The China Beach intro still gets me. I watched that show as a very young child and even though I didn't quite know what I was watching it kinda blew my mind.
If I ever watched that show at all, it was repeats on the Lifetime channel. ABC kept that show as long as they possibly could, even though it wasn't a massive hit.
@@davidprice5771 I did a rewatch several years back when our local PBS paired it with Northern Exposure reruns. It held op surprisingly well. The performances in particular were really strong.
Wow. That Smothers Brothers opening dialogue was BRUTAL. Material you might expect for an afternoon Nickelodeon (kid show) audience, not prime time adults.
The guy singing "In the Heat of the Night" is Bill Champlin, who was lead guitarist for Chicago at that time. Jason Hervey of Wonder Years is a business partner of wrestling personality Eric Bischoff; together they co-produced Hulk Hogan's reality shows for VH1. Olivia D'Abo from Wonder Years is the daughter of former Manfred Mann member Mike D'Abo, and she was in Bo Derek's Bolero (which wouldn't exactly have been a feather in anyone's cap).
@@censusgary Popular? It didn't even make it into the top 30 before it was canceled. Every show CBS put in that time slot was crushed by the top 10 show The Golden Girls.
@@scottlarson1548 I used to watch NBC Saturday nights when it ran comedy roughly between 1985 and 1992. Amen, 227, Nurses, Blossom's first season, Golden Girls, Empty Nest, Carol and Company with Carol Burnett, even Alf for half a season ran on Saturday nights. Eventually 10pm eastern had Hunter, a drama, on Saturdays. I began to see it then.
So did David Bianculli, the TV critic of the NEW YORK DAILY NEWS. He once told Dana that if they ever revived "HONEY WEST" [his favorite show as a kid], she's be perfect in Anne Francis' role.
"THE HIGHWAYMAN", one of Brandon Tartikoff's "MTV-inspired" series on NBC's Friday night schedule (he kept trying to program a "compatible" show for "MIAMI VICE", but could never find one that lasted more than one season), lasted 10 episodes, and was filmed in and around Phoenix, Arizona.
I was working in an office building on Central and Camelback (One East Camelback) and they filmed a scene in our parking garage. I remember not being able to park there on the weekend when I had to work. Can't remember where I parked. Maybe at Uptown Plaza across the street. I remember watching the episode looking for the scenes of the garage.
R I P Alan Young from Coming of age and Mr Ed in 1960s (he died 2016) Carroll o Connor from In the Heart of the night and all in the family in 1970s ( he died 2001)
This show was a favorite of mine. The dad character was a college roommate of Steven Keaton’s from Family Ties. And this show had an amazing episode with 2/3 of the Brady Bunch cast guest starring. Christopher Daniel Barnes got his role as Greg in the Brady Bunch movies from that episode.
My mom was stationed in Germany and we asked our family to send videos with commercials.. We mostly had German T.V or Military T.V and no commercials.. These were the best shows of 88'. Except Lane Frost death of course by the the time I saw it, old news. RIP Lane.. I cried it was so sad..
Just the Ten of Us was a spin off of Growing Pains. It was part of TGIF and it was my favorite show for a time. Does anyone else remember the Brady Bunch episode of Day by Day. Christopher Daniel Barnes, who played Ross went on to play Greg in the first two Brady movies.
+Kristin Márie Yes, I remember that episode. In fact that was the only episode I saw. Never knew Christopher Barnes would end up playing Greg Brady in the movies. He did sort of look like a Brady when I saw that short-lived show.
The sci-fi connects do not end there, you also have: Jane Badler (Diana on 'V') The Highwayman Peter Jurasik (Londo Molari on 'Babylon 5') Beverly Hills Buntz Carmen Argenziano (Jacob Carter on 'Stargate SG1') HeartBeat
I loved China Beach! It treated the Vietnam War with respect. I have a funny story about In The Heat of the Night: my parents LOVED that series! It was one that we frequently watched as a family. After it'd been on a couple seasons, I had a chance to see the original theatrical movie on cable, probably Movie Channel, & had thoroughly enjoyed it. Some time later, when it was on again, I told my folks I wanted to put it on, explaining that it was the original movie that had INSPIRED the TV show! I thought they understood that: it wasn't a TV movie with the TV cast, it was the original movie that'd INSPIRED it! So, when the movie came on, my mom was shocked that Carroll O'Connor wasn't in it! (In all honesty, tho, this was a typical pattern of me & my mom, so much so I sometimes wondered why I bothered telling her things! I mean, if she's not gonna pay attention to me...?) I reiterated, AGAIN, that this was the original movie that had inspired the show, back before anyone had any idea it would one day be turned into a TV series. And, we watched the movie... I recall watching Aaron's Way, but not regularly. Maybe there was a conflict on another channel? (I had my own set in the bedroom, but only the living room TV was hooked up to cable.) Story I recall surrounding the SuperCarrier pilot movie: the Navy wasn't happy with the inclusion of female crew members on the show. This was back before the U.S. Armed Forces were as sexually integrated as they are now, & military hardliners were arguing against women in service. So-- in fact-- the short-lived series was ahead of its time: accurately PREDICTING that women would one day serve alongside men on Navy vessels with honor & distinction! The Highwayman was on at 5 p.m., meaning that I was EATING DINNER thru most of however long its run was, & I only discovered it by accident when Mother was running late making dinner. All of the best, most intriguing, quirky sci-fi shows always seemed to be in the dinner time slot, so I'm upstairs in my room trying to watch a FULL EPISODE while my mom's yelling at me to come down & eat! I think I saw MOST of the last 3 episodes of Highwayman before cancelation: enough to be left hopelessly intrigued & frustrated at the same time! What exactly was it about, anyways? (I had more luck with a series about a do-gooder on a super motorcycle & wearing hi-tech armor. Three seasons, either early enough that it was "before" dinner-- meaning I'm only 10 minutes late to dinner-- or "after" dinner, I was able to follow the story. Only episode I recall had a nefarious scientist "simplify" his victims' brains, making them his slaves. Nighthawk? Streethawk? Something like that!) Watched some Gary Shandling Show. America's Most Wanted was a long-running hit on Fox. It was still on when 9/11 happened! Idiotically, I turned it on that week, when I was burnt out from all the coverage, but should've known better: instead of the scheduled episode, Walsh & his camera crew were at Ground Zero, interviewing the construction workers (cutting up the tangled steel), firefighters, police & FBI agents working the active crime site.
Street Hawk was the Motorcycle version of Knight Rider (for lack of a better term) and while it finally came out in 1985, I think it's in the 1984 Video from this channel (it got held back)
According to IMDB, The Highwayman "Series starring a big high-tech 18-wheeler. The driver, the title's 'Highwayman' was one of a team of federal marshals empowered to right wrongs "where ordinary laws do not reach" - and to haul special cargo. The truck was heavily armed, and had a cab that turned into a helicopter for quick escapes."
Day By Day had a sorta famous episode where the teenage son dreamed that he was a member of the Brady Bunch. The entire cast appeared with the main joke being that Mike and Carol were always drinking coffee at the kitchen table. Ironically, the kid who played the son played Greg Brady in the Brady Bunch Movie.
@@ambercarver791 It's less about the commercials than it is not giving the viewer an excuse to change the channel. There are a lot more options and we have a shorter attention span.
_China Beach_ , _The Wonder Years_ , _In the Heat of the Night_ - all were mid-season replacements? How did I forget this? Putting this comment only a few minutes in, and I know I may have to edit it momentarily to note some other super-popular show in this collection. Blown away by the quality of that year's midseason.
Patricia's next TV series was "FM" (1989-90), which was from the same producers as Eisenhower & Lutz. It even featured DeLane Matthews and Leo Geter as well.
I am still sad about Hugh O'Connors death. Ended the series as Carol refused to continue. He ended up suing a guy who gave his son drugs to use. Famous court case. In 2002 Carol passed away. Same day as Sammy Davis Jr.
I can actually remember just starting the 8'th grade and watching the first episode of The Wonder Years which I think would air on Sunday nights for at least the first season
okay...so glad Eisenhower & Lutz didn't make it...Quantum Leap would have been WAY different (and might not have made it with someone else playing Sam)
Seems like I remember more shows from 1968 (when I was a 6th-7th grader) than 1988 (when I was 32). I didn't know the Smothers Brothers had a show in 1988 but I do remember their sitcom from 1965.
Technically you could include _The Dirty Dozen_ in that, since the movie came out in the late 1960s, irrespective of when it was set. I'm wondering to what extent it was a function of the portion of the audience as well as the portion of the studio execs who were Boomers. The oldest Boomers would have just turned 40 a couple of years before, and the youngest were reaching their mid-twenties.
wow I never new that the tom and tom brothers skit from in living color was a spoof or spin off of this smothers bros wow you find a lot out when you start looking back
Never knew Solid Gold lasted till 1988. I watched it between 82 and 86. I don't recall it after that. By 1988 was watching MTV and VH-1 and Friday Night Videos. Likewise I never saw American Bandstand, which ended in 1987, until reruns on VH-1. I was born in 1978 so 9 when AB went off air and 10 when SG ended.
Yeah, I hear ya.😆 That was one of the shows I was stuck watching when I was a tween/teenager living with my grandma at the time. She liked the main actor because he was on Little House On The Prairie, and show reminded her of that show. Me, not so much, but I had no choice. It was either see that, or go in the bedroom to watch my shows on the crappy color tv.
Spot the Star Trek: Voyager cast member! Janeway is a Doctor, the Doctor was in Nam, and Tuvok… I don't even know what kind of Show The Highwayman was.
Nick Bell THE HIGHWAYMAN were deep-cover federal agents who policed & surveilled the highways & byways of the country. And investigating/enforcing federal laws. State & local police agencies not w/standing. Imagine KNIGHT RIDER w/ a super-truck instead of a tlkg car.
@@kjk7611 Couldn't have said it Better... IIRC 'Tuvok' was 'da Chief'... their stick in the mud supervisor who always wanted to fire them, but deep down respected their work and would be willing to risk his job to save them
Our family was so bummed when _Beverly Hills Buntz_ flopped, because Dennis Franz is married to a family friend they know from their recruiting company. Seemed back then like he'd finally gotten his big break and then it dried up. Little did we know _NYPD Blue_ would come along and make him a household name. (Not to mention making his bare butt nationally famous!)
Too bad about China Beach, ABC didn't give enough support for it. & It was going to show 10 more final eps on another network, but never came through. Marg was just luminous on that show.
I would see anything Mr. Franz did, what an amazing actor. And interesting Louise-Dreyfuss character was named here Eileen...just shuffled and added a letter "a" for her "next assignment´s name", lol
13:40- "You look at that girl and say, 'She belongs in television'. She has a face that lights up the screen." -Fred Silverman [NBC's president] on Kate Mulgrew, just before she appeared as "MRS. COLUMBO" {"KATE COLUMBO", "KATE THE DETECTIVE", "KATE LOVES A MYSTERY"}, February 1979
China Beach was a good show! I saw it as a person too young to quite get what it was about but I recall one episode where they threw a bunch of food on the ground and ran it over with a truck and said there’s today’s rations. And someone was sick and needed salt and they threw it on the ground, and I guess that stuck in my mind somehow.
One of the things that made _China Beach_ a hit was Marg Helbenberger and the fact she played K.C. to the hilt as the cold, callus, calculating c**t she was originally conceived as all the way through the finale. She made it impossible to feel sorry for her..and that was the point Viewers were supposed to wish she met a bad end before the show was over.. and then be pissed she survived. Dana Delaney as McMurphy, though and Jeff Kober as "Dodger", though.. they were the heart and soul of the show.
Fun fact. Just the 10 of us was a top 20 show in the ratings but was cancelled due to corporate politics at ABC. They wanted the TGIF lineup to be produced by the same production company. But it did have a long life in syndication.
Wonder Years, China Beach, in the heat of the night, Just the Ten of Us, Garry Shandling, America's Most Wanted were the hits... I think Family Double Dare became a Nick hit. That's seven. What were the other three?
