Mentioned by Icerigger in post #16.
When NBC revived Jack Webb’s Dragnet in 1967, it was given the title Dragnet 1967. The year changed with each following season, Dragnet 1968, Dragnet 1969, and Dragnet 1970.
I’m not going to mention 2003’s L.A. Dragnet with Ed O’Neill, as that was from a different producer (Dick Wolf) entirely.
Yes Minister became Yes Prime Minister after the appropriate promotion.
Sounds like it.
IIRC Howard Cosell said in one of his books (probably “I Never Played The Game”) that when ratings were dropping on his variety show, he got the idea that the biggest way to boost the ratings was to reunite the Beatles. He met with John Lennon, who said if the Beatles ever reunited, it would be with closed-circuit TV in movie theaters charging admission, not on free prime time USA television.
Johnny Carson described Cosell’s show as one where Frank Sinatra did not sing and tennis star Jimmy Connors did.
The Disney anthology show “Wonderful World of Disney” has had a variety of names since it started in 1954 as “Disneyland”
I started to say Private Secretary and The Ann Sothern Show because I thought they fit into this category, but upon looking them up they don’t. I’ll still mention them because of the similarity. (Both shows used to air on Nick and Night.)
Private Secretary ran from 1953-1957 and starred Ann Sothern as secretary Susie McNamara, Don Porter as her boss, Ann Tyrrell as her best friend, and Jesse White as an obnoxious co-worker she doesn’t get along with.
The Ann Sothern Show ran from 1958-1961 and starred Ann Sothern as what would today be called an “executive assistant” named Katie O’Connor, Don Porter as her boss, Ann Tyrrell as her best friend, and Jesse White as an obnoxious co-worker she doesn’t get along with. Many of the guest stars were the same as well. (The imdb only gives Porter and Tyrrell and crew guest billing on a few episodes, but they were in fact regulars.)
I realized that one show was set in an office and one in a hotel but just assumed it was a setting change (it’s been a while since I saw it). It was essentially the same show, just with a different workplace and different character names- same zany situations, same dynamic twixt the characters, etc… Per wiki, it was due to a contract dispute, and the first few eps of TASS had a different cast but it was almost immediately switched to the old PS cast.
I wonder if this has ever been done before or after- same basic show and actors, different characters and names.
The other weird thing is that “Good Morning, Miss Bliss” was set in Indiana . . . but then somehow Zach, Screech, Lisa, and Mr. Belding all ended up moving to California and found themselves in the same school.
Not to mention Zack’s mother seemingly unawares that Zack’s dad briefly dated Miss Bliss at one point. Odd, indeed.
Not exactly the same, but Lucille Ball starred in 4 different sitcoms as a wacky character named - wait for it - Lucy.
I Love Lucy (1951-1957) Lucy Ricardo
The Lucy Show (1962-1968) Lucy Carmichael
Here’s Lucy (1968-1974) Lucy Carter
Life With Lucy (1986) Lucy Barker
The first three all featurerd Vivian Vance as Lucy’s best friend, and the last three co-starred Gale Gordon in some capacity (most memorably as her boss Mr. Mooney in The Lucy Show).
(ETA: If you type the word Lucy 11 times in one post, it starts to look weird.)
Many of the old syndicated name changes mentioned are due to an old FCC rule that the reruns couldn’t have the same name as the original show as long as they were airing new episodes. Hence the Bonanza/Ponderosa thing. MASH reruns had nothing to do with the rule being withdrawn.
After the lead actress hit about her mid 30s didn’t they change **Sabrina the Teenage Witch **to just Sabrina?
That’s what wiki says, and imdb suffers under the delusion that the current title is Navy NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service, but I seem to recall it as originally being billed Navy CIS, which is less stupid until you realize they were probably trying to get dyslexic people to mistake it for another CSI variety.
Considering that Zack had at least three different dads throughout the series, I’d say that’s the least of Mrs. Morris’s problems.
While on the subject, after Saved By The Bell ended, it spun off two followups. Saved By The Bell: The College Years, which only lasted one year, is shown in syndication along with the rest of the series, so maybe that counts as a title change. Then there’s Saved By The Bell: The New Class, which actually lasted longer than TCY, but seems to have faded into obscurity. Not that I ever watched a single episode of TNC.
And not really a title change, but more of a title disagreement, some people think that show with the cantankerous doctor that airs on Fox is called House, while others seem to think it’s House MD. The logo clearly shows an MD, but it’s never called that in commercials, and apparently the official trademarks and such don’t include the MD.
No, it was Sabrina the Teenage Witch for all 7 seasons.
(And at cancellation, Hart was 28, and playing an early-20s woman, either graduated college WAY early, or dropped out of college…I have never caught any episode which established which…assuming such actually existed…but she’s clearly no longer a student, as she’s working full time in the last season.)
They did sort of de-emphasize the “teenage” in Sabrina, TTW as time went on, though:
There’s also Bob Newhart, who was the lead in The Bob Newhart Show (1972-1978), Newhart (1982-1990), and Bob (1992-1993). At this point, having used up every variation of Bob and Newhart, he reverted to his real first name and played George in the series George & Leo (1997-1998).
She was only at college for 2 seasons, but I think the last season was supposed to take place after a time jump where Sabrina (& Roxy & Morgan) graduated offscreen. There were supposed to all be in their first “real world” jobs. Conversly she it took her the first 4 seasons to get threw 2-3 yrs of high school. There’s no indication that she failed a year, unless all of her classmates did the same.
On that 70s Show each year took about 2-3 seasons worth of screentime to complete.
Nitpick Sothern played the Asst Manager of the hotel. Quite a feat for a lady back then. I recall before Porter joined the cast, there was an episode where everyone assumed Katie would take over as manager of the hotel as she was the Asst Manager.
Back in the day TV shows would change title when they went into syndication. This would prevent some TV stations from trying to pass them off
as first run. Believe it or not there were still areas in the USA that didn’t have all three network affiliates and didn’t clear all programs.
I recall the* Dick Van Dyke Daytime Show*, as a syndicated version of the Dick Van Dyke show
Too Close For Comfort was retitled the Ted Knight Show for the final season though it was significantly retooled. With Knight’s character moving north of San Francisco and the two daughters being written out all together.
These Friends of Mine was actually supposed to be an ensamble show. If you watch the first few episodes Ellen isn’t the star yet. It was quickly retitled when you see how fast she became the focus.
Zoe, Duncan, Jack and Jane was a very funny and well written comedy that didn’t last. In the second season it’s title was changed to Zoe… to simplify it. Too bad it didn’t last 'cause it was one of the best things about the WB
There’s also the strange case of* The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show*.
Is it just the final seasons of I Love Lucy (the same actors playing the same characters) or something new (a different title and a change in format from half-hour to hour)? Is it a proper TV series (three seasons under the same title, other than changes in the presenting sponsors), or a collection of one-off specials (only 13 “episodes” were made).
To make things more complicated, since the original run these episodes have been repackaged and retitled as The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, We Love Lucy, and seasons 7-9 of I Love Lucy.
I considered that, but it didn’t seem to line up with the cliffhanger that ended season 6 - Sabrina’s turning to stone and crumbling gets reversed in the same episode she gets her job at Scorch.
But, curious about it, I just watched the episode, and she mentions that she’s going to be graduating soon…without explaining how she’s graduating after only being in college for two years. Guess we have to assume Seasons 5 and 6 cover 4 years the same way seasons 1-4 cover 2… (Or maybe it’s a side effect of Zelda’s giving up her adult years. Sabrina-verse magic is fun that way.)