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Only a year after the end of Gilligan's Island, Bob Denver starred in this low-key, two-season sitcom as Rufus Butterworth, a taxi driver. Herb Edelman also starred as Bert Gramus, who owned a diner called Bert's Place. During the second season Bert gave up the taxi and joined Bert in running the diner. The series was never syndicated after its initial run.

One year after the end of his three-season stint as the inept Gilligan on Gilligan's Island, Bob Denver returned to television in The Good Guys. The series was one of ten projects that CBS took to the pilot stage in December of 1967, in preparation for the 1967-1968 television season. CBS had also aired Gilligan's Island.

Two seasons were aired, producing a total of 42 episodes. During the first season, the series was aired on Wednesdays at 8:30PM. When it premiered in 1968, The Good Guys was one of the few late 1960s shows to be filmed in front of a live audience.

The Good Guys told the story of Rufus Butterworth (Bob Denver) and Bert Gramus (Herb Edelman), two life-long pals doing their best to make it in the world. They spent much of their time trying to strike it rich with a variety of hair-brained schemes that inevitably fell apart in the end, much to the chagrin of Bert's wife Claudia (Joyce Van Patten).

When the series began in September of 1968, Bert was running "Bert's Place," your typical, ordinary diner. Claudia, who worked as a teacher, did her best to keep her husband grounded in reality and their money intact. Rufus was a taxi driver who hung around the diner in his spare time (which was more or less around the clock).

Episodes dealt with the problems faced by Rufus, Bert and Claudia after Rufus and Bert got themselves into trouble. For example, in one episode Rufus brought a lovesick songwriter back to the diner. He then decided that, along with Bert, he should become the man's manager and cash in on the songwriter's music. It didn't pan out.

In another episode, the two decide to put together a television commercial for the diner to pull in more patrons. One interesting episode dealt with computerized dating (remember, this was 1969!). Of course, things went horribly wrong when the computer insisted that the perfect woman for Rufus was none other than Claudia!

Rufus & "Big Tom"

During the second half of the season, Alan Hale, Jr. and Jim Backus appeared in several episodes. Both had earlier appeared with Bob Denver on Gilligan's Island. The producers of the series were no doubt attempting to reignite the chemistry that Hale and Denver had shared on Gilligan's Island. Hale played Big Tom, who married Gertie, and Backus played Henry.

Supporting characters for the first season included Toni Gilman as Gertie, George Furth as Hal Dawson and Ron Masak as Andy Gardner, a mutual friend of Bert and Rufus who also frequented the diner. Gary Burghoff and Tom Poston also guest-starred in episodes during the first season. which ran for twenty-five episodes. The season finale was broadcast on April 24th, 1969.

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Several production changes were instituted prior to the start of the second season. The live audience was dropped and Bert's Place was moved to a beach. Rufus gave up driving his cab and became a partner with Bert. Gone were Gilman, Hale and Backus. A new supporting character was added. Jack Perkins appeared in a handful of season two episodes as Mr. Bender, a drunk. Yvonne Craig and Danny Bonaduce guest-starred this season.

Moving to Fridays at 8:00PM, the second season began on September 26th, 1969, running against The Brady Bunch on ABC and High Chaparral on NBC. None of the changes did any good and the series was cancelled in November of 1969.

Only seventeen episodes were broadcast during the second season. The final episode aired on January 23rd, 1970. It was replaced by The Tim Conway Show the following week. Stories during the second season ranged from Bert losing the diner (only to get it back, of course), Rufus gaining extra-sensory-perception, and, of course, health inspectors come calling on Bert's Place, much to the chagrin of Bert.

Although similar to its first season counterpart, the theme song to The Good Guys was changed for its second season. Due to the quality of the recordings available to us, there are some questions as to the proper lyrics. Fans Greg and Matt have sent in some corrections/interpretations to our original attempts at getting the lyrics down. Our recording of the first season theme comes from a VHS dub of a 16mm print. Take a listen:

As for the Season Two theme, it was recorded off the air using a reel-to-reel recorder way back in 1969 before being transferred to a cassette tape and finally a computer! Here it is:

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