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With October winding down, the networks still managed to roll out some new programming heading into the holiday season. 1952’s Meet Millie was one of the first live broadcasts from CBS Television City in Hollywood (and was character actor Marvin Kaplan’s debut), while Victory at Sea was one of the first docuseries that paved the way for television documentaries to come, winning an Emmy for Best Public Affairs Program as well. A 90-minute feature film was made from the episodes and released theatrically and aired on NBC. 1972 saw a new entry in NBC’s ‘wheel series’ The NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie but it did not fare very well.
1982 was a good year for television, in two instances anyway, with the premieres of the long-running comedy Newhart on CBS, and the long-running dramedy St. Elsewhere on NBC which, perhaps not so coincidentally as they came from the same studio, shared a similar dream-like ending. Newhart finale is famous for making the entire series a dream of Newhart’s previous character, Dr. Bob Hartley, and St. Elsewhere‘s finale is infamous for making the entire series a fantasy in the mind of an autistic child. Newhart was nominated for 25 Emmys and never won, while St. Elsewhere earned 62 Emmy nominations and scored 13 wins. 2012 produced five new series, all in the reality genre and all on cable, but only one of them enjoyed a more than two season run. Check out the list of new shows that premiered this week across the decades and share your memories in the comments section below.
1952
- October 25 – Meet Millie (CBS, Four seasons)
- October 26 – Victory at Sea (NBC, 26 episode docuseries)
1962
- No new series debuted this week in 1962.
1972
- October 28 – The NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie: Cool Million (NBC, 5 episodes)
1982
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- October 24 – Little Gloria… Happy at Last (NBC, 2-episode miniseries)
- October 25 – Newhart (CBS, Eight seasons, 184 episodes)
- October 26 – Gavilan (NBC, One season, 13 episodes)
- October 26 – St. Elsewhere (NBC, Six seasons, 137 episodes)
- October 29 – The New Odd Couple (ABC, One season, 18 episodes)
1992
- No new series debuted this week in 1992.
2002
- October 27 – Scaredy Camp (Nickelodeon, Two seasons, 10 episodes)
- October 28 – Page to Screen (Bravo, 12-episode docuseries)
2012
- October 24 – The Houstons: On Our Own (Lifetime, One season, 12 episodes)
- October 26 – Health Inspectors (Food Network, One season, 7 episodes)
- October 26 – Jungle Gold (Discovery Channel, Two seasons, 14 episodes)
- October 26 – Strip the City (Science Channel, Two seasons, 14 episodes)
- October 27 – The Haunting of… (The Biography Channel/Lifetime Movie Network, Six seasons, 67 episodes)
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