TV by the Decade :: January 1•7

Paramount Domestic Television

The new year kicks off with quite a few new series across all genres. 1953 had no new series premieres, but 1963 gave us two classic series, one animated and the other a reality nature series. Japan’s Astro Boy was imported to the US after its Japanese debut with 52 episodes syndicated by NBC Enterprises, with the first episode premiering on September 7, 1963. An additional 52 episodes were added beginning on September 16, 1964. The last of the episodes began airing on June 4, 1965. Wild Kingdom ran for almost two decades during its original iteration, was revived in 2002 by Animal Planet and aired until 2011. Webisodes were streamed on a dedicated YouTube channel from 2013-2018. On April 4, 2021, RFD-TV began showing the program in its traditional Sunday timeslot, and in January 2023 RFD-TV will broadcast a new version of the series titled Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom: Protecting the Wild.

In 1983, NBC debuted three new game shows to replace two cancelled soaps. Hit Man was a memory and instant recall quiz show hosted by Peter Tomarken, who would go on to host Press Your Luck five months after the show’s short run. At the end of the final episode, announced Rod Roddy said, ‘If you’d like to be a contestant on Hit Man, forget it.’ Just Men! was hosted by Betty White, who won an Emmy Award for her work on the show. The show ended the same day as Hit Man. Sale of the Century was a revival of the 1969-1973 NBC game show, which also ran in Syndication from 1973-1974. Jim Perry hosted the revival, and its Syndicated edition, which had a significantly longer run than the other two show with which it premiered.

1993 had two popular and long-running dramas make their debuts. Jane Seymour agreed to a five-year contract for Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman a day before production began. She stated later that she had learned her then husband had lost all their money and was $9 million in debt, and she was willing to take any TV project to avoid losing her house and to protect her children. Dr. Quinn was the first project offered to her. Jane Wyman portrayed Dr. Quinn’s mother in the third episode but declined an invitation to return for a Season 2 episode as she had retired from acting at that point. Dr. Quinn was her last acting role. The series was the last successful Western, and one of the last original series to find success in a Saturday night timeslot, where it aired for its entire run. Star Trel: Deep Space Nine was the fourth Star Trek TV series, and the first to be created without the direct involvement of Gene Roddenberry. It was also the first series set on a space station rather than a traveling starship, and the first to have an African-American captain as the central character. The third season added the starship USS Defiant to allow for stories to take place away from the station, and Season 4 introduced the character of Worf, who joined the show after Star Trek: The Next Generation ended, to help boost the show’s ratings. DS9 was also the first Trek series to use CGI for exterior space shots, but also used models where needed. To keep production costs down for battle sequences, the effects crew used Playmates toys, Ertl model kits and Hallmark Bird-of-Prey Christmas ornaments in the background. The station itself was a model used for the entire run of the series. Unfortunately, all of the effects were finished in standard definition and would have to be redone for a full HD release of the series.

2003 gave us five new series. PBS’ The Berenstain Bears was a remake of the 1985-1987 series that aired on CBS. FOX’s Joe Millionaire followed a group of single women competing for the affections of a bachelor who was falsely billed as a millionaire. The series was revived in November 2021 for an additional 10 episodes and featured two bachelors, one of whom actually was a millionaire. The WB’s Abby was meant to feature star Sydney Tamiia Poitier and Sean O’Bryan as an interracial couple, but a negative reaction from test audiences led to recasting O’Bryan’s role with Kadeem Hardison and O’Bryan taking a supporting role. The British children’s series Little Robots began airing in the US on Cartoon Network in 2005, completely redubbed by American voice actors even though the series was already in English.

2013 produced eleven new series, all but one in the reality genre, with two still airing today. One series, though, had a sad and sudden ending. MTV’s Buckwild had been renewed for a second season and was in production when one of its cast members, Shain Gandee, his uncle and a friend died while ‘mudding’. The Ford Bronco they were in got stuck in mud extending past the vehicle’s windows, completely clogging the tailpipe, causing the cabin to fill with carbon monoxide. Production was suspended and MTV ultimately cancelled the series. The series was rebooted as Slednecks and set in Alaska but it also lasted a single season.

Do you remember or did you watch any of these shows? Let us know in the comments section below!

1953

No new series debuted this week in 1953.

1963

January 1 – Astro Boy (Fuji TV, Four seasons, 193 episodes)
January 6 – Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom (NBC/Syndication, Eighteen seasons, 140 episodes)
January 7 – World in Action (ITV, Thirty-five seasons, last broadcast on December 7, 1998)

1973

No new series debuted this week in 1973.

1983

January 3 – Hit Man (NBC, One season, 65 episodes)
January 3 – Just Men! (NBC, One season, 65 episodes)
January 3 – Sale of the Century (NBC, Six seasons, 1,578 episodes)

1993

The Sullivan Company

January 1 – Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (CBS, Six seasons, 150 episodes, 2 TV movies)
January 3 – Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Syndication, Seven seasons, 176 episodes)
January 6 – Space Rangers (CBS, 6 episodes, 2 unaired)