Jags I just gotta say. I sat through this whole thing and enjoyed it IMMENSELY. I appreciate the work you put into the subreddit and I can’t wait to see more of what you make on here
Love these videos, it's hard to imagine the nfl today with out Monday night football, Imagine the 1985 season with out the dolphins v bears in week 13,
Of the shows that were airing on ABC on Monday nights in 1969, only "Love, American Style," which actually was an anthology series that Paramount and ABC used to showcase unsold pilots with a few original segments sprinkled in survived past this and ran to 1973. That series is most notable for a failed pilot in 1972 that aired as part of "Love, American Style" that starred Ron Howard, Marion Ross and Anson Williams among others centered around a family that lived in the 1950's called "Love and The Happy Days." After the success of "American Graffiti," which also starred Howard a year later in 1973, ABC revisited the failed pilot and "Happy Days" would premiere midway through the 1973-'74 season and run all the way to May 1984 on ABC. It was an understandable gamble for ABC to go with Monday Night Football in 1970 as CBS and NBC both had highly successful Monday night lineups at the time on what then was CLEARLY TV's most watched night at the time. Of course, back then the NFL was nowhere close to being the 800-pound gorilla of sports it would become years later. This sort of came up again in 2005 when ABC allowed their deal for MNF, which at the time was a big money-loser for ABC of $150 Million a year to expire with NBC picking up MNF. As Monday was at the time NBC's strongest night by far, however, plus with the advent of flex-scheduling that would have still taken effect in 2006 had ABC kept MNF, what was Monday Night Football became on NBC Sunday Night Football. Disney did renew their ESPN deal that had been for Sunday Night Football, but now that was being moved to Monday Night and was beefed up considerably from the former Sunday Night deal from 1987-2005 that often left ESPN with some very bad matchups on that version of SNF. The ESPN version of MNF (which now includes some games simulcast on ABC, including their playoff game and the Pro Bowl) even paying far more than they ever did for the ABC MNF package has been far more profitable for Disney, as they have been able to charge cable operators more for ESPN and MNF is showcased on many more platforms than it ever would be on ABC only.
There actually WAS a weekly prime-time NFL series prior to 1970. The old DuMont network carried a weekly Saturday night NFL game during the 1953 and 1954 seasons.
DuMont, however, didn't have many stations, and as the NFL was still a relatively minor attraction, the games didn't draw many viewers, and large parts of the country couldn't even watch those games.
In fact, during the mid 1950's, the NFL was a distant fourth in popularity among the four major North American team sports, well behind the NHL and NBA, and way way behind Major League Baseball.
@@altfactor Some people think Fox is just DuMont rising from the ashes, but with the deeper pockets of Rupert Murdoch. Fox is now the leader in sports programming, IMO.
Also helped that the Browns were coming off a NFL Title Game and the Jets also made the Playoffs with Broadway Joe still leading the team. Very attractive game in Cleveland which would be the first AFC matchup for both.
I watched a video where no owner wanted the first game as he's thought it'd be a failure. Art Modell, Browns owner said, "We'll host it. Just give me Joe Namath!" Great call from a former marketing man... 80,000 plus with standing room only customers.
Every big idea on television had a hard time getting started. We look back at it and say what were the other networks thinking and you just showed us what it was.
"The Music Scene" and "The New People" each consisted of 45-minute episodes in an attempt to battle "Laugh-In." The latter was an Aaron Spelling production, with a pilot written by Rod Serling. Elsewhere on UA-cam you can see Mr. Serling on Monday Night Football in 1970--doing a car commercial.
This was your best work in all the videos I have watched so far......Im just finding you but I am a new sub! Also, loved the initial Monday Night Football intro music.......it was amazing!
One thing this video has brought to my attention is how much better prime time television was in the late sixties than it is now. Now, there are several good programs on prime time television, and we're in a different time with regards to entertainment choices. But the shows you talk about here from the late 60s are legendary shows with the very best talent available. No reality show garbage, competition shows, etc.
If a Monday night game gets dull, like a blowout with a quarter to go, there is no other game to switch to. And no big plays from other games going on to show. And it being a night when viewers gotta get up early the next morning, they risked losing a ton of ratings in the second half. That’s why ABC brought in colorful announcers and let them party, i.e. Don Meredith’s singing. They made the broadcast booth’s personalities the story.
Here in Tampa Bay, it didn't help that WTSP, our ABC affiliate at the time, couldn't cover our whole market with a signal. WTSP's tower was based far northwest of where the other full-market stations' towers were located and the station was all but unviewable in our southern counties. That's why Sarasota got its own ABC station by the 1971 NFL season and it's somehow still affiliated with the network to this day. If Hughes got the rights, I hope that WTSP wasn't one of those ABC affiliates that would've jumped on board. Hughes would've been better off going to our powerhouse independent at the time, WTOG.
2:16 This part reminds me of how, ironically enough, Don Ohlmeyer publicly rooted for a four-game sweep in the 1997 World Series due to the fact that airing those games interfered with NBC’s prime time lineups, which were clearly the higher priority. Never mind that it turned into a classic for the ages. Edit: A point you alluded to moments later. Oops.
I was doing High School homework in my bedroom watching the game in 1980, and through MNF and Howard Cosell, I learned that John Lennon was shot and killed... How many of us can relate to that tragic moment and can you remember where you were?!
“Monday Night Football” was a huge staple for ABC and its affiliate WABC-TV (channel 7) in New York City back in the 1970’s right up until the early 2000’s. They ran national teams, except for the local teams like Giants and the Jets along with the Buffalo Bills and the New England Patriots if you were in Connecticut, and the Philadelphia Eagles if you were in New Jersey.
Yet come after the 1970-1971 television season, CBS would undergo the Rural Purge, NBC would ax alot of shows from the Golden Era of Television, and the Prime Time Access Hour entered into force, forcing the networks to surrender the 7:30 pm Eastern Time slot to affiliates. Coupled with shows not doing so well, ABC made the right choice in 1969, and it's successor (ESPN) still broadcasts MNF to this day, despite TNF (NFL Network) and SNF (NBC) now garnering the higher ratings today.
Prior to the 2006 season when Monday Night Football moved from ABC to ESPN as part of the rebranding of ABC Sports from that to ESPN on ABC as well as Sunday Night Football airing on NBC, for more than three decades Monday Night Football truly was must-see tv as it was a pop culture phenomenon.
This past season, with the exception of when there were simultaneous games on ESPN and ABC, ABC had MNF as a simulcast with ESPN (and one ABC-only game on Christmas Night between the Ravens and 49ers).
MNF was also helped for the first 20 years with the NFL not having free agency. When you heard team names like the Steelers, Raiders, Dolphins, Cowboys, 49ers, you knew the players who were playing and had a good idea whether those teams would be any good. So when the schedule came out, it made it easier to pick the big games - no flex-scheduling was needed. Free agency made MNF a crapshoot from then on.
Cable and satellite TV also had an effect on MNF, plus people's work schedules also changed. No longer did the average person worked 9-5 from Monday to Friday, but now they are working 10-12 hours/day just to make ends meet.
Sure, if you just want to watch good games between any two teams that are playing. NFL free agency also brought the salary cap (and the salary floor). In the old days, teams that spent more money won more games. MLB has free agency with no salary cap, so the top market, high-spending teams can just buy themselves championships whenever the mood hits them. If you were an NFL fan of the 60s/70s 49ers, 70s/80s Saints, 70s/80s/90s Buccaneers, or other teams that had cheap owners who didn't spend (but still made good profit margins thru revenue sharing) then you were just out of luck. You had to wait for your team's cheap owner to either sell, or die. In the modern NFL, with free agency and salary min & max, everybody has to spend a certain amount. You need to win to keep the profits going. It makes all teams more competitive (or at least it removed the cheapskate options owners had).
Have you read the book "Monday Night Mayhem"? It was published in 1988. It's about the creation of MNF and the men in the booth. Cosell was a natural. Frank Gifford was a knucklehead. Anyway, a fun read. IMO----MNF lost its luster years ago.
In Green Bay, Wisconsin, the home market of the Packers NFL football team, Monday Night Football first aired on WLUK-TV 11 while that network was still affiliated with ABC, moving Monday Night Football with the ABC affiliation to WFRV-TV 5 in 1983 when WLUK-TV 11 joined NBC. In 1992, WBAY-TV 2 switched from their long-standing CBS affiliation to ABC, while WFRV-TV took on a CBS affiliation. ABC, the home of Monday Night Football, has remained with WBAY-TV 2 ever since...
The only possible reason that Hughes did not get the MNF deal (if any negosiations actually took place) is that Pete Rozelle would had deal with Howard Hughes himself, complete with a photo op of both men. Since Hughes had not been seen publicly in over 20 years at that point (perhaps he had became the hermit that he has been depicted since his death), such a scene would probably have killed any deal.
Had Hughes wound up with Monday night NFL games, it was said that not only 100 or so of ABC's 200 affiliates would have carried the Hughes Sports telecasts, but that at least one ABC-owned station (supposedly WXYZ Detroit) would have also picked up the Hughes games.
Nobody thought you could sell a football game or any sport on prime Time back then.. Howard Cosell was actually hired to be as controversial as possible to be a form of entertainment
I’m not sure it was as big of a gamble as you’re thinking it was. Their affiliates were going to carry it with or without the network producing it. They could either make the advertising revenue or not. That ultimatum was a big deal.
Yes, he states that it was a gamble, while also pointing out in the video that ABC had nothing to lose, since not many people were watching their Monday night shows, anyway.
Way too short of a turnaround for players and teams. The quality of Thursday games already suffers from the shortened week, one fewer day would make the games even worse
Thank you ABC for saving an 8 yr olds childhood back in 1970...when that MNF theme would start, I would go mental.
I went metal 🎸
Jags I just gotta say. I sat through this whole thing and enjoyed it IMMENSELY. I appreciate the work you put into the subreddit and I can’t wait to see more of what you make on here
This was OUTSTANDING 👌
very informative & everything you put out is top-notch
Agreed 👍
Love these videos, it's hard to imagine the nfl today with out Monday night football, Imagine the 1985 season with out the dolphins v bears in week 13,
Of the shows that were airing on ABC on Monday nights in 1969, only "Love, American Style," which actually was an anthology series that Paramount and ABC used to showcase unsold pilots with a few original segments sprinkled in survived past this and ran to 1973. That series is most notable for a failed pilot in 1972 that aired as part of "Love, American Style" that starred Ron Howard, Marion Ross and Anson Williams among others centered around a family that lived in the 1950's called "Love and The Happy Days." After the success of "American Graffiti," which also starred Howard a year later in 1973, ABC revisited the failed pilot and "Happy Days" would premiere midway through the 1973-'74 season and run all the way to May 1984 on ABC.
It was an understandable gamble for ABC to go with Monday Night Football in 1970 as CBS and NBC both had highly successful Monday night lineups at the time on what then was CLEARLY TV's most watched night at the time. Of course, back then the NFL was nowhere close to being the 800-pound gorilla of sports it would become years later.
This sort of came up again in 2005 when ABC allowed their deal for MNF, which at the time was a big money-loser for ABC of $150 Million a year to expire with NBC picking up MNF. As Monday was at the time NBC's strongest night by far, however, plus with the advent of flex-scheduling that would have still taken effect in 2006 had ABC kept MNF, what was Monday Night Football became on NBC Sunday Night Football. Disney did renew their ESPN deal that had been for Sunday Night Football, but now that was being moved to Monday Night and was beefed up considerably from the former Sunday Night deal from 1987-2005 that often left ESPN with some very bad matchups on that version of SNF. The ESPN version of MNF (which now includes some games simulcast on ABC, including their playoff game and the Pro Bowl) even paying far more than they ever did for the ABC MNF package has been far more profitable for Disney, as they have been able to charge cable operators more for ESPN and MNF is showcased on many more platforms than it ever would be on ABC only.
There actually WAS a weekly prime-time NFL series prior to 1970.
The old DuMont network carried a weekly Saturday night NFL game during the 1953 and 1954 seasons.
DuMont, however, didn't have many stations, and as the NFL was still a relatively minor attraction, the games didn't draw many viewers, and large parts of the country couldn't even watch those games.
In fact, during the mid 1950's, the NFL was a distant fourth in popularity among the four major North American team sports, well behind the NHL and NBA, and way way behind Major League Baseball.
@@altfactor Some people think Fox is just DuMont rising from the ashes, but with the deeper pockets of Rupert Murdoch. Fox is now the leader in sports programming, IMO.
Also helped that the Browns were coming off a NFL Title Game and the Jets also made the Playoffs with Broadway Joe still leading the team. Very attractive game in Cleveland which would be the first AFC matchup for both.
I watched a video where no owner wanted the first game as he's thought it'd be a failure. Art Modell, Browns owner said, "We'll host it. Just give me Joe Namath!"
Great call from a former marketing man...
80,000 plus with standing room only customers.
7:26 the newspaper article with Marv Levy being named an Eagles assistant is another neat sort of history in a way.
With Joe Moss, as assistants to Jerry Williams. All three were head coaches in the Canadian Football League.
excellent work by you Official JaguarGator 9 explaining how and why ABC got the MNF package.
Every big idea on television had a hard time getting started. We look back at it and say what were the other networks thinking and you just showed us what it was.
"The Music Scene" and "The New People" each consisted of 45-minute episodes in an attempt to battle "Laugh-In." The latter was an Aaron Spelling production, with a pilot written by Rod Serling. Elsewhere on UA-cam you can see Mr. Serling on Monday Night Football in 1970--doing a car commercial.
Basically, MNF may have saved ABC...
The Big Valley was a great show that didn’t get the support it need.
Plot twist: the unknown Barkley, Charles
@@mgb4692 lol Silas was sneaking around with Victoria apparently😂🤣
There was definitely a fire in the barn
Then in the 90's it was challenged by WWF and WCW on Monday's. Either wrestling of Football or both. Awesome times.
I remember when Thursday night football was just a one off. Now it happens every Thursday night during the season.
In the late 60's ABC's not so nice nickname was "Another Broadcasting Company"
The joke was, the best way to safeguard the country’s national secrets was to broadcast them on ABC News.
@@brianarbenz1329 Until Roone Arlidge took over the news division. And signed big names such as Barbara Walters, David Brinkley
I also heard it referred to as the Almost Broadcasting Company. MNF and Aaron Spelling helped turn their fortunes around.
I remember that!! On Laugh -In they mocked poor ABC constantly 😂
This was your best work in all the videos I have watched so far......Im just finding you but I am a new sub!
Also, loved the initial Monday Night Football intro music.......it was amazing!
One thing this video has brought to my attention is how much better prime time television was in the late sixties than it is now. Now, there are several good programs on prime time television, and we're in a different time with regards to entertainment choices. But the shows you talk about here from the late 60s are legendary shows with the very best talent available. No reality show garbage, competition shows, etc.
If a Monday night game gets dull, like a blowout with a quarter to go, there is no other game to switch to. And no big plays from other games going on to show. And it being a night when viewers gotta get up early the next morning, they risked losing a ton of ratings in the second half. That’s why ABC brought in colorful announcers and let them party, i.e. Don Meredith’s singing. They made the broadcast booth’s personalities the story.
Pete Rozelle was responsible for two of the biggest successes for the NFL: Super Bowl and Monday Night Football.
I love your content.. a narrator might make this my favorite channel
Here in Tampa Bay, it didn't help that WTSP, our ABC affiliate at the time, couldn't cover our whole market with a signal. WTSP's tower was based far northwest of where the other full-market stations' towers were located and the station was all but unviewable in our southern counties. That's why Sarasota got its own ABC station by the 1971 NFL season and it's somehow still affiliated with the network to this day. If Hughes got the rights, I hope that WTSP wasn't one of those ABC affiliates that would've jumped on board. Hughes would've been better off going to our powerhouse independent at the time, WTOG.
Can you believe that Glendive, Montana is its own TV market? And there are only 13,077 people in it??
2:16 This part reminds me of how, ironically enough, Don Ohlmeyer publicly rooted for a four-game sweep in the 1997 World Series due to the fact that airing those games interfered with NBC’s prime time lineups, which were clearly the higher priority. Never mind that it turned into a classic for the ages.
Edit: A point you alluded to moments later. Oops.
I was doing High School homework in my bedroom watching the game in 1980, and through MNF and Howard Cosell, I learned that John Lennon was shot and killed...
How many of us can relate to that tragic moment and can you remember where you were?!
At 5:19 ...You actually showed Bewitched, The FBI, and the Mod Squad in the top 30...all ABC shows...
Not Monday night shows, though, which was the point he was trying to make. I agree that the illustration kind of confused the point.
“Monday Night Football” was a huge staple for ABC and its affiliate WABC-TV (channel 7) in New York City back in the 1970’s right up until the early 2000’s. They ran national teams, except for the local teams like Giants and the Jets along with the Buffalo Bills and the New England Patriots if you were in Connecticut, and the Philadelphia Eagles if you were in New Jersey.
Whenever I see it, I just can't believe the goal posts were once at the front of the end zone.
Yet come after the 1970-1971 television season, CBS would undergo the Rural Purge, NBC would ax alot of shows from the Golden Era of Television, and the Prime Time Access Hour entered into force, forcing the networks to surrender the 7:30 pm Eastern Time slot to affiliates. Coupled with shows not doing so well, ABC made the right choice in 1969, and it's successor (ESPN) still broadcasts MNF to this day, despite TNF (NFL Network) and SNF (NBC) now garnering the higher ratings today.
LOL. The networks thought that women wouldn't want to watch football.
Monday night football was actually Art modells idea which is why the first game was in cleveland.
Prior to the 2006 season when Monday Night Football moved from ABC to ESPN as part of the rebranding of ABC Sports from that to ESPN on ABC as well as Sunday Night Football airing on NBC, for more than three decades Monday Night Football truly was must-see tv as it was a pop culture phenomenon.
Monday Night Football needs to go back to ABC
This past season, with the exception of when there were simultaneous games on ESPN and ABC, ABC had MNF as a simulcast with ESPN (and one ABC-only game on Christmas Night between the Ravens and 49ers).
Loved the rat patrol.
"Ben Casey" was a great show too, and holds up well over the years.
I was 11 at the time, and I remember thinking that MNF was a great idea in that it was a nice way to end the day at the beginning of the work week.
MNF was also helped for the first 20 years with the NFL not having free agency. When you heard team names like the Steelers, Raiders, Dolphins, Cowboys, 49ers, you knew the players who were playing and had a good idea whether those teams would be any good. So when the schedule came out, it made it easier to pick the big games - no flex-scheduling was needed. Free agency made MNF a crapshoot from then on.
Cable and satellite TV also had an effect on MNF, plus people's work schedules also changed. No longer did the average person worked 9-5 from Monday to Friday, but now they are working 10-12 hours/day just to make ends meet.
Sure, if you just want to watch good games between any two teams that are playing. NFL free agency also brought the salary cap (and the salary floor). In the old days, teams that spent more money won more games. MLB has free agency with no salary cap, so the top market, high-spending teams can just buy themselves championships whenever the mood hits them.
If you were an NFL fan of the 60s/70s 49ers, 70s/80s Saints, 70s/80s/90s Buccaneers, or other teams that had cheap owners who didn't spend (but still made good profit margins thru revenue sharing) then you were just out of luck. You had to wait for your team's cheap owner to either sell, or die.
In the modern NFL, with free agency and salary min & max, everybody has to spend a certain amount. You need to win to keep the profits going. It makes all teams more competitive (or at least it removed the cheapskate options owners had).
Have you read the book "Monday Night Mayhem"? It was published in 1988. It's about the creation of MNF and the men in the booth. Cosell was a natural. Frank Gifford was a knucklehead. Anyway, a fun read. IMO----MNF lost its luster years ago.
In Green Bay, Wisconsin, the home market of the Packers NFL football team, Monday Night Football first aired on WLUK-TV 11 while that network was still affiliated with ABC, moving Monday Night Football with the ABC affiliation to WFRV-TV 5 in 1983 when WLUK-TV 11 joined NBC. In 1992, WBAY-TV 2 switched from their long-standing CBS affiliation to ABC, while WFRV-TV took on a CBS affiliation. ABC, the home of Monday Night Football, has remained with WBAY-TV 2 ever since...
The only possible reason that Hughes did not get the MNF deal (if any negosiations actually took place) is that Pete Rozelle would had deal with Howard Hughes himself, complete with a photo op of both men. Since Hughes had not been seen publicly in over 20 years at that point (perhaps he had became the hermit that he has been depicted since his death), such a scene would probably have killed any deal.
Can you do a context about the Monday Night Football game where Howard Cosell broke the news about John Lennon?
If I recall, HSN aired the greatest college basketball game of all time..Lew Alcindor's UCLA Bruins vs Elvin Hayes Houston Cougars at the Astrodome.
That game was broadcast on TVS.
@@orbyfanThanks
Had Hughes wound up with Monday night NFL games, it was said that not only 100 or so of ABC's 200 affiliates would have carried the Hughes Sports telecasts, but that at least one ABC-owned station (supposedly WXYZ Detroit) would have also picked up the Hughes games.
WABC-TV (channel 7) in New York City had Monday night football games before “Monday Night Football” were carried by the Hughes TV Network.
Maybe in the early 1960's, the Giants or Jets might have had a Monday night away game that WABC-TV broadcast locally.
Nobody thought you could sell a football game or any sport on prime Time back then.. Howard Cosell was actually hired to be as controversial as possible to be a form of entertainment
I miss the helmets smashing. It was always my favorite part of MNF
A little on the nose to show that nowadays with all the hoopla about concussions/CTE.
@@eriklakeland3857 I know that's why they got rid of it. I still liked it though.
ABC certainly took a risk to bring NFL Football on Monday nights. So worth it back then. 🏈
Laugh in was like adult sesame Street
ABC at that time, was perfect for MNF. It was just God sent.
I’m not sure it was as big of a gamble as you’re thinking it was. Their affiliates were going to carry it with or without the network producing it. They could either make the advertising revenue or not. That ultimatum was a big deal.
Yes, he states that it was a gamble, while also pointing out in the video that ABC had nothing to lose, since not many people were watching their Monday night shows, anyway.
Howard Hughes almost bought ABC in 1968.
Why isn't there Wednesday night football?
Way too short of a turnaround for players and teams. The quality of Thursday games already suffers from the shortened week, one fewer day would make the games even worse
Cool story
Stupidest question ever. Are you ready for some football? Of course who isnt
#FootballCrazyInAmerica!
Fooseball is the devil Bobby.