I am being a little kind about this series giving it four stars. I can't even say I watched many episodes - I saw the first (which was the pilot) in 1967, probably because I liked Dwayne Hickman in THE LOVES OF DOBIE GILLIS. But all acting productions are crap-shoots, and in the 1960s most sitcoms were pretty bad. I suppose that this was the best offer that Hickman got at the time.
Interesting cast - Allan Melville, a very familiar perennial comedian on television on YOU'LL NEVER GET RICH and THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW (and later GOMER PYLE and ALL IN THE FAMILY). Ben Blue, whose career spanned vaudeville, movies, radio and early television. And Walter Woolf King - "Lasspari" the villainous Italian tenor in the Marx Brothers' A NIGHT AT THE OPERA - finally got a regular role, although in this turkey, on television.
The plot was pretty bad (but curious enough to get an audience for the opening - if not later). King was the president of a big bank in New York City (a clone of the far better written "Milburn Drysdale" - Raymond Bailey - of THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES) who is opening a new headquarters in Manhattan, when along comes Mr. Hickman followed by Blue, Melville, and Leslie Perkins. Hickman is an attorney, and the three others are his clients: the last members of an Indian tribe who claim they own the land that the bank headquarters (which has just been completed) is on. Hickman insists they own it, unless the bank pays them a huge amount of cash. King, with rising indignation, blusters and refuses (a bit more Lasspari in his performance would have not been amiss for the character - Bailey with a better script would have dismantled the problem with great comic affect quickly). However, King faces a temporary restraining order preventing him from occupying his building. He insists he'll get it overturned.
So far you can see how ridiculous the story was to begin with. It got worse. Hickman's interest in the Indians is involving a budding romance with Leslie Perkins (Laughing Brook is her name). She tells him a story about the tribe's history in the region. It went back to the 17th Century, and there were more of them back then. But the most interesting event was how their land was on Manhattan Island. In 1624 a bunch of white men approached Indians and bought the island from them - but here is the interesting point. The Indians who sold Manhattan Island did not live there - and had no right to sell it!
Hickman (naturally) realizes that this means Blue, Perkins, and Melville are the real owners of the real estate of the island of Manhattan. When they meet Woolf King the next day (he's prepared to get their restraining order overturned) they point out that the court he went to is illegal on Manhattan soil - as the island is still sovereign land of the Indian tribe.
Historically, by the way, the story that Peter Minuit bought Manhattan from Indians from Brooklyn (possibly Coney Island) has been supported for some time. But I doubt, seriously, if the demands of three surviving people (forget Indians) would dictate the turning over of deeds of land from nearly four hundred years of history in one moment. Yet that was what the plot of this series was going to be. You can see it was a lousy idea.
The series collapsed in a few months. I have never found people who even remember it.
Interesting cast - Allan Melville, a very familiar perennial comedian on television on YOU'LL NEVER GET RICH and THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW (and later GOMER PYLE and ALL IN THE FAMILY). Ben Blue, whose career spanned vaudeville, movies, radio and early television. And Walter Woolf King - "Lasspari" the villainous Italian tenor in the Marx Brothers' A NIGHT AT THE OPERA - finally got a regular role, although in this turkey, on television.
The plot was pretty bad (but curious enough to get an audience for the opening - if not later). King was the president of a big bank in New York City (a clone of the far better written "Milburn Drysdale" - Raymond Bailey - of THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES) who is opening a new headquarters in Manhattan, when along comes Mr. Hickman followed by Blue, Melville, and Leslie Perkins. Hickman is an attorney, and the three others are his clients: the last members of an Indian tribe who claim they own the land that the bank headquarters (which has just been completed) is on. Hickman insists they own it, unless the bank pays them a huge amount of cash. King, with rising indignation, blusters and refuses (a bit more Lasspari in his performance would have not been amiss for the character - Bailey with a better script would have dismantled the problem with great comic affect quickly). However, King faces a temporary restraining order preventing him from occupying his building. He insists he'll get it overturned.
So far you can see how ridiculous the story was to begin with. It got worse. Hickman's interest in the Indians is involving a budding romance with Leslie Perkins (Laughing Brook is her name). She tells him a story about the tribe's history in the region. It went back to the 17th Century, and there were more of them back then. But the most interesting event was how their land was on Manhattan Island. In 1624 a bunch of white men approached Indians and bought the island from them - but here is the interesting point. The Indians who sold Manhattan Island did not live there - and had no right to sell it!
Hickman (naturally) realizes that this means Blue, Perkins, and Melville are the real owners of the real estate of the island of Manhattan. When they meet Woolf King the next day (he's prepared to get their restraining order overturned) they point out that the court he went to is illegal on Manhattan soil - as the island is still sovereign land of the Indian tribe.
Historically, by the way, the story that Peter Minuit bought Manhattan from Indians from Brooklyn (possibly Coney Island) has been supported for some time. But I doubt, seriously, if the demands of three surviving people (forget Indians) would dictate the turning over of deeds of land from nearly four hundred years of history in one moment. Yet that was what the plot of this series was going to be. You can see it was a lousy idea.
The series collapsed in a few months. I have never found people who even remember it.
