My Living Doll predated the movie, "Weird Science", and its TV spinoff, by 20 years and change. To say that this fantasy-com from producer Jack Chertok (My Favorite Martian) was ahead of its time would be an understatement. It just happened to have the misfortune of launching the same year that Bewitched did, and lacked the audience numbers generated by the ABC frosh.
Bob Cummings returned to television to headline the series, as a scientist entrusted with an android female code named, Rhoda (Julie Newmar), for whom he had to conceal the fact that such an attractive woman wasn't really human. Cummings, taking note of the low ratings, left the show near the end of the season, and Jack Mullaney became Rhoda's caretaker for the final 7 episodes.
Of course you know that Julie Newmar recovered rather nicely from the failure of My Living Doll, achieving icon status as the slinky, devious Catwoman in seasons 1 & 2 of Batman.
Here's one intro:
No rating. Never saw the show.
4 comments:
I'd heard of the show but never saw it. It wasn't in syndication as far as I know - kind of like "My Mother The Car" it's often seen as one fo the most ridiculous sitcoms in TV history.
I never saw it, either, as noted. As mentioned, maybe it was ahead of its time.
Is out on DVD with an 11 episode set, supplemented by an episode of Cummings' LOVE THAT BOB/THE BOB CUMMINGS SHOW and some other extras.
Isn't very good, and IMO Cummings was getting a bit long in the tooth for this type of role by 1964, but Newmar gives a great performance.
I'll have to keep an eye out for it, just for kicks.
Post a Comment