CNN Runs Down One Episode Wonders
Breeanna Hare has written an article for CNN.com titled “Looking back at TV’s one-episode wonders” in which shee recounts a dozen of television’s “one episode wonders,” including old standbys like You’re in the Picture, Co-ed Fever and Turn On along with more recent examples such as Emily’s Reasons Why Not and Quarterlife. So far, the 2009-2010 season has seen only one cancellation, The CW’s Beautiful Life, and it lasted two episodes. And since most of the new fall shows have premiered already, we’ll have to wait until mid-season to see if 2009-2010 will have its own one episode wonder.
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October 8th, 2009 at 6:51PM
I can’t remember the name of the show, but I think it was on CBS and premiered after a Super Bowl game and starred Don Henley as an undercover police detective, but I do remember it lasted only one episode…please help
October 8th, 2009 at 9:35PM
You’re likely thinking of SOUTH OF SUNSET, which aired its single episode on CBS on October 27, 1993. It starred not Don Henley but another Eagle, Glenn Frey, as a private eye. The show had been heavily promoted during CBS’ recent airing of the World Series.
According to Wikipedia, the CBS broadcast was preempted on some West Coast stations for news coverage of wildfires in Malibu. Most of the remaining episodes were subsequently aired on VH1.
October 9th, 2009 at 12:37AM
I certainly remember one CBS sitcom that premiered on January 28, 1986, and wasn’t around the following week: Melba Moore’s “MELBA”; that was the day the Space Shuttle exploded after taking off that morning [TWO disasters in one day, imagine that]. To be fair, though, the network aired the remaining five episodes that August and September.
October 9th, 2009 at 7:29AM
I remember trying to watch “Turn On” as a teenager because I liked “Laugh In”. I seem to remember there was this constant thumping noise in the background. I tuned out before the first episode even finished it was so bad.
October 9th, 2009 at 1:19PM
You can call this nitpicking if you like, but I don’t count “You’re In The Picture” as a one-episode show. Jackie Gleason retained the timeslot for the remaining twelve weeks, first with the famous “apology” show, thereafter with an ad-lib talk show (which, as memory serves, he did a pretty good job with). By my reckoning, this counts as a format change. My opinion – feel free to discard.
October 9th, 2009 at 4:50PM
I was forever disappointed to not be able to stay up to see CO-ED FEVER as Heather Thomas looked very attractive in the commercials.
October 10th, 2009 at 1:20AM
I’d have to agree that “You’re In The Picture” could technically qualify as more than a one episode show since on the “apology” show the program began with the “You’re In The Picture” title rather than “Jackie Gleason Show” as I think it was billed for the remaining weeks.
October 10th, 2009 at 1:26AM
It wasn’t even “12 weeks”, Mike. “THE JACKIE GLEASON SHOW” became the series’ official title on February 3rd (the week after “the apology show”), and it was basically a “one-on-one” interview show between Jackie and his friends and acquaintances (Art Carney, Jayne Mansfield, Mickey Rooney, etc.). It ended on March 24th {after 10 weeks, including “YOU’RE IN THE PICTURE” and the “apology”}, with Roald Dahl’s “‘WAY OUT” taking its place the following week.
But “YOU’RE IN THE PICTURE” was technically a “one-show wonder”, as it never returned. See, Jackie supposedly promised he’d “do something” to fix the format and said he’d mention that on “the apology show”, but he double-crossed CBS and producer Steve Carlin by saying at the end of that show, “I don’t know what we’ll be doing next week, but I’ll be back”. The plan had been to slip the OTHER taped episode of “YOU’RE IN THE PICTURE” several weeks after the show “reestablished” itself, but Gleason made that impossible. To this day, noone knows where that other unaired episode is, or IF it exists.
As for “TURN-ON”, producer George Schlatter claims he has the OTHER unaired episodes in his archive. Perhaps one day we’ll discover what all the fuss was about….
What Chuck refers to is that CBS “previewed” “CO-ED FEVER” right after their “premiere telecast” of “ROCKY” on February 4, 1979 at 10:30pm(et). Naturally, the network assumed most of the audience would stick around to see what the new series was like, and “follow it” to its Monday night time slot at 8:30pm(et). They discovered the movie had a “52 share” in the overnight Nielsen ratings…but “CO-ED FEVER” earned ONLY a “36 share”. This was a shock: how COULD a major chunk of the audience disappear when it began? CBS panicked, and never aired “CO-ED FEVER” again.