Frank's Place

The classiest sitcom ever on television, Frank's Place did not insult the intelligence of the American public, but used humor to make people think and perhaps come away from the thirty minute episode a better person for having watched. Perhaps the most innovative idea was the casting of Don Yesso, who was so fluent in the native tongue of New Orleans that sometimes captioning was used so that viewers could follow the dialogue! Wonderful. I can remember waiting all week for the show to come on, and taping each one, but over the years the tapes were worn out and/or lost. What a shame to not be able to buy this wonderful show on DVD. Someone who has influence, please help those of us who have a jones on for a Frank fix!

This show was a victim of CBS. As other posters here have so adroitly put it, this was a wonderful, well done show about a New Orleans restaurant. The setting, the characters, the little touches throughout were positively intoxicating. The episodes I remember are "The Bum Out Front" and "Dueling Voodoo". The "Voodoo" episode was especially memorable because the lead character literally had to use magic powder to undo a curse. I remember when the show aired, it did have low ratings, but I thought they would renew it and give it another shot, because the show was of such high quality. I thought CBS would do what NBC did when it renewed the low rated but high quality "Cheers" and "Hill St. Blues" and gave them the time to find their audience. It was canceled by CBS and I have never forgotten how disappointed I was at that decision. Part of the reason it was taken off of the air, was so that the leads actors in the series, Tim Reid and his wife Daphne Maxwell Reid could do a forgettable hour long detective show called "Snoops". "Frank's Place" truly was a victim of CBS, I'd love to see the series on DVD or on Nick at Night again.

Frank's Place was loved by both viewers and critics. Too bad sponsors and networks were too jittery about black people as they really are and not as stereotypes. The episode where the "guys" take Ed's body from the funeral home for a night on the town is the funniest ever shown on TV. Even Lucy and Ethel would vote it the best.

I've got to agree, this is closer to real Louisiana folks & New Orleans than anything else you'll find, and there's a lot of heart to it. I sense that the series was a labor of love, and I wish I could have it on DVD, along with Evening Shade.

This series was the story of Frank Parrish, a Boston-based professor, who, upon his father's death, inherits a restaurant in New Orleans, the Chez Louisianne (called "The Chez" (pronounced shez) by the employees and patrons). He relocates to Louisiana and learns the restaurant business through fits and starts.

Other characters were Hanna Griffin, the object of Parrish's affections and the assistant to Bertha Griffin-Lamour, her mother and the owner of a prominent funeral home; Reverend Deal, a part-time entrepeneur and part-time preacher; Tiger Shepin and Cool Charles, bartenders of the Chez; Big Arthur, the Cook (NOT the Chef, he insisted) and Shorty his assistant; Anna-May, who was the waitress and Miss Marie, the senior waitress who only waited on customers of the Chez that were customers for 20 years or more; Bubba was a lawyer who was a regular customer (Hugh Wilson said in an interview that this was the character that was a representation of him in the show, "the White guy").

There was much talent to be had in front of and behind the camera; playwright Samm-Art Williams wrote an episode, Hugh Wilson not only helped write the show, but even made a cameo; guest stars included Conchata Ferrell, the late Rosalind Cash and boxer Joe Frazier.

The show could have easily relied on humor, which it certainly had a handle on (one wonderfully absurd episode, "The Body" has the restaurant trying to deal with a pesky corpse, ala, "The Trouble With Harry"), however, it addressed many topics; relationships within the African-American community, it featured Dizzy Gillespie on one show and another one show had a strong Voodoo influence.

The most famous episode (shown on Nick at Nite's TV Land) and the most lauded was "The Bridge", which won Emmys for the writer, Hugh Wilson and guest star Beah Richards.

BET (Black Entertainment Television) re-ran the show, but has since stopped. TV Land, by all appearances has the rights to show it, but does not do so regularly.

This was a truly great show, culturally enlightening, funny, touching and always engaging. It can be said that there was not a single clunker in 17 episodes. The cast was predominately Black, however, it was a show that anyone could watch and enjoy. As Tom Shales said in a review, "This was not a "Black" show, this was a "People" show."