A look at the pilots of three 1960s flop sitcoms provides some clues as to why these shows didn’t take off.

Many Happy Returns

In the fall of 1964, CBS gave the cushy timeslot behind The Andy Griffith Show and The Lucy Show on Monday night to Many Happy Returns. That prime slot may have been part of its undoing, as the two hit shows it followed were still hitting on most cylinders while Many Happy Returns was merely a pleasant sitcom that lacked big laughs.

The idea of building a show around character actor John McGiver and setting it at the returns section of a department store doesn’t sound particularly promising. That said, McGiver, playing Walter Burnley, is the best thing about the show. He is credible as the slightly stuffer manager of his department and handles the show’s lighter moments well, too. Unfortunately, no one in the supporting cast stands out. Guest stars Cheerio Meredith (Emma from The Andy Griffith Show) and Doris Packer (The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis) outshine the regulars in the pilot.

The pilot script blended Burnley’s work and home life and emphasized how he goes to great lengths to keep customers from returning their purchases. The farcical elements in the story are the most amusing. Overall, it’s a likable show but lacks the outrageous elements that drove that season’s sitcom hits (Bewitched, The Munsters, The Addams Family, Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C., Gilligan’s Island). The drop-off in ratings from its The Lucy Show lead-in led to its cancellation after just one season.

The Smothers Brothers Show

In the 1965-66 season, just before their breakout the next year as variety show stars, the Smothers Brothers starred in this fantasy sitcom. With the huge success of Bewitched the previous season, producers hoped to capitalize on supernatural concepts for new sitcoms such as I Dream of Jeannie, My Mother the Car, and The Smothers Brothers Show, which featured Tommy as an apprentice angel hoping to win his wings by doing good deeds on Earth.

Co-created by future drama series mogul Aaron Spelling, the original unaired pilot was rewritten by Allan Burns (co-creator of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Rhoda, Lou Grant) and Chris Hayward (Get Smart, Barney Miller), who would win an Emmy for comedy writing on He and She just two seasons later. Burns said the original version was more of a spoof of fantasy shows. However, the sponsor got cold feet, fearing the audience wouldn’t understand the show’s intentions. A new version was commissioned that was a more traditional supernatural comedy.

The resulting pilot was a disaster. Too much time is spent on exposition, as Tom’s character shows up as an angel after being lost at sea two years ago. Dick doesn’t even seem terribly happy to see him. Tom’s first good deed goes astray, and Dick’s life is disrupted by Tom’s incompetence. The story of Tom’s good deed gets short shrift, and it’s difficult to care about it. Worst of all, almost nothing is funny. With few laughs resulting from the concept or the story, the script relies mostly on unfunny jokes. The brothers are miscast as sitcom stars. Tom’s dumb routine is irritating in this show. Dick is too mellow in this format to serve as a proper foil. The script even nonsensically slips in the “Mom always liked you best” catchphrase. It’s no surprise that, despite following the country’s number two show, Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C., this series lasted only one season.

The Good Guys

Just a year removed from Gilligan’s Island, Bob Denver returned to situation comedy in the fall of 1968 with The Good Guys. The series concerned Denver’s friendship with Herb Edelman and his wife, played by Joyce Van Patten. Denver was a taxi driver, while Edelman owned a diner.

Though Denver was the bigger star, Edelman steals the show as a put-upon everyman with dreams of making it big. Joyce Van Patten is also an asset as his somewhat cynical wife, adding more comedy than many of the blander sitcom wives of the day. Denver’s antics are toned down from his Gilligan days, and he works well as the sidekick, even though he’s the top-billed performer. Prickly William Daniels is a good choice to guest star in the pilot as Edelman’s old rival.

The pilot gets off to a promising start with a solid mix of wit and slapstick. Once the story kicks in, with Edelman trying to impress Daniels with tall tales, it becomes increasingly cliched. In desperation, the episode ratchets up the slapstick, but only some of it works. Writer and creator Jack Rose, a three-time Oscar nominee, had never written for sitcoms before, and he relies too much on shtick that we’ve seen on other shows. Still, as one of just three sitcoms shot before an audience that fall (along with Here’s Lucy and The Mothers-In-Law), the proceedings are lively, and the show is well-cast. Unfortunately, the audience and even the original diner setting were eventually dropped, and the show only lasted for one and a half seasons.