Shortlived: Star of the Family

1982 saw ABC pair this sitcom with Joanie Loves Chachi for the fall of 1982, only JLC (sorry but that's what I'm referring to it as now) returned for 1983.

"Star of the Family" centered around "Buddy" (Brian Dennehy) a hardworking fire captain, who has to deal with his crew of weirdos (they firemen were the "Whacky Neighbours" of this series), his wife running out on him, the fact that his son is a moron (a pre ninja Michael Dudikoff) and most of all that his daughter is quickly becoming a country music star.

It's all a very familiar cocktail really and sounds like a movie that gets remade every so often. The show was somewhat average on every level and as I recall, the daughter's musical segments seemed more late 70s than early 80s, always a bad sign.

Star of the Family never got past "Local Celebrity" and was cancelled December 1982.

Shortlived: The Bill Cosby Show

With the popularity of "The Cosby Show" in the mid 80s, some channels began to rerun this two season wonder from 1969 in order to feed the rampant "Cosbymania" that had gripped our nation.

But other than the titular star, the shows had little in common, this series was done on film, had no laugh track and was much more mellow in finding it's humour.

In this Cosby plays Chet, an LA area Gym teacher and it followed him through his adventures trying to help folks out or do the right thing. Chet doesn't always make the right call but he handles his foibles well and occasionally there is a lesson to be learned.

It's understandable how this ""Bill Cosby Show" didn't find a big audience with it's experimental (no laugh track simply wasn't done) approach but it's certainly a well done series. Shout Factory has it for sale on DVD which includes one of the last appearances of veteran actor Mantan Moreland playing Chet's Uncle!

Short Lived: The Paul Lynde Show

I've never seen minute one of this short lived vehicle for "Center Square" Paul Lynde and that wouldn't stop me from buying a box set tomorrow. The show itself sounds inconsequential, man has his perfect life disrupted when his daughter (and I'm assuming idiotic) son in law move back in.

I am betting there is probably a wonderful subtext to the show now, America percieved Lynde as "whacky" and having him play a family man was as strange as Village People Halloween costumes seem today.

Paul Lynde passed far too soon, I'm reminded of this everytime I see Roger on "American Dad", I can only imagine the parts he could have gotten in the 1990s.

Shortlived: The Charmings

Fantasy sitcoms had a tough time after their 1960s heyday, the Charmings was a good attempt to bring it back but it pretty much fell flat. What if Snow White, Prince Charming and their family woke up in modern times? Complete with evil witch step mother and whacy neighbour?

Opening as a mid season replacement, Charmings got good initial reviews and it generated enough ratings to return the following season. Unfortunately the orginal Snow White, played by Caitlin O'Heaney was replaced in season 2 by Carol Huston. No offence to Ms Huston but the sun set and rose over Caitlin O'Heany to 17 year old me, I completely stopped watching.

Other notable faces in the cast were Paul Winfield as the magic mirror and future Reba star (and the guy who played Archie) Christopher Rich as Prince Charming. 19 episodes isn't a long life but it's about 7 episodes longer than most shows of this nature.

Short Lived: The Mullets

Oh UPN, how I miss thee. Like Fox before it, a last placed channel will often take risks with it's programming because the only way is up.

The Mullets was one of those chances, the titular characters not only rocked what I've always called "The Short Long" but it also happens to be their last name (like almost every DC comics villain).

Loni Anderson played their mom and Mr. Peterson himself, John O'Hurley was on hand as their step dad. I've never seen an episode of this but judging from this clip, I have missed absolutely nothing.

Early reviews called it everything from charming to absolute crap, methinks the name damned it, it's like calling "King of the Hill" something like "Crewcut".

Short Lived: We Got It Made

I think 1983's "We Got It Made" was the first time I ever watched something due to negative reviews. At the time, critics pretty much lambasted it as "the stupidest new series" so me being me, I had to check it out.

I still remember the feeling of watching the pilot, which sucked but not in a 'fun way" and I never looked again. Apparently the American public felt the same way as "We Got It Made" opened to high ratings then nose dived into cancellation.

The series revolved around two sloppy bachelours who hire a sexy live in Maid (Teri Copely) despite objection from their girlfriends. Copely's sex appeal was supposed to keep you tuning in, even at 13 I couldn't care to do so, what does that say? As I recall, the dialogue and acting in the pilot were on par with most pornographic films.

Inexplicably during the "Syndication Spree" of 1987, somebody thought to bring this back with part of the original cast, it was cancelled yet again. I think this time though, the drowned it in the river and buried it behind the shed.

Short Lived: Payne

Fifteen years after "Amanda's" flopped, US producers tried again to capture "Fawlty Towers" with "Payne" this time with John Larroquette as "Royal Payne" (HA!) a man obsessed with the competition. This time he bullies around MO, an East Indian version of Manuel. Jo Beth Williams played Mrs Payne.

Just like Amanda's it was a mid season replacement and despite Laroquette being good casting, it was a miserable flop. I'd like to suggest to Hollywood that maybe the magic of Fawlty Towers cannot be recaptured but I know right now Kelsey Grammar is looking for a vehicle.....

Short Lived: Amanda's

British Sit Com "Fawlty Towers" is just too good not to Americanize it seems, however with this 1983 ABC series, we learned one thing, The late Bea Arthur was no John Cleese.

"Amanda's" was about Amanada Cartwright who ran a sea side resort called "Amanda's By The Sea" and her trials with family and staff including a bumbling foreign assistant, this time played by Canadian SCTV alum Tony Rosato.

Despite Arthur's presence and Rosato being inspired as "Manuel", it didn't gel and was quickly axed. As a mid season replacement, it's fate was likely sealed before it hit the air. One of these days I've got to talk about "Condo" it's lead in show.

Short Lived: Get Smart (1995)

If you didn't like last year's Steve Carrel movie based on the classic sitcom, you may want a reminder of how things could be worse. "Get Smart" had it's share of ups and downs since it's classic, original run in the 1960s. Max returned in a 1980 solo theatrical movie called "The Nude Bomb" which was indeed a bomb and later the franchise was redeemed with a great TV reuinion movie nine years later in "Get Smart Again"!

Then the franchise hit a real low point with this 1995 mid season replacement, which finds Max now the chief of control and his son now working as a fledgling agent. Zach Smart was far goofier than his pop, mostly because he was played by Andy Dick, yes that Andy Dick.

Damning the show further was the writing, Dick can be a funny performer when he's got some direction (see News Radio) but when he runs out in the pilot to distract some of the Villain's (Lars) goons by yelling "Hey, Lars sucks!" you know exactly why this wasn't on the fall schedule.

Andy Dick has had his share of dumb moves in his career but this version of "Get Smart" may highlight his brightest, while he was still under contract to Fox for potentially more episodes, he signed on to do "Newsradio" which aired a couple of months later. This could have gotten him in legal trouble but proved to be "smart" because Fox didn't come knocking again...

Short Lived: Women in Prison

Ahhhh, the early days of the Fox network, where they were trying to make their name by offering things that no other network had before. This paid off with "Married with Children" their first big hit, so they tried the formula a half dozen more times. "The Simpsons" came out of the deal, so it wasn't all bad.

"Women in Prison" was one of those things that fell somewhat flat, the story of Vicki (Julia Campbell) a housewife framed by her husband and the folks she meets while doing time in prison. There's Dawn, the murderer (played by the very talented CCH Pounder, who probably doesn't include this in her resume), Pam the computer thief (sitcom veteran Wendy Jo Sperber) and the guards played by Denny Dillon (the first I had heard of her but she's better known for "Dream On") and always working charactor actor Blake Clarke.

After 13 episodes in 1987, the Women in Prison were set free or so I imagine. I think Fox didn't realise that if you remove the shower scenes from these kinds of things, nobody wants to watch 'em.

In a weird bit of trivia, actor Blake Clarke can be seen in costume on the set of WIP in the Ramones "Something to believe in" video, lord knows why...

Syndicated: You Can't Take It With You

Even though it's only about 20 years old, this is easily one of the most forgotten television shows I've ever encountered. Even the IMDB page has it all wrong and seems to get it confused with the play of the same name, of which this series was an updating. It's like everybody's memory was wiped clean.

The series revolved around the character of Martin (played by Harry Morgan, a man who must love to work) who lived with his daughter and her husand (Richard Sanders from WKRP) Paul, who designed toys and according to Martin " played with them too".

Martin was this free spirit who painted and never paid his taxes, he narrated the show's opening highlighting how eclectic each family member was, he himself marched to the beat of a different drummer.

My local UHF station played this show at five on Sunday and I remember being somewhat confused why it existed. It was clearly based on something but I'd never heard of the play or the film, I doubt most people had. Much of the show took place on the living room set and the writing was dated and weak. There weren't many laughs to be had.

Despite having the presence of Morgan and Sanders, YCTIWY faded after one unmemorable season and apparently, all evidence of it was destroyed.

Cop Week: Nobody's Perfect

There is little photographic or video evidence of this series but the picture of Clouseau is fitting. "Nobody's Perfect" was an Arne Sultan prduction, the same man who brought you "Holmes and Yo-Yo". It's premise was a little more grounded, Det. Insp. Roger Hart (Played by actor Ron Moody) was brought from Scotland Yard to San Francisco in exchange program.

Hart was a competant police officer but he was also quite bumbling, where ever he went so did calamity, as things would often get crazy in a slapstick kind of way. It was a vapour thin attempt to cash in on the popularity of Blake Edward's Pink Panther series.

Nobody's Perfect was cancelled by ABC before it aired, which was pretty damned rare. It wasn't regulated to a mid season status, it debuted in June of 1980. Summer time is traditionally known as "Garbage Dump Theatre" for lost pilots and this launch showed how much confidence ABC had.

I remember it pretty well for some reason, even the episode "It was a very good year" which was about a stolen rare bottle of wine. Hart and his superior officer end up drinking the wine after the bottle breaks and discover it tastes like crap. I don't understand why that memory is strong, but it is....

Cop Week: The Last Precinct

The Last Precinct was a shortlived attempt by NBC (and oddly Stephen J Cannell) to capture some of the popularity of the "Police Academy" movies for the small screen. The concept was pure 1980s, all the oddball officers including an Elvis Impersonator, a fat guy, a transgender were all put into a bad neighbourhood to keep the peace under the guidance of Captain Rick Wright (Adam West!) who was a bit of an oddball himself.

The cast included Rick Ducommun, Ernie Hudson, Wings Hauser and James Cromwell. It aired in the Spring of 1986 (after a Superbowl launch) and just faded away.

There was a lot of that "Snobs vs Underdogs" theme in the series, as the team faced opposition from other better funded precincts.

The reason I think this died was they were doing a watered down version of something that wasn't that great to begin with, sorry if I've hurt any feelings here but I never thought much of the Police Academy movies. I did enjoy it while it lasted however, it was goofy and fun to watch, especially West, who played his usual out of his mind character...

Cop Week: Police Squad!

Created by the same team that brought you Airplane! and Kentucky Fried Movie, Police Squad was a brilliant series that was unfairly cancelled.

The Premise was simple, Police Squad was a straight laced 70s crime show (heavily swiping from Quinn Martin shows) full of sight gags and jokes delivered with a deadpan nature. Leading the team was Leslie Nielsen as Frank Drebin, a straight laced no nonense kind of cop who is sometimes a sgt and later a lt detective, they kept intentionally changing that.

ABC cancelled the series because "the viewer had to pay attention" which means that ABC thought we were all morons, I was eleven and had no trouble keeping up. Police Squad! was a never miss program in my house.

After it's cancellation of course, the series was eventually brought to feature films as "the Naked Gun" making Nielsen a comedy star in the process. As much as I like those, I kind of miss when Frank Drebin wasn't a buffoon who seemed in on the joke. (In general I wish no one had ever told Leslie Nielsen he was funny) One of the best things about Police Squad was it's hard boiled tone.

Serious Spin Offs Week: The Bradys

Of all the serious spin offs, this is probably the most extreme (Unless you somehow think "Lost" is based on "Gilligans Island", I do). With the popularity of their cheesy Christmas reunion movie, the Bradys were greenlit for a "Dramedy" series on CBS in 1990.

Nobody got a football in the nose this time, it was straight up drama laced with a little bit of that Brady humour. The show got announced on Oprah (!) with all the cast members present. Marcia dropped out this time and was replaced by another actress.

I seem to recall a storyline of Bobby getting in a racing accident and suffering possible paralysis. Nobody wanted to watch that and the show went away after six episodes.

Theories on it's cancellation mention Robert Reed's illness but I personally just think the whole idea smelled.

Shortlived: Turnabout

It's officially John Schuck week here at Sitcom Diablo, mostly because I wanted to be the first blog in history to hold such an event (take that Aquaman shrine!) and I'm kind of fond of the guy.

After Holmes and YoYo got yanked, Shuck returned to the dreary final season of McMillan and wife now just called "McMillan" and soon found himself on another sitcom with fantastic elements in Turnabout.

I couldn't find anything relating to this 1979 mid season replacement series, no youtube link or even a still photo so I used all my photoshop might to give you an idea of what it kind of looked like, so voila!

Turnabout starred Schuck and Sharon Gless as a husband and wife who accidently switch bodies thanks to a statue or gypsy curse, I forget. He's a big ol' sloppy sportswriter who subscribes to Oscar Madison monthly and she's a dainty housewife, oh the hilarity of seeing their lives face when they do the freaky friday.

I actually did watch this show every week but it started to grind for two reasons:

a) All the humour seemed to be based on that "let's not get caught" concept, like when Sharon Gless starts puffing on a cigar in front of a girlfriend or that she knows a lot about sports.

b) The fact that it skirted the bigger (and more hilarious) issue of a gender swap. If I woke up with a vagina tomorrow, it would likely be something I would mention on a regular basis until I no longer had it. Not so with Turnabout and that's likely the fail aspect of this series.

Turnabout disappeared after only 7 episodes but the concept lived on and was made into about 385 different movies during 1987-1989.

The 1940 film version of the same novel, is superior to this series and just about as risque.

I have one more "Schuck-com" in the bag for this week and yep, it's another fantasy based show.

ShortLived: Holmes and YoYo

I think if you remember this show you were likely a kid in the mid seventies as that had to be it's biggest audience. Premiering on my birthday (classy!) in 1976, the series followed the adventures of Alexander Holmes, a man luckless with partners until he's teamed up with YoYo (John Schuck), who just happens to be a robot.

The show had the same producers as "Get Smart", so it's essentially the "Hymie the Robot" show without the crisp writing. Many of the episodes as I recall had some laughs based on YoYo mechanics, one episode had him stuck in reverse during the climax. John Shuck actually left MacMillan and Wife for this and after it was yanked, he tried another fantasy sitcom with 1979's "Turnabout" more on that later...

The ending of the show is actually quite clever.

Shortlived: Carter Country

This two season wonder set in Clinton Corners, Georgia (presumably where Jimmy Carter came from) made light of racial tension in the South. Victor French played Police Chief Roy Mobey and Kene Holliday played Sgt. Baker, a young African America who was the smartest man in the room. It was a comedic "In the Heat of the Night" so to speak.

The big stand out in the series was actor Richard Paul, who made a career playing southern blowhards and preachers, his catch phrase on the series was "Handle it Roy" meaning he asked the chief of police to make things disappear.

While the show was a staple at my house, I imagine that Carter Country's cancellation was likely America's falling out of love with "corn pone" television in general and the fact that it was up against "C.H.i.Ps" on NBC. Probably more to do with that...

Shortlived: Delta House

Delta House was ABC's kick at the "Frat House Craze of 1979" spawned by "Animal House" (CBS and NBC also released frat shows this year) and it was actually the TV version of Animal House. Much of the cast remained including John Vernon and Stephen Furst although Josh Mostel filled in as Bluto's brother and Tim Matheson is nowhere to be found. some girl named "Michelle Pfeiffer" also starred, wonder what ever happened to her.

I can tell you this, I LOVED this show as a kid but I hadn't seen the original movie either so I wasn't aware how watered down it was.

Between this and "Brothers and Sisters" , I was so stoked to go to college and live this crazy lifestyle. I was disappointed beyond belief...

Fish Promo Commercial

Hey this is the same episode I blogged about a couple of weeks ago, weird. I do remember this one.