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"We Interrupt This Year: 1968"
7 years ago
I have a very unusual barometer for remembering certain dates in the past, by recalling specific TV shows I was watching at the time. This was especially true in the year 1968, when we got a brand new color TV, in the den of our old two-story home in Elmont, NY.
One of my favorite variety shows at the time was "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour", Sunday nights at 9:00 PM, E.S.T. on CBS (right after "The Ed Sullivan Show"). I'd enjoyed the music and antics of brothers Tom and Dick, as well as some of the show's regulars Pat Paulsen, Leigh French, Bob Einstein, and a young unknown writer named Steve Martin…
Unfortunately, I was upset on the night of Sunday, March 31, 1968, when "TSBCH" was unexpectedly preempted for an address by (then) President Lyndon B. Johnson. I thought it was going to be the usual fifteen-minute spiel about what a good job he was doing, and expected to only miss the first quarter of the show. But the address started to run longer and longer... twenty minutes... twenty-five minutes... a half-hour...
"I hope that this is leading up to something," I said to myself.
It was.
Forty-five minutes into his address, LBJ finally ended his address, by announcing that he wouldn't run for a 'second term' as president. But, instead of salvaging the last quarter of the show I wanted to watch, CBS reporters spent the last fifteen minutes analyzing the incumbent's address - including that last-minute surprise at the end.
Needless to say, I wasn't in a pleasant mood to go to school the next day, without my usual 'fix' of humor (to put me in it said mood), and I'd have to wait until Monday night, to get a different 'fix' from NBC's own variety show "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In"…
Generally speaking, my 'thing' was comedy, and on TV it came in all forms: variety shows, sitcoms, and even local New York children's shows - hosted by the likes of Sandy Becker and Chuck McCann (the latter host having just passed away earlier in 2018)…
So, on a typical Thursday night, on April 4, 1968, my parents allowed me to watch the color TV in the den, and I had it tuned to the local ABC affiliate, so I could watch "The Flying Nun" starring a young actress named Sally Field - who'd already did a previous sitcom in the mid-1960s called "Gidget" - and I couldn't wait to see what mischief 'Sister Bertrille' was going to get into that night. When suddenly...
"We interrupt this program, to bring you an important news bulletin..."
For the second time in a week, my TV-viewing habit was cut to the quick.
"THIS had better be important," I thought to myself, again...
It was.
The anchorman announced that the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was the target of an assassin's bullet at a motel in Memphis, Tennessee. And ABC was going to continue coverage of this late-breaking bulletin. Eventually Dr. King succumbed, which led to a series of riots throughout the USA.
Now, at the time, I was too young and naïve to realize the importance of this news story. But I would later come to terms with the fact that this peaceful man of the cloth was using 'civil disobedience' to get his messages across, and many of his followers weren't following his example, after his death. Things couldn't possibly get worse than this...
But it did.
With the announcement of New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy's run for the 1968 Democratic nomination for President, I had all sorts of thoughts of how nice to have another Kennedy in the White House (having had relatives in the past - such as the Adams and the Roosevelts - running the country).
Naturally, on the evening of June 5, 1968, some of my favorite Tuesday night comedy shows were preempted for coverage of various primary results throughout portions of the USA, including California - where Senator Kennedy was running. I would've stayed up to watch the results, but I had school the next day, and Mom insisted that I get a good night's sleep...
When I woke up on the morning of June 6th, Mom had the kitchen radio on, when the announcement of RFK's assassination and death filled our home.
"Not again..." I'd thought to myself (a sentiment shared by the rest of the country, and the world).
A few days later, our family gathered around the color TV to watch the funeral service for the late senator - held at St. Patrick's Cathedral in midtown Manhattan - with brother Edward Kennedy performing the eulogy.
Later, there was live coverage of the funeral procession, as the senator's body traveled by train from New York City to Washington, D.C. (where he would be buried near his late brother President John F. Kennedy).
Keep in mind, back in 1968, there was no 'social media', no 'video games', and even no 'VCRs' to record this historic event. I had to keep myself entertained (even though most of the major TV networks were covering the funeral). And reading comic books or playing any of my boxed games were not as tasteful during a solemn moment as this...
So, I simply took out a deck of cards, and began playing Solitaire on the den carpeting. After two or three rounds, I got bored. So, I began to make a 'card castle' - stacking a few cards at a time. And then, for some obscure reason, I began to convert said castle into the shape of a 'figure eight', and I had enough leftover cards to make a 'second story'. Every few minutes, I would look up at the TV screen, to see which town the train (with Kennedy's body) had passed through, and the countless citizens (in mourning) standing alongside the tracks.
When I'd finished building my two-story 'card figure eight', I got out my Kodak Instamatic 104 camera and took a picture of it. (To this very day, I still have that photo - taken fifty years ago - which I hope to post here in this site.)
I still watch lots of television (maybe, too much television) - mostly comedy, in one form or another, but I'll never forget the images that stayed with me during that tragic year, 1968. And there will never be anything funny that will erase them from my mind...
One of my favorite variety shows at the time was "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour", Sunday nights at 9:00 PM, E.S.T. on CBS (right after "The Ed Sullivan Show"). I'd enjoyed the music and antics of brothers Tom and Dick, as well as some of the show's regulars Pat Paulsen, Leigh French, Bob Einstein, and a young unknown writer named Steve Martin…
Unfortunately, I was upset on the night of Sunday, March 31, 1968, when "TSBCH" was unexpectedly preempted for an address by (then) President Lyndon B. Johnson. I thought it was going to be the usual fifteen-minute spiel about what a good job he was doing, and expected to only miss the first quarter of the show. But the address started to run longer and longer... twenty minutes... twenty-five minutes... a half-hour...
"I hope that this is leading up to something," I said to myself.
It was.
Forty-five minutes into his address, LBJ finally ended his address, by announcing that he wouldn't run for a 'second term' as president. But, instead of salvaging the last quarter of the show I wanted to watch, CBS reporters spent the last fifteen minutes analyzing the incumbent's address - including that last-minute surprise at the end.
Needless to say, I wasn't in a pleasant mood to go to school the next day, without my usual 'fix' of humor (to put me in it said mood), and I'd have to wait until Monday night, to get a different 'fix' from NBC's own variety show "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In"…
Generally speaking, my 'thing' was comedy, and on TV it came in all forms: variety shows, sitcoms, and even local New York children's shows - hosted by the likes of Sandy Becker and Chuck McCann (the latter host having just passed away earlier in 2018)…
So, on a typical Thursday night, on April 4, 1968, my parents allowed me to watch the color TV in the den, and I had it tuned to the local ABC affiliate, so I could watch "The Flying Nun" starring a young actress named Sally Field - who'd already did a previous sitcom in the mid-1960s called "Gidget" - and I couldn't wait to see what mischief 'Sister Bertrille' was going to get into that night. When suddenly...
"We interrupt this program, to bring you an important news bulletin..."
For the second time in a week, my TV-viewing habit was cut to the quick.
"THIS had better be important," I thought to myself, again...
It was.
The anchorman announced that the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was the target of an assassin's bullet at a motel in Memphis, Tennessee. And ABC was going to continue coverage of this late-breaking bulletin. Eventually Dr. King succumbed, which led to a series of riots throughout the USA.
Now, at the time, I was too young and naïve to realize the importance of this news story. But I would later come to terms with the fact that this peaceful man of the cloth was using 'civil disobedience' to get his messages across, and many of his followers weren't following his example, after his death. Things couldn't possibly get worse than this...
But it did.
With the announcement of New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy's run for the 1968 Democratic nomination for President, I had all sorts of thoughts of how nice to have another Kennedy in the White House (having had relatives in the past - such as the Adams and the Roosevelts - running the country).
Naturally, on the evening of June 5, 1968, some of my favorite Tuesday night comedy shows were preempted for coverage of various primary results throughout portions of the USA, including California - where Senator Kennedy was running. I would've stayed up to watch the results, but I had school the next day, and Mom insisted that I get a good night's sleep...
When I woke up on the morning of June 6th, Mom had the kitchen radio on, when the announcement of RFK's assassination and death filled our home.
"Not again..." I'd thought to myself (a sentiment shared by the rest of the country, and the world).
A few days later, our family gathered around the color TV to watch the funeral service for the late senator - held at St. Patrick's Cathedral in midtown Manhattan - with brother Edward Kennedy performing the eulogy.
Later, there was live coverage of the funeral procession, as the senator's body traveled by train from New York City to Washington, D.C. (where he would be buried near his late brother President John F. Kennedy).
Keep in mind, back in 1968, there was no 'social media', no 'video games', and even no 'VCRs' to record this historic event. I had to keep myself entertained (even though most of the major TV networks were covering the funeral). And reading comic books or playing any of my boxed games were not as tasteful during a solemn moment as this...
So, I simply took out a deck of cards, and began playing Solitaire on the den carpeting. After two or three rounds, I got bored. So, I began to make a 'card castle' - stacking a few cards at a time. And then, for some obscure reason, I began to convert said castle into the shape of a 'figure eight', and I had enough leftover cards to make a 'second story'. Every few minutes, I would look up at the TV screen, to see which town the train (with Kennedy's body) had passed through, and the countless citizens (in mourning) standing alongside the tracks.
When I'd finished building my two-story 'card figure eight', I got out my Kodak Instamatic 104 camera and took a picture of it. (To this very day, I still have that photo - taken fifty years ago - which I hope to post here in this site.)
I still watch lots of television (maybe, too much television) - mostly comedy, in one form or another, but I'll never forget the images that stayed with me during that tragic year, 1968. And there will never be anything funny that will erase them from my mind...
1968 was quite the year, I know I certainly wasn't around, but in overall history it made quite a few waves.
Thank you for sharing these stories with us. The assassinations definitely are not good moments, but are interesting hearing them from your perspective.