I thought that I’d revive the old Fairness Doctrine in this
post and give those of you who receive Antenna TV in your viewing area—be it on
your cable system or off-the-air with the very instrument in its title—a look
at the cable channel’s Fall 2012 schedule.
Antenna TV is kind of a newcomer to the classic TV game, and though they
do offer some interesting reruns to tempt the palate of the discriminating
vintage boob tube fan, they don’t quite have access to the voluminous library
of Me-TV. (This is why I jokingly refer
to Antenna TV as my mistress.) Sadly,
Antenna TV is going to jettison several of its rarities to make room for its
revamped schedule, among them
The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin,
Here
Come the Brides,
Iron Horse,
Suspense Theatre (I used
to watch this back when it was on RTV) and
S.W.A.T. NewsRadio is also being retired, as
well as
Too Close for Comfort…a show that, quite honestly, I’m not too
busted up to see shown the door.
The only new additions to the schedule are
Benson,
the spin-off from
Soap that actually lasted longer (1979-86) than the original
series, and
Barney Miller. I’m
pretty jazzed about the last one though I will state for the record I wish it
was one of the shows the channel would showcase on a five-day-a-week
basis. (I mean, they’ve got two hours of
Three’s
Company on a day, ferchrissake.
I guess we know their position on torture.) Antenna TV is also expanding its movie
franchise—which they call “Antenna TV Theater”—an hour or two a week…which
would fine and dandy if they didn’t feature commercials. (Well, you can’t have everything.) They also set aside a block on Friday nights
devoted to black-and-white classics…
Friday nights
06:00pm George
Burns & Gracie Allen
07:00pm Jack
Benny
08:00pm Father
Knows Best
09:00pm Bachelor
Father
10:00pm Leave
it to Beaver
11:00pm Dennis
the Menace
12:00am McHale’s Navy
01:00am Antenna TV Theater
…which I believe is the only time you can watch
Bachelor
Father…and starting in the fall, will be the only time you can see
McHale’s
Navy (it used to be on in the afternoons, and they’ve moving
Hazel
up to replace it). So here’s the full
schedule, which you can also download in PDF form
here:
Monday-Friday
05:00am Antenna TV Theater
11:00am Adam-12
12:00pm Dragnet
01:00pm Hazel
02:00pm Father
Knows Best
03:00pm Dennis
the Menace
04:00pm Leave
it to Beaver
05:00pm The
Partridge Family
06:00pm All
in the Family
07:00pm Three’s
Company
08:00pm Maude
09:00pm Good
Times
10:00pm Sanford
and Son
11:00pm Three’s
Company
12:00am Alfred Hitchcock Presents
01:00am George Burns & Gracie Allen
02:00am Jack Benny
03:00am Antenna TV Theater
Saturday
05:00am Antenna TV Theater
09:00am Totally Tooned In
10:00am E/I series
01:00pm Three
Stooges
02:00pm Adam-12
03:00pm Dragnet
04:00pm The
Monkees
05:00pm The
Partridge Family
06:00pm The
Flying Nun
07:00pm Gidget
08:00pm It
Takes a Thief
11:00pm Alfred
Hitchcock Presents
01:00am Three Stooges
03:00am Benny Hill
Sunday
05:00am Antenna TV Theater
01:00pm Three
Stooges
02:00pm Adam-12
03:00pm Dragnet
04:00pm The
Monkees
05:00pm The
Partridge Family
06:00pm The
Flying Nun
07:00pm Gidget
08:00pm Barney
Miller
09:00pm WKRP
in Cincinnati
11:00pm Soap
12:00pm Benson
01:00am All in the Family
02:00pm Maude
03:00pm Good
Times
04:00pm Sanford
and Son
With the news of the passing of one of my favorite character
actors, William Windom, I’d like to think that Antenna TV would take a second
stab at bringing back his 1963-66 sitcom
The Farmer’s Daughter (based on the
1947 film, with the lovely Inger Stevens in the role that won Loretta Young an
Oscar). It had originally been announced
at the time the channel went on the air but they abandoned plans to air it not
long afterward—I think
Cultureshark
blogger-in-exile Rick Brooks told me that Sony wouldn’t pony up the funds to
restore the repeats. I don’t get the
opportunity to do many tributes to celebrities who have left this world for a
better one like I did in the past, but Windom was one of my very favorites—I knew
that anytime I ran across him in a movie or TV show it would be worth my
while. His sadly neglected sitcom,
My
World and Welcome to It, cries out for a DVD release—when the series
got a brief revival on CBS in the summer of 1972, it was the only show I was
excited about seeing when Mom told me it was time to come in for the evening
(something I’d usually throw a tantrum about).
R.I.P., Mr. Windom. You will be missed.
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