All That Glitters

My sister and I lived together in Florida in 1977 and fell upon this show one night after the news. After that we NEVER missed an episode. If we were out, we rushed home by 11:30 for the show. The best part was how absolutely perfectly it was cast. Poor submissive Bert, the hotty secretary (who knew how to work it), and of course, gorgeous and strong executive women. The subject matter was razor sharp. Then out of nowhere it was gone. At the time, we couldn't figure out how such a good show had died. We kind of thought it was the time slot. It was years later that we found it was intentionally yanked. Such a pity. Please, please get it back. Someone somewhere can figure it out. On DVD at the very least. I really need to see how Bert makes out...really.

This sit com came on the heels of "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" -- it "mysteriously" disappeared directly following an early episode which presented an older woman (Linda Gray?) in bed with a buff young black man. Zap. Gone. The network sponsors weren't having it. Most people don't remember the show -- it was canceled so prematurely -- because it touched too many nerves. Racism/age-ism/sexism -- it was incredibly smart. There should be a secret All That Glitters Society --people who "got it." I definitely did -- and I was only 15 at the time.

The introduction went something like...; One mornin' the Lord, she woke up to say, "I feel like I want to be creative today. So by virtue of the power I vested in me, I'll make the heavens, earth, and the deep blue sea. Things that swim, fly, walk, lie, creep and crawl, and to gather together and name them all"...(then something about creating woman)...and from the rib of the Madame came Adam full grown... This is all I can recall. How I wish I could remember the rest, or better yet see it in repeats. I can still hear the tune.

Back in Oklahoma, I would watch this show after Mary Hartman, then go to summer school the next day and laugh about it with my mates. The one character I recall was Madame Abu Bahn, the oil sheikh. The company L.W. Carruthers headed was Globatron. In one episode Dan Kincaid (Gary Sandy) got a new B.M.W., and I vaguely remember the bit about the black man in bed with the white woman. How could I have forgotten Tim Thomerson, Andrea Martin, and Lois Nettleton?

Hilarious as the show was, we at school were very angry that it was suddenly chopped. Why? My mother hated both "Mary Hartman" and "All That Glitters," and unsuccessfully tried to stop me from watching it a few times. Maybe her ilk was the reason it was cancelled.

If everyone here writes to TV Land, they might revive it, that is if anyone there remembers. Like myself at 14, it was campy and ahead of it's time. Those were the days, Mr. Lear, you bloody genius.

All that Glitters was short lived, but WAY ahead of its time as Norman Lear who's the "king of controversial sit com television" placed this out there for audiences to see. As I was a female young kid at the time, and "women's lib" was supposedly established, here Lear brought it to fruition. A women run society. And the women were as ruthless, sexual and cut throat as men. Boy, did people have a major cow. This show as very short lived.

Between this show and another short lived network show I liked called "Executive Suite", America - even a very small portion of it - wasn't ready for things like women executives, heterosexual male secretaries & interracial pairings, abortion issues. "All That Glitters" focused on the woman dominated society. But that is the history of early television and the masters, male and female, behind it all. And Norman Lear was one of the leaders.

One that that is important to note: there wasn't such thing as "syndication" as we all know it back then. Syndication didn't come into play until the 1980's -- with a block of shows like "Small Wonder", a new life to "It's a Living", "Out of this World", "The New Gidget", etc. that were being packaged and sold to fill time -- and networks were poo-pooing the concepts, but an audience was out there for these shows....AND 50's & 60's actors realizing that their shows were being played ad-nausea on UHF, local channels and the new medium Cable-TV and its "Superstations", and they weren't getting paid! That's when everyone realized that syndication became ... lucrative - but the whole point of this is that Norman Lear took advantage of the medium way early of this to express a broader artistic view of programming. I'm sure he knew the networks were having a cow. But even back then, "All That Glitters" is one of the most controversial programming of that time, even light-years more than his "All In The Family".

But it was brilliant, it was inspired. It was very short lived but again...the talent! Linda Gray, Gary Sandy, etc. Now that DVD and Blue Ray is alive and well, I hope audiences can take another look at this. I'm not sure if it will "hold up through the years" with HD, etc. but the theme and genius of the concept is there.

And I am still waiting to see "that show" and "that acceptance" in which female executives and CEO's run the country ...

"All That Glitters" was undoubtedly Norman Lear's most cutting edge work. To say that this show was ahead of its time is an understatement. Staying very much in the vein of Lear's trademark "social commentary" brand of humor, the society into which this show's characters were cast portrayed women as dominant and men as submissive and oppressed.

The key to its charm was the blatant inversion of traditional gender power dynamics as well as the complete inversion of gender-based rituals and ceremonies. I recall one episode where a wedding took place where the groom--still dressed in traditional tuxedo--came down the aisle with his bouquet in hand to meet his bride waiting at the altar.

As a first run syndicated television show, "All That Glitters" never had a regular "national" primetime slot which would have made more of the public aware of its existence. But one thing was sure: the sexism inflicted by the women on the men in this show didn't look any better than it has coming from men. By switching the typical gender roles, Lear managed to make both a humorous and serious statement about the ugly side of sexism without preaching––an all too rare occurrence in television. This one ended much too soon.