A Preview of Things to Come: Season 8

This week, we give you a quick preview of our upcoming season 8, which premieres Thursday, September 24, 2020. We also tell you where else you can hear Rick and Mike, and we somehow manage to work Jeffrey Scott and Kenny Rogers into the discussion.

Check out this episode!

Next Week On Battle of the Network Shows...

 

This Day in TV History: CHiPs premieres on NBC!

On this day in 1977, the only show we have covered twice (so far!) premiered on NBC.  Yes, CHiPs took its first ride on Thursday, September 15, 1977.

The series was a showcase for Erik Estrada and Larry Wilcox, but of course we here at BOTNS are fond of the casting of Sergeant Gertraer.  You might say it was GENIUS!

We talked about the show in our first season and again in our 50th episode extravaganza.

This Day in TV History: The Golden Girls debuts

35 years ago today, The Golden Girls premiered on NBC and was the top-rated show of the night, and who can blame America for tuning in after seeing this on a fall preview special?

The episode followed new ones of Gimme a Break! and The Facts of Life and was followed by a new 227 and the Miss America Pageant. CBS countered with a rerun of Airwolf and a rebroadcast of made-for-TV movie Illusions with Karen Valentine.

ABC kicked off the night with In Like Flynn, an original movie produced by our old friend Glen Larson and starring Jenny Seagrove and William Conrad. Seagrove's novelist who gets involved in intrigue is much younger than the murder mystery novelist who was over on CBS Sunday nights! A Love Boat rerun closed out ABC's evening.

Top Ten #85

Tomorrow is a busy day at BOTNS (good things are coming), so we are posting the Top Ten a little early this week:

1) John Schuck: "The great" John Shuck was the subject of some interesting chatter in our Facebook group lately.  Here he is in one of his not-so-great projects:

2) Taxi: Premiered on this date in 1978. Odds that Judd Hirsch was already angry about something on September 13?

Here's a promo for the following week's episode:

3) Diana Rigg: R.I.P. to one of the great icons of British TV--nay, TV, period. I mean this as a sincere compliment: Many who grew up in the BOTNS era talk about her the way we talk about Erin Gray.

4) Rick Moranis: The former SCTV star returned to performing this week--sort of--with a commercial spot.

5) Phyllis George: On this date in 1970, the recently deceased George became Miss America.

6) Star Trek: The world celebrated the premiere of the Original Series (and the Animated Series, which debuted on the same calendar date) with Star Trek Day. OK, and some other Trek series, too.

7) The Doobie Brothers: The Professor of Rock's YouTube channel featured an interview with two of the guys talking about that time they took down a bootlegging ring.  No, they actually talked about "China Grove." An opportunity missed there, I think.

8) The Smurfs: The cartoon series premiered on NBC on this date in 1981, and for some of us that theme song has been in our heads ever since.

9) Nina Blackwood: Happy birthday to the the second-coolest of the original MTV VJs (Let's face it, it's a 4-way tie behind J.J. Jackson).

10) Kevin Dobson: R.I.P. to the star of Knots Landing and Kojak.

Inside the Guide: Do I need to pay more attention to The Beverly Hillbillies?

 Ah, don't we all yearn for a day when the material on our television was family-friendly, wholesome, clean fun? Don't we all lament what has happened to television in recent decades? Let's go back to 1980, when you could see a rerun of The Beverly Hillbillies demonstrate--wait a minute:

Just the thing for kids getting ready to choose between Spidey and Magilla at the bottom of the hour: Jethro Clampett opening an R-rated Hooters!

I knew the gals preferred naked swimming in the water supply on Petticoat Junction, but I didn't know that this other Paul Hennig show had such wanton sexuality.

Inside the Guide: They nailed the description of this MTMS rerun!

Some of the best writing in the world of television used to be in the weekly TV Guide. I really like how this 1980 edition summarizes one of the most famous sitcom episodes ever:

Clear and concise!