BONUS BOAT IV - What Else Is On: The Ropers

We take a look at the life and death of the Three's Company spin-off and try to mend fences with Norman Fell.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:10

Welcome back to another bonus boat edition of the Love Boat Project. I am Mike Robertson, joined as always by Mike Taylor, and tonight we will be discussing the first and last episodes of the last season, the second season of The Ropers, a show that we've talked about a lot in our What Else Is On in various forms. And a show, Mike, I think I don't know if this is safe to say for you, but for me, of all the stuff we've done so far, including the Love Boat, this is the only show that I actually remember seeing as a kid.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

Yeah, say same boat here. I remember when the show came out. I remember Three's company was just kind of part of TV when he didn't have many channels growing up. So this was kind of a big deal. Anytime you had a spin-off, I felt like it was a big deal. Or I thought it was a big deal.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

And I think there's a lot of like machinations. We will talk about the two episodes that I mentioned, but this is almost more about the how the ropers came to be and how the ropers ended. It's a story that's pretty famous, but it's really kind of like a sad story, especially for our for our good dear friend Norman Fell. And kind of the guy who knew what was going to happen, tried to warn everyone no one listened, and he ended up getting the short end of all this. Amazing.

SPEAKER_00 1:37

Amazing. Yeah, this was quite quite a quite a backstory here.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

So just for the quick kind of what we're quote unquote watching tonight, so we watched the premiere episode, which is the season two episode of the Ropers called The Party. And this is where Mr. Roper throws a surprise party for Mrs. Roper, and wouldn't you know it, the Three's Company gang shows up to help out. Clearly trying to goose the Roper's show for season two. Then the last episode of the season and the series is Mrs. Roper's mother comes to town and is basically having a living wake because she wants to have a party while she's alive so she can be around to see it. The difference in everything between the first episode of that season. The difference between the first episode of their final season and the last episode, I think, probably sums up a lot of what happened.

SPEAKER_00 2:45

Oh, 100%. Well, I mean, the first episode, you had the the embrace of Three's Company right there. I mean, you had them on screen with them versus Jenny and Mrs. Roper's sister. It was weird. Like they like they were very much they were I felt like they were on an island at that point where they were no longer they had cut that three's company string at that point.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

And it and it's really unfair to even. I mean, the Roper's opening episode was so much a Three's Company episode that when you look for it on Peacock, it is under the Three's Company catalog, not the Ropers.

SPEAKER_00 3:27

It's Three's Company season three, episode 24. We're we're robbed of the Roper's theme song. Not we got to listen to the Threes Company theme song. I like that. Which is nothing to sneeze at, I will admit. And I love that opener. The opener's great. Tell us a story. You know, and it was it's fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 3:45

But it was very weird, and it also made me realize. So I'm a few years younger than you, so I would not have been watching this as it first came out, but it made me realize that they must have just thrown in some Ropers episodes into the Three's Company syndication package. Because there's no other way I would have ever seen these growing up, but I definitely watched the Ropers because I'm very aware of the theme song and Jeffrey Tambor and that that house. Well, I think it's also you're just adding. But it was it was it was uh interesting in a number of ways, some good, some bad. But I think before we talk about however much we're gonna talk about those episodes, we should probably kind of talk about how we got there, which again is a is a pretty famous story, but kind of a kind of a sad one. It is a sad story. So season three of Three's Company, we talked about this. This is the 78-79 season. So our season two of The Love Boat was also season two for Three's Company, and it's a juggernaut. I think it was like top. Might have been the top-rated show in the country. Like it was a monster.

SPEAKER_00 5:08

Well, it was it was it was what happened back that Tuesday night ABC sitcom lineup. So you had you had happy days at eight, eight thirty Laverne and Shirley, nine p.m. Three's company, and they put the then they put the ropers right at that nine thirty. Like what a sweet spot. Totally setting them up for success.

SPEAKER_01 5:28

Right. And it and you know, it worked. We when we did the ratings review last season, they were top five, top six. They were when we did it this year.

SPEAKER_00 5:38

Go ahead, so the very first season for the Ropers, uh, they were in the they they finished at number eight, very high for a brand new show. Yeah. Uh for the for the 78-79 season. But to your point, it wasn't nearly at the bottom. It wasn't, I think it was in the bottom five of the ratings when they did move it to Saturday nights at 8 p.m.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

Yeah, which is how we kind of you know stumbled across it this season, and we noticed that at some point it got moved out of the eight o'clock spot, and not not for great shows, right? Like for shows that came and went to the the juggernaut that was three's company remained, but once they moved out of that that night and that time slot, that was it was death. It was absolute death.

SPEAKER_00 6:27

Can you imagine if they had done right? Say you had 8 p.m., right? Eight 8 p.m. happy days, and Laverne and Shirley at 8:30, Three's Company 9, Ropers at 9:30, leaving an hour. Boy, imagine they throw the boat at 10 o'clock on Tuesday nights.

SPEAKER_01 6:42

Just a I mean it's so funny because we're obviously doing our show, you know, in a in a much different context than it was originally aired, but it does feel like a Saturday night show, whereas the Ropers does not feel like a Saturday night show. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 6:59

Saturday night's just not a sitcom show, in my opinion. Like it's a bigger one. That's why Chicks is on, that's why BJ's on. Well, even Friday nights, you had Dukes of Hazard, you had Dallas. Friday night wasn't a big sitcom night, but those I I wonder what it was. Like, I wonder who said, I mean, were they just trying to build a longer launching launching pad for the love boat with those ratings? Or was it like somebody didn't like the show? Or I wonder what really happened.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

I think you you probably say, okay, these ratings were good, and I believe in the summer when they moved it around a little bit, the ratings remained good.

unknown 7:38

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 7:39

And so they probably think this show can stand on its own and it can be the lead-in to that Saturday night. Because how many in in our season two, the ADIC, the pre, you know, the lead-in to the Love Right, there was a lot of different stuff.

SPEAKER_00 7:55

Yeah, they tried a different a bunch of different things.

SPEAKER_01 7:57

So, yeah, they're clearly trying to establish, and they're probably trying to fight Chips with something different. Chips was the top-rated Saturday night show in in this season, you know, so they probably were trying to fight fire with a different kind of fire, but just it almost seems like right from the jump, it just was because you're right. It should be hour-long stuff, or like, is it CBS that has the Tim Conway show now? Right. Like where we're at. It's like it should be something like that.

SPEAKER_00 8:24

Well, the Carol Burnett show was killing it when we first started doing this on CBS.

SPEAKER_01 8:29

Yeah, and I just feel like for a Saturday night to sit and watch now, granted, there's commercials when you watch it, but man, these things move. There's like two commercial breaks. It is, these things are just wild to watch, you know, now.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

I was coming off that nine, doing notes from that 90-minute season three finale. I put these things on to re-watch, and I was like, whoa, I could I could watch these four more times and it'd be nothing. And you know what? These were good watches. These these were entertaining 20 minutes. Now, I'm not saying that these shows were better than other shows at the time. I can say with confidence that I was entertained by both episodes. Without a doubt, I was entertained.

SPEAKER_01 9:11

I would say I was entertained by the first episode.

SPEAKER_00 9:14

But I'm not entertained by anybody that's a roper. Like the star of the show was not Mr. or Mrs. Roper. No, I know who it was.

SPEAKER_01 9:25

Yeah, I know, I know, I know who it was.

SPEAKER_00 9:27

So it's just crazy.

SPEAKER_01 9:28

I mean, look, it made me wish this obviously wouldn't have happened, but it almost made me wish that the show didn't exist, but the Jeffrey Brooks character existed, and he basically you're just ripping off faulty towers, but he owns he owns the development, right? And it's just like he has mixed muscles because that's the interesting thing about the Ropers. And I don't think I realized this at the time. Obviously, I was just a child, but it was like the there was no way those characters were going to be able to carry a week-to-week show. And then to put them in essentially again, we watched two episodes, one of them which is was a three-score thing, but it's like basically there's a neighbor, his wife, and a child. And they're children. And then, like, to your point, this Jenny person shows up halfway through in desperation. But it's like, where what what are these shows gonna be about? Like Archie Bunker's place, as weird as that was, at least there was a premise. They stuck him at a bar. You're gonna have characters come through. Like, why but this is this there was just no way this was gonna be good.

SPEAKER_00 10:38

And it's funny, because it's static. There's nothing that moves. If there's not people coming to their house, yeah, whereas if you landlord, there's no movement.

SPEAKER_01 10:47

They were in one set.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

Yeah, that's second episode. For that second episode. Yeah, it's basically the living room. Thank God for Jeffrey Tambor. That's all I gotta say.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

But the the other part is like Norman Fell, Mr. Roper, is is is a bad guy, right? He's a heel. Like he is a heel you like and all that stuff.

SPEAKER_00 11:11

He doesn't want to have sex with his wife, right? You know, it's old fashioned, right?

SPEAKER_01 11:15

So then you have another heel in the Jeffrey Tambor character. Right.

SPEAKER_00 11:21

It's like So who's the hero in it? Is Mrs. Roper the hero by default?

SPEAKER_01 11:26

But she but then she is a lot. Like it's just there's no, there's nothing to ground it.

SPEAKER_00 11:32

There's nothing like characters with color, but you don't have any substantial characters to drive a plot, or or is it just gonna be a series of physical comedy bits, which again that carried right over from Three's company. I mean, if you look at that second episode, the amount of physical comedy Tambor is doing. Oh, yeah, but it's it's it's it's the same thing, and I think you make a great point that there's nowhere for it to go. There's no all they have is their apartment.

SPEAKER_01 12:01

Well, and it's funny because like we we did that when they were doing What Else Is On, and we would read kind of the synopsis, and it's like it was like, oh he meets a kid, or he's at work, or it's just like it's there's no it just it just wasn't anything there.

SPEAKER_00 12:18

No, and it's such a like a vanilla story. There's nothing crazy, it's always a misunderstanding. You know what it's it it's oh my god, right. It's the same. There's always some sort of miscommunication.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

The someone's fear, like it's just always something walking into a three's company episode, yeah, after all this time, when I have not watched a three's company, I can't even tell you, and it is full on three's company. There are cardboards, and just everything is misconstrued as sex, and there's all these misunderstandings, and so many, like just so many. It was it was like three's company on 50, and it was good.

SPEAKER_00 13:03

They went through it well so much in the course of that series, but yeah, they were heavy handed.

SPEAKER_01 13:08

Like, why was I why was I allowed to watch that show?

SPEAKER_00 13:14

Well, I was thinking the same thing, and I remember going, that was perfectly fine when I was a kid, and it was it was you know, oh ha ha ha, he thinks he thinks Jack is gay. Like it was very adult themes, but hey, I'll tell you what, you slap a laptop.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

You can put I had 100% forgotten the Jack is gay part. Yeah. Yeah. That kid was that kid was precocious. I just I he didn't even make it to the second the last episode.

SPEAKER_00 13:42

So I just want to take a second, Mike, while we're here to talk a little bit about Norman Fell. I don't have a lot on him, but I have a little on him. Number one, he's from Philly, Mike, which made me feel bad.

SPEAKER_01 13:55

Number two, it's funny he's a temple. I was told that. Yeah, I know. I was told this recently about his Philadelphia status, which made me feel very bad that we have an award named after his. But I will say work, so yeah, we earned every season.

SPEAKER_00 14:15

Yeah, I said he studied drama at Temple after serving in the U.S. Air Force during World War II, won a Golden Globe in the in the season we're talking about for supporting actor 1979 at Three's Company. And for Audra Lindley, one note before she started doing Three's Company and started getting back into acting acting in the 60s, she took a break from acting to raise her five children and then went back to acting. I just thought interesting.

SPEAKER_01 14:48

Which is interesting con well, that's that's in that's interesting context because to get to the the other thing that we kind of been hitting around is the the the legendary story is they come, they offer them the spin-off. Audrey Lindley is very interested in it because she was a little bit older, and maybe this thought this was her big chance to you know have her own thing. Norman fell saw the writing on the wall, immediately didn't want to jump off the gravy train, was very much against it. They finally convinced him to do it with the caveat that if it only lasted a season, they would bring him back. Right, right. So he's not he's not excited about this, but he does it. They technically went more than a season because they started early. Well, you know, the previous season. Yeah, so when it gets right, so when it gets canceled, yeah, so when it gets cancelled, he's got nowhere to go back. Now, the Don knots of it all probably made that unlikely, but it got to the point in some of the things I read where it got to the point where Norman fell. It got to the point where Norman Fell was was So the It made me think about spin-offs in terms of like the good ones, right? Sure, sure. Like Fra I was thinking of Fraser was like the perfect one.

SPEAKER_00 16:24

Three's a how about three's a crowd, no?

SPEAKER_01 16:26

You know what was funny? I saw that was available on Peacock. I did so we may do that in a few years. Yeah, but it just made me think of like when they did Fraser, they stuck it behind Seinfeld, which was behind Cheers initially, like it was a good time slot built up for a few years. But that show remember, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 16:48

Like it was related, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:50

And that show just like Kelsey Grammar was an amazing actor, they did a whole new thing, like it just made sense.

SPEAKER_00 16:57

You're saying Norman Norman is no is no Kelsey Grammar, is that what you're saying?

SPEAKER_01 17:01

I think I'm giving okay, I think this would have been like if they'd give Norm or Cliff the spin-off.

SPEAKER_00 17:08

I think Cliff would probably be Mr. Claven would probably be more appropriate.

SPEAKER_01 17:12

But it's but it's that thing where I think Norman Fell was a smart man who knew, and nobody wants to say it, right? But I think he knew that his character and those characters were way better in five-minute things than 22.

SPEAKER_00 17:27

Well, because he was still doing the same threes company shtick on the Ropers. But just a lot more. Right, which you don't need a lot more. It's almost like it's a little goes a long way. That's his whole Yeah, I I wonder what so they've moved it to Saturday at 8. And again, you you had mentioned before, and I'd read also that Fel went to ABC headquarters in person to plead with the network.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

Which That's just sad. It's just sad because they they probably knew at that time that it was already gone. I think he probably knew it was already gone.

SPEAKER_00 18:05

Who's a better landlord if we if we're if take Lindley out of the equation, right? Because the numbers-wise, Don Nats is always gonna win over paying two people. However, take Lindley out, who's better? But but the thing is, Mr. Roper's not Mr. Roper without Mrs. Roper.

SPEAKER_01 18:20

So well, but the other thing is this is still Suzanne Summers. You know, Furley didn't get a lot of Suzanne Summers, you know. No, so he had to be better. I think we may have run into a similar situ I well, I think we would have run into a similar issue where there was a little too much ropers once Suzanne Summers left, right? Like Don Knotts could carry it more than, you know, so I think they're all great. I think they're all great. They're all great too. And I think the first episode that we watched, which was essentially the Three's Company episode, you saw that when we got to the second episode, where it's not much is there in terms of there's a lot of characters, but there's not much there.

SPEAKER_00 19:12

Or maybe I mean maybe the people behind the show were like, it's just not a good show. We don't want to put it on Tuesday nights because it's I mean, who's to say, aside from the one that was really a Threes Company episode, who's to say any that the show was any good? Like, that's the other thing. I mean, maybe it should have gotten booted to Saturday.

SPEAKER_01 19:32

So I watched today. Yeah. I watched like the first half of what was their first proper Ropers episode. Now, so first of all, they did a couple backdoor pilots on Three's Company. Okay. You had mentioned that moving out thing. Like that, I think that's the actual one, the last one they're on Three's Company. So they probably, without watching it, they probably introduced the Brooks then or something like that, because they come into this first episode, at least knowing them. Oh, well established. Not there, they are moving in. They are literally moving in in the first episode, but they at least were aware of the Brookses a little bit, you know. And it's and it's kind of like what it is. And of course, there's like, oh, the Brookses are having the congressman over for dinner, and here come the ropers. Like, it's just, you know, and that's fine. But there were there just was only I don't think there was a lot of legs in that show. No, no, no matter where they put it.

SPEAKER_00 20:33

So as you're talking about the show, I'm thinking, okay, you're the ropers, which means you have enough juice to sort of like get this spin-off, right? But I kind of alluded to it earlier. I thought the Brooks were more entertaining than the Ropers. So to say it wouldn't have been a better show if it had been the Brooks without it. I'm just not that that was ever possible. I'm just saying is as an on-screen couple, it don't even couple. You take Mr. Brooks versus Mr. Mr. Roper. I mean, there's no I think they missed the boat on this whole thing. Like I think the Brooks thing was the way to go.

SPEAKER_01 21:14

It's it's almost like if Don Knotts had been the first landlord and they spun him off and put him next to Mr. Brooks, that actually would have worked. Right. You know, more but it's a good guy versus a bad guy. But it's just like they were basically just two bad guys.

SPEAKER_00 21:31

Yeah, it was it. Well, it's funny, but if you look at the effort, and again, I hate to say Norman and the word effort because they just don't go together. I would say that Jeffrey Tambor, I mean, was bringing it. He was amazing.

SPEAKER_01 21:48

You could see the effort, like he was so and it's funny. I remember that. Like, I remember him being like that. Like I know him from that and Mr. Mom growing up, like that was. You know, and he's so good as the finicky heel. Oh, 100%. You know, and so we can get into the the episodes here. So the first episode, like I said, Mr. Roper and Mrs. Roper get in an argument because Mrs. Roper was promised a vacation and he doesn't want to do vacations.

SPEAKER_00 22:20

Well, because he's cheap, Mike. It's it's the old standby. He's cheap and he doesn't want to have sex with his wife.

SPEAKER_01 22:26

Classic. Classic. So so after talking to the Brooks' precocious child, he figures out a surprise party. That's what we'll do. But he doesn't want to do any work because he's also lazy.

SPEAKER_00 22:38

Let me so you you brought up the precocious child, and I'd be doing a disservice if I didn't break the bring this up. Let's talk about sitcom bowl cuts on kids. Mike, can you give me three television stars of this era, right around this era, that are famous for their bowl cut. And says if you could give me actor show character name.

SPEAKER_01 23:04

Alright, so Adam Rich on It Is Enough. Yes. Who I don't know the character's name. I forget.

SPEAKER_00 23:12

Yeah, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 23:13

Sam from Different Strokes, who would later go on to be in Saluder Shorts.

SPEAKER_00 23:20

Actor's name? It's funny, it's that's the second one I have written down right here. Danny something? Danny Cooksy.

SPEAKER_01 23:27

How about that?

SPEAKER_00 23:28

And there's one more to see if we we have we have a match here.

SPEAKER_01 23:33

God, is it the kid with the glasses I can't think of?

SPEAKER_00 23:37

Bowl cuts only. Only bowl cuts. Sorry, I don't know that I have a third.

SPEAKER_01 23:41

Who's the third to go?

SPEAKER_00 23:44

It's Joey Lawrence and give me a break. Oh, bad job by me. You're right. They love the bowl cuts on precocious children in in sitcoms in this era. Love it.

SPEAKER_01 23:55

It's funny because I don't I don't think I've seen any pictures where I had that as a kid, so maybe I got lucky. Oh no, I I I had the bowl cut, unfortunately. Yeah. You'd kill you'd kill for that today, though, wouldn't you? Just call me Danny Cooksie.

SPEAKER_02 24:08

You sure would.

SPEAKER_01 24:10

So Nor Norman Fell gets on the horn and he calls the old apartment. Chrissy, Suzanne Summers picks up. So we just talked about this in our last Love Boat episode about phone acting. Mm-hmm. No, she this actually lends itself more to your point that the actor was the problem, not the writer last week. Because Suzanne Summers is doing similar repeating of, but she's just doing it way better. So maybe I was wrong.

SPEAKER_00 24:38

No, no. And the acting we're gonna see in this episode is amazing.

SPEAKER_02 24:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:45

And when I say acting, of course, I'm referring to physical acting. I'm not talking about words. Come on.

SPEAKER_01 24:51

So she is talking to Mr. Roper. He wants them to come help. So I there's a bit of a tension between Roper and Jack, which I had forgotten about. But basically, Janet and Chrissy are going to go over and help teach him how to disco.

SPEAKER_00 25:06

Not until Janet needs a shower as soon as she gets there.

SPEAKER_01 25:10

Well, Jen had to run Jen had to run eight miles. So, which now you have way more California experience than I do. Is that like always a good running?

SPEAKER_00 25:19

Just because it's eight miles away, it's not like highway. That's not even runnable. I mean, I mean, I guess technically, theoretically, it's runnable, but that's not a joke. She would be drenched from head to toe if she ran in Santa Monica. If she ran eight miles, come on. Well, she was drenched from head to toe, pretty much. Yeah, but she's just de-layering her her hair would have been a wet matted mess. Not the not the dry female bob she sported. Joyce DeWitt, well, former former star of the Love Boat.

SPEAKER_01 25:47

Not a not a probably not a stubby nominee. No.

SPEAKER_00 25:51

No. We have we should point out this year. I don't know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:55

Yeah, she was. We should point out there are two stubby nominees in this first episode, and then one person who has a stubby named after them, and then probably a stubby nominee coming up. We have apologized for not nominating Suzanne Summers in our first season. That was the first episode we ever did. We clearly didn't know what we were doing. We didn't know. We didn't know. But she was she was really good. She was great. Anyway, it turns into a three scampany episode because Chrissy and right, Chrissy and Janet go over to help out. Mr. Brooks sees all this. He thinks there's going to be an orgy.

SPEAKER_00 26:32

Well, Janet comes down in just a towel and teaching how to disco dance. I mean, yeah, so, but of course, Mr.

SPEAKER_01 26:38

Mr. Brooks is looking through the window while pretending to water the plants and he wets his pants and then he's out there in boxers. It's it's classic.

SPEAKER_00 26:47

Well, he's out there in boxers and sock garters, which you know sock garters equals comedy.

SPEAKER_01 26:51

It is it is true.

SPEAKER_00 26:53

What is he, a scientist? This guy. I like how he forgot. Like he forgot he was just using his shoes, socks, sock garters, shirt, vest, jacket, and tie only. It's just uh it just made me laugh. I love dumb physical comedy like this.

SPEAKER_01 27:08

Just uh I think my favorite part of that episode was the John Ritter, Jeffrey Tambor, Patty McCormick kind of bit in the in their kitchen. I thought that was like the best part.

SPEAKER_00 27:21

Well the Cirque de Soleil act that John Ritter made with that giant cardboard box was pretty amazing.

SPEAKER_01 27:26

That was great. That was great. He caught Patty McCormick falling off the thing. John Ritter's amazing. Tambour's just so offended that she doesn't even know the name of the bag boy that she's having an affair with. Like it was just it was really good.

SPEAKER_00 27:41

I it made me the chemistry between Tambour and Ritter was really, really like jump off the screen.

SPEAKER_01 27:48

It made and I think Jeffrey Tambour eventually would guest star as different characters on a few three companies. But it's like it made me wish that they had like he should have been the guy that bought Jack's bistro instead of that weird guy with the beard or something. Yeah. But he was amazing. It was great. And shout out to our girl Patty McCormick, former stubby nominee for Best Horndog. She is a great, great mom. She got a lot of good zingers in. She was good. But you're right. It was just so many miscommunications, you know, so many sexual innuendos, some so many double entres. But then the the whole episode ends because Mrs. Roper missed her surprise party because she got locked in a in a gas station bathroom.

SPEAKER_00 28:35

Which is just like What are you really doing, Audrey Lindley? What's going on?

SPEAKER_01 28:39

She was on the island. Yeah. So she's just she was looking for John Aston.

SPEAKER_00 28:43

Or that's what happened to Julie in season six. I couldn't make it because I was that's terrible. Sorry, Julie.

SPEAKER_01 28:50

Don't put smart Julie in the show. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_00 28:52

I don't know why I said that. I take that back. One thing I did notice, and I think it's a formulaic, much like the bowl cut. They had a thing back then for matching a leading male character who wasn't exactly like a looker with a much better looking wife. Examples are uh Belvedere, Bob Euchre, and his wife. It it always shakes out that way. No different here. This was not a balanced cut. Like, these guys would never be together. There's no way. Like, no offense to Mr. Mr. T, but it's I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 29:25

Maybe he maybe he had maybe he had hair when he had hair, you wouldn't say anything.

SPEAKER_00 29:31

Oh, no, no, I don't discriminate based on how follically challenged you are.

SPEAKER_01 29:36

That's just so do you think Jeffrey Tambour is less attractive than Billy Bardy's child who Patty McCormick went after on the boat last year? Remember, she wanted to have 16 kids.

SPEAKER_00 29:48

She did. Yeah, I need to I need some time on that one, Mike. I'm gonna need some time and some scratch paper to figure that one out. Any any other real notes from that first episode that we watched, except that it was, you know, clearly just a threes company episode, which was it's it's the spirit of the show, which I find interesting on like a sitcom like that, is is essentially you're just unplugging your brain, right? I wonder if it's just the equivalent of today scrolling your phone, this mindless and a reality show. Right. Like is this this was just that easy, you didn't have to think too much, just gonna make you laugh, might not, but it's just like this easily digestible form of entertainment, which was fun.

SPEAKER_01 30:33

I mean, it was it was fun to watch that. Yeah, like it was regardless if it was good or bad or whatever. I'm not gonna like I'm not gonna ruin things I used to like by being a critic about it, right? But it was just fun, it was a fun wave of nostalgia for a show I haven't seen in a long time. And like I said, it's just like I make references, oh, this is a three's company episode all the time when there's these misunderstandings, but like to see the original deal, yeah, and to see it souped up to like 10 was was amazing. It was just and it was right away because again, there's no time. It's 22 minutes, there's a long opening credit, there's a long ending credit, so it's really like 20 minutes. 20 minutes show, just boom. And there's like a really long first act. Like it is really long. I think that first act went all the way till he got locked out with no pants on.

SPEAKER_00 31:26

So it's probably like the quarter past the hour mark, or almost half if you're gonna hit that commercial or the 13 minutes past the hour, whatever.

SPEAKER_01 31:33

Well, I think don't forget, before shows would come back and kind of try to get you to stay till 8.30, they would basically end at like 8.25, and then you'd go back just to watch the credits, which no one would do.

SPEAKER_00 31:46

I used to like it when they would it would end at 8.25, and then right before it's almost like at 29 or 59 past the hours when you get that preview for next week because they want you to bleed right into Street Hawk or whatever's coming on next after that, depending on what what channel or what year you're watching television. I you know, I like I I thought it was good, but it's it was interesting to look at this show from a different lens. Yes. I remembered as a kid, I don't necessarily remember this episode as a kid, but I remember the that threes company feel as as far as this first episode.

SPEAKER_01 32:19

Well, and again, you walk right into that and Jack on the bike and everything. It was just because I will say this I don't remember when in my life, I was definitely a child. I don't know what time of day my guess is was like maybe after school, but like there was a double shot of Three's Company on syndication every day. So I have seen all the three's companies like a lot. So that is a very formative show, which again should not have been viewed by a six or seven or eight-year-old after school. It's probably why I'm so normal and adjusted today.

SPEAKER_00 32:53

Well, it's interesting. So I that first episode, right? Obviously, because it had the three's company, you know, intro and it had threes company people and all this other stuff I it made you feel a certain way, nostalgia. However, when you get to that next episode, that is a very different show. And it feels completely different, it feels detached from the three's company world.

SPEAKER_02 33:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:19

Because you don't know anybody. Like there's no there's no common thread between the two other than the ropers. There's some girl named Jenny who's who apparently doesn't get changed to go to parties. It's just weird. And and thank God I thought Jeffrey Tambor did great, but other than him, it was just Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:39

So well, you want to talk about the theme song first? Because that's what we actually get first.

SPEAKER_00 33:43

It's the greatest theme song in the history of theme songs, and I really wish I I wanted to be able to play it this week as our, but I don't wanna I don't want to get yanked down for such a get brought down by the estate of Norman Fell. Well, they're already mad at us, Mike.

SPEAKER_01 34:00

We're already on their radar, so I don't need I'm gonna really get in trouble from Temple.

SPEAKER_00 34:05

Oh, they're gonna be the Alumni Association is gonna come after me. Oh boy, gritty's gonna show up just representing Philly. Oh boy, we don't need that.

SPEAKER_01 34:14

So the conceit of the second one, it opens with Mrs. Brooks and Mrs. Roper and the aforementioned Jenny are doing exercise. And again, we have to work on our bust. A lot of bust talk in this.

SPEAKER_00 34:33

Yeah. Both episodes. They went to that well like four or five times. Yeah. Yeah. It was just like, okay.

SPEAKER_01 34:38

So Jenny is leading this, much like Julie leads the exercises on the boat. So they were the same exercises, Mike. They're doing the same thing. I think they were actually. I think that's how Gorn Jump got hurt last week. So I looked this up in my when we we were supposed to do this episode a few months ago, and so I looked it up then. I didn't look it up today, but I believe the storyline with Jenny is that like she was living in their storeroom or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 35:04

Like it was like something weird, like you know she's a stowaway, like that kid who became Blood Brothers with uh I think that's what it is. Is she a pito of this show?

SPEAKER_01 35:16

But clearly, like, I mean, it's only one season, and they bring her in because they clearly thought they needed like another character, right? Like, this is probably essentially them just trying to find storylines. Well, I'm surprised they didn't bring Danny Cooksie in.

SPEAKER_00 35:30

You know, Sam would have their nephew, another kid, but he got bringing him in.

SPEAKER_01 35:35

He got he got sidelined, he got shelled for this last game.

SPEAKER_00 35:39

You're not cute enough, kid. Your bull's not deep enough on that. You know, they they sh they had all these things to lean on. You had the kid, you know, like Mr. Belvedere's Wesley, you have the Wesley part. Oh, this kid was no Wesley. This kid was no Wesley. Oh, he's no Wesley. Don't he's no Danny Pintaro either. I'm just saying they had all these things on the story to lean on. You had the Jenny thing, and you had to give it the neighbors, you had the Brooks, you had the kid. Like, God, this episode was really bad this year. It was really bad.

SPEAKER_01 36:06

So the Mr. Books comes and he says that you know Roper had parked, had blocked him in, so he moved his car and basically didn't turn the parking brake on, so so Norman Fell has to go run after a car, which is all right.

SPEAKER_00 36:18

Now his car his car is totaled, it's in the ocean now, la in the laugh track place. Like, what the hell?

SPEAKER_01 36:23

So many people died. Yeah, the car runs over Norman.

SPEAKER_00 36:26

Big old car awful.

SPEAKER_01 36:28

Jeffrey Tambor tells the girls they're doing exercises wrong, and wouldn't you know it when he tries to show them what's for, he hurts his back and he's basically laid up on the couch. No, they they moved him, yeah. Which is also like, all right, so this is everybody was checked out. Like Jeffrey Tambor's like, I'm not gonna walk in this episode. No, no, I'm not.

SPEAKER_00 36:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:53

Um bad in the mom. So basically, he gets he gets backpills, which make him loopy, and he's all drugged up. So that's basically the the Jeffrey Tambor though. Mom shows up. Now, did you recognize mom?

SPEAKER_00 37:06

I did recognize mom, but I could not place the details. I feel bad because I should remember her.

SPEAKER_01 37:12

She owned the building for Bosom Buddies. The apartment building where they live.

SPEAKER_00 37:19

Oh, wow. Wow, okay. That sounds crazy. I was a big bosom buddies fan, too.

SPEAKER_01 37:24

Well, if you're a big bosom buddies fan, I'd like to invite you to check out season four's premier episode of the Love Boat airing on May 18th here because there might be a Bosom Buddy on that boat. Really? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:37

Forrest Gump himself. So who is it? Peter Scalari. Who do we get?

SPEAKER_01 37:43

Wendy Joe. Don Dixon. Yeah. I bet you Don Dixon ends up on this boat. We've already had Thelma Hopkins. So mom shows up, she's being weird. Turns out she's in town to fill out her will. So Norman Fell.

SPEAKER_00 37:59

She wasn't dying, right? So she wasn't dying at all this. Never dying.

SPEAKER_01 38:03

Right. So Norman Fell originally very upset that his mother-in-law is here, and now is very excited because there's will talk. So he's starting to, you know.

SPEAKER_00 38:12

Lowest common denominator, like the Mrs.

SPEAKER_01 38:15

Roper's sisters show up, including Ethel Roper, Mike. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 38:24

How do I know this person?

SPEAKER_01 38:25

The better half of that son of a bitch, Wes Larson. That is Mrs. Larson. I forgot. Yeah. As we said last season when we met her, she felt like a dollar store Nancy Marshon, and she really felt like that today. She really did too. That's a good point. She was very much like I kept waiting for her to yell at Frank Drebin. Like she was just very late.

SPEAKER_00 38:51

I remember her now. She was good. I'll tell you what, she was good in this episode.

SPEAKER_01 38:55

She was good, but like she had a lot. It was but they well, but here's the thing. She had more than legit by definition, because the cast is so limited, they end up having to have the guest stars have like a lot to do.

SPEAKER_00 39:08

Well, the mom had so many lines. Oh my god. And then you have some priests coming in. I don't even know why that priest showed up. Like we have extra lines. How about someone else?

SPEAKER_01 39:17

You want some of these? Yeah. So basically, the the gist of the episode is that mom wants to have a wake while she's alive, and so she invited everybody over. It's catered. Caterers show up. It's a whole party. They invite people from the neighborhood. Yeah. And to your point, a minister who was across the street visiting his brother, I think he said, came over to say some words. And boy, was he shocked when uh he found out that the deceased was alive.

SPEAKER_00 39:46

Who is the deceased? That's me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:49

But the whole thing is Ethel and Mr. Roper are basically trying to get into the will and get all the money. Mrs. Roper just wants the family to not fight over money. And the third sister, Hildi, is uh having her seventh child.

SPEAKER_00 40:03

Also, she likes to drink milk while eating pickle spears in the kitchen. Oh God. That's all I can see. I did not know.

SPEAKER_01 40:13

Well, she's pregnant. But she's pregnant.

SPEAKER_00 40:15

No, but she's really pregnant. In case you didn't think she was, that's TV.

SPEAKER_01 40:19

That's TV cravings, man. TV cravings. It's just so funny because you know, we both have had to live with pregnant women, and it's like, I don't remember it being so cartoony. Like so.

SPEAKER_00 40:31

No, I my wife liked uh she went through a thing where she wanted a chocolate milkshake, right? Every time we'd go to like that diner that you recommended up at North.

SPEAKER_01 40:38

You know what though? Your wife wants that when she's not pregnant, too. I mean, to be fair, that's not that weird. Chocolate. Oh, how how how you're but so this is the whole this is the whole episode is the mom keeps thinking Mr. Roper is one of the other son-in-laws. Jeffrey Tambor is drugged up. The one daughter, she thinks the pregnant one got knocked up by Jeffrey Tambour because she thinks that's her husband. It's it's a whole lot of it all. And it's just a lot of it, and again, kind of to the point that we've been saying, nothing really happens. They all stay in this one room. It's like a play.

SPEAKER_00 41:16

It is. It's it's a it's right, it's one scene. And nothing.

SPEAKER_01 41:21

Yeah, time doesn't elapse. It's basically real time, you know.

SPEAKER_00 41:25

So it's just movement between characters on this in the same set. Yeah, it was it really wasn't good.

SPEAKER_01 41:34

It wasn't, it wasn't bad.

SPEAKER_00 41:36

It just wasn't.

SPEAKER_01 41:36

No, it was I thought it was especially coming off. Maybe it wouldn't have been bad if we had watched like a bunch of them, it just would have been what it was. But to go from the high energy of the first one to that it made it it's like you you can you can sympathize with Norman Fell and everything, and maybe they had given up by this point, but it was like, man, I can't watch that episode and think this is a good idea to keep it for a second season. This is terrible. No, no.

SPEAKER_00 42:02

This is I mean Well what it was back for one more, or what no, that was the or that was the final so the final they whimpered out, dude. Jesus nothing, right?

SPEAKER_01 42:13

Because the last scene the last two people to talk and for a while are Ethel and the mom. Right.

SPEAKER_00 42:23

Like the Ropers don't even talk at the end of the last episode. It's it just goes back to the point you made that they're like auxiliary characters, they're supporting characters at best, and that's not a bad thing. It's just what they are. You can't you can't promote them because now you just have like the Brooks are the same thing as the Ropers. It's the same It doesn't make any sense. Is Jenny supposed to be the star of the Ropers now? Like I you know what I'm saying? It doesn't make any sense.

SPEAKER_01 42:52

They really the only way this would have worked. It did. The only way the Ropers would have worked long term is if he would have sold the apartment and gotten a job at a hotel where you could have Yes. And and and then you know what, Mr. Brooks owns the hotel or something like that. So you can still have those interactions, but you also could just have a rotating cast of characters that they could deal with. But this is but this is so they get the characters from right. It had to be a relative or like Mr. Brooks.

SPEAKER_00 43:22

Right. Do they even leave or do they leave the house? Do they ever leave the complex? Like any other family members in the Ropers? Like cousins. I'm just wondering like how else you have interactions beyond like wacky neighbors.

SPEAKER_01 43:36

Yeah, it was disappointing, and it kind of left me with a bad taste of the ropers, which made me sad too.

SPEAKER_00 43:44

So well, it killed me too, is as as we as we watched these episodes, and I was kind of like looking at the story, you know, they told him he could come back if in a year what was it, the actual I tried to. If the show gets canceled within a year in the first year or whatever they said. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. If the show were to be canceled prior to that year, then Fell would return to Three's Company. But Lindley did not request the same thing. That's just so crazy to me. And then I'm thinking. And they kind of say in here that he always felt that they specifically made the time.

SPEAKER_01 44:23

It just they deliberately postponed making the cancellation official until Oh, I think that's 1 million percent true because Don Don Knott's was killing it.

SPEAKER_00 44:32

Yeah. Like And this, the the person who came up, the producer who came up with the idea of this spin-off, right, was fired after that. Not as a result of this, of of bringing of doing the spin-off, but in the course of that year. Well, he was hired at NBC. So Norman Fell thought that this guy who came up with the idea of this spin-off, and maybe that's where it lost its luster, is the guy behind it's gone. They he hoped that NBC would do something and pick up this show. And he was like, no, I'm no interest in the Ropers now.

SPEAKER_01 45:07

No, which is a shame. And again, I mean Norman Fell worked, right? But he never had the same. He didn't work as hard, Mike. Let's be honest.

SPEAKER_00 45:15

I mean, but maybe that's by the same character.

SPEAKER_01 45:22

But don't forget, the much talked about episode of the Love Boat that he did was prior to all of this. Like he probably knew it was he probably knew it was happening, but like be happier. Yeah, this was that was back in like 78. Well, not if he started to get approached about it. Oh. So he probably so that's like he probably was like they probably talked to him about it as he was about to go on the show. That's why he didn't. Like literally he's backstage, and so he's just like, nope, not doing anything. But at least he's commemorated. At least he's commemorated with us that'll be named after him.

SPEAKER_00 46:06

Well, Philly's not finest, but Phillies, right? So listen, we had the chance to talk about it. And I do think this is kind of one of those weird the backstory behind what happened with this show is way more interesting than the last episode of the show. I can say that. It's just Yeah. It's so interesting what the air and what lasted versus what just did not make the cut.

SPEAKER_01 46:33

Right. And ultimately, it is a show that we did talk about a lot in the time slot. The only other show and and it's leaving, right? Like, so we we we try to get the shows in before they're actually out of circulation. So this was our one chance to do it. We have talked about wanting to do BJ and the Bear. We hold the we reserve the right to do BJ and the Bear when it pops up. Right.

SPEAKER_00 46:56

But ultimately, why is that so hard to find? I don't I don't understand that.

SPEAKER_01 47:00

If it's NBC the monkey is litigious. It is funny when I watch we watch this stuff on Peacock, and it's like there are just so many things on there. I'm like, really? We can't have BJ and the Bear? Like maybe it's a PETA thing.

SPEAKER_00 47:13

Sure. So I don't know. It doesn't make sense though. For a show that didn't even mention it, there was a monkey on it. I don't know why they're hiding this show from us. Like, come on, yeah. Come on, NBC people.

SPEAKER_01 47:25

And an ignominious end for the Ropers, which was uh which was a little disappointing.

SPEAKER_00 47:32

But just extinguish that flint.

SPEAKER_01 47:34

And not all gonna be where Mike, would you recommend would you recommend watching either of these episodes?

SPEAKER_00 47:45

Sure. I I would recommend watching that first one. I I think do you want to see how the ropers sort of began or get a get a glimpse of what that is, and then I would lie and say that that episode, the party, never existed. So just leave them with a good I would, I would, I think it's important. I think it's important, but again, it's more the backstory than the episode. I tell the backstory of somebody and then show the episode. Just because it's it's can you imagine something like this happening today? Like no, like I don't know how I guess these, you know, the the powers that be, I mean, they really I don't know. I I don't I can't think of an equivalent. You've had people are too savvy but just wait till the year goes by and then cancel the show is such a such a jerk move, but I would recommend the first I would recommend the first episode.

SPEAKER_01 48:38

I would most certainly not recommend the second episode. Second episode is almost American Girls Bad. It's very bad.

SPEAKER_00 48:46

And it was it it seemed to me like it it didn't have a last episode feel. So it definitely felt like this chord was yanked. You know what I mean? There was nothing significant about this episode to go on.

SPEAKER_01 48:57

Or it had or it had the last episode feel of you're out and these guys are just like here, here, here, and I'm gonna go.

SPEAKER_00 49:05

We're gonna do a new show with uh Mrs. Roper's sister because she had all the and this the guy in the priest that lives across the street. I it's great, great. Yeah. Interesting, interesting, interesting. And and I like to see this because I I I love that uh the context of where we are with the love boat as opposed to some of these other shows. Yeah, just kind of makes it all make more sense.

SPEAKER_01 49:26

Yeah, and who knows, like next season when we have our first episode, it'll be October because of the writers and actors strike. So, but we assume we will have new shows, and you know, we will find shows that maybe you know we have to do a bonus episode about because they're things we talk about a lot on what else is on. But this was the first one that that I actually had some history with, and it probably ruined my history with it. So I'm kind of sad that I watched it. Thanks, but no thanks.

SPEAKER_00 49:56

Yeah, no, I'm glad we were able to talk about it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:00

Our next episode on the fourth of May will be the Stubbies, the Third Annual Stubby Awards. Some of the people in this two episodes that we watched could be nominated. More than likely, one person will be nominated.

SPEAKER_02 50:17

Probably just one.

SPEAKER_01 50:18

It is possible, but those are coming up, and then our season four premiere is two weeks after that on Monday, May 18th. So we are right back at it with our fourth season, uh, which includes a pair of two-parters in the first four episodes. So that I was like, Oh no, that's why you're getting a bonus episode now, because you sure as hell I'm not getting a bonus episode in the middle of that.

SPEAKER_00 50:44

Oh boy. Well, we did this to ourselves in in taking this taking this project on. So we did, we did.

SPEAKER_01 50:51

But I'm glad we did this as always, and I do like getting to see stuff that we haven't seen, but also stuff that we had to see if it holds up to the test of time. And we'll always have Norman Fell on our on our stubby ballot every year. Every year. Good old Norman. Any any last thoughts, Mike?

SPEAKER_00 51:10

No, but I think we owed this to Norman. We owed this to Norman. You know, I I feel that from a Philly guy. You know, we name a a lack of effort award after him. We had to try to yeah, we had to try to make it right, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 51:24

Exactly. And you know, we got a couple of his classic fell laughs, but we didn't get the camera deadpan. No, it's my which I was sad about, but we at least got some of that stuff, which was good. And you got your theme song. So ultimately, it's ultimately it's a win. But I'm good with it. And that's the last we'll talk about the Ropers. Unless Three's Company shows up on a Saturday night, which I guess is possible. Or, I mean I think Mrs. Roper pops it back on the boat a few times. I do, I think so.

SPEAKER_00 51:53

Yeah, I think two more times, if I'm not mistaken.

SPEAKER_01 51:55

And I hope Patty McCormick does as well.

SPEAKER_00 51:57

I don't know about Tambor, but I'd be great if he did. Oh I was thinking that too. Please, please show up on the book.

SPEAKER_01 52:02

He might he might be he might be too established by the time.

SPEAKER_00 52:05

I'm gonna start a petition. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:08

Anyway, that's it for this bonus boat episode. Thanks for joining us. We will see you in black tie on the red carpet for the Stubbies on May 4th for Mike. I'm Mike. And we'll see you next time.