The Good Guys (1968 TV series)

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The Good Guys
File:The Good Guys cast 1968.jpg
From left: Bob Denver, Herb Edelman, Joyce Van Patten
GenreSituation comedy
Created byJack Rose
Written byArnold Horwitt
Jack Rose
Mel Tolkin
Directed byCharles R. Rondeau
StarringBob Denver
Herb Edelman
Joyce Van Patten
Jack Perkins
Theme music composerRay Evans
Jerry Fielding
Jay Livingston
Opening theme"Two Good Guys"
ComposerJerry Fielding
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons2
No. of episodes42
Production
Executive producerLeonard B. Stern
ProducersJerry Davis
Jack Rose
Bob Schiller
Bob Weiskopf
CinematographyWilliam T. Cline
Robert Hoffman
Camera setupMulti-camera
Running time24 minutes
Production companyTalent Associates
Release
Original networkCBS
Audio formatMonaural
Original releaseSeptember 25, 1968 (1968-09-25)[1] –
January 23, 1970 (1970-01-23)

The Good Guys is an American situation comedy which aired on CBS from September 25, 1968, to January 23, 1970. Forty-two color episodes were filmed in all. As with The Governor & J.J. and Get Smart, it was produced by Talent Associates.[2]

Synopsis[edit]

File:Bob Denver Vincent Price The Good Guys 1969.JPG
Vincent Price guest-stars as the local health inspector who tells Rufus the diner must be cleaned up for its license to be renewed.

The main character is Rufus Butterworth (Bob Denver), the driver of a customized 1924 Lincoln[3] turned taxi, and his childhood friend Bert Gramus, played by Herb Edelman, owner of a local diner and neighborhood hangout called "Bert's Place", which Butterworth advertised on the taxi's fender-mount spare tire covers.[4] Plots usually revolved around "get rich quick" schemes that invariably backfired.[1] In the second season (1969-1970), Rufus gave up driving the cab and became a partner with Bert in the diner, which moved to a beach location. Other characters included Bert's schoolteacher wife, Claudia (Joyce Van Patten), and diner regulars Mr. Bender, Hal Dawson, and truck driver Big Tom (played by Alan Hale, Jr.).

Never a hit with viewers, The Good Guys failed to finish in the Nielsen Top 30 and was canceled after its second season.

Production notes[edit]

Rufus' taxi was created by George Barris. A 1/25-scale model kit was manufactured by MPC Corporation and examples are highly collectible today.

The first several episodes of the first season were filmed before a live studio audience (unusual at the time), with an accompanying laugh track to sweeten the laughs during post-production. Due to production changes, the majority of Season One episodes and all of Season Two were filmed without a studio audience: episodes were fitted with a laugh track-only afterwards.[5]

Denver later recalled of the show's negative reception: "I still had some animus at how CBS threw us in the dumper. Herb Edelman and I'd done The Good Guys…but sour critics said it should have been just called 'Guys'."[6]

Syndication[edit]

The Good Guys has never been shown in reruns in the United States. In his autobiography, Gilligan, Maynard and Me, Bob Denver related that poor-quality prints of the show were shown for a time in South America. TV Land considered showing episodes of the show in 1998 but opted instead to air episodes of another "lost" sitcom that was also produced by Talent Associates, He & She.

References[edit]

  1. 1.0 1.1 "TV Today: Two More Fall Series Make Bows on Big Tube". Chicago Tribune. September 26, 1968. p. B29. Retrieved March 6, 2010.
  2. Witbeck, Charles (September 3, 1968). "Small Town Look For 'Good Guys'". The Toledo Blade. p. 34. Retrieved March 6, 2010.
  3. Kleiner, Dick, "Andrews Still Sans Senses", National Editorial Association, From: The Sumter Daily Item, October 11, 1968. Retrieved April 14, 2016
  4. Gowran, Clay (August 15, 1968). "TV Today: CBS Series to Offer Slapstick in W. C. Fields Tradition". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved March 6, 2010.
  5. "Television Obscurities - The Good Guys". 2003-10-14.
  6. KDKA radio interview May 12, 1989

External links[edit]