Summer Fun is an American anthology television series that aired on ABC in the summer of 1966. The 30-minute episodes consisted of unsold television pilots.
The practice of television executives of ordering dozens of pilots for proposed television series each year â far more than their networks could possibly broadcast as series â created a sizable body of unsold pilots that had never aired. Packaging these unsold pilots in anthology series and airing them during the summer provided television networks with a way of both providing fresh programming during the summer rerun season and recouping at least some of the expense of producing them. Along with Preview Tonight, Summer Fun was one of two such series ABC aired in the summer of 1966, and it consisted entirely of unsold pilots for situation comedies, some prepared for the 1965âÂÂ66 and 1966âÂÂ67 seasons and most shot in color. Stars appearing in the series included Joan Blondell, Tom Ewell, Shelley Fabares, Celeste Holm, Bert Lahr, Basil Rathbone, and Jon Voight.
Summer Fun ran for seven episodes over the course of seven consecutive weeks in the summer of 1966, airing on ABC from 8:00 to 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday evenings. It premiered on July 22, and its last episode aired on September 2.
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