Television Obscurities » Q & A

Q & A: “The Movie Classics of David O. Selznick”

RGJ — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 20:07:42 +0000

I get a lot of e-mails from people asking me about television shows, made-for-TV movies or miniseries they remember from years or decades past. I try to answer each question as best I can. Every now and then I like to dig through my inbox and pull out a few choice e-mails to answer here at Television Obscurities for everyone to read. Keep reading for today’s questions and answers.

I am trying to pin down a recollection. In the early Seventies, one of the networks — I believe it was ABC — ran a summer series of classic black-and-white movies over several weeks. Two of them were definitely Portrait of Jennie and The Spiral Staircase. Can you or any of your readers help me identify which other films were screened in this series? It was my introduction to classic Hollywood as a young adolescent, and I have always been grateful for it.

-Patrick

I was impressed with Patrick’s memories of this short-lived summer movie series that did indeed air on ABC. The Movie Classics of David O. Selznick was broadcast over the course of four weeks during the summer of 1971, presenting a new film produced by Selznick each week. It was the first time any had been seen on television. The films ran from 8:30-10PM on Tuesdays, taking over the time slot usually held by The Movie of the Week.

Here’s the schedule for the series:

“Intermezzo”
Tuesday, June 22nd, 1971

“The Spiral Staircase”
Tuesday, June 29th, 1971

“Portrait of Jennie”
Tuesday, July 6th, 1971

“Made for Each Other”
Tuesday, July 13th, 1971

Martin Starger, ABC’s vice president in charge of programming, explained that “the great films of the past have usually been relegated to something other than primetime exposure on television. We are proud to present four of David O. Selznick’s great films on ABC this summer in primetime” [1]. Ruby Gentry was originally intended to be shown as part of the series but was ultimately replaced by The Spiral Staircase [2].

I assume the films were preceded by an introduction or at the very least a credit sequence.

Works Cited:

1 “Selznick Classics Slated.” Sumter Daily Item. TV Item Supplement. [Sumter, SC]. 28 May 1971: 7.
2 Ibid.

Q & A: ABC Stage ’67, “The People Trap”

RGJ — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 02:50:11 +0000

Hi,

I am trying to find the name of a TV show that aired on 11/9/1966. It was about a contest where the prize was an acre of land. I never got to see it because my husband was in the hospital and I went to visit him. I have always wanted to see this show. I don’t even know what kind of story it would be considered. I think it was when environmental issues were just coming into the news. Any help you could give me will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

This was an installment of ABC Stage 67, an ambitious anthology series that included dramas, musicals and the occasional documentary. It ran for one season, on ABC, from 1966 to 1967, producing 26 episodes. Earl Hamner, Jr. wrote this particular episode, which was called “The People Trap” and was based on a short story by Robert Sheckley. In my opinion, the plot of the episode was right out of The Twilight Zone (Hamner wrote eight episodes of that series). In the year 2067, Earth is filled up, populated by 20 billion people and there just is not enough land to go around. Stuart Whitman starred as a history teacher whose wife, played by Vera Miles, was pregnant. The two lacked the proper license to have a child so, in order to keep his wife out of prison and their child from being confiscated, the teacher decides to enter a race for one of the last free acres of land in the United states (located in Yosemite National Park).

Connie Stevens played a fellow competitor in the race who romanced Whitman’s character. Lew Ayres, Estelle Winwood, Lee Grant, Pearl Bailey and Betty Furness and Michael Rennie all had cameo roles in the episode. Much like “Murder and the Android” (an installment of NBC’s Sunday Showcase) which I wrote about June of 2009, this is something I’d love to see. Thankfully, like “Murder and the Android,” the Paley Center for Media has “The People Trap” and all the other episodes of ABC Stage 67 in its collection.

Q & A: The Canned Film Festival, Mr. Smith

RGJ — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 21:05:27 +0000

There was a syndicated b-movie show in the 80′s with Lorraine Newman that was set in an old theatre… Lorraine was an usherette there, and rather than talking over the show in a MSK3000 way, it was more like a comedy itself that cut back and forth showing the film. What was it called, and how many were made?

-Doug

The Canned Film Festival was a syndicated, late-night movie series that aired for 13 weeks during the summer of 1986. Sponsored by soda manufacturer Dr Pepper, the series presented B movies interspersed with comedic segments featuring Saturday Night Live alum Laraine Newman. Her character, also named Laraine, operated a run-down movie theater located in a small town in Texas where the B movies were offered in an attempt to attract patrons. Each week, Laraine screened a new movie for an audience of exactly five; these characters appeared alongside Newman in the comedy segments.

Advertising company Young & Rubicam created the series for Dr Pepper; it was produced by Chelsea Communications and distributed by LBS Communications to roughly 70% of the country [1]. According to Advertising Age, each episode featured eight national one-minute commercials for Dr Pepper and ten local one-minute commercials sold on a barter basis [2]. The series premiered on or about June 16th, 1986 and ran through September, typically airing at 11:30PM or later.

Mark Schwed of United Press International referred to The Canned Film Festival as “perhaps the least anticipated series in modern television history.” Among the movies shown on were The Slime People (1963), Robot Monster (1953), The Crawling Hand (1963) and They Saved Hitler’s Brain (1963).

I might be making up a memory, but wasn’t there a show in the 80s about an orangutan who was U.S. President? Can’t remember any actors…I think it was voiceover for the monkey’s thoughts. Was this real? What was it?

-David

He wasn’t quite the president but an orangutan served as an adviser/consultant to the United States government in a short-lived NBC sitcom called Mr. Smith. After escaping from his cage and drinking an advanced, super secret formula, the orangutan (named C.J. in real life) developed an IQ of 256 and the ability to talk. Ed. Weinberger, who co-created the series, provided Mr. Smith’s speaking voice. I wrote in 10 Of The Most Outlandish TV Concepts Ever that “the series was ridiculed by critics” but after reading more reviews it seems some critics were at least willing to give the show a chance despite the absurdity of the premise because of the creative talent involved. Viewers, however, didn’t feel the same way and NBC canned the show in December. A total of 13 episodes were aired.

Works Cited:

1 [Untitled]. Advertising Age. 16 Jun. 1986: 69.
2 Ibid.
3 Schwed, Mark. “The absolute pits.” United Press International. 4 Jun. 1986: BC Cycle.

Q & A: Can You Identify These Shows, Part 13

RGJ — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 05:30:50 +0000

I get a lot of e-mails from people asking me about television shows, made-for-TV movies or miniseries they remember from years or decades past. I try to answer each question as best I can but often recollections are hazy at best and thus impossible to identify, despite my best efforts. Hopefully, by posting these questions here at Television Obscurities for everyone to read someone will come up with the answer. Keep reading for today’s unidentified shows.

I saw a show on PBS once, where Francisco Franco and his wife & daughter made statements addressing the people of the United States. The whole thing may have been 5 minutes long. I haven’t been able to track this footage down on the internet or find anyone else who knows about it.

Do you have any ideas? It wouldn’t seem too interesting except that Franco’s eyes and teeth seemed to bulge out, and reminded me enough of Andy Kaufmann’s “Latka” character to think that’s where he got the idea, a testament to the guy’s perverse sense of humor.

-Carl

I’ve found PBS programming especially difficult to research due to the fact that programs aired at different times on stations across the country and did not necessarily air on all stations. Any thoughts?

Hey this is a great website, very informative. I am hoping you can help me find the title of an old show.

I can’t remember any of the words in the title or the names of the actors. All I can remember is a group of bored suburban housewives decide to solve a crime that has occurred in their town and then start a detective agency. I think it was an hour long program on NBC(?) around 1990(?) and it aired once or twice. I don’t know anyone who remembers the show and would appreciate any help you can give.

Thank you, Steve

This may not have been a weekly television series. It could have been a made-for-TV movie or a miniseries.

Q & A: Where’s Huddles?

RGJ — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 22:39:48 +0000

I remember a cartoon that had the voice that sound so much like the Fred Flintstone characters. This character was a football coach. I can’t remember if the coach was for a high school or professional. I believe it was in the late 1960′s. Thank you for this site.

-Penny

Alan Reed, who voiced Fred Flintstone, had a recurring role as a football coach another Hanna-Barbara called Where’s Huddles?, which premiered on Wednesday, July 1st, 1970 on CBS as a summer replacement for Hee Haw (along with repeats of Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.). It was the first prime time animated series to debut since The Flintstones went off the air in 1966. Where’s Huddles? followed the lives of two football players, Ed Huddles (voiced by Cliff Norton) and Bubba McCoy (voiced by Mel Blanc), friends and neighbors, as they battled on and off the field. Their wives were voiced by Jean Vander Pyl (who voiced Wilma Flintstone) and Marie Wilson, respectively. Paul Lynde voiced Claude Pertwee, neighbor to the Huddles and the McCoys.

According to Joe Barbera, Where’s Huddles? wasn’t like other cartoons: “The difference is that backgrounds are suggested instead of filled out in detail. And the voices of our characters aren’t gimmicky or cartoon-types” [1]. Furthermore, he explained that “we have visual fun with the show as well as funny situations. Because we’ll be on at 7:30 we’ve tried to combine sophisticated humor for adults, along with visual gags for children. Going into a loose type of art work is more acceptable to older, nighttime audiences–and even to our ever more sophisticated kids” [2].

Fred Ferretti of The New York Times noted the obvious similarities between Where’s Huddles? and The Flintstones and criticized the show’s blatant laugh track and the dialogue of the only black player on the team, voiced by Herb Jeffries [3]. Edward L. Blank of The Pittsburgh Press was also less than impressed with the series, writing that “it’s one thing to offer family programming that isn’t taxing on the mind and quite another to offer something mindless” [4].

In the premiere, Ed and Bubba agree to split the bill for a new swimming pool, only to run out of money and have to finish building it themselves. To make matters worse, Pertwee has filed an injunction due to the noise, meaning the two have to work clandestinely. When the pool is finally completed, the neighbors beginning fighting over who gets to use it and their argument carries over onto the field. Other episodes saw Ed and Bubba lose a mattress filled with money, develop a glue to prevent fumbles, look after Pertwee’s fancy new car while he is on vacation and purchase a business and resign from the team only to find themselves scrambling to retrieve their letter of retrieval when the business goes belly-up.

A total of ten episodes of Where’s Huddles? were broadcast, the last of which aired on Wednesday, September 9th. However, repeats would resurface on CBS during the summer of 1971, airing on Sunday afternoons.

Works Cited:

1 Scott, Vernon. “Cartoon Series in Prime Time.” Norwalk Hour [Norwalk, CT]. United Press International. 11 Jun. 1970: 14.
2 Ibid.
3 Ferretti, Fred. “TV: Today’s ‘Flinstones’: ‘The Huddles’ Transfers Oafish but Lovable Pair to California.” New York Times. 2 Jul. 1970: 71.
4 Blank, Edward L. “‘Huddles’ Missing Its Mark; ‘Hillbillies’ Appeal Grows.” Pittsburgh Press. 13 Jul. 1970: 40.

Q & A: Can You Identify These Shows, Part 12

RGJ — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 15:39:00 +0000

I get a lot of e-mails from people asking me about television shows, made-for-TV movies or miniseries they remember from years or decades past. I try to answer each question as best I can but often recollections are hazy at best and thus impossible to identify, despite my best efforts. Hopefully, by posting these questions here at Television Obscurities for everyone to read someone will come up with the answer. Keep reading for today’s unidentified shows.

Hi, great site! I am sure I remember seeing as a kid a pilot episode for a sort of early “Men In Black” concept show, about the usual secret crime-fighting organization a la UNCLE with various departments. I remember the plot concerned a young woman (journalist?) who is recruited to help with the latest crisis/mission, and she is introduced to the headquarters, with an elevator where you turn a key and the buttons for the various floors flips over to reveal a second one for the HQ. Each department is named by colour, and Dep’t Black is I think the one that can erase people’s memories at will. After a long and intense adventure, they set up that she will bump into one of the agents in a public square right at 12 o’clock, and suddenly have no memory of any of what just happened!

Do you have any idea what this might have been? Many thanks!

-Peter

Despite the level of detail I wasn’t able to identify this possible television pilot. Peter later suggested that he saw this “in the late 70′s to early 80′s” but that doesn’t necessarily mean it was originally broadcast then. It may not have even been a television pilot; it could have been a miniseries, a short-lived program or a made-for-TV movie. Or perhaps it was a feature film rebroadcast on television. Any ideas?

Do Paul Revere and The Raiders really hold the record for being on TV more times then any other band?

-Adam

This isn’t a question about a specific television program, so there’s no show to identify, but it’s an interesting question nevertheless. Aside from perhaps Guinness World Records (formerly The Guinness Book of World Records) I can’t think of a resource that could claim to know whether or not Paul Revere and The Raiders have made more television appearances than any other band. According to ClassicBands.com, Paul Revere and The Raiders made some 720 appearances on television during the late 1960s, first on Where the Action Is and later It’s Happening (both on ABC). I can’t say whether that number is correct. Are there other bands that may legitimately lay claim to having appeared on television more times than Paul Revere and The Raiders? House bands for talk shows that have been on the air for decades might. Any thoughts?

Q & A: Richie Brockelman, Private Eye

RGJ — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 13:30:49 +0000

I wonder if you might know the name of a show that ran for one summer only, in 1967, I think, or maybe a year earlier or later. It featured a young, fast-talking blond guy who drove around in a convertible and tried to be a detective but who solved got results mostly by conning people. His favorite phrase was, “the thing of it is….” Any idea what this show might be?

-Gene

The young, fast-talking blond guy Gene refers to in his question is Richie Brockelman, a character played by Dennis Dugan in a made-for-TV movie called broadcast on Wednesday, October 27th, 1976 from 8:30-10PM. Television listings at the time referred to the telefilm as Richie Brockelman, Private Eye but when it was rebroadcast in May of 1977 it bore the title Richie Brockelman: The Missing 24 Hours.

Richie Brockelman was a very young, very inexperienced private investigator who is hired by an amnesiac, played by Suzanne Pleshette, who thinks she’s somehow involved with a murder. The character reappeared in February of 1978 in a two-hour episode of The Rockford Files; Stephen J. Cannell, co-creator of The Rockford Files, co-wrote Richie Brockelman: The Missing 24 Hours with Steven Bochco.

A limited run series titled Richie Brockelman, Private Eye premiered on Friday, March 17th, 1978. It co-starred Barbara Bosson and Robert Hogan, who had also appeared in Richie Brockelman: The Missing 24 Hours. The series ran for just five episodes and was not renewed for the 1978-1979 season. The theme song, “School’s Out,” was written by Stephen Geyes and Herb Pederson. Richie Brockelman would make one last television appearance in March of 1979, once again in a two-hour episode of The Rockford Files. It seems Stephen J. Cannell simply could not get enough of Richie Brockelman.

To bring this back to Gene’s question, Richie Brockelman used the phrase “the thing of it is, is…” when explaining himself, although I can’t say whether it was used in the original made-for-TV movie or just the limited series or both. At least one telefilm was later created by editing episodes of Richie Brockelman, Private Eye together. Neither the original made-for-TV movie nor the limited series are available on DVD but Brockelman’s appearances on The Rockford Files can be found on the Season Four and Season Five sets, respectively. They are also available for streaming through Netflix but not, at the moment, on Hulu.com.

Q & A: Can You Identify These Shows, Part 11

RGJ — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 13:55:08 +0000

I get a lot of e-mails from people asking me about television shows, made-for-TV movies or miniseries they remember from years or decades past. I try to answer each question as best I can but often recollections are hazy at best and thus impossible to identify, despite my best efforts. Hopefully, by posting these questions here at Television Obscurities for everyone to read someone will come up with the answer. Keep reading for today’s unidentified shows.

I’ve decided to alternate my regular Q & A feature, in which I answer questions from readers of Television Obscurities, with questions that I haven’t been able to answer. This proved popular in the past and I’m hoping it will continue to elicit discussions in the comments. Today’s first question comes from Scott:

When I was a child I watched a foreign series which was either dubbed or subtitled, I do believe it was French but I could be wrong. The period would have been anywhere between the mid 70′s to mid 80′s. I do believe I watched it on BBC2 in the evenings at around 6PMish weekdays. The plot was a pair of children, brothers, that are trapped in an apartment fire, they are forced to jump to their deaths and both go to heaven where they meet Richard the Lionheart. The twist is that when they die in heaven they go to the next heaven, I think it was a quest to reach the final heaven and be reunited? Any information you have to help me find or even recognise this series, even the name would help, I’ve been asking around for years and some remember it but that’s all. Please help as I would dearly love any info.

Thanking you. Scott.

I admit to being intrigued by Scott’s question; the premise of the program in question sounds very interesting. Unfortunately, I’m not much of an expert on foreign programs, particularly ones in another language, and wasn’t able to track down any information on this show. Does it sound familiar to anyone?

I would love to find more information about a TV show that was broadcast on, I believe, CBS. In the Boston area, it was broadcast on Sunday mornings, I think, definitely during the early 1960′s, and it was a show on which the moderator read poetry aloud. Viewers could submit poems to the show to be read on the air. My mother & I were very fond of this show. And we become a lot more fond of it when a poem I wrote at age 9 was accepted & read on it. That would have been around 1963. I’ve struck out so far searching the archives of the big three networks. Thanks for any suggestions.

Kathi

My assumption is that the program Kathi recalls was a local Boston show, perhaps produced by Boston’s CBS affiliate. I don’t have access to Boston television listings from the 1960s so I can’t check to see what was on the air on Sunday mornings in 1963. Does anyone have old TV Guide issues with Boston listings they want to flip through?

Q & A: Was F Troop Supposed to Have a 3rd Season?

RGJ — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 18:08:55 +0000

I have been wondering was the 60′s sitcom F Troop supposed to have a third season?

-Darla

Was there going to be a season 3 of F Troop?

-Adam

As I often do before attempting to answer questions about a specific television program, I refreshed my memory by reading its Wikipedia entry. As a general rule I’m not a fan of Wikipedia but I’ve found that for television programs it is usually a pretty good resource. I was surprised to find the following paragraph included in the article for F Troop:

The show’s ratings were still healthy after the second year, but according to Tucker, Warner Bros.’ new owners, Seven Arts, discontinued production because they thought it was wasteful for so much of the Warner Ranch being taken up by a single half-hour TV show. Producer William Orr says the studio was unhappy with the added costs of producing the show in color during its second season.

Unfortunately, there were no sources listed for these statements. That doesn’t mean they aren’t true. I find it hard to believe that someone would decide to mess with fans of F Troop by editing the show’s Wikipedia entry and adding false statements about its non-existent third season. Still, not knowing when/where these statements were made is frustrating. Was it a print interview? TV Guide, perhaps, or a newspaper? A television interview?

I don’t have actual Nielsen ratings for the 1966-1967 season but from the information I do have available it appears that F Troop was performing solidly in its 8-8:30PM time slot on Thursdays, easily beating CBS (which initially programmed Jericho from 7:30-8:30PM and later a variety hour called Coliseum) and not doing all that worse than Daniel Boone on NBC. So in terms of ratings it was probably strong enough to return for a third season.

In Tom Lisanti’s Drive-In Dream Girls: A Galaxy of B-Movie Starlets of the Sixties, Melody Patterson recounts that F Troop was canceled after Jack Warner had a stroke:

“The studio was really his alone to control and he hadn’t diversified at that time,” reveals Melody. “When he got sick and then died, everyone got the pink slip–from his son-in-law, who was the head of the television department, to the lowliest grip. The studio basically shut down for awhile.” [1]

Although Jack Warner may have had a stroke in 1967 he didn’t die until 1978, so Patterson, who played Wrangler Jane, was mistaken. According to Lisanti, Forrest Tucker had tried to find a new home for F Troop in first-run syndication, traveling to Spain to look for suitable (and cheap) studio locations, only to return to New York and discover that repeats of show had already sold into syndication [2].

Jack Warner had agreed to sell his Warner Brothers stock to Seven Arts in November of 1966 and resigned as head of the new Warner Bros.-Seven Arts studio in July of 1967. Forrest Tucker, in an August 10th, 1967 Milwaukee Journal article, insisted that F Troop — according to him the highest-rated show to be canceled at the end of the 1966-1967 season — would still be on the air if not for “the sudden sale of Warner Brothers” [3].

While Melody Patterson may have been mistaken in her recollection of F Troop‘s cancellation, it seems clear that the takeover of Warner Brothers by Seven Arts was the primary reason the show did not return for a third season. It had done well enough in the ratings during the 1966-1967 season for ABC to renew it but instead Warner Bros.-Seven Arts ceased production. Still, the statements found in the Wikipedia entry for F Troop — that it took up too much of the Warner Ranch and was too expensive to produce in color — have yet to be confirmed.

Works Cited:

1 Lissanti, Tom. Drive-In Dream Girls: A Galaxy of B-Movie Starlets of the Sixties. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2003: Page 144.
2 Ibid.
3 “City’s Very Special to Forrest Tucker.” Milwaukee Journal. 10 Aug. 1967: 4.

Q & A: “Undercover Cops,” An Unsold Miller-Boyett Pilot

RGJ — Mon, 24 May 2010 15:45:01 +0000

I was wondering if you could help me with something? I was wondering if you would know if the team of Miller-Boyett had done any TV series that were never picked up?

-Adam

Miller-Boyett Productions was originally Miller-Milkis Productions, a partnership between Thomas L. Miller and Edward K. Milkis launched in the late 1960s. When Robert L. Boyett joined the company in the late 1970s, it became Miller-Milkis-Boyett Productions. Following the departure of Edward Milkis in the mid-1980s, the company became known as Miller-Boyett Productions. In its final incarnation during the late 1990s, with Michael Warren on board, it was called Miller-Boyett-Warren Productions.

In the mid-1970s, Miller-Milkis Productions was responsible for two of television’s most popular sitcoms: Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley. The company also produced Petrocelli, a drama that ran from 1974 to 1976. As the 1978-1979 season got underway, Miller-Milkis had three sitcoms on the air: the aforementioned Laverne & Shirley and Happy Days as well as a new show, Mork and Mindy. Two others sitcoms were on tap for mid-season: Angie and Makin’ It, plus an hour-long comedic anthology, Sweepstakes (also known as $weepstake$).

While Makin’ It and Sweepstakes were soon canceled, Angie would return for a second season during the 1979-1980 season before it, too, was pulled. Another sitcom, something called “Undercover Cops,” never got on the air. It would have been produced by Miller-Milkis-Boyett. According to Lee Goldberg would have been a spin-off of Sweepstakes, about a pair of undercover police officers, both women [1. Exactly how they would have been spun-off of Sweepstakes is unknown; Goldberg does state that one of the officers was "a self-assured, ex-beauty parlor operator looking for more excitement in her life," so perhaps she would have taken her Sweepstakes winnings and become a cop.

The American Radio Archives at the Thousand Oaks Library has two drafts of the script for this unsold pilot, written by Jay Oliver, both from March of 1979. According to Television Series and Specials Scripts, 1946-1992: A Catalog of the American Radio Archives Collection, the main characters were named Janet O'Malley and Bobbi Peluso, two "new, young detectives, working undercover" [2]. A working title was “Undercover Girls.” It’s unclear whether this pilot was actually produced or not. I’m inclined to say it wasn’t, simply because I can’t believe even 1979-era NBC, which thought Supertrain was a good idea, would have given the go-ahead to film a pilot for a spin-off of Sweepstakes. If it was produced, it doesn’t appear to have been broadcast at any point.

Despite a slew of flops during the late 1970s/early 1980s, Miller-Boyett Productions successfully launched several more sitcoms in the mid-to-late 1980s, including Perfect Strangers, Family Matters and Full House. Its last sitcom, as Miller-Boyett-Warren Productions, was ABC’s Two of a Kind, starring Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen, which was broadcast during the 1998-1999 season.

Are there other unsold pilots, produced or otherwise, from the Miller-Milkis/Miller-Milkis-Boyett/etc. production company? Perhaps, but I’m not aware of any.

Works Cited:

1 Goldberg, Lee. Unsold Television Pilots Vol. 2: 1977-1989. 1990. Lincoln, NE: iUniverse, 2001: Page 335.
2 Berard, Jeannette M. and Klaudia Englund. Television Series and Specials Scripts, 1946-1992: A Catalog of the American Radio Archives Collection. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2009: Page 417.