tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post8824084747096634922..comments2023-11-03T06:02:02.128-07:00Comments on By Ken Levine: Network hoppingBy Ken Levinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17305293821975250420noreply@blogger.comBlogger41125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-74780614866709894522018-05-18T10:01:57.038-07:002018-05-18T10:01:57.038-07:00@David G.: That may be true for television, but Ph...@David G.: That may be true for television, but Phil Harris played a fictionalized version of himself on both the Jack Benny radio program and his own program that aired immediately afterward. When Benny jumped from NBC to CBS in 1949, Harris decided to keep his program on NBC. Both shows remained in their same time slots and aired live, but fortunately the networks' radio facilities were only two blocks away from each other in Hollywood. So Harris had to duck out of the Benny program early every Sunday night and be driven a few hundred feet down Sunset Boulevard in time to be on his own show.Andy Rosenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-81486034800556402362018-05-18T07:47:15.090-07:002018-05-18T07:47:15.090-07:00In the old days, single-cam comedies were treated ...In the old days, single-cam comedies were treated as if they were multi-cams; i.e., packed with jokes and gags. Think GET SMART, THE ADDAMS FAMILY, McHALE'S NAVY, etc. You are correct; the problem isn't the format, it's the writers' intentions.<br /><br />Incidentally, I may have mentioned this before, but WAGON TRAIN and THE JOEY BISHOP SHOW are the only two network series that not only switched networks but went from B&W to color and then back again. Watching the reruns of Bishop's show, it's fascinating how it kept getting reinvented, but the driving force behind the fabulous Seasons 2 and 3 (multi-cam and in color) was director James V. Kern, who clearly decided to let everyone go nuts, with constant ad-libbing and breaking up, as if it were a live variety show. When it moved to CBS for #4, he left, and the network put a stop to all that and tried to turn it into a pale imitation of THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW. There were still great moments here and there, but the magic was gone and one could easily tell the actors were no longer having much fun. It didn't survive to February.cadavranoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-23166511909324901672018-05-18T00:22:42.949-07:002018-05-18T00:22:42.949-07:00Ah, good: All of these posts and nobody brought u...Ah, good: All of these posts and nobody brought up this one yet: "Bionic Woman", somehow got cancelled after just 2 seasons by ABC (which included an Emmy win for Lindsay Wagner), then did the slow-motion leap over to NBC for its final year (which put an end to any further Steve Austin/Jaime Sommers crossovers). I think Richard Anderson (who, according to last fall's Emmy "In Memoriam" segment, didn't actually die last year) still remains the only actor to regularly play the same character at the same time on two different networks.David G.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-22999997655171376932018-05-17T22:17:00.146-07:002018-05-17T22:17:00.146-07:00@Donald Benson: There were a few different package...@Donald Benson: There were a few different packages of old Warner Brothers cartoons available over the years, owing partially to the fact that WB sold the TV rights to all of their films made prior to August 1948 to another company called Associated Artists Productions. The AAP-syndicated cartoons are the ones you would see on local TV kiddie shows, especially after some of the copyrights lapsed.<br /><br />Warners sold the 3 different network packages you mentioned, but they got bounced around quite a bit between ABC and CBS in different combinations over the years. Because of the earlier sale to AAP, WB couldn't include classics from Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, and Frank Tashlin. The Saturday morning shows were nearly all cartoons directed by Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, or Robert McKimson.Andy Rosenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-74175799821264646992018-05-17T18:44:13.123-07:002018-05-17T18:44:13.123-07:00I wrote this somewhere else before ...
Frank Sina...I wrote this somewhere else before ...<br /><br />Frank Sinatra <b>hated</b> "Strangers In The Night" when he first heard it - so much so that he decided to tank the recording.<br /><br />Frank snarls his way through what's supposed to be a romantic ballad - and then for a finish, he adlibs a scat (Dooby-dooby-doo) for the fade-out.<br /><br />It was just a joke, really - Frank's way of thumbing his nose at the whole thing - and I'm supposing he figured that the scat would be edited out, so no harm done.<br /><br /> ... except that it was left in (by somebody ...) ...<br /><br /> ... and every DJ who played the single picked up on "Dooby-dooby-doo" ...<br /><br /> ... and Frank Sinatra soon had the biggest hit record in his career up to that time ...<br /><br />I think this is what they call "karma".<br /><br /><br />By the way, I'm the "Anonymous" who wrote the "Larabee" comment above.<br />I had to replace my laptop a week or so ago, and the Google people are messing with my account (I hope they straighten it out soon, but I'm not holding my breath ...)Mike Dorannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-37934897908680768852018-05-17T18:34:26.518-07:002018-05-17T18:34:26.518-07:00Didn't the Warner cartoons -- the ones still o...Didn't the Warner cartoons -- the ones still owned by Warner -- move around as well? Besides "The Bugs Bunny Show" there were shows headlined by the Road Runner and Porky Pig, and I assume they all ultimately drew on the same vault. Now wondering if there was any "exclusivity" to prevent overlap when more than one series was on the air. DBensonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01144515471557731622noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-40178430071106824782018-05-17T14:21:45.763-07:002018-05-17T14:21:45.763-07:00Disney's anthology is often referred to a Sund...Disney's anthology is often referred to a Sunday show because it became such a staple of that night, but it actually began on Wednesday nights on ABC. The very first Disney show of all, "One Hour in Wonderland," was aired on Christmas Day, 1950 on CBS.<br /><br />Walt Disney moved to NBC in 1961 for several reasons, one of being the use of color on NBC, which at the time was owned by RCA. The network's mega-hit "Bonanza" was responsible for selling millions of TV sets. It was no accident that the 1961 show was renamed "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color" and that the first episode was "Adventures in Color".<br /><br />Cartoons moved around to different networks too. Fred Silverman was instrumental in working with Hanna-Barbera to get "Scooby-Doo" on the air with he was with CBS in 1969. It was a huge success, with a few new episodes made in 1970 before the hour-long "Scooby-Doo Movies" series replaced it in 1972. When Silverman moved to ABC, he took Scooby-Doo with him, and new episodes aired in 1976 along with "Laff-a-Lympics." It was Silverman who came up with the name, apparently from Frank Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night" (though I always thought that was "Dooby-Dooby-Doo").Greg Ehrbarhttp://www.gregehrbar.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-50001444675191212692018-05-17T13:33:11.613-07:002018-05-17T13:33:11.613-07:00In my late-boomer lifetime a network change was of...In my late-boomer lifetime a network change was often a last gasp. Red Skelton's CBS variety hour jumped to NBC ... and became a half-hour stripped of song and dance. "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir", by contemporary lights a "sophisticated" sitcom, moved from NBC to ABC with cranked-up slapstick. And of course "Get Smart", which had married its leads (a classic last gasp ratings play) jumped to CBS where Max and 99 had twins (another classic last gasp ratings play). Adam West said somewhere that NBC was interested in picking up "Batman", but the Batcave and other standing sets had already been bulldozed and the cost of rebuilding soured the deal.<br /><br />Disney's Sunday hour moved from NBC to CBS (ironically, since it was CBS's "60 Minutes" that finally unseated the aging hit) and thereafter would occasionally be revived in one form or another, finally becoming irrelevant. The format itself was rendered obsolete, with whole channels -- some owned by Disney -- devoted to material that once aired ONLY during that weekly hour.<br /><br />A question: Back in the day, did networks have the power to make a cancelled show STAY cancelled? I know there were often contracts to keep specific performers and creators from taking their talents elsewhere, but could a network exec ban a "Get Smart" from moving after cancellation, lest its survival elsewhere make him look bad?DBensonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01144515471557731622noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-53610614853220404332018-05-17T07:04:19.091-07:002018-05-17T07:04:19.091-07:00The example of STAR TREK is a little apples and or...The example of STAR TREK is a little apples and oranges as the switch occurred not with a single series, over the course of decades and the current series isn't even on CBS, per session, but on a SVOD service branded by CBS.Janet Ybarranoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-43154105397174756242018-05-17T06:59:03.703-07:002018-05-17T06:59:03.703-07:00"My Little Margie" is the topic of one o..."My Little Margie" is the topic of one of Robert Klein's more memorable comic bits, from his terrific album "Child of the '50s." He described her as "the first television heroine on speed," saying her character "had the metabolism of a hummingbird."VP81955https://www.blogger.com/profile/11792390726196611188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-32363202180703348742018-05-17T06:49:11.702-07:002018-05-17T06:49:11.702-07:00Another example of network hopping: "Buffy th...Another example of network hopping: "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." It jumped from The WB to UPN. The quality of the series started to suffer, although that might have happened if it remained on The WB. The biggest effect was there was there was to be no more crossovers with sister show Angel, which remained on The WB.Janet Ybarranoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-72241124080081355782018-05-16T22:50:23.576-07:002018-05-16T22:50:23.576-07:00Back in the days when a single sponsor carried an ...Back in the days when a single sponsor carried an entire series, the sponsor could be responsible for network hopping. For example, the Gale Storm-Charles Farrell series MY LITTLE MARGIE originally aired on CBS from June to September 1952 as a summer replacement for I LOVE LUCY. Sponsor Philip Morris Cigarettes was pleased with the show's performance and wanted to continue it. CBS had no slot available in its fall 1952 schedule, though. Philip Morris felt it was important to keep MARGIE on the air and not have it go on hiatus until a slot opened up. Given its short summer run, they were afraid audiences would forget about it, so they made arrangements for MY LITTLE MARGIE to move temporarily to NBC, where it would air until a time slot opened up on CBS. This NBC run was from October to December 1952. By January 1953, a slot had opened up on CBS and Philip Morris moved MARGIE back there. MARGIE stayed on CBS until 1954, when Philip Morris dropped sponsorship and the show was picked up by Scott (the paper towel people). Scott had a half-hour weekly slot on NBC to fill, so for the 1954-55 season (its last), MARGIE moved back to NBC.Earlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-30139355148969655232018-05-16T21:22:13.323-07:002018-05-16T21:22:13.323-07:00Let us not forget STAR TREK! From NBC to syndicati...Let us not forget STAR TREK! From NBC to syndication to CBS.James T. Picardnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-56599341830122414222018-05-16T19:38:22.603-07:002018-05-16T19:38:22.603-07:00Many sponsored radio series switched networks. &qu...Many sponsored radio series switched networks. "Lux Radio Theater" began in 1934 on NBC from New York. It struggled in its first two seasons, but Lux -- whose print advertising used film stars -- took advantage of cheaper transcontinental landline costs to move the series to Los Angeles, with the slogan "Lux Presents Hollywood!" CBS put it in a 9 p.m. ET Monday slot (with a later West Coast broadcast) and it debuted June 1, 1936 with Clark Gable and Marlene Dietrich in an adaptation of "Morocco" titled "The Legionnaire and the Lady." Within weeks, "Lux" became a huge hit, and for the next dozen years was among the top-rated programs on radio. The rise of TV impacted its popularity, and the show returned to NBC for its final few seasons before expiring in 1955.VP81955https://www.blogger.com/profile/11792390726196611188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-19546508917988718112018-05-16T17:48:53.701-07:002018-05-16T17:48:53.701-07:00Get Smart had to keep Larabee around for two reaso...<i>Get Smart</i> had to keep Larabee around for two reasons:<br /><br /> - Robert Karvelas, who played the part, was Don Adams's cousin (and longtime gofer).<br /><br /> - Larabee ultimately became the only character on the show who was dumber than Max.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-50267980147948216422018-05-16T17:47:26.680-07:002018-05-16T17:47:26.680-07:00Surprised no one mentioned the most famous network...Surprised no one mentioned the most famous network switch.<br />Jack Benny's popular radio program went from NBC to CBS in the infamous William Paley raid on NBC.<br />His television show on CBS started soon after that and ran for more than a decade until it switched back to NBC at the end of the run.<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-92156203312355288312018-05-16T17:42:25.609-07:002018-05-16T17:42:25.609-07:00Jack Benny switched networks, but he only ran for ...Jack Benny switched networks, but he only ran for another couple decades. D McEwannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-62333117138419950512018-05-16T17:30:20.987-07:002018-05-16T17:30:20.987-07:00I like to think I'm among the last people who ...I like to think I'm among the <i>last</i> people who would be disrespectful of Carole Lombard. I have run the classic Hollywood site "Carole & Co." (https://carole-and-co.livejournal.com/) for 11 years as of next month. I have assisted in all sorts of Lombard research on behalf of authors such as Michelle Morgan ("Carole Lombard: Twentieth Century Star") and others. She's my favorite classic-era actress -- and from your name here (the character she played in her pivotal film, "Twentieth Century"), I can tell you're a Lombard lover too. <br /><br />As for "Fools For Scandal," Carole made it in early 1938, when she was the hottest actress in the industry -- but it was made at Warners, a studio with absolutely no feel for screwball, and was a box-office disappointment. Lombard said she should've known it was a flop when people complimented on what she wore in the film rather than how she acted. As a result, Carole switched to drama for a few years before returning to comedy in "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" (1941). VP81955https://www.blogger.com/profile/11792390726196611188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-20602106762234551492018-05-16T17:15:10.315-07:002018-05-16T17:15:10.315-07:00My mistake.My mistake.VP81955https://www.blogger.com/profile/11792390726196611188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-59747426362944885472018-05-16T16:51:40.313-07:002018-05-16T16:51:40.313-07:00Wikipedia “You Bet Your Life” entry excerpt: “The ...Wikipedia “You Bet Your Life” entry excerpt: “The show debuted on ABC Radio on October 27, 1947, then moved to CBS Radio debuting October 5, 1949, before making the transition to NBC-TV and NBC Radio on October 4, 1950. Because of its simple format, it was possible to broadcast the show simultaneously on radio and television. The last episode in its radio format aired on June 10, 1960. On television, however, the series continued for another year, debuting in its final season on September 22, 1960, and with a new title, The Groucho Show.”Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-75734983764976405742018-05-16T16:37:30.106-07:002018-05-16T16:37:30.106-07:00Lily Garland, from what I have read about Carole L...Lily Garland, from what I have read about Carole Lombard, she would probably tell you not to be so effing ridiculous.I'm Outraged!https://www.blogger.com/profile/08329023172070049233noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-74885846111477674082018-05-16T15:15:17.251-07:002018-05-16T15:15:17.251-07:00VP81955 - Where is your source for I Dream of Jean...VP81955 - Where is your source for I Dream of Jeannie switching to CBS for ts final season? Everything out there says it was NBC for its entire run, as were the two TV reunion movies. Briannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-45923387334936489142018-05-16T12:41:56.363-07:002018-05-16T12:41:56.363-07:00JAG should have been an NBC show. The style just ...JAG should have been an NBC show. The style just fit, like The Blacklist. If it would have led to NCIS being on NBC, that would have changed the network entirely.MikeNnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-12561233324157198142018-05-16T10:52:47.342-07:002018-05-16T10:52:47.342-07:00Carole Lombard's dead?!Carole Lombard's dead?!Andrewnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-3356560018245321332018-05-16T10:06:46.969-07:002018-05-16T10:06:46.969-07:00The Lynda Carter-starred "Wonder Woman" ...The Lynda Carter-starred "Wonder Woman" originally aired on ABC in the mid-'70s to, I'm guessing, pretty good ratings but was cancelled by that network after the second season reportedly because they didn't want to pay much more for retaining the '40s period flavor. Neither, I'm guessing, did CBS which picked it up on condition it set the show in the present day resulting in Lyle Waggoner's character playing Steve Trevor's son instead of Trevor himself meaning he and WW can no longer share kissing scenes...tavmnoreply@blogger.com