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1968–1986 · WNDU-TV, SOUTH BEND (BOUNDARY — MICHIANA'S CHILDREN, OSCEOLA'S AMONG THE AUDIENCE'S TOWNS)
Local production made by residents outranks imported credits, and this valley's phenomenon is complete in the record. Beyond Our Control was a youth-produced sketch-comedy television series aired on WNDU-TV, the NBC affiliate in South Bend, for 19 seasons, 1968 to 1986. It was created by Dave Williams, born in South Bend in June 1940, a Central High School graduate (1958) who joined the WNDU stations as a production assistant in 1960 and was promotion manager by 1964; at 26 he conceived the show — a satire of television itself — and produced it under the auspices of Junior Achievement, WNDU (owned by the University of Notre Dame) being the local JA sponsor. The producing company was the teenagers' own: WJA-TV, the Junior Achievement company, with some 30 high school students from across Michiana chosen by audition each year — more than 350 teenagers across the run — writing and performing under three adult advisors: Williams, the creative leader until his death in 1977 (at 37, in brain surgery for glioblastoma); Denny Laughlin, WNDU's art director; and Joe Dundon, who taught the company members to sell the show's commercial time to local businesses themselves. The show's own legend includes its 1980 "Golden Dome Heist" sketch, believed real by some viewers who called the station and the police. Its institutional conditions are the producing fact: a commercial network affiliate, owned by a Catholic university, handing its keys to teenagers for nineteen seasons — Notre Dame's research project on the programme calls the arrangement nearly implausible, and preserves it whole. Osceola's share is stated at its true size: the auditions drew on Michiana's high schools, and Osceola's teenagers of 1968–86 were Penn and Mishawaka students, inside the show's catchment and its audience; no Osceola company member is individually named in the record reached, and none is claimed — but the show is the nearest thing to a home production this town's children ever had, and it is printed at full local size for that reason.
Sources: Beyond Our Control programme record — WNDU-TV, 1968–1986, 19 seasons; created by Dave Williams; production company WJA-TV; 350-plus students; advisors Williams (died 1977), Denny Laughlin, Joe Dundon. University of Notre Dame, "Beyond Our Control: A Very Nice Research Project" — Williams born South Bend June 1940, Central 1958, WNDU from 1960, promotion manager 1964; Junior Achievement auspices; Notre Dame's ownership of WNDU and JA sponsorship; the ad-sales course; the 1980 Golden Dome Heist. Read November 2026.