90 Bristol Court
Three sitcoms sharing one address and a handyman.
90 Bristol Court was an NBC programming block consisting of three sitcoms set at a Southern California apartment complex. It aired Monday nights from October 5, 1964, through January 5, 1965, as a 90-minute series comprising Karen, Harris Against the World, and Tom, Dick, and Mary.
Quick Facts
- Premiered
- 5 October 1964
- Closed
- 4 January 1965
- Channel
- NBC
- Country
- United States
- Format
- Sitcom
- Runtime
- 90 minutes
Facts from the source article.
Background
The three series that made up 90 Bristol Court were produced separately with their own casts, writers, and production staffs, sharing only the umbrella title, the street address, and the production companies Kayro-Vue and Universal Television. The only on-air link between the shows was actor Guy Raymond, who played handyman Cliff Murdock and appeared in all three series greeting residents. Development began in August 1963. In January 1964, Television magazine reported that the block would consist of Old Gang of Mine (also called That Old Gang of Mine), Harris Against the World, and Tom, Dick and Mary, with Karen being developed as a standalone series. By March 1964, Old Gang of Mine had been dropped and Karen was added to the block. The name 90 Bristol Court derived from the 90-minute runtime and the fact that the initials of Ninety Bristol Court spelled NBC. The programming concept aimed to keep viewers tuned for the entire 90 minutes by marketing the three half-hour comedies as a single block with a common setting, rather than airing a 90-minute drama or movie. NBC believed this approach would build loyalty to the entire block rather than to individual shows.
Critical reception
Television critics harshly reviewed 90 Bristol Court upon its premiere. Cleveland Amory of TV Guide wrote that none of the three shows was terrible by itself, but except for Harris Against the World they were not strong enough to do more than bore the viewer; he found no redeeming feature in Karen except its theme song. Larry Wolters called the block a mess of unpalatable comic fodder and three excursions into idiocy that constituted cruel and inhuman punishment. Cecil Smith described it as synthetic as a $15 suit and predicted viewers would watch only the segment they liked rather than the whole block. Jack Gould stated that not a jolt of originality attended any of the opening installments and that the block offered a viewer convenience: tuning out one program would skip three shows.
Broadcast history
90 Bristol Court premiered on October 5, 1964, among the last new programs of the 1964–1965 season. It faced strong competition from CBS's To Tell the Truth, I've Got a Secret, and The Andy Griffith Show, and ABC's Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. On November 23, 1964, Peter Tewksbury wrote, produced, and directed all three episodes, using Henry David Thoreau's philosophy of simple living as a starting point for each. The block performed poorly in ratings; TV Guide reported that the November 9 and November 16 broadcasts averaged below a 17 share, the minimum considered acceptable. In mid-November 1964, The New York Times reported NBC planned to cancel Harris Against the World and Tom, Dick and Mary as of early January 1965. Television magazine reported that NBC's Monday lineup earned only a 14.4/24 Nielsen rating for the November–December 1964 period, compared to 19.3/32 for CBS and 20.1/34 for ABC. During that period, Tom, Dick and Mary ranked 86th, Karen 87th, and Harris Against the World 91st out of 96 primetime shows. The block ended on January 4, 1965, with the 13th and final episodes of Harris Against the World and Tom, Dick and Mary. Karen continued as a standalone series, with all ties to 90 Bristol Court removed, but was canceled in February 1965; its last new episode aired April 19, 1965, and its final rerun on August 30, 1965.
Shows
Karen, the first sitcom in the block, followed 16-year-old Karen Scott (Debbie Watson) and her tomboyish younger sister Mimi (Gina Gillespie), whose activities confounded their parents Steve and Barbara (Richard Denning and Mary LaRoche). The theme song was performed by the Beach Boys. After 90 Bristol Court ended, the handyman Cliff Murdock disappeared from Karen. Harris Against the World starred Jack Klugman as Alan Harris, a resident working at a Hollywood studio, with Patricia Barry as his wife Kate and Claire Wilcox and David Macklin as their children. The series depicted Harris's frustrations with work, finances, family, and his wife's spendthrift ways. Tom, Dick and Mary centered on newlyweds Tom and Mary Gentry (Don Galloway and Joyce Bulifant); Tom was an intern and Mary a medical secretary. Their combined income could not afford their apartment, so Tom's friend Dick Moran (Steve Franken), also an intern, moved in to share expenses, often irritating the couple with his romantic pursuits.
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