Car 54, Where Are You?

Boy, I am still waiting for a DVD or two of this classic television show, giving us seasons worth of episodes, not just a couple of episodes on tape. This show was a comedy classic; one of the best ever.

This particular VHS tape I am reviewing features two past shows, one of which is one of my all-time favorites: "The Taming of Lucille." Humor is subject but to me that episode is one of the funniest ever on TV as henpecked "Gunther Toody" (Joe E. Ross) tries to turn the tables on his wife. After he and partner Francis Muldoon (Fred Gwynne) watch a presentation of "The Taming the Shrew" in Central Park, and later Toody sees his cousin Al dominate his wife Rose, he thinks he can do the same....with hilarious results. Beatrice Pons, as "Lucile," is a hoot, too. Ross and Pons played the same roles in the earlier "You'll Never Get Rich" television how featuring Phil Silvers as "Sgt. Bilko."

The other episode is a famous one, too, although not as funny. In this show, Toody winds up on the Jack Paar show, hosted by Hugh Downs. A fellow policeman is "discovered" as a real comic and is invited on the show, only to get stage-fright and be rescued by Toody, who then takes his place as the star comic. He's invited back and....well....deja vu all over again, as Yogi Berra supposedly once said.

These are two shows guaranteed to give you a lot of laughs for 50 minutes (25 minutes per show). I just hope someone the whole series becomes available.

Some of the warmest and funniest humor that was ever put on television came from the fertile pen of Nat Hiken when he created Car 54 Where Are You. As it came out at the beginning of the Kennedy presidency and only lasted two seasons, it can be said that it was a perfect fit for the Camelot years. After November of 1963 a gentle show like this albeit about cops would not have made it any longer.

In fact I can hardly believe it only lasted for two seasons, it seemed to go on forever in syndication. Speaking of JFK there was one episode I remember vividly about a patrolman who got a reputation as a jinx and no one wanted to ride with him. He did however pick up a certain VIP in 1960 and deliver him to a television broadcast. The VIP was Richard Nixon on the way to his debate.

The leads were Joe E. Ross and Fred Gwynne. Ross was a veteran of that other Nat Hiken creation the Phil Silvers Show where he played Mess Sergeant Rizzo. Ross played Gunther Toody who was an amiable goof who was assigned to give the benefit of his street wisdom to new partner Francis Muldoon. Gwynne as Muldoon was a tall shy almost backward kid and the only one who Toody might have seemed to have wisdom to impart. The funny thing is that somehow these two got through some very interesting situations and many times came out on top if not always by the book. They drove precinct Captain Bloch (Paul Reed) to total distraction.

The mark of a great show is the fact that even after almost 50 years I can still remember some individual episodes. I remember Molly Picon as Mrs. Bronson who simply would not be dispossessed from her home. I remember an episode with a parrot who learned from Ross to say I hate Captain Bloch. I remember a really wonderful episode where Toody and Muldoon try to get a decent bar mitzvah turnout for the son of Pokrass the landlord played by B.S. Pully. That was difficult because the stingy Pokrass was probably the most hated man in the Bronx. Still they managed in something not covered in the police manual.

You can see a lot of Car 54 in the Barney Miller Show in the next decade and I've a feeling that Toody and Muldoon may have wound up as instructors at the Police Academy.

I so wish the TV Land Channel would run this show.

I agree with Gilda, Car 54 is a classic that has not been given the same credit as "I Love Lucy" or "The Honeymooners", also some of my favorites.

The writing on Car 54 was superb. One of my favorite episodes is about the evil landlord "Pocrass." I love it!

Car 54 was the funniest show ever to grace the airwaves. The acting was dead-on perfection and the writing far superior to anything we have on-air today. The funniest episode involved a parrot that Captain Block had for years but was unable to teach it to talk. After one day with our heroes, the parrot ends up saying "I hate Captain Block", repeatedly. This is the funniest show I have ever seen! My husband first showed it to me shortly after I came out of the hospital for surgery. I laughed so hard that I thought my stitches would pop and I had to beg him to shut it off until later! If you have never seen this show you are in for a tremendous treat!! I love this show; when will it come on DVD? I can't wait to show all the episodes to our children.

Car 54 Where are You? is one of the funniest TV series to ever appear on television. The chemistry between the dim-witted but affable Gunther Toody (played by Borscht-belt stand-up comic Joe E. Ross ) and his cultured but painfully shy bachelor partner Francis Muldoon ( played by the pre-Munsters Fred Gwynne ) rings true in every episode. You definitely get the feeling watching this comedy that these two cops are closer than brothers. What really makes this series outstanding though is the superior writing and the supporting actors. Wally Cox, Nipsey Russell, Godfrey Cambridge, Charlotte Rae, Ossie Davis, Jake LaMotta ( the subject of Scorcese's 'Raging Bull' ), Rocky Graziano, Sugar Ray Robinson, Jack Gilford..these are just a handful of some of the well-known actors and personalities you'll see when watching this series.

I recently found the entire series for sale on the internet and I have thoroughly enjoyed it.

"Oooo.....Oooo!!"