50th ANNIVERSARY OF TELEVISION

In continuance of the "Birthday/Anniversary" theme of my previous two columns (about my 50th birthday and the 5th anniversary of writing the "Mr. Bronze Age" column) I have decided to point out the OTHER 50th Anniversaries of Pop Culture in 2019! Ten shows, all of which debuted 50 years ago are still remembered with fondness today.

This includes not only the people who watched the shows back in the good old days when they were first broadcast, but also people whom first discovered the shows in reruns after they had gone into syndication. I was in the latter group. Syndicated series include "Gilligan's Island", "I Dream of Genie" and "Hogan's Heroes" to name just a handful. But those shows are not celebrating their 50^th Anniversary this year! And so, here is a tribute column to honor the TV series that debuted fifty years ago this year, some  of which are still going to this day! Others are fondly remembered as ground-breaking. One such show is Room  222.

 Room 222 debuted on September 11th, 1969 and ran until January 11th, 1974. The show takes place in a (then) modern high school. The show was set in an American History class taught by "Pete Dixon"  ("Dixon" was played by Lloyd Haines).  The series tackled man such hot button topics such as references to the war raging in Vietnam, as well as civil riots among others. Sometimes the conflicts would be more personal. In the episode "Funny Boy", an overweight student plays the class clown, to distract people from commenting on his weight problem. Room 222 ran for five seasons (112 episodes) on ABC.

 Next up is a show that seems light-hearted and playful, even quaint. But that is when viewed by today's standards. The show is "Love, American Style" and  made its debut on  September 29th, 1969. Like Room 222, "Love, American Style" ran for five seasons (for a run of 108 episodes) on ABC. "Love, American Style" was considered to be quite risqué at the time. Drug use was mentioned, there were plenty of innuendos as well. Each episode was comprised of a series of romantic vignettes that were played in a slightly comedic tone. Many stars of the era, such as Davy Jones, Harrison Ford, Nita Talbot and more appeared on the show (some more than once). The series also had a cast of regulars. These include Stuart Margolin, Barbara Minkus, Tracy Reed, Buzz Cooper and more.

Of course, the series is best remembered for one particular episode that first aired on February 25th, 1972. The episode is titled "Love, And The Television Set". The story was about the Cunningham's, a 1950's family, whom had just purchased their first television set. Each member of the family is allowed to invite ONE friend over to watch the television that night. This puts the teenage son into a quandary. He WANTS to invite a girl that he is crushing on over. But at the same time Richie's best friend, Potsie,  wants Richie to invite HIM over that night. This episode was originally to be used as a pilot for a new show called: "New Family In Town". While that pilot was not picked up, this episode was chosen as a de facto pilot for a new show called: "Happy Days" (in fact for syndication the episode was re-titled "Love, And The Happy Days")!

The next show is the cartoon version of -- The Pink Panther! The Pink Panther was originally an animated cartoon opening and closing sequences to most of the Peter Sellers "The Pink Panther" movies. ( "A Shot In The Dark" and "Inspector Clouseau" are the sole exception to this). "The Pink Panther" character became so popular in his on right, that the studio commissioned the making of several short cartoons. This was in 1964. Those 62 movie shorts were bundled together and in 1969 they hit Saturday Morning television. It was here that they became popular with a whole new audience.

 In my next column, I will present Part Two of of Mr. Bronze Age's tribute to influential television shows of 50 years ago! As always, I hope that my readers have enjoyed this fond look back!