"Goodtime Girls" - 13 Week Theatre

[TMC]

We look at Garry Marshall's 1980 World War II flop "Goodtime Girls," starring Annie Potts, Lorna Patterson, Francine Tacker, Georgia Engel, Adrian Zmed, and Peter Scolari.

[TMC]

SEVENTIES SITCOMS: 1979-1980. A TREE GROWS BACK IN BROOKLYN. A RETURN TO MAYBERRY.

Goodtime Girls (ABC). Patterson came back mid season in another Paramount comedy, this time in a lead role for Garry Marshall’s production company. Marshall once again mined the past with this sitcom about a group of working women during WWII who live in a boarding house together. Annie Potts played the defacto leader of the group, Patterson was the daffy one who wanted to be a singer, and Georgia Engel played the war bride. Of course, this being Marshall, Francine Tacker was added as the “snobby” one. With Potts at the helm, the moralizing made the show seem like a forties version of “Designing Women” and the sentimentality--one episode revolves around a veteran who needs to rallied after dealing with the loss of both his legs--was right out of the Marshall canon. Speaking of Marshall, the regulars were a who’s who of his recurring players--right off of his fall flops: Along with Patterson and Engel there was Adrian Zmed and Peter Scolari--hoofer Zmed's presence allowed plenty of “boogie” dance sequences. Guests were also well represented by Marshall’s other series: Scott Baio as young enlistee and Michael McKean (Lenny) as the above mentioned wounded veteran. Even with the serious themes and war backdrop, the writers had some fun as when one of the girls keeps marrying soldiers overseas to boost their morale and one of the returns stateside unexpectedly. But much as “Happy Days” started to look like the early sixties by way of the seventies, this three camera series with a studio audience was influenced too much by the current sensibilities to be a true period piece. Steven Spielberg's comedy flop "1941" had just hit theaters and Marshall may have been banking on a WWII fad.