Some of My Other Favorite Obscurities

As I wrote yesterday, The New People is my personal favorite obscurity but that doesn’t mean there aren’t others I’m especially fond of. I don’t have the same sort of history with any of them that I have with The New People. But there are still a few I’m particularly interested in learning more about.

One of them is Sons and Daughters, the short-lived 1974 CBS high school drama set in the 1950s. Unfortunately, it’s one of the few articles I haven’t had a chance to revise yet and my current article really doesn’t do it justice. I think I first read about the show in Total Television. For some reason that brief description caught my attention. I became fascinated with the series despite never having seen it or knowing much about it.

I was able to get a copy of the 1974-1975 CBS fall preview special which included a brief look at the series. I then acquired a copy of the pilot telefilm for the series, Senior Year, and its novelization. After that I tracked down copies of Teenage Lovers and Love is Not Enough, the pair of telefilms released after the series was cancelled that edited two episodes together. And eventually I was able to get my hands on all nine episodes.

The series was more of a soap opera than I had expected but it was still very exciting to finally be able to watch the episodes. Very soon I hope to have the revised article completed.

Another favorite is The Headmaster, Andy Griffith’s short-lived 1970 return to television after The Andy Griffith Show. I’ve never seen a single episode. The fall preview sadly doesn’t include any actual footage from the series. But thanks to my father’s years spent recording theme songs to reel-to-reel tape in the late 1960s/early 1970s, I do have audio of the theme song to the series. Listening to the theme was enough to get me interested.

Then there’s the 1954 syndicated medical drama Janet Dean, Registered Nurse, which starred Ella Raines. I can honestly say I have absolutely no recollection of how I became interested in this series. I’ve seen three episodes and actually own one on 16mm film which I was able to view thanks to a colleague several years ago. At least three others are known to exist out of the 39 believed to have been produced. Perhaps one day I’ll track those down as well.

Other favorite obscurities I’ve written about here at Television Obscurities include Accidental Family, The Good Life, Miss Susan, Nancy and 90 Bristol Court. I’m guessing most visitors to Television Obscurities and regular readers of the blog have their own favorite obscurities. Hit the comments with yours.