The Famous Teddy Z

"The Famous Teddy Z" was a short-lived television sitcom created by Hugh Wilson ("WKRP in Cincinnati", "Frank's Place") that aired on CBS during the fall of 1989. It starred Jon Cryer ("Two and a Half Men") as Theodore "Teddy" Zakalakis, a young man working in a Hollywood talent agency in order to avoid being stuck in his Greek-American family's bakery. When Hollywood star Harland Keyvo meets Teddy Z, he is so impressed by his honesty that he makes him his new agent. The humor is derived from Teddy's innocent approach to the business, contrasted with the snake-like behavior of his fellow agents.

The cast also included Jane Sibbett, Alex Rocco, Milton Selzer, Josh Blake and Erica Yohn.

The outline of the series was inspired by the true story of Jay Kantor, who was a mailroom clerk at MCA and later became Marlon Brando's agent.

The pilot of the series was seen to be far stronger than subsequent episodes, but the series received two Emmy nominations, including one for the pilot, and for Alex Rocco, who won an Emmy as Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series, but low ratings led CBS to drop it with four episodes unaired. It was later run in its entirety on Comedy Central and still later by Trio under the heading "Brilliant But Canceled." Rocco hosted a marathon of episodes in 1993 on Comedy Central.

Rocco's character, Al Floss, also made a crossover appearance on "Murphy Brown", as the agent for several of that show's characters.

The theme song was performed by Bill Champlin of the rock group, Chicago.

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*imdb title|0096580