Forgotten Network/Syndicated TV Shows of the Past

[joeybabe25]

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.

Who can forget "You Can't Do That On Television"? Maybe it was for kids, but I was an adult when it played in the early 80's and thought really good fun. It was a Canadian production, I think. The kids seemed Canadian.

Joe

 

[cd637299]

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.

Who can forget "You Can't Do That On Television"? Maybe it was for kids, but I was an adult when it played in the early 80's and thought really good fun. It was a Canadian production, I think. The kids seemed Canadian.

Joe

Eh? How about "Turkey Television"?

cd

 

[cd637299]

Listen Up! (CBS, 2004-05) Sitcom that lasted one season with Jason Alexander (populary known as George Costanza on Seinfeld).
-crainbebo

Jason Alexander did another show while also working fulltime on Seinfeld?

Seinfeld ended in 1998, but one would never know it, from the reruns.....

cd

 

[ShawnHill1]

Richard Simmons: Dreammaker (Talk Show where Mr. Simmons makes dreams come true).

Of course, the show that started it all for him, "The Richard Simmons Show", should also be included -- that series has not been seen since the mid-1980s.

I think RS was on a soaper (can't remember...was it "Day's Of Our Lives") before he got his exercise show. I think he was well known in Hollywood for having a work out studio.


By the way, I loved "Dreammaker". He had a very cool classic T-Bird and I thought the show was entertaining.


Joe

It was General Hospital; he already had his Beverly Hills exercise studio ("Slimmons") going before he landed the recurring role as himself on GH.

 

[KML0224]

Charlie and Company was mentioned. I know that short-lived show was on CBS. It involved Gladys Knight and a very early Jaleel White, before Family Matters started on ABC.

There was a forgettable sitcom on CBS in the summer of 1988 called Sugar And Spice. It starred two black women and was set in, of all places, Ponca City, OK. The late Dana Hill was another actress on the show. One other show around that time was Trial And Error, a sitcom that had Paul Rodriguez and Eddie Velez.

As for Jason Alexander, he also had a short-lived show on ABC that bombed a few years ago.

 

[rnigma1]

Just dug up a few more:

E/R (CBS, 1984), starring Elliott Gould and some young chap named George Clooney
Together We Stand (CBS, 1986), also starring Elliott Gould
Our World (ABC, 1986), which wouldn't have been forgotten if ABC put it on Saturdays instead of Thursdays opposite that 800-pound gorilla known as The Cosby Show!!
The Price Is Right Special (CBS, 1986), six primetime summer episodes of TPIR which CBS had the ill-fated task of airing opposite you-know-who
The Reel to Reel Picture Show (Ion, 2000), which was competely forgotten right from the start, and why? Just like Pitfall (syndicated, 1981) and Alex Trebek, host Peter Marshall didn't get paid JACK SQUAT for his duties; the contestants never got their prizes either!!!
Monopoly (ABC, 1990)
Rodeo Drive (Lifetime, 1990)
Sanchez of Bel Air (syndicated/USA Network, 1986), four years Will Smith moved in
Brooklyn South (CBS, 1997), co-starring Yancy Butler who would later star in...
Witchblade (TNT, 2001)

Yancy Butler was also in "Mann & Machine," also short lived.
"Our World" was hosted by Linda Ellerbee and was a retro-news show that looked back at a particular era. Bill Conti provided the theme, which was cribbed from his score to the Stallone film "Victory." It would be replaced with "Primetime Live," with another orchestral Conti theme.
"Monopoly" (yes, based on the board game) ran in the summer of '90, back to back with "Super Jeopardy" - the only time the Alex Trebek version of "Jeopardy" aired on a network.
Elliot Gould left "Together We Stand" and its title was changed to "Nothing is Easy." If I recall, it also had Dee Wallace from "E.T." and the kid who played Short Round in the second Indiana Jones film.

Who can forget "You Can't Do That On Television"? Maybe it was for kids, but I was an adult when it played in the early 80's and thought really good fun. It was a Canadian production, I think. The kids seemed Canadian.

One of them was Alanis Morrisette....

 

[BD Sullivan]

Charlie and Company was mentioned. I know that short-lived show was on CBS. It involved Gladys Knight and a very early Jaleel White, before Family Matters started on ABC.

As for Jason Alexander, he also had a short-lived show on ABC that bombed a few years ago.

"Charlie" was CBS's ripoff of The Cosby Show, with Flip Wilson in the Cosby role. It lasted one season.

Jason Alexander's ABC show was "Bob Patterson," where he played a motivational speaker. Obviously, the audience wasn't motivated; it lasted one month.

 

[johnnya2k6]

"Monopoly" (yes, based on the board game) ran in the summer of '90, back to back with "Super Jeopardy" - the only time the Alex Trebek version of "Jeopardy" aired on a network.

And Super Jeopardy! was also the only time Fairbanks would see the Alex Trebek Jeopardy!...until 1994 (when KTVF finally picked it up)!

 

[joeybabe25]

As for Jason Alexander, he also had a short-lived show on ABC that bombed a few years ago.

I think the Seinfeld crew can live off that money for the rest of their lives. Who need the tsuris of gearing up for a new show only to see it dumped in a month. If I had been on Seinfeld, I would retire from showbiz and do something I love; like write or loaf.

Joe

 

[blackgold]

Here's something that's forgotten: "The Electric Company" on PBS in the 70s. It's where actor Morgan Freeman and singer Irene Cara got their start. Yes, Irene was a member of the group "The Short Circus," which did songs like "He Ho Hi" and "Jelly Belly." Later in the decade, she'd go on to star in "Fame" and record the title track.
Who else can remember "Zoom" and "Square One TV?" Or how about the show "Masquerade?"

 

[crainbebo]

Well you had the Zoom of the '70s and the Zoom of the late '90s/early '00s. Both seemed to resemble the same children/tween format.

-crainbebo

 

[onairb]

'Condo', in early 1983, a midseason replacement sitcom which was, I think, the last to star MacLean Stevenson, and one of the last developed by Norman Lear.
Stevenson co-starred with Luis Avalos(previously seen on 'The Electric Company' as two un-neighborly neighbors(a WASP and a Latino) in a condominium(hence the show's cutting-edge title). The two were both rather bigoted, and the dynamic was supposed to recall Archie Bunker living next door to George Jefferson. For good measure, Stevenson's daughter and Avalos' son were expecting a baby, and the two wives bonded over what knuckleheads their husbands were.
This aired alongside another failed sitcom, Bea Arthur in 'Amanda's', a rip-off of 'Fawlty Towers'.

 

[anotherguyTN]

This aired alongside another failed sitcom, Bea Arthur in 'Amanda's', a rip-off of 'Fawlty Towers'.

There was also Payne, another failed attempt on CBS to do an Americanized version of Fawlty Towers with John Laroquette in the Basil Fawlty role.

 

[onairb]

At least 'Payne' acknowledged that it was an adaptation of 'FT'; there may have been legal action against 'Amanda's', but it was cancelled so quickly, nobody cared.

 

[anotherguyTN]

I also remember reading either on this board or somewhere about an attempt at an American version of Fawlty Towers with Harvey Korman and Betty White called Snavely. Was that a short run series or did it even get past the pilot?

 

[rnigma1]

I also remember reading either on this board or somewhere about an attempt at an American version of Fawlty Towers with Harvey Korman and Betty White called Snavely. Was that a short run series or did it even get past the pilot?

Yes, "Chateau Snavely," which never went beyond the pilot stage.

 

[skipeastport]

You want to talk about really forgotten soaps...how about:

The Clear Horizon (CBS, 1960), the first ever West Coast soap (and at CBS Television City nonetheless)

Clear Horizon was actually the 2nd West Coast soap. The first was Full Circle, starring Dyan Cannon before she married Cary Grant and became a movie star. Full Circle preceded Clear Horizon by two weeks. CH was the first soap taped in Hollywood, though.

 

[skipeastport]

"Never Too Young"...I never saw it, but it had grown-ups Tony Dow and Tommy Rettig as stars!

Joe

Never Too Young had the grooviest soap opera theme song ever. It was the first to use extensive exterior shooting and also Top 40 music for background score. It was replaced by Dark Shadows, and we all know how that turned out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJwiFh_UDHg

The same site has the full final episode up from 6.24.1966

 

[joeybabe25]

[ CH was the first soap taped in Hollywood, though.

Was Clear Horizon taped for the east coast or was it live? So many soaps were fed live for the east coast, even until the late 60's, early 70's.

Joe

 

[johnnya2k6]

[ CH was the first soap taped in Hollywood, though.

Was Clear Horizon taped for the east coast or was it live? So many soaps were fed live for the east coast, even until the late 60's, early 70's.

Joe

I think it was live to the East Coast.

And while we're at it...

Swans Crossing (syndicated, 1992), starring Sarah Michelle Gellar...who's returning to TV this fall (and to CBS in a comedy called "Crazy Ones" with Robin Williams)!
The Jane Pauley Show (syndicated, 2004)
Dead At 21 (MTV, 1994)
Fifteen (Nickelodeon, 1991), which starred a young Ryan Reynolds before he married (and later divorced) Scarlett Johansson and now Blake Lively
Welcome Freshmen (same network/year)
Edgemont (CBC, 2001)
1st and 10 (HBO, 1984; no relation to the current ESPN show)