''Getting Together'' is an American musical

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...

that aired on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

during the 1971–72 U.S. television season. It starred

Bobby Sherman Robert Cabot Sherman Jr. (born July 22, 1943), known professionally as Bobby Sherman, is an American retired paramedic, police officer, singer, actor and occasional songwriter who became a teen idol in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He had a s ...

and Wes Stern as Bobby Conway and Lionel Poindexter, a

songwriting A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...

duo. The pilot for the series had aired the previous spring as the first-season finale episode of ''

The Partridge Family ''The Partridge Family'' is an American musical sitcom starring Shirley Jones and featuring David Cassidy. Jones plays a widowed mother, and Cassidy plays the oldest of her five children, in a family who embarks on a music career. It ran from Se ...

'' named "A Knight in Shining Armor", in which Lionel and Bobby were introduced to each other by the Partridges. The unaired version of this episode, entitled "Words And Music", ran 33 minutes, and featured Farrah Fawcett and Pat Boone. The eight extra minutes of footage were filmed on March 15, 1971. Sherman's and Stern's characters were reportedly based on the real-life songwriting team of

Boyce and Hart Sidney Thomas "Tommy" Boyce (September 29, 1939 – November 23, 1994) and Bobby Hart (born Robert Luke Harshman; February 18, 1939) were a prolific American duo of singer-songwriters. In addition to three top-40 hits as artists, the duo is ...

, who had written hits for

the Monkees The Monkees were an American rock and pop band, formed in Los Angeles in 1966, whose lineup consisted of the American actor/musicians Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork alongside English actor/singer Davy Jones. The group was conc ...

Last Train to Clarksville "Last Train to Clarksville" is a song by American pop rock band the Monkees. It was released as the band's debut single on August 16, 1966, and was later included on the group's self-titled album, which was released on October 10, 1966.''The Monk ...

", "

Valleri "Valleri" is a song written by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart for the Monkees. The single reached #3 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and spent two weeks at #1 on the ''Cash Box'' chart in early 1968. The song also rose to #1 in Canada and #12 in the ...

"),

Jay and the Americans Jay and the Americans are an American rock group who formed in the late 1950s. Their initial line-up consisted of John "Jay" Traynor, Howard Kane (born Howard Kirschenbaum), Kenny Vance (born Kenneth Rosenberg) and Sandy Deanne (born Sandy Ya ...

Come a Little Bit Closer "Come a Little Bit Closer" is a song by the 1960s rock and roll band Jay and the Americans. It reached number 3 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 on November 21, 1964, making it the band's highest-charting single. It also peaked at number 4 on the ...

") and others. New music was a staple of the series, provided by much of the same team that had created the Partridge Family music. Most of these songs were from Sherman's album ''Getting Together'', though a few songs were from his other albums (and some songs have never been released).

Cast

as Bobby Conway *Wes Stern as Lionel Poindexter *

Susan Neher Susan Marie Neher (February 22, 1959 – August 2, 2022) was an American actress, active as a child, best known for originating the role of Joanie Cunningham on ''Happy Days'' in its first iteration as a segment of the anthology series '' Love, A ...

as Jennifer Conway *

Jack Burns John Francis Burns (November 15, 1933 – January 27, 2020) was an American comedian, actor, voice actor, writer, and producer. During the 1960s, he was part of two comedy partnerships, first with George Carlin and later with Avery Schreiber. ...

as Officer Rudy Colcheck *

Pat Carroll Patricia Ann Carroll (May 5, 1927 – July 30, 2022) was an American actress and comedian. She was known for voicing Ursula in ''The Little Mermaid'' and for appearances in CBS's ''The Danny Thomas Show'', ABC's ''Laverne & Shirley'', and NBC' ...

as Rita Simon

Episodes

Reception

Airing in the same

time slot Broadcast programming is the practice of organizing or ordering (scheduling) of broadcast media shows, typically radio and television, in a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or season-long schedule. Modern broadcasters use broadcast automation ...

as breakout

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

hit ''

All in the Family ''All in the Family'' is an American television sitcom that aired on CBS for nine seasons, from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979. Afterwards, it was continued with the spin-off series '' Archie Bunker's Place'', which picked up where ''All in ...

'', the show never gained sufficient ratings and was canceled at midseason after 14 episodes. Though ''Getting Together'' is a spin-off of ''

'', the series is not included in the parent show's DVD collections.

References

External links

* 1971 American television series debuts 1972 American television series endings 1970s American musical comedy television series 1970s American sitcoms American Broadcasting Company original programming American television spin-offs English-language television shows Television series by Sony Pictures Television Television shows set in California {{US-comedy-tv-prog-stub