The original Ron Burgundy defers to his colleague

Photos by Retiring Guy (September 1980)

From the spring of 1974 through the summer of 1983, I didn't own a television. By choice. 

But when I visited my parents in Warren PA, I wasn't above stretching out on the living room floor during the late evening, as if I were back in high school after hanging out with friends. In both cases, my primary goal was to catch a rerun of The Honeymooners on WPIX. 

During a September 1980 visit, I set up my camera on a tripod and snapped an occasional photo, such as the 'action' portrait, above, of the News at 11 anchors on WIVB-TV in Buffalo, New York. 

Or this one of Moe getting a faceful of water. (Unfortunately, I can't find The Honeymooners shots. I think I may have tossed those slides without scanning them, not realizing there was a blog post in store.)

Or stills from this bizarre Chock-Full-of-Nuts coffee commercial, featuring Bert Parks and Page Morton Black.

As shown in this partial schedule from the 4/29/1968 Warren Times Observer, the 3 New York City independent TV stations -- WNEW (5) WOR (9), WPIX (11) -- were available via the wonders of .....

Related reading:
PIX11 celebrates 60th anniversary of ‘The Honeymooners’ with 2-episode special 11 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 1.  (PIX11, September 29, 2015

In 1958, WPIX picked up the reruns of the Classic 39, and they’ve been part of our family ever since. For decades, PIX11 showed “The Honeymooners” at 11 p.m. or 11:30 p.m. weeknights — it’s how generations of New Yorkers went to bed.