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Aug. 9, 2005 Despite the fact that there are many regularly-scheduled TV series and a few made-for-TV movies that have made their way to DVD in recent years, there are still plenty of shows that have yet to make it to the shelves. My TV-to-DVD wish list includes a few modern classics, as well as some oldie-goldies. The list is in no particular order. Living Single. Debuting on Fox in 1993, one year before Friends arrived on NBC, Living Single is a black-themed ensemble comedy that enjoyed a respectable, if largely unheralded, four-and-a-half season run. A star vehicle for rapper Queen Latifah, who played magazine publisher Kadijah James, Living Single also featured Kim Fields (as fashion maven and gossip guru Regine Hunter), Kim Coles (as Kadijah’s sweet and naïve cousin, Synclaire) and Erika Alexander (as attorney and frequent houseguest Maxine Shaw). T.C. Carson was on hand as super-suave investment broker Kyle Barker, and John Henton rounded out the cast as handyman Overton Wakefield Jones. WKRP in Cincinnati. Although it never found a huge audience during its four-season run on CBS (1978-1982), WKRP was one of the funniest shows on television in its day. The ensemble cast included new program director Andy Travis (Gary Sandy), brought in to turn around the fortunes of the last-place station; bumbling station manager Arthur Carlson (Gordon Jump); buxom receptionist Jennifer Marlowe (Loni Anderson); high-octane DJ Dr. Johnny Fever (Howard Hesseman); and tacky-dressing salesman Herb Tarlek (Frank Bonner, who ended up behind the camera as a director on some other sitcoms). Newhart. In Bob Newhart’s second sitcom, which ran for eight years on CBS (1982-1990, he plays how-to book author Dick Loudon, who decides to give up big-city living to run a Vermont inn. Dick’s wife, Joanna (Mary Frann), stands by her man despite her own misgivings about the venture. Newhart’s real-life friend, Tom Poston, plays the aging handyman who comes with the hotel, while Steven Kampmann (one of the writers on WKRP) plays Kirk Devane, who runs the Minuteman Café next door. The first season of Newhart is on live-look videotape, which gives it a different look from later episodes. Get Smart. Taking advantage of the spy-movie trend, Mel Brooks and Buck Henry crafted this sitcom around Maxwell Smart (Don Adams), a secret agent whose bumbling and stumbling always put CONTROL on the edge of disaster. Smart’s partner, the beautiful Agent 99 (Barbara Feldon) and their boss, the Chief (Edward Platt), both have to keep an eye out for him as they continue to fight the evil forces of KAOS. Get Smart ran for four seasons on NBC (1965-1969) before moving to CBS for one final season. The pilot episode was the only one of the entire series not shot in color. Fantasy Island. Imagine a place where you can make your wildest dreams come true. From 1978 to 1984, ABC took viewers to such a place every week. Ricardo Montalban (as Mr. Rourke) granted the wishes, often helping his guests understand the need to be careful of the things their hearts desire. A bevy of famous players made their way onto the island during its run, including Charo, Sammy Davis, Jr., Mary Ann Mobley and Dick York. The Rockford Files. One of NBC’s more reliable hits in the 1970s, The Rockford Files starred James Garner as an ex-con who becomes a private investigator. But Jim Rockford often finds himself over his head on cases, so he relies on his dad Rocky (Noah Beery, Jr.), friendly police detective Dennis Becker (Joe Santos), and former cellmate Angel Martin (Stuart Margolin) for help. Mike Post did the memorable theme music for this series. I Dream of Jeannie. When Captain Anthony Nelson (Larry Hagman) and his Mercury space capsule stray off course, he finds himself on a deserted island with a beautiful genie (Barbara Eden). He just wants to go home to Florida, but she wants to have a little fun. After all, she’s been cooped up in a little bottle for over two thousand years. The first of five Jeannie seasons is set in black-and-white, during which time Nelson and his pal Roger Healey (Bill Daily) are both promoted to the rank of Major. The Drew Carey Show. A native son of Cleveland, Drew Carey not only set his self-named series there, his character was named—what else?—Drew Carey. He and his friends, two stooges and one comedic straight lady, team up to give workaday folks something to laugh at. A wonderful series which ran for eight years on ABC (1995-2004), The Drew Carey Show featured a solid cast, including Christa Miller as Kate, Ryan Stiles as Lewis and Diedrich Bader as Oswald. As the extremely flamboyant Mimi Bobeck, Kathy Kinney proved a wonderful foil to Carey’s working-man sensitivities. A Fire in the Sky. Debuting on NBC in 1978, this Big Event movie and perennial sweeps favorite starred Richard Crenna as Jason Voight, an astronomer convinced that a large comet will wipe out Phoenix. Joanna Miles played his love interest, fellow astronomer Jennifer Dreiser, and Elizabeth Ashley played Sharon Allen, a TV station owner determined to help spread Voight’s desperate message. Incidentally, Michael Biehn, who played FEMA Director Jack Wallach in another NBC rock-hitting-Earth drama, Asteroid (1997), appeared in this movie as cowboy wannabe Tom Reardon. A Fire in the Sky received well-deserved Emmy nominations for sound and special effects. 6 Rms Riv Vu. First telecast in 1974, 6 Rms Riv Vu (shorthand for 6-room apartment with a river view) tells the story of two upwardly-mobile but unhappily-married-to-someone-else people (Alan Alda and Carol Burnett) who get locked inside a vacant apartment while looking it over. The accidental lockup gives the two a chance to explore their feelings and each other. This wonderful made-for-TV movie was based on Bob Randall’s 1972 Broadway play. Space. A 13-hour miniseries originally broadcast on CBS in 1985 and based on the novel of the same name by James A. Michener, Space chronicled the humble beginnings of the US space program, and follows it through the eyes of fictional characters through the Apollo lunar landings. The large cast included James Garner, Harry Hamlin, Blair Brown, Bruce Dern and Susan Anspach. The Night That Panicked America. Paul Shenar portrayed Orson Welles, the man who turned the world on its ear with a chilling recreation of H.G. Wells’s novel, The War of the Worlds, in this made-for-TV drama, originally broadcast on ABC in 1975. The movie focuses not only on the Mercury Theatre, which put together the greatest farce in American history, it also focuses on the people living a surreal nightmare. The large cast included Tom Bosley, Meredith Baxter, Will Geer, John Ritter and Vic Morrow. ------------ About the author: Claxton Graham has written a number of articles for Useless Knowledge. He works as a business systems analyst. Email: scifiwriter8502@email.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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