Interesting TV shows you'd never heard of

[Khan]

And of course, the Black guy would be the porter and the guy who can't hold his liquor (tray).

TLB was huge BITD, wasn't it? Whenever one of the networks would premiere another godawful anthology series, featuring weak stories and has-been or never-was actors, it was always "Love Boat"-meets-something. Ugh. No matter what, you can always count on television to take a hit formula and run it into the ground.

[Paul Raven]

Stand By Your Man was a US version of the long running UK sitcom Birds Of A Feather.

As for Love Boat rip-offs,there was Aloha Paradise with Debbie Reynolds set in a Hawaii resort on ABC,. NBC did a pilot called Pleasure Cove along the same lines.

An interesting sitcom from around 67 was He and She with Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentiss. It was apparently quite sophisticated for the time as it dealt with an urban 20 something couple in a more adult way than the typical show of the time. I think there is some of it on YouTube.

Does My Mother The Car still hold the honors for worst sitcom premise of all time?

[Khan]

Apparently so, but "Me and the Chimp" is, as they say, rounding the clubhouse turn.

I've seen a few episodes of "He and She," and they are brilliant. Sort of the bridge between "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," in terms of the evolution of sophisticated, character-driven comedy on television.

Here's part one of "The Old Man & the She," which, IIRC, won Allan Burns (MTM's co-creator) and Chris Hayward (who'd worked w/ Burns on "Rocky & Bullwinkle"; and later, produced "Barney Miller") the Best Comedy Series Writing Emmy that year:

Another great (and short-lived) show from that time period:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dF1MkS2LA4&feature=related

[All My Shadows]

I flove TLB! And you're right. Fantasy Island was LB without the love or the boat (but everything else), Hotel was LB on land, Supertrain was LB on the railroad, Finder of Lost Loves was LB with detectives, I remember reading about a show that was basically Fantasy Island minus the fantasies and plus the love. I think Debbie Reynolds was the star. ETA: Paul R. beat me to it!

That's me, too. I grew up with Nick at Nite and TV Land (when they were still airing stuff from the 50s-80s) and the internet. There's virtually no "hit" show from the last 60 years that I've never heard of at least in passing. It's so strange when I remind myself that my friends have never heard of Pistols 'n Petticoats, Our Miss Brooks, Bridget Loves Bernie, Harry O, She's the Sheriff, etc. Or even popular shows like Alice, One Day at a Time, My Three Sons, Julia, and so on. *sigh* I count myself lucky.

I dooo remember one night at least 15 or so years ago when I stayed up real late watching N@N and was utterly shocked to discover that Phyllis from MTM had her own show. I grew up on Mary and Rhoda but had no clue that Phyllis had a spin-off too. Really, that's how I discovered everything, through N@N. Every show they added in the mid to late 90s was something I'd never heard of or seen before, and my little dorky ass was ALWAYS excited. Laverne and Shirley, Wonder Years, WKRP, The Jeffersons, The Facts of Life, etc.

YouTube's been a real good resource for finding stuff that I'd been wanting to see for years but never got to because they weren't on TV anymore. For example, I've been watching "Family Affair" a lot lately, and I think it's just the CUTEST little show! And I found this truly great channel dedicated to Lois Nettleton that has a bunch of her guest appearances from the 60s and 70s on shows I never thought I'd get to see like The Bold Ones, Cannon, Barnaby Jones, Mr. Novak, Dr. Kildare, Medical Center, Marcus Welby, Bracken's World, Then Came Bronson, etc. Some really good stuff.

ETA: He & She's another one I've been watching lately that I like. Also "The Smith Family" with Henry Fonda and Ron Howard. That one sorta reminds me of "The Jimmy Stewart Show," which I watched on GoodLife TV (now AmericanLife) years ago. That was another channel that introduced me to a lot of shorter-lived/forgotten shows. Flamingo Road being #1 of course, and also Homefront, Down to Earth (woman dies in the 20s, becomes an angel in the 80s, and moves in with a single dad family), One Big Family (with Danny Thomas), The New Dick Van Dyke Show (criminally underrated!), The Courtship of Eddie's Father, Mayberry RFD, Chico and the Man, The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd, The FBI, Combat!, Highway to Heaven, and the list goes on.

Have any of yall seen any of 1977's The Betty White Show? MTM Productions did Betty WRONG with that lame, weird, unfunny show. Just wrong.

[Khan]

Speaking of YT, does anyone else remember this series? It was a personal favorite of mine for years...

[All My Shadows]

I was OBSESSED with that theme song for many, many months. Such a shame the way ABC started to slip around that time. Happy Days lost Richie and Ralph, L&S left Wisconsin for California, Three's Company was about to lose Suzanne. Angie and The Ropers were midseason hits in '79 but were canceled the next year. Both were good shows and could have lasted at least three or four more years.

[Khan]

Yep, lol.

"The Betty White Show" had some good writers on its' staff, but aside from White, Georgia Engel, and John Hillerman, the cast was dreadful. And the decision to videotape, rather than film, the series did them no favors, either.

Of course, it's been suggested that the series would've been more successful had they simply spun off Betty's character from "Mary Tyler Moore," Sue Ann Nivens. But, I'm not so sure about that. Keep in mind: "Phyllis" had been a dismal flop after two seasons and was going off the air the same time as MTM; "Rhoda," which had once been more successful than MTM, was fading (due mostly to the decision to have Rhoda and Joe divorce -- although, I don't think that was really their choice; contrary to all the writers have said in the past, I suspect the real reason was b/c David Groh (Joe), who was known to be difficult to work with, complained too much about his marginal and unfunny character, so they came up with the divorce as a means of dumping him); and while "Lou Grant" would be premiering that same season (1977-78) as an hour-long drama, no one was certain whether that would make it, too.

And "Taxi," the true jewel in the network's crown, was instead treated like the red-headed stepchild.

[All My Shadows]

The very premise of TBWS is kinda cringe-worthy to me. Show-within-a-show shows rarely, if ever, work, what with audiences having to keep track of the actors and their characters and the characters and their characters. Betty was like 55 when that show came out, too, so you have her playing a woman playing the star of an action-packed crime drama, which was a stretch of the imagination. The supporting cast was terrible (especially the guy playing her stunt double) and putting it on tape made it awkward and cheap-looking (which isn't a knock on tape, which I love for many reasons). It all adds up to a big and mighty FAIL for me.

I think they could have come up with something for a Sue Ann spin-off. It's been so long since I saw Mary's finale, but I'm pretty sure Sue Ann was fired with all the rest of them too, right? I always had a weird thought in my head of Sue Ann taking on the Dick and Joanna roles on Newhart, being a "proper" homemaker who inherits (or buys, whatever) an inn in the Vermont countryside and has to deal with the staff and locals. But then again, the MTM-style humor was going out of style by that point anyway, so maybe nothing would have worked. WKRP and The White Shadow were their only "hits," and that's overstating it, especially for the latter.

I've always wanted to see The Tony Randall Show, which was on at the same time (76-78) and was also done by MTM. There was an episode on YT a few months ago, but it was removed, unfortunately, along with the Betty episode. Tony's show seemed more in line with Mary, Bob, Rhoda, and The New Dick Van Dyke Show (which I loved), but I wish I could see it to make a fair judgment.

[Khan]

Right. Everyone was fired by WJM's new station manager except Ted.

I always thought Sue Ann should've stayed in Minneapolis and hosted her own radio show, a la Frasier Crane.

True, MTM-produced shows were becoming more bizarre by the end of the '70's. In terms of the level and approach of the humor, there's a tremendous difference between "Mary Tyler Moore" and "Newhart." Later shows, in fact, seemed to have a bleaker, more negative outlook on people. Not that they weren't still funny, though! :-)

[DRW50]

My mother loved Angie, she got to watch a few episodes again on Youtube for the first time in eons. I saw some of it then -- the show's not too bad, although I really love the theme song, both the theme and the fun credits (RIP Debralee Scott). Robert Hays never gets enough credit.

I remember being surprised to hear that Ozzie and Harriet was eventually put in a syndicated format, with Ozzie and Harriet renting a room to three sorority sisters, one black, to keep up with the times.

[All My Shadows]

Ozzie's Girls!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZDqgDzr_2k

Poor Ozzie, their time had definitely passed by then. Danny Thomas tried the same sort of thing with Make Room for Granddaddy.

[Khan]

'Guess Ozzie wanted to get "that Black storyline up and pumping."

[SFK]

I was introduced to Angie by that funky thumpin' Maureen McGovern disco theme song which is on one of those TV theme song cds I bought back in the day. It turned up on Nick a few years later, I think one of those special weekends where they dug into the vault. All I seem to remember are the crazy Happy Days-like audience reactions, huge entrance applause and "AWWWWs". There was a scene where there was a mini-crisis and Doris Roberts did this extended murmuring to herself dithery schtick, and of course the audience gave her hugh applause as she exited, so cheesey, old-fashioned, and altogther charming.

I also saw TBWS on Nick, she was supposed to be like Angie Dickinson in "Police Woman". You know, and this may be why Phyllis didn't fly, I am almost tempted to say that the beverlee McKinsey as Iris starring in "Texas" thing may apply here, the idea that a bitchy character can't really carry the lead of a show. Well, at least not when she's unequipped by the writing. I don't remember much about it, but I do remember being taken aback by how cold and sarcastic Betty's character was, but not even in a fun Sophia Petrillo kinda way, but like an understated witty ice queen in a dramatic play kinda way, almost as if she couldn't be bothered and didn't want to be there. I dunno, whatever the deal was it didn't work out.

Lee Grant starred in a short-lived yet critically acclaimed sitcom called "Fay" written by Susan Harris of "Soap" and "The Golden Girls" fame. It was ahead of its time, chronicling the life of a recent divorcee and apparently there was a mandate for more family programming and it got the ax. Interestingly, Lee Grant was an early choice for the role of Dorothy on TGG but she didn't want to play a grandmother. Of course her daughter, Dinah Manoff, would go on to star in Susan Harris' other show "Empty Nest" and Lee would guest star as her aunt on there.

[DRW50]

Brenda Sykes? How do you go from Ozzie Nelson to the Mandingo franchise??

I remember reading about Fay. Didn't Lee Grant go on the Tonight Show and shame CBS into keeping the show for a few more episodes (where it continued to bomb)? She seems to take herself very seriously, even though she is probably best known for high camp (Valley of the Dolls; one of the Airport movies).

I'd like to see more of that Turn-On show, which was such a miserable flop the second episode was not even shown.

[Khan]

Re: "Ozzie's Girls" -- A middle-aged man and his frumpy (yes, frumpy) wife of umpteen years rents out rooms to three young, nubile, groovy sorority sisters. Sounds like clean, harmless fun, doesn't it? ;-P