Leverage Entertainment
It’s an interesting week for new series premieres in that none of this week’s new series are still on the air today, not even the 2014 shows. Only three decades produced new series with one 1954 offering staring out with original episodes but turning to repeats for two additional seasons. Skip ahead to 2014 which produced 11 new series, six of which only lasted one season. There was, however, one successful comedy series that ran for multiple seasons. 2004 gave us the biggest two shows of the week, one a successful sci-fi spin-off that was part of a franchise, and the other a comedy that poked fun at Hollywood. Both ran multiple season and were recognized with Emmy nominations. Scroll down the list to see this week’s premiering series and tell us if any of your favorite shows are celebrating milestone anniversaries.
1954
- July 16 – The Best in Mystery (NBC, Three seasons)
- July 16 – Gamble on Love (Dumont, One season, 6 episodes)
The Best in Mystery, a Summer replacement anthology series, aired eight original episodes during its first season with guest stars including Agnes Moorehead, Ross Elliott, Jay Novello, George Nader, Carolyn Jones and Morris Ankrum. The second season consisted of episodes previously broadcast on The Pepsi-Cola Playhouse and Studio 57, while the third season episodes were from the Four Star Playhouse and featured Dick Powell as Willie Dante, owner of the San Francisco night club Dante’s Inferno.
Gamble on Love, a game show in which three couples competed for a prize, was initially hosted by Denise Darcel, but was replaced by Ernie Kovacs on August 6. The show was retitled Time Will Tell on August 27. The Dumont archive was destroyed after the network folded in 1956 and no episodes of either series are known to exist.
1964
- No new series premiered this week in 1964.
1974
- No new series premiered this week in 1974.
1984
- No new series premiered this week in 1984.
1994
- No new series premiered this week in 1994.
2004
Acme Shark Productions
- July 16 – Stargate Atlantis (Sci-Fi Channel, Five seasons, 100 episodes)
- July 18 – Entourage (HBO, Eight seasons, 96 episodes)
Stargate Atlantis is a spin-off of Stargate SG-1, which was based on the feature film Stargate. Jason Momoa joined the series as a regular in Season 2. Stargate SG-1 star Amanda Tapping guested during Seasons 1-3 and Season 5, and was a regular during Season 4. Other Stargate SG-1 actors made guest appearances including Richard Dean Anderson, Michael Shanks and Christopher Judge. Other guest stars include Beau Bridges, Kari Wuhrer, Danny Trejo, Mark Dacascos, Mitch Pileggi, Colm Meaney and Connor Trinneer. When production began, producers found it impossible to find the right actor to play a character named Dr. Ingram and they realized they had brought in the wrong character. A decision was made to replace the character with Dr. Rodney McKay, who had been played in three episodes of SG-1 by David Hewlett. Ingram was changed to McKay in the already written pilot, and future scripts were written with McKay in mind. Rainbow Sun Francks and the producers felt his Lt. Aiden Ford character was under-used in Season 1, but they did not want to write him out. The character was made more important in Season 2, but this reduced Francks to a recurring role instead of a series regular. The void was filled by the character Ronon Dex, played by Momoa. Torri Higginson’s character Elizabeth Weir was reduced to a recurring character in Season 4 when Tapping joined the series as the new commander. Robert Picardo took over as the commander in Season 5, and Higginson refused to return in a guest capacity so her character was played by Michelle Morgan. The series ended with Season 5 with the intent to producer at least one direct-to-DVD feature film while interest in the show was still high. Stargate: Extinction was announced in May 2009, but in April 2011 it was announced that the film was shelved indefinitely. Series star Joe Flanigan attempted to lease the series from MGM to produce a sixth season, and secured the financing himself to produce the 20 episode season, with production eying a move from Vancouver to Europe to save money. MGM threw a wrench into the works by filing for bankruptcy and Spyglass Entertainment acquired the rights to the Stargate IP, meaning Flanigan would have to renegotiate with the new owners. He believed the studio was more interested in producing a new feature film with Roland Emmerich, director of the original film. The series earned two Emmy nominations in 2005 for Outstanding Main Title Theme and Outstanding Visual Effects. It also earned a nomination in 2006 and 2008.
Entourage was executive produced by Mark Wahlberg, and is loosely based on his experiences as an up-and-coming actor. Donnie Carroll, who was the inspiration for the character Turtle, claims the idea for the series came from him, originating as a book idea based on his own experiences with Wahlberg. The initial idea was to film Wahlberg and his friends, but the decision was made to fictionalize the story so it could be more of a Hollywood satire and avoid depicting Wahlberg’s violent and criminal past which would not work well on television. Wahlberg, Bob Saget, Pauly Shore, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Mandy Moore and Seth Green appeared on the show as fictionalized versions of themselves. Other guests included Peter Jackson, Christina Aquilera, Curtis Jackson, Jessica Alba, Gary Busey, Larry David, Scarlett Johansson, James Cameron, Dennis Hopper, Martin Scorsese, Matt Damon, Eminem and John Cleese. After the series’ end was announced, a feature film was greenlit and was set six months after the end of Season 8. The series earned 26 Emmy nominations during its run, winning six including Outstanding Comedy Series, for which it was nominated three times. Jeremy Piven was nominated four consecutive times for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series, winning three times. Kevin Dillon was nominated three years in a row in the same category. The show was also nominated for 14 Golden Globes with the series and Piven nominated every year, Piven winning in 2008. Dillon was also nominated in 2008, and Kevin Connolly was nominated with Piven in 2009. An edited version of the series that removed nudity, sexual content and profanity was created to air in Syndication and in some countries to meet their broadcast standards.
2014
Hooptie Entertainment
- July 14 – Backpackers (The CW, One season, 10 episodes, 7 unaired)
- July 15 – Matador (El Rey Network, One season, 13 episodes)
- July 16 – The Divide (WE tv, One season, 8 episodes)
- July 16 – Virgin Territory (MTV, One season, 12 episodes)
- July 17 – Rush (USA Network, One season, 10 episodes)
- July 17 – Satisfaction (USA Network, Two seasons, 20 episodes)
- July 17 – Married (FX, Two seasons, 23 episodes)
- July 17 – You’re the Worst (FX/FXX, Five seasons, 62 episodes)
- July 17 – Candidly Nicole (VH1, Two seasons, 16 episodes)
- July 17 – Dating Naked (VH1, Three seasons, 33 episodes)
- July 20 – The Lottery (Lifetime, One season, 10 episodes)
Backpackers is a Canadian web series of 32 episodes which was available in the US on CW Seed. The webisodes were edited into four 30-minute episodes for broadcast on The CW, with six new episodes produced. Only three episodes were broadcast before being removed from the schedule. The remaining episodes were streamed on CW Seed.
Robert Rodriguez directed the first episode of Matador. The series was initially renewed for a second season but did not move forward due to a lack of interest in international markets. Gabriel Luna and Alfred Molina starred, with Yvette Monreal, Elizabeth Peña, Paul Ben-Victor, Isabella Gomez and Christopher Cousins among the recurring cast.
The Divide was a legal drama originally in development for AMC in 2012 but did not receive a pick-up order. Rush was a medical drama that starred a pre-Lucifer Tom Ellis.
Married starred Judy Greer, Nat Faxon, Jenny Slate and Brett Gelman. John Hodgman, Paul Reiser, Regina Hall and Kimiko Glenn are among the recurring cast.
You’re the Worst moved from FX to sister network FXX beginning with the second season. Jimmy’s (Chris Geere) house on the show was a real house in Silver Lake, California. A replica of the interior was constructed on a sound stage beginning with Season 3, slightly enlarged for better camera access. Guest stars included Thomas Middleditch, Sandra Bernhard, Henry Rollins, Justin Kirk, Ben Folds, Brian Posehn, Dee Wallace, Merrin Dungey, Zosia Mamet, Robin Riker, Lou Diamond Phillips, Amy Pietz and Paul F. Thompkins.
Dating Naked was hosted by a clothed Amy Paffrath for the first two seasons. Season 3 was hosted by Rocsi Diaz.
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