Top Ten #431

1) Home Box Office: The premium of all premium pay cable services launched 55 years ago today with a screening of...Beastmaster. No, it was Sometimes a Great Notion. For more on the network's legacy and programming, check out our episode from earlier this year!

2) Gone with the Wind: 50 years ago tonight, NBC ran part 2 of its epic presentation of the legendary film. The event, part of NBC's "Big Event" series, set viewership records and led to a GWTW craze of sorts.

3) Three's Company: Castmates Joyce DeWitt and Richard Kline joined other celebs for a stage reading of the show's pilot to benefit the John Ritter Foundation. Hijinks ensued when Mr. Furley, listening just behind the curtain, thought he was overhearing a We've Got It Made reading.

4) Police Squad! Do I know why Netflix decided to add all 6 episodes of this 1982 cult sitcom? I do not. Am I going to complain? Nope! Between this and SCTV, Netflix is on a decent run lately. Hey, maybe they could honor recent documentary subject Martin Mull by adding Fernwood 2Night!

5) Webster: The Eighties cute-com is now on Prime Video, but half the episodes are missing, including the one I have wanted to see for years--the one where Web accidentally burns the place down.

6) The Mouse and the Motorcycle: Part 1 of an adaptation of the Beverly Cleary book debuted 40 years ago today on ABC Weekend Special.

7) Lucy and Ellen canned: In the news 40 years ago today, ABC had announced it canceled the new sitcoms of Lucille Ball and Ellen Burstyn and that the shows' would be pulled after another two airings. Burstyn's show is mostly forgotten; Ball's show is one many wish they could forget.

8) Happy birthday: Entertainment Tonight star Mary Hart turns 75 today, and Leif Garrett turns 65. Leif, of course, is best known for his role in the CHiPs episode "Roller Disco."

9) Dean Martin's Red Hot Scandals of 1926: 50 years ago tonight, NBC continued its night of nostalgia by going back 50 years in time with this Dean Martin special featuring Jonathan Winters, Abe Vigoda, and more. What, no Foster Brooks with a prohibition sketch?

10) Saturday Night Live: The show aired a rare pretaped episode this night in 1986 with guests Rosanna Arquette and Ric Ocasek. Two weeks earlier, Game 6 of the World Series ran long, causing the preemption and a taping instead of a live broadcast. The Jay Leno Show special had run in the 11:30 timeslot on November 1. NBC apparently won't let people upload the beginning of the episode, in which Ron Darling explains what happened, but here is a promo that aired several weeks earlier:

Top Ten #430

1) Susan Saint James: I don't like to get in the habit of "ranking" celebrity deaths, but I want to give special mention to St. James, who has been an integral part of two BOTNS episodes, including one on our most recent season, Kate and Allie (McMillan and Wife was the other). Hoist a "hoagie sandwich" to the TV star and color commentator at Wrestlemania II.

2) Halloween: You may have found some time to watch something scary this week. Halloween was never on the level of Christmas in instigating TV specials, but there is some good stuff out there!

3) Paid political programming: Forget about 2026 because 50 years ago tonight, we were building to a big presidential election, and candidates Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter each bought half-hour blocks in prime time. What interests me is how they did this: The shows aired back to back on ABC at 8, on NBC at 9, and on CBS at 10.

4) The Bionic Woman: The 1970s action series jumps into FETV 's lineup this week.

5) The Jay Leno Show: This night in 1986--yes, 1986--NBC preempted SNL with a special devoted to the rising comedian. David Letterman made an appearance as part of a running gag.

6) Daylight Savings Time: Those of us in the USA turned our clocks back an hour today. Once again, we encourage you to make great use of the extra hour by watching some classic TV. YOLO, am I right?

7) "The Monster of Walnut Grove": Little House on the Prairie got into the Halloween episode game with this one premiering 50 years ago tonight. Laura thinks she sees Nels decapitate Harriet, and this somehow is cause for concern rather than celebration. The episode has major credibility issues because everyone but Laura scoffs at the idea Nels would commit such a horrible crime. I mean, it IS Harriet.

8) National Cinnamon Day:

9) The New Zoo Revue: Greg Ehrbar's Pop Culture Classics podcast featured a charming pocast with series creators Doug and Emmy Jo.

10) R.I.P. Walter Koenig, Barbara Barrie, Patrick Stewart:

Happy Halloween!

From all of us at BOTNS to all of you, Happy Halloween! Here is an assortment of past episodes for your holiday listening pleasure:

In Season 1, we looked at In Search Of...'s "comprehensive" analysis of the Loch Ness Monster.

Our Season 4 exploration of Buck Rogers involved not just a vampire, but a SPACE VAMPIRE!

Later in Season 4, we talked about "Werewolf" on Barney Miller.

Early in Season 5, we had our first direct Halloween episode with a show about Halloween Is Grinch Night.

It may be a stretch, but we followed that one up with Dr. Strange, which does feature Halloween-adjacent elements like a cool purple costume, not to mention supernatural elements.

Also in Season 5, The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew Mysteries met Dracula!

Who can forget our Season 8 combo of Poor Devil...

...followed by Tucker's Witch?

And then there was Darkroom!

And in season 9 we looked at The Munsters...

...and Mr. Roarke against Satan on Fantasy Island!

In season 10, we discussed another 'Werewolf" episode--Kolchak the Night Stalker!

In our most recent season (Battys still coming eventually!), we discuss the world of MAGIC with Doug Henning!

And one could certainly see some episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, also covered in our recent season, as appropriate for the occasion!

Solomon Grundy says, have a great weekend!

Win me over, Skydance: Warner Brothers shows you can put on HBOMaxParamountPlusWhatever

Recently we looked at 10 shows in the pre-merger Paramount vaults that would be cool to see on streaming. This new megacompany can win me over--well, maybe--if it dips into the Warners holdings post-merger and brings these shows out. 

Warner Brothers is an interesting case. It has released some real rarities on DVD through its Warner Archive label, it seems committed to utilizing its animation library (See the MeTV Toons partnership), and it released many shows on streaming with its Warner Archive Instant service.

Warner Brothers has licensed a lot of interesting material in recent years to modern streamers, like The New Dick Van Dyke Show, and it still "bothers" with DVD (77 Sunset Strip, long thought un-releasable due to music clearances, is on the way).. However, it also has a habit of licensing material out for a short period and then not doing anything with it for a while, like Welcome Back, Kotter.

Paramount is different in that it has apparently given up on using its library. On the other hand, Paramount Plus, though not the most sophisticated streamer out there, at least has an assortment of classic TV shows (Though it still irritates me that it exiles the likes of The Fugitive and Have Gun Will Travel to Pluto), but HBO Max's classic TV selection is practically nonexistent. 

So Warners is different, but there are still some nuggets to pull from the vaults and put on a real streaming service. Here are some of my picks:

Casablanca: This 1983 David Soul reimagining did get a DVD release, but I was too cheap to pay what I thought was a high price (I thought so because it was) from a boutique label, and now it's out of print. My most wanted TV show, period, might be the 1955 version with Charles McGraw, but I'm focusing on the BOTNS era here! Warners loves to exploit the classic film Casablanca, but the TV shows? Not so much.

Harry O: Warner Archive is great and has released a lot of TV over the years, especially in its pre-Blu-Ray era. I find it odd that The FBI, for example, is all over streaming, yet this atmospheric David Janssen private eye show is not. At least it's there on DVD, but it would be great to get this one on streaming.

Banyon: Speaking of private eyes, this one is Quinn Martin, Robert Forster, 30s L.A. 'Nuff said.

The People's Court: Judge Wapner was one of the iconic TV personalities of the Eighties, but the old shows are not easy to see.

Flatbush: I mentioned Makin' It in the previous post, so how about letting us see this notorious flop, also seemingly inspired in part by Saturday Night Fever? The Lorimar sitcom showed a group of recent high school grads, but the Italian-American stereotypes sparked complaints, and CBS yanked it after 3 airings.

Fred and Barney Meet the Thing: I'd settle for The Thing segments! This animated series on NBC combined modern-day Flintstones toons with new ones starring Ben Grimm.

Dallas and Alice: If only there were a 1980s nighttime Lorimar soap called Palace. Earlier I mentioned the tendency of Warners to license shows for brief periods of time. In each case here, that trend combined with the tendency of Prime Video to obtain shows for brief periods of time. So the full run of each long-running series was on Prime for a while, then disappeared and didn't come back. Oh, the shows are available on disc and can be purchased as digital downloads, but it's about time they came back to SVOD. I am surprised Tubi hasn't picked up either of these.

Top Ten #429:

1) Amelia Earhart: The famed aviatrix (I could just use "aviator," but where is the fun in that?) is back in the Top Ten because she's the subject of a TV movie that premiered on NBC 50 years ago tonight. Susan Clark was Amelia, Alex Karras was Fred Noonan, and Henry Polic II had a cameo as Charles Lindbergh. 

I'm kidding about the last two, but Clark did star in the movie.

2) Ebert and Siskel: The iconic pair will get a statue in Chicago in 2028.

Meanwhile, Michael Medved and Jeffrey Lyons are reportedly the subjects of some uncouth graffiti in a public restroom in the NYC subway system.

3) The Don Ho Show: In many markets, this syndicated daytime variety show premiered this day in 1976 with guest Roz Kelly.

4) TV movies: As we gear up for Halloween, Frank Santopadre's Fun for All Ages podcast premiered an episode looking at scary TV movies of yore. I have it on good authority that the discussion ranges wide enough for a Pray for the Wildcats mention!

5) 1986 World Series Game 6: Red Sox fans, please skip to the next item.

40 years ago tonight, the Mets beat the Sox to stay alive in the Series after a memorable groundball from Mookie Wilson got past Bill Buckner. The game went long, pre-empting a pretaped episode of Saturday night Live.

6) Tomorrow: 50 years ago tonight, Tom Snyder welcomed Edgar Bergen, Laurene Tuttle, Jim Backus, Frank Nelson, and Gale Gordon. My kind of roster!

7) Rock and Roll Evening News: On this weekend in 1986, Chuck Berry, Cheap Trick, Bobcat Goldthwait guested on the syndicated program.

8) NBA: The league returned to action this week. In a mere 9 months or so, we'll have a new champion!

9) Battle of the Network Stars: As Roku premieres a well-intentioned (I assume) version with "streamers" this weekend, let's remember the original!

10) R.I.P. Tom Skerritt:

Michael Gray:

Top Ten #428

1) Fish: The Top Ten comes to you a little later this week because we had to stop the presses and adjust for breaking news: Tubi has added FISH to its streaming library. Several episodes are missing, and for some reason it's presented as one single season instead of two, but, hey, at least, as the song goes, we got Fish for supper.

2) World Series: 40 years ago tonight, the Red Sox faced the Mets in Game 1 of a memorable World Series. There is no truth to the rumor that FanDuel is taking action on this.

3) Weekend Special: Liberty and the Littles: This 3-part sequel to the Here Come the Littles movie premiered 40 years ago on ABC and had the gang going to the Statue of Liberty. Statue Fever was everywhere in 1986!

4) Amelia Earhart: Yet another expedition is confident it will track down the missing aviatrix, who we discussed in this episode. I tell you what, if they do find her and she can tell everyone what happened to her, Mike and I will do an emergency pod.

(BTW, speaking of that In Search Of... episode, should we be devoting less resources to finding Earhart and more to finding Nessie?)

5) That's My Mama: The official Sony YouTube channel just uploaded a full episode, "Cousin Albert."

6) Phyllis: And speaking of Mama, Teddy Wilson guested on the episode of Phyllis that aired 50 years ago tonight. Also appearing: Val Bisoglio!

7) National Mashed Potato Day: Respect for those who celebrate, but HARD PASS from me.

8) Howard Shore: Happy 80th to the musical director of the original run of Saturday Night Live.

9) Better Off Dead: Cinemax showed this John Cusack cult classic this night in 1986, and The New York Times dismissed it with, "Better off not watching." Say what?

10) R.I.P. Bernie Orenstein: The writer and producer worked on many, many sitcoms, such as That Girl, Sanford and Son, What's Happening!! and Kate and Allie.

Michael Forest: The actor is perhaps best known for his prolific TV work in the Sixties, but he had a long career that included a stint on As the World Turns in the early Eighties.

Win me over, Skydance: 10 Paramount shows you can put on HBOMaxParamountPlus

I am not happy about two of the media titans combining to eliminate tons of jobs and make one bigger media giant, and I doubt the consumer will gain anything. Want to prove me wrong, Skydance? OK, how's about digging into the archives and adding these shows from your library to Paramount Plus so we can enjoy them via streaming (I've given up on physical media)? 

Note that this list is taken from programs available to the company before the Warners merger. Also note that Paramount Plus has added very little from the Seventies and Eighties to its catalog in some time, so I am well aware this ain't gonna happen.

*Love. American Style: One of the big shows of the 1970s that isn't available, it has seen some air on Weigel's OTA networks like Catchy Comedy, and it did receive a Season One DVD release. However, that video release was in the odious split-season format and was almost 20 years ago.

With its roster of guests and general goofiness, LAS is a natural subject for our podcast. It'd be a fun one to dip into on streaming.

*Ball Four: Longtime listeners/readers can't be surprised to see this short-lived sitcom, based on Jim Boutin's iconic chronicle of his season with the expansion MLB 1969 Seattle Pilots, on this list. Hear more about the series here.

*The NFL Today: Why not roll out some old BOTNS-era tapes of the seminal pregame show? Would the NFL object? I don't watch pregame shows now, and I actually find the series a bit overrated (I watched NBC back in the day), but I would enjoy these. In fact, I do enjoy seeing old episodes on YouTube every now and then,

*Make Me Laugh: The game show has had various incarnations, but I suggest finding a way to get the 1979-1980 version on streaming. Hosted by Bobby Van, the show aired in syndication and then in heavy rotation on USA Network in the Eighties. Come for Garry Shandling and Richard Belzer; stay for Gary Mule Deer and Bruce Baum!

*What a Country!: Yes, it's time to put the entire run on streaming! Just listen to us talk about it in this episode.

*Dear John: I'm surprised this series, which was a part of NBC's Thursday night lineup for a while, didn't already make it to Paramount Plus alongside Caroline in the City.

*Makin' It: Is this any good? It's about what you'd expect from a Miller/Boyett sitcom of the era, but it's a DISCO sitcom, so I want it.

*Entertainment Tonight: I'm not saying you should put thousands of old episodes up, but I'm not saying you shouldn't. Clearances might be a nightmare, but you're a big megacorporation. Make it happen. I'd love to be able to just call up Leonard Maltin's take on Ruthless People whenever I feel like it. Mike and I talk about the series here,

*Soul Train: Speaking of syndicated programs, I think MTV Networks bought this library years ago and essentially buried it. I think American Bandstand is part of the vast catalog of this company now, too. You can click here for our Soul Train episode.

*The Manhunter: One of Quinn Martin's rarest and least successful shows, it still has an interesting premise: Ken Howard as a WWI vet who becomes a bounty hunter during the Great Depression.

And a bonus:

*Aloha Paradise: OK, I can't defend this, but I just want to see this shameless Love Boat clone with Debbie Reynolds. Hey, Aaron Spelling himself produced it, so it's OK.