the big boys didn’t always have it as easy as I thought. An open memo was sent to network vice presidents, including big shots like Fred Pierce, Elton Rule, and Martin Starger, reminding them that Goldenson personally insisted that complaints raised by affiliates get an immediate response. Another open memo to a small group of executives noted that everyone, even the chairman, flew economy class, and expense reports should reflect that.
Sometimes, after much of the staff left for the day, a mail room worker was dispatched to the corner newsstand to buy a copy of the New York Post, an evening tabloid, and bring it to Mr. Goldenson’s secretary, up on the umpteenth floor, so he could read it on his ride home. It seemed like an odd little thing for a teenage kid to be in on, being privileged to see the common man touch in the quietest of TV’s founders. You could never picture, say, CBS’s Bill Paley ending his workday reading anything like the New York Post. Maybe that’s one of the reasons that by 1970 ABC was a respected competitor coast to coast, entering a decade when it would finally reach the top.
The aftermath for me: Working at ABC was a great summer job for an 18-year-old. In the fall, I went back to film school. What about that girl who waited for me so many summers ago, like the one in the lyrics of Five O’ Clock World? She’s sitting across the table smiling while I type this.
The aftermath for ABC: The Seventies would be a golden age for ABC’s golden coffers. Love, American Style begat Happy Days, which led to Laverne & Shirley and Mork & Mindy. Starsky & Hutch were no ratings slouches either. CBS programming phenom Fred Silverman came to ABC in 1975. By the time Silverman left in 1978, ABC was #1, thanks to shows like Charlie’s Angels. Was there schlock on TV? Of course; there always will be. But there were also moments of pop culture greatness.
ABC’s broadcast of Roots was the surprise hit of 1977, a genuine phenomenon. Its reputation and adherence to history look tarnished today, but give some credit to what Roots was in its time. For people old enough to remember those broadcasts, it may be one of the few, fairly-well agreed-on high notes of the vanished age when three networks ruled the commanding heights of television.
Published in General
Much to comment on here, but for now I’ll hold myself to just noting that the bit in Roots about “Looks like you’ve got some boots to shine,” struck me even at the time as so needlessly contrived, so ridiculously petty, such Hollywood-addled dialogue. It was decades before I understood what had happened.
What a delightful trip down memory lane! And the history is fascinating! And one of the best parts: you got the girl! Great job, Gary. Thanks.
Best post, yet.
How about a story on cliffhangers and the affects on viewership.
Another great post, Gary. My older brother was a sales rep for a big sporting goods company in the 70’s, and once flew across the country in a corporate jet with Howard Cosell. He told me later that he was surprised that Cosell was an even bigger jerk in person than he expected. Reminded me of this: https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,915709,00.html
Thanks. I had forgotten, or not ever known (having only seen them in re-runs) that some of these shows were ABC products, e.g. Burke´s Law.
Gary, Do you think Monday Night Football was the biggest T.V creation of the 70’s? It seems like it was a proof of concept that people would watch sports in big numbers in prime time. Major sports leagues slowly started putting their biggest games on in prime time. The World Series started playing some of their games in prime time in 1971 and slowly fazed out all day games for the World Series. Now the NFL has games on 3 nights a week. The NFL seems to dominate live event ratings which I assume is what adevertisers love. Is their a bigger t.v goliath than the NFL? It certainly has to be one of the biggest. Did it also spawn the creation of ESPN?
All one has to do is watch a sports opinion show to see the toxic influence Howard Cossell had on sports journalism. He practically invented the “hot take.” Can you imagine him on twitter today? I don’t think we’d have a Charles Barkley, who’s actually funny and charming, without Howard Cossell. MNF football was fun because both “Dandy” Don Meridith and Howard were gettting blottoed during the game. I wish they would bring drinking back to the booth during football games. We were looser and so uptight back in the 70’s.
Vinko Bogataj!
Vinko healed up and returned home. He was a ski instructor for awhile, and an artist. One day he was invited to the 20th anniversary of “Wide World of Sports.” He didn’t know quite why. He got a huge ovation and signed autographs for the likes of Muhammad Ali.
Another fantastic history lesson. Thanks!
Mr. “The agony of defeat” himself, oder?
That’s him.
For the entire 20 years. Thrill of Victory’s came and went, but he crashed down that slope every week the whole time.
I always wondered if he survived the crash. Glad he was able to tell the tale years later.
A wonderful touch in a great post! Thanks for the great, detailed history.
I’ve never been a fan of team sports and never saw much of Howard Cosell although I certainly knew who he was.
The one memory I have of watching him was when he was broadcasting from a horse race near the end of his career. There was a very strong wind blowing. Cosell was holding the microphone in one hand while the other hand held down his toupee. The toupee stayed put but the edges were flapping up and down.
Yep, she’s the best part of the story! Many thanks, Susan!
Man, that was one cheap and obvious looking toupee.
Cosell’s career had an odd symbiotic relationship with Muhammad Ali’s. Many Americans–aw, hell, at the time nearly all of us–found both of them to be brash, egotistical, irritating, and loudmouthed. But the two were genuine friends.
Ditto Susan’s remarks, especially about the girl!
If “Roots” was filmed today, I suspect the cast of those playing at being slaves would have to wear designer clothing, so that they wouldn’t feel slighted.
Or maybe they would have to play at being the plantation owners with whites as the slaves, due to the need for “reparations.”
It was and is. It is also a damn shame what happened to its creator. Before he bought the Cleveland Browns, Art Modell was a NY advertising executive. When he proposed taking the NFL away from Sunday afternoon and extending the week into Monday night his fellow owners thought he was nuts. So he volunteered his team to host the Jets in the first telecast.
But because Modell abandoned Cleveland for Baltimore, and with the Hall of Fame being located in Northeast Ohio (Canton is 50 miles south of Cleveland) Modell has never been given his due. MNF and its offshoots has been worth billions to the league.
That probably would have happened on its own. However, it was ABC’s purchase of ESPN that gave it the credibility and the finances to become the behemoth it did. Its previous owners, Getty Oil, were not broadcasters. The CapCities/ABC years gave the network the ability to capitalize on opportunities such as SCOTUS breaking the stranglehold on NCAA football and using re-trans to force cable providers to accept the launch of multiple channels.
Cosell was countercultural. He was the bombastic liberal Jew in the side of a more conservative Waspy America. As much as he irritated people he had a champion in Roone Arledge who stuck with him through many, many controversies. Today, it is the conservative that is countercultural. But no matter who they peg as “the new Cosell” – be it Rush Limbaugh, Dennis Miller, Paul Azinger or Curt Shilling – they always fail because they don’t have their own Arledge with the power and the guts not to back down.
Was Roone Arledge not around to protect Howard Cossell from getting fired when he made his unfortunate “monkey” comment? Was it also because he was such a pain in the tuchus to ABC and had become passe to the general public? He publicly disowned boxing which had to anger more than a few executives. He had a lot of baggage.
At 14 and 15 I did a lot of babysitting. Saturday nights were Love Boat and Fantasy Island after I put the kids to bed.
And Looney Tunes with Schoolhouse Rock Saturday mornings.
I think it only fair to also remember Julius Barnathan, head of ABC’s operations and engineering group. He had an unusual start to his career. Like CBS’s Frank Stanton, he was an early adopter of research methods that helped sell advertisers. Moving over to engineering is a rare lateral move, but “Julie” was a strong ally for Roone Arledge, indispensable back when moving smaller cameras closer to the action, picture inserts, replays and getting a quality live picture from obscure locations were new challenges for TV sports. Someone like Barnathan doesn’t appear in most histories partly because many writers are, let’s face it, technically illiterate. They not only don’t understand how important “mere” tech work is in television, but they are emotionally invested in the idea that truly smart people don’t have to know about it.
ABC deserves credit for kicking off a mini-fad for prime time animated shows with The Flintstones in 1960, followed by The Jetsons in 1962. CBS had The Alvin Show. NBC had Bullwinkle.
(There were also cartoon compilation shows in prime time; Warner Bros characters basically just introduced scenes from old theatrical cartoons, and NBC did a low budget Mr. Magoo clip show as well.)
About ten years later, Wait Till Your Father Gets Home was a last gasp of the original concept, adapting it to the age of All in the Family.
And when talking ABC, Wide World of Sports, and 70s, We have to mention Evel Knievel.
The shows…. the toys… He was the 70s.
Part of that was the end of the 7pm-8pm hour being part of prime time. Batman and its imitators, The Monkees, and all of the cartoon shows started out in that hour, aimed at kids. When that hour went, a lot of kid-focused programming went with it.
Les Crane was unique in his day. For its first quarter century or so, ABC didn’t have a lot of luck in late night. Crane was a provocative talk show host with a populist edge. That shotgun microphone was his symbol: he was pointing it into the audience and asking them to do some of the talking.
BTW, shotgun mikes don’t work as magically as they fictionally do in spy and cop shows. At the time, people thought they were telescopes for sound, which is an exaggeration. But the symbolism was important. Les Crane was sort of a cross between Glenn Beck and Phil Donahue. Eventually, he faded and more brazen talkers lasted a while in syndication, like Joe Pyne.
ABC did have some minor success with Dick Cavett, who came across as a Johnny Carson for intellectuals, or a liberal William F. Buckley. In retrospect Cavett wasn’t all that bad. He was a skilled interviewer when his ego didn’t get in the way. But he got too smarmy and ended up on PBS, where he belonged.
I have no problem with that. Modell was a weasel, and does not deserve accolades. (And this from a long time Steelers fan; he pretty much destroyed one of the best NFL rivalries.)
That comment was made in 1983 and Cosell hung on for another couple of years. Although he was still technically the president of ABCSports, Arledge had by that time also taken over the news division and Jim Spence had taken over the day-to-day work in sports.
The final straw was Howard’s inclusion in ABC’s baseball coverage. One night during the 1984 ALCS he was especially belligerent with Al Michaels. After they got off the air Michaels looked at him and said, “You’re (f’ing) drunk and if you ever come in like that again I’m not working with you.”
Barry Frank, Michaels agent, relayed that to Spence the next day. After a few more churlish Monday Night Baseball telecasts in 1985 Spence was also getting complaints from then-MLB commissioner Peter Uebberoth. Jim Spence finally pulled the trigger and removed Cosell in favor of the recently retired catcher Tim McCarver. That prompted a grumbling “You can’t fire me, I quit” response from Howard.
There’s a lot of criticism of Roots from contemporary black activist writers, pretty much what I’d expect: the show is too toned down, too timid, too many whites involved on the creative side, etc…but it’s hard to remember how different 1977 was.
The Seventies are chronologically closer than we are to postwar America, to that Father Knows Best world that sometimes seems like the polar opposite of our own times. But they were also much closer to the first Woke Era, of the race riots and bombings that dwarf anything we saw in 2020. No one would call Roots conservative, but in some ways it aimed to be a constructive alternative to the violent Blaxploitation that was then the only black-driven entertainment. At the time Roots seemed to be closing a book on the past in a way that blacks found satisfactory. They didn’t anticipate that nearly a half century later, every other film about or for blacks would still be about slavery.