In 1955, U.S television launched one of its most interesting experiments: the umbrella series, in which different TV shows were rotated in the same time slot under a single title. The original umbrella series was
Warner Bros. Presents, in which the TV shows
Cheyenne,
Casablanca, and
King’s Row were all shown in the same time slot. The only one of the three to be renewed was
Cheyenne, the Clint Walker Western that evolved into a launch pad for other TV series. The umbrella series concept seemed to die a swift death.
However, it was revived unexpectedly in 1969 when NBC borrowed the format for
The Bold Ones—which was three separate series linked only by the fact that (apparently) the protagonists were bold! The rotating shows were
The New Doctors (with John Saxon, David Hartman, and E.G. Marshall),
The Lawyers (Burl Ives, Joseph Campanella, and James Farentino), and
The Law Enforcers (with Leslie Nielsen and Hari Rhodes). The last series performed poorly and was replaced the following year with
The Senator, starring Hal Holbrook as an idealistic politician. For the third year, only
The New Doctors and
The Lawyers were retained. In its final season,
The Bold Ones consisted only of its three physicians, even though the umbrella title was still used.
In 1970, NBC introduced the umbrella series Four in One. This time, there was no attempt to connect the separate shows even loosely. Each series consisted of six episodes shown back-to-back…and then the next series would start. The four shows were: McCloud (with Dennis Weaver); San Francisco International Airport (with Lloyd Bridges); Night Gallery (hosted by Rod Serling); and The Psychiatrist (with Roy Thinnes). The advantage of the format was that each series got a limited try-out. It worked out well for Night Gallery, which was renewed and given its own time slot, and McCloud, which moved to The NBC Mystery Movie the following year. The downside to the format was that viewers didn’t have time to get invested in a series before the next one started. As a result, Four in One was deemed a failure.
That didn’t stop NBC from continuing to experiment with the umbrella series concept. In 1971, it launched the most successful of all umbrella series:
The NBC Mystery Movie. In its original form, this 90-minutes series consisted of three shows: the previously mentioned
McCloud;
Columbo (starring Peter Falk); and
McMillan & Wife (with Rock Hudson and Susan St. James).
The NBC Mystery Movie was a hit from the start and finished among the Top 15 TV series in its first year. Realizing it had a lucrative franchise on its hands, NBC tried to add a fourth show to the original three and eventually expanded to a second night of mysteries with
The NBC Wednesday Night Mystery Movie. Alas, detectives came and went quickly, including: Richard Boone as Western detective in
Hec Ramsey; Tony Curtis as a con man detective in
McCoy; James Farentino as an expensive detective in
Cool Million; James McEachin as an African-American family man detective in
Tenafly; and Helen Hayes and Mildred Natwick as
The Snoop Sisters. The only segments that really clicked were
Banacek (with George Peppard as an insurance investigator) and
Quincy, M.E. starring Jack Klugman. They each earned their own time slots, though Quincy was the far more successful of the two.
The success of the mystery movie prompted ABC and CBS to develop their own umbrella series—although neither was successful. ABC’s attempt was
The Men (love that title!), a 1972 one-season wonder consisting of
Assignment: Vienna (with Robert Conrad);
The Delphi Bureau (with Laurence Luckenbill); and
Jigsaw (with James Wainwright). CBS opted to go with big-name stars with the 1973
New CBS Tuesday Night Movie. Each month, CBS showed two original made-for-TV movies and then one episode each of
Hawkins and
Shaft. The former series starred James Stewart as a “countrified” crafty lawyer. In the latter series, Richard Roundtree reprised his film role as private eye John Shaft (the violence displayed in the movies was toned down considerably for the small screen).
Except for the
NBC Mystery Movie, the umbrella series faded quickly. There were attempts to revive the format in 1979 with
Cliffhangers (an innovative experiment worthy of its own article) and
NBC Novels for Television (which were basically miniseries…not unlike PBS’s long-running
Masterpiece Theater and
Mystery!). Unfortunately, the business side of TV production killed the concept. It was simply cheaper to produce one series with a regular cast and standing sets than to multiply those costs by two or three. Variety may be the spice of life, but on television, it can be expensive!
Merchandise tie-ins and other licensing deals have been an essential marketing tool for decades. For movies, it dates back at least to Walt Disney, who made a licensing deal with a Switzerland company for Mickey and Minnie Mouse handkerchiefs in the late 1920s. Another example is William Boyd’s Hopalong Cassidy films, which began in the 1930s and led to dozens of tie-in products such as kids’ lunch boxes.
