March 1976 - Patty Hearst, Kiss, Family

Dig it, Man, it's March 1976!

A number one hit on the Cash Box Top 100 list in March 1976 was 'Dream Weaver' by Gary Wright.

March 1 – Bradford Bishop allegedly murders five of his family members in Bethesda, Maryland. The crime goes undiscovered for 10 days and the suspect is never caught. In 2014, he is placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.

March 9 - Family tv show premieres on ABC.

March 9–11 – Two coal mine explosions claim 26 lives at the Blue Diamond Coal Co. Scotia Mine in Letcher County, Kentucky.

March 11 - Gable and Lombard, Robin and Marian movies are released.

March 12 - I Will, I Will... for Now movie released.

March 14 - Buzby Berkley (director/choreographer) dies.

March 16 - Harold Wilson announced his resignation as Prime Minister of Great Britain.  He had been Labour leader for 13 years and Prime Minister for nearly 8 years.

March 18 - The Man Who Fell to Earth movie released.  Filmed mostly in New Mexico, it starred David Bowie, who's stated he was using cocaine at the time.

March 20 – Patty Hearst is found guilty of armed robbery of a bank.

March 22 – Filming begins on George Lucas' Star Wars science fiction film. In one of the most lucrative business decisions in film history, Lucas declines his directing fee of $500,000 in exchange for complete ownership of merchandising and sequel rights.

March 26 - Ride a Wild Pony and Sky Riders movies released.

March 29 - At the 48th Academy Awards, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest wins best picture.  Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher win best actor and actress for their work in that movie.  George Burns wins best supporting actor for The Sunshine Boys.  Lee Grant wins best supporting actress for Shampoo.

March 31 – The New Jersey Supreme Court rules that persistent vegetative state patient in the Karen Ann Quinlan case can be disconnected from her ventilator. She remains comatose and dies in 1985.

March 31 - W.C. Fields and Me movie released.

Albums released in March (album / artist):
A Love Trilogy / Donna Summer
Nobody's Fools / Slade
Wings of Love / The Temptations
Destroyer / Kiss
I Want You / Marvin Gaye
Takin' It to the Streets / The Doobie Brothers
The Sun Sessions / Elvis Presley (recorded 1954–55)
Sad Wings of Destiny / Judas Priest
Wings at the Speed of Sound / Wings
Amigos / Santana
Jailbreak / Thin Lizzy
Moonmadness / Camel
Presence / Led Zeppelin

Nielsen top 10 for the week of March 14: 1 Rich Man, Poor Man 2 Welcome Back, Kotter 3 The Wizard of Oz 4 All In The Family 5 Happy Days 6 ABC Sunday Movie (High Plains Drifter) 7 (tie) M-A-S-H and Laverne and Shirley 9 (tie) Barney Miller and Police Woman

National Geographic for March:

McCall's for March:

People magazine for March 29th:

Playboy playmate of the month, Ann Pennington and Playgirl man for March, Marc Rodriguez:

1976 Volkswagen Beetle:

Incredible Hulk comic for March:

Sonny and Cher dolls (released in 1976):

Peanuts comic strip from March 1976:

For detailed news/info on what happened each day in March 1976, check out this really good site:  ultimate70s.com

Oh yeah, I remember that one...

Everyone can probably rattle off at least a few of the tv shows that were big in the disco years. ‘Happy Days’, ‘Charlie’s Angels’, ‘Three’s Company’, ‘Laverne & Shirley’, MASH…we all know’em and love’em, but here are a few shows that ended up rated in the top 25 (some even in the top 10), that you may have forgotten about.

1976-77 Season
‘The Tony Randall Show’. Remember him from ‘The Odd Couple’? In this comedy he played a judge in Philadelphia. I'm drawin' a blank on this one…

‘What’s Happening’. This one I know from reruns. Sassy black women crack me up, so Shirley the waitress and Dee the sister were favorites. Of course, everybody liked Rerun.
‘Baretta’ (top 10 show). This one may be fresher in your memory because of the big scandal with Robert Blake a few years back. He plays a tough guy cop in this show. My bedtime was 9:00, so I could watch this, but not ‘Charlie’s Angels’, which followed it. I’m still bitter.

1977-78
‘Project UFO’. I don’t remember this one even though I’m a big Sci-Fi fan. It was about a couple of Air Force investigators who investigated UFO sightings, which sounds pretty awesome! Of course, I was mainly subject to whatever shows Mother and Daddy wanted to watch…like ‘Baretta’…argh…

‘Barnaby Jones’. Good ‘ole Jed Clampett’s follow up. The whole family liked this detective show. The lady in the pic look familiar? That's Lee Meriwether, who was (one of) the actresses to play Catwoman in the 'Batman' tv series.

‘Family’. This was one of those serious family dramas that tried to make you cry every week. Not a favorite, but I thought Kristy McNichol was the deal.

1978-79
‘Angie’. If you remember Donna Pescow, consider yourself a scholar of disco years tv! (Trivia: Her first movie role was in ‘Saturday Night Fever’.) I think sassy white women are almost as fun as black ones.

‘The Ropers’. I thought ‘Three’s Company’ was great, but was never really a big fan of the Ropers on that show so I wasn’t very interested in this spin-off. Sadsack Stanley kinda grates on the nerves.

‘Vega$’. A detective show set in…somewhere I can’t remember. Saw it a few times (again, past my bedtime). I remember he parked his sports car in his living room, which may not have been practical...but was totally cool!

1979-80
‘That’s Incredible’ (top 10…actually #3 for the year). This was a fun show that featured people doing crazy/dangerous/stupid stunts. Guess this would be considered one of the precursors to today’s reality tv. We’ve come a long way…nah!

Flo (top 10). I really liked ‘Alice’ and, like everyone else, Flo was my favorite on the show. My little sister and I yelled ‘kiss my grits’ at each other with some regularity for awhile there…we were edgy like that. I don’t remember watching this spin-off, but ‘Alice’ was never quite as good without Flo.

'House Calls'. We watched this hospital-based comedy off and on. Not my thing.