Forgettable tv shows.

[Tabonga | 2,313]

23 minutes ago, Daniel_Doyce said:

Hey, this show was pretty popular and definitely not forgettable. It did wear out its welcome and was one of the first shows canceled during the infamous "Rural Purge" in 1970.

One of the best gags on NewsRadio was Dave Nelson's love of Green Acres.

I am not using the term forgettable in any particular sense - in this case I would use it to describe a bit of essentially fluff that fewer and fewer people will know about as time goes on.  

One odd piece of trivia is that Edgar Buchanan ( a marvelous character actor) who played Uncle Joe  was the only actor to appear in all 220 episodes.  He went on to star in the 1974 movie Benji with  Higgins (the dog from Petticoat Junction).

Edited April 19, 2022 by Tabonga

[Daniel_Doyce | 470]

So many good UPN shows.. Deadly Games, Dilbert, DiResta, Grown Ups, In the House, Homeboys in Outer Space, Nowhere Man, The Parkers, Pig Sty, Platypus Man, The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer, Shasta McNasty, Social Studies. I watched all this crap when it was first on. Pig Sty in particular appears to have totally disappeared with only the show intro on youtube.

Shasta McNasty was so funny but would never fly today. Jake Busey and Verne Troyer, hell yeah

[Tabonga | 2,313]

Here are a couple of short run super hero shows from 1967.  

(Despite the trailer  Mr. Terrific was a "live" action show.)

Edited April 19, 2022 by Tabonga

[Tabonga | 2,313]

@Aguy

You might like this mini-series if you haven't seen it:

 

Edited April 19, 2022 by Tabonga

[Californication | 1,477]

M.A.N.T.I.S.

[PII | 1,883]

4 hours ago, Daniel_Doyce said:

Hey, this show was pretty popular and definitely not forgettable. It did wear out its welcome and was one of the first shows canceled during the infamous "Rural Purge" in 1970.

One of the best gags on NewsRadio was Dave Nelson's love of Green Acres.

That was actually how I found out about Green Acres-from Daves obsession on NewsRadio.  I finally got around to watching all the eps a few years ago.  I thought it was pretty funny, charming and memorable, but I'm still waiting for Oliver to beat the Holy Living Hell out of Mr. Hanney...

That was also how I learned of the "Rural Purge."  Apparently all these rural themed shows were doing well, but the gods -er, I mean the TV Executives, decided that we all wanted to to watch people in urban environments from then on...

There was a radio station (I think it was in California) that as a gag  said they had hidden a fairly large amount of money in various denominations in books in a local library.  Listeners descended on the library and threw pretty much all of the books on the floor looking for the non-existant money.  Between the damage to books and having to reshelve everything the radio station got stuck with a really large bill.

Yeah, that was a dumb move on their part.  I can just hear the studio manager-- "What did you think would happen?!"  Which is what I sometimes tell my 8 and 11 year old kids.

 

I'm starting to think it's just a matter of time before the media tells everyone to do something really stupid...

War of the worlds, anyone?

 

[Tabonga | 2,313]

2 hours ago, PII said:

That was actually how I found out about Green Acres-from Daves obsession on NewsRadio.  I finally got around to watching all the eps a few years ago.  I thought it was pretty funny, charming and memorable, but I'm still waiting for Oliver to beat the Holy Living Hell out of Mr. Hanney...

That was also how I learned of the "Rural Purge."  Apparently all these rural themed shows were doing well, but the gods -er, I mean the TV Executives, decided that we all wanted to to watch people in urban environments from then on...

 

There was a radio station (I think it was in California) that as a gag  said they had hidden a fairly large amount of money in various denominations in books in a local library.  Listeners descended on the library and threw pretty much all of the books on the floor looking for the non-existant money.  Between the damage to books and having to reshelve everything the radio station got stuck with a really large bill.

War of the worlds, anyone?

 

https://historyradio.org/2017/01/21/the-war-of-the-worlds-in-ecuador/

[RH | 4,895]

This show is still on, but I use to love The Daily Show when it first aired. Craig Kilborne was such a jerk but I loved him for it.

There was also Viva Variety with Thomas Lennon, Kerry Kenney and Michael Ian Black.

I’m pretty sure if that one ever gets dug up it might get a few people cancelled for being a bunch of “white people” spoofing Latino variety shows, but I loved it as a teenager.

[docile tapeworm | 4,194]

Night court still airs on one of the local antenna channels that I get. It’s so bad but I can’t stop watching once I started. It’s like a time capsule of cringe.

[RH | 4,895]

Ah, here's another one.  Revolution felt a bit forced at times and over-acted.  I didn't realize it was another J. J. Abrams show until I just watched the trailer again.  Still, I enjoyed it for what it was and I hate that I got absolutely zero-closure on this story arc.

 

 

[Tabonga | 2,313]

10 minutes ago, RH said:

Ah, here's another one.  Revolution felt a bit forced at times and over-acted.  I didn't realize it was another J. J. Abrams show until I just watched the trailer again.  Still, I enjoyed it for what it was and I hate that I got absolutely zero-closure on this story arc.

 

 

That reminds me of this show:

 

[DarkTone | 984]

Worzel gummage. 

[mbd39 | 2,017]

22 hours ago, Gloves said:

Blossom.

Still it's nice to that Mayim Bialik is the rare child star who turned out okay as an adult.

 

[mbd39 | 2,017]

There's a ton of short lived shows that hardly anybody remembers. Not successful shows like Green Acres.

 

 

Edited April 19, 2022 by mbd39

[Tabonga | 2,313]

@mdb39

Those clips gave me a new appreciation for this art form:

 

[Tulpa | 3,488]

On 4/18/2022 at 3:48 PM, Gloves said:

Blossom.

I went to college with Six. No, really, Jenna Von Oy was in one of my classes.

[Tabonga | 2,313]

Here is another gem - I think I managed to sit through 2 episodes before I moved on to something (which would have been anything) better.  It had that teenage heartthrob Bobby Sherman in it - he made a pretty good annoying character.

 

Edited April 19, 2022 by Tabonga

[Tabonga | 2,313]

8 minutes ago, Tulpa said:

I went to college with Six. No, really, Jenna Von Oy was in one of my classes.

I went to college with Nancy Lenehan - I didn't know her super well but we ran in  pretty much the same circle of friends.

 

Edited April 19, 2022 by Tabonga

[RH | 4,895]

34 minutes ago, Tabonga said:

@mdb39

Those clips gave me a new appreciation for this art form:

 

Lol, my wife and I watched that film just last week.  I had read Hitchhiker's Guide before we started dating, and that film came out right after we were married.  My wife went to see it with me just to be a good spouse and, turns out, she enjoyed it more than I did!  Twas a good night. 

[Tabonga | 2,313]

6 minutes ago, RH said:

Lol, my wife and I watched that film just last week.  I had read Hitchhiker's Guide before we started dating, and that film came out right after we were married.  My wife went to see it with me just to be a good spouse and, turns out, she enjoyed it more than I did!  Twas a good night. 

If they are available somewhere you might want to check out the radio shows (which is how the whole thing started).  They were done by the BBC - I have a cd set of them. In a lot of ways they are more enjoyable than the books and movie(s).

[Daniel_Doyce | 470]

6 hours ago, mbd39 said:

There's a ton of short lived shows that hardly anybody remembers. Not successful shows like Green Acres.

 

 

Snoops was pretty good. I think i saw 5 or 6 of those 80s ones at least once. I distinctly remember seeing that Dads intro start up and furiously changing the channel to something else.

I'm a little young for the 70s stuff, but Hot L Baltimore is an adaptation of a Lanford Wilson play

[Tabonga | 2,313]

Here is another one:

The best thing about this series was the interplay between Forrest Tucker and Larry Storch - both Hollywood veterans.

There was one memorable episode where the Indian tribe opened a "Playbrave" Club.  The Indian tribe was "The Hekawi" which was an homage to a very old joke.

[DefaultGen | 5,397]

Anyone remember NBC's Kings? One of my favorite TV shows of all time. No one remembers it because no one watched it and it was brutally cancelled without any semblance of conclusion  It's like how I imagine A Song of Ice and Fire fans will feel when George never finishes the books.

[RH | 4,895]

You know, there are a lot of “popular” shows from the 70s and 80s no that completely fall in this category.  When’s the last time you’ve heard someone mention Three’s Company? That was a staple in our house and it had both John Ritter and Susanne Summers—not two unknown people and IIRC, it had a good run for a show back then.  I dare say it’s a fading memory for some, and a never-heard-of for a younger crowd.

Then there’s also shows like Airwolf (we nostalgia nerds don’t count), Punky Brewster, others I can’t recall but are barely in the recesses of my brain, heck I bet less than 50% of the US population could tell you one character in Dallas, much less the name of an actor!

Edited April 20, 2022 by RH

[Tabonga | 2,313]

4 minutes ago, RH said:

You know, there are a lot of “popular” shows from the 70s and 80s no that completely fall in this company.  When’s the last time you’ve heard someone mention Three’s Company? That was a staple in our house and it had both John Ritter and Sussane Summers—not two unknown people and IIRC, it had a go run for a show back then.  I dare say it’s a fading memory for some, and a never-heard-of for a younger crowd.

Then there’s also shows like Airwolf (we nostalgia nerds don’t count), Punky Brewster, others I can’t recall but are barely in the recesses of my brain, heck I bet less than 50% of the US population could tell you one character in Dallas, much less the name of an actor!

All the more interesting since for most of that time period there were only 3 networks (which meant only 3 stations in most markets for new programming) - so in hindsight new shows were cropping up pretty frequently - and there were lots of shows that never made it beyond the pilot stage since they weren't subsequently picked up.  I suspect if someone were to do a count it might be somewhat mind boggling.