Barry Livingston's story is interesting, I picked up his book last year and it is a decent read. (And I dont think I paid that much for it, I think mine was paperback but Amazon has the hardcover, used copies are cheap). https://www.amazon.com/Importance-Being-Ernie-Hollywood-Survivor/dp/0806535091 He goes into great detail about life on the show and life after. There is an interesting story of him and Ron Howard trying out for the same part and they continually tried to upstage each other.
The only shows that were better in color might be the ones that only had a black & white pilot like HOGANS HEROES and GET SMART. One might argue that DARK SHADOWS was better in color, but that could go either way.
In 1977 ABC did a very strange Thanksgiving special with My Three Sons and The Partridge Family. It does feature all the sons, including Mike (and Sally). I have never seen the full episode but here is a snipet.
My daughters really enjoyed this one because they got to see "Wally" on My Three Sons. Tony Dow will forever be Wally no matter what show he is in, he's such a likable guy.
I Dream Of Jeannie? Kind of dumb too, because a lot of shows in its first season were in color already.
That Thanksgiving Reunion was interesting because they got pretty much everyone - the four sons, and all the daughters-in-law, and an elderly Bill Demarest and even a new dog playing Tramp. Except for poor Dawn Lyn (Dodie). She apparently wasn’t even asked and was hurt. If they were going to have Meredith MacRae (Sally) who wasn’t really in that many episodes (29), the least they could have done was have Dawn Lyn, too.
I'm sure there was other stuff on and you could of found other things to do and never mind the lack of channels back then.
MeTV does run MASH and Andy Griffith roughly in order, though they don’t air the color years of Andy (they have the rights, but the later episodes aren’t popular, so they have left them on the shelf). The MASH finale is 2 1/2 hours long, so MeTV doesn’t run as part of the regular series. Instead, they air it a movie special in primetime every once in a while (the last time was last Veterans’ Day).
Ok thanks I'll try and keep an eye out for it. Have only seen the last MASH when it originally aired and I don't remember too much about it.
I just watched an episode from the first season, episode 3 downloaded from Internet Archive. Truly a great episode! I never once thought of "Fred Mertz" watching William Frawley as "Bub". Looking forward to seeing other B&W episodes. Also, I was struck by how high strung Robbie was as a young teen. He was so calm and collected- a Fred McMurray Jr in a lot of ways- in the color episodes.
What the hell was the point of have MacMurray do that Scottish uncle or whatever in the last season if they were going to dub every line? Why not just hire a different actor? MacMurray hated the show anyway, why have him on screen more often just to have him dubbed? Was MacMurray still a hot property in 1972, that they were hoping for better ratings if they showed him more often?
don’t know but the joke was that everyone remarks how much the two look alike but neither of them sees the slightest resemblance. MacMurray’s film career closed down in the late 1960s...he did the show on the condition he do two 30 days of filming, leaving time for movies and fishing. Actors doing the same role for years often play a look alike relative for “more challenge”.
whenever I see these 1960's TV show threads I smile and remember the great times I had watching them when they were on each week...there was so much to watch and nearly all of it was great! I am glad I was around when it was all happening...the 60's were incredible...
I remember talking with a guy who worked in the film department of a local TV station which was running "I Love Lucy." Apparently Viacom had the shows numbered a certain way (maybe production order) and it didn't make sense -- I don't know the show that well but maybe they had episodes with Little Ricky before episodes where Lucy is pregnant or something. He told me they relied on a book about the series which listed them in airdate order, so the sequence made more sense.
MeTV does a lot of things right, but they don’t rotate their schedule enough or make many new acquisitions (unlike Antenna TV). MeTV gets just a few new shows per year; their big acquisitions in the last year were The Waltons and The Flintstones. But then they’ve left MASH, Hogan’s Heroes, Gunsmoke, Bonanza, and Perry Mason in the same time periods for years and years.
