When Things Were Rotten is an American sitcom television series created in 1975 by Mel Brooks and set in 1197 as a parody of the Robin Hood legend.[1] It aired for half a season on the ABC network.[2] The series starred Dick Gautier as the handsome and heroic Robin Hood.
| When Things Were Rotten | |
|---|---|
 Robin Hood and his Merry Men | |
| Genre | Parody Sitcom Adventure |
| Created by | Mel Brooks Norman Stiles John Boni |
| Starring | Dick Gautier Dick Van Patten Bernie Kopell Richard Dimitri Henry Polic II Misty Rowe David Sabin Ron Rifkin |
| Composer | Artie Butler |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 13 |
| Production | |
| Producers | Mel Brooks Stanley Jacob Norman Steinberg |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Production companies | Crossbow Productions Paramount Television |
| Original release | |
| Network | ABC |
| Release | September 10 – December 3, 1975 |
The series received mostly critical acclaim,[3] though John Leonard wrote that watching it was "like being locked inside a package of bubblegum where the only card is Alvin Dark."[4] It failed to find an audience and was cancelled after 13 episodes. The Bionic Woman was its midseason replacement, and became a great success.[5] Eighteen years later, Brooks produced another Robin Hood parody, the feature film Robin Hood: Men in Tights.
The complete series was released on DVD in 2013 as a manufactured-on-demand item exclusively available on Amazon.com's CreateSpace.[6]
Cast
edit- Dick Gautier as Robin Hood
- Dick Van Patten as Friar Tuck
- Bernie Kopell as Alan-a-Dale
- Richard Dimitri as Bertram and Renaldo
- Henry Polic II as Hubert, the Sheriff of Nottingham
- Misty Rowe as Maid Marian
- David Sabin as Little John
- Ron Rifkin as Prince John
Episodes
edit| No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "The Capture of Robin Hood" | Jerry Paris | Mel Brooks, John Boni & Norman Stiles | September 10, 1975 |
| 2 | "The French Dis-connection" | Coby Ruskin | S : Gene Wood and Jay Burton T : Bo Kaprall and Pat Profit | September 17, 1975 |
| 3 | "The House Band" | Joshua Shelley | Barry E. Blitzer & Jack Kaplan | September 24, 1975 |
| 4 | "Those Wedding Bell Blues" | Marty Feldman | Jim Mulligan | October 1, 1975 |
| 5 | "A Ransom for Richard" | Peter H. Hunt | William Raynor & Myles Wilder | October 8, 1975 |
| 6 | "The Ultimate Weapon" | Peter Bonerz | Steve Zacharias | October 15, 1975 |
| 7 | "Ding Dong, the Bell is Dead" | Bruce Bilson | Les Roberts | October 22, 1975 |
| 8 | "There Goes the Neighborhood" | Cory Ruskin | Tony Geiss and Thomas Meehan | October 29, 1975 |
| 9 | "Quarantine" | Norman Abbott | John Reiger & Garry Markowitz | November 12, 1975 |
| 10 | "Birthday Blues" | Peter H. Hunt | Harry Lee Scott and Robert Sand | November 19, 1975 |
| 11 | "The Spy: Parts 1 and 2" | Peter H. Hunt | Lawrence H. Siegel | November 26, 1975 |
| 12 | ||||
| 13 | "This Lance for Hire" | Joshua Shelley | Jack Amob & Bruce Selitz | December 3, 1975 |
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ John Clute and John Grant (1997). The Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1997). Orbit. ISBN 978-1-85723-368-1.
- ^ Frank DeCaro (19 July 2013). "Borscht Belt Sherwood Forest". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 February 2021.
- ^ See, for example, "Review," by Cleveland Amory, "When Things Were Rotten," TV Guide, December 13, 1975, p. 18
- ^ Leonard, John. "The Worst Television Season Ever, Ever, Ever," The New York Times, Sunday, October 26, 1975. Retrieved September 30, 2021
- ^ "The Bionic Woman (1976): Season 1". DVD Talk. Retrieved 2014-09-03.
- ^ DVD release info Archived 2015-01-05 at the Wayback Machine at TVShowsOnDVD.com
External links
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