The Nutt House

This hilarious comedy series, which lasted only 6 episodes, is great fun. Mel Brooks' best work since HIGH ANXIETY back in 1977. Slapstick, puns and sight-gags galore, this makes the best use of its good cast (Harvey Korman, Cloris Leachman, Mark Blankfield, Brian MacNamara) and has great art direction (its lavish Nutt hotel). This is really hard to find, but is worth it for comedy and Mel Brooks fans.

Here's an important note. When you see the name Mel Brooks on a film or TV series, you can know that it's going to be a comedy, that it's going to be filled with unexpected, wild and maybe borderline style humor and it will be populated by the most eccentric and unusual characters you never would have imagined yourself, because you're not Mel Brooks.

That's the basics of what you need to know about "The Nutt House," the story of a New York City hotel that has more than its share of problems.

The Nutt House, the name of the hotel, was in financial difficulties and we were informed that was specifically because of its moniker. But that couldn't be changed as it was so named for its owner, Edwina Nutt, played by Cloris Leachman in the pilot episode, and in a dual role, Ms. Leachman also played head of housekeeping, a heavily accented Hungarian sounding Ms. Frick.

The role of Ms. Nutt was taken over by Jeanette Nolan in ensuing episodes. The person in charge was the vain, self-important manager, Reginald Tarkington, played by Harvey Korman. Ms. Frick has an unrequited crush on Tarkington, a point made clear in some way during their every interaction, well past the point of sexual harassment!

Ms. Nutt's handsome and ne'er do well son was Charles Nutt III and portrayed by Brian McNamara, and Charles was developing a relationship with Sally, the heavily put upon but always well intentioned concierge, played by Molly Hagan.

This show was filmed without a studio audience and with a laugh track, so there are times that the scenes are free of any audience reaction and others where you hear big laughs. In a way, that fits the oddity of the program, which was typical Mel Brooks: filled with sight gags, puns and schlocky physical humor.

New York plays a part because even the worst hotel in town has guests and this one is clearly one of the worst, especially with an elevator operator who is apparently legally blind and never stops the car correctly, leaving people to have to climb up or slide down to enter or exit their floor, just as one example of the humor.

Mel Brooks is Mel Brooks! You got the same style of humor from him in everything he did, from his movies like "Blazing Saddles" and "Young Frankenstein" to his sitcoms like "Get Smart" and "When Things Were Rotten" (his ORIGINAL take on the Robin Hood legend). But, by 1989, it seems like many in the audience had become too sophisticated for that form of lowbrow humor than they were in the 1960s and 70s when Mr. Brooks had his biggest successes. It's Mel! If you like him, you LOVE him and if he's not your cup of tea, you're watching something else.

I don't know if anything could have improved "The Nutt House" except maybe sending it in a time machine to 1974.

I want to find out whether the complete 1989 TV series 'The Nutt House' is likely to be released on DVD. If anyone out there knows of any way to get this actioned PLEASE email me (or just go ahead and do it). This was one of the funniest and most under-rated TV series in the whole of the last 20 years. That good! We need to nag whoever to get this DVD. The highly-sexed, crazy housekeeper, Mrs Frick (played so perfectly by the delightful Beverly Leech) who took every opportunity to entice men into her private room. Then there was the untrustworthy hotel lift that, without warning, would stop short of the floor causing everyone to have to jump, or squeeze themselves, out of it to safety...solid gold stuff. The series featured a New York hotel which had fallen on hard times. It was run by the Nutt family and involved short sitcom style programmes about the day to day lives of the staff and (rare) guests in the Nutt House world. The opening credits came up as the viewer was taken on a rickety old wooden roller-coaster ride. For some unknown reason the series was not fully aired to its end. The series was (allegedly) not as well received in the US as it was by the crazy British audience who adored it and were distraught when it ended so abruptly. Many Brits have sought to get the series made available on DVD. As more and more old classic films and series are being released on DVDE nowadays, the huge fan club of The Nutt House sit and wait in trepidation in the hope that this will be included.

I think this ran for 6 or 7 episodes, and I laughed through all of them. As good as Cloris Leachman is as the head of housekeeping she is even better as old Mrs. Nutt. The character is kind of similar to Tim Conway's old man routine from Carol Burnett, but that routine never made me laugh, the Cloris version cracked me up. I vaguely remember her jumping her support hose. Whenever I see Gregory Itzen as President Logan on 24 I remember him as the Dennis the player bell hop, and smile. Harvey Korman is good as well. I'd love to see the 3 or 4 episodes that did not air in the U.S. (the U.K. aired all of them), and I wish this was available on DVD.

Next to Police Squad, this classic (and truly impossible to find) sitcom was the best of the best. Harvey Korman and Cloris Leachman were in rare form on screen, and brought this comedy classic to life. Sight gags, sarcastic dialog, and just an aura of insane situations make this Mel Brooks best. Although it aired for only one month back in 1989, this show should be immortalized in the sitcom library of truly underrated classics.