I’ve worked on a lot of fun shows over the years (CHEERS, BOB, BOSTON LEGAL, TERRIERS) but none of them were as purely delightful as THANKS. It’s only been shown once, but a faithful few remember it. It was a sitcom about The Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony in 1600s and it was damn funny.
I remember, I had a development deal at a network (which shall remain nameless) and they were busy hating everything I came up with, when my dear college friend and fellow sitcom writer Mark Jordan Legan came to me with this wild idea of doing a historical comedy about The Puritans, ala BLACKADDER and BEST OF THE WEST. I leapt at the chance and we wrote it in a week! I never thought the network would go for it, but I sent it off. And guess what? They hated it! Surprise!
Never ones to take ‘no’ for an answer, we sent it to another network and they decided to meet with us. (Perhaps to see if we were really serious?) We pitched our hearts out and… sold it in the room! (those were the days)
We had a glorious time making the pilot. We got our dream grandmother in Cloris Leachman; found a hilarious village idiot in Jim Rash; the perfect wife in Kristen Nelson; the delightfully precocious daughter who was always being accused of being a witch, Amy Centner. After much searching, we found the perfect Pioneer Father in Tim Dutton. We even cast ourselves, Mark and Phoef, as plague-ridden sailors.
We made only a very few episodes. People ask me if I’m sorry we were cancelled so quickly; I counter that I’m thrilled we were able to make six of these crazy things at all. The supporting cast (Keith Szarabjka, John Farley, John Fleck, Robert Machray, Michael Horse and especially the late Kathryn Joosten and the late Glenn Shadix) was everything we could have hoped for. The network didn’t give us very many notes because they couldn’t figure out what the hell the show was. We just did what we wanted to, for six wonderful weeks.
The show premiered in the summer, opposite the first run of WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE? It was trounced in the ratings and quickly canceled – (though it truly got some rave reviews, with Entertainment Weekly calling it the funniest sitcom of the year). It was never shown again. But, as I said, a few people remember it. Sara Vowell wrote about it fondly in her book THE WORDY SHIPMATES. People quote it to us. (“She’s a witch!” “Fornicators!”)
THANKS lives on.
Phoef & Mark
Thanks to both Phoef & Mark for the explanation and mostly, thanks for THANKS.
Here's a question that may be naive, but I'll ask anyway, though I'm having a hard time formulating the question.
ReplyDeleteI don't know who owns Thanks, or any number of other short-lived gems. But, since there doesn't appear to be much of a market for any of them, other than a few TV nerds like me, isn't there a mechanism to show them via streaming. There really wouldn't be much in production/distribution cost. (Any number of people could convert the videos to a streamable format, and there are any number of niche streamers that could probably use the traffic and exposure, so these shows might act as a loss leader). Or am I being naive?
I'm a history professor and I always worry when Hollywood depicts history, that it will be taken as gospel. I live in Las Vegas, and people still think Warren Beatty invented the city and Robert DeNiro was one of our greatest leaders.
ReplyDeleteBut I wish this sitcom had worked. History has its funny side, of course. And then I think of the funniest president we ever had, and how Fox managed to do a horrible sitcom about him, portraying him as an idiot--the show about Lincoln's household. Sigh.
Strange, they only made six episodes of another great comedy, Police Squad.
ReplyDeleteMaybe six is the number for sitcom finality, like nine is for symphonies.
I vaguely remember this when it came out. I was not a game show aficionado so maybe thats how I caught it. The big question is where can we see all 6 episodes?
ReplyDeleteOther great short lived comedies I would like to see again include Franks Place and Action.
There seems to be an implication in this story - what was the fallout from the nameless network that hated everything Mr. Sutton proposed under the development deal?
ReplyDeleteKen's kind tutelage indicates that most development deals are 'exclusive' - that the writer is tied-up for the duration.
So, was Mr. Sutton tied up? Did he first have to be "released"? Was it a "sabbatical" of sorts?
Finally, I seem to recall (from Ken's interview/podcast with Earl Pomerantz) that there were few notes on BEST OF THE WEST - also because the suits coudn't figure that out, either.
I would be most thankful if someone on YouTube or elsewhere could post the entire run of "Thanks." And hopefully that angel in disguise reads this blog and the comments section.
ReplyDeleteLoved the clip! Digging around YouTube for more. :)
ReplyDeleteApparently, you are not joking. And I'm short on coffee, despite it being 23:00 over here.
ReplyDeleteBut, a sit-com based upon the Pilgrims? It's a difficult sell. But let's just try the Elevator Pitch.
"A ship-load of ignorant religiously bigoted morons who can't fish or raise their own barnyard animals set sail and land somewhere way off course. They nearly starve, but their new neighbors join them in a potlatch. Hilarity ensues!@
No, wait, the morons in question bring leptospirosis along, carried by the rats on board. Hilarity ensues!
No, wait, sixty years later in "King Philip's War," better described as a rolling massacre (with appropriately genocidal commentary by the descendants of the Pilgrims), it turns out that sharing a potlatch isn't enough. Hilarity ensues!
Beats me why a sitcom on the subject bombed. Perhaps the potential audience appealed to the better angels of their nature.
I agree with Benson!!!
ReplyDeleteWOW Dr. Loser you're actually doing creative writing on a writing blog, nicely done....... you won't be well-liked in the comment section for that.
ReplyDeleteI watched it when it premiered. I expected it to be terrible if they were burning it off in the summer, but I loved it. I may very well have recorded it knowing it wouldn't last.
ReplyDeleteI love Sarah Vowell and "Wordy Shipmates" is one of my favorite books of hers. I actually read small excerpts from it to my American History I students. So yes, I've seen all six episodes of "Thanks" and agree that it was a small, wonderful collection of gems.
ReplyDeleteI do enjoy comedies that represent some sort of viewpoint and try to say something, because if you can make your audience think while they're laughing, that's great.
But Ken is right. First and foremost, it should be funny!
Don't know how I missed this show...til I read today's post. Someone in our house watched Millionaire, too bad for me! I like comedies like Thanks, off the normal center and they're FUNNY! Maybe it's time to do it again?
ReplyDeleteSometimes you wind up working on a melting ice flow, but you still do your best work and if people want to laugh at your fruitless effort you have to understand that they've never had to deal with anything like it because no one would ask them to try.
ReplyDeleteMeant floe of course.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip to listen to Film Freaks Forever! I'm two episodes in and I'm enjoying.
ReplyDeleteBEST OF THE WEST featured a lovely exchange at the end of one episode, which I am paraphrasing from memory.
A solution to a problem was overlooked by almost everyone:
BEST: I'm the Marshall, I should have thought of it.
JANEY GIBBS: Well, I'm the mountain girl, I should have thought of it first.
FROG: That's the great thing about being stupid. You never feel guilty.
Fun Fact: About a year later, Kristen Nelson would play the young Kathryn Joosten (and totally nail it) on The West Wing.
ReplyDeleteFun Fact: About a year later, Kristen Nelson would play the young Kathryn Joosten (and totally nail it) on The West Wing.
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I remember it well and hated it was cancelled!! The funniest show ever!! Love it!!!!
ReplyDeleteI have the pilot episode of 'THANKS' and wish i could find the rest.
ReplyDeleteIt`s too bad this can`t get a 'Manufacture on Demand' DVD release, like some other short-lived shows have.