Saturday, November 18, 2006

John Saxon Had A TV Show?

How many of these stars do you recognize?

I'm surprised no TV producer is doing anything like THE BOLD ONES today. THE BOLD ONES was actually an umbrella title used for a rotating series of three different shows: THE NEW DOCTORS, THE LAWYERS and THE PROTECTOR (THE SENATOR replaced THE PROTECTOR after one season; after its cancellation after one season, THE NEW DOCTORS and THE LAWYERS rotated, with THE NEW DOCTORS going it alone in Season Four). Every week, a different series would air in THE BOLD ONES' timeslot, giving viewers a taste of variety and allowing several name actors the freedom and time off to do feature films while still maintaining a lucrative regular series gig.

I'm not certain how much THE BOLD ONES has been rerun since the show began on NBC in the fall of 1969. I saw several NEW DOCTORS segments during its brief TV Land run in the late '90s. It was a solid enough medical drama, though the only episode I have much memory of is "In Dreams They Run," a drama about muscular dystrophy that marked one of the very few TV directing jobs by Jerry Lewis.

I'm surprised NBC hasn't brought back the umbrella concept with the LAW & ORDER franchise, rotating the three different series in a single timeslot.

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