big_bellied_geezer

I liked the show and wished it could of lasted longer than it did, although I suppose it is a miracle that such a high styled campy escapist detective show like this would even have been revived in the mid-Nineties and went for 27 episodes! In the Fifties to the Seventies this sort of entertainment designed for the small screen went over reasonably well, but now I suspect that there are more humorless TV viewers than ever who possess little patience and even less appreciation of anything with a sense of old school style and flair that BURKE'S LAW had in abundance. Such folks enjoy formulamatic fare like the nightly news, Fox News and CSI and a million copycat shows, they don't and won't try to get something like BURKE'S LAW, which is too bad...

Such easy to understand and digest TV shows around at the same time like MURDER SHE WROTE and MATLOCK were designed to appeal to similar tastes, but with BURKE'S LAW you had to have a more fine tuned appreciation of wit, well timed sarcasm and style plus a tongue in cheek sense of humor to fully appreciate the gifts and sheer force of personality and presence that Gene Barry brought to the screen in his role and to enjoy the campy proceedings at hand. Despite being at the helm of other successful series and in many films, Gene Barry IS Amos Burke, he owns that role!

If you are reading this, then chances are you already know about the original BURKE'S LAW and what it is about, and as others have already written about how the storyline was updated for the 1990's. On this 1990's version, Burke was still as sharp as ever, big name guest stars abounded just like in the Sixties, and for a little while CBS looked like it had showcased a nice revival of a classy Sixties favorite to its lineup. Too bad they didn't order another season

Juliet Mills had a early experience playing a supernatural character long before PASSIONS in this 1970-1971 TV series that also starred Big Valley's Richard Long. The show was well cast and the episodes were generally strong in a lighthearted way, a pleasant way to spend thirty minutes. If you are reading this review along with the others, I will dispense with the normal plot synopsis as the facts of this show are already clear to you. As with most shows that only lasted one or two seasons, this series has been seldom seen since it originally departed from the airwaves. I hope that TV Land or some of the other competing networks for this kind of show will decide to run this again in its entirety, as it is a good clean comedy worth viewing again, and should be a hoot to watch for a serious fan of PASSIONS just for a early glimpse of Juliet Mills!

VICKI didn't last because daytime TV was changing for the worst at the time this hit the air in 1992. The network didn't get behind this and promote it the way that other daytime talk shows of far less quality and charm were being promoted at the time, which is a lasting shame. The look and feel of daytime TV talk went spiraling south with such low class, low brow circus fare like Jerry Springer and a hoard of imitators, Sadly, nobody else was attempting to do a show like Vicki Lawrence tried to do in 1992,OPRAH doesn't even come close to matching VICKI in light and enjoyable viewing since Oprah Winfrey always seemed so strident and forced unlike the naturally charming Vicki Lawrence.

Vicki's fine effort toward creating a entertaining daytime talk show went largely unheeded by the general viewing public, even though I think this show was nominated (or won) an Emmy. Vicki Lawrence was a charming, humorous, intelligent and capable host, reminding the viewer of such genteel TV hosts of the past as Dinah Shore, something that increasingly less patient and sophisticated audiences were seeking in a daytime TV wasteland filled with such mental junkfood TV like SPRINGER, MONTEL and OPRAH and all the rest.

If VICKI had been on the air in 1982 as opposed to 1992 I think it would of lasted a whole lot longer than it did. It was a good show, just at the wrong time. I hope that Vicki Lawrence tries her hand once again at another talk show one day, because she's still quite capable, intelligent and charming. There's a whole lot more to Vicki Lawrence than her humorous take on her "Mama" character from her successful syndicated series MAMA's FAMILY and her time with Carol Burnett on THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW and making a hit album and single in 1973!