Holmes & Yoyo

I recall a major gag of the first episode was that someone was pressing a remote garage door opener and it caused Yoyo to spin head-to-toe in mid-air. Another time, he couldn't enter a building because the sensor of an automatic door caused him to turn and walk in the opposite direction.

The show received quite a bit of public attention (or at least its catchy name did) but was obviously quickly forgotten. On an episode of the TV series "Maude", a game show host (Conrad Janis) complained that he barely missed getting the lead role in "Holmes and Yoyo".

The following year, ABC attempted "Future Cop" - a dramatic series about a cop (Ernest Borgnine) with a robot partner.

An attempt from the producers of GET SMART to repackage a gimmick from that TV show, namely a robotic crime fighter (Yo-Yo) who literally does what he is told by his partner (Holmes...get it?). Sample joke: Holmes/Smart: "Hop to it." Yo-Yo/Hymie: (starts hopping). In GET SMART it made for a nice diversion but in Holmes and Yo-Yo it was the entire show and way too much of a good thing. GET SMART's Richard Gautier was a perfect mime as Hymie the Robot and had Don Adams as a straight man, whereas Richard B. Shull as Det. Holmes and John Schuck as Yo-Yo just never nailed their roles. Also the jokes were stale sitcom jokes, not the sharp satire of the producer's previous effort. John Schuck was much better the same year opposite Sharon Gless in TURNABOUT, a TV sitcom about a husband and wife who magical find themselves in each other's bodies (a concept that would be used many times again in theatrical films but never as perfectly cast as TURNABOUT). Holmes and Yo-Yo had the talent, it's just that no one tried to make a good show.

Yes, this was a rehash of Get Smart, but YoYo, the robot character had a great gag in several of the episodes - he'd blink his eyes (a camera) and a Polaroid photo would pop out of his shirt pocket. I loved it! (Okay, so I was only 13 at the time, but it was still fun!)

Sometimes a show becomes a part of the fabric of American life - "I Love Lucy", "All In The Family", "Mary Tyler Moore". And sometimes not so much - "Pink Lady and Jeff", "The San Pedro Beach Bums", and sadly "Holmes and Yoyo". It's tragic that this program did not get a chance to endear itself to the American public as it inevitably would have if given the time to develop and grow. What if NBC had given up as early on "Hill Street Blues"? It might have known the same fate as "Cop Rock". Barring a revival, we will never know what "Holmes and Yoyo" might have been, and we're all just a bit poorer for that.

... John Schuck was much better the same year opposite Sharon Gless in TURNABOUT ...

"Holmes & Yo-Yo" aired during the 1976-77 season; "Turnabout" was not the same year, it ran for seven weeks in early 1979.

I thought the chemistry between Richard B. Shull and John Schuck was something that was developing as the series progressed. The humor was a bit silly at times, but the same can be said for even the best two-man teams -- Laurel & Hardy, Gleason & Carney, etc. It was easily more entertaining than most other sitcoms of the 1976-77 season. If there had been a second season, we'd be seeing the series in syndication and on DVD.

Both sitcoms deserve to be remembered, and released on DVD so a new generations of fans can discover them!