When Tony Musante
decided not to return for another season of his one-season cop
show 'Toma', producer Jo Swerling, Jr. signed former kid star
Robert Blake for the role. But Blake was such a unique personality,
they decided to revamp the show a bit and call the character
'Baretta'. It was an immediate hit, and Blake immediately began
to battle for more intelligent scripts, leading to original
producer Swerling's ousting.
Robert Blake's
off-camera battles and excesses led to a relatively short run
for the series. Because of his outlandish on-set behavior (reported
to have been alcohol/drug related), Blake found subsequent work
difficult to find, and he hasn't made many appearances on television
since. "Don't do the crime, if you can't do the time."
Changed the nature
of television - a hit show that tackled problems relevant to
the times. Busing, prejudice and drugs were the focus of typical
episodes. Pretty soon, the network schedules were crowded with
'relevant' shows, but none lasted as long or had half the impact
of 'Room 222'.
Lloyd Haynes, Michael
Constantine, Denise Nicholas and Karen Valentine star as the
faculty. Valentine's character Alice Johnson started out as
an inept student teacher that eventually graduated to full teacher
status. None of the regulars found another successful TV series
in their future, except Denise Nicholas who appeared on 'In
The Heat Of The Night' from 1989-1994.
Starring Bill Bixby
as single dad Tom Corbett and Brandon Cruz as his son Eddie.
Miyoshi Umeki plays Mrs. Livingston, the housekeeper and James
Komack is Tom's boss Morman Tinker. Komack was the producer
of several hit shows including 'Welcome Back Kotter'. Jodie
Foster was a frequent guest as Eddie's pal Joey Kelly.
Sunday Morning
series starring Tom Chapin, produced, written and directed by
Lester Cooper. Educational in nature, this show is fondly remembered
for the original folksy tunes, written and sung by Tom Chapin
(singer Harry Chapin's bother). Different subjects were explored
each week, but in 1975 the show's focus shifted to bicentienial
themes.
'Make A Wish' was
one of those rare educational shows that kids actually liked
and parent groups lauded with awards. The premier episode of
the Bicentienial season (on September 7, 1975) looked back at
the first trans-continental railway.
"I have been searching all over the WWW for something, anything,
regarding "Make A Wish". The host was a guy that was kind of
laid back in a Cat Stevens (pre-Islam) - James Taylor sort of
way. It was only thirty minutes long and would only air Sunday
mornings on ABC.
The show would
take one word, like fish, and then literally take it around
the world! "I wish I were a fish then I would swim in the ocean
that is created by rain, that came from the clouds etc, etc".
Total stream of consciousness stuff.
If you can find
anything on this show it would be appreciated. I somehow got
stranded on this parallel Earth and have forgotten how to get
back to my own world - where this show is revered as the classic
children show it is."
Long-time CBS reporter
Harry Reasoner left the network to become co-anchorman of the
ABC Evening News with Howard K. Smith in December, 1970. Reasoner
became the sole anchorperson in 1975, with Smith limited to
doing commentaries - but when ABC added Barbara Walters to the
news desk in 1976, all hell broke loose.
Believe it or not,
Walters was taking heat in the press for getting a million dollars
a year from ABC to be the first network anchorwoman. She and
Reasoner didn't get along at all behind the scenes. It was reported
that Reasoner felt Walters was getting a free ride on her 'Today'
show celebrity - but the last twenty years have proven her to
be one of the industry's best reporters and top money-makers.
But the pairing
in 1976 was a total flop. When the network changed the new show's
format, Reasoner was reduced to doing commentaries (ala Andy
Rooney) on the Evening News until he could get out of his contract
in 1978 to rejoin '60 Minutes' on CBS. Walters left the co-anchor
desk in 1978 to concentrate on her celebrity interview specials
- which continue to draw huge ratings for ABC to this day.
Dramatic series
with Arthur Hill and Lee Majors as high-powered Santa Barbara
attorneys, seen on ABC from 1971-1974.
When Lee Majors
left the series in 1973, he was replacced by Reni Santoni, and
then HE was replaced midseason by David Soul ('Starsky and Hutch')
before the show itself was sacked.
Jeff Vilencia's
ABC FALL SEASON
PROMOS OF THE 70s
ABC went from last place to first place in the ratings during
the Seventies. Superior program promos was one reason.
ABC decided to
update the look of their sports anthology series with this
new promo song in the Seventies - it was hard to top the excitement
of the original "thrill of victory, agony of defeat" theme,
but they succeeded.
1970 spot to promote
this Saturday night game show pairing on ABC, these shows were
identical to their daytime versions.
"Both The Dating
Game and The Newlywed Game, which were already established as
daytime hits on ABC after their premieres in late 1965 and '66,
respectively, were both given primetime slots in early 1967
as replacement shows. By the fall of that year, the primetime
Dating and Newlywed Games were aired back-to-back on Saturdays
7:30-8:30 eastern time, followed by Lawrence Welk, which Bob
Eubanks cross-promoted during his sign-off in that era."
"The primetime
Dating Game would be replaced in the fall of 1969 by Let's Make
a Deal, which ABC had just stolen from NBC with the promise
of a primetime slot. The primetime Newlywed Game would linger
for another season or two before ABC canned that version around
1970. Dating and Newlywed would each remain on ABC's daytime
schedule through 1974."
- Steve Byrd
This series, loosely
based on real stories from the FBI, ran from 1965-1974. At the
end of most episodes, one of the FBI's ten most wanted criminals
would be profiled.
Efrem Zimbalist,
Jr (as Agent Lewis Erskine) and Phillip Abbott (as Agent Arthur
Ward) were the only two regulars to last the run of the series.