"Here Today, Hair Tomorrow" Back Door Pilot?

[Duster76]

I think there is a generally accepted conclusion among fans of the series that "Here Today, Hair Tomorrow" was a back door pilot for a Carmine series spin off. After watching the episode again (I was not a viewer of the series the last few seasons it was on so I've only seen this episode twice, both in series marathons), I think the potential spin off conclusion may not be correct.

The episode of course is somewhat anticlimactic to begin with, Penny Marshall could almost be listed as special guest appearance by, in spite of being the star. The show is devoid of Shirley, Lenny, Squiggy, Edna, basically a ghost ship pulling into port. What we are left with is Carmine.

As we head off to New York with Carmine, what we seem to see as the rest of the episode unfolds is basically not a start, but a conclusion of Carmine's story. He is in fact an instant success making friends, getting a part in a landmark Broadway play, finding an apartment (not exactly the Ritz but it's a start) and the episode closes with a big musical number. The only new character introduced is played by Ben Powers (with all due respect a career supporting actor, who by this time in his career is a retread). I always thought of Carmine as a low rent Fonzie, the character wasn't interesting enough, and actor playing him (Eddie Mekka) lacked the charisma to take the character to the next level. The show seemed to suffer when the character was in anything other than a supporting player. It's hard to imagine anyone would have seriously considered this character or the actor playing him as having the potential for a spin off series.








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[cbikle]

As a kid watching the show in the 70's, I never quite got Carmine, but I figured he was based on some kind of 1950's archetype.

His catchphrase of singing, "Rags To Riches", whenever he entered/exited a scene makes me think he was based on Tony Bennett.