As The World Turns Full Episode List

[Brolden]

 

Wow, that is amazing work! Thank you SO much for sharing this! Is it too much to hope you're planning on tackling O.J. pre-emptions next? 

I'm going to need a bit more time to work through your document in full, but you have access to everything I know in this thread. I will let you know if I find out more.

Edited April 21, 2020 by Brolden

[Paul Raven]

1970 pre-emption

Fri April 17 Coverage of return/splashdown of Apollo13 spacecraft.

[Paul Raven]

I'm going to be a bit random with entries, but as I uncover dates I will post them. I hope I'm not posting stuff you have already have.

Mon July 25 1960 ATWT pre-empted for Republican Political Convention.

[Brolden]

 

Please... by all means. I always love your additions to this post. Don't worry about double posting either. I will filter out any new info and add it to the list.

[Paul Raven]

More pre-emptions

1961 Fri Jan 20 Presidential Inauguration

1963 Mon Nov 25 President Kennedy funeral

1965 Wed Jan 20th  Presidential Inauguration

 

 

[Brolden]

 

 

With the new info, we now know - or at least have strong leads - for 15 out of 19 pre-emptions in the December 9, 1986 - November 3, 1987 era, leaving 4 unknown pre-emptions. Let me first say, in the interest of full disclosure, that it is possible that any or all of those pre-emptions are unrelated to the Iran-Contra hearings, and occurred. However, since we have no leads and a lot of remaining question marks during the I-C hearings, it seems likely that the pre-emptions were due to the hearings.

 

I have taken all 44 days of the I-C hearings, crossed off the ones that - based on @feuxdelamour's research - we are counting as semi-verified, as well as the days that we know ATWT aired and the days when no afternoon hearings occurred or were broadcasted. I am left with the below list of 15 dates that are the candidates for these 4 other pre-emptions.

 

May 6, 1987: Iran-Contra Hearings Day 2 (CBS said it would carry at least the start of the hearings, although I assume that means the morning session)

May 13, 1987: Iran-Contra Hearings Day 7 (no coverage planned, but break-in possible, depending on developments)

May 14, 1987: Iran-Contra Hearings Day 8 (no coverage planned, but break-in possible, depending on developments)

May 19, 1987: Iran-Contra Hearings Day 9 (no coverage planned, but break-in possible, depending on developments)

May 27, 1987: Iran-Contra Hearings Day 12 (no coverage planned, but break-in possible, depending on developments)

May 28, 1987: Iran-Contra Hearings Day 13 (no coverage planned, but break-in possible, depending on developments)

May 29, 1987: Iran-Contra Hearings Day 14 (no coverage planned, but break-in possible, depending on developments)

June 2, 1987: Iran-Contra Hearings Day 15 (no coverage planned, but break-in possible, depending on developments)

June 3, 1987: Iran-Contra Hearings Day 16 (no coverage planned, but break-in possible, depending on developments)

June 4, 1987: Iran-Contra Hearings Day 17 (no coverage planned, but break-in possible, depending on developments)

June 8, 1987: Iran-Contra Hearings Day 19 (no coverage planned, but break-in possible, depending on developments)

July 20, 1987: Iran-Contra Hearings Day 33 (ABC's day, but CBS could break-in, depending on developments)

July 28, 1987: Iran-Contra Hearings Day 37 (NBC's day, but CBS could break-in, depending on developments)

July 30, 1987: Iran-Contra Hearings Day 39 (ABC's day, but CBS could break-in, depending on developments; according to an unverified source, NBC's Santa Barbara was pre-empted on this day, so maybe developments were juicy?) 

July 31, 1987: Iran-Contra Hearings Day 40 (NBC's day, but CBS could break-in, depending on developments)

 

 

  

[Brolden]

 

This one is interesting, mostly because it confirms a fear I already had.

 

There are a lot of scripts in the P&G Television Script Collection (http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi/f/findaid/findaid-idx?c=wiarchives;cc=wiarchives;view=text;rgn=main;didno=uw-whs-mss00784), but I wasn't really sure how to process them. It only gives begin and end dates for each folder, which means there is no telling which episodes may have been pre-empted in between. I figured at least the begin and end dates for each folder must have aired, so I had marked those (in the updates I am getting ready) as having aired. July 25, 1960 is the begin date for one of the folders, and, as such, had been marked as having aired. Now we know that's not true, but that means I can't trust any of those dates from this collection. Either it just doesn't account for pre-emptions (in which case the episode marked July 25 likely aired the next day), or maybe the dates don't even correspond to airdates at all, but reflect the dates the scripts were written or something.

 

I just kills me that such a rich collection apparently exists, but I have absolutely NO info to work with from it.

 

Either way, I'm really glad we caught this now, before I started relying too much on the P&GTSC dates as being accurate. Thanks as always, Paul Raven!    

 

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2008 section updated

Edited April 22, 2020 by Brolden

[Paul Raven]

More pre-emptions

 

Tues April 9 1968 Martin Luther King funeral

 

Fri Oct 11 1991 - Clarence Thomas hearing.

[Paul Raven]

Wed Jan 1 1964   Cotton Bowl Football Game

Thurs Jan1 1965  Cotton Bowl Football Game

Fri Jan 1 1966  Cotton Bowl Football Game

 

Mon Jan 20 1969  Nixon Presidential Inauguration

Edited April 23, 2020 by Paul Raven

[Brolden]

 

 

That clears up the October 2 - December 10, 1991 era! Great work!

 

Edited April 23, 2020 by Brolden

[Brolden]

 

1964 was a leap year and, as a result, January 1, 1965 was a Friday (which might still have been pre-empted) and January 1, 1966 was a Saturday. Did you mean Monday January 3, 1966 for the Cotton Bowl by any chance?

 

[EDIT:] I just found an overview of Cotton Bowl broadcasts on wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Cotton_Bowl_Classic_broadcasters). Looks like CBS had the rights from 1958-1992 and 1996-1998. It also lists all the exact dates (especially the not-January-1 dates threw me off in the past). Since we already know that about 75% of these caused pre-emptions, I'm going to carefully assume that all of these impacted ATWT and put them on the list as pre-emptions, although I won't make them bold until we have hard evidence.

 

Paul Raven, do you have any way of verifying that the January 1, 1960 episode was pre-empted? I had that one as airing based on the P&GTSC I mentioned yesterday, so if it was indeed pre-empted that would be the second strike against that resource.

 

Fun fact: Based on this new info, it looks like 2004 was the ONLY year in the 54-year-history of the show that had a January 1 broadcast.

Edited April 23, 2020 by Brolden

[Paul Raven]

My apologies for any confusion. I misread my own notes.

Those confirmed Cotton Bowl pre-emptions should have been

Mon Jan 1 1962

Tues Jan 1 1963

Wed Jan 1 1964

Still checking others...

Can confirm that CBS showed Cotton Bowl

Fri Jan 1 1960

Edited April 23, 2020 by Paul Raven

[Brolden]

Thanks for clearing that up!

 

Speaking of Inaugurations... here's an overview of all 13 inaugurations that took place during ATWT's run:

 

January 21, 1957 (Eisenhower's second term): pre-empted

January 20, 1961 (Kennedy): pre-empted

January 20, 1965 (Johnson's second term): pre-empted

January 20, 1969 (Nixon): pre-empted

August 9, 1974 (Ford): unknown

January 20, 1977 (Carter): unknown

January 20, 1981 (Reagan): unknown

January 21, 1985 (Reagan's second term): unknown

January 20, 1989 (Bush): unknown [listed regularly in one newspaper though]

January 20, 1993 (Clinton): pre-empted

January 20, 1997 (Clinton's second term): aired

January 20, 2005 (Bush's second term): pre-empted

January 20, 2009 (Obama): pre-empted

 

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2007 section updated

Edited April 23, 2020 by Brolden

[Paul Raven]

Mon Jan 20 1977 All 3 networks covered Carter inauguration 10am - 4pm (CBS gained the best ratings)

Football pre-emptions

Tues Jan 1 1957 Orange Bowl football

Wed Jan 1 1958 Cotton Bowl football

Th Jan 1 1959 Orange Bowl/Cotton Bowl football

[Brolden]

 

2006 section updated