Night Court creator Reinhold Weege and his Starry Night Productions produced the unsold pilot Nikki and Alexander in 1989, and you can take a look at the full episode here.Tim Matheson is a New Yorker who takes in a homeless woman from Russia. It was referred to as a "spinoff" of Night Court in TV Guide, and the TCM website makes the same reference, but I can't figure out how it is.
Irena Ferris (now Medavoy) is not playing the same character she does on Night Court--a glamorous blonde Soviet official denying Yakov a visa in "Russkie Business," which we mention on the pod! Monte Markham and Nana Visitor also appear. And shout-out to Kyle Heffner, who co-stars and, hey, appears to be the uploader! The great Robert Costanzo appears as a cop.
I can't find much more info about this pilot, but I do know that the end credits look a little familiar:
Here's an odd one: 40 years ago tonight, NBC aired this unsold pilot, The Circle Family, about a carnival owner who gets out of the biz after winning an insurance settlement and starts a motor lodge. Max Baer Jr. stars as patriarch Hearst Circle. What a name!
I wish I could add, "What a show," but I haven't seen it, and I can't find any video of it. So today I will say don't confuse this with Hearst TV stations, with The Family Circle magazine, with Hearst Circle in Toronto, with Bil Keane's Family Circus nor with A Family Circus Christmas, with the WTA's Family Circle Cup tournament...
Morgan Woodward, Sarah Torgov, and Sydney Penney also appear. Lee Goldberg's Unsold Television Pilots adds that Circle's wife left him for the carnival strongman and that he has taken in 3 orphans as his own children to keep them out of the orphanage system.
Here's a clip from the 1989 Family Circle Cup tournament just because:
I will repeat the disclaimer I gave in yesterday's post: If you haven't seen the 1984 pilot version of the 1983 TV movie of High School USA, at least watch the beginning ASAP. A huge part of the fun is seeing who is in the cast: "Oh, they got the other guy from ___!" "This time, they took ___ from ___!"
So here it is in all its glory:
Now let me add a few comments. This version is nowhere near as effective nor fun as the first one, with the leads a significant notch below Michael J. Fox and Anthony Edwards. There is a HUGE miscalculation made in having the J.J. character pining for a teacher instead of a fellow student. Check out the scene when JJ watches Melody Anderson's Ms. Franklin from the wings. It looks like Adrian Lyne directed it.
Oh, I still think you should watch it, but then again, I think you should watch all kinds of stuff. If you enjoy the 1983 TV movie, watch this.
Here's an odd thing: Books devoted to TV pilots written by both Lee Goldberg and Vincent Terrace refer to the 1983 version as a "pilot," too. How can that be considering Fox and McKeon were already on established sitcoms at that point? Based on Nancy's mullet, it's not like the movie was shot years earlier. So I don't understand. Maybe ours is not to understand the ways of High School USA; ours is but to enjoy the ways of High School USA.
Q.E.D.? Isn't that what, uh, smart people write at the end of, uh, smart stuff?
Indeed, it is, but it's also the title of a 6-episode adventure series CBS ran in Spring 1982. The premiere episode 40 years ago tonight.
At least two different reference books of mine compare this to The Wild, Wild West, and the Sherlock Holmes influence is strong as well. The setting is 1912 England, and star Sam Waterston's character is named Quentin Everett Deverill, which I love. Get it? Q...E...D.
The show's creator, John Hawkesworth was writer and producer on Upstairs, Downstairs and Duchess of Duke Street, two British programs that did stick. I don't know how Q.E.D. fared in the UK (it aired on ITV as it ran here in the States), and notice that years before cross-network sharing was a common thing, Showtime aired this CBS series as well! I don't know when the pay cable channel had the show, but you can see from the promos above it serialized the 6 episodes at some point.
CBS slotted it Tuesday nights at 8:00 against Happy Days/Joanie Loves Chachi (ABC) and Bret Maverick (NBC; one week it was pre-empted by a pair of Easter-themed cartoon reruns), where it lasted a mere 6 weeks. Happy Days was in reruns at the time, Joanie Loves Chachi was replaced by Laverne and Shirley reruns, and Bret Maverick was no winner--it's final first-run episode aired just a week after Q.E.D.'s finale--but this interesting-sounding adventure series was dropped.
It's not hard to find the episodes online if you want to check them out yourself!
Well, Lee Goldberg's book of unsold pilots lists the airdate as January 9, 1973, so maybe the movie didn't air March 10, 1972. I will continue to investigate, but in the meantime, hey, this is interesting enough to discuss today!
This is the only clip I could find of the program, which comes from Mission Impossible's Bruce Gellar (and even has music from Lalo Schiffrin):
Goldberg describes the pilot as John Vernon "assumes the identity of of a fellow agent brainwashed by unknown enemies into releasing a virus that could kill half the U.S. population. Yes, Vernon is the HERO! Goldberg makes a funny remark about "Hunter" being the most common name in law enforcement on TV.
Check out the cast. In addition to Vernon, there is Edward Binns, Barbara Rhoades, Fritz Weaver, Ramon Bieri, JOHN SCHUCK (!), Genius Award winner Ed Flanders, and more! I don't know why it didn't work out, but it sounds interesting, even if it did NOT air 50 years ago tonight!
The Museum of Classic Chicago Television YouTube account continues to bring us fantastic rarities and interesting broadcasts, almost always with original commercials and presented as originally aired. One that struck my eye was the unsold pilot "TLC," a sitcom set at a nursing university in Philadelphia:
Jim Vallely and Jonathan Schmock went on to all sorts of things, including behind-the-camera work on Arrested Development and Real Time with Bill Maher, respectively, and were in other shows, but who else remembers them as one of the weirdest comedy teams of the 1980s, The Funny Boys? After this effort failed, they joined the cast of another NBC show, Double Trouble, presumably to up the zany in that sitcom's second season.
Double Trouble, then in reruns of its first season, kicked off this August night, followed by repeats of Jennifer Slept Here (shout-out to our Facebook group) and The Facts of Life. Then St. Elsewhere followed this broadcast of TLC.
CBS had an episode of newsmagazine The American Parade and a rebroadcast of movie Bare Essence, which had been picked up as a primetime soap and failed already on NBC.
If this sounds like NBC and CBS burning off programming, well, it is. Not only is it August, but ABC was showing the popular 1984 Summer Olympics from Los Angeles this week.
As for TLC, it's kind of an odd piece. Some of my thoughts:
*The fact that the Funny Boys are the first and only male enrollees isn't emphasized the way you'd think it is. You'd think they would really hammer that point home.
*That said, Mary Garripoli as the love-starved student fixated on Vallely's character ought to have given royalties to Wendie Jo Sperber from Bosom Buddies.
*Jessica Walter seems to be enjoying herself as the heel dean with a heart of gold.
*It's funny to see Ritch Shydner cast as a musclehead!
*There are some moments that hint at something, but things seem to happen too quickly in this pilot, almost like we are seeing a drastic cutdown of a longer episode.
Thanks again to the Fuzzy Memories account for bringing such cool stuff on a regular basis!
40 years ago tonight, NBC started its broadcast evening with an unsold pilot, The Hoyt Axton Show, starring...Mac Davis. No, it was Hoyt Axton, who should have been the hottest thing on TV already just from singing the theme song to Flo.
Unfortunately, I can't find any Hoyt Axton Show footage on YouTube, so we will have to make do with that crackling tune. There is also this awesome clip of Ringo Starr and a cast of many on a 1975 variety special:
Back to the 1981 pilot: Directed by Richard Crenna, this one features Axton as "a country singer who, after his wife dies, returns from life on the road to raise his 3 kids." Lee Goldberg's indispensable Unsold TV Pilots adds that the character's teenage daughter is dating a divorcee and his son is heading out on the road with a rock band. Yikes!
Yes, 40 years ago tonight, ABC burned off an unsold comedy pilot at 8:00 P.M. That sitcom is...Bulba!
Now, it may have appeared as icomedy Special in the TV listings of the day, but isn't Bulba a much more exciting title?
Lee Goldberg's Unaired Pilots books lists August 3 as the airdate, but it looks like that was merely a rerun, and today, June 15, is the TRUE premiere! I may be stalling a bit because I don't have much to say about the show. Goldberg tells us it is "The misadventures of a U.S. embassy in the fictional, island country of Bulba. Variety summed it up by saying, 'No laughs, no chance.'"
The cast featured Joyce Van Patten, Lyle Waggoner, Miles Chapin, Jeff Altman, Gailard Sartain, Bill Hicks--Wait, the Bill Hicks? Yes, he played "Corporal Phil Repulski!" Anyone remember this show?
50 years ago tonight, NBC gave its viewers another installment of NBC Comedy Theater, or as they might have called it, Unsold Pilot Theater. This is an interesting one, though, and I like this description from the "TV Scout Report" (I believe syndicated) in a PA newspaper of the time:
Hal Kanter, who created and produced Julia, and who is doing the James Stewart series for next season, wrote And Baby Makes Five, a sometimes comedy on Comedy Theater. Cliff Robertson and Angie Dickinson, who weren't the names when this was made that they are today, star as a city pair who head for the country. Gee, it sounds just like Green Acres.
Ouch! Note that this show should not be confused with Baby Makes Five, a Peter Scolari sitcom that had 5 episodes on ABC in April 1983. Yet I don't have a link to a video of the 1971 show, so here are the opening credits from the 1983 one:
40 years ago tonight, ABC aired an unsold pilot starring Dick Van Dyke, Connie Stevens, Danny Wells, and guests Florence Halop and David Ruprecht. Great news: As of today, it's on YouTube!
A Gannett newspaper piece that ran on the day of the premiere explains the story behind unsold pilots and networks running them with branding like ABC Comedy Theatre before delving into the show itself. Bill Hayden writes that the reason for the lack of success of Battles isn't obvious: "Starring Dick Van Dyke--a veteran star of two sitcoms and one variety hour--and Connie Stevens, this is an Americanized version of the successful English series "A Sharp Intake of Breath," which focuses on family's war with frustrating red tape and bureaucracy." He adds that, "The comedy leans towards the broad and physical," and though the first episode "is well done and often funny," he speculates the network thought it would be repetitive.
So this writer is not just giving a quick take on the show but guessing why it didn't get picked up as a series. You can judge for yourself thanks to uploader Dan Reese!
As for me, I think this is funny! I laughed multiple times, and even if the show ended up being "only" Dick Van Dyke ranting about things, well, I think that's worth watching. I am intrigued by the idea of Joe Regalbulto showing up in all different walks of life as a different person who annoys Harry each week.
40 years ago tonight, NBC nudged a pilot into its Friday night lineup of a Harper Valley P..T.A. rerun and The Gangster Chronicles: Stockers, a comedy from Johnny Carson Productions starring former BOTNS featured personality Pittsburgh Steeler quarterback Terry Bradshaw. Mel Tillis co-starred as Terry's sidekick; the two were stock car racers traveling the country, seeking adventures and trying to stay one step ahead of a tireless bill collector (Robert Tessier) who's hunting them down).
Bradshaw was on the downside of his career, but was it realistic to think he could leave the NFL for acting full time at this point? This Steelers Depot piece indicates it was a real possibility. The QB had already been in Hooper and Cannonball Run, and his entertainment aspirations were well known. By the way, the director of both those pictures, Hal Needham, also did this pilot, which was a clear effort to get some of that country/outlaw chic of the era exemplified by The Dukes of Hazzard and Smokey and the Bandit.
The show was a mess, reportedly, the broadcast didn't do well according to this report, and thus the show was not picked up for the Fall schedule. It couldn't overcome repeats of I'm a Big Girl Now (ABC) and The Incredible Hulk (CBS), and so Terry Bradshaw returned for the 1981 season. The Steelers finished 8-8 and missed the playoffs for a second consecutive season. The Hall of Famer played in 1982, then retired after missing most of an injury-plagued 1983 season.
Unfortunately this remains a What I'd Like to See entry for now. Bradshaw himself doesn't think I should try to find it, telling Rolling Stone last year:
They should not watch an old TV show I did calledStockers. Absolutely not. It was a show on NBC. It’s horrible. The pilot was a takeoff of Cannonball Run. I’ve never heard of this. Why was it so bad? Bad. It was bad. Bad writing. Bad acting. You just name it. The music in it was even bad! How can you have bad music?
50 years ago tonight, Banyon premiered on NBC. The Robert Forster P.I. series (it was written especially with him in mind) lasted a mere 16 episodes but still sounds cool.
After this airing of the two-hour pilot, the series made the Fall 1972 schedule for Fridays at 10:00 P.M. but was off the air by the end of January 1973. Martin was brought on after the movie, which must explain the year-and-a-half gap before the series proper began. Forster was the only cast member to make it to the regular series, which co-starred Joan Blondell and Richard Jaeckel.
Less than a year ago, to mark the late Forster's birthday, we picked this series as a "What We'd Like to See," and it still has that status! Here is a great post summarizing the original movie and recounting how original creator Ed Adamson was apparently edged out by Martin. The author calls the role, at least in the pilot, a rare misfire of a performance by Forster, but I am still intrigued.
The Quinn Martin show set in 1930s Los Angeles is controlled by Warner Brothers but presumably has some kind of issue preventing it from home video release. I don't think the show even made it to the dearly departed Warner Archive Instant streaming service.
On this night 40 years ago, NBC rolled out a pilot that was not picked up as a series. I just can't bring myself to say that Momma the Detective is a "failed" pilot. How bad can it be?
here is the Ultimate 70s synopsis for this hour from writer/director Larry Cohen:
The story of Momma Sykes, a housekeeper with an uncanny knack for solving crimes. In the pilot episode, Momma attempts to solve the mysterious murder of a man in a hotel room despite the objections of her son, a New York police sergeant who balks at her intervening in his cases.
Wow! And it gets better. Momma is Esther Rolle! Also in the cast: Fritz Weaver, Laurence Luckenbill, Andrew Duggan, Paul Dooley, Jean Marsh, and Frank Converse!
Lee Goldberg's Unsold Television Pilots notes the syndicated title is See China and Die, and Wikipedia says it received a theatrical release in Europe as Hearsay, but isn't Momma the Detective better?
On January 9, 1981, this "special" opposed a new Dukes of Hazzard on CBS and the 1979 Topper (Kate Jackson and Andrew Stevens) on ABC. I think Momma is a clear winner. Esther Rolle as a housekeeper/detective sounds even better than Esther Rolle as a possible practitioner of the dark arts.
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!
40 years ago today, CBS and NBC used unsold pilots to fill out the primetime schedule! At 8:00. CBS unveiled Joshua's World, which starred Richard Crenna as a liberal doctor in small-town Arkansas in the 1930s. Crenna had a long and distinguished career, but this one didn't make a mark. He would return to series TV with Susan Harris' It Takes Two, which at least got a season on ABC.
NBC also dumped some material on the masses this Thursday, August 21, 1980. it burned off 3 straight sitcom pilots starting at 9:30. Going by the descriptions, my favorite is Dribble, which kicked off the parade of filler. Yes, it IS about basketball! According to Lee Goldberg's Unsold Television Pilots, the Columbia-produced show was from Linda Bloodworth. "The misadventures of a misfit team of professional basketball players. In the pilot, they have a hard time adjusting when a star player is added to the roster." In the case: Dee Wallace, Dan Frazer, and Lewis Arquette.
Next up is The Further Adventures of Wally Brown from Mark Rothman and Lowell Ganz, who were huge at Paramount at the time after working with Garry Marshall's comedies. . Goldberg's book says this show is based on the Coasters' song "Charlie Brown!" The titular character (Clinton Carroll) is a black teenager on the high school track team, and his white best friend is played by Peter Scolari (who showed up in a few months on Bosom Buddies). Intriguing names in the cast: Arlene Golonka, Ron Masak, and Gilbert Gottfried as "Bernstein."
Finally, veteran sitcom writer Bill Persky directed The Single Life with Barrie Youngfellow as a love advice columnist for fictional Manhattanite magazine who falls for a younger man. Celia Weston vo-stars. This one didn't make it, but Youngfellow would turn up on ABC when the season began after getting the role of Jan in It's a Living.
40 years ago today on ABC, August 17, 1980 Joe Namath hosted a variety special called All-American Pie. This description is from Vincent Terrace's Encyclopedia of Television Pilots:
Joe Namath hosts this variety magazine, looking at unusual occupations and lifestyles against a variety of colorful American backdrops. Highlights include a visit with a driving instructor in San Francisco; a New York coach-lawyer and his juvenile basketball team; a look at a phone answering service in Chicago; kids in Phoenix discuss ways in which they make life rough for grown-ups; and the patrons of a Youngstown, Ohio cafe talk about "perfect 10s" while the women in a local beauty salon explain what they like about men.
What can be more all-American than womanizing, hard-drinking, playboy-ing ex-jock Joe Namath!
Michael McKenna talks about the show in his book Real People and the Rise of Reality Television. He says the result seems like the producers wanted to combine Real People with That's Incredible and that it was burned off in August with little attention.
Namath would go on to join the Monday Night Football booth for ABC later in the decade, an experiment that did not end happily for either side. Let's enjoy Joe in a more successful venture:
This week in June 1975 was full of repeats, but the networks sprinkled in some pilots, one-offs, and "serious programming." This night 45 years ago is a good example.
June 27, 1975 saw movie night on CBS: Captain Nemo and the Underwater City and Shaft. Mind you, this is not one of the made-for-TV Shaft (JOHN Shaft!) movies, but it is the original, and can you imagine how much butchering occurred to get it into a 90-minute time slot? And forget about the violence and nudity!
NBC kicked off with a Sanford and Son repeat--one of the Grady episodes produced during one of Redd Foxx's contract disputes. Following Grady and Sanford's Son: reruns of Chico and the Man, Rockford Files, and Police Woman.
ABC led at 8:00 with an "encore presentation" of Kolchak and then the episode of the Odd Couple where Felix uses Oscar's pic for an ad campaign without his permission. You know, I love The Odd Couple, but it's somehow easy for me to forget that the show was on as late as June 1975. Its final season ended in March, and it was playing out the string in repeats here. Also of note: This episode was written by David Duclon, who later helped give us BOTNS hits like Punky Brewsterand Silver Spoons. Guest John Byner appears in the clip below.
ABC's Friday night lineup was unstable all season, and on this night it was Failed Pilot Theatre:
Abe Burrows, who wrote the book for the classic Broadway musical, spearheaded this adaptation. Wikipedia lists it as a "comedy special," but as you see in this vintage listing, it was considered a possible start to a new series. That seems a lot more likely than the creator of the play turning his baby into a 30-minute package for TV!
Incidentally, I love the language TV Guide used back in the day: "This program is the pilot for a possible series, but it is not on the networks' fall schedules." In other words, don't get attached to it, readers!
ABC ended the night with some public affairs/prestige-type programming. That's right: BORRR-RRRING!
No, I am sorry for making light of a program that explored a serious subject. ABC didn't have much else going on Friday at 10:00, so it decided to air an educational/informative show for the public good. These kinds of serious, well-intentioned news shows just don't turn up on the networks anymore.
Note a young Peter Jennings is the correspondent here. Jennings was then anchoring ABC's pre-Good Morning America effort and would become the chief foreign correspondent for ABC News months later. He wouldn't become anchor of World News Tonight for another three years, when ABC tried a multi-anchor format with Jennings, Frank Reynolds, and Max Robinson from different locations.
I like the bit at the end about pre-empting Get Christie Love. Talk about an abrupt change! Imagine tuning in for that series and getting a sobering look at food shortages, global hunger, and agro-economic policy.
It's so much fun to take a deep dive into this one night of TV that we'll present another look next week, but we will go into late night in 1975!
When I read the synopsis for this half-hour pilot that aired June 18, 1980, I assumed it was an animated special. A guy walking home from work sees an abandoned, injured elephant and takes her home. This is indeed live action! Directed by John Astin, the show follows the travails of photographer Eugene Henderson (Todd Susman) as he tries to hide his new friend from Eddie Barth's landlord. The clip below is taken from an ABC special on unsold pilots:
Tom Shales reviewed this in the Post when it premiered on CBS. Do you think he liked it? He's surprisingly not angry about it, but my favorite line is: Anyone vaguely familiar with the history of situation comedy knows there had to be such a program eventually. "Hey, Philo, what do you think people are gonna DO with this thing?" "Well, eventually they'll use it to broadcast a recurring scenario involving an elephant and the man who hides her from his landlord." "You mean they haven't done that already???" People was much more elephantish in its Picks and Pans review, stating: Despite its precious name, this failed pilot isn’t a turkey. A smartly written bit of Aesopian whimsy, it stars Todd Susman as a New York photographer who removes a nail from the foot of an abandoned baby elephant, then gets adopted by the pet and tries to disguise her as a sofa. Anyone remember this bit of Aesopian whimsy? And how did John Astin get involved?
Turnover Smith. Say it again: Turnover Smith. Now say it in ALL CAPS as we can all imagine William Conrad saying it: TURNABOUT SMITH! On this day in 1980, ABC aired an hourlong pilot for a series called Turnover Smith with Conrad. Note this is not to be confused with the novel Turnover by Thone Smith. Is it a football show? A light comedy/drama about a pastry chef? Whatever the reason for it, the name is spectacular! I know without even seeing a frame of footage, nor without even knowing the premise of the series, that I want to watch a television program called Turnover Smith. Let's go to Lee Goldberg's The Best TV Shows that Never Were for more info. Wait, it's not in here! D'oh! Tons of pilots listed, including one with Conrad as a "cop-turned-college-security-chief and part-time football coach at a Hawaii university." THAT intrigues me. I want to know about Turnover, though, so it's time to go to the definitive source: People magazine's Picks and Pans column: William Conrad is a delightfully cranky criminologist trying to checkmate a chess-obsessed strangler. The pace of this TV movie is fast, and James Darren is fine as the calculating killer even if, from opening to end game, none of it makes much sense. Also starring: Belinda Montgomery, Hilly Hicks, Nehemiah Persoff, james Darren, Cameron Mitchell, and Nita Talbot. TCM's database has more info:
Criminology professor William Conrad uses scientific methods, advanced computer technology, his expertise in chess, and the leg work of several of his students to track down a crazed killer in San Francisco. Pilot to another series which Conrad (as executive producer as well as star) hoped would put him back to work regularly following the retirement of "Cannon" several years earlier, it was filmed in 1978. His expertise in chess! Looks like ABC just burned this off (along with a Glen A. Larson cop show pilot with Doug mcClure, Nightside) on a Sunday night distinguished by the Tony Awards on CBS. However, I'm kind of interested in seeing this! I'm more interested after finding this picture on ebay:
