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Pow
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 Posted: Tue Jul 13, 2021 4:23 pm Post subject: Inside O.U.T. |
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The Office of Unusual Tactics a.k.a. is a secret government agency responsible for cleaning up snafus that have created by other government agencies.
This was a half-hour comedy television pilot first aired on March 22, 1971. Currently available of Youtube.
Bill Daily (I Dream of Jeannie) plays team leader Ron Hart. Farrah Fawcett is team member Pat Boulion; Alan Oppenheimer is tech-wiz Edgar Winster; and Mike Henry (Tarzan in the Valley of Gold, Tarzan and the Great River, Tarzan and the Jungle Boy) is strongman Chuck Dandy.
I found this to be a very funny pilot, it's a shame it wasn't picked up as weekly TV series.
It's Mission: Impossible meets Get Smart.
Our incompetent agents missions are to clean up messes made by equally incompetent government agencies. Not that we have any of that going on at all in our government in real life. |
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Krel
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| Posted: Tue Jul 13, 2021 5:00 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks Pow, I haven't seen this since it first came on TV. I too was disappointed that it didn't go to series, and I will finally get to see it again.
A few years back, I heard an interview with Bill Daily on the radio, he was very funny. He said that he had problems in the beginning while on IDOJ, because he came from standup comedy, and had to learn that he couldn't keep ad-libing his lines. 
David. |
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Bud Brewster
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| Posted: Fri Jul 16, 2021 10:34 am Post subject: |
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I watched the first five minutes of the pilot, and it is indeed funny! Like most of the shows back in the 1970s, however, the canned laughter was distracting, and I wish more shows had followed the example of The Dukes of Hazzard, ten years later — which actually had no laugh track at all. 
The humor in that series and this one obviously needed no "cues" to tell us when the laugh. Watch the video below and see if you agree.
_______________Inside O.U.T. (1971 TV Pilot)
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| POW wrote: | | Bill Daily (I Dream of Jeannie) plays team leader Ron Hart. Farrah Fawcett is team member Pat Boulion; Alan Oppenheimer is tech-wiz Edgar Winster; and Mike Henry (Tarzan in the Valley of Gold, Tarzan and the Great River, Tarzan and the Jungle Boy) is strongman Chuck Dandy. |
Mr. Daily's hyper-active mannerisms work better here than they did in [iI Dream of Jeannie[/i], where writers felt that his character had to constantly demonstrate how clueless he was.
In this series, his character is being bombarded with the blunders of other folks in the government, so his nervousness is caused by the pressure of juggling so many tasks as once!
I like that better than a witless astronaut . . . 
| KREL wrote: | | A few years back, I heard an interview with Bill Daily on the radio, he was very funny. He said that he had problems in the beginning while on IDOJ, because he came from standup comedy, and had to learn that he couldn't keep ad-libing his lines. |
Perhaps Bill wasn't being quite as funny as he thought, but I can't help wondering if maybe the producers should have been less strict about the actors sticking to the script. A good comedian can sometimes add great moments to a show or movie with their ad-libs.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958) |
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Krel
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| Posted: Fri Jul 16, 2021 2:27 pm Post subject: |
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| Bud Brewster wrote: | | Perhaps Bill wasn't being quite as funny as he thought, but I can't help wondering if maybe the producers should have been less strict about the actors sticking to the script. A good comedian can sometimes add great moments to a show or movie with their ad-libs. |
Often Producers, Directors, Actors and certainly Writers aren't happy with actors ad-libing as it throws them off, and can change the direction of the scene. In "The Raven" Boris Karloff had trouble with Vincent Price an Peter Lorre's constant ad-libs. It rattled him as it wasn't how he was trained.
Sometimes they'll roll with it. Stanley Kubrick kept George C. Scotts fall in "Dr. Strangelove" in the movie, because G.C.S. kept in character and didn't break the scene. S.K. felt it fit the absurdity of the movie.
David. |
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Bud Brewster
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| Posted: Fri Jul 16, 2021 2:42 pm Post subject: |
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Yeah, I guess it's rare that directors and the actors would not put up with a costar failing to deliver their cues as expected.
Actually, I was not aware that Daily was ever in standup comedy. Interesting.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958) |
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Pow
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| Posted: Fri Jul 16, 2021 2:46 pm Post subject: |
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| Even a laugh track could not have helped The Dukes of Hazard. It wasn't funny. |
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Krel
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| Posted: Fri Jul 16, 2021 2:53 pm Post subject: |
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On "Police Squad", Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker had to keep battling ABC to keep a laugh track off the show.
David. |
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Pow
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| Posted: Fri Jul 16, 2021 3:18 pm Post subject: |
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Police Squad was hilarious. A shame that the networks felt we simple peons in the audience required a laugh track to tell us when to laugh.
I mean seriously? Laugh tracks were always a big annoyance. |
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