Post by tHeOwL on Aug 29, 2004 12:59:02 GMT -5
Do you have any memories of these shows? Let us know by replying to this message.
THE FLIP WILSON SHOW
Comedy Variety
FIRST TELECAST: September 17, 1970
Comic Flip Wilson was the first black performer to achieve major popularity as host of his own variety hour. The Flip Wilson Show was an enormous hit, placing number two among all programs on television during its first two seasons. Although music and guests were an important part of the format, Flip's comedy was the real focal point of the series. In various skits he played a collection of stock characters, which included: Geraldine Jones, sassy, swinging, liberated woman with a very jealous boyfriend named "Killer"; Reverend LeRoy of the Church of What's Happening Now, a gospel preacher who seemed to be slightly less than honest and just a touch lecherous; Danny Danger, private detective; and Herbie, the Good Time Ice Cream Man. Flip's best known expression was a wide-eyed "The Devil made me do it!"
ALL IN THE FAMILY
Situation Comedy
FIRST TELECAST: January 12, 1971
THEME: "Those Were the Days," by Strouse and Adams, sung at the opening of each show by Archie and Edith through the 1978-1979 season, replaced by an instrumental version after that.
PRODUCER: Norman Lear
Sound Clip (Windows WAVE)
All in the Family changed the course of television comedy. Based on the British series Till Death Do Us Part, it brought a sense of harsh reality to a TV world which previously had been populated largely by homogenized, inoffensive characters and stories that seemed to have been laundered before they ever got on the air. Its chief character, Archie Bunker (Carroll O'Connor), was anything but bland. A typical working-class Joe, he was uneducated, prejudiced and blatantly outspoken. He was constantly lambasting virtually every minority group in existence. His views on blacks (or, as he often called them, "jungle bunnies," or "spades"), Puerto Ricans ("spics"), Chinese ("chinks") and any other racial or religious group not his own, were clear and consistent. Archie believed in every negative racial and ethnic stereotype he had ever heard.
CANNON
Detective Drama
FIRST TELECAST: September 14, 1971
Balding, middle-aged and portly, detective Frank Cannon (William Conrad) represented quite a change from the traditional suave, handsome private detectives TV had brought to its viewers. He occasionally let his conscience dictate his choice of cases, but more often his wallet took precedence. To most clients he charged a high fee, in order to provide himself with the money to indulge in personal luxuries such as an expensive convertible and fine cuisine. Cannon rarely fired a shot, was in no condition to beat up his adversaries, and was generally seen driving around Los Angeles in his big shiny Continental. The car took more physical abuse than Cannon did, often getting dented, scraped, and mangled during chase sequences.
COLUMBO
Police Drama
FIRST TELECAST: September 15, 1971
At the beginning of each Columbo episode the audience witnessed a clever murder and saw the ingenious measures the murderer took to prevent detection by the police. Then into the case came Lt. Columbo (he never did have a first name). Lt. Columbo (Peter Falk) drove a beat-up old car, wore a dirty, rumpled trench coat that looked at least ten years old, and acted for all the world like an incompetent bumbler. He was excessively polite to everyone, went out of his way not to offend any of the suspects, and seemed like a hopeless choice to solve any crime, especially a well-conceived murder. But all that was superficial, designed to lull the murderer into a false sense of security. Despite his appearance, Columbo was one of the shrewdest, most resourceful detectives on the Los Angeles police force. Slowly and methodically he pieced together the most minute clues leading to the identity of the killer, who, when his guilt was revealed, was always incredulous that such an unlikely cop had managed to find him out.
FUNNY FACE
Situation Comedy
FIRST TELECAST: September 18, 1971
Sandy Duncan was considered one of the most promising new stars in television when this comedy series was launched in the fall of 1971. She was cast as Sandy Stockton, a pert young UCLA student majoring in education who made ends meet by working part-time as an actress in TV commercials. The big-city life of Los Angeles was a constant challenge for Sandy, who hailed from the small town of Taylorville, Illinois. Helping her cope were her next-door neighbor and best friend, Alice McRaven (Valorie Armstrong), and Mr. and Mrs. Harwell (Henry Beckman and Kathleen Freeman), the nosy landlords. Funny Face did not make the grade, but the character of Sandy Stockton was to return the following season in a similar venture called The Sandy Duncan Show.
GETTING TOGETHER
Situation Comedy
FIRST TELECAST: September 18, 1971
THEME: "Getting Together," by Helen Miller and Roger Atkins
Recording star Bobby Sherman played a young songwriter struggling to make it in the popular music business in this youth-oriented comedy. Bobby Conway had the melodies, and his tone-deaf, offbeat friend Lionel Poindexter (Wes Stern) wrote the lyrics. Bobby's mod-rock world was not without responsibilities, however, as he was legal guardian of his freckle-faced, 12-year-old sister Jennifer (Susan Neher). The three of them, Bobby, Lionel and Jennifer, lived in an antique shop (it was cheap -- but occasionally the furniture got sold out from underneath them) while Bobby worked as a recording engineer, and the boys tried to peddle their songs. Rita Simon (Pat Carroll) was their motherly landlady, and Rudy Colcheck (Jack Burns) her policeman-boyfriend.
THE BOB NEWHART SHOW
Situation Comedy
FIRST TELECAST: September 16, 1972
Robert (Bob) Hartley (Bob Newhart) was a successful Chicago psychologist who lived in a high-rise apartment with his wife Emily (Suzanne Pleshette), an elementary schoolteacher. Bob shared the services of his receptionist Carol (Marica Wallace) with a bachelor dentist, Jerry Robinson (Peter Bonerz). Carol was a brash, nutty individual who could dish it out pretty well to both her bosses. In the fall of 1975, she married Larry Bondurant (Will Mackenzie), a travel agent, after a whirlwind courtship. Originally two of the Hartley's neighbors were seen on a regular basis: Howard Borden (Bill Daily), a divorced commercial airline pilot who had an annoying habit of barging into their apartment without knocking; and Margaret Hoover (Patricia Smith), friend of Emily's. For a period Bob's sister Ellen (Pat Finley) lived with him and Emily, and at one point almost married Howard, but that passed.
BRIDGET LOVES BERNIE
Situation Comedy
FIRST TELECAST: September 16, 1972
This show was part of a wave of "ethnic" comedies in the early 1970s that followed on the success of All in the Family and Sanford and Son. Bernie (David Birney) was Jewish, a struggling young writer who supplemented his income by driving a cab. Bridget (Meredith Baxter), his young bride, was an elementary schoolteacher whose parents (Audra Lindley and David Doyle) were wealthy Irish Catholics. The couple shared a small apartment above a New York City delicatessen owned by Bernie's parents (Harold J. Stone and Bibi Osterwald). The widely divergent ethnic, cultural, and social backgrounds of the Steinberg and Fitzgerald families, and their attempts to reconcile for the sake of the young couple, provided most of the plot situations. Any resemblance to the vintage Broadway play Abie's Irish Rose was hardly coincidental.
EMERGENCY
General Drama
FIRST TELECAST: January 22, 1972
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Jack Webb
Done in the semi-documentary style for which Jack Webb had become famous with Dragnet, Emergency followed the efforts of Squad 51 of the Los Angeles County Fire Department's Paramedical Rescue Service. Paramedics Roy DeSoto (Kevin Tighe) and John Gage (Randolph Mantooth) were usually at the center of the action, while the emergency staff of Rampart Hospital provided backup assistance. Each telecast depicted several interwoven incidents, some humorous, some touching, others tragic. A typical night's work might have the paramedics called on to help an overweight woman who was having trouble breathing because her girdle was too tight, or aiding a maintenance worker who had broken his back in a 100-foot fall from a smokestack he was painting. One of the specialties of the paramedics seemed to be saving "danglers" -- people trapped in precarious positions because of faulty rigging, collapsing scaffolding, or the like.
BARNABY JONES
Detective Drama
FIRST TELECAST: January 28, 1973
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Quinn Martin
After a long successful career as a private investigator, Barnaby Jones (Buddy Ebsen) had retired, leaving the business to his son Hal. When Hal was murdered while on a case, Barnaby came out of retirement to help track down his son's killer. Hal's widow, Betty (Lee Meriweather), worked with her father-in-law to solve the case and remained with him, as his assistant, when he decided to keep his Los Angeles-based firm in operation. His keen analytic skills were often masked by a homespun exterior, drawing guilty parties into a false sense of security that led to their downfall. Until Cannon -- another Los Angeles detective series -- went off the air in the fall of 1975, there was occasional interplay between it and Barnaby Jones.
THE FLIP WILSON SHOW
Comedy Variety
FIRST TELECAST: September 17, 1970
Comic Flip Wilson was the first black performer to achieve major popularity as host of his own variety hour. The Flip Wilson Show was an enormous hit, placing number two among all programs on television during its first two seasons. Although music and guests were an important part of the format, Flip's comedy was the real focal point of the series. In various skits he played a collection of stock characters, which included: Geraldine Jones, sassy, swinging, liberated woman with a very jealous boyfriend named "Killer"; Reverend LeRoy of the Church of What's Happening Now, a gospel preacher who seemed to be slightly less than honest and just a touch lecherous; Danny Danger, private detective; and Herbie, the Good Time Ice Cream Man. Flip's best known expression was a wide-eyed "The Devil made me do it!"
ALL IN THE FAMILY
Situation Comedy
FIRST TELECAST: January 12, 1971
THEME: "Those Were the Days," by Strouse and Adams, sung at the opening of each show by Archie and Edith through the 1978-1979 season, replaced by an instrumental version after that.
PRODUCER: Norman Lear
Sound Clip (Windows WAVE)
All in the Family changed the course of television comedy. Based on the British series Till Death Do Us Part, it brought a sense of harsh reality to a TV world which previously had been populated largely by homogenized, inoffensive characters and stories that seemed to have been laundered before they ever got on the air. Its chief character, Archie Bunker (Carroll O'Connor), was anything but bland. A typical working-class Joe, he was uneducated, prejudiced and blatantly outspoken. He was constantly lambasting virtually every minority group in existence. His views on blacks (or, as he often called them, "jungle bunnies," or "spades"), Puerto Ricans ("spics"), Chinese ("chinks") and any other racial or religious group not his own, were clear and consistent. Archie believed in every negative racial and ethnic stereotype he had ever heard.
CANNON
Detective Drama
FIRST TELECAST: September 14, 1971
Balding, middle-aged and portly, detective Frank Cannon (William Conrad) represented quite a change from the traditional suave, handsome private detectives TV had brought to its viewers. He occasionally let his conscience dictate his choice of cases, but more often his wallet took precedence. To most clients he charged a high fee, in order to provide himself with the money to indulge in personal luxuries such as an expensive convertible and fine cuisine. Cannon rarely fired a shot, was in no condition to beat up his adversaries, and was generally seen driving around Los Angeles in his big shiny Continental. The car took more physical abuse than Cannon did, often getting dented, scraped, and mangled during chase sequences.
COLUMBO
Police Drama
FIRST TELECAST: September 15, 1971
At the beginning of each Columbo episode the audience witnessed a clever murder and saw the ingenious measures the murderer took to prevent detection by the police. Then into the case came Lt. Columbo (he never did have a first name). Lt. Columbo (Peter Falk) drove a beat-up old car, wore a dirty, rumpled trench coat that looked at least ten years old, and acted for all the world like an incompetent bumbler. He was excessively polite to everyone, went out of his way not to offend any of the suspects, and seemed like a hopeless choice to solve any crime, especially a well-conceived murder. But all that was superficial, designed to lull the murderer into a false sense of security. Despite his appearance, Columbo was one of the shrewdest, most resourceful detectives on the Los Angeles police force. Slowly and methodically he pieced together the most minute clues leading to the identity of the killer, who, when his guilt was revealed, was always incredulous that such an unlikely cop had managed to find him out.
FUNNY FACE
Situation Comedy
FIRST TELECAST: September 18, 1971
Sandy Duncan was considered one of the most promising new stars in television when this comedy series was launched in the fall of 1971. She was cast as Sandy Stockton, a pert young UCLA student majoring in education who made ends meet by working part-time as an actress in TV commercials. The big-city life of Los Angeles was a constant challenge for Sandy, who hailed from the small town of Taylorville, Illinois. Helping her cope were her next-door neighbor and best friend, Alice McRaven (Valorie Armstrong), and Mr. and Mrs. Harwell (Henry Beckman and Kathleen Freeman), the nosy landlords. Funny Face did not make the grade, but the character of Sandy Stockton was to return the following season in a similar venture called The Sandy Duncan Show.
GETTING TOGETHER
Situation Comedy
FIRST TELECAST: September 18, 1971
THEME: "Getting Together," by Helen Miller and Roger Atkins
Recording star Bobby Sherman played a young songwriter struggling to make it in the popular music business in this youth-oriented comedy. Bobby Conway had the melodies, and his tone-deaf, offbeat friend Lionel Poindexter (Wes Stern) wrote the lyrics. Bobby's mod-rock world was not without responsibilities, however, as he was legal guardian of his freckle-faced, 12-year-old sister Jennifer (Susan Neher). The three of them, Bobby, Lionel and Jennifer, lived in an antique shop (it was cheap -- but occasionally the furniture got sold out from underneath them) while Bobby worked as a recording engineer, and the boys tried to peddle their songs. Rita Simon (Pat Carroll) was their motherly landlady, and Rudy Colcheck (Jack Burns) her policeman-boyfriend.
THE BOB NEWHART SHOW
Situation Comedy
FIRST TELECAST: September 16, 1972
Robert (Bob) Hartley (Bob Newhart) was a successful Chicago psychologist who lived in a high-rise apartment with his wife Emily (Suzanne Pleshette), an elementary schoolteacher. Bob shared the services of his receptionist Carol (Marica Wallace) with a bachelor dentist, Jerry Robinson (Peter Bonerz). Carol was a brash, nutty individual who could dish it out pretty well to both her bosses. In the fall of 1975, she married Larry Bondurant (Will Mackenzie), a travel agent, after a whirlwind courtship. Originally two of the Hartley's neighbors were seen on a regular basis: Howard Borden (Bill Daily), a divorced commercial airline pilot who had an annoying habit of barging into their apartment without knocking; and Margaret Hoover (Patricia Smith), friend of Emily's. For a period Bob's sister Ellen (Pat Finley) lived with him and Emily, and at one point almost married Howard, but that passed.
BRIDGET LOVES BERNIE
Situation Comedy
FIRST TELECAST: September 16, 1972
This show was part of a wave of "ethnic" comedies in the early 1970s that followed on the success of All in the Family and Sanford and Son. Bernie (David Birney) was Jewish, a struggling young writer who supplemented his income by driving a cab. Bridget (Meredith Baxter), his young bride, was an elementary schoolteacher whose parents (Audra Lindley and David Doyle) were wealthy Irish Catholics. The couple shared a small apartment above a New York City delicatessen owned by Bernie's parents (Harold J. Stone and Bibi Osterwald). The widely divergent ethnic, cultural, and social backgrounds of the Steinberg and Fitzgerald families, and their attempts to reconcile for the sake of the young couple, provided most of the plot situations. Any resemblance to the vintage Broadway play Abie's Irish Rose was hardly coincidental.
EMERGENCY
General Drama
FIRST TELECAST: January 22, 1972
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Jack Webb
Done in the semi-documentary style for which Jack Webb had become famous with Dragnet, Emergency followed the efforts of Squad 51 of the Los Angeles County Fire Department's Paramedical Rescue Service. Paramedics Roy DeSoto (Kevin Tighe) and John Gage (Randolph Mantooth) were usually at the center of the action, while the emergency staff of Rampart Hospital provided backup assistance. Each telecast depicted several interwoven incidents, some humorous, some touching, others tragic. A typical night's work might have the paramedics called on to help an overweight woman who was having trouble breathing because her girdle was too tight, or aiding a maintenance worker who had broken his back in a 100-foot fall from a smokestack he was painting. One of the specialties of the paramedics seemed to be saving "danglers" -- people trapped in precarious positions because of faulty rigging, collapsing scaffolding, or the like.
BARNABY JONES
Detective Drama
FIRST TELECAST: January 28, 1973
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Quinn Martin
After a long successful career as a private investigator, Barnaby Jones (Buddy Ebsen) had retired, leaving the business to his son Hal. When Hal was murdered while on a case, Barnaby came out of retirement to help track down his son's killer. Hal's widow, Betty (Lee Meriweather), worked with her father-in-law to solve the case and remained with him, as his assistant, when he decided to keep his Los Angeles-based firm in operation. His keen analytic skills were often masked by a homespun exterior, drawing guilty parties into a false sense of security that led to their downfall. Until Cannon -- another Los Angeles detective series -- went off the air in the fall of 1975, there was occasional interplay between it and Barnaby Jones.
