I have been enjoying my time up here in Oregon with the family and doing other things. I am finally getting caught up on my television DVDs. I don't always "rush" through them, and I still have some series sets I haven't watched. However, I am finishing up "Good Morning World," a 1967-1968 sitcom created by Carl Reiner and Sheldon Leonard of "Dick Van Dyke Show" fame. For those not familiar with the former but with the latter, "Good Morning World" was much like the Van Dyke series except the setting was at a radio station instead of a television show. The writing and acting were superior, and the series gave Goldie Hawn one of her first roles. She had a supporting role in the series as a ditzy neighbor of the series DJ Joby Baker and his series wife Julie Parrish (who died in 2003). Hawn was in love with Baker's DJ partner Ronnie Schell (who was seemingly in every television series in the 1960s), but Schell preferred to play the field. Both Schell and Baker worked for station manager Roland Hutton, played by Billy De Wolfe, who really stole this show. Anyway, the series was way ahead of its time and had an influence on later series such as WKRP in Cincinnati.
The high point of this series, in my opinion, was an episode titled "No News is Nude News," but I won't give away the plot. It was so hilarious, I fell on the floor from laughing. This episode, and the show in general, was as funny as anything in television history. What a shame the sitcom lasted only one season.
Joby Baker, born in 1934, ended up quitting show business and is an artist. He is married to Dory Previn, ex-wife of Andre Previn, who in turn was also married to Mia Farrow, who shacked up with Woody Allen before he dumped her for her adopted daughter. Ronnie Schell, born in 1931, is still around and had some commentary about the series on the DVD set. Billy De Wolfe, a superior comic talent, died in 1974.
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2 comments:
I don't remember this show at all, but it sounds great. Totally agree with you about Ronnie Schell's ubiquitousness.
I never saw the show when it was originally broadcast in 1967, but I had heard of it. Thanks to the miracle of DVDs, one can get the entire series (S'More Entertainment puts it out for around $30). It was a really good show, often hilarious. It was much like the Dick Van Dyke Show with many of the same people involved in its production. Schell (who today looks like an older Al Jolson) said in an interview on the DVD low ratings was what killed it. He seemed to have enjoyed working on the series and had predicted to a reporter Goldie Hawn would be a major star (there is a video clip showing this). This was Hawn's first television series.
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