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The Comedy Spot - Head of the Family
USA 1960
produced by Martin Poll, Stuart Rosenberg, Carl Reiner (executive) for Acre Enterprises/CBS
directed by Don Weis
starring Carl Reiner, Barbara Britton, Gary Morgan, Sylvia Miles, Morty Gunty, Jack Wakefield, Milton Kamen, Nancy Kenyon, Jean Sincere, Mannie Sloane, Joey Trent
written and created by Carl Reiner, music by Bernard Green
TV-series The Comedy Spot, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show (1960s)
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Rob Petrie (Carl Reiner) is the head writer on comedian Allan Sturdy's
(Jack Wakefield) TV show - which makes his 6 year old son Ritchie (Gary
Morgan) very unhappy because he figures that's not a real job and all his
friends' dads, from car mechanic to dentist, have better jobs. So upon the
advice of his wife Laura (Barbara Britton) takes Ritchie to work one day
to properly impress him. But this turns out to be a total failure as here
Ritchie sees his dad's colleagues (Sylvia Miles, Morty Gunty) slacking off
and not showing him much respect as their boss, and he sees Rob's boss
badmouthing his writing. In other words, the little respect Ritchie might
have still had is now gone. Rob's luck only changes with a school bulletin
for the PTA bazaar that Rob wrote on the side that has the whole school in
stitches, and that basically makes Ritchie as Rob's son the hero of the
day ... Without wanting to downtalk this proposed sitcom pilot,
it's really nothing special. While the idea of having its lead character
being a comedy writer and thus giving the audience some insights into the
workings of a TV show - something still novel in 1960 -, it's your rather
typical sitcom, with all the usual dynamics firmly in place. And the
show's creator Carl Reiner makes an ok lead, but fails to shine. And yet
producer Sheldon Leonard must have seen something in this one, as he told
Reiner he'd take on the show, but only with an entirely new cast (which
also meant replacing Reiner in the lead) - and after Reiner accepted these
terms, the concept of Head of the Family became the blueprint for The
Dick Van Dyke Show, with Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore
replacing Carl Reiner and Barbara Britton, while the concept of this
one was somewhat reworked as season one episode Father of the Week.
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review © by Mike Haberfelner
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Robots and rats,
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