Well the series on Aaron Spelling’s hit shows is over but today I would like to talk about his shows that didn’t make it. No matter how big the producer is there are always shows that didn’t make it. They may have made it to series but that doesn’t mean they are hit shows. Some may not have even gotten sold.
The Young Rebels has already been mentioned in this posting and in this one. It aired on NBC from Sept. of 1970 to Jan. 1971. It followed the members of the Yankee Doodle Society in 1777. The members of the society were all under 30. They were spies against the English during the American Revolution.
The New People was really before it’s time. Mr. Spelling worked with Rod Serling, who also created the Twilight Zone, on this series. It was about a group of young people who survive a plane crash on an island that is an abandoned atomic test site. Stories revolved around them trying to start a new society while coping with their different backgrounds. Sounds like Lost don’t it? I recently told Booksteve that it starred Mike Farrell before he was on MASH. However, I was wrong research into the show did not show him in the cast. The show was one of the few 45 minute shows. Sort of trying what Ted Turner eventually had success with when he did his shows 5 minutes before the hour. It aired on ABC from September 1969 to January 1970.
In 1981 Spelling produced a series that starred Robert Stack. It was called Strike Force. Mr. Stack played Captain Frank Murphy. He was in charge of a special unit in the LAPD. They went undercover and took on mad bombers, assassins, cult leaders, etc. They went undercover when regular police methods didn’t work. This was really a good show and deserved to be a hit. For some reason it wasn’t. It ran on ABC on Fridays at 10pm from November 1981 to May of 1982. It must have gotten renewed for the fall of 1982 as it was on in September. However, it was canceled by October of 1982. The show however quickly dated itself. It wasn’t the shows fault but the phone companies. I remember at the close of one episode Mr. Stack’s character is trying to convince a man who had been missing for years to call his family. He thinks it has been so long they may not want to hear from him. Robert Stack tells him “All it takes is a dime.” Then gives him a dime to call his family. That was the week that pay phone calls went up from 10 cents to 25 cents. If it had aired the week before I would not have thought anything of it but at that moment I thought the show was dated.
Now we come to the more recent Summerland. The show only aired a couple of years ago. It stared Lori Loughlin from Full House. The show was her idea to have her star as an Aunt who has to raise her nieces and nephews after their parents die in an accident. The kids move in with her and she is helped by her two best friends and her ex-boyfriend in taking care of them. One of the nephews was played by recording star Jesse McCartney. Aaron Spelling said he thought it was such a good idea he wished he thought of it. It came on in the summer on the WB as a replacement series. It did so well they brought it back as a mid season replacement in the spring. Ratings weren’t so good in the spring and the show was canceled. Perhaps Summerland should have been a summer replacement series every year.
Those are just 3 shows that Mr. Spelling produced that became series but weren’t hits. He had more but his hits were so huge that they overshadowed the flops. He also had pilots that didn’t sell. Here are some examples.
Free Spirit- Lisa Eilbacher stars in this 1987 pilot for ABC. She plays a widow who remarries only to find out that the ghost of her first husband is haunting them.
Divided We Stand- Seth Green starred in this 1988 pilot as Cody Gibbs. He played a 10 year old boy whose parents were divorced and share joint custody of Cody. The show was 60 minutes. The first 30 minutes Daddy got Cody and the second half Mommy got him. The show told how he was trying to reunite his parents.
Mr. Mom- Spelling was the executive producer of a TV pilot in 1984 to bring the movie hit that he also produced to televison. It was about an unemployed auto worker getting use to taking care of the house while his wife got a job. Michael Keaton and Terri Garr played those parts in the movie. For TV they cast Barry Van Dyke and Rebecca York. Barry is a good actor but he isn’t as funny as Michael Keaton.
While Aaron Spelling had a lot of hit shows even he has had some misses. Just goes to show you that no one is perfect. This brings to an end our week long series on one of Hollywood’s biggest producers…Aaron Spelling. I hope you enjoyed it.
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