Vault of Coolness: CBN TV schedule in 1983

I've learned in the past few years that my dad and I were far from the only ones who enjoyed the heck out of CBN's old-school TV lineup back in the 1980s. My pal Ivan at TDOY is but one of the classic rerun lovers who appreciated that channel. Nick at Nite got most of the attention back then, and it seems more widely remembered today, but as a kid, I was much more into CBN's lineup. It and WPIX, along with the great taste of my family, were the main forces that drilled a love of vintage TV into my impressionable young skull.

Wouldn't it be fun to look at CBN's schedule from the week before Christmas 1983? Several ownership changes lately, the former Christian Broadcasting Network is now ABC Family, and while many are grateful for the heavy airplay it gives the classic TV holiday specials each year, oh, what we've lost.

Here's the weekday classic TV lineup, courtesy of an old newspaper TV supplement from December 1983:

8:00 AM Blondie
8:30 AM My Little Margie
9:00 AM Dobie Gillis
9:30 AM I Married Joan

(I'm skipping the movie and the religious programs)

Game shows take over at 4:30 with Bullseye, followed by Tic-Tac-Dough, Let's Make a Deal, and Treasure Hunt, then we get to the westerns with...

6:30 PM The Rifleman
7:00 PM Alias Smith and Jones

Then we return to the present with...

8:00 PM I Spy

It looks like what follows on weekdays are a combo of "700 Club" and some other shows on a semi-regular basis before we get to the regular nightly lineup of...

11:30 PM Dobie Gillis
12:00 AM Burns and Allen
12:30 AM Jack Benny
1:00 AM I Married Joan
1:30 AM Love That Bob
2:00 AM Bachelor Father
2:30 AM Life of Riley

What a cool assortment of shows! I don't love all these programs, and I suppose an ingrate like me could nitpick and wish they'd sub in a few others instead of repeating Dobie and Joan, but still. Some of these shows are still aired today, but often only a small portion of episodes are in rotation. I don't remember that being an issue with CBN--not that as a child I was able to stay up every night till 1:00 to track Jack Benny episodes (though given what I know now, I kind of wish I had).

Of course, at other times, CBN aired programs like "You Bet Your Life," "The Bill Cosby Show," (Hey, Shout, how about finishing off this one?) as well.

It's kind of funny to think that, though I don't watch religious programming on television, I long for the days of the old Christian Broadcasting Network and remember it as a much more useful resource than ABC Family.