I am surprised that this show didn't just get cancelled during the pilot taping.

Just look at the intro and you'll know exactly why it didn't make the cut.

it feels more like if this was made for the 1996 season and not when it supposed to air

Obviously, Brandon Tartikoff and Warren Littlefield saw SOMETHING in the concept when they asked Dick Berg and GTG Entertainment to produce the pilot way back in 1989 (and they became partners in the project). They were long gone- and so was GTG- when this was finally telecast.

Patricia Kalember played the role of Tansy on Broadway; she was on "thirtysomething" at the time, which is most likely why she doesn't reprise her role here

it was the hopping around for no reason in the intro

I liked it

Emmet Walsh always is good.

Watched this when it aired in 1996 in a hotel room in Salt Lake City with my boss and his two cousins. We liked the premise, but thought the performances were stale.

It is a shame this pilot was so bad. I saw the original Broadway production of the play, starring Robert Joy and he was brilliant, but this version has so many changes and none of them for the better. Not sure how they would have expected to carry this off more than one or two episodes (certainly not for a whole season).

@888333ja

5 жыл бұрын

I can't believe you said Robert Joy was brilliant on Broadway. He, imo, is just awful in this pilot. So generic, and not one sliver of nuance. I know stage and TV are two completely different mediums, so maybe he translated better on stage. I hope.....

This pilot aired at 8:30 Eastern on NBC Saturday March 2,1996 - its lead-in was a Lyndon LaRouche infomercial! NBC probably didn’t want one of their current hits tarnished by airing next to the controversial LaRouche, and Saturday was a low viewing night anyway for NBC post-Golden Girls, so that’s why I guess the Nerd aired here

NERDS!!!

Wow, was this aired for like tax write-off purposes or something? A lost bet/poker match outcome? An early/late April Fool's joke?

Probably the last busted sitcom pilot I ever saw on TV. (Of course it was so old by the time NBC finally threw it on, the actors were practically in nursing homes.) They had all but disappeared from the airwaves by this point. Still have no clue why NBC finally decided to air it, considering how bad it was. "Touched by an Angel"? Grant Tinker cashing in on a favor? Anyone know?

I want my 22 minutes and 31 seconds back

Im a huge John Dye fan, but this was,wow, i really dont even know how to describe it...

@jrjgames

4 жыл бұрын

Exactly, that's just what I was going to post, I'm halfway through it and I don't know what this is.

Who would want to see pogo dancing in the intro?

I don't understand what their plan with this was considering the main twist of the play

@davidcooklock129

11 ай бұрын

Agreed. It's a shame. The play itself is very good.

Clelia doesn't steal things, she breaks things. Willum wasn't in a fire, he was a draftsman in Vietnam. Waldgrave is supposed to shout "I'll see you in hell first" when Thor is in Willum's bedroom, and worst of all, they completely left out Axel Hammond. Too much of this is wrong to be enjoyed.

@fromthesidelines

6 жыл бұрын

Very simple. NBC tried to turn it into one of their typical "yuppie urban comedies" of the late 1980's [remember "FM"?]. It didn't work.

@josephmarchione3319

2 жыл бұрын

Yes.... it IS different from the play. I guess that's why they didn't call it a filming of the play and instead called it a pilot episode for a TV show. And as in adaptations, things change! If they left it saving Willum in Viet Nam, then a show taking place in the 90s would have Willum being what.... 50, which John Dye clearly was not. It's a minor change which changes nothing, unless you're looking for nits to pick. As for "leaving out" Axel, and all that other stuff... this was the pilot! They weren't squeezing every "bit" that was in the play into one episode. The same could be said for the original "The Odd Couple".

@NicholasOvi

2 жыл бұрын

@@josephmarchione3319 you're mad at a comment from five years ago.

@fletchkeilman2205

6 ай бұрын

And you had to point that out afterwards, on a comment section on a random KZread video. Good times. Welcome to the internet

@fletchkeilman2205

6 ай бұрын

And you had to point that out afterwards, on a comment section on a random KZread video. Good times. Welcome to the internet

we , here in Shaunavon Sasketchewan, are doing this play this November. AND , my goodness , but.... we are way better than this !

@MrJohndoe17

8 жыл бұрын

+richard whittaker , why don't you post a review of YOUR show? No one else has, we can't find any on google. And tell us who James Burrows is, who directed this pilot, and Dick Berg, who exec produced it. Not that we don't know, but it;s obvious you don't. There is nothing wrong with doing live theatre in Shaunavon Saskatchewan, but it's terribly funny that you would compare yourself with hardworking people who are taking huge personal risks day in and day out.

I can't believe this was the guy that played "The Nerd" on Broadway....his performance was so generic, with no nuance whatsoever. Some of the lines are the same as they are in the play but everything is just jumbled around. No Axel Hammond or little boy Thor either. The best part of this show for me was Tansy.....she had the best lines, best delivery, and the most grounded. For anyone that doesn't know the play, let's just say it's sad if Tansy steals the show.

I remember seeing this in 96 and thinking huh??? It's like Chris Elliot but not funny. Total anomaly.

It wasn't unusual for the networks to air unsold pilots to gauge interest, though airings of pilots less than feature-length began dwindling in the '90s. I suspect in 1996 some exec was trying to revive the concept, so a studio honcho decided to run this old, abysmal pilot to show it wouldn't work, thereby nixing the idea altogether. Just an educated guess anyway.

@ChristopherSobieniak

7 жыл бұрын

At least your's doesn't have a pesky time counter on the bottom or wherever!

@bgva82

3 жыл бұрын

I remember pilots being burned off during the summer, but I'm more surprised NBC held on to it for seven years. The last time I remember a pilot airing was something called "Family Values" for UPN, around 1996. It starred Jenna Van Oy.

@DamienDrake

2 жыл бұрын

@@bgva82 I could've sworn the unsold pilot for the new Munsters (starring Jerry O'Connell as Herman) was aired at some point shortly after it was rejected. Maybe I'm mistaken.

Yikes, this was bad. But good for some nostalgia.

can't believe they'd do my dude axel like that smh

How stupid. This video has more likes than dislikes and 99,9% of the comments despise this video. Had all the guys who commented pressed the "dislike" button, there will be like a thousand dislikes over the 17 likes.

OK this is terrible... But I love Harley Kozak :)

This is so wack but I can't stop watching

A brilliant stage play very poorly adapted as a sitcom.

I think this might have played better without the overuse of an obnoxious laugh track. Sometimes it kicks in at points that seem really unnecessary.

@TheLadymia69

6 жыл бұрын

Laugh tracks are indicative of the network's mistrust of the viewer's sense of humor - they think the audience is too stupid to know where to laugh, so they stick the canned laughter in to show them.

Wow, that was terrible. Thanks for posting, though. I love watching pilots, good or bad. I like to see how the good shows started, and I like to see what could have been.

soundtrack by Phil Collins

The pilot is supposed to be the best episode of the show, isn't it? If this is the best, what about the rest? Bad job. And Harley Kozak refused to come back to Santa Barbara that year because she wanted doing THIS? God!

@VinnieRattolle

5 жыл бұрын

Pilots are just the setup for the series. Every once in a while there's something like "That '70s Show" which emerged fully formed, but if you go back and look at the pilots for most long-running hits, you'll discover that the first episodes generally weren't so great. If this had gotten picked up, it would've HAD to have gotten better, since this pilot is really, *really* bad!

@user-vo7qt8kq3b

3 жыл бұрын

As far as I know, Harley did not return to Santa Barbara that year in large part because she already had a contract to play in Ron Howard's Parenthood.

@sCulturefan

Жыл бұрын

Generally pilots/first seasons for sitcoms are a little rough, given that a lot of the humor in the best comedies comes from the relationships between the characters and chemistry among the cast members. In contrast, most dramas tend to have their best episodes early on, as they tend to be more plot/situation driven. A lot of the best sitcoms didn't peak creatively until midway through their run

First 53 seconds : wtf ?

@walte153

2 күн бұрын

The rest of the show: wtf ?

Stale!

This show is really bad. Even for a late 80's sitcom it's overly cheesy and predictable.

This intro is so ridiculous. No wonder NBC didn't pick up this pilot.

kinda of good.

@tmf23

3 жыл бұрын

You sound like you could be the telecast writer!

Is there more episodes? This is pretty good.

@p.v.7269

2 ай бұрын

No there aren't because no it isn't

this is such dad junior I love it lmao

The intro was a deal breaker for me.

The play was hilarious. This tv adaptation is not.

Yo this show aint bad wth jus giv it a chance yall go crazy over big bang theory and massacre this

Man, this is so cringy!

as a grown child of the sitcom era of the 40s 50s 60s 70s 80s and 90s it was funny good laugh the laugh track was over used but the basic elements played well and the characters off each other as well compared to other "successful" shows of the time

Why wasn't this a hit show ? - So Crap!

This is STUPID.