Top Ten #421

1) Perry Mason: Thanks to the fine folks at FETV, who I believe are showing reruns of the series uncut and uncropped, I was able to watch an episode not in the streaming package: "The Case of the Jaded Joker." It was great! I think maybe music rights is the issue, but at any rate, I was impressed with FETV's presentation.

2) Tom Brokaw: 50 years ago this morning, the newsman began co-hosting Today on NBC. Yes, I said that in a faux Brokaw voice as I typed it.

3) Perfect Strangers: The Complete Series: The whole run was released on Blu-Ray this week. Must avoid saying the catchphrase. Must avoid saying the catchphrase. This is not ridiculous.

4) Power's Play: This unsold pilot aired 40 years ago tonight on CBS. It combined nighttime soap elements like corporate intrigue and villainy with a Western setting, and it starred David Birney, Sheree North, and Noah Beery. Birney plays...Lucas Cord. You thought I was gonna say Lucas Power, didn't you?

5) Amuck in America: Remember this MTV series that Alan Hunter hosted? Hunter and crew took a road trip across the country in August 1986. The episode airing this day in 1986 saw a visit to surfing championships in Huntington beach, CA

6) Making It: A Lorimar pilot also known as Four the Hard Way that aired this night in 1976. Burt Metcalfe produced this sitcom about 4 undergrads boarding with a thrice-divorced woman. Ed Begley Jr. starred. Not to be confused with later disco sitcom Makin' It nor with later Ed Begley Jr. sitcom My Mother the Electric Car (OK, I made up that one).

7) Newman's Drugstore: A pilot co-produced by Paramount and Playboy Productions with Herschel Bernardi as Charlie Newman, a widower/proprietor in Depression-era Brooklyn.

8) Winds of War: Congrats to our pals Steve and Dave, who just launched a podcast devoted to the epic miniseries!

9) Spitting Image: An NBC special of the popular BBC show, "Down and Out in the White House," aired this night in 1986 on NBC. I never could get into this concept. I didn't even like the "Land of Confusion" video!

10) R.I.P. This section is a long one this week. I also want to mention Anissa Jones of Family Affair because the news of this day in 1976 was filled with stories about her death at the age of 18. Not represented with clips below: Leslie Parrish, who was in many TV shows of the Sixties and Seventies; and Michael Wright, who starred as Elias Taylor in V.

Shelley Fabares:

Tim Curry:

Jaye P. Morgan:

Peter Cullen:

Dolly Parton:

Spider-Man (1978) on location

The great TV Days YouTube channel posted the following video, which is full of cool second-unit footage from the making of the CBS Spider-Man series:

I believe this is an updated version of a video he posted several years ago. Read the description for notes on the secret origin of the footage!

Of course we talk about The Amazing Spider-Man in our most recent season. You can find that episode right here!

Top Ten #420

1) The Monkees: It's outside the time frame, but it's great to see The Monkees available for streaming on demand free on Tubi. All episodes are there, and I think they are uncut (though cropped for 16x9). Can The New Monkees be far behind?

I wouldn't be too surprised, actually, to see that one on Tubi.

2) SCTV: The Monkees gets the top spot because it is actually available now, but in some huge news, SCTV is coming to Netflix in September! There is also word that a new documentary will hit the service later.

3) Goodnight America: Geraldo Rivera's late-night show on ABC had an interesting guest list 50 years ago tonight. He had some folks, including Jack Ruby's sister, on to talk about the Ruby/Oswald links. He also had John Denver and Neil Diamond, but sadly, they appeared in separate segments and, as far as I know, did not discuss the JFK assassination.

4) Madonna: Somehow, someway, in 2026, Madonna tied for the most Video Music Awards Nominations.

5) Mork and Mindy: The show is on Prime Video now--Well, most of it. And maybe some of it was already there? Streaming is complicated sometimes.

Now it's time for the unsold pilots section of the list! The next 4 items are shows that aired on this date:

6) Local 306: This failed sitcom pilot starred Eugene Roche as a plumber who headed his local union. Stanley Ralph Ross of Batman fame wrote and produced.

7) Snafu: This followed Local 306 on ABC. Leonard Stern produced this sitcom about U.S. troops in Italy in WWII. Kip Niven, Tony Roberts, and James Cromwell led the cast.

8) Adam's Apple: This 1986 CBS program starred Sydney Walsh as NYC P.I. Toni Adams, not to be confused with the ex-wife of Gentleman Chris Adams from World Class Championship Wrestling.

9) Dark Mansions: This one aired 40 years ago tonight on ABC. It starred Joan Fontaine as the matriarch of a family that built a shipbuilding empire but faced some secrets and issues. Michael York and Melissa Sue Anderson also starred in this Aaron Spelling production.

10 R.I.P. Bill Rasmussen: The founder of ESPN. We can't blame him for Pat McAfee.

Top Ten #419

1) Ted Danson, Jean Smart, Ed Bradley: These three and others were inducted into the TV Academy Hall of Fame this week. In case you're wondering, and you should be, Danson won a Batty in our Season 6 for Outstanding Performance by a Male. Smartt and Bradley have not won one, but maybe if we have an Outstanding Earring category someday...

2) The Cartoon Iceberg: Kudos to Secret Galaxy for another entertaining installment of this look at obscure Eighties cartoons. 

3) Honeymoon Suite: This ABC late-night special that aired 50 years ago tonight is described as "bridal suite high jinks," but it stars Morey Amsterdam and Rose Marie. I'm-a scared, folks. I'm a-scared.

4) Georgia Championship Wrestling: the WWE Vault YouTube channel is posting vintage episodes from 1983 this week. See early glimpses of The Road Warriors, Ole Anderson and Stan Hansen as babyfaces, and Iron Sheik mere months before he would become WWF champ.

5) Highway to Heaven: The 1980s Michael Landon vehicle landed on Prime Video this week along with The Ray Bradbury Theater. Now, there's an interesting double bill!

6) The Babe: ESPN reaired this one-man show 40 years ago tonight. It's a filmed version of a Broadway play starring, as legendary slugger Babe Ruth...Max Gail? I mean, I guess it's better than Morey Amsterdam.

7) National Roller Coaster Day: Go and make some memories while not getting in a horrible freak accident of some kind!

8) Steve Allen's Laughback: There wasn't much on TV for non-sports fans and non-political junkies 50 years ago tonight since the GOP convention and Monday Night Baseball dominated prime time. If you were lucky enough, though, you could watch Foster Brooks, Andy Griffith, Steve Lawrence, and Jayne Meadows (That last one is a great get for Steve) on this series.

9) Lesley Ann Warren and Anita Gillette: Happy 80th and 90th birthdays, respectively.

10) R.I.P.: Jon Cypher, Ben Jones:

Top Ten #418

1) Spider-Man: The hero continues to dominate pop culture, though some are sorry they didn't see a Nicholas Hammond cameo in the new movie.

2) John Candelaria: 50 years ago tonight, the Candy Man no-hit the Dodgers on ABC's Monday Night baseball.

3) Flo's Place: Not to be confused with 1980s spinoff Flo, this 1976 unsold pilot, airing this night in 1976, stars Della Reese--yes, not even Florence Halop! Reese is a widow who runs a boarding house in San Pedro. Interestingly, this version is a reworking of a previous failed pilot called Twice in a Lifetime with Ernest Borgnine and Vito Scotti. This version subtracts those two but adds Art Metrano!

4) National Book Lovers Day: Ideally celebrated by reading a book about television!

5) Billy Crystal: Don't Get Me Started: An HBO original special airing this date in 1986 combining sketches, standup, and quite possibly a few things that produce cringes 40 years later.

6) The Second Annual Unofficial Bachelor Awards: We go back to 50 years ago for this one, a repeat installment of ABC's Wide World of Entertainment. Joan Rivers hosted this pageant that, according to TV Party, featured competitions in swimsuit wearing plus agility and speed.

7) Flannery and Quill: If Flo's Place didn't do it for you in 1976, this one came next on NBC. it had already been shown months earlier, but this Carl Reiner sitcom paired Red Buttons with Harold Gould as mismatched roomies.

8) STAR Comics: I wish there would have been more TV ads about comic books when I was a kid:

9) National Dog Month: Shoutout to the great Heinrich of Midvale!

10) Gus Brown and the Midnight Brewster: We close with yet another unsold pilot that aired on this date. Hey, it was summer! This movie-length effort premiered in 1985 but was rerun on NBC in 1986. Here is the letterboxd description:
Two ex-GIs, a fast-talking hustler from Detroit and an Oklahoma hayseed, just returned from WWII, team up with the latter’s bubble-headed fiancée to make a killing racing on the Southern dogtrack circuit they had bought. 

The cast: Ron Glass, John Schneider, and Teri Copley. How amazing would it be if Glass were the Oklahoma hayseed and Schneider the Detroit hustler?

RetroFan #44 and #45

I am running behind on my RetroFan posts and just got another issue this week! I need to step it up.

My favorite magazine, RetroFan from TwoMorrows Publishing, gives us another winner with issue 44. I must say, though, it is relatively light on BOTNS-adjacent material. However, Will Murray's deep dive into The Rifleman is a great read about a show Mike and I enjoyed covering on the podcast a few years ago. Heck, we gave it a Batty for Outstanding Episode!

An interesting article covers It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman! The stage musical debuted in 1966 but had an ill-received TV version in 1975.

James Bond and the Monkees aren't exactly BOTNS subjects, but the latter was on in reruns a lot, and, hey, the Bond movies were on TV a lot! The coverage is welcome regardless. There are also pieces on Dr. Dememto and Little Shop of Horrors.

In #45, RetroFan goes all out to cover the Bicentennial. This is a tremendous issue that really summons good feelings and nostalgia for a different time, and I don't mean 1776. The musical 1776 has a feature article in here, but I was even more interested in Mark Voger's general look at the phenomenon of how America celebrated it's 200th anniversary. There is a cool examination of themed comics of the time, too.

The mag has a story on The Match Game, and my only qualm is that it doesn't address Richard Dawson's infamous grumpiness when he left the series. Ark II gets a two-part profile that begins here, and Will Murray contributes an informative account of The Green Hornet.

I always enjoy RetroFan, and issue 44 is no exception, but 45 is one of my favorite editions of the magazine's run! Now I need to dive into 46!

Top Ten #417

1) Spider-Man: After seeing the new movie, I am confident in saying they got the costume and the effects even better than the 1977 series did!

2) Poor Devil: The fun Retro Rules YT channel took a look at this TV movie the other day. As I said in our Facebook group, first he talked Killdozer, now Poor Devil; surely Pray for the Wildcats is on the way!

3) New York local TV stations: The Outstanding Entertainment Hour released a fun episode devoted to memories of my beloved channels 5, 9, and 11. The guys' memories lean a tad earlier than mine--more Seventies than Eighties, perhaps--but it's a great episode that is right in my wheelhouse.

4) National Friendship Day: Celebrate with an iconic set of TV friends, like Working Stiffs:

5) Amelia Earhart: Yet another effort to find traces of the famed aviator will begin in October. Yet another effort will be stubborn in its avoidance of Leisure World in New Jersey.

6) Hasbro Legends: This new free OTA channel airs reruns of programs like Transformers, Jem, and G.I. Joe. It's also on Prime Video and perhaps other streaming platforms.

7) Knight Rider: It looks like a slow month for new-to-streaming BOTNS-era shows, but Tubi has added the original Knight Rider to its offerings.

8) The Rifleman: This brief story on Me-TV's site has some thoughtful 1961 comments from Chuck Connors on the Western series Mike and I discussed a few seasons ago.

9) Bill White: The MLB veteran received the Buck O'Neill Award at the Baseball Hall of Fame last weekend. Among his many accomplishments in a life devoted to the game: Putting up with Phil Rizzuto for years in the WPIX Yankees booth!

10) Butch Patrick: Happy birthday to the former Eddie Munster, and shoutout to our Facebook friend Jason for showing off some recent cool Munsters purchases!