Hello, Larry Boned the Fish When...

[TMC]

http://www.bonethefish.com/viewtopics.php?1784

Hello, Larry is an American sitcom which aired on NBC from January 26, 1979 to April 30, 1980.

[Retro4Life]

Never boned. One of the most unfairly maligned sitcoms ever. It wasn't in the MTM or AITF league, surely, but it was a nice, inoffensive show with some good laughs from Stevenson and a likeable cast.

[Mr. Television]

Any show with Kim Richards in it was worth watching. lol I loved Hello Larry. It was pretty much in the same tradition as Diff'rent strokes and the Facts of Life. I never understood why it didn't last and I don't get all the hate from the critics about it.

[TVFactFan]

Originally Posted by Stuck In The '70's

Any show with Kim Richards in it was worth watching. lol I loved Hello Larry. It was pretty much in the same tradition as Diff'rent strokes and the Facts of Life. I never understood why it didn't last and I don't get all the hate from the critics about it.

Me either because especially when I accepted the cast of HL when they appeared on DS. Morgan was a hottie

[TMC]

https://web.archive.org/web/20070225...ptheshark.com/

• Other Thoughts:
  
  This show didn't run long enough to jump the shark. We had to say "Goodbye, Larry" all too soon.
  I remember almost having a nervous breakdown when this show went off the air. NBC sucked 20 years ago, and they suck now.
  I remember this one. The show just wasn't the same after Donna Wilkes was replaced by Krista Errickson.
  This show started out in midair, halfway over the shark tank!
  And what really stinks is that Kim Richards - the actress I had the biggest crush on then - was still there when it went off...
  MacLean Stevenson was bitten off at the waist on day one like Robert Shaw in "Jaws." Hey, I had a crush on Kim Richards too, but I can recognize the fact that this show was really awful.
  Ahhh yes, KIM, The blind experience! Was that really her in the movie "Tuff Turf"?
  This show was never as bad as its reputation made it out to be. NBC's programming sucked in general in the late 1970s, and for some reason this show was the one everyone picked on. No, it wasn't a great show, but it wasn't bad either. McLean Stevenson could deliver funny lines with charm, and his TV daughters Kim Richards and Krista Ericksson were hotter than all of Charlie's Angels put together.
  I had the hots for BOTH girls--anyone else watch "Angel" just for Donna Wilkes? Man, that's obsession. I not only remember "Hello, Larry" fondly, but I still remember the potato that exploded in the microwave--was that in the premiere episode?
  I agree with the person who said "Hello Larry" wasn't that bad. There were a lot of mediocre sitcoms on the air in the late '70s. (Aren't there always?) But for some reason, "Hello Larry" became a symbol of bad TV, possibly because McLean Stevenson became famous for his string of failed shows. But my recollection of "Hello Larry" is fairly positive. Stevenson was a likable, talented guy who brought an Everyman approach to his role, Kim Richards WAS hot, and the other cast members seemed talented and amusing, as I recall. Sure, it's not a great show or anything, but there's nothing really BAD in it either, despite its unwarranted reputation as one of TV's all-time turkeys.
  It was an okay show that I liked.It jumped once it became a scapegoat for bad TV by Johnny Carson and others. They put it in that plane flying over the Sea of Japan in 1952,and the sea's sharks ate it.
  The premise of a talk show host as central character worked for Frasier, but apparently one one else. McLean Stevenson's appearances on Match Game showed that he could be very funny, given a chance.
  THE WRITING WAS AVERAGE.BUT THE CAST IS ONE OF THE BEST EVER ON A SITCOM.ESPECALLY KIM RICHARDS.THE IS JUST AS ENTERTAINING TODAY AS IT WAS 20 YEARS AGO.I HOPE NICK AT NITE STARTS SHOWING IT AGAIN.I'M SURE MOST PEOPLE WILL AGREE THAT IT WAS AN ENTERTAINING SHOW.
  When Meadowlark Lemon joined as "himself" as the new guy on the show. Not a "kid" but the new character killed an otherwise funny show. And what a career move for McClean Stevenson
  How about any show in which McLean Stevenson starred post-"M*A*S*H"? How many was he in, anyway? "In the Beginning," "The McLean Stevenson Show, "Hello, Larry," "America," "Dirty Dancing"...the short list goes on and on!
  As soon as I saw the show, I realized it was, literally, a carbon copy of One Day at a Time--a divorcee with two daughters, the set looked just like the ODAAT set, and even the pilot episode took off from a ODAAT episode where everyone frets because the older girl is considering losing her virginity. The real shark-jumper, though, was the "special" episode where the Larry cast met up with the cast from Diff'rent Strokes, as though millions of fans in TV land were just waiting for that one!
  Hello, Larry never jumped, it was just to good for the stupid audience of the time. McLean...we miss you!
  The above poster is incorrect. The audience wasn't stupid, the show was. Come to think of it, so was his asinine comment. I shudder to think of the low intellect of those who actually thought Hello Larry was a quality television program. Must have been the psychotropic drugs.
  I thought Hello, Larry was great. Frasier copied directly off of it. And I dont think the audience of the time was stupid, but they were the ones on drugs, thats why they didnt see how great Larry was. ;-)
  Are you kidding me? This was one of the stupidest television shows of the 70s if not the entire history of television. You either had to be stupid, a drug user, or both, to enjoy it. Comparing this drivel to a quality show like Frasier is like comparing **** to chateaubriand. The only thing these two shows had in common, aside from their both being on NBC, was that both lead characters worked in radio.
  This was a good show, at a time when NBC sucked so badly that everything on it never had a chance because viewers stayed away from the network. To the previous poster, there's no doubt that they lifted the plot directly from Hello, Larry when they created Frasier. It isn't just a coincidence that both were on NBC, that's part of the proof because NBC's fingerprints are therefore all over it. There are other similarities. Stevenson came from MASH where he'd been a doctor. Frasier came from Cheers, where he'd been a doctor. Hello, Larry was set in the Pacific Northwest, in Portland. Frasier was set in the Pacific Northwest, in Seattle. It was a direct rip off. NBC knew it had a winning formula with Hello, Larry, so they went back to it with Frasier. With Cheers as the previous background and all the Cheers writers behind it, they knew they could make a winner out of it.
  "Hello, Larry" wasn't as bad as everyone would have us believe. "Diff'rent Strokes" served as a perfect springboard. But old wounds heal slowly. McLean Stevenson didn't make the smartest decision in the world leaving "M*A*S*H." Henry Blake will forever be his trademark role, as it was then. When Larry Gelbart made the decision to kill off the departing Lieutenant Colonel with Stevenson leaving the show, viewers barraged him with angry mail. "M*A*S*H" survived the fall-out, but Stevenson's television career didn't. Viewers never gave any of his subsequent shows a chance. "Hello, Larry" stands as the most notable instance of viewer reaction to McLean Stevenson for the death of the beloved Henry Blake. For the rest of his television career, Stevenson made his rounds on the game show and guest appearance circuit. It's a testament to how well loved Colonel Blake was, but it's unfortunate that "Hello, Larry" and McLean Stevenson had to suffer for it.
  A fitting tribute to a very gifted man. In crossovers with Diff’rent Strokes, Larry was supposed to be Phillip’s military buddy. Too bad nothing good came of it. It was a tiny but very costly mistake, similar to one Shelley Long would make about 10 years later. How ironic that we’re talking about comparisons to Cheers / Frasier right now.
  What in the world are people who voted never jumped on? This show was sooo bad. NBC deserves to have its FCC license stripped for this crap. What a load of crud. First of all, anytime McLean Stevenson stars in a show you have to think why and what in the world were his daughters in the show named? Not even special appearances by the cast of Diff'rent Strokes could guarantee success.
  I have to admit I liked this show when it was on, but, looking back I have no idea why - even with Donna Wilkes (whose movie 'Angel' is severely underrated, though, if you REALLY want to talk about jumping the shark, look at its non-Donna Wilkes sequels which were both so bad that had either landed in the shark tank the shark wouldn't have touched them) - so much so that I can't believe I just saw the words "winning formula" and "Hello, Larry" used in the same sentence. Oy.

[TVFactFan]

Wonder why the crossovers didn't work with Different Strokes, A sitcom Mystery

[biffbronson]

I actually remember watching this series. I was familiar with Kim Richards from Nanny & the Professor. I didn't think it was a bad show at all.

However, it wasn't long after its cancellation before the media blasted MacLean for having left M*A*S*H, tormenting him with an "I told you so" attitude -- as if they could somehow have predicted his next project would fail.

[DJM77]

Originally Posted by biffbronson

However, it wasn't long after its cancellation before the media blasted MacLean for having left M*A*S*H, tormenting him with an "I told you so" attitude -- as if they could somehow have predicted his next project would fail.

Hello, Larry was McLean's 3rd failed attempt at a successful series after leaving M*A*S*H. The McLean Stevenson Show was the 1st and In The Beginning was the 2nd. From what little I've seen of The McLean Stevenson Show and Hello, Larry, I can honestly say that both shows were good and probably should have lasted longer. They're both on YouTube by the way.

[TVFactFan]

Hello Larry was a lot better than some of the other short-lived shows I saw

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