Saturday, September 2, 2017

NBC's fall lineup 50 years ago (1967)

NBC didn't learn anything from the previous year's fall preview special, Two in a Taxi, which starred Jack Burns & Avery Schreiber. For 1967, they tried another oddball concept.

Remember Next Year? supposed Earth's future 20 years ahead (1987), which included colonization of the moon. Danny Thomas, fronting a comedy-variety hour in 1967 for NBC, stars along with Jan Murray and Get Smart's Don Adams.

In addition to The Danny Thomas Hour, NBC's freshman class of '67 consisted of:

Maya
High Chaparral
The Mothers-in-Law
The Jerry Lewis Show
Ironside
Accidental Family

Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In debuted the following winter. All except The Danny Thomas Hour and the weekly version of The Kraft Music Hall have previously been discussed.

Now, let's take a trip, as Danny Thomas sees it, to 1987. Murray plays "Mr. Spelling", a left-handed reference to ABC-exclusive producer Aaron Spelling, with whom Thomas sold Rango & The Guns of Will Sonnet to ABC.



The affiliate from whence this video came opted to black out Accidental Family for some reason. Just as well, as it was a flop. We previously showed you ABC's shorter preview. We're trying to locate CBS' 1967 preview, as well as all three networks' 1962 previews.

Rating for Remember Next Year?: C-.

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