This is a place where great moments in television and pop culture are celebrated and remembered. So pull up a beanbag chair, turn on your lava lamp and take a trip back to a groovier time!
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February 2013 |
| Cast of The Jeffersons |
Appearing as early as the first episode of the Norman Lear sitcom, All in the Family, the characters of Lionel, Louise and eventually George Jefferson became the neighbours of the often-bigoted Archie Bunker (played by Carroll O'Connor) and family before being spun-off into their own series in January 1975. Lionel Jefferson (played initially by Mike Evans) was friends with Bunker's daughter Gloria (played by Sally Struthers) and son-in-law Mike (played by Rob Reiner) as Louise Jefferson (played by Isabel Sanford) became good friends with Archie's wife, Edith (played by Jean Stapleton). At the time that the Jeffersons were introduced on the parent show Sherman Hemsley was unavailable to portray the patriarch George, so the character of George's brother Henry (played by Mel Stewart) was used as a protagonist to Archie Bunker until Hemsley was available.
In 1974 the All in the Family episode entitled "Lionel's Engagement," the characters of Lionel's biracial fiancée, Jenny, and her family along with with "Mother" Jefferson (played by Cully) were introduced as a basis to the spin-off for The Jeffersons although the actors portraying Jenny and her parents, Tom and Helen Willis, differ in this episode from the actual series.
By the time The Jeffersons premiered, George Jefferson had become rather affluent with his chain of successful dry-cleaning business so he and his family left their Queens neighborhood and re-located to a highrise apartment building in Manhattan; moving into the same building as Jenny's family. The cast, in addition to Evans, Sanford, Hemsley and Cully included Berlinda Tolbert taking over the role of Jenny, actors Franklin Cover and Roxie Roker as the interracial Tom and Helen Willis and Paul Benedict as British next-door neighbour, Harry Bentley. Although not initially a member of the main cast, Marla Gibbs was cast as the sassy maid, Florence Johnston.
Cully appeared regularly in the first two seasons of The Jeffersons, but only made sporadic appearances over the next two seasons due to failing health. She was written out in the fifth season after she passed away however there was no episode that revolved around "Mother" Jefferson's death; it was only mentioned in an episode.
The Jeffersons was abruptly cancelled, surprising even the cast, after completing 11 seasons and 253 episodes.
Fun Facts:
- The characters of Tom and Helen Willis were the first interracial couple to be shown on prime time television
- Roxie Roker's son is musician Lenny Kravitz
- The character of Florence Johnston (played by Marla Gibbs) was spun of into her own series in spring 1981, Checking In, however it was cancelled after only 4 episodes and Florence returned as the Jeffersons' housekeeper
- Mike Evans, who played Lionel Jefferson on All in the Family and on the first season of The Jeffersons left to focus on the show, Good Times, which he co-created with Eric Monte. His character was replaced by actor Damon Evans (no relation) for season two through four however Mike Evans returned to the role for seasons six though eight and occasionally in the last season.
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| Cast of Newhart |
Frann was hired to play opposite comedian Bob Newhart, who was looking to follow up on the success from his previous sitcom, The Bob Newhart Show, that had ended production in 1978, in a new series centered around a married couple who owned and operated the historic, 200-year old Stratford Inn in a rural Vermont town that seemed full of eccentric characters. Newhart played author of do-it-yourself books Dick Loudon and Frann was cast as his level-headed wife, Joanna. Originally from New York City, the two purchase the Stratford Inn and re-locate to Vermont to start their new lives where the mild-mannered Loudons are surrounded by a town of oddballs and eccentrics including the inn's staff.
Veteran actor Tom Poston played the inn's bumbling country handyman, George Utley, while newcomer Jennifer Holmes initially played the inn's maid, the fabulously rich Leslie Vanderkellen. Holmes left following the end of the first season and was replaced by Julia Duffy, who's character of the incompetent Stephanie Vanderkellen was Leslie's rich but spoiled cousin who took over the housekeeping duties. Rounding out the cast was Steven Kampmann as the chronic liar, Kirk Devane, who owned the Minuteman Café across from the inn for the first two seasons and Peter Scolari as the hyperactive and often alliterative, Michael Harris, who is the producer of Dick's TV show and eventual husband of Stephanie.
Following Kampmann's departure as the Minuteman Cafe owner, William Sanderson, Tony Papenfuss, and John Voldstad are cast as as brothers Larry, Darryl, and Darryl who take over the cafe from Kirk. Two major running gags of the series revolve around the brothers; the first is that only Larry speaks and the two Darryls are silent (except in the last episode) while the second has Larry always introducing the trio the same way every time they make an appearance: "Hi, I'm Larry; this is my brother Darryl, and this is my other brother Darryl."
Newhart comprised of 8 seasons and 184 episodes before ending production in 1990 following on of television's most memorable final episodes.
Mary Frann passed away in her sleep in 1998 at the age of 55.
Fun Facts:
- In the last moments of the final episode of Newhart, the character of Dick Loudon is hit in the head by a golf ball and the screen goes blank. When the lights come back up, viewers see Bob Newhart in the role of Dr. Bob Hartley, which was Newhart's character from The Bob Newhart Show, clad in pajamas and sitting up in bed. The master bedroom is a duplicate of the room set seen on The Bob Newhart Show and Hartley says, "Honey, you won't believe the dream I just had." Following this his wife turns on the light and rolls over to speak with him it and becomes clear that she is not Joanna, but the dark-haired Emily, Hartley's wife from The Bob Newhart Show (played by Suzanne Pleshette). It is that this moment that the audience is left to believe that the entire show of Newhart, in particular the existence of Dick Loudon, was just Bob Hartley's dream.
- Newhart's opening sequence, with theme composed by Henry Mancini, was leftover footage of Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn driving through the New Hampshire countryside from the 1981 film, On Golden Pond
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| Cast of Gimme a Break! |
Gimme a Break! revolved around Nellie Ruth "Nell" Harper (played by Nell Carter) who agrees to be a housekeeper for the Kanisky household as a special favor to her late friend Margaret Kanisky, who was the wife of police chief Carl Kanisky (played by Dolph Sweet) as well as serving as a confidante for the Kanisky's three daughters, 17-year-old Katie (played by Kari Michaelsen), 15-year-old Julie (played by Lauri Hendler) and 13-year-old Samantha (played by Lara Jill Miller).
Gimme a Break! was known for a number of cast changes during its run; most notably was the death of Dolph Sweet following the end of the fourth season. During the previous summer, Sweet underwent stomach surgery for cancer treatment however his health continued to decline during the course of the 1984 - 85 season, making it hard for producers to keep him on-stage due to his gaunt appearance. Sweet insisted on working as much possible however he lost his battle with cancer and his character was written out of the series having died. The show continued with emphasis on characters such as foster-child Joey Donovan (played by Joey Lawrence).
By the sixth season and following Sweet's death, ratings for Gimme a Break! were in decline so producers attempted to revive the series by having the three Kanisky girls go their separate ways and Nell, best friend Addy (played by Telma Hopkins), Grandpa Kinisky (played by John Hoyt) and Joey move to New York City. Despite these efforts the show's ratings continued to decline and Gimme a Break! was cancelled after 6 seasons and 137 episodes.
Fun Facts:
- Reportedly show star Nell Carter had a stormy relationship with Gimme a Break!'s original producers Coleman Mitchell and Geoffrey Neigher; so much that they were dismissed from the show at the behest of Carter just prior to the start of the third season. There was also friction between Carter and newcomer Rosie O'Donnell, who joined the series in the sixth season as neighbour Maggie O'Brien.
- Telma Hopkins, who played Nell's best friend Addy, is also known for being part of the 1970s group, Tony Orlando and Dawn, as well as playing Aunt Rachel on the ABC sitcom, Family Matters
- Real-life brothers Joey Lawrence and Matthew Lawrence played brothers Joey and Matthew Donovan on Gimme a Break!
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| Cast of St Elsewhere |
Flanders, along with Norman Lloyd and William Daniels, starred in the medical drama St. Elsewhere, as teaching doctors at the poorly-regarded Boston hospital, the fictional St. Eligius, who gave interns a promising future in making critical medical and life decisions. The setting of St. Eligius was that of a decaying urban teaching hospital in Boston's South End neighborhood and the hospital's nickname of "St. Elsewhere" is a slang term used in the medical industry to refer to lesser-equipped hospitals that serve patients turned away by more prestigious institutions; it is also used in medical academia to refer to teaching hospitals in general. The St. Eligius staff, while mostly having good intentions in serving their patients, all had their own personal and professional problems, with the two often intertwining.
St. Elsewhere was known for its combination of gritty, realistic drama and thus would be influential for later medical dramas such as ER and Chicago Hope.
With Flanders, Lloyd and Daniels as the principle leads, St. Elsewhere consisted of a large ensemble cast that included David Morse, Alfre Woodard, Bruce Greenwood, Christina Pickles, Kyle Secor, Ed Begley, Jr., Stephen Furst, Howie Mandel, Mark Harmon, Denzel Washington and Helen Hunt.
Flanders left the series in 1987; the episode marking his departure gained much publicity as his character, Dr. Westphall, left the hospital after "mooning" his new boss, Dr. Gideon
Before ending production in 1988, St. Elsewhere completed 6 seasons and 137 episodes.
Ed Flanders continued working in made-for-TV movies following St. Elsewhere however he suffered from depression. Following his divorce from his second wife in 1992, as well as health issues he suffered from a car accident and financial woes, drove Flanders deeper into depression. Flanders took his own life on February 22, 1995.
Fun Facts:
- William Daniels simultaneously provided the voice of KITT, David Hasselhoff's heavily modified Pontiac Trans Am, on NBC's Knight Rider from 1982 to 1986 while playing Dr. Mark Craig on St. Elsewhere
- Daniels and his real-life wife Bonnie Bartlett played onscreen couple Dr Mark and Ellen Craig on St. Elsewhere
- A major career break came for Denzel Washington when he starred as Dr. Phillip Chandler on St. Elsewhere.
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| Daly & Gless: Cagney & Lacey |
Daly portrayed one of the two title characters as Mary Beth Lacey, a married working mother in the police-procedural crime drama, Cagney & Lacey, where she balances her work life as a detective with partner Christine Cagney, a single career-minded woman (played most notably by Sharon Gless as well as Loretta Swit in the original pilot movie and Meg Foster in the first season), with her home life with husband Harvey (played by John Karlen) and sons Harvey, Jr. and Michael (played by Tony La Torre and Troy Slaten, respectively).
Cagney & Lacey also starred the detectives' good-natured and sometimes blustery supervisor, Lt. Bert Samuels (played by Al Waxman), as well as detectives Marcus Petrie (played by Carl Lumbly), Victor Isbecki (played by Martin Kove), and Paul LaGuardia (played by Sidney Clute).
Cagney & Lacey has the unique distinction of being cancelled three times; the first was in the wake of the made-for-TV pilot movie when Loretta Swit was replaced by Meg Foster in the role of Detective Christine Cagney. Although critics praised the new series for its writing, emphasis was placed on the aggressiveness that both Daly and Foster expressed with their characters and utlimately ratings tanked well below the performance of the TV movie. CBS recanted and offered the series a second chance when they replaced Foster with Sharon Gless; the thought was Gless would portray Christine Cagney as more conventionally "feminine"and "high class" however ratings were still low during the first year Daly and Gless starred on the series together and Cagney & Lacey was canceled by CBS a second time in May 1983. Due to a public outcry that resulted in a huge letter-writing campaign to save the show as well as a better time slot during summer re-runs, CBS announced the return of Cagney & Lacey as a mid-season entry in March 1984. Cagney & Lacey received its permanent cancellation at the end of the 7th season after completing 125 episodes.
Fun Facts:
- Canadian actor Al Waxman, most recognized as the titular character of CBC's The King of Kensington (1975 - 1980) portrayed Lt. Bert Samuels on Cagney & Lacey
- Early in the fifth season Det. LaGuardia was written out of the series following the death of actor Sidney Clute. In his honor, the producers kept Clute's name in the opening credits for the rest of the series.
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| Cast of Bewitched with York |
Bewitched was a sitcom that revolved a witch named Samantha (played by Elizabeth Montgomery) who married a mortal man named Darrin Stephens (played initially by York), and tried to lead the life of a typical 1960s suburban housewife despite the disapproval of her meddling mother, the mortal-loathing Endora (played by Agnes Moorehead). While Samantha pledged to forsake her supernatural powers and become a typical suburban housewife, her magical family disapproved of the mixed marriage and frequently interfered in the couple's lives. Episodes often began with Darrin becoming the victim of a spell; the effects of which wreaked havoc with mortals such as his boss, Larry Tate (played by David White), clients, parents, and neighbors. Across the street from the Stephens' household lives a retired couple, the nosy and tactless Gladys Kravitz (played by Alice Pearce and Sandra Gould), who's snooping often results in her witnessing witchcraft or its strange side effects resulting in her attempts to prove Samantha is a witch, and her husband Abner (played by George Tobias). In the second season, the Stephens have a daughter, Tabitha (played most notably by Erin Murphy), and later in the series have a son, Adam.
Bewitched is noted for having a number of cast changes, often because of illness or death of the actors but most notably, the character of Darrin was quietly replaced mid-series. York was unable to continue his role as Darrin because of a severe back condition and by the third season, York's disability caused ongoing shooting delays and script rewrites with scripts for some of his final episodes being written around Darrin being in bed or on the couch for the entire episode. After collapsing on the set and being rushed to the hospital in January 1969, York left the show to devote himself to recovery, and the role of Darrin Stephens was replaced by actor Dick Sargent, who ironically, had originally been offered the role of Darrin in 1964, but turned it down to do a short-lived sitcom called Broadside.
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| Cast of Bewitched with Sargent |
Bewitched, the longest-running supernatural-themed sitcom of the 1960s–1970s era compared to other shows of the same genre such as The Addams Family (1964 - 1966) and The Munsters (1964 - 1966) ended production in 1972 having completed 8 seasons and 254 episodes.
Fun Facts:
- The various changes during the series and untimely deaths of several of the regular actors in the decades following its cancellation produced a mythology that the series was cursed; Montgomery passed away in 1995 at the age of 62, York passed away in 1992 at the age of 63 and Sargent passed away in 1994 at the age of 64.
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| Cast of Family Ties |
Bateman was only 16 when she was cast as middle child Mallory in the sitcom Family Ties, a sitcom that centered around the shift in the United States from the cultural liberalism of the late 1960s and 1970s to the conservatism of the 1980s.
Family Ties was set during the early years of the Reagan administration and revolved around the lives of Elyse and Steven Keaton (played by Meredith Baxter-Birney and Michael Gross, respectively) who are baby boomers, liberals and former hippies raising their three children, ultra-conservative Alex (played by Michael J. Fox), scatterbrained Mallory (played by Bateman) and athletic Jennifer (played by Tina Yothers) in suburban Ohio. Much of the humor of the show focused on the cultural divide during that took place in the 1980s when younger generations rejected the counterculture of the 1960s which was reflected by their parents, and embraced the conservative politics and culture that came to define the 1980s. The show had initially been sold to the network using the pitch "hip parents, square kids."
Supporting cast and characters of Family Ties include neighbor Irwin "Skippy" Handelman (played by Marc Price); Mallory's boyfriend artist Nick Moore (played by Scott Valentine) and Alex's feminist artist girlfriend Ellen Reed (played by Tracy Pollan). During the course of the show, the Keatons had a fourth child, Andrew (played by Brian Bonsall) to coincide with Baxter-Birney's real life pregnancy.
By the time Family Ties ended production in 1989 it had completed 7 seasons and 180 episodes
Fun Facts:
- Justine Bateman's younger brother, Jason, is also an actor, most known for playing Michael Bluth on Arrested Development and David Hogan on The Hogan Family (also known as Valerie)
- Actor Matthew Broderick was the original choice for the role of Alex however he turned it down
- Michael J Fox married his onscreen girlfriend Tracy Pollan in 1988
- Coincidentally Meredith Baxter-Birney and Michael Gross share the same birthday of June 21, 1947
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| Cast of Moonlighting |
Moonlighting revolved around cases investigated by the Blue Moon Detective Agency and its two partners, Maddie Hayes (played by Shepherd) and David Addison Jr. (played by Bruce Willis). The series, which became known for its mix of mystery, sharp dialogue, and sexual tension between its two leads, introduced Bruce Willis to television audiences and brought Shepherd back into the spotlight after a nearly decade-long absence.
Shepherd, who won 1968 "Model of the Year" contest at age 18 and thus launched her career as a fashion star of the 1960s, got her start in movies when a 1970 Glamour magazine cover caught the eye of film director Peter Bogdanovich, who cast the young Shepherd in The Last Picture Show (1971). Although roles continued for Shepherd into the 1970s, such as being cast opposite Charles Grodin in The Heartbreak Kid (1972), landing a role in in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976) as well as in the remake of Alfred Hitchcock's 1938 film The Lady Vanishes (1979), she basically dropped out of showbiz by the end of the decade.
Shepherd decided to return to acting after her hiatus and was cast as Colleen Champion in the night-time drama The Yellow Rose (1983), opposite Sam Elliott however, and although the show was critically acclaimed, the show was cancelled after one season. A year later, Shepherd was cast in a new series being developed by ABC which became the role that defined her career. Knowing that her role depended on having chemistry with her co-star, producers had Shepherd involved in the casting of Bruce Willis.
The Moonlighting storyline begins with the reversal of fortune of former model, Maddie Hayes, who finds herself bankrupt after her accountant embezzles all of her liquid assets and she is left saddled with several failing businesses formerly maintained as tax write-offs; one of which is the City of Angels Detective Agency, helmed by the carefree David Addison. Addison persuades Maddie to keep the business and run it as a partnership and the agency is renamed Blue Moon Detective Agency because Maddie was most famous for previously being the spokesmodel for the Blue Moon Shampoo Company.
The tone of Moonlighting was such that it became one of the first successful TV dramedies, a style of television in which there is an equal or nearly equal balance of humor and serious content and the show made use of fast-paced, overlapping dialogue between the two leads. The show was known for frequently braking the fourth wall, with many episodes including dialogue making direct references to the scriptwriters, the audience, the network, or the series itself.
Moonlighting was a hit with TV audiences as well as with critics however neither of the two principal stars was vested in the last season of the show. Willis, fresh from his Die Hard success, wanted to make movies and Shepherd, having just given birth to twins, had grown tired of the long, grueling production days and was ready for the series to end. And thus Moonlighting was cancelled after 5 seasons and 66 episodes.
Fun Facts:
- In keeping with the show's tradition of breaking the fourth wall, the last episode, fittingly titled "Lunar Eclipse," featured Maddie and David returning from Agnes and Herbert's (played by co-stars Allyce Beasley and Curtis Armstrong respectively) wedding to find the Blue Moon sets being taken away, and an ABC network executive waiting to tell them that the show had been canceled. The characters then raced through the studio lot in search of a television producer named Cy, as the world of Moonlighting was slowly dismantled.
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| Cast of Diff'rent Strokes |
Diff'rent Strokes, originally devised as a joint vehicle for Maude co-star Conrad Bain and diminutive child actor Gary Coleman, who had caught producers' attentions after appearing in a number of commercials, centered around two African American boys, Arnold and Willis Jackson (played by Coleman and Todd Bridges, respectively), from Harlem who are taken in by a rich white Park Avenue businessman Phillip Drummond (played by Bain) and his daughter Kimberly (played by Dana Plato), for whom their deceased mother previously worked.
During the course of the series, the Drummonds had three housekeepers; the first being Mrs Edna Garrett (played by Charlotte Rae before Rae was offered the opportunity to star in her own spin-off series, Facts of Life), then Adelaide Brubaker (played by Nedra Volz) and finally Pearl Gallagher (played by Mary Jo Catlett).
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| Cast with Dixie Carter |
By the sixth season ratings were beginning to sag so new characters, recently divorced television aerobics instructor Maggie McKinney (played initially by Dixie Carter) and her son Sam (played initially by Danny Cooksey) were introduced to open up future storylines. At the same time, Dana Plato became pregnant and approached the producers of the show to include her pregnancy. Initially they agreed to it, but they later recanted due to Plato's publicized brushes with substance abuse and thus resulting in her dismissal from the series.
Despite the additional characters ratings did not improve to NBC's hopes and thus the series was cancelled due to poor ratings in spring, 1985 after seven seasons. Rival network ABC decided to pick up the series for an eighth season, however Dixie Carter had already signed on to play Julia Sugarbaker on a new series, Designing Women, and was unavailable to continue in the role of Maggie on Diff'rent Strokes.
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| Cast with Mary Ann Mobley |
Mobley, who had previously played an unrelated, one-off love interest of Drummond's during the first season, signed on to portray Maggie for the revived series however ABC canceled Diff'rent Strokes after 19 episodes of the eighth season.
With ABC's cancellation, Diff'rent Strokes wrapped production after 8 seasons and 189 episodes.
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| Cast of Leave It To Beaver |
Leave It To Beaver, one of the first primetime television series written from a child's point-of-view, centers around an inquisitive but often naïve boy named Theodore "The Beaver" Cleaver (played by Jerry Mathers) and his adventures at home, in school, and around his suburban neighborhood. The show also starred Barbara Billingsley and Beaumont as Beaver's parents, June and Ward Cleaver, with Tony Dow as Beaver's older brother, Wally.
Like several television shows of the late 1950s and early 1960s, Leave It To Beaver is a glimpse at middle-class, white American boyhood however this series attaining an iconic status, with the Cleavers exemplifying the idealized American suburban family of the mid-20th century.
The original pilot for Leave It To Beaver was shot with actors Casey Adams and Paul Sullivan in the roles of father and son Ward and Wally Cleaver, respectively. Adams and Sullivan were replaced by Beaumont and Dow by the time the show debuted in 1957. Casting directors interviewed hundreds of child actors for the role of "The Beaver" but kept calling back Jerry Mathers, an eight-year-old with substantial acting experience who eventually won the titular role. Barbara Billingsley, an actress with experience in several B-movies and one failed television series, was cast to play Beaver's mother, the pearl-wearing June Cleaver. Tony Dow, who had no aspirations to be an actor, accompanied a friend who was auditioning at a near by the studio tried out for the role of Beaver's brother Wally and was hired. Beaumont, who was among several actors vying for the role of Beaver's father, had previously worked with Mathers in a religious film before being re-cast as Ward Cleaver.
Recurring characters included Wally's best friend, Eddie Haskell (played by Ken Osmond), Hubert "Whitey" Whitney (played by Stanley Fafara), and Clarence "Lumpy" Rutherford (played by Frank Bank).
Leave It to Beaver was light drama with the underlying theme that proper behavior brings rewards while improper behavior entails undesirable consequences; the younger viewer finds amusement in Beaver's adventures while learning that certain behaviors and choices are wrong and invite reprimand while the adult viewer enjoys Beaver's adventures while discovering tips for teaching children correct behavior and methods for successfully handling common childhood problems. Parents are subtly reminded that children view the world from a different perspective and should not be expected to act like miniature adults. The writers of the series generally emphasized permissive child rearing techniques, and urged parents to serve as moral role models.
The series was stayed popular with audiences during its run, but Mathers wanted to retire from acting at the end of the sixth year to attend regular high school and as a result, Leave It To Beaver ended its production in 1963 after six seasons and 234 episodes. The series' final episode, "Family Scrapbook", offers a retrospective look at the show's six seasons as the Cleavers leaf through an old scrapbook, recalling past moments and was directed by Beaumont.
Since production wrapped on the original series there was a made-for-TV reunion movie, Still the Beaver (1983), and a sequel series, The New Leave It To Beaver (1984 - 1989), starring all of the original principle cast except Beaumont, who died in 1982 at the age of 73 following a heart attack.
Fun Facts:
- The intended premiere episode, "Captain Jack," displayed a toilet tank which didn't pass the censor's office in time for the show's scheduled debut and thus aired the week following the premiere. Due to this episode, Leave It To Beaver has claimed its place in television history as the first American TV show to display a toilet tank
- The final episode of Leave It To Beaver is regarded as being one of the first sitcom episodes written expressly as a series finale
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| Cast of Mama's Family |
Comedic actor Korman had done many guest shots in television sitcoms in the early sixties including a semi-regular stint on the CBS variety series The Danny Kaye Show. When Kaye's series ended in 1967, Korman was immediately hired for a new variety series, The Carol Burnett Show (1967 - 1978), a starring vehicle for comedienne Carol Burnet. This popular comedy and variety series not only established Burnett as a television superstar, but it also made her regular supporting cast, which included Korman, Vicki Lawrence, Lyle Wagoner (who left the series in 1974) and Tim Conway (who joined the series as a regular performer following Wagoner's departure), household names, with such sketches as "As the Stomach Turns" (a parody of the soap opera As the World Turns), "Went with the Wind" (a parody of the film Gone with the Wind), "Carol & Sis", and "Mr. Tudball and Mrs. Wiggins."
One of the most well received recurring sketches was that of "The Family" which first appeared in 1974 with Burnett and Korman in the roles of blue-collar married couple, Eunice & Ed Higgins, and Lawrence playing Eunice's often-difficult mother, Thelma Harper. These sketches proved so popular that when The Carol Burnett Show wrapped production in 1978, the characters were first spun-off into a made-for TV, Eunice (1982), and then into a full fledged sitcom called Mama's Family in 1983.
Although Mama's Family did have some variances to the recurring sketches from its parent show as well as the made-for-TV movie (most notably due to varying guest stars playing some of the Harper "children" on The Carol Burnett Show, such as Alan Alda, Roddy McDowall and Tommy Smothers playing Thelma's sons, the sitcom saw Mama having three children), the series continued with Lawrence as the lead character of widowed Thelma "Mama" Harper, Burnett and Korman as Ed & Eunice Higgins (in Guest Starring roles) and Betty White (also in a Guest Starring role) as Eunice's snobbish sister, Ellen. The remaining original cast of Mama's Family consisted of Thelma's divorced son Vinton (played by Kenn Berry), Vinton's children Buzz and Sonja (played by Eric Brown and Karin Argoud, respectively), next door neighbour and eventually Vinton's second wife Naomi (played by Dorothy Lyman), and Thelma's spinster sister Fran (played by Rue McClanahan).
Mama's Family first aired on NBC however after a series of timeslot changes, the show's ratings dropped and the network cancelled the series after a total of one and half seasons (35 episodes were produced between January 1983 and April 1984). During this initial run, Korman, who also directed many of the earlier episodes, appeared at the beginning of each episode as the stuffed shirt Alistair Quince (a parody of Alistair Cooke), who would soberly introduce the program in the style of Masterpiece Theatre. He would also provide the voice of Thelma's unseen late husband, Carl, in flashback episodes.
After Mama's Family was cancelled by NBC, it moved to first-run syndication in 1986 having major cast changes occurred during the convert; only Lawrence, Berry and Lyman returned as regulars from the NBC run. The series went on to produce 4 additional seasons finishing with 130 episodes in total.
Korman passed away in 2008 as the result of complications from a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm he had suffered four months previously at the age 81.
Fun Facts:
- Carol Burnett did not appear at all on the show after its NBC cancellation, likely due to her acrimonious 1984 divorce from The Carol Burnett Show and Mama's Family producer, Joe Hamilton, who owned all the Mama's Family characters.
- Rue McClanahan signed on to play Thelma's spinster sister Fran on Mama's Family following the end of Maude in 1978 where she played lead character Maude's (played by Beatrice Arthur) best friend, Vivian. McClanahan would reunite with her former Maude co-star as well as her Mama's Family niece, Ellen (played by Betty White) when she, Arthur and White signed on for NBC's Golden Girls in 1985.
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| Cast of I Love Lucy |
Originally set in an apartment building in New York City, I Love Lucy centers around the life of Lucy Ricardo (played by Ball) and her singer/bandleader husband Ricky (played by Arnaz), along with their best friends and landlords Fred (played by William Frawley) and Ethel Mertz (played by Vivian Vance). During the second season, Lucy and Ricky have a son named Ricky Ricardo Jr., better known as Little Ricky, whose birth was timed to coincide with Ball's real-life delivery of her son Desi Arnaz Jr.
In 1940, film actress Lucille Ball met Cuban bandleader Desi Arnaz, who had just come off a successful run in the Broadway show Too Many Girls (1939 - 1940) when RKO had bought the film rights to the show and cast Ball as Arnaz's love interest in the picture. The duo began a whirlwind courtship which led to their elopement in November 1940. Despite being madly in love, however, their careers kept them separated, with Lucy's film work keeping her anchored in Hollywood, while Desi was on the road touring with his orchestra with nightclub engagements.
Before and during World War II, Ball, who despite steadily working in motion pictures since the early 1930s but never advancing to the level of a headlining feature-film actress, had made several notable and successful guest appearances on several radio programs led to the attention of CBS, which in 1948 enlisted Ball to star in one of two new half-hour radio situational comedies in development, Our Miss Brooks and My Favorite Husband. Choosing the latter, Ball portrayed Liz Cugat (later anglicized to Cooper) in My Favorite Husband, the frustrated and scheming housewife of a Minneapolis banker, played by actor Richard Denning. Based on the novel Mr. and Mrs. Cugat by Isabel Scott Rorick, My Favorite Husband premiered on July 23, 1948 and became a hit for CBS.
In 1950, CBS asked Ball and Denning to take My Favorite Husband to the new medium of television however, Ball saw a television show as a great opportunity to work with Arnaz, as it would keep them both in Hollywood and perhaps save their shaky marriage. Ball insisted that Arnaz would play her husband in the new television series, much to the dismay of CBS, which was reluctant because Arnaz was Cuban; network executives believed that audiences would not buy into a marriage between an all-American girl and a Cuban man. To prove CBS wrong, the couple developed a vaudeville act, that they took on the road with Arnaz's orchestra. Their act was a hit which convinced CBS that a Ball-Arnaz pairing would be a worthwhile venture.
During the spring and summer of 1951, I Love Lucy moved into production using a backlog of storylines from My Favorite Husband to adapt for use on television. As with My Favorite Husband, it was decided that the Ricardos needed an older couple to play off of. In My Favorite Husband, veteran character actors Gale Gordon and Bea Benaderet had played Rudolph and Iris Atterbury, an older, more financially stable couple. Initially Ball had wanted both actors to reprise their roles on television, however, both were unavailable at the time the show went into production so the roles of the Mertzes were re-cast with William Frawley and Vivian Vance.
After the conclusion of the sixth season of I Love Lucy, the Bal and Arnaz decided to cut down on the number of episodes that were filmed; they re-tooled the series by extending I Love Lucy to sixty minutes and having a guest star each episode. They renamed the show The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show (also known as The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour) with thirteen hour-long episodes having airied from 1957 to 1960.
The day after the last hour-long episode was filmed, March 2, 1960 - Arnaz's birthday, Lucille Ball filed for divorce.
Fun Facts:
- The episode in which Lucy gives birth to Little Ricky was watched by more people than any other television program up to that time, with 71.7% of all American television sets tuned in, topping the 67.7 rating for President Eisenhower's inauguration coverage the following morning
- Vance and Frawley's off-screen relationship could be considered strained, at best. Although they were always professional and exhibited exceptional chemistry while performing on the show, Vance, who was 22 years younger than Frawley, resented the idea that her character Ethel was married to a man that was old enough to be her father.
- Following the end of production of I Love Lucy, which from 1957 - 1960 was retooled as the The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show, Arnaz offered Vance and Frawley the opportunity to star in their own spin-off series. Although Frawley was keen, Vance declined and the idea was dropped
- The Simpsons pay homage to Ball and Arnaz's production company, Desilu Productions, by naming character Krusty the Clown's production company Krustilu Productions
February 13: Today's "Retro TV History" honours Martin Balsam (1919 - 1996), best known for his role as Detective Milton Arbogast in the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock thriller Psycho but also remembered as Murray Klein on the All in the Family spin-off Archie Bunker's Place (1979 - 1983) for two seasons, who passed away following a heart attack on this day in 1996 at the age of 76.
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| Cast of Archie Bunker's Place |
Archie Bunker's Place continued on from its predecessor although the new series was primarily set in the titular Archie Bunker's Place, the neighborhood tavern in Astoria, Queens (New York City, NY) which Archie Bunker (played by Carroll O'Connor) purchased in the eighth-season premiere of All in the Family. During the premiere of Archie Bunker's Place, Bunker takes on a Jewish partner, Murray Klein (played by Balsam), when co-owner Harry Snowden decides to sell his share of the business. Early in the first season, to increase business, Archie and Murray build a restaurant onto the bar; the additions include a separate seating area for the restaurant and a well-equipped kitchen with a service window. The regular patrons include Barney Hefner (played by Allan Melvin), Hank Pivnik (played by Danny Dayton), and Edgar Van Ranseleer (played by Bill Quinn).
Archie Bunker's Place was the sounding board for Archie's views, support from his friends, and Murray's counterpoints. Murray was very liberal minded but unlike Archie's son-in-law, Michael Stivic (played by Rob Reiner in All in the Family), was more tolerant and patient with Archie's views.
Following Balsam's departure from Archie Bunker's Place after the end of the second season, Archie found a new business partner, Gary Rabinowitz (played by Barry Gordon) who stayed for the remaining two seasons.
Fun Facts:
- Jean Stapleton continued to play Archie's wife Edith when Archie Bunker's Place premiered. The show featured Edith occasionally during the first season, however Stapleton decided to leave the series late in 1979 and thus her character was referred to but unseen for the remainder of the season. The writers and producers addressed Stapleton's departure in the premiere episode of the second season, explaining that Edith had died of a stroke.
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| Cast of Rhoda |
Groh co-starred opposite Harper in the sitcom, Rhoda, in which he played Joe Gerard, a New York City building demolition company owner who met and married Rhoda Morgenstern, the best friend of Mary Richards from The Mary Tyler Moore Show. The premise of the show, which premiered September 9, 1974, saw Rhoda returning to New York after leaving Minneapolis, and Joe and Rhoda being married in the seventh episode. The network gave the marriage much advance publicity, and the episode where Joe and Rhoda get married proved a ratings blockbuster, having drawn some 50 million viewers to become the highest-rated television episode of the 1970s; a record it held until the miniseries, Roots, claimed that title in 1977. Hundreds of "parties" were held by fans across the U.S. on the night the episode aired to celebrate the television wedding, and within days the CBS-TV studios were inundated with wedding gifts sent in by fans for the fictional Joe and Rhoda Gerard.
During the first two seasons, television audiences were satisfied with the direction the show was taking however, the producers found it difficult to write scripts featuring a happily married Rhoda, who during her time on The Mary Tyler Moore Show was known for being outgoing and sardonic, often joking about her disastrous dates. Consequently, in the first episode of the third season during a particularly dramatic scene, Joe leaves Rhoda and the two remain separated for the entire season, with Groh appearing in only nine of the season's episodes. Stories initially centered on Rhoda and Joe's attempts to work through their differences however as the season progresses, Joe is seen less frequently and Rhoda begins dating other people. Ultimately, they never reconcile and Joe is never seen again after this season and thus, Groh leaves the Rhoda cast at the end of the third season.
Rhoda carried on for two additional seasons following Groh's departure; with the lead character now assuming her maiden name "Morgenstern" full-time and the show then centering on Rhoda's role as a thirty-something divorcée.
Fun Facts:
- Julie Kavner co-starred as Rhoda's younger sister, Brenda, during the run of the series. Kavner is most recognized for her distinctive "honeyed gravel voice" as heard on The Simpsons. Kavner has voiced the role of Marge Simpson since the show debuted on the The Tracey Ullman Show. Kavner also voices Marge's mother, Jacqueline Bouvier, as well as her sisters, Patty and Selma Bouvier
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| Cast of Benson |
McWilliams's television appearances spanned every decade from the 1960s through the 2000s. She was a regular player on the CBS soap opera, Guiding Light playing Janet Mason Norris from 1969 until 1975. McWilliams went on to play the recurring role of Sally, Burt Campbell's secretary in the second season of the ABC show, Soap (1977 - 1981) before signing on to the Soap spin-off, Benson, in 1979 as a different character.
Benson revolved around Benson DuBois (played by Robert Guillaume) who had been hired to be the head of household affairs for scatterbrained and widowed Governor Eugene Gatling (played by James Noble) and his daughter, Katie (played Missy Gold). Governor Gatling was cousin to Jessica Tate (played by Katherine Helmond) and Mary Campbell (played Cathryn Damon); the two sisters on whose families the stories centered on Soap. The rest of the Benson cast consisted of German cook Gretchen Wilhemina Kraus (played by Inga Swenson); Chief of Staff John Taylor in the first season (played by Lewis J. Stadlen) and then Clayton Endicott III (played by Rene Auberjonois) for the rest of the series; and Governor Secretary Marcy Hill (played by McWilliams) for the first two seasons, and her successor, Denise Stevens Downy (played Didi Conn). Later cast additions included the Governor's Press Secretary, Pete Downey (played by Ethan Phillips) and Rose Cassidy (played by Billie Bird). McWilliam's departure at the end of the second season saw her character getting married and moving away.
Fun Facts:
- Benson has the distinction of being the first TV series to reference the Internet on an American network television
- Benson also has the dubious distinction of firing a young, then-unknown comedian named Jerry Seinfeld, who performed as Frankie the courier, for three episodes during the 1980 season
- The exterior shots of the Governor's Mansion on Benson are actually of a private home located at 1365 South Oakland Avenue in Pasadena, CA. The same house was seen in the 1993 movie The Beverly Hillbillies as well as in a 2006 U.S. television commercial for the RE/MAX real estate company.
- Cast member Miss Gold, who played Katie Gatling throughout the run of the series, is the younger sister of Tracey Gold, who played Carol Seaver in ABC's Growing Pains (1985 - 1992)
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| Cast of Hart to Hart |
With an already extensive movie career, such as Stars and Stripes Forever (1952), Titanic (1953), The War Lover (1962), The Pink Panther (1963) and The Towering Inferno (1974), as well as having two successful television series under his belt with It Takes a Thief (1968 - 1970) and Switch (1975 - 1978) opposite Eddie Albert, Wagner was well known to audiences when he signed on opposite Stephanie Powers in the Sidney Sheldon-created and Aaron Spelling/Leonard Goldberg-produced Hart to Hart in 1979.
Hart to Hart centered around Jonathan Hart (played by Wagner); a self-made millionaire and the CEO of Hart Industries, a Los Angeles-based global electronics conglomerate. His wife, Jennifer (played by Powers) was a beautiful freelance journalist. Living the jetset lifestyle, the glamorous couple spent their free time as amateur detectives where they found themselves involved in cases of smuggling, theft, international espionage, and most commonly, murder. The couple were assisted by their loyal, gravelly-voiced butler, cook, and chauffeur, Max (played Lionel Stander) as well as the Harts' beloved pet dog, Freeway (so named because he was a stray they had rescued when he was found wandering on the freeway).
Wagner was nominated for four Golden Globe awards for his role as Jonathan Hart in Hart to Hart.
Fun Facts:
- Wagner's film career received a revival after his role in the Austin Powers series of spy spoofs starring Mike Myers; Wagner played Dr. Evil's henchman, Number 2, in all three films of the series
- Wagner was married to actress Natalie Wood at the time of her mysterious drowning when she fell from their yacht, Splendour, while it was moored near Catalina Island; also on board at the time of her death were Wagner, Christopher Walken, who was co-starring with Wood in the motion picture Brainstorm, and a captain, Dennis Davern. Wagner and Wood were married from 1957 - 1961 and again from 1972 - 1981, her death).
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| Cast of Who's The Boss? |
After achieving success on daytime as Karen Wolek on the ABC soap opera, One Life to Live, Light landed the role of assertive advertising executive Angela Bower on the ABC sitcom Who's the Boss? opposite Tony Danza, who played her housekeeper and her eventual lover.
Who's the Boss? centered around widower Tony Micelli (played by Danza), a former second baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals who was forced to retire due to a shoulder injury, who wants to move out of Brooklyn to find a better environment for his daughter, Samantha (played by Alyssa Milano). Tony ends up taking a job in upscale Fairfield, Connecticut, as a live-in housekeeper for divorced advertising executive Angela Bower (played by Light). in the series' pilot, The Micellis moved into the Bower residence with Angela and her young son, Jonathan (played by Danny Pintauro). The series also starred Katherine Helmond, previously known to TV audiences as the scatter-brained Jessica Tate in ABC's Soap (1977-1981), as Mona Robinson, her feisty, sexually progressive mother who dates all kinds of men, from college age to silver-haired CEOs.
Following the cancellation of Who's The Boss? in 1992, Light continued acting by starring in the sitcom, Phenom (1993 - 1994), having a recurring role on NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as Judge Elizabeth Donnelly, who served as a Bureau Chief ADA in the Manhattan District Attorney's office, and from 2006 until 2010, she starred as Claire Meade on ABC's Ugly Betty; a role that earned her an Emmy nomination.
Happy Birthday, Angeler!
February 8: Today's "Retro TV History" is dedicated to the television show, Good Times (1974 - 1979), which debuted on CBS on this day in 1974.
Good Times is a spin-off of Maude, which itself was a spin-off of All In The Family, and is based on creator, Eric Monte's childhood. Interestingly one of the main characters' name is Michael Evans, which was the real name of co-creator Mike Evans, who portrayed Lionel Jefferson on All In The Family and another spin-off, The Jeffersons.
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| Cast of Good Times |
Good Times stars Esther Rolle as Florida Evans and John Amos as her husband, James Evans, Sr. Their characters originated on the sitcom, Maude, as Florida and Henry Evans, with Florida employed as Maude Findlay's (played by Beatrice Arthur) housekeeper in Tuckahoe, NY and Henry employed as a firefighter. When producers decided to feature Rolle in her own show, they applied retroactive changes to the characters' history such as Henry's name becoming James, there is no mention of Maude, and the couple now live with their three children, James "J.J." Jr. (played by Jimmie Walker), Thelma (played Bern'Nadette Stanis) and Michael (played by Ralph Carter), live in a rented project apartment in a poor, black neighborhood in inner-city Chicago.
Fun Facts:
- Esther Rolle was over 19 years older than John Amos; similarly Isabel Sanford, who played Louise on The Jeffersons, was almost 21 years older than her TV husband, George, played by Sherman Hemsley.
- Both Rolle and Amos left the series during it's run as they both disagreed with the direction that the show was taken; in particular with the popularity of the "J.J." character. Rolle and Amos shared the opinion that this character was perpetuating negative connotations. Amos was fired from the series following the end of the third season and Rolle, who did not want to continue without having a strong black father-figure, left at the end of the fourth season; she did return for the sixth (final season).
- Ja'Net Du'Bois,who played exuberant neighbor and Florida's best friend, Willona Woods during the run of the series, co-wrote and sang the theme for The Jeffersons
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| Cast of Emergency! |
February 6: Today's "Retro TV History" pays
tribute to the CBS television show about a talking horse, Mr. Ed (1961 -
1966), who's last episode aired on this date in 1966.
The stars of the show were Mister Ed, a palomino horse who could talk
(played by Bamboo Harvester and voiced by former Western star Allan
Lane), and his owner, an eccentric and enormously klutzy architect named
Wilbur Post (played by Alan Young).
Much of the program's humor stemmed from the fact Mister Ed would speak only to Wilbur, as well as Ed's notoriety as a troublemaker. Other running jokes centered on Wilbur's character being a huge klutz and inadvertently causing harm to himself or others.
Mr Ed consisted of 6 seasons with 143 episodes.
February 5: Today's "Retro TV History" commemorates The Andy Griffith Show (1960 - 1968), which aired it's 50th episode on this date in 1962.
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| Cast of The Andy Griffith Show |
Taylor's friends and neighbors include barber Floyd Lawson (played by Howard McNear), service station attendants and cousins Gomer Pyle (played by Jim Nabors) and Goober Pyle (played by George Lindsey) and local drunkard Otis Campbell (played by Hal Smith).
The show, a semi-spin-off from an episode of The Danny Thomas Show, spawned its own spin-off series, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. (1964) as well as sequel series, Mayberry R.F.D. (1968) and a reunion made-for-TV movie, Return to Mayberry (1986).
In the series' last few episodes, farmer Sam Jones (played by Ken Berry) is introduced, and later becomes the lead of the show's sequel, Mayberry R.F.D. (1968 - 1971).
The Andy Griffith Show comprises eight full seasons with 249 episodes. Griffith appeared in all 249 episodes and only Griffith, Howard, Bavier and Knotts appeared in all eight seasons.
February 4: Today's "Retro TV History" commemorates the American music-performance and variety show, American Bandstand (1952 - 1959), which aired it's 25th anniversary show on ABC on this date in 1977.
American Bandstand was hosted from 1956
until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as producer. It
was the show's popularity that helped Clark become an American media
mogul as well as inspiring similar long-running music programs such as
Soul Train and Top of the Pops.Featured artists typically performed their current hits by lip-synching to the released version of the song and Clark would often interview the teenagers about their opinions of the songs being played, most memorably through the "Rate-a-Record" segment.
Here is Barry Manilow performing "Bandstand Boogie" on American Bandstand's 25th Anniversary Special.
February 3: Today's "Retro TV History" honours American actress, Nancy Kulp, who lost her battle with cancer on this day in 1991 at the age 69.
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| Cast of The Beverly Hillbillies |
Kulp is best remembered as Miss Jane Hathaway, Mr. Drysdale's loyal and efficient secretarial assistant, on the CBS television series The Beverly Hillbillies (1962 - 1971), a show chronicling a poor backwoods family transplanted to Beverly Hills, CA, after striking oil on their land.
Kulp landed her breakout role of Jane Hathaway, the love-starved bird-watching perennial spinster, as part of the original cast and remained with the show until its cancellation in 1971. In 1967, she received an Emmy Award nomination for her role.
We thank you, Ms. Kulp, for your contribution to "Retro TV History"
February 2: Today's "Retro TV History" takes a look back to the debut of The Midnight Special (1973 - 1981), a late-night musical variety series that aired on NBC, as a regular series on this date in 1973.
The Midnight Special was noted for
featuring musical acts performing live, which was unusual since most
television appearances during the era showed performers lip-synching to
prerecorded music. The series also occasionally aired vintage footage of
older acts. As the program neared the end of its run in the early
1980s, it began to frequently use lip-synched performances rather than
live.The series was canceled by NBC at the request of Dick Ebersol as part of a deal for him to take over then-ailing Saturday Night Live.
Here, with her anthem of the feminist movement, is The Midnight Special's first host, Helen Reddy, with "I Am Woman"
February 1: Today's "Retro TV History" commemorates the last effort for Sonny & Cher as a performing duo as it was on this day in 1976 the at "The Sonny & Cher Show" (1976 - 1977) debuted.
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| Sonny & Cher - 1976 |
"The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour" (1971 - 1974) debuted on CBS as a summer replacement series in 1971 and continued as a Top 10 variety show through 1974. Although the series was a hit, the Bonos personal lives suffered and the result was a highly publicized divorce with ultimately led to the show's cancellation at the end of their third season.
With their marriage and their television show over, Sonny attempted to re-claim the success he previously had by developing his own series, "The Sonny Comedy Revue" (1974) but this attempt failed after only 13 episodes.
Shortly afterwards, Cher followed suit with her own variety series simply called, "Cher" (1975). Although her attempt was more successfully than Sonny's, Cher was more comfortable at performing as a duo and asked Sonny to reconcile at least as performing act. The result was "The Sonny & Cher Show"
Although the bitterness was behind them, their audience was not so forgiving and now that the couple was no longer married and that the barbs they aimed at one another were no longer cute after such a bitter divorce. This show ended in 1977.
I give you Sonny & Cher...
****************************************************************************
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| Cast of The Wonder Years |
The series depicted the social and family life of a boy growing up in an American suburb from 1968 to 1973, covering his ages of 11 through 17. Each fictional year in the series takes place exactly twenty years before airing.
The show's plot centers on Kevin Arnold (played by Fred Savage), son of Jack and Norma Arnold (played by Dan Lauria and Alley Mills, respectively). Kevin's dad holds a management job at NORCOM, a defense contractor, while his mother is a homemaker. Kevin also has an older brother, Wayne (played by Jason Hervey), and an older sister, Karen (played by Olivia d'Abo). Two of Kevin's age peers and neighbors are prominently featured throughout the series: his best friend, Paul Pfeiffer (played by Josh Saviano) and his crush-turned-girlfriend Gwendolyn "Winnie" Cooper (played by Danica McKellar). Story lines are told through Kevin's reflections as an adult in his mid-30s, voiced by narrator Daniel Stern.
With a little help from Joe Cocker, here is the series' theme:
January 30: Today's "Retro TV History" honours TV Producer Sidney Sheldon who passed away on this day in 2007 at the age of 89.
An Academy-award winning American writer, Sheldon broke into the television medium by creating, producing and writing the "The Patty Duke Show" (1963 - 1966) and then moving on to do the same for "I Dream of Jeannie" (1965 - 1970).
Sheldon's work in television spanned over 20 years by the time his last endeavour, "Hart to Hart" (1979 - 1984) ended in 1984.
Although Sheldon is most remembered as the seventh best novel writer of all time (as of 2013), we salute him for his contributions to television.
January 29: Today's "Retro TV History" commemorates actress Sara Gilbert, who was born on this day in 1975 in Santa Monica, CA.
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| Cast of Roseanne |
Gilbert, who is the younger half sister to Little House on the Prairie's Melissa and Jonathan Gilbert, was only 13 years old when she landed the role on Roseanne however, during her tenure on the series, studied at Yale University majoring in Art with an emphasis on Photography.
Audiences now see Gilbert as co-host and creator of the daytime talk show The Talk as well as the recurring Leslie Winkle on CBS's The Big Bang Theory.
Darlene Connor-Healy, we salute you on your birthday!
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| Cast of M*A*S*H |
Although Alda has an extensive career he is best known for his portrayal of Captain "Hawkeye" Pierce in the TV adaptation of M*A*S*H (1972 - 1983), a show which follows a team of doctors and support staff stationed at the "4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital" in South Korea during the Korean War.
Alda not only played the lead role throughout the run of the series, he also wrote and/or directed many episodes.
Happy Birthday, Mr Alda....wherever you are!
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| Cast of Laverne & Shirley |
Starring Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams, this spin-off of Happy Days showcased the lives of two roommates living and working in Milwaukee, WI, in 1959 through 1967. By the end of the series, the entire "gang" had moved to Burkank, CA; Shirley got married and moved overseas; and Laverne was left as the solo lead in the last season.
For the first five seasons, Laverne & Shirley was set in Milwaukee , taking place from roughly 1959 through the early 1960's. Shotz Brewery bottlecappers and best friends, Laverne De Fazio (played by Marshall) and Shirley Feeney (played by Williams) live in a basement apartment on Knapp Street, where the feet of pedestrians are visible from their front window. The two women communicate with upstairs neighbors Leonard "Lenny" Kosnowski (played Michael McKean) and Andrew "Squiggy" Squigman (played by David Lander) by screaming up the dumbwaiter shaft connecting their apartments instead of using the telephone. Also appearing were Laverne's father, Frank (played by Phil Foster), proprietor of the Pizza Bowl, and landlady Edna Babish (played by Betty Garrett). Shirley maintained a stormy romance with dancer/singer Carmine Ragusa (played by Eddie Mekka).
Characters Lenny & Squiggy were created by McKean and Lander prior to the show while both were theater students at Carnegie Mellon University well reportedly high.
"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated"
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| Cast of Dukes Of Hazzard |
Starring John Schneider, Tom Wopat and an orange 1969 Dodge Charger called the General Lee, The Dukes of Hazzard follows the adventures of cousins Bo and Luke Duke, who live in a rural part of the fictional Hazzard County (Georgia) with their attractive cousin Daisy and their wise old Uncle Jesse, as they race around evading crooked county commissioner Boss Hogg and his inept county sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane.
As the late Waylon Jennings explains in the opening lyrics of the show's theme, "Just good ol' boys, never meaning no harm"
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| Cast of Eight is Enough with Hyland |
Hyland was hired opposite Dick van Patten to play the mother of eight
children in ABC's Eight is Enough (1977 - 1981) however she fell ill
and only appeared in the first four episodes before passing away from
breast cancer at the age of 41. Eight is Enough continued with Betty
Buckley signing on as step-mom Sandra Sue "Abby" Abbott for the
remainder of the series.
Eight is Enough is centered around a Sacramento, California family with eight children (from oldest to youngest: David, Mary, Joanie, Susan, Nancy, Elizabeth, Tommy, and Nicholas) with the father, Tom Bradford (played by Van Patten) working as a newspaper columnist for the fictional Sacramento Register while his wife, Joan (played by Hyland) took care of the house and children while working as a part-time photographer.
Following Hyland's death, the second season began in the fall of 1977 with the revelation that Tom had become a widower. Shortly there after Tom fell in love with Abby (played by Buckley), a schoolteacher who came to the house to tutor Tommy who had broken his leg in a football match.
At the time of Hyland's death she was dating a young John Travolta, who was 18 years her junior. Hyland died in Travolta's arms on March 27, 1977.
In honour of Joan Bradford, the first season opening of Eight is Enough:
January 24: Today's "Retro TV History" recognizes that it was on this day
in 2010 that actor Pernell Roberts passed away at the age 81 from
pancreatic cancer.
Roberts is best known as Ben Cartwright's eldest son, Adam Cartwright, on the western series Bonanza (1959 - 1965) and as as chief surgeon Dr. John McIntyre, the title character on Trapper John, M.D. (1979 - 1986).
I dedicate this theme to you, Mr Roberts.
January 23: Today's "Retro TV History" honours Barney Miller (1975 - 1983) which
premiered on this day in 1975 on ABC starring Hal Linden, Abe Vigoda and
the late Jack Soo.
Set in a Greenwich Village police station of New York City's fictional 12th Precinct, the show's focus was split between the detectives' interactions with each other and with the suspects and witnesses they detained, processed, and interviewed.
Some typical conflicts and long running plot lines included Miller's (played by Linden) frustration with red tape and paperwork, his constant efforts to maintain peace, order, and discipline, and his numerous failed attempts to get a promotion; Harris's (played by Ron Glass) preoccupation with outside interests such as his living arrangements as well as his novel (Blood On The Badge) and his inability to remain focused on his police work; Fish's (played by Vigoda) age-related health issues, marital problems and reluctance to retire; Wojciehowicz's (played by Max Gail) impulsive behavior and love life; Luger's (played by James Gregory) nostalgia for the old days with partners Foster, Kleiner & "Brownie" Brown; Levitt's (played by Ron Carey)quest to become a detective (which was eventually successful); the rivalry between the precinct's resident intellectuals, Harris and Dietrich (played by Glass and Steve Landsberg, respectively) and continually bad coffee, usually made by Yemana (played by Soo).
January 22: Today's "Retro TV History" looks at Rowan & Martin's
Laugh-In (1968 - 1973) which premiered on this day in 1968 on NBC hosted by the comedy duo
of the late Dan Rowan and the late Dick Martin.
The title of the show was a play-on-words on the "love-ins" or "be-ins" of the '60s hippie culture; these terms that were, in turn, derived from "sit-ins", common in protests associated with civil rights and anti-war demonstrations of the time.
The show was characterized by a rapid-fire series of gags and sketches, many of which conveyed sexual innuendo or were politically charged. Each episode followed a somewhat similar format, often including recurring sketches. Each show would start with a short dialogue between Rowan & Martin before Rowan would introduce the next segment by stating "C'mon Dick, let's go to the party". This live-to-tape feature comprised all cast members and occasional surprise celebrities dancing at '60s "Mod" party backdrop, delivering one-liner jokes interspersed with a few bars of '60's dance music. The show would then proceed through rapid-fire comedy bits, pre-taped segments, and recurring sketches.
At the end of every show, Rowan would turn to his co-host and say, "Say good night, Dick", to which Martin would reply, "Good night, Dick!" The show would then featurecast members opening panels in a psychedelically-painted "joke wall" telling jokes and ab-libing one-liners. As the show would draw to a close and the applause died, executive producer George Schlatter's solitary clapping would continue even as the screen turned blank and the production logo, network chimes and NBC logo would appear
The show featured Chelsea Brown, Johnny Brown, Ruth Buzzi, Judy Carne, Richard Dawson, Henry Gibson, Arte Johnson, Goldie Hawn, Larry Hovis, Jeremy Lloyd, Dave Madden, Pigmeat Markham, Gary Owens, Pamela Rodgers, Barbara Sharma, Alan Sues, Lily Tomlin and Jo Anne Worley; albeit not always at the same time. Only Rowan, Martin, Buzzi and announcer Gary Owens stayed for the entire run of the series.
Eight is Enough is centered around a Sacramento, California family with eight children (from oldest to youngest: David, Mary, Joanie, Susan, Nancy, Elizabeth, Tommy, and Nicholas) with the father, Tom Bradford (played by Van Patten) working as a newspaper columnist for the fictional Sacramento Register while his wife, Joan (played by Hyland) took care of the house and children while working as a part-time photographer.
Following Hyland's death, the second season began in the fall of 1977 with the revelation that Tom had become a widower. Shortly there after Tom fell in love with Abby (played by Buckley), a schoolteacher who came to the house to tutor Tommy who had broken his leg in a football match.
At the time of Hyland's death she was dating a young John Travolta, who was 18 years her junior. Hyland died in Travolta's arms on March 27, 1977.
In honour of Joan Bradford, the first season opening of Eight is Enough:
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| Cast of Trapper John, M.D. with Roberts |
Roberts is best known as Ben Cartwright's eldest son, Adam Cartwright, on the western series Bonanza (1959 - 1965) and as as chief surgeon Dr. John McIntyre, the title character on Trapper John, M.D. (1979 - 1986).
I dedicate this theme to you, Mr Roberts.
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| Original cast of Barney Miller |
Set in a Greenwich Village police station of New York City's fictional 12th Precinct, the show's focus was split between the detectives' interactions with each other and with the suspects and witnesses they detained, processed, and interviewed.
Some typical conflicts and long running plot lines included Miller's (played by Linden) frustration with red tape and paperwork, his constant efforts to maintain peace, order, and discipline, and his numerous failed attempts to get a promotion; Harris's (played by Ron Glass) preoccupation with outside interests such as his living arrangements as well as his novel (Blood On The Badge) and his inability to remain focused on his police work; Fish's (played by Vigoda) age-related health issues, marital problems and reluctance to retire; Wojciehowicz's (played by Max Gail) impulsive behavior and love life; Luger's (played by James Gregory) nostalgia for the old days with partners Foster, Kleiner & "Brownie" Brown; Levitt's (played by Ron Carey)quest to become a detective (which was eventually successful); the rivalry between the precinct's resident intellectuals, Harris and Dietrich (played by Glass and Steve Landsberg, respectively) and continually bad coffee, usually made by Yemana (played by Soo).
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| Cast of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In |
The title of the show was a play-on-words on the "love-ins" or "be-ins" of the '60s hippie culture; these terms that were, in turn, derived from "sit-ins", common in protests associated with civil rights and anti-war demonstrations of the time.
The show was characterized by a rapid-fire series of gags and sketches, many of which conveyed sexual innuendo or were politically charged. Each episode followed a somewhat similar format, often including recurring sketches. Each show would start with a short dialogue between Rowan & Martin before Rowan would introduce the next segment by stating "C'mon Dick, let's go to the party". This live-to-tape feature comprised all cast members and occasional surprise celebrities dancing at '60s "Mod" party backdrop, delivering one-liner jokes interspersed with a few bars of '60's dance music. The show would then proceed through rapid-fire comedy bits, pre-taped segments, and recurring sketches.
At the end of every show, Rowan would turn to his co-host and say, "Say good night, Dick", to which Martin would reply, "Good night, Dick!" The show would then featurecast members opening panels in a psychedelically-painted "joke wall" telling jokes and ab-libing one-liners. As the show would draw to a close and the applause died, executive producer George Schlatter's solitary clapping would continue even as the screen turned blank and the production logo, network chimes and NBC logo would appear
The show featured Chelsea Brown, Johnny Brown, Ruth Buzzi, Judy Carne, Richard Dawson, Henry Gibson, Arte Johnson, Goldie Hawn, Larry Hovis, Jeremy Lloyd, Dave Madden, Pigmeat Markham, Gary Owens, Pamela Rodgers, Barbara Sharma, Alan Sues, Lily Tomlin and Jo Anne Worley; albeit not always at the same time. Only Rowan, Martin, Buzzi and announcer Gary Owens stayed for the entire run of the series.
