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Reviews
The Singles (1972)
A sitcom pilot that shoulda, coulda, woulda... but didn't
This was actually a pretty funny pilot. Buzzi & Lee starred as single roommates. Byner guest started as a would-be burgler. The girls take pity on him & try to sneak him out of the building with Lee having to distract Doyle but feigning interest
It's Your Move (1984)
Early Jason Bateman vehicle and... hey, isn't that Steve Rhodes?
With Justine Bateman's success on "Family Ties", NBC decided that two Batemans were better than one and came up with this vehicle for her younger brother, Jason. Young Bateman plays a teen con-artist who helps support his single mother through money making schemes such as selling cheat sheets at school, etc. His little racket is threatened when he gets a new neighbor - an adult version of himself. Things go from worse to worser when the neighbor begins dating his mother & also becomes a teacher at his school. It becomes a chess match as the two constantly try to outsmart/outwit each other. The neighbor was played by David Garrison, a few years before he would take on the role of another neighbor from hell - Steve Rhodes on "Married... With Children". The show was buried on Wednesday nights, a bad night for the Peacock Network, where even "Family Ties" struggled before drawing the Golden Ticket of Cosby as it's lead-in on Thursdays. NBC wasted little time finding another vehicle for Bateman, as "The Hogan Family" would premiere a year or so later
Sledge Hammer! (1986)
GREATEST show you've NEVER seen!
What if Inspector Clouseau or Maxwell Smart had Dirty Harry's baby?
You would have SLEDGE HAMMER!
Hammer had the trigger happy/excessively violent demeanor of Dirty Harry, but with the cluelessness of the other two & the results were hilarious. One running gag was that Hammer would frequently talk to his gun. He would tell his female partner that what he liked best about her was "you think like a man". In one episode, his gun was stolen & he went into an extreme emotional spiral. And of course, there was his trademark catchphrase - "Trust me, I know what I'm doing" - which of course, was usually followed by him doing something really stupid, like blowing up an entire city.
This show suffered from poor ratings as a result of poor scheduling. The brainiacs at ABC decided to schedule the show smackdab in the middle of the hugely hyped Dallas/Miami Vice showdown of 1986 (when Vice was moved to 9 PM to compete head-to-head with the Ewings), then wondered why the ratings were so bad. (NOTE: the Dallas/Miami scheduling dilemma was loosely referred to in the episode "All Shook Up", providing one of the show's more memorable lines.) Then the show was moved to the Saturday night graveyard, then to hiatus. The final 2 episodes were aired on Tuesday after Who's The Boss - FINALLY a cushy timeslot - & the show not only cracked the top-20, but soundly beat Matlock each week. In the final episode of Season 1, figuring the show had NO HOPE of returning, Hammer nukes himself & the entire city - but then the show got RENEWED... and scheduled against ratings juggernaut supreme COSBY SHOW - not just another no-win slot, the DEATH SLOT!
Looking forward to a second season & wondering how the 'cliffhanger' would play out, I anxiously awaited the Season 2 opener, only to be hugely disappointed when the writers' only way out of the cliffhanger was to have Gary Owens open the premiere with the disclaimer "The following season of 'Sledge Hammer!' takes place FIVE YEARS before that explosion", thus jumping the shark. Season 2 was also extremely toned down from the first season due to Hammer having been rated as the most violent show on TV & ABC also tampering with it (as if it the WRITING was to blame for the poor ratings & not the killer timeslots).
I jumped at the chance to purchase BOTH seasons when they became available on DVD. This has to be the greatest TV show never seen!
Mannix (1967)
EVERY single week.... Mannix! Look out! "FOOMP!!!"
Barely a week went by without the usual "Mannix gets hit by a car" scene. It was so predictable, it was like clockwork. I was even able to mimic the "Mannix roll" as a teenager. I'd walk home from school with my friends & see an abandoned auto. "Here's Mannix getting hit by a car"! Throw myself onto the front of the hood & roll off to the side. Joe Mannix looked pretty good for someone who got "run over" as often as he did, LOL!
For some reason though, I have no recollection of "Mike Brady" playing a cop on this show, especially considering that the series' run coincided with that of "The Brady Bunch". I thought he was so "busy with three boys of his own"!
He & She (1967)
WAY ahead of it's time!
This show definitely had a Mary Tyler Moore Show feel to it. The reason? It was produced by David Davis, who went on to produce all those classic sitcoms for MTM Studios in the early 70's (MTM, Bob Newhart, Rhoda, etc). If this show had come along 3 years later, it would have fit right into that popular CBS Saturday night comedy block & would have been held in equal esteem with those aforementioned classics. The premise: Benjamin & Prentiss as the anti-Petries! Benjamin's character being a sort of Rob Petrie with the deadpan of a Bob Hartley & Prentiss as a less-whiney Laura Petrie/Mary Richards (see the connection?). Davis backed them up with his usual brilliant ensemble casting: Jack Cassidy in his most cartoonish role ever as 'actor' Oscar North, a precursor of Ted Baxter (but even MORE vain, if you can imagine) & the great Kenneth Mars (Franz Liebkind in "The Producers") lending his talents as Harry the fireman, who regularly made his entrance from the fire station into the Hollister's living room via a wooden plank precariously placed on the window ledges between the buildings (yet another great running gag). Sadly, CBS didn't know what to do with this one & the show was bounced around the schedule before suffering it's untimely demise after just one underrated & under-appreciated season.
Someone PLEASE bring this one back!