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Post by Prince Hal on Aug 7, 2021 22:58:42 GMT -5
I just learned today that the only remaining actor that is still alive from the Adventures of Superman tv series is Phyllis Coates. She’s 94 years old. She has my vote as the best version of Lois. Not that I don't enjoy Noel Neill's version, but Coates was a tough, no-nonsense, take-no-prisoners Lois. As one might expect from the Panther Girl of the Kongo...  |
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Post by Icctrombone on Aug 8, 2021 4:27:49 GMT -5
She quite a looker as well. I understand that she was offered another TV program that was never made. When they reintroduced Noel Neil , the Adventures of Superman series took a different tone. I could never see Coates doing the goofy plots that came after her departure.
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Post by Prince Hal on Aug 8, 2021 7:18:47 GMT -5
She quite a looker as well. I understand that she was offered another TV program that was never made. When they reintroduced Noel Neil , the Adventures of Superman series took a different tone. I could never see Coates doing the goofy plots that came after her departure. Even when she was in shows as hackneyed as "The Lone Ranger" (however beloved it is by the likes of me), Phyllis brought an independent, "I won't be disrespected" edge to her roles. As for being a looker...  |
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Post by dbutler69 on Aug 11, 2021 4:28:48 GMT -5
Hey, I love the Lone Ranger! You make hackneyed sound like a bad thing.  |
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Post by brutalis on Aug 11, 2021 8:14:31 GMT -5
Hey, I love the Lone Ranger! You make hackneyed sound like a bad thing. There is a reason Lone Ranger, Hopaling Cassidy and Roy Rogers, Superman, Batman lasted so long as adult and children's TV shows. They were honest, smartly written morality shows which emphasized truth, justice and used action without resorting to killing as an option. If that truly is hackneyed then we and the world can use a whole lot more of it. |
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Post by Prince Hal on Aug 11, 2021 17:56:12 GMT -5
Hey, I love the Lone Ranger! You make hackneyed sound like a bad thing. One can admit the love of something hackneyed without feeling any guilt. Though it is best taken in small doses. |
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Post by MWGallaher on Aug 15, 2021 9:41:10 GMT -5
Here's a question that popped into my head recently:
What was the last network TV series of note to be titled
The <name of star here> Show?
It's obviously gone out of style, but when?
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Post by EdoBosnar on Aug 15, 2021 10:44:00 GMT -5
Hmmm, since you said of "of note", the only ones that come to mind for me are The Bob Newhart Show and The Carol Burnett Show, both of which ended in the late '70s. The only one I can think of from the 1980s is The Cosby Show, but it doesn't include his first name.
Otherwise, though, the first two shows popped into my head were a) It's Garry Shandling's Show (from the late 1980s), although the title doesn't quite meet your criteria; and b) Shandling's The Larry Sanders Show (lasted until the late 1990s), but since the titular Larry Sanders was a fictional character it doesn't really count. Also, neither of those were network shows.
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Post by codystarbuck on Aug 15, 2021 14:33:57 GMT -5
Hmmm, since you said of "of note", the only ones that come to mind for me are The Bob Newhart Show and The Carol Burnett Show, both of which ended in the late '70s. The only one I can think of from the 1980s is The Cosby Show, but it doesn't include his first name. Otherwise, though, the first two shows popped into my head were a) It's Garry Shandling's Show (from the late 1980s), although the title doesn't quite meet your criteria; and b) Shandling's The Larry Sanders Show (lasted until the late 1990s), but since the titular Larry Sanders was a fictional character it doesn't really count. Also, neither of those were network shows. It's Gary Shandling's Show was Fox, which was a new network, not just a cable entity; so, I'd count it. If you expand to cable, you have The Man Show, on FX, from the 90s, and The Daily Show, from Comedy Central. However, if we stick with traditional networks, Ellen Degeneres' 2nd sitcom, The Ellen Show, premiered in 2001, on CBS. |
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Post by EdoBosnar on Aug 15, 2021 14:48:44 GMT -5
It's Gary Shandling's Show was Fox, which was a new network, not just a cable entity; so, I'd count it. (...) Yeah, Fox aired it (that's how I caught it occasionally), but those were actually reruns. It was a Showtime production, and episodes always premiered on Showtime. |
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Post by brutalis on Aug 15, 2021 16:12:37 GMT -5
Star name recognition in the show title seems to be the home of TV talk shows these days. Once in awhile for a sitcom.
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Post by codystarbuck on Aug 15, 2021 16:28:22 GMT -5
Which takes us back to Ellen Degeneres, with The Ellen Show. even her first sitcom started out as "These Friends of Mine," but got retitled Ellen, in the second season, as they gave up the pretense of it being an ensemble show. She carried it forward to her daytime talk show, The Ellen Degeneres Show. of course, that is syndicated, as was The Oprah Winfrey Show, which started out as a local Chicago talk show, ripping off the format of Donahue (and about the same level of guests, for many years, until she got bigger, in the 90s and much more holier-than-thou, in her presentation). Back when I was in college, there wasn't that much difference between The Oprah Winfrey Show and Sally Jessie Raphael, except the latter seemed more genuine.
I think the practice of calling it The (blank) Show kind of felt old-fashioned, after a while and the more modern take was the single name title, like Ellen or Newhart or Roseanne.
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Post by MWGallaher on Aug 16, 2021 8:23:42 GMT -5
The most recent I was thinking of was Sarah Silverman, but it turns out that was The Sarah Silverman Program. Were there any dramas in the 50's or 60's with that title format? Or was it just sitcoms, variety, and talk shows? Any other ideas on why this once-common convention went out of style? I can think of a few contributing factors. One is just a matter of style, as codystarbuck argues, when one-word titles became trendy in the 90's, with shows like "Bob", "Newhart" and "Cosby" replacing their stars' previous "The Bob Newhart Show" and "The Cosby Show". And then there's the death of the weekly hosted variety show. It protects against name changes when you lose the official lead ("Valerie" --> "The Hogan Family", "Roseanne" --> "The Connors") and makes it more attractive to the cast who aren't intrinsically identified as second bananas from the start. It allows the title to give some indication of the premise. But it seems to me the biggest factor, at least in sitcoms, is the rise in popularity of ensemble-focused series rather than lead-focused series. |
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Aug 16, 2021 8:58:31 GMT -5
Here's a question that popped into my head recently: What was the last network TV series of note to be titled The <name of star here> Show? It's obviously gone out of style, but when? Netflix did "The Joel McHale Show with Joel McHale" in 2018, though it was clearly making fun of the old format. |
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Post by EdoBosnar on Aug 16, 2021 9:51:19 GMT -5
Netflix did "The Joel McHale Show with Joel McHale" in 2018, though it was clearly making fun of the old format. Yeah, I was going to mention, but then forgot, that it seems like "It's Gary Shandling's Show" was also meant to lightly mock that naming format. |
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