The Benefactor is an American reality television show broadcast on ABC starting on September 13, 2004. The premise involved 16 contestants vying to win US$1 million from billionaire entrepreneur and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.
In late March and early April 2004, ABC held open auditions for the show in Atlanta, Boise, Boston, Dallas and Las Vegas and also accepted auditions by mail.
The show and its format were kept tightly under wraps during its filming, which began on April 30, 2004 in Dallas, Texas. Mark Cuban purposefully kept details about the show to a minimum, eliciting only a small bit of information about the show on his personal blog during filming. Dallas journalists, eager to learn what was going on, routinely compiled sightings of Benefactor film crews around town.
However, the show proved to be extremely unpopular and suffered from very low ratings, despite leading in to the popular Monday Night Football. The show also suffered from ABC stations in NFL markets moving the show to a timeslot af
A school for bodyguards and chauffeurs serves as home base for a security unit consisting of a former stunt driver, a martial-arts expert, a former military-intelligence officer and a mechanical-design genius.
Candid Camera is an American hidden camera/practical joke reality television series created and produced by Allen Funt, which initially began on radio as Candid Microphone June 28, 1947. After a series of theatrical film shorts, also titled Candid Microphone, Funt's concept came to television on August 10, 1948. The show last aired for 10 episodes in 2014 on the TV Land network. A documentary about Allen Funt is currently in the works by the Candid Camera crew.
The format has appeared on U.S. TV networks and in syndication in each succeeding decade, as either a regular show or a series of specials. Allen Funt himself hosted or co-hosted almost all of the TV versions until a 1993 stroke from which he never recovered. His son Peter Funt, who had co-hosted the specials with his father since 1987, became the producer and host.
Knightwatch is a television drama aired by ABC as part of its fall 1988 lineup. It had been promoted as an original series in light of summer reruns continuing into the fall due to the 1988 Writers Guild of America Strike.
Knightwatch centers around the activities of the "Knights of the City", a volunteer group set up to assist law enforcement. It was largely made up of ex-gang members; the program focused on its charismatic leader, Tony Maldonado. Operating out of donated space in the basement of a church, the group practiced martial arts and other unarmed techniques since they were not commissioned police officers and did not use firearms. Keeping young people with violent pasts from reverting to this pattern in their new-found calling was a constant challenge to Tony, as were the interpersonal relationships constantly developing among his young colleagues.
Knightwatch was a Nielsen ratings failure, undoubtedly due to being forced to compete with NBC's The Cosby Show and A Different World and CBS's 48 Hours. It
Based on the autobiography of Sonny Bono, this film focuses on the volatile relationship between Sonny (Jay Underwood) and Cher (Renee Faia) during the early 60's to their divorce in the late 70's.
Curiosity Shop is an American children's educational television program produced by ABC-TV in 1971, capitalizing on the success of Sesame Street.
Sponsored by the Kellogg's cereal company, Curiosity Shop was broadcast Saturday mornings from September 11, 1971, to January 6, 1973. The program featured three inquisitive children who each week visited a shop populated with various puppets and gadgets, discovering interesting things about science, nature and history. Each hour-long show covered a specific theme: clothing, music, dance, weather, the five senses, space, time, rules, flight, dolls, etc.
The widows of three men killed while trying to steal a famous painting, join forces to find their husband's killers and finish off the job of stealing the painting.
Back That Fact is a short-lived American game show that aired on ABC from October 22 to November 26, 1953. This was the first TV game show for creator/producers Jack Barry and Dan Enright. Borscht Belt comedian and syndicated columnist Joey Adams was the emcee, with actress Hope Lange and actor Al Kelly as his assistants and Carl Caruso as the announcer.
Back That Fact was broadcast from New York City.
The Scooby & Scrappy-Doo/Puppy Hour is a 60-minute package show, a Hanna-Barbera/Ruby-Spears co-production in 1982 for ABC Saturday mornings. It contained the following segments:
⁕Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo: Scooby-Doo, Scrappy-Doo and Shaggy Rogers travel across the country as the "Fearless Detective Agency" and get involved in typical spy or criminal cases.
⁕Scrappy and Yabba-Doo: Scrappy-Doo's adventures with his uncle Yabba-Doo and Deputy Dusty in the wild west.
⁕The Puppy's New Adventures: Featuring the adventures of Petey the Puppy and his friends Dash, Dolly, Duke, and Lucky.
The first half-hour consisted of three 7-minute shorts of Scooby and Scrappy-Doo and Scrappy and Yabba-Doo, with a 30-minute episode of The Puppy's New Adventures in the second half-hour. The Scooby/Scrappy-related shorts were written and voiced at Hanna-Barbera Productions, but animated and edited by Ruby-Spears Enterprises.
Singers battle it out to become a member of the next music sensation. Viewers at home vote for their five favorite band members. Winners get a spot in the band and a recording contract with Hollywood Records.
In this game of reasoning and smarts, teams comprised of six people who all know each other – co-workers, friends, teammates, etc. – will need to tackle a series of logic-based questions. The more questions the team answers correctly, the more money they will earn towards a grand prize, potentially earning them $1 million.
Hank Pryor, a titan of industry, suddenly finds himself out of work, almost out of money and around a wife and kids for whom he's never made much time. Despite his recent setbacks, however, Hank is confident he's on the road back to the top. He knows he is destined to return to greatness. And he is—just not the greatness he imagines.
A unique window into authentic realities of Black life and dive deeper into this critical moment of racial reckoning. Each episode explores a specific theme including spirituality, Black joy, activism in sports and the racial reckoning that erupted after George Floyd's death.
Before They Were Stars is a 1996 30-minute American ABC television show which was hosted by Scott Baio, with John Cramer as announcer and narrator; it was preceded by four specials, each an hour long.
The term "Before They Were Stars" has since become widely used by television shows and magazines when featuring segments and articles on famous actors in their lesser-known performances.
The Phoenix is a 1982 television series starring Judson Scott which was on ABC for about one month. The plot revolved around an ancient extraterrestrial named Bennu of the Golden Light, who is discovered in a sarcophagus in Peru and awakened in the 20th Century. The series was first seen on a TV-movie on April 26, 1981.