TV by the Decade :: October 14•20

Carsey-Wermer Productions

The third week of October was not a huge debut week through the decades with nothing premiering in 1958, 1968 or 1978. But 1988 saw the debut of a sitcom that went down in comedy history and then flamed out after its 2017 revival thanks to the actions of its titular star. 1998 and 2008 saw a few more new shows emerge but nothing that matched the success of Roseanne

Let’s take a look at the debuts between 1988 and 2008 and see how many you remember.

1958

• No new series premiered this week in 1958.

1968

• No new series premiered this week in 1968.

1978

• No new series premiered this week in 1978.

1988

• October 18 – This year marks the 30th anniversary of the debut of Roseanne, a sitcom the put a different spin on what the typical American family looked like. Until then, most sitcom families were upper middle class with little real worries in their lives. Roseanne came at a time when the typical American family was struggling to make ends meet and the series tackled that situation head on with realness and humor. The premise was based on the stand-up act of Roseanne Barr, whom producers Marcy Carset and Tom Werner saw on The Tonight Show, and felt her distinctive voice would be ideal to bring a working class mother to life. Many critics considered Roseanne to be the first sitcom to portray a blue collar family realistically. The series was in the top four in the Nielsen ratings for six of its nine seasons, and top twenty for eight. An ninth season which revealed in the finale that Dan Connor had died and the entire season was a ‘fictionalized’ version of Roseanne’s life was not well received. But TV Guide ranked the series Number 35 in its 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time in 2002. In 2013, it got bumped up to Number 32 in the 60 Best Series of All Time. The original series ended on May 20, 1997.

1998

• October 17 – NBC was hoping to draw viewers to the wasteland that had become Saturday night — a place where shows went to die at this point in TV history — with the sexy new soap opera Wind on Water, a show so notoriously bad and forgotten that Wikipedia doesn’t even have a page for it. The series was set in Hawaii and starred Bo Derek of 10 fame and Lee Horsley of Matt Houston fame. The show was produced by Zalman King who was more famous for his cable smut series Red Shoes Diaries and the movie 9 1/2 Weeks. The surreal dialog and bad acting doomed the series which was cancelled after two episodes and pulled from the schedule — just as the ninth of 13 was about to go into production. Co-star Jacinda Barrett seems to have escaped unscathed with a career that includes appearances in movies (Ladder 49, Poseidon) and TV series (Suits, Bloodline). Horsley has not starred in another series but made appearances in Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight. Derek starred in the series Fashion House in 2006, two Sharknado movies, and made guest appearances on many TV series including 7th Heaven, Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place and Chuck.

2008

• October 14 – Reality series Iditarod: Toughest Race on Earth premiered on the Discovery Channel, documenting the racers and their dogs during the race through Alaska’s wilderness, and how the logistics for the race are handled. The series produced six episodes for one season.
• October 15 – Comedy Central produced Chocolate News with David Alan Grier as a lead in to its other satirical news program The Daily Show, with an emphasis on African American culture. When the series was first pitched to studio executive, they were reluctant to even produce a pilot fearing the negative connotation of the word ‘Chocolate’ in the title but the intervention of Martin Sheen and William Shatner got them to change their minds. However, after 10 episodes, Comedy Central confirmed the show would not return for a second season.
• October 17 – The Starz network moved into original programming with its first scripted series Crash which was based on the Oscar-winning movie of the same name. The series starred Dennis Hopper, Eric Roberts, Tom Sizemore, Dana Ashbrook, Keith Carradine, Tess Harper and Valerie Perrine. The cable network ordered a 13-episode first season and a second 13-episode season that concluded on December 18, 2009.
• October 17 — Friday nights were becoming almost as much of a dead zone for the broadcast networks as Saturday was, so NBC tried to draw viewers in with the multi-national production of Crusoe based on the classic novel ‘Robinson Crusoe’ by Daniel Defoe. The series starred Philip Winchester, Mia Maestro, Sam Neill and Sean Bean with 13 episodes produced for the first and only season.
• October 17 – With Ghost Hunters a hit on the SciFi Channel (now Syfy), Travel Channel got into the ghost business with Ghost Adventures which followed ghost hunters Zac Baggins, Nick Groff (until season 10) and Aaron Goodwin as they investigate reportedly haunted locations. The series began as an independent movie which premiered on the SciFi Channel on July 25, 2007. The movie featured an investigation of the Goldfield Hotel in Goldfield, Nevada, and the series returned to the location in seasons 4 and 7. The series faced controversy after a live Halloween special in 2009 when one of the show’s guest experts, Robert Bess, claimed a force violently knocked an EMF meter out of his hand. It was later determined Bess had thrown the meter himself. The series is still on the air, having started its 17th season on October 6, 2018.
• October 18 – Food Network brought chef Giada De Laurentiis into viewers’ homes for the first time with Giada at Home, a series that went beyond a typical cooking show, focusing on Giada party planning and cooking for friends and family. The series ran for six seasons and 215 episodes, nominated for two Daytime Emmys in 2009, winning for Outstanding Directing in a Lifestyle/Culinary Program, and four Daytime Emmys in 2010, winning again for Directing and for Outstanding Culinary Program. Since the series ended, Giada has moved on to Giada in Italy, Giada’s Holiday Handbook, Giada Entertains and Giada on the Beach.
• October 18 – The CMT network debuted Hulk Hogan’s Celebrity Championship Wrestling which featured celebrities training to become professional wrestlers. The contestants included Todd Bridges, Trishelle Cannatella, Dustin Diamond, Danny Bonaduce, Butterbean, Erin Murphy, Dennis Rodman, Frank Stallone, Tiffany and Nikki Ziering. As the competition progressed, contestants were eliminated and by the eighth and final episode, Todd Bridges and Dennis Rodman were the last two standing for a head-to-head match with Rodman declared the winner, the first — and last — CCW Champion.
• October 20 – VH1 had a popular streak of ‘reality’ dating shows starting with Flavor of Love which introduced the world to Tiffany ‘New York’ Pollard who appeared on both seasons of that show. She was spun off into her own dating series I Love New York which introduced a contestant by the name of Mr. Boston. Mr. Boston was supposed to be spun off into his own show but declined so producers went with brothers Ahmad and Kamal Givens, who romanced Pollard under the nicknames ‘Real’ and ‘Chance’ for Real Chance of Love. The series ran for two 13-episode seasons, and launched its own spin-offs, I Love Money and Charm School with Ricki Lake.
• October 20 – Nicole Sullivan starred in the comedy series Rita Rocks on Lifetime, the networks’ first scripted comedy in over a decade. The original series was paired with reruns of Reba on Tuesday nights and later moved to Mondays. Sullivan starred as a working wife and mother who juggled family and job, seeking just a little bit of time for herself, starting a weekly jam session with her friends after finding and old guitar in her garage. The series co-starred Richard Ruccolo, Tisha Campbell-Martin and Ian Gomez. The series was cancelled on January 11, 2010 after airing 40 episodes over two seasons.
• October 20 – Not content to rest on their dating show laurels, VH1 brought the competition series Scream Queens to life long before Ryan Murphy took the title for his one Fox scripted series. The show featured a group of unknown actresses competing for a role in the horror film saw VI. Season 1 featured James Gunn directing the contestants during acting challenges, with Shawnee Smith as a mentor and John Homa providing instruction. The three were also judges. Tanedra Howard won the first season. Season 2 saw Homa returning with Jaime King as the new mentor and Tim Sullivan as the director. Gabby West won season two and appeared alongside Howard, reprising her role from Saw VI, in Saw: The Final Chapter. Both Howard and West have continued to act in smaller (i.e. little seen) films with West having made an uncredited appearance in a 2018 episode of Superstore.

 
How many of these show do you remember? Do you have a favorite or memories of the series that didn’t go down in TV history? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below!