Forgotten Network/Syndicated TV Shows of the Past

[BD Sullivan]

[ 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

1st and 10 (HBO, 1984; no relation to the current ESPN show)

With O.J. as one of its co-stars.

 

[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?

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

In looking up information on this show I found out there was also another sitcom with Harvey Korman set in a hotel called The Nutt House. It also starred Cloris Leachman and was produced by Mel Brooks.

 

[skipeastport]

[ 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

Full Circle and Clear Horizon both went out live initially. Clear Horizon ran from July 1960 until it was cancelled in March 1961. In February 1962 CBS put Clear Horizon back into production. This time it was pre-recorded on videotape rather than having any live telecasts. From this point on, all new soaps originating from LA were on tape.

Worth mentioning is the next Hollywood soap, Ben Jerrod. It was taped at NBC in Burbank and was the first soap to originate in color.

 

[cd637299]

One oddball sitcom that stood out was something called "Honeymoon Hotel" starring Isabel Sanford. Wiki said it was in January 1987.

What made it interesting was that it was a stripped sitcom, running 5 days a week (!)....now that is overworking! Wiki's article on Isabel did not mention how many episodes were made, but that experiment flopped mightily.

What reminded me of it was the posts above about hotels & such.

I thought that HH was joined by another stripped sitcom....I thought it was "Marblehead Manor"---but Wiki said that MM was part of a 5-series sitcom block running often in weekday prime-time access in the 80s to go up (ostensibly) against the Wheel/Jeopardy! juggernaut.

cd

 

[onairb]

I remember Isabel Sanford appearing on the John Davidson version of 'Hollywood Squares' around the time that sitcom debuted(both it, and that week of 'Squares', were shot in Hawaii).
I never saw 'Honeymoon Hotel', and don't recall its time slot in San Francisco(if it aired here at all). Most of the sitcoms in that 'block' of 5 aired in late-afternoon slots on weekends, either on then-independent KBHK 44(now a CW station), or Fox affiliate KTVU 2.

 

[joeybabe25]

Worth mentioning is the next Hollywood soap, Ben Jerrod. It was taped at NBC in Burbank and was the first soap to originate in color.

According to Wikipedia "Ben Jerrod", was taped using a "single camera" setup. That seems very odd, not only for a soap, but for a taped show. It's hard to imagine them shooting this "movie style".

Joe

 

[mavtv]

One oddball sitcom that stood out was something called "Honeymoon Hotel" starring Isabel Sanford. Wiki said it was in January 1987.

What made it interesting was that it was a stripped sitcom, running 5 days a week (!)....now that is overworking! Wiki's article on Isabel did not mention how many episodes were made, but that experiment flopped mightily.

What reminded me of it was the posts above about hotels & such.

I thought that HH was joined by another stripped sitcom....I thought it was "Marblehead Manor"---but Wiki said that MM was part of a 5-series sitcom block running often in weekday prime-time access in the 80s to go up (ostensibly) against the Wheel/Jeopardy! juggernaut.

cd

It was produced by De Laurentiis Entertainment Group in association with Fred Sliveman. The plan was to have 100 new episodes made by the fall of 1987.


http://articles.latimes.com/1986-08-21/entertainment/ca-17470_1_episodes

http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...isabel's+honeymoon+hotel+isabel+sanford&hl=en

http://articles.latimes.com/1986-05-05/entertainment/ca-3302_1_fred-silverman

 

[joeybabe25]

I was looking at Wikipedia and saw that Fred Silverman is now 75 years old.

I wonder what he's up to these days?

Joe

 

[bpatrick]

[ 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

Full Circle and Clear Horizon both went out live initially. Clear Horizon ran from July 1960 until it was cancelled in March 1961. In February 1962 CBS put Clear Horizon back into production. This time it was pre-recorded on videotape rather than having any live telecasts. From this point on, all new soaps originating from LA were on tape.

Worth mentioning is the next Hollywood soap, Ben Jerrod. It was taped at NBC in Burbank and was the first soap to originate in color.

"Clear Horizon" aired at 11:30 AM in the East and the first version ran from July 11, 1960 to March 11, 1961. It was then replaced by "Your Surprise Package," a game show hosted by George Fenneman (CBS was trying to build a morning game-show block: "Video Village" (Monty Hall had replaced Jack Narz as host by early 1961), "Double Exposure" (Steve Dunne, the least successful of the three, running only until September 29), and "Your Surprise Package." "Clear Horizon"'s second run lasted from February 26 to June 11, 1962; its main storyline in the second version had something to do with the show's main character, astronaut Roy Selby, and a colleague, Lt. Sig Leavy) being kidnapped by the Russians (they did escape). Incidentally, Roy had a 10-year-old son, Ricky, played by one Jimmy Carter--no relation to a certain President from Plains, GA.

Another forgotten soap was the lead-in to "Never Too Young," "The Young Marrieds," essentially a spinoff from "General Hospital" (both shows apparently took place in Port Charles, although at the time the town was not identified). Two of the actors on the show were Charles Grodin and Ted Knight, and Grodin recalls that he and Knight had difficulty completing scenes because they were forever breaking up at the dialogue they were given.

 

[nomadcowatbk]

I was looking at Wikipedia and saw that Fred Silverman is now 75 years old.

I wonder what he's up to these days?

Joe

Still living off his golden parachute from NBC? ;D

 

[cd637299]

re bpatrick's post:

When WTVJ in Miami was CBS in the early 60s, that game show block was rarely aired, per the Miami News Archives----they ran a movie instead. I did see a time where the games were on, but apparently the movie was the main program.

Although "Double Exposure" was the quickest to get the boot, it looked the most interesting of all. I actually bought the home game from Ideal on eBay a couple of years ago. It was like "Concentration," except that it involved revealing parts of a jigsaw puzzle, and trying to identify the famous person on it---there would be more to write here, but it would be too drawn out.

As many know, CBS again was devoid of game shows for a few years for awhile, and another block was installed in Sept 1972, including one that of course still runs today: "The [New] Price Is Right."

cd

 

[bpatrick]

WAGA didn't carry those early-'60s game shows either; they ran
either movies or "Divorce Court" (which was an hour in those days).
I think, however, that "Concentration" inspired a fad (short-lived as
it was) for picture-puzzle games; don't forget that besides "Double
Exposure" on CBS there was "Camouflage" on ABC in 1961-62.

And it's true that, once CBS canceled its game-show block, it didn't
have morning games again until 1972: "The Price Is Right," "The Joker's
Wild," and "Gambit"; depending on where you live today you may have
both "Price" and "Let's Make A Deal" in the morning.

 

[cd637299]

Sadly I think that only "Video Village" among that early block has any surviving episodes. Would love to see parts of "Double Exposure." They have a confusing rule (something like you can't go over $100) which I don't think is ever explained well, even in the home game.

cd

 

[bpatrick]

I was looking at Wikipedia and saw that Fred Silverman is now 75 years old.

I wonder what he's up to these days?

Joe

Still living off his golden parachute from NBC? ;D

I haven't heard anything out of him since he produced the Maury Povich-hosted
"Twenty-One" in 2000. I do think it's ironic that, for a guy associated with Saturday-
morning cartoons and kid-appeal sitcoms as a network president, most of the shows
he produced later were aimed at an older audience: "Matlock," "In The Heat Of The
Night," and the "Perry Mason" made-for-TV movies (for which he had the good sense
to bring back Raymond Burr, since nobody seemed to care for Monte Markham's Mason).

 

[azumanga]

And it's true that, once CBS canceled its game-show block, it didn't
have morning games again until 1972: "The Price Is Right," "The Joker's
Wild," and "Gambit"; depending on where you live today you may have
both "Price" and "Let's Make A Deal" in the morning.

Though it did stick a toe in a water in the Spring of that year when they presented its first daytime game show since 1968, "The Amateur's Guide to Love", which was hosted by previous, and future, Match Game MC Gene Rayburn. It lasted only 13 weeks (replacing Gomer Pyle, and later replaced by Family Affair), but gave CBS an idea that game shows could work on the Tiffany Network again, and that Gene Rayburn was a great guy to work with.

 

[cd637299]

And it's true that, once CBS canceled its game-show block, it didn't
have morning games again until 1972: "The Price Is Right," "The Joker's
Wild," and "Gambit"; depending on where you live today you may have
both "Price" and "Let's Make A Deal" in the morning.

Though it did stick a toe in a water in the Spring of that year when they presented its first daytime game show since 1968, "The Amateur's Guide to Love", which was hosted by previous, and future, Match Game MC Gene Rayburn. It lasted only 13 weeks (replacing Gomer Pyle, and later replaced by Family Affair), but gave CBS an idea that game shows could work on the Tiffany Network again, and that Gene Rayburn was a great guy to work with.

Oops, forgot about that one---but it wasn't shown here in Miami. That dreaded 4:00 zone. (Although WTVJ did run Gomer Pyle earlier at 4---go figure.)

cd

 

[bpatrick]

"Amateur's Guide To Love" didn't air in Atlanta either, and for
the same reason; WAGA pre-empted CBS at 4 PM. I do remember
watching the show in Birmingham, where it came on at 3.

Silverman never really liked game shows; it practically took an
act of Congress to convince him to put "Family Feud" on ABC,
yet it turned out to be the biggest new game of the '70s. He
also achieved some notoriety for his changes on "To Tell The Truth"
in its last year (1967-68) on CBS: a new set, a new Score Productions
theme song, allowing the audience to vote on the person they thought
was telling the truth, and replacing Tom Poston with Bert Convy (he wanted
to replace Peggy Cass with Joanna Barnes and used Joanna every chance he
got, but Mark Goodson put his foot down on that one; the good cop-bad cop
chemistry between Kitty Carlisle (good cop) and Peggy (bad cop) was like that
of Arlene Francis and Dorothy Kilgallen on "What's My Line?", something that could
not be duplicated with just anybody--remember that Dorothy was never replaced
on a permanent basis after her death, while Joanna was used many times on syndicated
"Line" but never became a regular panelist).

And the person who's really responsible for putting games back on CBS's morning schedule
was B. Donald ("Bud") Grant, as Silverman was occupied with primetime, putting on such
winners as "All In The Family," "M*A*S*H," Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart, "Maude,"
"Barnaby Jones, "Kojak," "The Waltons," and Sonny and Cher. What turned out to be
his albatross at CBS was his penchant for spinoffs: "Rhoda" and "Phylllis" from Mary Tyler
Moore, "The Jeffersons" from "All In The Family," "Good Times" from "Maude." That was
a factor in CBS's slip from number one, but yet he did some of the same things at ABC:
"Laverne & Shirley" from "Happy Days" (he wasn't involved with "Mork & Mindy" since he'd
signed with NBC when Garry Marshall brought the idea to ABC), "The Bionic Woman" from
"The Six Million Dollar Man." His true weakness surfaced at NBC and proved to be his
Waterloo: while he could find just the right timeslot for an existing show, and could find
the strengths in a character (think the Fonz), he could not build a schedule from scratch,
and that's exactly what Paul Klein had left for him, having turned over four nights a week
to mostly movies and specials. He did click with "Real People," "Diff'rent Strokes," and
"Facts Of Life" (another spinoff); he had a budding winner in Barbara Mandrell's show until
she gave it up, claiming burnout; "Hill Street Blues" didn't catch on until the Tinker-Tartikoff
era.

Anyone interested in Silverman's career as a programmer should read Sally Bedell's "Up The
Tube."

 

[cd637299]

When I look at older TV schedules, today it's hard to imagine, that afternoon network programming went past 5 pm EST in the 50s & early 60s (up to 6 pm on ABC I think until 1961 or so, and with Howdy Doody on daily at 5:30 I think on NBC).

The nets wouldn't dare try that today. Here in Miami, it was tough enough to show network fare at 4 pm! Today, there's no network programming past 3 pm! And, I'm sure that more and more afternoon net programming will be whittled away as time goes on....

cd

 

[BD Sullivan]

"Amateur's Guide To Love" didn't air in Atlanta either, and for
the same reason; WAGA pre-empted CBS at 4 PM. I do remember
watching the show in Birmingham, where it came on at 3.

Silverman never really liked game shows; it practically took an
act of Congress to convince him to put "Family Feud" on ABC,
yet it turned out to be the biggest new game of the '70s. He
also achieved some notoriety for his changes on "To Tell The Truth"
in its last year (1967-68) on CBS: a new set, a new Score Productions
theme song, allowing the audience to vote on the person they thought
was telling the truth, and replacing Tom Poston with Bert Convy (he wanted
to replace Peggy Cass with Joanna Barnes and used Joanna every chance he
got, but Mark Goodson put his foot down on that one; the good cop-bad cop
chemistry between Kitty Carlisle (good cop) and Peggy (bad cop) was like that
of Arlene Francis and Dorothy Kilgallen on "What's My Line?", something that could
not be duplicated with just anybody--remember that Dorothy was never replaced
on a permanent basis after her death, while Joanna was used many times on syndicated
"Line" but never became a regular panelist).

And the person who's really responsible for putting games back on CBS's morning schedule
was B. Donald ("Bud") Grant, as Silverman was occupied with primetime, putting on such
winners as "All In The Family," "M*A*S*H," Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart, "Maude,"
"Barnaby Jones, "Kojak," "The Waltons," and Sonny and Cher. What turned out to be
his albatross at CBS was his penchant for spinoffs: "Rhoda" and "Phylllis" from Mary Tyler
Moore, "The Jeffersons" from "All In The Family," "Good Times" from "Maude." That was
a factor in CBS's slip from number one, but yet he did some of the same things at ABC:
"Laverne & Shirley" from "Happy Days" (he wasn't involved with "Mork & Mindy" since he'd
signed with NBC when Garry Marshall brought the idea to ABC), "The Bionic Woman" from
"The Six Million Dollar Man." His true weakness surfaced at NBC and proved to be his
Waterloo: while he could find just the right timeslot for an existing show, and could find
the strengths in a character (think the Fonz), he could not build a schedule from scratch,
and that's exactly what Paul Klein had left for him, having turned over four nights a week
to mostly movies and specials. He did click with "Real People," "Diff'rent Strokes," and
"Facts Of Life" (another spinoff); he had a budding winner in Barbara Mandrell's show until
she gave it up, claiming burnout; "Hill Street Blues" didn't catch on until the Tinker-Tartikoff
era.

Anyone interested in Silverman's career as a programmer should read Sally Bedell's "Up The
Tube."

Silverman claimed that the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics (which NBC had won the rights to in 1977) was a huge blow to getting the network back on track, since they would have been able to promote their shows during what would have been a ratings bonanza. Of course, Silverman conveniently left out the fact that the actors' strike that summer--which delayed the start of the season until late October/early November (there really was no premiere week that year), might have rendered those plans moot anyway.

 

[jfrancispastirchak]

And it's true that, once CBS canceled its game-show block, it didn't
have morning games again until 1972: "The Price Is Right," "The Joker's
Wild," and "Gambit"; depending on where you live today you may have
both "Price" and "Let's Make A Deal" in the morning.

Though it did stick a toe in a water in the Spring of that year when they presented its first daytime game show since 1968, "The Amateur's Guide to Love", which was hosted by previous, and future, Match Game MC Gene Rayburn. It lasted only 13 weeks (replacing Gomer Pyle, and later replaced by Family Affair), but gave CBS an idea that game shows could work on the Tiffany Network again, and that Gene Rayburn was a great guy to work with.

Oops, forgot about that one---but it wasn't shown here in Miami. That dreaded 4:00 zone. (Although WTVJ did run GOMER PYLE (ed.) earlier at 4---go figure.)
cd

Well GAAAAAHHHLY !!!