TV by the Decade :: Jan 30•Feb 5

NBC

Only three new shows made their debuts this week. One them lasted a full season, one made to half a season, and another was a long-running, groundbreaking late night comedy/variety/talk series born out of the failure of a similar morning show with the same host. Were you a fan of any of this week’s new shows?

1952

• No new shows debuted this week in 1952.

1962

• No new shows debuted this week in 1962.

1972

• No new shows debuted this week in 1972.

1982

• February 1 – Late Night with David Letterman
• Cast: David Letterman, Paul Shaffer, The World’s Most Dangerous Band
• Synopsis: Late night talk/comedy series
• Network: NBC
• Broadcast History: Eleven seasons, 1.819 episodes, last broadcast on June 25, 1993
• Trivia: Nominated for the Outstanding Variety Series Emmy Award 11 times, the Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series Emmy 14 times, winning four, and 7 times for the Outstanding Directing for a Variety Series Emmy, winning once. After the failure of Letterman’s morning show on NBC, the network gave him a million dollar contract to keep him at the network, guest hosting The Tonight Show on multiple occasions. Letterman also appeared as a guest five times. Letterman’s own show was announced on November 9, 1981 for the 12:30 AM slot, which would displace Tomorrow Coast to Coast by an hour. That show’s host, Tom Snyder, was displeased with the changes and ended the show instead. 21-year-old Chris Elliott was in charge of the ‘Stupid Pet Tricks’ segment, and was quickly promoted to a writer and recurring featured player. The first guest on the first show was Bill Murray. The show was produced by Johnny Carson’s company, which wanted little overlap between the two shows and placed restrictions on Late Night: no sidekick, the band could not have a horn section, old school Hollywood stars like James Stewart could not be booked, no replications of The Tonight Show‘s signature bits like ‘Stump the Band’, and a minimal number of topical jokes in the monologue.

1992

January 31 – Billy

• Cast: Billy Connolly, Marie Marshall, Clara Bryant, Johnny Galecki, Natanya Ross
• Notable Guests: Mary Gross, Art LaFleur
• Synopsis: A Scottish teacher named Billy MacGregor (Sir Billy Connolly) moves to the United States to build a new life for himself.
• Network: ABC
• Broadcast History: One season, 13 episodes, last broadcast on May 30, 1992
• Trivia: Spin-off of Head of the Class.

2002

• No new shows debuted this week in 2002.

2012

Nickelodeon

February 4 – How to Rock

• Cast: Cymphonique Miller, Samantha Boscarino, Max Schneider, Lulu Antariksa, Halston Sage, Chris O’Neal, Noah Crawford, Bruno Mello
• Notable Guests: James Maslow, Romeo Miller, Carlos PenaVega, CeeLo Green, Greg Grunberg
• Synopsis: When Kacey Simon gets kicked out of the ‘Perfs,’ she joins a new band called ‘Gravity 5’ and starts a rivalry between the two acts of who will be the number one group.
• Network: Nickelodeon
• Broadcast History: One season, 25 episodes, last broadcast on December 8, 2012
• Trivia: Based on the 2011 book How to Rock Braces and Glasses by Meg Haston. The series was given a 20 episode order, which was then bumped up to 26. Two episodes were combined as one special episode resulting in a 25 episode season.