Multiple times a day

[Gordon Matt]

I watched Sesame Street in its early years in Chicago on WTTW-Channel 11.

The schedule varied over the years, but I remember the show often being on multiple times a day -- early in the morning like around 7:00 a.m., then again around 9:30 or 10, then again around 3:00 or 3:30 -- though like I said, the actual times varied from year to year.

What I don't remember is, did they show the same episode again or were they "staggered" so the shows from a prior week would be replayed? I honestly don't remember, but I think I remember tuning in more than once a day and seeing different episodes.

I know on the weekends they would repeat that week's episodes. Early on, they would run all five back to back in a marathon, but later they'd spread them around with three on Saturday and two on Sunday or something. Meanwhile, Mister Rogers and The Electric Company were also showing several times a day.

I get thinking about how they handled the changing of the Gordons. I don't remember seeing one Gordon at 7 a.m. and a different Gordon at 3 in the afternoon. But if that ever did happen, it likely would only have been over the course of a week and only a couple times.

I suppose I could find an old TV Guide from the era which might have descriptions that would indicate which episodes were on. But does anyone remember how they did this?

 

[hooperfan]

Over here, the 7am showing was the same as the 4pm episode the day before. At 9am, I think the "new" episode would air. That one would be shown the following day at 4pm, then again at 7am the next morning. So, it was an interesting cycle

 

[Gordon Matt]

Over here, the 7am showing was the same as the 4pm episode the day before. At 9am, I think the "new" episode would air. That one would be shown the following day at 4pm, then again at 7am the next morning. So, it was an interesting cycle

Thanks -- so the same show would be on Monday at 9 a.m., repeating Tuesday at 4 p.m., then Wednesday at 7 a.m.?

So when they talk about certain episodes that were "only shown once," that could mean as many as eight times -- three times the first week and again on the weekend, then again the second time around?

 

[YellowYahooey]

I think the reason why Sesame Street aired multiple times per day on PBS for a while was because its ratings were at its prime during that time.

WTVS in Detroit, as far as I know, aired the show at 10 AM ET (a rerun of the previous weekday's episode) and the day's scheduled episode by 1 PM or 2 PM ET.

In Spring 1984, they would air a rerun of Monday's show on Saturday mornings, then a half hour of something different, then a rerun on Tuesday's show. On Sunday mornings, they would air reruns of the previous Wednesday's and Thursday's shows back to back. Friday's episode would not be rerun on Sunday, and it makes sense since that would replay on Monday morning.

 

[ssetta]

I've always gotten several PBS stations where I live. Of course my main one was always WGBH in Boston, as well as their sister station WGBX, but I also got WENH from New Hampshire and WSBE from Rhode Island. I remember in the 80s, the day started off with Sesame Street at 7am, and then Mister Rogers on after it, and then another Sesame Street, and then another Mister Rogers. Then they had educational (non-kids) programming from 10-noon, when Sesame Street would air again. It was also on at 4pm, and then at some point moved to 3:30. WGBX had an additional airing at 6pm, eventually moving to 5:30pm, and then 5pm.

But I didn't really get the idea until 1992. By that point, WGBH had Sesame Street on 3 times a day. The 7am airing was the one from 2 days back, and I would assume the 8:30 airing, which they did away with right around then, was the episode from 1 day back, and both the 12pm and 3:30pm airings were the day's episode. WENH aired the day before's episode at 8am (and I think 11am), and the day's episode at 5pm. WSBE only aired the day's episode at 9am and 3:30, and WGBX aired the day's episode at 5:30.

As for the weekend, WGBH had all 5 episodes airing on the weekends as late as 1995. They only had 4 until 1990, but they added an additional episode on Saturday morning. They had the Monday-Wednesday episodes on Saturday from 7-10, and on Sunday they had Mr. Rogers at 7am, Thursday Sesame Street at 7:30, a short-lived show called Long Ago & Far Away at 8:30, and Friday's Sesame Street at 9am. WENH had the Wednesday episode on Saturday morning, and Thursday and Friday episodes on Sunday from 7-9am. WSBE only aired the Tuesday episode at 10am on Saturday for a period of time, but then got rid of it and then didn't have any kids programming on the weekend at all. And on WGBX, Sesame Street was actually one of the only kids shows that was on that, the other being Square One TV, until it was cancelled, and then added Arthur at 6pm in 1996 when they moved SS from 5:30 to 5pm.

On many PBS stations in 1996, Arthur was the show that took away the afternoon airing of Sesame Street, including WGBH. I actually remember being quite shocked to not see Sesame Street on in the afternoon anymore, because I thought it was a permanent fixture. WSBE actually did away with the 3:30pm airing in 1994 for something else. But the other PBS stations were always behind the times. But I remember in 1999 when Zoom premiered, both WGBX and WENH did away with the 5pm airing, and then no station in my area had Sesame Street on in the afternoon. I was actually very upset. Because I think by that time, a lot of people thought Sesame Street was a "dying show." It wasn't very popular at all, or getting good ratings. And part of it I think was because there was a lot about it that hadn't changed much, as they still showed material from as far back as 1969 at that time, and parents would think their children were watching a 30-year-old show, which is why they phased out using older material, which of course also made me upset.