From season 1 of The Beverly Hillbillies:
While the Clampetts have settled in Beverly Hills, Cousin Pearl (Bea Benaderet, The Flintstones) is minding the store back in their old cabin. However, the Clampetts have run out of water, except for what is in their cement pond.
Includes an in-show ad for Kellogg's Corn Flakes with Jethro (Max Baer) & Jane (Nancy Kulp).
Insight Sundays returns with 1965's "A Thief Named Dismas", starring Beverly Garland, John Dehner, & Marge Redmond.
Quaker Oats was a primary sponsor of Bewitched in its early years, leading to plenty of in-show commercials, like this one, which introduced Aunt Jemima syrup. Not sure if this is from season 3 or 4.
Prefaced with a sponsor tag with an animated Darrin holding a box of Life cereal (voiceover by Gary Owens):
From season 1 of Tombstone Territory:
John Beradino guests as a parolee looking to get married and live a peaceful life. Some old friends have other ideas......
Dinah Shore had her NBC daytime show, Dinah's Place, cancelled after 4 years because incoming programming boss Lin Bolen wanted to skew younger. Yeah, sure, and Dinah gets replaced with a revival of Name That Tune. That landed like a wet fart, because the following fall, Shore hooked up with 20th Century Fox to distribute a 60-or-90 minute talk show to compete with the likes of Mike Douglas & Merv Griffin.
Dinah! ran for 6 seasons (1974-80), with the title change to Dinah! & Friends in the final season.
From season 4, Dinah goes on location in Utah for a show with the Osmonds.
Following the success of "A Very Brady Christmas" in 1988, CBS brought back The Bradys as a winter replacement series in February 1990. As we documented when reviewing the series, the network mistakenly assumed viewers would gravitate to the franchise, 9 years after The Brady Brides tanked on NBC. Yes, it was on a Friday night, but viewer tastes had changed in the 16 years since the original series had ended.
I remember sitting in the kitchen, watching the show on a battery powered TV, since the parents weren't interested.
As you already know, Maureen McCormick decided not to return, though she's changed her tune in recent years, so Leah Ayres was cast as Marcia. Greg (Barry Williams) had gotten married in the last film to Nora (Caryn Richman, ex-The New Gidget), and, as we'll see by the end, Bobby (Mike Lookinland) becomes the 4th Brady sibling to walk down the aisle.........
While Charles Nelson Reilly was away taping Uncle Croc's Block, Gary Burghoff (M*A*S*H) usually filled in. However, at the start of Daylight Saving Time, Burghoff missed an episode of Match Game, forcing the producers to scramble. Announcer Johnny Olson filled in, and, as you'll see, fit in quite well......
CBS' slogan for 1970 was, "We've put it all together". As we all know, that wasn't true. Of the freshman class, only 2 shows were renewed.
The Class of 1970:
Headmaster: Andy Griffith returns after 2 years away, this time running a school. Replaced by The New Andy Griffith Show in mid-season.
The Tim Conway Comedy Hour. After flopping with a self-titled sitcom that reunited him with McHale's Navy co-star Joe Flynn earlier in the year, Conway tries again, hoping to use the same formula as his friend, Carol Burnett.'
Arnie. Herschel Bernardi (ex-Peter Gunn) toplines this domestic comedy with Sue Ane Langdon, Roger Bowen, and, in the preview clip, Dick Van Patten. Lasted 2 seasons, and then, Bernardi kept busy shilling for Star-Kist as the voice behind Charlie the Tuna.
The Mary Tyler Moore Show. The crown jewel. 7 seasons, and a box of Emmys.
Storefront Lawyers. From Hawaii Five-O producer Leonard Freeman comes a courtroom drama that all but mirrored ABC's Young Lawyers. The title was changed to Men at Law at midseason, but its fate was sealed.
The Interns. What did in this Screen Gems entry was where it was placed, on Fridays, opposite studio stablemate The Partridge Family. With Broderick Crawford, Mike Farrell, Stephen Brooks, & Christopher Stone.
Dick Tufeld is our narrator.
During the 70's, Hal Williams had the role of a lifetime as one of the most relatable cops on television, playing Officer Smith in 22 episodes of Sanford & Son, then returning for 5 more in the later Sanford series (1980-1).
Officer Smith, or, "Smitty", to friends like the Sanfords, often had to translate the misspeaking of his partners, whether it was Officer Swanhauser (Noam Pitlik) or Officer Hopkins (Howard Platt).
However, there was that time when Fred was at loggerheads with his dimwitted neighbor, Grady (Whitman Mayo), over a stolen TV....
After MTV jettisoned The Basement Tapes, the network decided to find another outlet for alternative music.
British producer-DJ Dave Kendall gave them 120 Minutes, and even spent 3 years as series host (1989-92) before moving back behind the camera. At first, the regular VJ's were rotating in the host position until they settled on Kevin Seal around 1988. Kendall took over the next year, and they were off and running.
120 Minutes had its original run end around the turn of the century, then moved to MTV2 for a couple of years before being cut. One last go-round came a few years later with Matt Pinfield, who'd succeeded Kendall, returning as host.
Following is a sample episode from 1990.
Producer Don Taffner had acquired the rights to adapt Thames' Man About The House into Three's Company, 50 years ago. However, the first pilot didn't have the familiar trio of roommates that we'd all remember. Oh, sure, John Ritter is here, playing an aspiring filmmaker named David, instead of Jack Tripper. Norman Fell (ex-Dan August, 87th Precinct) and Audra Lindley, as the Ropers, are here. But, who the other two roomies?
Samantha (Suzanne Zenor) wants to be an actress. Jenny (Valerie Curtin) works for the DMV.
The plot remains the same. Samantha & Jenny find David in the bathtub after a party the night before......
Peter Gunn creator Blake Edwards, hot off the "Pink Panther" movie, wanted to revive Gunn, starting with a feature film. Instead of releasing it through United Artists, which had the "Panther" series, Edwards went with Paramount, whose new management at the time felt casting changes needed to be made, six years after the series had ended.
For example, Lola Albright was not invited back to reprise as lounge singer Edie Hart, Gunn's girlfriend. The part was given to Laura Devon. Why? Paramount suits, for some reason, thought Albright had gotten too old for the part. As if. There is, though, that youth demographic to consider.
Herschel Bernardi wasn't doing much aside from Star-Kist commercials and other cartoons, but wasn't brought back to play Lt. Jacoby. Future icon Ed Asner took his place. Our supporting cast also includes Alan Oppenheimer, Albert Paulsen, George Murdock, Carol Wayne, J. Pat O'Malley, Regis Toomey (ex-Burke's Law), & Charles Dierkop.
The Smothers Brothers returned to television in 1975, hoping to start anew. However, it didn't last too long, and, aside from their comedy-drama, Fitz & Bones, would not try again with a variety show until the 1988 writers' strike.
From the 1975 series comes this number that resonates even today, in the face of the intentional, ham-handed handling of government affairs by the current administration. John Stewart, formerly of the Kingston Trio, released "Survivors" that year, and is joined by the Smothers Brothers, Ringo Starr, Lily Tomlin (who was on the big screen that year in "Nashville"), Bob Einstein, Pat Paulsen, Steve Martin, & Don Novello, making a rare appearance without his Father Guido Sarducci persona.
From season 2 of The Real McCoys:
Amos (Walter Brennan) uses a divining rod to pinpoint a spot on his land to build "The New Well". Andy Clyde & Joe Flynn guest star.
From season 1 of The Man From UNCLE:
Two years before Star Trek, Leonard Nimoy & William Shatner are among the guest stars. You'll also see Werner Klemperer, a year before Hogan's Heroes. Missing from this scene? Sheila MacRae, who'd soon, if not by then, join The Jackie Gleason Show.
It is known that part of the inspiration for Batman came from Johnston McCulley's Zorro, and one example comes in this 1st season episode, "Zorro's Secret Passage". Don Diego (Guy Williams) discovered a secret cave beneath his home, and asserts his grandfather had built it years earlier. Of course, you know that Batman would have a Batcave.......
Back in the day, the networks would start rolling out commercials promoting new series for the following fall around the middle of July. As it's the end of June, we're turning back the clock to 1975 for CBS' fall preview that year. We've previously reviewed the following:
Phyllis. 2nd spinoff from The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
Bronk. Jack Palance stars in his first series since 1963's Greatest Show on Earth. Carroll O'Connor (All in The Family) and Terry Becker (ex-Voyage to The Bottom of The Sea) produced the series for MGM.
Three For The Road. Family drama with Alex Rocco & Leif Garrett.
Big Eddie: Sheldon Leonard's return to acting.
Bicentennial Minutes. Short features leading up to the bicentennial.
Switch. Glen Larson's pairing of Robert Wagner (ex-It Takes a Thief) and Eddie Albert (ex-Green Acres) lasted three seasons. Co-starring Sharon Gless and Charlie Callas.
Doc. Broadway favorite Barnard Hughes as a doctor (of course).
We will be on the lookout for Beacon Hill. William Conrad (Cannon) is our tour guide.
You know the story of how Mary Tyler Moore lost her first series gig on Richard Diamond when it got out she was the mysterious switchboard operator, Sam.
Welp, Mary, billed as Mary Moore here, began making appearances on 77 Sunset Strip a few months after getting sacked from Diamond. In "Thanks For Tomorrow", she's the love interest of one Lonnie Drew (Adam West), who is being set up as a fall guy by some gamblers.....
Edit, 7/6/26: WB put in a copyright claim on the full episode, so we'll sub in an excerpt.
We're launching a new feature today with Cinema Saturday. First up, we're bringing back the 1966 pilot for the 2nd Dragnet series, which didn't air until 3 years later. Unfortunately, the last copy we had was removed from YouTube.
This time, we'll start with the opening sequence, which has, for unknown reasons, been edited off subsequent prints.
From season 1 of All in The Family:
We had this one up before, and ended up losing it after it'd been taken down from YouTube. Now, it's back, via the Norman Lear Effect channel.
Archie (Carroll O'Connor) learns about judging people when he makes a wrong impression about a friend of Mike & Gloria's, only to discover when he goes to the bar that a friend of his has a secret. Anthony Geary and Philip Carey guest star, along with Billy Sands (billed as Billie), whose former McHale's Navy castmate, Bob Hastings, makes his debut as the bartender.
Edit, 6/24/26: Had to change the video as the episode, for whatever, has been privatized. Following is a short excerpt with Philip Carey.
