ABC Network - Young Guy Christian - "Pilot" - WLS Channel 7 (Complete Broadcast, 5/24/1979) 📺

From the "Failed TV Pilots" department, here's another such show, Young Guy Christian, as transmitted over the ABC Network via Chicago's WLS Channel 7. (It aired right after a repeat of the Mork & Mindy episode "Mork the Tolerant," the original January 18th 1979 broadcast of which can be found here:    • ABC Network - Mork & Mindy - "Mork th...  )

An apparent spy/adventure spoof, this never-would-be series starred Barry Bostwick (looking almost like a cross between Ron Hunter and Rod Blagojevich with John Travolta hair) in the title role of an inept spy and Playboy socialite, plus a pre-Cheers Shelley Long (as Mia Mishugi; this pilot's failure will ensure three more years of John M. Smyth and Homemakers ads from her that would air all over Chicagoland, before she finally made the national big time on said program), Richard Karron (as a junkman), and Pat Morita (Happy Days and Mr. T & Tina - but before "The Karate Kid") as Professor Mishugi. The rest of the cast included Charles Tyner as Doctor Gasss, plus Linda Lawrence (as Ava), Alfie Wise (as a guard) and Mitchell Group (as a gang leader).

Includes:

Part of ending Mork & Mindy credits (with voiceover promo for Young Guy Christian by Bill Rice)

Recording then cuts into Angie preemption notice (voiceover by Ernie Anderson)

Show opening title sequence (technical note: at about the 24 second mark, the audio had a major drop in volume. This continued for about the next minute and a half of the recording. I don't believe this was a recording error; I think it was something either at the TV station or network. In any case, I did my best to boost the gain and do heavy noise reduction to get rid of the resultant hiss so as to attempt to keep the volume consistent)

Commercial: Coppertone - "Flash 'em a Coppertone Tan"

Recording cuts out of other ad and goes right into Act I of this pilot, which reveals the culprits behind this:

Written and Produced by Jerry Belson, Michael Leeson
(to think Belson went from Dick Van Dyke and the TV series adaptation of The Odd Couple to this)
Directed by Stuart Margolin
(what, acting in The Rockford Files wasn't enough?)

Commercials for:

Milk Mate chocolate flavored syrup

Betty Crocker Hamburger Helper - with the "Helping Hand"

Promo for Welcome Back, Kotter and "Hot Rod" for Friday (main voiceover by Ernie Anderson) (ending voiceover by Bill Rice)

Animated ABC ID (with lower-third station ID at bottom)

Episode Act II

Commercials for:

Snickers - "There's a Wild Bunch of Peanuts in Every Snickers Bar"

1980 Omega from Oldsmobile

Episode epilogue, leading into incomplete end credits (with voiceover promo for Carter Country and Alan King's Third Annual Final Warning by Bill Rice, who's in the middle of reading off the latter title when this recording ends), as follows (after the rest of the cast is shown):

Music by Murray MacLeod and J.A.C. Redford
Director of Photography - Michael W. Watkins
Edited by Richard Bracken
Assistant Editor - Sidney Wolinsky
Casting by Lynn Stalmaster and Associates, Toni Howard
Unit Production Manager / First Assistant Director - G. Warren Smith
Second Assistant Director - Bruce Hanson
(those last two positions are shown for only five or so frames before the recording ends)

This aired on local Chicago TV on Thursday, May 24th 1979 during the 7:30pm to 8:00pm timeframe.

About The Museum of Classic Chicago Television:

The MCCTv (FuzzyMemoriesTV) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit whose primary mission is the preservation and display of off-air, early home videotape recordings (70s to early 80s, mostly) recorded off of TV (in Chicago or other cities now too); things which would likely be lost if not sought out and preserved digitally. If you have any old 1970s videotapes recorded off of TV please email: [email protected] Even though (mostly) short clips are displayed here, we preserve the entire broadcasts in our archives - the complete programs with breaks (or however much is present on the tape), for historical preservation. For information on how to help in our mission, to donate or lend tapes to be converted to DVD, please e-mail [email protected] Thank you for your help!