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By Cary O'Dell Yes, It’s Been Tried Throughout the history of American television, there has been a few things that we can consider—well, more or less--constants. For example, the only types of programs that air a brand-new episode every day (meaning Monday through Friday) are talk shows, children’s shows, game shows and the soaps. Only occasionally have series attempted to override this norm with ABC’s twice-a-week original airings of “Batman” (1966-1968) and “Peyton Place” (1964-1969) being, perhaps, the only notable exceptions. But, nevertheless, that hasn’t stopped a few enterprising and ambitious producers from, over the years, trying to break the mold and create for audiences an original, narrative program—like a 30-minute sitcom—to be aired every single day. Yes, every single day. Such a programming promise is a difficult one to keep. While soap operas make it look easy, they have large casts and production teams that allow for such an intense pace. But trying to create a true comedy and tickle that funny bone on a daily basis is a tough mark to hit five days a week. Still, as mentioned, some have tried. Here is a probably not exhaustive list of them. “The General Store” (WLW-TV; 1952-1953) Back when TV was very new, at least one local station attempted to take on the task creating a new comedy installment every day. WLW out of Cincinnati programmed a daily comedy titled “The General Store.” It ran five days a week at 3:30pm from 1952 to 1953. It starred Willie Thall and Bob Shreve and, as the title implies, was set in a small neighborhood store. It featured the folksy type of comedy popular on radio and then on television at the time. “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” et.al. (syndicated, 1976-1978) As for new daily laughs on a national basis, it didn’t seem that anyone made such a bold attempt until the mid 1970s when the great Norman Lear launched his daily, syndicated soap opera parody “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.” It debuted in January 1976 and quickly became a cult hit. The deadpan Louise Lasser played the titular character who was an “ordinary” housewife who struggled with family and the small-town eccentrics around her and her own unnatural fear of waxy, yellow build-up on her kitchen floor. Since the show was a soap opera parody, it was produced like a soap—on videotape, seldom outdoors and with various standard sets. This allowed the daily 30-minute installments to always be ready for airing and the show did just that, airing five days a week. “Mary Hartman” was so tongue-in-cheek it was practically surreal; the show, not long after its debut, became a phenomenon. The show was so much of-the-moment it even quickly got parodied on both “Donny & Marie” and “Carol Burnett.” But, as with so many other sudden phenoms, the show’s “cool factor” faded away quickly. Not helping the situation was that star Lasser left the show in early 1977. The program then tried to continue with most of the rest of the cast under the revised title “Forever Fernwood.” (The setting of the program was Fernwood, Ohio.) But the revised show was off the air by July of 1977. Nevertheless, the Fernwood universe inspired two spin-offs, also airing new episodes daily and also airing in first-run syndication. “Fernwood 2-Night” began in July of 1977 and was a parody fictional talk show that was set in the town of Fernwood. The program starred the comedy match-made-in-heaven: Martin Mull and Fred Willard. “2-Night” aired until September of 1977. Originally, the “talk show” was supposed to be just a summer replacement for “Mary Hartman,” but “2-Night” proved so popular, it essentially just took over. Originally, the show was set in Fernwood but later “moved” to Hollywood and acquired a new title, “America 2Night.” This allowed for a greater number of celebrity guests to stop by to visit the show. “America 2Night” aired 65 additional episodes; it ended in August of 1978. “All That Glitters” (syndicated, 1977) Around this same time, also in first-run syndication, was the daily 30-minute comedy “All That Glitters.” “Women’s Lib,” as it was known at that time, was in full swing when Norman Lear packaged this high-concept sitcom that existed in a world of upturned gender norms. You see, in “Glitter,” women were the powerful ones who commanded business, the government and the home. Men, when not being sexually harassed by their female superiors, were the subordinates, either stuck in the kitchen or in the secretarial pool. “All That Glitters” is still remembered for its radical premise and for its very good cast that included Linda Gray, Gary Sandy, Jessica Walter, and Chuck McCann. Spurred on by the early success of “Mary Hartman” and coming from the pedigree of no less of a name than Norman Lear, it was assumed that “All That Glitters” would be, if not another phenomenon, certainly a hit. But, though intriguing in its premise, “All That Glitters” was, basically, a one-joke show and while that might have been tolerable in a once-a-week way, seeing it every night made the program quickly wear out its welcome. The program petered out after 65 episodes. “The New Love, American Style” (ABC, 1985-1986) Before hitting paydirt with “The View,” ABC struggled mightily with its morning daytime schedule. One of their attempted cures was to bring straight-up narrative comedy to the AM airwaves by reviving their 1969-1974 prime-time hit “Love, American Style.” For each installment of the original show, each episode included at least two different short skits, each with different casts, all built around the topic of “love” in some capacity. Between each sketch the show’s resident stock company acted out brief comedic (and often silent) interludes. For its daytime revival, ABC was going to keep the show pretty much the same. Though, this time, the show would feature only two skits per half-hour. Also, yes, it would air five days a week, a fresh episode every day. Due to the speed at which the program had to be produced, unlike the original, this new “Love” was shot on videotape (think daytime soaps) rather than on film like the earlier incarnation. The daytime revival of the series ran, daily, from 1985 through 1986. During its run it welcomed a wide assortment of familiar TV faces including Bob Saget, Patrick Wayne, Caren Kaye, Fred Willard, Judy Landers, Charlene Tilton, Barry Van Dyke, and Anne Lockhart. Unfortunately, the show didn’t welcome very many views. Did the AM hours and this sort of straight-up comedy not mix? Was it hard to get viewers to cotton to a show with no recurring cast members? “Isabel Sanford’s Honeymoon Hotel” (syndicated, 1987) In 1987, after her Emmy-winning run on “The Jeffersons” had ended in 1985, Isabel Sanford returned to sitcomery in the first-run syndicated comedy “Isabel Sanford’s Honeymoon Hotel” (sometimes just called “Honeymoon Hotel”). It was the brainchild of super producer Fred Silverman who had planned the program to be aired every night of the week. To keep it always fresh, “Honeymoon” was going to have a “Love Boat”-like structure where guest stars checked in every episode and then departed at the end. Sanford and her co-stars (which, oddly, included baseball legend Ernie Banks) acted as some of the comedic glue that linked one episode to the next. At least five episodes of the show were produced and deployed to local stations in January 1987. Announced at the time of its launch, the show would be available to about 65% of the country. Interesting as well at the time of its debut was the almost-instant feedback that Silverman and his colleagues were launching with it. During the week of “Hotel’s” launch, viewers were invited to call their local station that were airing the show with their opinions of it and whether it should come back or not. Well…phone feedback notwithstanding, “Honeymoon” did not get enough ratings during its one-week trial run to inspire its return. Additionally, the company that co-produced it went bankrupt shortly after the rollout occurred, thus ending any possible continuation. “My Talk Show” (syndicated; 1990) Like “Fernwood 2-Night” before it, “My Talk Show” had a rather meta-premise. Cynthia Stevenson starred as Jennifer Bass who hosted her own talk show out of her home. The premise of the show saw her (fictional) show become unexpectedly popular over public access and, then, going national. This caused Jennifer to have to turn her garage into a place for a studio audience and to have a satellite van permanently parked in her yard. (As fanciful as this set-up might seem to be, Jennifer actually prefigures today’s media landscape where, it seems, everyone is hosting their own home-grown podcast.) Cynthia Stevenson was a wonderful lead—having all the likeability and comedic timing of a Mary Tyler Moore, it’s still a major quandary why she never became a major star. Assisting her were actress/stand-up comic Stephanie Hodge who played Jennifer’s salty friend and David Packer who played Jennifer’s slacker of an ex-brother-in-law who lived in a broken-down RV that sat in Jennifer’s driveway. “My Talk Show” debuted as a daily strip in first-run syndication in September 1990. “My Talk Show” was a funny show. Every rinky-dink aspect of it was played for laughs. Jennifer’s “musical director” was Mrs. Battle who was also, as Jennifer pointed out, “my former school nurse.” Real-life celebrities appeared as themselves as guests on the show. Some of them included Little Richard, Adam Ant, William Shatner, and Jim Belushi. Guests usually were dumbstruck once they walked out on the show to see that they were appearing in someone’s living room. When Robert Goulet appeared as himself, he was banned from performing any popular songs due to copyright costs. He had to end up serenading everyone only with tunes in the public domain; Goulet did a mean version of “Itsy Bitsy Spider.” When it debuted, “My Talk Show” got some excellent reviews from critics who called it fresh and sweet. (And it was.) But, unfortunately, here again, the task of being funny five days a week created an exhausted cast and crew. Stevenson bailed from the series before the end of the first season thus causing supporting actress, Debra McGrath (who was also a writer on the series), to step up as the lead. The show never quite regained its equilibrium or gained new viewers and was gone after one season. Other programs that might be considered part of this group: “The Egg & I”: Originally a book and then a movie, this farm-based daily program aired over CBS. While some have called it “soap opera,” others have called it “comedy.” It was on the air from 1951 to 1952. “The World of Mr. Sweeney”: Spun off from “The Kate Smith Evening Hour,” “The World of Mr. Sweeney” aired four nights a week on NBC during the summer of 1954. Classified as a comedy show, the program took place in a fictional general store. Charles Ruggles had the lead and Helen Wagner (later of “As the World Turns” fame) was a co-star. The program later moved to NBC daytime where it aired five days a week. “The Trouble With Tracy”: “Trouble” is a wretchedly bad and cheaply produced comedy out of Canada. It was produced from 1970 to 1971 and might have been concurrently aired for some of its run by at least one New York State station. It aired daily. “Trouble” was made on the extra-cheap. They allegedly produced SEVEN episodes in five days. Since money and time was so tight, there was no time for re-shoots: flubbed lines stayed in the show, a visible boom microphone overheard would be left in for all to see, etc. The program supposedly didn’t even bother to generate new scripts; they just reshot scripts from the old radio show “Easy Aces.” The program had no studio audience but it did have an overly loud laugh track. Today, “Trouble” is considered the worst program in Canadian TV history and many consider it just the worst ever. Thanks for Dale Sherman, Billy Ingram and Wesley Hyatt for their assistance with this article.
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