Continuing my celebration of my 100th blog by
looking at famous production companies.
Today we have Witt/Thomas/Harris (or just Witt-Thomas). It was
founded in 1975 when Paul Junger Witt (who goes back to The Partridge Family)
joined with Tony Thomas to form Witt-Thomas Productions. A year later Tony
Thomas married writer/producer Susan Harris who also joined the company.
Soap
This was the first project this company produced, and it was
unique! Designed as a satire on soap operas, this show had very broad humor and
running story lines. The cast included Katharin Helmond, Billy Crystal as one
of the first openly gay character to appear on a sitcom, Richard Mulligan, and
many others. It took me years to finally watch some of these, and I admit they
were clever. The writing was sharp and the subject matter was edgy. Maybe to
edgy for 1978, which is why the show disappeared.
Benson
I have talked a lot about this show, that’s because
it was
one of the first show’s I ever loved. I watched this show when I had no
idea
that it was a spin-off and had no knowledge of the source material it
spun off
from. I still loved it. Of course, it was a spin-off of Soap. Benson was
the
butler on that show, here was head of household affairs for the
dimwitted
governor of the never named state. Robert Guillaume was so funny on this
show with this comments, and the rest of the cast was good to. One
recurring theme for Witt Thomas Harris was to have one dimwit character
in every show who told stories. Here it was the governor. Lots of other
great performers on this show
including Renee Auberjonois and Ethan Phillips who would go on to have
roles in
Star Trek’s spin-off’s. This show was great, and I just wish they more
than the 1st season would come out on DVD.
It’s a Living
This probably won’t be recalled by many, but I liked this
show. Why? Two words- Ann Jillian. She was the bombshell of the 80’s, as hard
as that may be to believe. To be fair, this show kind of sucked. It was a show
about a fancy restaurant on the top of a building, and the four leads were
waitresses who walked around in skimpy outfits. Yes, I am serious. For a
horrible show there was a lot of talent behind it, and it sure tried hard. Look
it up on YouTube, you may be surprised.
The Golden Girls
Then we got this great show. How could you go wrong putting
Bea Arthur, Betty White, and Rue McClanahan in the same show? Well, the truth
is you can’t go wrong with that. Add Estelle Getty as the wisecracking Sophia
and you have a fantastic show. I have already talked about this a lot so I won’t
go on to much here. This was, quite simply, funny. What else can you say?
Beauty and the Beast
I honestly can’t believe the show existed, never mind was
popular. Before she was known for The Terminator, Linda Hamilton was known for
this little gem. I can’t be too hard on this because it has a cult following.
People who love this show really loved it. I don’t understand how it even got
past the concept stage. The twist is that this was set in modern times. I will
say that Ron Pearlman was decent in this show.
Empty Nest
This spin-off of The Golden Girls was pretty good, but not
great. Richard Mulligan (from Soap, gee wonder how he got this role) was the
star. It also featured Dinah Manoff and Kristy McNichol. At first the show was
about Richard Mulligan’s character living alone, but it didn’t take long for
his daughters to move in with him. The show did manage to last awhile, but
probably thanks to its time slot on Saturday’s between Golden Girls and Amen.
Blossom
Mayim Bialic was the cute teenager facing adolescence in
this series. Ted Wass was the father (he was also on Soap…hmmmm). This show was
most famous for bringing Joey Lawrence to the public scene. He didn’t last long
though, but for awhile he was a heartthrob who even made record. The thing I
enjoyed in this series was in the first season every episode had a dream
sequence with some celebrity. Phil Donahue, Rhea Pearlman, Little Richard,
Estelle Getty (as her Golden Girls character), and even Alf all had cameos. As
the series took off, the dreams disappeared and suddenly every episode was a “very
special episode”.
Herman’s Head
I liked this show, for a minute or two. It was an
interesting premise. Herman was just an average guy, but every episode we got
to see the voices in his head that determine his choices and actions. These
voices were portrayed by four actors as Angel, Animal, Wimp, Genius and
Jealousy standing around an attic. While the voices bickered we also saw Herman’s
real life as he worked for a major magazing publisher. This show was good at
first, then got stupid. This show has a special memory for me, which is why I
remember this otherwise lousy show.
Nurses
Yeah, this show sucked to. This show was just as it sounds,
about a bunch of nurses. Not a direct spin-off from Empty Nest or Golden Girls,
but the hospital was the same one seen on those shows. The show tried, but it
just didn’t work. Even adding Loni Anderson and having many crossovers between
Empty Nest and Golden Girls just couldn’t help this show find an audience.
The Golden Palace
I’ve talked about this before and the huge mistake this
spin-off was. Without Dorothy, Rose had to be stronger, and Blanche had to be
more responsible. Doing that took all the fun out of the characters. On top of that,
Sophia lost her acid tongue and was softer. Is it any wonder this show vanished
after one season?
The John Larroquette Show
Gotta be honest, I never liked this show. John Larroquette
played a recovering alcoholic named John who was night manager of a St.Louis
bus depot. This series was dark and
gritty, which was just a turn off for me. I probably was not alone since the
show was almost cancelled after one year, and returned the next season much
lighter. However, the show still did not last all that long.
Other entries include Hail to the Chief, Good and Evil,
Whoops, and Pearl which would be their final production.
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