Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice

Having watched four episodes of the television-sitcom version of Paul Mazursky's "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice", I'm probably one-up on home audiences from 1973. ABC canceled the program early, and it's clear why: the casting just isn't right. The swinging couple (Robert Urich and Anne Archer) would be far better suited portraying the squares, while knotted-up David Spielberg and grating Anita Gillette seem as if they could get pretty kinky (given the right amount of alcohol). Mazursky, Larry Tucker, and other notable writers worked on the scripts, but without the proper actors this just looks like a sanitized sham. The fussily-decorated sets are huge compared to the sitcom sets of today, but since this is a dialogue-driven show it's simply a waste of space. 11-year-old Jodie Foster (as Spielberg and Gillette's daughter) brightens the proceedings, but the grown-ups look fairly clueless.