Wheel series

Key takeaways

Wheel series belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Wheel series to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Wheel series from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

A wheel series, wheel show, wheel format or umbrella series is a television series in which two or more regular programs are rotated in the same time slot. Sometimes the wheel series is given its own umbrella title and promoted as a unit instead of promoting its separate components. The most successful example of a wheel series on American television was the NBC Mystery Movie, which debuted in 1971 on NBC and ran for seven seasons. Three of the shows in the rotation, Columbo, McCloud, and McMillan & Wife, were among the most successful shows on American television in the 1970s.

History The concept debuted in 1955 with ABC's Warner Bros. Presents. Warner Bros. Presents was a one-hour show rotating three series based on the movies King's Row, Casablanca, and Cheyenne, with the last 10 minutes set aside for the segment, Behind The Cameras at Warner Brothers. Warner Bros. was inspired by the Disneyland anthology series to do the series for publicity. The series lasted for one season. In 1959, ITV in the United Kingdom introduced The Four Just Men, a 39 episode series linking the common purpose of four characters: Jeff Ryder (Richard Conte), Tim Collier (Dan Dailey), Ben Manfred (Jack Hawkins) and Ricco Poccari (Vittorio De Sica). Each episode (after the first) featured a different principal but frequently included one or more of the others. In ABC's 77 Sunset Strip (1958–64) the two detectives would typically alternate as leads, with a Stuart Bailey case being featured one week, and a Jeff Spencer case the next. In NBC's 90 Bristol Court (1964–65), three unrelated comedy programs set in the same place were shown consecutively in one evening. They were tied together by a single character, handyman Cliff Murdoch (Guy Raymond). NBC began working with the mystery crime drama wheel format in 1968 with the 90-minute The Name of the Game. Based on the successful 1966 telefilm, Fame Is the Name of the Game, the first of the long-running World Premiere Movie series, it featured three main characters who worked for the same media corporation in different capacities, each character serving as a springboard for a different type of story. NBC launched a wheel show each year for the subsequent three years: The Bold Ones, Four in One and The NBC Mystery Movie. McCloud became part of the foundation for the NBC Mystery Movie after the cancellation of Four in One. It was joined by two new shows, Columbo (derived from the 1968 NBC telefilm Prescription: Murder) and McMillan & Wife. The success of this wheel on Sunday nights eventually led to a sister wheel show airing on Wednesday nights; the original was retitled NBC Sunday Mystery Movie with the addition of a fourth program, Hec Ramsey, and the new wheel, NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie debuted with four other new programs. None of the newer programs were as successful as the original three Sunday shows, except for the Wednesday program, Quincy, M.E., which was spun off as a standalone hour-long series in 1977. Rival programs ABC's The Men, and The New CBS Tuesday Night Movies did not last long either.

Attempts at reviving the format were made in 1989 with the Mystery Wheel of Adventure, a series of made-for-syndication TV movies including six installments of a new version of The Saint, in 1989-1990, with a format that rotated new editions of Columbo and Kojak on ABC, and in 1993–1994 on NBC, with a format that rotated A Perry Mason Mystery and new installments of Hart to Hart, without lasting success. Hallmark Channel had success with its Mystery Movie wheel from 2005 to 2008, discontinuing the series amid the growing popularity of its original romance movies. In 2015, its newly-rebranded sister channel Hallmark Movies & Mysteries launched a new mystery wheel.

List of wheel series

NBC The Name of the Game (1968–1971) The Bold Ones (1969–1973) Four in One (1970–1971) The NBC Mystery Movie / NBC Sunday Mystery Movie (1971–1977) NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie / NBC Tuesday Mystery Movie (1971–1974) Search (1972–1973) The NBC Friday Night Mystery (1993–1994)

ABC Warner Bros. Presents (1955–1956) The Men (1972) The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries (January 1977–February 1978). This wheel included The Brady Bunch Hour (January 23–February 27, 1977). The two remaining shows were combined, but later the Drew character was dropped. The ABC Mystery Movie (1989–1990), later split into the ABC Monday Mystery Movie (February 6–May 1989) and ABC Saturday Mystery Movie (August 1989–August 1990)

CBS The New CBS Tuesday Night Movies (1973) rotating two series with made-for-TV films

Hallmark Channel Hallmark Channel Mystery Wheel (2005–2008)

Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Mystery Wheel (2015–present)

Syndication Fred Flintstone and Friends (1977–1978) Hanna–Barbera's World of Super Adventure (1978–1979) The Comic Strip (1987–88) Action Pack (1994–1995) initially a wheel series of telefilms before becoming a programming block of action series Mystery Wheel of Adventure (1989–1990) six The Saint telefilms along with three telemovies featuring Dick Francis's detective David Cleveland

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Wheel series

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Wheel series claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Wheel series before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Wheel series ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Wheel series

In research: Wheel series appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Wheel series in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Wheel series is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Television terminology, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Wheel series outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Wheel series in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Wheel series means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Wheel series out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Wheel series in simple terms?

A wheel series, wheel show, wheel format or umbrella series is a television series in which two or more regular programs are rotated in the same time slot. Sometimes the wheel series is given its own umbrella title and promoted as a unit instead of promoting its separate components.

Why does Wheel series matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Wheel series?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Wheel series.