TV by the Decade :: January 2•8

Goodson-Todman Productions

Happy New Year! With the holidays behind us, the networks are beginning to roll out some new programming for the new year, or what became known in later decades as ‘mid-season’. This is the time when shows that failed to make the grade in the Fall are replaced by new shows that will hopefully find an audience. Ironically, this week saw two new shows debut in two different decades that were cancelled after just two episodes. Another new show saw most of its episodes burned off in the Saturday dead zone (where Saturday’s pre-2000 used to be one of the most watched nights of the week). This week also saw the primetime debut of a popular daytime game show, and a scripted drama based on a popular movie that tanked on a network but thrived in Syndication. And one late night show debuted that ran for exactly 2,000 episodes. Do you know what these shows are? Read on to learn more and see if any of your favorites debuted this week.

1952

January 8 – My Friend Irma

• Cast: Marie Wilson, Mary Shipp, Richard Eyer, Cathy Lewis
• Notable Guests: John Carradine, Margaret Dumont
• Synopsis: The misadventures of Jane Stacy and her friend and roommate Irma, a scatterbrained stenographer from Minnesota.
• Network: CBS
• Broadcast History: Two seasons, 39 episodes, last broadcast on June 25, 1954
• Trivia: The first CBS program to be broadcast from Television City in Hollywood. My Friend Irma was a popular franchise that incorporated radio, movies, TV, and a comic strip.

1962

January 2 – Our Five Daughters

• Principal Cast: Esther Ralston, Jacqueline Courtney, Mike Keene, Jon Cypher, Joan Anderson, Nuella Dierking, Iris Joyce
• Synopsis: Daytime soap opera in which Helen Lee and her five daughters’ lives are upended when husband and father Jim is critically injured in an accident.
• Network: NBC
• Broadcast History: One season, 162 episodes, last broadcast on September 28, 1962
• Trivia: Esther Ralston was a former silent film star who lost her career and most of her money after refusing to sleep with a studio mogul. She had been working as a sales clerk with the odd acting job here and there. An appearance on the daytime courtroom drama The Verdict Is Yours landed her the lead on Our Five Daughters.

January 2 – Password

• Host: Allen Ludden
• Synopsis: Weekly primetime edition of the daytime game show. One celebrity and one civilian contestant used one word clues to guess the ‘password’. The winning team would advance to the Lightning Round.
• Network: CBS
• Broadcast History: Three seasons, last broadcast on May 22, 1967
• Trivia: The Lightning Round was one of the first bonus rounds on a TV game show. CBS head Fred Silverman hated game shows and cancelled the series after squabbles arose over where the show would be taped. Silverman wanted the show to relocate permanently to Television City in Hollywood, while producer Mark Goodson opposed the move, preferring New York’s CBS-TV Studio 52 (later converted into Studio 54) and CBS-TV Studio 50 (The Ed Sullivan Theater).

1972

• No new shows premiered this week in 1971.

1982

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Television

January 7 – Fame

• Cast: Debbie Allen, Albert Hague, Michael Thoma, Carol Mayo Jenkins, Ann Nelson, Morgan Stevens, Ken Swofford, Graham Jarvis, Eric Pierpoint, Gene Anthony Ray, Lori Singer, Valerie Landsburg, Billy Hufsey, Cynthia Gibb, Janet Jackson, Nia Peeples, Page Hannah, Carrie Hamilton, Michael Cerveris, Carlo Imperato
• Notable Guests: Carmine Caridi, Michael DeLorenzo, Jimmy Osmond, Dick Miller, Robert Romanus, Denny Dillon, Harold Perrineau, Madlyn Rhue, Donna McKechnie,Don Cheadle, Lee Ving, Elizabeth Daily, Nancy Cartwright, Anthony Newley, John Carradine, Esai Morales, Rob Morrow, Gerrit Graham, Kevin McCarthy, Carol Burnett, Russell Johnson, Milton Berle, Jack Carter, Paul Bartel, Morey Amsterdam, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Bebe Neuwirth, George Burns, Irene Cara, Art Carney, Marge Champion, Fran Drescher, Dominique Dunne, Greg Evigan, Brian Patrick Clarke, John Karlen, Richard Simmons, Gwen Verdon, Ray Walston, Brenda Vaccaro, Peabo Bryson, Fionnula Flanagan, Melissa Manchester, Nancy Walker, Merritt Butrick, Betty White, Joan Baez, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Martha Quinn, Fred Willard
• Synopsis: Based on the 1980 film, it followed the lives of the students and faculty at the New York City High School for the Performing Arts.
• Network: NBC/Syndication
• Broadcast History: Six seasons, 136 episodes, last broadcast on May 18. 1987
• Trivia: Jasmine Guy appeared uncredited as a dancer. Ice-T also made an uncredited appearance. The school in the series is fictional, but it is based on the real Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. While interiors were filmed in Hollywood, some exteriors were shot in New York City (except in Season 3). Despite good reviews, ratings were poor and NBC cancelled the show in 1983. MGM Television revived it for Syndication later that year. While Irene Cara had a hit with the title theme song from the movie, it was performed by cast member Erica Gimpel for the show, with her vocals heard even after she departed the series. A new version by new cast member Loretta Chandler was recorded for the final two seasons. The song ‘I Still Believe in Me’, by Gimpel and Debbie Allen, was Emmy nominated for Best Original Song. Four of the film’s cast members appeared on the series: Lee Curreri, Gene Anthony Ray, Albert Hague and Debbie Allen. Several characters from the film were carried over to the series but played by different actors. Madonna auditioned for the series but was not cast. Her audition tape can be found on YouTube. Debbie Allen only appears in exterior scenes during the final season because filming of the show overlapped with her run on Broadway in Sweet Charity.

1992

January 4 – Nick Arcade

• Host: Phil Moore
• Synopsis: Children’s game show combining video game trivia with contestant-interactive virtual reality.
• Network: Nickelodeon
• Broadcast History: Two seasons, 84 episodes, last broadcast on November 6, 1992.
• Trivia: The show was the first in America to regularly intermix live action with animation using a bluescreen. Four pilots for the show were produced. Joey Fatone appeared on the show as a contestant, pre-N’Sync, using his full name Joseph Fatone. The casts of Clarissa Explains it All, Salute Your Shorts, and Welcome Freshmen appeared on three special celebrity episodes to compete for charity during Season 2.

2002

January 6 – The Conspiracy Zone

• Host: Kevin Nealon
• Notable Guests: Kathy Griffin, John Henson, French Stewart, Harlan Ellison
• Synopsis: Discussion program about conspiracy theories with a group of panelists, a mix of experts and celebrities.
• Network: The New TNN
• Broadcast History: Two seasons, 26 episodes, last broadcast on November 10, 2002
• Trivia: A pilot was produced but never aired.

January 6 – The It Factor

• Cast: Jeremy Renner, LisaRaye McCoy, MC Lyte, Katheryn Winnick, Godfrey, Daisy Eagan
• Synopsis: Reality series that followed actors as they attempted to lead successful careers.
• Network: Bravo
• Broadcast History: Two seasons, last broadcast on March 31, 2003
• Trivia: The first season was set in New York City; the second was set in Los Angeles.

January 8 – Last Call with Carson Daly

• Cast: Carson Daly
• Notable Guests: Mike Birbiglia, Tom Green, Jameela Jamil, Anthony Anderson, Lily Allen, Michael Rapaport, Kathy Griffin, Thomas Lennon, Jerry O’Connell, Moby, David Duchovny, David Arquette, Jewel, Yvonne Strahovski, Julie Bowen, Cheryl Hines, Anna Paquin, Michael Clarke Duncan, Seann William Scott, Drea de Matteo, Famke Janssen, Tig Notaro, Kiefer Sutherland, Regina King, Dylan McDermott, Shannen Doherty, Godfrey, Quentin Tarantino, Chelsea Handler, Fred Willard, Morrissey, Reid Scott, Christopher Meloni, Chloë Grace Moretz, Jared Leto, The Cure, Judy Greer, Katy Perry, Jimmy Kimmel, Sofía Vergara, Stanley Tucci, Tori Amos, Christina Ricci, Sam Rockwell, Will Ferrell, Wanda Sykes
• Synopsis: Late night talk show that later transitioned into an entertainment program featuring stand-up and musical performances and interviews.
• Network: NBC
• Broadcast History: Eighteen seasons, 2,000 episodes, last broadcast on May 24, 2019
• Trivia: Unlike other NBC late night shows, Last Call typically produced 24 weeks of original programming with the rest of the schedule filled with reruns. The series originally taped in NBC’s Studio 8H, the home to Saturday Night Live which required Last Call to work around SNL‘s schedule. There was a minimal set and no house band, but when the show relocated to Los Angeles in 2005, it began to look more like a traditional late night talk show with a set, monologue, comedy bits and a band led by Joe Firstman. Production was suspended for a month in 2007 due to a writers strike, and Daly was forced to return to work or see 75 non-striking staff members fired. The shows were not scripted and had no monologue, but Daly was accused of crossing picket lines. Daly wanted to move into the hosting position at Late Night when Conan O’Brien left, but the job went to Jimmy Fallon. Last Call was nearly cancelled when NBC planned to move Jay Leno’s primetime show back to 11:35 PM, shifting The Tonight Show to 12:05 AM and Late Night to 1:05 AM. After O’Brien was forced out and Leno was given back Tonight, keeping the schedule intact, Last Call‘s ratings rose 4%. Last Call was the last late night network series to switch to high definition in 2011.

January 8 – Imagine That

• Cast: Hank Azaria, Jayne Brook, Julia Schultz, Suzy Nakamura, Katey Sagal, Joshua Malina, David Pressman
• Notable Guests: Khary Payton
• Synopsis: A comedy writer uses his Walter Mitty-like fantasies as inspiration for his show.
• Network: NBC
• Broadcast History: One season, 6 episodes (4 unaired), last broadcast on January 15, 2002

2012

January 3 – Work It

• Cast: Benjamin Koldyke, Amaury Nolasco, Rochelle Aytes, John Caparulo, Kate Reinders, Hannah Sullivan, Kirstin Eggers, Rebecca Mader, Beth Lacke
• Notable Guests: Josh McDermitt, Stephen Tobolowsky, John Rubinstein
• Synopsis: Centers on two unemployed car salesmen who realize that they are living in a woman’s world, so they decide that to find work again, they must dress as women to get jobs as pharmaceutical reps.
• Network: ABC
• Broadcast History: One season, 13 episodes (11 unaired), last broadcast on January 10, 2012
• Trivia: Kacie Lynch played Kat in the unaired pilot but was replaced by Hannah Sullivan.

Showtime

January 8 – House of Lies

• Cast: Don Cheadle, Kristen Bell, Ben Schwartz, Josh Lawson, Dawn Olivieri, Glynn Turman
• Recurring Cast: Griffin Dunne, Mo Gaffney, Greg Germann, Anna Camp, Richard Schiff, Bess Armstrong, Adam Brody, Kevin Dobson, Lisa Edelstein, Nia Long, Michael McDonald, Jenny Slate, John Carroll Lynch, Mekhi Phifer, Daniel Stern, Mary McCormack, Demetri Martin, Alicia Witt, Steven Weber, Wanda Sykes, Donald Faison, Michael Cudlitz
• Notable Guests: Ken Marino, Leslie Odom Jr., Drew Droege, John Cho, Zachary Knighton, Peggy Lipton, Cat Deeley, Noah Reid, Peyton List, Matt Damon, Fred Armisen, Antonio Fargas, Ryan Pinkston, Alan Dale, Balthazar Getty, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Keegan-Michael Key, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Horatio Sanz
• Synopsis: Charming, fast-talking Marty Kaan and his crack team of management consultants use every dirty trick in the book to woo powerful CEOs and close huge deals.
• Network: Showtime
• Broadcast History: Five seasons, 58 episodes, last broadcast on June 12, 2016
• Trivia: Based on the book House of Lies: How Management Consultants Steal Your Watch and Then Tell You the Time, written by Martin Kihn. Don Cheadle was nominated for both the Emmy and Golden Globe award for Lead Actor each year from 2012 to 2015. Failing to hide Kristen Bell’s pregnancy in Season 2 with loose clothing and big purses, production ultimately digitally erased her pregnant midriff. Her second pregnancy was written into the show.

January 8 – The Firm

• Cast: Josh Lucas, Callum Keith Rennie, Molly Parker, Juliette Lewis, Natasha Calis
• Notable Guests: Tricia Helfer, Geoff Pierson, Nick Mancuso, Amanda Brugel, Victor Garber, Kate Vernon, John Pyper-Ferguson, Noah Reid
• Synopsis: Defense Attorney Mitch McDeere is targeted for execution by the Chicago Mob in retaliation for bringing down a profitable Mob-operated Memphis law firm ten years earlier.
• Network: NBC
• Broadcast History: One season, 22 episodes, last broadcast on July 14, 2012
• Trivia: The series is a sequel to the 1991 John Grisham novel and 1993 film, set ten years after. The series was scheduled to air Thursdays, but on February 3, NBC burned off the remaining episodes on Saturdays. Grisham oversaw the first three or four episodes, and served as executive producer. The series was left with a cliffhanger ending when it was cancelled.