When Things Were Rotten
Encyclopedia
When Things Were Rotten was an American
situation comedy
television series created in 1975 by Mel Brooks
and aired for half a season by ABC
.
A parody of the Robin Hood
legend, the series starred Richard Gautier
(who earlier had played Hymie the Robot in Brooks' Get Smart
series) as Robin Hood. Also in the regular cast were Dick Van Patten
as Friar Tuck
, Bernie Kopell
(another Get Smart veteran) as Alan-a-Dale
, Henry Polic II
as the Sheriff of Nottingham
(whose name was Hubert), Ron Rifkin
as Prince John, Misty Rowe
as Maid Marian
, and David Sabin as Little John
. Richard Dimitri played a dual role
as identical twin brothers; Renaldo was one of the Merry Men, while Bertram was the Sheriff's right-hand man.
Besides actors, the series also borrowed one other important element of Get Smart: like Maxwell Smart, this version of Robin Hood and His Merry Men were imbeciles.
and sight gags
were rampant; e.g., complaining villagers, commanded to "Hold your tongues!," obediently reach into their mouths. There was also occasional breaking of the fourth wall
: in one episode, as one of Robin's men (Renaldo) was being interrogated, with an accuser (Little John) asking, "Are you ready to tell that to your maker?" Renaldo turns his head and looks off-camera, and says: "Mel! I didn't do it!"
Much of the humour was anachronistic
, such as the occasion where Marian's ladies-in-waiting
burst into the 1960s Supremes hit "Stop! In the Name of Love
"; or when the Rock of Gibraltar
had been destroyed, and a messenger brings Prince John the remaining chunk, to be told "I always wanted a piece of the Rock," a reference to Prudential
's slogan.
Also notable was the show's lampooning of 1970s social concerns; e.g., in the episode "Those Wedding Bell Blues," Prince John was preparing to sign a deal with OOPEC, an OPEC
-like cartel whose chief export was olive oil
. Prince John: "I'll control all the olive oil! Anyone who wants to make a salad
will have to come to me!"
, with somewhat better results. Van Patten also appeared in the later film as an abbot.
The cancellation of When Things Were Rotten allowed Van Patten and Kopell to move on to more successful and long-running series — Eight is Enough
and The Love Boat
, respectively. Rifkin, meanwhile, would become best known to modern-day audiences as the ambiguously villainous Arvin Sloane
on Alias
.
in North America
, but the series has yet to appear on DVD
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
situation comedy
Situation comedy
A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...
television series created in 1975 by Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks is an American film director, screenwriter, composer, lyricist, comedian, actor and producer. He is best known as a creator of broad film farces and comic parodies. He began his career as a stand-up comic and as a writer for the early TV variety show Your Show of Shows...
and aired for half a season by ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
.
A parody of the Robin Hood
Robin Hood
Robin Hood was a heroic outlaw in English folklore. A highly skilled archer and swordsman, he is known for "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor", assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men". Traditionally, Robin Hood and his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green clothes....
legend, the series starred Richard Gautier
Richard Gautier
Richard "Dick" Gautier is an actor, comedian, composer, singer and author. Among his most well-known television roles are for Hymie the Robot in the television series Get Smart, and Robin Hood in the short-lived TV comedy series When Things Were Rotten, a Mel Brooks send-up of the classic...
(who earlier had played Hymie the Robot in Brooks' Get Smart
Get Smart
Get Smart is an American comedy television series that satirizes the secret agent genre. Created by Mel Brooks with Buck Henry, the show starred Don Adams , Barbara Feldon , and Edward Platt...
series) as Robin Hood. Also in the regular cast were Dick Van Patten
Dick Van Patten
Richard Vincent "Dick" Van Patten is an American actor, best known for his role as patriarch Tom Bradford on the television sitcom Eight is Enough. He began work as a child actor and was successful on the [New York] stage, appearing in more than a dozen plays as a teenager...
as Friar Tuck
Friar Tuck
Friar Tuck is a companion to Robin Hood in the legends about that character. He is a common character in modern Robin Hood stories, which depict him as a jovial friar and one of Robin's Merry Men. The figure of Tuck was common in the May Games festivals of England and Scotland during the 15th...
, Bernie Kopell
Bernie Kopell
Bernard Morton "Bernie" Kopell is an American television character actor who is probably best known for his roles as Dr. Adam Bricker in The Love Boat and KAOS agent Siegfried in Get Smart...
(another Get Smart veteran) as Alan-a-Dale
Alan-a-Dale
Alan-a-Dale is a figure in the Robin Hood legend...
, Henry Polic II
Henry Polic II
Henry Polic II is a stage, screen, and voice actor best known for his role as Jerry Silver in the American 1980s television series Webster, as well as his frequent game show appearances on such series as Super Password and The $100,000 Pyramid...
as the Sheriff of Nottingham
Sheriff of Nottingham
The Sheriff of Nottingham was historically the office responsible for enforcing law and order in Nottingham and bringing criminals to justice. For years the post has been directly appointed by the Lord Mayor of Nottingham and in modern times, with the existence of the police force, the position is...
(whose name was Hubert), Ron Rifkin
Ron Rifkin
Ron Rifkin is an American actor. He is best-known for his roles as Arvin Sloane on the spy drama Alias and as Saul Holden on the American family drama Brothers & Sisters.-Personal life:...
as Prince John, Misty Rowe
Misty Rowe
Misty Rowe is an actress most known for portraying the perky lisping blond on the American television series Hee Haw for 19 years...
as Maid Marian
Maid Marian
Maid Marian is the wife of the legendary English outlaw Robin Hood. Stemming from another, older tradition, she became associated with Robin Hood only in the 16th century.-History:The earliest medieval Robin Hood stories gave him no female companion...
, and David Sabin as Little John
Little John
Little John was a legendary fellow outlaw of Robin Hood, and was said to be Robin's chief lieutenant and second-in-command of the Merry Men.-Folklore:He appears in the earliest recorded Robin Hood ballads and stories...
. Richard Dimitri played a dual role
Dual role
Dual role refers to one actor playing two or more roles, which may be deliberately scripted in a play or film, or merely be a by-product of a low budget. In a theatrical production where more than one actor plays multiple characters, it is sometimes referred to as an "Ironman" cast...
as identical twin brothers; Renaldo was one of the Merry Men, while Bertram was the Sheriff's right-hand man.
Besides actors, the series also borrowed one other important element of Get Smart: like Maxwell Smart, this version of Robin Hood and His Merry Men were imbeciles.
Humour
One-linersOne-liner joke
A one-liner is a joke that is delivered in a single line. A good one-liner is said to be pithy.Comedians and actors use this comedic method as part of their act, e.g...
and sight gags
Visual gag
In comedy, a visual gag or sight gag is anything which conveys its humor visually, often without words being used at all.There are numerous examples in cinema history of directors who based most of the humour in their films on visual gags, even to the point of using no or minimal dialogue...
were rampant; e.g., complaining villagers, commanded to "Hold your tongues!," obediently reach into their mouths. There was also occasional breaking of the fourth wall
Fourth wall
The fourth wall is the imaginary "wall" at the front of the stage in a traditional three-walled box set in a proscenium theatre, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play...
: in one episode, as one of Robin's men (Renaldo) was being interrogated, with an accuser (Little John) asking, "Are you ready to tell that to your maker?" Renaldo turns his head and looks off-camera, and says: "Mel! I didn't do it!"
Much of the humour was anachronistic
Anachronism
An anachronism—from the Greek ανά and χρόνος — is an inconsistency in some chronological arrangement, especially a chronological misplacing of persons, events, objects, or customs in regard to each other...
, such as the occasion where Marian's ladies-in-waiting
Lady-in-waiting
A lady-in-waiting is a female personal assistant at a royal court, attending on a queen, a princess, or a high-ranking noblewoman. Historically, in Europe a lady-in-waiting was often a noblewoman from a family highly thought of in good society, but was of lower rank than the woman on whom she...
burst into the 1960s Supremes hit "Stop! In the Name of Love
Stop! In the Name of Love
"Stop! In the Name of Love" is a 1965 song recorded by The Supremes for the Motown label.Written and produced by Motown's main production team Holland–Dozier–Holland, "Stop! In the Name of Love" held the number-one position on the Billboard pop singles chart in the United States from March 21, 1965...
"; or when the Rock of Gibraltar
Rock of Gibraltar
The Rock of Gibraltar is a monolithic limestone promontory located in Gibraltar, off the southwestern tip of Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. It is high...
had been destroyed, and a messenger brings Prince John the remaining chunk, to be told "I always wanted a piece of the Rock," a reference to Prudential
Prudential Financial
The Prudential Insurance Company of America , also known as Prudential Financial, Inc., is a Fortune Global 500 and Fortune 500 company whose subsidiaries provide insurance, investment management, and other financial products and services to both retail and institutional customers throughout the...
's slogan.
Also notable was the show's lampooning of 1970s social concerns; e.g., in the episode "Those Wedding Bell Blues," Prince John was preparing to sign a deal with OOPEC, an OPEC
OPEC
OPEC is an intergovernmental organization of twelve developing countries made up of Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela. OPEC has maintained its headquarters in Vienna since 1965, and hosts regular meetings...
-like cartel whose chief export was olive oil
Olive oil
Olive oil is an oil obtained from the olive , a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin. It is commonly used in cooking, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and soaps and as a fuel for traditional oil lamps...
. Prince John: "I'll control all the olive oil! Anyone who wants to make a salad
Salad
Salad is any of a wide variety of dishes, including vegetable salads; salads of pasta, legumes, eggs, or grains; mixed salads incorporating meat, poultry, or seafood; and fruit salads. They may include a mixture of cold and hot, often including raw vegetables or fruits.Green salads include leaf...
will have to come to me!"
Cancellation
The rapid-fire, Mel Brooks style of comedy was out of place on network television of the era, so despite critical acclaim, the series failed to find an audience and was canceled after 13 episodes. Eighteen years later, Brooks produced another Robin Hood parody, the feature film Robin Hood: Men in TightsRobin Hood: Men in Tights
Robin Hood: Men in Tights is a 1993 French-American adventure comedy film and a parody of the Robin Hood story. Produced and directed by Mel Brooks, the film stars Cary Elwes, Richard Lewis, and Dave Chappelle in his film debut...
, with somewhat better results. Van Patten also appeared in the later film as an abbot.
The cancellation of When Things Were Rotten allowed Van Patten and Kopell to move on to more successful and long-running series — Eight is Enough
Eight Is Enough
Eight Is Enough is an American television comedy-drama series which ran on ABC from March 15, 1977 until August 29, 1981. The show was modeled after syndicated newspaper columnist Thomas Braden, a real-life parent with eight children, who wrote a book with the same name...
and The Love Boat
The Love Boat
The Love Boat is an American television series set on a cruise ship, which aired on the ABC Television Network from September 24,1977, until May 24,1986.The show starred Gavin MacLeod as the ship's captain...
, respectively. Rifkin, meanwhile, would become best known to modern-day audiences as the ambiguously villainous Arvin Sloane
Arvin Sloane
Arvin Sloane is a fictional character played by Ron Rifkin. He was the former director of SD-6 on the television series, Alias.-Background:...
on Alias
Alias (TV series)
Alias is an American action television series created by J. J. Abrams which was broadcast on ABC for five seasons, from September 30, 2001 to May 22, 2006...
.
Home video and DVD
Several episodes of the series have been released on VHSVHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, but the series has yet to appear on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
.
Episodes
| No. | Title | Airdate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | "The Capture of Robin Hood" | 1975 September 10 |
| 2 | "The French Dis-connection" | 1975 September 17 |
| 3 | "The House Band" | 1975 September 24 |
| 4 | "Those Wedding Bell Blues" | 1975 October 1 |
| 5 | "A Ransom for Richard" | 1975 October 8 |
| 6 | "The Ultimate Weapon" | 1975 October 15 |
| 7 | "Ding Dong, the Bell is Dead" | 1975 October 22 |
| 8 | "There Goes the Neighborhood" | 1975 October 29 |
| 9 | "Quarantine" | 1975 November 12 |
| 10 | "Birthday Blues" | 1975 November 19 |
| 11 | "The Spy (Part 1)" | 1975 November 26 |
| 12 | "The Spy (Part 2)" | 1975 November 26 |
| 13 | "This Lance for Hire" | 1975 December 3 |
See also
- Maid Marian and Her Merry MenMaid Marian and her Merry MenMaid Marian and her Merry Men is a British children's sitcom created and written by Tony Robinson and directed by David Bell. It began in 1989 on BBC One and ran for four series, with the last episode shown in 1994...
- another comic retelling of the Robin Hood legend, for BritishUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
television
External links
- Harry S. Anchan's television sitcom & comedy site (with When Things Were Rotten theme song)