Television: February 2008 Archives

1968 was a tumultuous year. It's hard not to look back forty years later and wonder how the America and the world would have been different if 1968 hadn't unfolded the way it did. What if Martin Luther King hadn't been shot or Bobby Kennedy hadn't been assassinated? Would the riots at the 1968 democratic convention have happened? Would the Vietnam War have turned out different? All of these questions will never really be answered but they seem to come up whenever 1968 is discussed.

Dr. Richard Kimble (David Janssen), falsely accused of murdering his wife, escapes custody while en route to Death Row and must elude police and Lt. Philip Gerard (Barry Morse), who is consumed with his capture. Kimble must perpetually relocate and change his name while he continues his mission to find the real killer, a one-armed man (Bill Raisch) he saw leave the scene of the crime.

The Fugitive debuted on September 17, 1963 and was an immediate hit in the ratings. It is widely believed that the character of Dr. Richard Kimble was based on Dr. Sam Sheppard, a young Cleveland, Ohio doctor convicted of killing his wife Marilyn in 1954, despite his claims of a “bushy haired intruder.” Sheppard served ten years in prison and was declared a free man by the U.S. Supreme Court on June 6, 1968. “The massive, pervasive and prejudicial publicity attending petitioner’s prosecution prevented him from receiving a fair trial consistent with the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment.” When asked whether The Fugitive was based on the Sheppard case, series creator Roy Huggins said, I don’t care whether people say The Fugitive was based on the Sheppard case. The only reason I deny it is that it happens to be the truth”

Perfect Strangers, you remember it. Balki Bartokomous (Bronson Pinchot) from the island of Mypos shows up unexpectedly to live with his distant cousin Larry Appleton (Mark Linn-Baker) in Chicago. The two couldn't be more different. Balki is a wide-eyed fun loving guy (he sleeps with a stuffed lamb), while Larry is tense organized and methodical.

Frasier star Kelsey Grammer serves as an executive producer on Girlfriends, a show about the lives of four African-American women and their male friend. Joan Clayton (Tracee Ellis Ross) is a successful lawyer; her secretary Maya Denise Wilkes (Golden Brooks) is also her best friend. Lynn Ann Searcy (Persia White) a friend of Joan's since her college days, is the proverbial student. Lynn holds several degrees and is still in school, afraid to face the real world. Jill Marie Jones plays Antoinette Marie "Toni" Childs, is the egocentric girlfriend whose main goal in life to marry a rich man. Reggie Hayes plays William Dent, a colleague of Joan's at the law firm and an all around funny guy.

Debauchery, double-crossing, divorce, adultery, kidnapping, assassination attempts!

Dallas had it all. The Ewing family lived at the ostentatious Southfork ranch in Braddock County just outside Dallas. Miss Ellie, long played by veteran actress Barbara Bel Geddes, was the matriarch of the clan. J.R. (Larry Hagman) was the oldest Ewing son, married to the forever miserable Sue Ellen (Linda Gray). J.R's younger brother Bobby (Patrick Duffy) fell in love with a girl from a rival oil family, Pamela Barnes (Victoria Principal), whom he would later marry (a couple times).

While ER can occasionally veer off into soap opera territory, the long running series about the medical staff and patients of Chicago's fictional County General Hospital remains one of the best written shows on television today. One of the reasons ER has been able to stay on the cutting edge is the writers and producers ability to adapt to change. Characters come and go, and storylines change on a dime. Season eight saw some of the series' most significant changes yet.

Though Family Ties debuted in September of 1982, it wasn't until the series third season that the show really took off. Aided by its position behind The Cosby Show on Thursday nights, Family Ties reached #5 in the Nielsen ratings during the 1984-85 season.

Family Ties centers around the Keaton family. Steven (Michael Gross) and his wife Elyse (Meredith Baxter Birney) are liberal, flower children of the sixties. The couple has three children: Alex P. (Michael J. Fox) is the conservative, Reagan-worshiping, money-loving son who uses his middle initial whenever possible, Mallory (Justine Bateman), is a girl whose prime interests are fashion and boys and Jennifer (Tina Yothers), the tomboyish baby of the family. The Keaton's are a fairly typical suburban family of the 1980's. Steven manages a local PBS affiliate and Elyse is an architect.

Beauty and the Beast was one of those shows that never did that well in the ratings but had a loyal following. When the show premiered in 1987, Catherine (Linda Hamilton) was a wealthy Assistant District Attorney looking for meaning in her life. Vincent (Ron Pearlman) was a man-beast forced to live his life under the tunnels of the city. When the two first met, they knew almost instantaneously they had a bond between them that would never break.

During Beauty and the Beast's first two seasons the show began with Vincent saying in part: "Her name is Catherine. From the moment I saw her, she captured my heart with her beauty, her warmth, and her courage. I knew then, as I know now, she would change my life forever." As the final season began, Beauty and the Beast producers were faced with a difficult situation when Linda Hamilton decided to leave the series.

Based on the 1997 film of the same name, Soul Food revolves around the lives of the Joseph sisters, three African American women trying to live their lives as best they can in Chicago.

As season three begins, Teri Joseph (Nicole Ari Parker) the type-A personality of the group and a labor lawyer, has accepted a job as head of the labor department at her old firm. Terri has also started a serious relationship with her old lover, sports agent Damon Carter (Boris Kodjoe). Maxine Chadway is in the midst of a separation from her husband Kenny (Rockmond Dunbar), who hopes they can eventually reconcile. Tracy "Bird" Van Adams the youngest and the feistiest of the sisters, owns a beauty salon and is married to ex-con Lem Van Adams (Darrin Dewitt Henson) who is in a constant struggle to keep his temper in check.

BURBANK - February 8, 2008 - Val Kilmer ("Comanche Moon," "Batman Forever," "The Doors") will assume the role of the voice of KITT -- America's favorite talking car -- in NBC's "Knight Rider" movie of the week which revs up on Sunday, February 17 (9-11 p.m. ET).

Kilmer will play the role of KITT after actor Will Arnett had to withdraw from the role due to a conflicting sponsorship deal.

JAG is a military drama about an elite legal wing of United States military officers, trained as lawyers who investigate and prosecute those accused of crimes in the United States Navy and Marine Corps. The crimes include espionage, homicide, terrorism, hostage situations, conspiracies and more. The investigations take the crew all over the world in search of the truth.

As the fifth season of JAG opens, Harmon "Harm" Rabb (David James Elliott) is no longer with JAG. During season four he had been cured of night blindness and resumed his career as a fighter pilot. However, he soon realizes that as good as he is, the time away from the cockpit has cost him any real meaningful career as a pilot--his place is with JAG. It should be noted that the first few episodes when Harm has resumed his flying carrier provide some standout moments during JAG's fifth season. In the season opener, "King of the Greenie Board" Harm does his level best to try to reign in a young hot-shot pilot. Unfortunately in the next episode, "Rules of Engagement" Harm is forced to defend the young flier after he mistakenly shoots down some Russian peace keepers.