Programs Bite Dust Quickly Networks Jettisoned Shows Much The Same A Quarter-Century Ago

“Charlie Grace” has investigated his last case. “Courthouse” has been closed. “The Preston Episodes” have vanished.

Television shows, mostly new ones, seem to be getting the ax quicker than ever these days. Ten series already have been yanked off the air, and you can expect more to go. Has there ever been as much carnage littered across the network landscape?

Yes, there has. It happens every year.

There is a belief that today’s network officials are too quick to pull a show off the air and that in the “old days” they were much more likely to stick with a struggling series. Turns out that’s strictly a myth.

Check out network television 25 years ago. Pretty much the same thing was going on then.

You had your perennial favorites as you do now. Popular dramas included “Marcus Welby,” “Ironside,” “Hawaii Five-O,” “Medical Center” and “Mannix” and Westerns such as “Gunsmoke” and “Bonanza.” Variety shows starring such folks as Carol Burnett, Dean Martin and Jim Nabors were in.

Comedy was supplied by Flip Wilson and Rowan & Martin. “My Three Sons,” “Here’s Lucy” and “The Brady Bunch” were among the sitcoms offered. But there were just as many flops.

At the time, America was in the midst of what many thought was a new revolution. College kids and the under-30 crowd were protesting just about everything connected with the establishment. Social issues were uppermost on their minds, but so, too, were smoking pot and “making love, not war.”

Naturally, the networks wanted to connect with the younger audience (sound familiar?) and scheduled a batch of new shows they called “relevant.” Such series were packed with idealistic young people who gave up a life of luxury to concentrate on saving the downtrodden.

The silliest was “The Young Rebels,” which answered the question, “What would happen if the youth of 1970 could have fought in the Revolutionary War?” The series involved four young and idealistic people who had formed the Yankee Doodle Society and did everything they could to thwart the British effort. The setting was 1776, but the show’s mindset was very much 1970.

Then there was “The Young Lawyers,” in which Lee J. Cobb presided over a group of young and, yes, idealistic, attorneys at a Boston firm. They were always willing to give free counsel to those who could not afford it. That happened every week, and you began to wonder how the lawyers survived without taking fees.

“The Young Lawyers” is not to be confused with “Storefront Lawyers.” which also premiered that fall. Robert Foxworth headed up a firm of - you guessed it - young and idealistic lawyers. In this one, they helped the poor and oppressed in Los Angeles.

Most of the shows mentioned above were gone by January. One suspects that much of the young audience for which they were targeted were too stoned to tune in. Also, wasn’t network television a part of the hated establishment?

Other failed projects that year included:

“The Headmaster,” in which Andy Griffith played the head of an exclusive private school that stressed strong academic standards. The homespun Griffith seemed out of place in those Ivy-covered surroundings, and the show died in four months.

“The Most Deadly Game,” in which George Maharis, Yvette Mimieux and Ralph Bellamy were criminologists who took on only high profile cases. It lasted exactly four months.

“Nancy,” with Renee Jarrett (who?) playing the attractive young (and probably idealistic) daughter of the president of the United States. Secret Service agents were always cramping her style. By January she was gone.

“The Silent Force” had Ed Nelson, Percy Rodriguez and Lynda Day as government agents fighting organized crime. Their battle lasted 3 months.

“Dan August” had Burt Reynolds as a police detective who was assisted by Norman Fell. Few people noticed the show or Reynolds. A year or so later, he posed for Cosmopolitan and became famous.