You are too old if you remember.......

[roadman]

For years, The Wizard of Oz (which was one of my sister's two favorite movies of all time - the other one was It's a Wonderful Life) was shown on TV only once a year.  IIRC, it usually aired sometime around Easter.

In the pre-cable TV network era, holiday-related specials were the same way - one airing per year.  At Christmas, the only exception was It's a Wonderful Life, which was in public domain for quite some time (and, thus, shown on every TV station numerous times) until NBC re-purchased the rights several years back.  There was a Cheers Christmas-themed episode where somebody commented that It's A Wonderful Life was showing on the bar TV, and somebody else remarked "Yep, It's a Wonderful Month on Channel 22 - they've been showing that non-stop."

[thenetwork]

However, you can say one network MeTV is bringing back the closing theme songs as many have eliminated it for network TV show previews with the credits at the bottom in small fast letters flipping by.  It is good to hear the ending of the Beverly Hillbillies closing song with the cast waving at the audience in sight as TBS and many others do not feature it.

You can say you are too old to remember the closing theme songs on television shows!

The way networks "spoiled" the closing credits of the shows way back when, was they had Booth Announcers read one or two descriptions of future shows (i.e. "Saturday...Gopher falls in love with the girl of his dreams...or is her sister??  On the Looooovve Boat, then on Fantasy Island, one couple is faced with a life or death dilemma. It all begins at 9 on Saturday. Next, stay tuned for Three's Company, on ABC."

By the time they got through their spiels, you maybe only heard about 10 seconds of the entire theme "in the clear".

But at least you could read all the credits in actual size!

[bugo]

I'm only 39, but "Indianapolis Colts", "Arizona (and Phoenix) Cardinals", and "St Louis Rams" all sound wrong to me.

[Henry]

I'm only 39, but "Indianapolis Colts", "Arizona (and Phoenix) Cardinals", and "St Louis Rams" all sound wrong to me.

As do "Utah Jazz", "Los Angeles Lakers" and "New Orleans Hornets" (who are thankfully giving that nickname back to Charlotte one year from now).

[msubulldog]

Some others:
1)Don Pardo being the announcer on Jeopardy! instead of Johnny Gilbert.
2)Popular shows having syndicated episodes with different titles (e.g., Jim Rockford, Private Investigator for reruns of The Rockford Files).
3)MLB players wearing their game jerseys during batting practice.
4)Being able to use oil company credit cards at motels (Gulf @ Holiday Inn, Exxon @ Howard Johnson's, Amoco @ Best Western or Quality Inn--to name a few).

[roadman]

Popular shows having syndicated episodes with different titles (e.g., Jim Rockford, Private Investigator for reruns of The Rockford Files).

As I recall, that practice was done only for shows that were airing first run episodes and having re-runs in syndication at the same time.  I can think of several shows from the 1960s and 1970s (Beverly Hillbillies and F Troop among them) that never endured that fate because they ended prime time runs before going into syndication.

I once heard that the event that caused studios to finally stop the nonsense of "dual titles" was when M*A*S*H* was slated to go into syndication.  The proposed title would have been 4077th MASH.  Apparently, this change raised serious objections from the show's producers.

Of course, some shows had their titles changed during first-run as well for clarification.  One of the best examples of this is when "Black Sheep Squadron" replaced "Baa Baa Black Sheep" as the show's title.

[formulanone]

^ It's also a good thing that practice wasn't continued when Law & Order went into syndication.

[PHLBOS]

I once heard that the event that caused studios to finally stop the nonsense of "dual titles" was when M*A*S*H* was slated to go into syndication.  The proposed title would have been 4077th MASH.  Apparently, this change raised serious objections from the show's producers.

When Happy Days first went into morning reruns (but still on ABC); the titles stayed the same but when reruns started airing in the afternoon/evenings on other (UHF) stations; it was renamed Happy Days Again.  IIRC, the latter occurred after M*A*S*H started airing reruns on other stations.  Similar happened with Laverne & Shirley reruns being renamed Laverne & Shirley and Company.

Thankfully, reruns of those two shows (now occasionally on cable stations) go by the original names and titles.

[briantroutman]

(emphasis added)

The way networks "spoiled" the closing credits of the shows way back when, was they had Booth Announcers read one or two descriptions of future shows (i.e. "Saturday...Gopher falls in love with the girl of his dreams...or is her sister??  On the Looooovve Boat, then on Fantasy Island, one couple is faced with a life or death dilemma. It all begins at 9 on Saturday. Next, stay tuned for Three's Company, on ABC."

What?! Spoiled?! This fictional spiel would have been voiced by Ernie Anderson...perhaps the greatest network announcer ever.

Here is a clip of him on Letterman years ago...just an incredible talent.
http://bit.ly/1bWteFd

[thenetwork]

(emphasis added)

The way networks "spoiled" the closing credits of the shows way back when, was they had Booth Announcers read one or two descriptions of future shows (i.e. "Saturday...Gopher falls in love with the girl of his dreams...or is her sister??  On the Looooovve Boat, then on Fantasy Island, one couple is faced with a life or death dilemma. It all begins at 9 on Saturday. Next, stay tuned for Three's Company, on ABC."

What?! Spoiled?! This fictional spiel would have been voiced by Ernie Anderson...perhaps the greatest network announcer ever.

Here is a clip of him on Letterman years ago...just an incredible talent.
http://bit.ly/1bWteFd

You are too old if you remember that Ernie Anderson's biggest claim to fame before he became the voice of ABC was being one of the first and one of the most famous Late Night B-Movie hosts of all time, Ghoulardi!

[Brandon]

(emphasis added)

The way networks "spoiled" the closing credits of the shows way back when, was they had Booth Announcers read one or two descriptions of future shows (i.e. "Saturday...Gopher falls in love with the girl of his dreams...or is her sister??  On the Looooovve Boat, then on Fantasy Island, one couple is faced with a life or death dilemma. It all begins at 9 on Saturday. Next, stay tuned for Three's Company, on ABC."

What?! Spoiled?! This fictional spiel would have been voiced by Ernie Anderson...perhaps the greatest network announcer ever.

Here is a clip of him on Letterman years ago...just an incredible talent.
http://bit.ly/1bWteFd

You are too old if you remember that Ernie Anderson's biggest claim to fame before he became the voice of ABC was being one of the first and one of the most famous Late Night B-Movie hosts of all time, Ghoulardi!

Is that anything like Svengoolie?

[briantroutman]

Ghoulardi!

Is that anything like Svengoolie?

BERWYN!

They're very much in the same vein: "horror hosts".

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horror_host

[hbelkins]

I remember when this thread wasn't in Off-Topic. 

[PHLBOS]

A few for eastern Massachusetts:

North Shore Shopping Center (rather than Mall)

Jordan Marsh (department store)

Filenes (including Filenes Basement) (both department stores)

When Levitz (furniture store) was called J. Homestock

Woolworth's

Child World being the toy store.

J.M. Fields (department store)

Pargon Park

Amusements along Revere Beach

Towns like Marblehead & Nahant having more than one gas station present & open.  Neither town has any now.

[agentsteel53]

add Lechmere, Zayre, Caldor, etc, to the list of defunct New England department stores.

I believe Zayre's successor, Ames, is gone as well.

[PHLBOS]

add Lechmere

Will the MBTA ever rename that Green Line station?

[agentsteel53]

add Lechmere

Will the MBTA ever rename that Green Line station?

I don't believe there is reason to.  it's a well-known landmark.

just like no one's really renamed the Sears Tower.

[1995hoo]

add Lechmere, Zayre, Caldor, etc, to the list of defunct New England department stores.

I believe Zayre's successor, Ames, is gone as well.

I remember Zayre's in the DC area too. We briefly had one Caldor in a former Lord & Taylor store. It's now a Sears.


For those of you in the DC area, anyone else remember the Washington Shopping Plate? It was a credit card issued locally for use at a number of DC-area merchants, all of which are now defunct: Hecht's, Jelleff's, Kann's, Lansburgh's, Raleigh's, Woodward & Lothrop, and Garfinckel's. The card was light blue (similar to the shade associated with baby boys) and it did not have a magnetic strip; I don't remember how they authorized the charges. My father had one and it was still accepted at Hecht's right up until they were converted to Macy's in 2006, so he insisted on using it, much to my mother's embarrassment because invariably the younger employees had never seen one before, had no idea what it was, and wouldn't accept it until an older employee came over to see what the problem was, recognized the card, and showed them what to do.

Garfinckel's was the first DC-area department store to accept a non-local charge card (American Express). I recall it was also very clear that black people were not welcome in the flagship Garfinckel's downtown even in the late 1970s, even though legal segregation was long gone.

[cpzilliacus]

Paying tolls on the Autoroute system in Quebec, in particular on A 15 between the U.S. border and Montreal and (what is now) A 20 (I think it had a different route number in the 1960's) between the Ontario border and Montreal.

[cpzilliacus]

add Lechmere, Zayre, Caldor, etc, to the list of defunct New England department stores.

I believe Zayre's successor, Ames, is gone as well.

I remember Zayre's in the DC area too. We briefly had one Caldor in a former Lord & Taylor store. It's now a Sears.

Zayres was, IMO, in many ways a predecessor to WalMart, though WalMart is much better in terms of inventory, selection and even customer service.

In other words, Zayres was a miserable place to shop. 

Another chain that  competed (in some ways) with Zayres in the east was E J Korvettes.

For those of you in the DC area, anyone else remember the Washington Shopping Plate? It was a credit card issued locally for use at a number of DC-area merchants, all of which are now defunct: Hecht's, Jelleff's, Kann's, Lansburgh's, Raleigh's, Woodward & Lothrop, and Garfinckel's. The card was light blue (similar to the shade associated with baby boys) and it did not have a magnetic strip; I don't remember how they authorized the charges. My father had one and it was still accepted at Hecht's right up until they were converted to Macy's in 2006, so he insisted on using it, much to my mother's embarrassment because invariably the younger employees had never seen one before, had no idea what it was, and wouldn't accept it until an older employee came over to see what the problem was, recognized the card, and showed them what to do.

Garfinckel's was the first DC-area department store to accept a non-local charge card (American Express). I recall it was also very clear that black people were not welcome in the flagship Garfinckel's downtown even in the late 1970s, even though legal segregation was long gone.

My late Mother had one of those Washington Shopping Plates.  She used it at Woodward & Lothrop and Hecht Company.

[agentsteel53]

E J Korvettes

sounds like the name of a white-supremacist porn star.

[msubulldog]

I think Zayre's had a lot of stores in the mid-south--them and Jitney Jungle.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

... when this thread was in General Highway Talk

[roadman]

add Lechmere

Will the MBTA ever rename that Green Line station?

No.  Because the station is named for Lechmere Square, not the department store - which took its name from the square, and not the other way around.  Before they cloned themselves into shopping malls (which is what eventually killed them off), Lechmere Sales' only location was where the CambridgeSide Galleria is now.  Thier original logo included a typical Cambridge gas street lamp.

[Takumi]

add Lechmere, Zayre, Caldor, etc, to the list of defunct New England department stores.

I believe Zayre's successor, Ames, is gone as well.

I *barely* remember Zayre. It closed in 1988, IIRC, and since I was born in 1986 I don't have much memory of it. Interestingly, Zayre's two spin-off stores, TJ Maxx and Marshall's, are both doing well.

I remember an Ames being around semi-locally until 1992 or so, but the chain closed about 10 years later.

Another defunct New England chain store would be Bradlees. The local one lasted until 1996, but the chain closed around the same time Ames did.

A Richmond-based department store chain I barely remember is Thalheimers. It mostly was present in Virginia and the Carolinas. It was bought by Hecht's in 1991 I believe, and became said store about a year later. Hecht's was itself bought out by Macy's when I was in college.