Forgotten TV: Bobby Vinton's Rock 'n' Rollers (1978)

 The Bobby Vinton Show had ended its 3 year run. "The Polish Prince", whose half hour variety show had been packaged by Chuck Barris & Chris Bearde, and produced in Canada, returned to the US for a hour long primetime special for CBS right before Thanksgiving of 1978.

"Bobby Vinton's Rock 'n' Rollers", though, was packaged by Sid & Marty Krofft, their first sale to CBS since Far Out Space Nuts three years earlier. Having ceded control of ABC's Donny & Marie to the Osmond family, which moved the series to Utah, the Kroffts decided to create a similar show, but with Vinton at the front, with guests Fabian, Penny Marshall (Laverne & Shirley), Erik Estrada (CHiPs), and a reunion of Our Miss Brooks stars Eve Arden & Gale Gordon. The Kroffts were bent on making Estrada into a song & dance man, as he covered Dion's "The Wanderer", two months after he went ham on the premiere of the Krofft Superstar Hour.

Unfortunately, all we have is a network promo, queued by Valerie Bertinelli (One Day at a Time), and narrated by Dick Tufeld (ex-Lost in Space, Hollywood Palace).

If Barris, fresh from The Gong Show, had packaged this, he'd have been tempted to bring along Gene Gene The Dancing Machine.

No rating, of course.

Musical Interlude: 19 (1985)

 In 1982, ABC News produced the documentary, Vietnam Requiem, more than a decade after US troops had left Vietnam. Three years later, Paul Hardcastle scored a UK #1 hit, and reached the top 40 here in the US, with "19". Veteran commercial voiceover artist Peter Thomas narrated Requiem, and some of the dialogue was sampled on "19".

Thomas, after a bazillion commercials in the 70's & 80's, would narrate Forensic Files years later.

Many thanks to Chuck Miller for the tip.

Hmmmm, this came out around the same time as Max Headroom with the digital stuttering. 

Musical Interlude: Treat Her Right (1965)

 From Hollywood A Go-Go comes singer-dancer Roy Head with "Treat Her Right":

Yowza!

Musical Interlude: Tie a Yellow Ribbon (1973)

 Tony Orlando & Dawn appeared on the Dick Clark produced Rockin' The Palace in 1973, performing the #1 smash, "Tie a Yellow Ribbon".

Forgotten TV: The McGonicle (1958-61)

 MGM originally produced this service comedy pilot, The McGonigle, for NBC in 1958, but the network sat on it for 3 years before it finally hit the air on Westinghouse Preview Theatre in 1961. Mickey Shaughnessy has the title role as a scheming sailor with a merry band, a la Phil Silvers' Sgt. Bilko. Paul Picerni came over from The Untouchables to play Bottleneck, another sailor.

We'll look at Westinghouse Preview Theatre another time, but now, it's time to sail off with The McGonigle.

I think you can see why, despite the creative pedigree involved, including Bilko writers Ray Singer & Dick Chevillat, this ended up aground. Chevillat would resurface at Filmways (i.e. Green Acres) to greater success. The plot was recycled from Bilko, whose producer, Edward Montagne, would use a similar plot on McHale's Navy when it launched a year later.

Rating: B-.

Celebrating the simple: The Three Stooges Greatest Hits (1997)

 Columbia-Tri-Star marked the 75th anniversary of The Three Stooges with a primetime special airing on ABC. 

Martin Short (ex-SCTV, Saturday Night Live, The Associates) serves as host, with a pastiche of archived film footage, sorted by topic, including the boys' run with Ted Healy. Barry Williams (ex-The Brady Bunch) and Little Richard are the guests, with the latter performing a cover of "The Curly Shuffle".

Burton Richardson is your announcer.

Missed this the first time because my folks weren't Stooge fans.

Rating: A.

Forgotten TV: Lawbreakers (1963)

 After M Squad ended its run, Lee Marvin was right back at work, this time as host/narrator of the syndicated Lawbreakers (aka Lee Marvin Presents Lawbreaker), a one season docuseries that took the procedural crime drama to the next level. Real cases. Real people, including police. Marvin also conducts interviews from his studio.

In this entry, Lee looks into the case of a fugitive who is needed to provide a blood transfusion for a baby in "Cincinnati":

Edit, 4/19/26: Have to change the video. Here's the series opener, set in Chicago, which was Lee Marvin's beat in M Squad:

Too bad it's not on DVD, and it should be, as it's still relevant 60+ years later.

No rating. Just a public service.

Forgotten TV: 21 Beacon Street (1959)

 21 Beacon Street was the first series from Filmways, which, admittedly, was much more successful with sitcoms than they were with dramas over the course of 23 years (1959-82)

Film star Dennis Morgan, in his only series lead role, was Dennis Chase, a private investigator that police and ordinary citizens alike turned to for help. Brian Kelly (later of Flipper) and Joanna Barnes co-starred.

Launched as a summer replacement for Tennessee Ernie Ford's NBC variety show, 21 Beacon Street lasted just 11 weeks, with the reruns moving to ABC in the winter of 1960. Filmways would not place another primetime series on NBC until the evening edition of Hollywood Squares a few years later.

In this sampler, Chase sets up a plan to take down a crooked boxing promoter.

Part of the reason this series failed was there was already quite a bit of crime drama on the networks at that time. It happens.

Rating: B.

Videos of Summer: Tracy (1969-70)

 It wasn't enough that Ron Dante had scored a #1 hit as the lead voice of the Archies on "Sugar Sugar". The king of pre-fab pop added another studio band to his resume with The Cuff-Links, who scored with "Tracy".

The clip is taken from John Byner's short lived Something Else, as Byner appears near the end of the video.

Musical Interlude: Rock On (1989)

 In case you thought General Hospital had the top 40 on lockdown in the 80's (i.e. Rick Springfield, Jack Wagner, et al), they weren't alone by the end of the decade.

Michael Damian, formerly of The Weirz, had joined the cast of The Young & The Restless in 1982. Seven years later, he had a #1 hit with a cover of David Essex's 1974 1-off, "Rock On", used in the movie, "Dream a Little Dream".

This clip comes from TBS' Night Tracks:

Michael is still on The Young & The Restless after all these years. Props to WROW's Jaime Roberts for some of the info.

Musical Interlude: Candida (1973)

 In 1973, Dick Clark brought an American Bandstand primetime special to the fabled Hollywood Palace. ABC had ended the namesake variety series 3 years earlier, but couldn't resist giving it another try with "Rockin' The Palace". The comedy team of Skiles & Henderson were the hosts, and one of them intros this segment with Tony Orlando & Dawn revisiting their very first hit, "Candida", which was released, also, in 1970.

Talk about gratitude. Orlando & company would get a variety series of their own a year later-----on CBS.

Forgotten TV: Hardball (1989)

 Not to be confused with the Fox sitcom of the same name, Hardball, a short-lived NBC crime drama from 1989, was inspired by the "Lethal Weapon" movies. Unfortunately, Richard Tyson was no Mel Gibson, despite the mullet.

John Ashton ("Beverly Hills Cop") landed his first lead role in television, and, sadly, it was his only one.

No episodes are available, so we'll settle for the intro. Eddie Money co-wrote and recorded the title song.

No rating. Just a public service.

Musical Interlude: Everyday People (1969)

 Sly & The Family Stone's enduring musical legacy has seen 1969's "Everyday People" covered by Joan Jett & The Blackhearts in the 80's, and used in advertising on and off in recent years.

This clip is from Barbara McNair's short-lived variety show.

In memory of Sly Stone, who has passed away at 82. Rest in peace.

Forgotten TV: The Silent Service (1957)

 The Silent Service was a military anthology series that ran in the late 50's. Not to be confused with a Japanese manga or subsequent movies or series under the same title.

Sad to say, this series wasn't around when I started watching TV in the 60's. YouTube, luckily, is filling the void. 

Following is a dramatization of the tale of the USS Archerfish, starring a pre-Star Trek DeForest Kelley.

I honestly think this could still get some play in high school history classes.

No rating. Just a public service.

Forgotten TV: Small & Frye (1983)

 Disney should've saved Small & Frye and made it into a cartoon, not a live-action sitcom.

Small was a spring replacement series for CBS in 1983, bringing Darren McGavin back to series television after nearly 10 years (miniseries don't count). McGavin (ex-Kolchak: The Night Stalker) was cast as private eye Nick Small, whose partner, Chip Frye (Jack Blessing), was the victim of a lab accident that results in his shrinking, then reverting to normal size, at the most inopportune times. As McGavin explains in the intro, a police scientist (Bill Daily, ex-I Dream of Jeannie, The Bob Newhart Show) was able to help Frye control his size changes, but Frye's #1 fan, as shown in this clip, is Small's daughter, Phoebe, the duo's secretary.

McGavin, of course, would bounce back with the holiday classic film, "A Christmas Story", a few months later, and that is now a perennial staple on cable, while Small & Frye ended up locked in Disney's vaults.

No rating. Just a public service.

Forgotten TV: The Dom DeLuise Show (1968)

 Dom DeLuise was a frequent guest on Dean Martin's NBC variety show, such that folks must've assumed Martin helped him land the sitcom, Lotsa Luck. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, it wasn't DeLuise's 1st series on his own.

That distinction belongs to a self-titled comedy-variety hour that was a summer replacement for Jonathan Winters' CBS show in 1968. Packaged by Jackie Gleason's production company, DeLuise was given a few short weeks to prove he could carry the mail, if you will. He had the honor of working with Gleason's staff, including musical director Sammy Spear, choreographer June Taylor, and announcer Johnny Olson.

In fact, Gleason would last a couple more years at CBS with his series.

Following is a collection of sketches, plus a sample open & close with voiceover by Olson.

No rating. Just a public service.

Forgotten TV: The Funny Side (1971)

 Gene Kelly presides over a 10 piece troupe of actors presented as married couples in the short lived sketch series, The Funny Side, which lasted half a season on NBC.

The cast includes everyone's favorite senior citizen, Burt Mustin, Warren Berlinger, husband & wife writers Dick Clair & Jenna McMahon, 2nd generation actor Michael Lembeck, in his first series gig, Cindy Williams, Teresa Graves (coming over from Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In), and John Amos, who left The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Pat Finley also appeared on Moore during season 1.

The topic in this sampler is "consumers",  but only the open & close are available.

Series creators Bill Persky & Sam Denoff (ex-That Girl) sold another series, Lotsa Luck with Dom DeLuise & Kathleen Freeman, to NBC the next year, co-created with Carl Reiner.

No rating. Just a public service.

Forgotten TV: Meet Millie (1952)

 Lost amidst the many radio shows that transitioned to television in the 50's was Meet Millie, a sitcom about a mother & daughter in Jackson Heights, Queens. The radio show ran for 3 years, during which time a TV version landed on CBS.

However, there were changes in the cast in the course of transition. Film star Audrey Totter had the title role as Millie, but movie commitments prevented her from doing the TV show, resulting in Elena Verdugo taking over the role in the TV series. Similarly, Bea Benaderet was cast as the mother figure, but due to her commitments to Burns & Allen, her part was recast as well, with Florence Halop taking over the role.

Our cast also includes Marvin Kaplan, Roland Winters, Byron Keith, and Arthur Q. Bryan, who guest stars as a veterinarian, but sans the speech impediments of one Elmer J. Fudd.

This sample is from season 4.

Most folks remember Elena Verdugo from 7 seasons of Marcus Welby, MD. Kaplan went on to Top Cat, Alice, and a fair number of films, including "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World", which reunited him with Top Cat himself, Arnold Stang, in 1963. Florence Halop's last role was on the original Night Court. Byron Keith recurred on Batman as Mayor Linseed, a sendup of NY Mayor John Lindsay.

Fairly decent.

Rating: B.

Forgotten TV: The Muppets' Valentine Special (1974)

 In 1974, Jim Henson was commissioned by ABC to produce a pilot featuring The Muppets, as ABC was looking at a possible primetime series.

As we all know, The Muppet Show arrived 2 1/2 years later in syndication for a 5 year run. Part of the reason for that was because ABC didn't seem pleased with the first pilot, "The Muppets' Valentine's Day Special", which aired two weeks before Valentine's Day, with Mia Farrow (ex-Peyton Place) in a rare return to network TV. The only familiar faces here are Kermit, Bert & Ernie (crossing over from Sesame Street, like Kermit), and a prototype for Gonzo, only shaped like an aardvark here. I think that mad bomber character made it to The Muppet Show, too, but I don't recall.

Mia performs two musical numbers, including "Those Endearing Young Charms".

A 2nd pilot was shot and aired in 1975, but we already know the rest of the story. ABC wouldn't give the Muppets a primetime berth until Muppets Tonight, more than 20 years later.

No rating. Just a public service.

Forgotten TV: Goldie (The Goldie Hawn Special)(1978)

 Goldie Hawn headlined her first special, but not for NBC, in 1978. Instead, it aired on ABC. Goldie reunited Hawn with Laugh-In producer George Schlatter, and if you didn't already know this was on ABC, the guest list included John Ritter (Three's Company) and Shaun Cassidy (The Hardy Boys). George Burns and the Harlem Globetrotters round out the guests.

Highlights include Goldie covering "We're All Alone", which had been a hit for Rita Coolidge, and Cassidy with a solo cover of the Lovin' Spoonful's "Do You Believe in Magic".

Rating: B.