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1
Soul Train

(ended 2006)

It's the SOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUL TRAIN!

Pop music has always had shows like American Bandstand to sing its praises, but R&B music had to wait a while for its own major weekly showcase. Just the same, Soul Train proved to be well worth the wait when it hit the airwaves in the 1970s. This weekly extravaganza, which showed off the latest and greatest in soul music and dance moves, became a national sensation in the mid-1970s and became a pop culture juggernaut that broke new ground for African-American entertainment.

Soul Train was the brainchild of radio announcer Don Cornelius. After studying broadcasting in college, Cornelius got a job at WVON, one of Chicago's most popular urban radio stations. During this time, he pondered breaking into television with a dance and music show from an African-American perspective. In 1969, he produced a pilot episode and dubbed it "Soul Train" after a local radio promotion he had done in Chicago. The pilot impressed the Sears Roebuck Company, which gave Cornelius some funding in exchange for the rights to use Soul Train to promote a line of record players. With this help, Cornelius launched Soul Train on WCIU-TV, a Chicago UHF station. It premiered on August 17, 1970 as a weekday series airing from 4:30-5:30pm. Cornelius himself hosted the dance-stravaganza, which took place on a club-set. The show featured performances by soul music acts, appearances by guest hosts, and scorching dance numbers from the Soul Train Gang. Local word-of-mouth made Soul Train a big hit in Chicago, which won it another sponsor in The Johnson Products Company, makers of Afro-Sheen.

Soul Train's relationship with The Johnson Products Company also helped it make the move from local television to syndication. With this company's financial backing, Cornelius moved the show to Hollywood and got it into television syndication in the fall of 1971. Only seven cities were on the initial lineup, but the Soul Train quickly picked up steam and began playing in new cities as its reputation spread. Pretty soon, people all over the country were enjoying the funky thrills that only Soul Train could provide. By the mid-1970s, Soul Train was a force to be reckoned with. Each week, the latest hits and coolest dances were served up in a slick package that had kids of all ages and races dancing around the TV-room floor. Cornelius cut a stylish, unflappably cool figure as the host, making him an often-imitated icon in the entertainment community. Music groups clamored for an appearance on Soul Train, since it was practically a free ticket to r&b (and often pop) chart success. Today, many critics fondly remember Soul Train as the television show that did the most to bring African-American popular culture into American households.

As the 1980's began, Soul Train was as popular as ever. Tribune Entertainment, a Chicago-based company, became the exclusive distributor of the show and helped launch The Soul Train Music Awards. This yearly awards gala has become one of the most popular and respected awards ceremonies for r&b musicians and now enjoys "institution" status in the music world. The success of this awards show has also led to other popular Soul Train spin-off specials like The Soul Train Lady Of Soul Annual Awards Special and The Soul Train Christmas Starfest.

In the 1990s, Don Cornelius stepped down as Soul Train host and passed the role to others. Guest hosts were used from 1993-97 (seasons 23 through 26). Mystro Clark became host in 1997. Following him, was Shemar Moore who hosted seasons 29 through 32. Dorian Gregory is the current Soul Train host. Cornelius remains active as an executive producer for the show, which shows no signs of slowing down. With r&b music more popular than ever in the mainstream, viewers everywhere continue to shake their groove thing to the churning wheels of the Soul Train.

Soul Train continued with new episodes through the 2005-06 season. The final, first-run episode aired on March 25, 2006. The 2006-07 season began with repeats from 2005-06. As of December 9, 2006, the series has been retitled The Best of Soul Train and features c episodes from the 1970s and 1980s. 1970's & early 1980's Soul Train airdates On this guide, we've listed the earliest known airdates for episodes 1 - 163. The original Los Angeles airdates are listed for episodes 164 - 366 (Dec. 27, 1975 - June 20, 1981). In the 1970s through the early '80s, the episode airdates varied from city to city. Instead of using communications satellites, tapes of the episodes were mailed directly to individual TV stations. And once a station aired an episode, the tape would then be forwarded to a station in another city. (This practice, called "bicycling," was common with most 1970s first-run syndicated shows.) Sometime in the early 1980s, Tribune Entertainment began using satellites to distribute Soul Train resulting in standard airdates across the country.

Find at what television station and time the train pulls up to your TV: http://tv.tribune.com/showfinder/search/1,1001,soultrain,FF.html

Contributors to this guide include: --Nick Puzo (Nickfresh) - editor of the Soul Train Yahoo Group --Jabar Robbins (Calatine9) --Robert Spiegel --Edward Loney ("ehloney")moreless
2
The Lawrence Welk Show

ABC (ended 1982)

Welcome to The Lawrence Welk Show guide at TV.com.

The Lawrence Welk Show was good old fashioned family entertainment at its best with all kinds of music, particularly from the Big Band Era. The show had a close-knit group of singers, dancers, and musicians known as the "Musical Family."

The Lawrence Welk Show made its national television debut on July 2, 1955. It was originally filmed in black and white and then it went into color September 18, 1965. The show was on Saturday nights on ABC until 1971 when the network canceled the show; that year, it went into first-run syndication with new episodes being produced until 1982. Reruns began airing until 1983. There were also two Christmas reunion specials, in 1984 and 1985.

On October 3, 1987, reruns of the The Lawrence Welk Show began airing on PBS, where they continue to air to this day. These shows were hosted by members of the Musical Family until the 2005 season, when Mary Lou Metzger interviewed former members of the Musical Family after each show.

Below is a list of Lawrence Welk PBS specials: 2001 - Milestones and Memories 2003 - God Bless America 2005 - Precious Memories 2007 - Lawrence Welk's TV Treasuresmoreless
3
The New Yankee Workshop

PBS (ended 2009)

America's favorite craftsman, Norm Abram, continues to re-create timeless classics while taking on new challenges. Join Norm in TNYW for his trademark, step-by-step approach that will inspire woodworkers-from casual to expert-to roll up their sleeves, put on their safety goggles, and get building.moreless
4
Austin City Limits

PBS

Austin City Limits has established a reputation for showcasing great live musical performances. The show's studio allows for intimate and engaging performances by independent, mainstream, critically acclaimed, and popular artists. The show was originally created to display the emerging talents of the alternative country music scene in Austin, TX in the 1970s. Soon, however, the show branched out to include all types of music: alt country, pop rock, bluegrass and zydeco are just a few. Many television historians attribute MTV, CMT and VH1'a success to the contributions of this groundbreaking musical series. On Wednesday, November 12th, 2003; President Bush presented ACL with the National Medal of the Arts. ACL was the first television show (ever) to win the award.moreless
5
Fame

(ended 1987)

Based on the 1980 motion picture "Fame," this show tells the story of the students and faculty at the New York Art School. It was always their dream. To sing, to dance, to act and play music. They are young, ready to face life and new experiences. They are students who are going to give their best to finish Art School and become famous and rich. However, the fame costs, and the Art School is just the place where they'll pay for it. Fame started out as a 1980 theatrical movie. Two years later, it found a home on NBC. But in 1984, NBC canned the series and the show moved to syndication for four more years. The show was popular although NBC cancelled it. Various actors performed live concerts during the show's run.moreless
6
The Academy Awards

ABC (Returning March 2nd, 2014)

Since its inception in 1929, The Academy Awards has become the event of the year for film followers worldwide. A celebration of all things cinematic, the presentation of the iconic gold Oscar statuettes to members of the film community for excellence during the year represents the highest honor in filmmaking. The Oscars is one of the only awards ceremonies that've never been cancelled.moreless
7
The Primetime Emmy Awards

NBC (Returning September 22, 2013)

Once a year, television's royalty gathers together for a ceremony honoring the best of the best of primetime TV. Shows, actors, and writers are all given a chance to take home a coveted Emmy statue--but in order to win, they must pass the mysterious and rigorous selection process of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Millions of people tune in to watch each year's ceremony and find out if their favorite shows and actors have been recognized or ignored, and the results can often make or break a series or career. The Emmy statue, depicting a winged woman holding an atom, was developed in 1948 by Louis McManus. The statue is meant to signify the arts, through the female figure, and the sciences, through the atom. The name for the award is taken from "Immy," a slang term for "image orthicon tube," an ingredient of many early television cameras. Since the figure is female, "Emmy" seemed more suitable to the Academy.moreless
8
Great Performances

PBS

Great Performances is the longest running performing arts anthology on television. It is part of of the PBS tradition of bringing the arts to viewers free of charge. The show began as Theater in America in 1972. The next year, several arts productions, including Dance in America, were brought together under the Great Performances umbrella. Great Performances at the Met would join the family in 1977. Over the years the productions have moved more toward music than plays.moreless
9
The Grammy Awards

CBS

In similar fashion to their film equivalent (The Academy Awards), The Grammys is an awards show that honors the achievements of the members of the professional music recording industry through a voting system. The members of the Recording Academy vote on who they think is most deserving of an award in 108 categories as specified by the academy. Each year the awards are presented during a live telecast that was begun in 1971 by ABC, but has since been televised by CBS after they bought it in 1973. They were initially known as the Gramophone Awards this is because the trophy itself is a golden gramophone but later they became the Grammys.moreless
10
PBS American Masters

PBS

Produced (or acquired) by Thirteen/WNET New York for the Public Broadcasting Service, episodes of American Masters are dedicated to documenting and honoring America's most notable creative artists and the inspiration behind their work. Each year a series of special broadcasts profiles a cross-section of the nation's finest artistic pioneers from the past and present.moreless
11
Headbangers Ball

MTV - Music Television

Headbangers Ball was a music video show featuring Heavy Metal music. With special guests Ozzy Osbourne, Rob Halford, Alice Cooper and Rob Zombie.
12
Academy of Country Music Awards

CBS

The superstars of Hollywood and Music gather together every year to celebrate the biggest accomplishments of the year in Country Music.
13
Camelot

HBO (ended 1982)

Camelot premiered on HBO in 1982. It is the musical story of the King Arthur tale that was performed on Broadway and filmed for HBO.
14
Joseph Campbell: Mythos

Wellspring Media

Joseph Campbell: Mythos is a multi-part documentary television series consisting of lectures by Joseph Campbell, which originally ran on PBS for 4 seasons, totaling 20 episodes, and was produced by the Joseph Campbell foundation. The series investigates popular myths, delving into surprising facts about the human mythic impulse in terms of psychology, ethnology, and comparative mythology. In the last 6 years of his life, Campbell delivered these lectures to share his lifeâ€™s findings about the subject of myths, a phenomenon that has been around for all of recorded human existence. Campbell discusses why myths exist, how they differ, but also resemble one another, across cultures, and what they did to shape mindsets and civilization. He discusses why certain myths took on different forms and played more heavily with certain themes at different times, as well as why myths are important at all. Joseph Campbell: Mythos varies along three major themes: the shaping of our mythic tradition, the shaping of eastern tradition, and the shaping of western tradition. For an informative lecture series about a fascinating topic, check out PBSâ€™s Joseph Campbell: Mythos.moreless
15
Six Centuries of Verse

Acorn Media Group

Six Centuries of Verse is a documentary series about English poetry and its development over the last half millennia. The series originally aired on public television in the early 1990s. It is hosted by the award-winning Sir John Gielgud and covers everything from Chaucer to Ted Hughes. While world famous authors such as Shakespeare and Milton are covered, the series also goes off the beaten paths of literature and brings you hidden gems of poetry that are not as well-known. It features celebrity guest readers such as Anthony Hopkins, Ian Richardson, Peggy Ashcroft, Lee Remick, and many others. For visual effect, the poems are read from locations of literary merit, such as Emily Dickenson's bedroom. There are sixteen 25-minute long episodes for a total runtime of nearly seven hours. Anyone interested in poetry or the history of the English language will find something to like about Six Centuries of Verse.moreless