 This is the SF Productions podcast network Really wonderful TV year 1984 from the pop culture bunker. I'm Mindy and I'm mark you can check out our audio podcast how I got my way to read comics on iTunes or in our Website SF podcast network comm So I've collected TV guide full preview issues over the years And I thought it would be fun to talk about which shows made it which didn't and which ones we actually watched right And I have to give credit to Ken reads TV guidance counselor podcast for this idea We previously did 1982 we're skipping 83 because I don't have the issue I guess it's because I was in college at the time and I didn't get around to picking it up Oh my I'm missing that issue eBay. Here we come Cable begins to be a presence in the guide by this point and while most of it is reruns and repurpose programming There are two notable premieres Still the beaver was a TV reunion movie on the Disney channel Which would lead to a new series imaginatively called the new leave it to be ver good sex with Dr. Ruth Westheimer introduced the therapist to a large audience and led to many appearances on NBC's Letterman show We also had what TV guide called early starters shows that already came on the air since the previous fall deluge several of which did very well CBS's air wolf starred Ernest Borg nine and Jane Michael Vincent as pilots of a super helicopter shades of Knight Rider The chopper could go at supersonic speeds had major armaments It was actually a dark Cold War parable in his first year But CBS wanted to make it more family friendly so it quickly got silly The show ran for three seasons on it on CBS and then moved to USA for a final year with a new cast and a much smaller budget In that season all the in-flight shots of the copter were reused from previous seasons. There was no new footage Now this was Donald B. Palisario's second big series after Magnum PI Of course, he would go on to Quantum Leap and more importantly the JAG NCIS franchise ABC's follow-ups bleeps and blunders was response to another early starter NBC's TVs bloopers and practical jokes The former starred Steve Lawrence and Don Rickles while the better-known latter starred Dick Clark and Ed McMahon Both were basically the same show with two parts Bloopers from TV shows which up to that point were rarely seen outside of end of season party reels for the cast And wacky stunts and jokes played on celebrities with hidden cameras NBC's version ran on NBC in various skis for 14 years Then on to ABC for nine years then in syndication in the 2010s ABC's version ran for two short seasons and disappeared But they did broadcast the infamous star trek blooper reel for the first time Today, of course TV and film bloopers are all over the internet The practical joke tv show concept goes back to candid camera and would eventually spawn shows such as punked ABC's call to glory was a family drama set in the days of the cold war with an air force theme Craig T. Nelson stars as a pilot and father to three kids with wife Cindy Pickett and grandfather Kenan win A young Elizabeth shoe played the daughter Nelson would go on to the long-running sitcom coach the show only lasted one season So far the shows we've talked about I didn't really watch and that might have been Part and parcel with me being in college then yeah next show Kate and Allie was a major hit for cbs and one of the first shows with two independent divorced women Who weren't desperately trying to find a new guy? Susan sate james and jane curtain starred with their tv kids erie mires Allyson smith and frederick caler the show was originally only given six episodes a rarity at the time But standard operating procedure today Then the show became an immediate hit running six seasons and hitting the top 20 for the first four of them There is even a spin-off called roxy starring sc tv's andrea martin, but it only lasted two episodes Kate and Allie was shot in new york also a rarity at that time in order to allow james to work without relocating her family to la At one point the show was taped at the ed selvin theater now the home of steven colbert The network made sure that viewers saw the leads going into separate bedrooms in order to avoid impressions that they were lesbians Jane curtain previously on the original snl would go on to third rock from the sun Susan st. james already had a long career from name of the game and an emmy to macmillan and wife She essentially retired after this series and that is one i watched all the time I'd say as did i And another one i watched a lot is nbc's night court which was created by rinehold wig Known for his work on barney miller ideas similar with a rundown courtroom instead of a rundown police station It's also similar to lawn order in the door a number of cast changes The only constants were judge harry stone harry anderson whom the show was built around prosecutor dan fielding john larriquette and bailiff bullshannon richard mall harry was an amateur magician Of course anderson was a comedy magician in real life and brought maybe too much levity to the courtroom While dan was a narcissist and lethario and bull was slow-witted and also very innocent There were four different public defenders throughout the run of the series gail strickland and the pilot Paula kelly in season one ellen foley in season two And marky pose for the rest of the series and by far the best remembered one I don't know if i remember any of the other ones. I don't know if they're even in the syndication package Yeah, there were two court clerks Karen austin in season one and charles robinson for the rest of the series And then there were also three female bailiffs selma diamond seasons one and two Florence halop season three and marcia warfield for the rest of the series Diamond and halop actually died during the show's run and that's why they made the move to a younger character I'm not sure I would have taken that job though. Yeah. Yeah, of course that was taken over by warfield There were a large number of recurring characters during the show's run John astin played harry's insane father Mel tormay played himself because harry was a huge fan tng's brent spiner played an appellation yokel Florence stanley was a fill-in judge now. She played the same character on my two dads The show ran for nine seasons in the top 20 for three of them and won seven emmy's out of 31 nominations John larriquette won four of them in a row which is still a record And then withdrew his name for future consideration. He was tired of winning Which is what people should do when they've won more than two for the same role. Yes. He won four in a row Anderson would go on to sitcom dave's world and post went on to sitcom hearts of fire with john ritter And warfield went on to empty nest Larriquette got his own eponymous sitcom then a regular role on the practice Boston legal Concept and he's now on the librarians. He's won five emmy's and a tony so far and not to mention He had a sitcom that was canceled this year. Oh, yeah, that's right. Yeah, that came and went. Yeah Anderson post and robinson played themselves in a fake reunion on an episode of 30 rock NBC's riptide is a steven j cannell Creation which at that point meant light-hearted detectives Perry king and joe penny are ex-army buddies who start a p.i. Business in la They bring in a tech guy probably one of the first nerd regulars on such a show Played by them bray to do computer stuff They also have a helicopter and a speedboat which figure heavily into this series Of course setting a series in a marina means a lot of girls in bikinis Partly because of this the show ran for three seasons. Joe penny would later become jake to william conrad's batman Mickey splains mike hammer had been attempted before as a tv series in 1958 with a young darin mcgavin Now stacey keech gets the title role as the private dick with lindsey bloom as his secretary Despite the show being set in then current times. There's a lot of film noir Influences as well as politically incorrect attitudes from the lead Most of the bad guys would be shot and killed by hammer by the end of the episode The show was later called the new mike hammer during its three season run including tv movies and specials Now on to the actual fall shows. Oh my gosh. We haven't even hit the actual fall shows yet starting on saturday partners in crime on nbc another of those Bill in the blank returns to tv series linda carter from wonder woman and lani anderson from wkrp in sincenady co-star as x wives of a private detective who dies Bequeathing his agency to them their first case is his murder Linda plays a former socialite who lost her money and lani plays the daughter of a con man They are both struggling in their current jobs photographer and cello player respectively So they give the detective biz a go Despite their lack of money. They have plenty of access to glamorous fashions The names of their characters carol stanwaken, sydney covac are cooie plays on film noir actors Ellen hecker plays their ex-husband's mother the show lasted all of 13 episodes It was produced by johnny carson's production company, which meant it got an automatic time slot linda went into the series hawkeye and a lot of tv movies and guest spots while lani went on to the series easy street and nurses Finder of lost loves on abc star tony franciosa who ran a pre-internet Misconnection service who brought together old flames debora dare played his assistant Is similar in concept to love boat or fantasy island It's an anthology series with an ongoing cast and guest stars doing the heavy lifting and was also produced by Aaron spelling Spelling's golden touch didn't work this time one season and done It did end up as a riff on mst3k with confusion over whether tony franciosa or james franciscus played the lead franciosa had already had leading roles on valentine's day name of the game search and matt helm Cover-up on cds stars jennifer o'neill as a fashion photographer whose husband is killed She then learns he was a ci8 agent So the logical thing to do is hire model john eric hexham to help find the killer The ci8 is impressed with her initiative and offers her a job They would still be photographer and model just with a side business of being secret agents This short run series one season and done is mostly remembered for a terrible accident Hexham was playing with a prop gum during break between scenes, which he thought was unloaded Turned out the blank was powerful enough to give him massive skull damage at close range putting him on life support Before he was declared brain dead A new assistant was hired played by anthony hamilton, but the show was soon gone Jennifer o'neill had previously starred on soap bear essence and was a lead in the film summer 42 But was best known as a model Hot pursuit on nbc is basically the fugitive with a husband and wife on the run The couple is played by carrie keen and eric purepoint She is framed for murdering her boss and he breaks her out of prison Turns out the boss's wife dina maryl They orchestrated the whole thing seems more like a tv movie than a series, which is probably why it only lasted 12 episodes eric purepoint would go on to play george francisco on the alien nation tv series As well as fame silk stockings and heart of dixie's tv series as well as the star trek tv franchise He was on all the modern star trek series and guest roles dina maryl had a long film until a tv career But this was her only regular tv role. Well, that kind of surprises me. Yeah, moving on to sunday punky bruster What a cheery premise Adorable moppet salil moon fry is abandoned in chicago and found by crusty landlord george gains Will they get along will he do the legal thing and hand punky off to social workers? Of course not. He fights the legally adopter and does so The show ran for two seasons on nbc the highest rated prime time show for girls 2 to 11 Then ran in syndication for another year Since the show ran on sundays early in the evening. It was often impacted by nfl games The solution was to shoot a set of 15 minute episodes to fit the tight schedule The character name was provided by nbc chief brandon tartikov based on a childhood crush punky's dog was named brandon How sweet The show would generate a saturday morning cartoon called it's punky bruster Salil moon fry went on to a regular role on sabrina the teenage witch and a lot of voice work george gains played the commandant in the police academy movies and was in the days and nights of molly dod hearts of fire and general hospital Murder she wrote on cbs was a long running detective series starring dame angela landsbury She plays jessica fletcher a mystery writer who happens to be around when dead bodies are found so she figures out who done it Obviously she did. She's the only common point among the episodes. Obviously. Obviously jessica was a mass murderer Exactly despite the simple premise local cops are stumped jessica glides in and solves the case It became an enormous international hit hitting the top 10 in the neilsons for eight of its 12 seasons A series of tv movies followed which ran into the 2000s Several backdoor pilots were attempted which with one of them succeeding Starring eventual law and order star jerry orbach called the law and harry mcgroth tom bosley played the local sheriff in town who eventually retires And then he starred in a similar nbc series called the father dowling mysteries Lansbury's career is legendary. You have gaslight picture of dorian gray Manchurian candidate broadways maim and swinney todd She's got five tonys a grammy an honorary oscar six golden globes and 18 Emmy nominations including for every year of murder she wrote but she never won. She's never won one. Wow Mark stop wait. There's just too many shows to talk about at one time here. I suppose you're right I think we have to take a break. Okay, so You can check out the second part of this episode in a couple weeks In the meantime, you can check out our audio podcast how I got my way treat comics on itunes or on our website sfpodcastnetwork.com from the pop culture bunker. I'm indy and i'm mark. Thanks for watching