Left Bank Pictures
Several new series made their Summer premieres this week across the decades, with one 1954 series that bounced around networks for several years, and a 1994 Summer replacement series that replaced the series it was spun-off from. The real action happened in 2004 and 2014. 2004 gave us a kids show spun off from a popular series, and two adult animated series that ran for multiple seasons. 2014 gave us the bulk of the new series with one reality series spin-off and a scripted Highland drama that are both still going strong today. Several other 2014 series had multiple season runs as well. Scroll down the list to see the shows that premiered this week, learn a little more about them, and tell us if any of your favorites are celebrating milestone anniversaries!
1954
- August 5 – So You Want to Lead a Band (ABC, One season, last broadcast in January 1955)
So You Want to Lead a Band aired seven total seasons between 1950 and 1959 across all three major networks under various titles: The Sammy Kaye Show, The Sammy Kaye Variety Show, Sammy Kaye’s Music from Manhattan, and Music from Manhattan.
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 1964.
1994
- August 4 – Hotel Malibu (CBS, One season, 6 episodes)
Hotel Malibu was spin-off of the short-lived Second Chances (1993), which was a Summer replacement series for Knots Landing. That series only lasted for 10 episodes, but CBS liked its supporting actors Jennifer Lopez and Pepe Serna so much that the spin-off was created for them.
2004
Astro Base GO!
- August 4 – The Player (UPN, One season, 8 episodes)
- August 6 – Atomic Betty (Cartoon Network, Three seasons, 78 episodes)
- August 7 – The Venture Bros. (Adult Swim, Seven seasons, 81 episodes plus 1 pilot, 4 specials)
- August 10 – Blue’s Room (Nick Jr., Two seasons, 17 episodes)
The Player was a reality show in which several men compete with each other using their ‘player skills’ to seduce an attractive woman. The show’s host, the ‘Ultimate Player’, was only heard by phone but was revealed in the final episode to be Rob Mariano from Survivor.
Atomic Betty was retitled Atomic Betty: Mission Earth for its third season. The animation was produced with Adobe Flash. Each episode consisted of two segments for a total of 156 segments. A one-hour Christmas special, Atomic Betty: The No-L 9, was also produced. A planned sequel series, Atomic Betty Redux featuring a 17-year-old Betty introduced in the series finale, did not move forward as the animation studio wanted to focus on other projects.
The pilot episode of The Venture Bros. was first aired on February 16, 2003. The show was one of Adult Swim’s longest running in terms of years, while having the fewest seasons produced per year. After the series was cancelled, a direct-to-video film, The Venture Bros.: Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart, was released on July 21, 2003 and premiered on Adult Swim and MAX 90 days later. It served as a series finale. The Venture Bros. was originally conceived as a comic book story for an issue of Monkeysuit. The notes were too extensive and creator Christopher McCulloch approached Comedy Central to turn it into a series, but the network rejected it. McCulloch did not initially consider Cartoon Network because he didn’t want to bring the humor down to a child’s level, unaware of the network’s adult oriented Adult Swim programming block. The network greenlit the series in 2002.
Blue’s Room is a puppetry spin-off of Blue’s Clues. It originated as short segments on Season 6 episodes of the original series.
2014
Triage Entertainment
- August 4 – Bachelor in Paradise (ABC, Nine seasons, 100 episodes to date)
- August 4 – Partners (FX, One season, 10 episodes)
- August 6 – Skin Wars (GSN, Three seasons, 28 episodes)
- August 7 – Extreme Guide to Parenting (Bravo, One season, 6 episodes)
- August 7 – Garfunkel and Oates (IFC, One season, 8 episodes)
- August 7 – Black Jesus (Adult Swim< Three seasons, 31 episodes)
- August 7 – 7 Deadly Sins (Showtime, One season, 7 episodes)
- August 8 – Jonah from Tonga (HBO, One season, 6 episodes)
- August 8 – The Knick (Cinemax, Two seasons, 20 episodes)
- August 8 – Human Resources (Pivot, Three seasons, 30 episodes)
- August 9 – Outlander (Starz, Seven seasons, 83 episodes to date)
- August 10 – Fat Guys in the Woods (Weather Channel, Two seasons, 17 episodes)
Bachelor in Paradise is a spin-off of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette franchises.
FX initially ordered 10 episodes of Partners, and if the show had performed well an additional 90 episodes would have been ordered. The show’s working titles were The Partnership and Braddock & Jackson. It starred Kelsey Grammer and Martin Lawrence.
Skin Wars was a body painting competition hosted by Rebecca Romijn. RuPaul, Craig Tracy and Robin Slonina were the judges. A companion online series, Skin Wars: The Naked Truth with Kandee Johnson, premiered the same night after the first episode aired on DOOR3, GSN’s YouTube Channel. A special spin-off episode titled Skin Wars: Fresh Paint, hosted by RuPaul, aired on August 26, 2015, which led to a one season series in 2016.
Garfunkel and Oates was loosely based on the lives of the musical duo members Riki Lindhome and Kate Micucci. The series was originally part of a deal the duo had with HBO but the network passed on a series. Webisodes, however, were posted to HBO’s website in August 2012. IFC ordered a pilot in April 2013, and placed a series order in September. Fred Savage signed on as executive producer and director for all eight episodes. IFC wanted a second season but had a specific timeline for delivery which Lindhome was unable to meet due to a commitment to a Comedy Central series. The show’s recurring cast included Natasha Leggero and Busy Philipps. Guest stars included Rob Huebel, Anthony Jeselnik, Ben Kingsley, Abby Elliott, Tig Notaro, JOhn Oates, Chris Parnell, Chris Hardwick, Steve Little, Kevin Pollak, Ike Barinholtz, ‘Weird Al’ Yankovich and Jason Ritter.
Black Jesus faced calls from religious figures to be removed from broadcast as the show features Jesus using curse words, smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol.
7 Deadly Sins was a docuseries from Morgan Spurlock that took an in-depth look at the titular sins.
Jonah from Tonga is a mockumentary sitcom from Australia that originally aired on ABC1. The character had been introduced in Lilley’s 2007 series Summer Heights High. The series was a ratings disaster for ABC1 and BBC3 in the UK, leading to the cancellation of a planned screening of the series in select Australian cinemas followed by a Q&A with creator Chris Lilley.
All ten of The Knick‘s Season 1 episodes were directed by Steven Soderbergh. He also acted as the director of photography and editor under the pseudonyms Peter Andrews and Mary Ann Bernard. Dr. Stanley Burns, founder and CEO of The Burns Archive, served as the on-set medical adviser on the series, and worked closely with production and the actors to make the hospital scenes realistic and authentic to the period. Soderbergh had planned the series to be an anthology of six seasons with new characters, new situations and a new era every two seasons. Cinemax decided to return to its core of high-octane dramas and cancelled the series after two seasons. The show earned one Golden Globe nominations for Clive Owen’s performance, and six Emmy nominations, winning one for Outstanding Production Design for a Narrative Period Program. The series also won a Peabody Award.
Human Resources is a comedic real-life occu-series about TerraCycle, an innovative company whose mission is to ‘eliminate the idea of waste.’
Outlander is based on the series of novels by Diana Gabaldon. The series will end with its 10-episode eighth season (production was delayed due to the writers and actors strikes of 2023). A distinguishing feature of the series is its use of Scottish Gaelic. Starz renewed the series for a second season after only the pilot episode had aired. The show was nominated for six Golden Globe Awards to date, with star Caitríona Balfe receiving four nods. To date the show has also received three Emmy nominations.
Fat Guys in the Woods was created to teach the ‘Average Joe’ survival skills they’ve only seen in movies performed by Bred Pitt-types.
Share this post
