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!

Top Ten #416

1) Bridget Loves Bernie: In an outta-nowhere kind of move, Sony announced it would release this one-season wonder (Canceled due to controversy, not ratings) on Blu-Ray in September. Maybe more short-lived series are on the way.

2) Ace: In this unsold pilot airing 50 years ago tonight, our boy DVP (Dick Van Patten) appears, but the star is Bob Dishy as bumbling private detective Edward R. Ace.

3) Network: This British company appears to be back in business, and though it does not distribute in the USA, it has brought many British shows to disc and seems set to deliver more!

4) The Bureau: Another unsold pilot from 50 years ago. Richard Gilliand and John Lawlor are two mismatched government agents in this sitcom. Other names in the show include Phil Leeds, Barbara Rhoades, Henry Gibson, and Arnold Stang.

5) National Aunts and Uncles Day:

6) San Diego Comic Con: Many of the entertainment industry's stars are gathered in San Diego this weekend to make announcements, hype stuff, etc. I think if I were there, I'd be focused on finding affordable reading copies of Jackie Gleason or Bilko comics!

7) Factory Entertainment action figures: Mike posted about this in our Facebook group:

Airwolf, Battlestar, Magnum, Miami Vice, and bionics! These are not all spectacular-looking, and they will likely be super pricy, but I think I want just about all of them.

8) "J. Digger Doyle": I haven't listened to this episode yet, but The Columbo Podcast recently released one of its "Cosy Crime Classics" installments devoted to "J. Digger Doyle." Longtime BOTNS fans may recall we discuss that very same show (and it's a good one) in our Magnum P.I. episode.

9) We're Puttin' on the Ritz: 40 years ago tonight, CBS ran this unsold pilot, which pairs Leah Ayers and Matt McCoy as secretary and chauffeur for a reclusive multimillionaire. They get into lighthearted adventures and capers. As Stephen Holden wrote in The New York Times, "Mr. McCoy is no Cary Grant or even Fred McMurray, but he plays the role with a cheeky insouciance, projecting the air of a man with an eyebrow perpetually arched."

10) An Evening with Perlman and Zuckerman: Also on this night in 1986, Bravo featured this program devoted to the music of Mozart. Yes, Bravo.

Top Ten #415

1) Amazing Stories: Secret Galaxy devoted a fun episode to the 1980s Spielberg series this week. One thing that stands out is how many commenters talk about how much they loved the show. And, hey, how cool would it have been to get a Spielberg TV boxset from Universal with episodes of Night Gallery, Owen Marshall, and the like?

2) Voyagers! Here's a cool video showcasing an amazing replica of the Omni:

Just don't look at the price. I think I'd have to do my own time travel, going back 40 years and playing the stock market, to afford it.

3) The Tonight Show: 50 years ago tonight, guest host Don Rickles (Seriously, did Johnny take the entire summer off?) welcomed Jack Klugman and Charo!

4) Emergency!: FETV has a marathon of the series today to honor the late Randolph Mantooth. As I write this, Mother Nature seems to be wreaking havoc on me, perhaps trying to pay tribute to the series by creating emergencies.

5) July 19, 1976: ABC had the Summer Olympics from Montreal, but CBS offered Christmas in July with a rerun of the "Christmas Party" episode of Maude. I don't remember offhand, but I wouldn't be surprised if Maude bellowed, 'Who am I, MARK SPITZ?" in that episode.

6) Perfect Strangers: Warners is releasing the complete series on Blu-Ray. Surely Search is right behind it.

7) Unsold pilots: 40 years ago tonight, 3 unsold pilots hit the network airwaves in prime time. 

Maggie is a lighthearted international intrigue series with Stefanie Powers working at a PR firm owned by Ava Gardner! Here's a clip:

She's With Me is from the team of David Duclon, Ron Leavitt, and Michael Moye. Dinah Manoff and Jerry Hall are comically different friends. The episode is below:

Crazy Dan from Glen Larson is described by Lee Goldberg as a "Dirty Harry spoof" starring John Beck. Goldberg adds, "The concept bears a striking resemblance to the subsequent 1986 ABC sitcom Sledge Hammer." A Larson show reminiscent of another series? A coincidence, I'm sure.

8) Just Men: Retro Rules took a look at the short-lived Betty White game show this week, and once again, you can get a glimpse of Robert Pine in the video (Of course, you will want to seek out one of the full episodes on which he appeared).

I find White's catchphrase at the intro kind of odd: "Why are we here? Because it's just men!"

9) Soccer: My heart is with Argentina today, but the rest of the year it's with the NASL.

10) R.I.P. Hal Williams, Scott Bryce: Obits seemed to highlight Sanford and Son, but I remember him best for his work as the cool dad Lester on 227. Bryce's character was on late-stage Facts of Life and actually married Jo at the end.

More BOTNS-related stuff on YT: "Killdozer"

There have been a few new videos related to beloved (?) 1974 TV movie Killdozer! Mike and I discuss the movie in this episode.

Here's a vintage promo for the original broadcast. I believe we shared it before, but I saw it on a channel I follow:

And here's a fun video from Paul Van Scott looking at the movie:

"Star Quality" ("Partridge Family") is now on YouTube

Sony posted the Season 1 Partridge Family episode "Star Quality" on one of its YouTube channels recently. This is the episode we talk about in our discussion of the series!

If you haven't seen it, here is a chance to check out the full saga, including the treehouse scene, Dick Clark's cameo, and a group of alleged L.A. Dodgers.

Top Ten #414

1) TV Guide and the Bicentennial: I finally ran out of "50 years ago" TV Guide, but we had a good run the last two weeks, didn't we? If you only check out this feature each Sunday, I encourage you to go back and look at some pics from the 7/3/76 issue and the one before that and relive some of the Bicentennial Fever the nation had!

2) Emmy nominations: Congrats to all the nominees announced this week. Among BOTNS-era names who were recognized: Martin Short, Jean Smart, Jason Bateman.

3) Family Feud: Today is the 50th anniversary of the ABC debut of the long-running game show, then hosted by Richard Dawson.

4) Humphrey Bogart: Also of interest, in New York City 50 years ago tonight, WPIX premiered an hourlong look at the Hollywood legend, followed by Casablanca at 8:00. It must have been a nice alternative to viewers who weren't interested in the Democratic National Convention coverage that dominated the networks that night.

5) National Paper Bag Day:

6) Sisters in the Name of Love: 40 years ago tonight, this HBO special featured Patti LaBelle, Gladys Knight, and Dionne Warwick. Hey, wait a minute! They aren't sisters!

7) Cheryl Ladd: Happy 75th!

8) The Alan King Show: 40 years ago tonight, this unsold pilot debuted. King stars as a business hotshot who leaves Wall Street to take a gig as a professor. Also starring: Dina Merrill, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Catherine Keener.

9) Little House on the Prairie: A new version debuts on Netflix, and we repeat, as long as there's plague, pestilence, and abject suffering, we'll give it a shot. Still, I will probably lean toward the original:

10) R.I.P.  Louise Lasser, Randolph Mantooth, Joanna Pettet:

Inside the Guide: BICENTENNIAL FEVER! TV Guide 50 years ago today! (7/3/26 PART 8)

This is my favorite piece of this 50-year-old bicentennial L.A. edition of TV Guide, a look at themed station ID cards from around the nation!

Inside the Guide: BICENTENNIAL FEVER! TV Guide 50 years ago today! (7/3/26 PART 7: Friday, July 9)

Two more local ads on this day in TV Guide (L.A. edition) 50 years ago today:

Let's supplement today's post with some news from the "Teletype" column. This week, tidbits include another story on John Amos' departure from Good Times (this was a big story at the time in the TV press) and mentions of upcoming shows Wonder Woman and What's Happening!!

Inside the Guide: BICENTENNIAL FEVER! TV Guide 50 years ago today! (7/3/26 PART 6: Thursday, July 8)

We continue our look at the bicentennial issue of TV Guide, but we are several days past the big holiday, and now local TV ads continue to dominate the pages.

A reminder that this is a Los Angeles edition, and so we get some boxing from the historic arena:

Inside the Guide: BICENTENNIAL FEVER! TV Guide 50 years ago today! (7/3/26 PART 5: Wednesday, July 7)

Local ads still dominate in this Los Angeles edition of TV Guide. 

Here we see Mike Douglas:

Next up, Name That Tune. I miss when game shows were so big on daytime television.

Finally for today, a close-up on the state dinner PBS is covering:

Inside the Guide: BICENTENNIAL FEVER! TV Guide 50 years ago today! (7/3/26 PART 4: Tuesday, July 6)

Things have slowed down in the Guide this week after the weekend festivities.

We do see an ad for a movie with that beloved BOTNS favorite George Gobel:

KHJ really wants you to know about The Joker's Wild. It ran this ad several times this week and mentioned the show in at least one other ad, too:

Top Ten #413

1) Independence Day: We've been celebrating the bicentennial here on the site with a look back at TV Guide 50 years ago. What a glorious time it was in 1976, with many Americans coming together to celebrate the nation's history. 

And speaking of history:

2) Bicentennial Minutes: Love seeing any of these on YouTube! Here is all of them, or maybe all floating around at the moment.

3) Michael J. Fox/Roger Damon Price: Let's also give some love to Canada, which celebrated Canada Day last week. Also, these two were appointed to Order of Canada (The latter created You Can't Do That on Television).

4) This Is America, Charlie Brown: Apple TV added the 1988 miniseries this week. Ir's enjoyable, but, man, it bugs me that the kids are running around  The Mayflower in bare feet.

5) Fantasy Island: Prime Video added the original and appears to be adding more Sony shows such as Hazel and Archie Bunker's Place.

Speaking of Sony shows, Roku is adding or re-adding a bunch, including That's My Mama, Hardcastle and McCormick, and The Famous Teddy Z.

6) Liberty Weekend: ABC was all over the Statue of Liberty centennial, and 40 years ago tonight, it continued its coverage with a special featuring Placido Domingo, the New York Philharmonic, and more.

7) National Ice Cream Month: And it's been pretty hot here, too.

8) The Twilight Zone: I love that the original gets marathons every July 4 weekend, but here's a spot from the 1980s version/

9) Wimbledon: The tennis tournament is well underway here in 2026; on this day in 1986, Martina Navratilova beat Hana Mandlikova in the final, and on this day in 1980, Bjorn Borg topped John McEnroe in their classic showdown in the men's final.

10) R.I.P. Penelope Keith:

Inside the Guide: BICENTENNIAL FEVER! TV Guide 50 years ago today! (7/3/26 PART 3: Monday, July 5)

Well, the holiday is over, and TV is back to normal, it appears, with reruns dominating the lineup. the local stations dominate the advertising, taking the opportunity to promote movies, reruns, and game shows!

The holiday fun lingers, though, with some taped coverage of fireworks:

Finally, end the evening with John Davidson!

Inside the Guide: BICENTENNIAL FEVER! TV Guide 50 years ago today! (7/3/26 PART 2)

Today is the big day! 50 years ago today was the big bicentennial celebration, the culmination of a huge buildup, and TV Guide had everyone covered with this spread appearing before the day's actual listings:

NBC took out a full-pager:

How about a Bob Hope special? And check out the cool album you can buy!

I can't overstate how much TV was all about the bicentennial on this day. Among the shows, personalities, and specials with themed episodes on this day: Billy Graham, Firing Line, Lawrence Welk, and National Geographic. Local stations aired movies like Yankee Doodle Dandy.

Would there be a letdown when everyone went back to work Monday, July 5 and TV returned to normal? Come back tomorrow!

Inside the Guide: BICENTENNIAL FEVER! TV Guide 50 years ago today! (7/3/26 PART 1)

Yes, the nation had bicentennial fever in 1976, and we are here to revisit it with a look at the special issue of TV Guide (Los Angeles edition) dated July 3, 1976. We'll take a trip, Saturday through Friday, and the first few days are loaded with holiday coverage. Let's jump right into it!

Everyone was talking about the event, even Youth and the Issues:

Metromedia stations offer The Great American Celebration:

That's not to be confused with the Great American Music Celebration, which aired later in the evening and was hosted by Lorne Greene, Dionne Warwick, and Harve Presnell. 

Speaking of music, American Bandstand got in the act with a salute to the bicentennial featuring The Mugelsons, Paul Jabara, and comedia Kip Adotta. "Dick Clark is the host," the listing says. Well, i'm familiar with...Dick Clark.

A TV Movie adaptation of Huckleberry Finn was rerun on ABC tonight. In the cast: Ron Howard in the title role, Antonio Fargas as Jim, and Donny Most as Tom Sawyer!

Worried about the Fourth? CBS has you covered:

Don't feel the need to watch all day! "Drop in any time to see how it's going."

For you eggheads out there, NBC has a program about invention and discovery:

Inside the Guide: TV Guide 50 years ago today! (6/26/76 Part 7)

Today there isn't much to see in the Friday, July 2, 1976 listings, but let's talk about some of the features in the issue.

There is this page, which gets into two topics of interest to BOTNS fans: The decision to break up Rhoda and Joe and also the pending debut of In Search Of!

Other stories include the cover story on Mary Tyler Moore in Moscow, a light piece about a writer trying video dating, and experiments with "two-way cable" and interactive TV. There's a profile of Rich Little, then starring in The Rich Little Show, but there is no review column.

One interesting item in the news section relates how NBC's revenues jumped as its ratings went down. The explanation is that the economy's revival boosted ad spending at a time when CBS and ABC had already sold most of its ad inventory. NBC, in effect, benefited from its plummeting ratings because it had plenty of sports to sell to advertisers looking to spend.

Inside the Guide: TV Guide 50 years ago today! (6/26/76 Part 6)

It's still fairly slow in prime time this week, with reruns dominating, but I do like this local station ad in the Thursday, July 1, 1976 listings:

Inside the Guide: TV Guide 50 years ago today! (6/26/76 Part 5)

There wasn't a lot going on Wednesday, June 30, 1976, on the tube, but NBC did have a patriotic special. It didn't bother taking out an ad for it, though.

I can also tell you that on Dinah Shore's show, Jim Nabors co-hosted, and guests included Lynda Carter, George Gobel, and Minnie Pearl!

Inside the Guide: TV Guide 50 years ago today! (6/26/76 Part 4)

There is a clear highlight in prime time 50 years ago on broadcast television. As America geared up for its bicentennial, NBC premiered the film 1776, itself an adaptation of the musical:

On Channel 8, right before the movie, viewers were treated to an animated Benji special (Other stations aired this syndicated program throughout the week):

Inside the Guide: TV Guide 50 years ago today! (6/26/76 Part 3)

Perhaps the highlight of prime time on Monday, June 28, 1976, is this CBS rebroadcast of the Chuck Jones Yankee Doodle Cricket:

Other than that, there are some neat local station ads:

One thing that stands out to me is the afternoon here. For one thing, William Shatner is on The FBI, which was a very popular rerun in syndication at the time. Also, look at the display ad for Marcus Welby that uses the syndie title Robert Young, Family Doctor:

I get that TV shows got alternate titles for syndication when they were still in first-run, but those alternate titles were usually lame. Happy Days Again is an example. This one is worse, avoiding the character name and just saying, "Here's the show where Robert Young is a doctor."

Top Ten #412

1) Mary Tyler Moore: Mary is the cover gal of the TV Guide from 50 years ago this week that we're spotlighting this week on the site! Later today we'll have a post with a few things from the Guide on this date in 1976.

2) Killdozer: The highly entertaining Retro Rules channel from Paul Van Scott highlighted Killdozer, which we of course talked about in our ninth season.

3) Gilligan's Island: TV Is Good, a new podcast featuring two TV critics discussing TV old and new, paired Widow's Bay and Gilligan's Island recently in a discussion of cursed islands, and while the choice was amusing, I got the sense that the host who conceived it just wanted to make fun of the latter series. Hey, Mike and I didn't claim that Gilligan's was high art, but still, this just left kind of an odd taste in my mouth, unlike Mary Ann's coconut creme pies. You can judge for yourself here.

4) Movin' On:  Speaking of podcasts, TV Confidential recently featured the creator of a Seventies series that doesn't have much buzz: Trucker show Movin' On. The author of a new book about the show was also on, but I don't think she got a word in edgewise as the producer was so anxious to talk.

5) Mel Brooks: The icon turns 100 today! We talk about his When Things Were Rotten right here.

6) Martini Shot: One more podcast link for you: Rob Long's Martini Shot podcast has a great tribute to Jimmy Burrows this week, and it's notable because it give a great specific example of what Burrows could actually do on the set to improve an episode.

7) NY movies on TV 1986: 40 years ago tonight, the 3 major NYC-area independent stations each broadcast a movie, and the Times had interesting comments for each one.

Channel 5: The Champ (1931): "Creaks, wheezes, and drips now; but an emotional classic back when."
Channel 9: Birth of the Beatles (1979): "Dramatization of their early years. If you like imitations." Aren't viewers fully aware that a biopic is going to be an imitation of the real thing?
Channel 11: Victory at Entebbe (1976): "Israeli commandos raid to free hostages in Uganda. Heavy, rambling drama but good Burt (Lancaster) and Kirk (Douglas). Better version is 'Raid on Entebbe.' Wait." Ok, but this is 1986, and it's not like we can rent it from Prime Video.

8) A Woman of Substance: Britbox is airing a new adaptation of the 1979 Barbara Taylor Bradford novel. I mention this because I think I saw commercials for the 1984 version multiple times a day for a while.

9) Merv Griffin: 50 years ago today, Merv had a fascinating array of guests: Maury Wills, Fernando Lamas, The Graduates, Tom Sullivan, Marty Allen.

10) R.I.P. Clive Davis (I hear so many stories about his influence on the music biz that it's kind of like he's the Steve Allen of pop music), Ellen Weston:

Inside the Guide: TV Guide 50 years ago today! (6/26/76 Part 2)

We move on to Sunday, where we see the special Mary Tyler Moore is promoting in the cover story of this 1976 issue!

Otherwise, there isn't a lot going on, though one local channel is showing Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops in the afternoon! An independent station has a retrospective of Your Show of Shows, too!

Inside the Guide: TV Guide 50 years ago today! (6/26/76 Part 1)

For the next week, we'll share some photos from TV Guide of 50 years ago. Note beloved icon Mary Tyler Moore on the cover:

We begin, as the mag does, with Saturday--specifically, Saturday, June 26, 1976. This is a Bay Area edition.

First let's take a look at a few morning shows! There isn't enough Run Joe Run out in the world, but here is a listing for the show that we discussed in our second season:

Then at 10:00, a show I knew nothing about, Westwind. It's a live-action kids series filmed in Hawaii and produced by the same company as Run Joe Run and starring Van Williams.

How about this classic match-up on Celebrity Tennis? The unofficial Canadian Celebrity Tennis Championship is on the line!

I didn't recognize this one but was intrigued by the title:

Ron Schmeck was an RV dealer turned music star with his 1975 country album Easy Livin' The American Way.

Here's a look at an unsold pilot that premiered on this day. I mentioned it in our Facebook group today:

Finally, it amuses me that the mag puts the identical listing back to back for separate channels rather than combine the channels. Why did they do that sometimes but not others? Got me!