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SHOWS WHOSE TITLE WAS CHANGED

There is a post on the national board about COUGAR TOWN possibly getting a new
title. What other shows were given new titles other than THE NEW or
......WITH TED KOPPEL or WINSTON CIGARETTES PRESENTS.......?
 
A show I liked as a kid in the mid 60s(what can I say, I was young) - The Pruitts of South Hampton - about a formerly wealthy family that had lost all their money). It was a ratings loser, so they changed the title mid-season to The Phyllis Diller Show, hoping her well known name in the title would save the show from cancellation. Diller's stand-up comedy act was very popular then - she appeared often on Ed Sullivan, The Tonight Show, etc.

It didn't work - the show was canceled at the end of the first season.
 
The Ed Sullivan Show was originally The Toast of the Town.

The Phil Silvers Show was originally You'll Never Get Rich. It became Sergeant Bilko in syndication.

Uncle Miltie was originally the Texaco Star Theater starring Milton Berle and became the Buick Berle Show.

Early on, many shows got different titles in syndication. Gunsmoke became Marshall Dillon. Dragnet became Badge 714. Bonanza became Ponderosa. The Andy Griffith Show became Andy of Mayberry. Usually different titles for syndication were used while a show was still in its first network run. When a show ceased production, it reverted to the original title in later syndication.
 
Ed Sullivan's show itself was originally titled "Toast Of The Town,"
changing its name to "The Ed Sullivan Show" in 1955.

Ellen DeGeneres' ABC sitcom was originally called "These Friends Of
Mine". Perhaps to avoid confusion with "Friends," the title was changed
to "Ellen".

"It's A Living" eventually became "Making A Living".

"Too Close For Comfort" became "The Ted Knight Show," IIRC.

"You Bet Your Life" was retitled "The Groucho Show" during its last
(1960-61) season; reruns were always titled "The Best Of Groucho".

"Oh, Susanna!" had become "The Gale Storm Show" by the time it moved
from CBS to ABC in 1959. Likewise, Ann Sothern's "Private Secretary" was
renamed "Susie" for syndication, and "The Bob Cummings Show" became "Love
That Bob" in reruns, beginning on ABC daytime.

"Do You Trust Your Wife?" became "Who Do You Trust?" so that the scope
of contestants could be extended beyond married couples.

"The Virginian" became "The Men From Shiloh" during its last (1970-71) season.

And a couple of obscure ones from the '50s: "Meet Mr. McNutley" debuted on CBS
in 1953 and changed its name to "The Ray Milland Show" the following year; "Where's
Raymond?" debuted on ABC in 1953 and became "The Ray Bolger Show" the following
year.
 
I think at one time Ed Sullivan's column was called "The Toast
Of The Town"; I've also seen it titled "Little Old New York".

Some other shows that changed titles for syndication while in
first-run production for the networks:

"The Millionaire" became "If You Had A Million"
"Ironside" became "The Raymond Burr Show"
"Marcus Welby, M.D." became "Robert Young, Family Doctor"
"Emergency!" became "Emergency One!"
"Happy Days" became "Happy Days Again"
"Laverne & Shirley" became "Laverne & Shirley & Company"

"Lassie" has also been packaged separately for syndication; the
Tommy Rettig episodes have been retitled "Jeff's Collie"; the Jon
Provost ones, "Timmy And Lassie"; the rest, "Lassie". "Fury" was
titled "Brave Stallion" in syndication while still playing on NBC's
Saturday-morning schedule under its original title.
 
the Black and White version of Dragnet was retitled Badge 714 for syndication as new episodes of the Black and White (and later 1960s Color) versions was made
 
"I've also seen it (Ed Sullivan's program) titled "Little Old New York".

Did some checking...and "Little Old New York", though it was hosted by Sullivan, was actually a different show, a 30-minute talk and variety show which Sullivan had on one of the local NYC independent stations (WPIX) at 7:30 every Monday night in the 1948-49 and 1949-50 seasons for just the local New York audience. He was doing the Sunday night show on the CBS network (including WCBS-TV and several dozen other stations along the network line) at the same time. The WPIX show was on for a couple of years, but the CBS gig, as we all know, lasted almost two dozen years and over 1000 episodes and came to take up nearly all of his time....

Few people signed exclusive deals with a TV network in those days (Milton Berle at NBC was a prominent exception). Sullivan was one of a number of people who was all over the dial back then. Another was John Charles Daly, who hosted "What's My Line" on CBS while at the same time anchoring ABC's national evening newscast. You might see a network personality on a syndicated show from time to time (like Meredith Viera hosting NBC's Today show and doing Who Wants to Be A Millionaire in syndication) but you'd never see Diane Sawyer anchoring ABC World News Tonight, and also hosting a CBS network game show, today...
 
The short-lived ABC soap opera "Loving" was retitled "The City". I do remember "Ironside" reruns being called "The Raymond Burr Show", and it always sounded dumb.
 
"Make Room For Daddy" was the name of the situation comedy series which starred Danny Thomas. After some changes of cast, the program was changed to "The Danny Thomas Show".
 
Ed Sullivan before and during his run as a variety show host was a Broadway gossip columnist for the New York Daily News, which syndicated his column to newspapers around the country. WPIX was the Daily News television station.
 
"Burke's Law" became "Amos Burke, Secret Agent" to cash in on the spy craze. It died after 3 months.
 
The "Upbeat" Syndicated music show out of WEWS Cleveland, was foriginally called "The Big 5 Show" because of its original time (5PM Saturdays) and being on channel 5..The name change came when the show became syndicated in 1966..
 
All in the Family---->Archie Bunker's Place
Three's Company---->Three's a Crowd

Both of these examples should really be considered revamped shows, rather than old shows with new names.

A few gradually got their names shortened during their run, like Little House on the Prairie slowly became Little House.
 
firepoint525 said:
All in the Family---->Archie Bunker's Place
Three's Company---->Three's a Crowd

Both of these examples should really be considered revamped shows, rather than old shows with new names.

A few gradually got their names shortened during their run, like Little House on the Prairie slowly became Little House.

Not necessarily..Little House On The Prairie was always the official title..The shortened version might have been used on Network Promos or maybe in Newspaper listings..
 
Little House on the Prairie becoming "Little House: A New Beginning" when Michael Landon left as a series regular in the last season.

CBS's late '80s western "Paradise" became "Guns of Paradise" in it's shortened last season.

"CHiPs" becoming the oddly titled "CHiPs Patrol" in syndication.

Hawaii-Five O repeats on CBS Late Night retitled "McGarrett".

British import "Danger Man" becoming "Secret Agent" in it's later run on CBS (while retaining the original title in the U.K.).

The Rockford Files becoming "Jim Rockford, Private Investigator" in syndication.

CBS's short-lived 1986 sitcom "Together We Stand" becoming "Nothing is Easy" after co-star Elliott Gould left/was dropped.
 
A few more, in the news/magazine/talk genre:

One of NBC's '80s news magazine attempts, "Monitor", becoming "First Camera", and fading into oblivion.

Tom Snyder's "The Tomorrow Show" becoming "Tomorrow: Coast to Coast".

Local "A.M. Chicago" morphing into "The Oprah Winfrey Show"/"Oprah".

WABC-TV's local "The Morning Show" becoming "Live with Regis & Kathy Lee", and eventually becoming "Live with Regis & Kelly".

"Early Today" on NBC becoming "NBC News at Sunrise", then back to "Early Today" (as a CNBC production).

"A.M. America" becoming "Good Morning America" (though you could argue the latter was a flat-out replacement for the former).

and CBS's many variations of the 7am-9am period: "CBS Morning News", "The Morning Program", "CBS This Morning", "This Morning", and finally "The Early Show".
 
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