WLS Channel 7 - Fahey Flynn Presents Seven's Greetings (Part 5, 1972)

Here's Part 5 of Fahey Flynn Presents: Seven's Greetings, a Christmas Eve special hosted by the legendary news anchor on WLS Channel 7. This was transferred from the original 2" quad master tape (long since trashed) onto 3/4" Umatic, from which this transfer was made. The show was recorded on Tuesday, December 19th 1972.

Featured in this part are Fahey's longtime co-anchor Joel Daly, "Action 7" reporter Frank Mathie, Suzy Streetnoise, and the puppets Mike Raphone and Meisterburger.

Fahey starts off by introducing a Christmas Eve commentary by Joel, who ruminates on the commercialization of Christmas and Santa's talk with a kid who wants a job for his father.

Next, Fahey recites a Dickens piece on Christmas, accompanied by film of returning veterans coming off planes reuniting with their families, juxtaposed with pictures of advertisements from years past of perfect gifts for the holidays (including Ginger Rogers advertising for DeSoto automobiles, Coca-Cola, and ginger ale), to the accompaniment of "White Christmas."

This is followed by a repeat of an "Action 7" segment with Frank Mathie, "The News Hawk Who Saved Christmas," starting off with a shot of a Chicago highway (accompanied by the Dragnet theme, apropos as this "report" is a de facto takeoff of that long-running series), and dealing with Frank's efforts to recover Santa Claus' red suit which had been stolen. His quest leads him to the only person he figures would steal a fat man's suit - Fat Freddy, then to Terrible Tommy Creep, and finally the only one who'd want Santa home on Christmas Eve night - Mrs. Claus. The piece ends with a parody of the Mark VII Limited ending logo bumper.

This part ends with Mike and Meisterburger handing Suzy a paper with Christmas greetings in Spanish - "Feliz Navidad Y Un Prospero Ano Nuevo."

Seven's Greetings bumper with another nighttime shot of precipitation-soaked State Street

This aired on local Chicago TV late Sunday, December 24th 1972 during the 11:00pm to 12:00am timeframe.

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