Donna Reed's parents lived in my town back at the time. She had to take the local Greyhound bus to get there. A couple of us kids went to the house, knocked on the door and she answered. She was pleasurable and courteous according to them. She was just as genuine and nice as the character she depicted in her program (this was back when the show was popular.) I wish more modern celebrities were as decent.
Don't forget she's the same woman who played the girlfriend and then the wife and It's a Wonderful Life with James Stewart and yes I could believe she was genuinely a sweet and decent lady
Which superstars have you deemed to be ungracious when strangers pop in uninvited? Please make it alphabetical. We anxiously await your response. Anxiously.
This is great! I love this 1962 promo. But the only show I remember watching as a kid in the 60s was McHale's Navy, I sure don't recall any of those other shows.
The carefree ways of Reed’s family and of most of these shows to premiere in September and October of ‘62 are the perfect contrasting backdrop to the missile crisis that was to happen. Would anyone have gotten the impression that the world was about to come within a heartbeat of ending?
Wow! IMO, they were great old shows with superb talent. I was 12 years old in 1962, and except for Stoney Burke I watched all the others but had completely forgotten some. Loved that synchronized *wink* at the end.
I was eight years old at the time, but it amazes me how I remember practically all of these shows. I loved Dickens/Fenster! I don't think it lasted very long. LOVED the theme song! I did a cartoon parody of Stoney Burke called Tony Smirk.
Maybe that explains my phone's ring tone, that of "The Addam's Family". I've had people snap their fingers along with the tune when it goes off when I'm travelling on a bus or car.
Nice look back at how stars of a top network tv series were used to promote the network's coming lineup. I think I recognize Severn Darden & Bartlett Robinson as the 2 men that antagonized Stoney Burke. Interesting how Mary & Donna pronounce "Ro-day-o", as if they were going to Rodeo Dr. in Beverly Hills. John Astin & Emmaline Henry appeared together again on BONANZA during its 11th season in 1969. By then they were likely better known as Gomez Addams & Amanda Bellows. I think I recognized a blond Kurt Russell in the line of boys on OUR MAN HIGGINS. MCHALE'S NAVY was the only show among these new shows that lasted more than 1 season. 1962-63 didn't turn out to be a good season for ABC, leading the network to promote 1963-64 (with some of its own flops) as "The New ABC".
@@mikedoran9851 You're right. I checked for this listing on IMDB after my last comment & found Severn Darden never appeared on STONEY BURKE but Bartlett Robinson did.
I like your moniker. There was much about it TO love! (But impossible it is, to count the ways-so!) One thing we all did learn however was . . . "Keep watching the skies; watch THE SKIES!"
Our society was always bad, people kept most of the evil under raps. The priests were molesting children, people were afraid to say anything, those who did were not believed or run out of town. Evil was always here, people did a good job of hiding it.
Did anyone notice, I didn't see any evidence of any ABC logo. But then, it wasn't until between October and December that Paul Rand's "abc" circle logo first came on the scene. G. Dean Smith's "circle 7" for the ABC O&O's was first inaugurated for its San Francisco outlet, KGO-TV, in late August, but I didn't see hide or hair of the logo on the other stations until December.
You know your trivia! I’m a follower of TV history and I appreciate that info. ABC, with many more UHF affiliates that the other networks, didn’t have as high a proportion of rural viewers as CBS and NBC, since VHF had a much larger broadcast range. So while the CBS and NBC emphasized rural comedies and Little House on the Prairie, ABC sought a more contemporary style. Hence the sans serif, lowercase informal logo. Plus their sitcoms families were suburban, and they had the urban verve with Mod Squad. Room 222 looked at social controversies and had the most multiracial cast. The other networks, particularly CBS soon turned in that direction, but ABC led. It knew how to use its smaller resources to innovate.
By the time the decade was out ,John Astin would be married to little Party Duke ,the teenager of the Patty Duke show . Quite a difference in their ages
"OUR MAN HIGGINS" was adapted from the 1951 NBC radio summer series "IT'S HIGGINS, SIR". It was opposite "THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW", and really didn't have much of a chance to build a proper audience during the sole season it was on.
Although, ostensibly, the lead character in this show was a spin-off of the successful Broadway musical "My Fair Lady." Even played by the same actor, Stanley Holloway. I say "ostensibly" because the name of his character in that was way different. And for reasons mentioned above.
In later years a reel like this would be produced to show to affiliates at a convention. But ABC really was a distant third at this time so it might have aired in a 15 minute time slot.
I always wondered what kind of sitcoms they used to have. I wish they would make a list of every single one even the ones that flopped out. They sure couldn't have been any worse than the sitcoms they have nowadays.
This must have been a bad season for ABC. Very few of these show made it into syndication. Lots of talented actors here. Dick York, Kurt Russell, John Astin, this season was like a training ground for television..
This was the last ABC-TV season put together by its meteoric president, Oliver Treyz. He was determined to give CBS and NBC more heat by scheduling 'modern' shows full of 'broads, bosoms and fun' rather than prestige or period productions. Gunning for the new burbs audience of Boomers, he also vetoed domestic sitcoms with maids bc they were out of date. Treyz's breezy preferences were the main reason why Newton Minow, incoming FCC chairman, called television' a vast wasteland' and warned it must do better. Unfortunately Treyz also liked hard action, and that autumn his downfall came when he defended a particularly violent episode of 'Bus Stop' (starring Fabian, of all people) at an FCC hearing. He embarrassed his bosses and was fired, becoming an embittered drunk whose attempt at a comeback with the 'fourth network', Overmyer, lasted just one month in 1966. But Treyz's populism paved the way for ABC'S more solid success under Fred Silverman a decade later.
only one that made it was mchales navy jack lord luckily escaped bucking broncos and moved to hawaii ive never seen the tv version, but the radio version of our man higgins is putrid
'Going My Way' was seen as an effort to soften ABC's image as the sex-and-violence network. It was handicapped by Gene Kelly's ambivalence about taking over Bing Crosby's part, bc Kelly was a lapsed Catholic who privately despised the Church. Still, a sitcom that brought Darren, Don Lockwood and Mr Waverly together has to be worth sampling.
Jack Lord! Standard bearer for the severe, hard-a**ed humorless type character, to which I coin and assign the title: "The Joyless Bunch." Of TJB there were numbers such as Robert Conrad, another real case. He started out not so bad in Hawaiian Eye being rather loose and not so intent on burying of past youthful indiscretions but, by the time he got to WWW, he'd hardened-up to high mohs scale, fearful, as one might suppose, that a smile might crack his face, causing it to fall off! (What might such males have to HIDE? Rhetorical! Consciously or not, ALL males KNOW, when and where endeavoring to.) Then, of the bunch belonging we had Ben Gazzara, one of the very hardest of the stony breed. (He belonging also to an exclusive TJB sub-group "The Shoulder Chip Men" or TSCM -- of which Robert Culp and Patrick McGoohan were card carrying members, never to be found out of character.) More TJBs?: Robert Stack, another type only too evident in The Untouchables. Stone-face! If any humor were ever to threaten to intrude, he'd get real antsy and fight the humorous sweet note. Now, admittedly in Stack's case, this was primarily a constructed default character trait but, was one often effected into other roles. When off-character tho, Stack was genuinely capable of humor exchange, both giving as well as taking it -- the man authentically was possessing of savoi faire et joi de vivre, no question. Patrick McGoohan was a anti-humor type but the trait was always mandated by the character types he portrayed, ones such as No. 6 in "The Prisoner" and, his "Columbo" appearances. Also, McGoohan was endowed with authentic intellect, which he used to maximum efficiency. (And also, like Bruce Boxleitner and a very few others, took fine special care of his fans, actually respecting us.) The Quinn/Martin guys, Peter Gunn and Mr. Lucky both very much were their own men, with Gunn being somewhat like Stack but, with his trade-mark particular wry humor always there, and at-the-ready to surface when needed. John Vivyan (ever-classy Mr. Lucky) was half-serious gambler/odds maker and giver, and with sidekick Ross Martin (Adamo) that other half being always ready for fun and adventure! And speaking of Martin, he helped make the Conradian intense Severity Pill easier to swallow. Kind-of. (Sometimes.) On the TJB Scale of Severity, ten being the worst-best, Gazzara at "10" takes the Grand Award -- his obvious anger boiling just subterra, being ever-ready to spill over into near, tearing madness. (One role of his that one particularly recalls: the one where his hard-a**ed ways forced his troubled drug-taking gay young son to suicide! An excellent role for him. We will remember it and he.) Jack Lord, for his demeanor and "acting" ability, will always be remembered not for himself, but rather for the success he did help bring to "Hawaii-Five-O" a true beloved CLASSIC of the little gray screen. "Book 'im Dano!: Murder 1".
@@keithbrown8814 YES! Milner. Of course. (How could I have?) He served I think, as nice background to George Maharis while traveling THE Route and, is with us still in his nineties. (Milner however, being not.) Thanks mucho, K.B., for the timely heads-up.
wow. acid flashback... this was the year shelley fabares did the song 'johnny angel'... paul peterson's parents ripped him off. abc was the lowball network. stoney burke is now a porno name...
