This Week in Television History: September 2018 PART II

The further we go back in Hollywood history, the more that fact and legend become intertwined.

It's hard to say where the truth really lies.

Donna Allen-Figueroa

September 10, 1993

The science fiction series The X-Files premiered. 

David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson stared. Duchovny played FBI agent Fox Mulder and Anderson played Dana Scully, a skeptical doctor. A cult hit, the show attracted an enormous following of loyal viewers. An X-Files movie was released in 1998. David Duchovny left the show in the 2001 season and was replaced by Robert Patrick, who played agent John Doggett.

September 12, 1963

Leave It to Beaver aired its last episode. 

The typical 1950s "wholesome family" comedy presented the lives of the Cleaver family from the perspective of young Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver (Jerry Mathers). The clan included parents June (Barbara Billingsley) and Ward (Hugh Beaumont), and older brother Wally (Tony Dow). The show enjoyed much popularity in reruns and a revival in the 1980s as The New Leave It to Beaver .

September 12, 1978

Taxi first aired.

The show focuses on the employees of the fictional Sunshine Cab Company, and its principal setting is the company's fleet garage in Manhattan. Among the drivers, only Alex Reiger, who is disillusioned with life, considers cab driving his profession. The others view it as a temporary job. Elaine Nardo is a single mother working as a receptionist at an art gallery. Tony Banta is a boxer with a losing record. Bobby Wheeler is a struggling actor. John Burns (written out of the show after the first season) is working his way through college. All take pity on "Reverend Jim" Ignatowski, an aging hippie minister, who is burnt out from drugs, so they help him become a cabbie. The characters also include Latka Gravas, their innocent, wide-eyed mechanic from an unnamed foreign country, and Louie De Palma, the despotic dispatcher.

A number of episodes involve a character having an opportunity to realize his or her dream to move up in the world, only to see it yanked away. Otherwise, the cabbies deal on a daily basis with their unsatisfying lives and with Louie De Palma's abusive behavior and contempt (despite being a former cab driver himself). Louie's assistant, Jeff Bennett, is rarely heard from at first, but his role increases in later seasons.

Despite the humor of the show, Taxi often tackled such dramatic issues as racism, drug addiction, single parenthood, blindness, obesity, animal abuse, bisexuality, teenage runaways, divorce, nuclear war, sexual harassment, premenstrual mood disorders, gambling addiction, and the loss of a loved one.

September 13, 1993
Animaniacs Premiered

September 14, 1958

The Invisible Man (1958 TV series) first aired

The Invisible Man (later known as H.G. Wells' Invisible Man) is a British black-and-white science fiction/adventure/espionage television series that aired on ITV from September 1958 to July 1959. It was aired on CBS in the United States, running two seasons and totalling 26 half-hour episodes. The series was nominally based on the novel by H. G. Wells, one of four such television series. In this version, the deviation from the novel went as far as changing the main character's name from Dr. Griffin to Dr. Peter Brady who remained a sane man, not a power-hungry lunatic as in the book or the 1933 film adaptation. None of the other characters from the novel appeared in the series.

The series follows the adventures of Dr. Peter Brady, a scientist who is attempting to achieve invisibility with light refraction. However, the experiment goes wrong and turns him permanently invisible. He is initially declared a state secret and locked up, but eventually convinces the UK government, represented by Sir Charles Anderson, to allow him to return to his laboratory and search for an antidote ("Secret Experiment"). Almost immediately, British Intelligence recruits him for an assignment ("Crisis in the Desert"), but soon security is breached ("Behind the Mask") and he becomes a celebrity ("Picnic with Death"), consequently also using his invisibility to help people in trouble, as well as solve crimes and defeat spies for his country.

September 14, 1968

The Archies premiered on CBS. The cartoon was based on the comic book series. 

The Archie Show (Also known as The Archies) is an American animated musical comedy series produced by Filmation for CBS. Based on the Archie comic books, created by Bob Montana in 1941, The Archie Show aired Saturday mornings on CBS from September 1968 to August 1969, when it was replaced by an hour-long version, The Archie Comedy Hour. Filmation continued to produce further Archie television series until 1978.

The show revolves around 17-year-old Archie Andrews and his teen-age pals from Riverdale High Schoolincluding: his best friend and food fiend Jughead Jones, wise-cracking Reggie Mantle, beautiful, spoiled-rich girl Veronica Lodge, and attractive, blonde, girl-next-door tomboy Betty Cooper. On the show, the friends appeared as a bubblegum pop band featuring Archie on lead guitar. The Archies had a real-life #1 hit single in 1969 with their song, "Sugar, Sugar", written by Jeff Barry and Andy Kim.

The Archie Show utilized a laugh track, the first such example of the colloquially-titled Saturday morning cartoons. Owing to the success of The Archie Show, most animated series would begin using laugh tracks until the early 1980s. Previous animated series that used laugh tracks, such as The Flintstones and The Jetsons, were broadcast during prime time with the target audience being adults.

A typical episode started with the first Archie story, introduced by Archie and occasionally a different character. Next was a "dance of the week" segment starting with a teaser, then after the commercial break Archie introduced the dance, followed by the song of the week performed by The Archies. After that was a short joke followed by the second Archie story. All 17 episodes were presented in this format.

September 14, 1978

Mork and Mindy is an American sitcom that aired on ABC from September 14, 1978 to May 27, 1982. 

A spin-offafter a highly successful episode of Happy Days, it starred Robin Williams as Mork, an extraterrestrial who comes to Earth from the planet Ork in a small, one-Orkan egg-shaped spaceship. Pam Dawber co-starred as Mindy McConnell, his human friend and roommate, and later his wife and the mother of his child. The first episode of Mork and Mindy aired on ABC. 

The character of Mork was played by a then-unknown Robin Williams, who impressed producer Garry Marshall with his quirky comedic ability as soon as they met. Marshall was looking for an actor for an episode of Happy Days. When Williams was asked to take a seat at the audition, Williams immediately sat on his head on the chair and Marshall cast him on the spot, and later wryly commented that Williams was the only alien who auditioned for the role.

Mork appears in the Happy Days season five episode "My Favorite Orkan", which first aired in February 1978 and is a take on the 1960s sitcom My Favorite Martian. The show wanted to feature a spaceman in order to capitalize on the popularity of the then recently released Star Wars film. Williams' character, Mork, attempts to take Richie Cunningham back to his planet of Ork as a human specimen, but his plan is foiled by Fonzie. In the initial broadcast of this episode, it all turned out to be a dream that Richie had, but when Mork proved so popular, the ending in the syndicated version was re-edited to show Mork erasing the experience from everyone's minds, thus meaning the event had actually happened and was not a dream.

Mork & Mindy is set in Boulder, Colorado, in the then present-day late 1970s and early 1980s (as opposed to the Happy Days setting of Milwaukee in the late-1950s). Mork explains to Richie that he is from the "future": the 1970s.

Mork arrives on Earth in an egg-shaped spacecraft. He has been assigned to observe human behavior by Orson, his mostly unseen and long-suffering superior (voiced by Ralph James). Orson has sent Mork to get him off Ork, where humor is not permitted. Attempting to fit in, Mork dresses in an Earth suit, but wears it backward. Landing in Boulder, Colorado, he encounters 21-year-old Mindy (Pam Dawber), who is upset after an argument with her boyfriend, and offers assistance. Because of his odd garb, she mistakes him for a priest and is taken in by his willingness to listen (in fact, simply observing her behavior). When Mindy notices his backward suit and unconventional behavior, she asks who he really is, and he innocently tells her the truth. She promises to keep his identity a secret and allows him to move into her attic. Mindy's father Fred (Conrad Janis) objects to his daughter living with a man (particularly one as bizarre as Mork), but Fred's mother-in-law Cora (Elizabeth Kerr) approves of Mork and the living arrangement. Mindy and Cora work at Fred's music store, where Cora gives violin lessons to Eugene (Jeffrey Jacquet), a 10-year-old boy who becomes Mork's friend. Also seen occasionally are Mindy's snooty old high school friend Susan (Morgan Fairchild) and the possibly insane Exidor (Robert Donner).

September 16, 1963

The Outer Limits premiered on ABC-TV. 

The Outer Limits is an American television series that was broadcast on ABC from 1963 to 1965 at 7:30 PM Eastern Time on Mondays. The series is often compared to The Twilight Zone, but with a greater emphasis on science fiction stories (rather than stories of fantasy or the supernatural matters). The Outer Limits is an anthologyof self-contained episodes, sometimes with a plot twist at the end.

The series was revived in 1995, airing on Showtime from 1995 to 2000, then on Sci-Fi Channel from 2001 until its cancellation in 2002. In 1997, the episode "The Zanti Misfits" was ranked #98 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time.

Each show would begin with either a cold open or a preview clip, followed by a "Control Voice" narration that was mainly run over visuals of an oscilloscope. Using an Orwellian theme of taking over your television, the earliest version of the narration ran as follows:

“

There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to – The Outer Limits.

”

A similar but shorter monolog caps each episode: We now return control of your television set to you. Until next week at the same time, when the control voice will take you to – The Outer Limits.

Later episodes used one of two shortened versions of the introduction. The first few episodes began simply with the title screen followed by the narration and no cold open or preview clip. The Control Voice was performed by actor Vic Perrin.

September 16, 1968

The Andy Griffith Show was seen for the final time on CBS.


September 16, 1968

U.S. Presidential candidate Richard Nixon appeared on episode 15 of Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. 

He spoke the show signature line "Sock it to me." 

September, 16, 1993

Frasier makes its debut on NBC. 

Frasier starred Kelsey Grammer as the erudite, snobbish Dr. Frasier Crane, a radio psychiatrist who relocates from Boston to his hometown of Seattle following the breakup of his marriage. The main characters in Frasier’s life are his father Martin (John Mahoney), a down-to-earth retired cop; his younger brother, Niles (David Hyde Pierce), a psychiatrist who shares Frasier’s taste for the finer things in life; his father’s kooky caretaker, Daphne Moon (Jane Leeves); his radio show producer, Roz Doyle (Peri Gilpin) and his father’s dog, Eddie.

Kelsey Grammer, who was born on February 21, 1955, studied drama at New York City’s Juilliard School and began his professional acting career in theater. In 1984, he made his first appearance on Cheers as the fiance of one of the main characters, Diane (Shelley Long). Although Frasier Crane was originally only supposed to appear on Cheers for a few episodes, the popular character became a permanent member of the show. Set in a Boston-based bar called Cheers, the show debuted on September 30, 1982. Dr. Frasier Crane was one of the regulars who, along with Norm Peterson (George Wendt) and Cliff Clavin (John Ratzenberger) drank at Cheers, which was run by Sam Malone (Ted Danson). When the final episode of Cheers aired on May 20, 1993, more than 80 million viewers tuned in, making it one of the most-watched last episodes in TV history.
Grammer went on to star in Frasier from September 1993 to May 13, 2004. After making an Emmy Award-nominated guest appearance as Crane on the 1990s sitcom Wings, Grammer became the only actor in TV history to earn Emmy nominations for playing the same character on three separate shows.

Grammer’s other acting credits include a recurring role as the voice of Sideshow Bob on Fox’s hit animated series The Simpsons. More recently, he and Patricia Heaton (Everybody Loves Raymond) co-starred as a pair of news anchors at a Pittsburgh TV station on the short-lived sitcom Back to You, which aired from 2007 to 2008 and was directed by Cheers co-creator James Burrows.

To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was".

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

“

There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to – The Outer Limits.

”