NBC Network - Buffalo Bill - "A Hero" - WMAQ Channel 5 (Complete Broadcast, 3/8/1984) 📺 🐃

Here's another episode of the short-lived (1983-84) sitcom Buffalo Bill, "A Hero" (S02E11), as broadcast over the NBC Network via WMAQ Channel 5. This episode features Susan Ruttan (pre-L.A. Law) as Katherine Zawicki Shub, and Sam Whipple as Karl's rebellious son Karl Jr. who idolizes Bill and gets a job at the station Bill works for.
No, it's not a light-hearted sitcom about the serial killer from "Silence of the Lambs" - this show starred Dabney Coleman as "Buffalo" Bill Bittinger, an egotistical local talk show host in Buffalo, NY (whose NBC affiliate was actually WGRZ Channel 2), who makes life miserable for everyone around him at the small TV station he works for - but is kept at bay by his director and on/off lover Jo Jo White (Joanna Cassidy). Also featured in the cast were (pre-"Alf" Dad) Max Wright (as station manager Karl Shub), John Fiedler (as Woody), a pre-stardom Geena Davis (as Wendy Killian), Meshach Taylor and Charlie Robinson. Besides the cast, Norelco PC-70 cameras appear in shot frequently in the TV studio segments.
(A complete broadcast of another episode can be seen here: • NBC Network - Buffalo ... )
Includes:
Station ID / Ron Magers promo for Channel 5 News at 10pm ("Local woman makes a big splash in Hollywood" - who?)
Show opening sequence and titles
Commercials for:
American Express Card - with Robert Ludlum (voiceover by Peter Thomas)
Theatrical trailer for "Against All Odds"
Episode Act I
Buffalo Bill trailer, with Channel 5 lower-third logo below
Theatrical trailer for "Tank"
New Advanced Formula Dishwasher All - "Go Beyond Clean, All the Way to Shine"
Promo for We Got It Made, Mama's Family and The Yellow Rose for Saturday
Promo for TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes for Monday (voiceover by Danny Dark)
Episode Act II
Commercials for:
Xerox Memorywriter (Jane's co-workers marvel at her performance at work)
Wrangler Jeans - "Live It to the Limit"
Episode epilogue, followed by closing credits (with local voiceover by Ron Magers for Channel 5 News at 10pm previewing following stories: Democratic Presidential candidates making final push for Super Tuesday, with live report from Carol Marin in Alabama)
Guest host Joan Rivers previewing tonight's Tonight Show
NBC News Digest with Norma Quarles (opening voiceover by Fred Facey), with following stories:
- Senate Appropriations Committee rejects $21 million aid package for Nicaraguan rebels, and puts off action on $93 million in aid to army in El Salvador
- Iran and Iraq both claim victory in fighting on 6 fronts
Commercial: Bud Light
More news:
- 5 million French workers bring country to standstill
- Convicted killer Theodore Streleski paroled in California only to be jailed 3 hours later for refusal to cooperate
Incomplete commercial for TWA - "You're Gonna Like Us" (voiceover by Don Criqui) - recording ends before ad does
This aired on local Chicago TV on Thursday, March 8th 1984 during the 8:30pm to 8:59pm 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: [e-mail] 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 [e-mail] Thank you for your help!

[@ShaneyBright]

I feel a sense of comfort with these 80s shows. I love the lo fi sound.

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

@Issan Cali Reject That's what happened.

[@TheRetroDepot]

for sure, me too

[@commentingcollector]

Some of these old TV theme songs are just grand!

[@bufnyfan1]

The man Dabney Coleman has his arm around at 0:48 is the actual mayor of Buffalo, NY at that time James Griffin who served the longest term of any mayor in Buffalo history (1978-1993)

[@toddanthony6664]

RIP Dabney Coleman

[@thezenitsufan1249]

Brandon Tartikoff would later say canceling Buffalo Bill was his biggest regret

[@socalemeraldaztecanrhino922]

In case anyone is wondering, the man in the American Express commercial that starts at 1:10-1:38 is legendary author Robert Ludlum, who wrote the original Jason Bourne trilogy novels that were later adapted into the movies Matt Damon starred in. Quite a unique voice Bob Ludlum had. The year Mr. Ludlum made this commercial, he was going to release his thirteenth novel The Parsifal Mosaic. R.I.P. to Bob, an awesome creator of thrillers using a pencil and yellow legal pads never a typewriter or computer with blank white paper.

[@RobHart1980]

The “local woman making a splash in Hollywood” in the Channel 5 promo is most likely Daryl Hannah. “Splash” was released the next day.

[@FuzzyMemoriesTV]

Thanks, Rob! :-)

[@Diskoboy1974]

My dad and i loved this show. It was well written and acted. Its funny, a bit politically incorrect, it doesnt take itself too seriously. And I always loved Dabney Coleman's sarcastic wit.

[@andyrose5616]

1:42 "Against All Odds" trailer voice is Don LaFontaine. 12:07 The "Tank" trailer is odd: Don LaFontaine voices most of it, but Hal Douglas does the "Preview Friday and Saturday" tag. 13:08 The We Got It Made/Mama's Family/Yellow Rose promo is voiced by Jerry Bishop.

[@lonewolfattack8071]

Brandon Tartikoff had a thing at the time where he just wouldn't schedule 1 episode of a show. I never knew what it was. Sometimes -- as with "The A-Team," "The Devlin Connection," "Legmen," "Ferris Bueller," "Parenthood" and too many others to list -- that episode got dusted off months later. More often, though -- think "Miami Vice," "Mama's Boy," "Berrenger's," "Misfits of Science," "The Bronx Zoo," "Molly Dodd," "J.J. Starbuck," "Mr. Smith," "Hell Town," etc -- it didn't get broadcast at all. "Buffalo Bill" was in the latter camp. One episode never aired on NBC. I don't know if by sitting on one, he prevented other networks from stealing the show until he was certain there was no interest in doing so, or what exactly it was. (Not that he succeeded with "Molly Dodd.") All I know is, for a show whose cancellation he called his biggest regret, a show which got 11 Emmy nominations, it sure was strange that he couldn't even be bothered to air them all. Even more baffling, the unaired episode was prominently featured in the opening credits -- the Burt Reynolds impersonator.

[@root409]

A hardened Buffalonian would not have said "Interstate 190". Buffalo Bill had it right the 1st time when he called it "the 190". Also, Dave Wałęsa would not be Erie County's own, but just Buffalo's own (or, more likely, Cheektowaga's own).

[@TheRetroDepot]

I never got to see an original broadcast, I was 9 when this aired, so I didn't watch it, but I have the DVD of the complete series.

[@noteworthypromotions20]

@The Retro Depot.That's no excuse, being only 9!I was too when this came out and I was watching grown up shows like Hunter no less! I'm kidding with you though,that was our childhood.We should have been watching the A-team,knight Rider and dukes of Hazzard.That was more our fare

[@MMAfighter38113]

Dabney Coleman played the best smarmy, selfish characters who were always ***holes.

[@NJGuy1973]

Too bad he wasn't born a few decades later. He would have been great on a show like Mad Men or Succession.

[@kali3665]

I don't know what episode it was, but it starts out with Bill *SINGING* lyrics to the Buffalo Bill theme. They decide the series doesn't need lyrics "because his lyrics are awful and his singing is just AWFUL!" (Newdell). I hope you can post that one as well. Thank you so much!

[@alfonsogreen2722]

I used 2 love this show

[@TTrigg]

We Got It Made..shouldnt it have been called "We Got It MAID"..?

[@ronflatter1235]

9:40 - 9:46 Note the continuity error with the cigarette.

[@djf750]

GREAT show, would have been better without fake laugh track

[@orsonzedd]

Tsk not the Buffalo Bill I want a sitcom about

[@NJGuy1973]

Buffalo Bill was criticized for having an unlikeable protagonist. How times change.

[@louistenore2185]

Wasn;t Max Wright the Dad from ALF

[@alfonsogreen2722]

Yes he was. This was b4 Alf

[@dustinolvey8877]

This show is not good.