For us, UHF meant we could get the two stations from Idaho Falls which were the NBC and CBS affiliates for Southeastern Idaho.  The ABC affiliate was in Pocatello and it was never on UHF, so it was always dependent on the vagaries of the weather, but was usually at best a bit snowy.  The Twin Falls station was independent but did a mix of NBC and CBS stuff.  PBS was a rumor.  There was a PBS station at Idaho State University in Pocatello but it was snowy to the point of being migraine inducing.  

Re: Robert Conrad

Conrad was a pretty good actor, within a narrow character frame. Give him good material and he gave you a great show or movie; give him mediocre material and he was at least memorable in it. Hawaiian Eye got him noticed, but Wild Wild West made him a star. He did a large majority of his own stunts, which made the show that much better, as they could stay tighter on him in action scenes. As Prince Hal said, the counter-point with Ross Martin, as Artemus Gordon, really made the show work. Artemus was more worldly, a trained actor and master of disguises and also a bit of Q, from the Bond films, as he developed most of their gadgets. They regularly had him use disguises to gain intel, allowing Martin, a terrific character actor, to play all kinds of character types. Conrad was on the smaller side, so they had him using Alan Ladd's boots, in the pilot, to look taller, then worked out ways to make him look taller, via costuming and angles. That was part of why he wore Mexican-style riding gear, with the short jackets , as it made him appear taller, with longer legs. Artemus had a more classic, gentlemanly style to his wardrobe.

What made the show a classic, though, was the recurring villain, Dr Miguelito Loveless, played by Michael Dunne...



Dunn was only 3 ft 10 in, due to a genetic defect in cartilage production; but, he had a talent that was 10 feet tall. He did a nightclub act with Phoebe Dorin, who appeared in the series as Dr Loveless' assistant (along with Richard Kiel, as Voltaire), where they sang and joked and the producers mixed this in with the character, usually having him sing a number in each of his episodes. He was a brilliant scientist, ahead of his time and was also the descendent of a Spanish family that had owned much of California. In his first appearance ("Night of the Wizard") he had developed a powerful bomb and was using it to blackmail the US government into returning California to him.

Dunn was a terrific actor, which helped him get parts beyond just those calling for his physical stature. His height did limit his roles far more than they should, but he was able to do a wider range of parts, compared to Little Person actors like Billy Barty or Billy Curtis.

Conrad was just as good on Baa Baa Black Sheep. The series played up the misfit image of VMF-214, a Marine Corps squadron that was formed around pilots from a replacement depot. The pilot has them as discipline cases, screw-ups, or rookies, with Pappy Boyington fresh from the American Volunteer Group, aka The Flying Tigers. That was partially true, as Boyington had flown with the Tigers and did return to the Marine Corps. The pilots did come from replacement pools; but, it was not connived into being by Boyington, as depicted. It was put together with official sanctioning. The men were not discipline cases, but that made them more colorful, for tv. Boyington was called Gramps or Pappy, because he was older than most of the men; but, he was only 31, while Conrad was 41, when the series debuted. They had a good young cast, who got fleshed out, over time, including James Whitmore Jr (Boys in Company C, The Long Riders), John Larroquette, WK Stratton, Robert Ginty, Larry Manetti (Magnum PI), Dirk Blocker (son of Dan "Hoss" Blocker, of Bonanza), Jeff McKay, Dana Elcar (McGuyver), and Simon Oakland. Elvis' buddy Red West (Road House) was the maintenance chief, though he didn't appear until the second season. It was Stephen J Cannell's, who was ubiquitous in the 80s, first major series creation, after working as a writer and story editor. It has a lot in common with his later shows, like Hardcastle & McCormick, with anti-authoritarian heroes, plenty of vehicle action, lots of fist fights and healthy doses of character humor. Because of the war setting, it's a bit more serious than some of that later stuff; but, not completely. After a while, there was a sameness to the episodes, as they had exhausted most of the basic plots and just started doing variations of the same. They even added some nurses, to provide Boyington with a love interest.

Conrad had a few more series and some pilots, after that, but none as big. He did one, Hard Knox, that was just a pilot movie; but, I kind of liked it. He was a retired Marine fighter pilot who becomes the commandant of his old alma matter military prep school (not a military college, so there were young to teen-age students) and tries to shape it up. Assisting him is Red West, as Master Sergeant Tuttle (aka Top), who ends up bonding with a young girl student. It was a bit cliched; but, the cast was likeable and the plot of the movie was pretty decent. Could have made for a decent little series.

Conrad starred in the short-lived spy series, A Man Called Sloane, as wealthy spy Thomas Remington Sloane, who works for The Director, played by Dan O'Herlihy and is aided by Torque, played by Ji-Tu Cumbuka. It had the memorable characters; but, was severely hampered by budget and pretty run-of-the-mill plots. It lasted 12 episodes, plus a pilot movie, with Robert Logan, instead of Conrad.

Another short-lived series was High Mountain Rangers, about a group of mountain rescue personnel. Wasn't bad; but that kind of thing had been done to death, in the 70s. There was a second iteration, called Jesse Hawks, with Conrad's character now working as a cop. He tried it again in the 90s, as High Sierra Search and Rescue.

Conrad was involved in a bad auto accident in the early 00s that pretty much ended his career and led to physical problems that plagued him until the end. He was DUI in the accident and was noted as a hard partier, which had some effect on his career, as did his politics, which were very conservative, especially by Hollywood standards.

I always liked Conrad, as an actor, as he did good work, had a charisma and a physicality that made him memorable (kind of like Rod Taylor, though Taylor had a greater acting range). He was also very competitive, which was part of why he was such an ass in battle of the Network Stars. He took it seriously; everyone else was just trying to have fun and grab a paycheck. I wouldn't like that to Dancing With the Stars, so much, though celebrity was the main ingredient, not athletic ability. It was an ABC spin-off of the Superstars program that they ran on ABC sports, where various professional athletes competed in events outside their own field. ABC took the concept and threw actors into it, with teams representing the Three Networks. After that first one, Conrad was banned (allegedly) from the NBC team, though he showed up in the final tug of war, to motivate the team on to victory. He did a parody of the battery commercial for BOTNS, with a little NBC logo block on his shoulder, daring anyone to knock it off.

Been watching Ducktales through Disney Plus, what a fun little show. Never got much of a chance to watch it growing up, though I do vaguely recall watching the film, Treasure Of The Lost Lamp.

To be perfectly honest, I wasn't much into action adventure shows like Johnny Quest growing up and I'm still not, but Ducktales has a really nice charm to it

I keep my Quest (and few other HB) DVD handy in my bedroom for those restless nights awakened and can't fall back asleep. Nothing finer than a couple of episodes in the middle of the night to distract the mind and leading into splendid dreams. 😴

When my roommates and I got cable in the late 70s, Boston Channel 38 WSBK was included. "Ask the Manager" on Sunday mornings was hilarious.

I'm not sure why I never liked it, but it might have had something to do with watching reruns of The Real Adventures Of Johnny Quest on Toonami at my cousin's house in the late 90's/early 00's

I only really cared about "quest world" because of bad cgi and virtual reality elements

We saw the Munsters as kids but I don't remember ever seeing the Addams Family until the movie remake - in the 90s, was it? I had heard about it by that time but had no knowledge of the characters, etc.