WMAQ channel 5 TV schedule for Friday, March 24, 1989
Morning
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5a - Sally Jessy Raphael Show
5:30a - Morning Stretch
6a - NBC News at Sunrise with Deborah Norville
6:30a - Channel 5 News at 6:30
7a - Today (2 hours)
9a - Sale of the Century (Finale)
9:30a - Classic Concentration
10a - Wheel of Fortune
10:30a - Win, Lose or Draw
11a - Super Password (Finale)
11:30a - Scrabble (Last show in this timeslot)
Afternoon
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Noon - Days of Our Lives (1 hour)
1p - Another World (1 hour)
2p - Santa Barbara (1 hour)
3p - The Judge
3:30p - USA Today
4p - Channel 5 News at 4
4:30p - Channel 5 News at 4:30
5p - Channel 5 News at 5
5:30p - NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw
Evening
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6p - Channel 5 News at 6
6:30p - Family Feud
7p - Peter Pan (2-hour Special)
9p - Super Bloopers & New Practical Jokes (1 hour)
10p - Channel 5 News at 10
10:30p - Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson (1 hour)
11:30p - Late Night with David Letterman (1 hour)
12:30a - Friday Night Videos (1 hour)
Early Saturday, March 25, 1989
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1:30a - Channel 5 News at 10 (Rebroadcast)
2a - The Judge
2:30a - Movie Greats Network: Captain Apache (2 hours)
After 6 years and 1,578 shows, Sale of the Century ended on a high note with John Rambo (not the movie character) won a trip to Hawaii, the watch, $6,000 from the Winner's Big Money Game along with the other prizes giving him a grand total of $18,650. The Instant Ca$h jackpot was reset to $1,000 which was not won since the 16,000 won a day earlier. In the closing moments the prize models, Summer Bartholomew, and the staff who worked behind the scenes to make Sale of the Century work appear on camera along with Jim Perry's wife, June, and son Sean. In Perry's speech, he said that the show shelled out over $8.5 million to a lot of players including the nighttime version that lasted a year. The credits rolled, the balloons fell and the staff in the booth were shown.
Two hours later, Super Password said goodbye to NBC after a 5-year run. The Ca$hword jackpot resets to $1,000 and wasn't won. Betty White not only rip the $1,000 check to shreds, but she destroyed the Ca$hword "magic toaster," because that was the 2nd one made since Bert Convy trashed the 1st one at one point and other stars wanted to come on the show and wanted to do that. The unemployed fee plug for experienced announcer, host, and producer made everyone laugh and with the time remaining in the finale, a $100 puzzle was only won by a new challenger and as the whistle blew meaning that there's no more time to play a full game, the challenger won the game as the champion left with $7,200 after winning 5,000 a day earlier. The challenger also added $10,000 in the Super Alphabetics round and left with $10,100. In the finale, Convy mentioned a few people who made Super Password work and an on-camera appearance by the late Gene Wood. Betty White aka Mrs. Allen Ludden said this "wasn't her show", because she's been a regular celebrity Password player since 1961 when Allen Ludden was host when it ran for 6 years on CBS.
Scrabble aired its last show in the 11:30a timeslot, because the following Monday, March 27th, the show took over the Sale of the Century's time slot and stayed until the show went on March 23, 1990 to make way for the new daytime drama called Generations to debut at 12:30p after the Channel 5 News at Noon while Days of Our Lives takes over Scrabble's 11:30a time slot.
