Cass Malloy

[Bob's TV Treasures]

Recently found a rare copy of the show's pilot - with Caroline McWIlliams in the Sheriff role.

[TMC]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/She%27s_the_Sheriff

The series had its origins in the 1982 CBS sitcom pilot Cass Malloy. Creators Dan Guntzelman and Steve Marshall pitched exactly the same format to CBS as what later made it to the air in syndication as She's the Sheriff: that of a late sheriff's wife taking over her husband's job, and the challenges she faced as a woman in a male-oriented environment. Annie Potts was originally cast as the titular Cass Malloy, but she was soon dropped during development in favor of Caroline McWilliams, who was in search of a starring vehicle after leaving the hit ABC series Benson. The pilot was shot and greenlit by CBS, and aired as a one-off on July 21, 1982. The pilot did not perform to CBS' expectations, and thus was not picked up as a series.

George Wyner and Lou Richards appeared in both Cass Malloy and She's the Sheriff, but in the CBS pilot, their characters' surnames were different. Wyner played Deputy Max Rosenkrantz, who had hoped to fill the shoes of deceased Sheriff Big Jim Malloy, but who was now miffed about being passed over in favor of Malloy's wife. Richards played Deputy Dennis Little in the pilot. The cast also featured Glynn Turman as Officer Woodrow Freeman, whose character very well served as the basis for Leonard Lightfoot's Alvin Wiggins in She's the Sheriff; Dick Butkus as Officer Alvin Dimsky; Murphy Dunne as Adam Barrett; and Dianne Kay (in her first project after Eight is Enough) as Tina Marie Nelson.

Sheriff Cass Malloy had three kids in the original pilot: teenager Colleen (Amanda Wyss), preteen Nona (Heather Hobbs) and the youngest, "Little Big" Jim (Corey Feldman). While She's the Sheriff was set in Lakes County, Nevada, Cass Malloy was situated in Burr County, Indiana.

Guntzelman and Marshall would find success as producers a few years later with ABC's Growing Pains, which prompted them to revisit the Cass Malloy teleplay in hopes of finally getting it on the air as a series. Lorimar-Telepictures took an interest in a revised version of the script, and greenlighted a series order in 1987 for the then-burgeoning first-run syndication market. (Early in production, a two-page ad was placed in the 1/5/1987 issue of Broadcasting & Cable magazine listing the show under the working title Suddenly Sheriff and with Priscilla Barnes as the star. When the show's name and casting were finalized is not known.[2][3])

[thejasoomian]

This version of the show certainly had a lot of talent. How bad could it have been compared to the Somers's version? Which is really bad. I'd like to see this pilot.