While M*A*S*H was rolling along on CBS, NBC decided they needed a brand new service comedy, albeit one set during the Vietnam War. What they got was a total bomb.
The Six O'Clock Follies was a spring replacement series in 1980. Six episodes were ordered, but only four aired. The show was set around the AFVN (Armed Forces Vietnam Network) news team. You've heard of Armed Forces Radio, I'm sure, but not so sure they tried television. Too costly and dangerous, you might think.
Randall Carver came over from Taxi to star in this show. Turned out to be a big career mistake, although Taxi didn't last too much longer after this. In fact, a few years later, Taxi moved from ABC to NBC to finish its run. Joby Baker hadn't done anything since Good Morning, World in 1967, which happens to be the year Follies was set in. The ensemble also included some future stars in Philip Charles McKenzie (later of Brothers), Laurence "Larry" Fishburne (most recently on CSI), whose next TV gig was the Saturday morning series, Pee-Wee's Playhouse, six years later, Bill Paxton, and Phil Hartman (later of Pee-Wee's Playhouse, Saturday Night Live, Newsradio, & The Simpsons).
Gilmore Box offers the intro. The theme song is performed by Joe Cocker.
I had heard of the show through commercials, but never saw it otherwise. No rating.
6 comments:
I adore the old classics that i grew up watching with my dad, in sickness to mash, the ropers to the trotters. They don't seem to make them like they use to xxx
Thanks for writing.
AFVN Vietnam Television was definitely real. I did television news from AFVN Saigon 1972 to 1973 and announced the end of the war live there. I was one of many people who worked at that station. There were also numerous small detachments providing television to the troops at many locations. For more info visit www.afvnvets.net or go to YouTube and watch https://youtu.be/G5vbj3ZCATM to see one of my last television newscasts in Saigon. Yours truly, Robert Morecook, formerly Specialist 5, US Army
Thanks for writing. AFVN didn't get the same kind of recognition that AFR did, that I can recall, and while AFR is still around, whatever happened to the real life AFVN staff post-Vietnam?
Interesting but I should don't think that Randall Carver left Taxi for The Six O'clock Follies. His character John Burns had already been written off the show and barely survived the first season. He was replaced with the Christopher Lloyd Reverend Jim character who had a cameo in the first season. Taxi lasted for Five seasons even if there was a change in network. Remember that several of the cast were now doing even more movie work while the producers were now also working on shows like Cheers.
According to Sally Bedell Smith in "Up the Tube: Prime-Time TV in the Silverman Years" (1981), one of NBC president Fred Silverman's associates- his vice-president in charge of TV movies, Irv Wilson......
"...was shocked by an episode ("Rumors of Peace", never shown} about a group of soldiers distressed by a rumor that the war was ending because it would upset a scam they were planning. 'How can parents whose sons died in Vietnam watch that?', Wilson wondered. Fortunately, after three episodes, it was clear that battalions of viewers were simiarly repelled."
The series was THAT bad. Lousy ratings forced Silverman to cancel it after three of the six episodes were scheduled.
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