What I Watched the Week of May 6-13, 1972

Haven’t done one of these in a while. Let’s say it’s the week of May 6-12, 1972 and I’m in the Cincinnati area. I was 13 years old. What would I have watched on TV every evening?

Saturday

My mother liked NBC’ EMERGENCY but my dad liked CBS’s ALL IN THE FAMILY. We all liked ABC’s BEWITCHED, though, and even though it was a late rerun, I think that’s what we watched. That would have left us open to switch to CBS for the rest of the night for MARY TYLER MOORE, THE NEW DICK VAN DYKE SHOW, ARNIE, and then at 10 back to ABC for Gary Collins’ THE SIXTH SENSE.

Sunday

On Sundays, whether or not we watched WALT DISNEY depended on what was on and this week it was a rerun of “Joker, the Amiable Ocelot,” which we would have skipped. Probably would have watched TOM JONES with the Bee Gees, Tim Conway, and Lulu. At 9, we definitely watched Tom Jones as he starred in one of my favorite specials of the day, THE SPECIAL LONDON BRIDGE SPECIAL. I know because I sat in front of the set and audiotaped it! The Carpenters, Elliot Gould, Chief Dan George, Terry-Thomas, and Hermione Gingold headed an all-star cast directed by David Winters (I believe), many years later a FB friend! My mother would have watched THE BOLD ONES right after that but not me.

Monday

Normally the choice here was between  LAUGH-IN and GUNSMOKE, the latter being my dad’s favorite series. This being rerun season, though, I’m betting we watched Dan and Dick. Rich Little guested on HERE’S LUCY at 9 (I shook hands with him 8 years later) and we rarely skipped THE DORIS DAY SHOW. At 10, we watched Anne Bancroft’s rerun special.

Tuesday

At 8, we had to choose between PONDEROSA (??), GLEN CAMPBELL, and MOD SQUAD. We watched them all and none of the episodes look familiar so not sure which we saw that night. Either way, we probably turned it off halfway through because my mom was a buff for beauty pageants and AMERICA’S JUNIOR MISS was on.

Wednesday

For some reason, two local stations preempted network programming—including McCLOUD, THE SMITH FAMILY, THE MARTY FELDMAN COMEDY MACHINE, and THE COURTSHIP OF EDDIE’S FATHER for old movies tonight! This left us with CAROL BURNETT and MEDICAL CENTER. At 10, the movies ended and we had to choose between NIGHT GALLERY and MANNIX.

Thursday

ALIAS SMITH AND JONES was opposite the legendarily bad ME & THE CHIMP. If we watched the latter that night, then at 8:30 we probably watched MY THREE SONS (although in retrospect, I wish we’d watched THE OLD RADIO COMEDIANS on PBS). IRONSIDE with Raymond Burr was a favorite on at 9 but we also watched LONGSTREET fairly often on the other channel. DEAN MARTIN probably beat out OWEN MARSHALL, COUNSELOR AT LAW but maybe not. It was the latter show that made me (briefly) want to become an attorney.

Friday

My BRADY BUNCH was vying against my dad’s SANFORD AND SON. I remember watching this Brady episode, though. After that, Fridays were straight ABC at our house always—THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY, THE ODD COUPLE, ROOM 222, and LOVE AMERICAN STYLE.

And that was the week that was (to coin a phrase) in May of 1972.

Pebbles Flintstone-1963

Exploitation? What exploitation? Pebbles made her TV debut in late February of 1963. The Baby Pebbles doll was in stores that very week and more toys, games, etc appeared throughout the year! Holy Sparkle Plenty!

Jerry's First National MD Telethon-1970

The John Larroquette Show 1993-1996

I was reminded today of THE JOHN LARROQUETTE SHOW, a series from 24 years back that should be much better remembered than it is. After years of perfecting the obnoxious "Dan Fielding" on NIGHT COURT, it may be that no matter how good his performance was, the public simply wouldn't accept John as a nice guy. 

In spite of its title, this was an ensemble cast series with Larroquette the odd sane man out in an insane microcosm of a bus station. One unique aspect of his character was that he was an alcoholic, like Sam on CHEERS. Only here, he was constantly in danger of falling off the wagon and his struggles were not only written in but often highlighted whole episodes. Rock star David Crosby--himself a notorious addict--appeared from time to time as John's character's AA sponsor. 

Our hero is the new night manager at a bus station and it pretty much becomes his world, shared with the other citizens of the night who either work or hang out there.

Episodes were a mixture of well-performed comedy and well-acted drama and the show ran several acclaimed seasons but then seemed quickly and wrongly forgotten. 

R.I.P. Noel Neill

I don't know if I'd call it an early crush as much as just a strong, almost maternal, feeling from Noel Neill, the original and most well-known live action Lois Lane. After a modeling career and some B movies, she first turned up as the crusading reporter in Kirk Alyn's Superman serials. At first replaced in the George Reeves TV version, she returned to the role and won the hearts of youngsters and their future selves everywhere. She passed yesterday.

R.I.P. 

Get Smart-1965

Designed by committee--including Mel Brooks and Buck Henry-- as a spoof of James Bond and THE MAN FRON U.NC.L.E. by way of Inspector Clouseau and adapting Don Adams' pre-existing "Byron Glick" character from THE BILL DANA SHOW pretty much intact to fit the bill, TV's GET SMART--also co-starring purring commercial star Barbara Feldon--ran  5 seasons on 2 networks from 1965-1969 and has aged well. The zany comedy lead to two feature films, a TV movie, a revival series, a stage play, a series of tie-in book and comics, and at the time not just one but would you believe a half dozen catch phrases?

Here are a couple articles from just prior to the show first airing.

Selfie-2014

It's rare that a new series impacts me at all anymore, let alone one that was dropped from the network after only 7 episodes. SELFIE is one such series, though. On the surface, it's a silly idea: a modern updating of the PYGMALION/MY FAIR LADY concept where a more refined man attempts to make over a less refined woman. By "modern," I mean that it's purposely infatuated with current tech that will in the long run severely date the series! What were they thinking?

The series starred Karen Gillan. If you didn't know her, you'd get the distinct impression that she was indeed the vacuous, unashamedly slutty, American character she appears to be. If you DID, however, know her, it was undoubtedly from her multi-series run on DOCTOR WHO as the smart, funny, Scottish Amelia Pond, one of the best traveling companions that series has ever offered. 

In between DOCTOR WHO and SELFIE, the actress shaved her head completely for a featured role in GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY so not only was her SELFIE accent not real but neither is her SELFIE hair. Well, it was real in a way. It was Karen's actual hair, made into a wig for her.

John Cho, best known as the new STAR TREK's Sulu and before that as Harold from the Harold and Kumar films takes on the Rex Harrison role in SELFIE, despite being about 15 years older than Karen.

And yet, after a rocky start where the premise is almost forced on the characters, by the script, it all works, and grows. Soon enough, the show reveals itself as a fearless ensemble comedy, with UK actor David Harewood as the boss--later so serious in THE NIGHT MANAGER and also now known as SUPERGIRL's Martian Manhunter--effortlessly stealing every scene in spite of superb competition from all involved. His willingness to be utterly ridiculous and yet maintain character integrity is a rare gift amongst today's thespians!

But it's the slowly evolving friendship between the often deadpan Cho and the ditzy Eliza that is the heart of the show, twisting it away from its seeming initial premise to show that there is no real right or wrong way to be for any of us.

While theirs would seem an unlikely romance, it never actually gets to that point, sabotaged by a final episode that was clearly anticipating a second season. 

After SELFIE's network cancellation, I opted to save the episodes that aired since they weren't likely to ever turn up again. It was only this week that I learned that the remaining 6 episodes of the series were later aired on Hulu. I was able to attain them and watched again from the beginning. It started slow but it got good and it was ALWAYS funny. Both Karen and John show a real feel for comedy and both bring to it perhaps more reality than was originally intended. Makes it all the harder to know their characters are gone now and these 13 episodes are all we'll ever get.