FX Productions
Things start to perk up as we move closer to Spring with several new shows premiering across four different decades. Many of them did not last longer than a season or two, but there was one critically acclaimed drama that ran for six seasons … which could have gone longer if the show’s star and cretor hadn’t decided their story was told after six season. Which show was it? Read on to find out!
1950
- No new series premiered this week in 1950.
1960
- No new series premiered this week in 1960.
1970
- No new series premiered this week in 1970.
1980
- March 15 — Sitcom Sanford premieres on NBC. The show had a short but tortured history. Star Redd Foxx had left Sanford and Son after six seasons to star in a variety show for ABC which was cancelled after four months. Foxx returned to NBC but Demond Wilson refused to reprise his role as Lamont, so the show was simply titled Sanford with Lamont off working on the Alaska pipeline and his former co-worker Cal Pettie (Dennis Burkley) moving into Lamont’s old room to work with Fred. Sanford and Son recurring character Rollo (Nathaniel Taylor) was now a delivery man for Sanford. (The events of the sequel series Sanford Arms (1977), where Fred and Lamont moved to Arizona after selling the junkyard, were ignored.) Fred begins dating an upper class customer, Evelyn (Marguerite Ray), but the relationship is frowned upon by her snobby brother Winston (Percy Rodriguez) and sassy maid Clara (Cathy Cooper). Evelyn’s daughter Cissy (Suzanne Stone) was more accepting. Later in the season, Aunt Esther’s son Cliff (Clinton Derricks-Carroll) moves in with Fred and starts dating Cissy. (In the original series, Cliff’s name was Daniel.) Officers Smitty and Hoppy from the original series appeared in five episodes. The show premiered to solid ratings but those eroded quickly as the season progressed, ranking well outside the Top 30. NBC put the show on hiatus for retooling. When the show returned for its second season in January 1981, Aunt Esther was moving in with Fred to make sure he wasn’t a bad influence on Cliff (although she appeared in just three episodes, and Cliff was only in a handful of episodes). The retooling was meant to focus more on Fred and Cal’s relationship. Evelyn was reduced to a recurring character, and is now just dating Fred instead of being his fiancee, and Rollo, Winston, Cissy and Clara were dropped altogether with no explanation. Grady (Whitman May) from the original series made two guest appearances and Officers Smitty and Hoppy also appeared several times. NBC put the show in the Friday ‘death slot’ and ratings tanked, leading to the show being pulled at the end of January before the February sweeps. The remaining episodes were burned off over the summer, and the abrupt cancellation did not give writers the time to create a proper series finale. The first season consisted of 14 episodes, and the second season consisted of 12 episodes. The last episode was broadcast on July 10, 1981. The show has never been included in syndication packages but the series aired on BET in 2008. All but two episodes of the series are now available on the Crackle streaming service.
1990
- March 19 — Sports series Baseball Tonight premieres on ESPN. The show covers the day’s Majoe League Baseball highlights during the season and is still on the air with host Marc Kestecher. In 2017, daily airings of the show other than the Sunday edition, were replaced by the MLB Network’s Intentional Talk, which stopped airing in 2018. Baseball Tonight now airs on Sundays before Sunday Night Baseball and for major events like the MLB All-Star Game, College World Series, MLB Postseason and Winter Meetings.
2000
- March 16 — The New Movie Show with Chris Gore premieres on FX. The short-lived series featured Gore and a panel of critics sharing their thoughts on newly released films. Other segments featured predictions for the biggest movies of the summer, the panel discussing their favorite sequels, and awards for the best elements of the James Bond films.
- March 20 — Sitcom Titus premieres on FOX. The series was based on the stand-up comedy of star Christopher Titus, specifically his one-man show Norman Rockwell is Bleeding (which itself was broadcast in 2004), and featured Jack Kenny and Brian Hargrove. The one-man show was based loosely on Titus’ real-life family. On the show, he plays a childish adult who owns a custom car shop, and follows him and his dim-witted half-brother Dave, his girlfriend Erin, his goody-goody friend Tommy and his arrogant, bigoted, smoking, drinking, womanizing, divorced father Ken. Cynthis Watros was the first person to audition for the role of Erin and the first person cast. Steve Carrell and Zack Ward auditioned for the role of Tommy. Carrell lost out to David Shatraw and Ward was cast as Dave. Stacy Keach was cast as Ken after several auditions because Titus admitted Keach intimidated him. The real Ken Titus would often coach Keach on how to play him better, and Titus would get upset when Keach’s delivery of even the driest line would get more laughs than his own punchlines. Hargrove commented that Keach could get an audience response with just a look. A number of episodes were censored and banned by FOX, including one after the September 11 attacks in which the government believes the Titus family are terrorists after a series of misunderstandings on a flight. Several other episodes were aired out of order which affected the continuity of the storytelling. Titus said the show was cancelled after an argument with network executive who wanted to split up Titus and Erin because Dharma & Greg had done the same thing and that show’s ratings went up. Titus refused because, at the time, he was still married to his wife Erin and the show’s premise of ‘two screwed up people living a normal life’ would be compromised. With Titus’ refusal, on-air promotions immediately ended and the show was soon cancelled. Titus also said the show’s edgy content was another reason for the cancellation. The show lasted for three seasons, producing 54 episodes with the last broadcast on August 12, 2002.
- March 21 — Drama The Beat premieres on UPN. The series focused on the experiences of two uniformed police officers, Mike Dorrigan (Derek Cecil) and Zane Marinelli (Mark Ruffalo), of the NYPD and their attempts to deal with life and work in New York City. The series was produced by many of the people behind NBC’s Homicide: Life on the Street and HBO’s Oz. The series was also notable as being one of many in which the character Det. John Munch (Richard Belzer) appeared. Munch was a regular on Homicide, then guested on Law & Order. Law & Order: Trial By Jury, Arrested Development, The Wire, 30 Rock and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Munch became a regular on Law & Order: SVU in 1999 with a final guest appearance in 2016. The Beat lasted just six episodes before leaving the airwaves on April 25, 2000. Seven additional episodes were produced but never aired.
2010
- March 15 — Docuseries Jessica Simpson’s The Price of Beauty premieres on VH1. The series followed Simpson and her two best friends Ken Pavés and CaCee Cobb as they traveled the world to meet women, study local fashions, dietary fads and beauty regimes in an attempt to explore the meaning of true beauty in different cultures. Eight episodes were produced and on the finale, Simpson gave a woman from Thailand with a skin condition a makeover to make her more confident within herself. The show ended with a modeling runway with guests walking and Simpson announced a charity project entitled ‘A Beautiful Me’ to help people worldwide. The final episode was broadcast on May 3, 2010.
- March 16 — Crime drama Justified premieres on FX. Based on the Elmore Leonard short story ‘Fire in the Hole”, the series starred Timothy Olyphant as Deputy US Marshal Raylan Givens who enforced his own brand of justice in his hometown of Harlan, Kentucky. His unconventional enforcement techniques made him a target to criminals, and a ‘problem child’ to his US Marshals Service superior. In response to his ‘justified’ shooting of mob hitman Tommy Bucks, Givens is reassigned to Lexington, Kentucky, whose jurisdiction includes Harlan County. Each of the six seasons featured its own major crime story arc. The regular cast included Olyphant, Nick Searcy, Joelle Carter, Jacob Pitts, Erica Tazel, Natalie Zea, Walton Goggins and Jere Burns. Recurring cast members through the six seasons included M.C. Gainey (1), William Ragsdale (1-3), Stephen Root (1-3, 5), Jim Beaver (2-4), Jeremy Davies (2-3, 5-6), Margo Martindale (2), James LeGros (2-3, 5), Mykelti Williamson (3-4, 6), Neal McDonough (3), William Mapother (3), Stephen Tobolowsky (3-4), Adam Arkin (3,5), Ron Eldard (4), Gerald McRaney (4), Patton Oswalt (4,6), Mike O’Malley (4), Chris Chalk (4), Michael Rapaport (5), Alicia Witt (5), Amy Smart (5), Danielle Panabaker (5), Mary Steenburgen (5-6), Danny Strong (5-6), Sam Elliott (6), Garret Dillahunt (6), Jeff Fahey (6), Jonathan Tucker (6) and Scott Grimes (6). The decision to end the show came from Olyphant and creator Graham Yost who felt that the arc of the show and what they had to say was better served by six seasons rather than seven. Yost was most concerned about running out of story and repeating themselves. There were financial incentives to keep the show going, but they felt that six seasons was right. The show was nominated for eight Primetime Emmy Awards and won two, for Margo Martindale and Jeremy Davies. 78 episodes were produced with the series finale broadcast on April 14, 2015.
- March 17 — Reality series addicted premieres on TLC. The show followed the lives of individuals who are struggling with addiction and they work with interventionist Kristina Wandzilak. The first season consisted of six episodes. Season 2 was moved to the Discovery Fit & Health channel (now Discovery Life) and produced eight episodes (those episodes eventually aired on TLC). The last original episode was broadcast on October 16, 2012, with the TLC broadcast of Season 2 ending on August 28, 2012.
- March 17 — Animated sitcom Ugly Americans premieres on Comedy Central. The series focuses on the life of Mark Lilly, a social worker with the Department of Integration in the alternate reality version of New York City inhabited by monsters and other creatures. The organization specializes in the integration of non-humans that live in Manhattan. Lilly lives with a lazy, over-sexed zombie roomate and has a wizard co-worker and a demon boss. His succubus girlfriend, who also works at the Department, is the daughter of Satan and a human who looks like Mia Farrow in Rosemary’s Baby. Mark struggles to stay cheerful and politically correct while working with his bizarre companions. Comedy Central initially ordered seven episodes that began airing after the 14th season of South Park and the network ordered an additional seven episodes to begin airing in October 2010. The series was picked up for a second 14-episode season which was later expanded to 17, with the first ten airing in the summer of 2011 after Futurama and the remaining seven airing after South Park beginning March 14, 2012. On May 29, 2013 the show’s producers announced the series’ cancellation saying Comedy Central did everything in its power to find outside financing the keep the show alive, but some legal technicalities kept any deals from going through. The final episode was broadcast on April 25, 2012.
- March 21 — Docuseries Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution premieres on ABC. Produced by Oliver and Ryan Seacrest, the series followed British chef Oliver as he attempted to reform the American school lunch program, helping American society fight obesity and change their eating habits in order to live longer, healthier lives. In the second season, Oliver to his food revolution to Los Angeles, home to the second largest school district in the US. Much of the season revolved around the district’s Board of Education refusing to allow him in schools, and his subsequent attempts to circumvent their decisions in creative ways. The show was cancelled after two seasons and 12 episodes, replaced by Dancing With the Stars. The last episode was broadcast in the US on June 24, 2011. The series was nominated both seasons for the Outstanding Reality Program Primetime Emmy and won for its first season.
Did you or do you watch any of these show? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below!
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