TV by the Decade :: January 11•17

Television broadcasters begin rolling out their mid-season schedules this week, with some very notable TV series and special events making their debuts. 1966 had two notable series, one based on a popular movie featuring animal stars, and the second a wildly popular comic book superhero series. 1976 had to notable miniseries, and a spin-off of a popular sci-fi action series. 1986 had two TV movies, with one having a very strong gun violence message. 2006 featured some colossal failures, including one show that was cancelled just as its star was about to go on a talk show to promote it. 2016 only had one major network series launch, and it also failed spectacularly, while cable outlets dominated with animated, fantasy, reality, drama and comedy series, many of which had multi-season runs, with one of them still airing today. Scroll down to see the shows that premiered this week, and tell us if any of your favorites are celebrating milestone anniversaries.

1956

• No new shows premiered this week in 1956.

1966

• January 11 – Daktari (CBS, Four seasons, 89 episodes)
• January 12 – Batman (ABC, Three seasons, 120 episodes)

Daktari is the Swahili word for ‘Doctor’. The series was based on the movie Clarence, the Cross-Eyed Lion. Stars Marshall Thompson and Cheryl Miller reprised their film roles on the series. Future Happy Days star Erin Moran joined the series in its final season. Judy the Chimp had previously played Debbie the Bloop on Lost in Space. Clarence the Lion died at age 7 six months after the last episode of the series aired. Bruno the Bear guested on the series before he starred in Gentle Ben.

Batman originally aired twice a week during its first two seasons, then weekly for the third. It was the longest-running superhero TV series until it was surpassed by Smallville in 2007. Seasons 1 and 2 episodes were two-parters, except for two three-part episodes featuring villainous team-ups in Season 2. Season 3 episodes were self-contained, and Barbara Gordon/Batgirl was also added to the show. A feature film was released between Seasons 1 and 2. To cast the leads, two screen tests were done, one with Adam West and Burt Ward, and a second with Lyle Waggoner and Peter Deyell. West and Ward won the roles. The show was originally to have run in a 60 minute timeslot, but when ABC delayed the premiere until January 1966 the network only had two 30-minute timeslots available, so the show was split into two parts. One ABC affiliate refused to air the show after ABC added an additional minute of commercials. Frank Gorshin was cast as Riddler because he had been a Batman fan since childhood. John Astin replaced Gorshin for a pair of Season 2 episodes when Gorshin’s agents demanded more money. Gorshin returned for Season 3. Three actresses played Catwoman: Julie Newmar (Seasons 1 and 2), Lee Meriwether (movie), Eartha Kitt (Season 3). Newmar was working on the film McKenna’s Gold when Season 3 went into production which led to the recasting. Burgess Meredith improvised the Penguin’s ‘quacking’ to avoid coughing out loud from smoke getting caught in his throat from the cigarette required for the role. Cesar Romero refused to shave off his signature mustache for Joker, so it was just covered with white greasepaint. Aunt Harriet only appeared in two Season 3 episodes due to Madge Blake’s poor health, and the issue of trying to fit so many characters into a 30-minute episode. Series producer William Dozier was the uncredited narrator. When ABC was about to cancel the series, NBC stepped in to pick it up, but after it was discovered that hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of sets had been destroyed NBC dropped the project. Van Williams and Bruce Lee appeared as their Green Hornet and Kato characters in a ‘window cameo’ scene in Season 2, and appeared again later in the season as the duos joined forces to thwart Colonel Gumm, although in the second episode Batman and Robin consider Green Hornet and Kato to be criminals. Burt Ward made a cameo appearance in the Arrowverse crossover event ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’, which retconned the Batman series to be set on Earth-66, one of the world destroyed during the crisis.

1976

• January 11 – Eleanor and Franklin (ABC, TV miniseries)
• January 13 – The Adams Chronicles (PBS, One season, 13 episodes)
• January 14 – The Bionic Woman (ABC/NBC, Three seasons, 58 episodes)

Eleanor and Franklin won eleven Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Television Movie, the Golden Globe for Best TV Movie and the Peabody Award. The film is noted for its historical accuracy.

The Adams Chronicles tells the story of the Adams political family over a 150-year span, including John Adams, his wife Abigail Adams, his son John Quincy Adams, and other notable family members. George Grizzard played John Adams. The series won a number of Primetime Emmy Awards including Outstanding Limited Series.

The Bionic Woman is a spin-off of The Six Million Dollar Man, and aired on ABC for two seasons, then NBC for the third and final season. Three TV movies were produced following the end of the series between 1987 and 1994. To maintain plausibility, very specific limits were placed on Jaime Sommers’ abilities, such as being able to jump up two stories, but not three, she can jump down three stories but not four, she can’t turn over a truck but she can turn over a car. Some episodes did show Jaime trying to exceed her limits, which resulted in major damage to her bionics and near loss of life. Despite only airing for half a season when it debuted in January 1976, it was the fifth most-watched series of the 1975-1976 TV season. Lindsay Wagner won an Emmy Award for Best Actress in a Drama Series for the Season 2 episode ‘Deadly Ringer’. ABC cancelled the show despite its decent ratings after Season 2, feeling it was not attracting the demographics ABC wanted. NBC picked up the show and added Christopher Stone in a recurring role as a love interest for Jaime, as well as Max, the bionic dog. While Lee Majors was not allowed to cross over to the NBC series to continue as Jaime’s love interest, Steve Austin, Richard Anderson and Martin E. Brooks were allowed to continue their roles of Oscar Goldman and Dr. Rudy Wells, crossing both networks in a situation still considered unique. Both series were cancelled at the same time in 1978, but while The Six Million Dollar Man concluded with a standard episode, The Bionic Woman‘s final episode was written as a resolution to the series. The NBC TV movies included Majors’ Steve Austin returning as Jaime’s love interest since the ABC series had ended.

1986

• January 12 – Rockabye (CBS, TV movie)
• January 13 – The Right of the People (ABC, TV movie)

Rockabye starred Valerie Bertinelli, Rachel Ticotin, Jason Alexander, and Jimmy Smits.

Jeffrey Bloom wrote The Right of the People as a reaction to the mass murder during the robbery of a Bob’s Big Boy restaurant in Los Angeles in 1980. The film was intended as a theatrical release, but when ABC picked up the movie, the network asked Bloom to increase anti-gun viewpoints in the story. Michael Ontkean, Billy Dee Williams, Jane Kaczmarek, Jamie Smith Jackson and Lisa Jakub starred, with a guest appearance by John Randolph.

1996

• No new shows premiered this week in 1996.

2006

• January 11 – South Beach (UPN, One season, 8 episodes)
• January 12 – Crumbs (ABC, One season, 13 episodes, 8 unaired)
• January 17 – Love Monkey (CBS/VH1, One season, 8 episodes)

Jennifer Lopez was an executive producer on South Beach. Pitbull guested as El Guerrero. The series was savaged by critics and audiences stayed away in droves, the show ranking 152nd out of 156 shows during the 2005-2006 TV season. The show was cancelled when UPN and The WB merged to form The CW.

Crumbs starred Fred Savage, Eddie McClintock, Maggie Lawson, Reginald Ballard, William Devane and Jane Curtin. The unaired episodes were broadcast in various international markets.

Tom Cavanagh and Judy Greer starred in Love Monkey. After losing two million viewers between the premiere and Episode 3, CBS pulled the series from its schedule. VH1 announced plans to re-broadcast the first three episodes, followed by the five unaired, with the last episode airing on May 16, 2006. Tom Cavanagh was set to go on Late Night with Conan O’Brien when it was made known to him just ten minutes before taping that Love Monkey had been cancelled.

2016

• January 11 – LEGO Nexo Knights (Cartoon Network, Four seasons, 40 episodes)
• January 12 – Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments (Freeform, Three seasons, 55 episodes)
• January 13 – Second Chance (Fox, One season, 11 episodes)
• January 13 – Teachers (TV Land, Three seasons, 50 episodes)
• January 14 – Colony (USA Network, Three seasons, 36 episodes)
• January 14 – Idiotsitter (Comedy Central, Two seasons, 17 episodes, 6 webisodes)
• January 14 – Greatest Party Story Ever (MTV, Two seasons, 20 episodes)
• January 15 – The Lion Guard (Disney Channel/Disney Jr., Three seasons, 74 episodes)
• January 17 – Angie Tribeca (TBS, Four seasons, 40 episodes)
• January 17 – Billions (Showtime, Seven seasons, 84 episodes)
• January 17 – Mercy Street (PBS, Two seasons, 12 episodes)
• January 17 – The Real Housewives of Potomac (Bravo, Ten seasons, 185 episodes to date)

LEGO Nexo Knights was produced to coincide with the LEGO toy line of the same name. When the toys were discontinued, the series was cancelled.

Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments is a TV series reboot of the feature film The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, following the cancellation of a film sequel due to low box office returns. None of the film actors returned for the series. When Freeform cancelled the series, it commissioned two additional episodes to serve as a conclusion to the story.

FOX debuted the first episode of Second Chance online on December 25, 2015 ahead of the January 2016 television premiere. The show was shifted to Friday night after two low-rated episodes, swapping places with Hell’s Kitchen. The story was inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and the original title was The Frankenstein Code. The title was changed to Lookinglass, then Second Chance. The series setting was also changed from Los Angeles to King County, Washington.

Teachers was based on the web series of the same name by the improv group The Katydids. All the members of the group coincidentally have the root name Kate, and all six members starred on the series.

Colony premiered with an online release of the first episode on December 15, 2015, followed by the launch of a game-like website to promote the series. Executive producer Carlton Cuse stated the show was conceived as a metaphor for France during the Nazi occupation. Josh Holloway and Sarah Wayne Callies starred. The show was originally planned to have a five or six season run.

Idiotsitter premiered on Comedy Central’s website as a web series before being picked up by the network. The second season was given a 10-episode order, but was reduced to seven episodes which aired as a two-night marathon. Greatest Party Story Ever was the last project from MTV Animation.

The Lion Guard is the second series based on Disney’s The Lion King, following The Lion King’s Timon and Pumbaa. The series take place between the original movie and the direct-to-video sequel, while the third season takes place concurrently with the film’s second act, the final two episodes serving as an epilogue to the film, leading into the sequel.

The fourth season of Angie Tribeca was subtitled Special Division Forces, and was broadcast as a two-night event. The show shared a comic sensibility with Police Squad! and Sledge Hammer.

Preet Bharara was the inspiration for Billions character U.S. Attorney Chuck Rhodes, played by Paul Giametti. Bharara was somewhat critical of the casting due to their very different ethnicities. Several spin-offs of the show had been announced, but none of them ever materialized.

Mercy Street was inspired by memoirs and letters of actual doctors and female nurse volunteers at Mansion House Hospital during the Civil War. The Real Housewives of Potomac is the eighth series in The Real Housewives franchise.