ABC
The second week of March though the decades produced a handful of new TV series, with all but one considered to be failures, including a spin-off of a hit sitcom, and a drama that didn’t hit US TV screens until after the show was cancelled. Only one series stood the test of time and is still on the air today, celebrating its 30th anniversary. Which show is it? Read on to find out!
1959
- No new series premiered this week in 1959.
1969
- No new series premiered this week in 1969.
1979
- March 13 — With Three’s Company a smash for ABC, it was inevitable the network would see a spin-off series to cash in and they decided to go with The Ropers which starred Norman Fell and Audra Lindley as Stanley and Helen Roper, moving from the apartment building they managed on the original series to move to an upscale neighborhood, horrifying their snooty neighbor played by Jeffrey Tambor, while Helen becomes friends with his wife, played by Patricia McCormack. The show has an interesting and sad history. When the show debuted mid-season as part of ABC’s Tuesday comedy block, the series finished its season in the Top Ten for the year, leading to a second season. ABC moved the show to Saturday and ratings immediately plummeted, placing the show in the bottom ten as it was scheduled against NBC’s CHiPs. When Three’s Company premiered mid-season three years earlier, the spin-off was brought up during the first season but producers wanted the series to run a full season to see if a spin-off was sustainable. After the second season, the producers were ready to go with the spin-off as was Lindley but Fell was happy remaining on the established hit. ABC and the producers made a deal that they would give the series a full year to see how it fared, and if the show was cancelled the stars would return to Three’s Company. When the show tanked in its new Saturday time slot, Fell flew to New York to beg ABC execs to give the show a better time slot but it remained on Saturday. ABC did air the final three episodes on Thursday which actually brought the show back to the Top 25 but the network ultimately decided to cancel the series … one month after the one year agreement with the stars had expired (Fell believed ABC had already planned to cancel the show but waited for the agreement to expire before making it public). The stars did try to return to Three’s Company but neither the producers or network were interested now that Don Knotts was firmly established as the new landlord Mr. Furley, a move that did not hurt the show’s ratings. This also meant the producers only had to pay one actor playing the landlord rather than two. Fell and Lindley were royally screwed by ABC but agreed to make one special appearance on Three’s Company in a Season 5 episode which was the last time the actors and characters were seen on the show. The Ropers ended after two seasons and 28 episodes on May 22, 1980. The series was based on a British series titled George and Mildred which was a spin-off of Man About the House, which was the inspiration for Three’s Company.
- March 15 — Drama series Harris and Company premieres on NBC. The series starred Bernie Casey as a father of five who relocates the family from Detroit to Los Angeles after the death of his wife. The series, the first to focus on an African-American family, was based on the TV movie Love is Not Enough which aired on June 12, 1978, but was the lowest rated primetime series of the season. NBC pulled the plug after four episodes.
1989
- March 11 — Reality docuseries COPS debuts on the Fox Network. The series followed various law enforcement agencies as they crack down on family disputes, prostitution, and drug busts among other things. In May 2011, the show became the longest running show on the Fox Network after America’s Most Wanted was cancelled after 23 years. Fox then cancelled COPS in 2013 but the show moved to the Spike cable network (now Paramount Network), beginning its 31st season on June 4, 2018. The series had been turned down time and again by the networks, but the writers’ strike of the 80s forced networks to look beyond scripted programming and Fox gave the series the greenlight. The show celebrated its 1,000th episode on August 21, 2017. The original concept for the show was to follow police officers in their work and home lives, but it was deemed too artificial by the producers, so the show moved to episodes with three self-contained segments. Members of camera crews have on occasion been involved in assisting the officers and one crew member, audio technician Bryce Dion, was killed during a robbery of a Wendy’s in Omaha, Nebraska in 2014, when a stray bullet struck him in the side where there was no coverage from the bullet-proof vest, passing through his lung and piercing his heart. The series featured the song ‘Bad Boys’ by Inner Circle as its theme, and actor Burt Lancaster provided the opening narration for the pilot episode.
1999
- March 15 — Action series L.A. Heat debuts. The show follows homicide detectives Chase McDonald (Wolf Larson) and August Brooks (Steven Williams) who work to keep the streets of Los Angeles safe. In their free time, Chase makes metal sculptures that he sells on the side, and August runs a youth center for underprivileged teens. The series began filming in L.A. in 1996 but had no US distribution plan. It was sold overseas and in its second season unseated Baywatch as the Number 1 TV show in Germany. The show was also popular in Lebanon and other Arabic speaking countries, and France. The show’s expensive car chase scenes were usually taken from feature films produced by the same production company, PM Entertainment, which suffered financial difficulties, forcing the cancellation of the show in 1998 after two season. The show was finally sold in the US to cable outlet TNT which ran all 48 episodes Monday through Friday at 4:00 PM for almost two years. When the contract expired, the show disappeared from US airwaves and has not been seen since 2000. There were plans to bring the show back for a third season but financing could not be secured.
2009
- March 10 — Reality series WCG Ultimate Gamer premieres on Syfy. Twelve gamers lived together in a loft and would compete in a Real Life Challenge followed by an Isolation Challenge. Each Real World Challenge would tie into the Xbox 360 game for the Isolation Challenge (for instance they would play paintball before playing Halo 3). The gamer with the highest score would pick one other gamer to go against the player with the lowest score in the Elimination Challenge with the loser going home. The series ran for two seasons, producing 16 episodes.
- March 11 — Reality series The Chopping Block premieres on NBC. The series follows eight pairs of contestants (a chef and front-of-house member with an existing relationship), divided into four teams of two pairs, assigned an empty restaurant space across the street from each other in downtown Manhattan. Each week the teams are given a task, open for service, with the weakest pair eliminated by the show’s host, chef Marco Pierre White. The teams also compete in a mini challenge with the winner gaining an advantage in the subsequent service. The first episode premiered to low ratings with two more following with each showing worse ratings than the last. NBC cancelled the show on March 26 with the remaining episodes streaming on NBC.com and Hulu. NBC did air the remaining episodes though with the fourth debuting on June 19. The show was then pre-empted the next week for NBC’s coverage of the deaths of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. It returned July 3 and concluded its run on NBC on July 24.
- March 15 — Drama series Kings debuts on NBC. The series is loosely based on the Biblical story of King David, but set in a kingdom that culturally and technologically resembles the modern United States. The series starred Ian McShane, Christopher Egan, Susanna Thompson, Eamonn Walker, Sebastian Stan, Dylan Baker and Wes Studi. Macaulay Culkin, Brian Cox and Leslie Bibb were among the recurring cast members. Ratings for the premiere were low and never recovered, making it hard to justify the series $4 million per episode price tag. After four airings, NBC pulled the show from its Sunday time slot, opting to burn off the remaining nine episodes on Saturday. But after one airing, the show was pulled again with the remaining eight episodes dumped in the summer, from June 13 to July 25.
Do you remember any of these shows? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below!
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