I was just listening to a podcast. They were talking about CBS's old Saturday night lineup, but I was surprised they didn't remember it that well. It's been weirdly ingrained in my mind for fifty years.
All in the Family, MASH, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show, The Carol Burnett Show.
It took a while for The Bob Newhart Show to appear in the lineup. There was Paul Sand in Friends and Lovers that was on for a time, and there was Bridget Loves Bernie (1972 to 1973), about a Catholic girl and her Jewish husband that was controversial at the time. Their marriage would be illegal in Israel.
Rabbis secretly met with the network demanding that it be cancelled. The Jewish Defense League made threats against the cast. A JDL member named Robert Manning was arrested for phoning death threats. He was later indicted for murder in an unrelated case. He fled to Israel and fought extradition, but he was eventually convicted of killing a computer company secretary with a letter bomb. He is believed to have murdered Alex Odeh of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.
Once the show was driven from the air, stars David Birney and Meredith Baxter got married in real life.
David Birney died today at 83. Had a long list of credits in movies and television, his last role in 2007.
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