The Adventures of Mark & Brian

Last updated
The Adventures of Mark & Brian
Genre Comedy
Reality Television
Written by Ed Decter
Starring Mark Thompson
Brian Phelps
Theme music composerLarry Benjamin
Chris Black
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes13
Production
Running time30 minutes
Production companies Don Mischer Productions
Frontier Pictures
New World Television
Original release
Network NBC
ReleaseSeptember 9, 1991 (1991-09-09) 
May 31, 1992 (1992-05-31)

The Adventures of Mark & Brian is a comedy television program that was broadcast by NBC as part of its 1991 fall lineup.

Contents

Background

The Adventures of Mark & Brian was an attempt to base a television series on a series of radio bits that had been done on KLOS radio in Los Angeles since 1987 by morning hosts Mark Thompson and Brian Phelps. Each week, the two dreamed up a new stunt that they wanted to perform (such as having Robert Goulet sing from a helicopter on Valentine's Day, or having a giant head sculpture of Elvis Presley towed cross-country to Memphis). [1] A film crew then followed them as they did this.

Broadcast information

Thompson and Phelps had gotten tremendous Arbitron ratings by doing this sort of thing during morning drive-time on the radio in Los Angeles, but received only very low Nielsen ratings doing it on prime time television. Despite tremendous promotion of the duo by NBC, particularly during the NFL games that frequently served as its lead-in, the program was cancelled in November, although NBC showed the unaired episodes with reruns in the summer of 1992.

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References

  1. Brooks, Tim & Marsh, Earle (2007). The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946-Present (9th ed.). New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN   978-0-345-49773-4.