May is the month that is usually the home of season and series finales, since it's the end of the TV season. Many shows never have a chance to have a planned finale since most most shows fail in catching on in the first place. This month we take a look at some examples of how shows made their ends.
"Green Acres" was a popular show in the 1960's it ran on CBS from 1965 to 1971. Since, this article is about last episode we talk about how ... wait a minute. Green Acres really doesn't have an official series finale. Many TV series in the last 50's and all through out the 60's were based in rural and or small town areas , CBS in particular. They were mostly well revived and popular series that came out in this time. Over the course of events in the 1960's things were changing on the outfront and one thing networks really wanted was to be part of the change. Seeking younger viewers is something networks strive to do. The idea was they starting to reject programming that didn't take place in urban areas, that didn't have young people , or didn't fit with a social narrative of the times.
Maybe one day I'll talk about the so-called "Rural Purge" but since we are here to talk about "Green Acres" we are going to get to that but using the purge as a connector. The Rural Purge as it is called is what is called a period of between 1970 to 1975 when networks (especially CBS) decided to no longer have as much programming set in non urban (read: hip, city folks) areas. This series was doing well in ratings for the network. In fact, in it's last season it was in a block of programming where it aired Tuesdays at 8PMET/PT , after the other popular series that was rural purged , "The Beverly Hillbilly's", which aired at 7:30pm (more on that in a second) , and it was on before "He Haw" another show that was Rural Purged and if I ever talk about that show , it had that last laugh there.
Now the not last episodes , last episodes.
It's as if they were anticipating what CBS was doing the people working on the show made two episodes that ended up being the last two as back door pilots for new series that they in hoped to be new series. Episode called "Hawaiian Honeymoon" which was a backdoor pilot for a hopeful series called "Pam". The only connector that is was Green Acres was Oliver and Lisa going to Hawaii just to make sure CBS didn't get confused and somehow air the Green Acres theme but pop in a different show. The next episode called "The Ex-Sectary" did the same thing it had Oliver and Lisa be there at the start, trying to connect them to the story but the rest of the episode is a back door pilot for a show called "Carol" which also didn't make. Both these series pilots focused on a young woman in the working world , the kind of idea CBS was looking for.
So the last episode that is "Green Acres" is the episode that aired on March 9th , 1971. This episode is called "Lisa the Psychologist" and it was a normal episode of the series. It is a strange case because there are many series that have not really had a finale because they were canceled before it could have one or the people working on the show didn't know it was going to end. The reason why I picked this case is because of the external things around its end.
Bringing back the 7:30pm thing now. The FCC had made a new rule around early 70's to come into effect in the 1971 was that the hour before 8pm ET/ 7ct had to be given to local stations to help foster independent productions and local programming. With the 7:30pm/6:30ct half hour not of access for network programming anymore, networks had to shave that time off and many programs got caught in the loop. Green Acres wasn't airing at 7:30 though. Infact Tuesday of the next season CBS still started at 7:30 for the time being, they moved the "Glen Campbell GoodTime Hour" to Tuesdays taking the Beverly Hillbillies and Green Acres slots. So it wasn't even rural purged and replaced with the shows CBS was replacing other things with but with one of the shows that manged to laugh at the purge for awhile. (Though Campbell's show was canned at the end of the 1971-72 season.)
This wasn't a look at an episode in particular but, a look at how one show didn't get it's goodbye chance because of some external factors. Also ironic because this show was about a city guy who wanted to move to the country to be a farmer and the series was ended because it wasn't in the city. (I will note that Rural purge is also included with series that didn't have a rural theme but also got canned too.)
I don't plan it this way but yes I have a blog post because they did do a reunion movie for "Green Acres" which you can read about HERE .
Taking a break from this series of posts as we have other themed things do , but will be back to this topic later with sometimes a last episode is built up as a big going out party with an arc plot and everything.
Tune in next time when we replace all programs or remake current shows but they take place in the country now. Imagine the fun of "Big Acres Theory".
1 comment:
Went on a lot back in the old days of TV. For many reasons.
For example, the most iconic series of them all, "I Love Lucy-Comedy Hour' went off the air in April, 1960 without a finale. In fact, it wasn't until the next day, when Ball filed for divorce, that it became fait accompli. The series was caput.
'The Beverly Hillbillies', 'Hogan's Heroes', 'Petticoat Junction', 'Combat', 'All In The Family' and 'Gomer Pyle' also had no finales. But, when MASH did their finale special in 1983, which turned out to be the most watched TV episode ever, going with a finale became a planned part of a series, and writers game-planned just in case they were on the payroll when their series was cancelled.
Paul Henning had no plans to do a finale for any of his series. As you noted, they did a couple of 'back-door' pilots to fill the last two Green Acres episodes, neither of which were picked up as a regular series but they were not really related to the series. Henning himself didn't know the fate of his series before they were cancelled and was ready to plow ahead with scripts for a season 10 of the Hillbillies, season 8 of the Petticoats and season 7 of Green Acres. Mike Minor, for example, had a long term contract with Henning (Minor was the son of 'My Three Sons' producer Don Fedderman-'Family Affair as well) and was sent over to guest star on 'TBH' for a few episodes in season 9 after 'PJ' was cancelled. In fact, Minor is the last person you see, cleaning Mr. Drysdale's windows, in the last episode of that series. He was 'that' close to marrying Elli Mae but didn't make the deal. Minor, like nearly all of the cast on each of Henning's series, didn't have much of a career after their series were cancelled. Minor was never heard from again. However, Miss Jane did do a lot of guest roles on various series after 1971.
I think that the real question should be 'what do you think the finale for each series should have been' (had they done one)?. And, how would you do an episode for each if they came back today, in real time?. Using any remaining cast?. Be fun to ponder that.
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