Thanks for posting this forgotten relic from the summer of 1979. I tuned in to it as a kid primarily because I liked Karen Valentine in those days. It's a nostalgic trip to watch this again even though the comedy is bad. There's a reason why most pilots never get picked up. This is probably what Mork & Mindy would have looked like without Robin Williams' improvisational genius.

I have been searching for this for literally decades. I spent years just trying to get the title. Thank you so much for posting this!

@evildust86

Ай бұрын

*omg, i was too... i remember watching it on ABC7 when i was 9 years old... it was horrible, but hillarious...😆🤖⚡💊😵‍💫😵🛸

I remember watching this pilot episode. I was 15 when this aired, and I was into watching Buck Rodgers in the 25th Century at the time as well. I had hoped that I would find a copy of this, but no luck. Now I find it on youtube and in the 21st century no less. I was disappointed that it was cancelled right after. Thanks for the posting.

I remember this unsold pilot very well. I must have been 11 or 12. Yet, I'm always happy when I can relive my youth and old memories with videos like this one. Thanks lots for posting!!

How I remembered this show I'll never know! I was 8 when it aired, and now I'm 51 and finally thought, hey the internet should have the answer. And it did! 43 years I searched, sort of lol

Thanks for posting--I've been searching for this for years! I had made an audio tape of the show when it aired and listened to it many times, but then lost the tape. I was beginning to wonder if my memory was faulty.

The show's composer, Jonathan Tunick, was a renowned orchestrator of Broadway shows (mostly notably his signature settings of the music of Stephen Sondheim); this screwball sit-com seems something of a departure for him. As for the show itself, it is one of those singular anomalies remembered, it seems, by only a handful of people of a certain age (somewhere in the 10-17 bracket) whose craving in the 70s for ANYTHING futuristic and who had the luck of having 'nothing to do' in July 1979 and were drawn by the week of ads leading up to the broadcast to watch the show. I recall seeing the ads and recognizing it was a sit-com but still coming away from it - even at 12 - disappointed, thinking there would be more to it (by this I mean more sets and more stock footage of futuristic cities cribbed from other films and shows). Ultimately it was one of those things you weren't even sure actually existed: even if you had the guts to mention it, no one seemed to know what you were talking about. Maybe it was all false memory. But no: here, here is the proof. Geek moment: correct me if I'm wrong but isn't that building outside Valentine's apartment Sandman Headquarters from 'Logan's Run'? (not the short-lived series - which I believe was a CBS show - but the MGM film). I remember thinking that then, as now...check out the scene where Jessica arrives at Logan's apartment via 'the (sex) circuit' - the view out the window is a dead ringer, except the building is somewhat more distant.

Finally! I remember this and it's stuck with me! I thought I was the only one that remembered it! Thank you so much for posting this!

Aw shit. I liked that show. Never saw this pilot. And Karen Valentine was always a childhood crush.

"America 2100" was up against the second half of a documentary ("Blacks in America") on CBS and the second half of a drama/anthology series, "The Runaways" on NBC. It finished #16 in the ratings that week, nestled in-between "Happy Days" (#13) and "Three's Company" (#1!). But the pilot didn't sell.

Hey, Oct. 16, 2100... my 135th birthday! I hope my retirement savings can last that long.

Futrureama is one of my favorites of all time, I'm stunned that I haven't heard of this!

Can't imagine that the 22nd Century still smacks of the 1970's. Guess Futurama had to have gotten its inspiration somewhere.

That opening shot of the back street - wasn't that area later used for the "Police Squad!" TV series?

It's amazing that after 120 years, they never aged or needed a haircut.

@KC-sb2sm

Жыл бұрын

Or shave

26:12- The "Second Assistant Director', Don Buccola, was originally the director of the syndicated series, "CELEBRITY BOWLING".

I knew I didn't make this up. I remember watching this but can't find it in any lists of failed pilots or rare TV.

I actually remember this. Perhaps it was the inspiration for Futurama, who knows? Did have some elements of Woody Allen's Sleeper as well. A guy from the past tries to challenge the authoritarian state they live in. If this show had been picked up, I wonder if that's the direction it would have taken. I guess we'll never know.

Too bad this didn't become a series.

Poor Karen Valentine. After the less-than-memorable "Room 222", it was one busted pilot after another. At least she got good ratings with this one (was shown in between "Happy Days" and "Three's Company"). Thanks to everyone who posts these great old unsold pilots. I'll take these over the Norman Lear trash any day.

@RJS1974

Ай бұрын

Karen Valentine did lots of things she had a pretty good tv career. She did lots of made for tv movies, Love Boat, Love American Style etc. Also, Room 222 was a popular series. It ran for 5 years and KV won an Emmy for it.

To bad it didn't become a series. I would have watched. It was a head of it's time, so to speak. ✨

I searched for this after going through an old TV Guide I picked up with "BJ and the Bear" on the cover! Very Funny! Could make for a great premise even today! Man, I had it bad for Karen Valentine! Remember "Room 222"!

I guess this 1970's TV show did know the future, after all. Ranger Bob is from 1989 MTV"s Remote control.

The "future" still looks like 1979 to me. That sunken living room!

@superboats2

Жыл бұрын

Who knows, perhaps that "sunken living room" made a comeback by 2100. LOL

I don’t ever remember this as a kid.

Find the commercial interesting about Laverne and Shirley’s terrible mine to Thursday’s. Wonder why this move failed.

This was not a bad pilot - perhaps ABC was looking for a Scifi comedy that might be matched with "Mork and Mindy"?

@lonewolfattack8071

2 жыл бұрын

ABC matched "Mork & Mindy" with "The Associates" (lawyer comedy) and then "Benson" ("Soap" spinoff), so I don't think that was the reason. They had better sitcom pilots that year that they also didn't order to series.

I remember this, sort of a low grade Sleeper.

From writers of Laverne & Shirley and The Odd Couple.

Boy that Freshen Up commercial didn't age well with the Native American community. heh

Karen Valentine. Can't be bad. Kinda tastes like Futurama, though.

@ChristopherSobieniak

6 жыл бұрын

I suppose it was ahead of its time in that respect.

I'm another one who remembers this. Practically remember every word Karen Valentine said. When it got to the "you got to do what you are told you are designated" I stopped watching. Fun being a teen ager.

Too bad that person didn't also tape the Spinal Tap show. Granted, I would have been more interested in the sci-fi show myself, if I'd been old enough in 1979 (I was just a year old), but it would have been interesting for posterity to have the other show too.

How stupid was that, the " star " of the show and the star of the commercial have the same name...and neither is human. I guess I missed this show, but then, everything about it says flimsy. Flimsy concept, flimsy writing, and flimsy sets and costumes. I remember Austin and Irma Kalish as creators/producers of other tv shows, but I can't think of which ones off hand. Different Strokes? This is about on par with a lot of mid-late 70s tv, and with everyone referencing Futurama I have to think this might have worked better as an animated series. Too bad audiences wouldn't have bought that concept either.

Who did Max's Jewish voice?

@cityhawk

Жыл бұрын

I thought it was Sid Caesar.