Chicago
WTTW
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← AIRDATES ...... (CLICK ICON TO GO TO TABLE SHOWING EPISODE BREAKDOWN AND AIRDATES - N/S = story title is Not Stated) |
Channel 11 (PBS)
- 29 September 1975: Doctor Who make its series debut in Chicago, screening weekdays at 6.30pm. The first serial to air is The Mutants. Serials continue to air out of order.
- From January 1976, random stories are repeated even though there are first-run stories still yet to screen. (The Curse of Peladon does not screen.)
- 12 January 1976: The last part of The Mind of Evil is shown. The first 5 minutes of this broadcast still exists as an off-air recording.
- 7-10 March 1977: A repeat of Terror of the Autons is the only story to air in 1977. This story was recorded by at least two fans, which were later used by the Restoration Team to recolourise the story.
- 11 February 1980: The Tom Baker stories make their Chicago debut; the first story is in fact the last, The Invasion of Time! Episodes air weekdays at 5.30pm. Stories are cycled through twice.
- 4 January 1981: WTTW begins airing compilations with The Sun Makers. Tom Baker's final three seasons air from 23 August.
- 1982: From 2 October, omnibus editions screen weekly on Saturdays to compete with WOR's broadcasts, so there are two different cycles of Baker airing at the same time.
- 24 April 1983: The Peter Davison stories debut.
- 12 June 1983: A package of just the extant full colour Jon Pertwee stories commences, including several stories only just recently recovered from Canada.
- 23 November 1983: The Five Doctors airs, two days before it aired in the UK. Chicago had not yet seen season 20 before the airing.
- 24 November 1984: Season 20 and 21 begin.
- 1984-1986: Repeats of Baker, Pertwee and Davison episodes.
- 16 March 1986: The Colin Baker stories screen. WTTW removed the scene of Shockeye eating a rat from its broadcasts of The Two Doctors.
- 11 May 1986: The 17 repackaged William Hartnell stories air.
- 19 October 1986: The first airings of the Patrick Troughton stories begins with The Mind Robber because The Dominators was considered "too confusing."
- 8 December 1986: The the newly acquired Jon Pertwee package airs nightly, interrupted by pledge breaks. The Curse of Peladon is aired on WTTW for the first time during this run.
- 22 November 1987: The airing of Horror of Fang Rock (its eighth screening) was interrupted by a video pirate dressed as Max Headroom.
- 31 December 1987: A Dalek Night marathon, with Resurrection of the Daleks, Revelation of the Daleks, and Day of the Daleks.
- 12 March 1988: A Master Marathon, with Terror of the Autons, Logopolis, Castrovalva and The Mark of the Rani airing between pledge breaks. Fan clubs man the phones.
- 27 November 1988: A repeat run of Baker, Davison and Colin Baker stories leads into the first airing of The Trial of a Time Lord followed by the debut of the Sylvester McCoy stories.
- 1988-1991: More repeats, but Season 20 is dropped after Terminus in favour of full colour Pertwee stories. The first 23 Tom Baker stories air for their tenth time. The repeat run ends on 1 September 1991 with The Greatest Show in the Galaxy. Doctor Who had been screening virtually non-stop from February 1980 through to September 1991...
- 8 November 1990: Part 1 of The Mind of Evil. See The Black and White Conspiracy below.
- Doctor Who is absent from WTTW for the next five years...
- July 1996: A series of selected repeats leads into the debut screening of season 26 on 25 August. However, WTTW does not screen Battlefield.
- 8 September 1996: Survival is the final episode of Doctor Who to air on WTTW.
The Black and White Conspiracy Theory:
There were contemporary rumors that WTTW did not want to air the William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton stories because they were in black and white. WTTW did show them ... once. Only two black and white stories were ever shown a second time: Terror of the Autons and The Mind of Evil.
In addition to not repeating Hartnell and Troughton episodes, WTTW also did not repeat the black and white Jon Pertwee episodes (Doctor Who and the Silurians, The Ambassadors of Death, Terror of the Autons and The Mind of Evil) as part of their regular runs.
Terror of the Autons was shown as part of a pledge-night special on 12 March 1988. Ironically, the host jokingly wished that the story could be colorized, forgetting that it had been shown on WTTW in color eleven years earlier.
On 16 July 1989, part 1 of The Monster of Peladon was mistakenly shown. WTTW rectified their mistake by showing the entire story three weeks later. By showing part 1 twice, WTTW had fulfilled its contract to air each story no more than twice. So when it came time to show The Monster of Peladon again (8 November 1990), they couldn't. So they needed a suitable replacement: a six-part Jon Pertwee story. The only episode to fit that bill was The Mind of Evil.
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← Memorabilia, conventions, etc. |
WFLD
Channel 32 (Independent)
- 13-18 April 1969: The first Peter Cushing movie, "Dr Who and the Daleks" airs at 2.30pm on Sunday, with a repeat at 8.00pm each night that week.
- 14 May 1996: Now a Fox station, WFLD airs the TV Movie.
