After a year off following the cancellation of The Odd Couple, Tony Randall returned to television with a self-titled sitcom that ran for 2 seasons (1976-8). There was, however, a quirk.
The first season aired on ABC, which was home to Odd Couple. The network didn't have a lot of luck with MTM Productions, which packaged The Tony Randall Show, two years earlier with The Texas Wheelers, which is better known today for introducing audiences to Mark Hamill, three years before "Star Wars". Both ABC & MTM hoped Randall could deliver a hit.
This time around, Randall plays widowed judge Walter Franklin, who's not quite the compulsive neatnik that Felix Unger was. For some reason, whether it was money or something else, I can't say for sure, ABC decided not to renew the show, and if memory serves, they never did business with MTM again. MTM otherwise was almost exclusively dealing with CBS at the time, and shipped The Tony Randall Show off to CBS for the 1977 season, coupled with first year sitcoms We've Got Each Other & The Betty White Show and Lou Grant, the last spin-off from The Mary Tyler Moore Show, but this time as a drama. Unfortunately, Randall was pink-slipped again the following spring.
In this sample clip, Judge Franklin matches wits with a persnickety defense attorney......
The show deserved a better fate, like maybe a more favorable night and time. ABC had a loaded schedule in '76, but saw Randall's show as a weak link, or so it'd seem.
Rating: B.
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