This is an attempt to launch a series based on the popular Tom Swift series of books for young readers. ABC had some success pairingThe Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew Mysteries in this time slot, so it tried to match Willie Aames and Lori Loughlin. All viewers got was this single outing, though, on July 3. 1983.
The interesting supporting cast includes William Windom, Janet Du'Bois, Carmen Zapata, Lucille Benson, and George DiCenzo. It was called the premiere of a new mystery series in the press, but nothing came of it. Presumably it didn't fare well against 60 Minutes and a Voyagers! rerun. The following Sunday, ABC ran a Ripley's Believe It or Not rerun in the spot.
1) John Amos: We say a special goodbye to our Season 4 Genius Award recipient: The great John Amos, who combined a commanding screen presence with equally powerful reserves of hurt and vulnerability in his brilliant portrayal of James Evans.
And I mean, he was also on Future Cop!
2) Dungeons and Dragons: This week on the pod, we look at the 1980s CBS cartoon and touch on the game on which it was based. The episode leads us in many different and fantastic directions, but we eventually find out way out! At least, I think we did.
3) Mazes and Monsters: It's just fun to think of Tom Hanks in this old TV movie.
4) Donny Most: To me his Eric is the real star of Dungeons and Dragons and a significant but overlooked part of the Most legacy.
5) Uni: Come on! The lil' creature is adorable! Even grizzled podcasters have to admit that.
6) Saturday Night Live: It began its tenth season 40 years ago tonight with the new additions like Billy Crystal, Marty Short, Rich Hall, Chris Guest, Pamela Stephenson, and a returning Harry Shearer, but no host, along with musical guest The Thompson Twins. This was the "all-star" season of the show and the last of the run of Dick Ebersol in charge while Lorne Michaels was absent.
7) National Coaches Day: Today let's pay tribute to the often-awkward, seldom-revelatory football coach shows on local TV stations!
8) The Bob Newhart Show: I was excited to see Prime Video had added this classic sitcom again for October, then I was dejected to learn it was only the first three seasons...again. Then I was more disappointed to see season 2 isn't even available yet.
At this point, I wonder if this is some kind of misguided attempt to pay homage to Newhart's comic delivery by delaying gratification. Sounds crazy, but so does adding the first and third seasons of a 6-season classic.
9) The Bizkitts: This series didn't do much other than happen to be airing an hour and a half before the D&D episode we cover this week, but, hey, when else are we going to mention this 13-episode wonder from Hanna Barbera?
10) Drake Hogestyn: R.I.P. to the longtime Days star.
*Dungeons and Dragons aired 27 episodes and 3 seasons, September 1983 to December 1985. CBS ran reruns in 1987 and 1990.
*This episode we discuss premiered Saturday, October 15, 1983. I didn't mention the primetime shows on that day, just the Saturday morning lineup, but here is what was on that night:
CBS: Cutter to Houston, Movie: Trackdown: Finding the Goodbar Killer
ABC: T,J. Hooker, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island
NBC: Diff'rent Strokes, Silver Spoons, The Rousters, The Yellow Rose
And later, Saturday Night Live welcomed hosts Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman with musical guest Eddy Grant
*Let's salute Johnny Douglas, the series' composer, for that wonderful orchestral theme music!
*Finally, here is the video playlist for this episode, chock full of promos, that great theme song, commercials, and SID Miller onBarney Miller! All this plus Menudo!
*And remember, you can always check out our official YouTube page for all of our past podcasts and episode-specific playlists for each one!
Just in time for the 50th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons the game, we take a look at Dungeons & Dragons the Animated Series. The Dungeon Master goes missing, and the kids go looking for him, encountering frog men, pig men, Warduke, and of course Venger along the way. Will they find DM before his "life force" runs out? Plus, one of the group decides to go his own way and runs into a whole other set of problems.
Mike and I both mention this autobiography on the latest podcast episode. It does have info about the production of Rhoda, of course, but it has so much more. It's an easy read, conversational and accessible, and I mean that in a positive way. Valerie Harper comes across as an engaging storyteller in this simple but entertaining memoir.
I was interested to read about her early stage career. Her background as a dancer, her life in New York City, her appearing with Jackie Gleason and Lucille Ball--all of it's new to me. The sections on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Rhoda offer some good stories, but you will need to supplement them with other books to get satisfaction if those are your primary interests.
One thing that left me wanting more: Her account of the whole mess with Valerie--where she was kicked off her own show, which NBC continued as The Hogan Family--feels incomplete somehow. Don't get me wrong; she won the court case, and I have no trouble accepting that she was ill treated by Lorimar. Yet she glosses over what led to the wrongful firing by Lorimar, the difficult contract negotiations. I understand why she focuses on what happened after that process--the dismissal and lawsuit--but there is likely a lot of interesting stuff she leaves out about the vision of the series, the creative differences, etc. I don't recall her ever mentioning in the book her holdout after season 1 of Rhoda, which is interesting to consider when looking at this situation.
Her TV movie work gets short shrift, too, but that's not surprising in what is a fairly sparse volume.
She takes a pretty classy route in this book, though, doling out sincere praise to family, co-workers, her ex-husband, and many others. Her account of her health issues is compelling and offers a little more introspection than some of the rest of her life story. Any fan of Valerie Harper will be relieved to discover spending time with her in book form is a pleasant experience.
You can sing "A Double Shot of My David Groh" to the tune of "A Double Shot (of My Baby's Love)" by The Medallions since we're looking at two clips from the Rhoda video playlist that feature David "Joe" Grogh.
Or you could not do that. There are two problems with that.
1) Only one of these sitcom opening sequences actually includes David Groh.
2) Once you see that clip and hear the Paul Williams theme song, you aren't gonna have the original "Double Shot" in your head the way I did for some reason the other day.
Here is the opening to the James Komack CBS sitcom Another Day:
The uploader here says the "godawful" pilot consists of Groh and (Joan) Hackett's characters arguing loudly for the entire episode." Well, I kind of want to see this! Not many did see it in its original run, which lasted only 4 episodes in April 1979. I think Komack had about 4 or 5 failed sitcoms in a two-year span there.
Next up, a sitcom without David Groh but with Nancy Walker. Mama's Boy aired a whopping 6 episodes on a sporadic schedule on NBC, apparently filling in here and there until they just pulled the plug.
Bruce Weitz is a newspaperman whose mother moves in with him after his father dies. Want to bet she's a domineering mother?
This looks hopelessly old-fashioned even taking into account there is irony intended with the use of a doo wop arrangement of "M-O-T-H-E-R" as the theme song. Even for 1987, I think this all feels out of place, like the show should have come out 5-10 years earlier.
In 1987, Weitz was coming off a scene-stealing role as Belker on Hill Street Blues, while NBC was finding success with The Golden Girls (The same producers created this show). This combination didn't work for the network, though, and the series ended its odd run in August of 1988.
