The Nutt House

The Nutt House is an old failing hotel in New York City. Elderly owner Mrs. Nutt calls on her irresponsible grandson Charles Nutt III (Brian McNamara) for help. There is a crazy varied cast of characters working in the hotel. Ms. Frick (Cloris Leachman) is head of housekeeping. Reginald Tarkington (Harvey Korman) is the manager. Sally Lonnaneck (Molly Hagan) is a maid.

I don't remember this show. It was canceled after six half-hour episodes with eleven produced in total. Mel Brooks and Alan Spencer are the creators. The style is broad satire with outlandish situations. In a way, it doesn't fit successful American sitcoms of this era. Also, Charles is set up as the lead character, but he ends up as a secondary character. He can't hold the screen by himself. Korman does the heavy-lifting with Leachman as his powerful second. In fact, Molly Hagan would have a much bigger role as the show continues. This show takes some time to get used to. It finds its legs before the show gets pulled.

As a young kid in Australia I remember in late 1989 a local TV station advertising this as an upcoming show for 1990 and it looked really promising. Lots of funny wild and wacky gags helmed by none other than Mel Brooks! How could it miss?

Alas, the show was already probably axed by the time that ad aired and I'm not sure it even got broadcast here. I certainly never got around to seeing any of it.

Being a fan of Brooks' work, I've always been curious about how good (or bad) this show actually was. Thanks to YouTube, several episodes of its short run became available and I watched the pilot.

Overall, it was a bit better than expected. Like a lot of Brooks' later work, there was a lot of corny and hacky gags that look especially tired in the present-day setting of the show. And the laugh track (which co-creators Brooks & Spencer apparently didn't want) is an irritant.

But there were a decent amount of clever and genuinely amusing moments. Even when the gags didn't work, I admired the amount and range of gags on display; if nothing else you can't say they were going through the motions making this.

As well we get to see Brooks regular Cloris Leachman display her talent and versatility in dual roles.

While not an overlooked gem, 'The Nutt House' pilot had enough entertainment in it to think it could've worked as a series.

until I looked at the description here. I saw this when it was shown in the UK (I think) and I thought it was really funny(but then I was only about 11), I recorded it, but then recorded over it, damn. Wish I could see it again to see if it was really funny, but they only showed it once I think, like Maniac Mansion(cept I recorded that).

Next to Police Squad, this classic (and truly impossible to find) sitcom was the best of the best. Harvey Korman and Cloris Leachman were in rare form on screen, and brought this comedy classic to life. Sight gags, sarcastic dialog, and just an aura of insane situations make this Mel Brooks best. Although it aired for only one month back in 1989, this show should be immortalized in the sitcom library of truly underrated classics.

I think this ran for 6 or 7 episodes, and I laughed through all of them. As good as Cloris Leachman is as the head of housekeeping she is even better as old Mrs. Nutt. The character is kind of similar to Tim Conway's old man routine from Carol Burnett, but that routine never made me laugh, the Cloris version cracked me up. I vaguely remember her jumping her support hose. Whenever I see Gregory Itzen as President Logan on 24 I remember him as the Dennis the player bell hop, and smile. Harvey Korman is good as well. I'd love to see the 3 or 4 episodes that did not air in the U.S. (the U.K. aired all of them), and I wish this was available on DVD.