Shows that underwent a massive retooling

Happy Days became super popular after a big reboot for Season 3 that changed the sets, the camera style, the audience. But the quality of the show went steadily down after that. The first two seasons were much better.

"Phyllis" switched where Phyllis Lindstrom worked (from a photography studio as an assistant to a city manager's office), and it was disastrous for the show.

Both The Lucy Show and The Doris Day Show had children that simply vanished in between seasons, allowing the titular characters to cast off the shackles of motherhood and shine like never before.

Hazel went to work for a new family who, I think, were somehow related to Mr and Mrs B. They were boring and it didn't work.

Knots Landing changed from an Eight is Enough like. self-contained hour drama, to a 80s primetime soap, to a workplace soap like LA Law.

After about the 23rd load on Saturday afternoon.

Mama's Family changed from network to syndication. They got rid of the two drippy teens. Replaced Mama's sister with the Iola character and brought in the smoking hot Bubba character. They also softened Mama even more to make her more sitcom-sustainable, made Vint more childlike, and softened Naomi.

Ironically, Moms, with Alison Janey and Anna Faris, got rid of the kids and built a strong cast of adult supporting characters and became enjoyable.

General Hospital was a hair away from canceling, then they brought in Gloria Monty as a headwriter and she started focusing much more on the younger people, pushed edgier subject matter (she wrote the Luke & Laura rape then insanely popular romance) and brought in the mob. Before it had been mostly a coffee in the kitchen drama about middle aged people.

2 years later 30 million people watched the Luke and Laura wedding. Controversial as it was, boy did it work.

Melrose Place. It went from a timid drama of early twentysomethings living in an LA apartment complex to a full blown soap opera with over the top stories and catty one liners.

Gimme A Break! did twice. After season 2, Nell fired the producers and writers and got new ones. Some cast members were let go and Joey Lawrence and Telma Hopkins were brought in. The dueling between Nell and Dolph Sweet lessened as he got sick. Then it went full blown when the three girls were written off and they moved to NY.

[quote] Mama's Family changed from network to syndication.

So did Charles In Charge. He got a whole new family to take care of. His character changed from wholesome do-gooder to more of a douche too.

Good Morning, Miss Bliss. Hayley Mills makes a quick brexit after one season as do two unfunny kids, the show moves from Indianapolis to SoCal, adds three hot students and viewers were Saved By The Bell.

The Virginian was retooled and retitled The Men of Shiloh for its last season

Rawhide was also retooled for its last season. Eric Fleming was fired, and his character disappeared without a trace. Clint Eastwood's character became the trail boss. It didn't last too long after that

Ellen's sitcom cast was changed after season 1.

[quote] Ellen's sitcom cast was changed after season 1.

Also, it changed the title from "These Friends of Mine."

They ditched the cute and funny Arye Gross for the handsomer and more intense but less funny Jeremy Piven, among other cast changes.

In its final season, Angel moved from the hotel into the belly of the beast, the Wolfram & Hart legal firm dedicated to bringing about the Apocalypse, roping in two vampires from Buffy: Spike and Harmony.

The show needed a fresh beginning after the calamitous season four, and this move did it.

Revamping "Family Ties" as "The Michael J. Fox Program" launched my career. And I think it helped the show.

Buffy had ridiculous changes, some ordered by the network ("Get rid of the mother everyone likes and add our new teen star Michelle Trachtenberg as Buffy's kid sister!") and some ordered by the showrunner Joss Whedon ("Let's turn Willow murderous for a season, because it will be like Dark Phoenix in X-Men comics!"). Oddly enough, even though Whedon was furious about the first change, he did a superb job with not only making it plausible (within the show's concept) but gave Buffy's mother a moving and beautifully written send-off, while he did a shitty job with the Dark Willow storyline (after Willow is "cured," no one ever mentions again she hideously flayed someone to death with her magic).

Charles in Charge is another show that went from network from syndication and changed most of the cast to a brand new family.

Double Trouble also comes to mind - during the first season the twins lived with their dad in Iowa as high school students, then in season 2 they moved to New York to live with their aunt.

Family Matters was basically retooled as The Steve Urkel Show starting in season 2. Jaleel White wasn’t even apart of the original cast.

Re R21, "Family Matters" was a spin-off of "Perfect Strangers," originally centering on Harriette Winslow, the elevator operator at Larry and Balki's newspaper office, her husband Carl, and their three kids. It was supposed to be a either a working class "Cosby Show" or an African American "Family Ties," but once the show became the Steve Urkel Show, it went off into zany, fantasy land with a time travel machine and transformation chamber that could change a person's form and personality.

The Winslows also lost daughter Judy, who disappeared after Season 4, and was never mentioned again.

R22 Judy walked up them stairs and never came back again.

Melrose Place was about to be cancelled until Heather Locklear came on and saved the show!

R24 That’s Special Guest Star Heather Locklear. Put the respect on her name that Fox gave her every week.

Newhart. They got rid of Kirk and Leslie after the first season and brought on Stephanie (Leslie's cousin, I think?). And later Michael.

Married With Children - after David Garrison left. Even before that, it changed quite a bit after the first season - became much more broad.

The Joey Bishop Show - first season was about his family (including sister Marlo Thomas, pre-nose job); the rest were with his wife (Abby Dalton). Almost a completely different show.

The Odd Couple - went from single-cam to multi-cam "live."

Valerie - became Valerie's Family, then the Hogan Family

Complete nonsense, R19. They constantly referenced Dark Willow and even brought back the actor who played the character who gig flayed to do a whole episode revisiting it.

After Michael J Fox’s parkinsons got too severe, Spin City was retooled with Charlie Sheen and Heather Locklear. Locklear had joined the cast the previous season. It actually worked and Sheen was playing against type. Such an underrated well written show, all 6 seasons. It’s the show that got me into politics and obsess over the 2000 election results.

R16 - I think also they lost Maggie Wheeler when she got the role of Janice in Friends. They dumped Holly Fulger and cast Joely Fisher, and added Clea Lewis and David Anthony Higgins.

R7. Even bigger was the change in Mama’s Family from its origins on the Carol Burnett Show. It was a surprisingly cynical view of family life even by today’s standards. It’s the one part of the Carol Burnett Show I could imagine rewatching. The full length standalone show had nothing of the cynicism.

“Newhart” also went from videotape to film.

Dark Willow was terrifying and thrilling.

But Vampire Willow was sadistic and witty, like a good DL thread.

Knots Landing - Dullish episodic drama about suburbia morphed into a soap opera

Central Park West - Failed attempt to save the show saw them axing half the original cast and bringing in Gerald McRaney and Racquel Welch.

Secrets of Midland Heights/Kings Crossing - The former was a huge flop for CBS and then the following season morphed into an even blander teen soap on ABC.

Tattingers - Started off as a serious drama, got soapy, got cancelled, and came back as a half-hour sitcom all within one season.

[quote] Newhart. They got rid of Kirk and Leslie after the first season

Kirk was actually there the first two seasons and Michael became a regular in season 3. Producer Barry Kemp discusses the casting changes here

Fantasy Island is way different than the pilot. The pilot is dark and twisted.

[quote]Shows that underwent a massive retooling

"Friends" never needed it.

The tools on that show were quite enough from the start.

I would like to give Jon Hamm a massive retooling.

Dark Shadows had flirted with the occult with Josette’s ghost as well as The Phoenix, but it went whole hog when it introduced Barnabas, not just saving the show from cancellation but turning it into a sensation.

2.5 Men after the De-Sheenification

All in the Family post Mike and Gloria. Theresa and Stephanie did nothing for that show. Then it became a whole new show when Edith died and Archie came to live in his bar.

Maude was facing a major retooling (she was to become a congresswoman in Washington) until Bea said no thanks. The producers marched on into folly by attempting the series (same support cast) only with Bill Macy as a new character playing a neophyte congressman.

One Day at a Time once Ann was written out. It soldiered on as the two sisters with new husbands and a baby.

The Bradys which I think was revived as a sitcom in the 90s, failed, retooled to be a soap opera and then failed even harder.

'Dynasty' was first focused on Krystle's marriage to Blake, and her nemesis was step-daughter Fallon. The problems and friction between the two ladies each week actually became monotonous and dull. No one cared.

Bring in Joan Collins as Blake's first wife 'Alexis' - Krystle's new nemesis - and the show completely turned around and rose in the ratings. Alexis became what they hoped Fallon would be, and this pissed off actress Pamela Sue Martin to the degree she left in Season 4. As she said, 'Alexis became my character Fallon and Fallon became a softie'. (Joan Collins said she played it better than PSM).

Those post-Brady Bunch TV series and specials tried SO hard. It was like passing a car crash and not being able to look away.

A Different World changed quite a lot after Lisa Bonet left and supporting nemesis Jasmine Guy was rewritten as the lead. Even though the setting and some of the characters were the same, that first season really feels like a different show.

[quote] One Day at a Time once Ann was written out. It soldiered on as the two sisters with new husbands and a baby.

That was planned in the beginning of the last season when Franklin said she was not returning for season 10. Bertinelli said the same thing, but mid-season, they proposed the idea of a 'spin-off' if Bertinelli stayed. She agreed to stay and be the star of the spin-off. The second half of the season they purposely wrote out Franklin, and gave more air time to Lambert, Gaines and Bertinelli (as well as Nannette Fabray's Grandma Romano) to set the spin-off up for the following fall. However, those episodes without Franklin dipped in the ratings, and CBS decided not to go ahead with the spin-off.

Similarly, that was the plan for the series 'Rhoda' in the fall of 1978. Harper let CBS know season five was her last, but CBS believed Julie Kavner could survive without Harper. They planned a spin-off for Kavner, as a wife to Benny and a move to CT with Nancy Walker as Ida for September, 1979. They focused the stories on Brenda's upcoming wedding each week, and Ida's divorce ( actor Harold Gould as Martin was not part of the spin-off). However, audiences weren't interested - especially in a divorced Ida - and ratings fell. 'Rhoda' was canceled after 13 seasons (of the planned 26), and the spin-off was, too.

It's a Living is the rare show that underwent a few changes, but the changes only seemed to improve the show. The four syndication seasons were far better than the two network ones.

Richard Stahl and Marian Mercer should have gotten more work together as a team, they were wonderful. They also played Charlie's parents on an episode of Empty Nest.

13 seasons???

R46 - He meant 13 episodes of Season 5, not the planned 26 episodes that most seasons had.

What does it mean when a show is switched from network to syndication? I thought all shows automatically went into "syndication" after a certain number of episodes.

An aborted retooling: During season 2 of The Twilight Zone, they shot 6 episodes on cheap, primitive video as a cost-cutting measure, presumably with an eye toward shifting production to this format. This format significantly limited the formal artistry of the show, particularly image quality and editing, and the quality of the resulting episodes convinced them that it was a terrible idea.

R49 - Did those six shows air?

I don;t think the Brady bunch sequels really count because they were entirely different shows years later with new titles, often with one or more members of the cast missing or recast.

"The Brady Kids" -- animated Saturday morning show 1972-73, with all six kids but no parents or Alice, and with the addition of Mop Top the dog and Ping and Pong the pandas. (I kid you not.) After the first season Barry Williams and Maureen McCormack left and were replaced by other voice actors.

"The Brady Bunch Hour"--the most memorable of the sequels, this was a terrible Sid and Marty Krofft 1976-77 variety show with Rip Torn as a recurring guest, and with Eve Plumb replaced as Jan by Geri Reischl. Maureen McCormack (Marcia) seems to be on drugs (literally) during some of the musical numbers.

"The Brady girls Get Married / The Brady Brides" in 1981 was a 10-episode sitcom reboot with all the main original cast. It featured marcia and Jan marrying the two dullest husbands of all time, loser slob Wally (for Marcia) and bland Philip (for Jan).

"A Very Brady Christmas" -- This was a huge hit, the second highest-rated TV movie of its year (1988). All of the original cast was back except for Susan Olsen, who was replaced as Cindy by the much prettier Jennifer Runyon. It was so successful it led to the creation of...

"The Bradys" -- This 1990 dramatic series lasted only 6 episodes, and was dubbed "Bradysomething" by critics because it seemed like the show was trying to replicate "thirtysomething." the entire cats returned again, except this time withour Maureen McCormack, who was replaced as Marcia by Leah Ayres. It was godawful and zero fun. Marcia had become a weeping alcoholic, Jan was often in hysterics because of her inability to bear children, Bobby was paralyzed, and Cindy had somehow become a DJ ("Next up, a new thong by the Talking Headth...").

Thereafter all the subsequent movies and TV-movies had the parts re-cast and were parodic.

The biggest revamp had to be the series in which CBS tried to make Stockard Channing a sitcom star. The sitcom started filming right after she costarred in 'Grease', as CBS hoped fans of the movie would follow her to TV.

First up was 'Stockard Channing in Just Friends' in which Channing played 'Susan Hughes' as a health spa manager after her marriage ends. It ran for 13 episodes, from March - June 1979. Mimi Kennedy played her sister and was the costar. She had a nice LA apartment, and a flakey nosey neighbor. The show wasn't the hit CBS hoped for, so they brought it in for an over-haul.

Channing said in interviews season 2 would be 'very different' but similar. The title was now changed to 'The Stockard Channing Show' .

She was again recently divorced, and her name was 'Susan Goodenow'. Gone was Mimi Kennedy and her job at the health spa - she now worked for a 'LA investigative news show' as a consumer reporter. They kept the same apartment from the first season. She had the same 'flighty neighbor' from season 1. Ron SIlver joined the cast (hot off his costarring role on 'Rhoda' for two seasons). Again, the show ran 13 episodes for season 2, from March 1980 - July 1980, and was a dud in the ratings. CBS never officially canceled it but let Channing out of her contract with them.

My Three Sons replaced Fred Mertz with Uncle Charlie. Shipped off the oldest son when he married Billie Jo Bradley never to be heard from again. Adopted a neighbor kid so they had three sons and moved to California.

R29 is right.

R16 Arye Gross survived the retooling from THESE FRIENDS OF MINE (Season 1) to ELLEN (Seasons 2-5) but then departed five episodes into Season 3.

Jeremy Piven was introduced in the first episode of Season 3, so he and Gross were on the show together for a few episodes.

R50 - Yes: "The Lateness of The Hour", " The Night of the Meek", "The Whole Truth", "Twenty Two", "Static," and "Long Distance Call."

They look a bit like the live TV dramas of the era.

R46 My apologies - RHODA had 12 episodes for its final season, and not the usual 26. Of those 13, CBS canceled it after ep 9 aired. The final four (which really focused on Brenda and Ida) were never aired until syndication. They're also included on the Season 5 DVD.

[quote]An aborted retooling: During season 2 of The Twilight Zone, they shot 6 episodes on cheap, primitive video as a cost-cutting measure, presumably with an eye toward shifting production to this format. This format significantly limited the formal artistry of the show, particularly image quality and editing, and the quality of the resulting episodes convinced them that it was a terrible idea.

They're so rarely seen in syndication because they look terrible. The first time I saw one I didn't know what it was.

R48 in the 80s and 90s there was something called First Run Syndication.

These were shows that were developed specifically to be first aired in syndication, as opposed to shows that originally aired on network television, and then the repeats were packaged and sold into syndication. Shows like She's the Sheriff, Out of the World, Vicky the Robot, Mama's Family, Munsters Today, What's Happening Now, and Baywatch left network and aired new episodes in first-run syndication, like Mama's Family. These shows were usually shown on Saturday afternoons and in the pre-primetime slots on, mostly, independent stations. There were many others, that I can't remember now.

Most people associate first-run syndication with daytime talk shows and game shows. Wheel and Jeopardy are first-run syndicated game shows. Oprah and Rosie were first-run syndicated talk shows.

When Hazel moved to CBS for season 5, they dumped the Baxter family and had Hazel working for Mr. B's younger brother and his wife. They also added DL fave Ann Jillian to the cast.

On Gilbert Gottfried's old podcast, John Schuck said The Munsters Today was the only job he took solely for the money (he had kids going to college). That retooling went from black and white to color, from film to videotape, and, disastrously, to a three-camera live audience sitcom format. That meant all the visual tricks had to be done live in front of an audience, rather than added as special effects later. He said taping days were arduous.

Thank you, r58, for explaining it better than I was attempting when your reply popped up

Archer Vice and the coma seasons were better than the regular spy seasons.

R60 Bonnie Franklin directed a few episodes of New Munsters

First-run syndication came about when the FCC forced networks to cede the 7:30 half-hour (which used to be the start of network prime time) back to local stations to encourage more local programming.

R23 She met up with Chuck Cunningham at the top of the stairs and they ran off together to live happily ever after.

The Brady Bunch went from a more serious story about a blended family to the more campy thing it became. They also forgot they were a blended family until the back door pilot episode about The Kellys.

90210 had several retoolings.

No one mentioned "Laverne & Shirley" ? In it's final season to punch up ratings they moved the show to California, dropped Shirley and added other new cast members. And that was the end of that.

R29 -- Ellen fired Maggie Wheeler. Probably jealous of her. Her role on Friends was actually quite small -- the rumor is that the cast got worried because her character was so popular that they demanded she have as little screen time as possible. And the cast always won, every time they got threatened by another actor.

If you go back and watch the first season of Cheers you can see they did a lot of work on the characters to make them clearer, but the biggest change was Norm, who was, so weirdly, a ladies' man that first year and chased the women around the bar.

R68, “Laverne and Shirley” relocated to California (and inexplicably jumped forward in time two years) for the final three seasons and Shirley left after a couple episodes in the final season.

It was never as good as during the Milwaukee seasons.

Sorry, R67.

Initially, the producers of Too Close for Comfort/The Ted Knight Show wanted to dump Nancy Dussault (Muriel), too, when it was retooled for first-run syndication as The Ted Knight Show. It was just supposed to be Ted Knight and Jim Bullock as his goofy sidekick. Originally, the producers wanted to make Ted's character (in this new "universe") a widower or divorcee, to open up potential comedic situations, etc. (which Ted loved; Nancy WHO?)

However, Nancy Dussault still had a year left on her contract with DL Taffner. She refused to accept a (discounted) buy-out & threatened to sue them for breach of contract (which she would have won, according to a lawyer I knew involved in it). Taffner didn't have "just let her sit home & do nothing" money, especially for a first-run syndicated program....so Nancy/Muriel stayed in the short-lived retooled show.

The Facts Of Lice

[quote] Alison Janey

Only two words and the poor dear couldn't quite land either of them.

R71 - With Murial dead, was the plan for Ted Knight to have a hot and steamy romance with Pat Carroll?

“Wonder Woman” jumping from the 40s to the present day (then the 1970s). It was said that if the show had been renewed for another season, they were going to drop Lyle Waggoner and have Diana lead a team of government experts to fight the bad guys, but alas it was not meant to be.

Datalounge people- This is slightly off topic but I have a

MASSIVE TOOL

r26 I watched the joey bishop show for the first time during the pandemic. I hated (and was confused) how they changed the direction of the show. It went to a show that was somewhat different (an older un-married man living with his family) to another couple sitcom (eventually had children too).

R74: Yeah, I'm sure that was the plan. Kinda like pairing someone with Conchatta Ferrell.

I only know that Nancy Dussault was not part of the initial retool ideas; they wanted Ted's character single.

I know the Doris Day show was mentioned above but if I remember right it got retooled several times. Her children disappeared about halfway through and it seemed like every season it was a new premise.

[quote]I know the Doris Day show was mentioned above but if I remember right it got retooled several times. Her children disappeared about halfway through and it seemed like every season it was a new premise.

The last season in the apartment building had a gay couple in a few episodes, which was pretty remarkable at the time. It went uncommented-on in the show and was never a plot point.

Don’t know how true it was but I read once that had “The Rifleman” been renewed for a sixth season, several changes were going to take place: (1) the show was going to start airing in color, (2) Lucas would marry Lou Mallory (played by Patricia Blair), and (3) I think Mark would start carrying a rifle of his own and fight the bad guys alongside his father. Oddly, also according to the same article, the reason the show was cancelled was because Chuck Connors was not interested in these changes being made to the show and declined to sign on for another season.

]quote]General Hospital was a hair away from canceling, then they brought in Gloria Monty as a headwriter and she started focusing much more on the younger people, pushed edgier subject matter (she wrote the Luke & Laura rape then insanely popular romance) and brought in the mob.

Gloria Monty came in a executive producer, not headwriter.

The initial headwriter working with Gloria was Douglas Marland. He's the one who created Luke and Bobbie Spencer as well as the Quatermaine family. He and Gloria Monty clashed often and ultimately he quite/was fired when Gloria wanted Luke's rape of Laura to be written as a seduction.

With subsequent headwriters, it was clear that Gloria was in charge of the storyline directions and the headwriters were expected to carry out Gloria's vision.

Aussie soap Neighbours rand a year and was cancelled. Meanwhile, 8 months behind, it became a cultural phenomenon on The BBC in UK. .so a different tv station took over Neighbours in Oz. 20 million viewers a night were glued to happenings on Ramsay Street(In a populartion of 50 milluon) Initially shown at lunchtime, too many kids were bunking off school to catch it. It seemed like Uk and Ireland were in Neighbours fever. The times lot was moved to teatime. Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan became the huge breakout stars, topping the charts for years. Guy Pearce became a bonfire Hollywood movie star...margot Robbie, Natalie imbruglia, delta Gudrum, Holly Valance, Alan Dale and many others came through Neigbours over 40 years. Not bad for a revamp, where the characters were painting and decorating sets as the oold ones had been binned...so we were all wondering how it altered from one day to the next. We only then found out what it had been through. It was a zeitgeist moment for sure.

[quote]With Murial dead, was the plan for Ted Knight to have a hot and steamy romance with Pat Carroll?

Why drag Pat Carroll into this?

[quote]A Different World changed quite a lot after Lisa Bonet left and supporting nemesis Jasmine Guy was rewritten as the lead. Even though the setting and some of the characters were the same, that first season really feels like a different show.

r43 A Different World was probably one of the best, if not these best restructure of a prime show that was on the brink of cancellation. Jasmine Guy said most of cast thought the show wouldn't see the light of day after season 1 and they started looking for other work.

R40 Did you have AI write your mostly inaccurate post?

Archie Bunker didn't live in his bar.

Maude's Season 6 started to set up for a major retooling for Season 7 with Maude Going To Washington but either CBS pulled the plug or Bea decided to leave but...Walter/Bill Macy didn't take over that plot. Macy got his own show a couple years later with him playing a NEW character and none of the other Maude actors were part of this entirely new project which lasted 4 episodes.

No, One Day At A Time didn't write out Ann Romano and "soldier on with the two sisters". Mackenzie Phillips left the show in episode 4 of the last season. Ann Romano/Bonnie Franklin left in the penultimate episode. The final episode was a dumb back door pilot for Schneider to get his own show but it wasn't picked up.

The Bradys was the 1990 hour long dramatic comedy that only lasted 6 episodes. It wasn't a sitcom and it wasn't on long enough to be retooled.

The only thing retooled on The Bradys was the three theme songs.

Gilligan's Island.

When they changed it from "and the rest" to "the professor and Mary Ann."

R85 A DIFFERENT WORLD was the #2 show in America its first season, so why did they fear it would be canceled?

SEASON 1: #2

SEASON 2: #3

SEASON 3: #4

SEASON 4: #4

SEASON 5: #17

SEASON 6: #71

The show was created for Lisa Bonet so when she couldn't return I'm sure there was fear the network and Cosby would simply pull the plug

And I should have said when Cosby wouldn't let her return when she got pregnant

The Strange Story of ‘The Dukes of Hazzard’s Coy and Vance Duke ...

Phyllis got a virtually whole new supporting cast, but that's because the originals kept dying on her. It moved its center from sitcom domestic jokes to sitcom workplace jokes.

Didn't Laverne and Shirley get retooled with a move to California? I also remember some silliness regarding Cindy Williams holding out for more money and the show removing "and Shirley" from the title.

R87 Robert Reed's perm

My God I thought you people were homosexuals.

The most significant post-season one retooling of the past thirty years is Sex & the City.

When did Law & Order: SVU redesign the set to change from the gritty, institutional look of the precinct to the fancy, wood-paneled law office look? Is it even supposed to be the same offices? I was never a regular viewer but it's always shocking to see an earlier season episode followed by a later, Meloni-less one

I thought that the silliness with Laverne and Shirley was that Cindy Williams left the show in the final season and yet it was still billed as Laverne and Shirley.

L&S also had, like One Day at a Time, a backdoor pilot as its final episode - the L&S one was supposed to have Carmine moving to New York to become a dance instructor.

Massive Retooling was my favorite Jeff Stryker movie.

[quote]Didn't Laverne and Shirley get retooled with a move to California? I also remember some silliness regarding Cindy Williams holding out for more money and the show removing "and Shirley" from the title.

Already mentioned in R68.

Also, according to Williams, it was not about a dispute in pay as to why she was dropped from 'L&S'.

Williams had said she found out she was pregnant at the time to her first child (with husband Bill Hudson) when the season began filming. She was willing to stay with the show, but wanted accommodations from ABC which included missing about a month of filming once she had the baby, and the letting her take the infant to work (she was nursing) as the season was wrapping up.

ABC said 'no', and decided to release her from the series. They had said she met someone, had a short romance, and decided to marry him and leave the country (very out of character for Shirley).

IIRC, she considered bringing a lawsuit against ABC at the time, but I'm not sure how far that went. At that time, there were no laws in place for parents with newborns and protecting the mother's workplace rights. Lynne Redgrave found herself in the same situation with CBS around the same time with the sitcom 'House Calls'.

Wasn’t Politically Incorrect basically retooled as Real Time on HBO?

"House Calls" was a popular CBS comedy on CBS that ran for three seasons from 1979-82. Based on the hit 1978 movie, it starred Lynn Redgrave and Wayne Rogers for the first two seasons. In season 3, Redgrave was fired by CBS after the eighth episode was filmed. (Her character's absence was explained as she 'abruptly quit her hospital position and moved back to England).

Lynn Redgrave was fired from the series, following the birth of her new child. She insisted on bringing her daughter to work, in part, because she wanted to be able to breast-feed the baby on schedule, but this was interpreted by the studio as holding out for more money, while being disruptive to shooting requirements. Redgrave sued Universal for breaking her existing contract, but was not rehired, and the suit was dismissed several years later.

Sharon Gless was brought in to replace Redgrave with a new character, The ratings started to tumble as audiences didn't warm up to the pairing of Gless and Rogers. CBS canceled the show at the end of season three.

In her memoir from a few years ago, Gless called her experience working with Wayne Rogers as one of the 'worst experiences' she ever had in her career. The two didn't get along at all. Rogers was upset that Redgrave was fired and seemed to take his anger out on Gless. She was happy the show was canceled, as she had already contacted her lawyer about getting out of her contract before season four began.

R102, When "House Calls" turned out to be a ratings success, Redgrave and her manager-husband wanted to renegotiate her salary, demanding the same "favored nations" level as co-star Wayne Rogers, plus transportation to and from work, and a nanny to assist when Lynn brought the baby to work. Universal's response: $1,000 increase, no transportation, and Lynn was not allowed to bring the baby to work. They took their case to CBS. And then she was fired.

The retooled "Ted Knight Show" was a success in syndication, and was given a second season when Knight died of colon cancer.

[quote] My God I thought you people were homosexuals.

I can only speak for myself, but you’ve just listed the reason that I did NOT watch Sex and the City.

R102 CBS could never get away with some of that now.

Nursing mothers have every right to bring their newborns to work if they choose these days, and the employer can no longer says otherwise. A nanny would be allowed on set as well (though CBS would not have to pay for that). These days Redgrave would get transportation to the show if CBS offered this to the male costar, otherwise it would be a suit about gender discrimination.

R106 Nursing mothers DO NOT have the right to bring their newborn to work. What makes you think that? It wasn’t true in 1980 and it’s not true by any legal right today. Now just culturally some private companies may allow one to do so. That is a privelege they are giving employees. They don’t have to do it by any law.

Wheel of Fortune used to make winners "spend' their winnings on merchandise.

I loved when they did that r108. There was always a shitty ceramic Dalmatian statue nobody ever wanted. And if you couldn’t find something you liked they would put the cash on a Service Merchandise gift card.

[quote]Wheel of Fortune used to make winners "spend' their winnings on merchandise.

"LOOK at this studio! FILLED with glamorous PRIZES!"

Sharon Gless's book also told the fabulous story (if I remember right) that she and Redgrave staged a fight at the show's wrap party. Gless held one when the show was cancelled and invited Redgrave (but not Rogers).

R106/R107 as my grandfather used to say, "Productivity goes down on the job when women are hired or are in charge."

I remember disagreeing strongly with him at the time, but since I've entered the workforce, I have to concur.

Men tend to be more industrious, while women are generally lazy and will put off working whenever they can.

No, workplaces do better with women leaders.

I don't think Wayne Rogers was entirely blameless in Lynn Redgrave's troubles. He had a lot of pull and even got executive producer Jerry Davis fired and replaced with his own personal manager, Arthur Gregory. Gregory, as it turns out, also represented Redgrave, but when it came time for contract renegotiations, he withdrew from managing her.

Wayne and Lynn also shared an agent at William Morris, Freddie Westheimer. But Westheimer announced that he would only fight for Wayne's interest and assigned a junior level agent to represent her. That agent proved to be ineffective, so Redgrave fired the agency and enlisted her husband, John Clark, to represent her. That being said, Lynn was frozen out of Wayne's circle and left out to dry. Had he been sympathetic to her cause, he would've fought to keep her.

If Rogers was upset the Redgrave was fired, that sounds to me as just PR spin.

The old, Bill Cullen-hosted "The Price is Right" bears almost no resemblance to the rebooted version.

Okay, I remembered it right, details of the House Calls wrap party here.

SPACE 1999!!

R116 Loved her memoir - forgot that story. I just remember her saying she got along with 99% of her costars, and Rogers fell into that 1% of costars she did not. She really disliked him.

Proof that Hollywood is a Man's Game....where a nobody like Wayne Rogers, who was a not very interesting 2nd banana on a hit show, had more clout than an Oscar nominated Redgrave.

R119 Not necessarily true. Rogers was part of an ensemble cast for a top-rated comedy playing a beloved character for three seasons. Television audiences knew him and his work. Redgrave may have been an Oscar-nominated actress, but not all movie actresses transfer to television so well (especially in comedies). She succeeded buy movie star Stockard Channing did not (they debuted on TV at the same time).

I want to hear more about r112 and his grandfather and their learned opinion that women are by nature inferior in the workplace.

Do you suppose they are so lazy because their uteruses wander around unmoored inside their bodies?

Oh, r17, that retooling was just awful. I haven’t been able to make it through season two after absolutely loving season one.

I’ll never forgive them for taking out my two prime crushes, Paul and Dr, Matthias, in addition to so much else that made the first season so fantastic.

R112 What a crock of shit. Maybe in hillbillyville but I wouldn’t even want to disrespect those women that way. Thats complete baloney. I will contend men are more likely to be drama free but all of the best bosses I ever had were lipstick lesbians.

🎵 And suddenly you’re finding out the facts of life are all about you… ALL ABOUT YOU

Did Space 1999 change its opening credit music like Lost in Space?

Season two’s opening credits look cheap and half- developed, like the season itself.

Season one’s opening credits: superior in every respect, especially the Barbara Bain PIVOT.

I have to laugh in the opening of Season 2 when Martin Landau turns around in his chair and starts shooting.

Thanks r100

Room and Bored.

And I should know because I was on it!

Regarding Cindy, Season 7 of Laverne and Shirley was assumed by everyone to be the last season. Cindy was looking to start a family, Penny wanted to move on to directing and Betty Garrett had already agreed to start work on another project. It was a shock to all of them when ABC wanted another year. And they threw a lot of money at Penny and Cindy to continue.

Since Betty couldn't come back, they had Edna leave Frank. Michael McKean could only come back on a part time basis, so David Lander and him were barely seen, and Penny recruited her showbiz pals to help fill out episodes in Cindy's absence.

The final episode was a planned spinoff for Carmine, but it was never picked up.

[quote] The final episode was a planned spinoff for Carmine, but it was never picked up.

Thank heaven.

I always thought The Big Ragu looked like he’d be fun in bed.

Also, R131, if I remember correctly, even before Cindy left, she and Penny had begun appearing onscreen together less and less -- episodes were centered either solely on Laverne (with Shirley appearing only briefly at some point) or on Shirley with Laverne only appearing for a moment or two. (Some episodes featured neither and were focused primarily on the supporting cast like Lenny and Squiggy whenever Michael McKean was available.) I don't know if this was because of Penny and Cindy's deteriorating relationship or what, but there appeared to be a conscious effort to keep them apart as much as possible. Of course, this ended when Cindy departed the show altogether, at which point it became completely unwatchable.

Operation Petticoat, the short-lived series based on the 1959 film starring Cary Grant & Tony Curtis. John Astin, Richard Gilliland, and a very young Jamie Lee Curtis headed the large cast during its first season. It went a full 22 episodes but the ratings weren't great (8:30 Saturday night). ABC renewed it, but decided to retool it. (I assume they thought it was a property worth saving, just based on name-recognition of the original film?)

The entire cast was replaced except for three supporting actors (Melinda Naud, Jim Varney & Richard Brestoff), and they brought in all new writers. ABC also moved it to a more desirable time slot on Monday night, as the lead-in to Monday Night Football. Somehow, it was even worse & cancelled four episodes into its second season.

Replacing the always charming & funny John Astin (as commander) with the charmless & comedically-impaired Robert Hogan? That's a major reboot FAIL, in & of itself! What the hell were they thinking?

Veronicas Closet was retooled basically every season. so was Ellen.

Roseanne and her winning the lottery. That one episode in the Hamptons where DJ gets seduced is funny. “Shouldn’t you two be wearing sweaters!”

Let us not forget the “Valerie” saga. Woof. That was messy.

Grace Under Fire after she flashed Quentin and he came back from the summer through puberty and two feet taller.

r138 it wasn't forgotten at r26

R139 And Julia Duffy randomly shoved into what turned out to be the final episode.

Julia Duffy was the queen of raw deals in the '90s.

Failing or iffy project? Call Julia Duffy.

Baby Talk, Designing Women, The Mommies, Grace Under Fire...

Maybe it’s been mentioned already but “Dallas” jumped back in time as I recall in order to erase the events of the previous season (giving us the infamous “Bobby in the shower” scene).

Depending how you interpret 'retooling', Falcon Crest was retooled twice if not three times. The season (7) Chase was written out of the show and Kim Novak played a character playing a character. The show switched to video, introduced humor to the dialogs, and replaced a couple legacy characters for new ones with lots of stunt casting. Two years later the stunt casting became too expensive, Melissa was killed off and the Hispanic family came out of nowhere. Then for the last season, the most radical retooling had only Lance and Emma as legacy characters. Everybody else was gone by then.

Mannix. He worked for a large, independent intelligence company in season one. All of a sudden in Season two, he worked for himself in a small Spanish style bungalow.

The first season of Wonder Woman took place in 1942, and largely centered on Wonder Woman, her alter ego Navy Yeoman Petty Officer First Class Diana Prince, and her boss Major Steve Trevor thwarting the Nazis.

Despite its ratings success, the show was expensive to produce due to its period details, prompting ABC to hesitate on picking it up for second season. CBS swept in and greenlit a second season on the condition that the show be set in modern times.

Rebranded "The New Adventures of Wonder Woman," the second season had the ageless Diana Prince joins the Inter-Agency Defense Command (IADC) and is partnered with Steve Trevor Jr, Joe Atkinson, and a highly intelligent computer, IRAC, to combat threats to national security.

The third and final season was aimed at a teenage audience and featured teen idol guest stars like Leif Garrett, Clark Brandon, and Rick Springfield, skateboarding, roller coasters, and disco dancing.

There was an episode of 'Rhoda' in Season 4 that was used as a possibility for a retooling of sorts.

For 3 1/2 seasons there were plenty of cast changes on 'Rhoda' as none of the costars they brought in ever gelled. In the middle of season four, they did an episode called "Ida Alone", as Martin is on his extended vacation and Ida is depressed because she's lonely (many of her friends have moved or died when she was 'away' during season 3). Rhoda decides to throw a 'get together' of all the neighbors on her floor, hoping Ida can make new friends. This episode was also a 'test' of sorts to see which characters worked well with Harper and the cast to bring back as a 'semi regular' cast member.

The only character that seemed to work in that episode was 'Vera' the eccentric cat lady, who had a very brief interaction with Rhoda and Brenda, but the producers liked what they saw (the episode aired in January, 1978). She was played by actress Gina Collens, and was invited back to reprise her character in another episode a few months later. The writers were interested in brining her in a 'semi regular costar' for the fifth season, Instead, they brought in a new character called 'Tina' for the workplace.

We recently had a thread about the whole Valerie Harper/Hogan Family fiasco.

[quote]There was always a shitty ceramic Dalmatian statue nobody ever wanted.

That ceramic Dalmation was there for years, and it cost several hundred $$$. Love the look on this lady face, like "are you fucking serious?"

"I'll put the rest of the money on a gift certificate to Service Merchandise, Pat."

[quote]The third and final season was aimed at a teenage audience and featured teen idol guest stars like Leif Garrett, Clark Brandon, and Rick Springfield, skateboarding, roller coasters, and disco dancing.

That season of Wonder Woman had my favorite episode, "Disco Devil." Washington DC's most brilliant scientists were partying at the hottest disco in town, but a telepath was reading their minds and stealing their secrets! Diana Prince went undercover in the disco to catch the telepath, and spun into Wonder Woman long enough to hit the dance floor.

It was fucking nuts.

Someone bought the ceramic dog

Was that the season where WW would spin twice to get into either a motorcycle WW outfit, a skating WW outfit, or a scuba WW outfit?

It was the last two seasons that had the different suits, r153.

When Wonder Woman spun into the scuba suit and went swimming in "the ocean" they didn't even try to hide the fact that she was in a swimming pool.

We watched Wonder Woman on LSD.

"Burke's Law." The first seasons of this early Aaron Spellilng show set the pattern for future Spelling productions like Love Boat and Fantasy Island, with lots and lots of has-been guest stars. But then they did a radical shift to "Amos Burke - Secret Agent" to cash in on the then-popular spy fad (Bond, U.N.C.L.E., Get Smart, etc.) Big failure.

[quote] We watched Wonder Woman on LSD.

On Lake Shore Drive?

Get Christie Love went through a revamp for iis second and final season.

Never watched Burke's Law but the secret agent reboot sounds incredibly dumb

The last season of Wonder Woman was bizarre. It was supposed to end with "The Man Who Could Not Die," with Diana Prince transferring to an IADC branch in Los Angeles and interacting with a new cast of supporting characters that included a new boss, an indestructible man (played by Bob Segrin), a cool cat pre-teen, and an indestructible chimpanzee (perhaps in response to the success of "BJ and the Bear"). This episode was supposed to be setting us up for the fourth season, but it aired out a sequence and in the next two final episodes, Diana is back in Washington, DC with Steve Trevor Jr.

Lynda Carter said the cancellation of Wonder Woman was a shock, as it was still doing good in the ratings. They all thought they'd have one more season and then CBS abruptly cancelled it.

[quote]out [bold]of[/bold] sequence

[quote]That season of Wonder Woman had my favorite episode, "Disco Devil." Washington DC's most brilliant scientists were partying at the hottest disco in town

What was that '70s disco called? It was on the south side of M Street in Georgetown, and you had to go down a set of stairs to the basement.

Mama’s Family.