Spartina Productions
With the major Fall series premieres past us, this second full week of October sees three decades with no new series, while the other decades saw new shows that both succeeded and faltered. 1955 had a series its star thought was for primetime, but even on Saturday mornings it did better than a lot of nighttime shows. 1995 saw the debut of a late night sketch comedy series that was targeted at another popular late night sketch comedy series, 2005 saw the debut of a fictional political punditry series whose host had the same name as its star, and 2015 gave us a romantic musical comedy series that succeeded despite its basement-level ratings. Scroll down to see all of the shows that premiered this week, learn a little more about them, and tell us if any of your favorites are celebrating milestone anniversaries!
1955
Television Programs of America
- October 15 – Fury (NBC, Five seasons, 116 episodes)
- October 16 – The Alcoa Hour (NBC, Two seasons, 52 episodes)
Fury was retitled Brave Stallion for its Syndication run. The first three seasons were produced by Television Programs of American, while the final two were produced by UK’s Independent Television Corporation, better known as ITC. Character actor Denver Pyle appeared on the series four time, each time as a different character. NBC only produced two new shows in 1955, Fury and Frontier. Peter Graves believed the show to be a primetime series when he was cast, and was disappointed to learn it would air Saturday mornings. The ratings, however, surpassed many of NBC’s nighttime offerings. Graves was under contract to the show for five years, and when he did not renew in 1959 John Compton was signed to take his place. However, the series ended and went into reruns for the remainder of the final season and Compton was never used. The ‘Fury Set’ at the Iverson Movie Ranch was also used for the feature film The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock, and TV series such as Bonanza and Cimarron Strip. Unfortunately, it burned to the ground in the Newhall/Malibu fire of 1970.
The Alcoa Hour was an hour-long dramatic anthology series, with the occasional musical or comedy episode, presented live. The show was on an alternating schedule with Goodyear Television Playhouse until both ended in 1957. The premiere episode, The Black Wings, marked the American TV debut of British actress Ann Todd. During the episode Tragedy in a Temporary Town, Lloyd Bridges accidentally slipped in some profanity during his emotional performance, which drew hundreds of complaints to the network. The episode, however, won the Robert E. Sherwood Television Award, and Bridges’ slip was defended by many, including some clergy members. The episode was also cited by the Anti-Defamation League as ‘the best dramatic program of the year dealing with interethnic group relations’. The musical episode The Stingiest Man in Town, an adaptation of A Christmas Carol, was the only musical episode to generate a cast album, which featured Basil Rathbone, Johnny Desmond and Vic Damone. The episode was remade as an animated special starring Walter Matthau as Scrooge. The first color episode of the series was broadcast on April 19, 1956. The budget for the second season of the series was increased from $45,000 per episode to $65,000 to allow for the acquisition of more established properties that would have greater interest for viewers.
1965
- No new series premiered this week in 1965.
1975
- No new series premiered this week in 1975.
1985
- No new series premiered this week in 1985.
1995
Quincy Jones-David Salzman Entertainment
- October 14 – The Affair (HBO, TV movie)
- October 14 – Mad TV (FOX, Fourteen seasons, 326 episodes)
- October 16 – Littlest Pet Shop (Syndication, One season, 40 episodes)
Courtney B. Vance starred in The Affair, with Kerry Fox, Ciarán Hinds, Ned Beatty and Bill Nunn among the cast. Many extras from the film were American Soldiers stationed at RAF Lakenheath and RAF Mildenhall, including AFJROTC from Lakenheath AHS.
Mad TV was loosely based on the humor magazine Mad. David Salzman created the show with Quincy Jones after they purchased the rights to Mad in 1995. The show, with its more diverse cast and edgier, more lowbrow humor, was intended to compete with Saturday Night Live, which was experiencing declining viewership and poor critical reception at the time. The series never eclipsed SNL in the ratings, and FOX cut the budget throughout its run, rarely promoting the series after its first season. Mad TV was nominated for a total of 43 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning five in technical categories. The show attracted mostly negative critical reaction during its run, but since its cancellation has been reappraised as one of the best sketch comedy series of all time. A 20th anniversary special aired on The CW on January 12, 2016, followed by a reboot for the 15th season which premiered on July 26, 2016, lasting just one season. Patton Oswalt was one of the show’s 12 writers when it began. An animated version of the magazine’s Spy vs. Spy was part of the show during its first four seasons. The first season cast included Debra Wilson, Nicole Sullivan, Phil LaMarr, Artie Lange, Bryan Callen and Orlando Jones. Wilson was the first actor to be cast, and was the longest-tenured performer at eight seasons when she exited. She was also the only Black female performer on the show. She claimed she left the series after learning her salary was less than the white male performers, and a renegotiation of her salary failed. Jones, Callen and Lange left the show after Season 2. Michael McDonald joined the series in 1998, and became the longest-running cast member with ten seasons to his credit. He was also the oldest cast member, and occasionally directed segments. Aries Spears was the second-longest appearing cast member with 198 episodes. Other cast members during the show’ run include Ike Barinholtz, Alex Borstein, Will Sasso, Mo Collins, Nicole Parker, Bobby Lee, Simon Helberg and Taran Killam, who was the youngest actor cast on the show. Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key met after being cast for the ninth season in 2004. Peele left in 2008, while Key stayed until the end. The two would later create their own sketch series, Key & Peele, in 2012. Peele had to turn down a role playing Barack Obama on SNL because of his contract, while Borstein had to turn down the role of Sookie on Gilmore Girls. The show’s popular recurring characters included Stuart Larkin (McDonald), Bunny Swan (Borstein), and the Vancome Lady (Sullivan), the first recurring character on the show. Wilson and Spears often appeared as Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown. Brown found the impressions offensive. Wilson was also known for her impression of Oprah Winfrey, which she reprised in Scary Movie 4. Spears also portrayed Bill Cosby, and Sasso appeared as Randy Newman, Robert De Niro and James Gandolfini, while Lee appeared as Connie Chung. Rosie O’Donnell complained on her own talk show about Borstein’s impression of her as a closeted lesbian (which she was at the time). Borstein’s Ms. Swan character was criticized by Guy Aoki and Margaret Cho as an example of ‘yellowface’, and the show also featured two instances of blackface: Lee played George Forman’s fictional half-Asian son, and McDonald played a magical busboy from a foreign land. Sullivan, Sasso, Collins, Lee, Barinholtz, and Wilson hosted the 2016 reboot, but critics called the humor ‘stale’ and said it failed ‘to justify its existence.’
Littlest Pet Shop was an animated series based on the toy line by Kenner Products.
2005
- October 13 – Run’s House (MTV, Six seasons, 59 episodes)
- October 16 – Squidbillies (Adult Swim, Thirteen seasons, 132 episodes)
- October 17 – The Colbert Report (Comedy Central, Nine seasons, 1,447 episodes)
- October 17 – Pokémon: Advanced Challenge (Kids’ WB, One season, 52 episodes)
- October 17 – Miss Seventeen (MTV, One season, 10 episodes)
An unofficial, and incomplete, pilot for Squidbillies aired on Cartoon Network on April 1, 2005. Stuart Daniel Baker voiced family patriarch Early Cuyler, but was fired after making controversial remarks about the Black Lives Matter movement and Dolly Parton. Baker posted on Facebook that the firing ruined his life, but he later deleted the post. Baker was replaced in the final season by Tracy Morgan. Guest voices include Jason “Wee Man” Acuña, Fred Armisen, 38 Special, David Allan Coe, Coolio, Rachel Dratch, Mick Foley, Jonathan Katz, Chad Ochocinco, Patton Oswalt, T-Pain and Widespread Panic.
The Colbert Report was a satire of conservative pundit shows like The O’Reilly Factor and Hannity on Fox News, with Stephen Colbert playing a fictional anchorman named Stephen Colbert. The character first made appearances on the short-lived sketch comedy series The Dana Carvey Show in 1996. Colbert joined The Daily Show in 1997 when Craig Kilborn was host. After Jon Stewart assumed hosting duties, he asked Colbert to give the character a more political viewpoint. When Steve Carell left The Daily Show, Comedy Central worked hard to keep Colbert at the network. Colbert pitched the show in 2004, and Stewart urged them to pick it up. Comedy Central gave the show an eight-week tryout, upon which it saw immediate success. The show won multiple Emmy Awards including Outstanding Variety Series in 2013 and 2014. Colbert left the show in 2014 to take over hosting The Late Show on CBS. He revived the Colbert character in 2025 to comment on the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live! on ABC.
Pokémon: Advanced Challenge is the seventh season of the Pokémon anime series, and the second season of Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire. The series first debut in Japan on TV Tokyo on September 4, 2003.
2015
Lean Machine
- October 12 – Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (The CW, Four seasons, 62 episodes)
- October 16 – Truth Be Told (NBC, One season, 10 episodes)
Despite the show’s fan base, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend drew consistently low ratings during its run, and was one of the lowest-rated TV series to be renewed through four seasons by its parent network. The series was originally developed for Showtime, but the network opted to not proceed following the pilot. When The CW picked up the series, it was reworked from a 30-minute to a 60-minute show, and content had to be reworked from cable to broadcast standards. Michael McDonald was part of the Showtime cast, but departed after the move to The CW. Pete Gardner took over the role. Series regular Santino Fontana left following the fourth episode of Season 2. His character returned in Season 4, but was played by Skyler Astin. Each episode contains two to four original songs, with both clean versions for broadcast and explicit versions for Rachel Bloom’s YouTube channel filmed. The series received eight Primetime Emmy nominations during its run, winning Outstanding Choreography and Editing in 2016, and Outstanding Choreography and Outstanding Music and Lyrics in 2019.
Truth Be Told was originally titled People Are Talking before it was retitled ahead of its premiere. The series had a 13-episode order, but the number was reduced to 10 following the broadcast of the second episode.