Holmes & Yo-Yo
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| Holmes & Yo-Yo | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Situation comedy |
| Starring | Richard B. Shull John Schuck Bruce Kirby Andrea Howard |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 13 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Leonard Stern |
| Producer(s) | Arne Sultan |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ABC |
| Original run | September 25, 1976 – December 11, 1976, August 1977 |
Holmes & Yo-Yo (alternate spelling, Holmes and Yo-Yo) is an American comedy television series that aired on ABC for 13 episodes during the 1976-1977 season. The series follows Detective Holmes and his new android partner Yo-Yo, on their adventures and misadventures, as Holmes teaches Yo-Yo what it is like to be human, while trying to keep his quirky partner's true nature a secret from criminals and fellow cops.
Contents |
[edit] Production
The executive producer is Leonard Stern, a former staff writer for Get Smart, which featured an android character named Hymie who was, in most respects, a prototype for Yo-Yo. Several episodes of Holmes & Yo-Yo were directed by John Astin, who played Gomez in The Addams Family.[1]
[edit] Cast and characters
Richard B. Shull stars as Detective Alexander Holmes. John Schuck stars as his partner Gregory "Yo-Yo" Yoyonivich. Co-stars were Andrea Howard and Bruce Kirby. Jay Leno appeared in the pilot as a gas station attendant.[2]
[edit] Plot
The series stars Richard B. Shull as Detective Alexander Holmes, a clumsy down-on-his-luck cop who constantly injures his partners. The department gives him a new partner, Gregory Yoyonivich (John Schuck). Yo-Yo, as he likes to be called, is good natured, if a bit clumsy, and also surprisingly strong. During one of their first calls, Yo-Yo is shot and Holmes discovers that his new partner is an android, a sophisticated new crime-fighting machine designed by the police department as their secret weapon on crime. "You're not a person!" is Holmes' stunned response.
Besides super-strength, Yo-Yo's other abilities include speed reading, and the ability to analyze clues at the scene. Yo-Yo had a built-in polaroid camera: each time his nose was pressed, a polaroid photograph of his field of vision would be taken and ejected from his shirt pocket. Yo-Yo's control panel was built into his chest, which could be opened by pulling his tie. The level of Yo-Yo's batteries was critical, because if they ran down his memory and, effectively, his being would be erased. In one episode his batteries come very close to running down completely, and he is charged by being pushed against an electric fence with his arms extended. Yo-Yo weighed 427 pounds, and his heavy build could absorb the shock of a bomb.
Much "comedy" was derived from Yo-Yo's constant malfunctions. Some of his common problems included:
- Uncontrollably spinning head over heels when near an electric garage door as its opening or closing.
- Bullets cause him to break out dancing.
- Magnets fly out at him.
- He picks up radio signals from Sweden.
- He repeats "Bunco Squad, Bunco Squad, Bunco Squad" over and over when his circuits blow.[3] Another running gag involved Yo-Yo's ability to read an entire book by simply fanning its pages; his invariable comment after doing so: "I enjoyed it!"
[edit] Episode titles
| No. | Title | Airdate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Holmes and Yo-Yo (pilot) | 1976 September 25 |
| 2 | Funny Money | 1976 October 2 |
| 3 | The Dental Dynamiter | 1976 October 16 |
| 4 | The Last Phantom | 1976 October 22 |
| 5 | Yoyo Takes a Bride | 1976 October 23 |
| 6 | The Thornhill Affair | 1976 October 30 |
| 7 | The K-9 Caper | 1976 November 13 |
| 8 | The Hostages | 1976 November 20 |
| 9 | Key Witness | 1976 November 27 |
| 10 | Dead Duck | 1976 December 4 |
| 11 | Connection, Connection II | 1976 December 11 |
| 12 | The Cat Burglar | 1977 August 1 |
| 13 | Bye, Bye Bennie | 1977 August 8 |
[edit] Reception
Holmes & Yo-Yo was universally panned by critics and is #33 on TV Guide's List of the 50 Worst TV Shows of All Time. Many Nielsen viewers claimed they felt "uncomfortable" with the show's often racy humor, most especially episode seven, over 14 minutes of which was Yo-Yo verbalizing (in graphic detail) his desire for genitalia. Although the series lasted only 13 episodes (undaunted by the failure of the series, ABC green-lighted a similar concept the same season called Future Cop with Ernest Borgnine; it had the same success as Holmes & Yo-Yo), the influence of Holmes & Yo-Yo can be felt in other "robot cop" series and films that followed, most notably the RoboCop films and TV series, and the 1993 series, Mann & Machine which used the same premise as Holmes & Yo-Yo, only with a sexy female robot instead of the stout Yoyonovich.
[edit] References
- ^ "BBC - Comedy Guide - Holmes And Yoyo". Archived from the original on 2004-05-23. http://web.archive.org/web/20040523083752/http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/articles/h/holmesandyoyo_7773405.shtml.
- ^ ""Holmes and Yo-Yo" (1976)". http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074005/.
- ^ "Holmes and Yo-Yo". http://www.tvparty.com/recholmes.html.
