Thought I'd start a thread for this obsure shortlived show rather than have things lost in the primetime soaps thread.

 

Based (loosely) on a successful Australian nightly soap, NBC hoped the success of Soap and Dallas would flow on this comedy serial. 

 

 

 

NBC hopes viewers visit `Number 96'

New series on sexcapades of apartment house residents is off to slow ratings start, mixed reviews from both critics and affiliates

 

The numbers for the first three episodes of Number 96, NBC -TV's controversial new series, were, in this order, 29, 24, 20. Those were the audience shares, respectively, of the "triple premiere" episodes broadcast Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (Dec. 10 -12). In ratings, the numbers were 18.0, 14.6 and 12.1. In rankings among the week's 66 prime -time programs they were 34th, 55th and 65th. The series, which NBC sources say is a limited series of six episodes, was billed by NBC as "a daring new comedy -drama serial" centering on "the escapades, ro- mances and problems of 16 married and single, kooky, kinky and straight -arrow residents of [an apartment house] at Number 96 Pacific Way."

 

Among the married, single, kooky, kinky and straight -arrow characters are "a nervous new divorcee . .. eager to embark on a swinging singles life "; "a chic, beautiful couple [who] experiment with ways to spice their marriage "; a widowed mother who "gets a taste of freedom and booze and likes both too much "; a retired Navy commander who "leches after beautiful, mysterious Lisa," and "an American 'princess' who wants to be a star and thinks the casting couch is the way to go." There's also a sex expert who's a transvestite.

 

Number 96, based on a series of the same name that was highly popular in Australia in the 1970's, was presented in its NBC premiere as "the most outrageous show on television" and the show "they tried to ban" in Australia. In Soap style it began with questions about the fate of its characters. In the opener, one character identified apartment building 96 as "Sodom and Gomorrah West," and, among other things, a woman's body was described as "made for black leather," another woman invited a new male tenant to give her an oil rub, and a neighbor, seeing a new husband carry his bride into their apartment after the honeymoon, concluded that they must have had a good time because "I see she can't walk." The premieres received, at best, mixed reviews from television critics -and much the same reaction from a sampling of affiliates. One affiliate, for instance, said: "It is not class television" and "will trouble some of our viewers," but that he thought "some of the characters and situations were pretty funny" and, though he con- sidered the program "very suggestive," he "didn't see that it went over the bounds" because "the bounds [already] have been stretched so far ?'

 

Typical of others was an affiliate who said he didn't like- the show, calling it "pretty lamely written and developed" and adding, "'.if you're going to be titillating, good God, be funny about it" There was also a suggestion that "the promotion was a lot more titillating than anything I saw on the show ?' One said he wasn't proud of the show, "but on the other hand, I look at the shows that beat us and I wouldn't be proud of them, either." (The first episode of Number 96 was edged by Vega$ on ABC; the second was beaten by 20/20 on ABC and Knots Landing on CBS; the third was done in by Dukes of Hazzard on CBS.) The affiliate offering that last opinion also suggested that NBC, `tin being good and straight- laced," has offered such shows as Di/f'rent Strokes and Facts of Life that haven't done so well in the ratings as, say, ABC's Three's Company. He added: "So maybe if that's what [viewers] want If NBC said the first two episodes got "pretty good" clearance, with 185 affiliates carrying each, but that clearances for the third dropped off to 174.

 

The first episode's 18.0 rating and 29 share, NBC researchers said, were one of the best premiere performances of the season, and in New York its numbers virtually doubled those recorded by the long -running All in the Family in its own premiere. An NBC spokesman conceded that the ratings for the second and third episodes "didn't move the way we wanted them to :' but also noted that the worst came on Friday night, "a particularly tough night" in view of CBS and ABC strengths. But it is on Friday nights that the series is scheduled to pick up its weekly runs, or, as a memo to editors put it, "snuggle into" the 9 -10 p.m. time period "and just smolder ?' One affiliate noted that advance schedules did not show Number 96 in the lineup after early January. NBC sources said that, as in several other cases, only six episodes had been ordered, but that if the program should yet get hot in the ratings, there are back -up scripts that could be put into production to keep alive the escapades, romances and problems of the married, single, kooky, kinky and straight - arrow residents of Number 96.

Edited August 6, 20205 yr by Paul Raven

 

I watched the premiere.  (I was a young teenager.)  The title "Number 96" seemed to be a play on "Number 69", indicating there would be some fairly explicit sex, but there wasn't.  It followed the basic format of "Soap", indicating that it would be funny, but it wasn't.  At the very least, you'd think it might feature some well-written and well-acted serialized storylines, but it didn't.  It featured some downright ludicrous scenes, such as a woman carrying on a long conversation with a liquor bottle as a cliffhanger.  It was just really bad, really poorly written, and awfully stupid.  

I seriously had no idea there was an American version, the Australian one was ahead of its time. An openly gay character, a Trans character, interracial romances, nudity and some pretty raunchy stuff played out on that show between 72 - 77. I am not surprised these elements never made it to the US version, but would be interested in how this show played out in the US. 

 

Apparently the show was often censored here too, but after the shows popularity grew, the censors apparently gave up

televisionau.com/2010/03

With today marking the 38th anniversary of ‘the night Australian TV lost its virginity’ and the release of the third DVD of Number 96, here’s a brief look at how the Americans adapted Australia’s hit show of the ‘70s for their own market.

Envious of the success of super soap Dallas on rival network CBS, America’s NBC approached Network Ten early in 1980 to enter into discussions over acquiring the rights to produce its own version of Number 96. The deal also needed the approval of Bill Harmon, co-producer of the original Number 96, as his company Cash-Harmon Productions jointly owned the rights with Network Ten. Harmon flew to the US to help complete the deal with NBC in mid-1980.

NBC debuted its own Number 96 on 10 December 1980, following an advertising blitz that saw the show launched during “96 Week”, with the series debuting over three nights before settling into a weekly Friday night timeslot. Leading storylines in the opening episodes included no less than five seductions, a robbery, a fight, a blackout and an earthquake.

But NBC, with America’s strict censorship laws, could not dare to bare as much flesh or uncover such saucy storylines as its Australian original. So the series that saw Australian television ‘lose its virginity’ was a lot more subdued in the US, although it did try to stretch the boundaries with regards to casual discussion of sex, but instead put the emphasis on comedy rather than titillation.

Number 96 US co-stars Sherry Hursey
and Howard McGillin

It also seems that the American producers, while envying the show’s earlier success in Australia, weren’t too impressed with the Australian original. “All we have taken from their series is the title. We got the basic idea from them. We’re not enchanted with the Australian version. We felt it was badly written and badly acted. Their show had broad jokes like we did here 15 years ago. They had very heavy characters. What sold their show was full-frontal nudity,” producer Bob Ellison told TV Week at the time of the US series’ launch.

Number 96 US co-stars Todd Susman
and Rosina Widdowson-Reynolds

The US adaptation was set in an apartment block at 96 Pacific Way, West Hollywood, and included a cast of around 18 actors, though most of them were largely unknown to viewers.  Ellen Travolta, John’s sister, played the co-proprietor of the local bar and grill. Other characters in the series included:

• a beautiful would-be concert pianist who decided that playing the field is the cure for a boring marriage;
• a retired naval commander who keeps a keen eye on the happenings at 96 through a pair of binoculars;
• a middle-aged widow who loses far too many inhibitions when she moves into the building;
• a psychologist with a secret greater than anything his patients, or neighbours, could imagine;
• a newly-married football hero who gains the amorous attention of his next door neighbour; and,
• a love-sick policeman who won’t leave his British girlfriend’s apartment.

However, despite the larger-than-life storylines and award-winning producers and writers — Ellison and writer David Lloyd had won awards for their work on The Mary Tyler Moore Show — Number 96 was a spectacular bomb in the US. Viewers didn’t take to the comedic adventures of the swinging tenants of the apartment block, and the series was ripped from NBC’s schedule in January 1981 — just as TV Week was reporting on the show’s recent US debut, acknowledging that “initial reports from America on the mid-December screenings were not good. The critics didn’t like the new show. But then, the Australian Number 96 did not number too many critics among its fans”.

Number 96 was not to be the only hit Australian series to be re-worked for the American market. Prisoner, which scored airtime across a number of markets in the US, was re-invented as a local series titled Dangerous Women, largely recycling many of the opening characters and storylines from the Australian original. In more recent times, the top-rating comedy Kath And Kim was adapted for NBC, with less than pleasing results.