It’s time to vote for the first of two new articles to be published in May. I write two new articles each month, one voted on by visitors to this site and one chosen by me. This month, I’ll be writing an article called Cancelled Before They Aired and another about CBS and Psycho in 1966. Here are the choices for May 2009:
Save Our Show Campaigns Prior to Star Trek – Everyone knows how Star Trek was saved from cancellation by fan letters. The very first example of viewers successfully staging a “save our show” campaign may have occurred in 1951, however, with a CBS kid’s show. It wasn’t just network shows that elicited responses from viewers. In 1959, for example, viewers wrote to station WNTA in support of The Play of the Week. Learn about successful and failed “save our show” campaigns before 1967.
“Nancy” – This sitcom ran for all of 17 episodes during the 1970-1971 season. Renne Jarrett starred as Nancy Smith, the daughter of the President of the United States of America who, in the first episode, falls for Adam Hudson, a veterinarian. The two are forced to carry on their romance under the watchful eyes of Nancy’s ever-present guardian, Adam’s uncle, secret service agents and the news media. The series was created by Sidney Sheldon.
Writing to the Networks in the Sixties – Learn all about how ABC, CBS and NBC handled viewer mail in the 1960s. Who was writing, what did they want and what did the networks think?
“SEARCH” – Hugh O’Brian, Tony Franciosa and Doug McClure starred in this drama as agents working for World Securities, a sophisticated, technologically advanced company well-versed in recovering anything from anywhere for anyone. It ran for one season on NBC between 1972 and 1973. The agents were wired with tiny transmitters that connected them to headquarters (known as Control).
