One Episode Wonders

[Corky Marlowe]

Well, here you are...... THE apology!

http://www.yourememberthat.com/media/6019/Jackie_Gleason_Game_Show_Flop/#.UbcGhNeE6iI

Wow...One guy, off the cuff, taking a half hour to say "we screwed up", and it's better TV than anything today.

 

[rnigma1]

How about that wonderful Brian Bosworth series on Fox, "Lawless"? ;D

Fox aired it on a Saturday and bumped "America's Most Wanted" to accomodate the Boz.

 

[landtuna]

Wow...One guy, off the cuff, taking a half hour to say "we screwed up", and it's better TV than anything today.

I agree and wonder if Jackie just reeled that off or if he actually had prepared remarks. It doesn't look like he is reading cue cards.

Reminds me of the stories he used to tell on his show while at the bar with Frank Fontaine.

 

[FredLeonard]

Didn't a Midwest ABC affiliate actually pull "Turn-On" during the mid-show commercial break and run an old film instead for the rest oft he half-hour??

...Tim Conway claims that WEWS/5 Cleveland did exactly that...

This doesn't clearly answer the question, but it's obvious the Cleveland affiliate was pretty PO'ed. Here is the first paragraph of an article about the show in the Cleveland Plain Dealer the day after the show aired:

"WEWS-TV Channel 5, last night notified the ABC television network that it was cancelling the new ABC show, "Turn-On," which had its debut only minutes before the cancellation."

BTW, Conway grew up in the Cleveland area.

...and Conway had earlier worked for both KYW-TV/3 and WJW-TV/8, WEWS' main competitors...

Just to be clear, Conway worked for KYW-TV.3 in Cleveland - not Philly. He did a local show with the guy who became the voice of the LOOOOOOVVVVVVVE Boat (Ernie Anderson).

Cleveland has a habit of going it's own way. The ABC affil also passed on ABC's first attempt at a morning shows, AM America. They did their own and it was much more successful than than ABC's version, so ABC copied it and the result was Good Morning, America.

 

[Ultimajock]

Didn't a Midwest ABC affiliate actually pull "Turn-On" during the mid-show commercial break and run an old film instead for the rest oft he half-hour??

...Tim Conway claims that WEWS/5 Cleveland did exactly that...

This doesn't clearly answer the question, but it's obvious the Cleveland affiliate was pretty PO'ed. Here is the first paragraph of an article about the show in the Cleveland Plain Dealer the day after the show aired:

"WEWS-TV Channel 5, last night notified the ABC television network that it was cancelling the new ABC show, "Turn-On," which had its debut only minutes before the cancellation."

BTW, Conway grew up in the Cleveland area.

...and Conway had earlier worked for both KYW-TV/3 and WJW-TV/8, WEWS' main competitors...

Just to be clear, Conway worked for KYW-TV.3 in Cleveland - not Philly. He did a local show with the guy who became the voice of the LOOOOOOVVVVVVVE Boat (Ernie Anderson).

...to further clarify, Ernie Anderson only voiced ABC's network promos for The Love Boat, he never actually appeared on the series himself...

Cleveland has a habit of going it's own way. The ABC affil also passed on ABC's first attempt at a morning shows, AM America. They did their own and it was much more successful than than ABC's version, so ABC copied it and the result was Good Morning, America.

...in addition, Dick Clark claimed that, while Bob Horn was still the host of Bandstand on WFIL-TV/6 Philadelphia, with Clark filling in on the radio version and on Horn's absences from TV, Clark pitched himself to WEWS as a potential host of a Cleveland version of Bandstand. Clark claimed whoever took his call at WEWS hung up on him; of course, eventually WEWS would carry Clark's ABC American Bandstand and The Dick Clark Saturday Night Beechnut Show...

 

[anotherguyTN]

Would The Rich List count? It was on for only one episode in 2006 on Fox, although it was brought back in 2009 on GSN as The Money List, and lasted only a couple of months there.

Although it was supposedly cancelled by Fox because of terrible ratings, I can't help but wonder if it was cancelled even faster if some contestants won big to get out of paying them. I've read where the winning team on the one episode that ran were never paid since the show was cancelled. I think they deserved to at least get what they won on that one episode.

 

[Joey1986]

Thought it would be time for me to chime in for some shows in my lifetime cancelled after airing one episode. Didn't see any of these listed in this thread.

Lawless (Fox, don't remember if anyone mentioned this one or not) was an action series starring former NFL star Brian Bosworth as a private investigator. Its only episode aired on March 22, 1997.
Dot Comedy (ABC), of which there were five total episodes, was pulled after its first one aired on December 8, 2000.
Comedians Unleashed (Animal Planet, no relation to Comics Unleashed) was an attempt by the cable network to imitate Comedy Central's stand-up comedy shows with animal-themed jokes. Its lone installment aired October 8, 2002.
Secret Talents of the Stars (CBS) was a reality talent show in which celebrities competed by participating in talents that differed from their profession. The ratings were so low, that it was yanked after its April 8, 2008, debut.
Osbournes: Reloaded (Fox) was a variety show hosted by Ozzy, Sharon, Jack, and Kelly Osbourne. Cancelled after its initial March 31, 2009, airing. Five more episodes were produced but will never see the light of day.
Impact Wrestling Rewind (Spike) was a show followed by a live taping of Impact Wrestling recapping the previous two-hour episode from the previous week in this one-hour program. This show did not make it past the first episode, partially due to the program debuting during the DirecTV-vs.-Viacom dispute, which played a role in the show's low ratings.

 

[BD Sullivan]

Wow...One guy, off the cuff, taking a half hour to say "we screwed up", and it's better TV than anything today.

I agree and wonder if Jackie just reeled that off or if he actually had prepared remarks. It doesn't look like he is reading cue cards

Considering Jackie wasn't a big fan of rehearsals in general, I imagine it was spontaneous. The fact that the audience loved him before this no doubt helped him.

 

[cd637299]

Jackie's apology had to be without cue cards. I have seen the entire show, and he was rattling on, when someone offstage told him that he was running out of time; so he had to summarize rather quickly, which he did.

cd

 

[Mark Giardina]

Got to give Jackie Gleason credit for admitting in front of millions of people that the debut of his game show was a disaster. How many other entertainers would do that; especially today?

 

[visaman]

There was "Co-Ed Fever", CBS entry into the frat house sitcoms that all three networks tried after the success of "National Lampoon's Animal House" at the theaters. Debuted after the network television premier of "Rocky" and lost more than 70% of "Rocky"s viewers and was cancelled just a day or two later.

The series (all 6 episodes) did air in Vancouver, Canada on BCTV network on Saturday afternoons.

 

[bpatrick]

Didn't a Midwest ABC affiliate actually pull "Turn-On" during the mid-show commercial break and run an old film instead for the rest oft he half-hour??

...Tim Conway claims that WEWS/5 Cleveland did exactly that...

This doesn't clearly answer the question, but it's obvious the Cleveland affiliate was pretty PO'ed. Here is the first paragraph of an article about the show in the Cleveland Plain Dealer the day after the show aired:

"WEWS-TV Channel 5, last night notified the ABC television network that it was cancelling the new ABC show, "Turn-On," which had its debut only minutes before the cancellation."

BTW, Conway grew up in the Cleveland area.

It may be true, or it may be an urban legend, but supposedly WEWS g.m. Don Perris sent a wire to ABC: "If you guys are going to write dirty words on the walls, please don't use our walls."

"Turn-On" aired once, on February 5, 1969, and, IIRC, ABC pulled the show on Friday, February 7, after a number of other affiliate defections.

Ernie Anderson was the voice of practically all ABC primetime promos in the late '70s as well as announcer on "America's Funniest Home Videos" in the '90s. I'm convinced that, when Tim Conway replaced Lyle Waggoner on "The Carol Burnett Show," Ernie also became that show's announcer, identifying himself as "your wacko announcer." It sure sounded like him in any case.

 

[BD Sullivan]

Didn't a Midwest ABC affiliate actually pull "Turn-On" during the mid-show commercial break and run an old film instead for the rest oft he half-hour??

...Tim Conway claims that WEWS/5 Cleveland did exactly that...

This doesn't clearly answer the question, but it's obvious the Cleveland affiliate was pretty PO'ed. Here is the first paragraph of an article about the show in the Cleveland Plain Dealer the day after the show aired:

"WEWS-TV Channel 5, last night notified the ABC television network that it was cancelling the new ABC show, "Turn-On," which had its debut only minutes before the cancellation."

BTW, Conway grew up in the Cleveland area.

It may be true, or it may be an urban legend, but supposedly WEWS g.m. Don Perris sent a wire to ABC: "If you guys are going to write dirty words on the walls, please don't use our walls."

Referencing that same I article I noted before, that wasn't an urban legend--though the wording was very slightly different: "If your naughty little boys have to write..."

It took a month before ABC found a replacement: it was The King Family singers reviving a 30-minute show they had had during the 1965-66 season. It was shown until new shows began that September.

"Turn On" had replaced the second weekly installment of "Peyton Place," which was on its last legs and cut back to just Mondays.

As far as how ABC filled the four weeks in between, they simply had their regular Wednesday night movie expanded from 9-11 to 8:30-11. The four movies they showed were:

2/12: The Oscar
2/19: The Chase
2/26: Last Command
3/5: Young Lions