Saturday, May 17, 2014

Obscure TV Shows for 200,Alex

It's funny how obscure things stick on your head from your childhood.
I've written many times about the importance of television in my childhood living in a very rural area, but some shows just aren't meant to be memorable-yet two of them are.

It's because of theme songs that stuck in your head and often time its pieces of said theme song.
Sometimes you barely remembered who starred in the show, let alone a particular episode!
Two cases of this came from CBS in the 1979/80 television season with California Fever and Ladies Man.
The theme song to California Fever has stuck with me for 35 years, although the lyrics weren't perfect when I found it on Youtube this morning, it was pretty close for a 10 episode run 35 years ago!
However, despite watching the show enough to remember the theme song, I remembered the star as Clark Brandon (Brandon actually starred in Mr.Merlin, another one year, and out show-I had other reasons for that one to be told in a future post) and it was actually Jimmy McNichol, a teen star of the time.
Other than the song and watching it, most likely with Shane, I remember next to nothing about it, other than being your typical teenage show, so I'll let Wikipedia describe this classic-"The show featured a group of Los Angeles teenagers living an exotic life of disco, the beach, the opposite sex, and music.
The series was short-lived lasting ten episodes".
Gee, with a description like that, I wonder why it didn't make it?
Here for your listening pleasure or not...-California Fever



For all that I love about today's TV choices, there is something to be said for simplicity, and having three networks producing new shows meant that shows were given more chance to find an audience and that audience would often sample lots of different shows too.
I miss that a little.

Ladies Man was a Lawrence Pressman comedy vehicle that saw a single dad working as the only male at a women's magazine.
Other than Pressman most of his co-stars would only be familiar to TV junkies of the time, Karen Morrow, who seemed to be the queen of one and out shows, character actor Herbert Edelman and Louise Sorel, who starred in soap opera, but more notably to me as a guest star on Star Trek.
Ladies Man, if I recall correctly was given a better time slot than California Fever by CBS, which had to battle Happy Days, which then was certain death.
I seem to remember Ladies Man being on before or after Alice, which would mean Sunday and a nice slot in those days for a CBS Show.
The theme song was often tossed out by Shane and me through the years as a running joke between us as only us and maybe Lawrence Pressman were the only people that remembered it.
I cannot recall ever hearing one or both of us bellow out "How do I fit in with a room full of women", without the other laughing or cracking a smile.
Ladies Man lasted one forgettable season and 16 episodes, but yet due to its opening song-it's proven to be quite memorable.
Memories that make you laugh and think back-I suppose there are worse things to recall from a simpler time that saw television be such an important part of my life.
And on occasion, it's the company you kept when you make those memories as well.
Enough,already-here's Ladies Man...





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