Best of the West

I can't name another sitcom set in the old west. This show was better than many 80s sitcoms, and many of the episodes had laugh-out-loud moments, both lines and sight gags. Three of the "best" guest-starred Christopher Lloyd as The Calico Kid.

Tracy Walter, as Frog, was funny every time he hit the screen. Tom Ewell, more famous for movies like The Seven Year Itch, did a great job as the often inebriated town doctor.

Unfortunately, this series is almost impossible to find. I had to find someone who taped it on VHS when it originally ran to recently watch it again. For sitcom lovers, it's certainly worth a look.

Who could forget dialogue like this?

"What's your name?"

"...People call me 'Frog' "

"What's you're real name?"

"...Frog. That's why people call me it."

In the late '70s the proliferation of Westerns and Old-West shows came to a grinding halt as "Rawhide", "The Virginian", "Bonanza" and even "Wild, Wild West" (to name a few) lost popularity as the new generation of viewers could no longer remember the Law of the West, let alone identify with the themes.

"Best of the West" was a worthy attempt at assimilating good clean sitcom humor with glimpses of a close, but bygone era. Alas there are only so many ways to keep fresh such a plot summary before being outscripted by more modern themes (Greatest American Hero), classic "good guys always beat bad guys" shows to come like A-team, good American style fun of "Cheers", or your atypical family sitcom with a twist like "Different Strokes" and Joel Higgins' migration to "Silver Spoons".

I was about ten years old when this show was on and that was probably the primary demographic. As I learned later in broadcasting school, the time period this show was produced in was the era of a Reagan administration mandate that there be "family programming" in the 7:00PM-9:00PM block on all networks. This is what resulted in the low-grade but "fun" programming like Spencer, Different Strokes and Best of the West. I'm not saying that this was bad, but if was definitely not the best programming. For a six to ten year old this would have been acceptable entertainment and would have made them feel "grown up" for watching something after 8:00PM.

The show has many glaring misrepresentations of the old west, but what do you expect from a family friendly sitcom? Family friendly often equates to sanitized of most truth. The most memorable character from the show is without a doubt, Frog. Something about the actor reminds me of William Sanderson who played the Larry character in Newhart (I'm Larry, this is my brother Daryl and this is my other brother Daryl). They both had the same kind of bumpkin delivery in their roles with a pinch of weirdness. Tracy (the actor who played Frog) also appears in the classic film Repo Man as a possible alien. Playing up on his strangeness.

It is quite unfair that this program is not on DVD for those who wish to see it as all the episodes could fit on one or two DVDs and wouldn't really need any special features. Also surprising that it isn't on TV Land, Nick at Night or even AOL's In2TV.

So pleased to track down this James Burrows-directed, Earl Pomerantz-scripted spoof Western comedy from the early 80's. For some reason, unlike their other ventures "Taxi" and "Cheers", this series didn't take off, got cancelled and has remained a distant but happy memory ever since.

I can't think why it failed. Even in the pilot, which I've just watched, there are laughs a plenty, as we're introduced to former Yankee soldier Sam Best, his dispossessed dim-but-dotty Southern wife Elvira and his (not her) bratty son as they relocate from civilised Philadelphia to the wild west where they encounter a motley crew of local townsfolk and a whole different outlook on life.

Best, played by Joel Higgins, is the central character, the typical honest, law-abiding citizen, a new-to-town shop-owner pressed into the vacant town-marshal job by dint of standing up to the town's big-shot kingpin, the disdainful and vaguely foppish Tilman, the latter with a wonderful line in sardonic put-downs. The laughs indeed mostly come from the eccentrics gathered around straight-arrow Best, especially Leonard Frey as Tilman, but also Carlene Watkins as Best's wife and Tom Ewell as the town's drunken doctor. The great Christopher Lloyd also moonlights from "Taxi" in this episode as a slow-witted hired gun.

The writing is sharp and funny, turning old-style Western clichés and stereotypes into humorous situations and likeable characters. I'll certainly be moseying on down to view all the episodes I can, confident they'll all be as funny as this hilarious taster.

This was every bit as good as "Cheers" and "Taxi" from the same writers. Pity it wasn't as successful.

Every western show cliché you can think of was here. And they surrounded it with as many gags and puns as possible. Like Monty Python or the 'Airplane' movies, you had to be careful. Jokes came so fast sometimes, you might have missed a few.

Joel Higgins' deep bass and OTT 'white hat' acting was perfect. And the late Leonard Frey as the sleazy business man was just as great. And of course who could forget Frog.

Best line? Best: "Mayor if it was your wife you'd pay the ransom right?" Mayor: "They gonna kill her or just torture her a little." A DVD release is deserved.