Princesses (1991, CBS) - a forgotten, but not lost, sitcom?
Dec 7, 2019 4:48:57 GMT
GrigioGuy, donkeyjazz, and 3 more like this
Post by deforestatedjerry on Dec 7, 2019 4:48:57 GMT
So maybe sitcoms aren't this forums cup of tea that leads to wide searches, but I want to discuss this long forgotten sitcom from the early 90's. Apologies if this comes out long, I'm just going to write down what I've found and how it led to more confusion regarding this show's history.
The Show
Wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princesses_(TV_series)
In a nut shell, Princesses was a sitcom from 1991 that only aired for 5 episodes before being pulled off the air due to low ratings and behind the scenes issues (refer to the wiki entry above). It's somewhat notable for being what eventually led to the creation of The Nanny with Fran Drescher, which went on to be pretty popular, although she wasn't the star vehicle for this show or anything. I have a soft spot for that series since I watched it a lot when I was younger though, so I became curious about this show once I learned its background.
Unfortunately, as of Dec 2019, only two episodes of its original broadcast have been saved online thanks to Youtube user W Mackey. These are both the pilot and the second episode.
Princesses (Pilot) 27September1991 CBS-TV
Princesses "Her Highness For Hire" 04Oct1991 CBS-TV
The uploader, who seems to be on a few months-long hiatus atm, mentions in comments possibly having other episodes, but either way, that's still only five episodes that apparently aired. From here is where things get confusing.
Were the rest of the episodes re-aired on TV Land?
With the only main source of info being the wiki entry, apparently 8 episodes total were actually produced before the show was axed, with only 5 making it to the airwaves. Interestingly though, the wiki page says that the show was re-aired back in 2010 on TV Land's Sunday Spotlight series. I've tried my best figuring out any info I can about this to no avail. Nothing on Google even seems to mention TV Land having such a programming block or whatever it was.
The main question is did they air all 8 episodes that apparently were filmed, or did they only air the original 5 that made it to air back in 1991? It would be nice to track down some sort of schedule that shows when this was aired, but I haven't been able to track down anything. I've used the Wayback Machine at archive.org on the TV Land website and have looked through any schedules that were archived or any mentions of the Sunday Spotlight series, but I can't find any proof of anything. If anyone can help track down an old schedule so we can see what exactly they aired, that would be great since I don't know how else to find anything about whatever TV Land aired. I would think chances are if it really did re-air, some hardcore collector out there likely recorded all of it.
How many episodes actually were produced/filmed?
So this is where things get more confusing. First off, it's not exactly clear where the wiki got the plot synopses for episodes that didn't make it to air. Regardless, I tried looking back at the Wiki entry's history to see if I could figure out if episode info was added during 2010, indicating maybe the rest was aired on TV Land back then. I found out that it seems most of the info is pulled from a page on epguides.com.
Epguides page
One look and you might notice a couple things that are odd. First, it lists 11 episodes! What happened to there only being 8? Furthermore, all episodes following the initial 5 that made it to air back in 1991 have dates next to them indicating that they aired back starting in July of 2016. This seems to mean some station somewhere out there aired the rest of the show back in 2016 and even included episodes that no one knew existed.
But where did this info come from? The epguides page is still around, yet whoever was editing the wiki decided to remove reference to this guide and now it only sits listing 8 episodes. Plot synopses exist for the originally-known-to-exist 8 episodes, but nothing shows up clicking the last three unknown episodes. Either someone mixed shows up and these belong to something else, someone made them up, or they actually exist. There's really no way to tell.
Anyway, I tried covering this as best I could. I don't expect much buzz since it seems like cartoons and other kid-friendly things get the most attention around here, but if anyone can at least help confirm what exactly TV Land aired back in 2010, that would be appreciated! It would be nice if they decided to re-air the show there, but I don't know what can be done to convince them to care. I only hope someone recorded it and will share it someday.
The Show
Wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princesses_(TV_series)
In a nut shell, Princesses was a sitcom from 1991 that only aired for 5 episodes before being pulled off the air due to low ratings and behind the scenes issues (refer to the wiki entry above). It's somewhat notable for being what eventually led to the creation of The Nanny with Fran Drescher, which went on to be pretty popular, although she wasn't the star vehicle for this show or anything. I have a soft spot for that series since I watched it a lot when I was younger though, so I became curious about this show once I learned its background.
Unfortunately, as of Dec 2019, only two episodes of its original broadcast have been saved online thanks to Youtube user W Mackey. These are both the pilot and the second episode.
Princesses (Pilot) 27September1991 CBS-TV
Princesses "Her Highness For Hire" 04Oct1991 CBS-TV
The uploader, who seems to be on a few months-long hiatus atm, mentions in comments possibly having other episodes, but either way, that's still only five episodes that apparently aired. From here is where things get confusing.
Were the rest of the episodes re-aired on TV Land?
With the only main source of info being the wiki entry, apparently 8 episodes total were actually produced before the show was axed, with only 5 making it to the airwaves. Interestingly though, the wiki page says that the show was re-aired back in 2010 on TV Land's Sunday Spotlight series. I've tried my best figuring out any info I can about this to no avail. Nothing on Google even seems to mention TV Land having such a programming block or whatever it was.
The main question is did they air all 8 episodes that apparently were filmed, or did they only air the original 5 that made it to air back in 1991? It would be nice to track down some sort of schedule that shows when this was aired, but I haven't been able to track down anything. I've used the Wayback Machine at archive.org on the TV Land website and have looked through any schedules that were archived or any mentions of the Sunday Spotlight series, but I can't find any proof of anything. If anyone can help track down an old schedule so we can see what exactly they aired, that would be great since I don't know how else to find anything about whatever TV Land aired. I would think chances are if it really did re-air, some hardcore collector out there likely recorded all of it.
How many episodes actually were produced/filmed?
So this is where things get more confusing. First off, it's not exactly clear where the wiki got the plot synopses for episodes that didn't make it to air. Regardless, I tried looking back at the Wiki entry's history to see if I could figure out if episode info was added during 2010, indicating maybe the rest was aired on TV Land back then. I found out that it seems most of the info is pulled from a page on epguides.com.
Epguides page
One look and you might notice a couple things that are odd. First, it lists 11 episodes! What happened to there only being 8? Furthermore, all episodes following the initial 5 that made it to air back in 1991 have dates next to them indicating that they aired back starting in July of 2016. This seems to mean some station somewhere out there aired the rest of the show back in 2016 and even included episodes that no one knew existed.
But where did this info come from? The epguides page is still around, yet whoever was editing the wiki decided to remove reference to this guide and now it only sits listing 8 episodes. Plot synopses exist for the originally-known-to-exist 8 episodes, but nothing shows up clicking the last three unknown episodes. Either someone mixed shows up and these belong to something else, someone made them up, or they actually exist. There's really no way to tell.
Anyway, I tried covering this as best I could. I don't expect much buzz since it seems like cartoons and other kid-friendly things get the most attention around here, but if anyone can at least help confirm what exactly TV Land aired back in 2010, that would be appreciated! It would be nice if they decided to re-air the show there, but I don't know what can be done to convince them to care. I only hope someone recorded it and will share it someday.
