*Thank you for joining us for another fun season of the podcast! This week we look at the 1983 Peanuts special, It's an Adventure, Charlie Brown! The special is available on Apple Plus.
*The motocross special is You're a Good Sport, Charlie Brown; and the ice skating special is She's a Good Skate, Charlie Brown. The one centered on Lucy and Schroeder is Play It Again, Charlie Brown.
The election one is You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown. Snoopy joins the circus in Life Is a Circus, Charlie Brown.
*I just got an e-book version of The Art and Making of Peanuts Animation: Celebrating Fifty Years of Television Specials by Charles Solomon. it looks like it focuses on the art, but it does devote space to most of the specials. I say "most" because it does not have a blurb about It's an Adventure, Charlie Brown!
*This Is America, Charlie Brown is an 8-episode series that CBS broadcast in Fall 1988 to Spring 1989.
*The "What, Me Worry?" gag is in our video playlist this week (See below).
*The Environmental Protection Agency began in 1970.
*Please enjoy this episode's video playlist, with lots of promos, commercials, and more with the Peanuts gang! Click below to go right to it, or you can always visit our official YouTube page for all of our past episodes and similar lists for each one of them! Get happy!
*Thank you for listening to this week's episode, in which we discuss The Partridge Family!
*The Partridge Family aired 4 seasons on ABC from 1970-1974, running a total of 96 episodes. The Brady Bunch was on ABC 5 seasons, 1969-1974. Both series aired their final episodes in March 1974.
*Danny is drafted into the U.S. Army in the series' fourth episode, "See Here, Private Partridge."
*The Partridge Family Album (a book) by Joey Green was published in 1994. David Cassidy wrote two memoirs, but the one I refer to is 1994's C'mon Get Happy...Fear and Loathing on the Partridge Family Bus. Shirley Jones' Shirley Jones: A Memoir appeared in 2013.
*The Cowsills started performing in 1965. Mike mentions the 2011 documentary Family Band.
*Norman Farrell is played by Jean-Michel Michenaud, who earned an Emmy nomination for producing All in the Family 20th Anniversary Special.
*"Star Quality" premiered Friday, December 18, 1970 at 8:30 PM.
*Howard Cosell and Bert Convy guest in the Marineland episode, Season 2's "Whatever Happened to Moby Dick?"
*Partridge Family 2200 A.D. is a 1974 Saturday morning cartoon produced by Hanna Barbera. Somehow we don't mention it on the pod!
*Please enjoy this episode's video playlist, with promos, intros, commercials, and more! There's a lot of music in this one! Click below to go right to it, or you can always visit our official YouTube page for all of our past episodes and similar lists for each one of them! Get happy!
*Thank you for listening to this season's "retro retro" show! This week, we look at Alfred Hitchcock Presents, an anthology that aired mostly on CBS (also on NBC, though) for 7 seasons (1955-1962). Many consider the hourlong version, essentially the same show but twice as long, part of the same series, which would make the total 10 seasons (1955-1965) and 361 episodes.
*Season 4's 'Six People, No Music" is the John McGiver episode Mike mentions. The Claude Rains story I cite is Season 7's "The Door without a Key."
*The missing episodes we discuss are available on DVD but not in the streaming packages.
*The NBC revival premiered May 5, 1985, and then the network did pair it with Amazing Stories on Sunday nights in the Fall. It only lasted one season, but USA Network picked it up in 1987. The stories were new, but the intros/outros were colorized versions of the ones Hitchcock did on the original.
*"The Glass Eye" kicks off Season 3. "You Got to Have Luck" with John Cassavetes is in the middle of the series' first season. Mike also refers to Season 4's "Design for Loving" with Norman Lloyd.
*Never Again" is in Season 1. "Bang! You're Dead" aired in Season 7. "The Crooked Road" is early in Season 4. "Shopping for Death" in Season 1 is another Ray Bradbury story.
*Before meeting a grim end late in life, Robert Stevens directed scores of AHP episodes but also the Twilight Zone pilot and an episode of Amazing Stories.
*Please enjoy this episode's video playlist, with promos, intros, commercials, and more! Click below to go right to it, or you can always visit our official YouTube page for all of our past episodes and similar lists for each one of them!
*The book I refer to is Spinning the Globe: The Rise, Fall, and Return to Greatness of the Harlem Globetrotters by Ben green. I am intrigued by but have not read 2024's Globetrotter: How Abe Saperstein Shook Up the World of Sports by Mark and Matthew Jacob.
*The Harlem Magicians started in 1953 and featured Globetrotter Marques Haynes, who had left that team after issues with Saperstein.
*Meadowlark Lemon starred on several Globetrotter-like barnstorming squads, like the Shooting Stars.
*1970's The Harlem Globetrotters aired on CBS for 22 episodes and had multiple rerun stints.1979's Super Globetrotters was an NBC cartoon. The Popcorn Machine aired in 1974 on CBS.
*Rodney Allen Rippy starred in a series of Jack in the Box TV ads in 1973 and became a short-lived but substantial phenomenon.
*The Impossibles is a series of cartoons produced by Hanna Barbera for CBS in 1966. They were paired with Frankenstein Jr. on Saturday mornings.
*The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island premiered May 15, 1981 on NBC, followed by TV's Censored Bloopers.
*The Trotters' appearance on The Love Boat is from the show's seventh season, an episode titled "Aunt Emma, I Love You/Hoopla/The First Romance." It premiered January 21, 1984 on ABC.
*Gold Key produced some Globetrotter comic books in the Seventies, and Milton Bradley released a board game in 1971.
*Please enjoy our epic video playlist for this episode with promos, intros, commercials, and more! The list contains Six Decades of Magic, a documentary hosted by Louis Gossett Jr. about the team's history. There is footage of the team and full episodes. It's a larger list than usual, but we wanted to share with you (most of) what we looked at for the podcast. Click below to go right to it, or you can always visit our official YouTube page for all of our past episodes and similar lists for each one of them!
*Thank you for listening to your favorite friendly neighborhood podcast! We hope you enjoy this week's look at a series that is officially unavailable for some reason but is very available unofficially!
*Amazing Spider-Man aired on CBS 1977-1979 in a variety of time slots for a total of 13 episodes.
*We talk about Spider-Man and His Amazing Friendshere and Spider-Womanhere.
*29 episodes (short segments) of Spidey Super Stories aired on PBS' Electric Company from 1974-1977. A children-focused Marvel comic series of the same name ran from 1974 to 1982 for 57 issues.
*The 1982 Incredible Hulk cartoon remains unavailable for official viewing.
*The Challenge of the Super Friends is the third season of Super Friends, premiering in 1978. In it, the Legion of Doom, a collection of villains, challenges the heroes.
*The second-season theme song is credited to Dana Kaproff.
*The episode with Joanna Cameron is the two-parter "The Deadly Dust."
*Vince Howard was active from 1963 to 1993. He was a regular on Emergency!
*I wondered about the sporadic scheduling of this series, and tomorrow I'll post some more info on how CBS handled it!
*Please enjoy our video playlist for this episode with promos, intros, commercials, and more! Click below to go right to it, or you can always visit our official YouTube page for all of our past episodes and similar lists for each one of them!
*We hope you enjoy our look at the earlier days of Home Box Office! And by the way, I miss when it was referred to as Home Box Office! Happy 2026 as well!
*Books we reference in this episode: Tinderbox by James Andrew Miller and It's Not TV by Felix Gillette and John Kobin.
*HBO went live in 1972 (November 8; New York Rangers vs. Vancouver Canucks, NHL game) and is still going...for now. Showtime launched July 1, 1976.
*The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton/Hazelton TV market, where HBO launched, was ranked as the 59th biggest in the most recent Nielsen list.
*Foreman-Frazier I is indeed the "Down goes Frazier!" fight. Howard Cosell made that call when George knocked out Joe in the second round.
*Not Necessarily the News aired 1982-1990, debuting as a special before becoming a regular series.
*Vintage HBO program guides are available on ebay, but they seem quite expensive--at least, the asking prices are high!
*"Heart Attack" by Olivia Newton-John peaked at #3 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.
*Rollover (1981) is an Alan Pakula thriller that opened at number one but was considered a commercial and critical flop.
*Four Friends (1981) is directed by Arthur Penn and earned good reviews but didn't do well at the box office.
*Some Call Them...Freaks (1981) is remembered by many who saw it, but there isn't a lot of information about it. It's director Greg Stanton's sole IMDB credit and writer Frederick Drimmer's sole IMDB credit.
I did find this listing on the great HBO database site: HBO ran a sequel in 1982, P.T. Barnum & His Human Oddities, narrated again by Richard Kiley. Did the same team produce it? I don't know. It doesn't appear on IMDB. Here is the description from the original HBO program guide:
Special. In this sequel to “Some Call Them Freaks,” Richard Kiley hosts an account of the career of showman PT Barnum—and the wide assortment of human oddities he collected. Meet Anna Swan, the 7’5½” tall woman; the minuscule: 25” Tom Thumb; Madame Clofullia, the bearded lady, and Albert Sprague, the thinnest man.
*Click here for the 20th anniversary special that premiered on CBS.
*Please enjoy our video playlist for this episode with promos, clips, and I think just about everything we cover on the podcast! Click below to go right to it, or you can always visit our official YouTube page for all of our past episodes and similar lists for each one of them!
*Lili Palmer and Rex Harrison were married from 1943-1957. She is indeed in two episodes of The Love Boat! She's in an extended episode/two-parter from 1984, starring with Loretta Swit, Marc Singer, and Catherine Oxenberg.
*Barry Morse is not in The Love Boat, though an unasked-for AI prompt told me he was.
*Might as well play this out: Brian Keith was not on The Love Boat, but John Mills was in an episode with daughters Hayley and Juliet.
*Band on the Run came out in late 1973.
*Shout-out again to The McCartney Legacy, the multi-volume biography written by Allan Kozinn and Adrian Sinclair.
*The Zoo Gang novel by Paul Gallico appeared in bookstores in 1971.
*Speaking of that playlist, please enjoy our video playlist for this episode with promos, intros, commercials, and more! It also contains the full episode that we discuss on the podcast as well as a series of promos. Click below to go right to it, or you can always visit our official YouTube page for all of our past episodes and similar lists for each one of them!
*Thanks again to my cousin and Friend of the Show Kevin for suggesting this one!
*That's My Mama aired on ABC for two seasons and 37 episodes on Wednesday nights and is--as of this writing--available on Tubi (though not all episodes are there). It was on Crackle years ago and received DVD releases as well.
*You can see the Jet report on the Lynne Moody/Joan Pringle changeover right here.
*Jester Hairston was about 74 years old at this time.
*Lee Kolima plays Croaker.
*Teddy Wilson was not Earl in the show's first episode, though he did appear in it. Ed Bernard, who Mike notes became the principal on The White Shadow, played Earl at first.
*You can see a glimpse of Lisle Wilson in Sisters in this week's video playlist.
*Speaking of that playlist, please enjoy our video playlist for this episode with promos, intros, commercials, and more! Click below to go right to it, or you can always visit our official YouTube page for all of our past episodes and similar lists for each one of them!
*I can't find the other series mentioned in the above article: 1986's "Blue sky below my feet adventures in space technology" from 4-H and NASA.
*Leesburg is in Loudon County in Northern Virginia, about 40 miles from Washington D.C.
*Please enjoy our video playlist for this episode with nutritional PSAs, commercials, and more! We put all 6 Mulligan Stew episodes at the front of the list, so just skip through if you don't want to watch all of them. Click below to go right to the list, or you can always visit our official YouTube page for all of our past episodes and similar lists for each one of them!
*Kate and Allie aired 6 seasons, 1984-1989, Monday nights on CBS, for a total of 122 episodes. It was a top-20 show for its first 4 and a top-10 series in its short first season.
*If you want to check out our McMillan and Wife episode, go here. You will find our original-cast Saturday Night Live episode here.
*The Weekly Reader publication Laurie spotted is 1986's Cosby, Punky, Kate and Allie. Much to my amazement, it's a hardcover.
*"Rear Window" is in the series' second season.
*The episode with "lesbian panic/misunderstandings" we mention is Season 2's "Landlady."
*"Along Comes a Friend" by John Loeffler is the series' theme song.
*"Kate's Friend" premiered December 16, 1985 as the tenth episode of the series' third season.
*Season 3's "Too Late the Rebel" is the episode with Fran Brill and Ben Stiller.
*Walt Simonson's run on the Thor comic book lasted from 1983-1987, with him writing and drawing for most of it.
*The would-be pilot Mike mentions with Andrea Martin is "Stage Mother" in Season 4. Martin and the setting also appear in the next episode, "The Goodbye Girl." The Lindsay Wagner episode is "Late Bloomer," the finale of the third season.
*Kate becomes Joe Namath's assistant in Season 5's "The Namath of the Game."
*Season 5's "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" is when Allie is mistaken for a homeless person.
*"Reruns" in Season 4 has the tribute to I Love Lucy.
*"Gift of the Magi" is also in Season 4.
Please enjoy our video playlist for this episode with promos, intros, commercials, and more! It also contains the full special that we discuss on the podcast. Click below to go right to it, or you can always visit our official YouTube page for all of our past episodes and similar lists for each one of them!
*We hope you enjoy this subjective examination of the network lineups of the BOTNS era. We'd love to hear from you if we missed or misranked anything! We'd love even more if you told us we nailed it.
*Remember the factors I mention on the pod: pop culture relevance, critical appeal, collective memory, ratings and commercial success, flow, my own personal experience, longevity, and of course just what I felt like when compiling the list.
*Below, we list the rankings as we revealed them on the podcast. If you want to follow along and not have the list spoiled, please listen first, then come back here!
(Shows listed from 8:00 to 11:00, from start to finish)
10) CBS Monday Night 1979:
White Shadow, MASH, WKRP, Lou Grant.
Honorable mention: CBS Sunday Night (1979, 1980, 1981): 60 Minutes, Archie Bunker's Place, One Day at a Time, Alice, The Jeffersons, Trapper John M.D.
Honorable mention: ABC Tuesday Night (1977): Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, Three's Company, Soap, Family
7) CBS Thursday Night (1976, 1977, 1978, 1979): The Waltons, Hawaii Five-0, Barnaby Jones
6) ABC Saturday Night (1982, 1983):
T.J. Hooker, Love Boat, Fantasy Island
5) CBS Thursday Night (1982, 1983, 1984, 1985): Magnum P.I., Simon and Simon, Knots Landing
4) ABC Friday Night (1971, 1972): The Brady Bunch; The Partridge Family; Room 222; The Odd Couple; Love, American Style
3) CBS Friday Night (1979, 1980, 1981): The Incredible Hulk, The Dukes of Hazzard, Dallas
Honorable mention: CBS Friday Night (1982, 1983, 1984):
The Dukes of Hazzard, Dallas, Falcon Crest
2) NBC Thursday Night (1984, 1985, 1986): The Cosby Show, Family Ties, Cheers, Night Court, Hill Street Blues
Honorable mention: NBC Thursday Night (1988, 1989):
The Cosby Show, A Different World, Cheers, Dear John, L.A. Law
1) CBS Saturday Night (1973):
All in the Family, MASH, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show, The Carol Burnett Show
Honorable mention: CBS Saturday Night (1972): All in the Family, Bridget Loves Bernie, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show, Mission Impossible
Bonus selections (Some lineups of interest that didn't make the list):
The worst lineup? NBC Friday Night (1983):
Mr. Smith, Jennifer Slept Here, Manimal, For Love and Honor
Click here for our episode talking about NBC's disastrous 1983-84 season!
More honorable mentions:
ABC Monday Night (1980, 1981, 1982, 1983): That's Incredible, Monday Night Football
CBS Sunday Night (1986-1994): 60 Minutes; Murder, She Wrote; CBS Sunday Night Movie
In case people wonder about the ABC TGIF phenomenon:
ABC Friday Night (1989):
Full House, Family Matters, Perfect Strangers, Just the Ten of Us, 20/20
ABC Friday Night (1988):
Perfect Strangers, Full House, Mr. Belvedere, Just the Ten of Us, 20/20
CBS Monday Night (1987): Frank's Place, Kate and Allie, Newhart, Designing Women, Cagney and Lacey
NBC Wednesday Night (1980):
Real People, Diff'rent Strokes, Facts of Life, Quincy
ABC Tuesday Night (1987):
Who's the Boss, Growing Pains, Moonlighting, Thirtysomething
ABC Tuesday Night (1988): Who's the Boss, Roseanne, Moonlighting, Thirtysomething
NBC Friday Night (1974): Sanford and Son, Chico and the Man, Rockford Files, Police Woman
ABC Wednesday Night 1976: Bionic Woman, Baretta, Charlie's Angels
CBS Monday Night 1974:
Gunsmoke, Maude, Rhoda, Medical Center
CBS Wednesday Night (1973):
Sonny and Cher, Cannon, Kojak
NBC Thursday Night (1972):
Flip Wilson Show, Ironside (sometimes Bob Hope), The Dean Martin Show
Please enjoy our video playlist for this episode with promos touting most of the top 10 lineups! We even kick it off with a tribute to...flow? Click below to go right to it, or you can always visit our official YouTube page for all of our past episodes and similar lists for each one of them!
*We hope you find this episode full of WONDER and magic!
*Doug Henning (1947-2000) was a fixture on network television in the BOTNS era, appearing in NBC specials from 1975 to 1982 in addition to countless other shows and specials.
*Henning was indeed featured in Dynamite magazine. Also, I found this image from Retrontario of a similar mag:
*Henning's Muppet Show episode is 1980's Season 4, Episode 21.
*We talk about Night of 100 Stars here, and in the broadcast, Henning does an illusion with Ricky Schroeder, Maureen Stapleton, Florence Henderson, and Priscilla Lopez.
*The former Little Miss World is Cherish Alexander, who appeared in the 1982 Henning special.
*This World of Magic special premiered on NBC Thursday, December 23, 1976.
*Gibbsville lasted a mere 6 episodes on NBC.
*I have yet to find TV ratings info for this Doug Henning special. Everyone loooooooves to cite the reported 50 million for the 1975 special, but no one wants to talk about the numbers for this one!
*Of course CBS went another direction than what we wish would have happened with Henning and Marvel, and it aired its own Dr. Strange movie with Peter Hooten.
*There is a circus episode of Little House on the Prairie that features an elephant: "Annabelle" in Season 6.
Please enjoy our video playlist for this episode with promos, intros, commercials, and more! It also contains the full special that we discuss on the podcast. Click below to go right to it, or you can always visit our official YouTube page for all of our past episodes and similar lists for each one of them!
*The Girl, The Gold Watch, and Everything premiered in many if not most markets June 13, 1980. On the podcast, you can hear what else aired that night.
*The credited writers on the theme song, "Two Hearts in Perfect Time," are Ayn Robbins and Hod David Schudson.
*John Moschitta Jr. may have talked "at regular speed" in some gigs, but I haven't seen them! Peter Kevoian, who is the actor we think resembles him in this movie, went on to appear as a fireman in two episodes of Cheers.
*The San Diego Padres finished in last place in the National League West in 1980, 19.5 gamed behind the Houston Astros.
*One of the goons is played by Peter Brown, who had a long acting career highlighted by regular roles in westerns Laredo and Lawman.
*I think we convey our attitude about the movie without much ambiguity!
*The Girl, The Gold Watch, and Dynamite premiered in 1981 and starred Lee Purcell (ss Bonnie), Morgan Fairchild, and Philip MacHale (as Kirby).
*John D. MacDonald's original novel is readily available and as of this writing is available in a cheap ebook format!
*Please enjoy our video playlist for this episode with promos, intros, commercials, and more! ---Click below to go right to it, or you can always visit our official YouTube page for all of our past episodes and similar lists for each one of them!
*Welcome back to Battle of the Network Shows! We are excited to bring you a packed 13th season!
*The Bob Newhart Show was on CBS for 6 seasons, 1972-1978, and aired 142 episodes--all on Saturday nights, most at 9:30. It won zero Emmys and only 4 nominations.
*Perhaps the show Mike is thinking of as a Saturday night non-sitcom is Mission Impossible, which aired on Saturdays for a while, including for 1 1/2 seasons in the early 1970s.
*The 1961 Bob Newhart Show from 1961 ran one season on NBC; the variety show isn't easy to see, but you can get a glimpse of it in this week's video playlist.
*The books we reference are I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This! by Bob Newhart and Hi, Bob! by Joey Green.
*The complete series DVD set is still available from Shout!
*Ages at the time of this episode: Bob is 43, Suzanne is 35.
"Don't Go to Bed Mad" (Season 1, Episode 8) has Emily upset over Bob's Monday Night Football habits. "Motel" (Season 2, Episode 2) shows Bob and Jerry going to a motel so they can watch a big game. There's another early episode where Bob wants to watch a big basketball game but has to do it in the bedroom because Emily has scheduled a PTA meeting at the apartment (Season 1, Episode 21, "Emily, I'm Home...Emily?")
*Peter Bonerz was in The Premise in New York and later in San-Francisco-based The Committee.
*Season 3's "The Battle of the Groups" is when two of Bob's groups go on a retreat together.
*"Mister Emily Hartley" is the eighth episode of Season 2, and it premiered November 3, 1973. Check out the podcast for details on what other shows aired that night, and catch some clips in our video playlist.
*Ben Gazzara starred in Run For Your Life, which I mention because it was one of my favorite TV show openings ever (See it in the playlist) and Arrest and Trial, a show that preceded Law and Order by decades!
*Writer Charlotte Brown is not to be confused with short-lived Peanuts character Charlotte Braun. Brown produced Rhoda, which we talked about last season!
*Regarding Bob's comment about Emily knowing Nixon's home prices: In 1973, Richard Nixon was asked how he could afford his $1.5 million San Clemente estate. This became a thing, with some explorations into the possibility that he used money from his 1968 campaign to buy the place and questions about the role of longtime associate Bebe Rebozo. Nixon's folks at different times gave different numbers for the total costs of the house and the down payments
*"Roller Disco," the CHiPs episode where Bill Daily manages Leif Garrett's rocker, was our topic in this episode of the podcast from back in our first season!
Please enjoy our video playlist for this episode with promos, intros, commercials, and more! Click below to go right to it, or you can always visit our official YouTube page for all of our past episodes and similar lists for each one of them!
*We have reached the end of our "regular" season 12, and we thank you for joining us, but be on the lookout for the tradition unlike any other: The Battys, coming soon!
*Sesame Street is still running after premiering in 1969 and has amassed close to 5,000 episodes and many videos, toys, books, and just about everything else!
*Speaking of that, here is a shot of the various Sesame items we had with us as we recorded the episode:
*Snuffleupagus premiered 1971, and the producers let everyone else (not just Big Bird) see him in 1985, reportedly after concerns that kids would fear adults would not believe them in scary real-life situations.
*Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street is available for streaming at multiple outlets, and it is based on the book Street Gang by Michael Davis.
*Jon Stone worked on Captain Kangaroo and Kukla, Fran, and Ollie before becoming a key figure in the creation and development of Sesame Street.
*The doc Mike mentions is Jim HensonIdea Man on Disney Plus. I Am Big Bird: The Carroll Spinney Story (2014) is on Peacock as of this writing.
*Will Lee died in 1982, and the character he played, Mr. Hooper, left the show in 1983.
*Gordon was played by Hal Miller between stints by Matt Robinson and Roscoe Orman.
*Decades of Decision is a 1976 PBS miniseries produced with National Geographic.
*Carroscelendas was produced by PBS' Austin, TX, station and made original episodes from 1970 to 1978. It was a children's program aimed at kids who spoke Spanish and English.
*Season 7, episode 900 (total) of Sesame Street, "Sing-Along in Ernie and Bert's Bathroom," premiered April 23, 1976 according to our best info.
*We have one song in the playlist this week from the original album that inspired this episode, but you may have to get MAX to see the entire episode.
*The commercial of kids' favorites Mike mentions--an album called, not surprisingly, Children's Favorites, is in our video playlist this week!
*Joe Raposo's "Funky Chimes" (unofficial title) played under the end credits from 1979 to 1992. There's an unofficial version of this in the playlist this week, too--a recreation of sorts, but one we think you'll enjoy.
*And finally, please enjoy that aforementioned playlist for this episode, including classic Sesame segments, commercials, music, and much more! We could have compiled an hours-long list for this one but tried to keep it to a reasonable length:
*And remember, you can always check out our official YouTube page for all of our past podcasts and episode-specific playlists for each one!
*The books we reference are Jonathan Martin's Quinn Martin, Producer and James Rosin's The Streets of San Francisco: A Quinn Martin TV Series. Carolyn Weston's 1972 Poor, Poor Ophelia is the novel that served as source material for the series.
*Skag aired on NBC from January to February 1980 and failed despite being from the producer of Kojak. You can see a promo in this week's video playlist below.
*The NBC reunion movie aired Monday, January 27, 1992 and was produced by Aaron Spelling's company. Richard Hatch, who replaces Michel Douglas in the series' fifth season, is not in Back to the Streets of San Francisco, which drew good ratings.
*TSOTF was on ABC 5 seasons and 121 episodes.
*"The Takers" premiered December 2, 1972, on ABC at 10:00 P.M.
*This clip of B.A.D. Cats is in our playlist, and the full episode does feature Michael Lerner, but the clip does not. After you watch this, I believe you will forgive us for including it anyway:
*Vic Tayback appears in 3 episodes as Sergeant Norm Haseejian.
*The Coit Tower is an official landmark in San Francisco. It was built in the early Thirties in the Telegraph Hill section of the city.
*We strive to be givers, not "takers," and we hope we are succeeding this season!
*Patrick Williams composed the series' theme song.
*The John Davidson episode we mention is "The Mask of Death" from the third season.
*And finally, enjoy our official video playlist for this episode! It's loaded with promos, commercials, and all sorts of TV history! You'll even get glimpses of SF sports in 1972: The Giants, the Niners...and Roller Derby?
*And remember, you can always check out our official YouTube page for all of our past podcasts and episode-specific playlists for each one!
*This week we go international again with a look at the cult favorite BBC TV show!
*Blake's 7 aired 1979-1981 on BBC, 4 series, 52 total episodes.
*This episode contains spoilers for the programme, so be forewarned. The series has much more continuity than we might have expected!
*The books we discuss on the podcast are: -Blake's 7: An Oral History of the Classic UK Series by Joe Nazarro -Liberation by Alan Stevens and Fiona Moore
*Chris Boucher is apparently pronounced Chris BOW-CHER. We got "Chris" right, though!
*The cop show Blake's replaced on BBC (and inherited a budget from) was Softly, Softly: Task Force, which was spun off from Softly, Softly; which was spun off from Z-Cars (1962-1978).
*The episode we discuss, "Pressure Point," premiered February 6, 1979, the fifth episode of Series B. BBC Two aired Life on Earth with David Attenborough. On BBC One, it followed The Variety Club Awards and was followed by news and boxing.
*The director of this episode is George Spenton-Foster, who also directed 3 other episodes this season and did a few episodes of Doctor Who.
*The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art was where Paul Darrow, Ian McShane, and John Hurt shared a flat.
*Space Commander Travis is played by Stephen Greif and Brian Croucher (beginning with this second season). Greif had tired of the role somewhat and went on to other things, leading to Croucher stepping in and providing a different take on the character.
*Finally, check out our video playlist devoted to this episode, chock full of promos, adverts, clips, and more!
*And remember, you can always check out our official YouTube page for all of our past podcasts and episode-specific playlists for each one!
*In this week's List-o-rama, we do a countdown format, so as usual, if you want to follow along and be surprised, please look at these show notes after you listen to the podcast!
*Perhaps neglected would be a better word than forgotten, but I tried to select programs that had at least 100 episodes and some degree of commercial success yet have not been widely available in recent years.
*One program on my list, Riptide, has been picked up by Roku Channel since we recorded the episode!
*Rich Man, Poor Man (1976) and QBVII (1974) both aired on ABC.
*Hotel (1983-1988, ABC) is an Aaron Spelling series based on a 1965 Arthur Hailey novel.
*Kate and Allie (1984-1989) aired mostly Monday nights on CBS. The cast featured Jane Curtin (who won several Emmys), Susan Saint James, Allison Smith, Ari Meyers, and Frederick Koehler.
*The Hogan Family (1986-1991, NBC/CBS) was discussed a bit in our Rhoda episode earlier this season. Legal battles with star Valerie Harper meant the series went from Valerie to Valerie's Family: The Hogans to The Hogan Family.
*Jake and the Fatman (1987-1992, CBS) starred William Conrad and Joe Penny as a D.A. and investigator who operated in L.A. and Hawaii during the series' run.
*Matt Houston (1982-1985, ABC) is another Aaron Spelling program.
*That's Incredible (1980-1984, ABC) often preceded Monday Night Football.
*Enjoy our Real People (1979-1984, NBC) episode here.
*Simon and Simon (1981-1989, CBS) co-starred Mary Carver as the Simons' mother.
*Riptide (1984-1986) has received several DVD releases outside the US and was on Get TV in recent years.
*Knots Landing (1979-1993, CBS) is indeed on Plex as of this writing. Falcon Crest (1981-1990, CBS)has been available in various forms and right now is also on Plex.
*Empty Nest (1988-1995, NBC) was a popular Saturday night series for years.
*Mr. Belvedere (1985-1990, ABC) is one of the few big network shows set in Pittsburgh.
*Finally, enjoy our video playlist for this episode, loaded with promos and intros of the series we mention in this episode, plus...Pernell Whitaker (It makes sense, sort of, if you listen to the podcast).
*And remember, you can always check out our official YouTube page for all of our past podcasts and episode-specific playlists for each one!
*Welcome to our annual "retro retro" episode, in which we go outside our usual timeline to focus on a "silver age" show, in this case Gilligan's Island (CBS, 1964-1966)!
*This series is complete on DVD and free to stream on Tubi as of this writing. It would look great on Blu-Ray.
*The series had 98 first-run episodes.
*The Great Society is the name given to President Lyndon B. Johnson's domestic programs launched beginning in 1964.
*The New Adventures of Gilligan aired Saturday mornings on ABC from 1974 to 1977. Gilligan's Planet aired one season (1982-1983) on CBS.
*The books I mention are Bob Denver's Gilligan, Maynard, and Me and Here on Gilligan's Isle by Russell Johnson with Steve Cox.
*Season 2's "The Little Dictator" with Nehemiah Persoff is reportedly Sherwood Schwartz's favorite episode. He recorded an amiable commentary for that one for the DVD set, and his affection for the whole series is evident.
*It's About Time aired this same season, 1966-67, on CBS. It stars Joe E. Ross and Imogene Coca.
*"Don't Bug the Mosquitoes" from Season 2 is the episode with The Honeybees singing "You Need Us" and The Wellingtons as the visiting rock band.
*Of the 3 TV movies, the first is the one in the public domain, but the others are owned by Universal: 1978's Rescue from Gilligan's Island, 1979's The Castaways on Gilligan's Island, and 1981's The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island.
*'Will the Real Mr. Howell Please Stand Up?" premiered at 8:00 PM Eastern March 17, 1966 on CBS. I mention the other shows on that night on the podcast! Mona McCluskey and The Double Life of Henry Phyfe are both one-season wonders.
*The amnesia episode Mike references is "The Second Ginger Grant" from Season 3. "The Producer," also from the third season, features Phil Silvers as Harold Hecuba and the musical Hamlet. That installment is #52 on TV Guide's original list of 100 greatest episodes (1997). "The Hunter" from S3 is the Rory Calhoun episode.
*Finally, enjoy our video playlist for this episode, featuring theme songs, commercials, promos, and more!
*And remember, you can always check out our official YouTube page for all of our past podcasts and episode-specific playlists for each one!
*Is it me or is there a Mandela Effect going on here. I might have thought this show was TV's Practical Jokes and Bloopers?
*Kermit Schaefer, Mr. Blooper, is credit with pioneering the practice of collecting media bloopers. He released several albums in the Sixties along with books like the one I mention. His 1974 movie Pardon My Blooper was a compilation of bloopers. 75 minutes of them!
*Johnny Carson's practical jokes special is "Johnny Carson's Greatest Practical Jokes," which aired on NBC in 1983.
*Later versions of the show aired on ABC from 1998 to 2007 and in syndication for a brief spell starting in 2012.
*ABC's knock-off, Foul-Ups, Bleeps, and Blunders aired midseason 1984, then was on the Fall schedule, but soon became just a series of specials before fizzling after a short run.
*1984 miniseries Celebrity is a 3-part NBC miniseries based on a 1983 novel. Stars include Michael Beck and James Whitmore. It won an Emmy for cinematography.
*The episode we discuss premiered February 13, 1984 on NBC.
*1984's Angel from New World Pictures was a hit relative to cost and spawned several sequels.
*Finally, check out our video playlist for this episode, which includes (as of this writing) the full episode upload we watch and discuss for the podcast, plus promos, a few bloopers, and Dr. Joyce Brothers on Make Me Laugh!
*And remember, you can always check out our official YouTube page for all of our past podcasts and episode-specific playlists for each one!
