Thursday, July 2nd, 2009
Show Spotlight: “Karen” (1975)
Please Note: I wrote this thinking I had the opening credits to Karen to share with you but it turns out I don’t. So you’ll have to make do with all this text. Whoops.
Karen Valentine won an Emmy award in 1970 for her portrayal of teacher Alice Johnson on ABC’s Room 222 (she was nominated again in 1971). The comedy-drama ran from September of 1969 to January of 1974, ending midway through its fifth season. Valentine would soon return to television in her own sitcom, simply titled Karen. In early October of 1974, only a few weeks after the start of the 1974-1975 season, Gary Deeb called Karen (then known as The Karen Valentine Show) “definite” for mid-season 1975 [1].
Sure enough, when ABC announced its mid-season overhaul on November 13th, Karen was given the Thursday 8:30-9PM time slot [2]. It was set to premiere on January 16th, 1975 following another new sitcom, Hot L Baltimore.
