"Out of the Blue" - 13 Week Theatre

13WT takes a look at the "Happy Days" spin-off "Out of the Blue," starring Jimmy Brogan and Dixie Carter, which ran on ABC from September to December, 1979.

[@b.felicisimo5937]

I remember my local ABC affiliate had a tape of the pilot episode they would run occasionally as a time-filler, usually on Sunday afternoons. Years later I do a search for “Angel sitcom” and I’m led directly here. Thank you!

[@yournamehere6002]

I'm old enough to have seen this when it originally aired, and liked it!

[@grimlyfiendish5579]

I enjoy all of your videos...even if I wouldn't enjoy the shows haha. Keep up the good work!

[@Aramanth]

I loved this show as a kid!! As with many shows I loved as a kid... It was cancelled after one season! LOL! Remember _The Phoenix_ 1982? Remember _Ghost Story_ 1972?

[@blackpeter70]

As a 10 year-old at the time, I feel I did my best to keep the show going!

[@amightysailingman]

I was an ABC addict in the late 70s and all I could remember about this show was the opening chorus of the intro. Nothing else was memorable. Couldn't even remember who was in it.

[@foodforinsomnia7026]

Me too. The theme popped into my head, (out of the blue lol) and it prompted me to look up the show on YT.

[@Extratexture4]

I can’t believe how long TV sitcoms embraced the sassy maid trope.

[@toddanthony6664]

Since the very beginning of television. The earliest example I can think of is Beulah in 1952.

[@orangehornet57]

I remember the show. Quite a few series didn't do well against 60 Minutes. It had a catchy theme song. Maybe Jimmy should have worn his glasses. One episode was about the twins' birthday. He briefly changed one of them into a girl. Another episode was about the teenage football player getting injured. But he said that angels weren't allowed to perform miracles. Years later Jimmy Brogan would have a regular role on The Tonight Show. He and Jay Leno are good friends. I actually didn't realize that Jimmy played Random. Robin Williams was in the audience of Jay's first Tonight Show appearance.

[@brianarbenz1329]

Oh, an early TV look at transgendered.

[@curtb9567]

@@brianarbenz1329 No the plot was that the twins didn't want to be identical. They went through many different looks and decided they had benefits looking alike. If anything one being a girl made their decision to stay as is, not anything to do with trans issues. It was 1979.

[@brianarbenz1329]

@@curtb9567Of course. I was joking.

[@VinnieRattolle]

I'm the one who leaked the only episode that's available, which I obtained from a dubious collector decades ago (I paid for the Robin Williams episode, but received the Dermott Downs show instead), as well as all of the hi-res images, which came from a set of slides I got on eBay. According to the description sheet that came with the slides, Clark Brandon was replaced by a younger actor named Rad Daly at some point. No idea if Daly's episodes ran in primetime, but they probably aired when it was run on Saturday mornings. Sad that there's still so little info about this show.

[@PabSungenis]

Thank you for putting it out there.

[@LoneWolfAttack]

I'm hardly an expert on this show, since I dropped it after Week 1 and maybe only saw 5 minutes of any of the other episodes back then, but it's well known that Dixie Carter got fired and Clark Brandon was to take over that parental role in the earthly world. (That, and Eileen Heckart was furious that she didn't get fired. Ouch.) Brandon specifically mentioned filming the new "pilot" on November 5, 1979 in an interview back then. I don't know if that's what aired in December -- somebody who watched it would have to tell me -- but by all accounts, they were reworking the show to play in an 8:30 time slot... which it didn't get.

[@curtb9567]

We should get people to email Paramount TV to put it online as a children's show at the website. It could do well there. And we would get to see it again!

[@aiberlane3390]

It seems whenever shows have comics and don't let them write, things often go badly. This one, Charlie & Company (Cosby ripoff starring Flip Wilson), and Nearly Departed are the ones coming to mind.

[@ThatJohnKillion1970]

Whenever anyone mentions Happy Days spinoffs, no one remembers this show. I couldn't be the only one that remembered it.

[@blackamerican40]

3:40 I love when the music dies terribly. Awesome!

[@ClassicTVMan1981X]

In the closing credits, it's then followed by the 1979 version of Lalo Schifrin's at-times-scary "Color ID" jingle: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fX2VfqufrJeWq9k

[@imrustyokay]

Y'know, If this show had been more tailored to Brogan's style of humor and, most importantly, been scheduled right, it would've been, at least in the short term, a winner.

[@joshuaturnage5243]

The same idea had been released before as movie released in summer of 1978 called Heaven can wait. Starring Warren Betty

[@chrislang9442]

Robin Williams tended to overshadow anybody, no matter who he was paired up with.

[@brotherkellymatthewbarnes8882]

What about Jonathan Winters? Jonathan 1st appeared on Mork & Mindy as Fred McConnell's Older Brother, then later as M&M's son Mearth.

[@cityhawk]

@@brotherkellymatthewbarnes8882 Jonathan and Robin were legends, and Robin had nothing but great admiration for Jonathan. Because of that, Robin was never going to overshadow Jonathan. Jonathan was a bigger than life personality. They complimented each other. With that being said, it was a very desperate move.

[@supereurobeat]

Thanks for the video. Have been interested in this show for a while. ABC failed so bad in 1979 killing 3 of its top 4 shows with bad scheduling moves. Hope I can see all the episodes of this show one day.

[@fromthesidelines]

Brogan later became Jay Leno's head writer on "THE TONIGHT SHOW" in the 1990's.

[@brianarbenz1329]

I distinctly recall seeing an "Out of the Blue" episode on a Saturday afternoon. There must have been a baseball rain delay and the network reached for whatever they had on hand.

[@FaydOgolon]

ABC actually did re-run the pilot episode six days after it aired during Saturday daytime programming. I guess they were trying to get younger viewers more interested in it.

[@brianarbenz1329]

@@FaydOgolon Thanks. Mystery solved!

[@Garch-the-Great]

In Eileen Heckart's biography, written by her son, it said she was furious when it wound up running on Saturday mornings because she didn't sign up to do a [expletive] kiddie show. No idea if that was a one-time thing or if they burned off the unaired episodes. And we'll probably never know since info on the show is so scarce.

[@LoneWolfAttack]

ABC never burned off the unaired episodes in any daypart. Jimmy Brogan made jokes about that. Only one of the four unaired episodes ("Keeping the Housekeeper") was ever even scheduled. Marcy Carsey went to the producers when the show was being pulled from the schedule and told them to do more adult storylines for the last 2 episodes on order (while "suggesting" casting changes) because ABC wanted to relaunch the show in an 8:30 time slot. Not only did ABC not relaunch it in an 8:30 time slot, but they didn't even air 1 of those 2 episodes.

[@pancudowny]

I remember seeing the episode that Mork appeared in... Not the episode as a whole, but the episode itself. (Hey, I was SIX at the time! :[ )

[@jhhone]

It didn't help to schedule it against ratings juggernaut "60 Minutes"!

[@Kirkvanhouten55]

I was 12 when this came out and only watched it because I had crushes on Olivia Barash and Tammy Lauren. I remember thinking that it was duller than dirt

[@14DaveHunter]

Five years later, Michael Landon made the angel on earth success, with "Highway to Heaven".

[@Extratexture4]

Because this time the Star was experienced and had the steering wheel.

[@cityhawk]

@@Extratexture4 I'm not the biggest fan of Michael Landon, but I give him credit for having the vision to control his project as he sees it best. That's why it was successful. He knew what he wanted to do, top to bottom.

[@fromthesidelines]

Yep! NBC originally wanted him to feature a female co-star as "Jonathan's" human sidekick on "HIGHWAY TO HEAVEN", but Mike insisted on Victor French {and not just because they were close friends, and worked together on "LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE"). French was *perfect* as "Mark".

[@kristinazubic9669]

@@fromthesidelines and years later we got Tess and Monica, so it was all good.

[@fromthesidelines]

Indeed!

[@Fangarius]

Though I know this is an old KZbin video, this series does remind me of when Henry Winkler attended Comicpalooza in Houston. When someone had brought up the failed Happy Days spin-off, he said there were two things which had doomed the series from the start. One, don't name your series something which also means you just pulled it out of your hat. Two, don't make the spinoff episode about a Faust deal until you do your homework. Mr. Winkler had indicated this was one time ABC and the producers had failed being aware of their audience, as well as the sign of the times. In the late 60s through the 70s, Hollywood was obtaining serious flak from religious groups over the demonic genre. From Rosemary's Baby to The Omen, and the Exorcist, many protest groups picketed theaters and studios for producing these films. According to Winkler, Happy Days' audience (back then) consisted of many Christian and Catholic groups, which originally liked the series' family-friendly themes back when it had first premiered. Thus, when ABC had announced the Chaci Sells His Soul episode in the TV Guide, the networks received many protest letters about it. So much so, that ABC had forced the Happy Days' producers to shelve the episode, and as you said, pull the two-part Laverne & Shirley episodes originally intended for May Sweeps. My theory was one of the reasons for this was the producers had selected the wrong character from the start. Scott Baio was allowed to do something the actors were not allowed to show back in the early seasons of Happy Days. And that was permitting him to wear his crucifix on the show itself. Mainly because the producers felt this showed the character's Catholic nature. But for some of the Catholic and Christian groups, because Chaci did wear a religious symbol, why would he ever make a deal with the Devil in the first place? The other flaw was the character known as Melvin Scratch, the Devil's nephew. Rumor had it, Melvin was going to be Randal's rival of sorts, where he'd tempt the orphan family to do wrong, while Randal would get them back on the right path. But the creators had nixed the idea, since Melvin seemed a bit too formulaic, and when the episode was aired, some just didn't like the character. But enough about that, during Out of the Blue's initial run, I had already suspected it was doomed when ABC would do something, which they usually did to failed pilots: they would regulate them to Saturday Mornings. Usually as a temporal replacement to Saturday shows that just didn't work out.

[@funnypicturescomics]

Love your channel! Please consider doing a video about THE HIGWAY MAN!!!!!!

[@richardranke3158]

I saw one or two episodes of this show...and I don't think too many more of them aired.:-)

[@fromthesidelines]

12 episodes were produced; ABC scheduled only eight of them before they "cut their losses" in December 1979 (they never even got to produce a Christmas episode).

[@manofmanyinterests]

I am probably the only person who watched every week and missed it when cancelled.

[@MarceloRomero360]

Could you do an episode on the short lived 1970s cop show, TOMA?

[@maryexstroughtonaire4244]

I didn't know Dixie Carter was in this!!!!!

[@fromthesidelines]

I don't think she did, either. 😉

[@fromthesidelines]

There was no possible way this series could have ever been a success- primarily because ABC foolishly scheduled it on Sundays at 7pm(et)- opposite CBS' "60 MINUTES", *the* most watched program at that hour.....and "DISNEY'S WONDERFUL WORLD" {a new shorter title for "THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF DISNEY", used through 1981} on NBC.

[@keithbrown8490]

You could take most of the theme songs from the ABC sitcoms of the late 70's into the 80's switch them around to the other sitcoms of ABC and no one would notice since they all sounded alike. The writing of these shows were worse than the "Jump the Shark" episodes of "Happy Days". They kept beating the dead body of what was left of "Happy Days" by making almost all the ABC shows back door pilots of who could Fonzie bump into this week.

[@fromthesidelines]

Like Deborah Pratt as "Kat", in "Fonzie Meets Kat". Her own pilot, "KAT MANDU", was unsold *and* unaired; she later married Don Bellasario and was involved in producing "QUANTUM LEAP".

[@HerrEllsworth]

Jimmy Brogan's stand-up suggests an early version of Jerry Seinfeld but unlike Jerry's show years later, ABC wouldn't let Brogan have any input into the stories or his character. It might have been most interesting otherwise.

[@cityhawk]

Bender IsGreat Keep in mind that Garry Marshall was the genius that wouldn’t let Ron Howard direct an episode of Happy Days, even though he already had directing experience. Garry’s decision-making was spotty at best.

[@manofmanyinterests]

@@cityhawk Exactly. Happy Days really went into the toilet starting in the third season, with Fonz as "The Star".

[@cityhawk]

@@manofmanyinterests I call it “The Jimmie Walker Effect.” Family Matters faced that same problem with Jaleel White’s “Urkel”.

[@eugenekozma2697]

I wish you would do the Nancy walker show and the corner bar.both were short lived sitcoms from the 1970s.

[@edreid7872]

One of the more memorable theme songs...

[@PabSungenis]

Garry Marshall worked with great songwriters. Think "Happy Days," "Laverne and Shirley," "Angie," and "Goodtime Girls."

[@dawn_bestofj2]

I don't remember this show and I watchee ABC shows all the time in the 70s.

[@orlandodiaz6224]

Can you cover Wasteland, Kevin Williamson of Scream fame and doing a show like Dawson’s Creek. Or the Marla Gibbs spin-off of the Jeffersons. Thanks

[@travisjames3517]

What was Garry Marshall smoking??!

[@billwehadababyitsaboy8308]

I liked that show

[@manofmanyinterests]

I saw every episode when they first aired and was sad when it left.

[@yournamehere6002]

The stand up portion at the end you can't hear

[@Laceykat66]

What I am seeing in these shows is a total ineptitude on the part of network executives int he lat 1970s and early 1980s. It is like the Acid Generation was hired around 1974 and if you got a hit it was by a miracle not because anyone at the head office had any idea what they were doing.

[@classiclife7204]

Network executives: "Yes! Comic who appeared on Carson! High-concept comedy about angels! The Fonz! No wait, the Fonz AND Mork! Go, go, go, go!" Meanwhile, America: Who the hell is Jimmy Brogan?

[@14DaveHunter]

Like many lost shows, this had great potential. Not saying this, because I loved “Highway to Heaven” and “Touched By An Angel”. Jimmy Brogan was perfect as Random. Based on my own Christian faith, this show would’ve appealed to Judeo-Christians, the way the afore mentioned shows did. But, history will never show that.

[@cityhawk]

Maybe it isn't a concept built for comedies. As you mentioned, it seems to work very well with dramas.

[@pabulum28]

Dixie Carter? Like from TNA Wrestling?! (Just kidding here...every time I hear the name of the other, younger Carter (I'm an off again, on again fan of wrestling) I always have Designing Women pop up in my mind, so I was just reversing it here). Btw, RIP to actress Dixie Carter.

[@eugenekozma2697]

Joe and sons was a short lived TV sitcom in 1975.please profile that show.

[@kali3665]

Let's just say, the theme song was pretty good. The show? Maybe casting someone other than Jimmy Brogan? Maybe Don Rickles? Yes, I'm being sarcastic about that last one. :-)

[@ClassicTVMan1981X]

I know Maureen McGovern was one of the singers behind this tune.

[@cityhawk]

It looked like they needed a strong personality, probably an against type as to what an angel or spirit is supposed to be. You may have been flippant about casting Don Rickles, but you have the right idea. Garry Marshall projects were at their best when they had strong personalities leading the way.

[@brotherkellymatthewbarnes8882]

C.P.O. Angel Sharkey! that might have worked. No Really. Maybe not with so many kids though?

[@fromthesidelines]

You could have chosen *HANS CONRIED* to appear as "Random Angel", and it would have been a hundred times better, because Hans was great at playing a variety of stuffy, impatient and cynical characters- and having him intially dislike kids would have been great comedy {"You want me to perform a miracle.......who do you think I am, CHARLTON HESTON????"}.

[@kali3665]

@@fromthesidelines You know, I can SEE that! He would have been cool in the role.

[@roderwickfennell3615]

do you have the last episode air if do can you put it on you tube to see it, Called Double Jeopardy.

[@PabSungenis]

Sorry. I don’t have any full episodes. I would love to see them again myself.

[@marklingerfelt7626]

Me too

[@marklingerfelt7626]

Does anybody have them

[@videonut1988]

That was one of the first shows with the team up of Miller and Boyett along with Milkis...

[@PabSungenis]

From inauspicious beginnings, a team of legends.

[@cityhawk]

Pab Sungenis I wouldn’t call them legends, but they certainly knew their niche.

[@ClassicTVMan1981X]

Nope, Bob Boyett first joined up with Tom Miller and Ed Milkis on Angie, starting with episode 6 ("Theresa's Date," aired 3/22/79).

[@ms-vv2gg]

Brogan went on to write for Jay Leno before and during his Tonight Show tenure. Surely this pedestrian sitcom is only a vague but troubling memory for him.

[@alexanderchase6795]

When are you're going to do a episode for the T.V. Show "Making it"?

[@aiberlane3390]

Such an ironic title for a failed show.

[@MomLAU]

I saw that show once. It was pretty corny!

[@lorimiller4301]

I had the 45 of that song. I completely forgot that there was a show too. Thanks for the memories.

[@mwermuthland]

I've seen conflicting things on whether this was a crossover or spin-off, I guess the fact that the show premiered before the episode with Random makes it confusing. Was Random an actual name? Because of this I used to think Random was a name and would make jokes about the name/term "Random" (like saying the title character in Napoleon Dynamite should have been named Random because of how random the film is), but people would tell me Random was not a name.

[@mwermuthland]

This spin-off seems very obscure compared to Joanie Loves Chachi. Has it ever been rerun (perhaps on TV Land, which used to have a "Wonders of TV Land" block for shows that were too short lived to be rerun daily, and I think when Happy Days started running on Nick at Nite that TV Land aired a number of related rare programming).

[@ClassicTVMan1981X]

@@mwermuthland That's what I'd like to know as well! I know a similarly short-lived Miller-Milkis-Boyett/Paramount sitcom, Goodtime Girls, that which ran on ABC from January 22 to August 29, 1980, did re-air occasionally on TV Land.

[@davidlow862]

You should do a video about Blansky's Beauties sometime :)

[@ClassicTVMan1981X]

Seconded.

[@PabSungenis]

You missed it. :)

[@davidlow862]

@@PabSungenis ive seen it now, thank you :)

[@ClassicTVMan1981X]

@@PabSungenis I did find that one. Now, I wonder if you could try and do Goodtime Girls (1980)?

[@PabSungenis]

Lol.

[@sha11235]

How many spin-offs did Happy Days attempt?

[@PabSungenis]

Let's see: Blansky's Beauties, Joanie Loves Chachi, Mork and Mindy, Out of the Blue, Laverne and Shirley, the two cartoons (if you count them).

[@keithforsay4204]

Exactly!

[@lorimiller4301]

Wasn't there another show with Joni and Chachi ? they get married or something ? it's just on the tip of my tongue ?

[@GCBlues45]

Can you a episode of 13 week theater of the 90's Out Of The Blue. It was group of friends that worked at Sea World Orlando. The show did not last long. Can you do a episode of that.

[@PabSungenis]

I will look into it.

[@GCBlues45]

@@PabSungenis thanks man. Can wait to see more of 13 week theater

[@PabSungenis]

You don’t have long. The next two videos are available for Patreon subscribers now and the first of them goes wide May 24th.

[@GCBlues45]

Hey,i found out 90's out of the blue lasted 22 episodes. Still something to check out on why it lasted 1 season.

[@trapey]

saw two episodes of this show as a kid. Big stinker.

[@zombiedodge1426]

Until I discovered this channel I never knew how many flop TV series Garry Marshall had under his belt.

[@PabSungenis]

I’ve only scraped the surface.

[@zombiedodge1426]

@@PabSungenis When you make a show as big as HAPPY DAYS, I guess they give you a lot of room to fail. Steven Bochco might have more TV flops than anyone in history. I'd love to see a 13WT episode on his GEMINI MAN, two episodes of which were uneasily edited into the movie (and MST3K subject) RIDING WITH DEATH.

[@Derpy1969]

Do Otherworld. Yeah, it only went 8 episodes. Even worse.

[@alanm5090]

The timing of the crossover episode didn't help,they should had the fonz guest star in a episode also,lol

[@Portugal2025]

One suggestion. Do a show on Nobody’s Perfect. It was about a brilliant but also bumbling Scotland Yard detective who is assigned to assist San Francisco police. Ron Moody starred. I thought it was actually quite good. 8 episodes Also, Tenspeed and Brownshoe with Ben Vereen and Jeff Goldblum. Why that was canceled I will never know, but the show was absolutely brilliant

[@quad5186]

Interesting, I am here because I just watched Tammy Lauren on an episode of Quincy . But I saw Jeff Goldblum on Friends ( a show I never watch ) earlier today. And I was explaining the Tenspeed and Brownshoe series to my girlfriend who hadn’t heard of it. Ben Vereen was hilarious!

[@jhhone]

Another failed "Happy Days" spin-off "Blanski's Beauties" with Howard Cunningham's cousin Nancy Blanski (Nancy Walker) making an appearance on the show set in the 1950's only to appear in her own show set 25 years later without explanation! Also an episode with Laverne DeFazio (Penny Marshall) in a show taking place in 1977 as the 1950's Laverne again without explaination!

[@joshuaturnage5243]

I have never watched this show. It's a shame because one episode has a guest appearance by comedian actor Robin Williams

[@williammitchell4417]

So... This was why Battlestar returned??

[@GCBlues45]

Continue this man. Can you do the new Charlie's Angles that ABC deside to listen to critics & not ratings as the keep Once A Pond A Time that was down in ratings.

[@PabSungenis]

GCRams2 A third cycle is in production right now and will start soon. Thanks.

[@GCBlues45]

@@PabSungenis,welcome

[@albiegraydean3581]

Dixie carter before she became widely famous as Julia Sugarbaker.

[@travisjames3517]

I think they tried to revamp the series and dropped Dixie Carter and one of the kids.

[@jimmydeanpatterson1422]

Thank you ABC for pulling the plug on this horrible show.

[@warrior64]

Laverne and Shirley, Mork and Mindy were hits Blanski beauties and Chachi in Charge flopped

[@FLStelth]

I remember watching "Out of the Blue"....once. I was 12. It seemed really generic and predictable.

[@travisjames3517]

Garry Marshall put out a LOT of sh-tty shows. This and the spinoff “Blansky’s Beauties” was a mess.

[@CoopyKat]

That looks incredibly BAD.

[@alanm5090]

The intro was really bad also.lol

[@keithforest7653]

They Should Have Had Ramdon More From Place To Place Instead Of Settling Him Down To 1 Place Alone. It Get Pretty Tedious & Tiresome Pretty Fast. It Proably Would Have Worked With A Anothology Tone To It. Anthology Series Usually Work In Genreal.

[@cityhawk]

keith forest I could see something in that form work today. A spirit dropping into different places in anthology form. It’s not half bad.

[@amightysailingman]

They basically tried that a couple of years earlier with Carl Reiner in Good Heavens.

[@keithforsay4204]

But Not As Another Situation-Comedy People May Think Of Highway To Heaven! It Had A Pretty-Start At 1st But Michael Landon Made The Mistake Of Revisiting The Same Characters Over And Over Again The Reappearances Of Most Of Them Were Pretty Pointless. A Little Of Some Of Them Went A Very-Long Way! Some of Them Weren't Really Actors In Fact ML Probably Regretted It Himself. The Show Us! Looked So Promising.

[@harrymann5523]

Jimmy Brogan was a very funny man. But, this show was very unfunny.

[@LannieLord]

This looks HORRIBLE .

[@gaywizard2000]

Some Neil Breen fans were harassing me about what do I know from bad film? Hey, I lived thru, and apparently watched every single show of the 1979-1980 TV season! You kids have no idea!