This time around in Balladeer’s Blog’s recurring feature Forgotten Television we’ll take a brief look at some dumb attempts at launching sitcoms.
MCGURK (1979)
Stars: Barney Martin, Hamilton Camp, Sherry Lynn
Premise: Five actors dressed up as dogs hung out and joked about their human owners. The dogs’ owners, that is. Believe it or not the talented Peter Bonerz directed this unsold sitcom pilot and Brandon Tartikoff was executive producer. How either of them had the nerve to show their faces in public again is beyond me. (ORIGINALLY TITLED A DOG’S LIFE)
WHERE’S MOMMA? (1974)
Stars: Richard Mulligan, Michele Carey
Premise: Mulligan starred as a widowed real estate agent who was so ill-prepared to raise his twin children that his wife, played by Michele Carey, returned from the afterlife to help him out. Only Mulligan’s character could see the wife’s ghost, leading to the usual “comedy” set pieces. Continue reading
U.S. STEEL HOUR: SEASON FOUR (1956-1957) – “The Broadway of Television” was back for another season. Some standout episodes from this season:
BANG THE DRUM SLOWLY – PAUL NEWMAN, George Peppard, Albert Salmi, Barbara Babcock and Clu Gulager star in the TV version of this classic story. A major league pitcher (Paul Newman) learns his catcher (George Peppard in his television debut) is dying from a rare disease. He honors the catcher’s request to keep the situation a secret from the rest of the team. 
CORONET BLUE (1967) – Another intriguing but short-lived television series created by future 
A TIME TO BE BORN, A TIME TO DIE – After our amnesiac hero pulls himself out of New York Harbor he adopts the name Michael Alden based on the name of the physician treating him and the hospital in which he is laid up. His fingerprints come back with no match and Michael goes on the run from his enigmatic pursuers and struggles to learn what “Coronet Blue” means. 
BANACEK (1972-1974) – George Peppard starred as insurance investigator Thomas Banacek solving seemingly impossible thefts in this rotating series from NBC’s Wednesday Night Mystery Movie. NBC launched the Wednesday Night Mystery series in an attempt to duplicate the success of its Sunday Night Mystery Movie which had launched iconic detective shows like Columbo, McMillan and Wife & McCloud. 
An insurance detective recovering the stolen item would save the parent company from having to pay the entire insurance policy amount. They would only have to pay a certain percentage to the detective solving the theft and recovering the insured object. 
DOLLY (1976-1977) – This half-hour series was launched after singer Dolly Parton’s years of success as a supporting performer on Porter Wagoner’s show. Dolly featured Ms. Parton and usually one celebrity guest performing songs. The series ran for 26 episodes. Dolly’s hit Love is Like a Butterfly was the opening theme and at the end of each show she would perform a little bit of I Will Always Love You. 
EPISODE ONE – For some reason, kiddie show host Bob Keeshan – Captain Kangaroo himself – was the guest in this episode. He and Dolly sang Three Little Fishes together. Keeshan soloed on Thank Heaven for Little Girls (I wish I was kidding but I’m not.) and Sleepyhead. 
Yes, “the Broadway of TV” is back for this look at the program’s third season. 
THE NEW ODD COUPLE (1982-1983) – This sitcom was a reboot of the 1970-1975 series, now starring former Barney Miller co-star Ron Glass as obsessively tidy photographer Felix Unger and former Sanford & Son co-star Demond Wilson as pathologically sloppy sports reporter Oscar Madison. Coincidentally, Glass had made guest appearances on two Sanford & Son episodes in the 1970s. 
THE IDES OF APRIL (Oct 29th, 1982) – Felix must go down to the IRS office to correct a computer error. While there, he accidentally lets slip Oscar’s tax cheating. Oscar gets audited, but Felix manages to get his roommate through the ordeal successfully. ESTHER ROLLE guest starred. 
ANDY CAPP (1988) – Okay. I’ve put this off long enough. Time to just review Andy Capp and be done with it. 
Meanwhile, his wife Flo put the bread on the table and clashed with Andy on a regular basis. 
THE OREGON TRAIL (1976-1977) – Another seasonal post for Frontierado, which celebrates the myth of the Old West and not the grinding reality. The Oregon Trail was basically a 1970s attempt to imitate the classic western series Wagon Train. In the 1840s a recent widower played by Rod Taylor and his children join a wagon train headed to the Pacific Northwest. 
THE OREGON TRAIL (Jan 10th, 1976) – Pilot Movie. The story opens in 1842 on the wedding day of widowed Illinois farmer Evan Thorpe and his second wife Jessica (Blair Brown). The next day, they and Evan’s children join a wagon train headed for America’s Pacific Northwest. 
TWENTY-SIX MEN (1957-1959) – This television series ran for two seasons and 78 half-hour episodes. It dramatized the early years of the Arizona Rangers, who were established on March 21st, 1901, and for years consisted of just 26 men. Stories were based on the Arizona Rangers case files.
THE RECRUIT – In this 1st episode of the series, Captain Rynning and Clint Travis receive an emergency telegram from a newspaper editor in Wilcox, Arizona. They ride there, but find the editor has been lynched, so they set about investigating what happened. With Don Haggerty as Big Red Monahan.
