Why did ABC remove ‘Home Economics’ from curriculum?
You have questions. I have some answers.
Q: Now that “The Goldbergs” has ended, ABC still has a good comedy lineup on Wednesday nights with “The Conners,” “Not Dead Yet” and their best show, “Abbott Elementary.” But the 9:30 p.m. Eastern time slot after “Abbott” has had a rerun of that show or “Celebrity Family Feud.” Why did ABC cancel a good, very funny show like “Home Economics” when it would have been a perfect fit after “Abbott Elementary”?
A: ABC did try the comedy starring Topher Grace in that time slot, without great success. By the end of its third season, the Hollywood Reporter said, the show “had the smallest Nielsen-measured audience among the five ABC comedies that aired during the regular September-to-May season in 2022-23.”
Q: What can you tell me about the show I remember called “It’s About Time”? It was a comedy about astronauts who travel back in time to the era of cave men.
A: “It’s About Time,” as the theme song said, “It’s about space, about two men in the strangest place …” And thanks for pulling that out of my memory banks. The show originally aired on CBS for a single season in 1966-67. At first it had two astronauts (played by Jack Mullaney and Frank Aletter) accidentally transported back in time, where they encountered a Stone Age tribe (Imogene Coca, Joe E. Ross, Mike Mazurki and others). It was not a hit and midway through the season the astronauts got back to the present day — with some of the tribe accompanying them. That didn’t bring any more viewers. But we’ll always have that song.
Q: You often cite “The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows.” The latest, ninth edition which I own is from 2007. Will there ever be an updated 10th edition to include later shows?
A: When it comes to topics here, in addition to online searches, I rely on Alex McNeil’s “Total Television,” Lee Goldberg’s “Unsold Television Pilots,” a couple of books about movies on television, “The Film Encyclopedia,” “The New Biographical Dictionary of Film” and, more than any other, “The Complete Directory.” I wore out my first copy of the ninth edition and had to replace it, and still have some earlier editions as well. But I don’t think we will ever see a new edition. The vast number of shows in recent years make the task daunting, and the size of the book hard to imagine; the ninth edition was more than 1,800 pages. Even back in 2007, Tim Brooks — co-author with Earle Marsh — told TV critic Aaron Barnhart that assembling all the material was becoming too much. “Earle and I have done it all ourselves. To hire staff and researchers, the economics aren’t there to do it,” he said.
Q: If I remember right, in the 1960s TV series “Lost in Space,” Dr. Smith stowed away on the Robinson family’s spaceship. Who is the actor who played his character? I heard quite a while ago that he was an accomplished Broadway actor. Is this true?
A: Jonathan Harris played the ever-amusing Dr. Zachary Smith, who sabotaged the Jupiter II and set the Robinson family on its threeseason TV journey in 1965-68. When Harris died in 2002, his New York Times obituary mentioned “Lost in Space” first among his credits, as did the Los Angeles Times’ obit. He had done stage work — the L.A. Times said his early career included 125 plays with stock companies around the country, and his Broadway debut in 1942 was followed by several more plays. But the bulk of his work was in TV, both as an actor in various shows and as a voice actor in animated productions.
Q: Can you tell me anything about “Rising Damp”? I think it was on PBS perhaps in the late ‘60s. It starred Frances de la Tour, who later appeared on Broadway.
A: The comedy, a British import carried by public TV stations here, originally aired from 1974 to 1978, with a movie following. Leonard Rossiter starred as the grouchy landlord of a shabby house; de La Tour was an especially interesting tenant. It was funny, although I admired Rossiter more in another ‘70s comedy, “The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin.” I have seen DVDs for sale of “Rising Damp” on Amazon (although you need to check that they are U.S.-compatible), and subscription streamer BritBox lists it. There’s also a nifty website about the show, risingdamp. org.