ER (TV series)
Following the broadcast of its two-hour pilot movie on September 19, 1994, "ER" premiered Thursday, September 22 at 10:00. It remained in the same Thursday time slot for its entire run. "ER" is NBC's third longest-running drama, after "Law & Order" and "", and, the longest-running American primetime medical drama of all time. On April 2, 2008, NBC announced that the series would return for its fifteenth season. The fifteenth season was originally scheduled to run for 19 episodes before retiring with a two-hour series finale to be broadcast on March 12, 2009, but NBC announced in January 2009 that it would extend the show by an additional three episodes to a full 22-episode order as part of a deal to launch a new series by John Wells titled "Police", later retitled "Southland". "ER"s final episode aired on April 2, 2009; the two-hour episode was preceded by a one-hour retrospective special. The series finale charged $425,000 per 30-second ad spot, more than three times the season's rate of $135,000. From season 4 to season 6 ER cost a record-breaking 13 million dollars per episode. TNT also paid a record price of $1 million an episode for four years of repeats of the series during that time. The cost of the first three seasons was 2 million per episode and seasons 7 to 9 cost 8 million dollars per episode.
The Adventures of Ellery Queen
During the 1970s, syndicated radio fillers, Ellery Queen's Minute Mysteries, began with an announcer saying, "This is Ellery Queen ..." and then outlining a case in one minute. The radio station encouraged callers to solve the mystery and win a sponsor's prize. Once they had a winner, the solution part of the spot would be played as confirmation.The first series was telecast on the DuMont Television Network from October 19, 1950, to December 6, 1951 and then on ABC from December 16, 1951, to November 26, 1952. This series starred Richard Hart as Ellery Queen in the first season and Lee Bowman in the role in later seasons. (Hart died suddenly of a heart attack in January 1951.) played Inspector Richard Queen. Irving Pincus did his first work as a producer in two segments of this version of "Ellery Queen". Guest stars included Anne Bancroft, John Carradine, and Eva Gabor. The series, produced by Irving and Norman Pincus and directed by Donald Richardson, featured writing by Helene Hanff, later famous as the author of "84, Charing Cross Road" (Bancroft later played Hanff in the film version of "84 Charing Cross Road").