''The Good Guys'' 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 ...

that aired 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 ...

from September 25, 1968, to January 23, 1970. Forty-two color episodes were filmed. The program was produced by Talent Associates. Although some episodes, including the pilot, have been posted online in color and black and white, the full series has never been released on home media or rebroadcast in decades, and a majority of the show has remained unseen since its original broadcast.

Synopsis

Bob Denver Vincent Price The Good Guys 1969

The main characters are Rufus Butterworth (

Bob Denver Robert Osbourne Denver (January 9, 1935 – September 2, 2005) was an American comedic actor who portrayed beatnik Maynard G. Krebs on the 1959–1963 series '' The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis'' and Gilligan on the 1964–1967 television serie ...

), the driver of a customized 1924 Lincoln turned

taxi A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a Driving, driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of thei ...

, and his childhood friend Bert Gramus, played by

Herb Edelman Herbert “Herb” Edelman (November 5, 1933 – July 21, 1996) was an American comedian, and actor of stage, film and television. He was twice nominated for an Emmy Awards, Emmy Award for his television work. His best-known role was as Stanl ...

, owner of a local diner and neighborhood hangout called "Bert's Place", which Butterworth advertised on the taxi's fender-mount spare tire covers. Plots usually revolved around "get rich quick" schemes that invariably backfired. In the second season (1969–1970), Rufus gave up driving the cab and became a partner with Bert in the diner, which moved to a beach location. Other characters included Bert's schoolteacher wife, Claudia (

Joyce Van Patten Joyce Van Patten (born March 9, 1934) is an American film and stage actress. She is best known for her roles in films like ''The Bad News Bears'' (1976), '' St. Elmo's Fire'' (1985) (as Mrs. Beamish), and as Gloria Noonan in '' Grown Ups'' (2010) ...

), and diner regulars Mr. Bender, Hal Dawson, and truck driver Big Tom (played by Denver's ''

Gilligan's Island ''Gilligan's Island'' is an American sitcom created and produced by Sherwood Schwartz. The show's ensemble cast features Bob Denver, Alan Hale Jr., Jim Backus, Natalie Schafer, Tina Louise, Russell Johnson, and Dawn Wells. It aired for th ...

'' co-star

Alan Hale Jr. Alan Hale Jr. (born Alan Hale MacKahan; March 8, 1921 – January 2, 1990) was an American actor and restaurateur. He was the son of actor Alan Hale Sr. His television career spanned four decades, but he was best known for his secondary lead ro ...

). Never a hit with viewers, ''The Good Guys'' failed to finish in the Nielsen Top 30 and was canceled during its second season.

Production notes

Rufus's taxi was created by George Barris. A 1/25-scale model kit was manufactured by MPC Corporation and examples are highly collectable today. The first several episodes of the first season were filmed before a live studio audience (unusual at the time), with an accompanying

laugh track A laugh track (or laughter track) is an audio recording consisting of laughter (and other audience reactions) usually used as a separate soundtrack for comedy productions. The laugh track may contain live audience reactions or artificial laught ...

to sweeten the laughs during post-production. Due to production changes, the majority of Season One episodes and all of Season Two were filmed without a studio audience. Episodes were fitted with a laugh track afterwards. Denver later recalled of the show's negative reception: "I still had some animus at how

threw us in the dumper. Herb Edelman and I'd done ''The Good Guys''…but sour critics said it should have been just called 'Guys'."

Syndication

''The Good Guys'' has never been shown in reruns in the United States. In his autobiography, ''Gilligan, Maynard and Me'', Bob Denver related that poor-quality prints of the show were shown for a time in South America.

TV Land TV Land is an American pay television channel owned by Paramount Global through its networks division's MTV Entertainment Group. It was originally launched as Nick at Nite’s TV Land as a spinoff of Nick at Nite programing block consisting e ...

considered showing episodes of the show in 1998 but opted instead to air episodes of another "lost" sitcom that was also produced by Talent Associates, '' He & She''.

Episodes

Sources magnolia.gowatchit.com The Good Guys
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Season 1 (1968–1969)

Season 2 (1969–1970)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Good Guys (1968 TV series), The 1968 American television series debuts 1970 American television series endings 1960s American multi-camera sitcoms 1970s American multi-camera sitcoms 1960s American workplace comedy television series 1970s American workplace comedy television series Television series by Talent Associates Television series set in restaurants CBS sitcoms