We’re Asking for “Anything But Love”

August 7, 2023August 7, 2023 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

This month, we are taking a look at some of our favorite duos from the eighties and nineties in “Duos to Love.” I decided to begin with a show that was on when my two oldest boys were babies. I was able to watch a bit more television at night because they slept pretty well. One of the shows we watched was Anything But Love. You don’t hear a lot about it anymore, but it starred Jamie Lee Curtis and Richard Lewis. While usually the pilot has different actors and the premise stays the same with different stars, this show was the opposite. In the pilot, Hannah and Marty are involved in a love triangle with D.W. Moffett. Hannah is a well-respected editor. The network liked the characters but not the plot. After viewing the pilot, the network makes Hannah a researcher, Lewis a reporter, and Moffett is sent on his way.

John Ritter can’t get between them Photo: imdb.com

The sitcom began airing on ABC in the spring of 1989 and continued until June of 1992. Lewis plays Marty Gold and Curtis is Hannah Miller. They work for a Chicago magazine and realize that they are attracted to each other but want to keep their relationship on a professional basis.

Wendy Kout created the show and it was produced by Adam Productions, a company of John Ritter’s.

Rounding out the cast were editor Norman Kell (Louis Giambalvo), assistant editor Jules Kramer (Richard Frank), writer Pamela Peyton-Finch (Sandy Faison), and Marty’s current girlfriend Alice (Wendie Malick). Hannah gets deeply philosophical articles to write, like her first assignment, which is “The Tortilla Wars: Does Chicago Prefer Corn or Flour?” At the end of season one, Alice dumps Marty.

The second season tweaked a few things. The magazine has a new owner in Catherine Hughes (Ann Magnuson) who promotes Hannah from researcher to writer. TV critic Brian Allquist (Joseph Maher) comes on board as does Harold (Billy Van Zandt) and Kelly (Jame Milmore) as new office personnel. In order to talk about her feelings for Marty, Hannah’s landlord and best friend, Robin (Holly Fulger), joined the show. At the end of season two, Hannah admits her feelings to Marty who acknowledges that he also has the same feelings for her.

The third season had a delayed airing and came back on the air in February. While Hannah and Marty explore their relationship, a new photographer, Patrick (John Ritter), gets a special assignment. Hannah and Patrick work together and they start to have feelings for each other as well. Hannah has to decide if she wants to accompany him to Africa for a new assignment when she realizes he has some ideas she could never approve and their relationship ends.

The fourth season finds Hannah thinking she is pregnant, and she and Marty decide to get married. Not long before the ceremony, the clinic calls to say the test was negative. Hannah and Marty call off the wedding but not the romance. They decide to continue dating and getting to know each other better.

The show began its life airing on Tuesday nights. It was up against The Tuesday Night Movie and Moonlighting. Considering Moonlighting had a very similar theme but complex and sophisticated plots, this didn’t seem like a great idea. The second season found it on Wednesday nights. It was opposite Jake and the Fatman on CBS and a variety of shows that cycled through that time slot on NBC. Ratings began to decline. When it had a delayed return for season three, viewers drifted to other shows, and the network had a hard time luring them back. For season four, they still faced Jake and the Fatman, but now on NBC a show called Seinfeld was scheduled which insured that the ratings would not be likely to improve.

However, ABC did not cancel the series; 20^th Century Fox which produced the show with Ritter’s company guessed that the show would not have a sixth season and decided that there were not enough episodes or interest for syndication, so rather than putting more money into the show, they were ready to move on.

Critics seemed to like the show. Rick Kogan, TV critic for the Chicago Tribune described it as “a charming, quirky, witty and intelligent show. . . a member in good standing of that small club of quality shows. But for reasons that have alarmed many in the TV biz, the series is being killed.”

The theme song was “Anything but Love”; it was written and performed by J.D. Souther. Beginning in the second season, it changed to an instrumental version. Souther worked on a variety of soundtracks for shows and even received twelve acting credits for shows and movies including recurring characters on thirtysomething and Nashville.

Considering that the critics liked it, fans liked it before it began moving and going through delays, it starred Lewis and Curtis, and it was on the air for four years, I am always surprised it is not discussed more. This is the opinion of a reviewer on imdb.com: “This was such a lovely show and I miss that sort of thing that isn’t on television anymore. It was very smart, very silly and combined slapstick and clever dialogue well. The show reminded me in some respects of films from the thirties that had witty dialogue and a screwball sensibility and the chemistry between Jamie Lee Curtis and Richard Lewis was endearing and believable. One was given the impression that everyone enjoyed what they were doing. A favorite episode of mine involved someone running into an ex at a restaurant and the three four different stories of how the situation occurred. The best was a Fellini-like observation of the event. It is one of those clever obscure shows that deserves to be on DVD just for my sake.”

The good news is that the first two seasons are included in Volume 1 of a DVD, and it’s only $10 on Amazon. The bad news is that seasons three and four don’t exist. The first two seasons were definitely the best, but it is too bad you can’t watch the entire series. Ratings are very good on Amazon. It would be well worth paying $10 for that much good writing. I’ll close with this review on the DVD from George: “First, about the show. It is wonderful, and holds up well after 30 years. Snappy lines, young Jamie Lee Curtis is excellent in her role, as is the always quirky Richard Lewis. Many guest appearances, good writing (which has become rather rare in TV shows, riddled nowadays with “reality” TV). The DVD includes a couple of nice extras too. Four to five stars for the show.”

Buck Rogers Is Not for This Century

March 6, 2023November 10, 2022 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

I am calling this month’s blog series, “I Robot.” We are taking a look at some popular shows that featured robots. I did not include Lost in Space in this group because I did devote a blog to the show that discussed that robot in some detail.

Cast of Buck Rogers Photo: pinterest.com

Today we start with a show that was a fan favorite in the 1980s, although full disclosure, I had never seen this show until I wrote this blog: Buck Rogers in the 25^th Century.

Because Star Wars was so popular, Universal decided to develop a television show about space. Glen Larson was the primary face behind the creation. The original plan was to make a series of Buck Rogers made-for-tv movies for NBC. Larson was also behind the show Battlestar Galactica.

Universal changed plans and filmed a big-screen movie about Buck Rogers. It had good reviews, netting $21 million. After the success of the film, NBC asked for a weekly series. Buck Rogers was not a new concept; he was created in 1928 by Philip Francis Nowlan and had been featured in a variety of media including comic strips, books, and radio. The original movie was edited for television, and it became the first two episodes of the series.

The concept of the show was that Captain William “Buck” Rogers (Gil Gerard) was a NASA pilot commanding Ranger 3 which was launched into outer space in 1987. Because of a part malfunction, Buck is frozen for 504 years and his spacecraft is found in 2491. At this time, he learns the Earth was recovering from a nuclear war.

Buck has to try to assimilate into the 25th-century culture. Because he was previously a pilot, he is placed in the Earth Defense department. Buck is often undercover. He works with Colonel Wilma Deering (Erin Gray), a starfighter pilot. Stargates were artificially created portals in space to help travel between stars. If you watch the episodes closely, you will notice a subtle shift in Wilma’s hair color. Gray was required to dye her hair blonde for the first season. As the season progresses, the color begins to fade and she was allowed to do that, so by the second season, she has brunette hair.

Another coworker is Twiki, a small robot (Felix Silla and voiced by Mel Blanc). Twiki provided much of the humor on the show. Also helping the trio was Dr. Theopolis (voiced by Eri Server), a small computer disk who understood Twiki and was part of the Computer Council. In the first season, the group received its orders from Dr. Elias Huer (Tim O’Connor).

It was a bit kitschy a la Batman. Several villains are involved in plots. In the first season, the “bad guy” was Princess Ardala (Pamela Hensley) who tried to conquer Earth. Most of the population resided in New Chicago and the rest of the planet was being explored again, and new cities were popping up like New Detroit, New Manhattan, New Phoenix, etc.

In the original story, Buck awakes after 500 years to learn that America was overrun by Mongol invaders and in ruins. Wilma and Dr. Huer are both part of that story, as are Killer Kane and Ardala Valmar.

For a show that did not produce very many episodes, a lot of celebrities were featured on the show including Gary Coleman, Jamie Lee Curtis, Peter Graves, Jack Palance, Markie Post, Dorothy Stratten, and Vera Miles. A few of the stars who played Batman’s foes show up on Buck Rogers including Cesar Romero, Frank Gorshin, Roddy McDowall, and Julie Newmar.

The opening theme music for the show was composed by Stu Phillips and arranged by Johnny Harris. Harris added a 45-second audio clip when Rogers is spinning and then begins with the main theme.

The show debuted in September of 1979. It was popular with viewers, but critics were not on board with the show. Gerard did not like the direction his character was taking. He was in favor of more series stories and felt like his character was just used to make continual jokes and not taken seriously. At times he even rewrote scripts to favor his character over other roles. There was a lot of tension on the set. Two of the writers and script editors left in the middle of the year. Gerard was reprimanded by the network, and he said he hoped that the series would not be picked up for a second season.

James Van Hise said the show’s scripts “never took advantage of what they had at hand.” And he said Larson exploited a well-loved character in popular culture. John Javna in his book The Best of Science Fiction TV described the show as the worst science fiction show of all time. Bill Lengeman said the acting was wooden and specified that the episode “Space Rockers” was the worst episode of TV science fiction he had ever seen. Many critics were not happy with the way the women were treated in the second season. Ardala was dismissed, and Wilma lost her respectful position, almost becoming an inconsequential sidekick to Buck.

An actors’ strike delayed filming for season two. A new set of producers was brought in and the format was tweaked. Buck, Wilma, and Twiki were now on a spaceship called the Searcher with a mission to look for lost groups of humanity. Many of the previous characters were no longer part of the series, including Theopolis, Ardala, and Dr. Huer. The Starfighter on the series was created by Ralph McQuarrie and had been one of his designs for Battlestar Galactica.

Taking on more of a Star Trek aura, the new characters included Admiral Efram Asimov, a distant relative of Isaac Asimov (Jay Garner) who commands the Searcher; Hawk (Thom Christopher) an alien who represents the Bird people, now almost extinct; like Spock, he remained straight-faced while others are enjoying emotional moments; Dr. Goodfellow (Wilfrid Hyde-White) an elderly scientist; and Crichton (voiced by Jeff David) a robot built by Goodfellow who disdains humans.

The storylines became more serious and an underlying romance was hinted at between Buck and Wilma. Although the changes were what he asked for, Gerard later complained again about the show. Larson might have been second-guessing himself for casting Gerard. His first choice for the role was Kurt Russell. However, he was concentrating on his movie career and had no interest in coming back to television. Interestingly, Russell had been passed over for the role of Han Solo in Star Wars, losing to Harrison Ford. Ratings dropped in the second season. After only producing 21 episodes for season one, NBC canceled the show after 11 episodes in season two.

Despite the small number of shows produced, Universal released the show on DVD in 2004, but the first two episodes were replaced with the original big-screen movie. The series can also be streamed on NBC’s app.

New books and comic books were produced in the eighties. There were also several sets of action figures released by Mego. Milton Bradley debuted a Buck Rogers board game. You could also purchase jigsaw puzzles, model kits of space ships, die-cast toys, trading cards, and a lunch box.

Although the show garnered no Emmys for acting which is not surprising, it did receive five nominations. In season one, Bruce Broughton won for Outstanding Achievement in Music Composition for a Series. Other nominations included Outstanding Cinematography for a Series in season one, Outstanding Art Direction for a Series in season two, and Outstanding Costume Design for a Series in both seasons. The miniature sets for the landing bays and launch tubes were built with Styrofoam. Although they were inexpensive, combined with clever lighting, they appeared as complex architectural sets.

The show was beloved by its fan base. It’s hard to say why it had such a short life. There seem to be many reasons it didn’t last. With the success of Star Wars, everyone jumped on the outer space bandwagon, and the viewers could only watch so many of them. Gerard certainly did not help the ratings with his complaints and dissatisfaction with the show. Getting rid of Princess Ardala and reducing the role of Wilma to a minor character did not help retain female viewers. The show never seemed to be able to figure out what it was. Was it a Star Wars? Was it Batman? Was it Star Trek? It just seemed to not be very well planned or developed.

If you enjoy science fiction, it might be worth watching. After all, there are only 32 episodes, and if nothing else, you might want to watch to see if in the decades since it debuted, it still makes that list of worst science fiction shows. I’d be interested in hearing what you decide. As for this blog series on robots. I can happily relay that Twiki won the TV Land Awards in 2008 for Most Awesome Robot!

Operation Petticoat: The Submarine Was Pink, But the Cast Was Feeling Blue

March 9, 2020 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

As we continue our series, “We Salute You,” today we take a closer look at a show that might not be remembered by a lot of people, but it had a memorable cast.

In 1959, Operation Petticoat hit the big screen. Directed by Blake Edwards, it starred Cary Grant and Tony Curtis. This WWII comedy centered around a US submarine, the USS Sea Tiger, that reluctantly must bring a group of female nurses aboard. The film also included Marion Ross, Dick Sargent, and Gavin MacLeod, who would go on to become part of McHale’s Navy and captain The Love Boat later in his career.

Jump ahead a couple of decades and ABC airs a sitcom, Operation Petticoat, based on the movie. It would be on the air till 1979, producing 33 episodes. In the television series, John Astin takes on the Cary Grant role and Richard Gilliland has Curtis’s original role. In the new series, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tony’s daughter, played the role of Lieutenant Duran who was played by Dina Merrill in the movie.

Photo: fotogramas.com
The original group of women

For only 33 episodes, this show went through a lot of changes. It was supposed to be a one-hour series. A two-hour pilot was filmed, and several scripts were written. After viewing them, ABC decided it would be better as a thirty-minute show. The written scripts were revised to cover two shows each.

The show had a cast of 18 members, including five nurses. In addition to the nurses being aboard, the other continuing plot line was that the submarine was barely functional. It had been sunk earlier in the war and only somewhat restored, so it was a constant struggle to keep it working. Golf clubs operated the valves, a jeep wheel was used for a part, a girdle helped pump in the engine room, and what was most embarrassing to the men was its color of bubble gum pink, the only paint available when it needed to be painted. However, all this changed after the first 23 episodes.

When the show came back in season two, 15 of the 18 actors were gone, including the three main characters. The writers and producers from season one were also set adrift. For the second season, the entire plot line changed, making it a totally different show. Now the submarine was a lifeguard vessel helping pilots and sailors, and the nurses were part of the Navy and assigned to the ship.

Photo: cscottrollins.blogspot.com
Season 2 Nurses

During the 1977-78 season it was on Saturday nights. It was up against The Bionic Woman on NBC while CBS aired three different shows during the season in that time slot, We’ve Got Each Other, The Tony Randall Show, and The Ted Knight Show. For season two, it was moved to Friday nights where it went up against Different Strokes on NBC and The Incredible Hulk on CBS.

This show aired in an era where the networks struggled a lot with new shows. It’s amazing how many shows in the mid to late seventies lasted two to five episodes. There just seemed to be constant chaos, so this show lasted much longer than most of its competition. However, in this time of television turmoil, the fact that ABC would take a show that must have been somewhat successful and turn it upside down, replacing almost the entire cast, the writers and the producers amazes me.

You would not think a show set on a submarine would have many other actors in it, but during the year or so it was on, more than 80 additional actors appeared on the show, including JoAnn Pflug and Adam West.

While John Astin had a long television career, Jamie Lee Curtis undoubtedly has had the most successful career from this cast. In a recent interview in The New Yorker, “Jamie Lee Curtis Has Never Worked Hard a Day in Her Life” by Rachel Syme (December 1, 2019), Jamie discussed her time on Operation Petticoat. She said: “The show did not do well. And I was fired, along with eleven of the thirteen actors. (sic) I was devastated. I thought my life was over. I thought my career was over. I thought I would lose my contract. And two weeks later the audition for Halloween came up . . . It’s one of those good stories for people who’ve just been let go from their job.”

I think it’s important to look at some of those shows in television history that haven’t become classics; in this case, however, I think I’d skip the television show and buy the DVD from the original movie if you want to learn a bit more about life aboard the Sea Tiger.