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30 1.
Laverne & Shirley
Program
Profile ABC paid
big money to get Redd Foxx to jump ship from NBC where his 'Sanford
and Son' series was tops in the ratings. They gave Foxx his own hour
variety show with top writer/producers Allan Blye and Bob Einstein ('Sonny
and Cher', 'Smothers Brothers')
Foxx was
famous for his dirty humor, and in the first episode of his new show
he joked, "The only thing I can do from my nightclub act is smoke."
The
Redd Foxx Comedy Hour marked the first appearance of Bob Einstein's
'Super Dave Osborne' character, the return of Andy Kaufman's surrealistic
routines to prime-time television, along with regulars Slappy White,
Billy Barty, Hal Smith (Drunk Otis on 'The Andy Griffith Show'), Bill
Saluga (as Raymond J. "You doesn't have to call me" Johnson), The Gerald
Wilson Orchestra, and "Iron Jaw" Wilson
1970's
TV shows on DVD Program
Profile A rare
series that made it all the way through the 1977-78 season, about two
women who operate an ad agency in New York. A weak showing by lead-in
Rhoda killed this sitcom's chances. On Our Own was filmed in New York,
common in the Fifties, but a rarity by 1977.
Program
Profile When the
1977 season started, these mystery-dramas were two separate productions,
but they joined together for the special season opener.
The Hardy
Boys were played by Parker Stevenson and Shaun Cassidy, who became a
major teen idol. "When I was in London", Cassidy told TV Guide in 1977,
"there were about 30 or 40 young girls standing in the rain outside
my hotel. I went downstairs to talk to them, to try and find out why
they'd do such a silly thing. But they don't even know."
Hey, Elizabeth, watch out - you look an awful lot like Nicole! |
 [The beginning of the end for the nets] by Billy Ingram
Here
is a look at some of the network offerings that year.
Based on the
cheesy Sci-fi movie of the same name, the TV series starred Gregory
Harrison (later 'Trapper John, MD') as a young man on the run
from an overcrowded, futuristic society dictating that everyone
must die when they reach the age of thirty (as opposed to just
becoming irrelevant, as it is today).
Produced by
Leonard Katzman ('Dallas'). Most of the budget went for the futuristic
cars, I think.
Program
Profile
Incredibly,
in 1977 a black character on TV still HAD to do the shuck and
jive routine with white southerners portraying prejudiced crackers.
Fried chicken and watermelon jokes were plentiful. Typical joke:
Redneck cop says, "Would you press my uniform?" Policewoman says,
"Sorry, I don't do sheets." Insert laughter here.
UNKNOWN CBS THEMES? Theme 1 - generic action show theme that builds slowly - sounds a lot like 'The A-Team' theme in spots. "Bronk" with Jack Palance seems to be the consensus. Theme 2 - another generic actioner, with elements from themes like 'Ironside' and 'Kojak'. 'The Blue Knight' with George Kennedy has been guessed. Theme 3 - "It's gonna to be terrific" is the hook - sung with an Hispanic flavor. Identified as 'Popi' (Jan-Aug 1976), a sitcom starring Hector Elizondo. Theme 4 - this one's nice, recorded with a brass band. Identified as: 'Doc' (MTM show), the SECOND version of the theme. The first was a song called, "My Friend" by musician Ray Vitte, who played with Stevie Wonder and also was in Cheech and Chong's "Up In Smoke". - Brian P. |
Not Returning From 1976-77 ABC The Bionic Woman (moved to NBC) CBS NBC |
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Program
Profile
Rather than risk a huge investment on a hour-long serious science-fiction project (like CBS's flop Logan's Run), NBC wanted a half-hour comedy that was set in outer space. A perfect vehicle to replace the under-performing 'Sanford Arms' that was killing their winning Friday night line-up of Chico, Rockford, and Quincy.
First mate Gene/Jean (Timothy Thomerson) was a half-man half woman person that was constantly fighting with him/herself. Orders for the missions would come from a disembodied head known as 'The Head' (Alan Cailou), appearing on the ship's video screen. Well-liked but little watched. |
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| 1977
will be remembered for:
The Bing Crosby Christmas Specials come to an end, the last one (with guest David Bowie) was taped five weeks before Bing's death. |
Program
Profile Why someone hasn't snatched this series up for a revival is beyond me, it's the 'Malcolm in the Middle' of the polyester decade, 'That Seventies Show' for real. Lance Kerwin starred as James Hunter, a displaced high school student in this semi-realistic hour long drama about growing up in the Seventies. James' hobby was photography and he would often have elaborate daydreams ala Walter Mitty. Typical plot: James' friend from school is distraught over her affair with a professor. Late in the season, this show was renamed 'James at 16' - this was when James had sex with a Swedish exchange student, a first for a teen TV character. There were protests, but light ratings (despite critical accolades) made cancellation inevitable. |
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Program
Profile
The Lou Grant
character (played by Ed Asner) was successfully spun off as a hour-long
drama while Betty White and Georgia Engle were teamed in a very funny
half-hour sitcom. Both were produced by MTM productions.
Two other MTM alumni
got their own shows during the 77-78 season. Gavin McLeod clicked with
The Love Boat and The Ted Knight Show flopped on ABC,
but Knight had a better run with 'Too Close For Comfort' 1980-1986
(later re-titled 'The Ted Knight Show').
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FLOPS
AND FAILURES
The Man From Atlantis was an embarrassment for NBC in the fall, but series star Patrick Duffy gained success on a CBS show that debuted on CBS just weeks after 'Man From Atlantis' was cancelled - Dallas. A young Stuart Pankin is one of five moronic frat guys living in a houseboat onThe San Pedro Beach Bums. This toxic beach was cleared in December.
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Popular in syndication in the South - World Wide Wrestling. |
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A 20 year-old boy,
raised by wolves in the woods, tries to make his way in civilization,
looking for the parents who left him behind. Lucan has a special connection
with wild animals and has wolf-like senses.
Tracking him are
bounty hunter Prentiss (Don Gordon) and ruthless University researcher
Dr. Hoagland - who performed experiments on Lucan when he was discovered
as a boy.
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| Program
Profile The Incredible Hulk Friday nights at 9:00 CBS / March 1978 - June 1982 Bixby was firm in
his contention that Banner was the focus of the show, not the monster.
The formula followed those of previous hit shows like 'The Fugitive',
'The Invaders', and others. Dr. Bruce Banner must stay on the run for
a murder he didn't commit, looking for a cure and avoiding newspaperman
Jack McGee (played by Jack Colvin) who follows him from town to town.
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Program
Profile Soap Tuesday nights at 9:30 ABC / Sept. 1977 - April 1981 One of the few hit shows of the 1977-78 season - the first TV show to be controversial before it even debuted. Religious and family groups were up in arms that adulterers and homosexuals were being paraded before the home audience, and that was just on the pilot. Advertisers pulled out and some ABC affiliates refused to carry the show - at first. Big ratings changed that. |
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From the executive producer of 'Get Smart', Leonard Stern, comes the mis-adventures of a co-ed med crew serving aboard a pink submarine during World War II. Lots of sexist jokes and obvious humor in the 'Three's Company' vein.
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The
Redd Foxx
Mid-season, ABC merged the casts 'permanently' to boost ratings. Pamela
Sue Martin (who played Nancy Drew) didn't like the idea of a three lead
series, so she quit and was replaced by Janet Louise Johnson. Turned
out to be a bad idea, in the fall of 1978 Nancy Drew was dropped entirely
and only the Hardy Boys returned.
By the end of the 1976-77 season, the networks had unleashed 70 new
shows, almost all failures. In 1977-78, more that 110 new programs were
slotted and for the first time in history, television viewership dropped
- by an unsettling 6.4 percent.
ABC (who's slogan that year was 
22
new shows debuted in September, 1977 - few of them making it to the
next fall. CBS and 
NBC were so desperate they picked up three shows that ABC cancelled
in 1977 - The Bionic Woman, The Tony Randall Show, and Wonder Woman.
Meant
to be 1977's answer to 'The Andy Griffith Show', with racial tensions
thrown in for laughs (?!?). Hailed by critics as one of the best
shows of the season, though it hardly seems possible.
'Star
Wars' was an unparalleled motion picture phenomenon in late 1977 and
the TV networks were sure that science-fiction was back for them as
well.
Richard
Benjamin starred as Adam Quark, commander of the garbage scow for the
United Galaxy Sanitation Patrol space station 'Perma One'. His assistants
were: Ficus (Richard Kelton), the plant organism science officer, Otto
Palidrome (Conrad Janis from 'Mork and Mindy'), the ships persnickety
architect, Betty I and Betty II (Trisha and Cyb Barnstable), identical
gorgeous cloned twin sisters, and Andy (Bobby Porter), a malfunctioning,
cowardly robot that was more trouble than he was worth.
Marie
Osmond, star of Donny and Marie, got a make-over by Bob Mackie
now that Cher was off the air. She and Donny Osmond performed on the
ABC fall Preview Special in August, 1977. The special starred magician
David Copperfield.
Last seasons
for -
First season for two long running hits,
Nancy Walker
returned to Rhoda after two flops - The Nancy Walker Show
and Blansky's Beauties were both aired
then canceled on ABC during the 76-77 season.
Chico
and the Man and Eight is Enough return despite stars that
died the previous season. Freddie Prinze (Chico) committed suicide and
Diana Hyland (who played the mom on 'Eight is Enough') died of Cancer.
Scott Baio joins Happy Days as Fonzie's cousin Chachi.
Ester Rolle
left Good Times because too much focus was put on Jimmie Walker
(she returned a year later for a last season) and Larry Linville (Maj.
Frank Burns) quit M*AS*H and disappeared into obscurity.
For the past
7 seasons, 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show' ruled on CBS. When Mary quit
the series, all of the cast members were herded into new productions.
In
the CBS comedy, Betty White played a TV actress starring in a fictional
police series ('Undercover Woman') and the cast was a good one - including
dour John Hilerman, who later played basically the same character in
'Magnum PI'. Even though 'The Betty White Show' was bright and genuinely
hilarious, the show failed to catch on opposite ABC Football and NBC
movies and was gone by mid-season.
Patrick
McGoohan ('Secret Agent Man', 'The Prisoner') stars as 
Young
Dan'l Boone on CBS is trumped by Little House on the Prairie
(then in a fourth season on NBC). The Fitzpatricks, Richard Pryor
Show, Rosetti and Ryan, Busting Loose, The Oregon Trail, Mulligan's
Stew, Big Hawaii and Sanford Arms all went down quickly in
1977.
Program
Profile 
This
adventure/drama only ran irregularly but got strong ratings, at least
for the first few outings. Kevin Brophy starred in the title role. In
the first episode, Lucan helps a foreign gymnast caught up in a sinister
plot.
Dr.
David Banner experiments with gamma Rays and finds himself morphing
into a raging, green alter ego, The Incredible Hulk, when he gets angry.
It
wasn't long before Lou Ferrigno began to have a problem with his second
banana status. After all, the show was called 
Program
Profile 
John Astin
('Addams Family') heads a large cast that includes a young Jamie Lee
Curtis (her first acting gig) and Jim 'Ernest' Varney.
When the show
returned for the 1978-79 season, most of the cast was let go (including
Jamie) and Jo Anne Flug joined the cast, but the series was one of the
first casualties of the season.
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