Run Buddy Run

Produced and written by Leonard Stern, associate producer of "Get Smart," "Run, Buddy, Run" had many similarities to "Smart" in that it combined crime and comedy in equal proportions, with the one never getting in the way of the other. It had two top-drawer character men, Jack Sheldon and Bruce Gordon, as the leads, and it had a good spot on the schedule. Just about everyone I know who saw it, myself included, enjoyed it.

Why, then, did it fail? There could be any number of reasons. The most likely of all, I think, was that too many shows with similar formats had established themselves by then, leaving "Buddy" with, literally, nowhere to run. Also, the somewhat offbeat premise didn't help much, either. Nowadays, such a show would have been given more time to build up an audience. In 1966, it was axed halfway through the season.

Pity, as this was one of the most creative, funny shows to emerge from the Golden Age of Sitcoms.

When this excellent production was cancelled after a brief run, I was disappointed and angry. And yet another example of a bad-executive-decision. Jack Sheldon told this joke on a Bob Hope gig I was on: 'I wish Glenn Miller would have lived and his music would have died !' The whole band cracked up. Jack was funny, and so was this show, and it should have continued.

The writer commented he could not remember if

Buddy overheard or witnessed something that got

him into trouble with the mob.

The answer is that while minding his own business in a sauna when some mob members come in and start

discussing a recent hit...unaware anyone else was there because of all the steam...

It was interesting noticing how the actor playing Buddy visibly lost weight during the course of its one season...from all the running I suppose...

My memory of this show was that it was a vignette within another; i.e. it was a very short format that was used something like an intermission within another show.

But I do remember some of the words to the theme tune --went something like "Run Buddy Run" (what a whiz I am ;)and the Turkish bath scene does ring a bell--thanks for the memory-jog.

I must have got this idea from another show--does anyone remember what that might be? and keeping in mind I was only 6 at the time and watching in London, England it may well have been sandwiched between two episodes of the same show--which may well have been Get Smart.

I have a DVD of four episodes of this series and it's quite entertaining. Bernie Kopell plays Buddy Overstreet's brother Albert. He appeared in Get Smart as well playing the head of KAOS. Leonard Stern also produced Get Smart. More similarities: David Ketchum, who appeared in Get Smart, also appeared in Run, Buddy Run. The very first episode was executive-produced by David Susskind but other episodes I have did not list him. The pill-taking Superhero was either Captain Nice or Mr. Terrific. These shows also include the network id (CBS) but did not include the original commercials. My copies were done from 16mm film. According to some information I have, Jack Sheldon is a musician and got his start in show-business as a musician and his son also is a musician now. When watching this, it reminded me of the naiveté of Will Ferrell's character in "Elf" and Jack Sheldon looked a little like Will Ferrell in that movie. Buddy Overstreet appears to be a simpleton.