CBS
Between 1950 and 1990, the TV networks did not present a lot of original programming during the summer months since viewership was down while kids stayed outside playing with their friends later (imagine that) and families were taking vacations. With only three major networks until FOX and pay TV channels like HBO started popping up (which at that point was only broadcasting theatrical films), it wasn’t worth the expense to produce and air new scripted series. Once cable TV became the prominent means of delivery for television programs across the country, with new TV networks popping up (TNT, TBS, MTV) needing more than just syndicated reruns to air, the demand for new, original year round programming made networks reassess their traditional summer rerun plans. Now, the Big Five (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, The CW) produce many hours of original summer programming to compete with cable. Sometimes they strike gold, but more often than not the network summer shows fade away in the Fall never to be seen again. Cable has a better track record though but this week through the decades one major network did strike gold. Read on to see what shows — memorable and not — premiered this week.
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
- No new series premiered this week in 1980.
1990
- June 1 — Game show Great Getaway Game premieres on Travel Channel. The game featured two contestants — a returning champ and a challenger — who would try to find a hidden word on a large board from clues given by the host. To begin the game, each player was given two free spaces to reveal letters before the questions were asked. Then a contestant could buzz in to answer the question scoring 10 points if right and losing 10 points if wrong, giving the opponent a chance to answer. Getting the right answer also revealed another letter in the puzzle. Finding the correct word scored 100 points. The game was played in similar fashion through several rounds until time ran out. If time was called in the middle of a round, letters would be revealed until someone buzzed in with the correct answer. The winner advanced to the Bonus round where the contestant had 30 seconds to find five words on a 7×7 grid. If they found all the words, they won a trip but there was no consolation prize if they failed. However, the champion could return until they were defeated or won five games in a row, whichever came first. Jim Caldwell hosted the pilot but producer, and long-time game show host Wink Martindale took over for the series (coincidentally, Caldwell had taken over hosting duties from Martindale on Tic-Tac-Dough). The show ran for a single season until April 1991, producing 39 episodes.
2000
- May 31 — Reality competition series Survivor premieres on CBS. The series was based on the Swedish program Expedition Robinson that debuted in 1997. The show places a number of ‘castaways’ in an isolated location (usually an island) for 39 days where they are divided into two (or more) tribes and must build a shelter and provide for themselves with little help from the producers outside of rice and fire (but not always). Each episode will feature a Reward Challenge and an Immunity Challenge — and sometime the two are combined into a single challenge — with a losing tribe headed to Tribal Council where one survivor is voted out. As the series progressed, advantages like Hidden Immunity Idols and other advantages were introduced into the game which player could use to keep them, or someone else they were aligned with, safe at Tribal Council. Depending on the season, the final two or three players in the game would face a jury of eliminated players to which they had to explain why they deserved to win. The jury would vote and the winner received $1 million. Over 20 years, the series has produced 40 seasons, usually two editions were broadcast in a regular TV season after the summer premiere, with Season 40 consisting of all previous winners and a top prize of $2 million. The game has evolved over the years, introducing new elements like Redemption Island and Edge of Extinction which gave the voted out players a chance to re-enter the game by competing in a new challenge against one another. Fans of the series have had very mixed feelings about these ‘twists’. Since the second season, the finale has been broadcast live where the winner is revealed, usually several months after the final votes were cast on the island. Production on the season’s two editions generally take place in late Spring-early Summer with the first edition premiering in September and finishing in December, and the second edition premiering in February and finishing in May. Over the years, the show has seen castawys medically evacuated from the game due to illness or injury, and Season 39 had a contestant removed from the game due to offensive behavior towards some of the female tribe members. That season’s finale was not broadcast live, but taped live and broadcast later in the day to avoid any issues or controversy surrounding the incident that led to the removal of the contestant. The show has taken up residence on the islands of Fiji since Season 33, but have also filmed seasons on islands in Malaysia, Thailand, Brazil, Panama, Vanuatu, Palau, Guatemala, Cook Islands, China, Samoa, Nicaragua and the Philippines. There have been some landlocked seasons in Africa and Australia, but producers have found the game works better with an island location and water for challenges. Seasons have featured contestants from previous seasons coming back to compete, and until Season 40 there had only been one two-time winner, Sandra Diaz-Twine aka The Queen (Seasons 7 & 20). Season 28 winner Tony Vlachos is now the second two-time winner with the biggest combined payout of $3 million. Jeff Probst has hosted the series from the beginning and is now one of the show’s executive producers who is generally in charge of running the show, for better or worse. Survivor is considered the leader in American reality TV because of its ratings (Seasons 1-11 were consistently in the Top Ten) and profitability. The series has been nominated for Outstanding Reality-Competition Program four times after the category was created in 2003, while Probst won the Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program four consecutive years after the category was created in 2008. While CBS has renewed the series for its 41st and 42nd seasons, production was brought to a halt a week before it was due to start due to the Coronavirus global pandemic. CBS has faith the series will be able to go back into production by July which would give producers enough time to complete Season 41 for broadcast in the Fall of 2020. To date, the series has produced 596 episodes.
- May 31 — Animated sitcom Clerks: The Animated Series premieres on ABC. Based on Kevin Smith’s 1994 comedy film Clerks, it was the first television series to be set in Smith’s View Askewniverse. The idea for the series came about in 1995 with Smith and producing partner Scott Mosier pitching the idea to many networks including HBO, FOX and The WB. UPN offered them a 13-episode order but the pair turned them down in order to be on a bigger network (they were also told UPN would be off the air within a year). They settled on a six-episode order from ABC. Alan Rickman had been cast as the voice of Leonardo Leonardo so they designed the character to look like Hans Gruber from Die Hard. Rickman objected because he didn’t want to play that character again, and ABC balked at the casting for budgetary reasons. Alec Baldwin was eventually cast in the role. Only two of the six episodes were broadcast on ABC due to low ratings, the show not fitting with the network’s other programming, unsuccessful test screenings with older audiences and ABC’s decision to air the episodes out of order beginning with Episode 4 as the premiere followed by Episode 2 which contained flashback to Episode 1. The second episode also contained a scene from ‘Flintstone’s List’, a fictional video that spoofed Schindler’s List. All six episodes were released on DVD in 2001 which featured commentary tracks detailing the disagreements with the network. Comedy Central aired all six episodes on December 14, 2002, the first time the complete series had been broadcast on television. Several scenes filmed for but cut from the feature film Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back contained metafictional moments where the character Randall makes references to the animated series and its cancellation. The scenes were included on the DVD release and Smith said in the DVD commentary that the quick cancellation was meant to be a running gag in the film. In addition to Baldwin, the voice cast included Brian O’Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Jason Mewes, Kevin Smith, Tara Strong, Walt Flanagan, Bryan Johnson and Charles Barkley.
2010
- June 1 — Reality series Downtown Girls premieres on MTV. The series centered around five girls in New York City documenting their struggles, successes and failures in their professional lives, as well as their dating lives. The cast included Shallon Lester, Gurj Bassi, Nikki Laura Cohen, Victoria Eisner and Sarah Klo. The series produced a single six-episode season, ending on July 6, 2010.
- June 2 — Sitcom Are We There Yet? premieres on TBS. Based on the 2005 feature film, the series takes place in a different continuity from the film and its sequel, focusing on the blended Kingston-Persons family from Seattle facing the everyday challenges of a newly blended family, including the introduction of a new father figure and resistance from in-laws to the new marriage. While the series does share the title and characters from the original film, the show’s storyline is more similar to the sequel, Are We Done Yet?. The cast included Terry Crews (in the Ice Cube role), Essence Atkins (in the Nia Long role), Coy Stewart, Teala Dunn, Christian Finnegan (in the Jay Mohr role), Keesha Sharp and Telma Hopkins. Ice Cube did have a recurring role as Nick’s brother-in-law after playing Nick in the films. TBS originally ordered a ten-episdoe first season, and extended the order to 90 which would bring the series to the desired-for-syndication number of episodes to 100. Season 2 consisted of 34 episodes and Season 3 produced 56 episodes. Production on the series was designed with a schedule that allowed three episodes to be filmed over the course of a one-week period. The series came to an end on March 1, 2003.
- June 6 — Sitcom The Hard Times of RJ Berger premieres on MTV. The series centered around RJ Berger, an unpopular sophomore at the fictional Pinkerton High School in Ohio who is macrophallically-endowed. RJ’s friend Miles Jenner has ambitions for popularity that usually cause them to clash, and goth girl Lily Miran has been lusting after RJ for years. But RJ has a crush on cheerleader Jenny Swanson, who is involved with jock and bully Max Owens. The coming-of-age story has been described as a combination of The Wonder Years and the film Superbad. The series was based on a short film, The Tale of RJ, by series creators David Katzenberg and Seth Grahame-Smith, which had been described as ‘a short homage to Boogie Nights about a well-endowed nerd’ played by Christopher Mintz-Plasse. The series starred Paul Iacono in the RJ role, with Jareb Dauplaise, Kara Taitz, Jayson Blair and Amber Lancaster. Recurring cast members included Beth Littleford, Larry Poindexter, Crystal Reed, Marlon Young and Caitlin Crosby. The first season consisted of 12 episodes with MTV ordering a second 12-episode season that premiered on March 24, 2011 and ended on May 30, 2011. MTV cancelled the series in August of that year.
- June 6 — Competition series Top Shot premieres on History Channel. The series featured 16 contestants split into two teams of eight that competed in various shooting challenges, with contestants being eliminated one-by-one until only one remains, winning $100,000 and the title of Top Shot. The series’ fifth and final season consisted of All Stars, with players competing individually instead of in teams with the lowest scoring players taking part in the ‘Proving Ground’ challenge with the loser being eliminated. Former Survivor contestant Colby Donaldson hosted the series until it ended on August 28, 2013 after 48 episodes. Donaldson also hosted the 2012 spin-off series Top Guns which aired on the H2 network and used the same weapons featured on Season 4.
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