The Bill Cosby Show - "The Gumball Incident" + Meditation & Sign-Off - WBBM Channel 2 (1980)

From near the end of the broadcast day of WBBM Channel 2 (as on the end of a tape), here's most of (sans the first 5 minutes or so) a first-season episode of The Bill Cosby Show (the 1969-71 version where he played Chet Kincaid), "The Gumball Incident" (S01E19, originally aired on the NBC Network, and thus in Chicago via WMAQ Channel 5, on February 1st 1970), followed by a 'Meditation', sign-off sequence, and color bars.

This episode featured as guest star Tom Bosley, four years before landing the role of Howard Cunningham on the long-running Happy Days; it also featured Frederic Downs, John Harmon, Roy Glenn Sr., Dennis Cross, and Russell Shulman. The director (Jay Sandrich) and some of the writers (notably, Ed. Weinberger) would later go on to The Mary Tyler Moore Show the season after this.

Includes:

Episode Act I (already in progress, with Chet Kincaid in the process of being arrested - a harbinger of things to come for Cos?)

Political ads for:

Ed Burke for State's Attorney

Seymour Simon for Supreme Court Justice

Commercials for:

Bill Becker Chevrolet (voiceover by Jerry Harper)

Truck-O-Rama at the International Amphitheatre - Saturday at 8:00pm and Sunday at 2:00pm

"Community Accents" notices for production of "South Pacific" at New Trier East High School, St. Ann's Hospital Blood Drive, and showing of "Romeo and Juliet" [1968] at Daley College (voiceover by Bob Carrington) (voiceover info for where to send notices by Jerry Harper)

Episode Act II

Commercials for:

Nelson Brothers - "Furniture of the Future" (voiceover by Al Parker)

Political ad for George Bush for President

Affordable Art Sale - for Sunday (main voiceover by Joe Passarella, ending voiceover by Jerry Harper)

Political ad for John Stroger for Congress, 1st District

"Community Accents" notices for Chicago Jazz Festival for March 7th-9th, Charles Dickens Fair at Near North Association and Chicago Presbyterian Committee Singles Conference (voiceover by Bob Carrington) (voiceover info for where to send notices by Jerry Harper)

Episode epilogue and closing credits (with music by Quincy Jones - theme: "Hikky Burr")

Commercials for:

Bill Tomczak, "The Greater Car Trader" - Greater Discount Days

Political ad for Ed Burke for State's Attorney

"Community Accents" notices (repeat of what was seen in first commercial break on this clip)

Station ID / promo for (syndicated) Match Game for 3:30pm (voiceover by Jerry Harper)

Meditation - by Rabbi Gerald Wolpe (1928-2009) of Har Zion Temple in Philadelphia, PA (originally from WCAU Channel 10 in Philadelphia, also would have aired before sign-on or sign-off on the other CBS stations whose sermonettes usually went by the "Give Us This Day" umbrella) (opening and closing voiceover by Jerry Harper)

NAB Television Code display (1965 version on screen) and language (voiceover by Jerry Harper)

"CBS SSB" (film of various landmarks of Washington, DC - in much better shape than same film shown prior to sign-off at sister station WCBS Channel 2 in New York City by this point)

Station sign-off script (voiceover by Jerry Harper), with 'TWO' logo in Serif Gothic Bold, and shot of John Hancock Tower where station's transmitter is based

Animated station ID (voiceover by Ed Roberts)

Five seconds of black

EIA RS-189 color bars with ~400 Hz tone (seen for remaining less than 2 minutes of this clip) (with 5 second lower-third station ID starting around the 34:25 mark, with voiceover sounding almost like Ed Roberts reciting ID)

"Executive Producer - William H. Cosby, Jr."

This aired on local Chicago TV early Friday, March 7th 1980 during the 4:48am to 5:24am 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: tapes@fuzzy.tv 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 tapes@fuzzy.tv Thank you for your help!