Three years after The Captain & Tennille Show ended, Toni Tennille went solo with a daytime variety show, produced by game show icon Bob Eubanks.
Unfortunately, The Toni Tennille Show was a flop, cancelled after less than 6 months on the air.
This sampler features Jane Fonda and Peaches & Herb.
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.........
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.
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......
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.
Three years after Bachelor Father had ended, and, I believe, was in syndication at that time, John Forsythe returned, this time in a self-titled sitcom for Universal & NBC that underwent a mid-season makeover that ultimately killed the show.
Air Force Major John Foster (Forsythe) inherits an all-girls school, which would've been all well & good, except that viewers weren't interested. The show aired opposite I've Got a Secret on CBS, and the 2nd half of Twelve O'Clock High on ABC. At the end of January of 1966, the series was retooled to use the school as a cover so that Foster and his wingman, Ed Robbins (Guy Marks, ex-The Joey Bishop Show) could go on spy missions for the government. The John Forsythe Show was cancelled two months later.
Forsythe was also joined by Ann B. Davis (ex-The Bob Cummings Show), Elsa Lanchester, and even had his own daughters appear in a few episodes shot during the summer before they went back to school. Pamelyn Ferdin was one of the students.
In this outing, post-format change, Ed steps into the ring to settle a dispute with a man involved in an accident (Peter Palmer, "Li'l Abner"). David Lewis (Batman) guests as well.
Call Holme was a pilot that went nowhere for NBC in 1972. Writers Gerald Gardner & Dee Caruso had worked on The Monkees & Get Smart, among their credits, and concocted this farce about a PI who's also a master of disguise (Arte Johnson, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In), who somehow gets his job done. In the course of this story, Johnson breaks out some of his characters from Laugh-In for quick cameos.
Our ensemble also includes Reta Shaw (ex-The Ghost & Mrs. Muir), Arlene Golonka (ex-Mayberry RFD), Jim Hutton, and Vic Tayback, plus a brief cameo from Danny Bonaduce (The Partridge Family)
Unfortunately, the credits were edited off.
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.
The Smith Family was Don Fedderson's final sale to ABC, and by year's end, he would not have anything on the network, as the series was cancelled, while, The Lawrence Welk Show moved to syndication that fall.
Smith was a mid-season replacement, and the first series for film star Henry Fonda in about a decade (The Deputy). It also brought Ron(ny) Howard (ex-The Andy Griffith Show) back to television after he'd made a movie or two for Disney.
In the opener, Cindy (Darleen Carr, later of The Streets of San Francisco) is ostracized when a classmate (guest star Heather Menzies) is busted for marijuana possession.
The title song is performed by Mike Minor (ex-Petticoat Junction).
Sure, Flag Day was yesterday, but let's travel back to World War II with The Gallant Men, a one season drama from Warner Bros. & ABC.
Van Williams (ex-Surfside Six), George Murdock (later turning up on The Bold Ones & Barney Miller), and Philip Carey (ex-Philip Marlowe) guest star in "The Leathernecks". Hank Simms is our announcer.
When it got out that ABC had decided to turn an Alcoa Theatre drama into McHale's Navy, the other networks were looking for service comedies set in peacetime.
NBC got just 1 season out of Dean Jones' Ensign O'Toole. CBS, on the other hand, never got out of the starting gate with The Mighty O.
The ensemble starts with a reunion of Peter Gunn co-stars Craig Stevens & Lola Albright. Mix in Alan Hale, Richard Jaeckel, and Jamie Farr (billed under his real name, Jameel Farah), and you'd think they'd have a winner. Nope.
Let's check out why.
While CBS was preparing a remake of The Twilight Zone, Steven Spielberg & Amblin Entertainment decided to do their own version.
Amazing Stories ran for 2 seasons total, airing on Sundays, coupled with another reboot, this one of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Spielberg actually obtained a license for the title, since it's also a long running magazine that launched 100 years ago.
Like Twilight, Amazing Stories had a mix of thrillers and lighter fare, the latter of which is represented in an excerpt from season 1. In "Remote Control Man", a henpecked husband (Sidney Lassick, "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest") acquires a new TV with a bizarre remote control that brings anything on the screen into the "real world". With guest appearances by Barbara Billingsley (Muppet Babies, ex-Leave it To Beaver), Dirk Benedict (The A-Team), Lou Ferrigno (using archived Incredible Hulk footage), Lyle Alzado, Jim Lange, Professor Toru Tanaka, Richard Simmons, LaWanda Page (ex-Sanford & Son), Sid Haig, and Ed McMahon (Star Search, The Tonight Show):
It was a common practice in the 60's & 70's for studios to repackage episodes of series that were either hits or flops into feature films to gain some extra mileage.
Universal did just that with "Tammy & The Millionaire", a compilation of 3 episodes of the 1965 series, Tammy, hoping to save face after the series had ended. Debbie Watson (Tammy) had transitioned into taking over the role of Marilyn Munster in "Munster Go Home", which came out around the same time, within a few months.
Here's an unsold pilot recently uncovered.
NBC had commissioned Show Me! from an independent producer in 1990. Three pilots were produced before the network decided not to pick up the show.
Ex-MTV VJ Mark Goodman, having seen how his pal, Alan Hunter, had managed to do a fill-in gig on Triple Threat a couple of years earlier, was tapped to host this pilot. Our celebrity panel includes impressionist-actor Fred Travalena, no stranger to being an MC himself.
Mark Goodson & Bill Todman, better known for the bazillion game shows they produced from the 50's until Todman's passing in the 80's, also were Western fans.
However, their two Westerns, Branded, with Chuck Connors (1965-7), and our next entry, The Rebel, didn't get very far.
Nick Adams toplined Rebel as Johnny Yuma, a former Confederate soldier wandering through the post-Civil War West. Like Branded, Rebel went 2 seasons (1959-61), but also spawned a spin-off, the one season entry, The Yank (previously reviewed).
Country icon Johnny Cash not only recorded the show's theme song, but he also guest stars in this season 1 entry.
Bandleader Spike Jones and his City Slickers landed their first television series as a mid-season replacement in the winter of 1954 on NBC. Small problem. Jackie Gleason was already an established draw over on CBS, and Spike was sent packing after 5 months. Jones would return with three more short-lived series between 1957-61, this time on CBS.
In addition to the City Slickers, Jones also had his wife, Helen Grayko, as a featured vocalist, and recurring regulars including Bill Dana, Len Weinrib, and, in this next clip, Billy Barty.
Spun off from The Rifleman, Law of The Plainsman lasted just 1 season on NBC, as apparently, ABC, home of The Rifleman, passed on Plainsman.
Marshal Sam Buckhart (Michael Ansara, ex-Broken Arrow) had appeared in 2 episodes of Rifleman, but audiences were indifferent to a series with a Native American lawman as the lead.
Check the opener, "The Prairie Incident".
Harry Ackerman, head honcho of comedy at Screen Gems, must've thought he found something in Jack Warden when he guest starred on Bewitched during the 1st season.
Warden landed his first lead role the next year in The Wackiest Ship in The Army, an hour-long comedy-drama set in World War II. Unfortunately, it lasted just the one season, but not for lack of trying. Gary Collins, Mark Slade, & Rudy Solari co-star, with Karen Steele as a prospective love interest for Warden.
Jack Soo, fresh from Valentine's Day, guest stars in the opener.
If you've seen the first two "Joshua Cabe" movies on Wild West Wednesdays, you have an idea about what to expect in the conclusion of Aaron Spelling's trilogy.
John McIntire (ex-Wagon Train) becomes the 3rd actor to essay the role of Cabe, after Buddy Ebsen & Dan Dailey. Jack Elam returns as Bitterroot, but we again have three new ladies as the "daughters", including Renne Jarrett, who appeared in quite a few primetime shows in guest roles in the 70's, and Louise "Liberty" Williams, who'd previously appeared on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Chico & The Man, & Adam-12 in the previous three years.
The plot: As the film begins, Cabe is an acting sheriff, but trouble arises when a failed business deal leads to trouble. Joel Fabiani (ex-Department S) and Larry Hovis (ex-Hogan's Heroes) turn up, as does Randall Carver, later of Taxi, who'd previously appeared in the last "Cabe" film.
I've often referenced Andy Warhol's statement back in the 60's that in the future, everyone would be famous for 15 minutes.
In 1985, MTV decided to do something with that, and gave Warhol his own show. Serving as host and executive producer, Warhol launched Andy Warhol's 15 Minutes, but only 5 episodes were produced between October 1985 and sometime in 1987. I'm going to guess this was a quarterly series, one episode every three months, which fits with the 15 minutes theme. Actress-singer Debbie Harry of Blondie is our announcer, and Blondie's Chris Stein was the show's musical director.
Never saw the show, but we'll leave you with a sample episode.
