Reading through this thread, I’m surprised at the number of series I remember from when I was a kid and thinking they lasted longer than they did. “My World and Welcome To It”, “Holmes and Yo-Yo”, “The Magician”, “The Night Stalker”? I could have sworn these all lasted two or three seasons at least.
This is the one I was going to mention. I loved that show! I wasn’t sure if it fit in this thread though. If I remember right, it was a summer replacement series and was supposed to have a short run. (Although I suppose there were plenty of summer series that eventually got picked up as regular series.)
John Schuck has shown up a few times in the Law & Order franchise (maybe just SVU) as some high muckety-muck (but still in uniform) within the police department. Whenever I see him, I like to think they got Yo-Yo’s bugs worked out and then just started promoting him.
The trailer for that show was incredible. It showed a Jaws type situation with a couple swimming by a boat while a shark stalks them. Then everything goes crazy, there’s blood everywhere and they scramble back into the boat as the sharks severed head bobbles up. Then a giant sea monster comes up from under them and swallows the boat whole.
“Hell Town” Robert Blake is a priest. :eek: 8 episodes.
“Shannon” Kevin (Kojak) Dobson cop show. 9 episodes.
“Darkroom” Anthology horror/thriller series, along the same lines as “Twilight Zone” or “Night Gallery.” Each week features a new story and a new cast. James Coburn hosted. 16 episodes.
Wizards and Warriors If you like Gallivant or played D&D then Wizards and Warriors would have been the 80s show for you.
Jeff Conaway and Julia Duffy are your prince and princess, respectively. I liked the wizardry and humor.
I loved that show.
It had spaceships, parallel universes and, if I’m remembering correctly, aliens with interesting sexual habits. It may look campy to some but it delivered the goods.
My favorite bit: The first officer is named Ficus; he’s actually a vegetable in the shape of a human. Someone asks him how his species reproduces. He lays down on the ground, puts all four limbs in the air and mutters Bee, bee, bee, bee, bee, bee, bee. What happens now, he’s asked? We wait for the bee.
When The Bettys (one of them was a clone) got pissed at Ficus, they would both yell, PLANT!
Mel Blanc playing an NFL player in 1970 (when he was 62 YEARS OLD)!?
Paul Lynde as a football player?
My goal in life is now to see this series. Sorry, family, I have to abandon you. Priorities. If Not For You was a promising sitcom with Elizabeth McGovern (who I luhhv) and Hank Azaria meeting each other and knowing instantly they were made for each other - right after they had gotten engaged to other people. Good chemistry. Cancelled after 8 episodes.
Life on Mars (the US remake) - I like Jason O’Mara, though he’s been in a lot of failed shows. And I LOVE Gretchen Mol. It was an interesting show–part period-drama-police-procedural and part serial-scifi-mystery. IIRC, they knew it wasn’t going to be renewed so they were able to film an ending which resolved the mystery. The original UK version is in my “to watch” list.
American Gothic - cool horror/drama about a mysterious small Southern town.
Starman - based on the movie, with Robert Hays in the role of the alien (played by Jeff Bridges in the movie) pursued by government agents. He’s teamed up with his half-alien son to find the missing human mother, Jenny Hayden (played by Karen Allen in the movie). At the very end of the season, they find her. She’s played by actress Erin Gray, of Buck Rogers fame. I was looking forward to more, but that’s where it ended.
Rubicon - an AMC series from a few years ago. It was an espionage/political drama, but with a very, very slow burn. It was heating up nicely at the end of the season, though, as certain things began to be revealed and a big event happened.
bup? bup? Calm down, bup. Breathe. It’s just a cartoon; you won’t be seeing Mel Blanc running out a Hail Mary play and you won’t see Paul Lynde break his limp wrist on the gridiron. You will be wanting Fred Flintstone to shut up so you can pay attention to the show (Alan Reed is the coach. He was Fred.)
Here’s another cartoon:
“God, the Devil and Bob” French Stewart is Bob, James Garner is God (Yes. Yes, he is). 13 episodes.
Lynde didn’t play a football player. He was the Huddles’ neighbor, Claude Pertwee, and played him as a fussy and sarcastic type similar to Uncle Arthur on “Bewitched.” I remember him always referring to Ed and Bubba derisively as “savages.”
Looking at the cast, it should have been obvious. Mel Blanc, Jean van der Pyl, Alan Reed. Of course it was a cartoon. I wish I’d known that stuff before I abandoned my family.
Note that some of the series mentioned - Dark Angel, Titus, Andy Richter Controls the Universe, and Wanda at Large - lasted more than one season (on the other hand, some, like girls club, only lasted three episodes); in fact, when the FG episode aired, Titus had aired more episodes than FG up to that point.
Greg the Bunny starred Seth Green, Eugene Levy, Sarah Silverman, and a bunch of puppets that, muppetlike, were as real as the humans within the show’s universe. It was a pretty good show which IMHO was starting to find its feet and get really funny toward the end of its one half-season, so that I would have liked to see more.
The Ben Stiller Show, a prime-time sketch comedy show on Fox. On the average It was good but not great, but it did have some good bits and led to Bob Odenkirk and David Cross teaming up to create the better, edgier Mr. Show.
Aaron Sorkin’s Studo 60 on the Sunset Strip wasn’t as good as it could have been, but it was worth watching. Though it got cancelled after one season, they were able to wrap things up in a satisfying way.
