The family sit-com receives a riotous send-up in these four, long-unseen TV comedy gems from the past. June and Ward Cleaver wouldn't know what to make of these hilarious households of jinxed children, delirious grandparents, manipulative tomboys and neurotic celebrity fathers.DADDY-O: TV executives must have panicked when they saw this never-aired 1961 pilot whose sarcastic views of TV sit-coms was decades ahead of its time. Don DeFore plays "reluctant television actor" Ben Cousins, star of a highly-rated TV series whose skirt-chasing producer is addicted to overblown laugh tracks.THE DENNIS DAY SHOW: The Irish tenor and Jack Benny sidekick delighted audiences from 1952 to 1954 with his half-hour NBC variety show co-starring Cliff Arquette as Charley Weaver. In this blarney-filled episode, the singer's granddad encounters a leprechaun (Billy Barty) who makes the entire world sing exactly like Dennis Day!LITTLE AMY: It's 1962 suburbia and precocious Amy has convinced herself that accident-prone neighbor Arthur is future marriage material. Alas, the boy is too busy making a fool out of himself on the football field to take much notice, so Amy hatches several disastrous schemes to help him succeed. A young Jack Nicholson appears in a brief cameo as an assistant football coach!TIME OUT FOR GINGER: She's just an angel in jeans in her terrible teens! That's Virginia "Ginger" Carol (Candy Moore), the feisty, boisterous, unstoppable teenage girl based on Ronald Alexander's hit 1953 Broadway play of the same name. Desperate to find a car for her sister's big date, Ginger considers buying her a new one! Margaret Hamilton joins in the fun as Lizzie the housekeeper.
O**Y
Not bad
More for historic value than for content, this one shows some unknown series. Daddy-O is the gem here. Worth the price.
B**N
four fun failed pilots
Alpha digs through it's vaults to give us four rare pilots for shows that, for some reason or another, never got off the ground.THE DENNIS DAY SHOW - This show pre-dated the eventual "RCA Victor/Dennis Day Show" which aired between 1952-54 on NBC; this earlier 1951 CBS effort with the popular singer is a nice enough showcase for his talents. Billy Barty guest stars as a mischevious leprechaun.DADDY-O - This must have been a very "progressive" show premise, especially for it's time. 1961 "cheery apple pie" sitcom television gets a cold shower in this show, which casts Don DeFore as the star of such a sitcom, whose producer is a womanising lech, addicted to overblown laugh tracks.LITTLE AMY - Probably would have been targeted to a younger audience. This adorable show casts Debbie Megowan as Amy, a junior miss fix-it who decides she'll marry next door neighbour Arthur (Rick Murray). Keep your eyes peeled for Jack Nicholson in a very small role.TIME OUT FOR GINGER - A real hoot. Virginia "Ginger" Carol (Candy Moore) is the hyperactive younger daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Carol (Karl Swenson and Margaret Hayes), and is prone to screaming at the top of her lungs when she gets overly-excited about things - which is most of the time! Ward and June Cleaver would have probably kept her gagged in the basement, but not Mr. and Mrs. Carol. Anyway, the pilot show focuses on Ginger trying to arrange a car for older sister Joan (Roberta Shore) and her boyfriend to use on a date. Margaret Hamilton swaps her witches' broom for a vacuum cleaner to play housekeeper Lizzie. GINGER would have nestled in nicely with other 'teen' sitcoms of the period, "The Patty Duke Show" and "My Three Sons" especially.Of the four, I believe that TIME OUT FOR GINGER had the most potential. Based on Rod Alexander's play of the same name (which later got turned into the 1960s movie musical "Billie" starring Patty Duke), GINGER is a nice showcase for Candy Moore. Candy who? Well, "Lucy" fans know her best as Chris Carmichael on "The Lucy Show". Part of the larger "Comedy Spot" series in 1962, this was actually the second attempt for a sitcom of Alexander's GINGER; the first airing as part of the "Shower of Stars" anthology show in 1955, starring Janet Parker as Ginger and Mary Wickes as Lizzie the housekeeper.
R**N
Enjoyable DVD
Contains:"Little Amy" (1962 Failed TV Pilot)"Daddy-O" (1961 Failed TV Pilot)"The Dennis Day Show" (Broadcast from early 50's)"Time Out for Ginger" (Another failed pilot)Enjoyable with decent picture quality, The 3 failed pilots on this DVD give viewers rare insight into TV, with "Daddy-O" containing biting satire that would of seemed out of place back then, and "Little Amy" being so cute and charming that had it been picked up, it could of least lasted several seasons.
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