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    Monday, February 8th, 2010

    Q & A: Can You Identify These Shows, Part 5

    I get a lot of e-mails from people asking me about television shows, made-for-TV movies or miniseries they remember from years or decades past. I try to answer each question as best I can but often recollections are hazy at best and thus impossible to identify, despite my best efforts. Hopefully, by posting these questions here at Television Obscurities for everyone to read someone will come up with the answer. Keep reading for today’s unidentified shows.

    This new feature has turned out to be both more popular and more productive than I had hoped. Many of the questions that stumped me have been answered by visitors.

    • Can You Identify These Shows, Part 1
      1. Show identified as a British program called The Champions, broadcast by NBC in 1968
      2. Two-part made-for-TV movies/miniseries identified as Goliath Awaits, aired in syndication as part of Operation Prime Time in November of 1981
    • Can You Identify These Shows, Part 2
      1. Made-for-TV movie identified as Mother Was Never A Kid, an ABC Afterschool Special broadcast in April of 1981
      2. Show identified as ABC’s Oh, Grow Up!, a sitcom that ran for 11 episodes during the 1999-2000 season
    • Can You Identify These Shows, Part 3
      1. Show identified as a British program called Into the Labyrinth
      2. Early 1990s animated movie still unidentified
    • Can You Identify These Shows, Part 4
      1. Show identified as Phyl & Mikhy, a CBS summer series that ran for 6 episodes in 1980.
      2. Show potentially identified as Showtime’s Hard Knocks, a sitcom that aired in 1987.

    Here are two more questions that I hope someone can answer. I sure couldn’t.

    Read the rest of this entry »

    Posted at 4:29PM in Q & A, Unidentified Programs | No Comments »

    Sunday, February 7th, 2010

    Nielsen Top Ten, November 6th – November 12th, 1972

    Here are the first ten programs from the ninth week of the 1972-1973 television season, which ran from Monday, November 6th, 1972 through Sunday, November 12th, 1972. There were a total of 62 programs broadcast during the week and The Los Angeles Times published the complete Nielsen report on November 23rd, 1972. ABC’s broadcast of 1969’s True Grit (which won John Wayne an Oscar for Best Actor) on Sunday, November 12th topped the chart with a 38.9 rating and a 63 share, pushing All in the Family to second. Nonetheless, ABC still ranked third for the week with a 17.8 rating (down from an 18.8 the week before). CBS was first with a 19.2 (up from a 19.1) and NBC second with an 18.8 (down from an 19.0).

    Other specials in the Top Ten included the hour-long “Snoopy at the Ice Follies” (hosted by Charles Schulz) in fourth place and the half-hour “Clerow Wilson and the Miracle of P.S. 14″ (based on the life of Flip Wilson) in fifth place. The two specials were broadcast by NBC on Sunday from 7:30-9PM. Here’s the Top Ten, complete with Nielsen ratings:

    ## Program Net Rating
    1. “True Grit” ABC 38.9
    2. All in the Family CBS 37.7
    3. Gunsmoke CBS 37.4
    4. “Snoopy at the Ice Follies” NBC 26.4
    5. “Clerow Wilson–P.S. 14″ CBS 25.4
    6. Sanford and Son NBC 25.1
    7. Bridget Loves Bernie CBS 24.9
    8. The Flip Wilson Show NBC 24.6
    9. Ironside NBC 24.2
    10. Adam 12 NBC 23.5

    Read the rest of this entry »

    Posted at 8:14PM in Historical TV Ratings, Nielsen Ratings | 2 Comments »

    Status Guide – “Kraft Television Theatre” Season Four

    I’ve written a brief overview of NBC’s long-running Kraft Television Theatre — which ran from 1947 to 1958 — and the status of its hundreds of episodes, which you can read here. Because the show ran year-round, I initially considered each season to run from May to May (in other words, the first season would have run from May of 1947 to May of 1948). However, I eventually decided to align my status guides with various episode guides available online: TV.com, the Internet Movie Database and the Classic TV Database.

    The fourth season of Kraft Television Theatre premiered on September 27th, 1950 with the 177th episode of the series and ended on September 5th, 1951 with the 226th episode. The Library of Congress holds twelve episodes in its collection. Excerpts from the March 21st, 1951 episode (“Of Famous Memory”) were included in the sixth anniversary show broadcast on May 6th, 1953; both UCLA’s Film & Television Archive and the Library of Congress have copies of this episode.

    Neither the Museum of Broadcasting nor The Paley Center for Media have any episodes from this season in their collections.

    Read the rest of this entry »

    Posted at 5:25PM in Kraft Television Theatre, Status Guide, TV's Lost & Found | No Comments »

    Friday, February 5th, 2010

    W2XBS Schedule, Week of November 12th, 1939

    Here’s the schedule for NBC’s experimental station W2XBS in New York City for the week starting Sunday, November 12th, 1939, straight from the weekly television listings printed in The New York Times. The week was filled with sporting events, films and a few plays. There was also a “style show burlesque” featuring Frances Hidden and the Goddard Neighborhood Center Television Ball Committee Meeting (the ball itself was planned for December 15th). But the most interesting program of the week was the variety hour broadcast on Sunday, November 12th. In addition to a Thornton Wilder play, the variety show featured Diosa Costello and Desi Arnaz.

    According to this article, Costello and Arnaz worked together at the La Conga nightclub in New York City in 1939 and were part of the cast of the Rodgers and Hart musical Too Many Girls, which opened on Broadway in October of that year. (Arnaz would later appear in the 1940 film version of the musical where he first met Lucille Ball.) Was this the first television appearance for Desi Arnaz? I can’t say for sure but my guess is that very well could be. I don’t know exactly what he did as part of the variety show. My guess is that Costello and Arnaz performed a Latin dance of some sort.

    Read the rest of this entry »

    Posted at 7:24PM in Historical TV Schedules, W2XBS | 1 Comment »

    Thursday, February 4th, 2010

    New Article: “Morton & Hayes”

    I mentioned earlier in the year that I was planning on writing articles about some obscure television programs from the early 1990s despite the fact that they aired just two decades ago. Morton & Hayes is the first of those programs and this is the first of these articles. The show ran for just six episodes during the summer of 1991 on CBS, which in terms of length certainly deserves to be called obscure. Here’s the summary:

    Rob Reiner created this unconventional comedy series in which previously “lost” short films starring a forgotten comedy team in the vein of Abbott and Costello were aired in black and white. The series dates back to 1989 when a pilot was ordered by CBS; it eventually aired in August of 1990. The network ordered six episodes of a revamped version for the summer of 1991. Critics were split on whether the series was a brave attempt at a new sort of television comedy. Viewers didn’t care one way or the either and the series was not continued past the initial six episodes due to low ratings.

    Interestingly, it’s likely that more people remember The New People or Camp Runamuck than Morton & Hayes. True, it aired much more recently but its ratings were anemic. Even a poorly rated show from the 1960s probably had more viewers. But even Morton & Hayes has its fans and hopefully they’ll enjoy this article. So take a moment to read over my latest article: Morton & Hayes.

    Posted at 10:41PM in Articles | 2 Comments »

    Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

    Bookshelf: The Twilight Zone #18

    The Twilight Zone #18
    First Published November of 1966
    Published by Gold Key/K.K. Publications, Inc.

    Gold Key’s comic book series based on The Twilight Zone ran for 91 issues from November of 1962 to June of 1979. It was never published monthly, often coming out every other month or every few months. During 1966 a years subscription cost 65 cents in the United States, 90 cents for Canadians and $1.15 for all others. This particular issue includes eight stories plus a black-and-white story on the inner front cover (the outer front cover has advertisements). The main story, which runs 11 pages, is called “Second-Hand Clothes.”

    Read the rest of this entry »

    Posted at 10:00AM in Bookshelf, Comic Books, The Twilight Zone | 1 Comment »

    Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

    Aaron Ruben (1914-2010)

    Aaron Ruben, who produced the first five seasons of The Andy Griffith Show, passed away on January 30th at the age of 90. Ruben started his television career in 1953 writing for The Milton Berle Show and later Caesar’s Hour. From 1960 to 1965 he produced The Andy Griffith Show (he also wrote several episodes, directed a few and served as story consultant). Ruben created Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., which spun-off the character of Gomer Pyle (played by Jim Nabors) into his own sitcom. The pilot episode aired as part of The Andy Griffith Show in May of 1964. Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. premiered in September of 1964 and ran until 1969. Ruben produced Headmaster, which starred Andy Griffith, and later the first three seasons of Sanford & Son (writing more than a dozen episodes). He also wrote episodes of C.P.O. Sharkey and The Stockard Channing Show and served as creative consultant on Matlock during the early 1990s.

    Obituaries can be found at The Los Angeles Times and Variety. A ten-part interview from 1999 can be found at the Archive of American Television. Thanks to Zoneboy at the Sitcoms Online Message Boards for bringing this to my attention.

    Posted at 9:47PM in Requiescat In Pace | 1 Comment »

    Barry Blitzer (1929-2010)

    Prolific sitcom writer Barry Blitzer passed away last week (January 27th) at the age of 80. According to Variety, Blitzer joined the Writers Guild of America, West in 1961 but was writing for television as early as 1955. He was the last surviving member of a group of nine writers who shared a 1956 Emmy Award for Best Comedy Writing. Both Variety and the Internet Movie Database state that they won for an episode titled “You’ll Never Get Rich” but there doesn’t appear to have been an episode with that title, suggesting that the award (and others that year) were for the series as a whole. Blitzer also wrote multiple episodes of McHale’s Navy, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., The Jetsons and The Flintstones, plus one or two episodes of quite a few shows, such as Barefoot in the Park, I’m Dickens, He’s Fenster, Broadside, Get Smart, Land of the Lost. During the 1980s he worked on a variety of animated programs, including The Flintstone Kids, Laverne & Shirley in the Army and The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang.

    The Variety obituary appears to be the only one available online. Thanks to Zoneboy at the Sitcoms Online Message Boards for bringing this to my attention.

    Posted at 9:29PM in Requiescat In Pace | 1 Comment »

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