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Originally Published August 20th & October 14th, 2003
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ABC premiered ten new shows in the fall of 1974, including Nakia, The Sonny Comedy Revue, Paper Moon and Night Stalker (which was recently revived by ABC for the 2005-2006 season only to be cancelled again). Of those ten new programs only two returned as part of the 1975-1976 season: Get Christie Love! and Harry-O. And two ABC programs, The Texas Wheelers and Kodiak, had the honor of being the first cancellations of the season.
NOTE: No new Monday or Tuesday programming was introduced by ABC during the fall of 1974.
ABC introduced That's My Mama on September 4th at 8:00PM, a week before the true start of the fall season. Up against repeats on the other networks, the premiere pulled a high rating [1]. Once the season begin in earnest, however, That's My Mama was up against the first half-hour of the new Sons and Daughters on CBS and the new Little House on the Prairie on NBC.
The sitcom was centered on an African-American family living in Washington, DC. Clifton Davis starred as Clifton Curtis, a young single man who took over the family barbershop upon the death of his father. To make things convenient, the barbershop was connected to the family home.
Clifton was content with his carefree bachelor lifestyle and his job. His mother, Eloise "Mama" Curtis (Theresa Merritt), nevertheless dearly wished her son could find a wife, the same way her daughter Tracy (Lynne Moody) had found engineer Leonard Tylor. Co-stars included Theodore Wilson as postman Earl Chambers, Jester Hairston as Wildcat, DeForest Covan as Josh and Ted Lange as Junior. That's My Mama would return in 1975, but only lasted until December of that year.
The other ABC offering for Wednesdays was Get Christie Love!, which aired opposite two other new shows at 10:00PM, The Manhunter on CBS and Petrocelli on NBC. Get Christie Love! starred Teresa Graves as Detective Christie Love, pocketbook-toting (and TV's first) African-American policewoman. The pilot movie for the series aired in January of 1974.
Charles Cioffi appeared as Love's boss, Lieutenant Matt Reardon, while Andy Ramano, Dennis Rucker and Scott Peters played other detectives. Most of Love's cases were undercover but she had a real problem waiting for backup. The characters of Reardon and Detective Joe Caruso (played by Andy Ramano) were dropped in January of 1975, to be replaced by Jack Kelly as Captain Arthur P. Ryan and Michael Pataki as Sgt. Pete Gallagher.
The series managed to hang on until July of 1975, although it moved to Fridays in, staying in the same time period. Critics were not impressed with the series, which was filled with cheap car chases and clichéd action-adventure plots.
Two new ABC programs were aired on Thursdays. Paper Moon was broadcast from 8:30PM - 9:00PM, opposite The Waltons on ABC and Sierra on NBC. The series was based on the award-winning 1973 movie of the same title, starring Ryan and Tatum O'Neal, which in turn was based on a 1971 play, Addie Pray, written by Joe David Brown.
Jodie Foster took over the role of Addie Pray from Tatum O'Neal and Christopher Connelly replaced Ryan O'Neal as Moze, a con-man. The two crisscrossed the 1830s Midwest in their roadster, with Moze attempting to sell bibles and Addie following along out of a misplaced belief that Moze was her father. The series lasted until January of 1975 before it succumbed to low ratings [2].
The other ABC series, Harry O, aired from 10:00PM - 11:00PM, up against Movin' On, a new series from NBC, and The CBS Thursday Night Movies. Two made-for-TV movies preceded the series. The first, titled Harry O: Such Dust As Dreams Are Made On, aired March 11th, 1973, and co-starred Martin Sheen.
The second, Smile Jenny, You're Dead, aired February 3rd, 1974, and co-starred Jodie Foster. David Janssen played the title character in both movies and the series: Harry Orwell, a police officer who was forced to retire after he was shot in the back.
The bullet was lodged next to his spine, so close, in fact, that it could not be removed and therefore caused Harry to be in constant pain. He lived on a San Diego beach and supported himself by dabbling in private investigation, taking low-paying cases whenever they popped up. Unable to afford a fancy car or even fix the one he had, Harry usually took the bus from place to place. The series returned in 1975 and was cancelled in August of 1976 after two seasons and forty-four episodes.
ABC's first new Friday show, Kodiak, was a half-hour drama that aired from 8:00PM-8:30PM. The series and told the story of Cal "Kodiak" McKay, played by Clint Walker, formerly of the Western Cheyenne. McKay, a member of the Alaska State Patrol, was in charge of 50,000 square miles of terrain and everything that went on within it. The series premiered on September 13th.
Also appearing were Maggie Blye as Mandy, the Alaska State Patrol dispatcher, and Abner Biberman as Abraham Lincoln Imhook, an Eskimo who helped out Kodiak. Up against NBC's returning hit Sanford And Son and its new series Chico and the Man, the series was cancelled in October of 1974 [3]. Only five episodes were aired; the final episode aired on October 11th. Following Kodiak was The Six Million Dollar Man, which had premiered in 1973.
At 9:30PM was The Texas Wheelers, the second new Friday entry from ABC. The premise was simple, four motherless children were forced to live on their own when their father abandoned then. Some years later the father returned. The series, set in Texas (as the title makes obvious), starred Jack Elam as Zack Wheeler, the father. Gary Busey played 24-year-old Truckie, the oldest child who took charge of the family during Zack's absence.
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Mark Hamill, who would later rocket to fame in Star Wars, played 16-year-old Doobie. Karen Oberdiear played 12-year-old Boo and Tony Decker portrayed 10-year-old T.J. Lisa Eilbacher appeared as a friend of Boo's named Sally, Dennis Burkley played Bud, and Bruce Kimball played Lyle. The Texas Wheelers premiered on September 13th.
When The Texas Wheelers was canceled alongside Kodiak, both had aired less than a half-dozen episodes [4]. Although Kodiak was able to broadcast an additional episode (The Texas Wheelers was pre-empted on October 11th), The Texas Wheelers had the last laugh. During the summer repeat season in 1975, six additional episodes were aired, starting Thursday, June 22nd at 8:30PM [5].
The final Friday series, The Night Stalker, ran from 10:00PM to 11:00PM opposite Police Woman on NBC and The CBS Friday Night Movies. Although it only ran for a single season of twenty-one episodes, the series nevertheless became quite the cult classic. In September of 2005, ABC premiered an updated version of the series which was quickly cancelled due to low ratings.
The series starred Darren McGavin as Carl Kolchak, a reporter for the Chicago Independent News Service who constantly ran into paranormal activity, be it vampires, werewolves, zombies, etc, etc. A pair of made-for-TV movie preceded the series: The Night Stalker, aired January 11th, 1972, and The Night Strangler, aired on January 16th, 1973.
Simon Oakland played Tony Vincenzo, Kolchak's boss, Jack Grinnage played Ron Ypdyke, another INS reporter, Ruth McDevitt as Emily Cowles, a columnist, John Fielder as Gordy Spangler, and Carol Ann Susi as Monique Marmelstein. The series was cancelled after 21 episodes in August of 1975.
Two new ABC shows found homes on Saturday. The first, The New Land, premiered September 14th at 8:00PM. The series told the story of Swedish immigrant family that came to America in 1858 to establish themselves in Minnesota. Scott Thomas starred as patriarch Christian Larsen, with Bonnie Bedelia as wife Anna.
Todd Lookinland (whose brother Mike played Bobby Brady on The Brady Bunch) was son Tuliff, while Debbie Lytton played daughter Anneliese. Kurt Russell appeared as Christian's brother Bo. The show premiered on Saturday, September 14th. Facing stiff competition from All In The Family on CBS and Emergancy! on NBC, The New Land faltered and was gone by October [6].
ABC's second new Saturday series, Nakia, premiered the following Saturday, on September 21st, and lasted about two months longer than The New Land. A made-for-TV movie of the same name served as the pilot, airing April 17th, 1974. Robert Forster starred as Nakia Parker, a Navajo deputy sheriff in a tiny New Mexico town.
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Arthur Kennedy appeared as Sheriff Sam Jericho, and Taylor Lacher and Gloria DeHaven portrayed Hubbell Martin and Irene James, respectively, two other deputies. Nakia was up against The Carol Burnett Show on CBS at 10:00PM and after thirteen episodes the series was gone, its last episode airing on December 28th, 1974.
The problem with Nakia stemmed from its reliance on Native American culture. Although Forster made a convincing Navajo, many of the guest-stars looked or acted nothing like their Native American characters. Many of the plots relied on Nakia's native "abilities" (he was able to silently sneak up on someone while wearing his moccasins, for example). It's not surprising the series didn't last.
Only one new show was placed in a Sunday timeslot during the fall of 1974, ABC's The Sonny Comedy Revue, starring none other than Sonny Bono, recently divorced and fresh from his cancelled The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, which had also aired on CBS. It was the only new variety series premiering in the fall of 1974 and only one of two overall (the other was The Carol Burnett Show on CBS).
Producers Chris Bearde and Allan Blye, who had also produced The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, decided to keep some of the routines from the first show, including "Sonny's Pizza, while creating a few more, including "Great Lovers," "The Bono Brigade," "The Little Man" and "The Bono Italian Family Theatre."
Freeman King, Teri Garr, Peter Cullen, Ted Ziegler, Billy Van, and Murray Langston, all formerly of The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, appeared as regulars on the new show, while Hank Aaron, Gladys Knight, Jerry Lewis and The Pips guest-starred on the variety show. Oddly enough, in 1976 Sonny and Cher were reunited for The Sonny and Cher Show on CBS.
1 Brown, Les. "TV Season Looks to Films and Nostalgia; Mid-October Is Testing Time for Shows." New York Times. 10 Sep. 1974: 81.
2 Brown, Les. "ABC Cancels Three More Prime-Time Programs." New York Times. 14 Nov. 1974: 95.
3 "ABC Cancels Two Series And Shifts Some Programs." New York Times. 10 Oct. 1974: 93.
4 Ibid.
5 "Television This Week." New York Times. 22 Jun. 1975: 135.
6 Brown, Les. "ABC Cancels Three More Prime-Time Programs." New York Times. 14 Nov. 1974: 95.
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