For St Louis Kids, Saturday Nights Used to be about Snacks, Sodas, and the Stooges
Throughout the 1980s, local TV gave us every reason to stay up late
By Ryan Boman | September 2, 2025
Sometimes, I think there’s just too much stuff to watch on television these days. As someone who grew up in an era when we had about six or so channels on the old flip dial, it feels like information overload. Even more than that, it feels really sanitized and hollow.
Long before streaming services, social media, YouTube, and a million other things to view at any given time, we used to rely on local TV and radio stations for our entertainment. For folks from the St. Louis area, everyone had their favorite 6 o’clock news anchor or local DJ.
Heck, you might even run into a few of your local celebs while shopping at the old St. Louis Centre, or maybe at a restaurant on The Hill.
In the 1980s, we were thrilled to see local programming because the people in it were local folks just like the rest of us. That made for more intimate viewing, because everything was so close. And, it was entertaining, even the commercials. As a kid, I must admit: I always wondered if the Slyman Brothers really made their Mom drive the delivery truck.
Other than when the Cardinals or Blues would play, my favorite time to tune in to local programming was late on a Saturday night. After KDNL channel 30 showed pro wrestling, I would spin the dial over to KPLR-11 to watch a few hours of the Three Stooges.
In those days, my Dad was usually getting home from work just a few minutes before Moe, Larry, and Curly did their thing. So, I had a strategy: I would have snacks ready or cook a frozen pizza. When my father got home, he had the same routine. He’d clean up, throw on his pajamas, and hop into his leather recliner to watch with me.
Over the next couple of hours, we would watch Curly do his shuffle, in between those wonderful St. Louis commercials, featuring Uncle Leonard or Friedman Railroad Salvage. And I can’t tell you how many times I saw the monster truck Bigfoot roll over that damn mattress in The Waterbed Store ad.
I would lie on the floor in a sleeping bag, with my assorted menu of snacks and soda, thinking: ‘With all this caffeine and sugar, 'I’m going to stay up all night tonight!’
Lo and behold, around 2:30 AM, I would be unconscious, my Dad would wake me up, and tell me to go on ahead to my room. The night was over.
Time seemed to pass like a blur from there. Before I knew it, I was a teenager with a driver’s license, and Saturday nights meant something totally different from there.
But for myself and a lot of folks in my age range, we grew up with the Stooges on Saturday night, thanks to our local, independent affiliate. The food, fun, and laughs with my father are memories that I will treasure forever.
Ryan Boman is a contributing writer for On SI at Sports Illustrated and the author of the 2023 book, Pop Music & Peanut Butter, a Collection of Essays Looking at Life with Laughter & Love. His previous work has appeared at MSN, Heavy, the Miami Herald, Screen Rant, and Yardbarker. Follow him on social media @RyanKBoman