*This episode premiered Saturday, October 19, 1974, at 9:30 A.M. on NBC.
*D'Angelo Productions created other live-action kids shows like Westwind, and William D'Angelo was involved in The Red Hand Gang and also produced a failed pilot called The Karen Valentine Show starring...Regis Philbin. OK, it starred Karen Valentine, but Reege was in it, too.
William D'Angelo also helped produce other kid shows like Big John Little John and was also a producer on Alice.
*Run Joe Run's format change occurred in season 2, and it involved Joe teaming up with a troubled loner (OK, he was actually a hiker, but I'm projecting) and helping strangers in distress. According to Wikipedia, Sgt. Corey never found Joe and was "called back to duty."
*During its first year on NBC, Joe aired against The New Adventures of Gilligan and Partridge Family 2200 A.D. (interesting that two cartoon adaptations of sitcoms aired against each other like that). The Partridges were replaced by The Pebbles & Bamm-Bamm Show on CBS, then in the 1975-1976 season, Joe moved to 10:30.
At 10:30, the show faced Uncle Croc's Bloc with Charles Nelson Reilly (And would I like to track down an episode of this) and the second half of The Shazam-ISIS Hour. Later, ABC dumped Croc for Speed Buggy and Super Friends in that timeslot.
*The Fugitive is one of the best TV dramas of all time; a Quinn Martin production, it lasted 4 years on ABC, and its two-part finale was one of the highest-rated episodes of all time and one of the first true event finales.
*Donnelly Rhodes is still around and is perhaps best known for playing the dad on Double Trouble. That's totally untrue, but I would love to do an episode on Double Trouble someday, so...
*Character actor James Hampton is also still around and was Caretaker in the original Longest Yard, is perhaps best known in the BOTNS era for being the dad on Teen Wolf, and was also a regular on the aforementioned Red Hand Gang.
*Kristy McNichol actually won two Emmy awards for her work on Family and did indeed have some success as a musician.
*Albert Salmi co-starred in Angels Travel on Lonely Roads, the two-parter of The Fugitive that we mention on the show. Come back Tuesday for more on the sad end of Salmi if we didn't turn you off already in our discussion.
*Special shout out to Wesley Hyatt and his book we referenced, The Encyclopedia of Daytime Television, which we note is readily available in the secondary market for low prices and well worth it.
*According to IMDB, Heinrich of Midvale, AKA Joe, had a stunt double named Gus. First of all, I'm disappointed Heinrich HAD a stunt double. Second, how appropriate it is that while "Heinrich of Midvale" gets all the glory, some poor schlub named GUS does all he grunt work and gets none of the credit?
*Our crack research team could find no evidence of Heinrich appearing in The Bionic Woman, nor in any other TV show, for that matter. It appears that unlike other child stars, Heinrich lived a quiet life post-Hollywood.
*A Year at the Top, originally titled Hereafter, was co-produced by Don Kirshner and Norman Lear but only made 7 episodes, 5 of which aired on CBS in Summer 1977.
*Besides co-stars Greg Evigan and Paul Shaffer (who left SNL for this, then returned), the series also featured former Bowery Boy Gabriel Dell and the ubiquitous old lady character actress Nedra Volz. Mickey Rooney was only in the first episode.
*Bustin' Loose was a short-lived sitcom with Jimmie Walker taking Richard Pryor's role from the feature film.
*Perhaps the most interesting thing Shaffer says about A Year at the Top in his memoir is that he would wander over to the set where Lear's One Day at a Time was taped and met Valerie Bertinelli, who he dated. He was 27 and she was 16, but with levity he quotes R. Kelly and asks, "Who was counting?"
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