FORGOTTEN TELEVISION: THE GIRL WITH SOMETHING EXTRA (1973-1974)

THE GIRL WITH SOMETHING EXTRA (1973-1974) – This half-hour sitcom continued the concept of having Sally Field in possession of paranormal abilities. The Flying Nun saw her capable of flight and The Girl with Something Extra featured her comedic escapades as a young woman who was able to read people’s minds.

NBC was apparently hoping for this series about ESP to be the new version of Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie, but The Girl with Something Extra never quite gelled. Field as Sally Burton was married to John Davidson’s John Burton, a lawyer.   

The supporting cast included Terri Garr, Jack Sheldon, Zohra Lampert and William Windom. NBC lost faith in the ESP angle and often downplayed it during the 22-episode run of this show that couldn’t decide if it wanted to be about cutesy newlyweds or lean into the mind-reading element. 

THE EPISODES:

SALLY ON MY MIND – Attorney John Burton contemplates asking out Sally, a woman he’s just met. He is surprised when, out of nowhere, she tells him she is available the next night. Their whirlwind courtship ends in marriage and on their wedding night, Sally finally tells John about her ESP abilities. Feeling uncomfortable, John walks out on her but realizes he loves Sally enough to just deal with the fact that she can read his mind.

EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO HIDE BUT COULDN’T – Once while kissing Sally, John is thinking about Annette Funicello instead. Naturally, Sally can tell and wears Mouseketeer ears the next time she and John canoodle. John feels embarrassed, leading to Sally telling him about men she thinks about when they are together.

A GIFT FOR THE GIFTED – John comes up with wacky schemes to try keeping his birthday gift for Sally a surprise by cluttering his mind with enough nonsense to hopefully conceal thoughts about the gift. Sally isn’t fooled.   

HOW GREEN WAS LAS VEGAS – Sally tags along with John on a business trip to Las Vegas. His musician brother Jerry (Jack Sheldon) is performing there and convinces Sally to use her ESP to win at gambling. John, like Darren with Samantha and Tony with Jeannie, insists on never using his wife’s powers for financial advantage. They try to lose her winnings. Farrah Fawcett guest stars. 

ALL THE NUDE THAT’S FIT TO PRINT – A woman (Corinne Camacho) who runs a spicy magazine offers John money to pose nude for her publication. Sally is fine with this and figures they can finance a trip to Hawaii with the money. NOTE: This episode was a tie-in with John Davidson’s real-life nude layout in Playgirl magazine. Merv Griffin appears. With clothes on, thankfully. 

JOHN & SALLY & FRED & LINDA – Sally and John spend time with Sally’s high school friend Linda (Diana Ewing) and her husband Fred (Pat Harrington himself). The Burtons find Fred & Linda incredibly boring. Jerry and his new girlfriend (Carol Wayne) tell John and Sally to get rid of the boring couple by proposing that they all go nude swimming. The otherwise dull Fred and Linda are fine with doing that. At this rate I’m guessing that The Girl with Something Extra will do a wacky episode revealing that Sally has something ELSE that’s “extra”. 

ONE OF OUR HENS IS MISSING – Sally gives a chocolate hen that John’s mother sent him to a child next door. John is furious and leaves to vent to Jerry and his new lady (Teri Garr). Sally buys John a chocolate bunny to make up for the hen. Oddly, nobody gets naked in this episode.

NO BENEFIT OF DOUBT – Sally shows up to watch John defending his latest client in court. Her ESP powers tell her that the woman is actually guilty. John tells her he already knows and throws the case per his plans. What would be grounds for having John disbarred in real life is treated like the right thing to do in Sitcom Land and the judge (Peggy McCay) suspends the client’s sentence for the happy (?) ending.

AND BABY MAKES TWO – Sally and John’s friend Anne decides she wants to have a man impregnate her then leave since she doesn’t want a husband, too. Our main couple pepper John’s new client with personal questions to see if he would be right for Anne’s designs.

IT’S SO PEACEFUL IN THE COUNTRY – A weekend at a country cabin goes wrong in every way imaginable for John and Sally. They even wind up having a crowd of uninvited guests on their hands and Sally’s ESP tells her one of them robbed a bank but there are so many of them she can’t tell who.

SUGAR AND SPICE AND QUARTERBACK SNEAK – Sally’s niece Jody is a tomboy who plays football with other 12-year-olds. Jerry dates a stripper, John takes Jody to buy a more ladylike wardrobe and Sally – despite having ESP – is depicted mistakenly thinking Jody has a crush on John. Then they all go nude. (I’m kidding!)   

MIND-ING MAMA – Sally’s mind-reading powers tell her that John and Jerry’s mother deeply dislikes her. To get on her good side, Sally buys and cooks things for the mother that her ESP plucks from her mind. The mother finds out about the ESP and turns Sally over to the government to be imprisoned and experimented on. (Again, I’m kidding.)

A MEETING OF MINDS – John begins to feel he and Sally are too predictable and boring (maybe he was just reading reviews of the show). He decides to skydive to show he can be impulsive and Sally tries to stop him. 

GUESS WHO’S FEEDING THE PIGEONS – Per 1970s law, Keenan Wynne makes an appearance on the show as an old man who feeds pigeons in the park and befriends Sally. Later, she and John are shocked to learn that the old man is really an organized crime boss. Wasn’t she supposed to be able to read minds?

THE GREENING OF AUNT FRAN – Sally’s flamboyant, adventurous, world-traveling Aunt Fran (THE Eve Arden) comes into town bringing a lot of chaos and wild animals with her. She and John’s boss fall for each other when the law firm handles a pearl bed inheritance for Fran.

THE COST OF GIVING – This episode brings a tired and unfunny version of O Henry’s The Gift of the Magi as John and Sally sacrifice treasured personal belongings in order to afford to buy 6-Month Anniversary gifts for each other. Wouldn’t Sally’s ESP prevent such cliched misunderstandings? 

A ZIRCON IN THE ROUGH – When Sally and John entertain sophisticated socialite Samantha Carrington (Joan Van Ark), Jerry offers to be her date for the festivities but our main characters fear that Jerry’s horny ways won’t mesh with Samantha’s elegance and class.

THE SOUR GRAPEVINE – When John is working on a divorce case involving a husband who cheated on his wife with his secretary, various characters begin suspecting their significant others of having affairs with their secretaries.

IRRECONCILABLE SAMENESS – Sally’s mother and father – played by Audra Lindley and Donald O’Connor – move to California to live near them. The pair decide to separate, so Sally and John have Jerry set them up on dates with two of his kinky acquaintances to make them realize they prefer each other.

THREE FOR THE ROAD – In a tale straight from Bewitched‘s “Stevens, the new client wants to meet you and your wife” bag of tricks, Jerry gets John and Sally to San Diego to meet the law firm’s new client and get a contract signed. John loses his wallet, their luggage gets sent to the wrong hotel and horndog Jerry brings a new woman to oink and boink with to his, John and Sally’s room. 

THE NOT SO GOOD SAMARITAN – Don Knotts plays an unlucky mailman who is taken in by Sally and John when his good deed for her causes him to get fired. They plan to fix him up with somebody, but he and Arlene Golonka are already a couple. Riveting stuff.

THE NEW BROOM – When John is being put forward as a candidate for City Council, Sally is able to read the minds of his would-be campaign manager (Dick Van Patten) and other politicos and is wary of their apparent sleaziness and ambition.

*** And that wrapped up The Girl with Something Extra, which was canceled for low ratings despite having the hit show Sanford and Son as its lead-in. 

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