My Journey Through 1970s TV: Sunday and Monday Nights, 1973

 

As we’ve sometimes done before in this series, I’m covering two nights instead of one here because of the high volume of returned shows already discussed in previous pieces. But it’s still always fun to start a new year in my journey through the 1970s, and to see if there are any more series that need to be added to the “missed’ list. After a quick scan of the schedules, I like my chances.

 

Sunday, 1973

 

CBS

The New Perry Mason

Mannix

Barnaby Jones

 

Only Mannix remains from last year’s Sunday schedule, as CBS tries two new shows to cut into NBC’s ratings dominance.

 

The New Perry Mason was a show that began with, as Ricky Ricardo might say, a lot of ‘splainin’ to do. The original Perry Mason series starring Raymond Burr was a prime time fixture from 1957 to 1966, and is still the definitive television courtroom drama. To re-introduce the concept and characters with an all-new cast just six years later seems like a shallow attempt to capitalize on the success of its predecessor, which was still playing in reruns in most markets.

 

This same strategy blossomed about 20 years ago, when there was a glut of films based on old TV shows, that used the same titles and characters, but had little if anything in common with the shows that audiences still loved. Sgt. Bilko (1996), Leave It To Beaver (1997), The Avengers (1998), The Wild, Wild West (1999), Bewitched (2005) and so many others deservedly bombed.

 

And so did The New Perry Mason, which was canceled after 15 episodes. But here’s the thing – the show was actually pretty good, and I think its odds of success would have risen if it wasn’t trying to convince viewers that Monte Markham was now Perry Mason, assisted by Sharon Acker as Della Street and Albert Stratton as Paul Drake. 

 

 

Markham was an always-welcome guest presence on dozens of classic shows, from Hogan’s Heroes to The Mary Tyler Moore Show to Eight is Enough. This would be his best shot at steady work for 15 years, until he wound up on Baywatch of all places. My guess is most of that show's male viewers never noticed him. 

I bought into his passion and integrity instantly as a crusading attorney – but Burr cast such a huge shadow, literally and figuratively, that I could not buy him as Perry Mason. And it wasn’t that viewers tired of the character – Burr returned to the role for a series of popular TV movies that aired until 1993, the year Burr passed away.

 

Unlike The New Perry Mason, Barnaby Jones found a receptive audience right away, and would run until 1980. What an impressive second act for Buddy Ebsen after so many years playing Jed Clampett on The Beverly Hillbillies. 

 

 

 

ABC

The FBI

The ABC Sunday Night Movie

 

This is the same ABC lineup as last year’s, though we'll have some new entries to get to in 1974. This was the final full season for The FBI after an impressive run that began back in 1965.

 

NBC

The Wonderful World of Disney

The NBC Sunday Night Mystery Movie

 

Another same-as-last-season lineup, except without Nigh Gallery as a nightcap following the rotating Mystery Movie presentations. The selections here also remain unchanged: Columbo, McCloud, McMillan and Wife, and Hec Ramsey.

 

 

Monday, 1973

 

ABC

The Rookies

Monday Night Football

 

Just as they did on Sunday nights, ABC stands pat with a successful Monday lineup. That’s what I was watching, if only to hear Dandy Don Meredith sing “Turn out the lights, the party’s over” as soon as the Packers scored yet another second-half touchdown against my beloved Chicago Bears

 

 

CBS

Gunsmoke

Here’s Lucy

The New Dick Van Dyke Show

Medical Center

 

Gunsmoke once again gets Mondays on CBS off to a strong start, as it has since 1967. This was the final year for both Here’s Lucy and The New Dick Van Dyke Show – and how many hours of television since then could claim to feature two of the medium’s most iconic stars? I think this was about the time that my nine year-old self switched from having a crush on Tina Cole on My Three Sons to Lucie Arnaz. Farrah was still three years away. 

 

 

Medical Center still had a few good years left, which is more than you can say for some of its patients.

 

NBC

Lotsa Luck

Diana

The NBC Monday Night Movie

 

NBC struck out with both of its new sitcoms this year, though both certainly looked good on paper. Lotsa Luck was created by Carl Reiner, Bill Persky and Sam Denoff, three of the best writers for The Dick Van Dyke Show, which Reiner also created. Persky and Denoff also created That Girl.

 

There was an All in the Family vibe about the series, about a multi-generational working class family in New York. Stanley worked the lost and found counter at a bus company. He lived with his domineering mother, his sister Olive, and her unemployed husband Arthur. 

 

 

I was amazed when I reviewed the posts on IMDB and YouTube about this series, most of which were rave reviews. I thought it was awful, even with its laugh track dialed up to 11 for punch-less punch lines. Hiring Dom DeLuise as Stanley strikes me as one of the worst examples of miscasting in the history of television. He was a born second banana, best utilized in over-the-top characters opposite Dean Martin on the singer’s variety series, or flamboyant nuts in movies with Mel Brooks or Burt Reynolds. But as an ordinary Joe beaten down by life? It doesn’t work at all.

 

If you’re still curious, go to YouTube and select the episode “Bummy’s Girl,” as it features Suzanne Somers, who doesn’t play the material at the same exaggerated volume as everyone else, and is easily the best thing in the show. 

 

 

Diana didn’t make it either, but that had no impact on my love for Diana Rigg. She is in that very, very rare class of performers who can take an ordinary line of dialogue and make it compelling by sheer force of personal magnetism.

 

Following her transcendent work in The Avengers (the one without Iron Man) Rigg signed up to star in this American sitcom (for the paycheck, she later admitted), as a British divorcee who moves to New York to start a new life and a new career as a fashion coordinator at Butley’s Department Store. 

 

 

I’ve seen one episode, and based on that experience I’m not surprised by its cancelation. It wasn’t as terrible at Lotsa Luck but it was terribly conventional and, well, a little boring. A quality I would never associate with its leading lady.

 

 

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)

Search (1972)

Assignment: Vienna (1972)

The Delphi Bureau (1972)

Jigsaw (1972)

The Little People (1972)

The Sixth Sense (1972)