This Day in TV History: Darkroom premieres on ABC

40 years ago tonight, James Coburn welcomed ABC viewers to the Darkroom as the horror/fantasy anthology premiered. Mike and I talked about the series right here.

The debut episode features Robert Webber, who also stars in the Rockford Files episode we cover in our Season 9 premiere. (Could we be hearing more about Webber in this season's Battys)? Darkroom lasted a mere 6 additional episodes and was off the air in the summer, but we think it deserves another look.

Like most (all?) genre shows, it has a cult following, but it has no home video release. It's in streaming limbo now as one of those Universal-owned shows that, for no known reason, was available on NBC.com for a while but has not appeared on Peacock yet.

My list of alternative 'Darkroom" hosts

On the latest episode of the podcast, I express some ambivalence about James Coburn as host of Darkroom.  I just don't think he's quite right for the role.  I don't want to just throw that out there with some alternative possibilities, so here is my list of people who would have been available in 1982 and might have made interesting "faces of the show":

Vincent Price: No brainer if they could get him.

Jack Palance: He didn't debut on Ripley's Believe It or Not until 1982, so this show could have nabbed him first!

Bob Cummings: He was active in dinner theater around this time, and while hardly an icon of the macabre, he DID play a photographer on TV years before!

Leonard Nimoy: Nimoy can do it all! In Search Of ended its on-air run in March 1982, so maybe Leonard would have been available to do Darkroom in time for its November 1981 premiere.

James Garner: Well, it would freak a lot of people out to see the Polaroid pitchman in this kind of role. Especially the people from Polaroid.

Elvira: Cassandra Peterson's horror hostess character was developed (sorry) in 1981, so the time frame would be right.

Howard Cosell: Sounds weird? Maybe, but Cosell could make everything he was involved with better. Don't believe it? Just ask him.

Ted McGinley: Just think, a mere several years before joining The Love Boat as the ship's photographer, McGinley could have run with the photography gimmick and established a different narrative: The guy who brings fresh energy to shows that need a boost and helps lengthen their runs.

Bette Davis/Joan Crawford: Imagine the two legends perpetuating their long feud by trying to outdo each other in alternating host segments on Darkroom. The fact that Crawford died 4 years earlier only adds to the spectacle.

Ed McMahon: I would do anything to get him on the podcast again and into the 5-Timers Club.

YouTube Spotlight: Darkroom

One of the more obscure clips in this week's Darkroom video playlist is this Ernie Anderson promo for two premiering shows on ABC:1979's Beach Patrol and Samurai!

Beach Patrol? Samurai?

First of all, why are these even IN a playlist devoted to Darkroom?

Well, it's because Michael V. Gazzo, one of the stars of the "Catnip" segment in the Darkroom episode we discuss, has a role in Beach Patrol.  According to IMDB, he is "Banker."

Both these movies are failed pilots that ABC burned off on April 30, 1979. Patrol is a Spelling/Goldberg production co-starring Paul Burke, Jonathan Frakes, and Robin Strand, but the focus is apparently the "comely female cop who transfers from the narcotics division...and is assigned to a special police team patrolling California's beaches in dune buggies..." (IMDB)

Christine De Lisle is the "comely female cop." Lee Goldberg's book of unsold pilots says she is targeted for assassination after spotting a fugitive mafioso. Sadly, it appears Gazzo may not be the mafioso. Is that Banker? I do not know.

As for Samurai, check this out: It's not obvious from the promo, but the lead character is a half-American, half-Asian DA/samurai played by...James Shigeta? No, though he is in the cast. It's Joe Penny!

Goldberg calls this a "ludicrous and unintentionally funny pilot." Other interesting names involved: Dana Elcar, Norman Alden, Phillip Baker Hall. Credited co-exec producers are Danny Thomas and Fernando Lamas!

The Darkroom video playlist is now live!

Do you dare enter The Darkroom...video playlist?  Click below for vintage series promos, ads, and more, including James Coburn for Schlitz beer! And can plants really communicate with humans?

And remember to visit our official YouTube channel anytime for past episodes of the podcast and playlists like this for each one of them!

Show Notes: Episode 8-11: Darkroom

*Thanks again to listener Greg for suggesting this show, and you can check out his band The Explainers right here!

*Note that there are major spoilers for the Darkroom episode we cover on the podcast!

*NBC's streaming portal for the series is here.

*Darkroom aired November 1981 to January 1982 on ABC, running Friday nights at 9:00 P.M.

*James Coburn, in his early fifties at the time, was in movies like Goldengirl, Looker, and Loving Couples just before Darkroom. Wikpedia reports that Coburn's severe arthritis limited his output in the 1980s.

*This particular episode premiered Friday, Christmas night 1981, following Benson and Bosom Buddies and preceding Strike Force with Robert Stack!  NBC started the night with NBC Magazine and then had The Gathering Part II.  On CBS, it was a Christmas episode of The Dukes of Hazzard, Falcon Crest, and a Mike Wallace interview special.

*William F. Nolan wrote Logan's Run (the novel and the pilot of the TV series), The Norliss Tapes, Trilogy of Terror, and many pieces of genre fiction in addition to "The Partnership" segment of this episode.

*Speaking of Leonard Nimoy and about plants, as we do in this episode, the first "regular" episode of In Search Of... is titled "Other Voices" and explores the idea of plant life responding to human thoughts.

*Does anyone know more about the short-lived career of Elizabeth Halliday? She isn't even listed in the cast credits for the episode at TV.com.

*Our crack research team was unable to find more information about the cat in the 'Catnip" segment.  Or was it THWARTED by mysterious forces hailing from....The Darkroom?  

Cinema Cats has no information.

*This article says that Darkroom spawned a motion picture, though that has been disputed elsewhere. A comment in this article says that on the audio commentary of the Blu-Ray of said movie, Nightmares, the director denies it!

Episode 8-11: Darkroom: "The Partnership, Daisies, Catnip"

In another listener request episode, we discuss the short-lived horror anthology Darkroom. Hosted by James Coburn, Darkroom delves into the macabre and mysterious lurking, sometimes literally, under the mundane world. In this episode, Mr. Haney has plans for an unsuspecting David Carradine, Rue McClanahan talks to the daises, and guy learns the hard way not to mess with cats.

Check out this episode!

Tomorrow on Battle of the Network Shows...