'All That Glitters' Was Not Gold For Norman Lear! Anybody Remember this One Year Dud?

[Brian Damage]

All That Glitters (1977)
A Norman Lear show similar to Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, but the roles of women and men in this alternate universe are reversed. Sounds kinda gimmicky. Also, Linda Gray played a transsexual

[catlover79]

I've heard the title, but I've never seen it. I didn't even know what it was about until you brought up the plotline, Brian!! Thanks!

[TV Knowledge Fan]

...it lasted 13 weeks [65 episodes], from January through March 1977. WPIX-TV [Channel 11] in New York originally aired it at 11:30pm every weeknight, following "MARY HARTMAN, MARY HARTMAN" on WNEW-TV (Channel 5, now WNYW). After a few weeks, it aired opposite "MARY" at 11pm, that's how terrible the ratings were.

I still remember the catchy theme [delivered by a male jazz vocalist]:

"One morning the Lord, she woke up to say,
'I feel like I wanna be creative today,
so by virtue of the power I vested in me,
I make the Heaven, Earth and the deep blue sea.
Things that swim, fly, walk by, creep and crawl,
now I better make someone to name them all...'
Yes, a human was needed in the neighborhood,
so the Lord made woman-
and it was good!
She said, 'The Garden of Eden's no place to be alone',
So from of the rib of the madam came Adam, full grown.
As time went by, this groom and bride,
followed the instructions and multiplied.
She'd hunt, he stayed,
She worked, he played,
While she administered the government, he crocheted.
She wore the mail, he wore the veil.
Her head was crowned, his feet were bound.
He concubined and walked behind.
She was {you'll pardon the expression} the master mind.
So is it any wonder why the men complain,
when from the dawn of time, it's been a woman's domain!"

[catlover79]

Thanks for the info!! I guess even Norman Lear was bound to have a dud here and there.

[70s show watcher]

i watched it once or twice when it aired and being about 5 or six at the time it went over my head sure would like to see it again now as a 39 year old

[treky]

I remember that show, too. In Philadelphia it also aired weeknights at 11:30 right after"MARY HARTMAN, MARY HARTMAN". (on ch. 48, if you're reading thhis Soloman ) I remember Gary Sandy of "WKRP IN CINNCINATTI" was also in it.
It only lasted 13 weeks? I thought it was on longer than that.

[bencasey]

It was a one-joke show. Take every negative male trait and give them to women and every negative female trait is given to men. That's it. That was the whole show.

[OOliver]

Here's a little bit of trivia that many don't know....

The ORIGINAL theme song to the show was written by the songwriting team of Alan and Marily Bergman for their friend Lear (they also wrote the theme songs to 'Maude' and 'Good Times', as well as 'Alice'), and came in at 45 seconds long. After the song was finished, Lear made a few changes to the show and felt the original song didn't fit the 'tweaked' concept.

Shortly after it was discarded, singer Neil Diamond came upon the song and thought it had potential as a 'full length' song, and expanded the song with instrumentals, as the Bergmans added more verses to make a full song - coming in at 4 minutes long. Diamond recorded 'this song' for his album "I'm Glad You're Here With Me Tonight" that same year, and a year later (1978) Barbra Streisand recorded the song for her album "Songbird". Neither artist released the solo version as a single, though.

With a little creativity from a DJ in the fall of 1978, they recorded the song together as a duet, and had one of the biggest hits of each of their career - "You Don't Bring Me Flowers". (The duet first appeared at the end of 1978 on 'Barbra Streisand's Greatest Hits, Volume 2'. It's now available on a number of 'Greatest Hits' CDs by each artist.)

So 'All That Glitters' was not Gold for Lear, but turned out to be a Gold seller for Streisand/Diamond and the Bergmans.

[Yong Fang]

I would like to see the show now that I have heard of it.