I know.... Today we have hundreds of channels. When I was a kid growing up in the 60's & 70's we had only six (plus PBS) and yet I enjoyed television so much more. I anxiously awaited the arrival of the Fall Issue the same as a kid looking forward to Christmas day.
I recently found out after sleeping with my ex girlfriends mom...yea sorry.....that back in the early 80s, in Dallas, Lee Majors offered her money for sex which she turned down. She said he was an asshole. Fall Guy still had the best intro tho.
Melanie Deysenroth When I was a kid, the worst punishment I could receive was not being allowed to watch Magnum PI! To this day, I think Tom Selleck is the sexiest man ever!
@@lorireece1970 I found a vintage school folder of Selleck in short shorts at a thrift store today; from the early '80s. I wondered how many girls who carried that notebook had a crush on him (as well as a few guys} !
I remember having to go to bed at 9:30 on school nights as a kid and couldn't wait to get old enough to stay up till 10pm and watch Knotts. It is funny because when I watched the show as an adult I didn't even know Karen had another husband besides Mac because I never saw the first 2 or 3 seasons. I adore all those shows and remember having a very big crush on Jameson Parker.
Markie Post was busy in 81. She was on Code Red, Simon & Simon, McLain's Law, Greatest American Hero and the Gangster Chronicles. Then she joined Fall Guy in 82! She will always be Christine Sullivan to me
There were two shows I watched every chance I got back then. One was Strike Force. I still hear the theme song in my head. The other was Darkroom as I loved horror anthologies and was watching reruns of the Twilight Zone, Night Gallery and the Outer Limits because I hadn't seen all of them yet. I was seriously pissed when Darkroom was not renewed. So were many of my classmates as we were still reading "House of Mystery" comic books and the like. Sometimes, I really, really miss being a kid in the 1970s and 1980s.
I loved Strike Force. I'm surprised somebody else remembers it! :D The 1981 action shows were criticized for being overly violent and Strike Force was singled out in particular, which is hilarious as by today's standards the show is incredibly tame.
The Fall Guy intro is actually inaccurate. The first season bail bonds agent was played by actress JoAnn Pflug. It was the latter seasons that had Markie Post.
The Fall Guy was great. They don't make shows like they did in the 80s. I also liked Best of the West. That was a funny show. Joel Higgins would go on to do Silver Spoons. And Meeno Peluce would go on to do Voyagers. Meeno even had an appearance on Silver Spoons so he got to see his "dad" from Best of the West again.
LOVED Simon and Simon. A really fun TV series. Did you know the original title was going to be (get this) Simon Eyes!! I think the floor wax people would have objected.
LOL oh man that Love Sydney theme is tragic! Looks like the show was primarily about big hugs. haha... and yeah, I was quite smitten by Heather Thomas. Shocking! lol
I was in my second year of college at this point and so missed most of these (did become a big fan of SIMON AND SIMON when I caught some reruns over the summer). My parents loved FALCON CREST (which was right after DALLAS) but I couldn't get into it. And still...all this (most of this?) way better than what we have now
All I can think about when I watch this type of video is how memories of these images and these melodies come back to me as I'm watching them. So the memories are still in my brain, but aren't recallable until I see and hear them again. The brain is amazing, but I wish I could recall these memories without having them re-presented to me.
Tales From The Crypt totally stole the open from The Darkroom - Love that show! Coburn was creepier than the cryptkeeper any day. Best bad guy ever - How about the one where the gi joe guys come to life - awesome! I love both Gimme A Break songs that's rare to make two great songs for one show they used that instrumental as the closing credits. It was cool to hear with the lyrics
Yes, the intro for Gimme a Break is not the one used for its first season. A slip-up on my part. The original intro can still be viewed on RU-vid by typing in a search for "Gimme a Break - Original Intro."
Best TV ever was the 60s , 70s and the 80s. We still had some morals as a country and most people respected the family. Now it's trash TV filled with freaks and not family friendly. Except for the reruns.
"Falcon Crest" exposed my generation to many of the great talents of old Hollywood, as star Jane Wyman's frequent co stars included such names as Lana Turner, Eddie Albert, Cesar Romero and Mel Ferrer!
In third grade, we watched Disney's, "Pollyanna," on the old film projector. Jane Wyman is in that. I was the only kid, who piped up, "That's President Reagan's first wife!" My Mom had told me this, when Falcon Crest debuted...I was allowed to stay up, Friday nights.🤣
I had no idea back in the day that Robert Foxworth turned down the role of J.R. Ewing on Dallas. Tough one for him. He'd had done better with that than Falcon Crest in my opinion. At least he didn't turn down Elizabeth Montgomery though. :)
Some of these shows were made to suck so they wouldn't get picked cause even then some of these shows didn't have a chance. Back when TV Guides were like a old Sears catalogs.
Tony Randal is a homosexual and the sad truth is he was never able to come out of the closet. So he lived as a hostage. And unknown stuntman was the shisnit, I love Lucy's Christmas episode was hard on Dezi&Lucille .
1981 was a solid season. Simon & Simon was my favorite show for years. Pretty good year for eye candy to... Heather Thomas, Kari Michaelsen and Markie Post... it was a good to be an almost teenaged boy... so it ok I had a big crush on Lara Jill Miller too
looking at all the 'cowboys' present ; whether it be Arness & Majors, Western Alums as Modern Day "Detectives" or actual Westerns like Kaplan's proto- City Slickers, the Maverick Reboot, or Best of the West... you can tell that 'Urban Cowboy' was still in the pop culture consciousness
R I P Tony Randall from The odd Couple tv show Version And Love , Sidney (he died 2004) Nell Carter from Grimme A Break ? ( she died 2003) James Garner from The Rockford Files and Bret Maverick ( he died 2014) James Arness from Gunsmoke and McClain Law ( he died 2011)
Simon and Simon! Yes, that was one of my favorite shows. I was so in love with Gerald McRaney at the tender age of 15. I'd fall in love with Delta Burke soon after when she played in Filthy Rich. Imagine my surprise when my two loves got married! I was over the moon happy for them and they are still together all these years later. Such happy times!
I LOVED Simon & Simon! I'll admit to a huge crush on Jameson Parker. Found out he's currently married to the sister of the woman who played Leisl in The Sound Of Music.
7:40 That's a pretty sad commentary; at the time I thought she was really fat. Maybe she was in another show (before or after), where she looked heavier, or maybe she looked heavier in later seasons of Gimme A Break.
Could it be that nearly every one of these had either a western theme, western theme song, actors from previous western themed shows, or all 3, due to the then-current Regan/Bush administration? If so, that also explains the glorified cops and robbers/Jack Webb ish theme over nearly everything else (except The Darkroom, of course.) I suppose it was probably the best way to keep the public mind on their "shining city upon a hill."
The irony of what you say in the title bit, about NBC's Sunday Night At the movies premiering in 1981 is that only 2 years later (the notorious and infamous 1993-1984 season.. where and when *_NOT A SINGLE NEW SHOW ON NBC THAT YEAR WAS RENEWED_* .. something I will NEVER let NBC ever forget...) it would NBC's SNATMs showing first time on TV films and made for TV movies and mini-series (such as the shocking hit _V_ ... (which garnered HUGE ratings but would NEVER air on the SJW salad tossing version of that network now....) that SAVED that network from self-destruction.
Good to see that running and then pointing a gun in intros was carried over from the 70's. And I think the only thing David Gerber didn't produce was my wedding video.
Wish that Eight is Enough would have continued for 1981-82 season. Some of the cast will leave the show, like Willie Aames, Mary O'Grady, and Michael Goodrow, Tommy Bradford's best friend.
You must not have finely tuned "Gaydar". I knew he was Gay when he was on "The Odd Couple" and I was only six or seven years old! Of course, I didn't know what a homosexual even was back then. I just knew he gave me the creeps.
NowI'mMe Tony Randall was married to two women in his life. Look at his episodes of “What’s my line?” His first wife was often a guest. After she died, he remarried a woman many years younger than he was. His first child was born in his 70s!!
Code Red was one of my favorite shows but I forgot Sam J Jones and Adam Rich were on it. Must have been right after Eight Is Enough! The predecessor to Emergency and obvious inspiration for Trauma and the more successful recent 9-1-1. I remember Love, Sydney! I vaguely remember Best of the West. It was a comedy with realy corny jokes. Joel Higgins pre Silver Spoons. Boy I don't remember Darleen Carr but she must have been a real mainstay in the late 70s and early 80s. Its absolutely amazing how many short lived forgotten tv shows which have faded into obscurity. Along with the classics which unfortunately are also fading due to the passage of time.
The thing I will ALWAYS remember about NBC is how they were one of the original Big Three networks.. but the NEVER were able to keep a prime time soap opera show on the air. But in general.. the 1980s... the decade when a show actually HAD to be good to get a second season. Those were the days...
@@Madbandit77 , *Parenthood* was more of a family drama, like *7th Heaven* . Have not seen a single episode of *This is Us* . Also, I did say "Never were". Things changed in the late 1990s - 2000s.. like when *Friends* masqueraded as a ensemble sit-com when everyone knew it was a soap.
It's too bad the opening footage with the dancers at 10:30 (for The Nashville Palace) was so blurry...I'd swear the lead singer/dancer in that ensemble looked pretty hot, but it's hard to tell for sure!
5:27 Tell me that Maggie's house isn't actually the Bundys house.. same door, door placement, kitchen, of only we could see the stairs weed know for sure
6:37 Tony Randall ("Love, Sidney"), from the Odd Couple 8:45 Ilene Graff ("Lewis & Clark"), later the mom on Mr. Belvedere 11:15 Merlin Olsen ("Father Murphy") from Little House on the Prairie 18:08 Robert Stack ("Strike Force"), from the movie Airplane! 13:55 Heather Thomas, yowsa!!!
