The Four Seasons ran from January until July 1984 on CBS.
Danny Zimmer ( Jack Weston), was a born-and-bred New Yorker, a Dentist and a hyperchondriac. He worried about almost everything, including the decision to move to California and establish a new practice in Los Angeles.
Danny dreaded change of any kind, and the adjustment was traumatic although it was eased by the new friends he and his wife Claudia ( Marcia Rodd), made in Los Angeles. Ted Bolen ( Tony Roberts), was his aggressive real-estate salesman pal, who lived the " California" lifestyle and had a live-in relationship with stuntwoman Pat Devon ( Joanna Kerns). Danny's other close friend was Boris Elliot ( Alan Arbus), a successful attorney who had given up the practice of law for the less pressured life of a bicycle-shop owner after suffering a heart attack. Boris's wife Lorraine( Barbara Babcock), was a professor of orthopedics at the UCLA School Of Medicine and a good sport, despite a rather stuffy exterior. Also seen regularly were Beth Burroughs ( Elizabeth Alda), the daughter of Danny's best friend in New York, and Beth's friend Lisa ( Beatrice Alda), who moved to California to find fame and fortune. Sharon ( Lori Carrell), was the girl with whom Beth and Lisa shared an apartment. They all shared little middle-class adventures, often involving Danny's beloved mercedes automobile and counterpointed by the music of Vivaldi-The Four Seasons, of course.
The Four Seasons was based on the Alan Alda movie of the same name, with Jack Weston and Alda's daughters Beatrice and Elizabeth recreating their roles they had played in the movie. Alda, himself appeared in the pilot as his movie character and Beth's father Jack Burroughs.
A Review From The New York Times
TV VIEW; ALAN ALDA'S NEW SERIES IS OFF TO A HILARIOUS START
By JOHN J. O'CONNOR
Published: February 5, 1984
I am an insistent propounder of the theory that the first episode of a weekly television series reveals virtually nothing about its future. A couple of years ago, a situation-comedy called ''The Associates,'' structured
around the inner-working antics of a staid New York law firm, got off to a smashing start on ABC and then, week after week, proceeded to get increasingly soggy, entirely justifying its diminishing ratings. More than a decade ago, ''M*A*S*H'' began on CBS with an episode that was distinctly disappointing, especially when compared with the Robert Altman film that had inspired the series. Gradually, though, somewhere in the second season, the series hit its inimitable stride and, with the help of outstanding scripts and a fine acting company, went on to make television history.
But there is always the debut that gives even the beleaguered television watcher cause for optimism, however misplaced it may turn out to be. The latest example has been provided by ''The Four Seasons,'' which begins its regular run as a weekly half-hour series tonight at 8 on CBS. The show was unveiled on the network last Sunday with a one-hour special that turned out to be hilarious. It is a spinoff of the theatrical-release film that starred Alan Alda and Carol Burnett; the television series has been created by Mr. Alda, who, with Martin Bregman, also happens to be one of the executive producers. Perhaps not surprisingly, the cast includes two Alan Alda daughters, Elizabeth and Beatrice Alda. And part of the success of the premiere may have been attributable to the fact that the very talented and appealing Mr. Alda showed up as a prominent member of the cast.
But, rather cleverly, Mr. Alda made sure that the star of the show was definitely Jack Weston, who also appeared in the original film. Mr. Weston, whose credits include a Tony Award nomination for best actor in Woody Allen's play ''The Floating Light Bulb,'' is not your average leading man. Middle-aged, balding and of what can be diplomatically described as ample girth, he is a walking tribute to the ordinary man. He is also a master of comic delivery. Mr. Weston plays Danny Zimmer, a compleat New Yorker, who decides to move himself, his wife and his dental practice to California. That's simple enough, except that Danny is, as somebody describes him, a walking panic button. Nothing escapes his simmering anxiety. Looking at the construction workers in the street outside his New York apartment building, he mutters, ''I love this city - tell me when it's finished.''
Reaching California and finding several of his old friends welcoming him with three-alarm chili and cocktails called La Brea Tarpits, a delighted Danny steps out on a gorgeous balcony overlooking a spectacular hillside view and discovers that ''this house is on stilts.'' Rushing back into the living room and pressing himself against a presumably safe wall, he shouts to his wife, ''Claudia, stand over here by me.'' Later, when the cocktail table starts trembling ominously and the friends don't even bother noting the effects of an earthquake aftershock, Danny is even more dubious about his move out west. Finally, when he discovers that one friend has failed to get him a special patient that is required for his California state dental exam - he needs to demonstrate his ability to fill a cavity in a virgin tooth - Danny begins hyperventilating. Rushed to the guest bedroom, he whispers to his wife, ''Put everything back in the car, I'm going back to America where I can breathe.''
Throughout this neatly crafted lunacy, Mr. Weston remained a monumental tower of perfectly understandable but sidesplitting neuroses. His is the character, given the proper and decent scripts, that will make or break this series. But he is not working alone. There is an extremely accomplished supporting cast: Tony Roberts as Ted, the bachelor friend who is a real-estate wheeler- dealer living with a beautiful stuntwoman, played by Joanna Kerns; Marcia Rodd as Danny's wife Claudia, a woman of infinite patience, wisdom and insight; Allan Arbus (who was Dr. Sidney Freedman in ''M*A*S*H'') as Boris, who has given up his successful law practice to open his own bicycle shop because a heart operation has made him see life more clearly; Barbara Babcock (long of ''Hill Street Blues'') as his orthopedist wife; and, of course, the Alda sisters, portraying close friends who have moved to California to establish their respective careers, while the daddy of one (Mr. Alda), a lawyer in New York, frets about their being seduced by the kookiness that seems endemic to the West Coast.
In the end, ''The Four Seasons,'' spiked with excerpts from the Vivaldi composition of the same title, is about the trials and tribulations of friendship. These are people who have known each other for years. They feel they have the right to be impossible wth each other. Danny's ongoing crises are a natural part of their scene. However impossible, they are tolerated with the knowledge that this, too, will pass. Danny does have his lovable side. He adores good food and is very impressed with the loaf of raisin pumpernickel that his friends are able to buy in Los Angeles, comparing it favorably to the one sold by Kessler's in Brooklyn. The premiere ended with one of the friends promising that ''we'll take you around and show you what a really wonderful town this is.'' Yeah, parried Danny, ''but what will we do for the rest of the hour?''
Directed by Hy Averback and written by Don Segall, with some help from Richard Baer, the first glimpse of ''The Four Seasons'' was indeed very encouraging. Let's hope the momentum continues. Mr. Weston deserves all the exposure he can get.
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