The Man From U.N.C.L.E. is another of the many 1960's espionage drama's. This one also had a touch of "SpyFi" at times, much like the Bond films, and was created with input from the man himself: Ian Fleming. Starring Robert Vaughn as Napoleon Solo and David McCallum as Russian Illya Kuryakin, it produced 105 episodes that aired between September 1964 and January 1968. It spun off The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. for the 1966-1967 TV season (29 episodes) which wouldn't be very noteworthy today, but in 1966 was certainly a bit groundbreaking. "Man" was very popular during its first two seasons, but by the third season it had a lot of competition from other espionage shows and the producers decided to inject more humor into the scripts which didn't work out very well and the show lost its popularity and favor with an audience that was discovering new shows like Mission: Impossible and I Spy.
The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
Gilligan's Island was a 1964-1967 sitcom starring Bob Denver, Alan Hale Jr., Tina Louise, Dawn Wells, Jim Backus, Russell Johnson and Natalie Schafer. It was an escapist show about 7 people marooned on an uncharted island somewhere in the middle of nowhere and their attempts to survive and be rescued. It produced 98 episodes and was cancelled last minute resulting in the cast never being rescued. It remained very popular in syndication years after it came to an end. During its first season Gilligan's Island was aired at 8:30 Saturday evenings on CBS opposite Lawrence Welk and the short lived Dennis Weaver / Harry Morgan comedy-drama Kentucky Jones. (Preceding Kentucky Jones those evenings was the Adventures of Mr. Magoo who was voiced by Gilligan's cast member Jim Backus.) It was the 9th highest rated sitcom that season behind Bewitched, Gomer Pyle, Andy Griffith, Dick Van Dyke, The Lucy Show, The Beverly Hillbillies, My Three Sons and Petticoat Junction.
It's second season, 1965-1966, found it aired on Thursday evenings at 8 opposite The Donna Reed Show and Daniel Boone. It was produced in color that season and was the 11th highest rated sitcom behind Gomer Pyle, The Lucy Show, Andy Griffith, The Beverly Hillbillies, Bewitched, Hogan's Heroes, Green Acres, My Three Suns, Get Smart, and the Dick Van Dyke Show.
It's third and final season found it moved once again, this time to Monday evenings at 7:30 opposite The Iron Horse and The Monkees. It was not rated in the top 12 sitcoms that season.
Apparently, Gilligan's Island was cancelled "last minute" just before the 4th season was about to go into production, when the president of the network and his wife wanted their favorite show moved to the Gilligan's time slot.
Gilligan's Island
Bewitched was a US sitcom that originally aired from September 1964 to March 1972. Starring Elizabeth Montgomery as a witch with supernatural powers that marries a mortal who wants her to also live as a mortal and not use her powers. Hmm..makes you kind of wonder, doesn't it? The show enjoyed success for the first 5 of its 8 seasons ranking as the #1 US sitcom and #2 overall during it's first season of 1964-1965. It was one of many escapist shows popular during that period. Mr. Ed, My Favorite Martian, My Living Doll, The Munsters, The Addams Family, Gilligan's Island, My Mother The Car, I Dream Of Jeannie are just some of the escapist comedy shows from the mid-60's. It dropped to 5th most popular comedy (tied with The Beverly Hillbillies) it's second season falling behind Gomer Pyle, The Lucy Show, Batman and Andy Griffith.
For Season 3 it remained tied with the Beverly Hillbillies and behind Andy Griffith, The Lucy Show and Green Acres.
Season 4 saw it drop to #6 comedy behind Andy Griffith, The Lucy Show, Gomer Pyle, Family Affair and the Beverly Hillbillies.
During these years, long before the age of home recording, it had a great advantage in that it had little competition in its time slot. During its first season it aired opposite the game show Password and the second half of Dr. Kildare. Its second season it aired opposite the CBS Thursday Night Movie and the second half of Laredo. For its third season CBS still ran the movie with the second half of NBC's Star Trek replacing Laredo. Keep in mind, Star Trek became a much more popular show in its afterlife than it ever was originally.
For its 4th season ABC ran a Thursday night lineup of Batman - The Flying Nun - Bewitched - That Girl - Peyton Place and Bewitched ran opposite the last 3rd of the 90 min. Cimmaron Strip and NBC had a new show in the slot - Ironside.
Anyway, after the 5th season Dick York left the show for health reasons, he was replaced by Dick Sargent, and the show carried on another 3 seasons but fell off the radar in terms of popularity.
In the late 60's the US was going through rapid change and that effected TV as well.
The first two seasons (Discs 1 - 5 minus 1 ep) were shot in black and white. The episodes on these discs are colorized, but if you're a purist and want the original black and white, that is not a problem.
Bewitched
