America Alive!

*America Alive!*
America Alive!
Genre	talk show
Created by	Woody Frazer
Directed by	Don Roy King
Presented by	Jack Linkletter; Bruce Jenner; Pat Mitchell; Janet Langhart;
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
Production
Producer	Ken Greengrass
Production locations	30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York City; NBC Studios, Burbank, California;
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	60 minutes (including commercials)
Original release
Network	NBC
Release	July 24, 1978 –; January 4, 1979

America Alive! was an American television talk-variety program created by Woody Fraser. The show had a brief run on NBC, which aired it as part of its weekday daytime programming schedule from July 24, 1978, until January 4, 1979.

Overview

After helping to develop Good Morning America for ABC, producer Woody Fraser was recruited by then-NBC entertainment president Fred Silverman to create America Alive!.^[2] The show was developed to be an alternative for female viewers who wanted a reprieve from the standard daytime fare presented by the three broadcast networks and local stations—usually soap operas, game shows, lifestyle shows aimed at homemakers, and news programs. NBC made a hefty financial investment in the show, which contained live in-studio and satellite remote segments, and was produced in front of a live audience at NBC's New York City studios at 30 Rockefeller Plaza.

Bruce Jenner (two years removed from their gold medal-winning performance at the 1976 Summer Olympics)^[3] were added as co-hosts and presented remote segments, with Langhart reporting from various Eastern locations and Jenner from Los Angeles. The trio were joined by regular contributors including roving correspondent Pat Mitchell; newspaper columnist Sheilah Graham, who presented a celebrity gossip segment; Los Angeles entertainment critic David Sheehan;^[4] consumer reporter David Horowitz; and comedians Dick Orkin and Bert Berdis. A regular segment on women's health, featuring research from Masters and Johnson, was also included.^[4]

Scheduling

America Alive! aired live at 12 Noon

Nashville; KYW-TV in Philadelphia; WAVY-TV in Portsmouth, Virginia; WJAR-TV in Providence, Rhode Island; and KSD-TV in St. Louis

, aired only a half-hour of the show.

Several months into the program's run, in November 1978, Jack Linkletter discussed the high cost of producing America Alive! because of the travel budget necessary for its roving reporters, and discussed the ratings, which were "bordering on dismal".

The $20,000 Pyramid and Ryan's Hope

, all of which were more successful than the NBC offering. Critical reception to the program was mostly skewed towards the negative end of the spectrum.

Cancellation

The combination of poor reviews and pre-emptions doomed America Alive! perhaps from the start, as the program suffered from anemic ratings from the outset. After a last-ditch effort to revamp the show with the addition of a weekly celebrity co-host (a device used by other variety talk shows of the era, such as The Mike Douglas Show, The Merv Griffin Show and Dinah!) failed, NBC made the decision in December 1978 to cancel America Alive!; the program aired its final episode on January 4, 1979, with a scheduled NBC News special featuring Betty Ford being shown in its slot the following day.^[5]

NBC filled the hour with two new game shows, Password Plus and the short-lived All Star Secrets; both of these shows premiered on January 8, 1979.

References

^ ^a ^b "Jack Linkletter's 'sweet' job". The Bangor Daily News. 1978-11-04. p. 62. Retrieved 2020-10-24.
^ "New midday TV show to do out-of-ordinary". Leader-Telegram. 1978-07-21. p. 15. Retrieved 2020-10-24.
^ ^a ^b "'America Alive!' A Lively Show". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. 1978-07-27. p. 13. Retrieved 2020-10-24.
^ ^a ^b "Shows like 'America, Alive' should be encouraged". Public Opinion. 1978-08-11. p. 52. Retrieved 2020-10-24.
^ "'Nova' back with a tale of an ocean oil disaster". The Courier-Journal. 1979-01-04. p. 30. Retrieved 2020-10-24.

External links

America Alive! at IMDB

[:2-1] "Jack Linkletter's 'sweet' job". The Bangor Daily News. 1978-11-04. p. 62. Retrieved 2020-10-24.

[:3-2] "New midday TV show to do out-of-ordinary". Leader-Telegram. 1978-07-21. p. 15. Retrieved 2020-10-24.

[:0-3] "'America Alive!' A Lively Show". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. 1978-07-27. p. 13. Retrieved 2020-10-24.

[:1-4] "Shows like 'America, Alive' should be encouraged". Public Opinion. 1978-08-11. p. 52. Retrieved 2020-10-24.

[:4-5] "'Nova' back with a tale of an ocean oil disaster". The Courier-Journal. 1979-01-04. p. 30. Retrieved 2020-10-24.

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