About
Duration: 0:59
Views: 2009
By: fuzzymemories
Description: Here's the opening (and first few minutes) of the premiere episode of 13 Queens Blvd., "For Better or Worse," as aired over WLS Channel 7.
This short-lived sitcom - about a diverse group of middle-class residents at a Queens, New York apartment complex, and referred to as 13 Queens Boulevard by both IMDb and Wikipedia - ran on the ABC Network until July 24th 1979, lasting only eight episodes (plus one that never aired).
It starred Eileen Brennan (a year before the Private Benjamin movie, and a few years before the TV series adaptation thereof) and Jerry Van Dyke (formerly of My Mother, the Car and later of Coach) as happily married couple Felicia and Steven Winters, and also featured Marcia Rodd as divorcée Elaine Dowling (she had been the original Carol Traynor in an All in the Family episode that served as the pilot for Maude; that role would be played in the subsequent 1972-78 series by Adrienne Barbeau), Helen Page Camp as Mildred 'Millie' Capestro, Susan Elliot and Louise Williams as her daughters Helen and Jill, Karen Rushmore as Camille, and Frances Lee McCain as Lois. (All except Ms. Elliot, Ms. Rushmore and Ms. McCain were seen in the opening credits.)
The show was created by Richard Baer, developed by Bud Yorkin, Bernie Orenstein and Saul Turteltaub (all of whom were previously involved with Sanford and Son, What's Happening!! and Carter Country), and produced by their TOY Productions concern.
Includes:
Station ID / promo for The 3:30 Movie presentation of "Kisses For My President" [1964] for Thursday, March 22nd (voiceover by Al Parker)
Brief shot of sheet with writing: "13 Queens Blvd. - #5-TQB-79 - 'For Better or Worse' "
Taxi bumper, with notice that it will return two weeks from this date at this time (voiceover by Bill Owen?)
Opening titles, beginning with bird's-eye shots of Triborough Bridge and Brooklyn-Queens Expressway(?) and going from there, with shots of the major stars and supers with info on the series' creator and developers (does anyone have any information as to the theme song and who wrote and sang it?)
Series bumper, with sponsor billboard for Gillette, makers of Dry Idea roll-on anti-perspirant ("It Doesn't Make You Wet, So It Doesn't Make You Wait") (voiceover by ?? - sounds almost like Jim McKay of ABC Wide World of Sports fame)
Commercial: Dry Idea anti-perspirant - (C) The Gillette Company 1979
Commercial: Gillette Trac II Microsoft Blades (was this where Bill Gates got the idea for the name of his computer company?) - with George S. Irving as salesman with a bad hairpiece, trying once again to pitch inferior razors to a customer after the product is sold out - "A Better Shave" (ending voiceover by Allen Swift)
First five-plus minutes of Act I (though not shown, this episode was written by Margie Peters and Linda Marsh and directed by Kim Friedman)
This aired on local Chicago TV on Tuesday, March 20th 1979 during the 9:30pm to 10:00pm timeframe.
Suggestions
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0:59
WLS Channel 7 - Makin' It (Opening, 1979)
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0:59
WLS Channel 7 - Strike Force (Opening, 1982)
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0:59
WBBM Channel 2 - Working Stiffs (Opening & Break, 1979)
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WLS Channel 7 - Bizarre with Richard Dawson (Opening & Break, 1979)
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CBS Network - The Two of Us (Promo, 1981)
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CBS Network - The American Girls (Promo, 1978)
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WBBM Channel 2 - Escapade (Opening, 1978)
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CBS Network - Rafferty With Patrick McGoohan (Preview & Opening, 1977)
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WMAQ Channel 5 - Quark (Opening, 1978)
Smctopia 10/04/2016
Two things jumped out at me in this clip:
The Gillette ad features a product placement by their own Cricket Lighters on the back wall.
The kitchen really reminds me of the layout of the kitchen from the Golden Girls.
W.B. 10/05/2016
This may've been taped at the same studio where The Golden Girls was later produced, who knows?
But then, I saw an episode of the 1973-74 series Diana (with Diana Rigg of The Avengers fame) where they had apartment sets that looked almost exactly like what the Mary Tyler Moore show was using - and both shows were filmed at the CBS Studio Center (though Diana ran on NBC and, therefore, did not show the CBS 'eye' at the point they mentioned where filmed in the end credits).
W.B. 10/05/2016
Modified clip description, with notice of who else was missing from the opening title sequence and ending voiceover for the Gillette Trac II commercial (information on the latter provided by Barry I. Grauman at YouTube).
ChrisBCritter 10/07/2016
After the shots of the expressway, we bid goodbye to New York completely - the building is actually 3000 miles away, on the southwest side of Lindenhurst Avenue between S. Fuller and S. Sierra Bonita in Los Angeles's Park-La Brea neighborhood.
W.B. 10/08/2016
I thought the buildings looked nothing like what was lined up and down what has long been referred to in recent years as "The Boulevard of Death." (And though a Manhattanite, I've in the past walked up and down that major roadway.) The building number as on the title is another clue - most Queens Boulevard addresses have "###-##" before the thoroughfare, with the first one, two or three numbers before the hyphen signifying an avenue or street.