The Good Guys (1968 TV series)

For other uses, see The Good Guys (disambiguation).

The Good Guys
From left: Bob Denver, Herb Edelman, Joyce Van Patten
Genre	Situation comedy
Created by	Jack Rose
Written by	Arnold Horwitt Jack Rose Mel Tolkin
Directed by	Charles R. Rondeau
Starring	Bob Denver Herb Edelman Joyce Van Patten Jack Perkins
Theme music composer	Ray Evans Jerry Fielding Jay Livingston
Opening theme	"Two Good Guys"
Composer	Jerry Fielding
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	42
Production
Executive producer	Leonard B. Stern
Producers	Jerry Davis Jack Rose Bob Schiller Bob Weiskopf
Cinematography	William T. Cline Robert Hoffman
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	24 minutes
Production companies	Talent Associates, in association with The CBS Television Network
Original release
Network	CBS
Release	September 25, 1968 (1968-09-25) – January 23, 1970 (1970-01-23)

The Good Guys is an American situation comedy which aired on CBS from September 25, 1968 to January 23, 1970. 42 color episodes were filmed in all. As with The Governor & J.J. and Get Smart, it was produced by Talent Associates and CBS Productions. CBS Television Studios owns the rights to this program as well.

Synopsis

Vincent Price guest-stars as the local health inspector who tells Rufus the diner must be cleaned up for its license to be renewed.

The main character is Rufus Butterworth (Bob Denver), the driver of a customized 1930s touring car turned taxi, and his childhood friend Bert Gramus, played by Herb Edelman, owner of a local diner and neighborhood hangout called "Bert's Place", which Butterworth advertised on the taxi's fender-mount spare tire covers. Plots usually revolved around "get rich quick" schemes that invariably backfired. In the second season (1969-1970), Rufus gave up driving the cab and became a partner with Bert in the diner, which moved to a beach location. Other characters included Bert's schoolteacher wife, Claudia (Joyce Van Patten), and diner regulars Mr. Bender, Hal Dawson, and truck driver Big Tom (played by Alan Hale, Jr.).

Never a hit with viewers, The Good Guys failed to finish in the Nielsen Top 30 and was canceled after its second season.

Production notes

Rufus' taxi was created by George Barris. A 1/25-scale model kit was manufactured by MPC Corporation and examples are highly collectible today.

The first several episodes of the first season were filmed before a live studio audience (unusual at the time), with an accompanying laugh track to sweeten the laughs during post-production. Due to production changes, the majority of Season One episodes and all of Season Two were filmed without a studio audience: episodes were fitted with a laugh track-only afterwards.

Denver later recalled of the show's negative reception: "I still had some animus at how CBS threw us in the dumper. Herb Edelman and I'd done The Good Guys…but sour critics said it should have been just called 'Guys'."

Syndication

The Good Guys has never been shown in reruns in the United States. In his autobiography, Gilligan, Maynard and Me, Bob Denver related that poor-quality prints of the show were shown for a time in South America. TV Land considered showing episodes of the show in 1998 but opted instead to air episodes of another "lost" sitcom that was also produced by Talent Associates, He & She.

External links

• The Good Guys at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com show