One little-known adage in the world of TV sitcoms is “when the networks hand you lemons, there’s always first-run syndication.” Occasionally, when a series fails to land a place on the network schedule, there is someone on the production staff who believes in the project enough (or who has a well-placed relative at a UHF station) that it finds a home in first-run syndication. Here are six examples.

1. She’s the Sheriff

She’s the Sheriff (1987-89) was a major slice of humble pie for Suzanne Somers. After spending several years on magazine covers and posters as a result of her success on Three’s Company, she found herself almost blacklisted after a salary dispute. Not only was she shown the door, the Three’s Company legal team also invoked a “cease and desist” order that essentially prevented Somers from accepting any roles that even remotely resembled Chrissy Snow. The major networks were reluctant to get involved in a potentially sticky situation, and the series offers that had been flooding her manager’s office were quietly rescinded. Desperate for work, Somers signed on for She’s the Sheriff, in which her character inherits Lakes County, Nevada’s most important law enforcement position after the death of her husband.

2. Small Wonder

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Here’s a TV-Holic tribute to some familiar faces who served their country. Happy Veterans Day to all our men and women in uniform, then and now!

1. Bill Cosby

Cosby Show fans will see a lot of Dr. Heathcliff Huxtable in Bill Cosby’s biography. In 1956, Cosby dropped out of high school and joined the Navy. While he trained as a medical corpsman, he also earned his high school diploma via a correspondence course. He was assigned for a time at Bethesda Naval Hospital, helping rehabilitate wounded Korean War veterans. He also excelled in basketball and track, and toured nationally with the Navy teams. When he left the Navy, it was with a scholarship to Temple University in hand.

2. James Doohan

James Doohan, Star Trek’s Scotty, was just 19 years old when he enlisted as a gunner in the Royal Canadian Artillery. He studied diligently and had worked his way up to the rank of Command Post Officer by the time he was sent to Normandy as part of the D-Day invasion. (more…)

My addiction to television started very early and my parents were enablers, even though that term hadn’t been coined at the time. Mom tells me that I regularly refused my strained carrots unless she placed my high chair in front of the TV and tuned it to Channel 7 for Lunch with Soupy. The antics of White Fang, Black Tooth, and Pookie, not to mention the constant pies in the face, so mesmerized me that I ate anything Mom shoveled my way. Sadly, Sales (who’d been ill for several years) has left us, but here are a few Soupy facts that will hopefully invoke some warm memories for all you good little birdbaths:

From Milt to Soup

He was born Milton Supman to parents who had a habit of bestowing nicknames on their offspring. (more…)

You are about to enter a dimension of sight and sound…of a column requested by a reader. That’s a signpost up ahead – next stop, TV-Holic’s look at The Twilight Zone.

1. The Truth about the Theme Song

Much like the “dum-de-DUM-dum” Dragnet theme, the opening notes of The Twilight Zone theme song have become a pop culture icon. Any time something frightening or inexplicable is mentioned in conversation, odds are someone will intone the iconic four repetitive notes composed by Marius Constant. The French avant-garde composer was never commissioned to write the theme song; it was instead cobbled together from two different short “cues” he had previously written for CBS. “Etrange 3 (Strange No. 3)” and “Milieu 2 (Middle No. 2)” were two different short pieces Constant had written and recorded for the CBS music library in 1959 with a small ensemble featuring two guitars, bongo drums, a saxophone and French horns. When The Twilight Zone was picked up for a second season, the show’s producers were looking to replace the original Bernard Hermann theme, which CBS execs had described as “too down.” By splicing together the two rarely-heard short pieces composed by Constant which were already owned by CBS, the network managed to create a theme song legend without having to pay a truckload of royalty fees.

2. Rod Serling Was a Boxer, a Paratrooper and a Peabody Winner (all before the show!)

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The Brady Bunch debuted 40 years ago this week. To celebrate, we’re re-running Kara’s excellent story about the series, which was originally posted last year.

Here’s the story of how a show started as a typical formulaic sitcom, but grew into a syndicated monster. From the time Greg Brady got high to the reason Cindy Brady started balding, here’s a quick rundown of all things Brady you probably didn’t know.

1. In Real Life, Jan Gave Marcia the Complex

Maureen McCormick played Marcia, the eldest Brady daughter, and the object of lust of many a teenaged boy during the tenure of The Brady Bunch. What the public didn’t know, however, was that “Mo” always felt inferior to Eve Plumb, who played middle sister Jan. Eve had longer, blonder, more luxurious hair. Eve developed curves before Maureen did (and took pleasure in flaunting her blossoming physique by going braless under her tight-fitting tops in later seasons). The very slender Mo also felt that she had a bit of a tummy “pooch” and during the time the entire cast was en route to Hawaii for an exciting “on location” three-part episode, all she could think about was her horror at having to appear on camera in a bikini. Watch those Hawaii episodes when they rerun and you’ll see that Maureen always manages to hold a beach towel or robe in front of her lower torso in any bathing suit scenes.

2. Barbershop of Horrors: Why Cindy Started Balding

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Dana Delany as Carrie Bradshaw? Cosmo Kramer as Monk? Here’s a look at 11 actors who passed on some of TV’s most popular shows.

1. Bridget Fonda as Ally McBeal

Calista Flockhart wasn’t David E. Kelley’s first choice for the lead on his series Ally McBeal; he originally offered the role to Bridget Fonda. Fonda decided to stick with films and turned him down. There were no hard feelings, though, as Kelley kept her in mind two years later when he was casting the comedy/horror flick Lake Placid.

2. Michael Richards as Adrian Monk

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Henry Gibson passed away last Monday at age 73. Current television viewers probably remember him from his role as Judge Clarence Brown on Boston Legal, but Baby Boomers will always picture him holding a large flower and reciting poetry on Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In.

Laugh-In was a rapid-fire sketch comedy show that was “must see TV” long before the phrase had been coined. The idle chit-chat around the water cooler in the late 1960s was always peppered with catchphrases made popular by the show, such as “look that up in your Funk and Wagnalls” and “you bet your sweet bippy.” To appear on Laugh-In increased a person’s coolness quotient exponentially, which provided the show with an impressive albeit eclectic pool of special guest stars. Johnny Carson, Bing Crosby, John Wayne, Cher, Harry Belafonte, Wilt Chamberlain and Richard Nixon are just a few of the famous folks who uttered “sock it to me” or got smacked with a rubber chicken. Even if you were born long after Laugh-In was defunct, you probably recognize some of its regulars, perhaps from frequent appearances on The Love Boat or possibly from Academy Award-winning films: (more…)

Cheers finished a lowly 77th in the ratings after its first season in 1982-83, performing poorly against Simon & Simon and Too Close for Comfort in its 9 p.m. Thursday time slot. Both Paramount and NBC believed in the show, however, and their tenacity certainly paid off. Cheers ended after 11 seasons, but only because Ted Danson decided to call it quits.

1. Why Sam Malone was originally a football player

The final two actors in contention for the role of ex-jock-turned-bar-owner Sam Malone were Fred Dryer and Ted Danson. The show’s original concept called for Sam to be a retired football player, and Dryer seemed perfect since he had spent 13 years as a defensive end in the NFL. But while Fred was new to acting, Ted had accumulated a handful of TV and film roles in the late 1970s and early 1980s. When Danson won the role, the back story was changed to make the character a former relief pitcher to better match Danson’s physique. Ted later revealed that he’d spent two weeks attending a bartending school in Burbank to prepare for his audition, only to find that (like most bartenders) most of his mixology was performed below sight level of the bar, out of camera range.

DID YOU KNOW? Fred Dryer appeared on a few Cheers episodes as TV sportsman Dave Richards. In real life, Dryer tried his hand at sportscasting after leaving the NFL, but decided he wasn’t cut out for it. Although he missed out with Cheers, Fred embarked on his own long-running TV series a couple years later: Hunter.

2. The Secret Behind the Crack in the Bar

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The airline industry has undergone several upheavals and gut-punches in the past two decades. There was the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, the Air Traffic Controllers’ strike of 1981, and the tragic events of September 11, 2001, to name just a few. But once upon a time airlines competed for customers not by price, but by services offered. Of course, throughout the 1970s, airlines earned the bulk of their revenue from business travelers (who were overwhelmingly male at that time), rather than families. Which probably explains airline why TV commercials of that era portrayed air travel as something of a Bunny Club in the sky…

1. First Class Toga Parties

For those who wondered what debauchery went on beyond that First Class curtain, Southern Airways laid the truth bare. Toga-clad stewardesses (they wouldn’t become “flight attendants” for another decade or so) peeled grapes and served champagne and cracked crab for that select group.

2. Fly Maggie

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Anthony Martignetti was nine years old when his family emigrated from Italy to the United States in 1966. They settled in Massachusetts, in a predominantly Italian neighborhood in Boston’s North End. It was there, three years later, that Anthony was hanging out with some friends when the group was approached by a pair of men who obviously didn’t live in the area. (more…)