The Nutt House

This hilarious comedy series, which lasted only 6 episodes, is great fun. Mel Brooks' best work since HIGH ANXIETY back in 1977. Slapstick, puns and sight-gags galore, this makes the best use of its good cast (Harvey Korman, Cloris Leachman, Mark Blankfield, Brian MacNamara) and has great art direction (its lavish Nutt hotel). This is really hard to find, but is worth it for comedy and Mel Brooks fans.

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.

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.

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.

Here's an important note. When you see the name Mel Brooks on a film or TV series, you can know that it's going to be a comedy, that it's going to be filled with unexpected, wild and maybe borderline style humor and it will be populated by the most eccentric and unusual characters you never would have imagined yourself, because you're not Mel Brooks.

That's the basics of what you need to know about "The Nutt House," the story of a New York City hotel that has more than its share of problems.

The Nutt House, the name of the hotel, was in financial difficulties and we were informed that was specifically because of its moniker. But that couldn't be changed as it was so named for its owner, Edwina Nutt, played by Cloris Leachman in the pilot episode, and in a dual role, Ms. Leachman also played head of housekeeping, a heavily accented Hungarian sounding Ms. Frick.

The role of Ms. Nutt was taken over by Jeanette Nolan in ensuing episodes. The person in charge was the vain, self-important manager, Reginald Tarkington, played by Harvey Korman. Ms. Frick has an unrequited crush on Tarkington, a point made clear in some way during their every interaction, well past the point of sexual harassment!

Ms. Nutt's handsome and ne'er do well son was Charles Nutt III and portrayed by Brian McNamara, and Charles was developing a relationship with Sally, the heavily put upon but always well intentioned concierge, played by Molly Hagan.

This show was filmed without a studio audience and with a laugh track, so there are times that the scenes are free of any audience reaction and others where you hear big laughs. In a way, that fits the oddity of the program, which was typical Mel Brooks: filled with sight gags, puns and schlocky physical humor.

New York plays a part because even the worst hotel in town has guests and this one is clearly one of the worst, especially with an elevator operator who is apparently legally blind and never stops the car correctly, leaving people to have to climb up or slide down to enter or exit their floor, just as one example of the humor.

Mel Brooks is Mel Brooks! You got the same style of humor from him in everything he did, from his movies like "Blazing Saddles" and "Young Frankenstein" to his sitcoms like "Get Smart" and "When Things Were Rotten" (his ORIGINAL take on the Robin Hood legend). But, by 1989, it seems like many in the audience had become too sophisticated for that form of lowbrow humor than they were in the 1960s and 70s when Mr. Brooks had his biggest successes. It's Mel! If you like him, you LOVE him and if he's not your cup of tea, you're watching something else.

I don't know if anything could have improved "The Nutt House" except maybe sending it in a time machine to 1974.