Good Morning World

Thanks to the magic of DVD. I get to see this charm of a show. My guess is that it was deemed too controversial from this time. As hectic as the 60s were , from a historical perspective... Sexual Revolution, Vietnam, Civil rights coming to forefront , Communism in our backyard, Drugs , Hippies etc. Really a time of uneasiness. The one thing everyday Americans can count on was good wholesome LEAVE IT TO BEAVERISH TV. This show , though a nice show , certainly by todays standards , reeked of sexual tension from the 60s standards. TV was a safe haven to forget about the world and hideaway so to speak in a turtles shell. This show , though subtly managed to cause unrest in the uptight. I would venture to say this show was a sacrifice with more risqué TV to come. The acting was good and this was a reminder of the Dick Van Dyke Show... with Laura Petrie turned up a notch in the character of Sandy-Goldie Hawn.Translation- This is the Dick Van Dyke Show with shorter skirts and steamier conversation. Reminding me today of CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM being similar to SEINFELD , with the same writing style of Larry David. Carl Reiner wrote differently than Larry David Obviously. But both managed to be consistent with the style they did use. Its a shame though that this show only lasted one season . I will cherish every episode.

For anyone wondering what The Dick Van Dyke Show would have been like in color, here you go. Another reviewer said it was similar to Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm, and that's a good analogy. The biggest difference is Seinfeld was tailored for network broadcast, while CYE found its niche on cable. Unfortunately for Good Morning World, there was no cable in 1968. Coupled with a second-tier group of actors and that TDVDS had expended the audience for the show's premise, Good Morning World was destined to fail.

Honestly, what's really surprising (and actually rather laudable) was how the writers for GMW managed to come up with new ideas for scripts (lame as they might have been) rather than taking the easy way out and just recycling old TDVDS ideas.

But, really, when watching GMW, you have to imagine the DVDS actors, plus the sets being in B&W, and you quickly realize that there's not a lot of difference between the two. The sad fact was that TDVDS' time had simply passed and no one was interested in a color version with different actors.

GOOD MORNING WORLD is a mid-60s hybrid of the Occupational Sitcom and the Domestic Sitcom. They took as their format the classic "Dick Van Dyke Show" mix of 50% Rob Petrie's home life and 50% Rob Petrie's work as a TV gag writer.

In this case, the single protagonist becomes two men and the workplace shifts from TV to radio, but otherwise things are fairly familiar. Richard Deacon's fussy producer was replaced by Billy DeWolfe's fussy station manager.

The main change was that by going with two men, the show was able to do both happily married plots and bachelor dating plots. In the latter case, dating involved newcomer Goldie Hawn, doing an early version of the ditsy character she later developed for LAUGH-IN.

Like most sitcoms, individual episodes' plots are long-forgotten aside from an occasional story that stuck in the memory for some reason. In the case of GOOD MORNING WORLD, it was the "Nude Ranch" episode. The guys had been sent to do an overnight remote broadcast from a "dude ranch." But when they got there, they discovered to their horror they were at a NUDE ranch. This being the still-uptight age of sitcoms, the humor was limited to the guys' nervousness at being around nude people (who were of course mostly off-camera aside from some above-the-waist shots on a couple men). The guys do their first show and retreat to their room, dreading the fact they are to be guests of honor at dinner that night. They decide they have to appear.... The next scene shows them bare-chested as they sit in the still-empty dining room. They hear the sounds of the ranch guests approaching.... And see that everyone is fully dressed. The nudists explain "We always dress for dinner!" but thank the guys for their thoughtfulness in appearing nude. The guys admit they chickened out and stand up, revealing large towels firmly in place.

It seemed the show was mainly about Dave's and Larry's personal lives and hardly anything about their radio show or the station they worked at unlike WKRP years later.

It's hard to add much to what's already been said about this show. All I have to say is, it was cute, clever, smart and entertaining.

Billie De Wolf was perfect as the uptight boss with A.R. (anal retentiveness). Pencil thin mustache and whiny voice. Scowly eyebrows.

Joby Gray was great. I remember one episode where the two DJs were hosting a fund raiser and he kept trying to sing his "Banana" song.

Speaking of songs, the opening sequence with the "ting ting ting" sound along with the conglomeration of still photos in succession of the two DJs getting ready for an early morning radio show was very entertaining in itself.

Joby and Ronnie Schell played well off of each other. I can't understand why it was canceled after so few episodes.