PRODUCER:
Norman Felton
THEME:
“Three Stars Will Shine Tonight”
Dr. Kildare came to television after having been an extremely successful series of movies in the 1940s. There was something immensely appealing about the story of a young intern in a large metropolitan hospital trying to learn his profession, deal with the problems of the patients, and win the respect of the senior doctor in his specialty, internal medicine. Kildare was the young intern, Dr. Gillespie the father figure, and Blair General the hospital in which they practiced medicine. The series did not flinch from realistic portrayals of hospital life and the life-and-death aspect of the work. Interestingly, both Dr. Kildare and Ben Casey , the two most successful medical shows of the 1960s, arrived in the same season.
During the course of its run, Dr. Kildare went through an evolutionary process. By the third season Kildare was promoted to resident. His intern buddies from the first season, Drs. Agurski and Gerson, were not seen in subsequent seasons as the program came to center more closely on the patients and their families. In the 1965-1966 season the show was aired twice a week as a half-hour program rather than once a week for an hour, as previously. Although each episode was self-contained, the series began to take on more of a serial nature, with consecutive episodes developing an overall story. Some of these extended stories ran for only two episodes, others for as many as six.
The Kildare stories were also seen in a 1972 syndicated series called Young Dr. Kildare , starring Mark Jenkins as Kildare and Gary Merrill as Gillespie.
DR. 90210 (Documentary)
BROADCAST HISTORY:
E! Entertainment
60 minutes
Original episodes: 2004-
Premiered: July 11, 2004
This rather graphic reality/documentary series followed the lives of plastic surgeons in the expensive neighborhoods of Beverly Hills, California (zip code 90210). Patients, many of them beautiful to begin with, were seen consulting with the doctors on such procedures as breast augmentation and tummy tucks, followed by discreet film of the surgery (nipples blurred) and their reactions afterward (“This cleavage is going to be awesome!”). Stories of the patients were intermixed with the lives of the doctors and their families. The centerpiece of the show was handsome young Dr. Robert Rey and his pregnant wife, Hayley; other recurring doctors included Drs. Raj Kanodia, Robert Kotler, Paul Nassif, Jason Diamond, Linda Li and Gary Alter, some of them very successful, others struggling to get there.
DR. QUINN, MEDICINE WOMAN (Western Drama)
FIRST TELECAST: January 1, 1993
LAST TELECAST: June 27, 1998
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Jan 1993 , CBS Fri 8:00-10:00
Jan 1993-Dec 1997 , CBS Sat 8:00-9:00
Feb 1998-Junl998 , CBS Sat 8:00-9:00
CAST:
Feminism on the frontier was the theme of this drama about an independent young woman doctor making a life for herself in the Old West. Michaela Quinn (“Dr. Mike”) had moved from Boston to Colorado Springs, Colorado, in the 1860s following the death of her father and medical partner. The rough-and-ready townspeople, who expected a man when they had advertised for a town physician, greeted Dr. Mike with a mixture of hostility and skepticism. The one person who immediately befriended her was Charlotte Cooper (Diane Ladd), who owned the local boarding-house. On her deathbed from a snakebite, Charlotte asked Dr. Mike to adopt her three children, Matthew, Colleen, and Brian. Dr. Mike moved them into a homestead owned by Sully, a mysterious mountain man more at home with the Cheyenne Indians and his wolf companion than with the citizens of Colorado Springs. Gradually she gained the grudging respect of the community, since she was virtually always right. Among the featured townspeople were crotchety Loren Bray, owner of the general store; Bray's conniving buddy Jake, the town barber who was elected mayor; Dorothy, Loren's sister-in-law, who worked for him at the store and ran the town newspaper; Hank, who ran the town's saloon/brothel; Myra, one of Hank's barmaids, who eventually quit the business to marry Horace, the telegraph operator; Robert E., the town's black blacksmith, and his wife, Grace, who ran Grace's café; Cloud Dancing, the Cheyenne medicine man; and Ingrid, Matthew's girlfriend.
Dr. Mike was truly a woman ahead of her time. Aside from having chosen a “male” profession, she was an outspoken liberal and avid supporter of all sorts of humanitarian causes. She respected the Indians, sought equality for the blacks in Colorado Springs, and was sympathetic to the barmaids/prostitutes who worked in Hank's saloon. Over time she not only gained the respect of the community but found love with the ruggedly handsome Sully. They got engaged in 1994, and he started building the home they would move into after their marriage. The end of the 1994-1995 season brought three major events—the cavalry massacred the Cheyenne villagers (but Cloud Dancing, who was not there at the time, survived), the railroad link to Colorado Springs was completed, and Sully and Dr. Mike got married.
That fall, Dr. Mike and Sully returned from their honeymoon and it took a while for her foster children to adjust, since she spent more time on her relationship with her new husband than on them. Cloud Dancing was forced onto a government-run reservation. New to the cast was Preston, a Bostonian who arrived to establish the first bank in Colorado Springs and planned to build a big hotel and casino. Tragedy occurred when Matthew's fiancée, Ingrid, was bitten by a rabid dog and died. Dorothy wrote a best-seller about her experiences in Colorado Springs, which irritated the townsfolk because of its revelations, and in January, Dr. Mike became the first woman accepted into the A.M. A. Matthew, still grieving over Ingrid's death, was elected sheriff of Colorado Springs and started dating Emma, who worked in the town bordello. It didn't work out. Sully, who had become the government's Indian agent, had problems with the various tribes. In the season finale, Dr. Mike gave birth to a baby girl, Katie.
When Dr. Mike returned to her practice, the townspeople had problems adjusting because they had gotten used to Andrew Cook, the young doctor who covered for her while she was on maternity leave. Colleen started college and eventually started to date Andrew. In October, Teresa, a Latin American widowed after her husband was mauled by a mountain lion, replaced Rev. Johnson as the schoolteacher, which did not sit well with some of the more prejudiced townspeople. Sully lost his job as Indian agent and was banned from the reservation because of his relationship with Cloud Dancing and the Cheyenne. In February, Sully's old friend Daniel, wealthy from a recent gold strike, showed up for a visit and paid off the entire loan on their homestead. At season's end Sully was on the run, having organized an escape for Cloud Dancing and the Cheyenne from the reservation that resulted in a massacre.
At the start of Dr. Quinn's final season, Daniel, who had stayed in Colorado Springs and replaced Matthew as sheriff, went with Dr. Mike in search of her fugitive husband. Wounded, Sully was in hiding after having killed a soldier in self-defense. He was also pursued by a relentless Sgt. McKay, who blamed Sully for the Indian massacre. After he regained his health, Sully, still in hiding, worked to convince the renegade Indians to go back to the reservation—they finally did, at year's end, signing a treaty that allowed Sully, too, to return home. Dorothy had fallen in love with Cloud Dancing, and Matthew was studying law. In the series finale Colleen graduated from Colorado Seminary College, and was accepted to medical school at the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania, Dr. Mike's alma mater. Preston, the banker, had serious financial problems when the stock market, in which he had invested his depositors' money, crashed, resulting in a run on the bank. The episode ended at the outdoor wedding reception for Colleen and Andrew, at which Grace told Robert E. she was pregnant, and Loren told Dorothy he had taken out a mortgage on his store to pay off her loan to Preston for the Colorado Springs Gazette.
DR. RUTH (Discussion/Advice)
CABLE HISTORY:
Lifetime
Network 30/60 minutes
Produced: 1984-1991
Premiered: August 27, 1984
SYNDICATION HISTORY:
Syndicated 30 minutes
Produced: 1987
Released: January 1987
HOST:
Dr. Ruth Westheimer
Diminutive psychologist Dr. Ruth Westheimer's subject was sex—“good sex”—and coming from this sweet, grandmotherly lady with a thick German accent, the sometimes graphic discussions of physical and emotional performance problems, techniques, and other ways to make your sex life enjoyable caused quite a sensation. Starting with a late-night local radio show in New York in the early 1980s, she had, by the middle of the decade, become a national phenomenon, with cable and syndicated series, a best-selling book, and scores of personal appearances. The kindest compliment was being lampooned by dozens of comics, notably Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show. Over the years Dr. Ruth hosted at least five different series on Lifetime and one in syndication (she also made pilots for the broadcast networks, for example, Dr. Ruth's House for ABC in 1990, but they were too chicken to pick them up!). Her first TV series was Good Sex! With Dr. Ruth Westheimer , a half-hour 10 P.M. weeknight show on Lifetime in 1984 that included reenactments. The first telecast dealt with premature ejaculation. In 1985 the show was expanded to an hour nightly and the name changed to The Dr. Ruth Show. Dr. Ruth became such a sensation on Lifetime that in 1987 she launched a separate half-hour syndicated series, Ask Dr. Ruth , with co-host Larry Angelo, which ran on many broadcast stations in the wee hours.
The irrepressible doctor returned to Lifetime in 1988 with The All New Dr. Ruth Show , followed by What's Up, Dr. Ruth? (advice for teens, 1989) and You're on the Air with Dr. Ruth (call-in, 1990). These were half-hour series seen primarily on weekends; the last one left the air in June 1991. Most of Dr. Ruth's series featured guests and sometimes a studio audience. Naturally, due to the explicit subject matter, nearly all of them aired late at night.
DR. SEUSS , See Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss, The
DR. SIMON LOCKE (Medical Drama)
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Syndicated only
30 minutes
Produced: 1971–1974 (78 episodes)
Released: Fall 1971
CAST:
| Dr. Simon Locke | Sam Groom |
| Dr. Sellers (1971-1972) | Jack Albertson |
| Nurse Wynn (1971-1972) | Nuala Fitzgerald |
| Chief/Det. Lt. Dan Palmer (1971-1973). | Len Birman |
| Lt. Jack Gordon (1973-1974) | Larry D. Mann |
This Canadian-produced medical drama was very cheaply made, and critics found it awful, but nevertheless it survived for three seasons in syndication in the U.S. In the first season Dr. Simon Locke was an earnest young physician newly arrived in the small town of Dixon Mills, where his mentor was the crusty Dr. Sellers. Despite the rural locale, Locke encountered all sorts of excitement, such as murders, battered children, and a typhoid epidemic. In its second season the show moved to the city, where Locke was assigned to the police emergency unit, finding even more crime-oriented (though generally nonviolent) stories. Chief Palmer of Dixon Mills came along as his tough-talking police boss. (“Remember,” he growled at Locke, “you're only second line. Don't become a hero.”) The title was changed to Police Surgeon. In the final season, Lt. Gordon became Locke's police superior. A guest-star policy was also instituted in the second and third seasons, with such well-known actors as William Shatner, Leslie Nielsen, Keenan Wynn, and Susan Strasberg appearing.
The behind-the-scenes story of Dr. Simon Locke is an interesting, if extreme, case study in how syndicated programs get on the air. It isn't simply a matter of a producer having a bright idea, followed by the audience voting yea or nay. This one began when the Federal Communications Commission announced that starting in the fall of 1971, the networks had to cut back their evening programming, and local stations would have to fill the vacated time—generally 7:30-8:00 P.M. —with original shows (not reruns). The idea was to encourage localized programming, but that didn't happen. Syndicators, who sell their programs station to station, rushed out all sorts of first-run candidates. The problem was that they had to be very cheap, because without network financing and guaranteed exposure, the risk capital simply wasn't available for big-budget production. As a result, what the public got was mostly inexpensive game shows and nature documentaries. However, the Colgate-Palmolive Co., sponsor of Dr. Kildare and the daytime serial The Doctors , was persuaded by its advertising agency to finance a dramatic show about a young doctor who moves to a rural town.
The first necessity was to get production out of Hollywood, where expenses were astronomical. The second was to find a way to sell the program to other countries, to help defray costs. Unfortunately many countries had recently instituted severe quotas on the amount of programming that could be imported from the U.S. So production was moved to Toronto, thus qualifying the series as “Canadian”—okay for Canada and the British Empire—and cheap enough for the U.S. Little-known Sam Groom, a refugee from Another World , provided an inexpensive lead. Jack Albertson was lured away from Hollywood as the only “name” in the cast.
Still, budgets were so skinflinty that when Albertson arrived to do location filming he found he literally had to change his pants in the bushes. The director refused to screen the results of each day's filming for him (again, to save money), and he never saw a show until the first three were edited and complete. When he did, he was furious at the mess—incredibly sloppy production, microphones in camera range, bad lighting, choppy editing, dreadful scripts. He promptly quit to save his reputation. “You have a contract,” insisted the producer. “After what I just saw,” exploded Albertson, “there's not a jury in the world that would convict me!”
Albertson was mollified, at least temporarily, but when critics saw the results on the air they were even madder. “Sub-sub par…unbelievable … It is literally impossible to assume that any viewer would return for a second look.…No way, no way!” cried Variety. “A syndie quickie,” groaned TV Guide. “The only way [the producers] could break even with this show would be if they gave something away with it.”
So how did it survive? Economics. It was not only cheap, the producers actually gave it to stations—with the understanding that two of the commercials in each episode remain with them (called “barter” in the trade). These went to Colgate, who had put up the cash. Although audiences weren't sizable, they did contain a fair number of young women (Colgate's clientele), and the sponsor liked Sam Groom and thought perhaps the show could be juiced up with the move to the city. Things limped along this way until 1974, when Colgate finally found better things to do with its money, and Dr. Locke closed up shop. Without the benefit of the legislative and economic accident that put it on the air, Dr. Simon Locke was scarcely seen at all in reruns.
DR. VEGAS (Medical Drama)
FIRST TELECAST: September 24, 2004
LAST TELECAST: October 29, 2004
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Sep 2004-Oct 2004 , CBS Fri 10:00-11:00
CAST:
| Dr. Billy Grant | Rob Lowe |
| Tommy Danko | Joe Pantoliano |
| Veronica Harold | Sarah Lancaster |
| Vic Moore | Tom Sizemore |
| Alice Doherty | Amy Adams |
Dr. Billy Grant had traded working in a hospital emergency room for the position of in-house physician at The Metro, a fancy Las Vegas casino that catered to high rollers. The cases and patients were certainly more interesting than he had seen in his previous position and, although he was on call 24 hours a day, he managed to get free time to spend at the tables. There were times when his medical decisions put him at odds with his friend and boss, Tommy, The Metro's general manager, who resented anything that would impact the casino's profits. This was certainly true when he forced the main showroom's star singer to take a break because she was exhausted from pregnancy and drugs or stopped a middle-weight championship fight because of health problems of one of the combatants. Other cases involved emergency surgery to save the life of a guest who had attempted suicide, tending to a gambler dying from cancer and monitoring the health of a famous professional poker player who suffered from diabetes. Others in the cast were Veronica, the sexy blackjack dealer who was in college during the day but needed to work to help support her alcoholic father, Hank (Harry Groener); Vic, Tommy's beefy assistant, who doubled as casino host and strong-arm enforcer; and Alice, the idealistic nurse who worked with Billy. She was attracted to him and they had started to date but broke up. They might have eventually gotten back together but, since the series lasted only five episodes, we will never know.
DOCTOR WHO (Science Fiction)
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Sci-Fi Channel
60 minutes
Original episodes: 2006-
Premiered: March 17, 2006
CAST:
| Doctor Who (2006) | Christopher Eccleston |
| Doctor Who | David Tennant |
| Rose Tyler (2006) | Billie Piper |
| Mickey Smith (2006) | Noel Clarke |
| Jackie Tyler (2006) | Camille Coduri |
| Martha Jones (2007-) | Freema Agyeman |
One of the most beloved British cult TV series among sci-fi fans was the imaginative, gleefully low-budget Doctor Who , which began in 1963 on the BBC and continued with its semi-serialized stories until 1989. The Doctor was a Time Lord, a wry, unassuming (but very powerful) time traveler who bounced between eras and even dimensions battling various alien foes. He had the handy ability to regenerate when near death, which meant that various actors played the role over the years and the series never became dated. Adding to the show's whimsical nature, the Doctor's main mode of transportation was TARDIS (“Time and Relative Dimension in Space”), a tiny, flying London police box. It looked like a phone booth but when en-tered revealed a large and wondrous interior.
Sixteen years after the series ended on the BBC a new Doctor Who appeared, with much higher production values but the same mixture of whimsy and slam-bang action. The newly regenerated doctor sported short hair, had a goofy grin and was dressed all in black. His traveling companion was a perky young London shopgirl named Rose. When they first met she asked him “Where are you from?” “All over the place” replied the laconic doctor, who then whisked her away to fantastical worlds fighting such foes as the Daleks, Autons, Cybermen and Slitheen. Jackie was Rose's fussing mom, and Mickey their black male friend. When the doctor “perished” in a battle he regenerated into yet another face (the tenth doctor) and continued to travel with a surprised Rose, until she was replaced by the very contemporary Martha, a spike-haired black woman, in 2007.
DOCTORS AND THE NURSES, THE , see Nurses, The
DOCTORS' HOSPITAL (Medical Drama)
FIRST TELECAST: September 10, 1975
LAST TELECAST: January 14, 1976
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Sep 1975-Jan 1976 , NBC Wed 9:00-10:00
CAST:
| Dr. Jake Goodwin | George Peppard |
| Dr. Norah Purcell | Zohra Lampert |
| Dr. Felipe Ortega | Victor Campos |
| Janos Varga | Albert Paulsen |
| Dr. Chaffey | Russ Martin |
| Dr. Paul Herman | John Larroquette |
| Dr. Danvers | John Pleshette |
| Dr. Anson Brooks | James Almanzar |
| Nurse Connie Kimbrough | Elizabeth Brooks |
| Nurse Hester Stanton | Adrian Ricard |
| Nurse Forester | Barbara Darrow |
| Nurse Wilson | Elaine Church |
| Nurse Franklin | Susan Franklin |
| Barney | Larry Watson |
| Scotty | Maxine Stuart |
Set at fictitious Lowell Memorial Hospital in Los Angeles, this medical series sought a unique approach to hospital life: it examined all aspects of that life— the good and the bad—through the eyes of the doctors rather than those of the patients. Dr. Jake Goodwin was the chief of neurosurgical services at the hospital, and Norah Purcell was a second-year resident and his most gifted student. Dr. Ortega was the chief resident at Lowell Memorial and Janos Varga its director. To minimize the roles of the patients, a large number of them were treated in each episode, thereby shifting the emphasis to the work and personalities of the doctors and the other members of the hospital staff.
DOCTORS' PRIVATE LIVES (Medical Drama)
FIRST TELECAST: April 5, 1979
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Apr 1979 , ABC Thu 10:00-11:00
CAST:
| Dr. Michael Wise | Ed Nelson |
| Dr. Jeffrey Latimer | John Gavin |
| Dr. Rick Calder | Randolph Powell |
| Kenny Wise | Phil Levien |
| Sheila Castle | Gwen Humble |
| Nurse Diane Cooper | Eddie Benton |
This series focused on the personal and professional crises of two famous heart surgeons, Chief Surgeon Dr. Michael Wise and cardiovascular unit chief Dr. Jeffrey Latimer. Worrying along with them were young Dr. Rick Calder, medical students Kenny Wise and Sheila Castle, and Nurse Cooper.
DOG AND CAT (Police Drama)
FIRST TELECAST: March 5, 1977
LAST TELECAST: May 14, 1977
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Mar 1977-May 1977 , ABC Sat 10:00-11:00
CAST:
| Det. Sgt. Jack Ramsey | Lou Antonio |
| Officer J. Z. Kane | Kim Basinger |
| Lt. Arthur Kipling | Matt Clark |
This was a police show with a light sense of humor. It had to be, to team an experienced veteran plain-clothes cop (Ramsey) with a bright, sexy, and, of course, competent female rookie (Kane) and expect nothing but police work to occur. Lt. Kipling was the boss. The program was filmed in Southern California.
DOG EAT DOG (Quiz)
FIRST TELECAST: June 17, 2002
LAST TELECAST: August 26, 2003
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Jun 2002-Aug 2002 , NBC Mon 9:00-10:00
Aug 2002-Sep 2002 , NBC Sat 9:00-10:00
May 2003-Aug 2003 , NBC Tue 8:00-9:00
EMCEE:
Brooke Burns
One of the many bizarre shows that came and went during the prime time game-show craze of the early 2000's, Dog Eat Dog brought six fit, young contestants together for a series of physical and mental challenges. First they spent a day together facing various challenges so they could judge each other's strengths and weaknesses. Then they came together on a huge stage that looked a lot like a cave (complete with steam coming out of the walls), with a 30-foot-tall tower and a 300,000-gallon swimming tank. Tall, sexy host Brooke Burns presented them with more challenges, and for each the group voted who would be the most likely to fail. The chosen contestant then had to take the challenge; a loser went to the “dog pound” (a bench on the side), but if the contestant succeeded, he or she got to send one of the other players there. The last contestant left standing was dubbed “Top Dog” but faced one last challenge, competing in a trivia round against the eliminated players for a grand prize of $25,000. If he or she lost, the money was split among the other five.
Challenges included diving into the pool after various objects, climbing a swinging pole to retrieve flags and answering trivia questions while running on a treadmill that was suspended high above the water, and which picked up speed with each wrong answer. There was a good deal of skin, especially in the water (girls in bikinis, guys in trunks), and an annoying amount of advertising integrated into the show (the NetZero Countdown Clock, the Circuit City Video Screen, etc.).
DOG THE BOUNTY HUNTER (Crime Documentary)
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Arts & Entertainment Network
60 minutes
Original episodes: 2004-
Premiered: August 31, 2004
REGULARS:
Duane “Dog” Chapman
Beth Smith
Leland Chapman
Duane Lee Chapman Jr. (2005-2006)
Tim Chapman
*Gary Chapman
*Bonnie Jo Chapman
*Occasional
One of the more colorful characters to gain fame through reality television was beefy, long-haired, leather-clad Duane “Dog” Chapman. The head of a clan of real-life bounty hunters based in Hawaii, he mixed macho swagger and tough-talking takedowns with a genuine concern for the fugitives he apprehended, many of whom seemed to be troubled young people who had simply made bad decisions. The mixture of Cops -like excitement (the buildup, the chase) with a certain amount of “heart” (Dog offering the perps fatherly advice) made Dog the Bounty Hunter a cable hit. Dog and his team used bulletproof vests, handcuffs and mace, but did not carry guns. Surprisingly there was seldom any real violence; apparently their targets were too intimidated by the team's tough-guy appearance (and perhaps the camera crews) to put up much resistance.
Dog's team included his plus-sized girlfriend Beth, sons Leland and Duane, Jr., and longtime friend Tim, among others. The show often referred to their own troubled pasts: Beth's first husband was a drug addict, Leland and Duane, Jr., both had violent, troubled youths, Tim was abused as a child (before Dog became his mentor) and Dog himself had served time for armed robbery. After turning his own life around Dog had helped each of them, which made them exceptionally loyal to him.
The series achieved record ratings in 2006 first with a special in which Dog and Beth were married, and then in another showing his arrest by U.S. marshals. It seems that officials in Mexico had demanded his extradition, because in 2003 he had gone there to track down serial rapist Andrew Luster—and bounty hunting is illegal in Mexico. Dog the Bounty Hunter was spun off from a 2003 episode of A&E's Take This Job , a series profiling people with unusual occupations.
DOLLAR A SECOND (Quiz/Audience Participation)
FIRST TELECAST: September 20, 1953
LAST TELECAST: September 28, 1957
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Sep 1953-Apr 1954 , DUM Sun 10:00-10:30
Apr 1954-Jun 1954 , DUM Mon 8:00-8:30
Jul 1954-Aug 1954 , NBC Sun 10:00-10:30
Oct 1954-Jun 1955 , ABC Fri 9:00-9:30
Jul 1955-Aug 1955 , NBC Tue 9:30-10:00
Sep 1955-Sep 1956 , ABC Fri 9:00-9:30
Jun 1957-Sep 1957 , NBC Sat 9:30-10:00
Sep 1957 , NBC Sat 10:00-10:30
EMCEE:
Jan Murray
In this comedy quiz show the contestant could win money in two ways: he or she won a dollar for every correct answer and another dollar for every second he stayed on the show. There was a catch, however, and that was called “the outside event.” While the contestant was answering questions, and paying funny but embarrassing penalties for wrong answers (as in Truth or Consequences) , something was going on outside the studio that might cause him or her to forfeit all winnings. The contestant could choose to quit at any time and keep all winnings up to that point, or continue in the hope that the outside event would not take place until after the show was over. The contestant did not know the nature of the outside event, but viewers did. It might be the arrival of a train at a specified point, or the landing of a given plane at La-Guardia Airport, or the birth of a baby at a designated hospital. A remote camera looked in periodically on the event about to take place, to heighten the suspense for the viewing audience.
$1.98 BEAUTY SHOW, THE (Comedy)
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Syndicated only
30 minutes
Produced: 1978—1980 (54 episodes)
Released: September 1978
HOST:
Rip Taylor
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER:
Chuck Barris
Critics howled with disgust, but audiences seemed to enjoy this intentionally tacky travesty on the traditional American beauty pageant. “Chuck Barris [the producer] seems determined to become the leading purveyor of bad taste on the tube,” groaned Variety. The format called for six contestants, some sexy, some gross, to vie for a crown. First they were introduced, to good-natured ribbing by chubby, mustachioed host Rip Taylor and the rambunctious panel; then came the “talent” competition, in which 200-pound lady plumbers did the “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies,” and off-key singers bellowed their way through hapless ballads (shades of The Gong Show !); and finally there was the swimsuit competition, in which the girls purred, nervously tiptoed, or defiantly waddled through their paces “deprived of all their worldly goods.” Hoots and cheers from the audience! Some of the contestants were pretty sexy, but the fat ladies always seemed to do best in this last segment.
The winner got $1.98 plunked into her hand, and a tacky crown. In his gaudy vest, host Taylor presided over the tumult with unctuous charm. Frequently celebrity panelists included Jaye P. Morgan, Jamie Farr, Louis Nye, Marty Allen, and the Unknown Comic (Murray Langston).
DOLLY (Music)
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Syndicated only
30 minutes
Produced: 1976(52 episodes)
Released: February 1976
HOSTESS:
Dolly Parton
Country superstar Dolly Parton, with her generous bust, mountainous wig, and sequined pseudo-cowgirl outfit, hosted this half hour of music taped in Nashville. Guests included country-pop talent such as Tennessee Ernie Ford, Bobby Goldsboro, Lynn Anderson, Rod McKuen, and even Captain Kangaroo. Though Miss Parton was a major star in the country field, she had not yet emerged into the popular mainstream at this time; as her fame spread over the next few years, the program was widely repeated.
DOLLY (Musical Variety)
FIRST TELECAST: September 27, 1987
LAST TELECAST: May 7, 1988
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Sep 1987-Jan 1988 , ABC Sun 9:00-10:00
Jan 1988-May 1988 , ABC Sat 8:00-9:00
REGULARS:
Dolly Parton
A Cappella (singing group)
ABC made a valiant attempt to revive the concept of a big, splashy prime-time variety show in this 1987 series headlined by country superstar Dolly Parton. The petite (5'2”) Miss Parton, in her towering blonde wigs and skintight fashions, never looked better (“It takes a lot of money to make me look this cheap,” she cracked). The accent was on music “with a lot of heart,” mostly of the country or country-pop variety, often in cozy settings such as Dolly's rustic living room with its roaring fireplace, rather than on a stage. There were also comedy sketches in recurring settings, including Dixie's Place Cafe (with Dolly as a waitress), the Vanity Fair Beauty Salon, “D.P.'s” country music club, or on “Dolly's Date.”
Guests included Burt Reynolds, country groups Alabama and The Oak Ridge Boys, Whoopi Goldberg, Willie Nelson, the Smothers Brothers, and Kermit the Frog. A Cappella was Dolly's backup group, consisting of Richard Dennison, Gene Miller, Dave Rowland, and Howard Smith.
DOLPHIN COVE (Adventure)
FIRST TELECAST: January 21, 1989
LAST TELECAST: March 11, 1989
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Jan 1989-Mar 1989 , CBS Sat 8:00-9:00
CAST:
| Michael Larson | Frank Converse |
| David Larson | Trey Ames |
| Katie Larson | Karron Graves |
| Didge | Ernie Dingo |
| Baron Trent | Nick Tate |
| Alison Mitchell | Virginia Hey |
| Kevin Mitchell | Antony Richards |
Several months after the death of his wife in a tragic automobile accident, dolphin researcher Michael Larson and his two children moved to Australia to start a new life. Michael had been hired by a wealthy Australian industrialist, Baron Trent, to perfect man-to-dolphin communications. Living at Trent's estate on the Australian coast, Michael worked full-time with the two resident dolphins, Slim and Delbert. But life for these Yanks in Australia was not without its problems. David, the teenage son, felt like an outsider at school and found it hard to adjust to the regimented discipline of the Australian school system. Katie, his younger sister, had yet to regain her speech—lost from the shock of being in the car with her mother during the accident—and was slow to accept her new therapist, Alison Mitchell. Although she was uncomfortable with people, Katie was completely at home with the dolphins, with whom she developed an almost telepathic communication. Alison's son Kevin was David's one close friend at school, and Didge was the Aborigine who ran the estate for Baron Trent and helped Michael with his research.
Filmed entirely on location in Australia and co-created by Peter Benchley, the author ofjaws.
DOM DELUISE SHOW, THE (Comedy/Variety)
FIRST TELECAST: May 1, 1968
LAST TELECAST: September 18, 1968
BROADCAST HISTORY:
May 1968-Sep 1968 , CBS Wed 10:00-11:00
REGULARS:
Dom DeLuise
Marian Mercer
Bill McCutcheon
Carol Arthur
Paul Dooley
Mike and Joe Gentry
Dick Lynn
The June Taylor Dancers
Sammy Spear and His Orchestra
Pudgy comedian Dom DeLuise hosted and starred in this summer variety series. The emphasis was on comedy, with DeLuise's pantomime routines frequently featured. Guest stars appeared on each telecast, along with a cast of regulars. One of the regulars, Carol Arthur, was Dom's wife.
DOM DELUISE SHOW, THE (Situation Comedy)
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Syndicated only
30 minutes
Produced: 1987-1988 (24 episodes)
Released: September 1987
CAST:
| Dom | Dom DeLuise |
| George Henry Wallace | George Wallace |
| Maureen | Maureen Murphy |
| Penny | Angela Aames |
| Michael Chambers | Michael Chambers |
| Blanche Maxwell | Lois Foraker |
| Rosa | Lauren Woodland |
| Charlie | Charlie Callas |
| Billy (1987) | Billy Scudder |
This series described itself as “almost, but not quite, a situation comedy” and did so with good reason. Although the regulars, most of whom had considerable experience as standup comics, all stayed in character, individual scenes frequently tended to look like variety-show comedy sketches or comedy monologues. On top of everything else, star Dom DeLuise (and on occasion others in the cast) sometimes talked directly to the viewing audience, much as George Burns had done three decades earlier on The George Burns and Grade Allen Show.
Most of the action took place in Dom's Barber Shop, where Dom and his black partner George held court for their customers and friends. Among them were Maureen, their spaced-out manicurist; Penny, the sexy young aerobics instructor who worked nearby; Michael, the loose-limbed pizza delivery boy who could dance up a storm; Charlie, the paranoid, trench-coated private detective; and Billy, the Chaplinesque (including tramp costume and walk) little man who advertised Dom's Barber Shop with a small sign on his back. Dom, a widower who took pride in being a gourmet cook, lived behind the barbershop with his cute 10-year-old daughter Rosa. His girlfriend Blanche owned a neighborhood pet shop and had given him Max, his pet chimpanzee, as a Christmas present. Located near the big movie studios in Hollywood, the barbershop was visited by celebrities like Burt Reynolds, Sherman Hemsley, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Dean Martin, and Tom Jones.
DOMESTIC LIFE (Situation Comedy)
FIRST TELECAST: January 4, 1984
LAST TELECAST: September 11, 1984
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Jan 1984-Feb 1984 , CBS Wed 8:00-8:30
Mar 1984-Apr 1984 , CBS Sun 8:00-8:30
Jul 1984-Sep 1984 , CBS Tue 8:30-9:00
CAST:
| Martin Crane | Martin Mull |
| Harold Crane | Christian Brackett-Zika |
| Didi Crane | Megan Follows |
| Cliff Hamilton | Robert Ridgely |
| Candy Crane | Judith-Marie Bergan |
| Jane Funakubo | Mie Hunt |
| Rip Steele | Hoyt Axton |
| Jeff, the floor manager | J. Alan Thomas |
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER:
Steve Martin
Comedian Steve Martin produced this comedy about a slightly offbeat family, which was turned down by one network (NBC) and then had a short and unsuccessful run on another (CBS). Martin Crane had just arrived in Seattle to take a job as a commentator for station KMRT-TV. His regular spot on the station's evening news was called “Domestic Life,” and dealt with the humorous side of home and family life. He certainly had a lot to talk about! His wife Candy was a sucker for other people's problems, and vaguely dissatisfied with their own limited finances. Daughter Didi was a typical, semi-controllable 15-year-old. Harold, their chubby ten-year-old son, talked like a businessman, had an office in his room, and had already netted thousands from wise investments. In some ways he was more mature than his parents, though he still wanted a hug and a kiss when he gave them a loan.
Martin's life was usually in an uproar both at home and at the station, where Cliff and Jane were fellow reporters and Rip Steele—an ex-cowboy star of “B” movies—was the colorful, guitar-strumming station owner.
DON ADAMS' SCREEN TEST (Comedy/Audience Participation)
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Syndicated only
30 minutes
Produced: 1974-1975 (26 episodes)
Released: Fall 1975
HOST/“DIRECTOR”:
Don Adams
Comedian Don Adams hosted this original but high-decibel audience-participation show, in which preselected studio contestants were paired with guest stars to reenact famous movie scenes. First the original scene was shown, via a film clip. Then the contestant and celebrity did it, usually for laughs (in the beach scene from From Here to Eternity , for example, everybody got drenched with buckets of water). Don Adams served as “director” and sometimes participant in the scenes. A professional TV or movie director picked the winner, who got a bit part in an upcoming real production—although that part was incidental to the laughs. Among the stars appearing were Milton Berle, Mel Brooks, Bob Newhart, and Greg Morris; the movies parodied included On the Waterfront, Pillow Talk, Bride of Frankenstein , and The African Queen.
DON AMECHE'S MUSICAL PLAYHOUSE , see Holiday Hotel
DON KIRSHNER'S ROCK CONCERT (Music)
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Syndicated only
90 minutes
Produced: 1973–1981
Released: September 1973
HOST:
Don Kirshner
This was one of the two principal showcases for rock music in the mid-and late 1970s. Although it was syndicated for local airing anywhere on a station's schedule, it usually ran late at night, like NBC's Midnight Special. The emphasis was on progressive rock bands, such as the Allman Brothers, Fleetwood Mac, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, and the Ramones, but a wide variety of contemporary talent appeared—Paul McCartney and Wings, Dr. Hook, Blondie, Chuck Berry, etc. Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones head-lined the much-heralded premiere in 1973. In the later 1970s soft-pop acts started to creep in (Captain and Tennille, Johnny Nash, Shaun Cassidy, even Debby Boone), but the program never abandoned the non-top-40 side of rock. Some hip comics also were seen, among them Martin Mull, the Village Idiots, and Natural Gas.
Don Kirshner had begun his career with Bobby Darin in the 1950s, and was a major figure in the music business by this time (he was responsible for the Monkees, among others). ABC hired him in late 1972 as impresario for its short-lived In Concert , but he left to start his own show a few months later. Some of the executives at ABC, he remarked, didn't seem to know the difference between the Allman Brothers and the Osmond Brothers.
There was no regular host at first. Beginning with the second season, Kirshner himself began to do brief introductions (on camera but offstage).
DON KNOTTS SHOW, THE (Comedy/Variety)
FIRST TELECAST: September 15, 1970
LAST TELECAST: July 6, 1971
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Sep 1970-Jan 1971 , NBC Tue 7:30-8:30
Jan 1971-Jul 1971 , NBC Tue 8:00-9:00
REGULARS:
Don Knotts
Elaine Joyce
Bob Williams and his dog Louie
Frank Welker
Ken Mars
Mickey Deems
John Dehner
Eddie Carroll
Gary Burghoff
The Nick Perito Orchestra
Don Knotts hosted and starred in this comedy-variety show. There were two regular features each week: Don and his guest stars in skits about his frustrations caused by the grind of doing a weekly TV show, and “The Front Porch,” in which Don and his guest star would sit in rocking chairs and exchange “philosophies.”
DON McNEILL TV CLUB (Variety)
FIRST TELECAST: September 13, 1950
LAST TELECAST: December 19, 1951
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Sep 1950-Jun 1951 , ABC Wed 9:00-10:00
Sep 1951–Dec 1951 , ABC Wed 9:00-9:30 (alternate weeks)
REGULARS:
Don McNeill
Johnny Desmond
Fran Allison
Sam Cowling
Patsy Lee
Eddie Ballantine Orchestra
Don McNeill seemed like a natural for TV. His easygoing, homey style was much like that of Arthur Godfrey, who in 1950 was scoring an enormous hit with his Arthur Godfrey and His Friends and Talent Scouts programs. McNeill, like Godfrey, had been a radio fixture for years; his Breakfast Club , which began in 1933, had almost singlehandedly turned early-morning network radio into a profitable medium. Thus, in the fall of 1950 ABC brought McNeill and his Breakfast Club gang to nighttime network television, live from his hometown of Chicago.
Music and variety acts were featured, all delivered with the down-home charm and sincerity that had endeared McNeill to millions of radio fans. Among the regulars were Fran Allison doing her rural Aunt Fanny characterization, singer Johnny Desmond, portly comic Sam Cowling, and singer-comedienne Patsy Lee, plus show-business guests. The guests never overshadowed the regular cast. Perhaps that was part of the problem; perhaps there was only room for one Godfrey. In any event, McNeill never caught on in television, and after a season and a half in prime time and an attempt at a daytime version of the Breakfast Club in 1954, he abandoned the medium to concentrate solely on his radio show (which had continued in the meantime). He continued with it until 1968, a run of over 34 years. His signature was the same on radio and television: “Be good to yourself.”
DON RICKLES SHOW, THE (Comedy/Variety)
FIRST TELECAST: September 27, 1968
LAST TELECAST: January 31, 1969
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Sep 1968-Jan 1969 , ABC Fri 9:00-9:30
REGULARS:
Don Rickles
Pat McCormick
Vic Mizzy Orchestra
This was a kind of one-man roast, in which Don Rickles directed his famous “insult humor” at guests and audience. Everyone was a “dummy” to Don. Pat McCormick was his gargantuan foil-announcer-factotum, as well as one of the writers of the show. Apparently the viewing audience did not take kindly to this kind of assault, and the show was soon canceled. Those involved bore no grudge, however; at the end of the final telecast the writers and the entire crew and staff carried Rickles off the stage on their shoulders. What they did with him afterward was not revealed.
DON RICKLES SHOW, THE (Situation Comedy)
FIRST TELECAST: January 14, 1972
LAST TELECAST: May 26, 1972
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Jan 1972-May 1972 , CBS Fri 10:30-11:00
CAST:
| Don Robinson | Don Rickles |
| Barbara Robinson | Louise Sorel |
| Janie Robinson | Erin Moran |
| Tyler Benedict | Robert Hogan |
| Audrey | Judy Cassmore |
| Jean Benedict | Joyce Van Patten |
| Conrad Musk | Barry Gordon |
The life and endless problems of a New York advertising-agency executive were the premise for this comedy starring Don Rickles. Don Robinson's loving wife Barbara and his cute young daughter Janie stood by more or less helplessly while Don, the master of insult humor, did constant battle with the frustrations of corporate society. Battlegrounds included his office at Kingston, Cohen and Vander-pool, Inc., and his pleasant Long Island home. Apparently viewers quickly wearied of the fray, as the series was cancelled after only four months.
DONALD O'CONNOR TEXACO SHOW, THE (Situation Comedy)
FIRST TELECAST: October 9, 1954
LAST TELECAST: September 10, 1955
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Oct 1954-Sep 1955, NBC Sat 9:30-10:00
CAST:
| Donald O'Connor | Himself |
| Sid Miller | Himself |
| Doreen | Joyce Smight |
During the 1954-1955 season the Texaco Star Theatre consisted of two alternating series, The Donald O'Connor Show and The Jimmy Durante Show. O'Connor's half of the venture, which was subtitled “Here Comes Donald,” was a loosely structured situation comedy whose primary function was to let Donald perform as a singer and dancer with his songwriting partner Sid Miller. The basic story line presented Donald and Sid as two young songwriters trying to find buyers for their songs and winding up in situations where they had the opportunity to sing, dance, and be comedians. Joyce Smight had the continuing role of their secretary, Doreen.
DONNA REED SHOW, THE (Situation Comedy)
FIRST TELECAST: September 24, 1958
LAST TELECAST: September 3, 1966
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Sep 1958-Sep 1959 , ABC Wed 9:00-9:30
Oct 1959-Jan 1966 , ABC Thu 8:00-8:30
Jan 1966-Sep 1966 , ABC Sat 8:00-8:30
CAST:
| Donna Stone | Donna Reed |
| Dr. Alex Stone | Carl Betz |
| Mary Stone (1958-1963) | Shelley Fabares |
| Jeff Stone | Paul Petersen |
| Trisha Stone (1963-1966) | Patty Petersen |
| Dr. Dave Kelsey (1963-1965) | Bob Crane |
| Midge Kelsey (1963-1966) | Ann McCrea |
| Karen Holmby (l964-1965) | Janet Langard |
| Smitty (1965-1966) | Darryl Richard |
PRODUCER/EXEC. PRODUCER:
Tony Owen
THEME SONG:
“Happy Days,” by William Loose and John Seely
At the center of this family comedy were Donna Stone, her husband Alex, a pediatrician, and their rambunctious teenage kids. The adventures of the Stone family were similar to those of other TV families—measles, girlfriends, school problems, little white lies, and so on—compounded by the fact that Dr. Alex was always running off at odd hours to attend to his patients. The show was set in the small town of Hilldale, and it had a wholesome quality that endeared it to audiences. It won many awards from youth, women's, educational, and medical groups; the president of the American Medical Association even appeared in a cameo role in one telecast.
Over the years changes in the series took place. Mary, the older child, went off to college in 1962, followed by Jeff two years later. About the time that Mary left the series for good, in 1963, the character of Trisha, an eight-year-old orphan who “adopted” the Stones, was added. Played by Patty Petersen, Paul's real-life sister, she was first seen in a January 1963 telecast and stayed for the rest of the series. Dave Kelsey was Alex's colleague and the Stones' next-door neighbor, and Midge was Dave's wife. Various friends and romances of Mary and Jeff appeared from time to time, the most regular of whom were Paul's girlfriend Karen and his college buddy Smitty.
Both of Donna Reed's original TV offspring had short but spectacular recording careers in 1962-1963 with songs introduced on the series. On a January 1962 telecast Paul Petersen sang the novelty ditty “She Can't Find Her Keys,” as part of a dream sequence in which Jeff dreamed he was a teenage recording star out on a date. His recording of the song became a major hit during early 1962. Later he had several other best-sellers, including the top-ten hit “My Dad,” about Dr. Alex. Shelley Fabares did even better with a teenage love song called “Johnny Angel,” which went to number-one on the charts in early 1962 and earned her a gold record, denoting sales of more than a million copies.
Reruns of The Donna Pieed Showwere telecast weekdays on ABC from December 1964 to March 1968.
DONNY AND MARIE (Musical Variety)
FIRST TELECAST: January 16, 1976
LAST TELECAST: May 6, 1979
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Jan 1976-May 1977 , ABC Fri 8:00-9:00
Jun 1977-Aug 1977 , ABC Wed 8:00-9:00
Aug 1977-Jan 1979 , ABC Fri 8:00-9:00 (OS)
Jan 1979-Mar 1979 , ABC Sun 7:00-8:00
May 1979 , ABC Sun 7:00-8:00
REGULARS:
Donny Osmond
Marie Osmond
Alan Osmond
Wayne Osmond
Merrill Osmond
Jay Osmond
Johnny Dark (1978-1979)
Jimmy Osmond
The Ice Vanities (1976-1977)
The Ice Angels (1977-1978)
The Disco Dozen (1978-1979)
Jim Connell
Larry Larsen
Sid and Marty Krofft, of animated cartoon fame, originally produced this teenage variety hour. Eighteen-year-old Donny and his 16-year-old sister Marie were co-hosts of the show, which also featured other members of the popular musical family, ranging in age from Jimmy (12) to Alan (26). Despite his youth, Donny was a show-business veteran by the time the program premiered, having made his TV debut at the age of four singing “You Are My Sunshine” on The Andy Williams Show. In order to keep up the clan's youthful appearance, Merrill introduced another Osmond—his six-month-old son Travis—to the cast on an early telecast.
The format was the usual mixture of comedy and songs, with a liberal sprinkling of the Osmonds' teenybopper hits. The comedy often made fun of Donny's toothy, super-wholesome appearance, as when his brothers ganged up and dumped him into a gigantic nine-foot whipped cream pie in one 1976 broadcast. “I think I finally made a big splash on television,” Donny said. Although not credited as a regular, Paul Lynde appeared as a guest star on many of the Donny and Marie episodes.
The second season brought changes, as a new production team took over in an attempt to give the show a more “adult” look. Much was made of Marie's stunning new wardrobe, designed by Bob Mackie (Cher's former designer), and her eighteenth birthday party was telecast in October. However, Donny and Marie remained, at heart, a homey affair. Tired of the tinsel and glitter of Hollywood, the entire Osmond clan packed up and moved back to their hometown of Orem, Utah, in late 1977; all subsequent telecasts originated from the elaborate studio facility built there by the Osmonds at a cost of $2.5 million, to house their various TV and film activities. The first episode taped in Orem was the 1977 Christmas show, which starred Paul Lynde, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and 28 members of the Osmond family.
Midway through the final season, Donny turned 21 (and to prove it had his wife Debbie on the show!). In January 1979 the series moved to Sunday night and was retitled The Osmond Family Show.
DON'T CALL ME CHARLIE (Situation Comedy)
FIRST TELECAST: September 21, 1962
LAST TELECAST: January 25, 1963
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Sep 1962-Jan 1963 , NBC Fri 9:30-10:00
CAST:
| Judson McKay | Josh Peine |
| Pat Perry. | Linda Lawson |
| Col. U. Charles Barker | John Hubbard |
| First Sgt. Wozniak | Cully Richards |
| Gen. Steele | Alan Napier |
| Cpl. Lefkowitz | Arte Johnson |
| Selma Yossarian | Louise Glenn |
| Madame Fatima | Penny Santon |
This “military' comedy centered on Judson McKay, a young veterinarian from Iowa, who was drafted by mistake and assigned to a U.S. Army veterinary station in Paris. The principal conflict was between good-natured country boy McKay and his pompous commander, Col. U. Charles Barker, the “Charlie” of the title. Arte Johnson played the supporting role of Cpl. Lefkowitz, Pat Perry was the general's secretary, Selma Yossarian another secretary, and Mme. Fatima the concierge.
DON'T FORGET YOUR TOOTHBRUSH (Quiz/Audience Participation)
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Comedy Central
30 minutes
Original episodes: 2000 (20 episodes)
Premiered: June 20, 2000
EMCEE:
Mark Curry
In this high-energy quiz show, emcee Mark Curry called people out of the audience and challenged them to pranks and stunts as well as asking embarrassing questions—for example, “Can you match six of your grade school classmates who are sitting on the stage with their correct names?” The large, rowdy audience hooted and cheered. Audience members were told in advance to bring their luggage with them, because if they won the grand prize they were immediately whisked away on a weeklong vacation to a surprise destination (hence the title).
Based on a popular British show.
DOODLES WEAVER (Comedy Variety)
FIRST TELECAST: June 9, 1951
LAST TELECAST: September 1, 1951
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Jun 1951-Jul 1951 , NBC Sat 10:00-10:15
Aug 1951-Sep 1951 , NBC Sat 10:00-10:30
REGULARS:
Doodles Weaver
Marion Colby
Milton Delugg and His Orchestra
Red Marshall
Dick Dana
Peanuts Mann
In the premiere telecast, Doodles Weaver was informed that he had to put together a low-budget summer show without sets, scenery, or dancing girls. He was left with an empty television studio and discarded sets and props from other shows. Although this was supposed to be a joke, it set the tone for a rather formless improvisational comedy series. Veteran burlesque comics Marshall, Dana, and Mann contributed laughs and singer Marion Colby provided musical support.
DOOGIE HOWSER, M.D. (Situation Comedy)
FIRST TELECAST: September 19, 1989
LAST TELECAST: July 21, 1993
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Sep 1989 , ABC Tue 8:30-9:00
Sep 1989 , ABC Wed 9:30-10:00
Oct 1989-Feb 1992 , ABC Wed 9:00-9:30
Feb 1992-May 1992 , ABC Wed 8:30-9:00
May 1992-Aug 1992 , ABC Wed 9:00-9:30
Aug 1992—Mar 1993 , ABC Wed 8:30-9:00
Jun 1993-Jul 1993 , ABC Wed 8:30-9:00
CAST:
| Dr. Douglas “Doogie” Howser | Neil Patrick Harris |
| Dr. David Howser | James B. Sikking |
| Katherine Howser | Belinda Montgomery |
| Vinnie Delpino | Max Casella |
| Dr. Benjamin Canfield | Lawrence Pressman |
| Dr. Jack McGuire (1989—1991) | Mitchell Anderson |
| Nurse Curly Spaulding | Kathryn Layng |
| Wanda Plenn (1989-1992) | Lisa Dean Ryan |
| Janine Stewart (1989-1992) | Lucy Boryer |
| Raymond Alexander (1990-1993) | Markus Redmond |
| *Dr. Ron Welch (1990-1993) | Rif Hutton |
| *Nurse Michele Faber (l991-1993) | Robyn Lively |
| *Occasional | |
Life can be complicated for a 16-year-old, what with dating, demanding parents, and being a doctor. A doctor? That was what most people said when they met fresh-faced Doogie Howser, a boy genius who had zipped through high school in nine weeks, graduated from Princeton at age ten, and from medical school at 14, and who was now a second-year resident at Eastman Medical Center in Los Angeles. Though he was an accomplished physician, Doogie had a lot to learn in the growing-up department, and learn he did in this gentle if implausible comedy. His father David (also a doctor) and mother Katherine kept him on an even keel, as did his colleagues at the hospital, including Chief of Services Dr. Canfield and fellow resident McGuire. Doo-gie's not-so-bright buddy, squeaky-voiced Vinnie, kept him in touch with the teen world, climbing in his bedroom window to share the latest news. Later, when Vinnie miraculously entered college, Doogie and Vinnie shared an “odd couple” apartment. Janine was Vinnie's girlfriend, while Wanda was the object of Doogie's desires—though their relationship sometimes got complicated. Wanda was mortified when she had an appendix attack while on a date, and Doogie had to examine her. (“Did you put your hand on her conundrum? “blurted an envious Vinnie later.) By the last season both Doogie and Vinnie were playing the field, with Doogie particularly attracted to Nurse Faber. Vinnie, meanwhile, began pursuing a career as a filmmaker.
At the end of each episode Doogie entered his experiences in his electronic diary, on his computer.
For the record, there are no 16-year-old doctors in the United States and, according to most medical authorities, probably never will be. On television, however, there's no telling what might come next.
DOOR WITH NO NAME , see Doorway to Danger
DOORWAY TO DANGER (International Intrigue)
FIRST TELECAST: July 6, 1951
LAST TELECAST: October 1, 1953
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Jul 1951-Aug 1951 , NBC Fri 9:00-9:30
Jul 1952-Aug 1952 , NBC Fri 9:00-9:30
Jul 1953—Oct 1953 , ABC Thu 8:30-9:00
CAST:
| John Randolph (1951) | Mel Ruick |
| John Randolph (1952) | Roland Winters |
| John Randolph (1953) | Raymond Bramley |
| Doug Carter (1951) | Grant Richards |
| Doug Carter (1953) | Stacy Harris |
NARRATOR:
Westbrook Van Voorhis (1951)
Doorway to Danger was a summer replacement series during the early 1950s. It told, in quasi-documentary style, stories of international intrigue involving operatives of federal agencies. The title referred to the door to the office of John Randolph, chief of a top-secret government agency, who supervised the agents assigned to track down enemies of the United States. These enemies might be either domestic criminals or agents of a foreign power; smugglers and spies seemed to be the usual opponents in this series.
Doug Carter was Randolph's number-one agent during the first and third seasons, and episodes followed Carter around the world on his dangerous assignments. During the second season there was no regular agent, and each week Chief Randolph sent a different trench-coated operative scurrying off to defend the nation.
During its first season this series was known as Door With No Name.
DOORWAY TO FAME (Talent)
FIRST TELECAST: May 2, 1947
LAST TELECAST: July 11, 1949
BROADCAST HISTORY:
May 1947-Sep 1947 , DUM Fri 7:30-8:00 (approximately)
Oct 1947-Mar 1948 , DUM Mon 7:00-7:30
Mar 1949—Jul 1949 , DUM Mon 8:30-9:00
REGULARS:
Johnny Olsen
Ned Harvey Orchestra
This was one of the many talent shows that populated early television. Through the doorway came all manner of hopefuls, plus one guest star each week who offered words of encouragement. Some 20,000 New York-area residents were said to have auditioned for the show during its first year, but none are known to have gone on to stardom.
DORIS DAY SHOW, THE (Situation Comedy)
FIRST TELECAST: September 24, 1968
LAST TELECAST: September 10, 1973
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Sep 1968-Sep 1969 , CBS Tue 9:30-10:00
Sep 1969-Sep 1973 , CBS Mon 9:30-10:00
CAST:
THEME:
” Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera Sera)”
When The Doris Day Show premiered in the fall of 1968, Miss Day was cast as a widow with two young sons who had decided to move back to the family ranch after spending most of her life in big cities. The adjustments to rural living provided much of the comedy. The ranch was run by her father Buck, their hired hand Leroy, and the housekeeper Aggie (re-placed in December by a new housekeeper, Juanita).
At the start of the second season Doris became a commuter. She got a job as a secretary at Today's World magazine in San Francisco and commuted daily from the farm. Mr. Nicholson, the editor of the magazine, was her boss, and Myrna Gibbons was a secretary with whom she became friendly. At the start of the third season Doris, her two boys, and their huge dog Lord Nelson left the farm and moved into a San Francisco apartment owned by the Paluccis, who ran an Italian restaurant on the ground floor. Doris's ac-tivities expanded from merely being Mr. Nicholson's secretary to include some writing for the magazine, on assignment from the assistant editor, Ron Harvey.
Still another major change was made at the start of the fourth season, in the fall of 1971, as the show edged still closer to the urban-career-girl format popularized by Mary Tyler Moore. Doris continued to work for Today's World , but she suddenly became a carefree, single staff writer; the children, the dog, and the entire cast from previous seasons disappeared. Her new boss was editor Cy Bennett, and the only other regular was his secretary Jackie.
At the end of the fifth season the entire show disappeared.
DOROTHY (Situation Comedy)
FIRST TELECAST: August 8, 1979
LAST TELECAST: August 29, 1979
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Aug 1979 , CBS Wed 8:00-8:30
CAST:
| Dorothy Banks | Dorothy Loudon |
| Frankie | Linda Manz |
| Meredith | Susan Brecht |
| Cissy | Elissa Leeds |
| Margo | Michele Greene |
| Burton Foley | Russell Nype |
| Jack Landis | Kenneth Gilman |
| Lorna Cathcart | Priscilla Morrill |
Fresh from winning a Tony Award for her role in the musical Annie , Dorothy Loudon turned up on this summer comedy series as a divorced former showgirl who took a position as music and drama teacher at the exclusive Hannah Hunt School for Girls, a rather stuffy Eastern school. Her background and undisciplined approach to teaching were not always appreciated by the administration, especially by headmaster Burton Foley. But the girls were delighted, and Dorothy was tickled by the chance to do some of her routines for such an appreciative (if underage) audience. Jack and Lorna were two other teachers at the school.
DO'S AND DON'TS (Instruction)
FIRST TELECAST: July 3, 1952
LAST TELECAST: August 28, 1952
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Jul 1952-Aug 1952 , ABC Thu 9:30-10:00
This was a brief series of films on safety.
DOT COMEDY (Comedy)
FIRST TELECAST: December 8, 2000
LAST TELECAST: December 8, 2000
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Dec 2000 , ABC Fri 8:30-9:00
REGULARS:
Jason Sklar
Randy Sklar
Annabelle Gurwitch
Katie Puckrick
This was one of those rare network series that was so bad it was canceled after a single telecast. Dot Comedy attempted to cash in on the Internet boom by reviewing Web sites in a supposedly humorous way. Snarky hosts Jason and Randy Sklar made snide comments, while ultracool, leather-clad assistant Annabelle sat off to the side at a computer keyboard, surfing the Web for sites such as howstuffworks.com and globe xplorer.com. Katie contributed taped interviews, for example, with the guy who ran airsicknessbag.com. Viewers were invited to send in their funny mpegs (music files) and jpegs (pictures), but those who did found that by the time their files got to ABC the show had vanished.
Based on a British series of the same name.
DOTTO (Quiz)
FIRST TELECAST: July 1, 1958
LAST TELECAST: August 12, 1958
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Jul 1958-Aug 1958 , NBC Tue 9:00-9:30
EMCEE:
Jack Narz
In Dotto two contestants competed to guess the identity of a famous personality whose caricature was drawn on a screen by connecting fifty dots on each contestant's “Dotto” board. The contestants answered questions that allowed them progressively to connect the dots, and the first to identify the picture of the person won. There was also a home game in which viewers sent in postcards, hoping to be called on the phone to identify a special dotted caricature shown on the air. Dotto's biggest claim to fame was that a disgruntled former contestant on the daytime version of the show (which had begun earlier and ran concurrently with this nighttime version) started the famous quiz show scandals by publicly declaring that the game was rigged. His name was Edward Hilgemeier, Jr., and, ironically, he had never actually appeared on the show at all. While waiting in the studio for his opportunity to go on as a contestant, he found a notebook belonging to a woman contestant that contained answers to questions she had been asked on the show. He informed the contestant who had been defeated by the woman and both he and the defeated contestant confronted the producers. They were both paid off, but when Mr. Hilgemeier found out the defeated contestant had been given $4000 while he had only been given $1500, he got angry and precipitated the quiz show scandals by protesting to the New York State Attorney General's office.
DOTTY MACK SHOW, THE (Music)
FIRST TELECAST: February 16, 1953
LAST TELECAST: September 3, 1956
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Feb 1953-Jun 1953 , DUM Mon 10:45-11:00
Jul 1953-Aug 1953 , DUM Tue 9:00-9:30
Aug 1953-Oct 1953 , ABC Thu 9:00-9:30
Oct 1953–Mar 1954 , ABC Sat 6:30-7:00
Apr 1954-Oct 1954 , ABC Sat 7:30-8:00
Oct 1954-Jun 1955 , ABC Sat 8:00-9:00
Jun 1955-Sep 1955 , ABC Tue 9:30-10:00
Sep 1955–Mar 1956 , ABC Mon 9:00-9:30
Apr 1956-Jul 1956 , ABC Thu 10:00-10:30
Jul 1956-Sep 1956 , ABC Mon 8:00-8:30
REGULARS:
Dotty Mack
Bob Braun
Colin Male
Dotty Mack had one of the simpler acts on early television: she pantomimed to other performers' hit records. She began her miming on The Paul Dixon Show out of Cincinnati, then landed a 15-minute spot by herself on DuMont called, appropriately, Girl Alone. Four months later, in July 1953, the program was expanded to 30 minutes, two assistants (Bob Braun and Colin Male) were added, and the title was changed to The Dotty Mack Show. Shortly thereafter ABC picked it up. At times the program was a full hour in length, although 30 minutes was normal.
Most of the songs pantomimed were currently popular favorites or novelty songs by such stars as Eddie Fisher, Perry Como, or Patti Page; sometimes puppets or other visual aids accompanied the pantomimes. Things began to get complicated when rock ‘n' roll started taking over the hit parade in 1955. Although Dotty gamely included such records as “Rock Around the Clock” in her repertoire, the sight of pleasant young people pantomiming to Bill Haley or Elvis Presley records became slightly ludicrous, and the show quietly passed from the scene in 1956.
DOUBLE DARE (Detective)
FIRST TELECAST: April 10, 1985
LAST TELECAST: May 22, 1985
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Apr 1985-May 1985 , CBS Wed 8:00-9:00
CAST:
| Billy Diamond | Billy Dee Williams |
| Ken Sisko | Ken Wahl |
| Sylvester | Joe Maher |
| Lt. Samantha Warner (pilot only) | Jennifer Warren |
| Lt. Samantha Warner | Janet Carroll |
Billy Diamond was the most successful thief in San Francisco. He lived lavishly on the fruits of his illicit activities—until he got caught in the act by Lt. Samantha Warner of the S.F.P.D. To avoid going to jail he agreed to become an undercover operative for the San Francisco police. It was either that or give up his lifestyle for a drab, dirty prison cell. The one concession that he was able to get from Warner was to have his former partner, Ken Sisko, released from San Quentin to work with him again. Sylvester was Billy's butler.
DOUBLE DARE (Quiz)
CABLE HISTORY:
Nickelodeon
30 minutes
Produced: 1986-1993 (482 episodes), 2000
Premiered: October 6, 1986
NETWORK HISTORY:
FIRST TELECAST: April 3, 1988
LAST TELECAST: July 23, 1988
Apr 1988 , FOX Sun 8:00-8:30
Apr 1988-Jul 1988 , FOX Sat 8:00-8:30
Jul 1988 , FOX Sat 8:00-9:00
EMCEE:
Marc Summers (1986-1993)
Jason Harris (2000)
Start with Family Feud , pour on a bucket of Beat the Clock , and add a gooey topping of Truth or Consequences and you have a pretty good idea what Fox's Family Double Dare was like—one of the messiest “stunt shows” on television.
The show began as Double Dare on the Nickelodeon cable channel on October 6, 1986, with Marc Summers as host. On the cable version all the contestants were children, and the show was a big hit with Nickelodeon's young audience. Early in 1988 a limited number of Fox television stations began airing a new version of Double Dare and a couple of months later Family Double Dare , including adults, premiered on the Fox network. If there was one thing young viewers liked more than seeing other kids covered with slop, it was seeing parents making a mess of themselves.
Two families (parents and two children) competed. In the opening rounds the families tried to best each other in a stunt, for example, by being the first to fill a cup sitting on one of the parent's heads with seltzer, from six feet away. The winning family won a cash prize and then was asked a question worth a specified amount. They could either answer or dare the other family to do so for twice as much money; the second family could take the challenge or “double dare” the first family to answer (and the amount would double again). An incorrect answer gave the money and first chance on the next question to the other family.
The family “double-dared” had another option, which was frequently taken. Instead of the question they could choose “the physical challenge,” another stunt that had to be completed in a limited time. At the end the family winning the most money ran an obstacle course for grand prizes. The object of most of the stunts and challenges seemed to be to make as big a mess as possible, with the various family members wading through water balloons, puddings and syrups, eggs, pies, and green and red slime. It was no accident that the emcee, while attired in a tuxedo, also wore tennis shoes!
Other versions of the show included Super Sloppy Double Dare (Nickelodeon, 1987, 1989), Celebrity Double Dare (syndicated, 1989) and Super Special Double Dare (Nickelodeon, 1992), all with Summers as host, and Double Dare 2000 (Nickelodeon, 2000) with Jason Harris.
DOUBLE EXPOSURE , see ABC Dramatic Shorts— 1952-1953
DOUBLE LIFE OF HENRY PHYFE, THE (Situation Comedy)
FIRST TELECAST: January 13, 1966
LAST TELECAST: September 1, 1966
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Jan 1966-Sep 1966 , ABC Thu 8:30-9:00
CAST:
| Henry Wadsworth Phyfe | Red Buttons |
| Gerald B. Hannahan | Fred Clark |
| Judy Kimball | Zeme North |
| Mrs. Florence Kimball | Marge Redmond |
| Mr. Hamble | Parley Baer |
This short-lived comedy focused on the adventures of Henry Phyfe, a mild-mannered accountant who was recruited by the CIS, a United States counterintelli-gence agency, to impersonate U-31, a recently deceased foreign agent to whom Henry bore a striking resemblance. The trouble was that U-31 in most other respects had been the opposite of Henry: bon vivant, Don Juan, master linguist, and crack shot, Henry's girlfriend Judy, his future mother-in-law Florence, and his boss at the accounting firm had no idea of his double life. Only Gerald B. Hannahan, the balding, bombastic regional director of CIS, linked him with the world of spies and adventure. Judy and her mother were phased out of the series in March.
DOUBLE OR NOTHING (Quiz/Audience Participation)
FIRST TELECAST: June 5, 1953
LAST TELECAST: July 3, 1953
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Jun 1953-Jul 1953 , NBC Fri 9:30-10:00
EMCEE:
Bert Parks
Bob Williams (asst.)
The summer of 1953 brought this familiar radio quiz show—and its emcee, Bert Parks—to television for a five-week stay. Each contestant was asked a series of four questions, respectively worth $10, $20, $40, and double or nothing, for a possible total of $140 in the first round. All contestants, whether or not they were successful in the first round, then participated in the “Red and White Sweepstakes” at the end (the colors referred to those on the label of the sponsor's product, Campbell soups). In the sweepstakes, a question was asked and each contestant wrote his or her answer on a card shaped like a horse. The “race” was won by whoever could provide the correct answer first.
The daytime version of Double or Nothing had started on CBS in October 1952 and ran until July 1954.
DOUBLE RUSH (Situation Comedy)
FIRST TELECAST: January 4, 1995
LAST TELECAST: April 12, 1995
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Jan 1995—Feb 1995 , CBS Wed 9:00-9:30
Mar 1995-Apr 1995 , CBS Wed 8:30-9:00
CAST:
| Johnny Verona | Robert Pastorelli |
| Hunter | David Arquette |
| Zoe Fuller | Corinne Bohrer |
| Leo | Adam Goldberg |
| Marlon | D. L. Hughley |
| The Kid | Phil Leeds |
| Barkley | Sam Lloyd |
Johnny Verona was an idealistic free spirit and former musician who owned the Double Rush bicycle messenger service in Manhattan. A gruff but fatherly guy who mused about his failure to become a rock star 25 years before, Johnny took a personal interest in the lives of his employees. Working for him were Barkley, the spaced-out dispatcher; Hunter, the young daredevil who gloried in speeding through midtown traffic on his bike; Zoe, a neurotic Harvard Business School graduate who was biding her time until she found her dream job; Leo, a cynical, self-centered young former delinquent; Marlon, a young husband and father with a legendary ability to con people; and The Kid, who at 75 moved painfully slowly; however, after working as a messenger for 58 years he knew every shortcut in the city.
DOUBLE TROUBLE (Situation Comedy)
FIRST TELECAST: April 4, 1984
LAST TELECAST: August 21, 1985
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Apr 1984-May 1984 , NBC Wed 9:30-10:00
Jul 1984-Sep 1984 , NBC Wed 8:00-8:30
Dec 1984-May 1985 , NBC Sat 8:30-9:00
Jun 1985-Aug 1985 , NBC Wed 9:30-10:00
CAST:
| Kate Foster | Jean Sagal |
| Allison Foster | Liz Sagal |
| Art Foster (1984) | Donnelly Rhodes |
| Beth McConnell (l984) | Patricia Richardson |
| Michael Gillette (1984) | Jon Caliri |
| Aunt Margo | Barbara Barrie |
| Billy Batalato | Jonathan Schmock |
| Charles Kincaid | James Vallely |
| Mr. Arrechia | Michael D. Roberts |
| Aileen Lewis | Anne-Marie Johnson |
The adventures of a pair of teenage twins were explored in this light comedy. Kate and Allison were 16, identical in appearance, but opposites in personality. Allison was the sober, responsible one, and Kate the spunky troublemaker who often got them both into hot water. Pretending to be Allison was one of Kate's favorite ploys. Art was their widower father, who ran a gym and dance studio in their hometown of Des Moines, Iowa, Beth was one of his adult instructors, and Michael was Kate's boyfriend.
When Double Trouble returned for a second season, in December 1984, Kate and Allison had moved to New York to pursue separate careers. Kate wanted to become an actress, while her more practical sister was enrolled in the Fashion Institute of Technology studying design. They lived in a spacious town house with their kooky Aunt Margo, a successful writer of children's stories. Also living in the town house were Billy and Charles, two aspiring actors and kindred spirits of Kate's. Mr. Arrechia was an obnoxious, overbearing instructor at the Fashion Institute and Aileen was Allison's fellow student and best friend.
DOUG (Cartoon)
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Nickelodeon
Produced: 1991-1993 (52 episodes)
Premiered: August 11, 1991
VOICES:
| Doug Funnie, Roger Klotz | Billy West |
| Judy Funnie, Theda Funnie | Becca Lish |
| Phil Funnie, Lamar Bone | Doug Preis |
| Skeeter, Bud Dink, Grandma Opal | Fred Newman |
| Patti Mayonnaise | Connie Shulman |
| Tippi Dink, Mrs. Wingo | Doris Belack |
| Beebe | Alice Playten |
| Mayor White | Greg Lee |
The fantasy world of 11-year-old Doug Funnie was explored in this whimsical cartoon. Doug, in his geeky wool sweater and short pants, was the ultimate outsider at the Bluffington School, constantly put upon by leather-jacketed bully Roger. Further embarrassment came from the fact that his older sister, Judy, was a Bohemian free spirit who habitually wore dark glasses and a beret and gave unintelligible one-woman shows billed as “performance art.”
With best friend Skeeter and loyal family pooch Porkchop, Doug embarked on little adventures designed to salvage his self-respect, or he simply escaped into a fantasy world inhabited by his alter-ego superhero, Quailman. Despite his visions of failure, Doug usually succeeded in the end by simply using his wits. Theda and Phil were his parents, Patti his secret love, Mrs. Wingo the homeroom teacher, and Mr. Bone the nutty, yodeling assistant principal.
Nickelodeon failed to renew Doug after 52 episodes had been produced, whereupon Disney picked up the franchise in early 1996, produced new episodes under the title Disney's Doug , and saw them become one of the more popular entries on the ABC Saturday morning lineup, where it ran from September 1996 to September 2001. Meanwhile, Nick continued to run the older episodes, to strong ratings. In early 1999 a big screen version, The First Doug Movie , opened in theaters.
DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS, JR., PRESENTS (Anthology)
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Syndicated only
30 minutes
Produced: 1952-1957 (117 episodes)
Released: January 1953
HOST:
Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., a Hollywood star since the 1920s, hosted one of television's classiest and most successful anthology series during the 1950s. He also served as executive producer and starred in approximately a fourth of the episodes. The scripts were first-rate and unusually wide-ranging, from psychological studies to light farce, with an occasional murder yarn. Actors were generally lesser known. The series was filmed in England, with an eye to authenticity—if they needed a castle, they went out and got one!
DOWN AND OUT IN BEVERLY HILLS (Situation Comedy)
FIRST TELECAST: April 26, 1987
LAST TELECAST: September 12, 1987
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Apr 1987 , FOX Sun 9:00-9:30
Jul 1987-Aug 1987 , FOX Sat 8:00-8:30
Aug 1987-Sep 1987 , FOX Sat 9:00-9:30
CAST:
| Dave Whiteman | Hector Elizondo |
| Barbara Whiteman | Anita Morris |
| Jerry Baskin | Tim Thomerson |
| Max Whiteman (age 17) | Evan Richards |
| Jenny Whiteman (20) | Eileen Seeley |
| Carmen, the maid | April Ortiz |
Dave Whiteman had made his fortune selling clothes hangers and had moved his family into a sumptuous Beverly Hills mansion. Although he still had middle-class roots and understood the value of a dollar, such could not be said for his flighty wife Barbara or his social-climbing daughter Jenny. Max, his son, was not coping well with either his new peer group at Beverly Hills High or his own adolescence. Into this unsettled household came Jerry Baskin, a flower child of the ‘60s who had become a derelict in the ‘80s. When his attempt to commit suicide in the Whiteman pool failed—he was pulled out by Dave—Jerry stayed on to live the good life with them and dispense philosophical and sometimes cryptic answers to the unending questions posed by the Whitemans.
Based on the 1985 feature film starring Richard Dreyfuss, Bette Midler, and Nick Nolte, which in turn was based on characters from the play “Boudu Sauvé des Eaux” by Rene Fauchois and the classic French film Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932). Reprising his role in the 1985 movie as the nasty pooch Matisse was a black-and-white Scottish Border collie known professionally as Mike the Dog.
DOWN HOME (Situation Comedy)
FIRST TELECAST: April 12, 1990
LAST TELECAST: August 10, 1991
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Apr 1990 , NBC Thu 10:30-11:00
Apr 1990-May 1990 , NBC Sat 10:30-11:00
Mar 1991-May 1991 , NBC Sat 8:30-9:00
Jun 1991-Aug 1991 , NBC Sat 8:30-9:00
CAST:
| Kate McCrorey | Judith Ivey |
| Wade Prescott | Ray Baker |
| Drew McCrorey | Eric Allan Kramer |
| Walt McCrorey | Dakin Matthews |
| Grover | Timothy Scott |
| Tran | Gedde Watanabe |
It wasn't exactly Green Acres , but city met country once again in this laid-back comedy. Kate was a high-powered New York executive who came home to the sleepy Gulf Coast fishing village of Hadley Cove, Texas, to visit her dad's dockside bait & tackle shop and café—only to discover that it was about to be leveled for a condominium development. This being a sitcom, she, of course, stayed and tried to save the rickety, money-losing place. Behind the condo scheme was Wade, the boyfriend Kate had dumped many years before, but who still had eyes for her. Drew was Kate's big, dumb brother; Walt, her crotchety dad; Grover, a rustic townfolk; and Tran, the Vietnamese cook at the café.
Cheers star Ted Danson was the co-producer of this series, which featured mostly New York stage actors (Ivey was a multiple Tony winner) and had a uniquely—for TV—“stage” look.
DOWN THE SHORE (Situation Comedy)
FIRST TELECAST: June 21, 1992
LAST TELECAST: August 5, 1993
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Jun 1992 , FOX Sun 9:30-10:00
Jun 1992-Aug 1992 , FOX Sun 10:00-10:30
Aug 1992-Sep 1992 , FOX Sun 10:30-11:00
Dec 1992-Aug 1993 , FOX Thu 9:30-10:00
CAST:
| Arden | Anna Gunn |
| Donna Shipko | Cathryn de Prume |
| Miranda Halpern (1992) | Pamela Segall |
| Eddie Cheever | Tom McGowan |
| Aldo Carbone | Louis Mandylor |
| Zach Singer | Lew Schneider |
| Sammy | Nancy Sorel |
Three twenty-something guys and three young women shared a weekend summer rental house at Belmar Beach on the Jersey shore in this youth-oriented comedy. The guys, who had been friends since childhood, were Eddie, a fat, shy writer of computer software; Aldo, a self-centered womanizer who was a salesman for a clothing manufacturer in Manhattan's garment center; and Zach, a down-to-earth junior high school social studies teacher. The women, who worked together at a Manhattan advertising agency, were Arden, a bitchy, ice-princess account executive; Donna, a naive receptionist; and Miranda, an idealistic graphic artist.
When Down the Shore returned in December, after a three-month hiatus, Miranda had given up her share because some of her canvases were in a gallery and she was staying in New York on weekends to paint. She was replaced by Sammy, a sexy childhood friend of Arden's who designed jewelry.
DOWN YOU GO (Quiz/Panel)
FIRST TELECAST: May 30, 1951
LAST TELECAST: September 8, 1956
BROADCAST HISTORY:
May 1951-Jul 1951 , DUM Wed 9:00-9:30
Jul 1951-Sep 1951 , DUM Thu 9:30-9:30
Sep 1951-Jun 1952 , DUM Fri 9:00-9:30
Jul 1952-Sep 1952 , DUM Fri 8:00-8:30
Oct 1952-Apr 1954 , DUM Fri 10:30-11:00
May 1954-Jun 1954 , DUM Wed 9:30-10:00
Sep 1954-Jan 1955 , DUM Wed 10:00-10:30
Jan 1955-May 1955 , DUM Fri 10:30-11:00
Jun 1955-Sep 1955 , CBS Sat 9:30-10:00
Sep 1955-Jun 1956 , ABC Thu 9:30-10:00
Jun 1956-Sep 1956 , NBC Sat 7:30-8:00
EMCEE:
Dr. Bergen Evans (1951-1956)
Bill Cullen (1956)
REGULAR PANELISTS:
Francis Coughlin
Prof. Robert Breen (1951-1954)
Toni Gilman (1951-1954)
Carmelita Pope (1951-1954)
Fran Allison (1954)
Phil Rizzuto (1954-1955)
Boris Karloff (1954-1955)
Jean Kerr (1955)
Patricia Cutts (1955-1956)
Basil Davenport (1955)
Phyllis Cerf (1955)
Sherl Stern (1955)
John Kieran, Jr. (1955)
Arthur Treacher (1956)
Hildy Parks (1956)
Jimmy Nelson (1956)
Jayne Mansfield (1956)
Widely regarded as one of the wittiest, most intelligent panel shows on television, Down You Go was a deceptively simple word game whose charm derived from its participants. The rules were simple: the panel was asked to guess a word or phrase that had been submitted by a viewer. A few cryptic clues were offered, and then the panelists filled in the words, letter by letter, on a “magic board.” An incorrect guess by a panelist and “down you go,” out of play until the next round. Viewers received $5 for submitting a phrase that was used, and $25 for one that stumped the panel (later these amounts were increased, but money was never the principal appeal of the show).
Dr. Bergen Evans, a witty and charming professor of English at Northwestern University, was the longtime host of Down You Go , which at first was telecast from Chicago over the DuMont network. The program became quite popular, and in 1954 a Down You Go game was being sold in stores, complete with tiles, board, and clock. In December 1954 the program moved to New York, with only Evans and Francis Coughlin, a Chicago radio editor, remaining from the original cast. During 1955 and 1956 a succession of regular and guest panelists appeared, but none of these later panels seemed to catch the flavor of the original. Nevertheless the program survived the end of the DuMont network, making a grand tour of the networks from CBS to ABC to NBC before it was can-celed in September 1956.
The last version of Down You Go little resembled the original. Bergen Evans was replaced for the last two months of the show by Bill Cullen, and the panel was filled by such “literati” as Jimmy Nelson and his dummies, and Jayne Mansfield.
DOWNER CHANNEL (Comedy Variety)
FIRST TELECAST: July 24, 2001
LAST TELECAST: August 21, 2001
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Jul 2001-Aug 2001 , NBC Tue 8:30-9:00
REGULARS:
Jeff B. Davis
Wanda Sykes
Lance Krall
Mary Lynn Rajskub
Four goofy young comics rode around in an old station wagon perpetrating short comic bits on the street, as well as in the studio, in this fast-paced show. The running theme was life's frustrations, like “cell phone hell,” “awful bosses,” “relationship roadshow,” “breakup lines” and “annoying comment of the week.” There was also turtle wrestling (to overwrought WWF-style narration) and the game show “Spot That Carcinogen.” The players were foxy Jeff, doofus Lance, tirade-prone Wanda and versatile Mary Lynn. Comedian Steve Martin, one of the eight executive producers, commented, “It's the perfect show to get you out of an ‘up' mood.”
DOWNTOWN (Police Drama)
FIRST TELECAST: September 27, 1986
LAST TELECAST: September 5, 1987
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Sep 1986—Dec 1986 , CBS Sat 8:00-9:00
Aug 1987-Sep 1987 , CBS Sat 8:00-9:00
CAST:
| Det. John Forney | Michael Nouri |
| Terry Corsaro | Blair Underwood |
| Harriet Conover | Millicent Martin |
| Jesse Smith | Mariska Hargitay |
| Dennis Shothoffer | Robert Englund |
| Delia Bonner | Virginia Capers |
| Capt. David Kiner. | David Paymer |
In addition to fighting crime in Los Angeles, police Det. John Forney was saddled with the responsibility of serving as probation officer for four parolees living together in a sort of halfway house as part of an experimental program administered by social worker Delia Bonner. Forney's charges were Terry, a likable young black and former pickpocket; Harriet, a classy older woman whose financial reverses had prompted her to get involved in land fraud; Jesse, a young woman whose tough, street-smart exterior hid a yearning to be accepted; and Dennis, a neurotic with a penchant for impersonating others. Being a part-time probation officer did not appeal to Forney, but he made the best of it, trying to keep the four of them out of trouble and find them jobs. Their repeated attempts to help him solve cases did not make it any easier. Capt. Kiner was Forney's boss.
DOWNTOWN (Cartoon)
BROADCAST HISTORY:
MTV
30 minutes
Original episodes: 1999 (13 episodes)
Premiered: August 3, 1999
VOICES:
| Alex Henson | Gregory Gilmore |
| Chaka Henson | Leyora Zuberman |
| Jen | Tammy Lang |
| Serena | Phoebe Summersquash |
| Mecca | Aurora Lucia-Levey |
| Goat | Scot Rienecker |
| Fruity | Marco H. Rodriguez |
| Matt | Hector Fontanez |
Easygoing cartoon about eight young friends, mostly in their 20s, living in Manhattan's funky East Village neighborhood. Alex was a shy, geeky kid who worked at the Repro Man copy shop, played video games, and fantasized about a more adventurous life; Chaka, his sexy younger sister, an extroverted motormouth; Jen, his tomboyish best friend and confidante; and Serena, the super-hip girl of his dreams, who affected the goth look. Mecca was Chaka's dreamy, naive sidekick; Goat, an amiable but somewhat seedy older (26!) hanger-on; Fruity, a horny high schooler; and Matt, Fruity's laid-back pal, who was smarter than most of the gang but hid it so he would fit in. One of their principal hangouts was the Starbase 12 comics store, where Matt and Serena worked.
DRACULA: THE SERIES (Horror)
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Syndicated only
30 minutes
Produced: 1990 (26 episodes)
Released: September 1990
CAST:
| Alexander Lucard | Geordie Johnson |
| Max Townsend (age 12) | Jacob Tierney |
| Chris Townsend (17) | Joe Roncetti |
| Gustav Helsing | Bernard Behrens |
| Sophie Metternich | Mia Kirshner |
| Klaus Helsing | Geraint Wyn Davies |
| *Eileen Townsend | Lynne Cormack |
| *Occasional |
In this contemporary tongue-in-cheek (fang-in-neck?) adaptation of Bram Stoker's classic Dracula , the vampire was the head of a globe-spanning conglomerate with interests in banking, real estate, and chemicals. Unlike previous incarnations, Alexander Lucard (try a mirror) did not have to hide from the sun. The only problem he had during daylight hours was that his vampire powers were inactive until the sun went down. His nemesis, kindly old Gustav Helsing, knew all there was to know about fighting vampires and protecting homes and people from them. Unfortunately, Gustav had been unable to prevent his son Klaus from being bitten by Lucard and becoming a vampire himself.
Living with Helsing, and finding vampire hunting fun, were his young American nephews Max and Chris, and sweet Sophie Metternich. Gustav spent most of his time trying to destroy Lucard and, when things went awry, removing the vampire's curse from those who had been bitten. The latter included Sophie and Max and Chris's mother Eileen, a globe-trotting banker from Philadelphia who had tried to structure a financial deal with Lucard Industries before he put the bite on her.
Filmed entirely on location in Luxembourg.
DRAGNET (Police Drama)
FIRST TELECAST: January 3, 1952
LAST TELECAST: September 10, 1970
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Jan 1952-Dec 1955 , NBC Thu 9:00-9:30
Jan 1956-Sep 1958 , NBC Thu 8:30-9:00
Sep 1958-Jun 1959 , NBC Tue 7:30-8:00
Jul 1959-Sep 1959 , NBC Sun 8:30-9:00
Jan 1967-Sep 1970 , NBC Thu 9:30-10:00
CAST:
| Sgt. Joe Friday | Jack Webb |
| Sgt. Ben Romero (1951) | Barton Yarborough |
| Sgt. Ed Jacobs (1952) | Barney Phillips |
| Officer Frank Smith (1952) | Herb Ellis |
| Officer Frank Smith (1953-1959) | Ben Alexander |
| Officer Bill Gannon (1967-1970) | Harry Morgan |
THEME:
“Dragnet” (also known as “Dragnet March” and “Danger Ahead”), by Walter Schumann
DIRECTOR:
Jack Webb
Dragnet was probably the most successful police series in the history of television. By providing the prototype of the realistic action series, it marked a major turning point for a medium that had, for its first few years, been dominated by comedy and vaudeville. Dragnet's hallmark was its appearance of realism, from the documentary-style narration by Joe Friday, to the cases drawn from the files of a real police department (Los Angeles, which provided the locale), to its careful attention to the details of police work (“It was 3:55.…We were working the day watch out of homicide”). Viewers were reminded of the unglamorous dead ends and the constant interruptions of their private lives that plague real policemen, and this made the final shoot-out and capture of the criminal all the more exciting. At the end of each episode, after the criminal was apprehended, an announcer would describe what happened at the subsequent trial and the severity of the sentence.
The concept, as created by laconic actor-director Jack Webb, caught on immediately, perhaps because it stood out so sharply against the police-private eye caricatures then on the air. Dragnet became an enormous hit. Its catchphrases and devices became national bywords and were widely satirized. There was Webb's terse “My name's Friday—I'm a cop,” and “Just the facts, ma'am;” the jargon—the criminal's “M.O.,” “Book him on a 358”—and, of course, that arresting theme music, with possibly the most famous four-note introduction since Beethoven's Fifth Symphony (“Dum-de-dum-dum”). Music was an important part of Dragnet's success, even aside from the theme. It was laced throughout every episode, dark and tension-filled, then erupting in a loud, sudden “stinger” after an especially significant revelation or denouement. In fact, Dragnet inspired two hit records in 1953: a recording of the theme music by Ray Anthony and His Orchestra, and the hilarious “St. George and the Dragonet” by Stan Freberg—probably the only parody of a current TV series ever to sell a million copies and reach number-one on the hit parade. (The record's opening intoned, “The legend you are about to hear is true; only the needle should be changed to protect the record…”)
Dragnet began on radio in 1949 and, after a special TV preview on Chesterfield Sound Off Time in December 1951, opened its official TV run on January 3, 1952. Friday's partner in the preview was played by Barton Yarborough, of the radio series. He died suddenly of a heart attack a few days after the telecast, and four actors subsequently portrayed Friday's sidekick: Barney Phillips in the spring of 1952, Herb Ellis in the fall, Ben Alexander for the remainder of the seven-and-a-half-year original run, and Harry Morgan for the revival in 1967-1970.
During most of its first 12 months on the air Dragnet ran every other Thursday, alternating with Gang-busters , another transplanted radio police show. From January of 1953 until 1959 it was a weekly series. In 1967, after a hiatus of more than seven years, it returned to the air under the slightly modified title Dragnet ‘67 , to distinguish it from the reruns of the original series still being played on many stations. (Reruns were also known as Badge 714 , after Friday's badge number.) Jack Webb returned to the role of Friday but with a new partner, Officer Bill Gannon. The format was essentially the same as the original Dragnet but there was somewhat stronger emphasis on the noncrime aspects of police work, such as community involvement and helping individuals in trouble.
DRAGNET (Police Drama)
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Syndicated only
30 minutes
Produced: 1989-1990 (52 episodes)
Released: September 1989
CAST:
| Vic Daniels | Jeff Osterhage |
| Carl Molina | Bernard White |
| Capt. Boltz | Thalmus Rasulala |
| Capt. Lussen | Don Stroud |
This syndicated revival of Jack Webb's venerable crime series featured partners Vic Daniels and Carl Molina, plainclothes detectives working for the Los Angeles Police Department. Each episode detailed the laborious process by which police put together clues to solve crimes. Ongoing narration was provided by Det. Daniels in a matter-of-fact style similar to that used by Joe Friday on the original version of the show. Depending on the episode, the commanding officer was either Capt. Boltz or Capt. Lussen.
Originally produced during the 1989-1990 season, Dragnet aired that season only in New York and Los Angeles. It went into national syndication the following year but failed to capture the public's imagination in an era when shows like Cops and America's Most Wanted showed what police work was really like.
DRAGNET (Police Drama)
FIRST TELECAST: February 2, 2003
LAST TELECAST: November 15, 2003
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Feb 2003-May 2003 , ABC Sun 10:00-11:00
Jun 2003-Aug 2003 , ABC Sat 10:00-11:00
Oct 2003–Nov 2003 , ABC Sat 10:00-11:00
CAST:
| Det/Lt. Joe Friday | Ed O'Neill |
| Det. Frank Smith | Ethan Embry |
| Det. Jimmy McCarron | Desmond Harrington |
| Det. Raymond Cooper | Evan Parke |
| Det. Gloria Duran | Eva Longoria |
| Asst. D.A. Sandy Chang | Christina Chang |
| Sanjay Ramachandran | Erick Avari |
| Det. Elena Macias | Roselyn Sanchez |
THEME:
“Danger Ahead,” by Walter Schumann
The ghost of Jack Webb must have been hovering over this revival of the classic cop show, which stayed rather close to the original. Back was the team of Joe Friday and Frank Smith, the famous theme (in a new arrangement), the trial results in the coda and the matter-of-fact opening setting the scene: “It was Monday. It was overcast in Los Angeles. My partner and I were working the day shift out of Robbery Homicide.” Most of all, back was the laconic, by-the-book, no-frills approach to police work. Some things had changed, however. Despite his trench coat and deadpan expression, this Joe Friday was a little gruffer than his famous predecessor, and his partner Det. Smith was a relatively inexperienced newcomer who tagged along behind (unlike Webb's experienced partners), having just been promoted to Robbery Homicide from the Vice Division. Also, the crimes were definitely gorier, often murders involving rape and dismemberment. But the cops' approach was the same, methodically tracking down clues until they closed in on the perp, usually without gunfire.
When the series returned in the fall Smith was gone, and Friday—now promoted to lieutenant— found himself working with a frequently changing cast of babes and hunks with badges. Although the faces were pretty the cases were still pretty brutal. The name of the series was changed to L.A. Dragnet as well, but it was all over by November.
DRAKE & JOSH (Situation Comedy)
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Nickelodeon
30 minutes
Original episodes: 2004-
Premiered: January 11, 2004
CAST:
| Drake Parker (age 15) | Drake Bell |
| Josh Nichols (15) | Josh Peck |
| Megan Parker | Miranda Cosgrove |
| Walter Nichols | Jonathan Goldstein |
| Audrey Parker-Nichols | Nancy Sullivan |
Two “accidental” teenage brothers had to get used to living with each other in this happy, slapstick comedy. Drake was a cool, handsome, guitar-playing girl-chaser, whose only torment in life was his little sister Megan, who loved to play pranks on him. That is, until his single mom Audrey married Walter, who brought into the house his chubby, socially inept but undeniably smarter son Josh, who promptly gave new brother Drake a big hug (ugh!). Drake and Josh squabbled but grew to like and support each other in little adventures around San Diego, and at school. Stories revolved around Drake's band, his bumbling through school and at various short-term jobs, Josh's love of magic and Walter's career as an inept weatherman at a local TV station.
DRAMA AT EIGHT (Dramatic Anthology)
FIRST TELECAST: July 9, 1953
LAST TELECAST: July 30, 1953
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Jul 1953 , DUM Thu 8:00-8:30
This was a series of filmed dramas featuring lesser-known actors and actresses. The July 30 telecast, a comedy entitled “Uncle Charlie,” presented an early TV version of Cliff Arquette's Charley Weaver characterization. That was the last network airing of the program, though it continued locally in New York through October 1, 1953.
DRAMATIC MYSTERY , see Chesterfield Presents
DRAW ME A LAUGH (Cartoon Quiz/Panel)
FIRST TELECAST: January 15, 1949
LAST TELECAST: February 5, 1949
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Jan 1949–Feb 1949 , ABC Sat 8:30-9:00
EMCEE:
Walter Hurley Patricia Bright
REGULARS:
Mel Casson
Jay Irving
Oscar Brand
The object of this show was for the participants, who were cartoonists, to draw cartoons based on ideas sent in by viewers. The show's regular cartoonist, Mel Cas-son, was given a description of the cartoon to be drawn but not the caption; simultaneously, the caption but not the description was given to another cartoonist, who made up his own illustration. The two cartoons were then compared and an audience panel voted on which was funnier. Other segments of the show included making cartoons out of scribbles, drawing blind, and “singing captions” by folksinger Oscar Brand.
The program lasted exactly four weeks.
DRAW TO WIN (Cartoon Quiz/Panel)
FIRST TELECAST: April 22, 1952
LAST TELECAST: June 10, 1952
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Apr 1952-Jun 1952 , CBS Tue 8:30-9:00
EMCEE:
Henry Morgan
PANELISTS:
Bill Holman
Abner Dean
Home viewers here were asked to send in slogans, names of objects, or anything else that could be described through a series of cartoon clues. The panel, composed of three cartoonists and a celebrity guest, would then try to guess the solution to the cartoon clues. Depending on how long it took them to identify correctly the meaning of the clues, the sender would receive a prize of up to $25.
DRAWN TOGETHER (Cartoon)
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Comedy Central
30 minutes
Original episodes: 2004-
Premiered: October 27, 2004
VOICES:
| Captain Hero | Jess Harnell |
| Wooldoor Sockbat | James Arnold Taylor |
| Ling-Ling | Abbey McBride |
| Foxxy Love | Cree Summer |
| Xandir P Whifflebottom | Jack Plotnick |
| Spanky Ham | Adam Carolla |
| Princess Clara, Toot Braunstein | Tara Strong |
Cartoon animation collided with “reality TV” in this wild parody of Real World -style series. The “Drawn Together House” was populated by all the reality-show stereotypes, but they were all well-known cartoon characters. Captain Hero (a Superman lookalike) was the big, buff, smiling crime fighter and self-centered guy; Wooldoor a Spongebob Squarepants-like oddball seeking attention; Ling-Ling (Pokemon- type) a sociopath who spoke in pseudo-Japanese gibberish; Foxxy Love (Josie and the Pussycats) a sexy, smart-mouthed black singer; Xandir (who resembled a video game character) the token gay in a G-string; Spanky (Porky Pig) the gross, flatulating pig; Princess Clara (Snow White) the sweetly superior, emotional, vaguely racist princess; and Toot (Betty Boop) a squeaky, once-sexy-but-now-overweight bitch. They competed in reality-style “challenges,” plotted against one another, and indulged in a lot of gross and/or sexually explicit behavior in and out of the hot tub. Stories also included parodies of other types of reality shows, such as The Apprentice and Supernanny
DREAM GIRL, U.S.A. (Beauty Contest)
BROADCAST HISTORY:
30 minutes
Syndicated only
Produced: 1986 (26 episodes)
Released: Fall 1986
HOST:
Ken Howard
ANNOUNCER:
Danny Dark
CHOREOGRAPHER:
Kevin Carlisle
Alexander Cole
Scott Grossman
Michael Thompson
Jerald Vincent
This prerecorded beauty pageant (the entire series was taped during a few weeks in 1986) featured a series of elimination rounds with four participants in each episode competing in swimsuit, evening gown, and other events.
DREAM HOUSE (Quiz)
FIRST TELECAST: March 27, 1968
LAST TELECAST: September 19, 1968
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Mar 1968-Aug 1968 , ABC Wed 8:30-9:00
Sep 1968 , ABC Thu 9:30-10:00
EMCEE:
Mike Darrow Young married couples were offered a roomful of furniture for correct answers on this quiz show. Winners of four consecutive rounds (rooms) received a house worth up to $40,000 as well. The “dream house” might take several forms, a traditional house, mobile home, ski lodge, houseboat, or even a private island. Dream House was also seen in a daytime edition that premiered a few weeks after the prime-time version and remained on the air until January 1970.
Thirteen years later, in April 1983, a new version of Dream House surfaced on NBC's weekday daytime lineup. The revived version, hosted by Bob Eubanks, ran until June 1984. The cost of housing had gone up considerably over the years. The grand prize “dream house” in the new version of the show was worth $100,000.
DREAM JOB (Competition)
BROADCAST HISTORY:
ESPN
60 minutes
Original episodes: 2004-2005 (23 episodes)
Premiered: February 22, 2004
REGULARS:
Stuart Scott, host
Tony Kornheiser, judge (2004)
LaVar Arrington, judge (2004)
Kit Hoover, judge
Al Jaffe, judge
Woody Paige, judge
Stephen A. Smith, judge
A straightforward competition in which 12 eager sports fans competed for the “dream job” of commentator on ESPN's long-running series SportsCenter. The contestants, who ranged in age from their 20s to around 40, read stories, conducted interviews, wrote copy and worked with a co-anchor, then were judged (sometimes pretty severely) by a panel of four experts made up of on-air talent, executives and athletes. The original judges were Kornheiser, Arrington, Hoover and Jaffe, with the first two being replaced in fall 2004 by Paige and Smith. Winners were chosen by online audience voting. There were three “seasons,” and the winners were Mike Hall (early 2004), David Holmes (Fall 2004) and Dee Brown (early 2005). Live your dream, guys!
DREAM ON (Situation Comedy)
FIRST TELECAST: January 8, 1995
LAST TELECAST: July 3, 1995
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Jan 1995-Apr 1995 , FOX Sun 9:30-10:00
Jun 1995-Jul 1995 , FOX Mon 9:00-10:00 (Also on HBO, 1990-1996)
CAST:
| Martin Tupper | Brian Benben |
| Jeremy Tapper (age 11) | Chris Demetral |
| Toby Pedalbee | Denny Dillon |
| Eddie Charles (early episodes) | Jeff Joseph |
| Eddie Charles (later episodes) | Dorien Wilson |
| Judith Tupper Stone | Wendie Malick |
| *Gihhy | Michael McKean |
| *Occasional | |
A middle-aged man's vivid fantasy life was the centerpiece of this racy comedy. Mild-mannered Martin Tupper was a book editor for a Manhattan publisher and recently divorced from psychologist Judith, the one real love of his life. He had to cope with the sexually liberated dating scene of the nineties and with the fact that Judith was now married to the incredibly perfect Dr. Richard Stone. How perfect? Richard was so perfect that he seemed to be receiving a Nobel Prize, or being nominated for sainthood, almost every week. Martin, on the other hand, was constantly reminded of his shortcomings—by almost everyone. He was a weekend father to his son, Jeremy, who gave him little respect, and got questionable dating advice from his longtime friend Eddie, the womanizing host of a Gera Jdo -style talk show. At the office he was regularly put down by his sarcastic secretary, Toby, and intimidated by his new boss, Gibby, whose taste in literature ran toward the salacious.
Two things distinguished Dream On from other TV comedies: its sexual frankness (including, on HBO, frontal female nudity) and its innovative use of old TV and movie clips to illustrate Martin's musings and reactions and to serve as punch lines for jokes. Martin's fantasies were filled with everyone from Ozzie Nelson to Jack Benny, William Bendix, Bette Davis, Charl-ton Heston, and Joan Crawford, in glorious black and white. Two versions of each episode were filmed, with and without nudity and strong language, and it was the latter that aired on Fox. Sex was still the focus of most episodes, however.
The last original episode premiered on HBO on March 27, 1996. During the intervening period, Judith's second husband, Richard, had suffered kidney failure and was cryogenically frozen. In the finale the following happened: Judith, who had started seeing Martin again, remarried him. At the wedding, pregnant Toby's boyfriend Irwin Bader (Larry Miller) proposed and they got married in the ambulance in which she delivered their baby girl on the way to the hospital. Martin's buddy Eddie, who had himself gotten married five months earlier, found out from his wife Rema (Dawnn Lewis) that he was going to be a father.
DREAM STREET (Drama)
FIRST TELECAST: April 13, 1989
LAST TELECAST: June 7, 1989
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Apr 1989 , NBC Thu 9:30-10:00
Apr 1989-May 1989 , NBC Fri 10:00-11:00
Jun 1989 , NBC Wed 10:00-11:00
CAST:
| Denis DeBeau | Dale Midkiff |
| Harry DeBeau | Peter Frechette |
| Eric DeBeau | David Barry Gray |
| Pete DeBeau | Tom Signorelli |
| Lillian DeBeau | Debra Mooney |
| Joey Coltrerà | Thomas Calabro |
| Anthony Coltrerà | Victor Argo |
| Joni Goldstein | Cecil Hoffmann |
| Marianne McKinney | Jo Anderson |
| Cesar demons | Charles Brown |
| Ruben Fundora | Paul Calderon |
| Kara | Christine Moore |
Dream Street was from the producers of thirtysome-thing and was billed as offering the same kind of realistic stories of intertwined lives and loves, but among the lower middle class. It bore little resemblance to the earlier series about superachieving married couples, however. Far fewer viewers could relate to this gritty series—unless they happened to live in Hobo-ken and be connected to the Mob.
At the center was the DeBeau family: Harry, the irresponsible eldest son; Denis, the middle son who was more reliable but also something of a dreamer; and wild teenager Eric. When father Pete suffered a stroke, he turned the family's refrigeration business over to Denis, setting up family tensions. Those problems were nothing compared to the worries of Denis's best friend Joey, whose engagement to Joni was vehemently opposed by her parents because Joey's father was a lower-level Mafioso. A nice Jewish girl marrying into the Mob! Joey's friendship with Denis was also a bit strained when he was forced to collect protection money from his friend (“the cost of doing business”).
Marianne was Denis's schoolteacher girlfriend. Dream Street was filmed on location in Hoboken, New Jersey.
DREAM TEAM, THE (Foreign Intrigue)
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Syndicated only
60 minutes
Produced: 1999 (8 episodes)
Released: September 1999
CAST:
| Zach Hamilton | Jeff Kaake |
| Victoria Correrà | Traci Bingham |
| Kim Taylor | Angie Everhart |
| Eva Kirov | Eva Halina |
| Desmond Heath | Roger Moore |
| J. W. Garrison | Martin Sheen |
The Dangerous Reconnaissance Emergency Action Mission (D.R.E.A.M. ) Team was a group of intelligence agents battling drug dealers, terrorists and other international criminals in this fleetingly seen fantasy adventure. Zach, the hunky team leader, was a former C.I.A. operative. The three sexy agents working with him were Kim, a special agent multiforce instructor for the hostage rescue team; Victoria, a renowned guerrilla fighter; and Eva, a covert operations expert and former K.G.B. agent. The team was based in Puerto Rico and worked undercover as “the Dream Team,” doing music videos, fashion shoots, and TV commercials. Behind a sliding wall in the mansion in which they lived was the high-tech communications center from which they communicated with their boss, Garrison, who was based in Washington. The team was his brainchild. In the third episode Garrison was promoted, and the team began reporting to the very British and mysterious Desmond Heath.
A special behind-the-scenes episode, hosted by costar Traci Bingham, aired in December and introduced the newest member of the team, model/singer Caprice Bourret. Her character, Dani West, was a friend of Heath's who joined the Dream Team but, since the show abruptly ceased production after eight episodes, she was never seen as a regular.
DREAM TEAM WITH ANNABELLE AND MICHAEL, THE (Talk)
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Sci-Fi Channel
30 minutes
Original episodes: 2003 (22 episodes; 65 produced)
Premiered: January 20, 2003
REGULARS:
Annabelle Gurwitch
Michael Lennox
Guests on this odd late-night series described their dreams or nightmares and had them interpreted by the show's mousy, bespectacled “Dream Interpreter,” Michael. Some of the dreams had to do with sex, or the lack of it (for example, the girl who dreamed her female friend had a penis); then there was the man who dreamed his deceased mother was on the back of his motorcycle, pregnant with him (fear of loss); the guy who dreamed he was standing at the altar with a fat woman (fear of commitment); and the woman who saw people falling from the sky, including John Goodman (fear of giving birth, fear of becoming fat). Most of the guests were young, and many of the dreams were titillating, but Michael answered them all quite seriously, while slightly saucy cohost Annabelle added a little color. There were also short segments analyzing celebrities' dreams and man-on-the-street dreams. Few watched, and after six weeks the show faded away—or, depending on how you look at it, maybe it was just a TV dream.
DREAMS (Situation Comedy)
FIRST TELECAST: October 3, 1984
LAST TELECAST: October 31, 1984
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Oct 1984 , CBS Wed 8:30-9:00
CAST:
| Gino Minnelli | John Stamos |
| Martha Spino | Jami Gertz |
| Phil Taylor | Cain Devore |
| Morris Weiner | Albert Macklin |
| Lisa Copley | Valerie Stevenson |
| Louise Franconi | Sandy Freeman |
| Frank Franconi | Ron Karabatsos |
| Torpedo | Bill Henderson |
Gino Minnelli, 22, was a welder by day and a rock musician by night. He and the other young members of his group “Dreams” hoped that their music would be the ticket out of their blue-collar Philadelphia neighborhood. Gino was lead singer, lead guitarist, and resident ladykiller. Martha sang backup, Phil wrote most of their songs and also played guitar, and Weiner was the flaky keyboard player. The newest member of “Dreams” was Lisa, whose father was a wealthy U.S. senator, and who had been recruited mostly for her money. The pleasant surprise for all was that Lisa could really belt out a song. While they worked for their big break, “Dreams” performed regularly at a small neighborhood club owned by Gino's uncle Frank. Music video segments were incorporated into each episode of Dreams in an attempt to merge a traditional situation comedy format with the hot new fad for music videos.
DRESDEN FILES, THE (Fantasy Drama)
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Sci-Fi Channel
60 minutes
Original episodes: 2007-
Premiered: January 21, 2007
CAST:
| Harry Dresden | Paul Blackthorne |
| Bob | Terrence Mann |
| Lt. Connie Murphy | Valerie Cruz |
| Det. Sid Kirmani | Raoul Bhaneja |
| *Morgan | Conrad Coates |
| *Occasional | |
Harry Dresden was a grubby, wisecracking private eye who specialized in crimes involving the occult. Although he was an authentic wizard, he was reduced to listing his services in the Chicago phone book to make a living (“reasonable rates—no love potions or parties”). Police lieutenant Connie was skeptical but he did seem able to crack strange cases, so she used him on investigations, even though her partner Sid was convinced he was a fraud. “Bob” was Harry's ghostly medieval alchemist and adviser, who lived in a skull but emerged from time to time to banter with Harry in cultured tones. Morgan was a Warden of the High Council, the wizards' governing body who gave Harry grief for not strictly following rules. Crows, monsters, shape-shifters and evil spirits of all kinds filled his cases and he got beaten up regularly, but somehow, despite his bumbling, he managed to keep them at bay.
Based on the Dresden Files novels by Jim Butcher.
DRESS REHEARSAL (Various)
FIRST TELECAST: March 21, 1948
LAST TELECAST: August 31, 1948
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Mar 1948-Apr 1948 , NBC Thu 8:00-8:30
Jul 1948-Aug 1948 , NBC Mon 8:00-8:30
Aug 1948 , NBC Tue 9:00-9:30
“DIRECTOR” (ON CAMERA):
Richard Goode
This was an umbrella title for a series of one-time and experimental programs that took the form of dress rehearsals. It included musical revues, quiz shows, and an occasional drama. Perhaps the best show was the last, entitled “Swap Night,” which featured the first TV appearance of veteran radio commentator Norman Brokenshire, dressed as a rural Yankee trader and presiding over a swap session between cast members and viewers at home.
DREW CAREY SHOW, THE (Situation Comedy)
FIRST TELECAST: September 13, 1995
LAST TELECAST: September 8, 2004
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Sep 1995–Feb 1996 , ABC Wed 8:30-9:00
Apr 1996-May 1996 , ABC Wed 8:30-9:00
May 1996-Sep 1996 , ABC Tue 8:30-9:00
Aug 1996-Nov 1996 , ABC Wed 9:30-10:00
Dec 1996–Jun 2002 , ABC Wed 9:00-9:30
Aug 1997-Sep 1997 , ABC Wed 8:00-8:30
Jan 1998–Feb 1998 , ABC Tue 8:00-8:30
Mar 1999-Apr 1999 , ABC Thu 9:00-9:30
Jun 2001-Jul 2001 , ABC Wed 8:00-8:30
Jun 2002-Sep 2002 , ABC Mon 9:00-10:00
Sep 2002–Oct 2002 , ABC Mon 8:00-8:30
Nov 2002-Dec 2002 , ABC Fri 9:00-9:30
Dec 2002-Jan 2003 , ABC Fri 9:30-10:00
Jun 2003-Jul 2003 , ABC Wed 9:00-10:00
Aug 2003-Sep 2003 , ABC Wed 9:30-10:00
Jun 2004-Sep 2004 , ABC Wed 9:00-10:00
CAST:
| Drew Carey | Drew Carey |
| Oswald Harvey | Diedrich Bader |
| Lewis Kiniski | Ryan Stiles |
| Kate O'Brien (1995-2002) | Christa Miller |
| Mimi Bobeck | Kathy Kinney |
| Lisa (1995-1996) | Katy Selverstone |
| Jay Clemens (1995-1996) | Robert Torti |
| Mr. Bell (voice) (1995-1996) | Kevin Pollak |
| Nigel Wick (1997-2003) | Craig Ferguson |
| *Nicki Fifer (1997-1998, 2001-2003) | Kate Walsh |
| Dottie/Fran Louder (1997-1999) | Nan Martin |
| Steve Carey (1999-2003) | John Carroll Lynch |
| Kellie Newmark (2002-2004) | Cynthia Watros |
| Evan (2002-2003) | Kyle Howard |
| Scott (2002-2003) | Jonathan Mangum |
| *Larry Almada (2002-2004) | Ian Gomez |
| *Occasional | |
Crew-cut, heavyset comic Drew Carey starred in this inventive sitcom about four single working-class friends in Cleveland, his own real-life hometown. Drew (the character) was the underpaid assistant personnel director at the Winfred-Louder Department Store, but he spent much of his time hanging out in his kitchen, or at the Warsaw Tavern, with his three best friends. They were Oswald, an easygoing package deliveryman and wannabe disc jockey; Lewis, a janitor at the mysterious DrugCo Pharmaceutical Co.; and Kate, an overgrown tomboy looking for love. At work his chief nemesis was Mimi, the secretary from Hell, a living cartoon whose loud clothes and louder makeup would make the Road-runner scoot. Mr. Bell was the original loud but usually unseen boss, replaced in 1997 by the more visible Nigel Wick. Dottie (later Fran) Louder was the elderly widow of the store founder.
A succession of Drew's girlfriends passed through, including Lisa, Nicki (whom he almost married), six-tyish Celia (played by Shirley Jones), and Tracy. Jay was Kate's boyfriend for a time, before she and Oswald decided to become engaged during the 1997-1998 season. At the last minute they called it off. Besides the gang's dating misadventures, they started their own micro-brewery, Buzz Beer, hosted a backyard bash for much of Cleveland, and took spur-of-the-moment road trips. Among the highlights of the series were the occasional elaborately produced musical fantasies, in which everyone danced and sang, and the parodies on current films such as The Full Monty.
Later seasons brought comic twists and turns as the series verged more and more toward the surrealistic (Drew's fantasies while in a coma, multiple marriages, dance numbers, various takeovers of the department store by unlikely people, etc.). Drew's brother Steve came to town and married Mimi, with whom he eventually had a baby, Gus, in 2001. Drew decided that his true soul mate had been Kate all along, so they began dating during the 1999-2000 season, and at various times he was “married” to Kate, Nicki (who came back) and Mr. Wick (who needed to marry a U.S. citizen to stay in the country). In 2002 Kate abruptly left Cleveland and married handsome fighter pilot Kirk (Cameron Mathison), throwing Drew into a profound depression. Nicki, his sometimes homicidal ex-girlfriend, now badly overweight and with low self-esteem, moved into his house, as did pretty newcomer Kellie, a former schoolmate with a crush on Drew. The two women did not get along. Drew decided to search for a wife, a task hindered by the disruption of his career when Winfred-Louder went bankrupt. The store was taken over by two annoying young techno-nerds and turned into an Internet shopping site, neverendingstore.com. They considered Drew “the old guy,” but eventually gave him his old job back.
During the summer of 2003 Drew continued to look for love, meeting a rather scary Southern woman named Lily (Tammy Lauren) who he briefly married. Mimi was back on the dating scene, having been abandoned by Steve and forced to raise their son Gus alone. Eventually she moved in with Larry Almada. Egged on by his mother, Beulah (Marion Ross), Drew increasingly realized that his true love was Kellie. Kellie became pregnant in 2004 and their on-again/off-again relationship became more intense until in the series finale they were finally married—just as she gave birth to Drew, Jr. In the final scene Drew was shown playing pool in the rain (just as in the series premiere), thanking the audience for nine great years.
DREW CAREY'S GREEN SCREEN SHOW (Comedy)
FIRST TELECAST: October 7, 2004
LAST TELECAST: November 4, 2004
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Oct 2004—Nov 2004 , WB Thu 8:30-9:00
REGULARS:
Drew Carey
Jeff B. Davis
Chip Esten
Kathy Kinney
Julie Larson
Jonathan Mangum
Sean Masterson
Colin Mochrie
Greg Proops
Brad Sherwood
Drew Carey, the creator and moderator of Whose Line Is It, Anyway? , brought another variation of the im-provisational sketch comedy format to TV with this series. The twist here was that the actors performed in front of a green screen with the appropriate backgrounds, and occasionally the foregrounds, drawn in by cartoonists. As with Line , ideas were shouted out by members of the live studio audience and the actors then fleshed them out. Recurring devices included Game Show, Sound Effects, Freeze Tag (a comic on the sidelines shouted “freeze” and jumped in) and One-Syllable Word (entire sketches using one-syllable words).
Green Screen Show was dropped by the WB after five low-rated episodes had aired. A year later all 12 episodes surfaced on Comedy Central.
DREW PEARSON (Commentary)
FIRST TELECAST: May 4, 1952
LAST TELECAST: March 18, 1953
BROADCAST HISTORY:
May 1952-Nov 1952 , ABC Sun 11:00-11:15
Dec 1952—Mar 1953 , DUM Wed 7:30-7:45
COMMENTATOR:
Drew Pearson
The famous columnist Drew Pearson, who covered the 1952 political conventions and the subsequent presidential election for ABC, presented commentary and his “Predictions of Things to Come” in these network telecasts in 1952-1953.
DREXELL'S CLASS (Situation Comedy)
FIRST TELECAST: September 19, 1991
LAST TELECAST: July 9, 1992
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Sep 1991-Jul 1992 , FOX Thu 8:30-9:00
CAST:
| Otis Drexell | Dabney Coleman |
| Principal Francine E. Itkin (1991) | Randy Graff |
| Roscoe Davis | Dakin Matthews |
| Willie Trancas (1991) | Jason Biggs |
| Nicole Finnigan (1991) | Heidi Zeigler |
| Kenny Sanders | Damian Cagnolatti |
| Walker (l99l) | Matthew Lawrence |
| Melissa Drexell (age 15) | A. J. Langer |
| Brenda Drexell (14) | Brittany Murphy |
| Principal Marilyn Ridge | Edie McClurg |
| George Foster | Cleavant Derricks |
| Slash | Phil Buckman |
| Bernadette | Jacqueline Donnelly |
| Lionel | Matthew Slowik |
Otis Drexell was a fifth-grade teacher at Grantwood Elementary School in Cedar Bluffs, Iowa. Sarcastic, cynical, and manipulative, he seemed to get along much better with the outspoken youngsters in his class than with the school's staff, especially Principal Itkin, who thought he was an incompetent teacher unable to control his class, and Roscoe Davis, the smug, supercilious fellow fifth-grade teacher who relished putting Drexell down and proving his class was better than Drexell's. Willie, Nicole, Kenny, and Walker were students in Drexell's class and Melissa (the sexy one) and Brenda (the little homemaker) were his beloved teenaged daughters.
When Principal Itkin had a nervous breakdown and left the school in November, she was replaced by Principal Ridge. At this point the focus of the series changed from the classroom (a number of the students were dropped from the cast) to Drexell's family life and adventures outside of school.
This was the latest in several attempts to find the right TV vehicle for Dabney Coleman's lovable (?) misanthrope persona, but was not much more successful than Buffalo Bill or Slap Maxwell. Its spirit was summed up by two of the titles originally proposed for the series: Oh No, Not Drexell and Shut Up, Kids.
DRIVE (Adventure)
FIRST TELECAST: April 15, 2007
LAST TELECAST: April 23, 2007
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Apr 2007 , FOX Sun 8:00-10:00
Apr 2007 , FOX Mon 8:00-9:00
CAST:
| Alex Tully | Nathan Fillion |
| Corinna Wiles | Kristin Lehman |
| Wendy Patrakas | Melanie Lynskey |
| John Trimble | Dylan Baker |
| Violet Trimble | Emma Stone |
| Winston Salazar | Kevin Alejandro |
| Sean Salazar | J.D. Pardo |
| Ivy Chitty | Taryn Manning |
| Leigh Barnthouse | Rochelle Aytes |
| Susan Chamblee | Michael Hyatt |
| Ellie Howe | Mircea Monroe |
| Rob Laird | Riley Smith |
| Mr. Bright | Charles Martin Smith |
This short-lived adventure series followed a number of competitors in a mysterious illegal cross-country car race with a $32 million prize. Although most of them were willing participants, some, like Alex, were coerced. The race organizers, whose identity was a secret, had kidnapped his wife and he had to win to get her back. Other featured contestants included new mother Wendy, on the run from an abusive husband; John, who had found out he had less than a year to live and hoped to bond with his teenage daughter, Violet; ex-con Winston and his wealthy half brother, Sean; Ivy, Leigh and Susan, New Orleans survivors from Hurricane Katrina; and Ellie, who was trying to keep her army husband Rob from going back to Iraq. Although Alex started the race alone, the stowaway in his car, Corinna, whose parents were killed 27 years ago during the race, became his partner. Mr. Bright was the nerdy race coordinator who was at each checkpoint and provided the teams with cryptic clues to their next destination.
Despite high-speed crashes, sideswipes and other dangerous racing on major highways (where were the cops?), the plot was murky and confusing and few viewers watched. Eight days after its premiere Drive ran out of gas.
DRIVEN (Documentary)
BROADCAST HISTORY:
VH1
60 minutes
Original episodes: 2002-
Premiered: January 15, 2002
Biographies of contemporary music stars, with an emphasis on their formative years, those who influenced them, and why they were driven to succeed. Subjects ranged from Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera to Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur (“Thug Angel”).
DRIVING FORCE (Documentary)
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Arts & Entertainment Network
30 minutes
Original episodes: 2006-
Premiered: July 14, 2006
REGULARS:
John Force
Laurie Force
Ashley Force (age 23)
Brittany Force (19)
Courtney Force (17)
Drag racing champion John Force wanted nothing more than a son to take his place on the racing circuit, but instead he had four beautiful daughters. Surprisingly they all got into the family business, each in her own way, making the Forces a somewhat unusual racing dynasty. Eldest daughter Adria, 36, seldom seen in this series, was chief financial officer of John Force Racing, Inc., while her three sisters donned helmets and jumpsuits and took to the track. Ashley was a fierce competitor, and as a rookie won several races; Brittany was a rebel, doing things her own way; Courtney enjoyed racing but considered it a sideline to high school life. Gruff, blustery John stomped and fretted and tried to teach them his way of doing things, but they mostly laughed him off. Wife Laurie sided with the girls. What's a dad to do?
DROODLES (Cartoon Quiz/Audience Participation)
FIRST TELECAST: June 21, 1954
LAST TELECAST: September 17, 1954
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Jun 1954-Sep 1954 , NBC Mon 8:00-8:30
Sep 1954 , NBC Fri 8:00-8:30
EMCEE:
Roger Price
PANELISTS:
Marc Connelly
Carl Reiner
Denise Lor
“Droodles” were simple line drawings that depicted an object or scene, often from a rather strange perspective. Roger Price, who had written a book called Droodles , was the emcee. The three regular panelists were joined by a fourth guest panelist, who started the show by drawing his or her own droodle for the other panelists to try to figure out. After this the guest joined the other panelists in guessing what was depicted in selected droodles submitted by home viewers (who won prizes if they stumped the panel) and some drawn by Price. In addition, there was a “Hundred Dollar Droodle” drawn by Price at the end of each show. Viewers were invited to send in postcards with possible titles for it, and the best title won the $100.
DUCK FACTORY, THE (Situation Comedy)
FIRST TELECAST: April 12, 1984
LAST TELECAST: July 11, 1984
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Apr 1984-May 1984 , NBC Thu 9:30-10:00
Jun 1984-Jul 1984 , NBC Wed 9:30-10:00
CAST:
The Duck Factory was set in a small, run-down Hollywood animation studio peopled by the loony crew who produced a TV cartoon show called Dippy Duck. The newest employee was Skip Tarkenton, an eager young cartoonist fresh from the Midwest and bursting with excitement at his first professional job. His wide-eyed innocence contrasted sharply with the cynicism of his co-workers: Brooks, the fatherly artist full of doubts about his own brilliance; Andrea, the sarcastic, man-hungry film editor; Marty, the two-bit gag writer; Roland, the only black storyboard artist in the business; and Wally, the voice-over narrator who had a repertoire of so many cartoon voices that he had long since forgotten his own voice. Buddy Winkler, the tyrannical owner of the studio, had just died and the place was virtually leaderless when Skip arrived, so the whole crew turned to the reluctant newcomer to save Dippy Duck —which was constantly on the verge of cancellation by the network. This brought the enmity of Aggie, the pushy, penny-pinching business manager who thought she should be in charge, but also the appreciation of Mrs. Winkler, the sexy young bimbo whom Buddy had met and married only three weeks before his demise—and who was, therefore, now the studio's owner.
DUCKMAN (Cartoon)
BROADCAST HISTORY:
USA Network
30 minutes
Produced: 1993—1997 (70 episodes)
Premiered: March 5, 1994
VOICES:
| Duckman | Jason Alexander |
| Aunt Bernice | Nancy Travis |
| Ajaxfage 16) | Dweezil Zappa |
| Charles (10) | Dana Hill |
| Mamho (10) | E. G. Daily |
| Cornfed | Gregg Berger |
| Fluffy, Uranus | Pat Musick |
| *King Chicken | Tim Curry |
| *Occasional | |
MUSIC: by Frank Zappa (and others)
“What the hell you starin' at?” snarled this dyspeptic duck who was no relation to Donald. The sticklike hero of this offbeat cartoon was a flop at just about everything. He fancied himself a crack private eye (or “private dick” as he preferred it), but nearly all of his cases were solved by his low-key partner, a pig named Cornfed who droned in a Sgt. Friday monotone. Family life wasn't much better. He had either two or three sons, depending on how you counted them: Ajax, the incredibly dumb surfer-dude oldest, and Charles and Mambo, wisecracking twins whose two heads shared a single body. Then there was Bernice, his domineering, aerobics-obsessed sister-in-law, who had inherited both his house and children when his wife, Beatrice, died and barely tolerated him still living there. At least he could vent his angst on Fluffy and Uranus, the two disgustingly cute teddy bears who helped around his office and whom he mashed, drop-kicked, and mangled on a regular basis. They always bounced back smiling. King Chicken was an occasional foe and Gecko was the family dog.
Duckman was a favorite of critics for its icono-clasm, sarcastic comments on modern life, and bits of social satire amid the fast-paced nonsense. Much of the humor was rather gross. For example, Grandma-ma never spoke, only sat in her chair and flatulated. Music for the series was composed by rock legend Frank Zappa just before he died. No doubt he would have appreciated the series' in-your-face attitude, even if viewers weren't entirely sure what to make of it.
Based on the underground comic strip by Everett Peck.
DUDLEY (Situation Comedy)
FIRST TELECAST: April 16, 1993
LAST TELECAST: May 14, 1993
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Apr 1993-May 1993 , CBS Fri 8:30-9:00
May 1993 , CBS Fri 8:00-8:30
CAST:
| Dudley Bristol | Dudley Moore |
| Laraine Bristol | Joanna Cassidy |
| Fred Bristol | Harley Cross |
| Harold Krowten | Joel Brooks |
| Maria | Lupe Ontiveros |
| Paul | Max Wright |
Dudley Bristol was a celebrated New York composer and nightclub pianist whose professional life was much more successful than his personal life, for one simple reason—he was incapable of making personal commitments. In this low-key comedy he was faced with trying to raise his trouble-prone, 14-year-old son, Fred, after his ex-wife, Laraine, had given up. Fred, who had an attitude problem and had spent more than his share of time in juvenile court, grudgingly agreed to the arrangement, while Dudley, who didn't have a clue about parenting, tried to establish a viable relationship with the boy. Others seen regularly were Harold, the owner of Liaisons, the supper club at which Dudley performed; Paul, Dudley's business manager and best friend; and Marta, the Hispanic maid who spoke no English but could at least talk to Fred who, for all his other shortcomings, spoke fluent Spanish.
DUE SOUTH (Police Drama)
FIRST TELECAST: September 15, 1994
LAST TELECAST: August 16, 1996
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Sep 1994-Apr 1995 , CBS Thu 8:00-9:00
Jun 1995-JuI 1995 , CBS Fri 9:00-10:00
Dec 1995-Aug 1996 , CBS Fri 8:00-9:00 (In first-run syndication Sep 1997-Sep 1998)
CAST:
Not since the 1950s had an American network aired a prime-time series starring a Mountie, and Benton Fraser was much closer in spirit to Dudley Do-Right of cartoon fame than to the grizzled Sgt. Preston of Sergeant Preston of the Yukon. Constable Fraser was an unbelievably polite Royal Canadian Mountie assigned to the Canadian Consulate in Chicago. Although he wasn't there in a law-enforcement capacity, he regularly found himself helping his friend, wisecracking street-smart Chicago cop Ray Vecchio, solve cases. They had met when Fraser was in Chicago searching for his father's murderer. Others in Ray's precinct were his boss, Captain Welsh, who couldn't understand how Fraser kept getting involved in police business; fellow detectives Guardino and Huey; and Elaine, the dispatcher/assistant with eyes for the handsome Mountie. Despite outward appearances and his often unorthodox methods (including using the skills of an animal tracker to locate human prey in the big city), Fraser was an excellent detective. Not only that, but his straight-arrow demeanor even softened up some of the harder cases on the mean streets of Chicago, not the least of whom were his neighbors in the run-down building in which he rented an apartment.
There was a tongue-in-cheek quality about Due South. The producers made fun of American stereotypes of Canadians and Canadian stereotypes of Americans and managed to weave spoofs of almost every television genre into the stories. Of particular amusement to Canadian viewers (the show was a joint venture of CBS and Canada's CTV Network) was Fraser's deaf, lip-reading pet wolf Diefenbaker, named after a former Canadian prime minister.
Seen occasionally during the CBS run were Ray's feisty younger sister, Francesca, who had the hots for Fraser and always seemed to be in trouble, and the ghost of Fraser's deceased Mountie father, Robert, who showed up to give his son advice. When Due South's second season began, Fraser had a new boss at the consulate, the attractive but stuffy Margaret “Meg” Thatcher. In keeping with protocol, he always addressed her as “sir.”
A year after its network run ended, Due South returned in syndication, with star Gross now also serving as executive producer. In the syndicated premiere Fraser returned to Chicago from working in Canada and got a new partner, Kowalski, a fast-talking, cynical cop who spent much of his time bending the rules. Ray (seen only in the premiere and last two episodes of the season) had gone deep undercover, and Kowalski was pretending to be him until the case was resolved. Early on, Francesca replaced Elaine, who had become a real cop. Welsh, who had been a captain in the CBS episodes, was now a lieutenant. Fraser's chats with his deceased father became a regular feature, and when Fraser wanted to talk to his father, he would walk into the closet in his office at the consulate and emerge in his dad's log cabin.
In spring of 1998, Kowalski and Fraser stumbled on the real Ray Vecchio and almost blew his cover (he was working for the A.T.F.) but helped him nail Mul-doon (guest star Bo Svenson), the illegal arms dealer who long ago had killed Fraser's mother. When Fraser finally captured Muldoon, with his late father's help, the old man faded away, since he had finally closed his last case. In the epilogue at the end of the episode, Fraser let viewers know that Huey and Dewey became a standup comedy team; Turnbull ran for public office but was accidentally run over by his campaign bus; Ray married Stanley's ex-wife Stella (Anne Marie Loder) and moved to Florida, where they opened a bowling alley; Francesca made Life magazine with a record six immaculate conceptions; Inspector Thatcher transferred into the Canadian Security Intelligence Service; and Fraser and Stanley went off together on a quest in the Canadian Rockies.
Filmed in Toronto, Canada.
DUET (Comedy/Drama)
FIRST TELECAST: April 19, 1987
LAST TELECAST: August 20, 1989
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Apr 1987-May 1987 , FOX Sun 9:30-10:00
May 1987-Sep 1987 , FOX Sun 8:30-9:00
Sep 1987-Oct 1987 , FOX Sat 9:30-10:00
Oct 1987—fui 1988 , FOX Sun 9:30-10:00
fui 1988-ful 1989 , FOX Sun 10:00-10:30
fui 1989-Aug 1989 , FOX Sun 10:30-11:00
CAST:
| Ben Coleman | Matthew Laurance |
| Laura Kelly | Mary Page Keller |
| Richard Phillips | Chris Lemmon |
| Linda Phillips | Alison LaPlaca |
| fane Kelly | Jodi Thelen |
| Geneva | Arleen Sorkin |
| Cooper Hayden (1987-1988) | Larry Poindexter |
| Amanda Phillips (1988-1989) | Ginger Orsi |
This episodic comedy revolved around the intertwined romantic lives of two couples. Ben and Laura were establishing a new relationship while Richard and Linda were trying to maintain one. When Duet premiered Ben was an unpublished writer of mystery novels (his first published novel, “Death in the Fast Lane,” did become a best-seller) and Laura was running a catering business with the “help” of her flighty younger sister Jane. As their relationship evolved from casual dating to serious dating to living together, Ben and Laura went through periods of uncertainty and misgivings—at one point they even stopped dating— but their love kept bringing them back together. Interspersed through the story of their courtship were Ben's daydream sequences, in black and white, in which he imagined himself as one of his own Sam Spade-like detective creations winning his moll.
Ben's best friend Richard and his wife Linda were stereotypical yuppies, preoccupied with financial success and status. Linda was an executive at World Wide Studios, and had a difficult time dealing with Richard's abrupt decision to quit his lucrative job selling patio furniture for his father and become a professional pianist. She was also not nearly as enthusiastic about their impending parenthood as was Richard (in fact, the prospect terrified her), but after their daughter Amanda was born she became a doting mother. Geneva was the Phillipses' sexy, sharp-tongued maid who took great pleasure in putting down her employers, especially Linda; Cooper was Linda's boss at World Wide, who for some reason was infatuated with Jane; and Reuben was Ben's large dog and, prior to the arrival of Laura in his master's life, Ben's closest confidant.
When Duet started its 1988-1989 season, a number of changes had occurred. Amanda, who had been born in the last original episode that spring, was now a talking three-year-old, Ben and Laura were now married, and Linda had been fired by World Wide Studios. Stories that season concerned Richard and Linda's parenthood, the difficulties that arose when Linda prevailed upon Laura to take her in as a partner in the catering business, and Ben and Laura's adjustments to married life. As the season progressed, the focus shifted more and more to stories about Linda and, when Duet was canceled, she became the star of Open House , the spin-off series that replaced it in the Fox lineup.
DUKE, THE (Situation Comedy)
FIRST TELECAST: July 2, 1954
LAST TELECAST: September 3, 1954
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Jul 1954-Sep 1954 , NBC Fri 8:00-8:30
CAST:
| *The Duke” London | Paul Gilbert |
| Johnny | Allen Jenkins |
| Piudy Cromwell | Claude Stroud |
| Sam Marco | Sheldon Leonard |
| Gloria | Phyllis Coates |
The “Duke” in this comedy was a streetwise professional boxer who had, in his spare time, become an accomplished painter. Through that hobby he met Harvard graduate Rudy Cromwell, who offered to help him expand his intellectual and cultural horizons. Rudy was admirably suited to the purpose and enjoyed introducing Duke to “highbrow” forms of entertainment and diversion. The fighting side of the Duke's life kept intruding, however, in the persons of his trainer, Johnny, and fight promoter Sam Marco, both of whom wanted him to give up his pursuit of the finer things in life and return to what he knew best, boxing. Society blonde Gloria, the Duke's girlfriend, also played a prominent part.
DUKE, THE (Detective Drama)
FIRST TELECAST: April 5, 1979
LAST TELECAST: May 18, 1979
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Apr 1979 , NBC Thu 9:30-11:30
Apr 1979-May 1979 , NBC Fri 10:00-11:00
CAST:
| Oscar “Duke” Ramsey | Robert Conrad |
| Joe Cadillac | Larry Manetti |
| Sgt. Mick O'Brien | Red West |
| Dedra Smith | Patricia Conwell |
After losing a bout to a man almost half his age, 38-year-old prizefighter Duke Ramsey decided to give up the ring and spend more time with outside interests, such as running Duke and Benny's Corner, a bar and grill in his native Chicago. Benny Lyle, his manager and friend, was the person who shared billing on the eatery, but by the time it opened he had been murdered. Duke tracked down his killer, and thereby found himself a new calling—private detective. Friends from his fight days, on both sides of the law, gave him access to numerous sources of information. One of these was Joe Cadillac, a flashy young bookie. Dedra was a jet-setting socialite with romantic designs on tough-guy Duke.
DUKES OF HAZZARD, THE (Comedy/Adventure)
FIRST TELECAST: January 26, 1979
LAST TELECAST: August 16, 1985
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Jan 1979—Nov 1981 , CBS Fri 9:00-10:00
Dec 1981-Feb 1985 , CBS Fri 8:00-9:00
Jun 1985-Aug 1985 , CBS Fri 8:00-9:00
CAST:
| Luke Duke | Tom Wopat |
| Bo Duke | John Schneider |
| Daisy Duke | Catherine Bach |
| Uncle Jesse Duke | Denver Pyle |
| Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane | James Best |
| Jefferson Davis “Boss” Hogg | Sorrell Booke |
| Deputy Enos Strate (1979-1980, 1982-1985) | Sonny Shroyer |
| Cooter Davenport | Ben Jones |
| Deputy Cletus (1980-1983) | Rick Hurst |
| Lulu Hogg | Peggy Rea |
| Miz Emma Tisdale (1981-1983) | Nedra Volz |
| Sheriff Little (1981-1984) | Don Pedro Colley |
| Laverne (1981-1985) | Lila Kent |
| Emery Potter (1981-1985) | Charlie Dell |
| Coy Duke (1982-1983) | Byron Cherry |
| Vance Duke (1982-1983) | Christopher Mayer |
| The Balladeer (voice only) | Waylon Jennings |
THEME:
“The Dukes of Hazzard (Good Ol' Boys),” written and sung by Waylon Jennings
Rural comedies such as The Beverly Hillbillies had been a staple of the CBS lineup in the 1960s. The Dukes of Hazzard signaled a revival of the “good ol' boy” comedy, nearly a decade later. Luke and Bo Duke were cousins and buddies in Hazzard County, located “east of the Mississippi and south of the Ohio” (no mention of the state, but there is a real Hazard, Kentucky—a city, not a county). Their nemesis was Boss Hogg, a fat, blustery, and thoroughly corrupt local politician always seen in a white flannel suit. The Dukes easily managed to avoid capture by dim-witted Sheriff Coltrane, Boss Hogg's brother-in-law, while acting as Robin Hoods of the county. The boys hot-rodded all over Hazzard County in their souped-up Dodge Charger, “General Lee,” occasionally pausing for some sage advice from their wise old uncle Jesse. Moonshine, wild car chases and crashes, and lots of scantily clad young women, including the Dukes' gorgeous cousin Daisy, populated the series. Country star Waylon Jennings served as off-screen narrator, to the accompaniment of fast-paced banjo music.
The considerable success of Dukes spawned several imitations, including Lobo, Harper Valley P.T.A. , and a spin-off from Dukes itself starring Sheriff Coltrane's grinning deputy Enos (see Enos). When Enos departed the series he was replaced by a new deputy, Cletus.
In the spring of 1982, series stars Tom Wopat and John Schneider walked out on The Dukes of Hazzard in a contract dispute over their salaries and share of the merchandising rights royalties from Dukes toys, games, T-shirts, and other paraphernalia that were selling like hotcakes to children around the country. The production company, Warner Bros., held a nationwide hunt to find two new Dukes to fill their places in the series and, after screening 2,230 applicants, settled on Byron Cherry and Christopher Mayer. In the premiere episode that fall, it was explained that Luke and Bo had left Hazzard to try their luck on the NASCAR racing circuit, and that their cousins Coy and Vance had returned home, after a six-year absence, to help Uncle Jesse run the farm. Deputy Enos Strate was back, but it just wasn't the same. For those who were convinced that the real star of the series was the “General Lee,” it must have come as a surprise to learn that the car's drivers made any difference. The program's ratings and Wopat's and Schneider's careers all suffered as a result of the feud, so a settlement was finally reached and Luke and Bo returned to Hazzard County the following February. That fall Coy and Vance were gone.
The series also took its toll in real automobiles, as a result of all those chases and crashes. Although onscreen the General Lee never seemed to have a scratch, almost 300 look-alikes were wrecked during filming. A regular stable of identically painted Dodge Chargers was kept on hand during production of each episode, so as not to hold things up.
The theme song from this series, sung by Way-lon Jennings, was on the charts during 1980. An animated version of the show, titled The Dukes , aired on CBS' Saturday morning lineup from February to November 1983 with the series' regulars providing the voices.
DUMONT ROYAL THEATER (Dramatic Anthology)
FIRST TELECAST: April 12, 1951
LAST TELECAST: June 26, 1952
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Apr 1951-Jul 1951 , DUM Thu 9:30-10:00
Apr 1952-Jun 1952 , DUM Thu 9:00-9:30
This was a series of low-budget 30-minute dramatic films featuring an assortment of lesser-known talent, such as Edgar Barrier, Mary Sinclair, and Hugh O'Brian (later of Wyatt Earp fame). The 1952 version alternated with Gruen Playhouse. The series was also known as Royal Playhouse.
DUMPLINGS, THE (Situation Comedy)
FIRST TELECAST: January 28, 1976
LAST TELECAST: March 24, 1976
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Jan 1976—Mar 1976 , NBC Wed 9:30-10:00
CAST:
| Joe Dumpling | James Coco |
| Angela Dumpling | Geraldine Brooks |
| Charles Sweetzer | George S. Irving |
| Frederic Steele | George Furth |
| Stephanie | Marcia Rodd |
| Cully | Mort Marshall |
| Bridget McKenna | Jane Connell |
| The prude | Wil Albert |
There was a message in The Dumplings —fat people can be as kind, good, industrious, and lovable as anyone else. Joe and Angela were a chubby married couple running a lunch counter in a large office building in Manhattan. Among their regular customers were a city councilman, Mr. Steele; an executive of a large corporation with offices in the building, Mr. Sweetzer; his secretary, Bridget; and Angela's sister Stephanie. Joe and Angela were madly in love with life and each other, exuded good cheer and enthusiasm, and never had a bad word for anyone.
DUNDEE AND THE CULHANE (Western)
FIRST TELECAST: September 6, 1967
LAST TELECAST: December 13, 1967
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Sep 1967—Dec 1967 , CBS Wed 10:00-11:00
CAST:
| Dundee | John Mills |
| Culhane | Sean Garrison |
Although their law offices were in Sausalito, across the bay from San Francisco, British attorney Dundee and his apprentice lawyer, Culhane, traveled throughout the West to help their clients. Dealing with the sort of haphazard justice prevalent in much of the West during the latter part of the 19th century proved more of a problem than the actual courtroom defense. Judges were bribed, prisoners broke out of jails, and many citizens took the law into their own hands.
DUNNINGER SHOW, THE , see Amazing Dunninger, The
DUPONT CAVALCADE THEATER , see Cavalcade of America
DUPONT SHOW OF THE WEEK, THE (Various)
FIRST TELECAST: September 17, 1961
LAST TELECAST: September 6, 1964
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Sep 1961-Sep 1964 , NBC Sun 10:00-11:00
The DuPont Show of the Week presented a potpourri of various types of entertainment and informational programs. For three seasons it was NBC's late Sunday evening “class” showcase, with sponsor E. I. DuPont using the best available talent, both in front of and behind the cameras, to present everything from dramatic plays and documentaries to light comedies and musical revues. One of the aims of the series was to show the latitude and potential of the television medium as a means of communication. This format represented a change in the sponsor's philosophy. For the four years before the start of this weekly NBC series, DuPont had sponsored DuPont Show of the Month , an irregularly scheduled collection of culturally impressive 90-minute dramas on CBS. During the CBS period, adaptations of such classics as Don Quixote, Hamlet, A Tale of Two Cities , and The Browning Version had been aired. At the time, that was CBS' answer to NBC's Hallmark Hall of Fame.
The first telecast on NBC was the documentary “Hemingway,” narrated by Chet Huntley, with Andrew Duggan providing Ernest Hemingway's voice. Later, retired actor Ken Murray presented his edited home movies of the stars at home in “Hollywood—My Home Town;” clown Emmett Kelly narrated a documentary on the universal appeal of the circus; and Peter Lind Hayes was narrator of a musical special, “Regards to George M. Cohan.” Dramatic programs were not omitted; in fact, they became the primary staple of the series during its last two years. Starring were such people as Richard Conte, Claude Rains, Walter Matthau, Zachary Scott, Teresa Wright, Eddie Albert, Martha Scott, Lloyd Nolan, James Daly, Peter Falk, Arthur Kennedy, and Oscar Homolka. Documentaries also continued; one of the most interesting was “Comedian Backstage,” a cinéma-vérité look at the real life of comedian Shelley Berman.
DUPONT SHOW WITH JUNE ALLYSON, THE (Dramatic Anthology)
FIRST TELECAST: September 21, 1959
LAST TELECAST: June 12, 1961
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Sep 1959-Sep 1960 , CBS Mon 10:30-11:00
Sep 1960—Dec 1960 , CBS Thu 10:30-11:00
Jan 1961-Jun 1961 , CBS Mon 10:30-11:00
HOSTESS/STAR:
June Allyson
Actress June Allyson was the regular hostess and occasional star of this filmed dramatic-anthology series. The plays, which ranged from light comedy to melodrama, told stories of contemporary American life. The budget for this show was lavish, and it attracted many Hollywood stars, including Ginger Rogers, Bette Davis, David Niven, Joseph Cotten, and Jane Powell. Among the telecasts were “A Summer's Ending,” in which Miss Allyson and her husband Dick Powell made their first joint television appearance; “Slip of the Tongue,” in which Italian actor Rossano Brazzi made his American television debut; and “Silent Panic,” with Harpo Marx in a rare dramatic appearance as a deaf-mute.
DUPONT THEATER , see Cavalcade of America
DUSTY'S TRAIL (Situation Comedy)
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Syndicated only
30 minutes
Produced: 1973 (26 episodes)
Released: Fall 1973
CAST:
| Dusty | Bob Denver |
| Mr. Callahan | Forrest Tucker |
| Mr. Brookhaven | Ivor Francis |
| Mrs. Brookhaven | Lynn Wood |
| Lulu McQueen | Jeannine Riley |
| Betsy | Lori Saunders |
Bob Denver starred in this slapstick comedy, which was rather reminiscent of his earlier hit Gilligan's Island — only set in the West. In fact it was an almost exact copy, character for character. Bumbling their way across the prairie in a wagon train were Dusty (Gilli-gan), wagonmaster Callahan (the Skipper), the rich socialites the Brookhavens (the Thurston Howells), two sexy girls, sassy Lulu (Ginger) and sweet young Betsy (Mary Ann), and the nice young man, Andy (the Professor). The simpleminded, knockabout humor was also the same. Despite saturation coverage when it premiered, Dusty's Trail was a derivative flop.
DWEEBS (Situation Comedy)
FIRST TELECAST: September 22, 1995
LAST TELECAST: October 27, 1995
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Sep 1995—Oct 1995 , CBS Fri 8:00-8:30
CAST:
| Warren Mosbey | Peter Scolari |
| Carey | Farrah Forke |
| Vic | Corey Feldman |
| Morley | David Kaufman |
| Karl | Stephen Tobolowsky |
| Todd | Adam Biesk |
Warren was a young computer software writer whose programs had made him a legend in the industry. Unfortunately, he was painfully shy and socially maladjusted as well as eccentric (to come up with ideas for the next “killer app,” he bounced on a trampoline in his office). His Seattle company, Cyberbyte, was staffed with three talented but similarly socially inept programmers. Karl, the oldest, dressed horribly; Vic, who thought his dark glasses made him “cool,” was constantly depressed; and Morley, who had been Vic's buddy since high school, was allergic to everything, especially women. Into their dysfunctional world came Carey, the sexy new office manager, who knew absolutely nothing about computers but much about life. She hired Todd as a gofer who, among other things, translated technospeak into English for her, and set out to give them real lives and some style. Despite their eccentricities, they were nice guys—they just needed help dealing with the outside world.
DYNASTY (Drama)
FIRST TELECAST: January 12, 1981
LAST TELECAST: May 11, 1989
BROADCAST HISTORY:
Jan 1981-Apr 1981 , ABC Mon 9:00-10:00
Jul 1981-Sep 1983 , ABC Wed 10:00-11:00
Sep 1983-May 1984 , ABC Wed 9:00-10:00
Aug 1984-May 1986 , ABC Wed 9:00-10:00
Sep 1986-May 1987 , ABC Wed 9:00-10:00
Sep 1987—Mar 1988 , ABC Wed 10:00-11:00
Nov 1988-May 1989 , ABC Wed 10:00-11:00
CAST:
THEME: by Bill Conti
One of the most successful prime-time soap operas inspired by Dallas was this lavish entry. The setting was Denver, but true to the form, practically everyone was either filthy rich and disgusting or not-so-rich and disgusting.
As in Dallas , the money flowed from Big Oil (in fact, the series was originally going to be called Oil). Blake Carrington ran his vast holdings from an opulent, 48-room mansion. As the story began, however, his empire was tottering on the brink of collapse because Mideast revolutionaries had expropriated his tankers. Blake's unhappy wife was Krystle, a beautiful former secretary he had wooed and won, but whom he now treated like any other possession. Fallon was his spoiled, arrogant daughter and Steven his homosexual son (both by a previous marriage). Matthew Blaisdel, a crack geologist with the Carrington firm, was Krystle's former lover, but now had his hands full with a psychologically disturbed wife (Claudia) and a sexually blossoming daughter (Lindsay).
As the spring 1981 season ended Blake found himself on trial for the murder of Steven's male lover, Ted. Into the courtroom swept an unexpected witness for the prosecution, a mysterious, veiled woman. Not until the fall did viewers learn her identity; it was none other than Blake's former wife, the glamorous and vengeful Alexis. From that time on, much of the action on Dynasty centered on the rivalry between Krystle and Alexis, as Alexis schemed to displace the younger woman and secure her place in the Carrington dynasty.
Alexis soon insinuated herself into everyone's affairs. When her efforts failed to win Blake she wed his archrival, oil tycoon Cecil Colby—who promptly died of a heart attack. Then she schemed to destroy Blake professionally as well as personally, through a merger of Denver-Carrington with Colby's Colbyco. Alexis did tempt Blake briefly, but ultimately he realized the strength of his love for Krystle and Alexis was once again foiled. The war between the two beautiful women continued unabated; Alexis causing Krystle to lose her baby. Krystle attacking Alexis in a spectacular fight in a lily pond, the two of them trapped together in a burning cabin and battling it out in the mud.
On the fringes of this battle royal other stories unfolded. There was Steven's somewhat confused love life, from his homosexual affair with Ted to his marriages with Sammy Jo (who bore him a child, Danny) and Claudia. In 1982 he disappeared into exile in Indonesia, where he was injured in an explosion, necessitating “plastic surgery.” His new face solved nothing, however. Always the black sheep of the family, on his return Steven found himself fighting Blake, who thought him unfit for the custody of Danny.
Meanwhile, fickle Fallon knew exactly what she wanted, bedding down successively with Michael the chauffeur, Nick the doctor, Jeff the junior executive, and Peter the playboy. Jeff, whom she married briefly and bore a child with, L.B. (“Little Blake”), was the one who really loved her. But it seemed that he might have to settle for Kirby (the butler's daughter!) instead.
A third Carrington offspring arrived in October 1982, calling himself Michael Torrance. He turned out to be Adam Carrington, Blake's long-lost son, who had returned to claim his birthright and whatever ladies were available. Others passing through the early stories included blustery wildcatter Walter Lankershim, an old foe of Blake's who arrived at Blake and Krystle's wedding with gun in hand; Joseph, the majordomo (Kirby's father); lawyer Andrew Laird; Krystle's ex, handsome Mark Jennings; and ruthless Congressman Neal McVane.
After a slow start Dynasty rose quickly to the top of the ratings, only slightly behind its prototype Dallas. What it may have lacked in depth of characterization and story as compared to the older serial, it made up in style and glamour, as exemplified by that gorgeous mansion (actually the Filoli estate, south of San Francisco). And if “class” is measured by the company one keeps, Dynasty won hands down. It was probably the first soap opera in history in which an ex-President and Secretary of State of the United States played on-screen roles: former President and Mrs. Gerald Ford and Henry Kissinger all appeared in a December 1983 episode set at Denver's glittering, real-life Carousel Ball.
As Dynasty matured, however, its “campy” approach to soap opera began to wear a little thin. The 1984-1985 season saw Blake fighting to regain his empire from Alexis, who had finally ruined him by undermining his South China Sea oil deal; Alexis herself was convicted of murdering Mark (actually Neal McVane did it, in a wig that made him look like Alexis). New on the scene was black singer Dominique, who arrived with her record-mogul husband Brady Lloyd (played by Billy Dee Williams) to reveal, to Blake's discomfort, that she too was a Carrington—his father's illegitimate daughter! Blake's old man Tom Carrington, seen in a riotous deathbed scene, had apparently been a world-class philanderer. Blake and Krystle's marriage had its problems; after giving birth to their first child, Krystina, Krystle dallied with handsome horsebreeder Daniel Reece (played by Rock Hudson in his last role), while Blake was seen with jet-set photographer Lady Ashley. Son Steven, as sexually confused as ever, alternated between wife Claudia and boyfriend Luke, and Jeff spent most of the season searching for true love Fal-lon, who had disappeared. The climactic event of the season—and for many the most preposterous story yet—involved the arrival of Alexis's lost daughter Amanda, who made a few passes at Alexis's new husband Dex and was then fixed up with Prince Michael of Moldavia. The Carringtons trooped off to the picturesque European principality for a royal wedding, but in the season finale revolutionaries burst into the palace and machine-gunned them all!
After a certain amount of intrigue in the cardboard kingdom, everybody got out and Prince Michael and King Galen became part of the Denver scene. Other major stories of 1985-1986 included a drawn-out scheme by evil producer Joel and greedy Sammy Jo to abduct Krystle and substitute a look-alike actress named Rita inside the Carrington mansion (Blake didn't seem to notice the difference, even in bed); several episodes featuring the cast of the spin-off serial The Colbys (q.v.); and the appearance of Blake's estranged younger brother Ben and Alexis's sister Caress. Caress wrote a scandalous book about Alexis called Sister Dearest; there was plenty to write about, but Alexis squashed the project by buying the publisher. Also introduced were the Fallmonts, Senator Buck, indiscreet wife Emily, sons Clay (who eventually married Sammy Jo) and Bart (who made a pass at Steven). Alexis once again “destroyed” Blake, this time throwing him “and that blond tramp” (Krystle) out of the mansion entirely. The season ended with a distraught Blake attempting to physically strangle his ex, while across town his resort hotel La Mirage was engulfed in a fire accidentally touched off by Claudia, who perished in the flames.
The following season saw the marriages of Sammy Jo to Clay and Dana to Adam (who turned out not to be Blake's long-lost son, but was adopted by him anyhow); a story in which three-year-old Krystina needed a heart transplant, then was abducted by the donor's mother, Sarah; the return of Ben's sexy daughter Leslie; and a surreal interlude in which Blake, suffering from “soap opera amnesia” after an accident, thought he was married to Alexis. She loved it. The writers apparently suffered amnesia too, bringing back three characters long since disposed of: Michael Culhane, the sleazy chauffeur from the first season, now with $50 million in his pocket; Neal Mc-Vane, who was sprung from prison long enough to blackmail Adam over his non-Carrington parentage; and supposedly deceased Matthew Blaisdel, who burst in on the Adam/Dana wedding reception with a gang of tuxedo-clad gunmen determined to carry off Krystle. At least Blake got his company back from Alexis.
Another spectre appeared in the fall of 1987 in the person of Sean, son of the butler Joseph (who had committed suicide) and brother of Kirby (fled to Europe), seeking revenge against Alexis. Fallon and Jeff were back, having escaped the sinking Colbys series; Blake ran for governor against Alexis, enduring her mudslinging attacks on him in her paper the Denver Mirror (in the end both lost the election to a third candidate); Adam and Dana, unable to conceive, hired Karen to be a surrogate mother and got into a nasty court fight when Karen decided to keep the child; and Alexis and Krystle fell into yet another hair-pulling fight in the mud.
Much of the final season was occupied by an extended murder investigation resulting from the discovery of a mummified body in a lake on the Carrington estate. It turned out to be architect Roger Grimes, one of Alexis's former lovers, shot long ago by her daughter Fallon (then a child) when he attacked her mommy. Fallon had forgotten all of this, of course, but predictably fell into bed with the macho cop investigating the case, Sgt. Zorelli. Alexis tried to frame Blake for the murder but was distracted as vengeful cousin Sable arrived in Denver to try to destroy her. Meanwhile Blake's beloved Krystle began having spells of bizarre behavior as the result of a bump on the head, and wound up in a permanent coma in a Swiss hospital (actress Linda Evans had decided to leave the show). In the final episode Fallon and little Krystina were trapped in a collapsing mine shaft with a buried Nazi art collection and a deranged killer; Blake and crooked police Captain Handler (who was trying to blackmail him) shot each other; and an enraged Adam pushed Alexis and Dex from a balcony. Could they bounce back?
In October 1991 ABC aired a movie sequel called Dynasty: The Reunion which tied up these loose ends, but created others. Fallon got out of the mine shaft and the art was “given away.” The fate of Alexis and Dex was even more remarkable. “She got off pretty easy…they say she managed to turn in midair so she could land on top of him,” marveled a minor character. “He didn't fare all that well.” As for Blake, he was sent to prison for murder, his company was lost to foreign takeover, and his family scattered. The main story of Dynasty: The Reunion involved Blake's attempts to prove that his company—and others in the United States—were being gobbled up by a murderous, secret foreign cartel called “The Consortium.” Pardoned after three years, Blake and his “sons” (Steven, Adam, and sons-in-law Jeff and Miles Colby) battled the Swiss-based Consortium, which proved to be headed by the Nazi-like Jeremy Van Dorn (Jeroen Krabbé). They eventually won back the family business—though not before Van Dorn and his agents tried to kill both Blake and Alexis (who had allied with Van Dorn). Blake even got his beloved Krystle back, freed from the Swiss sanitarium where the Consortium had tried to “program” her to kill him. Sneering Van Dorn got away, however, so there may be yet another sequel.
DYNASTY II—THE COLBYS , see The Colbys