NBCUniversal Television
The second week of July through the decades only saw new shows premiering in two of those decades basically due to the demand of the growing cable TV industry. One long-running reality series premiered — which almost no one remembers — as well as a handful of scripted shows that had multi-season runs. Let’s take a look and see if you remember any of these show.
1959
- No new series premiered this week in 1959.
1969
- No new series premiered this week in 1969.
1979
- No new series premiered this week in 1979.
1989
- No new series premiered this week in 1999.
1999
- July 11 — Behind-the-scenes docuseries Making the Video premieres on MTV. Each episode was 30-minutes and looked at the process of making a music video with the finished video premiering at the end of the episode. The series ran for 14 seasons with the last episode airing on MTV in 2010. A similar show titled …Makes a Video ran on MTV2 in 2005, 2006, 2009 and 2011. Making the Video premiered with 98 Degress’ ‘I Do (Cherish You)’ and ended with Katy Perry and Snoop Dogg’s ‘California Gurls’. Other featured videos included Jennifer Lopez’s ‘Waiting for Tonight’, Whitneyt Houston’s ‘I Learned from the Best’, Eminem’s ‘The Real Slim Shady’, Ricky Martin’s ‘She Bangs’, Destiny’s Child’s ‘Survivor’, U2’s ‘Elevation’, P!nk’s ‘Get the Party Started’, Marilyn Manson’s ‘Tainted Love’, Brandy’s ‘What About Us?”, Nelly’s ‘Hot in Herre’, Madonna’s ‘Die Another Day’, Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s ‘Crazy in Love’, Britney Spears’ ‘Toxic’, Green Day’s ‘American Idiot’, Christina Aguilara’s ‘Ain’t No Other Man’, Justin Timberlake’s ‘SexyBack’, and Rihanna’s ‘Shut Up and Drive’.
- July 11 — Sitcom Movie Stars debuts on The WB. The series starred Harry Hamlin and Jennifer Grant as famous Hollywood actors Reese Hardin and Jacey Watts trying to raise their children, Apache and Moonglow. Also living with them (next door to Tom Hanks, who is never seen) are Reese’s kids from his first marriage, the not-so-successful Todd and Lori. A running joke in the series was that Todd’s poker buddies were the least successful brothers of John Travolta (Joey), Patrick Swayze (Don) and Sylvester Stallone (Frank) — who all portrayed themselves. Shiri Appleby played Lori in the pilot but was recast with Marnette Patterson. The show ran for two short seasons, the first consisting of eight episodes and the second, which premiered on April 2, 2000, had 12 episodes. The final episode aired on June 18, 2000.
2009
- July 7 — Sitcom 10 Things I Hate About You premieres on ABC Family, based on the 1999 film of the same name. The plot, which was based on Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, focused on the Stratford sisters, Kat and Bianca, who have moved from Ohio to California. At their new school, Padua High, one sister wants to stand out and one wants to fit in. Through the school year the girsl try to navigate the popular crowd, boys and their over-protective father. The series ran for just a single season broken in to two parts with ten episodes each. The cast included Lindsey Shaw, Meaghan Martin, Nicholas Braun, Dana Davis, Larry Miller and Ethan Peck who played Spock in the second season of Star Trek: Discovery. Recurring cast members included Chris Zylka and Leslie Grossman.
- July 7 — Reality docuseries That’s Impossible debuts on the History Channel. The series examined seemingly impossible technologies based upon stories and inventions in history and detailed what was needed to bring them into reality. Subjects of the series’ six episodes, which were narrated by Jonathan Frakes, were Invisibility Cloaks, Real Terminators, Weather Warfare, Eternal Life, Death Rays and Energy Weapons, and Mind Control.
- July 7 — Science fiction series Warehouse 13 premieres on SciFi Channel (now Syfy). The series followed Secret Service agents Myka Bering (Joanne Kelly) and Pete Lattimer (Eddie McClintock) who are assigned to the secretive Warehouse 13, which houses supernatural artifacts. Their mission is to retrieve missing artifacts and investigate reports of new ones, coming to understand the importance of what they’re doing. In Season 1 they meet Claudia Donovan who is seaching for her missing brother. Claudia joins the team in Season 2 as their tech expert. Season 3 introduced new character Steve Jinks, and Agent from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The series is said to have borrowed its plot from the 1987-90 syndicated series Friday the 13th: The Series, and has been described as ‘part The X-Files, part Raiders of the Lost Ark, and part Moonlighting.’ The series premiere was SciFi’s third largest debut to that point, and the first six episodes are among the top ten highest rated series episodes on SciFi. Characters from Warehouse 13 crossed over to Eureka (and vice versa), and a character also crossed over to Alphas. Other regular cast members included Saul Rubinek, Genelle Williams, Simon Reynolds, Allison Scagliotti and Aaron Ashmore. The recurring cast included CCH Pounder, Roger Rees, Mark Sheppard, René Auberjonois, Kate Mulgrew, Sasha Roiz, Kelly Hu, Brent Spiner and Lindsay Wagner. 64 episodes were produced over five season with the series finale airing on May 19, 2014.
- July 12 — Comedy/drama/fantasy series Drop Dead Diva premieres on Lifetime. The series premise finds vapid model Deborah Dobkins (Brooke D’Orsay) killed in an accident on her way to an audition for The Price is Right. At the Pearly Gates, she is found to have performed zero good deeds and zero bad deeds. Gatekeeper Fred is distracted and Deb pressed the ‘Return’ button, brought back to life in the body of a recently deceased lawyer, Jane Bingum (Brooke Elliott), who died protecting her boss. Jane is the complete opposite of Deb: brilliant, hard-working, charitable and plus-sized. Jane also happens to work in the same law firm as Deb’s fiancé and tells her best friend Stacy of her predicament. Deb/Jane prepares to reveal the truth to Grayson, but finds she now has a Guardian Angel, Fred, who is assigned to her as punishment for allowing her to leave Heaven and he must prevent her from telling anyone the truth. Deb must learn more about her inherited life, and meets the real Jane Bingum, who also hit the ‘Return’ button and is now in a new body. The two become friends and Deb eventually reveals the truth to Grayson. The series, which had originally been planned for Fox, ran for six seasons although it had been cancelled at the end of Season 4 until Lifetime and Sony agreed on cost-cutting measures) and 78 episodes with the finale airing on June 22, 2014. Other main cast members included Margaret Cho, April Bowlby, Jackson Hurst and Ben Feldman. Recurring cast members included Paula Abdul, Rosie O’Donnell, Sharon Lawrence, Faith Prince, Brandy Norwood and Kim Kardashian. Guest stars included Candice Accola, Clay Aiken, Louis Van Amstel, Diedrich Bader, Lance Bass, Amanda Bearse, Corbin Bleu, Delta Burke, Bruce Davison, Patty Duke, Jorja Fox, Vivica A. Fox, Robin Givens, TOny Goldwyn, ELliott Gould, Nancy Grace, Kathy Griffin, Tim Gunn, Jasmine Guy, Deidre Hall, Valerie Harper, Gregory Harrison, Natasha Henstridge, Howard Hesseman, Star Jones, Ricki Lake, Mario Lopez, Chad Lowe, Liza Minnelli, Kathy Najimy, Kelly Osbourne, Jake Pavelka, Teri Polo, Crystal Reed, Cybill Shepherd, Wanda Sykes, Jennifer Tilly, Gina Torres, Nia Vardalos, Dylan Walsh, Serena Williams, Wendy Williams, Nick Zano and Joan Rivers. The series also won two GLAAD Media Awards in 2012 and 2015 for Outstanding Individual Episode (in a series without a regular LGBT character).
Did you watch any of these show? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below!
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