SoapDope78

Too bad we will probably never see complete episodes of the short lived series " The Survivors"

The husband (Alex) looks like he could be a Tom Selleck impersonator.

Does RTV still exist? I got it in my area around 2005 when it was branded RTN then around 2013 it disappeared. I think it only became available in certain limited markets because of financial problems. I relied on seeing The Doctors when episodes got uploaded to youtube. That got shut down after a period of time when I got up to about 1977 episodes.

I meant she was a placeholder during her last year before her contract expired.

Found this 1975 video of Richard Higgs narrating/demonstrating cars for Ford/Lincoln/Mercury. The promo is in several segments featuring the different models in the lineup. I was surprised to learn Higgs would commit suicide in 1977. I saw him as Dan on The Doctors reruns several years ago on youtube. He was a very tall man.

Thanks for the info. It sounds like they pretty much saw Rattray as a placeholder till Martha was ready to come back.

Did Heather Rattray leave on her own or was she let go because they wanted Martha back? I never knew what happened behind the scenes at the time. I just knew Martha was returning and then she shows up singing. There really not much info on Rattray and she has no acting credits after about 2000. I remember back in the day Superstation WTBS use to rerun all those 1970's Wilderness Family movies she appeared in as a kid/young teen.

Thanks for sharing. I went and researched the backstory after you posted. Wow ! One one hand you could say he had nerve to appear on TV with his criminal history, on the other hand you could say he had lack of brains of not thinking that through clearly. I laughed when they said he showed up to collect his check and was chased down 11 flights of stairs and was found hiding in the restroom.

Another TV urban legend is why George Peppard only did 2 seasons of Banacek for Universal. In some write ups it says Peppard was contracted to only a 60 minute show and since it the series was a 90 minute show, his contract wasn't modified and he left. In other write ups the real reason was supposedly he didn't want his ex wife Elizabeth Ashley to get more in the divorce settlement and Peppard called it quits to pretty much screw her over. Peppard was known to be jerk, so I wouldn't doubt that is the truth.

Supposedly Fred Silverman felt bad about how BLB ended. When he moved to ABC, he wanted Meredith for the role of Nancy on Family. She didn't have to audition and they agreed to her terms of not having to appear in every episode during the season. One thing that's interesting, right after Baxter assumed the role of Nancy, Elayne Heilvel appeared on Serpico with Baxter's husband David Birney. There are a lot of TV folklore stories that try to explain why a show was cancelled. The religious aspect concerning BLB is probably one of them. Another fable is about short lived 1970-71 sitcom Nancy. Supposedly that was cancelled due to pressure from the Nixon administration.

After bringing up Bridget Loves Bernie, I was able to pull up the first 7 episodes on Internet Archive. It's a cute show, but one problem that jumps out at you right away is there are too many cast members and too much focus on the in-laws instead of the young couple. Good writers could have woven better storylines and used the supporting cast in a better fashion. Birney and Baxter have excellent chemistry and one can see them falling in love for real. Too bad their marriage was tumultuous in real life. The show is very dated with the controversial marriage issue and several characters trying to make a point of the changing times by mentioning " It's 1972".