Out of This World: I've Got a Secret

Out of This World: I've Got a Secret
Syndicated
May 28, 1988
Sitcom
VHS
B-

This is another episode I thought came later in the run, not realizing till I watched the whole thing again that Evie revealing the truth is all a dream.  Her father does a nice rendition of "Dream a Little Dream" at the end.  As with IGSS, I don't have every episode by a long shot, but what I taped earned 3 C+s and 2 B-s.  It's a cute little show but not an undiscovered gem by any means.

Kirk Findley played an unknown character here and in the "Mosquito Man" movie episode.  Jay Ingram, who plays Lt. Col. South (think Oliver North) would be Sidney Caldwell on Who's the Boss? the next year.  Buzz Belmondo, Steve Burton, and Christina Nigra return as Buzz, Chris Fuller, and Lindsay Selkirk respectively.

Out of This World: The Box Is Missing

No, Nigra doesn't play the cube.

Out of This World: The Box Is Missing
Syndicated
May 7, 1988
Sitcom
VHS
C+

The box in question is the cube that Evie and her dad use to communicate, although Evie and Donna react as if Troy himself has been kidnapped.  The mystery is pretty predictable of course, but I would've gone with a B-, due to the exploration of space powers, if not for some unfunny slapstick.  (This is the 400th C+.)

Fred Willard plays Milton Wyler of the Marlowe Vice, that is, he's a Miami-Vice-influenced cop for the town of Marlowe where this is set.  John Roarke, who was in the "diet clinic" episode, makes his last appearance in the series as Phil the handyman.  (And it's sort of a D.C. Follies reunion, since he did voices on there, as did Alaskey.)  April Kelly, who was one of the better Mork & Mindy writers (she did twenty-three episodes) co-wrote this with someone who didn't work on any of my other shows.

Out of This World: Mosquito Man, the Motion Picture

Burt Reynolds

Out of This World: Mosquito Man, the Motion Picture
Syndicated
February 20, 1988
Sitcom
VHS
C+

Mayor Kyle was once the star of the TV show Mosquito Man, which looks like '50s Superman but has a theme that's more '60s Batman.  He's excited that his old series is going to be made into a movie, until he finds out that he's being replaced by "Mosquito Woman."  The cheap trappings of the movie studio make this look like it's a straight to video production anyway.  This episode is corny and hokey even by OoTW standards, yet it is somewhat likable.  Note that we actually hear Troy on the cubic communication device, although, if I remember correctly, he can only hear his daughter (because she's part alien), which makes for odd three-sided conversations when his wife Donna joins in.

This episode features a couple of Evie's friends who were semi-regulars and therefore not on the episode we watched before:  Chris Fuller (Steve Burton) and Lindsay Selkirk (Christina Nigra).  Also, the recurring character of Buzz (played by Buzz Belmondo) appears briefly.  Jonathan Schmock and James Vallely, who play Brad and Greg, were a comedy team, mostly as writers, although I recognize them from the sitcom Double Trouble.  Uncle Beano is absent but mentioned.  Bob Claver, who directed sixty-two episodes of this series, but not the one about Beano's diet clinic, also did a couple for The Bob Newhart Show, twenty for Welcome Back, Kotter, and fifteen for Mork & Mindy.

Out of This World: Beano's New Diet Clinic

A different episode, but an example of
Evie stopping time, as she does here.

Out of This World: Beano's New Diet Clinic
Syndicated
November 28, 1987
Fantasy, Sitcom
VHS
C+

The basic premise of this series is that Evie Garland (Maureen Flannigan) finds out on her 13th birthday that she's half-alien.  (Her absent father is voiced by Burt Reynolds, but not on this episode.) As with Bewitched, she's not supposed to use her powers, but she can't help giving in sometimes.  She lives with her mother Donna (Danza-ly named for Donna Pescow), whose brother Beano Froelich (Joe Alaskey) also lives in their small Californian coastal town.  Both are in on Evie's secret, but no one else is.

John Boni, who wrote three Three's Company episodes, here contributes his third of four for OoTW.  Although Beano is overweight, he's studied dieting and is about to open the Waist-a-Weigh Clinic.  Meanwhile, at Evie's small private school (where Donna is the principal or something), her classmate Alex (Scott Nemes, probably wearing a fatsuit, since he looks significantly heavier than on It's Garry Shandling's Show) is being teased about his weight.  The episode is conflicted about fat people, objecting to them being mocked but also insisting that they lose weight.  Note that the string of "clever" insults Beano demonstrates is inspired or ripped off from the "nose" insults Steve Martin does in the movie Roxanne, which had come out about five months earlier.

Both Alaskey (who was a voice-actor) and Nemes do celebrity impressions here, and this episode features Mayor Kyle Applegate (Doug McClure), who's never gotten over playing Mosquitoman on TV for three years.  (I was thinking this was a gentle jab at Palm Springs mayor Sonny Bono, but he wasn't elected till '88.  However, Clint Eastwood was mayor of Carmel from '86 to '88, so I guess that's what the reference is to.)

The Garry Shandling Show: 25th Anniversary Special

Yes, I would rather watch Donny Osmond
on The Brady Bunch Variety Hour.

The Garry Shandling Show: 25th Anniversary Special
Showtime
Copyright 1985 but aired sometime in 1986
Parody, Variety
VHS
C

We're going to step back a little in time, to this precursor to The Larry Sanders Show, although it more immediately paved the way for It's Garry Shandling's Show.  I saw it after watching the first season of IGSS and was disappointed.  It hasn't improved with age.  It's not bad but it's not particularly funny.  It's mainly of historical interest, from a time when Johnny Carson was till the King of Late Night TV but had faced some challenges.

Paul Willson, who would be Leonard Smith on IGSS, plays Garry's sidekick Pete.  Britt Leach, who was Davy Jones's manager on The Brady Bunch, Reporter Dan Blevik on M*A*S*H, and three different characters on Three's Company, is Dr. Robert Lebec here.  DeVera Marcus, who was Violet on Bosom Buddies, plays Dee here and would be Willa on Who's the Boss?  Helaine Lembeck, of Welcome Back, Kotter, is Mindy here.  Doug McClure is among the many people appearing as themselves.  Tom Trbovich, who did one Bosom Buddies episode, is this special's director.