Landmarks and milestones in primetime
The 2009-2010 television season is underway, and some major milestones are taking place.
Several weeks ago in this space, I bemoaned the cancellation of Guiding Light after 72 years to make way for a new version of Let’s Make a Deal.
However, two series are entering their 20th year on television, smashing a record held for 35 years. More on that in a moment…
Gunsmoke, starring William Conrad as Marshal Matt Dillon, premiered on CBS Radio in 1952. The television version premiered in 1955, starring James Arness as Marshal Dillon, with the first episode introduced by none other than John Wayne.
Around the time Gunsmoke hit the airwaves, 8 of the top 10 television shows were Westerns.
When Gunsmoke was cancelled in 1975, the program had rounded up 635 episodes over 20 seasons, a figure that has been difficult to beat. (The program was replaced on the schedule by Mary Tyler Moore spin-offs Rhoda and Phyllis.)
In the intervening years, there have been several long-running scripted shows that almost challenged the champ. Bonanza came close, in living color from 1959 to 1973, spending much of its run as the #1 rated show on television before getting clobbered in the ratings by the Norman Lear-produced Maude during its final season on NBC. Bonanza’s cancellation made Gunsmoke the lone remaining Western on American network television.
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, starring the real-life Nelson family, ran on ABC from 1952 until 1966, compiling 435 episodes along the way to making Ricky Nelson a big-time pop star. The show ended when the network didn’t want to pay to transition from black-and-white to color. My Three Sons, starring Fred MacMurray, ran from 1960 until 1972, making it another contender for long-running situation comedy.
But all of these records will be broken this season, as the return of two different shows for 20th seasons will put them ahead of all the others in the record books.
The Simpsons, on Fox, began as a segment on The Tracey Ullman Show in December 1989, titled Life in Hell. Don’t have a cow, as Bart would say, but the yellowish Springfield family – Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie – jump started a revolution in television animation, a genre which had been given up for dead in the years prior to The Simpsons’ arrival. Now there are cable channels dedicated to the art form, with no live action programming in sight.
The other program reaching the 20th year milestone is the unstoppable Law and Order on NBC.
When Dick Wolf began this New York-based crime drama in 1990, the ‘shaky-camera’ concept was new, but worked for this show: the opening segment shows us the crime; in the first half-hour we track down the assumed culprit with the police; in the second half-hour we follow the accused through a trial conducted by the District Attorney’s office.
The “da-doink” sound effect, the grim announcement at the beginning of the show, and scenery chewing of Sam Waterston as Jack McCoy make L&O a fine hour of engaging entertainment, week after week, even after 20 years.
It took 35 years for Gunsmoke to lose its crown. But now, The Simpsons and Law and Order can join the Dodge City crew in celebration for survival in a town way tougher than Dodge, Springfield, or New York – TV land.
Michael Bird is a band director for Tallassee City Schools. His column appears weekly in the TALLASSEE TRIBUNE.
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Finally! After almost a year and a half since Montgomery locals were turned up on Direct. Picture quality is great. ...