60's pop icons Jan (Berry) & Dean (Torrence) could've beaten The Monkees to the small screen by about a year if ABC had picked up their pilot from 20th Century Fox in 1965. Jan & Dean On The Run appears to be meant to be a documentary series chronicling the career paths of the two singers, narrated by baseball icon Vin Scully. I think now we know how Scully ultimately landed the role of narrator for Occasional Wife a few months later.
Producer-Director William Asher (Bewitched) wasn't completely tied down to Screen Gems, it seems. Fox production chieftain William Self hired Asher's production company, Ashmont, to work on Jan & Dean, and Asher, along with his then-wife, Bewitched star Elizabeth Montgomery, gets in a cameo. Production supervisor Jack Sonntag came over to Fox from Four Star, and began a long association with Fox.
Unfortunately, On The Run fails to fire. If it was meant to be a sitcom, you wouldn't know since there isn't a laugh track. As a result, this pilot, written by the esteemed Ruth Brooks Flippen, ends up hitting---wait for it---"Dead Man's Curve" (just couldn't resist).
Scope it out for yourselves.
Rating: D.
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