''AM America'' was a morning news program produced by

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

in an attempt to compete with the highly rated ''

Today Today (archaically to-day) may refer to: * Day of the present, the time that is perceived directly, often called ''now'' * Current era, present * The current calendar date Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Today'' (1930 film), a 1930 A ...

'' on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

. Premiering on January 6, 1975, the show never found an audience against ''Today'' or the CBS combo of the ''

CBS Morning News The ''CBS Morning News'' is an American early-morning news broadcast presented weekdays on the CBS television network. The program features late-breaking news stories, national weather forecasts and sports highlights. Since 2013, it has been an ...

'' and ''

Captain Kangaroo ''Captain Kangaroo'' is an American children's television series that aired weekday mornings on the American television network CBS for 29 years, from 1955 to 1984, making it the longest-running nationally broadcast children's television program ...

''. Lasting just under ten months, its final installment aired on October 31.Robertson, Campbell. "Bill Beutel, 75, Dies; Longtime Anchor of 'Eyewitness News' in New York," ''The New York Times'', Monday, March 20, 2006.
/ref> It would be replaced the following Monday (November 3) by ''

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. Th ...

History

The program's concept was based on ''

Ralph Story Ralph Story (born Ralph Bernard Snyder; August 19, 1920 – September 26, 2006) was an American television and radio personality. He was best known as the host of '' The $64,000 Challenge'' from 1956 to 1958, and as the writer and host of ''Ralph ...

's AM'', the local morning show on the

network Network, networking and networked may refer to: Science and technology * Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects * Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks Mathematics ...

's owned-and-operated

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

station

KABC-TV KABC-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station maintains stud ...

.Ehrman, Mark. "Why Is This Woman Smiling?" ''Los Angeles Times'', Sunday, August 30, 1998.
/ref> Like ''Today'', ''AM America'' employed two hosts and a news anchor. Originally selected in August 1974 as cohosts were

Bill Beutel William Charles Beutel (December 12, 1930 – March 18, 2006) was an American television reporter, journalist, and anchor. He was best known for working over four decades with the American Broadcasting Company, spending much of that time anchoring ...

who was co-anchor of ''

Eyewitness News ''Eyewitness News'' is a style of television news presentation that emphasizes visual elements and action video, replacing the older "man-on-camera" newscast. History Pioneered by Westinghouse The earliest known use of the ''Eyewitness New ...

'' on the network's

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

flagship station

WABC-TV WABC-TV (channel 7) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station maintains studios in the Lincoln Square neighbor ...

, Stephanie Edwards from ''Ralph Story's AM'' and Bob Kennedy who hosted morning

talk show A talk show (or chat show in British English) is a television programming or radio programming genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk Show ...

''Kennedy and Company'' on

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

WLS-TV WLS-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, airing programming from the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station maintains studios on North State S ...

. Kennedy died of

bone cancer A bone tumor is an abnormal growth of tissue in bone, traditionally classified as noncancerous (benign) or cancerous (malignant). Cancerous bone tumors usually originate from a cancer in another part of the body such as from lung, breast, thyro ...

on November 5, 1974, just two months prior to the series' debut, and was eventually replaced by ABC's Washington correspondent

Peter Jennings Peter Charles Archibald Ewart Jennings (July 29, 1938August 7, 2005) was a Canadian-born American television journalist who served as the sole anchor of ''ABC World News Tonight'' from 1983 until his death from lung cancer in 2005. He dropped o ...

who provided the news reports. One notable episode of ''AM America'' aired on April 25, 1975, when members of the British comedy troupe

Monty Python Monty Python (also collectively known as the Pythons) were a British comedy troupe who created the sketch comedy television show '' Monty Python's Flying Circus'', which first aired on the BBC in 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four ...

(with the exception of

John Cleese John Marwood Cleese ( ; born 27 October 1939) is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. Emerging from the Cambridge Footlights in the 1960s, he first achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and ...

, who had temporarily left the group) made one of their earliest appearances on American television. (The program ended with the Pythons attempting to tear apart the set and abscond with everything that wasn't nailed down, including Edwards.) Edwards quit the show by the end of May, and Beutel followed her out a few months later. On November 3, the Monday following its final broadcast, it was replaced with a more well-known, more successful effort, ''

''.

Logo

The logo for ''AM America'' had the letters A and M colored in blue while the rest of the word "America" was colored in red. The "AM" overlapped with "America". Also, a star was placed inside the "A".

Theme music

The series'

theme music Theme music is a musical composition that is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at so ...

was "Spirit Of '76 (AM America)," an

instrumental An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to instru ...

composed by William Goldstein which was released as a

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

for

Motown Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''moto ...

in November 1975.

Franchising

The ''AM (city name)'' name was franchised to ABC stations across the United States, for locally produced morning talk programs (which generally aired during the 9 a.m. hour, after the national program ended; they generally had one or two hosts, and most had a live studio audience, especially during the 1980s). * ''AM Los Angeles'', the successor to ''Ralph Story's AM'', featured

Regis Philbin Regis Francis Xavier Philbin (; August 25, 1931 – July 25, 2020)Archived aGhostarchiveand thWayback Machine was an American television presenter, talk show host, game show host, comedian, actor, and singer. Once called "the hardest working ma ...

and

Sarah Purcell Sarah Purcell (born Sarah Pentecost on October 8, 1948, Richmond, Indiana) is an American former talk show host, game show host, and panelist. She was co-host of ''The Better Sex'' (1977–1978), ''Real People'' (1979–1984), ''America'' (198 ...

. Purcell was replaced by

Cyndy Garvey Cyndy Garvey (née Cynthia Truhan) (born July 16, 1949, Detroit, Michigan) is an American television personality and former wife of baseball player Steve Garvey. Career Cyndy Garvey replaced Sarah Purcell as Regis Philbin's co-host of the loca ...

in 1978, and the show moved to New York City in 1983 (where it replaced ''AM New York''), eventually evolving into the current ''

Live with Kelly and Ryan ''Live with Kelly and Ryan'' (or simply ''Live'') is an American syndicated morning talk show hosted by Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest. Executive produced by Michael Gelman, the ''Live with...'' show formula has aired under various hosts since ...

''. After the departures of Philbin and Garvey, ''AM Los Angeles'' continued on KABC-TV featuring at various points

Paul Moyer Paul Moyer (born June 13, 1941) is an American journalist. He co-anchored the 5 PM and 11 PM weekday editions of KNBC-TV's ''Channel 4 News'' with Colleen Williams for a decade after earlier co-anchoring with Kelly Lange.Nieto, Rebecca (2009-05- ...

, Ann Martin, Harold Greene, Steve Edwards,

Cristina Ferrare Cynthia Cristina Ferrare (born 1950) is an American former fashion model, actress, author and talk-show host. She had lead roles in several films in the late-1960s and early-1970s, including the comedy '' The Impossible Years'' and the Western f ...

and

Tawny Little Tawny Little (née Godin; born September 15, 1956), Miss America 1976 and Miss New York 1975, is an American television personality. Early life and education Godin was born in Portland, Maine. She was raised in Yonkers, New York and Toronto, Ont ...

until 1991 when the program was replaced by ''

Live with Regis and Kathie Lee ''Live with Kelly and Ryan'' (or simply ''Live'') is an American syndicated morning talk show hosted by Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest. Executive produced by Michael Gelman, the ''Live with...'' show formula has aired under various hosts since ...

''. *

's ''AM Chicago'' (itself a successor to the ''Kennedy and Company'' series hosted by Bob Kennedy, who would have been an ''AM America'' co-host prior to his unexpected death), hosted by (among others) Sandi Freeman, Steve Edwards,

John Barbour John Barbour may refer to: * John Barbour (poet) (1316–1395), Scottish poet * John Barbour (MP for New Shoreham), MP for New Shoreham 1368-1382 * John Barbour (footballer) (1890–1916), Scottish footballer * John S. Barbour (1790–1855), U. ...

Robb Weller Robb Weller (born September 27, 1949) is an American game show host and television personality and producer (Weller/Grossman Productions). He hosted ''Entertainment Tonight'' from 1984 to 1986, and ''Entertainment This Week'' from 1984 to 1989, ...

Tim Weigel John Timothy Weigel (March 4, 1945 – June 17, 2001), known professionally as Tim Weigel, was a Chicago broadcaster who spent most of his career as a television sports anchor and reporter. Early life and education Weigel grew up in Gurnee, Illi ...

, John Callaway and

Oprah Winfrey Oprah Gail Winfrey (; born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954), or simply Oprah, is an American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and philanthropist. She is best known for her talk show, ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', br ...

. The program evolved into ''

The Oprah Winfrey Show ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', often referred to as ''The Oprah Show'' or simply ''Oprah'', is an American daytime broadcast syndication, syndicated talk show that aired nationally for 25 seasons from September 8, 1986, to May 25, 2011, in Chicag ...

'' which aired in the former ''AM Chicago'' time slot from 1986 to 2011. After ''Oprah'' ended, WLS-TV premiered ''

Windy City Live ''Windy City Live'' (WCL) is a local daytime talk show that is broadcast on WLS-TV and based in Chicago, Illinois. It premiered on May 26, 2011 as a replacement of ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'' which retired that month and is produced by WLS-TV (ABC ...

'' which aired in the same time slot until 2013 when it was replaced by ''

Live with Kelly and Michael ''Live with Kelly and Ryan'' (or simply ''Live'') is an American syndicated morning talk show hosted by Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest. Executive produced by Michael Gelman, the ''Live with...'' show formula has aired under various hosts since ...

''. *

WXYZ-TV WXYZ-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Detroit, Detroit, Michigan, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside Independent station (North America), independent st ...

had an ''AM Detroit'' in the mid-1970s (hosted by

Dennis Wholey Dennis Wholey (born July 2, 1939) is an American television host and producer, and the author of a number of self-help books, one of which was a ''New York Times'' bestseller. He currently hosts ''This is America & The World with Dennis Wholey'', ...

) which was replaced by ''Kelly & Company'', with former ''Action News'' co-anchorman John Kelly and weathercaster Marilyn Turner (a husband-and-wife team), which ran through the early 1990s. *

KGO-TV KGO-TV (channel 7) is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving as the San Francisco Bay Area's ABC network outlet. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, KGO-TV maint ...

's ''AM San Francisco'' (aired from 1975 to 1988) featured the husband-and-wife team of Fred LaCosse and Terry Lowry. * ''

AM Buffalo WKBW-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Buffalo, New York, United States, affiliated with ABC. Owned by the E. W. Scripps Company, the station maintains studios at 7 Broadcast Plaza in downtown Buffalo and a transmitter on Center Stree ...

'', which replaced a '' Dialing for Dollars'' franchise on

WKBW-TV WKBW-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Buffalo, New York, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC. Owned by the E. W. Scripps Company, the station maintains studios at 7 Broadcast Plaza in downtown Buffalo and ...

, also remains on air. * Additionally,

KATU KATU (channel 2) is a television station in Portland, Oregon, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside La Grande–licensed Univision affiliate KUNP (channel 16). Both stations share studios on N ...

in Portland has aired ''AM Northwest'' since the debut of ''AM America''. There also was a short lived ''AM Northwest'' program on Seattle's

KOMO-TV KOMO-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Seattle, Seattle, Washington, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside Bellevue, Washington, Bellevue-licensed Univision a ...

(sister station to KATU) in either the 1980s or 1990s. The KATU and KOMO-TV versions had different hosts and guests, but the debut broadcast on KOMO included on air interaction with the hosts at ''AM Northwest'' in Portland. * Some non-ABC affiliated stations such as

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

affiliate

KHOU KHOU (channel 11) is a television station in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside Conroe, Texas, Conroe-licensed Quest (American TV network), Quest station KTBU (channel 55). Both sta ...

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

and then-

owned-and-operated station

WKYC WKYC (channel 3) is a television station in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Tegna Inc. Its studios are located on Tom Beres Way (a section of Lakeside Avenue in Downtown Cleveland named after the station's longti ...

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

have used the ''AM'' branding for their programs ''AM Houston'' and ''AM Cleveland'', respectively.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Am America American Broadcasting Company original programming ABC News 1970s American television news shows 1975 American television series debuts 1975 American television series endings