70s Sitcom #165 The Dumplings - 1976

The Dumplings - 1976
One Season - 11 Episodes
TV Historian's Blurb: This show aired before (PC) political correctness was popular. The show followed an overweight married couple that owned and operated a New York deli on the first floor of an office building. This one may have survived had it not been so fat joke "heavy."

Network: NBC

Aired: Wednesday nights at 9:30 pm Eastern U.S.
Premiered: January 28, 1976
Ended: March 24, 1976
Theme Song:  Listen here The Dumplings Theme Song
Writer(s)/Creator(s):
Fred Lucky

Don Nicholl
Michael Ross
Bernie West

Developer: Norman Lear

Cast:
James Coco as Joe Dumpling
Geraldine Brooks as Angela Dumpling
Marcia Rodd as Stephanie
George Furth as Frederic Steele
Jane Connell as Bridget McKenna
George S. Irving (1) as Charles Sweetzer
Mort Marshall as Cully

Series Premise: Fat married couple, Joe and Angela, own a deli in New York.

Season One Episodes:
1 - Pilot - Aired: January 28, 1976
2 - The Ultimatum - Aired: February 4, 1976
3 - To Drink or Not to Drink - Aired: February 11, 1976
4 - The Parting - Aired: February 18, 1976
5 - Gourmet's Delight - Aired: February 25, 1976
6 - Sweetzer's Image - Aired: March 3, 1976
7 - Cully's Sister - Aired: March 10, 1976
8 - The Other Woman - Aired: March 17, 1976
9 - The Foundling - Aired: March 24, 1976
10 - Joe Takes a Fall - Aired: March 31, 1976
11 - Joe Gets Jugged - Unaired.


Show canceled after episode 10.

TV Historian Trivia
1. Lead actress Geraldine Brooks died on June 19, 1977 at age 51.
2. James Coco never married. He died February 25, 1987 at age 57.

70s Sitcom #170 Loves Me, Loves Me Not - 1977 (Susan Dey)

Loves Me, Loves Me Not - 1977
One Season - 6 Episodes
TV Historian's Blurb: This short-lived sitcom is not one that I remember very well. I vaguely remember seeing an episode or two. Had I been older when this aired, I most assuredly would have paid more attention due to the series' star being the beautiful Susan Dey. I have searched YouTube, Amazon, and eBay for videos and memorabilia of this series and found very little. I would love to see this series on DVD.

Network: CBS

Aired: Wednesday nights at 8:30 pm Eastern U.S.
Premiered: March 20, 1977
Ended: April 27, 1977

Creator:

Susan Harris (1)

Cast:
Susan Dey as Jane Benson (Schoolteacher)
Kenneth (Kip) Gilman as Dick Phillips (Newspaper Reporter)
Art Metrano as Tom (Dick's Best Friend)
Phyllis Glick as Sue (Tom's Wife)

Series Premise:

Romantic sitcom starring Susan Dey as a schoolteacher who reluctantly gets involved with an earnest, but awkward, newspaper reporter named Dick (Kip Gilman).

Season One Episodes:
1 - Pilot - Aired: March 20, 1977
2 - Walter Comes Back - Aired: March 23, 1977 - Jane's ex-fiance returns.
3 - Jane's Parents - Aired: March 30, 1977 - Jane's perfectionist parents visit.
4 - Tom's Separation - Aired: April 6, 1977 - When Tom and Sue separate, Dick comes to the conclusion that romance can fail.
5 - In the Woods - Aired: April 13, 1977 - Dick and Jane go on a wilderness trip.
6 - Dick's Novel - Aired: April 27, 1977 - Dick takes off from work to finish writing a novel.

Show canceled after episode 6.

TV Historian Trivia

1 - Susan Dey landed this lead role 3 years after her previous successful TV series, The Partridge Family, ended.
2 - Show creator Susan Harris failed with this sitcom; however, she launched the highly successful sitcom Soap the same year. She also created other sitcom favorites such as, The Golden Girls, Benson, and Empty Nest, in addition to many others.
3 - Susan Dey's real father, Robert Smith, was a newspaper editor.
4 - Art Metrano is known to most as Mauser from the Police Academy Series.