Doing these kind of stories as a TV show, however, is not as easy. A movie always has a set run time so you can get the jokes and gags out before the whole movie gets boring. Sitcoms go on for episodes. Episodes and episodes, of basically the same joke. The character is dead. Oh sure you can do a single episode and probably get away with it (Benson did this very effectively in an episode starring Katherine Helmond as her character from Soap), but a whole series? It almost never works. In fact, some of the worst sitcoms ever made focus on “guardian angels”
I very briefly touched on these before, but what were these shows about? Let’s take a closer look:
The Ghost and Mrs Muir
Carolyn Muire moves into a cottage in Maine with her to kids. The cottage is haunted by the ghost of its former owner, Daniel Gregg a 19 century sea captain. Hi jinks ensue. This was based on a movie which focused on the fantasy element. The series went for comedy, and barely lasted two seasons. To be fair, Hope Lange was the star an won two Emmy’s for her role.
My Mother The Car
Poor Jerry Van Dyke. While the creative team on this stupid show went to bigger and better things, Van Dyke had a time shaking it. It was “Coach” that finally helped people to stop seeing this show when hearing his name. And yes this is a cheat, since David Crabtree’s mother wasn’t a guardian angel. Oh no she was reincarnated as a 1928 Porter. Yes it even talked. This show was the “Ishtar’ of bad TV shows, a show so stupid EVERYONE has heard how bad it was.
Jennifer Slept Here
You know, Ann Jillian deserved so much better. She was a major talent and what does she get? This stupid idea. Jennifer Farrell was killed by a backing up ice cream truck and haunted her house. When a family moves in, Jennifer can communicate with one of the family members, the teenage son. Of course he is the only one who see’s her and the rest of the family thinks the kid is nuts. That kinda sounds like an overused formula, doesn’t it? It is. I would be remiss if I did not mention that this series also starred the great Georgia Engel who recently passed away. Damn was she awesome. The series managed a season.
Nearly Departed
This is kind of sad to admit, but this stupid show was my introduction to Eric Idle. The premise? A married couple are killed in a rock slide and haunt the house they had owned. Then a boring family moves in and..hijinks. Yeah this one a lasted a month, and it’s no surprise why since there was no interacting between the ghosts and the living, so there was no drama at all. There was some gimmick with the grandfather sensing the dead couple…I don’t remember, it wasn’t done well. This may sound like a stripped down rip off of Beetlejuice, but in reality it was based on the movie “Topper” which starred Cary Grant. I watched this show when it aired and one thing I will give it is that it had a VERY memorable opening theme song sung by Idle. I wondered why I had watched it until I saw a promo on YouTube that said it followed “Alf” on Monday’s. Ahhhhhh
Teen Angel
Some shows you just know are dead on arrival as soon as you hear the premise. Ok get this, a high school student dies from eating a six month old hamburger from under his friends bed on a dare. He then comes back to be same friends guardian angel. Sure that makes loads of sense. I could go on and try to explain the disembodied head played by Ron Glass who served as a guide, but I’d prefer to forget this show existed. This show was so bad that it not only lasted a very short time, but was the final nail in the coffin that killed TGIF on ABC.
So as you can see, some premise’s just don’t work in sitcoms the way the way they can in movies.
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