Darren Star Productions
Every decade but 1975 saw new programming debut, some more successful than others. 1955 had police drama filmed in France but in English, 1965 had a musical variety series featuring the hottest musical acts of the day, 1985 had a children’s series with a beloved TV host, 1995 introduced a new sports magazine show that ran for nearly three decades, 2005’s biggest show was an MTV dating series, and 2015 produced a long-running dramedy and a popular celebrity ‘singing’ competition series. Scroll down to see all of the shows that premiered this week across the decades and tell us if any of your favorites are celebrating milestone anniversaries.
1955
- April 3 – Appointment with Adventure (CBS, last broadcast on April 1, 1956)
- April 3 – Paris Precinct (ABC, Two seasons, 26 episodes)
Appointment with Adventure was a dramatic anthology series with no regular cast. Guest stars who appeared in episodes included Jack Lord, Patricia Breslin, Jack Klugman, Barbara Britton, Edie Adams, James Daly, Neville Brand, Viveca Lindfors, Theodore Bikel, Kim Hunter, Polly Bergen, Betsy Palmer, Gena Rowlands, Phyllis Kirk, Dane Clark, Tony Randall, Gene Barry, and Paul Newman. David Susskind was an executive producer and Rod Serling was one of the writers.
Paris Precinct starred Louis Jourdan and was filmed in France, though dialogue was in English. The stories were based on Sûreté files. The show was also known as World Crime Hunt.
1965
- April – Shivaree (Syndcation, Two seasons, 70 episodes)
Shivaree was a Los Angeles-based music variety show created and hosted by Gene Weed. Featured performers included The Mamas & the Papas, The Supremes, The Rolling Stones, Glen Campbell, Dusty Springfield, Jackie Wilson, Marvin Gaye, Jay and the Americans, Ronnie Dove, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, The Ronettes, Cher, Simon and Garfunkel, The Byrds, The Toys, The Bobby Fuller Four, Allan Sherman, The Reflections, Lesley Gore, and Gary Lewis & the Playboys. While the show was syndicated, it was owned by the ABC network. Teri Garr was a featured dancer on the show.
1975
- No new series premiered this week in 1975.
1985
- March 30 – CBS Storybreak (CBS, Three seasons, 26 episodes)
- April 5 – Me and Mom (ABC, One season, 6 episodes)
Bob Keeshan (aka Captain Kangaroo) hosted the original version of CBS Storybreak from 1985-1989, with reruns broadcast until 1991. The series received an Emmy nominations for Outstanding Animated Program for its first season. CBS reran the series again during the 1993-1994 and 1997-1998 seasons, but replaced Keeshan’s hosting segments with Malcolm Jamal-Warner
Me and Mom was a detective dramedy starring Lisa Eilbacher, Holland Taylor and James Earl Jones.
1995
HBO
- March 31 – The Wright Verdicts (CBS, One season, 13 episodes, 7 unaired)
- April 1 – Amazing Grace (NBC, One season, 5 episodes)
- April 2 – Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel (HBO, 29 seasons, 320 episodes)
The Wright Verdicts was a drama series created by Dick Wolf (the Law & Order franchise), starring Tom Conti, Margaret Colin and Aida Turturro.
The cast of Amazing Grace included Patty Duke, Joe Spano. Lorraine Toussaint and Dan Lauria. NBC pulled the series from the schedule after the fourth episode aired on April 22, 1995, and finally broadcast the final episode on September 16, 1995.
Sports news magazine Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel won 32 Sports Emmy Awards and two Peabody Awards (2012, 2015).
2005
- March 30 – Eyes (ABC, One season, 12 episodes, 7 unaired)
- April 1 – The Eyes of Nye (PBS, One season, 13 episodes)
- April 4 – Lost Worlds (History, Two seasons, 32 episodes)
- April 4 – Next (MTV, Six seasons, 288 episodes)
- April 5 – Pinky Dinky Doo (Noggin, Two seasons, 52 episodes)
Crime drama Eyes starred Tim Daly, Garcelle Beauvais, Laura Leighton, Eric Mabius, Rick Worthy and Natalie Zea. After the fifth episode aired, ABC rescheduled the sixth episode twice, and then announced the remaining episodes would not air until June 2005 at the earliest. The show was cancelled and the unaired episodes were never broadcast in the US. All 12 episodes did air in New Zealand, and the unaired US episodes were quickly pirated and uploaded to the BitTorrent website. DirecTV made a deal with Warner Bros. to show all 12 episodes in the US on its The 101 Network, which began on September 15, 2000.
The Eyes of Nye was targeted to an older audience than Bill Nye’s previous series, Bill Nye the Science Guy. Nye ditched his trademark bow tie for the series but felt that it didn’t work.
While the first episode of Lost Worlds aired on April 4, 2005, the remainder of the first season was broadcast in 2006 beginning on July 10. Nineteen more episodes aired in 2007.
Next dealt with a contestant going on sequential blind dates with possibly up to five other single people who were secluded on a RV, referred to as the ‘Next Bus’. A date could end at any time by the contestant shouting ‘Next’.
Pinky Dinky Doo was co-owned by Sesame Workshop. Jim Jinkins originally created Pinky Dinky Doo in 2000 as a bedtime story for his then four-year-old daughter.
2015
ight Million Plus Productions
- March 31 – Weird Loners (FOX, One season, 6 episodes)
- March 31 – Younger (TV Land/Paramount+, Seven seasons, 84 episodes)
- April 2 – Lip Sync Battle (Spike/Paramount Network, Five seasons, 91 episodes)
- April 2 – Olympus (Syfy, One season, 13 episodes)
- April 3 – The Grace Helbig Show (E!, One season, 8 episodes)
- April 5 – Happyish (Showtime, One season, 10 episodes)
FOX network exec Kevin Reilly ordered Weird Loners straight-to-series in 2013, but was fired a few months later leaving the show without a champion at the network.
Younger, created by Darren Star, is based on the 2005 novel of the same title by Pamela Redmond Satran. The seventh season was moved to Paramount+ (and Hulu) but was eventually aired on TV Land. It was the longest running original series in TV Land’s history. A spin-off series featuring Hilary Duff’s character Kelsey was in the works but it was no longer in development, after Younger ended, due to Duff being cast on How I Met Your Father.
Lip Sync Battle was created by Stephen Merchant and John Krasinski. The idea was introduced as a recurring segment on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and later The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. After Spike was renamed Paramount Network, the network began a shift away from original programming and the show was to move to another ViacomCBS outlet, but no new home for the show was ever announced. NBC was originally pitched the series but turned it down, as did sibling networks USA and Bravo. Season 3 of the series featured the iconic contest between Zendaya and Tom Holland performing to Rihanna’s Umbrella. The episode may have helped the show earn a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Structured Reality Program. A live special, Lip Sync Battle Live: A Michael Jackson Celebration, was aired on January 18, 2018 to coincide with Spike’s rebrand to Paramount Network. The show seems to have never officially been cancelled.
The cast of Olympus included Tom York, Sonya Cassidy and Matt Frewer. The show was heavily criticized for its campy acting and the heavy use of green screens, with The Hollywood Reporter calling it ‘300 shot for $300′.
The Grace Helbig Show was initially announced as The Grace Helbig Project shortly before Chelsea Lately ended.
Happyish was pitched to the Showtime network with the title Pigs in Shit. Creator Shalom Auslander spent more than a year trying to get Philip Seymour Hoffman to play the lead character. A pilot was shot with Hoffman but after his death in February 2014 it seemed the project would not move forward. The president of Showtime, however, suggested refilming the pilot with a new star, with names suggested including John C. Reilly, Steve Carell, Will Ferrell, Edward Norton, Woody Harrelson and Kevin Kline until Steve Coogan signed on for the role.