Top Ten #402

1) Benson finale: 40 years ago tonight, Benson and Gatling competed against each other in a race to determine the next governor, and it had an infamous (as infamous as Benson could be!) inconclusive ending.

As much as I wish this was some kind of David Chase situation in which the producers hoped to confound the audience, reports are that ABC asked for a cliffhanger and then canceled the series at the last minute.

2) Sonia Manzano: The former Maria on Sesame Street (last season's Best Show winner at the Battys) was honored this week by the Miami Film Festival.

3) Superman Day: Yesterday we celebrated the Man of Steel. I celebrated by picking up some free stuff at my local comic shop.

You know, I have said Christopher Reeve was "my" Superman back in the day, but that's not the complete story. My "comic book" Superman was that of Curt Swan, and my cartoon Superman was Danny Dark.

4) National Record Store Day: Another event yesterday was this now semiannual celebration of record stores. I popped into one myself but didn't see anything as exciting as this spectacular piece Laurie got me a few years ago:

GENIUS!

5) People Like Us: 50 years ago tonight, NBC aired this unsold pilot with Eugene Roche and Katharine Helmond. It is about a blue-collar family trying to make it. It's produced by Gene Reynolds and Burt Metcalfe of MASH, and it also stars Grant Goodeve!

6) Clyde Kusatsu: The star of Dr. Strange appeared on the MASH Matters podcast, and I want to highlight it because I don't think Clyde Kustatsu makes the media rounds a lot!

7) Larry Holmes vs. Michael Spinks II: 40 years ago tonight, HBO aired this heavyweight championship fight live from Las Vegas. In a rematch from their 1985 bout, Spinks won a split decision to retain the IBF belt, and Holmes was not pleased with the scoring.

8) Billy Idol: Congratulations to the 80s music icon for his announced induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame! I hope he greeted the news with a sneer.

9) Crazy About the Movies: Marilyn Monroe: Cinemax was never just Max After Dark. It also showed original documentaries like this one that premiered 40 years ago tonight.

10) R.I.P. Sid Krofft: 

Brooks on Books: My Turn Next by Bil Keane

Ok, this isn't so much a TV book, but since we talked about The Family Circus way back in our first season, the strip is a solid member of the BOTNSverse, and besides, I wrote about Wanna Be Smiled At? before. So why not a look at 1981'a My Turn Next, another paperback collection of Bil Keane's comic?

Note that this book comes to us "with hugs and kisses!" There is plenty of trademark cuteness in this set of panels, originally published in 1977. You see a lot of cute sayings, cute misunderstandings, and generally cute behavior.

However, some of the strips have a bit of an edge. Edge may be a strong word, but at least a bit of bite and certainly some truth. I find some of these are really funny. 

You have to admire when the panel talks a walk on the wild side and gets a bit risque:

Some of my favorite Family Circus sequences are when they go on vacation. My Turn Next! has a series of the Keanes hitting New York City. I love that whenever they go somewhere, the kids end up wearing t-shirts with the name of the destination and waving pennants with the name of the destination...while they're still on vacation! This family loves to travel.

But even a great trip to the Big Apple has its disappointments. Take this one, which really strikes me as funny.

Another thing I love is how often Bil and Thel have blank looks on their faces. The kids are expressive, emotional, often out of control. Yet their parents usually are the picture of impassivity no matter what's going on around them. If life is a Circus, these folks don't seem too excited by it.

These two are almost kind of edgy!

I like the sense of exhaustion in these ones:

And finally, just because, here's an example of a kid driving a parent to do something that will make the kid cry but restore her own sanity,

The MMC Podcast looks at "The Girl, The Gold Watch, and Dynamite"

Early this season, we discussed The Girl, the Gold Watch, & Everything, a 1980 movie that premiered in first-run syndication in 1980. We weren't enamored with it. In fact, though there is a sequel, not only do I know we will not cover it, I'm actually worried I'll never be able to talk Mike into covering any made-for-TV movie on the podcast again.

Don't worry, though, Watchaholics! Friend of the Show Steve Cloutier and his friends at The MMC discuss The Girl, The Gold Watch, and Dynamite in their latest episode. I think they're still Steve's friends even after he suggested that one. Actually, at the beginning and end of the pod, he thanks Mike and I for requesting it. Gracious nod to our podcast or subtle way of shifting blame? I think the former, especially since these folks at the MMC watch this kind of stuff all the time. After all, one of those "M"s stands for "Masochist."

At any rate, I can assure you that Steve is as fun when discussing dreck as he is something like, oh, say, The Rockford Files. The whole crew at least enjoys taking apart the second movie based on the original John D. MacDonald movie. I think.

The movie itself, like the original, is on YouTube. Here's a taste of each one before you head over and listen to the MMC:

Top Ten #401: Special "Can't help but feel let down after 400" Edition!

1) The Partridge Family: This week we presented a lot of pics from that fabled Bronze Age comic: The Partridge Family #4, or as I call it, The David Cassidy Merch Catalog #4.

2) Ed O'Neill: This national treasure turns 80 today!

3) Charlie's Angels: The Paley Center hosted a 50th anniversary salute to the show, and while I was not there, I believe they respectfully avoided using the word "jiggle."

4) Easter specials: In this timeline, sure, we celebrated the holiday a week ago, but 50 years ago tonight, CBS aired reruns of It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown; and Rikki-Tiki-Tavi. As someone who used to go by "Ricky," I heard a lot about that latter special when I was a lad.

5) Mr. and Mrs. Ryan: This Aaron Spelling pilot movie aired this date in 1986. It stars Sharon Stone and Robert Desiderio as--Well, let me quote Lee Goldberg's Unsold Pilots: "A rich Beverly Hills socialite with a cop for a husband. Joseph Mahler is their chaffeur, and if this sounds like Hart to Hart, keep in mind it was made by the same people for the same network."

Here's a clip from the movie:

6) Peabody Award nominations: The bad news is, Battle of the Network Shows was snubbed once again in the podcast category. The good news is, the excellent Pee Wee as Himself documentary was nominated (Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything was as well; I haven't seen that one).

7) A Touch of Scandal: This 1984 TV movie, repeated 40 years ago tonight, stars Angie Dickinson as a "comely council woman" whose campaign for attorney general is rocked by the reveal of photos of her "with a male prostitute who has now turned up dead." Could it be Fred Garvin?

8) Monday Night Baseball: The ABC sports series, moving over from NBC, kicked off 50 years ago tonight as the Yankees faced the Orioles in Memorial Stadium.

9) Family: The Aaron Spelling series (the one he actually thought was good) is back on Tubi for the third time, and I better start watching it again before it vanishes.

10) R.I.P. Robert Butler: The co-creator of Remington Steele was 95. BTW, the series was added to Hallmark Plus recently.

The Partridges in comic book form Part 4

Here's one final batch of pics from Charlton's The Partridge Family #4!

The Partridges in comic book form Part 3

This week we are looking at pages from Charlton's The Partridge Family #4! We'll take one final look tomorrow.

The Partridges in comic book form! Part 2!

Yesterday we started talking about issue 4 of the Charlton Partridge Family comic book series. Here are some more pages! Come back tomorrow for more!

The Partridges in comic book form! Part 1!

I love digging through longboxes for TV and movie comic books, and this is one I bought well before we decided to cover the series on the podcast. This Charlton publication is dated September 1971.

Artist Don Sherwood has some interesting work in here. I kept thinking there was an odd quality to the art, like it relied on stills and publicity photos. Well, I looked him up, and sure enough, he had a reputation for swiping other artists and for tracing photos.

The stories are unexceptional, but the cast does look like the cast! What jumps out at me is the number of ads promoting Partridge merch--almost all of it sold by Charlton. It's like the comic is a vehicle to publish ads to push the stuff. 

And by the way, all that merch is David Cassidy material with the exception of Susan Dey's Private Journal:

Come back tomorrow for more pics!

Top Ten #400: Special "400 is a cool number!" Edition

1) Easter Sunday: Happy holiday, everyone! In our Season 10, we discussed a beloved Rankin-Bass Easter special. Below is a promo that hypes some other specials:

2) Sesame Street: Last season's Batty winner is now on Tubi, with a big batch of older episodes available, including the first!

3) Downey Wrote That: I enjoyed this 2025 Peacock documentary about the longtime Saturday Night Live writer. Heck, it was nice just revisiting the Norm/OJ jokes Weekend Update era.

4) The Ted Knight Show: The New York Times ran an interesting review of this series 40 years ago today. This is the version where Knight moves to Marin County and buys into a local newspaper. It's not actually Ted Knight, though, but Henry Rush from Too Close for Comfort, and he brings Muriel and even Monroe along with him. The episodes now are just "branded" as another season of Too Close (We discussed the show earlier this season).

The odd thing about the pan of the show is that it treats it as a brand-new distinct series and doesn't even mention the multiple seasons of Too Close! It also refers to co-star Pat Carroll as "Nancy Carroll."

5) Matlock: The entire original series is streaming on Prime Video now. Wait till Abraham Simpson discovers Reacher while he's on the platform!

6) He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: Many are still waiting for all the old-school Warners/Hanna-Barbera toons coming to Tubi, but in the meantime the free streamer added the iconic Eighties show that we talk about here.

7) Dick Cavett's Backlot USA: This special premiered on CBS 50 years ago tonight. Cavett toured studio backlots and talked with the likes of Mae West in what sounds like a pretty interesting program.

8) Charley Hannah: The pilot movie for a cop show starring Robert Conrad and one of his sons aired on ABC 40 years ago tonight. It seems like at some point, Conrad was just like, "I want to work with my sons," and he was able to do it!

9) Noah's Animals: On this night in 1976, ABC aired this animated special, the first of a trilogy from Shamus Culhane. I have no memory of any of them!

10) WKRP: An actual station in Cincinnati is reportedly getting the famed call letters. I can only hope they celebrate with an hour of Patrick Simmons music.

This Day in TV History: A very early previewing of ABC's 1976 Fall season

An interesting article appeared in The New York Times 50 years ago today. The focus is on ABC and its announcement of mass cancellations plus new additions for the upcoming Fall TV season. Here's a gift link:

https://www.nytimes.com/1976/04/01/archives/marcus-welby-canceled-with-8-other-abc-shows.html?unlocked_article_code=1.XVA.PWKt.o2mt7rWycaH3&smid=url-share

If you aren't interested in reding the whole piece, it leads by mentioning Marcus Welby was once the top-rated program on TV. Other shows getting the axe: Harry O, Swiss Family Robinson, On the Rocks, Good Heavens, Bert D'Angelo/Superstar, Almost Anything Goes, SWAT, and The Rookies. Most of those were not surprises, though the latter two were Aaron Spelling shows that lasted two and four seasons respectively.

The story notes that ABC, a perpetual ratings also-ran, had made inroads in the then-current season, overcoming NBC for second and sometimes winning the week over CBS. ABC announced 9 new shows coming to the network:

The Nancy Walker Show, The Tony Randall Show (not yet titled), variety shows starring Bill Cosby and Captain & Tennille, detective show Most Wanted with Robert Stack, Holmes and Yo-Yo, Mr. T and Tina, and Feather and Father (later The Feather and Father Gang).

OK, that's only 8 series. Didn't they say there were 9 new series?

Almost as an afterthought, the piece ends with this: Charlie's Angels, a series about 3 attractive women detectives, is scheduled Wednesdays at 8.

It's interesting to see this knowing what would end up happening. Most of those new ABC shows were flops--some notorious ones--but of course Charlie's Angels became a top-5 sensation. Overall, ABC rose to number one as Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley became the most-viewed shows on TV, while The Six Million Dollar Man, the ABC Sunday Night Movie, Three's Company, and The Bionic Woman also finished in the top 10.

The only non-ABC series up there were MASH and One Day at a Time from CBS and NBC's The Big Event (really a collection of movies and specials). CBS' big lineup showed some age--for example, an ill-fated move of All in the Family to Wednesdays, where ABC's Baretta was a hit, exposed a vulnerability before the sitcom went back to Saturday.

So the pieces were in place for ABC, but not many of them were mentioned in this article!