This Day in TV History: A very early previewing of ABC's 1976 Fall season

An interesting article appeared in The New York Times 50 years ago today. The focus is on ABC and its announcement of mass cancellations plus new additions for the upcoming Fall TV season. Here's a gift link:

https://www.nytimes.com/1976/04/01/archives/marcus-welby-canceled-with-8-other-abc-shows.html?unlocked_article_code=1.XVA.PWKt.o2mt7rWycaH3&smid=url-share

If you aren't interested in reding the whole piece, it leads by mentioning Marcus Welby was once the top-rated program on TV. Other shows getting the axe: Harry O, Swiss Family Robinson, On the Rocks, Good Heavens, Bert D'Angelo/Superstar, Almost Anything Goes, SWAT, and The Rookies. Most of those were not surprises, though the latter two were Aaron Spelling shows that lasted two and four seasons respectively.

The story notes that ABC, a perpetual ratings also-ran, had made inroads in the then-current season, overcoming NBC for second and sometimes winning the week over CBS. ABC announced 9 new shows coming to the network:

The Nancy Walker Show, The Tony Randall Show (not yet titled), variety shows starring Bill Cosby and Captain & Tennille, detective show Most Wanted with Robert Stack, Holmes and Yo-Yo, Mr. T and Tina, and Feather and Father (later The Feather and Father Gang).

OK, that's only 8 series. Didn't they say there were 9 new series?

Almost as an afterthought, the piece ends with this: Charlie's Angels, a series about 3 attractive women detectives, is scheduled Wednesdays at 8.

It's interesting to see this knowing what would end up happening. Most of those new ABC shows were flops--some notorious ones--but of course Charlie's Angels became a top-5 sensation. Overall, ABC rose to number one as Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley became the most-viewed shows on TV, while The Six Million Dollar Man, the ABC Sunday Night Movie, Three's Company, and The Bionic Woman also finished in the top 10.

The only non-ABC series up there were MASH and One Day at a Time from CBS and NBC's The Big Event (really a collection of movies and specials). CBS' big lineup showed some age--for example, an ill-fated move of All in the Family to Wednesdays, where ABC's Baretta was a hit, exposed a vulnerability before the sitcom went back to Saturday.

So the pieces were in place for ABC, but not many of them were mentioned in this article!

This Day in TV History: Cheers and Hill Street Blues win at the 1984 Emmys

40 years ago tonight, the big winners at the Emmys were Cheers and Hill Street Blues.

It's no surprise, in retrospect, those shows won the big Comedy and Drama prizes, but I do find the other nominees in that Comedy category interesting:

Buffalo Bill
Family Ties
Kate and Allie
Newhart

This Day in TV History: Marjoe's BLISTERING performance on Medical Center would earn him a Batty

50 years ago tonight, CBS went up against the season premiere of Monday Night Football and TV movie What's the Matter with Helen? (NBC) at 10:00 with a new episode of Medical Center called "Demi-God."

This episode is the one we talk about on our 2017 episode from Season 3 in which we look at Medical Center. Guest star Marjoe Gortner plays a faith healer in "Demi-God," and his performance would get him a Genius Award in our Season 3 Battys!

Helen is a 1971 horror movie with Debbie Reynolds and Shelley Winters. Here's a look at the trailer:

This Day in TV History: The King of Comedy becomes the King of Late Night?

Well, that's what the ad campaign said when Metromedia stations gave The Jerry Lewis Show a weeklong test run in the timeslot occupied by Thick of the Night. 40 years ago tonight, Lewis kicked off the week with guests Frank Sinatra and Suzanne Somers in the debut of his new talk show.

By all accounts, Lewis did not supplant Johnny Carson to become the King of Late Night. In fact, he didn't even supplant Alan Thicke. You can judge for yourself how the show went by watching the above clip.

This Day in TV History: June 6, 1984: A great NBA game doesn't do so well

We hear each day about the value of live sports on broadcast TV and how sporting events are one of the only reliable audience draws left for the networks. The NBA is poised to announce a huge media rights deal which is based in large part on getting increased exposure on over-the-air TV.

Yet 40 years ago, June 6, 1984, an attractive NBA Finals match-up pitted the Lakers against the Celtics, Magic against Bird, Kareem against Parish, etc. in Game 4. The game started at 9PM EST and went into overtime, with Boston winning at The Forum to head back home with the series tied rather than being down 3-1. it featured memorable moments like some notable blunders by Magic Johnson and a hard foul by Kevin McHale that floored Kurt Rambis and nearly led to a riot.

Sounds like a ratings winner, with superstars and high-profile teams in a dramatic and hard-fought battle. According to TV Tango, which sometimes posts ratings numbers with its historical listings, the game finished third for the timeslot!

The winner was the execrable 1978 movie Moment by Moment, an ill-advised pairing of John Travolta and Lily Tomlin that somehow was the highest-rated program this Wednesday night. ABC showed it at 9:00 after a Fall Guy repeat.

NBC also beat the NBA game with a Facts of Life rerun and a new Duck Factory before ratings dipped a bit for a St. Elsewhere rerun. A D-Day anniversary special began the night.

In this pre-cable (mostly) and pre-streaming world, the country was more captivated by a Facts of Life rerun than the start of an NBA Finals game between Los Angeles and Boston.

CBS had an acclaimed nature documentary, Lions of Etosha, leading into the game. Today, of course, you would have a pregame special or at least something a little more compatible. In 1984, CBS didn't bother building its whole night around the NBA game, and while 40 years later we can see that it was a key series for the popularity of the league and this was the key game, it wasn't a blockbuster.

This Day in TV History: St. Elsewhere premieres on NBC

40 years ago tonight, October 26. 1982, NBC ended its primetime evening with the debut of medical show St. Elsewhere.

We talked about the series in depth on the podcast. It never was a big ratings getter, rising from terrible to middle-of-the-pack ratings, but it was a big critical success, earning 13 Emmys, placing on multiple lists of the best TV shows of all time, and even getting a Genius Award for Ed Flanders as Dr. Westphall (It had the misfortune of being in our sixth season along with Batty buzzsaw Cheers).

That pic above is from TV Guide's 1982 Fall Preview issue, which also highlights the series in its Editor's Choice column:

We saw only a 10-minute sample of scenes from NBC's St. Elsewhere, but that and five excellent scripts were enough to raise hopes that this series may do for hospital drama what Hill Street Blues does for the inner-city police precinct--which is to offer a richly drawn entertainment that's about as good as television gets. 

Note that the mag made that Hill Street comparison in the close-up page, too.

The promo below includes another series that debuted on this night but did not stick around: Robert Urich's Gavilan.

This Day in TV History: For Lovers Only premieres on October 15, 1982

Now, here's a TV movie I gotta see (description from TCM.com's database): 

Loving newlyweds in search of the perfect honeymoon are always welcome at Bliss' Cove Haven, a sensuous resort dedicated to the fulfillment of romantic fantasies.

It's not that I am interested in 1982 ABC's vision of sensual fantasy, but check out this cast. Given the cast and the subject matter, I am both repelled by and drawn to this movie:

Andy Griffith, Gary Sandy (not Patrick Simmons; I checked), Gordon Jump, Katherine Helmond, Sally Kellerman, Deborah Raffin, Robert Hegyes! Here's a photo from IMDB:

Check out a promo for a rebroadcast in 1986. You KNOW that stuff was still strong 4 years later! You even see Wayne Knight. How dare they not name Gary Sandy, though?

This Day in TV History: Remington Steele premieres on NBC

40 years ago tonight, NBC ended its Friday with the premiere of a new light detective comedy, Remington Steele.

This is a show that hasn't really come up on the podcast yet, and now that I think about it, it's mostly missing in action nowadays. Despite lasting 5 seasons (4 of them, really, plus a fifth of movies) and 90-some episodes, it hasn't resurfaced much lately. The series came out on DVD long ago but is now out of print. Me-TV has shown it sporadically. 

To my knowledge, it has never been on an official streaming service, and it looks like it missed its window to be added with other 20th Century Fox shows on Hulu. if Hulu were still in the business of adding such shows instead of dropping them (like The Fall Guy), this would be a great candidate. Maybe Tubi could resurrect it someday.

This Day in TV History: Cheers premieres

What a great night of TV it was 40 years ago tonight! I am not talking about the series premiere of Star of the Family nor the second-season premiere of Joanie Loves Chachi. On September 30, 1982, NBC aired the first episode of one of our favorite television shows around here: Cheers!

We talked a lot about the show here and in many other spots on the podcast and here on the website. At some point we will discuss the classic sitcom's "later years," but today let's celebrate the beginning. 

This Day in TV History: A new beginning for Little House

40 years ago tonight, NBC took Little House in a new direction--nay, a new beginning, if you will.

Michael Lando stepped aside from his on-screen role for this ninth season, and the show became a Laura/Almonzo series. It didn't sustain the Little House ratings, and the show would end with a series of movies bringing back the rest of the family.

Here's a note from the 1982 TV Guide Fall Preview about the changes:

This Day in TV History: New beginnings that CBS hopes remind you of the past--September 24, 1982

40 years ago tonight, CBS had an interesting Friday night lineup. Leading it off at 8:00, The Dukes of Hazzard kicked off its fifth season with an episode called "The New Dukes." That's right, it was the debut of Coy and Vance, the Duke cousins!

The series was a huge hit for CBS in that time period, but the cousins, subbing for Bo and Luke after Tom Wopat and John Schneider had a protracted contract dispute with Warner Brothers, put a stop to that! The "real" Dukes returned late in the season and stuck around for the show's final (much-lower-rated) two seasons.

After the Dukes, CBS premiered Bring 'Em Back Alive, a period adventure show with Bruce Boxleitner. Everyone seems to remember Tales from the Gold Monkey, which had similar influences in the wake of Raiders of the Lost Ark's success, but this one is more obscure. 

This Day in TV History: Family Ties premieres on NBC

40 years ago tonight, NBC premiered the new sitcom Family Ties. It seems odd now that it aired at 9:30 in between an extended Real People and a rerun of Quincy. For one thing, it's hard to think of it as other than an 8:00 or 8:30 program, and for another, we associate it more with the comeback years of NBC than this Real People period.

The show went on to be a big part of NBC's rise in the Eighties, though it can be argued it rode the coattails of a certain other family sitcom (O-be-kay-be!) that debuted a little later. Still, Ties lasted 7 seasons and over 175 episodes, launching Michael J. Fox into stardom and becoming an essential part of 1980s pop culture. 

We talked about Family Ties back in our first season!

This Day in TV History: 50 years ago, a new comedy premieres on CBS!

Ok, yes, MASH debuted on CBS on September 17, 1972, but lots of people are talking about that show this week (And we talked about it here). How about some love for the other new program on CBS that Sunday evening 50 years ago: Anna and the King?

Based on the book/movie/Broadway musical, this incarnation of the story actually gets Yul Brynner in the title role. The King, that is. Samantha Eggar is Anna.

There are a few MASH connections pointed out by Harry and Wally's Favorite TV Shows: The two sitcoms share producer Gene Reynolds, and Brynner's daughter Serena is played here by Rosalind Chao, who later played Soon-Lee Klinger on the classic Korean War sitcom and its unclassic spinoff AfterMASH. By the way, harry and Wally say, "Compared to the hit movie, this TV version is pretty lame." It was gone after 13 episodes.

Here is what the 1972 Fall Preview of TV Guide says about the show:

This Day in TV History: 3 short-lived NBC series premiere September 15, 1972

There are a lot of big-ticket shows that premiered in Fall 1972, and we may celebrate them, too, but today let's honor a few that didn't quite make it after debuting Friday, September 15, 1972.

At 8:30 on NBC, Brian Keith's The Little People first appeared. Keith stars as a pediatrician in Hawaii.

At 9:00, the same network unveiled its horror anthology Ghost Story, hosted by Sebastian Cabot. Jason Robards, Stella Stevens, and Jack Kelly are among the guest stars in episode 1.

NBC closes the night with yet another new show, Robert Forster as 1930s P.I. Banyon. I have mentioned before how much I'd like to check this one out.

Here's a promo for the latter two series:

Final tally: Banyon 13 episodes plus the pilot movie, The Little People  46 episodes after becoming The Brian Keith Show in its second season, Ghost Story 22 episodes, 9 after losing Cabot and changing the name to the broader Circle of Fear.

This Day in TV History: A Special night of television on September 10, 1972!

Talk about something for everyone! All kinds of programming aired on the broadcast networks on Sunday, September 10, 1972. 

A somber 1972 Summer Olympics got coverage on ABC the night before the Closing Ceremonies, and it was followed by Zenith Presents: A Salute to Television's 25th Anniversary. This sounds like my kind of program. Stars like Hope, Ball, and Lanson appear alongside clips from "some 400 shows," according to Vincent Terrace's Television Specials.

(Lanson is Snooky Lanson from Your Hit Parade.)

CBS had a preseason NFL battle between the Minnesota Vikings and the Miami Dolphins, the loser of the previous Super Bowl. September 10 seems late for a preseason game. Miami went on to have an undefeated season and spend decades being insufferable about it. The Dolphins and Vikes played "for real" several weeks later:

After the game, it's the final installment of The Life of Leonardo Da Vinci. I'm sure that's just the thing the football crowd wanted to see after several hours of beer and ball!

NBC led off the evening with a Davy Crockett adventure rerun as part of The Wonderful World of Disney before presenting the debut of Ozzie's Girls:

This series gave us the Nelsons again, but this time they took in boarders after David and Rick were all growed up. I mean, the original Ozzie and Harriet show only ran 400-some episodes, so you gotta bring them back, right? Because it's 1972, this show is socially relevant.

This pilot aired on NBC as a special, but the show itself went into first-run syndication the following season and lasted a year.

At 9:00, the Peacock Network premiered Liza with a Z, an original concert special produced for television in the wake of the success of Cabaret.

Sports, music, comedy, adventure, history...all on September 10, 1972!

This Day in TV History: 50 years ago tonight (Friday, August 25) in TV Guide

We just finished the RNC coverage, and now it's time for Olympic coverage! ABC gears up with a two-hour preview special tonight looking at the ill-fated 1972 Munich Summer Olympics. Let's look at what else is scheduled to run in prime time on Friday, August 25, 1972, thanks to a Los Angeles metropolitan edition of TV Guide.

CBS' night is built around a live preseason football game beginning at 6:00 local time. Here's a closer look:

At 8:00, ABC has that Olympic special, described in this closeup below:

NBC follows Partners with Don Adams with a news special, and that gets its own close-up as well:

At 9:00, CBS goes with the O'Hara, U.S. Treasury repeat. On the East Coast, this led into the coverage of the Redskins/Lions game. At 10:00, it's a locally produced special to fill the gap in network coverage:

The final show on the 3 networks is a welfare special airing on the NBC channel.

This Day in TV History: 50 years ago tonight (Thursday, August 24) in TV Guide

With the RNC coverage behind us, it's back to entertainment programming in prime time tonight. At least, that's the goal! Let's see what's scheduled in the Los Angeles area for the night of Thursday, August 24, 1972 according to TV Guide. The region is back in sync with the majority of the country now without the live event programming.

I'm already interested in the 8:00 offerings: a rerun of My World and Welcome to It, a 1965 rerun with Lee Marvin (and hosted by BOTNS star Ed McMahon!), and Kid Power.

The latter is a Rankin-Bass animated series, one that Wesley Hyatt calls "well meaning" in his Encyclopedia of Daytime Television. It aired Saturdays on ABC at 11:30 for one season, then in reruns on Sundays for another season. Allan Melvin is in the voice cast.

You certainly can't accuse that opening of being unclear about the premise of the series!

At 8:30, it's the end of an era with the final broadcast of My Three Sons of its 12-season run on network TV (ABC and then CBS). On ABC, are you ready to ROCK with Three Dog Night? For, uh, 30 minutes? Why bother with footage of the band applying makeup, of all things, when you only have 25 minutes without ads? There must be, what, 5 or 6 songs tops on this "concert special."

A new Julie Andrews special stands out at 9:00. CBS' movie of the night is Apache Uprising with Rory Calhoun.

Later, it's Ironside and Owen Marshall and Bobby Darin--something for everyone? The Guide sure seems high on that Owen Marshall:

This Day in TV History: 50 years ago tonight (Wednesday, August 23) in TV Guide

50 years ago today, the primetime scene was even more barren (outside of ongoing Republican National Convention coverage) than the previous couple nights. Of the major networks, only ABC offered anything else nationally--the short-lived comedy combo of The Super and The Corner Bar at 8:00.

Of course, we have a Los Angeles edition of the Guide, and the live coverage ended "early" out there, so let's see what this metro area got Wednesday, August 23, 1972:

In addition to the finale of The Super (not quite esteemed on the level of the final MASH) and the NBC channel getting that Mike Douglas Show in again (Mike Douglas = the most powerful man in television in 1972, and don't dare totally pre-empt his show), we see the return of the Telefun and Hitch ads. Channel 11 sure is proud of its two whole weeks of AHP!

Another series finale here with The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine. Note that the film shorts collection on 28 is what Judith Crist calls "the one goody" of the week in her movies column this week. She says the shorts here are "brilliant and wisely selected." Well, yeah, Judith, but Barney Martin's on Corner Bar!

NBC brings Primus and a Louis Armstrong special. None of this aired tonight in the other time time zones.

American Lifestyle interests me. The half-hour syndicated show lasted for one season and 24 episodes according to IMDB and featured E.G. Marshall visiting and discussing homes of famous Americans. I wouldn't mind seeing some of those episodes!

To get a little video in this post, here's a clip of Tommy Prothro, former head coach at UCLA and, at this time when he has his own show on channel 5, coach of the L.A. Rams. At least, here's his team and playcalling in action on Monday Night Football:

This Day in TV History: 50 years ago tonight (Tuesday, August 22) in TV Guide

Continuing our look at 50 years ago this week, we go to Tuesday, August 22, 1972. RNC coverage still dominates the networks, but there is a little bit more programming than last night even on the East Coast. We are examining a Los Angeles edition, so here we go to the West, where the live coverage is just about done by prime time:

At 7:30-8:00, networks are wrapping up political news coverage, but check out this Mod Squad repeat on ABC! Andy Griffith guest stars!

By the way, looking at Headshop on 52 at 6:30 above, where the topic is marijuana usage, isn't that likely the topic every episode?

CBS begins entertainment programming with summer replacement series The John Byner Comedy Hour at 8:30, while the NBC affiliate, channel 4, brings a Mike Douglas episode (pre-empted earlier that day). At 9:00, it's a Marcus Welby on ABC.

And of course, you have to love the classy PBS program Evening at Pops leading readers right to a hemorrhoid cream ad.

9:30 sees Name of the Game on CBS, a 90-minute show that takes us to the news. Jazz Show has a special presentation on NBC. There's a split on the ABC stations, with bigger channel 7 going with Startime as Santa Barbara's channel 3 gives us the program of the night as far as I'm concerned. I mean, we got Tony Randall and Jack Klugman in an Odd Couple opera!

Startime is interesting--a 1965 episode of The Bob Hope Chrysler Theatre anthology series but known as Universal Star Time in syndication. This originally aired October 6, 1965 on NBC. 

Nationally, NBC showed Snoopy at the Ice Follies at 7:30, so maybe the West Coast missed out because they didn't want to show it at the "late" hour of 8:30.

This is a lackluster evening overall, so let's step back to one of my favorite listings of the day: Independent channel 13 with a Hey Landlord! showing (the only one of the week) at 2:00. The rest of the week in that slot, the station has a travel show, a talk show, Rocky and Friends, and  magazine show What Every Woman Wants to Know.

This Day in TV History: 50 years ago tonight (Monday, August 21, 1972) in TV Guide

Yes, you get two posts today! In addition to the weekly Top Ten, let's examine what was in the Guide 50 years ago tonight for the L.A. metro region. Prime time for the networks was all about the Republican National Convention, so in the Eastern time zone, it was all politics except for ABC repeating the pilot movie of The Rookies before its evening coverage.

So Los Angeles got some "extra" programming. The CBS affiliate has Johnny Mann's Stand Up and Cheer before a Name of the Game rerun and news.  On NBC, it's Guns at Batasi and then Dr. Simon Locke, which we mentioned here.  ABC follows The Rookies with maybe the most interesting program of the night, Valley of Mystery. That description is cool, and the movie is available on YouTube.

Since there is so little going on tonight, let's check out some things outside prime time. Independent channel 11 got Alfred Hitchcock Presents, but for only two weeks? And channel 5's Movie Theatre has Voyage into Space tonight...and every weeknight!