The Bob Cummings Show: Bob Judges a Beauty Pageant

The Bob Cummings Show: Bob Judges a Beauty Pageant
NBC
December 16, 1958
Sitcom
DVD
B-

This episode, the twelfth of the fifth season, has a title that's again a misnomer.  (He wants to judge but doesn't get the chance.)  The Henning & Wesson script is definitely sexist and looksist even by the standards of the series, but the guest stars almost redeem it:

• Madge Blake (pre-Batman) as Florence Patterson,
• Peter Lawford as himself (referencing his wife Pat),
• Rose Marie in her recurring role of Martha Randolph, 
• future That Girl director (two episodes) Sidney Miller as Roscoe Dewitt (he also did the voice of Francis Church in the TV-movie Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus),
• and best of all, Nancy Kulp (pre-Beverly-Hillbillies) in her recurring role as Pamela Livingstone

Dorothy Johnson again appears as Harriet Wyle.  Cummings directed again.  I have to say that Hickman isn't given much do on any of these three episodes, but Ann B. always works with what she gets.

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.