It's also fascinating to see a show in the 50s use Love and Marriage seriously, it's literally what Married with Children was satirizing with its opening
Amazing. I'm 67 and I went through the introductions of the 50s and 60s, not only not having watched any of the shows but never HEARING of them. The first 70s show, "Headmaster " was ballyhooed at the time as Griffith's return to the tube. Never saw, neither did most. Incidentally, Steve Lawrence is still alive. Only 86 !
"Headmaster" was cancelled after 14 episodes and basically vanished off the face of the earth; quoting Wiki: "Viewing this series now is a rarity, despite the big name lead. It is not on RU-vid, has had no DVD release, did not show up in syndication, and seldom is available with private collectors. One episode, "One for the Gipper," is archived in the collection at the Paley Center for Media." (It was immediately replaced on CBS in early 1971 with "The New Andy Griffith Show", a shameless redux of the old hit Griffith series, but that lasted only ten episodes!)
I don't remember any of these shows either and as a kid during the 60's and 70's I was pretty much glued to the TV. Didn't realize there were so many flops!!
Brian, I agree with you! I do remember the Steve Lawrence Show, with his wife, Edie Gourmet. But, certainly, the stars of these forgotten shows are notable: Barry Sullivan; William Demarest; Peter Lawford, Larry Storch, many of whom were movie stars in their own right and went on to star in iconic series, including William Bendix (The Life of Riley) and Alan Young (Mr. Ed).
Andy, his partner (and agent) Dick Linke and writer/producer Aaron Ruben realized they had made a mistake presenting a "new" Andy on "HEADMASTER". They tried to bring back the flavor of his original series with "THE NEW ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW" {even having Don Knotts guest star as "Barney Fife" in the premiere episode!}, but it was pretty hopeless. The commitment for a full season of 24 episodes was completed, and the series ended {repeats of "HEADMASTER" were seen that summer, as "filler"}. Because he owned them [ADA Productions], Andy insisted that no one would *ever* see either series again.
Maybe not my grandma, but I could totally see some members of my family brewing something like Mogen David. The modern Mad Dog 20/20 bum wine though, not this classy stuff from the ‘50s here
I recall James Franciscus being in 5 million TV shows and movies when I was young. Sometimes the star, sometimes a supporting character. Also I used to confuse him with Tony Franciosa, so it literally seemed like he was everywhere.
Pretty much, primarily because the tobacco companies had the bigger pockets and had been willing to spend major advertising bucks since the days of radio. It was the government that outlawed them in the 70s.
I am both impressed and concerned about the person or people involved in putting together these compilations because, even if I had the time to do all the editing necessary, I'm not certain I would have the mental fortitude to watch some of these introductions multiple times and catalog them all. However, the results are entertaining and the effort is appreciated.
The Montefuscos....I remember at the time critics said it was filled with Italian American stereotypes. (Apparently producers were inspired to use the name of John Montefusco, at the time a pitcher for San Francisco. ) The show was referred to, inevitably, as "The Montefiascos."
Gotta confess, when the title popped up for a split-second I thought it read something else entirely. "Wait, what? _The Motherf_____s???"_ But yeah, just watching Joe Sirola's broad gesturing in that horrible makeup I'm glad there's no dialog in the audio. You can just imagine the "Why-a you gotta break-a you fathah's heart-a?"
The DA. Heard of it, never watched. Robert Conrad couldn't catch a break for years, one unsuccessful series after another. Oddly I can tell by the title lettering that this was a Universal production.
The character originated on an episode of Adam 12, it was another Jack Webb spin-off that didn't last long. I think Dick Wolf was inspired by him, and was much more successful at developing multiple series (Law & Order, Chicago Fire, etc.). In fact some years ago he tried to revive Dragnet.
These seem to be pilots that never made it to TV. Hollywood made hundreds of pilots that we didn’t know existed. There used to be evenings of screenings during which the audience would enter onto an electronic device their opinion of a pilot. That info helped studios decide what would be on TV in the upcoming year
An impressive collection of obscurities! (There are actually *23* intros here, but "Women in White" was apparently never a series, only a TV movie.) And the timeline is interesting: the 50s shows weren't necessarily flops (10 of the 11 shows* ran an average of 22.8 episodes), it's just that they're all 60+ years old and were rarely, if ever, shown in reruns, so nobody remembers them, like, at all. (*NOTE: I can't find any info on "The Johnson's Wax Program" [Dear God, why would anyone *ever* watch a show with a name like that?!] a/k/a "Starlite Theatre"...there was a "Star *light* Theatre" which aired 46 eps in 1950-51, but I don't know if this was the right show, so I'm not including it.) But after 1960? Yeah, all flopperinos, averaging about 12 eps apiece. ("Men at Law" ran the longest: 23 completely forgotten airings in 1970-71.) The only one I even vaguely remember is "The Roller Girls", which aired exactly four times in the spring of 1978. (I was a 13-year-old boy then. 'Nuf said.)
You're right, 23 intros. Men at Law was a last-minute addition and I forgot to correct the total number. While I changed the number in the title below the video screen above, it was too late to do so in the video as I had already uploaded it. And you're right again about Women in White being a TV movie. Not sure why I included that one other than its intro looking very much like that of a TV series. Oh, well. As for The Johnson's Wax Program/Starlight Theater, the video quality, along with the announcer describing it as a half-hour series, would suggest it was the CBS 1950-51 series. But apparently, NBC also aired The Johnson's Wax Program, seemingly with no mention of Starlight Theater, from fall '52 till late '53/early '54 that alternated with Robert Montgomery Presents Your Lucky Strike Theater, probably more as an alternate sponsor than a show of its own, and that one was an hour-long version.
"STARLIGHT THEATER" was seen on CBS in 1950 and '51. During the period S.C. Johnson [Johnson's Wax] sponsored the program, it alternated with "THE GEORGE BURNS AND GRACIE ALLEN SHOW" on Thursday nights.
Too many CBS affiliates pre-empted (or rescheduled) Steve's program in the fall of 1965- to the point where the network decided to replace it with "ART LINKLETTER'S HOLLYWOOD TALENT SCOUTS" that December, for the rest of the season.
Don't know about "Montefuscos," but there was the Norman Lear sitcom "Sunday Dinner" with Robert Loggia that aired very briefly and on, appropriately enough, Sunday nights on CBS in the summer of 1991.
@ 14:21 - 15:39 Looks like no one at the IMDB heard about or even saw that particular miniseries as there's ALMOST no info about it, let alone any factoids or trivias for that matter. #PleaseUpdate
Actually, it is briefly mentioned on IMDB - www.imdb.com/title/tt0078710/ But, unlike ABC's other short-lived medical drama in the same 1978-79 season, Doctors' Private Lives, it didn't air in a regular weekly time slot, so it might've played as a pair or trio of TV-movies under the mini-series label on separate nights in the same week, as was a common practice back then.
I Like Andy Griffith In Salvage 1 And Matlock,As Well As Better Than The Andy Griffith Show,And In Headmaster And The New Andy Griffith Show.Jimmy Brown My Late Dad's Friend And My Dad As Well As The Late George Cowles And Ronnie Smith And My Mom And Miss Evelyn Ward My Friend,Like Andy Griffith In Matlock Better.
