THE FRIDAY FIVE: Top 5 TV News Stories of the Week Ending 10/29/21

Here's a look at the Top 5 TV news stories of the week!

#1 - "SUCCESSION" RENEWED FOR SEASON 4

It was news that surprised no one but it was still news this week that FOX renewed Succession for a fourth season. The series, which has finally returned to the air after being off since Fall 2019, received a ton of buzz from critics and fans ahead of its October 17 season premiere. The 2020 Emmy winner for Outstanding Drama Series is considered a frontrunner again for the current season. It's rumored that this series won't go past five seasons but it's for sure going to get four. The third season has been great so far, at least the two episodes I have seen so far. I'm excited to continue watching Season 3 and then Season 4, which will hopefully not be another two years!

EPISODE GUIDES: Get Smart Season Four (Part 2)

On Thursdays, I take a detailed and critical look at a TV show. This year, I will be splitting full seasons into two posts so today I am looking at the first half of Season 4 of Get Smart! Here's a look at Part 1!

100. One Nation Invisible (12/28/68)
Max is assigned to protect a beautiful scientist who invented an invisibility spray. He has to use the spray to get KAOS documents and also answer to 99.

Similar to the "The Farkas Fracas," this episode does a nice job of blending the spy plot with Max and 99's newly married bliss though this one leans heavier on the spy side of things. Don Adams does a great job in this episode dealing with carrying the passed out and invisible scientist. It's a difficult bit of physical comedy that he manages well. He's also really funny in the scene when he thinks he is invisible. I think Barbara Feldon is not always a great actress especially when she's in distress, or in the case of this episode, angry/upset at Max. But she's not distractingly bad. This is still a pretty good episode even with a somewhat ridiculous premise.
RATING: 8/10

101. Hurray for Hollywood (1/4/69)

Max and 99 join go undercover in a theater group when they learn KAOS is using it to pass on information to members posing as agents in the audience.

This episode, directed by Don Adams, has a lot of potential and some very comedic moments. But ultimately it doesn't put everything together to make a great episode. It's a clever plot at times with the idea of Max and 99 infiltrating a theatre troupe. However they spend far too much time on playing up Max being a terrible actor. It seems like it goes to Adams' worst instincts as an actor and director that they play that up too much because less is more. I think this could have been a more detailed plot if they had used their time better.

RATING: 4.5/10

ONE SEASON WONDERS: The Famous Teddy Z

On Wednesdays, I take a look at a series that lasted one season or less. Here is a look at The Famous Teddy Z!

THE FAMOUS TEDDY Z

September 18, 1989 - May 12, 1990

15 episodes

CBS

Starring: Jon Cryer, Jane Sibbett, Milton Selzer, Erica Yohn, Tom La Grua, Josh Blake and Alex Rocco

Created by: Hugh Wilson

Plot: Theodore "Teddy" Zakalokis (Cryer) works in a mailroom at a Hollywood talent agency when a Marlon Brando-like Hollywood star (recurring guest Dennis Lipscomb) takes a liking to him and wants him to be his agent. This causes much chagrin with the other agents (Sibbett, Selzer, Yohn, Rocco & Blake).

Brief Pilot Review:

This pilot started with a brief direct introduction from Teddy himself explaining the story and it was sort of nice to get that much exposition out of the way in a couple seconds. Following a jazzy theme song, it jumps right into the plot instead of having to do complete exposition (though there is still plenty of that). Oddly, the pilot took place at Christmas time in the office and I'm not exactly sure why. The good news is that even though the characters were somewhat broadly drawn, they were pretty well written to leave no confusion about the role they were filling within the types of characters.

TOP 10 TUESDAY: Top 10 The Munsters & The Addams Family Characters

In honor of Halloween this weekend, my Top 10 Tuesday this week is Top 10 The Munsters/The Addams Family Characters. I'm not a big enough fan of either to do them separately but I thought it would work well to put them together!

10. UNCLE FESTER

I find Uncle Fester annoying at times which is why he barely made it onto the list. But he's still a pretty memorable character and he's played to the hilt by Jackie Coogan in the series. Pretty much anyone who's played the character since is doing a Coogan impression. Coogan had an iconic look and voice for the role and really went all the way on the character. Maybe it's too much to expect him to be a more nuanced character but I just wish he was a little less annoying.

9. GRANDMAMA

The eldest member of the Addams, Grandmama was a pretty crazy old lady. She was more of a background character in a lot of episodes but she was funny when she had the chance to shine. In most versions of The Addams Family, she is known as Granny Frump but for the TV show, she was named Grandmama so audiences wouldn't be confused with Granny from The Beverly Hillbillies. I think Grandmama is a much better name.

SCHEDULES OF THE PAST: 1991-1992 Mondays

On Mondays, I take a look at schedules from yesteryear. Here's a look at Mondays in the 1991-92 season!

ABC	8:00	8:30	9:00	10:00
Sep	MacGyver		Monday Night Football
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan	FBI: The Untold Stories	American Detective	Monday Night Movie
Feb
Mar
Apr
May

ABC started the 1991-92 season with the same Monday lineup it started with each season going back to 1986: MacGyver at 8pm and Monday Night Football at 9pm. However, MacGyver was in its seventh season and getting a little long in the tooth plus star Richard Dean Anderson expressed his desire to move on. The show had never been a huge ratings hit but had always been seen as a compatible partner for Monday Night Football. When Football ended for the season, ABC also pulled MacGyver and put it on hiatus. MacGyver did not resurface until after the season ended and it aired a few more episodes before ending its run after seven seasons and 139 episodes. Of course it stayed in the public consciousness, first with TV movies then with parodies and finally with a reboot on CBS that premiered in 2016 and was a surprisingly durable player on Friday nights. Replacing MacGyver in the 8pm Monday slot as a lead-in to the movie was the unscripted duo of FBI: The Untold Stories and American Detective, which were low-cost options that had been airing on Thursdays.

THE FRIDAY FIVE: Top 5 TV News Stories of the Week Ending 10/22/21

Here's a look at the Top 5 TV news stories of the week!

#1 - "Y: THE LAST MAN" CANCELLED AT FX

There was a surprising piece of news that broke over the weekend. FX has cancelled Y: The Last Man after one season airing on FX on Hulu. Although the show received mixed reviews and hasn't garnered much buzz, this was surprising for a couple reasons. First of all, FX rarely cancels shows after just one season, especially as they are still airing. They have historically been patient with low-rated shows. Secondly, the road to the screen for Y: The Last Man lasted over a decade so it's shocking to see it come and go so quickly after how much time was invested in the development of the series. The numbers must have been truly terrible even though FX on Hulu, like all streaming services, is vague about actual numbers. The cast options were up and that had to do with the timing but FX would have given it a second season if they had any faith at all in it. The series is being shopped to other outlets but I'd be pretty surprised if it gets picked up considering the lukewarm buzz the show had.

EPISODE GUIDES: Get Smart Season Four (Part 1)

On Thursdays, I take a detailed and critical look at a TV show. This year, I will be splitting full seasons into two posts so today I am looking at the first half of Season 4 of Get Smart!

GET SMART: SEASON FOUR
1968-1969
26 episodes

Season Four picks up right where Season Three left out and graded out exactly the same for me. It's another year of very strong episodes for the most part mixed in with some duds here and there. Most notably, the season takes a quick and serious advance in the Max and 99 relationship. While that sort of pairing can doom some shows, it actually seems provide Get Smart with a jolt of energy. The writing and performances are more consistent than they were early on in the show's run and the series continues to make great use of a wide variety of locales. Despite the improved quality in later seasons, the first two seasons were higher rated so this is the final season on NBC. It was cancelled at the end of the season and then picked up by CBS for its fifth season.

Starring
Don Adams as Maxwell Smart (26 episodes)
Barbara Feldon as Agent 99 (26 episodes)
Edward Platt as The Chief (26 episodes)

Robert Karvelas as Larabee (19 episodes)
Bernie Kopell as Siegfried (4 episodes)
King Moody as Shtarker (4 episodes)
Dick Gautier as Hymie the Robot (1 episode)

87. The Impossible Mission (9/21/68)
When Max and 99 are in trouble on a mission, 99 gets Max to agree to marry her if they can escape and then comes up with a plan when he agrees.

Season four of Get Smart kicks off in a major way with an elaborate episode that ends with Max and 99 finally getting together. The show always hinted at a potential romance between the two lead characters and even occasionally dealt with it more directly but it wasn't a constant slow burn the way it might be in more recent times (think Jim and Pam of The Office). So it feels a little bit random that all of the sudden, boom, they're engaged. But that was just the way of doing things back then. The episode is fun and has a lot of good moments even before the sweet ending. It's a strong start to the season.
RATING: 8.5/10

88. Snoopy Smart vs. the Red Baron (9/28/68)
Max and 99 go to Idaho to investigate a KAOS plot to destroy the potato crop and Max meets 99's mother on the way.

Now with Max and 99 engaged, Get Smart needs to start incorporating wedding planning plots into their regular plots and this one has Max meeting 99's mother (a nice guest appearance by Jane Dulo). If you've been reading my Get Smart posts, you are probably not surprised that my interest in this episode wanes somewhat once Siegfried gets involved. If they were going to incorporate him, I would have preferred for it to be more closely related to 99's mother. The scene with the planes is fun and the setting is fun too though so this is still a pretty good episode even with the whole Siegfried thing.
RATING: 7/10

ONE SEASON WONDERS: Top of the Heap

On Wednesdays, I take a look at a series that lasted one season or less. Here is a look at Top of the Heap!

TOP OF THE HEAP

April 7, 1991 - May 19, 1991

6 episodes

FOX

Starring: Joseph Bologna, Matt LeBlanc, Joey Adams and Rita Moreno

Created by: Arthur Silver & Ron Leavitt

Plot: Charlie Verducci (Bologna) and his son, Vinnie (LeBlanc) are living in Chicago and struggling financially. They scheme to try get into high society by taking a job at a country club run by Alixandra Stone (Moreno). Rounding out the main cast is a neighborhood girl, Mona (Adams), who has a crush on Vinnie.

Brief Pilot Review:

The first episode of Top of the Heap, which wasn't really a pilot since a backdoor pilot on Married... With Children, started with a pretty icky scene with 16 year old Mona coming onto the older Vinnie in a scene that was also peppered with some gross jokes. I never watched Married but I know that show's specialty was in your face humor that often veered into crassness. I'm not even sure how well that show would hold up now but at least it had well defined characters. That was not the case in the early going for this show. Poor Joey Adams was given nothing but sex jokes throughout the first scene and they weren't even good ones. They were horrible. 

TOP 10 TUESDAY: Top 10 Bewitched Characters

This week for my Top 10 Tuesday, with Halloween nearing, I am counting down the Top 10 characters from Bewitched! If you read my episode guides posts on Bewitched last year, you may have an idea how this is going to go!

10. LOUISE TATE

There are several Bewitched characters who were played by two different actors over the course of the run. I had to specify for some characters listed below but the two different Louise Tates were both good enough to make the list, though I actually preferred the second actress (Kasey Rogers) to the first (Irene Vernon). They each brought something interesting though. Vernon was regal and sophisticated while Rogers was warm and a humanizing match for the often blustery Larry.

9. ABNER KRAVITZ

Another long-suffering spouse on the show, Abner seemed like the reasonable one who was quite sure his wife was going crazy and it was easy to see why. The fact that she was right and he was wrong added to the humor of the show. His deadpan delivery was very funny and he fit an important role in a show with a lot of boisterous and wacky characters. He had tremendously funny moments with Alice Pearce but was underutilized in later years with Sandra Gould.

SCHEDULES OF THE PAST: 1990-1991 Sundays

On Mondays, I take a look at schedules from yesteryear. Here's a look at Sundays in the 1990-91 season!

ABC	7:00	8:00	8:30	9:00	10:00
Sep	Life Goes On	America’s Funniest Home Videos	America’s Funniest People	Sunday Night Movie
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May

ABC found a monster success in 1989-90 on Sunday nights with midseason addition America's Funniest Home Videos hosted by Bob Saget. The show wasn't a flash in the pan either as it continued to be a big ratings winner in 1990-91. They doubled down on that success by adding another reality comedy show hosted by a Full House star. Saget's co-star Dave Coulier hosted America's Funniest People along with Arleen Sorkin. Whereas Videos was more about accidental mishaps caught on video, People featured everyday people trying to be funny. The series did almost as well as Videos in the ratings and was the top rated new show of 1990-91. To start the night, Life Goes On returned to 7pm. The show wasn't a strong ratings performer but it had its fans and kept the lights on for ABC at a difficult hour. A movie continued at 9pm and was behind the CBS movie but slightly ahead of the NBC movie.

THE FRIDAY FIVE: Top 5 TV News Stories of the Week Ending 10/15/21

Here's a look at the Top 5 TV news stories of the week!

#1 - IATSE STRIKE NEARS

The biggest TV news story of the week (besides the Netflix-Dave Chappelle debacle which is more TV-adjacent than actual TV news) concerns something that may or may not actually happen. For months we've been closing in on the possibility of a strike by the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) which would shut down TV and film productions just over a year after the pandemic shut everything down. There's a deadline of Monday for a potential strike if a deal isn't reached but there were reports of progress being made. For months, I have believed they will figure out a deal when push came to shove but time is running short so we'll see what happens over the weekend. 

EPISODE GUIDES: Get Smart Season 3 (Part 2)

On Thursdays, I take a detailed and critical look at a TV show. This year, I will be splitting full seasons into two posts so today I am looking at the second half of Season 3 of Get Smart! For the first half, click here.

74. The King Lives? (1/6/68)
Max discovers he's a double for a King of a faraway country and has to go save 99 when she is kidnapped by the King's brother.

This episode was co-written by Don Adams and his sister and continues the cameo parade with the return of Johnny Carson in another small role. It seems like an episode Adams would write with its focus on his brand of humor. The settings is fun and unique and the plot moves along fairly well. I didn't find myself too invested in the story but I appreciated it being a fairly ambitious episode. I do wonder what the story was behind all these cameos by comedians this season.
RATING: 7/10

75. The Groovy Guru (1/13/68)
Max and 99 try to thwart a hippie radio DJ planning to brainwash the nation's youth with subliminal messaging.

This was the first Get Smart I ever saw when it aired as part of Nick at Nite's 10th Anniversary Week in 1995. I'm not sure my nine year old self fully understood the plot, but I know I enjoyed watching it. I can see watching it now why it was selected as a standout episode. First of all, it's the mostly delightfully 60s-centric episode of the entire series. Larry Storch does a great job as the title character and it's also a standout episode for Don Adams with a lot of funny lines and good delivery. Maybe I'm being a little bit nostalgic but I agree with Nick at Nite that this is a standout episode of Get Smart.
RATING: 9/10

ONE SEASON WONDERS: All's Fair

On Wednesdays, I take a look at a series that lasted one season or less. Here is a look at All's Fair!

ALL'S FAIR

September 20, 1976 - May 30, 1977

24 episodes

CBS

Starring: Richard Crenna, Bernadette Peters, J.A. Preston 

Created by: Bob Schiller, Bob Weiskopf and Rod Parker

Plot: Richard Barrington (Crenna) is a powerful conservative columnist in Washington D.C. who becomes romantically involved with a much younger and liberal photographer, Charley (Peters). Keeping Richard in line is his assistant, Allen (Preston). 

Brief Pilot Review:

This was one of TV comedy's first forays into politics in a very direct way with the series set in D.C. and dealing with real life figures (there's references to Nixon, Goldwater and many more in the pilot). It certainly had a sophisticated feel and went for the adult audience from the very beginning with Charley seeing Richard naked in the first couple minutes of the pilot. One thing I appreciated about the pilot is it really focused on the relationship at the center of the show instead of political issues. That's a little bit surprising considering Norman Lear was involved and it was centered on politics. But you can't have an audience care about the political debates of the characters without getting to know the characters so this was set up well.

TOP 10 TUESDAY: Top 10 Taxi Characters

This week for my Top 10 Tuesday, I am counting down the Top 10 characters from the classic sitcom Taxi!

10. JOHN BURNS

John Burns disappeared from Taxi after the first season and few even noticed because he had not really made any impression. I almost considered not even putting him on the list but he just narrowly made it at #10 because I don't think he was a bad character, just an underdeveloped one. He had a few moments to shine (I particularly remember some funny moments during the Christmas episode when he's on the phone with his wife throughout the poker game). I think Taxi didn't need another likable straight man because Alex was that but he was harmless.

9. ZENA SHERMAN

Before she made a splash on Cheers, Rhea Perlman played a very different character on Taxi. She wasn't as sharp tongued because she was dating the most sharp tongued character on the show. Zena was a decent character in her own right but he greatest purpose on the show was humanizing Louie. If a nice girl like Zena liked him, there had to be something to him and that was important for his character development. 

SCHEDULES OF THE PAST: 1990-1991 Saturdays

On Mondays, I take a look at schedules from yesteryear. Here's a look at Saturdays in the 1990-91 season!

ABC	8:00	9:00	10:00
Sep	The Young Riders	China Beach	Various Programs
Oct			Twin Peaks
Nov
Dec
Jan		Under Cover
Feb
Mar		Saturday Night Movie
Apr
May

ABC's Saturday night lineup was full of shows that were niche or cult hits. That might seem like the perfect way to schedule a Saturday night in the early 1990s because it was a low pressure night but it did not go well enough in the ratings even for that. At 8pm was the third season of The Young Riders. It lasted the full year at 8pm but was cancelled at the end of the season. It did better than the two critically acclaimed shows that followed it through. China Beach continued to be a critical darling that could not find a wide audience. It was yanked in December and the final run aired in the Summer of 1991. As a result of the burn-off scheduling, star Dana Delany was eligible for the 1992 Emmy Awards and ended up winning more than a year after her show left the air. At 10pm was Twin Peaks, which had been the water cooler show in the Spring of 1990. All eyes were on the show but it couldn't capture the zeitgeist again. Part of it may have been the Saturday 10pm scheduling but the main reason was the show started to falter creatively. In season one, critics once heaped praise on the innovative storytelling and movie-like aspects of the show. In season two, it was derided for failing to tie up loose ends and not finding interesting enough ways to keep the show going. It was cancelled after just two short seasons but remains a very influential show in terms of the way contemporary TV dramas are made. Many darker dramas in the decades since have some Twin Peaks DNA in them and Peaks itself was of course revived on Showtime in 2017. The revival had its fans but still couldn't compare to that genre-changing first season. When China Beach was pulled from the lineup, it was replaced by a new drama, Under Cover. The secret agent drama, which premiered as a two hour movie, dealt with a little bit of wonky scheduling thanks to the Persian Gulf War breaking out, but it also struggled in the ratings and was yanked after just over a month on the air. Twin Peaks was yanked at the same time and ABC switched over to a movie for the last two hours of the night.

THE FRIDAY FIVE: Top 5 TV News Stories of the Week Ending 10/8/21

Here's a look at the Top 5 TV news stories of the week!

#1 - "L.A. LAW" PILOT ORDERED AT ABC

It wasn't a super busy week for TV news but it wouldn't be a week without news of a reboot or revival. This week's news on that front is that a reboot of L.A. Law earned a pilot order on ABC with original star Blair Underwood attached. The original L.A. Law series ran from 1986-1994 on NBC. The series, created by Steven Bochco and Terry Louise Fisher, was a critical darling and ratings smash early in its run, winning four Emmys for Outstanding Drama Series. But it was also known for going off the rails (or more specifically, down an elevator shaft) and later seasons were panned quite a bit. It also has never been much of a player in the syndication or streaming world so this is not a title that I think many have much of a connection to. If there's only middling interest in returns of shows like The Wonder Years or CSI, I am skeptical that there will be any interest in a new L.A. Law. We'll see, I guess.

EPISODE GUIDES: Get Smart Season Three (Part 1)

On Thursdays, I take a detailed and critical look at a TV show. This year, I will be splitting full seasons into two posts so today I am looking at the first half of Season 3 of Get Smart!

GET SMART: SEASON THREE
1967-1968
26 episodes

The third season of Get Smart finally nabbed it the Outstanding Comedy Series Emmy Award and it graded out as the best season yet for me. It may have not been as consistent as season two, but it had higher highs and perhaps lower lows (although not too low). Many of my all time favorite episodes come from this season. The show stretches itself a little more creatively in the third season and it's fun to see. It lands most of the time (not all the time) and I appreciate seeing the show become more ambitious in its storytelling and style.

Starring
Don Adams as Maxwell Smart (26 episodes)
Barbara Feldon as Agent 99 (25 episodes)
Edward Platt as The Chief (21 episodes)

Robert Karvelas as Larabee (12 episodes)
Bernie Kopell as Siegfried (4 episodes)
Dick Gautier as Hymie the Robot (2 episodes)
King Moody as Shtarker (2 episodes)
David Ketchum as Agent 13 (1 episode)

61. The Spy Who Met Himself (9/16/67)
Max and 99 take on agents from the KAOS League of Imposters and everyone ends up fighting someone who looks like them.

Season three kicks off with a clever if also ridiculous premise. The dual agents everywhere allows for some good sight gags and confusion with both the agents and the audience. Bernie Kopell's Siegfried is amped up more and becoming more and more a caricature which knocks this episode down a couple pegs. The scenes without him are certainly better than the scenes with him. The interview with the two different Maxwell Smarts has some pretty funny moments. All in all, a solid and energetic start to the third season.
RATING: 8/10

62. Viva Smart (9/23/67)
Max and 99 pose as flamenco dancers in a South American country whose leader has been overthrown, but they end up in jail.

Get Smart is going pretty broad early on in season three. This episode has a little bit of unfortunate stereotyping but that is forgivable with it being a 60s sitcom. The bigger problem is it's just too ridiculous of an episode despite the fun setting. There's a couple very cartoonish performances from some of the Spanish characters and while it looks like there might be some promise before the flamenco dance, it doesn't actually rise to the level it could have.
RATING: 3/10

ONE SEASON WONDERS: Free Spirit

On Wednesdays, I take a look at a series that lasted one season or less. Here is a look at Free Spirit!

FREE SPIRIT

September 22, 1989 - January 14, 1990

13 episodes

ABC

Starring: Corinne Bohrer, Franc Luz, Edan Gross, Alyson Hannigan, Paul Scherrer, 

Created by: Leslie Ray and Steven A. Vail

Plot: Thomas J. Harper (Luz) is a divorced lawyer trying to balance work and life with his three kids, Robb, Jessie and Gene (Scherrer, Hannigan & Gross). When Gene feels like no one in the house is paying attention to him, he accidentally summons a witch, Winnie (Bohrer) who becomes the housekeeper and caretaker.

TOP 10 TUESDAY: Top 10 Modern Family Characters

This week for my Top 10 Tuesday, I am counting down the Top 10 characters from the Emmy winning hit Modern Family!

10. FRANK DUNPHY

It was inspired casting to bring the late, great Fred Willard on board as Phil Dunphy's father, Frank. Ty Burrell's dopiness as Phil really seemed like it could have been inspired by Willard's brand of comedy. Frank wasn't in a ton of episodes but he makes the list over some actual series regulars because he never stopped being funny and always elevated any scene he was in. It was one of Willard's final recurring roles and he was the most memorable of the many Modern Family characters who turned up once in awhile.

9. LUKE DUNPHY

I struggled with what to do about Luke, Manny and Alex for this list. All three became so insufferable by the end of the series, I was left with a really bad taste in my mouth. But Luke ultimately made the list because he was the best as a young child and then the "least bad" among the three I mentioned in later years. I liked when the show embraced Luke being sort of dumb and it was very endearing before it became pathetic. He had a lot of great moments in the first several seasons.

SCHEDULES OF THE PAST: 1990-1991 Fridays

On Mondays, I take a look at schedules from yesteryear. Here's a look at Fridays in the 1990-91 season!

ABC	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00
Sep	Full House	Family Matters	Perfect Strangers	Going Places	20/20
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar				Baby Talk
Apr
May		Dinosaurs	Family Matters	Perfect Strangers

ABC was coming off its first year with the TGIF moniker on Friday nights and they continued to work on the lineup. The first hour really started to take off in the ratings with Full House coming in at #15 for the season and Family Matters just one spot behind it. These two shows were really the reason that TGIF took off as a brand. For Family Matters, the addition of Urkel (Jaleel White) to the cast midway through its first season helped with its breakout second season. Perfect Strangers followed at 9pm but that show was now in its sixth season and started to show its age. It lost a pretty significant chunk of the Family Matters audience. At 9:30pm was a new sitcom, Going Places. It came from Miller-Boyett Productions, the company behind the other three sitcoms. The series was purposely a little bit more young adult focused as the shows progressively were less for kids as the night went on. That seems like a good idea on paper but it didn't work out. Going Places, whose cast included Alan Ruck and Heather Locklear, lost a lot of audience from its lead-in (which was already down from the 8pm hour). And even more problematic was the fact that the ratings popped back up for 20/20 at 10pm. It underwent creative retooling about halfway through its run but that didn't make a difference and it was cancelled. It was replaced in March by Baby Talk, which had gotten delayed thanks to some drama before airing. The show, featuring a talking baby and coming from the people behind the movie Look Who's Talking, originally starred Connie Sellecca. However, Sellecca was unhappy with the show and ended up quitting after a couple episodes were filmed which caused its planned fall start to be delayed (it was replaced in the fall by Head of the Class). Sellecca was replaced by Julia Duffy. The show moved to Tuesdays and did get renewed but then Duffy didn't return to the show and the character was re-cast again for season two. Baby Talk also featured a young George Clooney as well as the voice of Tony Danza as the baby. Late in the season, Family Matters and Perfect Strangers both shifted back half an hour to make room for Dinosaurs, an unusual satire about a family of anthropomorphic dinosaurs. Coming from the Jim Henson Company about a year after Henson's death, it only aired five episodes in its first season but did get renewed.

THE FRIDAY FIVE: Top 5 TV News Stories of the Week Ending 10/1/21

Here's a look at the Top 5 TV news stories of the week!

#1 - "LAW & ORDER" GETTING REVIVED ON NBC

Everything old is new again and nothing ever really goes away when it comes to Broadcast TV. In 2010, NBC famously cancelled Law & Order after 20 seasons, keeping it one season short of breaking the title of longest running drama series and leaving it tied with Gunsmoke. That record has since been broken by its spinoff, Law & Order: SVU but the original is coming back for a revival that NBC is calling a 21st season. No official word yet on which cast members will be returning but it's very clear the Law & Order brand is more valuable to NBC now in 2021 than it was in 2010. If you listened to TV chatter back in the early 2010s, there was the sense that the franchise was done with the original and Criminal Intent coming to an end, Los Angeles being a flop and SVU appearing to be on its last legs. But in recent years, SVU has shown new life and is now quietly one of TV's top dramas. The newest spinoff, Organized Crime marking the return of former SVU star Christopher Meloni got off to a hot start last spring and is secured in the NBC lineup now. While a planned third show for Thursday nights called For the Defense was cancelled before it ever aired, the original will probably prove to be a more potent option. The franchise, now considered a standard procedural, was once pretty revolutionary when Law & Order first aired in the early 1990s with its blending of, you guessed it, law and order. The revival season will premiere sometime in 2022.