Back Door Pilots Of Shows

[bpatrick]

That's Incredible was not a spinoff of Real People.
Real People was created and produced by George
Schlatter (who also did Laugh-In and that one-night
monstrosity, Turn-On), while That's Incredible was
the work of Alan Landsburg, perhaps best known
prior to that as producer of the original syndicated
Biography series with Mike Wallace as narrator.

That's Incredible was, like so many things on television,
an attempt by one network to cash in on another's big
hit (ABC had had problems on Mondays at 8 for several
years, so their programmers probably figured, why not
bring out our own version of a hot show, which happened
to be on NBC). Even Mark Goodson got into the act,
transforming What's My Line? into That's My Line for CBS.

BTW, I think Manimal came after Fred Silverman had been
fired from NBC; he was axed in 1981 and Manimal debuted
in '83, which puts it in the Grant Tinker/Brandon Tartikoff
era. Oh well. Even the best programming minds have to
fail occasionally.

One other note about Silverman: either in retrospect or
through revisionist history, it's said that he had a knack
for finding hidden elements in a show that could be transformed
into the strongest element (he gets the credit, for example,
for elevating Fonzie into the real star of Happy Days), and
he was certainly the master of the spinoff (Rhoda and Phyllis
from Mary Tyler Moore, Laverne & Shirley from Happy Days--
he'd left ABC before somebody decided to spin off Mork & Mindy).
What he couldn't do was create a schedule from scratch, which
he effectively had to do at NBC; Paul Klein had practically swept
the schedule clean in favor of movies, miniseries, and specials.
Silverman had a few elements in place when he got there: Little
House On The Prairie, Rockford Files, Quincy, CHiPs, The Wonderful
World Of Disney, and that's about it. And Silverman knew that the
audience tends to prefer shows with continuing characters...only
NBC didn't have them. The task he faced was daunting enough,
but some of his ideas (like Supertrain) also made people wonder if
his mental well had run dry.

 

[radiorob2.0]

It’s amazing nobody has resurrected “That’s Incredible”. In today’s reality heavy TV schedule a few stories on Spontaneous Human Combustion could mean rating points in key demographics.

Speaking of Skip Stevenson, I wondered around Google a while back to find out what happened to him. Of course I can’t find the link at this moment but there was a picture of his gravestone with the words, “Procrastination stops here.”

 

[WMC2006]

OK, That's Incredible ran from 1980 to 1984 on ABC and starred John Davidson, Fran Tarkenton, and the most lovely Cathy Lee Crosby.

That's Incredible returned in 1997, according to IMDB.com, but it doesn't say for how many episodes. Hosts were Ken Taylor (who now apparently hosts The Screening Room with Debbie Matenopolous on TV Guide Channel) and Baywatch actress and model Gina Lee Nolin.

There was a That's Incredible Special in 2002 which reunited John, Fran, and Cathy Lee.

And, finally, something called the That's Incredible Reunion: Part 2 in 2003.

Real People ran on NBC from 1979 to 1984.

Hosts included:

-the lovely Sarah Purcell (1979-1984)
-Byron Allen (1979-1984, according to IMDB. I thought he was more "occasional")
-Bill Rafferty (79-84)
-John Barbour (79-82)
-Fred Willard (79, 81-83)
-Skip Stephenson (79-84)
-Mark Russell (79-84)(He is described as a "host" but I thought he was more of an occasional commentator)
-Peter Michaelsen (82-84, known then as Peter Billingsley. He was a little tot)
-Kerry Millerick (82-83) (I vaguely recall this guy but he didnt last too long.)

John Barbour is also credited as a producer of the show. I vaguely recall him suing NBC for firing him from the show but I dont know why he was fired. I kinda doubt he sued ABC/That's Incredible as someone else mentioned.

Byron Allen hosts one of those overnight entertainment celebrity shows.

Skip Stephenson died in 1992 of a heart attack.

Little Peter Billingsley just served as co-producer of the Jennifer Aniston/Vince Vaughn movie "The Breakup".

 

[bk77]

Actually John Barbour DID file a lawsuit against ABC around the same time when he did Real People. Not sure what the suit was about but I do remember reading about it at the time in TV Guide.

Must not have been that big a deal since ABC did hire Barbour in the early-mid 80s
to do some sort of latenight show after Nightline. I remember the ads showing Barbour saying "we are giving John Barbour one week".

Whatever Barbour did I guess few people saw it. This isn't even on IMDB.

 

[azumanga]

OK, That's Incredible ran from 1980 to 1984 on ABC and starred John Davidson, Fran Tarkenton, and the most lovely Cathy Lee Crosby.

That's Incredible returned in 1997, according to IMDB.com...

There was a That's Incredible Special in 2002 which reunited John, Fran, and Cathy Lee.

And, finally, something called the That's Incredible Reunion: Part 2 in 2003.

In 1988, That's Incredible had its first revival on ABC, hosted by John Davidson, Cristina Ferrare (a fashion model) and Tracey Gold (of Growing Pains fame). However, it had a different title -- "Incredible Sunday".

Little Peter Billingsley just served as co-producer of the Jennifer Aniston/Vince Vaughn movie "The Breakup".

I also recall Peter being one of the hosts of a special episode of Real People, which might've been a pilot, called "Real Kids", which featured a group of kids talking about interesting kids. Apparently, it was a one-shot thing, but enough for Peter to be part of the main "Real people" group.

And of course, many of know Peter as the "You'll shoot your eye out" kid in "A Christmas Story".

ABC did hire Barbour in the early-mid 80s
to do some sort of latenight show after Nightline. I remember the ads showing Barbour saying "we are giving John Barbour one week".

Whatever Barbour did I guess few people saw it. This isn't even on IMDB.

Apparently, Barbour's ABC tryout only cleared a few affiliates -- I haven't heard of it until now. I don't even know if it was during a time when ABC still had a late-night movie and rerun line-up, which followed Nightline in the early-1980s.

 

[FilmCritic3K]

Little Peter Billingsley just served as co-producer of the Jennifer Aniston/Vince Vaughn movie "The Breakup".

He's also an executive producer on the upcoming film adaptation of Marvel Comics' Iron Man, due out in May of next year. Robert Downey, Jr.'s playing the title character and Billingsley's longtime friend Jon Favreau is writing and directing the movie.

 

[weee]

I know there was an episode where a neighbor's wife had died and the girls tried to help him through his grief. I'm almost certain the neighbor was 'Harry Weston.' Perhaps this is the same episode or was it part of a story-arc?

That was an episode of the Golden Girls where a neighbor was a widow with a 16 yr old daughter, played by Julie McCollough who became pregnant and the father threw her out and she landed at the Deveraux Compound LOL I wonder if this was a BDP in the very early stages of what turned into Empty Nest. The only thing that resembles EN is that the father is a widow and they were the Girl's neighbor. I don't even think they had a Dreyfus.

 

[jwk1979]

Actually John Barbour DID file a lawsuit against ABC around the same time when he did Real People. Not sure what the suit was about but I do remember reading about it at the time in TV Guide.

Must not have been that big a deal since ABC did hire Barbour in the early-mid 80s
to do some sort of latenight show after Nightline. I remember the ads showing Barbour saying "we are giving John Barbour one week".

Whatever Barbour did I guess few people saw it. This isn't even on IMDB.

John Barbour also hosted a show very simular to "Real People" on "Showtime" during the early 80's, with a more adult content than would be allowed on network television. I'm not sure if it was a one shot special or a series, but I do remember seeing it around 1982 and again around 1984/1985.

 

[Ultimajock]

...John Barbour seemed to never quite know what he wanted to be when he grew up. He wrote an episode of "My Mother The Car," which appears to be (at least on the IMDb) his only sitcom writing credit. He appeared as a stand-up comic twice on "The Dean Martin Show" in 1967, but nobody seemed to notice (even Dean). He was a pinch hit host for Merv Griffin in 1969, during the last year of Merv's Westinghouse syndicated show; as I understand it, that was itself a tryout for his own talk show (thus qualifying for this thread), but his treatment of guests (especially French Olympic gold medal skiier Jean-Claude Killy) was so vicious that it merited a memorable Harlan Ellison essay in the Los Angeles Free Press (reprinted in his book The Glass Teat. (Maybe Barbour really wanted to replace the then-ailing Joe Pyne instead?) He then occasionally popped up on various sitcoms and dramas -- "Get Smart," "Ironside," "Sanford & Son," "The Governor & J.J." -- in bit parts. He hosted the pilot of "The Gong Show" but was so clueless that he ripped into the celebrity judges whenever they gonged a really bad act. He was the TV critic for Los Angeles Magazine in the mid-'70s, often trying to copy Ellison's acidic tone from a few years earlier but without much of a point. Just before "Real People," Barbour cut a comedy album for Lew Bidell's Dore Records (the same outfit that put out Hudson & Landry and Victor Buono LPs in the early '70s) that also went nowhere. After George Schlatter booted him from "Real People," Barbour showed up on "PBS LateNight" to grouse about how the show would now flop because of too much Sarah Purcell and giving a 10-year-old kid (Peter Billingsley) his old chair as co-host. (The show went on for *two* seasons after Barbour's prediction.) The last time I saw Barbour was on an Ernie Kovacs tribute special he hosted for Showtime in the early '80s; he apparently was also a host of "On Stage America," Metromedia's attempt to revive the variety series genre in 1984, and a regular panelist on the 1988 revival of "The Liar's Club," neither of which I ever looked at. After those, Barbour appears to have slithered back to his native Canada to pilfer CTV and Global network treasuries before even they declared him a has-been who never really-was in the first place...

 

[Legend City]

Unless I missed it, there has been no mention of "Blansky's Beauties". Nancy Walker was introduced on an episode of "Happy Days" as a relation of Mr. C. However, "Blansky's Beauties" took place in the modern day (circa 1977) and characters from "Happy Days" made appearances. The concept of time travel was never mention and there were no signs of a DeLorean with the Flux Capacitor/Mr. Fusion option.

I was gonna mention Blansky's Beauties, boy was that a weird one. The producers sure kept to their stable of stars, Scott Baio did two shows at once and so did Linda Goodfriend. A terrible show, much worse than the Nancy Walker show.

Hello Larry was done in a total backdoor, but yes, Kim Richards was a hottie! (she still is, she is in a short film with her costar from Witch Mountain Ike Eisenberg, who also directed)


Re: Peter Billingsley, he also is producer of the great Jon Faverau talk show "Dinner for Five" and he was a producer of Faverau's movie follow up to Jumanji.

 

[Newname]

I never actually saw 'Blansky's Beauties', but I did see the 'Happy Days' episode where Nancy Walker first played the character. On 'HD', she was Howard Cunningham's cousin.
I believe that show aired in midseason 1977, shortly before Scott Baio and Lynda Goodfriend became regulars on 'HD'.
That would mean they were playing other characters, even if the only difference would have been their names.
I know Pat Morita played a Japanese chef named 'Arnold' on both shows, so that one, at least, was probably the same character

 

[rwells2265]

John Barbour ... hosted the pilot of "The Gong Show" but was so clueless that he ripped into the celebrity judges whenever they gonged a really bad act.

More than just the pilot ep, it seems. In his book The Game Show King, Chuck Barris said an entire week's worth of shows were taped, and were all scrapped after CB couldn't get Barbour to understand that "Gong" was a parody, while Barbour was playing it as the second coming of Ted Mack.

One of the Barbour eps is on the trade circuit. I've seen it, and it's terrible. He was so uptight and haughty up there, that he could've used a good Jaye P. Morgan flashing... ;D

--Russell

 

[Ultimajock]

John Barbour ... hosted the pilot of "The Gong Show" but was so clueless that he ripped into the celebrity judges whenever they gonged a really bad act.

More than just the pilot ep, it seems. In his book The Game Show King, Chuck Barris said an entire week's worth of shows were taped, and were all scrapped after CB couldn't get Barbour to understand that "Gong" was a parody, while Barbour was playing it as the second coming of Ted Mack.

One of the Barbour eps is on the trade circuit. I've seen it, and it's terrible. He was so uptight and haughty up there, that he could've used a good Jaye P. Morgan flashing... ;D

--Russell

...hey, 30 years ago we *all* could've used a good Jaye P. Morgan flashing. Come to think of it, we *did* use at least one of 'em ;-) ...

 

[weee]

It’s amazing nobody has resurrected “That’s Incredible”. In today’s reality heavy TV schedule a few stories on Spontaneous Human Combustion could mean rating points in key demographics.

Speaking of Skip Stevenson, I wondered around Google a while back to find out what happened to him. Of course I can’t find the link at this moment but there was a picture of his gravestone with the words, “Procrastination stops here.”

I found it on www.findagrave.com

Here's the headstone http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pis&GRid=12596&PIgrid=12596&PIcrid=100792&PIpi=93988&

 

[azumanga]

In his book The Game Show King, Chuck Barris said an entire week's worth of shows were taped, and were all scrapped after CB couldn't get Barbour to understand that "Gong" was a parody, while Barbour was playing it as the second coming of Ted Mack.

Apparently, the closest the Barbour episodes ever got to air (besides the pilot airing on GSN) was when TV Guide ran an NBC ad for the show -- featuring Barbour as host. Little did viewers knew that there would be a slight change of plans by showtime.

 

[tantric38]

It's interesting that you should bring up the subject of "backdoor pilots." I never knew that there was a term for this annoying practice. It's one thing when All in the Family used this technique as a springboard for Maude because the latter became an actual series. But one of my pet peeves is when they run a backdoor pilot for a show that went absolutely nowhere beyond that stage. One example that comes to mind: The Cosby Show episode w/ Tony Orlando. Remember that? And Married W/ Children pulled that stunt a few times too. I don't even think they should count among the reruns. Stations should just keep those in mothballs. They weren't good enough to make it as a series so why run them anymore? If I want to see MWC, I expect to see MWC and not some ill-conceived spinoff attempt with characters the writers pulled out of their...yeah. (Incidentally. the Cosby ep. w/ John Ritter featured Amy Yasbeck as his expectant wife, who was Ritter's spouse in real life.)
Another thing I hate is when stations run Christmas episodes when it's not the holiday season. Could someone explain why they don't simply weed out these shows and keep them shelved before Thanksgiving and after New Years?

 

[Mike Stroud]

There was an episode of Emergency that Jack Webb used as pilot of another show.
Even though most of the cast of Emergency appeared most of the show was centered around some animal control guys played by Mark Harmon and Gary Cosby.

The episode was titled "905-WILD," which would have been the title of the proposed show (presumably during the 1975-76 season); original air date was March 1, 1975. Like the other Mark VII shows, this one would have been about a governmental agency, this time the Los Angeles County Animal Control Department. It seemed that Webb was sure running short of ideas by then; that season witnessed the flop of the Emergency knock-off Sierra, which featured the exploits of the U.S. National Park Service. Perhaps Webb was trying to somehow revive his old Noah's Ark from the 1950s, in spirit at least--more about that some other time.

 

[Tim L]

It's interesting that you should bring up the subject of "backdoor pilots." I never knew that there was a term for this annoying practice. It's one thing when All in the Family used this technique as a springboard for Maude because the latter became an actual series. But one of my pet peeves is when they run a backdoor pilot for a show that went absolutely nowhere beyond that stage. One example that comes to mind: The Cosby Show episode w/ Tony Orlando. Remember that? And Married W/ Children pulled that stunt a few times too. I don't even think they should count among the reruns. Stations should just keep those in mothballs. They weren't good enough to make it as a series so why run them anymore? If I want to see MWC, I expect to see MWC and not some ill-conceived spinoff attempt with characters the writers pulled out of their...yeah. (Incidentally. the Cosby ep. w/ John Ritter featured Amy Yasbeck as his expectant wife, who was Ritter's spouse in real life.)
Another thing I hate is when stations run Christmas episodes when it's not the holiday season. Could someone explain why they don't simply weed out these shows and keep them shelved before Thanksgiving and after New Years?

Tantric:
All the "Backdoor Pilots" you mention were discussed elsewhere in the thread..Interesting reading..(Not being snarky by saying that, btw..)As far as Holiday shows, I dont mind seeing them any time of year..I am pretty much a softie when it comes to the holidays..

 

[tantric38]

They wouldn't have to go thru all the tapes or whatever to weed out those Xmas shows during ordinary time. It's very simple: When they come across a holiday episode in June, set it aside. What's so hard? It can't cost anything.

 

[therealjm12]

They wouldn't have to go thru all the tapes or whatever to weed out those Xmas shows during ordinary time. It's very simple: When they come across a holiday episode in June, set it aside. What's so hard? It can't cost anything.

Yes, it would cost something. Stations need to run the shows as the syndicators provide them. They can't just set them aside.
TV stations have very little control over the order of the episodes shown. Now days a lot of shows are sent down satellite the day the episode is to be shown. No more film or video tape.