Comedy legend Norman Lear made his first sale to ABC in the winter of 1975. Curiously, over the course of his illustrious career, Lear had the least amount of success with the "alphabet network", in contrast to series airing on CBS & NBC.
Hot L Baltimore was based on an off-Broadway play by Lanford Wilson. The title is because the neon marquee at the Hotel Baltimore, where the show is based, has a burned out "e", although it's flickering in the promo below.
James Cromwell, who had brought Archie Bunker's co-worker Stretch Cunningham to life on All in The Family, headed an ensemble cast that included Conchata Ferrell, whose career resume includes series as diverse as BJ & The Bear and Two And a Half Men, Al Freeman, Jr. (later of One Life to Live), and Charlotte Rae (ex-Car 54, Where Are You?), who would experience a television career resurgence with this series, as she would move on to The Rich Little Show, Diff'rent Strokes, & The Facts of Life.
Unfortunately, it's believed that network practices of the day have erased every episode produced, such that Sony, which owns Lear's library, is at the moment unable to produce a DVD of the series.
Baltimore had the distinction of debuting less than a week after Lear had struck gold again at CBS with The Jeffersons, the 2nd spin-off from Family.
All that's available now is this promo, narrated by studio announcer Ernie Anderson:
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1 comment:
I loved this show, I was 13 when it was on and now and then I search for its release on DVD because one can hope.
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