Mirage Studios
The first week of February across the past seven decades was not a great one … unless you were a kid. Only a handful of new series lasted more than one season. 1953 was the most successful with a decades-long morning children’s program that taught kids, among other things, how to be a ‘Do Bee’ instead of a ‘Don’t Bee’. 1983 saw The Dukes — cousins, not brothers (at first anyway) — get animated, and had Bea Arthur’s not-so-triumphant return to series television, pre-Golden Girls. It also gave us one of the most-watched miniseries of the era. Kids (and adults) got a treat in 2003 with a long-running animated series starring everyone’s favorite pizza-eating turtles, and 2013’s most notable, and notorious, offering was about a group of sisters and their particular culture. Read on to learn more about this week’s series premieres and tell us if any of your favorites are celebrating!
1953
Claster Television
- February 10 – Romper Room (Syndication, last broadcast on December 20, 1994)
Romper Room was unusual in that it was Syndicated to local TV stations across the country, as well as franchised so local stations could produce their own versions with their own hosts and local children. The series originated from Baltimore, then production relocated to Chicago, and returned to Baltimore in 1981. The series was retitled Romper Room and Friends in 1981.
1963
- No new series debuted this week in 1963.
1973
- No new series debuted this week in 1973.
1983
Dan Curtis Productions
- February 5 – The Dukes (CBS, Two seasons, 20 episodes)
- February 6 – The Winds of War (ABC, 7-episode mini-series)
- February 10 – Amanda’s (ABC, One season, 13 episodes, 3 unaired)
The Dukes was a Saturday morning cartoon based on The Dukes of Hazzard, which was produced at the time the show’s stars had quit the series over a contract dispute thus the characters on the cartoon are Coy and Vance Duke, voiced by Bryon Cherry and Christopher Mayer who played them on the live-action series. When Tom Wopat and John Schneider returned as Luke and Bo Duke, their characters also replaced Coy and Vance on the animated series. Live-action series stars Waylon Jennings, Ben Jones, Sonny Shroyer and Rick Hurst did not participate in the animated series.
The Winds of War, based on the novel by Herman Wouk, was the most-watched mini-series at that time. Amanda’s was the second attempt at a US adaptation of Fawlty Towers, with Bea Arthur returning to series television for the first time since Maude ended in 1978. The US version wrote out the character of Basil, played by John Cleese in the original, and replaced him with a son and daughter-in-law. Arthur complained bitterly about the changes, and Norman Lear told her she had no character to play. Arthur called the show a ‘big disappointment’ but two years later she was cast in The Golden Girls.
1993
- February 8 – Day One (ABC, Two seasons, 12 episodes)
Day One was a Peabody Award-winning newsmagazine hosted by Forrest Sawyer and Diane Sawyer.
2003
- February 8 – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Fox, Six seasons / The CW, One season, 155 episodes)
- February 10 – Reign: The Conqueror (Adult Swim, 13 episodes)
Reign: The Conqueror was a Japanese import of a 1999 anime series originally titled Arekusandā Senki. The European title was Alexander the Great.
2013
Firecracker Films
- February 7 – Guinness World Records Gone Wild (TruTV, Two seasons, 16 episodes)
- February 8 – The Job (CBS, One season, 2 episodes)
- February 8 – Something Borrowed, Something New (TLC, Three seasons, 54 episodes)
- February 8 – Alpha Dogs (Nat Geo Wild, One season, 16 episodes)
- February 9 – Old Folks Home (Science Channel)
- February 10 – Car Lot Rescue (Spike, One season, 8 episodes)
- February 10 – Kings of Crash (Velocity, One season, 8 episodes)
- February 10 – Gypsy Sisters (TLC, Four seasons, 32 episodes)
The Job was a reality competition series produced by Michael Davies and Mark Burnett, and was cancelled after the second episode aired. It’s not known how many episodes remain unaired but it could be up to 11. Gypsy Sisters was a spin-off of TLC’s My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding.
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