This Day in TV History: Two new shows premiered 40 years ago...two days ago

Because we've been focusing on the 1980 TV season this year, I want to step back and provide some more info on two CBS programs that debuted 40 years ago two days ago--Freebie and the Bean and Secrets of Midland Heights.

The new hourlong programs premiered December 6, 1980. Here is a promo from the following week's episodes. We posted this Sunday in the weekly Top Ten post:

But if you want more about these two series, where better to go than TV Guide? Here are the write-ups from the 1980 Fall Preview issue:

Secrets was essentially Lorimar's attempt to cash in on Dallas and get a younger audience, but it was gone after one season. King's Crossing, an ABC soap that premiered a couple years later, came from the ashes of this series but wasn't any more successful.

As for Freebie, it lasted a mere 9 episodes and was yanked before the end of January.

1980-1981 TV Season: Shogun Week on NBC

 As we discussed in our latest episode, NBC started the strike-distorted 1980-1981 season with a bang as new miniseries Shogun dominated the first week.  CBS and ABC would claim that the season didn't actually start until later in the year, when more new shows were ready, but by the end NBC's early lead was wiped out anyway.

However, NBC had Shogun for one glorious week in September:

NBC went all-out in promoting the mini, running big display ads in TV Guide each day the series aired. Here is a look at the original print advertising from the September 13-September 19 1980 edition of the magazine:

And here is how TV Guide introduced the show in its "Screening Room" column and in a close-up:

1980 Season: What was the least popular show of the season?

As we discussed on this week's podcast, Dallas was the highest-rated show of the TV season that began 40 years ago.  It was by far the most popular regular program of the year. But what was the least?

Unfortunately, it's difficult to get detailed ratings information from past seasons. Most Internet resources copy the same top 30 list that Wikipedia runs, and even that is not necessarily rock solid.  I'd sure like to see the rest of the list.  As for getting comprehensive weekly rankings, fuggedaboutit.

However, we do have some kind souls gathering information and sharing it with the rest of us.  Ratings Ryan is a blog that collects ratings articles from vintage newspapers and posts the scans for viewing.  This site has some of the Nielsen-inspired news stories from the first half of the season. Unfortunately, there is nothing for the Spring half yet.

Of course we can assume that short-lived series that were canceled after the season were low rated. Examples include Freebie and the Bean (9 episodes), Aloha Paradise (8), Walking Tall (7) Breaking Away (7 aired), Secrets of Midland Heights (6 aired), CBS spring replacement series sitcoms Checking In (4) and Park Place (4).  All of these flopped, though some had tougher timeslot opponents than others.

However, there's one title that keeps popping up in the old articles that bother to mention the bottom 5 shows of a given week.  Several times, lumped in with random one-offs like The Smothers Brothers Special, you find NBC Magazine with David Brinkley. The public affairs/news show aired each Friday night at 10:00, opposing ABC's Friday night movie and...Dallas.  

Well, it's not hard to see why the series tanked, and it was obviously just something to throw at the competition without sacrificing a promising entertainment program (insert joke about 1980 NBC). 

The show languished in the ratings for several reasons, but it did  last several seasons! Here is an interesting NY Times piece about the show, one in which the 60-year-old Brinkley sounds kind of stuffy about what he's putting on the air.  He doesn't want to put rock stars on and sniffs that they belong on 20/20.  He criticizes "chasing crooked preachers" like on 60 Minutes, and says investigative pieces are OK if the subject "matters."  Well, LA-dee-DAH!

On the one hand, it's really unfair to say that this public affairs program, which lasted several seasons and did its duty by eating up time against an iconic show at its peak, is the least popular show of the 1980-1981 TV season. On the other...it DID get terrible ratings, and that's the pick for now.

Here are a few glimpses at this low-rated NBC time filler:

Hey, isn't that Benny Goodman? Isn't he...a musician? I guess rock stars are for 20/20, but those swing stars matter!

The 1980 TV season video playlist is now live!

 In what may be our largest video playlist yet, we throw all kinds of great stuff at you to help you discover or relive the 1980-1981 television season! We have news clips of the Olympic boycott and the Mt. St. Helens explosion! Network hype promos! There are promos touting the programming lineups! Take a look at notable movies and syndicated shows! Michelle Pfeiffer visits The Tonight Show! We even have PSAs featuring Gregory Peck, Telly Savalas, and...The Little Rascals? All this and EGGS! Just click below!

Remember to visit our official YouTube page each week for episode-specific playlists, and check out back episodes of the podcast while you're there!

Show Notes: Episode 8-2: The 1980 TV Season

 *This week, we do something a little different and take a deep plunge into the 1980-1981 television season on its 40th anniversary.

*The top 5 shows in the year before, 1979-1980, were: 60 Minutes, Three's Company, MASH, Alice, and Dallas.

*'A House Divided," the Dallas third-season finale in which J.R. Ewing was shot by [spoiler redacted] aired March 21, 1980, meaning viewers had to wait 7 1/2 months for season 4 opener "No Mr. Nice Guy," which aired as part 1 on Friday, November 7, and part 2 on Sunday, November 9, to see if he would pull through. 

However, the series didn't answer the true mystery, the identity of the would-be assassin, until November 21's "Who Done It?" That was the highest-rated series TV episode in the USA until the MASH finale in 1983.

Is anyone interested in us doing a full episode on Dallas?

*Shogun, the NBC miniseries based on James Clavell's 1975 novel, premiered on each of 5 nights from September 15-19 and was a huge ratings success.

*Roots aired on ABC in 1977, and sequel Roots: The Next Generation premiered in 1979.

*Mount St. Helens erupted May 18, 1980.

*In fairness to Jean Doumanian, she had a tough job, taking on Saturday Night Live with little time to build it after the departure of many of the show's creative and behind-the-scenes talent as well as its cast. She also faced resistance from many who stayed on the series.

*The short-lived Foul Play TV series did indeed star Barry Bostwick and Deborah Raffin.

*Here's a closer look at Those Amazing Animals:

*Freebie and the Bean starred HECTOR Elizondo as "Bean" Delgado and Tom Mason as "Freebie" Walker.

*CBS' House Calls with Wayne Rogers and Lynn Redgrave lasted 3 seasons, 1979-1982.

*Click here for our season 6 look at the Donahue episode spotlighting the "Clean Up TV campaign."

*Lily Tomlin: Sold Out premiered February 2, 1981 on CBS. It's a meta special based on Tomlin taking her Broadway show to Vegas and debating about whether to change the act for the different audience. Co-stars include Paul Anka, Liberace, and Joan Rivers.

*Life is a Circus, Charlie Brown premiered on October 24, 1980 and is on DVD; in fact, I bought the collection it's in for my son several years ago and should have watched it by now!

*The American Music Awards actually premiered in 1974!

*Ryan's Hope (1975-1989) was about an irish-American family in New York, and "Ryan's" was the name of the bar the patriarch ran.

*Over Easy with Hugh Downs may have had eggcentric segments, but the PBS series was about aging.

*Our print resources, as we mention on the show, include the following:

-Watching TV by Harry Castleman and Wally Podrazik
-Total Television by Alex McNeil
-The Encyclopedia of Daytime Television by Wesley Hyatt
-The Emmys by Thomas O'Neil
-The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows by Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh
-TV Guide

Episode 8-2: Back to the Egg--1980-81 TV Season 40th Anniversary

This week, we take a broader approach than normal as we celebrate the--oof--40th anniversary of the troubled 1980-81 TV season. Strikes, Olympic boycotts, elections, "Shogun," "Who Shot J.R.?" and more--we try to cover it all. Plus, a surprising amount of egg talk.

Check out this episode!

Tomorrow on Battle of the Network Shows...