PBS stations carrying non-public TV fare

[Ultimajock]

...WTTW/11 Chicago ran Dave Allen At Large for about 15 years, as did WHA-TV/21 Madison for a much shorter stretch; both stations used the Time-Life Television commercial syndication edits rather than the original BBC episodes, and filled the commercial breaks with station promos. Similarly, WMVS/10 Milwaukee ran Thames' The World at War and Hollywood documentaries, as well as London Weekend's sitcom No, Honestly, in the late '70s...

[CrummyVision]

I remember KTEH, channel 54 out of San Jose not only running Doctor Who and a whole raft of British comedies on Saturday nights, but for a time they ran the original Outer Limits and they even had a short run of the George of the Jungle cartoon series. Not sure if they ever ran SCTV or not.

[bpatrick]

UNC-TV, several years ago, ran the half-hour Red Skeltons (I think
mostly the NBC shows, since Skelton vowed never to release any of
his CBS shows after the Eye Network canceled him in 1970), as well
as Jack Benny and Tennessee Ernie Ford.

I remember WOSU airing "Best Of Groucho" on Saturday mornings; unlike
other stations, it was listed as a comedy show rather than a game show.
I also seem to recall Burns and Allen on WOSU's Saturday-morning schedule.

The first commercial station in the U.S. to carry "Monty Python's Flying Circus"
was KPRC Houston, Sundays at 10:30 PM.  After the success of that show, the
station reserved that time for British shows for years, although I don't think they
had Benny Hill (he was on either Ch. 26 or Ch. 39, IIRC).  I also first heard of
"Doctor Who" through a commercial station; WJXT Jacksonville ran it at 4:30 PM
in the summer of 1973.  And my first exposure to "Dave Allen At Large" was on
WXIA, just before the switch from ABC to NBC; they delayed "Nightline" to carry
him at 11:30 PM, and for a time after the switch delayed Tom Snyder's expanded
"Tomorrow Coast-To-Coast" to 1 AM in order to carry Dave Allen.

I think those episodes of "The Goldbergs" that WPBT carried are the same ones
JLTV is carrying now; Gertrude Berg filmed a season's worth for syndication around
1955; Molly and Jake had moved to the suburbs, and it didn't seem to be true to the
characters.  Now if somebody could find the syndicated episodes of "Mama," filmed
around 1957...

I was a little surprised to find a PBS station carrying "Hee Haw," but I sometimes
wonder if some other PBS station manager will ever get the idea of carrying "Hee Haw"
and Lawrence Welk back to back (probably not, since "Hee Haw" is on RFD-TV).
Sounds stupid?  Maybe, but Welk's success on PBS broke all the rules as to what
constitutes "PBS fare."

Finally, someone mentioned that Walter Cronkite was a fan of Benny Hill, comparing
him to Red Skelton.  That comparison was no accident; Benny used the "God bless"
closing that Red did, and a lot of his stuff was slapstick; the main difference may have
been the presence of all those women on Benny's show.  Dan Rather reported Benny's
death in 1992; since I was watching him that evening I don't know if Tom Brokaw or
Peter Jennings mentioned it.

[Bluenoser]

Some PBS stations have carried The Red Green Show. Although that show was associated with the CBC in later years, it was originally produced by private broadcasters including CHCH Hamilton and CFPL London.

Wasn't Red Green carried on a commecial cable channel in Canada as well, possibly either TV Land Canada or the Comedy Channel? I wish some cable channel in the US would pick it up (RFD?). WLJT has only used it for filler on Saturday nights after college and high school sports, but now I think they've dropped it completely.

Here in Canada, both Comedy and Comedy Gold carry the show, with the latter carrying slightly older episodes. The channels air both the Global and CBC episodes.

[Ultimajock]

UNC-TV, several years ago, ran the half-hour Red Skeltons (I think
mostly the NBC shows, since Skelton vowed never to release any of
his CBS shows after the Eye Network canceled him in 1970), as well
as Jack Benny and Tennessee Ernie Ford.

...Red's widow, Lothian Skelton, authorised the Public TV repackaging of Red's 1950s programs, using material from both the NBC and CBS runs; plus, some stations, like KERA-TV/13 Dallas-Ft. Worth, have aired complete kinnies from the CBS run that have apparently fallen into the public domain. I believe the Red Skelton Hour CBS material has not been incorporated into the Public TV packagings...

I think those episodes of "The Goldbergs" that WPBT carried are the same ones
JLTV is carrying now; Gertrude Berg filmed a season's worth for syndication around
1955; Molly and Jake had moved to the suburbs, and it didn't seem to be true to the
characters.

...Jewish Life TV is running both the syndicated filmed run and kinescopes from the CBS, NBC and DuMont runs...

[Peter Q. George (K1XRB)]

Almost forgot...... during a tropo opening back in the early 1980's, I was able to watch a couple of episodes of "The Jack Benny Program" on New Jersey Public Television (WNJM/50 Montclair, NJ) while living in Weymouth, MA.  It was perfect reception for most of that Sunday night.  Got a nice QSL letter from that reception as well!  Great show on an unexpected (non-commercial) station.   

Also, back in '86 while vacationing in Phoenix, AZ, I watched "Mr. Ed" and "That's Hollywood" episodes on KAET (Channel 8/PBS) in the Valley Of The Sun.  Very interesting when you find PBS affiliates playing such mainstream material!!! I still like the way KBYU-TV (Channel *11/PBS in Provo, UT) still plays a lot of syndicated fare from the Paramount library ("Perry Mason", "Hogan's Heroes" et. al.).  Nice mix!

[cwf1701]

In some markets in the 1970, some PBS stations picked up "Big Blue Marble". I remember TVO (the PBS equivalent in Ontario) would show the first 78 Episodes (the 1974-77 shows) while WKBD would show the newer shows (1978-83). If Big Blue Marble got onto PBS it was:

1) No commercial station picked up Big Blue Marble in their market.
2) Reruns of older shows already aired while the commercial station ran the newer shows.

[nomadcowatbk]

Some PBS stations that are owned by schools or colleges/universities have sports highlight programs or sometimes live sports

[cd637299]

Some PBS stations that are owned by schools or colleges/universities have sports highlight programs or sometimes live sports

Not a PBS, but non-com Becon TV WBEC-TV Boca Raton FL often has taped high school sports.  With the low budget, it seems like one to three cameras only for football.  Almost like the old days of TV.

www.becon.tv

cd

[Ultimajock]

...of course, there's The McLaughlin Group and John McLaughlin's One on One, both commercial programs (originally produced at and broadcast by  WRC-TV/4 Washington, now on the schedule at WUSA-TV/9 there) that are bought by WTTW/v11 Chicago and distributed to Public TV stations (Group is still on KCET/28 Los Angeles, which broke from PBS a couple of years back) in those markets where commercial stations don't carry them. The podcast versions even include the WUSA local commercials that are aired during the show...