For whatever reason, Quinn Martin couldn't land a hit series at NBC if his life depended on it. In the 70's, Martin sold four series to the Peacock Network, none of which lasted more than a season.
The Runaways started as a NBC TV-movie, Operation Runaway: A Prince For Cinderella, which aired in 1978. A year earlier, Martin had sold his first (and only) anthology series, Tales of The Unexpected, his first sale to the network since Banyon had bombed out four years earlier. Unexpected lasted eight episodes, spread out over 1 season. Operation Runaway had aired in the spring of 1978, marking the return of Robert Reed (ex-The Defenders, The Brady Bunch) to series television, four years after Brady had ended. Reed had taken a number of guest roles in dramatic series, including some of Martin's productions for ABC and/or CBS, in the interim, to prove he could still do drama, and shed the wholesome image created with Brady Bunch.
Unfortunately, viewers couldn't, due to Brady Bunch being in syndication by this point, see Reed as anyone other than Mike Brady. Runaways went on hiatus, and when it returned, Broadway star Alan Feinstein replaced Reed as the star, playing a totally different character. Reed would later return to the Brady franchise in "The Brady Girls Get Married", the pilot for 1981's Brady Brides. Feinstein fared no better, and Runaways was cancelled as well. Martin's last series for NBC came after his production company had been sold to Taft Broadcasting, but A Man Called Sloane, with Robert Conrad & Dan O'Herlihy, met the same fate.
Here's Operation Runaway: A Prince For Cinderella. Scott Baio (Happy Days, Who's Watching The Kids) and future pop star Terri Nunn (Berlin) are among the guest stars.
Viewers had seen stories of teen angst on ABC's Afterschool Special, NBC's Special Treat, and elsewhere, mixed amidst the daytime soaps. To them, Runaways apparently was a turn-off. It shouldn't have been.
Rating: B.
2 comments:
BRADY BUNCH really was the best *and* worst thing ever to happen to Reed. He was outstanding in other things before and after it.
Mind boggling that Quinn Martin was such gold on the other two networks but struck out at NBC completely.
Martin's winning percentage, if you will, at CBS, was not 100%. Sold only three series (Barnaby Jones, Cannon, The Manhunter), and only one failure (Manhunter). The bulk of his sales went to ABC, since he started there working for Desilu on The Untouchables. For every Fugitive or FBI, there was a New Breed or a Caribe, or Bert D'Angelo. Ehh.
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