Great Show


Watched it every week - was really upset when it was canceled considering all the crap on TV at the time.

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yes it was, it made it into my high school year book. Great show and everyone was dreaming about Misty Rowe

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https://www.quora.com/Why-didnt-Mel-Brooks-When-Things-Were-Rotten-television-show-last-longer/answer/Jon-Mixon-1

It’s just not funny - I remember the series vividly (I was nine when it aired) and it wasn’t very funny. If you can’t make a nine year old who loves comedy laugh, your show is pretty terrible.

Brooks went cheap on the casting - I liked the late Dick Gautier both in Get Smart as well in many of his lesser roles (he’s one of the best parts of the Kolchak: The Night Stalker episode The Werewolf, for example). However, he wasn’t a leading man and this was an example of why. If Brooks had wanted the series to succeed, he would have used a cast which would have attracted viewers. He didn’t.

ABC didn’t seem to get behind it - The series wasn’t well-advertised as I remember things and that was when TV ads and TV Guide were the only ways that you knew what was on the air.

Brooks didn’t seem to be too interested in it - This was when he was putting out Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles and having a run of success in feature films. The series felt like an afterthought ( I say that now, although it was a concept that I could understand back then, even if I couldn’t articulate it). It wasn’t Brooks’ major moneymaker and it showed.

The cast never seemed to “gel” - While Brooks cast “cheap” performers, he did cast good ones. Both Bernie Koppel and Dick van Patten went on to long running series, as did Misty “Hee Haw” Rowe. Even Ron Rifkin has had a successful career on television, although decades later on Alias. That being said the group just didn’t work well together, in my opinion and the show never found an audience as a result.

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