The BBC

 

On this day in 1932, the British Broadcasting Corporation went live. While the United States chose to privatize its airwaves, the United Kingdom chose to setup a publicly owned and funded broadcaster. In the UK, viewers must pay a yearly tax for each television they own. The taxes are then used to produce the network's programming. This permits the network to air its programming without commercials.

Waste Not...

Nowadays, when a television pilot is rejected, it often disappears forever, never to be seen again, outside of network screening rooms or television focus group panels. These pilots are very expensive, so they often signify millions of dollars in wasted effort. In the not too distant past, however, these pilots were often repurposed and recycled to try to recover some of that money.

 

While ABC's Love American Style did feature mostly new material, it often presented unsold pilots as episodes. This was a way to get some use out of the rejected pilots. Perhaps the most famous episode of Love American Style was the original rejected pilot for Happy Days.

Sometimes a network will actually make a handful of episodes before making the decision to kill it. In the case of hour long dramas, they were often packaged together into films. The benefit of repackaging them this way is that they often can be repeated or sold overseas as major theatrical films. One notorious film that found new life this way was Master Ninja, which also had the added bonus of featuring Demi Moore.

 

While this practice has mostly disappeared, there is one more recent film that began life as a pilot- Mulholland Drive. The David Lynch film was originally supposed to be an ABC drama series, but when it was rejected, he was encouraged to recut it as a theatrical film. It went on to win numerous awards from audiences who were none the wiser as to its less auspicious beginnings.

 

Lost at ABC

 

Nickelodeon's Orlando Folly

 

Flame Out at the Upfronts

The purpose of the Upfronts is to get the advertisers excited about the new shows that will premiere during the new Fall season. Typically, there's always a few standouts that make the advertisers leave the sessions satisfied that they know what the next season's hits will be. For example in 2003 everyone was certain that the big hit of the season would be NBC's Coupling. Billed as a sexier version of Friends, there were high hopes for the show. Remember it?

 

Of course you don't. It was a ratings disaster, lasting just one season. In 2006, NBC had another sure hit- the Aaron Sorkin produced dramedy Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. The highly anticipated follow up to his acclaimed drama The West Wing, the show was a behind the scenes look at a Saturday Night Live style sketch show. This one actually started out very strong. Unfortunately, this sure thing started to sputter midway through its first season, becoming increasingly far fetched. The show was on the bubble, but it angered Lorne Michaels, who took NBC's approval of the show personally. This sure thing found itself a casualty of NBC's war.

 

The Upfronts

 

Nowadays, the network Upfronts are a big deal. It's the time of year when the networks make the case for their Fall lineups before their real customers- advertisers. Despite the fact that the announcements have become very public, they were originally meant just for industry people. The stakes for both sides are huge. Ad buyers are looking for next season's Modern Family, a surprise hit whose commercial time could be purchased on the cheap. The networks are looking to pre-sell as much time as they can before the actual ratings roll in. By pre-selling time, the networks can lock in next year's budget. By pre-purchasing time, the ad buyers can lock in bargain rates on possibly hit television programs. While the networks try to be flashy and excited about their line-ups, the sad truth is that most of the shows announced this week will end up canceled and forgotten by this time next year.

TV and the Movies

Television was declared to be the enemy of movies back in the 1950's. While they eventually became part of the same entertainment ecosystem, movies and television were originally at odds. The freeze between the two industries began to thaw in the late 1950's when movie studios saw television as a way to make quick cash from old forgotten films. For some films, television proved to be a great way to gain legendary status despite being rejected by theatrical audiences.

The most famous such film was The Wizard of Oz. The film had disappointed at the box office in 1939. In fact, despite owning the rights to make more Oz related films, Louis B. Mayer had been so disappointed in the film that he sold future film rights to his friend Walt Disney. The film wouldn't be considered a classic until after it began airing on television beginning in 1956.

Similarly, It's A Wonderful Life was dead on arrival in theaters. After decades of repeated airings due to the film's public domain status, the movie became a holiday tradition. The film's copyright was reactivated after the current rights holder purchased the copyrights to the script and the underlying music which were still active. Without a doubt, those rights would not have been valuable had the film not gotten exposure as a public domain staple on television.

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was another film that hadn't set the world on fire during its initial theatrical run. Originally produced by the Quaker Oats company as a feature length ad for a new line of chocolate bars, the film was unceremoniously dumped into theaters after the candy line was canceled. Quaker Oats, uninterested in the movie business, sold the film to Warner Brothers, who turned the film into a classic with its frequent television releases.

CBS Studio Center

When most people picture CBS Studios, they mostly picture CBS Television City, which is located near Los Angeles' Grove shopping center. While Television City hosts many of the CBS Network's most famed productions like The Price is Right, it isn't the only facility owned by CBS in the Los Angeles area.

Northwest of Universal Studios Hollywood, tucked into an unimposing part of Studio City is the CBS Studio Center. This mini-studio features a mini-backlot, sizable sound stages and the home of the reality show Big Brother. Purchased by CBS in 1967, the lot's existence predates the sound era; it hosted various silent pictures like the Keystone Cops series. The lot had various owners, though it found itself being used mostly by CBS who chose to buy it outright.

The lot has hosted legendary productions such as The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Rhoda, Newsradio and many more (mostly) sitcoms. The lot is still one of the most used filming locations in Hollywood.

Leap Day! NBC's 29th Season- 1965-1966

NBC's 29th season on television would be huge. Not only would the majority of its programming finally switch over to color, but it would premiere one of the television shows that was so legendarily bad, it would take a spot as one of the worst shows ever made. Here are the new shows that debuted on NBC that Fall:

Run For Your Life starred Ben Gazzara as a man who had a short time to live. He decides to squeeze the rest of his life into the short time he has left. The show lasted three seasons and Ben Gazzara would go on to become better known as the villain from Road House.

The absolute biggest failure of the season was My Mother, the Car which starred Jerry Van Dyke as the man whose mother became reincarnated as a car. It is generally regarded as one of the worst television shows ever made.

The Dean Martin Show was one of the longest lasting shows that was added to NBC's schedule that year. The variety show would remain on the schedule until 1974.

Please Don't Eat the Daisies was an adaptation of the book and the movie. The show turned few heads and ran just two short seasons; its biggest claim to fame being that it featured a young Bonnie Franklin.

The classic I Spy premiered in 1965. The groundbreaking show which featured one of the first multi-cultural casts.

The comedy classics Get Smart and I Dream of Jeannie both received their starts this season on NBC. I Dream of Jeannie's season would be notable as one of the rare black and white broadcasts on NBC. The show would turn to color the very next year.

The longest running show that premiered that season was Days of our Lives, a soap opera that continues to this very day.

Oscar Week: The Awards Will Be Televised...

The first Academy Awards ceremony that was broadcast on television was in 1953 on NBC. Hollywood had originally been reluctant to team up with television, which was still seen as an enemy, but when NBC offered cash to broadcast what was essentially a three hour commercial for film, the Academy decided to go for it.

It was a success and soon the Academy found its award show to be a hot commodity. NBC would air the broadcast until 1960, when ABC won the bidding war to broadcast it. In 1970, NBC took over again, airing the broadcast until 1976. At that point, ABC won control of the telecast and has aired it ever since.

CBS Television City

CBS Television City is one of the largest television studios in Hollywood. Located next to The Grove, a shopping complex in Southern California, CBS Television City has been hosting shows since 1952.

Designed by William Pereira who also worked on the DISNEYLAND Hotel and the Transamerica Pyramid, the studio has been the home of American Idol, The Carol Burnett Show, Big Brother, All in the Family and so many more shows, too numerous to mention.

While the complex is owned by CBS, it is available for most any production, regardless of which network it appears on. One of Television City's longest running tenants is The Price is Right. Eagle-eyed tourists can often spot the show's larger prizes sitting out in the studio's gated parking lot, waiting to be won on the show's sound stage. Because of its need for live studio audiences, the studio is one of Hollywood's most visited locations outside of Universal Studios despite offering no public tours.

Network Failure

There have been three failed broadcast networks on American television. The first to fail was the DuMont Network.

DuMont actually predated ABC; in fact, ABC originally produced programming for DuMont. DuMont originally made television sets, but they were slow to move because programming was scarce.  DuMont decided to start up its own network to produce the programming they felt was needed in order to make their television sets move off store shelves. Consumers eventually did embrace television, but not DuMont's programming. Due to this and many other issues, the network eventually folded, leaving ABC, CBS and NBC.

The big three solely dominated broadcast television until 1986. 20th Century Fox had somehow arranged a scraggly group of affiliates that were hungry for programming. They decided to start up their own network, gaining an exemption from the rules that applied to the other networks. Against the odds, Fox thrived. The FCC soon relaxed rules for all networks, which threatened the studios that were not aligned with networks. This worried Warner Brothers and Paramount who started up their own networks- the WB and UPN.

Both networks had a rough start, though UPN had luckily been granted a gift from its parent studio; a new Star Trek series that proved to be a stable presence. The WB used its famed Looney Tunes characters to establish a firm hold on weekly afternoon programming. Its prime time schedule was a different story. Eventually, it became unfeasible for the two networks ro exist as separate entities. They were both shut down and combined into one network- The CW.

Tonight After The Super Bowl... "The Wonder Years"

Not every television show that premieres after the Super Bowl becomes an overhyped flop. There have been some hit shows that just happened to get their start on football's biggest night.

The Wonder Years premiered after the 1988 Super Bowl and quickly gained fans. It seemed like the show was ideally suited to succeed on such a night of television. Its 1960's setting appealed to baby boomers while the universal coming of age themes appealed to their children. Unlike other shows that had previously premiered after the Super Bowl, The Wonder Years earned raves from critics and viewers alike. The show went onto a successful six season run.

Tonight After the Super Bowl: "Davis Rules"

After the Super Bowl practically became a national holiday, the television networks decided that they could cash in on the huge audience watching the game by premiering new shows afterwards. This was seen as a way to launch a new show in a big way. This practice was even parodied by The Simpsons.

The networks always hoped that the huge audience would like what they saw and turn the show into a hit. It rarely seemed to work, however. Case in point, ABC's 1991 great hope Davis Rules.

Starring a pre-insane Randy Quaid as a school principal with the last name of Davis who ruled over his school (but not his crazy family!) the show quickly lost the interest of its humongous audience and was canceled by ABC after just 13 episodes. CBS pulled it out of ABC's dumpster and the show limped along for another season before being canceled and forgotten- a victim of the Super Bowl curse.

"Survivor: The Ride"

One of the more bizarre television tie-ins was Survivor: The Ride at Paramount's Great America. Since CBS and Paramount were part of the same corporate family, it seemed like a no brainer to open up something themed to the network's hit reality show.

This being Paramount Parks, however, the ride itself left a lot to be desired. It was merely a "Disk-O" style ride with random Survivor theming bolted to it. The ride could have just as easily been themed to be a CSI centrifuge or Hawaii Five-Oh Oh!

When Viacom foolishly split itself up just because Wall Street investors thought they should do it, Paramount Parks ended up, oddly, in an entirely different company than Paramount Pictures. CBS chose to sell the parks off and the new owners chose not to keep any of the licensed characters or attractions. Survivor: The Ride quickly became Tiki Twirl.

Hallmark Christmas Movies: A Christmas Melody

It's that time of the week when we look at those bizarre Christmas films that keep getting churned out by the Hallmark Channel and make up a plot based solely on the movie poster. Today we look at the last film for this year- A Christmas Melody.

One of these actors is not like the others...

Wow. I bet we can guess who is starting to run out of money. However, we're supposed to guess the plot of this Hallmark travesty, so let's go ahead with that. That poor woman in the middle. She loves her piano playing friend who is allegedly straight. Despite her love, he only has eyes for the musical diva he plays for. Can she get his attention? Probably, because this is a Hallmark film. See you next year!

Hallmark Christmas Movies: Family For Christmas

It's that time of the week when we look at those bizarre Christmas films that keep getting churned out by the Hallmark Channel and make up a plot based solely on the movie poster. Next up: Family For Christmas.

Wow, that award winning professional woman looks like a first class Scrooge! Too bad she has to show her new bosses a family of sorts! In her haste, she convinces this laid back guy to pretend to be her family, and boy is he annoying! However, is there a glimmer of the possibility of love between them? Possibly. Maybe he'll be un-chilling that heart of hers and sweeping her down the aisle- at Christmas!

Hallmark Christmas Films: "Snow Bride"

It's that time of the week when we look at those bizarre Christmas films that keep getting churned out by the Hallmark Channel and make up a plot based solely on the movie poster. Next up: Snow Bride!

How romantic! It looks like this loving couple is going to have a holiday wedding! But what's this? That bride is wearing sneakers and a tank top under her dress. She must be one of those free spirits you've heard so much about. The groom doesn't seem to care or notice, but his traditional mother certainly does! She obviously doesn't approve of this holiday harlot who wants to marry her son. Can she make him see that he's going to make the biggest mistake of his life? Will this unconventional bride teach her future mother-in-law a thing or two about Holiday magic? Stay tuned!

Hallmark Christmas Films: One Starry Christmas

Just when you think Hallmark couldn't possibly come up with another idea for a Christmas film, they come up with fifty. Let's guess what this one is about, shall we?

Okay, that guy is carrying a guitar and a hat- he must be a big country star whose car breaks down, forcing him to rely on the blonde woman for accommodations/transportation/whatever. Caught up in the flashy world of showbiz, he ha forgotten the simple pleasures of the holiday, pleasures that this eager young lady plans to re-teach him. Will he take that bus to Nashville or will he stay with her for Christmas? Ah, he's probably going to stay with her.

Hallmark Christmas Films: A Cookie Cutter Christmas

Okay, aside from the obvious jokes, what could this film be about? Let's guess! I bet this duo work at a company that makes cookies. While his life is full of predictability and time worn traditions, her free spirit leads her down strange and unknown paths. These two are perfect opposites and they'll never get together- or will they?