TV Time Capsule

‘Mayflower Madam:’ Candice Bergen ... High-Class Hooker!

On November 15, 1987, CBS aired “Mayflower Madam,” a TV movie that starred Candice Bergen as Sydney Biddle Barrows, a real-life socialite who ran a high-class prostitution ring.

The movie, which was based on Barrows’ best-selling memoir of the same title, showed how she was fired from a fashion-industry job and wound up answering phones for a sleazy escort service.

Unhappy with the way the girls were treated, Barrows started her own upscale firm. Five years later, she was busted by police and dubbed the “Mayflower Madam” when the press learned of her Pilgrim lineage.

The New York Times’ John J. O’Connor called the movie “unintentionally hilarious,” while the Los Angeles Times’ Don Shirley ridiculed the casting of Bergen, whom he called “a decade too old for the role.”

(Barrows was 35 when the movie premiered – six years younger than Bergen.)

“Mayflower Madam” was seen in 18.5 million homes, ranking ninth in the weekly ratings.

See for yourself: “Mayflower Madam” is on DVD and can be streamed through Netflix.

 

On TV

Here’s the prime-time lineup for Sunday, November 15, 1987:

7: “Disney Sunday Movie: Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too”* (ABC), “60 Minutes” (CBS), “21 Jump Street” (Fox), “Our House” (NBC)

8: “Spenser: For Hire” (ABC), “Murder, She Wrote” (CBS), “Werewolf” (Fox), “Family Ties” (NBC)

8:30: “My Two Dads” (NBC), “Married … With Children” (Fox)

9: “Dolly” (ABC), “Mayflower Madam” (CBS), “The Tracey Ullman Show” (Fox), “Perry Mason: The Case of the Scandalous Scoundrel” (NBC)

9:30: “Duet” (Fox)

10: “Buck James” (ABC)

* Repeat

 

The Record

For the week of November 15, 1987:

Top novel: “Kaleidoscope” by Danielle Steele

Top song: “I Think We’re Alone Now” by Tiffany

Top movie: “The Running Man”

Top TV show: “The Cosby Show” (NBC)

In the news: President Reagan and Speaker Wright feuded

 

 

Captions: “Mayflower Madam” star Candice Bergen as Sydney Biddle Barrows, after her arrest in a photograph from TV Guide’s November 14, 1987, issue (top, photo by Bob Greene); CBS’s advertisement for the movie, also from that edition.

‘Family Ties Vacation:’ Have Alex, Will Travel

“Sitcoms Go to the Movies,” a retrospective of TV-movies based on sitcoms, begins today and continues through Sunday.

On September 23, 1985, NBC aired “Family Ties Vacation,” a two-hour TV-movie that finds the Keatons summering in England.

The plot: Alex (Michael J. Fox) wins a summer scholarship to Oxford University, so the family uses it as an excuse for a vacation. A spy secretly plants a piece of microfilm in their luggage and before they know it, the Keatons are being pursued by the CIA, the KGB and MI5.

A romantic subplot has dashing Lord William Clive-Hopkins (John Moulder-Brown), Alex’s Oxford roommate, falling for the Keatons’ eldest daughter, Mallory (Justine Bateman).

“It’s quite different for us. It’s more of a romp, a Hitchcockian farce,” Fox told the Associated Press.

NBC commissioned the movie during the previous season, after “Family Ties” shot into Nielsen’s top 10 on the coattails of “The Cosby Show,” the blockbuster freshman sitcom that preceded it on Thursday nights.

“Being behind ‘Cosby’ is not a bad place to be,” Fox told the AP. “I’m not defensive, but we keep the audience from his show. We’re proud of the work we do and don’t feel we’re a success because of charity. We’re in the Top 10 because of the audience we inherit from ‘Cosby,’ but we certainly hold our own.”

Fox and the “Family Ties” cast filmed “Vacation” in June 1985, a few weeks before the release of “Back to the Future” and “Teen Wolf,” two flicks that gave the actor, then 24, back-to-back box-office hits during the summer of 1985.

“Vacation” aired three days before “Family Ties” opened its fourth season with “The Real Thing,” the classic two-part episode in which Alex memorably professes his love for girlfriend Ellen Reed (Tracy Pollan) to the tune of Billy Vera’s “At This Moment.”

“Family Ties Vacation” was seen in 19 million homes, ranking 11th for the week – a strong showing, but not as good as the first installment of “The Real Thing,” which drew viewers in 25 million homes and ranked second.

The week’s most-watched broadcast, of course, was “The Cosby Show’s” second-season premiere, which was seen in 27 million homes.

“Family Ties Vacation” is part of the “Family Ties: The Complete Fourth Season” DVD set.

 

Also on TV

On September 23, 1985, NBC also aired the season premiere of “TV’s Bloopers & Practical Jokes;” ABC broadcast the season premiere of “Hardcastle and McCormick” and “ABC Monday Night Football,” in which the Los Angeles Rams defeated the Seattle Seahawks, 35 to 24; and CBS showed the season premiere of “Scarecrow and Mrs. King” and “Izzy and Moe,” a TV-movie that reunited “Honeymooners” stars Jackie Gleason and Art Carney in a new table about Prohibition-era con artists.

 

The Record

During the week of September 22, 1985, the number ones were Garrison Keillor’s “Lake Wobegon Days” (novel), Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing” (song) and “Back to the Future” (movie). In New York, the World Health Organization reported the number of worldwide AIDS cases surpassed 15,000.

 

  

Captions: Michael J. Fox on TV Guide’s September 21, 1985, cover (top, photo by Peter Kredenser); NBC’s advertisement for “Family Ties Vacation,” also from that issue (bottom).

Thursday, March 12, 1987

“Challenging the Classics” reviews classic episodes to see how they stand the test of time.

The show: “Family Ties”

The episode: “A, My Name is Alex,” in  which Alex Keaton (Michael J. Fox) copes the death of his friend Greg, who was killed in a car wreck.

The broadcast: 23 years ago tonight, from 8:30 to 9:30 on NBC.

Why it’s a classic: “A, My Name is Alex” won Emmys for writing and technical direction – the only Emmy wins for the series aside from Fox’s three acting awards, one of which was for this episode. TV Guide ranked “A, My Name is Alex” 68th on its list of the top 100 greatest episodes of all time.

Does it hold up? Yes. “A, My Name is Alex” is innovative: In the first half of the episode, as Alex deal with his loss, he is “visited” by Greg, played by William McNamara. In the show’s second half, Alex visits a psychiatrist, discussing Greg and key moments from his childhood. The scene is staged like a play: Fox sits on a darkened soundstage and chats with the therapist (David Wohl), who is heard but not seen. The flashbacks occur in the background on the same stage; Fox routinely leaves the therapist’s chair to interact with the other characters in the flashbacks, then returns to center stage to continue chatting with the psychiatrist.

“Despite intrusive intermittent laughter from the audience, this is bold, risky, thinking, artful TV, with a fine, moving performance by that supreme comedic actor Fox,” the Los Angeles Times’ Howard Rosenberg wrote.

The New York Times’ John J. O’Connor was equally impressed:

This is a masterfully constructed playlet, a miniature portrait of the bright young person who, even in childhood, was singled out for being above the ordinary herd. …Trapped in the middle of this extraordinary attention is poor Alex, rather lonely for all of his bluster, decidedly sad for all of his wisecracks. While the other kids were fingerpainting, Alex was learning the stock market. In sitcom isolation, he cuts a sympathetic figure. … Will MacKenzie’s direction offers a textbook illustration of the importance of timing. And Mr. Fox proves once again that he is far more than merely an appealing performer.

 

Elsewhere on Television

TV Guide listings for March 12, 1987:

8 PM NBC COSBY SHOW (CC)

Clair (Phylicia Rashad) throws a party for Cliff (Bill Cosby) for his 50th birthday, and has trouble hiding her dislike for one of his friends. Mark: Douglas Turner Ward. Ellen: Ashley Thompson. Hector: Omar Torres. Anita: Cheryl McFadden. Dave: Mel Winkler.

 

For the Record

Also on March 12, 1987:

Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer” soars above the music charts. Sidney Sheldon’s “Windmills of the Gods” is the week’s best seller. “Lethal Weapon” rules the box office. And congressional lawmakers investigating Iran-Contra weigh immunity for Oliver North and John Poindexter, key figures in the scandal.

Sunday, Dec. 4, 1988

Twenty-one years ago tonight, ABC aired “My First Love,” a romantic comedy starring Bea Arthur and Richard Kiley as old flames reunited after 35 years.

Arthur portrayed Jean Miller, a widowed driving-school instructor in the Bronx who, with encouragement from best friend Ruth (Barbara Barrie), impetuously writes her high school sweetheart, wealthy physician Sam Morrissey (Kiley).

Jean and Sam recapture the spirit of their teenage romance during a platonic weekend at his posh Long Island home. Then Jean learns Sam is engaged to a woman who isn’t quite 40, Claire (Joan Van Ark, who was 45 at the time).

Critics described the movie as equal parts humor and heartbreak, with the three lead actors receiving solid reviews.

“But this is Arthur’s show all the way and she makes the time worthwhile, even when the second half of the script doesn’t measure up to the first,” Lynn Heffley wrote in the Los Angeles Times. “Shy and awkward, feminine and determined, she has never been more appealing.”

“My First Love” was seen in about 11 million homes, ranking 39th among the week’s 79 programs. It finished second in its time slot behind the two-hour second season premiere of NBC’s “In the Heat of the Night” (No. 17 for the week) and CBS’s “The Tenth Man” (No. 41), a “Hallmark Hall of Fame” movie starring Anthony Hopkins and Kristin Scott Thomas. Fox’s “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show” and “The Tracey Ullman Show,” which aired opposite the first hour of “My First Love,” finished 74th and 76th, respectively.

 

From the Pages of TV Guide

Also airing Dec. 4, 1988:

8 PM CBS MURDER, SHE WROTE (CC); 60 min.

A dying hit man’s confession plunges Jessica (Angela Lansbury) into a murder case involving a priest and the top-secret guests of a Government safe house. (Repeat)

Guest Cast

Sgt. Cooper … Laurence Luckinbill

Father Francis … Cliff De Young

Jackson … Robert Reed

Van Buren … Mark Shera

Pierce … Dan Shor

8 PM NBC FAMILY TIES (CC)

Steven (Michael Gross) suffers a heart attack, which takes an emotional toll on the family, particularly Alex (Michael J. Fox), who’s left pondering his own mortality. Part 1 of three. Mrs. Hobart: Christina Pickles. Elyse: Meredith Baxter Birney. Meyers: Richard Kuss.

8:30 NBC DAY BY DAY (CC)

Ross (Christopher Daniel Barnes) finally gets up the nerve to ask a girl to a dance, but best friend Stiv (Gino De Mauro) has the nerve to ask her first. Lizbeth: Elizabeth Berkley. Kate: Linda Kelsey. Joe Miltman: Alan Blumenfield. Brian: Doug Sheehan.

9 PM FOX GARRY SHANDLING

Garry faces a brief crisis of conscience when Nancy (Molly Cheek) asks him to help her old friend on the run, veterinarian Richard Kimble (David Paymer). Lt. Gerard: Joseph Mascolo.

9:30 FOX TRACEY ULLMAN

From last season: A woman has her first date since her divorce; a patient and her shrink discuss fear; a man stays at a hotel with phenomenal service. David: Harold Sylvester. Liam: Frank Patterson. (Repeat)

Sunday, Nov. 6, 1988

Twenty-one years ago tonight, Fox’s “21 Jump Street” – the drama about baby-faced cops who infiltrate high schools – was itself infiltrated.

Richard Grieco joined the show’s cast as the Jump Street squad’s newest officer: brooding, mousse-haired, earringed Dennis Booker.

Any resemblance to Tom Hansen – the brooding, mousse-haired, earringed officer played by the show’s original star, Johnny Depp – was purely intentional.

“It’s obvious isn’t it?” Peter DeLuise, who played Officer Doug Penhall, told an Australian newspaper a few months after Grieco’s arrival. “This guy has been brought in as insurance in case Johnny leaves.”

Producers insisted this wasn’t true, saying Grieco was added to the cast to enliven the show.

It worked.

By the end of the season, People reported Grieco was receiving 10,000 fan letters a month.

Meanwhile, DeLuise and costars Holly Robinson and Dustin Nguyen were getting less airtime.

“There are people in ‘Jump Street’ who are jealous from the attention I get. The actors don’t say anything, but I can tell,” Grieco told People in June 1989.

He also explained his acting method to the magazine: “I like to add the Brando pause when I deliver my lines. I’ve been told every word I say ‘drools with sexuality.’”

No, really – that’s what he said.

Fame may have gone to Grieco’s head, but his stardom didn’t endure.

In September 1989, less than a year after Grieco joined “Jump Street,” Fox gave his character his own show – “Booker.”

It lasted a single season.

 

From the Pages of TV Guide

Also airing Nov. 6, 1988:

7 PM ABC INCREDIBLE SUNDAY (CC); 60 min.

Scheduled: Five Costa Rican fishermen who survived five months adrift in the Pacific; a softball team comprising heart-transplant recipients; Patches, a horse that dances, counts and watches TV; an Aspen, Colo., ski lift rescue team; a Brazilian psychologist who paints while in a psychic trance; a woman attempting an escape from a flaming yacht.

8 PM CBS MURDER, SHE WROTE (CC); 60 min.

Jessica (Angela Lansbury) can’t quite believe that two sisters had anything to do with the deaths of two men they planted under their chrysanthemums. Ron Masak plays new sheriff Mort Metzger. Seth: William Windom

Guest Cast

Helen Appletree … Teresa Wright

Lilian Appeltree … Joan Leslie

Morris Penroy … Henry Jones

Marilee … Candace Azzara

Cliff Coleson … Don Calfa

Bart Klapper … Norman Alden

Darly Croft … Tim Choate

8 PM NBC FAMILY TIES (CC)

Mallory feels lucky to have landed a job with Ohio’s top fashion-design company – so lucky, in fact, that she’s reluctant to voice her anger when the star designer (Debra Engle) steals her ideas for a clothing line. David: Barry Jenner. Alex: Michael J. Fox. Steven: Michael Gross.

10 PM FOX DUET (CC)

College reminiscing turns ugly when Richard Chris Lemmon learns that Linda and Ben (Alison LaPlaca, Matthew Laurence) had a close encounter – after Richard and Linda had encountered each other. Luke: Julius J. Carry III. Jane: Jodi Thelen. Geneva: Arleen Sorkin.

Tuesday, Oct. 25, 1988

Twenty-one years ago tonight, television standards plunged further when NBC aired “Devil Worship: Exposing Satan’s Underground,” a two-hour “documentary” from “journalist” Geraldo Rivera.

The network touted the special as an investigation into crimes and a correlation between heavy metal music and Satanism, but the Washington Post’s Tom Shales had a different description, calling it “dirty-minded teleporn,” filled with “talk about butchered babies, dismembered corpses, cannibal cults and sex orgies.”

He noted the networks had cut their departments of standards and practices, attributing the whittling to “hyped competitiveness fostered by the Reagan administration’s sweeping deregulation” of broadcasting.

NBC began “Devil Worship” at 8 p.m. – the slot it reserved for “ALF,” “The Cosby Show” and “Family Ties” on other nights – requiring frequent interruptions for disclaimers and parental advisories.

As Shales reported, Rivera himself addressed parents during the broadcast: “I am begging you. This subject is just too upsetting for your young children. Please, get them out of the room or change the station!”

NBC’s entertainment division produced “Devil Worship,” triggering much strife within the network.

The news division refused to allow Rivera on “Today” to promote “Devil Worship,” and “Nightly News” anchor Tom Brokaw told the Los Angeles Times “quasi-news programs cheapens the genuine news product.”

In the days before broadcast, with negative publicity mounting, NBC was forced to sell some commercials at half price.

The Los Angeles Times reported KNBC’s “Devil Worship” broadcast carried just 14 commercials, including two for the National Enquirer and three for new horror movies.

An NBC spokeswoman told the Times the network’s switchboards received 331 complaints in New York and Burbank. (A secretary at the NBC affiliate in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, said it received just one call – from a viewer whose home lost power as the broadcast began and wanted a rerun.)

“Devil Worship” finished fifth in the weekly ratings, with viewers in almost 20 million homes. Only NBC’s “Cosby,” “Cheers” and “A Different World” and CBS’s “60 Minutes” ranked higher.

In his 1992 memoir “The Last Great Ride,” NBC entertainment chief Brandon Tartikoff recalled hiring Rivera after he scored big ratings opening Al Capone’s vault in a live syndicated special in 1986.

Another concession: “Devil Worship” was conceived as a “blunting weapon” to counter the second episode of ABC’s “Roseanne,” which ended up ranking eighth.

Although Tartikoff was apologetic in the days after the “Devil Worship” broadcast, he struck a somewhat defensive tone in his book, noting affiliates received calls and letters from viewers thanking NBC for “exposing this very real problem … infecting their communities.”

Still, Tartikoff wrote, “If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t.”

 

From the Pages of TV Guide

Also airing Oct. 25, 1988:

8:30 ABC ROSEANNE (CC) – Comedy

The Conners are in the money after Dan’s new job brings in a $500 advance, but Roseanne (Roseanne Barr) could end up in the doghouse if she treats herself to that special perfume she really can’t afford. Dan: John Goodman. Jackie: Laurie Metcalf.

Sunday, Oct. 16, 1983

Twenty-six years ago tonight, NBC aired “High School U.S.A.,” a 1983 TV-movie that paired teenagers from the network’s most popular sitcoms with former child stars from the ’50s and ’60s.

The setting: Excelsior Union High, where Jay-Jay (Michael J. Fox of “Family Ties”) falls for Beth (Nancy McKeon, “The Facts of Life”), girlfriend of smarmy prep Beau (Anthony Edwards).

Other students were played by Todd Bridges of “Diff’rent Strokes,” Lauri Hendler of “Gimme a Break!” and Crispin Glover, who would later play Fox’s father in the “Back to the Future” movies.

The grownups included Tony Dow as Excelsior’s principal and his “Leave it to Beaver” co-star Ken Osmond as Beau’s dad, Elinor Donahue (“Father Knows Best”) as Beth’s mom and David Nelson (“The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet”) as the school janitor.

“High School U.S.A.” is one of several all-star teen comedies NBC aired in the ’80s.

Fox and McKeon reunited as camp counselors in 1985’s “Poison Ivy.”

The 1988 drivers’ ed-themed flick “Crash Course” cast Alyssa Milano (“Who’s the Boss?”) and Rob Stone (“Mr. Belvedere”) as students and Jackee (“227”) and Charles Robinson (“Night Court”) as teachers.

Milano returned in 1988’s prom-themed “Dance ’Til Dawn,” which also featured Tempsett Bledsoe (“The Cosby Show”), Christina Applegate (“Married with Children”) and Kelsey Grammer (“Cheers”).

Today, networks still make made-for-TV teen flicks (see Disney Channel’s “High School Musical,” et. al), but in an era when families rarely watch television together, stars rarely turn up in the grownup roles.

 

From the Pages of TV Guide

Also airing Oct. 16, 1983:

8 PM NBC KNIGHT RIDER

There’s thunder out of the blue when Michael (David Hasselhoff) and Kitt square off against a futuristic helicopter in the hands of mercenaries. (60 min.)

Guest Cast

Camela Clermont … Deborah Allison

Albert Ebersol … Linden Chiles

Kragen … Joe LaDue

Strock … Dana Elcar

9 PM ABC MOVIE (CC) – Crime Drama

Sylvester Stallone portrays a New York City copy pursuing an international terrorist in “Nighthawks” (1981). Bruce Malmuth directed from a script by David Shaber. (2 hrs.)

Other Cast

Wulfgar … Rutger Hauer

Fox … Billy Dee Williams

Irene … Lindsay Wagner

Hartman … Nigel Davenport

Shakka … Persis Khambatta

[ABC plans an announcement warning that this movie may not be suitable for all family members.]

10 PM CBS TRAPPER JOHN, M.D.

A doctor (Robert Mandan) exploits a senator’s critically ill daughter (Patricia Davis) as part of a scheme to oust Trapper (Pernell Roberts) as chief of surgery. Meanwhile, a cult leader resists conventional medical treatment. Gonzo: Gregory Harrison. Riverside: Charles Siebert. (60 min.)

Additional Cast

MacGregor … Paul Mantee

Sen. Miriam Taylor … Sharon Acker

Govinda … Bart Braverman

Sunday, Sep. 27, 1987

Twenty-two years ago tonight, ABC introduced “Dolly,” Dolly Parton’s valiant attempt to revive the prime-time variety hour.

The splashy, big-budget show was heavy on music, comedy and celebrity guests. It was conceived as a showcase for the multi-talented Parton, who appeared in virtually every scene.

That proved to be one of its flaws.

“There’s no question she can carry a show by herself – the problem is that’s exactly what she tries to do,” wrote Associated Press TV critic Kathryn Baker in her review of the first episode.

“There’s Dolly in a bubble bath, Dolly singing, Dolly making jokes about her figure, Dolly with a celebrity guest who makes jokes about her figure, Dolly in a video, jes’ folks saying hi to Dolly, Dolly singing, Dolly singing with Pee Wee Herman, Dolly singing, Dolly in a sketch with Oprah Winfrey, Dolly meeting Ed Koch, Dolly singing, Dolly talking to the audience and taking questions about Dolly.”

ABC – which reportedly gave Parton a two-year, 44-episode commitment – made “Dolly” the centerpiece of its 1987-88 schedule, airing the show Sunday nights at 9, opposite movies on CBS and NBC.

Almost 22 million homes tuned into the debut episode, which finished fifth in the weekly ratings.

But viewership declined steadily, leading ABC to shift “Dolly” to Saturdays.

Parton also took creative charge of the show, jettisoning segments like “Dolly’s Date,” a weekly segment in which the married star went on “dates” with guests like Dudley Moore and Bruce Willis.

The changes didn’t help.

ABC didn’t renew “Dolly” for a second season, forcing the network to pay Parton a huge penalty for not honoring its two-year commitment.

The failure of “Dolly” still lingers.

With the exception of CBS’s short-lived “Carol Burnett Show” revival in 1991, no network has made a serious attempt to stage another variety hour since “Dolly.”

 

From the Pages of TV Guide

Also airing Sept. 27, 1987:

8 PM CBS MURDER, SHE WROTE (CC); 60 min.

A killing occurs after the return of a parolee who served 20 years for a murder he claims he didn’t commit – but intends to solve. Jessica: Angela Lansbury. Amos: Tom Bosley.

Guest Cast

Andrew Durbin … John Glover

Coach Kevin Cauldwell … Kenneth McMillan

Bill Hampton … Dack Rambo

Perry Sillman … John Bennett Perry

Arnie Wakeman … Michael Lembeck

Alison Hampton … Shelley Smith

Tara Sillman … Caitlin O’Heaney

8 PM FOX MARRIED … WITH CHILDREN (CC); 60 min.

The Bundys begin their second season with a vacation in beautiful Dumpwater, Fla., at a cut-rate motel where the locals bet on the time of the next strike of the ax murderer who visits every five years. Al: Ed O’Neill. Peggy: Katey Sagal. Kelly: Christina Applegate. Bud: David Faustino. Roy: Charlie Dell. Delbert: Gary Grubbs. Sheriff: Richard Paul.

8 PM NBC FAMILY TIES (CC)

Andrew (Brian Bonsall) is predictably threatened by Alex’s involvement with Lauren (Courtney Cox), but it takes Lauren to explain it to Alex (Michael J. Fox). Nick: Scott Valentine.

Wednesday, Sept. 22, 1982

Twenty-seven years ago tonight, NBC introduced “Family Ties,” the sitcom that probably defined middle-class America in the 1980s better than any other show.

The premise was a reverse generation gap: Steven and Elyse Keaton (Michael Gross, Meredith Baxter-Birney) were liberal parents raising three conservative children, including the archetypal young Republican, briefcase-toting Alex (Michael J. Fox).

Creator and executive producer Gary David Goldberg based the show on his own family, but it also reflected the era’s broader political shifts. After all, President Reagan won re-election in 1984 with 59 percent of the young vote, his biggest victory among any group.

(Reagan once declared “Family Ties” his favorite show and offered to make a guest appearance; Goldberg demurred.)

Third-place NBC had high hopes for “Family Ties,” promoting it in a summer ad campaign that kept the show’s title and premise under wraps. By early September, the network’s promos finally took the show “out of the box.”

Reviews were tepid.

The best thing the Washington Post’s Tom Shales had to say about the pilot was it offered “a lack of coarseness that could pass for warmth.”

“Family Ties” struggled in the ratings until 1984, when NBC scheduled it after its blockbuster “Cosby Show” on Thursdays. By 1985, it was prime time’s second most popular show, after “Cosby.”

“Family Ties” is remembered for making a star of Fox, although NBC exec Brandon Tartikoff objected to his casting, saying Fox’s face would never wind up on a lunchbox.

Fox later sent the exec a lunchbox from his hit movie, “Back to the Future.” The note inside read, “Eat crow, Tartikoff.”

 

From the Pages of TV Guide

Also airing Sept. 22, 1982:

8 PM ABC TALES OF THE GOLD MONKEY – Adventure

Debut: This South Seas adventure series, set in the 1930s, revolves around an idol, a gold monkey that just about everyone – good guys and bad guys alike – is bananas to posses. Caught in the middle is Jake Cutter (Stephen Collins), a roguish American cargo pilot who, in the opener, contends with Nazi spies, vicious simians and a sassy Government agent named Sarah White (Caitlin O’Heaney). Ron Moody plays saloonkeeper Bon Chance Louie (a role played by Roddy McDowall in future episodes). Corky: Jeff MacKay. Princess Kogi: Marta DuBois. Tenboom: John Calvin. Todo: John Fujioka. (2 hrs.)

Guest Cast

Monocle … John Hillerman

Tiki … Elizabeth Lindsey

Bobbi … Loyita Chapel

Sam … Ken Smolka

8 PM CBS SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS – Comedy-Drama

Crane (Peter Horton) talks the family into buying co-op grain that’s subsequently impounded when the warehouse owner goes bankrupt. Horton sings “Deep Inside.” Adam: Richard Dean Anderson. Brian: Drake Hogestyn. Hannah: Terri Treas. Daniel: Roger Wilson. Evan: Tim Topper. (60 min.)

Guest Cast

Allison … Amy Steel

Judge Carlson … Dana Elcar

Schiller … Ian Patrick Williams

Prosecutor … Phillip Baker Hall

Freleng … Don Eitner

11:30 NBC TONIGHT

Scheduled: Richard Benjamin, Maureen Murphy, Manhattan Transfer. Johnny Carson, Ed McMahon, Doc Severinsen orchestra. (60 min.)

Thursday, Sept. 20, 1984

Twenty-five years ago tonight, NBC introduced “The Cosby Show,” the blockbuster series that revived both the network and the sitcom genre, and may have made possible the Obama presidency.

“Cosby” debuted when NBC was in the depths of its “Nothing-But-Carson,” mired-in-third-place doldrums.

Prime time was dominated by fading soaps like “Dallas” and “Dynasty;” the highest-rated sitcom was CBS’s “Kate & Allie,” which finished the 1983-84 season in eighth place after a springtime trial run.

“Cosby,” which was based on star Bill Cosby’s standup act, was embraced by critics, who praised it for its realistic depiction of middle-class domesticity.

As the Washington Post’s Tom Shales wrote, “‘The Cosby Show’ captures the real rhythms of a house and confesses something rarely confessed in such TV confections: that children are not an unmixed blessing, that they can be exasperating pains in the neck.”

Viewers embraced “Cosby,” too, sending the show to the top of the Nielsens, where it remained for five seasons, a record matched only by “All in the Family.”

“Cosby” reversed NBC’s fortunes and led to a spate of sitcoms built around standup comics, including “Seinfeld” and “Roseanne,” as well as shows with predominantly black casts, such as “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”

More recently, writer Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez has theorized “Cosby” and its presentation of an appealing African American family paved the way for Barack Obama’s presidency.

In a memorable “Daily Show” segment this year, Wyatt Cenac said Obama is Cliff Huxtable: “They’re both married to hot lawyers, both work out of offices on the west side of their houses and both have unrealistically cute daughters.”

Cenac noted another potential parallel: “‘The Cosby Show’ ran for eight seasons – that’s two terms!”

 

From the Pages of TV Guide

Also airing Sept. 20, 1984:

8:30 ABC WHO’S THE BOSS? (CC) – Comedy

Debut: Widower Tony Micelli (Tony Danza) packs up his daughter and exits New York for the Connecticut countryside and a job as live-in housekeeper for divorced executive Angela Bower (Judith Light) and her son, an arrangement that may be short-lived in the opener when Tony questions Angela’s motives in weekending with her boss just when she’s up for promotion. Mona: Katherine Helmond.

8:30 NBC FAMILY TIES

In a first-run episode produced last season, Elyse (Meredith Baxter-Birney) gets caught up in the thrill of getting rich quick and succumbs to the gambling tables in Atlantic City. Steven: Michael Gross. Alex: Michael J. Fox. Dealer: Arthur Taxier.

9 PM CBS SIMON & SIMON – Crime Drama

A surgeon (G.W. Bailey) facing a $6 million malpractice suit hires the Simons (Jameson Parker, Gerald McRaney) to prove the plaintiff is faking his paralysis. (Repeat; 60 min.)

Additional Cast

Vic Richards … Jeff Lester

Dorsey Pender … John Pleshette

Patricia Rieger … Sheila Larken

Helen Aarons … Catherine Ford