The Terrible Catsafterme

SEASON 1 – ABC

Created by Stu Silver, Dick Clair, and Jenna McMahon

Theme song: “It’s a Living” music by George Tipton and lyrics by Leslie Bricusse

• 001. Pilot – 10/30/1980
  • Inside the Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles, a group of ladies work as waitresses in the swanky Above the Top restaurant. Under the supervision of Nancy Beebe (Marian Mercer) are Jan Hoffmeyer (Barrie Youngfellow), Dorothy “Dot” Higgins (Gail Edwards), Cassie Cranston (Ann Jillian), Lois Adams (Susan Sullivan), and Vicki Allen (Wendy Schaal). Playing piano and often singing in the restaurant is Sonny Mann (Paul Kreppel). Jan is struggling to handle her evening hours at work while raising a teenager and going to college. Dot is nervous about her date with a guy named Brad, as he wants her to go away with him for the weekend, and up until now she has not slept with him… or anyone else for that matter. Dot is an aspiring actress who is trying out for a Dodge commercial and is excited that she has gotten to the final call backs along with three other actresses. Nancy is rather hard-nosed with the girls and complains about the waitresses putting on weight. She also tells Jan that she needs to apologize to a pair of men who she yelled out when they pinched her during their last visit. Jill is opposed to this, but Nancy threatens her job. She finally acquiesces, but as she is apologizing, one of the men pinch Nancy. Jill reads them the riot act and throws them out and is quite prepared to leave her job. However, Nancy has a change of heart and tells her that she should have hit them before throwing them out. She also offers to have Jill come to her house to get makeup trips. Dot finds a small dog in traffic on her way to the audition and is afraid that having him there with her cost her the job. They call her back with good news, but it turns out to be better news for the dog, as they want him for a dog food commercial, while she didn’t get the Dodge job. Vicki returns from her weekend with Brad and says she had a wonderful time and thinks that she is falling in love with Brad. Sure enough, he doesn’t call her for days, so she finally calls him, only to be told that he hopes to see her around some time. She confesses to the others that she didn’t sleep with him during their weekend, as she wasn’t ready. Lois and the other girls tell her that she shouldn’t sleep with anyone until she is ready, and if the guy is worth a damn, he will wait. The girls all throw their support to her, while Dot struggles to wait on all of the tables by herself. 11/30/24

Read the rest of this entry »

SEASON 1 – CBS

Created by Bob Schiller and Bob Weiskopf

Opening song: “Katy” by Ann Sothern and Bonnie Lake

• 032. Springtime for Katy – 5/18/1959
  • Katy returns to the hotel after a day of shopping with a new outfit and hat, but neither Eddie (Jim Nolan) the doorman, nor Johnny, nor Alfred notice it Furthermore, when Mr. Devery calls her in to discuss their guest, famous international playboy Randy Rand (Patrick O’Neal), he doesn’t notice and then delivers the ultimate insult after calling her ‘O’Connor’ because to him, she is just one of the guys. He also tells her to give Randy Rand some special attention because he is the kind of guest who can bring in clientele. She goes up to his suite to visit Rand, who has been trying to ensure that no women can get to him, as they often want to take souvenirs from meeting him. When Katy comes to the door, he is leery about letting her in, but once he does, he finds himself irresistibly attracted to her. She is aloof about him and thinks that he is a wolf, so when he asks her out, she is quick to turn him down, much to Olive’s surprise and consternation. However, the more she thinks about how insulted she was by Mr. Devery, she changes her mind and accepts the date, insisting that they eat at the Colonial Room where she knows that Devery will be dining as well. Katy can hardly focus on a conversation with Rand as she waits for Devery to arrive. When he finally gets there, Katy talks loud enough so that he can easily overhears the conversation but doesn’t even notice when Rand has to get up and take a phone call. Devery then turns around and finds her talking to herself. He thinks she has had too much to drink, so he escorts her out of the restaurant and sends her home. The next day, Eddie, Johnny, and Alfred all look at and treat Katy differently after seeing her name plastered in the newspaper gossip column about her date with Randy Rand, who begins sending non-stop flowers to her office in hopes of getting another date with her, apologizing for being on the phone too long the night before, which he thinks is what caused her to leave. Katy turns him down and is much more interested in seeing what Mr. Devery thinks about the article. When Rand sends Katy an expensive watch, she goes up to return it to him, telling Olive to spread it on thick about her and Rand when he comes into the office. Olive goes too far with the romance and tells Mr. Devery that Katy and Rand are planning to get married. Up in Rand’s suite, Katy tells him that she was only trying to make her boss see her as a woman. Mr. Devery, thinking Katy will be getting married and leaving the hotel, confesses to Katy that he has always found her a warm, funny, attractive, and desirable woman, and he doesn’t know what he will do without her. She is so taken aback and floating on a cloud that she forgets to tell him that they really aren’t’ getting married. When he overhears Katy turning down Rand’s dinner offer for that night, she confesses that she only wanted to make him see her as a woman. This makes him furious that she pulled out a heartfelt confession by these means. Katy then asks Rand do do her a favor, and they stage a conversation outside of Devery’s office, in which he tells her that he wants to take her away from her work and her horrible boss, and she in turn tells Rand how wonderful Devery actually is. This appeases Devery, he asks her to discuss an upcoming convention of the hotel, and that he wants to get a ‘woman’s angle.’ 11/29/24

SEASON 2

• 036. The Lucy Story – 10/5/1959
  • Katy receives a visit from her old friend Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball), who has checked into the hotel because she is upset by her husband Ricky for going on a skindiving trip with his friend Charlie Snider. Although she complains about her marriage to Ricky, she is stunned to find out that Katy is still single, especially after meeting Mr. Devery and finding out that he is single as well. Lucy warns Katy that one day she will find out that Devery has found another woman and will become quite jealous. In order to instigate this jealousy, Lucy starts sending Devery love letters to ‘Pussycat’ from ‘Cookie.’ To drive the point even more, Lucy pays a visit to Devery and tells her how lonely she is. He suggests a pet, including a pussycat, a word that Lucy says loudly so that Katy can hear her. She also instigates him to say the word ‘cookie’ loudly. When Lucy comes out of the office with Devery, Katy chastises her, prompting Lucy to say she’s proven that Katy is indeed jealous. Katy tries to get Lucy to leave and go back to Ricky, commenting that Devery is about as exciting as a ‘stuffed pimento.’ When Devery overhears this, he became enraged, so he decides to teach Katy a lesson by pursuing Lucy right back. He begins having Katy send Lucy flowers, candy, and champagne on his behalf. Lucy becomes nervous when she starts getting real attention, but he insists on taking her to dinner that evening. Katy goes to see Lucy, who is now ready to go home to Ricky, but Katy doesn’t believe her. Instead, she insists that they toast Lucy’s leaving but puts Rock-a-Bye sleep tablets into Lucy’s champagne. She then tells Lucy that she should just lay down and go to sleep, as she’s locked the door and has the key, and now will wait for Ricky to come pick her up. Before she can go to sleep, she seeks revenge on Katy by putting the sleeping pills in her candy, then offering Katy champagne. Katy says she won’t fall for her trick, but she eats the candy in lieu of the champagne. As the pills start to take effect on both of the ladies, Lucy then convinces Katy that she had never planned to run off with Mr. Devery and truly planned to go home to Ricky. Both of the women try to get out of the apartment, but in their sleepy state, they keep fumbling with the key and accidentally kick it under the door out into the hallway. They attempt to call a cab and try to stay awake by walking around in circles. As Mr. Devery shows up for his date, the girls think that they hear a cab outside and start to climb over the ledge. Fortunately, Devery has found the key and entered the suite and is able to stop them. Devery says that he only started pursuing Lucy to get back at Katy for her comment, but as he lectures them, they both fall asleep. 12/5/24
• 049. Slightly Married – 1/11/1960
  • A little boy named David Travers (Charles Herbert) walks into the Bartley House one day and asks to check in. Mr. Devery thinks they should phone the police as he is obviously a runaway, but Katy wants to humor him and go through the motions of checking him in. However, when Mr. Devery eventually calls the police, David overhears him and disappears in the hotel. A lieutenant (Harry Ellerbe) shows up and scolds both Katy and Devery for not calling him sooner. When David hears that Katy might be in trouble because of him, he resurfaces and tells her that he had taken a plane from Canada and was supposed to meet his adoptive parents, the Jamesons. When they didn’t show up at the airport, he got scared and boarded a bus into New York and tried to check into the hotel. An immigration officer named Mr. Thomas (Frank Behrens) comes to work the case, and when Katy volunteers to look after David until the mess is straightened out, he says that will be find provided that she is married. She lies and tells him that she has a husband named Wellington who would be happy for them to take them. That night she takes David home, and Olive comes over to spend the night and help. Mr. Thomas shows up to check out the house, so Katy pretends that it is her husband who is in the shower rather than Olive. Also showing up unexpectedly is Mr. Devery, who has come to apologize to Katy for being so hard on her about losing David earlier. She pulls him inside and asks him to pretend to be her husband for the night to fool Mr. Thomas. He reluctantly agrees, so Katy pulls Olive out of the shower while she has soap covering her eyes and puts her in the closet. She then has Mr. Devery go into the bathroom and put on a robe so that they can pretend that it was he who was in the shower. Katy goes back to put David to bed, leaving Devery to face Mr. Thomas alone. He starts trying to find Katy or Olive, and when Mr. Thomas overhears him calling for Olive and inquires who she is, he says he is looking for some olives to eat. Mr. Thomas tells him to go to his kitchen to get some, but since Devery doesn’t know his way around the apartment, he goes inside the closet where he finds Olive. Katy then comes out from putting David to sleep and asks where her ‘husband’ is. He tells her that he went to the kitchen and then directs her to the closet. She enters along with Mr. Devery and Olive… followed by Mr. Thomas, for a total of four people in the closet. Later, everything gets straightened out and Mr. (Wally Richard) and Mrs. Jameson (Eileen Harley aka Wallace Earl Laven) are located, and they all meet at the hotel. The Jamesons feel terrible that the got the date mixed up and has been in New York shopping for all kinds of toys, games, records, and clothes for David, who is happy to be entering such a loving family. Katy remarks that with Olive and her in the picture now, it will get awfully expensive for David on Mother’s Day. Later, when Devery sees another boy visiting the Bartley House alone, he tries to dissuade him from staying there. Katy, however, points out that he is only there to do the Tang commercial. 11/29/24
• 057. The Freeloader – 3/14/1960
  • coming soon…

SEASON 3

• 069. Loving Arms – 10/13/1960
  • Mr. Devery comes into the office furious one morning after watching the debut of a sitcom called Loving Arms about the misadventures taking place at a swanky hotel. He finds it so offensive that he sends a nasty letter to the producer Arthur Hawk with Angus Television Productions expressing his distaste. Later, the writer of the sitcom, Terry Tyler (Van Johnson) comes into to confront Devery about his letter as the producer and sponsor took it seriously and are on the verge of cancelling the show. Katy is able to intercept his meeting with Devery and calm him down and furthermore offers him a position at the hotel so that he can witness a real hotel in operation in order to get a better picture of what really goes on. Devery is adamantly against this, but Katy, in her capacity as assistant manager, hires him anyway. He starts as an elevator operator, but due to his incompetence, Devery fires him. He then moves on to the kitchen, but he upsets the chef Marcel (Jack Chefe) when he washes the lettuce for a salad using soap and water. The Tyler moves on to being a waiter in the restaurant, but Devery catches on when Tyler spills a pitcher of water in his lap. He rips off Tyler’s fake mustache and ejects him from the hotel. Devery gets angry at Katy for going behind his back and refuses to speak to her. He gets even more annoyed when a blurb in the newspaper informs the public that the show’s writer did his research at the Bartley House. Tyler returns to the hotel to let Katy know that he has reshot the show, and it met with the approval of the producer and sponsor. He tries to get Katy to come to his apartment to watch the show, but she declines. She also informs him that Devery won’t even see the show because his TV is broken. They then arrange for Tyler to pose as a repairman and to enter Mr. Devery’s room to swap his TV. Although he is tired and wants to go to bed, he eventually allows them to do it. Katy joins them in Devery’s room, and they watch the show which stars Ann Sothern (herself) and Don Porter (himself) playing Miss McConnell and Mr. Devery. The show ends with Mr. Devery kissing Miss McConnell, as Tyler states, using dramatic license. After they watch the show, Tyler reveals himself to the real Devery, who actually likes the show. Devery immediately tries to tell Tyler about the hundreds of ideas he has for future shows. Later, Katy finally has dinner with Tyler in the dining room. They invite Mr. Devery to join them, but he already has a dinner date… with Ann Sothern, who wants to get more pointers for the show. 11/30/24
• 076. Secret Admirer – 12/1/1960
  • When Mr. Devery overhears Oscar Pudney insult Mrs. Lester (Norma Varden), one of the guests at the hotel, when she doesn’t have the change on her to pay for a magazine at his cigar shop, Devery threatens to terminate his lease and kick him and his business out of the Bartley House. Pudney then calls his so-called attorney Jerry Doolittle (George O’Hanlon) to ask his advice on whether the lease can be broken. Since Jerry doesn’t have much actual legal expertise, he simply advises for Pudney to try and romance Katy, since she is the assistant manager. Pudney starts copying romantic poetry from greeting cards and sending it to Katy along with flowers and candy, claiming that he it is from a secret admirer. Katy and Olive first suspect that it the gifts are coming from Mr. Devery, and then from Woody. The next time Pudney is getting ready to insult Mrs. Lester, Katy appears nearby, so he is not only extra nice to Mrs. Lester, but he places a phone call to have a romantic telegram to Katy so that she can hear him placing the order. The ruse actually works, as Devery and his lawyer Dave Shelley (John Bryant) come up with a loophole to get Pudney out of the building, but Katy tells Mr. Devery that there is more to Oscar than meets the eye and talks him out of throwing him out. Meanwhile, Doolittle tries several times to get his $5 payment from Pudney with no success. In his frustration, he goes to see Katy to tell her that the secret admirer schtick was all a plot to get him on her side. He also tells her that Pudney has a jealous Italian steady girlfriend named Angie Pepito (Rita Lynn) who works for her father at Guiseppe’s Italian Restaurant, where Pudney one day plans to work. Katy gets the idea to tell Pudney she knows that he is her secret admirer, and now that it is out in the open, they can go out together. She tells him that she wants to go to Guiseppe’s place and drags him there. Naturally, when Angie sees them together and hears how Katy is talking mushy to him, she blows her top and takes back the ring that she gave Pudney. He admits to Katy that he only did it to get her on his side against Mr. Devery. Pudney then pleads with Katy to tell Angie the truth, so she makes him vow to always be nice to the customers at the hotel and then tells Angie that she was just joking around and that they are there to discuss business. Angie returns the ring to Pudney. Later, Katy makes a bet with Mr. Devery that Pudney has reformed, and the eavesdrop on him being ultra kind to a customer… before walking him out of the cigar counter roughly. In the tag scene, Pudney gives Katy another giant gift, which is huge jar of Tang. 11/29/24
• 090. Pandora – 3/16/1961
  • Mr. Devery plans on traveling to Los Angeles to visit with noted actor Anthony Bardot (Guy Mitchell), where he hopes to talk him into letting the Bartley House host his premier party in the Crystal Room. Katy, however, notes that Devery already has a Hotel Managers Convention booked for the weekend. Since Katy has known Bardot since before his days as a star, she volunteers to go in his place. Upon arrival at Bardot’s home, she meets Bardot’s latest secretary Mavis (Jane Burgess), who is storming out of the house and quitting. Bardot tells her that he has had trouble finding and keeping a secretary who didn’t want to either marry him or get a job in the pictures. He introduces her to his assistant Gabby Hoff (Luke Anthony) and housekeeper Mrs. Dudley (Jeane Wood). Katy agrees to help Bardot find a suitable secretary. She starts by calling an employment agency and speaks to a Mrs. Norton (Fay Baker) and tells her that she is looking for a simply, unsophisticated girl. It so happens that she has a girl fresh off the bus from Iowa named Pandora Peterson (Pat Carroll) in her office, although she worries that Pandora may be too clumsy when the wheel falls off of her chair while she is in the office, and she attempts to fix it. Katy asks Norton to send her right over but not tell her that she is working for Anthony Bardot. After she interviews Pandora and sees the incredible speed at which she types, Katy determines that she would be perfect for the job and introduces her to Bardot, causing Pandora to faint dead away. After she recovers, she meets Gabby, who puts her to work rubber stamping Bardot’s autographed photos. Pandora tries to impress Gabby with her Hollywood impersonations of Betty Duck and one that sounds just like Katherine Hepburn but apparently isn’t. Bardot tells Pandora that he is going out to lunch, and Gabby warns Pandora about making sure that she keeps the door bolted when no one is there as fans sometimes try and get in to see Bardot. As she writes a letter home to her mother, Pandora notices a but full of tourist sightseers outside the house. One tourist lady (Edith Leslie) bribes the bus driver (Art Lewis) to let her get off the bus to take pictures of the house. She winds up wandering into the yard and tripping on the front porch. Pandora brings her inside to help her, causing the other tourists to all file into the house and start looting for souvenirs. Bardot returns amidst the pandemonium, and after clearing the house, fires Katy. Both Gabby and Katy try to convince Bardot that the situation wasn’t entirely her fault and that everyone deserves a second chance. Bardot is adamant about getting rid of her, causing Pandora to rail him about that fact that maybe if he would go out and greet his fans once in a while, things like this wouldn’t happen. She tells him them that they just wanted something to remember him by, but she wants to leave and forget him. As a parting shot, she tells Bardot that he is ugly. Bardot is impressed with her and tells her that she is wonderful and has a job for life with him. She then reveals that she had taken a few souvenirs in her purse after all. Later, when Bardot needs Pandora to take a letter, she shows him that she has taken the typewriter apart to give it some maintenance. NOTE: This episode was intended as a backdoor pilot to a sitcom to be named either Pandora or The Pat Carroll Show but was never picked up by the network. 11/26/24

SEASON 1 – CBS

Created by Joe Gannon, Patt Shea, and Harriet Weiss

Theme song by Tony Greco

This series is a spin-off of the sitcom “Archie Bunker’s Place,” which is a spin-off of the sitcom “All in the Family”

• 000. Gloria, the First Day – 1/11/1982 UNAIRED Pilot
  • Archie Bunker (Carroll O’Connor) drives his daughter Gloria Bunker Stivic and her son Joey to upstate New York to the office of Dr. Willard Adams DVM, where Gloria has taken a job as an assistant in his veterinary office. Archie tries to chat with Dr. Adams, but soon offends him by questioning why, as a failed doctor, did he choose to become a veterinarian rather than a dentist. Gloria rushes him back to the car so that he can head home, but he tells Gloria that when she fails at this job, he will be happy to come back and retrieve her. Although Joey had been looking forward to getting a dog, Gloria is disappointed when Dr. Adams tells her that he doesn’t allow pets on the premises as it would encourage people to drop off their unwanted pets all of the time. Gloria moves her things into her and Joey’s cottage, only to find that Dr. Adams’ assistant Jim Waynewrite (Rich Lohman) is sleeping nude on the fold-out bed in the living room. Although Dr. Adams had told him to move out the night before because he caught Jim having his own ‘pet’ Candy, who held the job that Gloria is now replacing, over at his place once too often. When Jim finds out that Gloria has absolutely no experience caring for animals, he expresses his disappointment that a woman with no experience has been hired. When Gloria tells Joey about the pet policy, he is upset and blames his father Mike for causing this mess by not being there and causing Gloria to have to work at all. Gloria begins her work, and meets Dr. Maggie Lawrence, who assists in the O.R. on surgery days. She has Gloria answer the phone, where she has to deal with an annoying patient named Louise Cotter-Smith (Ann Sweeny) who wants Dr. Adams to call her back. Gloria gradually gets in the swing of things on her first day, even meeting a patient monkey named Michael. That evening after everyone has left, Louise Cotter-Smith barges in and drops off a boxful of newborn puppies, telling Gloria to have Dr. Adams put them down, as she doesn’t want their mother to have to nurse the babies, as she wants her ready for a dog show. Gloria is furious that Dr. Adams would even entertain having the dogs put to sleep, so she has Joey take them back to their place. When Dr. Adams’ handyman Ben (Peter Pastore) tells him that he saw the puppies brought in, but they are now gone, Adams immediately goes to see Gloria. She tells him that she is quitting because she can’t work for a man who would put down newborn puppies. While she is yelling at him, he is calling Mrs. Cotter-Smith and demanding that she bring the mother over to nurse the puppies, under threat of him revealing that her dog ‘sleeps around’. After he hangs up with her, he yells at Gloria for assuming the worst out of him. He says that she did one thing right: trying to save the puppies, but she was wrong about him. She apologizes and asks if she can keep her job, and she agrees. Jim then stops by and yells at Gloria for keeping a recently spayed cat’s cage open, but Dr. Adams comes to her defense and says that it was Ben who did it. She ask to hold the cat, and after everyone leaves, she tells her that they both had rough days, even the the cat’s was worse since she had gotten fixed. 11/30/24
    Read the rest of this entry »

SEASON 1 – ABC

Created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera

Theme song: “Rise and Shine” by Hoyt Curting

NOTE: Season 1 and Season 2 of The Flintstones were filmed in color but originally aired in black and white. 

• 000. The Flagstones – UNAIRED DEMONSTRATION FILM 1960
  • This was a 90-second demonstration film sent to potential sponsors, which showed a scene of Wilma taking Fred his lunch while he floats in the pool. Barney appears in his spear-fishing garb and punctures Fred’s flotation device. Barney manages to save Fred’s sandwich and eats it. The scene is later re-created in the episode The Swimming Pool. Daws Butler voices both Fred and Barney. Jean Vander Pyl voices Wilma. June Foray voices Betty. 11/30/14

  Read the rest of this entry »

SEASON 1 – NBC

Created by Allan Burns and Chris Hayward

Theme song composed and conducted by Ralph Carmichael, written and sung by Paul Hampton

• 001. Come Honk Your Horn – 9/14/1965
  • While browsing a California car lot, lawyer David Crabtree (Jerry Van Dyke) comes across a 1928 Porter jalopy that seems to speak to him through the radio in his late mother Gladys’ (voiced by Ann Sothern) voice. Soon Dave is convinced that his mother, who had died in 1949, had been reincarnated as the Porter. He buys the car for $200 and brings it home, attempting to explain to his wife Barbara (Maggie Pierce) and children Randy (Randy Whipple) and Cindy (Cindy Eilbacher) that the car is his mother. Barb wants no part of it and insists he sell the car, and an attempt at convincing Barb that the car is Dave’s mother fails because she will not talk to anyone but Dave. Meanwhile an antiques collector named Captain Bernard Manzini (Avery Schreiber) pursues Dave in hopes that he will sell him the car, gradually upping his offer from $400 to $1000. Dave gets the car cleaned up and painted, but Barb still insists that he sell it. She enthusiastically accepts Manzini’s offer of $1000, but Dave convinces her that if they hold out, they will get more. The family enjoys a night out in the car, and Gladys tells her son what a wonderful homecoming she had. George N. Neiser is the salesman. 11/18/15

  Read the rest of this entry »