TV by the Decade :: September 15•21

NBC Universal

It’s the third full week of the new TV season, and all of the latest shows are rolling out in full force. Since there are so many, we’re going to try to refine the overview this week, giving just some of the pertinent information about the majority of the shows with an in-depth look at the ones that are the most well-known. Let’s take a look!

1959

• September 15 — Western series Laramie debuts on NBC. The series starred John Smith, Robert Fuller, Hoagy Carmichael, and Robert L. Crawford. Carmichael’s contract was not renewed after the first season but he did make guest appearances in three episodes during the first half of the second season. Spring Byington and Dennis Holmes joined the show in its third season. The third season also saw the series be one of the first to transition from black-and-white to color, and a new version of the NBC peacock was unveiled before that evening’s broadcast and used before every color program until 1975. Notable guest stars during the series’ run include Eddie Albert, James Best, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Dan Duryea, Ernest Borgnine, Brian Keith, Nanett Fabray, Clu Gulager, Margaret Hamilton, DeForest Kelley, Leonard Nimoy, Lloyd Nolan, Denver Pyle, Dawn Wells, Adam West, Lew Ayers, Russell Johnson, Vera Miles, and Cloris Leachman. Following a steady ratings decline during its fourth season, NBC cancelled the series after 124 episodes with the finale airing on May 21, 1963.
• September 19 — Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy debuts as part of The Quick Draw McGraw Show, which debuted January 1, 1959 in first run syndication. The series was created by Hanna-Barbera and also appeared in their own video game and on Yogi’s Ark Lark (1972) which served as the pilot for Yogi’s Gang (1973). Three seasons and 45 episodes were produced with the last airing on October 20, 1962.
• September 21 — Anthology series The DuPont Show with June Allyson, also knowns as The June Allyson Show, debuts on CBS. Allyson was only the third woman to host an anthology series, and she appeared in nearly two-dozen episodes as well. Notable guests during the series’ two season run include Bette Davis, Irene Dunne, Dick Powell, Ginger Rogers, Ron Howard, Pat Carroll, Ann Sothern, James Coburn, Kevin McCarthy, Don Rickles, Debra Paget, David Niven, Ronald Reagan, Edgar Bergen, Robert Culp, Chuck Connors, Sylvia Sidney, Vic Damone, Keenan Wynn, Joseph Cotten, Susan Oliver, James Mason, Russell Johnson, Ann Baxter, Dean Stockwell, Steve Allen, Van Johnson, James Best, Carloyn Jones, Lew Ayers, RObert Vaughn, Harpo Marx, Steve Forrest, James Franciscus, Dick York, Dick Shawn, Orson Bean, and Lloyd Bridges. 57 episodes were produced with the final episode broadcast on June 12, 1961.
• September 21 — Sitcom Love and Marriage premieres on NBC. The series starred William Demarest, Jeanne Bai, Murray Hamilton, Kat Armen, Stubby Kaye, Susan Reilly and Jennie Lynn. The series aired on Monday’s opposite The Texan on CBS and Cheyenne on ABC. 26 episodes were produced but only 18 episodes were aired on the network, with the last being broadcast on January 25, 1960. Like Married … with Children, the series used Frank Sinatra’s song ‘Love and Marriage’ as its theme.

1969

• September 15 — Sitcom My World and Welcome to It premieres on NBC. The series was based on the humor and cartoons of James Thurber and starred William Windom as a Thurber-like writer and cartoonist. The series featured a blend of live action and animation, which was produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises. The cast included Lisa Gerritsen, Joan Hotchkis, Harold J. Stone and Henry Morgan. The show garnered positive reviews but moderate ratings, leading NBC to cancel the series after one season of 26 episodes with the finale airing on March 9, 1970. The series then went on to win the Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actor in a leading Role in a Comedy Series. CBS reran the series in the summer of 1972.
• September 16 — Sitcom The Debbie Reynolds Show premieres on NBC. In addition to Reynolds, the series starred Don Chastain, Tom Bosley and Patricia Smith. The series was created by Jess Oppenheimer, the original producer of I Love Lucy. The series also employed Lucy writers Bob Carroll Jr. and Madelyn Davis. NBC sold ad-time a tobacco company against Reynolds’ wishes and when she threatened to quit the show, American Brands pulled out. To make up for the lost revenue, Reynolds agreed to give back the network’s guarantee of a second season, an NBC-backed film she would have starred in and ownership in a subsequent NBC series she would have produced. NBC cancelled the series after 26 episodes with the last broadcast on April 14, 1970. The show was spoofed on Monty Python’s Flying Circus with a sketch titled ‘The Attila the Hun Show’, even parodying the show’s opening title sequence.
• September 17 — Comedy-drama series The Courtship of Eddie’s Father debuts on ABC. Based on the movie of the same name, the series starred Bill Bixby as widower Tom Corbett, and Brandon Cruz as his son Eddie. Eddie believed his father should remarry so he could have a new mother and his matchmaking schemes were often abetted by housekeeper Mrs. Livingston (Miyoshi Umeki), who referred to her employer as ‘Mr. Eddie’s Father’ which suggested who she considered the more important of the two. The series also starred Kristina Holland and James Komack, who was also the show’s creator. The series featured familiar and up-and-coming guest stars including Josie Foster, Sally Struthers, Pat Harrington, Diana Muldaur, Willie Aames, Suzanne Pleshette, Yvonne Craig, Cicely Tyson, Tippi Hedren, Louo Jacobi, Will Geer, Jerry Stiller, Anne Meara, Ronny Graham, Ron Ely, Carol Lawrence, George Takei and Sammy Davis Jr.. Future Happy Days stars Pat Morita and Erin Moran also appeared. Bixby made his directorial debut with the series, eventually directing eight episodes. The theme song, ‘Best Friend’, was written and performed by Harry Nilsson. The show ended in 1972 after three seasons and 73 episodes after Bixby had a falling out with Komack over the show’s direction with later episodes focusing more on Tom, Eddie and ‘Uncle Norman’ (Komack) rather than just the father-son dynamic. in 1999, Entertainment Weekly reported plans for a feature film remake with Nicolas Cage but that apparently fell through when Cage’s son Weston, who was to play Eddie, had grown too old for the part. A TV reboot pilot starring Ken Marino and Josh Hutcherson was produced in 2003 but was not picked up by a network. Brandon Cruz was cast in a supporting role.
• September 17 — Adventure series Then Came Bronson premieres on NBC. The series starred Michael Parks as Jim Bronson, a reporter who becomes disillusioned after the suicide of his best friend Nick (plyed by Martin Sheen), and by ‘working for The Man’ after an argument with his editor, setting off to search for the meaning of life, often coming into other people’s lives at key moments. NBC aired a TV movie pilot on March 24, 1969 that was also released theatrically in Europe. Bonnie Bedelia also appeared in the pilot. Series guest stars included james Doohan and Meg Wyllie. The series lasted just one season with 26 episodes (in color), but has become a pop culture reference from MAD Magazine to Mystery Science Theater 3000.
• September 19 — Drama Bracken’s World debuts on NBC. The storyline centered around the powerful head of a movie studio and a group of up-and-coming starlets. Eleanor Parker was top-billed as Bracken’s executive secretary Sylvia Caldwell with Warren Stevens voicing the role of Bracken, who was never seen. Parker left the series after 16 episodes due to the limited nature of the role. Leslie Nielsen took over the role of Bracken for the second season. Other cast members included Dennis Cole, Jeanne Cooper, Peter Haskell, and Madlyn Rhue, with guest appearances by Jack Albertson, Anne Baxter, Gary Collins, Shelley Fabares, Sally Field, Lee Grant, Carolyn Jones, Lee Majors, Tim Matheson, Darren McGavin, Ricardo Montalban, Lois Nettleton, Edward G. Robinson, Martin Sheen, Richard Thomas, Forrest Tucker and Raquel Welch who played herself in the pilot. Tom Selleck had a recurring role during the first season, then made a guest appearance in Season 2 as a different character. The series aired on Fridays at 10:00 PM, known as ‘the Friday night death slot’ and was cancelled 15 episodes into its second season. Co-star Linda Harrison said in an interview that had NBC produced the show as a continuing drama, it would have lasted longer but the network wanted self-contained episodes with big guest stars and eventually ‘you run out of story.’ 41 episodes were broadcast over the two seasons with the last airing on December 25, 1970.

1979

• September 15 — Sitcom Working Stiffs premieres on CBS. The series starred James Belushi and Michael Keaton as brothers, janitors who aspired to work their way up in the field of business. The cast also featured Val Bisolglio, Allan Arbus, Lorna Patterson and Paul Reubens. Each episode featured slapstick and physical comedy and the pilot was directed by Penny Marshall. CBS aired the series against NBC’s CHiPs and ABC’s The Ropers. Nine episodes were produced by the show was cancelled after four were broadcast. The series has been rerun on Comedy Central and TV Land with the five previously unaired episodes part of the syndication package.
• September 16 — Sitcom A New Kind of Family premieres on ABC. The series starred Eileen Brennan, Rob Lowe and Telma Hopkins, with Brennan portraying Kit Flanagan, a widowed mother of three who shares her home with a divorced woman and her daughter, Abby and Jill Stone. Halfway through the first season, Abby and Jill were written out and the show was re-tooled to boost ratings, introducing Jess and Jojo Ashton (Hopkins and Janet Jackson). Despite the change, the show was cancelled after 10 episodes, with the final broadcast on January 5, 1980.
• September 18 — Action-comedy The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo debuts on NBC, a spin-off of the popular B.J. and the Bear. Claude Akins reprised his Sheriff Lobo role in what was an obvious attempt by NBC to clone The Dukes of Hazzard. The series also starred Brian Kerwin, Mills Watson, Ben Cooper, Leann Hunley, Nell Carter and Nicolas Coster. The series was completely overhauled in the second season and retitled Lobo as the governor of Georgia reassigns Lobo and his deputies to a Special Crimes Action Team (SCAT) in Atlanta. NBC’s network head Fred Silverman saw that the show performed well in rural areas during the first season but not urban areas. As Silverman was responsible for the ‘rural purge’ on CBS, he made the decision to move the setting from Orley County to Atlanta in an effort to draw in more urban viewers. It didn’t work and the show was cancelled after 37 episodes, the final broadcast taking place on May 5, 1981.
• September 19 — Sitcom The Last Resort debuts on CBS. The series focused on a group of college students working in a hotel kitchen, with humor in the style of Animal House. The cast included Larry Breeding, Robert Costanzo, Stephanie Faracy, Zane Lasky and Walter Olkewicz. The series was cancelled after 15 episodes, with the last broadcast on March 17, 1980.
• September 19 — Sitcom Struck by Lightning premieres on CBS, a sitcom about the Frankenstein monster and a science teacher who inherits a spooky old New England inn who learns his is the descendent of Dr. Frankenstein … in a plot that sounds suspiciously similar to the movie Young Frankenstein. The series starred Jack Elam, Jeffrey Kramer, Bill Erwin, Millie Slavin and Richard Stahl. 11 episodes were produced but on three were ever aired. The series has not played in syndication or been released on home video, so the eight unaired episodes remain unseen by the public to this day. The third and last episode was broadcast on October 3, 1979.
• September 20 — Sci-Fi adventure series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century debuts on NBC. Inspired by the success of Star Wars, Universal developed the series for television with Glen A. Larson. Larson and Universal had originally planned to do a series of TV movies for NBC. Universal decided to release the pilot film theatrically after the success of the Battlestar Galactica theatrical release. A hit at the box office, NBC decided to commission a weekly series instead of the movies. The production recycled props, costumes and FX shots from Battlestar Galactica which was in production at the same time. The series starred Gil Gerard as Captain William Anthony ‘Buck’ Rogers who is launched into space in May 1987. Due to a life support malfunction, Rogers is frozen for 504 years before his spacecraft is discovered in 2491, where he is able to be revived. He discovers that Earth’s civilization was rebuilt after a nuclear war that occurred on November 22, 1987. Rogers tried, often unsuccessfully, to fit into 25th century culture and was placed with the Earth Defense due to his pilot and combat skills to protect the planet from evil alien plots to conquer the world. The chief villain in Season 1 was Princess Ardala who was aided by her henchman Kane (played by Henry Silva in the pilot and Michael Ansara in the series). The second season was delayed due to an actors’ strike, and when production resumed the series was overhauled, placing Buck, Wilma Deering and robot Twiki on a spaceship called the Searcher with a mission to seek out the lost ‘tribes’ of humanity … a theme present in Battlestar Galactic. The character of Colonel Wilma Deering was also softened to tone down the militaristic image and make her more feminine. Another change was in Twiki’s voice. Mel Blanc provided the voice for Season 1, but departed the show and was replaced by Bob Elyea. Blanc returned for the final six episodes with no explanation given for the difference in the voice. Humor was also scaled back in the second season with Buck and Wilma developing a romantic relationship (mostly implied) and more serious themes were employed including evolution, ecology, racism, pollution, war, nuclear power, identity and religion, with the character of Hawk, a representation of the mythological bird people, also joining the series. The second season also borrowed heavily from Star Trek with Buck becoming more kirk-like, Hawk appearing as a revamped version of Spock and Wilma often costumed in a miniskirt and sitting at a console like Lt. Uhura. Ratings dropped significantly after the second season premiere and NBC cancelled the series after the end of the strike-shortened 11-episode season, the final episode airing on April 16, 1981. In addition to Gerard, Erin Gray co-starred as Wilma Deering. The first season cast included Tim O’Connor, Pamela Hensley, Eric Server and Felix Silla, with William Conrad providing the opening narration. Season 2’s cast included Wilfred Hyde-White, Thom Christopher, Jay Garner, Paul Carr, Jeff David and Hank Simms as the narrator. Guest stars included Peter Graves, Jamie Lee Curtis, Markie Post, Dorothy Stretten, Richard Moll, Jerry Orbach, Gary Coleman, Jack Palance, Sid Haig, Vera Miles, Buster Crabbe (the original movie serials Buck Rogers), Cesar Romero, Frank Gorshin, Roddy McDowall and Julie Newmar.
• September 21 — Crime drama Eischied debuts on NBC. The series was based on the starring character from the 1978 TV miniseries To Kill a Cop with Joe Don Baker starring as NYCPD Chief of Detectives Earl Eischied, who worked the streets with his detectives and was not afraid to bend the rules in pursuit of a case. The series also starred Eddie Egan, Alan Fudge, Alan Oppenheimer and Suzanne Lederer. The series was cancelled after 13 episodes, with the last original broadcast on January 20, 1980. NBC reran the series in the summer of 1983 in its original Friday night time slot.

1989

• September 16 — Athletic competition series American Gladiators debuts in first-run syndication. The series matched amateur athletes against each other and the show’s cast of ‘gladiators’ in contests of strenth and agility. The series ran for 139 episodes over the course of seven seasons. NBC aired a primetime revival that began during the 2007-2008 writers’ strike and aired for two seasons. A 30th anniversary revival was announced in August 2018 for the 2019-2020 TV season, but it’s unknown if that project is moving forward.
• September 16 — Animated series Dink, the Little Dinosaur premieres as part of the CBS Kids Block. The series follows Dink and his friends as they explore the volcanic landscape of Green Meadow. The series was designed to help kids navigate the world of friendship and making friends. It was for two seasons, producing 21 episodes with 42 segments. The show ended on November 3, 1990. Frank Welker provided voices for several characters.
• September 16 — Medical drama Island Son premieres on CBS with Richard Chamberlain returning to a weekly television series for the first time since Dr. Kildare almost 25 years earlier. Here he plays a doctor born in Hawaii, who practiced medicine on the mainland for many years before returning to Honolulu. The cast included Brynn Thayer, Clyde Kusatsu, Carol Huston, Timothy Carhart, Betty Carvalho and William McNamara. The show ran for a single season of 18 episodes, ending on March 15, 1990.
• September 16 — Sitcom Sister Kate debuts on NBC. The series starred Stephanie Beacham as the title character, a nun transferred from an archaeological dig to an orphanage in Chicago to oversee a group of unwanted orphans who have already run off three priests. The cast included Jason Priestley, Erin Reed, Hannah Cutrona and Harley Cross. Milli Vanilli duo Rob Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan appeared in one episode, speaking a few lines in their natrual voices before it was revealed they had lip-synced to the hit ‘Blame It On the Rain’. The show’s theme song ‘Maybe An Angel’ was performed by Amy Grant. The series originally premiered on Saturday, September 16 and was moved to Sundays for the rest of its run, facing off against America’s Funniest Home Videos on ABC and Murder, She Wrote on CBS, resulting in the show lasting for just 18 episodes with one additional episode left unaired. The last broadcast was on July 30, 1990.
• September 16 — Teen Summit premieres on BET. The talk show was aimed at a younger audience and dealt with everyday issues facing teenagers, attempting to put them in a positive, uplifting light. The show ended after 13 years on August 31, 2002, but has returned twice for special episodes.
• September 17 — Sitcom Major Dad premieres on CBS. The series starred Gerald McRaney as Major John D. MacGillis, and was set at the fictional Camp Singleton where MacGillis was the commander of the infantry training school’s acquisition division. In the second season, the MacGillis family moves to Camp Hollister where Mac must adjust to the role of staff secretary and the crazy antics of his co-workers. In addition to McRaney, the series cast included Shanna Reed, Marisa Ryan, Nicole Dubuc, Chelsea Hertford and Matt Mulhern. Season 1’s cast also included Marlon Archey and Whitney Kershaw. Season 2’s cast included Jon Cypher and Beverly Archer. The series ran for four seasons, producing 96 episodes, with the final broadcast on May 17, 1993.
• September 18 — Sci-fi police procedural Alien Nation debuts on FOX, adapted from the 1988 movie of the same name. Gary Graham stars as Detective Matthew Sikes, a Los Angeles police officer reluctantly working with alien ‘Newcomer’ Sam ‘George’ Francisco (Eric Pierpoint) in the near future after a flying saucer crashes in the Mojave Desert in 1990 with a race of extraterrestrials attempting to escape slavery under another race of aliens. The ‘Newcomers’ are accepted as the latest immigrants to the U.S. as the integrate into society. The cast also included Michele Scarabelli, Lauren Woodland, Sean Six, Terri Treas, Jeff Marcus, Ron Fassler, Jenny Gago, Jeff Doucette, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Molly Morgan and James Greene. The series was one of the network’s few successes but a revenue shortfall from lower-than-expected advertising income led FOX to cancel all of its dramatic series for the 1990-1991 season, leaving the show with a major cliffhanger for its 22nd and final episode. The strong fan base led to the novelization and comic book adaptation of the final episode that would spawn a series of novels. After a change in management at FOX four years later, five television movies were produced with the original cast that picked up from the cliffhanger.
• September 18 — Sitcom The Famous Teddy Z premieres on CBS with Jon Cryer in the title role, a young man working at a Hollywood talent agency to avoid being stuck working in his family’s bakery. Teddy is hired as an agent by Harland Keyvo (a Marlon Brando caricature) because of his brutal honest. The cast included Jane Sibbett, Alex Rocco, Milton Selzer, Josh Blake and Erica Yohn. Rocco’s character Al Floss made a crossover appearance on Murphy Brown as the agent for several of that show’s characters. The series produced 20 episodes but was cancelled after 15 with five remaining unaired. The final broadcast was on May 12, 1990.
• September 18 — Sitcom The People Next Door premieres on CBS. Created by Wes Craven, the series starred Jeffrey Jones as a cartoonist whose imagination was so vivid that the things he imagined often materialized immediately. Mary Gross played his wife, with Jacklyn Bernstein and Chance Quinn as their children. Leslie Jordan and Christina Pickles also starred. The show was a ratings disaster and was cancelled after five episodes, leaving five unaired. The show has developed a cult following from Nostalgia TV and Wes Craven fans.
• September 19 — Medical drama Doogie Howser, M.D. debuts on ABC. Neil Patrick Harris starred as a teenage physician who balances the challenge of practicing medicine with the everyday problems of teenage life. The series opens on Howser’s 16th birthday when he stops his driver’s license field test to help an injured person at the scene of an accident. Howser is a second-year medical student and still lives at home with his parents. His best friend Vinnie often climbs through Doogie’s bedroom window to visit. Many episodes dealt with social issues including AIDS awareness, racism, homophobia, sexism, gang violence, access to medical care, and losing one’s virginity. Creator Stephen Bochco intended to end the series with a season-long story arc where Doogie quits medicine to become a writer, but ABC abruptly cancelled the series due to low ratings, leaving Howser to resign from the hospital and depart for Europe. Harris was the first actor the producers found who could play a teen doctor convincingly, but ABC opposed the casting. Bochco’s contract called for a hefty payout of the project was cancelled before production began, so ABC was forced to allow the pilot to move forward. After positive receptions during test screenings, ABC greenlit the show even though the network still opposed Harris’ casting and hated the pilot. The main cast also included Max Casella, James B. Sikking, Belinda Montgomery, Lisa Dean Ryan, Lucy Boryer, Lawrence Pressman, Mitchell Anderson, Kathryn Layng, and Markus Redmond, with Rif Hutton, Robyn Lively and Barry Livingston in recurring roles. The show was never a critical success, but it lasted four seasons, producing 97 episodes with the last broadcast on March 24, 1993.
• September 20 — Sitcom The Nutt House premieres on NBC, created by Mel Brooks and Alan Spencer. The series was set in a once-prestigious New York City hotel which had fallen on hard time due, in part, to being named for the proprietress Edwina Nutt, played in the pilot by Cloris Leachman. Leachman also starred as Ms. Frick, a more pleasant variation of her Frau Blucher character from Young Frankenstein. Also starring were Harvey Korman, Brian McNamara, Molly Hagen, Gregory Itzin and Mark Blankfield. The show was reminiscent of Police Squad! with its surreal background gags leading to a very narrow audience for the intensely visual show. Ten episodes were produced by only five aired in the US with the last being broadcast on October 25, 1989. The complete series did air in the UK where Police Squad! was making a comeback due to the success of The Naked Gun feature film, although viewers were dismayed when the BBC did not give the show a fixed air time with the show airing at 11:00 PM or 11:30 PM. The final episode aired inexplicably at 7:30 PM on December 16, 1989.
• September 20 — Drama A Peaceable Kingdom debuts on CBS. Lindsay Wagner starred as the recently hired managing director of the Los Angeles County Zoo, recently widowed and with three children. The show was scheduled against NBC’s Unsolved Mysteries and ABC’s Growing Pains and Head of the Class, leading CBS to cancel the series after seven episodes, five remaining unaired. Those episodes did eventually air years later in syndication. The cast included David Ackroyd, Tom Wopat and Conchata Ferrell.
• September 20 — Western series The Young Riders premieres on ABC. The series focused on a group of young Pony Express riders, some of whom are younger versions of legendary figures in Old West history, based at the Sweetwater Station in the Nebraska Territoy in the years leading up to the Civil War. Before the series premiered, the producers of the film Young Guns filed a lawsuit against ABC and the series producers claiming the title and plot infringed on their trademark. In the second season, Don Franklin joined the cast and became the third African-American actor to hold a starring role in a Western TV series. The main cast included Stephen Baldwin, Josh Brolin, Brett Cullen, Travis Fine, Melissa Leo, Ty Miller, Christopher Pettiet, Gregg Rainwater, Yvonne Suhor, Clare Warren, Anthony Zerbe and Franklin. The show suffered from terrible ratings during its first season, but ABC gave it a second chance and moved it to a new timeslot where it had a dramatic turnaround going from 60th ouit of 84 shows for the first season to winning its timeslot for the first seven weeks of the second, consistently outperforming the other shows airing that night on ABC, China Beach and Twin Peaks. The series ran for a total of three seasons, producing 68 episodes with the last broadcast on July 23, 1992.
• September 21 — Crime drama Hardball debuts on NBC. The series was a variation of the buddy cop genre with John Ashton as Charlie Battles, a 45-year-old veteran cop forced to take a desk job or retire. Battles is assigned a new partner, Joe ‘Kaz’ Kaczierowski (Richard Tyson), a 25-year-old hot shot who follows his own set of rules, putting the pair at odds over their methods of law enforcement. NBC president Brandon Tartikoff saw the series as inspired by the Lethal Weapon movies. Eddie Money performed the show’s title tune ‘Roll It Over’. The show went on a lengthy hiatus after the ninth episode aired on December 1, 1989, returning on April 20, 1990. The series lasted one season of 18 episodes, ending on June 29, 1990.
• September 21 — Political drama Top of the Hill premieres on CBS. William Katt starred as U.S. Representative Thomas Bell Jr., son of a long-time Congressman who was forced to resign due to health issues but remain on The Hill to help his son in an advisory role. The son had never followed politics which led to conflicts between the two as Bell Jr. tried to fit in to the political party structure. Dick O’Neill portrayed Bell Sr., with Jordan Baker, Tony Edwards and Robbie Weaver also starring. The show was scheduled against NBC powerhouses Cheers and Dear John and was cancelled after 10 of its 13 produced episodes aired, the last broadcast on November 20, 1989.

1999

• September 16 — Comedy series Action debuts on FOX. The series starred Jay Mohr as Hollywood producer Peter Dragon who is trying to recover from his last Box office failure. The show was praised for its irreverent and sometimes hostile look at Hollywood culture. The cast also included Illeana Douglas, Buddy Hackett, Jack Plotnick, Jarrad Paul, with a supporting cast that included John Vargas, Lee Arenberg, Sara Paxton, Richard Burgi, Amy Aquino and R. Lee Ermey, with celebrity cameos from Keanu Reeves, Steve Kmetko and Jules Asner (then the hosts of E! News Live), Salma Hayek, Sandra Bullock, Tony Hawk, Scott Wolf, David Leisure and David Hasselhoff. Despite the critical praise and starpower, the series only aired eight of its 13 produced episodes, the last broadcast on December 2, 1999. The complete series was eventually released on DVD.
• September 18 — Animated series Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century premieres as part of the FOX Kids program block. Set in the 22nd Century, Inspector Beth Lestrade of New Scotland Yard is chasing a rogue geneticist when she realizes his companion is 19th Century criminal mastermind James Moriarty, a clone of the original professor. The preserved body of Sherlock Holmes is resurrected by cellular rejuvenation to combat Moriarty. Lestrade’s compudroid reads the original journals of John Watson and assumes the role to assist Holmes. A total of 26 episodes were produced.
• September 19 — Legal drama Judging Amy premieres on CBS. Amy Brenneman starred as a judge who served in a family court for the Connecticut Superior Court’s Hartford district, adjudicating family-related cases while dealing with her own life as a divorced mother as well as the experiences of her own mother, a child welfare social worker (played by Tyne Daly). The series was based on the experiences of Brenneman’s mother. The cast also included Dan Futterman, Richard T. Jones, Jessica Tuck, Marcus Giamatti, Karle Warren, Jillian Armenante, Timothy Omundson and Kevin Rham. 138 episodes were produced over the series’ six season run with the finale airing on May 3, 2005.
• September 20 — Reality dating show Blind Date premieres in first-run syndication. Roger Lodge hosted the series which paired up two people and sent them off on a blind date, with subtitles, animation and ‘thought bubbles’ added for comedic effect to the often unsuccessful dates. The series ran for seven seasons, producing 1,440 episodes with the last airing on September 13, 2006. On April 2, 2019, Bravo announced it will be rebooting the series.
• September 20 — Music video show Cita’s World debuts on BET. The show was hosted by a virtual reality, Black stereotypical character named Cita. The show moved its production three times over the course of its four seasons, with the last being to Burbank, CA (after being based in New York City) where the show benefitted from a staff already proficient in the visual effects workflow needed to capture and produce the character performed by Kali Troy.
• September 20 — LEgal drama Family Law debuts on CBS. The series starred Kathleen Quinlan as divorced lawyer Lynn Holt who attempted to start her own law firm after her husband left her and their law practice, taking all of their clients with him. The series also starred Julie Warner, Christopher McDonald, Dixie Carter, Cristián de la Fuente, and Tony Danza. The series ran for three seasons, producing 68 episodes with the last airing on May 27, 2002.
• September 20 — Sitcom Ladies Man premieres on CBS. Alfred Molina stars as Jimmy Stiles, a husband, father, son, ex-husband and son-in-law who lives with a number of women under one roof. The cast included Sharon Lawrence, Betty White, Dixie Carter, Park Overall, Kaley Cuoco, Alexa Vega and Stephen Root, and was most notable for reuniting White with her The Golden Girls co-stars Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty in one episode. The series ran for two seasons, producing 30 episodes with three remaining unaired. The final broadcast was on June 27, 2001.
• September 20 — Crime drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit premieres on NBC, the second spin-off from the successful Law & Order franchise. Mariska Hargitay stars as Olivia Benson, lead detective of the SVU within the NYPD. Christopher Meloni co-starred as Elliot Stabler until departing after the show’s 12th season. The series follows the original’s ‘ripped from the headlines’ template, basing episodes on real crimes that have received media attention. In August 2016, the series became one of the three longest-running live action series on television. As of May 16, 2019, the show has surpassed the episode count of the original series with 458 episodes. In 2006, Hargitay was the first actor from any of the L&O series to receive an Emmy Award (Lead Actress in a Drama Series). On March 29, 2019, NBC renewed the show for a record-breaking 21st season which will premiere on September 26. Over the years, cast members have included Richard Belzer (carried over from NBC’s Homicide), Dann Florek, Mcihelle Hurd, Ice-T, BD Wong, Tamara Tunie, Adam Beach, Danny Pino, Raul Esparza and Philip Winchester.
• September 20 — Drama series Safe Harbor debuts on The WB. Created by Brenda Hampton, the seriesd was paired with her other series on the network, 7th Heaven. The series starred Gregory Harrison as John Loring, the sheriff of a small Florida town named Magic Beach. He’s also a widower who has his hands full raising his three sons, with the help of his eccentric grandmother, played by Rue McClanahan. The cast also included Christopher Khayman Lee, Jeremy Lelliott, Jamie Williams, Orlando Brown and Chyler Leigh. The show was unable to retain the 7th Heaven audience and was cancelled after its initial ten episode order had aired, with the last episode broadcast on November 28, 1999.
• September 21 — Sitcom The Mike O’Malley Show premieres on NBC with O’Malley starring as a 30-year-old hockey enthusiast who lives with his friend Weasel in New Haven, CT. After attending the wedding of a friend, Mike reassesses his life and decides it’s time to grow up. After the pilot was panned by critics, it was reshot, and 13 episodes were ordered. Upon its premiere, bad reviews and low ratings doomed the show, with only eight episodes being produced and only two of the hitting the airwaves before NBC pulled the plug, leaving six episodes unaired. Other notable cast members included Will Arnett, Kate Walsh and Spalding Gray.
• September 21 — Drama Once and Again premieres on ABC. The series focused on the family of a single mother and her romance with a single father. The show featured unique ‘interview’ sequences in black and white that were interspersed throughout each episode that allowed the characters to reveal their innermost thoughts and memories. The series was created by Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick of Thirtysomething fame. The main cast included Sela Ward, Billy Campbell, Jeffrey Nordling, Susanna Thompson, Shane West, Evan Rachel Wood, David Clennon and Steven Weber. 63 episodes were produced over three seasons with the finale airing on April 15, 2002.

2009

• September 16 — Paranormal series MysteryQuest debuts on the History channel, a spin-off of MonsterQuest. The series examined various persistent mysteries around the world with teams of investigators traveling abroad to collect evidence and study various viewpoints on a particular case file. A single season of 10 episodes was produced.
• September 17 — Adult animated series Archer premieres on the FX network. The series follows the exploits of the title character, a dysfunctional, irreverent secret agent, and seven of his colleagues. The premise of the series evolves over subsequent seasons, experimenting with the anthology concept with self-contained arcs, new settings, and time jumps. The series moved to the FXX network in its eighth season in 2017 and will return for an eleventh season in 2019, returning the story to its original timeline. The voice cast includes H. Jon Benjamin, Jessica Walter, Aisha Tyler, Chris Parnell, Judy Greer, Amber Nash, Adam Reed, and Lucky Yates. The series has won three Primetime Emmy Awards and four Critics Choice Awards. The show has produced 110 episodes to date.
• September 17 — Comedy series Community premieres on NBC. The series featured an ensemble cast playing students at the fictional Greendale Community College. The series was based on creator Dan Harmon’s own experiences attending a community college with each episode written in accordance with Harmon’s ‘story circle’ template, assuring effective, structured storytelling. Unfortunately, Harmon was fired prior to the fourth season, leading to a lukewarm reception from fans and critics. Harmon was rehired for the fifth season. The series was cancelled and then picked up for a sixth season by Yahoo! Screen, giving the series a total of 110 episodes. So far no movie has been produced. The cast included Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, Danny Pudi, Yvette Nicole Brown, Alison Brie, Donald GLover, Ken Jeong, Chevy Chase and Jim Rash.
• September 18 — Comedy series The Troop premieres on Nickelodeon. The series centers around a trio of teens who fight and capture monsters and other supernatural creatures that invade the fictional town of Lakewood. The cast included Nicholas Purcell, Gage Golightly, David Del Rio, John Marshall Jones, Matt Shively and Malese Jow. The show aired for two seasons with Nickelodeon canceling the series midway through its second season. In all, 40 episodes were produced and aired with the last broadcast on May 8, 2013.
• September 20 — Comedy series Bored to Death debuts on HBO. Jason Schwartzman stars as Jonathan Ames, a writer who moonlights as a private detective. The series also starred Ted Danson and Zach Galifianakis as friend of Jonathan, with Heather Burns as his on-and-off girlfriend. Recurring actors included Olivia Thirlby, Oliver Platt, John Hodgman, Jenny Slate, Zoe Kazan, Bebe Neuwirth, Patton Oswalt, Kristen Wiig, Richard Masur, Allyce Beasley, Mary Kay Place, Olympia Dukakis, Mary Steenburgen, Isla Fisher and Stacy Keach. HBO canceled the series after three seasons and 24 episodes with the last broadcast on November 28, 2011.
• September 21 — Sitcom Accidentally on Purpose premieres on CBS. The show follows a San Francisco movie critic in her 30s who meets an aspiring chef in his 20s. They have a one-night stand and she finds out she’s pregnant. She must deal with her boss and ex-boyfriend who is jealous of chef Zack, but is not ready to marry Billie. But Zack and Billie decide to live together platonically to care for the baby, with meddling friends often causing drama. Less than two months after the show’s premiere, CBS ordered an additional five episodes bringing the total count to 18. In early 2010, the show was moved from Mondays to Wednesdays causing ratings to slip. CBS decided not to renew the series for a second season and made the cancellation official on May 18, 2010. The final episode was broadcast on April 21, 2010. The cast included Jenna Elfman, Jon Foster, Grant Show, Ashley Jensen, Lennon Parham, and Nicolas Wright.

 
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