So what was the most recent backdoor pilot to be aired on one of the networks? Made-for-TV movies are rare enough as it is these days, primarily confined to Hallmark Hall of Fame and the Jesse Stone series, both on CBS. Off the top of my head, I’d say NBC’s Knight Rider, which aired on February 17th, 2008, is the most recent backdoor pilot. It led to a short-lived weekly series that aired during the 2008-2009 season. The most recent backdoor pilot that didn’t result in a weekly series might be NBC’s Homeland Security, which aired in April of 2004. Prior to that were The Lone Ranger on The WB, broadcast in February 2003, and War Stories on NBC, broadcast in January of 2003.

Somewhat more common these days are pilot episodes that air as episodes of another program like the two-part episode of JAG that led to NCIS and the two-part episode of NCIS that led to NCIS: Los Angeles. If made-for-TV movies were more profitable, I’m sure we’d see them more often. Like the miniseries, however, it seems the networks have all but surrendered the made-for-TV movie to cable.

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Singer and teen idol Bobby Rydell starred in “Swingin’ Together” as Bobby Day, leader of a band — Bobby Day and His Four Knights — that traveled the country in a bus, playing any gig they could get in the hopes of eventually making it big. The Four Knights were Yogi, Big “D”, Steve and Skooby Doo, played by Peter Brooks, Art Metrano, Larry Merrill and Bob Bryant, respectively. James Dunn played the band’s agent and bus driver, P.J. Cunningham. The back of the bus was roomy enough to fit a drum set, a piano and an upright bass, not to mention a guitar and a saxophone. There was even a shower.

Guest stars in the pilot included Stefanie Powers as Linda Craig, a prudish young woman who meets the band at a classy country club and learns to be a little less straight-laced, as well as Dennis, Lindsay and Phillip Crosby (three of Bing Crosby’s sons) who appeared, not surprisingly, as singers. Songs featured in the pilot included “Let’s Twist Again,” “This Could Be the Start of Something Big” and “Little Bitty Tear.” Howard Leeds wrote the pilot, which was directed by Gene Reynolds.

Why didn’t the pilot sell? The concept may have been the perfect showcase for Bobby Rydell’s singing but as a weekly series it didn’t have much to offer. There are only so many venues where Bobby Day and His Four Nights could conceivably have played at before things became repetitive. And after a season of not hitting the big times, viewers may have decided that the band just wasn’t that good.

Works Cited:

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3. New Article: Unsold Pilots on Television, 1967-1989

I’m often impressed by what people remember about short-lived television shows, made-for-TV movies or unsold pilots. “Zero Intelligence” was an unsold pilot that aired just once during the summer of 1976. It was set in Alaska and followed the misadventures of a group of soldiers stationed at a top secret radar installation during the 1950s. “Zero Intelligence” starred Sorrell Booke starred as the base commander, along with Don Galloway, Tom Rosqui and Clyde Kusatu (as an Eskimo nicknamed “Mo”). It was broadcast as part of “ABC Comedy Theater,” a two-hour block of four unsold sitcom pilots, on Tuesday, August 10th, 1976 from 9-11PM (“Zero Intelligence” was the fourth and final pilot). Rocky was slightly off in terms of the air date but otherwise remembered quite a bit about a half-hour pilot broadcast over three decades ago.

The first pilot, alternately referred to as “The Lorenzo Music Show” or “The New Lorenzo Music Show,” starred Lorenzo Music as a character named Lorenzo Music. So he was playing himself. His real-life wife, Henrietta Music, played his character’s wife, named Henrietta Music. In the pilot, Lorenzo Music auditions for a variety/talk show. I believe David Ogden Stiers played one of the guests on the variety/talk show but I don’t know if he was playing himself or someone else. Interestingly, Lorenzo and Henrietta Music would go on to host their own syndicated variety/talk show — The Lorenzo and Henrietta Music Show — during the 1976-1977 season.

The second pilot, “Cousins,” starred Lisa Mordente and Dee Dee Rechler as — you guessed it — cousins working at an advertising agency in New York City. One was a native New Yorker, the other hailed from Denver. David Ogden Stiers played their boss. The third pilot, “The Rear Guard,” was an attempt to adapt a British comedy, Dad’s Army, for American audiences. As has often been the case, it didn’t work. Dad’s Army (which ran from 1968 to 1977) was about members of the British Home Guard — volunteers who weren’t eligible to serve in the regular armed forces — during World War II. “The Rear Guard” was about an American civil defense unit during World War II, made up of men who weren’t eligible for the regular armed forces.

“The Rear Guard” starred, among others, Lou Jacobi, Cliff Norton and Eddie Foy Jr. Many of the characters were renamed versions of characters from Dad’s Army. The pilot itself was a reworked version of an episode of Dad’s Army that originally aired in October of 1973, in which the incompetent volunteers manage to capture a German U-Boat. The creators of Dad’s Army, Jimmy Perry and David Croft, helps write the script for “The Rear Guard,” which was missing for many years until enterprising fans of Dad’s Army were able to track down a copy. You can read all about the recovery of the unsold pilot at Missing-Episodes.com. For the record, three episodes of Dad’s Army are still missing.

Footage from “The Rear Guard” was included in a 2004 DVD set, Dad’s Army – The Complete First Series Plus the ‘Lost’ Episodes of Series Two, although it is only available in Region 2 encoding.

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2. Show Spotlight: “Swingin’ Together” (Unsold Pilot)
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The R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, manufacturer of Winston cigarettes, pulled its sponsorship of The Beverly Hillbillies in May of 1967 voluntarily in order to fulfill its obligation to the tobacco industry’s advertising code [1]. The code was established in 1964 as an attempt to self-regulate and thus stave off government intervention. The code forbid cigarette advertisements from being shown during programs with a primary audiences under 21. According to Cynthia Lowry, “this means that a program is off limits to a member firm when, in two successive national Nielsen audience reports, the projected statistics of audience composition show that 45 per cent or more of the viewers are under voting age” [2].

The The Beverly Hillbillies had come close to hitting that mark in the past (with around 43% of its audience under 21); its growing popularity among viewers of all ages eventually forced the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. to pull out [3]. The Chicago Tribune noted that “it was a special event in television history, a first of its kind, and an opening to an ironic situation” given that the very success of The Beverly Hillbillies was the reason the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. had to ask CBS to switch its advertising to a different show [4].

CBS broadcast “Beane’s of Boston” (also referred to as “Beanes of Boston” without the apostrophe) on Saturday, May 5th, 1979 from 8:30-9PM. It was indeed an attempt to adapt Are You Being Served? (which had premiered in September of 1972 on BBC1) for American audiences. Set at a large, conservative department store called Beane’s of Boston, the pilot starred Tom Poston as Frank Beane, the owner, and George O’Hanlon, Jr. as his nephew Franklyn Beane, the manager. The storyline saw Frank Beane grudgingly agreeing to hold a beer festival in an attempt to raise money. Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft, creators of Are You Being Served? helped write “Beane’s of Boston” and Lloyd served as a producer. The pilot was directed by Jerry Paris and executive producer by Garry Marshall.

Rounding out the cast were John Hillerman as John Peacock, floor manager, Charlotte Rae as Mae Slocombe, manager of the women’s department, Lorna Patterson as Shirley Brahms, Mae’s assistant, and Alan Sues as George Humphries, the effeminate manager of the men’s department. The characters were based, and in some cases named, after the corresponding characters in the British series. According to The Los Angeles Times, the pilot included a “laughable, even pitiful gay” character [1]. In Are You Being Served? the sexuality of Mr. Wilberforce Clayborne Humphries (played by John Inman) was played for laughs and it is likely that George Humphries was the gay character mentioned by The Los Angeles Times. Whether that had anything to do with the pilot not being picked up is unknown.

The pilot does not appear to be held at any of the largest television archives (the Library of Congress, UCLA’s Film & Television Archive, the Museum of Broadcast Communications and the Paley Center for Media) but that does not mean it is missing or lost. The production company, or whoever owns its library today, probably has the original elements somewhere. I believe it was produced by Paramount Television

Works Cited:

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Stump the Stars was an updated version of Pantomime Quiz, a game show styled after charades, that began life as a local Los Angeles program in November of 1947 over station KTLA. It was picked up by CBS in 1950 and would air on all four networks (DuMont included) over the next decade before going off the air on September 28th, 1959. Created by Mike Stokey, the program was revived in 1962 as Stump the Stars and given the the 10:30-11PM time slot on Wednesdays.

Harris Against the World – Jack Klugman and Patricia Barry – October 4th, 1964
Copyright © TV Week/The Houston Chronicle, 1964 [2]

Pat Harrington, Jr. served as host and regular panelists included Diana Dors, Sebastian Cabot, Jan Clayton, Beverly Garland, Ross Martin and Mickey Manners. Guests for the September 17th premiere were Jerry Lewis and Jayne Mansfield. Critic Larry Wolters, writing in The Chicago Daily Tribune, had this to say about the new show:

Stump the Stars is nothing but Mike Stokey’s old Pantomime Quiz in new dress–or lack of dress. Jayne Mansfield and Diana Dors, her British counterpart, as guests on this charade show, didn’t contribute much, but they may revive that old argument of a decade ago about the perils of the plunging neckline. Under Pat Harrington Jr., the panelists had a lot of fun, with too much intrusion, however, by Jerry Lewis. [1]

The episode with the cast of The Dick Van Dyke Show was broadcast on November 26th. Mike Stokey would replace Pat Harrington, Jr. as host the following month and was with the show until it went off the air following the September 16th, 1963 episode. A syndicated version aired in 1964 and again in 1969. An episode guide for the 1962-1963 series can be found at Jim Davidson’s Classic TV Info.

Interestingly, although this unsold pilot was broadcast for the first and only time on September 9th, 1967, the story of “Campo 44″ begins in 1964. So I’m not sure it can be called a rip-off of Hogan’s Heroes. The earliest reference I have found is a June 7th, 1964 article in The Chicago Tribune reporting that David Westheimer, author of Von Ryan’s Express, would be developing a comedy titled “Campo 44″ for NBC’s 1965-1966 season [2]. It would follow American and British soldiers at a prisoner of war camp in Italy during World War II. Westheimer served during the war and was shot down in 1942. He spent several years as a prisoner of war and kept copious notes. The article explained that these notes would “be the basis for many stories” [3].

Hedda Hopper reported on July 31st that Buzz Kulik would direct the pilot and producer the series [4]. And on October 25th, an article in The New York Times about Hollywood’s fascination with war noted that MGM was working on a pilot titled “Campo 44″ [5]. Then, for some reason, the project stalled. Perhaps Westheimer was unavailable to work on the pilot because Von Ryan’s Express was being turned into a movie starring Frank Sinatra and Trevor Howard (it was released in June of 1965). Or maybe the pilot was completed in late 1964 or early 1965 and was shelved by NBC for some reason.

Either way, on Saturday, September 9th, 1967 NBC broadcast “Campo 44,” one of more than a dozen pilots it aired during the opening weeks of the 1967-1968 season. It ran from 8-8:30PM; the third season of Hogan’s Heroes began just an hour later on CBS. Vito Scotti, Dino Fazio, Jim Dawson and Phillip Abbott starred. According to Broadcasting magazine, the pilot ranked third in its time slot with a 20.1 Trendex share; The Jackie Gleason Show on CBS was first with a 44.1 share and ABC’s The Newlywed Game was second with a 29.0 [6].

Works Cited:

Image Credits:

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Interestingly, one of the few references to “Happily Ever After” I found was in The Magic of Bewitched Trivia and More by Gina Meyers. Published in 2004, the book mentions the pilot in a section called “Copycat Shows,” but only briefly. Meyers writes that “as a result of Bewitched’s popularity, CBS and NBC networks tried to replicate the magic. CBS in September of 1965, came out with Happily Ever After, shot at the Metro Goldwyn-Mayer studio. It was a musical comedy starring Shirley Jones as a mind reading housewife” [1]. This seems to suggest that the pilot was broadcast by CBS in September of 1965 but I can find no mention of it in television listings during the month.

I don’t know much about the pilot itself. Hedda Hopper reported on December 11th, 1964 that “Shirley Jones got herself a TV series so she’ll stay put for awhile. It’s ‘Happily Ever After’ for MGM–the creation of Stanley Chase (2-time Tony Award winner) and Bob Kaufman (Emmy-winning writer). Shirley plays a housewife gifted with a 7th sense, and she’ll start filming in January” [2]. Her character’s “seventh sense” was mentioned again in a brief article published in The Los Angeles Times on December 15th; the article noted that the comedy series was “planned for the next season on CBS” [3].

Although the term “planned” suggests that CBS had already decided to order the series, on December 23rd “Happily Ever After” was included in an article by Val Adams as one of 76 pilots in contention for the 1965-1966 season [4]. On January 7th, 1965 Hedda Hopper revealed that filming had already been completed [5]. And on February 19th she reported that the series (now called Dream Wife was “already sold” [6]. It obviously wasn’t or, if it was, never made it to the air.

As for whether or not CBS and NBC took a look at the success of ABC’s Bewitched and decided to try to imitate it, of course they did. The networks have never shied away from copying popular shows or formats. When westerns were hot, all the networks had westerns. When spies were hot, all the networks had spy shows. And when supernatural sitcoms like Bewitched were hot, all the networks wanted supernatural sitcoms.

Critic Lawrence Laurent, in a February 8th, 1965 article in The Los Angeles Times, wrote that “the plans leaking out of headquarters of the three television networks indicate that the programs being most copied (but differently) are The Fugitive, Bewitched and Peyton Place” [7]. Two days later, Cecil Smith agreed, noting that “any talk of trends for next season is idiotic. All the networks want another Bewitched, another Peyton Place, another Fugitive. Imitation is still the sincerest form of television” [8].

Of course, it wasn’t just Bewitched driving the interest in supernatural sitcoms. My Favorite Martian had premiered the previous season and its success helped pave the way for Bewitched. Indeed, in his review of Bewitched, Jack Gould wrote that the sitcom was “in the supernatural tradition of ‘Topper’ and ‘My Favorite Martian’” [9]. Thus, in a way, My Favorite Martian led to Bewitched and Bewitched led to I Dream of Jeannie.

Works Cited:

Related posts:

1. Q & A: Stump the Stars, “Campo 44″
2. Status Guide – “Vacation Playhouse”
3. Status Guide – “My Living Doll”

Monsters was a half-hour anthology horror series that aired from 1988-1991 in first-run syndication. The opening credits spoofed the idea of the traditional nuclear family (father, mother and daughter) gathered in the living room to watch television. Only in this case the family was made up of monsters (like The Munsters). Over the course of three seasons a total of 72 episodes were broadcast, starring the likes of David McCallum, Soupy Sales, Wil Wheaton, Deborah Harry, Richard Belzer, Steve Buscemi, Matt LeBlanc, Barbara Billingsley, Frank Gorshin, Robert Lansing, Abe Vigoda, Karen Valentine and Meat Loaf. Several episodes were released on VHS in the late 1980s/early 1990s but are long out of print. The series occasionally airs on NBC Universal’s specialty cable channel Chiller.

UCLA’s Film & Television Collection has a print of this half-hour, unsold ABC sitcom pilot starring Barry Bostwick, Pat Morita and Shelley Long. It was broadcast on Thursday, May 24th, 1979. The plot of the pilot involved the inept Guy Christian (Bostwick) attempting to save six lovely contestants in the Miss Planet pageant after they’re kidnapped by the fiendish Dr. Gasss, who will only release them in return for the components to a hydrogen bomb! Morita played Guy Christian’s boss, Professor Mishugi and Long played Mishugi’s daughter, Mia. Surprisingly, the pilot ranked 15th for the week. Les Brown of The New York Times, however, attributed the strong showing to the fact that the pilot followed an episode of Mork & Mindy.

Works Cited:

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I featured Karen Valentine’s 1975 ABC drama series, simply titled Karen, in a Show Spotlight last month. Barry I. Grauman was kind enough to contribute some comments about an earlier, unsold pilot starring Karen Valentine that ABC turned down in 1974. It was called The Karen Valentine Program and, according to its entry in the UCLA Film & Television Archive, was shown on television. If it did, I haven’t find any record of it in television listings.

In a January 24th, 1974 article, The Chicago Tribune reported that Valentine would be shooting the pilot for The Karen Valentine Program, in which she would star as a recently divorced woman looking for work, in February [1]. On May 10th, The Los Angeles Times reported that The Karen Valentine Program would debut in January of 1975 [2]. But on June 10th, Aaron Gold revealed in The Chicago Tribune that Valentine had just been signed by Larry Gelbart and Gene Reynolds to star in a pilot for a potential mid-season replacement, noting that it would be her “third try at a series” [3].

Thus, it appears the turnaround between The Karen Valentine Program and what would become Karen (apparently originally titled The Karen Valentine Show) was relatively quick. Karen ran for all of thirteen weeks between January and May of 1975. For the record, Valentine’s first sitcom pilot was called The Karen Valentine Show and was produced 1973. Her character was the assistant to a wacky public relations specialist played by Charles Nelson Reilly. It aired on Monday, May 12st, 1973 as part of a two-hour “Comedy Trio” block featuring two other unsold pilots: The Barbara Eden Show (with Barbara Eden and Joe Flynn) and Catch-22 (with Richard Dreyfuss and Dana Elcar).

Works Cited:

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Supertrain was a costly and embarrassment flop for NBC and especially for Fred Silverman, who championed the series after joining the network in 1978. According to Cecil Smith, the idea for Supertrain came from NBC programming chief Paul Klein. He brought it to the attention of Silverman who, in turn, contacted producer Dan Curtis (best known for his work on Dark Shadows) [1]. Said Curtis:

Like everything in television, they wanted it yesterday. My first reaction was who needs it? Why bust my gut doing a series? I don’t need the money. I’ve got all the work I can handle. But I said yes, dropped “Coffeyville” [The Raid on Coffeyville was the working title for a made-for-TV movie that would air on NBC as The Last Ride of the Dalton Gang in November of 1979] and got started.

I don’t know why. Maybe the challenge. I’m a train buff — who isn’t? I remember as a kid watching the trains pull into Bridgeport, Conn., my hometown–thrilling to the locomotives when that great whoosh of steam poured out. That’s why I insisted on a steam turbine driven by atomic power. [2]

That’s right, the eponymous train in Supertrain was nuclear powered. It could travel from Los Angeles to New York City in just 36 hours and included elegant dining rooms, swimming pools, large suites and a disco. It reportedly cost NBC $10 million to build the sets for the series (they were spread over three sound stages at the MGM studios) as well as two models of the entire train [3].

The production values may have been flashy but according to critics Supertrain had no substance. Tom Buckley, after comparing the series to The Love Boat, wrote that the “major problem with [the premiere] was an absolutely incoherent story” and complained that the directing was slow (Curtis directed the premiere) [4. He also pointed out that the interior of the train was larger than the exterior. Howard Rosenberg noted the size discrepancies in his review as well:

We've seen from ABC's [Battlestar] “Galactica” that a series does not live by sets and special effects along. But even the sets of “Supertrain” though breathtaking at first viewing, were not enough to hold a viewer’s interest for two hours and, in fact, were anything but flawless. The spacious interiors of the train for example, did not square with the exterior shots.

Besides, after the big buildup, one expected something more. Maybe if Supertrain could fly… [5]

The two-hour premiere of Supertrain aired from 8-10PM on Wednesday, February 7th, 1979. It delivered a 32 share of the audience, second in the time slot behind ABC’s Charlie’s Angels, and ranked 17th for the week [6, 7]. The following week’s episode, which was only an hour long, fell to 48th [8]. NBC pulled the series for “retooling” after five episodes; it returned on Sunday, April 7th.

A total of nine episodes were broadcast with the final first-run episode airing on May 5th. Repeats were shown in June and July.

The relationship between Snowfire the 1958 feature film and a television pilot for a potential series is bizarre, to say the least. A television version appears to have been attached to two networks for use during the 1957-1958 season neither actually picked up the series. The movie, despite minor cult popularity, has never been commercially released on VHS or DVD.

On March 26th, 1956 Edwin Schallert wrote in The Los Angeles Times that brothers Stuart and Dorrell McGowan would be directing a film called Snowfire at the Talley Ranch in Hidden Valley, with Don Megowan set to star [9]. On April 28th, Walter Ames suggested in the same paper that filming had already been finished, writing that the McGowans had “fulfilled a lifetime ambition by writing, producing, casting and completing a picture to their own standards [10].

Furthermore, Ames wrote that the brothers “revealed yesterday they also made a TV pilot film during the shooting. It wasn’t hard because they already had Death Valley Days, The Sheriff and Sky King under their wing” [11]. (The brothers were involved in the production of both Death Valley Days and Sky King, which were syndicated.) Thus, it seems the pilot was either filmed simultaneously with the movie or was simply edited from footage for the movie.

On July 7th, Schallert reported that the McGowans had signed Don Megowan to star in another film for them (The Wreath) and wrote that “the McGowans starred Megowan in Snowfire on TV and have also finished a feature picture version of that subject, as yet unreleased” [12]. Had the television pilot been broadcast or did Schallert mean only that a pilot had been completed?

Philip K. Scheuer, also writing for The Los Angeles Times, reported in an August 26th article that he had visited the McGowan Brothers studio in North La Brea and chatted with Dorrell after wondering why four people named McGowan (plus Don Megowan) were involved in one movie [13]. Dorrell explained that he and his brother were both writers and that he typically produced while Stuart directed. Mollie and Melodie McGowan were Dorrell’s daughters and made their acting debuts in Snowfire.

Billboard reported on November 3rd that CBS had purchased a half-hour adventure series called Snowfire from ABC Film Syndication and McGowan Brothers about a white stallion that talks to a little girl and helps her family [14]. On February 6th, 1957, however, Val Adams wrote that Snowfire would debut on ABC in the fall and would star Dolly McGowan (likely a mistake) as the daughter of a widowed rancher who talks to a white stallion named Snowfire. The show would be filmed at Bryce Canyon in Utah [15].

According to the March 2nd issue of Billboard, ABC had given Snowfire the Wednesday 8:30-9PM time slot [16] following Disneyland. Two months later, however, in the May 6th issue, Billboard reported that ABC had turned down Snowfire; thus, production company ABC Film Syndication was planning on trying to sell it into first-run syndication [17].

The New York Times reported on May 23rd that Snowfire was one of several Western pilots still uncommitted for the 1957-1958 season [18]. Why the television series failed to materialize is a mystery. So, too, is the reason behind both CBS and later ABC dropping it after expressing interest. Snowfire, the movie, eventually came out in theaters in 1958.

Works Cited:

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