''The Kallikaks'' is an American

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 ...

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite television, satellite, or cable television, cable, excluding breaking news, television adverti ...

starring

David Huddleston David William Huddleston (September 17, 1930 – August 2, 2016) was an American actor. An Emmy Award nominee, Huddleston had a prolific television career, and appeared in many films including:'' Rio Lobo'', '' Blazing Saddles'', ''Crime Buster ...

which centers around a family from

Appalachia Appalachia () is a cultural region in the Eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York State to northern Alabama and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Newfoundland and Labrador, Ca ...

that moves to

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

to run a decrepit

gasoline station A filling station, also known as a gas station () or petrol station (), is a facility that sells fuel and engine lubricants for motor vehicles. The most common fuels sold in the 2010s were gasoline (or petrol) and diesel fuel. Gasoline ...

. The show aired from August 3 to August 31, 1977 on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

.McNeil, Alex, ''Total Television: The Comprehensive Guide to Programming From 1948 to the Present'', New York: Penguin Books, 1996, p. 445.Brooks, Tim, and Earle Marsh, ''The Complete Directory to Prime-Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present, Sixth Edition'', New York: Ballantine Books, 1995, , p. 546.

Cast

as Jasper T. "J. T." Kallikak *

Edie McClurg Edith Marie McClurg (born July 23, 1945) is an American actress and comedian. She has played supporting roles in the films ''Carrie'' (1976), ''Ferris Bueller's Day Off'' (1986), and ''Elvira: Mistress of the Dark'' (1988), and bit parts in '' ...

as Venus Kallikak * Bonnie Ebsen as Bobbi Lou Kallikak * Patrick J. Petersen as Junior Kallikak * Peter Palmer as Oscar Heinz

Synopsis

Jasper T. "J. T." Kallikak is a

coal miner Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

from

. He inherits a run-down two-pump

in the fictional town of Nowhere,

. Thinking that as his own boss he will have a better life, he moves his impoverished family — his big-hearted and overly affectionate wife Venus, his status-seeking teenage daughter Bobbie Lou, and his 10-year-old son Junior (who is a smarter version of his father, prone to using big words, and a genius with mechanical things) — from

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

to California to run the gas station, selling no-name gasoline. J. T.s boarder and only employee there is Oscar Heinz, a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

immigrant who can barely speak English and as a result often gets things mixed up. Bobbi Lou gets a job at a nearby fried chicken stand.Leszczak, Bob
''Single Season Sitcoms, 1948-1979: A Complete Guide''
Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co., Inc., 2012. , p. 98. J. T. is conniving, greedy, and inclined toward get-rich-quick schemes; he boasts of never having paid taxes, saying that there is no need to as long as there are fools who do pay their taxes. He and his family are always trying to — in the words of the shows theme song — "beat the system;" for example, they try to apply for

welfare Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specificall ...

even though they are employed, and a

social worker Social work is an academic discipline and practice-based profession concerned with meeting the basic needs of individuals, families, groups, communities, and society as a whole to enhance their individual and collective well-being. Social work ...

turns them away. The pumps at their gas station are rigged, and generally, their schemes to get ahead — which always seem to fail — involve conning and cheating someone else.

Production

Stanley Ralph Ross Stanley Ralph Ross (July 22, 1935 – March 16, 2000) was an American writer and actor. He was raised in Brooklyn, New York, starting his career in advertising with Chudacoff and Margulis Advertising in West Los Angeles, then soon going to ...

and Roger Price created ''The Kallikaks''. Ross was its

executive producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the making of a commercial entertainment product. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights o ...

and

George Yanok George Richard Yanok (November 29, 1938 – April 29, 2022) was an American screenwriter, television producer, actor, and jazz drummer. He is noted for winning Primetime Emmy Awards in 1974 and 1976. Early life Yanok was born in Bristol, Conn ...

was its producer. Ross, Price, and Ron Kantor wrote the episodes. Episode directors were Kantor, Bob LaHendro, and Dennis Steinmetz. Ross wrote the shows theme song, "Beat the System," which

Roy Clark Roy Linwood Clark (April 15, 1933 – November 15, 2018) was an American singer and musician. He is best known for having hosted ''Hee Haw'', a nationally televised country variety show, from 1969 to 1997. Clark was an important and influen ...

performed for the opening credits. Tom Wells wrote other music used in the show. Bonnie Ebsen was the daughter of

Buddy Ebsen Buddy Ebsen (born Christian Ludolf Ebsen Jr., April 2, 1908 – July 6, 2003), also known as Frank "Buddy" Ebsen, was an American actor and dancer, whose career spanned seven decades. One of his most famous roles was as Jed Clampett in the CBS ...

, who had starred from 1962 to 1971 in ''

The Beverly Hillbillies ''The Beverly Hillbillies'' is an American television sitcom that was broadcast on CBS from 1962 to 1971. It had an ensemble cast featuring Buddy Ebsen, Irene Ryan, Donna Douglas, and Max Baer Jr. as the Clampetts, a poor, backwoods family from ...

''.

Broadcast history

''The Kallikaks'' premiered on August 3, 1977, and aired on NBC on Wednesdays at 9:30 p.m. throughout its brief run. Broadcast during a time of the year when television viewership was low and criticized as an uninspired show with unlikeable characters, ''The Kallikaks'' never had much of a chance to succeed. Only five episodes were produced, the last one airing on August 31, 1977.

Trivia

The name of the family in the series title would seem to have come from ''

The Kallikak Family ''The Kallikak Family: A Study in the Heredity of Feeble-Mindedness'' was a 1912 book by the American psychologist and eugenicist Henry H. Goddard, dedicated to his patron Samuel Simeon Fels. Supposedly an extended case study of Goddard’s for ...

: A Study in the Heredity of Feeble-Mindedness'' which was a 1912 book by the American psychologist and eugenicist

Henry H. Goddard Henry Herbert Goddard (August 14, 1866 – June 18, 1957) was a prominent American psychologist, eugenicist, and segregationist during the early 20th century. He is known especially for his 1912 work '' The Kallikak Family: A Study in the Her ...

Episodes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kallikaks NBC original programming 1977 American television series debuts 1977 American television series endings 1970s American sitcoms English-language television shows Television series about dysfunctional families Television shows set in California