Good Morning World

For anyone wondering what The Dick Van Dyke Show would have been like in color, here you go. Another reviewer said it was similar to Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm, and that's a good analogy. The biggest difference is Seinfeld was tailored for network broadcast, while CYE found its niche on cable. Unfortunately for Good Morning World, there was no cable in 1968. Coupled with a second-tier group of actors and that TDVDS had expended the audience for the show's premise, Good Morning World was destined to fail.

Honestly, what's really surprising (and actually rather laudable) was how the writers for GMW managed to come up with new ideas for scripts (lame as they might have been) rather than taking the easy way out and just recycling old TDVDS ideas.

But, really, when watching GMW, you have to imagine the DVDS actors, plus the sets being in B&W, and you quickly realize that there's not a lot of difference between the two. The sad fact was that TDVDS' time had simply passed and no one was interested in a color version with different actors.

It's hard to add much to what's already been said about this show. All I have to say is, it was cute, clever, smart and entertaining.

Billie De Wolf was perfect as the uptight boss with A.R. (anal retentiveness). Pencil thin mustache and whiny voice. Scowly eyebrows.

Joby Gray was great. I remember one episode where the two DJs were hosting a fund raiser and he kept trying to sing his "Banana" song.

Speaking of songs, the opening sequence with the "ting ting ting" sound along with the conglomeration of still photos in succession of the two DJs getting ready for an early morning radio show was very entertaining in itself.

Joby and Ronnie Schell played well off of each other. I can't understand why it was canceled after so few episodes.

This was a funny show that didn't try too hard to get laughs. Clever idea at the time, two morning show DJs, life at work and home.Seeing the pre-Laugh In Goldie Hawn is a real kick, too.Give this one a try.

The 26 half-hour episodes of the situation comedy "Good Morning World" were originally broadcast by CBS during its 1967-68 season. Many of those who tuned in to see the premiere of "Laugh-In" in the fall of 1968 did so to see Goldie Hawn who had already developed a cult following from playing the Lewis' ditzy neighbor Sandy Kramer on "Good Morning World".

Dave and Linda Lewis were a married couple played by Joby Baker and Julie Parrish much in the vein of the Petrie's from "The Dick Van Dyke Show". Not a big surprise as both shows were produced and developed by Carl Reiner and Sheldon Leonard. Dave was also coupled with bachelor Larry Clarke (Ronnie Schell who viewers already knew as Gomer Pyle's friend Duke Slater) as an early-morning drive time Los Angeles radio DJ team known as (big surprise) "Lewis and Clarke". Think 1960's "WKRP" with funny voices, silly chatter, and general on-air antics between songs and commercials.

The show followed the home and office lives of this "sort of" wacky pair; mixing elements of their personal lives in with bits involving their overbearing boss, station manager Roland B. Hutton (Billy DeWolfe).

The series was a few years ahead of its time and the basic formula would be more successful a few years later as "The Mary Tyler Moore Show". MTM's famous "Teddy Awards" was a tribute to "Golden Mikey Awards" featured on "Good Morning World".

Good writing and excellent performances make it well worth watching.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

GOOD MORNING WORLD is a mid-60s hybrid of the Occupational Sitcom and the Domestic Sitcom. They took as their format the classic "Dick Van Dyke Show" mix of 50% Rob Petrie's home life and 50% Rob Petrie's work as a TV gag writer.

In this case, the single protagonist becomes two men and the workplace shifts from TV to radio, but otherwise things are fairly familiar. Richard Deacon's fussy producer was replaced by Billy DeWolfe's fussy station manager.

The main change was that by going with two men, the show was able to do both happily married plots and bachelor dating plots. In the latter case, dating involved newcomer Goldie Hawn, doing an early version of the ditsy character she later developed for LAUGH-IN.

Like most sitcoms, individual episodes' plots are long-forgotten aside from an occasional story that stuck in the memory for some reason. In the case of GOOD MORNING WORLD, it was the "Nude Ranch" episode. The guys had been sent to do an overnight remote broadcast from a "dude ranch." But when they got there, they discovered to their horror they were at a NUDE ranch. This being the still-uptight age of sitcoms, the humor was limited to the guys' nervousness at being around nude people (who were of course mostly off-camera aside from some above-the-waist shots on a couple men). The guys do their first show and retreat to their room, dreading the fact they are to be guests of honor at dinner that night. They decide they have to appear.... The next scene shows them bare-chested as they sit in the still-empty dining room. They hear the sounds of the ranch guests approaching.... And see that everyone is fully dressed. The nudists explain "We always dress for dinner!" but thank the guys for their thoughtfulness in appearing nude. The guys admit they chickened out and stand up, revealing large towels firmly in place.