Before we get started, I wanted to send out a heartfelt Comfort TV thank you to William Gerace, who runs the Shelley Fabares Group page on Facebook. He was kind enough to bring my recent tribute to Shelley to her attention, and I’m told both she and her husband Mike Farrell really enjoyed it. I’m always happy when one of my blogs gets to one of the people they celebrate. Thanks Bill!
Back when Nick at Nite was still worth watching, they used to run program blocs featuring six consecutive episodes of a classic program during their annual Block Party Summer promotion. Friday nights were often dubbed “Sgt. Joe Fridays” and offered an evening of Dragnet.
If any prime time network lineup deserved that same designation, it was Friday nights in 1971, which served up two new series created, produced, and sometimes directed by Jack Webb. Both were gone by season’s end, but I had a great time revisiting their engaging stories, and the esteem Webb afforded to those in criminal justice and law enforcement. For me they played particularly well in this era when such respect has sadly dissipated.
CBS
The Chicago Teddy Bears
O’Hara, US Treasury
The New CBS Friday Night Movie
The series from this night that I most enjoyed rediscovering was O’Hara, US Treasury, starring David Janssen as a small-town sheriff who joins the Treasury Department.
All the hallmarks of the Jack Webb house style are here – the military-style theme music, the seal and the badge of the department on prominent display, use of the word “hinky” when a situation goes bad, and the button-down agents that can quote statutes from memory. When O’Hara dismisses a Customs post as “one of those guys at the airport that goes through dirty socks in suitcases,” a veteran agent played by William Conrad schools him in a speech that recalls some of Webb’s soliloquies on Dragnet.
Janssen is an utterly compelling actor – so even while this type of no-frills drama does not play to his strengths, it will always hold your interest. And it did loosen up a bit as the season progressed, while remaining a procedural that offered interesting insight into the many and varied responsibilities of the US Treasury Department, from customs to counterfeiting to international drug smuggling.
Having just celebrated crossing Shirley’s World off my list of missed ‘70s shows, I must now add The Chicago Teddy Bears to that list, as I couldn’t find any of its 13 episodes anywhere online. I am intrigued by the premise of a sitcom set in Prohibition-era Chicago, and top-billed Dean Jones is someone I’ve always enjoyed in Disney films. If I can track it down, I’ll get back to you with a verdict.
ABC
The Brady Bunch
The Partridge Family
Room 222
The Odd Couple
Love American Style
The Partridge Family and Room 222 were the only two series from any network on this night to rank among the top 30 shows.
ABC put the Bradys and Partridges back to back, and removed both Nanny and the Professor and That Girl from the previous year’s Friday lineup. The Odd Couple moved into Fridays after debuting on Thursdays, helping to round out a strong slate of shows that, with the borderline exception of Love American Style, would all become classics.
NBC
The D.A.
The NBC World Premiere Movie
The D.A. was the other new Jack Webb series. It doesn’t work as well as O’Hara, which pains me to say because I like Robert Conrad almost as much as I like David Janssen. Conrad plays District Attorney Paul Ryan, who introduces the story or the case for each episode in a Joe Friday-like voiceover. With Harry Morgan in a supporting role and guest spots from Adam-12’s Reed and Malloy, you could sometimes forget which Webb series you were watching.
The show’s best moments take place in the courtroom, and if the series spent more time there it might have been more successful. I liked watching Ryan square off against plucky public defender Katy Benson, as they both argued their cases while trying not to reveal how much they actually liked each other. Benson was played by Julie Cobb, and if you were watching The Brady Bunch on Fridays in 1971, as more people were, you would have also spotted her playing a high school student who catches Greg’s eye in My Son, the Man.”
Shows Missed:
The Don Knotts Show (1970)
San Francisco International Airport (1970)
Nancy (1970)
The Headmaster (1970)
The Man and the City (1971)
The Chicago Teddy Bears (1971)
Wow--David, big congrats on your tribute to Shelley Fabares being seen by Ms. Fabares, that's tremendous! I must say I particularly enjoyed this night's lineup as I knew & remembered Friday night's lineup (on ABC) like the back of my hand, and kind of wondered what was airing on the other networks then. (Rats about missing David Janssen.) And speaking of all things Brady, just today I discovered 'The Brady Bros' on Apple podcasts and got to listen to Barry Williams & Christopher Knight share some interesting memories. I'm glad they (and yourself) keep these memories alive. :^)
ReplyDeleteThanks Doug! It still amazes me that The Brady Bunch never ranked among the top 30 shows given its enduring popularity all these years later. I've been meaning to check out that podcast but have not done so yet. Thanks for the reminder!
DeleteConsidering the enduring popularity of Andy Griffith, it is mystifying as to why "Headmaster" has never been seen since it first aired. It must be buried with him in Manteo.
ReplyDeleteIt's a good thing for Jamie Farr that THE CHICAGO TEDDY BEARS didn't succeed, as if it had lasted another season, he wouldn't have been available to play Klinger on MASH.
ReplyDeleteBrandon Tartikoff, in his book THE LAST GREAT RIDE, shared a story Fred Silverman told him about O'HARA, U.S. TREASURY. It seems that U.S. Treasury agents liked the show enough to threaten CBS executives if the network cancelled the show. CBS did that, and according to Silverman, dozens of CBS execs "on each coast" ended up w/ tax audits.
Hilarious - though of course not for them. What a great story! And I'm glad to at least know the show was well-liked among those it portrayed.
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