Until I saw you post the right answer, I couldn’t remember Helltown, which two people gave as the wrong title. But now I do.
It starred Robert Blake as the tough priest, who was not a twenty-anything. If I recall correctly, it was an okay show, though I obviously don’t miss it much.
I wish I could take back my last post, since I’ve just realized that Nothing Sacred probably wasn’t what frock75 was talking about either. Wasn’t Nothing Sacred the Home Improvement spinoff starring Dan Ackroyd? I thought that one was pretty good, but I’m sure it isn’t the right one.
I agree, the first season of this show was quite dark and intriguing. It pushed the sitcom envelope. The ratings weren’t good enough, I guess, because it was retooled into a much more conventional show.
Nothing Sacred was the show!!! I loved it. I just couldn’t understand what the controversy was surounding it. I didn’t find it offensive or sacreligious. Oh well, a good show that deserved a much better fate. Thanks Kat!!
Didn’t you know that Roger Waters planned that the same way he planned “Dark Side of the Moon” and the “Wizard of Oz”?
More to add:
Sledge Hammer – you don’t often get satire on prime time TV. “Trust me. I know what I’m doing.”
Hey Landlord – Gentle comedy centered around the residents of an apartment house.
Callucci’s Department – James Coco as the head of a government agency. Something of a “Barney Miller” feel.
Good Morning, World – comedy about two morning DJs. Goldie Hawn played the girlfriend of one of them.
The Texas Wheelers – Comedy/drama about a bunch of boys. Notable for its cast – Jack Elam, Gary Busey, and Mark Hamill – and for being the only prime time TV show with a theme song extolling the joys of smoking marijuana (John Prine’s “Illegal Smile”).
The Good Guys – Very funny comedy starring a post-Gilligan Bob Denver, who, along with Herb Edelman, ran a diner. The humor was much more clever than Gilligan and this may have been Denver’s best role (maybe even better than Maynard).
Ellery Queen – the Jim Hutton version. Nice mysteries.
The White Shadow – school/sports drama about a white ex-basketball player teaching and coaching in an inner city school. Overlooked.
And does anyone else remember a series titled Golden Years about an elderly man caught in a lab disaster? He gradually starts growing younger. Or a show called ** My Life and Times** about a man telling stories from his life? Each one was from a different period, so the main character would sometimes appear younger, sometimes middle aged, etc.
I won’t go into all the soap opera details of its production, but while it was on, “Wiseguy” was one of the greatest dramas on television. It deserved a longer run, but the star, Ken Wahl, had some problems.
Now and Again–The show where John Goodman’s brain was put into the body of Eric Close-- was cancelled the night before they had to present the new schedule to advertisers. It was such a promising show. Damn thing ended in a cliffhanger.
First, my “me, too”'s: Nothing Sacred, big time (damn, that show was good!), and Brimstone. The controversy over Nothing Sacred had nothing to do with it being cancelled — poor ratings were enough — but I cared enough to call Ollie North’s radio show and give him hell. He cut me off, of course.
Now, some of my favorite, lesser known series:
Matrix. No, not the television show of the movie, but a Canadian production starring Nick Mancuso. A professional hit man is shot himself, and winds up in the World In Between, where he was sent back with orders to help people rather than go to hell as he deserved. In many ways it was a bit of fluff, but Mancuso’s performance was brilliant, and as the episodes progressed, his halting realization of the harm he had caused as an assassin was moving, even heartbreaking. The characters in the World In Between were sometimes truly innovative, and I will carry the image of Eartha Kitt as a motorcycle riding nun to my grave. Sublime!
T.H.E. Cat. A very young Robert Loggia (this was 60’s vintage, folks) as a jewel thief turned professional bodyguard. He was, to me, the essence of cool.
She Wolf of London. Actually, this didn’t deserve better than it received, but I loved it anyway. An American grad student and her English professor confront various mythical monstors as they search for a cure for her werewolf problem. It was silly, overacted, badly written, and the production values were lousy, but I loved it anyway. It was fun; it insulted everything in the world, and “Beyond the Beyond” was the best send up of Trek in the world until they made Galaxy Quest.
High Incident - an ABC cop show of a few years back. Hooked me after the first episode I saw (it started in summer and I never saw the first few).
Brimstone again - though why did they have to make all the escapees murderers? They could have added a little variety, perhaps a guy who committed suicide out of despair and ended up in Hell for that, thus leading to a crisis of conscience for the protagonist.
St. Elsewhere - my favorite show of the '80s, and tied with Greatest American Hero for best theme song.