TV by the Decade :: Sept 27•Oct 3

Hanna Barbera

The last week of the official Fall Premiere Month finds many successful series with multiple season runs, and some not so successful that have developed strong fan followings. One decade alone gave us three long-running family sitcoms and the first animated primetime series that also had a long run and is still popular with a new generation of fans today. This week also saw new TV from the mind of Gene Roddenberry and James Cameron. There’s a lot to cover this week so let’s take a look and see if any of your favorites are celebrating anniversaries. And remember, you can click on any red link to make a purchase and help support Hotchka!

1950

October 2 – Lux Video Theatre

Hosts: James Mason (1954-1955), Otto Kruger (1955-1956), Gordon MacRae (1956-1957), Ken Carpenter (1955-1957)
Guest Cast: Julie Adams, Mary Astor, Anne Bancroft, William Bendix, Joan Blondell, Richard Boone, Ernest Borgnine, Eddie Bracken, Walter Brennan, Barbara Britton, Charles Bronson, Raymond Burr, Hoagy Carmichael, Art Carney, Jack Carson, Rosemary Clooney, Lee J. Cobb, Nat ‘King’ Cole, Jackie Cooper, Broderick Crawford, Bing Crosby, Robert Cummings, Arlene Dahl, James Dean, Melvyn Douglas, Joanne Dru, Nelson Eddy, Janet Gaynor, Eileen Heckart, Van Heflin, Charlton Heston, William Holden, Celeste Holm, Bob Hope, Miriam Hopkins, Dennis Hopper, Rock Hudson, Dean Jagger, David Janssen, Shirley Jones, Boris Karloff, Buster Keaton, Grace Kelly, Veronica Lake, Burt Lancaster, Angela Lansbury, Cloris Leachman, Jack Lemmon, June Lockhart, Jack Lord, Peter Lorre, Jeanette MacDonald, Fred MacMurray, Dorothy Malone, Fredric Mar, Butterfly McQueen, Sal Mineo, Vera Miles, Rita Moreno, Audie Murphy, Kim Novak, Margaret O’Brien, Maureen O’Hara, Maureen O’Sullivan, Geraldine Page, Dick Powell, Robert Preston, Vincent Price, Luise Rainer, Edward G. Robinson, Basil Rathbone, Thelma Ritter, Lizabeth Scott, Ann Sheridan, Sylvia Sidney, Alexis Smith, Rod Steiger, Rod Taylor, Phyllis Thaxter, Franchot Tone, James Whitmore, Esther Williams, Natalie Wood, Joanne Woodward, Teresa Wright
Synopsis: Anthology series that presented both comedy and drama in original teleplays, as well as abridged adaptations of films and plays.
Network: CBS (1950-1954), NBC (1954-1957)
Broadcast History: Seven seasons, 336 episodes, last broadcast on September 12, 1957
Trivia: The show was a spin-off of the Lux Radio Theater series on the NBC Blue Network from 1934-1935 and CBS from 1935-1955. The show began as a 30-minute series on CBS, and was expanded to an hour when it moved to NBC in 1954. The hosts were added with the move to introduce each act and interview the stars at the end of the program. New episodes aired during the summer as Summer Video Theatre. The series returned in 1958 as Lux Playhouse.

October 3 – Beulah

Cast: (Season 1) Ethel Waters, Dooley Wilson, Butterfly McQueen; (Season 2) Louise Beavers, Hattie McDaniel, Jane Frazee, Ruby Dandridge; (Season 3) Louise Beavers, Jane Frazee, Ruby Dandridge
Guest Cast: Leslie Uggams
Synopsis: Beulah is the housekeepr and cook for the Henderson family, known as the ‘queen of the kicthen’ and has the ability to solve the problems that her employers cannot figure out. Beulah’s boyfriend Bill Jackson is always proposing marriage.
Network: ABC
Broadcast History: Three seasons, 87 episodes, last broadcast on December 23, 1952
Trivia: Ethel Waters played Beulah for the first season while she was also starring on Broadway in The Member of the Wedding. When production moved to Hollywood, Hattie McDaniel was cast but filmed six episodes before falling ill. She was quickly replaced by Lousie Beavers and the six McDaniel episodes were held pending an improvement of her health. The episodes were tagged on to the end of the second season, airing in July and August 1952. McDaniel then learned she had advanced breast cancer, and Beavers returned for the third season. The series came under attack for its stereotypical portrayal of Black characters. All 87 episodes are housed in an archive on their original 35mm film format.

October 3 – The Billy Rose Show

Host: Billy Rose
Guest Cast: Leo G. Carroll, Alfred Drake, Burgess Meredith, Otto Preminger, Tom Ewell, Cloris Leachman
Synopsis: A 30-minute dramatic anthology series.
Network: ABC
Broadcast History: One season, 25 episodes, last broadcast on March 27, 1951
Trivia: Also known as Billy Rose’s Playbill.

1960

September 27 – The Tom Ewell Show

Cast: Tom Ewell, Marilyn Erskine, Mabel Albertson, Cindy Robbins, Sherry Alberoni, Eileen Chesis,
Recurring Cast: Normal Fell, Barry Kelley, Vance Meadows
Synopsis: Tom Potter is a real estate agent who lives in a female centric household. His wife Fran, teenager Carol plus her younger sisters Debbie and Sissie keep things lively. The presence of his skeptical mother-in-law Irene though is less than ideal.
Network: CBS
Broadcast History: One season, 30 episodes, last original broadcast on May 9, 1961
Trivia: The series was created by Madelyn Martin (Pugh) and Bob Carroll, Jr. who were writers for I Love Lucy and The Lucy Show.

September 28 – Hong Kong

Cast: Rod Taylor, Lloyd Bochner, Harold Fong, Gerald Jann, Jack Kruschen, Mai Tai Sing
Guest Cast: Rhonda Fleming, Anne Francis, Beverly Garland, James Hong, Julie London, Dina Merrill, Suzanne Pleshette, Pippa Scott
Synopsis: Set in Hong Kong, then a British Crown Colony, Taylor stars as Glenn Evans, a U.S. journalist who worked in the exotic Far Eastern city. His search for stories led him into encounters with smugglers, murderers, drug peddlers, and mysterious women who would disappear behind beaded curtains.
Network: ABC
Broadcast History: One season, 26 episodes plus the unaired pilot, last original broadcast on March 29, 1961
Trivia: The series was loosely based on the film Soldier of Fortune which starred Michael Rennie in a role similar to Bochner’s character, Chief Inspector Neil Campbell. Kruschen also appeared in the film but in a different role. The series was scheduled apposite NBC’s popular Wagon Train where it struggled to find an audience.

September 29 – Guestward, Ho!

Cast: Joanne Dru, Mark Miller, J. Carrol Naish, Flip Mark
Guest Cast: Madge Blake, Frank Cady, Richard Deacon, Kathleen Freeman, Charles Lane, Louis Nye, Stafford Repp, Natalie Schafer, William Windom, Adam West, Jeanette Nolan, ZaSu Pitts, Jody McCrea
Synopsis: Babs Hooten, husband Bill and son Brook escape the frantic pace of NYC, buying dude ranch Guestward Ho in New Mexico. Their neighbor is Hawkeye who gives them bad advice he wants the Indians to reclaim the land if the Hootens fail.
Network: ABC
Broadcast History: One season, 38 episodes, last original broadcast on June 22, 1961
Trivia: The series was conceived in 1959 at CBS/Desilu Studios as a starring vehicle for Vivian Vance as Babs, with Leif Erickson as her husband Bill. Network execs couldn’t separate Vance from her Ethel Mertz character and the pilot was rejected, leaving Vance to continue as Ethel on The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour until the show ended in 1960. In 1960, the show was taken off the shelf and recast with Dru and Miller and was sold to ABC. The show’s replacement for the Fall 1961 schedule was The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.

September 29 – My Three Sons

Cast: Fred MacMurray (1960–1972), William Frawley (1960–1965), William Demarest (1965–1972), Tim Considine (1960–1965), Don Grady (1960–1971), Stanley Livingston (1960–1972), Barry Livingston (1963–1972), Meredith MacRae (1963–1965), Tina Cole (1967–1972), Beverly Garland (1969–1972), Dawn Lyn (1969–1972), Ronne Troup (1970–1972), Michael, Daniel, and Joseph Todd (1970–1972)
Recurring Cast: Cynthia Pepper, Jean Pearson (1960–1961), Peter Brooks, Hank Ferguson (1960–1963), Cheryl Holdridge, Judy Doucette (1960–1961), Ricky Allen, Hubert ‘Sudsy’ Pfeiffer (1961–1963), Hank Jones, Pete (1964–1966), Bill Erwin, Joe Walters (1962–1964), Doris Singleton, Helen Morrison (1964–65), Margaret Williams (1970), John Howard, Dave Welch (1965–1967), Joan Tompkins, Lorraine Miller (1967–1970)
Synopsis: The series chronicles the life of widower and aeronautical engineer Stephen Douglas (Fred MacMurray) as he raises his three sons.
Network: ABC (1960–1965), CBS (1965–1972)
Broadcast History: Twelve seasons, 380 episodes (184 in black and white, 196 in color), last broadcast on April 13, 1972
Trivia: Frawley played maternal grandfather Bub O’Casey but was replaced in 1965 by William Demarest as his brother, ‘Uncle Charley’, due to Frawley’s illness which insurance would not cover. Considine’s oldest son Mike was married off and written out of the show after the move to CBS — Considine chose not to renew his contract in a dispute with producers over his wish to direct but not co-star in the series — and to keep the emphasis on the ‘Three Sons’ of the title, Chip’s friend Ernie was adopted into the Douglas family (Chip and Ernie were played by real life brothers Stanley and Barry Livingston). Disney producer Bill Walsh mused if the series was inspired by The Shaggy Dog which he said shared ‘the same dog, the same kids and Fred MacMurray’ (Considine did appear in the film with MacMurray but not as his son). The series moved to CBS after ABC refused to shoulder the cost of producing the show in color. A 1971 spinoff pilot focusing on Robbie Douglas, his wife Katie and their triplets was filmed but not picked up. In the show’s final season, MacMurray played dual roles in a four-part story arc as Steve Douglas and his cousin Laird (Lord) Fergus McBain Douglas of Sithian Bridge from Scotland. English actor Alan Caillou’s voice was dubbed over MacMurray’s. The series was originally filmed at Desilu Studios, but shifted to CBS Studio Center over concerns of the sale of Desilu to Gulf+Western, which then owned Paramount Pictures. CBS now holds the copyright to the series, though syndication packages now include just the color CBS episodes. MeTV began airing the black and white episodes beginning May 29, 2017, followed by the color episodes until August 3, 2018, the first time a broadcast network re-aired the entire series. MacMurray and most of the cast reunited for a special Thanksgiving Reunion with The Partridge Family and My Three Sons, which aired on ABC on November 25, 1977 (though the shows had no connection whatsoever).

September 29 – The Witness

Cast: Verne Collett, William Griffs, Paul McGrath, William Smithers, Frank Milan, Charles Haydon, Richard Steel, William Geoghan Jr., Benedict Ginsberg
Guest Cast: Telly Savalas, Murray Hamilton, Nehemiah Persoff, Sam Levene, Albert Dekker, Peter Falk, Joan Blondell, Warren Stevens, Bill McGuire
Synopsis: A fictional ‘Committee’ of lawyers cross-examined actors portraying actual people from the recent past of the United States who had been considered criminal or suspicious.
Network: CBS
Broadcast History: One season, 17 episodes, last broadcast on January 26, 1961
Trivia: None of the Committee members appeared to together in any episode.

September 30 – The Flintstones

Voice Cast: Alan Reed, Jean Vander Pyl, Mel Blanc, Bea Benaderet (1960–64), Gerry Johnson (1964–66), Don Messick, John Stephenson, Verna Felton, Doug Young, Daws Butler, Janet Waldo, Harvey Korman
Guest Cast: Henry Corden, June Foray, Allan Melvin, Howard Morris
Synopsis: The series takes place in a romanticized Stone Age setting and follows the activities of the title family, the Flintstones, and their next-door neighbors, the Rubbles (who are also their best friends).
Network: ABC
Broadcast History: Six seasons, 166 episodes, last broadcast on April 1, 1966
Trivia: The first animated series to hold a regular slot on primetime television. Jackie Gleason’s The Honeymooners was an inspiration for The Flintstones, and Fred’s appearance was meant to suggest Gleason, with Alan Reed’s voice work intentionally mimicking Gleason. Mel Blanc provided the voice of Barney Rubble for all but five episodes during the second season after he was incapacitated by a near fatal car accident. Daws Butler filled in. Blanc was able to return sooner than expected with a temporary recording studio for the cast set up by his bedside. Blanc’s voice for Barney changed considerably after the accident from a higher pitch to a much deeper voice, which went from a smart-aleck tone to something closer to Art Carney’s Ed Norton on The Honeymooners. Gleason said in an interview that Reed had done voice-overs for Gleason’s early movies and considered suing Hanna-Barbera but decided to let it pass. His lawyers said he could have the show yanked off the air, but his friend Henry Corden (who did voice work on the show and became the voice of Fred Flintstone in 1977 after Reed’s death) asked Gleason if he wanted to be the person who took the show away from so many families who loved it. Early concepts for the show included hillbillies (themes that were eventually incorporated into two episodes), Romans (which became the basis for Hanna-Barbera’s The Roman Holidays), pilgrims and Indians. Stone Age was settled on because anything modern could be converted to the era. The show’s original title was The Flagstones and featured Fred, Wilma and Fred Jr. It took eight weeks of daily presentations to sell the concept to networks and sponsors. William Hanna admitted The Honeymooners inspired the show but Joseph Barbera disputed those claims, although did not mind the comparison. It was the first animated series to show a married couple sleeping in the same bed, although they were also shown in separate beds. The first two seasons were sponsored by Winston cigarettes which included the customary commercials featuring the show’s stars. After the birth of Pebbles and a shift in viewership to younger audiences, Winston pulled its sponsorship and was replaced by Welch’s. The show was the first in animated history to address the issue of infertility as the Rubbles grew depressed over not having a baby of their own, leading to the adoption of Bamm-Bamm. The first two season of the show were broadcast in black and white, and the third season became one of the first on ABC to be shown in color. After the show’s premiere, Variety labeled it ‘a pen and ink disaster’, one of many shows that premiered in what was dubbed a ‘vast wasteland’, the worst TV season in history to that point. It was the first animated series to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series but lost to The Jack Benny Program. After the show ended in 1966, a feature film, The Man Called Flintstone, was released spoofing the secret agent films of the era. Seth MacFarlane attempted to revive the series for FOX in 2013, but the network wasn’t in love with the pilot script. A new animated feature film was put into development at Warner Bros. in 2014 and as of 2018 was still on the books but its status is currently unknown. The series is now available on HBO Max.

September 30 – Eyewitness to History

Hosts: Charles Kuralt (1960-61), Walter Cronkite (1961-62), Charles Collingwood (1962-63)
Synopsis: The series concentrated on the most significant news story or stories of the previous week, including the Kennedy-Nixon 1960 Presidential campaign, highlights of the Kennedy administration, the Bay Of Pigs invasion, the space race, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the civil rights movement.
Network: CBS
Broadcast History: Three seasons, last broadcast on July 26, 1963.
Trivia: The show’s title was shortened to Eyewitness in 1961 which may have prompted CBS affiliates to brand their local news broadcasts as ‘Eyewitness News’ in the 1960s.

September 30 – Michael Shayne

Cast: Richard Denning, Herbert Rudley, Jerry Paris, Patricia Donahue, Gary Clarke, Margie Regan
Guest Cast: Julie Adams, Richard Arlen, Beverly Garland, Warren Oates, Joan Marshall, David White
Synopsis: Michael Shayne is a private detective who solves crimes in Miami, Florida.
Network: NBC
Broadcast History: One season, 32 episodes, last broadcast on May 19, 1961
Trivia: NBC anthology series Decision presented the show’s failed pilot episode, ‘Three Men on a Raft’ with Mark Stevens and Merry Anders, in 1958. Donahue was replaced in the role of Lucy Hamilton halfway through production by Margie Regan as Lucy Carr. The series was based on the character created for a series of novels by Brett Halliday (Davis Dresser). The character also appeared in a series of seven films for 20th Century Fox starring Lloyd Nolan. Hugh Beaumont also played the character in five low-budget productions for Producers Releasing Corporation. The episode ‘This Is It, Michael Shayne’, written by William Link and Richard Levinson, was based on the Halliday novel of the same name. Julie Adams had worked previously with Denning in The Creature from the Black Lagoon. Beverly Garland appeared with Denning in the 1957 Roger Corman film Naked Paradise, and later starred with Vincent Price in the ‘House of the Seven Gables’ segment of the 1963 film Twice-Told Tales. The comic book series Mike Shayne — Private Eye was published by Dell Comics.

September 30 – The Westerner

Cast: Brian Keith, Hank Gobble, Jimmy Lee Cook, Michael T. Mikler, Marie Selland, John Dehner
Guest Cast: Malcolm Atterbury, Ben Cooper, Katy Jurado, John M. Pickard, Warren Oates
Synopsis: Dave Blassingame was a basically decent, ordinary man who was handy with a gun and his fists. A cowboy and drifter, he could sometimes behave amorally in his quest to get enough money together to buy his own ranch, but always did the right thing in the end, and remained true to himself.
Network: NBC
Broadcast History: One season, 13 episodes, last broadcast on December 30, 1960
Trivia: The series was created, written and produced by director Sam Peckinpah, who also directed some episodes. Dog Spike was best known for his title role of Old Yeller. The show’s pilot was broadcast as an episode of Dick Powell’s Zane Grey Theater. Reruns of the show were syndicated with three other short-lived Westerns from the same company — Black Saddle, Johnny Ringo and Law of the Plainsman — under the title The Westerners, with hosting segments featuring Keenan Wynn. The series was critically acclaimed but failed by being scheduled against The Flintstones and Route 66. A 1963 revival series with Lee Marvin, set in the modern West, aired as an episode of The Dick Powell Theater. The episode ‘Line Camp’ was the basis for the 1968 film Will Penny with Charlton Heston. Brian Keith reprised his character in the 1991 TV movie The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw, which featured other actors in cameos reprising their own familiar roles.

October 1 – Mister Ed

Cast: Allan Lane (voice only), Alan Young, Connie Hines, Bamboo Harvester (Mister Ed), Larry Keating, Edna Skinner, Leon Ames, Florence MacMichael
Guest Cast: Jack Albertson, Barry Kelley, Donna Douglas, Irene Ryan, Raymond Bailey, Alan Hale Jr., Neil Hamilton, Hayden Rorke, William Bendix, Sharon Tate, (as themselves) Mae West, Clint Eastwood, George Burns, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Leo Durocher, Johnny Crawford, Jon Provost, Sebastian Cabot, Jack LaLanne
Synopsis: The misadventures of a wisecracking talking horse and his human owner.
Network: Syndication (1961), CBS (1961-1966)
Broadcast History: Six seasons, 143 episodes, last broadcast on February 6, 1966
Trivia: Based on a series of short stories by Walter R. Brooks. The show’s concept also resembles that of the Francis the Talking Mule film series, which were directed by the show’s creator Arthur Lubin. Lubin tried to adapt the films into a TV series but was unsuccessful so optioned the rights to the book series. George Burns financed the pilot in which Scott McKay played Wilbur. Jack Benny was also involved behind the scenes. Lubin was unsuccessful getting a network pickup, so he sold the show to syndication and recast the Wilbur role with Alan Young. The first 26 episodes were received well enough for CBS to pick up the series, making it one of the few series to debut in syndication and then picked up by a major network. All 143 episodes were filmed in black and white. Allan Lane was never credited as the voice of Ed, but campaigned for credit after the show became successful. He settled for a pay raise instead. The horse was made to ‘talk’ by putting a thin nylon thread in his mouth, but the technique was abandoned when the horse learned to move his lips on cue when a trainer touched his hoof. Alan Young recounted that the horse eventually started moving his lips without a cue when Young stopped talking. A rumor circulated that the horse was made to appear to talk by putting peanut butter on his gum, which Young admitted to making up himself. A remake of the series was developed for FOX in 2004 with Sherman Hemsley as the voice of Mister Ed, with David Alan Basche as Wilbur and Sherilyn Fenn as Carol. A feature film was announced in 2012. Neither project came to pass.

October 2 – The Islanders

Cast: William Reynolds, James Philbrook, Diane Brewster
Guest Cast: Charles Bickford, Charles Bronson, Sebastian Cabot, Hans Conried, Elisha Cook, Jr., Peter Falk, James Hong, Sam Jaffe, Werner Klemperer, Martin Landau, E.G. Marshall, Darren McGavin, Jan Merlin, Leslie Nielsen, J. Pat O’Malley, Suzanne Pleshette, Gena Rowlands, Harold J. Stone, Gloria Talbott, Grace Lee Whitney, Fay Wray, Keenan Wynn
Synopsis: Zack and Sandy run a shoestring air charter business in remote East Indies. Their lives are turned upside down when the stunning Wilhelmina takes over the managing and the guys find themselves dealing with various scoundrels and adventurers.
Network: ABC
Broadcast History: One season, 24 episodes, last broadcast on March 26, 1961
Trivia: In February 1960, a plane carrying Reynolds, series creator Richard L. Bare, Glen Kirkpatrick, pilot Howard Smith and camera man George Schmidt crashed off the coast of Jamaica. All but Schmidt survived. The series struggled in its time slot against The Jack Benny Program and Candid Camera on CBS and The Dinah Shore Show and The Loretta Young Show on NBC.

October 3 – The Andy Griffith Show

Cast: Andy Griffith, Ronny Howard, Don Knotts, Frances Bavier, Elinor Donahue, Jim Nabors, Howard McNear, George Lindsey, Hal Smith, Howard Morris, Jack Dodson, Jack Burns
Guest Cast: Jerry Van Dyke, Pamelyn Ferdin, Kay Lenz, Lee Van Cleef, Elaine Joyce, Jack Albertson, Barbara Stuart, Bert Remsen, John Dehner, Elvia Allman, Alan Oppenheimer, Keye Luke, Ann Morgan Guilbert, Sterling Holloway, Barbara Eden, Jesse White, Teri Garr, Edward Andrews, Arte Johnson, Alan Hale Jr., Bill Bixby, Edgar Buchanan, Harry Dean Stanton, Bo Hopkins, Jamie Farr, Susan Oliver, Jackie Joseph, Janet Waldo, Ellen Corby, Michael J. Pollard, William Schallert, Jack Bannon, Rob Reiner, Morgan Brittany, Whitney Blake, Hamilton Camp, George Kennedy, Mary Grace Canfield, Les Tremayne, Sue Ane Langdon, Jackie Coogan, Joyce Van Patten, Roger Perry, Vito Scotti, Hayden Rorke, Don Rickles, Frank Sutton
Synopsis: Widower Sheriff Andy Taylor, and his son Opie, live with Andy’s Aunt Bee in Mayberry, North Carolina. With virtually no crimes to solve, most of Andy’s time is spent philosophizing and calming down his deputy Barney Fife.
Network: CBS
Broadcast History: Eight seasons, 249 episodes (159 black and white, 90 in color), last broadcast April 1, 1968
Trivia: The series originated partly from an episode of The Danny Thomas Show. The series never placed lower than seventh in the ratings during its run, and ended its final season at Number 1. Only I Love Lucy and Seinfeld ended their runs at the top of the ratings. The series spawned the spin-off Gomer Pyle, USMC in 1964. Jim Nabors’ Gomer was replaced with George Lindsay as Goober Pyle on the show (Lindsay continued to play the Goober character on Hee Haw for many years). The TV movie Return to Mayberry aired in 1986. When Griffith left the show, it was retitled Mayberry RFD with Ken Berry as the star, and most of the supporting cast remaining in their roles. That show ran for three seasons and 78 episodes. Don Knotts knew Griffith personally and suggested his character needed a deputy after seeing the Danny Thomas Show episode. Griffith agreed, Knotts auditioned and was offered a five-year contract. Griffith initially played Andy Taylor as a grinning country bumpkin but didn’t like the performances and became more serious and thoughtful in the second season. The change in his character meant the supporting cast had to be the ones to create problems which the stoic Taylor would step in and fix. Knotts left the show at the end of his contract to pursue a movie career, but returned for guest appearances in subsequent seasons. Griffith and Howard reprised their roles as Andy and Opie for a Funny or Die skit supporting the 2008 presidential campaign of Barack Obama. Several surviving cast members reunited for reunion specials in 1993 and 2003. Don Knotts won Emmys for his performance every season he was a regular on the show. Frances Bavier won one Emmy in 1967. The series was nominated as Outstanding Comedy series in 1967 but lost to The Monkees.

October 3 – Dante

Cast: Howard Duff, Alan Mowbray, Tom D’Andrea, Mort Mills
Guest Cast: Joanna Barnes, Mary Jane Croft, Olan Soule, William Schallert, Stafford Repp, Nita Talbot, Ruta Lee
Synopsis: Howard Duff stars as Willie Dante, a former gambler who operates Dante’s Inferno, a San Francisco, California, nightclub. Dante claims to have put his past behind him but has retained old associates Stewart and Biff. While his club is legitimate, neither the police nor the mob believe that he is truly finished with the criminal underworld. Dante’s old associates in crime keep appearing at the club in efforts to lure him back to the underworld.
Network: NBC
Broadcast History: One season, 26 episodes, last broadcast on April 10, 1961
Trivia: Dick Powell played the character of Dante on eight episodes of Four Star Playhouse. The inspiration for the character may have come from Rick Blaine in Casablanca. Duff’s wife Ida Lupino directed some episodes of the series.

October 3 – Surfside 6

Cast: Troy Donahue, Van Williams, Lee Patterson, Diane McBain, Margarita Sierra, Paul ‘Mousie’ Garner, Richard Crane, Don ‘Red’ Barry
Guest Cast: Vito Scotti, Shirley Knight, Grace Lee Whitney, Chad Everett, Leslie Parrish, Susan Seaforth Hayes, William Windom, Jeanne Cooper, Warren Stevens, Julie Adams, Sue Ane Langdon, Grant Williams, David White, Donna Douglas, White Bissel, Dawn Wells, Charles Lane, John Dehner, Max Baer Jr., Peter Breck, Claude Akins, Peggy McKay, Lon Chaney Jr., Allison Haye, Barbara Stuart, R.G. Armstrong, Dennis Hopper, Elisha Cook Jr., Bruce Dern, Reggie Nalder, Edward Platt, James Best, Ellen Burstyn, Alejandro Rey, Dub Taylor, Bobby Troup, Neil Hamilton, Barney Phillips, Raymond Bailey, Alvy Moore, Rhodes Reason, Mary Tyler Moore, Slim Pickens, Harvey Korman, Victor Buono, Ellen Corby, George Kennedy, William Schallert, Sally Kellerman, Ted Knight, Jack Cassidy
Synopsis: The show centered on a Miami Beach detective agency set on a houseboat.
Network: ABC
Broadcast History: Two seasons, 74 episodes, last broadcast on June 25, 1962
Trivia: Williams’ character Kenny Madison was recycled from Bourbon Street Beat, which was cancelled in April 1960. One critic described the change as ‘replacing a violin with a fiddle.’ The series was one of four produced by Warner Bros. at the time — 77 Sunset Strip, Hawaiian Eye and Bourbon Street Beat — with plots, scripts and characters crossing over from one series to another with ease since they were all filmed on the studio lot. After the show’s cancellation, Donahue moved to Hawaiian Eye but as a new character. Van Williams went on to star in The Green Hornet with Bruce Lee in 1966.

1970

September 29 – San Francisco International Airport

Cast: Lloyd Bridges, Barbara Werle, Clu Gulager
Guest Cast:
Synopsis: The series starred Lloyd Bridges as Jim Conrad, the manager of the gigantic San Francisco International Airport, which at the time of the series aired was said to handle more than 15,000,000 passengers annually and have more than 35,000 employees. Bob Hatten (Clu Gulager) was his chief of security, an important role at a time when security was beginning to emerge as a real-life major issue in air transport. June (Barbara Werle) was Conrad’s secretary. Airport situations drawn from real life were addressed, such as protesting demonstrators, mechanical malfunctions, and similar problems.
Network: NBC
Broadcast History: One season, 7 episodes, last broadcast on December 2, 1970
Trivia: The show was part of NBC’s short-lived ‘wheel’ series Four in One. The pilot aired as a TV movie with Pernell Roberts in the role of Conrad. NBC ordered six episodes with the stipulation Bridges play the role instead of Roberts. It was the second program introduced in Four in One after McCloud. The show was replaced after its six episode run by Night Gallery, which was picked up as a stand-alone series for its second season, while McCloud was carried over to the new NBC Mystery Movie wheel series. The pilot episode was largely forgotten until it was featured on a 1994 episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

1980

No new series premiered this week in 1980.

1990

September 30 – Good Grief

Cast: Howie Mandel, Wendy Schaal, Joel Brooks, Sheldon Feldner, Tom Poston
Guest Cast: Richard Stahl, Jeff Conaway, Dena Dietrich, Marianne Muellerleile, Armin Shimerman, Gino Conforti, Norman Fell, Anita Morris, Jerry Lewis
Synopsis: The series focuses on a funeral home called ‘The Sincerity Mortuary’ in Dacron, Ohio run by strait-laced Warren Pepper (Joel Brooks), his sister Debbie (Wendy Schaal), and her flamboyant husband Ernie Lapidus (Howie Mandel), who was determined to ‘put the ‘fun’ back in ‘funeral’.’
Network: FOX
Broadcast History: One season, 13 episodes, last broadcast on February 3, 1991
Trivia: Jerry Lewis directed one episode of the series.

2000

September 30 – MTV’s Fear

Synopsis: The program follows a group of five or more contestants who are left at an allegedly haunted location and led on a series of dares over two nights to explore the location and determine whether it is haunted.
Network: MTV
Broadcast History: Two seasons, 16 episodes, last broadcast on April 28, 2002
Trivia: The series was inspired by the 1973 film The Legend of Hell House. The series was the second most popular show on MTV when it was cancelled due to high production costs.

October 1 – Jackass

Cast: Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Dave England, Ryan Dunn, Ehren McGhehey, Preston Lacy, Jason ‘Wee Man’ Acuña
Synopsis: The show featured a cast of nine carrying out stunts and pranks on each other or the public.
Network: MTV
Broadcast History: Three seasons, 25 episodes, last broadcast on February 3, 2002
Trivia: After the show’s cancellation, five feature films were produced by Paramount Pictures. The show developed from Knoxville’s idea to test self-defense equipment on himself. Saturday Night Live offered to feature segments with the Jackass crew as a recurring segment on the show, but the offer was rejected as a bidding war between Comedy Central and MTV erupted. After the MTV deal, Steve-O was approached to be on the show and stunts were filmed with him for the show without clearance from MTV management. After the second episode, MTV had its highest Sunday night ratings in its history. The show ended due to Knoxville’s discontent with MTV and the censors who were constantly giving notes on what could and could not be done.

October 1 – That’s Life

Cast: Heather Paige Kent (Dubrow), Debi Mazar, Ellen Burstyn, Paul Sorvino, Kevin Dillon, Danielle Harris, Peter Firth, Titus Welliver
Guest Cast: Kristin Bauer van Straten, Joseph Campanella, Swoosie Kurtz, David Cubitt, Gregory Jbara, Jamie Luner, Liam Kyle Sullivan, Dan Cortese, Michael Trucco, Nicholas Pryor, Niecy Nash, Michelle Phillips, Harry Shearer, Amy Aquino, Sam Jaeger, Vanessa Lachey, Doug Savant, Vernee Watson, David Garrison, Carol Kane, Mary Pat Gleason, Carol Ann Susi, Jerry Ferrara, Nicholas Guest
Synopsis: Lydia DeLucca is a New Jersey bartender who wants more out of her life than just marriage and kids. So she breaks off her engagement, and heads to college. This doesn’t make her ex-boyfriend Lou happy, who thinks she is wasting her time getting an education. Her family is none too supportive either. Her mother, Dolly, thinks marriage would be better since she thinks Lydia can’t take care of herself. Her dad, Frank, cares more about the New York Giants than Lydia’s psych term paper. But that’s life.
Network: CBS
Broadcast History: Two seasons, 36 episodes (4 unaired), last broadcast on January 26, 2002
Trivia: The series was loosely based on the life of creator Diane Ruggiero. The show drew critical praise but could not find an audience in what was then called the ‘Friday death slot’.

October 2 – Andromeda

Cast: Kevin Sorbo, Lisa Ryder, Keith Hamilton Cobb, Lexa Doig, Laura Bertram, Gordon Michael Woolvett, Brent Stait, Steve Bacic, Brandy Ledford
Guest Cast: Nicholas Lea, Michael Ironside, Michael Shanks, John de Lancie, Christopher Judge, Sebastian Spence, Costas Mandylor, Krista Allen, Erica Durance, Nia Peeples, William B. Davis, James Marsters, Michael Hogan, Tony Todd, Don S. Davis, Peter DeLuise, Kandyse McClure, Lochlyn Munro, Dustin Milligan, Missy Peregrym, Grace Park
Synopsis: Captain Dylan Hunt and the crew of the Andromeda Ascendant set out on a mission to rebuild the Systems Commonwealth 300 years after its fall.
Network: Syndication
Broadcast History: Five seasons, 110 episodes, last broadcast on May 13, 2005
Trivia: One of two series at the time based on concepts created by Gene Roddenberry in the 1960s and 1970s but went unused. The series was produced by his widow, Majel Barrett. The name Dylan Hunt had been used in two Roddenberry TV pilots from the mid-1970s: Genesis II and Planet Earth. The Sci-Fi Channel made a deal for the show and all its episodes in January 2004. Season 4 episodes would air on the network and then 7-10 days later in syndication. The deal led to the show’s fifth and final season renewal.

October 2 – Deadline

Cast: Oliver Platt, Bebe Neuwirth, Tom Conti, Lili Taylor, Hope Davis, Damon Gupton
Guest Cast: Chip Zien, Michael Gaston, Christina Chang, Earl Hindman, Barnard Hughes, Mark La Mura, Ken Leung, Aasif Mandvi, David McCallum, Robert Rodriguez, Paul Rudd, Kevin Clash, Joe Grifasi, Sam McMurray, George Plimpton, Paul Provenza, Miriam Shor, Abe Vigoda, Kerry Washington, Dean Winters
Synopsis: Oliver Platt plays Wallace Benton, a journalist for a New York tabloid magazine called the NY Ledger. He works along side his soon to be ex-wife, and various other people, using his journalistic instincts to get the story no matter what it takes. On the side, he teaches a class full of journalism students, who sometimes go along on his researching ‘missions,’ and he frequently uses them to get information on stories he has done, or is doing, to save himself some time.
Network: NBC
Broadcast History: One season, 13 episodes, last broadcast on April 7, 2001
Trivia: The fictional ‘New York Ledger’ had been seen in several episodes of Law & Order. The show was sold to NBC by a pitch from Dick Wolf without a pilot, but with a three-minute trailer. Platt agreed to do the show because of Wolf’s reputation, and because it was shot in his hometown. NBC cancelled the show after five episodes, and didn’t air the remaining eight until the Spring of 2001.

October 2 – History IQ

Host: Marc Summers, Harvey (announcer)
Synopsis: Game show in which three contestants participated in a process of elimination game. Season 1’s daily grand prize was $25,000. The daily grand prize was lowered to $5,000 in Season 2, but contestants also played for a spot to advance in a tournament for a top prize of $250,000.
Network: History Channel
Broadcast History: Two seasons, 110 episodes, last broadcast on June 22, 2001
Trivia: Summers and Harvey had worked together on Double Dare. The show’s creators Dana Calderwood and Michael Klinghoffer, music composer Edd Kalehoff and set designer Jim Fenhagen also worked on Double Dare. Home viewers could play along during the show’s original run.

October 2 – Moral Court

Cast: Larry Elder, Vivian Guzman, Russell Brown II
Synopsis: A non-tradtional court show where cases were based on opinion-based ethics and morality judged by Elder, with the winner of the case leaving with a cash prize.
Network: Syndication
Broadcast History: One season, last original episode broadcast on May 23, 2001
Trivia: The show aired in reruns in several markets nearly five years after ceasing production.

October 2 – Street Smarts

Host: Frank Nicotero
Synopsis: American game show that featured two in-studio contestants trying to predict the outcome of interviews of people who were found on the street.
Network: Syndication
Broadcast History: Five seasons, last original episode broadcast on May 25, 2005
Trivia: The show was originally to have three field reporters on location with the contestants, with the host only appearing in the studio. The idea was scrapped due to a lack of talent from those who auditioned. Nicotero was to be one of the field reporters by was promoted to main host as the format was changed to place the contestants in studio answering the questions from the field.

October 2 – Tucker

Cast: Eli Marienthal, Noelle Beck, Katey Sagal, Nathan Lawrence, Alison Lohman, Casey Sander
Guest Cast: Seth Green, Andrew Lawrence, Meagen Fay, Christina Pickles, John Ritter
Synopsis: Tucker’s parents have divorced, and so he is forced to move into his despised aunt Claire’s house, with her decidedly calmer airplane pilot husband Jimmy and strange cousin Leon. Originally disappointed at the arrangement, he spots their gorgeous neighbour McKenna. From that point forward, he valiantly attempts to become her boyfriend, competing with Seth Green.
Network: NBC
Broadcast History: One season, 13 episodes, last original broadcast on December 13, 2000
Trivia: Eight episodes were rerun in pairs in March 2001. The series aired on Nickelodeon in the UK.

October 2 – Yes, Dear

Cast: Anthony Clark, Jean Louisa Kelly, Mike O’Malley, Liza Snyder, Tim Conway, Vicki Lawrence, Jerry Van Dyke, Beth Grant, Dan Hedaya, Alley Mills
Guest Cast: Billy Gardell, Phill Lewis, Brian Doyle-Murray
Synopsis: Greg Warner, a successful businessman in the film industry, and Kim Warner, his level-headed stay-at-home wife, do their best to be the perfect parents to their young son, Sammy (and later daughter, Emily). Things become difficult when Kim’s sister Christine and her husband Jimmy move into the Warners’ guest house with their two rambunctious boys, Dominic and Logan.
Network: CBS
Broadcast History: Six seasons, 122 episodes, last broadcast on February 15, 2006
Trivia: CBS had cancelled the series in 2004 but later ordered 13 episodes after the show’s license fee was cut to secure the renewal. The show returned for the cancelled Center of the Universe. A fifth season of 22 episodes was ordered, but two episodes were unaired due to breaking news events and were pushed to Season 6. The series was cancelled after star Anthony Clark was hired to host NBC’s Last Comic Standing. The show is connected to creator Greg Garcia’s 2010 series Raising Hope. In the third season, Brian Doyle-Murray is shown as an executive of a Hollywood studio, a reference to his Yes, Dear character. In the following episode, O’Malley and Snyder reprise their roles as Jimmy and Christine Hughes who have made a habit of watching a sex video made by Burt and Virginia Chance. Jimmy appears again in a fourth season episode with a different actress as Christine (who is renamed Christy).

Cameron / Eglee Producions

October 3 – Dark Angel

Cast: Jessica Alba, Michael Weatherly, Richard Gunn, J.C. MacKenzie, Valarie Rae Miller, John Savage, Jensen Ackles, Almi Ballard, Martin Cummins, Kevin Durand, Ashley Scott
Guest Cast: Nana Visitor, Rekha Sharma, Kandyse McClure, Lawrence Pressman, Christopher Gordon, Tyler Labine, Abraham Benrubi, Kristin Bauer van Straten, Callum Keith Rennie, Master P, Sebastian Spence, Sam Witwer, Grace Park, Missy Peregrym, Tahmoh Penikett
Synopsis: A group of genetically-enhanced children escape from a lab project. Years later we meet Max, one of the escapees who now works for a messenger service in the post-apocalyptic Pacific Northwest.
Network: FOX
Broadcast History: Two seasons, 43 episodes, last broadcast on May 3, 2002
Trivia: The show is to date the only series produced by James Cameron. The first season received positive reviews and decent ratings in its Tuesday time slot, but FOX moved it to Friday where it languished and was cancelled. A series of novels continued the storyline. Working titles for the show included Experimental Girl and Maximum Girl. More than a thousand actresses were considered for the part. Cameron was not impressed with Alba’s screen test, head down, reading the script, but liked the way she read the script with attitude. Cameron met Alba, and she was hired with the scripts being written for her. After the director for the final episode didn’t work out, Cameron stepped in — his first time directing a network television episode — for the experience and to help the potential for a third season. Producers were told a third season was approved, then two days later FOX informed them the series had been cancelled.

2010

September 28 – No Ordinary Family

Cast: Michael Chiklis, Julie Benz, Kay Panabaker, Jimmy Bennett, Autumn Reeser, Romany Malco, Stephen Collins, Josh Stewart, Guillermo Diaz, Reggie Lee, Amy Acker, Rebecca Mader, Lucy Lawless
Guest Cast: Tate Donovan, Chord Overstreet, Bruce McGill, Cybill Shepherd, Jackson Rathbone, Anthony Michael Hall, Annie Wersching, Rick Schroder, Conor Leslie, Ethan Suplee, Tricia Helfer, Robert Picardo, Eric Balfour
Synopsis: The Powells are a typical American family living in Pacific Bay, California, whose members gain special powers after their plane crashes in the Amazon.
Network: ABC
Broadcast History: One season, 20 episodes, last broadcast on April 5, 2011
Trivia: The series had been given a full 22-episode order on October 25, 2010 but as ratings waned the order was cut back to 20 episodes on February 26, 2011. Perhaps seeing the writing on the wall, Chiklis and Benz signed with CBS for Fall pilots.

September 29 – Law & Order: LA

Cast: Skeet Ulrich, Corey Stoll, Rachel Ticotin, Regina Hall, Megan Boone, Alfred Molina, Terrence Howard, Alana de la Garza
Guest Cast: Teri Polo, Clyde Kusatsu, Wanda De Jesus, Marc Blucas, James Morrison, Shawnee Smith, Natalie Zea, Shawn Hatosy, John Pankow, Tony Plana, Raphael Sbarge, Lee Tergesen, JoBeth Williams, Oded Fehr, John Benjamin Hickey, Bellamy Young, Jason Beghe, Denise Crosby, Harry Lennix, Titus Welliver, Rebecca Mader, Steven Culp, Jeff Fahey, Harry Groener, Jodi Lyn O’Keefe, Bob Saget, Daniel Hugh Kelly, Reed Diamond, Dean Norris, Jim Beaver, Christopher Cousins, Tim Guinee, Michael Massee, Laawrence Pressman, Mira Furlan, John de Lancie, Wyatt Russell, Ahmed Best, Rob Benedict, Leah Pipes, Sally Kellerman, Travis Van Winkle, Charles S. Dutton, Victor Garber, K Callan, Dee Wallace, Steven Yuen, Amy Hill, Joel Brooks, Bradley Whitford, John Pleshette, Danielle Panabaker, Cooper Huckabee
Synopsis: Los Angeles police detectives investigate crimes and district attorneys prosecute the offenders.
Network: NBC
Broadcast History: One season, 22 episodes, last broadcast on July 11, 2011
Trivia: This was the fifth series of the Law & Order franchise. The series was picked up for a full season in October 2010, then put on indefinite hiatus on January 18, 2011, partially due to a mid-season cast shakeup with Ulrich, Hall and Boone exiting the series. The show returned to the schedule on April 11, 2011 with the new cast, then aired the remaining episodes with the original cast beginning May 30. The show was officially cancelled on May 13. The show’s new Monday time slot was also a factor in the cancellation as the show, which NBC thought had improved with the new cast, could not find an audience.

October 2 – Planet Sheen

Voice Cast: Jeffrey Garcia, Bob Joles, Rob Paulsen, Soleil Moon Frye, Jeff Bennett, Fred Tatasciore, Thomas Lennon, Candi Milo, Debi Derryberry
Synopsis: After sneaking into Jimmy’s laboratory and finding Jimmy’s new rocket ship, Sheen accidentally blasts himself into outer space when he disobeys Jimmy’s warning note (‘Sheen, do not press this button’) and presses the button Jimmy mentioned in his note. 4,000,001 lightyears away, Sheen crashes on Zeenu—an odd planet inhabited by aliens called Zeenunians. Soon after the crash, Sheen wants to go home, but his rocket ship was smashed when he flew into a house belonging to a Zeenunian named Dorkus.
Network: Nickelodeon (2010-11), Nicktoons (2012-13)
Broadcast History: One season, 26 episodes, last broadcast on February 13, 2013
Trivia: The second series in the Jimmy Neutron franchise.

October 2 – T.U.F.F. Puppy

Cast: Jerry Trainor, Grey DeLisle, Daran Norris, Jeff Bennett, Matthew W. Taylor
Synopsis: The series’ main character is a dim-witted but determined dog named Dudley Puppy who works as a spy for an organization called T.U.F.F. (short for Turbo Undercover Fighting Force). His partner is a cat named Kitty Katswell. Other helpers are The Chief and Keswick. The series takes place in the fictional city of Petropolis (distinct from the Brazilian city of Petrópolis, which is named after Pedro II of Brazil), which is populated by anthropomorphic animals. As a member of T.U.F.F., Dudley Puppy helps Kitty Katswell protect Petropolis from various villains like Verminious Snaptrap, the Chameleon, and Birdbrain.
Network: Nickelodeon (2010-13), Nicktoon (2013-15)
Broadcast History: Three seasons, 60 episodes, last broadcast on April 4, 2015
Trivia: Created by Butch Hartman, who also created The Fairly OddParents and Danny Phantom for Nickelodeon. The original title for the show was Stud Puppy. The show won three Daytime Emmy Awards and two Annie Awards.

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