Three networks and a shared screen
In 1967, most American viewers chose among three commercial networks, CBS, NBC and ABC, plus whatever local independent station they could receive. A popular show could reach a very large share of the country at once, and the autumn schedule, which began in September, was the main event of the television year. This article is a snapshot of that autumn’s prime-time lineup, including new series that became long-lasting favourites.
The new shows of September 1967
Several debuts of September 1967 are still remembered.
The Carol Burnett Show arrived on CBS that month. It combined sketches, parody and a closing question-and-answer segment with the studio audience, and it ran for eleven seasons. Its cast, including Harvey Korman and Vicki Lawrence, became a model for sketch comedy on American television.
Ironside began on NBC, with Raymond Burr, previously famous as Perry Mason, as a San Francisco police chief who uses a wheelchair after being shot. It was a straightforward crime drama and ran until 1975.
Mannix began on CBS with Mike Connors as a private detective. It was heavily built around action and ran for eight seasons, though it reportedly changed format after the first season, moving the hero from a high-tech detective agency to a more conventional solo operation.
Another new arrival was The Flying Nun, on ABC, which suited the lighter end of the schedule. The year’s shows were a mix of the experimental and the very traditional, and the traditional shows were often the bigger hits.
The Laugh-In preview
Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In was shown as a one-off special on NBC in September 1967, and the regular series began in January 1968. Its fast-paced mix of short jokes, visual gags, catchphrases and cameo appearances broke with the slower style of earlier variety shows. The special was a preview of a show that would soon be among the most popular in the country, so it belongs to the 1967 story as a hint of what was coming.
The Smothers Brothers
The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour had begun on CBS in February 1967, and by the autumn season it was becoming known for political humour aimed at a younger audience. Its place in the Sunday evening schedule, opposite NBC’s western Bonanza, was a sign of how younger viewers were being courted. The show’s conflicts with the network over content are a story in their own right, and are covered separately.
What else was on
It is worth remembering that the schedule was dominated by familiar favourites: westerns, situation comedies and family programmes. Series such as Gunsmoke and Bonanza had run for years, and the top of the ratings was often held by shows with little connection to the era’s headlines. According to common accounts, The Andy Griffith Show ranked first in the Nielsen ratings for the 1967-68 season in its final year.
The newer, edgier material usually came in smaller doses. The original Star Trek was in its second season on NBC, and the British series The Prisoner was beginning to be seen in Britain. They are both covered in their own articles, but they show how the schedule held room for science fiction and puzzles alongside the westerns.
Color and habit
Another change was technical. Color television was spreading, and the networks emphasized color in promotion as more homes bought color sets. Viewing was also more of a fixed habit than it is today: a family might watch a favourite show at the same hour each week, and a successful show could be talked about at work or school the next day because most people had seen it.
The year also brought a policy change that would affect television later: the Public Broadcasting Act, signed in November 1967, created a framework for public television separate from the commercial networks. Its effects belong mostly to the 1970s, but the law was passed against the background of the dissatisfaction some viewers and critics felt with commercial schedules.
A snapshot, not a verdict
Looking at a single autumn schedule can make television seem both old-fashioned and surprisingly modern. Few of the biggest hits seem daring today, yet the arrival of sketch comedy, a faster style of humour and increasingly political content show a medium beginning to reflect the changes of the late 1960s. The lineup of 1967 is best seen as the point where the old network style and a new one overlapped.