TV Critics lashed out at “All in the Family” for “not always being family friendly." They lauded Dr. King’s network, though, because “The Anissa Jones Show” - dubbed Anissa’s World in afternoon reruns - was a surprise hit.
Meanwhile, The Anissa Jones Show was a huge rookie sensation, finishing tied for fourth with, ironically, CBS’s Gunsmoke. All in the Family was first of course but the new network made the ratings race closer Executives would secretly be happier with the fifth place finish next year when CBS tried to put Maude opposite them. After Maude consistently lost to them in the ratings in the fall, CBS moved it to a slot right after Here's Lucy at 9:30 on a different night, and bought out Doris Day’s contract for the last half season of her show, as it had changed premise in season 4, away from being a family-oriented show anyway, due to the effects of the Rural Purge, it was going to be canceled after this season anyway, it was losing in the ratings, and Doris Day had been signed on by her husband without her knowledge before his death. They would have to figure out where to put Maide for the 1973 season later. That paid off better with Good Times being spun off of it in early 1974, although that would create its own interesting dilemmas. And, the new network meant that ratings weren't as high as they could be. Anissa's show ended up in a muddle right ahead of the NBC movie and right behind Bridget Loves Bernie.
Some of the early ratings had been driven by audience curiosity after the huge buildup from the Million Dollar Baby controversy of the year before, proving that as long as it wasn't disastrous, any publicity was good publicity. But they were holding their own, and once the tougher competition had left they rose, passing Mary Tyler Moore and the movie in the end to be a comfortable fifth. They would rise to 3rd next season, as they had gotten a good grasp on what characters audiences liked and what they didn't among the neighborhood group.
Anissa fought all year in its third season with The Waltons for second before settling down to third, partly because Happy Days had been moved to its time slot in the spring. As one writer put it, “UBG doesn't have dominant shows everywhere, but they have enough to create very stiff competition. They just have to gain more consistency with their other programs. And they are starting to do that.” Vanessa would wind up running for several seasons more and doing consistently well.
So, before a comment on the way the rest of the world was going, let’s look at the way Anissa took the UBG by storm, as well as a few other network things in the next chapter.
The very first scene of the pilot had been crucial - Anissa is talking briefly with the family dog about taking a care package (sandwiches and brownies she’d made and a homemade card) to the new family, the Grants. Loretta enters and says light-heartedly, “Anissa Thompson, you may have just turned 14, but you still can't get out without a hug from your mother.”
She smiles, says “Sorry, Mom,” and they briefly hug as Anissa says “I knew you were busy.”
In an article later, Anissa recalled, “We set the stage fast. My age - not 2-3 years younger like Buffy, 7 months older than me in fact - my being independent, and my mom being a little stiff when it comes to the new family, yet also willing to learn, even if a bit reluctantly. My character is always quick to remind her that she taught me everything I know, what shows respect for her. She sees how some of her lessons have repercussions that she never considered. That helps drive a bit of the tension. But she always comes around, and she’s not like the combative Archie, she’s just unsure at times. So is my dad.”
This was important because there had to be a big distinction between this pilot episode and the episode that had aired in Spring of 1971 on All in the Family, where the Jeffersons move into the neighborhood. Norman Lear sent Dr King a note of congratulations after King’s episode and kidded him that he, Lear, had set the stage. Dr King said that if the timing had been right he would have had the pilot in January of 1971 but that he thought Lear's show would have been just as successful.
Indeed, one can argue what one magazine noted in an article titled "Welcome to the Big Leagues, United." The author notes that "it is a similar situation but told from two very distinct points of view, that of the person who doesn't want them in Archie and a person who does and who is looking for the culprit in Anissa, with the black family portrayed in a different manner in each. Although, that is partly because the family in Anissa Jones's show has younger children and in that first scene her mom admits 'knowing you, you'll have a babysitting job by tonight.'"
UBG promotions urged people to guess a few things in the show like the girl’s middle name, in order to get them to watch; one person received a prize for writing in with the correct one. It wasn’t revealed till the last lines of the pilot, when Anissa’s mom meets NIchelle Nichols’ character and they learn that each one had met Eleanor Roosevelt - the black woman on a campaign stop in 1940 as a girl, the white one when a bit older in 1950.
“The scene is written to say that we all have things in common,” Swit went on in the same article. "That’s the whole idea behind Dr. King’s plan for TV shows - he wants to bring people together.”
This would happen a few times, such as when Davis Roberts’ character is filling in for the doctor who normally treats Anissa’s character’s father - and the dad must deal with having a black doctor for the first time. Yet It's not heavy-handed, just as much attention is paid to the fact that a neighbor will now have information about his medical history, even though the doctor promises and keeps the promise of doctor-patient confidentiality. (At the end of the episode, her father is pleasantly surprised to learn that nobody else knows about his hernia.)
Anissa also learns lessons herself, but they are mostly of the misunderstanding variety. In that same third episode, she joins a friend in questioning why a boy stood this friend up when he was in school the next day (with lines about boys and maturity showing Anissa won't be the "boyfriend of the week" type, though a recurring friend might and a few possible suitors appear as recurring characters if they fit into the plot. They finally learn the boy has a medical condition that can pop up at any time (possibly something like Crohn's though it's vague), and the family phone wasn't working.
King also uses the medical part to make a point. This is a very good middle-class neighborhood, but it's not the richest even though the doctor could afford it, because they didn't seem as welcomed in the ritzy neighborhood. It also has a variety of people who all have some needs - episode 2 of season 1, "Fear Itself," is King's poke at the Vietnam War while not getting too controversial. Anissa helps a neighbor boy whose dad is frozen with fear after a PTSD spell while the mom is out of town, and another kid she is babysitting at firdt who is afraid of a noise in the house that ends up being a ferret in the wall. The episode has her grandfather appear who had shell shock in WW1 and manages to help the dad through this spell, and has the message, "Let's focus on how this is destroying lives." It's a knock at Vietnam without being totally anti-war and respecting the veterans who serve.
Cleavon LIttle was considered for the role of NIchelle’s husband but he had several other opportunities at the time, including a TV movie that seemed promising. He did appear in a few episodes as her youngest brother, a football player at a historical black college who “made it to the 3rd week of an AFL camp in '61" (with appropriate confusion between the old American Football League and the American Federation of Labor), and later became a doctor and a colleague of Davis Roberts’ character. As King said, “It’s just one more way of knocking down stereotypes - judging by the content of their character and having black men doing more than menial labor.” (Anissa's character occasionally shows interest in the medical profession by asking the dad questions.)
Anissa, of course, got top billing, with the audience slowly being introduced to all of the people in their neighborhood, including her friends, which includes the children of their new neighbors.
It’s clear that the neighbors respect her (“Girl scout cookies, lemonade, homemade cards, she’s practically run a general store from her house,” one neighbor jokes early on) even if not all agree with her. (Such as whoever placed a “not welcome”
The children of the Grants are friends of hers from the first episode, when she knocks and the Grants let her in only to have her not only introduce herself but also say she has something for their trash (the aforementioned sign.)
The theme song, All-American Girl, also resonates with people as it tells of "a girl growing up in America who wants to take advantage of the American dream and make sure that everyone else has the same chance, while showing the care and compassion that Americans should have." Among various scenes shot in the opening montage is Anissa in a pose exactly like the “Rosie the Riveter” posters from WW2
She has dramatic scenes as well as comedic. One dramatic one has her as the only person welcoming home a plane of Vietnam vets because she cares about all the people, Though a few people have schedule conflicts like the Grants being at a wedding. Her mom shows up in the very end.
“They needed a home run, and they got it!" A TV critic wrote. "She’s bubbly and outgoing, she has all the energy you would hope a child that age would have, yet she has respect for others and politeness, even if she has to speak her mind sometimes - and she uses brains and humor to do it. There is lots of Mary Richards, but hints of being really grumpy like Lou Grant if need be.” One of the kids tells the new neighbor kids, "she gives a stink eye that smells like a skunk farm."
Another refers to her having lasers in her eyes. At one point in the pilot, it’s presumed the neighborhood bully, a boy Eddie Haskell overtones who Anissa has learned to see through, had put the sign there, till Anissa proved that he hadn’t by showing that he always spelled “welcome” with 2 “l”s - the bully brags about horrible spelling being a good thing until he gets found out for having done something bad at school because of it.
“We invested so heavily in this,” Coretta Scott King admitted later, “my husband felt a huge weight of pressure going into the pilot.” Anissa’s positive attitude really helped. It grew partly from being away from “Family Affair,” where she felt like some people disliked her refusal to keep playing Buffy - and where her mother kept badgering her. She earnestly hoped that her dad would have custody when the divorce finally went through; and it was a mess of one.
The show represented a way for her to hang out on set and relax, away from her mother. An employee recalled: “She was always the first to arrive and the last to leave - and she had the money now she could get a chauffeur and have her bring her. We had to have a security guard there with a female employee to help her with anything like schoolwork because there were times she would get there before sunrise. We were just glad she was throwing herself into this and not off getting into alcohol or something.”
Loretta Swit noticed right away, as did NIchelle Nichols. They became her surrogate mothers, and helped her find other hobbies so she didn’t burn herself out - and there were worries that she could. They got producers to teach her about directing, producing, scriptwriting, and much else. Nichols got her interested in science fiction to the point where she would be rumored to be considered as companion for Doctor Who in a later iteration, and would play a Starship captain also. Swit got her interested in animal rights after showing up during a day off, figuring Anissa would be there, and surprising her with a “mysterious adventure” that turned Jones on to the plight of the bald eagle and got her character involved in a campaign on the show to ban DDT, which would be banned in 1972.
She refused to become a vegetarian, which was fine by Swit. “We had a debate about that and midway through I realized, 'She’s testing me - I must be getting to be like a mom to her.'”
Indeed, Anissa would later write in her autobiography, “That day we went on that adventure, I kept thinking, 'This is what a mother should be like.'”
In addition, since there were younger children in this cast, she asked how to get in touch with people who could write childrens’ books for the show. She was also behind a push to include actual items from the city of Pittsburgh - when the Pirates won the 1971 World Series, they agreed to have a few Pirates players as guest stars. She read up on the Pittsburgh Crawfords and had the Grant characters use some Josh Gibson mentions in the show. They had a very special tribute to Roberto Clemente in an episode early in 1973, which earned Swit an Emmy in a supporting role as it showed the incredible highs and lows of the Christmas season, starting with a sure loss and then the Immaculate Reception, then Christmas and days later Clemente's death.
“Instead of just a generic neighborhood that is just said to be in Pittsburgh or a suburb somewhere but is really just California with a dash of black and gold,” a Pittsburgh area newspaper said, “Anissa has been so focused on this show that she has truly turned it into a show that could be in Pittsburgh, not just in Californians’ image of the city.”
Anissa’s intense focus was telling, though. “We saw what she was doing,” one executive reported. “This was her imaginary home where she had none of the stresses of real life. Her mom, by forcing the network to sign her to a contract unheard of for a child star like that - no matter what this show did she would get paid for a few years - had unwittingly given her the way to escape her clutches that her mom may have never wanted. They made her their unpaid intern because frankly that helped them with their budget. Yet her mom couldn’t say anything; especially since she knew we were letting Anissa do so much. I wondered sometimes if she was living in a world where this was reality to her. The good thing is, she was focused enough and the show popular enough she could keep it going by herself.” although some wondered, when she finally got the money from her trust fund when she turned 18, if she might take a break from acting for a few years. The way she was going, she could be a writer, producer, or anything.
When they did the crossover in November of 1971, her former Family Affair costars could tell - the adults especially had seen that she was bothered but hadn't really been able to do anything, or at least they hadn't thought they could. But they had really pushed for help when it became possible, so now, while there might be concerns that she might be burning herself out, she was at least doing a wide variety. She was also staying away from the extravagant parties where she might have been introduced to some very bad things.
She would consistently get nominated for best actress Emmys in a sitcom, and would win a few for it. She even won one for one episode in the first season.
Late in the year, she is babysitting. The audience didn’t like the bully much, and there were fears he was cutting in to her screen time anyway. This fit perfectly into a planned script which would have let him either be mellowed, spun off, or just ignored figuring he was no longer a bully.
The script said he had been hitting girls at school. Anissa - who can see through the kind, innocent exterior he shows to authority figures - is asked by his parents to be there when he gets home because the mom has a doctors’ appointment and her husband will be leaving work early to take her and pick her up.
The mother tells her, in keeping with the lesson that boys should never take advantage of girls which had been stated a few times in season 1, that the bully has been very mean to his baby sister and after trying everything else they decided that he needs to be spanked to learn how bad it is to hurt girls. He has a plan to appear innocent and make it seem like someone else has done something bad at school, so he figures he can lay low on the home front and get away with it.
Anissa's character has grown up without that and asks the mom how she does it, to help establish that it doesn't have to be anything really harsh, though Loretta has a line that does that, too. She is a bit stunned when she learns it's more like the taking to the woodshed type that would be referenced on some place like Andy griffith, but she agrees when she considers just how bad this bully is. “ I know it's a job for the parents, but.. in case he can fool them again… maybe that's why I'm in charge right now.”
Like a TV detective, she sees through the bully's outwardly kind, polite demeanor and the plot where an incident happens where the bully has “done it again.” she proves that the kid the bully framed had nothing to do with it and the bully was responsible. Her character reluctantly goes through with it, with rhe scene going from her about to do it ( after giving him a chance to confess and have it be a lot gentler) to afterward. She stuns him by comforting him as he is crying,, and the boy finally admits that it was actually very fair for how he’s been treating girls in general.
The parents see her doing this and realize that encouraging him to express his feelings and care about others by showing they care about him more openly will help him to not be a bully anymore.
(Some have wondered why the little sister just disappears, but there is a line when Anissa is talking to Loretta's character that if she needs to deal with the bully she will call her mom who will come to watch after the little girl while Anissa looks into things. Such complaints are seen as signs that people don't always pay attention to a television show like they should.)
So, the episode managed to teach the importance of being tough on bullying, listening to victims who might be afraid to come forward otherwise, and compassion and helping people to see and think for themselves.
“'The Sitter Versus the Bully' is, as some say, a sign that some conservative elements will exist in this series - and on this network,” one writer said. As another noted, “the camera closeup on Anissa’s face so the audience could only imagine what she was going through as she hoped he confessed, then as he put on his innocent act like usual, then as she prepared to do it was originally done so no violence would be shown, but it also helped to net her that Emmy - her facial expression must have changed half a dozen times in just a few seconds.”
The reference to The Andy Griffith Show was not lost on some. Johnny Carson in his monologue spoke of how Jones had not only been expected to be Lucille Ball, but now she had been turned into Andy Griffith, and he joked about her also becoming Jackie Gleason, the Lone Ranger, and Howdy Doody. He also had a skit with her once the season was over and they were on a break where Anissa performed almost every single role in an episode, including producer and director, was someone else having just a few lines.
It's worth noting that in her Amy acceptance speech, she spent one sentence mentioning her mom and dad and the rest of her family, and 30 seconds praising Loretta and Nichelle as well as more time praising Dr. king.
The network had other programming, too. They had various types of shows There were other shows, too, and while many had black and white cast members together, not all did.
The network also bought the rights to movies, some better than others, and used plenty of black entertainers; ironically, many of whom had been on Flip Wilson’s NBC show.
They especially had one very special one which would go to honor a dying star.