What failed series from the 50s, 60s and 70s would you like to see again?

Sadly, it seems the BBC didn't see much value in keeping old shows around (this was before the advent of home video). Instead, they wiped the video tapes and reused them. That's why in the early 1980s 125 episodes of Doctor Who appeared to be lost (some have been recovered since then), and we almost lost the First Series of Monty Python's Flying Circus (Terry Jones managed to save them, otherwise they would have been lost).

That also occurred in this country. Ernie Kovacs was one of the early geniuses of television but much of his work has been lost, and what remains was due to the efforts of his widow, Edie Adams. Here's a sample:

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• Supertrain
• Salvage 1
• Dick Clark's Live Wednesday ( I have one episode on Beta II....somewhere)
• Eddie Capra Mysteries
• Brothers & Sisters
• Rollergirls
• Chuck Barris Rah Rah Show
• Ozzie's Girls (which I heard is "missing")
• Hello Larry
• Big Hawaii

 

I'd like to see TIME EXPRESS, another train show, but this one is a sort of magical steam train that takes passengers back to pivital moments from their past. Think TWILIGHT ZONE meets FANTASY ISLAND. This one ran briefly on CBS.

 

I think the one with Blondie was the only one I watched at the time.

 

They need to take another crack at a "Kolchak: The Night Stalker" series. Big mistake made last time (by Frank Spotnitz & co) was to cast it with youngish hipsters whom nobody really knew. At minimum, both Kolchak and Vincenzo have to be strong B-list names. The X-files got away with using lots of little known Canadian actors in support was because they had two strong leads.
Also, they should avoid putting a modern stamp on it, where it's a "team" working together to solve mysteries. This isn't Scooby Doo. Carl needs to be an outlier/lone wolf reporter who no-one believes or co-operates with. Like Simon Oakland's portrayal, Vincenzo needs to be an adversarial hard ass who doesn't want the headaches associated with publishing stories that are supernatural, even if they're true.

 

That’s why it was such a shock NBC stood by Cheers for so long before it hit.

 

SEINFELD too. It floundered in the ratings for awhile.

 

Valentine's Day

 

Anyone remember this?

 

My Mother The Car.





But not really.

 

A few points to keep in mind: this happened everywhere in every country - same as it happend half a century earlier with the movies.
It's just that we don't really miss, uhm, say, Swiss religious programs from 1967 quite as much as several BBC series from the same time. So the problem is that in retrospect, we would have made different choices.
It was a LITTLE BIT stupid when film copies were concerned, which can't be taped over anyway.

And no, Terry Jones did not save Monty Python's first series. US sales did. It seems the group was prepared to smuggle master tapes out of the building, so this anecdote NEARLY happened. But a lot of other stories are totally unconfirmed.

 

Actually, those mostly exist, with a few in black and white, or audio-only. Several were posted on his official youtube channel. The show with the young generation exists too, although some of the talking is dubbed in German.

 

I picked up the box set as a former video rental and IIRC, they just showed music videos for Blondie, Alice, and Cheap Trick's performances, but some of the other musical guests, like Roy Orbison and Donny Osmond, actually performed on the show.

 

Oh, hell yes! I loved that show. It had a great opening theme, too.

If I'm remembering correctly (which is often doubtful), the pilot for the show was called Probe. I think that's because the agents worked for an organization by that name and the headquarters was called "Probe Control". Again, if I'm remembering correctly, the network had to change the show's name to Search because there was a BBC series by the name of Probe, so to avoid litigation, they adopted the name Search.

 

That took until year three to take off. But at least NBC had Cheers as an example to compare it to. People were stunned in the mid 80s when Cheers kept getting renewed.

 

what artist are you referring to ?

 

The reason NBC stayed with Cheers is because they literally had nothing else to put on at that time. So they kept it on despite it being the bottom-rated show.

 

Engelbert Humperdinck's TV shows with guests. Isn't that what/who you meant?

 

yes thanks.
Didn't know Engelbert posted his shows online

 

Oh, yes, this one is legally online for example: https://www.youtube.com/@EngelbertHumperdinckTV/search?query=1970

A few episodes weren't included that exist in b/w and one or two as audio recordings.

The 1972 show exists, in a German version, but that doesn't affect the music.

 

Did he ever say what Allen's reason was? Even if I find it frustrating, I can understand what happened with Mumy's proposal. Allen felt that the show was his baby and he didn't want projects initiated by others to go ahead. But it seems kind of strange that he didn't want to do anything at all with the property.

 

I recall him saying Irwin was done with it..

 

I’d love a nice blu ray of the series. The DVDs look ok.

 

yes I remember Jerry going on Howard Stern begging his audience to watch it.

 

Felony Squad was a cool show, usually energetically directed and intelligent (for TV) plotting.


Looked great too (in color!)

That city had a lot of crime!