ABC's Modern Family Has Been a 21st Century Hit

I have always been a fan of situation comedy TV shows. I think the golden age of sitcoms was in the 1980s when NBC had their “Must See TV” lineup. On Thursday nights this included: The Cosby Show, Family Ties, Cheers and Night Court. For the last several years, sitcoms have become rare for the major broadcast networks. Much of prime time is occupied by reality shows like Survivor, Big Brother or The Amazing Race, and the hour-long crime dramas such as CSI, FBI or NCIS. The reality shows are cheaper to produce since the only star to pay big bucks is the host. The crime dramas seem to follow a specific template and they lack creativity in my opinion. Some of the best sitcoms through the years have included: Seinfeld, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show, The Jeffersons, All in the Family, MASH, Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley. Recently CBS aired the final episode of Young Sheldon, which I thought was well done. That was a spin-off of The Big Bang Theory. So many spin-offs are a disappointment when compared to the original show, but I enjoyed Young Sheldon more than The Big Bang Theory. The E! network airs Modern Family each weeknight, and I feel that it was an excellent show, with a top notch cast and creative storylines. The show has been credited for reviving the sitcom format for the 21st century. This show aired on ABC for an impressive 250 episodes, from 2009 to 2020. The main structure of the show was based around three couples and their adventures. The three couples are diverse, representing a nuclear family, a blended family and a same-sex family. Ed O’Neill and Sofia Vergara played Jay Pritchett and Gloria Delgado-Pritchett. Jay is much older than Gloria, who is from Columbia. Jay owns a company that makes blinds and organizes closets. Jay’s kids are Claire and Mitchell, other key characters in the show. O’Neill is best known for his role as Al Bundy in the Fox sitcom “Married with Children” (1987-1997). Craig T. Nelson (“Coach” and “Young Sheldon”) turned down the role of Jay Pritchett. Julie Bowen and Ty Burrell played Claire and Phil Dunphy. Julie Bowen appeared in 83 episodes of the sitcom “Ed” from 2000 to 2004. Claire works for her father’s company and Phil sells real estate. Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Eric Stonestreet play Mitchell Pritchett and Cameron Tucker. They adopted a baby from Vietnam. Mitchell is a lawyer and Cameron sometimes works as a substitute teacher. Primary kids in the show were Rico Rodriguez as Manny Delgado, Sarah Hyland as Haley Dunphy, Nolan Gould as Luke Dunphy, Ariel Winter as Alex Dunphy and Aubrey Anderson-Emmons as Lily Tucker-Pritchett. Anderson-Emmons won a Screen Actors Guild Award at age 4 in 2011. That made her the youngest winner of that award. On imdb, even Stella the dog, a French Bulldog, gets a credit. Her name is Beatrice and she was in 46 episodes. The co-creator of this show was Steven Levitan. He created the show “Just Shoot Me” (1997-2003). He directed several of the “Modern Family” episodes. The other creator was Christopher Lloyd who was show runner/writer for “Frasier.” The 6 main cast members appeared in all 250 episodes, which is unusual for a show with an ensemble cast. This show has won 22 Emmy Awards over its 11 seasons. Ed O’Neill knew the show would be a winner from the beginning. He felt it would be on for 10 seasons after reading the first script. At first, he was hesitant about signing on to do the show. Creators Levitan and Lloyd set out to create a relationship-driven and heart-warming show so that families could watch together. The show had some similarities to “Cheers” and “Frasier” since it would make viewers laugh and cry. The cast was allowed to improvise to a degree. The casting director saw over 1400 actors for the 10 main characters. The show was designed to be enjoyed by the whole family, so the writers wanted to avoid any racy storylines. Often times, someone in the show will break the fourth wall and look into the camera. Recurring characters were played by Fred Willard, Nathan Lane, Adam DeVine, Elizabeth Banks and Nathan Fillion. “Modern Family” is a mockumentary type of show, similar to “The Office” and “Parks and Recreation.” CBS and NBC turned down the show. The show’s average number of viewers ranged from 6 million to almost 13 million. In the 2010-11 season, “Modern Family” was the #1 scripted show in the 18-49 demographic. From the first season, the show received critical acclaim from Rotten Tomatoes, Entertainment Weekly, Time, Metacritic and others. The series has been successful in syndication in America, plus in other countries, including The United Kingdom, South Africa, Sweden, Israel, India and Canada. *Some information from imdb and Wikipedia.

It's Cavett vs. Carson Once Again

First it was Johnny Carson returning to late night TV at the beginning of this year on Antenna TV. Now it will be Dick Cavett airing on the Decades channel. They will both air at 11:00 pm eastern, going head-to-head just like they did between 1968 and 1974. During that period, Carson was on NBC and Cavett was on ABC, with both shows originating from New York City.

In 1966, Ed Sullivan announced stand-up comedian Dick Cavett as "A young collegian from Yale". He had worked as a comedy writer for Tonight Show hosts Jack Paar and Johnny Carson. He also was a writer for the short-lived Jerry Lewis variety show in the 1960s. Writing for others was paying the bills, but Cavett wanted to try to be a late night host where he could perform his own jokes for a nationwide audience.

Cavett has hosted many shows in various time slots for various networks including ABC, CBS, PBS, USA, CNBC and TCM. These rebroadcasts will span the array of Cavett shows that aired between 1968 and 1996. He is a cerebral guy who is good friends with Woody Allen. The two of them share a similar comedic style. You could say that Dick Cavett is a "thinking person's" host.

The show begins airing on Decades on February 1. People already need to choose between Fallon, Kimmel and Colbert, and soon we will be able to add Carson and Cavett to the options. Find the Decades affiliate in your area here.

* Some information from http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-cavett-carson-tv-0120-biz-20160119-story.html and
http://rwkates2001.wix.com/late-night-tv#!dick-cavett/cs11

TV History Profile: Fred Silverman

TV executive Fred Silverman worked for all of the major broadcast networks in the 1970s and made his mark on the history of television.

As the head of the programming department at CBS, in 1971 he called for the purge of all of the rural shows. These included Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, Hee Haw and Mayberry RFD. He was behind many spin-off shows such as Maude and The Jeffersons, which were based on characters from All in the Family.

At ABC, Silverman developed The Love Boat, Eight is Enough, Three's Company, Fantasy Island and the groundbreaking miniseries, Roots, based on the Alex Haley novel.

In 1978 he became the president of NBC. He discovered the talents of David Letterman and gave him his own morning show in 1980. The show was critically acclaimed and won an Emmy. But the ratings were poor and the morning was not a good time slot for Dave's quirky humor. In 1982, Letterman moved his show to 12:35 am, following Johnny Carson. he hosted his Late Night show until 1993, when he left for CBS. Silverman was not a fan of Tom Snyder's Tomorrow show, which followed Carson for many years. Silverman and Carson had a rocky relationship, and at one point, Johnny came close to leaving the network. Fred wanted the original host of the Tonight Show to return to the network. His desire was to have Steve Allen follow Johnny Carson's show, but that never happened. At NBC, Silverman developed memorable sitcoms such as Diff'rent Strokes, The Facts of Life and Gimme a Break. He had some failures at the peacock network as well, with the development of flops like Hello Larry, The Big Show, Pink Lady and Jeff, and Supertrain. He was also in charge during the period where Lorne Michaels left as the executive producer of Saturday Night Live.

Click here for an interview with Fred Silverman as he looks back on the accomplishments during his career.

* Information from en.wikipedia.org and carsonpodcast.com.

Live from New York it's...Howard Cosell?

I was listening to Billy Crystal's book on tape called "Still Foolin' 'Em" and he mentioned that he had worked on a show called Saturday Night Live. We know he worked on the NBC sketch comedy show that started in the 1970s with legendary comics like John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. Crystal was known for playing Fernando Lamas ("You look mahvelous") and Sammy Davis Jr. But, he was not referring to that show. He was talking about an ABC variety show hosted by sportscaster Howard Cosell. Maybe the creators of the show figured that Cosell's popularity as a sportscaster could transfer to success as a variety show host. This show only lasted 18 episodes from September of 1975 to January of 1976. It aired from 8 pm to 9 pm and it had a cast of comics that included Bill Murray, his brother Brian Doyle-Murray and Christopher Guest. They were called the "primetime players". The show was ripped apart by critics. TV Guide called it one of the worst shows of all time. The first episode had some strong guests including Frank Sinatra, Paul Anka and John Denver. It originated from New York's Ed Sullivan Theatre at 53rd and Broadway, which would later become the home of Late Show with David Letterman in 1993.

In 1977, after the departure of Cosell's show, the NBC sketch show changed its name to Saturday Night Live from simply Saturday Night. Now we know the meaning of the SNL cast being called the "not ready for primetime players". I had wondered why the say "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night".


Read more abut this show here.

ABC Hits all the Right Notes with Nashville

ABC's prime time drama Nashville is now in its second season. Fans of country music especially should check this out. Lots of great music and good story lines make it an entertaining show. It stars Connie Britton (Friday Night Lights) as the veteran country superstar Rayna James. Hayden Panittiere, best known for her role in NBC's Heroes, plays Juliette Barnes, the young rival of Rayna James. Rayna finds she needs to ally with Juliette to revive her fading career. Other prominent characters are Clare Bowen as Scarlett O'Connor, Eric Close as Teddy Conrad and Charles Esten as Deacon Clayborne. The show is really shot in Nashville, Music City USA. It gives the viewer a look at what it is like to try and make it in the country music industry. There is plenty of backstabbing, drama, alcohol/drug abuse, political wheeling-and-dealing, and fine music too. ABC has followed the cue of the Fox program Glee, in that they make their original music from the show available for purchase. It only makes sense to have a second revenue stream. Social media is a part of their promotion strategy, and the #Nashville hashtag can be seen in the lower left corner of the screen throughout the episodes.

Watch full episodes and clips from the show here.

Preview and purchase music from the show here.

Information from imdb.

New Website, "Late Night TV"

I made a website that looks at the history of late night TV in America. It profiles 20 late night TV hosts. Some had shows that were short-lived, like Magic Johnson, Chevy Chase and Pat Sajak. Others have been around for years, like Johnny Carson and David Letterman. 5 pages are dedicated to the man who will forever be the king of late night, Johnny Carson. The site has about 120 pictures, you tube videos and information about the different shows. Click here to access the site.

The Late Night TV Wars Heat Up

ABC has had the news program Nightline at 11:35pm for many years. Jimmy Kimmel has his ABC show at 12:05am. It is a good show, but he has never gone head-to-head with Leno and Letterman, instead starting 30 minutes after them. Starting in January of 2013, Nightline will move to 12:35am and Kimmel will start at 11:35pm. So, we'll see how it affects the late night TV landscape with the 3 major networks all starting their late night comedy shows at the same time. NBC has recently cut staff at Jay Leno's show and Leno took a pay cut himself. Since Comcast purchased NBC/Universal they have cut costs to increase profits. Starting in March of next year Nightline will move to primetime. Kimmel has a good chance to get more viewers since Nightline averages 3.89 million viewers and Kimmel currently averages 1.8 million. Leno leads in ratings, averaging 3.71 million and Letterman averages 3.22 million. It always seemed like the audience for Nightline and Jimmy Kimmel would be different. The ratings for Kimmel will depend on the ratings for the local 11pm news on local affiliates I would think.

Source: http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-08-22/kimmel-moving-into-thick-of-late-night-fight

History of Late Night TV

With all of the recent changes in late night TV, I decided to find out a bit about the predecessors to today's late night hosts. Different networks have tried to establish late night franchises, and some have had more success than others. I will look at the different personalities which have contributed to the genre. The above pictures show some of the greats in late night TV. From top: the original host of The Tonight Show, Steve Allen. The next picture shows Tom Snyder who hosted The Tomorrow Show and The Late Late Show. The third picture shows Johnny Carson doing his "Carnac" bit. The bottom picture shows from left to right; Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel, David Letterman and Conan O'Brien.

The network that has been the most successful in establishing a late night audience has been NBC. Saturday Night Live has aired from 11:30 pm to 1:00 am on NBC since 1975. The Tonight Show is the third longest running TV show in history, only eclipsed by Guiding Light and the Hallmark Hall of Fame. When the show started in 1954 it was 90 minutes in length, airing from 11:30 pm until 1:00 am. Its first host was Steve Allen, and he did the show from 1954 to 1957. His original announcer was Gene Rayburn, who later spent many years hosting The Match Game. Allen was known for his man on the street bits and David Letterman has cited him as an influence. The next host of the show was Jack Paar, from 1957 to 1962. His announcer was Hugh Downs, who later worked for ABC for many years as host of 20/20 with Barbara Walters. In 1960, Paar's show became one of the first programs to air in color. He left the show after becoming frustrated with the network for censoring his material. The next host would change late night TV forever and become one of the most beloved icons in entertainment history. Johnny Carson hosted the show from 1962 to 1992 and he got his start entertaining people as a magician in his home state of Nebraska. In 1970, The Tonight Show moved its operations from New York City to Burbank, California. Johnny's show had announcer/sidekick Ed McMahon as a significant aspect of the show as well as fantastic big band jazz music from trumpeter Doc Severinsen and the Tonight Show Orchestra. When Johnny retired in 1992, Jay Leno took over and hosted until 2009. It has been reported that Carson wanted Letterman to take over but NBC wanted Leno, who was seen as more of a safe bet and he was not known as an edgy, trouble maker like Letterman. Carson wrote some jokes for Letterman, and this was acknowledged by Dave after Carson's death. Letterman sometimes does a "Stump the Band" bit on his show, preceded by music leader Paul Shaffer doing an homage to Carson's Carnac character. To have the right to do these, Letterman must have received clearance from Carson, which is more proof that Carson favored Letterman over Leno. When Jay Leno took over the show he fired Carson's entire staff and did not acknowledge Johnny on his first episode. The animosity between Letterman and Leno exists to this day. In June, 2009, Conan O'Brien took over for Leno as the 5th host of The Tonight Show.

NBC decided they wanted to add another late night show to air after Johnny Carson, so in 1973, Tom Snyder started hosting The Tomorrow Show and this lasted until 1982. From 1982 to 1993, David Letterman took over the 12:35 am time slot with his show Late Night. His band was led by Paul Shaffer, who had previously worked on Saturday Night Live. After being denied the job hosting The Tonight Show, Letterman was fed up with NBC and his show was taken over by Conan O'Brien. Conan was known as a writer, not a performer and he got off to a shaky start. He had been a writer for The Simpsons and Saturday Night Live, and he is a Harvard graduate. Conan hosted the Late Night show from 1993 to 2009, before leaving to host The Tonight Show. Conan's announcer on the 12:35 am show was Joel Goddard. His band on the 12:35 am show and on the 11:35 pm show is led by Bruce Springsteen drummer, Max Weinberg. His sidekick on the 12:35 am show for many years was Andy Richter, who left to pursue TV and film opportunities. He will be back with Conan as sidekick/announcer on the 11:35 pm show. Former Saturday Night Live cast member Jimmy Fallon took over for Conan in 2009.

NBC decided to add another show after the 12:35 am show, when the interview show Later started in 1988. This aired from 1:35 am to 2:05 am and was hosted by Bob Costas until 1994. This was a change of pace for late night TV since this was a show with one guest, no house band, and no studio audience. From 1994 to 1996 it was hosted by Greg Kinnear, who had hosted Talk Soup on the E! network. Kinnear left to focus on his film career and from 1996 to 1998 the show rotated various hosts. Cynthia Garrett hosted from 1998 to 2000. For the next 2 years this time slot was filled with SCTV reruns, a sketch comedy show which featured Martin Short and John Candy. From 2002 to the present, the show in this time slot has been Last Call with Carson Daly, who previously hosted TRL on MTV.

CBS got into the late night talk show game in 1993 when David Letterman left NBC, and his show was called The Late Show with David Letterman. Letterman wanted an 11:35 pm show, and since he did not get The Tonight Show, he figured that at least at CBS he could go head to head with Leno. Many staff memebers have worked with Letterman since the days at NBC, including musicians Paul Shaffer, Sid McGinnis, Will Lee, Anton Fig, stage manager Biff Henderson and producers Maria Pope, Jude Brennan and Barbara Gaines. Letterman's announcer for many years was Bill Wendell and the current announcer is Alan Kalter.

From 1995 to 1999, the 12:35 am slot on CBS was filled by Tom Snyder who hosted The Late Late Show. Former host of Comedy Central's The Daily Show, Craig Kilborn took over for Snyder, and he did the show until 2004. From 2004 to the present the show has been hosted by former cast member from The Drew Carey show, Scottish comedian Craig Ferguson. The show has been produced by Letterman's company, Worldwide Pants, since the beginning. This company also produced the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond.

ABC has dabbled on an off in late night and from 1967 to 1969 a late night show was hosted by rat pack member Joey Bishop. His sidekick was a then little known Regis Philbin. Nightline has been on ABC for many years at 11:35 pm, but this is a news show, not a typical late night talk show. In 2003 Jimmy Kimmel started hosting his own talk show after Nightline, at 12:05 am and his show has become the longest running ABC late night talk show since Dick Cavett hosted from 1969 to 1975.

In the early days of the Fox network, Joan Rivers had a late night show, but it only lated a year, starting in 1986. The sketch comedy show Mad TV aired on Fox from 1995 to 2009 from 11 pm to 12 am Saturday nights. Former Seinfeld writer Spike Feresten had a show on Fox called Talk Show with Spike Feresten. This aired from 2006 to 2009 on Saturdays. Fox has cancelled Talk Show and Mad TV.

Many other have tried to helm late night talk shows, some more successfully than others. Arsenio Hall had a late night syndicated show from 1989 to 1994. Chevy Chase did not fare as well since his late night outing only lasted 6 weeks in 1993. Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak had a show from 1989 to 1990. NBA legend Magic Johnson did not have much luck with his late night show, lasting only 3 months in 1998.

In the fall of 2009, NBC will try a new experiment when they move Jay Leno to have a show from 10 pm to 11 pm weeknights. The struggling network saw it as a way to hang on to Leno, as well as a way to cut costs since the one hour dramas that typically air in the 10 pm hour are expensive to produce. We will have to see how this affects the ratings for NBC affiliates' 11 pm newscasts as well as how many viewers stick around to watch Conan at 11:35 pm.

* Some information from en.wikipedia.org