Re: What Did You Watch? 2024-05-17 (Friday)

atropos@mac.com wrote:

Ubiquitous <weberm@polaris.net> wrote:

A NEW TATTOO?! THE *SCANDAL* THAT BROUGHT DOWN FANTASY ISLAND AND ABC:
"Show Me a Hero / Slam Dunk" (Fantasy Island)
Season 5, Episode 1
Aired: Oct. 10, 1981
 
Mr. Roarke (Ricardo Montalban) welcomes his goddaughter, Julie (Wendy
Schaal), as his assistant-in-training with Tattoo (Herve Villichaize).
 
Villichaize had threatened to walk off the show if Aaron Spelling didn't
meet his demands. As a result, producers hired his potential replacement
should he leave the show.
 
This episode was originally supposed to star Melinda Naud (Happy Days)...
until a scandal behind the scenes at ABC.

>
How did any of that "bring down" ABC? Especially considering ABC is
still around today?

If watched, you'd know. :-)

ABC was the top network at the time until it became public that the network
president hired a pyschic to pick their shows. It was Melinda Naud
who introduced the two, so they went with Wendy Schaal as tattoo's
replacement to avoid further embarassment. When that idea flopped, they tried
to bring back Tattoo, but the show never recovered and the network lost their
top rating. I guess I wasn't watching at this point, but they replaced Tattoo
with Mr Belvedere in the final season.

--
Let's go Brandon!