''The Good Guys'' is an American

situation comedy 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

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 Entertainm ...

from September 25, 1968, to January 23, 1970. Forty-two color episodes were filmed. The program was produced by Talent Associates. Although some episodes, including the pilot, have been posted online in colour and black and white, the full series has never been released on home media or rebroadcast in decades, and a majority of the show remains unseen.

Synopsis

Bob Denver Vincent Price The Good Guys 1969

The main characters are Rufus Butterworth (

Bob Denver Robert Osbourne Denver (January 9, 1935 – September 2, 2005) was an American comedic actor who portrayed Gilligan on the 1964–1967 television series ''Gilligan's Island'', and beatnik Maynard G. Krebs on the 1959–1963 series ''The Ma ...

), the driver of a customized 1924 Lincoln turned

taxi A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choice ...

, and his childhood friend Bert Gramus, played by

Herb Edelman Herbert Edelman (November 5, 1933 – July 21, 1996) was an American actor of stage, film and television. He was twice nominated for an Emmy Award for his television work. One of his best-known roles was as Stanley Zbornak, the ex-husband of ...

, owner of a local diner and neighborhood hangout called "Bert's Place", which Butterworth advertised on the taxi's fender-mount spare tire covers. Plots usually revolved around "get rich quick" schemes that invariably backfired. In the second season (1969–1970), Rufus gave up driving the cab and became a partner with Bert in the diner, which moved to a beach location. Other characters included Bert's schoolteacher wife, Claudia (

Joyce Van Patten Joyce Benignia Van Patten (born March 9, 1934) is an American film and stage actress. She is best known for her roles in films like ''The Bad News Bears'' (1976), ''St. Elmo's Fire'' (1985) (as Mrs. Beamish), and as Rob Schneider's septuagenaria ...

), and diner regulars Mr. Bender, Hal Dawson, and truck driver Big Tom (played by Denver's ''

Gilligan's Island ''Gilligan's Island'' is an American sitcom created and produced by Sherwood Schwartz. The show's ensemble cast features Bob Denver, Alan Hale Jr., Jim Backus, Natalie Schafer, Tina Louise, Russell Johnson and Dawn Wells. It aired for thr ...

'' co-star

Alan Hale Jr. Alan Hale Jr. (born Alan Hale MacKahan; (March 8, 1921 - January 2, 1990) was an American actor and restaurateur. He was the son of actor Alan Hale Sr. His television career spanned four decades, but he was best known for his secondary lead role ...

). Never a hit with viewers, ''The Good Guys'' failed to finish in the Nielsen Top 30 and was canceled during its second season.

Production notes

Rufus's taxi was created by George Barris. A 1/25-scale model kit was manufactured by

MPC Corporation MPC Corporation was a computer-hardware company based in Nampa, Idaho, United States. It was best known as a provider of desktops, notebooks, servers and services to customers in the federal, state and local government, education, small and ...

and examples are highly collectable today. The first several episodes of the first season were filmed before a live studio audience (unusual at the time), with an accompanying

laugh track A laugh track (or laughter track) is a separate soundtrack for a recorded comedy show containing the sound of audience laughter. In some productions, the laughter is a live audience response instead; in the United States, where it is most common ...

to sweeten the laughs during post-production. Due to production changes, the majority of Season One episodes and all of Season Two were filmed without a studio audience. Episodes were fitted with a laugh track afterwards. Denver later recalled of the show's negative reception: "I still had some animus at how

threw us in the dumper. Herb Edelman and I'd done ''The Good Guys''…but sour critics said it should have been just called 'Guys'."

Syndication

''The Good Guys'' has never been shown in reruns in the United States. In his autobiography, ''Gilligan, Maynard and Me'', Bob Denver related that poor-quality prints of the show were shown for a time in South America.

TV Land TV Land is an American pay television channel owned by Paramount Global through its networks division. Originally a spinoff of Nick at Nite consisting exclusively of classic television shows, the channel now airs a combination of recent and cla ...

considered showing episodes of the show in 1998 but opted instead to air episodes of another "lost" sitcom that was also produced by Talent Associates, ''

He & She ''He & She'' is an American sitcom that aired on the CBS television network as part of its 1967–1968 lineup, originally sponsored by General Foods and Lever Brothers. ''He & She'' is widely considered by broadcast historians to have been ah ...

''.

Episodes

Sources magnolia.gowatchit.com The Good Guys
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Season 1 (1968–1969)

Season 2 (1969–1970)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Good Guys, The 1968 American television series debuts 1970 American television series endings 1960s American sitcoms 1970s American sitcoms 1960s American workplace comedy television series 1970s American workplace comedy television series CBS original programming Television series by Talent Associates Television series set in restaurants