''Mr. Terrific'' is an American television

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 ...

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 ...

on Mondays at 8:00 p.m., from January 9 to August 28, 1967. Stephen Strimpell starred in the title role. A similar series on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

, ''

Captain Nice ''Captain Nice'' is an American comedy TV series that ran from 9 January 1967 to 28 August 1967, Monday nights at 8:30 pm EST on NBC, opposite ABC's ''The Rat Patrol'' and CBS's '' The Lucy Show''. The show was an unsuccessful attempt to cash ...

'', also aired that season on Mondays, at 8:30 p.m. The show was an attempt to capitalize on the "camp superhero" craze sparked by the success of the 1966 '' Batman'' TV series.

Premise

Riding the tide of the camp superhero craze of the 1960s, the show's premise involved gas station attendant Stanley Beamish (Strimpell), a mild-mannered scrawny youth who secretly worked to fight crime for a government organization, "The Bureau of Secret Projects," in Washington. All he needed to do was to take a "power pill" which gave him the strength of a thousand men and enabled him to fly, much like Superman, albeit by furious flapping while wearing the top half of a

wingsuit Wingsuit flying (or wingsuiting) is the sport of skydiving using a webbing-sleeved jumpsuit called a wingsuit to add webbed area to the diver's body and generate increased lift, which allows extended air time by gliding flight rather than just ...

. To the often-lamented misfortune of the Bureau of Secret Projects, he was the only person on whom the pills worked. It was established that, although the pill would give him high strength levels, he was still vulnerable to bullets. Furthermore, each power pill had a time limit of one hour (like ''

Underdog An underdog is a person or group in a competition, usually in sports and creative works, who is largely expected to lose. The party, team, or individual expected to win is called the favorite or top dog. In the case where an underdog wins, the ...

'' and

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...

Hourman Hourman or Hour-Man is the name of three different fictional superheroes appearing in comics published by DC Comics. The original Hourman was created by writer Ken Fitch and artist Bernard Baily in ''Adventure Comics'' #48 (March 1940), during t ...

), although he generally had two 10-minute booster pills available per episode. Much of the show's humor revolved around the tendency of the amiable yet gullible Beamish to lose Mr. Terrific's powers at inopportune times, before he completed his given assignment. Beamish's government employers were Mr. Barton J. Reed and Mr. Harley Trent, and his day-job partner at the service station was Hal Walters. Beamish was sworn to secrecy concerning his alter-ego and super-powers.

Alan Young Alan Young (born Angus Young; November 19, 1919 – May 19, 2016) was a British, Canadian and American actor, comedian, radio host and television host, whom ''TV Guide'' called "the Charlie Chaplin of television". His notable roles includ ...

, who had just completed his run as Wilbur Post on ''

Mister Ed ''Mister Ed'' is an American television sitcom produced by Filmways that aired in syndication from January 5 to July 2, 1961, and then on CBS from October 1, 1961, to February 6, 1966. The show's title character is a talking horse which orig ...

,'' was the original choice to play Stanley H. Beamish, and appeared in the original 1966 unaired version of the pilot, which featured a different supporting cast (

Edward Andrews Edward Bryan Andrews Jr. (October 9, 1914 – March 8, 1985) was an American stage, film and television actor. Andrews was one of the most recognizable character actors on television and films from the 1950s into the 1980s. His stark white hair ...

as The Chief, All Checco as Dr. Kramer, Dick Merrifield as Tony Lawrence, Sheilah Wells as Gloria Dickinson, and Jesse White as Mr. Finney).

Cast members

* Stanley Beamish/Mister Terrific: Stephen Strimpell. * Barton J. Reed:

John McGiver John Irwin McGiver (November 5, 1913 – September 9, 1975) was an American character actor who made more than a hundred appearances in television and motion pictures over a two-decade span from 1955 to 1975. The owl-faced, portly character ac ...

. * Hal Walters:

Dick Gautier Richard Gautier (October 30, 1931 – January 13, 2017) was an American actor, comedian, singer, and caricaturist. He was known for his television roles as Hymie the Robot in the television series '' Get Smart'', and Robin Hood in the TV comedy ...

. * Harley Trent: Paul Smith.

Episode list

''The Pill Caper''

* Episodes 1, 3, 5 and 9 of ''Mr. Terrific'' were edited together and combined with new footage filmed in 1967 to create a movie titled ''The Pill Caper'', which was released in 1967. Hal Smith has a cameo in ''The Pill Caper'' as a passenger on a train.

DVD release

The entire 17-episode series of ''Mr. Terrific'' was released commercially on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

by Ufa/DVD in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

under the title ''Immer wenn er Pillen nahm'' (''Whenever He Took Pills'') on July 17, 2009. The episodes can be heard in the original English, or in German.

References

External links

*
Episode list
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mister Terrific CBS original programming 1960s American sitcoms 1967 American television series debuts 1967 American television series endings Parody superheroes Television series by Universal Television American superhero comedy television series