Happy Days and Good Times opened within just a few weeks of each other in 1974, and both are just dynamite shows. Whichever one of those shows grabs my attention in 1975 is likely to lead me into watching one of the two 7:30 p.m. Central sitcoms that are debuting this fall.
After 8 p.m., though, Tuesdays appear to be pretty slim pickings. Neither The Rookies nor Police Story is much my bag, I'm wide open to Switch, CBS's new entry, despite TV Guide's unenthusiastic preview.
9 p.m. is even less appealing. Joe Forrester appears to have given Lloyd Bridges his material for some later roles. I'll probably give CBS's new Beacon Hill a try.
What I really hope is that NBC bumps very good Movin' On back to 9 p.m. Rosey Grier is joining the cast as a regular trucker!
On IMDB, I found the following comment about "Beacon Hill," a show of which I had never heard:
ReplyDelete"American audiences hailed the UK import 'Upstairs Downstairs' as great art... because it took place in the past, dealt with the British class system, and had lots of English accents. In Britain, 'Upstairs Downstairs' was never an especially impressive TV serial because it was widely recognised as (I'm being gentle here) a 'tribute' to Noel Coward's play 'Cavalcade', which followed the progress of two sets of Londoners (an upper-class family, and the lower-class family who serve them) from the Boer War to modern times. Several specific incidents in 'Upstairs Downstairs' were direct copies from incidents in Noel Coward's 'Cavalcade' ... such as one of the upper-class family's ladies dying aboard the 'Titanic'.
"In spite of all this, a boardroomful of greedy Yank TV executives - totally ignorant of Noel Coward, and utterly oblivious to everything else except the high ratings for 'Upstairs Downstairs' on America's PBS network - decided to create an American version. Thus was spawned 'Beacon Hill', which took place in the snobbish environs of that Boston neighbourhood in the 1920s. Boston, remember, is where the beans come from ... and we all know what comes from beans. The wealthy family in 'Upstairs Downstairs' were named Bellamy. The nobs in 'Beacon Hill' were named Lassiter. See a resemblance?
"At least 'Upstairs Downstairs' got the details right. 'Beacon Hill' was laughably wrong. Brian Mallory is the Irish chauffeur in the Lassiter household. (How many American households ever engaged an Irish chauffeur?) We can tell he's Irish because - I am NOT making this up - he actually greets people with the words "Top o' the mornin' t' you!" In Britain, we have the useful word 'Oirish' to describe this sort of stage-Irishman. People like this don't exist in real life; at least not since the days of the Potato Famine.
"Even more ludicrous was the household's butler Arthur Hacker, who was meant to be the direct equivalent of "Upstairs, Downstairs"'s own Angus Hudson (again, spot the resemblance?). The opening episode of 'Beacon Hill' features an absolutely ludicrous scene belowstairs, in which the butler suppresses a smirk while he informs the other servants that he controls every decision made by the wealthy Lassiter family, and none of them know it, and 'not even the hand of God' can change this. Oh, yes indeed, Hacker. Carry on taking your medication.
"The producers of this series hoped that audiences would develop an interest in Fawn Lassiter, the wealthy family's sluttish daughter. In one episode, she caroused half-naked at a party where booze flowed freely (and illegally; this series took place during Prohibition). When word of her escapades reached the Boston newspapers, Fawn expected her wealthy father to use his money and influence to suppress the story. Fortunately for Fawn, this entire series got suppressed very quickly.
"Pass the scrod, pass the cod; I'll pahk my caah in Haavahd Yahd."
This is fantastic.
DeleteFrom 1993 until around 2000, I listened to thousands of hours of WTEM-AM, a sports radio station in Washington, D.C. One of the main hosts on WTEM was a guy named Andy Pollin (who is still on the air, in fact.) He would sometimes host his own show and sometimes appear on the Tony Kornheiser. But at least three or four times a year, he would make reference to "Welcome Back, Kotter," -- and every time he mentioned that show, he would comment on how attractive Mr. Kotter's wife was.
ReplyDeleteAndy Pollin is not alone for his fondness for the late Marcia Strassman. Here's a tribute video that someone put together after her death in 2014. (The YouTube user is "WCFL1000a," but I don't believe the account is an official creation of the old Chicago AM station.)
ReplyDeleteSuper Wikipedfia: "She landed the role of Julie Kotter, the wife of title character high school teacher Gabe Kotter (Gabe Kaplan) on the ABC comedy series Welcome Back, Kotter in 1975. The series lasted four years. Strassman was told that Kaplan wanted her off the series, and stated in an interview that working on the series made her "miserable". Kaplan read the interview and realized series producer James Komack was separately telling the two actors they didn't like each other, and Kaplan informed Strassman that he actually wanted more balance between Kotter's work and home environments, which would afford her the chance to do more on the series. Kaplan, a guest host on The Tonight Show that week, had Strassman on to tell the story as an interview guest; she recalled the incident decades later on a Biography Channel special about the history of Kotter."