GOSSIP GUY Walter Winchell, circa 1955, was a “hard-boiled guy with that hat and the telegraph and everything,” says media historian Michael Socolow. Winchell started on ABC radio before getting his own TV show. “Women loved his show because it was celebrity gossip. It was a cross between TMZ and the Drudge Report.” (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
ABC’s road to success began with a Supreme Court lawsuit, NBC vs. the FCC. The court forced NBC to sell one of its radio networks, and in 1943, the NBC Blue Network became ABC, owned by Edward J.Noble, head of the Life Savers Corporation. By the early 1950s, Paramount invested in ABC and a TV player was born. That decade, ABC launched programming no one else was doing like The Walt Disney Anthology and Maverick, starring James Garner. In 1960, Edgar Scherick, first appointed as sports division head, hired a young exec named Roone Arledge, who was shopping a Playboy-style show called For Men Only (Scherick passed on the show, but not the man). Together the two created Monday Night Football and Wide World of Sports — and revolutionized sports. Later, “Arledge was given the news division because they wanted to bring some of the same pizazz and success,” says University of Maine professor and media historian Michael Socolow. (ABC Sports is also where a young Bob Iger landed one of his first jobs in 1976.) The impact of ABC on early popular culture is unmistakable: American Bandstand, Roots, Charlie’s Angels, General Hospital, Happy Days, The Brady Bunch… the list goes on and on. Of course, cable TV, then streaming, would follow, eroding legacy TV’s dominance. Now, in the wake of now-CEO Iger’s remarks in July that the TV business “may not be core” to the company and reports of talks to sell the network, ABC’s next act hangs in the balance.
Happy Days: Ron Howard (left), Henry Winkler, Marion Ross, c. 1975
MARSHALL PLANHappy Days (1974-1984) depicted an idealized version of the 1950s. Producer Garry Marshall’s spin offs included Mork and Mindy and Laverne and Shirley, launching stars Robin Williams and Penny Marshall, his sister. “Gary Marshall really makes ABC in the seventies,” says Socolow. (Fotos International/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Roots: Irene Cara (left) and Beah Richards, 1977
MAJOR MINISERIES ABC struggled for years to create highly-rated scripted entertainment after making its mark in news and sports. Roots debuted in 1977 and was the second most-watched scripted TV show in history (only to be beaten later by the season finale of M*A*S*H), with140 million — more than half of the U.S. population — tuning in. (ABC Television/Getty Images)
“It'd be pretty hard to argue that there's a more important entertainment show in the history of American television than ‘Roots’. The only other thing that comes to mind is ‘All In The Family.’”
-Socolow
ABC News: Fidel Castro (left) and Lisa Howard, 1963
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS Actress-turned-journalist Howard (born Dorothy Jean Guggenheim) was ABC’s first woman reporter in 1961, hired after gaining worldwide attention for interviewing Nikita Khrushchev. While at ABC, she developed a relationship with Castro, some reports said intimately, even serving as a go-between for the Cuban leader and White House. ABC fired her when she became openly involved in a 1964 U.S. Senate election. She died at 39 of a barbiturates overdose. Her death was ruled a suicide. (Bettmann/Getty Images)
ABC Sports: Howard Cosell (left) and Muhammad Ali, c. 1970s
G.O.A.T.S. Cosell was a top-rated ABC Sports anchor for more than 30 years and one of the first to cover a rising star boxer named Cassius Clay in the early sixties. Clay would denounce his name as a slave name and change it to Muhammad Ali in 1964 and Cosell would be one of the first broadcasters to refer to him as Ali. (Focus on Sport/Getty Images)
The Brady Bunch cast, c. 1973
HERE’S THE STORYThe Brady Bunch was not only a charming sitcom but also a trailblazer in showing a blended family as the character of Mike Brady was divorced and Carol’s first husband is never explained. It would run for five seasons from 1969-1974. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Peter Jennings (from left), Murphy Martin & Howard Cosell, 1967
STRIKE FORCE AFTRA’s first national strike came after negotiations failed over staff announcer contracts at owned-and-operated stations in New York, Chicago, and L.A. and over first-time contracts for newscasters. Lead talent at the network joined the picket, which lasted 13 days. “The most important show on television was the Academy Awards with Bob Hope. In 1967 it was on ABC. It rotated like the Super Bowland that's what ended the strike. The networks gave in because the Academy Awards had higher ratings than the Super Bowlback then,” says Socolow. (Bettman/Getty Images)
EASY AS 1, 2, 3… Four of the five Jackson 5 (from left: Jackie, Jermaine, Marlon and Michael) at ABC Studios in July 1971, where they filmed their ABC Television special Goin’ Back to Indiana. The singing and dancing group also met with the cast of ABC’s The Brady Bunch. (Laufer/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
Ernest Debs (left), Betty White and Earl J. Hudson, 1957
CALIFORNIA DREAMIN’ L.A. Councilman Debs, producer Hudson and White broke ground in a ceremony attended by stars and company execs for the new studios of the American Broadcasting Company at Prospect and Talmadge streets in Los Feliz, Calif. (Los Angeles Examiner/USC Libraries/Corbis via Getty Images)
TOM TOM CLUB The Welsh Grammy winner and the famed Hawaiian crooner performed on the 1969-1971 variety show This Is Tom Jones, which featured top stars of the day including Janis Joplin, Cher, Stevie Wonder, Dusty Springfield and Ella Fitzgerald. The show aired for three seasons. (Michael Ochs Archive/Getty Images)
EXECUTIVE FUNCTION Savalas’ name is synonymous with his CBS show, Kojak, but he started his career as a TV exec at ABC in charge of news, sports and children’s programming in the early sixties, and hired Howard Cosell. “Savalas was a television genius,” says Socolow. (Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images)
American Bandstand: Bobby Rydell (center) and Dick Clark, 1958
TEEN SPIRIT Host Dick Clark and heartthrob singer/actor Rydell in the American Bandstand audience. Many local stations at the time had a similar format show but Clark’s charisma and stellar lineup of would-be stars made it a mainstay. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Marcus Welby, M.D.: James Brolin (left) and Robert Young, 1971
FEVER PITCH In its second year, Marcus Welby, M.D. hit the top spot on the Nielsen ratings. making it ABC’s first number one show. Brolin and Young won Emmys for acting as did the show, for outstanding dramatic series. (ABC Televison/Getty Images)
MODEL BEHAVIOR English supermodel Twiggy sat for a portrait during the filming of Twiggy in Hollywood, directed by Bert Stern, part of a three-episode documentary series that aired on ABC. De Villeneuve was Twiggy’s boyfriend and manager. (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
Charlie’s Angels: From left, Kate Jackson, Jaclyn Smith, Farrah Fawcett, 1977
SPELLING CHAMPS Super producer Aaron Spelling’s hit show lasted five seasons and launched the careers of the actresses, most famously Fawcett. Spelling, considered one of the greatest television producers in TV history, would go on to produce other ABC hits including The Love Boat and Dynasty. (Michael Ochs Archive/Getty Images)
Marlon Brando (left) and Dick Cavett, 1973
CONTENDERS Brando appeared on the host’s eponymous talk show, which went head to head with Johnny Carson’s TheTonight Show,where Cavett was once a writer. “ABC had thoughtful late night programming that differed from NBC and CBS as exemplified by Dick Cavett,” says Socolow. (Bettmann/Getty Images)
From left: Bill Wyman, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones and Charlie Watts, 1964
ROCK-N-STROLLThe Rolling Stones arrived at ABC studios in the U.K. to perform hit singles on the Thank Your Lucky Stars variety music show. It ran for eight seasons, and featured 2000 performances by both up-and-comers and top bands like The Beatles. (PA Images/Getty Images)
Barney Miller: Hal Linden (clockwise from front), Ron Glass, Jack Soo, Max Gail, Greg Sierra, 1974
SQUAD GOALSBarney Miller took place in a fictional New York precinct and ran eight seasons. After a slow start, the show gained critical and ratings success, 32 Emmy noms, three Emmy wins and was regularly in the Nielsen top 10. The cop show would become a staple of ABC with future series such as NYPD Blue (1993-2005) and The Rookie, which premiered in 2018. (Bettmann/Getty Images)
HOUSE OF MOUSE In 1954, Disney signed a long-term agreement with ABC to produce a minimum of 26 hour-long programs each year. “The connection between Walt Disney and ABC played a huge role in keeping the ABC network alive in the 1950s,” says Socolow. “The only truly popular national primetime program ABC had for much of the 1950s was The Disney Hour.” In 1989, The Walt Disney Company would merge with ABC’s then-owner, Capital Cities, in a deal valued at $19 billion. (Bettmann/Getty Images)
From left: Barbara Walters, Gerald Ford, Betty Ford, 1980
MILLION DOLLAR LADY After 14 years at NBC, Walters was lured to ABC by Roone Alredge with a history-making $1 million annual salary in 1976. Walters would continue to rule ABC’s airwaves for more than 38 years. She died in 2022 at the age of 93. (David Hume Kennerly/Archive Photos/Getty Images)
“Walters is the first million dollar network television journalist. That was a huge moment in American television history because, first of all, nobody on TV was getting paid that kind of [salary] on TV news. Second of all, she was the first woman to be an evening news anchor in 1976.”
-Socolow
From left: O.J. Simpson, Don Meredith, Frank Gifford, 1984
MEN IN BLUE The highly-rated Monday Night Football then boasted sportscasters including Heisman trophy winner Simpson, 10 years before he was accused of murdering ex-wife Nicole Brown. (Bettmann/Getty Images)
THE ABCS OF LEEThe Green Hornet star introduced the martial arts star to a wide American audience. Lee played Kato on the series that only lasted one season, but he would go on to become a martial arts icon, passing away at the age of 32 in 1973. (Bettmann/Getty Images)
“It's the biggest rumor out there that [Nextstar] is buying ABC for the local TV stations, for the news, for the political advertising next year so the stock price is getting super inflated. It all has to do with the election of 2024. I'm looking at it from the perspective totally of news, not entertainment or anything else. That's frankly why it's in play.”
- Socolow
ABC Presidential Election Board, 1948
WINNER TAKES ALL The results come into ABC Studios for the 1948 U.S. presidential election between Harry S. Truman, Thomas E. Dewey and the Progressive Party and Dixiecrat candidate Strom Thurmond. Incumbent Truman won. (FPG/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
MENTOR Then-Capital Cities/ABC president Iger and ABC News president Arledge announced the studio’s plan to launch a 24-hour news channel in 1995. Iger joined ABC Sports in 1976, working for Arledge, and has called the legendary programmer, who recognized the human drama behind sports, a key figure in his career. "He was a relentless perfectionist," Iger has said. "No detail was too small for Roone. Perfection was the result of getting all the little things right." (Bob Strong/AFP/Getty Images)
It's so nice seeing your byline, Jen. And this is really smart stuff.
Thanks for this bit of history. The broadcast networks used to matter, and ABC could always be counted on to innovate.