CB (Citizens' Band) radios were getting big in the mid-70's. In 1974, NBC bought a pilot from an independent producer about a pair of truckers criss-crossing the country helping folks. Kind of like Route 66 with 18 wheels instead of 4.
Movin' On ran for 2 seasons (1974-6), spun from a May 1974 pilot movie, "In Tandem". Frank Converse (ex-NYPD, Coronet Blue) co-starred with Claude Akins, but what really got the show rollin' was a kickin' theme song composed and performed by country legend Merle Haggard, which hit the top of the country charts in the summer of '75.
Decades currently holds the cable rights to the series, and independent distributor Peter Rodgers owns the show, having acquired it, along with other familiar titles such as I Spy and The Rifleman, in recent years.
Here's the intro:
As memory serves, Movin' On held its own, aiming for a slightly older audience than ABC's Happy Days, which had a few months' head start. Producer Ernie Frankel would work with Akins again on the short-lived CBS series, Nashville 99. Akins, then, put himself back opposite ABC's killer sitcom block when NBC slotted The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo on Tuesdays, in the same space as Movin' On, in 1979.
Rating: B.
Was just a couple of years early. If it had premiered in the Fall of 1977 after the CB craze really kicked off, I think it would have run twice as long.
ReplyDeleteOh, I don't know about that, Hal. CW McCall's "Convoy" came out in '74, too, and the CB craze peaked with "Dukes of Hazzard".
ReplyDeleteYeah, Convoy was a massive hit but I believe it hit number one in January 1976. I felt that Smokey and the Bandit really put the CB craze into the mainstream in the summer of '77. Dukes, Sheriff Lobo, BJ and the Bear and (in 1978) the film Convoy all benefited.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite CB-themed work is actually Handle with Care a.k.a. Citizen's Band, which also came out in '77.
Have to check on "Convoy" (the song) to clarify and reconcile my memory.
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