Vintage Fall Television Promos

I watch so little broadcast network television any more that I don't know if promos for television shows debuting on the fall are as big as they once were, but when I was growing up and well into my adult they would be ubiquitous from about late July to the start of the fall television season in September. And, of course, in addition to these individual commercials for new shows debuting in the fall, in the Sixties, Seventies, and Eighties each network would often have their own fall preview special in early September that would give viewers a look ahead at the new television shows. Here are a few television promos from the late Twentieth and early Twenty First Centuries.

Star Trek

From this promo for Star Trek. it seems fairly clear that NBC's promotional department did not quite know what to make of the show. The advertisement makes Star Trek sound less like an optimistic look at the future than a horror show The announcer on this promo sounds familiar to me, but I cannot place who it is. I seem to recall the voice from movie trailers from the era.

M*A*S*H

In contrast to the promo for Star Trek six years earlier, this promo for M*A*S*H is very upbeat. Of course, at the time no one, not even the producers, may have realised that M*A*S*H would become a somewhat more serious comedy drama examining war and the human condition, but one of the greatest shows of all time, hence the emphasis on laughs. 

Cheers

Given how brief this promo is and how it tells nothing about the show, I have to think this, the first promo ever for Cheers, was teaser more than anything else. One would think they would have used one of the cast from the show, like Ted Danson or Shelley Long, but not only was this woman not part of the Cheers cast, but I have no idea who she is.

Eerie Indiana

I don't think this was actually a fall promo for Eerie Indiana, but more a coming up next on NBC promo. Still, it captures the show pretty well and I seem to remember the actual fall promos being pretty similar. 

Firefly


Many fans of Firefly probably remember the notorious "Walking in the Sun" fall promo that described Mal Reynolds (Nate Fillion) as a "whacked out space cowboy," Wash (Alan Tudyk), the pilot of the ship Serenity on the show, was described as a "flighty pilot," and so on. I have to think it was the absolute worst fall promo for any TV show ever. Unfortunately, I can't post it for you, as it appears to have been wiped from the Web. Here then is a somewhat more serious promo more fitting the show.