"Previously On..."
A recurring look at TV I've watched; recent, notable industry news; items from my memorabilia collection & their significance; and the history of programming as told through the pages of TV Guide.
The Fountain Of Youth (Apple): I love a good National Treasure rip-off and that is the aspiration of this Guy Ritchie-directed original film in which John Krasinski and Natalie Portman hunt for the legend called out in the title. Too bad the movie is terrible. My wife will watch anything directed by Guy Ritchie but about half an hour into this boring junk we looked at each other and agreed it was time to move on to something else. The script seems written by AI: “Chat GPT: Please give me a 90-minute script that is very similar to National Treasure but features a brother and sister who do not get along, the Fountain of Youth, and throw in as many tropes and clichés from every cheeky action movie since 1985.” Even the action sequences we saw were dull.
The Better Sister (Amazon): This 8-ep legal drama / whodunnit series, based on a novel by Alafair Burke and starring Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Banks is OK. The show starts with Jessica Biel finding her husband dead (not a spoiler) and then introduces here sister into the storytelling to help unravel what happened along with many flashbacks. Like many streaming series of late this is set in the world of the wealthy with a blue-collar “intruder” creating discomfort for the rich. The mystery unfolds at a slow pace which forced me to fast-forward semi-regularly. Among the factors that hindered my engagement are 1) the chemistry between the two leads is underwhelming 2) some of the secondary characters are over-acted (Lorraine Toussaint, Matthew Modine, Gloria Reuben) 3) too many flashbacks and appearances of “ghosts” and 4) it is two episode too long with too many scenes unnecessary to the plot. It should have learned storytelling prowess from Apple’s Presumed Innocent. Also, it is distracting that Janel Moloney (The West Wing) who is 55 years old plays the mother in flashbacks to Biel (43) and Banks (51) who are playing themselves younger but still look like themselves today. The end reveal(s) are fine - not quite worth eight episodes but still acceptable.
Knots Landing (Amazon): About 10-15 years ago my wife and I binged all 14 seasons of Dallas and 9 seasons of Falcon Crest. We did this because growing up in the 1980s I was a Dynasty fan and never saw the CBS soaps but she and her family watched CBS. She was not interested in Dynasty but was willing to re-watch those two plus Knots Landing. I loved Dallas and Falcon Crest but Knots Landing S1 was a bore. Just recently Knots Landing appeared on Amazon Prime and we tried again starting with S2 which is much better and now we are in the middle of S4. There is something very relaxing and quaint about an 80s soap - where there are no cell phones, no social media, no social commentary and no CGI in the plot/production.
Always Sunny In Philadelphia (Hulu): Until a few months ago I had not seen one episode of the longest-running live-action comedy in TV history - season 17 begins in July on FXX. I decided I should at least watch the pilot. 16 seasons later I am almost caught up and have enjoyed the ride. The unique comedic tone never wavers across the years even if the series and its core four were emboldened by success to be more outlandish and outspoken. Now I can watch the new season when it airs on cable (I am a “cord-always”).
CBS Cedes 12:30 after 30 years: Last week CBS announced that Comics Unleashed With Byron Allen would return to the 12:35 time slot leading out of Stephen Colbert for the entire 25/26 season (it previously aired there Sept 23 - Jan 24 between James Corden ending and After Midnight starting). Allen is renting the time slot which means CBS is simply now earning an annuity for an hour of TV that has been produced by the network since “The Late, Late Show” was introduced in 1995, two years after Letterman jumped from NBC, with hosts such as Tom Snyder, Craig Kilborn, Craig Ferguson, and James Corden. This move, while perhaps sad to the remaining Late Night aficionados, reflects the reality of the daypart and CBS is making a move that eventually others will have to follow. In the mid-1970s Johnny Carson was reportedly the most profitable program on TV, making $250-$300M in today’s dollars. 50 years later Broadcast Late Night has become a heavily challenged business.
The Document That Started I Love Lucy: Before Lucy and Ricky Ricardo there was Liz and George Cooper of the radio show My Favorite Husband as played by Lucille Ball and Richard Denning. The show first aired as a pilot on 7/5/48 on CBS Radio and ended 3/31/51. CBS wanted Lucy to adapt the show for TV but she famously would only do it with her real life husband and hence I Love Lucy was born. The gallery on display below from my collection is Ball’s contract for the first season of My Favorite Husband consisting of 13 weeks and dated one week after the pilot aired - 7/12/48. She made $500 per week, $6,655 today, as a base. If the show obtained sponsors then she would also receive $1250 per week additionally in year one going up to $2000 in year five or $17K-$27K in 2025 dollars. As someone who watches I Love Lucy with every meal it gives me great pride to own a contract that represents its origins.
When Nikita Kruschev visited the United States in the Fall of 1959 it was the first visit by a Soviet premiere to the U.S. and lasted twelve days. While there was no singular highlight from that trip it helped alleviate tension during the Cold War. Since it was a well-publicized event, the media had time to prepare for coverage which yielded these two pages in the 1959-60 Fall Preview that lined up chronologically with the first week of his trip.
1959/60 was the debut season for Bonanza which would go on to a 14-season run on NBC and become perhaps the most iconic Western of all time - even more than Gunsmoke which lasted 20 years. More importantly, the ad below for this new series is actually a form of corporate synergy. Bonanza was the first Western to be televised fully in color and NBC was owned by RCA at the time so here is an ad for RCA color TV sets featuring a show produced by RCA and filmed in color in order to sell more color TV sets.
Cigarette advertising was not a cancelled category in 1959 and was even considered cool. This ad for Pall Mall associates that brand with two tough guy shows of the era, Tales Of The Wells Fargo with Dale Robertson and M Squad with Lee Marvin (the inspiration for Police Squad / Naked Gun) and vice verse. Note that in 1959 Camel was the #1 cigarette but the next year Pall Mall took the crown for the first time with 67 billion cigarettes sold.
