Talent Associates, the studio founded by New York media personality David Susskind, was looking for a new sitcom to replace the failed Run, Buddy, Run on CBS' schedule. You'd think that He & She would've filled the bill, but it didn't.
He & She, like Buddy, lasted just 1 season, but was later brought back as a summer replacement 2 years after the series ended, and that's where I first ran across it as a 7 year old. The real-life husband & wife team of Richard Benjamin & Paula Prentiss starred, but the real breakout was Jack Cassidy as egomaniacal actor Oscar North, star of the fictional series, Jetman. Cassidy wouldn't land another series gig, and neither would Prentiss, but Benjamin did, nearly a decade later (Quark) before turning permanently to movies.
Here's the open:
The next season, CBS bought another series from Talent Associates that fared slightly better. Bob Denver's comeback vehicle, The Good Guys, lasted 2 seasons, followed by Dan Dailey in The Governor & JJ, and, in between, Get Smart moved from NBC to CBS to finish its run.
He & She merits a B.
3 comments:
I always liked Benjamin and I'm glad the big screen was kinder to him than the small screen. It's also a plus that he's still married to Prentiss (whom I remember best from a few teen movies of the early 60s) after all these years.
It's a shame about Jack Cassidy, but he'd been unstable for quite a while. I remember his ex Shirley Jones once said in an interview that their divorce was his idea and if he hadn't died tragically in that apartment fire, she probably would have still been married to him. Dude had more issues than a magazine.
As for David Susskind, the only thing I remember was his old talk show which used to run on WNEW-TV channel 5 back in the day. I never watched it (it was on way late) but it was promoted a lot. My father used hate his guts! He was a card carrying commie you know.
Didn't know that about Susskind. His show is in reruns from time to time on Jewish Life, and as memory serves, the first runs usually ran on Sundays after the news & Sports Extra on channel 5.
I remember reading about Jack Cassidy, and, yeah, it was a tragedy. However, the bloodlines live on....
Belatedly:
I don't "know" that David Susskind was a "card-carrying commie" - and neither does MagicDog ... because he wasn't.
"Card-carrying commie" was long-standing right-wing code for anybody left of Nixon, back in the Fifties and Sixties.
In 1980, David Susskind publicly supported Ronald Reagan against President Jimmy Carter in that year's election; hardly "commie" at all.
Just for the record ...
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