Smittian said:
The premiere and only episode aired on CBS on October 27, 1993.
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Stars of other media who didn't quite make it on television
- Thread starter bpatrick
- Start date
The premiere and only episode aired on CBS on October 27, 1993.
I think you could say certain stars, while not failures really came into their own on TV.
Two great examples are Charlie Sheen and Candice Bergen. Each had success in movies but they really were able to shine on TV and show how funny they could be. (Even though I don't like Sheen's "Two and a Half Men," Sheen is good in his role on it as when he took over for Michale J Fox)
It really wasn't till the late 70s when John Travolta and Sally Field broke out that the lines between "movie" stars and "TV" stars started to blur. Though one could make a case for people such as Warren Beatty, Ryan O'Neal and Goldie Hawn, their TV shows didn't revolve around them.
Two great examples are Charlie Sheen and Candice Bergen. Each had success in movies but they really were able to shine on TV and show how funny they could be. (Even though I don't like Sheen's "Two and a Half Men," Sheen is good in his role on it as when he took over for Michale J Fox)
It really wasn't till the late 70s when John Travolta and Sally Field broke out that the lines between "movie" stars and "TV" stars started to blur. Though one could make a case for people such as Warren Beatty, Ryan O'Neal and Goldie Hawn, their TV shows didn't revolve around them.
Right. I remember that "The Smith Family" was
a midseason replacement but had forgotten if
it debuted in 1971 or '72. It was 1971. Sorry
for the error.
There have been quite a few variety shows with
stars of other media that didn't make it. I think
I mentioned Jerry Lewis and Judy Garland; the
Captain and Tennille also come to mind--their
show lasted not quite the entire 1976-77 season.
And re "Blondie": the 1968 version starred Will
("Sugarfoot") Hutchins as Dagwood, and Patricia
("Occasional Wife") Harty as Blondie. The 1957
version starred Arthur Lake, but Pamela Britton
played Blondie. Neither was successful, which
is strange: "Blondie" would seem to be a perfect
sitcom vehicle; it lasted 11 years on radio. What
went wrong?
a midseason replacement but had forgotten if
it debuted in 1971 or '72. It was 1971. Sorry
for the error.
There have been quite a few variety shows with
stars of other media that didn't make it. I think
I mentioned Jerry Lewis and Judy Garland; the
Captain and Tennille also come to mind--their
show lasted not quite the entire 1976-77 season.
And re "Blondie": the 1968 version starred Will
("Sugarfoot") Hutchins as Dagwood, and Patricia
("Occasional Wife") Harty as Blondie. The 1957
version starred Arthur Lake, but Pamela Britton
played Blondie. Neither was successful, which
is strange: "Blondie" would seem to be a perfect
sitcom vehicle; it lasted 11 years on radio. What
went wrong?
B
Bob1370
Guest
Radio stars often try, and often fail, to make it on broadcast TV.
First case in point; Howard Stern, whose raunchy humor was tried out twice in syndication during the 1990s but had to be too severely cut because of broadcast censorship standards to make it. (He had a longer run on cable and still is seen on pay-per-view, where the censorship standards are lax or non-existent.)
Second case in point; Rush Limbaugh, who tried to bring his radio show to TV with a daily show playing to a studio audience of ditto-heads (but no live viewer calls), and only lasted one season in syndication. He never talks about it today.
Everyone thinks they can be the next Arthur Godfrey or the next Larry King, and bring their brand of talk to TV and make it work over a 20 year span or more. It looks easy to the viewer. But that's the real art of it. Godfrey was Godfrey and King is King, and each man understood the difference between TV and radio and knew how to make informal talk work on TV. It isn't as easy as it looks.
The hardest thing about TV can be to make it LOOK easy and natural. Those who succeed at it (Godfrey, King, Oprah, Johnny Carson, David Letterman, Ellen DeGeneres) deserve a lot of applause for doing one of the hardest things on television.
First case in point; Howard Stern, whose raunchy humor was tried out twice in syndication during the 1990s but had to be too severely cut because of broadcast censorship standards to make it. (He had a longer run on cable and still is seen on pay-per-view, where the censorship standards are lax or non-existent.)
Second case in point; Rush Limbaugh, who tried to bring his radio show to TV with a daily show playing to a studio audience of ditto-heads (but no live viewer calls), and only lasted one season in syndication. He never talks about it today.
Everyone thinks they can be the next Arthur Godfrey or the next Larry King, and bring their brand of talk to TV and make it work over a 20 year span or more. It looks easy to the viewer. But that's the real art of it. Godfrey was Godfrey and King is King, and each man understood the difference between TV and radio and knew how to make informal talk work on TV. It isn't as easy as it looks.
The hardest thing about TV can be to make it LOOK easy and natural. Those who succeed at it (Godfrey, King, Oprah, Johnny Carson, David Letterman, Ellen DeGeneres) deserve a lot of applause for doing one of the hardest things on television.
And re "Blondie": the 1968 version starred Will
("Sugarfoot") Hutchins as Dagwood, and Patricia
("Occasional Wife") Harty as Blondie. The 1957
version starred Arthur Lake, but Pamela Britton
played Blondie. Neither was successful, which
is strange: "Blondie" would seem to be a perfect
sitcom vehicle; it lasted 11 years on radio. What
went wrong?
How about a new version with Jim Carey as Dagwood, Reese Witherspoon as Blondie, and Jason Alexander as Mr. Dithers?
("Sugarfoot") Hutchins as Dagwood, and Patricia
("Occasional Wife") Harty as Blondie. The 1957
version starred Arthur Lake, but Pamela Britton
played Blondie. Neither was successful, which
is strange: "Blondie" would seem to be a perfect
sitcom vehicle; it lasted 11 years on radio. What
went wrong?
How about a new version with Jim Carey as Dagwood, Reese Witherspoon as Blondie, and Jason Alexander as Mr. Dithers?
bpatrick said:
I am pretty sure the reason why both TV versions of Blondie failed was mainly due to the Blondie movie series which spanned 28 different flicks over a period of 12 years and the fact that they were so successful and actually they were quite well done. And unlike a TV series that has ran for 12 seasons with often muiltple cast changes, pretty much the main cast of Blondie stayed with the series except for Mr. Dithers who became Mr. Radcliffe when Jonathan Hale left due to mental problems ( Hale would kill himself in the mid 60's ). In other words no matter how the TV version would do, the movie version would be better . It would be sort of like having The Three Stooges do a sitcom. While on paper that may seem to be a good idea BUT...it would have been better just to run the movies they had done over the decades.The Stooges chances are wouldn't have been able to top what they had already done in the movies. Dittos with Blondie.
therealjm12 said:
Like the above poster said above....been there, done that, wrote the book, produced the movie.......Blondie has just been done to death.......but, the reason I stopped to comment.....I like your idea of Jim Carrey as Dagwood...he'd be perfect....but Reese Witherspoon is just too wholesome for Blondie (if you remember the idea of the original strip Blondie, when she married Dagwood, Dagwood got disinherited by his mega-rich family because Blondie came off sort of as a semi-slutty flapper- who learned to be a good wife), and Jason Alexander is just too young for Mr. Dithers....if he were about 15 years older I agree he'd be good.........
B
BobSacamano
Guest
I was just about to mention Howard & Rush as TV flops..
As far as Chevy Chase goes, his movie career was kinda spotty ,..for every "Vacation" or "Fletch", there was an Oh heavenly dog, or "Nothing but trouble" ..
And here's a couple of big names in music with horrid movie carrers....Mariah Carey & Madonna
As far as Chevy Chase goes, his movie career was kinda spotty ,..for every "Vacation" or "Fletch", there was an Oh heavenly dog, or "Nothing but trouble" ..
And here's a couple of big names in music with horrid movie carrers....Mariah Carey & Madonna
Didn't Phyllis Diller have a TV show that flopped during the late 60s? It was about, I believe, a family who pretended to be rich after losing all their money.
Jerry Lewis, as previously mentioned, did try TV twice. I remember Dean Martin promoting Lewis' show one night on Dino's program. I was surprised considering that, at the time, Martin and Lewis had not spoken to each other in almost 10 years after their famous split. Apparently Martin was trying to do his old partner a favor.
There are so many other actors who tried TV but never made it. Unfortunately, at the moment, I can't think of any more.
Jerry Lewis, as previously mentioned, did try TV twice. I remember Dean Martin promoting Lewis' show one night on Dino's program. I was surprised considering that, at the time, Martin and Lewis had not spoken to each other in almost 10 years after their famous split. Apparently Martin was trying to do his old partner a favor.
There are so many other actors who tried TV but never made it. Unfortunately, at the moment, I can't think of any more.
Mark_Giardina said:
That would've been The Pruitts of Southampton (1966-67), which later became The Phyllis Diller Show. But actually, I seem to recall Ms. Diller having two flops - the other being her 1968 variety series The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show.
Mark_Giardina said:
I also seem to recall Jerry attempting another nighttime talk show in the 1980's, besides the more infamous 1963 flop whereupon, after its demise, the theatre from which it emanated was put to use for The Hollywood Palace which ran until 1970. The 1980's version, from what I could tell, was even more short-lived.
Bob1370 said:
The ONLY place in America I can imagine where Rush's defunct TV show is still being talked about today has to be Fort Collins, Colorado. Some young man in that city did a lemonade stand to raise money and for some reason Rush got involved and used his TV show as a "base" for this.."event". I need to go back and research what exactly this Fort Collins event was really all about but I do remember it drew thousands or so Rush claimed it did. I remember the shot on his TV show of all the cars on the freeways and the skyscrapers in the background and Rush claimed that was Fort Collins. Denver has that but not Fort Collins.
Dr. Laura and Joy Browne were two other radio stars who tried TV but failed. And the list would have been longer had Delilah got into TV ( that almost happened ). I am pretty sure VH1 at one point many years ago was talking to either Dick Bartley or Mike Harvey about doing an oldies request show for them. That never happened. Good thing..I doubt it would have lasted anyway.
Dithers needs to be an older, grouchy guy. Maybe John Mahoney...although it would be hard not to play the character too much like Marty Crane.
Got to stick with Jason Alexander. One of the problems with the Blondie series was that J. C. Dithers was too low keyed. If you read the strip he is a short tempered maniac- George Constanza, Duckman. Gray up Alexander's hair, put a pair of cheaters at the end of his nose and let him go. I picked Reese Witherspoon, because I believe Blondie should be beautiful, sweet and somewhat naive. The type you fall in love with at first sight.
Got to stick with Jason Alexander. One of the problems with the Blondie series was that J. C. Dithers was too low keyed. If you read the strip he is a short tempered maniac- George Constanza, Duckman. Gray up Alexander's hair, put a pair of cheaters at the end of his nose and let him go. I picked Reese Witherspoon, because I believe Blondie should be beautiful, sweet and somewhat naive. The type you fall in love with at first sight.
Bob1370 said:
...Limbaugh's boob tube outing was propped up for four years, not one. It's just that nobody watched the damned thing past the first three months. Of course, he kept shooting himself in the foot and then whining about how he had to put up with the criticism. Of course, calling the Milwaukee Journal newspaper "The Milwaukee Urinal" on the air, and then finding his show moved from 11:30 to 1:00 A.M. for the rest of its run by WTMJ-TV/4 (owned by said "Milwaukee Urinal"), should have come as no surprise to the Oxy-Moron...
Newname said:
you know what..I think it was. His name was Dan. Still though I am not sure what the whole thing was about other than Rush made this BIG BIG deal about it. I remember it was a fundraiser..but for what? I remember Rush making this claim about all these airlines moving their planes from Denver to Fort Collins because sooooo many people wanted to be in Fort Collins for Dan's bake sale...I doubt that was the case. Then and now.
trusty said:
I'd disagree with that assessment if you're including the Penny Singleton movies, which consisted of 28 theatrical releases between 1938 and 1950, with a 2 year break during WW2. I discovered them as a kid on TV in the 1960s, and thought they were funny and clever - definitely in the "B" movie genre, but entertaining. I haven't seen them in 40 years, though - perhaps I'd feel differently now.
According to Wikipedia, a number of up-and-coming stars made guest appearances, including Rita Hayworth, Shemp Howard, and Lloyd Bridges.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blondie_(film)
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