Here are the first ten programs from the thirtieth week of the 1972-1973 television season, which ran from Monday, April 2nd, 1973 through Sunday, April 8th, 1973. I’m not sure if this was the final week of the traditional television season but it is the last week I’ll be covering. NBC, which had topped the chart the previous week with the 45th Annual Academy Awards, once again had the highest-rated show this week with “Elvis — Aloha from Hawaii.” All in the Family was second for CBS.
The Elvis special ran from 8:30-10PM on Wednesday, April 4th. It was preceded by a repeat of “Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree,” which ranked eighth, and followed by another special, “Ann Margret–When You’re Smiling,” which ran from 10-11PM and ranked third. NBC’s broadcast of The Wizard of Oz on Sunday, April 8th ranked fifth. Overall, NBC took four of the top five programs and six of the top ten. Despite these strong performances, NBC was only just able to squeak past CBS for the week, averaging an 18.6 Nielsen rating compared to the 18.4 rating for CBS. ABC was third with a 15.8 rating.
Here’s the Top Ten, complete with Nielsen ratings:
| ## | Program | Net | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | “Elvis — Aloha from Hawaii” | NBC | 33.8 |
| 2. | All in the Family | CBS | 30.5 |
| 3. | “Ann Margret–When You’re Smiling” | NBC | 27.9 |
| 4. | Sanford & Son | NBC | 26.9 |
| 5. | “Wizard of Oz” | NBC | 26.4 |
| 6. | NBC Sunday Mystery Movie (McCloud) | NBC | 26.0 |
| 7. | The Mary Tyler Moore Show | CBS | 24.5 |
| 8. | “Winnie the Pooh and The Honey Tree” | NBC | 24.2 |
| 9. | Hawaii Five-O | CBS | 24.0 |
| 10 | Maude | CBS | 23.7 |
No pilots or backdoors aired in a theatricals-specials-heavy Week 30 (won by NBC with a 16.7 vs CBS 16.4 and ABC 15.8), during which the networks began upfronting their fall 1973 skeds. CBS released its full sked on Monday, CBS Tuesday and ABC Wednesday.
A few series underwent title changes from upfront to fall:
-> CBS’s new Wednesday cop show ‘Cojack’, based on the pilot THE MARCUS-NELSON MURDERS, later evolved into the simpler ‘Kojak’.
-> ABC’s comedy announced for Fridays at 9:30 pm was announced as ‘Mr. & Ms.’ about husband and wife lawyers, but later changed to ‘Adam’s Rib’, adopting the title of the Tracy-Hepburn theatrical on which it was based.
-> On Saturday nights, ABC’s second ‘Movie of the Week’ spinoff was initially to have been called ‘Crime in the Streets’ and focused on crime shows, but was later re-monikered into the ‘The ABC Suspense Movie’, and had the 90-minute CYBORG movies mixed in once a month (the CYBORG telemovies were the pre-cursor to ‘The Six Million Dollar Man’).
One series that ABC had shopped around pre-upfront to Madison Ave was a potential new Saturday 30-minute sci-fier ‘Galaxy’ that was to led off the night at 8:00 pm up against ‘All in the Family’. Apparently, sales prospects for sci-fi were so slim that the Alphabet schedulers made a eleventh-hour decision to send ‘The Partridge Family’ to Saturday nights, which opened up Fridays for the new sitcom. I’m not sure that a ‘Galaxy’ pilot was ever produced, and I can’t find any trace of it over at IMDB. Perhaps somebody else might remember more details about it.
“Ann-Margret – When You’re Smiling” was repeated on Oct. 28, 1973, airing right after the “Bell System Family Theatre” presentation of “Peggy Fleming Visits the Soviet Union.”
I’m glad she was able to smile again, after her fall from a stage the previously year (her jaw was one of her injuries).
The fifteenth network telecast of “The Wizard of Oz” on NBC April 8,1973,, when the telecast was the big event of the spring TV season. The telecast began at 6:30 pm EST and was followed by “Mc Cloud” at 8;30 pm EST. Good memories from fifty years!
I just found two clips of commercials from the April 8,1973 telecast of “Oz”; they are on the website “Museum of Classic Chicago Television”, aka “Fuzzy Memories.TV” and are from WMAQ TV 5, known in the Windy City as “NBC 5” or “NBC Chicago”. A lot of fun even for someone who grew up on Cleveland TV!
Solid ratings for the TV shows listed in the top 10; as most shows were airing reruns.
Most of the shows, had already aired their season finales in late March.
I’m trying to get an audio track from the 1975 Bell production of “The Tiny Tree” Specifically the song “To Love And Be Loved” by Roberta Flack. I want to have a backing track made so I can sing this song for all those who have never heard it before. Any help would really be appreciated.
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The 30 minute animated special can be watched on YouTube, if anyone is interested.