Love on a Rooftop

Courtesy of YouTube, I've just re-watched the premiere episode for the first time in 50 years, and found it ... not so bad. There's a joke about unwed pregnancy, which was pretty forward-thinking for 1966, and they had the couple sleeping in the same tent on the rooftop during their honeymoon, which was -- you're just going to have to believe me on this -- also pretty forward- thinking. The shots of vintage San Francisco are very nice.

The show lasted only one season. Interestingly, YouTube has a video of Judy Carne promoting the second-season premiere of the series; she's there with Elizabeth "Bewitched" Montgomery and Marlo "That Girl" Thomas promoting ABC's Thursday night programming for the 1967-68 season. At the time, ABC had a bad habit of renewing a series and then rescinding the renewal a short while later, and "Love on a Rooftop" got the belated ax. ABC wound up moving "Bewitched" and "That Girl" half an hour earlier, and didn't even bother to program the 10:30-11 p.m. ET slot that opened with the cancellation of "Love on a Rooftop."

This was a pretty good "screwball romantic comedy" that only ran one season.

In the pilot episode the couple (Carne and Duel) meet and get married, the following episodes dealing with their efforts to live in a San Francisco on a shoestring budget. Of course, the parents of Carne's character live not too far away and are fairly wealthy (he's some sort of building contractor, if I recall) and always want to "lend a hand", in spite of the couple's insistence that they must make it on their own.

The show was generally pleasant and engaging, though Duel seemed a bit miscast and often had a "deer in the headlights" appearance. Carne was much better suited to her role and added considerable sparkle to the show.

Some additional spice was added to the show by Rich Little, who, I believe, played an aspiring comic.

The show suffered mostly from poor writing during first dozen or so episodes, not really getting it's "legs" until late in the season, when it was probably too late to renew. No doubt it was, by today's standards, a bit trite and juvenile, but was pretty good compared to some of the competition of the era.