TV by the Decade :: January 18•24

Midseason kicks into high gear this week across the decades with several high profile new series and TV movies making their debuts, some more successful than others. Things kick off in 1976 with a Great Performances presentation. 1986 brought a comedian back to the small screen nine years after the end of his classic sitcom ended. 1996 had a major week with two long-running comedy series launching. 2006 had three series, with the longest running one at 12 episodes but a musical TV movie was a huge success for its network. 2016 had the most new shows this week, with one successful comedy series and one long-running superhero series. Scroll down to see all of the shows that premiered this week, and tell us if any of your favorites are celebrating milestone anniversaries.

1956

• No new shows premiered this week in 1956.

1966

• No new shows premiered this week in 1966.

1976

• January 21 – Dance in America (PBS, documentary)

Dance in America aired as an episode of Great Performances on PBS.

1986

• January 18 – The Redd Foxx Show (ABC, One season, 13 episodes)
• January 19 – Murrow (HBO, TV movie)
• January 20 – Prince of Bel Air (ABC, TV movie)
• January 22 – Planet Earth (PBS, 7-episode docuseries)

A 20-year-old Pamela Adlon was a regular cast member of The Redd Foxx Show, though she was billed as Pamela Segall at the time. Other cast members included Barry Van Dyke, Sinbad and Charlie Adler.

Murrow starred Daniel J. Travanti as TV newsman Edward R. Murrow. The movie was nominated for five CableACE Awards, winning two: Writing for a Movie or Miniseries and Directing of a Movie or Miniseries.

Prince of Bel Air stars Mark Harmon, Kirstie Alley and Patrick Labyorteaux, who would reunite in 1987 for the feature film, Summer School. The European theatrical release of Prince of Bel Air includes a scene with actresses Barbara Crampton and Leslie Winston topless. The US version includes the same scene but only with a fully clothed Crampton.

Planet Earth was narrated by Richard Kiley. It was filmed over a four-year period on all seven continents, and from the bottom of the ocean to earth orbit. The program tied with Laurence Olivier – A Life for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Informational Series or Special. The program, and a companion book, are sometimes marketed as Our Planet Earth to avoid confusion with the unrelated 2006 BBC series Planet Earth.

1996

• January 20 – The Lazarus Man (TNT, One season, 22 episodes, 2 unaired)
• January 21 – Savannah (The WB, Two seasons, 34 episodes)
• January 22 – The Babysitter’s Seduction (NBC, TV movie)
• January 22 – Bzzz! (Syndication, One season, last broadcast on September 5, 1977)
• January 23 – Moesha (UPN, Six seasons, 127 episodes)
• January 24 – Tracey Takes On… (HBO, Four seasons, 65 episodes)

The Lazarus Man was renewed for a second season, but producer Castle Rock Entertainment cancelled the show after it learned star Robert Urich was diagnosed with synovial cell sarcoma. Urich sued for breach of contract as he never informed the studio that he would be unable to perform in the series while undergoing cancer treatments, losing the $1.47 million salary he was due for the second season. The lawsuit was settled with both sides agreeing to not disclose the terms publicly.

Savannah, a primetime soap opera from Aaron Spelling, was the first hour-long program, and the first drama series, to air on The WB. The show was filmed entirely in Georgia, though toward the end of Season 2, scenes were no longer filmed at the exterior locations in Savannah. Establishing shot stock footage was used and all exteriors were then filmed in Atlanta.

The Babysitter’s Seduction starred Stephen Collins, Keri Russell, Phylicia Rashad and Tobin Bell.

Bzzz! was launched in January 1996 for a limited trial run on Tribune-owned TV stations, then expanded for to a full season beginning September 9, 1996. The premise was a fast-paced version of The Dating Game.

The pilot for Moesha was originally produced for CBS, which declined to pick up the show. It was one of the biggest successes for UPN. Star Brandy Norwood performed several different versions of the show’s theme song. In one episode, Norwood appears as herself as a celebrity doppelganger to Moesha. Because of the popularity of regular cast member Countess Vaughn, she left the show in 1999 for a spin-off, The Parkers. Another regular, Yvette Wilson, also transferred to the spin-off. Several Moesha cast members made cross-over appearances on The Parkers. While not a spin-off, the 2000 sitcom Girlfriends exists in the same universe as Moesha. The Game was then spun-off of Girlfriends, and to complicate matters, Norwood joined the show’s fifth season as a new character, Chardonnay Pitts. Moesha ended on a cliffhanger when UPN opted not to move forward with a seventh season.

Unlike Tracey Ullman’s FOX sketch comedy series, The Tracey Ullman Show, Tracey Takes On… was a single camera production with no studio audience, featuring a rotating collection of 20 characters, instead of the nearly 100 characters on the previous show, many of which only appeared once. Each episode focuses on a specific subject. Only one character from the previous show carried over to the new show, Kay Clark, as Ullman was the sole creator. Julie Kavner, a regular on the FOX series, was a recurring guest star on the HBO series. Production on each season would begin with a staff retreat in February, followed by three months of writing, then pre-production in July and August with filming beginning in September, wrapping in November with the complete season generally delivered to HBO in December. The series received 30 Primetime Emmy nominations, winning seven, six in technical categories (Costume Design, Makeup and Hairstyling) and one for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series in 1997.

2006

• January 18 – Skating with Celebrities (FOX, One season, 7 episodes)
• January 20 – High School Musical (USA, TV movie)
• January 22 – Number 1 Single (E!, 8-episode docuseries)
• January 23 – Courting Alex (CBS, One season, 12 episodes, 4 unaired)

Skating with Celebrities was an American version of the UK’s Dancing on Ice, though far less successful. The show was produced to capitalize on the success of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars. Celebrities included Todd Bridges, Debbie Gibson, Dave Coulier, Jillian Barberie and Kristy Swanson. The hosts were Summer Sanders and Scott Hamilton. Judges were Dorothy Hamill, John Nicks and Mark Lund. Former pairs skater Randy Gardner was the choreographer. The show faced some controversy as competing pair Swanson and pro Lloyd Eisler were rumored to be engaged in an extramarital affair. The couple went on to win the competition against Barberie and John Zimmerman.

High School Musical was produced because Disney Channel wanted to replicate the success of The Cheetah Girls, the channel’s first musical film, and the musical episodes of Even Stevens and That’s So Raven. It was the most successful Disney Channel film with nearly 8 million viewers for the premiere broadcast. The film spawned sequels in 2007 and 2008.

Number 1 Single documented the life of Lisa Loeb, who also narrated, as she tries to re-enter the dating scene after two failed relationships. The series failed to result in a long-term relationship, but Loeb married Late Night with Conan O’Brien musical coordinator Roey Hershkovitz three years after her show ended.

Courting Alex was based on the British series According to Bex. Jenna Elfman, Dabney Coleman and Hugh Bonneville starred. The show’s working titles were Everything I Know about Men and The Jenna Elfman Show. The set where Alex works is a re-dressed version of the Winfred-Louder Department Store set used by The Drew Carey Show. The show drew impressive ratings in its original Tuesday timeslot, but dropped drastically when CBS moved it to Wednesday night.

2016

• January 18 – The HALO Effect (Nickelodeon, One season, 10 episodes)
• January 18 – War & Peace (A&E/History/Lifetime, One season, 6 episodes)
• January 19 – Planet Primetime (Travel Channel, One season, 14 episodes)
• January 19 – Fit to Fat to Fit (A&E, Two seasons, 17 episodes)
• January 21 – Baskets (FX, Four seasons, 40 episodes)
• January 21 – Dark Net (Showtime, Two seasons, 16 episodes)
• January 21 – DC’s Legends of Tomorrow (The CW, Seven seasons, 110 episodes)
• January 21 – Recipe for Deception (Bravo, One season, 10 episodes)
• January 23 – Floogals (Sprout, Three seasons, 130 episodes)
• January 23 – Chelsea Does (Netflix, One season, 4 episodes)
• January 23 – Toni Braxton: Unbreak My Heart (Lifetime, TV movie)
• January 24 – The X-Files (FOX, Two seasons, 16 episodes)

War & Peace aired simultaneously on three networks in the US. Broadcast in the UK as a six-episode series (five 60-minute episodes and an 82-minute finale), it aired in the US as four two-hour episodes. A digital version of the series was made available in 2025 as eight 43-44 minute episodes. The cast included Paul Dano, Lily James, Stephen Rea, Jim Broadbent, Brian Cox and Gillian Anderson.

Several ideas for Baskets came from star Zach Galifianakis’ Between Two Ferns: The Movie, which were discarded early in the film’s development. Galifianakis stated master clown Philippe Gaulier and his clown school École Philippe Gaulier in France were an inspiration for the show. The series earned four Emmy nominations, three of them for Louie Anderson’s performance as Christine Baskets, mother of Galifianakis’ twin brothers, Chip and Dale, with one win for Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 2016. Galifianakis was also nominated once in 2017.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow is set in The CW’s Arrowverse, and features characters introduced in Arrow and The Flash. The series was originally intended to have an anthology series format with each season having its own storyline, but not disconnected from other seasons. The format was dropped during development, but the show did go through numerous cast changes during its run. The presentation for the series for The CW’s upfront showcase was filmed over the course of one night.

Biographical TV movie Toni Braxton: Unbreak My Heart was based on Braxton’s book, Unbreak My Heart: A Memoir, and her hit single, ‘Un-Break My Heart’. Lex Scott Davis starred as Braxton.

Fourteen years after the conclusion of the nine-season series in 2002, FOX revived The X-Files for what was intended to be a six-episode ‘event series’, and after the show’s broadcast was then referred to as Season 10. The revival was born out of the suggestions of a third theatrical film to wrap up the show’s storylines. David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Mitch Pileggi and William B. Davis reprised their roles from the original series. FOX hoped that the event would be successful enough to relaunch the series. Despite losing 10 million viewers between the premiere and finale, FOX ordered another cycle (Season 11) of 10-episodes to air in the 2017-2018 TV season.