Hail to the Chief

No, it actually wasn't all that well written, but my goodness was it prescient! Imagine if Hillary Clinton had actually won the White House in 2008, Bill in tow, but been saddled with a Cabinet and kids Nixon, Reagan or "Bush the Lesser" might have produced. Picture that and you'll have something close to what the creators of this Reagan Era satire must have had in mind in trying to apply the style (right down to the musical cues and canned laughter from the brilliant SOAP) to the world of national and international politics.

The Soviet Union was still together and the Middle East hadn't exploded yet, but everything else rings painfully true in the audio tapes I made (so recent and yet VCRs were just coming in!) of the first four episodes (of the seven shown) and recently stumbled across in the back of a drawer...so true in fact, that I dearly wish the company which put SOAP out on DVD would put the lone season of HAIL TO THE CHIEF on a DVD to be enjoyed again - for many people, for the first time. It might stun a lot of people including the original creators. Most satire (unless it's as brilliantly written as a MURPHY BROWN) ages rapidly, but this show actually seems better now than when it originally aired.

But I still laughed.

Fans of Soap will dig it. There was clearly a lot of inspiration there.

And the satire was brilliant.

Patty Duke was the eye of this hurricane. The only normal one. The rest were your regular stereotypes.

Philandering first husband. Friendly but slightly unhinged Russian Premier. (Shawn was excellent in the role.) Loose daughter. Gay assistant. War monger General. Right wing secretary of state. (Herscel Bernardi's last role?) Southern gentleman democrat. And Glynn Thurman playing and over-the-top version of Jesse Jackson nearly stealing the show.

The humor was a bit off color, but that's what made me laugh. I think people liked it despite themselves.

This show was cute. Patty Duke played the country's first woman president, much like the film "Kisses For My President." Ted Bessell played her astronaut-hero husband who played around on her while he could. Herschel Bernardi was cast as an Ehrlichman/Kissinger type. It's a shame the show didn't find an audience.

I remember this show being pretty funny. It would air well on Trio or Bravo back-to-back with Soap, as the two are similar in style and humor. Patty Duke was a good lead as Pres. Mansfield, and I remember Dick Shawn (LSD from the movie The Producers) having a blast as the Russian premier. Richard Paul was also good as a reverend who thought it was blasphemy to have a female president. It gave him good practice for when he'd start playing Rev. Jerry Falwell. (He played Falweel in The People vs. Larry Flynt and also in the 1990 TV-movie Fall from Grace, starring Kevin Spacey and Bernadette Peters and Jim & Tammy Faye Bakker.) Hopefully someday a cable channel will tire of the usual sitcom reruns and give this one a shot.

It's no wonder that it's so easily forgotten because it made TV Guide as being in the Summer of 1985 the most offensive Show but what can I say but as My Mom & me agree it more than was just in style to make fun of our most serious enemies of which the Russians were during The Cold War of which more or less ended during 1989 with the Tearing down of The Berlin Wall.But back to this show & another reminiscence behind it is when the night of a lost Relative's Wake I was watching an episode of this one night of this year along with practicing the reading for the Funeral the next day.But Back to the episode of that night.When The President's Son said he only said what he felt she then said "Well think before you feel & feel more positively."Something like this? But as you can see it's no wonder reviews say that Commander in Chief is both abc's & TV's 1st TV show about a Woman President.However American History is still American History & should not be forgot keep your eye on the grand old flag.I also personally thought at the time that I saw this show that it wasn't fair to take a nice dream like this & make it offensive.

They're 3 supposed reasons that this went off the air one that it was TV's Most offensive show at the time,the other that it was to much of a copy of the old night time Soap called "Soap" & the other that the producer(s) of this had a choice to continue with this or do "The Golden Girls" instead of which would/did come out later this same year.

Next Look into Madam Secretary with Tea' Leone on Sunday nights & see if it lasts long at all or even long enough for her to be promoted to Madame President? Maybe this,Kisses for my President,& Commander in Chief & now even Madame Secretary could suitably turn up on both We/Women's entertainment & Lifetime Television. Little additions and/or editings were just added today on October 12,2014 and suitably for Columbus Day which fell on a Sunday for a Holiday Weekend. An update on 4/14/2020. Yes As I got an update Madam Secretary did get to be Madame President but with the same name.As one might guess because they knew it was on its way out and it also did better as Madame Secretary than either of the other shows did as Hail to the Chief and Commander in Chief.It maybe chauvinistic but it still is seemingly so.I also heard but didn't watch it because of how my favorite Sunday night Radio Show had come back.The Lost 45s but I'll do my research on Youtube to try to catch up again.

Patriotically, Stephen "Steve" G. Baer a.k.a. "Ste" of Framingham,Ma.USA