TV by the Decade :: September 8•14

Warner Bros. Television

It’s September and time for the networks to start rolling out their new series. These days the season premieres usually come mid-Septmeber, generally after the Emmy Awards (which are late this year), but back in the day, the new season began right after Labor Day. We’ve got a full schedule this week which gave us some classic primetime series and Saturday morning cartoons. Sit back, relax, relive TV through the years and see which shows you remember!

1959

• September 10 — Private detective series Johnny Staccato debuts on NBC. The series starred John Cassavetes as a jazz pianist/private detective, and was set in a Greenwich Village jazz club which allowed many real life musicians to appear, including Barney Kessel, Shelly Manne, Red Mitchell, Red Norvo, and Johnny Williams — musicians closely identified with the West Coast jazz scene even though the series was set in New York (but filmed in Los Angeles). Notable guest stars included Warren Berlinger, Elisha Cook Jr., Norman Fell, Harry Guardino, Martin Landau, Michael Landon, Cloris Leachman, Ruta Lee, Elizabeth Montgomery, Mary Tyler Moore, Susan Oliver, Gena Rowlands, Vito Scotti, Dean Stockwell, Nita Talbot and Jack Weston. The series ran on NBC for one 27-episode season, ending on March 24, 1960. ABC aired reruns from March 27 to September 25.
• September 11 — Adventure series The Troubleshooters, starring Keenan Wynn and Bob Mathias, premieres on NBC. The series was based on events at international construction sites. Supporting cast members included Chet Allen, Roland Harris, Bob Fortier and Carey Loftin, with Forrest Compton appearing in two episodes. Guest stars included Dabbs Greer, Dan Blocker, Harry Townes and Werner Klemperer. The series ran for one season of 26 episodes, ending on April 10, 1960.
• September 11 — Western series Bonanza premieres on NBC. Set in the 1860s, the series centers on the wealthy Cartwright family who live near Virginia City, Nevada. The series launched with Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts, Dan Blocker and Michael Landon. Roberts, however, clashed with the show’s writers about his character’s lack of independence, always needing his father’s approval, and eventually quit the show during the 1964-1965 season after 202 episodes. Attempts to replace him with other family members (portrayed by Barry Coe and Guy Williams) were unsuccessful. Victor Sen Yung also appeared as the family’s cook Hop Sing. Other cast members included Ray Teal, David Canary, Mitch Vogel and Tim Matheson. While in the Western genre, the series focused more on the Cartwright family and how the father and sons cared for each other, attempting to deal with contemporary social issues in the Western setting. The Cartwrights were initially shown as put off by outsiders but Greene pointed out that as the area’s largest timber and livestock producer, the family should be more open and welcoming. Producers agreed on the observation and made the Cartwrights more amiable. The series produced 431 episodes over 14 seasons — and interestingly none of the cast appeared on every episode; Greene topped the list at 417 with Landon right behind at 416 — ending on January 16, 1973, NBC’s longest-running Western and the second longest-running Western on U.S. network television. It is currently in the Top 20 longest running scripted TV series in history. Sadly, the show did suffer a major loss in May 1972 which may have led to its cancellation (along with a schedule change that put the show opposite Maude on CBS). Blocker, the good-natured Cartwright brother ‘Hoss’, died suddenly following surgery to remove his gall bladder. The producers knew no one else could fill the role and made the decision to kill off the character. It wasn’t until the TV movie Bonanza: The Next Generation in 1998 that it was revealed Hoss drowned attempting to save a woman’s life. The show was nearly cancelled before it premiered because of its high cost, due to being one of the first series to be filmed in color (which NBC’s parent company RCA used to spur the sale of color TVs). The series initially aired on Saturdays to respectable ratings but once the show was moved to Sundays, it soared in the ratings, reaching Number 1 by 1964, and remaining in the Top 5 for nine consecutive seasons until 1970. NBC reran episodes in the summer of 1972 from the 1967-1970 seasons under the title Ponderosa (the name of the Cartwright ranch), and in the Fall of 1972 the show was sold into syndication with that title. After the show’s cancellation in 1973, the syndicated episodes reverted to the original Bonanza title. The series’ theme song has become one of the most recognizable theme songs in TV history, and has been re-recorded by several artists including Johnny Cash, who was the first to record a full-length vocal version of the song. Three TV movies followed in 1988, 1993 and 1995 which featured the Cartwright children. Michael Landon Jr. played Benji, the son of his father’s character Little Joe. Lorne Green’s daughter Gillian played a love interest. Dan Blocker’s son Dirk was told he was too old to play the son of his father’s character but was given the role of an unrelated newspaper reporter, despite the strong resemblance to his father. In 2001, a prequel series titled Ponderosa aired on the PAX network for one season.
• September 12 — Western series The Deputy premieres on NBC. The series starred Henry Fonda as Chief Marshal Simon Fry of the Arizona Territory and Allen Case as Deputy Clay McCord, a storekeeper who tried to avoid using a gun. Fonda narrated most of the episode and appeared briefly at the beginning and end of each. However, he only appeared in six of the first season episodes and thirteen of the second, with his character’s deputy usually given assignments. Fonda would shoot all of his scenes in several lengthy sessions to keep him free for other projects. Other cast members included Read Morgan as a US Army cavalry sergeant, Wallace Ford as elderly Marshall Herk Lamson, and Betty Lou Keim as McCord’s sister Fran. The series was co-created by Normal Lear. A tie-in novel titled ‘The Deputy’ was released in September 1960. The series ran for two season, producing 76 episodes, ending on July 1, 1961.
• September 12 — Adventure/science fiction series The Man and the Challenge debuts on NBC. George Nader starred as Dr. Glenn Barton, a research scientist for the Institute of Human Factors, and agency that conducted tests designed to measure human endurance. Co-stars included Jack Ging, Michael Masters, Joyce Meadows and Michael Keith. Guests included Ted Knight, Raymond Bailey, Paul Burke, James Best, Whit Bissell, Julie Adams, and Darryl Hickman. The series ran for one season of 36 episodes, ending on June 11, 1960, but continued in reruns until September 3.
• September 13 — Western series Riverboat debuts on NBC. The series premiered with Dan Duryea and Burt Reynolds as the leads. Duryea was replaced after two episodes by Darren McGavin. After 20 episodes, Reynolds reported conflicts with McGavin which led to his ouster, replaced by Noah Beery Jr. Rounding out the main cast were Dick Wessel, Jack Lambert, Joshua MacGregor, John Mitchum, Michael McGreevey and William D. Gordon. The storyline centered around the riverboat Enterprise which navigated mostly along the Mississippi, Missouri and Ohio rivers, encountering interesting characters along the way including President Zachary Taylor and pre-president Abraham Lincoln. While most Westerns of the era were set after the Civil War, this series was set pre-conflict in the 1830s and 40s. With no female leads, the show featured an array of leading lasy guest stars of the era including Anne Baxter, Barbara Bel Geddes, Whitney Blake, Jeanne Crain, Arlene Dahl, Beverly Garland, Mercedes McCambridge, Vera Miles, Elizabeth Montgomery, Mary Tyler Moore, Debra Paget, Suzanne Pleshette, Madlyn Rhue, Gena Rowlands, and Stella Stevens. Male guest stars included Eddie Albert, Jack Albertson, Charles Bronson, Edgar Buchanan, Richard Chamberlain, Buddy Ebsen, Clu Gulager, John Ireland, George Kennedy, Raymond Massey, Doug McCLure, Ricardo Montalban, Ed Nelson, Vincent Price, Cliff Robertson, Lee Van Cleef and Robert Vaughn. NBC hoped the series would defeat Maverick but critical reception was not kind and the premiere drew a rating of 11.9 against Maverick‘s 22.9. NBC shifted the show from Sunday to Monday in January 1960 and it ran for two seasons, producing 44 episodes, ending on January 2, 1961.

1969

• September 6 — Animated series Cattanooga Cats debuts on ABC. The series featured four segments, ‘The Cattanooga Cats’, ‘It’s the Wolf’, ‘Motormouse and Autocat’ and ‘Around the World in 79 Days’. Also included were comedy blackouts and musical numbers with the Cats. The hour-long series produced 17 episodes and broadcast the last original episode on December 27, 1969. After the first season, ‘Morotmouse and Autocat’ was spun off into a separate show which included ‘It’s the Wolf’. The Cattanooga Cats was reduced to a half hour and moved to Sunday mornings. There was a plan to revive the series as part of 2 Stupid Dogs in 1994, but the plan was never carried out. The voice cast included Daws Butler, Marty Ingels, Paul Lynde, Casey Kasem, Allan Melvin, Don Messick and Janet Waldo.
• September 8 — Soap opera Where the Heart Is debuts on CBS. The series was set in the town of Northcross, Connecticut and focused on the sexual and psychological intrigues of the dysfunctional Hathaway family. Many believed the series to be CBS’ attempt to cash in on the popularity of the novel ‘Peyton Place’, but it was actually inspired by NBC’s Days of Our Lives, with irreverent, fast-paced storylines that stood in contrast to the network’s more staid soaps. While the show’s ratings were healthy, it was still the network’s lowest-rated soap, and advertisers weren’t happy with the attempt to draw in a younger, less desirable cult audience. As CBS was locked in a ratings battle with NBC, the network cancelled the show and another under-performing soap, Love is a Many Splendored Thing, in February 1973 in an attempt to bring up the daytime ratings. The series was replaced by The Young and the Restless.
• September 11 — Comedy-drama series Room 222 premieres on ABC. The series focused mainly on the American History class in Room 222 of the fictional Walt Whitman High School, a racially diverse school in Los Angeles. Other events featuring the home lives of students and faculty were also incorporated into the storylines. The cast includes Lloyd Haynes as teacher Pete Dixon, Denise Nicholas as guidance counselor Liz McIntyre (also Pete’s girlfriend), Michael Constantine as principal Seymour Kaufman, Karen Valentine as student (and later full-time) teacher Alice Johnson whom Pete mentors. Patsy Garrett played Mr. Kaufman’s secretary Miss Hogarth. Recurring students were featured from episode to episode (Eric Laneuville was one of the recurring cast members). The series sometimes dealt with topical themes reflecting the political climate of the late 1960s and early 1970s such as the Vietnam War, women’s rights, race relations and Watergate, although most of the themes were timeless and still relatable to modern-day teens including weight issues, anti-gay harassment, and parent-teenager issues. Guest stars included Bernie Kopell, Cindy Williams, Teri Garr, Ed Begley Jr., Jamie Farr, Rob Reiner, Anthony Geary, Richard Dreyfuss, Chuck Norris, Kurt Russell, Bob Balaban, Donny Most and Mark Hammill. The series ran for five seasons, producing 113 episodes with one remaining unaired. With the show’s weak first season ratings, ABC was poised to cancel it but the show earned several Emmy nominations in 1970 and the network had a change of heart. The show went on to win Best New Series, Best Supporting Actor (Constantine) and Best Supporting Actress (Valentine). Constantine and Valentine were nominated again the following year. The series managed respectable ratings during its run, reaching a peak of Number 28 during the 1971-72 season. By the start of the 1973 season, ratings fell dramatically and the show was cancelled mid-season, ending on January 11, 1974.
• September 13 — Animated series The Archie Comedy Hour premieres on CBS, an expansion of The Archie Show which aired the previous season. The series was comprised of all-new material and included segments from The Archie Show at the end of the episodes. This series introduced Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, and a segment called ‘Side Show’ that was modeled on Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In with blackouts and songs, spawning the hit singles ‘Sugar Sugar’ and ‘Jingle Jangle’. The night after the series premiered, CBS ran a primetime special, Archie and His New Pals. The following season, Sabrina was spun off into her own show, Sabrina and the Groovie Goolies, while the Archie series became Archie’s Funhouse. Segments from The Archie Comedy Hour were incorporated into a 30-minute series, Everything’s Archie, in 1973. The Archie Comedy Hour was known as The Archie/Sabrina Show outside the US. 17 episodes were produced and the final new episode was broadcast on January 10, 1970.
• September 13 — Animated series The Perils of Penelope Pitstop premieres on CBS, a spin-off of The Wacky Races. The series was patterned after the silent movie era cliffhanger serial The Perils of Pauline and featured the popular Penelope Pitstop and The Ant Hill Mob (now portrayed as heroes), who had to do battle with The Hooded Claw and his henchmen The Bully Brothers. The Hooded Claw was actually Penelope’s guardian, Sylvester Sneekly, who was attempting to take Penelope’s inheritance. The Wacky Races characters of Dick Dastardly and Muttley were originally to be incorporated into the show, but were dropped in pre-production and given their own show, Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines, which also premiered on September 13. The voice cast included Mel Blanc, Paul Lynde, Don Messick, Janet Waldo and Paul Winchell, and was narrated by Gary Owens. 17 episodes were produced with the last original broadcast on January 17, 1970.
• September 13 — Animated series Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines premieres on CBS, another spin-off of The Wacky Races. The show focused on the efforts of Dastardly and Muttley to capture Yankee Doodle Pigeon, a carrier pigeon who carries secret messages. The show was set during World War I with the original title of Stop the Pigeon, hence the show’s theme song of the same title. Each half-hour episode contained a second segment titled Magnificent Muttley, which imagines the snickering canine in various situations with Dastardly in the role of the villain, and the short ‘Wing Dings’ that broke up the longer stories. The series on featured two voice actors, Paul Winchell (Dastardly and the General) and Don Messick as all the other characters. 17 episodes were produced with the last original airing on January 3, 1970.
• September 13 — Animated series Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! premieres on CBS. The series centered around four friends — Fred, Daphne, Velma and Shaggy — and the titular Great Dane Scoobby-Doo as they traveled around in their van The Mystery Machine solving mysteries involving local legends that are almost always a person in disguise seeking to exploit the legend for their own personal gain. The series was born out of plans by CBS and Hanna-Barbera to produce a non-violent Saturday morning program to appease watchdog groups that had protested the superhero programs of the mid-1960s. Originally titled Mysteries Five, the series went through a number of changes before reaching the screen, notably the downplaying of the musical group angle borrowed from The Archie Show. The basic concept of the group solving supernatural-related mysteries was always in place. The voice cast included Don Messick (Scooby), Casey Kasem (Shaggy), Frank Welker (Fred), Stefanianna Christopherson (Daphne, Season 1), Heather North (Daphne, Seasons 2-3), Nicole Jaffe (Velma, Seasons 1-2) and Pat Stevens (Velma, Season 3). The series ran for three seasons, produced 41 episodes, and became the foundation for a franchise that is still releasing new content to this day.
• September 14 — Medical drama The Bold Ones: The New Doctors premieres on NBC. The series was part of a franchise that included The Protectors, The Lawyers and The Senator. The series focused on Dr. David Craig (E.G. Marshall), a neurosurgeon who is so renowned in his field he is able to open his own exclusive clinic. Craig enlists two young medical executives, chief of surgery Dr. Ted Stuart (John Saxon) and Paul Hunter (David Hartman). Dr. Stuart was later replaced by Dr. Cohen (Robert Walden). Together they encounter an array of medical issues in the clinic which utilizes cutting edge treatments. Medical cases included organ transplants, post-partum depression, and rare diseases. Julie Adams joined the cast as Dr. Craig’s wife Lynn, but only for the second season. The series ran for four seasons, producing 45 episodes and was the only one of the four rotating series to last four seasons. Guest stars included Clu Gulager, Pat Hingle, Darby Hinton, Ron Howard and Jane Wyman. The series ended on May 4, 1973.

1979

• September 9 — Sitcom Out of the Blue premieres on ABC. The show starred Jimmy Brogan as an angel-in-training who is assigned to live with and act as a guardian angel for a suburban Chicago family led by a single mom (played by Dixie Carter), as well as work as a high school teacher. The show is most notable for a Mork & Mindy crossover, and the controversy surrounding its status as a spin-off of Happy Days in which Brogan’s character was featured on the episode ‘Chachi Sells His Soul’ which aired a week after the new show’s premiere. Some maintain the episode was just a crossover, a promotional tool to make the character more known. Others say the odd bit of scheduling not withstanding, the intention was spin-off with the Happy Days episode a dry run for the character, acting more as a pilot episode. Either way, the connection didn’t help with ABC pulling the show after seven airings. Five more episodes were produced for a total of 13, but only one more ever aired on December 16 before the show went off the air.
• September 13 — Sitcom Benson premieres on ABC. The series, starring Robert Guillaume as the title character, was a spin-off of Soap. Benson, however, avoided the soap opera format for a more conventional sitcom structure. Benson, butler to the Tate family on Soap transitions to the head of household for the Gatling family, headed by scatterbrained widower Governor Eugene Gatling (James Noble), a cousin to Soap sisters Jessica Tate and Mary Campbell. Benson squabbled with cook Gretchen Wilomena Kraus (Inga Swenson, a fellow Soap alum) and chief of staff John Taylor (Lewis J. Stadlen). Taylor was replaced by Clayton Endicott III (René Auberjonois) in the second season. Benson had a good relationnship with the governor’s secretary Marcy Hill (Caroline McWilliams), who left at the end of season 2, and Denise (Didi Conn), who left at the end of season 5, the character having gotten a job with NASA. Benson and Gretchen eventually became friends as he worked his way up the ladder, becoming the state budget director (when his last name DuBois was finally revealed) and eventually lieutenant governor. During the final episodes of the 1985-86 season, Benson ran for governor against Gatling, with Gretchen his strongest supporter, personal assistant and campaign manager. With Benson securing the nomination and he and Gatling soothing ruffled feathers from the campaign, the show ended on a cliffhanger as the results were to be announced. Although ABC asked for the cliffhanger, the show was cancelled after the finale aired. Showrunner Bob Fraser said that had the show continued, Gatling, who ran as an independent, would have won the election with Benson becoming a US Senator. Finale director Gary Brown asserts that the long-term outcome for the next season was for Benson to become the governor. The series produced 158 episodes over seven seasons, ending on April 19. 1986.

1989

• September 8 — Family drama The New Lassie premieres in first-run syndication, essentially a sequel to the long-running 1954 series. Will Estes (under his real name Will Nipper) played Lassie’s new master Will McCullough, with real-life married couple Christopher and Dee Wallace-Stone as Will’s parents. Wendy Cox played their daughter Megan. Jon Provost, who starred in the original series, portrayed Chris’ brother Steve, who was later revealed to be the adult Timmy Martin in an episode that also featured June Lockhart reprising her role as Timmy’s mother Ruth. Guest stars included Roddy McDowall, who had starred in the first movie Lassie Come Home (1943), and Tommy Rettig who played Jeff Miller in the early years of the original series. Leonardo DiCaprio and Todd Bridges also guested. The show ran for two seasons comprised of 49 episodes.
• September 9 — Animated series Beetlejuice premieres on ABC. Loosely based on the hit movie, the series was developed by the film’s director Tim Burton. The series focused on Lydia Deetz and her undead friend Beetlejuice as they navigated The Neitherworld, a realm inhabited by monsters, ghosts, ghouls, goblins and zombies. The show was a breakout hit for ABC and became one of the first cartoons to air on Fox’s weekday afternoon bloc of children’s programs, making it one of the first animated shows to air on two different networks at the same time. The voice cast included Stephen Ouimette (Beetlejuice), Alyson Court (Lydia), and Roger Dunn, Elizabeth Hanna, Tara Charendoff, Paulina Gillis, Charles Kerr, Len Carlson, Ron Rubin, Colin Fox, Keith Knight, Susan Roman, John Stocker, Joseph Sherman and David Goldberg. Danny Elfman arranged his original theme for the series. The show ran for four seasons producing 94 episodes which contained 109 segments.
• September 9 — Animated series Camp Candy premieres on NBC. The show is set in a fictional summer camp run by John Candy, who would be trying to show outdoor skills to the kids, which would remind him of a story which he would then narrate. Adult characters included Nurse Molly, Miss Sweetingham and Xavier ‘Rex’ DeForest III, John’s nemesis who seeks to demolish the camp to make way for condos. In addition to Candy, the voice cast included Lewis Arquette, Valri Bromfield, Danny Mann, Cree Summer, and E.G. Daily, with guests Bob Costas, Michael Horse, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Maurice LaMarche, David L. Lander, Roddy McDowall, Kath Soucie, Marcia Wallace, and Frank Welker. 27 episodes aired on NBC in 1989 and 1990, with 13 new episodes airing in syndication in 1992, for a total of 40 episodes.
• September 9 — Animated series Captain N: The Game Master premieres on NBC. The series incorporated elements from many popular Nintendo video games of the era. The premise focused on Kevin Keene, a teenager from California, and his dog Duke who are taken to another universe known as Videoland when they are sucked into a vortex in his television called the Ultimate Warp Zone. There Kevin is to become Captain N: The Game Master and save Videoland from evil forces led by Mother Brain. The series ran for three seasons, producing 34 episodes.
• September 9 — Animated series The Karate Kid premieres on NBC. The show centers around Daniel LaRusso and his mentor Mr. Miyagi, discarding the karate tournament formula of the movie for an adventure setting in which the pair must recover a miniature shrine with magical powers and return it to its resting place in Okinawa, traveling the globe and using their fighting skills to get them out of tough situations. The show, produced by DIC Animation City, Saban Entertainment and Columbia Pictures Television, was intended to run in daily syndication with 65 episodes in 1988, but settled on a 13-episode order for NBC’s Saturday morning lineup. The show ended on December 16, 1989.
• September 12 — Sitcom Chicken Soup premieres on ABC. The series starred Jackie Mason as Jackie, a middle-aged Jewish man, and Lynn Redgrave as the Irish Catholic Maddie, with episodes dealing with humorous situations and obstacles caused by the couple’s different religions. The series was scheduled to run after the Number 1 series Roseanne, but could not retain an audience due to controversy caused by inflammatory remarks made by Mason during the New York City Mayoral election. 12 episodes were produced but only eight aired, with ABC cancelling the show on November 7.
• September 12 — Dramedy Life Goes On premieres on ABC. The show centers around the Thatcher family in suburban Chicago: Drew (Bill Smitrovich), his wife Elizabeth (Patti Lupone), Paige (Tracey Needham), Becca (Kellie Martin) and Charles, better known as Corky (Chris Burke), who has Down syndrome. The series was the first to have a major character played by an actor with Down syndrome). Much of the first season focused on Corky and the challenges the family face, while later seasons began to expand the show’s scope beyond Corky. The first three seasons also featured Tyler Benchfield (Tommy Pruett), Becca’s high school crush who also has a brother with Down syndrome. The third and fourth seasons introduced a new character Jesse (Chad Lowe), a junior at high school who is HIV-positive. As Jesse and Becca became friends, Tyler became less important and the charater was killed in a car accident in which Corky was also a passenger. While Becca and Jesse began a relationship despite his HIV status, that lead to discord between Becca and Corky, who briefly turned his back on his sister for dumping a mutual friend, Tyler, in order to date Jesse. The Season 4 premiere featured a 40-something Becca (Pamela Bellwood) touring the house where she grew up, reminiscing about the events of the past 25 years, establishing that Jesse would die from AIDS and that Becca would move on to marry a man named David. The series ended on an ambiguous, but upbeat note with Becca married five years later with a son named Jesse. The series ended on May 23, 1993 after 83 episodes.
• September 13 — Crime drama Wolf debuts on CBS. Jack Scalia starred as Tony Wolf, a San Francisco policeman who now works as a fisherman and does some private eye work. Originally a narcotics officer, Tony was framed and took the fall as a crooked cop, drummed off the police force and wandering the world for a couple of years before heading back home to make amends with his aging father and take over the family fishing boat. He also tried to rekindle a relationship with an old flame, Connie. The series also starred Joseph Sirola, Nicolas Surovy, J.C. Brandy, Mimi Kuzyk and Judith Hoag. CBS pulled the series on November 14, 1989 after airing 10 episodes, finally airing the last two episodes in June 1990.

1999

• September 8 — Comedy-drama series Get Realdebuts on FOX. The series follows the Green family in San Francisco, and starred Jon Tenny, Debrah Farentino, Eric Christian Olsen, Anne Hathaway, Jesse Eisenberg and Christina Pickles. 22 episodes were produced, but only 20 were broadcast with the last episode airing on April 12, 2000.
• September 8 — Animated series Redwall premieres on PBS. A Canadian-British-French co-production, the series is based on the ‘Redwall’ novels by Brian Jacques. The series consists of three seasons: ‘Redwall’, ‘Mattimeo’ and ‘Martin the Warrior’. The voice cast included Allison Pill, John Stocker, Alyson Court, Tim Curry, and Chris Wiggins. Producers expressed interest in producing a fourth season if it was financially feasible, but so far there has been no backing to move forward. 39 episodes were produced with the last airing on February 25, 2002.
• September 11 — Animated series Detention premieres on Kids’ WB. The plot focused on a group of troubled sixth graders from Benedict Arnold Middle School who continually find themselves in detention. The voice cast included Tara Strong, Billy West, Tia and Tamara Mowry, Pamela Ferdyn and Kathleen Freeman. The show lasted for a single season with 13 episodes.
• September 11 — Animated series Sabrina: The Animated Series premieres on ABC. Despite being advertised as a spin-off of ABC’s live-action sitcom Sabrina, the Teenage Witch from which it borrowed certain elements, the cartoon was instead set in the Archie Comics canon, contradicting the live-action show’s premise of Sabrina not knowing of her powers until her 16th birthday. Here she is a 12-year-old middle school student facing the typical teen problems along with those that come from her misunderstanding and inexperience with her magical powers. Live-action series star Melissa Joan Hart acted as a producer of the series while her younger sister Emily voiced the character of Sabrina. Melissa instead voiced Aunts Hilda and Zelda. Nick Barkay reprised his role as the voice of Sabrina’s cat Salem. The series aired as part of ABC’s Disney’s One Saturday Morning and UPN’s Disney’s One Too, producing 65 episodes over the course of one season.

2009

• September 8 — Drama series Melrose Place premieres on The CW, a revival of the 1990s FOX series of the same name. The show followed the lives of a group of young adults living in the fictitious Melrose Place apartment complex. The new cast included Michael Rqady, Katie Cassidy, Ashlee Simpson-Wentz, Jessica Lucas, Colin Egglesfield, Stephanie Jacobsen and Shaun Sipos. The producers had tried to recruit original star Heather Locklear to reprise her role of Amanda Woodward but she passed, not able to see a logical way to bring her back. Laura Leighton did return as Sydney Andrew, even though the character had seemingly been killed off in 1997 at the end of the original’s fifth season. Thomas Calabro also returned as Dr. Michael Mancini, father of the new character David (Sipos). Critics and fans found the Simpson-Wentz character loathsome, and she was reportedly disliked by fellow cast members. The network announced in October 2009 that she and Colin Egglesfield would leave the series after the conclusion of the Sydney Andrews murder mystery storyline, along with Leighton. Despite less than stellar ratings, the network picked up five additional episodes beyond the original order of 13 with Josie Bissett slated to return as Jane Mancini for one episode. Taylor Cole and Taryn Manning were also booked, with OG star Daphne Zuniga guesting on at least two episodes. Brooke Burns, Victor Webster, Kelly Carlson, Jenna Dewan and Rick Fox were also booked for guest spot. On September 22, The CW announced that Heather Locklear had finally agreed to join the series beginning with episode 10. Billy Campbell and Nick Zano were also cast. Despite following the network’s 90210 reboot, ratings lagged and the show was not picked up beyond the 18th episode. The final episode was broadcast on April 13, 2010.
• September 10 — Supernatural drama The Vampire Diaries premieres on The CW, based on the popular book series of the same name. The pilot attracted the largest audience for The CW since the network launched in 2006, and remained the network’s most watched series until the premiere of Arrow. Set in the fictional town of Mystic Fall, Virginia, the town is charged with a supernatural history of vampires and witches. Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev) falls in love with Stefan Salvatore (Paul Wesley), a 162-year-old vampire. Their relationship becomes complicated as Stefan’s older brother Damon returns to town and creates a love triangle. Other inhabitants of the town include Jeremy Gilbert (Steven R. McQueen), Bonnie Bennett (Kat Graham), Caroline Forbes (Candice King), Matt Donovan (Zach Roerig), Tyler Lockwood (Michael Trevino) and Alaric Saltzman (Matthew Davis). After six seasons, Dobrev and Trevino left the series, but Dobrev returned to record a voice over for the seventh season finale. Trevino made a guest appearance in Season 7 and returned full-time for Season 8. The CW renewed the show for an eighth season on March 11, 2016, but announced on July 23 that the eighth season would have just 16 episodes instead of the normal 22, and that it would be the final season. Dobrev did return for the series finale — Elena had been under a spell that kept her asleep for 60 years, hidden in a coffin by Damon, only awaking when her friend Bonnie died — to tie up her storyline with Damon. 171 episodes were produced with the finale airing on March 10, 2017.
• September 13 — Docuseries Monsters Resurrected premieres on the Discovery Channel. The program reconstructed extinct animals of the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras. The series is also known as Mega Beasts. Six episode were produced.
• September 14 — Talk show The Jay Leno Show premieres on NBC. The series faced controversy as it was born out of a compromise with Leno to cede The Tonight Show to Conan O’Brien, and as a way for NBC to cut costs producing expensive scripted programming for the 10 PM time slot. The show was met with criticism claiming there was very little different here than from Leno’s Tonight Show tenure. The show premiered to ratings similar to The Tonight Show which was good enough for NBC, but by November ratings began to decline significantly which, affiliates complained, affected their local newscasts. To address the concerns, NBC announced in January 2010 that the show would be shortened to 30 minutes and would air at 11:35 PM after the 2010 Winter Olympics, bumping The Tonight Show to 12:05 AM. That resulted in a major conflict between the network and O’Brien who claimed the move would ultimately hurt the legacy of The Tonight Show, and he would not continue with the show if the move happened. Despite criticism from all sides and support for O’Brien, NBC stuck with its plan and O’Brien stuck with his, forcing NBC to settle his contract to the tune of $45 million. The Jay Leno Show ended on February 9, 2010 after four months and Leno resumed as host of The Tonight Show on March 1, 2010, a stint that lasted four more years until he stepped down and was replaced by Jimmy Fallon.

 
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