FOX
The second week of April yielded very little in the way of new programming with just four new shows premiering in two different decades. Two of the four shows had multi-season runs but only one of those was seen by a wide audience and launched the careers of several performers who are very well-known today. Let’s take a look at this week’s TV series premieres through the decades.
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
- No new series premiered this week in 1980.
1990
- April 12 — Sitcom Down Home premieres on NBC. Created by Barton Dean, with Ted Danson as co-executive producer, the series starred Judith Ivey as Kate McCrory, a New York City executive who returns to visit her home town of Hadley Cove, Texas, a Gulf Coast fishing village, only to end up staying to help save her father’s bait and tackle shop from condo developer Wade Prescott … who also happens to be her ex-boyfriend. The cast included Ray Baker, Eric Allan Kramer, Dakin Matthews, Timothy Scott and Gedde Watanabe. The series debuted with a six-episode first season and was renewed for a second 13-episode mid-season debut but did not receive an order for a third season. 19 episodes were produced and the series ended on May 18, 1991.
- April 15 — Sketch comedy series In Living Color premieres on FOX, created and written by Keenen Ivory Wayans who also starred. The title was inspired by NBC’s broadcast transition from black and white to color with programs introduced as being presented ‘in living color’. The title also referenced the fact that most of the cast was Black. The show drew controversy for Wayans’ decision to portray Black humor from the ghetto at a time when mainstream TV audiences were accustomed to more upscale comedy like The Cosby Show, causing a feud between Wayans and FOX executives. In addition to Keenen, other Wayans family members — Damon, Kim, Shawn and Marlon — had roles on the show while brother Dwayne often appeared as an extra. The show also launched the careers of previously unknown comedians and actors including Jamie Foxx, Jim Carrey, Tommy Davidson, David Alan Grier and T’Keyah Crystal Keymáh. The show also featured the Fly Girls dance troupe whose members included Jennifer Lopez and Carrie Ann Inaba, with Rosie Perez serving as choreographer. The show had a rotating roster of regular skits that included ‘The Homeboy Shopping Network’, ‘Fire Marshall Bill’, ‘Men on Film’, ‘Homey D. Clown’, ‘East Hollywood Squares’, ‘Benita Buttrell’, ‘Calhoun Tubbs’ and parodies of Arsenio Hall. The show also featured musical guests starting with the second season as Queen Latifah appeared as the first performer. Others who performed included Heavy D, Public Enemy, Kris Kross, En Vogue, Eazy-E, Monie Love, MC Lyte, Arrested Development, Mary J. Blige, Tupac, Digable Planets, Redman, Naughty By Nature, Lords of the Underground, and A Tribe Called Quest. While the show was popular during its first two seasons, the rift between Wayans and FOX led to his departure from the series as the network censored some of the show’s content and rerunning early episodes without his consent. He feared that would decrease the show’s syndication value. Damon Wayans left to pursue a movie career around the same time but would return for guest appearances during the fourth season. Keenen returned for the fourth season premiere, but remained executive producer and was still shown in the opening credits. He quit the show after the season’s 13th episode, and Marlon left shortly after, with Shawn and Kim departing at the end of the season. Carrey, Davidson, Grier, Keymah and Fly Girl Diedre Lang were the only cast members to stay with the show until the end, although Carrey’s appearances became limited due to his rising film career, and Davidson missed a few episodes for undisclosed reasons. Kelly Coffield, the lone white female cast member until the arrival of Alexandra Wentworth in Season 4, left before the start of Season 5. The final season no longer included charater-driven sketches, giving way to cruder content and a reliance on celebrity guests including Barry Bonds, James Brown, Rodney Dangerfield, Bret Hart, Sherman Hemsley, Biz Markie, Peter Marshall, Ed O’Neill, Chris Rock, Macho Man Randy Savage and Tupac Shakur. Reruns of the show have appeared on BET, FX and FXX with heavy editing of content and in one case a sketch removed altogether. DVD releases have restored some of the censored language but a sketch spoofing Billy Dee Williams’ Colt 45 ads that the network felt suggested date rape, has never been seen since the original broadcast. Damon Wayans, Carrey and Grier reprised some of their characters during appearances on Saturday Night Live. Wayans brought homeless wino Anton Jackson and gay film critic Blaine Edwards to the show. Carrey, who auditioned for SNL but lost out to Charles Rocket (bet NBC regretted that decision after Rocket was swiftly fired for dropping an F-bomb during a broadcast), impersonated Fire Marshall Bill during his Season 21 finale monologue, while Cecily Strong appeared in a family sketch with Carrey as an aunt modeled after Fire Marshall Bill during a 2014 appearance. Grier hosted during Season 21 and reprised his gay film critic character Antoine Merriweather in a sketch that included a surprise appearance by Wayans as Blaine. In Living Color won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Sereis in 1990, and aired a live episode as counter-programming to the Super Bowl halftime show on CBS. The all-time high ratings for the episode prompted the NFL to book A-list acts for future shows beginning with Michael Jackson the following year. The show ran for five seasons, producing 127 episodes with the finale airing on May 19, 1994.
2000
- No new series premiered this week in 2000.
2010
- April 12 — Docuseries TNA Reaction premieres on Spike. The pro wrestling series was filmed to mimic a cinéma-vérité documentary, catching wrestlers preparing for matches or expressing their emotions immediately following a match, with sit-down interviews used to comment on current happenings within the company. TNA superstars featured in the program included A.J. Styles, Hulk Hogan, Jeff Hardy, Kurt Angle and many more. The show ran for a single season of 23 episodes, ending on December 20, 2010.
- April 18 — Documentary series Masterclass premieres on HBO. Each episode documents the experience of a small group of young artists, chosen from the Miami-based organization YoungArts which supports emerging artists, working with a famous mentor. Over the course of the series’ three seasons, mentors included Placido Domingo, Liv Ullmann, Edward Albee, Frank Gehry, Bill T. Jones, Julian Schnabel, Renée Fleming, Bobby McFerrin, John Guare, Patti Lupone, Bruce Weber, Kathleen Turner, Wynton Marsalis, Josh Groban, Anna Deavere Smith and Alan Alda. 21 episodes were produced and the series won a Primetime Emmy in 2015 for Outstanding Children’s Program. The final episode was broadcast on October 14, 2014.
Did you or do you watch any of these show? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below!
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