KTVU History Main Page Beginnings Signing On The Moose Club Studios "Big Sam" The First Programs The Early Years The New Building Local Religious Coverage Japanese Sister Station Growing Up Creature Features The Jack Carney Show Sports Flashbacks Roller Derby

It soon became readily apparent that the new upstart Channel 2 would blossom into a worthy competitor to the old-line San Francisco stations. KTVU pursued a policy of broadcasting alternative programs to the network fare, and the audience seemed to approve.

In addition to its sports and children's programming, KTVU's lineup included The Eight O'clock Movie, drawn from the station's vault containing hundreds of movies.

Jim Skinner, the station's Film Director, built a national reputation by insisting that Hollywood studios send only the best prints of its films to KTVU. Any scratches or defects raised his ire and ensured that the print was returned unscreened. Viewers benefited with pristine copies of such classics as Casablanca, Rebecca, The Maltese Falcon as well as more modern blockbusters, including Earthquake, Airport 77, and Smokey and the Bandit. Furthermore, Skinner despised censorship and KTVU audiences often glimpsed on-screen nudity or heard obscenities not normally shown on commercial television stations.

Syndicated programming included highly successful shows such as: Death Valley Days, Amos and Andy, I Love Lucy, The Streets of San Francisco, The Odd Couple, M*A*S*H, Barney Miller, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman, and Laverne and Shirley.

But the station excelled at developing its own programming with a distinctive local feel. KTVU created separate homegrown late-night variety shows for two well-known radio personalities: KSFO's Don Sherwood (Fridays) and later, Jack Carney.

Dragnet sidekick Ben Alexander hosted the weekly Ben Alexander Show, a variety show with live studio audience. Alexander would fly north from his Hollywood set every two weeks, recording one show on videotape, and doing the other one live.

Not as inventive or ambitious were such daily staples as Mel Venter's I Want To Know (Venter is shown in photo with Romper Room's Nancy Besst), and, Dialing For Dollars, a "watch to win" contest designed around a movie presentation. KTVU initially ran Dialing For Dollars twice daily: a morning version hosted by Bob March, and the surviving afternoon version with Pat McCormick

Another unique KTVU program, Creature Features began on January 9, 1971. Its host was Bob Wilkins, a former television-advertising salesman, who originated the concept on KCRA in Sacramento. After six years, KTVU invited Wilkins to bring Creature Features to the Bay Area, to air Saturday nights at 11:30 pm. It was a good move, and the show became a huge hit among aficionados of really bad movies.

Not all of KTVU's local programming was noteworthy or long-lasting. There was The Black Jack Wayne Show, a western variety show; and Saturday afternoon's Pet Life, which made nationwide news by presenting a live "monkey wedding" featuring a simian bride and groom with attendants and 25 monkey and chimp guests.