📺 #OnThisDay 1976: 𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩'𝙨 𝙃𝙖𝙥𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜!! debuted on ABC! 🎉𝟱𝟬𝘁𝗵 𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝗿𝘆! Sitcom from Eric Monte w/3 working-class teens in Watts: Raj (Ernest Thomas), Dwayne (Haywood Nelson), and the unforgettable Rerun (Fred Berry). Only 65 eps, but sold into afternoon strip reruns where it really found fans.

📺 𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗥𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘 𝟭𝟵𝟲𝟲: NBC was teasing viewers with promos for the upcoming 𝙎𝙩𝙖𝙧 𝙏𝙧𝙚𝙠. Only the clips here indicate this particular promo would have been from late in the first season, at least.

📺 #OnThisDay 1977: 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙆𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙖𝙠𝙨 debuted on NBC. Called the 𝘉𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘺 𝘏𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘴 without class (even had Buddy Ebsen' daughter), but the family name came from a fraudulent 1912 eugenicist study attempting to prove intelligence and criminality were inherited traits. Yikes. The show is lost media.

🚨𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗧𝗩 𝗟𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼 𝗔𝗹𝗲𝗿𝘁 🚨 After some 50 years, the opening titles to 𝙎𝙯𝙮𝙨𝙯𝙣𝙮𝙠 finally surfaced some months ago thanks to YouTube channel Gilmore Box. Note the Peignot typeface made famous by 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘛𝘺𝘭𝘦𝘳 𝘔𝘰𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘚𝘩𝘰𝘸.

#OnThisDay 1977: 𝙎𝙯𝙮𝙨𝙯𝙣𝙮𝙠 debuted on CBS. Ned Beatty was Nick Szysznyk (pronounced "ZIZ-nik"), retired Marine sergeant who supervised a YMCA-style community center in a low-income section of Washington, D.C. Brought back for midseason, pulled after 11 total eps.

🎬 The Spirit's classic superhero montage: spinning newspaper headlines, criminals tied up and left for the police...the whole bit! It feels like a cross between 𝘚𝘶𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘯: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘦 and 𝘎𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘣𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴. Filmed in 1986, years before Dick Tracy and later superhero films. 📰🦸

🎬 Here's the original opening and closing from 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙎𝙥𝙞𝙧𝙞𝙩 (1987). The opening titles are surprisingly brief...stick around for the closing credits, where Goldberg lets it rip with a wonderfully '80s electric guitar lead that wouldn't sound out of place in ThunderCats.

#OnThisDay 1987: 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙎𝙥𝙞𝙧𝙞𝙩 aired on ABC. Before more well known heroes made it popular, ABC took a chance on a comic book movie. Sam J. Jones starred with Nana Visitor in this telefilm pilot. Too bad the new suits after the ABC-Capital Cities merger didn't like it.

#OnThisDay 1985: 𝙇𝙤𝙫𝙚, 𝙇𝙤𝙣𝙜 𝘿𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚 aired on CBS. Another of TV's many unsold pilots, Jack Rose and Tricia Pursley starred as David and Leslie Cummings, a couple navigating a "commuter marriage," seeing each other only on weekends. Did you watch this?

Legendary costume designer Jean-Pierre Dorléac has passed away at 83. His unforgettable work graced numerous films and TV shows, including Battlestar Galactica, Automan, and The Greatest American Hero. Rest in peace to one of television's true costume magicians!

What were YOU doing #OnThisDay 1983? Watching 𝙁𝙧𝙞𝙙𝙖𝙮 𝙉𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙑𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙤𝙨 on NBC! Created by Dick Ebersol, the series was NBC's answer to the music video explosion sparked by MTV in the days when plenty of America still didn't have cable.

Original NBC promo for 𝘼𝙙𝙖𝙢 (1983), the acclaimed television movie chronicling the disappearance of six-year-old Adam Walsh. Airing at a time when America was only beginning to grapple with the reality of missing children, the film reached nearly 38 million viewers.

#𝗢𝗻𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀𝗗𝗮𝘆 𝟭𝟵𝟴𝟭: 𝗦𝗶𝘅-𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿-𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝗔𝗱𝗮𝗺 𝗪𝗮𝗹𝘀𝗵 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗱 from a Sears store at Hollywood Mall in Hollywood, Florida, forever changing how America viewed childhood, safety, and strangers. The case inspired the NBC TV movie 𝘈𝘥𝘢𝘮 in 1983. Additional missing boys helped fuel the Satanic Panic of the 80s.

P&G won a $19.5M judgment in 2007, but the biggest surprise came during my research: The Satanic rumor wasn't original. The same story had originally targeted McDonald's in 1977 after Ray Kroc appeared (for real) on Donahue to promote his book...not the devil. Humans are weird.

The rumor wouldn't die. P&G traced many of its biggest spreaders to Amway distributors and began filing libel lawsuits. More followed through the '80s and '90s. The ultimate casualty? After 100+ years, the iconic "Man in the Moon" logo was retired. The rumor lived on.

💀 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀, 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘀. You repeated the rumor so many times that Dan Rather had to interrupt the evening news to talk about Satan...and laundry detergent. By July 1982, Procter & Gamble was receiving 15,000 phone calls a month on this nonsense. I'd have unplugged the phone.

By July 1982, P&G was receiving 15K calls/month asking about the devil. CBS & NBC even covered the story. So P&G hired Pinkerton and Wackenhut to investigate. They searched all the talk show transcripts. They found...nothing. But they did find the people spreading the rumor.

💀 𝗚𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗹𝗱𝗼?? You're digging up Al Capone's vault... Then you're hosting 𝘿𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙡 𝙒𝙤𝙧𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙥: 𝙀𝙭𝙥𝙡𝙤𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙎𝙖𝙩𝙖𝙣'𝙨 𝙐𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙜𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙. "no doubt that teenage Satanic activity in this country is increasing dramatically." [Citation needed], Geraldo.

💀 Greetings, fools! Procter & Gamble's "Satanic" rumor didn't start with the devil. It began in 79 when customers thought P&G had been bought by the Moonies, which owned quite a lot of stuff and had cornered the seafood industry(!), so perhaps it wasn't entirely implausible. 🧵

💀 𝗚𝗿𝗲𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀, 𝗳𝗼𝗼𝗹𝘀! Before we get any deeper into this "devil detergent" nonsense...I'd like to address you humans' long and distinguished history of inventing things to panic about. Behold!

Greetings, fools! During the Satanic Panic, humans confused me with the Devil... ...then accused Procter & Gamble of secretly funding Satan through laundry detergent. I have questions.

𝗚𝗿𝗲𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀, 𝗳𝗼𝗼𝗹𝘀! Skeletor here. This weekend, I'd like to address the slanderous allegations against me during the 1980s Satanic Panic. Frankly...I'm considering legal action.

"He-Man has more power than Jesus!" According to anti-occult activist Phil Phillips, that's what one little boy told his mother after hearing a preacher talk about Jesus. (Sure, Jan. r/thathappened)😜 Also... Nobody: TV evangelist: "Skeletorrrrrr... the Masterrrrrr... of the Universeeeee..." 🤣

Bubble Yum had spider eggs. Wendy's had worms. Then came the biggest corporate urban legend of them all. During the 1980s, Procter & Gamble was accused of secretly supporting Satan. The company even had to set up a hotline to deny it. And the rumor didn't even start that way...

The Satanic Panic had no chill. 👿 Even E.T. wasn't safe. 😭 Phil Phillips warns viewers that E.T. was part of a sinister effort to introduce children to 'new age beliefs'... Wait...he wrote a book? 𝘚𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘔𝘰𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘔𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘭. Oh, I gotta look this up. Paging @americanhysteria.bsky.social...

In 1978, America became convinced Wendy's hamburgers contained worms. 🪱🍔 Depending on who you asked, the "confession" aired on Donahue, 60 Minutes, 20/20, or Paul Harvey. It never happened—but millions believed it anyway. What a bunch of bull.

Was Bubble Yum was made with spider eggs? 🕷️🥚 Millions of kids believed it in 1977. They were wrong...but the rumor spread nationwide anyway. The rumor became so widespread that Life Savers had to publicly deny it. That's how powerful urban legends were... #BubbleYum #UrbanLegends #70s #ForgottenTV

Join us this week for THE WATCH PARTY! Thursday night at 5:30 pm Pacific, 8:30 pm Eastern. Participants can watch and interact with one another in real time. Join our group on Facebook for more details! www.facebook.com/groups/70sTV... - link in bio We hope to see you there!!! #70sTVDetectives

Does your teen listen to music, close the door, and keep a diary? Sadly, these are all warning signs. Inform your local law enforcement at once!

#OnThisDay 1977: A college student's letter claiming KISS meant "Kings in Satan's Service" launched one of America's biggest urban legends. Forgotten TV traced a similar Satanic rumor about brand Procter & Gamble and found it also had origins in 1977, but was originally about McDonalds!