"The Good Life"
Originally August 28th, 2006
Last Updated April 7th, 2013
Larry Hagman and Donna Mills starred in this short-lived NBC sitcom, which ran for 15 episodes during the 1971-1972 season. The played a couple who are sick of the rat race and want to live the good life. So, they get jobs as live-in servants for a wealthy family and get to enjoy all the finer things. The only problem? They don't know anything about being servants. David Wayne, Hermione Baddeley and Danny Goldman rounded out the cast.
In 1968, Douglass Wallop's novel The Good Life was published by Atheneum Books. It told the story of a tired, middle-class couple who decide to hire themselves out to a wealthy household as butler and maid in an attempt to find "the good life." In a review for The New York Times, Martin Levin called the novel a "bubbling social comedy," writing "the class struggle [...] produces a shower of sparks that lights up some very funny confrontations, all the funnier because there is more than a grain of truth at the heart of them" [1].
Wallop's 1954 novel, The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant, was later adapted into the 1855 Tony Award-winning musical Damn Yankees. The Good Life wouldn't make it to the stage but it was adapted for the small screen as The Good Life, a half-hour sitcom. Created by Fred Freeman and Lawrence J. Cohen, with Lee Rich and Claudio Guzman serving as executive producer and producer, respectively, the series was a Lorimar/Humble production in association with Screen Gems.
The Good Life was one of numerous new shows listed in a version of NBC's 1971-1972 schedule sent to advertising agencies in early March 1971 [2]. At the time, the networks were dealing with the FCC's new Prime Time Access Rule, which forced them to relinquish a half-hour of programming during prime time at the start of the 1971-1972 season.
Thus, even as the scrambled to put together their fall schedules, they were also struggling over which half-hour of prime time to give up, 7:30-8PM or 10:30-11PM. Initially, NBC announced it would start its prime time programming at 7:30PM and The Good Life was given the 7:30-8PM time slot on Saturdays, where it would be followed at 8PM by another new sitcom, The Partners leading into the NBC Saturday Night at the Movies from 8:30-10:30PM [3].
Copyright © TV Guide, 1971 [1]
NBC soon changed its mind and declared prime time would run 8-11PM each night of the week except for Tuesday, which would run from 7:30-10:30PM, and Sunday, which would run from 7:30-11PM. The network's finalized 1971-1972 schedule, announced on March 9th, gave The Good Life the 8:30-9PM time slot on Saturday following The Partners [4].
After officially announcing that The Good Life was part of its 1971-1972 schedule, NBC then took the unusual step of previewing the series by airing the pilot episode. Typically, the life cycle of a television series worked a little differently, with a network airing a pilot to gauge critical and audience reaction and then deciding whether to pick it up. With The Good Life, NBC did things out of order.
The network aired the pilot as part of NBC aired the pilot as part of a two-hour NBC World Premiere Movie called "Triple Play," which aired from 9-11PM on Monday, March 22nd following a repeat of Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. Fittingly, "Triple Play" was hosted by Dan Rowan and Dick Martin and their segments stretched the special to two hours. The pilot to The Good Life was the the second of the three to be presented during the special.
The pilot introduces young married couple Albert and Jane Miller, played by Larry Hagman and Donna Mills. The two are sick of their middle-class life, the stress that goes along with maintaining it, and the problems of living in the city. They are convinced there has to be a better way to enjoy the finer things in life without having to work for them. Their plan? Find a rich family, get hired as a butler and maid, do a minimal amount of work, and share in the opulent lifestyle of their employers.
Despite being in no way qualified to be domestic servants, the Millers are soon hired by millionaire Charles Dutton (played by David Wayne), the somewhat eccentric head of Dutton Industries who lives on a lavish estate with his sister Grace (played by Kate Reid) and son Nick (played by Danny Goldman). Although he recognizes they might not be top notch help, Charles likes the two. Grace does not and wants nothing more than to see them fired. As for Nick, he soon uncovers the truth but because he also likes the Millers, rather than turn them in to his father he keeps quiet and even offers to help maintain the charade.
(When The Good Life was picked up to series, Hermione Baddeley replaced Kate Reid as Grace Dutton.)
In addition to the half-hour The Good Life pilot, "Triple Play" also featured two other Screen Gems sitcom pilots: "Inside O.U.T." and "Is There a Doctor in the House?" Like The Good Life, "Inside O.U.T." was created by Fred Freeman and Lawrence J. Cohen. It starred Bill Daily as the bungling director of the Office of Unusual Tactics, an organization charged with retrieving $2 million in misprinted currency. The pilot also featured Farrah Fawcett and Alan Oppenheimer.
William Windom starred in "Is There a Doctor in the House?" as a gruff, small-town doctor whose life is turned upside down when the doctor sent to assist him unexpectedly turns out to be a young, female and fresh out of medical school. The pilot was created by Bernard Slade.
Percy Shain, reviewing "Triple Play" for The Boston Globe, lamented that out of the three pilots it was The Good Life that NBC had decided to pick up, calling it "a mild comment on modern society that was definitely the least attractive item on the menu" [5]. He further opined that "there is a valid premise here for good comedy but they took the easy way out by giving [the Millers] a family of weirdos to work for [...] all sensitively portrayed but stereotypes nevertheless, and the situations never ran true" [6].
Why NBC would offer a preview of a series it had already committed to airing is a mystery. One has to wonder whether there was any concern the preview could backfire if critics or viewers hated it. Perhaps the series was picked up at the last minute after the preview had already been scheduled and NBC saw no reason to pull it. Given that "Triple Play" was a packaged Screen Gems special with hosts rather than three half-hour pilots simply strung together, it would have been difficult if not impossible to edit remove The Good Life pilot.
"Triple Play" was repeated on Monday, August 23rd, two weeks before the series officially debuted on Saturday, September 18th, 1971. Clarence Petersen of The Chicago Tribune reviewed the repeat broadcast and took a negative view of The Good Life, which he called "a half-hour of relentless and exhausting slapstick, nearly as manic as Hagman himself" [7].
In the series premiere, Charles asks Albert to sell one of his old cars, a Rolls-Royce. If Albert is able to sell it for more than its trade-in value, he can keep the extra money. What does Albert do? He promptly allows a con artist to take the Rolls for a test drive. Not surprisingly, the car is not returned, leaving Albert stuck trying to replace it before someone finds out.
Critics were split in their opinions of The Good Life, with some calling it a solid sitcom and others dismissing it as pedestrian. Percy Shain and Clarence Petersen were certainly negative in their reviews of the pilot when it aired as part of "Triple Play." Another negative review of the pilot came in April 1971, when Herb Jacobs of consulting firm TelCom Associates told a crowd at the annual National Association of Broadcasters convention that The Good Life "misses comedy so badly they're dubbing in a yawn track" [8].
Reviews of the series premiere were mixed. Percy Shain's opinion didn't change much from the pilot. Of the premiere, he wrote "the situations were inept, the lines unfunny, and the whole business veered on the edge of disaster from start to finish" [9]. Likewise, Clarence Petersen repeated his criticism of the pace of the pilot, declaring "the debut wasn't overloaded with laughs, but I've never seen so many comedic crises [...] packed into a single 30-minute episode" [10].
Another fairly negative review came from Don Page of The Los Angeles Times, who wrote "[The Good Life] is full of cutesy dialogue and gets a lot of mileage out of studio backlot sets and keeps going around in circles with predictable results" [11]. Harry Harris of The Philadelphia Inquirer was also less than impressed, arguing the series premiere had "more promising principals than premise."
However, there were a few positive reviews. Barbara Zuanich of The Los Angeles Herald Examiner called the premiere "fast, snappy and well-played." The San Diego Union's Don Freeman called it a "fairly amusing little comedy that might be the year's sleeper." And Judith Martin of The Washington Post stated it "may not be Noel Coward, but for television situation comedy it is amusing."
In late September, with the 1971-1972 season in its third week, John J. O'Connor of The New York Times included The Good Life in a list of new programs he called "exceptionally bad" (the others were Bearcats! on CBS and Shirley's World on ABC) [12].
For Albert and Jane Miller, working for the Duttons was exactly what they had hoped for. Charles provided them with a nice little cottage to live in, gave them free reign of his estate -- pool, tennis court, etc -- and allowed them the use of his fancy cars. It truly was the good life. Or it would have been if Albert wasn't so incredibly inept.
Letting that con artist test drive the Rolls-Royce in the premiere was just the start of Albert's misadventures. Many episodes involved Albert screwing up, messing up or otherwise getting in over his head. For example, in one episode he tries to impress an old college friend by pretending the Dutton estate is his home. He offers to let the friend stay for the weekend while the Duttons are on vacation. Of course the Duttons unexpectedly return early and Albert's friend doesn't want to leave.
In another episode, Albert breaks his leg while playing tennis and has to hire his own replacement. But he can't hire someone who'll do a better job than he does or else the jig will be up. Unfortunately, the man he hires turns out to be really good at the job and Albert decides he has to compete with the man during a cocktail party or else he'll be out of a job.
Albert also tried to hide a lion in his cottage, angered other household staff by trying to cut costs, attempted to teach Grace to drive so he and Jane can go to Hawaii with Charles; and won a fortune at a gas station for buying the company's one billionth gallon of gas.
A pair of episodes involved relatives of the Duttons. In one, David Wayne played both Charles Dutton and his even wealthier, more eccentric uncle, the Commodore. In the other, Charles's nephew comes for a visit and learns the truth about Albert and Jane. He then threatens to expose them.
Other plots included Nick deciding to leave home and Charles in turn putting his estate up for sale; Jane agreeing to accompany Nick to a fancy party as his date; Albert trying to convince Charles to vacation on the French Riviera (and take him and Jane along) only to wind up on vacation in a mountain cabin; Albert accidentally hiring criminals to install a burglar alarm after he and Jane learn that a number of other servants in the area have been beaten and robbed.
Bob Cummings guest starred in the December 4th episode as J. Carleton Wedemeyer, a man whose name Albert used as a reference when applying for his position with the Duttons.
In its Saturday 7:30-8PM time slot, The Good Life competed with another new sitcom on CBS, Funny Face, as well as the first half-hour of The ABC Movie of the Weekend. Its series premiere on September 18th tied for 51st with the series premiere of The Jimmy Stewart Show on NBC [13]. The following week, The Good Life was one of eight new series to rank below the 50th in the Nielsens [14].
As the 1971-1972 continued, The Good Life stayed near the bottom of the Nielsen charts. For the fourth week of the season (September 27th through October 3rd), the series was among the lowest-rated programs on television, along with Chicago Teddy Bears on CBS and Man and the City on ABC [15].
On October 20th, Percy Shain of The Boston Globe announced that each of the networks was said to be canceling two new shows at mid-season; NBC's cancellations were said to be The Good Life and The Partners but the report was said to be "premature" [16]. In an early November Associated Press article, the series was said to have "serious ratings troubles, and David Wayne explained "we've finished 15 episodes in our series and we ought to know any day now if we go back for more shows or if it's all over" [17]. It was all over.
NBC announced its mid-season scheduling changes on November 9th and The Good Life was one of five new series to be cancelled (the others were The Partners, Sarge, The Funny Side and The D.A. [18]. Its replacement would be a new Jack Webb drama called Emergency!, which would debut on January 15th as a World Premiere Movie and on January 22nd in its regular 8-9PM time slot. The fifteenth and final episode of The Good Life was broadcast on January 8th, 1972.
In the mid-1970s, when PBS began airing a British comedy also called The Good Life, it was retitled Good Neighbors to avoid confusion with the Hagman/Mills sitcom.(Hagman, of course, went on to play J.R. Ewing on Dallas from 1978 to 1991. Prior to his death in November 2012, he returned to his iconic role for the 2012 sequel series on TNT. From 1980 to 1989, Mills co-starred in Knots Landing, a spin-off of Dallas. And David Wayne appeared in the original Dallas miniseries that aired in April 1978.)
Appropriately enough, the theme song to The Good Life was "The Good Life," sung by Tony Orlando and Dawn. The song, an English-language version of "La Belle Vie" (written in 1962 by Sacha Distel and Jack Reardon), was released as a single by Tony Bennett in 1963.
Listen to the Opening Theme to The Good Life
Here are the lyrics:
Oh, the good life,
Full of fun seems to be the ideal.
Mm, the good life,
Let's you hide all the sadness you feel.
Please remember, I still want you.
And in case you wonder why,
Well just wake up to the good life.
Oh, talkin' 'bout the good life.
Just the good life,
For you and me.
(The good life).
For you and me.
(The good life).
For you and me.
An instrumental version of the song was used for the closing credits.
Works Cited:
2 "Laugh-In May Get NBC Ax." Chicago Tribune. Associated Press. 3 Mar. 1971: F10.
3 "The games TV networks play." Broadcasting. 8 Mar. 1971: 42-44.
4 Shain, Percy. "New NBC TV season offers crime, comedy." Boston Globe. 10 Mar. 1971: 46.
5 Shain, Percy. "Night Watch: Generation gap narrowed 'In Search of America'." Boston Globe. 24 Mar. 1971: 48.
6 Ibid.
7 Petersen, Clarence. "'Triple Play': No Runs, 1 Hit, 1 Error." Chicago Tribune. 27 Aug. 1971: 21.
8 Petersen, Clarence. "On the Air: Sniffing Out Next Year's Stinkers." Chicago Tribune. 1 Apr. 1971: B29.
9 Shain, Percy. "Familiar faces return in new season's television programs." Boston Globe. 19 Sep. 1971: 26.
10 Petersen, Clarence. "Another Winner for Van Dyke?" Chicago Tribune. 20 Sep. 1971.
11 Unless noted, all quotes from "It's anyone's guess - and they're all guessing." Broadcasting. 27 Sep. 1971: 12-19.
12 O'Connor, John J. "TV: New Shows Escapist--And Dull." New York Times. 28 Sep. 1971: 66.
13 Petersen, Clarence. "Ratings Put 5 New Series in Top 20." Chicago Tribune. 28 Sep. 1971: B13.
14 "The ratings race: predictable results." Broadcasting. 11 Oct. 1971: 36.
15 "Tighter ratings contest in the fourth week." Broadcasting. 25 Oct. 1971: 56.
16 Shain, Percy. "6 new shows to be dumped by networks." Boston Globe. 20 Oct. 1971: 54.
17 Lowry, Cynthia. "'Good Life' ratings - David Wayne in limbo." Geneva Times [Geneva, NY]. Associated Press. 2 Nov. 1971: 16.
18 Gent, George. "N.B.C. Will Scrap 5 New TV Programs in January." New York Times. 10 Nov. 1971: 94.
Image Credits:
Acknowledgements:
Tony Orlando and Dawn {Joyce Vincent & Telma Hopkins} were under contract to Bell records, Columbia Pictures' then recording subsidiary. Someone at their Screen Gems/Columbia music publishing subsidiary knew Orlando and the group, and got them to record the title song for the TV series (replacing the original wistful/brassy tune featured in the March 1971 pilot), which was originally a French song, "La Belle Vie", written by Sasha Distel {English lyrics by Jack Reardon}, of which Tony Bennett had the 1963 hit recording.
I remember a scene where Albert was pouring wine at the dinner table, and there was this bratty kid... The result was, Albert almost ended up pouring the wine onto the kid's head, but Jane stopped him at the last moment. It was done with perfect timing.
So few people remember this show, for many years, I almost began to think I'd dreamed it up. I was only eight years old when it was on, and I couldn't find anyone else who'd seen or remembered the show...ever. Until now. I only looked it up due to the death of Larry Hagman.
I seem to remember a scene where the Millers are chased across the lawn by one of the Duttons in a hot rod, which I beleve may have been a George Barris (builder of the Batmobile and Black Beauty as well as other tv cars) contraption. I think it was a Barris custom because I was a big fan of Barris as an 8 year old building model kits of his cars, and my mom's best friend lived a mere half block from his studio in North Hollywood where I'd go press my face against the glass for hours. I would have recognized his cars in a heartbeat then.
I picked up a Douglass Wallop novel - Ocean Side (1963) - at a flea market a few years back. I didn't know who he was and so I Googled him and as an interesting piece of trivia I discovered he was married to writer Lucille Fletcher. I didn't know who she was either although I was familiar with her work: Sorry, Wrong Number (novel) and The Hitch-Hiker (radio play), which was adapted as a well-known Twilight Zone episode. Before marrying Wallop she was married to Bernard Herrmann.
I wouldn't mind reading The Good Life too. Hopefully some day I'll stumble across it like I did with Ocean Side.