About Those Unaired Tammy Grimes Show Episodes

As I mention in my article about The Tammy Grimes Show–which, if you haven’t read it yet, can be found here–ABC ordered 17 episodes of the sitcom for use during the 1966-1967 season. That seems like an odd initial order but if the show had been a success, the network no doubt would’ve ordered more episodes. Instead, it was a huge failure and ABC cancelled it just before production on the 11th episode was supposed to start.

I was initially under the impression that 14 scripts were completed before the show was cancelled. That’s how many I found in a search of copyright records. However, the Special Collections Department of the University of Iowa Libraries has a large collection of 20th Century-Fox scripts that includes scripts from The Tammy Grimes Show. There are scripts for the original pilot as well as a multiple drafts of 15 different episodes.

Episodes ABC Aired or Planned to Air

Of the 10 episodes produced, ABC only aired four. Another two were scheduled to air before the network pulled the plug. That makes six that are known to have been produced:

Aired/Scheduled Episodes

“Officer’s Mess”
Written by Ralph Goodman
Aired September 8th, 1966

“How to Steal a Girl, Even If It’s Only Me”
Written by Roland Wolpert
Aired September 15th, 1966

“Tammy Hits Las Vegas, Or Vice Versa”
Written by Hannibal Coons and Harry Winkler
Aired September 22nd, 1966

“Positively Made In Paris”
Written by Stan Dreben and Howard Merrill
Aired September 29th, 1966

“George Washington Didn’t Sleep Here”
Written by Jack Raymond and Sid Morse
Scheduled for October 6th, 1966

“Diamonds Are A Bird’s Best Friend”
Written by John Barbour and Whitey Mitchell
Scheduled for October 13th, 1966

As I said, ABC only aired four episodes of The Tammy Grimes Show. As far as I know, the six completed episodes that weren’t broadcast by ABC have never aired anywhere in the world. The UCLA Film & Television Archive has copies of all four aired episodes as well as the episode scheduled for October 6th plus the original unaired pilot.

Footage from Unaired Episodes

Most of the episodes ABC aired featured previews for upcoming episodes, including several that ultimately never aired. Here’s the preview from the September 22nd episode (“Tammy Hits Las Vegas, Or Vice Versa”):

Loading the player…

It includes scenes from the September 29th episode (“Positively Made in Paris”) as well as the episode scheduled for October 6th (“George Washington Didn’t Sleep Here”).

Here’s the preview from the September 29th episode:

Loading the player…

I’m not sure which episode(s) these scenes are from. They don’t appear to match the description of the episode scheduled for October 13th, which involved Tammy defending her parrot in court. That suggests they’re from one of the four other unaired episodes, perhaps “The Ski’s the Limit” (see below).

The Remaining Episodes

Here’s a list of titles and writers for all of the known scripts completed for The Tammy Grimes Show. Four of these were filmed, the others were never produced.

Completed Scripts for The Tammy Grimes Show

“Tammy Plays Cupid”
Written by Stan Dreben and Howard Merrill

“Tamantha Nightingale Rides Again”
Written by Al Gordon and Hal Goldman

“The Ski’s the Limit”
Written by Charles Marion and Irving Cummings

“Send a Rich Girl to Camp This Summer”
Written by Gene Thompson

“How I Saved the Opera, or Did I?”
Written by Harry Winkler and Hannibal Coons

“The Great Charge Account War”
Written by Bill O’Hallaren

“Give Her Back to the Indians”
Written by George F. Slavin and Stanley Adams

“A Funny Thing Happened to Me on the Way to the Studio”
Teleplay by Alex Gottlieb
Story by Bob Reitman and Don Garey

“It’s in the Bag, Dad”
Written by Hal Biller

The odds of The Tammy Grimes Show ever being released on DVD or somehow finding its way to television on Me-TV or Cozi TV are infinitesimal. That means, with the exception of the single unaired episode available for viewing at the UCLA Film & Television Archive, none of the unaired episodes will likely never be seen by anyone.


Related Posts

Become a Patron Today

Are you a fan of obscure television? Please support Television Obscurities on Patreon by becoming a patron today.

9 Replies to “About Those Unaired Tammy Grimes Show Episodes”

  1. Great work of research as always. I wonder why there are forty scripts for a series that had an order for 17 episodes. It is not unusual for more scripts to be bought or written than the number of episodes ordered but 40 seems excessive for a show that died so fast.

    The chance of seeing the unaired episodes legally depends on who currently owns the copyright. It could end up streaming for some archive service similar to Warner Archive or on some cheap DVD collection of various TV series.

    1. I should have clarified that while there are 40 scripts total, many of them are duplicates or more likely different drafts of the same episode. I think one of the episodes had five drafts, all with different dates.

      1. That makes sense. There is a saying that TV writers embrace “scripts are not written they are rewritten.”

        I used to collect TV scripts and it was fun to see the rainbow of color pages with scripts used by cast and others during shooting. Each day the scripts would get some scene or whatever rewritten and the pages where it would appear in the script would have a different color.

      2. Really? As bad as the show was (I have seen the first two aired episodes), there were other drafts? I shudder to think of what the scripts of the aired episodes were orig8nally!

  2. It is likely elements for all the episodes aired and unaired are sitting in the vaults at 20th Century Fox where the show was produced.

  3. I actually watched the first episode of the Tammy Grimes Show – by mistake. I had waited all summer to watch the debut of Star Trek, but as a confused fourth-grader I got the time wrong and missed the first half hour. I turned in to the middle of “The Man Trap” and was utterly confused. How many other people out there saw the debut of both the Tammy Grimes show and Star Trek?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.