Monty (partially found Fox sitcom; 1994)

Henry Winkler and Kate Burton in a promotional image.

Status: Partially Found

Monty was a sitcom that aired on Fox from January 11th, 1994, to February 15th, 1994, and was produced by Touchstone Television. The series starred Henry Winkler as Monty Richardson, a Rush Limbuagh-esque conservative political commentator, and David Schwimmer (who began to star in Friends later that year) as his liberal son Greg.

Background

The series was initially picked up by NBC in 1993 before dropping it and Fox took over. Initially, Monty's child was supposed to be a lesbian daughter before becoming a liberal son who left law school to become a chef.

Due to poor reception, the program was cancelled after just five episodes (out of 13 episodes that were produced). Since then, the series is not known to have been broadcast at any point nor has seen any official home media release.

In an August 2016 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Winkler said "When Monty was originally written, it was hysterically funny — about Rush Limbaugh having a gay daughter. NBC [owned it] for 11 minutes... Then we sold it to Fox, and it became Rush Limbaugh with a son who stopped studying law in order to become a chef." In describing his own performance, he went on to say, "I’m telling you, it was cringe-worthy… I wouldn’t even call it a performance. I should have been sent to the Midwest to some rehab facility for actors. Here’s the lesson: When you’re trying to fit a square peg into the round funny house and it doesn’t fit, do not take out your saw."^[1]

Cast

Henry Winkler as Monty Richardson
David Schwimmer as Greg Richardson
Kate Burton as Fran Richardson
Joyce Guy as Rita Simon
China Kantner as Geena Campbell
David Krumholtz as David Richardson
Tom McGowan as Clifford Walker

Availability

As of this writing, the only footage of the show that is available is a YouTube upload of the first broadcast episode, "Here Comes the Son" by the user Retro Plastics Lab. However, the opening credits and any scenes before that are missing. Additionally, in response to a comment asking if all of the show's aired episodes are available, a user named Aneesh A. Sehgal claimed he had all of them, but this has not been confirmed.^[2]

Episodes

#	Episode Title	Air Date	Status
1	Here Comes the Son	Jan 11th, 1994	Partially Found (Part 1) (Part 2)
2	The Son Also Rises	Jan 18th, 1994	Lost
3	East Side Story	Jan 25th, 1994	Lost
4	Two Cold Feet	Feb 1st, 1994	Lost
5	The Principal's Interest	Feb 15th, 1994	Lost
6	Wild, Wild Willy and His OK Corral; Or, There Goes the GLAAD Award	Unaired	Lost
7	My Dad Could Beat Up Your Dad	Unaired	Lost
8	Eggheads	Unaired	Lost
9	Baby Talk	Unaired	Lost
10	The Brother of the Bride	Unaired	Lost
11	Those Who Can't Teach, Teach Gym at David's School	Unaired	Lost
12	Death in Plainview	Unaired	Lost
13	Pilot	Unaired	Lost