September
29, 1969
Love
American Style debuts
Love, American Style is an anthology comedy
television series that aired on ABC from September 29, 1969 to
January 11, 1974. The series was produced by Paramount Television. During the 1971–72
and 1972–73 seasons, it was a part of ABC's Friday primetime lineup that
included The Brady Bunch, The Partridge Family, Room 222,
and The Odd Couple. It featured some of
the earliest work of future stars Diane Keaton ("Love
and the Pen Pals"), Sally Struthers ("Love
and the Triangle"), Albert Brooks ("Love
and Operational Model"), and Harrison Ford ("Love
and the Former Marriage"). Room 222 star Karen Valentine appeared
in four episodes. Brady Bunch star Ann B. Davis and The
Partridge Family star Dave Madden each
appeared in two episodes.Each
episode of the show featured multiple stories of romance, usually with a
comedic spin. Episodes were stand-alone, featuring various characters, stories
and locations. The show often featured the same actors playing different
characters in many episodes. In addition, a large, ornate brass bed was a
recurring prop in many episodes.
Charles Fox's music score, featuring flutes, harp and flugelhorn set
to a contemporary pop beat, provided the "love" ambiance, which tied
the stories together as a multifaceted romantic comedy each week. For the first
season, the theme song was performed by the Cowsills.
Beginning with the second season, the same theme song was sung by the Ron Hicklin Singers, also known as the voices
behind the Partridge Family (based on the
Cowsills), among others, featuring brothers John and Tom Bahler (billed
as the Charles Fox Singers). This second version
of the theme was kept for the remainder of the series, as well as on most
episodes prepared for syndication.
The
title is loosely derived from a 1961 Italian comedy film called Divorzio all'italiana (Divorce, Italian Style),
which received Academy Award nominations in 1962 for Best Director for Pietro Germi and
for Best Actor for star Marcello Mastroianni. The film was later
spoofed in 1967 by Divorce, American Style, starring Dick Van Dyke.
The snowclone "(xxx),
(nationality) Style" became a minor cultural catch-phrase as the 1960s
progressed.
The
original series was also known for its 10- to 20-second blackouts between
the featured segments. These were performed by a house troupe that featured
future Rockford Files cast member Stuart Margolin,
future Vega$ leading
lady Phyllis Davis and a young character actor, James Hampton, who was known to television
audiences of the era as Private Dobbs from the TV series F-Troop.
These clips allowed the show to be padded to the required length without adding
to the main segments. They generally consisted of risqué, burlesque-style comedy-of-manners visual
jokes.
During
its first four years on ABC, Love, American Style was popular
with viewers and received decent ratings, although it never ranked among the
top 30 shows in the Nielsens. For a few seasons, it was part of a
lineup of ABC Friday night programs that included The Brady Bunch, The
Partridge Family, Room 222, and The Odd Couple.
Some
of the show's segments also served as pilots for
proposed television series. Many never made it beyond the pilot stage, but two
resulted in a series:
·
On
February 11, 1972, the show presented the animated segment "Love and the
Old-Fashioned Father." This would become the pilot to a first-run syndicated animated series
by Hanna-Barbera, Wait Till Your Father Gets Home, which
debuted that fall.
·
Two
weeks later, on February 25, 1972, the show aired a segment titled "Love
and the Television Set", a story about Richie Cunningham,
his family and friends. The premise and characters were later used for the 1974
television series Happy Days, and the episode would later be recognized as
a de facto pilot for the series. (It had originally been
produced as a pilot for New Family in Town, which was not picked
up). For syndication, the segment was retitled "Love and the Happy
Days."[1] Happy Days, in turn,
launched an extensive franchise of spinoffs into the 1980s.
The
series was also flexible enough to include repurposed pilots that had already
failed or been retooled. One first-season example was "Love and the Good
Deal," which was actually the original, unaired pilot for the sitcom adaptation of the Neil Simon play
and movie Barefoot in the Park, with a different cast
than the series.[2]
At
the start of the 1973–1974 fall season, the ratings for Love, American
Style and Room 222 had plummeted. As a result, both
shows were canceled mid-season. The series received several Emmy nominations,
including two for Best Comedy Series for 1969–70 and 1970–71. The show
subsequently became a daytime standard on ABC from June 1971 to May 1974, and
later in syndication, since it was readily edited down to a half-hour by the
proper interweaving of the clips with a main segment. It effectively made nine
seasons out of five. This allowed for heavy stripping.
October 17, 1989
The Loma Prieta earthquake, also known as the Quake of '89 and the World
Series Earthquake, was a major earthquake that struck
the San Francisco Bay Area of
California at 5:04 pm local time.
Caused by a slip along the San Andreas Fault, the quake lasted 10–15 seconds and measured 6.9 on
both the moment
magnitude scale (surface-wave
magnitude 7.1) and on the open-ended
Richter Scale. The quake killed 63
people throughout Northern California, injured 3,757 and left some 3,000–12,000
people homeless.
The earthquake occurred during the warm-up practice
for the third game of the 1989 World Series, featuring both of the Bay Area's Major
League Baseball teams, the Oakland
Athletics and the San Francisco Giants.
Because of game-related sports coverage, this was the first major earthquake in
the United States to have its initial jolt broadcast live on television.
September
29, 1969
Love
American Style debuts
Each
episode of the show featured multiple stories of romance, usually with a
comedic spin. Episodes were stand-alone, featuring various characters, stories
and locations. The show often featured the same actors playing different
characters in many episodes. In addition, a large, ornate brass bed was a
recurring prop in many episodes.
Charles Fox's music score, featuring flutes, harp and flugelhorn set
to a contemporary pop beat, provided the "love" ambiance, which tied
the stories together as a multifaceted romantic comedy each week. For the first
season, the theme song was performed by the Cowsills.
Beginning with the second season, the same theme song was sung by the Ron Hicklin Singers, also known as the voices
behind the Partridge Family (based on the
Cowsills), among others, featuring brothers John and Tom Bahler (billed
as the Charles Fox Singers). This second version
of the theme was kept for the remainder of the series, as well as on most
episodes prepared for syndication.
The
title is loosely derived from a 1961 Italian comedy film called Divorzio all'italiana (Divorce, Italian Style),
which received Academy Award nominations in 1962 for Best Director for Pietro Germi and
for Best Actor for star Marcello Mastroianni. The film was later
spoofed in 1967 by Divorce, American Style, starring Dick Van Dyke.
The snowclone "(xxx),
(nationality) Style" became a minor cultural catch-phrase as the 1960s
progressed.
The
original series was also known for its 10- to 20-second blackouts between
the featured segments. These were performed by a house troupe that featured
future Rockford Files cast member Stuart Margolin,
future Vega$ leading
lady Phyllis Davis and a young character actor, James Hampton, who was known to television
audiences of the era as Private Dobbs from the TV series F-Troop.
These clips allowed the show to be padded to the required length without adding
to the main segments. They generally consisted of risqué, burlesque-style comedy-of-manners visual
jokes.
During
its first four years on ABC, Love, American Style was popular
with viewers and received decent ratings, although it never ranked among the
top 30 shows in the Nielsens. For a few seasons, it was part of a
lineup of ABC Friday night programs that included The Brady Bunch, The
Partridge Family, Room 222, and The Odd Couple.
Some
of the show's segments also served as pilots for
proposed television series. Many never made it beyond the pilot stage, but two
resulted in a series:
·
On
February 11, 1972, the show presented the animated segment "Love and the
Old-Fashioned Father." This would become the pilot to a first-run syndicated animated series
by Hanna-Barbera, Wait Till Your Father Gets Home, which
debuted that fall.
·
Two
weeks later, on February 25, 1972, the show aired a segment titled "Love
and the Television Set", a story about Richie Cunningham,
his family and friends. The premise and characters were later used for the 1974
television series Happy Days, and the episode would later be recognized as
a de facto pilot for the series. (It had originally been
produced as a pilot for New Family in Town, which was not picked
up). For syndication, the segment was retitled "Love and the Happy
Days."[1] Happy Days, in turn,
launched an extensive franchise of spinoffs into the 1980s.
The
series was also flexible enough to include repurposed pilots that had already
failed or been retooled. One first-season example was "Love and the Good
Deal," which was actually the original, unaired pilot for the sitcom adaptation of the Neil Simon play
and movie Barefoot in the Park, with a different cast
than the series.[2]
At
the start of the 1973–1974 fall season, the ratings for Love, American
Style and Room 222 had plummeted. As a result, both
shows were canceled mid-season. The series received several Emmy nominations,
including two for Best Comedy Series for 1969–70 and 1970–71. The show
subsequently became a daytime standard on ABC from June 1971 to May 1974, and
later in syndication, since it was readily edited down to a half-hour by the
proper interweaving of the clips with a main segment. It effectively made nine
seasons out of five. This allowed for heavy stripping.
October 17, 1989
The Loma Prieta earthquake, also known as the Quake of '89 and the World Series Earthquake, was a major earthquake that struck the San Francisco Bay Area of California at 5:04 pm local time.
Caused by a slip along the San Andreas Fault, the quake lasted 10–15 seconds and measured 6.9 on
both the moment
magnitude scale (surface-wave
magnitude 7.1) and on the open-ended
Richter Scale. The quake killed 63
people throughout Northern California, injured 3,757 and left some 3,000–12,000
people homeless.
The earthquake occurred during the warm-up practice
for the third game of the 1989 World Series, featuring both of the Bay Area's Major
League Baseball teams, the Oakland
Athletics and the San Francisco Giants.
Because of game-related sports coverage, this was the first major earthquake in
the United States to have its initial jolt broadcast live on television.
