TV Guide's 1985 Fall Preview. Did the shows suck?
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- Опубліковано 2 сер 2024
- #FormerNetworkExec #CallMeChato #tvguide
Back when Network TV was important in our lives.
00:00 Preamble
02:13 TV Guide review
Crazy Like a Fox, CBS
Hometown, CBS
Moonlighting, ABC
Mr. Belvedere, ABC
Hollywood Beat, ABC
Lime Street, ABC
The Golden Girls, NBC
227, NBC
MacGyver, ABC
Amazing Stories, NBC
Alfred Hitchcock Presents, NBC
Growing Pains, ABC
Our Family Honor, ABC
The Insiders, ABC
Charlie and Company, CBS
George Burns Comedy Week, CBS
Hell Town, NBC
Stir Crazy, CBS
The Equalizer, CBS
Lady Blue, ABC
The Colbys, ABC
Twilight Zone, CBS
Misfits of Science, NBC
Spencer for Hire, ABC
4 on the Floor, Showtime, CBC
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In the Stargate SG1 series premiere, Captain/Doctor Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping) explained to Doctor Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks) how she and her team had to “MacGyver” the dialing of the Stargate to get it to work, and whereupon she used the term “MacGyver”… Colonel Jack “2 L’s” O’Neill (Richard Dean Anderson) rolled his eyes.
That was an awesome moment!!!!
There's also a great outtake during a tense scene O'Neill orders Carter to leave him behind and go for help and Amanda Tapping responds something like What is wrong with you sir, you used to be McGuyver here's some gum and duct tape build a nuclear reactor or something.... McUselless
What you may choose to believe about 1985 or the 1980s, I think I speak for most folks when I say, despite its imperfections, I'd rather that decade and the 1990s over what we have to suffer at the moment.
No,no,noooo(take the rose tinted glasses off).
@@patmann9363 I said they were better IMPERFECT, not utopia.
Yes, now it's uploading selfies for validation and finding new things to be offended about daily.
@@darkstars-torpedoes-of-truth Not every kid does that anymore than we where all breakdancing or had fingerless gloves come on now.
Moonlighting was a one of a kind show. The speed of the delivery and humor from Willis was classic. 1985 had some really good shows and some really bad duds.
Moonlighting was art. We were not worthy.
I loved Edward Woodward in the Equalizer with his posh but menacing elocution. The remakes even with Denzel are pale shadows of his performance.
There's something very satisfying when you have an actor who can play menace - like casting an actor who normally plays a villain as the hero - so that when bad things happen, motivating the hero to act, the audience things, "Oh man you're in trouble now!"
I remember Jay Leno appearing on Letterman with that particular Fall Preview in hand and described the difference between Lime Street and Hart to Hart as: "In one, Robert Wagner is a millionaire solving crimes and driving a blue Rolls Royce. In this one he's a millionaire that solves crimes and driving a green Rolls Royce"
Leno was better as a guest on Letterman than he was as a Host on The Tonight Show!
So let me make sure I understand you. You're saying it was the same show with a different colored car? Too funny!
@@StreetPreacherr Speak for yourself.
@@StreetPreacherr One of his running jokes when he was on Letterman was that he would make fun of shows that resorted to "evil doubles". It was hilarious, and I remember that he would bring on actual TV Guides to prove his point. He just didn't work as the host of the Tonight Show. I found him boring.
MacGuyver was the greatest American TV show I had ever seen when it was first shown over here in Britain, it blew my tiny mind.
The creator of the Daleks wrote for the first season of MacGyver too
MacGyver is perhaps the biggest hit show from the class of 1985. I was a fan of Knight Rider, Dukes of Hazzard and the A-Team. I didn't watch MacGyver likely because it didn't have a cool star vehicle which a lot of 1980s action shows had. I obviously missed out on a very good show. People tuned in every week to see what clever contraption MacGyver would put together to get himself out of trouble. It became such a successful gimmick that to this day MacGyver is a term that defines using ingenuity to solve a problem.
Flip Wilson was doing an interview that year and was asked to describe his show. He said it was "Like the Cosby show, except with black people"
Which was *exactly* what CBS wanted. They wanted "CHARLIE & COMPANY" to do for them what Cosby was doing for NBC. It didn't. It lasted one season.
😻
My biggest takeaway from your TV Guide series is how many short lived shows there was. People complain about Netflix axing series after one or two seasons, but, looking back, it puts things into perspective. Seeing old printed ads is also a bonus.
Bea Arthur was actually older than Estelle Getty, who played her mother! Loved the episode Chato!
In fact, Estelle Getty was the youngest out of the four of them....
The creator of SOAP the first American primetime sitcom to require a Parental and Viewer Discretion advisory at the begining of each episode, in the 70s no less, was the creator of The Golden Girls. So it was a given, and even gleefully anticipated, that the show would have a mature, meatier slant to its comedy.
The Equalizer is one of my all time favorite TV show. that and Quantum Leap were two show during the eighties that no matter where i was or what i was doing i always stopped what i was doing and watch them. :)
Both now changed onto new Woke Shows..
One with a Race and Gender swap and the other now doesnt teach all about the past but instead has constant episodes about White People bad...
@@zakofrx You know, i would not mind that so much if the writing was better or matched that at the least. Both TV shows at the time i was watching them were two of the most intelligent, well paced and consistent drama programs both from a story-telling (writing) and overall production point of view. One of the things i loved about the Equalizer is the stunning cinematography throughout the show - i always thought i was there lost within the nooks and crannies of a scary and claustrophobic N.Y.C. along with the characters that populated the episodes. The telling of story took precedent over everything that the shows had to offer and the rest fell into place either after the fact of the writing or because of it. and also they had great continuity throughout the programs that stay pretty much intact during their spans. there were no agendas or quotas or messaging that was blatantly and lazily presented to you, and if there was any, it wasn't noticed unless you looked for it and it was usually after the fact. this was due to layering it within the main story or arc and it was only used if the story called for it. I missed those days. I'm sure they are still shows out their that does that. but you might have to look far and wide. :)
Ah, two of my all-time favorites, "Moonlighting" and "Macgyver". And "The Golden Girls" still holds up; it pops up on TV now and then. If anyone is looking for a good read, give the "Spenser" novels a try. They are almost uniformly terrific.
11:00 is that Mark Harmon in a Coors ad?
He had plenty of connections! His sister used to be in those Certs ads in the 70s and IIRC another sister was married to RIcky Nelson. About a decade prior to this TV Guide issue, he was on an episode of "Emergency!" in a backdoor pilot for a TV series about animal handlers who rescue animals from cruelty. It didn't go to series.
I thought Mr. Belvedere was geared more towards a younger audience with a lot of corny jokes and after-school messages. Although I wasn't a regular viewer of it , it definitely sticks in my mind. I had no idea it was based on anything. I imagine the knowledge of something better makes the lesser one even more so.
I like the movie Sitting Pretty(First time Mr. Belvedere appears in film) and it is hard for me at least to find a dvd copy of one its sequels, Mr. Belvedere Goes To College. The TV show is bare bones of the first movie and not exactly like the others as Sheldon Cooper is closer to being like Mr. Belvedere then the tv show bearing the names of Clifton Webb's character. With the exception that the original Mr. Belvedere is alot more mature than Sheldon.
i was a kid and i remember this show, remember watching at least, so as a sitcom it probably did skew younger
It was surprisingly funny at times. The running gag of the daughter's not too bright friend constantly getting his name wrong was cute harmless tv fare.
1985 was right in my formative years of watching TV. I recognized almost every show and have fond memories of quite a few. Loved Crazy Like a Fox, Moonlighting, and Misfits of Science in particular and MacGuyver was appointment tv in my family. I still can recall the pilot episode with Mac having to stop the nuclear meltdown. You got the entire show in that first episode. Might be one of the best pilot episodes of the 80s.
Moonlighting was one of my all time favorite shows and it manages to do very very difficult thing in replicating 1930s screwball comedies with perfect foils/love interest in Cybil Shepard and Bruce Willis. The first 3 seasons are probably the best and most inventive tv of the 1980s and the fourth season collapse in ratings and quality when Glenn Gordon Caron left the show was truly shocking to watch. Still a true diamond of a tv show.
And the Anselmo case was never solved...
I will need to give it a try..
Love Bruce Willis but never liked Shepard..
Willis was a better actor than most people think. They couldn’t find anyone else who could do the dialogue.
Erstwhile executive and comedian plods through 1980s TV guide.Lots of fun and frissons of nostalgia hosted by the very amiable Paul Chato,long run predicted.
I know these videos do really poorly on your channel. I thoroughly enjoy them.
They aren't always the most interesting thing to me but at the same time they're interesting enough to eat a sandwich too while I'm on my morning lunch break
Thank you. I like accompanying sandwiches.
Moonlighting's Atomic Shakespeare episode is still one of the best hours of TV I've seen.
And either the 'TV Executives' didn't understand the demographics for these shows, or I was just a weirdo. As a teenager I remember watching LOADS of 'Golden Girls' re-runs, and for some reason I was also a big fan of MATLOCK!
Matlock was amiable. The sort of thing execs find it difficult to process. Maybe understandably, given that they're surrounded by Hollywood types.
Love when you do this episodes, but always came late to the party, but not this time:
1)I can't believe McGyver was done in 1985, no one else could make a bomb with a clip and some gum
2) we criticize hollywood don't make anything good, but those remakes of Alfred Hitchcock and Twilight zone was both awesome and a complete copy.of the original, fun both were from 1985
3) WE have few series with interracial casts, but there were some like the Insiders, Stir crazy and Misfits of Science. We have advanced a lot since then.
4)How many series were canceled after 1 season or even less episodes. We usually think cancelling too soon was a vice of this century.
5) Four on the Floor need a remake or reimagination. :D
Also I love how much the shows used star power to try to get some audience.
Yeah! I LOVE these TV Guide videos! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!
*clears throat*
Thanks, much appreciated.
Hi Chato, thank you for the recap! I was a teenager in the 80s and probably could have made this video myself. Thank you, keep them coming, you're good for the soul man.
Same here.
Thought for the day: we are the only generation to know how to set the clock on the VCR.
@@tomkerruish2982possibly the humans to have only existed with the ability to program a VCR’s timer. Like the pyramid builders, our skills will be lost to time, considered by future generations to be extraterrestrial or magical in nature.
MacGyver is a classic that I can watch over and over and over again. I can't believe his first name was Angus. I tried to name our son Angus but the wife stopped that cold. I certainly loved Amazing Stories but it was so hit or miss. Some good, some terrible. Alfred Hitchcock Presents was a gem to me too. With Growing Pains, what a year to watch TV. I know it was corny but we loved it. FLIP Wilson was the bomb. Hell Town was just OK to bad, real bad. The Real Equalizer was great. We loved The Twilight Zone for sure. Misfits of Science was great for me but my wife hated it which is exactly why it failed. I have it on VHS somewhere in a closet. Spenser was certainly before its time. The Frantics were robbed. For sure.
It's always fun to see those older stars when they were fresh faced. I still watch Golden Girls and several others. Cheers!
I was 10 or 11 years old in 1985. What great year, and great memories. I remember watching many of these shows with my (now long dead) grandparents.
That really was a great year for TV. I ate up 'Amazing Stories' and was very sad when it got cancelled. 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' was also fantastic.
And I'd forgotten about 'Misfits of Science.' I loved that, too. 🤣
The pilot episode was released in theaters and was pretty good. I liked the WWII bomber story about the cartoon illustrator's "miracle" directed by Steven Spielberg.
I was a senior in high school in 1985, so that year has some special meaning to me. MacGyver is a stand out for me especially back then. Growing Pains was a nice warm fuzzy of a family show, and I did like Moon Lighting at the time as well. Great episode, Paul.
I know these don't perform like your other videos, but I love them. As somebody who was a kid in the '80s (and used TV Guide), it's fascinating to revisit this TV landscape today.
MacGiver still got copied, my cousin blew himself up trying the gunpowder in a can thing when the gunpowder came back at him.
Thank you for a great reminder of my childhood, I forgot many of these.
Love your TV Guide coverage. Time capsules to remind us of more naive but innovative times in entertainment, where everything was mostly new.
I agree 💯 The same goes for the 1990s.
We sure we're imaginative and fun.
Sadly, we choose to follow trends instead of taking chances.
Also, I miss actual magazines instead of reading stuff online.
I agree 💯 The same goes for the 1990s.
We sure we're imaginative and fun.
Sadly, we choose to follow trends instead of taking chances.
Also, I miss actual magazines instead of reading stuff online.
OK, i was born on January 1, 1985.
As a kid, i wanted to be like McGyver.
Moonlighting was my mother´s favorite show, and i also liked it.
OMG YOU WERE IN THE TV PREVIEW!
1985 had a surprising number of shows that lived in syndication to make up a ton of my childhoold viewing.
If I had a cellphone, "Only thirteen f*cking episodes, stinking bastards" would be my new ring-tone.
I loved the equalizer! At thirteen I was pretending I was an old retired spy.
I remember wondering why anyone would contact The Equalizer instead of The A-Team. Then it occurred to me that The A-Team might be busy. I was 8...
@@rmnffx He was not, apparently, on the run from the law. A couple of good points that I did not consider at the time. 😂
Wow, I had no idea that Bruce Willis was already 'twitting' back in 1985!
And I also like the Mr. Belvedere summary. "14 year old daughter wants to spend the night with her boyfriend", almost sounds contemporary!
Always fun to stroll down memory lane! I turned 10 in 85 so this brings back a lot of fond memories of family television time! 😊
Paul really made me laugh there right at the end. A brilliant comedy career cut all too short by the harsh realities of Hollywood.
The "Taming of the Shrew" ep was the best of Moonlighting.
I remember watching Moonlighting as a kid with my mother and my sister. Being in grammar school, I missed many jokes. Still was a very entertaining. Maybe first season was kind a slow but it always had the chemistry of the leading couple.
The little I watch from it as an adult was in the internet. I never catch a re-run in TV.
Wow! What an amazing year for new TV shows. We got all the hit ones here in the UK. The Equalizer, McGuyver, Moonlighting, Crazy Like A Fox & The Golden Girls I definitely remember watching as a kid. The Golden Girls was on Friday nights and McGuyver was on Saturday early evening about 5pm (I think). Crazy Like A Fox was Sunday night. The Equalizer & Moonlighting were midweek if memory serves. Amazing Stories was Saturday evening but for some reason I didn't watch that one. I remember The Colby's & Spenser For Hire being on but I didn't watch those.
Loved "The Equilizer", shame that people now think of it as just a Denzel Washington movie..
One of the best Opening Songs, very much like Miami Vice..
@@zakofrx A brilliant title theme by Stewart Copeland for sure. Very iconic & very sinister. New York did not look good in that show.
Lasted 13 f$&@ing episodes. Hahahahaha, pauses to catch his breath, hahahahaha!
"The fuckin' bastards!" You always get me. But I'm easy.
My mom loved McGuyver. She kept asking me why I couldn’t be as smart as him (me as a 10 year old).
What a trip down to memory lane... Thanks mr. Chato!😊
_The Frantics: Four on the Foor_ may have only lasted 13 episodes, but I watched them all and enjoyed them.
Both my kids, mid-30s and late 20s, love the Golden Girls. Those NBC execs had no idea.
I love these reviews. I loved Moonlighting and it had a really cool vibe. You could tell that Bruce Willis was going somewhere.
Misfits of Science, loved that show. Watched it in Saudi 1985/86 on Betamax tapes ripped from the TV and sent from the Fluor office in Houston. They came complete with station adverts, breaking alerts and weather updates. Great humour, decent plots and good caste chemistry.
I was 13 at the time. what memories. Can't watch TV anymore. catch myself watching 80's shows on streaming services. thank you.
Kirk Cameron's friend "Boner" on Growing Pains was played by Walter Koenig's (Chekov from Star Trek) son. There was a touching farewell episode that had the hapless friend finally get serious and join the military, their heartfelt Goodbye Bro-hug made the country collectively go "Awwww!" Unfortunately the young actor went missing after leaving the show and his father became another unsolved mysteries dad.
I loved the twist ending. I didn't see it coming, granted I do not know your history. "Networks keep cancelling anthology series even though the quality is exceptionally high" raised my eyebrow. Very well done on this episode Chato. Bravo
Glad you enjoyed it!
Thank you for another of these videos!
I hope you never run out of mom's TV guides.
As a Gen X kid, I remember looking forward to getting these fall preview editions of TV Guide. Good memories from my childhood.
That Twilight Zone is hilariously campy to watch now, but a few episodes of it terrified me when I watched it with my old man. Special Service could never be made today because of technology. It was no doubt the inspiration for The Truman Show. That episode made me paranoid and I spent the next few months looking behind everything that wasn't nailed to walls anywhere I went for video cameras. I watched it about 30 years later right here on youtube and I couldn't believe how dumb it was after having hyped it up in my mind for decades. I never saw the other one I remember where the woman was in the mental hospital because she heard voices and saw people behind any walls that weren't a solid color. That one messed me up as a kid too. My parents let me watch a lot of stuff I shouldn't probably have been watching when I did. I watched The Thing when I was 5 years old. I was probably 7 when I watched They Live. I didn't realize until about 30 years later when I re-watched They Live that it was where my irrational fear of helicopters came from.
Oh, there were some really good episodes of that show. The "Nightcrawlers" one, and the Shadow Man story. They still give me the willies!
Wow. That was the year I turned 21. So I don't remember any of it.
Oct 1985 baby here. ✋
Changing the audio to sound like it did in the 80s is a nice touch. It brings back memories.
I love these tv guide videos! Well met, Chatohead!
I know of the Growing Pains episode you're talking about, guest starred Dana Plato. That show seemed to have an arc; not a narrative arc, a quality arc. Started slow, got good towards the middle seasons, then got cold again after Kirk Cameron turned into a zealot and drove the producers away. I am afraid of what you'll say about it's spinoff, Just the Ten of Us, once you get to 1988; because I love that show. Once it figured itself out, it basically became the answer to the question "What if The Golden Girls were teenagers?"
Also got a kick out of the end, thinking the "super important" part was about all the networks getting sold at the same time; when it was really about something, let's be honest, even more important than that. Mr. Canoehead forever!
I enjoyed "Just the 10 of Us", too. I had a crush on those two oldest daughters
Another great guide.
Say, Paul did I ever tell you the story of my DS9 and Voyager preview guides?
They got stolen back in '17. I had them all bagged and boarded in Ziplocks like a propper nerd too. I didn't say it was a long story. Anyway...
Looking snazzy there in '85.
I forget, when did you say you were going on FNT again? *chuckles*
I'm certain after a life of improv you are aware of this but you're wasted on videos. We want streaming Chato! FNT, you're own thing, whatever. If that tard with the goldfish can pull it off you're a shoe-in. (Just kidding, Andrew)
Now I understand it's harder to stay awake for you these days but maybe just hour long streams or cameo's. wink wink nudge nudge.
Seriously, love you P.C. keep it up.
Spenser for Hire was a favorite in my family. Su much so that I started texting the books, of which there are many.
Loved the Frantics!!! I was sad when it went off the air in 86...
Only 13 episodes it seems like we missed out on some awesomeness, well glad we got you for this show PC.
Now you are heading into the shows that I used to watch as a very little kid with my mom on a TV we bought off a repairman whose original owner never came to pick it up after two years. It lasted us 10 years. And yes I was the remote control to flip that dial.
I was a little kid in the 80s and my favorite shows back then that wasn't a cartoon were things like Mama's Family (not sure what channel Mama was on) and Mister Ed and My Three Sons, reruns on Nick at night. I believe I also watched a lot of nature/animal documentaries and Mister Roger's Neighborhood on PBS.
Misfits of Science has so many of the actors die tragic deaths. Its pretty crazy.
No way! You were part of Mr. Canoehead! I had forgotten about the show but the theme song had been stuck in my head for the past 37 years!
I'm impressed that your The Frantics got 13 episodes. That's kind awesome.
I was 10 years old in 85. I only remember the cartoons then.
My parents wouldn’t let me watch weekday prime time. I could only watch things on Fridays, Saturdays and on Sundays only up to 9PM. I actually liked Mr. Belvedere and Golden Girls (I missed most of the dirty jokes). I could only watch Moonlighting and Crazy Like a Fox on syndication.
Between you and Good Bad Flicks, we're getting a great re-introduction to the past of pop culture.
Really deserved 14 episodes
I remember taping those Frantic episodes on VHS and playing them over, and over, and over, and over again...
Finally we got to MacGuyver :) Living in Finland, I've not heard about 70% of these shows, but it was fun to see that at least we got all the real gems. This was a good year
I would watch The Equalizer with my grandma. I really love that show. I still rewatch the series beginning to end every few years. Ed Woodward was a class act.
I would have turned 8 years old just prior to the fall TV season of 1985... Some of these were regular viewing in my house. Moonlighting was one of my dad's favorites and, to this day, has two dogs named Bruce and Willis. MacGuyver was one of my favorites and Amazing Stories was great fuel for my imagination.
The original voice overs for that TWILIGHT ZONE revival were apparently erased forever and replaced with more 'commercial' ones, sadly.
I just stumbled onto your channel randomly. When I found out you were a part of The Frantics, it was a nice call back, because "boot to the head". I've never done the digging to find that Rick Green was a part of the group . Sorry your show didn't last, but if it had we might never have gotten the Red Green Show. So.... thanks?
Equalizer and Misfits of Science were must sees for me - hey, I was 12, lol
These are so great. Walks down memory lane
Class of 85 here. Hard to believe it's been almost 40 years
I get around town in a brown car . Thank you for thirteen wonderful episodes.
Mr. Belvedere Goes to College - absolute classic! Great call!
Your TV Guide series are always fun. Thank you. I am amazed at the number of shows I forgot even existed. I must say, I still love the Spencer For Hire theme music from season 1 and the first season of Twilight Zone was amazing until Harlan Ellison got mad and quit.
Many Thanks Chato, for taking us back to those good old days. I remember 1985 fondly, for all it's ups and downs - especially the crazy, wonderful stuff on TV( including the rubbish, it had a lot of charm) . I love your retrospective videos, hope you revisit Prisoners of Gravity. Cheers.
Thanks. My favourite shows to do. Appreciate your support.
Edward Woodward is such a fun name to say.
Was working nights in 1985-6 and missed virtually all of these shows. Never knew that Flip Wilson did a situation comedy.
My word I remember 227. That was a delightful show.
This always cheers me up!
I’ve been watching your channel for about a year and had NO IDEA you were in Four on the Floor. I loved that show! I remember turning my grandmother’s satellite to one of the outlier satellites at her home in Missouri to catch your show. They’d wonder why the satellite was turned that way and my grandmother would just say he’s watching that canoe head thing again.
When you hold up other years lineups to this... especially newer ones, 1985 was a pretty good year.
Had no idea you were part of Four On The Floor! My friends and I watched it whenever we could
Time well wasted.
Thank you for this, I enjoy these fall reviews a lot.
Love these videos.
So many classic shows. Love these videos
I actually remember that issue being on our coffee table in 1985.
After nearly flunking out of college I spent the season avoiding TV. My one luxury being Hill Street Blues when nearly 40 people from the dorm would cram into the communal TV room.
Love these.
Ah yes - Me & Friends used to imitate Avery Brooks 's signature disapproval line, "Spenc-aaaa!" whenever one of us came up with a bad idea!
Loved "The Equalizer". Still remember the soundtrack created the the Police's Stuart Copeland.
These are just wonderful, Thank you for another entertaining and informative episode :)
Glad you like them!
Who was it who produced Tales From The Crypt?
Was it Zemeckis? There was some big director involved.
I noticed that one got a lot of big guest actors and directors.
I was just thinking of that because that was the most recent anthology series I can think of that WAS successful, and that was 30 years ago.
There's a "Creepshow" series on now that keeps getting renewed, so it must be having some level of success. And we could call "Black Mirror" an anthology, now that I think of it.