CBS Special Presentation - "Nurse" - WJBK Channel 2 [Detroit, MI] (Complete Broadcast, 4/9/1980) 📺

Here's the complete broadcast of the TV-movie pilot for "Nurse," which pre-empted The CBS Wednesday Night Movies and aired on the CBS Network via WJBK Channel 2 in Detroit, MI. (Chicagoans would have seen this on WBBM Channel 2 an hour earlier.)

This and the very short-lived (1981-82) TV series spawned therefrom starred Michael Learned (still with The Waltons at this point) as Mary Benjamin, a widow who takes a head nurse job in a New York hospital after her physician husband dies and her son "leaves the nest" to start college; also appearing here are Robert Reed (as Dr. Rose; in-between Brady gigs) and Antonio Fargas (not as his Starsky & Hutch character Huggy Bear, but rather as Mr. Gripps).

(Typesetting Alert: The title and credits are set in the Korinna font family.)

Includes:

Station ID / promo for 2nd Annual Detroit Emmy Awards

CBS Wednesday Night Movie pre-emption notice (voiceover by Lee Jordan; joined in progress), followed by animated 'CBS Special Presentation' with Morton Stevens' "Call To Danger" music

Opening sequence and Segment 1

Commercials for:

Country Time lemonade (with a dog avoiding a bath)

Sanka decaffeinated coffee (with Robert Young and "Jim", the indoor golfer)

Post Raisin Bran

Gaines Complete Dog Food (with Harry Morgan)

Film segment 2

Commercials for:

Jell-O gelatin - "Make Some Fun!"

Maxwell House coffee (featuring Willie Tyler & Lester)

Tang (with Florence Henderson)

Promos for Palmerstown, USA, Hagen (follow the wacky mis-adventures of the Corleone family's consigliere Tom Hagen in this strange misstep) (not really) and The Contender

Film segment 3

Commercials for:

Shake 'n Bake

Minute Rice

Good Seasons dressings

Top Choice dog food

Film segment 4

Commercials for:

Kool-Aid (featuring Chicago-born actress Deborah Harmon as the "modern day" Mom)

New Improved Jell-O chocolate pudding (with not yet old but definitely un-improved Bill Cosby)

Cool Whip topping (with Marge Redmond and Gordon Jump)

Brim decaffeinated coffee

Film segment 5

Commercials for:

Oven Fry Home-Style Flour Recipe Fried Chicken (with Toppie Smellie) - "Two Words: Mmmm, mmm" (voiceover by Peter Thomas)

General Foods International Coffees (with Carol Lawrence and portrait artist)

Birds Eye Americana Vegetable recipes - "Make a Super Birds Eye Supper"

Gaines-Burgers (with Sherri Sugarman)

Local promo for The Dukes of Hazzard (voiceover by Danny Dark)

Film segment 6

Commercials for:

Stove Top stuffing

Post Raisin Bran - "Betty's Breakfasts"

Country Time lemonade - "Yep, I Married Her" (old man reminded of summer of 1922) (with Ed Begley, Jr.) (posted separately here:    • Country Time Lemonade - "Yep, I Married He...  )

Jell-O Instant Pudding / Cool Whip - "Pudding in a Cloud" (with Bill Cosby and Marge Redmond) (posted separately here:    • Cool Whip & Jell-O - "Pudding in a Cloud" ...  )

Promos for The Tim Conway Show and "Magnum Force" (voiceover by Dick Tufeld)

Promo for The Contender

Film segment 7

Commercials for:

Maxwell House coffee - "A.D.C." brand ("Specially developed for automatic drip coffee makers")

Kool-Aid brand soft drink mix - "The House Where All the Kids Play" ("Moms depend on Kool-Aid like kids depend on Moms.")

Cycle 1 (through Cycle 4) dog food - with Fran Ryan (?) - "Cycle: For the Life of Your Dog"

Film segment 8 (the last - with ending credits - noting at the end that this was recommended by the National Education Association) (with voiceover promos for CBS News, CBS Sports and Hagen)

Extended promo for "Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones" for next Tuesday - "This will be the television event of the year."

PSA for 1980 Census - with Kirk Douglas - "It's Not Too Late. We're counting on you. Answer the census."

Red CBS 'Eye-D' (voiceover by Lee Jordan)

Preview of upcoming 11pm Eyewitness News, with Woody Willis and Murray Feldman

Incomplete commercial for General Electric appliances (including washers) which is still midway as recording ends

This aired on local Detroit TV on Wednesday, April 9th 1980 during the 9:00pm to 11:00pm (Eastern time) timeframe.

About The Museum of Classic Chicago Television:

The MCCTv (FuzzyMemoriesTV) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit whose primary mission is the preservation and display of off-air, early home videotape recordings (70s to early 80s, mostly) recorded off of TV (in Chicago or other cities now too); things which would likely be lost if not sought out and preserved digitally. If you have any old 1970s videotapes recorded off of TV please email: [email protected] Even though (mostly) short clips are displayed here, we preserve the entire broadcasts in our archives - the complete programs with breaks (or however much is present on the tape), for historical preservation. For information on how to help in our mission, to donate or lend tapes to be converted to DVD, please e-mail [email protected] Thank you for your help!