TV by the Decade :: April 2•8

Dino de Laurentiis Company

Several new series made their debuts this week between 1983 and 2013, but we didn’t get anything really memorable until 2013. 1983 gave us a sitcom with Mariette Hartley and Bill Bixby, who starred together on a notable episode of The Incredible Hulk in which Hartley was a guest star, but that winning combo did not translate to their own series together. 1993 produced a sitcom that had all the markings of a hit as it was Shelley Long’s return to situation comedy but an illness and a lengthy delay between seasons doomed the show. 2003 did have a long running cooking show and two multiple season kids shows, and 2013 gave us one multiple season action series that became mired in controversy, and a TV adaptation of a popluar series of books and movies that had a real man-eater as its central character. Want to learn more? Check out the list below and let us know if your favorites are on the list.

1953

• No new series debuted this week in 1953.

1963

• No new series debuted this week in 1963.

1973

• No new series debuted this week in 1973.

1983

Bixby-Brandon Productions

• April 2 – Goodnight, Beantown (CBS, Two seasons, 18 episodes)
• April 4 – Dream House (NBC, last broadcast on June 29, 1984)
• April 4 – The New Battlestars (NBC, last broadcast on July 1, 1983)
• April 6 – Zorro and Son (ABC, One season, 5 episodes)

Goodnight, Beantown starred Bill Bixby and Mariette Hartley, who had worked together on the Season 2 premiere of The Incredible Hulk, which earned Hartley an Emmy as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series (even though she was making a guest appearance). She was also nominated as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for Goodnight, Beantown. Co-star Tracy Gold was nominated for and won the Young Artist Award in 1984.

Dream House was a revival of the 1968-1970 ABC game show in which contestants competed to win a … dream house. Bob Eubanks was the host of the revival. Tapes of the episodes were in the possession of series creator Don Reid, but were destroyed by a flood in 2013. The New Battlestars was a revival of Battlestars which had ended its run on April 23, 1982. The revival lasted only 13 weeks due to tough competition from Family Feud on ABC and The Young and the Restless on CBS.

1993

• April 2 – Good Advice (CBS, Two seasons, 19 episodes, 2 unaired)
• April 4 – Diana: Her True Story (NBC, Two-episode mini-series)
• April 6 – ECW Hardcore TV (Syndication, Seven seasons, 401 episodes)

Good Advice was to debut in the Fall of 1992, but CBS had a full schedule and it was delayed until mid-season. This was Shelley Long’s first series since leaving Cheers and it garnered solid ratings and good critical review. This was also Treat Williams’ first sitcom. Production on the second season, which was to debut in October 1993 was halted due to Long’s bout with the flu, the show being placed on indefinite hiatus. The second season finally premiered in the Summer of 1994 but was cancelled after the season ended. Estelle Harris and Christopher McDonald were cut from the second season as Teri Garr was brought in as a regular to play the sister of Long’s character. Michael Patrick King, who would go on to write for Sex and the City and create 2 Broke Girls, and Max Mutchnick, the creator of Will & Grace, were staff writers.

2003

• April 5 – Everyday Italian (Food Network, Twelve seasons, 212 episodes)
• April 7 – Miffy and Friends (Noggin , Three seasons, 39 episodes)
• April 7 – Tweenies (Noggin, Seven seasons, 390 episodes)

Miffy and Friends was a Dutch stop-motion animated series that debuted on KRO in the Netherlands, and aired on CITV in the UK and Noggin in the US. Noggin offered ‘interactive game’ shorts to air between segments in the episodes. Tweenies was a British live-action puppet children’s series that was broadcast on BBC One and BBC Two in the UK and Noggin in the US.

2013

Entertainment One Television

• April 3 – How to Live with Your Parents (For the Rest of Your Life) (ABC, One season, 13 episodes)
• April 3 – Forever Young (TV Land, One season, 6 episodes)
• April 3 – Rogue (Audience Network, Four seasons, 50 episodes)
• April 4 – Hannibal (NBC, Three seasons, 39 episodes)
• April 4 – Casino Confidential (TLC, One season, 10 episodes)
• April 4 – America’s Worst Tattoos (TLC, Two seasons, 20 episodes)
• April 6 – Garage Gold (DIY Network, Six seasons, 78 episodes)
• April 7 – The Sheards (BET, One season, 8 episodes)

Rogue star Thandiwe Newton said her experience on the show was traumatizing because she was the ‘token’ Black person on a series set in Oakland, CA (filmed in Vancouver). She requested to be released from her contract but the request was refused, and was forced to to a topless scene which she initially refused so the showrunner directed her scene partner to pull down her top without consent. She was written off the series in the third season, with her character’s body found in a ‘Westworld Garbage Disposal’, a nod to her next series.

Hannibal only received one Emmy nomination during its run for Special Visual Effects, but it was nominated for four Saturn Award in 2014, winning Best Network Television Series and Best Actor on Television for Mads Mikkelsen (co-star Hugh Dancy was also nominated in the category). It received seven Saturn Award nominations in 2015 winning for Television Series again, and Dancy picking up the Best Actor award this time, along with Laurence Fisgburne winning for Supporting Actor. It was nominated for four Saturns in 2016, winning Best Action-Thriller Television Series, and Supporting Actor for Richard Armitage. It also won in 2017 for Best Television DVD Release for The Complete Series Collection.