CBS Television
The third week of April only had new shows premiering in two different decades, but aside from one very short-lived series, all of this week’s shows had multiple season runs … and one of them is still airing today! There was a variety of shows premiering this week from sitcoms to game shows to animated series and more so let’s take a look and see which ones you remember.
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 19 — Sitcom Wings premieres on NBC. Set at the fictional ‘Tom Nevers Field’ in Nantucket, Massachusetts, Tim Daly and Steven Weber starred as brothers Joe and Brian Hackett, owners of Sandpiper Airlines. Their childhood friend Helen (Crystal Bernard) runs the diner inside the airport. The Sandpiper ticket counter is manned by Fay (Rebecca Schull), who is sweet, sarcastic and a bit scatterbrained. The airport also houses Sandpiper rival Aeromass run by Roy Biggins (David Schramm), who often clashes comically with the brothers, Fay and Helen. Dimwitted airport mechanic Lowell Mather (Thomas Haden Church) maintains planes for both airlines. Tony Shalhoub made a guest appearance in Season 2 as Italian immigrant Antonio who operates a taxi service. He became a series regular in the third season. Helicopter pilot Alex Lambert (Farrah Forke) was a recurring character in Season 4, a regular in Season 5, and then a guest on Season 6. By Season 6, Amy Yasbeck joined the series as Helen’s snobbish older sister Casey who moves to the island and becomes the unwitting object of Antonio’s affections. When Thomas Haden Church exited the series at the end of Season 6 (he guested in Season 7), Lowell was replaced for a single season by Budd Bronski (Brian Haley), a retired U.S. Marine. Wings was created by David Angell, Peter Casey and David Lee, who also created Cheers and Frasier. While not a spin-off of Cheers, Wings was set in the same television universe which allowed Bebe Neuwirth, George Wendt, John Ratzenberger, Kirstie Alley and Kelsey Grammer to make guest appearances as their Cheers characters. Grammer even scored an Emmy nomination for his guest appearance. Recurring and guest actors included William Hickey, Gilbert Gottfried, Don Murray, Phil Leeds, Mark Harelik, Abraham Benrubi, Valerie Mahaffey, Michael Manasseri, Laura Innes, Concetta Tomei, Mitchell Ryan, John Hawkes and Rose Marie. Debuting late in the year, the first season consisted of just six episodes, but returned for a full second season in September 1990. The series only cracked the Top 20 twice, landing at Number 18 in both the third and fifth seasons. By the eighth and final season the show had dropped to 76th place for the year and was cancelled after 172 episodes. The series finale was broadcast on May 21, 1997. The complete series has been released on DVD and is also available to stream on CBS All Access.
2000
- No new series premiered this week in 2000.
2010
- April 19 — Dating game show Baggage premieres on Game Show Network (GSN). Hosted by Jerry Springer, each episode featured three contestants hoping to win a date. Each contestant has three suitcases — small, medium and large — which contains a embarrassing, gross, unique or weird trait that could be more questionable to the prospective date as the cases get larger. In each round, the prospective date eliminates the contestant whose ‘baggage’ is too much for them to handle until there is one contestant left. In the final round, the prospective date reveals their own ‘baggage’ and the contestant must then decide if the date will happen or if they will walk away. The show was a ratings success for GSN and became the network’s first original series to begin airing in syndication. With the show continuing to perform well in reruns after four seasons, GSN ordered a 20-episode traveling version of the show, Baggage on the Road, which brought the show to different cities across the U.S. The show was met with wildy different critical reviews from ‘GSN’s latest bad idea’ (Josef Adalian, The Wrap) to ‘real, and … spectacular’ (June Thomas, Slate). The show also spawned Austrailian and British versions under the same title. The original series ran for four seasons and 300 episodes with the On the Road edition adding another 20. The last original episode aired on March 11, 2015.
- April 19 — Comedy series Romantically Challenged premieres on ABC. The series focused on recently divorced single mom Rebecca Thomas, an attorney in Pittsburgh as she transitions from family life to primary breadwinner. ABC picked up the pilot in 2009 under the title Threesome with Eric Christain Olsen as Shawn, a 30-something caught between his lazy best friend roommate and his single-mother girlfriend (Milano). Kyle Bornheimer was cast as the roommate, Perry. The show underwent a title change to Single With Baggage, and finally Romantically Challenged. By then, the character of Lisa (Kelly Stables) was changed from Rebecca’s best friend to sister. ABC originally ordered 13 episodes for midseason but decreased the order to seven, and also recast the role of Shawn with Josh Lawson. The series was shot on the old Seinfeld stage. The show was set to debut on April 12 but ABC delayed the premiere by a week to make way for a special two-hour episode of Dancing With the Stars. The show scored ratings that would be considered good for any other timeslot, but it only managed to retain half of what lead-in DWTS delivered which doomed the show to an early cancellation. ABC pulled the series after four episodes after the May 17 broadcast, leaving three unaired.
- April 20 — Pseudoscience docuseries Ancient Aliens premieres on History. The series hypothesized about ancient astronauts and proposed that historical texts, archaeology, and legends contained evidence of past extraterrestrial contact with humans. The series made its debut on March 8, 2009 when History aired the pilot before the first full season aired in 2010. The show has been widely criticized by historians, cosmologists and archaeologists for its pseudoscience, pseudohistory and pseudoarchaeology. The series first three seasons ran on History, then moved to H2 beginning with Season 4 through the middle of Season 7, returning to History on April 10, 2015. Despite the criticism, the series’ 15th season debuted on January 24, 2020 with 190 episodes to its credit.
- April 22 — Scientific series Sliced premieres on History. Hosts John McCalmont and Budd Kelley would slice everyday objects in half to uncover how they work. Among the items sliced were pinball machines and slot machines to see if there were machanisms to prevent cheating, an armored van, Etch A Sketch, kitchen appliances, a fire truck, power toold, a jukebox and mechanical bull, bathroom items, golf equipment, a vending machine, a garbage truck, security equipment, electronic devices, robots and an entire bowling alley. The series aired for a single season of 17 episode with the last broadcast on June 29, 2010.
- April 23 — Animated series Ben 10: Ultimate Alien premieres on Cartoon Network, the third entry in the Ben 10 franchise. The series was a follow-up to the previous series, Ben 10: Alien Force, taking place a few weeks after that show’s finale. With the Omnitrix destroyed, Ben Tennyson, now sixteen years old, must learn to master the powers of the Ultimatrix, a modified version of the previous device, which has the ability to evolve Ben’s alien forms into much more powerful versions known as ‘ultimate forms’. The first season featured the Osmosian villain Aggregor, who kidnapped five powerful aliens from the Andromeda Galaxy in order to steal their powers, with Ben and his team trying to stop Aggregor. The second season featured mostly stand-alone stories, but both the second and third seasons focused on the Forever Knights and their leader, Sir George, an immortal soldier and origin of the myth of Saint George and the Dragon. 52 episodes of the series were produced over three seasons. The two-part series finale that aired on March 31, 2012 was dedicated to series developer, writer and producer Dwayne McDuffie, who died in 2011 during the production of the series.
- April 23 — Animated series Generator Rex premieres on Cartoon Network. The series focused on an event that took place five years before the start of the story — a massive explosion that released high concentrations of nanites into the atmosphere, infecting almost every living thing on Earth. The nanites could randomly activate in their host, mutating the subject into a monster known as an E.V.O., or Exponentially Variegated Organism. Rex is an amnesiac teenager who is a permanent E.V.O. but he lacks any physical deformity and has forgotten his past. Rex is able to control the nanites, allowing him to manifest a wide variety of bio-mechanical abilities and powers, and he can deactivate nanites inside other E.V.O.s, effectively curing them of their mutations and returning them to normal. Rex works for Providence whose archenemy is Van Kleiss, an E.V.O. scientist connected to the original nanite explosion whose ultimate goal is to be all powerful, using E.V.O.s to get him there, promising Rex he’ll tell him about his past if he joins him. The voice cast included Daryl Sabara, Grey DeLisle, John DiMaggio, J.K. Simmons, Fred Savage, Freddy Rodriguez, Luke Perry, Brent Spiner, Danica McKellar, Felicia Day, Mark Hamill, James Hong, John Cena, Marion Ross, Matthew Lillard, Kath Soucie, Frank Welker, Olivia d’Abo, Phil LaMarr, Shelley Morrison, Maurice LaMarche, Lacey Chabert and Wil Wheaton. 60 episodes were produced over three seasons with the finale broadcast on January 3, 2013.
Did you or do you watch any of these show? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below!
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