TV by the Decade :: January 19•25

Four D Productions

This week across the decades gave TV audiences new shows in each decade, and many of them quite memorable. 1955 had a long-running anthology series with a gimmick, and a variety show that introduced city slickers to the world of country music. 1965 had another variety show featuring a large family, and a Western later referenced in a cult film. 1975 gave us a groundbreaking comedy series set in a police precinct. 1985 had two unsuccessful shows, but one of them did a little of its own groundbreaking. 1995’s two comedy series also had short life spans, despite a powerhouse of a lead-in. 2005 had several new series including one that should have been more popular than it was, and another that was extremely popular and mathematically correct. 2015 saw one network premiere two popular comedy series, although one suffered after the host of a different show made his exit. Scroll down to see all of the shows that premiered this week, and tell us if any of your favorites are celebrating milestone anniversaries.

1955

January 19 – The Millionaire (CBS, Six seasons, 207 episodes)
January 22 – Ozark Jubilee (ABC, Six seasons, 297 episodes)
January 23 – The Eddie Cantor Comedy Theatre (Syndication, One season, 39 episodes)

Anthology series The Millionaire was also known as If You Had a Million in Syndication. The show’s titular character, John Beresford Tipton, was never seen and was voiced by Paul Frees, who was only credited by the character name as if he were a real person. Frees was seen on camera playing other roles in two episodes. Tipton did reveal himself to a beneficiary in one episode but was only seen from behind. The show has never formally been released on home video, and nineteen episodes were removed from Syndication packages. Guest stars included Richard Anderson, Orson Bean, Charles Bronson, Edgar Buchanan, John Carradine, Chuck Connors, Mike Connors, Angie Dickinson, Barbara Eden, Beverly Garland, Frank Gorshin, Peter Graves, Dennis Hopper, DeForest Kelley, Jack Lord, Lee Meriwether, Mary Tyler Moore, Agnes Moorehead, Rita Moreno, Aaron Spelling, Betty White, Grant Williams and Dick York. The show was later referenced and parodied on The Jack Benny Program, The Twilight Zone, SCTV and Cheers, and was also parodied in Mad Magazine. A TV movie was produced in 1978 with Martin Balsam and Robert Quarry that was to serve as a pilot for a revival series that never moved forward.

Ozark Jubilee was broadcast live from the Jewell Theatre in Springfield, Missouri, and was renamed Country Music Jubilee on July 6, 1957, and finally Jubilee USA on August 2, 1958. The show helped popularize country music in America’s cities and suburbs. The show originally began on ABC Radio on August 1954. Red Foley was the show’s host. In addition to the roster of guest stars, regulars included Brenda Lee, then 11-years-old, Porter Wagoner, Sonny James, Jean Shepard, Webb Pierce and Carl Smith. Carl Perkins made his TV debut on the show singing ‘Blue Suede Shoes’. The show ended as rock and roll grew in popularity, and due to tax evasion charges against Foley, who was eventually acquitted. A special edition of the series, ‘Junior Jubilee’, aired every fourth Saturday from March 31 – September 15, 1956, with an additional episode on December 13. The audience was often shown during the broadcast, with nearly 90% of the attendees from out of state. It was estimated that nearly 350,000 people attended the show during its run. The first 14 episodes were broadcast from Columbia, Missouri because Springfield lacked network transmission capabilities. AT&T installed a microwave link in Springfield to transmit to Kansas City which had a feed to the network in Chicago, and the show relocated on April 30, 1955. Some performances were lip-synced, and an overhead shot of the stage was accomplished with a large mirror angled over the stage. NBC carried a spin-off series, Five Star Jubilee from March 17 to September 22, 1961, the first color television series to originate outside of New York City or Hollywood. The Jewell Theatre was demolished five months after the show ended in February 1961.

1965

KingFam Productions

January 23 – The King Family Show (ABC, Two seasons, 39 episodes)
January 24 – Branded (NBC, Two seasons, 48 episodes)

The King Family Show was created after an appearance by The King Sisters on an episode of The Hollywood Palace that generated 53,000 letter to ABC. The network gave the sisters a TV special, The Family is King, on August 29, 1964 which garnered great ratings and more letters pouring in. The show replaced The Outer Limits, and debuted the week after the King Family made their third appearance on The Hollywood Palace. Bing Crosby introduced the premiere episode. Thirty-nine members of the King Family appeared on the show during its run, ranging in age from seven months to 79 years. Yvonne King’s daughter Tina Cole, who later went on to join the cast of My Three Sons, appeared regularly. Family patriarch William King Diggs appeared in every episode, but suffered a stroke on set and died a week later on April 6, 1965. Bob Mackie was the show’s costume designer, his first solo credit. Mary Poppins choreographer Dee Dee Wood choreographed the show. The show was popular in its initial hour-long format, but ABC shortened it to 30-minutes on September 18, 1965 and it struggled against Jackie Gleason on CBS and I Dream of Jeannie on NBC. A pared-down revival featuring the Four King Cousins, including Tina Cole, was broadcast by ABC following the cancellation of Turn-On after one episode. Only thirteen episodes were produced.

The first thirteen episodes of Branded were broadcast in black-and-white, while the remaining 35 were in color. The show was co-produced by Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions, a company better known for its game shows. The series was referenced in the Coen Brothers’ The Big Lebowski.

1975

January 23 – Barney Miller (ABC, Eight seasons, 170 episodes)

Barney Miller originated from an unsold pilot, The Life and Times of Captain Barney Miller, which aired on ABC on August 22, 1974 as part of the network’s summer anthology series, Just for Laughs. Hal Linden and Abe Vigoda were the only cast members to appear in both the pilot and the TV series. Abby Dalton played Barney Miller’s wife in the pilot, Barbara Barrie played her on the series. Val Bisoglio, Rod Perry and Charles Haid rounded out the pilot cast. The pilot script was later reworked for the episode ‘Ramon’, with Bisoglio’s lines evenly split between the new characters of Yemana and Chano. Haid’s character Kazinski became Wojciehowicz, played by Max Gail. Rod Perry’s Sgt. Wilson character was replaced by Detective (and later Sgt.) Harris, played by Ron Glass. The pilot episode was never show in Syndication, but was included on the complete series DVD. The production of the show deliberately resembled a stage play with scenes that rarely strayed from the precinct’s squad room, full of clutter which was plentiful and seemingly immobile. Only a handful of episodes were set in other locations. The show was one of the few at the time to mention the then-current year or allow the audience to infer the then-current year. The show was notorious for its marathon taping sessions that would begin in the afternoon, with a studio audience, and continue late into the night, as late as 3 AM, with newly rewritten scenes to include more nuance that would not have played well with the live audience. By Season 4, a live audience became impractical due to the lengthy shooting and a quiet laugh track was used when necessary. Since the show was mainly set in the precinct, Barrie requested to be released from the show before the second season. Producer Danny Arnold reluctantly agreed and she only appeared in two episodes though she continued to receive second billing throughout the season. She made a guest appearance in the Spring of 1978 in an episode that finds Barney getting shot and Liz giving him an ultimatum to quit his job or end their marriage. The couple separated at the end of the episode. Barrie made one final appearance during the 1978-79 season in the Christmas episode. Despite never being seen again, Barney announces the couple has reconciled and are moving back in together. The character of Fish, played by Abe Vigoda, was so popular ABC considered a spin-off as early as October 1975. The series, Fish, eventually premiered on February 5, 1977. The show had respectable ratings but did not match those of Barney Miller. ABC was going to renew the show for a third season, but Vigoda reportedly wanted more money than the network was willing to give and the show was cancelled without a finale. Vigoda never returned to Barney Miller as a regular, as Fish had retired from the force, but he did make a guest appearance in the seventh season, giving the character some closure. After Fish ended, a one-hour episode of Barney Miller aired that served as a pilot for a spin-off featuring Wojo. The pilot did not sell, and Max Gail remained with the series until it ended. Linda Lavin made a guest appearance during the first season and was popular enough with the audience that she became a recurring character. At the same time, she had just completed a pilot for CBS, Alice, that sold quickly and Lavin had to exit Barney Miller at the end of the second season. Actor Jack Soo was diagnosed with cancer near the end of the fourth season and missed the last five episodes. A new character was brought in and Ron Carey’s role as Officer Levitt was expanded to fill the void. Soo returned at the start of Season 5, but was so ill that he could only complete nine episodes. He died on January 11, 1979 and the fifth season finale, ‘Jack Soo: A Retrospective’, featured the cast as themselves on the precinct set sharing stories about Soo as an actor and friend. Paul Lieber joined the cast in its seventh season to fill the vacancy left by Soo but only lasted a few weeks. The characters of Marty and Darryl were among the earliest recurring gay characters on American television. Danny Arnold worked with the Gay Media Task Force in developing the characters. Officer Zitelli’s coming out story was also a memorable episode. Arnold made the decision to end the show in 1982 for fear of repeating storylines. ABC did not cancel the series. The show was nominated for the Outstanding Comedy Series Emmy from 1976 to 1981, finally winning after its final season ended. It also won Emmies for writing and directing. It won the Golden Globe for Best Comedy or Musical series in 1976 and 1977 out of a total of seven nominations, and won a Peabody Award in 1978.

1985

Aaron Spelling Productions

January 20 – MacGruder and Loud (ABC, One season, 15 episodes)
January 23 – Sara (NBC, One season, 13 episodes)

ABC gave MacGruder and Loud a big push with its premiere following the Super Bowl, but due to constant changes to the show’s schedule, eventually settling into the 10:00 PM slot on Mondays (known then as the ‘graveyard slot’), ratings declined and the show was cancelled three months after its premiere. The show was one of the relatively few failures from Aaron Spelling.

Sara starred Geena Davis, and featured early performances by Alfre Woodard, Bronson Pinchot and Bill Maher in the regular cast. Mark Hudson and Matthew Lawrence were also regulars. Pinchot’s Dennis Kemper was one of the earliest regular gay characters in an American TV series. NBC scheduled the series opposite Dynasty on ABC, the most popular series on TV, and the show struggled to find an audience.

1995

January 23 – Pig Sty (UPN, One season, 13 episodes)
January 23 – Platypus Man (UPN, One season, 13 episodes)

Both Pig Sty and Platypus Man aired during UPN’s first season on the air, following Star Trek: Voyager on Monday nights. Platypus Man starred Richard Jeni, and was based on his HBO comedy special.

2005

Scott Free Productions

January 19 – Point Pleasant (FOX, One season, 13 episodes, 5 unaired)
January 21 – American Dragon: Jake Long (Disney Channel, Two seasons, 52 episodes)
January 22 – D.I.C.E. (Cartoon Network, One season, 40 episodes)
January 23 – Numbers (CBS, Six seasons, 118 episodes)
January 23 – Pet Alien (Cartoon Network, Two seasons, 52 episodes)
January 23 – Young Blades (PAX TV, One season, 13 episodes)
January 24 – Digging for the Truth (History, Four seasons, 54 episodes)

Many of Point Pleasant‘s crew worked on the recently cancelled Tru Calling, and the series was greenlit three days after the former show’s demise. Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s Marti Noxon was the executive producer, but fans of that show were not enamored with Point Pleasant‘s soapy flavor, although the series had a gothic tone and a subtle use of special effects.

The title for Numbers is generally stylized as NUMB3RS, which many in the media found annoying and pretentious. Series star David Krumholtz was even annoyed by it, trying to persuade the producers to change the 3 to the sigma symbol (Σ), which stands for ‘summation’. The 3 was actually based in Leetspeak, a form of computer jargon that replaces letters with numbers. The series earned one Emmy nomination for Outstanding Stunt Coordination in 2006. The show’s creators, Nicolas Falacci and Cheryl Heuton, won the Carl Sagan Award for Public Understanding of Science in 2006, the National Science Board’s Public Service Award in 2007, and the Joint Policy Board for Mathematics (JPBM) reward and encourage communicators who, on a sustained basis, bring mathematical ideas and information to non-mathematical audiences Communications Award in 2010. All of the mathematical equations used in the series, as well as those seen in blackboards, are valid as asserted by professional mathematicians who worked on the show. The show was originally to be set at the Massachusetts Institute of Tehnology, but was changed to the fictional California Institute of Science, with the California Institute of Technology and the University of Southern California used for location filming. Gabriel Macht was originally cast as Don Eppes, but was replaced with Rob Morrow.

Pet Alien used just four voice over actors to portray multiple characters. The show was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award in the category Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program (Jess Harnell) for its first season. Young Blades was inspired by Alexandre Dumas’s 1844 novel The Three Musketeers. The first three seasons of Digging for the Truth were hosted by Josh Bernstein, with Season 4 featuring Hunter Ellis.

2015

January 19 – The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore (Comedy Central, Two seasons, 259 episodes)
January 22 – Backstrom (FOX, One season, 13 episodes)
January 22 – This Is Not Happening (Comedy Central, Four seasons, 46 episodes)

The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore was a spin-off of The Daily Show, and served as a replacement for The Colbert Report. The show performed well until Jon Stewart left The Daily Show. Wilmore was originally to be the showrunner for black-ish on ABC, but had to decline after he was named host of The Nightly Show. He retained a consulting producer credit on black-ish. Stewart had suggested the show be titled The Minority Report with Larry Wilmore, but was changed when FOX announced a series based on the feature film Minority Report. Wilmore was fine with the change. The show faced backlash for an episode with Bill Nye explaining the discovery of water on Mars, with other guests Ricky Velez and Michelle Buteau seemingly uninterested and continually interrupting Nye. Wilmore was surprised by the reaction, and Nye returned to the show making light of the situation.

Backstrom was based on the Swedish book series by Leif G. W. Persson. The show was set in Portland, Oregon but filmed in Vancouver.

Ari Shaffir hosted the first three seasons of storytelling series This Is Not Happening, with Roy Wood Jr. taking over for Season 4. The show first premiered on the internet and consisted of two seasons. It was the first Comedy Central series to be adapted from its digital department to its cable network. The network ordered an eight-episode first season. The order was increased to 10 episodes for Season 3 and 20 episodes for Season 4.