If there was one bear you didn't poke in late-night TV back then, it was Carson. He had a ton of leverage with all the money his show generated for NBC back then.
10:10 With less than 2:00 to go Sid Blanks #42 nearly breaks it for the win. I remember watching that only because the great Curt Gowdy's loud, frantic call of the play jarred me from semi-consciousness at 11:25 PM on a Monday night. Thanks to The For I realize now that I didn't miss Johnny's monologue because he didn't do one. No Ed McMahon intro or Doc Sverinsen and the band, either. This is an excellent clip with much historical data. Thank You, O.JG9!
You could call this Heidi Game 0. Great reporting as always. Yeah, the decision to kick off at 9 p.m. was the network scheduling equivalent of doing nothing but spiking the ball into the ground on every single play.
This is definitely one of your best videos in terms of content, explanation, and how this was a significant influence to the "Heidi" game. Loved this one because it was outstanding with historical context leading up to the drama that ensued
That whole sequence was crazy to modern eyes - clothesline, followed by the next guy trying to yank off his helmet, followed by a third guy just jumping on him for the hell of it. And then there are two more! At 2:35, #42 on KC crushes the Oiler receiver well OOB, and at 4:30 the KC end grabs the QB (already OOB and on the ground) and just slings him further away. I think the animated ref in the intro would have called a better game.
@@mikeb8674 Spot-on observations. It was the late, great Ernie Ladd, #99 - all 6'9" & 325 of him - at 4:30 swinging Pete Beathard in a semi-circle out of bounds. Watching it @ the time, it seemed to me as if Ernie had grasped the back of the shoulder-pads like a suitcase handle and slung away. Animated ref indeed! LOL.
Surprised no one has mentioned the great toilet paper shortage of 1973, which was attributed to Johnny Carson. I do remember the week in the mid-80’s when Carson didn’t shave his face for almost a week. Turned out to be a contract negotiation ploy.
Still one of the greatest and most-dramatic games in pro football history, as the Oilers made that stirring rally in the 4th Q, and twice threatened to steal the game in the final minutes. The long pass to Sid Blanks which put Houston in position, and the Curt Gowdy call which I recall, still gives me goosebumps to this day, but the Oilers would have one more serious advance in the last seconds. My goodness, what a game this was! The AFL bracketed opening weekend that season with nationally-televised games on NBC for Friday night (Bengals at Chargers, in the debut game of Paul Brown's Cincy), which NBC had also done as early as 1966 for a Jets at Dolphins early-season game, and this Monday nighter. Note the NFL had actually started the Monday night thing a couple of years earlier, beginning in 1966, with one televised Monday special per season on CBS (in '66, on Halloween it was Bears at Cardinals; in '67, Packers at Cards; in '68, Packers at Cowboys; in '69, Giants at Cowboys), giving Pete Rozelle the idea for the eventual MNF during the merger year of 1970. The most important TV football game ever, however, might have been the 1965 Texas-Alabama Orange Bowl, the first-ever primetime night nationally-televised football game (NBC) , which first planted the seed about televised, prime-time TV football. This Chiefs-Oilers, however, was one of the great games in AFL history!
People forget that in 1968, there was no PTAR (prime-time access rule) in place, which actually would have done NBC a favor in this particular scenario. It would have forced NBC to start this game to 8pm (est) instead of 9. That way, NBC's affiliates in the eastern time zone can guarantee at least 15 minutes of local news coverage, leading into Carson at 11:30.
Bill Carter said in “The War for Late Night” that both Jay Leno and David Letterman had clauses in their contracts with NBC and CBS respectively that they were to start immediately after the late local news. In fact CBS put that in Letterman’s contract knowing NBC couldn’t match it since they already made the decision to go with Leno. That was one of the reasons that Conan O’Brien left the Tonight Show, since he didn’t have that in his contract, and he publicly objected to having the Tonight Show moved to midnight as a way to deal with the disaster that was The Jay Leno Show.
@@donaldpaluga Conan's problem with The Tonight Show really was NBC's panicking when ABC execs in 2008 were IN THE OPEN threatening to cancel "Nightline" if they signed Leno and put him at 11:35 with Jimmy Kimmel moved back from Midnight to 12:35 AM. That caused NBC to sign Leno and give him the 10:00 PM show that on paper looked like a great idea because many people were going to bed and getting up earlier but in practice didn't work and Conan was forced out because NBC otherwise would have had to pay Leno an extra $120 million above what Conan's buyout was. That was why they went back to Leno.
I remember my mother turning off Monday Night Football to watch Carson any time it ran late. Regardless of who was playing. Remember no streaming or reruns or VCR's or multiple TV's in our house. (Go to Wikipedia to see what a VCR is) It was a different time back then. Yrs channels signed off for the day back then
Here's the REAL reason NBC cut away from Jets-Raiders for "Heidi": Timex has purchased the entire advertising block for "Heidi" under the condition that the program start promptly at 7:00 EST. Had NBC not preempted the football game for "Heidi", Timex would have had NBC by the you-know-whats, which would have led to a whole legal mess. This is why, in negotiating future television contracts, the NFL and other sports leagues and organizations made the networks contractully obligated to air their games and events in their entireties, thereby preempting any subsequent programming and preventing another "Heidi" incident.
Bruce12867, Yes that is the reason that the DEFAULT decision was to pull the plug at 7:00 p.m. for Heidi. However, NBC executives tried to call in to order the game remain on the air but were unable to get through due to jammed phone lines.. They would have paid the fine for the movie not starting on time. NBC made a mistake by allowing Timex to dictate those terms in the contract in the first place. There should have been contingency plans in place, but since the majority of AFL and NFL games lasted only about 2 1/2 hours in those days, they probably didn't give the possibility of a more than 3 hour game much thought.
@@dustinsindledecker154 I still wear a watch full time seriously 😆. Since I work in a school and sometimes when I need to temporarily shut off my cell phone, the old school arm watch comes in very handy then. By the way I still can’t afford a timex watch. 😞
(HEEEEERE’s CTube!) This unofficial Official Jaguar Gator 9 historian will remind everyone you made a video about how ABC got Monday Night Football in 1970. Roone Arledge said NBC executives were too afraid to ask Johnny Carson if it would be OK with him to have the start of his show be pre-empted once a week, which opened the door for ABC to get it.
@@dustinsindledecker154 Carson had all the power back then. He was the undisputed king of late night. It's why after "The Tomorrow Show" ended in early 1982 he helped get a guy who filled in for him for a significant period two years earlier and then failed with a daytime talk show get what appeared to be a last shot with a show that would follow Carson at 12:30 AM ET/PT (by then, The Tonight Show had long been cut from 90 minutes to an hour). That show was Late Night with David Letterman and it became a huge favorite, with Dave becoming his own star (and after Dave moved to CBS, Carson actually would help write jokes for Dave and continued to all the way to his death). And ABC only took MNF because the NFL planned to do it anyway in syndication, with many ABC affiliates pre-empting scheduled programming for MNF.
@@dustinsindledecker154 3 decades later, the original XFL ran into this too, when a Week 2 game between Chicago and Los Angeles (a great game BTW, that went to overtime), ran into the start time of Saturday Night Live, which had Jennifer Lopez as host. Lorne Michaels was furious, and from that point forward refused to allow any future XFL games to delay the show, meaning if the game was not over by 11:35, it would simply be cut away from so it could start on time. The league ended up changing some timing rules as a result to try and avoid that from happening. This story in itself would be a good video subject I think, even though others have talked of it before. There's quite a lot to it, including a mysterious power outage mid-game that delayed it a good hour I think.
@@ajk I remember that. That turned out to be the only overtime game in that one-year original version of the XFL. They did indeed change the timing rules after that game.
Mac Haik(pronounced Hike)actually has one of the biggest car dealerships in Houston and has been a staple in town since he first started playing with the Oilers! Just search the commercials as I’m sure they are out there. Great video as always brother!
I assumed NBC at least had a rerun of 'Laugh-In' at 8(its second season started the following week), but their summer schedule was a rerun of 'The Monkees' at 7:30(last prime time airing, since NBC had already cancelled it), and at 8 was an obscure science-fiction drama called 'The Champions'. CBS had its usual lineup of 'Gunsmoke', sitcoms and Carol Burnett, and most likely won the night. Controversial presidential candidate George Wallace bought an hour of airtime on ABC at 9 Eastern, directly opposite the start of the game.
It was easier scrapping Champions that night. Are you sure about the hour of airtime that night? I was asking because of Billy Graham being listed in that slot, followed by a repeat of The Big Valley at ten.
This could have simply been avoided by having the game start at 8:30 PM ET as games rarely went over three hours. The Heidi situation was simple: TIMEX, which was the main sponsor of Heidi I believe threatened to sue over that.
@@67marlins That's been well noted. Timex bought up all of the ad time for the Heidi special and likely would have been in court if NBC had not cut to the Heidi special. Ironically, NFL Network from time-to-time will now air "Heidi," usually opposite one of the really big NFL playoff games on the networks.
The game was carried live coast to coast. 9 PM Eastern start time is 6 PM Pacific start time, with both Los Angeles and San Francisco being significant chunks of viewership, while Seattle-Tacoma probably among the top 25. Also, at that time, it was RARE for a household to have more than one television. Look at the population for 1970. At that time, New York City was #1, Chicago was #2, and Los Angeles was #3.
In the 1974-75 season NBC was showing the best of the Tonight Show on Saturday night at 11:30 pm. Johnny Carson said he didn’t want that to air at that time after that season. This led to a little show taking that place called Saturday Night Live. Dick Ebersol would be the first executive overseeing the show, and later the executive producer. He said Johnny wanted the show taken off Saturday night and moved to a weeknight so he would only have to work four days a week. The day Johnny wanted the best of the Tonight Show to air was…wait for it…Monday night!
That was because by 1974 Monday Night Football had eaten into his ratings on Monday night. I suspect by then he regretted his 1968 walkout from this game realizing NBC could have had Monday Night Football leading directly into The Tonight Show and give him big ratings. Of course, pro football was NOT the 800-pound gorilla it is now. As for Saturday Night Live, (then known as "NBC's Saturday Night" because ABC had it's "Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell" at the time), initially it aired every other week, alternating with a magazine show called "Weekend" which aired in the time slot when "NBC's Saturday Night" was not airing (I remember this because I used to watch the old "Racing from Yonkers/Roosevelt" show on WOR-TV (Channel 9) in New York and after that would switch to WNBC-TV (Channel 4) to watch "Weekend Update" except some weeks it was the "Weekend" magazine show). And it was NBC stations that grew tired of airing the weekend repeat of Carson (some NBC stations actually aired the Carson repeat on Sunday night, not Saturday).
That was fascinating. I did not know that this game between the Chiefs and the Oilers was the first professional football Monday Night Game. Interestingly enough, during the Democratic National Convention, when Jay Leno was hosting the Tonite Show, a similar thing happened. The Democratic Nominee was elected late and NBC choose to show his acceptance speech while the in-studio Tonite show audience waited for NBC to switch to the Tonight Show. The executive producer released the audience from the Tonight Show and NBC was left holding the bag and nothing to show after the Democratic Convention coverage concluded for that night.
Before we talked about anything. We need to mention how it the 2:00 mark number 1 (Noland Smith Jr. A.K.A. Super Gnat) for the Chiefs gets close lined before another Oiler tries to take his helmet off with this head still inside! Wow! Sometimes I forgot how violent the NFL was before player safety came into vogue. You know that guy got up and played the rest of the game too. Also Super Gnat Smith was a pretty good kick returner at 5'5".
Yeah, even these A-F-L games were pretty violent! During Noland Smith's "career" with Kansas City, 32 games spread over 3 seasons (1967-69), he returned 68 kickoffs for 1822 yards, averaging 26.8 yards per return, he did take a kickoff back for a 106 yard TD in 1967 and he also led the AFL in kickoff return yards average that year at 28.0 yards per kickoff return ( 41 kickoff returns for 1148 yards) He had a good year then he was out of the game.
Before I go into my usual shtick, I’m going to take a page from George Giuliani and say this was a really good video! You did a great job going into this forgotten prequel to Heidi!
Very interesting story.....thanks very much for posting this. And I appreciate the chance to, 'politicize' the story by saying - 'Real Football fans miss the Houston Oilers'..... ( I grew up a Steelers fan as a kid).
Does anyone realize that "The Tonight Show" WASN'T broadcast live? I therefore have to give this the stamp, "CERTIFIED BS!" "Heidi" was obviously more important than Johnny to NBC! Maybe this explains why Johnny jumped ship from NBC to CBS in early 1969, much like this fable, never happened!
While I come here for the football content, I'm curious on what happened to the Carson contract situation. I know about the 79-80 negotiations, but I am not familiar with this.
By 1979 I believe Carson wanted to cut the show back to an hour because much of his audience was older and would no longer stay up until 1:00 AM or later (which is also why by then Carson had to start by midnight Eastern Time or his show would not air that night).
Wow... I never heard of this "prequel" to the Heidi Game. I only heard about the Heidi Game and how incompetent that NBC was at the time. Did most games last 2.5 hours or less at the time? Just strange that NBC would only give that much time. 8:30 would be a 7:30 local start which is plenty of time for locals to get to the 8th Wonder of the World. Just amazing. Who knows where we would be if this didn't happen...
I kinda wonder if something like this is what led to Johnny eventually cutting back his schedule in the years after this. By the end of his 30 year run, he was only doing new shows 3 days a week, with guest hosts Mondays and reruns on Fridays. He also didn't work some weeks at all, I think he did like 35-40 weeks a year by the end. I could see this playing into it.
Back then, a game was often over in that narrow a window because teams generally ran more running than passing plays which kept the clock moving. To this point, no game had ever gone over three hours.
@@ajk Actually it was guest hosts (which eventually became Joan Rivers until she left for her own show on FOX and then I believe usually Garry Shandling) on Mondays and repeats on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays were new.
@@WaltGekko Touche, I believe I remember that now that Tuesdays were reruns. Wasn't there a time that Fridays were as well under a similar formula? I thought they did that at some point. I know to best of my knowledge that they used to run some on Saturdays in the pre-SNL days, maybe I am conflating that with that, but am not sure. Also as an aside, Jay Leno who of course ultimately replaced Carson, became the de-facto guest host by the end of the run, am assuming you forgot about him just then.
@@ajkThey did have repeats that some NBC stations aired on Saturdays and others on Sundays. What originally was "NBC's Saturday Night" (due to ABC having "Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell" at the time) actually aired every other Saturday at first, alternating with a newsmagazine show "Weekend."
Well COMBINED the Houston Oilers and Kansas City Chiefs are STILL WAY BELOW a 39.6. This game would have been WAY MORE ENTERTAINING if both teams just SPIKED the football into the ground on EVERY single OFFENSIVE play!!!!!!
@@TheSonicsean When I was a kid (1987-93) I hated the 8:00 start time for Monday Night Football. My mom said I had to go to bed at 10:00 no matter what. My mom switched to NBC for the local news and I had to go to bed. The local paper wouldn’t have the score for it the next morning because they went to press before the game ended. My dad was gone to work so I had to find out the score from the kid who was allowed to stay up late on Monday nights.
We always hear about the Heidi Game, but without JG9, the controversial broadcasts after, or even before, would be mostly forgotten and not given the attention they deserve. Great video!
I know in the pre Carson days, previous host Jack Paer and Steve Allen would always air their shows “live.” So by 1968, I am not sure. By the ‘70s and until his retirement Carson, would usually tape the shows in Burbank around 4-5pm PT. Thus just a couple of hours before the viewers in the East and Central Time Zones would view it at 1130/1030 Central Time.
Wait a minute, wasn't it called the Heidi Bowl? That's what it says in NFL 2K5, and Chris Berman read it as the Heidi Bowl, I maybe wrong though I'm not too sure, love the video as usual though Jaguar 🐆
'Heidi Bowl' has become common because of the examples you mentioned, but when the game was played, the name 'Super Bowl' had not been used yet(that would start in the third game, in January 1969, renaming the former 'AFL-NFL World Championship Game'). A 'bowl' game prior to that was associated with college football.
Local NBC affiliates probably were irate, because based on this video, NBC affiliates on the East Coast didn't have a late night local newscast that evening. Otherwise, Johnny in the Eastern and Central time zones wouldn't have started until a half-hour after the game coverage had ended. One problem with an 8:35 P.M EDT kick-off would have been TV's most popular show of the late 1960's: "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" ran from 8 to 9 Eastern time. An 8:30 EDT start would likely have meant a Pre-Emption of the most popular TV show of the era.
That’s why NBC had “Monday Night Football” before it moved to ABC two years later in 1970. Johnny Carson was the king of late night talk shows, and his show had better ratings until 1992 where Jay Leno took over.
They could have moved "Laugh-In" up a half-hour to 7:30 to start the football game at 8:30 ("The Monkees," that aired that night at 7:30 was a repeat and had already been canceled as noted). That would have avoided such. And it would not have killed Carson if "Tonight" started at 11:45 for one night. He must have really thought his viewers would not wait and those watching football who were not regular viewers would not stay tuned.
@@WaltGekko Not to mention just have an short 15 minute local newscast as well on the East Coast. Only problem with that scenario of starting Carson at 1145pm was fact here in September 1968, arguably the most important American Presidential election ever to that point was also in its “home stretch” between VP Humphrey, VP Nixon(the eventual Winner) and Gov. Wallace.
@@americangiant1003True, another reason they should have moved "Laugh-In" up 30 minutes to 7:30 and started the game at 8:30 even if some NBC stations in the west would have had to air local news at 5:00 PM (networks still started prime time back then at 7:30 except Sunday when then and now it starts at 7:00 PM). As it was, many stations in the west likely aired local news at 5:30 that night, which was rare in those days.
Karl the AFL/NFL was nowhere as big in 1968 as it was now. Generally MLB was still the most popular spectator fan sport in America at that time. The NFL did not become the huge deal and the country’s #1 most popular sport/entertainment option until sometime in the 1970s. Thus it’s a much different era in American history. For lack of comparison, (this is only close one I can think of) Carson was basically the Oprah Winfrey of his era. Like Oprah was on Daytime TV, Johnny was *not* the first late night talk show host. Instead like Oprah, Carson was so popular he basically revolutionized that late night TV genre forever.
@@americangiant1003 definitely agree. I also get the feeling this was more of a ploy by Carson to get a better contract by saying NBC had violated the previous one making him a free agent.
It should be noted that until May 1st, 1972, the Tonight Show was at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York City, so Johnny could literally knock at the door of the NBC executives. Also, only 33 complete episodes of Johnny Carson's Tonight Show that had originally aired prior to May 1, 1972 are known to exist due to the wiping practices at the time and believing there was no value in the shows.
Really they wiped the episodes because they had no value, we always should preserve all video no matter what it is because it gives historical context.
Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show” was taped in NYC at 30 Rock in 1968 before he moved to Burbank, CA in 1972 to do his show from the west coast where he remained until his retirement in May 1992.
Interesting video, but it is not entirely correct or tells the entire story. Yes NBC executives,, before the game, decided to switch to Heidi at its 7:00PM EST start, but with seven minutes left in the game decided to keep the Raiders-Jets game on TV and delay Heidi in the East Coast. They made this decision, partially due to magnitude of the game, but also not to alienate the large NY area TV audience and press. If the game was between the Broncos and the Bills, two lower level teams, they would have cut the game off and easily moved to Heidi and received far less criticism. However, as the game involved NY, and the Raiders, another AFL top program, NBC execs made the choice to continue showing the game, notwithstanding any Carson influence. They failed to execute the change because the phone lines were jammed and their calls did not go through. Why the made the decision in the first place to show Heidi may have been influenced by the events depicted in this presentation, but the complete story is that NBC execs tried to change their programming decision and failed. Had their calls gone through, there would have never been the Heidi game. In retrospect, their failure was a good thing as it forced the NFL and the TV execs to agree to show complete games, and not pull the plug on them. The unanswered question in your video was why did the AFL and NBC showcase the Oilers on a prime time, Monday night game? Certainly, the AFL and NBC would rather show a game featuring the Jets, with its huge NY following, against the Chiefs or Raiders, than the Oilers and their more regional audience. The Oilers did not have Joe Namath or any star of similar stature that would bring the casual fan to watch. So why the Oilers? Despite their record they were not top three in the AFL at that time. Jets, Raiders and Chiefs were clearly the top teams. The Oilers had the luxury of having 6 mostly guaranteed wins in their conference due to playing the Bills, Dolphins and Patriots twice a year. None of these three teams were serious contenders, although the Fins were stockpiling some impressive talent. Was it the owner of the Oilers, and his clout that got the game on Monday night? Would be interesting to know why this game was chosen and not a Jets game at some point in the season. Note that CBS showed the Giants-Cowboy games on Sunday nights during this period. NBC would not pull the plug on Bonanza for a Sunday night game (Bonanza was the #1 show on TV); but a Monday night game later in the year was always possible.
@@dustinsindledecker154 Exactly. In most of America in 1968, you only had 4 channels back then. CBS, ABC, NET now known as PBS and of course NBC. Plus in larger cities you was lucky 20 years before Fox TV started you had a so called “Independent” station. Which say in NYC was Channel 5/WNYW, Channel 9/WOR-TV and WPIX.
@@teen_laqueefa Agreed. Comparing Ellen to Carson? It’s like comparing 1980s Cowboys era QB Danny White to Peyton Manning. No contest on who is probably the GOAT as the American Comic TV Host of all time. And hint it’s not Ellen.
9:20 Hey Mamie Van Doren's divorce of Lee Meyers! Thus ending her younger baseball player phase I can't accept the fact that a younger Carson looked like one of the Bushes, can't do it
Why is NBC so obsessed with their damn movies? Pre-empting The Tonight Show for a scripted movie, which I need to remind everyone, NBC knew exactly how long it was when they bought the rights to it, is just absurdly dumb. Start it earlier (starting at 8 would give 3 hours before 11 and the news, more than enough time for a normal movie with commercials), have less commercials to fit the right time slot (ok that's unlikely I know), or cut up the movie so it's butchered for TV (some channels removed entire subplots for movies to fit with enough ads). But you know how long it will be. Live events are one thing, or a massive breaking news story can mess with the schedule, but bumping stuff for a film that you know for certain how long it is because it was filmed months or years ago?????
At the end of the day, It was all a bargaining chip by Carson because he wanted more money (and lighter work schedule) and he was becoming bigger than the Tonight Show itself. (He wanted ownership of it.) Interesting enough, it wouldn't be the last time that Carson and NBC butted heads. In fact, Carson took NBC to court in 1979 over a contract dispute (and a certain law in California regarding contracts). Interesting note, in 1979, ABC was actually willing to offer Carson DOUBLE what he was earning at NBC. Which would have been interesting because by 1979, ABC's Monday Night Football had become larger than life. And would have potentially created some conflict of interest for Carson.
I absolutely LOVE your videos! Most people do not know this, but Burt Coan, number 23 on the Chiefs lead the AFL in yards gained per carry in 1968 with a whopping 5.4 yards per carry!
WRONG@!!!!!!! B-E-R-T Coan led the AFL in rushing yards per carry in 1966 with 5.4 yards per carry, 96 carries for an astounding 521 yards! Coan's teammate in the Chiefs backfield in 1966 was rookie Mike Garrett who ran for 801 yards on 147 carries for an average of 5.4 yards per carry, a statistical TIE! Garrett earned a spot in the 1966 AFL All-Star game (the AFL's Pro Bowl), B-E-R-T Coan stayed at home!
@@davidcobb2693 oops! Thanks for the correction. He got lit up while out of bounds, did you see it? I botched the 1968, but really did know better because Bert Coan retired in 1968. Did you know Mr. Coan died in February 2022?
@@davidcobb2693 I am not weird, and would love to exchange AFL trivia with you ok? Who is the only player in the Pro Football Hall of Fame to have played in the AFL but never the NFL?
@@BillMorganChannel That's a great question and I knew the answer without having to Google it, Buffalo Bills Guard Billy Shaw is the answer, I have collected football cards since I was a kid when a pack of Topps football cards was still 10 cents and I still remember when they raised the price to 15 cents a pack (1974), Billy Shaw was long retired by then but after I got a real job that paid real money I bought a complete set of 1962 Fleer football cards, 87 of the 88 cards came in a small card box but one card arrived in a thick plastic screw down card holder, card number 16, Billy Shaw, it was the most valuable card in the set so I did some pre internet research and I found out that he's the only member of the pro football HOF who played his entire career in the AFL without ever playing in the NFL.
![Stromae, Pomme - “Ma Meilleure Ennemie” (from Arcane Season 2) [Official Visualizer]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/1F3OGIFnW1k/mqdefault.jpg)
If there was one bear you didn't poke in late-night TV back then, it was Carson. He had a ton of leverage with all the money his show generated for NBC back then.
10:10 With less than 2:00 to go Sid Blanks #42 nearly breaks it for the win. I remember watching that only because the great Curt Gowdy's loud, frantic call of the play jarred me from semi-consciousness at 11:25 PM on a Monday night. Thanks to The For I realize now that I didn't miss Johnny's monologue because he didn't do one. No Ed McMahon intro or Doc Sverinsen and the band, either.
This is an excellent clip with much historical data. Thank You, O.JG9!
You could call this Heidi Game 0.
Great reporting as always. Yeah, the decision to kick off at 9 p.m. was the network scheduling equivalent of doing nothing but spiking the ball into the ground on every single play.
This is definitely one of your best videos in terms of content, explanation, and how this was a significant influence to the "Heidi" game. Loved this one because it was outstanding with historical context leading up to the drama that ensued
For the first time in ages OP didn’t rely solely on clickbait and hyperbole.
@@bugsyproductions3140 LOL....okay if you say so
NBC learned it's lesson,not to mess with it's biggest star,and the one who brings home it's bread n buttet
Man, I just wanted a debate on how long a player would be suspended now for the "tackle" at 1:49.
That whole sequence was crazy to modern eyes - clothesline, followed by the next guy trying to yank off his helmet, followed by a third guy just jumping on him for the hell of it.
And then there are two more! At 2:35, #42 on KC crushes the Oiler receiver well OOB, and at 4:30 the KC end grabs the QB (already OOB and on the ground) and just slings him further away.
I think the animated ref in the intro would have called a better game.
@@mikeb8674 And you will notice that nobody even batted an eye. The Oilers were quite a viscous ballclub and that's how the game was played.
@@mikeb8674 Spot-on observations. It was the late, great Ernie Ladd, #99 - all 6'9" & 325 of him - at 4:30 swinging Pete Beathard in a semi-circle out of bounds. Watching it @ the time, it seemed to me as if Ernie had grasped the back of the shoulder-pads like a suitcase handle and slung away. Animated ref indeed! LOL.
And here I am thinking of the horrible 3-hour windows ESPN sometimes uses for college football. 2.5 hours? What were they thinking?
In 1968, it was still possible to finish a game under 3 hours, although 2 and a half was pushing it.
Surprised no one has mentioned the great toilet paper shortage of 1973, which was attributed to Johnny Carson.
I do remember the week in the mid-80’s when Carson didn’t shave his face for almost a week. Turned out to be a contract negotiation ploy.
Still one of the greatest and most-dramatic games in pro football history, as the Oilers made that stirring rally in the 4th Q, and twice threatened to steal the game in the final minutes. The long pass to Sid Blanks which put Houston in position, and the Curt Gowdy call which I recall, still gives me goosebumps to this day, but the Oilers would have one more serious advance in the last seconds. My goodness, what a game this was! The AFL bracketed opening weekend that season with nationally-televised games on NBC for Friday night (Bengals at Chargers, in the debut game of Paul Brown's Cincy), which NBC had also done as early as 1966 for a Jets at Dolphins early-season game, and this Monday nighter. Note the NFL had actually started the Monday night thing a couple of years earlier, beginning in 1966, with one televised Monday special per season on CBS (in '66, on Halloween it was Bears at Cardinals; in '67, Packers at Cards; in '68, Packers at Cowboys; in '69, Giants at Cowboys), giving Pete Rozelle the idea for the eventual MNF during the merger year of 1970. The most important TV football game ever, however, might have been the 1965 Texas-Alabama Orange Bowl, the first-ever primetime night nationally-televised football game (NBC) , which first planted the seed about televised, prime-time TV football. This Chiefs-Oilers, however, was one of the great games in AFL history!
People forget that in 1968, there was no PTAR (prime-time access rule) in place, which actually would have done NBC a favor in this particular scenario. It would have forced NBC to start this game to 8pm (est) instead of 9. That way, NBC's affiliates in the eastern time zone can guarantee at least 15 minutes of local news coverage, leading into Carson at 11:30.
Bill Carter said in “The War for Late Night” that both Jay Leno and David Letterman had clauses in their contracts with NBC and CBS respectively that they were to start immediately after the late local news. In fact CBS put that in Letterman’s contract knowing NBC couldn’t match it since they already made the decision to go with Leno. That was one of the reasons that Conan O’Brien left the Tonight Show, since he didn’t have that in his contract, and he publicly objected to having the Tonight Show moved to midnight as a way to deal with the disaster that was The Jay Leno Show.
Uh, because of a clause in his contract NBC was forced to can Leno so Coco Puffs could host the Tonight Show, to DISASTROUS results
@@donaldpaluga Conan's problem with The Tonight Show really was NBC's panicking when ABC execs in 2008 were IN THE OPEN threatening to cancel "Nightline" if they signed Leno and put him at 11:35 with Jimmy Kimmel moved back from Midnight to 12:35 AM. That caused NBC to sign Leno and give him the 10:00 PM show that on paper looked like a great idea because many people were going to bed and getting up earlier but in practice didn't work and Conan was forced out because NBC otherwise would have had to pay Leno an extra $120 million above what Conan's buyout was. That was why they went back to Leno.
I remember my mother turning off Monday Night Football to watch Carson any time it ran late. Regardless of who was playing. Remember no streaming or reruns or VCR's or multiple TV's in our house. (Go to Wikipedia to see what a VCR is)
It was a different time back then. Yrs channels signed off for the day back then
I feel like more people know what a VCR is than you think
I remember VCRs I was born in 1984.
My son barely does and he was born in 1992
@@memeteam2692 Did you know the bandwidth of VCRs was only 3 megahertz? Most people don't know that!
I mean, I have a VCR.
Here's the REAL reason NBC cut away from Jets-Raiders for "Heidi": Timex has purchased the entire advertising block for "Heidi" under the condition that the program start promptly at 7:00 EST. Had NBC not preempted the football game for "Heidi", Timex would have had NBC by the you-know-whats, which would have led to a whole legal mess. This is why, in negotiating future television contracts, the NFL and other sports leagues and organizations made the networks contractully obligated to air their games and events in their entireties, thereby preempting any subsequent programming and preventing another "Heidi" incident.
Bruce12867,
Yes that is the reason that the DEFAULT decision was to pull the plug at 7:00 p.m. for Heidi. However, NBC executives tried to call in to order the game remain on the air but were unable to get through due to jammed phone lines.. They would have paid the fine for the movie not starting on time. NBC made a mistake by allowing Timex to dictate those terms in the contract in the first place. There should have been contingency plans in place, but since the majority of AFL and NFL games lasted only about 2 1/2 hours in those days, they probably didn't give the possibility of a more than 3 hour game much thought.
I remember Timex, there is no use for watches now as we get the time on our phones
@@dustinsindledecker154 I still wear a watch full time seriously 😆. Since I work in a school and sometimes when I need to temporarily shut off my cell phone, the old school arm watch comes in very handy then. By the way I still can’t afford a timex watch. 😞
@@dustinsindledecker154 Apple Watch anyone?
(HEEEEERE’s CTube!) This unofficial Official Jaguar Gator 9 historian will remind everyone you made a video about how ABC got Monday Night Football in 1970. Roone Arledge said NBC executives were too afraid to ask Johnny Carson if it would be OK with him to have the start of his show be pre-empted once a week, which opened the door for ABC to get it.
It unbelievable that a late night talk show host has that kind of power but those were the times.
@@dustinsindledecker154 Carson had all the power back then. He was the undisputed king of late night. It's why after "The Tomorrow Show" ended in early 1982 he helped get a guy who filled in for him for a significant period two years earlier and then failed with a daytime talk show get what appeared to be a last shot with a show that would follow Carson at 12:30 AM ET/PT (by then, The Tonight Show had long been cut from 90 minutes to an hour). That show was Late Night with David Letterman and it became a huge favorite, with Dave becoming his own star (and after Dave moved to CBS, Carson actually would help write jokes for Dave and continued to all the way to his death).
And ABC only took MNF because the NFL planned to do it anyway in syndication, with many ABC affiliates pre-empting scheduled programming for MNF.
@@dustinsindledecker154 3 decades later, the original XFL ran into this too, when a Week 2 game between Chicago and Los Angeles (a great game BTW, that went to overtime), ran into the start time of Saturday Night Live, which had Jennifer Lopez as host. Lorne Michaels was furious, and from that point forward refused to allow any future XFL games to delay the show, meaning if the game was not over by 11:35, it would simply be cut away from so it could start on time. The league ended up changing some timing rules as a result to try and avoid that from happening. This story in itself would be a good video subject I think, even though others have talked of it before. There's quite a lot to it, including a mysterious power outage mid-game that delayed it a good hour I think.
@@WaltGekko Johnny Carson later sat out Monday nights assumedly because of MNF.
@@ajk I remember that. That turned out to be the only overtime game in that one-year original version of the XFL. They did indeed change the timing rules after that game.
The Heidi Game was an inevitable and recurring conflict between the NFL and Sunday night primetime.
Mac Haik(pronounced Hike)actually has one of the biggest car dealerships in Houston and has been a staple in town since he first started playing with the Oilers! Just search the commercials as I’m sure they are out there.
Great video as always brother!
I assumed NBC at least had a rerun of 'Laugh-In' at 8(its second season started the following week), but their summer schedule was a rerun of 'The Monkees' at 7:30(last prime time airing, since NBC had already cancelled it), and at 8 was an obscure science-fiction drama called 'The Champions'. CBS had its usual lineup of 'Gunsmoke', sitcoms and Carol Burnett, and most likely won the night.
Controversial presidential candidate George Wallace bought an hour of airtime on ABC at 9 Eastern, directly opposite the start of the game.
It was easier scrapping Champions that night. Are you sure about the hour of airtime that night? I was asking because of Billy Graham being listed in that slot, followed by a repeat of The Big Valley at ten.
Actually CBS ran a series of unsold pilots titled Premiere at 10 Eastern as a summer replacement.
This could have simply been avoided by having the game start at 8:30 PM ET as games rarely went over three hours.
The Heidi situation was simple: TIMEX, which was the main sponsor of Heidi I believe threatened to sue over that.
Walt - Is that true about Timex? I don't doubt you - it's just that I'm a little too young to have ever heard that, that's all.
Thanks, let me know.
@@67marlins That's been well noted. Timex bought up all of the ad time for the Heidi special and likely would have been in court if NBC had not cut to the Heidi special.
Ironically, NFL Network from time-to-time will now air "Heidi," usually opposite one of the really big NFL playoff games on the networks.
@@WaltGekko OK, thanks Walt.
The game was carried live coast to coast. 9 PM Eastern start time is 6 PM Pacific start time, with both Los Angeles and San Francisco being significant chunks of viewership, while Seattle-Tacoma probably among the top 25. Also, at that time, it was RARE for a household to have more than one television.
Look at the population for 1970. At that time, New York City was #1, Chicago was #2, and Los Angeles was #3.
@@MarkAHoltz Good point about typically oneTV per home.
In the 1974-75 season NBC was showing the best of the Tonight Show on Saturday night at 11:30 pm. Johnny Carson said he didn’t want that to air at that time after that season. This led to a little show taking that place called Saturday Night Live. Dick Ebersol would be the first executive overseeing the show, and later the executive producer. He said Johnny wanted the show taken off Saturday night and moved to a weeknight so he would only have to work four days a week. The day Johnny wanted the best of the Tonight Show to air was…wait for it…Monday night!
You can more about The J Lo and her Drapery episode of SNL by clicking on the upper right hand corner
NBC should've started this game @ 8 O'clock, as this particular start time was cutting it too close.
Yep they should have but you can't go back with a time machine.
@@dustinsindledecker154 Not even a Hot Tub Time Machine😢.
That was because by 1974 Monday Night Football had eaten into his ratings on Monday night. I suspect by then he regretted his 1968 walkout from this game realizing NBC could have had Monday Night Football leading directly into The Tonight Show and give him big ratings. Of course, pro football was NOT the 800-pound gorilla it is now.
As for Saturday Night Live, (then known as "NBC's Saturday Night" because ABC had it's "Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell" at the time), initially it aired every other week, alternating with a magazine show called "Weekend" which aired in the time slot when "NBC's Saturday Night" was not airing (I remember this because I used to watch the old "Racing from Yonkers/Roosevelt" show on WOR-TV (Channel 9) in New York and after that would switch to WNBC-TV (Channel 4) to watch "Weekend Update" except some weeks it was the "Weekend" magazine show). And it was NBC stations that grew tired of airing the weekend repeat of Carson (some NBC stations actually aired the Carson repeat on Sunday night, not Saturday).
That was fascinating. I did not know that this game between the Chiefs and the Oilers was the first professional football Monday Night Game.
Interestingly enough, during the Democratic National Convention, when Jay Leno was hosting the Tonite Show, a similar thing happened.
The Democratic Nominee was elected late and NBC choose to show his acceptance speech while the in-studio Tonite show audience waited for NBC to switch to the Tonight Show.
The executive producer released the audience from the Tonight Show and NBC was left holding the bag and nothing to show after the Democratic Convention coverage concluded for that night.
Actually, the NFL did a couple of Monday night games before this, including one in October 1967 that started at 9:30 PM ET.
Before we talked about anything. We need to mention how it the 2:00 mark number 1 (Noland Smith Jr. A.K.A. Super Gnat) for the Chiefs gets close lined before another Oiler tries to take his helmet off with this head still inside! Wow! Sometimes I forgot how violent the NFL was before player safety came into vogue. You know that guy got up and played the rest of the game too. Also Super Gnat Smith was a pretty good kick returner at 5'5".
Yeah, even these A-F-L games were pretty violent! During Noland Smith's "career" with Kansas City, 32 games spread over 3 seasons (1967-69), he returned 68 kickoffs for 1822 yards, averaging 26.8 yards per return, he did take a kickoff back for a 106 yard TD in 1967 and he also led the AFL in kickoff return yards average that year at 28.0 yards per kickoff return ( 41 kickoff returns for 1148 yards) He had a good year then he was out of the game.
Much kudos for this video 👏
I'm kiiinda dying to know what that san francisco show was about.
Look at the tackle at 1:49. Wouldn't that be three different penalties today?
You mean Carnac the Magnificent couldn't have foreseen this?
Imagine getting this situation in stereo today as it did more than 50 years ago.
Great video! It fills in all the blanks for those of us who weren't alive at the time.
Before I go into my usual shtick, I’m going to take a page from George Giuliani and say this was a really good video! You did a great job going into this forgotten prequel to Heidi!
Good call :)...I agree!!
I couldn’t said it better myself.
The hands to helmet that are NBD at like 1:50 are crazy to see today
Anyone who ever had to watch Nightline at 1:00 a.m. (which Koppel usually taped) thanks this game!
One of your best, Gator.
Very interesting story.....thanks very much for posting this.
And I appreciate the chance to, 'politicize' the story by saying - 'Real Football fans miss the Houston Oilers'.....
( I grew up a Steelers fan as a kid).
Does anyone realize that "The Tonight Show" WASN'T broadcast live? I therefore have to give this the stamp, "CERTIFIED BS!" "Heidi" was obviously more important than Johnny to NBC! Maybe this explains why Johnny jumped ship from NBC to CBS in early 1969, much like this fable, never happened!
Baltimore Colts used to start games at 2:00 from the Largest Outdoor Insane Asylum
I rememeber the Heidi game, but have no recollection of the Oiler-Chiefts game.
While I come here for the football content, I'm curious on what happened to the Carson contract situation. I know about the 79-80 negotiations, but I am not familiar with this.
By 1979 I believe Carson wanted to cut the show back to an hour because much of his audience was older and would no longer stay up until 1:00 AM or later (which is also why by then Carson had to start by midnight Eastern Time or his show would not air that night).
there should be a documentary on the crazy history between nbc & pro football
I think that CBS televised a Rams Monday Night game that year.
Sometimes when he says to click the card in the upper right corner it's not there.
Wow... I never heard of this "prequel" to the Heidi Game. I only heard about the Heidi Game and how incompetent that NBC was at the time. Did most games last 2.5 hours or less at the time? Just strange that NBC would only give that much time. 8:30 would be a 7:30 local start which is plenty of time for locals to get to the 8th Wonder of the World. Just amazing. Who knows where we would be if this didn't happen...
I kinda wonder if something like this is what led to Johnny eventually cutting back his schedule in the years after this. By the end of his 30 year run, he was only doing new shows 3 days a week, with guest hosts Mondays and reruns on Fridays. He also didn't work some weeks at all, I think he did like 35-40 weeks a year by the end. I could see this playing into it.
Back then, a game was often over in that narrow a window because teams generally ran more running than passing plays which kept the clock moving. To this point, no game had ever gone over three hours.
@@ajk Actually it was guest hosts (which eventually became Joan Rivers until she left for her own show on FOX and then I believe usually Garry Shandling) on Mondays and repeats on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays were new.
@@WaltGekko Touche, I believe I remember that now that Tuesdays were reruns. Wasn't there a time that Fridays were as well under a similar formula? I thought they did that at some point. I know to best of my knowledge that they used to run some on Saturdays in the pre-SNL days, maybe I am conflating that with that, but am not sure. Also as an aside, Jay Leno who of course ultimately replaced Carson, became the de-facto guest host by the end of the run, am assuming you forgot about him just then.
@@ajkThey did have repeats that some NBC stations aired on Saturdays and others on Sundays. What originally was "NBC's Saturday Night" (due to ABC having "Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell" at the time) actually aired every other Saturday at first, alternating with a newsmagazine show "Weekend."
Well COMBINED the Houston Oilers and Kansas City Chiefs are STILL WAY BELOW a 39.6. This game would have been WAY MORE ENTERTAINING if both teams just SPIKED the football into the ground on EVERY single OFFENSIVE play!!!!!!
Should have just started the AFL game an hour earlier.
7 Central doesn't even seem that ridiculous. Nowadays that's the usual start time is 7 local.
@@TheSonicsean When I was a kid (1987-93) I hated the 8:00 start time for Monday Night Football. My mom said I had to go to bed at 10:00 no matter what. My mom switched to NBC for the local news and I had to go to bed. The local paper wouldn’t have the score for it the next morning because they went to press before the game ended. My dad was gone to work so I had to find out the score from the kid who was allowed to stay up late on Monday nights.
The Punter with a clothesline and the defender tried to take his head off then a spear to the ribs for good measure 1:49
Only way the networks would interrupt an NFL game now would be an announcement of incoming ICBMs
The Jets played the Browns on Monday night football but that was on ABC.
We always hear about the Heidi Game, but without JG9, the controversial broadcasts after, or even before, would be mostly forgotten and not given the attention they deserve. Great video!
Heeeeeere's Johnny !
Johhny said i ain’t having that!
The way you talked about the game and that night’s Tonight Show implied the Tonight Show aired live back then (at least ET and CT). Did it?
According to Wikipedia no it was recorded earlier that day (like it is now to my knowledge)
I know in the pre Carson days, previous host Jack Paer and Steve Allen would always air their shows “live.” So by 1968, I am not sure. By the ‘70s and until his retirement Carson, would usually tape the shows in Burbank around 4-5pm PT. Thus just a couple of hours before the viewers in the East and Central Time Zones would view it at 1130/1030 Central Time.
I wasn't alive in 1968, but didn't Johnny Carson's TV show film in New York until the early 1970's when he eventually relocated to Burbank?
Were get these footage
Do a video on Derrick Thomas’ 7 sack game against the Seahawks
Wait a minute, wasn't it called the Heidi Bowl? That's what it says in NFL 2K5, and Chris Berman read it as the Heidi Bowl, I maybe wrong though I'm not too sure, love the video as usual though Jaguar 🐆
'Heidi Bowl' has become common because of the examples you mentioned, but when the game was played, the name 'Super Bowl' had not been used yet(that would start in the third game, in January 1969, renaming the former 'AFL-NFL World Championship Game'). A 'bowl' game prior to that was associated with college football.
@@brianoneill7186 ahhh I see, thanks for the clarification Brian. That makes a lot of sense
Local NBC affiliates probably were irate, because based on this video, NBC affiliates on the East Coast didn't have a late night local newscast that evening.
Otherwise, Johnny in the Eastern and Central time zones wouldn't have started until a half-hour after the game coverage had ended.
One problem with an 8:35 P.M EDT kick-off would have been TV's most popular show of the late 1960's: "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" ran from 8 to 9 Eastern time.
An 8:30 EDT start would likely have meant a Pre-Emption of the most popular TV show of the era.
That’s why NBC had “Monday Night Football” before it moved to ABC two years later in 1970. Johnny Carson was the king of late night talk shows, and his show had better ratings until 1992 where Jay Leno took over.
They could have moved "Laugh-In" up a half-hour to 7:30 to start the football game at 8:30 ("The Monkees," that aired that night at 7:30 was a repeat and had already been canceled as noted). That would have avoided such.
And it would not have killed Carson if "Tonight" started at 11:45 for one night. He must have really thought his viewers would not wait and those watching football who were not regular viewers would not stay tuned.
@@WaltGekko Not to mention just have an short 15 minute local newscast as well on the East Coast. Only problem with that scenario of starting Carson at 1145pm was fact here in September 1968, arguably the most important American Presidential election ever to that point was also in its “home stretch” between VP Humphrey, VP Nixon(the eventual Winner) and Gov. Wallace.
@@americangiant1003True, another reason they should have moved "Laugh-In" up 30 minutes to 7:30 and started the game at 8:30 even if some NBC stations in the west would have had to air local news at 5:00 PM (networks still started prime time back then at 7:30 except Sunday when then and now it starts at 7:00 PM). As it was, many stations in the west likely aired local news at 5:30 that night, which was rare in those days.
Maybe they should have done a spilt screen in both cases if that was possible??
there would be 1 problem even if this plan somehow goes through, which audio are you going to use.
You can watch sports without audio that doesnt work with a movie!!!
Do you remember TVs back during that time, that pretty much would have been a pain in the ass to watch.
@@dustinsindledecker154 Unless you had 2 t.v s that would have been very difficult to watch .
The Carson Bowl!
The Houston Roughnecks.
Can’t please everyone as the ancient saying goes.
Little did we know in 2022 it would be the other way around.
Johnny Carson had an enormous ego to think that he could compete with the NFL in prime-time.
Karl the AFL/NFL was nowhere as big in 1968 as it was now. Generally MLB was still the most popular spectator fan sport in America at that time. The NFL did not become the huge deal and the country’s #1 most popular sport/entertainment option until sometime in the 1970s. Thus it’s a much different era in American history.
For lack of comparison, (this is only close one I can think of) Carson was basically the Oprah Winfrey of his era. Like Oprah was on Daytime TV, Johnny was *not* the first late night talk show host. Instead like Oprah, Carson was so popular he basically revolutionized that late night TV genre forever.
@@americangiant1003 definitely agree. I also get the feeling this was more of a ploy by Carson to get a better contract by saying NBC had violated the previous one making him a free agent.
Too bad for joey bishop its not easy being one of the least talented member of the rat pack.
LMAO at the Joey Bishop failed talk show.
It should be noted that until May 1st, 1972, the Tonight Show was at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York City, so Johnny could literally knock at the door of the NBC executives. Also, only 33 complete episodes of Johnny Carson's Tonight Show that had originally aired prior to May 1, 1972 are known to exist due to the wiping practices at the time and believing there was no value in the shows.
Really they wiped the episodes because they had no value, we always should preserve all video no matter what it is because it gives historical context.
Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show” was taped in NYC at 30 Rock in 1968 before he moved to Burbank, CA in 1972 to do his show from the west coast where he remained until his retirement in May 1992.
@@dustinsindledecker154 videotape was EXPENSIVE back then. Hence the constant recycling
It would have made more sense to start the game st 8:00or 8:30. What "genius" thought it was a good idea to start it at nine?!
They wanted the west coast audience (6 PM vs 5 PM).
Before there was J Lo there was J Car #HEYYO!
And Before J Fal
I want wonder who was before carson.
@@dustinsindledecker154 J Paar
Interesting video, but it is not entirely correct or tells the entire story. Yes NBC executives,, before the game, decided to switch to Heidi at its 7:00PM EST start, but with seven minutes left in the game decided to keep the Raiders-Jets game on TV and delay Heidi in the East Coast. They made this decision, partially due to magnitude of the game, but also not to alienate the large NY area TV audience and press. If the game was between the Broncos and the Bills, two lower level teams, they would have cut the game off and easily moved to Heidi and received far less criticism. However, as the game involved NY, and the Raiders, another AFL top program, NBC execs made the choice to continue showing the game, notwithstanding any Carson influence. They failed to execute the change because the phone lines were jammed and their calls did not go through. Why the made the decision in the first place to show Heidi may have been influenced by the events depicted in this presentation, but the complete story is that NBC execs tried to change their programming decision and failed. Had their calls gone through, there would have never been the Heidi game. In retrospect, their failure was a good thing as it forced the NFL and the TV execs to agree to show complete games, and not pull the plug on them.
The unanswered question in your video was why did the AFL and NBC showcase the Oilers on a prime time, Monday night game? Certainly, the AFL and NBC would rather show a game featuring the Jets, with its huge NY following, against the Chiefs or Raiders, than the Oilers and their more regional audience. The Oilers did not have Joe Namath or any star of similar stature that would bring the casual fan to watch. So why the Oilers? Despite their record they were not top three in the AFL at that time. Jets, Raiders and Chiefs were clearly the top teams. The Oilers had the luxury of having 6 mostly guaranteed wins in their conference due to playing the Bills, Dolphins and Patriots twice a year. None of these three teams were serious contenders, although the Fins were stockpiling some impressive talent. Was it the owner of the Oilers, and his clout that got the game on Monday night? Would be interesting to know why this game was chosen and not a Jets game at some point in the season. Note that CBS showed the Giants-Cowboy games on Sunday nights during this period. NBC would not pull the plug on Bonanza for a Sunday night game (Bonanza was the #1 show on TV); but a Monday night game later in the year was always possible.
Gee, I had no idea that Johnny Carson was a precursor to the Modern day Ellen DeGeneres.
Ellen degeneres didn't have have this much power, this was back in the day where there was channels so johnny was king back then.
@@dustinsindledecker154 Exactly. In most of America in 1968, you only had 4 channels back then. CBS, ABC, NET now known as PBS and of course NBC. Plus in larger cities you was lucky 20 years before Fox TV started you had a so called “Independent” station. Which say in NYC was Channel 5/WNYW, Channel 9/WOR-TV and WPIX.
Just no, no not even close
@@teen_laqueefa Agreed. Comparing Ellen to Carson? It’s like comparing 1980s Cowboys era QB Danny White to Peyton Manning. No contest on who is probably the GOAT as the American Comic TV Host of all time. And hint it’s not Ellen.
@@americangiant1003Channel 5 was WNEW-TV until 1986 when FOX took it over.
That was stupid. Why not just start the game at 8?
Let colbert Fallon or Kimmel do what Carson did today. They'd get slapped down immediately.
9:20 Hey Mamie Van Doren's divorce of Lee Meyers! Thus ending her younger baseball player phase
I can't accept the fact that a younger Carson looked like one of the Bushes, can't do it
Why is NBC so obsessed with their damn movies? Pre-empting The Tonight Show for a scripted movie, which I need to remind everyone, NBC knew exactly how long it was when they bought the rights to it, is just absurdly dumb. Start it earlier (starting at 8 would give 3 hours before 11 and the news, more than enough time for a normal movie with commercials), have less commercials to fit the right time slot (ok that's unlikely I know), or cut up the movie so it's butchered for TV (some channels removed entire subplots for movies to fit with enough ads). But you know how long it will be. Live events are one thing, or a massive breaking news story can mess with the schedule, but bumping stuff for a film that you know for certain how long it is because it was filmed months or years ago?????
At the end of the day, It was all a bargaining chip by Carson because he wanted more money (and lighter work schedule) and he was becoming bigger than the Tonight Show itself. (He wanted ownership of it.)
Interesting enough, it wouldn't be the last time that Carson and NBC butted heads. In fact, Carson took NBC to court in 1979 over a contract dispute (and a certain law in California regarding contracts).
Interesting note, in 1979, ABC was actually willing to offer Carson DOUBLE what he was earning at NBC. Which would have been interesting because by 1979, ABC's Monday Night Football had become larger than life. And would have potentially created some conflict of interest for Carson.
I absolutely LOVE your videos!
Most people do not know this, but Burt Coan, number 23 on the Chiefs lead the AFL in yards gained per carry in 1968 with a whopping 5.4 yards per carry!
WRONG@!!!!!!! B-E-R-T Coan led the AFL in rushing yards per carry in 1966 with 5.4 yards per carry, 96 carries for an astounding 521 yards! Coan's teammate in the Chiefs backfield in 1966 was rookie Mike Garrett who ran for 801 yards on 147 carries for an average of 5.4 yards per carry, a statistical TIE! Garrett earned a spot in the 1966 AFL All-Star game (the AFL's Pro Bowl), B-E-R-T Coan stayed at home!
@@davidcobb2693 oops! Thanks for the correction. He got lit up while out of bounds, did you see it?
I botched the 1968, but really did know better because Bert Coan retired in 1968.
Did you know Mr. Coan died in February 2022?
@@BillMorganChannel i was not aware of his passing, I had only heard his name mentioned because my late father thought he was a good player.
@@davidcobb2693 I am not weird, and would love to exchange AFL trivia with you ok?
Who is the only player in the Pro Football Hall of Fame to have played in the AFL but never the NFL?
@@BillMorganChannel That's a great question and I knew the answer without having to Google it, Buffalo Bills Guard Billy Shaw is the answer, I have collected football cards since I was a kid when a pack of Topps football cards was still 10 cents and I still remember when they raised the price to 15 cents a pack (1974), Billy Shaw was long retired by then but after I got a real job that paid real money I bought a complete set of 1962 Fleer football cards, 87 of the 88 cards came in a small card box but one card arrived in a thick plastic screw down card holder, card number 16, Billy Shaw, it was the most valuable card in the set so I did some pre internet research and I found out that he's the only member of the pro football HOF who played his entire career in the AFL without ever playing in the NFL.
Man Johnny must have been a football hater
Heidi sucks, jonny carson sucks, show the whole game.
you're watching Nbc
Heidi Noelle Lenhart is hot though ❤