Obscurity factor: 7
When it comes to silly 1960's sit-coms, this one is notorious, though few people have seen it. Bob Cummings plays Dr. Bob McDonald, a psychologist working with NASA who takes over custody of Rhoda (Julie Newmar) the ultra glamorous robot invented by his friend, when said friend is reassigned to Pakistan. Dr. McDonald is charged with educating Rhoda in how to blend into society. The catch is that no one, not even the higher-ups at NASA know that Rhoda exists. In the episode below Dr. Bob must keep Rhoda from spilling the beans to his boss when he unexpectedly shows up at his apartment. This is complicated by the fact that Rhoda has been malfunctioning because of a dose of the mathematical rhymes in Alice in Wonderland.
The series, which was created by the same team as My Favorite Martian, ran for 26 episodes, but failed to perform as expected and was canceled after one season. The first of two parts of episode #3 is above, uploaded to Daily Motion by wwevideo007. The series is not available on DVD, and is difficult to find online. An interesting bit of trivia - The Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang notes that the slang phrase "does not compute" originated with this series.
Obscurity factor: 7 (Known to fans of classic TV, but rarely screened and difficult to find)
I saw an episode of this on YouTube last year. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't particularly good, either. It did not have the spark of more successful "supernatural" comedies of the period, most notably "Bewitched." I wonder if the animosity between the leads contributed to this. If I remember correctly, after a point they were never even on the set at the same time, and Bob Cummings left the series before the season ended.
ReplyDeleteYes, the series was fraught with problems from the start, I believe. There are some sparks of fun in it though...
ReplyDeleteI saw this on broadcast tv. I'm THAT old! This would have been pre-puberty, but I do recall having a profound reaction to Julie Newmar.
ReplyDeleteShe's definitely worthy of a profound reaction!
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