Car 54 Where Are You ran from September 1961 until September 1963 on NBC.
Created by Nat Hiken, who also created The Phil Silvers Show, Car 54, was the first situation comedy about police officers. It was also one of the few series of it's time to feature a black performer ( Nipsey Russell), as a regular.
Car 54, Where Are You? centered around Officer's Muldoon and Toody ( Joe E. Ross, Fred Gwynn), - two of the most unlikely patrol-car partners ever seen on a police force! Toody was short, stocky, friendly and just a little bit nosey , a marked contrast to the tall, quiet Muldoon. Although they were assigned to New York's 53rd Precinct - a run-down area in the Bronx not generally considered a place for a sitcom to take place - they always managed to encounter more comedy than crime! Much of the action took place in the precinct house itself, mostly in the locker room as the Officer's changed into their uniforms, and the comedy was more of the old, slapstick variety, reminiscent of Mack Sennett.
One unusual aspect of this show was the partners' patrol car, which looked identical to those used by real-life New York City police - but only because the show was filmed in black & white! The car was actually painted red and white to distinguish it from real police cars during the shooting - all of which was done entirely on location in New York. On the viewers screen at home, the red and white car looked identical to the dark green and white of the real New York City Police cars.
Other's in the large cast included Al Lewis as Schauzer; Charlotte Rae as Mrs. Schauzer; Bea Pons as Lucille Toody; Paul Reed as Capt. Block; Nipsey Russell as Officer Anderson; Fred O'Neal as Officer Wallace; Al Henderson as Officer O'Hara; Duke Farley as Officer Riley; Hank Garrett as Officer Nicholson; Shelley Burton as Officer Murdock; Jerry Guardino as Officer Antonnucci; Jim Gormley as Officer Nelson and Joe Warren as Officer Steinmetz.
Joe E. Ross who played Toody also appeared in Hiken's previous series, " The Phil Silvers Show" while Bea Pons played his wife in that series; thus Ross and Pons became the first actor-actress team to play two different married couples on two sitcoms.
Among the guest stars on this series were Maureen Stapleton, Molly Picon, Wally Cox, Larry Storch, Tom Bosley, Ossie Davis, Sugar Ray Robinson, Rocky Graziano, Margaret Hamilton, and Alice Ghostley ( as Muldoon's girlfriend Bonnie Calsheim).
Sixty episodes were produced.
Here's Joe E. Ross's Obituary from The New York Times
Joe E. Ross Dies at 67; Actor in TV's 'Car 54'
AP
Published: August 15, 1982
Joe E. Ross, an actor best known for his role as the chunky policeman Gunther Toody in the television series ''Car 54, Where Are You?,'' died Friday, apparently of a heart attack, a family spokesman said. He was 67 years old.
Mr. Ross was stricken while performing in the clubhouse of his apartment building in suburban Van Nuys, according to Joe Seide, a friend and former publicist. He was pronounced dead at St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank.
Mr. Ross, a New Jersey native, went to Hollywood in the 1950's to play Sgt. Rupert Ritzik on ''The Phil Silvers Show'' on CBS from 1955 to 1959. He and Fred Gwynne starred as two patrolmen frequently in hot water in ''Car 54,'' broadcast on NBC from 1961 to 1963.
Mr. Ross also appeared in ''It's About Time,'' a short-lived comedy series on CBS about two astronauts whose space capsule lands in the Stone Age. He played the caveman and Imogene Coca portrayed his wife.
In recent years, he made club appearances and had guest roles on television. He is survived by his wife, Arlene.
For Fred Gwynne and Al Lewis' Obituary go to my Munsters Page.
Here is Nipsey Russell's Obituary from the Washington Post.
Rhyming Funnyman Nipsey Russell Dies
By Joe Holley
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 4, 2005
Nipsey Russell, an actor and comedian whose impromptu versifying was familiar in years past to TV game show and late-night talk show audiences, died Oct. 2 of cancer at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.
Mr. Russell didn't have a birth certificate, so his age couldn't officially be confirmed, said Joseph Rapp, Mr. Russell's manager for nearly 40 years. He was either 81 or 82 and had lived for many years in New York City.
Often called "the poet laureate of comedy," Mr. Russell may be best known today as one of the polyester-wearing guests on TV quiz show reruns, cracking wise and rhyming couplets in the company of such B-list celebrities as Paul Lynde, Fanny Flagg and Charles Nelson Reilly. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, he was a frequent guest on "To Tell the Truth," "Match Game 73," "Masquerade Party," "What's My Line?" and "Hollywood Squares." He hosted a daytime game show called "Your Number's Up."
In addition to his numerous TV appearances, he was the Tin Man in "The Wiz," the 1978 black-cast remake of "The Wizard of Oz." It was a role that allowed him to showcase his versatility as a singer, dancer, actor and comedian. He had a role in John Boorman's fantasy film, "Dream One" (1984), and in a Mario Van Peebles western, "Posse" (1993), where his one memorable line, played for laughs, echoed the Rodney King lament, "Can't we all get along?"
He was the high school principal in "Wildcats" (1986), a comedy starring Goldie Hawn as a football coach at an inner-city high school, and played a precinct commander in the movie version of "Car 54, Where are You?" (1994).
Mr. Russell's way with a rhyme grew out of an appearance with longtime "Tonight Show" sidekick Ed McMahon on the TV show "Missing Links" in 1964. Closing the show, McMahon turned to the comedian and co-host and asked whether he had a poem. Suddenly he did, spontaneously, and from then on he was expected to have verse at the ready, whatever the occasion. He had more than 600 poems committed to memory, Rapp said. He composed them late at night.
The show business Nipsey Russell played against type, his manager and longtime friend said. According to Rapp, he was a lifelong student of classical literature and foreign languages. "He was always reading, always studying and was very, very quiet. He had a photographic memory."
Julius Russell -- his mother gave him the nickname "Nipsey" -- was born in Atlanta and at age 3 was part of a tap dance team called "The Ragamuffins of Rhythm." In a 1993 interview with the Los Angeles Times, he recalled being 9 or 10 years old and seeing a black performer named Jack Wiggins who inspired him.
"He came out immaculately attired in a well-dressed street suit and he tap-danced," Mr. Russell recalled. "As he danced, he told little jokes in between. He was so clean in his language and was lacking in any drawl, he just inspired me. I wanted to do that."
In later years Mr. Russell, along with Timmie Rogers and Redd Foxx, would be among the first African American comedians who refused to do dialects or play the Stepin Fetchit-style fool on stage.
As a teenager, he worked as a carhop at an Atlanta drive-in hangout called The Varsity, where he earned hefty tips by adding a side order of jokes and fun to the "nekkid dogs," Vidalia onions and orange drinks he carried out to customers.
After graduating from high school in Atlanta, he received a bachelor's degree in literature from the University of Cincinnati, expecting to be a teacher.
After service in the Army as a medic during World War II, he worked in Montreal for two years and made his way to New York City, where, in 1949, he joined "The Show Goes On," a TV series starring Robert Q. Lewis.
He also caught on as host, resident jester and folk philosopher at Harlem's Club Baby Grand. Known as "Harlem's Son of Fun," he worked more than seven years at the club, a record for a nightclub performer. He also made party albums that were compilations of his stand-up routines.
His multiple talents caught the eye of show business types in New York, and soon he was a frequent guest on "The Tonight Show," first with host Jack Parr and then with Johnny Carson. Throughout the 1960s, he popped up frequently on "The Jackie Gleason Show," "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" and "The Dean Martin Show."
During the 1961-62 TV season, he was Officer Anderson on the series "Car 54, Where Are You?" He was one of the first African Americans to have a co-starring role in a situation comedy. He also appeared on the soap operas "As the World Turns" and "Search for Tomorrow." In the 1970s, he became a regular on "The Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts," where he was expected to offer humorous insults in rhyme.
In recent years, he made several appearances on NBC's "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" and on HBO's "Chris Rock Show." Comedy Central broadcast his one-man comedy special.
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