Okay Goodnight
Several new series premiered this week, both daytime and nighttime. A 1955 series, only seen in Washington DC, led to the development of a new generation of puppet characters. One 1965 series made history as a spin-off from a daytime series, and talk show launched that had many different lives during its more than 20 year run. A 1995 children’s series brought animated characters to life, a 2005 reality series tried to fool people with makeovers, and a 2015 comedy series featured two major stars and became one of the longest running shows on its streaming service. Scroll down to see the shows that debuted this week, and tell us if any of your favorites are celebrating milestone anniversaries.
1955
The Jim Henson Company
- May 4 – Penny to a Million (ABC, One season, last broadcast on October 19, 1955)
- May 9 – Sam and Friends (WRC-TV, Six seasons, 400 episodes)
Penny to a Million was a primetime game show hosted by Bill Goodwin, who was known mainly for his early radio and television appearances on The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show. The game featured contestants answering questions to build a jackpot that started at one penny and could rise to a maximum of $10,000 or … 1 million cents. The series originated in New York but relocated to Los Angeles.
Sam and Friends was a local Washington D.C. series created by Jim Henson and his eventual wife Jane Nebel featuring live action and puppet sketch comedy that was used as a lead-in to NBC’s The Tonight Show. Sadly, due to budget constraints, most of the early episodes were not preserved on kinescopes and are considered lost. A few episodes are preserved at the Paley Center for Media and have also been digitally archived by The Jim Henson Company, and can be found on YouTube. The characters included a lizard-like creature named Kermit, who would later evolve into Kermit the Frog. Nebel, Bob Payne and Jerry Juhl puppeteered with Henson, but Henson provided all of the voices unless they were taken from a recording of a song.
1965
Merv Griffin Enterprises
- May 5 – Our Private World (CBS, One season, 38 episodes)
- May 10 – The Merv Griffin Show (NBC/Syndication/CBS, Twenty-two seasons, 4,855 episodes)
Our Private World was the first primetime spin-off from a daytime soap opera (As the World Turns), airing on Wednesdays and Fridays during its run, a scheduling tactic inspired by ABC’s successful primetime serial Peyton Place. ATWT star Eileen Fulton reprised her role of Lisa Miller Hughes on the series. The cast included Nicolas Coster, Geraldine Fitzgerald and Sam Groom. Fulton returned to ATWT following the show’s demise. Coster, who played her future husband John Eldredge on the nighttime show, would appear decades later on ATWT as her seventh husband, Eduardo Grimaldi. Thirty years after the series ended, ATWT revisited parts of Lisa’s storyline from the primetime series when a previously unmentioned son she gave birth to — presumably between the time the show ended and Fulton returned to ATWT in 1966 — made contact with her.
The Merv Griffin Show originated as a daytime talk show on NBC from 1962-1963. Griffin launched a Syndicated version of the show in 1965 that was intended as a nighttime companion to The Mike Douglas Show, but affiliates aired the show at different times around the country, some non-NBC affiliates using it as an alternative to NBC’s The Tonight Show. Affiliates had the option of carrying a 60-minute or 90-minute version of the show. Arthur Treacher, better known for lending his name to a fish and chips fast food franchise, was the show’s original announcer. With a strong performance in Syndication, CBS offered Griffin a late night slot opposite Johnny Carson on NBC in 1969, and the show ran until 1972, returning to Syndication that same year and airing until 1986. The CBS version did well enough to force the cancellation of The Joey Bishop Show on ABC, but did not have any real effect on Carson’s ratings. CBS was also uncomfortable with the guests Griffin wanted, many of whom spoke out against the Vietnam War and other taboo topics. CBS blurred political activist Abbie Hoffman’s American flag T-shirt, even though other guests had worn the same shirt uncensored, and Pat Boone appeared in a car commercial during that same episode wearing a similar shirt. Griffin also relocated the show from New York to CBS Television City during this period, but Treacher did not make the move due to his age, so Griffin did the announcing himself. In 1981, the show was shortened to one hour to accommodate the stations that preferred that length over the 90-minute edition. Griffin’s new distributor, Metromedia, aired the show on its network of stations until the company was sold to NewsCorp, which used the network as the nucleus of the new Fox Broadcasting Company which was setting up its own late night talk show, The Late Show starring Joan Rivers, forcing the former Metromedia stations to drop Griffin’s show, leading to its cancellation. Griffin liked conduct lengthy interviews and had a unique mix of guests, such as an episode that featured comedienne Phyllis Diller and Capt. Mitsuo Fuchida, the Japanese navy officer who planned and led the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, a very unique moment in television history. Over 25,000 guests appeared on the show during its run. As of February 2014, 1,800 episodes of the show have been located and preserved for future generations, with some episodes released on DVD. The show was famously introduced to a new generation with the Season 9 Seinfeld episode in which Kramer pretends he hosts his own talk show using the discarded set from Griffin’s show that he set up in his apartment. Andy Kaufman’s appearance on the show was featured in the film Man on the Moon, and Rick Moranis played Griffin in SCTV parodies of the show. In June 1983, the show introduced singer Whitney Houston performing the song ‘Home’ from The Wiz. During its run on networks and Syndication, the show was nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards, and 18 Daytime Emmy Awards, winning 12 Daytime Emmys, five for Outstanding Variety Series, and two for Griffin’s hosting. Griffin also received one Golden Globe nomination in 1971.
1975
- No new series premiered this week in 1975.
1985
- May 6 – Dumbo’s Circus (The Disney Channel, One season, 120 episodes)
Dumbo’s Circus was a live-action/puppet series featuring characters from the classic animated film Dumbo. The characters were played by humans in life-size puppet suits. The wagon used in the show was seen in the late 1980s and early 1990s on the vehicle boneyard lot of the Studio Backlot Tour at Disney-MGM Studios in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. Some of the puppets used for audience members in the circus were used for The Mother Goose Video Treasury.
1995
- No new series premiered this week in 1995.
2005
- May 9 – Xtreme Fakeovers (PAX TV, One season, 13 episodes)
Xtreme Fakeovers was a makeover prank show in which people received fake makeovers to trick their friends and family, such as a man who was made over into a female wrestling star, and a woman who was made over into a DEA agent to perform a ‘drug bust’ on her husband.
2015
- May 8 – Grace and Frankie (Netflix, Seven seasons, 94 episodes)
Netflix gave Grace and Frankie a straight-to-series order with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin set to star. Production on the seventh season suffered a long delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with production halting on March 12, 2020 and resuming in June 2021. Dolly Parton was to guest in a Season 7 episode, making a full reunion of the 9 to 5 stars, but she ultimately just had a cameo in the series finale. The series earned 11 Emmy nominations with no wins. Lily Tomlin received the show’s sole Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress – TV Series Musical or Comedy in 2015. The show endured some controversy when Tomlin and Fonda expressed displeasure that their salaries were equal to their male co-stars, Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston, both of whom supported the stars’ demands for a higher salary. A petition with over 200,000 signatures protesting the disparity led to the actresses issuing a statement that they were never displeased with the salaries, but had made a joke in an interview about the issue which was taken out of context.