SEVENTIES SITCOMS: 1978-1979 CABBIES, DJ'S AND ALIENS RULE.

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This was a busy year on the Paramount sound stages. Over the course of the season, Garry Marshall was producing six three camera shows (four of them huge hits) with his Miller-Milkis/Henderson Productions. Two single camera sitcoms were produced there as well. And MTM's James L. Brooks formed his own production company and moved to Paramount for his new critical landmark followup to WJM: "Taxi." With sitcoms veering towards the videotaped "family formulas" or the filmed "workplace family setups," the seventies were starting to morph into the eighties and beyond at this point. And this year saw the first large wave of talent that would pretty much shape comedy (and drama)--not only on TV but film and otherwise--up to this day. And the content of the programs--the topicality and shock value-would take a back seat to plain old entertainment, star power and family values.

The main themes of the programs this season (besides the fluffy sexual fare of large leggy female ensembles) was the slob vs. snob element what with all three networks providing a light-weight version of the hit R-rated comedy "National Lampoon's Animal House" with the mindless pranks of frat house rejects substituting ignorance and brutishness ( in service of educational equality) for sophisticated class-conscious banter. Even Marshall's "Angie" approached the class issue within the context of a romantic comedy...minus the abrasiveness and obviousness he displayed in directing his mega-hit "Pretty Woman" eleven years later. The closest that sitcoms came to "commentary" was a mid season attempt about a single mother raising her baby.

BIRTH OF THE NEW HOLLYWOOD
The talent coming from the Paramount comedy lot (mostly for ABC) would read like a who's who of the Hollywood power list over the next forty years--in some cases winning Oscars: Ron Howard, Brooks, Marshall, sister Penny, and Lowell Ganz would be behind the scenes as directors, writers and producers. Danny Devito and Henry Winkler would do double duty. Penny's husband Rob Reiner would team up with co-star Michael McKean and frequent guest stars Chris Guest and Harry Shearer for "Spinal Tap" leading to stellar careers for the group. Christopher Lloyd, Jim Belushi, Tony Danza, Doris Roberts and Marilu Henner would have extensive careers as character actors on screen, large and small. David Letterman, Jeffrey Tambor, Tom Selleck and a very young Anthony Kaedis would even make guest appearances. And then there's the enigma of Andy Kaufman. Michael Keaton and Tom Hanks would be gracing the studio for Henderson over the next couple of years. Billy Crystal, John Travolta and a certain pop star/famous sister were on their way with other production companies and even Steve Guttenberg made his odd quiet debut. And his "Police Academy" director Hugh Wilson premiered his classic comedy at MTM.

And Robin Williams. Nightclub comic Williams had made a few appearances on TV up to now (including a failed "Laugh-In" revival). Marshall fell in love with the zany improvisational guru and cast him as Mork from the planet Ork in a dream sequence on "Happy Days." Well, the schizoid appearance went over so well (with an audience already sizable due to that show's popularity) that Marshall gave him his own series "Mork and Mindy" set in present day Boulder, Colorado. Of course, the previous dream sequence was re-edited to make it seem that Richie and Fonzie were actually visited by this alien in the late 1950's and he performed a mind-erasing exercise on them (as if that were necessary). So in 1978, he hooks up with Mindy (Pam Dawber) who works for a local TV station, naturally. She takes him in as she mistakes him for a priest--he was wearing his suit backward when they met in the dark. The show was written to allow Williams to go into extended manic non-sequiter rants about everything from politics to show biz to sex to religion--basically his act minus the swearing and vulgarity. And with the outer space inhabitant full of naivete and innocence his inquisitive nature was allowed to shine and lead to no penalties or shame. He would speak to Orson from his "egg" at the end of each episode to add a little more comedy insight. Over the four year run, there would be a number of supporting players but it was William's show all the way. From here his career would lead to decades of film roles--some dramatic, some very dark, an Oscar, huge box office, Disney-fied repetition with family films and a place at the table with the greats of Hollywood film comedians. It is also interesting to note that this was the first three-camera sitcom with a studio audience that had a "magical" premise. Perhaps the onlookers were laughing so hard at Williams that they didn't notice the drudgery of setting up special effects shots.

QUALITY FARE
ABC was in the midst of it's ratings bonanza leaving CBS with the few Norman Lear hits (already fading in quality) and "M*A*S*H" as it's "tiffany" bulwark. Fred Silverman would leave ABC to do his magic for NBC this season creating a mess of over-budgeted, over-hyped dreck but introducing through the network a certain Gary Coleman and company as it's sole comedy franchise. And as ABC's sitcom hits were mostly of the harmless family variety or the harmless titillation genre, it did have "Barney Miller" and "Soap" as critical darlings. MTM Enterprises on CBS was producing dramas now and it's final original hit "Rhoda" was in a painful decline. James L. Brooks, the creator of "Mary Tyler Moore Show" formed the aforementioned production group, John Charles Walters Company-- at Paramount with his co-conspirators in thoughtful, intelligent comedy: Stan Daniels, Ed Weinberger, and David Davis. Glen and Les Charles came in as writers and Jim Burrows would direct. The series they made was "Taxi."

Most of Marshall's output was derivative of the current New York-city based disco craze and had a strong Italian-American flavor. Travolta's "Saturday Night Fever", Sylvester Stallone's "Rocky" and Martin Scorsese's "Mean Streets"/"Taxi Driver" one-two punch featuring a up-and-coming Robert Deniro contributed to this as much as "The Godfather" films did in the earlier part of the decade. (Marshall would even produce a sitcom version of the Tony Manola's "Fever" saga this season). The more WASP-ish fare coming from the Midwestern settings of the MTM stable and Lear's highly urban programs featuring the lions-share of African American content were on the wane. The denizens of "Taxi" represented the new emphasis on the big-city gritty lifestyles of the Italian-Jewish melting pot that more accurately represented the backgrounds of a majority of the sitcom writers successfully working by this time.

Based on an article that Brooks read in The New Yorker about cab drivers and wanting to pursue characters that were all striving for a dream while toiling in dreary jobs, the Manhattan-based series was born. Divorced Alex Reiger (Judd Hirsch) was the main "voice" in the crew. He had grown daughters and was resigned to be a cab driver and his sardonic humor reflected that surrender. Tony Banta (Tony Danza) pursued a boxing career and his slightly dim-witted persona revealed the blows to the head. Elaine Nardo (Marilu Henner) was a struggling divorcee working two jobs as she pursued her talents pursuant to being a well-regarded artist. Bobby Wheeler (Jeff Conaway) had the unenviable task of being a struggling actor in a city awash with thespians. Danny Devito would create one of the most celebrated characters in TV history with his vile and cruel dispatcher Louie Depalma. Christopher Lloyd, as the "Reverend" Jim Ignotowski was the well-heeled Harvard educated man of promise who ended up burned out on drugs. And the undetermined East European character of Latka Gravas (along with his many alter-egos) would simply be a plot device (albeit a very funny one) to showcase the bizarre comedy stylings of the mysterious Andy Kaufman. The three-camera setup was filmed in a gritty, dark manner with a mellow almost tranquilizing theme music and transition score. This look provided a contrast to the bright, colorful and stagy sitcoms of the day, despite it's zany characters and sometimes broad comedy. "Taxi" would win many Emmys in all categories and represent a second wave of Brooks-created sophistication in workplace-based situation comedy. Burrows and the Charles brothers would form their own company in the next decade and create an even bigger sitcom bonanza with "Cheers." As with Mary Tyler Moore's program, a single dramatic scene (punctuated by a gentle riff on the theme music) would lead to a score with a well-timed punchline. These series never left you with an audience applauding or gasping in response to a melodramatic ending. But "Taxi" was the perfect bridge to "Cheers" in the way the characters and their almost pathological "togetherness" led to a predictable and familiar pattern rather than a distinct level of excellence that allowed the actors and the script to remain authentic and not resort to cheap laughs no matter how well-written they may be.

Brooks would go on become an Academy-Award winning writer and director with more hits than misses. Devito would parlay his many Emmy Awards for his portrayal of Depalma into a very successful film comedy career in the eighties leading to his own career as director and collaborator with such luminaries as Michael Douglas and Jack Nicholson. He would marry Rhea Perlman who he met playing Louie's shy love interest and she too would create Emmy gold as Carla on "Cheers" playing a character not too far off from... Louie Depalma. Lloyd would become a beloved character actor in films-- blending in with each of his personalities especially "Doc" Brown in "Back to the Future" franchise. And Kaufman's bizarre short life has been chronicled in many books and documentaries, his stint on "Taxi" reenacted in the film "Man on the Moon."

MAKING RADIO WAVES
With "Rhoda" nearing it's tired end this season, MTM's sole entry in the sitcom race was "WKRP In Cincinnati." Another expert workplace comedy, Andy Travis (Gary Sandy) comes to Cincinnati to revamp the Muzak-flavored, floundering radio station with an older demographic. Bumbling Arthur Carlson (Gordon Jump) was the station manager--his wealthy overbearing mother owned the station. Loni Anderson played the aptly named Jennifer Marlowe--the anti-Chrissy Snow if you will--who was the level-headed, beautiful receptionist and the antithesis of the "dumb blond" stereotype. Her style brings to mind no-nonsense, statuesque Joan from the sixties-set "Mad Men." Travis hired flashy and hip DJ Venus Flytrap (Tim Reid) for the night shift. He joined burnout Johnny Fever (Howard Hesseman) who spun discs at WKRP after getting fired elsewhere (for saying "booger" on the air.) Herb Tarlek (Frank Bonner) was the leering and scheming ad rep--hitting on Jennifer despite his married status. Les Nessman (Richard Sanders) was the inept and insecurely egotistical newsman. Bailey (Jan Smithers) rounded out the cast as the shy ingenue trying her hand at everything. The music industry was parodied in a timely and true fashion. Radio personnel would comment that the show was an accurate representation of the AM/FM life much as "Barney Miller" would be for law enforcement. The music played on the show (for editorial reasons or as part of the DJ's "work") would be extremely current and relevant. MTM chose to videotape this three-camera series created by Hugh Wilson ("Tony Randall Show"), rather than film it in order to get better rates on the song rights. The series would lose it's audience as it eventually got bounced around the schedule and never found a home. But in reruns the show would gain popularity. The comedy was sometimes hilarious, sometimes gentle, sometimes outrageous and sometimes outright farcical. Even politics was lampooned as the conservative Herb and staid Nessman would lock horns with the more laid-back and nihilistic DJ's, especially Fever.

"The Mary Tyler Moore Show," having been off for a year saw many of the cast members trying to branch out "on their own." Ed Asner and Gavin McLeod found success in the hit programs "Lou Grant" (drama) and "Love Boat" (romance) respectively. Betty White and Ted Knight would have unsuccessful namesake series only to return in the eighties with popular sitcom characters. Moore however decided to try variety in the fall with a highly anticipated weekly revue on CBS. Her regulars included David Letterman, Michael Keaton, Swoozie Kurtz, and Dick Shawn. "Mary" unfortunately only lasted a few episodes despite being hailed as the next "Carol Burnett Show."

Not giving up, Moore retooled the show in the spring as an hour-long pseudo-sitcom. In Mary Tyler Moore Hour (CBS) she played the popular star of a variety show. She had regular characters in her life including her secretary (Joyce Van Patten), her producer (Michael Lombard), her head writer (Keaton again) and her maid (Dody Goodman, fresh from "Mary Hartman"). The background situation would be interspersed with the actual performances with the guest stars in the "show within a show," including fellow sitcom stalwarts Bonnie Franklin, Lucille Ball, Bea Arthur, Nancy Walker and Linda Lavin (who played themselves of course). Even Dick Van Dyke appeared as he and Moore revisited their sixties couple Rob and Laura Petrie in a sketch routine. Alas, the second attempt failed for Mary and she would go on to Broadway and film until the mid-eighties.

DIFF'RENT FOLKS
As for Lear, his production company started a new franchise on NBC with very little input (no name on the credits). Wanting to create a new vehicle for Conrad Bain of the suddenly cancelled "Maude" and break out the pint-sized wiseacre Gary Coleman, he combined the two in "Diff'rent Strokes": Park Avenue millionaire Phillip Drummond takes in the two sons of his deceased African-American housekeeper from Harlem and raises them as his own in his ritzy apartment. The show would deal with issues of race and class but in a condescending, family-friendly way. A staple of the eighties, this taped sitcom would often veer into uncomfortable pathos with it's "very special episodes" usually dealing with issues that were a tad above the Brady's level of topicality. But it was basically "The Brady Bunch" of the eighties--a safe family-oriented sitcom with some lessons amidst the laughs. Bernie Kukoff and Jeff Harris who created the series for Tandem Production, didn't allow the social satire to raise above the level of a Sunday morning lecture. The comedy once again came from the antics of the diminutive "Arnold" (Coleman) as he interacted with his brother Willis (Todd Bridges) who preferred his life on the streets and his new sister Kimberly (Dana Plato), Drummond's daughter. Nonetheless, with new NBC head Silverman in charge, the show created a number of spin offs--his hallmark-- including "The Facts of Life" as new housekeeper Edna Garrett would end up working at Kimberly's all-girl prep school and stay there for over seven years.

RATINGS WINNERS (1978-1979)

#10. Taxi (ABC). This critical darling got off to a huge start it's first season, aided and abetted by it's slot on ABC's powerhouse Tuesday night line-up (oddly following the inane "Three's Company."). Whatever it takes. Although Alex was the "voice" of the show, this first season saw Randall Carver play a regular character of John Burns, a small-town boy who just didn't fit in with these rough denizens of the Big Apple (for the outsider perspective). He didn't return after this season because he didn't add any laughs to the show despite marrying a woman after one date. His replacement, Reverend Jim, would make his first appearance in a single episode where he "performs" an arranged marriage for immigrant Latka. The comedy was sharp and the dramatic moments were carefully placed amidst the laughs--mostly involving Alex: he attempts to visit his estranged kids in the first episode; he fights a return to his gambling addiction; he gets shot by a fare and rethinks his life's direction: and-- in a very poignant show--he asks out a woman based on her voice on an answering service and when she turns out to be overweight and self-deprecating, Alex shows his true humanity in a difficult situation. Class issues arise when Elaine invites Alex to an art opening with her affluent gallery comrades. The despotic Louie even breaks down and talks to God in one episode. Bobby has auditions leading to hope and despair and Tony has boxing matches leading to hope and despair. On a lighter note, Alex dates Latka's mother and has a great time. The guest stars were reflective of the show's cache: Martin Mull plays a director wanting to "capture" the cabbie experience; Jeffrey Tambor plays a sleazy Congressman who dates Elaine; Mandy Patinkin and Tom Selleck also make appearances. And Ruth Gordon--see below.



"Taxi" picked picked up it's first Emmy for Best Comedy right off the bat in it's premiere season. After all, with the MTM shows dying off, Lear's brands softening up and becoming the "norm," "MASH" believing it's own press, and Marshall's pablum numbing minds across America "Taxi" was our new best hope. Also, "Taxi" won Best Actress for veteran film and stage actress Ruth Gordon still glowing in her cult status from "Harold and Maude". Her guest appearance as an eccentric older woman that Alex befriends earned her the award. This was before the "guest" categories on sitcoms.