Monday, August 15, 2011

Tony Randall in The Tony Randall Show (1975)

Walter Franklin (Randall) is a Philadelphia judge and widower with two children, an acerbic housekeeper (Rachel Roberts) and an uptight secretary (Allyn Ann McLerie) in this sparkling sitcom produced by MTM Productions. It started life on ABC, but moved to CBS for its second season. There's just something delightful about the show. The humor is bright and smart and the acting is charming and natural. Randall makes the transition from the duo Odd Couple to carrying this show alone beautifully. It's also fun to see Rachel Roberts in a recurring light comedy role and Allyn Ann McLerie is fun as the stern girl friday.

This show hasn't seen much air play since it first aired. It's never been released on DVD, though the pilot episode is above, uploaded to YouTube by bensonshow.

Obscurity factor: 10 (mostly forgotten, not on DVD, on YouTube)

3 comments:

  1. I loved this show. It was beautifully written and performed like a hit show. I don't know why it didn't catch on. And Zane Lasky as Mario Lanza was hilarious.

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  2. I agree... Perhaps it was a victim of a bad air time? The change of networks couldn't have helped either.

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  3. Tony Randall is always a pleasure to watch, but I somehow missed this series...can't wait to watch it, in its entirety.

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