Unsold Pilots on Television, 1967-1989
Originally Published July 23rd, 2009
Television pilots are produced by the dozens every year. These test episodes are used to sell potential programs to advertisers and networks but a large percentage of them aren’t picked up and never become an actual television series. What happens to an unsold pilot? Most are never heard of again. But the costs of making a pilot are high and starting in the mid-1950s it was commonplace for the networks to run summer replacement series made up entirely of unsold pilots. Read about nine such programs, including Just for Laughs, Comedy Theatre, Comedy Time and CBS Summer Playhouse, aired between 1967 and 1989.
Refer to Unsold Pilots on Television, 1956-1966 for a look at how unsold pilots — produced by the dozens every season — were first used as summer replacement programs in the 1950s. Suffice it to say, it made sense financially to try to recoup some of the money poured into an unsold pilot by broadcasting it during the summer as part of an anthology series. This was common throughout the 1960s and into the 1970s.
By the 1980s, however, the networks began simply burning off unsold pilots one or two at a time whenever they needed to fill an hour rather than pull several together under the banner of “Comedy Showcase” or “Preview Tonight.” Still, that didn’t stop CBS from broadcasting CBS Summer Playhouse during the summers of 1987, 1988 and 1989. During the 1990s unsold pilots were still occasionally shown during the summer; ABC aired three during July of 1995 (“Philly Heat,” “The Last Days of Russell” and “Time Well Spent”).
Presumably, the cost of broadcasting unsold pilots — paying residuals to writers, directors and actors, for example — led the networks to decide it just wasn’t worth it to actually air unsold pilots. But for decades, they were a summer staple. Read about seven unsold pilot programs originally broadcast between 1967 and 1989.
A summer replacement for The Carol Burnett Show, this series only managed to air seven episodes over the course of twelve weeks due to pre-emptions for sporting events, political conventions and one special. Premiere debuted on Monday, July 1st and ran from 10-11PM. The first unsold pilot was titled “Call to Danger” and starred James Gregory and Peter Graves as special agents charged with finding the plates used to print the $10 bill (they were stolen). The following week, Burt Reynolds starred in “Lassiter” as a magazine writer working on an expose about vice.
Other pilots included “Braddock,” with Tom Sicoe as a private detective searching for the missing component to a laser; “The Search,” with Mark Miller as a detective from the States working in London; and “Higher and Higher, Attorneys at Law” with Dustin Hoffman as a district attorney (it also starred Sally Kellerman, Robert Foster, Alan Alda, Barry Morse and Marie Masters). Six of the seven episodes were hour-long dramas. The August 12th broadcast included two sitcom pilots aired back to back: “Out of the Blue” with Shirley Jones as an alien sent to observe Earth culture and “Operation Greasepaint” with Jack Burns and Avery Schreiber as entertainers in France during World War II.
Premiere was pre-empted on August 12th, August 19th, August 26th and September 2nd. It was last seen on September 9th.
Comedy Playhouse premiered on Sunday, August 1st and ran from 8-8:30PM. Janet Leigh starred in first pilot as a soap opera actress who, in real life, is married to a doctor. Her two “lives” become confusing. Other pilots included “Elke,” with Elke Sommer as a German woman married to a doctor whose family believes she only married him for his money and the opportunity to become a citizen of the United States; “An Amateur’s Guide to Love,” with Rose Marie, Michael Landon, Dick Martin and Peter Marshall in a hidden camera show; and “Shepherd’s Flock” with Kenneth Mars as a former football player who becomes a minister.
President Nixon pre-empted the August 15th broadcast; that episode, “The Phil Silvers Show” (aka “Eddie”) was seen on September 5th as the final broadcast. Silvers starred as Eddie Skinner, a security guard for a gated community who gets to live the life of a millionaire thanks to his employees. Patricia Barry co-starred.
This series ran for just four weeks from August 8th to August 29th on Thursdays from 8:30-9PM; one of the four pilots actually managed to make it to the air. Frank Sutton, Cloris Leachman, and Dick Van Patten starred in the first pilot, “Ernie, Madge, and Artie. Sutton and Leachman were a newly married while Van Patten was the spirit of Leachman’s first husband. The other unsold pilots were “Ann in Blue” with Penny Fuller, Marybeth Hurt, Mary Elaine Monte and Hattie Winston as police officers stuck doing public relations work and “The Barbara Eden Show” with Barbara Eden as a soap opera writer.
The remaining pilot, “The Life and Times of Capt. Barney Miller,” would eventually become ABC’s Barney Miller. It starred Hal Linden as a captain of detectives whose wife, played by Abby Dalton, wants him to quit and find a safer (and better paying) job.
Comedy Theatre was first seen in 1976 and then again in 1979. During the 1976 season a pair comedy pilots were broadcast during each episode. Thus, a total of 12 pilots were shown during the 1976 season over the course of six episodes. The series premiered on Monday, July 26th and ran from 8-9PM. The first two pilots were “Ace” with Bob Dishy as a bungling detective and “The Bureau” with Henry Gibson and Barbara Rhoades as the chief of and an agent for a secret government agency called the Bureau.
Other pilots broadcast during the first season included “The Cheerleaders,” with Kathleen Cody, Teresa Medaris and Debbie Zipp as cheerleaders trying to join an exclusive high school club in the 1950s; “Flannery and Quilt,” with Harold Gould and Red Buttons as widowers living in the same house who can’t agree on a single thing yet somehow get along; “Newman’s Drugstore,” with Herschel Bernardi as the owner of a small drugstore in the 1930s with money troubles; “Roxy Page,” with Janice Lynde as an actress who wants to be on Broadway whose family doesn’t; and “Local 306,” with Eugene Roche as a plumber promoted to the chief of his union who fears flying. The season finale was broadcast on September 6th.
Comedy Theatre returned for its second season on Thursday, May 24th, 1979. It was now a half-hour series running from 8:30-9PM with a single comedy pilot shown each week. The first pilot, “Car Wash,” was based on the 1976 movie and starred Danny Aiello, Stuard Pankin and Hilary Beane. Other pilots included “Heaven on Earth,” with Donna Ponteretto and Carol Wayne as young women who wind up in Heaven accidentally and are returned to Earth to do good; “Mother and Me, M.D.” with Rue McClanahan and Leah Ayres as mother and daughter doctors working at the same hospital; and “Faculty Lounge,” with Arte Johnson, Rose Marie, Larry Storch (and others) as teachers at a high school who suddenly find themselves on strike.
The final episode of Comedy Theatre aired on June 28th, 1979. One pilot, “Uptown Saturday Night” with Cleavon Little and Francesca Roberts, was scheduled to air on June 21st but was pulled the weekend before for an unknown reason.
This half-hour series had an interesting broadcast history. It premiered on Wednesday, July 6th, 1977 running from 9:30-10PM. During its third week on the air it became a twice-weekly series, with two sitcom pilots shown on Thursdays from 8-9PM. After being pre-empted during the first three weeks of August, Comedy Time returned for an additional two weeks airing only on Thursdays. All told, 12 episodes were broadcast. The premiere pilot, “The Natural Look,” starred Barbara Feldon as a cosmetics executive and Bill Bixby as her pediatrician husband.
The first Thursday broadcast consisted of a two-part pilot for a comedy series to be titled “Hollywood High,” with Annie Potts and Darrin O’Connor as high school students Paula and Eugene. In the first part, while working on an assignment for the school paper, the two find themselves sharing an apartment. In the second part, Paula tries to get Eugene a date with a popular girl by writing a paper for her.
Other pilots included “Bay City Amusement Company,” with Terry Kiser as the top executive at a television station in San Francisco; “The Rubber Gun Squad,” with Lenny Baker and Andy Romano as inept police officers trying to protect Central Park without guns; “Daughters,” with MIchael Constantine as a police chief raising three daughters on his own; and “Instant Family” with William Daniels and Lou Criscuolo as bachelors living in the same house trying to raise their sons their own ways. The final two pilots were shown on September 1st.
This NBC series, like the similarly named Comedy Theatre, broadcast sitcom pilots. It premiered on Friday, July 17th, 1981 and ran from 8:30-9PM. The first pilot, “Dear Teacher,” starred Melinda Culea as a teacher who learns the man she’s dating (played by Ted Danson) is the father of the most troublesome student in her class. Other pilots included “Pals,” with Jeffrey Tambor and Tony Lo Bianco as brothers-in-law who travel to Mexico to purchase a painting; “Two Reelers,” with Radger Bumpass and Stephen Furst as tourists who find themselves in the middle of a revolution and help take a coffee shop and its waitress (played by Penny Peyser) hostage; and “Wendy Hooper, U.S. Army” with Wendy Holcombe as a member of the Army Signal Corps.
The final episode was broadcast on August 28th.
CBS used this series as summer filler for three consecutive seasons during the late 1980s, mixing hour-long dramas and half-hour sitcoms (two each episode) for a total of 47 pilots. During the summer of 1987 it was seen on Fridays from 8-9PM and, over the course of 13 weeks, aired 18 pilots. The premiere installment, broadcast on June 12th, was an attempted remake of “The Saint” starring Andrew Clark as Simon Templar. Other pilots included “Mabel and Max,” with Geraldine Fitzgerald and Mary B. Ward as actresses living in a New York City apartment; “Day to Day,” with Linda Purl, Deborah Harmon and Noelle Parker as sisters living together; “Sons of Gunz,” with Kenneth McMillan as a car salesman whose three sons work for him; and “Infiltrator” with Scott Bakula as a scientist who gains superhuman abilities thanks to a “molecular teleportation” accident.
CBS Summer Playhouse returned on Tuesday, June 21st, 1988 with a special two-hour pilot called “My Africa,” with Carl Weintraub as a doctor working in Kenya whose children come to live with him after his ex-wife dies. It ran from 8-10PM; the regular time slot was 8-9PM. Other pilots included “Dr. Paradise,” with Sally Kellerman as a doctor whose brother owns a tropical resort (he’s also a doctor); “Roughhouse,” with Ronny Cox and Robert Prescott as construction workers; “Old Money,” with Carolyn Seymour as a wealthy countess; and “Sniff,” with Robert Wuhl as a reporter whose dog is a talented partner. The season finale aired on September 6th.
During the summer of 1989 CBS Summer Playhouse was once again seen on Tuesdays. The third season premiered on June 20th. The first pilot, “Microcops,” starred William Bumiller and Page Moseley as tiny intergalactic police officers on the trail of a nasty bad guy played by Peter Scolari. Other pilots included “Elysian Fields,” with Jeffrey De Munn, Frances Fisher and James Borders as residents of a boarding house in New Orleans; “Outpost,” with Joanna Going as a police officer on a distant colony; “Shivers,” with Lesley-Anne Down as a sexy ghost who doesn’t want anyone living in her house; and “Coming to America,” based on the 1988 film of the same name with Tommy Davidson as Prince Tariq (the brother of King Akeem, the character played by Eddie Murphy in the movie).
The final episode aired on August 22nd.
Last Updated May July 23rd, 2009
July 24th, 2009 at 5:57PM
A couple of quick notes:
1) The 1968 CBS Premiere series included a show filmed in Chicago whose title I can’t recall, which starred Carroll O’Connor and Andrew Duggan as cops. It may have been the last TV show directed by Robert Altman before he switched to movies; it was filmed entirely on location.
2) IN Ernie, Madge And Artie, you have the male leads switched: Dick Van Patten was the new groom and Frank Sutton was the ghost. I remember this in particular because the show aired only a matter of days after Sutton had died in real life; there was a small dispute over whether it was going to air at all.
3) The title role in the Dr. Paradise pilot was played by Frank Langella, his first such appearance if memory serves.
4) The title roles in Higher & Higher were played by Sally Kellerman and John McMartin. Dustin Hoffman’s part as the DA was small (this was filmed well before The Graduate), but you wouldn’t have known that fron CBS’s promotion.
5) The star of Braddock was Tom Simcox, who sort of vaniished after a brief spurt of activity in the late ’60s. The last thing I can recall of him was when Patrick McGoohan murdered him on Columbo.
Hope this helps.
August 2nd, 2009 at 3:15PM
Reading the descriptions of the 1976 NBC Comedy Theatre, three shows stand out; if you put ‘Ace’ and ‘The Bureau’ together you’d have GET SMART…’Flannery and Quilt’ sounds like a revised version of THE ODD COUPLE (the men being widowers instead of divorced)
September 11th, 2009 at 8:58PM
The unsold pilot that Carroll O’Connor and Andrew Duggan appeared in on “PREMIERE”, originally “pitched” for CBS’ 1966-’67 season, was entitled, “WALK IN THE NIGHT” (aka “NIGHTWATCH”). It came down to a choice of their pilot for the fall schedule…or “MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE”- and CBS executives chose the latter.
I’ve seen an original network print of “HIGHER AND HIGHER, ATTORNEYS AT LAW” (with commercials) on “PREMIERE” [color kinescope), and it was indeed Kellerman & McMartin in the lead roles, filmed in New York. Hoffman had a supporting role as the "DA"...and Alan Alda- his role was smaller, but pivotal to the evening's plot {and I have no intention of revealing exactly WHY, here...in case any of you ever get to see it...why spoil the surprise?}.
"BRADDOCK" was supposed to be a "futuristic" crime drama about "the last private eye in America" in 1977, featuring Tom Simcox [Braddock uses "old fashioned methods" as opposed to up-to-date "computerized" proceedures]. It was filmed, I believe, at a futuristic-looking UCLA complex.
September 11th, 2009 at 9:47PM
As for the 1981 edition of NBC’s “COMEDY THEATER” on Friday nights, I recall “NATIONAL LAMPOON’S TWO REELERS” (it was produced in association with the magazine), but it WASN’T seen in New York [pre-empted on WNBC-TV in favor of a local news special; I saw part of it on NBC's Philadephia affiliate, KYW-TV, because the set I was watching could bring the signal in reasonably]. The idea of the projected series was to simulate the “golden age” of theatrical comedy shorts, with the two leads {Rodger Bumpass & Stephen Furst} reappearing in different roles and situations in each episode (a la “The Three Stooges”, “Laurel & Hardy”, and so on). “PALS”, from the team responsible for CBS’ “MR. MERLIN” in the fall of 1981, was an out-and-out rip-off of the 1980 theatrical movie, “The In-Laws” (Peter Falk & Alan Arkin). “WENDY HOOPER, U.S. ARMY” was from the same creator/producer of “GOMER PYLE, USMC”, Aaron Ruben; NBC chief programmer Fred Silverman believed Wendy Holcombe had a future as a sitcom star- she eventually became a regular on Gabriel Kaplan’s short-lived “LEWIS & CLARK” that fall, after Silverman had left the network. Another unsold pilot seen was Irene Cara’s “IRENE” (Fred Silverman decided, on the strength of her performance in “Fame”, that she could be a sitcom star; the pilot episode aired shortly after he left NBC), featuring Kaye Ballard and Julia Duffy in supporting roles.