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The first season of this series was set during World War II. The second and third seasons were set in the 1970s. The main character didn't change. There was no need. Supporting characters were altered, however, to accommodate the time jump. The lead actor from the first season played his own son in the later seasons.The change in setting coincided with a change in networks airing the show.

A fairly famous actress who guest starred on this series was offered her own spin-off, but she declined to pursue a movie career. Her movie success was terrific as far as acting careers go, good but not as great as far as famous, successful actors go.

The lead actress of the TV show had the chance to meet the lead actor of a somewhat related movie franchise. Of him, she said he "was always amazing. He was amazing before he was amazing."

 

Edited by Raf
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9 hours ago, WordWolf said:

A) This reality show put a bunch of people in an RV and sent them around the US (usually)  to finish tasks and try to win "a handsome reward."  One season was on a big ship, and another season was across islands in Latin America or thereabouts.   Probably the crowning moment there was when they were waiting for a boat on a beach.  It arrived,  piloted by Bob Denver in appropriate costume.  "What's so funny?  "IT'S GILLIGAN!!!!!"   It would have been twice as bad if I were there- I was making Gilligan jokes as soon as a boat appeared on the horizon.  Having him actually appear after that would have been too much.  Oh, and the wind snatched off his hat- but one contestant jumped from the boat to rescue it.  Bob was very thankful.      The emphasis was more on the journey than on the locations, much of the time.  They eventually ended up not only crossing over with another "reality" show, but sort-of merging into the crossover show, which has lasted a LOT longer than this show!

MTV's ROAD RULES.

B) This reality show put some "celebrities" together (for some value of "celebrity" or another)  into one house.  We got Gary Coleman, Tammy Faye Baker, Vanilla Ice, Ron Jeremy,  Erik Estrada in one season.  Another season had Corey Feldman,  MC Hammer, Emmanuel Lewis, Gabrielle Charteris, and Vince Neil.  Another had Charo, Dave Coulier, Flavor Flav,  Jordan Knight, and Brigitte Neilsen.  Another had  Adrienne Curry, Christopher Knight, Verne Troyer, and Jane Weidlin.   Another had Jose Canseco, Janice Dickenson, and Bronson Pinchot.     Another (yes, six seasons!)  had Sherman Hemsley, Tawny Kitaen, Florence Henderson,  CC De Ville, and Steve "Smash Mouth" Harwell.

This show had more than 1 spin-off.    One memorable moment from the season with Jose Canseco was a softball game versus "the celebrities" - lookalikes of Michael Jackson, etc.  Heading that team was "Jose Canseco."   The resemblance was truly uncanny- because Jose Canseco has a twin brother and they brought him in for the episode!

The SURREAL LIFE.

C) This short-lived reality show had a businessman study martial arts,  then travel around to places with an indigenous martial art.  There he tried to crash-course on it in a few days, after which he tried to compete in it.  They didn't take it easy on the guy, and sometimes you had to wonder if he was going to suffer permanent damage or a fatal injury!

KILL ARMAN.

D) This reality show has a comedy troupe- the Tenderloins-  do a hidden camera show.  Each comedian wears an earpiece, and the others give him instructions he HAS to follow, and deal with the public.  If he fails at his task, he loses.  The biggest loser of an episode has a big punishment at the end of the episode.   The biggest surprise is always waiting to see what the public does.   We've seen people sign a petition for a charity called "Fake Charity".   We saw one comedian security-wanding at an event, and a woman deliberately vague as to if she was concealing drugs (so she would have to be searched),  and incidents where it looked like the comedians' lives were in danger!

IMPRACTICAL JOKERS,.

 

[E) This "documentary" attempted to compared different types of fighters and their weapons, to see who would win if they were forced to fight face-to-face, either one-on-one or five-on-five.  Despite attempts to be fair, they often were wildly subjective in how they measured damage, and applied rules inconsistent from episode to episode.  As an example of the former, they had both weapons slash on a side of beef- but it was the SAME side, so the second cutter had his target area reduced to half before he even began to swing!  (I would have insisted, before the swing, that they agree they were only making me hit the same slab of beef because they could only make the contest even by cheating.)   As an example of the latter, one episode considered the concealability of the weapons-  and a different episode comparing similar fighters completely disregarded it-  both times to the benefit of whoever was representing the exact same fighters (the Italian Mafia, vs the James Gang and the Yakuza, respectively.)    Whether armor was a consideration was often applied inconsistently (as protection against the LAST weapon but not the first 2), and a shield was never measured for its ability to block a blow (its primary function), but only for its ability to DELIVER a blow.  The unreliability of a weapon was often ignored. (When comparing Knight vs Pirate, the primitive "grenado" in the demonstration FAILED on camera.  However, when doing calculations for 100 versions of the same fight, they assumed the grenado would go off each time it was used- without even a 1% chance of failure.  Likewise, his black powder pistol was assumed to be 100% reliable.)   Finally, the wieldiness of a weapon was ignored in favor of only how much damage it did if it connected.  (Somali pirates with a boat anchor vs some drug cartel with a machete.  The anchor was slow to swing and hard to direct and slow to recover, the machete was fast to swing and easy to direct and fast to recover.  They said the anchor was more dangerous.  In a life-or-death fight with one against the other, give me the machete.  I have to evade the first swing of the anchor, then I have all day to slash one of the attacker's arms since the machete is one-handed and the anchor is not.)    All of that aside, they TRIED to measure who was more fatal, and it WAS entertaining despite its flaws.

DEADLIEST WARRIOR.

 

F) This long-running show is supposedly about what happens when people stop being polite.  :)   Its cast is rather obviously selected to try to find people most likely to have arguments and fights, and put them on the same season.   It's been considered a showcase for immaturity and irresponsible behavior.  That's inevitable when you cast with the network in question, and with the agenda of the network and management of the show.  (The show would likely have a slant no matter who ran it- in this case, it's ultra-left/ liberal.)  There weren't a lot of celebrity careers launched with this show, and I suspect the best-known series alum was the one who went on to become a comic book writer.  This show inspired at least 2 other shows on the same network.

("When people stop being polite, and start getting real.")  MTV's "The Real World,"  It crossed over with Road Rules and produced the Real World/Road Rules Challenge, now known as "the Challenge."

 

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6 hours ago, Raf said:

The first season of this series was set during World War II. The second and third seasons were set in the 1970s. The main character didn't change. There was no need. Supporting characters were altered, however, to accommodate the time jump. The lead actor from the first season played his own son in the later seasons.The change in setting coincided with a change in networks airing the show.

A fairly famous actress who guest starred on this series was offered her own spin-off, but she declined to pursue a movie career. Her movie success was terrific as far as acting careers go, good but not as great as far as famous, successful actors go.

The lead actress of the TV show had the chance to meet the lead actor of a somewhat related movie franchise. Of him, she said he "was always amazing. He was amazing before he was amazing."

 

The answer isn't coming to me yet- although it should, I'm sure.

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11 hours ago, GeorgeStGeorge said:

It should, indeed.  It has to be Wonder Woman.  I assume the "spin-off" actress is Debra Winger (Wonder Girl).  The lead actor of the other franchise was probably Chris Reeve.

George

Correct, correct and correct

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This is pretty much the whole summary from IMDb:

Carole Stanwyck and Sydney Kovak have nothing in common; they are the polar opposites of one another. Carole is a former socialite, who lost her fortune and is now making a living as a photographer and a courier. Sydney's father's a con-man, so she knows her way around the streets. She is also a pick pocket and a jazz bass player. The only thing that they have in common is the fact that they were both married Raymond Caulfield, a private investigator. When he was killed he left everything including his agency to them. After apprehending the one who killed him, they decided to run the agency themselves.

George

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Carole Stanwyck and Sydney Kovak have nothing in common; they are the polar opposites of one another. Carole is a former socialite, who lost her fortune and is now making a living as a photographer and a courier. Sydney's father's a con-man, so she knows her way around the streets. She is also a pick pocket and a jazz bass player. The only thing that they have in common is the fact that they were both married Raymond Caulfield, a private investigator. When he was killed he left everything including his agency to them. After apprehending the one who killed him, they decided to run the agency themselves.

In "previous lives," Carole worked for military intelligence, and Sydney worked for a radio station.

George

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Carole Stanwyck and Sydney Kovak have nothing in common; they are the polar opposites of one another. Carole is a former socialite, who lost her fortune and is now making a living as a photographer and a courier. Sydney's father's a con-man, so she knows her way around the streets. She is also a pick pocket and a jazz bass player. The only thing that they have in common is the fact that they were both married Raymond Caulfield, a private investigator. When he was killed he left everything including his agency to them. After apprehending the one who killed him, they decided to run the agency themselves.

In "previous lives," Carole worked for military intelligence, and Sydney worked for a radio station.

With these two stars, It's hard to see why the show only lasted one season.  Maybe they needed a redhead to round out the team.

George

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Rephrasing a bit:

Carole Stanwyck and Sydney Kovak have nothing in common; they are the polar opposites of one another. Carole is a former socialite, who lost her fortune and is now making a living as a photographer and a courier. Sydney's father's a con-man, so she knows her way around the streets. She is also a pick pocket and a jazz bass player. The only thing that they have in common is the fact that they were both married Raymond Caulfield, a private investigator. When he was killed he left everything including his agency to them. After apprehending the one who killed him, they decided to run the agency themselves.

In previous roles, the actress how played Carole worked for military intelligence, and the actress who played Sydney worked for a radio station.

With these two stars, It's hard to see why the show only lasted one season.  Maybe they needed a redhead to round out the team.

Overseas, the title was Fifty/Fifty, to avoid confusion with a concurrent Agatha Christie show with a similar name.

George

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Sadly, there's not that much about this show on the internet.  One last rephrasing:

Carole Stanwyck and Sydney Kovak have nothing in common; they are the polar opposites of one another. Carole is a former socialite, who lost her fortune and is now making a living as a photographer and a courier. Sydney's father's a con-man, so she knows her way around the streets. She is also a pick pocket and a jazz bass player. The only thing that they have in common is the fact that they were both married Raymond Caulfield, a private investigator. When he was killed he left everything including his agency to them. After apprehending the one who killed him, they decided to run the agency themselves.

In previous roles, the actress who played Carole worked for military intelligence and later for the IADC, and the actress who played Sydney worked for a radio station in Ohio.

With these two stars, It's hard to see why the show only lasted one season.  Maybe they needed a redhead to round out the team.

Overseas, the title was Fifty/Fifty, to avoid confusion with a concurrent Agatha Christie show with a similar name.

George

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This one didn't fare any better than when I tried it five years ago.  I would hope that at least the actresses were recognizable from this clue:

In previous roles, the actress who played Carole worked for military intelligence and later for the IADC, and the actress who played Sydney worked for a radio station in Ohio.

Anyway, the show was called "Partners in Crime" (not to be confused with "Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime").

cc9f88ceed912da8ceb3771bcd92e98f.jpg

 

FREE POST.

George

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'd get turned down by either of them to this day...

 

New clue:

 

One of two 1980s family shows in which the "teen" actor met his real life wife on set... this one did NOT feature a current or future movie star. (a wannabe, yes, but legit, no).

The first time the main cast reunited was at the funeral for the lead actor in 2016. By then only one, a late addition to the cast, had become a major movie star.

The "teen idol" star of this series starred in a trilogy of movies that MIGHT have been interesting to us as former followers of TWI, but not as interesting as the trilogy of movies starrins the other teen idol from the other series in the first clue.

 

 

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Kirk Cameron and Michael J Fox met their wives on the sets of their shows. Fox became a big movie star. Cameron did not.

DiCaprio reunited with the Growing Pains cast at Alan Thicke's funeral in 2016.

Left Behind might have been interesting to TWI followers. Back to the Future had something of a wider audience.

 

You're up.

Edited by Raf
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The star of this TV show was also the star of a number of other shows, live action and animated.  This was his first live-action comedy.

It was one of very few comedies (at least, at that time) without a laugh track or a studio audience.  The star believed that the viewers were intelligent enough to know what was funny.

George

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11 hours ago, GeorgeStGeorge said:

I'm thinking "Growing Pains."

Alan Thicke died in 2016.

Leo DiCaprio was a late addition to the cast.

(The trilogy would have been the Left Behind films.)

George

"Show me that smile again......"    I keep forgetting DiCaprio was in the cast.

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