Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Forgotten TV: Stick Around (1977)

Welcome to the year 2055. Androids serve humans, but are also capable of human emotions, intentionally or not.

Stick Around was designed as a vehicle for comedian-performance artist Andy Kaufman to use the "Foreign Man" character from his stand-up act, albeit in a different sense. TAT Communications, the folks behind The Jeffersons, tried shopping this show in 1977, surrounding Kaufman was largely unknown performers, aside from character actor Cliff Norton. Unfortunately, no network took a chance on Stick, but we know the rest of Kaufman's story, don't we? "Foreign Man" evolved into Latka Gravas on Taxi, and Kaufman would revisit the android character in the feature film, "Heartbeeps", with Bernadette Peters, a few years later.

Here's Stick Around:



Not sure what became of Fred McCarren or Nancy New, but Louise "Liberty" Williams (at the time a recurring player on Busting Loose) would land a couple of sitcom gigs herself, only to see them (13 Queens Boulevard & Baby Makes Five) fail. You might not recognize Louise with the platinum wig around the 20-21 minute mark, but it's her. She'd later land a guest role on Three's Company a couple of years later.

Rating: B. Deserved a better fate than it got.

No comments: