Forgotten Network/Syndicated TV Shows of the Past

[milwaukee_dave]

CBS' Crime Time After Prime Time block in the early to mid 1990s was mentioned a few times in this thread. Given its time slot, it's kind of obvious the production values, etc. would be less than what you'd see in prime time. As I recall, most -- if not all -- of the shows in that block were Canadian imports (or Canadian production companies had a stake in the series). One of my favorites from that era in CBS' late night programming strategy was the Montreal-based "Urban Angel" (1991-1993). You could tell the production was a bit flimsy, but the plot lines, in my opinion, were solid and the cast gelled. It also had one of my all-time favorite theme songs.

Speaking of Canadian-produced series, here's another one I don't believe was mentioned: the teen-targeted sitcom "Hangin' In" (1981-1987). The earnest series focused on the goings on at a teen counseling center and was a launching pad for a number of actors. (Eric McCormack, later of "Will and Grace" is one such actor.) Nickelodeon imported the series here in the U.S. in the late 1980s. In 1990-91, WGN also used reruns of the series on its national signal to cover up programming on the local version that was subject to SyndEx.

 

[WMC2006]

The late night syndicated The Dennis Miller Show from 1992. Lasted about 6 months or so as I recall. I enjoyed it.

 

[flashback]

how about the charlie daniels talent contest show on the nashville network?

that was the program that daniels pretty much denounced and denied his rock radio roots when talking to an owner of a country station he said."what other kind is there?"

i guess he forgot and was not thankful to who brought him to the dance.

 

[azumanga]

Speaking of Canadian-produced series, here's another one I don't believe was mentioned: the teen-targeted sitcom "Hangin' In" (1981-1987). Nickelodeon imported the series here in the U.S. in the late 1980s.

I don't believe this series ever aired on Nick, though it did air in syndication around the mid-to-late 1980s.

 

[KyDXIn]

"People Will Talk" (NBC, 1963): Few remember that "Hollywood Squares" had its roots in
this Dennis James-hosted game... Later revived on CBS primetime as "Celebrity Game" with Carl
Reiner as host.

"Celebrity Game" came out around 1964 -- following the success of "The Hollywood Squares", creators Heatter-Quigley would revive "Celebrity Game" again for CBS in 1967, this time with Bert Parks as host.

Do you mean Bert Parks, the singer and dancer?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJBDcb7kq_g&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PLFCC04DA1FEF73BAE

 

[cordeliachase]

I love this thread! Anyone remember "Night Heat," a Canadian buddy-cop show that aired late nights on CBS in the mid '80's?

What about "Street Justice," a syndicated buddy-cop show from the early '90's? "Street Justice" starred Carl Weathers and Bryan Genesse the first year. The next year, the producers must have said, "We need a smoking-hot looking character who looks great in a suit!" A pre "Will and Grace" Eric McCormack was added as Weathers' partner the second and final year.

Has anyone mentioned an early '80's show that starred Ann Jillian as one of several waitresses that worked in a top-floor restaurant? It might have been a network show it's first year, but I believe it was syndicated for several years after that.

And finally, "Gibbsville," a slow-paced drama based on the works of author John O'Hara. "Gibbsville" starred John Savage and Gig Young and aired on NBC in the mid '70's. WGN reran "Gibbsville" late nights for a time in 1991.

 

[EricStein]

Has anyone mentioned an early '80's show that starred Ann Jillian as one of several waitresses that worked in a top-floor restaurant? It might have been a network show it's first year, but I believe it was syndicated for several years after that.

This was "It's A Living" (alternate title "Making a Living"), which was on ABC for two seasons from 1980-82, and then in first-run syndication from 1985 to 1989.

As for first-run syndicated sitcoms, the mid-'80s had to be the most prolific time for them, as there was "Throb," "She's the Sheriff," "We Got It Made," etc.

 

[EricStein]

Eric, speaking of Night Flight it was syndicated after it's USA run in the late 80s/early 90s.

I remember the syndicated "Night Flight" very well. Our local Fox station aired the two-hour show on both Friday and Saturday nights (I remember it being 1 or 2am Friday night/Saturday morning, and 12am Saturday night/Sunday morning). The syndicated version was tamer than the original USA show, since they had to adhere to FCC rules, even though it aired in "safe harbor" time periods. In this age of YouTube, you couldn't do such a show like "NF" successfully on cable or in syndication anymore.

Some other shows that escaped me:

Dancin' to the Hits (syndicated, 1986): a more "risque" Solid Gold-type show, and the female dancers strutted in lingerie.
The Suzanne Somers Show (syndicated, 1994): The "Thighmaster" spokesperson tries to imitate Oprah
Last Call (syndicated, 1994): A pop-culture roundtable show, if I recall correctly. Was one of Brandon Tartikoff's first post-NBC projects, but it failed.
Rendez-View (syndicated, 2001): A panel of comics critiques footage of a blind date.

 

[bpatrick]

I don't know if it's accurate to say they're "forgotten,"
but two shows come to mind as examples of the biggest
star implosions in television history: "The Jerry Lewis Show,"
on ABC Saturday nights in 1963, a two-hour unrehearsed,
disorganized textbook case on how not to do a show; and
"The Chevy Chase Show," on Fox weeknights in 1993, a
classic case of how not to host a talk show: Chase was
unprepared and snippy with his guests, more akin to a
satire of a talk-show host, only this was for real.

Another big star whose show went belly-up before its initial
season was out: Judy Garland, whose Sunday-night CBS show
also debuted in 1963, and in her case it's unfortunate; watch
some tapes of the show and you'll probably say it's not bad.
Unfortunately, she had to go against "Bonanza," which wouldn't
be taken down in its Sunday slot until the Smothers Brothers
came along in 1967 and knocked it out of the number-one slot.
She also had to go through a number of format changes (Jerry Van
Dyke's attempts at comedy, Ken Murray's home movies) which probably
left the audience confused and wondering what would come next.

 

[ShawnHill1]

Has anyone mentioned an early '80's show that starred Ann Jillian as one of several waitresses that worked in a top-floor restaurant? It might have been a network show it's first year, but I believe it was syndicated for several years after that.

This was "It's A Living" (alternate title "Making a Living"), which was on ABC for two seasons from 1980-82, and then in first-run syndication from 1985 to 1989.

As for first-run syndicated sitcoms, the mid-'80s had to be the most prolific time for them, as there was "Throb," "She's the Sheriff," "We Got It Made," etc.

There was a glut of them, including two "prominent" ones that initially started on network TV, and then later transitioned into first-run syndication: Mama's Family and Charles in Charge. They pretty much died off once Fox started-up (and later expanded its programming lineup), and the creation of UPN and The WB; they've lived on, but now almost exclusively on basic cable.

 

[LKellerIII]

Another big star whose show went belly-up before its initial
season was out: Judy Garland, whose Sunday-night CBS show
also debuted in 1963, and in her case it's unfortunate; watch
some tapes of the show and you'll probably say it's not bad.
Unfortunately, she had to go against "Bonanza," which wouldn't
be taken down in its Sunday slot until the Smothers Brothers
came along in 1967 and knocked it out of the number-one slot.
She also had to go through a number of format changes (Jerry Van
Dyke's attempts at comedy, Ken Murray's home movies) which probably
left the audience confused and wondering what would come next.

My parents were huge fans of Judy Garland, and watched her CBS show - I remember it well. But I recall that they remarked more than once on how bad Judy looked - kind of emaciated, and aged beyond her years. She was only in her early 40s at the time, and we know now that she had suffered through a lot of emotional problems, a bout of hepatitis, and abuse of prescription drugs and alcohol. But information about celebrities wasn't as accessible in those days - beyond the knowledge that Judy was "troubled," people didn't really know anything more than that.

So aside from the Bonanza problem, it was also difficult for viewers to reconcile the young vibrant Judy Garland of Wizard of Oz, and A Star is Born with the Judy they were seeing on TV.

 

[milwaukee_dave]

Speaking of Canadian-produced series, here's another one I don't believe was mentioned: the teen-targeted sitcom "Hangin' In" (1981-1987). Nickelodeon imported the series here in the U.S. in the late 1980s.

I don't believe this series ever aired on Nick, though it did air in syndication around the mid-to-late 1980s.

You are incorrect. It did air on Nickelodeon in 1986. I have a copy of an old program guide confirming this; it was on at 5 p.m. Eastern. (I was one of those kids who used to write in frequently and request a copy of their program guides -- a feature they advertised frequently in those early days of the cable channel.)

 

[milwaukee_dave]

And finally, "Gibbsville," a slow-paced drama based on the works of author John O'Hara. "Gibbsville" starred John Savage and Gig Young and aired on NBC in the mid '70's. WGN reran "Gibbsville" late nights for a time in 1991.
[/quote]

I remember "Gibbsville." It was yet another one of those wonderful obscurities United Video/WGN placed on the national signal to cover up programming that had to be blacked out by SyndEx. The early 1990s were such an interesting time on the national feeds of WGN and WWOR -- lots of obscurities popped up that haven't seen the light of day since.

 

[cordeliachase]

Hey milwaukee_dave,

Please explain why WGN had to black out some of it's programming for the national feed. What was running locally in Chicago? I also recall WGN ran "Nakia" starring Robert Forster as well as "Circle of Fear" late nights back in 1991.

 

[jfrancispastirchak]

how about the charlie daniels talent contest show on the nashville network? that was the program that daniels pretty much denounced and denied his rock radio roots when talking to an owner of a country station he said."what other kind is there?"

i guess he forgot and was not thankful to who brought him to the dance.

Your Charlie Daniels observation is both interesting and puzzling. While Devil Went Down... may have oozed with rockabily, I can't recall any Daniels' number sounding anything but country. Rebellious country, yes, i.e. Leave This Longhaired Country Boy Alone, but country just the same.

I wonder what Charlie Daniels songs you had in mind. Maybe I"ve forgotten one or two of his earlier recordings.

 

[EricStein]

Please explain why WGN had to black out some of it's programming for the national feed. What was running locally in Chicago? I also recall WGN ran "Nakia" starring Robert Forster as well as "Circle of Fear" late nights back in 1991.

In the 1980's, a number of UHF independent stations went on the air, some of them aligned with Fox. A lot of them weren't profitable and on the verge of going bankrupt. Station owners looked at cable TV, and in particular the "superstations" (WTBS, WGN, WWOR, etc.), as threats to them, after many stations bought the rights to high-profile shows such as "The Cosby Show" and "Cheers" for a large sum of money. The television broadcasting industry and trade groups (I believe the now-defunct Association of Independent Television Stations) lobbied the FCC to make it so that each market had exclusive rights to high-profile syndicated programs, most notably off-network sitcoms. So, on January 1, 1990, the Syndicated Exclusivity rules were put in place, in which the distributors of superstations such as WGN and WWOR had to replace shows like "Cosby" and "Cheers" with different programming. It happened so fast that they just threw anything they could find on the air (WWOR was owned by MCA/Universal at the time, so the superstation's distributor, EMI, had access to the MCA/Universal TV library - however, they took some really obscure titles from there - one that I can remember was "Delta House").

 

[flashback]

how about the charlie daniels talent contest show on the nashville network? that was the program that daniels pretty much denounced and denied his rock radio roots when talking to an owner of a country station he said."what other kind is there?"

i guess he forgot and was not thankful to who brought him to the dance.

Your Charlie Daniels observation is both interesting and puzzling. While Devil Went Down... may have oozed with rockabily, I can't recall any Daniels' number sounding anything but country. Rebellious country, yes, i.e. Leave This Longhaired Country Boy Alone, but country just the same.

I wonder what Charlie Daniels songs you had in mind. Maybe I"ve forgotten one or two of his earlier recordings.

i am talking about how it was the fm rock stations that pushed the charlie daniels songs to the point where he got his fame.

it is about who played his songs to give him his fame not how the songs sounded. its that when country stations are mentioned its like the mainstream country stations propelled his career when country station programers in those days for the most part probally figured he was just another hippie musician.when rock stations were who played his music .

 

[azumanga]

...on January 1, 1990, the Syndicated Exclusivity rules were put in place, in which the distributors of superstations such as WGN and WWOR had to replace shows like "Cosby" and "Cheers" with different programming.

I recall WWOR's superstation feed carrying "Cosby" nationwide, at least during the contract of its first rerun cycle.

 

[cd637299]

WWOR also had something w/ umbrella title "Comedy Wheel," which included the short-lived sitcom "Coming of Age" w/ Alan Young & Phyllis Newman.....for the life of me I cannot recall what other shows were included, but they likely flopped as bad as CoA.

cd

 

[milwaukee_dave]

Hey milwaukee_dave,

Please explain why WGN had to black out some of it's programming for the national feed. What was running locally in Chicago? I also recall WGN ran "Nakia" starring Robert Forster as well as "Circle of Fear" late nights back in 1991.

That's an excellent question, cordeliachase, that I don't have a ready answer to, unfortunately. Programming like "Nakia" -- and, yes, "Circle of Fear" -- likely filled two back-to-back sitcoms, though I can't say for certain what these shows were. I consulted my Milwaukee edition of TV Guide from April 1991 (when I recall "Nakia" having run) and it only listed programming on the national feed. Eventually, TV Guide changed their tune and had listings for the local and national feeds of WGN. (It made sense in my neck of the woods since some folks in the viewing area, namely those at the Illinois-Wisconsin state line, were watching the local version on their cable system.)