Larry Alder is a 44-year-old divorced man, in Portland, Oregon, raising his two teenage daughters and hosting a call-in psychology radio show, who is a former Army buddy of Phillip Drummond (of "Diff'rent Strokes".)
I watched this sitcom, when I was 11 to 12 in 1979- 1980, it's well known that NBC wasn't successful in the world of sitcoms at the time.
The network's 4 greatest sitcoms of the decade were "Sanford and Son", "Chico and The Man", "Diff'rent Strokes" and (even though it debuted in August of '79) "The Facts Of Life". ...but it seemed like every other sitcom they tried, were gone in weeks or a few months.
I will credit NBC for seemingly trying harder (than with other programs) to keep this show afloat as it did air from January 26, 1979, to April 30, 1980, for a total of 38 episodes over those two seasons.
It was that while Larry was an advice giver on the radio (kind of like Frasier but without the eloquence) ...but is not as successful with advice at home.
This series could have been a good look at (for example) how one can give their advice to others but follow it themselves or again, be unable to dispense it well, with one's own children.
The 'maybe' here, is something McLean said years later in an interview. He did get a bit of an ego when M*A*S*H got him recognized and he felt he could leave M*A*S*H with his head held high, that people liked his work and could get a series himself.
He stated that he realized, it was the Henry Blake character people loved and they, of course, were devastated when that character was kiled off. (Which McLean was fully aware of, he was on the set when it was filmed.)
It's an unfortunate thing, that McLean Stevenson just couldn't catch a "decent" break in television after leaving M*A*S*H after season 3. He left after accepting a direct offer from NBC, for a contract and his own series.
"The McLean Stvenson Show" (December 1, 1976, to March 23, 1977 - 14 shows but 2 left unaired.) When this didn't work out, he tried CBS again for the Norman Lear series, "In The Beginning" that ran even shorter (September 20 to October 18, 1978 - 9 epsiodes but 4 unaired.)
** He did luck out at this time with a part in the Disney comedy, "The Cat from Outer Space". It makes me wonder if he should have gone the route of movies for Disney as well. **
NBC called him back and along came, "Hello, Larry". To be fair, the show was produced by Embassy Television and as spin off from, "Diff'rent Strokes" it should have been expected to meet that level, but things just didn't click with, "Hello, Larry" .
McLean, as Henry Blake, had been known mostly for his sillier humor (while still doing very good serious acting as well.) While he did try to inject seriousnes in this show, what I feel it was, is there seemed to be no balance of that and the comedy.
Some fairly good story ideas too , but the inbalance of comedy & what should be the serious moments, plus McLean's reputation, the ideas were there but not excuted to the level that highly successful sitcoms reach.
After the show ended in April of '80, Mclean was off of series TV for nearly 3 years. When he returned, M*A*S*H was a mere 18 days away from it's finale.
He was now on his 3rd network. His new ABC sitcom "Condo", debuted Feruary 10th and lasted until June 9th...the standard 13 epsiode try out. I thought it was a pretty good show but it just didn't get the audience numbers it needed.
5 years later, many don't know this, but McLean ended up on a CBS drama that was based on the 1987 hit movie, "Dirty Dancing" (in fact that was it's title.)
Running only 11 shows, he played Max Kellerman, the father of Frances 'Baby' Kellerman. I never saww this, but it did run from October 29th, 1988 to January 21st, 1989.
McLean did one more movie for TV and greatly to his credit, ended up playing a small but good role as Booter Manigault , in "Armistead Maupin's : Tales of The City" from 1993.
3 years later , he was gone, from a heart attack at age 68.
R. I. P. McLean Stevenson : November 14, 1927 - February 15, 1996.
I watched this sitcom, when I was 11 to 12 in 1979- 1980, it's well known that NBC wasn't successful in the world of sitcoms at the time.
The network's 4 greatest sitcoms of the decade were "Sanford and Son", "Chico and The Man", "Diff'rent Strokes" and (even though it debuted in August of '79) "The Facts Of Life". ...but it seemed like every other sitcom they tried, were gone in weeks or a few months.
I will credit NBC for seemingly trying harder (than with other programs) to keep this show afloat as it did air from January 26, 1979, to April 30, 1980, for a total of 38 episodes over those two seasons.
It was that while Larry was an advice giver on the radio (kind of like Frasier but without the eloquence) ...but is not as successful with advice at home.
This series could have been a good look at (for example) how one can give their advice to others but follow it themselves or again, be unable to dispense it well, with one's own children.
The 'maybe' here, is something McLean said years later in an interview. He did get a bit of an ego when M*A*S*H got him recognized and he felt he could leave M*A*S*H with his head held high, that people liked his work and could get a series himself.
He stated that he realized, it was the Henry Blake character people loved and they, of course, were devastated when that character was kiled off. (Which McLean was fully aware of, he was on the set when it was filmed.)
It's an unfortunate thing, that McLean Stevenson just couldn't catch a "decent" break in television after leaving M*A*S*H after season 3. He left after accepting a direct offer from NBC, for a contract and his own series.
"The McLean Stvenson Show" (December 1, 1976, to March 23, 1977 - 14 shows but 2 left unaired.) When this didn't work out, he tried CBS again for the Norman Lear series, "In The Beginning" that ran even shorter (September 20 to October 18, 1978 - 9 epsiodes but 4 unaired.)
** He did luck out at this time with a part in the Disney comedy, "The Cat from Outer Space". It makes me wonder if he should have gone the route of movies for Disney as well. **
NBC called him back and along came, "Hello, Larry". To be fair, the show was produced by Embassy Television and as spin off from, "Diff'rent Strokes" it should have been expected to meet that level, but things just didn't click with, "Hello, Larry" .
McLean, as Henry Blake, had been known mostly for his sillier humor (while still doing very good serious acting as well.) While he did try to inject seriousnes in this show, what I feel it was, is there seemed to be no balance of that and the comedy.
Some fairly good story ideas too , but the inbalance of comedy & what should be the serious moments, plus McLean's reputation, the ideas were there but not excuted to the level that highly successful sitcoms reach.
After the show ended in April of '80, Mclean was off of series TV for nearly 3 years. When he returned, M*A*S*H was a mere 18 days away from it's finale.
He was now on his 3rd network. His new ABC sitcom "Condo", debuted Feruary 10th and lasted until June 9th...the standard 13 epsiode try out. I thought it was a pretty good show but it just didn't get the audience numbers it needed.
5 years later, many don't know this, but McLean ended up on a CBS drama that was based on the 1987 hit movie, "Dirty Dancing" (in fact that was it's title.)
Running only 11 shows, he played Max Kellerman, the father of Frances 'Baby' Kellerman. I never saww this, but it did run from October 29th, 1988 to January 21st, 1989.
McLean did one more movie for TV and greatly to his credit, ended up playing a small but good role as Booter Manigault , in "Armistead Maupin's : Tales of The City" from 1993.
3 years later , he was gone, from a heart attack at age 68.
R. I. P. McLean Stevenson : November 14, 1927 - February 15, 1996.