TV by the Decade :: March 8•14

Fox Television Studios

Spring is in the air and the second week of March through the decades saw several new scripted and reality series making their debuts. Some ran for multiple seasons but seem almost forgotten today until the titles are mentioned. Do you remember any of these shows that premiered during the week of March 8?

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

• March 11 — Dramedy United States premieres on NBC. Executive produced and written by Larry Gelbart, the title refers to ‘the state of being united in a relationship’. Gelbart envisioned the show to be based on real situations that happened in his marriage and the marriages of his friends, with topics including infidelity, debt, drinking, sexual misunderstandings, and deaths in the family. Beau Bridges and Helen Shaver starred as Richard and Libby Chapman, an upwardly mobile Los Angeles couple, and Gelbart refrained from using background music or a laugh track in the episodes. NBC’s tagline for the show was ‘It will do to marriage what M*A*S*H did for war’, but the show was pulled from the schedule two months after it premiered with only seven of the 13 produced episodes airing. The complete series did eventually air in the US — it played on UK’s BBC2 under the title Marriage — when A+E ran the show in 1986. The final NBC broadcast was on April 29, 1980.
• March 14 — Adventure/drama Here’s Boomer premieres on NBC. The series follows the adventures of Boomer, a stray dog who traveled around helping people in trouble. The series was similar to the Benji films of the time and was first introduced in a pilot TV movie A Christmas for Boomer that aired on December 6, 1979. The show was a spin-off of the Saturday morning live-action series The Red Hand Gang. The series also bore a resemblance to the Canadian series The Littlest Hobo. At one point, viewers were supposed to hear Boomer’s thoughts, but that gimmick was used in just a single episode that aired in December 1980. With Boomer as the only regular cast member, each episode featured special guest stars including John Amos, Rosanna Arquette, Kaye Ballard, Tom Bosley, Todd Bridges, Michael J. Fox, Jonathan Frakes, Tracey Gold, Ken Kercheval, Meadowlark Lemon, Rue McClanahan, Roddy McDowall, Gene Rayburn, Doris Roberts and Natalie Schafer. The series ran for two seasons with the last original episode broadcast on July 3, 1982. Reruns continued until August 14, 1982.

1990

• No new series premiered this week in 1990.

2000

• March 11 — Teen drama Caitlin’s Way premieres on Nickelodeon. Lindsay Felton starred as Caitlin Seeger, a troubled girl living on the streets of Philadelphia. After being arrested, she’s given the option of going to a youth detention center or moving in with her late mother’s cousin in Montana. She chooses the latter and experiences culture shock when arriving at the ranch. Still distraught over her mother’s death when she was eight, Caitlin seeks a loving and permanent home with her new family. The series ran for three seasons, producing 52 episodes, ending on April 28, 2002.
• March 14 — Sitcom Son of the Beach premieres on FX. The series, a spoof of Baywatch, centered on the Shore Patrol Force 30 (SPF 30, get it?), led by the out-of-shape Notch Johnson (Timothy Stack), the complete opposite of David Hasselhoff’s character. The rest of the patrol consisted of characters with double entendre names like B.J. Cummings, Jamaica St. Croix, Chip Rommel, Kimberlee Clark, Anita Massingil and Porcelain Bidet. Plots revolved around silly action genre clichés and movie parodies. The regular cast included Jaime Bergman, Leila Arcieri, Kim Oja, Roland Kickinger, Lisa Banes and Amy Weber. Lynne Marie Stewart (Miss Yvonne from Pee-Wee’s Playhouse) and Vincent Pastore from The Sopranos had recurring roles. Guest stars included Jason Alexander, Mark Hamill, Alan Thicke, Erik Estrada, Gary Coleman, Patty Hearst, George Takei, Gilbert Gottfried, Walter Koenig, Pat Morita, Anson Williams, Maureen McCormick, Lee Majors, David Arquette, Neil Patrick Harris, Ian Ziering, RuPaul and Dweezil Zappa. The series was executive produced by Howard Stern, and ran for three seasons, producing 42 episodes. The last episode was broadcast on October 1, 2002.

2010

• March 9 — Competition series Food Wars premieres on Travel Channel. The series would travel to various U.S. cities where two top restaurants would prepare the same dish symbolic of that city (i.e. Buffalo Wings in Buffalo, NY). Host Camille Ford would visit each restaurant and present a history of each establishment, and at the end a taste test was conducted with the judging panel. The restaurant that received the most most was declared the winner of that food war. Other cities visited included Chicago IL (Italian Beef Sandwiches), Pittsburgh KS (Fried Chicken), Lockhart TX (BBQ), Minneapolis MN (Jucy Lucy), Washington DC (Pizza), New York City (Pastrami sandwiches), New Orleans (Po’Boy Sandwiches), Omaha (Steak), Key West FL (Key Lime Pie), and the state of Maine (Lobster Rolls). The series ran for a single season, producing 22 episodes with the last broadcast on November 17, 2010.
• March 10 — Reality series High Society premieres on The CW. The series followed the lives of Tinsley Mortimer, a Manhattan socialite, and her friends — Dabney Mercer, Paul Johnson Calderon, Alexandra Osipow, Jules Kirby, Deborah Denise Trachtenberg (Devora Rose), and Dale Mercer. The show was meant to air Wednesdays at 9:00 PM after America’s Next Top Model but due to low ratings it was pushed back a half hour to air after reality series Fly Girls. Eight episodes were produced for the first season with the last airing on April 28, 2010. A second season was rumored for 2011 that would put Mortimer in the Hamptons with a whole new cast, but the show was officially cancelled on May 20, 2010.
• March 11 — Comedy series Sons of Tucson premieres on FOX. The series focused on the Gunderson brothers, whose mother left and their father is in prison. They hire Ron (Tyler Labine) to be their father for specific situations, but then find they need to keep him around to shake off suspicions. Frank Dolce, Matthew Levy and Benjamin Stockham played the brothers, with Joe Lo Truglio, Sarayu Rao, Natalie Martinez, Michael Horse and Edwin Habacon in supporting roles. Guest stars included Alexandra Breckenridge, Jake Busey, Kurt Fuller, Keegan-Michael Key, Hailee Steinfeld, Nikki Ziering and Justin Berfield (former Malcolm in the Middle star and the show’s producer). FOX aired four of the show’s 13 episodes before pulling it from the schedule after the April 4 broadcast. The rest of the episodes were burned off beginning June 6, 2010 and ending Augist 1, 2010.
• March 14 — Docuseries Hoarding: Buried Alive premieres on TLC. The series takes viewers into the personal lives of hoarders, showing how mental illness has affected the individuals and their family members. Each episode usually featured two cases with extensive looks at the items each person collected. Therapists and professional organizers offer treatment and assistance throughout the process of ridding their homes of the hoard. Each episode ends with some progress that makes viewers hopeful for continued success. The show ran for five seasons, ending on April 2, 2014, producing 82 episodes.
• March 14 — Game show Minute to Win It premieres on NBC. A contestant was presented with a blueprint for the first game which had to be successfully completed in 60 seconds to advance to the next level. After successfully completing the first, fifth, seventh, eighth and ninth levels, the contestant was guaranteed to leave with no less than the dollar amount accumulated for those levels (although during the first season, the only threshold was at the $50,000 mark). If they complete the final game, they win $1 million. The contestants are also give three ‘lives’ at the start of the game while each level becomes increasingly more difficult. If the contestant loses all of their lives, their winnings dropped to the last milestone level completed. After successfully completing a game, they had the option to leave with their winnings before seeing the blueprint for the next challenge. If they elected to continue, they could not leave until the next game is completed or they run out of lives. Some episodes featured teams of two with games played solo or by both team members, and some episodes featured celebrities competing for charities. Several editions of the show ran in various countries around the world. Guy Fieri hosted NBC’s US edition which produced 70 episodes over two seasons. The show was revived by GSN in 2013 with host Apolo Ohno, and that version produced 40 episodes over a single season. International editions aired in Australia, Brazil, India, the Philippines, and Hungary. Over fifty countries have produced versions of the show.
• March 14 — Docuseries Fatal Attractions premieres on Animal Planet. The show focused on people who have kept exotic animals as unconventional pets that turn out to be dangerous and even fatal, including chimpanzees, big cats and reptiles. Two or three stories would be presented in each episode, told through flashbacks and re-enactments. Family members and surviving attack victims were interviewed, along with experts, as part of the narrative. The show ran for four seasons, producing 25 episodes, and ended on February 22, 2013.
• March 14 — Reality series Pretty Wild premieres on E!. The series followed sisters — Tess Taylor, Alexis Neiers and Gabby Neiers — and they make their way into the Hollywood social scene. In mid-2009 after the pilot was filmed, Alexis was arrested for being involved with a group known as the ‘Bling Ring’ that broke into the homes of celebrities including Orlando Bloom, Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan and Rachel Bilson. Pretty Wild chronicled the trial with Alexis pleading no contest to felony burglary and was sentenced to six months in LA County Jail. A feature film, The Bling Ring, was released in mid-2013. The reality series ran for a single season of nine episodes which concluded on May 23, 2010.

 
Did you or do you watch any of these show? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below!