TV Time Capsule

‘Kate & Allie’ and Wendie Malick!

“Thanksgiving Week” continues.

On November 25, 1985, CBS aired “Thanksgiving,” the “Kate & Allie” episode in which Manhattan divorcee Allie Lowell finally meets Claire, her ex-husband Charles’s new wife.

The episode finds Allie (Jane Curtin) preparing a holiday feast for her family and friends, including best pal and roommate Kate McCardle (Susan Saint James). One by one, Allie’s guests cancel or are called away, leaving her alone with icy Claire (guest star Wendie Malick).

During their tense conversation, Allie realizes her volunteer work undermined her marriage as much as Charles’s medical career and his affair with Claire:

ALLIE: I always thought Charles left me. You say I left him. Maybe we’re both right. Maybe we needed the hospitals and the committees because we didn’t have each other to go home to. Maybe it wasn’t Charles’s fault or my fault or even – God help me – your fault. And maybe – just maybe – the happy ending I always wanted is just what I got.

CLAIRE: So now what do we do? Make friends?

ALLIE: Please. Let’s not push things too far.

“Thanksgiving” ends with everyone dining together peacefully.

See for yourself: “Thanksgiving” is part of the “Kate & Allie: The Complete Third Season” DVD set.

 

On TV

Here’s the prime-time lineup for Monday, November 25, 1985:

8: “Hardcastle and McCormick” (ABC), “Scarecrow and Mrs. King” (CBS), “TV’s Bloopers and Practical Jokes” (NBC)

9: “Monday Night Football” (ABC), “Kate & Allie” (CBS), “Mussolini: The Untold Story, Part 2” (NBC)  

9:30: “Newhart” (CBS)

10: “Cagney & Lacey” (CBS)

 

The Record

For the week of November 24, 1985:

Top novel: “The Mammoth Hunters” by Jean M. Auel

Top song: “We Built This City” by Starship

Top movie: “Rocky IV”

Top TV show: “60 Minutes” (CBS)

In the news: Gay leaders began building a political platform

 

 

 

Captions: Kate, played by Susan Saint James, tastes the turkey that Allie, played by Jane Curtin, cooked with cleanser in “Thanksgiving” (top); Wendie Malick as Claire and Allie’s long-dreaded confrontation with her successor as Mrs. Dr. Charles Lowell (middle); CBS’s advertisement for the episode, from TV Guide’s November 23, 1985, issue (bottom). 

‘Fresno:’ The Grapes of Laugh

On November 16, 1986, CBS launched “Fresno,” a six-hour, five-night comedy miniseries that spoofed “Dallas” and the era’s other nighttime soap operas.

Carol Burnett starred as Charlotte Kensington, a widowed matriarch struggling to preserve her family’s shriveling raisin empire.

Other characters: Cane (Charles Grodin), Charlotte’s scheming son; Talon (Terri Garr), his unhappy wife; perpetually shirtless drifter Torch (Gregory Harrison); and Tyler Cane (Dabney Coleman), the Kensingtons’ ruthless archrival.

“Newhart” producer Barry Kemp was the creative force behind “Fresno,” which featured similar absurdist humor: The Kensingtons lived in a Southfork-sized mansion but were chauffeured around in a station wagon.

Critics were lukewarm: “How do you parody something that is already ridiculous?” asked the New York Times’ John J. O’Connor.

“[T]he story’s gimmick – an extended cheap joke mocking a genre that seems almost to mock itself – is too difficult to sustain,” wrote the Los Angeles Times’ Howard Rosenberg.

“Fresno” wasn’t a ratings hit, either.

Viewers in 17.2 million homes tuned into the first installment, a two-hour episode that ranked 13th for the week.

The audience dwindled as the series continued through the week, concluding on Nov. 20, 1986, with a one-hour episodes that was seen in 11 million households, ranking 51st.

See for yourself: “Fresno” isn’t online or on video; visit TVShowsonDVD.com and petition its release!

 

On TV

Here’s the prime-time lineup for Sunday, November 15, 1986:

7: “Disney Sunday Movie: The Leftovers” (ABC), “60 Minutes” (CBS), “Our House” (NBC)

8: “Easy Street” (NBC), “Murder, She Wrote” (CBS),

8:30: “Valerie” (NBC)

9: “Sudden Impact” (ABC), “Fresno” (CBS), “Terms of Endearment” (NBC)

 

The Record

For the week of November 15, 1986:

Top novel: “It” by Stephen King

Top song: “Amanda” by Boston

Top movie: “Crocodile Dundee”

Top TV show: “The Cosby Show” (NBC)

In the news: Congress wanted answers on President Reagan’s Iranian arms scheme

 

 

 

 

 

Captions, from top: “Fresno” cast members, clockwise from center, Carol Burnett, Charles Grodin, Teri Garr, Valerie Mahaffey, Gregory Harrison and Dabney Coleman, on TV Guide’s November 15, 1986, cover (photograph by Mario Casilli); Harrison’s character, Torch, lights up the Raisin Festival Masquerade Ball (photo by Christine Loss); Bobbi Jo Bobb performs (Loss); Burnett and Grodin’s characters, Charlotte Kensington and son Tyler (Loss); CBS’s advertisements for the miniseries, also from TV Guide’s November 15, 1986, issue.

‘Mission: Impossible’ Returns

On October 23, 1988, ABC introduced a new version of “Mission: Impossible,” the 1966-73 CBS classic about an elite group of spies.

Peter Graves reprised his role from the original show as group leader Jim Phelps, but the rest of the cast was new.

Phil Morris – son of Greg Morris, who played electronics expert Barney Collier on the original “Mission: Impossible” – played Barney’s son Grant, the team’s gadgets wiz.

The other new members were master-of-disguises Nicholas Black (Thaao Penghlis), muscleman Max Harte (Tony Hamilton) and femme fatale Casey Randall (Terry Markwell).

The new “Mission: Impossible” – which retained the original’s famous theme music – was born of necessity during a lengthy writer’s strike that delayed the start of the 1988-89 season.

ABC – desperate for fresh programming – simply dusted off scripts from the original series and filmed them with the new cast; the network used the same tactic to revive NBC’s “Police Story.”

The debut of the new “Mission: Impossible” was seen in 13 million homes, ranking 24th in the weekly ratings. The show outlasted the writer’s strike, running two seasons.

 

On TV

Here’s the prime-time lineup for Sunday, October 23, 1988:

7: “Incredible Sunday” (ABC), “60 Minutes” (CBS), “21 Jump Street” (Fox), “The Goonies” (NBC)

8: “Mission: Impossible” (ABC), “Murder, She Wrote” (CBS), “America’s Most Wanted” (Fox)

8:30: “Married … With Children” (Fox)

9: “North and South, Part 6”* (ABC), “Jack the Ripper, Part 1” (CBS), “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show” (Fox), “Dance ’Til Dawn” (NBC)

9:30: “The Tracey Ullman Show” (Fox)

10: “Duet” (Fox)

* Repeat

 

The Record

For the week of October 23, 1988:

Top novel: “The Cardinal of the Kremlin” by Tom Clancy 

Top song: “Groovy Kind of Love” by Phil Collins

Top movie: “Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers”

Top TV show: “The Cosby Show” (NBC)

In the news: Congress raised taxes!

 

Caption: “Mission: Impossible” cast members, clockwise from left, Thaao Penghlis, Tony Hamilton, Phil Morris, Terry Markwell and Peter Graces, from TV Guide’s October 1, 1988, fall preview issue (top); ABC’s advertisement for the series premiere, from the October 22, 1988, edition.

Sunday, February 21, 1988

This month, while NBC is broadcasting the 17-day Winter Olympics, the other networks will air mostly reruns.

It’ll be weeks before we see new episodes of CBS’s various “CSIs” and “NCISs,’” ABC’s “Modern Family” and “Cougar Town,” or Fox’s “House” and “Bones.”

It hasn’t always been this way.

Before the networks began hibernating during the Winter Olympics, they aggressively tried to woo viewers from the games.

Twenty-two years ago tonight, while ABC was airing its ninth night of Olympics coverage from Calgary, NBC launched “James Clavell’s Noble House,” a $20-million adaptation of the author’s best-selling saga of corporate intrigue in the Orient.

The four-night, eight-hour miniseries starred Pierce Brosnan as Ian Dunross, the “tai-pan” – Cantonese for “supreme leader” – of Straun and Company, a prestigious Hong Kong trading firm on the brink of ruin.

John Rhys-Davis co-starred as Quillan Gornt, Dunross’s longtime rival, and Deborah Raffin played Casey Tcholok, the hero’s love interest. The cast also included Ben Masters as Linc Bartlett, a wealthy American who conspires to bring down Dunross’s “Noble House,” and Julia Nickson as Orlanda Ramos, whom Gornt hires to seduce Bartlett.

Critics raved, comparing “Noble House” to NBC’s previous Clavell adaptation, the 1980 hit “Shogun.”

“‘Noble House’ is great. It is the salvation of the miniseries,” wrote People’s Jeff Jarvis. The Washington Post’s Tom Shales called it “the most satisfying fit of lavishness a network has had in years.”

Viewers were less enthused.

“Noble House’s” first installment was seen in 15.8 million homes, beating its time-slot competition – ABC’s Olympics coverage and CBS’s “Bring Me the Head of Dobie Gillis” reunion movie – and finishing 16th for the week.

The miniseries continued over the next three nights, but only the final installment cracked the weekly top 20.

ABC, of course, went on to win that week, placing six Olympics broadcasts in the top 20.

OK, so maybe NBC’s gamble didn’t work as well as it probably hoped – but at least the network tried to give viewers an alternative to the games.

  

Elsewhere on Television

TV Guide listings for February 21, 1988:

8 PM NBC FAMILY TIES (CC)

Alex (Michael J. Fox) soon regrets encouraging Lauren (Courtney Cox) to quit work on her thesis: she turns into a Stepford girl friend, watching soap operas, clipping recipes and devoting herself to Alex’s every need.

… And in the News

New York Times excerpts from February 21, 1988:

U.S. to Use Tortilla Packages To Send Amnesty Reminder

HOUSTON, Feb. 20 – The government is sending message in tortilla packages to remind illegal aliens about the deadline to apply for immigration amnesty.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service has printed 80,000 Spanish-language reminders on 4-by-6-inch pieces of paper, and next week it plans to send them to tortilla factories in Brownfield, Odessa and Lovington, N.M., where they will be inserted into packages.

The note says the deadline for applying for amnesty is May 4. “For more information,” it adds, “please contact your local legalization office.”

Sunday, February 19, 1984

Yes, I could tell you about the CBS miniseries “Master of the Game” – the sweeping, multigenerational epic that debuted 26 years ago tonight – but wouldn’t you rather read excerpts from Tom Shales’s Washington Post review?

Here’s how he described the saga’s central character, Machiavellian matriarch Kate Blackwell:

Kate values money and power above all else, drives her son to insanity by ruining his art career and allowing his wife to die in childbirth, and tricks a man into marrying her by buying him a meat-packing plant.

And yet – you don’t just rather like her, you love her, because the role is played from the age of 19 to the age of 90 by the marvelous, magnetic, whimsically mercurial Dyan Cannon. … Either Cannon thinks she is giving a bravura performance in a serious film … or knows just what this material is worth and has made up her mind to have a high old time with it.

Here’s Shales on two of the story’s tempestuous lovers:

[T]heir first lovemaking bout is signaled by a pair of powerful slaps. People always get slapped in the face in films like this. …

Here’s Shales on Alexandra and Eve, Kate’s twin granddaughters:

One is an evil twin and one is a nice twin and both are played with a lack of subtlety that is downright festive by Liane Langland.

Finally, here’s how Shales concluded his review:

The mini-series is … like a Carol Burnett spoof in which Carol Burnett never shows up. Everything is dutifully played with faces straight except by the invaluable and adorable Cannon, who now and then seems to give us a wave to let us know we’re all partners in a goofy joke. She seems to be saying, “Empty your li’l ol’ head and enjoy yourself.”

Viewers did just that.

“Master of Game,” which aired in three-hour installments over three consecutive nights, was a ratings blockbuster, with each episode drawing more viewers than the previous edition. The finale was seen in 23.6 million homes, making it the week’s most-watched broadcast.

  

Elsewhere on Television

TV Guide listings for February 19, 1984:

8 PM NBC KNIGHT RIDER

Seeking revenge against Michael (David Hasselhoff), old nemesis Garthe Knight (also played by Hasselhoff), kidnaps Devon, April and a scientist to force a showdown between Kitt and his new and improved Goliath. Devon: Edware Mulhere. April: Rebecca Holden. (2 hrs.)

Guest Cast

Christina ………… Suzanne Barnes

Dr. Klaus …..… Peter Mark Richman

Adrianne St. Clair ........ Ann Turkel

 

… And in the News

New York Times excerpts from February 19, 1984:

ITALY ABOLISHES STATE RELIGION IN VATICAN PACT

Italy and the Vatican signed a concordat today under which Roman Catholicism ceases to be the state religion of Italy.

The document was signed by Prime Minister Bettino Craxi and the Vatican Secretary of State, Agostino Cardinal Casaroli, in a stately ceremony in the Villa Madama, a 16th-century palace that once belonged to Pope Clement VII and is now owned by the Italian Government.

Monday, February 6, 1989

Let’s say it’s the late ’80s and you’re Brandon Tartikoff, programming chief for NBC, television’s top-rated network.

The first Monday of the February “sweep” – one of four annual periods when broadcasters try to goose their ratings so they can charge more for airtime – finds your competition bringing out their biggest guns.

CBS is airing the second installment of its critically lauded “Lonesome Dove” miniseries; ABC has scheduled Peter Falk’s first “Columbo” movie in more than a decade.

What do you do?

Why, you stunt like crazy, of course!

So on this night 21 years ago, with CBS showing “Lonesome Dove” and ABC airing “Columbo’s” comeback, NBC counterprogrammed with “Night of 1,000 Laughs” – five new episodes of “The Cosby Show,” “ALF,” “The Golden Girls,” “Empty Nest” and “Cheers,” followed by a “Night Court” rerun.

The result?

An average 18 million homes tuned into NBC’s all-comedy night, compared to 15 million for CBS’s lineup (which also included new episodes of “Newhart” and “Kate & Allie”) and 13 million for ABC (which also showed a new “MacGyver”).

NBC aired a second “Night of 1,000 Laughs” on February 12, 1990, but the stakes were lower (the competition that night: ABC’s premiere of “The Jewel of the Nile” and a “Love Boat” reunion movie on CBS), and the ratings were smaller.

 

Elsewhere on Television

TV Guide listings for February 6, 1989:

11:30 ABC NIGHTLINE (CC) – Ted Koppel

11:30 CBS PAT SAJAK; 90 min.

Scheduled: Actor John Goodman (“Roseanne”), author Joseph Wambaugh.

11:30 NBC TONIGHT; 60 min.

Scheduled: Guest host Jay Leno, violinist Itzhak Perlman. Doc Severinsen orchestra.

 

… And in the News

New York Times excerpts from February 6, 1989:

MOSCOW REPORTS EXIT OF ‘LAST SOVIET SOLDIER’ FROM AFGHAN CAPITAL

Soviet troops completed their withdrawal from the Afghan capital of Kabul yesterday, Moscow radio reported, and the last columns of Soviet soldiers were expected to cross into their homeland shortly, ending the Kremlin’s nine-year military intervention in Afghanistan.

For ’88 Returns, ’86 Tax Cuts Are All in Place

As taxpayers begin filling out their 1988 returns in the next few weeks, many will be paying at the lowest rates since World War II. The reason is that 1988 was the first year in which the rate reductions of the Tax Reform Act of 1986 were fully effective.

Fury Over Lawmakers’ Raise Finds an Outlet on the Radio

Across the country the airwaves have buzzed for six weeks with the voices of Americans venting their fury over a proposed 51 percent pay increase for members of Congress. …

Roy Fox, a disc jockey on Detroit station WXYT, where some listeners have called in with their own rap songs and musical parodies protesting the raise.

Mr. Fox started the “Tea Bag Revolution” in mid-December by asking listeners to mail their representatives in Washington tea bags bearing the slogan “Read my tea bag, no pay raise.”

Sunday, January 27, 1991

TV Time Capsule continues “Super Bowl Fumbles Week,” seven days of flashbacks to the critical and ratings failures that have aired after the big game.

The game: Super Bowl XXV, in which the New York Giants defeated the Buffalo Bills, 20 to 19 – a down-to-the-wire win and the  smallest margin of victory in Super Bowl history.

The network: ABC.

The show: “Davis Rules,” a family sitcom starring Randy Quaid, debuted at 10:14 p.m. Quaid portrayed Dwight Davis, an elementary school principal and widower raising three sons with help from his dad, played by Jonathan Winters. “Davis Rules” was the latest offering from Marcy Carsey and Tom Werner, who also produced three of the season’s top five shows – ABC’s “Roseanne” and NBC’s “A Different World” and “The Cosby Show.”

The reviews: Critics went wild for Winters. The Washington Post’s Tom Shales called him “a joy to behold and a wonder to watch.” Added USA Today’s Matt Roush: “[W]hat a treat to see scenes mercilessly stolen by a grown-up, not by the shrill nerdwinks of a pipsqueak like ‘Family Matters’’ Steve Urkel.”

The competition: NBC’s lineup included the 1989 TV movie “Little White Lies,” a romantic comedy starring Ann Jillian and Tim Matheson. CBS repeated another 1989 TV movie: “The Fulfillment of Mary Gray,” a brooding historical starring Cheryl Ladd.

The ratings: Super Bowl XXV was seen in 39 million homes, finishing first among the week’s 89 prime-time broadcasts. “Davis Rules” was seen in 14.4 million homes, tying with a rerun of CBS’s “Lonesome Dove” for 16th.

The next episode: Two nights after the game, “Davis Rules” moved to its regular time slot – Tuesdays at 8:30, after “Who’s the Boss.” The second episode achieved almost identical ratings as the premiere – 14 million households and an 18th place finish among the week’s 88 programs.

The result: ABC dropped “Davis Rules” after 13 episodes; the following season, CBS picked up the series for an additional 16 installments.

 

From the Pages of TV Guide

Also airing January 27, 1991:

8 PM NBC REAL LIFE (CC); 60 min.

Scheduled reports in this expanded edition include a profile of Caldecott-winning author William Steig (“Sylvester and the Magic Temple”); and a September segment on dieting trends among preteen girls.

Sunday, Nov. 13, 1994

Fifteen years ago tonight, CBS launched “Scarlett,” an eight-hour sequel to “Gone with the Wind,” the beloved film based upon Margaret Mitchell’s equally beloved novel.

The miniseries was adapted from “Scarlett,” Alexandra Ripley’s bestselling but critically scorned 1991 book.

“I didn’t buy the novel. I bought the name ‘Scarlett,’” producer Robert Halmi Sr., who paid $9 million for the filming rights, told attendees at a Manhattan premiere party.

His reworking of Ripley’s story – and his casting choices – received surprisingly solid reviews.

The miniseries starred Joanne Whalley-Kilmer and Timothy Dalton as Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler, the roles Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable immortalized in 1939. Other recasts included Stephen Collins as Ashley Wilkes, Esther Rolle as Mammy and Ann-Margret as Belle Watling.

Among the new characters: Scarlett’s grandfather Pierre (Sir John Gielgud) and Rhett’s mother Eleanor (Julie Harris).

The miniseries begins soon after the film’s finale, when Rhett walked out on his plucky bride.

She finally wins him back in “Scarlett,” but not before encountering, as the Washington Post’s Tom Shales enumerated, “two rapes, two murders, an attempted suicide, a storm at sea, a fox hunt, a few fainting spells, a couple of fancy balls, the torching of a house or two, and … a great deal ’bout birthin’ babies.”

Shales dismissed “Scarlett” as “pitiful,” decrying Halmi’s decision to set much of the action in Ireland and England.

“‘GWTW’ was a turbulent love story set against an even more turbulent historical background; ‘Scarlett’ has virtually no context at all,” he wrote.

But the New York Times’ John J. O’Connor called the miniseries “the kind of lavish television that is in pitifully short supply these days.”

O’Connor also praised Dalton for making Butler “more thoughtful,” while the Los Angeles Times’ Howard Rosenberg called Whalley-Kilmer’s Scarlett “formidable,” describing her as “a man-conquering nymph who could torch Atlanta herself with a single laser beam of her blazing black eyes.”

After its debut, “Scarlett” took the next night off (CBS didn’t want to preempt its Monday sitcoms), then continued the next three nights.

It won Sunday (beating “JFK” on NBC and “Lethal Weapon 3” on ABC) and Wednesday (topping ABC’s “Roseanne), but lost Tuesday to “Home Improvement” and Jimmy Smits’ “NYPD Blue” debut on ABC.

On Thursday, the first hour of the “Scarlett” finale lost to back-to-back episodes of  NBC’s “Seinfeld,” but the second hour beat “ER.”

Overall, “Scarlett” averaged of 17.6 million households, or 28 percent of the households watching TV.

Those numbers – though roughly half the size of the audience “Gone with the Wind” drew during its 1976 broadcast premiere – made “Scarlett” successful, but no a blockbuster.

CBS, having promised advertisers bigger ratings, was forced to give them $3 million to $5 million worth of free airtime.

 

From the Pages of TV Guide

Also airing Nov. 13, 1994:

7 PM ABC FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS (CC)

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen of “Full House” help award the first $100,000 prize of the season to a winner chosen from seven finalists.

Tuesday, Nov. 10, 1987

Twenty-two years ago tonight, ABC began airing “Napoleon and Josephine: A Love Story,” a six-hour, three-night miniseries starring Armand Assante, Jacqueline Bissett and Jacqueline Bissett’s breasts.

The New York Times’ John J. O’Connor called the historical docudrama “gorgeous trash,” taking special delight in ridiculing the atrocious dialogue.

Example:

Josephine, discussing Napoleon with a friend: “There is something frightening about him. All that passion! And the energy! He’s like a force of nature!”

The friend: “Oh, pooh!”

Predictably, the performances were panned, too.

Bissett, O’Connor wrote, “conveys the elegance of a contemporary perfume ad,” while the Washington Post’s Tom Shales called her “one of the most steadfastly uninteresting beautiful women in captivity.”

France, Associated Press critic Kathryn Baker wrote, “is lucky the scenery-chomping Assante left the landscape intact.”

O’Connor also skewered supporting actor Anthony Perkins’ simulated foreign accent as giving “the distinct impression that he has just left his dentist’s office and the local anesthetic hasn’t yet worn off.”

Meanwhile, the Chicago Tribune’s Clifford Terry and the San Diego Union Tribune’s Robert P. Laurence both compared Perkins’ delivery to Don Adams’ in “Get Smart.” (Laurence: “In a couple of scenes, I could have sworn he addressed Napoleon as “Chief.’”)

But most reviews focused on Bissett’s chest.

Shales described her costumes as the kind that “make zee poosh-poosh on zee bosom;” the Orange County Register’s Ray Richmond called her “a pop-up book come to life.”

Headline writers had a ball, too.

The Los Angeles Times: “‘Napoleon and Josephine: French History Goes Bust.”

The Register: “History Takes a Back Seat to Cleavage in ‘Napoleon.’”

The AP: “History – and Other Things – Overflow in ‘Napoleon and Josephine.’”

Somehow, the miniseries bombed with viewers.

Part one debuted against weak competition (CBS’s “Jake and the Fatman” and “The Law and Harry McGraw” and NBC’s “J.J. Starbuck” and “Crime Story”) and drew viewers in 16.5 million homes, finishing a respectable 15th in that week’s ratings.

But part two, airing the next night, drew just 14.3 million homes, ranking 26th; part three, scheduled opposite NBC’s Thursday lineup, attracted just 11.7 million households, finishing 38th.

This further thrilled the headline writers.

“‘Napoleon’ Retreats,” declared the Register.

“Napoleon Miniseries Rates Exile,” proclaimed the Los Angeles Times.

And, of course, this from the AP: “‘Napoleon and Josephine’ Meets its Ratings Waterloo.”

 

From the Pages of TV Guide

Also airing Nov. 10, 1987:

8 PM ABC WHO’S THE BOSS? (CC)

Tony (Tony Danza) worries about Samantha (Alyssa Milano) after her unemotional reaction to the death of her Grandpa (who had been played by the late James Coco). Bruno: Tony Charnota. Phil: Phil Rubenstein. Connie: Marla Adams. Mike: Randall Caldwell. Angela: Judith Light. Mona: Katherine Helmonds.

8:30 ABC GROWING PAINS (CC)

Bobby’s annoying habits make Carol (Tracey Gold) look elsewhere for the man of her dreams. Then, as fate would have it, along comes a handsome transfer student (Brad Pitt). Bobby: Kevin Wixted. Debbie: Lisa Capps. Shelley: Rachel Jacobs. Ben: Jeremy Miller. Maggie: Joanna Kerns.

Sunday, Oct. 13, 1991

Eighteen years ago tonight, NBC aired the first part of its six-hour Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis miniseries “A Woman Named Jackie” – proving again that when it comes to the Kennedys, there’s no such thing as “too much.”

Future “Touched by an Angel” star Roma Downey played Jackie – a role previously played by Jaclyn Smith (also an angel), Blair Brown, Cristina Rose and many others.

The miniseries earned good reviews (“appallingly entertaining,” wrote the Washington Post’s Tom Shales) and solid numbers: part one was seen in 14.3 million households, finishing 16th in the weekly ratings. (In New York, part one was beat by local public television coverage of an unusual evening session in the Clarence Thomas hearings.)

TV’s love affair with the Kennedys – Jackie, in particular – endures.

This year, Jeanne Tripplehorn was nominated for an Emmy for her portrayal in HBO’s “Grey Gardens.”

 

Bzzz

The answers to the Oct. 11 “Saturday Night Live” Trivia Bee:

1. In the first episode’s second live sketch, assault victim Jane Curtin is testifying against her assailant, but is too embarrassed to repeat what he said before the attack, so the judge permits her to write it down. The paper is passed from juror to juror, each of whom appears horrified when they read it. When juror John Belushi passes it to a dozing Gilda Radner, she awakens and mistakes it for a proposition.

2. Chevy Chase opened each show with “Live from News York, it’s Saturday night!” until the seventh episode, when Garrett Morris said it.

3. New Dad Insurance was the subject of the first commercial parody on the first show. (“Yes, it’s New Dad – a radically new concept in family insurance coverage. Within seconds after “Old Dad” is out, we’ll have “New Dad” in there to take his place.)

4. The first “top story” on “Weekend Update:” “Dedication ceremonies for the new Teamsters union headquarters building took place today in Detroit, where union President Fitzsimmons was reported to have said that former president Jimmy Hoffa will always be a cornerstone in the organization.”

5. Desi Arnaz was the first person pull double duty as guest host and musical guest. He  hosted on Feb. 21, 1976, when he also performed “Cuban Pete” with his son, Desi Arnaz Jr.

6. Phoebe Snow appeared twice as musical guest in the first season, performing on the Oct. 18, 1975 and April 24, 1976 shows.

7. Louise Lasser and Kris Kristofferson hosted the final shows of the season, which are unique because they aired in July 1976, the only time the series interrupted its summer hiatus to produce new episodes.

 

From the Pages of TV Guide

Also airing Oct. 13, 1991:

8 PM ABC FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS (CC)

Scheduled: A bridal party gets sprinkled, but not by rice; a little boy expresses a strange career choice. Also: camera-shy dogs and horses; frolicking farm animals.