Revisiting TV Classics
Five Shows that Deserve a Second Look
In this glorious age of the DVD, many TV classics are getting exposed to new audiences or generating renewed interest from longtime fans.
Some shows are still widely seen in syndication while others are far more obscure or have been largely forgotten over the years. Below are six lesser-known but well-regarded TV classics worth revisiting.
Make Room for Daddy / The Danny Thomas Show (1953-1964)
Overshadowed by the likes of I Love Lucy and The Honeymooners, this Danny Thomas starrer was quite sophisticated in its storytelling considering the era during which it aired. Characters regularly learned something about themselves or the people in their lives through humorous presentations of that week’s situation or conflict. Thomas starred as Danny Williams, a New York-based nightclub entertainer struggling to balance his career with his wife and children. Based on Thomas' own experiences, this long-running comedy series deftly incorporated top performers of the day (such as Bob Hope, Milton Berle and Dinah Shore) into storylines as colleagues or reasonable facsimiles of themselves as different characters.
The Danny Thomas Show was the first television program to kill off a major character when, in 1956, series co-star and on-screen wife Jean Hagen left the series after three seasons. The fourth season featured a widowed Danny re-entering the dating scene and proposing to a widowed hospital nurse with a young daughter (Marjorie Lord) in that year's finale. TV's first blended family shifted from ABC to CBS, where it continued on for another seven top-rated seasons.
In 1960, The Danny Thomas Show spun a well-known entertainer into his own highly-popular and far more well-known sitcom -- Andy Griffith.
Room 222 (1969-1974)
Part of ABC's storied Friday night lineup that also featured The Brady Bunch, The Partridge Family, The Odd Couple and Love American Style, this comedy-drama was set in a diverse Los Angeles High School during the transition from the turbulent 60s to the transcendental 70s.
The series was centered around a well-respected, educated and dedicated history teacher (Lloyd Haynes) as well as his relationships with his best friend principal (Michael Constantine of My Big Fat Greek Wedding), best gal guidance counselor (Denise Nicholas) and student teacher protégé (Karen Valentine). Each interacted regularly with a various students and other faculty members.
Episodes were light morality teleplays about a variety of current social, political, professional and personal issues facing them all -- most of which still resonate today.
The Paper Chase (1978-1979, 1983-1986)
Based on the 1973 film for which series star John Houseman won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor that was in turn based on the 1970 novel by John Jay Osborn Jr., this CBS drama was cancelled after its first season but picked up by Showtime four years later for a three-year supplemental run.
Houseman played Dr. Charles Kingsfield, the foremost authority on contract law and a highly accomplished, well-respected professor of a prestigious law school in New England. James Stephens played James Hart, the fictionalized version of Osborn, a promising Midwestern farm boy holding his own amongst classmates who were born into privilege and are carrying on long-lasting family legacies.
Hart and his group of equally loyal friends face life, work, school and the biggest challenge of all -- the intimidating, tough and highly respected Kingsfield.
Each season of the show represented a year in the life of James, his friends and other classmates. The final episode naturally centered on graduation day.
Quantum Leap (1989-1993)
This highly imaginative series starred Scott Bakula in the role of Sam Beckett, a man traveling through time setting right what had gone wrong originally. In each episode, Beckett leapt into the persona of the individual needing to reset the course of their life. The leaps had no respect of person and Beckett often leapt into women and men of different races.
Guiding him through these leaps was his best friend Al (Dean Stockwell), who appeared to Sam in the form of a hologram seen only by Sam. Due to its anthological nature, the series was able to regularly take advantage of the versatile Bakula's vocal and musical talents.
NBC famously cancelled the series in 1993. The show's final episode examined who or what was responsible for Sam's leaps and ended with a graphic that "Dr. Sam Beckett never returned home."
Titus (2000-2002)
Based on the standup comedy of series star Christopher Titus, this dark comedy series fearlessly tackled topics such as abuse, suicide, mental illness and alcoholism with an effective mix of humor not seen since the heydays of Roseanne.
The series featured Cynthia Watros as Christopher’s girlfriend, Zach Ward as Christopher’s younger step-brother and David Shatraw as his best friend. Stacy Keach was brilliantly cast as Christopher’s fear-inducing dad.
Each episode featured Titus directly addressing the audience at the beginning and end of the show. Also included were flashbacks and the occasional fantasy sequence.
Like Roseanne as well as All in the Family before it and Everybody Loves Raymond after it, much of the main action took place in near real-time or over the course of a few hours. Stories rarely carried over to the following day.
Due to the increasingly dark nature of the show and justifiably uncompromising producers, FOX cancelled the show after its third season.
Kitchen Confidential (2005)
Before Bradley Cooper’s Hangover, he headlined this prematurely cancelled single-camera sitcom based on Anthony Bourdain’s 2000 book of the same name.
Cooper portrayed a fictionalized version of Bourdain named Jack, an excellent chef whose party-boy living kept him in trouble and his career in jeopardy. Jack was hired to open up, hire and manage the kitchen staff of a new upscale restaurant in New York. Stories focused on the challenges of opening and maintaining the enterprise as well as Jack’s attempts to not squander what may be his last opportunity to get his life on track.
Its short run on FOX was interrupted by the World Series and ridiculously cancelled after four episodes without an opportunity to find an audience. All 13 produced episodes, however, are included on its DVD set.
Revisiting Popular Classics Through DVD
|
What do you think about this article?
More in Film & TV
Latest Articles