1990…a good year for television…kind of. It gave us some hit series that lasted for quite a while and spawned incredible careers, but it also gave us some terrible bombs. Movies like Uncle Buck spawned a t.v. series in 1990, but the comical antics of the slovenly uncle translated into a creepy fat man on the small screen.
A highlight from the year would have to be the spawn of one of my shows:
This was before Sam Waterson and most of the regular cast became television mainstays. Hard to believe there was a series before Sam came on board.
A series that launched a career would be:
The Fresh Prince…oh yes, back in the day when there was still someone called DJ Jazzy Jeff and little Willow wasn’t even a glint in her father’s eye.
Speaking of Fresh: whenever a beloved tv star finishes a successful run in a series, there’s always someone pitching scripts to keep the star’s face on the tube. Unfortunately, these rarely work. Take for instance poor Jane Curtain. Fresh from Kate and Ally, they tried to stick her into a number of different series, each one failing to grab any attention.
Or what about poor Robert Urich who had successfully played private eyes in two series and now was thrown into a romantic comedy:
On the flip side there were some series that were so successful they had to reinvent them and bring them back again, such as this highly watched series originally called “Beverly Hills High School” but then renamed “90210″ and then renamed “Beverly Hills 90210″:
Or what about this Ed Begley Jr. vehicle which has been completely retooled for the modern age:
The instant popularity of 90210 didn’t help this other “teen” drama make it:
Uncle Buck wasn’t the only movie being mined for television. In 1990 we saw two competing series based on the famous Matthew Broderick vehicle “Ferris Bueler’s Day Off”. The first series got the title rights, so this competing series had to come up with something quick:
Parker Lewis wasn’t a very show overall. It was cleverly written and reminds me a bit of the surrealistic Scrubs. However, there were some series that were so bad, so terrible, so…well:
The strange thing about this show was that the critics not only lauded it as the next best thing to chocolate, the studios didn’t take the tanked ratings as a hint and ended up unleashing the similar show “Viva Laughlin” later to equally bad ratings.
And here’s a show that I don’t even remember being aired. I’m not sure why it wouldn’t have been a huge hit, especially with a “dolphin lady” in the cast (according to the synopsis). Poor Gil Gerard, your Buck Rogers fame didn’t help this one:
And be sure to watch the premiere tonight on TV Land at 10pm! Comment before Sunday night when I will do a random drawing!
