Topic

The Best of Times

Not who you're looking for? Others named The Best of Times: Shreveport · 1981 single by Styx · album by Murphy's Law · 2002 film by Chang Tso-chi

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Overview

The Best of Times is a one-shot television pilot that aired as a "CBS Special Presentation" on August 29, 1983. It was originally going to be a replacement series for Square Pegs, but dismal ratings for the pilot episode caused the network to not go further. The pilot was written by Bob Comfort and Rick Kellard and directed by Bill Bixby. The show was intended to be an hour-long comedy-drama set in the 1960s, with the characters progressing from high school to college. Comfort complained, "When we first took it to NBC it was in an hour format. But Brandon Tartikoff [NBC's 34-year-old "Child of TV" President of Entertainment] didn't understand it. So then we took it took it to CBS and they immediately saw it as a half-hour comedy; maybe do it with three cameras on tape before a live audience. Then they said how about making it in contemporary times because CBS, at the time, was committed to doing Diner, which was set in the '60s." Plot Set in suburban Indiana, the show centers around three friends – smooth Pete Falcone (Robert Romanus), nerdy Neil Hefernan (Leif Green) and aspiring musician Dewey "The Phantom" Hooper (Chris Nash) – starting their freshman year at Ulysses S. Grant High School. Pete has made an agreement with his caring, but strict father Gene (Alex Rocco) that he will stay out of trouble this year, since Gene promised Pete he could have his own car, as Neil is the only one currently with a driver's license. On the way to school, they pick up two girls, brash Robin DuPree (Krista Errickson) and goody-goody Patti Eubanks (Hallie Todd), who takes a liking to Pete immediately. Patti enlists Robin's help to woo Pete at the upcoming freshman dance, as long as Patti pays her money. Dewey also has his hands full when the sadistic, hard-nosed vice principal Franklin T. Otto (William G. Schilling) reminds him that he will keep a close eye on Dewey for the entire semester as he is known for pranks and cutting classes. A subplot consists of hulking resident bully Garth Stimlovich (Tony Longo) returning to town to settle a score with Pete when he ratted him out in a school incident, causing him to get expelled and placed in military school. He also knows Pete has been taunting Garth's younger brother, as well. One night, as Gene is fixing the sink in the kitchen, he mistakenly receives a threatening phone call from Garth, complete with racial slurs, saying a fight is going to happen.

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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Not who you're looking for? Others named The Best of Times: Shreveport · 1981 single by Styx · album by Murphy's Law · 2002 film by Chang Tso-chi

Overview

The Best of Times is a one-shot television pilot that aired as a "CBS Special Presentation" on August 29, 1983. It was originally going to be a replacement series for Square Pegs, but dismal ratings for the pilot episode caused the network to not go further. The pilot was written by Bob Comfort and Rick Kellard and directed by Bill Bixby. The show was intended to be an hour-long comedy-drama set in the 1960s, with the characters progressing from high school to college. Comfort complained, "When we first took it to NBC it was in an hour format. But Brandon Tartikoff [NBC's 34-year-old "Child of TV" President of Entertainment] didn't understand it. So then we took it took it to CBS and they immediately saw it as a half-hour comedy; maybe do it with three cameras on tape before a live audience. Then they said how about making it in contemporary times because CBS, at the time, was committed to doing Diner, which was set in the '60s." Plot Set in suburban Indiana, the show centers around three friends – smooth Pete Falcone (Robert Romanus), nerdy Neil Hefernan (Leif Green) and aspiring musician Dewey "The Phantom" Hooper (Chris Nash) – starting their freshman year at Ulysses S. Grant High School. Pete has made an agreement with his caring, but strict father Gene (Alex Rocco) that he will stay out of trouble this year, since Gene promised Pete he could have his own car, as Neil is the only one currently with a driver's license. On the way to school, they pick up two girls, brash Robin DuPree (Krista Errickson) and goody-goody Patti Eubanks (Hallie Todd), who takes a liking to Pete immediately. Patti enlists Robin's help to woo Pete at the upcoming freshman dance, as long as Patti pays her money. Dewey also has his hands full when the sadistic, hard-nosed vice principal Franklin T. Otto (William G. Schilling) reminds him that he will keep a close eye on Dewey for the entire semester as he is known for pranks and cutting classes. A subplot consists of hulking resident bully Garth Stimlovich (Tony Longo) returning to town to settle a score with Pete when he ratted him out in a school incident, causing him to get expelled and placed in military school. He also knows Pete has been taunting Garth's younger brother, as well. One night, as Gene is fixing the sink in the kitchen, he mistakenly receives a threatening phone call from Garth, complete with racial slurs, saying a fight is going to happen.

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).