The Bob Crane Show

The Bob Crane Show
Title card
Also known as	Second Start
Genre	Sitcom
Created by	Norman S. Powell Martin Cohan Jim Allen
Starring	Bob Crane Patricia Harty
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	14
Production
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	30 minutes
Production company	MTM Enterprises
Original release
Network	NBC
Release	March 6 – June 12, 1975 (1975-06-12)

The Bob Crane Show is an American sitcom that aired on NBC. The series starred Bob Crane as Bob Wilcox, a man in his 40s who quits his job as an insurance salesman to return to medical school. The series co-starred Patricia Harty as his wife Ellie Wilcox, who becomes the family's breadwinner while Bob is in school. After initial delays, the series debuted on March 6, 1975. The Bob Crane Show performed poorly in the Nielsen ratings and was canceled after 13 weeks.

Production

The Bob Crane Show was originally titled Second Start and NBC planned to debut it in the fall of 1974. However, the Federal Communications Commission re-instituted its Prime Time Access Rule, which limited the broadcast networks to programming only three of the four hours of the prime time programming block. This decision led NBC to delay the series until January 1975. Crane re-shot the pilot, leading to another delay to March 1975.

Crane expressed his desire that his series be what he called "hard comedy", which he described as comedy that "goes for the fences. It's also what you might call take-a-risk comedy because if you don't hit a home run, you might strike out. It's either a belly laugh or it's no go and no show."

MTM Enterprises produced the series, which was filmed with a three-camera setup in front of a studio audience with a sweetened laugh track.

Cast

• Bob Crane as Bob Wilcox
• Patricia Harty as Ellie Wilcox
• James Sutorius as Jerry Mallory
• Todd Susman as Marvin Susman
• Erica Petal as Pam Wilcox
• Jack Fletcher as Dean Lyle Ingersoll
• Ronny Graham as Ernest Busso

Episodes

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date
1	"Mid-Term Blues"	Norman S. Powell	Martin Donovan	March 6, 1975 (1975-03-06)
Bob Wilcox returns to medical school, leaving the responsibility for supporting the family on his wife Ellie and facing mid-term exams.
2	"Not with My Mother You Don't"	Norman S. Powell	Arlene Stadd & Leonard Stadd	March 13, 1975 (1975-03-13)
Bob's mother (Audra Lindley) moves in with a man the same age as Bob.
3	"The Incredible Shrinking Bob"	Norman S. Powell	Unknown	March 20, 1975 (1975-03-20)
Bob's anxiety over leaving his wife as sole financial supporter grows.
4	"Ellie's Sister"	Norman S. Powell	Jim Allen	March 27, 1975 (1975-03-27)
Two of Bob's classmates fall in love with his visiting sister-in-law.
5	"One Summer of Misery"	Norman S. Powell	Unknown	April 3, 1975 (1975-04-03)
Bob receives a summer scholarship to Columbia University but frets that Ellie, who can't afford to go with him, is a little too eager to see him go.
6	"But I Love My Wife"	Jack Shea	Martin Cohan	April 17, 1975 (1975-04-17)
A South African exchange student zeroes in on Bob with her swinging singles approach to medical studies.
7	"Acute Bussophobia"	Norman S. Powell	Unknown	April 24, 1975 (1975-04-24)
Bob's old skills of salesmanship come in handy when he has to persuade his landlord to enter the hospital for an operation.
8	"Grin and Bare It"	Norman S. Powell	Unknown	May 1, 1975 (1975-05-01)
Ellie decides to supplement her income by posing as a nude model for art classes at Bob's college.
9	"A Case of Misdiagnosis"	Norman S. Powell	Jim Allen	May 8, 1975 (1975-05-08)
Bob treats an old friend (John Astin) and is surprised to learn the man is a prominent gay activist, prompting concern that people will think he is also gay. NBC, worried that the script might be offensive to gay people, refused to approve the episode until it was reviewed by gay media activist Newton Dieter.
10	"The Lyle Principle"	Norman S. Powell	Unknown	May 15, 1975 (1975-05-15)
Bob and a friend give the newly appointed dean a pep talk.
11	"An American Fiasco"	Norman S. Powell	Martin Donovan	May 22, 1975 (1975-05-22)
The descent of a pair of young documentary filmmakers on the Wilcox household creates havoc in domestic tranquility for Bob and Ellie.
12	"The Doctor Sings the Blues"	Norman S. Powell	Unknown	May 29, 1975 (1975-05-29)
Bob's burgeoning friendship with his anatomy professor backfires when the man unloads his marital problems on Bob.
13	"The Embezzler"	Norman S. Powell	Unknown	June 5, 1975 (1975-06-05)
When the last man he hired before resigning as an insurance company executive embezzles thousands of dollars from the firm, Bob is suspected of having been an accessory.
14	"The Son of the Campus Capers"	Norman S. Powell	Unknown	June 12, 1975 (1975-06-12)
A campus flirtation of 20 years before causes some anxious moments for Bob when the lady turns up married to the dean of the medical school.

Reception

The Bob Crane Show debuted with a Nielsen rating of 23, a disappointment to the network. NBC cancelled the series after 13 weeks.

Series star Crane blamed the failure on the lack of chemistry among the characters. He compared The Bob Crane Show to its fellow series, The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Bob Newhart Show, in wishing that the same sorts of character relationships on those series had been present in his. "I had nobody to talk to....In my series, I had no Bill Daily."

References

• Alwood, Edward (1996). Straight News. New York, Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-08437-4.
• Tropiano, Stephen (2002). The Prime Time Closet: A History of Gays and Lesbians on TV. Hal Leonard Corporation. ISBN 1-55783-557-8.

External links

• The Bob Crane Show at IMDb