Showtime
It’s the third week of August and while most networks are gearing up for their new Fall schedules, there are still some summer shows premiering, hoping for a pick-up for mid-season, while some new Fall shows are getting early premieres to drum up interest. Cable channels are also launching their new series ahead of the networks to hopefully keep viewers tuned in. NBC took a big gamble in 1990 by launching four new series but that gamble did not pay off, with one show about two decades ahead of its time. Cable had more success in 2010 with two series that both ran for four seasons. Let’s take a look and see which of these shows you remember.
1950
- No new series premiered this week in 1950.
1960
- No new series premiered this week in 1960.
1970
- No new series premiered this week in 1970.
1980
- August 21 — Competition series Games People Play premieres on NBC. Bryant Gumble, Cyndy Garvey, Mike Adamle and Johnny Bench hosted the series in which film, TV and sports celebrities participated in unusual competitions including guzzling beer, a belly flop contest, and taxi cab demolition derby. The series was inspired by similar segments on Real People. Mr. T came to fame on the series by winning the ‘America’s Best Bouncer’ competition twice, donating his $3000 prize to charity. His appearance on the show led to his casting as Clubber Lange in Rocky III. The series performed well initially as it was facing reruns and made-for-TV movies, a result of the 1980 actors strike, but ratings dropped once new programming debuted, and the show was cancelled in September 1981.
1990
- August 20 — Musical drama series Hull High, aka Hull Street High, premieres on NBC. Set in Cordell Hull High School, a hip, racially integrated school in an urban area, the series had the elements of a soap opera, featuring the relationships between the teachers and students, and musical, with the Hull High Devils whose songs related to the episode’s plot. The main adult character was history teacher John Deerborn, played by Will Lyman. The main cast also included Nancy Valen, Mark Ballou, Marty Belafsky, Marsha Bell, Jennifer Blanc, Kristin Datillo, Gary Grubbs, Carl Anthony Payne II, Cheryl Pollak and Harold Pruett. The series was filmed at El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills, CA. Choreography was by Peggy Holmes and Kenny Ortega (who also directed some episodes), with songs by Jon Lind, Tom Snow and Brock Walsh. Don Was served as the show’s musical producer. ABC’s musical series Cop Rock premiered a month later, but the series format didn’t work for either show (unlike Glee nineteen years later) and Hull High was officially cancelled on December 30, 1990 after airing nine episodes.
- August 20 — Medical drama series Lifestories premieres on NBC. Produced in a documentary style, the program attempted to create a realistic medical drama by answering serious medical questions heart attacks, colon cancer, infertility, plastic surgery and alcoholism. The series attracted controversy with an episode titled ‘Steve Burdick’ which had originally been scheduled to air on December 2, 1990, which would have been the second day of World AIDS Month. The episode centered around a gay TV news reporter who was HIV+ and whose partner had died from the disease as he relates their story on the air. Activists accused NBC of pulling the episode out of fear of advertiser backlash, which NBC denied. The network also denied that schedulers were aware of World AIDS Month and released an unfortunately worded statement that the removal of the episode was a ‘straight programming decision’. The show’s producer also felt there was an economic reason for pulling the episode, particularly since it dealt with a gay person with AIDS. NBC then changed the show from weekly to monthly, confirming ‘Steve Burdick’ would be the first of the monthly episodes, with the new air date of December 18, 1990. It was also the last episode of the series to air before the tenth and final episode was broadcast on July 14, 1991.
- August 20 — Sitcom Parenthood premieres on NBC. Based on the 1989 film, the series featured seriocomic vignettes of child rearing revolving around four generations of a middle-class family in California (the movie took place in St. Louis), the Buckmans. The Huffmans of the film became the Merricks for the series. The pilot was considered one of the best movie-to-TV adaptations since M*A*S*H, but ratings were poor and the show was cancelled after 12 episodes. The series featured a lot of unknowns at the time behind and in front of the camera including writer Joss Whedon, and actors Leonardo DiCaprio, David Arquette and Thora Birch. Other cast members included Jayne Atkinson, Ed Begley Jr., Maryedith Burrell, Mary Jackson, Sheila MacRae, Ken Ober and William Windom. Max Elliott Slade, who portrayed Kevin Buckman on the series, also played a younger version of Steve Martin’s character in the movie. NBC pulled the series after the 11th episode aired on December 16, 1990, finally airing the 12th and final episode on August 11, 1991. Parenthood was one of several failed movie-to-TV adaptations during the 1990-91 season including Baby Talk (Look Who’s Talking), Ferris Bueller and Uncle Buck. NBC gave Parenthood another shot as an hour-long drama that premiered in March 2010. More successful than the sitcom, the drama series ran for six seasons.
- August 22 — Sitcom Working It Out premieres on NBC. The series focused on two single parents, Sarah Marshall and David Stuart, who had never contemplated remarriage until they met each other. Both had considerable concerns due to their past histories which were reinforced by their friends’ attitudes. Jane Curtin and Stephen Collins starred, with David Garrison and Mary Beth Hurt among the supporting cast. The series was a ratings failure and NBC cancelled the series after airing the 11th episode on December 12, 1990, leaving two episodes unaired.
2000
- No new series premiered this week in 1970.
2010
- August 16 — Dramedy The Big C premieres on Showtime. The series centers around Cathy Jamison (Laura Linney), a suburban wife, mother and high school teacher who is diagnosed with melanoma. The diagnosis pushed Cathy to really live her life for the first time, somewhat selfishly, keeping the diagnosis from her family and behaving in ways they find bizarre and erratic. As the series progress, Cathy did finally allow some family and friends to support her as she coped with her terminal illness. The main cast also included Oliver Platt as her husband Paul, whom she kicks out of the house because she’s fed up of taking care of him; John Benjamin Hickey as her brother Sean, an eccentric, homeless, anti-establishment environmentalist whom Cathy begins to build a relationship with after her diagnosis; Gabriel Basso as her son Adam; Gabourey Sidibe, a combative student in Cathy’s class; Phyllis Somerville as crotchethy neighbor Marlene, who finds Cathy annoying at first but becomes the first person to know of her diagnosis. The recurring cast included Reid Scott, Cynthia Nixon, Nadia Dajani, Idris Elba, Alexandra Socha, Brian Cox, Alan Alda, Hugh Dancy, Parker Posey, Emily Kinney, Boyd Holbrook, Connie Ray, Hamish Linklater, Mamie Gummer, Lee Tergesen, Brian d’Arcy James, Tammy Blanchard, Kathy Najimi and Isaac Mizrahi. In 2011, Laura Linney was nominated for a Best Actress in a Comedy Series Emmy and Idris Elba was nominated as Guest Actor. Linney won the Golden Globe that year. Ljnney and Hickey were both Emmy nominated in 2013 as Best Actress and Supporting Actor, respectively, with Linney taking home the trophy. When the series premiered, it drew the largest audience for a Showtime original series up to that point, and the show ultimately ran for four seasons, producing a total of 40 episodes with the finale airing on May 20, 2013.
- August 17 — Sitcom Melissa & Joey premieres on ABC Family. The series follows Mel Burke (Melissa Joan Hart), a local politician whose family scandal leaves her niece Lennox and nephew Ryder without their parents, so Mel takes them in. Joe Longo (Joey Lawrence) is a former commodities trader left bankrupt after a Ponzi scheme and in need of a job. With Mel’s instant family being too hard to handle, she hires Joe to become the family’s new ‘manny’. ABC Family originally ordered a pilot and 12 episodes but the show was so successful the network added an additional 18 episodes to the first season order. The second season consisted of 15 episodes, the third had 20 and the fourth had 22. The series reached ratings highs in its third season, but declined in the fourth as cable TV subscribers began to decline. To offset the losses, ABC Family made the new episodes available on Hulu Plus three weeks after the original broadcast, but the show was cancelled on February 9, 2015. The series finale aired on August 5, 2015 after 104 episodes.
- August 22 — Cooking show Aarti Party premieres on Food Network. The show starred Aarti Sequeira, the winner of the sixth season of The Next Food Network Star, and focused on easy ways to enhance favorite American dishes with simple, unique Indian influences. The series ran for three seasons with a total of 31 episodes, concluding on September 24, 2011. There was never a formal announcement of the show’s cancellation until Sequeira posted on social media a year later due to persistent fan questions. She has continued to work with Food Network and its sister network Cooking Channel, and Aarti Party has been seen in reruns on Cooking Channel.
Did you or do you watch any of these shows? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below!
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