Saturday, December 19, 2009

The Loretta Young Show

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From: Wikipedia.org
Letter to Loretta (also known as The Loretta Young Show) was a 30-minute dramatic television anthology series telecast on NBC from 1953 to 1961 {Sundays, 10-10:30pm(et)} for a total of 165 episodes. The filmed show, originally sponsored by Procter & Gamble from 1953 through 1960 [the final season's sponsor was Warner-Lambert's "Listerine"], was hosted by Loretta Young, who played the lead in various episodes.

The program, which earned her three Emmys, began with the premise that each drama was an answer to a question asked in her fan mail; the program's original title was Letter to Loretta. The title was changed to The Loretta Young Show during the first season (as of February 14, 1954), and the "letter" concept was dropped altogether at the end of the second season. At this time, Young's health, which had deteriorated due to a heavy production schedule during the second season, required that there be a number of guest hosts and guest stars; her first appearance in the 1955-56 season was for the Christmas show. From this point on, Young appeared in only about half of each season's shows as an actress and merely functioned as the program hostess for the remainder. This program, minus Young's introductions and summarized conclusions (Loretta insisted on their deletion due to her concern that the dresses she wore in those segments would "date" the program), was rerun in daytime by NBC as The Loretta Young Theater from October 1960 to December 1964, and then appeared, again without the introductions and conclusions, in syndication through the 1970's.

After the series ended, Young attempted a comeback on CBS in the 1962-1963 season in The New Loretta Young Show, in which she played a free-lance writer and the widowed mother of seven children. James Philbrook, who appeared in five Letter to Loretta episodes, was cast as her magazine publisher and romantic interest in the second series. Beverly Washburn appeared four times on Letter to Loretta and was subsequently cast as Vickie Massey in The New Loretta Young Show.

Friday, December 18, 2009

The Restless Gun

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From: Wikipedia.org
The Restless Gun was a western television series that appeared on NBC. The series starred John Payne as a gregarious, intelligent, wandering cowhand–gunslinger. The half-hour black and white 1957–59 program ran for 78 episodes. The pilot was broadcast as an installment of the anthology series The Schlitz Playhouse of Stars on March 29, 1957; it was based on the old radio series The Six Shooter and Payne's character had the same name: Britt Ponset. This was changed to Vint Bonner when the actual series began. Some episodes of the series were based on the radio programs.

One of the show's producers, David Dortort, would go on to produce the more successful Bonanza TV series, which debuted right after The Restless Gun was cancelled.

In its first season, The Restless Gun was aired opposite The Burns and Allen Show on CBS and the short-live variety program, The Guy Mitchell Show, on ABC. In the second season, CBS aired a western, Rory Calhoun's The Texan, opposite The Restless Gun.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Joe 90

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From: Wikipedia.org
Joe 90 was a 1968 television series concerning the adventures of a nine-year-old boy, Joe McClaine, set in the years 2012-13. Devised by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, a single season of thirty 25-minute episodes was completed, and it was the last show to be made exclusively using a form of puppetry called "Supermarionation".

Joe Resnick is the adopted son of computer expert, Professor Ian "Mac" McClaine, inventor of the BIG RAT, (Brain Impulse Galvanoscope Record And Transfer), a device that allows knowledge and experience to be copied from the minds of top experts in their fields to another person. Mac's friend, Sam Loover, a secret agent for the World Intelligence Network (WIN), persuades Mac to let Joe use the machine to work for WIN. After the requisite skill is transferred, and provided Joe is wearing special spectacles containing hidden electrodes, he is able to fly jet fighters, perform surgery, and so on, while appearing to be just an innocent little boy in the eyes of his enemies.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Doctor Down Under

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From: Wikipedia.org
Doctor in the House was a British television comedy series based on a set of books and a movie of the same name by Richard Gordon about the misadventures of a group of medical students. It was produced by London Weekend Television from 1969 to 1970 and spawned numerous sequels with many of the same characters, which ran up to 1991.

* Doctor in the House — (1969-1970) — London Weekend Television (LWT)
o First series (13 episodes) broadcast from 12 July to 4 October 1969
o Second series (13 episodes) broadcast from 10 April to 3 July 1970
* Doctor at Large — (1971) — LWT
* Doctor in Charge — (1972-1973) — LWT
* Doctor at Sea — (1974) — LWT
* Doctor on the Go — (1975-1977) — LWT
* Doctor Down Under — (1979) — filmed and set in Australia by Seven Network. Dr. Duncan Waring and Dr. Dick Stuart-Clark travel to Australia and take up appointments at a Sydney hospital.
* Doctor at the Top — (1991) — BBC

Confusingly, all the LWT shows were syndicated in the United States under the title Doctor in the House and episodes from all of the series were often shown out of sequence.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

The Partners

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From: Wikipedia.org
The Partners was an American sitcom that aired on September 18, 1971 through September 8, 1972 on NBC.

The program featured Don Adams and Rupert Crosse as bumbling detectives (Adams' Lenny Crooke being the more inept of the two). Veteran actor John Doucette played the exasperated Captain Andrews, a character not unlike "the Chief" portrayed by Edward Platt in Adams' earlier Get Smart. Dick Van Patten (who later gained fame as the father on Eight Is Enough) played the sycophantic desk Segeant Higgenbottem. Adams' real-life cousin, Robert Karvelas (best known as Agent Larabee from Get Smart) had a recurring role as Freddie, a character who compulsively confessed to crimes he did not commit.

The pilot featured guest appearances by Joey Forman (Adams' Crooke mistakenly bursts into his apartment while Foreman is showering and orders him to "drop the soap"), Art Metrano and Yvonne Craig (best known as Batgirl from ABC's Batman).

NBC had exceptionally high hopes for the series after it performed well with test audiences. However, it had failed to find a large enough audience because it had to compete with CBS's All In The Family, which was at that time the highest rated show on television. Originally, CBS had scheduled My Three Sons against The Partners, but moved All In The Family at the last minute.