TV by the Decade :: September 7•13

The new Fall season is kicking off across the decades with dozens of new shows making their debuts this week, some having long runs, some becoming cult favorites, and more than a few crashing and burning. The decades this week feature several adult Westerns, including a classic that was one of the longest running shows on television, animated shows galore for both kids and adults, including a pair based on a popular sci-fi film franchise, more talk shows than you can shake a stick at, reality shows, the launch of a new network, a classic comedy series spin-off, a school-set sitcom with one cast member that went on to major film stardom, a bizarre Syndicated sitcom, a classic Cleveland-set sitcom, a horror-fantasy family drama, a late night talk show, two shows with Danny Bonaduce in different decades, and four shows with exclamation points in the title (one of them with two!). Scroll down to see all of the shows that premiered this week, and tell us if any of your favorites are celebrating milestone anniversaries.

1955

• September 9 – Star Stage (NBC, One season, 39 episodes)
• September 10 – Gunsmoke (CBS, Twenty seasons, 635 episodes)
• September 10 – It’s Always Jan (CBS, One season, 26 episodes)
• September 12 – Medical Horizons (ABC, One season, 26 episodes)
• September 13 – Kings Row (ABC, One season, 7 episodes)

Approximately two-thirds of the 39 Star Stage episodes were broadcast live, with some episodes originating in New York and others in Los Angeles.

Gunsmoke originated as a radio series that aired from 1952 to 1961, with William Conrad performing as Marshal Matt Dillon. When the radio program was adapted for television, CBS was not interested in carrying over any of the cast, although they gave Conrad and other key players courtesy auditions. Conrad was much too heavy to play the role on television. Raymond Burr was considered but rejected for the same reason. While there were rumors John Wayne was asked to take the lead role (since debunked as Wayne was a top movie star at the time and taking a TV role would have been preposterous), James Arness was cast as Dillon. Conrad did direct two episodes, in 1963 and 1971. From 1955 to 1961, Gunsmoke was originally a 30-minute series. For Syndication, these episodes were retitled Marshal Dillon. The series was known as Gun Law in the UK. Gunsmoke was the longest running primetime series until it was surpassed by The Simpsons. When CBS cancelled the series in 1975, there was no warning to the cast and crew ahead of time, none of them aware the network was considering ending the show. They all read about the cancellation in the trade papers. The series was followed by five made-for-TV movies. The show won 15 Primetime Emmy Awards during its run.

It’s Always Jan, starring Janis Paige, was co-produced by Desilu Productions. In mid-December 1955, co-star Patricia Bright broke her kneecap and scenes were written with her character only seen sitting down. At the same time, Merry Anders left the show to have a baby, so her character was written out until she was able to return. The series borrowed its plot from 1953’s How to Marry a Millionaire, and in 1958 Anders appeared in the Syndicated TV adaptation of the movie. Despite Desilu’s policy of recording programs for distribution to Syndication, It’s Always Jan has never appeared on nostalgia-based TV networks or received a home video release. To date, only one episode has appeared online in both the original black-and-white and a colorized version.

Medical Horizons is a public affairs television series, focusing on advancements in medical technology. Kings Row was part of the ‘wheel series’ Warner Bros. Presents. Kings Row was based on the 1942 film of the same name.

1965

• September 11 – Roger Ramjet (NBC, Five seasons, 156 episodes)
• September 11 – Sinbad Jr. and his Magic Belt (Syndication, One season, 102 episodes)
• September 13 – The Legend of Jesse James (ABC, One season, 34 episodes)
• September 13 – A Man Called Shenandoah (ABC, One season, 34 episodes)
• September 13 – Run for Your Life (NBC, Three seasons, 86 episodes)

Roger Ramjet‘s pop culture references appealed to adults as well as children. The series’ creators were from the town of Lompoc, California, and many references to the town were incorporated into the show, with the name being frequently mispronounced.

Sinbad Jr. and his Magic Belt is a series of five-minute cartoons that originally aired in first-run syndication between 1965 and 1966, produced by Hanna-Barbera for the American International Television division of American International Pictures and were shown during local children’s television programming.

Robert Horton, who had co-starred on Wagon Train from 1957-1962, vowed to never do another TV Western, but he agreed to star on A Man Called Shenandoah as he felt it would be a good opportunity for him as an actor.

The premise of Run for Your Life centered around the main character, played by Ben Gazzara, having no more than 18 months to live. Despite that, the series ran for three seasons. The character needed to have a disease from which he would die, but not affect his quality of life so chronic myelogenous leukemia was chosen. All of the episodes were filmed in color. Gazzara originated the role of Paul Bryan on an episode of Kraft Suspense Theatre in April 1965.

1975

• September 8 – Give-n-Take (CBS, One season, 60 episodes)
• September 8 – Match Game PM (Syndication, Six seasons, 230 episodes)
• September 8 – Phyllis (CBS, Two seasons, 48 episodes)
• September 9 – Welcome Back, Kotter (ABC, Four seasons, 95 episodes)

Give-n-Take was a game show hosted by Jim Lange. The show replaced Spin-Off, which was also hosted by Lange. The series was originally scheduled in the morning against NBC’s popular Celebrity Sweepstakes, and was moved to 4:00 PM on November 3, where it struggled against NBC’s soap opera Somerset, and ABC’s short-lived revival of game show You Don’t Say! The show was replaced by Tattletales, which had originally premiered in the 4:00 slot in 1974, and was moved to 11:00 AM in June 1975, then 3:30 PM on August 11, and finally back to 4:00 on December 1 to replace Give-n-Take.

Match Game PM had a similar game play as the network version on CBS, but with self-contained episodes. The main game was played the same, with the addition of a third round beginning in Season 2. If there was a tie, a Super Match-style question was asked and the contestants wrote an answer. Whoever matched a celebrity first would be the winner. Only Brett Somers, Charles Nelson Reilly and Richard Dawson played, but after Dawson left the show, all six celebrities played. The Super Match included two audience match questions, giving the contestant a chance to win up to $10,000, and when the Star Wheel was introduced, the pot doubled. The show’s ratings began to drop due to a new Syndicated daytime version that debuted in September 1979.

Phyllis was a spin-off of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, the second after Rhoda, starring Cloris Leachman as Phyllis Lindstrom. The show featured Barbara Colby as photo studio owner Julie Erskine. Colby had appeared on The Mary Tyler Moore Show as a prostitute Mary befriended, and was so popular with audiences that Phyllis producers enthusiastically signed her to the new show. Sadly, after filming three episodes Colby was murdered, and the part was recast with Liz Torres. Though scheduled between Rhoda and All in the Family and becoming a Top Ten hit, ratings began to slide during the end of the first season, so the show was reworked, dropping the photo studio and putting Phyllis out of work. She eventually became an assistant to a San Francisco City supervisor. With Rhoda also going through a format change, ratings for Phyllis continued to drop, and both series were also facing NBC’s popular Little House on the Prairie. In December 1976, the character of Mother Dexter (Judith Lowry, age 86) married Arthur Lanson, played by 92-year-old Burt Mustin. Within a month of the episode’s broadcast, both Lowry and Mustin died. Lowry continued to appear through early February 1977, while Mustin’s character was mentioned but not seen after the wedding. Jane Rose, who played Audrey Dexter, had her role on the show reduced as she dealt with her cancer diagnosis. While Rhoda‘s ratings improved and was renewed for one more season, Phyllis placed 40th in the ratings for Season 2 and was cancelled. The cast deaths and ill health of Rose were also cited as factors. The show’s final episode aired on March 13, 1977, and Leachman also made her last appearance as Phyllis on the final episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show six days later on March 19. For the first season, Leachman won a Golden Globe for her performance, and was nominated for an Emmy.

Welcome Back, Kotter was not originally broadcast in Boston due to a tumultuous school busing program that lead to protests and riots. The local ABC affiliate feared Kotter’s integrated schoolroom would exacerbate the matter, but the show was a hit and the affiliate picked it up from the fifth episode. There were also concerns that the ‘Sweathogs’ would be portrayed as juvenile delinquents, but their activities were more comical than criminal, with co-star Robert Hegyes suggesting they be modeled after the Marx Brothers to reduce tension. Ratings began to slip in the third season, which star Gabe Kaplan attributed to the ages of the actors, who began the show in their 20s, playing teenagers. By the fourth season, John Travolta was 25, the youngest of the group, and Ron Palillo was the oldest at 30. Kaplan suggested to reset the show at a local community college attended by the Sweathogs to which Kotter would transfer, but the idea never moved forward. By Season 4, Travolta had already appeared in Carrie, Saturday Night Fever and Grease, and was focusing on his film career, appearing in just ten episodes, billed as a ‘Special Guest Star’. Off-screen disputes also led Kaplan to break his contract and reduce his appearances on the show. Della Reese joined the show in Season 4 as an English teacher. Knowing the show was nearing its end, producer James Komack attempted to spin-off the newly married Arnold Horshack character onto his own series, but it never made it past the backdoor pilot stage that aired as an episode of the main series. The series received one Emmy nominations for Outstanding Comedy Series in 1976. Groucho Marx was to have a brief cameo in one episode, but when he arrived on-set he was deemed too sick to appear. Pictures were taken with Marx and the cast, but were never officially released. They did, however, turn up on the internet decades later. Three spin-offs were considered, but only one made it to air, Mr. T and Tina, starring Pat Morita, who had appeared as Mr. Takahashi in one episode of the series. It lasted just five episodes.

1985

• September 7 – The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo (ABC, One season, 13 episodes)
• September 7 – Star Wars: Droids (ABC, One season, 13 episodes, 1 special)
• September 7 – Ewoks (ABC, Two seasons, 26 episodes)
• September 7 – Small Wonder (Syndication, Four seasons, 96 episodes)
• September 7 – What’s Happening Now!! (Syndication, Three seasons, 66 episodes)
• September 9 – ThunderCats (Syndication, Four seasons, 130 episodes)

The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo was the seventh incarnation of the Scooby-Doo franchise. Vincent Price provided the voice of warlock Vincent Van Ghoul. Fred and Velma do not appear in this series.

Star Wars: Droids is set between the events of Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. Boba Fett and IG-88 appear in one episode. Anthony Daniels reprised the voice of C-3PO. With its companion series Ewoks, the two were part of ABC’s The Ewoks and Droids Adventure Hour. When Droids ended, Ewoks was retitled The All-New Ewoks.

Small Wonder proved to be so popular that it was sold to many international markets which required it to be dubbed for those audiences. To explain the child robot’s appearance as star Tiffany Brissette was growing, the character was given an upgrade to age her face and was able to eat and drink. Despite its popularity, Small Wonder has been deemed one of the worst low-budget sitcoms of all time.

What’s Happening Now!! was a sequel sitcom to ABC’s 1976-1979 sitcom What’s Happening!! Mabel King did not appear on the series, and Danielle Spencer’s character Dee was written as being away at college, with Spencer appearing occasionally. Fred Berry, returning as ‘Rerun’, appeared in just the first season after producers refused his request for a salary increase and fired him. Martin Lawrence joined the series in Season 3. Meshach Taylor appeared in two episodes.

The first season of ThunderCats cost $15 million to produce. Despite its large cast of characters, the show had eight main voice actors, some taking on as many as six roles.

1995

• September 8 – Timon & Pumbaa (Syndication/CBS, Three seasons, 85 episodes)
• September 9 – Gadget Boy & Heather (Syndcation, Two seasons, 52 episodes)
• September 9 – Earthworm Jim (Kids’ WB, Two seasons, 23 episodes)
• September 9 – Freakazoid! (Kids’ WB, Two seasons, 24 episodes)
• September 9 – Pinky and the Brain (Kids’ WB, Four seasons, 65 episodes)
• September 9 – The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries (Kids’ WB, Five seasons, 52 episodes, 1 unaired)
• September 9 – The Preston Episodes (FOX, One season, 10 episodes, 2 unaired)
• September 9 – Hang Time (NBC, Six seasons, 104 episodes)
• September 9 – Truman (HBO, TV movie)
• September 10 – Cleghorne! (The WB, One season, 15 episodes, 3 unaired)
• September 10 – First Time Out (The WB, One season, 16 episodes, 4 unaired)
• September 10 – Simon (The WB, One season, 21 episodes, 5 unaired)
• September 10 – Space Strikers (UPN Kids, One season, 26 episodes)
• September 11 – Danny! (Syndication, One season, last broadcast on February 2, 1996)
• September 11 – Day & Date (Syndication, Two seasons, last broadcast on January 3, 1997)
• September 11 – Gabrielle (Syndication, One season, last broadcast on June 19, 1996)
• September 11 – LAPD: Life on the Beat (Syndication, Four seasons, 576 episodes)
• September 11 – Lauren Hutton and… (Syndication, One season, 150 episodes)
• September 11 – The Mark Walberg Show (Syndication, One season, last broadcast on May 31, 1996)
• September 11 – Tempestt (Syndication, One season, last broadcast on June 5, 1996)
• September 11 – Ned & Stacey (FOX, Two seasons, 46 episodes, 11 unaired)
• September 11 – Partners (FOX, One season, 22 episodes)
• September 11 – Bless This House (CBS, One season, 16 episodes)
• September 12 – The Monroes (ABC, One season, 13 episodes, 7 unaired)
• September 13 – Central Park West (CBS, One season, 21 episodes)
• September 13 – Courthouse (CBS, One season, 11 episodes, 2 unaired)
• September 13 – The Drew Carey Show (ABC, Nine seasons, 233 episodes)
• September 13 – The Naked Truth (ABC.NBC, Three seasons, 55 episodes, 7 unaired)

Ernie Sabella reprised the role of The Lion King‘s Pumbaa for the entire series run of Timon & Pumbaa, while Nathan Lane returned as Timon for just ten episodes. Quinton Flynn took over for the remainder of Seaosn 1, and Kevin Schon was the voice for the rest of the series.

Earthworm Jim was based on the video game series of the same name. Freakazoid! and Pinky and the Brain were co-productions of Warner Bros. Television Animation and Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment. Pinky and the Brain was the first animated TV series presented in Dolby Surround. The characters first appeared on Animaniacs, and returned to their roots on the 2020 Animaniacs revival.

The final episode of The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries was never shown on Kids’ WB, and did not air until December 18, 2002 when the series was broadcast in reruns on Cartoon Network. Hang Time was a teen sitcom that aired on Saturday mornings, and went through extensive cast changes during its run. Daniella Deutscher and Megan Parlen are the only cast members who appeared on all six seasons. Anthony Anderson was a cast member for Seasons 2 & 3. Dick Butkus joined the series in Season 4.

Truman won Emmys for Outstanding Made for Television Movie and Outstanding Casting for a Miniseries or Special, and was nominated for six other Emmys including Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Special for Gary Sinise.

Cleghorne!, among the first batch of shows for the newly launched The WB network, was the first time two former SNL cast members of color had worked together (Ellen Cleghorne and Garrett Morris), and was the first television acting job for Sherri Shepherd.

Leah Remini was a regular on First Time Out. Simon featured Peter Dobson as Carl Himple in the pilot, but the role was recast with Jason Bateman. Only 13 of the 26 episodes of French animated series Space Strikers were aired in the US.

Daytime talk show Danny!, hosted by Danny Bonaduce, featured most of Bonaduce’s co-stars from The Partridge Family on the first episode. Gabrielle Carteris hosted daytime talk show Gabrielle. Both Danny! and Gabrielle ended due to talk show fatigue at the time.

LAPD: Life on the Beat is an American reality television series that follows officers of the Los Angeles Police Department, as they respond to various incidents within their precincts’ jurisdiction. The ninth episode of Partners crossed over with Ned & Stacey when Debra Messing and Thomas Haden Church appeared as their characters in the episode. Bless This House starred Andrew Dice Clay and Cathy Moriarty.

The Monroes was a primetime soap that starred William Devane and Susan Sullivan. It aired against Seinfeld and was not expected to do well. Seven episodes went unaired until the entire series was broadcast on cable channel SOAPnet in 2005.

CBS heavily promoted Central Park West in an attempt to re-establish its past primetime soap glory from the years of Dallas, Knots Landing and Falcon Crest. Kylie Minoque was offered a lead role but turned it down. The show was not a success and was pulled from the schedule in November and heavily retooled before its return, losing original cast member Mariel Hemingway while adding Raquel Welch, and being retitled CPW. Main cast members included Mädchen Amick, John Barrowman, Melissa Errico, Michael Michele, Tom Verica and Gerald McRaney.

Patricia Wettig was planning to leave Courthouse due to ‘creative differences’, expecting the show to be a star vehicle for her rather than an ensemble piece but it was cancelled before she could exit. Bob Gunton, Robin Givens, Jenifer Lewis and Cree Summer were among the cast. Lewis and Summer played the first recurring African American lesbian characters on television, but the characters were ordered to be toned down for TV.

The first seven seasons of The Drew Carey Show were set in a fictional Cleveland department store, working for the unseen Mr. Bell. Kevin Pollak played the character in the Season 1 finale. In later seasons, the boss was Nigel Wick, played by Craig Ferguson. In the final two seasons, the characters work for an online store with the bosses played by Kyle Howard and Jonathan Mangum. Drew also runs a small business out of his garage selling Buzz Beer. The Season 1 theme song was ‘Moon Over Parma’. The song was switched to ‘Five O’Clock World’ in Season 2, and ‘Cleveland Rocks’ for Season 3, which lasted until Season 8. With Season 8, the show rotated through nine different opening sequences containing new versions of the three theme songs. With the Season 8 changes, the characters of Kate, Mr. Wick and Steve were essentially written off the show, though Mr. Wick and Steve appear briefly late in Season 9.

When The Naked Truth moved from ABC to NBC following the first season, the show was retooled from the zany antics of a tabloid publication to one that was more respectable. The character Stupid Dave was just referred to as Dave (Mark Roberts), and Mary Tyler Moore replaced Dyan Cannon as Nora’s (Tea Leoni) mother and George Segal as her father. Season 3 saw more changes as Camilla (Holland Taylor), Nora and Dave move to a new publication, adding new cast members played by Tom Verica, Amy Hill, Jim Rash and Chris Elliott.

2005

• September 8 – Reunion (FOX, One season, 13 episodes, 4 unaired)
• September 10 – Bratz (4Kids TV, Two seasons, 40 episodes)
• September 10 – G.I. Joe: Sigma 6 (4Kids TV, Two seasons, 26 episodes)
• September 11 – Breaking Bonaduce (VH1, Two seasons, 19 episodes)
• September 11 – My Fair Brady (VH1, Three seasons, 25 episodes)
• September 11 – The War at Home (FOX, Two seasons, 44 episodes)
• September 12 – Judge Alex (Syndication, Nine seasons, 1,350 episodes)
• September 12 – Jack’s Big Music Show (Noggin, Two seasons, 26 episodes)
• September 12 – Meerkat Manor (Animal Planet, Five seasons, 66 episodes)
• September 12 – The Tyra Banks Show (Syndication/The CW, Five seasons, 810 episodes)
• September 12 – The Martha Stewart Show (Syndication/Hallmark Channel, Seven seasons, 1,162 episodes)
• September 13 – Bones (FOX, Twelve seasons, 246 episodes)
• September 13 – Supernatural (The WB/The CW, Fifteen seasons, 327 episodes)
• September 13 – Engineering an Empire (The History Channel, One season, 14 episodes)

The voice cast for animated series Bratz included Olivia Hack, Soleil Moon Frye, Tia Mowry, Dionne Quan, Wendie Malick, Lacey Chabert, and Kaley Cuoco. The all-star cast was replaced in the second season, leading to low ratings and the cancellation of the show.

In the UK, Breaking Bonaduce is known as My Reality TV Breakdown. My Fair Brady followed the lives of Christopher Knight and Adrianne Curry, after they met and fell in love on VH1’s The Surreal Life. The show seems to have originated from an episode of The Surreal Life when the cast members pitched a show idea to network executives. Curry’s idea for the show was titled Beauty and the Brady, but the concept was passed over for a show pitch from Da Brat, which never came to fruition but Curry’s idea was revisited and went into production. Season 2 was retitled My Fair Brady: We’re Getting Married!, while Season 3 was titled My Fair Brady… Maybe Baby.

The Tyra Banks Show moved to The CW in 2009 and was retitled Tyra, with a new logo and theme song. The show won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show Informative in 2008 and 2009. The Martha Stewart Show moved to the Hallmark Channel in September 2010, but ended in 2012 due to the high cost of production.

David Boreanaz was the first actor cast on Bones, although he had to be convinced to accept the role after a difficult meeting with the executive producers. Emily Deschanel was cast just before production began. She was cast after a tense moment during her audition when Boreanaz stepped closer to her and she did not step back, which most of the other actresses did.

Supernatural was in development for nearly ten years before a pilot was ordered. After the first four episodes aired on The WB, the network order a full season due to the estimated 5.69 million viewers the show attracted. The show was originally conceived to run three seasons, but was expanded to five, with Season 5 concluding the main storyline. The show continued for ten more years. With its eleventh season, it became the longest-running fantasy TV series in American television history. Eric Kripke’s original conception for the show was an anthology series featuring tabloid reporters, which the network rejected so he retooled the idea to make the characters brothers named ‘Sal’ and ‘Dean’, an homage to Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, but changed ‘Sal’ to ‘Sam’. The brothers’ last name was originally to be Harrison, an homage to Harrison Ford, but there was a real Sam Harrison in Kansas, where the characters were from, so the name was changed for legal reasons to Winchester, due to Kripke’s interest in the Winchester Mystery House. This also forced a change to Sam and Dean’s father’s name, which was to be Jack but there was also a Jack Winchester in Kansas so the name was changed to John. The tone of the series was influenced by Poltergeist, with horror happening in a family setting, and Evil Dead II and An American Werewolf in London, adding bits of comedy to the horror. The series was intended to just be a ‘monster of the week’ show but the chemistry between stars Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles prompted a change to focus more on the brothers. Despite its popularity and long run, the show only received three Primetime Emmy nominations, two in 2006 for music and sound editing, and one in 2008, also for sound editing.

2015

• September 7 – Pickle and Peanut (Disney XD, Two seasons, 42 episodes)
• September 7 – Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race (Cartoon Network, One season, 26 episodes)
• September 8 – The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (CBS, Ten seasons, 1.686 episodes to date)
• September 12 – Game Shakers (Nickelodeon, Three seasons, 61 episodes)
• September 12 – Goldie & Bear (Disney Junior, Two seasons, 45 episodes)

The title characters of Pickle and Peanut were voiced by Jon Heder and Johnny Pemberton, respectively.

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert was the latest iteration of the Late Show franchise following The Late Show with David Letterman. CBS cancelled the show, and the entire Late Show franchise, on July 17, 2025 with the show scheduled to end its run in May 2026.

Game Shakers centers on three seventh-graders, with Kel Mitchell as a rapper who invests in their game company as a compromise for their illegal use of one of his songs. Season 1 guests included Yvette Nicole Brown and GloZell. Goldie & Bear was created to preserve children’s memories of classic fairy tales and nursery rhymes.