TV Quote Weekends

Bill Daily, 1927 - 2018

“And All The Rest”: Burt & Bert

The 1980’s were a dazzling time for Burt Reynolds. Burt might have been past his 1970’s prime, but he was married to the smoking hot Loni Anderson and was setting up an empire of his own. The most visible part of his empire was the game show he created out of a game he played with his celebrity friends at his mansion- Win, Lose or Draw!

The show, produced in conjunction with Bert Convy and Walt Disney Television, was a mini-empire in itself. There was an evening version hosted by Bert Convy, a daytime version hosted by Vicki Lawrence and a kids version hosted by Marc Price. Burt Reynolds turned a thing he did to kill time after dinner into a multi-million dollar phenomenon.

“Love in the Afternoon”: One Life To Live Goes Underground

“Love in the Afternoon”  here at Temporary Layoffs will focus on the world of TV dramas very other Thursday!

One of the most expensive (and strangest) events in Soap Opera history took place on One Life to Live in 1989. Selected residents of Llanview stumble upon a secret underground city named “Eterna”. 

For several months, several members of the cast were trapped in this underground city, where the soap opera’s grand dame, Vicki Lord discovers that the city was created as a strange experiment in the 1960’s and one of its residents had escaped and dated her for awhile. Vicki became pregnant, but her father hid the pregnancy and had Eterna sealed forever.

Over several months, Vicki learns the truth about her past and eventually escapes with the help of her husband. Eterna is sealed again, with most everyone escaping its clutches. The storyline was one of the most ambitious ever attempted on a Soap Opera at the time and the set was the most expensive ever built. It was a huge risk for a daytime drama, but one that apparently paid off with impressive ratings.

“Toon In”: Hanna Barbera’s Copy Machine

One of Hanna Barbera’s biggest television hits ever was the Saturday morning cartoon show Scooby Doo, Where Are You? which premiered in 1969. The hit show seemed to change the animation studio somehow, as it seemed incapable of making anything except for Scooby Doo clones.

Velma, how would we go about filing a copyright infringement lawsuit?

The formula was as follows- take a group of meddling teens, pair them with a talking animal of some kind, have them travel the countryside solving mysteries and BOOM- the latest Hanna Barbera cartoon. Even when the studio licensed characters from others, it still couldn’t resist Scooby-izing them, like Josie and the Pussycats.

Other than the name and character designs, the show had little in common with the comic book it was based on. Josie and her band would seemingly always find mysteries to solve no matter where they traveled on their tour.

The Clue Club was an even more obvious ripoff, though it had *two* dogs instead of just one. This gang of teens ran its own detective agency, unlike the Scooby gang, whose reason for solving their mysteries was never made clear.

Jabberjaw was yet another ripoff in which a cowardly shark joined forces with some humans to form a band- and solve mysteries. Hard to believe that something could make Scooby Doo seem more realistic.

These three Scooby Doo ripoffs were just a handful of Hanna Barbera’s many attempts to clone Scooby’s success- none of which were actually successful. Unbelievably, Hanna Barbera would continue ripping off its own hit show until well into the 1980’s.

“Serious Business”: Perry’s Final Case

“Serious Business” here at Temporary Layoffs will focus on the world of TV dramas very other Tuesday!

Perry Mason had been a reliable part of the CBS schedule for nine seasons and still brought in large audiences. The network, however, had felt that the show had run its course and decided to pull the plug in 1966. The final episode was designed to be a bigger than usual sendoff, featuring a special cast that included famed American Bandstand host Dick Clark and even the show’s creator Earle Stanley Gardner.

The show cleverly ended with Perry speaking these final words: 

“Now it seems to me the place to start is at 

the beginning.”

Since the show’s producers knew that Perry Mason would live forever in syndication, the next episode that future viewers would see would be the show’s first episode. A fitting end to a legendary show.

“Happy Days”: Lucy’s Missing Movie

“Happy Days” here at Temporary Layoffs will focus on the world of sitcoms every other Monday!

In the early days of television, most programming went out live. Television programming was considered ephemeral, so few executives worried about keeping copies of early programming. Even when it was recorded, it was usually done using a kinescope, which was just a film camera pointed at a television screen. Desi Arnaz, however, saw a future in repurposing programming. Despite the extra cost, he had episodes of I Love Lucy recorded on film, figuring that he could then sell reruns of the show in the future.

After the show became a monster success, Desi Arnaz decided to make an I Love Lucy movie. Instead of making an entirely new film, however, he tied together three episodes of the show. New footage was filmed depicting two newlyweds on their honeymoon in Los Angeles, taking in a recording of I Love Lucy.

It seems odd now that people would pay to watch something that had already been available to them for free, but this was before reruns were regularly available on television. Viewers at the time wouldn’t have expected these episodes to ever be shown again, so a film would have been their one chance to see them. Disney would successfully repackage episodes of Davy Crockett years later in this same manner.

I Love Lucy: The Movie, however, would never be released. After successful test screenings, the film was pulled from release by MGM, who was fearful that the movie was going to cut into the box office of the upcoming Lucy/Desi feature The Long, Long Trailer. The film was mostly forgotten until decades later when it was released on DVD.

Happy Labor Day!

A Week Of TV!

Our new every other week posting schedule begins tomorrow!

“The Simpsons”: Free To Wallow in Their Own Crapulence

Fox could have kept The Simpsons on Sundays where it was running successfully. With the plethora of merchandise flooding into stores on a daily basis, they could have been excused for choosing to keep things the way they were. But this was the early, young and brash Fox. They were trying to establish programming on other days of the week and a hit show like The Simpsons seemed like a good prospect for a different time slot. Fox decided that it wouldn’t be good enough to just plug The Simpsons into a safe time slot- they were going to pit The Simpsons against the biggest hit of the 1980’s- The Cosby Show.

It seemed like a suicide mission; Fox appeared to be purposely killing its biggest phenomenon by placing it against the biggest show. While the show was getting a bit tired, it was still a juggernaut for NBC and something that the other networks never tried to really compete against. Fox was making a bold decision to signal to the other networks that it had finally arrived. While Fox appeared to be confident about its prospects, a few of its licensees were a bit worried about this development. Would Cosby take the wind out of their sails, leaving tons of unsold merchandise on store shelves?

Fox, however, really had nothing to lose. Nobody really expected The Simpsons to truly beat The Cosby Show; Fox just needed to take enough of Cosby’s viewers to put a dent in NBC’s dominance and establish Fox Thursday nights. More importantly, Fox’s affiliate agreement at the time didn’t require the local stations to pick up extra days. They very easily could have refused to air Fox’s Thursday lineup if they chose. Moving The Simpsons to Thursdays virtually guaranteed that every Fox affiliate would air its programming. It might have seemed like a mistake, but it was a genius decision. The entertainment press gave Fox a ton of free publicity, putting Cosby on the defensive.

The faceoff was epic and ended up bringing down The Cosby Show. While The Cosby Show had seen better days, it is doubtful that it would have ended just two seasons later if The Simpsons hadn’t taken it on. Even better, The Simpsons hit its stride during this time, producing some of its best episodes, despite how rushed production was at the time. Due to the show’s lengthy production time and Fox’s initial reluctance to order more than 13 episodes, it would take about two seasons for the show to catch up. During these years, the show was literally finishing episodes right before they aired.

Once the initial hype and novelty wore off, The Simpsons proved that it could stand the test of time. The show’s secret has always been that deep down the family loves each other and there’s always a lot of heart behind every episode. The biggest mistake that the press, 1990’s authority figures and Bill Cosby made back then was to underestimate the show.

“The Simpsons”: Woo-Hoo!

While Rupert Murdoch hadn’t bet his network on the success or failure of The Simpsons, there was a lot riding on it. The network was waiting for the overnights on pins and needles. When the ratings arrived- jubilation.

While Married... With Children had been a hit for the network, it was a slow burn, becoming a mega-hit only after several years and a misguided attempt by censors to try to shut it down. The Simpsons was a bonafide smash hit from day one.

But still, Fox was a bit unsure of whether the show would truly be a hit. The network hadn’t even tried to merchandise the show. The success of the show, just days before Christmas, meant that any of the show’s new fans would find  Nothing Simpsons-related under the Christmas tree that year. But would they find anything next year? A few merchandisers came calling, but Fox was skittish. It hadn’t renewed the show yet despite its success. Would the success continue? It would.

The show was a sensation. After several weeks, Fox embraced its success, finally ordering season two. The network’s initial skittishness was now causing problems. Stores were besieged with requests for Simpsons merchandise that didn’t yet exist. Fox realized that there was no way it could get new episodes before the Fall, yet the show’s fans were clamoring for more. Luckily for Fox, its young viewers were willing to watch the few episodes that did exist multiple times. Quick deals with JCPenney and other retailers got Simpsons merchandise into stores as soon as possible, though much of it was not the best quality.

For the first few months of its existence, there was probably more bootleg merchandise than legally licensed items. Although it was caught off guard, Fox was planning on making sure there would be plenty of Simpsons merchandise available for Christmas 1990. That wouldn’t be the only surprise it would unleash on the world that Fall. Fox’s first big hit- Married... With Children- had a working title of Not The Cosbys. Its second big hit- The Simpsons- would become The Cosby Killers.

“The Simpsons”: But They Were Using Their Whole Ass!

In Fox’s early years, very little of its programming gained traction with audiences. Its nighttime talk show featuring Joan Rivers was a colossal failure. Each of its shows were more forgettable than the last.

Mr. Whose-its?

Beans Whats-it?

Fox’s biggest issue at the time was that it wasn’t anyone’s first choice. It also didn’t have an established development team to line up potential projects. Fox was where people took shows that everyone else had already rejected. The only show that got any traction at the time was Married... With Children. Rumors abounded that Rupert Murdoch was planning to pull the plug on his failed experiment.

Thank your father for helping keep this network alive, kids!

Murdoch, however, decided to double his bet that he could create a fourth network out of nothing. If Hollywood wouldn’t bring its best projects to Fox, Fox would make its own. The network scoured Hollywood and its own schedule for fresh talent. One critical bright spot on the schedule was The Tracey Ullman Show. Unfortunately, critical acclaim did not transfer to ratings success. After just a few seasons, the show had run its course.

Go home! No, seriously- please stay!

Ms. Ullman created a treasure trove of characters and Fox executives thought that one of them could possibly be spunoff into a new show. They quickly determined that her characters, while interesting in small doses, would probably wear out their welcome in short order. The cartoon family in the bumpers, however, did show some promise. Matt Groening’s Simpsons seemed like the sort of characters who could attract a younger audience. The show, however, would need some polish. Groening had created a family and an attitude. Keeping an audience interested in the show for thirty minutes at a time would require a city of characters. That’s where Sam Simon came in.

Matt Groening and Sam Simon

If Matt Groening was the father of The Simpsons, Sam Simon was the founder of Springfield. Sam built out the show, adding the various friends, family, neighbors and acquaintances who inhabited Springfield. Despite the fact that no prime time cartoon had been successful in years, Fox greenlit the project and it began production. Due to the huge lead time required to produce an animated show, Fox had to commit to more than just an episode or two in order to make everything cost effective. It committed to 13 episodes, half of the usual season order. The first episode produced was Some Enchanted Evening, which featured guest Penny Marshall as Mrs. Botz, a villainous babysitter.

The episode was a disaster. The animation was bad, even for a television cartoon. It was deemed unreleasable by Fox, but because most of the other episodes were already in various stages of production, it couldn’t afford to scrap the series. Some Enchanted Evening was sent back into production and the series was delayed from its schedule Fall 1989 premiere to a Spring 1990 premiere. As a result, the episode originally scheduled to air as the season finale- the Christmas themed Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire would be the series premiere. A hopefully much improved Some Enchanted Evening would be the finale.

Strangely enough, Fox’s decision to only produce 13 episodes was technically lose/lose for the network. If the show failed, those expensive episodes would be a costly mistake. If the show was successful, it would leave the network with a hot prospect that it couldn’t fully exploit because it only had 13 episodes to run. The decision was made to hold off on making more episodes until the network was fully convinced that the series was a success. As the final versions of the various episodes began coming in from overseas, Fox executives started resting easier. The show, it seemed, was good. But would the world agree? For better or worse, Fox would find out on December 17, 1989.

Sorry Folks!

Part Three of our Simpsons series is delayed until tomorrow.