Who saw this show?

Who saw this show?

I did. It was on in I think 1971 and starred Dan Dailey and Julie Sommers.

This was on for a season and a half from September 1969 through December 1970.

I kinda remember the name but other than that I have no memory of this show?!:confused:

I kinda remember the name but other than that I have no memory of this show?!:confused:

JJ from Good Times, and the Governor from Benson team up to solve mysteries.

JJ from Good Times, and the Governor from Benson team up to solve mysteries.



:lol::D

They would make a good team!! :crazy::wave:

This was on for a season and a half from September 1969 through December 1970.

and I remember in the summer of 72 CBS reran some of the episodes.

The title is familiar but I didn't watch the show so obviously I can recall nothing about it. Will have to check You Tube and see if anything from this show is on there.

Found the pilot episode, Carroll O' Connor is in it! The video quality isn't great but better than nothing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81SUTJfUY_Y

I found this also, but it's only a 5 1/2 minute clip, it stops after the opening credits.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnMuAlZqEv8

I saw this show too. I mainly remember that it was on and off way too fast. Another Arnie like disappointment, just as you're getting used to watching they take it off way too soon. It was no great shakes but I remember liking it as a kid and finding it funny. Who knows? if I saw it today in my current highly intelligent and sophisticated state I may not think it amusing.;)

Terrible Shows I Like: The Governor and J.J. (http://comforttv.blogspot.com/2022/07/terrible-shows-i-like-governor-and-jj.html)

It’s not a coincidence that the post-Comfort TV era of television has offered many more shows revolving around politics (https://jacksonupperco.com/2021/03/10/somewhere-between-he-she-and-mtm-a-look-at-the-governor-and-j-j/), from Spin City and The West Wing to Veep and Madame Secretary. But from the 1950s through the 1980s how government worked (or didn’t work) was not as popular a topic for a network series. The Senator (1970) was excellent but short-lived; Benson featured James Noble as a governor who was more caricature than character. Hizzoner (1979) was impeached after seven episodes, as was Hail to the Chief (1985), in which Patty Duke played the first woman president.

Compared to those efforts, The Governor and J.J. (https://web.archive.org/web/20061031125158/http://www.jumptheshark.com/g/governorandjj.htm) (1970-1972) seems like a hit, lasting 39 episodes (https://www.datalounge.com/thread/21568119-the-governor-and-jj) and even inspiring its own comic book. It was highly regarded by the Hollywood Foreign Press, who bestowed it with Golden Globes for Best Comedy Series, Best Actor in a Comedy/Musical Series (Dan Dailey) and Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical TV series (Julie Sommars). Maybe they saw something that American audiences didn’t – or maybe the CBS check cleared in time for that corrupt electorate to make their selection.

Either way, most viewers did not share their enthusiasm, so the show (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Governor_%26_J.J.) is not remembered as a success, by those who remember it at all (http://thelandofwhatever.blogspot.com/2016/07/forgotten-tv-governor-jj-1969.html).

Why didn’t it work? Bad luck, bad time slot (http://www.tvtango.com/series/governor_and_jj), bad karma – or maybe, as I suspect, it had some of the elements necessary to make a sophisticated sitcom work, but fell short in others, one being a more developed supporting cast.

Here are the covers of the 3 comic books published by Western (Gold Key). I have a copy of the first one.

277531277532

277533

This series interests me because Julie Sommars was at the apex of her beauty around that time.

In the time since this thread mentioned what's available on YouTube (back in 2019), a full Season 1 episode print in b & w has been uploaded:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-I6H03E5aM

It's the final episode of the 1st season (S1, ep 26, March 31 1970). Gary Collins is probably the best-known guest actor, making his second and final appearance on the series.

Terrible Shows I Like: The Governor and J.J. (http://comforttv.blogspot.com/2022/07/terrible-shows-i-like-governor-and-jj.html)

Is that article trying to imply that The Governor and JJ was more successful than Benson?

Is that article trying to imply that The Governor and JJ was more successful than Benson?

It seems that way, what a blunder!

Here are the covers of the 3 comic books published by Western (Gold Key). I have a copy of the first one.

277531277532

277533

This series interests me because Julie Sommars was at the apex of her beauty around that time.

Talk about a niche market. This must have been aimed primarily at the promotional market. Maybe the network would buy a couple of hundred copies and hand them out to advertisers. How many kids would collect something like this? It looks like only three were produced.

This series has an interesting history to say the least. It was not a hit the first season, it was scheduled at 9:30 Tuesdays behind the perennial hit The Red Skelton Show. The Skelton Show ranked number 7, so this time the obvious did not happen, the landmark Skelton Show was cancelled and The Governor and JJ was renewed. For the 70-71 season the series was moved to Wednesday at 8:30, the series in front of it was Storefront Lawyers which leaned urban and young, the series running after The Governor and JJ were mega hits Medical Center and Hawaii Five-0. The show failed to find an audience (and as it turned out neither did Storefront Lawyers) getting bounced at midseason. The replacement series moving from Tuesday night was To Rome With Love. This move was made to make way for a series named All in the Family, and the rest as they say is history.

I think the biggest problem this series had was the sense that it was a little too full of itself. It was nice it just wasn't funny and seemed to have a very high opinion of itself. At least that's the way it came across.

It's been stated that Dell one-shot comic books based on movies and TV shows back in the 1950s and very early 1960s had an advantage over other comic book series, in that continuing series from other publishers had the previous issue's unsold copies removed from the stands (with usually just the top portion of the front cover sent in as proof) once the new issue arrived -- but the one-shots were permitted to linger on newsstands. Something like The Real McCoys may not have had the appeal of Superman, but copies of the former hung around longer at drug stores, etc.

Anyway, by the mid-'60s and onward, both Dell and the new Gold Key comics continued featuring licensed properties of practically all TV sitcoms, westerns, dramas, etc. -- Burke's Law, Rango, The Lucy Show, Lancer, you name it. However, since they were not using the former Dell one-shot strategy, it seemed to have been a "more-of-the-same" licensing approach - likely without the sales advantage previously enjoyed.

It's important to remember that newsstand sales of comic books remained strong on into the early 1970s. In the mid-1960s, DC was printing a half-million copies of a given issue of G.I. Combat. Those numbers today would be absolutely staggering -- especially for a non-superhero title...!

I hadn't seen Julie for a long time and then she popped up on Andy Griffith's Matlock. Glad you had a career boost.

Ms. Sommars I believe is now best-known for her role on Matlock as Julie March. The Governor and JJ has been largely forgotten, I think it's fair to say, being so long ago and short-lived.