Academy Award nominee Cara Williams, two years after Pete & Gladys ended its run, returned to CBS in 1964 with a self-titled sitcom that lasted just one season. Now, why was that? The only competition came from the first half of Burke's Law on ABC (2nd season) and movies on NBC.
Maybe this sample will help. Una Merkel guest stars, and, if you look quick, Howard McNear (The Andy Griffith Show) makes a brief, uncredited cameo appearance.
Frank Aletter would resurface two years later with It's About Time, then shifted to Saturday mornings with the serial, Danger Island, as part of The Banana Splits, co-starring with Ronnie Troup and a young Jan-Michael Vincent. Cara Williams would land a few guest roles here and there before retiring.
No rating.
4 comments:
This was one of the three Richelieu Productions that CBS bought without pilots, as a result of the sweetheart deal between CBS prexy Jim Aubrey and his good friend Keefe Brasselle.
Once CBS poobah Bill Paley learned about Brasselle's "family" connection with one Joseph Profaci, the deals disappeared (the other shows were The Reporter and The Baileys Of Balboa).
Not long after, so did Jim Aubrey.
IIRC, Aubrey was gone before the calendar turned to 1965?
Hmm. Brasselle named his company after Cardinal Richelieu from the Three Musketeers. That should've been a sign.......
THE CARA WILLIAMS SHOW was actually the highest rated of Brasselle's three Richelieu productions, at # 57 for the 1964-65 season. Neither REPORTER nor BAILEYS made the top 70.
With a 29.1 share, CARA WILLIAMS was well behind NBC's WEDNESDAY NIGHT MOVIE (36.4 share, # 31) but possibly slightly ahead of BURKE'S LAW with its 28.5 share (#64). I say "possibly" because BURKE'S LAW likely lost viewers in the second half of its hour to DANNY KAYE (33.7 share, # 56). CARA WILLIAMS lost viewers between #7 DICK VAN DYKE and KAYE so it's easy to see why it was a casualty. The deal with Richelieu certainly didn't help its chances once Aubrey fell out of favor in February 1965.
Thanks for the info, Hal.
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