 This is the SF Productions podcast network 1985's fall previews roll on from the Palf Culture Bunker I'm Indy and I'm Mark you can check out our audio podcast how I got my wife to read comics on iTunes or on our website SF podcast network comm well, we're moving into the second part of our 1985 TV guide fall preview issue because we just couldn't get it all in one episode. So let's continue with that Moving on to Tuesday Growing pains ABC meet the Seaver family stay-at-home psychiatrist dad Jason Helen thick Reporter mom Maggie Joanne Kearns son Mike Kirk Cameron daughter Carol Tracy gold and younger son Ben Jeremy Miller younger sister Chrissy Ashley Johnson was born in season five Well, no, then there was a homeless kid who joined the family in season five But if you're gonna have a cousin Oliver, it might as well be Leonardo DiCaprio I don't think I watched that season the show ran for seven seasons six of them in the top 30 There were a few controversies during the show's run Tracy gold battled with anorexia and had to be written out of a large part of the last season One of Mike's on-screen girlfriends, Julie McCullough was quickly written out after she posed for Playboy Cameron reportedly pushed for her firing. He would become a hard line evangelical One of Carol's on-screen boyfriends was played by a young Matthew Perry His character was killed in a drunken driving accident as a very special episode There were two reunion TV movies in 2000 and 2004 Our family honor ABC its blue bloods meets the Sopranos in a drama about two families and their businesses The NYPD and the mob Kenneth McMillan and Eli Wallach played the two patriarchs along with Michael Madsen and Ray Leo A large cast and budget required decent ratings which never happened. So the show was gone after 13 episodes On Wednesday the insiders on ABC Nicholas Campbell plays a freelance magazine writer and stony Jackson his ex-con sidekick in this Miami Vice knockoff That's a common phrase to us. It's very much in the same style. It even came from the same production company There's a lot of undercover work involved so undercover that the show only lasted a year Charlie and company CBS a sitcom starring flip Wilson playing the dad of a middle-class African-American family if this reminds you of a certain black comedian that recently fell from grace, you're right The show was moved to Chicago and flip plays a state worker, but otherwise. It's the same show Gladys Knight plays his wife Claire. I'm sorry Diana. There's a group of kids including future Urkel jelly white It wasn't quite the blockbuster NBC had it only lasted 18 episodes George Burns comedy week on CBS at age 89 Burns was the oldest star of a TV series that may be pushing it he introduced a series of Comedy anthology stories again with the anthologies Burns had always been the producer of his shows through the years and did so here Steve Martin was an executive producer and actually wrote an episode One of the episodes was a pilot for a short-lived sitcom Leo and Liz in Beverly Hills This show was gone after 13 episodes Hell Town Robert Blake returns to TV as an ex-con street smart priest He spends his time fighting for what's right in a ghetto parish Sammy Davis Jr. Was brought in to sing the theme song. He had also done so for Beretta He didn't help the show was gone by December Stir crazy on CBS based on the Gene Wilder Richard Pryor movie about two wacky fugitives from prison Who of course didn't do it well Joe Gazaldo and Larry Riley are no Wilder and Pryor Like many attempts to turn a hit film into a TV series the show was gone after all of nine episodes the equalizer on CBS and Word Woodward plays a retired intelligence agent who helps people in need pro bono as a way to atone for his previous life They find him through a newspaper classified ad got a problem odds against you call the equalizer 212 5 5 5 4200 I guess today you would just use task rabbit for this this show may be better known for the guest stars many just starting out Macaulay Culkin Melissa Joan Hart Christian Slater Kevin Spacey John Goodman Steve Buscemi Brad Bradley Whitford The series ran for four seasons despite concerns over the level of violence involved a film reboot starring Denzel Washington Has a sequel coming out later this month and on Thursdays. We had Lady Blue from ABC Jamie Rose plays a beautiful, but tough as nails cop critics at the time referred to her as Skirty Harry the show had a backdoor pilot TV movie earlier that year Like the equalizer various watchdog groups complained about the violence involved the opening scene of the pilot shows the character getting a pedicure Seeing a bank robbery nearby and she shoots and kills all three of the robbers and returns to her chair for her pedicure The show lasted for all of 14 episodes partly due to ABC's constant time slot changes to appease watchdog groups Dynasty to the Colby's on ABC a spin-off of the soap mega hit with the title later shortened to just the Colby's Actors from the mothership appear in the series such as Emma Sam's Erin Spelling's influence along with the huge clout of the main series got movie stars to slum doing a soap opera Charlton Heston, Recurrent model bond, Barbara Stanwyck Despite early high ratings the series ran into the juggernaut of NBC's must-see TV Specifically cheers a night court and only ran for two seasons a few of those characters jumped the sinking ship and returned to Dynasty On Friday nights, we have the Twilight Zone on CBS the final entry in 1985's anthology sweepstakes and a continuation of Rod Serling's classic series Spielberg's TZ film of the previous year May have given it a push as well writers such as the recently departed Harlan Ellison Ray Bradbury Arthur C. Clark and Stephen King Were tapped for the series horror master Wes Craven directed several episodes Initial plans to run the series at 10 p.m And the resulting use of more adult content became a problem when the show actually aired in the 8 p.m Family hour this hurt the ratings and the show never recovered it ran for two seasons Then moved to first run syndication for a third the show would return in 2002 for a short UPN run and then yet another revival was announced late last year with getouts Jordan Peele developing for CBS all access misfits of science NBC a Superhero show perhaps a bit ahead of its time a research scientist Dean Paul Martin at yet another shadowy do-gooder private company recruits young mutants to fight crime Kevin Peter Hall plays a seven foot four inch scientist who can shrink to any size Mark Thomas Miller is a rock musician electrocuted by an amp and now he can throw lightning bolts and a young Courtney Cox between being a Springsteen dancer and friends is a Telekinetic a fourth character with freezing powers only appeared in the pilot when Marvel Comics compared him to Iceman this series lasted 18 episodes and screams the 1980s Spencer for hire on ABC based on a series of crime novels starring Robert Oric as the title character Returning to TV post Vegas He's a literate private eye and former boxer living in Boston and the show was shot on location there He's also an excellent cook. So he's a magnet for the girls Spencer has an enforcer named Hawk an ex con with an ethical code played by Avery Brooks pre DS 9 Hawk got his own series later the series ran for three seasons followed by four TV movies a possible reboot in 2010 fell apart after the death of the books author Robert Parker So to recap in 1985 we got an actual even split between hits Meaning they show the went more than one season and flops and we so I had 12 each with hits Crazy like a fox Moonlighting mr. Belvedere the golden girls 227 MacGyver amazing stories growing pains the equalizer dynasty to the Colby's the Twilight Zone and Spencer for hire so a very good year for television Yes, and it was a year that I watched hardly at all because it was like my first year out of college and working and I had no TV so Most of these shows are new to me and some of them I could go back and watch as could you or You can check out our audio podcast how I got my wife to read comics on iTunes or on our website Podcastnetwork.com from the pop culture bunker. I'm Nicky, and I'm Mark. Thanks for watching