Great Moments In Television History #34: The Hosts of Real People Say “Get High On Yourself!”

Posted on May 4, 2024 by Jedadiah Leland

In the fall of 1981, producer Robert Evans and NBC collaborated on Get High On Yourself week. For one week, the network featured its stars encouraging viewers to “Get High On Yourself!:” It all led up to a Get High On Yourself special, which Evans supervised as a part of the community service to which he was sentenced after he was caught getting high on cocaine.

In this clip, the hosts of an early reality show called Real People encourage viewers to “get high on yourself.” Of the hosts, Fred Willard was probably the only one who wasn’t high when this was filmed. Seen today, it’s impossible to watch this without feeling like Willard is doing a bit in an unreleased Christopher Guest movie.

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Great Moments In Television History #33: The Thighmaster Commercial Premieres

Posted on October 15, 2023 by Jedadiah Leland

Rest in peace, Suzanne Somers. Whether she was mouthing “I Love You” to Richard Dreyfuss in American Graffiti or playing Chrissy Snow on Three’s Company or playing the mother of a blended family on Step By Step, Suzanne Somers was long a part of our shared pop culture.

In 1991, after having been out of the spotlight for a few years, Suzanne Somers made a comeback with The Thighmaster.

Today, it’s hard to explain just how popular this commercial was in 1991. Adding to its notoriety was that many stations would not play the commercial except as a part of their late night programming. In the days before YouTube and DVRs, people would actually stay up late to catch the Suzanne Somers Thighmaster commercial. For a while, this commercial revived Somers’s career as an actress and a talk show host. Needless to say, it also sold a lot of Thighmasters.

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Great Moments In Television History #32: The Doors Are Open

Posted on October 6, 2023 by Jedadiah Leland

55 years ago today, The Doors Are Open aired on Granada TV in the United Kingdom. This documentary featured The Doors performing at The Roadhouse in London, along with interviews with the members of the band and also clips of the turmoil that was occurring across the world at the time. The documentary takes a look at The Doors as both musicians and activists.

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Great Moments In Television History #30: The Greatest American Hero Premieres

Posted on March 18, 2023 by Jedadiah Leland

43 years ago today, The Greatest American Hero premiered on ABC and America first heard the theme song that no one would ever forget.

The show only lasted for three seasons and it was never a huge success in the ratings. The mix of comedy and super heroics was unusual for the time and audiences, critics, and network executives didn’t know what to make of it. But even if the show struggled, people loved the theme song. “Believe It or Not” was composed by Mike Post and Stephen Geyer. Sung by Joey Scarbury, the song debuted in the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 and reached number 2 on the charts.

A decade after The Greatest American Hero was canceled, audiences still got the joke as soon as they heard George Costanza’s answering machine message.

When The Greatest American Hero premiered, William Katt was playing a teacher named Ralph Hinkley. After John W. Hinkley tried to assassinate President Reagan, Ralph’s last name suddenly become Hanley and remained that for the rest of the first season. By the time the second season began, he was back to being Ralph Hinkley.

Even though the show wasn’t a ratings success when it first aired, it has since developed a strong cult following. Some shows are just ahead of their time.

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Great Moments In Television History #29: Barney Pops On National TV

Posted on November 25, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

Twenty-five years ago today, a horrified nation watched as Barney The Dinosaur fell victim to high winds and a street light. It was a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade that will never be forgotten.

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Great Moments in Television History #28: The WKRP Turkey Drop

Posted on November 23, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

On October 30, 1978, WKRP in Cincinnati changed Thanksgiving forever.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Great Moments In Television History #27: The Final Scene of Dark Shadows

Posted on October 30, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

After five years of enthralling audiences with the story of Barnabas Collins and his family, Dark Shadows came to an end on April 2nd, 1971. By this point, the show itself had tried to return to its gothic roots by setting its latest storyline in 1841. During the show’s final episodes, Jonathan Frid played not Barnabas but instead, Bramwell Collins. Unfortunately, this didn’t help the show’s once strong ratings and ABC abruptly canceled Dark Shadows in 1971.

When the show ended, it did so in typical tongue-in-cheek fashion. With Bramwell and his love, Catharine Harridge, preparing to leave Collinsport, news suddenly came that there had been a vampire attack!

Or was it?

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Great Moments In Television History #25: Vincent Price Meets The Muppets

Posted on October 17, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

In 1977, during the 16th episode of The Muppet Show, Kermit The Frog got a chance to interview Vincent Price and show off his vampire moves. Later, no worse for wear, Vincent joined with the Muppets to sing a song.

I’m surprised that this episode was aired on January 16th, 1977 and not during October.

Here is the scene that lives forever in meme form:

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Great Moments In Television History #23: Barnabas Collins Is Freed From His Coffin

Posted on October 2, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

The year was 1967 and, in Collinsport, Maine, a petty criminal named Willie Loomis was about to make television history. Convinced that a fortune in jewelry was hidden in the Collins family’s mausoleum, Willie broke in and opened a coffin that, strangely, was covered in chains. Willie expected to find a fortune. Instead, he found Barnabas Collins, a 200 year-old vampire who transformed Willie into his servant and proceeded to spend the next five years masquerading as a cousin from Britain while searching for both a cure to his condition and for the reincarnation of the love of his life, Josette.

Played by stage actor Jonathan Frid, Barnabas Collins made his first appearance on the April 18th, 1967 episode of Dark Shadows. Though Barnabas was originally only meant to be a temporary addition to the show’s roster of characters, Frid proved to be popular with viewers, like my mother who not only watched the show when it first aired but also when reruns were broadcast in syndication many years later. The show soon came to center on the ruthless vampire.

In fact, Frid and Barnabas became some identified with the show that many are still shocked to learn that Dark Shadows had run for a full year before Barnabas was introduced as a character. When the show airs in syndication, it usually starts with Willie (played by John Karlen) opening Barnabas’s coffin and not with the earlier episodes in which the show’s nominal lead character, Victoria Winters, first arrived at Collinwood and met the members of the family.

Many future horror directors and writers have stated that their interest in the genre began with watching Jonathan Frid on Dark Shadows. And it all began with that one great moment when Willie Loomis opened the coffin and set Barnabas free.

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Great Moments In Television History #21: The Origin of Spider-Man

Posted on August 1, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

The first Spider-Man television series was the famous cartoon series that premiered in 1967. This was the one the featured the theme song about how Spider-Man could do everything that a spider can. The first season of Spider-Man was produced by Grantray-Lawrence Animation and it started in medias res, with Peter Parker already fighting crime as Spider-Man and also with Spider-Man already knowing most of his villains.

Grantray-Lawrence went bankrupt halfway through the first season of Spider-Man and, as a result, the second season was produced by Krantz Animation, Inc. Krantz made the important decision to bring in Ralph Bakshi, to executive produce and direct the series. Bakshi wanted to move the show away from just being a mindless kid’s cartoon. Instead of emphasizing action, he emphasized character. The 2nd season premiered on September 14th, 1968 and was rebooted the series, taking it in Baskshi’s new direction. It started with The Origin of Spider-Man, which told the story of the death of Ben Parker in Bakshi’s trademark style.

In the scene below, Peter learns of his uncle’s death and suits up as Spider-Man to get justice.

We all know how the story ended. Spider-Man continued to fight crime in New York and Ralph Bakshi continued to challenge the conventional assumptions about what animation had to be.

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