TV by the Decade :: February 6•12

DreamWorks Television

Four new series premiered this week over the last seventy years, and oddly enough the one with the longest run started on the DuMont Network, a broadcaster that only lasted a decade. And that show, an inspirational series, had an unlikely star. Later, a kids series nearly brought down LEGO, and Steven Spielberg was behind two new shows that debuted a day apart. One hardly lived up to its title, but has developed a cult following, and the other was barely noticed. Let’s take a look to see what series are celebrating anniversaries this week!

1952

February 12 – Life Is Worth Living

• Host: Bishop Fulton J. Sheen
• Synopsis: The show featured Most Reverent Fulton J. Sheen, the Roman Catholic Auxiliary Bishop of New York City, offering anecdotes and moral lessons.
• Network: DuMont / ABC
• Broadcast History: Last broadcast on April 8, 1957
• Trivia: The series aired on DuMont until April 26, 1955 when the network ceased broadcasting and then moved to ABC. Sheen became the DuMont network’s only Emmy winner during its ten years of broadcasting. The series was carried on more stations than any other regularly scheduled DuMont Network show. Sheen’s was the only show on television to compete with Milton Berle’s NBC series, drawing nearly 10 million viewers each week. St. Bernard’s School of Theology and Ministry in Rochester, New York, owns the copyright to the series, and is thought to have the entire series in its archives. As late as 2009, it was the only DuMont Network series to still be in syndicated repeats.

1962

• No new shows debuted this week in 1962.

1972

• No new shows debuted this week in 1972.

1982

• No new shows debuted this week in 1982.

1992

• No new shows debuted this week in 1992.

2002

CinéGroupe

February 9 – Galidor: Defenders of the Outer Dimension

• Cast: Matthew Ewald, Marie-Marguerite Sabongui, Sam Magdi, Jeff Hall, Michael O’Reilly, George Morris, Claude Giroux, Walter Massey, Ian Finlay
• Synopsis: Nick and his best friend, Allegra, hunt down the Key of Galidor and try to save the Outer Dimension.
• Network: FOX Kids (US) / YTV (Canada)
• Broadcast History: Two seasons, 26 episodes, last broadcast on August 24, 2002
• Trivia: The final series to launch on Fox Kids, which folded seven months after the series premiered. LEGO assisted with funding for the series through a toy line based on the show. The toys flopped in part due to highly specialized pieces builders couldn’t make use of. The toys’ failure caused financial difficulties for the company in the early 2000s and have become a joke among LEGO fans.

2012

February 6 – Smash

• Cast: Debra Messing, Jack Davenport, Katharine McPhee, Christian Borle, Megan Hilty, Anjelica Huston, Savannah Wise, Wesley Taylor, Jenny Laroche, Keith Kuhl, Leslie Odom Jr., Brian d’Arcy James, Ann Harada, Jeremy Jordan
• Notable Guests: Raza Jaffrey, Michael Cristofer, Thorsten Kaye, Jesse L. Martin, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Bernadette Peters, Uma Thurman, Jamey Sheridan, Daniel Sunjata, Sean Hayes, Dylan Baker, Jennifer Hudson, Nick Jonas, Luke Macfarlane, Grace Gummer, Rosie O’Donnell, Nikki Blonsky, Annaleigh Ashford, Tony Yazbeck, Marc Shaiman, Norbert Leo Butz, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Liza Minnelli, Harvey Fierstein, Ron Rifkin, Margo Martindale, Kathie Lee Gifford, Mary Testa, Cheyenne Jackson, Christine Ebersole, Seth Rudetsky, Hinton Battle, Lillias White, Cole Escola, Edward Hibbert, Marin Mazzie, Donna McKechnie, Michael Musto, Marcus Schenkenberg
• Synopsis: More drama occurs behind the scenes than on stage, as the team prepares an ambitious Broadway musical on the life of Marilyn Monroe.
• Network: NBC
• Broadcast History: Two seasons, 32 episodes, last broadcast on May 26, 2013
• Trivia: Steven Spielberg served as one of the executive producers. The series was originally developed at Showtime, and contained a lot of nudity. An actual Bombshell Broadway musical was to open following the first season, and as of 2016 it was still on track but has not materialized thus far but a cast album was recorded. A Broadway musical based on the series pilot is aiming for a 2023 opening.

Amblin Television

February 7 – The River

• Cast: Bruce Greenwood, Joe Anderson, Leslie Hope, Eloise Mumford, Paul Blackthorne, Thomas Kretschmann, Daniel Zacapa, Shaun Parkes, Paulina Gaitan
• Notable Guests: Lee Tergesen, Don McManus
• Synopsis: The crew of a research vessel are on a quest to find a missing TV explorer in the Amazon.
• Network: ABC
• Broadcast History: One season, 8 episodes, last broadcast on March 20, 2012
• Trivia: After the series was cancelled, Netflix was in talks to pick it up for a second season but ultimately passed. The story was originally conceived as a feature film until the creators met with Steven Spielberg who suggested making it a TV series that would feature a new location each season. ABC won a bidding war for the series against NBC. The pilot was filmed in Puerto Rico, with the remaining seven episodes filmed in Hawaii.