''Me and the Chimp'' is an American

sitcom A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...

which aired for one season during 1972 on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

. It was created by

Garry Marshall Garry Kent Marshall (November 13, 1934 – July 19, 2016) was an American screenwriter, director, producer and actor. Marshall began his career in the 1960s as a writer for ''The Lucy Show'' and ''The Dick Van Dyke Show'' until he developed the T ...

and Thomas L. Miller and produced by Alan Rafkin for

Paramount Television The first incarnation of Paramount Television was operated as the television production division of the American film studio Paramount Pictures, until it changed its name to CBS Paramount Television on January 17, 2006. History Desilu Pro ...

Premise

Mike Reynolds is a dentist who lives with his wife, two children, and a

chimpanzee The chimpanzee (; ''Pan troglodytes''), also simply known as the chimp, is a species of Hominidae, great ape native to the forests and savannahs of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed one. When its close rel ...

named Buttons, who is a washout from the space program (a fact unknown to Mike and his family until an old army sergeant visits). Episodes revolve around Buttons' doings or undoings, such as extending the line Mike drew on a map (to mark their driving route) onward to a ghost town, and stealing an alarm clock which gets Mike arrested for public indecency (in his pajamas).

Cast

* Ted Bessell as Mike Reynolds * Anita Gillette as Liz Reynolds * Scott Kolden as Scott Reynolds * Kami Cotler as Kitty Reynolds *Jackie as Buttons

Production

The series was created by

and Thomas L. Miller, both of whom are better known for their later work on ''

Happy Days ''Happy Days'' is an American television sitcom that aired first-run on the American Broadcasting Company, ABC network from January 15, 1974, to July 19, 1984, with a total of 255 half-hour episodes spanning 11 seasons. Created by Garry Marsha ...

'' and ''

Laverne & Shirley ''Laverne & Shirley'' is an American television sitcom that ran for eight seasons on American Broadcasting Company, ABC from January 27, 1976, to May 10, 1983. A spin-off of ''Happy Days'', ''Laverne & Shirley'' stars Penny Marshall and Cindy Wi ...

''. Bessell originally refused to participate when the title was first given as the "grammatically incorrect" (sic) "''The Chimp and I''". The chimpanzee who portrayed Buttons was owned by veteran animal expert Lou Schumacher and was trained by Bob Rydell who was responsible for teaching the chimpanzee to perform its "acting" tasks on cue by responding to various hand and voice signals.

Episodes

Reception

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, vi ...

'' listed the show at #46 on its 2002 list "The 50 Worst Shows of All Time".

References

External links

*
''Me and the Chimp''
at TVGuide.com 1970s American sitcoms 1972 American television series debuts 1972 American television series endings Television series about families Television series by CBS Studios Television shows about chimpanzees Television shows set in California CBS sitcoms {{US-comedy-tv-prog-stub