ON THIS DATE (46 YEARS AGO) September 24, 1968 - The adventure series The Mod Squad, starring Michael Cole, Peggy Lipton, Clarence Williams III, and Tige Andrews, began its five-season run on ABC-TV. The Mod Squad was the enormously successful groundbreaking hippie undercover cop show that ran on ABC from September 24, 1968, until August 23, 1973. It starred Michael Cole as Pete Cochren, Peggy Lipton as Julie Barnes, Clarence Williams III as Linc Hayes, and Tige Andrews as Captain Adam Greer. The executive producers of the series were Aaron Spelling and Danny Thomas. The iconic counter-culture police series earned six Emmy nominations, four Golden Globe nominations plus one win for Peggy Lipton, one Directors Guild of America award, and four Logies. In 1997 the episode Mother of Sorrow was ranked #95 on TV Guides 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time.[ The shows Star Trek (1965–68), I Spy (1965–68), The Bill Cosby Show (1969–71), Julia (1968–71), The Flip Wilson Show (1970–74), and The Mod Squad (1968–73) were among the first programs to feature African Americans as stars since the stereotyped roles of Amos ’n’ Andy and Beulah (ABC, 1950–53). The Mod Squad presented an African-American character (Linc) as being equal to the Caucasian characters (Barnes and Cochran). In one Mod Squad episode the script called for Linc to give Barnes a friendly kiss. Since the first African-American interracial kiss on a television show was in 1968 (on Star Trek, episode Platos Stepchildren), this was still fairly new territory. The studio was frightened of a negative reaction, so they asked Spelling to cut it: You cant do that, I was told, You cant have a black man kissing a white girl. I won and ABC agreed to let it in, but they warned me Id receive thousands of complaint letters. I didnt get one.” Lincs famous solid and keep the faith were among the current-day slang used on the show, which included pad, “dig it” and groovy. The kids traveled in Petes famous Woody, an old green 1950 Mercury Woody station wagon that was burned up by an arsonist during the second season. The show boasted many famous guest stars including Vincent Price, Ed Asner, Sammy Davis Jr., Andy Griffith, Richard Pryor, Lee Grant, Richard Dreyfuss, Tom Bosley, Danny Thomas, Tyne Daly, Martin Sheen, Louis Gosset, Jr., and Sugar Ray Robinson. The Mod Squad
Posted on: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 19:50:01 +0000