ABC Studios
The first week of April was a dud for the majority of the new series that debuted this week through the decades. Except for a game show and an interview/documentary series that aired on networks that no longer exists, none of the three scripted series that debuted made it past 13 episodes. But let’s take a stroll down memory lane to see if any of these series jog your memory.
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 1959.
1989
- April 3 — Game show Top Card premieres on TNN (The Nashville Network). Hosted by Jim Caldwell and Blake Pickett, the game featured three contestants (one usually being a returning champion) who competed in a question-and-answer round in order to acquire a card to help them reach a score of 21 (Blackjack). If they didn’t like the card, they could opt to take the top card from an oversize deck. The game consisted of three rounds, with each round ending either when someone hit 21, or all three players froze with the one closest to 21 without going over becoming the winner. The champ went on to play the bonus round, ‘Top Card Plus’, in which the player picked prizes with cards behind them in an attempt to score 21, If they did, they won the prizes and a grand prize (a trip in Season 1, a car in the following seasons), and retired as champion. For the show’s third season, Dan Miller and Paige Brown took over as hosts (Brad Staggs filled in for several weeks during Season 3). The show ran for four seasons, ending on March 26, 1993. The following Monday the show was replaced by a music-based game show, 10 Seconds also hosted by Dan Miller.
- April 5 — Sitcom The Robert Guillaume Show debuts on ABC. Former Soap and Benson star Guillaume conceived the series with him starring as Edward Sawyer, a single father with two children, who begins a relationship with Ann (Wendy Phillips), his secretary with a daughter of her own. Guillaume intended the series to address racial complexities in a family situation but ABC warned him that American television viewers needed time to accept an interracial romance. Guillaume asserted that ABC purposely sabotaged the show by airing episodes out of order, including one in which the leads kiss as the second episode when it was intended to be the eighth. The series was cancelled after airing 13 episodes.
1999
- March 31 — Interview program Big Thinkers premieres on ZDTV (aka TechTV). The series featured interviews with ‘big thinkers’ in science, technology and other fields. The show’s original host was Mark Eddo, followed by John C. Dvorak. In 2001, the series was revamped from a weekly, half-hour series to a documentary-style program dubbed Big Thinkers 2.0 on the TechTV website. Some of the individuals featured on the revamped version included Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe author Douglas Adams, VR pioneer Jaron Lanier, architect Neil Spiller, paleontologist Jack Horner, futurist Alvin Toffler, and entertainer Penn Jillette. The series ended on September 14, 2002.
2009
- March 31 — Romantic dramedy Cupid gets a reboot on ABC. Back in our fourth edition of ‘TV By the Decade’ we noted the premiere of Cupid on September 26, 1998. The series had enough of a cult following for ABC to allow producer Rob Thomas to revamp and recast the series which again revolved around a man who may or may not be the Roman god of love who must bring 100 couples together so that he may return to Mount Olympus. Cupid, or rather Trevor Pierce, is under the psychiatric care of Dr. Claire McCrae, whose work is often in the field of romantic relationship. Here, Cupid/Trevor is played by Bobby Cannavale and Dr. McCrae is played by Sarah Paulson. The original series aired 14 of its 15 episodes, but there was less love for the revival which survived for just 7 episodes, ending its run on June 16, 2009.
- April 6 — Sitcom Surviving Suburbia premieres on ABC. The series starred Bob Saget, in his first gig at ABC since leaving his hosting duties at America’s Funniest Home Videos in 1997, and Cynthia Stevenson, and was dubbed the male version of Roseanne. The pair starred as a married couple with two kids whose new neighbor begins causing problems, turning their quiet suburban lifestyle upside-down. The series also starred Jere Burns, Dan Cortese and Melissa Peterman. The series had originally been part of the Media Rights Capital block scheduled to air on The CW in 2008, but the first batch of series fared so poorly that the network pulled the block and ended the deal with MRC after a few weeks. ABC picked up the series and scheduled it to air following Dancing With the Stars. The premiere garnered just over 12 million viewers, but ratings dropped with subsequent episodes, losing a large part of the DWTS lead-in. The show was moved to Fridays with the sixth episode where it ended its first and only season after 13 episodes on August 7, 2009.
Do you remember any of these shows? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below!
Share this post
