Arnie

I am not sure what happened to this show. Herschel Bernardi was great as Arnie, the main character. Sue Ann Langdon was excellent as his wife. Roger Bowen (Col Henry Blake of the movie MASH) was excellent as Arnies boss.

The premise was of a blue collar moving up to white collar job based upon his on the job experience & life knowledge. This is the way it used to be done before over priced college degrees, brown nosing & networking replaced this. It is a good premise.

For some reason, CBS pulled the plug on it the second season. I am not sure that they didn't cause it problems by moving the shows time slot too. For some reason, even though it's first season made a big splash, the show did not get what it needed for a long run.

This is too bad, but it might not have kept going long anyways. The real world by then had already gone to the brown nosing method. It is possible that the execs at CBS were afraid they'd bring back fairness to the workplace so they canned it.

The show came on in 1970 which was when CBS was taking extremely popular top 10 rated programs & canceling them to improve their "image".

It's been well over 32 years since I saw this show. I do not remember this series being a really big hit though it made it through a few seasons. It involved a blue collar worker who got moved up to a white collar position. It was funny and it was one of the first sitcoms to successfully cast a minority member in a leading role, long before the Jeffersons "moved on up" to their own show. The one episode I remember is when Arnie's boss announced that he wanted Arnie to throw a surprise birthday party for him. He also specified that it had to be a surprise party, or else, since the boss simply loved surprise parties. How was he supposed to throw a surprise party for his boss when his boss already knew about it in advance, being that he was the one who ordered Arnie to throw the party for him in the first place? Such dilemmas were a part of Arnie's life. I sure would like to see this show again.

I've never met a contemporary in the States who even remembers this show. I find that amazing and sad. I lived in Brussels from '67-'72. While we also got a couple BBC shows, my family's options for American TV were limited to 2-3 shows a week.

Over the five years we lived in Brussels, I only recall "Wonderful World of Disney", "Doctari", "I Love Lucy", "Voyage to The Bottom of the Sea" and "Arnie".

Of them all, only "Arnie" became a family viewing event. Of course, due to the dearth of options, we would usually all watch each of the above shows, "Arnie" was the one that the whole family paid attention to, and laughed at together. Mr. Majors stole that show, in our opinion.

Where are the old "Arnie" shows? Surely, Nick at Nite ought to be able to locate some episodes and use as occasional filler, or perhaps as part of a "forgotten" list of programs that are worth remembering.

I can remember a handful of such shows from my youth, including "Then Came Bronson" with Michael Parks, that were quality productions with unfortunately short life spans. "Arnie" was perhaps a better example, because it was a comedy that truly was funny. But it lasted only two seasons, which was a shame, because there really were elements in the cast and plot that suggested a much-longer run.

Like the old "summer replacement" shows, perhaps Nick can bring back some of these old classics like "Arnie" in the summertime.

Indeed, when "Arnie" debuted along with "Mary Tyler Moore" on the Saturday night CBS fall 1970 lineup, it was hard to tell for a while which was the better show. It seemed to be a dynamite 1-2 comedy punch on Saturday nights. I have never been able to figure out why the show lost its steam and then disappeared completely after the next season, never even surfacing in reruns!

Herschel Bernardi was a multi-talented actor, on both screen and stage, and the back-and-forth between his Arnie Nuvo character and Roger Bowen's Hamilton Majors III was absolute magic, belonging somewhere in the sitcom pantheon. Bowen's character was one of the handful of eccentrics that spiced up the series, all playing off Bernardi. Although he was more renowned for serious roles, Bernardi seemed very comfy in this comedic assignment, with a clever wit complementing his straight-man role much as Judd Hirsch would do in future shows such as Taxi and Dear John.

"Arnie" was awfully funny, but I would also like to see reruns to get another look at the early 70's version of Sue Ane Langdon. I was in my early teens during the "Arnie" years, and sometimes I think my recollections are a bit distorted, but her figure absolutely defied description. My memory might not even do her justice, as I recently saw an old "Love American Style" rerun with Sue Ane and Van Johnson that confirmed my long-ago observations. I was definitely not imagining things; Sue Ane Langdon really was beyond hot in those days. Heck, even the Charlie's Angels girls stood no chance in comparison to Sue Ane in a bikini.

So let's find those old "Arnie" shows. Not only for a good laugh, but for another chance to check out vintage Sue Ane Langdon in action...

This was a great show about a simple man(Herschel Bernardi) who was once a blue collar worker, but now has moved up to a white collar job. His working dock friends are now wondering if he will now start to look down on them. This show also dealt with his family life as well.

This was more like a Norman Lear show but more polished. The scripts were smart and funny, but also dealt with real serious issues and family problems. This was also one of the first shows with a ethnic lead star/character. Herschel Bernardi, was terrific as Arnie Nuvo. The man who was trying his best to keep it all together. Sue Ann Langdon was great as his loving and supporting wife, who seemed to have all the answers.

I really enjoyed watching it every week and was very disappointed that it was cancelled after one season. Who knows, maybe TV Land will air it again, I hope.....