Best of the West

I can't name another sitcom set in the old west. This show was better than many 80s sitcoms, and many of the episodes had laugh-out-loud moments, both lines and sight gags. Three of the "best" guest-starred Christopher Lloyd as The Calico Kid.

Tracy Walter, as Frog, was funny every time he hit the screen. Tom Ewell, more famous for movies like The Seven Year Itch, did a great job as the often inebriated town doctor.

Unfortunately, this series is almost impossible to find. I had to find someone who taped it on VHS when it originally ran to recently watch it again. For sitcom lovers, it's certainly worth a look.

So pleased to track down this James Burrows-directed, Earl Pomerantz-scripted spoof Western comedy from the early 80's. For some reason, unlike their other ventures "Taxi" and "Cheers", this series didn't take off, got cancelled and has remained a distant but happy memory ever since.

I can't think why it failed. Even in the pilot, which I've just watched, there are laughs a plenty, as we're introduced to former Yankee soldier Sam Best, his dispossessed dim-but-dotty Southern wife Elvira and his (not her) bratty son as they relocate from civilised Philadelphia to the wild west where they encounter a motley crew of local townsfolk and a whole different outlook on life.

Best, played by Joel Higgins, is the central character, the typical honest, law-abiding citizen, a new-to-town shop-owner pressed into the vacant town-marshal job by dint of standing up to the town's big-shot kingpin, the disdainful and vaguely foppish Tilman, the latter with a wonderful line in sardonic put-downs. The laughs indeed mostly come from the eccentrics gathered around straight-arrow Best, especially Leonard Frey as Tilman, but also Carlene Watkins as Best's wife and Tom Ewell as the town's drunken doctor. The great Christopher Lloyd also moonlights from "Taxi" in this episode as a slow-witted hired gun.

The writing is sharp and funny, turning old-style Western clichés and stereotypes into humorous situations and likeable characters. I'll certainly be moseying on down to view all the episodes I can, confident they'll all be as funny as this hilarious taster.

This show was surprisingly good for the time period that it was on. The cast was more than acceptable and the premise was cute (essentially, it was a PC Blazing Saddles for the prime-time set). Tracey Walters was great as Frog (I'm Frooag... my mother still says that sometimes).

My only disappointment is that shows like this (and maybe Quark) do not seem to have caught the eye of either Nick at Nite or TV Land. Now I know for a fact that they were playing My Mother the Car at some point on those channels (I saw it), but they seem to ignore some of the truly fine quality shows of the '70s. Oh well, it is worth seeing if you get a chance.

Most fans of the cult sit-com series TAXI think that the next smash success connected to the writers, directors, and producers was CHEERS. They are right - for CHEERS was a greater success than TAXI was. But in between, in 1981, the same group tried a historical western sit-com called BEST OF THE WEST. Although very clever and funny the series only lasted one year. Somehow the forces that made TAXI and CHEERS work just were not in the cards for this series.

There has been, at this time, only two spoof westerns that worked on regular television: MAVERICK in the 1950s and F-TROOP in the 1960s. The former had a marvelous satiric edge, enhanced by it's star James Garner's easy-going characterization. The latter had a good ensemble led by Forrest Tucker, Larry Storch, Ken Berry, and Melody Patterson, as well as a healthy amount of slapstick. In between there had been other attempts at westerns mixed with comedy. That great series, BONANZA (on many occasions) demonstrated a wicked comic edge (frequently using the talents of stars Lorne Greene, Dan Blocker, and Michael Landon to unexpected results). GUNSMOKE had also been funny in some episodes centering on the character of Festus. Although basically serious THE WILD WILD WEST had comic moments connected to Ross Martin's disguised personalities. There was a series (which lasted a year) called PISTOLS AND PETTICOATS, that starred Ann Sheridan as the head of a family - all of whom were expert shots. Unlike BEST OF THE WEST, PISTOLS failed after a year principally because Sheridan died and left a gaping hole in the series. There was also LAREDO with Nevil Brand, and RANGO with Tim Conway in the late 1960

BEST OF THE WEST was the story of how Sam Best (Joel Higgins), his southern belle wife Elvira (Carlene Watkins), and their son Daniel (Meeno Peluce) go settling in a western community (it turns out to be in or near Colorado in one episode) after the American Civil War. Sam was a Union officer who met Elvira when he was forced to burn down her father's (it turns out to be Andy Griffith's) plantation. Now, twelve years or so after the war ended, they are moving to the great plains. The first episode shows how they have been rooked a bit by the man who sold them their homestead, Parker Tillman (Leonard Frey), who is the conniving swindler - rich guy in the series. Tillman's associate and henchman is Frog Rothschild (Tracy Walter). Actually for all his evil intentions, Tillman is somewhat inept. In one episode he is trying to unload a "worthless" gold/silver mine on two Norwegian brothers who are miners. It turns out, after he sells them the property, it is true that the mine has no gold or silver - but it is rich in copper! As for Frog, he tries to help his boss - despite his greatest problem: a lack of brains.

There were two other regular characters in the show: Valerie Bromfeld as Lanie Gibbs, and Tom Ewell as Doc Kullens. Lanie was a "Calamity Jane" type, and Ewell was a somewhat shakier (and more realistic) version of Milburn Stone's "Doc Adams" in GUNSMOKE. One late episode on the show had Ewell awaiting a mail order bride played by Betty White, who turned out to be a perfect match for him - but also turned out to be socially impossible (she was a prostitute). The concluding moments of the episode were wonderful, as they realize they have an hour before she leaves the town, and nothing to do - so why not do a little business with each other? As the episode ended, we see Ewell following White upstairs.

The episodes managed to capture the time period better than some more realistic shows. In one of them a railroad is trying to find the better route and has narrowed it between the town the characters live in, and nearby Denver. Frey keeps belittling Denver, even wondering who ever thought up such a stupid name for a city. In another moment that was particularly funny the four leads (Higgins, Watkins, Bromfeld, and Ewell) have the misfortune to be asked by Peluce, "What was the cause of the Civil War?" It happens to be his history homework.

Higgins starts off about the evils of slavery in the south, angering Watkins who says it was Yankee arrogance. This leads to an argument between them just as Bromfeld and Ewell show up. Bromfeld, born and raised in the west, talks about the rivalry of the older sections for the newly conquered western lands, while Ewell brings up the matter of economics and the high versus low tariff. In the end you have four grown-ups arguing a historical/political matter, and Peluce more confused than ever. So have American historians been since 1865.

An occasional visitor in the series was Christopher Lloyd as a gun slinger (originally hired by Frey to get Higgins), who turned out (fitting the series) to be a gourmet cook. There was also a marvelous moment when Chuck Connors (accidentally insulted by Higgins), demands satisfaction in a gunfight, which ends in the saloon - turned by Frey at that moment into a catered birthday party for a kid, with balloons descending on the heads of Connors and Higgins.

As you can see it was a wild comic show - but like HE AND SHE and other good shows it did not pick up an audience, and if was canceled after a year. I don't even think it has been shown in reruns.

This was every bit as good as "Cheers" and "Taxi" from the same writers. Pity it wasn't as successful.

Every western show cliché you can think of was here. And they surrounded it with as many gags and puns as possible. Like Monty Python or the 'Airplane' movies, you had to be careful. Jokes came so fast sometimes, you might have missed a few.

Joel Higgins' deep bass and OTT 'white hat' acting was perfect. And the late Leonard Frey as the sleazy business man was just as great. And of course who could forget Frog.

Best line? Best: "Mayor if it was your wife you'd pay the ransom right?" Mayor: "They gonna kill her or just torture her a little." A DVD release is deserved.