My Journey Through 1970s TV: Sunday Nights, 1975

 

Time to start a new year in our journey through the 1970s, and to realize we’re already halfway through the decade. I hope you’ve enjoyed these pieces as much as I have – celebrating some iconic shows, remembering others long forgotten, and looking back fondly on all the other series that filled our evenings with a pleasant diversion from gas shortages and political scandals.

 

Perhaps the best news – in 1975, Sony introduced the Betamax, and for the first time we could all go out and save our favorite shows to watch later. I wonder how many of these series are still in someone’s tape collection?

 

Sunday, 1975

 

ABC

Swiss Family Robinson

The Six Million Dollar Man

ABC Sunday Night Movie

 

ABC won the night according to the Nielsen ratings, with The Six Million Dollar Man at #9, and the Sunday Night Movie at #13.

 

New to the lineup was Swiss Family Robinson, produced by famed master of disaster Irwin Allen. Martin Milner played the head of the Robinson clan, supported by future TV stars Willie Aames and Helen Hunt. 

 

 

The cast also included Cameron Mitchell, who found time from guest-starring on every other 1970s series to stick around for all 20 episodes. 

 

 

 

I’m not sure why this one didn’t last more than one season. Perhaps audiences still had fond memories of the 1960 Disney version starring John Mills and Dorothy McGuire, which told that story about as well as it could be told, while also inspiring a popular Disneyland attraction in the Robinson’s elaborate treehouse.

 

 

CBS

Three For the Road

Cher

Kojak

Bronk

 

As with Swiss Family Robinson, Three For the Road was a perfectly pleasant show with a likable cast that just never found a big enough audience. Alex Rocco played a freelance photographer, and a widower with two sons, played by Vincent Van Patten and Leif Garrett. Together they travel the country in an RV, so Rocco’s character can take whatever assignments come his way. 

 

 

Both Van Patten and Garrett were already making the cover of Tiger Beat, but not enough teen girls tuned in to keep the show around. Maybe they were watching Willie Aames on ABC, and couldn’t yet afford a Betamax.

 

The writing could get a little wonky; lines like “Sometimes you act like you don’t know your big toe from a trombone” betray an older writer’s inability to find a teenager’s voice. But it was a gentle show that always had its heart in the right place.

Cher’s solo variety series lasted longer than ex-husband Sonny’s, which isn’t surprising, through it was also canceled after one season. But what was deemed unsuccessful in 1975 is today a wonderful time capsule of great performances by the era’s top pop stars.

 

 

 

Even with a poor lead-in, Kojak remained a top 20 series, but viewers did not stay for a second helping of cops-and-robbers action in Bronk. Jack Palance played the title character, a detective-lieutenant in Ocean City, California who worked closely with the town’s mayor (Joseph Mascolo) on special cases. Just a guess, but audiences may have expected tough-guy Palance to be a small-screen version of Dirty Harry, but were disappointed by the character’s more laid-back persona.  

 

 

 

NBC

The Wonderful World of Disney

The Family Holvak

The NBC Sunday Night Mystery Movie

 

This was not one of Disney’s more memorable seasons, though animal lovers would likely disagree, given episodes like “The Boy Who Talked to Badgers,” “The Bears and I” and “The Survival of Sam the Pelican.”

 

My last 70s piece included a short-lived series called The New Land that appeared to be similar to The Waltons. Now we have another in The Family Holvak, about a preacher and his wife and kids struggling to get by in the Great Depression. I never saw The New Land but I’m guessing this series was better – it would almost have to be with a cast headlined by Glenn Ford and Julie Harris. Those performances certainly helped but I found it slow, and caught myself glancing at the clock a few times, something I rarely did when visiting Walton’s Mountain. 

 

 

Finally, the Sunday Mystery Movie adds one new feature to its revolving lineup of returning favorites Columbo, McCloud, and McMillan and Wife. McCoy starred Tony Curtis as a gambler and con man who uses his skills to steal from crooks. Never saw it, and probably never will see it because only four episodes were made before it was dropped from the rotation. 

 

 

Shows Missed:

The Don Knotts Show (1970)

San Francisco International Airport (1970)

Nancy (1970)

The Headmaster (1970)

The Man and the City (1971)

Search (1972)

Assignment: Vienna (1972)

The Delphi Bureau (1972)

Jigsaw (1972)

The Little People (1972)

The Sixth Sense (1972)

Tenafly (1973)

Faraday & Company (1973)

Kodiak (1974)

The New Land (1974)

McCoy (1975)