I mostly remember the second episode where Gail Gordon (The Lucy Show) appeared as his boss. For some reason I got the idea that this would be a reoccurring gimmick on the show. I thought it was a neat idea, but apparently it didn’t catch on.
I remember the controversy over James At 15 because the main character had sex! With a girl! (I think they even implied the existence of condoms.)
Guess what the CHCH midafternoon movie is today!
Mention of Honey, I’m Home! reminded me of this show. Yes, it was for-real, but was immediately yanked from the schedule.
This was based on a reasonably successful play by Lanford Wilson. Definitely saw that.
I watched “No Soap Radio” and “My World and Welcome to it” (great show.)
Some not mentioned:
Turn-On a copy of Laugh In which got canceled after one terrible episode, which I saw.
The Double Life of Henry Phyfe starring Red Buttons as someone who looks like a foreign spy. I still remember the theme song.
I won’t even go into the '50s series like Pete and Gladys starring Henry Morgan before Dragnet before MAS*H.
Fun Fact" “Quark” was created by Buck Henry. I found the entire series on DVD. I still found the series amusing.
There’s a brief clip of the never-aired second episode on YouTube:
A good show that I watched before I could read or write:
I liked this show when I was in second grade. For some reason, my mother hated it. Of course, that just made me like it more. I especially liked the theme music, which starts after the teaser. The Captain’s use of “Wha, wha, what?” preceeds that of Wallace B Binghamton on McHale’s Navy by several years. Note too how Hennesey (a doctor) so casually lights up a cigarette.
Conchata Ferrell was of course Berta, Charlie Harper’s housekeeper on Two and a Half Men.
There are three episodes of “The Face is Familiar” on You Tube. The unaired pilot hosted by Jack Clark and two episodes (June Lockhart and Bob Crane are celebrities on one, Pearl Bailey and Mel Brooks are celebrities on the other). Fun Fact: The game was developed in ten minutes. Bob Stewart left Goodman-Todman productions to start his own company when CBS called to see if Stewart had any ideas. Stewart bought some magazines cut up the photographs and presented the idea to CBS that afternoon. The rest is broadcast history. (Anecdote courtesy game show author, Adam Nedeff.)
I was crazy about airplanes when I was a kid so when Skyhawks came on Saturday mornings I was in heaven.
Needless to say . . . you’ve grown tired of the stories and neighbors of my youth. Around the corner of my junior high. . .
Unfortunately, I remember it as well. It was on immediately after The Simpsons, back when The Simpsons was up against Cosby. It was a time killer until 9:00, when I would change the channel to Cheers. The first 2 episodes were kinda funny, but I think they used up all the jokes in them. It was dreadful after that. I think I gave up after about a month.
Cancelled DURING its first episode.
What was it like? Was it really as bad as it is described? Or was it just the hype feedback effect?
Another show: Chase. One of many 70s “elite cop squad” shows. It had a team of cops, one a hot car driver, one a hot motorcycle driver, one a hot chopper pilot. I remember liking it, but I was younger then. Wish I could find it again.
I can’t even find a reference to this one in imdb. It ran Saturday mornings in the early 80s on one of the local UHF stations. Bible Bowl - a quiz show for kids answering really obscure bible trivia questions. The contestants looked like they were about 7-10 years old. My friend and I, both high school Trivial Pursuit experts, would be like “How the hell do they know that?” The only other bit I remember is the opening had one part where a child asked “Is it my dog’s bowl?” and a group of other kids yell back “NO!! It’s Bible Bowl!!”
I didn’t watch Max Headroom when it was on but my dad always raved about it and after he died I bought the box set, sort of as a tribute to him. IMHO, it didn’t hold up very well after the internet became a thing. I don’t think I ever finished all the episodes. Maybe I’ll give it another try someday.
I imagine you’re too young to remember these shows. I loved them!
Fun Facts: Kenneth Tobey was one of the ground controllers in Airplane! Larry Pennell was “aspiring actor Dash Riprock” on The Beverly Hillbillies. (Milburn Drysdale once mistakenly called him “Ripcord” in an allusion to his role in the earlier series.) And Ken Curtis was, of course, “Festus” on Gunsmoke.
I watched “Turn On.” It was a bunch of quickly cut scenes. The only scene I remember is two programmers, one Black, one White, sitting at the humungous computer console as one says, “I’ve never programmed a program before.” At about the twenty minute mark, a slide with the ABC logo abruptly comes on the screen. After about a minute, several public service announcements were run to fill out the half-hour.
It’s always Hashimoto-san.
I also watched Muscle on the WB (very poor UHF reception).
For some reason, I loved this show when I was six years old. You could never get away with its ethnic stereotypes (Japanese, French, Mexican) today (and the British cop was an anthropomorphic bulldog).
Strange. I have absolutely no memory of ever seeing Dick Tracy onscreen before the Warren Beatty movie.
But I vividly remember Joe Jitsu.
Oh yes - Dick Tracy and the stereotype of the week. I remember that one.