King of Bauer: March 2013

Welcome to Johnny K's Way Back Play Backs and join the groovy adventure with Johnny K as he jumps in his "Way Back Machine" and takes a trip back to yesteryear.

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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March 2013

Cast of The Partridge Family

March 31: Today's "Retro TV History" honours American actress and singer Shirley Jones, best known to television audiences as matriarch Shirley Partridge of the ABC sitcom The Partridge Family (1970 - 1974), who celebrates her 79th birthday on this date.

Inspired by the real life musical family The Cowsills, who's hits included "The Rain, the Park & Other Things" and their cover of the title song to the musical Hair, "Hair," The Partridge Family revolved around widowed mother Shirley Partridge (played by Jones) and her musically gifted children, aspiring song writer and lead guitar player Keith (played by David Cassidy), keyboards/piano player and liberal thinker Laurie (played by Susan Dey), bass player and perpetual schemer Danny (played by Danny Bonaduce), drummer Chris (played by Jeremy Gelbwaks in the first season; Brian Forster there after) and tambourine and cowbell player Tracy (played by Suzanne Crough), who form a rock band together and travel around the country in a psychedelically-painted school bus with the help of their manager, Reuben Kincaid (played by Dave Madden).

Episodes of The Partridge Family would often contrast the family's suburban life with the adventures of a show business family on the road; shows would feature the family either performing in various venues or simply in their garage. From the second season onwards, more of the show's action took place in their home in the fictitious town of San Pueblo, CA, rather than on tour.

An interesting facet of The Partridge Family was the music; the show was promoted by releasing a series of albums featuring the family band, though most cast members did not actually play on the recordings. Originally only Jones was considered to the "voice" of the Partridge Family however, after proving his musical capabilities, Cassidy was credited as a feature performer on the music of The Partridge Family.

The Partridge Family's biggest hit, "I Think I Love You" became the Number 3 song, according to the Billboard Top 100, for 1970.

The Partridge Family produced four seasons consisting of 96 episodes, as well as eight Partridge Family albums, when it was cancelled in March 1974

Fun Facts:
- David Cassidy, who played eldest son Keith, is Shirley Jones' real life stepson; Jones was was married to Cassidy's father, the late actor Jack Cassidy.

- Comedian Dave Madden, who played the Partridge family's manager, was part of the ensemble cast of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In's first season, often seen as a milk-drinking, confetti-throwing sad sack during the "mod party" sketches

- Brian Forster, who was the second actor cast in the role of drummer Chris Partridge following Jeremy Gelbwak's departure, is the great-great-great-grandson of author Charles Dickens

Cast of The Addams Family

March 30: Today's "Retro TV History" honours American actor John Astin, best known for his portrayal of patriarch and eccentric multi-billionaire Gomez Addams on the ABC sitcom The Addams Family (1964 - 1966), who celebrates his 83rd birthday on this date.

The original Addams Family television series was based on and adapted from fictional characters created by American cartoonist Charles Addams that were unrelated group of 150 single panel cartoons published in The New Yorker between 1938 and 1988. The Addams Family is derived as a satirical view of the ideal American family and are portrayed as an eccentric, wealthy unit who delight in the macabre and are unaware that people find them bizarre or frightening consisting of the enthusiastically eccentric patriarch Gomez (played by Astin), his refined wife Morticia (played by Carolyn Jones), their children Pugsley and Wednesday (played by Ken Weatherwax and Lisa Loring, respectively), Gomez's mother, known simply as Grandmama (played by Blossom Rock), Morticia's uncle, Uncle Fester (played by Jackie Coogan) and the family's ghoulish manservant, Lurch (played by Ted Cassidy).

It should be noted that in varying later reincarnations of The Addams Family that the character of Grandmama has been portrayed as Morticia's mother and the character of Uncle Fester has been portrayed as Gomez's brother. In the original television series, Morticia's maiden name is Frump and her mother, Hester Frump, was played in a recurring role by Margaret Hamilton, best known for her role as the Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. Another recurring character in The Addams Family television series was that of Morticia's sister, Ophelia Frump, who was played by Jones in a dual role.

Much of the humor in The Addams Family stems from their culture clash with the rest of society. The Addams family invariably treat visitors with great warmth and courtesy, however their guests often have questionable or evil intentions. The Addamses are often puzzled by the horrified reactions from their guests to their good-natured behavior since they are under the impression that their tastes are shared by everyone else and accordingly they view conventional tastes with suspicion.

Although The Addams Family has also been adapted into feature films, an animated series, video games and a musical, all the cast of the original television series reunited for the 1977 NBC film, Halloween with the New Addams Family save for Blossom Rock, who was to ill at the time. The role of Grandmama was recast with Jane Rose, who was known to TV audiences as Cloris Leachman's mother-in-law of the sitcom Phyllis.

The Addams Family is often compared to its rival The Munsters as they are both comically macabre in nature however the Addamses are a wealthy, close-knit extended family, all human with supernatural abilities with decidedly macabre interests where as the Munsters are a family of benign, blue-collar monsters. Ironically both series debuted in 1964 and ran for two seasons; The Addams Family produced 64 episodes where as The Munsters produced 70 episodes.

March 29:

Cast of Ironside

March 28: Today's "Retro TV History" pays homage to the NBC detective series Ironside (1967 - 1975) which saw it's titular character debut in a made-for-TV movie on this date in 1967 spawning a television show that produced eight seasons with 199 episodes.

Ironside chronicled former San Francisco Police Department Chief of Detectives Robert T. Ironside (played by Raymond Burr in the lead role), a veteran of more than twenty years of police service who was confined to a wheelchair after an attempted assassination left him paralyzed, who along with his former assistants Det. Sgt. Ed Brown (played by Don Galloway) and young socialite-turned-plainclothes officer Eve Whitfield (played by Barbara Anderson) as well as his personal assistant, the angst-filled African-American ex-con Mark Sanger (played by Don Mitchell), form a special department within the San Francisco Police Department and work together to solve cases and fight crime from a modified day van. This group was directed by Commissioner Dennis Randall (played by Gene Lyons). Due to a contract dispute, Anderson left the series at the end of the fourth season however she was replaced by the similar character of Policewoman Fran Belding (played by Elizabeth Baur) who stayed for the rest of the show's run.
Burr, Galloway, Mitchell, Anderson and Baur reunited for a made-for-TV movie in 1993 which aired shortly before Burr's death. Interestingly enough Anderson and Baur had not worked on the original series at the same time as Baur had replaced Anderson each serving four seasons.

Fun Facts:
- Actor Raymond Burr was already well known to television audiences having played the titular character on the CBS drama series Perry Mason (1957 - 1966)

- Ironside was the first crime drama series ever to showcase a disabled police officer.

- The character of Eve Whitfield was said to be a plainclothes police officer however Anderson's wardrobe was far from plain as she often changed stylish outfits from scene to scene

- Ironside's opening theme music was written by Quincy Jones and was the first synthesizer-based television theme song

"Mr Television" aka Milton Berle

March 27: Today's "Retro TV History" is dedicated to American actor and comedian Milton Berle (1908 - 2002), best known to television audiences as "Mr Television" as the host of the NBC comedy-variety show Texaco Star Theater (1948 - 1956), who passed away on this date in 2002 after losing his battle with colon cancer at the age of 93.

Texaco Star Theater, which originally was broadcast as a radio program from 1938 through 1949, got its roots from the successful 1930s Texaco-sponsored radio program, The Fire Chief hosted by Ed Wynn, which was a half hour of vaudevillian routines interspersed with music. After this show ended in 1935 Texaco continued to sponsor various radio programs with the Texaco Star Theatre radio show, a variety show with dramatizations and songs by various guest stars, debuting on October 5, 1935 and eventually re-branded as Texaco Star Theatre with Fred Allen, while hosted by Fred Allen from 1940 through 1944.
With the dawning of the new medium of television, Texaco decided to bring their successful radio program to the small screen and on June 8, 1948, Texaco Star Theater was launched on NBC as a one-hour, comedy-variety television program, hosted by Milton Berle who was also serving as host of the radio program until 1949, with its sponsor still listed in the show's title. As the sponsor, Texaco also ensured that ts employees were featured prominently throughout the program, usually appearing as smiling guardian angels performing good deeds, and a quartet of Texaco singers performed the program's theme song which was an advertisement jingle for Texaco.

Although he hosted the debut episode, Berle was not selected as Texaco Star Theater's permanent host right away. Originally there was a rotation of hosts, including Henny Youngman, Morey Amsterdam and Jack Carter, however Berle proved to be the most popular and was signed as permanent host be fall of 1948. Berle was an instant hit with television audiences and he would do anything for a laugh; he joked, preened, pratfell, danced, costumed, and clowned his way to stardom and ultimately became the first television star and earning Berle the pseudonym "Mr Television."

Besides big name singers and celebrities who performed in slapstick sketches and production numbers, novelty acts were also a staple on Texaco Star Theater. Ultimately though, the show was all about "Uncle Miltie," a name he gave himself in an ad-libbed closing segment in 1949, as he horned in on every performer's act.

In 1953 Texaco dropped its sponsor ship of Texaco Star Theater, so with Buick as the new sponsor of the program, the show's title changed to The Buick-Berle Show and two years after that it was known simply as the The Milton Berle Show for its final season.

By the final season The Milton Berle Show, as it was then known, saw ratings decline dramatically. As the medium of television became more and more popular, with Berle himself credited heavily with driving American television set sales significantly, variety shows became more costly to produce as guest stars no longer settled for the small fees they received for appearing. As well, with more television performers entering the scene, Berle's comedy was becoming predictable and thus Milton Berle, considered as the first television star was also, as the Museum of Broadcast Communications phrased it, "the first TV personality to suffer from over-exposure and burnout."

Fun Facts:
- Texaco Star Theater was the highest rated television show of the 1950–1951 television season; the first season in which the Nielsen ratings were used.

- On April 14, 1979, Berle guest-hosted NBC's Saturday Night Live. Berle's long reputation for taking control of an entire television production, whether invited to do so or not, was a cause of stress on the set. Reportedly, Berle's upstaging, camera mugging, inserting old comedy bits, and climaxing the show with a maudlin performance of "September Song" complete with pre-arranged standing ovation, something producer Lorne Michaels had never sanctioned, resulted in Berle being banned from Saturday Night Live

- Another incident of upstaging occurred during the 1982 Emmy Awards, when Berle and Martha Raye were the presenters of the Emmy for Outstanding Writing; Berle was reluctant to give up the microphone to the award's recipients, for the Canadian comedy-variety series SCTV, and interrupted actor Joe Flaherty's acceptance speech several times. SCTV later created a parody sketch of the incident in which Flaherty beats up a Berle look-alike, shouting, "You'll never ruin another acceptance speech, Uncle Miltie!"

Cast of Star Trek

March 26: Today's "Retro TV History" honours American actor, director and poet Leonard Nimoy, best known to television audiences as first officer Spock in the original NBC Star Trek series (1966 - 1969), who celebrates his 82nd birthday on this day .

Created by Gene Roddenberry, a longtime science fiction fan, Star Trek had its roots in 1964 when Roddenberry drafted a television series proposal set on board a large interstellar spaceship in the 23rd century, whose crew was dedicated to exploring a relatively small portion of the Milky Way. After signing with Desilu Productions, the independent television production company originally co-owned by Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball, Roddenberry developed an initial pilot which he pitched, based on his extensive experience in writing for series about the exploration in the Old West, as "Wagon Train to the stars."

Although the NBC executives were impressed with Roddenberry's initial concept, they did not care for the script and made the unusual request of ordering a second, revised pilot keeping only the character of Mr Spock (played by Nimoy). This revised pilot introduced the rest of the main characters of Star Trek set aboard the USS Enterprise; Captain Kirk (played by William Shatner), chief engineer Lt. Commander Scott (played by James Doohan) and Lt. Sulu (played by George Takei), who served as helmsman. When filming began for the first season, ship's doctor Leonard McCoy (played by DeForest Kelley) joined the cast, achieving billing as the third star of the series alongside Shatner and Nimoy. Also joining the cast during the first season was the communications officer, Lt. Uhura (played by Nichelle Nichols), a groundbreaking role as she was the first African-American woman to hold such an important role in an American television series.

Despite being labeled as a science fiction series, Roddenberry utilized the setting of a spaceship set many years in the future to highlight the major issues of 1960s American society including sexism, racism, nationalism, and global war. It should be noted that Star Trek was the first American television series to feature an interracial kiss between fictional characters.

During it's original run Star Trek garnered poor ratings and was cancelled by NBC after three seasons and 79 episodes however due to it's increasing influence in American popular culture, the original series eventually spawned a franchise consisting of five additional television series, 12 theatrical films, and numerous books, games, and other merchandise.

Foxx & Wilson in Sanford and Son

March 25: Today's "Retro TV History" pays homage to the NBC sitcom Sanford and Son (1972 - 1977) which aired its last episode on this date in 1977 after six seasons and 135 episodes.

Based on the British sitcom Steptoe and Son, the American series Sanford and Son revolves around widower and junk dealer Fred Sanford (played by Redd Foxx) who lives in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, CA alongside his 30-year old son, Lamont (played by Demond Wilson). Produced by Norman Lear who had adapted All in the Family to American audiences a year earlier, Sanford and Son's lead character and protagonist was portrayed as the Afro-American answer to Archie Bunker as Fred Sanford was cantankerous, bigoted and often an irascible schemer whose frequent get-rich-quick ideas routinely backfired. As well the character of Sanford's son Lamont was portrayed similar to that of All in the Family's Mike Stivic (played by Rob Reiner) in that he is seen as a more open-minded progressive who attempts to broaden his father's horizons although, at times, Lamont is depicted as being greedier than his father.

As mentioned, the character of Fred Sanfod is a widower who's wife Elizabeth is depicted as having died over 20 years prior to the beginning of the series, and thus Fred raised his son on his own and often spoke of how much he missed his beloved wife. A frequent source of comedy was Fred looking into the heavens in times of distress, grabbing his chest faking a heart attack and saying, "Oh, this time its real, I'm a-comin' 'Lizabeth!" Nobody, however, falls for Fred's transparent ruse.

Another basis for comedy in the series was Fred's relationships with his former sisters-in-law; initially Fred's main foil is his sister-in-law and Lamont's aunt, Ethel (played by Beah Richards) however midway through the second season Ethel is replaced with her more tart-tongued sister, Esther (played by comedienne LaWanda Page). As the series progressed, more emphasis was placed on the adversarial relationship between Fred and Esther.

Midway through the third season Redd Foxx walked off the set of Sanford and Son due to a salary dispute and therefore was written out of the series for the remainder of the season; it was suggested that the character of Fred Sanford returned to his hometown of St Louis, MO to attend to a cousin's funeral and Fred's friend Grady (played by Whitman Mayo) was left n charge of the business. NBC sued Foxx and as part of the settlement, Foxx returned to Sanford and Son at the beginning of the fourth season.
Sanford and Son was as groundbreaking for African Americans on television and has been considered the precursor to later successful Afro-American sitcoms such as The Jeffersons and The Cosby Show.

Despite still being popular by the end of the sixth season, both Foxx and Wilson wanted to leave the series and thus the last episode of Sanford and Son aired on March 25, 1977.

Fun Facts:
- In a twist of irony, the character of Fred Sanford often fakes a heart attack when he was distressed; actor Redd Foxx died after suffering a fatal attack on the set his last series, The Royale Family, opposite Della Reece, in 1991.

- Redd Foxx attempted to revive the show in 1980 with the short-lived Sanford (1980 - 1981); Desmond Wilson opted to not reprise his character of Lamont.

Cast of Angie

March 24: Today's "Retro TV History" honours American actress and director Donna Pescow, known to TV audiences as the titular character on the ABC sitcom Angie (1979 - 1980), who celebrates her 59th birthday on this day.
Angie revolved around the romance, and eventual marriage, of middle-class, Italian-American, Liberty Coffee Shop waitress Angie Falco (played by Pescow) and affluent pediatrician Bradley Benson (played by Robert Hays) after the two meet at Angie's coffee shop. Much of the show's comedy is derived from how the middle-class Falco family, which also consists of Angie's divorced mother Thersa (played by Doris Roberts) and Angie's younger sister Marie (played by Debralee Scott) clashes with the wealthy, blue-blooded Benson family, who also include Brad's stuffy father Randall (played by John Randolph) and Brad's divorced, snobbish sister Joyce (Sharon Spelman). Joyce's daughter Hilary (played by Tammy Lauren), who bonds with Angie, is seen in only the first season.

As a mid-season replacement, Angie's first, albeit shortened, season was a ratings hit ranking fifth for the 1978-79 season. A move ABC's schedule as well as having the two lead characters marry in the beginning of the second season, thus compromising the initial feisty chemistry between Pescow and Hayes, led to the show's drastic ratings decline and cancellation at the end of the second season.

Angie produced only two seasons comprising of 36 episodes.

Fun Facts:
- Angie's theme song, "Different Worlds" was performed by singer and Broadway actress Maureen McGovern, who was well known for her renditions of the Oscar-winning, disaster movie themes "The Morning After" from The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and "We May Never Love Like This Again" from The Towering Inferno (1974). "Different Worlds" spent two weeks at #1 on the Billboard adult contemporary chart and was McGovern's only #1 on that chart

- Actress Doris Roberts, who played Theresa Falco on Angie, is also known to TV audiences for her roles of Mildred Krebs on Remington Steele and Marie Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond. She is also known for portraying Ellen Griswold's mother, Frances Smith, in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989).

March 23:

Cast of The Flintstones

March 22: Today's "Retro TV History" is dedicated to American animator, director and producer William Hanna (1910 - 2001), most recognized as one of the two creators along with his business partner Joseph Barbera under their animation studio company Hanna-Barbera Productions of the animated, prime-time sitcom The Flintstones (1960 - 1966), who passed away on this date in 2001 from throat cancer at the age 90.

The Flintstones, set in the town of Bedrock during the Stone Age period drawing largely on comparisons of contemporary situations in a prehistoric backdrop, centered around the Flintstone family, consisting of patriarch Fred (voiced by Alan Reed), his wife Wilma (voiced by Jean Vander Pyl), their pet sauropod dinosaur Dino (voiced by Mel Blanc) and, from the third season onwards, their daughter Pebbles (voiced by Jean Vander Pyl). The Flintstones also had a pet saber-toothed cat named Baby Puss.

The Flintstones' next-door neighbours, The Rubbles, consisting of Fred's best friend Barney (voiced by Mel Blanc although for a few episodes in the second season, voiced by Daws Butler), his wife and Wilma's best friend Betty (voiced by Bea Benaderet for the first four seasons and Gerry Johnson for the remaining two seasons) and, as of the fourh season, their son Bamm-Bamm (voiced by Don Messick). The Rubbles, too, had a pet; a kangaroo/dinosaur hybrid creature named Hoppy (voiced by Don Messick).

During the fifth season the Flintstones get new next-door neighbours on the other side of their house, opposite the Rubbles' home; in the episode simply called "The Gruesomes" we meet Weirdly & Creepella Gruesome who's characteristics are comparable to either Gomez and Morticia Addams (from The Addams Family) or Herman and Lily Munster (from The Munsters).
The Flintstones came about when Hanna and Barbera wanted to create an animated situational comedy that appealed to both adults and children and although they experimented with hillbillies, Romans, pilgrims, and Indians as the settings for the two families, the settled on the Stone Age setting simply because, according to Barbera, you could take anything that was current, and convert it to stone-age." The Flintstones largely imitated and parodied the CBS sitcom, The Honeymooners, with the character of Fred taking on many similarities to Jackie Gleason's Ralph Kramden.
Since its cancellation following six season with 166 episodes, there have been many reincarnations of the original series. The Flintstones became the first prime-time animated series to last more than two seasons; a record that wasn't surpassed by another primetime animated series until the seventh season of the Fox animated series, The Simpsons.

William Hanna & Joseph Barbera

Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. dominated American television animation for the latter half of the 20th century and produced many successful animated shows, including The Huckleberry Hound Show, The Quick Draw McGraw Show, The Yogi Bear Show, The Jetsons, Jonny Quest, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels, JabberJaw and The Smurfs to name but a few

Fun Facts:
- Actress Bea Benaderet, who also voiced he character of Granny, the sometimes dimwitted, sometimes assertive owner of Tweety Bird on the Warner Bros cartoons, resigned from The Flintstones following the fourth season due to her commitment to her own series, Petticoat Junction. There have been suggestions that Joe Barbera unceremoniously replaced her with Gerry Johnson.

- Barney Rubble's voice was provided by Mel Blanc, although five episodes during the second season had Barney being voiced by Daws Butler while Blanc was incapacitated by a near-fatal car accident.

- The character of Th Great Gazoo (voiced by comedian Harvey Korman), a tiny, green, floating alien who was exiled to Earth from his home planet Zetox as punishment for having invented a doomsday machine, was introduced in the sixth season. Only the characters of Fred, Barnet, Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm could see The Great Gazoo

Cast of The Cosby Show

March 21: Today's "Retro TV History" honours American actress Sabrina Le Beauf, best known to TV audiences as eldest daughter Sondra Huxtable Tibideaux on the NBC sitcom The Cosby Show (1984 - 1992), who celebrates her 55th birthday on this day.

The Cosby Show centered around the lives of the affluent, Afro-American Huxtable family, living in Brooklyn Heights, NY and was based on the comedy routine of comedian Bill Cosby. Cosby's comedy drew from his observations of life and family which attracted the attention of former ABC executives, Marcy Carsey and Tom Werner, who had left the network to start their own production company. Carsey and Werner were anxious to sell a sitcom and, knowing they needed to get a big name behind them, they approached Cosby to build a series around his comedy act. Although originally the concept was to showcase a blue-collared family however, at Cosby's insistence, the concept was changed to focus on an upper middle-class, financially successful family that included the patriarch as a doctor and the matriarch as a lawyer.

Although there were some slight changes following the initial pilot, such as the set and the number of children in the Huxtable family, The Cosby Show focused on obstetrician, Heathcliff "Cliff" Huxtable (played by Cosby), his attorney wife Clair (played by Phylicia Rashād) and their children, Sondra (played by Le Beauf), Denise (played by Lisa Bonet), Theodore "Theo" (played by Malcolm-Jamal Warner), Vanessa (played by Tempestt Bledsoe) and Rudy (played by Keshia Knight Pulliam).

Le Beauf did not appear as a regular cast member until the second season as her character, who was depicted as living away at college, only appeared in a few episodes. Interestingly enough Le Beauf almost missed out on the role because she is only ten years younger than Rashād.

The Cosby Show produced 8 seasons with 202 episodes.

Thomas & Bessell in That Girl

March 20: Today's "Retro TV History" is dedicated to American actor and director Ted Bessell (1935 - 1996), best known to television audiences as Marlo Thomas's boyfriend Donald Hollinger on the sitcom That Girl (1966 - 1971), who was born on this date in 1935.

That Girl revolved around aspiring actress An Marie (played by Thomas in the lead role) who leaves her hometown of Brewster, NY to find fame in New York City where she balances life between auditions and her her boyfriend, Donald (played by Bessell). Ann must take a number off seemingly odd "temp" jobs to support herself between her auditions and the few small roles she manages to land. The allure of the series came from Thomas' goofy charm combined with Bessell's dry wit.

Episodes would begin with a pre-credits teaser in which an odd incident would occur or a discussion would foreshadow the episode's story which would end with someone exclaiming "...that girl!" just as Ann would enter into the shot or the character would notice her.

That Girl has been a forerunner of sorts for successful shows like The Mary Tyler Moore Show, which debuted four years after That Girl, in that the focus was on a strong, young woman with goals and aspirations on independence and a career rather than being seen as a housewife or a secretary. These shows were groundbreaking for their time by showcasing a social change in American culture at a time when the feminist movement was gaining momentum and thus, paving the way for shows like Murphy Brown and later Ally McBeal.

By the end of the fourth season, Thomas was growing tired of the character however she decided to commit to one last season. The fifth season saw the characters of Ann and Don become engaged however, as suggested by Thomas who did not want show that marriage should be the ultimate goal for young women, they do not marry by the end of the series.

That Girl comprised of five seasons with 136 episodes.

Bessell passed away on October 6, 1996 following an aortic aneurysm at the age of 61. At the time of his sudden death, Bessell was preparing to direct the large-screen version of the TV sitcom Bewitched.

Fun Facts:
- My Girl star Marlo Thomas has been married to talkshow host Phil Donahue since 1980

- Marlo Thomas is also recognized to younger viewers as Jennifer Aniston's TV mom, Sandra Green, on the NBC sitcom, Friends

Original Cast of The Mary Tyler Moore Show

March 19: Today's "Retro TV History" pays homage to the CBS sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970 - 1977) which aired its last episode on this date in 1977 after 7 seasons and 168 episodes.

The series, considered a television breakthrough for its time in how it portrayed the social change for women, centered around single, career-minded Mary Richards (played by Mary Tyler Moore in the lead role) who moves to Minneapolis, MN after breaking off an engagement with her boyfriend and accepts a job as associate producer for TV station WJM's "Six O'Clock News."
Particularly in the early seasons of the show, Mary's time seems split between the interactions with her colleagues at the newsroom, including her relationships with her tough but loveable boss, Lou Grant (played by Ed Asner), the often sarcastic news writer Murray Slaughter (played by Gavin MacLeod) and the pompous anchorman Ted Baxter (played by Ted Knight), and with her personal life which she shares with her best friend Rhoda Morgenstern (played by Valerie Harper) and her friend and landlady, the snobbish Phyllis Lindstrom (played by Cloris Leachman).

Final Cast of The Mary Tyler Moore Show

As the series progresses, less emphasis is placed on Mary's personal life, particularly after Rhoda moves back to her hometown of New York City and the widowed Phyllis leaves for San Fransisco (both Valerie Harper and Cloris Leachman's characters were spun into their own shows; Rhoda and Phyllis, respectively) and she develops close relationships with the sweet-natured Georgette Franklin (played by Georgia Engel), who eventually becomes Ted's wife, and man-hungry hostess of WGM's The Happy Homemaker, Sue Ann Nivens (played by Betty White).

Although the show placed emphasis on the humourous aspects of issues, The Mary Tyler Moore Show did not shy away from topics such as as equal pay for women, pre-marital sex, homosexuality, marital infidelity and divorce.

Fun Facts:
- The role of Ted Baxter was originally written with actor Jack Cassidy, father to 1970s teen heartthrobs David and Shaun Cassidy, in mind however Cassidy turned down the role. Ironically Cassidy appeared in an early episode as Ted's equally egocentric brother Hal.

- Although the role of Sue Ann Nivens was not specifically written for Betty White the script introducing the character called for an "icky sweet Betty White type" so the casting director approached White, herself, as she was good friends with Moore.

Cast of The Greatest American Hero

March 18: Today's "Retro TV History" pays homage to the ABC comedy-drama series, The Greatest American Hero (1981 - 1983), that debuted as a two-hour pilot movie on this date in 1981that went on to produce three seasons with 44 episodes.

The show revolves around Ralph Hinkley (played by William Katt in the lead role), a high school, special education teacher who, after narrowly misses a swerving car driven by FBI Special Agent Bill Maxwell (played by Robert Culp), is given a red suit that gives him superhuman abilities by a group of aliens and told that he and Maxwell must work together to save the world. Hinkley, however, detests wearing the suit and immediately loses its instruction booklet so has to learn how to use its powers by trial and error, and thus provides the comical aspect of the series. The duo are often joined by Pam Davidson (played by Connie Sellecca), Hinkley's divorce attorney and later his wife.

Hinkley's red suit grants him the powers of flight, super strength, resistance to injury, invisibility, precognition, post cognition, E.S.P., telekinesis, x-ray vision, super speed, holographic vision, shrinking, psychometry, and a sense to detect the supernatural however his hero persona never receives a "superhero name."

Fun Facts:
- Katt's character's name was originally Ralph Hinkley, but after the assassination attempt of President Ronald Reagan by John Hinckley, Jr. on March 30, 1981, the character's last name was changed to "Hanley" for the rest of the first season. At the start of the second season Katt's character's name had changed back to Hinkley.

- Like his character, William Katt found the superhero suit very uncomfortable and hated wearing it.

- Actor Robert Culp is also known to TV audiences for his character of Kelly Robinson, opposite Bill Cosby, in I Spy (1965–1968) and his character of Warren Whelan on Everybody Loves Raymond (1996 - 2005)

- Connie Sellecca went on to star in the prime time soap opera Hotel (1983 - 1988), opposite James Brolin, following the cancellation of The Greatest American Hero

March 17: Today's "Retro TV History" honours to regular cast members of the CBS night-time soap opera, Dallas (1978 - 1991), who celebrate their birthdays on this date; Patrick Duffy, who played the youngest Ewing brother Bobby for Seasons 1 - 8 and Seasons 10 - 14 turns 64 today, and Lesley-Anne Down, who played PR executive Stephanie Rogers for Season 13, turns 59 today.

Cast of Are You Being Served?

March 16: Today's "Retro TV History" is dedicated to English actor Frank Thornton (1921 - 2013), best known to television audiences as Captain Peacock on the British series Are You Being Served? (1972 - 1985), who passed away away peacefully in his sleep on this date in 2013 at the age of 92.

The series was inspired by co-creator Jeremy Lloyd's brief period working at Simpsons of Piccadilly in the 1950s although credit has also been given to Rossiters of Paignton department store however Are You Being Served? is most regarded as a merciless parody of the British class system which permeated almost every interaction of the series and was especially evident in the conversations between the maintenance staff and the ostensibly higher-class store personnel of the fictional Grace Brothers Department Store.

The series featured humour based on sexual innuendo, misunderstandings, mistaken identity and occasional slapstick and is widely remembered for its prolific use of double entendres. As such, the series attracted some mild criticism during its run for its reliance on sexual stereotypes and double entendres.

Are You Being Served? maintained an ensemble cast throughout its 13-year run, which consisted of 10 series (the U.K. equivalent to a season) with 69 episodes, however only Frank Thornton (as Captain Stephen Peacock, Grace Brothers floorwalker), Mollie Sugden (as Mrs. Betty Slocombe, head of the ladies' department), John Inman (as Mr. Wilberforce Claybourne Humphries, senior assistant of the mens' department), Wendy Richard (as Miss Shirley Brahms, junior assistant to Mrs Slocombe) and Nicholas Smith (as Mr. Cuthbert Rumbold), Grace Brothers department manager) appeared in all episodes.

Cast of Grace & Favour

Thornton, Sugden, Inman, Richard and Smith would reunite for a sequel series almost seven years after their parent show ended, Grace & Favour (also known as Are You Being Served? Again!) which consisted of two series with 12 episodes between January 1992 and February 1993.

With the passing of Thornton, Nicholas Smith remains the only surviving member of the original cast.

Cast of Mr Belvedere

March 15: Today's "Retro TV History" pays homage to the ABC sitcom, Mr. Belvedere (1985 - 1990), that premiered on this date in 1985 and went on to produce six seasons with 117 episodes.

The show is based on the character of Lynn Belvedere from Gwen Davenport's 1947 novel, Belvedere, and was originally portrayed by Clifton Webb in the 1948 film Sitting Pretty, which chronicles an arrogant genius who answers an employment ad for a baby sitter for three bratty kids purely because he is secretly writing a novel about a community filled with gossips and busybodies, as well as the two sequels, Mr. Belvedere Goes to College (1949) and Mr. Belvedere Rings the Bell (1951). Webb's portrayal earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor and thus,with the success of these films, the idea to bring the character of Lynn Belvedere to television was inspired as early as the 1950s.

Although there had been three previous failed attempts to develop a television series, ABC launched the contemporary version with English actor Christopher Hewitt in the titular role of the posh and sophisticated Lynn Belvedere, who takes a job as housekeeper for the Owens family, based in the middle-class Pittsburgh suburb of Beaver Falls, PA.

Much of the show's humour was derived from Mr Belvedere's attempts to adapt to the chaos of the Owens family, which included sportswriter George (played by Bob Uecker), his wife, law student Marsha (played by Ilene Graff) and their three children, Kevin (plated by Rob Stone), Heather (played by Heather Wells) and Wesley (played by Brice Beckham). Throughout the series, Mr. Belvedere serves as a mentor of sorts to the Owens children and being a cultured man with many skills and achievements, he also comes to serve as some sort of a counselor to the entire family often helping them solve their dilemmas and stay out of mischief.

Every episode ends with Mr. Belvedere writing in his journal, recounting the events of the day with the Owens family and, subsequently what he got out of it in terms of a lesson.

Fun Facts:
- The show's theme song was performed by ragtime singer Leon Redbone.

- Bob Uecker was previously an American Major League Baseball player having played for his hometown Milwaukee Braves as well as the St. Louis Cardinals and Philadelphia Phillies. His six-year major league career concluded in 1967.

Cast of Soap

March 14: Today's "Retro TV History" honours legendary actor, director, producer, writer and comedian Billy Crystal, remembered for being part of the ensemble cast in the ABC comedic soap opera parody Soap (1977 - 1981), who celebrates his 65th birthday on this day.

Soap is the story of two sisters; Jessica Tate (played by Katherine Helmond) and Mary Campbell (played by Cathryn Damon). The series is set in the fictional town of Dunn's River, CT and revolves around the lives of the affluent Tate family and the blue-collar Campbell family. The basis of the show is as a sitcom parody of daytime soap operas and is presented in a serial format including melodramatic plot elements such as alien abduction, demonic possession, murder, and kidnapping.

In similar fashion to early daytime soap operas, each episode of Soap begins with off-camera announcer Rod Roddy giving a brief description of the convoluted storyline and concludes with the trademark line, "These questions—and many others—will be answered in the next episode of...Soap."

When Soap premiered it was preceded by a disclaimer that the show "was part of a continuing character comedy" that included adult themes and that "viewer discretion" was advised; this disclaimer was the first in network television history. Ironically much of Soap's controversy, among liberals and conservatives alike, helped promote the series and attract more viewers.

Soap was created and executive produced by Susan Harris, who also wrote every episode of the series.

Soap consisted of four seasons with 85 episodes.

Fun Facts:
- Ironically, the main cast included three former soap opera actors; Robert Mandan (who played Chester Tate) had previously appeared on Search for Tomorrow, Donnelly Rhodes (who played Dutch Leitner) appeared on The Young and the Restless and Arthur Peterson, Jr. (who played "The Major") appeared on the radio version of Guiding Light.

- Most of the main cast had successful careers in television following the cancellation of Soap; Katherine Helmond would be most recognized for her portrayal of Mona Robinson on Who's the Boss?; Cathryn Damon later appeared on Webster as Cassie Parker; Robert Mandan played foil to John Ritter as James Bradford in the Three's Company sequel, Three's A Crowd; Richard Mulligan lead an ensemble cast on the NBC sitcom Empty Nest as Dr. Harry Weston; Robert Guillaume was spun off into his own successful series as the titular character in Benson; Ted Waas became known to younger audiences as the patriarch of the Russo family on Blossom; Diana Canova led her own series I'm a Big Girl Now opposite Danny Thomas; and Donnelly Rhodes will be remembered to Canadian audiences for his leading role of Dr Grant Roberts on the CBC series Danger Bay.

- Arguably Billy Crystal has enjoyed the most successful post-Soap career appearing in the critical and box office successes When Harry Met Sally... and City Slickers as well he has hosted the Academy Awards nine times.

March 13:

Adams & Feldon in Get Smart

March 12: Today's "Retro TV History" is dedicated to American actress and model Barbara Feldon, best known to TV audiences as the competent Agent 99 on the spy satire Get Smart (1965 - 1970), who celebrates her 80th birthday on this day.

Created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, Get Smart, a series that satirizes the secret agent genre of James Bond and Inspector Clousseau, revolves around bungling secret agent Maxwell Smart, also known as Agent 86 (played by Don Adams) and his more competent partner Agent 99 (played by Feldon), who's real name is never revealed during the series' run, as they thwart various threats to the world by their nemisis KAOS.

Agent 86 and Agent 99 worked for CONTROL, a secret U.S. government counter-intelligence agency based in Washington, DC, under the direction of Chief (played by Edward Platt).

During the course of the season Adams' and Feldon's characters become romantically involved and eventually marry in the fourth season and have twins in the firth season; this made Feldon's character of Agent 99 to be one of the first women on an American sitcom to mainatin her career after marriage and motherhood.

Get Smart was broadcast on NBC for its first four seasons and moved to CBS for its final season producing a total of 138 episodes.

Cast of Family Affair

March 11: Today's "Retro TV History" is dedicated to American child actress Anissa Jones (1958 - 1976), best known to television audiences as Buffy Davis on the CBS sitcom Family Affair (1966 - 1971), who was born on this day in 1958.

Family Affair centered around well-to-do civil engineer and bachelor Bill Davis (played by Brian Keith) as he attempted to raise his brother's orphaned children, 15-year-old Cissy (played by Kathy Garver) and the 6-year-old twins, Jody (played by Johnny Whitaker) and Buffy (played by Jones), in his luxury New York City apartment. Assisting Davis with his new-found responsibilities was his traditional English valet, Mr. Giles French (played by Sebastian Cabot).

Family Affair produced five seasons consisting of 138 episodes.

Following the cancellation of Family Affair in 1971 Jones sought other roles, particularly in film, however she felt she was typecast. Jones auditioned for the part of Regan MacNeil in the horror film The Exorcist, but the director felt that with Family Affair still popular at the time through daytime reruns, movie audiences might think Jones' character of Buffy was being possessed and thus Jones lost the infamous role to Linda Blair. Following this Jones made the decision to leave the entertainment industry and returned to high school. By this time Jones began shoplifting and taking drugs which ultimately resulted in her untimely death on August 28, 1976 to an accidental drug overdose at the age of 18. The coroner who examined Jones reported she died from one of the most severe drug overdoses he had ever seen.

Cast of A Different World

March 10: Today's "Retro TV History" is dedicated to American actress Jasmine Guy, best known for her role as Southern belle Whitley Gilbert on The Cosby Show spin-off series, A Different World (1987 - 1993), who celebrates her 51st birthday today.

A Different World was originally centered around Denise Huxtable (played by Lisa Bonet) as she adjusts to college life at the fictional Hillman College, an historically Afro-American college in Virginia, which was the college attended by her parents, Cliff & Clair Huxtable (played by Bill Cosby and Phylicia Rashād, respectively) as well as her paternal grandfather, Russell Huxtable (played by Earle Hyman). In the first season, this spin off of The Cosby Show focused predominantly on Bonet's character adjusting to life out from under the watchful eyes of her parents while living with her two college roommates, Jaleesa Vinson-Taylor and Maggie Lauten (played by Dawnn Lewis and Marisa Tomei, respectively). After the first season wrapped, Bonet and her husband Lenny Kravitz announced they were having a baby however producers felt that audiences would not accept seeing Denise Huxtable as a pregnant, unwed mother and thus it was decided that Denise would drop out of college and eventually travel to Africa. Tomei also decided not to return to A Different World following the conclusion of the first season.

With these changes, producer-director Debbie Allen revamped the series to focus on the characters of Whitley Gilbert (played by Guy) and Dwayne Wayne (played by Kadeem Hardison) leading an ensemble cast, including Freddie Brooks (played by Cree Summer), Kimberly Reese (played by Charnele Brown), Ron Johnson (played by Darryl M. Bell) and Coach Walter Oakes (played by Sinbad), to depict Hillman College as an historically black college as much as possible. Unlike its parent show, A Different World tackled issues such as race and class relations, Equal Rights Amendment, and the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Guy and Hardison appeared in all but one episode of the series; as well Guy wrote three episodes and directed one episode.

Different World consistently ranked first or second among African American viewers during most of its run and produced 6 seasons and 141 episodes.

Fun Facts:
- A Different World producer-director Debbie Allen is the younger sister of The Cosby Show's Phylicia Rashād

Cast of Webster

March 9: Today's "Retro TV History" is dedicated to American actor Emmanuel Lewis, best remembered for his portrayal of the titular character on the ABC sitcom Webster (1983 - 1989), who celebrates his 42nd birthday on this day.

In attempt to capitalize on the success that Gary Colemen was bringing to NBC with his sitcom, Diff'ent Strokes, rival network ABC sought to create a vehicle for Emmanuel Lewis after seeing the diminutive Lewis on a Burger King commercial. At the same time, ABC was in negotiations with real-life couple, Alex Karras and Susan Clark, who had just started their own production company, Georgian Bay Ltd, on a proposed romantic-comedy series, Another Ballgame, to star Karras as an ex-NFL player who quickly found true love with a socialite consumer advocate (to have been played by Clark) on a cruise. To expedite a series for Lewis, co-producers on Another Ballgame were approached about working Lewis into the show with Karras and Clark liking the idea of the sudden marriage and instant adoption of a young black boy and thus, the premise for Webster was created. Initially with Georgian Bay Ltd maintaing creative control, Susan Clark was insistent that the new show would maintain an ensemble aspect however executives soon made it inherently clear that the show's major focus would be on the Webster character; to the point of changing the name of the new show to Webster just prior to its premier.

Webster centered around the young Webster Long who is adopted by his NFL-pro godfather George Papadopolis (played by Karras) and George's new socialite wife, Katherine Calder-Young (played by Clark) witrh focus on how this impulsively married couple had to adjust to their new lives and sudden parenthood. Despite the early success, the show that made it to the air as Webster was not what Karras and Clark foresaw as their ideal starring vehicle and thus the first season was fraught with tension, mostly between the couple's disagreements and their protests with the network. The in-fighting on set continued as the season carried on, which impacted Lewis. Reportedly, Lewis was often whisked away from the set whenever Karras and Clark argued and demanded rewrites however the tension became so severe that Lewis blamed the trouble on himself. Following the success of the first season, the network eventually came to an agreement with Karras and Clark that they would continue to get prominent storylines for their characters and the stormy relations of the first season disappeared on set.

Early in the sixth season, and with Lewis clearly outgrowing the title role, Karras and Clark decided that the time was right to move on and Webster ended after having completed six seasons and 150 episodes.

Cast of The Brady Bunch

March 8: Today's "Retro TV History" pays homage to the ABC sitcom The Brady Bunch (1969 - 1974) which aired its last episode on this date in 1974 after 5 seasons and 117 episodes.

Created by producer Sherwood Schwartz, who had also created Gilligan's Island, The Brady Bunch centered around the lives of a newly blended family after widowed architect, Mike Brady (played by Robert Reed) who had three sons named Greg, Peter and Bobby (played by Barry Williams, Christopher Knight and Mike Lookinland, respectively), married the lovely Carol Martin (played by Florence Henderson), who had three young daughters, Marcia, Jan and Cindy (played by Maureen McCormick, Eve Plumb and Susan Olsen). This new family also included Mike's live-in housekeeper, Alice (played by Ann B Davis) and the boys' dog, Tiger.

Schwartz developed the concept for The Brady Bunch in 1965 after reading in the Los Angeles Times that 30% of American marriages have a child or children from a previous marriage. He drafted a pilot script called Mine and Yours and circulated it to the television networks. Although the networks liked the concept, they all agreed that the character of Carol be written to be a widow as opposed to being a divorcee; a concept that Schwartz argued however relented with the compromise that no mention would be made as to how Carol's first marriage ended. Subsequently, the success of the similar 1968 film, Yours, Mine and Ours, starring Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball, was a factor in ABC committing to Schwartz's series.

When it premiered in 1969, The Brady Bunch garnered mostly negative reviews and during its entire network run, the series never reached the top ten ranks of the ratings. Yet, The Brady Bunch stands as one of the most important and recognizable sitcoms of the 1970s. The emphasis that was placed on the Brady children made it very popular among younger audiences and thus, led to the animated series, The Brady Kids (1972 - 1974). In an era in which television sitcoms placed emphasis on social change, The Brady Bunch was one of the few series that focused on traditional family values by firmly upholding the Bradys as a tight unit of support, love and understanding.

The Brady Bunch Variety Hour

Due to the popularity of The Brady Bunch following the cancellation of the initial series, numerous other series were created to keep the Brady family on television. In 1977, all of the original cast, save for Plumb, reunited for a variety show called the The Brady Bunch Variety Hour. Plumb was replaced by Geri Reischl in this series which lasted only nine episodes.

The entire original cast was reunited again in 1981 made-for-TV movie, The Brady Girls Get Married, which resulted in the follow up television series, The Brady Brides. The basis for the movie and series was the double wedding of Marcia and Jan, who subsequently bought a house together to share with their respective husbands. This effort saw the last time that the entire original cast would reunite on a project and the series lasted only 10 episodes.

A second reunion movie, A Very Brady Christmas, aired in 1988 with all of the original cast except Susan Olsen. Olsen was replaced by Jennifer Runyon.

The last attempt at reviving a series around the Brady family was the 1990 comedy-drama, The Bradys. It was Maureen McCormick who opted out of this six-episode production, being replaced by Leah Ayres.

Although Robert Reed passed away in 1992, the rest of the cast reunite from time to time and continue to be iconic representatives of the 1970s.

Fun Facts:
- The role of Carol Brady was initially offered to Shirley Jones however Jones turned it down. The role was then offered to one of Jones' best friends, Florence Henderson, and Jones went to star as the matriarch of the Partridge Family

Randall & Klugman in The Odd Couple

March 7: Today's "Retro TV History" pays homage to the ABC sitcom The Odd Couple (1970 - 1975) which aired its last episode on this date in 1975 after 5 seasons and 114 episodes.

Based on the 1965 Neil Simon play of the same name, the television series centers around two divorced men, the anal-retentively neat Felix Unger (played by Tony Randall) and the sloppy Oscar Madison (played by Jack Klugman), who share a Manhattan apartment. The comedy is focused on the differing lifestyles of the two lead actors and the conflicts that arose from sharing a living space.

The television series also includes both Felix and Oscar's ex-wives; Janis Hansen played Felix's ex-wife Gloria where Klugman's real life wife, Brett Somers, played Oscar's ex-wife Blanche. Klugman and Somers separated in real life during the course of the series. There were many episodes in which Felix felt he had made a mistake by granting Gloria a divorce and took drastic measures to try to win her back, resulting in many comedic situations.. In contrast, Oscar was happy to be divorced from Blanche, save for the alimony payments he had to make, and the two constantly traded sarcastic barbs.

Developed by producer Garry Marshall for television, the television series was also based on the successful 1968 movie of the same name that starred Jack Lemmon in the Felix role and Walter Matthau as Oscar. Under Marshall's direction, the writers of the television show were left to come up with a multitude of situations for Felix and Oscar, while staying true to the soul of the original play, that would create tensions between the two and thus create the comical situations. Interestingly enough, The Odd Couple continued to struggle with ratings throughout its run and was cancelled at the end of each season however the network renewed the show for each upcoming season because the ratings for the summer reruns were high.

In 1982, ABC aired a new version of The Odd Couple, this time with two African-American lead actors; Ron Glass of Barney Miller fame was cast as Felix and Demond Wilson, who played opposite Redd Foxx in Sanford and Son, played Oscar. This series was called The New Odd Couple however it ran less than half a season before being cancelled.

Fun Facts:
- Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon reprised their roles from the 1968 movie, The Odd Couple, in a sequel that was released 30 years later in 1998.

Cast of Amen

March 6: Today's "Retro TV History" honours American actress Anna Maria Horsford, best known for her portrayal of Thelma Frye on the NBC sitcom Amen (1986 - 1991), who celebrates her 65th birthday today.

Amen centered around the often times dishonest deacon of the First Community Church of Philadelphia, Ernest Frye (played by Sherman Hemsley in the starring role) and his interactions with his single daughter Thelma (played by Horsford) as well as the members of the church which included the Reverend Reuben Gregory (played by Clifton Davis), church elder Rolly Forbes (played by Jester Hairston), and the Hetebrink sisters, Amelia and Cassietta (played by Roz Ryan and Barbara Montgomery, respectively).

The main focus of the show was Deacon Frye's harebrained schemes however there was also focus placed on the personal lives of the other characters such Thelma's attraction to Reverend Gregory; the two eventually married in the show's fourth season. The character of Rolly also found love during the course of the series with Leola Henderson (played by Rosetta LeNoire for the second and third season and by Montrose Hagins for the fourth and final seasons).
Amen was one of several successful NBC sitcoms from 1980s that which featured entirely or almost-entirely black casts, along with The Cosby Show, A Different World and 227. Amen produced 5 seasons and 110 episodes before ending in 1991.

Original Cast of Night Court

March 5: Today's "Retro TV History" honours actress and comedienne Marsha Warfield, best known for her role as the sharp-tongued bailiff Roz Russell on NBC's Night Court (1984 - 1992), who celebrates her 59th birthday today.

Night Court was a well established NBC sitcom when Warfield joined the cast at the beginning of the fourth season as the no-nonsense bailiff, playing often as the "straight man" to her bailiff counterpart, Bull Shannon (played by Richard Moll). The show itself was centered around the eccentric, fun-loving Judge Harry T. Stone (played by Harry Anderson), who presides over an urban night court set in New York City, and his often zany courtroom staff as they attempt to deal with an endless parade of neurotic criminals and complainants.

Despite being a successful, long-running series, Night Court was known to have a number of cast changes in its early years with only Anderson, Moll and John Larroquette, who played the womanizing prosecutor Dan Fielding, having stayed for the entire run of the show. Night Court maintained two bailiff characters for the duration of the show however the woman bailiff character had to be replaced twice due to the deaths of the actresses playing roles; the original cast had the late actress Selma Diamond playing the chain-smoking Selma Hacker for the first two seasons however Diamond passed away in May 1985 and was replaced by the comparable Florence Halop as the motorcycle-loving Florence Kleiner for the third season. Sadly, Halop passed away in July 1986 so producers decided to go with the much younger Warfield as the third replacement. Warfield stayed for rest of the series.

Final Cast of Night Court

The roles of Public Defender also went through a series of changes during the early years of Night Court; the first season saw Paula Kelly in the role of the level-headed Liz Williams however she was replaced by Ellen Foley as Billie Young in season two. Markie Post assumed the last role of Public Defender as the often naive Christine Sullivan, who served as a love interest for Judge Stone as well as a target for Dan Fielding's lechery. Also the courtroom clerks went through a cast change on Night Court; originally Karen Austin was cast as Lana Wagner, who served as a potential love interest for Judge Stone, however she left abruptly after 10 episodes and was replaced by Charles Robinson in the second season as the easy going Mac Robinson, who stayed for the rest of the series.

Night Court produced 9 season and 193 episodes before ending in 1992.

Fun Facts:
- Ellen Foley, who played Public Defender Billie Young in Night Court's second season is also known for duet with singer Meatloaf on his 1977 Bat out of Hell single, "Paradise by the Dashboard Light"

- Night Court is often compared to the ABC sitcom, Barney Miller; ironically Night Court's creator, Reinhold Weege, had been a writer for Barney Miller

Cast of SCTV

March 4: March 4: Today's "Retro TV History" is dedicated to the Canadian sketch comedy series, Second City Television, better known as SCTV (1976 - 1984) as alumnae member Catherine O'Hara was born on this date in 1954 and alumnae member, the late John Candy (1950 - 1994), passed away in his sleep on this date in 1994 at the age of 43 after suffering a heart attack.

An offshoot of Toronto's The Second City comedy troupe, SCTV was presented as an independent television station which produced a bizarre and humorously incompetent range of cheap local programming; any given episode could contain everything from SCTV news broadcasts to sitcoms, dramas, talk shows, kids shows, and/or game shows. Also seen fairly frequently were behind-the-scenes plots focusing on life at the station.

The small ensemble cast played a wide variety of station roles ranging from program hosts to commercial spokespersons as well they impersonated numerous popular celebrities appearing on the station's programming. The original SCTV cast consisted of Candy, O'Hara, Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Harold Ramis and Dave Thomas; they all also served as writers on the show (although Martin and O'Hara did not receive writing credits on the earliest episodes). Tony Rosato, Robin Duke and Rick Moranis joined the cast in the third season and Martin Short was added in the fourth season. By the end of the sixth season only Flaherty, Levy, Martin, and Short remained as regular players.

SCTV produced six season (over an eight-year period) and consisted of 135 episodes.

Fun Facts:
- Catherine O'Hara left SCTV after she had been hired on the recently re-tooled Saturday Night Live however she quit the show without ever appearing on air, choosing to go back to SCTV. Ironically, fellow SCTV alumnae Robin Duke, who was O'Hara's replacement on SCTV, was chosen as O'Hara's replacement on Saturday Night Live


*Cast of My Three Sons*

March 3: Today's "Retro TV History" is dedicated to the late actor William Frawley (1887 - 1966), who although most recognized as landlord Fred Mertz on I Love Lucy, is also known for his role as "Bub" O'Casey on the ABC/CBS series, My Three Sons (1960 - 1972), who passed away on this date in 1966 at the age 79 after suffering a fatal heart attack while walk down Hollywood Boulevard.

My Three Sons centers around the lives of widower Steven Douglas (played by Fred MacMurray), his three sons, Mike, Robbie and Chip (played by Tim Considine, Don Grady and Stanley Livingston, respectively) and the boys' maternal grandfather, Bub O'Casey (played by Frawley).

The series originated on ABC but was moved to CBS at the start of the 1965 - 1966 season as ABC would not commit to the expense of producing the program in color. That season saw another crucial change; Frawley was declared too ill to work by Desilu Studios, and since the company was informed that insuring the actor would be too costly, it was decided that he would be replaced although Frawley continued to work until a suitable replacement. could be found. Frawley was replaced mid-season by William Demarest, who had played his hard-nosed brother Charley part way through the previous season; Demarest would play his role until the end of the season. Reportedly, Frawley was hurt by being ousted from the show and held a grudge against Demarest for taking his job however he died a short while later in March 1966.

In total, My Three Sons went on to produce 12 seasons and 378 episodes; second only to The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet as television's longest running, live-action sitcom.

Cast of King of Kensington

March 2: Today's "Retro TV History" is dedicated to the late Canadian born actor and director Al Waxman (1935 - 2001) who, despite having over 1000 productions on radio, television, film, and stage will be best remembered as the titular character Larry King on the CBC sitcom, King of Kensington (1975 - 1980), was born on this day in 1935.

King of Kensington centered around Larry King (played by Waxman in the starring role), a convenience store owner in Toronto's Kensington Market who lived with his wife Cathy (played by Fiona Reid) and mother Gladys (played by Helene Winston). Larry was known for helping his family, friends and neighbours solve any problems they encountered. In true Canadian fashion, Larry's group of friends were shown as a multicultural group that included Nestor Best (played by Ardon Bess), Max (played by John J. Dee) and Tony "Duke" Zarro (played by Bob Vinci). Their constant presence in the King household often met with perennial disapproval from Gladys.

Produced during the Trudeau years, King of Kensington's politically conscious humour, often lending itself to be more of a comedy-drama, is comparable to the topical Norman Lear sitcoms of the 1970s including All in the Family, Maude and Good Times, however it was more subtle in tone.

At the end of the third season, Reid left the series after expressing a desire to return to the stage, and thus Larry and Cathy divorced. The remaining two seasons saw Larry pursue other relationships, most notably with Gwen Twining (played by Canadian staple, Jayne Eastwood) in the final season, however the series was seen by critics to have lost the chemistry of the first three seasons with Reid as part of the main cast.

King of Kensington ended production in 1980 after completing 5 seasons and 111 episodes.

Waxman passed away in 2001 at the age of 65 during heart surgery

Fun Facts:
- Al Waxman continued his television success following the cancellation of King of Kensington with a supporting role in the American detective series Cagney & Lacey as Lt. Bert Samuels

- Kensington Market, the setting for King of Kensington, erected a memorial to Waxman following his death

- King of Kensington featured many Canadian actors as guest stars, including Mike Myers, John Candy, Eugene Levy, and Dave Thomas

- King of Kensington head writer Louis Del Grande went on to create and star in his own series Seeing Things

Cast of One Day at a Time

March 1: March 1: Today's "Retro TV History" is dedicated to actress Bonnie Franklin (1944 - 2013), most remembered for her ground-breaking lead role of divorced, single mom Ann Romano on the CBS sitcom One Day at a Time (1975 - 1984), who passed away today at the age of 69 after losing her battle with pancreatic cancer.

One Day at a Time was based on co-creator Whitney Blake's own life of raising a child as a single mother in the 1950s and 1960s and was developed by producer Norman Lear. Lear had already changed the face of television with shows like All in the Family, Maude, Good Times and The Jeffersons, so a show tackling issues like relationships, divorce, parenthood and others related to second wave of feminism was of interest to Lear.

One Day at a Time revolved around the the life of Ann Romano (played by Franklin), a recently divorced mother in her early thirties, who moved to Indianapolis, IN with her two teenage daughters Julie and Barbara Cooper(played by Mackenzie Phillips and Valerie Bertinelli, respectively) to start a new life. The series had an ever changing cast during its run however the superintendent of Ann's apartment building, Dwayne Schneider (played by Pat Harrington) is mainstay and his unannounced and often uninvited drop-ins were a huge basis for humour in the show.
One of the most significant cast changes in the series involved Mackenzie Phillips; during the fifth season Phillips character was written out having married and moving to Houston, TX with her pilot husband Max Horvath (played by Michael Lembeck). This was in result of Phillips being let go from the show so she could undergo drug rehabilitation. Phillips did return to One Day at a Time in the seventh season with the characters of Julie and Max having returned to Indianapolis. Sadly, Phillips was fired for a second time during the ninth season and thus her character was written out for the remainder of the series.
By the end of the ninth season both Franklin and Bertinelli had announced that they were interested in moving on and thus, One Day at a Time ended after 9 seasons and 209 episodes.

Fun Facts:
- The character of Ann Romano is often incorrectly cited as television's first female divorcee as a regular series character. Vivian Vance's character on The Lucy Show in the 1960s was a divorcee

- Actress Mackenzie Phillips is the daughter of John Phillips from The Mamas & the Papas fame

- During the course of the show, the character of Ann's mother, "Grandma" Katherine Romano was added and portrayed by Nanette Fabray. Fabray's real life niece, Shelley Fabares, is also added to the cast as Ann's nemisis, Francine Webster

- Shelley Fabares is also noted for her 1962 recording of "Johnny Angel"

King of Bauer

Friday, March 1, 2013

Johnny K's Way Back Play Backs - March 2013

Johnny K's Retro TV History - March 2013