The Montefuscos (partially found television sitcom; 1975)
Naomi Stevens and Joe Sirola as Rose and Tony "Papa" Montefusco, the heads of the family in the series.
Status: Partially Found
The Montefuscos is a television sitcom that aired on Thursday nights from September 4th to October 23rd as part of the 1975 NBC "superseason" lineup made to combat the success of rival network CBS[1]. The show was produced by Concept Plus II Productions, and was the only television series based in Connecticut that aired in the "television dry season" for the state between Bewitched in 1972 and Who's The Boss? in 1984. The series was originally set to air as either The Family Dinner or Sunday Night Dinner and diverted from the usual representation of "WASP" (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) culture in the state by instead focusing on a working class Italian-American family[2][3].
The show, along with Fay which aired in the time slot before it, became doomed to fail due to the implementation of the Family Viewing Hour (FVH) by the FCC, which was legislation that enforced "family-friendly programming" during the first hour of television prime time[4]. Due to the series containing content that wasn't considered suitable for this hour, it was moved to another time slot, unfortunately being put in the same time slot as CBS' All In The Family, the top rated show at the time. Beforehand, the show was pitched against other popular series. These scheduling arrangements were highly criticized by those in the television industry, and were made by Marvin Antonowsky, who immediately cancelled the series in response to the decline in ratings after rescheduling, and replaced them with weekly hour-long specials until December[5][6].
Plot Sypnosis
The show follows the New Canaan family of Rose (Naomi Stevens) and Tony "Papa" Montefusco (Joe Sirola), who have their three-generation family come for dinner every Sunday as part of a family tradition. While the family is over for dinner, issues within the family are often brought up, bringing situational comedy to the show, especially with most of these issues being left unresolved at the end of the night[7].
Availability
The only footage of the show currently online is on the promotional video made for NBC's superseason, which contains scenes from the episode Behind Papa's Behind. The amount of episodes that aired is varied between sources, with the range being as low as two with the highest being eight, although a total of 13 were filmed in front of a live-studio audience[8]. Despite this, at least one episode of the series is held at the Library of Congress, which limits the footage to in-library screenings due to copyright concerns[9].
Gallery
References
- ↑ An American Radio History page showing the broadcasting timeframe of the series Retrieved 14 Sept '19
- ↑ A page showcasing how the show was supposed to be titled as The Family Dinner before airing Retrieved 14 Sept '19
- ↑ A scholarly article which describes The Montefuscos in Connecticut's "dry season" and how it diverted from typical televised WASP culture Retrieved 14 Sept '19
- ↑ An article detailing the case against the Family Viewing Hour which also mentions the series being produced by Concept Plus II Productions in a footnote Retrieved 14 Sept '19
- ↑ A page showcasing how the series was cancelled due to the actions of Marvin Antonowsky and how it originally set to be called Sunday Night Dinner Retrieved 14 Sept '19
- ↑ A New York Times article briefling describing the two series' cancellations and their replacement with hour-long specials Retrieved 14 Sept '19
- ↑ A paper detailing the show's plot Retrieved 14 Sept '19
- ↑ A magazine stating that only two episodes of the series had aired Retrieved 14 Sept '19
- ↑ A Library of Congress entry for the series Retrieved 14 Sept '19