Hello, Larry

Infobox Television
show_name = Hello, Larry


caption =
genre = Sitcom
creator = Doug Rogers
writer = Dick Bensfield
Perry Grant
George Tibbles
director = Doug Rogers
starring = McLean Stevenson
country = USA
language = English
num_seasons = 2
num_episodes = 35
list_episodes =
executive_producer = Dick Bensfield
Perry Grant
George Tibbles
producer = Rita Dillon
Woody Kling
Patricia Fass Palmer
George Tibbles
runtime = 30 mins.
channel = NBC
first_aired = January 26, 1979
last_aired = April 30, 1980
imdb_id = 0078623
tv_com_id = 2518

"Hello, Larry" is an American sitcom which aired on NBC from January 26, 1979 to April 30, 1980.

ynopsis

First season

Larry Alder (played by McLean Stevenson), is a radio talk show host who left Los Angeles after being divorced and moved to Portland, Oregon with his two teenage daughters, Diane, played in the first season by Donna Wilkes and in the second season by Krista Errickson; and Ruthie, played by Kim Richards. In the first season, episodes centered on Larry at the radio station and his smart remarks to callers. The supporting cast consisted of producer Morgan (Joanna Gleason) and morbidly obese engineer Earl (George Memmoli).

econd season

In an effort to make the character (and series) more likeable, in the second season, the episodes were based almost entirely around the home life of Larry and the girls, with Morgan and Earl being seen less frequently. In the second season, various supporting characters were added in the apartment building where Larry and the girls lived, in an effort to save the series. These included a black neighbor, Leona, played by Ruth Brown, who usually did not approve of Larry's parenting; Tommy, a purportedly world-wise teenage boy played by John Femia, who became a love interest of Ruthie; former Harlem Globetrotters player Meadowlark Lemon as himself; and Larry's father, played by Fred Stuthman, who moved in with the younger Alders. None of these people, nor a two-part episode in which Larry's ex-wife Marian (played by Shelley Fabares) tried to reconcile with him, were enough to save the show and it was cancelled in the spring of 1980.

Production

The series, created by Dick Bensfield and Perry Grant (veteran writers with a resumé going back to "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" and "The Andy Griffith Show"), consisted of 35 episodes. Bensfield and Grant had also worked on "One Day at a Time", a CBS sitcom about a single woman raising two teenaged daughters alone, and many critics noted the similarity of the two series. The show was produced by Woody Kling and directed by Doug Rogers.

"Diff'rent Strokes" connection

"Hello, Larry" is sometimes referred to as a spin-off of "Diff'rent Strokes". In actuality, it was conceived as a show in its own right. After struggling to gather ratings, NBC rescheduled it to appear immediately following "Diff'rent Strokes", and wrote in that Larry and Phillip Drummond were old army friends (with Drummond's company becoming the new owners of Larry's radio station), thereby allowing a number of crossover episodes on both programs, in the hope of raising "Hello, Larry"'s popularity.

Failure and legacy

"Hello, Larry" had the misfortune of appearing on NBC at a time when that network was at its nadir in the ratings. The show was greeted by viewers who had high expectations based on Stevenson's "M*A*S*H" association, but quickly gained an extremely bad reputation as a weakly written, unfunny sitcom. It was thereafter used as a frequent punchline whenever a reference to a bad decision by an actor to leave a successful TV show was needed, though some viewers of the show argue it wasn't as bad as its lasting reputation suggests.Fact|date=November 2007

Johnny Carson frequently ridiculed the show in his "The Tonight Show" monologues. "The Larry Sanders Show" pilot makes reference that people who work in television don't like to hear the words "hello, Larry."

References in popular culture

The theme song for "Hello, Larry" is currently used as the intro to a weekly interview segment with "USA Today" sports writer Larry Weisman during the NFL season on "The First Team on Fox" on Fox Sports Radio.

In "Mystery Science Theater 3000", Crow remarks as a man whistles a tuneless song, "He's whistling the Hello, Larry theme song!"

In the episode of "Murphy Brown" entitled "It's How You Play the Game," Murphy Brown (Candice Bergen) makes reference to "Stick [ing] it in the file with "Hello, Larry" and Pam Ewing's Dream."

External links

*imdb title|id=0078623|title=Hello, Larry
*Tv.com show|id=2518|title=Hello, Larry
* [http://members.tripod.com/~dspages/hellolarry.html Extensive "Hello, Larry" Fan Site]
* [http://www.jumptheshark.com/forum/hello-larry/902 "Hello, Larry" at Jump the Shark]