Good Morning World

It seemed the show was mainly about Dave's and Larry's personal lives and hardly anything about their radio show or the station they worked at unlike WKRP years later.

GOOD MORNING WORLD is a mid-60s hybrid of the Occupational Sitcom and the Domestic Sitcom. They took as their format the classic "Dick Van Dyke Show" mix of 50% Rob Petrie's home life and 50% Rob Petrie's work as a TV gag writer.

In this case, the single protagonist becomes two men and the workplace shifts from TV to radio, but otherwise things are fairly familiar. Richard Deacon's fussy producer was replaced by Billy DeWolfe's fussy station manager.

The main change was that by going with two men, the show was able to do both happily married plots and bachelor dating plots. In the latter case, dating involved newcomer Goldie Hawn, doing an early version of the ditsy character she later developed for LAUGH-IN.

Like most sitcoms, individual episodes' plots are long-forgotten aside from an occasional story that stuck in the memory for some reason. In the case of GOOD MORNING WORLD, it was the "Nude Ranch" episode. The guys had been sent to do an overnight remote broadcast from a "dude ranch." But when they got there, they discovered to their horror they were at a NUDE ranch. This being the still-uptight age of sitcoms, the humor was limited to the guys' nervousness at being around nude people (who were of course mostly off-camera aside from some above-the-waist shots on a couple men). The guys do their first show and retreat to their room, dreading the fact they are to be guests of honor at dinner that night. They decide they have to appear.... The next scene shows them bare-chested as they sit in the still-empty dining room. They hear the sounds of the ranch guests approaching.... And see that everyone is fully dressed. The nudists explain "We always dress for dinner!" but thank the guys for their thoughtfulness in appearing nude. The guys admit they chickened out and stand up, revealing large towels firmly in place.

This was a funny show that didn't try too hard to get laughs. Clever idea at the time, two morning show DJs, life at work and home.Seeing the pre-Laugh In Goldie Hawn is a real kick, too.Give this one a try.

The veteran producers of Dick Van Dyke had a hand in doing this show. They did a great job. The entire cast of the show was really solid. If you want a prime example of how hot Goldie Hawn was as a young woman, this series really shows her off. This was before Laugh-In.

Billy De Wolf was an excellent Station Manager for this show. His mannerisms on this show were borrowed by Pat Paulsen when he was doing sketches on the Smothers Brothers Comedy hour. De Wolfs character is a classic.

Jodie Baker & Ronnie Schell really complemented each other well on the show as the morning DJ's who were always getting into trouble. I wish the ratings had kept this show on longer. It was the best sitcom on CBS during its short run.

CBS remembered it well as they took the format for this series, tweaked it, & brought it back as WKRP In Cincinnati. When you watch this, it is very obvious where the latter show had its roots. WKRP was a great show in its own right, & lasted longer, but without this show, there would have been no WKRP.

If you see this show anyplace, pick it up. Good Morning World is a 1960's classic. The introduction of each episode has a 1960's flair with the fast shower, shave, & freeway trip to work.

The 26 half-hour episodes of the situation comedy "Good Morning World" were originally broadcast by CBS during its 1967-68 season. Many of those who tuned in to see the premiere of "Laugh-In" in the fall of 1968 did so to see Goldie Hawn who had already developed a cult following from playing the Lewis' ditzy neighbor Sandy Kramer on "Good Morning World".

Dave and Linda Lewis were a married couple played by Joby Baker and Julie Parrish much in the vein of the Petrie's from "The Dick Van Dyke Show". Not a big surprise as both shows were produced and developed by Carl Reiner and Sheldon Leonard. Dave was also coupled with bachelor Larry Clarke (Ronnie Schell who viewers already knew as Gomer Pyle's friend Duke Slater) as an early-morning drive time Los Angeles radio DJ team known as (big surprise) "Lewis and Clarke". Think 1960's "WKRP" with funny voices, silly chatter, and general on-air antics between songs and commercials.

The show followed the home and office lives of this "sort of" wacky pair; mixing elements of their personal lives in with bits involving their overbearing boss, station manager Roland B. Hutton (Billy DeWolfe).

The series was a few years ahead of its time and the basic formula would be more successful a few years later as "The Mary Tyler Moore Show". MTM's famous "Teddy Awards" was a tribute to "Golden Mikey Awards" featured on "Good Morning World".

Good writing and excellent performances make it well worth watching.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.