The Sandy Duncan Show

"Funny Face" and "The Sandy Duncan Show" were two short-lived sitcoms aired by CBS starring Sandy Duncan as part of its 1971 and 1972 fall lineups, respectively. Both series were created and produced by Carl Kleinschmitt. Infobox Television
show_name = Funny Face
genre = Sitcom
runtime = 30 minutes
starring = Sandy Duncan
Valorie Armstrong
Kathleen Freeman
Henry Beckman
Nita Talbot
country = USA
network = CBS
first_aired = September 18, 1971
last_aired = December 11, 1971
num_episodes = 13
imdb_id = 0066657
tv_com_id = 4232

Funny Face

In "Funny Face", Sandy Stockton is a cute young UCLA student from Taylorville, Illinois majoring in education and making ends meet by working part-time as an actress in TV commercials for the Prescott Advertising Agency. She was also befriended by neighbour Alice McRaven (Valorie Armstrong) and her landlords, Pat and Kate Harwell (Henry Beckman; Kathleen Freeman). Actress Nita Talbot played another friend, Maggie Prescott. The show was a part of the CBS 1971 Saturday night lineup which included the mega-hit "All in the Family" and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show". Despite ranking #8 in the Nielsen Ratings for the 1971-72 season, it was cancelled less than three months after its premiere, because Duncan had to undergo eye surgery. CBS returned the Sandy Stockton character and Miss Duncan the next season in "The Sandy Duncan Show".

The Sandy Duncan Show

Infobox Television
show_name = The Sandy Duncan Show
genre = Sitcom
runtime = 30 minutes
starring = Sandy Duncan
Tom Bosley
Marian Mercer
Pamela Zarit
Alfie Wise
Eric Christmas
M. Emmet Walsh
country = USA
netwo9rk = CBS
first_aired = September 17, 1972
last_aired = December 31, 1972
num_episodes = 13
imdb_id = 0068127
tv_com_id = 11207In "The Sandy Duncan Show", Sandy now worked for the advertising firm of Quinn & Cohen, where her supervisor was one of the partners, Bert Quinn (Tom Bosley), the other partner was Leonard Cohen (Alfie Wise). Two of her neighbors, Kay Fox (Marian Mercer) and Alex Lembeck (M. Emmet Walsh) were also close friends. Motorcycle police officer Alex constantly worried about Sandy's status as a single woman living alone, which he saw as being inherently dangerous; and as such, appointed himself as her chaperone/protector. Sandy had a very sweet and slightly naive nature and was prone to try to help anyone whom she felt needed help, including total strangers, so Alex's fears were not totally misplaced.

"The Sandy Duncan Show" attracted a much smaller audience than "Funny Face" on Sunday nights, typically the time of the largest television viewing audience in the U.S. It had to compete with ABC's Top 30 hit The F.B.I. and NBC's Top 10 hit NBC Sunday Mystery Movie. It was also cancelled at midseason, with the last episode airing on New Year's Eve 1972.

Theme song and Opening Titles

It was interesting to note that both "Funny Face" and "The Sandy Duncan Show" used the same theme song and opening titles. The opening titles consist of a photo album with pictures of Sandy Stockton as she was growing up from infancy to a young woman. Included were pictures of Sandy at various young ages; also pictures of her doing tap and ballet dancing; at various school functions; being a cheerleader for her high school; wearing her cap and gown, and posing by the Taylorville sign saying good bye as she was boarding her bus.

However, in "The Sandy Duncan Show's" opening, most of the pictures of a baby Sandy were eliminated, as there was now a second verse of the song, and that second verse was sung whilst showing Sandy on her bus trip from Taylorville to Los Angeles. In "Funny Face", the theme song "The Kind of Girl She Is" was sung by Jack Jones and later on on "The Sandy Duncan Show", a more up-tempo version of the theme was sang by an unknown group of men and women. The theme was written by the prolific team of Alan Bergman, Marilyn Bergman and Dave Grusin. The three would later collaborate on the theme song of the series "Maude" and its spin-off "Good Times".

References

Brooks, Tim and Marsh, Earle, "The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows"