ABC Weekend News with John Drury (Complete Broadcast, 4/10/1977) 📺

Here's a complete Easter 1977 edition (seems to be a network feed) of the ABC Weekend News as anchored by WLS Channel 7's own John Drury (reporting from New York) (complete with the crummy 5-kHz telco audio we all know and love).

Opening and closing voiceover by Bill Owen.

Includes:

Newscast open (with Scanimate graphics by Dolphin Productions), followed by items:

- Pursuant to new fishing rules enacted March 1st, Soviet trawler Taras Shevchenko is seized by Coast Guard after violating a 200-mile limit on fishing off coast of Massachusetts, its captain faces fine, jail time and loss of his ship; Bill Stewart reports, film from WCVB Channel 5 in Boston, MA; quote from Howard Nickerson of the New England Fisheries Steering Committee

- In Calhoun, GA, President Carter says he had no choice but to order seizure, as Sam Donaldson reports

Commercials for:

Visine Eye Drops

Liquid Woolite Cold Water Wash (with Holland Taylor)

- 250,000 Pilgrims gather at St. Peter's Square to hear Pope Paul VI's annual Easter address

- Lynn Jones, in Moscow, reports on Soviet attempts to clamp down on religious expression

- Greg Dobbs, in Pineville, KY, reports on town residents celebrating Easter at First Baptist Church after a week of storms and floods that hit town hard; Pastor Charles Jones speaks

Commercials for:

Crock Watcher - from Hamilton Beach

General Tire - "Quality, Choice, Price"

- Israel's Labor Party names Defense Minister Shimon Peres party leader, replacing Prime Minister Menachem Begin

- France to airlift supplies to Zaire, Morocco has 1,500 troops ready to fight rebels in Shaba Province, President Mobutu bitter over U.S. not coming forward with any aid and holds rally in Kinshasa as reported by Hilary Brown

Commercials for:

RCA CB Co-Pilot

Listermint mouthwash (with Julia Duffy) (posted separately here:    • Listermint with Julia Duffy (Commerci...  )

- In sports, Tom Watson edges out Jack Nicklaus for championship at 41st Masters Tournament in Augusta; Ernie Nims reports on highlights

With that, John closes newscast (listen closely to closing theme - didn't it seem the basis for part of the theme of World News Tonight that would premiere next summer?)

Promo for The Laverne & Shirley Birthday Show and ABC Monday Night Baseball (main voiceover by Dick Tufeld) (ending voiceover by Bill Owen)

This aired on local Chicago TV on Sunday, April 10th 1977 during the 11:45pm to 12:00 Midnight timeframe (due to the annual showing of "The Ten Commandments.")

This is from a videotape donated to the Museum of Classic Chicago Television as part of the John Drury Family collection.

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 digital, please e-mail [email protected] Thank you for your help!