So many great memories of shows I never watched .

Vincent Price was so wonderful. He did everything. No matter how bad the material, he made it work.

Boy I forgot how many stinkers there were in the 1978-1979 season...i noticed there were alot of saturday night fever and animal house type shows. I enjoy watching your videos...brings back fond memories.

"Supertrain", hyped by Fred Silverman, is legendary in TV-flop history.

Producers tried, and tried, and tried, to promote Susan Anton. They paired her with Mel Tillis. They gave her her own action series. She got her own variety show. But she never made it really big.

"I'll be taking a keen interest in your activities!" Brother,you were the only one!

I have really been enjoying this series quite the time tunnel! Clearly, a lot of digging to pull all of these clips commercials and ratings together. Thank you for the hard work.

I recall Friends and Delta House since I was mainly an ABC viewer as a kid. Excellent compilation.

I LOVE these. I so remember and you feed that memory. Thank you. Bravo

Back in the day, when tv shut down at midnight.

Carl doesn't want hamburger helper. Just biscuits and mustard.

Married the first year intro lasted longer than the actual show did ...

Big box-office hits caused producers to try to cash in with similar material on the small screen. "Saturday Night Fever"--"Flatbush", "Makin' It". "Animal House"--"Co-Ed Fever", "Brothers & Sisters", and the softened TV follow-up to the original movie, "Delta House". And so on. The big-screen magic didn't transfer to the boob tube.

I barely recall "Cliffhangers", a time when NBC's ratings were low and far removed from ten years earlier. Gotta love on this promo the great disembodied voice, Don Pardo! I always remember him doing "Saturday Night Live" and with Art Fleming on the original "Jeopardy". "Aaarrrt...."

This was my senior year in high school, so sadly there wasn't the time for a lot of TV, and a lot stunk.

Geez, drawing a blank on these. Supertrain looked like a blockbuster with that snappy disco intro. I checked and, yes, Robert Alda was Alan’s dad.

Mary's show could have been titled "I'm Not Carol Burnett, But Watch Anyway, Please".

Listening to a doll baby's heartbeat, priceless.... I've thrown those dolls in the dumpster already when I worked at Goodwill.

Four shows from this season (Apple Pie, The Waverly Wonders, Mary and Co-Ed Fever) lasted three episodes or less. Pitiful!

Margaret Hamilton, who loved children, went on Mister Rogers Neighborhood in her witche's costume to show kids that it was all right to pretend. She took the fact that she had frightened young people so badly very seriously.

57:20 Thank you Don Pardo !! Also, all the sitcoms, all the police-type shows all seem the same. Finnaly, love how you tease us with commercial (Lionel trains) bumpers.

There were three shows that season hoping to cash in on the popularity of the movie Animal House. Co-Ed Fever, Brothers and Sisters and Delta House.

I was a teenager by this time and never heard of any of these shows.

"Turnabout" had been a movie released in 1940, with Carole Landis and Adolphe Menjou. It was based on the 1931 novel by Thorne Smith, of "Topper" fame.

I was a senior in high school that year, so I was either doing homework or watching shows that were popular. However I did seek out the DVD of David Cassidy Man Undercover after he passed.

Bill Daily was a navigator on two different shows? Talk about being typecast.

Hello, Larry deserves an honorary mention. The only reason it was renewed was because NBC needed a negotiation chip against Johnny Carson. Hell, it tied for Supertrain in the ratings!

The fact that this video is almost an hour is a testament of how godawful this season was.

The horror of these shows had me wishing for Friday to come sooner rather than later.

It's fascinating because these are not just shows that did not make it but absolute death of many careers, writers, showrunners, actors. Norman Lear ,Grant Tinker, etc. are 'icons' but I'd forgotten their dismal failures and false starts. And so many actors cast in these shows are complete nobodies. It seems like for many these shows were their first and last shot at a career. Were they weak, bland actors or were some talented victims of weak material? Kind of sad.

Sword of Justice actually aired in FIVE time slots in 13 original episodes. The premiere was a two-hour Sunday Big Event; the n a two-hour Saturday movie, then a Thursday episode in the canceled W.E.B.'s time slot, then three more episodes on Saturday night, three more on Sundays (December 17, 24 and 31), and a last two-hour movie on Wednesday, July 11, 1979.

I fondly remember Darleen Carr. Her sister, Charmian, was in "The Sound of Music".

Supertrain spent a zillion dollars on the train, and about 10 bucks per script.

Thanks For Sharing!

"Married: The First Year" . . . annulled after only four episodes!

I think Mary Tyler Moore was at a loss after her hit series was canceled. She was 40 and couldn’t credibly play a single career woman anymore. She was also drinking heavily at this time. That might have affected her judgement.

When your shows theme tries to rhyme "quarter" with "daughter" you know youre doomed. 😂

What amazes me are all these actors listed in the opening credits of these shows who were never seen again. They probably thought they’d made it-they were cast in a network show and would have great show biz careers. Only a few would make it after being in a failed show.

Had to stop at 13 min. So bad….. will watch more in increments. Grandpa, who goes to Washington, is same actor in Anatomy of a Murder, I believe.

I believe there were 35 new sitcoms that aired NBC/CBS/ABC. TONS of cancellations and mid-season replacements. Too many silly (and mostly BAD sitcoms) turned off too many viewers. The public then turned to the nighttime soaps (Dallas, Knots Landing, Falcon Crest) and real TV (60 Minutes) Dallas and 60 Minutes were on top of the Nielsens for the next 5 seasons (60 Minutes for 79-80 and 82-83; Dallas 80-81, 81-82 and 83-84).

In the Maxwell House coffee commercial, was the older lady Margaret Hamilton (the Wicked Witch of the West on The Wizard of Oz)?

I just can't tear myself away from these things. I turned 5 in 79, so this would likely be the first I would have remembered any, but as much fun is seeing so many familiar actors in shows I didn't know about.

In that Nestlè Souptime commercial were Vincent Price & his wife Coral Browne.

james hampton's pudgy, friendly face was a common sight back in the 70's. he seemed to be everywhere. he just looked like a nice guy. i knew michael keaton and david letterman were associated with one of MTM's short lived shows, but i did not realize that keaton appeared on both of them. ron leibman was well cast as KAZ. he was a little more rough around the edges than most stars in a leading role on a 70's series. i guess the haircut helped a lot. it really seems like kaz stayed around for much longer than it did. my mom always siad that jospeh cotten and gregory peck were her two favorite actors and that jack palance was her favorite bad guy actor. then one night while we were watching kaz she announced he's my favorite actor in reference to patrick o'neal! i was shocked, stunned. i don't know what brought that on, but later she went back to cotten, peck and jack palance. when i was in 11th grade on a monday i think it was, a freshman was over heard telling another freshman that last night he watched kaz and everyone laughed. i never watched co-ed fever, brothers and sisters. i did briefly tune into delta house though. at the time doing a water-down tv version of a r-rated movie usually didn't turn out so very well. i do recall watching the bad news bears tv series though. i really liked BILLY a lot. i used towatch it until they chnaged nights and then it got cancelled. by 78/79 i had generally gone back to watching more cbs than abc. i loved the paper chase and had quit watching happy days by then. it was later revived on pbs years later with new episodes. i never got to see though however. 26th is really good for 13 queen street. i wonder why it was cancelled. i do not recall that series at all. i could never buy david cassidy as a tough guy and never watched man undercover. cliffhangers and supertrain i watched some. i saw every episode of time express. i think if given a chance it wcould have been a regular series. i read about it tv guide probably 6 months before it started airing. i was excited because vincent price was going to be doing a tv series. i told my firends and no one believed me. aafter the series premiered they still didn't believe me as they had no idea it was actually airing. i really liked alex cord, but i could not get through WEB's first episode. a woman was getting out of a car and asked cord when will i see you again. cord replied when i see you again. lol that is all i remember from that partial episode i watched. i really liked lucan, but it seemed just to be floating all over abc's schedule. it was difficult to find. i had to pay strict attention to the tv guide. i read about waverly wonders in the tv guide. anothe rof my friends did as well. he said no one is going to buy joe namath as a basketball coach, why didn't they make him a fdootball coach? it sems like larry breeding was on another short lived series around this time besides the last resort. i really liked the last resort. it came on after wkrp. later breeding would date penny marshall and land a recurring role on laverne and shirley before his untimely passing.i tried watching making it, but i knew it was just generic sat. night fever. i watched the pilot or rather part of it to sword of justice. it was boring and dack rambo was just too much of a pretty boy to pull off the atcion scenes. i knew it was stunemen doing all of the work. i watched flying high a little, but it didn't hang around long enough for me to make it a habit. some of my friends actually watched eddie capra mysteries. it was dropped before i could catch it. in 1980 there was a short lived series i loved called the secrets of midland heights. i tried to get others to weatch it, but when they did they reported they did not like it. later after it was cancelled much of then cast returned for another night time soap on a different network. it sems like dick clark had two short lived series with live entertainment around this time. i remember watching one one night when chuck berry accidentally hit Doc Severinsen in the mouth with his guitar . here's a clip of it. it sure seemed like it was a lot more obvious in my memory. the next week dick clark addressed the issue as chuck just getting in to it while playing : kzfaq.info/get/bejne/rcl9hcyCnZPWaXk.html

Dude Dave letterman was on the Mary show!!! I THOUGHT that was him!

I wonder how many little girls were forever traumatized when the batteries died in their "Baby Heartbeat" doll. 😂

Mary Tyler Moore's variety series featured David Letterman, who had also been on "The Starland Vocal Band".

Married: The First Year: David Jacobs left Dallas after the first season to develop this series--up against Eight Is Enough from the same producers, and annihilated in the ratings. Fortunately, his next series was Knots Landing.

No money, no bills, no problems. Just school.😁😁😁

I remember having a crush on Kathryn Witt from "Flying High." Probably the only reason I can recall that show.

Awww, I used to watch Friends! Loved that show and my friends and I would talk about it the next morning at school in 4th grade. Still remember the little league episode. The theme to Married sounds like Grant Goodeve sang it. But since it went up against Eight Is Enough, I highly doubt it.

Vincent Price was a gourmet cook.

I was 15 when Billy aired. My friends and I loved it. I remember fondly of Billy daydreaming about being Don Adams' booking agent and Billy's dad becoming The Hulk (Lou Ferrigno). I would love to see them again. 2 of my other favorite series that were short-lived are out on Bluray, Kolchak: The Night Stalker and Police Squad. So maybe some day.

Wow... hard to believe that this was once TV!😳

Oh wow ! Lucan !! The Wolf Cub !!

The one thing we need to remember about a lot of these shows is this was the late 70s early 80s when we only had three networks and they threw everything at the wall and it’s some of it stuck. It was OK if not oh well. Some of these were midseason and or replacement shows for when others went on hiatus. I wonder how many remember when that happened also like the movie of the week or something you remember that buildup to it starting like the end of the month before it aired, and then generally up until the day of how the commercials for it changed

During the 1978-79 television season I can remember our family watching one episode of "Supertrain" and when the episode ended, my Dad said, "Never again!" We also watched "In the Beginning," "Makin' It," and "Who's Watching the Kids?" My brother and I watched "Delta House" and "Apple Pie," while my parents watched "Kaz." Thanks again for the wonderful memories!

11:10 Flatbush theme performed by Tavares!

Watched a few episodes of "David Cassidy - Man Undercover" 32:45 on KZfaq a few years ago, and I can safely say that the show was the most laugh-out-loud unintentionally funny detective series ever. I mean, we're talking "The Naked Gun" level of comedy at times, while trying to be a serious dramatic detective show. If the series is still posted on KZfaq, I strongly recommend looking it up and watching a few episodes. Especially episode-4, now there was some real comedy gold.

The American Girls tried to be CBS' answer to Charlie's Angels. It went against The Love Boat and sunk like The Titanic.

Hanging In had one of the strangest and most involved histories in all of television. In early 1978, with Maude drawing very poor ratings, the producers decided to retool it by having Maude run for and win a vacant Congessional seat. The three-part season finale depicted the election and Maude's first d may in office, with three new cast members playing her staff. But Beatrice Arthur decided not to return for a new season. The producers then created a new series about a black freshman Congressman, and filmed a pilot starring John Amos of Good Times. Amos quarreled with the producers and left. Cleavon Little was then signed and a third pilot, Mr. Dugan, got made. CBS picked it up and began taping episodes--but decided at the last moment to pre-screen them for real-life black Congressmen. They reacted in fury at the stereotypes, and the producers self-canceled the show and refunded CBS an estimated $1.2 million spent on the completed episodes. To get some of the money back, they then reshot four episodes with some script changes to set them in a college (now with Maude's Bill Macy as star). These ran in August 1979 as a companion series to Dorothy. CBS did not try again.

From these shows, intuitively, I got a better sense of the actors intellect and work ethic. Likewise, how hard it is to make it in show business. Compared to established shows like Fantasy Island, Mork & Mindy, Love Boat and others.

In the Cliffhangers series, The Secret Empire was a warmed-over version of an old Gene Autry serial in which Gene and his Melody Ranch gang travel to the subterranean kingdom of Murania and run afoul of a beer-bellied knockoff of Ming the Merciless from Flash Gordon. That Gene Autry serial is chock full of unintentional comedy, a real laugh riot.

very cool , thanks Robert'sRetroRewind

LOL at 11:50 I thought that guy was Simon Heldberg, Howard Wolowitz but in 1978, turns out its the actors father.

Mary Tyler Moore's unsuccessful variety show originated from Television City, where Carol Burnett's series had been taped. Carol's show had completed its 11-year run the season before.

The American Girls' music composer, Jerrold Immel, also composed the theme for Dallas.

How Waverly Wonders lasted three seconds, let alone three episodes needs to be investigated someday.

My family was so poor, we ate Helper Helper BAH-DOOM-BOOM!!

21:00 a train with a Disco, doctor & gym...sign me up

It's safe to say makin' it didn't make it even though he was a pepper. As long as I'm pointing out the obvious, I guess no one was watching the kids.

20:35 Supertrain. The theme music was reused and recycled into the 1980 NBC game show Chain Reaction hosted by Bill Cullen

W.E.B. was the first cancellation of the 1978-79 season. That's Pamela Bellwood (later Claudia on Dynasty) in the opening credits.

How did Fred Silverman’s golden touch turn to rust at NBC?

Creating a show so bad Mary Tyler Moore, Michael Keaton, David Letterman, and James Hampton can't save it is kind of impressive.

I actually remember seeing Friends on Sunday nights as a kid in the late 70s...and PLEASE don't ask me about Ross, Rachel, Ugly Naked Guy or Central Perk...🙄

Hey. Hope all is well with you. Looking forward to your next video. It has been awhile.

This late-70s series had a theme song and opening that screamed "DISCO-ERA." *buzzer* What is Supertrain? I also love how the logo looked like a 70s NBA team logo.

Another amazing collection of shows another excellent effort Rob putting this together. Kaz was an excellent series with Ron liebman who won an emmy for his performance should of got a longer run . Mary with David Letterman and Michael Keaton . Letterman enjoyed making fun of this show every time Keaton or Mary appeared on late night. Another McLean Stevenson flop ,Billy with Steve Gutenberg and Apple pie with Rue McClannahan and Dabney Coleman who said in an interview this show was a disaster and Co - Ed fever looked an interesting misfire.

This is the year they tried to make a show about life in college and none of the shows last at all. I was one of the people who loved "Turnabout".

This is very detailed and well assembled. Question for you or anyone that might know - some of these shows appeared to rate higher than competing programs. If that's the case, why were they canceled?

Those were some dark years when NBC changed the logo.

When tv was clean no violence, unnecessary violence when everything was clean and pure entertaining I miss those days

I would watch any of these classic TV shows over any of the junk on TV these days, including the commercials too, in 78 I was only 16 yrs old too...

CBS premiered Co-Ed Fever as a special on February 4, 1979, filling the last half hour of a Sunday night following the broadcast premiere of Rocky. So Co-Ed Fever got great ratings (a 38 percent share of TVs tuned in), but CBS saw disaster coming and axed it at once, putting the short-lived Flatbush in its place. This was Heather Thomas's first series (The Fall Guy was two years later); Jane Rose's last (she died a few months later).

I remember both those Mary Tyler Moore bombs---nobody wanted to see our Mare dressed as a hobo or pretending she was Shirley MacLaine. Thank God she got "Ordinary People" and spared us all from a singing-dancing-high kicking MTM.

Mary Tyler Moore (or her husband) had her own production company. The sitcom had ended with everyone at the TV station getting fired. What would have been a better idea for Moore would have been to have her continue the Mary Richards character in another setting, with, maybe, some of the cast members back from "The Mary Tyler Moore Show". Of course, the other major actors had moved on, or were about to do so.

Poppies! Coffee! Something with poison, yet attractive to the eye!

So David Cassidy the actor was portraying David Cassidy the man undercover. Is that still considered acting?

this was a cool time for tv. higher budget, no CGI. and good music

In '78/79 I was 14-15 y.o. and so prime time TV was quickly getting out-prioritized by girls and clothes and maybe listening to record albums or going to the movies to "make out". TV was suddenly mostly kids stuff, or for boring old people who's lives were nearly over anyway. The easy part was having only three networks competing for a few highly-contested spots, so it was very easy to decide what was worthwhile or a waste of time. Now that you can watch anything anywhere anytime it takes a lot of the fun out of it, plus so many people just watch alone on their pathetic 6-inch handheld screen, there is virtually no social element involved. It used to be that you would go to school and before class discuss with your friends what was on TV last night. Or you'd go to the movies with your friends and all sit together and then go somewhere for pizza afterwards and talk about the movie. Nearly all of that is gone now (thanks a lot Steve Jobs) which is a terrible tragedy. Anyway the 78-79 season the only TV shows I might have watched were Welcome Back Kotter, Three's Company, Starsky & Hutch, and maybe Happy Days which was already losing it's touch by then. So it's funny and kinda sad to see these short-lived shows which were either just lame or were up against stiff competition.

California Fever was another short-lived show (1979): with Jimmy McNichol, Lorenzo lamas and Marc McClure

Oh wow. Born in 71 , this is the only reason I have the KZfaq app! Poor Maclean Stevenson. Left Mash because he thought he had better opportunities. I remember being a child watching Hello Larry and knew it was a bomb. And Mad magazine made sooooo much fun of that show and him specifically

I had no idea that David Letterman and Michael Keaton were on the Mary show with Mary Tyler Moore

It's easy to criticize these shows, and I'm sure some were awful, but sometimes shows just need time to find the right dynamic and find their audience. The first few episodes of Andy Griffith were terrible with Andy playing the grinning goofy character he was in "No time for Sergeants". Then he went to the straight man for Barney and it took off. "Family Ties" was supposed to center around the parents but the Michael J Fox character stole the show. Both it and the initially low-rated "Cheers" hit the big time following Cosby.

Mclean Stevenson should have stayed with MASH. Everything he tried after leaving it was a bomb.

From 79 to 80, it seemed like Dracula was everywhere! 2 Big screen movies: DRACULA (Frank Langella) and LOVE AT FIRST BITE (George Hamilton) while "The Curse of Dracula" was the only show I watched on CLIFFHANGERS! And.... WOW! Mary Tyler Moore had TWO shows bomb that season? I think she would have been better off exploring Made for T.V. films!

Susan Anton was a beautiful celebrity who couldn't find a suitable vehicle.

Some great ideas

I did laugh at the promo for The American Girls, they weren't subtle :)