A Special Comment: Syndicated, Inc.
First off, credit to ‘Weird Al’ for the idea for an article title.
Now, to be serious, we’re all familiar in one form or another of syndication, be it repeats of favorite television shows on other channels or “stripped” shows like the courtroom shows or game shows that are on in the afternoons these days. But what I want to focus on for this article is something that has almost virtually gone extinct in today’s cable and dish era and that’s original programming on first-run syndication.
Syndication, like so many other concepts, got its start on radio – the idea being since radio signals for certain stations were limited, why not just make a record of a single broadcast and send it out to any radio station that wanted to run it? The first radio show to really try this was Amos ‘n’ Andy before NBC picked up the show, but the art form was really perfected by shows like The Lone Ranger, Sgt. Preston and The Green Hornet, all radio shows that started small off station WXYZ in Detroit before building their audience through syndication.
The format was a natural transition for television for a few reasons: first, even big networks like NBC, CBS and ABC had a hard time filling every single hour of programming they had available during their on-air hours, so syndicated programming was a cheap, easy answer to fill the slots. Second, not every station fell under the umbrella of the big networks or the DuMont network, so syndication was the answer for these independent or non-affiliated stations to establish a presence without going broke right out of the chute. Finally, for the producers of the syndicated programming, this was a logical step since the handwriting was on the wall that their original source of revenue – the movie serial – was slowly dying off, partially thanks to television. Plus, serials were already divided into “chapters” or episodes anyway, so they were ready made for fast return on little investment, so going over to television was about the only way any amount of money could be salvaged.
For the purposes of where we are and where we’re going in television, it’s enough to know that first-run syndication is where we’ll get a lot of Westerns before the Western television boom of the late 50s, plus a variety of other programming, mostly crime-drama and mysteries. That’s the good news, in as much as it means a wider breadth and variety of programming. The bad news is it makes it very difficult to determine when what show aired, since it varied from station to station and place-to-place. So, if someone has more information on a syndicated show that I’m going to be talking about than I have, please share. This is, after all, going on the best information or guesses that I have. Doesn’t make me right, just going by what I know. So, more often than not, if I know a date of broadcast, I’ll just run with that and discuss it before primetime programming since I suspect most syndicated programming was on in the mornings and afternoons, especially with the big primetime blocks that the main networks were putting together. But, like I said, if anyone else knows something I don’t, don’t be afraid to share.
Next time, the story of the lost network.
The radio versions of The Lone Ranger, Sgt. Preston and The Green Hornet were not syndicated on the MUTUAL radio network.
ReplyDeleteUnlike The NBC,Blue/ABC and CBS, MUTUAL was a an affiliated group of stations with the key member stations producing programming for the network. WOR New York produced "The Adventures of Superman",just like WXYZ produced the aforementioned shows. It was called "Mutual" as that what it was - a group of individually owned stations forming a network, supplying programming and pooling resources for national news and sports.
Fred Ziv, of ZIV PRODUCTIONS got his start with syndicated radio in the 1940's - Boston Blackie -which set the stage for his sucessful first run tv syndication in the 1950’s including "Highway Patrol","Sea Hunt","I Led 3 Lives" and others. (Ironicly by the late 1950’s he sold two shows to the networks, “Bat Masterson” and “Men into Space”
Let's not forget that Republic, though it's "Hollywood Television Service" offered cut down westerns of both Roy Rogers and Gene Autry among others - they'd cut these 70-75 minute features down to 55 minutes to fit an hour slot. Sadly the master negatives of several of Roy's films only exist as cut downs. (Although unedited prints in lesser quality turned up in his collection.)
Republic was also the only serial producer to enter TV production with anything similar to serials. (Universal closed down their serial unit in 1946 and Columbia's Screen Gems Unit didn't come to TV till later) "The Adventures of Fu Manchu" TV series was syndicated, but "Comando Cody" aired on NBC.
If anything it was Hal Roach who took what he did theatrically - film shorts - and adapted it to television production with several comedies he produced, including "My Little Margie" - a half hour show is about the same length as a "3 Reeler"!
Actually, first run syndicated shows would run in early evening or prime time! Not only on independent stations, (As in some markets they could get BETTER ratings and more viewers than on the network affiliates!) but even on some network affiliated ones - back then an affiliate could/would opt out of having to “clear” an entire network's programming line-up. Was not unusual for a station to air a syndicated series in place of a weak network offered show. (just like some stations
Thanks again for the clarity. Syndication is, as you can see, a hard thing to describe and, especially in the early 1950s, one of the most ubiquitous forms of television entertainment.
ReplyDeleteI will admit a small slip up on the radio stuff. While Lone Ranger, Challenge of the Yukon and Green Hornet were on Mutual, they were also syndicated over other stations, so it's a bit of both.