Classic TV

Classic shows that have almost been forgotten, as well as shows that should probably have been forgotten

Nostalgia Corner: Tabatha/Tabitha (1977)

10 May 2012 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Tabitha

There were two big US fantasy sitcoms of the 1960s that took on board women’s changing roles in society, not by showing them at work but by showing them as more than just ‘mere’ housewives and people with ideas of their own: I Dream of Jeannie and Bewitched.

I Dream of Jeannie saw Barbara Eden appear at first to be ‘every man’s dream’ – a sexy blonde genie with magic powers, willing to do whatever he commanded.

However, as a pre-JR Larry Hagman was about to discover, even slaves have minds of their own and Barbara Eden’s Jeannie very definitely had a will of her own, throwing Hagman’s life upside down – the star of the show was clearly Eden rather Hagman and Tony the astronaut spent most of his time keeping up with Jeannie, rather than the other way round.

Here’s a little minisode version of the first episode to give you an idea. Surprisingly, it was written by Sidney Sheldon (yes, the fabulously successful author).

Meanwhile in Bewitched, Elizabeth Montgomery played Samantha, an apparently normal young American woman, who meets and falls in love with a very normal American man Darrin (Dick York at first, then Dick Sargent). Except it turns out that Samantha is a witch and with just a wiggle of her nose, she can make more or less anything happen.

Samantha wants to be a normal housewife but somehow, usually thanks to the efforts of her mother Endora, she always ends up having to use her powers for some reason or other. And as with I Dream of Jeannie, this was a show very much about the female lead rather than the male lead, what she wanted, what she was prepared to do to fit in with society and more.

Here’s the pilot episode:

In both series, the set-ups evolved, with Jeannie eventually marrying Tony and having a family with him, and Samantha also having a daughter, Tabitha, and a son, Adam.

Five years after Bewitched ended in 1972, and we’re in a post-Rhoda world, where the single young, sexually liberated working woman is now a valid subject for a comedy. And although it was just five years later, Tabitha has apparently grown up into a young woman working in the LA television industry. Cue an ABC sitcom called Tabitha starring Knots Landing‘s Lisa Hartman and Robert Urich from Vega$ and Spenser: For Hire. Here’s the opening credits that explain everything.

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Weird old title sequences: ITC shows (1970s)

26 April 2012 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

And so we round off our look at the majestic rise and fall of ITC, a company that dominated TV for three decades. Last time, we looked at the shows of the 60s, a decade when ITC was at the height of its powers; this week, we’ll look at its slow descent.

Things started well at first with the marvellously cast – if not marvellously scripted – The Persuaders!, starring Roger Moore and Tony Curtis, which is a candidate for the show with the best theme tune and title sequence in TV history.

With high production values, actual location filming and an all-star cast, it looked like ITC was on to something good.

Unfortunately, The Persuaders! didn’t rate very well in the US, so didn’t get a second series. So instead, ITC concentrated on two half-hour formats to replace, that followed similar lines: The Protectors, with Robert Vaughn from The Man from UNCLE and Nyree Dawn Porter, and The Adventurer.

The Protectors had a fabulous theme tune and song by Tony Hatch, but its half-hour format really killed the scripts.

The Adventurer, however, was saddled with the somewhat ego-centric Gene Barry from Burke’s Law and The Name of the Game, a sub-Persuaders theme tune by John Barry and some truly dreadful scripts.

After that, it was left to ITC mainstay Gerry Anderson to maintain the ITC tradition. But having done so well with puppets in the 60s with shows like Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet, after the interim show The Secret Service…

…he was ready to move on to full live-action with first UFO then Space: 1999, both of which I’ve already covered, neither of which lasted more than two seasons.

After that, Lew Grade was ready to move on to mini-series such as Jesus of Nazareth and movies like Raise The Titanic and The Medusa Touch. Which meant the death nell for ITC was sounded in 1980 with the very un-ITC, very low-key story of village life, Shillingbury Tales, starring the likes of Robin Nedwell and Diane Keen.

And that, unfortunately, was that for ITC after three decades at the top. But along the way, it did give us some very fabulous – and sometimes very weird – title sequences.

Weird old title sequences: ITC shows (1960s)

19 April 2012 Rob Buckley 4 Comments

Last time in Weird Old Title Sequences, we looked at some of the ITC shows of the 1950s. This week, we’re going to move forward a decade to the 60s.

Now ITC produced some of the most iconic TV shows – and title sequences – of the 60s. It was in this decade that ITC really flourished as a company and where the genre of show known as the ‘ITC show’ crystallised. I’ve already covered quite a few of those shows in some depth: The Avengers, The Prisoner, The Champions and The Baron. But that’s just the tip of the ITC iceberg. So after the jump, we’re going to run through some of the most popular ITC shows’ title sequences, as well as the sequences of some shows that are perhaps not as well remembered.

So brace yourself for the fabulous, iconic title sequences (with equally fabulous title themes) of Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Department S, Man in a Suitcase, Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased), The Saint, Danger Man, The Strange Report, and Jason King. There are probably more I could add to that list: what others would you include?

Incidentally, for a good(ish) overview of ITC shows, you could try Cult TV: The Golden Age of ITC, which I reviewed all of half a decade ago. Sigh.

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Weird old title sequences: ITC shows (1950s)

5 April 2012 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

ITC – Lew Grade’s production company – dominated ITV schedules for the best part of two decades. Starting out in the 1950s, it wasn’t until the late 70s that ITC eventually closed its production business.

To list every single ITC show would take forever (or a quick link to Wikipedia and even that’s incomplete), so instead, I thought I’d give you a few of the best title sequences from the best shows that ITC came up with in the 1950s, including the iconic The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (with William Russell from Doctor Who), The Buccaneers with Robert Shaw, Ivanhoe with Sir Roger Moore and The Invisible Man with… well, they never gave his name…

Now, in a lot of cases, ‘best’ ain’t saying much. They’re all of a muchness, quite brief and don’t have proper themes (since in most cases those used to run over the end credits). You’ll have to wait until I hit the 1960s before they start to get good. But they’re a little bit of history and just watching a sponsors logo will give you an idea of how much TV has changed in 60 years.

Weird old title sequences: Court Martial (1965)

22 March 2012 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

It’s funny, isn’t it, the difference a year or two can make in terms of style. Consider, for example, the title sequence of a previous Lost Gem, Mission: Impossible, starring Peter Graves, which first aired in 1966.

Slick, glossy, exciting – and in color! Now let’s go back just one year to 1965 to have a look at Court Martial, also starring Peter Graves and Bradford Dillman. Set during World War 2 and detailing the investigations of a Judge Advocate General’s office (yes, those guys who were in JAG), it originally started life as a two-part 1963 episode of NBC’s Kraft Suspense Theatre that also starred Graves and Dillman. Made by ITC, it ran for one season of 26 episodes, airing first in the UK on ITV and then in the US on ABC and even won a BAFTA for best dramatic series.

And here’s the title sequence.

Interesting, huh. All stock footage, black and white, sharp cuts, etc. But it’s very much of a type – consider the title sequence of the similarly themed and quite good John Thaw show Red Cap, which looked at investigations by the UK military police and aired from 1964-66.

Do you see how similar they are? Fashion, huh? Yes, it even applies to TV title sequences.