by PL

Nancy Rooks writes in her 2005 book that she “thinks” she was watching “As The World Turns” on TV when Ginger Alden called downstairs for help. The time of this call was 2:20pm, as the story goes, but over the years we have seen a handful of different times also being mentioned. In a YouTube video featuring Rooks, she comments that she was watching “As The World Turns” that afternoon when the intercom phone rang, so here we have at least two references, by Rooks herself, to that specific show. Below is the August 25, 1977, TV schedule in The Commerical Appeal for local network affiliates in Memphis (which was presumably the same schedule nine days prior):

“As The World Turns” aired on Channel 3, the CBS affiliate, from 12:30pm to 1:30pm. Here is another listing from the August 18, 1977, Press-Scimitar, showing the TV schedule for Friday, August 19 (CBS is in the first column):

At 2:20pm, the only soap operas airing would have been “Another World” (2:00pm to 3:00pm), and starting at 2:15pm, “General Hospital.”

In another print interview, Rooks says that Ginger called downstairs at “about ten minutes to two.” This would have been approximately 20 minutes after “As The World Turns” ended at 1:30pm, and 30 minutes before the reported 2:20pm call.

Is there any reference by Nancy Rooks to a 2:20pm call from Ginger Alden?

Is there any reference by Ginger Alden to a 1:50pm call to Nancy Rooks?

Note: As I have written before, watching soap operas is a daily activity and a dedicated fan does not skip a day. A viewer of soap operas also knows very well which shows are viewed on a daily basis. One does not watch “As The World Turns” one day, and then switch to “All My Children” (in the same time slot) the next day. That’s just not how soap opera viewing works. So, if Nancy Rooks says she was watching “As The World Turns” that day, we can conclude that she watched this show every weekday, and could reasonably place events on a timeline relevant to the 12:30pm-1:30pm airtime.