 This is the SF Productions Podcast Network. That wonderful TV year, 1992. From the Pop Culture Bunker, I'm Mindy. 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, sfpodcastnetwork.com. I've collected TV Guide Fall Preview issues over the years and thought it would be fun to talk about which shows made it, which didn't, and which ones we actually watched. I do have to give credit to Ken Reid's TV Guidance Counselor podcast for this idea. We have no less than 34 shows to cover from that year. Starting on Saturday, back in the days when we actually got new programming that night. Covington Cross on ABC. Speaking of crosses, this show mixes history and soap opera. A mostly British cast portrays a 14th century family during the Crusades. The show itself was produced in England. Nigel Terry and Cherie Lunghey, who played King Arthur and Guinevere in the film Excalibur, lead the cast. Ioni Skye plays their daughter. While 13 episodes were produced, only 7 aired in the US, and only the pilot in the UK who apparently had better sense. I don't remember that at all. Franny's turn on CBS. This short-lived sitcom happens to be the first series for a producer that went on to a small level of success, Chuck Lorre. Miriam Margulies plays a Staten Island homemaker and would go on to playing Professor Sprout in Harry Potter, who has to deal with a Cuban husband, Thomas Millian, and their family. It ran only 5 episodes, with one more unaired. Here and now, NBC. After a long run on the Cosby show, Malcolm Jevall Warner, aka Theo, gets his own series produced by Cosby. He basically plays the same character, except he's more hip and street-wise. He's a counselor at a local youth center in Harlem, and lives with an uncle played by Charles Brown. His boss is played by Esipatha Murkerson, who is fortunate to see this series go away quickly, allowing her to be on law and order for 17 seasons. This series, on the other hand, lasted 13 episodes. Even the Cos admitted that the show was not very well written. Out all night on NBC, singer Patty LaBelle plays the owner of a dance club apartment building with Morris Chestnut from Boys in the Hood as the manager. A young Vivica A. Fox is also in the cast. TV Guide described it as a mix of sitcom and soul train. The series hoped to ride the coattails up here and now, which didn't turn out well, 20 episodes, one of which didn't air. Crossroads on ABC. After his long run on Spencer for hire, Robert Yurick returns to TV as a district attorney and dad to a bad-seed son played by Dalton James. How to fix him? Take him on a motorcycle trip across the US. There's little info on the show online, but it was similar to other shows where two guys come into town, save someone, and then move on. 10 episodes with two more unerred. It did free up Yurick for the sitcom. It had to be you, which may not have been a good thing. The Edge on Fox. Based on their earlier success with a diverse sketch show in living color, they tried the same concept again. 90s comedian Julie Brown headed the cast, plus a few people you might recognize. Jennifer Aniston, Wayne Knight, Ellen Ruck, Paul Feig, Aaron Spelling threatened to sue the show over a 90210 lampoon. The Tory Spelling character said, I can do that since it's daddy's show. One season and gone. It did free up Aniston for a more friendly show. Angel Street on CBS. Robin Givens and Pamela Gidney play Chicago homicide detectives in a more gritty version of Cagney and Lacey. Of course, they had to deal with discrimination at the station, along with their actual jobs. The show did poorly with the producers told to hold production after the first episode. Four episodes were actually aired. Apparently, Givens and Gidney had off-camera issues with each other, which didn't help. This was a bump in the road for producer John Wells between China Beach and ER. On Sunday, we have Secret Service on NBC, another of those reenactment shows with Stephen Ford, son of the former president, hosting. They made the mistake of going up against 60 minutes and only lasted a season. Great Scott on Fox. A young Tobi McGuire plays a teenager with a vivid imagination which we get to see on screen as his family looks on bemusedly. Thirteen episodes with seven of them on aired. The Ben Stiller Show on Fox. It's an influential sketch show that skipped the live audience, concentrating on many films, many of which parried the TV and film industry. Of course, Ben Stiller would go on to film stardom, but the rest of the cast didn't do badly either. Bob Odenkirk, Janine Garofalo, and Andy Dick, as well as writers Judd Epito and David Cross. The series actually started on MTV before moving to Fox for thirteen episodes. They won the Emmy for Writing for a Variety or Music Program. I witnessed video on NBC. Before the internet showed us terrible things, it was TV's job. This series, hosted by Patrick Van Horn of Swingers, showed America footage of various disasters and death. TV Guy's reaction, the only death we want to see, is this show. Of course, it lasted for two years. As they say, nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people. Lying blind on Fox, a dull guy, Corey Parker, working in his father's conglomerate, runs into an uninhibited gal, Tia Leone, who leads them into crazy adventures. While the series got great reviews, creator Richard Rosenstock would go on to write for Arrested Development, it didn't translate into ratings and only lasted a season. Whoops, on Fox. Setting a sitcom in a post-apocalyptic world isn't the obvious choice, but early Fox TV gave it a shot. A group of strangers meet in a farmhouse and try to re-establish civilization. The cast were all working actors, but none had names you might recognize. Show lasted 13 episodes. In 2002, TV Guy included, whoops, in a list of the worst TV shows of all time. Check out 2015's The Last Man on Earth instead. That's what I was thinking when you were describing it. On Monday, Hearts of Fire on CBS, sitcom bets John Ritter and Markey Post co-star in this politically topical sitcom from the creators of Designing Women. The first season is set in Washington, DC, where he's a conservative senator's aide and she's a liberal reporter. The show gets reset after that, with the now married couple moving to a small southern town where Ritter's character grew up so he can run the local newspaper. There's some stunt casting with Hillary Clinton's father and Rush Limbaugh making appearances. There's also a crossover with another CBS series, Dave's World, with star Harry Anderson, who was Post's co-star on Night Court. This series lasted three seasons. Love and War on CBS, Susan Day, coming off LA Law, switches to comedy as a divorcee who buys a bar. One of the patrons is a newspaper columnist played by Jay Thomas, and they become a couple. Well, that relationship doesn't work out as Day is fired from the show. Actor Diane English decided the couple had zero chemistry, and she was replaced by Annie Potts as a new character that buys the bar in the second season. There's a bit of a bizarre guest appearance by Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David as themselves. They did it to thank Diane English for doing a scene on Murphy Brown where Kramer played one of her secretaries. The show would run for three seasons. Welcome back! He shares a house with Don Lewis and Holly Robinson. Originally intended to be more of an adult series, this show is forced to become more family-friendly once it's moved into ABC's TGIF lineup with a cousin and a kid added to the mix. After five seasons, the finale was never seen on the West Coast, preempted by the death of Lady Diana. West of 96 on Fox, described by TV Guide as 90210 Goes to College with a cast of people you probably wouldn't recognize. The series had strong competition and only lasted 17 episodes. Key West on Fox, Fisher Stephen plays a lottery winner who moves to Florida to be a writer, aspiring to be another Hemingway. Instead he finds a ton of eccentrics including Jennifer Tilly and Denise Crosby. 13 episodes and gone. Going to extremes on ABC. The team that brought you Northern Exposure, go from Alaska to the Caribbean for a show about a med school and the lives of the students there. There's a large ensemble cast difficult to recognize. The show lasted 17 episodes. But I vaguely remember it. Wow. Vaguely. On Wednesday, the Hat Squad on CBS. A police officer adopts three kids who lost their parents to violence and they end up becoming cops too. Having heard about police hat squads of the past, you know that old chestnut, they form an elite group that wears fedoras. That's about it. This bomb from Stephen J. Cannell ran 11 episodes with two more unerred. Laurie Hill on ABC. Delenton Matthews plays a pediatrician and mom in the sitcom so she has to deal with her family and her coworkers. The latter including a young Ellen DeGeneres as a nurse. This was from the same producers as The Wonder Years, but it was more like weeks here. It ran five episodes with five more unerred. It did jumpstart DeGeneres' TV career, getting her a role in an ensemble series a year later that would eventually become Ellen. Meanwhile, Delenton Matthews went on to Dave's world, not Wayne's world. Not Wayne's world. Bad about you on NBC. Prior child actress Helen Hunt and sitcom vet Paul Reiser, from My Two Dads, star in what is called Seinfeld for Married Folks. She's a PR specialist, he's a filmmaker. We follow them for seven season in their daily lives in New York City along with their families and friends and their dog Murray. They eventually have a child like any good long running sitcom who is played in the flash forward finale by Jane Garofalo. The show became part of Must See TV on Thursdays, which definitely aided in its longevity. Having Paul's character as a documentarian allowed them to have lots of stunt casting. One episode formally tied the show into the same universe as the Dick Van Dyke show as Alan Brady, Carl Reiner, appeared as the subject of a documentary Paul was making. There were also other ties to other NBC shows. Waitress Ursula was Phoebe's twin sister from Friends, Paul sublet an apartment to Kramer on Seinfeld, that type of thing. The show got a reboot last year but it's doubtful you saw it as it was buried on Spectrum Originals. The series would go on to win 10 Emmys. On Thursdays we have Delta on ABC, Delta Burke's return to TV after she was sacked from designing women. She plays a hairstylist who quits her job and moves to Nashville to become a country star. In waitresses at a local bar where Patsy Klein, her idol, sang to pay the bills. Her comeback was short-lived, ending in 17 episodes. She even tried going back to her more recognizable brunette hair she was blonde at the time to no avail. Rhythm & Blues on NBC, a black radio station accidentally hires a new white DJ, Roger Cabler, in a series created during the Every Stand Up Gets a Show era. The show was criticized for black stereotypes and despite getting the catbird seat between a different world and cheers, it was gone in all of six episodes with seven more unerred. Martin on Fox, a slightly more successful entry from The Stand Up Gets a Show. This one with Martin Lawrence also playing a DJ. In a nod to Eddie Murphy, Lawrence also plays his own mother in drag as well as other roles. Most of the plots involve Martin's mouth getting him into trouble. By the fifth season, Martin hosts a public access talk show which goes national in the finale. The Heights on Fox, a soap about the music industry, specifically a rock band trying to make it big from the producers of 90210. The show may be best known for its theme song, How Do You Talk to an Angel sung by cast member Jamie Walters, which hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100, the first from a TV show in almost a decade, and the first from a fictional band since the late 60s, I assume the Archies, the network pulled the plug in twelve episodes just after the song dropped out of number one. On Friday, The Golden Palace on CBS, what do you do when the star of a hit sitcom wants to call it quits but the rest of the cast wants to go on? You get this series with three of the four Golden Girls reprising their roles. B. Arthur was written out having gotten married. Betty White, Rue McClanahan, and Estelle Giddy's characters by a Miami hotel only find it without most of its staff, forcing them to take over those jobs. Chiche Marin plays the hotel chef, and a young Don Cheadle plays the hotel manager. The show was originally to air on NBC, where the Golden Girls had been, but CBS got into a bidding war and offered a full season. The Peacock would only give them 13 episodes. Well, that's all they got, 24 episodes and it was gone. Gettys Sofia character popped up on Empty Nest, but Rose, Blanche, and the hotel were left hanging. Final appeal from the files of Unsolved Mysteries on NBC, Robert Stack returns as host to the spin-off of the popular early reality series. Here, Stack introduces the evidence for and against a criminal in an already determined trial, and the audience is left to decide whether the judgment was correct. Only lasted six episodes. Probably because they couldn't agree. Yeah. I don't know. What happened on NBC, another real life series, this time concentrating on the causes of real disasters? Erin Howard hosted and ran all of two episodes. The Roundtable on NBC, no it's not about King Arthur, a group of Washington D.C. law enforcement professionals hang out at a bar of that name. Jessica Walter, Arrested Development, is the main recognizable face here. This Aaron Spelling show aired five times, with two more episodes unerred. Camp Wilder on ABC, TV Guide calls this full house for teenagers. Mary Paige Keller plays a young nurse who raises her siblings and her actual six-year-old daughter in her childhood home after the death of her parents. Jerry O'Connell plays one of her siblings while young Hilary Swank, Jared Leto, and Jay Moore play neighbor kids. Despite the cast, this TGIF series lasted only a season. Bob on CBS, this criminally underappreciated series, saw TV legend Bob Newhart returning for his third sitcom. He plays, well, Bob. He's a greeting card artist and a former comic book creator from the 50s, who gets a chance to revive his mad dog character and quits the job he hates. Unfortunately, his squeaky clean character gets updated for the gritty 90s comic market. Two highlights are Cynthia Stevenson, who plays his adult daughter and would go on to other TV series, and Lisa Kudrow as Cynthia's friend, who at one point was doing triple duty on Bob, Mad About You and Friends, a show revamp on the second season where the comic book folds and Bob is forced to go back to greeting cards and work for Betty White is not enough to save it. Seek this out. It is very good. Yep. Likely Suspects on Fox is a rather unique crime drama where you, the viewer, played the rookie partner to police detective Sam McMurray. You see all the evidence, interview suspects, and try to guess who done it at the end. It lasted 13 episodes. Picket fences on CBS. Our final entry is a good one. A family drama with goofy elements based in a small town in Wisconsin from producer David E. Kelly. Tom Scarrett plays the town sheriff, Kathy Baker. The town doctor, Lauren Holly, plays a deputy, while Fivish Finkel and Ray Walston play a bombastic attorney and a crabby judge respectively. Marlee Matlin, Holly Marie Combs, and Don Cheadle are also in the large cast. The series ran for four seasons, buoyed more awards than ratings, winning 14 Emmys. So let's recap. In 1992, out of 34 new series, there were eight hits to find as lasting more than one season. Eyewitness video, Hearts of Fire, Love and War, Hanging with Mr. Cooper, Mad About You, Martin, Bob, and Picket Fences. And 26 misses for a dismal 23% success rate the previous year was 39%. And I can safely say I think we watched about three of those. Yeah. Or at least we remember watching three. Yeah. Some of them I think sound interesting, you know, could go back and check them out. That's the beauty of TV today. Right. If you don't want to check those out, though, you can check out our audio podcast, How I Got My Wife to Eat, comics on iTunes or on our website, sfpodcastnetwork.com. From the Pop Culture Bunker, I'm Dindi. And I'm Mark. Thanks for watching.