Herman's Head

When friends and I sit around discussing the fall of TV I always bring this show up. Some remember it, and others are clueless. Fox has let some good shows slip away and I never understand why. This show was funny. I'm glad that I'm not the only one that wished that it hadn't been canceled so soon or hoped that at some time or other it would have been picked up in syndiciation. Is there anything that people without the "anonymous voting tv monitors" can do to stop these kind of atrocities?

For unexplained reason, this was being aired at nearly 3 AM on our national television. Maybe they had no empty time for a sitcom like it. Or maybe that was the perfect time for a sitcom about mind! Anyway, that gave me the chance to follow it peacefully in the depth of the night like a special treat, particularly when it was airing daily.

This is simply about Herman and his mind. His mind's residents are maybe the rarest group of characters in sitcom history; Angel (Sensitivity), Animal (Lust), Wimp (Anxiety), Genius (Intellect). You have to love a funny facing to your own thinking like this. I'm sure, it is the closest of what (Sigmund Freud) might have wanted from a sitcom!

I was waiting for any scene that got (Yeardley Smith) in it. As (Louise) the sidekick, she was totally adorable; her magical voice, miniature features, perfect attitude, and tender charisma, all agglutinated me to my seat every single episode to enjoy her presence and performance. The best thing was that she smartly knew how to make you laugh at her and sympathy with her in the same time. The mind's inhabitants were beautifully selected, constantly comic and in harmony. On the contrary, (William Ragsdal), as the title character, was flat, being the less talented amongst all the good cast.

While the main idea was genius, was it ready to continue?! I mean the appearance of all our minds' rulers in conflict and discussion all the way was great imagination and cute fun apart, but with not many renewals, the show adhered to the same formula of having something happens to Herman, then some jokes about it from the crazy bunch in his head. That made the 4 "head" characters imprisoned in the same place, and case, just about every time!

Although cancellation is not always well news, but I think that helped the show to be a fine memory without any malformation or desperate desire to be on air by any cost. I read that if the show got a fourth season, there was going to be a second set of head characters introduced! Thank God that that didn't happen. It's like adding a new "girl" car in the last season of (Knight Rider) beside the "male" car (K. I. T. T) because of some weariness hit it badly. Well, I believe every show has hypothetical age before its inevitable expiration date. And 3 seasons were enough age for (Herman's Head) before any possible dullness!

This was a wonderful original sitcom. The writers pulled it off as a light comedy with exceptional perspective. It was amazing that it managed to survive for 71 episodes (at first, it looked like the ones that last for only 13!). And it was good also to stop at that number; otherwise, we would have hated Herman, his Head, and their writers!

Nice sit-com, helped through it's first year following married with children, then killed off by Fox putting it into the 9:30 slot facing NBC's Thurdsay lineup containing Seinfeld, Frasier and then ending with Homicide. Nothing would have made it in that time slot, so we have to assume it was sacrificed to make way for one of Fox's brass to introduce one of his other pet projects.

I was too young when I watched this show to really give a true critical assessment of it, but it definitely entertained me. Most of the jokes went over my little head, but the ones I did get were quite funny to me. I remember being especially disgusted by the character that represented Herman's lust and a bit annoyed by the feminine character in his brain. It was a clever idea, and I wish that it had a longer run.

When the Fox Network went on the air, it seemed like it was trying to attract viewers with "something different". The result was shows like "Herman's Head".

Although it featured a "Dobie Gillis" like situation--an ambitious bombshell who was "unattainable" and an "ordinary" girl who was sweet, but really loved him, this show added something way out of the ordinary: A "Greek chorus" that revealed his "true" thoughts, instead of Herman giving asides to the camera.

A nice touch was including in the chorus a female to give his "feminine" side.

This nice touch pulled this rather ordinary sitcom out of the muck and gave it a nice spin that worked most of the time.

Its too bad Fox did not keep up this phase, because I believe television would have been much the better for it.