Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Gilligan's Island
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
Monday, October 8, 2012
Bewitched
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
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Get Smart
Get Smart was a late 1960's witty sitcom spoof on the spy TV shows and movies that were so prevalent at that time. Starring Don Adams, Barbara Feldon and Ed Platt. Created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry who described Get Smart as a combination of James Bond and Inspector Clouseau (The Pink Panther), two of the most successful film franchises at that time.
Get Smart
Thursday, September 13, 2012
I Dream Of Jeannie
I Dream Of Jeannie was a 1965-1970 sitcom starring Barbara Eden and Larry Hagman about an astronaut who finds a bottle on a remote beach that houses a genie and takes her back to his home in the flatlands of Cocoa Beach, Florida. Outside shots of his house sometimes showed hills in the background that mysteriously looked like the Hollywood Hills. All the genie wanted to do was serve the astronaut in more ways than one, but of course he shunned her advances as they weren't married.
NBC's blonde-that-does-magic answer to ABC's successful Bewitched series.
I Dream Of Jeannie
Monday, September 10, 2012
Iron Horse
Iron Horse was a "western" that aired on ABC in late 1966 and 1967. Stories revolved around a theme of the expansion of a rail line.
The Iron Horse
Thursday, September 6, 2012
The Time Tunnel
The Time Tunnel was a 1966-1967 science fiction show about a secret time travel machine located beneath the ground in a remote area of Arizona where two special agents, played by Robert Colbert and James Darren, would be sent back or forward in time on missions.
The Time Tunnel
Sunday, September 2, 2012
That Girl
That Girl was a late 60's sitcom starring Marlo Thomas
who also had a lot to do with the development and production of the
show. It was probably the first comedy to star a single female who was
also a young career woman not looking to start a family and become a
housewife. A bit radical in that day and age, but it paved the way for
many other similar shows that followed. Complete 136 episodes.
That Girl
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