Mr. Smith (partially found NBC sitcom; 1983)
Mr. Smith is a sitcom aired on NBC from Sept 23 to De16 1983, for a total of 13 episodes. The premise follows a talking orangutan, named "Mr. Smith", who develops superintelligence and subsequently becomes a top-level political advisor in Washington D.C. (hence his name, a play on the classic movie Mr Smith Goes to Washington). The series was executive produced by Ed Weidenberger[1], who also provided the voice for the lead character.
It has become notorious in the years since as its premise was not only very silly but very poorly executed. Critics roasted it for being altogether too dependent on its single not-very-funny gimmick, and viewers apparently agreed; it eventually ranked 47th out of the 52 new shows that aired in that time period.[2][3][4] Thanks largely to these factors, no full episodes of the show have resurfaced online.
Premise
Former street performer ChaCha the orangutan is taken into custody by a government research team in Washington D.C. after after escaping his owner Tommy Atwood, (played by Tim Dunigan[5]) In the course of bouncing between labs, ChaCha comes across a serum designed to increase human intelligence.[3]After drinking the entire concoction, ChaCha develops an IQ of 256 (far beyond even genius-level human intelligence) and acquires speech along with other human attributes and customs (wearing clothes, for example).
The newly-renamed Mr. Smith is installed as a top-secret advisor to the White House (strongly implied to be the then-current Reagan administration[6]) handling various political issues and controversies. His erstwhile owner Atwood is appointed as his assistant and companion. [3] At least one episode featured Mr. Smith imitating then-president, Ronald Reagan.
Cast
Mr. Smith was played by veteran orangutan performer "C.J.", best-known for starring alongside Clint Eastwood in 1978's Every Which Way But Loose and its sequel, Any Which Way You Can. IMDB page for CJ the Orangutan</ref>[7]. C.J. is commonly dressed in a tuxedo and eyeglasses for his appearance as "Mr. Smith". Other cast included:
- Ed Weidenberger (voice) as Mr. Smith / ChaCha[8][1]
- Leonard Frey as Raymond Holyoke[1]
- Tim Dunigan as Tommy Atwood[5][1]
- Terri Garber as Dr. July Tyson[1]
- Laura Jacoby as Ellie Atwood[1]
- Stuart Margolin as Dr. Klein[1]
- Delores Cantú as Laraine Sanchez[9][1]
Availability
Given the series' notoriously poor reception and quick cancellation, it is not surprising that it has never been re-released in any official format, and while home recordings were defeinitely becoming mainstream by 1983, no full episodes of Mr. Smith have resurfaced online to date. Some clips are preserved in resurfaced NBC bumpers and other promotional materials of the period, and Delores Cantú has posted some additional clips of the series featuring her character on her Twitter account.[9]
A blog post by ReverseShot, archived from the Wayback Machine, announced that they had the entire series of 13 episodes on DVD.[10]This was shared on various forums[11] but ultimately has never surfaced, and no support for the claim can be found.
An eBay listing of the script for the pilot of the seriesis available online.
Episode Listing
Pilot
# | Episode Title | Air Date | Status | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
n/a | Pilot | n/a | Lost | Script can be found here. |
Episodes
# | Episode Title | Air Date | Status |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Welcome To Washington Part 1 | September 23, 1983 | Lost |
2 | Welcome To Washington Part 2 | September 23, 1983 | Lost |
3 | Mr. Smith Operates | September 30, 1983 | Lost |
4 | Mr. Smith Finds His Brother | October 14, 1983 | Lost |
5 | Goodbye, Mr. Smith | October 21, 1983 | Lost |
6 | Mr. Smith Rescues Bobo | October 21, 1983 | Lost |
7 | Mr. Smith Falls In Love | October 28, 1983 | Lost |
8 | Mr. Smith Gets Physical | November 4, 1983 | Lost |
9 | Mr. Smith Loses A Friend | November 11, 1983 | Lost |
10 | Mr. Smith Makes A Commercial | November 18, 1983 | Lost |
11 | Mr. Smith Plays Cyrano | November 25, 1983 | Lost |
12 | Mr. Smith Goes Public | December 2, 1983 | Lost |
13 | Mr. Smith Goes To Court | December 16, 1983 | Lost |
Gallery
Images
Videos
External Links
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Cast for Mr. Smith
- ↑ TheMovieDB page for Mr. Smith
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Wikipedia page for Mr. Smith
- ↑ TVObscurities article on shows with unusual premises, that includes Mr. Smith, giving additional information on it.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Tim Dunigan's filmography
- ↑ Washington Post Article about Mr. Smith
- ↑ dbpedia page for Mr. Smith, with CJ The Orangutan's previous film roles.
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
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tag; no text was provided for refs namedcjimdb
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Delores posting clips of her role as Laraine Sanchez in "Mr. Smith"
- ↑ Archived ReverseShot blogpost about the DVD release
- ↑ CriterionForums comment about the DVD release, redirecting from the archived ReverseShot blog post.