The big difference was, the NBC of 1984 was willing to give "NIGHT COURT" time to find its audience. "SIROTA'S COURT" was one of *many* series NBC jettisoned in 1977 because of mediocre ratings.
@@fromthesidelines NBC moved Night Court from Wednesdays where it was failing to summer reruns on Thursday night where it did a little better. At that point NBC's Thursday line up were good shows that didn't get good ratings because CBS dominated that evening with Magnum P.I. and Knots Landing. However when NBC began its Thursday night with the instant smash The Cosby Show, every show in their Thursday line up (Family Ties, Cheers and Hill Street Blues) suddenly took off even though none of the shows had gotten good ratings before Cosby. Back then lead off shows could make or break all the shows that evening.
In the 1970s I was lucky enough to find a job being an on call extra on The Streets of San Francisco & mostly only worked on the weekends. My rent was $100 a month, food was cheap & I loved the show because I liked Karl Malden and working as an extra paid my bills for the month. I did not have ANY credit cards when the show started. I should have stayed away from the evil credit cards. I worked on the show for years.
I had a friend that only did "extra" work. Never any speaking lines. He was very average looking, I guess that worked to his advantage as he was always working, being seen at a cafe table across the isle from the actors, or his big gig, for L.A. law setting in the courtroom watching the case. One week dressed in a suit, next week maybe in a cop uniform. He also had creative ways with his hair to appear different. Like he often said, he only made decent money, but setting around doing nothing, watching TV production was a sweet deal.
Judd Hirsch almost didn't do Taxi because of Delvecchio. After that show's failure, he swore off doing television shows. Luckily, his agent convinced him to change his mind.
Yes, Judd could have returned to the lucrative business of appearing in commercials {they paid his bills during the early through mid-1970's}. I believe the producers of "TAXI" convinced him he was the right actor for the right part.
I think what’s most fun about seeing these is the reminder that we only had three to four stations of ABC, CBS and NBC and the reasons I say four is PBS was around to. If you look up the ratings numbers for even the cancelled series compared to now there numbers were very healthy. I think that’s why so many of us remember these series because we only had so much to choose from.
@@alisong2328 Yes, most cities had at least one independent station and some locally produced shows on them were strong competition for the shows on all three networks. I think the concept of locally produced shows (other than local news) with local hosts speaking local accents is another thing that has mostly disappeared.
1:10 If I hadn't actually seen this show as an 11-year-old in 1976, I would've thought "The Starland Vocal Band Show" was an SNL sketch poking fun at the 70s. (It would be like poking fun at the 90s with "The Lou Bega Hour"!)
They got carried away with the variety show format - SVB, Bradys, COSELL??, Village People, Pink Lady & Jeff (???)... even freaking Shields & Yarnell... who... were... MIMES! No wonder the format died!
Nancy Walker sure was busy that year. Starring in two shows, Bounty commercials, and wasn't she also playing Ida Morgenstern on Rhoda during this time? Busy lady! I notice Pat Morita also has two shows here. Not sure if they overlapped with his time on Happy Days though.
@@tomcat630 Thank you. Even though I’m a big fan of The MTM Show, and have watched the entire series multiple times, I still have not seen all of Rhoda yet.
I was a high school freshman and I do remember Delvechio (Loved it. Sorry it got cancelled.), Feather & Father (1st time seeing Stephanie Powers), and many of the others, but I don't recall Lanigan's Rabbi at all.
@@georgesenda1952I was a big fan of Hart to Hart as a kid and recently watched some reruns. Looked into the background of Lionel Stander. I didn't exactly get the appeal as a kid but whoa, super impressive guy due to all his activist and union work!
I don't remember 3 Girls 3, but back during its time, it was a television show I most certainly would have watched had it survived. And probably not for its story lines. Back in '76-'77, I was a typical teenage boy, growing up in suburban Chicago, complete with the classic Farrah Fawcett and Cheryl Ladd posters adorning my bedroom's wall. At 16, I was mesmerized with the beauty, style, and maturity of "older" women that were "out of my league". It's said that we always want what we cannot have, and the trio of Allen, Foley, and Kennedy would have been exactly the type of girls of my dreams during that most awkward time of my life. 3 Girls 3 would have been a "must-watch" television show for me back then.
And, of course, the other networks tried to copy it in certain formats. At CBS, Chariman of the Board Bill Paley asked two of his top programming executives- Robert Wussler and John Schneider, who were eventually reassigned to other positions within the network- what they thought of "CHARLIE'S ANGELS". After both of them brushed it off, Paley insisted, "It's exactly the kind of show CBS should have. We don't have any pretty girls on the network." One such result was "THE AMERICAN GIRLS" {see "1978-'79 Short -Lived TV Shows"}.
There was an even MORE deadly Grim Reaper than that one: The Happy Days / Laverne & Shirley Grim Reaper of the 76-77 season! In FACT all of ABC was a Grim Reaper 1976-1980 (when NBC had its "Toilet Bowl" years . The SuperTrain era ! Man did NBC get revenge by 1984 -85 !)
Charlie's Angels was clearly a huge hit amongst Male viewers but not without controversy for it drew the ire of concerned parents and Newsweek magazine did a cover story regarding the content of shows not just Charlie's Angels also Three's Company and Soap that led to the emergence of groups ie "The Moral Majority" and "The Coalition for better Television" led by Rev Jerry Falwell and Donald Wildmon respectively.
As soon as I saw the Excedrin commercial, the next show would be my second favorite Variety show that year "3 Girls 3". My favorite was "The Jacksons" because of little Janet.
Delvecchio may be considered a prequel of sorts for Hill Street Blues. The connection includes writer/producer Steven Bochco, along with actors Charles Haid, Michael Conrad and James B Sikking.
Bochco was associated with Universal Television at the time. After the "RICHIE BROCKELMAN" debacle, he signed with MTM Enterprises......where he wrote and produced "HILL STREET BLUES".
Ordinarily, I might have a few tidbits about some of these shows. But this was a real dud of a year for TV, and to be honest I was in high school and wasn't watching much TV. A few real stinkers here too. (Holmes & Yoyo? Mr. T and Tina? Sheesh!)
Thanks for bringing back my junior year of high school memories…😊! It seems allot of the new medical dramas needed to be put on life support that year. I remember “Gemini Man” and “The Fantastic Journey “ fondly but remember them both having to do the “Network Juggle “ so never knew which time slot they landed. I remember some because my parents or sister would watch them. Good to see future stars in their 1st roles…some that they would rather forget…😊! Have a great day!
I was 9 during the TV season and I remember our family watching "The Feather & Father Gang," "Van Dyke and Company," I had to do extra chores Saturday afternoon so I could watch "Holmes & Yoyo" Saturday night since my parents hated the show and we only had one television, so I had to earn the privilege to watch "Holmes & Yoyo." I guess we did not watch too Short-Lived television shows during the 1976-77 season. Once again, many thanks for the wonderful memories!
I loved Holmes & Yoyo. I would crack up when Yoyo would get stuck on a loop saying "Bunco squad". Because of that my fantasy football team has been named that however I spell it with a K, "Bunko Squad". Been so since 1987.
I just recently watched The Fantastic Journey on UA-cam and some of the commercials, but many of the shows I didn’t know about. Many of the actors I do recognize from other movies and shows.
I LOVED Fantastic Journey as a kid. I once asked the Rick and Morty composer if their theme song is “Based on one season 70s sci-fi shows” He said “kinda.”
"Blansky's Beauties" had potential. What was weird was Nancy Walker appeared on "Happy Days" as Howard Cunningham's cousin so it could be considered a spinoff but that show took place in the early 60s and Blansky took place in 1970s Las Vegas. STRANGE!
What was even weirder was the appearance of "Pinky Tuscadero" {Roz Kelly} in the first episode, as she was a "1950's" character suddenly appearing in the 1970's. The reason: Fred Silverman went *NUTS* over her when she appeared in the opening episodes of "HAPPY DAYS" that season {"She's a female Fonzie!!!", he raved}, and wanted to spin her off into her own series with Henry Winkler ["FONZIE LOVES PINKY"]. But he and Garry Marshall refused, because Roz was a pain in the neck to the cast and crew during the episodes she filmed. Yet Silverman just wouldn't give up promoting her......and finally, Garry said, "Look, if I feature her on the first episode of 'BLANSKY'S', *then* would you be satisfied??". Fred begrudigngly agreed- and "Pinky" made her last appearance in that episode, as she and the series tanked.
@@fromthesidelines Pinky’s younger sister Leather was played by Suzi Quattro, an American-born singer who was popular in 1970s Great Britain but virtually unknown in the US.
Not only that, Pat Morita was in the series as his Arnold character Apparently he hadn't aged a day in 20 years. At least, when the series failed (Nancy Walker's 2nd in the same season), Eddie Mekka could go back to Laverne & Shirley, Ms. Walker returned to Rhoda, and young Scott Baio landed on Happy Days. Alas, no safety net for Pat Morita.
Garry Marshall asked her if she wanted to appear as "Leather Tuscadero", and she agreed. However, she looked- and sounded- like a "1970's" rock star in the "1950's".
The shows that were on the longest would find new life on the nostalgia channels that are on now (GetTv, MeTv, RewindTV, etc.). After nothing but reality shows and cooking shows, the public need to realize that once upon a time we could watch TV and not see backsides encased in jeans and painted on bathing suits.
I had a Captain and Tenille record album. I played it all the time. I loved this song on it. Something about a Butterscoth Castle with a " Big old dog in the front yard; And an old Gray cat on the Back Porch" But my favorite songs were Muscrat Love, The Wedding Song and a song with " Lonely Nights I cry myself to sleep tell me what am I gonna do?"
I was 17 in 1977,but I don’t remember any of these sit-coms at all… My mom loved the Capt and Tenelle show. She liked Tony Orlando,Carol Burnett, Cher etc. Actually all of the variety shows that were on,she liked.
My favorite is Carol Burnett. Great show she did, and Saturday night on CBS was the place to be. I saw a documentary about her, and they toured the studio at 7800 Beverly Boulevard in Los Angeles and even aired those classic clips of sketches.
The best thing about the variety shows for me is they would have Black artists playing music that the local radio stations would never play because the area was 99% white.
The Captain and Tennille! Haven't thought about them in years. They were very popular, so much so that one of my daughter's little friends was named Tennille. Shannon called her "Te-needle".
This was a lot of fun to watch! Thanks for putting it together. The only show I watched as a kid out of all of these shows was The Captain & Tennille show. I don't remember any of the other shows.
This is really well done and researched. It's amazing to think that we really only see the tip of the iceberg as far as TV shows go. A lot of time, work and talent goes into making these "flops'.
“Nashville 99“ was made while I was a senior in college in Nashville, and one of my friends got cast in the part in one of the episodes. Unfortunately, for him, his name was Richard Burton, and they claimed they could not get in touch with him to choose a different name in the credits, therefore they cut all of his lines and he was only seen as a glorified extra. On a different note, a few years ago I was in the cast of a production of “12 Angry Men” with John Schuck, Yoyo in “Holmes and Yoyo.” That may have been a pretty silly show, but he is actually a fine actor and was terrific in the production I was in.
That 70's show did a whole bit about rich man poor man, how it was such a had to watch thing back then. The dumb blonde next door neighbor trying to explain it along the lines of where Red asks midge what is this show? and she says "oh it's really great! you see they have this rich man, and they have this poor man!" and the two wives are insisting on watching it when a game is on that red want's to watch, back when you HAD to choose one of the other, no VHS recordings no DVR''s you had to pick channel to watch and you had to be there at that certain time or you would just miss it. In that case, I think I like today better than the 70's and I lived through the 70's in junior high and high school.
Very true. Bill James cited it in his book "The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract", and I got it soon after; even if it had been around forever by that point.
It was CBS programming executive Lee Currlin who approved "BALL FOUR" (and all of their new series) for their fall '76 schedule. Robert Wussler, the network's president, knew they were "lemons", and asked Currlin why he "bought" them. "It was the best of what was left for us", Currlin shrugged. *ALL SIX* of CBS' new programs were eventually cancelled. Wussler fired Currlin......and Wussler was disposed of the following season.
2 Nancy Walker shows . Gibbsville was a quality show that had quality writing and performances. Sirota's court looked an early inspiration for night court. Serpico never had a chance turning it into a conventional cop show.
@@ApothecaryGrantMy dad was one of those workers. But he believed Willie sucked that badly! Nancy, on the other hand, never appealed to anyone, so she might have pictures of ABC execs doing unflattering things. 😂
Based on old newspapers I went through, Future Cop premiered on Sat. March 5th, 1977 at 8pm, opposite Mary Tyler Moore/Bob Newhart and Emergency. By March 25th it had been moved to Friday opposite Bob Hope and The Way West. By April 30 it was back on Saturdays, this time at 10, opposite Carol Burnett and NBC's Saturday Night Movie. The Daily Breeze (Torrance, CA) reported on July 17 that the series had been picked up for fall, but apparently no new episodes were made. But the show continued to turn up. On August 6 it was again on Saturdays (repeats?) competing with Mary Tyler Moore/Bob Newhart.
I appreciate that your taking the time to look into that. Going back several months ago, I couldn't find anything concrete to put down with 'Future Cop', being stumped as to when that show regularly played (from what I can remember).
Some shows deserve to last one season or less. On the other hand, every season, some shows are critically acclaimed and/or receive strong word-of-mouth but still get canceled by a network for many other reasons, not only for low Nielsen ratings. You've done a great job with these videos. It's entertaining and informative.
Considering he had several homeruns with All in the Family, Maud, The Jefferson's, & Good Times I'd say he had a pretty good batting average. Not every show works. Hell, how many flops did Bill Cosby have before The Cosby Show?
@@ricknibert6417 I was 11 and living in Parma when he started the Ghoulardi show in Cleveland. A perfect age to enjoy him spoofing black & white monster movies and making fun of my neighborhood.
You wouldn't know that from the way Rick Mitz described the series in his "Great TV Sitcom Book". He didn't watch it, and depended on Brooks & Marsh's "Complete Directory to Prime-Time, Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present" for information on it (in fact, he swiped a lot of information from their book, verbatim). He finally decided it wasn't worth writing about, and described it this way: *Okay, here are the details. Dick dated Jane. They weren't sure about their feelings for each other. Neither was the audience. CBS cancelled after one month. The end.* Har-har-har. Just because Rick was a sitcom writer himself {he co-created, co-produced and mostly wrote "HI HONEY, I'M HOME!" for Nickelodeon [and ABC] in the 1991-'92 season}, he thought he was being funny with most of the entries he wrote for the book. HE WASN'T.
@@fromthesidelines Hey! You're exactly the person to ask. I was reading some of your posts on TV Obscurities recently. My question is, that I've noticed that the 1979-80 Nielsen ratings (any list that I could locate) only shows ~ 30 shows, as opposed to what should be +100 shows rated. Do you know precisely where to go, to locate the full list for that specific (1979-80) season? If you could tell me, I'd be very appreciative.
Thanks for the memories! My favorite short-lived show of this time frame? The Press Your Luck predecessor, SECOND CHANCE. Certainly not perfect, but a technical marvel for 1977. Ran on ABC from March to July.
I watched many of these shows. Delvecchio (great show IMO), All's Fair (nice chemistry between Crenna and Peters and she looked great), Feather and Father (same for Stefanie Powers) Rich man Poor Man 2, Love Me , Love Me Not (Susan Dey post-Partridge), Nancy Walker, Van Dyke and Company (still going at 93 - way to go!), Holmes and Yoyo (Ok but not great) and Dog and Cat (Kim Basinger - probably her first TV role? Re Most wanted - being a QM production I miss the vpiceover in the opening credits which was a hallmark of his shows - anyone know why this change occured? Great video - hope to see more seasons presented.
Thank you for sharing! Great question, about "Most Wanted", and I don't know. I love that show - I've seen all of the episodes - and although I don't mind the intro, it is somewhat stale without the announcer (to go with the pics of tonight's guest stars). I can sit there and watch "The Street of San Francisco", "Cannon", "Barnaby Jones", etc, just for the intros, and to see if I can name the character actor before their name is mentioned (a little game). I'm also big on "Delvecchio", and I think "All's Fair" would make my short-list for most underrated sitcoms of the '70s. Thank you for watching!
2:00. Just a tad of TRIVIA: the younger guy in this photo-- had a small part in the CLASSIC low budget horror : Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things.
You had my attention when the thumbnail used for the Brady Bunch Variety Hour was a picture of the family on the cover of Dynamite magazine. Who remembers Dynamite magazine? Oh man, its one of my better memories of being in grade school. Dynamite was published once a month and could only be ordered through Scholastic which the teacher passed around once a month. The magazine wasn't very expensive and was packed with all kinds of groovy stories, games, posters, cards, and jokes. One issue showed how to make a pinhole camera out of cardboard and aluminum foil which actually worked! Being a kid in the early to mid 1970s was a lot of fun. With only one television in the home and only three channels you had to watch what the folks watched or find something else to do, like read. My wife is a 4th grade teacher, she has said that if Dynamite were published today, very few kids, if any, would order it. Kids today don't do much reading of printed material unless they have to. That's kind of sad
Great post Randy! Yeah, that's true. I'm thinking of Highlights (magazine) once you mentioned Dynamite. Reading books/magazines, and the communal experience of TV (and radio before that) make everything more isolated and disconnected.
Chunky opening theme music for “Tales of the Unexpected” by David Shire at 19:16 - of “Taking of Pelham One Two Three” and “The Conversation” fame. “A Quinn Martin production”.
Thank you for posting all these shows. Your channel is good for the brain! I remember some of these shows, Not so much with the others. Must be a regional thing.
The Brady Bunch Variety Hour didn't do too bad, considering that it was up against Little House on the Prairie. Little House ground up a lot of opposing shows, because few people had VCRs to record with.
@@CarolinaPine You may be right. She retired from TV a long time ago and is now a painter in California with her own studio. She was my favorite of the Brady Girls - had sympathy for her struggle to stop being overshadowed as the middle child.
Why does Three Girls Three stick in my head to this very day? It was our intro to Debbie Allen and Mimi Kennedy. Those were the days. We had three major networks and September was the beginning of the new TV show seasons. It’s all we had when cooped up during the cold weather.
Thanks for this, I'm loving these installments. I remember maybe one third of these shows...was still a "kid" at the time (about 13). My favorite of these was "Blansky's Beauties" and was sad to see it leave the airwaves back then.
@@robertsretrorewind5853 I liked Caren Kaye as well, and remember her popping up as a guest star in a number of series back then. But thanks for letting me know there's some "Blansky's Beauties" to be found here at UA-cam, I'll go look them up. I think Cyndi Grecco (who sang the theme for "Laverne & Shirley") also sang the "Blansky's Beauties" theme song as well.
@@julymiller7456 Bouton (also saw spelling as Bowden) was a Great REAL player & big winning pitcher------ WROTE "BALL FOUR" book that was about BIG DRUGS, hook 'rs as an incentives, "MARFIA" & OTHER CRIME CONNECTIONS in baseball in the 70s - and supposedly "Marfia" used to threaten players to underperform (kind of like point shaving) for the Las Vegas betting line.
@@julymiller7456 Yes Bouton pitched in the Majors until his arm betrayed him. (He returned to baseball briefly in '78). Big Ben Davidson was also an athlete, former NFL player for the Raiders. And for extra credit, Wes Parker in that last show ("All That Glitters") - former Dodgers first baseman.
Gemini Man was shown on television in The Netherlands in 1977. They aired it as a kind of sequel to the invisible man series with David McCallum. Spencer's Pilots and Holmes & YoYo were aired on television in Germany. Spencer's Pilots even got rerun a few years later.
Bernadette Peters is my favorite Broadway actress of all-time...and she was a TERRIBLE fit for a television sitcom! Granted, it didn't help All's Fair went against Monday Night Football and NBC's Monday Night Movie.
@@Rockhound6165That was a movie, much different from a week-to-week network sitcom. Her other two starring movie roles with then boyfriend Steve Martin (Pennies from Heaven and Heartbeeps) as well as her appearance in the movie Annie were not as successful, and she mercifully went back to Broadway, where she was sorely missed.
Other fantastic video. I loved Fantastic Journey it was crying shame it only lasted 10 episodes. I saw in 1977 on my school hoildays when l was 11 . I Also remember the Gemini man that was a big favourite in my household . I Just loved his watch . I love your videos 📺
TRIVIA: High School: me and this "friend" of mine had a HUGE argument one day after Rich Man Poor Man was on the air; My friend thought the villain was called FALCON EDDY ! I was all NO: it's Falconetti .
At 34:00, we see a pilot that never aired for a show called Hunter. The whole premise of a man out of prison fighting for justice got dropped and instead James Franciscus's character of James Hunter became a bookstore owner and a retired spy who gets called back into the field. That was the show that actually aired.
Holy cow, seeing these shows brings back bad memories from the 70's. No wonder why I worked in the office until 22:00 hrs. Didn't have a social life, but neither did anyone who sat at home to watch these.
28:49 I actually had that MAC: Mobil Action Command toy when I was a kid. Fun toy for the 1st week. Then, there wasn't anything you could do with it except the same thing every time. Fly the helicopter around, rescue other MAC characters. Eventually I destroyed it a year later with my toy bazooka gun.
Wow, I'm jealous! Sort of... I remember having an insert that came with my Matchbox die-cast carrying case, showing that entire line of toys that they had. I was blown away that Matchbox didn't just make die-cast cars. I never knew anyone that had any of that, and I've sort of romanticized the idea about how great that line was (similar to the Fisher-Price Adventure People line but everyone seemed to have that at the time). After reading that you were bored with after a week, puts some perspective on it once and for all. It does look like a hollow shell the more I look at it. Anyway, thank you for mentioning that!
Also, I recognized Bonnie Ebsen on the Kallikaks. She's Buddy Ebsen's daughter and appeared a few times on Barnaby Jones. Sometimes wearing a skimpy outfit. She was/is pretty hot!
Wow, VERY HAPPY that you point this out! Especially the episode "Murder in the Key of C". Not just her, but Sondra Currie's "moment" getting out of a car. Those Barnaby Jones episodes are loads of fun!
There were lots of variety shows in the 70's. I loved to watch the Carol Burnett and Sonny and Cher shows. I also remember watching Flip Wilson, Glen Campbell and Donny & Marie. I don't remember The Captain and Tenille show.
I haven't heard of any of these shows, not even the Keane brothers-but they look like the kind of boys whose pictures would be in my bedroom. Had I known, I would have watched their show. Another one that caught my interest in watching this is The Incredible Journey. I love wild animals. I saw the leopard and knew I would have watched it. I watched Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom every week. Was that Scott Baio on the Honeycomb cereal commercial?
I did not get my say in what station the TV was tuned into in the 70s . I was the youngest by ten years ! So I like seeing what choices I didn’t get lol
I would have watched if they had just picked up where the original series left off. I saw a little bit of one episode of the variety show (they didn't even live in the Brady house when it showed their home), and that was enough! Still a fan of the cast, but not in that situation!
Remember about half of these --- and of those only watched a couple including an episode or two of Gemini Man, premier of Three Girls, Three (meh, but those actresses did okay for themselves --- the only one I remembered was Mimi Kennedy for whatever reason). I was a big fan of The Fantastic Journey -- and especially the young lady in the cast. She was absent from the final episodes and was sorely missed. The kid from Escape to Witch Mountain, though, annoyed me. My mom watched Serpico. I didn't realize it was such a short run!
Major-league pitcher Jim Bouton wrote the book "Ball Four", and also starred in the sitcom. I can't think of too many writers who starred in their own works.
I've seen a few of these videos of shows cancelled in one season. One thing hit me, so many actors that made it to be a lead in a network TV show, get cancelled and I don't recall ever seeing them ever again, in anything! What it must feel like to be so close to 'stardom" the rich and famous, and soon be asking "would you like fries with that order"
You never know what they ended up doing. Like the guy in that Kim Basinger show, who I only know because I just watched the Snoop Sisters, he went on to be a big time tv director.
Back then there was a wall between television and feature films. Actors had to choose which they were going to do early in their careers. There were lots of opportunities for actors to appear on television series but when those series failed their only hope was something else in television because they had no chance in Hollywood films (excluding low budget films of course). Only the super mega television stars had a chance at appearing in films.
46:58 "Future Cop" apparently didn't *have* a set time slot; ABC just moved it around to see what would work best. In Detroit, at least, here's where the show aired: *Saturday, March 5 @ 8pm *Friday, March 25 from 9-11pm (back-to-back episodes) *Thursday, April 7 @ 8pm *Friday, April 22 @ 9pm *Saturday, April 30 @ 10pm So...that's six episodes in five different timeslots on three different nights. Yikes! (In an interview with UPI's Vernon Scott, star Ernest Borgnine said he preferred doing TV and hoped "this new (series) lasts 10 years." Sorry, Ernie.)
The Toyota Corolla commercial was hilarious. Used car lots are still selling that year and model for more than what it originally cost. (sarcasm). And it featured Thorton Melon's secretary Marge Sweetwater......LOL
Not hard to see why these shows failed. I was 13 years old then, and I can tell you that unless you have a very strong sense of youthful nostalgia, most of the shows of that era just weren't that good.
I am of the age when I was there, the only show I can remember watching was Nancy Walker's show. Not to say that the others weren.t good, but it seems like they were up against some stiff competition, right?
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Wow, Sirota's Court was basically Night Court before Night Court. Interesting.
The big difference was, the NBC of 1984 was willing to give "NIGHT COURT" time to find its audience. "SIROTA'S COURT" was one of *many* series NBC jettisoned in 1977 because of mediocre ratings.
@@fromthesidelines NBC moved Night Court from Wednesdays where it was failing to summer reruns on Thursday night where it did a little better. At that point NBC's Thursday line up were good shows that didn't get good ratings because CBS dominated that evening with Magnum P.I. and Knots Landing. However when NBC began its Thursday night with the instant smash The Cosby Show, every show in their Thursday line up (Family Ties, Cheers and Hill Street Blues) suddenly took off even though none of the shows had gotten good ratings before Cosby. Back then lead off shows could make or break all the shows that evening.
In the 1970s I was lucky enough to find a job being an on call extra on The Streets of San Francisco & mostly only worked on the weekends. My rent was $100 a month, food was cheap & I loved the show because I liked Karl Malden and working as an extra paid my bills for the month. I did not have ANY credit cards when the show started. I should have stayed away from the evil credit cards. I worked on the show for years.
Interesting! 😃
Did you leave home without your “American Express”?
What was it like working on a TV show?
great story. thanks for sharing.
I had a friend that only did "extra" work. Never any speaking lines. He was very average looking, I guess that worked to his advantage as he was always working, being seen at a cafe table across the isle from the actors, or his big gig, for L.A. law setting in the courtroom watching the case. One week dressed in a suit, next week maybe in a cop uniform. He also had creative ways with his hair to appear different. Like he often said, he only made decent money, but setting around doing nothing, watching TV production was a sweet deal.
Judd Hirsch almost didn't do Taxi because of Delvecchio. After that show's failure, he swore off doing television shows. Luckily, his agent convinced him to change his mind.
Yes, Judd could have returned to the lucrative business of appearing in commercials {they paid his bills during the early through mid-1970's}. I believe the producers of "TAXI" convinced him he was the right actor for the right part.
@@fromthesidelinesHe told his agent to make them an offer they had to refuse. The producers didn't refuse the offer.
....at the right salary. 😉
@@fromthesidelines Yes the celery was ride.
The TV show Delvecchio had Charles Haid and Michael Conrad, who would appear in the series Hill Street Blues.
And James B. Sinking was a recurring character.
The title sounds like it should be a Happy Days spinoff.
@@jazzbo13 “Sikking”.
Steven Bochco was the mastermind behind both shows.
@stillaboveground2470 Al Molinaro was Al Delvecchio. He was the cook at Arnold's Drive In. He was Murray, the cop on The Odd Couple.
I think what’s most fun about seeing these is the reminder that we only had three to four stations of ABC, CBS and NBC and the reasons I say four is PBS was around to. If you look up the ratings numbers for even the cancelled series compared to now there numbers were very healthy. I think that’s why so many of us remember these series because we only had so much to choose from.
There was also those odd UHF stations you could get if you fiddled with the tuner.
And no VCR, no streaming, no no
In Chicago, we had WGN (channel 9), too.
@@alisong2328 Yes, most cities had at least one independent station and some locally produced shows on them were strong competition for the shows on all three networks. I think the concept of locally produced shows (other than local news) with local hosts speaking local accents is another thing that has mostly disappeared.
I think we enjoyed it more. Maybe because even THESE so-called failed shows are better than most of what we get now
1:10 If I hadn't actually seen this show as an 11-year-old in 1976, I would've thought "The Starland Vocal Band Show" was an SNL sketch poking fun at the 70s. (It would be like poking fun at the 90s with "The Lou Bega Hour"!)
That crap made COS look like Evening At The Pops. 😂
They got carried away with the variety show format - SVB, Bradys, COSELL??, Village People, Pink Lady & Jeff (???)... even freaking Shields & Yarnell... who... were... MIMES! No wonder the format died!
Poor Gemini Man. If I wore that denim outfit I'd want to be invisible too.
Nancy Walker sure was busy that year. Starring in two shows, Bounty commercials, and wasn't she also playing Ida Morgenstern on Rhoda during this time? Busy lady! I notice Pat Morita also has two shows here. Not sure if they overlapped with his time on Happy Days though.
So did Eddie Mekka. He was still on Laverne & Shirley!
@@tomcat630 Thank you. Even though I’m a big fan of The MTM Show, and have watched the entire series multiple times, I still have not seen all of Rhoda yet.
Unfortunately she left McMillan that season (along with the wife) and I think she was replaced by Martha Raye? Ruined the show. Such a bad decision.
I watched Feather & Father because I loved Stephanie Powers & still do.
Also Dellvechio & Art Carney as I read all the Rabbi books.
@@tomcat630 I watched Hart to Hart and loved the way all 3 of them interacted together. RIP. Lionel Stander.
I was a high school freshman and I do remember Delvechio (Loved it. Sorry it got cancelled.), Feather & Father (1st time seeing Stephanie Powers), and many of the others, but I don't recall Lanigan's Rabbi at all.
@@georgesenda1952I was a big fan of Hart to Hart as a kid and recently watched some reruns. Looked into the background of Lionel Stander. I didn't exactly get the appeal as a kid but whoa, super impressive guy due to all his activist and union work!
I don't remember 3 Girls 3, but back during its time, it was a television show I most certainly would have watched had it survived. And probably not for its story lines. Back in '76-'77, I was a typical teenage boy, growing up in suburban Chicago, complete with the classic Farrah Fawcett and Cheryl Ladd posters adorning my bedroom's wall. At 16, I was mesmerized with the beauty, style, and maturity of "older" women that were "out of my league". It's said that we always want what we cannot have, and the trio of Allen, Foley, and Kennedy would have been exactly the type of girls of my dreams during that most awkward time of my life. 3 Girls 3 would have been a "must-watch" television show for me back then.
It's a good thing 3 Girls 3 flopped. If not, Ellen Foley might not have been available to sing on Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell album.
@@ernestcruz6316and experienced Paradise By The Dashboard Light
I worked on "Serpico" as a 20 yr old Lighting Tech.
Except for establishing shots, all shot in Los Angeles.
Based at Paramount Studios.
That's VERY cool! I really like that series, and for whatever reason, it doesn't get more credit.
Thank you for posting!
@@robertsretrorewind5853 I thought it was going to be huge,
Beverly Archer kept plugging along. Thank God "Mama's Family" and "Major Dad" came along, giving her the comedy successes she deserved.
I couldn't see Judd Hirsch as a dramatic actor, but he was of course a brilliant comedic actor. He had a mobile face that was made for comedy.
He was actually a brilliant dramatic actor on the stage. He was wonderful in I'm Not Rappaport on Broadway.
Ordinary People (1980)
Judd Hirsch was a multi-talented actor. He could do comedy and drama.
@@johnshelton6434Agreed
I think Charlie's Angels should have been nicknamed "The Grim Reaper" for all the shows it bumped off during the 1976-77 season!
And, of course, the other networks tried to copy it in certain formats. At CBS, Chariman of the Board Bill Paley asked two of his top programming executives- Robert Wussler and John Schneider, who were eventually reassigned to other positions within the network- what they thought of "CHARLIE'S ANGELS". After both of them brushed it off, Paley insisted, "It's exactly the kind of show CBS should have. We don't have any pretty girls on the network." One such result was "THE AMERICAN GIRLS" {see "1978-'79 Short -Lived TV Shows"}.
*Angels
There was an even MORE deadly Grim Reaper than that one: The Happy Days / Laverne & Shirley Grim Reaper of the 76-77 season! In FACT all of ABC was a Grim Reaper 1976-1980 (when NBC had its "Toilet Bowl" years . The SuperTrain era ! Man did NBC get revenge by 1984 -85 !)
ABC was doing so well- I REALLY thought Blansky's Beauties was going to be the Number 4 or 5 show in 1977 .
Charlie's Angels was clearly a huge hit amongst Male viewers but not without controversy for it drew the ire of concerned parents and Newsweek magazine did a cover story regarding the content of shows not just Charlie's Angels also Three's Company and Soap
that led to the emergence of groups ie
"The Moral Majority" and "The Coalition for better Television" led by Rev Jerry Falwell and Donald Wildmon respectively.
As soon as I saw the Excedrin commercial, the next show would be my second favorite Variety show that year "3 Girls 3". My favorite was "The Jacksons" because of little Janet.
Delvecchio may be considered a prequel of sorts for Hill Street Blues. The connection includes writer/producer Steven Bochco, along with actors Charles Haid, Michael Conrad and James B Sikking.
Bochco was associated with Universal Television at the time. After the "RICHIE BROCKELMAN" debacle, he signed with MTM Enterprises......where he wrote and produced "HILL STREET BLUES".
@@fromthesidelinesBrockleman would go on to be commissioner of the PGA😏
Ordinarily, I might have a few tidbits about some of these shows. But this was a real dud of a year for TV, and to be honest I was in high school and wasn't watching much TV. A few real stinkers here too. (Holmes & Yoyo? Mr. T and Tina? Sheesh!)
I assumed it was going to be a sitcom with the actual Mr. T.
Year after year a 94-way tie for 94th place.
@@waynetompkins3006 no, he came to fame a few years later.
The Delveccio ad was hilarious! Just always have someone trip the suspect as they are fleeing
Thanks for bringing back my junior year of high school memories…😊! It seems allot of the new medical dramas needed to be put on life support that year.
I remember “Gemini Man” and “The Fantastic Journey “ fondly but remember them both having to do the “Network Juggle “ so never knew which time slot they landed. I remember some because my parents or sister would watch them. Good to see future stars in their 1st roles…some that they would rather forget…😊!
Have a great day!
Same to you! Thanks for watching!
I was 9 during the TV season and I remember our family watching "The Feather & Father Gang," "Van Dyke and Company," I had to do extra chores Saturday afternoon so I could watch "Holmes & Yoyo" Saturday night since my parents hated the show and we only had one television, so I had to earn the privilege to watch "Holmes & Yoyo." I guess we did not watch too Short-Lived television shows during the 1976-77 season. Once again, many thanks for the wonderful memories!
Much appreciated Ted, and thank you for watching!
I loved Holmes & Yoyo. I would crack up when Yoyo would get stuck on a loop saying "Bunco squad". Because of that my fantasy football team has been named that however I spell it with a K, "Bunko Squad". Been so since 1987.
I thought Holmes and Yoyo was goiung to be a winner.
"The Nancy Walker Show" is pretty much "Granny Takes A Trip."
I used to watch the theme and then turn the channel 😅
I can't believe Nancy got canceled going up against Charlie's Angels.
I just recently watched The Fantastic Journey on UA-cam and some of the commercials, but many of the shows I didn’t know about. Many of the actors I do recognize from other movies and shows.
I LOVED Fantastic Journey as a kid.
I once asked the Rick and Morty composer if their theme song is “Based on one season 70s sci-fi shows”
He said “kinda.”
For some reason they only showed The Fantastic Journey on Saturday's in the Boston area in the afternoon. I loved it with Roddy McDowall.
Fantastic Journey was a great show, it really deservered a longer run.
"Blansky's Beauties" had potential. What was weird was Nancy Walker appeared on "Happy Days" as Howard Cunningham's cousin so it could be considered a spinoff but that show took place in the early 60s and Blansky took place in 1970s Las Vegas. STRANGE!
What was even weirder was the appearance of "Pinky Tuscadero" {Roz Kelly} in the first episode, as she was a "1950's" character suddenly appearing in the 1970's. The reason: Fred Silverman went *NUTS* over her when she appeared in the opening episodes of "HAPPY DAYS" that season {"She's a female Fonzie!!!", he raved}, and wanted to spin her off into her own series with Henry Winkler ["FONZIE LOVES PINKY"]. But he and Garry Marshall refused, because Roz was a pain in the neck to the cast and crew during the episodes she filmed. Yet Silverman just wouldn't give up promoting her......and finally, Garry said, "Look, if I feature her on the first episode of 'BLANSKY'S', *then* would you be satisfied??". Fred begrudigngly agreed- and "Pinky" made her last appearance in that episode, as she and the series tanked.
@@fromthesidelines Pinky’s younger sister Leather was played by Suzi Quattro, an American-born singer who was popular in 1970s Great Britain but virtually unknown in the US.
Not only that, Pat Morita was in the series as his Arnold character Apparently he hadn't aged a day in 20 years.
At least, when the series failed (Nancy Walker's 2nd in the same season), Eddie Mekka could go back to Laverne & Shirley, Ms. Walker returned to Rhoda, and young Scott Baio landed on Happy Days. Alas, no safety net for Pat Morita.
Garry Marshall asked her if she wanted to appear as "Leather Tuscadero", and she agreed. However, she looked- and sounded- like a "1970's" rock star in the "1950's".
@@fromthesidelines I think everyone in “Happy Days” looked like the 1970s.
The shows that were on the longest would find new life on the nostalgia channels that are on now (GetTv, MeTv, RewindTV, etc.). After nothing but reality shows and cooking shows, the public need to realize that once upon a time we could watch TV and not see backsides encased in jeans and painted on bathing suits.
Or unemployable "aspiring rappers," or "I'm not hear to make friends."
I had a Captain and Tenille record album. I played it all the time. I loved this song on it. Something about a Butterscoth Castle with a " Big old dog in the front yard; And an old Gray cat on the Back Porch" But my favorite songs were Muscrat Love, The Wedding Song and a song with " Lonely Nights I cry myself to sleep tell me what am I gonna do?"
That was their _Song of Joy_ album. I had it on 8-track. 😆
I remember the Brady Bunch TV special.
"Love will keep us together!"🎵
I was overseas from early 1977 until the middle of 1978. Most of these shows I never heard of.
Trust me, you didn't miss much.
I was 17 in 1977,but I don’t remember any of these sit-coms at all…
My mom loved the Capt and Tenelle show. She liked Tony Orlando,Carol Burnett, Cher etc. Actually all of the variety shows that were on,she liked.
My favorite is Carol Burnett. Great show she did, and Saturday night on CBS was the place to be. I saw a documentary about her, and they toured the studio at 7800 Beverly Boulevard in Los Angeles and even aired those classic clips of sketches.
@@frankdenardo8684 I watch her show on Prime. I believe every episode is out there.
I was 9, and I remember my mom eating those shows up. I loved them. Excepting Shields and Yarnell. That show creeped me out.
The best thing about the variety shows for me is they would have Black artists playing music that the local radio stations would never play because the area was 99% white.
The Captain and Tennille! Haven't thought about them in years. They were very popular, so much so that one of my daughter's little friends was named Tennille. Shannon called her "Te-needle".
This was a lot of fun to watch! Thanks for putting it together. The only show I watched as a kid out of all of these shows was The Captain & Tennille show. I don't remember any of the other shows.
I appreciate that, and thank you for watching!
This is really well done and researched. It's amazing to think that we really only see the tip of the iceberg as far as TV shows go. A lot of time, work and talent goes into making these "flops'.
Thank you, and thank you (again) for watching!
“Nashville 99“ was made while I was a senior in college in Nashville, and one of my friends got cast in the part in one of the episodes. Unfortunately, for him, his name was Richard Burton, and they claimed they could not get in touch with him to choose a different name in the credits, therefore they cut all of his lines and he was only seen as a glorified extra. On a different note, a few years ago I was in the cast of a production of “12 Angry Men” with John Schuck, Yoyo in “Holmes and Yoyo.” That may have been a pretty silly show, but he is actually a fine actor and was terrific in the production I was in.
Rich Man Poor Man Book II was fantastic. Absolutely riveting.
That 70's show did a whole bit about rich man poor man, how it was such a had to watch thing back then. The dumb blonde next door neighbor trying to explain it along the lines of where Red asks midge what is this show? and she says "oh it's really great! you see they have this rich man, and they have this poor man!" and the two wives are insisting on watching it when a game is on that red want's to watch, back when you HAD to choose one of the other, no VHS recordings no DVR''s you had to pick channel to watch and you had to be there at that certain time or you would just miss it. In that case, I think I like today better than the 70's and I lived through the 70's in junior high and high school.
A show wouldn't have a chance going up against Police Woman and Mash!
It's weird Michael Keaton wasn't listed in the credits for, 'Alls Fair.'
He came in mid-season. Had the show got renewed he probably would have been added to the credits.
Ball Four was a series?? Did they even read the book? The book was and still is ..a gem !!!
Very true. Bill James cited it in his book "The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract", and I got it soon after; even if it had been around forever by that point.
It was CBS programming executive Lee Currlin who approved "BALL FOUR" (and all of their new series) for their fall '76 schedule. Robert Wussler, the network's president, knew they were "lemons", and asked Currlin why he "bought" them. "It was the best of what was left for us", Currlin shrugged. *ALL SIX* of CBS' new programs were eventually cancelled. Wussler fired Currlin......and Wussler was disposed of the following season.
Considering Jim Bouton, the author of the book, starred as the show's main character I would say they read the book.
Heard that Sandy fellow became a PD for some radio station in south Ohio😏
All these theme songs sound like they were written by the same composer. I wonder if they were!
2 Nancy Walker shows . Gibbsville was a quality show that had quality writing and performances. Sirota's court looked an early inspiration for night court. Serpico never had a chance turning it into a conventional cop show.
David Birney was miscast in Serpico. Who could top Al Pacino in that role?
David Birney? As Serpico? With all the NYC-raised Italian American actors working in television in those days?
I remember wondering what blackmail info Nancy Walker had to keep getting series?
My dad used to say the same circa 1975 about some country singer named Willie Nelson getting airplay in Detroit.
@@DPK01-c1x Willie had crossover appeal in Detroit . A lot of factory workers immigrated from Appalachia so there was a hillbilly contingency
@@DPK01-c1x But I never saw that appeal with Nancy Walker yet she was in everything . Must have had a god of an agent
@@ApothecaryGrantMy dad was one of those workers. But he believed Willie sucked that badly! Nancy, on the other hand, never appealed to anyone, so she might have pictures of ABC execs doing unflattering things. 😂
No kidding! She had to be sleeping with someone 😮😂
Judd Hirsch in an action show? Who were they kidding?
Wow! That Robert Stack theme music was really something. Don't quite know what to make of it.
Based on old newspapers I went through, Future Cop premiered on Sat. March 5th, 1977 at 8pm, opposite Mary Tyler Moore/Bob Newhart and Emergency. By March 25th it had been moved to Friday opposite Bob Hope and The Way West. By April 30 it was back on Saturdays, this time at 10, opposite Carol Burnett and NBC's Saturday Night Movie. The Daily Breeze (Torrance, CA) reported on July 17 that the series had been picked up for fall, but apparently no new episodes were made. But the show continued to turn up. On August 6 it was again on Saturdays (repeats?) competing with Mary Tyler Moore/Bob Newhart.
I appreciate that your taking the time to look into that. Going back several months ago, I couldn't find anything concrete to put down with 'Future Cop', being stumped as to when that show regularly played (from what I can remember).
@@robertsretrorewind5853 You're welcome. I appreciate your videos, very informative, and they bring back a lot of memories.
Some shows deserve to last one season or less. On the other hand, every season, some shows are critically acclaimed and/or receive strong word-of-mouth but still get canceled by a network for many other reasons, not only for low Nielsen ratings. You've done a great job with these videos. It's entertaining and informative.
I very much appreciate you saying that. And thank you, for watching!
I just looked up “ Black Jack “ the Great Dane from Blansky’s Beauties on a lark and he has an IMDB page lol
Mr. T and Tina was so bad that our ABC affiliate in Buffalo refused to show it. I heard it was pretty much canceled as soon as it hit the air.
But it had such a *GREAT* rendition of "Chicago" by George Aliceson Tipton!
@fromthesidelines Yeah, it did, but what ELSE did it have?! 🤣
Unfortunately, not much.
Pat Morita was wasted. He was lucky this show was put out of its misery and quickly forgotten.
Was Pat Marita appearing in “Happy Days” at the same time?
Boy that Norman Lear could sure pick 'em
I was going to say, Norman Lear had a pretty rocky season that year. Three busts!
Happens!
Considering he had several homeruns with All in the Family, Maud, The Jefferson's, & Good Times I'd say he had a pretty good batting average. Not every show works. Hell, how many flops did Bill Cosby have before The Cosby Show?
@@Rockhound6165 his shows were all PC knockoff of one another. AND most of them were originally on Brit tv. So much for originality
@@Quartzquiz333as many as were on Charlie's Angels! (Rimshot)
The “Voice of ABC” was an announcer named Ernie Anderson.
Before that he was a booth announcer for KYW and WJW in Cleveland. He free-lanced for WEWS in the 1980s.
@@ricknibert6417 I was 11 and living in Parma when he started the Ghoulardi show in Cleveland. A perfect age to enjoy him spoofing black & white monster movies and making fun of my neighborhood.
Thanks for these. I didn't know that Susan Dey was on Loves Me Loves Me Not. I used to watch the McLean Stevenson Show.
You're welcome! Thank you for watching!
You wouldn't know that from the way Rick Mitz described the series in his "Great TV Sitcom Book". He didn't watch it, and depended on Brooks & Marsh's "Complete Directory to Prime-Time, Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present" for information on it (in fact, he swiped a lot of information from their book, verbatim). He finally decided it wasn't worth writing about, and described it this way:
*Okay, here are the details. Dick dated Jane. They weren't sure about their feelings for each other. Neither was the audience. CBS cancelled after one month. The end.*
Har-har-har. Just because Rick was a sitcom writer himself {he co-created, co-produced and mostly wrote "HI HONEY, I'M HOME!" for Nickelodeon [and ABC] in the 1991-'92 season}, he thought he was being funny with most of the entries he wrote for the book. HE WASN'T.
@@fromthesidelines Hey! You're exactly the person to ask. I was reading some of your posts on TV Obscurities recently. My question is, that I've noticed that the 1979-80 Nielsen ratings (any list that I could locate) only shows ~ 30 shows, as opposed to what should be +100 shows rated.
Do you know precisely where to go, to locate the full list for that specific (1979-80) season? If you could tell me, I'd be very appreciative.
@@robertsretrorewind5853 That was Paul Williams singing the "Mac" intro!
I don't think anyone's face could match their name better than John Shuck
Thanks for the memories! My favorite short-lived show of this time frame? The Press Your Luck predecessor, SECOND CHANCE. Certainly not perfect, but a technical marvel for 1977. Ran on ABC from March to July.
Thank you for watching!
Great work!
Many thanks!
I watched many of these shows. Delvecchio (great show IMO), All's Fair (nice chemistry between Crenna and Peters and she looked great), Feather and Father (same for Stefanie Powers) Rich man Poor Man 2, Love Me , Love Me Not (Susan Dey post-Partridge), Nancy Walker, Van Dyke and Company (still going at 93 - way to go!), Holmes and Yoyo (Ok but not great) and Dog and Cat (Kim
Basinger - probably her first TV role? Re Most wanted - being a QM production I miss the vpiceover in the opening credits which was a hallmark of his shows - anyone know why this change occured? Great video - hope to see more seasons presented.
Thank you for sharing! Great question, about "Most Wanted", and I don't know. I love that show - I've seen all of the episodes - and although I don't mind the intro, it is somewhat stale without the announcer (to go with the pics of tonight's guest stars). I can sit there and watch "The Street of San Francisco", "Cannon", "Barnaby Jones", etc, just for the intros, and to see if I can name the character actor before their name is mentioned (a little game).
I'm also big on "Delvecchio", and I think "All's Fair" would make my short-list for most underrated sitcoms of the '70s.
Thank you for watching!
I believe Fred Silverman didn't want the traditional "QM opening title" {with Hank Simms announcing} for "MOST WANTED". That was his mistake.
Man, sooo many memories. Thanks for this!
Thank you for watching!
2:00. Just a tad of TRIVIA: the younger guy in this photo-- had a small part in the CLASSIC low budget horror : Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things.
Good call!
I remember using Body-on-tap shampoo!!!!
Ben Murphy is one of those people who always looks like they are in pain.
You had my attention when the thumbnail used for the Brady Bunch Variety Hour was a picture of the family on the cover of Dynamite magazine.
Who remembers Dynamite magazine? Oh man, its one of my better memories of being in grade school. Dynamite was published once a month and could only be ordered through Scholastic which the teacher passed around once a month. The magazine wasn't very expensive and was packed with all kinds of groovy stories, games, posters, cards, and jokes. One issue showed how to make a pinhole camera out of cardboard and aluminum foil which actually worked!
Being a kid in the early to mid 1970s was a lot of fun. With only one television in the home and only three channels you had to watch what the folks watched or find something else to do, like read.
My wife is a 4th grade teacher, she has said that if Dynamite were published today, very few kids, if any, would order it. Kids today don't do much reading of printed material unless they have to. That's kind of sad
Great post Randy!
Yeah, that's true. I'm thinking of Highlights (magazine) once you mentioned Dynamite.
Reading books/magazines, and the communal experience of TV (and radio before that) make everything more isolated and disconnected.
@@bobdavis4848 Same here (no cellphone).
Chunky opening theme music for “Tales of the Unexpected” by David Shire at 19:16 - of “Taking of Pelham One Two Three” and “The Conversation” fame. “A Quinn Martin production”.
Thank you for posting all these shows. Your channel is good for the brain! I remember some of these shows, Not so much with the others. Must be a regional thing.
I appreciate that! Thank you!
The Brady Bunch and Starland Vocal Band receiving variety shows this season was proof that the format was starting to wane.
Eve Plum had enough sense to stay as far away from "The Brady Bunch Hour" as possible, thus proving that Jan was the smartest Brady.
The Brady Bunch Variety Hour didn't do too bad, considering that it was up against Little House on the Prairie. Little House ground up a lot of opposing shows, because few people had VCRs to record with.
After competing against "60 MINUTES" and "THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF DISNEY", the last episodes were scheduled against "LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE".
@@CarolinaPine You may be right. She retired from TV a long time ago and is now a painter in California with her own studio. She was my favorite of the Brady Girls - had sympathy for her struggle to stop being overshadowed as the middle child.
And the fact that she *knew* the variety show wasn't such a great idea.
Why does Three Girls Three stick in my head to this very day? It was our intro to Debbie Allen and Mimi Kennedy. Those were the days. We had three major networks and September was the beginning of the new TV show seasons. It’s all we had when cooped up during the cold weather.
Hey, don't forget girl #3 Ellen Foley - she did "Night Court" & sang with Meatloaf on "Paradise By The Dashboard Light".
@@TheREALSofaKing0306 I love Ellen Foley. I actually own all of her solo albums. I did not recognize her at all in the clip.
@@TheREALSofaKing0306Thank you! I know she looked familiar but I didn't recognize the name!
Thanks for this, I'm loving these installments.
I remember maybe one third of these shows...was still a "kid" at the time (about 13). My favorite of these was "Blansky's Beauties" and was sad to see it leave the airwaves back then.
Thank you David!
I really like Caren Kaye off of Blansky's Beauties. Someone uploaded a bunch of the episodes not too long ago.
@@robertsretrorewind5853 I liked Caren Kaye as well, and remember her popping up as a guest star in a number of series back then. But thanks for letting me know there's some "Blansky's Beauties" to be found here at UA-cam, I'll go look them up.
I think Cyndi Grecco (who sang the theme for "Laverne & Shirley") also sang the "Blansky's Beauties" theme song as well.
I've never heard of Sirota's Court or whatever it was called but it certainly seems like Night Court before Night Court!
Thanks For Sharing!
Thank you for watching!
“Ball Four”….Good lord what fever nightmare am I looking at!
jim bowden, great book------ cant' act for s^*^*
In doing baseball research, I think I recognized a REAL ballplayer. Jim Bouton. Am I right or am I having a similar fever dream?
@@julymiller7456 Bouton (also saw spelling as Bowden) was a Great REAL player & big winning pitcher------ WROTE "BALL FOUR" book that was about BIG DRUGS, hook 'rs as an incentives, "MARFIA" & OTHER CRIME CONNECTIONS in baseball in the 70s - and supposedly "Marfia" used to threaten players to underperform (kind of like point shaving) for the Las Vegas betting line.
@@julymiller7456 Yes Bouton pitched in the Majors until his arm betrayed him. (He returned to baseball briefly in '78). Big Ben Davidson was also an athlete, former NFL player for the Raiders.
And for extra credit, Wes Parker in that last show ("All That Glitters") - former Dodgers first baseman.
This is weird, but when I heard the drunken intro I thought, "someone from _WKRP_ has to be in this." I was right!
Gemini Man was shown on television in The Netherlands in 1977. They aired it as a kind of sequel to the invisible man series with David McCallum. Spencer's Pilots and Holmes & YoYo were aired on television in Germany. Spencer's Pilots even got rerun a few years later.
I would love to have an old 70s Toy Toyota !!
Thanks Mom and Dad for making my bedtime 8pm on school nights! Saved me from alot of terrible shows and a few good ones!
Bernadette Peters is my favorite Broadway actress of all-time...and she was a TERRIBLE fit for a television sitcom! Granted, it didn't help All's Fair went against Monday Night Football and NBC's Monday Night Movie.
I'd say she did pretty well in a comedy called The Jerk.
@@Rockhound6165That was a movie, much different from a week-to-week network sitcom. Her other two starring movie roles with then boyfriend Steve Martin (Pennies from Heaven and Heartbeeps) as well as her appearance in the movie Annie were not as successful, and she mercifully went back to Broadway, where she was sorely missed.
I have no memory of her doing crap TV.
Great job on your presentation !
Thank you very much, I really appreciate that!
Ha, I had no idea the Rabbi books were made into a series.
"LANIGAN'S RABBI" was a short-lived segment of "NBC SUNDAY MYSTERY MOVIE" in 1977. Only four episodes were produced.
Other fantastic video. I loved Fantastic Journey it was crying shame it only lasted 10 episodes. I saw in 1977 on my school hoildays when l was 11 . I Also remember the Gemini man that was a big favourite in my household . I Just loved his watch . I love your videos 📺
I really appreciate that Jonny! And thank you for watching!
I wonder if some of those shows couldn't have been moved to Saturday mornings and done well.
I watched Delvecchio, The Brady Bunch Hour, The Quest, The Fantastic Journey, Code R, Keane Brothers (so talented) , and Donnie and Marie.
That's what happens in prison. They make you watch this garbage as a form of torture.
TRIVIA: High School: me and this "friend" of mine had a HUGE argument one day after Rich Man Poor Man was on the air; My friend thought the villain was called FALCON EDDY ! I was all NO: it's Falconetti .
We have to put this "friend" on blast, retroactively. "Hey, 'Friend' of Lannie, you're wrong!"
LOL when I watched this video I thought he was saying Falcon Eddy. I thought what a weird name :).
At 34:00, we see a pilot that never aired for a show called Hunter. The whole premise of a man out of prison fighting for justice got dropped and instead James Franciscus's character of James Hunter became a bookstore owner and a retired spy who gets called back into the field. That was the show that actually aired.
I was confused because "James Hunter" was also the protagonist of "James at 15" which also aired around that time.
I was in the Army in Korea during this time so I don't remember any of these shows. Looks like I didn't miss much.
Thank you!😊
Thank you for watching Jerald!
Holy cow, seeing these shows brings back bad memories from the 70's. No wonder why I worked in the office until 22:00 hrs. Didn't have a social life, but neither did anyone who sat at home to watch these.
Excellent point!
28:49 I actually had that MAC: Mobil Action Command toy when I was a kid. Fun toy for the 1st week. Then, there wasn't anything you could do with it except the same thing every time. Fly the helicopter around, rescue other MAC characters. Eventually I destroyed it a year later with my toy bazooka gun.
Wow, I'm jealous! Sort of...
I remember having an insert that came with my Matchbox die-cast carrying case, showing that entire line of toys that they had. I was blown away that Matchbox didn't just make die-cast cars. I never knew anyone that had any of that, and I've sort of romanticized the idea about how great that line was (similar to the Fisher-Price Adventure People line but everyone seemed to have that at the time).
After reading that you were bored with after a week, puts some perspective on it once and for all. It does look like a hollow shell the more I look at it.
Anyway, thank you for mentioning that!
Also, I recognized Bonnie Ebsen on the Kallikaks. She's Buddy Ebsen's daughter and appeared a few times on Barnaby Jones. Sometimes wearing a skimpy outfit. She was/is pretty hot!
Wow, VERY HAPPY that you point this out! Especially the episode "Murder in the Key of C". Not just her, but Sondra Currie's "moment" getting out of a car. Those Barnaby Jones episodes are loads of fun!
@@robertsretrorewind5853 I hated Barnaby Jones when I was a kid, but now I watch it all the time on MeTv and PlutoTV
Bonnie Ebsen was a terrible actress. She couldn't act her way out of a paper bag.
@@GeminiladyJackson-xq6hc Yeah, but like I stated, she was/is pretty hot. 😉
@@GeminiladyJackson-xq6hc Yes, that's true too! 😁
There were lots of variety shows in the 70's. I loved to watch the Carol Burnett and Sonny and Cher shows. I also remember watching Flip Wilson, Glen Campbell and Donny & Marie. I don't remember The Captain and Tenille show.
They were great shows. I'm watching The Glen Cambell Goodtime Hour on Shout Tv and it's just as good as I remembered.
19:05 - The late Carl Weathers looks like he stepped right off the set of Rocky as Apollo Creed in the suit to film this scene.
I haven't heard of any of these shows, not even the Keane brothers-but they look like the kind of boys whose pictures would be in my bedroom. Had I known, I would have watched their show. Another one that caught my interest in watching this is The Incredible Journey. I love wild animals. I saw the leopard and knew I would have watched it. I watched Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom every week. Was that Scott Baio on the Honeycomb cereal commercial?
Good call! That is Scott Baio!
I did not get my say in what station the TV was tuned into in the 70s . I was the youngest by ten years ! So I like seeing what choices I didn’t get lol
I don't believe I ever watched the Feather & Father Gang, but that theme song certainly sounds familiar. Was it reused for another series?
The USA Network reran this show Sunday afternoons in the mid 80s.
I would say that a Brady Bunch variety show is the most '70s thing to have ever been '70ed.
I would have watched if they had just picked up where the original series left off. I saw a little bit of one episode of the variety show (they didn't even live in the Brady house when it showed their home), and that was enough! Still a fan of the cast, but not in that situation!
There were other shows I like that comes to mind now - McGruder and Loud and High Mountain Ranger.
I remember watching Holmes and Yoyo. It was so corny😂
Ten years later, it turned into a cop drama called "Haven", and 20 years later it changed to "Almost Human"...
Michael COnrad and Charles Haid were both on Delvecchio? Wow...then they both showed up on Hill Street Blues 5 years later.
Remember about half of these --- and of those only watched a couple including an episode or two of Gemini Man, premier of Three Girls, Three (meh, but those actresses did okay for themselves --- the only one I remembered was Mimi Kennedy for whatever reason). I was a big fan of The Fantastic Journey -- and especially the young lady in the cast. She was absent from the final episodes and was sorely missed. The kid from Escape to Witch Mountain, though, annoyed me. My mom watched Serpico. I didn't realize it was such a short run!
Major-league pitcher Jim Bouton wrote the book "Ball Four", and also starred in the sitcom. I can't think of too many writers who starred in their own works.
I've seen a few of these videos of shows cancelled in one season. One thing hit me, so many actors that made it to be a lead in a network TV show, get cancelled and I don't recall ever seeing them ever again, in anything! What it must feel like to be so close to 'stardom" the rich and famous, and soon be asking "would you like fries with that order"
I'm amazed at how many I remember as huge guest stars on shows but not able to hold their own show
You never know what they ended up doing. Like the guy in that Kim Basinger show, who I only know because I just watched the Snoop Sisters, he went on to be a big time tv director.
Back then there was a wall between television and feature films. Actors had to choose which they were going to do early in their careers. There were lots of opportunities for actors to appear on television series but when those series failed their only hope was something else in television because they had no chance in Hollywood films (excluding low budget films of course). Only the super mega television stars had a chance at appearing in films.
Wow, I was working and going to college. I must have really been off TV, I've only heard of a couple of these and seen even less.
46:58 "Future Cop" apparently didn't *have* a set time slot; ABC just moved it around to see what would work best. In Detroit, at least, here's where the show aired:
*Saturday, March 5 @ 8pm
*Friday, March 25 from 9-11pm (back-to-back episodes)
*Thursday, April 7 @ 8pm
*Friday, April 22 @ 9pm
*Saturday, April 30 @ 10pm
So...that's six episodes in five different timeslots on three different nights. Yikes! (In an interview with UPI's Vernon Scott, star Ernest Borgnine said he preferred doing TV and hoped "this new (series) lasts 10 years." Sorry, Ernie.)
Very informative! I really appreciate your posting this! Thank you Rob!
Was Nancy Walker in the Bounty commercial just before the Nancy Walker Show title sequence?
Yup! Did those commercials from 1970 to 1990.
Before he drove a hack on TAXI, Judd Hirsch was a detective in Delvecchio.
38:57 The best theme song of all time !
There was also a British series titled around the same time, based on Roald Dahl's adult stories.
Yes, "ROALD DAHL'S TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED", hosted by the master of the macabre himself.
The Toyota Corolla commercial was hilarious. Used car lots are still selling that year and model for more than what it originally cost. (sarcasm). And it featured Thorton Melon's secretary Marge Sweetwater......LOL
Hey finally! Someone recognized Edie McClurg!
Not hard to see why these shows failed. I was 13 years old then, and I can tell you that unless you have a very strong sense of youthful nostalgia, most of the shows of that era just weren't that good.
I am of the age when I was there, the only show I can remember watching was Nancy Walker's show. Not to say that the others weren.t good, but it seems like they were up against some stiff competition, right?